IHS
First Sunday of Lent—21
February AD 2021
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Ordinary of the Mass
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Lenten Observance
Early Tuesday
morning at Matins, we read Psalm 36:3: "Trust in the Lord, and do good,
* and dwell in the land, and thou shalt be fed with its riches."
The idea here
is that God has given good men and women "dominion" over the land in
which He has given them to dwell. This dominion extends to the land's
plants, animals, and mineral riches. This was precisely the verse I was
looking for, since I wanted to preach this morning about something I
learned about only a few hours earlier on Monday night. You see, I
received a telephone call from a lovely friend who lives in the frigid
state of Michigan. She told me that I
needed to
know about the terribly cold and snowy weather they were having in
Texas. I am sure she heard irritation in my voice, as I know my own
limitations, and there was nothing I could do to change the weather in
Texas—whether good or bad. She tried to clarify by telling me that the
problem was being caused by the "global warming" enthusiasts. That
didn't help much because they can't control the weather any better than
I can. I told her that I had an email from her and would get back to
her in the morning. I woke up again around midnight with an urge to
search the Internet for more information on the Texas weather.
I found that
strong snow storms from the north were blowing through Oklahoma and
Texas, all the way to the Gulf coast.
Traffic was tied up everywhere, but "rolling blackouts" left the area
around Austin, Texas, without power for residents to run heat pumps and
medical devices. People were taking to their cars to run the heaters!
The problem was that much of the power in the region was derived from
wind turbines, and that snow and ice had fouled about half of the
turbines, for a lost capacity of about 12,000 megawatts—twelve billion
watts!
Wind turbine
enthusiasts will generally admit that the devices require a high level
of maintenance, can be very dangerous if not maintained, and can
devastate the bird population. The need for horizontal separation
requires them to occupy large areas of land. But rarely does anyone
discuss their vulnerability to freezing rain storms—a situation that
makes reliability even more important than usual! Turbines require
petroleum for lubrication and for the production of their component
parts. Large batteries are required to power motor-generators (more
maintenance and components, not to mention eventual disposal) when the
wind isn't blowing
Now, most of us
think of Texas as being synonymous with "oil wells"—oil and
gas
wells that is, for natural gas comes from the same wells. The question
then becomes, why are Texans relying on more expensive and less reliable
methods of power generation?? Why are Texans not making use of the God
given bounty of mineral riches?? The answer, of course, is the
unscientific notion that natural gas use causes "global warming"—that
natural gas is somehow "unclean"!
In fact,
natural gas burns very cleanly.
Unlike gasoline or diesel, it produces no pollution, but only carbon
dioxide and a little water. Carbon
dioxide (C02),
unlike its monoxide
cousin (CO) is harmless, and is, in fact,
the basis for all plant life on earth—plants
which humans and animals need to survive, and which produce the oxygen
we must breathe. Without the greenhouse effect of C02, the
earth would be very chilly and likely barren.
The "global
warming" myth is propagated by banking and government interests intent
on controlling the global economy and the human population. Citizens
intent on their own wellbeing would do well to avoid the socialist
control of the economy at large, and of power generation in particular.
Not so coincidentally, the power company in Austin is operated by the
government.
The year 2020
was filled with shoddy science and government grabs of the civil rights
of Americans, all for the purpose of consolidating government control of
the people. Constitutional liberties like freedom of speech, worship,
assembly, self defense and honest election were blatantly attacked with
fictitious claims of maintaining the "common good." 2021 has begun,
showing no promise of restoring freedom.
Perhaps we can
hope that the plight of our fellow citizens, freezing to death near the
southern border, will convince Americans that we must be far better
educated, think more clearly, and be far more vocal in demanding that
bankers and politicians respect our natural rights. If not, we can say
goodbye to the great American experiment in "liberty and justice for
all."
And, I guess
that I really did "need" to know about the awful weather in Texas!
"Trust in the
Lord, and do good,
and dwell in the land, and thou shalt be fed with its riches."
