Whirled Views 7.8
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Today’s quote is from a 20th century pastor, preacher, author, and magazine editor:
“We must meet the uncertainties of this world with the certainty of the world to come.”
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Topic: Watercooler Chatter, WorldMagBlog
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back to top60 Comments to “Whirled Views 7.8”
Almost two hours and I’m first here?
I see in the paper that T. Boone Pickens has scrapped his plan to fill the Texas panhandle with 400 foot tall wind turbines. He will still get $2 billion worth of windmills, but doesn’t know what to do with them yet.
He had planned to have enough enegry to power over a million homes. And the wind does blow in Texas.
It’s apparent why GE is in favor of global warming legislation.
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Hi Chas! I’m here too.
Nothing important to say, though.
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I’m certain I’m here (albeit, a very recent arrival). I’m uncertain what time it is. I know it’s around 6:26 am here in Oregon. I assume the time stamp on this comment will be around 8:26. Or is the difference three hours. I’m uncertain.
The Bone Pickens is a name-change he certainly shouldn’t indulge. Besides, others bigger than he are already doing it.
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I’m certain now.
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What lessons should we draw from the life of Robert S. McNamara? A man who will forever be tagged with the quote: “By all the quantitative measures we have available to us, we are winning this war.” Over at HuffPo today, Alec Baldwin had an interesting take on McNamara, whom he portrayed in a film. I paraphrase “We learned in Viet Nam that there are people in the world who have no desire for Western-style democracy and will fight indefinitely to resist it.”
Accurate??
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At this moment, I have four women in labor. Be glad you don’t have an appointment in my office this afternoon.
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#1 I admire life-long oilman Pickens for coming out and stating the obvious: we simply cannot keep sending several billion dollars a year to oil-rich nations who then use the revenue to underwrite our terrorist enemies around the world.
We should develop wind power along with nuclear energy. It does seem nutty that with all the concern about carbon emissions from fossil fuels (which allegedly contribute to global warming) none of the enviro folks is loudly trumpeting the need for greater reliance on nukes. American nuke reactors–unlike the Chernobyl models used in Cuba and the Ukraine– have lotsa safeguards to minimize human-error risk.
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#7 Stubob, I hope none are breach deliveries. Took nearly a month and half for Mrs Sawgunner to recover from her Cesarean!
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StuBob, I hope your secretary/receptionist called those who have appointments to reschedule.
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Stubob: Haven’t you heard? The new healthcare plan call for us to grow lots of rice paddies. You’ll soon have to learn cultivation techniques. What did Mao call it? Oh yeah, re-education.;)
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I’m not sure if I’m here.
But I do have a question for Stubob — seems to me more and more women I know are having induced labor. Some of my cynical colleagues suggest it’s a way for ob/gyn’s to more conveniently schedule births, to avoid the labor/delivery calls in the middle of the night. Is the procedure more common now and being considered more of a routine practice?
So did anyone watch the MJ memorial yesterday? We had it on the newsroom, so it was hard to miss — I was struck by the backdrop during one of the numbers of all the world’s religious symbols (cross, star of David, the crescent, etc.) together (the song, of course, was about how we’re really all “one”).
But perhaps now the non-stop media focus on this story will abate somewhat.
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Boy howdy, dont this story below just knock your hat in the creek??
Former Gitmo Detainee Leading Taliban In Southern Afghanistan
Special Report With Bret Baier (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRET BAIER: The man who is leading the Taliban resistance to U.S. Marines in Southern Afghanistan is a former Guantanamo Bay detainee. A senior Defense official confirms that Mullah Zakir was released from the prison in late 2007. So far American officials will not produce a photograph and will not say why he was freed after six years in custody.
**********************
BAIER: We told you earlier that a former Guantanamo Bay detainee is leading the Taliban resistance to U.S. Marines in Afghanistan. As the countdown continues to the expected closing of the detention facility next January, there are still no answers about what will happen to the suspects currently there.
National correspondent Catherine Herridge reports today the focus was on the legal issues. Hello, Catherine.
CATHERINE HERRIDGE: Thanks, Bret.
If there’s one issue that dominated today’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, it was whether the Guantanamo detainees will be entitled to more rights if they are moved off the Navy base when it’s scheduled to close in January, 2010. The prospect of granting constitutional rights to men whose stated goal is to destroy the U.S. drew a strong response.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ): We now have established that it is the view of the administration that enemy combatants or belligerents – whatever the new name that we’d like to call them – are now entitled to rights under the United States constitutional rights of U.S. citizens.
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I’m sure before Gitmo and after Gitmo photos of these men would reveal truly lean mean terror machines if all they have to do at Gitmo is hit the weight room and eat better chow than the guards receive.
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Stubob – I’m glad I’m not in labor.
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Friends,
Check out this new video of David Barton.
http://tinyurl.com/loa95s
He’s inadvertently proving the “unitarian nation” thesis. On this 500th anniversary of Calvin’s birth, I think one could conclude it was Servetus, not Calvin who is the real Founder of America.
At the very beginning listen carefully to the names Barton lists for those folks most responsible for the American Revolution. His goal is to show how many ministers whose names we might not be aware of deserve the credit. So he cites an 1816 letter by John Adams (himself a unitarian) crediting the Revs. Jonathan Mayhew, Charles Chauncy, Samuel Cooper, and George Whitefield. What he doesn’t tell you is all but Whitefield were unitarians. Barton also focuses on Abigail Adams quite a bit — another unitarian.
What do Christians who value orthodox spiritual discernment think of this? Isn’t Barton dragging down the purity of orthodoxy by trying to pass these folks off as “Christians” instead of “heretics.”
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Must be the weather–two women from our church have been laboring all night. C-section at 6 am, still waiting on the second.
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Mommy – Me too! Not only am I not in labor, I think I may be starting real menopause (rather than the “peri-menopause” I’ve been dealing with).
I don’t know if this is related, but every morning when I get up, as I am brushing my teeth & all that, I get so hot, my face quite sweaty, like I am in my own little bubble of heat & humidity. After getting ready for the day & doing my morning chores in the kitchen, I sit down & cool off. Then I’m pretty much fine unless the day really is humid.
Just can’t take the humidity anymore!
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“So did anyone watch the MJ memorial yesterday?”
No. But, my wife watched the whole thing on the internet after her mother called and wanted to compare notes.
Just her 15 minutes of telling me about it was too much.
Said it was like a typical black church service.
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By the by, it wasn’t the fact that it was like a black church service that turned me off. It was the fact that a sad life had ended in a sad way. And the worship of a celebrity has never appealed to me.
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“Said it was like a typical black church service.”
I think I have a rough idea but this needs elaboration. They lean more to a pentacostalist tendency. Lotsa responsive reading or coach-style pep talk to (and shoutback from) the congregants.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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Two down, two to go. So far, I’ve delivered a 4#8 oz. girl to a 105# woman and a 7#14oz. boy to a 380# woman.
Donna J: Some of my cynical colleagues suggest it’s a way for ob/gyn’s to more conveniently schedule births, to avoid the labor/delivery calls in the middle of the night.
It does have that effect. It also allows the woman and her family to plan their birth and arrange childcare for the older sibs. There is also a list of medical reasons to induce labor. Properly scheduled and conducted, induced labor should be no more dangerous than spontaneous labor. It is less…um…spontaneous, however.
Is the procedure more common now and being considered more of a routine practice?
It’s actually less common than it was a few years ago, as most OB’s are bcoming more aware of the problems associated with “near term infants.” That is, we don’t do elective inductions before 39 weeks anymore, so there are more spontaneous labors at 37 or 38 weeks.
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Random hasn’t reported on his operation yet.
Has anyone seen Cheryl? She hasn’t been around for a couple of days now.
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With 4 women in labor, how does Stubob find time to respond?
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I think the media coverage of MJ was over the top and that we’ll continue to receive updates daily which will drive me nuts, but there is the off button.
I don’t own even one record of MJ, I didn’t watch the “service,” and I question why so many gloss over the negative aspects of this guy and worship him so much, but it’s not good to make the dead into saints.
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“I think I have a rough idea but this needs elaboration.”
No thanks Sawgunner. I like you, but not that much. I’m on MJ overload already. You’ll have to watch it yourself.
But here’s a question for you…
Since N. Korea has threatened us by saying they will consider shooting down their missile as an act of war, should we consider their denial of service attack on US government sites an act of war?
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The problem with the MJ coverage is that people watch it in the first place. STOP WATCHING!!! Then maybe they’ll stop talking about it. At the rate it’s going it’s not gonna stop for a looong time. I can see it now.
Good evening, I’m Katie Couric, and this is the CBS Evening News. It’s been 236 days, and Michael Jackson is still dead. We’ll go live now to his gravesite to see the 16 people still camped at his grave and see what they have to say. Again. We’ll also here later from the Jackson family, who is still trying to auction off everything they have that MJ may have owned, rented, looked at, touched, or been in the same room with. Again. Still.
Plus it gives them cover for not talking about the disaster that is our President and VP and Congress and Senate. You know, things that might actually affect the masses.
And StuBob, you are the man!! What a blessing it must be for you to help these women welcome their children into the world. God bless ya’ brother.
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Good question. Has anyone seen Cheryl? Misten, do you know where she is?
(The last week or so she has mostly been a lurker since other things in life are keeping her fairly busy. Perhaps in the next few days, once she feels more “caught up” both on sleep and on life, you’ll begin to see her more.)
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Ladies and Gentleman. Imagine, if you will, what your reaction would be if your husband/wife forgot where you met. And they told a fib to fit the occasion in front of the world, embelishing it. You’d be plenty miffed. Someone would be in the doghouse.
This is what Obama did in his speech in Russia. But I don’t think Michelle is mad at all. Because the truth isn’t such a nice story.
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/barack_obama_forgets_where_he_met_michelle/
“Actually, Barack Obama landed this amazing summer job while in school at the Sidley Austin Law Firm where terrorist Bernadine Dohrn, the wife of terrorist Bill Ayers, just happened to be working. Bill Ayers’ father had pull at the firm.
Barack met his future wife Michelle at that law firm.
Another moment of hope and change brought to you by America’s new politics President.”
BUT, but, but, I thought Bill Ayers was just a guy who lived down the street, that Obama barely knew? And to suggest otherwise was a, oh what did they call it? A distraction. Yeah, that’s it.
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If they talk about MJ, they can give less time to stuff like this.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
Obama has lost 35 points in his approval rating in the first 200 days. That’s the kinda change we need.
And consumer confidence is at record lows. For the 3rd straight week. Lower than the previous in 1985. Not the kind of change we need.
http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=8024769
But at least ABC has mentioned this, on the internet anyway.
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Misten found Cheryl hiding behind the couch.
I didn’t watch any of the MJ stuff, but my wife did. But she also watches Oprah and Dr. Phil. Same thing.
AJ, as Tim & Molly O’Brien sing, “Just Someone I Used to Know”.
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Karen, Dow’n here-ah in tha soouuth, we call that havin’ ya own pahsonal summa’
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Kim – Yup, & it follows me around. I am very thankful for air conditioning, but try not to put it on just any time I feel warm.
NJLawyer – My experience with having babies is that the doc just pops in from time to time to check on the mom’s progress. It’s the nurses who she mostly sees.
With my first, after laboring for close to 20 hours, the doctor checked me & casually said that he’d be back in a couple hours to check me again. At the thought of having at least 2 more hours to go, I groaned loudly. The nurse said to me, “Don’t you worry. That baby’s going to be born by then.”
Sure enough, an hour & 51 minutes later my baby made her debut.
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Chas,
You surprise me by quoting the contemporary version (Tim and Molly), instead of the original Dolly Parton version. I’m a huge Tim and Molly fan, BTW.
Here’s a vintage clip of Porter and Dolly – Just Someone I Used to Know.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qt_ixpI8A0
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“And you can only get them in boxes of Breeze.”
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“And the worship of a celebrity has never appealed to me.”
Unless her name is Saaaaarah…
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Thanks for the response Dr. Stubob.
Cheryl, I’ve been wondering where you were!
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Thanks for the link Travis. I like Dolly & Porter’s rendition of that. But I like to O’Brien’s better. Their “Remember Me” is also my favorite of that song. I would get Porter & Dolly’s version from iTunes, but my computer won’t write to disk anymore. It’s a software problem, I tried a new CD reader and it didn’t work. The computer guy couldn’t fix it. So my days of buying from the internet are over for now.
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I just discovered a blog by two old ladies who have been best friends for years. They make some funny observations and are really entertaining!
Margaret and Helen: Best Friends for Sixty Years and Counting…
From the About page: “My name is Helen Philpot. I am 82 years old. My grandson taught me how to do this so that I could “blog” with my best friend Margaret Schmechtman who I met in college almost 60 years ago. I have three children with my husband Harold. Margaret has three dogs with her husband Howard. I live in Texas and Margaret lives in Maine.”
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Travis, I had to go back and hear Emmy Lou Harris and John Anderson on that. Very good also. It may be that I just like the song. But I had to visit my favorite one before I left; Anita Carter and Hank Williams singing, “I Can’t Help it If I’m Still In Love With You”. I have that on CD also.
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“Unless her name is Saaaaarah…”
So that’s it. I wondered why you had her picture as your avatar, and why can’t stop posting about her, even on a non Palin thread.
You secretly admire her? Do tell!
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Sawgunner,
Your comment on Gitmo food service reminded me of the scene in Sicko where Michael Moore tries to bring Americans to Gitmo to get the same health care as the inmates.
A local paper had a cartoon (which I can’t find on the net) in which the mullahs of Iran gave one last tribute to Jackson. To thank him for the distraction.
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29. There is a poll on Face book where about 59% strongly disapprove of what Obama is doing with the economy. So, I check other polls to see if Face book is heavily Conservative. It leans a little that way but not enough to explain that much of a disapproval rating.
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One does get the impression that Afghans are like the southern men in the civil war. They often times resented having to go fight in any state but their own
_______________________________
New York Times
July 8, 2009
Allied Officers Concerned By Lack Of Afghan Forces
By Richard A. Oppel Jr.
NAWA, Afghanistan — One week after several battalions of Marines swept through the Helmand River valley, military commanders appear increasingly concerned about a lack of Afghan forces in the field.
“What I need is more Afghans,” said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of the Marine expeditionary brigade in Helmand Province. He accompanied the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, during a visit with troops at Patrol Base Jaker here on Monday.
General Nicholson and others say that the long-term success of the operation hinges on the performance of the Afghan security forces, which will have to take over eventually from the American troops.
General Nicholson said the American force of almost 4,000 had been joined by about 400 effective Afghan soldiers.
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KarenO, I do remember my siser having a long labor with her first child, which ended with a c-section. I also remember that so many “new” doctors kept coming in that she called a halt to it. It was driving her nuts. The next two times were planned c-sections.
But now I know why StuBob could post. Wouldn’t it be funny if all four babies decided to come at the same time? What does he do then?
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And then there’s NY. Even the AG Cuomo says its unconstitutional.
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Does anyone know when Random Name’s operation ended?
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NJL – Then he can get them all in one room & line them up. A Baby Assembly Line!
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Karen, you’ve given me a vision of StuBob running up and down the line and catching one just in time!
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Chas, even June said Anita was the one with the pipes…
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Chas, This is one of my favorites…you get my Other Johnny, The Carter Sisters, especially Anita and the Statler Brothers all rolled into one. And yes I do own the CD!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7u6eRrxuKU
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Karen, you’ve given me a vision of StuBob running up and down the line and catching one just in time!
Ugh. I have nightmares like that.
I just now finished a c-section, so that’s three down. But another one has come in, so I still have two to go. Honestly.
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Stubob are they going to take a picture of you with all your July 8th babies.
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Thanks Kim, I like that one too. I think it was Anita helping, with the others.
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SANSEND,
I don’t think RANDOM has checked in yet, no one seems to have any info to pass along.
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I was beginning to think RPN changed his name again, looking at posts 28 & 29. But The Real AJ is one of the long timers.
And, RPN, it does seem as if you worship Sarah Palin, as often as you bring her up. And now you use her for your avatar.
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I don’t know about the group photo, Kim, but it started on the 7th and looks like it’ll continue into the 9th. By the time this storm clears, I won’t be worth photographing!
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Thank goodness, I’m still getting RPN’s old avatar. Not that isn’t nice to see Sarah.
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Sawgunner:
Thought you might be interested in this. What do you really know about that “Taliban” “leader”?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/opinion/07pubed.html
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Well, I wish my daughter were in productive labor. She always has lots of labor pains during her pregancy and fools the doctors, who always expect her to have the baby anyday now—for weeks. We need to get down (a four hour drive) to watch the older two siblings. The baby is around 8 pounds already and the mom is promised to be induced around the 15th. We have been waiting forever it seems!
Just so they don’t wait too long. I had labor with my first and then a C-Section and a 9 lb. 6oz. baby. Two C-sections after that. Another daughter had a 9 and 1/2 lb. baby naturally. I don’t want this baby to get too big!
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Sen Ensign will be back in the news tomorrow. It seems he gave his campaign treasurer/paramour a $25,000 “severance” check. And at least according to one possibly motivated source, his fellow C street monk, Senator Tom Coburn may have encouraged more hush money.
Hampton also detailed a February 2008 meeting in which he, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and others encouraged Ensign to end the affair, as well as the working relationship with the Hamptons. Hampton said Coburn and others tried to encourage Ensign to compensate the couple and help them relocate.
“These men were the ones that said, ‘What we need to do is get Doug Hampton’s home paid for, and we need to get Doug Hampton some money. We need to get his family to Colorado,’” Hampton said in the interview.
John Hart, a spokesman for Coburn, would not comment directly on the specific advice that Coburn gave Ensign.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802946.html?hpid=moreheadlines
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