Straight From The Hart

 READING IN HEAVEN, ETC. A FB friend asked me if I thought we would read in heaven because she didn't have time to read "down here". This was my response and since then several other friends have asked me to re-post it. Of course we can. The actual translation of "in my house are many mansions" as in John 14 is "In my house are many rooms". I take that to mean heaven is one big house for the one big family of God with all these different rooms. #1 the most magnificent library ever. Remember that John wrote that if he had been able to write down everything Jesus said or did, that the world could not contain all the books that could be written! But heaven can! God wants us to have knowledge. I think it was Hosea who wrote that "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." #2 the largest dining room ever imagined. The Bible says we shall eat angels' food and refers to the corn of heaven so I am thinking the longest fattest cobs of corn ...

  Worries About What You Use From China (This is a column I wrote early 2020 just as the pandemic was breaking out. Information is now more important than ever.) February 1 2020 Let me be entirely transparent here. I love Chinese food and I especially love Chinese buffets at local restaurants. But would I eat food from a Chinese street market or one that is identifed as a “wet” market? Absolutely not, although there is no danger of my ever being close to such places. Wet markets, in case that’s a new term to you as it was to me, are places that sell dead and live animals out in the open to be used for food and medicine. This includes poultry, fish, reptiles, and pigs (and sometimes other items that our palates would deem to be too gross for human consumption). By now, you’ve all heard the rumors about the coronavirus being caused by the Chinese habit of eating bats and other disgusting creatures. The video which has gone viral on Facebook has been debunked as not even taki...

 Constitution and Clarence Thomas Etc Is the United States Constitution still relevant as we move toward the halfway mark of the second decade of the 21st century? This issue was addressed In a hearing before the Judiciary Committee last week entitled “Enforcing the President’s Constitutional Duty to Faithfully Execute the Laws” which focused on President Obama’s increasing tendency in recent weeks to bypass Congress in order to get his political agenda passed. During that hearing, my favorite liberal, Jonathan Turley, Professor of Law at George Washington University, who undoubtedly has one of the best legal minds of our time, decried the expansion of executive power which he says is happening so fast that America is at a “constitutional tipping point”. He said he was very alarmed by the implications of that aggregation of power, and further testified that “What also alarms me is that the two other branches appear not just simply passive, but inert in the face of this concentratio...

  Vandals knocked over and damaged at least 100 headstones at Mount Carmel Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia on February 27. The Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in St. Louis suffered major damage when more than 200 headstones were toppled and damaged by vandals also in February. After numerous headstones were desecrated at the Waad Hakolel Cemetery in Rochester, the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester New York stated on its Facebook post, “In the past month alone, there have been more than 180 anti-Semitic incidents nationwide. We are deeply disturbed by rising acts of anti-Semitism across the country, including bomb threats made to Jewish community centers, Jewish day schools, and synagogues.” As of February 28 this year more than 100 threats have been called in to 77 Jewish Community Centers, eight Jewish schools and several advocacy offices like the Anti-Defamation League, around the country. In his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday of last week, President Trump ...

  Did you know that the land on which our Courthouse and county jail, and the old jail museum are situated was once a big pond? And that includes the beautiful county health center where I had my first job and which is no longer there due to progress. You see, back in 1869, there was a big flurry of interest among Lebanon citizens about the railroad that was being built from Arlington to Lebanon. People who had money hurried to buy up the land in and around the city. Several of them bought land about three-quarters of a mile from town where the Frisco railroad would have to pass when it was extended on to Springfield. Mrs. Martha Harrison, on the advice of her attorney, bought 200 acres which turned out to be the exact spot where the new town was eventually located. As the story goes, railroad officials asked the city fathers to give them free land on which to build the station. The City Council refused and the railroad told them they would take their marbles and go home, i.e....

  FIRST DAFFODIL BUD OF SPRING Midst broken twigs and dried up grass The browns and grays of winter A ray of sunshine caught my eye For right there in the center A sign of spring broke through the ground All covered by seasonal clutter A single bud of daffodil As bright as fresh churned butter Poking its head above the rest Of earth’s decaying matter Surveying its environment Of torn leaves and tatter As if to say it may be a while But my promise to you today Is simply this, the time will come When clouds no longer gray Will let the sunshine come right through Dispelling fears and doubt And faith that spring is coming That’s what hope is all about. Written by Joan Rowden Hart on 01.24.13 at 10:15 am

  . Have you seen the insurance commercial on television where the actor says “Did you know that words can really hurt you?” Then a western “loner” rides off into the sunset leaving his lady at the ranch when suddenly the words “The End” appear on the screen and the “loner” rides into the words which apparently knock him off his horse to the ground. Silly, right? But not nearly as silly as some of the words, phrases and statements we hear uttered on the television screen every day by supposedly sophisticated and educated people. I have collected politicians’ words and phrases for years now. Marie Harf, spokeswoman for the State Department, who is always good for a few laughs, outdid herself this week. When asked how many ISIS terrorists we were killing, she admitted we were killing some but went on to say we can’t “kill ourselves out of this war”. Her solution was to provide jobs for them. She said any 17 year old ISIS warrior would probably be much more interested in st...