By Mike Huckabee
December 28, 2021
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THE MORNING EDITION By Mike Huckabee
Good morning! My staff and I are still officially "on vacation" until Thursday, but we don't want you to have to go cold turkey. You're getting enough of that from your Thanksgiving leftovers. So I wanted to share with you some quick takes on the headlines, plus some commentaries not tied to a particular breaking story. We'll be back to covering the day's news in more depth in a couple of days.
Our newsletter today includes:
- Self-government requires self-discipline
- A new, Oxford University study
- Prayer Tree
- And Much More
DAILY BIBLE VERSE
This verse was recommended by Pattye G.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV
Please send [email protected] a Bible Verse recommendation if you have one for the newsletter.
THE LATEST NEWS
1. Biden's new vaccine push:
There was a great line on the classic sitcom “Frasier” where Frasier Crane compared his prissy brother Niles’ attempts to be cool to watching Bob Hope dress up as The Fonz. Why did I think of that when the White House decided it would be a good idea to have Joe Biden hangin’ with the Jonas Brothers to push vaccination?
https://www.westernjournal.com/bidens-new-vaccine-push-disgusting-even-david-hogg-dragging/
2. Huck's Hero News:
Huck’s Hero News: A big salute to World War II veteran Major Wooten of Huntsville, Alabama. He survived helping repair bomb-damaged trains in France in 1944. Last year, he celebrated surviving COVID-19. And this year, his 105th birthday party included a surprise guest: the consul general for France in Atlanta presented him with France’s highest decoration, the French Legion of Honor.
https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/wwii-veteran-105-birthday-french-legion-honor
3. Holiday COVID Updates:
Sadly, a number of cities are again canceling New Year’s celebrations due to the rise in cases caused by the easily-transmissible Omicron variant. Naturally, Dr. Fauci is urging everyone to cancel their New Year’s parties and sit home alone on New Year’s Eve, as I assume he will be doing from now on.
Omicron appears to be much milder than previous variants, but it can be deadly for those particularly susceptible. So once again, instead of protecting those who are particularly susceptible, some government officials are going back into their dictatorial “lockdown everyone” modes. But there’s growing evidence that people have seen how useless and harmful that was and are in no mood to put up with it any longer.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/covid-19-omicron-variant-new-year
Meanwhile, the CDC’s baffling refusal even to consider the effectiveness of natural immunity among the previously infected took another blow with the release of a new study published in the European Journal of Immunology. It was conducted by a group of highly-qualified researchers, including members of the Department of Health Security and Department of Public Health and Welfare in Helsinki, Finland.
The official argument for those with natural immunity to get vaccinated has been that we don’t know if it lasts as long as vaccines (an argument that gets less convincing with each new demand for yet another booster shot.) But the new study found that whether someone had a mild or severe case, natural antibodies persisted in the vast majority of patients at least 13 months after infection, suggesting long-lasting protection.
The rate was lower among those with less robust immune systems, such as the elderly (you know, the people we should have protected in the first place, rather than locking down the rest of the world while moving COVID patients into nursing homes.)
That link also includes information about a recent study published in Nature Immunology that found that COVID is generally mild or asymptomatic in children ages 3-11. Researchers don’t know why, but most children had a much stronger T-cell natural immunity response than adults, and it lasted longer.
4. New Year’s Narrative Fail Dept:
In Washington, DC, which has recognized only one out of 839 requests for a religious exemption from the COVID vaccination mandate for city workers, unvaccinated firefighters and EMTs who are under threat of firing worked overtime over Christmas to cover for their 100+ vaccinated colleagues who’ve tested positive for COVID.
While the media continue their efforts to tar Florida as a COVID hotbed for Gov. DeSantis’ refusal to institute draconian measures that have repeatedly proven ineffective, they seem oddly uninterested in the news that on Dec. 26, there were 189,714 new cases of COVID reported nationwide, and 54,828 (nearly 30%) came from New York City, the realm of the Genghis Khan of vaccine mandates, Bill DeBlasio.
5. Keep this new, Oxford University study in mind:
For those who believe, for some reason, that COVID automatically means a “winter of severe illness and death,” Oxford University just published a study of British disease statistics that likely apply in other populations. It calculated the odds of a vaccinated person dying from various causes (this was conducted before the Omicron variant appeared.)
It found, for instance, that a healthy, 75-year-old woman had a death risk from COVID of 0.45%, or about 1 in 220. That means the average American has a 37 times greater risk of dying from heart disease than a 75-year-old British woman does from COVID. But we haven't locked down all the Twinkies yet (although I shouldn't give them ideas.) A 55-year-old British woman had a 0.03% chance of dying of COVID, a 45-year-old woman had a 0.01% risk, and a 25-year-old man had a 0.00% chance of dying of COVID.
Of course, this is not to say there is no risk of dying, and that you can’t also have severe illness with long-lasting negative effects. But as with all things in life, you need to consider the odds. There’s a risk that you might get hit by a bus, but that means you take reasonable precautions not to walk in front of a bus, not that you quit your job and hide out in your attic for the rest of your life.
6. AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
Images of America's cities, landscapes and people.
7. Self-government requires self-discipline:
There are a lot of things people like to believe that are patently absurd if you think about it. Former President Obama was famous for making nonsensical declarations – “We can’t just drill our way out of an energy shortage,” etc. – in a somber tone that made them sound like unquestionable wisdom. And one of the most common is that “the government can’t legislate morality!”
But of course, they do it all the time. We have millions of laws on the books just to enforce society’s consensus of what’s morally right or wrong. Each law comes with loopholes that someone will try to exploit, so government adds more laws. Plus, we need police, courts and jails, because some people will always insist on doing the wrong thing anyway. Then we had the insane trend of declaring policing to be immoral, which led to an even greater need for courts and jails. All this to legislate morality.
Self-government requires self-discipline, self-respect, and respect for others. When people don’t follow the accepted standard moral code, government keeps passing new laws to try to force them to, which creates bigger government and more expense for everybody. Maybe the national debt wouldn’t be sky high now if our behavior standards hadn’t sunk so low.
How much do people’s bad personal choices end up costing all the rest of us? You might be surprised at the size of the bill. When I left the governor’s office in Arkansas, we had more than 13,000 inmates in the Department of Corrections. Just keeping them locked up cost taxpayers more than $220 million a year. That’s more than it would have cost to send 13,000 kids to any college in the state, all expenses paid (there’s your “student loan relief.”) Or if every prison inmate had just lived a moral life and stayed out of trouble, the taxpayers could have enjoyed a $220 million tax cut. The money might have been freed to boost the economy or used to improve roads and services that benefit everyone.
From the left, I’d always hear that we should spend more money on prisoners or else turn more of them loose (recently, we’ve seen how well turning them loose works.) From the right, I’d hear that we should lock up more people and eliminate parole while cutting the prison budget. Both were unrealistic. But hardly anyone wanted to talk about the real problem: the lack of morality that led to all those people being locked up in the first place.
And what about juvenile offenders? Every kid placed into our Division of Youth Services cost taxpayers up to $80,000 a year. If they’d all had stable, nurturing homes and been taught to be obedient, responsible and moral, it would’ve saved the taxpayers of just that one state $80 million a year. Imagine how many parks we could have built for all kids to enjoy if we could’ve freed up $80 million a year in the state budget.
A lot of kids get into trouble because of peer pressure. They think breaking the rules makes them look cool to their friends. So kids, when someone you know starts acting up, instead of rewarding them with your admiration, please tell them instead, “That’s not cool! Thanks for costing us our parks and turning our generation into tax slaves, jerk!”
Hey, as long as kids are going to be vulnerable to peer pressure, why not use its power for good?
8. Prayer Tree:
We are stronger together.
Our hope is that our newsletter readers and social media followers will consider these prayer requests each day.
HEALTH AND HEALING
"For our dear pastor's wife, Mary, who has increasing dementia and has fallen several times recently, confined to a nursing home. Our beloved Pastor, Tink, went home to be with his Lord just recently."
"For my son Stephen who has PTSD from military service in Iraq. Thank you!"
""Pray for healing for my granddaughter from confusion and sun."
"My long time friend Tim, who is struggling through, heart issues, cancer and now pneumonia. Especially tough at this time of year."
"For my daughter Janice. She has a deep depression. I don't know how to help her except to pray.""
TO READ MORE PRAYER REQUESTS, GO TO MY WEBSITE HERE.
9. Hymnal: IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL
Today's hymn is recommended by A Kuhlman.
LISTEN: https://youtu.be/tyPEohF6qq8
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
---
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
---
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
---
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
---
But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!
---
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Sources:
Author: Horatio Spafford
If you have a favorite hymn you want to see in our newsletter, please email [email protected].
10. I Just Wanted To Say:
Thank you for reading today's newsletter.
HELPFUL LINKS
For past editions of my morning newsletter, please visit my website here.
For more of my news coverage, visit my website here.
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