Is anyone in charge here?

Yesterday I came across a slick brochure advertising IF:Gathering 2016, which seems to be an ecumenical live gathering with lots of high tech underground and over reach--blogging, twiitter, Pinterest, tumblr, etc.--supposedly reaching about 400,000 women for the last event as reported by Christianity Today and Huffington Post. The brochure made no mention of the ministry or resurrection of Jesus which always gives me pause in publicity for massive "Christian" events. Is that to be "seeker" friendly, or was it an oversight by the proof reader? No theology, Christology, ecclesiology, or any isms or ologies that I'm familiar with that point back to the New Testament church. Just lots of good vibes and emotion, plus some social justice links to well known Christian groups. "A fresh, deep, honest space for the next generation of women to wrestle with essential questions that plague their generation." I can find no "authority" or church leader higher than the woman (and her husband) who organized it. I'm feeling my age today--and the multitude of events I've seen come and go in the last 40 years. Thoughts? Have you attended one of these?

Where are the adults?

They need to start hiring adults to be teachers in this district. "During a world geography lesson on Friday about world religions, including Islam, teacher Cheryl LaPorte had students complete an assignment that involved practicing calligraphy and writing a Muslim statement of faith, also known as the shahada, which translates as: "There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." Students were also reportedly shown copies of the Quran." Parents are unhappy; school board saw no problem. If it was a geography lesson, why not write the name of their city? Or their own name? Students also got to dress modestly with a scarf like Muslims. Patrick Madrid wondered what would happen if the assignment was to dress like a Carmelite nun (they still wear the black and white habit) and write "Jesus is Lord." I think someone would be fired, don't you?

Vanilla Lemon Chex Mix

Read this for the instructions; not difficult.  Great for a holiday party.  
http://mylitter.com/recipes/vanilla-lemon-chex-mix-recipe/ 

Ingredients

• 5 cups Rice Chex Cereal
• ¾ cup Vanilla Baking Chips
• 3 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice, fresh
• 1 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar

After the Ball, the PR agenda for normalizing homosexuality

 It wasn't just the book "After the Ball" which normalized homosexuality in our culture. It was the other 99%.

"It should be obvious to anyone who has been paying attention over the course of the past 25 years that the strategies proposed by Kirk and Madsen have been all too successful at normalizing homosexuality—or, at least, the idea that a homosexual “orientation” is perfectly natural.  (Homosexual practice, on the other hand, has been kept discreetly under wraps.)  But as successful as this marketing of the gay brand has been, it could not have made much headway if Americans had not already been predisposed to it by the long development of what sociologist Philip Rieff called the “therapeutic culture,” a culture rooted in affluence, consumerism, and perpetual rebellion against the old communal culture and its system of moral demands.  In the therapeutic culture each individual is liberated to pursue his own desires, convinced that he is the self-created agent of those desires, or, as Stephen L. Gardner has so aptly put it, the “demi-god of his eros and ambitions.”  Within such a culture, sexual desire has gradually become detached from its place in the natural order, and sexual “identity” elevated to an almost sacramental status.  Facebook, surely a bellwether of our free fall into mass narcissism and incoherence, now offers some 56 gender alternatives to traditional male/female sex identities, and each of these implies one or more modes of sexual satisfaction.  Of course, most Americans are boorishly indifferent to this bewildering array of options.  Nonetheless, the unending Sexual Revolution has made deep inroads in Middle America.  Consider the sex-toy industry.  David Rosen at alternet.org estimates that global profits in sex accessories now approach $15 billion annually, much of which is generated by U.S. sales.  Who is buying all those naughty products?  Well, it seems that a whopping number of them are purchased by middle-class American women."

Jack Trotter, Conservatives and the Gay Agenda

The IRS is at it again!

 What could be worse than the IRS being in charge of your medical records?  How about crushing with a burden of paper work every organization you donate to? And not just demanding donor lists for conservative groups like they did to conservatives during the 2012 campaign.  This could also hurt you Democrats who have a heart for charity. The IRS has proposed a new regulation that would require 501(c)3 charitable organizations to collect social security numbers of donors who donate $250.  Mega death organizations like Planned Parenthood would have no problem with this, or the Clinton Foundation which has accepted millions from foreign donors while Hillary was Secretary of State.  But the little church around the corner?  Your local dog breed rescue group?

 https://www.501c3.org/irs-proposal-to-provide-social-security-numbers-of-donors-worries-charities/


“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” 1 Cor. 13:13

So easy even a librarian could do it

Glenn Beck resettles Iraqi Christians in Slovakia

As I’ve said before, I’m all for resettling Christian refugees from the Middle-east. I think I read somewhere that so far, 53 Christians have been admitted to the U.S. even though they are facing genocide—we’ve probably admitted more Muslim terrorists than that. However, how to support this? 

Last night Glenn Beck showed video of his organization (Mercury One) taking 149 Christians out of a refugee camp in Iraq (I think they’d been in the camp 2 years). They contacted 11 countries, including the USA, but only Slovakia would take them. Iraqi Christians are probably descended from the apostles or someone who knew them, as are other Orthodox Christians, so it shouldn’t be an impossible job. They had their last mass with their priest, said good-bye to friends and family, and flew off to a new country, new language, new customs. It was really heart wrenching. 

These were not peasants, they are educated people with careers and homes, now all ripped away. Iraq has been their people’s home for centuries. Their community had a good life in Iraq (as I recall from pre-war days, they were protected by Saddam Hussein who was a secular Muslim). ISIS was threatening to behead them right up to the end, in fact, the first flight was delayed due to intelligence they might be attacked. (Several times Beck mentioned that ISIS was killing the handicapped, although I haven’t seen that report elsewhere. He has a physically challenged daughter, so he’s always very sensitive to that.) It was like watching the frantic flights out of VietNam after U.S. renigged on the treaty agreements. 

Anyway, we had talked before about who could we trust with money to do this? Mennonites? Brethren? Lutheran? Any of the groups we’ve supported in the past? No, plus they all cooperate with World Council of Churches for world relief, which if you’ve ever read their documents is very pro-Muslim (I saw that even in the 1970s). Beck had tried to raise $10,000,000 to do this with listener/member donations, but instead raised $13,000,000. So we knew where to send our help. God bless people like Beck who take enormous risks (he was also Iraq with the camera crew and all the people it took to organize this).

Incidentally, he said a crew from 20/20 went along to film it, but I don’t think he really trusts the MSM to get the story right. We’ll see if it gets more than a few minutes on another news show. It has been reported on Fox and in some Christian on-line publications.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/glenn-beck-johnnie-moore-evacuate-iraqi-christian-refugee-slovakia-152273/#!

A cloud of euphemisms

"Forgive us for looking through the legacy smoke, but if climate change really does imperil the Earth, and we doubt it does, nothing coming out of a gaggle of governments and the United Nations will save it. What will help is human invention and the entrepreneurial spirit. To the extent the Paris accord increases political control over human and natural resources, it will make the world poorer and technological progress less likely.". . .
"As we have learned from the Iran nuclear deal and so much else, Mr. Obama is not into winning democratic consent for his policy dreams. Mr. Obama plans to use Paris as a stick to beat Republicans even as he ducks a vote in Congress. We doubt the Paris climate deal would get 40 Senate votes once Democrats in Ohio, Colorado or North Dakota were forced to debate the costs."

Wall St. Journal

Who are the "deniers" the left ridicules?

Calling me a “man-made climate change denier” is very different than believing that climate changes over time. And yes, I have read the reports on both sides (or 3 or 4 sides, because there aren’t just 2). It’s just a lie and insult to say that those of us who don’t believe the Wizard behind the curtain and the leftist hype don’t believe in a clean environment. It’s also a lie that the president is talking about pollution. These are two different issues. All these climate change folks in love with the latest cell phones need to look what they are doing to the land in Africa where the precious rare earth elements come from for that technology. The U.S. used to have them, but they were over mined, and now all the orders go to China. I’ll believe they are serious about dangers to climate when thousands of globalist power folks give up using jet planes to get to conferences in interesting places like Paris and Hawaii.

 

Yes, climate does go in cycles. But that is change, right? There was the “little ice age” from the 16th-19th century. That’s not huge as time goes, but if you were living then and trying to grow food, it was pretty desperate times in some parts of Europe. If a volcano explodes on an island and sends dirt and ash into the air, it can cool some areas of the globe for years. But I don’t call that “man made climate change.” If there are solar flares that last a few decades and heat things up, I don’t call it man made climate change even if it creates new deserts and dries up lakes with changing jet streams. http://www.space.com/19280-solar-activity-earth-climate.html

 

“Welcome to [Obama’s] leaps in logic that would span the Grand Canyon. Apparently excruciatingly slow, contradictory, and sometimes nearly imperceptible changes in the atmosphere’s temperature are capable of spawning ideologies like communism, fascism, and now Islamic jihadism, although the president won’t use that term. Never mind all those historical details about what actually caused these ideologies to rise—social upheavals like industrialization, philosophical disputes unleashed by the Enlightenment, and the crises inside Islam. The president has got it figured out.”

http://dailysignal.com/2015/12/07/obamas-insane-history-lessons-on-climate-change/

 

 

Meet the neighbors--by guest blogger Septimus Sextus

Went to a Holiday Party last night in my neighborhood and talked politics with some interesting folks. Was told by several that Bernie is the man because he was going to take on the corporations, was going to push for single payer, and was going to take the money we spend on war and spend it domestically. Also spent some time discussing specific issues with some folks.

To recap... These are amazingly pleasant people who are great parents and good neighbors. But when I said single payer means Medicaid for all they claimed to not know much about Medicaid. I told them they were lucky.

When they talked about the high price of college and their student loans I asked them if they saw a correlation between a government loan program, the education lobby, and the rising cost of higher education.
When we discussed energy policy and I mentioned ongoing changes in the coal industry to make it cleaner and the overwhelming need to not mothball coal plants until a workable alternative is actually in place, they mentioned renewables.

When I said renewables wouldn't power heavy industry they didn't follow the logic. When we discussed the need to transition to nuclear power as an alternative and reminded them of the French nuclear success story they focused on waste byproducts. When I said those are buried in the ground in a desert miles from anyplace somebody would want to live they didn't understand. 

And finally when I said you can't not have a military and you have to blow up the really bad guys they didn't understand why we couldn't just wash our hands of international entanglements. And when I said that's fine then don't be surprised if we go back to covert operations and propping up somewhat crazy despots to keep the really crazy people in check, they mentioned human rights. 

So yeah... Quite an evening. And their votes count the same as ours.

Getting ready for Christmas

The brown couch wearing its festive pillows, and a dark sheet to protect it from the cat's sneezes.

With my "new" red dress (bought it in March at the spring sales) with one of the few pieces of jewelry from my mother, her necklace.

Is it perception, the pew or the pastors?

"Less than 1 percent of senior pastors and discipleship pastors told Barna that “today’s churches are doing very well at discipling new and young believers.” Six in 10 said that churches are discipling “not too well.” 

But those in the pews disagree. More than 9 in 10 said that their church “definitely” (52%) or “probably” (40%) does “a good job of helping people grow spiritually.”"

And how about this one?  Ah, the problem with polls. . . I'm doing OK, but that guy is really bad off.

 “Pastors give their own church higher marks than churches overall, but few believe churches—their own or in general—are excelling in discipleship,” the report stated

 http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/december/pastors-pews-vastly-disagree-discipleship-barna-navigators.html

Practicing Christians (attend worship, Sunday School) report "some spiritual progress" in the last 12 months, but 43% of Non-practicing Christians also report "some spiritual progress" in the last 12 months!  Must be that golf course meditation really works.

A writing prompt from Tweetspeak Newsletter--Home

“If, many years from now someone were to live in your home, what would you want them to know about it? What does house and home mean to you? Talk about its comforts and your favorite spaces. What might be different? What will always remain the same? Write your answer in poetry.” December 12, 2015

Memories of Home
Norma J. Bruce
December 12, 2015

Home.  Where is that located?
Is it Kenbrook where memories
Are daily, brief and quiet.
Where we moved in January
And I was then hospitalized?

Home. What would it look like?
Is it Abington with memories
Of babies, birthdays and weddings?
What will the current owners risk
And remodel beyond recognition?

Home. When a horse was pastured?
Is it Hannah where memories
Push a porch swing with Polka-dot,
When boyfriends stopped by for dates,
And we went to movies and dances.

Home. Why not a whole village?
Is it Forreston whose memories
Of  friends hold  to this day
Why when some have moved or died,
And we are always children.

Home. Would it be war time?
Is it Alameda’s bay area memories
With trips to the zoo and playground.
Would I hear White Christmas in fog
And walk to kindergarten?

New Christmas CDs

Can't beat the price.  $2.99 at Marc's for four. Actually it was the Red Army Chorus that grabbed me.  Copyright is 1999 when they made this, but Russia hasn't been "red" since 1990. When I played it I discovered a lot of female voices--well, I guess they've integrated, too.  You can tell it's phonetic.  Difficult to understand the words--but I know them.  I had one of their records in the 1950s. Very rich, folk, Russian and very male.    Songs 4 Worship is Integrity Music / Time Life, 2001.  The other is all the "old" favorites from the 40-50s like Guy Lombardo, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby. Probably won't be able to use the kid's music, but that's still $1 per disc.

The Pope, the Lutheran and the Eucharist

I have now found a good translation at a Catholic site of what Pope Francis said to a Lutheran woman about taking communion at her husband's Catholic church, although it doesn’t help much. “Talk to the Lord and then go forward” is why we have 35,000 different Christian denominations many with no authority higher than the pastor who organized the church.

 

”I can only respond to your question with a question: what can I do with my husband that the Lord’s Supper might accompany me on my path? It’s a problem that each must answer [for themselves], but a pastor-friend once told me that “We believe that the Lord is present there, he is present” – you believe that the Lord is present. And what's the difference? There are explanations, interpretations, but life is bigger than explanations and interpretations. Always refer back to your baptism – one faith, one baptism, one Lord: this Paul tells us; and then consequences come later.

I would never dare to give permission to do this, because it’s not my own competence. One baptism, one Lord, one faith. Talk to the Lord and then go forward. [Pauses] And I wouldn't dare – I don’t dare say anything more.” http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2015/11/life-is-bigger-than-explanations-to.html

 

I’m still left with the puzzle that what Lutherans call “present” and what Catholics call “present” have not been the same, and for many Protestants and those who came later like non-denominational denominations of the last 50 years, there isn’t even a “present,” just a memorial.

Former Homeland Security employee told to shut down a surveillance program

 He says he likely could have helped prevent the San Bernardino terror attack if the government had not pulled the plug on a surveillance program he was developing three years ago. Philip Haney's story has "holes" says government sources.  Yes, I'm sure.  He had links to Farook's mosque.  Malik would have been identified as she tried to enter the U.S.  Instead, she was "vetted" and found to be OK.

Political correctness run amok.

Malik ignored. 

"The attack by Farook, the U.S.-born son of Pakistani immigrants, and Malik, a Pakistani native he married in Saudi Arabia last year, has heightened security concerns in the United States and become an issue in the U.S. presidential campaign."

Hope for a terrible disease--Dengue Fever

Mexico has approved the world’s first dengue virus vaccine. Sanofi’s Dengvaxia will be available to children over nine and adults 45 and under. . . Sanofi spent two decades and $1.6 billion on the development of Dengvaxia. According to BBC News, about 40,000 people in Mexico will initially receive the shot. “With this decision, Mexico moves ahead of all other countries, including France, to tackle the spread of this virus,” the country’s health ministry in a statement.

The Scientist

The fun Christmas party for PDHC

Last night we attended a Christmas party for the volunteers of the pregnancy center. We save lives--one womb at a time. Saw a few friends I know from church, and some I've met volunteering. I was on a great gift wrapping team (but we could only use one hand) as a game. But what really warmed my heart (more than the delicious food that Abigail Colon's husband made) was the number of young women either volunteering or on staff. Wow. I'm so used to hanging out with retirees and senior citizens and imagining that it's all on our shoulders, it's so nice to know there are young people out there wanting to save babies and mentor women in crisis situations.

A grudge can be a heavy burden

There's a reason why it's called resentment.  You are re-sending the grief back to yourself.

Women in combat

On the Patrick Madrid show (radio talk, Dec. 9) the topic was the recent approval for women in combat. A career female military officer called in and said she disapproved for a reason I'd never thought of: In WWII the USSR lost about 10 million men in combat, but did not draft women, and their population recovered. China has lost females primarily in the womb (abortion, one child policy) and can't recover for many years, if ever. If women of child bearing age are killed in combat there is no way to replace your population. She also mentioned the different physical standards for women in the military, but that has been the case all along. In combat it could be a more serious issue.

The general consensus is that women in combat weakens the military.  There are many, many who call themselves Americans who would like to see this.

Zuckerberg, Facebook, and ISIS

Maybe this is the reason Zuckerberg is offering comfort and peace to Muslims on Facebook?

 In the past few years, the use of Twitter (as opposed to Facebook), on the other hand, has grown. ISIS supporters embraced the platform in the latter part of the last decade, Stalinsky says, when old-school web forums regulated by moderators remained popular among Al Qaeda members. According to research from the Brookings Institute, ISIS supporters used some 46,000 Twitter accounts between September and December 2014, though not all were active at the same time.

Mark Zuckerberg will offer Muslims peace and safety at Facebook

When do women with white hair and conservative views get to comment at the Facebook pages of The Daily Beast or Huffington Post or Vox without harassment, Mr. Zuckerberg? When do we get to have an opinion and not be called "old hag" or told to take a "dirt nap" because we're worthless because everyone knows if women aren't young and sexy they have no value? Where's my peaceful and safe environment free of sexual innuendos from weird ugly men and F words from female bar flies? And what about Arab or Syrian Christians on Facebook? There are millions in the USA and Europe, and a decreasing number in the middle-east. Are they safe from harassment? They've been in the U.S., the land that gave you and your immigrant great grand parents this opportunity, 100 years longer than Muslim Syrians. Where are their peace and safety on Facebook?

 Facebook is a free service to which we can unsubscribe at any time. I could ignore HuffPo and just post cat photos. But some are made more welcome than others, and some are held to higher PC standards. I know people who have complained to FB about obnoxious, hateful photos and comments, and nothing is done.  At other times, really innocuous comments gets someone banned. 

Zuckerberg made a huge fortune on a good idea at the right time using the capitalist system, and now he goes all soft and gooey for socialism and a religion whose radical adherents would kill him for no reason other than he is a Jew.

Zuckerberg reassures Muslims

More have slipped into lower income group under Obama

At the county level we've lost a lot of ground under Obama. "Based on poverty rate estimates for all 3,141 counties for all ages, 26 percent (820 counties) had a statistically significant increase in poverty between 2007 (the year before the most recent recession) and 2014. Only 1 percent of counties had a statistically significant decrease in poverty during that period."

The recession was "over" in June 2009, yet the middle class has lost out and some have slipped downward. Finger wagging (Obama), criticizing the GOP (Hillary) and creating additional expensive government programs (Bernie) won't take the place of sound economic policies.

http://www.census.gov/did/www/saipe/data/highlights/files/2014highlights.pdf

The Silent Scream

Parental guidance recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gON-8PP6zgQ

Obama violated federal law with his Bergdahl deal

"A House Armed Services Committee report set to be released Thursday accuses the Obama administration of misleading Congress and violating federal law during a controversial prisoner exchange.

The report compiled by the GOP majority charges that the administration did so when it bypassed Congress in negotiating the exchange of five Taliban prisoners for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was being held in Afghanistan. They suggested that the White House had put politics and expediency ahead of proper procedure in making the deal." (CNN)

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2015/12/10/house-armed-services-committee-obama-violated-federal-law-with-bergdahl-exchange

Ohio pro-abortion legislators want to take away first amendment rights

A young man named Faisal Mohammad stabbed 4 students on a California campus last month, but the government is calling it a version of "workplace" violence, i.e., that he was mad about something and it has nothing to do with his ideology. No one is banning Muslims from walking around that college or driving through the campus. No California congressman is drafting a bill to obscure first amendment rights.

But in Ohio, based on the crazy guy who attacked people at an abortion clinic in Colorado, 2 female pro-abortion legislators want to further infringe on the rights (speech, religion, assembly) of people peacefully walking near abortion clinics and they want clients, staffers and abortionists of the clinics to be able to sue the demonstrators who are doing nothing wrong using pseudonyms. They essentially are accusing people who have done nothing wrong of plotting murder. Dear was not demonstrating, was part of no pro-life group, and had a history of disturbing behavior with a criminal record, infidelity, multiple marriages, and abuse of women. Apparently, he believed babies were being killed there and said so. For that, these legislators want to take away the rights of Ohioans.

Electroporation

This article in the OSU News is about interesting cell research on cancer cells, but includes some possible good news on Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

https://ece.osu.edu/news/2015/12/cell-cell-curing-cancer-nanoscale

The process of cell reprogramming through electroporation is recognized as an important strategy for curing Parkinson and Alzheimer’s diseases, as well as many cancers. Stem cell reprogramming researchers were even awarded the Nobel Prize in 2012.

Electroporation involves delivering probes to individual cell membranes, in order to apply a focused electrical field. This makes the cells permeable enough to place foreign molecules inside, like genes or drug treatments, without damaging the surrounding tissue.

[If my troll who doesn’t like my medical articles or my political articles or my pro-life views takes issue with this, please take it up with either the researcher or the editor of the article.  Thanks.]

No wonder people are ready for Trump

“A student at an Arizona community college is challenging her school’s so-called “speech zone,” arguing the policy “severely limited” her right to free speech and due process.

Brittany Mirelez, a freshman at Paradise Valley Community College in Maricopa County, Ariz., was kicked out of the designated speech zone in October for failing to obtain permission to use the space.”

http://dailysignal.com/2015/12/08/college-student-takes-a-stand-against-campus-free-speech-policy-sues-school/

Three Word Wednesday—the Obituary

Three Word Wednesday gives writers, poets and those who journal a mid-week jolt of creativity. Each week, three words are selected; you create something with the words. Then come back and post a link to your contribution.

Obituary,  a notice of a death
Placid, not easily upset or excited;  calm and peaceful, with little movement or activity.
Resonant,  deep, clear, and continuing to sound or ring;  filled or resounding with (a sound); having the ability to evoke or suggest enduring images, memories, or emotions;

The obituary
by Norma J. Bruce
December 8, 2015

She died.
Two days later, he died.
The obituary was clear on the dates.
Death notices are often dry and placid,
It took my breath away as I thought back.
With careful wording and verbs about the destination.
Brief paragraph, not resonant with the muffled sounds of the past
Of young love, quarrels and misunderstandings,
When sixty years ago they had hoped for a future that
Was not to be. Ever.  At least on this side.

Farook and Malik

I only had the news on about 2 minutes this morning before I turned to something more spiritual and scriptural, but I did catch more bad news about Farook, the San Bernardino shooter. It could be unsettling for the leftist meme--which continues to be shattered as more investigation is done.

Now, it appears, in addition to the bank account transfer 2 weeks ago, workplace violence can't even be a partial motive, like that quarrel with a Jewish co-worker. Obama and Lynch so desperately wanted that label! They want to blame Islamophobia so the American people can be at fault.

He had planned this 2 years ago, then got spooked. That also means his wife didn't radicalize him (not sure why her radicalizing him was such comfort to some, but it seemed to be—even Donald Trump who is looking for more excuses to get publicity). Now I'm wondering if she was the 15th victim, did she actually have a choice? In those hours after the shooting driving around when the bombs didn't explode, was she pleading with him to give up so they could see their child again? We'll never know.

And I'm still wondering how CAIR knew to call a press conference before the rest of us knew their names. Unless the White House or FBI (which reports to Obama) gave them a heads up.

What if Obama had been president on December 7, 1941?

Talat Strokirk, Pakistani-Swede, former Muslim

Of all the segments I’ve watched on Journey Home (EWTN), this is one of the most interesting given the struggles today between Muslims and Christians.  Talat Strokirk has lived all over the world, but now lives in Sweden and is married to a Swede.  She was born in pre-partition India and her Muslim family became citizens of Pakistan.  Although she speaks very lovingly of her devout Muslim parents, they had a number of serious breaks in their relationship—when she became baptized, and when she decided to marry a foreigner.

But it also shows the importance of Christian missionary schools, as she was educated in several countries by Catholic nuns, although with no pressure to participate in Christian activities or worship.  She said her Muslim father approved of the Catholic schools because, “the nuns dressed modestly and followed a good moral code.” She also said that leaving home (around 1960) to take refuge in a convent (after her baptism) was unusual in that day, but today would be almost impossible. Her parents were embarrassed in their community by a Christian daughter, and her mother said she would have preferred she had come home with a child (from England where she had studied) rather than as a baptized Christian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0iXAXXxQvY

Walnuts—food of the week

“Most U.S. adults have yet to discover the benefits of walnuts. A recent study has determined that only 5.5% of all adults (ages 19-50) consume tree nuts of any kind! This small percentage of people actually do a pretty good job of integrating tree nuts (including walnuts) into their diet, and average about 1.25 ounces of tree nuts per day. But the other 94.5% of us report no consumption of tree nuts whatsoever. In a recent look at the nutritional differences between tree nut eaters and non-eaters, researchers have reported some pretty notable findings: on a daily average, tree nut eaters take in 5 grams more fiber, 260 milligrams more potassium, 73 more milligrams of calcium, 95 more milligrams of magnesium, 3.7 milligrams more vitamin E, and 157 milligrams less sodium! “

For more information from WH Foods

The tough question

HT Berit.

We’re in big trouble, folks

“The president’s mention of the visa waiver program comes at a time of heightened scrutiny for the program. In recent weeks, members of Congress have proposed changes to the program, which allows citizens from 38 countries to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without a visa.”  Daily Signal

“In the wake of the deadliest terror attack on American soil since 9/11, the Obama administration is promising swift action -- against Islamophobia.”   Daily Caller

Hillary Clinton writes in an Op-Ed on Wall Street that she would "fight for tough new rules, stronger enforcement and more accountability that go well beyond Dodd-Frank." New York Times

“I think the standard of living should be lower because I like to go to the bars and drink the alcohol for lower,” one woman, a Hillary supporter, said.  Watters world.

BYRON YORK: "But in the end, Obama's brief speech -- immediately after, he donned a tuxedo and dashed to a Kennedy Center gala -- contained no new measures against ISIS, and he spent as much time repeating old warnings not to offend Muslim sensibilities as he spent discussing any particular effort to combat terrorism."

“For nearly seven years, this Administration has been an abject failure in defining, confronting, and ultimately defeating the radical Islamist threat facing our nation. Radical Islam seeks to destroy our way of life and derives its power from the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. Sharia Law and the desires of radical Islam are diametrically opposed to the values of America and they cannot co-exist. This is a fact and the President has refused to level with the American public.”  Rich Santorum

We have visited Israel—this is true

Why are we afraid?

Dr. William Warner has had a life-long interest in religion and its effects on history. He has studied the source texts of the major religions for decades. Even before the destruction of the World Trade Center he had predicted the war between Islam and America. The day after 9/11 he decided to make the source texts of Islam available for the average person.

He holds a PhD in physics and math, NC State University, 1968. He has been a university professor, businessman, and applied physicist.

He was a Member of the Technical Staff in solid-state physics at the Sarnoff Princeton Laboratories in the area of integrated circuit structures. During the energy crisis of the 80’s he founded and ran a company that specialized in energy efficient homes. For eight years he was a professor at Tennessee State University in the Engineering School.

He is puzzled that we are afraid to know the truth about Islam.  Take a look at this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_Qpy0mXg8Y#t=313

http://www.politicalislam.com/the-most-despised-people-in-the-world/

http://www.politicalislam.com/

The politicians do not use the word jihad, but terror and terror networks.

The left of center press says that the rhetoric of the right causes terror and that poor Muslims will suffer from being associated with terror. They should be worried about being associated with jihad.

The professors still teach Islam without jihad. The press will not offend Muslims. Police do not study the doctrine of jihad. Politicians cry out for more Muslim refugees.
We are losing a civilizational war because of political correctness. To win we must start using the language of Islam. We must start conversations that about the ideology and doctrine of political Islam.

Do Catholics read their Bibles?

So you think your Catholic friends don't read the Bible? "Some time ago, a friend of mine compared the amount of the Scripture used at Mass to that used in an Evangelical Protestant service. The Catholic Mass was almost 30 percent Scripture. When my friend checked the content of his local Bible-based Evangelical church, he was surprised to discover that the total amount of Scripture read took just 3 percent of the service."  It's the difference between study and worship. In theory, most Christians follow the lectionary, a series of readings from the Old Testament, Psalms, Epistles, and Gospel for their Sunday worship. But if your church is like mine, if there is a topical series for the sermons, it would be a stretch to use the lectionary selection that Christians around the world are using. Our new year has started (Advent) and we're supposed to be in cycle C; the gospel of Luke.

http://www.cruxnow.com/faith/2015/11/17/why-dont-catholics-read-the-bible/

The administration is reluctant to find evidence of terrorism.

“The shocking sight of journalists storming into the apartment of the San Bernardino terrorists, less than 48 hours after the attack, was apparently allowed by the FBI, which handed the apartment back over to the landlord, who let the media in with a crowbar.”

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/12/04/fbi-neglect-of-san-bernardino-crime-scene-fits-a-pattern/

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/fbi-allowed-mainstream-media-destroy-san-bernardino-crime-scene-live-tv/

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2015/dec/04/san-bernardino-shooting-victims-named-live

http://twitchy.com/2015/12/04/reporters-hammered-for-entering-sanbernardino-apartment-thats-not-a-cleared-crime-scene/

If I lived in San Bernardino, or even California, I’d be very nervous right now.  There could have been many helping set up this arsenal.  There may be many cues in the apartment about friends and colleagues. Now all trampled and pawed over.

Three Word Wednesday—The Christmas Letter

Three Word Wednesday gives writers, poets and those who journal a mid-week jolt of creativity. Each week, three words are selected; and participants create something with those words. Then they return to the website and post the link. This week’s suggestions:

Lackadaisical, adjective: lacking enthusiasm and determination; carelessly lazy.
Makeshift, adjective: serving as a temporary substitute; sufficient for the time being; noun: a temporary substitute or device.
Nude, adjective: wearing no clothes; naked; depicting or performed by naked people; (especially of hosiery) flesh-colored; noun: a naked human figure, typically as the subject of a painting, sculpture, or photograph; flesh color.

The Christmas Letter
by Norma J. Bruce
December 2, 2015

The page is almost nude, missing inspiration.
The 2015 Christmas letter has stalled.
It looks makeshift, a temporary substitute
For the lively travel log and holiday schedule
I had hoped to create.
My lackadaisical attitude is pushed by a short time frame,
And so  I start again. It reappears on the back of the card.
Problem solved.

Stole classified documents, but at least he didn’t use an e-mail server

Sandy "Socks" Berger died this week. He's the Clinton official who stole classified documents from the national archives that were needed for the 9/11 investigation. I can't find out if he ever served his sentence or paid his fine. He was a crook and a thief, and loyal to his President. He was a Clintonian, after all. Serving time is for people like Martha Stewart. Obama called him a leader and humanitarian.  He’s on the list of Clinton staff who believed Saddam had WMD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Berger

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/2/sandy-berger-clinton-security-adviser-dies/

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/sandy-berger-national-security-adviser-216344

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16706-2005Mar31.html

Muslims in Ohio

We have thousands of foreign born Muslims in Central Ohio and many born here. I haven't seen any bullying or discrimination. I'm sure it exists--especially on the internet. I get nasty, unkind remarks for being an old White lady. That said, I have seen university employees who won't come to private homes for parties, women who won't join exercise classes if there are men in it, special accommodations for them in churches that provide education classes, men who have more than one "wife," and women who must always be accompanied by a male relative when out of the home.
However, I used to help with English classes for mixed ethnicities sponsored by our church, mostly Muslim but from a variety of countries. I thought the women were delightful, eager to learn, devoted to their families and fun, but some didn't like each other because of grievances in "the old country." One dear soul told me in her home country she was considered a descendant of slaves (she had blue-green eyes) and wasn't allowed to go to school.
Anyone with half a brain knows that all American Muslims aren't like the couple who killed Christians and Jews at a holiday party and had an arsenal in their home. But with their other half brain they aren't using, they'd better dust it off and understand that the President's party is leading them astray about the real danger of Islamic terrorism.
All the murdered people in San Bernardino were Christians and Jews, but in a show of concern for the "real" victims, "A handful of House Democrats will meet early Friday afternoon at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, a Northern Virginia mosque that has controversial ties to terrorists who have engaged in terrorist acts against the United States,” reports The Washington Examiner.

Daily News lies—God can fix this

Our free and independent (from government control) press

Did you notice that CAIR already had family members of the shooters on hand for interviews by the time the rest of us were told their names?

Please:  it’s media ARE.

False positive mammograms

Women with positive mammography screens ultimately judged to be false were still at significantly increased likelihood for developing invasive breast cancer within the next 10 years, a study involving 1.3 million women showed.

So what is happening? Lots of things. Read this:

http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/BreastCancer/54978?

She can move quickly when an election is at stake

Wealthy liberals could just fire their accountants

Today I got an e-mail from  “Patriotic Millionaires,”  a group of more than 200 Americans with annual incomes over $1 million and/or assets of more than $5 million. (I’m not on the list as a millionaire, but am a gapper.) They are looking at the Forbes list and see too few blacks and Hispanics.  Well, there are more Blacks than Bruces!  Look, patriots.  All you have to do is fire your accountants—just skip over those loopholes that you’ve lobbied for.

* America’s 20 wealthiest people now own more wealth than the bottom half of the American population combined, a total of 152 million people in 57 million households.
* The wealthiest 100 households now own about as much wealth as the entire African American population in the United States. Among the Forbes 400, just 2 individuals are African-American.
* The wealthiest 186 members of the Forbes 400 own as much wealth as the entire Latino population. Just 5 members of the Forbes 400 are Latino.

San Bernardino and Colorado Springs

Catching up on the news coverage of the horrific events in San Bernardino, I see that no liberal wants to call this act terrorism and they are seeking a motive why a married couple, both Muslims with middle eastern names and dressed for assault with multiple bombs and guns, would kill people in a government building.  Whereas last Friday in a shooting in the parking lot of a Planned Parenthood building in Colorado, a man crazy as a loon was described within hours on national TV by prominent liberals as a terrorist, a conservative and a Christian, with nothing to back it up. They blamed the GOP, the NRA and “toxic” language arguing against our Bill of Rights.
Meanwhile, the New York Times has done an extensive background check on Dear and learned of his history of crime and assault on women, a pot head with bizarre behavior particularly on-line. NYT leads with the “Christian” angle, even though he was about as “christian” as the Westboro Baptist group that protests at funerals of soldiers, a group smaller than our church choir. Liberals in the press and on twitter are also criticizing those who are praying for the victims and their families.

Andy Griffith, Little Brown Church

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIcyRWlJHHY

How lovely.

No blogging today

I’m at the library.  No wireless connection today.  Guess I’ll have to invite my daughter over to check, and if she can’t get it going, I’ll have a service call.  Hate when this happens.

Imaginary Enemies

“Hunger in America is an imaginary enemy. Liberal advocacy groups routinely claim that one in seven Americans is hungry—in a country where the poorest counties have the highest rates of obesity. The statistic is a preposterous extrapolation from a dubious Agriculture Department measure of “food insecurity.” But the line gives those advocacy groups a reason to exist while feeding the liberal narrative of America as a savage society of haves and have nots.”

Liberal advocacy groups need problems.  If poverty were solved tomorrow, millions of well-paid, middle class bureaucrats, social workers, and non-profit fund raisers would be out of work.  Then we’d have a problem. . .

There are 123 wealth transfer programs, where is this money going if the poor don’t get it? TANF, SNAP, EITC, Section 8 Housing, Medicaid, WIC, SCHIP, and other disability from Social Security. 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/liberalisms-imaginary-enemies-1448929043

World AIDS Day

Approximately 70% of the new HIV/AIDS cases are in sub-Saharan Africa. Most people living with HIV or at risk for HIV do not have access to prevention, care, and treatment, and there is still no cure. I wonder if Africans think the billions being pledged in Paris to be spent on the fool's errand to stop the weather is well spent? Perhaps they remember (if alive) the malaria fiasco when millions died because of a foolish American author's testimony before Congress.

https://www.aids.gov/news-and-events/awareness-days/world-aids-day/

Rape in the Peace Corps

Yesterday I watched a CBS report on rape in the Peace Corps. ABC had done extensive reporting on this in 2011. Oversight of the Peace Corps is technically not Obama's job, not like cleaning up the VA (which he campaigned on in 2008) because commander in chief is his job description in the Constitution. But it is under the executive branch and he does appoint the director. However, if these two huge scandals had been reported in the Bush years, the media would have at least had his name in the story.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-finds-peace-corps-volunteers-blamed-fired-after-reporting-sexual-assault/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/11/us/11corps.html?_r=0

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/16/the-peace-corps-awful-secret.html

And so my liberal “friend” who reads my blog and only comments if I say something about Obama will then say, why must you blame him for everything?  You racist!  I’m only doing the job our media used to do for us—holding the president accountable when he doesn’t do his job.  And they should do that in a country where the “free” press keeps a protective eye on our liberties. They did that very well during the Bush Administration.  They didn’t let him get away with anything, and when they did support him, he usually got flak from his own party.

Plant yourself.

Connie, a friend from high school, posted this on Facebook about planting seeds in your own biodegradable urn. If you've ever visited an old cemetery with a lot of trees, you see nature has already taken care of this--just a little longer span of time.

In the United States, which contains 8 percent of the world's forests, there are more trees than there were 100 years ago. That's a lot of coming and going. Trees store CO2, produce oxygen, remove toxins from the air, and create habitat for animals, insects and more basic forms of life.

My high school class of MMHS 1957 has donated several trees to the town  campus to replace those that have died or been lost to storms, but even in Mt. Morris, there are far more trees than when the town was founded. The “reforestation” of the former Mt. Morris College campus effort was largely led by Lynne Fleming Wilburn and other local class members, who also tended our first tree in its very young years. (Source)

MMHS 1957 newest trees.

MMHS 1957 tree marker.

It’s a 2-fer for the left—attack free speech and religion

At this point, I doubt you can trust anything you hear or read about the crazy Mr. Dear who shot 9 people, none of them staff or clients at the Planned Parenthood Clinic. But that hasn't stopped all the leftist MSM, so I might as well take a stab. I've also heard his police record involves animal cruelty, domestic assault, smoking pot and being involved in bondage. Also he's never been a registered Republican, no sign of being a Christian, and his voter registration says his gender assignment may have failed. I haven't researched this carefully, as I don't have access to his records, but then neither do the New York Times or our Attorney General or PBS, and it hasn't stopped them.

There's no information at all on the shooter Dear's intelligence, state of mind, or what he said, and the media have already blamed Republicans for a "toxic" environment and no safe places for this man to go to not hear about dead babies. They don't blame hip hop for assaults against women, or Tarantino for gun violence, or the inflammatory speech from black lives matter for the cop he killed He’s some kook who lives in the woods and probably doesn't own a TV, but somehow is inflamed by rhetoric about killing the unborn. He shot nine people, none of them clinic workers or clients of Planned Parenthood. One report says he killed two in the parking lot then ran into the building.  If he was inflamed, he was also blind.

There was a family of 4 shot by a neighbor on the Hilltop of Columbus, Ohio last week. Hillary has not gone on national TV and the President has not said the dead boy could be his son. I’m guessing all these people are white, if you haven’t seen it on the national news. A man yesterday shot up and vandalized our most famous art center here in Columbus, then killed himself; no one has said he hated art or that it's terrible what toxic things are said about shocking edgy art displays because it inflames people.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/planned-parenthood-exec-blames-hateful-language-hateful-speech?

Stop setting goals and pushing sentimental posters

             

Nice thoughts, but really inaccurate with maudlin generalities. Setting goals is way over rated, and my favorite book is "Stop setting Goals." Many successful people watch TV; but they're even more successful if they produce, direct and act in TV shows.  I've always been a reader, and am a retired librarian--how many famous, rich librarians do you know--they don't even get appointed to be "librarian of Congress." Fearing change is a political statement--liberals fear some—like having a baby when not prepared, conservatives fear others like having liberals run the colleges. I'm a saver and investor, but have never gotten the hang of a budget. I don’t hold grudges, but I know extremely successful people who do. I like to talk about ideas, others like to share photos of grandchildren and pets.  Who is right and successful?

That said, I’m guessing a conservative, or right of center, person wrote it.

It seemed reasonable to remove Confederate flags, and then . . .

But the left eats its own.  Any appeasement just makes them more hungry.  The fragile students we’ve been laughing at on college campuses demanding “safe spaces” have become neo-fascists.

First, protests gradually grow more extreme. Venom is directed at fellow leftists who are deemed insufficiently radical.

In revolutionary France, wild-eyed Jacobins soon guillotined reformist Girondins, who were considered passe. During the Russian Revolution, extremist Bolsheviks marginalized liberal Mensheviks. In the 1960s, many members of the SDS and Black Panthers hated liberals who disapproved of their violence.

A group called the Black Justice League wants the name of liberal-but-bigoted President Woodrow Wilson removed from Princeton University.   [and the leaders are wealthy . . .]

Maximilien Robespierre, the spear point of the French Revolution, was an upper-middle-class lawyer. Russian revolutionaries Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were the sons of prosperous Russian families. Former 1960s terrorist bomber Bill Ayers was the scion of a wealthy corporate executive.
Read More At Investor's Business Daily:

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/112715-782779-victor-davis-hanson-as-they-have-throughout-history-the-extreme-left-directs-its-hatred-at-others-on-the-left.htm

Obama can say we’re not a Christian nation, but that’s not how ISIS understands who we are.

“Secularists rush to deny the religious aspect of the conflict with jihadists. Whenever possible they talk about “extremists” or “terrorists” and try to avoid the obvious conclusion that the Islamic terrorists are motivated by their religion. Likewise, when the victims are clearly Christian, and have been targeted for torture and death because of their faith in Christ the secular news media will spin the story and relegate the horrors to “ethnic conflict” or “tribal wars.”

The fact of the matter is that Islamic terrorists are targeting Christians in specific attacks. Furthermore, we may not regard the countries of Western Europe and North America as particularly “Christian” countries, but the Islamic terrorists of ISIS do. They speak enthusiastically about the coming war with “Rome”, which is their shorthand for what they perceive as the Christian powers of the West.”

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/blog/longenecker/are-we-witnessing-the-start-of-a-new-crusade/#ixzz3svE4MAO9

Decorating the tree for 2015

Bob put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. We love looking at the old, tired ornaments--like the one our daughter's first grade teacher made (can teachers do that today?) and the little wood guitar I bought for our son, the cute wood ornaments purchased from a disabled woman (Jodi) at the UA Labor Day art show in the 1970s, and the various mementoes from our travels. We probably bought this tree in 1993 or 1994 at our daughter's urging--and have certainly gotten our money's worth. I suggested we go to a small table size tree like my parents did in their later years, but he said an emphatic NO.

When we moved to Columbus in 1967, I remember I went to the hardware store in the little Tremont shopping center behind our apartment complex and bought a package of gold painted angels which we used for years.  They are still in the box of decorations, but we haven’t put them on for a few years—the tree is a bit crowded.  We also have some table decorations we can hang from our years in the FCC Couples Circle 50 now about 48 years old. Of that couples group, I think Bob is the only man still living. We have some little cloth birds made by my mother into which she tucked money for the children.  The tree scarf was made by my sister I think for Christmas 1976, and we use it every year.

Same tree, 2010.

Same tree, 2012, with our niece and nephew, Julie and Joe from Indianapolis.

Same tree 2006, different glasses.

Same tree, 2000, with Dad, his first Christmas without Mom since 1934.  He made the “grand tour” and visited his children in three cities.

Computer scams and hoaxes

The last several days I've been getting phone calls from people with accents and noise in the background telling me they want to help me with my "windows" problem, or my reported computer problem. Usually I just hang up, because callers sitting in booths reading from a script need to earn a living and move on to the next sucker. But I've played along for a few questions then I ask them why they are running this scam. I chastise and castigate them before hanging up. Feels good. The economy has been completely restored, we're told, so no one needs to be working jobs like this even in India.

Non-use of technology

Periodically, I do a “fast” of Facebook or Blogging.  I sign off.  But when I return, there’s just as much posting as before.  Maybe more.  It’s a bit like a diet.  I can do it for awhile. In the “old” days, people gave up watching TV.  I can see myself in most of these studies.  Read on.

Resistance, addiction, and identity

“There are a number of studies that have focused on cases of deliberate, even conspicuous, non-use, as in when people swear off e-mail during their vacation or give up Facebook for Lent. In these cases of deliberate refusal of a technology, one of the key traits of the individual is her or his ability to resist the temptation of using technology. Approaches that frame (social) media and technology use as addiction fall into this mold (e.g., Andreassen, et al., 2012; Stieger, et al., 2013).

In other cases, non-use may represent an individual’s attempt to regain (a sense of) self-control over their own technology use (e.g., Ames, 2013; Baumer, et al., 2013; Schoenebeck, 2014). In many of these cases, the discourse is one of control. Because the resulting non-use may be partial or negotiated, these kinds of studies tend not to frame “use” as a monolithic concept for which non-use is the binary opposite.

Moving beyond the individual, the voluntary non-use of technology may function as the production or performance of a particular sociocultural identity. For instance, abstention from Facebook becomes an act of performing a particular identity, one bound up with “conspicuous non-consumption” and a rejection of neoliberal values of commodification (Portwood-Stacer, 2013).

Non-use (and use) of the smartphone app Grindr also figures prominently in partners’ negotiations about the status of their own relationship (Brubaker, et al., 2014). In another example, the Christian period of Lent becomes, for some, an occasion to limit use of social media (Schoenebeck, 2014).”

I tried to resist and regain power over my life, but just now I posted on Facebook:

Donald Trump is such a jerk, and he's the perfect Trojan Horse (for those who haven't studied history, that is not a condom but a trick) that the Democrats will use to elect Hillary. This woman has committed more crimes than most people already incarcerated, and will complete what Obama has left unfinished.

Academe—we reap what we sow

“After 50 years of teaching at Harvard, I have never met a less courageous group of people than tenured faculty.” Alan Dershowitz.

“There’s clearly a double standard. Minority students, gay students, transgender students, Arab students generally have a greater leverage and a greater voice, and their grievances are taken far more seriously than the legitimate grievances of Jewish students, Zionist students, Christian students, conservative students.”

http://dailysignal.com/2015/11/20/these-are-tyrannical-students-what-a-former-harvard-professor-thinks-of-college-protests/

Donations for personal hygiene

We took about $50 of groceries to the Thanksgiving service at UALC on Thursday (nicest church service of the year with the best hymns).  But I kept aside a bag of personal care items I’ve been buying—shampoo, sanitary napkins, deodorant, bar soap, toothpaste, tooth brushes, liquid hand soap. These are for Tammy Jewell’s ministry, “God’s Hygiene Help Center,” which offers basic hygiene care to people who have lost their dignity because they simply can’t afford everyday items.  Some are for children, some for out of work men and women looking for jobs, some for the elderly and homeless.

Jewell is a former victim of human trafficking who came to know Jesus. Now she reaches out to addicts and trafficking victims.  When she shares Jesus, she also offers some small material aid.

From UALC.org Cornerstone, Nov. 22-26, 2015

A hoarder’s collection becomes art

We’ve all known a hoarder—and maybe there’s a little of that in all of us.  I don’t think of myself as a hoarder, yet I do have favorite “collections,” like small pieces of Hull Pottery, works by Ohio artists, kitty boxes (small) made of glass, ceramic, card board, etc., glass and crystal that belonged to my mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, books I’ll never read but like to look at on the shelves, old photographs, and when we put up the tree yesterday, I could see decorations 40-50 years old. I even have three editions of old Encyclopedia Britannica, about 100 years old. And of course, my clothing “archive,” dresses or jackets I wore in the past to dances, weddings, Easter services, etc. The oldest is from winter dance 1955, if you don’t count the dolls and doll clothes which are from the 1940s. These dollies (mine) are sitting on my great grandmother’s chair next to my husband’s grandparents’ secretary. But is that hoarding or saving antiques? Ask my daughter after I’m gone and she has to dispose of it.

         

  

This daughter was ashamed of her mother’s hoarding, but eventually learned to turn it into art.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/a-mothers-hoarding-a-daughters-art/?

http://www.stephanielcalvert.com/resume/

          

The turkey monster

Our cat has always had "issues" about food--she was abandoned and homeless, then dropped at a rescue where the other cats terrified her, then she found us--for 18 years now. For 18 years she's believed she will be put on the street and must eat. Obviously, childhood memories don’t go away with lots of love.  Yesterday I cooked up the turkey carcass, but my SIL had done such a great job of cleaning it, there wasn't a lot left for casseroles or soup. So I chopped up the bits of skin, meat and fat after straining it thinking I'd dole it out to Lotza over the week-end. She demanded the whole thing! This morning she slept until 5 a.m. (instead of 3) in a turkey stupor. Now she's turning her nose up at the canned Friskies turkey. She's just staring at me, which if you've ever had a cat, you know the look.

Cats like to stir the water in their bowl, so her bowl is very heavy and says, “Dog.” When she would spill it on the marble, we couldn’t see it.

This is her favorite napping spot. . . my husbands’ legs.  Once she moves to our bed, she likes to sleep on my legs. She’s really not very large, maybe 6.5 lbs, so she a heat seeker.

Other turkey/cat stories:

This is humor.  http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/humor-cat-behavior-turkey-thanksgiving-tryptophan

Turkey is not toxic. https://www.facebook.com/notes/aspca/animal-poison-control-faq-turkey/455486574631

http://www.darwinspet.com/our-raw-foods/our-raw-cat-food/natural-selections-for-cat-turkey/

Three Word Wednesday for November 25

I must have been thinking turkey and pumpkin pie, because the 3WW day slipped right past me.  The clues this week are:

Habitual, adjective: done or doing constantly or as a habit, regular; usual.

Illustrious, adjective: well known, respected, and admired for past achievements.

Jumbled, verb: mix up in a confused or untidy way

and there is an event being reported on TV.

“Active shooter situation, Colorado Springs”
Norma J. Bruce
November 27, 2015

Several are injured, and the police are swarming.
Jumbled thoughts as family and friends agonize.
By-standers send in video and reports.
Waiting.  Waiting. A hostage is released! Then another!
These shootings seem to be habitual.
Except the victims and aggressors are different each time,
Illustrious of past events of which they were never a part
And could not ever imagine.

INCIDENTAL COMICS: Collecting My Thoughts

INCIDENTAL COMICS: Collecting My Thoughts