Metallic Pea

‘Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.”‘  ~ Exodus 8:19a  

Funny search engine terms used to find my blog:

• i hate lake pointe church in rockwall

• kyle the traffic cone

• bible housing crisis

• brian franklin tanzania

• Civilian deaths in the war in Afghanistan have increased 60% thus far this year.

• I truly hope events do not actually mirror predictions; still, I would once again urge us to all get our financial houses in order—quickly: ‘Fortis expects a complete collapse of the US financial markets within a few days to weeks. That explains, according to Fortis, the series of interventions of last Thursday to retrieve € 8 billion. “We have been saved just in time. The situation in the US is much worse than we thought”, says Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens. Fortis expects bankruptcies amongst 6000 American banks which have a small coverage currently. But also Citigroup, General Motors, there is starting a complete meltdown in the US.”

• Atheists are so tolerant and understanding: ‘It’s good that Christians homeschool. We need citizens to clean our toilets and mow our lawns. Perhaps some homeschooled Christians will be able to fill these types of jobs. The rest will be unemployable retards like their parents.’

• I wholeheartedly believe that parents should be liberal with their support for and affirmation of their children. A great deal of the motivation behind a child’s efforts lies in his search for his parents’ approval and we should be quick to recognise and fulfill that need. However, it should also be tempered with a copious amount of realism and (if need be) infused humility. Cheering on your child for his effort and celebrating his success should not be confused with a need to tell your child he is the best at everything he does—especially if it is not actually the case. Just ask former Aggie basketball player Deandre Jordan. After being told he is the greatest player for so long, he believed it—and it probably cost him millions of dollars.

• ‘The first flashing red alert, however, did not appear when the writer portrayed “God the Father” as a black woman, and the “Holy Spirit” as an Asian woman.’

• ‘Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran … [which] are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership.’ Here we go again!

• ‘If this is 1938, as many conservatives argue, then Iran is Romania, not Germany.’

To-day’s 1980’s Moment is brought to you by: The Police

‘When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey [or a 'possum?] falls into it, the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his.’  ~ Exodus 21:33, 34

I saw Jacob and Laura at church to-day which reminded me that 1) it has been quite a while since the Hayneses (does that look right?) last were in town and 2) I need to post the picture from my opossum adventure to pair with theirs. 

Now, imagine sticking your arm down into a trash can with the intention of bring back dog food–and only dog food–and being greeted with this:

I would like to end this post with a very important caveat: Not all ‘possums are bad.  Some (like the one below) are downright fantastic!

‘Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing.’ ~ Luke 15:25

I left work early yesterday (that’s right, Kev: Comp Time!) and, at the end of an uneventful three-hour trek up Interstate 45, found myself at the doorstep of my in-laws, where the girls have been since Sunday evening.  Long drives tend to sap my energy so my first activity was little more than watching Gracie Mae swim with Manna (her grandmother) in the pool from the comfort of the pool chair (with a room temperature Shiner Bock close at hand).

Later that evening, we packed up the plantation and rallied at the Dallas Arboretum for their summer concert series featuring one of my favourites, Asleep at the Wheel.  I absolutely love their tightly-played and enthusiastically delivered brand of Western Swing, so I was in hog heaven as we sat on the sloped lawn eating homemade chicken salad sandwhiches (not as good as Marian’s!) and tipping back bottles of chilled Spaten and Heineken.  Good stuff.

In spite of the great show, I think my favourite part of the evening was during the encore as I held Gracie Mae on my shoulders and she clapped and laughed wildly to their rendition of ‘Cherokee Maiden‘.  It just doesn’t get much better than that.

(Jackson, are you paying attention?)

‘They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body.’  ~ Leviticus 21:5

Good news!  The old crew chickens appear to be accepting the new chicks I introduced into the coop last week.  The latter have been able to negotiate the coop largely unmolested, though the larger birds tend to become aggressive whenever I enter to feed them.  (The get in such a fowl mood!)  I would love to post pictures (the Ameraucanas are absolutely beautiful) but the wife’s camera is behaving badly.  Stay tuned.

“I’ll meet you at the outdoor cafe.  (I’ll be wearing orange.)”  

• By way of demonstrating how the biblical translation you employ can have a significant impact on your exegesis: Do you realise that the King James Version mentions unicorns?

• ‘South Korea currently ranks 12th in the world militarily, whereas North Korea is 18th. South Korea has twice as many men available to the military (24 million to 11 million) and roughly twice as many under arms (657,000 to 382,000). Economically the South ranks 13th in the world with a GDP of $982b (just above Australia), the North ranks 156th with $2b (just above Greenland). North Korea’s gross national income was valued at $26.7 billion last year, with its per capita gross national income at $1,152, according to the Bank of Korea. By contrast, South Korea’s $971 billion economy grew 5 percent last year, giving it a per capita income at $20,045.’  (So, remind me, why are we still in South Korea?)

• What do Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Pachelbel, and Fleetwood Mac have in common?

• As someone who would have lost my land to this New World Order boondoggle, I am very relieved to know that, in this instance anyway, the Powers That Be heeded the concerns of the little man.

• Sedacca wrote that current financial-market conditions remind him of “someone standing on a lonely beach, armed with only a small bucket, trying to stop a rare tsunami that hits the shores. It is how I feel about our markets and the tools being utilized by the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other regulatory bodies. They are overmatched for what they are facing and, worse yet, they helped create the mess in the first place by being far too easy with money and debt creation.”

• ‘By [current standards of] morality and logic, Germans at Nuremberg might have asserted a right to kill women and children because that is what the British were doing to [German] women and children.’

• Knock, knock. Who’s there? Hermann Goering’s underwear…

• Maybe those folks in Taxachusetts aren’t so bad after all. A local school committee recently added Ron Paul’s book, ‘The Revolution: A Manifesto’ to its summer reading list.

To-day’s 1980’s Moment is brought to you by: Billy Joel 

‘I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men. But my love will never be taken away from him…’  ~ II Samuel 7:14-15a

The news has by now travelled far and wide but, for those yet unaware, I relish the opportunity to announce that we are expecting a son!  I can say in all sincerity that I would have been just as overjoyed to discover the next addition to our family lacked a Y chromosome; still, though I would have loved another daughter just as much, I feel a bit…different about our impending arrival.  

It is a near universal truth that men desire sons made in their image to carry forth the family name and legacy.  Admittedly, though I would have been overjoyed at the prospect of expanding our collection of pink accoutrement (and hope to again in the future, truth be told!) I am very much enamoured with the idea of welcoming Thomas Jackson into the fold.  He will be called Jackson, after one of my Christian–and Southern–heroes.  My prayer is that he will grow to be a godly man and not take after his father in all of the bad ways.

It is difficult to fathom an additional member around the family hearth; yet, as I recall, I had similar troubles coalescing my thoughts around Gracie Mae.  However, knowing the joy she has brought to our lives, I have every reason to look forward to November.  The ‘New Normal’ as the Andersons describe it.

Fatherhood is much like having a wolf by the ears; it is both exhilarating and utterly frightening.  And one heck of a ride!

People smile and tell me I’m the lucky one.
And we’ve just begun, think I’m gonna have a son.
He will be like she and me, as free as a dove,
conceived in love, the sun is gonna shine above.

And even though we ain’t got money,
I’m so in love with you honey,
Everything will bring a chain of love.
And in the mornin’ when I rise,
you bring a tear of joy to my eyes
and tell me, everything, is gonna be alright.  ~ Kenny Loggins, Danny’s Song

• It seems that a former College Station city councilman made it big—he was featured in the ‘Headlines’ portion of the To-night Show with Jay Leno.

• DO NOT BE DECEIVED: CO2 and water vapour are NOT poisoning our atmosphere nor causing global warming! Those saying so are pushing Junk Science.

• Pat Buchanan says it is simple: No war, no holocaust.

• The Big Government Candidate. (Not so fast!)

• A word of advice: DO NOT take ammunition into Russia. (Even if you are a pastor.)

To-day’s 1980’s Moment is brought to you by: Europe