The Turn of the Year
The end of a year is always a time to look back on its impact on the world. This year is ending with the immense tsunami tragedy in the Indian Ocean region.

The 2004 elections may be remembered as a 'tipping point' where citizens were engaged and energized to fight hard for both sides, but with President Bush winning re-election to the White House and conservative Republicans increasing their margins in Congress. While no person or party has a monopoly on virtue or ideas, we have hopefully moved a little closer to restoring authentic constitutional law and to protecting human life at all stages.

W began the year by announcing a new Vision for Space Exploration while NASA probes brought exciting new images and information from Mars, Saturn and elsewhere. But it was the exciting breakthrough in the private sector with the flights of SpaceShipOne and the winning of the Ansari X-Prize which will make the Vision more likely to succeed and live up to its full potential for humanity.

Finally, ABC News has made its choice for the 'People of the Year' who've influenced events: Bloggers.

On to 2005! Happy New Year!

Have a Holy and Merry Christmas!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
"Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger."
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
"Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."

Luke 2:1-14

Christmas in the Heavens
The International Space Station crew eagerly awaits the arrival of much needed food and supplies. Meanwhile, the Huygens probe is set to separate from the Cassini spacecraft. Landfall on Titan is set for January 14.

Why This Election Mattered
W resumes the fight to put some good people on the federal courts. Only going to cause the pro-abortion lobby more conniptions, while they are already howling and shrieking over the potential of a prolife DNC chairman.

No Longer Partying like it's 1992?
There are signs that some Democratic Party leaders may be starting to come to their senses about their Party's obsessively pro-abortion position and its contribution to their continuing political setbacks. Check out the stories here and here.

Of course it remains to be seen whether any moderating of the Party's position will be substantive or mere window-dressing. Never-the-less, these hints are already stirring a pit in the stomachs of leading pro-abortion activists.

However, leading abortion advocates are chagrined by these events and blame Kerry, who refused to support even a modest ban on partial-birth abortion or not using tax dollars to pay for them, for not doing enough to tout his pro-abortion views during the campaign.

Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt told Newsweek that Kerry "did not help the cause."

.....................................

"If we try to be fake Republicans, that's not going to work," Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette, co-chair of the House pro-abortion caucus, told Newsweek. "It would be a cynical political move."

Happy Feast Day!
Author Charlotte Allen discusses the meaning of today's Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

An image is a way of capturing the Incarnation -- God becoming man, in the flesh. God's image can be shown, and that image has power. Our Lady of Guadalupe is powerful because the Blessed Virgin Mary made her own image, her own incarnation.

Hanukkah and Our Attitude about the Future
(This is a post I originally made last year and feel is worth repeating, especially in light of developments this year that could lead to human expansion into space that would provide resources for future generations.)

Rabbi Daniel Lapin has a provocative column in WorldNetDaily on a message of Hanukkah that is relevant to people of all faiths. He shows examples, ancient and modern, of how a pessimistic Malthusian worldview have been repeatedly disproved by the Creator's providence of material resources and the ingenuity to utilize them to provide for the future. Rabbi Lapin says:

It only seemed that we lacked sufficient copper, whale oil or wood. In reality, our God-given ingenuity developed exciting new technology that eliminated our need for each commodity just as it was becoming scarce.

Hanukkah's miracle was that, day after day, the Temple's menorah just kept on burning in spite of an apparent shortage of fuel - a metaphor, surely, for all apparent shortages that can be overcome with faith. Hanukkah invites us all to express gratitude to the Creator whose beneficence is boundless. It stimulates discussions that can spur our spiritual growth. It reminds us that with His gift of creativity, challenges become optimistic opportunities to partner with God in creatively solving all material shortage.

Not so embryonic stem cells?
Two proposals to develop embryonic-like stem cells supposedly without destroying human embryos are receiving careful scrutiny by those working to protect human life. Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review describes and offers a cautious endorsement of the two procedures in his articles(Part 1 and Part 2) at Tech Central Station.

I do support the careful approach the researchers appear to be taking, working with animal cells until proving that there is no live embryo destruction. What I wonder is, even if the procedures pass the ethical test, whether the products avoid the uncontrollable factors currently plaguing embryonic stem cell research and match the gains being made in adult stem cell research.

Commercial Space Legislative Victory
After several near-death experiences, the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 (H.R. 5382)was passed by the Senate on Wednesday evening shortly before adjournment. Jeff Foust provides some more background on how close the fate of the bill was. The Space Frontier Foundation has issued a press release praising the bill's passage.

'Blog' is the Word.
Merriam-Webster has announced the list of top ten words looked up in their on-line dictionary, with the most often researched word for 2004 being 'blog'. Now, if only Blogger will add the word to be recognized by its spell-checker.

Advent Calendar & Info
Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, officially starting the season of spiritual preparation for Christmas. Go to this link for an Advent calendar and other related information.

Thanksgiving
A special day to give thanks to God for all His gifts to us. Have a good time with family and friends and don't eat any more than I would. ;-)

Space Happenings
It's been a busy week of space developments, including Europe's SMART-1 arriving in lunar orbit, the successful X43A scramjet test and the launch of the 'Swift' gamma ray burst observatory.

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Congress has provided NASA with funding almost matching the President's request, affirming the long term exploration goals. Also, the House has passed a re-incarnated Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004. Senate action is still required.

Finally, the Old Media sources sometimes do get it right, as with Time Magazine's plan to designate SpaceShipOne as 'Invention of the Year'.

The Specter Saga
Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee seem ready to support Senator Arlen Specter as Judiciary Committee Chairman, despite vigorous opposition from conservatives. I have been reminded, however, that the formal vote won't take place until January, which means it is possible a sustained grassroots campaign and/or another misstatement by Senator Specter could cause the current likely succession to unravel.

Senator Specter is a pro-abortion advocate who opposed President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork for the Supreme Court, although he did support the Clarence Thomas nomination and opposed Democrat filibusters of President Bush's recent nominees.

It is hard to say at this point whether Senator Specter will remain faithful to his pledge to bring the Preident's future nominees to the floor. However, it shows how much the ground has shifted on the abortion issue that Specter, at least publicly, now refers to 'prolife' nominees. Back in the Nineties, Specter used inflammatory language such as 'anti-choice' and 'intolerant right' in his 1996 announcement of an unsuccessful presidential bid. The fact that a pro-abortion advocate feels compelled to make this shift in language is encouraging indeed.

"...a new and more creative future"
Michael Novak describes the US Election outcome's impact far from home.

What I conclude after this visit, more powerfully than ever, is that important new currents so visible in the victory of George W. Bush are also beginning to affect very distant places, and that great spiritual changes are beginning to display their first sprouts: a profoundly new vision of our own secular history, more open to religion than formerly; a new attention to the family and to the traditional morality on which its health depends; and a rethinking of fundamental economic principles concerning taxation, state power, and welfare programs. The notion is also gaining traction that the ideas of the Left belong to the 1950s, if not earlier, while those of Bush and others like him point to a new and more creative future.

The Real Loser
Not only did the Democratic Party lose big in this election, but in her always eloquent way, Peggy Noonan points out the self-inflicted loss suffered by the Old Media:

Every time the big networks and big broadsheet national newspapers tried to pull off a bit of pro-liberal mischief--CBS and the fabricated Bush National Guard documents, the New York Times and bombgate, CBS's "60 Minutes" attempting to coordinate the breaking of bombgate on the Sunday before the election--the yeomen of the blogosphere and AM radio and the Internet took them down. It was to me a great historical development in the history of politics in America. It was Agincourt. It was the yeomen of King Harry taking down the French aristocracy with new technology and rough guts. God bless the pajama-clad yeomen of America.

Glenn Reynolds also weighs in on the declining influence of the Old Media:

What the Big Media have lost is the ability to make people dismiss out of hand ideas that haven't been vetted by the Powers That Be. They've lost the ability to set the agenda in both a positive and a negative sense, to decide which ideas, and which stories, are on the table, and which are not.

Haunting Specter
Conservatives concerned about the role Senator Arlen Specter would play as Judiciary Committee Chairman on judicial nominations are campaigning on the Internet to urge the Republican Senators to select another choice. See continuing updates on this effort also at The Corner.

Catching Up on Life after Politics
Time to clean house and get other things done. Also time to catch up on what else has been going on in the Solar System, for instance the exploration by the Mars Rovers and the Cassini-Huygens craft orbiting Saturn.

On to the Future
With a gracious concession speech by John Kerry, a magnanimous victory speech by George W. Bush and significant changes in Congress, the hard fought 2004 election campaign is over. A few quick thoughts:

-Many citizens on both sides became active and poured their hearts into this campaign and a record number of voters turned out. If this energy is sustained and channeled constructively, the nation will benefit immensely.

-The immense amount of vitriol directed toward President Bush by some in the Democratic Party and other interest groups (MoveOn.org, entertainment celebreties, etc.) was not rewarded with success, but with rejection. This outcome is also healthy for the nation.

-Terrorists and tyrants around the world are dealing with the prospect of facing W's courageous leadership in the world for the coming years.

-The ascendancy of 'Lifestyle Choice uber alles' is over. The prominence of life issues, the status of marriage and other social issues should cause the Democratic Party to rethink its blind obedience to Planned Parenthood's and NARAL's hardline pro-abortion agenda. The party could start by being open to a significant part of its own members who have been excluded from leadership in the Party.

-The blatant bias and manipulation of information by parts of the Old Media (NY Times, CBS, etc.), and the resulting role played by the New/Alt Media (bloggers, talk radio, Fox News etc.) will be a continuing story well beyond this election year.

-W's re-election and the Republican gains in Congress open the door to significant economic initiatives including fundamental reform of the tax system, litigation reform, etc.

-The Vision for Space Exploration will go forward. This doesn't mean the Administration and Congress will give NASA a blank check. The need to control federal spending will spur an emphasis on innovation and commercial solutions where-ever practical which will only enhance the opening of the frontier.

Decision Time
I've been busy the last few days with my discretionary time, with precinct calling, county campaign activities and a little volunteer time in DC with National Right to Life and the RNC to help influence the swing states. Tonight I'll be working some final details and resting up for a busy day tomorrow at my precinct polling place, so I'll keep my endorsement (which should already be obvious) short and sweet.

I'm supporting the re-election of George W. Bush because of his positive record and proposals on the interconnecting themes of a Culture of Life, National Security and the War on Terrorism, economic opportunity, the Vision for Space Exploration, etc. His opponent, Senator John Kerry offers vague and contradictory statements ('Flip-Flop') and a Senate record of bad choices on a range of issues.

Beyond the issues, defying the irrational vitriol and outright hatred against the President for his persistence in making and sticking with courageous decisions that often defy the conventional 'wisdom' is a significant reason in itself to vote for his re-election. The fact that some people despise George W. Bush for his strong Faith in God is shows that they fear the power he gains from it.

So get out there and vote for W and encourage others to do likewise. And pray that God take care of our nation, its leaders and its people.