September Musings (09/05/2025)
Riddleblog and Blessed Hope Podcast Updates
More traveling to come for the Rs, so the schedule for new episodes of the Blessed Hope Podcast and posting on the Riddleblog will suffer occasional disruption through the end of October
Now that I am retired, I can do stuff like this—if anyone is interested in pictures of my grand kids, the missus and I celebrating stuff, our family travels, and my yard and garden, you can check out my instagram account. No pictures yet of me chasing the neighbor’s kids off my lawn
Thinking Out loud:
The worst commercial currently popping up in my feed is the Jardiance ad, especially the baseball version. Jardiance may be really swell, but no one on that baseball team can probably lift a bat, much less swing one
When someone tells me they are going to “research something online,“ more often than not they really mean that they are going to “research” stuff which only reinforces their current beliefs/opinions
Rumor has it that Bill Bellicheck’s 24 year old girl friend is going to enter the transfer portal after UNC’s blow-out loss to TCU. He was 41 when she was 7. The creepy ick factor is off the chart here
An observation—the evangelicalism of my youth (the R’s attended Grace Brethren and Evangelical Free churches) were passionately interested in missions and evangelism. What happened? Tribal politicking, debates over Christian nationalism, and support for Trump despite his lack of personal morality now dominates the religious circles of my youth. I get that Trump has done much to push back against “woke” nonsense (and I agree with many of his goals if not necessarily with his methods). But the shift in focus from taking the gospel to the ends of the earth to Trump’s near-canonization on the part of many evangelicals is something I am sure future historians will identify as evidence of a significant decline of American Christianity and obvious secularization
I recently renewed my CA diver’s license. If the efficiency of the California DMV in any way reflects the competency of our current governor, why anyone would vote for Gavin Newsom for president is beyond my comprehension. Oh, and then there is the high speed rail project. Don’t get me started. California is the greatest state in America—except for our state government which is awful
Just saw an ad from Disneyland (a few miles away from me) explaining that this was the cheapest time of year for you to go (after the kids are back in school and before they start their Halloween Stuff in August ?????). Tickets for sixteen special dates are only $104.00 each! You gotta be kidding me—Halloween events starting in August?
Recently Read:
Michael Vorenberg’s recent book, Lincoln’s Peace, is both an interesting and frustrating volume. Vorenberg seeks to answer the question, “when did the Civil War actually end?” Most people will answer “it ended when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to U.S. Grant at the Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.” But fighting continued on in the East, with General Joe Johnston not surrendering to William T. Sherman until April 26, 1865 at Bennett Place in North Carolina.
The Confederate cabinet last met in Georgia on May 5, 1865, with the President Jefferson Davis going into hiding, though he was quickly apprehended and then imprisoned on May 9.
Furthermore, a number of Rebels fled to Texas or Mexico hoping to reconstitute a Confederate army and nation to continue the fight. Under General Kirby Smith, Confederate forces continued fighting along the Western frontier into May (the 12th and 13th) with the last “official” land battle of the Civil War at Palmito Ranch, near Brownsville, TX. There was also the case of the Confederate commerce raider, the CSS Shenandoah, which is also said to have fired the last “official” shot of the war at Union whaling ships in the Bering Straits in late June 1865, and did not strike her colors nor surrender until early November 1865, in Liverpool, England, some five months after the conflict had ended.
Vorenburg documents how, at the end of the day, there was no official end to the war until August 20, 1866, when Andrew Johnson signed an unheralded proclamation entitled, “Proclamation – Declaring that Peace, Order, Tranquillity, and Civil Authority Now Exists in and Throughout the Whole of the United States of America.” This was necessary since a legal end to the war was required to begin distribution of pensions to former soldiers and their kin. You might think that Lee’s surrender, or the “Review” of the Grand Army as the victorious Union soldiers parading through the streets of Washington DC on May 12-14, 1865 would mark the end. Perhaps the dissolution of the Rebel cabinet, or the arrest of Jeff Davis meant the war was officially over. No, the accountants needed a start date for distribution of pensions, ensuring a bureaucratic and unheralded end to a terrible war.
If the historiography was the interesting side to Vorenburg’s book, my frustration arises from the revisionist mythology that the Civil War is somehow “not over.” This undercurrent pervades the volume. Let me put it simply—the Civil War is over! Full stop. There is an official date on which the war legally ended—August 20, 1866. Granted, many of the issues which led to the Civil War are still present in some measure and we ought to acknowledge and address them. But it is patently clear that the immense progress made in civil rights, the quality of life, and national prosperity since the 1860’s is nothing short of miraculous.
No, we are not where we need to be as a nation, but the pendulum is swinging in the right direction—even if some complain that the progress is not fast or comprehensive enough. But one thing is patently clear—the war between the states is officially over.
Recommended Links:
Mike Horton on the Compatibility of Evangelicalism and Eastern Orthodoxy
Robert W. Godfrey on The Inventions of Rome
Bradley Bitner (from WSC) offers a great review of Frank Thielman’s Paul, Apostle of Grace
Some Interesting stuff recently found in God’s archeological safety deposit box—if they pan out. The oldest known reference to Moses, a bronze coin minted shortly before the fall of Jerusalem, evidence of the ark of the covenant while in Shiloh,and evidence of Bethsaida on the shore of the Galilee
Yes, they are well-worth revering! The Flying Tigers revered by the Chinese
Another great episode of the School of War dealing with the Afghanistan/Kabul withdrawal debacle in 2021—An Interview with a Marine on Scene. A remarkable story and I highly recommend a listen
Dan Borvan’s piece on the Church and Israel is outstanding
Dad Joke Caliber Links:
Looks like Trump’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (filled with prosperity gospelers) has taught him well. Send me $15.00, so I can go to heaven
You gotta love the Onion. Lakewood Church is not to be messed with!
I can’t tell if this is someone in the background speaking in tongues on White House grounds, or whether or not Kamala “word salad” Harris is giving a speech nearby
Eschatological speculation does strange things to people. Someone actually thinks Donald Trump is “God’s restrainer” riding the white horse in the Book of Revelation
You got the Wrong Epstein
“Wow, dude. . . “ The more Pizza I ate, the hungrier I got
Not a surprise that this took place in Big Bear, CA. This is one church where live streaming services won’t work
This is quite a house! Scroll through the pictures to check out the steam room
Not a good idea to go here, of all places, when expecting. And what do you put on the birth certificate as “place of birth”?
Is there anything California doesn’t try to regulate? “Leno’s Law” Dies
Speaking of the dumb ideas which flourish in California, what could go wrong here?
If its good enough for the bears
Aw, come on, shoot me. Its Kevlar, right?
Previous Musings:
Video:
Easily my favorite warship. Back in junior high, I first read about the exploits of Arleigh Burke and his “Little Beavers” (DesRon 23) racing up and down the “slot” in the Solomon Islands sinking anything with a Rising Sun on it. Revell had a great model of the Fletcher Class destroyers. I think I built three or four of them back in the day (when they were under $10.00 a pop). Firecrackers and BB guns took `em out when I got tired of them. And yes, I absolutely loved Greyhound. But a movie about the USS Johnston (DD 557) and its commander, Ernest Evans, is a must