One of the myths of fossil fuel

"Contrary to what many people believe, fossil fuels are not the remains of dead dinosaurs. In fact, most of the fossil fuels we find today were formed millions of years before the first dinosaurs.
Fossil fuels were formed from plants and animals that lived 300 million years ago in primordial swamps and oceans. Over time the plants and animals died and decomposed under tons of rock and ancient seas." U.S. Dept. of Energy

Actually, I’m a 6 day creationist, but God has no problem creating with the appearance of age.

A TV reporter tried to ruin Memories Pizza—it backfired

“The owners of Memories Pizza would have been fully within their rights to keep every penny of the $842,000 donated to them by supporters through the astonishing GoFundMe campaign that followed the attacks on them by gay activists and their media allies. That's how I'm sure most donors intended the money. It was for the people who'd had their very livelihood threatened for no reason whatsoever. They have never been asked to cater a gay wedding, and they almost certainly never will be. They'd never taken any sort of initiative to attack gay people. All they did was honestly answer a question about their faith from a TV reporter on a fishing expedition”

Instead these classy people are funding other good causes. . . disabled children, a women’s help group, firefighters, police trusts, Christian churches, and Washington florist Barronelle Stutzman, 70, who was fined $1,000 after declaring she would not serve a gay wedding.”

http://www.caintv.com/memories-pizza-announces-its-p0

As we drove to Illinois on Thursday, we were certainly sick of this story, considering all the other important, life threatening things going on in the world. Who you sex with has become an obsession of the left. . . Iran’s nuclear bombs on the other hand, no sweat.

Climate change is biggest global threat

No prayers for Christians

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/penny-starr/white-house-summit-violent-extremism-opens-muslim-prayer-no-other-faiths

A Muslim prayer was recited at the start of the second day of the White House summit on “Countering Violent Extremism,” but no other religious text was presented during the portion of the event that was open to the press.

Imam Sheikh Sa'ad Musse Roble, president of the World Peace Organization in Minneapolis, Minn., recited a “verse from the Quran” following remarks by Obama administration officials and Democratic members of Congress.

Of course, this was February.  Surely by Easter and the killing of many Christian college students in the land of his ancestors, Mr. President would have something to say. . . Nope.

Black lives matter, except in Kenya

Mark Steyn Slams Obama for 'Dishonoring' Dead Christians, Media Still Silent -

See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2015/04/09/mark-steyn-slams-obama-dishonoring-dead-christians-media-still

STEYN: The biggest story of our time is the extinction of some of the oldest Christian communities on the planet at the hands of Islam remorselessly. You [Obama] dishonor those Kenyan students in death by not identifying them as Christians, as you dishonored the Egyptians only a couple of weeks earlier.

STEYN: And I think in that sense, Christianity for him is something he associates with white imperialism, whereas Islam is the exotic other and it's a victim group. And the fact is that on his watch, the last Christian church in Afghanistan was razed to the ground. On America's watch, the Christian community in Iraq, an American protectorate, has been exterminated on America's watch. And that is something that ought to be shameful for him! And people -- this isn't funny, by the way.

We've seen this guy who staged this act of Rose Garden theater over Bowe Bergdahl. It's not a small thing when the leader of a supposedly free people lies to those people about what's going on in the world!

Stationary bike benefits

Calories Burned

The number of calories you burn with a stationary bike workout will depend on your weight, the length of the workout and the intensity of your effort during the workout. The more you weigh, the faster you will burn calories, and the longer and harder the workout, the more calories you will burn. In one hour of biking at less than 10 mph, a 160-lb. person can burn 292 calories. With the same workout, a 200-lb. person can burn 365 calories and a 240-lb. person can burn 436 calories. In one hour of biking at speeds greater than 10 mph, a 154-lb. person can burn about 590 calories, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Workout Types

Stationary bike machines typically provide several preset workout modes. In manual mode, you can adjust the resistance of the pedals manually throughout the workout to simulate hills. In preset modes, the pedals’ resistance will change automatically according to a preset pattern. Common preset workouts include hills, intervals and fat burn.

Benefits

Regular physical activity can benefit your health in many ways. Getting at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise each week can reduce your risk of heart disease, metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers, according to the CDC. Regular exercise can also improve your mental health and mood and promote better sleep, suggests the CDC.

http://livewell.jillianmichaels.com/stationary-bike-workouts-lose-weight-4522.html

For Belly Fat

Step 1

Stretch your body dynamically before getting on the bike. Dynamic stretches are performed in motion and they will get your connective tissue loosened up for the exercising movements ahead. Do stretches like leg swings, alternating toe touches, lateral lunges, knee highs, ankle bounces, side bends and trunk rotations.

Step 2

Adjust your seat to the proper height. Sit on the bike, place your feet on the pedals and slowly turn the cranks. Pay attention to your knees. Move the seat to a position where your knee is just short of being straight when you turn the cranks.

Step 3

Begin to pedal for a warm-up. Sit on the seat, place your hands on the handle bars and start pedaling. Go slow at first and gradually increase your speed for five minutes. This will slowly raise your core body temperature and further loosen up your muscles.

Step 4

Increase your speed to your exercising intensity. Pedal hard enough that your breathing becomes labored and you are sweating. Stay at this pace for the duration of your workout. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 60 to 90 minutes of cardio for weight loss. Split your sessions into two or three bouts during the day if you do not have time to do it all at once.

Step 5

Include interval training into your workout to increase your intensity. The more vigorously you exercise, the more calories you'll burn. Pedal for 30 seconds at a very fast pace, then pedal slowly for 60 seconds. Alternate back and forth for an entire workout or implement 10-minute interval sessions into your long workouts. If you do intervals for your whole workout, keep the total time to 30 to 45 minutes because of the intensity.

Step 6

Execute proper form when you are riding. Forcefully push the pedals down with your feet, maintain an erect posture and do not lean on the handle bars. Keep your core tight throughout your workouts and make sure to drink water to stay hydrated.

Step 7

Finish with a light cool-down. Do your cool-down the opposite of how you did your warm-up. Pedal gradually slower through a five-minute time frame.

Step 8

Ride your bike often to get the best results. Work out at least four days a week and continue to work out every week.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/189913-how-to-ride-a-stationary-bike-to-burn-belly-fat/

Itsy bitsy yummy snack muffins

I make these in several flavors but today it is chocolate oatmeal. I don’t like to measure, so I use a cake mix for the basic dry ingredients.

1 box of Devil’s Food cake mix (at Marc’s this is $1.19)

1/2 cup of coconut oil, melted

1 egg

1 cereal bowl (I didn’t measure) of cooked oatmeal (about 1 minute in the microwave) made with quick-cook oats, mixed with two scoops of dark chocolate powder and a little sugar

Mix the oatmeal, egg/shortening and cake mix; will be stiff.  Spray the mold/cups of a mini-muffin tin, put about a rounded teaspoon of batter in each and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.

This makes about 30-36 little muffins, depending on how much batter you use.  I’ve also made this using mashed potatoes (can’t taste it); also tasty is yellow cake mix using apple sauce and chopped walnuts or dried cranberries. I’ve also used a spice cake mix with a jar of baby food carrots and raisins.

If you need them to be a little sweeter, sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Freeze, then take out 2 for dessert, and they won’t make you fat.

How we know race relations are improving—just watch the haters

We know that race relations in the U.S. are improving--high profile positions held by blacks, like the presidency, governorships, CEOs, growing black middle and upper class, blacks in the 1 percent group,  higher rate of voting among blacks than whites, high enrollments in college, all health and welfare indicators improving, but most of all, racialists and haters like the Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Daily Kos, the paid Twitter-haters, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and the President’s speech writers are ratcheting up their hate talk and finger pointing. They are afraid of losing their meal ticket, or their voter base. They must keep blacks in fear.

Confession and forgiveness

I play a YouTube while I'm exercising (Gold's Power Spin 210) because after 5 minutes all the news shows repeat. This morning I heard the phrase, "Going to confession is like getting free health care." That might mean more to Catholics because Confession is a sacrament for them, but it is also a basic principle. Whether you confess your sins to another person who prays with you and suggests changes or directly to our Lord, it is a tremendous relief to hand off that burden. How many health problems are stress related due to unforgiveness and grudges carried way too long?

Heterodox marriage—a useful term with 780,000 matches in Google

It was new to me; so I looked it up.

adjective: heterodox

1. not conforming with accepted or orthodox standards or beliefs.

   "heterodox views"

   synonyms:
   unorthodox, nonconformist, dissenting, dissident, rebellious, renegade

“The United States Supreme Court is hearing two pivotal cases and could, at its whim, change the definition of marriage and custom that has guided human society since ancient times. From experience, we know this — for the most part, aside from sex, men prefer the company of men and women prefer the company of women. We have never had a society where the norm was for men and women to cohabitate, particularly with children.”

Read more: https://amazingopinionsite.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/the-united-states-isnt-ready-for-heterodox-marriage/

Hitler and the wedding cake

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1_gqbQcI60

Hilarious.

Forrest Gump—believe in something bigger than yourself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoQMPgn0GBA#t=94

Ladies' Lunch in Mt. Morris

A few ladies of the class of 1957 gathered for lunch at the McKendrie Street Cafe (at Pinecrest)on April 4 and we enjoyed some cake left from the fall class reunion.

Obama’s Easter message

I see he used his speech to dis Christians.  Way to go. Yet he sat in Rev. Wright’s church for 20 years and never heard his hate sermons.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/7/obama-blasts-less-than-loving-christians/#!

The whitewashing of Irish slavery

“During the 1650s, over 100,000 Irish children between the ages of 10 and 14 were taken from their parents and sold as slaves in the West Indies, Virginia and New England. In this decade, 52,000 Irish (mostly women and children) were sold to Barbados and Virginia. Another 30,000 Irish men and women were also transported and sold to the highest bidder. In 1656, [Oliver] Cromwell ordered that 2000 Irish children be taken to Jamaica and sold as slaves to English settlers.” http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/irish-the-forgotten-white-slaves-says-expert-john-martin-188645531-237793261.html

Some was hatred of the Irish who were considered less than human by the British, some was hatred of Catholicism, and some was profit motive. Muslims were not involved in this slave trade as they were in most.

You can find various sites on the Internet (and in libraries where we used to find things) that deny Irish slavery was like African slavery.  Really, as a percentage of the population I think the islands and South America had a higher percentage of Irish than African.  They didn’t fare well, but are the founding families of many light skinned African Americans. Between the slavery of the 16th and 17th century and the famine immigration of the 19th century, Ireland’s population was decimated.

Small town churches

We've been living in Columbus since 1967, but I still slip and call Mt. Morris "home." We had Good Friday service at Trinity Lutheran with a community choir and chimes and Easter Sunday at the Church of the Brethren in Mt. Morris with my cousin Dianne as the reader. With small congregations and limited professional musicians (to which I'm accustomed at a church with 9 services) I'm always amazed by the love and hard work these little churches put forth to praise the Lord. Pastor Ginny's Easter sermon was one of the best I've heard.

Trinity Lutheran, Easter 2014

The color scheme now is more beige, but it looks much the same as when we were married in 1960.

Christine Baranski and The Good Wife’s wedding planner

How lucky we were!  We'd never seen an episode of the TV series The Good Wife, and after hearing the hysteria for a day (radio news during our auto travel from Ohio to Illinois) from the MSM about an Indiana pizzeria instead of the details of Obama's selling us and Israel down the river in Iran negotiations, we get to see Christine Baranski defend the left's idea of religious freedom guaranteed in the First Amendment while the screen writers fumbled the Christian viewpoint.

The one redeeming line was at the end of the episode where it was pointed out that Obama defended traditional marriage when he wanted to win the presidency (he was lying, of course, but Democrats lie for their causes). That said, Baranski is an outstanding actress and millions will never check the weak argument presented by the actress portraying a Christian wedding planner.

Here’s the point.  Baranski’s character is correct, Jesus never commented on homosexuality.  It was a practice and lifestyle not known to Jews.  It was for pagans, Greeks and Romans where even they didn’t have marriages for homosexuals—it was a form of acceptable pedophilia or prostitution to engage in outside of marriage.

Jesus also never addressed pornography or pedophilia, or space travel or nuclear war or environment or guitars in worship services or many other things that pull us apart these days.  That said, no Christian church exists strictly on the words of Jesus in the four gospels. The Church of the Brethren in which I was baptized at age 12 loves the book of James which doesn’t present the gospel.  The Lutheran church where I am now a member baptizes babies and Martin Luther wanted to throw out the book of James (he is the reason Catholic and Protestant Bibles have a different number of sacred books).

The Christian church managed to thrive for years with no formal canon/scripture; and today every church whether Protestant, Catholic or Independent has a form of church hierarchy, with accepted rules and traditions passed down by word of mouth or printed documents. Churches have statements of faith, synods, boards, brotherhoods, deacons, pastoral organizations.  How to “do” church appears first in the book of Acts not the gospels and most churches follow that in some form.  But the oldest “here’s how to do it” record, The Didache, is a list of rules on baptism, the Eucharist, worship, how to treat each other, no abortion and no sex with young boys, no fighting or gossip, etc.

Marriage is a part of Scripture from Genesis forward, and in Christian teaching, Jesus Christ created the world and all that is in it, including sex for procreating and marriage.  Tradition and all church groups from the Creation right up to 2012 when a tiny political minority combined with a large number of those who think marriage is worthless anyway worked to get the law changed.  It’s not hard to change a law for an event people don’t even care about—but that doesn’t mean Christians have to give up 2000 years of history and tradition and the First Amendment just because screen writers don’t know how to do research.

In the United States the First Amendment protects millions from government interference in religion—Amish who don’t have to go to public school, truck drivers who won’t deliver alcohol, Quakers who don’t get drafted in war time, Sikhs who wear head coverings, prisoners who don’t need to shave and it should protect wedding planners and bakers who don’t wish to be part of the bonding event for gays. And truly, who has killed and imprisoned more gays than governments?

Fix your eyes upon Jesus

We really enjoy this couple on HGTV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7iPEDnqwm0

The new religion with which to violate the first commandment—Climate Change

“The highest ranking woman in the Anglican communion has said climate denial is a “blind” and immoral position which rejects God’s gift of knowledge.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal church and one of the most powerful women in Christianity, said that climate change was a moral imperative akin to that of the civil rights movement. She said it was already a threat to the livelihoods and survival of people in the developing world.”

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/24/climate-change-denial-immoral-says-head-episcopal-church

Al Gore is high priest; prayers for Mother Earth; a Yoga pose instead of folded hands and bowed head; global treaties are the new scripture; and the collection plate—your confiscated taxes to a global government.

Democrat memes and lies

In their age and education group, there are no gaps—in fact in many cities they out earn men.  Except for the Democrat White House.  Women really do make quite a bit less if they work for the president.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/male-female-pay-gap-remains-entrenched-at-white-house/2014/07/01/dbc6c088-0155-11e4-8fd0-3a663dfa68ac_story.html

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/more-evidence-the-gender-wage-gap-is-due-to-choice-not-discrimination/article/2557200#!

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/apr/09/genevieve-wood/what-pay-gap-young-women-out-earn-men-cities-gop-p/