The History Channel will air The Bible

The Bible will air on the History Channel beginning March 3, with the last episode in the series airing on Easter Sunday. I've been a bit suspicious about how TV treats the Bible, but this one started with prayer, according to Roma Downey (Touched by an Angel) one of the producers of the 10 hour mini-series.

Even if it doesn't fit your denomination's interpretation, if it follows the basics, it can't go wrong.

Man disobeys,

God forgives;

Man disobeys again,

God forgives;

Repeat as needed.

If Christians support this, perhaps we can get better quality TV.

Christians quibble the Bible to death—the number of sacraments; whether there even are sacraments; divorce and remarriage; do miracles still happen in the 21st century; who needs to interpret  speaking in tongues; does the gift of tongues exist; which is better happy clappy songs or hymns; what is Mary’s role; were prophecies of the O.T. fulfilled in Christ; dip, dunk or sprinkle; and on and on.

Bud the Cowboy

I may have posted this before—but I enjoy it each time I read it.

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in Montana when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni® suit, Gucci® shoes, Ray Ban® sunglasses and YSL® tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"

Bud looks at the man, who obviously is a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell® notebook computer, connects it to his AT&T iPhone® cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop® and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany ...

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot® that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL® database through an ODBC connected Excel® spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry® and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet® printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says Bud.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep.”

“Now give me back my dog.”

Translation Key

Passed along from 98.9 F. The Answer in central Ohio.  New station as of last fall (November?), and some great conservative talkers like Medved, Prager, Bennett. The news and interviews you’d never get from commercial, liberal media.

Call Boxes, Whistles and vomit don’t help during a rape

Tonight Glenn Beck interviewed five women who had been raped.

**One was in a church parking lot at noon putting her two children in their car seats; he hit her with a brick and raped her in front of her children. 

**One was in a parking garage and had walked there with friends in a group.  She said if a call box had been above her head, it wouldn’t have helped.  The campus was a  “safe zone.”  She could see the campus police station—it was closed.

**One was in her own home, in bed asleep with a roommate in the next room who didn’t hear it.

**One experienced date rape after her drink was drugged. 

**One was jogging and was attacked from behind and dragged into a woods. She was raped for six hours, and afterwards he carefully cleaned her up to destroy any evidence.

Only one of the five actually had a concealed carry permit, but she was in a gun free zone (she was law abiding) and didn’t have the gun; but the rapist had a gun and raped her. Maybe she couldn’t have stopped it, but he went on to rape other women and even murdered one.  One woman said she was within 50 ft. of a police car.  Another said she could smell bacon frying in a near by house.  There was no one to call; no one to help.

These were the lucky ones—they weren’t killed. All own guns now. Four of the five rapists are in jail—one isn’t.  He’s out there.  Rape is not about sex, it’s about power, and it’s about evil.  The mother with 2 children said only 3% of rapists ever go to jail—and they know it.  Twenty years ago a woman was raped every 6 minutes said the jogger about her experience; now it’s every 2 minutes.

Call boxes don’t work. Closed police stations can’t help.  They are no match for a knife or gun. All the women thought Democratic Senator Salazar was a sexist who ridiculed women’s ability to protect themselves ( “if you feel like someone’s been following you around or if you feel like you’re in trouble and when you may actually not be, that you pop out that gun and you pop — pop a round at somebody”) and denied the reality of the dangers rapists present for women.

Why is it a War on Women if taxpayers don’t want to pay for free contraception,  but not a War against Women to deny them the right to protect themselves? How does making one woman defenseless protect another woman against a violent crime?

Libs, be honest, don’t you feel like you’re being played?

The country didn’t collapse in 2009, why will it in 2013.  This is not CUTS, it’s a reduction in the increase.  Why doesn’t he stay in Washington and do his job.  He’s campaigning for 2016!

The Bad-Choice Movement is pushing them

Today in Columbus at this moment 3 young women are making decisions about the lives of their unborn children. One is pregnant by her married boyfriend; one doesn't believe in abortion but hasn't even examined the alternatives or people willing to help her; another is in an abusive relationship. Pray they will decide to let the children live. Yes, six people have made bad choices; let the next step be wiser. (Stories from PDHC newsletter)

She refused to say that

When the Catholics were faced with an updated English version of the Mass in 2011, one woman responded to the new wording, “I was offended at the insertion of "I have sinned greatly" into the Introductory Rite. "I don't go around sinning greatly," she said. "I am not going to say this."

Of course, we Lutherans don’t get big and little, grievous and ordinary.  We just sin constantly by violating all commandments as summarized into two by Jesus.  In the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) we say,

Most merciful God, we confess that we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy name. Amen. ( Lutheran Book of Worship, p. 56,  based on 1 John 1:8)

Thought, word, and deed.  That about covers it.  And that’s sinning greatly. 

Happy Birthday, Fats Domino

The B side of Red Sails in the Sunset (1963) was Song for Rosemary. He married Rosemary in 1948; they were married for 60 years (I think she died in 2008). Also to my knowledge he never grabbed his crotch to sell a song.

The YouTube of Song for Rosemary (instrumental) shows it's on Philips Record. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL3dmEec6ww

So many broken promises . . .

And like an abused wife, the voters came back for more.

Let’s personalize our Obama problem

If you had a friend/acquaintance who was upside down on his mortgage, had credit card debt of about $30,000, had borrowed not only from his parents and his children, but his shyster Uncle who was known to be a knee-capper, had not yet paid off his college loans and it was time for his kids to enroll, who nickel and dimed his church, who was known to cut corners at work, invested in Ponzi schemes and lied a lot, would you tell him it was a good idea to spend even more to cover his debts? Of course not. But that's what about 50% of the voters did in November in selecting a known spend thrift as their leader. And even now they swoon when he chatters on about everything except how to get out of the mess he made.

“During Barack Obama’s first term as president of the United States, the debt of the federal government increased by $5.8 trillion, which exceeds the combined debt accumulated under all presidents from George Washington through Bill Clinton.

The new federal debt accumulated in Obama's first term equaled approximately $50,521 for each of household in the country.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/first-term-obama-increased-debt-50521-household-more-first-42-presidents-53-terms

                             

Watching what New Yorkers drink

What does NYC chief nanny Mayor Bloomberg say about fruit/veggie drinks? A 12-ounce can of cola has 33 grams of sugar and about 136 calories. He limits the sale to 16 ounces (this will cost the consumer and the environment more). I have a Bolthouse Farms Green Goodness drink, 15.2 ounces, 60 grams of sugar, 280 calories. It has apple, pineapple, mango, banana, kiwi, (all in concentrate or puree) green tea, spinach, broccoli, barley grass, wheat grass, Jerusalem artichoke, and some other stuff. However, no sugar has been added--it's a natural ingredient in fruits and vegetables, especially in corn which is high in fructose a main ingredient in a lot of pop and fruit mix drinks. Now, my green drink (it's really tasty) is a lot more nutritious than pop with vitamins C, A, B, zinc and manganese, but I don't think Mr. Nanny is even looking at anything except sugar per ounce.

Blacks voted in Revolutionary times

Black history month. . .

Blacks voted long before the 1965 Voting Rights Act (which Democrats fought). The infamous 1856 Dred Scott decision in which a Democratic-controlled US Supreme Court observed that blacks “had no rights which a white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.” Non-Democrat Justice Benjamin R. Curtis, one of only two on the Court who dissented in that opinion, provided a lengthy documentary history to show that many blacks in America had often exercised the rights of citizens – that many at the time of the American Revolution “possessed the franchise of [voters] on equal terms with other citizens.”

State constitutions protecting voting rights for blacks included those of Delaware (1776), Maryland (1776), New Hampshire (1784), and New York (1777). Pennsylvania also extended such rights in her 1776 constitution, as did Massachusetts in her 1780 constitution. 

As a result of these provisions, early American towns such as Baltimore had more blacks than whites voting in elections; and when the proposed US Constitution was placed before citizens in 1787 and 1788, it was ratified by both black and white voters in a number of States. (All references are to free blacks, not slaves.)

For citations and information about how Democrats fought against rights for blacks even into the 1960s, see http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1072053/posts

Racist, American style, born in Texas

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2006/apr/16/2006041

http://www.stopliberallies.com/gringo-killer-jose-angel-gutierrez-professor-at-the-univ-of-texas-at-arlington-2480.html6-122222-1672r/

A haunted painting?

When you live with an artist (or two if you count me), you have a lot of art in the closets (we also buy it), so we're always rearranging. Last week we did a major shift. I've been hearing really creepy noises in the living room in the early a.m. I’ve decided it is the painting of the big house near Delaware, Ohio,  It is so large it has acrylic instead of glass in the frame to reduce the weight. When the heat comes on it makes expanding noises, then contracts.

He was an architect before he was a painter, so as architects will do, he remodeled it a bit for the painting--took off an addition that detracted from the original bones of the house. I think he also gave it a coat of paint. It had been refurbished about 20 years ago, but had fallen a bit in recent years. So if you drive by this house, it may not look quite like this.

The environmental regulations have become so restrictive that it is very difficult to save homes like these—lead paint, sometimes buried fuel oil tanks, etc.  Plus the heating costs with 12’ ceilings is often prohibitive. 

Tax in the Hat

The President proposed 29 new programs in the SOTU

And he’s running around campaigning for gun control.  Well, I might be trying to deflect the damage too because:

“On Jan. 20, 2009, when Obama was first inaugurated, the total debt of the federal government was $10,626,877,048,913.08, according to the U.S. Treasury. As of the close of business on Jan. 17, the last day reported by the Treasury before Obama’s second inauguration, the total debt of the federal government was $16,432,631,489,854.70.

Thus, from Obama’s first inauguration to his second, the federal government’s debt grew by $5,805,754,440,941.62.

Given that the Census Bureau currently estimates that there are 114,916,000 households in the United States, the $5,805,754,440,941.62 debt increase under Obama equals about $50,521 per household.”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/first-term-obama-increased-debt-50521-household-more-first-42-presidents-53-terms

Suggestions for Oscars 2014

“First, environmentalists that you are, arrive next year in Chevy Volts instead of gas-guzzling limos. Secondly, since you love to preach about gun control, ban all security and designate the surrounding area a gun-free zone. If it’s good enough for schools it’s good enough for you. Finally, since you’ll want to help the President you love so much, insist upon no more tax breaks for any of your productions. Do all this and you can proudly call yourselves Obama loving, Hollywood liberals!”  Paula Priesse

Les Paul and Mary Ford, Monday Memories

           

Metal Recommendations is giving away Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty 1957 2 PU VOS on Facebook.

I don't need a Les Paul Black Beauty, but can think of others who might. I remember listening to Les Paul and Mary Ford in the 1950s on 78 records in the family "music room" in our house at 4 South Hannah. In the back of the house overlooking the pine trees, the music room held the family piano, Carol’s saxophone, my trombone, Mom’s cello and the children’s record player.  In the evening the room doubled as my dad's office.  It also had a closet with built in shelves where books were stored.  Our piano was an upright, purchased used when we lived in Forreston, with a black varnish on it.  My mother refinished it to a lovely light walnut, I think.    Carol’s sax was originally my Uncle Clare’s as I recall, but was probably traded in later for one with better pads. One of my niece’s now has the cello, although a great-grandchild plays cello.  My trombone was sold in the 1960s before we moved to Columbus, although I do have one of much lower quality now.

           

But back to guitars.  We do have a guitar in our house.  My husband got one for Christmas 2011, and is teaching himself not only guitar, but how to read music.  He says he want to be better before he takes lessons.

            

Haitian Creole—a brief history

“Kreyòl, or Haitian Creole, is the major language of Haiti, spoken by nearly all the 10,000,000 people who live there, plus those in the widespread Haitian diaspora. Its vocabulary (but not the grammar) is primarily based on 18th-century French, with admixtures from African languages, English, and others. Although it is now an official language of Haiti, it has historically had second-class status to French, which was spoken only by the elite and educated, Kreyol being spoken by everyone else. Likely because its use was (and still is) strongly related to social class, the first texts in Kreyol did not appear until the 1920's; orthography (spelling) was finally standardized in 1979.”

The above is from the Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal)

My husband doesn’t speak Creole, French, or Spanish, but by the time his students graduate from Institution Univers located in Ouanaminthe, Haiti, they know those plus English.  Usually a senior is appointment to translate for him, although most of the students can understand, if not speak, English.

NASA Johnson Style (parody)

Brian Schwing, a 22-year-old Ohio State University intern from Cincinnati at NASA in Houston, directed NASA Johnson Style, which shows his fellow interns and astronauts at Johnson Space Center dancing like Gangnam Style singer Psy and singing altered lyrics about the space agency, written by Schwing.  Writing it was the easy part; it took 200 hours to produce and edit down 15 yours of footage to 4 minutes.