253 Advent 1: Proverbial Feeding - Ordering the Soul for Sustainable Will
“All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies.” ~ Psalm 25
Proverbial Feeding: Ordering the Soul for Sustainable Will
Boomer-targeting headlines and “expert” takes have one thing right: chaos is everywhere. Governance collapses, promises shatter, families disintegrate.
None of it is surprising. Feed a world godlessness, starve it of the Word, and what do you expect? Chaos isn’t an accident—it’s the crop sown by fools.
Last week’s noise?
Wyoming caves on protecting the unborn.
The Pentagon can’t account for trillions, yet its budget balloons.
Toys fail to spark joy, like everything else modernity touches.
It’s a buffet of disorder. Lies wrapped in truth, designed to control. And what’s the result? Fear, rage, apathy—the unholy trinity of a society severed from God.
The antidote? Wisdom.
Real wisdom.
Proverbs reminds us: “The fear of Jesus Christ is the beginning of knowledge.”
That's not a bumper sticker. Not a slogan. That's life.
You don’t just read Proverbs; it reads you. It disciples your desires, strengthens your will, and arms you for battle.
You want nourishment? The world’s “truth” is gruel—framing life to enslave, not liberate. Scripture? It’s a feast.
Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart.” Don't the weeds in. Sow the good seed, and stand firm in joy while the world burns of it's own mad discord.
The godless worship power, pleasure, self.
The fear of God? That's allegiance to the King. Worship Him, and you’re no slave—no matter what shackles "they" foist on your wrists.
Advent is here. Remember the angels? They didn’t announce a suggestion; they proclaimed a revolution. The Word is unsealed. Christ, your brother, reigns.
Eat. Drink. Be satisfied.
Till angel cry and trumpet sound,
R.J.M.F.
The wonderful Mad Christian Advent devotional is here!
Thanks to Pastor Franson and his merry band of paladins for compiling this year’s publication:
In this (late) edition:
Hunter gets a pardon
Walmart drops the DEI
An AI Jesus hears confession in Switzerland
And all the usuals..
Politics
President Biden has broken his promise that he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden who was convicted on felony gun charges and tax evasion. No one was surprised by the pardon except corporate media, who had used the President’s emphatic insistence that he would agree with the court, to praise Biden to the skies and contrast him to Donald Trump’s lambasting of the justice system. The pardon is quite unprecedented in its scope, wiping the slate for anything Hunter may be charged with from 2014 (just before he joined the board of shonky Ukrainian energy company, Burisma) right up until the present. President Biden’s written statement says he had to act as he saw his son unfairly singled out by the DOJ. A weaponized justice system, you say? Isn’t that a conspiracy theory? While some Democrats were upset at the loss of moral high ground on the part of President Biden, more expressed concern that it sets a precedent for Donald Trump to pardon J6ers and even himself. Either way, the Biden administration began and will end under a cloud of lies around Hunter Biden, all of the family’s own doing. Megyn Kelly and her guests posted a frank break down of the pardon. (Newsweek, Tom Elliott via X, Megyn Kelly Show via YouTube)
Donald Trump rounded out his cabinet nominees last week with Dr Jay Bhattacharya nominated for the head of National institutes of Health, Dr Marty Makary as head of the FDA and Kash Patel as head of the FBI. These three appointments point to important changes to public health policy, drugs and food guidelines and of course, the intelligence apparatus. Dr Bhattacharya put his reputation on the line during the pandemic. Dr Makary has been a vocal critic of over-medicalization especially of children. Kash Patel was seen as key to uncovering the Russian collusion hoax which dogged Trump’s first term. Some nominees have left observers scratching their heads, including the pick of Dr Janette Nesheiwat for the Surgeon-General pick. Dr Nesheiwat was a supporter of masks during and after the pandemic. After relinquishing his nomination for Attorney-General, Congressman Matt Gaetz says he will not return to Capitol Hill, despite being voted in for the next Congress. some of the nominees were targets of bomb threats and “swatting” last week. (Reclaim the Net, Epoch Times, Not the Bee, The Hill, Reuters) The full list of Trump’s nominees so far is here.
The campaign manager for Harris-Walz presidential run says that internal polling never showed VP Harris ahead of Trump at any stage, despite public pollster’s claims otherwise. Strategists seem to be blaming anything but their own messaging, pointing to the whirlwind campaign as well as the Vice President’s reluctance to distance herself from the President and his unpopular policies. (Huffington Post, News, Daily Mail)
A new study from Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and Rutgers University has found that Diversity Equity and Inclusion measures actually make people more hostile to each other. But you won’t read about it in the corporate press. How strange that teaching people to divide people into gender, race, oppressors and oppressed would make them more suspicious and begrudging of others! (ZeroHedge)
Walmart is the latest company to cave to conservative journalist Robbie Starbuck’s relentless activism against “woke”. The retailer will “not renew a five-year commitment for an equity racial center set up in 2020” nor give preference to women- or minority- owned suppliers. The company also committed to reviewing its grants to Pride events and “make sure they don't feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors.” Starbuck and conservative groups have brought awareness to the discriminatory practices of a number of companies, who have back-pedalled in the cold light of public scrutiny. (CBS)
Did the opioid addiction crisis shift the country rightward? (The Transom)
Scott Jennings, a conservative firebrand journalist has been asked by the owner of the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board. (Not the Bee)
Technology That Honors Tradition (triglotta.org)
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God’s Green Earth
Developing nations are none-too-happy about resolutions made at the recently-concluded COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan. After much wrangling, wealthy nations agreed they would give an annual contribution of $300 billion, with conditions attached, to help poorer nations stop using fossil fuels and to provide aid after natural disasters. Poorer countries said that sum is not enough, as they were pitching for $1 trillion a year (largely to meet goals placed on them by wealthier nations, if we understand correctly). China and India insisted they must be the recipients of such money, though they are two of the world’s largest producers of carbon emissions and significant economic powers. Conservative media described the deal as a “grift” and “wealth transfer” but the worst part is that it is all based on faulty models of warming and misplaced zeal. As the Cornwall Alliance and other realist climate groups have shown, the reining in of greenhouse gases (with all that money or even more) will affect a change on global temperatures that is negligible while depriving the world’s poor of the advantages of using fossil fuels. (AP, PJ Media, Cornwall Alliance)
Without these coincidences, there would be no life on earth. Sure, “coincidences”…(Big Think)
National Geographic’s photos of the year for 2024. (National Geographic)
Money, Markets and Jobs
Donald Trump has vowed to impose harsh tariffs on both Canada and Mexico if they will not do more to stem the tide of illegal immigrants and illicit drugs into the USA through its borders. Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau said he had a productive conversation with Trump after the threat, but Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum has hinted at tariffs of her own. President Sheinbaum says the plan will do nothing to fix issues at the border, but only hurt businesses in both countries. Trump has also threatened to put 100% tariffs on BRICS member nations if they move to dump the US dollar for another currency. (The Guardian, Epoch Times)
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a project to highlight government economic waste, has started eyeing targets even before it has been formalized. Billionaire industrialist, Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy were tapped by Donald Trump to lead the taskforce, which has already found that taxpayers are funding mostly empty buildings for various departments and that funding of Planned Parenthood and other “progressive” groups is not in the government’s interest. Senator Rand Paul also suggested that government-sponsored experiments are rife with waste, a point which White Coat Waste has been pointing out for years. Remember Dr Fauci’s cruel beagle experiments? One trucker offered his insights into the way regulations in his industry lead to unnecessary spending. Here’s hoping they get this off the ground and see it through. President Reagan did something similar but did not make many of the recommended changes. (CBS, PJ Media, The Federalist Radio Hour podcast, Autonomous Trucker)
“California businesses are reeling from unexpected payroll tax increases, a ripple effect of the state’s decision to stop paying off nearly $20 billion in unemployment insurance debt owed to the federal government.” (The Deep Dive)
Could the way we rebuild so quickly after a disaster inform how to get things done? “We have built a system so complex that it takes a crisis to conjure the political will to get around it.” (New Atlantis)
Why companies don’t let you repair your own stuff and the growing right-to-repair movement. (TED Ed)
The Digital Age
We included the story last week that the Department of Justice is aiming to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser. While it has been a world-beater, and seemed unstoppable in cornering internet search, the wild world of AI is upon us. OpenAI is reportedly looking at making a browser, and Perplexity is already pitching for the idea that its AI is better at retrieving the info you want from the net than Chrome. The company has even launched a search specifically for shopping as a trial. All good things must come to an end as they say, perhaps the DOJ needn’t have bothered and the market might even sort this one out. (TechRadar, Perplexity)
The EU has lobbed another huge fine (€797.72 million) at Meta for not making “exposure” to its Marketplace an opt-in feature for users. Tech commentator, Ben Evans asked some of the tricky questions: “Do you just say that big companies can’t ship any new features, and must leave existing monopolists unchallenged? Or, are big companies allowed to ship any feature they like and leverage their existing base to squash startups? Like all policy questions, the adult answer is it depends.” (European Commission)
Video sharing platform, Rumble is suing the state of California over new laws which it says curbs speech when it comes to political satire. A similar suit was launched by the Babylon Bee earlier this year. (Reclaim the Net)
Bluesky, the new favorite Twitter/X alternative, is not decentralized nor federated, despite claims. (Dusty Cloud)
Music copyright royalties are big business. A new annual calculation shows that live music is generating “more royalties than those wallpapering the background of high streets and hotels”, digital streaming is outstripping broadcast radio and demand for vinyl records is rising quickly. (Pivotal Economics)
Births, Deaths and Marriages
A bitter case: Jeff Younger, a father who has been battling his ex-wife over her desire to “transition” their son (whom she dresses as girl) has lost his fight to block the procedure. Younger’s wife, who is a pediatrician, no less, moved with their sons to California after a Texas court acknowledged Younger’s wishes and ruled against the giving of puberty blockers. In a social media post, Younger warned men against entering the family law court, which he says gives preference to mothers. (Daily Mail)
A group of Vermont parents are appealing to the US Supreme Court after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that schools may vaccinate children without their parent’s consent and against their wishes. (The Federalist)
San Jose State's women’s volleyball team is on track to win the title after 6 teams refused to play against the team which has a male player. (ESPN) Related: of all the silly terms used by media to describe women, the New York Times has a new one. The publication wasted space describing females as “non-transgender women.” (The Telegraph)
Warren Buffet recommends parents let their children see their will. (CNBC)
Crime and Punishment
Color us surprised? Special prosecutor Jack Smith has dropped his two cases against Donald Trump, “without prejudice” which still leaves the door open for a trial in 2029. (The Federalist, WNG)
US Magistrate Judge David Schultz has ruled that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim not-for-profit must allow scrutiny of its financial records after a former employee claimed it was funded by terrorist groups. (New York Post)
Macy’s has delayed the release of its earnings report after it was discovered that one employee had managed to hide $145 million worth of small expenses over three years. The company did not say why the person had done this but said it did not have “any impact on the company’s cash management activities or vendor payments.” (CNN)
Coming to America
CBS is reporting that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are leaving voluntarily, fearing that the temporary protection status granted by the Biden administration will not hold under a new president. It is not clear where they are going. (CBS)
Health, Medicine and Food
A new rule proposed by the Biden Administration would see obese Americans eligible for free weight loss drugs, such as Wegovy or Ozempic. (CNBC)
Maine’s hunters have been warned that deer, turkey and other game have been found to contain high concentrations of PFAS “forever chemicals”. (AP)
Texas is looking to ban breakfast cereals from being offered in schools. (Chron)
Religion and the Church
A sad case of asceticism: it does nothing to curb the flesh even if it denies the body. (Now I Know)
A Swiss church is using an AI Jesus to take confession. (Die Welt)
The Mormon church continues to buy American farmland. (Agricultural Dive)
America was saved by prayer. (Calvin Robinson)
Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral has reopened after a five year restoration. The cathedral suffered extensive damage from a fire in 2019. (BBC)
Arts, History and Sport
A great read from writer, Rachel Kushner about the slice of Americana that is drag racing. Devotees of engines, gasoline and pushing the limits know about mastery and ownership: “If hot-rodders are not typically of the elite propertied classes, they have broken with a form of passive consumption that most in our society take for granted. They have a wealth that others lack.” Also, tinkerers know the special connection with the world created by working with your hands: “Others of us—myself included—do not think with our hands, and cannot respond to many of the signs emitted by the material world. Instead, our relation is passive. The world has come to invite this passivity. So much of it cannot be held or touched.“ (Harpers)
Cadillac will join the F1. (Robb Report)
A portrait of Alan Turing, the first to be painted by a robot has sold at auction for $1.8 million. We like to think of it as “creepy Cubist” style. (My Modern Met)
A novel approach to decorating: put something weird in every room. (MSN)
Greece’s newest subway line in Thessaloniki has opened after two years. Ancient Roman artefacts were discovered during the construction and they are now incorporated into the site, giving passengers access to hundreds of thousands of items displayed at stations on the way. (Yahoo)
Urban sketching is quite trendy. “Slowing down to illustrate a place helps [travellers] appreciate it in a more meaningful way.” (BBC)
Last week in history:
1487 The first German Beer Purity law is introduced stating that beer should only contain malt, water and hops. (On this Day)
From the Mad☧Tank
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This week:
Great stuff from our archive:
“Steeples and flags will fall, and the powers of the earth shall be shaken. But not Christ. If he is coming back tomorrow, there is nothing to lose in selling it all out for him now.”
“In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech published a seminal paper about biphasic sleep. The product of 16 years of study, Ekirch's research uncovered a wealth of historical evidence showing humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks.”
If you would like to submit your writing to be published in our Tank, please reply to this email. We would love to hear from you.
Hearts and Minds
Expressing anger may not be the best way to reduce it. “Venting anger might sound like a good idea, but there's not a shred of scientific evidence to support catharsis theory.” (Science Alert)
Why Amazon can never replace the postal service: for rural America, post offices do more than just deliver mail. (UnHerd)
Writing a to-do list before bedtime may help you drop off sooner. (BBC)
The influence of new technology on humanity is sometimes hard to gauge and AI will be no different. “The real question isn’t whether AI will develop humanlike minds — it’s whether we’re slipping into machinelike minds ourselves.” (Big Think)
Science
Data from millions of Android phones has been used to map the earth’s ionosphere. (Google)
A new study has found that graying hair is caused by stem cells getting stuck in one place. Researchers believe the process might one day be reversible. (Popular Mechanics)
“China is set to fire up a powerful new x-ray light source that will reveal the atomic-scale structure of proteins and materials.” (Science)
Engineers have developed a noise-reducing helmet so quarterbacks can hear their coaches instructions. (ABC)
Scientists taught rats to drive and they love it. (Wired)
War and Rumors of War
Armed jihadist insurgents have taken control of parts of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Reportedly, al-Qaeda splinter groups are being coordinated by the Turkish government. (ZeroHedge)
Israel has entered a 60 day ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah, so Israelis can move back into the north of their country and rocket fire between the two groups will stop. Jewish observers doubt that much will come of it, despite the exuberant self-congratulating on the part of Western leaders who are still hoping the ceasefire idea will catch on to Hamas. Israel’s president Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that President Biden threatened to vote against Israel in the UN’s Security Council if he did not agree to the deal. The US has denied the charge. (Commentary, Commentary,)
A London newspaper claims Donald Trump is preparing to discharge transgender soldiers from the US military on his first day in the White House. (Hot Air)
Stories from Far Away
🇵🇭 Mutually-assured destruction: The vice president of The Philippines has said she has ordered a hit on the President, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, in the event that she is assassinated. That may lead to some workplace tensions, one would imagine. Though no specific threat has been volunteered as reason for the plan by VP Sara Duterte. She and Marcos Jr are both children of former leaders and family relationships have soured in recent months. (The Guardian)
🇨🇦 Canada’s Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada has uncovered almost 10, 000 fake student visas, mostly for Indian nationals. Permits to study in Canada are granted when Letters of Acceptance are issued by approved higher education institutions. A crackdown on immigration has found that most of the students were in possession of fake Letters of Acceptance but it is not clear whether they are the scammers or the scammed at this point. (Economic Times)
🇦🇺 The Australian government has backed down on a plan to fine tech companies unless they censor users’ posts. A broad coalition of parliamentarians voted against a misinformation bill that entailed curbing speech of citizens through surveillance and censorship. It is good news, but as speech advocates warn, technocrats will never rest when it comes to getting everyone to comply. (Reclaim the Net, UnHerd) Also in Australia, a social media ban for children under 16 has been approved by the parliament, in a world-first. (AP)
🏴 London’s Metropolitan Police has come out against the building of a Chinese “super embassy” complex, saying the embassy is likely to draw large protests at times and that would cause disruption to key tourist sites in the area. Well, that’s thinking ahead, we guess. (The Standard)
🇲🇲 The Rohingya, a largely Muslim people group is now being recruited to fight with Myanmar’s Buddhist-majority military which chased them from Myanmar. The military junta government is fighting an uprising on the part of the Arakan Army, a movement of the ethnic Rakhine people. Reports say thousands of Rohingya have left refugee camps in Bangladesh, either enticed or forced to fight. (Reuters)
🪗 Classical pieces on the button accordion
🥧 The makers of London’s cockney favorite pie and mash say the dish deserves protected status, but they need to agree on a recipe first
🎷 The scariest piece of jazz
🇳🇱 19 of the 20 tallest countries are in Europe, with Dutch men topping the ladder at an average of (Visual Capitalist)
💰 Each generation nominates what it thinks you need to earn to be financially successful.
😱 The most expensive music video ever made
The countdown continues! While they’re losing their minds, you can join Jonathan and play a game called Starfall2029. Watch on YouTube or Rumble, or listen here.
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This Week Preached:
Podcast Release:
Let us pray. Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come, that by Your protection we may be rescued from the threatening perils of our sins and saved by Your mighty deliverance; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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