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  • On the Moraine, Part V

    So now my family has a farm, on which my parents had a large mortgage. They bought these 164 acres for $15,000. Keep in mind this was 1957 when a foreman in a factory, like my dad, likely made about $5,000 a year.  
  • The blessed country
    In about 15 months, we are going to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. I am having a little trouble wrapping my head around this, for I can remember celebrating the 200th anniversary like it was yesterday.
  • Some DOGE and other wishes
    It is difficult to find an exact number of federal workers fired by DOGE thus far. What with judges overturning executive branch decisions (how is that even possible?) and general confusion in the reporting, one can make the case for perhaps 200,000.  
  • On the Moraine, Part IV
    We stayed in the tenant house on McNary Road for several weekends, waiting for the renter in the “bigger house” to move out. I have no idea what those arrangements were, I was a little kid. They must have been satisfactory, for I never heard my parents discussing them.
  • Democrats, give us something to work with!
    This has likely been the lowest week in the Democrats’ performance since Jimmy Carter told us to put on our sweaters if we were cold. This party has sunk to not acting like teenagers but acting like fifth- or sixth-graders.
  • Dark and thorny is the desert
    I follow Tim Keller’s example of how to pray – ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Supplication – that’s asking for stuff – takes the longest portion of this devotional time. You are likely on my supplication list (kept on my phone), for it is wide ranging in physical location and time.
  • On the Moraine, Part III
    I must admit, I don’t remember anything about buying the McNary Farm on McNary Road in Paint Township. I was in the first grade. I do, however, remember our first night staying there.
  • Help! I’ve been tracked!
    The kerfuffle in the federal government ranks over Elon Musk asking you what you did last week has been laughable. The harrumphing around as if this is an indignity is hilarious. Basic truth: If someone is paying you, don’t they have a right to know if you did anything to deserve your pay?
  • Ethics can’t be compartmentalized
    Musk is obviously brilliant. You don’t become the richest person in the world by being dumb. His company SpaceX has run circles around the publicly funded NASA. As far as stealing your data from Social Security, he points out he already had it when he was with PayPal.  
  • On the Moraine, Part II
    I am not sure exactly when my parents decided to buy a farm. I must have been 4 or 5. I remember us driving around in Highland and Adams counties looking at farms. There was one I remember called the Opp farm in northern Adams County. Something happened that we never bought it. I have no idea what that was.
  • Happy Valentine’s Day
    Of course, readers of this column know me and know God is an important part of my life. I’ve been given, so far, an extra 23 years. I wake up every morning asking the Lord what he wants me to do with these days. I didn’t beat cancer. He did, and I need to follow His leading on what to do with all this extra time.
  • Learning the realities of capitalism once again
    In Washington and elsewhere around our country, people are once again learning the principles of capitalism. It makes no difference where you live on this planet, what sort of government you are under, at the individual level, everyone is a capitalist.  
  • Window moldings, engineers and one physicist
    I was sitting in the dentist chair the other day and looking at the window on the horizon, just beyond my feet. My eyes went to the molding surrounding the window, causing me to ponder several things. Who came up with that molding design? How many linear feet or miles of it have been produced? Where was it first made? Was it first made with a router head or a specialized block plane? How many router heads of that shape have been made since the first one?
  • On the Moraine

    By Jim Thompson
    HCP columnist

    Prologue

  • Trump is playing 3-D chess while everyone else is playing checkers
    Since he left office in 2021, Trump has not been spending his time on the beach. It is obvious he has gathered some smart folks around him, and they have been planning.
  • The curious letter K
    The letter K has always jolted me. It seems out of place compared to the other letters in the alphabet. 
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