Who's Number 1

Wade Burleson posted a quote by John Calvin concerning women:

"As far as the external connections and social propriety are concerned, the man takes his lead from Christ, and the woman from the man, so that they do not stand on the same level, but this inequality exists ... Because he is made subject to Christ and that includes the condition that he take first place in the control of the household and its affairs. For in his home the father of the family is like a king... The man is in authority, and the woman is in subjection to him ... In I Tim. 2:12 he debars women from speaking in church altogether ... because of the pre-eminence which God has given to the man, so that he might be superior to the woman ... The woman took her origin from the man, and that therefore she has a lower standing ... The woman was created for the express purpose of greatly enriching the man's life ... Paul looks higher, viz. to the eternal law of God, which had made the female sex subject to the authority of men. Therefore all women are born to submit to the pre-eminence of the male sex ... Let the man therefore carry out his function as the head, having supremacy over her; let the woman perform her function as the body, giving help to him ... Let the woman be content in her position for subjection, and not feel indignant because she has to play second fiddle to the superior sex"(translated by John W. Frazer, Eerdmans, 1996, pp. 229ff.).

Not surprising coming from a man who had Michael Servetus burned at the stake for disagreeing with him and set up a theological police state in Geneva he thought to be heaven on Earth.

The biggest problem with the Moral Mafia is that Calvin's Commentaries are how they interpret the Bible. Earlier versions of Calvinist's hanged and burned those who disagreed with them right here in the New World. Puritans were Calvinists, and their oppressive and repugnant behavior in the 1600 and 1700's led to the first amendment's two clauses prohibiting a state sponsored church and restrictions on worship.

The chosen frozen inserted this version of Calvin's doctrine into the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message Statement: Section XVIII The Family

The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation. Bold face mine, used for emphasis.

At least in this day and age the Moral Mafia recognize equality of salvation, just not equality in marriage.

Charles Dickens had a take on this thought in his book Oliver Twist. When the orphanage director was told that he could go to jail for the theft of a locket his wife had taken, because he was by law to control his wife. The man replies: "Then the law is a bachelor."

The passive/aggressive response is: If Momma's not happy, nobody's happy.

There are only a couple of ways that Calvin's and the 2000 BFM view of a marriage can become a reality:

1. The man becomes a tyrant. There are many ways a spouse, as women can play this game too, exerts control over the other person: refusing to let the wife work outside the home, learning to drive, keeping her pregnant and raising numerous children, breaking all ties with family and friends, being jealous if she so much as looks at another person, constantly putting her down as ugly, stupid, incompetent and lastly sexual and physical abuse. If you follow Calvin and The BFM to its logical conclusion women are to be treated like children and kept dependent all their lives either by their father or husband. In essence they are property. Not all men use religion to justify being tyrants, but I don't believe God approves of this behavior because it deprives the woman of the one thing God has instilled in all humans: Free Will.

2. Brainwashing. Ever seen at the blank stare of the women taken out of polygamous cults? Homeschool young men and women to believe this is God's will, cocoon them from the rest of society and they won't know there is another way.

The Bible does have one word that describes marriage better than the dictates of Calvin. That word is "helpmeet." The couple, as single sex couples would apply here too, help meet each others needs. It's not top down in structure it's team work. Anyone who's been a parent and worked as a team with three o'clock feedings and changing diapers understands this. Someone in a marriage of men's work/women's work cannot understand first the joy of those feedings and bonding with the child while they are helpless and the love and respect a woman feels for the man helping her. If all the man's job is to bring home the bacon and her job is to take care of the kids; the love and respect is gone as she's just a servant and he's only a walking wallet.

Living with another person for forty or fifty years is bloody hard work. Making those years mostly happy and fulfilling instead of pure torture works if: The woman truly admires and respects her husband. The problem here is that this is not a "God given responsibility" it has to be earned, not demanded or taken. The only way in a long term relationship that a woman will admire and respect her husband is if he admires and respects her. It's reciprocal. Its equality not dominant/submissive or divinely imposed. They willingly meet each other's needs

In The Garage

The weather is getting cooler, but still nice with Grinnygranny at work the garage is empty so yesterday I opened up the outer door, set up the computer and tried to work on my writing. I actually got quite a bit done, but then Daniel went out to wait for the school bus and everyone in the house thought it was nice out there too and that shot down any more work. Still while the weather's this nice I'll be spending more time out there.

I have a guilty secret to confess. I've started watching Ally McBeal. When it was on the network I never bothered with it. Some of the episodes are rather blah or only have one good laugh, but the one with Barry Manilow had me laughing the whole show. Another episode was a three hanky tear jerker. It's nice that they're still around to be seen.

Jumbled Thoughts

Was given a link to this site by a friend, Astronomy picture of the day, it's awesome.

It's nice that Wade Burleson is back to blogging, though it does get him into trouble. His post here is the best explanation I've encountered that deals with Paul's statement about women being silent in the church.

It's greatly appreciated that Michael Manning has his computer back and is posting comments again. It's nice to have someone respond to what I say. He posted an interview with David M. Bailey that is interesting and heart wrenching. Our prayers go with him.

Visited Steve (attorney I work for) in the hospital yesterday, he had hip repair surgery and is going home today. All seems to be going well.

I've started my new story, it's really raw right now, but I'm back into my imagination and it feels great.

A Sad State Of The Fair

Two days the booth has been manned with few sales. My novel has been looked at but no takers. Sunday is my turn to sit or stand there as people walk by mostly trying to ignore what we're selling, books. They'll stop and look at jewelry, sit for ten or more minutes to have a cariacature made, stand in line so their kids can ride a pony for five minutes. We have children's activity books, coloring books, picture books, but the parents aren't interested. A five minute pony ride is more valuable to them than something that they can take home and use as many times as they like, but that would mean having to read to their children or get the child to put down the remote long enough to look at the book.
One of the activity books in the booth is about dinosaurs. The author decided to write a children's book about dinosaurs that was scientifically acurate. Not one person was interested as we were surrounded by children all day.
Maybe we're the dinosaurs. Books have become quaint reminders of a bygone era. Today all people do is twitter in abbreviations.
Dave coordinated the booth for three days the other nine authors were there one day, but all of our books were displayed. I didn't make a sale. What I salvaged was trading one of my books and a plastic canvas notepad that Grinnygranny makes for one of theirs.
Lisa has a picture book about Spiderwoman based on the Navajo legend. Daniel my grandson should like it.
Lee has a cookbook. He's developed a mild chile seasoning and the book comes with two 3oz tins of the spice. The recipe that caught my interest was green chile chicken lasagna. When I brought it home wife, daughter and daughter-in-law looked all through it and I think they're planning on trying some of them out.
I'd already bought the anthology that Dave has a short story in, but he sells a number of fantasy anthologies for his publisher so I got another one of those books. Auntypesty is reading it and will give it to her brother when she's done.
Right after Optimus was published I had a book signing at the Fair Plaza Hastings. A gentleman came in who bought a copy way back when. It was nice chatting with someone who has read the book, still remembers it three years later and enjoyed it. He has a manuscript and I told him to e-mail it to me. I'd do a peer review for him. I hope he does.
I gave a copy of my next novel to last month's speaker at W2W and I hope tonight if she's there she'll have kind words about it.
I watched a program about Yellowstone and what would happen if it erupted, which is does about every six hundred thousand years. It's been six hundred and fourty thousand years since the last eruption. You never know what crazy thing you come across that is the seed of inspiration. While watching the show a story came to me, and I'm planning starting on it. Tentative title: After It Hits The Fan.

State Fair

Took my books to the State Fair last night. It was crazy with everyone setting up their booths. It starts today. Ten authors have joined together for a booth. My books are there but I won't sell at the booth until Sunday. It'll take selling four books just to pay for the booth fee. With the traffic that's expected it's my best chance at good sales.

Another signing

Went back up to the Tesuque flea market. Sold two of my books and one of Anne's. Paid for the booth and gas to go up and back. I have another book signing at the State Fair this weekend. I'll only be there to sign books on Sunday, but the books will be on display Friday and Saturday. There's ten of us going in together for the booth and we all can't be there at once. I was hoping that Anne and her husband would come down, but they can't. Somehow I'll have to get some green chile up to her.

On a sadder note. Today was Don Watley's funeral, president of Albuquerque Teachers Federation for many years. He and Mom butted heads quite often when she was president of the secretaries union, but they worked together for many years trying to get decent wages and working conditions for APS employees. Seems fitting that it would be during Labor Day weekend.

Full Day

Wife took a vacation day. We did a round of golf, had a nice lunch at a Thai place. Spent a fortune replacing ink cartridges in two printers and a bunch of other stuff. We're exhausted. Getting too old for days like this.

Hell Yes or No

Sharon L. Baker has an interesting article at the Huffpo today. On the question of hell, she's actually plugging her book on the subject. It's an interesting topic. In all of Christian theology this is one of the focal points and perhaps the most difficult to reconcile with Jesus focus on forgiveness and love.

This is Dr. Baker's summation:

I wonder how many other pastors pounding pulpits across the world have their parishioners running scared out of their wits and into the kingdom of God, taking out fire insurance as a precaution against the threat of hell. "Who cares?" you might say. "As long as they purchase their policy in time, who cares why they buy?" God might. God may desire to save us from the flames in order to spend eternity in loving communion, not by scaring us to death but by luring us with divine compassion, urging us gently with a caring hand, forgiving, reconciling, and calling us to do the same.

Okay, everyone who's read Dante's Inferno raise your hand. Don't be shy. Surely you had to read part of it in your World Literature class in college. Oops, no one ever actually reads what they're assigned they use Cliff Notes. I'm one of the few who I've ever encountered that's actually read all three of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Here's an even more obscure attempt of describing Hell:

A science-fiction writer drinks too much, showing off for fans at a convention, and falls out an eighth-floor window. He wakes up in a brass bottle in the vestibule of Hell, and Inferno details his adventures trying to work his way out. A lot of Dante is recalled, but these authors have more fun with the damned than Dante, and invent a few newer sins to bring the tale up-to-date, including such things as a book collector who kept hoarding beyond the capabilities of his storage, and lost priceless books to mildew, rats, and insects — a hoarder and a waster at the same time.

The one quote I remember from this book where it asks: "Who can take seriously a god who keeps his own private torture chamber?"

After I came home from Seminary and was going through a divorce I started reading everything Sci Fi. I'd read Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein in high school, but during college and grad school other than watching reruns of Star Trek this genre took a back seat. I discovered Harlan Ellison, Anne McCaffery and many other great writers. The afore mentioned book caught my eye after reading their "Earth's too fragile a basket to place all of man's eggs in." Lucifer's Hammer.

Enough preamble. My take on the theology of eternal punishment.

Christianity falls in the catagory of Ethical Religions. That's a religion with a system of rewards and punishments. The Norse concept of hell (the germanic word used for the Greek Hades and Hebrew Gehenna) was a place of eternal cold, which is why Dante has Satan encased up to his waist in ice. Understandable since the harshest environment they encounter is winter. The Hebrews being from a desert environment found the heat the worst environment imaginable so it's understandable that a place of eternal heat would be their concept of eternal punishment. Gehenna was actually the town dump of Jerusalem outside the dung gate. Since all the trash was thrown there along with the animal waste which caused high concentrations of methane gas it was a place of continual fires. When Jesus refers to the afterlife for non-believers he refers to Gehenna which could be interpreted as a place of eternal fire or being thrown out of with the trash. The concept between those two interpretations is huge: literal or symbolic?

Is hell a place of eternal fire and torment, or is it being separated from God? Evangelists find selling "get out of hell free cards" easier than the promise of heaven. The Catholic Church even sells them (Indulgences) or makes you do penance. This is what makes Christianity different from other ethical religions. The others have a clearer concept of justice. Those who lived bad lives are punished, those who lived good lives are rewarded depending on what the culture's concept of good and evil. Jesus changed the rules from good and evil to believer or non-believer. No matter how bad you were, if you are saved before death you're in. Those who lived good lives, but worship differently are punished. Where's the justice in that?

Christianity is not about Justice, it's about forgiveness. It's about mercy. It's about Love. If it was about justice everyone would go to hell, no matter how good a life they lived. Christ's main point of the sermon on the mount where he compares being angry with murder, lust with adultery.

As Hamlet says: "If everyone were given what they deserve, who would escape whipping?"

Here's more rhetorical questions: If after death we have spiritual bodies, what damage could physical flames do? Wouldn't the flames also be spiritutal? Does separation from God need to be physical torture or can it be mental anguish? Does faith have to be only concrete? Isn't there room for abstract thinking too?

Another Year Older

Had a pretty good Birthday: Golfed with the gaggle, broke 100 (hit a 99). Had a nice steak dinner with wife, mother and daughter. At this age you kind of enjoy the simple things.

Costello Christians

I finally watched Bill Maher’s Religious. I wasn’t surprised. He’s a comedian and makes his living ridiculing whatever he sets his sights on. So does Rush Limbaugh, and most of the mouths that roar on radio or teevee. It seems poking fun at other people is what passes for legitimate debate today.

It was painful as someone of faith to watch the way he painted an entire belief system with the brush of fundamentalism or institutionalized religion. Believe it or not there are many believers that have not assassinated their intelligence to someone who rants and raves from a pulpit or considers themselves God’s elected mouthpiece and they enjoy a meaningful personal relationship with God.

It’s easy to make fun of fundies and the orthodox because they’ve taken reason out of their faith and delivered it into the hands of someone who does their thinking for them.

The mechanism used by charlatans to fleece the flock of all their money and gain political power is literalism. The Bible has to be interpreted literally, and only literally.

Today I’m coining the phrase “Costello Christians” to describe literalists. They are a laugh riot, just like Abbot and Costello’s routine Who’s On First. If you’re not familiar with this comedy classic you can google it. There are about a dozen or more U-tube versions of it.

Lou Costello tries and tries every way he can to find out who’s on first, but never makes the connection that the first baseman’s name is Who. He stays stuck in his literal understanding of the word and can’t make the leap from literal to symbolic. It’s funny because the audience knows the difference and enjoys listening or seeing someone who is that stupid.

Here’s my example of a Costello Christian:

Anyone who wants to argue or defend the idea that Jonah was swallowed by a large fish or whale. Bill Maher devotes quite a bit of his movie on the issue and both he and those he’s arguing with miss the point. The book is not about a fish anymore than Gulliver’s Travels is about Lilliputians or Yahoos. They’re allegories.

Jonah represents the Jews and Nineveh is symbolized as all the other people on the Earth. They are commanded to share their God and refuse. The symbol of the fish or whale would be the Babylonian captivity afterwards they are returned to their land. Jonah preaches and Nineveh repents and is spared destruction. The allegory here would be through Jesus the Gentiles become believers or Christians and are entitled to Heaven. At the end of the book Jonah goes up to the top of a hill to look down on the city. A large plant grows up giving him shade, but the plant dies and he is doubly miserable because the city has not been destroyed and he has no shade. This is a reference to Judaism’s refuting Christianity because they can’t stand the idea of the Goyim being in their Heaven.

The main points of Jonah are:

1. The Jews are commanded to proclaim God to the whole world.
2. They at first refuse and are punished until they consent.
3. The World is spared destruction because of their belief.
4. The Jews are upset and pout because they’ve lost their monopoly on God.

The central message of Jonah is:

God and Heaven are for everyone, not just a chosen few.

The Costello Christians want to make it about a fish and give fuel to the fire of skeptics and comedians who rightfully point out how stupid it is to interpret something written as allegory literally.

This is my interpretation of Jonah. I don’t claim it to be the official or only way to read the book. I don’t think anyone who understands it differently needs to be kicked out of the church or burned at the stake.

I wrote a post some time ago entitled “I’ve Been Fooled.” It’s still one of the most viewed posts I’ve ever written. It’s about an allegorical book and movie: The Princess Bride. I admit that while reading the book the author had me actually believing there were countries named Gilder and Florin, but I didn’t accept it at face value. I checked it out and discovered the deception. Kicked myself for being foolish enough to buy it in the first place, then marveled at how artfully the author had tricked me. It also made me realize the depth and power of the truth he was writing about in the story. As I explained how the story relates to economics to my wife she just fussed at me for ruining a good story. The beauty of a good allegory is that it can be understood on multiple levels. The power of allegory is that its theme and message can be understood without being preached at or to. You just have to exert more mental energy than most people are willing to spend today.

Grandchildren

Quite a handful




Abigail

Daniel, he has mischief written all over his face.

Elfland

While waiting in the emergency room a few weeks ago I bought this book and started reading it to Mom. We had hours between times they'd do something. When Mom was finally admitted she read on it and finished it at home. Then I started reading it. It was nice having something to read while she was in the emergency room again and I was stuck out in the waiting room at a different hospital with different rules. I finished it today.

Mom wasn't too sure about it at first. She said it was slow getting into it, but turned into a fairly decent story.
I agree with her. After you wade through about a hundred pages of obscure descriptions the story becomes compelling.

The story revolves around those who are from the Otherworld, and can go between the two worlds through certain gates, but the gates can only be opened by Lawrence, the gatekeeper, and he refuses to open them because if he did an uspeakable evil would destroy everyone. Sounds like a simple premise, but the story is rather complicated which is why it takes so long for the story to get going. There is quite a bit of setting the stage so the reader can understand what's going to happen. I rate it *** out of *****.

Tribute to Bill Chase

Click here and here for other Tributes to Bill Chase.

The wife makes me watch America's Got Talent. Now I don't mind Dancing with the Stars, the women have fantastic costumes, but AGT is at times like fingernails on a chalk board. Tonight something caught my ear more than a ten year old with a forty year old operatic voice.

Quick Change is a group that was guest appearing, a group that had been on the very first season of the show. They performed to Chase's Get It On. Who cares what they were doing, did you hear those trumpets?

Some history:

My senior year in high school Bruce bought two albums. Chase and Chase Ennea. We always recorded the lp's on cassette and listened to the cassettes using the lp's as masters. That way the records didn't get scratched up. When I went to college I took the two cassettes and drove my dorm mates crazy listening to them. No one has ever hit the high notes on trumpet like Bill Chase. He reached for the rafters on every song. In Ennea the song Boys and Girls Together has a rift where you think he's gone as high as possible and then effortlessly he goes up about four steps. The group had four trumpets on one song during the rift they sound like sea gulls. Tragically just as he was getting recognized the band was killed in a plane crash in 1974. There are very few people that I've come across that ever heard of him. I was pleasantly surprised when I checked on the internet for this post to find you-tube, my space and facebook sites devoted to him.

Technology changed and I converted over to cd's. Bruce boxed up the lp's and has them buried in his garage. The cassettes gathered dust. Then this summer I found a little gadget that converts cassettes and lp's to digital on your computer. A few years ago I bought a stereo that converted lp's to cd's and I'm still converting them, wife has over 50 Elvis albums alone. This summer I've been bringing the cassettes back to life and the first cassettes were the two Chase's and I've been in heaven listening to them all summer.

Funny how just as I pulled Bill Chase out of the dust bin that he'd be resurrected on a national show, even though just about everybody watching wouldn't know who they were listening to.

On the O2

Mom's home. Her lungs are clear of clots and heart is fine or so says the Cat Scan and stress test. She's still on the blood thinners and oxygen. They seem to think shortness of breath is the problem for her chest pains. She's not too happy about being tied down to the oxy tank, but hopefully this will get her feeling better.

Doctor's baffled

Mom's back in the hospital. I took her in today at nine in the morning. Doctor didn't decide to do anything until three thirty in the afternoon and they didn't get her into a Cat scan until eight tonight. I was with her most of the day, son is with her now and I'll be back first thing in the morning as I'm sure there's going to be a huge fight over whether to give her a stress test.
Everything they do is coming up negative, but she's still having chest pains.

Contest

I've got a contest at my Optimus: Praetorian Guard blog. If you're interested check it out.

Good News

The ADA did the sensible thing and dropped charges against the client. He was released Friday and was on a plane home Saturday. Not much we can do about the five months he spent in jail being beaten by fellow inmates with the guards watching trying to force a confession out of him. If you are going to charge someone with that serious a crime there needs to be more oversight by the prosecutor's office to make sure the evidence supports the charge.
Guess I'm back to being retired again. Watch out golf courses, here I come.

Slowly it goes

Mom doesn't snap back from illnesses as quickly as before. I've spent most of the last few days with her fixing her something to eat and other things. She's still weak, but starting to feel better.
I'm sending son and his family over today so they can get her some groceries while wife and I go to church.

The attorney I work for gave me a book, Trying Cases to Win: Voir Dire and Opening Arguments by Herbert J. Stern, and he's paying me five hours to read it. The one good thing of spending those days with Mom was it gave me time to read. It's five hundred pages so I guess he figured a hundred pages an hour. It was so full of legaleze that some parts I had to read two or three times to figure out what he was saying. By and large though since it's for the opening and summation that he's hired me to help him it's what I needed to read.

Mom's Home

Mom was scheduled to be released yesterday, but she had a dizzy spell in the morning and they kept for another day of observation. She was supposed to be sent home first thing in the morning today and we finally got out of there at 4pm. Makes you wonder if they were going to release her in the afternoon, would we be leaving at midnight?
She was planning on taking a trip to visit friends in Farmington this weekend, but the doctor squashed that idea. I'll be spending time with her for a few days until she gets her strength back and regulated on her blood thinner medication. Other than that things should return back to normal.

Updates

Mom's still in hospital and will be for a few more days. They're starting her on injections of blood thinner and she can't leave until they have the pill form regulated. There was a possibility that she could go home and a home hospital doctor could come to give the injections and get her regulated on the pills, but her insurance wasn't the right kind to be provided this program.
She was alert and moving around yesterday and will be a handful if she has to stay there for many more days.

There's a really good possibility that the case I'm working on will end this week. The ADA has finally looked at the evidence and is realizing that he doesn't have a case. He was given the case right about the time my firm took it over and will most likely drop the charges.

Ordeal

Spent most of the day Thursday in the emergency room with Mom. She was feeling dizzy and her tongue was numb. She's had TIA's (mini strokes) and nine years ago had a heart valve replaced, so I took her to urgent care, they couldn't do anything so we went to the emergency room at the hospital for a CT scan. Bloodwork and CT and X-rays didn't show anything, but the doctor wanted to admit her for the night. We got to the emergency room at 9am and she wasn't in her room until after 7pm. They are slow as molasses in January in that ER.
We thought they'd release her in the morning. I needed to go in to work on the case so daughter went to be with her. The heart doctor they brought in found a blood clot in one of her lungs. She was fighting with them about her medications and I think they needed to keep her still for the blood thinners to work so they sedated her. She called late evening and we talked. She called me this morning and didn't remember that we'd talked last night. I'm leaving in a few minutes to check on her.
Wife e-mailed her condition on the convention prayer list and we appreciate the concern and prayers offered on Mom's behalf.

Anne and Engelbert

When Anne wrote about how she grabbed the guy who owned Sassy by the shirt and told him to let her have him. I'm sure he was wondering where the buzz saw wearing a skirt came from. Which reminded me of what happened many many moons ago while we were in college together.

Wayland Baptist College (now University) is located in Plainview, Tx between Amarillo and Lubbock. The late Grady Nutt of Hee Haw fame attended there for one year and in his comedy routine said it's a, "typical Baptist college 40 miles from the nearest known sin."
The school usually has between 1500 to 2000 students every year which is smaller than most of Albuquerque's high schools. There are no secrets on campus. At that time there was a SUB with a recreaction room for ping pong, billiards and two tv rooms with some couches and chairs.
Anne was peacefully sitting one afternoon by herself in one of the tv rooms crocheting and watching an Engelbert Humperdink special when as she puts it, "Three boys ran in and changed the channel to a football game!"
Those boys didn't know who clobbered them, but in the dorm later that evening one of them said it was, "Like getting hit by a buzz saw." They learned a lesson about getting between Anne and Engelbert.

Sassy

Anne sent me some pictures of her horse, Sassy, that she wrote about in the previous post. A gorgeous horse. I'm so glad Sassy is back where she's loved and happy.

Guest Post

You've seen her artwork all the time. My spiritual twin Anne Littlewolf read Michael Mannings post where an Arabian Horse that he had grown fond of had died. She tried to put a comment, but not being a blogger I'm posting it here.

HI---I know exactly what you mean about the loss of a dear horse friend. It's a devastating loss, but the memories are beyond measure.

There's lots of bad press out there about Arabian horses, and most of it is from people who have neither owned, known, or loved one. Like any animal, you get what you give, what you put into the relationship is what you get back, and I sure get tired of people hassling me about my favorite breed. They're beautiful, intelligent, loyal and loving, and FAR more so than most people you'll ever know. I just got my beloved mare, Sassy, back and she showed me once again why I absolutely adore her very hoof-prints.

I had rescued Sassy from an idiot owner who wanted to destroy her. She had been starved to the point of emaciation, but she was pregnant, due to foal any minute and while her corral-mate was up for sale, the people who owned her wanted her to foal, then breed her back immediately and sell her as a 3-in-one package (one mare, 2 colts= 3-in-one pkg) Never mind that the poor horse was a skeleton and barely on her feet. In due course she foaled, but the little guy died after struggling 30 hours. Sass couldn't feed him, she was unbelieveably hungry herself, and the kid who owned her wanted to shoot her because "she's a bad mother". I grabbed his shirt and told him to get his damn hands off MY horse. That was 16 yrs. ago.

About 2 yrs ago, Sass hit 20 years old, which is reasonably old, so I sold her to the neighbor girl thinking she would have a soft retirement in the hands of a 12-yr-old girl who had serious Horse Fever and desperately wanted a good horse to learn on. Sass was only a couple houses down from my place, so I could see her every day. She was well looked after, until the girl discovered boys and hormones, then Sass went by side. The girl's mother called, made arrangements for me to take her back again, nice and tidy. Two days later the girl threw a king-sized hissy, ordered??!! her mother to get HER horse back again, and meek little mom came and got Sassy. (since when do kids order parents around? not in my world!!)

For the next two months, Sass was dazed. She thought she'd done something INCREDIBLY, HORRIBLY bad, but couldn't figure out what. She'd been as good a horse as she knew how to be, she was back home with me and her daughter, Sky, and was happy just being home again. But now she was away and miserable, and in her mind, she bore the blame for something she understand, but she knew she had to have been really bad. She wouldn't eat, she wouldn't drink much, she just stood and grieved over a mistake she must have made, else she wouldn't have sent away from home.

She dropped from 800 lbs. (she's a fairly petite, delicately built horse, so 800 is a good weight for her) down to about 675---a rack of bones. The folks thought her teeth were bad (can happen w/ older horses) and that she need vet care. They bought special food, pampered her this way and that and the poor old girl just didn't care. In her mind she'd been unforgiveably bad, so she wasn't going to live with the shame she felt.

One Saturday the Mom wanted to go riding, so I picked her up w/ my truck & trailer and off we went. When we came back, Sassy was absolutely SURE beyond all measure that I"d come to get her. When (new) "Mom" didn't load her up into my trailer, Sass hung her head over her overflowing feed bin and just about cried out loud. All night she stood, her head drooped, her whole body dejected, and "Mom" finally said ENOUGH! in big red letters. She wasn't about to watch that poor old horse die of sorrow and she ripped into her daughter.

About 10:00 a.m. the next morning, here comes Mom, Daughter and a dejected old mare, sure she was never going to be "home" again. I watched from my front window and from their house to mine, Sassy moped and hung back and didn't really want to walk down the road, but obedience is in her very bones, so she came along. When they turned into my driveway, that sweet old girl perked her ears, her eyes lit up and she hoped things were going to be better. SHE WAS HOME! She nickered and talked and rubbed and loved on me as hard as she could to say she was so glad to be here, so sorry for whatever she'd done wrong, and please, could she come home forever????

Well, that was a month ago. The Old Girl is back home and being treated to every delight I can think of. She's gained a good 50 lbs. and while she's not hale and hearty yet, she's well on her way. (and only just a teensy-weensy teen-ninesy bit spoiled--just a smidgen, y'know!!)

Today we went for a little ride together, just Me-n-Sass, like the old days, and y'know, there were two old ladies who were incredibly happy this morning. We managed to do a little gallop together, we climbed a couple small hills (she's part mountain goat, I swear) and we were just us, the way it's always been between. She's not ready for a whole lot of work yet, at 23 (that's about 85 in people years) it takes a while to come back to full capacity, but she knows now she's really, really REALLY home for good and she can still work and do good things for me just like the "old days" when we both were young and sassy. Neither of us can barrel race any more, we can't race down the road at 35 mph (had her clocked out one time) and we can't climb the mountains quite like we used to but by golly we'll ride until one of us drops, and be grateful for a true friend. She's HOME, that's all that matters. ger ran into some difficulty.

Tolstoy Today

Scott Horton is in fine form today on his No Comment Blog

He reviews Tolstoy's Resurrection.

I'm not that into Russian authors and other than War and Peace am not knowledgeable about Tolstoy's other works. this analysis by Horton caught my attention.

Its author (Tolstoy) has grown weary of a political debate that pits conservative upholders of autocratic rule against liberal reformers convinced they can shape a just system by issuing laws and regulations

Sounds like the last thirty years of American history.

Tolstoy does not really share the revolutionary vocation either—at least not the vocation of the Social Revolutionaries, Anarchists, and Communists of his own age. His vision restates the problem. The way a society treats those who are held entirely in its power—prisoners—tells us a great deal about the character of that society. Is the fundamental humanity of these prisoners recognized? Are their essential human needs attended to? Is serious attention paid to their guilt or innocence? Or are they simply made into scapegoats for the social and political problems of the day?

Tolstoy renders a compelling portrait of the criminal-justice system of his day. A woman clearly innocent of the crime of which she is accused (being an accomplice in a theft and homicide) is run through the criminal justice system. The prosecutor managing the case quickly realizes her innocence. Still, his major concern is securing convictions and bettering his record. There is, after all, a death, and someone must atone for it. The prosecutor knows exactly how to wield the system—how to empanel a jury that will convict, how to maneuver the case before a judge who will smooth his path, how to forestall defense counsel from raising legitimate doubt about the accused’s guilt in the minds of jurors. The judge, likewise, soon reveals that he also realizes that the accused is innocent. But his concern is primarily for his own career and the prospect of judicial advancement. The public needs a conviction for the crime, and this woman may be innocent, but it’s unlikely that the public would understand the subtle arrangement of facts that lead to that conclusion. It’s much easier for the judge simply to allow the case to glide through to a conviction. A jury will, after all, decide the question of guilt or innocence. Tolstoy’s presentation of the appeals process gives us a similar tug of war for the conscience of judges—they all recognize that the accused is innocent, but a majority of them nevertheless find their way free to upholding the conviction and sentence, driven, in the case of the decisive vote, by astonishingly petty considerations of social caste. And though Tolstoy describes his own times–the final decades of Tsarist rule over the Russian Empire–it strikes me that his prosecutors, his judges, his jurors, his prison guards, could just as easily populate a federal court in America today. They present much the same foibles, weaknesses, vanities and political machinations.

Just for laughs

He hasn't done much as a golfer in quite awhile, but John Daly is still a colorful character.

Lull

It seems a criminal case doesn't have near the paper work that a civil case does and I have a few days off waiting for more discovery to arrive. I got to play nine holes yesterday and had a nice w2w meeting in the evening.

Stayed inside today, getting nearly up to 100, best to stay cool.

I've been watching the History Channel's series on the Revolution. I can't believe what they left out. I realize they couldn't put everything in, but still they could have mentioned the when William Prescott was on Breed's hill, Isaiah Putnam was dug in on Bunker Hill and that Prescott repeatedly requested Putman join him or send him more powder and shot which he never sent. The loss of American lives would have been much less if "Old Put" hadn't been such a coward.

Back to work

Started another case as a legal assistant. This one has a lot less paperwork and with the new database software it's going to be a lot less like grading papers.

Yesterday Mom called just as I finished the first nine on the golf course. She was in a rear ender and the lady who hit her was screaming like a banshee. I cut short my game and went over to check on her. She got to her house the same time I did so we went out for lunch and I took her to the hospital for an infusion. She was planning on doing it herself, but with the little fender bender she was rather frazzled. She'll need a number of massages to handle the whip lash, but other than that she's okay. There was minimal damage to the bumper of her car and it's doubtful that the lady that hit her has insurance or that they'd pay to fix it. It'll also cost less than her deductable.

Knuckled Under

I bought two of the PAperback versions of Optimus so that they would publish it in this format. The list price will be $9.95. The soft cover and hard cover is now back to a list price of $27.95. They are going to have a mass market hard back that will list at $14.95, but I'm not in the position to buy five or more copies so they'll put it in that format. Not sure I want it to tell the truth. They don't give an author's discount on these and I had to pay full price plus shipping. I don't think I'll be stocking a lot of these books.

Still all in all if any reader is interested in the book they can now go to a book store and special order it at a fairly reasonable price.

Fireworks galore

Son and his family were gone last night and we didn't buy fireworks. Even before it got dark around here the neighbors started setting off fireworks so we went outside and were entertained by all the stuff going off around us.
Grinnygranny is proof reading my second novel and with a few other alterations I'll have it ready to send off for a publisher.

Publish America just e-mailed me and they're not going to discontinue my book in soft cover. The still want me to buy a bunch to get into the cheaper paperback version. Which I might do in a couple of weeks, but not right now.

Going back to work as a legal assistant sometime this week, nock on wood, thought I'd be back at it last week, but legal things have their own time table. I'll call tomorrow and find out when to report.

We've watched 1776, my choice, and Independence Day, wife's choice, as our way of celebrating the country's birthday. I can't believe how many blogs are becoming negative on this. I'm not into the "My country right or wrong" mindset, but I'm still proud to be an American and live in this country.

Presidential Picks

Here is the top ranking of presidents:

Results of Siena College Research Institute Presidential Ranking Survey

Top Ten Presidents to see the whole ranking of best and worst presidents click here.

2010

1 F. Roosevelt

2 T. Roosevelt

3 Lincoln

4 Washington

5 Jefferson

6 Madison

7 Monroe

8 Wilson

9 Truman

10 Eisenhower

I'm no presidential scholar with a PHD to back up my picks, but I thought I'd play the game anyway.

My picks based on what they accomplished in office:

1. George Washington - I'm not a real fan of his military ability. He had some real blunders in the Revolutionary war, but he got the job done. Why I rank him numero uno is that he (a) created the office and set its traditions. He could have done what many generals throughout history have done when given this kind of power and become a dictator or become emperor put the constitution in a museum and that would have been that. He had to be begged to run for his second term saying he'd rather dig ditches. (b) By putting down a tax rebellion he established the federal government's authority. (c) He set the tradition of two terms for presidents that lasted over a hundred years and led to the term limit amendment. (d) He advised agains military alliances with other countries which would drag us into wars we don't want to fight. WWI is when we stopped listening to that advice for either good or ill. (e) When he became impatient with congress dithering on legislation started sending his own for them to vote on leading to presidents being the initiator of laws instead of just being a tribune that says yea or nay. (f) Chosing the best people possible for his cabinet and then let them do their jobs. He played referee between Hamilton and Jefferson, but the interesting part of the history books on Washington's presidency is that he is mentioned very little. His cabinet is center stage. All other presidents are center stage for their terms.

Hence without Washington leading the way for the office our republic would not have been established.

2. John F. Kennedy - He's not even on the experts top ten list.

Sorry experts, but without Kennedy's cool head and being able to trust his brother to fight against most of his cabinet, the military and intelligence agencies none of us would be alive today. The Cuban missile crisis nearly ended all life on this planet. I shudder to think about how close the election was in 1960 and what Nixon's decision would have been if he was sitting in the oval office in October of 1962.

3. Franklin D Roosevelt - My grandfather believed in three things: God, FDR and Henry J. Kaiser. (He worked at Kaiser Aluminum). Until our peace and prosperity made the general electorate insane with greed letting the Reaganomics destroy our economy again; Roosevelt's New Deal and financial regulations allowed capitalism to win WWII and the cold war. He didn't do it single handed. Obama would love to restore the regulations that were dropped, but he doesn't have a congress and supreme court to back him like FDR did. William Manchester in his book The Glory and The Dream states that in 1942 after Pearl Harbor 40% of the men who reported for induction into the military were deemed 4F or unfit for military service due to berry berry, an eye disease due to malnutrition in childhood and rickets, the bowing of legs due to lack of calcium in childhood and that if Hoover had been reelected in 1932 to continue letting the market fix itself the U.S. might not have been able to field an army for WWII.

4. Abraham Lincoln - He preserved the union. All that needs to be said. He did not free the slaves. The 13th amendment did that after he was dead. There is a part of me right now that wishes he had listened to some back in that day who didn't think the South worth fighting for and thought good riddance.

5. Theodore Roosevelt - Do we ever need a trust buster today! Do we ever need someone who cares about our natural resources and ecology.

6. Harry S. Truman - W may have called himself "The Decider," but of all the decisions any president has ever made the one to drop the atomic bomb has to be number one or two if you count Kennedy's decision not to invade Cuba avoiding a nuclear war. He also knew when threatening to use it was effective. He made Stalin back down from his planned invasion of Turkey with a single telegram.

7. William Jefferson Clinton - Oh stop groaning. Who gives a fuck about him having a groupie?He held office for eight years of relative peace and prosperity. He was the first president since Andrew Jackson to create a surplus.

8. James Monroe - the second most popular president of his time. Only Washington was more popular. He presided over the "Era of Good Feeling" respected and admired in both North and South. A time of peace and prosperity before the shit hit the fan over slavery and tarriffs.

9. Thomas Jefferson - Most historians include him here because of the declaration of indepenence, but that doesn't count on his presidency. I include him because of the Louisiana Purchase. His presidency was really a matter of bad timing. The Napoleonic wars forced him to stop all shipping with the embargo act leaving him with a huge black mark on his time in office.

10. James K. Polk - Maybe he provoked Mexico into war, but he did add California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado and Utah to the union. That has to count for something.

French and Spanish Aid

Click here for a nice little artilce about the French admiral De Grasse's victory in Chesepeake Bay which led to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Coming up on our Independence day celebrations we so often forget about the help France and
Spain lent us so we could achieve it. From France we were given muskets, cannon, shot, powder and troops under two generals. Spain provided an army and aide from Florida. What is little known is that there was fighting between the French and English in India, Spain and England in central and South America and a combined fleet from Spain and France beseiged Gibralter. One has to give credit to Admiral Howe. He bungled his advantage when Washington was trapped on Manhattan and Long Islands. I mean without a fleet the American army was trapped on two islands surrounded by the greatest navy in the world only a complete incompetent would let them out of such a trap. But when the one spot on the globe Britain absolutely could not afford to lose was threatened he provided England with the most brilliant naval victory prior to Nelson's victories agains Napoleon.
The writer of the article mentioned above credits Chesapeake Bay as the battle which really won the war for America. I think it was Gibralter. It was a victory, but Parliament was faced with continuing this war and it expanding to another global conflict similar to the Seven Years War (French and Indian War) with no end in sight. At this point the cost of the war was greater than they were willing to pay just to compensate the British East India Company for some lost tea.
When will we ever get to that point where our involvement in Western Asia has become too costly in men, money and military dominance to prop up Exxon, Shell, BP and Aramco?

Book Publisher's killing me

By the way folks that's meant as hyperbole.

Publish America is trying to squeeze it's authors right now. They're shifting to all hard bound. The price has stayed the same, but $21.95 is just too much for a book like this.
Today they made us an offer to keep the book in paperback, but you have to buy 19 copies in only a two day window. The books will list at $9.95, but I can't cough up that kind of money after I just bought 25 copies a little over a month ago.
They've got me and I think a good number of their authors over a barrel right now.
I want to keep selling the book and right now I'm starting to get into venues where I can, but they keep jerking me around on obtaining copies and prices.

Baby bird

Went out to golf today. On the tenth hole we picked up a follower: a gosling with just a hint of chick down on the head. It followed us for nearly the whole back nine. It did break off at the first water hazard we came across and then followed the team behind us. The only problem we had with it was on the greens where it kept getting in the way and we had to shoo it away.

We had a nice group of curmudgeons last night at the Isotopes game. The 'Topes lost 15-3, but it was nice to see each other and get caught up on things.

Looks like I'll be going back to work as a legal assistant for a couple of months. So much for the retirement. The money will come in handy.

Book Signing

A couple of friends invited me to join them tomorrow in the village of Tijeras at an arts and crafts fair. We'll set up a table to sell our books. I'm hoping there will be a good turn out and I can get some sold.

Addendum:
Sold one copy of Optimus and two of Friends Forever. I'm set to do a book signing at Tesuque's flea market on the 10th and will join with five other writers for a booth in the State Fair in September.

Random thoughts

• Watched the epic marathon tennis match between Mahut and Isner. Methinks this will change the rules to allow for a tie breaker in the fifth set. This was just unreal. Everyone is saying that this will never happen again, and with a tie breaker in the fifth set it won't.
• Nice to see the Queen show up again at Wimbeldon.
• Did everyone hear a loud sigh of disgust yesterday? Obama has replaced flip-flopped on generals. The neocons sighed in disgust because they couldn't throw their usual shit fit about Obama being soft on terror (this yo-yo was Bushco's number 1). Anyone who is tired of this neverending war sighed in disgust because this isn't what we voted for.
• Took son and daughter to the golf course and we hit a bucket of balls. I wanted to chip and putt, but Notah Begay's Jr. camp was setting up. If eldest grandson was down here it would be nice to have him signed up for that.

Captain Alert

I've posted a piece on Populism over at my Captain's Log Blog concerning an article I read by Jim Hightower. Check out what I've said or better yet click on Hightower's article and read all of it.

A Little Drama

Saturday night daughter's bf got his car stuck in the sand on the mesa behind our house. Mom came over with a roast for dinner just about the time bf came by with a friend and truck to get him out. The truck got stuck. His friend had to call a tow truck. Bf's parents came home from a trip to bring by their truck with a winch to get him out.

We watched the US Open Saturday and Sunday. After watching it almost all day Sat wife wanted to go golf. We got up early and did nine holes before it got too hot. Got home in time for the car drama and then watch Tiger melt down. Kind of hard to repeat the great round he had the day before.

Today is wife's last day at work for two weeks. She's now on vacation. I hope that means more golfing together as we're not going out of town.

Anne Littlewolf called. She sold a painting in Old Town this month. She's ecstatic. I went down to the cafe last week and bought a pound of Strawberry Cream tea. It's expensive as hell, but tastes like heaven. They're thinking of coming down here for either the state fair or balloon fiesta. Watch out when the twins get together.

Curmudgeons are getting together for an Isotopes game this Sunday evening. A few other friends and wives will be joining us too. Going to be a good time.

Punt

Had a rather windy golf tournament yesterday. Still good exercise and didn't overheat like the last few times I've played. In the evening wife and I down to Bosque Farms for a barbeque. Attorney friend has a new toy he just loves playing with: a smoker. We had brisket, chicken, hot links, and ribs smoked over apple wood. We left stuffed.
When I got home and made the mistake of checking e-mails the speaker for this Monday nights Writer's 2 Writers meeting canceled. At this short notice I doubt if I can find a replacement, so when in doubt punt. I'm going to be the speaker. Another speaker canceled on me this week for the August meeting and I was working on a topic in case I couldn't find a replacement. Guess I'll be spending most of Monday whipping it into shape and pray that all those wanting to hear the other speaker aren't disappointed or since I sent the mass e-mails out letting everyone know of the change that no one shows up.
I've decided the topic will be: Fact Checking it's just as important for fiction as non-fiction.

Good friend Michael Manning, would you be interested in a quick trip over here August 9th? I could sure use a good speaker...

Some things...

should not be talked about on the golf course. Thursday I went out with the Gaggle and was paired in the cart with a guy who was retired navy. As we were teeing off the other three guys in the foursome for some unexplained reason decided to vent about our senior senator and how they agreed with Arizona's immigration law. It didn't help matters that I was playing a rather lousy round of golf, but the idiot I was driving with naturally asked what I had done for a living and when I told him I had been a teacher he went off on a tirade about why the schools didn't teach the Constitution anymore. That was the last straw. I answered, "Why should we when Bush called it 'useless scrap of paper' and proceeded to take us into two needless wars, begin using Bills of Attainder and abolished Habeas Corpus."
He responded by saying that maybe we needed to avoid that subject.
No shit Sherlock!

BTW: I taught World History and the major theme was the rise of Democracy, from ancient Athens, The Roman Republic, The Enlightenment, English Civil War and the evolution of Parliamentary Democracy in England. In U.S. History I spent three weeks every first semester going over the actual constitution and the Bill of Rights with the rest of the year, as they came up, discussing the other ammendments focusing heavily on the 13th, 14th and 15th right after the Civil War. In Law class they got a double dose under Constitutional law as we covered numerous Supreme Court cases and I had them write a law, debate it and try to get it passed in a mock legislature, we did mock trials and mock appeals. I sponsored at two schools the YMCA Youth and Government club where the students conducted a model legislature in the Round House in Santa Fe over a weekend every year. They had to write a bill and be on committees to debate bills that students from all over the state submitted. There was also a Forum where instead of a bill they wrote research paper on the specific topic and then discussed it within the group to prepare a formal resolution to the legislature. There was a model Supreme Court as well. It was amazing every year watching the students in action as they learned the ins and outs of our government. Don't fuss at me about not teaching the Constitution. It's our political leaders who need a refresher course in Civics, not the schools.

Blood pressure much lower now. Off to a tournament and hoping to have a much better round of golf.

Fuss and Feathers

This last week you'd have thought a certain gentleman was the devil incarnate. That he'd committed the most horrible crime on the planet or all time. He missed a call in a baseball game that didn't change the outcome, but a pitcher was denied the third "perfect game" of this season.

Big fat hairy deal. Now the one that robbed the Redsox of a World Series, that was the crime of the century, and I'm not a Red Sox fan.

It's HOT

Wife wanted to golf yesterday we were going to walk the executive nine. She made it three holes and rode back with the girl that goes out and sells drinks. I hit the next three holes to where the sixth green is next to the first green then walked the first fairway back to the club house. It hit 100 degrees by nine in the morning. I thought it wouldn't get that hot until around five in the evening. The rest of the day we kept the ac on high and watched the French Open Women's final in the bedroom where it's cooler than the living room and drank lots of Gatoraide.

Talked to the attorney I worked with in April. He has another case and will need some help, this one should take some time. He'll let me know later this week if its a go.

Bought some plastic hanging pots to hang tomatoes upside down at Wally World. They were only four bucks each and came with soil and seed. I didn't feel like working with seed so I also bought some plants. Got them hanging off the back porch yesterday. When they grow out it should provide some shade on the patio, being on the south side it gets too hot in the evening to enjoy sitting around the glass table. I also bought one for strawberries, but haven't found any strawberrry plants to put in it yet.

Sprayed grass and weed killer on the driveway cracks and rocks in the front yard. I know it's a losing battle it seems like the grass weeds treat this stuff more like fertilizer than killer anymore.

I need to prune down my rose bushes now that the initial flowering has passed. The apricot tree is loaded this year. In about a month it will be quite a race between me and the birds to pick them off. I'm the only one in the family that like apricots so I may have to make juice out of most of them.

I like sleeping late but it's better to get up early and take a nap in the afternoons while it's so hot. I can get lots done this way.

Another Day for Memories

• Yesterday we went to church, picked up a pizza on the way home and had family dinner. Daughter came by with her boyfriend so that made a total of nine. Sadly that's too many for our small table which makes us have to eat in the living room and even then it's a little crowded. We had a nice meal of lasagna, pizza, garlic toast, jello with mandarin oranges and lemon bunt cake w/ice cream.
• Afterwards Mom took all the women with her to do some shopping leaving the kids with son and me.
• We discussed going up to Santa Fe to visit Dad's grave or visiting Linda's father's grave here in town, but they both decided they would rather cherish their memories from pictures instead of a grave stone.
• Heading out to do some more shopping.

Life is going on

• Daughter has moved out and in with her boyfriend. Yesterday she went to the hospital they diagnosed her with an infection and put her on anti-biotics. They came by today to pick up her laundry and she seems to be doing fine. She's meeting Grinnygranny for lunch today.
• I bought a device at Radio Shack that converts the music on cassettes to your computer. I had forgotten what a pain audio cassettes were. Fast forwarding and rewinding to get them loose enough to play without distortion. I also forgot just how many cassettes we have and it's taking some time to get all of them converted. I still have a stack of LP's to convert as well. But then what else is retirement for? I don't even want to think about going through all the (picture) slides my grandparents left me and Mom and Dad's that need to be converted. Egads that could take years.
• Got some more editing done on my next novel, doing a couple of rewrites here and there, but it's coming along and I should have it ready for publication soon.
• Doesn't look like we're going to see our eldest grandson this summer, which has Mom rather upset, and we're none to happy about it, but right now there's nothing to be done but accept the situation and make sure he gets to spend Christmas with us.
• Yesterday was Daniel's last day in pre-school. It was rather quiet around here when he was away for a few hours. Abigail is getting into everything, but is so cute about it.

My View

Faithful fellow blogger Michael Manning left this comment on my last post:

An excellent and timely post, PM. Christ wasn't into politics. He cut to the core and held steadfast to being grounded in love. He didn't care for labels. I once had breakfast with a buddy of mine from England and he asked me. "Where do we get all these labels? Tories? Labor? Conservatives? Democrats?" I told him that I wave off this media circus--including "the dimwit from Alaska" who isn't worth commenting on. I do not hate her. She needs therapy. She and others like her are all immersed in ego on both sides of the aisle. I think for myself while these various groups are so smug to believe they have the inside track to Jesus. They don't. His message is so simple. "Follow me". What I see both parties doing is spending day after day beating the hell out of one another and nothing more. They have failed us. If they were employed in a job like the rest of us, they would be fired. Christ was about serving. I ask this: Do these politicians have a spirit of serving others? I don't think so. They should be "serving" the needs of the American people who elected them. Those who fail, like our own Governor in Arizona (a travesty) must be voted out. But correct me if I'm wrong, PM. Christ stayed clear of this baloney and kept focused on serving. This message is lost on Washington. Which is why I have no faith in politicians or labels. It's going to be up to young people who enter public service with the correct mind set. Namely, to serve others. That's what Christ did. I'd welcome your view.

Michael I agree with whole heartedly on politicians. Take Jesus out of the issue, which is what the Constitution did by restricting the use of any religious test for the holding of public office, and the first amendment prohibiting the establishment of any one brand or type of religion. Politics should be religious neutral and religion should be personal not national.

Let's look at what in my view is the criterion by which a voter should use to choose an appropriate candidate:

1. They work for us. We the People voted them in and We the People can vote them out. They are public servants, not public masters.
2. Nothing says "I'll be your master" more than when they boast of being businessmen and will run the government as a business. A business exists to make money. Governments exist to provide services and to do that they spend money. Every congress in every state and at the national level, when they meet it is to decides how to spend money, not make it. There is no way to run a government as a business. Any politician that makes that claim is a crook looking to steal as much out of the public taxbase as they can get their hands on, or they're in it to pad the nest of their business buddies. Is it any surprise that when we elected two oil men for the national executive that we had sky high fuel prices and regulations were relaxed on business which has led to a total economic melt down and the oil spill disaster in the gulf. There is no greater example of cause and effect that this.
3. It is the job of the government to provide services. Services that the general population needs: Roads and bridges in good repair for transportation and commerce. Hospitals and health care that are affordable, police and firefighters for protection of our lives and property, prisons better than a dog pound, a military to protect us from attack, not to bomb people who have done no harm to us in order to make money for corporations that aren't even headquartered in this country. An educational system to provide an enlightened electorate. In short the government should provide a level playing field for everyone not stack the deck for the rich in order to exploit the rest.
4. If a Christian wants to vote their conscience according to their beliefs a politician who promises to serve the public in this way should be their first choice. The dimwit from Alaska doesn't seem to fall into this category. Otherwise she'd still be in office instead of quitting in order to do nothing but make money spouting drivel for morons. Not being in Arizona it wouldn't be my place to comment on your governor, but from your comment I think we're on the same page.

On My Soap Box

Mike Lux at Alternet got me thinking today. He has an article entitled: Why are so many Christians Conservative?

Which is a very good question and his insights are well reasoned:

if you actually read the Gospels, it is clear that Jesus' main concern in terms of the people whose fates he cared about was for the poor, the oppressed, and the outcast. Comment after comment and story after story in the Gospels about Jesus relates to the treatment of the poor, generosity to those in need, mercy to the outcast, and scorn for the wealthy and powerful. And his philosophy is embedded with the central importance of taking care of others, loving others, treating others as you would want to be treated. There is no virtue of selfishness here, there is no "greed is good," there is no invisible hand of the market or looking out for Number One first. There is nothing about poor people being lazy, nothing about the undeserving poor being leeches on society, nothing about how I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps so everyone else should, too. There is nothing about how in nature, "the lions eat the weak,"

Concerning how Conservative Christians defend their belief system he says:

I have never talked to a conservative Christian about economics and not heard them quote this verse) is the one time in which Jesus says that "the poor will always be with us." The reason they love this quote so much is that they interpret that line to mean that in spite of everything else Jesus said about the poor, that since the poor will always be with us, we don't need to worry about trying to help them. Apparently since the poor will always be with us, we can go ahead and screw them. But Jesus making a prediction that there will always be oppressive societies doesn't mean he wanted us to join the oppressors.

I've dealt with the conservative mindset all my life in Baptist Churches. For the first thirty years of my life there was an acceptance of differing opinions and fellowship prevailed. In 1978 when the thugs marched in and took control of the convention for twelve years there was a fight for the soul of the convention and the thugs won by as Russell Dilday, one of the casualties of this war said, "Using satanic practices." He caught a lot of flack for that statement, but when the winning side used slander, deception, and illegal means to remove him from the presidency of the largest Baptist Theological Seminary in the world, which at the time had an enrollment of over 5,000 students compared to todays less than 3,000. He was right. Thugs don't play by the rules of Christian Charity.

Fundamentalists may call themselves Christians, but they have long forgotten who and what Jesus was and stood for. They have their fire insurance guaranteed by John 3:16 and that's as far as it goes. For the rest of it they are cultural Christians that will believe anything a preacher says. Two hundred years ago God sanctioned Black Slavery. They conveniently forgot the Levitical law that all slaves be freed after seven years. Today we have a culture of greed. Ebeneezer Scrooge has replaced Jesus as their theologian, and they wonder why all the money in the world still makes them cold, barren and sour?

I look on the face of the Republican front runner for Governor in our state's primary election coming up. He boasts of being a Reagan Republican (his opponent was recently endorsed by the Alaskan Dimwit). He is the most bitter looking individual I've ever seen running for office.

I remember when Gary Johnson was elected governor sixteen years ago and the Repugs controlled the state for eight years. Every time I went up to the round house all you could feel emanating from the committee rooms and chambers was how mean spirited it was.

Look at the faces of those in the Tea Party. Don't they look like they were raised on pickle juice?

Life of anything but leisure

• Mom bought some furnature Wednesday. E and I took the van to pick it up. I keep telling Mom her little town house isn't getting any bigger the more stuff she puts in it. She saw a couple of patio chairs that weren't too much and yesterday called to have me go pick them up. I sent E to get them and they were already gone.
• Had a nice round of golf with the Gaggle yesterday. First time since I retired went out with the guys. It was fun.
• Today the Alzheimer's group had a rummage sale, raffle and cookout across the street from where Grinnygranny works. Took Mom to get her hair cut and went up to see what they had. Bought a few things at the rummage sale and had some hamburgers and hot dogs.
• Mom's little poodle isn't doing well so she's taking him to the vet this afternoon.

Too Close For Comfort

Woke up this morning to news that tornados hit Norman, Ok. Naturally since Bruce lives there we were worried. I checked his blog. He has a video of the marina on Thunderbird lake one mile from his house that was demolished, but it skipped him. Good news that he wasn't harmed, our prayers go out to those not as fortunate.

Honoring Motherhood

Happy Mother's Day

Mom came over and we drove down to Bosque Farms for church. It was the first time Mom's been down there, but she enjoyed it very much. When the service was over she talked to Michelle in North Carolina. Penni's husband is planning on driving out here this summer and she'll be able to spend some time. Mom's happy about that too. A good Mother's day for her.
We came back to town and had lunch at our favorite noodle place with E and his family. It makes for a pretty large group. The food is good and it's nice for all of us to sit around and spend time together.
The church gave all mothers a nice potted flower plant. Some kind of lilly. Mom and Grinnygranny seemed very pleased with theirs.

Here's hoping all the mothers out there are having a good day.

Old Town

Anne wanted me to check on the artwork she put on consignment at a coffee shop in Old Town. All of her work is still on the walls.
Grinnygranny had yesterday off so we went down to see and walked around some of the shops. It's been years since we've walked around the place since it's basically a toursit destination. GG had to go to the Cat Shop, but we were saddened by the lack of product. It's clear the store is on it's last legs. In fact many of the stores appear to be hanging on by only a thread. One of the byproducts of an economic down turn. It could be that its a month before the peak tourist season. There are some shops there that have fantastic art. Not all of it the kind you hang on a wall. Lots of pottery, t-shirts, mugs, metal work, jewelry... Silk scarves with very intricate pattersn seem to be popular.
We bought a few items, it is possible to find some things under ten dollars. It was actually a nice break from just going to a mall and walking around.

A Good Day

Mom has some friends from church and one of them is an artist. There was an art show in Rio Rancho today with proceeds going to a battered women's shelter. Mom wanted to go since her friend had some of her work on display. I took her and they were selling raffle tickets. I bought ten dollars worth and Mom bought five dollars worth. They had a number of artworks to choose from if your number was picked and they drew a new number every ten minutes. If you really wanted one of the works you could also buy them for fifty dollars each.

We looked at all the work and as would only be expected some were good and some were so so and some were pure crap.

Mom's friend had two paintings on display and one in the raffle. I had twenty tickets and one of them was the second number called. I went to get the lady's painting and would you believe it was the first one chosen. I picked not a painting but a quilted picture of the native american Oso or the Bear.

A few numbers later I got to pick another and chose a nice pencil sketch from a Chinese artist of a mountain scene.

Then one of Mom's numbers was called and she picked an abstract sky scene with dark clouds and a yellow patch breaking through the clouds. It looks really nice on the wall of her bedroom.

I put the bear picture under under the shelf with all our kachina dolls and the Chinese print in the bedroom.

Mom talked one of her friends into buying one of my books, which I sold for ten bucks, meaning I won a hundred dollars of artwork and broke even . A couple of the other ladies there expressed interest in my book so I gave Mom a couple to sell them tomorrow at church.

All in all a good day.