Some days I put on a sock and a sock then a shoe and a shoe; others, I put on a sock and a shoe then a sock and a shoe. How about you?
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Friday, November 13, 2009
"Amazingly consistent"
I went to the Electric Office to pay my power bill. I like that the local utility has an office in town, so I try paying in person rather than electronic pay or snail mail. I asked the lady to show me my bill history and it was the same throughout the months, even over the year. Almost exactly the same. She looked at me, smiling, and said, "You are amazingly consistent.""I am amazingly frugal," I said, and we both laughed.
I got to thinking about consistency. I AM consistent. I like routine. It is comforting to know ahead of time what I am going to do and where I'll be. I get up between 6:15 and 6:29am, do the same morning tasks, complete a devotional, and go to work. Each day I arrive home at nearly the same time, have tea, read my bible, and begin research for my blog and for my e-mail newsletter, and I write, write, write. I watch the same two or three television shows (Supernanny, Touched by and Angel, and either Top Chef or Real Estate Intervention), and then I go to bed. On Fridays, I don't go straight home but I stop at the library to get a new slew of books for the weekend and week ahead.
Recognizing that routine can easily veer into a rut, I decided that I would shake myself up. No ruts for me! So I went to the Library on Thursday, I did my dishes on Friday, and on Saturday, I will make cranberry-oatmeal muffins instead of blueberry. Maybe, if I'm feeling wild, my weekly pot of soup will have a beef base instead of chicken. We'll see how it goes. There's such a thing as going TOO crazy.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Bloodless Obama makes some wistful for Bush
Telegraph UK
George W. Bush Secretly Visits Fort Hood Victims
The Bushes entered and departed the sprawling military facility in secret, having told the base commander they did not want press coverage of their visit, a source told Fox News.
So while the president usurper relaxes at Camp David at our expense, former President Bush and his wife spend time giving to soldiers of their time, prayers, and emotional energy. Hmmm, now there's class.
More serious perhaps was Mr Obama's strange disconnectedness over the Fort Hood massacre of 13 soldiers by an Army major and devout Muslim who opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, had praised suicide bombing and shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire.
Maybe Mr Obama had been reading the American press, much of which somehow contrived to present the atrocity as a result of combat stress due to soldiers going on repeated war deployments (though Major Nadal Hasan had not been on any) and therefore, no doubt, Mr Bush's fault.
When the television networks cut to the President, viewers listened to him spend more than two surreal minutes talking to a gathering of Native Americans about their "extraordinary" and "extremely productive" conference, pausing to give a cheery "shout out" to a man named Dr Joe Medicine Crow. Only then did he briefly and mechanically address what had happened in Texas.
On Friday, when most of the basic facts were available, Mr Obama tried again. It was scarcely any better. He began by offering "an update on the tragedy that took place" - as if it was an earthquake and not a terrorist attack from an enemy within - and ended with a promise for more "updates in the coming days and weeks".
Completely missing was the eloquence that Mr Obama employs when talking about himself. Absent too was any sense that the President empathised with the families and comrades of those murdered.
George W. Bush Secretly Visits Fort Hood Victims
The Bushes entered and departed the sprawling military facility in secret, having told the base commander they did not want press coverage of their visit, a source told Fox News.
So while the president usurper relaxes at Camp David at our expense, former President Bush and his wife spend time giving to soldiers of their time, prayers, and emotional energy. Hmmm, now there's class.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Nat Geo: The story behind the grieving chimps
Source. The November issue of National Geographic magazine features a moving photograph of chimpanzees watching as one of their own is wheeled to her burial. Since it was published, the picture and story have gone viral, turning up on websites and TV shows and in newspapers around the world. For readers who’d like to know more, here’s what I learned when I interviewed the photographer, Monica Szczupider.
On September 23, 2008, Dorothy, a female chimpanzee in her late 40s, died of congestive heart failure. A maternal and beloved figure, Dorothy had spent eight years at Cameroon’s Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Rescue Center, which houses and rehabilitates chimps victimized by habitat loss and the illegal African bushmeat trade.
After a hunter killed her mother, Dorothy was sold as a “mascot” to an amusement park in Cameroon. For the next 25 years she was tethered to the ground by a chain around her neck, taunted, teased, and taught to drink beer and smoke cigarettes for sport. In May 2000 Dorothy—obese from poor diet and lack of exercise—was rescued and relocated along with ten other primates. As her health improved, her deep kindness surfaced. She mothered an orphaned chimp named Bouboule and became a close friend to many others, including Jacky, the group’s alpha male, and Nama, another amusement-park refugee.
Szczupider, who had been a volunteer at the center, told me: “Her presence, and loss, was palpable, and resonated throughout the group. The management at Sanaga-Yong opted to let Dorothy's chimpanzee family witness her burial, so that perhaps they would understand, in their own capacity, that Dorothy would not return. Some chimps displayed aggression while others barked in frustration. But perhaps the most stunning reaction was a recurring, almost tangible silence. If one knows chimpanzees, then one knows that [they] are not [usually] silent creatures."
Sanaga-Yong was founded in 1999 by veterinarian Sheri Speede (pictured at right, cradling Dorothy’s head; at left is center employee Assou Felix). Operated by IDA-Africa, an NGO, it’s home to 62 chimps who reside in spacious, forested enclosures.
Szczupider submitted the photograph to Your Shot, a magazine feature that encourages readers to send in pictures they've taken. The best are published on the website and in the magazine.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Finally! A great essay on Halloween's real and present evil
I feel the way this author does about Halloween. I always have disliked this holiday, even before I was a Christian. Now, I dislike it more.
Rethinking Halloween
By George Berkin
October 28, 2009, 6:52PM
Attacking Halloween seems as heartless as attacking Mom, apple pie or the flag.
To mix a metaphor, how Scrooge can you get? Why would anyone pick on a holiday that has given happiness – not to mention buckets of candy and a fun night out – to so many children and their parents alike?
But Halloween, with its emphasis on death and the devil, glorifies evil. By its “cute” approach to the wickedly supernatural, it also sanitizes evil. More deadly still, Halloween aims its “message” at children.
For those reasons and more, even skeptics – those who think the devil is a bunch of hooey – should be wary of celebrating Halloween.
Of course, parents wary of Halloween will find themselves fighting a tidal wave of Halloween “propaganda” at this time of year in New Jersey and across the nation.
Employees at many workplaces, for example, routinely dress up in “holiday” garb. By many counts, Halloween is the second-biggest holiday seller of the year, surpassed only by Christmas.
The business community also pushes people to “celebrate” Halloween, much as it pushes people to diminish the spiritual meaning of Christmas and replace it with mere gift giving.
Many secular individuals, of course, will reply that I’m taking this Halloween stuff too seriously. Really, they reply, witches and warlocks, costumes and seasonal scares -- all are merely good fun.
But as C. S. Lewis famously wrote, there are two – opposite -- mistakes to make when thinking about the Devil. The first is to never think about him at all, to assume that he cannot and does not exist. The second is to think too much about him, to glorify him by giving him too much place.
In our modern celebrations of Halloween, we seem to be making both mistakes at the same time.
For biblical believers, the issue is very obvious. We are not to glorify the works of darkness in any way. And Halloween, for anyone who takes evil seriously, clearly glorifies death, the devil and the occult.
As a result, many churches across New Jersey have “alternative” celebrations, in which children can enjoy a get-together with friends, without honoring Halloween.
Without those alternative celebrations, some children many feel left out as their friends go trick-or-treating. Others may unfairly conclude that a biblical belief is “legalistic,” not much more than a set of silly rules.
Adults who are biblical believers can take the occasion of Halloween to explain that there are in fact wonderful spiritual realities, even though we don’t want to glorify evil ones. That God and the devil are real (though not equals, obviously).
But what about non-believer, the purely secular person, the man or woman who thinks that ghosts and goblins are all a big fairy tale? Who reckons that Halloween is just a vivid playtime – loads of fun, but in the end much ado about nothing?
I would argue that – even for that person, or especially for that person – that celebrating Halloween is especially unhelpful.
First, Halloween glorifies evil – obviously. Masks depicting Beyonce are sometimes popular, but ghosts and goblins are perennial favorites.
Halloween also sanitizes evil. It takes what is obviously evil – devils, bloodied bodies – and makes them “cute,” “harmless” and “innocent.” Even if one does not believe that the devil exists, the trick-or-treater still celebrates a symbol, a picture, of evil.
That’s a bad habit to get into. Because evil is so present, from workaday urban crime to child abuse to the horrors of war, it is very easy to get desensitized to just how wicked evil really is. In our culture, even words describing evil quickly lose their sting. “Wicked” is merely the name of a popular Broadway musical.
To make matters worse, Halloween, perhaps even more so than other holidays, is aimed at children.
It goes without saying that children are very impressionable creatures. And it’s true, naturally, that children outgrow the need to go trick or treating. But here, in their most formative years, many children participate in a holiday that treats evil as just a fun pastime. That can set a poor pattern for the rest of their lives.
Finally, there is the matter of just how the holiday originated. Accounts differ, but many trace it back to Celtic rituals some 2,000 years ago. One account, for example, says:
“Because the boundary between the living world and that of the dead was blurred, the Celts believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth on that day. In an effort to keep evil spirits from possessing their bodies, the Celts dressed up in costume, either as animals or evil entities to trick the spirits.”
From those origins, the holiday evolved under the Romans, and during medieval times. But always, the emphasis was on the dead, and devils. This tie between Halloween and the pagan fascination with death and devils is well understood.
For example, The Star-Ledger on Wednesday paired a Halloween holiday food story (“Mixing Cheers and Fears”) with a feature story on how the Day of the Dead is celebrated in South America. It came complete with a recipe.
In one sense, Halloween has done for the occult, the fascination with death and devils, what Playboy magazine did for pornography. It took an evil practice that has existed for a long time, but on the edges of society, and brought it into the mainstream.
As Playboy magazine made pornography “respectable,” so too has Halloween made the occult a “respectable” part of the pantheon of American holidays, as “American” as Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Rethinking Halloween
By George Berkin
October 28, 2009, 6:52PM
Attacking Halloween seems as heartless as attacking Mom, apple pie or the flag.To mix a metaphor, how Scrooge can you get? Why would anyone pick on a holiday that has given happiness – not to mention buckets of candy and a fun night out – to so many children and their parents alike?
But Halloween, with its emphasis on death and the devil, glorifies evil. By its “cute” approach to the wickedly supernatural, it also sanitizes evil. More deadly still, Halloween aims its “message” at children.
For those reasons and more, even skeptics – those who think the devil is a bunch of hooey – should be wary of celebrating Halloween.
Of course, parents wary of Halloween will find themselves fighting a tidal wave of Halloween “propaganda” at this time of year in New Jersey and across the nation.
Employees at many workplaces, for example, routinely dress up in “holiday” garb. By many counts, Halloween is the second-biggest holiday seller of the year, surpassed only by Christmas.
The business community also pushes people to “celebrate” Halloween, much as it pushes people to diminish the spiritual meaning of Christmas and replace it with mere gift giving.
Many secular individuals, of course, will reply that I’m taking this Halloween stuff too seriously. Really, they reply, witches and warlocks, costumes and seasonal scares -- all are merely good fun.
But as C. S. Lewis famously wrote, there are two – opposite -- mistakes to make when thinking about the Devil. The first is to never think about him at all, to assume that he cannot and does not exist. The second is to think too much about him, to glorify him by giving him too much place.
In our modern celebrations of Halloween, we seem to be making both mistakes at the same time.
For biblical believers, the issue is very obvious. We are not to glorify the works of darkness in any way. And Halloween, for anyone who takes evil seriously, clearly glorifies death, the devil and the occult.
As a result, many churches across New Jersey have “alternative” celebrations, in which children can enjoy a get-together with friends, without honoring Halloween.
Without those alternative celebrations, some children many feel left out as their friends go trick-or-treating. Others may unfairly conclude that a biblical belief is “legalistic,” not much more than a set of silly rules.
Adults who are biblical believers can take the occasion of Halloween to explain that there are in fact wonderful spiritual realities, even though we don’t want to glorify evil ones. That God and the devil are real (though not equals, obviously).
But what about non-believer, the purely secular person, the man or woman who thinks that ghosts and goblins are all a big fairy tale? Who reckons that Halloween is just a vivid playtime – loads of fun, but in the end much ado about nothing?
I would argue that – even for that person, or especially for that person – that celebrating Halloween is especially unhelpful.
First, Halloween glorifies evil – obviously. Masks depicting Beyonce are sometimes popular, but ghosts and goblins are perennial favorites.
Halloween also sanitizes evil. It takes what is obviously evil – devils, bloodied bodies – and makes them “cute,” “harmless” and “innocent.” Even if one does not believe that the devil exists, the trick-or-treater still celebrates a symbol, a picture, of evil.
That’s a bad habit to get into. Because evil is so present, from workaday urban crime to child abuse to the horrors of war, it is very easy to get desensitized to just how wicked evil really is. In our culture, even words describing evil quickly lose their sting. “Wicked” is merely the name of a popular Broadway musical.
To make matters worse, Halloween, perhaps even more so than other holidays, is aimed at children.
It goes without saying that children are very impressionable creatures. And it’s true, naturally, that children outgrow the need to go trick or treating. But here, in their most formative years, many children participate in a holiday that treats evil as just a fun pastime. That can set a poor pattern for the rest of their lives.
Finally, there is the matter of just how the holiday originated. Accounts differ, but many trace it back to Celtic rituals some 2,000 years ago. One account, for example, says:
“Because the boundary between the living world and that of the dead was blurred, the Celts believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth on that day. In an effort to keep evil spirits from possessing their bodies, the Celts dressed up in costume, either as animals or evil entities to trick the spirits.”
From those origins, the holiday evolved under the Romans, and during medieval times. But always, the emphasis was on the dead, and devils. This tie between Halloween and the pagan fascination with death and devils is well understood.
For example, The Star-Ledger on Wednesday paired a Halloween holiday food story (“Mixing Cheers and Fears”) with a feature story on how the Day of the Dead is celebrated in South America. It came complete with a recipe.
In one sense, Halloween has done for the occult, the fascination with death and devils, what Playboy magazine did for pornography. It took an evil practice that has existed for a long time, but on the edges of society, and brought it into the mainstream.
As Playboy magazine made pornography “respectable,” so too has Halloween made the occult a “respectable” part of the pantheon of American holidays, as “American” as Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Ode to fences
I discovered that one of the unintended consequences of changing templates is that you might choose one that does not support Pictobrowser slide shows. I made this discovery after having worked for an hour to prepare a slide show entitled "Ode to Fences." I am into fences lately. I love boundary demarcations, whether land and sea, air and space, or plot of land to plot of land. Edges of things fascinate me. So while reviewing my pictures, I noticed that I have a lot of fences in them. I realized that I had unwittingly included that type of demarcation in my visual stash. However, after putting twenty pictures into a show and ready to upload using the wonderful Pictobrowser, that my template won't accept it. Petulant and perplexed, I pecked away at this problem for the last few days, hence the lack of posts. I am still obstructed by this problem, but I decided to just put up a picture and worry about the slide show later. So here you go: Ode to Fences. One by aggravating one.
Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village Store in New Gloucester Maine is a Shaker community having the last Shakers still living on it. There is a hugely popular store featuring authentic Shaker items, including the last of the actual shaker boxes. This is the edge of the antique and original store building, with its white fence meandering off into the meadow.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Now you see it, now you don't
My favorite place to vacation was Downeast Maine, from Machias to Lubec/Eastport. I often took a cottage in Machiasport on the Machias River, and in latter years shifted to Lubec on Globe Cove, but truly, anywhere is gorgeous up there. Jasper Beach in Machias is an unusual beach. It has no sand, but only rocks from small to large that make up the beach. You walk on them and they clack like billiard balls, and they are round from being tumbled in the water. Being Downeast Maine, it is often foggy. There is a permanent fog bank that hovers over the water, and the day can range from having the fog bank stay off to coming in. But it is always there, distant or close, present and threatening. And since fog is silent, you can be enjoying the sun one moment, seeing the glinting water and feeling warm stones under your feet, and in the drizzly cold fog the next! Like this!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Which one has Obama refused to met with?
This was (unfortunately) NOT from an American news outlet. It was in an Australian paper. I have a lengthy essay at The End Time regarding the media and how its misuse can skew the perceptions of an entire nation.
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