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RANTS! and Raves! 02.25-26

49 Comments

Written by Whitney Williams

February 25, 2012, 7:50 AM

Here it is: RANTS! and Raves!—your weekly opportunity to sound off about the week past.

Remember the rules:

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 (see Website Help to learn how to use emoticons, aka “smileys”).
A Rant! is something that happened during the past week that you’re ticked off about and is signified by the word “Rant!” and/or an appropriately grumpy emoticon.
You may Rant! about something a person said, did, or wrote, but you may not Rant! about generally disliking a person. IOW, no personal attacks allowed.

Discuss!

Topic: News Desk, Uncategorized, Watercooler Chatter

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back to top49 Comments to “RANTS! and Raves! 02.25-26”

BY Mark Roth 02.25.12 AT 9:00 AM

“When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19).
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BY Mark Roth 02.25.12 AT 9:01 AM

“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11).
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BY Mark Roth 02.25.12 AT 9:02 AM

I didn’t know whether to use or with #2.

I guess I could have used .
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BY kBells 02.25.12 AT 9:03 AM

Public schools. My nephew has a 7-year- old in public school. Over the weekend the little boy’s girlfriend was killed in a car accident. When the teacher told the class he began to cry, so she sent him to the school counselor. Being a public school, he was unable to offer any other comfort other than “Don’t worry. It happens to everyone eventually.” Now not only is the child grieving for his friend, he is afraid he is going to die too. His mother told the teacher, “the next time something like this happens, don’t send him to the counselor. Call me.”
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BY kBells 02.25.12 AT 9:20 AM

A convicted sex offender moved in two doors down.

The Kid got his cast off.
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BY NJLawyer 02.25.12 AT 9:28 AM

The counselor say what? to a little kid?

New television stations have shown up on my tv. One is a old movie station. Cool.

MAYBE a promotion at the bank, but not sure. It would be an answer to prayer for sure.
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BY NJLawyer 02.25.12 AT 9:30 AM

At the risk of sounding like a lawyer, what kind of sex offender? Do you know? You should observe different cautions, if you get my drift.
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BY kBells 02.25.12 AT 9:37 AM

7. The neighbor who told me about it is on some sort e-mail alert thing. She said it was abuse of a nine-year-old girl. He doesn’t seem to be on the website I checked yet.
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BY michelle 02.25.12 AT 9:59 AM

Party weekend–last night for dinner, a 2-year-old’s birthday for lunch, and dinner with eight adults and six children under five tonight.

I’ve got the dessert–what should I bring with all those pre-schoolers? (Two sets of twins and their singleton siblings). And it can’t be chocolate . . .

Stargazers passed his orals and is on to a year of research on small variable stars.

Difficult conversations with the young woman living with us.

Improved attitude from her.

Difficulty focusing on the last 7.5K words on the novel I’m writing.

I still love the story line!

Life is good, but

we REALLY need rain in California (even though we do NOT deserve it. I cling to the verse about the rain falling on the good and the evil . . . )

Difficult week with technology at work and I keep making small, stupid errors (possibly because I have so much going on).

But if we pull it off Tuesday night, we will all be heroines . . .

I can hardly wait for Wednesday.
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BY Jillanne 02.25.12 AT 10:07 AM

Sun is shining, it’s 40 degrees here already and I’m seeing some snow melt!
Huge icicles hanging off the roof…
Going shopping for new mattress’s for guest bedrooms
Seems we will be having many guests visiting us this spring and summer
The Lord is Good and I am thankful
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BY Peter L 02.25.12 AT 10:59 AM

Sunshine!
Seeing grandchildren later today.
Tough week at school finally over!

God is on the throne and has everything under his control!
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BY kBells 02.25.12 AT 11:08 AM

I’m going to a writer’s conference in June . It’s within driving distance and Hubby has enough hotel points so that lodging won’t cost anything. I haven’t been to a creative conference since long before I quit work.
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BY Cheryl 02.25.12 AT 11:37 AM

Cool, KBells! I haven’t been to one for a couple of years myself.
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BY Karen O 02.25.12 AT 12:15 PM

Some difficulties & changes happening in our family & home, & for me personally.

Knowing that I am in God’s will, & that He has everything under His control (as Peter said above).
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BY Ajisuun 02.25.12 AT 12:30 PM

Good team meeting with the missionary team. Made some tricky decisions with good discussion, but no friction.

:0 The next few months are going to be months of transition. Glad God is in control of all that.

Just because.
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BY donna j 02.25.12 AT 1:46 PM

Winding up a restful (if not much else) “stay” cation. Nice to have a break from the work grind, and I have lots more time to take (at least one more week of it forced by the end of march since the company is trying to get as much vacation time cleared off their books).

I’m ready, more or less, to get back to it on Monday. My first assignment: Some news conference at a local restaurant about new L.A. rules allowing patrons to eat outside — with their dogs. Or something like that, I think. Whatever the details, the story’s easy and will be a pretty good fit for me, obviously, so my editor sent the assignment to me last night in advance.

Interesting conversations yesterday with a couple people at the dog park whom I’ve not seen in a while. My former college journalism teacher & retired newspaper reporter just finished a book on some of the serial killer stories and trials (manson, etc.) she’d covered in the 1960s-1970s. Another woman who joined us spent considerable time clucking her tongue over her daughters-in-law. They just can’t keep house or really cook, you know (she said with arched eyebrow. )

Election season. How did it all go so wrong so fast?

Hoping the outlook will improve.

Our 70-degree plus days may be ending with a cold “snap” (60s!) coming this weekend.
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BY donna j 02.25.12 AT 2:00 PM

The rioting and killing going on over the book burnings in Afghanistan. And now 2 NATO (American) officers among the most recently killed. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17163322

Enough already. I’m beginning to think like NJL, let’s just get the heck out of there, leave them be. I know politically we can’t just “do” that, but seriously. I’m about done with the nonsense.

Or maybe we need to apologize again? Arrrg.
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BY Chas 02.25.12 AT 2:03 PM

Grass is almost long enough to need cutting.
I refuse to cut grass in February.
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BY donna j 02.25.12 AT 2:12 PM

The cat desperately wants to get inside the dishwasher.
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BY mumsee 02.25.12 AT 3:09 PM

I saw two blades of grass yesterday, with a look of spring about them.
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BY Cheryl 02.25.12 AT 3:29 PM

Hey Chas, it’s nearly March!! Wait a few days and then you can do it.
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BY phos 02.25.12 AT 3:52 PM

Donna – Have you though of what might be in the dishwasher that the cat wants to get? Might she have found a new hiding place for her, uh, playthings?
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BY questdriven collie 02.25.12 AT 4:12 PM

So there are people on facebook trying to flag pages against homosexuality as “hate speech”. Because simply believing homosexuality is a sin automatically means you “hate” homosexuals. GROW UP! ::o
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BY questdriven collie 02.25.12 AT 4:12 PM

(Emoticon didn’t work. Oh well.)
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BY questdriven collie 02.25.12 AT 4:15 PM

(Hmm, come to think of it, am I able to use an eye roll emoticon on here?)
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BY phos 02.25.12 AT 4:23 PM

QDC @25: Yes you can. Instructions for emoticons can be found here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Smilies Just remember to leave a space between words and emoticons or they won’t work.
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BY questdriven collie 02.25.12 AT 4:34 PM

Thanks
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BY KI 02.25.12 AT 4:40 PM

Hubbie and I finally bought a car after being without one for two months, due to ours being kissed by a deer. We do have a truck we have been driving. We ended up buying an Impala, which is similar to the Buick LaSabre we had, although less than. Neither of us like to car shop, so it is a relief to just have the job finished.

Both of us down with a cold and mine on top of thyroid issues, so everything seems like more work.

Lots of snow heading our way and we need it. We are about 30 inches or so behind so far this year.

Missed darling grandaughter’s birthday party, but we will go down when the both the weather and our health is better.

The whole Koran thing.

We are so blessed.
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BY KI 02.25.12 AT 4:43 PM

#23 If we do not stop the transition on a marriage definition, such speech will end up being hate speech. We cannot be silent, but must speak in love.
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BY Cheryl 02.25.12 AT 5:03 PM

: roll : (no spaces)

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BY KI 02.25.12 AT 5:15 PM

?
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BY KI 02.25.12 AT 5:16 PM

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BY donna j 02.25.12 AT 6:47 PM

KI, congratulations on the car & the snow! After some early rain in October-November, we’ve been really dry ever since. And less-than-normal snow levels in the mountains (they look so bare!).

Bought the best snack today. Toasted coconut “cookie thins” from Trader Joe’s. Hard to stop once you start eating them, though!

Phos (22) I shudder to think! But no, I believe she just became overcome with her normal cat-like curiosity as I was emptying the dishwasher today. I had to keep pushing her away. She loves small spaces, loves trying to find her way into cabinets, closets, boxes.

One night she leaped to the top of an amoire (sp?) in my bedroom (putting her rather close to the ceiling). Then she jumped down behind it (it’s angled across a corner) and, yes, she was then stuck.

So I had to get up, move the closet enough so she could get out, then push it back in.
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BY drill 02.25.12 AT 6:54 PM

Mumsee: So you saw two blades of grass yesterday, with a look of spring about them?

Don’t panic. I can help here. Just do the following and you should be okay.

Dig them out, using rubber gloves and a face mask. Use steel tongs to pick up and/or transfer the grass blades. After removing the grass blades from the earth, place them in a burn barrel. Burn completely until only residual ash remains, being careful not to breath the fumes. Put ash in a sealed container and transport it to a waste facility which has underground toxic waste storage capability. After you finish, soak all tools and clothing in bleach and then boil vigorously for at least thirty minutes.

Now pour a liberal amount of herbicide on the afflicted area (where you observed the grass initially), use a hoe fork to evenly and thoroughly work an entire can of salt into the contaminated soil, then finally park an old vehicle with a leaky oil pan DIRECTLY over the problem spot.

I have had great success with this protocol.

If you do not get rid of that grass now, Mumsee, you will be sorry – it will spread practically everywhere.

I have seen it happen, and it is not pretty.
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BY mumsee 02.25.12 AT 7:45 PM

Thanks, Drill, good to know we have common sense people like you around. Or person like you. Or whatever…
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BY donna j 02.25.12 AT 8:58 PM

One of the best things about satellite radio is the Sinatra station (which plays a lot of Sinatra, but other songs as well, from roughly the 1940s through the 1970s, pop jazz vocals mostly — in the vein of Sinatra, Martin, Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr., Bette Midler, Tony Bennett … etc.).

Today while driving they played a live recording of Sinatra singing “America the Beautiful.”

Wow. It actually brought tears to my eyes.

But they were bittersweet tears.
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BY donna j 02.25.12 AT 9:00 PM

And speaking of grass (I have none, but I do have “green weeds” that manage to pass), I noticed the first of the green foxtails out in my backyard today.

I really do intend to replant both my front and back yards this year with drought-resistant, PRETTY plants — bushes, shrubs, ground cover.
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BY donna j 02.26.12 AT 5:11 PM

A retired lawyer (Jewish background) — who’s been something of our resident skeptic for years at church — has met with the elders, given a “credible profession of faith,” and will be baptized and taken into full membership in two weeks.

Good to hear Newt Gingrich speaking out about the attacks on Christians and Christian churches. I’m wondering if this Koran incident will be a tipping point in terms of (finally) an awakened conscience both in America and elsewhere about what’s really been going on here.
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BY RickyWeaver 02.26.12 AT 5:23 PM

Donna, That is great news on your newest church member.

I believe the end result of the Koran incident will be an acceleration of our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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BY RickyWeaver 02.26.12 AT 5:23 PM

Donna, That is great news on your newest church member.

I believe the end result of the Koran incident will be an acceleration of our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
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BY donna j 02.26.12 AT 5:30 PM

Rickyweaver — (re exiting Afghanistan): We can get out of there none to soon for my tastes right about now.
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BY donna j 02.26.12 AT 5:41 PM

As for our soon-to-be new member, yes! What a cause for rejoicing.

At SS, he’s had questions galore through the years.

It’s been a long time coming (5 years maybe?), which makes this news very sweet, of course. I’m guessing there will be more than a few tears (of joy) during that baptism.
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BY RickyWeaver 02.26.12 AT 5:48 PM

One of my earliest memories in church is of an elderly Jewish convert addressing a prayer to “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”. He was a great blessing to the Gentiles, young and old.
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BY donna j 02.26.12 AT 5:48 PM

I linked to this at WV as well. “Afghanistan: Let’s Get Out”:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/02/afghanistan-lets-get-out.php
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BY RickyWeaver 02.26.12 AT 7:13 PM

Donna, Thanks for the interesting article. I agree we probably need to leave sooner rather than later.

My views on American-Muslim relations have been greatly influenced by D’Souza’s book: The Enemy at Home. He noted that America’s increasingly depraved culture helped radical Islamists turn many other Muslims against the US.

Most Americans have no understanding of what it is like to be occupied by a foreign power. My father told me that my grandparents and great-grandparents hated all Yankees and all Republicans because of their views of Northern soldiers who occupied the South during Reconstruction. There will always be tensions between occupiers and the occupied. We are indeed benevolent occupiers, but to the Afghans we are infidels in their country.
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BY Louise 02.26.12 AT 7:41 PM

Sometimes I wonder what the South would be like if there had been no Reconstruction. Of course, we’ll never really know for sure. The OWS mobs weren’t too swift either.
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BY donna j 02.26.12 AT 8:27 PM

Rickyweaver, I can definitely see and concur with your points in #45 — (Sounds like an interesting book, BTW, I’ll have to look into getting that).

In some cases, the Muslim criticism of our culture is simply spot on, sad to say.
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BY donna j 02.26.12 AT 11:42 PM

One could look at the freedom we’ve had in this country and (rightly) conclude that in some cases it has led to license. As our cultural values and morals began to disintegrate, we lost the “goodness” that was needed to maintain a free society that also reflects a strong ethic, personal responsibility and moral consensus.

In the past 50 years, we’ve seen the U.S. spiral into a nation in which “every man does what is right in his own eyes.”

I wish we were a better example.
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BY RickyWeaver 02.27.12 AT 1:26 AM

Donna J @48 Amen.
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