February Musings (2/14/2024)
Riddleblog and Blessed Hope Updates:
Be sure to read Mike Horton’s wonderful tribute to Dad Rod. If you are not familiar with Rod Rosenbladt, check out some of the audio links at the bottom of Michael’s tribute. A White Horse Inn tribute to Rod is forthcoming.
My new book is ready to order: First Corinthians in the Lectio Continua series of expositional commentaries from Reformation Heritage Books: First Corinthians -- Lectio Continua
I have completed my exposition of the first head of doctrine and the refutation of errors of the Canons of Dort, and will take up the second head next.
Thinking Out Loud:
I can’t help but agree with Calvin, when he opines “they who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by [God] to punish the wickedness of the people” (Institutes 4.20.25). Surely, this is the best explanation for the sorry state of contemporary American politics.
Do politicians really think that sending slick mailers to my house before an election will get me to vote for them? When they land in my mailbox they immediately end up in the recycle bin. They never even make it into the house. Just send me a check equal to the value of the printing and postage necessary to mail this junk to me and I might consider voting for you. Robo calls are even worse, but that is another story.
Who is gonna take the car keys from Joe Biden and move him into the old folks home? You might be able to bribe him with ice cream.
Who is this Taylor Swift person I keep hearing about?
Recently Re-Read:
Craig L Symonds’ 2013 book on the Battle of Midway is must reading for anyone interested in World War 2 and the war in the Pacific. The Battle of Midway took place on June 6, 1942. In the span of eight short minutes, the entire course of the war in the Pacific was transformed. Japan’s six month offensive to open the war (the Kudo Butai) was over and the Japanese war effort became an increasingly futile attempt to hold on to previously conquered territory. Three Japanese aircraft carriers were left in flaming ruins on the morning of June 6, shortly to sink. A fourth carrier was sunk later that day. The loss of these irreplaceable vessels, along with their veteran aircrews and carrier aircraft robbed Japan of its most valuable offensive weaponry. The battle for Guadalcanal began that August, with Japan reverting to a defensive posture using surface fleets (battleships and cruisers), land-based air, and desperately trying to resupply and hold on to island bases. The war in the Pacific had shifted to the Americans going over to offense and the Japanese taking up a defensive “hold on as long as you can” posture.
There are a number of excellent volumes on the Battle of Midway. Walter Lord’s 1957 Incredible Victory was largely based on interviews with participants, while Gordon Prange’s Miracle at Midway (1982) was a well-researched book from a noted scholar of the Pacific war. Parshall and Tully’s Shattered Sword (2007) drew heavily upon Japanese sources and clarified a number of myths and overlooked factors which led to the US Victory. Nerdy World War Two students loved it (I sure did).
Symond’s book draws upon the vast wealth of the previous studies and surpasses them all because Symond is a careful historian and also a great storyteller. Simply put, this is a book which recounts the Battle of Midway in a compelling, page-turning manner, yet without giving short shrift to the strategic importance or facts of the battle. If you read one book on the Battle of Midway (and you should) this is it.
An aside—one of the worst war movies ever made was the 1976 movie Midway. The worst war movie I’ve seen was Pearl Harbor, bumping Midway and Battle of the Bulge from that honor. Don’t even start me on these . . .
Recommended Links:
Scott Clark is beginning a new audio series on Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement, entitled Feathers and All
Dean Davis on Key Symbols in The Book of Revelation
A new imprint: Westminster Seminary Press
David Bahnsen on his new book on the importance of work
Other Stuff:
I wonder how many who read this think its me: Passenger forces plane to return
A new paganism: Great is AI of the Chatbots
My wife is terrified: An army of monkeys
That’s a bad typo: Pizzeria closed due to unforeseen circumcisions
That’s gotta hurt, but I didn’t feel a thing
Get a room! When bass get too frisky
Previous edition of my musings:
Video:
Back in the day, Get Smart was a Riddlebarger family favorite. The “craw,” “dead-spy scrawls” and the “cone of silence” are staples of my personal nostalgia.