Of late, I have been focused on moving and all the necessary craziness that goes with it.
With that in mind......I'm intentionally going to avoid writing any posts....even less than I usually do.....like.....zero.....until further notice.
While I'm away, try listening to a Joni Mitchell album or Take Five by Dave Brubeck....just to name two outstanding artists.
At Goodwill, of all places, I recently snagged what looks like a good vinyl copy of The Glenn Miller Story which is basically the same thing as saying Glenn Miller's Greatest Hits. I had this album back in my teens and played it to death. It was inspirational for me when I was still living with the delusion that I could be a rock-n-roll saxophone man. Miller's heavy use of Saxophones was a new departure for "big bands" in that era and the sound was music of the highest order to my ears.
I can't wait to get resettled, set up my equipment, and start getting records, VHS and cassette tapes copied down to CDs and DVDs as the case may be. I may be able to borrow a machine that will copy the VHS tapes directly.....big help! Otherwise, I have a software program with a hardware adapter that can handle them, video and audio.
So on that note.....ta ta again; see you later.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
No more interpreting guys
The first amendment, when read literally and understood properly says, among other things, that the government shall not establish a state religion. It says nothing about all the other so-called "rights" that 'The Supremes' and other federal judges have managed to magically discern from what is a very simple document. The "Bill of Rights" is a simple document. It is meant to be taken literally. What's so bloody hard about that? What need then of "interpretation"?
The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States and the first ten amendments to the Constitution, commonly called The Bill of Rights comprise our founding documents. All three of them are NOT organic, alive, nor do they possess any other human qualities we care to attribute to them. They are very profound and well-considered words on paper. It is the job of RESPONSIBLE, GOD-FEARING men and women to prayerfully ask for guidance in trying to determine the best action to be taken, when being guided by those pieces of parchment over two-hundred years old, which we have deemed relevant to our modern age, or not. The men who wrote them were guided by faith in the living God and the Holy Trinity of conventional Christianity.
Even those men in that group who were not true believers, who may have been deists or agnostics....whatever, allowed for the existence of God and the Trinity. Furthermore, they were willing to subvert their own prejudices about religion in the interest of forging the best principles possible for our fledgling country. In short, those who didn't believe in the Trinity, made sure that the preparation of these documents was allowed to be a God-driven process for the good of the nation. If they failed to codify our freedoms and "rights" in any way, it was from an assumption that the people in our time would be as devout and God-driven as they were when they wrote these magnificent documents.
Those documents are as relevant today as they were 200 years ago. What is different is our post-modern society where everything is open to interpretation and there are no moral absolutes. Consequently, our poor Constitution has undergone some of the most severe and skewed interpretation in the past 30-40 years that the founding fathers never could have anticipated. In other words, they wrote the documents for people as people used to be, never dreaming that God-fearing people would end up in the minority, leaving the inmates to run the asylum. God help us in this increasingly Godless society.
We who do believe and have the guts to stand up for our faith have a responsibility not only to spread the Gospel message as much as we can through responsible evangelism, we must also speak out whenever and wherever we see lies, hypocrisy, deceit, greed, and all manner of social ills being perpetrated, especially when it comes from our governing "leaders", both in the secular arena or even worse, in the church body itself.
We elected our current crop of government leaders out of ignorance. We can no longer afford to remain ignorant. We must study, be informed, then get out there and vote for the right people, the ones we need, to lead us out of the socialistic mess our self-exalted king, Mr. Hussein, is trying to lead us into.
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." —2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)
The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States and the first ten amendments to the Constitution, commonly called The Bill of Rights comprise our founding documents. All three of them are NOT organic, alive, nor do they possess any other human qualities we care to attribute to them. They are very profound and well-considered words on paper. It is the job of RESPONSIBLE, GOD-FEARING men and women to prayerfully ask for guidance in trying to determine the best action to be taken, when being guided by those pieces of parchment over two-hundred years old, which we have deemed relevant to our modern age, or not. The men who wrote them were guided by faith in the living God and the Holy Trinity of conventional Christianity.
Even those men in that group who were not true believers, who may have been deists or agnostics....whatever, allowed for the existence of God and the Trinity. Furthermore, they were willing to subvert their own prejudices about religion in the interest of forging the best principles possible for our fledgling country. In short, those who didn't believe in the Trinity, made sure that the preparation of these documents was allowed to be a God-driven process for the good of the nation. If they failed to codify our freedoms and "rights" in any way, it was from an assumption that the people in our time would be as devout and God-driven as they were when they wrote these magnificent documents.
Those documents are as relevant today as they were 200 years ago. What is different is our post-modern society where everything is open to interpretation and there are no moral absolutes. Consequently, our poor Constitution has undergone some of the most severe and skewed interpretation in the past 30-40 years that the founding fathers never could have anticipated. In other words, they wrote the documents for people as people used to be, never dreaming that God-fearing people would end up in the minority, leaving the inmates to run the asylum. God help us in this increasingly Godless society.
We who do believe and have the guts to stand up for our faith have a responsibility not only to spread the Gospel message as much as we can through responsible evangelism, we must also speak out whenever and wherever we see lies, hypocrisy, deceit, greed, and all manner of social ills being perpetrated, especially when it comes from our governing "leaders", both in the secular arena or even worse, in the church body itself.
We elected our current crop of government leaders out of ignorance. We can no longer afford to remain ignorant. We must study, be informed, then get out there and vote for the right people, the ones we need, to lead us out of the socialistic mess our self-exalted king, Mr. Hussein, is trying to lead us into.
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." —2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)
Thursday, July 29, 2010
With Friends Like These, Who Needs Keith Olbermann?
Ann Coulter really has a bug on about this week's topic. Here she is in high dudgeon at her literate, conservative best.
With Friends Like These, Who Needs Keith Olbermann? - HUMAN EVENTS
With Friends Like These, Who Needs Keith Olbermann? - HUMAN EVENTS
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Back to the Roots
Last week I went to an AA meeting for the first time in many, many years. I went because I really needed to shake a bad feeling of being let down. I had gone to Al-Anon meetings for quite a few years due to the presence in my life of a severe, terminal alcoholic which affected me more than I realized. I knew then that I needed help, but needing help as an alcoholic eluded me until this past week when it suddenly hit me—I needed help.
One of the main reasons that we recovering drunks "go back out there" is from pinning our hopes on another person, or persons, or situations in any one of a number of ways. One of those ways is expectation. I was the guy who used to pipe up in Al-Anon meetings and say I had no expectations of anyone. Ergo, if I had no expectations, people and/or events couldn't let me down.
Well, that was then. It seems that just recently, from talking to a dear friend of mine in the program, I made an assumption that showed me how had I fallen into setting up expectations without actually knowing all the facts first.
That wouldn't have been so bad in itself, but I made the "mistake" (guided by God no doubt) of picking up and actually reading the Big Book of AA. As I went throught the stories of all those early recovering drunks, I began to see myself in there in a new way. I have known for years about the fact of my alcoholism, but what I wasn't aware of is how much I had back-slidden into bad attitudes.
Now I can form an expectation that's based on fact, not on conjecture or other fantasy. In the past I would do the latter and set myself up for disappointment time after time. The end result would be to nurse my sorrows with plenty of TLC from the nearest bottle of Vodka or cold beer, or both.
My, how times have changed.
One of the main reasons that we recovering drunks "go back out there" is from pinning our hopes on another person, or persons, or situations in any one of a number of ways. One of those ways is expectation. I was the guy who used to pipe up in Al-Anon meetings and say I had no expectations of anyone. Ergo, if I had no expectations, people and/or events couldn't let me down.
Well, that was then. It seems that just recently, from talking to a dear friend of mine in the program, I made an assumption that showed me how had I fallen into setting up expectations without actually knowing all the facts first.
That wouldn't have been so bad in itself, but I made the "mistake" (guided by God no doubt) of picking up and actually reading the Big Book of AA. As I went throught the stories of all those early recovering drunks, I began to see myself in there in a new way. I have known for years about the fact of my alcoholism, but what I wasn't aware of is how much I had back-slidden into bad attitudes.
Now I can form an expectation that's based on fact, not on conjecture or other fantasy. In the past I would do the latter and set myself up for disappointment time after time. The end result would be to nurse my sorrows with plenty of TLC from the nearest bottle of Vodka or cold beer, or both.
My, how times have changed.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
The days of past futures passed.
Yesterday I had lunch with one of the "old gang" I hadn't seen in over forty years! that's an insanely long time to be away from people you knew and cared about even if they were from High School days. Yes, not all of us were friends, we didn't know everyone well and we hung out with our best buddies, but we knew these other people enough to say hello and have somewhat meaningful conversations with them, or we were at least cordial if not outright friendly. But this guy was one of my closest friends so he qualifies as an "old gang" member big time.
So yesterday I had lunch with one of the "old gang" and a new member of the "new old gang" who was in our high school class and who I knew basically only in passing. Seeing him now I'm actually happy to know that I know him! Differences have gone away as new perspectives creep in. Age levels the field and gives us all a sense of camaraderie that wasn't there before. Now I remember him, he remembers me and we have a chance now to be in touch because we find ourselves living in the same town, how cool is that? I feel a sense of wonder like a little kid again. I have a new friend who could have been an old friend if things had just been a little bit different.
Yesterday I heard stories of others that were in our class: who's married, who got divorced, how many kids, how many grandchildren, who's passed on....already! We never know how that adventure called 'life' is going to treat us: who's going to get stroked, who's going to get beaten, or destroyed, or pampered and it's never the people who get what we think we thought they would. Got that? That is to say, the one most likely to......often isn't the one.
There was excitement as I found out that one of the girls I sort of had a crush on may be coming to visit this side of the state sometime and I'm actually excited at the prospect of seeing her again! We never dated of course, but we were very friendly and I have thought of her often over the years. I think it would be fantastic to see her and some of the other people that I found out about who are living here. I had no idea there were so many of my classmates so close by. Small world again...eh?
This is one time I'm glad the world seems to be so small. Now I just wish that more of the people I know and those I love so dearly were closer too. We're all not getting any younger. I'm going to have to work on that!
So yesterday I had lunch with one of the "old gang" and a new member of the "new old gang" who was in our high school class and who I knew basically only in passing. Seeing him now I'm actually happy to know that I know him! Differences have gone away as new perspectives creep in. Age levels the field and gives us all a sense of camaraderie that wasn't there before. Now I remember him, he remembers me and we have a chance now to be in touch because we find ourselves living in the same town, how cool is that? I feel a sense of wonder like a little kid again. I have a new friend who could have been an old friend if things had just been a little bit different.
Yesterday I heard stories of others that were in our class: who's married, who got divorced, how many kids, how many grandchildren, who's passed on....already! We never know how that adventure called 'life' is going to treat us: who's going to get stroked, who's going to get beaten, or destroyed, or pampered and it's never the people who get what we think we thought they would. Got that? That is to say, the one most likely to......often isn't the one.
There was excitement as I found out that one of the girls I sort of had a crush on may be coming to visit this side of the state sometime and I'm actually excited at the prospect of seeing her again! We never dated of course, but we were very friendly and I have thought of her often over the years. I think it would be fantastic to see her and some of the other people that I found out about who are living here. I had no idea there were so many of my classmates so close by. Small world again...eh?
This is one time I'm glad the world seems to be so small. Now I just wish that more of the people I know and those I love so dearly were closer too. We're all not getting any younger. I'm going to have to work on that!
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Much Ado About Little....Avatar.
"I can't believe I spent almost $21.00 on that piece of crap." That was: $11.00 for the ticket, after my senior discount of course, and almost $10.00 for a medium Diet Coke and a medium popcorn. The cost of the large sizes was even more exorbitant so I passed on those.
That was my mental state and statement as I walked out of the AMC theater #8 after sitting through one hour and thirty-five minutes of a two-and-a-half hour piece of cinematic garbage referred to as Avatar. I decided to see it after all the hearsay said it was "cool" or "fantastic FX," "Really good" and similar lauditory phrases. Too bad no-one had warned me about the dismal, almost continuous raft of profanity that was freely laced into the dialogue. My personal "profanity meter" wasn't totally off the scale but it was definitely in the zone where my alarm goes off.
The next big disappointment was the heavy-handed "green" sermon: "Big, evil corporation bad, peaceful native people with great earth spirituality good." The message was so blatant that the guy asleep in the 14th row could get it.
Then there was the ubiquitous feminazi message which we have had to endure for more years than anyone can remember, the one that keeps pounding out the message that men are rutting brutes with no capacity for feelings, speech or much of anything else except hyper-active libidos, and women are the superior race, who have to teach men just everything. This is rampant in our culture now and frankly, I'm sick of it and think it's long past time to see a more balanced approach to M-F relations portrayed in movies and television. I can dream, can't I? Men are cut down at every turn, debased, abased, ridiculed (Honey! The Ajax turned blue!) and treated like the vestigial creatures the feminazi rulers believe we are. In their eyes our only function is as sperm donors, and preferably not doing it in person. Enough already.
The other great draw, the 3D, was very disappointing—only the stuff in the middle of the screen was really sharp with almost everything else being out of focus, especially the things appearing to stick out of the screen. There was also a lot of motion blur...I thought they would have gotten that under control by now. The last 3D I saw was a mighty Mouse animated feature film back in the 50s that had better 3D than this. Remember the cardboard glasses with the red and blue cellophane lenses? The ones that David Tennant's Dr. Who still uses on occasion? They worked better than these "Real 'D' 3D" things.
So right after the big, mean MEN led by Colonel Jarhead (you know, the kind that rolls his own cigars for breakfast) rips up the sacred forest of the indigenous cat-people to the horror of all concerned forest-dwellers, I quit.
This has taught me a lesson—to listen to my inner voice that has kept me out of the movie theaters since that time when my late wife and I saw Monsters, Inc. That had no bad language and not even one character passed wind or made any other potty jokes, if I recall correctly.
It's sad when the only decent fare in the movies is the animated offerings and even then we have the aforementioned potty humor as standard fare. As for 3D? I won't be rushing back anytime soon to try it. Avatar is rated PG-13, so I'll stick to PG or higher from now on if this is a sample of how far the ratings have sunk. It's sad to note that one of the cinematic objections that went into the PG-13 Rating was "smoking". It's not only sad to think that that could be a factor in movie ratings but not the constant stream of profanity and blasphemy against the God of Christians that no-one seems to object to except Christians...and who cares about them or their sensitivities anyway? The filmmakers sure don't care about their God and, oh boy, are they gonna be in for a rude shock real soon!
It'll be a long time before I wander into a movie theater again. Let me have my Blockbuster On Demand suscription so I can pick what I want to watch in the comfort of my own home, for the cost of a bag of microwave popcorn.
That was my mental state and statement as I walked out of the AMC theater #8 after sitting through one hour and thirty-five minutes of a two-and-a-half hour piece of cinematic garbage referred to as Avatar. I decided to see it after all the hearsay said it was "cool" or "fantastic FX," "Really good" and similar lauditory phrases. Too bad no-one had warned me about the dismal, almost continuous raft of profanity that was freely laced into the dialogue. My personal "profanity meter" wasn't totally off the scale but it was definitely in the zone where my alarm goes off.
The next big disappointment was the heavy-handed "green" sermon: "Big, evil corporation bad, peaceful native people with great earth spirituality good." The message was so blatant that the guy asleep in the 14th row could get it.
Then there was the ubiquitous feminazi message which we have had to endure for more years than anyone can remember, the one that keeps pounding out the message that men are rutting brutes with no capacity for feelings, speech or much of anything else except hyper-active libidos, and women are the superior race, who have to teach men just everything. This is rampant in our culture now and frankly, I'm sick of it and think it's long past time to see a more balanced approach to M-F relations portrayed in movies and television. I can dream, can't I? Men are cut down at every turn, debased, abased, ridiculed (Honey! The Ajax turned blue!) and treated like the vestigial creatures the feminazi rulers believe we are. In their eyes our only function is as sperm donors, and preferably not doing it in person. Enough already.
The other great draw, the 3D, was very disappointing—only the stuff in the middle of the screen was really sharp with almost everything else being out of focus, especially the things appearing to stick out of the screen. There was also a lot of motion blur...I thought they would have gotten that under control by now. The last 3D I saw was a mighty Mouse animated feature film back in the 50s that had better 3D than this. Remember the cardboard glasses with the red and blue cellophane lenses? The ones that David Tennant's Dr. Who still uses on occasion? They worked better than these "Real 'D' 3D" things.
So right after the big, mean MEN led by Colonel Jarhead (you know, the kind that rolls his own cigars for breakfast) rips up the sacred forest of the indigenous cat-people to the horror of all concerned forest-dwellers, I quit.
This has taught me a lesson—to listen to my inner voice that has kept me out of the movie theaters since that time when my late wife and I saw Monsters, Inc. That had no bad language and not even one character passed wind or made any other potty jokes, if I recall correctly.
It's sad when the only decent fare in the movies is the animated offerings and even then we have the aforementioned potty humor as standard fare. As for 3D? I won't be rushing back anytime soon to try it. Avatar is rated PG-13, so I'll stick to PG or higher from now on if this is a sample of how far the ratings have sunk. It's sad to note that one of the cinematic objections that went into the PG-13 Rating was "smoking". It's not only sad to think that that could be a factor in movie ratings but not the constant stream of profanity and blasphemy against the God of Christians that no-one seems to object to except Christians...and who cares about them or their sensitivities anyway? The filmmakers sure don't care about their God and, oh boy, are they gonna be in for a rude shock real soon!
It'll be a long time before I wander into a movie theater again. Let me have my Blockbuster On Demand suscription so I can pick what I want to watch in the comfort of my own home, for the cost of a bag of microwave popcorn.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Bring them back
I want my heroes back. I want to see real men that do things the way "The Duke" used to. I don't want people who simply do their jobs and put in a day's work being touted as "heroes".
A hero is something that one has to be by action, not just something that happens by doing one's job. An Air Force aviator shot down and held captive for 65 days before being rescued is not a hero. I'm sorry, but unless that individual did something heroic, they don't get the title. The fictional Forrest Gump running into the front lines to carry out, bodily, each member of his company is a hero. The grunt that lays down machine-gun fire to cover the retreat of his platoon without regard for his own life is a hero.
Such deeds are so heroic that our government allows for the awarding of very important medals and other acknowledgements posthumously in the event that said heroes do not survive their acts of bravery, over and above the call of duty.
I used to have "real men" I could look up to. Most of these guys were WWII vets and had some stories to tell. Some of them like "The Duke" and others played fictional men of valor. Some of the real ones had stories so painful that they wouldn't tell; so gut-wrenching that they should never be told; so horrifying that just thinking about them was too much. I see these men on TV now--they're old and they're being interviewed and they all say the same thing when someone tries to call them heroes, they just scoff and say: "I'm no hero, we were just doing a job....the guys who didn't make it....the guys who gave it all....there's your heroes."
Just like the guys before us who gave it all in Iwo Jima, France, Dunkirk, Casablanca, Rome, Corregidor, Leyte Gulf, and on and on....all deserve our utter respect for the liberty and rejection of tyrrany they bought for the world and for all of us in the free world.
"There's your heroes."
A hero is something that one has to be by action, not just something that happens by doing one's job. An Air Force aviator shot down and held captive for 65 days before being rescued is not a hero. I'm sorry, but unless that individual did something heroic, they don't get the title. The fictional Forrest Gump running into the front lines to carry out, bodily, each member of his company is a hero. The grunt that lays down machine-gun fire to cover the retreat of his platoon without regard for his own life is a hero.
Such deeds are so heroic that our government allows for the awarding of very important medals and other acknowledgements posthumously in the event that said heroes do not survive their acts of bravery, over and above the call of duty.
I used to have "real men" I could look up to. Most of these guys were WWII vets and had some stories to tell. Some of them like "The Duke" and others played fictional men of valor. Some of the real ones had stories so painful that they wouldn't tell; so gut-wrenching that they should never be told; so horrifying that just thinking about them was too much. I see these men on TV now--they're old and they're being interviewed and they all say the same thing when someone tries to call them heroes, they just scoff and say: "I'm no hero, we were just doing a job....the guys who didn't make it....the guys who gave it all....there's your heroes."
Just like the guys before us who gave it all in Iwo Jima, France, Dunkirk, Casablanca, Rome, Corregidor, Leyte Gulf, and on and on....all deserve our utter respect for the liberty and rejection of tyrrany they bought for the world and for all of us in the free world.
"There's your heroes."
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Another listening Gem....
I have become a fan of a totally unique TV show called Wretched, with Todd Friel. It's social satire in a way, and features Mr. Friel standing in a "hip" room doing a monologue about current events, but presenting them from a distinctly Evangelical Christian viewpoint. He claims to be "the wretch the song refers to". He closes every show with the admonition: "....go serve your King."
He's not afraid to be direct and doesn't mince words; if something is bothersome, otherwise out of whack or just plain un-Biblical, he says so and gives references in scripture to support it. The style is, in a word, manic and the jumpy camera work can be annoying, but his content is always right on the money.
Check you local listings to see if Wretched is available in your area or on your provider's system at all. On our FIOS system here in West-central Florida it's broadcast on the FamNet station (#242). You can also get to it on the web at http://www.wretchedradio.com/ where you can listen to the rerun radio stream or catch the live feed from 3-5 PM Eastern time.
He's not afraid to be direct and doesn't mince words; if something is bothersome, otherwise out of whack or just plain un-Biblical, he says so and gives references in scripture to support it. The style is, in a word, manic and the jumpy camera work can be annoying, but his content is always right on the money.
Check you local listings to see if Wretched is available in your area or on your provider's system at all. On our FIOS system here in West-central Florida it's broadcast on the FamNet station (#242). You can also get to it on the web at http://www.wretchedradio.com/ where you can listen to the rerun radio stream or catch the live feed from 3-5 PM Eastern time.
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