AP News ran an article today, quoting Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir.  He said in a discussion with Rom Braslavski, one of the former Gaza-held hostages, “I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat — there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”

That certainly jibes with what we heard last week by Palestinian presenters at the “Christianity Without Christian Zionism” conference in Louisville, KY.  The Jewish settler mantra towards Palestinians while they force them out of their homes and steal their land – “REMOVE… then ERASE…” certainly agrees with such a callous and brutal thought like Gvir’s.

And it raises a really important question:  Why do we – as we hear news like this coming from Gaza and the occupied West Bank – why do we find all kinds of mental gymnastics to excuse, mollify, or even condone such violence?  Why are so many American Christians – almost all involved in the evangelical / fundamentalist protestant churches in conservative areas of our country – willing to support Jewish organizations that seem to believe, as a matter of course, that violence or murder of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ is somehow a righteous mindset, blessed by God himself?

It’s as if Matthew 25 no longer exists in the King James Bibles these people read.  (They certainly have forgotten Paul’s words in Romans 10:12 and Galatians 3:28 – otherwise they could never condone statements like one Baptist’s pastor’s nonchalant comment to the youth in his church when he said, “The Jews are better than us.  You need to understand that and just get used to the idea.”)

How is it possible we condemn other cultures as barbaric and terrorists when they prove they are willing to fight for their beliefs (either right or wrong; either valid or non-valid).  But we can still pump BILLIONS of dollars worth of aid to a nation whose leaders clearly state their desire to murder others who have as much right to their land as anyone else?  (More so than Jewish settlers who use God as their excuse to steal Palestinian homes!)

Once your eyes are opened to this ongoing tragedy?   To the continuing Genocide that’s happening right before our eyes?  You will begin to see this kind of hatred and barbarism in ever single news cycle.  Every single day… in practically every avenue for information… Benjamin Netanyahu’s barbaric government proves it’s not worthy of a single dime more of United States aid.  Call your Congressman or Congresswoman.  Mail your Senators.  Make your voice heard:  “Not one dime more to Israel. No bombs, no planes, no missiles, no drones… until they get their own house in order and recognize others’ right to life.

I spent a few days processing all the information from the conference in Louisville last week, and some of them are distilled in the video I recorded on top of Roan Mountain in East Tennessee.

I’m in Louisville, KY, at a 2-day conference my church is sponsoring, called “Christianity Without Christian Zionism.”  It’s the first of multiple events that have arisen from our General Assembly’s recent actions, where we as a denomination have been courageous enough to call the Genocide that continues in Gaza and the West Bank exactly what it is – a GENOCIDE.  (Despite the scofflaws in our current administration to the contrary, or the efforts by the MAGA universe, AIPAC and other evangelical entities trying to convince us otherwise.)

Two days of incredible wisdom, shared by some of the best and brightest theological minds we have in our nation.  Some shared by people who are pastors, leaders, teachers and theologians who are Palestinian and working in the occupied areas of Gaza and the West Bank.  Our last Zoom presentation this afternoon was from two people who stayed up late in Bethlehem to share with us what it’s really like to be Christians and Palestinian living in a perpetual state of siege due to the Israeli government’s heavy handed policies.

While there’s a LOT to process – something for which I’m actually glad I have a few days of driving to ponder and think – One thing is already crystal clear.  You can call Christian Zionism a lot of things; a money making scheme, a way to keep the evangelical church linked to Israel in a codependent and enabling (and decidedly unhealthy) relationship, a way to continue persecuting an entire people regardless of their faith or nationality, an actual heresy which some churches and Christians should fall on their knees asking God’s forgiveness for, (Are you listening Robert Jeffress, John Hagee, Mike Pence, and a whole cast of others?)… But you flat out better NOT call Christian Zionism any kind of holy partnership with God whereby Scripture is being fulfilled and Jesus’ return is being hastened!  ‘Cause that isn’t even CLOSE to being true!

One of our presenters told us all today: “Speak the truth!  Call this pernicious heresy out for what it is.  And if people get pissed off by this truth?  So what?”

I think she’s 100% on target. Being anti-Zionist doesn’t mean I’m anti-Semitic.  (But if someone wants to think I am?  Knock yourself out.)

They told me it would be so simple.  It’s so routine that in a couple of weeks I would have both cataract surgeries behind me and be well on the way to perfect vision!  Yeah, right!  (Why am I increasingly becoming more suspicious of all the “trust us” type of claims from health care providers?

Long story short?  The first cataract surgery happens, and almost immediately I’m seeing double vision so pronounced that frankly I should have not been allowed behind the wheel of a vehicle.  (It’s disconcerting to be driving to a doc appointment and have to be constantly tilting my head and squinting to find out which of those two lanes in front of me is real and which one will put me on the guardrail!) (This pic below is pretty close to what I’ve been seeing since July 8th.)

What followed has been a stressful roller coaster.  Postponing the 2nd cataract surgery from July 22nd (which, since the doc is “so booked” is now scheduled for late October, as that was the “earliest” opening), being told that a consult with a “neuro ophthalmologist” is necessary to “rule out brain involvement” (that means tests to see if, in essentially the following order, this is coming from a brain tumor, something like miastinia gravis, graves disease, or thyroid cancer)… then being told that consult may take months because these “specialists” are “busy” (it didn’t, as it turns out)… to finally hearing the somewhat dubious “good news” that this is – more than likely – a muscle issue with one eye that has resulted in “binocular diplopia” that is treated, at least short term, with “prism” glasses.

So, I now have one pair of sunglasses with a temporary fresnel lens in the right eye to provide a “2.0 down” prism correction that actually allows me to see again! (granted, with the fresnel lines glaring at certain angles of sunlight).  These will be “tweaked” in a few days to probably a 2.25 down prism to dial in my vision.  The good news is these temporary lenses can be applied to my existing glasses and are only $50 each.  I plan to get two or three more pairs of these, for reading, nighttime distance, and working in the shop, etc., so I’ll be able to function again while waiting on the 2nd cataract surgery – which will undoubtedly change my vision again.

The down side?  When it’s time to order permanent, ground prism lenses, I’ll be ponying up anywhere from $700 to $1,000 for EACH pair of lenses!  (And no… insurance doesn’t cover a dime of this!

Turns out that this is probably a preexisting condition that I didn’t notice all that much until the cataract removal and new IOC (lens implant) cleared up my vision so significantly.  The cause?  More than likely the concussions I had playing football and lacrosse in high school and college, or perhaps the damage to my cornea in 4th grade when my brother accidentally stabbed me in the eye with a straightened coat hanger. (A VERY long story!)  Moral of the story?  Playing “hero” in high school and college sports always – ALWAYS – carries a price!

Is this just me?  Or do others respond to this same annoyance like I do?

I have been shopping at local warehouse type stores for decades.  I imagine you all know the type I’m talking about; Lowe’s, Home Depot, Sam’s Club, Costco, BJ’s Warehouse.  And I find it beyond annoying that on such a regular basis, I park and walk into one of these stores, looking for a specific item or group of items… only to find the entire store layout has been changed and I have to spend an irritated 30 minutes or more “hunting” for the specific item that I once would have been able to walk to, pick up, check out, and be back in the parking lot within 5 – 7 minutes!

Do these corporations have “marketing experts” who really believe the idiotic theory that this will cause us to spend more money in their store?  Newsflash folks:  It doesn’t work!  It doesn’t cause us to spend more money in your store.  It just pisses us off and makes it likely – assuming there is an alternative nearby – that we will take our business elsewhere. (This is why I no longer have a Sam’s Club card, avoid Lowe’s or Home Depot even if the local Ace Hardware is more expensive, and won’t even entertain the thought of shopping at grocery stores that let this craziness happen in their stores on a regular basis. (Publix or Harris Teeter?  Are you listening?)

Again, this may just be me.  Maybe I’m becoming more and more like Otto Anderson. (The Tom Hank’s character in the Movie “A Man called Otto”)  But I would be genuinely interested if anyone else has the same, visceral reaction to such a moronic marketing fail like this.

So… Three days into getting a toric lens implant in my right eye – one that not only corrects both close and distant vision but also corrects the astigmatism that I’ve had in that eye since I was about 10 years old – and I’m still learning how to see again.

Makes me wonder; what the world will look like in a couple of weeks then the other eye receives it’s multi-focus bionic lens!

And the coolest thing of all?  I found out last night, for the first time, what the Holosun “red-dot” optics we have on several rifles actually looks like!  I pulled one out of the safe and instead of seeing 4 “stars” in a fishhook pattern, I actually saw only one actual “dot” for the first time!  (It’s been quite a chore at the range to pick which “star” to put on the target.)  Now I can’t wait for this “no lifting 10 pounds or bending over” nonsense to be done with.  Who knows what the world will look like once again?

This is why you never want to speed on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Coming around a curve to find a mama bear and her 3 cubs just wandering across the road.  Mama and 2 cubs paraded within 10 feet of Judy’s right window for this pic. Cub 3 was trying his best to wander under the truck’s front bumper… until Mom got a little stern with him!

The sunset from Mount Mitchell (highest point east of the Mississippi River) on July 5th.

July 4th sunset from the Caney Fork Overlook about 80 miles south on the Blue Ridge Parkway was a washout – but we got to see a really impressive lightning storm happening BELOW us towards Brevard, NC.

But even with the clouds, seeing the sun slip below us and the mountains to the west of Mitchell – with the temp. hovering around 64 degrees?  And not another sound but birds chirping, bugs clicking, and the sigh of the wind?  Yep… Happy July 5th everyone!

I posted this video online over a decade ago, but frankly I think it’s well worth watching again – especially since law enforcement will be stepped up all over the nation this coming holiday weekend.

Remember, if you are stopped this weekend at a DUI check point; for as long as you are there, no cop is your friend.  Something really worth remembering.

We will be marking the 4th of July quietly this week, camping up in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  Hopefully we’ll get a break from the week’s murderous heat wave, do a little bit of hiking perhaps, take a drive up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and perhaps watch the sunset from the summit of Stone Mountain.  (I mean the REAL stone mountain here in North Carolina, not that confederate blasphemy just east of Atlanta.)

There’s one thing we will NOT be doing later this week:  We won’t be participating in the ongoing nonsense of proving our patriotism by… flying more (or larger) flags than anyone else, parroting the ever-increasing hate speech coming out of Washington anymore, where the only way to “prove” you are a good, Patriotic American is to show how you hate every thing outside the cultic boundaries of the MAGA universe, or succumbing to the ludicrous notion that the only way to be truly “American” anymore is by swallowing whole whatever the Republican party and Donald Trump are selling us at any given moment.  (Which, it should be noted, no one can really keep track of without a score card since it changes with almost every news cycle.)  And of course, undoubtedly, there will some of the same, shrill voices, picking up the by now monotonous refrain yet again – that since I’m one of those “Libs” that are “ruining OUR country” then I cannot, must not be, never was a “true” American.

Which kind of reinforces the thoughts I had a few years back when I put together this slide show to Ken Medema’s powerful song, “I See America.”  It’s a repost, but one I think perhaps appropriate to help us keep a proper, truly “patriotic” perspective on America as we celebrate Independence Day.   Wanna show you love America as much as others do?  Then show American love – not the hate that’s become some kind of new, pernicious, and ugly normal.  Once upon a time we were better than this.  Here’s hoping we can be that again.

Happy, safe, and blessed 4th everyone.