Mourning sorrow: Nigerian Christians fear more retaliation after Muslim gangs kill 500 
Click to Print
Include Comments
Whirled Views 6.20
Good morning!
Today’s quote is from a former baseball slugger:
“My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, ‘You’re tearing up the grass.’ ‘We’re not raising grass,’ Dad would reply. ‘We’re raising boys.’”
Welcome to our daily (except Sundays) open thread, where you, the commenters, choose the topics of conversation.
Topic: Watercooler Chatter, WorldMagBlog
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
back to top48 Comments to “Whirled Views 6.20”
I loved tossing the baseball with Dad. Mom and Dad always made us feel special. Special and responsible.
Report comment to moderator
That’s great to hear Monty.
Report comment to moderator
I detect a cold turkey waiting outside my door. A cold turkey might scare some people, but I have been married for 43 years to a woman with very cold feet. At night, she says, “My feet are cold!” Then she puts her feet on my feet.
“Whoa!” I reply. “Popsicle toes!
“How come you don’t lose your toes to frost bite? For that matter, how come you don’t die from hypothermia with feet as cold as that?”
“I don’t know” she replies, snuggling up to me. “Ah, your feet are warm. That feels better.”
If I can survive 43 years of popsicle toes, I can deal with a cold turkey.
Report comment to moderator
When I was a child, I loved playing baseball. However, I was the despair of my Little League team manager. No hit, no run, no field, no throw. That was me. A quadruple threat.
To my manager’s sanity.
I actually stole a base once. I got on base because the pitcher walked me. I took a risky lead off first base. (I have no idea why.) After the pitch, I realized the catcher was going to pick me off from first, so I started to run for second. The catcher started to laugh so hard he made a bad throw to the second baseman that pulled him off the bag. I slide (well actually flopped) onto second base, just ahead of the second baseman’s desperate tag.
“Safe!” yelled the umpire.
Both teams and the parents watching in the stands cracked up so hard, it took several minutes for the umpire to restore order.
This is true. It was the most glorious moment in my Little League career.
Report comment to moderator
It appears that Random and I are finally in the same league.
Same sports league. I would have liked to have him around as a kid. To save me from being picked last.
Have you ever gone through life being picked last.
Some, it negatively affects permanently. Me, it made me work harder at what I did. My son once made a statement that applies to me perfectly.
At his graduation, Chemical Engineering, Univ. of S. Carolina, we were celebrating. He introduced me to several of his clssmates. Later, he said to me, “Most of those people are much smarter than I am. I just worked harder than they did.”
Describes me exactly.
Random started this!
Report comment to moderator
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009362109_molest20m.html
Well, this just ruined my morning.
Clutching a fuzzy white bear and wearing a bright smile, the blond 7-year-old climbed onto a stool in the courtroom and looked down at a pink sheet of paper adorned with stickers.
The smile disappeared almost immediately as she recounted a horror story.
Instead of celebrating the last day of first grade with her friends and family, the girl in the flowery pink dress described to a hushed courtroom a series of horrific sex acts that a former neighbor and trusted baby-sitter, Peter Ansell, forced her to perform. And she wasn’t the only one.
After hearing from the girl, her parents and the parents of two other victims, King County Superior Court Judge Michael J. Fox sentenced Ansell to a minimum of 10 years in prison. But Ansell’s ultimate sentence will be decided by the state’s Indeterminate Sentencing Review Board, which could impose a life term.
…
Report comment to moderator
Chas and Random this is for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpBsoU0tsxk&feature=related
The full Peter, Paul and Mary version is out there somewhere but I couldn’t find it. The kid played right field for the the All Stars team. He was the scrub team token. He didn’t like it when I sang this song. I played right field for the church team until they figured out I could do less harm at catcher. I once caught a running fly an inch off the ground by accident. I was so surprised they had to yell at me to throw it in. I was only 23. I’ve always been a late bloomer.
Report comment to moderator
It’s a terrible story Random.
KBells, I wish that had happened to me, just once.
And for late bloomers, I’m still waiting.
Report comment to moderator
This one’s for NJL and kbells. The House voted to impeach this bozo yesterday.
kbells: Should these women have just quit?
http://www.law.com/jsp/tx/PubArticleTX.jsp?id=1202431196338&slreturn=1
Report comment to moderator
My son was an aspiring pitcher. A neighbor showed us that we could nail a garbage can lid to a tree and painted a square on it to represent the strike zone. Noisy, but it saved my hand from the pain (I had an outfielders glove, not a catcher’s mitt). Anyway, he never got very fast, but had some accuracy. When he signed up to play in high school, the coach put him in right field. He did not like that, but I reminded him that right field was better than left out. His moment in the sun came when he was playing on the JV team in high school against the larger (and better) neighbor district. The coach put him in to pitch. He ended up striking out a the other team’s star batter (a senior playing JV), because the other guy was used to fast pitches, so he would swing too early for my son’s slow balls.
Report comment to moderator
First of all, They shouldn’t have taken 7 years of abuse. Working at Wal Mart has to be better than that. At least while waiting for the courts to do something about it.
Secondly, maybe this would have been taken more seriously if the court weren’t clog up with women suing because the office nerd asked them out or because the man that got the promotion really was better at his job. I worked with girls who freaked out and tattled because someone yelled at them in the heat of a live show. One black girl had a guy written up because while waiting for the talent to show up, he got bored, started playing with a piece of rope and made a noose.
I’m not saying not to fight for your rights, just don’t be a sissy about every little thing. Going over someones head should be the last resort and when you have to, it will carry more weight if it is the first time and you have a reputation for resolving conflict on your own.
Report comment to moderator
Random – My feet get quite cold in the winter. (Imagine that!) I put on socks before going to bed, but before I put them on, I sit on them for a little while to warm them up. Maybe your wife could give that a try (if she doesn’t already do that).
Report comment to moderator
As to sports, I’m the girl who comes through when it really matters. Sometimes.
Once I was with a group of people going off for a casual game of baseball. I can’t play baseball, I explained on the way. I can’t hit the ball, and I’m too slow at getting to the bases. It’s OK, you can play anyway, we’re just playing for fun, they all reassured me. I got up for my first pitch, swung my bat, and amazingly it connected with force and I got to second base. Then everyone thought I’d been being humble. Every time I got up to bat again, they were watching for great things and telling me to do it again, and not understanding why I wouldn’t swing. Reality is, I have a better chance if I wait for four balls than if I try to hit a strike, because I really can’t play baseball. But that one chance hit was so good no one would believe me.
When I was 18, I was enrolled in a four-month school in which everyone else was older than me by four to forty years. We played volleyball for fun from time to time, and everyone learned to say, “It’s OK, Cheryl, good try.” (Does anyone else hate that line as much as I do?) At the end of the course, we played our traditional game against the teachers, and we went wild and crazy. (We had “cheerleaders” holding mop heads instead of pom-poms.) And the teachers were better than we were. When we were down 11-0, I got up to serve. “It’s OK, Cheryl, just give it your best,” they all encouraged. So I gave it my best . . . and gave our team its first seven points. I’m not good at sports, but I can be at least decently good at volleyball–not good enough to be the star of any team, but certainly not as bad as they all thought I was until that game. It was wonderful to finally go from “Good try” to “Excellent serve! Do it again.”
Report comment to moderator
http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/boer.shtml
The Bible and the Religious Right
However, the religious right and the political right have not always been riveted together – or rather, the “religious right” has not always been “right.”
Rest of story at link, suggesting that the earliest “evangelicals” were “radicals.”
Report comment to moderator
Friends: I think I can take credit for David Barton writing a newish article on Romans 13 (I have been making a lot of hay over it of late).
http://tinyurl.com/mgcsln
He makes a few big gaffes. He wrongly claims Luther and Calvin as being in the pro-rebellion side of interpreting Romans 13 AND he wrongly claims Jonathan Mayhew as a Great Awakening minister, when in reality Mayhew was an Enlightenment unitarian minister and an explicit theological enemy of Jonathan Edwards’ “Great Awakening.”
Report comment to moderator
kbells:
First of all, They shouldn’t have taken 7 years of abuse.
So the first time this federal judge groped them they should ignore it.
Working at Wal Mart has to be better than that.
Interesting comment. At least WalMart by now has pretty firm written policies about such things. And it’s a lot easier to quit a job at Walmart than give up what for many is a job of lifetime working for a federal judge.
Secondly, maybe this would have been taken more seriously if the court weren’t clog up with women suing because the office nerd asked them out or because the man that got the promotion really was better at his job.
So because someone else filed a lawsuit, these ladies should roll over and submit?
I worked with girls who freaked out and tattled because someone yelled at them in the heat of a live show. One black girl had a guy written up because while waiting for the talent to show up, he got bored, started playing with a piece of rope and made a noose.
There are nooses and then there are nooses. There is language to yell and not to yell. It’s in the eye and ear of the beholder. That’s why we have juries.
I’m not saying not to fight for your rights, just don’t be a sissy about every little thing. Going over someones head should be the last resort and when you have to, it will carry more weight if it is the first time and you have a reputation for resolving conflict on your own.
Yes you are. This guy was was one of the most powerful men in half of Texas. He himself called himself the god of his empire.
And, in point of fact he really didn’t have any “bosses” to complain to, even if, in your judgment, his conduct which constituted criminal behavior, was worth complaining about.
Report comment to moderator
OK, I didn’t see anyone identify the quote from the baseball player.
Harmon Killebrew.
Report comment to moderator
I once worked at a place where one man had all male paralegals. He did this out of fear of harassment suits. Others said he was discriminating against women. Turns out the “only males” policy for this man’s office was from his higher ups.
I think had these gals quit it would have only led to a new victim coming into the job.
I’m assume being a legal case mgr for a judge is much less demanding than working as a paralegal at a big firm. This woman obviously felt it was easier to endure the groping etc than to resign and go work at a place with a much higher operations tempo.
Tells you a lot about govt jobs.
The judge should be disbarred and banned from the practice of law all together.
Report comment to moderator
#7 Kbells, you left me out
I have umpired baseball and softball for years. The game is very special in so many ways. In one game a young kid who had been constantly stranded made it to third base. One of the parents told me that if the player got home it would be the first time he had ever scored. The next batter hit out into right field and the kids with the greatest look on his face headed home. He made it and his team cheered like nobody’s business. I told the time keeper to stop the clock so they could celebrate without losing any game time.
Report comment to moderator
Having spent almost two decades with a federal judge and knowing how many others behaved, KBells is onto something regarding taking 7 years of this guy’s nonsense. It is not an easy job, whether the judge is male or female, but there is always a chief judge (or another judge) available to speak with if your judge is out of line. I doubt this character confined his nonsense to chambers. I never met a judge with a problem that it wasn’t known by everyone in the courthouse. This man obviously has deep psychological problems, and it shouldn’t have taken 7 years for his staff to report it. No one holds a gun to your head to stay.
That said, knowing what I know about Judges Claiborne and Nixon, Kent won’t be getting off easy, though you might find amusing the fact that Alcee Hastings was impeached a judge but was later elected to Congress.
Report comment to moderator
Montyfisherwoof = Ferdinand Waldo Demara?
I’m beginning to think of you like that guy that had a gazillion different careers. Let’s see, you’ve been a baseball/softball umpire, worked in the medical field, led a youth Bible study, trained dogs (professionally?), own (several?) properties, and you’re now taking trapeze lessons (???).
Hmmmm.
Report comment to moderator
Having spent almost two decades with a federal judge and knowing how many others behaved,…
NJL: You are a career federal clerk?
18: For some strange reason (I don’t know why) paralegal tends to me overwhelmingly female in those employees interested in the position. One could say, as with MDs, it’s part of a sexist institution where the men become the doctors and lawyers, the women, the nurses and paralegals, but law schools are churning out 50%+ female graduates and have been doing so for some time. I don’t know the stats for MDs, but I know as with the law, it ain’t a male only profession anymore.
Report comment to moderator
#22, I don’t have official stats, but my husband’s med school class was more than 50% women, as were at least two of the three classes behind his class.
Report comment to moderator
Donna,
It is quite possible. I have a brother who studied accounting (wanting to go to law school . . . but he never went on to law school and never practiced accounting), and who has been a printer’s assistant (when printing was more manual than it is now), nearly got his pilot’s license (his pilot trainer died when my brother was just an hour or two away from the necessary flight hours), has managed fast-food restaurants, has owned several businesses (including a video arcade–in the old days, think PacMan–and an office-supply resale store), and has been in real estate (both investing and selling) and stock-market investing. Since he has never “specialized” and isn’t willing to work for somebody else, he has never really been successful. But his resume definitely includes a variety of jobs, and I’m a witness.
Report comment to moderator
Interesting.
So what gives, Monty? Trapeze artist? Musician? Umpire? Orange farmer? Dog trainer?
Report comment to moderator
23,
Thanks for this. That accords with a stat that women are now significantly more than 50% of college (and I think grad. school) graduates.
Men are still overrepresented in math/science heavy fields and in the top paying jobs; but overall women are overtaking men in terms of higher ed. churn outs.
Report comment to moderator
Monty, I didn’t mean to spurn you. I picked on Random and Chas because they talked like they had spent a lot of time in Right Field out where the dandelions grow..
Report comment to moderator
Ahhhh I feel better now.
In my short illustrious career I played first base. I was nothing spectacular. I have spent most of my time with baseball either in the stands or behind the plate. (The best seat in the house but you have to stand.)
I love dandelion tea and dandelion wine though
Report comment to moderator
#15: If he makes that many egregious errors, I’m not sure why you want to take credit for motivating him or call attention to it.
Report comment to moderator
Have any of you seen the Lifehouse Everything skit? It was first performed in 2006. Apparently it’s been a pretty big phenomenon on Youtube and Godtube, but I missed it somehow. I just saw it for the first time when a friend posted it on Facebook. It is seriously awesome and touching, everyone should see it.
Here is a link to it on Youtube.
Report comment to moderator
#21 and #25 Donna J.
)
I am and have been a medical engineer for many years. I decided to invest most of my earnings in real estate and made a few dollars in doing so.
I have always been surrounded by music and musicians so it was only natural to play a few instruments. It was a good reason to get together with others in high school and university and playing guitar always seemed a good way to open doors. I sucked at playing drums because I guess I just wasn’t that interested in playing them. I played trombone because of finding a particularly nice silver alto trombone at a pawn shop after a car I was driving across country for someone else broke down. (It lost an axle so that qualifies as a break down.) We always had a piano at home but I never felt like I could excel at it so although I learned the basics I didn’t really study it as deeply as I did guitar.
I regretted that decision later when I got my first electronic keyboard with a midi interface.
I have always been active and discovered that I could be involved in a sport and not get hurt… by being the referee. It was also a hobby that paid its own way. And after a couple of seasons I was absolutely hooked.
I have two places in northern california that I refer to as my retreats. The orange farm where I am right now and a little property on the coast north of Mendecino. I have a few properties in southern california and a smattering of properties in a few other states.
I grew up in a flying family. The first flight I took was in a Piper Tripacer. I got my hands on the controls when i was six. It seemed like forever before I could get my private ticket.
And it was only this last week that i took my first trapeze lesson. And found it exquisite. I had excelled in trampoline in university and the trapeze reminds me of those days. I have a stuntman friend who knew of a trapeze school. I am too old to become a trapeze artist but I enjoy ‘flying’ as they call it. (As long as there is a net I am good to go.
Report comment to moderator
#30 Matt Y , that is an absolutely beautiful video. Thank you for posting the link to it.
Report comment to moderator
Matt Y – Thanks so much for the link.
Report comment to moderator
Matt Y – Very nice video. Brought tears to my eyes.
Report comment to moderator
MattY: That’s excellent.
Report comment to moderator
Happy Father’s Day to all of you fathers and people who have ever had fathers in any way shape or form! What is on the docket for fun filled activities? What did you get or give?
Report comment to moderator
Mumsee,
I made the breakfast my husband asked for (omelet, corned beef hash, and toast) and had my sons serve it to him. I thought of getting him a shirt I saw in Wal-Mart, that had the following text that started in large letters and got increasingly smaller toward the end: The best thing about this shirt is that by the time you get close enough to see that there’s nothing worth reading, it’s too late. But they didn’t have it in his size (3X).
No particular activities planned. My husband was planning on spending more time working on the basement walls (he’s carpentry-impaired, but to save money he and our older son are working on it together rather than hiring someone), in spite of all the aches and soreness from yesterday’s efforts. But it’s a gray rainy day and he was hoping to work by daylight, which won’t be much down there in this weather. I told him it was a Father’s Day gift (from God, obviously) to him, to be able to relax today.
Report comment to moderator
Happy Father’s Day everyone.
Report comment to moderator
A Father’s Day thought:
III John 4: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in the truth.”
Report comment to moderator
Seems Random and I have something in common after all. I can’t speak for him, but I’m not athletically gifted. I’ve already said that I’d make a great NFL quarterback, except:
I’m too small
too weak
two slow, and
too clumsy.
Other than that, I think I could make it.
Report comment to moderator
36: Thanks, mumsee. It’s just a lazy day here. We might go visit friends this afternoon/evening.
13: Cheryl D’s volleyball experience reminds me of my basketball ability. I never played growing up, because the only court in our neighborhood was dirt, and all the dust affected my allergies. So, when I grew up, my BIL and several others from the church would go to the elementary school where he taught and shoot hoops on Sunday afternoons. That is where I at least learned how to dribble, though I still cannot dribble and run at the same time.
Anyway, a few years ago, the school where I teach had a teacher vs student b-ball game as part of homecoming week. In the game, I was standing at the top of the key when I got the ball. Since no one was covering me, and no one was open to pass the ball to (I did not want to embarrass myself in front of the student body by trying to go in for a lay up), I just threw the ball towards the hoop. To my and everyone else’s surprise, it went in, all net, for 3 points. The students still talk about it after 4 years! Fortunately, all those students have graduated, so I do not need to participate anymore. They all wanted to see Mr L shoot a three. I have tried every year since, and cannot even get the ball close to the basket. It was a none time happening.
Report comment to moderator
Hubby got two of his favorite meals. Banana oat pancakes for breakfast and meatloaf for dinner. Two new root beer mugs to keep frosted in the freezer and root beer.
Report comment to moderator
Cheryl, enjoyed your volleyball story. I loved playing baseball as a kid, I was the consummate tomboy I’m afraid (I took one of those wacky Facebook quizzes this weekend — “Which Little House on the Prairie Character Are You?” and I came out as the scrappy Laura Ingalls, pretty accurate I’d say).
There weren’t really any organized sports for girls when I was growing up, so we neighborhood girls would just make do with “games” in our backyards. I still have such fond memories of playing catch with my dad when I was growing up.
Monty, thanks, sounds like you have an interesting, very diversified life and have made some wise investments. Even with the downturn in real estate, it seems like buying or holding on to property is the best investment overall.
KBells & Pauline, Chas, Peter L., you guys are having a wonderful Father’s Day from the sounds of it. Enjoy!
Report comment to moderator
Hubby’s first father’s day present was rather interesting. The kid was a year old and just learning to toddle around. Since it was father’s day Hubby was reading on the bed. I changed the kid’s diaper, bagged it up and tossed it in the hamper. A few minutes later I heard the patter of little feet in the bedroom and Dad’s says “well, thank you.” For some reasons the kid had fished the diaper out of the hamper and taken it to his dad.
Report comment to moderator
Now that sounds like excellent father son time, Pauline. And eventually, second son and he will find something.
Good verse, Chas, and amen and amen. I am seeing it in some, not so much in others.
The kids are calling dadjo on the phone as we speak. He will be here shortly after our return from our camping trip which I am not going to tell you when it is due to the stalkers. And some crazy woman who writes for a newpaper and tries to sell toaster ovens to the unsuspecting.
I am craving an ice cold root beer. Kind of odd with it being a cold windy drizzly day, but these things happen.
Peter L, Buena dia de padres?
Report comment to moderator
Psst. Musmee.
I’m throwing in a FREE toaster oven cookbook to sweeten the deal.
No section on toasting rodents, per se.
Report comment to moderator
I can’t hear you! Besides, you are dealing with some fellow who swings through the air with the greatest of ease, that man on the flying trapeze.
Report comment to moderator
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads.
After church, we’ve just had a lazy but enjoyable family day. We had pizza, watched a movie, & Emily (older daughter) baked an absolutely scrumptious cake from scratch (Bonnie Butter cake with French Silk frosting).
Report comment to moderator
back to topJoin The Conversation
You need to be a registered user of WORLDonTheWeb.com to "join the conversation."
If you are not a member yet, what are you waiting for? Register / Login Now!