Many Chinese tourists are in my adopted home town for the Lunar New Year celebrations and perhaps to sample a bit of candi too during their visit. Anyway I wore a surgical mask in public for the first time ever the other night when I went to the local Lunar New Year festival. Apparently I was not the only one concerned with the coronavirus emanating from communist Chinaâs slave state as there were many such masks on display. There is at least one report of a victim of the coronavirus right here in Chiang Rai.
Wearing the mask was a bit awkward as my spectacles were almost continuously fogging up. Regardless, I will probably take up the practice, in particular when on travel and/or public transit. Recommend you consider doing same. If you should decide to take up the practice, please be advised that all surgical masks are not createdâŚ
Past being prologue, it is not likely that either the Department of State or CIA is going to beat back the onslaught of Salafism. The intent here is to provide leadership with a notion of the type of Foreign Area Officer (FAO) required to develop and implement strategy. The current âstrategy,â whatever it may be, … Continue reading Winning the Peace (Ch. 3) Redux→
Browsing American Thinker this morning, as is my wont , I clicked on the link to New England Journal of Medicine wherein they concluded that, even in a hospital setting, universal masking is largely âtalismanicâ. But it now appears with a banner disclaimer at the top to the effect that the authors strongly support public masking if people are going to be within 6 feet of each other for âŚ.idk, shall we say 10 minutes? 20? Do I hear 30.? Hey doctors: if you think masks arenât very effective, even as used by health care workers and medical personnel, what the fuck makes you think ( or rather, who the fuck made you say) that the public at large is going to do any better? Theyâre now selling special Christmas masks: rhinestones, glitter, a Santa hat, and the word âBelieve!â That says it all.
Anyone who believes that we are winning the so called âGlobal War on Terrorismâ has not endured an airport screening lately. Winning the peace would mean that you could board a plane as stress free as you did before 9-11. No, what we see and feel in todayâs America is not what peace looks like. … Continue reading Winning the Peace (Ch. 2)→
Iâve had opportunity to work overseas with many of Uncle Samâs alphabet soup agencies (DEA, CIA, DOS, USAID, etc.) and have generally been underwhelmed by their lack of foreign language skills and understanding of the local culture. On the other hand they are filled with lot of really intelligent people with advanced degrees who speak and write English extremely well but seem to have little familiarity with making stuff happen. Nothing wrong with advanced degrees and such, but sometimes speaking fluent Spanish is more helpful in understanding why a Bolivian coca grower is not so keen on the alternative crop program. Maybe if our people understood the realities of his world, they would know that the buyers of coca leaves will ship his product to market. Potato buyers donât.
Yes, even in Latin America our government representatives often fail to communicate â sometimesâŚ
Our exploration of St. Paulâs own growth in faith through his epistles/letters brings us once again to Corinth, in southern Greece about 50 miles from Athens. It offered access for trade through two major harbors, controlling trade routes to both Italy and Asia. This prosperity might seem to be the perfect seedbed for virtue. In Paulâs time, however, it had a cosmopolitan air and a reputation for a free-wheeling attitude toward accepted social/moral norms. Paulâs visits to Corinth â at least 3 of them â during his second missionary journey are mapped out by his sometime physician-companion, Luke in his Acts of the Apostles [15:36-18:22].
Paul had successfully founded two churches in Corinth, in tandem with his fellow evangelists (and tentmakers) Prisca/Priscilla and Aquila. Leaving the faith communities there in the capable hands of this committed believing couple, and a gifted Alexandrian convert inâŚ
ST UnWoked & UnVaxxed! 
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