Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Judy Garland is the original artist for one of my favorite American Christmas carols, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas. When we listen carefully to the beautiful music and the lyrics, we feel equally melancholy and hope which are not the usual feels for Christmas carols. To understand why this song instantly resonated with the American public, let's look at what was going on at the time of its release.

This song was written for the movie musical Meet Me In St. Louis, which was released in November of 1944. At their first hearing, the American people were approaching the third anniversary of their continued involvement in WWII. The news, while generally upbeat about continuing victories both in Europe and the Pacific, also predicted long struggles ahead. Every family had men in the service. Every family was experiencing food rationing, gas and heat rationing, and were working overtime in factories and other essential jobs

. Worse of all, every family had received, or knew of others who had received the dreaded telegrams from the War Department. This was soon after D-Day, in the midst of continued fighting in France, Italy, the Pacific. The air forces were operating at 100% and suffering unacceptable losses, but powering through was the only strategy anyone had. No one was feeling the mood of boisterous celebration that holiday season, so to escape the world for a couple of hours, they went to the movies and heard Judy Garland sing so beautifully just what they were feeling.

Since then this song has been sung by countless artists and we notice that the words have been changed to create a more celebratory sound. Me, I prefer the original lyrics and the original artist, Judy. When I hear the sublime mix of sorrow and hope, I relate because I consider what she and all of our forebears  were going through then, and as importantly, it makes me hopeful for tomorrow. We haven't heard much good or optimistic about our own world for a long time. We should understand that whatever comes, our people have been through as much and they "muddled through" with hope and resolve. We will too, so let me wish you a Merry Little Christmas.

 Pride Month

In the spirit of the Pride Month of June, let me explain what I am proud of. I am proud of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the Lord of all creation, in whom "all power in heaven and earth" resides. His word commands everything from the cosmos to the smallest matters of the earth. His judgements are absolute and no one will ever question His authority to His face. His commandments to every human being ever born are the Law and they have one universal purpose, to allow His infinite Love to be manifested in us.

Jesus Christ, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity, God Himself, came into the world not riding a lightning bolt and thundering His power so to subdue us with fear and terror induced obedience. He came into the world in the exact same manner as we all did, through the womb of His mother. He taught with love and patience, and most mysteriously of all, He allowed Himself to be tortured and killed in payment for our sins because He loves us, and because He is the only one who could possibly do it. Finally, He returned into Heaven to wait for us to freely return the love by obedience. What a gracious and incredible Lord and God! No earthly authority has treated me in such a way.

That is why I am so proud to follow Him and to obey Him. We should all follow His commands as we would find this world to be much more peaceful and harmonious  if we all did.

That is why marriage is once and cannot be broken.

Intimate relations can only be within a marriage and open to creation. Anything else is wrong and will be punished into eternity.

For those of us who have fallen into such errors, our Lord's infinite Mercy is for everyone of us who confesses our sins to Him with true contrition along with a firm and sincere intention to never repeat the sins. That is a true Lord of power and love. That is Jesus Christ.

I am proud to call myself a Christian and following Him is my poor but earnest way to honor Him. May God bless us in our efforts to find Him and to love Him.

 

Atlas Air 3591

Atlas Air 3591 was a Boeing-767 Freighter, operating as an Amazon Prime delivery, flying from Miami, FL to Houston, TX on February 24, 2019. On board were the two pilots, and one jump-seater. As they were nearing Houston, and making those descent and turning maneuvers required to place themselves in sequence for landing, they suddenly pitched down, and dove into the North end of Trinity Bay, hitting the water at a very high speed and descent rate. All three men onboard were killed.

Here is what happened, as determined by the subsequent investigation. The First-Officer was the Pilot-Flying as the Captain was the Pilot-Monitoring. Air Traffic Control had encouraged them to increase their descent rate, so to allow them to make a favorable turn upon clearing a conflicting altitude. In normal fashion, the F/O extended the wing spoilers for that purpose. Company policy required him to keep his hands on the Spoiler handle (His left hand) while the spoilers were deployed, as a preventative to using that same hand to increase engine power without first retracting the spoilers. The investigators determined that while the F/O was reaching across the Thrust-levers as he held the Spoiler-lever, he inadvertently pressed the Go-Around button on the left Thrust-lever. That caused to auto-flight system to power-up and pitch-up the aircraft, which was certainly an unexpected event for him to cope with.

Ordinarily, when the auto-flight system goes wonky and does the unexpected, the savy pilot will quickly hit the Master-disconnect and revert to the old fashioned stick, rudder, and power method of flying , and thus maintain control. Unfortunately, in the case of our poor overwhelmed F/O, he didn’t know how. Really. He had been trained so thoroughly automation dependent, and afforded virtually no opportunity to hand fly his airplane, that he simply was unable to fly straight and level, even though he was in the clear and not in a cloud.

Flying a complex aircraft by hand while using flight instruments to determine acceptable and desired flight perimeters is a specific skill which requires practiced hand-eye coordination. It requires a specific eye muscle memory which the industry calls the “instrument scan”. The instrument scan is a skill involving watching several instrument indications in quick succession, so quickly in fact that it is almost simultaneous, while processing that information within one’s head, and applying the correct inputs to the flight controls and power, resulting in the preferred flight condition.

The instrument scan is a very different, and more complex scan than the scan universally used today as our pilots simply follow the Flight-director, as commanded by the Auto-flight system. The Flight-director reduces the scan from several instrument sources to one, which is within the Attitude Indicator., which is it’s raison d’etre (reason to be). In other words, the Flight-director is specifically designed to reduce the complexity of the instrument scan, thus reducing the pilot’s efforts in determining what control inputs are required. Reducing those efforts over time results in loss of the scanning skill. What happens when such a poor, hapless pilot is thrust into the situation of needing a proficient instrument scan, while lacking the skill, is a fixation. He stares at one instrument in a near panic, searching for information, which is elsewhere, and fails to properly control the aircraft. Perversely, his best friend, the Flight-director, was lying to him in this case. The Go-around button told the Flight-director to pitch the aircraft up, which he knew was wrong, thus he simply did not know where go for the pitch information he so desperately needed. Thus it was that in frozen confusion, he simply grabbed the stick and drove the airplane into the water because, for the life of him, he didn’t know what else to do.

I do not know why the captain sat there and allowed that event to happen. Maybe he was just as confused. The NTSB, in their conclusion, made a statement about “...flight crew training issues at Atlas Air and across the US commercial aviation industry.”, and I was involved in some special simulator training maneuvers in the following year involving wing stalls, slow flight, and aircraft controllablilty. I was still dismayed in that while those new training modules were designed to combat the loss of control accidents which we have been lately seeing, I still believe that the underlying cause is being ignored. Pilots must practice basic aircraft control while using the basic instrument scan, which requires them to turn off the automation and simply fly their airplanes.

20211211

Susanna Yoko Henkel: "Ave Maria" (Franz Schubert)

The Lady of the Lake is a poem written by Sir Walter Scott in 1810. In it there is the tale of a young woman named Ellen Douglas who is suffering greatly in a terrible conflict that her family is embroiled in. One night, as she hides in a dirty, damp cave, she pleads her cause to the Virgin Mary. This scene inspired Franz Schubert, an Austrian composer to write this beautiful violin work which we know as Schubert's Ave Maria. Schubert wrote the piece with Ellen's Third Song lyrics in German, but even the English fits the music much better, than the stupid attempts to cram the Latin Hail Mary prayer into the music as almost every sung rendition of this that we hear has tried to do.

Today, as we watch our world descend into madness, when liars and cheats seem to have all the power and rewards, as they prepare to send the hounds after us, we must always remember that we have the blessed Virgin as our protector, that She does hear our prayers, and that Her grace and power obliterates the enemies of her Son, our Good Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen to this truly inspired music and follow along with the words, and take heart. The Lord has already defeated our foes and will bring us home, if we trust and honor Him and His Word. Merry Christmas! and may God bless the United States.

Ellen's Third Song (Ave María)

Hail, Mary!

Meek maiden.

Heed the supplications of a maiden.

From this bare, savage rocks

my prayers will drift towards you.

We sleep safely until morning

though men are yet so barbaric.

Oh Maiden, see the strife of a maiden!

Oh mother, hear a pleading child!

Hail, Mary!

Hail, Mary!

Untarnished!

When from this crag we drift away

towards sleep, and your mantle protects us

the hard rocks will seem soft to us.

You laugh, and a scent of roses floats

over this airless abyss.

Oh mother, hear your children imploring you!

Oh Maiden, call in another maiden!

Hail Mary!

Hail Mary!

Pristine servant!

The demons of the air and earth

are haunted by the glory in your eyes.

They cannot live here with us.

Yet, we still seek to turn fate

and turn your holy solace against you.

The Maiden will intercede in favor

of the child that implores to his Father.

Hail, Mary!

Gun Safety At Work

In spite of great gains in the right-to-carry laws in so many states, we all remain universally disarmed in our work places. Virginia Beach is the latest tragedy resulting from these workplace "gunfree" zones. In spite of security cameras, ID badges which restricted access, employee background checks, and signs threatening dire consequences if anyone brought a gun to work, many innocent people died, some of whom sincerely wished to be able to exercise their constitutional right to protect themselves while making a living. What is it about having a job that suspends a basic right of defending one's life?

There are three kinds of people who see the prohibition sign.

The first doesn't have guns, doesn't want guns, and would never hurt anyone. They are so peaceful that they can not imagine anyone ever needing a gun. For this person, the sign is a source of comfort, as they imagine everybody respecting it and it makes their world safe and fuzzy. In this case, the sign has had zero effect on the safety of the group.

The second person carries guns everywhere he/she is allowed. This person knows that there are psychopaths out here who kill for little or no reason. This person also, would never attack or hurt anyone. They are, however, ready to use deadly force in self defense and in the defense of others. This person is very responsible, holding a job, paying his/her bills, maintaining a life and civil order. The sign and its punitive threats effect this person profoundly. With bitter regret, this person obeys, because he/she is responsible! His/her good nature is the leverage used to insure compliance, and the safety of the group is significantly lessened.

The third is everyone's worse nightmare. This maniac is completely unaffected by the sign. He has already cashed in his job, his possessions, his freedom, and even his life. There is nothing that this sign can do to him that he hasn't already decided to inflict many folds upon his perceived enemies, and he has nothing to lose. In fact, this person receives satisfaction from the sign, for it guaranties to him the monopoly of firepower, thus a greater victim count. THAT'S WHY HE PICKED THAT PLACE! Here is where the sign actually destroys the safety of the group.

As for the comforting security cameras, do you know what they are for? They are to help the investigators to see where the murderer came in and what he did, while they are cleaning up the the crime scene after the carnage is over.

We must insist on our right of self defense, even at work.

Our Remaining Days With Bretton-Woods Are Short

Imagine our congress responding to the cries of the people, that there isn't enough hours in the day to do all that needs to be done. They write a law that defines a day as having 25 hours. So to keep Noon and Midnight in their proper phase, each hour now has 57 minutes and 36 seconds. At first, our workers continuing to work an eight Gov-hour day, realize a 16 minute bonus in free time, but over time the business day stretches out again because the work still takes a full day to accomplish, and workers earning the same in a day actually realize a drop in their hourly wage which necessitates working that extra 16 minutes to make up for it. In other words, nothing really changed; a days work is still a days work.

That is exactly the effect of our central bank loaning congress money whenever they wish to stimulate the economy or fund government programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Green paper money, in itself, has no value. The value of money stems from the goods and services which we, the workers, create with our labor, which remains constant. If our labor is static and more money is introduced into the system, then the costs rise in proportion to the new money.

Ordinarily, printing money to fund programs and the resultant inflation would be a short route to ruin. But with the United States, we had a once-in-a-lifetime sweet deal. Coming out of World War II the United States was THE Super Power. Our economy was the biggest and the strongest in the world with no five other countries to match it, combined. With that clout and through an agreement known as Bretton-Woods, our dollars became the standard exchange medium for transactions around the world, especially in consideration to the reported amount of gold we were holding in Fort Knox. In the fifties and sixties any nation could exchange the dollars they held with gold at $35.00 per ounce. Following the "War on Poverty", the "War on Drugs" and the actual war in Vietnam, those other countries realized the we were gaming the system by printing money and that there was no way that every dollar out there was backed by gold at an ounce for each thirty-five bills. They began a "run on the bank" by exchanging their dollars, which they had collected in international trades, with our gold. President Nixon stopped the run by closing the exchange and declared that our dollars would henceforth backed by the good faith and credit of the American people. Even then the dollar slipped in value (inflation), but the Bretton-Woods system held and life went on.

It was under President Johnson that we started borrowing money as a routine method with no intention of paying it back and it was Bretton-Woods which made that possible. The effect of borrowing with no payback is exactly the same as printing and that is continuous inflation. We experienced the effects of inflation from then to now. That is why a house bought in 1964 for $60,000 sold in 2005 for $300,000 and the seller could not buy another like it with the $300,000. The system always told us that our home values were going up, but in reality it was the value of our hard earned money going down. We went through a credit explosion as everybody was borrowing that free money the government was handing out and today our nation's debt is staggering with the national debt over $64,000 per citizen and our personal debts averaging over $57,000 per citizen. The Omnibus Bill which President Trump just signed was our latest desperate effort to keep the game alive as it borrowed $1.3 trillion dollars to be spent into our economy in six months.  We have been living on printed-borrowed money since the seventies and the game would have ended long ago were it not for Bretton-Woods.

As I said, ordinarily such policies would have been a short route to ruin, but thanks to Bretton-Woods, the agreement which forced other countries to use our dollars, it has become a long route to greater ruin and I believe our time is out. Very soon those other countries, especially China and the oil producing countries of the world, will find a way to transact their trades without our dollars because they know we have been cheating and no longer wish to pay the bill. Very soon, the devastating effects hyper-inflation will be felt here in the United States as those green pieces of paper come flooding back in with demands of payment in goods and services. Very soon, we will hear wailing in the streets as people realize their savings, their 401ks, their pensions and government promises have vanished into oblivion. Very soon, we will realize the crime our politicians have signed us up for with their promises of something for nothing. May God have mercy on us for letting them do it.

NICS

Congress is considering an "improvement" to the National Instant Check System, something that they have been doing since the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas last November. That shooter passed his NICS check because his disqualifying psychological records were never submitted by the military branch he served in. Following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida in February, the NICS Improvement act has been given more urgent attention, especially since that shooter passed the NICS check as well in spite of multiple warning signs.

While adding more names to the prohibited list from which the NICS culls prohibited firearm purchasers sounds like a good idea, I am set against the improvement and the NICS itself. Here's why.

Let's consider four different gun buyers:

The first is Mr. Clean Record and his intentions are completely lawful and peaceful. This man must fill out the application and have his name searched against the prohibited list. In most cases he passes. However in many cases he is rejected. The far majority of the NICS rejections are for errors in the database, such as similar names. This man may have an outstanding parking warrant of which he is unaware. In the future, he will find it much easier to get on the bad guy list as they have added the lists of Social Security recipients who have a another party handling their financial affairs and the list of military veterans who have requested counselling for stress from the Veterans Affairs Agency. Under this current round of improvement considerations several lawmakers have urged that the Airline No-fly list be added to the NICS. So this man whose intentions were harmless, finds himself prohibited and our safety hasn't been improved one bit.

Secondly, let's consider Mr Clean Record whose intentions are evil. This is the guy who has been slipping through the net because he hasn't committed his crime yet. This is the guy they hope to stop by adding more and more names to the list. He is one evil person within thousands of innocents. Thousands must be denied in the hope of stopping this guy. He shot up Sutherland Springs, TX, Parkland, FL, Navy Yard, DC, Blacksburg, VA and so many others after the NICS was created. This is the guy that a background check is useless against because he has no background. Once again the NICS hasn't improved our safety one bit.

Thirdly, there is Mr. Dirty and his intentions are evil. This is the guy for whom the NICS works perfectly, if he tries to buy a gun from a reputable dealer, but he won't. He gets a gun whenever he wants one through black markets, through theft, or a friend from the Clean and evil group. This guy doesn't give a rip about NICS and laws don't bother him. We haven't been able to stem the tide of drugs, why do we think we would do any better with firearms? In fact, this guy uses our laws to run his business in drugs and guns. So once again the NICS hasn't improved our safety one bit.

Lastly, let's consider the fellow I feel for the most. He is the most hated and persecuted man in our society. He is Mr. Dirty but trying to go straight. His intentions are peaceful. He made a mistake when he was young and stupid, but he found God and now wants to get his life back on track, but we won't let him! We hound him with our sanctimonious background checks and refuse him gainful employment and brand him as a felon for the rest of his life and with the NICS we deny him even the right to protect his life. We condemn him to rejoin the Dirty and evil group and we did it with the NICS. Here, the NICS not only failed to improve our safety one bit, but has actually effected an endangering force.

So, in the end the two honest fellows have been denied firearms and the two evil guys haven't been deterred at all. In a free society, any man walking in our streets must be given the presumption of honorability and as such must have the right of arming himself for protection against the criminal class. To do that, the right to keep and bare arms must be universal and unrestrained. Otherwise, we cannot have liberty and will not have safety, no matter how many laws we enact.