June 17, 2016

From a featured blog, from the sidebar at the right, putting things into perspective:

Along with this graph, there are a couple of others at the link. 

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Fond Memories -- A New Mission

This is really cool, where one might least expect, an article on military air power over at American Enterprise Institute (where Mark Perry contributes): the odd couple -- the Warthog and the Growler in the South China Sea. Besides being just a lot of fun to read, it is important because as we all know, the Warthog is on the chopping block and yet, it fills a very, very unique niche, I think, unmatched by any adversary.

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The GOP Implodes

When one reads the political headlines about the current state of the GOP presidential campaign over at the Drudge Report one clearly sees that "it's every man for himself." Many GOP elite "want" to endorse the presumptive GOP presidential nominee but know that such an endorsement is suicide. Meanwhile many GOP elite are so churlish, they almost make Trump look saintly. It appears "we" (the US voters) finally have a viable third party candidate (whether one wants him or not) and that the GOP, at least at the national level) will not be fielding a candidate this year. That's probably the biggest reason why Larry David Bernie Sanders will drop out (or has already) -- there's no need for a third party nominee this year. We already have one.

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Literature

For those interested in historical Christianity, this might be a book to consider, for yourself or someone else: Apostle: Travels Among the Tombs of the Twelve, Tom Bissell, c. 2016. The book has twelve chapters but one of the chapters is "Christos: On Jesus Christ." But all "twelve apostles" are discussed: two chapters each discuss two apostles -- "Philip & James Son of Alphaeus"; and, "Siimon the Cananaean & Thaddeus."

The author brings us up to date on current terminology, and is full of so much trivia, it will keep most folks enthralled for quite some time. 365 pages; very readable. Short glossary; nice bibliography. Index seems adequate.

The author visits / assigns one location to each apostle. The map is interesting:

• Judas Iscariot: Jerusalem -- "a king of world-historical Salt Lake City."
• Bartholomew: on the Tiber Island, Rome
• Paul: various; hard to say where, but probably Jerusalem
• Philip & James Son of Alphaeus: the Capitoline Hill, Rome
• Peter: the Vatican, of course
• Andrew: Saint Andrew's Church, Patras, Greece
• John: the ruins of Saint John's Basilica, Seljuk, Turkey
• Thomas: Saint Thomas Basilica, Chennai, India
• Jesus Christ: various
• Simon the Cananaean & Thaddaeus: Saint Sernin's Basilica, Toulouse, France
• Matthew: Monastery of Armenian Brotherhood, Kurmanty, Kyrgyzstan
• James Son of Zebedee: Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Spain

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Cooking

The trout was baking in the oven. Three of the four burners were being used: upper left, where scallops and tilapia will be seared; upper right, artichoke, boiling for an hour; lower left, a bit of brown rice. On the counter, scallops in marinade, and tilapia; and, of course, broccoli with most meals.

I can't recall if I've posted this picture before. This was from a different meal (no trout in the picture below).