History & Comment for June 6, 2025

 A look at historical and current events on this day, comment and humor so dry it would make a camel thirsty. 

Transcript

This is History and Comment for Friday the 6th of June, 2025

I will be a good boy and start with some historical events but you know where we are going today.   Recently, a frequent listener commented that some episodes had gotten long. Granted.   He suggested 8 to 10 minuets would be idea.  I have been trying hard to stay under 10 minutes.    That is about 1400 words.   Some days that is tough.

A long, long, time ago. Well, maybe not that long ago.

In 1814 the US and Britian are fighting what is essentially the second war for independence.   The causes were complex but the US had eyes on part of Canada for one.     That hope is put to rest after US troops are pushed out of Stoney Creek, Ontario.   The unique thing was the battle took place at night a very rare tactic at the time.

I was talking yesterday with a friend and the topic was public funding for Church groups that are doing good social projects came up.    I will grant it is a dicey area today, more than in older times.    In 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association is founded in London.   The concept was to provide the influx of workers from the country side, with a wholesome place to hangout in a good environment.     Today the YMCA is nearly completely secular.   Governments have little issue providing some funding to what at one time was a Church outreach.   This idea is at the heart of the current local hot topic.

The Chicago elevated railroad opens in 1892.

1912, 530 miles NNE of Dutch Harbor, and about half that distant SW of Anchorage, Alaska. The Novarupta volcano lets go. It is the largest Volcanic eruption in the 20th Century.   That the earth continues to have a hot core is one of the more complex issues plaguing scientist.       Currently most eyes are on the Northern Mediterranian.   Mt Etna in Italy is erupting,   The Campi Flegeri Caldera,  is rumbling also. That sits just NW of Naples, Italy.    If that lets go it could easily be historic.  A Caldera is an area with a large magma chamber underneath.    Yellowstone is not a single volcano but a Caldera.

During WW I, the Marine Corp suffers their greatest casuality loss in a single day. This was in the Battle of Belleau Wood.    I do not mean to lessen the loss of any solider or marine, but modern figure often overshadow the losses during the Civil War.    The number killed in the Civil War is most often estimated at 620,000 men.   That number is almost more than all of the 20th Century wars combined.

The First Drive-in theater opens in Camden, New Jersey in 1933.  The idea of outdoor movie set-ups was an old concept.   Makeshift screen and the sides of barns had been employed for a few years.   Richard Hollingshead conceives an idea of a permenat facility where viewers could sit in their cars and watch the movie.    The idea receives a patent the month before.

This is the 81st Anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe.   The event marked the turning point in WW II.

23 years ago an asteroid estimated to be just 30 feet in diameter enters the earths atmosphere and explodes over the Mediterrainian Sea, South of Greece.   The explosion is believed to have been about the power of the second atomic bomb dropped on Japan.

This brings up an interesting topic.    Archelogist exploring the area East of the Dead Sea have discovered the remains of a village that appears to have experience an event, that show signs of a thermo-nuclear blast.   They were shocked to find flash patterns and glazed sand of temperatures rarely seen in modern times and very similar to a Nuclear blast.  What the nature of the event was remains of debate. I have a suggestion. 

I’m doing good on time.

I am not stirring the pot, any more than the next person.    Memes keep populating my feed and I feel compelled to respond.

Human sexuality is one of the most complex and puzzling aspects of life.   Psychologist Dr. James Dobson is often labeled as an evangelist, which he denounces.   His expertise is child development. He has had a long public platform blending his religious views with science.    His take is that he will offer no suggestion why God made pro-creation so highly emotional.  But grants that it is one of the most powerful forces in human life.

Contrary to Hollywood which should never be used as a good example, it is largely a learned response.   It is a blank sheet of paper and there is one chance to draw a great picture.   It is impossible to erase an experience.    Without any moral or religious context a very good case can be made on this fact alone, that what and how that paper is used should be considered extremely carefully.   Can I suggest with reverence.

The other day I talked about Steve Brown,   He contends the sexual relationship is most holy.     That thought will align very well with Christian thinking.   It will also shock most folks.  A now departed friend, who trended towards profane, once said Baptist are like cats, you know they do it, you just can’t catch them.   Rarely is the Songs of Soloman taught in any meaningful way.    If that reference is unknown to most folks,   it is a small book in the old testament and a very steamy romance tome.

It should be well-known to my regular listeners  that the Biblical concept that Man’s life today is one an estate far below what was intended.    God created a perfect place where he and man, his most prized creation could dwell in perfection.    Man was placed on a different level than other creations in the spirit world, i.e. Angles of many designs.   Man was created in the form of God complete with more latitude of will.    Angels have little if any free will, man does.  A very long discussion could be had on why God might have done this.    I think the idea is, will surrendered is more worthy than forced compliance.   Man also has creativity, another trait of God that the angels most likely do not have.

Man lost his first estate and relationship with God, because he choose to exercise his will instead of surrender it.  This single concept is the crux of the entire existence of life on Earth.   Man continues to try to return to the perfect place by his own means. It is a daily struggle between self and God.

When folks claim that they did not choose to be homosexual, I tend to believe that is largely correct.   I think there are genetic and environmental factors along with some number of unknown factors that make us what we are.    In thousands of ways.    It is amazing and intriguing to watch a small child exhibit traits of their parents. That there is no way they could have learned.  I also doubt we will ever find a gene for them either.

What is lost on us, is we hold elements of that once perfect estate and a desire to return to it.   Nearly every waking moment of our 70 or so years.   We fight almost with every element of our being to restore it through self-indulgence.   When self-indulgence is what caused the fall in the very first place.

My resistance to the homosexual lifestyle and the entire concept of Pride month is not that, that particular self-indugience is on a different level than a very long list of others.   A pride parade is of little moral difference than Mardi Gras.  Or the Greek celebration to Baccus.   I just lament that society insist on the flagrant display of self-indulgence.   And any call to turn towards God who alone can restore man to his intended estate,,, is mocked as quaint and out of touch.

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