As we approach the new year and incidentally, Old Christmas (January 6), I thought I would leave you with a few “gifts.”  These come from Federal, state and even local actions over the past year.  I don’t really wish these on anyone, but they are current reality.

1. Release of five more Guantanamo detainees, whose threat level is unknown, following by the way an earlier release of high threat detainees likely to end up back on the terrorist battlefield.
2. A current national debt of 18 trillion dollars and growing, with no signs of even a slowdown.
3. 75,000 new pages of regulations in the past few weeks, compliments of the Federal government.
4. The banning of fracking in New York, which only denied the poorest counties of the state opportunities for their citizens, but made New York liberals very happy.
5. An IRS scandal that gets bigger and deeper every week. But don’t worry, we are told, your tax returns may be late due to “lack of funding” for the IRS, but there will still no doubt be funding for targeting political enemies.
6. Immigration “executive action”: I can’t quite determine what this will entail, but it doesn’t look that good, especially when screening is minimal for criminals and potential terrorists.  But labor may be cheaper—is that a sufficient consolation?
7. New sexual assault regulations mandating that if a college or university wants to continue to receive Federal money, it has to establish student and faculty kangaroo courts with no due process and minimal safeguards for “conviction.” But why not sacrifice a few “male pigs” for the cause?
8. A Congress that is Republican but acts so far as if it has amnesia or something worse, and believes it is Democratic.
9. Continued assault on religious convictions, especially as they relate to the service of homosexual couples. Here’s one:  A public school stopped a seventh grader from distributing leaflets inviting classmates to the flagpole for prayer, arguing that their regulations prohibit distribution of any material “before, during or after school.”  Well, at least their stupidity is honest, if they actually believe such rules are constitutionally allowed.
10. Continued assault on free speech, particularly on college campuses, too many of which incredibly confine speech to tiny locations (some four by four foot squares) and restrict the content in ways that prohibit only “conservative” speech.
11. A foreign policy that is simply inscrutable—maybe there is none—no matter whether one favors intervention or not.
12. Low oil prices—I had to throw a good one in, though some will argue that is bad because it harms producers.  I hate to say this, but consumers are the ones for whom producers produce, so why don’t they deserve a market that works to benefit them?
13. Couldn’t resist:  New EPA regulations on CO2, that’s right, Carbon Dioxide, what we breath out and what trees and plants use.  Easy solution” Stop breathing, which is what some environmentalists would like.

That is twelve, er, thirteen, items, so I will stop.  But there are others, so if you have any please feel free to add them.  I could have listed FED policy, the Ferguson/Garner cases, Jonathan Gruber and Obamacare, minimum wage, inequality debates, etc., but the Bereans have dealt with those at some length. And yes, I seem a bit cynical.  Remember this though.  No matter what bad things come our way, our sovereign God still rules over every single square inch of the universe.  Whatever befalls us is a part of a greater plan and for His children that plan is for our ultimate good.  Happy New Year in Christ.