What's Wrong With This Picture?

This is a chart from before the turn of the century of temperatures recorded by Scientists in Detroit Lakes MN. See anything funny about it?

Here's the rub. You will see how radically the temperature jumps right after the millennium.

Huge spike in global warming. Right?

Wait, what else happened when 1999 turned over to 2000? I saw Office Space and I'm pretty sure I know.

Y2K.

Yep.

A bug. Buggy ol bug.

Course, that will make no difference to the alarmists. But, with the bug debugged the warmest years on record are not the past few, they are in fact 1934, 1998 and 1921. In fact of the 10 hottest years on record 5 occur BEFORE WWII. Oh, it's hot alright. But it's been hot before and if my guess is right it will be hot again.

Just doing my part to keep things on a rational keel as we think about leaping off the bridge because the world is coming to an end. It ain't.

Why Islam is Going to be SOO much Fun

Just a hat tip to PILGRIM. As he says,
coming soon to a civilization near you.............

And people wonder why the war matters!

Never on Sunday or maybe

I am out of town at a men's retreat starting tonight. I will be out of town. So, postless I will be. I'm hoping for good things.I'll be back late PM Sunday. I may find time time bring news of the day (or not). In any case, till then.

OH, one other thing. This retreat represents one of two visions I have for 2007. The other is wrapped in this story in the Chicago Tribune today. We need a full blown Pentecostal expression on Sunday Nights in suburban Kane County for all those folks who no longer go to Church out of boredom and frustration. They need to be plugged back into the Body of Christ. I have the team to pull this off. Now all I need is the release.

We'll see.

For your additional entertainment you must read this punny story about the weinermobile. I thought you could be arrested for such writing.

Something is MISSING

These are pictures from a huge wind farm west and north of Brookings SD on the MN-SD border. Without hyperbole there are 1000 or more windmills on this farm. It goes for miles. Each of the generators are about the size of a Suburban SUV. They were all turning. It was staggering to think of the dollars spent to build this behemoth.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE THEM FULL SIZED, YOU WILL SEE HUNDREDS OF THESE IN THE BACKGROUND.



It went on for miles and miles. I was amazed at what I saw.

At the bottom of each windmill was a little transformer about the size of a house transformer. 4X4'

See it there? Now note the size of the generator, remember it's the size of a Chevy Suburban.
Suddenly as I looked around I noticed something was missing. With all those big generators all running at full tilt (a little windmill humor there) I began to ask myself:

WHERE ARE THE HIGH LINES?

I've been to Hoover Dam. I've been to the Byron Nuclear plant, I've been to the coal fired power plants in western ND. They all have huge substations accumulating the generated electricity and then sending it out on huge powerlines into the energy grid.

I saw none. Nothing. Nada. For the naysayer among you, High Tension (that means lots of volts) can't be done underground. There is too much line voltage loss to go low voltage even if you were to use a very large shielded cable

There are no power lines leading away from this wind farm.

NONE!

Which only can lead me to this conclusion. It's all a scam. The only thing those big generators generate is making people feel good, Florida Power and Lights to generate real electricity because of the offset, government matching payments and the real reason to run those big generators;

TO POWER THAT LITTLE BLINKING LIGHT ON TOP

This is why government needs to stay out of the energy regulation and encouragement business. Ethanol is a big enough scam, this may be worse.

Just to put this all in perspective and helping to understand why this is so foolish, the whole world's capacity to produce electricity from wind power is 90 MW.
That assumes they all turn all the time which isn't the case.

That's in the whole world. Global. All of them. Together. Got it?

ONE NUCLEAR PLANT in Southport North Carolina produces 1875 MW. Over 20 times as much as all the wind power in the whole world.

NOW, contrast that to all the nuclear plants operating in the world. As of 2007, the IAEA reported there are 435 nuclear power reactors in operation in the world, operating in 31 different countries.

Where do YOU think we should be putting our resources and economic incentives?

How much bridge building money has been flushed down this sewer of windpower?

E-Mail Troubles

I am having serious trouble with my email account, gredlin@cfaith.com

I'm only getting a smattering of emails.

If you have sent or tried to send I apologise. I don't know how long this will continue.

It appears to be unfixable. That means I will have to go to another email provider and change addresses. This is most discouraging.

BUT, in the interim. If you have wanted to send me hate mail, the working email address is:

generedlin@hotmail.com

I'll keep you posted (so to speak)

All the News that's Unfit

A survey shows that the

US MEDIA IS SEEN AS BIASED, INACCURATE AND UNCARING.

Now if that was coming from some right wing conspiracy types I would say OK, what's new.

It's not. It's coming from the Pew Research Group. Not the most conservative bunch on the planet. In fact they mostly report stuff I don't want to agree with.

But when it comes to biased news there's more than enough. I get sick of it.

I think the turtle at the bottom has to be Keith Olberman. Some on Fox are close. Believe it or not I like Wolf Blitzer. He's not tough enough. Charlie what's his name on ABC news is good.

Overall. I agree. News media is more media than news.

Myth of Islam

I know lots of people have believed the lie that Islam is taking over the world of faith.

It's just not true.

Using a refined analysis of this chart you can make with confidence this statement:

If there were only 1000 people on the earth:

330 would be Christian in some form
180 would be Muslim in some form
160 would be atheist or non believing
140 would be some extraction of Hindu
60 would be Buddhist in some form
60 would be tribal animists in some form
60 would be traditional ancestor worship in some form
8 would be other like Scientoligist, Rastafarian, Unitarian, wicca et al
2 would be Jewish

Surprised? Don't argue with me. Argue with the statistic. I made a small switch in the Islamic category to represent some Islamic sects that do NOT embrace traditional Islam. I got that from Dr. Douglas Beacham. I believe his analysis of the numbers.

In that same population of a thousand there would be:
584 Asians and near east peoples**
123 Africans**
95 Europeans
84 Latin Americans**
55 former soviet union countries
29 north Americans
30 all others including Australia and Indonesia**

Where is Christianity spreading fastest?

1. China**
2. Africa**
3. Latin America**
4. Australia**
5. Indonesia**

Where the slowest growth of Christianity?
North America and Europe

Russia is in between.

Where is Islam spreading the fastest. It's not. Some in Africa, some in North America and Some in Europe. But it's a tough recruiting job when you mention stoning, burkas, suicide bombing and other things that make it all so darn attractive.

The fastest growing spiritual movement in the world is Pentecostal Christianity. There is no runner up. Almost any growing church in Africa, China and latin America is Pentecostal in expression.

This gives me great hope that soon in the USA, Canada and in Europe we will see things catch fire. It will take some pain first. We used to sing, send the rain. Maybe we should sing, send the pain.

All the News that Isn't Reported

I have been tough on the mainline press for misreporting the news. They deserve it. What I think is even more deceiving is the silence exhibited when major events in the Christian world take place. They are totally blacked out.

Such an event took place last week. Over 102,000 people gathered in Angel Stadium in Anaheim California to hear and see and experience the presence of God. Greg Laurie who is a pastor from that area put this on.

Almost exactly a month ago there was a similar even with not quite a hundred thousand people who gathered in Nashville for the Call. Not the same people of course.

There was a little bit of news coverage on Nashville and NONE on Anaheim.

So, here's the question. If 100,000 homosexuals, environmentalists, African Americans, or any other group were to gather in some stadium to make a statement would it get press?

Of course. There'd be wall to wall 24/7 coverage helicopters and all.

But, if it's a Christian thing the silence is deafening. I did a detailed google search to find even ONE secular news source reporting this capacity and standing room only crusade. Nothing.

But the good news is, they are happening with our without the news coverage it actually deserves. We are coming. We are rising. They will not ignore us long.

"It's rising up all around.
It's the anthem of the Lord's renown.
And together we sing...Holy is the Lord God Almighty!!"

We're here to take over. Hang on world here we come. God will save the day.

Humble Beginnings

Historic Redlin Sites in South Dakota

This is the house my Dad Ralph and My Uncle Earl and several of his brothers and sisters were born in on the treeless prairie in South Dakota. They lived here from about 1903 - 1920. Yes, that is the house. 10 people lived in it for several years. Six children were BORN in that house. No hospitals.

After Redlins Came to this country the first thing they did after building a sod hut and homesteading was to build a church, or should I say Churches. Lutherans All.

Why? Heritage. Redlins have always been church builders.

It's what the Redlins had done in the old country. The picture below is a picture of the Lutheran Church of the Gollnowschen Synod which was built in Jacobsdorf Kr Naugaard Pommerania ( then Germany, now Poland). It was founded about 20 years after the reformation on the 18th of April 1545. Records of Redlin Births, deaths, baptisms and marriages go back to the mid 1600's. They had come from Estonia where records back to 1271 show that many of my distant ancestors were professors in what was then Christian (Catholic) schools and Universities. Otherwise they were farmers, shoemakers, soldiers, teachers, and hired help.


After many Redlins immigrated to this country settling first in Iron Ridge WI they built churches simultaneous with building the homes they built. Moving to South Dakota to homestead in the 1885.

TWP. My great grandfather Julius and Terry Then in 1888 they built St. Johns Lutheran Church (Wisconsin Synod) in MazeppaRedlin's great grandfather August are buried in this little church yard. That's the connection.


The inside, Redlin's filled that little church on Sunday. Here's a picture of the altar area. What history there was as the old pipe organ piped away.


In 1890 the Germantown Church was built. Redlins also. The church plant started in a one room school house where my Dad went to grade school. He was confirmed at this church. I was baptized in this building as a baby. My grandpa and grandma are buried here. So is Daniel Redlin, father of August and Julius Great Grandfathers to Terry and to me. I was best man at Cousin Merlin's wedding in this church (where I fainted) when I was a teen. There is lots of history here.




These are out in the prairie about 8 miles apart. All the Redlin brothers didn't go to the same church. I don't know the story on that but I'll bet it's a good one .

Thought you would enjoy just a little insight on all that Redlin - Lutheran thing. Today I'm a happy Pentecostal with DEEP Lutheran roots. I hope to help a few Lutherans make the same transition to a deeper faith which may EVEN include the fullness of the spirit. They can still be Lutheran, it's just that there is so much more to be had than the 3 hymns and a her and a readers digest sermon in under 55 minutes including collection and communion. The rating of a Lutheran pastor in the Dakota's has much to do with keeping it under an hour and telling funny jokes.

As a Friend of mine once said, "I'm as Lutheran as Jesus is"--

I'll let you decide how Lutheran that really is.

The Greater Fool Theory

People will fall for anything. Carbon Credits are one such.

In North Dakota if you do certain things in your farming practices you get carbon credit payments from corporations bullied by the global warming lobby into paying for some amount of pollution they generate. Farmers Union puts it on and by the way takes 10% of the take for their efforts. Money for nothing.

Here's a bit on that.

It's hush money. Guilt geld. It's also silly. Oh, you know of carbon credits. It's what Al Gore claims he bought when he was discovered to use as much energy as 10 other families combined. So he paid a bribe to the global warming mafia in the form of buying carbon credits. There's even a carbon credit card. I'm serious.

It's OK with me. It's real money. Bribes and extortion are real money. A farmer can get up to 2 dollars per acre in cash. I'm for that. That's like $320 per quarter. Pays for the gas in the pickup that gets 12 MPG which generates it's own greenhouse gas. Net zero.

It's just all so silly.

On the other hand, they do pay for planting trees and I'm for planting trees.

If you are a farmer in ND and you own land you should be in on this scam while the gettin's good. Someday we'll all wise up and realize what a sham it all really is.

Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Wooly Bully for ND farmers. Get in on the free money while it lasts.

Dropping Out of the House

According to this research a large portion of young people drop out of Church after High School and College. I did.

I talking about it this weekend at the Lord of Life Men's retreat. This has been a dream of mine for Lord of Life for several years. There's still one to be realized. This will change everything.

I think the reason this research is so important is we need to know how to bring those folks back.

Some never make the trip home to the Father. It's hard to be out in the elements without a covering. A sermon I heard once said, when we were kids and a storm came our parents would say, "get in the house". If we are far from the Father and storms come there's no house to get in to. We can't hear his call if we are too far away.

Sometimes the Father in love allows storms to come into our lives to bring us back. He did with me.

I guess the most holy prayer I can pray for the lost is, "Lord make them miserable so they will come home to the house where it's safe".

In life I Want to BE THIS GUY

I took this picture kitty corner from the Redlin Farm Lodge on Old HWY 81 20 miles north of Watertown ND. In a world where everyone tries to keep their head down, I like this guy's attitude.

Photography as Art

I must be honest.  I have not always considered photography to be true art.  You take a picture and it's a picture.  Oh, you can fiddle with it in Photoshop.  You can do some interesting focusy stuff.  But Art?? Come on.

 

That is until I spent some time with a cousin of mine at the family reunion.  Kirk Redlin.  Kirk is a well known and renowned photographer of 30 years.  He travels and judges photo exhibitions, makes talks, and has a full time business doing what most photographers make their living at, portrait photography for high school seniors. 

 

I watched him work last weekend.  He did some things that even to this minute I don't know how he did.  I have been impressed with the capacity to capture the spirit of someone that an Annie Lebowitz does or the capacity to challenge our senses in form that a Robert Mapplethorpe does so well.  Kirk is in that league.

 

Kirk can take a mundane setting and create some of the most fascinating images.  I know his camera must have cost a couple grand.  It does everything but dance and sing.  It does puzzle me that the more capable of being manually manipulated it will allow, the more expensive the camera is.

 

So, my hat's off to Kirk.  He's a good one.  He in my humble and relatively unbiased opinion is a genuine artist.

 

You can look at his website here, but his real art resides elsewhere.

Wet and Wild

A couple years ago I postulated that as the climate changed the real net effect would be warmer wetter autumns, winters and springs and some very hot dry summers. 

 

Kind of like what happens in a terrarium when it warms up.  Some parts dry out, lots of parts get very wet.  Water drips off the glass.

 

As the globe warms we will see more intense storms and floods.  The answer is we must begin to learn to hold the water on the land.  That means retention in swamps.  That's what was there before we as people decided to drain the swamps to grow more corn for ethanol. ;>((

 

I remember when I moved to Chicagoland asking some of my new acquaintances at work, what do they do with all the water, how do they manage such a huge impervious watershed?  These were not country folks.  Watershed was not in the Chicago vocabulary.  But I looked at huge paved areas with drainage to grated drains.  That water has to go somewhere.  I knew it would spell trouble. 

 

In fact is does.  Two days ago Rockford for the second time in 2 years was flooded.  8+ inches in a couple hours. That's a lot of rain.

In today's paper are pictures of the people standing in water. 

 

In Aberdeen SD last spring after a huge rainfall the same thing happened.  People were walking in knee deep water.

 

So what do army corps types do?  They dig deeper ditches to take it faster to underflow-capable rivers which floods folks downstream.  What needs to happen is to keep that water trapped in swamps, sloughs, ditches and other wetlands to allow for percolation and evaporation (and ducks). 

 

We have to quit treating our rivers like sewer pipes. 

 

I worked with the folks at BP who are in deep weeds with the state of IL because they are about to dump high nitrate and mercury effluent (waste water) into Lake Michigan.  In the past I worked with them to establish estuary like areas where that effluent could go and stand in weedy reedy areas and undergo some level of transformation before heading for the lake.  It worked.  But now they have expanded their production capability.

 

They should also expand that estuary project rather than trying to work with the EPA to "Get By".

 

The fact is as the climate changes we are going to get a lot of bigger meaner storms and lots more big weather events.  We can do better by not aggravating the situation and trying to pretend it will go away by dumping the water downstream.  It won't.

 

Learn to hold it.

Wise Guy that Jack

In today's Chicago Tribune a pretty well written article I think worth the read. One thing I agree with the most I highlighted.

Practical wisdom for tomorrow's leaders

Jack Spatafora

Park Ridge - Nobody asked me, but here's an old teacher's advice to this summer's college-bound kids (before they get caught up in the distraction of their excitement):

* Don't plan to save the world. The world will do what it's been doing for ages without you. Instead plan to save the best you that you are this day, especially your young passion and self-confidence, because such fire will serve you well during those times when your world turns dark and bleak.

* Don't plan to become president. That job rarely goes to the best leader, mostly to the best campaigner. Instead hone your skills as a voter so that from local dogcatcher to the White House, you can spot goodness and fight evil.

* Don't plan to become a millionaire. In an entrepreneurial society like ours, making money is easy. Making it your tool instead of your master is what's hard.

* Don't plan to become an apprentice to the rich and powerful. From the serpent in Eden to the moneymakers on Wall Street to the mythmakers in Washington, too much power will surely corrupt you.

* Don't plan to win every race. Whether it's the gold or the ring or the plaque, they only mark the runners, not measure them. The real measure of victory is how much you give of yourself to the race.

* Don't plan to be a star. Stardom is out there; authentic achievement is in here. Inside yourself. Your psyche. Your conscience. Your soul. That will be the true marquee of your life.

So as you start getting pumped for that big journey, know this now. As much as you're about to learn about the world, it will be of small consequence when compared to what you will have learned about yourself by your 25th reunion.

Gay clergy come out at Lutheran meeting at Navy Pier

80 Homosexual pastors decided to go public in the ELCA Lutheran Church.

Story Here.

And we wonder....................................

Paid writer vs. the masses

THIS IS FROM A WRITER WHO BEMOANS THE FUTURE. I THOUGHT IT WORTH THE READ. MAYBE YOU WILL TOO.

What's worth reading and where are not dictated by salary

By Joel Stein | a Los Angeles Times columnist

August 7, 2007

The main difference between me and the average blogger is that I get paid. How long I can continue to earn a living off of something people do just as well for free is a question I occasionally ask myself, and it's one I frequently am asked by people who send me hate mail.

It's also the topic of the Carr-Benkler wager. Business writer Nicholas Carr bet Yale Law School professor Yochai Benkler that, by 2011, people will be paid for the content they submit to sites such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Digg and Flickr, currently all the domain of unpaid amateurs. This is not to be confused with Carr-Benkler II, in which they simplify things and just bet on which one of them is the bigger dork.

To find out exactly how threatening my unpaid competition is, I posted a request for columns vaguely in my style on latimes.com. Readers then voted on whether any of them were better than my column. I made it clear that no money would change hands, other than, of course, into mine.

To my dismay, I quickly got 89 submissions -- three of which arrived as hard copies. People want to be read so badly that they're willing to figure out how to use the U.S. Postal Service.

I felt better after I started reading the essays. A huge number of people, apparently unable to discern social cues indicating boredom, decided to share their genealogy. A fair number of submissions were online dating stories in which everyone but the author was a total loser. An absurd number of applicants did not understand the irony in writing about how stupid the media are for paying attention to Paris Hilton. One guy included a bar graph to explain his Iraq military strategy. And one woman gave me 3,400 words about Richard Gere kissing that Indian actress and how it relates to Apu from "The Simpsons." This writer happened to be Indian.

I started feeling worse, however, when I realized how long it was going to take me to slog through all this reading. And I felt worse yet when I found a dozen columns that were pretty good. I narrowed those down to four finalists and posted them online alongside my deep, paradigm-changing column about how I hate Elmo from "Sesame Street."

I was shocked by the results of the voting. Not because I got crushed, but because nearly 500 people read these things and voted. I think that's 110 percent of the people who visit latimes.com.

The winner, Sam Apple, wrote about his son's circumcision. It was hard to compete with because it contains the line, "In 2004, three New York babies contracted herpes from a mohel, who, in keeping with an ultra-Orthodox Jewish tradition, used his mouth to draw blood from the wound." This was news you could use.

When I called Apple to congratulate him, he modestly explained that he won because "I had a big advantage -- the Jewish vote." Apple, I quickly discovered, didn't have finely honed reporting skills, such as reading my byline.

I found out that Apple works as a writer and editor for nerve.com, an online literary magazine, and reviews baby gadgets at babble.com. He also wrote a well-received book, "Schlepping Through the Alps," and has an advance on a book about parenting classes.

He's got a master's of fine arts in non-fiction from Columbia University and has written for ESPN magazine and The New York Times Magazine. In fact, the circumcision piece had been accepted by an editor at The New York Times before getting rejected by a higher-up. I wrote a piece once for them, and it didn't make it past that first editor. Who is a friend of mine. Or, more accurately, was.

I'm totally prepared to compete against professional, trained writers using nothing but my raw skills: going on TV and schmoozing editors at parties. The important thing is that it's Apple and me against the un-copy-edited masses, and, according to the votes, combined we have a 76.6 percent approval rating from readers. The specific breakdown is irrelevant.

I agree with Maxine Waters (D)

I never thought I would see or hear myself saying such a thing that I agree with Maxine Waters, but I happen to believe that the Chinese government is corrupt and culpable in lots of bad things in the world. We need to let them know we don't appreciate their dealings with us.

SO, when MS Waters (who in reality is a nutcase but lurches into sense from time to time) opined that we should boycott the 08 Olympics I actually agree.

Call me weird. Ms Waters is.

John Edwards is Phony Baloney

Presidential Candidate John Edwards is a plastic banana good time rock and roll phony. He is a pretty face with nothing under it.

I have believed and known it for a long time, but this story from someone who DOES know him from his home state is most revealing. The good news is he will never be President and will slink off into obscurity after Hillary and Bill take the White House back. VP Richardson will keep Edwards in the far shadows. Obama will go back to the senate to fight another day.

You heard it all here first.

How to Make a Quick Hundred Grand

This ought to be easy. I mean every scientist on the planet agrees and will stake his reputation on the idea that humans cause global warming, so this should be a lay up. Right??

Well, boys and girls, now's your chance to cash in on this phony shell game.

All you have to do is prove that humans cause or even have a significant effect on global warming and you can cash that big check. Give Al Gore a call, you could split it with him. He has all the facts.

Here's who's writing that $100,000 check to the winner.

This is the safest sucker bet on the planet. There is no actual scientific data that proves anything of the kind. It's all a scam propounded on the innocent liberal community who believes anything.

This would be amusing if it wasn't so sad. The people who live their lives and drive their hybrids because like sacrificing a virgin to the god Pele this somehow will have some effect on the climate change cycle.

Get with it, the climate will change whether or not you do or don't do anything. The quicker we get this heresy out of the canon of the culture the better. Then we can start doing something about energy. Every honest attempt at this point is strangled by the idea that whatever we do will aggravate an imagined effect humans have on climate change. G W Bush's whole hydrogen push is that. He's been mislead.

I have news for you, take that stricture off and we'll get energy independence. But first we must quash this whole earth worship theology.

Pay me now or pay me later

I have much tell of the Redlin Reunion.

Some funny, some serious, some poignant.

Yesterday at 2 PM we headed off for St. Charles with the full intent of reaching home by 1 or 2 AM.

Somewhere in western MN at a rest stop a funny (not haha) odor came from under the hood of the car. Burning Rubber.

NOT GOOD.

I've burned rubber with a car before but not like this.

I looked under the car and saw what I decided was the problem. We stayed overnight in Winona MN. Nice town. I guess.

Took it to the Buick hospital. They heard what I said was wrong. Looked and (sit down for this) I was wrong. Second time all week.

It was not the belt tensioneer as I thought it might be, it was the AC pump bearing.

$1048 later and 3 hours we were on our way. I called and whined to my brother Steve who said, "That's a car payment or two". I am always preaching to him about it's cheaper to fix than buy and he handed it back to me. The worst thing you can do is to NOT fix it and hope it gets better. Pay me now or pay me later is what that is all about. Only if you wait, the later gets really bad.

It is, the ol Buick at 150,000 is good as new with 150,000 miles added.

It's nice to be home.