I watched some of Kash Patel's Senate questioning this morning and was surprised to hear that at least one Senator, a Democrat of course, still believes that several police were killed in what the Senator still calls an insurrection by Trump supporters, yet he demanded that Patel use the words, "Biden won." No police died during that riot on January 6, 2021. One unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, a demonstrator and veteran, was shot by a capitol policeman. Policeman Brian Sicknick died of natural causes after the riot. But Pelosi put on a big funeral for him and held off releasing the name of the man who killed Ashli for months. Thousands of police were injured during the riots of 2020 and untold billions in property damage (including here in Columbus, OH) resulted in mostly blue cities and who knows how many citizens died from "defund police." Democrat Senators probably don't remember.
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
What's with DeepSeek?
Sunday, January 26, 2025
What do you think of the tech guys kissing the ring?
Saturday, January 25, 2025
Home Warranty scam alert
"ABILENE, TX — Abilene Better Business Bureau President John Riggins is urging everyone to not be fooled by scammers. A postcard mailed by a fake company called the Home Warranty Division is claiming homeowner’s warranties are expiring.
The company is hoping people will blindly renew a home warranty they don’t have. “Be aware of the fact that just because you get something in the mail that says you owe some money because of a home warranty doesn’t mean that you do,” Riggins said.
“What we’re telling consumers is to be aware of the fact that this isn’t a company you’ve already signed a contract with. This is a solicitation. You’d never know it looking at the mailer.”
According to the Abilene Better Business Bureau’s president, there are things everyone can do to avoid being scammed. “Go look up the company name and see what other people are saying about it,” Riggins said. “Using a tool called the BBB Scam Tracker is also helpful.”
The BBB Scam Tracker tracks scams across the country, and some have even been reported locally. “There are a couple dozen reports in the scam tracker,” Riggins said.
Riggins cautions the Home Warranty Division scam is just one of many scams in circulation. The Abilene BBB president says if you’ve never heard of a company before most likely it’s a scam."
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
The Bishop and the President
About a year ago I signed up for a database of abstracts/pdf of articles on Ben Sira/Sirach of the deuterocanonical books of the Bible. It's called Academia.com. My own publications are also in there, but usually the only ones I see for which they notify me are on agricultural credit from the 1970s, and not the ones on library topics from the 1990s. And occasionally, the database is really fishing, like "The name "N. Bruce" is mentioned in "Enzyme-Based Electrochemical Biosensors for Microfluidic Platforms to Detect Pharmaceutical Residues in Wastewater" uploaded to Academia. Not only I didn't write it, can't even read it!
But with the Bible search on Ben Sira, if I see something that looks interesting and click on that title, then my own search gets expanded. So today, I receive a notice that "138,701 papers on Academia discuss "History Of The Bible/Biblical Canon." I also noticed a chart that showed the topic of Bible textual studies had soared in the last 5 years. Must have been the Covid effect--lots of grad students sitting at home with nothing to do but read, research and write. The title that arrived in my mailbox was from The Textual History of the Bible, vol.1B and discusses disagreements among Christians about the deuterocanonical books (7 books in the O.T. not in the Protestant canon but in the other canons).Monday, January 20, 2025
Amazing immigrants
What a week! January 20, 2025
The hymn I read this morning from Magnificat, January 2025, does not seem to have a title except Church--Worship--Morning (1958 Red Service Book and Hymnal, p 202)
"All praise to thee, who safe has keptGood thoughts for anyone, but especially those taking on this heavy burden of wars, border invasion, inflation, devastation by fire in California and floods in North Carolina, dysfunctional government bureaucracy, party loyalties, divided families.
And hast refreshed me while I slept:
Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake
I may of endless light partake.
Lord, I my vows to thee renew;
Disperse my sins as morning dew;
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with thyself my spirit fill." (Verses 3 & 4)
Verse 6 of this hymnal version (poem) is the "Doxology," so familiar to many Christians, and sung every Sunday by millions. If you ever need to sing a group hymn and don't know all the words, use this one--everyone knows the final verse. It was written by an Anglican Bishop, Thomas Ken. Bishop Ken had a great singing voice and used it to speak out against corruption in the British monarchy. He even spent some time in the Tower of London for treason. He wrote many volumes of poetry. This hymn is most often sung to the tune of "Old Hundredth" (for Ps. 100).
Weather for Inauguration Day 2025
That's a rhetorical question, of course. We know the Bidenights held Americans hostage for 4 years and they assume Republicans are as evil as they are. After all, Liz Cheney was their example.
Friday, January 17, 2025
Take the tree down day
Actually, that was yesterday. We decorated it the last week in November when Martti and Riitta were here. Today was take a box up to the closets day. It worked out well. The cleaners have changed to Friday, so they were able to vacuum all the needles. Even artificial trees make a mess. I've changed the "dressing" on the dining room table, and all the Christmas decor is gone, A friend is cleaning out her home in preparation for a move since her two sisters have moved to the a near-by retirement/nursing home. Her tales have inspired me, so while I was putting away the Christmas boxes, I started taking out some things that need to go to the VOA or the Discovery shop. If I recall, it was 3 pair of jeans I didn't take the last time I did this, some faded but loved table clothes--one of my mom's and one of mine, and some holey ones left from dad's Marine service days. Also, a lovely smokey blue knitting skein with needles I'd started to work on many years ago while we lived at Lakeside. I just never got the hang of it no matter how often I tried. Four couch throw pillows made the cut--last time I looked at them I wasn't ready to pitch. And bunches of artificial flowers and ivy, I think they've been in this house at least 20 year--at least the color theme seems to be late 90s or early 2000s. I can see why decluttering is a good thing--everyone says it's good, but my goodness, saying good-bye is difficult. I just tossed in the trash about a ream of paper I'll never use. It's from those fat political screeds printed on one side only. It makes me think of my Grandmother (Mary) who did all her correspondence on used paper--a habit she kept after the Great Depression. I also went through a batch of pencils to see how many worked.
It's been a week since my pacemaker (dual chamber) was implanted and I think I'm taking fewer naps and staying awake in the evening later. That's good. I'm tracking my blood pressure and it seems to be behaving.
My Saturday Bible class is starting a new session tomorrow, but I plan to skip it. It's a Blackaby series, and I remember doing it in the 1990s. Boring. In fact, our whole church also did it while the classes did it also. Double boring.
Here's my 2017 efforts to declutter: Collecting My Thoughts: Monday Memories--moving the books out
Thursday, January 16, 2025
Potter-mania
And to think J.K. Rowling was "cancelled" because she won't say men can be women.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Low battery alert and very cold weather
Tech was not my friend this week (old CD player was electrocuted and died). What I was looking for is one of these. Mine was a 1998 model that fried when a light bulb blew. Some of the new ones look like 1960s or 1950s radios.
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Following a long family tradition
Tuesday, January 07, 2025
Turning the page
Monday, January 06, 2025
New Year's changes in Social Security benefits for retirees
https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10045.pdf?
https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/program-explainers/windfall-elimination-provision.html?
Saturday, January 04, 2025
Hugh Hewitt on Biden, the media, and the scandal of the year
The three men on federal death row did not get a commutation were Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who along with his brother killed three people in 2013; Robert Bowers, who killed 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, and Dylann Roof, who killed nine black Charleston churchgoers in 2015.
Among those getting some holiday cheer is Thomas Sanders, who in 2010 kidnapped and then shot 12-year-old Lexis Roberts four times and cut her throat in Louisiana — days after the girl watched as Sanders murdered her mother on a road trip near the Grand Canyon." (New York Post)
This news came on top of the Wall St. Journal story on the incompetency and dementia of Biden the entire 4 years and how his family and staff protected him and the media lied. The WSJ story was solid journalism with many interviews with staff and observers and media who weren't allowed to tell what they knew. Conservatives who knew this had been silenced or cancelled or called conspiracy nuts. Because Hugh is a journalist, he was most upset with the media, but he's awfully mad at Jill Biden and the rest of his family. The Scandal of the Year - The Hugh Hewitt Show: Highly Concentrated - Apple Podcasts
Friday, January 03, 2025
Butternut Squash on a cold winter day
I'm baking a butternut squash today. Usually I peel it, but that's hard on the hands. "Winter squash are packed with lots of nutrients. Adding them to your meal rotation is a great way to get fiber, along with vitamins A and C, potassium and antioxidants. Consider that 1 cup of baked butternut squash, one of the most popular varieties of winter squash, provides 160% of your daily recommended value of vitamin A, along with 7 grams of fiber." (https://www.mccormick.com/articles/adam-dolge/can-you-eat-squash-skin?)
One cup (205 grams) of cooked butternut squash provides (1Trusted Source):
Calories: 82
Carbs: 22 grams
Protein: 2 grams
Fiber: 7 grams
Vitamin A: 457% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI)
Vitamin C: 52% of the RDI
Vitamin E: 13% of the RDI
Thiamine (B1): 10% of the RDI
Niacin (B3): 10% of the RDI
Pyridoxine (B6): 13% of the RDI
Folate (B9): 10% of the RDI
Magnesium: 15% of the RDI
Potassium: 17% of the RDI
Manganese: 18% of the RDI
Aside from the vitamins and minerals listed above, it’s also a good source of calcium, iron, phosphorus, and copper. (https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/butternut-squash)
Wednesday, January 01, 2025
We enjoyed friends and events in 2024, looking back
January 2024
1. Looks like we were doing the same as this year--packing things up to take the VOA, Discovery Shop and library. Old clothes, clearing shelves, washed sweaters and table clothes,
2. Met with police and banks about a credit scan. New cards.
4. Campfire (conservative Christians) met at Kullbergs. Senior Bible Study, Philippians
5. OSUL luncheon at Morgan House on Glick Rd.
6. Rusty Bucket with Bill and Joyce, Joan and Jerry
8. Book Club, Sisters of Sinai
10. Coffee with Adrienne
11. Campfire at Kullbergs. Senior Bible Study, Mary Kate Hipp on Tabernacle.
12. Coffee with Joann and Jim at McDonald's.
13. Quilt show at MR.
25. Senior Bible Study, Tammy Schuster
26. dinner/dessert Jerry and Joan, Bill and Joyce at Rusty Bucket
27. WOW bible study overview by Woodsen, Shopping at Macy's with Phoebe.
28, Retirement party for Dave and Pam Mann, began in 1974 with middle school kids
February 2024
1 Senior Bible Study, in-between parables
2. OSUL retirees
3. WOW
5. Book Club, My first ladies (flowers)
8. Senior Bible Study
9. Stone kitchen, Bill and Joyce, Jerry and Joan dessert at Joan's.
10. Sent Valentines cards
11. Dinner here with Bruce and Marty and Rod and Judi, Valentine theme
12., Coffee with Adrienne
22 Senior Bible Study Mark 7 Lenten worship and lunch
29. Senior Bible study Mark 9 Lenten worship and lunch
And I will need to update this--maybe