Source:

US health officials have called for new prevention and treatment efforts as the number of cases of sexually transmitted diseases, which include gonorrhea and syphilis, has been skyrocketing over the last few years.

Speaking at a medical conference earlier this week, Dr. Leandro Mena of the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that it was “imperative” that the US work to “rebuild, innovate, and expand” STD prevention. This comes as the rate of syphilis infections last year reached a 20-year high, and the number of new infections shot up 26%, beating a record set in 1948.

They need to “rebuild, innovate, and expand” what God has already prescribed in ordination from the start?

The head of the National Coalition of STD Directors, David Harvey, whose group is pushing a proposal for at least $500 million in federal funding to be earmarked for STD clinics, has described the situation as “out of control.”

Health officials are suggesting a number of possible solutions to the problem, such as, for example, promoting the use of condoms and developing at-home testing kits for some STDs that would make it easier for people to learn if they are infected and thus prevent further spreading of diseases.

“4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.” – Jesus, in Matthew 19:4-6. He goes on to discuss divorce in the next several verses.

Jesus is citing Genesis 1:27 perhaps, but certainly Genesis 2:21-25. It seems that God has set forth from the earliest foundations in His created order all the innovations needed to curtail sexual diseases. The diseases themselves aren’t the problem; they are simply an outward result of sin. Sin, dear friends, has consequences.

What better way to show that sin is real and affects the sinner? Without fornication, there would be no STDs at all. God owes us nothing to prove Himself, but by His grace, He makes evident His existence by the very operation of the creation under His hand of divine dominion.

If you sin, then you will have illness with permanent consequences. Don’t sin, and you won’t get sick. What could be more precise in the economy of the Almighty than that?

At the fall in the Garden, the devil is cursed, the woman is cursed, Adam is cursed, and the very ground is cursed.

The CDC is correct; it’s “imperative” that the US solve this problem. Jesus Christ is the answer, and has been from the foundation of the world, and is evermore. He paid your sin debt on the cross in His blood for your forgiveness. By His resurrection is salvation from eternal hell (1 Corinthians 15:3-4): the Kingdom of God is at hand. Having received forgiveness, seeking Him first in all things that you sin against Him no more (Psalm 119:11) is the solution; that is full repentance. In John 8:11, Jesus didn’t say go and neglect a condom no more. After forgiving a sinner by His grace, He said: “go, and sin no more.”

There’s a reason that the DoD considers STDs a readiness issue. But for us, this stuff affects your family and church’s preparedness, not just medical preparedness. If you’ve got active sin of any kind in your camp (Joshua 7), it can destroy the foundations of unity. You need cohesion.

Of course, proper Christian training of children from the start averts a lifetime of confusion and physical, emotional, and phycological problems. Ask anybody saved later in adulthood what the price of sin is. I tell you, it’s too high, for if you knew what things they had done, you wouldn’t let them in your church or near your family.

If you’re a young man or woman, find somebody that you can cleave to for the rest of your life, and never let go.

Pictured: F-104 Starfighter

Due to Johnson designing the F-104 to be better than any other aircraft, many other countries were interested in the F-104. At one point in time, the F-104 was operated by 15 different militaries.

This has always been one of my favorite aircraft. As a boy, I had a die-cast F-104 and spent seemingly endless hours destroying everything in its path. Here’s an interesting background on his work.

The Man Behind Lockheed Skunk Works

SR-71 Blackbird

Following the introduction of the U-2, both the USAF and CIA loved the aircraft. However, the 1960 U-2 incident [ Wiki ] highlighted to the USAF and CIA that the U-2 wasn’t invincible and needed something to prevent that.

Arming U-2s wasn’t an option- this would decrease the service ceiling of the U-2 and make it easier for Soviet radars to detect. As such, the CIA contracted Lockheed to develop a new, undetectable spy plane.

Lockheed contracted Johnson, then head of Lockheed Skunk Works, to develop the U-2s replacement. Johnson soon realized that arming the aircraft was nearly impossible, so chose another route: speed.

Johnson and his team developed the A-12 for the CIA. During the 1964 Presidential Election, Republican Barry Goldwater and Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson were having a televised debate.

Here, Goldwater accused Lyndon Johnson of allowing the Soviets to out compete the US. As such, LBJ decided to reveal the A-12 program and the fact that the USAF was implementing a variant of the A-12, called the SR-71.

Kelly Johnson had designed the fly higher than the U-2, at 85,000 ft (26,000 m). Instead of giving the SR-71 weapons, Johnson designed the SR-71 to travel at Mach 3.32, making it the fastest aircraft ever.

Herschel may have posted something about Mr. Johnson previously, but if you haven’t seen it, watch the Video Documentary of his career. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.

Source:

[Lindsay] Gietzen is a person of incredible experience and equal amounts of sharp wit; the combination of those qualities makes her one of the world’s leading experts and educators on traumatic injury care. She’s seen thousands of gunshot injuries in the worst part of Michigan and is now doing her best to get tourniquets and bleeding control kits right next to AED machines on the wall of every building.

The revelations here may surprise you, and perhaps you’ll buy your own bleeding control kit after reading this.

There are EDC folks that carry extra mags and a med kit too. I would never tell somebody not to do this if they felt it necessary.

A gun needs to be two simple things: reliable and reliable again—everything else coming in order of personal preference. Accuracy comes with practice and cosmetic choices are largely irrelevant, so as a baseline, the gun must function. Now what about bullets?

I’ve been telling people this for years. The gun needs to go bang every time you pull the trigger; that’s primary. Next is the ability to hit with it, and thirdly, time to muzzle on target. After you can do all that well, caliber selection should be considered because a gun that doesn’t go bang and you can’t hit with is just a paperweight.

“What causes death isn’t really kinetic force or expansion,” said Gietzen. “What causes death is rapid exsanguination (blood loss). A hit to the central nervous system or head does not guarantee an instantaneous kill. Despite what you see in the movies, the survival rate for wounds to extremities is very high, and death becomes more likely the closer you get to the heart of major arteries. The most deadly places to hit are the groin, armpits or a major artery in the torso.”

Read the section on Caliber and Effectiveness at the link. Bottom line: big bullets on target win.

H/T George 1, in comments.

Source:

A hunter was attacked by a brown bear Thursday morning [This happened at the end of August] near Ship Creek after he shot it but didn’t realize it was still alive, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game official said.

That’s a perilous situation. Any large animal and all predators can be dangerous when shot, and it can be hard to know if they are actually dead.

The hunter, treated at a hospital for injuries, was able to make his way out of the area without calling for rescue, said Cory Stantorf, an assistant wildlife biologist for the Anchorage area.

The man shot a large adult brown bear between about 9 and 10 a.m. in an area near Ship Creek and up the valley from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson land, Stantorf said. It is legal to hunt in the area, he said.

The man then approached the bear, which he thought was dead, and it got up and charged him, the biologist said.

The bear wounded him during the attack, according to Stantorf, although he said he could not provide additional details about the injuries or how severe they were.

Others in the hunting party shot at the bear, Stantorf said, and it stopped attacking and left. The hunters made it out of the area without further incident, he said.

It wasn’t clear by Friday morning if the bear had died from the gunshot wounds, Stantorf said. The hunting party was returning to the area to look for the bear, he said.

Grizz are tough critters.

There have been several other bear maulings in Anchorage this year. A soldier was killed and another was injured during a defensive attack involving a sow brown bear with cubs on a remote area of JBER in May.

A man was treated at the hospital last month after he surprised a sow brown bear with a cub in Eagle River. A woman was also injured last month when a black bear swatted at her on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail near Point Woronzof.

Stantorf said it’s important that anyone recreating outdoors in the backcountry or even in Anchorage is paying attention to their surroundings and looking for bears.

Note: We’ve been providing a lot of Bible studies on eschatology, posting as we find them, or they have become available, or as we wright them. Soon we’ll make a post that will put them in preferred reading (viewing) order as an educational tool for the reader. That’s a goal here at TCJ, to make us better men and women through Christian education and ministry, better with our tools, and more knowledgeable and competent to survive what may come.

Eisegesis is reading into the text of the Holy Bible your presuppositions, personal view, or agenda, looking for confirmation bias in the Scriptures. Almost every American today, even the educated, operate their daily life in search of bias confirmation. This is very dangerous and has no place in proper Bible interpretation, nor is it wise in any discipline. Exegesis is drawing out the meaning, swallowing your pride, and letting God speak the truth to your heart regardless of how it makes you feel; it’s the plain meaning of Scripture in context.

We might have worded some things differently and have slightly differing views, but in the main, this is a very good brief overview of eschatology.

What is Postmillennialism?

When thinking about eschatology today, few Christians are even aware of the postmillennial view. When I have traveled to Russia, Ukraine, Latin America and other nations on short term missions trips, I am usually asked this question by new converts: “Are you pre-trib, mid-trib or post-trib?” as if these were the only three forms of eschatology. I often have to explain that I am not a dispensationalist. It is difficult to show some Christians that there is another way of looking at the end-times and the millennium altogether.

Postmillennialism (literally, “after the thousand years”) is the belief that Christ will physically return to the earth only after a non-literal millennium is completed. Postmillennialism is optimistic about the end times. Christ’s reign over the earth from heaven increases during the millennium, which is thought to be not a literal one thousand year period, but “a very long time.” Postmillennialism places the Church in a role of transforming whole social structures before the Second Coming and endeavoring to bring about a “Golden Age” of peace and prosperity with great advances in education, the arts, sciences and medicine.

All Christians must believe in the literal, physical return of Jesus Christ. Christians may differ in their opinions as to the nature of the millennium and the exact sequence of end times events without departing from biblical orthodoxy.

However, I believe that major problems have been caused by the most popular system: dispensational premillennialism. Ironically, I did not know anything of the postmillennial view until I became aware of the limitations of the dispensational paradigm. In searching for a view to replace dispensationalism, I found postmillennialism to be most convincing.

The article goes on to provide a brief overview of not just the four main eschatological views but several views and sub-categories. It also provides an understanding of “the antichrist,” the second coming, the Beast of Revelation, the great tribulation, and more.

Housekeeping Note: Herschel is offline this week. We’re certain that the quality of the posts will suffer, but the quality of the discussion in the comments doesn’t have to!

Source:

…After the American experience in Korea, where servicemen faced massed assault from Chinese forces, it was decided that the World War II workhorse M1 Garand rifle was no longer adequate; its low capacity and lack of full automatic fire hamstrung U.S. troops.

The Pentagon wanted a new rifle. Around the same time, there was a push among NATO members to standardize a rifle caliber to simplify wartime logistics. American design philosophies dominated both, and the Army’s parochial Ordnance Corps dominated the discussion on design. Ordnance Corps officers clung to the popular myth of the heroic American rifleman, who wins the day with a few well-aimed, long-ranged shots from a full-power rifle.

Thus, the M14 was born, as well as the new NATO bullet, 7.62x51mm. But everyone soon discovered the difficulty of controlling full-caliber rifles on full-auto; 7.62 NATO weapons quickly turned into anti-aircraft guns in longer automatic bursts, rendering the feature ineffective. These experiences were supported by the results of Project SALVO, a Pentagon research project to develop next-generation infantry weapons. SALVO concluded that a smaller bullet traveling at high velocity would be as lethal, if not more so, than big calibers like 7.62 NATO; the SALVO report recommended that the Pentagon should adopt a little-known gun called the AR-15, designed by ArmaLite engineer Eugene Stoner, and based off his earlier file design for the AR-10.

The AR-15 was unlike anything seen before: It was constructed of forged aluminum and plastics, used a direct impingement gas operating system, and was chambered in the new 5.56X45mm cartridge. It was the antithesis of the M14. Naturally, the Ordnance Corps hated it, and moved to kill the project by resorting to testing practices and emulation that were ultimately unfair to the AR-15. The weapon languished in design committee as Army traditionalists butted heads with Robert McNamara and his RAND Corporation  “whiz kids.”

The article goes on to discuss the interesting history of the AR-15 type platform.

Newsom announced the launch of his new ad campaign on Twitter.

“Just launched billboards in 7 of the most restrictive anti-abortion states that explain how women can access care–no matter where they live,” Newsom tweeted. “To any woman seeking an abortion in these anti-freedom states: CA will defend your right to make decisions about your own health.”

As sick as it already is that he’s trying to boost his state with abortion tourism, the ads he’s running in Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi quote scripture. Those ads feature this quote from Mark 12:31: “Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.”

He clearly has no fear of God and operates in the reality of the shroud of blindness by the devil.

All things will be reckoned unto God, and the times of full restitution will come.

Before going any further, we must note that the Ten Commandments never saved a soul, and following them can’t save yours. All of the ceremonial rules and rituals in the Old Testament are abolished in Christ, the final sacrifice, once for all. There’s no bond or free, no Jew or Gentile, there’s no temple – but the body of Christ which are His Church, the throne of Holy God is in heaven, Jesus is the great High Preist, and the only altar before which to bow is at the feet of the Almighty.

Here’s the full quote from Mark:

“And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” – Mark 12:29-31

And the rendering in Matthew:

“Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, 36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” – Matthew 22-35-40

One cannot love his neighbor properly except & unless one loves the Lord God first, above all things. There’s a reason Jesus cites loving God above loving our neighbors. In our own fallen capacity, we cannot properly love our neighbor without first having the love of God.

Jesus is summarizing the Ten Commandments. The first five or so govern our relationship with the Holy One. The second set governs our interactions with each other. “Thou shalt no kill.” falls under the second heading from our Lord, for surely murdering your neighbor, such as a little defenseless baby, falls under the purview of not loving thy neighbor as thy self. All the commands of God are enjoined; with all purposefulness, we are also to defend life from unjust killing! We are not only to tell folks to love thy neighbor, but we are to tell them that God, the supreme ruler of the universe, shall have no equal and must be loved and honored above all things. Newsom has invited the full wrath of the Almighty.

For certain, the ten commandments are a covenant with the Hebrews handed down to Moses. Still, it is clear from the Bible that what would become known and set in tablets as the ten commandments were governing principles for all men before the commandments were given.

There are many good examples within Genesis and Exodus of the Law of God being in force and enforced prior to Exodus 20 at mount Sanai, not the least of which is the murder of Able (Genesis 4:8) in violation of what would be later written as the sixth commandment, “thou shalt not kill.” Murder was always wrong and still is. The sixth commandment preexisted even the very first murder and remains with us today, as do they all. The basis for the Law of Commandments, the Law of God, existed before being written and handed down to Moses.

Within the Law of God, each separate commandment is tightly connected and interwoven with the others. There is no practical way to trace out a violation of Law and not run into an immutable truth of more than one commandment within the Law of God. The murder of Able is but one example. It could be said that Cain violated the First Commandment when he took a life, as God is the creator and sole arbiter of the times, seasons, and number of the days of a man on Earth, and not Gavin Newsom.

So you see, killing a baby in the womb also violates the first commandment. And it’s the theft of God’s authority over life and death, violating God’s commands against stealing. So you see, it’s impossible to violate just one commandment. Now you know why no man can keep the Law; it’s perfect, and we are sinners.

God is the Law Giver. His Law-word is eternal and has real meaning in context. This Bible is not a collection of vaguely knowable spiritual sayings to misapply for our own convenience. Twisting the meaning of Scripture doesn’t change its actual sense.

These commandments are the immutable truth of God. The Law of God still exists for all men on this side of the Cross, restated by Christ in a simple two-part explanation from Mark 12, so that it would go well with us.

Exodus 20:1-17 follows:

1 And God spake all these words, saying,

2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

[ One ] 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

[ Two ] 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

[ Three ] 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

[ Four ] 8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

[ Five ] 12 Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

[ Six ] 13 Thou shalt not kill.

[ Seven ] 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.

[ Eight ] 15 Thou shalt not steal.

[ Nine ] 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

[ Ten ] 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.

It’s easy to see how this is designed to destroy America, but still, the cultist detail is a marvel to behold. The people doing this aren’t just mailing it in, so to speak; they’re dedicated true believers; behind it must be an evil spirit. Read the whole thing.

EXCLUSIVE: A diversity and inclusion training by the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado instructs cadets to use words that “include all genders” and to refrain from saying things like “mom” and “dad.”

The slide presentation titled, “Diversity & Inclusion: What it is, why we care, & what we can do,” advises cadets to use “person-centered” and gender-neutral language when describing individuals.

“Some families are headed by single parents, grandparents, foster parents, two moms, two dads, etc.: consider ‘parent or caregiver’ instead of ‘mom and dad,'” the presentation states. “Use words that include all genders​: ‘Folks’ or ‘Y’all’ instead of ‘guys’; ‘partner’ vs. ‘boyfriend or girlfriend.’”

We just talked about Gender Confusion on TCJ two weeks ago. There are only two sexes, male and female.

“Not ‘Colorblind’ or ‘I don’t see color,’ but Color Conscious,” it adds. “We see Color/Patterns AND VALUE people for their uniqueness.”

The documents were shared with Fox News Digital by Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran, who said the materials had alarmed cadets. Fox News Digital has verified the documents’ authenticity.

[…]

At the beginning of the training, cadets are assured that “what’s said here, stays in the room (let’s have each other’s backs)​,” and cadets were instructed not to “share people’s stories with their name/identifiers).”

The presentation also asks cadets to finish prompts like, “What I think about me in terms of who I am,” “What others think about me,” “What might be misunderstood about me” and “How squad/classmates can help me feel valued.”

At the end of the presentation, cadets are informed about additional D&I resources on the academy’s Colorado Springs campus, including a “D&I Reading Room” and “Affinity groups.”

According to the academy’s website, affinity groups help cadets “gather around a shared affinity or bond” and can be “identity-based,” “interest/career-based” or “cadet experience-based.”

A professor quoted in a 2021 press release by the academy describes the D&I reading room as a “safe space” meant “to broaden and deepen [cadets’] exploration of the issues involved in diversity, inclusion and justice.”

The academy also offers a “Cadet Wing Diversity and Inclusion Program,” where graduates are given a purple rope to wear across their left shoulder “symbolizing their position as a diversity representative” so that they can “advise students on diversity,” according to a press release.

Fear not the rulers and would-be tyrants of this world, for the times of the restitution of all things approaches. Where is Nero Caeser? Where is Alexander, the coppersmith? Where are Nietzsche, the Pharisees, Marx, or Stalin? Where are all those who claim they will usurp Jesus Christ or even remove His holy name from history? They are dead, but Christ ever liveth to make intercession for the saints. “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.” – 1 Corinthians 15:25

Until Then, by Pastor John Weaver, makes no mention of an eschatological view, but he states that Christ is ruling and reigning now; all enemies are being put under His footstool; Jesus is in the act of subduing all His enemies.

This is a great video to understand the truth of what the Holy Bible teaches about the Church, end times, and the Return of Christ; watch the whole thing.

The primary text for the lesson:

“41 And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David’s son? 42 And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 43 Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. 44 David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son?” Luke 20:41-44

Shooting Illustrated.

It’s true that the best 9 mm loads are equal in performance to many .45 ACP loads. However, if recovered-bullet diameter and penetration mean what we think they do, the best 9 mm loads are not the equal of the best .45 ACP loads. Regarding capacity, a first-grader can see a 9 mm pistol holds more ammo, but most civilian self-defense shootings are resolved with between one and eight shots. So, capacity might not be all that important after all. But what about shootability? Are 9 mm pistols that much easier to shoot more accurately and faster? To find that out, I conducted a test to get to the bottom of the 9mm vs .45 ACP debate.

[ … ]

The 6.32-cubic-inch crush cavity delivered by the Federal 230-grain +P HST load is impressive, but it comes with a cost, and that cost is an uncomfortable shooting experience and an increase in the time it takes to fire multiple shots. Measuring recoil can be subjective, but more never helps you shoot better. Everyone will have different limits, but at some point, you must decide if the terminal performance you gain is worth the reduction in shootability that comes with it.

What the information from this test—and the massive spreadsheet created to digest it—might do best is to explain why most law enforcement agencies have gone back to the 9 mm. With the best 9 mm loads, you get terminal performance similar to standard .45 ACP loads out of a gun that holds more ammunition and is easier to shoot fast and accurately. But, what this also shows is that with a .45 ACP, you can select a lesser-recoiling load and shoot nearly as fast and accurately as you can with a 9 mm pistol, while delivering similar terminal performance. If you do that, the only thing you’re giving up with the .45 is capacity.

This is an odd article by Richard Mann.  He spends most of his effort testing and discussing ordinary .45 ACP rounds, but frankly I’ve never seen PD .45 ACP rounds.  They are all +P ammunition.  Furthermore, jacketed ball rounds for dangerous game defense are certainly all +P, and some are +P+ (such as with Double Tap 450 SMC, Underwood and Buffalo Bore).

He admits as much in both the front and end of the article, and yet states that the only thing you give up by selecting the .45 ACP is capacity.  So he admits that the .45 ACP +P has more effect than the 9mm, and then discusses giving something up to carry it (like capacity).

I think this article needed an editor.

But there’s one more thing missing in this analysis beyond “recoil,” however that is felt.  The 9mm is a higher pressure round (35,000 psi chamber pressure) compared to the 45 ACP (customarily 25,000 psi, but admittedly higher with +P+ ammunition).  There is simply a difference in feel, some call it a push versus snappiness.  I would liken it to the difference between shooting the 30-30 and 5.56mm (the former being at42,000 psi, whereas the later is 62,000 psi).

For me the bottom line is purchase and practice with both.  Use whatever you feel the best shooting in the circumstance.  But I’d never liken the performance of the 9mm with 45 ACP +P+ for dangerous game.

For dangerous game, carry a big bore cartridge.