7 Quick Takes Friday

 

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Just in case you weren't on my Christmas card list. I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Wait, you say. Its December 27th.  Christmas is over.  Wrong. Liturgically, Christmas starts on with the Vigil Mass  on Christmas Eve and goes until the Sunday after Epiphany or after January 6th, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. 

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Also, let me be one of many to wish you the blessings of a Happy New Year! A new year gives us new opportunities to change our lives.  To make things better. While dining out with some friends a couple of days before Christmas, we all made some New Years Resolutions. I have been overweight most of my adult life. Now I've started watching what I eat. Portion control is important.  Counting calories.  Wiser,   healthier choices.  That along with riding my exercise bike and I lost 20 pounds in 2024. The hardest part has been keeping that going.  I'd like to ride three or four days a week to start.  One of my goals is to lose 35 pounds in 2025. Another goal is to declutter my house.  It's amazing how much stuff that we accumulate in our lifetime. A couple of years ago I had new siding put on my house.  Two years ago,  I had my bathroom remodeled.  This past year, it was my kitchen.  Once I get the house decluttered, I'll be able to redecorate the inside. New carpeting, painting,  and new furniture. My final goal is to improve my spiritual life. This past year I went back to school. I've also been teaching PSR at my Catholic. See my previous post.

https://terrysbits.blogspot.com/2024/12/im-going-gack-to-school.html.

I can think of no better way to improve my spiritual life but to attend daily Mass or pray the rosary.

--3-- 

For those who are sports fans, how about the KC Chiefs? Is anyone amazed at how week in and week out they continue to find ways to win. While at times, it seems that Patrick Mahomes and his offense has not been as efficient,  the defense has been much improved.  How can one bet against them to win a third straight Super Bowl. 

--4-- 

Also, from the sports world, who doesn't like the expanded NCAA football playoffs? What took them so long?  Finally there won't be any excuses. Instead of arguing about who the team that was left out  that should have been in, we can sit back and watch the teams play it out on the field. Now if my Ohio State Buckeye can bounce back from a two loss season and win a national championship. 

--5-- 

Who isn't happy that Donald Trump will be back in the White House?  Biden and Harris were so out of touch with what wss going on in America.  The Biden economy for starters. You don't spend your way out of debt.  Biden Inflation Reduction Act actually raised Inflation. But Biden didn't have an answer.  Americans spent more money on groceries. His policies on day one slowed down oil production and raised oil prices. His answer was to spend more money. You would never do that in your personal household budget. 

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Moving to the fiasco at the border.  Has anyone noticed the illegal immigrants committing crime?  How are we supposed to support them?  They need housing, food,  health care, etc. Where is that money supposed to come from? And what about  the 300,000 children that the Biden administration has lost track of.  I wonder how many those children have been sold into slavery.  And then there were 250K fentanyl deaths under Biden as a result of illegal drugs crossing the border.  Finally, don't be surprised if this country has another 9-11 type of terrorist attack  because the failure to vet those who came into the country. 

--7--

Finally,  who isn't upset with the moral decline in this country.
The moral state of America is in deep trouble. That’s not an opinion—it’s what the American people believe. In March of 2022, a Marist poll, conducted for Deseret News titled, “Faith in America,” found that 72 percent of Americans think the nation’s moral compass is pointed in the wrong direction.

In June of that year, a Gallup poll revealed that a record-high 50 percent of Americans rated the overall state of moral values as “poor,” and another 37 percent said it was “only fair.” The public is also pessimistic about the future: 78 percent say morals are getting worse.

Why is this? Six issues garnered a double-digit response. “Consideration of others” topped the list, followed by “racism/discrimination,” “lack of faith or religion,” “lack of morals,” “sense of entitlement,” and “lack of family structure.”

Some of the issues that I'm concerned with are abortion and the transgender movement. How is it ever okay to kill an innocent baby? And do you really think children should be transitioning? How healthy can this really be?  Is is fair for biological boys to compete with girls in sports?