Forgiveness and Spiritual Maturity – Part One

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Phil Christensen

maturity

I’m taking a step away from my traditional political observations and for the next week or two and I will share express what is on my heart write about something a little more oriented towards the Spirit. 

We’ve all seen it played out in literature, on television, and in the movies.  Two former antagonists come to terms with each other and it all ends in a big, tearful hug.  Spouses, friends, relatives – a healing occurs and we vicariously share their joy.

Real life often provides less of a sense of closure. 

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Brain Droppings: My Plans for the Labor Day Weekend

Posted on September 1, 2016 by Phil Christensen

Phil Working on shed from Manning the Wall Blog

Labor Day

I know the communists marched over 110,000,000 people to their deaths in the last century, but they did get us a day off in September, and that has to count for something.

My Plans for Labor Day

I’m not going to get it all done. But that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try. We’re renovating the Continue reading →

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The Federal Budget, Debt, Sequestration, or How A Nation Commits Suicide

Posted on August 30, 2016 by Phil Christensen

building-demolition-3

Sequestration is coming. No, I’m not referring that pointless debate which took place in the Fall of 2013. I’m certainly not referring to those occasional budget debates which play out from time to time. You know, the debates where Republicans pretend they’re going to reduce a projected increase in spending, the Democrats pretend to be outraged, and the Republicans whimper about how they’re not trying to starve children. Those debates. Continue reading →

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Lessons Learned From My Years In Afghanistan

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Phil Christensen
Camp Blackhorse. Lt McQuad was my security detail that day. Mated, standing to my left, was my teacher as well as interpreter.

Camp Blackhorse, Poli-Charki region of Afghanistan.  First Lieutenant McQuad was my security detail that day. “Majeed,” standing to my left, was my teacher as well as my interpreter.

An Afghan Conversation

“Sir, can you do without me today?  My family is headed to the Panshir Valley today and I have to stay and watch the house.”  While not the first time that Majeed (not his real name) begged off work, the reason was a new one.

Majeed had been my interpreter for six months.  He was generally reliable, never blew me off (he always called if he could not make the 30 mile drive to the office), and had a great attitude.  I liked him.  Liked him enough to write a letter of recommendation on his behalf to both our State Department and Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, and with my team’s Sergeant Major, helped him write his resume.

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An Appeal to The Better Angels

Posted on August 15, 2016 by Phil Christensen

Man In A Maze-TaxBurden-Manning The Wall BlogI just have one request.  One.  And this goes for everyone at every level of the food chain.  This is for everyone one on the school board, the town counsel, my state assemblyman, my congressman, senator, and everyone in the governor’s office.  Yes everyone, but especially the presidential candidates from our two major political parties, and here it is: ignore me.

Please, just ignore me.

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What I Failed To Learn From Junior High

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Phil Christensen

My Mother-in-Law bought me a copy of Greg Guttfield’s “Uncool” for my birthday. For those who haven’t gotten around to it, allow me to recommend it. If you are reading this blog, you will probably find parallels to your own life in it.
For me, it immediately sparked a decades-old memory of a friends and family gathering. Lake Wallkill, Sussex County, New Jersey used to be a community of vacation homes, but as populations pushed out from the urban centers of New York and New Jersey, more and more families made their way out to places like Vernon, Sparta, Andover, and Newton. Northwestern New Jersey, for those who may not be familiar, was notable in the early nineties for the militarization of their township police forces long before it was fashionable. One learned quickly that any attempt to greet one of Vernon’s black-clad finest was to earn at best a set of knit brows or more commonly a contemptuous scowl in return.

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A Failure To Learn From History

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Phil Christensen
Invaders On The March

Invader On The March

Sweeping out of the North at the head of his Visigoth army, Alaric entered Italy, encountering token resistance at best.
The year was 410 A.D., and Rome’s days were clearly numbered. Charged with the security of the crumbling empire but lacking any moral direction from above, soldiers deserted their posts by the company, by the cohort, by the legion.
The former masters of the Mediterranean having grown fat and complacent could not even be bothered to phone it in any longer. All pretense of “supporting the troops” was abandoned by the elites as they sprinted for their bolt-holes.
Tacitus said that great empires are not maintained by timidity, and Rome had grown decidedly timid.

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Fools Fighting In A Burning House

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Phil Christensen

financial-crisis
This should give you reason to be concerned. Or at least terrified. After all, that’s quite a bill. And it’s yours. Yes, each and every U.S. Taxpayer needs to cough up nearly one million one hundred thousand dollars in order to fund the our current financial commitments to medicare and social security. Have fun with that.

Current national debt will reach eighteen trillion dollars by Thanksgiving this year. For those who still think we live in a liberal democracy, ask yourselves when you voted for that.

What’s more, there is no one coming to save us. The coming collapse will make all the other self-inflicted financial crisis in the past one hundred fifty years look like a missed JC Penney card payment.

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As planned II…

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Phil Christensen

US-POLITICS-TAXIf Lois Lerner spends as much as a minute behind bars, no one will be more shocked than me.
Same goes for this yahoo:
John Koskinen
John Koskien’s resume reads like a typical big-governemnt liberal: Yale Law School, “post graduate work” at Cambridge (England), CEO of the Palmieri Company, a “consulting firm” with the usual government ties, Deputy Mayor of DC, Deputy Director of the OMB, and naturally both served and serves on numerous boards with the incestuous bridging between government and big business that we’ve come to expect. Oh, and he practiced at a “global” law firm and clerked for the Appellate court in DC.

In brief, he likely never welded one piece of metal to another, never took hammer to nail, built a deck, hammered a shed together, put hand to plow, sowed a crop, felt the grease from an engine on his hand, or wrote a single line of code.

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All Good Things…

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Phil Christensen
The Sacking of Rome, 410 A.D.

The Sacking of Rome, 410 A.D.

Language, borders, culture.

Take them in any order. This is what defines a nation.

It is also one of those rare subjects on which one can truthfully assert that size doesn’t matter. One’s nation could be as large as the ten kingdoms that eventually merged to make up the empire of the Ch’in under the Song dynasty of the late 10th century A.D. Or one’s nation could consist of a single mountain crease in ancient Macedonia. Few required a line drawn on a map, and no one needed a cable laying on the ground to mark the border. You knew when you were within the boundaries of your nation, and when you were not. Travel far enough and eventually you’d run into people who spoke a language you didn’t understand. Cross a stream, and a harmless beckoning becomes a deadly insult.

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