Last week there was some hopeful Christmas news regarding COVID-19.  Pfizer's vaccine was approved with Moderna's close behind.  Both are now being administered.  However, news from the U.K. in an article on Dec. 20  in Self-Reliance Central has thrown cold water on that hope.  The title of the article is self-explanatory: "European countries ban flights from UK as government warns potent new strain of virus is 'out of control.'"  It is too early to know if the new vaccines will work on this alleged new strain.  Regardless, this conveniently timed scare could sow doubts and justify extending the lockdowns well into 2021.  

There was some other good but short-lived news about COVID last week.  It appeared that the AMA had approved the off-label use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) to treat COVID-19 after months of resistance.  Months ago, Yale epidemiology professor Dr. Harvey Risch said hydroxychloroquine, if used properly, could save between 75,000 and 100,000 lives and can also be taken safely as a preventative.  Fewer deaths may have lessened the need for the disastrous lockdowns and reduced the importance of the vaccines.  His findings were published in the May 27 American Journal of Epidemiology to no effect.  shortly after Rush Limbaugh mentioned the AMA proposal to approve off-label use of HCQ, it was quickly revealed to be a misunderstanding.  However, the use of HCQ was actually proposed in AMA resolution 509, but it was ultimately rejected.  Whether or not politics as usual drove the AMA decision, the result will likely be many more avoidable deaths, hospitalizations, and lockdowns. 

Not to be outdone in the bad news department, the investigation into the alleged, very obvious planned voter fraud has been painfully slow.  Many on the right have already decided to be polite and surrender, knowing that the militant Antifa and BLM enforcers are prepared to rumble.  Only the Democrats and their MSM propaganda wing continue to adamantly deny the slightest possibility of any fraud or meddling.  We kids know better.

The one positive from this is that the year of social and political chaos has exposed all who are blissfully naïve, self-serving opportunists or actively working to fundamentally transform the nation into a godless green socialist utopia run by self-anointed globalist elites who will ruthlessly socially engineer every aspect of life for everyone else.  A compliant MSM along with China's model social credit system that Google helped design will assure the necessary conformity.  The only thing remaining for conservatives is the heavenly hope many of us have in Christ.

As a longtime conservative, it is tempting to shrug and let the leftists have their way.  However, a video in the previously quoted Self-Reliance Central titled "Serbian Warning: What Happened When Their Elections Were Stolen in 2000" warns against that.  "Watch this man, a Serbian citizen, describe what Serbians did when Milosavljevic attempted to fraudulently steal the election in 2000.  Heed his warning.  And remember, 'Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.'  And by party I mean the United States of America."

People like this Serb who are familiar with how communism gains control understand that social and political chaos helps pave the way by making people lose hope in the current system.  It has been said that one can survive a short while without food, water, or air but will perish immediately without hope.  And many are losing hope.  How does one cope?  Two quotes from an article by Jeff Minick in last week's print version of The Epoch Times titled "Chin Up! 4 Steps to Sanity in Crazy Times" got my attention. 

The first is Reinhold Niebuhr's familiar Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

The second is from The Lord of the Rings.  Frodo: "I wish the ring had never come to me.  I wish none of this had happened."  Gandalf: "So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide.  All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."

The words of Gandalf should not be dismissed.  "All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."  My late parents did not request the times they were given.  Their adult years included the Great Depression, WWII, Korea, the nuclear-tipped Cold War with the Soviet Union, and much more.  Getting through those times took courage, yet they did not surrender.  The outcome was a much better, more prosperous world passed on to the generations that followed.  I fear that their same courage, strength, and patriotism are now lacking in too many of the generations that benefited from this inheritance.