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Rants & Raves 6.27
Here it is, Rants! & Raves!, your weekly chance to sound off about the week past. Remember the rules:
1. A Rave! is something that happened during the past week that you’re pleased about and is signified by the word “Rave!” and/or an appropriately peppy emoticon.
2 A Rant! is something that happened during the past week that you’re ticked about and is signified by the word “Rant!” and/or an appropriately grumpy emoticon.
3. You may Rant! about something a person said, did or wrote, but you may not Rant! about generally disliking a person.
Have fun!
Topic: Watercooler Chatter, WorldMagBlog
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back to top116 Comments to “Rants & Raves 6.27”
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Xion – Be careful! You don’t want to re-injure yourself.
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My son, on a camping trip, stepped on a nail. Went to the doctor and had his foot fixed. When it started getting better, he went out and washed the car. Contrary to advice. It got infected and laid him up a couple of weeks.
A couple of years ago, I had a hernia operation. Minor operation, got fixed and came home. After a couple of days, I felt better and went out to pick blackberries. It set me back a few days.
Lesson: Just because you feel better doesn’t mean you’re strong enough.
Don’t “contrary to doctor’s orders”.
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:O Random, does this string of comments make me a narcissist?
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When I consider the changes wrought upon the planet by the human race just over the last 150 years, I find it impossible to believe that we can continue this way and not cause irreversible, catastrophic damage of some kind. I believe the scientists who tell us that global climate change, mostly caused by carbon emissions is a serious danger to us all.
And I believe that we must and that we can do something to slow that process.
My belief that we can is really based on anecdotal personal experience. When I was in my late teens I commuted 50 miles by train into NYC for several summers. I noticed that most mornings, as the train approached NYC the quality of the air changed quite noticeably. It became acrid enough to make my eyes water.
It was the early stages of the environmental movement and there was quite a fuss about auto emissions. Presidents and auto companies and eco-freaks were doing battle over the revolutionary idea of imposing mileage standards and later, over catalytic converters and lead-free,less polluting gas.
For the most part, gradually, the eco-freaks won.
And today, actually for the last 20 years or so, I have been able to go to NYC and NOT notice that the air has changed. (And those awful smoggy pictures of the LA basin aren’t around any more, either).
I am not skilled enough to understand the full ramifications of the Cap and Trade system we are heading for. But I have enough trust in the adversary system of government, the USA’s influence in the world, and the powers of the marketplace to create solutions when suitably incentivized, to think that this system has a chance to stave off environmental disaster without major disruption of our, or the world’s, economy.
About the only other tangible factor experience I can point to for that belief is the knowledge that Europe, for at least 4 decades has been paying up to three times as much for energy, as we have. Yet their economies have done okay. (Yes I do know our geography and density is different).
I really, really want my grandkids to grow up into a world that looks pretty much like the one we’ve got now. I absolutely don’t trust industry to make that happen on its own. So that leaves government (and even that bugaboo of the right, world government) to deal with the dangers that we face.
We must adapt. We must change. And if you believe in a god who cares about the earth and about humans, you might want to consider the possibility that she really doesn’t want us to destroy either, and that she has given us the creative ability to prevent that from happening.
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My husband and I recently visited a small museum. In our walk through we noticed on an exhibit on wooly mammouths a paragraph or two about how adding CO2 to the air was cooling the planet. It was obviously an old sign. Who to believe?
I don’t trust government and I don’t trust corporate leaders. Neither should have absolute power.
God’s word has much to say about caring for the planet and also about who really sustains it.
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Mark Roth,
Interesting self-portrait – not at all what I was expecting. My husband complains there are hardly ever photos of me in our family photos because I’m the photographer of the family. (He manages to get out-of-focus pictures even with autofocus cameras because he manages to have it focus on the wrong object.) Maybe I can try one like that.
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KI, makes a good point a lot of people are already conserving as much as they can out pure necessity. They have no where to go.
In the meantime, Obama is keeping the White House like a sauna and Al Gore has $5000 power bills.
Of course the plan may be to force more people to depend on the Government for bare subsistence giving the government more control.
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Great camping trip, as always. Your tax dollars at work.
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Cheryl, what kind of cards and magnets do you make?
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#22 mumsee:
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Tammie 24,
Glad to hear the tax dollars are producing such a useful service! It is good when they are setting people on the road to independence rather than taking that away.
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Got home from camping to discover more mice had invaded and only one had made it to a trap. So I slept outside. The sky was absolutely gorgeous, proclaiming the glory of God. The Milky Way was spectacular, shooting stars, and even had a run by of the Space Station. Absolutely wonderful.
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I need a toaster oven to take care of these mice. I hear they are quite effective.
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Cheryl, shall we have you a virtual birthday party like I did for myself in January of 2008? I’ll start. Since you are a writer and editor I am making you one of those cakes like on the Ace of Cakes. It is several books stacked on top of each other but not all lined up perfectly straight. They will be a bouquet of flowers (real edible ones) on top. You can choose the title, but I will need your parents names as the “authors” and the first “publishing date” June 27, 19–?
(now all of you do realize this is pure fantasy, I don’t even bake the slice and bake cookies)
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Mumsee: Ooo, sorry you missed out on my special deal on the toaster oven. Maybe the next appliance…..
(Your night under the stars sounds really special, though — I should have thought of that when I had my rat, although that was in December, not really sleeping outdoords kind of weather, even in Southern California. Instead, I forced myself and my dogs on a series of friends in a rotating week of guest bedroom stays, until Mr. Rat was caught, becoming “the late” Mr. Rat.)
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Tess and Cowboy will wear their party hats for Chery’s birthday.
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Donna, it is an attack plant straight out of “Tale of Vicious Attack Plants.” It reaches over and grabs you. No kidding.
Happy Birthday Cheryl I need some of that “Ace of Cakes”. I’m almost out of my wife’s brownies. I hope I didn’t make you angry with out discussions earlier this week, Cheryl. I wouldn’t want you to be mad at me.
It must have been a great trip Mumsee. I used to see the milky way and passing satellites when we lived in Texas. I couldn’t see them at all in Virginia. It’s better here, but there’s still too much ambient light in Hendersonville. I did see one satellite pass over last year, don’t know which one. It was in a N-S orbit.
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Happy birthday, Cheryl.
Kim, the cake sounds perfect.
Chas, your brownie comment made me think of my dad. He bakes his own brownies (from a box) and over-bakes them to the point of hard and crisp. He even bakes his own apple pies. They are much better than the brownies. Unfortunately, I inherited his sweet tooth. Fortunately, I inherited his sense of humor.
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KI, She doesn’t make those brownies for me, so I usually get the crisp edges she cuts off because they don’t look presentable to whomever she’t taking them to. And that’s the best part.
My wife’s vacuum wouldn’t work. Turns out, she needed a bag change.
Piecacake. I take the old bag out and install a new one.
Can’t do it. Won’t fit. The hole in the bag that slips over the intake won’t fit. She must have bought the wrong size. Well, I’ll have to cut this to make it fit until we can get some new bags. So, I cut the cardboard hole to enlarge it. But then, I notice this is a Kenmore bag I’m trying to put on a Hoover vac. Turns out, we had a Kenmore vacuum some time ago which we replaced with a Hoover.
My wife never throws anything away, not even if we can’t use it anymore. Why throw away a bunch of perfectly good cleaner bags? I have spent about half-hour on this by now. So, I install the new bag. But then the brush won’t turn, so I have to fix that. Belt’s broke. I don’t know why, but we had a new belt I could install. But while I had it disassembled, I needed to clean out the lent, hair and string wound around the roller. Otherwise it will never get done. So, I finally get the belt on, and amazingly, it works.
We now have, ready to go into the trash, a bunch of Kenmore bags and attachments. We’re getting rid of everything that says Kenmore on it. All this took about an hour.
I know Mumsee, Cheryl, NJL, & some others of you don’t understand why I was having to do that. Sometimes I wonder too. I think I’m just too handy to have around. That’s the problem.
No, it doesn’t make me feel needed.
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Vsechno nejlepsi k narozeninam, Cheryl!
(Happy birthday, Cheryl!)
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Happy Birthday, Cheryl!
My birthday present to you is a promise not to walk off with Misten if we ever meet.
Donna – I’ll bet Tess & Cowboy give you a great greeting when you come home after work.
I don’t work outside my home & I don’t have a dog, so I’ll make up my own Stay Home with Your Cats Day. (Which is pretty much every day for me.)
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“When I consider the changes wrought upon the planet by the human race just over the last 150 years,”
Arcadia, are you a Luddite?
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HAppy Birthday Cheryl.
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Happy Birthday, Cheryl! Enjoyed lunch?
Couldn’t see the stars much out by the Selway, too many trees in the way! But, since I live in the little house but getting bigger out on the prairie, the skies are vast and the stars are clear. And, Donna, many nights we spend out under the stars, even in winter with the snow and all. So that southern Cal winter is no excuse. Nice toaster oven to keep you warm…
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Mumsee, I’m afraid I’ve turned into a ninny. I don’t want to be, there’s that tomboy-country-camping girl still lurking somewhere inside of me.
Maybe I’ll spend a night or two in the backyard this summer, who knows? The dogs would love that.
But this is the city, we have “wildlife” of our own, so it’s a little unnerving what can happen around some of these parts after midnight.
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kbells: Huh??? The fact that I recognize that technology has costs hardly makes me a Luddite. Nor does concern for the earth which my grandchildren will live upon.
I do understand that carbon taxes will, as they are gradually imposed, affect people, including apparently, your family’s business, whatever it is. In the normal course of things, all similar businesses will be similarly affected, with only marginal competitive effects. Ideally, whatever it is that they do, your family will innovatively find ways to reduce their dependence on carbon-related or high carbon fuels. And so will their suppliers and their customers.
I keep coming back to the Europeans. I remember very well being horrified at $1.00/gallon gasoline prices over there, way back when we were paying 35 cents. They survived and thrived nonetheless.
And, incidentally, the significant increase in price and price volatility of fuel these days suggests to me that not doing anything to decrease our ever spiraling demand has its own economic costs.
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#16 Arcadia. I appreciate your sentiments about the climate. Thank you also for not getting in your customary dig about how we’re extremists who worship an evil fairy who likes nothing more than to see people suffer and die. For that I will answer your nice post.
You can be sure that NO ONE wants a bad environment or a catastrophic climate disaster. We all want to get off of foreign oil. We all want cleaner more efficient technology. So far we’re on the same page.
However, Obama’s strategy to fix the energy crisis is very simple. His solution is quite simply to just tax energy so that it costs more. Both you and he assume that raising the price will cause nothing but good.
- Has he addressed the fact that our infrastructure cannot support the daily fluctuations of green energy? No.
- Has he addressed the fact that the current state of green energy is not sufficient to sustain more than 1% of our power needs? No.
- Has he introduced a new medium for transporting energy, like electricity or hydrogen or air or whatever? No.
- Has he provided a fast track for energy independence by building more nuclear power plants and more offshore drilling and cleaning up coal output? No.
Obama’s entire strategy is simply this: Make energy more expensive and people will cut down – the economic implication be damned.
This perverse and inverted thinking is so irresponsible that it borders on insanity.
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Currently New England pays about triple what the rest of the country pays for electricity. Why? Because we use coal and due to regulations must purchase most of our energy from other regions like Canada.
When Cap and Trade kicks in fully in several years, New England will become the most expensive place to live on the planet. Many people will be forced to move away.
Why? Because Obama’s solution to everything is to tax the unwashed masses to death. He reminds me of a corrupt dark ages Pope who squeezes the wallets of the people to build ideological cathedrals to himself.
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Arcadia, I wasn’t accusing I was just asking.
And the problem with the family business involves service calls and the cost of getting to the customer.
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Arcadia, your optimism is commendable. I deal with the coming breakdown of civilization by engaging in splitting my mind into several different segments.
On the pessimistic side, I take some grim comfort in realizing that at the age of 65, my life may be close enough to over that I may be fortunate to miss the worst of the coming breakdown. There are so many ways it can happen it would take hundreds of screens to describe the ones I can imagine, and probably we will be hit by something out of left field we can’t even envision at the moment.
I am very fond of my daugher and her partner, who are intelligent and optimistic people, and of my high-IQ five year old granddaughter. I wish no harm to anybody at worldmagblog, but you are a bunch of religious kooks, so I don’t care much about what happens to you. As the mess falls you will be prating about God all the way down the slope.
My wife and I made our wills. I thought about leaving money and a codicil for Random Granddaughter to get training in sharpshooting and personal combat because these may be the skills she will need more than a doctorate at an Ivy League College, but my wife and my daughter and her partner are all fairly PC people and they would not appreciate such provisions in my will.
Also, it is sick and futile to try and control the behavior of future generations by provisions in a will, so I decided to simply leave whatever might be left to my daughter.
About a year ago, I wrote three brief science fiction stories imagining three possible futures for my granddaughter.
The first one imagines the world we now have carrying on without catastrophe, with more and more manipulation of our minds and our genetics, something that is clearly happening already.
The second one imagines (though in a very mild way) the civilization collapse I think quite likely.
The third one is a very “PC” vision, the only one that my family might find appealing and likely.
I do have to say, I am hugely and grimly amused by the recent threads on worldmagblog about Biblical “end times” and the like by people who scoff at my predictions but think there is a God who is going to roll back the Heavens and pull some of you up by strings.
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Here is the optimistic, we are going to have so much fun playing with our minds and our genes vision. Michael Jackson left too soon; he would have loved this.
http://modestypress.wordpress.com/2008/07/29/rgs-alternative-future-1/
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Here is the grim, Mel Gibson “Mad Maxine” version of the future. Actually, it’s quite watered down and safe to read because I am too “wet” to do a real Armageddeon horror story.
http://modestypress.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/rgs-alternative-future-2/
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And just to end on a positive note, here is the happy “earth muffin” version where some deux ex machina (Jesus of the Back to the Land?) where humans settle down to a wholesome life style.
(Not likely.)
http://modestypress.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/rgs-alternative-future-3/
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OK, here’s a short term Rave (I hope.) I am scheduled for my first cataract surgery on July 7th (right eye, the more damaged one).
I have always had bad eyes. I got thick glasses when I was in first grade. I’ve never known what it is like to see clearly without thick lenses (now up to tri-focals). I was always reluctant to mess around with contact lenses or Lasik surgery.
The expectation seems to be that after the cataract surgery, my vision will not quite be perfect, but will be much improved over what I have now.
I will have to see it to believe it.
Skeptical and suspicious as always.
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I’ll be praying for you Random that all goes well and your vision will be much better or perfect -
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Thank you, Victoria. I hope things are going well for you as well.
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I liked way you used a berry theme throughout all three stories.
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#46 Random “I wish no harm to anybody at worldmagblog, but you are a bunch of religious kooks, so I don’t care much about what happens to you.”
Thank You.
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Chas #7 “Xion, do what Karen says.”
OK, I will.
One curious thing I noticed is that both you and Karen did not follow doctor’s order either.
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Random, I doubt that you believe it, but this bunch of religious kooks care about you.
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Xion, (I was posting the same time you were)
My dad used to tell me, “A fool learns everything the hard way.”
By that, he meant experience is a hard way to learn.
Just do as Karen says.
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#55
KBells,
My grandaughter (now 5 years old) has been an extremely finicky and temperamental eater all her life, with many difficult scenes at the breakfast, lunch, and dinner table. I thought she would outgrow this as she got older.
When she was three and four years old, berries were just about the only thing she wanted to eat, so it was an obvious motif in writing my stories. She has managed to expand the list of what she will eat, but even now she still throws many food fits.
She is also a very light eater, and mostly prefers to “graze” (”snack” as she calls her meals). I hope this does not foreshadow anorexia or bulemia as she becomes a teenager.
However, she is learning to cook and grow food. I hope being involved with the production and preparation of food helps a child develop a healthier attitude about it than simply consuming it.
I hope this does not foresh
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#56
As someone who grew up in a very damaged family, I have some difficulty in attaching to people. This is one reason my wife and I live on five acres of woods on an island. We function better if we have a lot of space and can control how we interact with other people.
I feel fortunate that I have a close relationship with my daughter, her partner, and our granddaughter. I try to avoid dealing with my family as much as possible, though I just got an instant message from one of my sisters-in-law about my brother having his birthday tomorrow. This is the brother with bi-polar illness and I feel obligated to call, but really don’t want to talk to him so I am avoiding doing it by typing this message.
I also feel no pity or sadness for Michael Jackson, for instance, though I did feel some pangs for his poor children who probabl have terrible stresses ahead of them. On the other hand, I don’t go around attacking or hurting people, and when I was a teacher, I was very kind and patient to most of my students.
So for somebody who has some characteristics of an android, I don’t think I do that bad a job of simulating a human being.
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Chas, thank you for your statement. My communication with you and some other people has been reasonably amiable.
However, as I have pointed out, many Christians use the word “love” in a way that communicates a lot of aggression and hostility.
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58. “Random, I doubt that you believe it, but this bunch of religious kooks care about you.”
For real, Random, you funny. When the theocracy comes, we kill you last.
I hope you all recognize this as a joke based on an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie quote and that I don’t really want to kill Random last.
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Kbells (63) that’s funny.
We like ya Random. Prayers to you for the upcoming eye surgery.
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“However, as I have pointed out, many Christians use the word “love” in a way that communicates a lot of aggression and hostility.”
You know, I’m betting your daughter saw you that way at some time during her teen years.
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Thank you all for the birthday wishes! It was a fairly good, lazy day–much of it spent on the phone, visiting with my brother and sis-in-law, or driving.
My sis-in-law doesn’t look good. They’re talking as though, contrary to what the doctor says, she’s likely to beat this, but anyone can tell by looking at her that there’s a reason for that “handicapped” sign on their car mirror. That wasn’t true on Memorial Day when I saw them last. (There were bandanges and such then, but she looks ashen now and is bent over.) So it was definitely sad to see them, but good to have done so.
My brother said he’d prefer to split both a salad and an entree with someone if either of us would do so, so I took him up on it. We went to O’Charley’s and we had stuffed potato skins for an appetizer, their rolls, a chicken and apple salad with pecans, and tilapia. My brother had the soup that came with the meal, and I had the mashed potatoes. And then he split the caramel pie that came for my birthday. (Although I also brought some of it home–I was too full to eat more than a bite or two of the pie!)
I think we all felt the sense that it was a “big deal” to see one another, that such times may be limited even if they’re not sure they want to admit it. Anyway, it was very good to see them.
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#67
You know, I’m betting your daughter saw you that way at some time during her teen years.
Correct, but mostly at a much younger age. My wife and I 1) are fairly selfish people and 2) we can’t stand spoiled children. Our basic approach was A) we would have as few rules as possible and B) the rules we did have we enforced firmly. Also, she was never punished for speaking her mind. If we said, “You must do this” or “you must not do that,” she could tell us as much as she wanted that we were wrong or unfair. If she had a good point, we would change what we did, but it didn’t happen very often.
I think the difference is that the rules we enforced so strictly fairly quickly made sense to her. Just as some married couples are simply not compatible (with neither party necessarily being a villain), some parents and children are simply not compatible with each other. The basic stance of the conservative Christians here is “I am right and you are wrong; I tell you this out of love.”
Much of the time it is simply being control freaks. Many of you seem to regard God as the ultimate control freak; as believers you are enthusiastically ready to start controlling other people telling them you love them all the while.
Nobody ever believes us, by the way, but by the time our daughter became a teenager, we had very little trouble with her compared to typical adolescents. By that time she was well able to conduct herself in a way that caused little trouble for adults. For example, when I taught high school, students were skipping class right and left.
I’m pretty sure my daughter never “skipped” a class her entire high school career. What she would do is hand in her work a week early and ask the teacher’s permission to be excused from class because she was working on a project at the science center. Teachers were glad to accomodate her. Then she skipped her entire senior year of high school (going to college a year early).
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Like DJ, my time is up. I’d like to thank everyone for a very lovely year. Some of you are personable and enjoyable to chat with, and for that I say, thank you. Take care everyone!
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Xion: Thank you for condescending to have intercourse with me.
- Has he addressed the fact that our infrastructure cannot support the daily fluctuations of green energy? No.
Some forms of green energy are less variable than others. And battery and even heat storage technology are getting much better.
Your assumption that all of our energy is immediately going to come from green sources is silly beyond belief. See the bill summary below.
- Has he addressed the fact that the current state of green energy is not sufficient to sustain more than 1% of our power needs? No.
I might point out that over the last 8 years, Bush did everything he could to keep us dependent on the carbon economy. But instead I will point out that there are now huge subsidies and research funds available. I’ll let you figure out how many hundreds of billions a doubling and redoubling of that modest capacity will save. And remember, this stuff is all renewable…
- Has he introduced a new medium for transporting energy, like electricity or hydrogen or air or whatever? No.
Huh?
- Has he provided a fast track for energy independence by building more nuclear power plants and more offshore drilling and cleaning up coal output? No.
I happen to think that nuclear is a reasonable alternative temporary measure. But there are very difficult storage problems and the safety issues require many years of planning and vast expenses for any plant. Where do you propose to put the already enormous stockpiles of nuclear material still awaiting disposal? Whose backyard does it go into, and through whose towns does it travel to get there? For those reasons, nuclear stilll seems unlikely to get traction.
Offshore drilling is a joke. The oilcos have so far explored on only something like 20& of the leases they already have. The stuff may or may be out there. But they haven’t looked.
Clean coal, one of my WV good friend’s favorite hobby horses, seems a long shot. It basically involves some very expensive CO2 capture techniques which are a long way from being remotely efficient, and the tricky business of then pumping it somewhere beneath the surface and hoping it doesn’t leak out or cause earthquakes or other disruptions.
I’ll post the House Energy Committee summary of the legislation in my next post.
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#42 Donna J
Special link just for Donna J I hope you like it.
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House Energy Committee summary of the ACES bill. Committee chair is Markey from, guess where, New England.
__________
The bill contains the following key provisions:
Requires electric utilities to meet 20% of their electricity demand through renewable energy sources and energy efficiency by 2020.
Invests $190 billion in new clean energy technologies and energy efficiency, including energy efficiency and renewable energy ($90 billion in new investments by 2025), carbon capture and sequestration ($60 billion), electric and other advanced technology vehicles ($20 billion), and basic scientific research and development ($20 billion).
Mandates new energy-saving standards for buildings, appliances, and industry.
Reduces carbon emissions from major U.S. sources by 17% by 2020 and over 80% by 2050 compared to 2005 levels. Complementary measures in the legislation, such as investments in preventing tropical deforestation, will achieve significant additional reductions in carbon emissions.
Protects consumers from energy price increases. According to recent analyses from the Congressional Budget Office and the Environmental Protection Agency, the legislation will cost each household less than 50 cents per day in 2020 (not including energy efficiency savings).
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hmm the link did not work. Seems it was missing a punctuation mark.
Lets try it again.
Special link just for Donna J I hope you like it.
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Rats! It did not work the second time either. Here is the URL
http://comics.com/rose_is_rose/2009-05-15/
It is in response to your comment ‘there’s that tomboy-country-camping girl still lurking somewhere inside of me.’
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For Monty
Here is the Republican camping link de jour.
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69. 75. That went by fast. Shortest hiatus since I’ve been here.
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KBells: I hope you all recognize this as a joke based on an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie quote and that I don’t really want to kill Random last.
You’d rather kill him sooner?
Random: While you are away on your hiatus, you should seek out a CD by Rich Mullins called “The World As Best As I Can Remember It, Vol. II,” and listen to it a lot.
Wait .. Random, RPN and DJ are all leaving? That’s quite a loss.
Xion at #67: Saturday Night Live is still attacking McCain and Palin. No jokes yet that are critical of Obama. The Mainstream Media can’t go a single day without attacking Republicans.
You do know last night’s SNL was a re-run from last September, right?
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Michelle,
Eight hours in any airport is a long time. Glad you survived it.
When flying into DFW at night it is impressive how far you have to go after the lights begin until you get to the airport. I am glad you could go first class.
And yes it is so nice to be picked up .
Currently I am in Toledo and tonight I will be flying my niece and her neighbors back to New York. They are at the Crosby Festival of Arts and I will be going there myself in a little while.
Kbells has a manuscript? I would love to read it.
My niece bought me eight books including Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, Catastrophe by Dick Morris, and Yeah Dave’s Guide to Livin’ the moment ;Getting to Ecstasy. She also got me an early copy of Brad Thor’s The Apostle She knows I love to read. And she told me I would have something to read if the new plane ever had to stay grounded.
All in all it has been a very good week.
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RPN,
So long, farewell, aufiedershein, good night. May God light your path to Himself. See you when you get back, let us know who you are.
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RPN, sorry to see you go. I think I agreed with you once. But we don’t have to agree for it to be interesting. You and Random and DJ are going to be missed.
Monty, give us a book report on Catastrophe. It sounds interesting, but I have a feeling that I know what Dick Morris will say.
You all surely know that not everything you see when flying into DFW is Dallas. That is a big metroplex containing not only Dallas/Ft. Worth, but Garland Arlington, and a bunch of other reasonable sized cities. Much like flying into DC, or NYC.
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My son was flying out this way and I suggested he stop at our local airport. He checked the charts and said the runway was too short for the F15. When I offered that I could run a strand of barbed wire across to stop him (sort of like they do on the carriers) he said I was trying to kill him. I wasn’t. Seems if it is good enough for crop dusters it ought to be good enough for our military. But noooo…
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How was Sunday School, Chas?
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Bye bye, RPN. May God lead you in His way.
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Thanks Mumsee. It went well. I taught a class of ladies, most of whom were older than I. One asked me to speak louder, but I don’t have a strong voice. Some of them probably didn’t hear me. I gave them some background to Galatians. Most didn’t realize that the first Christians didn’t believe that Gentiles could be saved. But God gave Peter a vision, and you know the Cornelius story. A big ruckus over that. Then the Jews at Antioch won their gentile friends to Christ and the church sent Barnabas to check it out, who instead of reporting back, went to Tarsus for Paul. Finally, the Jerusalem conference.
But those ladies didn’t care about circumcision. I pointed out that any system that substitutes a ritual or works of any sort for the faith that Christ alone; that is, Christ + nothing is doing the same thing. Lots of that today.
I also pointed out that most commentators try to tone down Paul’s exclamation in 5:12. Paul was furious, scared and mad.
You didn’t ask for this much did you?
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I’m going to respond to Arcadia on energy issues on Whirled Views.
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Yes, I did. I did not go to church today, I was too cranky. Hubby is home so he took the kids. In an effort to keep it an easy day of rest, I decided to put up a fence at the gateway to keep the pigs out of the fish/duck pond. To do that, I needed to mow some. I brought up the big mower only to find mice residing under the hood. When I came back to the carport, I could not find a wrench sized to remove something or other to get the mice out so I don’t get hanto virus. Couldn’t find one so came in hoping to find a bit of a Sunday school lesson to meditate on. Thanks!
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RPN: Gonna miss you, even though we were on opposite sides of most things. May you know God’s grace and peace.
Something tells me, though, that we may someday see you again around these parts. Perhaps during the next national campaign cycle? Take care, feel free to visit (& provoke us) from time to time until then.
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Good lesson, Chas — thanks for sharing it. Much of our sermon/discussion followed a similar train of thought — that we are saved by Christ alone, nothing we can add to that (although if we are truly saved, our lives will in some way display that).
Gosh, Mumsee, a booming mouse population in your territory this year I see. You must live at Mouse Ground Zero.
So how are y’all in the south surviving the heat? I saw the weather map today, looks miserable, that deep, dark orange color all across the lower part of the country.
We’re warming up here in so cal, it’ll be in the 80s today, but we have a coastal breeze — and it’s not humid. Still, I’m using the fans for the first time this year, kept one running in the bedroom through most of last night.
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Donna, I went out earlier to do something in the storage room and it was like a sauna. I had sweat run down the bridge of my nose. When I came back in I had to change clothes. A guy came today and bought some of the brass and loading equipment that had belonged to my dad. He didn’t buy the loading table which was one of the things I most wanted to get rid of. I did show him two guns. He wasn’t interested in either but told me one was worth $900 and the other was worth $300. He was very nice about it. After he has looked at them he went back to his truck and brought out some spray oil and sprayed them for me to keep the sweat from causing them to rust.
This morning I woke up to Joseph Prince. He is a television evangelist that I wake up to most Sundays but never can remember his name. He usually wakes me up the first time he tells the congregations “Can I get an Amen?” Finally today I looked him up on the internet. He is part of a church in Singapore. i liked that he states on his website that he firmly believes your tithes belong in your local church. Of course he accepts donations, but he is not smarmy about it. Have any of you ever seen him?
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Chas, I hope I am not too late to post about the vacuum cleaner. I tried the same thing once, but was unsuccessful — turning a Hoover bag into a Eureka. It was difficult finding the bags, but my local small hardware store finally ordered some for me.
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NJL – it is 80 degrees and sunny at the moment – You can borrow my rain coat for the coming week
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NJL, I was a little put out her that we still had those old bags around, and with myself for not noticing sooner. We have Hoover bags, I just got the wrong one. If you had asked me earlier what kind of vacuum we had, I couldn’t have told you.
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David Carradine
Ed Mcmahon
Farrah Fawcett
Michael Jackson
and now…….Billy Mays
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_billy_mays
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Read Sigmund Brouwer’s novel, Double Helix, to get a better idea what I mean about using genetic engineering to create “superhumans” regardless of how many people are harmed or killed in the process.
And that’s only one dangerous aspect of evolutionary theory.
(both creation and evolution can only really be theories, since we can’t create life – or watch new life being created – or watch it evolve)
Proverbs 25:26
A righteous man falling down before the wicked is as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring.
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I wished my grandson would have been there. The sports imagery would have spoken to him.
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Ki, I prayed and will continue to remember little Seth in my prayers. It breaks my heart to hear of such pain and suffering.
GOD bless you for telling us so we can pray.
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Tomorrow worldmagblog will have a post about the anniversary of the Stonewall demonstration and gay pride. It is a well known phenomenon that for every comment someone posts on worldmagblog telling homosexuals that their behavior is a sin and that Jesus loves them, five people abandon the “homosexual life style” and marry a person of the opposite sex in Protestant churches. (This s a well-known indisputable fact, so be sure to post at least a hundred comments tomorrow along this line.)
Also, tomorrow there will be a post about the Parent Teachers Association (an organization dedicated to driving Jesus out of public schools–not that he would be allowed to show his face there for a minute anyway) has elected its first male leader.
This is an example of masculinism, something like feminism, but much worth, involving a man losing a couple of round objects attached to his body. Again, if people post lots of comments, hundreds of people will withdraw their children from public schools before they become homosexual and home school them, praying a lot during each lesson.
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Ki, ‘
I will be praying for Seth, also.
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Late to the party, as usual… Busy weekend.
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#101, MMacMurray,
That is a fantastic thing to relate about your nephew.
For the car you might check out the new ‘Clunker law” you might get some cash to help buy a new vehicle. (I would love a new hybrid or an
Aptera
Both vehicles get over a hundred miles per gallon.)
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#102, I’m not sure the ‘clunker law’ will help us right now. Even at 11 years old and with 280,000 miles, the Jetta TDI still gets around 35 m.p.g. That’s going to be hard to beat while also avoiding a car payment.
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The clunker law is not designed to help people. If people have a clunker, it is because they see the value of not having a new car and of spending huge amounts of money on a car losing its value as it leaves the lot.
Our clunker is about done, though it is the second newest car we have. It is about twelve years old. It was replaced today with a car three years older but much smaller number on the odometer. It gets better mileage than the newer clunker but would definitely not qualify in the cash for clunkers program. It cost about four thousand. It’ll do to take hubbie to and from work for the next eight months and then we will enjoy it here for many years to come, if all goes according to our plan (which may or may not coincide with the plan). I guess it did not replace, it joined the clan.
As an added bonus, we drove to the bread outlet in our new cadillac and picked up some bread. Approximately five hundred loaves in a wide variety for seven dollars. We will eat some, the pigs will eat some, the chickens, turkeys, and ducks will all eat some. We got them all in the car, slightly worse for wear, in the trunk and all around and on the kids for the hour drive home. I cannot believe the amount of waste in America.
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Congrats, MacMur. on your hubbie finishing his residency. I’m sure that has been a long haul. Even more wonderful about the nephew.
My daughter sold her Jetta when she could get a few thousand over book. She then bought another car with lots of miles, but still decent miliage, but no car payment.
Sounds like a good car to hang onto though, if you can.
Mumsee, so right about the waste. It peeves me no end when I see it.
Thanks for the prayers. I will try to let you know how it turns out for Seth. At any rate, his parents have a strong faith and know the Lord is in it whatever happens.
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Mumsee: The clunker law is not designed to help people. If people have a clunker, it is because they see the value of not having a new car and of spending huge amounts of money on a car losing its value as it leaves the lot.
You know this to be true of all of them, huh?
Tell that to my friend who has a minivan nearing 200,000 miles that’s pretty much held together with chewing gum and good luck. She’s not replaced it because she has no trade-in value on it and too little income to save a down payment.
I love it when people airily dismiss the possibility that anyone needs this or that thing because they personally don’t.
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SteveG – I don’t think Mumsee is the type to “airily dismiss” someone’s need. (Or anything else, for that matter.) She is an extremely frugal person, & sees things in that way.
I mildly disagreed with Mumsee’s statement because I know there are also many who drive clunkers because they can’t afford anything else. But I did not think she was being dismissive of that thought, just that she was more familiar with the frugal type.
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Steve,
I believe that what Mumsee was saying (based on what I would be saying) is that people who drive clunkers don’t turn around and get a new car, because we understand that an old car costs a lot less. So a tax incentive to go into debt on a new car isn’t helpful to most of us. My car is 15 years old, and I’d gladly get a newer one . . . but “newer,” not new. I’ve owned only three cars in my life (I’m 42), and each one I bought at five or seven years old. I can’t see going much newer than that, honestly.
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Nothing about the law says you have to get a new car.
My objection is to someone diagnosing that no one will be helped by the law because she won’t be, and therefore the law is “not designed to help people.”
It won’t help me either. But I know people who will be helped by it, if they choose to make use of it. Not everyone driving a clunker is doing so by choice or for frugality … except maybe the unchosen kind.
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Thanks, KI, for your #105. It was wonderful to hear some of my nephew’s testimony, as related by the pastor, and to see him take the vows of membership. Our family had been praying and hoping for the opportunity for years (he’s 27). God is good.
Our Jetta’s been a fantastic car, and up until quite recently it was still getting more than 40 m.p.g. We’d like to hang onto it, but it won’t pass state inspection as it is, and it will cost more to fix than the car is worth. We’re trying to rest in the knowledge that God’s provision for our needs has never failed yet, and to save what we can for the car fund.
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Correcting myself at #109: I double-checked and the law does in fact require you to buy or lease a new car. My mistake.
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Steve G,
My point exactly. The people I know who drive clunkers out of need (like us for example) could not afford a new car in any way based on the clunker help. It is just not designed to be helpful though it sounds so on the surface. It was not my intention to be airily dismissive in any way. Or any other dismissive, just saying how I understand the law and what I have seen in people, wealthy and extremely poor and a whole lot in between.
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Perhaps, the law as it is made up is airily dismissive, written by people who go out and buy a new car every couple of years without major concern. Not realizing there is another segment of American society.
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I think the clunker law is designed more to help the auto industry than to help individuals.
I also think Mumsee has a point about people who do buy new cars every two or three years. And I suspect she’s correct that the clunker law was drafted by people who are able to or who choose to do that, with little thought given to the large numbers of people who buy used cars and/or who replace cars only when absolutely necessary.
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As far as government programs to help people, I have personally found many that look much better on paper than they really are. Often the income levels to take advantage of a program make taking advantage of it impossible.
A case in point was when we were looking at buiding a home, back in the seventies. Houses were at a premium as our area was booming. We found it hard to buy with a GI Loan, because everything had to be in great shape. That was nice, but then the cost was more than we could afford monthly. There was a program for building so we checked into that.
Everything up to the painting had to be hired done. There was no way anyone could have really done that. It was simply financially impossible to hire all the work out on the amount they would loan out. The kicker was that the person we talked to had a blueprint that was supposedly for a three bedroom home, but none of us could find the third bedroom.
All of this was a blessing in disguise for us, as we borrowed money ourselves in did all the work except the basement and shell. Later, when the area was in a bust stage, we held onto our home, when many with GI loans lost theirs. The government was not kind to anyone who was late on a loan.
So, I have to agree with Mumsee. Such a program looks better on paper than it really is. It helps a few and usually sets up more government bureaucrisy.
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SteveG- Whether the clunker law will help people is immaterial IMHO. Since when is car ownership a right? It’s not like food or medicine.
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