Important Players – Doctrine-unfriendly

I've been trying to work my way through the tangle of terms like "emergent church" "emerging church" and "Emergent Village" and although I'm usually pretty good at detecting clues for movements and understanding divisions within Christianity, this is a MESS.

I just hate it when people change the language, especially Christians. I'm thinking they are soft and squishy on important fundamentals and theology, and warm and fuzzy on social issues. If salvation were about a nice home and full tummy, why would there need to be churches in suburbia?

Important Players – Doctrine-unfriendly « The Berean Watch

No, No Newt

Just watched him being interviewed on Fox--about his rather messy, unfaithful-to-wives personal life, and being a hypocrite about it besides. Let him stay on the side lines as a king/queen maker, but don't, please don't, put us through another Clintonesque presidency.

FDA: Obamacare’s Calorie-Count Mandate Now In Effect—But Not Enforceable

The individual items in a vending machine have a nutritionlabel--except the fresh items like an apple or orange--now Obama wants it also on the outside of the machine. One more way to destroy small businesses. One more reason someone would with an ounce of sense and a month of business experience should have read the bill. Look at all the cigarette packages that are labeled with a warning, and has he stopped smoking?

FDA: Obamacare’s Calorie-Count Mandate Now In Effect—But Not Enforceable | CNSnews.com

Fried Librarian Giblets Awakens ALA Council to Take On Yet Another Non-Library Issue

I got a chuckle out of the title of this blog--Fried librarian giblets. I wonder if ALA will look into the San Francisco Happy Meal melt down? The ALA spends so much time on non-library issues. I suppose that's a sign that everything is super duper OK in library land. Salaries are up; bond issues aren't failing; and the political balance is improving.

SafeLibraries: Fried Librarian Giblets Awakens ALA Council to Take On Yet Another Non-Library Issue

On repealing Obamacare--expand the target

"The case for abolishing Obamacare has three parts, based on its awful effects (a) on health care, (b) on our political system, and (c) on our character as a people. The first of these, Obamacare's deleterious effects on health care quality, cost, innovation, and accessibility, has been well made already by conservative policy analysts and, less well but still effectively, by conservative politicians. On their merits, these arguments should have been enough to defeat Obamacare, and almost were. Floating in the debate's background so far have been anxieties about the legislation's effects on our constitutional system's balance of power and on the American character. These concerns will need to be more thought—through and clearly articulated in the days to come, because to clinch the argument conservatives need to show that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is not merely bad or mistaken policy but somehow dangerous to our way of life. Legislative mistakes can be corrected, after all. Their pollsters are already warning Democratic congressmen to keep claims about the law "small and credible," to stick to "personal stories" of people who will benefit from it, and above all to promise to "improve" it. They're trying to shrink the target. Conservatives need to expand the target, and to emphasize that the stakes of Obamacare include nothing less than the future of self-government in America."

Article at Claremont Institute

Eat all the colors, but

be careful. I've been making wonderful chili soups the past few weeks. I grill lightly in olive oil about 4-5 vegetables chopped up, add Progresso Hearty Tomato, and then maybe black bean with bacon flavoring for some protein. Well, today I decided to use up the fresh cooked spinach I had in the frig. Nope. Not a good idea. Red and green make a sort of yucky brown. It didn't exactly change the basic color of the soup, but the green floating in the red is not pleasing to the artist's eye.

Anyone laughing with Bill Maher now?

This is Bill Maher's trashing of the Nine Twelve movement around the time the reports of ACORN assisting a sex trafficking ring came out, which didn't give him concern. Oh, you are such a riot Bill, and so with egg on your face after last Tuesday.

Glenn Beck’s army of zombie retirees are marching on Washington in protest of, well, everything. It’s the Million Moron March, although they won’t get a million of course, because many will be confused and drive to Washington state. But they will make news, because people who take to the streets always do. They’re at the town hall screaming at the congressmen, we’re on the couch screaming at the TV.

I was going to look for a photo, but you all know the face, all 10 of you who watch his show.

Conan is back — all is right with the world - TODAYshow.com

Now that's an amazing headline--ripped right off the internet. Conan is back--all's right with the world. So that's all it took. Obama doesn't need another term, and Jesus didn't need to return. What a relief.

Conan is back — all is right with the world - Entertainment - Television - TODAYshow.com

5 myths about George W. Bush

The only ones who believed the dumb cowboy stuff were the media and their Democratic supporters who just kept passing it along because it made them feel superior. I didn't. I saw his reading list. But over all, a good assessment. Don't know if I'll read the book.

5 myths about George W. Bush

Who's crazy now?

It's OK in a movie to take the Lord's name in vain, which is offensive to probably over half of all movie goers, but a fake, made up conversation by two teenagers can't use the word "gay" as a pejorative ("The social network")? Come on, guys, even gay kids use the term gay that way! Ten years ago they were using "retard" the same way. Look at any slang and it's either incomprehensible so adults won't catch on, or comes via the prisons, or has a sexual connotation. The word JAZZ, after all, originally meant sexual intercourse, as did rock 'n roll, so is that what you're saying each time you use those terms?

Stop treating gay teens like they are a fragile piece of glass. You are sending mixed messages for a political agenda, and it's the kids who will suffer. First of all, you're talking them into being a victim, and you just might be designating someone as gay when he isn't. There are lots of reasons for a teen to have problems, and a few teen-agers do commit suicide for a wide variety of reasons. But not as many as the macho soliders we're sending to Afghanistan and Iraq, and not as many as white men over 60.

When I was a teenager, I'd never heard of homosexuality--was probably a sophomore in college before I was even aware of it. That doesn't mean there weren't just as many gay teens in the 50s as there are today. Somehow, they managed to get college degrees, find partners, and succeed in their careers, because I've met them, worked with them, and am now retiring with them. One dear lesbian friend died in a house fire trying to save her pets; her partner was devastated, and she later died in an auto accident. None of this had anything to do with their sexuality; Pauline and Dora were outstanding advocates for young people of any make and model.

Today gay teens have support groups, "young adult" gay themed books in the library, gay movie stars and athletic figures to idolize, web sites to go to, special counselors in their schools, and politicans who are equal opportunity idiots like Barney Frank for a model. If none of this is working, why are we funding these programs?

Please, stop with the urban legends!

All Saints Day--first Sunday in November

Today is All Saints Sunday, the day Christians remember those called to sainthood (all believers) and espcially particular individuals. My husband and I were communion servers, always a wonderful experience. However, it's also the day the pastor reads from the pulpit the names of the congregation's members who have died since October 31, last year, and the names of loved ones we submit. It's very moving. And Oh! the singing! We get to sing all the verses of "For all the Saints."

Unless I'm morphing some memories (easy to do at my age) I can remember the first time I heard and sang "For all the Saints," and it was interestingly enough, not in church, but at Camp Emmaus near Mt. Morris, Illinois. I wasn't even a camper--I was the cook's assistant, and had come upstairs after clearing tables and washing pots to sit in the back of the lodge main room to observe the campers (older teens). They were learning a "new" hymn, "For all the Saints," being led I believe by a gorgeous young woman from Chicago with a fabulous voice named Carol Hiller. (It's possible that I've morphed her into the hymn, but this is how I recall it.)

The lyrics seem to be much older than the music, having been written by Bishop William W. How in 1864, but the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams died in 1958, so it's possible that in the mid-1950s, we were learning it as a "new" hymn. However it came to my attention, it has always been a favorite, and the older I get, the more departed saints I have to remember and look forward to seeing again at the resurrection.

The greatest of human adventures

If you want to read a history of America that isn't biased, isn't academic and yet is tremendously optimistic while revealing all our warts, please read Paul Johnson's "A history of the American people." Here's his opener:
"The creation of the United States of America is the greatest of all human adventures. No other national story holds such tremendous lessons, for the American people themselves and for the rest of mankind." p.3

Johnson doesn't have to answer to a tenure review committee in the hopelessly left sided university community, and he's not a part of the notoriously liberal American media.  He's a British journalist who has been visiting and researching the U.S. since his first visit in 1955.  Despite its 3.5 lbs and 1000+ pages and  about that many footnotes, this book is for the ordinary reader, not a scholar.  You can tell, however, that he is a conservative in that as a former Socialist familiar with socialism's failures, he is solidly in favor of a free market economy as the system that brings the most people up out of poverty and enslavement; but also he is incredibly optimistic, which liberals almost never are.  He's not snarky or dark in his evaluations even when explaining (and footnoting) John Kennedy's or Lyndon Johnson's numerous affairs and sexcapades, or finding the one really good thing about Jimmy Carter's presidency. He outlines rather carefully the media making the presidency for us in 1960, and although in 1997 he'd never heard of Barack Obama, the same template was used again in 2008.

I found this wonderful Booknotes interview with Johnson in 1998.  Loved that show.

Johnson notes that left wing liberals and academicians will hate this book--they won't actually read it, but will find factual errors (he encourages that you report these so he can correct them in the next edition but also notes that even sources he cites disagree on details).

Hitler learns the Republicans have taken both the House and Obama’s Senate seat

This film clip has been used so many times in parodies, but this one is incredible. "Bush got C's but Obama failed lunch."



Hitler learns the Republicans have taken both the House and Obama’s Senate seat

Upper Arlington 9/12 project November 11 meeting

Join the UA912 Group on November 11 at 6:30 p.m. as they welcome Pastor Eric Waters from the Upper Arlington Lutheran Church who will present his stirring July 4, 2010 Sermon Entitled: Freedom - A Gift From God. Pastor Waters brought the congregation to their feet. Here is a link to the sermon: http://tech.ualc.org/mp3/audio/100704EWMRC.mp3
Location, Hastings Middle School Auditorium, 1850 Hastings Lane, Upper Arlington, OH 43220, hostess Catherine Hackett.



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Possible holes? You think? Flight school arrests

"Federal officials have arrested dozens of alleged illegal immigrants connected to a flight school in Stow, including the school’s owner and students who received US government clearance to train as pilots despite strict security controls put into place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The arrests of 34 Brazilian nationals that began in July and concluded quietly last month raise troubling new questions about possible holes in the government’s antiterrorism security net, which bans illegal immigrants from taking flight lessons and requires background checks on any foreigner training to fly in the United States.
Flight school arrests raise terrorism fears - The Boston Globe

TSA seems to be pretty good at making little old ladies take off their shoes and men their belts, but do a background check on a foreigner wanting to learn to fly a small plane? Wouldn't that be profiling? Even the owner of the flight school wasn't here legally.

Comprehensive--a word we need to strike from Washington's vocabulary

We've heard it all. But one word we hear/see too often. COMPREHENSIVE. "Comprehensive immigration reform" and "comprehensive health care;" "Comprehensive environmental response" legislation, and "comprehensive gender strategies;" "Comprehensive Financial Regulatory Reform" and "comprehensive knowledge based yada yada yada." Most of these comprehensive efforts, especially immigration, could be achieved by enforcing laws already on the books, laws that were never fully understood or enforced or funded. But that wouldn't tie up millions of tax dollars in more hearings, writing new laws and creating more agencies to suck up the billions the new laws and regulations will demand.

John Boehner remembers why he got into politics

"I grew up in a small house on a hill in Cincinnati, Ohio, with 11 brothers and sisters. My dad ran a bar, Andy’s Café, that my grandfather Andrew Boehner opened in 1938. We didn’t have much but were thankful for what we had. And we didn’t think much about Washington.

That changed when I got involved with a small business, which I eventually built into a successful enterprise. I saw firsthand how government throws obstacles in the way of job-creation and stifles our prosperity. It prompted me to get involved in my government, and eventually took me to Congress."

It's a good lead in for a speech, but power and the beltway have a funny way of changing people. We'll have to see if a traditional Republican has gotten the conservative message from the voters who are a thousand times better informed than they were in 2000 or 2004. I'm quite sure we've heard this "no more business as usual" from other pols--specifically Barack Obama, the biggest fraud of them all. We were promised that his enhanced use of technology would have us all reading the bills, when in fact these gully washers weren't even read by Congress, let alone us!

Again, Boehner: "I have maintained a no-earmarks policy throughout my time of service in Congress. I believe the House must adopt a moratorium on all earmarks as a signal of our commitment to ending business as usual in the spending process.

• Let Americans read bills before they are brought to a vote. The speaker of the House should not allow any bill to come to a vote that has not been posted publicly online for at least three days. Members of Congress and the American people must have the opportunity to read it.

Similarly, the speaker should insist that every bill include a clause citing where in the Constitution Congress is given the power to pass it. Bills that can’t pass this test shouldn’t get a vote. House Republicans’ new governing agenda, “A Pledge to America,” calls for the speaker to implement such reforms immediately.

• No more “comprehensive” bills. The next speaker should put an end to so-called comprehensive bills with thousands of pages of legislative text that make it easy to hide spending projects and job-killing policies. President Obama’s massive “stimulus” and health-care bills, written behind closed doors with minimal public scrutiny, were the last straw for many Americans. The American people are not well-served by “comprehensive,” and they are rightly suspicious of the adjective.

• No more bills written behind closed doors in the speaker’s office. Bills should be written by legislators in committee in plain public view. Issues should be advanced one at a time, and the speaker should place an emphasis on smaller, more focused legislation that is properly scrutinized, constitutionally sound, and consistent with Americans’ demand for a less-costly, less-intrusive government."

As long as presidents are allowed to appoint people who can regulate the Congress into powerlessness and the people into slavery, what legislators do and how much pork they send home to their cronies really won't make much difference, now will it?

Obama thinks he just didn't get his message out . . .

. . . but I think he communicated loud and clear.

"Republicans picked up at least a record 680 state legislative seats nationwide. That's more than even the 472 seat gain in 1994, according to the American Legislative Exchange Council, and more than the previous record of 628 seats by Democrats in the Watergate election of 1974. Not since 1928 have Republicans held so many state legislative seats. . . Voters clearly said on Tuesday that they want state leaders to control spending, reform pension and health-care benefits for state employees, and attract new job-creating businesses.

From today's Review and Outlook, Wall St. Journal

Stem cell face lifts--we're not there yet

Sherrell Aston, MD, answers some questions about face lifts, including the so called stem-cell face lift, which is apparently a new term for fat transfer. I'd like a little of that, but by the time it is perfected, I either won't care, or won't remember that I cared.

"Right now, there is no such thing as a stem cell face-lift, although the hope is that stem cells can help rejuvenate tissues and fill in volume. Stem cells are obtained with liposuction. We frequently inject fat into different areas of the face to return fat that is atrophied, or to improve the contour of the jawline, or over the cheekbones to improve contour. Stem cells show promise for the future, and I anticipate that we'll do more with stem cells as part of facial rejuvenation in the years to come."

The Modern Face-lift: An Expert Interview With Sherrell J. Aston, MD

I've been using the Medscape/WebMD site for years and have found it to be reliable. Usually go there when all I can find are the heavily advertising supported sites.

A return to the norm--I disagree

Sorry, Charlie, I love you, but you missed it on this one. The huge win on Tuesday was not a default, it was not a return to the norm. It resulted from the American slumbering giant, many the retired electorate, rising up, getting informed, going to the library and book store, going to rallies, talking to their friends, organizing small groups without any headship, and supporting candidates for smaller, more responsive government. Conservatives, not all true Republicans, have won big both at the state level and the national. I sent no money to the National Republican party, but did support candidates in about 5 or 6 other states. I've learned the hard way that how they vote, and the bills they don't read, directly affect me.

Charles Krauthammer - A return to the norm