Welcome to the weekend!  Here are the stories I found most interesting from this past week…

There was a lot of talk this week about Trump’s first week as President. Talk about his executive orders, talk about the (cancelled) meeting with the President of Mexico, talk about voter fraud, talk about inauguration crowd sizes, and of course talk about the Mexico/U.S. border wall.  On Friday, the March for Life descended on Washington and showed residents of the nation’s capitol the difference between peaceful protest and what we saw last weekend from the anti-Trump anti-Semitic driven Women’s March. Most of these stories you’ve likely already digested, so I won’t spend a lot of time on them.

However…Speaking of the March for Life, for those keeping track at home, Americans have murdered over 60million children since the fatal Roe v. Wade decision. This week Crossway had a blogpost with 10 things to know about Abortion (from a Christian perspective).

Politico has a summary of all the executive orders signed this week, which I recommend everyone scan because its helpful and very encouraging. Its just good to know what’s actually going on behind all the media hype (h/t Alex W.).

You may or may not have caught some of Obama’s final actions, but if not, then this Charles Krauthammer story about his terrible final power plays will be helpful.

A long, and somewhat insightful story about Wilbur Ross, the new commerce secretary to-be under Trump.  The article seems to hold a basic air of complaint about it – complaint that a rich guy is head of commerce. The irony of Bloomberg publishing a story about the ultra wealthy meddling in politics and government wasn’t lost on me. Still, there’s some biographical information in here about Ross that I didn’t know, and found interesting.

Speaking of Trump world, I usually find Ann Coulter rather obnoxious, but this was funny:

Here’s a fascinating story from the Times about a new-ish company whose mission is to market/display startups that need investors. A pretty cool way to invest in other small businesses.

David Mathis has thought-provoking look at exercise: Do You Exercise for the Wrong Reasons?  TEASER:

The word endorphins is simply a shortened form of the phrase “endogenous morphine.” In other words, these are morphine-like chemicals that originate within our bodies. They “inhibit the transmission of pain signals; they may also produce a feeling of euphoria.” And they are a gift from God, put there by him to lead us to himself.

Sean Davis at the Federalist rebuts a lengthy rant from the Atlantic on Abortion. The title of his article is Abortion Science: Heartbeats Are Imaginary, Unborn Babies Aren’t Alive, And Ultrasounds Are Just Tools Of The Patriarchy.

Newt Gingrich on Trump and understanding ‘Trumpism’ – this is a long video, and I didn’t get through all of it, but what I saw thus far was pretty interesting (Gingrich is nothing if not interesting), and somewhat insightful into the 90’s when the GOP took over Congress. Gingrich talks about that moment in time, and some of the policy parallels…h/t Nate. E.

HAVEN’T READ THIS ONE YET…BUT: CIA head was ‘blindsided’ by waterboarding memo.

Another article from the Federalist that is probably the most interesting piece of writing I read all week comes to us from one David Ernst. The title is Donald Trump Is The First President To Turn Postmodernism Against Itself. I’m thankful for Adam J. for sending this brilliant piece of writing along. If you read nothing else, read this because I think it will get your mind cranking a bit.

TECH: a cool behind the scenes look at how the visual effects for Star Wars Rogue One were put together – particularly the Moff Tarkin portions of the film.

MORE TECH:  Alexa, Stop Making Life Miserable for Anyone With a Similar Name!  Keep an eye on Alexa and the evolution of at home personal assistants. This is probably going to be a BIG component of our every day lives in the future. From the article…

Jordann Mitchell, 27, jumped across the room a few weeks ago when watching her new favorite sitcom, “Schitt’s Creek.” Alexis, the main character on the Canadian show, was told by her dad to order 12 pints of milk. “The Echo lit up and I immediately started yelling, ‘No, no, no!’ Thank goodness she didn’t order the milk,” Ms. Mitchell says.

Signs of the times…an article posted a few weeks ago on Desiring God’s blog called ‘Marijuana to the Glory of God.’  Bookmark this one, and make sure to read it and come back to it. This one will be helpful for anyone thinking through the differences between the affects of marijuana and that of alcohol.

Fun Video: Why Air Force One could be a downgrade for Trump. 

FYI for us midwesterners: Bob Evans to sell restaurants, focus on foods business

BOOKS I read this week: I finally got to read and enjoy Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion‘. It’s not her most insightful work, but the reflective conversation between Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth near the end of the book was worth the price of admission.  I also enjoyed several of the essays in ‘The Legacy of Luther’ and would recommend the one by Joel Beeke particularly. Star Wars ‘Rogue One’ was done on audiobook, but I found it really added nothing to the movie.  Two Instaread book summaries were digested, one on Ty Bollinger’s ‘Truth about Cancer’ and one on Megyn Kelly’s ‘Settle for More’...the cancer book was interesting and worth checking out, the Kelly book was pretty much best read in summary form. I was also FINALLY able to finish Volume V of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall – it was probably the least interesting volume of those I’ve read, with the exception of the chapter on Mohammed, which was very insightful and worth wading through the rest of the book.

That’s it!  I hope you enjoy the weekend!

PJW