On Christmas morning Leah and I were having a discussion about the three Wise Men who arrived in Bethleham following the birth of Jesus. According to gospel Matthew, the wise men, who said they were from the east, saw a star in the east that guided them to Bethleham. This got me thinking about this question. How is it possible that wise men from the east, could see a star in the east, and follow it east to discover a king in Israel, which would be to their west as they set out in this supposed scenario? Having never thought about this dilemma or contradiction, I then started to do some reasearch. I found out that it is possible depending onthe definition of “east” at the time of the writing of Matthew. Look it up.
It appears Congress and President Trump are going to put on a ‘fireworks show” during the last 20 days of Trump’s presidency. Trump signed the Covid-19 relief and government extension bill after sitting on it for 5 days. Just this evening the House passed a bill to override President Trump’s veto of the Military Spending Bill. It will now go to the Senate where it appears to have the 2/3 votes necessary to also override the president’s veto. If this happens, it will be the first congressional override of a Trump veto during his presidency. I expect the tweets over the next few days are going to vicious. No Republican or Democrat will be safe from his tweets.
I was disappointed to see some members of Congress get their covid-19 vaccine, especially Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is only 31 years of age. It is hard for me to come up with a reason why any member of Congress should get the vaccine ahead of healthcare workers, frontline workers, or teachers. The optics are terrible.
Today we had a red-tailed hawk land on a tree just outside our condo in Petoskey. While we were enjoying the beauty of this raptor from the comfort of our living room, the squirrel who the hawk had his sights on didn’t really appreciate the hawk being around. Fortunately for the squirrel the hawk went on his merry way.
Over the last three days, the sports world lost two hall of famers. Phil Niekro in baseball and K.C. Jones in basketball. Niekro was probably the best knuckleball pitcher to ever play the game. Jones is one of only seven players who played on an olympic gold medal team, and NCAA championship team, and an NBA championship team. One of the seven was his teammate on all three, Bill Russell. Niekro and Jones were class acts who never sought the limelight that came with their success.
Quote of the day: “Ali forced us to take a look at ourselves. This brash young man who thrilled us, angered us, confused and challenged us, ultimately became a silent messenger of peace who taught us that life is best when you build bridges between people, not walls.” Billy Crystal, one of Muhammad Ali’s best friends over the years.