Funeral hymns--do you have a favorite?

A favorite hymn for a funeral? It would depend on the "guest of honor" or the audience or the church tradition. I personally like "For all the Saints." This summer we attended Rev. Irwin Jennings funeral at Lakeside, in the pavilion named for him and his wife Janet on the shore of Lake Erie. This hymn was sung, and in the Methodist tradition, all the clergy present came forward to lead the congregation in singing the hymn.

The United Methodist Hymnal 711. For all the saints who from their labors rest | Hymnary.org

https://youtu.be/1OaBgaMcOvM?si=nXu055eR7iasDBjQ

The most recent funeral we attended was at a funeral home and had only one hymn, which we'd never heard before. Community singing, which usually can bring strangers together even in mourning with a familiar hymn, was replaced with a long "come to Jesus" sermon. However, that was her wish, and often people do plan their own funerals.

Magical thinking about biology and gender

I'm so done with the magical thinking that people can retroactively change their biology. The prefix "trans-" has been very useful in our language until the Left took a hold of it and then attached it to the word gender. It seems to me that trendy, confusing terms come either from prisons, or academe. Both habitats are closed, bound, narrow societies.

 
The root of GENder means birth, descent, race, kind, to beget, to be born; from that root we have useful words like Genesis, genre, gene, genealogy, general, generate, generic, genital, genocide, genuine, genius, progeny, indigenous, gentile (not belonging to the race), and gentle (noble birth). It's basic. Even as a suffix GEN means origin. There are no do-overs, except in being born again (from above, and that has nothing to do with the topic).

The prefix TRANS is used for across, beyond, or change. Transubstantiation (bread and wine after consecration change to the body of Christ in the eucharist), transnational, translation, transportation, transfusion, transgression, transform, transcription, transcendentalism, and so forth.

Transgenderism cannot exist in reality--it can be a philosophy, a religion, a fantasy, a mental illness, but it is not origin or from birth; removing a penis and then using the flap to create a vagina is mutilation, not affirmation of a personal desire to be something else.

 
Stop coddling these word thieves who insist that the other 99% be blind, deaf and stupid about reality and biology. Every cell in the body has a sex. Cutting off some parts or padding other parts doesn't not change sex. Mascara and rouge for sure doesn't. This doesn't mean there aren't accidents that happen in the womb or at conception, but usually the whole world doesn't need to genuflect to these anomalies. There are no transwomen, no transmen, no transgender, no T in LGBQ; and for those barking at the door of reality, remember there are also no transspecies or Otherkin so we don't have to have litter boxes in the classroom. They can fantasize at home.

Our new railing

At the beginning of the summer and I knew we wouldn't be in Lakeside for 10 weeks, I thought we'd get a lot done around the house and maybe take some interesting trips.  In June we did take a short trip, sort of, to the Fortin Ironworks in Grandview to look at the possibility of an attractive handrail at the front door.  It just got installed yesterday.  It's not my original plan, but I'm happy with it. After we picked something out, and had an employee come out and look at the sidewalk which slopes to the stoop, then we had to get approval from the association. I wanted it because of the drop off of about 6 inches next to the front door.  If I'm carrying something, I need a railing to grab if I am unsteady.  I suppose I could call this "assisted living."

 

"Once upon a Wardrobe" by Patti Callahan

I hate to read names in novels and not be able to pronounce them. It slows me down, and I'm already a very slow reader. So I'm reading "Once upon a wardrobe" a novel by Patti Callahan for book club this afternoon (see, I told you I was slow) and there is a character named Padraig. By p. 142, I'm just calling him Patrick because phonetically (pad-rag) it sort of sounds like that to me. So I looked it up. Close enough. Podric

https://youtu.be/ffUVEq8xTsE?si=5bxfKzgJPgzNxyrt

I finished the book at 11:15, fixed lunch, we ate at 11:30, and after lunch I summarized the entire novel for Bob, whose eyes were starting to cross. But I should be able to remember it by 1 p.m.

S4E98 – AH – "After Hours" with Patti Callahan - Pints With Jack

Ten Things that made me happy today

1.  I wore my new Christmas sweater

2. in a cheery royal blue

3. to a Conestoga Party

4. at a lovely venue I've never been to

5. with a dinner prepared by Schmidt's Sausage Haus

6. our Friday date-night spot of 40 years ago

7. enjoying Bahama Mamas and German potato salad

8, with cream puffs for dessert

9. sitting with our neighbors Joan and Jerry

10. while renewing old friendships.

I get offers in my e-mail

I get offers. 

1. Asking for money. 

2. Asking me to write a book review.

3. Asking me to promote a story on my blog. 

4. Asking me to interview someone and promote their ideas, candidacy or book.

Then there's the "loaded potato" tease.

"The first and only reproductive justice organization in Nebraska—a state ranked among the highest for its maternity care deserts—seeks to provide a long-term solution to this health crisis by creating a community of doulas and increasing access to doula care."

I say loaded because of the politically, economically or racially charged phrases: let me translate leftist gibberish.

 
1. "reproductive justice (aka abortion),
2. "maternity care desert" (aka rural, but could mean pockets of poverty)
3. "long-term solution" (aka government)
4. "health crisis" (obligatory political term used by all parties)
5. "create a community" (this is usually a progressive/socialist term, but increasingly used by conservatives just to keep up--may mean no spouse or children, so create a family/community)
6. doulas (feminist term to push men out of labor and delivery, and encourage home birth ala 19th century or birthing huts.

95% of doulas are female, but no one seems to be demanding equity for men in that field.

Anyway, by this point in the e-mail I've hit delete just based on the language, not the meaning.

Today's New Word--casque

1: a piece of armor for the head : HELMET

2: an anatomical structure (such as the horny outgrowth on the head of a cassowary) suggestive of a helmet

Our bird calendar provided us with a very strange one; Oriental Pied-Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris). It looks strange to us, but the females seem to like it.

 A close look at an Oriental Pied Hornbill - Bird Ecology Study Group (besgroup.org)

The 13 Hornbills of Indonesia (rekoforest.org)

New York's ridiculous quarantine regulation is reinstated

While you weren't watching . . .

New York has reinstated one of the biggest power grabs I can remember. It was struck down last year, and has now been reinstated on a technicality, like "standing." The way it's worded, "highly contagious communicable disease" can mean the state could take over a citizen's health care and quarantine her because of a cold or the flu, both of which fit all the definitions in this regulation. It's a HUGE attack on civil liberties. And what NY does [like California], other states will follow. Hochul has an even bigger power lust that Cuomo. It was struck down in July 2022 as unenforceable. Now it's been unstruck down, if that's a word.

 
"Rule 2.13 was first enacted on Feb. 22, 2022 and has been extended by successive 90-day periods through July 20, 2022. Rule 2.13 states in pertinent part: “whenever appropriate to control the spread of a highly contagious communicable disease," the state health commissioner may issue and/or direct local health officials "to issue isolation and/or quarantine orders, consistent with due process of law, to all such persons as the State Commissioner of Health shall determine appropriate.” The rule allows the state health department to coordinate with local health authorities to mandate isolation and quarantine for individuals exposed to communicable diseases, even in locations outside of their own homes." The word "appropriate" is another squishy term for the power hungry to chew on.

Senator Walczyk Denounces Court Decision To Reinstate Quarantine Regulations | NYSenate.gov

Quarantine isolation law reinstated, reversing prior GOP win (timesunion.com)

Judge Declares New York’s COVID-19 Isolation and Quarantine Regulation Unenforceable | Bond Schoeneck & King PLLC - JDSupra

Rape as a weapon of war

Rape.

As a "community," American feminists are a huge fail. They are narrow minded, self-centered, and duplicitous. Begin with the Squad in Congress, follow them with the Women's Studies mafia at the Universities then clean up on aisle 7 with the Hollywood aging celebs digging up dirt on men they chased during their failed careers. Silence in the case of rape as a weapon of war really is violence, unlike using the wrong pronoun.

It's almost two months since the October 7 massacre in Israel. The U.N. virtue signalers (many women) who can make all sorts of pronouncements and create documents about a fraction of a degree in temperature, have been much too busy preening to condemn the rape of women and children, not by the military, but by Palestinian civilians. It's disgusting. I'm ashamed of all those who say they fight for women, from AOC and Tlaib in D.C. to the motley crew and noisy gaggle in the U.N.
Israeli women are making waves, but even they don't say anything about rape as a war weapon in Sudan and Ethiopia, where some estimates are that 70% of the women have been kidnapped for sex or raped and left to fend for themselves as the men are killed.

I'm sorry to provide such a biased link (pro-Hamas), but it's the only one I found which even had a small paragraph about rape as a war weapon being addressed by U.N. It may be my search skills or Big Tech algorithms.

UN Commission to Investigate Hamas Sexual Violence, Appeal for Evidence (usnews.com)

Sudanese women describe being gang-raped in attacks by Arab forces (reuters.com)

Giving Tuesday

Opinion: Giving Tuesday (following Thanksgiving, black Friday, small business Saturday and cyber Monday) might have been a good idea when it began, but it has become annoying. I think I deleted about 35 messages yesterday and threw out some snail mail. Some were from organizations I've already given to, and even though I know these are mass mailings, it irritates me to see begging and manipulating after I've already been generous. I'm of the opinion that, unlike true growth or the expanding economic pie, charitable dollars are probably fixed. We donate about 10 or 12% of our income and have for about 50 years. Our income and interests change (higher when we were employed) but our values haven't. Our cat died in 2017 so we don't contribute now to Cat Welfare. When Project Veritas dumped the founder, it lost our donation. When Pinecrest was taken over by Allure I no longer send a memorial to honor my parents. The money was shifted to Lutheran Bible Translators or Pregnancy Decision Health Center, saving babies from abortion.

Whether you give $5 a year or $5,000, getting an e-mail may move more for this orphanage or that little league team, but it may not change your overall percentage. There are only so many charitable dollars to go around. Does Giving Tuesday make people more charitable?

A few facts:  Now, AFTER I wrote the above paragraph, I actually checked my opinion against the AI fact checkers. I was told that 2012 was the first year with 2500 non-profits and over $12 million given/pledged. Now (2022) it's up to $3.1 billion, an increase of 15% over 2021. So what self-respecting manager of a non-profit wouldn't sign on for what appears to be an increase in gratitude and charity?

So, I ask you, are people more charitable than they were in 2012 or is it a shell game and the money just moves around, with the bigger and better advertisers getting the bigger share using a good gimmick, Giving Tuesday.

Memories

Many years ago, I read a short piece in a woman's magazine about clearing out the home of an elderly woman after her death. Among her belongings they found a large ball of string (frugal people used to save string, rubber bands, pieces of foil, bread bags, etc. for some need in the future). It was labelled, "Pieces of string too short to use." That's how I feel about my memories; I'm grateful I started a blog (web log, or diary on the internet) 20 years ago, because I remembered then details I can't recall now. I occasionally recall something from Alameda, CA during our time there in WWII, or an event at Faith Lutheran in Forreston, IL where we lived after Dad's time in the Marines. One piece of string I found today for which I have no story to write because I was trying to remember the pastor's name, is how cute my little brother looked in his Bumble Bee costume for the Mother's Day program at the church.
It's a piece of string too short to use.

Billy Collins wrote a poem called "Forgetfulness" in 1994. It's the only poem I have posted on my refrigerator. https://youtu.be/aj25B8JYumQ?si=M5m15Zd1J-cI5zvX You can hear the audience laugh, but you'll recognize every line. It's happened to you,

This 2011 blog entry includes both Alameda and Forreston at Christmas. Collecting My Thoughts: Monday Memories--Christmas in the 1940s

Collecting My Thoughts: Monday Memories of Kindergarten and Alameda

Meeting IRMAA

 Irma was the name (not used) of my mother-in-law. Beautiful blonde, lots of fun.  But this IRMAA is different kind altogether.

If you have a "one time" event like selling your summer home in Lakeside, the IRS will increase the cost of your Medicare the next year. It's called IRMAA. Of course, on the sale price, those inflated costs since the purchase in 1988 were figured as real dollars. The government never loses, but it sure can go in debt spending a billion here and a billion there.

We Sold Our Home. Now We Have To Pay More For Medicare! What’s IRMAA? (forbes.com)

The appeal seems to be written in a foreign language that no one but a bureaucrat could read. https://secure.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx/0601140005#

More hostages released today

"A fourth group of hostages was transferred out of Gaza on Monday, capping a temporary truce negotiated between Israel and Hamas after weeks of conflict.

So far 69 hostages have been released by Palestinian militant group Hamas over the first four days of the truce. Israeli civilian women and children were freed in groups of 11 to 13 each day, per the deal’s terms, along with varying numbers of other nationals, including citizens of Thailand, Poland, the Philippines and Russia."

I've been watching Israel TV i24 almost every day since October 7, and each story is riveting, and upsetting. The bad behavior of the rioters in this country is terribly depressing. What sort of idiots and haters have our young people become?

Who are the hostages released so far in the Israel-Hamas deal? (msn.com) CNN

It's true, I'm a one issue voter

"Mifepristone, also called RU-486, blocks reception of the pregnancy hormone progesterone, shutting off the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the baby in the womb. Forty-eight hours later, the drug misoprostol is taken to induce labor.

Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the abortion pill is “safe and effective,” chemical abortion is four times more likely to result in complications than surgical abortion, [Dr. Christina] Francis said."

Women ‘Deserve Better’ Than Chemical Abortion, Physician Says (dailysignal.com)

Daily Signal is a media product of the Heritage Foundation.

Yesterday I listened to a September interview on the podcast Edify with Abby Johnson, who helps women give up a good income by leaving their jobs at Planned Parenthood. Making Abortion Unthinkable - EDIFY. Abby Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood clinic director turned pro-life advocate.

EDIFY is a Catholic podcast on hotly debated issues in our society. There's nothing I've heard that wouldn't benefit all Christians.

Universal Prayer

 https://youtu.be/6mGOrgJqWl8?si=HogwG4txdWu4YnBw

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER (attributed to Pope Clement XI) (adw.org)

Blindsight is 2020

I'm reading "Blindsight is 2020; Reflections on Covid policies from dissident scientists, philosophers, artists, and more" by Gabrielle Bauer, Brownstone Institute, 2022. It begins with two stories we've lived through the last almost four years. And I'm guessing it's not over.

 
Story one is the one all the media agencies, tech and pharma giants, politicians, local, state, and federal governments insisted we believe. And I did, and maybe you did, for about the first month after which not much made sense if you knew anything about economics or social sciences. It had the momentum of a patriotic war--if you didn't go along or found it fantastical, you were the enemy of the people. You weren't saving lard or scraps of aluminum to help our boys in Europe and the Far East.  And miraculously, it turned out to be just the crisis that the Democrat Party dreams about to turn to their favor. Demonize the incumbent and change the rules for voting,

Story two is the one that moved underground--it is told in this book by 46 epidemiologists, public health experts, doctors, psychologists, cognitive scientists, historians, novelists, mathematicians, lawyers, comedians, and musicians. They all took issue with the way the people in Story one were trying to stamp out a virus using unproven and dangerous methods, including lockdowns, experimental vaccines, masking and destruction of our basic liberties.

A lot of Democrats and liberals have been "red pilled" by this health crisis and trauma, even though they still don't like President Trump (who also got suckered by some of the "believe the science" deep state). I hope there are some answers in this book. I'm still in chapter one.

Blindsight Is 2020: Reflections on Covid Policies from Dissident Scientists, Philosophers, Artists, and More: The Independent Review: The Independent Institute

Blindsight is 2020: Perspectives on COVID Policies from Dissident Scientists, Philosophers, Artists, and More (freethepeople.org)

https://youtu.be/whIn3vCpspI?si=bIQ-pcu_JhMJlmhb

What's stressing you this season?

What's stressing you this holiday season? Each year we see articles like the one I saw at OSU Health:

 
"This year the top sources of stress for Americans are national and world affairs, higher prices putting a crimp on holiday budgets and increasing cases of respiratory illnesses, according to a recent national survey conducted here at The Ohio State University."

Most of the items (there were more) could be crossed off your list if Biden weren't in the White House. We'd all be richer, healthier and more secure. Five or 6 years ago Trump was being blamed and experts would recommend meditation and not getting together with Republican relatives.

 
So, in a way, this is progress. https://health.osu.edu/health/mental-health/holiday-stress?

Whatever the Left Touches It Ruins

Dennis Prager (and many others) say: "More than two years ago, I wrote a column titled "Whatever the Left Touches It Ruins." I listed eight examples:

• The universities.
• The arts: music, art and architecture.
• Sports.
• Mainstream Judaism, Protestantism and Catholicism.
• Race relations.
• Women’s happiness.
• Children’s innocence.
• And, perhaps most disturbingly, America's commitment to free speech.

One should now add the sciences."

"If you send your children to a university, you are endangering both their mind and their character. There is a real chance they will be more intolerant and more foolish after college than they were when they entered college.

When you attend an American university, you are taught to have contempt for America and its founders, to prefer socialism to capitalism, to divide human beings by race and ethnicity. You are taught to shut down those who differ with you, to not debate them. And you are taught to place feelings over reason — which is a guaranteed route to eventual evil."

https://dennisprager.com/column/whatever-the-left-touches-it-ruins?

Home buyers are much older today than in 1962 when we did it

What would the media do without a constant stream of crises? Home buyers are getting older! Sure, we were first time buyers at 22 with a baby in tow, but that was an important value for my generation. Today? Hey, at 22 they are still hanging out in college or back packing in Europe, waiting for Joe to pay their college loans. Even at 35, a lot of young adults prefer granite countertops, a gym and a swimming pool they can get with their pricey rental. Our first home was a duplex with a dirt floor basement and no garage. You only make money in real estate if someone else is paying the mortgage.

"Repeat buyers were a median age of 58 in 2023, while first-time buyers were 35, per National Association of Realtors annual data released this week."

America's first-time and repeat homeowners are getting older (axios.com)

                                    First home on White St. , 40+ years later--many changes.

Pro-Hamas protestors at DNC and Biden home

You get to protest in this country (except election results), but pro-Hamas riots in front of DNC headquarters? Or in front of Biden's Delaware White House? There will be no arrests and punishments, and especially no show trials on TV.

"House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, House Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Rep. Pete Aguilar were inside as the clash between protesters and police sparked and turned violent,  according to authorities. Six officers were injured during the melee Wednesday evening and one person was arrested for allegedly punching a female officer. According to US Capitol Police, officers had worked “to keep back approximately 150 people who are illegally and violently protesting” in the area – a characterization activist groups later disputed – and escorted members of Congress, including the top House Democrats, from the area." (CNN report)

"The pro-Hamas harem of intersectional oppression Olympians, outright bigoted Islamists, and trust fund slacktivists coalesced on the Democratic National Committee headquarters in a demonstration that devolved into, shall we say, a proper insurrection." (Washington Examiner)

Protesters have gathered near his personal home to call on the President to push for a ceasefire in the brutal Israel-Hamas war. A video shared on Twitter, shows a large group of protesters waving Palestinian flags outside his home chanting "ceasefire now!" and "President Biden, you can't hide! We charge you with genocide!." (Mirror US)