Ken Shepherd

Q. What is it to embrace Christ? A. It is, like Simeon, to clasp him in the arms of faith, with complacency and delight; Luke 2:28. Q. Where is it that faith embraces him? A. In the promises of the gospel, Heb. 11:13 — Fisher's Catechism 31.9-10

Man, this is a gut punch to my childhood. May God bless the Norris family with comfort, consolation, and faith. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves, till the resurrection.

Confronting your accuser in court, a ban on double jeopardy, and the ban on corruption of blood are just some Old Testament judicial concepts upheld in our common law tradition from Christian England.

RIP Chuck Norris

Working on a new history of the ARP means getting conversant with the role/place of Masonry in the South. So much of our early days were marked with divisions over secret societies, including what eventually led to the death of the AP's in the South. Archive dot org is the bomb.

Carolina vinegar, Kansas City sweet, Texas oak-smoked brisket, Memphis dry-rub, Alabama white… I don’t play the regional wars. I love it ALL. The beauty of BBQ is that every style is right in its own backyard. That’s what makes it great. 🇺🇸🔥

It’s the Spring Equinox—astronomical spring begins today. Meteorological spring started March 1. Learn why they’re different: ncei.noaa.gov/news/meteorolo… How do YOU mark spring?

Let me explain exactly why every new subdivision in America looks like the top photo, because the math is wild. A mature tree increases a home's value by 7 to 19 percent. On a $400,000 house, that's $28,000 to $76,000. A single shade tree produces the cooling equivalent of ten room-size air conditioners running 20 hours a day. One tree on the west side of a house cuts energy bills by 12 percent within 15 years. The bottom photo is worth more, costs less to live in, and sells faster. This has been documented by the University of Washington, Clemson, Michigan State, and the USDA. The data is not in dispute. Removing those trees saves the builder roughly $5,000 per lot. Concrete trucks need twice the dripline radius of every standing tree. Utility trenches need flat ground. A bulldozer flattens 200 lots in an afternoon. Preserving trees adds weeks and thousands per home. So the developer pockets $5,000 in savings and the buyer eats $50,000 in lost value for the next two decades. The person making the decision and the person paying for it have never been in the same room. The Woodlands, Texas is the proof of what happens when they are. George Mitchell bought 28,000 acres of Houston timberland in 1974 and preserved 28% as permanent green space. He forced McDonald's to build behind the tree canopy. That McDonald's became one of the highest-volume locations in Texas. The first office building, designed to reflect the surrounding forest so you couldn't see it from the street, leased completely. The Woodlands median home price today: $615,000. Katy, a comparable Houston suburb that clear-cut: $375,000. Named #1 community to live in America two years running. Fifty years of data. The trees are worth more than removing them saves. Developers clear-cut anyway because they sell the house once and leave. You live in it for 30 years.

William of Orange would like to have a word about why 1066 wasn’t the last time England was succesfully invaded.

How deprived of new devices are my kids? One daughter is listening to a little mp3 player in the car, tells me, v. excited, that she found some old-timey music. Readers, it was an AM station playing classical music. Apparently it has a radio function. Everything old is new again!

They shouldn’t even be allowed in the bar. Proper gentlemen remove their hats indoors.

@citizenbeam @Fozzybear_Lives Yeah. It’s fantastic. I need to hit it up again sometime soon. But also need to watch my budget.

@KenShepherd @Fozzybear_Lives Have you tried Lewis yet, Ken? Delish. They have the best brisket I’ve ever had outside of Texas. (The owner’s from Texas.)

Yeah. I hate when a cuisine becomes so popular that it’s expensive and business owners can make a decent profit off it. The nerve!

Dear non-Jewish employers: your Jewish employees asking for April 1 off is not a prank! No joke, Passover actually starts that night at sundown. A few things to know: 🫓 Your Jewish employees likely need that day off because that evening they will have a traditional meal called a Seder. They probably need to prepare food and/or travel to loved ones. 💐 For Jews in the diaspora (outside of Israel) the holiday lasts two days, beginning at sundown on April 1, and lasting until sundown on April 3. Depending on how observant your employees are, they may also need those two days off. 🗓️ Passover, and all Jewish holidays, are based on the Hebrew calendar. This is why it changes slightly each year!

@Fozzybear_Lives I mean ymmv. Fancier BBQ places will always be pricier than hole in the wall joints which are still around.

@KenShepherd There is a sadness though. Brisket used to be dirt cheap meat. Now the people who invented the low and slow method can’t afford to cook it. I don’t begrudge business owners at all! But we should admit a certain sadness in the separation of the cuisine from its roots.

A few problems: 1. That stat is made-up and passed on repeatedly with no scientific basis. 2. It assumes the sermon is a lecture. it is not. 3. It assumes the point of the sermon is basic information transfer. It is not.

Would Sen Hawley care to resign and start an airline since he can do it better?

Hmm oni-pi.vercel.app/quiz/a1b2c3d4-…

"Hi, I just converted to Catholicism three seconds ago. I am now the ultimate authority on who is or isn't Christian. Please subscribe to my podcast where I'm going to talk about Israel and the Joooooz all the time while complaining it's illegal to talk about them. I have no discernible skills, no intelligence, and nothing original to add, but I'm going to talk about the Jooooz all day every day. If I criticize you, I'm just asking questions. If you criticize me, you're trying to silence me. Anyway, find me on Russia Today and Iranian State TV."

Just in time for Passover and allergy season

A statue of Cesar Chavez in the city of San Fernando has been removed. spr.ly/6014B6XGok

Batshit craziness. TC sympathizes with Oswald Mosley, führer of the British Union of Fascists, bec Churchill detained him during WW2, fearing Mosley wd created a Nazi fifth column. Mosley married his wife in '36 at Goebbels' house; Hitler was a guest. TC tells none of this. Evil.