Welcome to the weekend! Here are a few articles to check out as you sip on coffee and enjoy another day of cold temps (at least if you’re in the Northeast or Midwest!).
The President of Hillsdale College did an interview with Gary Oldman who played Winston Churchill in the recent movie Darkest Hour. I really enjoyed the movie, and the interview was interesting as well. As you might know, Churchill is one of my favorite heroes of history. I really enjoy reading about him and reading his writing.
I thought this was a pretty cool little article about the Þrídrangaviti Lighthouse. I can’t even imagine trying to get to this place pre-helicopter!
I haven’t finished this yet, but its going to be part of my weekend reading! This Is What Happens When Bitcoin Miners Take Over Your Town.
I read this article from March of 2017 from R.C. Sproul called ‘Living Under Authority’, and found it timely. Timely because I was reading a bit about society’s structures in Jordan Peterson’s recent book 12 Rules. Sproul shows that authority structures in society are not evil, they aren’t arbitrary. He says:
Every one of us has not just one boss, but several bosses. Everyone I know, including me, is accountable not to just one person but to all kinds of authority structures. Throw a brick through a store window, and you’ll find out quickly that you’re accountable, that you’re under authority, that there are laws to be obeyed and law enforcement officers to make sure the laws are obeyed.
BUT, these positions of power can be inhabited by evil people. The question is what do we do when that’s the case, not whether or not there should be societal hierarchies because they naturally exist and always will (some people will always have more power than others etc). At least that was my takeaway…
Tim Challies linked to this interesting article from Popular Mechanics: Burning Out: What Really Happens Inside a Crematorium
In case you missed it: Judge paves way for transgender teen to get hormone therapy at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Watch that video. You see that transgender leaders are actively working to “get into schools” – these folks actively want to plant the idea of these types of therapies into the minds of kids as okay — even when time and many doctors have shown that this approach is NOT okay, and often very destructive in the long term. This is scary stuff.
I appreciated this article from David French because of how personal it was: What Critics Don’t Understand About Gun Culture (h/t Alex W.)
I want to go here! This Massive Warehouse In Baltimore Has Thousands Of Books And Won’t Cost You A Cent.
I’m not entirely sure that half of this isn’t bluster, but it was a big deal on the news for like one day, before the “journalists” went back to talking about Stormy Daniels, Robert Mueller, and North Korea. Putin boasts Russia has developed an intercontinental nuclear missile that can’t be stopped or shot down by any country’s defense system
Interesting story from Food and Wine: We Tried McDonald’s Fresh Beef Quarter Pounder, And You Can Guess How That Went. The title is deceiving because by the end of the article, you really can’t quite decide “how it went” for this dude (David Landsel) because he seemed indecisive. Still, I thought it was interesting to note that McDonalds is going to be using something other than Soylent Green for their menu options.
Here are a couple of articles on my radar – haven’t read them yet, but plan to check them out today:
Hobbies to the Glory of God – Tim Challies
Embrace Life’s Repetitiveness – David Gibson
The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News – someone from the Atlantic (they’re all the same over there)
Does the Fed control Trump’s 2020 destiny? – James Pethokoukis
Do Reproductive Technologies Oppose God’s Design? – John Piper
Books…
This week I finished up volume two of Winston Churchill’s History of the English Speaking Peoples. This volume covered Henry the 8th and Good Queen Bess and many of the explorers during the time, along with all the court intrigues, bloody Mary, and much of the Protestant/Catholic struggle. I’ve sort of come to a conclusion about wider historical narratives like this, and that is that they are helpful for me to see how everyone fits into the timeline of history and they also help me pick up little bits of info on the times. But, I also find them to be difficult to remember. Overviews sometimes don’t really impress upon you a sense for the times – I’m not convinced that biography (done right) in concert with these overviews, is necessary. Biography helps you understand not only the person in focus, but also the times and politics and such in which they lived.
This is not to disparage Winston Churchill’s writing or this book in particular. In fact, Churchill was a phenomenal writer – not because of the eloquence of his prose, but because he’s doggone easy to read. It’s so smooth and comprehensible that even a child could read and understand this book.
The other book I finished was John Grisham’s ‘The Summons’ – an interesting story with some good moral implications about what money can do to us, and how obsession, fear, desire for and about money can destroy and complicate our lives.
My good friend Matt Robinson had suggested Beneath a Scarlet Sky – I’m half way through it and already feel its one of the best books I’ve read in quite some time. Well written, and well-paced, its a fascinating story about a young Italian man (18 year old) during WWII. A sort of coming of age tale with many adventures and, of course, the stark realities of war.
I’m finishing up Jeremy Pierre’s short book on counseling right now, as well as Rutherford’s Loveliness of Christ. I’ve started Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life and thus far its rather a slog. I’ve hit the pause button on The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in order to work through Peterson. Hoping to have more to report on these books next week!
Until then, I hope you have a great weekend!
PJ
PJ Wenzel 