An amazing picture of the Shuttle Profiled against Sun

I'm Sure you saw this but it impressed me, So here you are.

Stupid Green Tricks

People in Troy MI built a house that was supposed to be solar powered and fully green. Part of the new green technology.

What a Frozen Crock.

Is Bankruptcy Irrelevant

Every day we hear about bankruptcy. Chrysler, Banks, GM, People, Kirk Homes, Newman Homes, California and Illinois.

Every day.

When everyone is bankrupt is anyone bankrupt? What is the opposite of Bankruptcy? Solvency?

Who is going to be solvent when all money is destroyed? No one.

Perhaps, the reality is bankruptcy is irrelevant.

Best Complement I Got all Week

Someone said about me, "That Gene, He's always pushing Jesus".

If that's my reputation, I'll agree. If that's my legacy, I wouldn't change a thing.

Are Pilots "Dogmatic"?

From

Reinhard Bonnke

Today at 6:45pm

True faith means to place confidence in something. It is neither irrational, nor ‘blind’. People the world over are putting their faith in countless religions, theories, sects and cults, the vast majority of which promise nothing this side of eternity. We are commonly told, ‘Keep an open mind. Never be dogmatic.’ What use is that? Do passengers want a pilot who is ‘open-minded’ about flying and his destination? It is not arrogance to be sure that the sun will rise in the morning. In the same way, Christians are sure of Christ and His promises.

Watching Prophecy unfold in slow motion..... Examiner Editorial: Get ready for Obama’s coming hyperinflation

This is most certainly true. We are in for a bout of serious hyperinflation. This is a long term deal. There is no hiding place. It will destroy all monetary wealth in the country.

Assets will still be OK.

This is going to be tough.

Rentals are amplifying the housing collapse

From Wall Street 24/7

CNBC ran a brief segment on the number of people who have decided to rent homes and apartments rather than buy them. The point of the reporting was simple. People who need to move out of their houses sometimes cannot sell them. Instead, they rent wherever they have moved and hope to sell their homes later when the market improves.

In addition, people who cannot sell their homes often rent them out to others to help cover mortgage and maintenance costs.

What has been lost in the review of home buying and renting habits is that some people who own a home will decide never to buy one again. The reaction to losing so much money on what is the largest investment many people will ever have will be, in many cases that they will not come back to the real estate market again. People who have suffered through anxious months not knowing if they will be able to pay their mortgages may decide that it is not an experience they want to repeat.

There are currently 3.4 million homes for sale in America. The average prices of these homes drops each month. Neither lower interest rates nor better prices are bringing buyers back into the market. Too many people believe that the market has not made a bottom. No one wants to own real estate that could lose another 15% of its value.

The renter does not have to lose sleep over the issue of whether his home will fall further in value. He does not have to worry about an ARM with an interest rate that might be set higher. Renters do not even have to worry about major repairs, the great enemy of the homeowner.

Renting was considered a fool’s way of living just a decade ago. A renter could not get equity in a property like the one that his homeowner friends had. A new house could double in value in ten years, offering the owner ready access to capital, a way to educate children and pay for vacations. With very few people willing to believe that those benefits are still a part of owning a home, the incentives to buy one have dwindled.

Realtors believe that the economy is at the root of the reason that people will not buy homes. That is true to some extent. People who are worried about their jobs or have seen their stock market holdings lose half of their values are not likely to be in the market. But, the shift may be more profound than that. Renting could become the norm for many people, especially those who cannot foresee a future when real estate is an asset which can rapidly increase in value again.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The only disagreement I have with Mr McIntyre is the yet decline. He says 15%. It's more like 30%.

Things are going to be long, deep and difficult.

Liberal Taliban issues fatwa against Miss California

May 13, 2009

Not even Dick Cheney can incite the blood-curdling rage of liberals at the sight of a sexy evangelical Christian. Paula Jones, Katherine Harris, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and, most recently, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, have all come under a frenzy of attacks from liberals.

Christians are supposed to be fat, balding sweaty little men with bad complexions. It's liberals who are supposed to be the sexy ones. (I know that from watching "The West Wing" and all movies starring Julia Roberts.)

But sadly for liberals, in real life, the fat, balding sweaty little guy with the bad complexion is Perez Hilton and the smoking-hot babe is Carrie Prejean.

This apparent contradiction incites violent anger in liberals, triggering their famous "flight or flight" response. So liberals are, once again, launching furious attacks on a beautiful Christian in a fit of pique similar to the one directed at Joan of Arc.

First, the Miss USA contest held a press conference to announce that Prejean had breast implants. Take a Christian position in public and Satan's handmaidens will turn all your secrets into front-page news.

Plumb the depths of our in-the-tank news industry with "A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (and Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media"

Next, a photographer released a single cheesecake photo of Prejean. This prompted liberal reporters who have never met a Christian to proclaim that Christians were outraged by the photo. Liberals believe abortion is a sacrament, but smoking, wearing short skirts and modeling lingerie are mortal sins. (And if wearing women's underwear is a basis for being disqualified from the pageant, that's the end of Perez Hilton's judging career.)

Then on Monday some genuine "semi-nude" photos were released. These were not what we'd call appropriate for a Christian. In a curiously similar attack, the left's final attempt to destroy Paula Jones was to lure her into appearing naked in Penthouse magazine
. Oh well.

Christians aren't people who believe they are without sin; they're people who know they're sinners and are awestruck by God's grace in sending his only Son to take the punishment they deserve.

This is in contradistinction to liberals, all of whom believe they're on a fast track to heaven on the basis of being "basically good" people – and also believe that anyone who disagrees with that theological view is evil.

Finally (so far, anyway), reporters gleefully released the divorce records of Prejean's parents. Because when you want the truth, what is more reliable than angry accusations traded in the middle of an acrimonious divorce?

Liberals used the divorce papers to argue that Prejean had some deep-seated psychological disturbance causing her to oppose gay marriage. Symptoms of this debilitating illness include a belief in some sort of "god" and a reverence for the Bible.

It's not as if Prejean's special talent in the Miss USA contest was to perform an opposite-sex marriage. (Or, as the president and I call it, "marriage.") She didn't even volunteer her "controversial" views on marriage. Rather, she was asked for her opinion on gay marriage and gave it – in an answer wrapped in so many layers of sugar it took 10 minutes to get to the point.

"Well, I think it's great that Americans are able to choose one way or the other. We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. You know what, in my country, in my family, I do believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, no offense to anybody out there. But that's how I was raised, and I believe that it should be between a man and a woman."

What a vicious hate-monger! Any second there I was expecting her to bust out a "by golly!" or an "oh my gosh!" Angry gay-marriage supporters should be happy they didn't get my version of that answer. It contains some terms you won't find in your Bible.

Liberals wouldn't attack James Dobson with the amount of bile they've directed at a 21-year-old beauty contestant. It's not just Christianity – it's women liberals hate.

From Jean-Paul Sartre, Pablo Picasso and Bertrand Russell, who treated women – mostly their mistresses – like dogs, to Teddy Kennedy and Bill Clinton in our own day, liberals are ferocious misogynists. They share Muslims' opinion of women, differing only to the extent that liberals also support a women's right to have an abortion and to perform lap dances.

You'd be better off in a real burqa than under the authority of a liberal American male.

I'm not sure we needed a psychological profile of Prejean to figure out why she holds the same position on gay marriage as: the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, Bill Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards and his mistress, and the vast majority of the American people.

But what is crying out for an explanation is why every bubblehead TV news anchorette from a nice, churchgoing red state ends up adopting the political views of Karl Marx.

From Katie Couric on CBS to Norah O'Donnell on MSNBC, the whole stable of TV anchorettes weirdly have the exact same politics as their liberal masters. It's the ideological burqa women are required to wear to work in the mainstream media. As with a conventional burqa, it enforces conformity and severely restricts the vision.

The only way to protect yourself is to do the liberal male's bidding, as the bubblehead anchorettes do, or stand on the rock of Christianity.

Now, another beautiful Christian has thrown off the liberal burqa, thereby inciting mass hysteria throughout the liberal establishment. Prejean doesn't care. She is blazing across the sky, as impotent nose-pickers jockey for a piece of her reflected light by hurling insults at her.

From Ann Coulter

Why this is going to be longer and deeper than you think

Newsweek:

This financial and political system is the operating system on which the world runs; the Dutch introduced version 1.0 in about 1620; the British introduced 2.0 in about 1700; the Americans upgraded to version 3.0 in 1945, and as an operating system, it works pretty well—most of the time. The 300 years of liberal, global capitalism have seen an extraordinary explosion in knowledge and human affluence. Not everybody shares in these benefits, and there are environmental and social costs to the rapid progress. Still, not many of us would like to turn the clock back to 1610.

But the system has bugs—among them, a tendency to crash. Ever since the great Dutch tulip bubble of 1637, the economic system has been prey to roller-coaster-style booms and busts. From the South Sea bubble of 1720 to the subprime loan bubble of our own time, the financial system leads people into irrational behavior and fever dreams of wealth and of eternally rising prices for stocks, houses—and tulips. These episodes never end well, and as time passes and the financial system grows more complex, more global and more interdependent, the cost of these periodic crashes gets worse.

The Future of the Pentecostal Church?

Lee Grady notes significant Changes going on in Pentecostalism in America. I have seen this for some time. Much of it came out of the Prayer Movement in the late 90s.
What is most interesting to me is the IPHC which operates the College he addresses is a denomination (Full Disclosure I am credentialed under this denomination) that has MOST experienced this change. It's a wonderful thing, yet wrenching. So, if you care about what the future holds for the Pentecostal Movement in American, this article is worth reading.

Pentecostalism, Version 20.09

Tuesday, 12 May 2009 11:20 J. Lee Grady Newsletters - Fire In My Bones

At my second daughter's college graduation this weekend I saw the future of our movement.

Some people twitch or roll their eyes when you say the word Pentecostal. The term conjures up outdated images of either (1) slick-haired, Bible-thumping preachers who spew saliva on the unfortunate souls seated in the first three pews, or (2) scowling women with their hair in buns who know how to scare you with glossolalia.

Say goodbye to the worn-out stereotypes. Last weekend I saw the future of the Pentecostal movement when my wife and I attended a graduation ceremony at Emmanuel College, the liberal arts school in northeast Georgia that was founded 90 years ago by the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. What we witnessed on Saturday was a refreshing reminder that God has raised up a new generation of young people who are empowered by the Holy Spirit.

"Today's Christian college students are nauseated by any kind of religious hype, whether it's blow-dried evangelists, insincere appeals for offerings, faked healings, goofy buzzwords or schmaltzy Christian pop music."

There wasn't a slick-haired preacher on the stage that day, and you would be hard-pressed to find a lady with her hair in a bun anywhere in the auditorium. The most unique hairstyle in the audience was probably the one sported by my future son-in-law, Sven, who graduated on Saturday with my second daughter, Meredith. Sven wears dreadlocks—a style he adopted three years ago as a prophetic act of consecration to God.

Sven is not a Rastafarian—he is a radical Christian who earned his Bachelor of Science degree in worship and music ministry. Along with his unique hair, other things about Emmanuel's graduation ceremony made it obvious that Pentecostalism is experiencing an extreme makeover:

* It is racially diverse. Although Pentecostalism in this country began in the racially mixed Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, the walls of religious segregation have been pretty thick until recently. I was so glad to see African-American, Asian and Hispanic students getting their diplomas at Emmanuel on Saturday. Students graduating from college today have the greatest opportunity ever to dismantle racist structures.

* It offers authenticity and relevance. I've had several opportunities to address the students at Emmanuel during the five years that my two oldest daughters attended there. I've eaten meals with them, played Frisbee with them and just hung out in their dorms. And what I've seen is that young Christians today aren't interested in the three-step formulas or the money-focused messages they got from their parent's Pentecostalism.

Today's Christian college students are nauseated by any kind of religious hype: blow-dried evangelists, insincere appeals for offerings, faked healings, goofy buzzwords or schmaltzy Christian pop music. What they crave is reality—honest relationships, healthy mentoring, passionate worship and daring faith that is reflected through brave actions, not just words.

* It aims to impact the culture. The speaker at Emmanuel's graduation ceremony was way outside the traditional Pentecostal box. Bonnie Wurzbacher, a senior vice president at The Coca-Cola Company, used examples from her own life as a female executive in corporate America to challenge the students to blaze a new trail. She reminded them that whatever their chosen careers—in education, business, government, law, the arts or full-time ministry—all are sanctified ways to serve and glorify God when He is at the center of their lives.

* It inspires selfless sacrifice. Just a few days before Emmanuel's graduation, a 22-year-old senior named Brittani Panozzo died in a car crash. She was supposed to have graduated with Meredith and Sven, but Brittani's life ended abruptly when she accidently swerved into the path of a pickup truck on Highway 29 near the school. Her death shook the campus—but her brief life also inspired her peers.

At a memorial service for Brittani held four days before graduation, students were reminded that she spent her last semester as an intern on the mission field in South Africa. She had planned to move to Bangladesh after graduation so she could work with orphans and serve churches there. Her dream, according to campus pastor Chris Maxwell, was that Emmanuel would one day sponsor a 24-hour prayer house that would also meet the needs of the poor in the local community.

I see Brittani's fervor in so many young people today. They have a reckless passion to rid the world of injustice. They know that Christian ministry is not just limited to preaching sermons or having prayer meetings; they also want to rescue exploited girls, dig wells to provide clean water and help kids learn English. And they're willing to forfeit the suburban house with the three-car garage for a chance to change the world.

I smiled as I watched Meredith, Sven and their classmates march out of that auditorium on Saturday. They reminded me that while the gospel is timeless, our movements and institutions need regular updating so we can stay relevant and genuine. Amid the huge challenges we face in this crucial hour, God has prepared and anointed a new generation to carry His message to a love-starved world.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma. You can follow him on Twitter: @LeeGrady. Below is a photo of his daughter, Meredith, and her fiance, Sven, at their graduation last Saturday in Franklin Springs, Ga. For more information about Emmanuel College, click here.

Sickness of the Spirit

I know this will come hard, I have come to the conclusion that many people who are radically liberal are because they have a sick spirit.

Sick as in not well, not sick as in depraved although listening to Wanda Sykes the other night, maybe...

Never again like it once was

I have a friend who has a business that is off by half this year. He is facing possible financial ruin. I have another friend who has been out of work for a while and is not finding anything.
I have another friend who is getting out of Jail and is about to find the world has changed out from under him in the last year. He is not going to find quick work for an ex con with limited skill.

Life is changed. It is not ever going to be as it once was. The sooner we all face the fact that we are facing a new reality we will begin to prosper in it. If we don't we will die.

Ron McGatlin of Open Heaven wrote this and it's true:

"The people of God who are not at all moving through this transition cannot possibly understand what is going on and will turn to their previous teaching and understanding and reject much of what God is doing in changing His people. They can quickly become affected by a critical spirit and fight against what God is doing while thinking they are protecting the pure doctrines of the church". Ron McGatlin

It's more true for our lives than it is for our churches. Time to face the new realities. They are better than the old realities. But they are very very different.

Circle of Life out my bedroom window again

The lost eggs and nest of the sparrow eaten by the hawk is gone. Cleaned out. I didn't do it. Another bird did. And she is busy getting ready to inhabit the space the lost bird once did.

Life is cruel. Yet elegant. I wish our politicians had understood this simple economic principle.

One Amazing Miracle in Manitoba

by Aimee Herd/David Henry : May 12, 2009 : BCN

"What happened that day at the intersection of the Perimeter Highway and Saskatchewan Avenue was an authentic miracle… The laws of thermodynamics were momentarily superseded by a higher law. It had much more to do with the faith and prayers of a few ordinary people inviting God's intervening hand, in Jesus' name, to protect him on the road in a way that no one else can do…"

(Winnipeg, Manitoba)—If you think miracles documented in the New Testament don't really happen anymore, you'll want to read the following story. Phillip may not have been the only one to be "transported" by the Holy Spirit, as Minnesotan trucker Roger Henry can testify. Read this remarkable account—written by his brother David—of what happened as Roger approached an icy intersection in Winnipeg one wintery day, just months ago.

[January, 2009] Roger Henry, a seasoned trucker based out of Minneapolis, Minnesota has many years of driving experience on the icy roads of Minnesota and Canada. He works for a large international trucking firm. This particular day he was driving a B-Train. It's a seven-axle, twenty-six wheel, two-trailer monster weighing in at over 56,000 kg. (80,000 pounds) when fully loaded. (Photo: Roger Henry)

Roger had just driven his rig north from the Twin Cities and was now headed back home with a large return load. The pavement was dry that day, so he set his speed at the 100 km per hour limit and prepared to make the familiar trip down to the North Dakota border and on south to home.

Roger and his wife Joyce are Christians. As a matter of habit and conviction, they pray in the name of Jesus and simply ask God to protect him as he travels a route that in a split second can turn deadly. In fact, Sandy Atkinson, a Jewish Christian friend of the Henry's, prays every day specifically for Roger to be kept safe as he plies his potentially dangerous trade. This day he would cash in those prayers; he would need all the help he could get.

Manitoba 101, The Perimeter Highway, is well-engineered for safety. On some of its crossings it has yellow blinking lights that forewarn drivers of their safe passage through the next traffic light. It's either, a yellow blinking, 'no'—you must prepare to stop at the next light, or the switched off light indicating 'yes'—you are safe to proceed.

Roger had his rig humming in high gear and relaxed as much as is reasonable into the familiar routine. He was headed south on the west side of Winnipeg, when he approached the next intersection at Perimeter Highway and Saskatchewan Avenue. He observed the yellow light was 'off', giving him the right-of-way through the intersection. He stayed in the right lane. Ominously, off to his right, his eyes locked on to a black four-door sedan traveling from the west at a high rate of speed that indicated someone wasn't paying attention. Roger quickly calculated that the driver could not possibly stop in time for the red light controlling the east-west traffic flow.

The sedan driver finally skidded to a stop, dead center in the middle of the right hand, southbound lane. Roger's loaded B-Train was hurtling through the intersection into the broadside of the black sedan at 100 km miles per hour. Roger had no time to maneuver his big rig into the left lane. He couldn't steer it into that lane without flipping it over or jack-knifing. (Photo: Intersection from satellite view)

There was no time to stop. Air brakes on a big rig are slower to respond than car brakes. It takes a moment of time to develop sufficient air pressure to even begin to slow the giant down. Roger did not have the luxury of those few seconds. Do the math. Study the physics. That sedan driver had to die.

Roger describes what happened as entering briefly into a state of suspended consciousness. He did not faint or pass out. In Roger's words, "My screen went blank." His hands were on the steering wheel but someone had control of his truck for about two seconds. He did not steer into the left lane. He couldn't. He could not veer to the right. It would have been like playing 'crack-the-whip' with a huge load of steel and freight. He could neither change directions nor vary his speed. It was impossible. The distance between his truck's front bumper and the side of the car was roughly twenty five yards. While the front tires were aligned straight ahead, the whole 82.5 feet of the truck were instantly moved sideways into the left lane. To get into the left lane by means of the steering wheel would have meant a flipped truck.

An engineer was asked to calculate the foot pounds of energy contained in the mass and velocity of that truck. He wrote:

"The linear or translational momentum of a particle (mass = truck here) is defined as the product of its mass x velocity (100 km/hr). That is 5,650 tons momentum, in metric tons. Since one metric ton is 1,000 kilogram, and 1 kg is 2.205 lbs, the same momentum is 12,458,000 lbs." -Joe Horvath, PhD.

So much energy going straight forward would not allow the truck to swerve into the left land if Roger had attempted it. He would have taken out the black sedan plus several other vehicles with the flipped tractor and two trailers. While Roger's screen went blank, the only explanation left us is that God moved the whole truck in its north/south alignment 7 meters over into the left lane. When Roger's 'screen came back on' he found himself 100 meters through the intersection in the left land and gradually heading for the right shoulder. But, he did not so much as touch the black sedan. No screeching sound of steel exploding on steel and glass. No fire. No smoke. Nothing. He came back to his normal senses on the south side of Saskatchewan Avenue. Most unusual of all, Roger had no sense of fear, no panic, no adrenaline rush, no rapid beating of his heart. He was aware of a profound sense of peace all about him; and in him.

Roger quickly down shifted and pulled off to the right shoulder of the highway and got out of his truck. He stood there and looked back north at the crossing from 150 meters away. The black sedan was still there. It was parked right where Roger should have blown through it. All traffic had stopped. It takes something unusual to change the routine of drivers hurrying to work in bone-chilling weather. What they saw motivated them. About twenty witnesses were stopped. Three or four drivers got out of their cars and began to gather around the car to inspect it. The witnesses to this event were trying to make sense of what they had just seen.

As Roger watched, the light changed and the driver in the black car drove slowly away to the east toward the city. After assessing what he had just lived through without any damage to either vehicle, Roger made his way back into the truck and sat there for a while collecting his thoughts. He is a down-to-earth, laid back, professional trucker with a good sense of humor. But that day, he saw the curtain pulled back for just a few seconds; he saw into another dimension.

Roger has searched for a word to explain what happened to him. He said that the best he can explain it is he was, "transported" in the sense of Phillip the Evangelist in the eighth chapter verses 39 and 40, of the Book of Acts in the Bible. Phillip was ministering to the Ethiopian Eunuch who had just been baptized in Gaza. At the completion of that ministry, he found himself the next moment transported to a location eighteen miles to the north along the Mediterranean shore and a new ministry assignment. Phillip was 'seized' or 'caught away' from Gaza and 'found himself' in Azotus. Roger was seized from the right lane where death was, and found himself in the left lane and a good distance ahead where safety was. The Greek New Testament verb is "Harpadzo", the same verb that is employed in the English concept of rapture or a 'catching away'. Roger experienced what we might call a mini-rapture. He and the other driver were in imminent danger. Roger was covered in prayer. He was caught away from or seized out of danger. To redirect, or reposition that much rolling energy in a such surgically precise fashion required a greater amount of power than the force in the vehicle's mass and velocity.

Webster's Dictionary defines a miracle as, "1. ...an event or effect that contradicts known scientific laws and is hence thought to be due to supernatural causes, especially to an act of God." What happened that day at the intersection of the Perimeter Highway and Saskatchewan Avenue was an authentic miracle. Roger is a good truck driver; a very good one. He has amassed over three million miles of truck driving without an accident. That is testimony to consistently good judgment in all kinds of situations. But what happened on that patch of pavement had nothing to do with his skill or ability. The laws of thermodynamics were momentarily superseded by a higher law. It had much more to do with the faith and prayers of a few ordinary people inviting God's intervening hand, in Jesus' name, to protect him on the road in a way that no one else can do. Some old-timers call it, 'being prayed up'. Their months and years of prayers had gone ahead of him.

A lot of things pass for news that are no real news. And some things that are so astounding as to defy explanation go by and no one records it; no one tells the story. This true story is being told. There was a miracle in Winnipeg that day, on the Perimeter Highway. God did intervene; something holy, powerful and good happened on a cold Canadian winter's day. There is a person or persons who are alive right now who should not be. But they are. They might consider humbly giving thanks to Someone who, when asked in faith, does the impossible.

Judas Healed the Sick and Raised the Dead, did Mighty Miracles

Jesus sent them out two by two. He told them to go heal the sick and raise the dead. That would have included Judas. He would have been on one of the two by two teams. He would have operated in the gifting Jesus imparted.

That means that even though Jesus knew his heart, that he was not the man Jesus hoped he would be, that he was the son of Perdition, that he would betray him, he still anointed him to do mighty works. JUDAS never was transformed, and yet he did real miracles, he was casting out devils and this was all real stuff - Jesus knew all along that Judas was false in heart.

We must be careful to watch and pray. Not everyone who does great and mighty works of God is transformed.

Good News from Iran

Not because she was Miss North Dakota, that didn't hurt, but because I see this as an example of how bad radical Islam can be.

Thank God Roxana Saberi is out of Jail in Iran.

Many Prayed. Me too....

What the Private Benjamin Post below really means

If you read the Private Benjamin post below and look at this cartoon, you start to see why the boot camp of pain in America must happen.

Maybe in only a few short years we will learn to survive.

I think we are in for 14 years of this.

The Haepenny Solution

President Obama unveiled a budget Thursday with a 2010 price tag of $3.5 trillion financed with $1.2 trillion of new debt. For domestic agencies, that's a 9.3% spending hike over last year.

Mr. Obama and his advisers know the public won't accept gigantic governmental expansions without at least some effort to pare the waste in Washington. So they scrubbed "line by line" through this historically huge budget and identified $16.7 billion of budget savings. This is less than a penny, about 0.47 cents, of savings out of every dollar Uncle Sam will spend this year. And these aren't real savings that will reduce debt, because Congress has already fixed the budget totals. Thus, each dollar saved from the African Development Foundation gets reallocated to some other foreign aid program.

"If you haven't got a penny, a haepenny will do...."

In this case, the spending, monetization, taxing and governmental collapse will destroy the once late great nation of the USA. We are well on the way.

Alas I knew her well.... And loved her, but she went after another lover who destroyed her.

Happens every day in the papers. I just ended up in the line of fire.

Capitalism Dies with a Whimper, not with a Bang

Click to see full sized

A blog tool I use pretty often for my fellow bloggers

Sometimes when I want a little zip in my zap to blog I use Scribe Fire. It's a great add on to Firefox and easy to use.

Try it.

You're welcome.

Private Benjamin is a Parable for this Economic Death and Rebirth in the USA

I will just print the parable and let you figure it out. This morning I got it when I was reading some economic data from the last week. We in the USA are just like Judy Benjamin. We are living in denial and think that the rude awakening is just an illusion. We haven't even got thru boot camp yet. From Wikipedia:

Hawn plays Judy Benjamin, a spoiled, wealthy Jewish woman, who joins the army after her new husband dies on their wedding night. Naively believing it to be a more glamorous career than it is, life in the army is a rude awakening for Judy who has so far lived a pampered existence. However, she is forced to re-evaluate her life and decides to stick it out, eventually leading to promotion (much to the dismay of her superior, Captain Doreen Lewis).

During her stint in the army, Judy meets Henri Tremont, a dashing French doctor. However, their romance is short-lived when he returns to Paris and she to her army career. Later, Judy manages to be assigned to NATO headquarters in Paris where she meets up with Henri again. He later proposes marriage, to which she accepts but she is forced to give up her career in the army in order to do so.

However, later into the relationship, Judy discovers Henri's controlling side and is also forced into signing a complicated prenuptial agreement in his favour. Then when she finds out Henri has already been unfaithful to her, she realises that she is in danger of losing the new-found independence that it took her a lifetime to achieve and walks out of her wedding just before they take their vows.

Lee Grady - God has pushed a Great Big Reset Button

God Has Pushed a Great Big Reset Button

Tuesday, 05 May 2009 08:35 J. Lee Grady Newsletters - Fire In My Bones

Put on your seat belt. What we are experiencing is so much more than an economic recession.

Unless you are Rip Van Winkle and have been asleep for years, I'm sure you feel the daily convulsions that are rocking our world. Change is hitting America right between the eyes. Everything that can be shaken is being shaken—from banks and insurance companies to car manufacturers and media empires.

Trusted brands, including Chrysler and United Airlines, may go out of business within months. Newspapers are laying off employees in droves as readers go digital; bookstores like Borders can't compete with Amazon.com. Pontiac is officially dead, and the city of Detroit—once the proud global headquarters of the auto industry—is rusting and jobless.

"Please don't fight the changes God wants to bring in your life. As you hold on to His unchangeable love, allow Him to push the reset button."

What we are experiencing today is more than an economic recession. The upheaval is affecting us politically, socially, technologically and spiritually. It feels as if God has pushed a giant red reset button in heaven. Change is being forced on us.

Meanwhile there is a big problem in the church: We Christians don't have a great track record when it comes to embracing change. We are slow adapters. Often we insist on doing church exactly like Grandpa did, and then when we realize we are outdated it's too late.

For a few months I've been pondering the changes happening in charismatic churches and praying about our future as a movement. I've been asking hard questions and wrestling with my own fears of change. And I've reached some uncomfortable conclusions:

1. The charismatic movement as we know it has ended. I celebrate what God did in recent years to bring the Holy Spirit's renewal to the church. My life was totally changed by it. But the cloud is moving, and we cannot pitch our tents around the revivals of the past. While we embrace the eternal things He gave us in those days, we must discard the styles and methods that are no longer fruitful so we can advance.

That doesn't mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater. We cling to what is good. But we must leave behind the excesses, extremes and flaky doctrines that give us a bad name. The one-man show is over. The prosperity circus was a failure. We must abandon the deceptive hype of the past. People today are craving authenticity—not shallow words and empty promises.

2. A "new generation" church is emerging. I visit two or three churches every month in this country. Those that are healthy and growing have developed new paradigms. Though they embrace the power of the Holy Spirit, they also place high value on evangelism, small-group discipleship, social justice and world missions. They are extravagant in giving to outreach. They are relational, not event-driven. And they demand character from leaders rather than simply celebrating a man or woman's spiritual anointing.

No one has coined a term for this movement yet, but it is growing—and it represents the future of Christianity in our country. These new generation churches embrace healthy leadership and don't tolerate the kind of ministry monkey business that has embarrassed us in recent years. These churches love sinners and preach grace, but they draw the lines necessary to enforce biblical standards.

New generation churches are also connected in a healthy, relational way to other churches, yet they are not denominational in a restrictive sense. They refuse labels. Rather than wearing the cumbersome armor of a religious structure, they are free to pray, dream and be creative about how they should reach the children, high school students, business leaders, drug addicts, immigrants, homeless people, twenty-somethings and church dropouts in their communities.

3. God is tearing down the walls that divide us. For too long we've been content to congregate in our comfortable tribal groups. But the essence of Pentecost involves the Holy Spirit's outpouring "on all mankind" (Acts 2:17, NASB). This means true Pentecostals cannot harbor racism.

God's agenda in this next season of revival will involve tearing down racist structures—and this will occur not only in white churches but in black and Hispanic ones as well. It also means that church leaders from China, India, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America will have a greater platform to speak into our lives here in the United States. Western Christians must accept the fact that we don't have all the answers!

4. We face an unprecedented global opportunity for evangelism. I've never been the first to try new gadgets. I still like to hold my newspaper and read it on the back porch—and I don't watch TV shows on an iPhone. But regardless of my creature habits, I can't stand in the way of today's technological revolution.

Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth—and that requires us to use every means possible. God is in a hurry to reach places like Uzbekistan, Niger and Yemen—and He will likely use podcasts, Blackberries and Facebook to do it. We should claim all new media so that every person on this planet can hear that Jesus died to save us.

Please don't fight the changes God wants to bring in your life. As you hold on to His unchangeable love, allow Him to push the reset button. Then buckle your seat belt and hold on. We are in for the ride of our lives!

How I spent much of Saturday

This is the group from the encounter retreat for the Berwyn Church.

They are great. Hispanic, Black, White and assorted.

Just like Heaven.

I love a true multicultural church.

They put up with my pitiful ripping testimony.

This is Part of What E-4 is doing in Chicagoland.

Stupid Government Tricks

George Bush implemented a program that cost 300 billion dollars. Almost a third of a trillion.

It is called hope for homeowners.

To date here's what we have for your tax dollars being flushed down the toilet. ONE homeowner has been helped. This couldn't be worse if Acorn was running it.

Here's a little info:

We last wrote about the Hope for Homeowners program (H4H) just over a month ago, when we noted that after five months, the $300 billion program had helped exactly one homeowner.

How has it done now that it’s been in action for six months? No progress:

The Treasury Department also is attempting to breathe new life into another government foreclosure prevention program, called Hope for Homeowners. That program, launched last year, refinances homeowners into more affordable mortgages. But lenders have balked at requirements that they cut some of the principal that borrowers owe. Only one homeowner has received a government-backed loan under the program so far.

Circle of Life outside my bedroom window

I have a birdhouse just outside our bedroom window. Mr and Mrs Sparrow occupied it this spring. I watched as they hauled twigs.

She was setting on the nest in the house.

Then, I saw right in my backyard a victorious hawk who had just killed, eaten and left a pile of feathers of the sparrow mom.

The eggs are now abandon.

Darn.

But, circle of life. It's painful but we all live in it.

Why I am sometimes Embarrased to be affiliated with the Lutheran Church

I have railed against bad welfare and enablement programs in the Lutheran Church. In my forty years of relative adulthood I have seen some dooseys.

They are at it again.

Now, they are working with Democrat Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts to give free cars to poor people.

While there might be some argument for doing this, it's just more enablement of sloth.

I don't know why this happens. I guess when you sign up to be Lutheran you hand in your wisdom badge.

I'm being a little critical here, but I get really frustrated.

US scientists say they have successfully reversed the effects of Alzheimer's with experimental drugs.

This is really potentially good news. This is wonderful if true.

This matters to me a great deal.

Future hope

HDAC inhibitor treatment for humans with Alzheimer's disease is still a decade or more away, she said.

The chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, Rebecca Wood, said: "This is promising research which improves our understanding of memory loss in Alzheimer's.

"We need to do more research to investigate whether developing treatments that control this gene could benefit people with Alzheimer's.

"We desperately need to fund more research to head off a forecast doubling the UK population living with dementia."

Julie Williams, an expert in the genetics of Alzheimer's for the trust, said scientists were on the brink of finding a number of candidate genes that increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's.

"If we can find the triggers and causes then we can hopefully prevent them. That is the great ambition."

When a deal goes bad

I delivered a load of shrubs to a guy who refused them..

I have no animosity toward him.

I also lie.

Why I am convinced that God isn't yet done with Sarah Palin.....She is for a time like this

When the middle of the roaders in the republican party despise her, she's my girl.

Why Obamas's Economic Program will Fail --- It's not about Programs

I know it's popular to believe that Obama knows what he is doing. The sycophants in the media keep saying he does.

He doesn't. His pronouncements today demonstrates how naive he really is.

It's over. We are destroyed until common sense sets in. It won't for a long time. 14 years till recovery. How old will you be in 14 years. That's how long till the sun shines again economically on the USA.

Pirates are Us

Steve Scott posted this, he has given me blanket permission to pirate his stuff. So Ahrgg, avast ye mateys. I just did.

Kevin Johnson at Prophezei has a series of rotating classic art pieces in his blog header. Every site visit or page hit reveals a new piece. Most seem to be from the medieval period of history. Each one depicts a different rendering of a biblical account - I don't know if I've seen one that wasn't a biblical theme. Kevin has actively searched for art for his blog, so new pieces appear from time to time. Even if art isn't your thing, check it out.

I think it's pretty cool. I like old religious art. Some of this is excellent.

Of COURSE the Press is Unbiased

Why am I not Shocked

Turns out Al Gore is deeply invested in industries that will benifit from his cap and trade global warming agenda.

Somehow that all makes sense.

He's been a phony from day one.

I won't even bother to post a link. It's all over Google News.

Now, for the last time, today. Global warming a hoax and Al Gore is a flim flam man.

You my liberal friends once again have been had.

Sooooo easy.

Steyn - Obama's Hundred Days

We're still in the first hundred days of the joyous observances of Barack Obama's first hundred days, and many weeks of celebration lie ahead, so here are my thoughts:

President Obama's strongest talent is not his speechifying, which is frankly a bit of a snoozeroo. In Europe, he left 'em wanting less pretty much every time (headline from Britain's Daily Telegraph: "Barack Obama Really Does Go On A Bit"). That uptilted chin combined with the left-right teleprompter neck swivel you can set your watch by makes him look like an emaciated Mussolini umpiring an endless rally of high lobs on Centre Court at Wimbledon. Each to his own, but I don't think those who routinely hail him as the greatest orator since Socrates actually sit through many of his speeches.

On the other hand, if you just caught a couple of minutes of last Wednesday's press conference, you'd be impressed. When that groupie from The New York Times asked the president about what, during his first hundred days, "had surprised you the most … enchanted you the most … humbled you the most and troubled you the most", Obama made a point of getting out his pen, writing it down and repeating back the multiple categories: "Enchanted," he said. "Nice." Indeed. Some enchanted evening, you may see a stranger, you may see a stranger across a crowded room, but then he scribbles down your multipart question to be sure he gets it right, and he looks so thoughtful, and suddenly he's not a stranger anymore, and the sound of his laughter will ring in your dreams.

The theater of thoughtfulness is critical to the president's success. He has the knack of appearing moderate while acting radical, which is a lethal skill. The thoughtful look suckered many of my more impressionable conservative comrades last fall, when David Brooks and Christopher Buckley were cranking out gushing paeans to Obama's "first-class temperament" – temperament being to the Obamacons what Nick Jonas' hair is to a Tiger Beat reporter. But the drab reality is that the man they hail – Brooks & Buckley, I mean; not the Tiger Beat crowd – is a fantasy projection. There is no Obama The Sober Centrist, although it might make a good holiday song:

"Obama The Sober Centrist

Had a very thoughtful mien

And if you ever saw it

You would say it's peachy keen …

READ THE WHOLE THING---

A really good Sermon

This morning as I usually do on Sundays my little bedside radio fired up at 6AM to listen to Ken Klaus on the Lutheran Hour. He's a good speaker even if he wears a robe....HA.

His sermon today was on who is being or is not being openminded. I think the answer will surprise you. I would post the text, but like a lot of good sermons, it reads more poorly than is heard.

SO, if you don't mind investing 13 minutes of your life, listen to his excellent take. It just might help you get some perspective.

DISCERNING THE SPIRIT OF ANTI-CHRIST

OLUFUNSO J. OMIDIRAN
www.livingsword.org

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know the the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and now already is it in the world." (1John 4:1-3).

We have heard a lot of man-made fables or spurious speculations about the nature and attributes of the antichrist or the futuristic ‘man of sin’ or ‘son of perdition’ (2 Thess.2:3). Nevertheless, men’s theories do not displace the reality of God’s truth. We simply need to have a clear understanding of the balanced truth of God’s Word concerning who the antichrist really is. In order to have a correct understanding of the truth about this person, we first need to understand what the spirit of antichrist is. We must be mindful of the fact that the spirit of a person is the force behind the personality.

The word ‘anti’ in Greek means ‘instead of’ or ‘in place of’. The above scripture was originally written in Greek .So antichrist (Gk: antichristos) simply speaks of someone who takes the place of Christ, a usurper.

Today, we see a lot of instances whereby Christ has been displaced by men and replaced by something or someone else. The point is that, if ever Christ is not given His rightful place in our lives, we’ve fallen victims to the antichrist spirit.

Every religion that denies the lordship/headship of Christ is of the antichrist stock, no matter how many adherents are influenced thereby. Even in the church polity today antichrist keeps having his heyday. Many things are happening today and they give us a lot of concern. If Satan is alive and well in the modern Church then the world is in trouble!

ANTICHRIST IN CHURCH!

Every departure from the simplicity of the gospel of Christ is decline towards the antichrist spirit. We see a lot of hopeless and needless debates in the organized church because Christ’s Lordship has already been denied by reckless men. For instance, the ordination and consecration of gay(homosexual)priests, immorality among professing believers, indecent lifestyles, corruption, idolatrous practices, hero-worship, sectarianism, religious pride, feelings of false security and superiority. All these are manifestations of the antichrist spirit.

One serious deceit within “Christians” and “Christian nations” is doing so much religion and still hating Christ and what He stands for. While some are fighting tooth and nail to defend their denominational extremisms, they are drifting farther and farther from the Saviour whom they claim to serve.

Furthermore, we should remember that the antichrist may come either as a religious personality or in the secular form. We should not be deceived by the synagogues of Satan which abound so much in our days. The antichrist spirit makes its appearance within God’s temple (2Thess.2:3, 4). Through this spirit the temple is desecrated and corrupted. Nay, the spirit is already here and the devastation has already started. Every religious effort that does not thrive upon the saving work of Christ on the cross is after the order of the antichrist spirit. No replacement can be found for Christ, no other name above His. (Phill.2:9, 10; Acts 4:12).

OUR CHRISTIAN TESTIMONY

Every attempt you ever made to hide your Christian testimony or identity is an ominous decline. Do you often feel ashamed to stand before other people about your acquaintance with Christ the crucified Saviour? Do you often shy away from being identified with Him? Have you found it more convenient to deny Him before the secular world? Have you not been deceived by the flamboyance of modern, Christless ‘Christianity’ just because you love to gain this present world? How much of Him have men discovered through you?

PREACHERS, HEAR THIS!

Every attempt to reinterpret God’s word so as to meet popular demands is pathetic failure. It is shameful that today that Christian ministers are trying to do away with the old-fashioned ways of the Jesus of the Bible: The old rugged cross has been reduced to a small cosmetic and fashionable necklace which all men can wear with shear amusement. As preachers we cannot solve anybody’s problem without bringing them to the Lord who saves. Mere motivational speech, philosophical enunciations, ‘positive confessions’ and all idolatrous gimmicks can never transform the spiritually corrupt. In fact, every alternative method to the narrow way message of Christ is of the antichrist spirit. By reducing or misrepresenting the truth, we are not serving Christ. Let us get back to the ancient landmarks, even the everlasting foundations. Shalom.

Liberals Really Believe

From American Thinker:

Name a problem, and the Democrats have a "solution." Don't call it "wishful thinking" though. Call it "hope."

• Instead of harsh interrogation techniques, non-harsh ones.
• Instead of war, diplomacy.
• Instead of all the sources of energy that work today and made us the richest people in history, alternate sources.
• Recession problem? Stimulus spending is the answer. It never worked before, but we can't just do nothing.
• Banks in trouble? Regulate them. Of course, we already had all the New Deal regulation, plus Sarbanes-Oxley and about 80,000 pages worth of other regulations. But we'll come up with some new, sensible regulation we're sure will work next time, with zero harmful side-effects.
• Did Bush spend too much and run up big deficits? We'll fix that by spending so much that our first year deficit will be more than Bush's first seven, combined! We'll more than quadruple Bush's biggest deficit ever.
• Future deficits too big? Just assume GDP growth and future revenues to be higher than ever experienced in history.

Assume, wish, hope. That's the plan. Then a miracle occurs.

But here's the real kicker: Democrats know all this is baloney. They are not going to solve these problems with those "solutions," and they know it. All they need to do is convince you that they are solving those problems.

And that's the difference between liberals and conservatives in "public service." Conservatives think solutions should solve problems. Liberals know their "solutions" need only convince you they are solving problems.

Global Warming is Now a Persecuted Religion

At least according to the Independent Newspaper in London.

Gettlefinger Motors Marketing Strategy

Now that the UAW owns GM they have changed the marketing strategy to the six step program:

1. A union thug will show up at your door.
2. He will inspect your current automobile for trade value.
3. He will hand you a contract to sign. You will buy a car.
4. You will be assigned the car they decide you should have.
   
5. If you don't agree Vito will break your kneecaps.
6. They don't care if you can afford it or make the payments. That's the banks problem. Barney Frank insists that in the interest of the hard working Americans banks will be forced to supply the money to the buyers, even if they don't want the car. See Housing for an example.

In order to make selection easy, they will build one model, one style, one engine, one color.

Just like they did in east Germany.

SOCIALISM, MAYBE THIS TIME IT WILL WORK

Some Random Interesting Pictures.......I Hope

CLICK TO ENLARGE ANY OF THESE PICTURES TO FULL SIZE.

Southwest of Dekalb IL is a hamlet called Elva. There's not much there. Maybe a dozen houses. Like many small towns in ND. BUT

I like elevators. Look at this one. Brick. I have in my life never seen one just like this. It's amazing. But, it's in disuse. Falling apart. What a crime. If I were a rich man I would preserve it. It's worth preserving.

In an earlier post, I think on the Prophet side, I mentioned a spruce tree that blew down last summer. It's 64 years old. Here's a picture of the fallen root end. The trunk.


That's my cousin Wally standing next to it. It's as big around as he is. Or me.

Who knew a spruce tree could get so large. This was planted as a seedling. Yet when the wind came it just ripped out of the ground. Look at the root.


Last this is a male catkin from a native cottonwood tree I saw in Illinois where we are cutting live cuttings.

Look at the color, the size, the depth. These are beautiful, the whole tree was covered with them. I took a picture at a distance but it lost something in the frame. I know this isn't enough of a reason to plant cottonwood, but it's not a bad one. Did you know that they are now an endangered native species in the Dakotas? Too many Males, not enough Females. Plant native only.

Blogging for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind Folks

At the risk of being a little insulting, the good people from the left who read this blog have a blindness problem, a hearing problem and when they speak it is mumblingly incoherent when it comes to economics.

As a gift and as a challenge, I would offer an opportunity to hear from and read a real economist with actual understanding. Unlike those who are at the helm steering the USA into the shoals of disaster.

I came by this thru my Friend RON MAC. Bill Bonner. Fair Minded. Not an ideologue. Just a pretty good economist. No agenda but truth.

So, if you want to know what is REALLY going on and what is REALLY going to happen, go back and read a dozen of his latest missives. You will find them clever and insightful.

It will shake your faith in the Messiah O. It should be shaken. His feet of clay are shattering.

It will help you prepare for the days to come. They are going to be rough. Long. Deep. Hard. Unsettling.

Or you can just go on as Rich Karlgaard just wrote about, shallow, inward, distracted, entertained by the likes of Stewart. As your country is flushed twice down the can. Swirrly Swirrly.

Then you will wake up, ask someone to help, and the echo will come back declaring no one is there.......They really never were. It was all an illusion. You bought into a liberal matrix fantasy. Free energy from nothing, free health care from people who care, free everything....until it collapses.

It will.

First Hundred Days - Hope and Change no one believes in

Catastrophe. That's the word I would use to describe the first hundred days.

John Kass gave him an F. Said, Mr Obama, stop campaigning, stop organizing, you won the election, it's time to lead. I don't think he knows how Mr Kass.

Reuters reports that the economy has collapsed over 7 percent since he was elected POTUS.

This is a man without a rudder or a sail. We are adrift in a doldrum from which we may not emerge.

And we will all suffer for it. America is dying at the hands of bad leadership.

A Sense of Dread

Over the weekend I was talking to a liberal friend. She had voted for Obama. Was excited to do so. She has been a liberal for a long time.

But, she reported to me that she is suffering from a severe sense of dread. A fear, a trepidation.

Nothing seems to be as it should be. Things are out of kilter. The government owning the car builders and banks. Swine Flu. Economy not getting well. Basic rights being threatened.

I was shocked to hear her say these things. She is not a one time liberal. She has voted D most of her life. Proudly.

Now, as she put it, there is something profoundly wrong and I am afraid.

If this were one of my right wing friends it might be expected. But she fears our country is sliding down a slope more slippery than she signed up for at the ballot box.

I think this feeling is wider and broader than anyone things. I was watching Jon Stewart for the first time in years. He had a bit on swine flu. It was amusing.

Then he lit into Obama.

Obama and all the cronies which now includes Specter (they can have him, we'll wipe the floor with him next year) have found the deep end and gone off it.

This won't end well.

There is No Argument

This from a long list of really stupid liberal statements in just the last week on the news, in blogs and comments.

They don't want argument. They don't want discussion. They are mindlessly committed to mind control.

I don't know if in fact any of these dopes on the air have any idea of how jaw droppingly stupid they sound.

I would catalog them, but it would be a very long list.

This is just my observation, I have come to the conclusion that when you publically become a liberal you check your brain at the door and put the liberal teleprompter chip in your head.

This is a rant, pay no attention to it.... I'm just irritated with the inane quality of public or discourse or more important, the lack of it that exists because the drones go along with every stupid liberal idea that floats out of the big giant heads.

Sigh..

Two Great Love Songs.....

A Good Ad for A Church

A Little Perspective on Obama's Budget Cuts

FUNNY VIA EMAIL

True Stories of People who are a Bit on the DULL SIDE! I got this from my friend Barry this morning.. You may have seen it, you may have experienced it, you surely will get a laugh from it:

IDIOT SIGHTINGS:

We had to have the garage door repaired. The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, 'Lady, you need a 1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. He said, 'NO, it's not.' Four is larger than two..'

We haven't used Sears repair since.

IDIOT SIGHTING:

I went through the McDonald 's take-out window and I gave the clerk a $5 bill. Our total was $4.25, so I also handed her a quarter. She said, 'you gave me too much money.' I said, 'Yes I know, but this way you can just give me a dollar bill back.' She sighed and went to get the manager who asked me to repeat my request. I did so, and he handed me back the quarter, and said 'We're sorry but they could not do that kind of thing.' The clerk then proceeded to give me back $1 and 75 cents in change..

Do not confuse the clerks at McD's.

IDIOT SIGHTING :

I live in a semi rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road. The reason: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.'

From Kingman , KS .

IDIOT SIGHTING IN FOOD SERVICE :
My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.' He said he was sorry, but they only had iceburg lettuce.

From Kansas City

IDIOT SIGHTING:
I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?' To which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?' He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'

Happened in Birmingham , Ala.

IDIOT SIGHTING :

The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine. She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, 'What on earth are blind people doing driving?!' She was a probation officer in Wichita , KS

IDIOT SIGHTING :

At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker. She was leaving the company due to 'downsizing.' Our manager commented cheerfully, 'This is fun. We should do this more often.' Not another word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare. This was a lunch at Texas Instruments.

IDIOT SIGHTING :

I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back into itself and for the sake of her life, couldn't understand why her system would not turn on. A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriffs office, no less.

IDIOT SIGHTING

When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the service department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock the driver side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. 'Hey,' I announced to the technician, 'its open!' His reply, 'I know. I already got that side.' This was at the Ford dealership in Canton, MS


I can't help but wonder what the voter registration for these folks noted above would look like. I mean we did elect Barack Obama......

Personality Defect

In a long conversation driving back with Kevin yesterday we discussed people we know and knew who just seem to never have any friends. Who are bad at being sociable. Who just never seem to connect.

I know a man who is profoundly friendless. Who never can make and maintain any form of friendship. He is a sad case. Late 40's and friendless. I have tried but he is trying.

We came to the conclusion that friendlessness is the result of a few fatal flaws:

• Self Centeredness.... Enough about me, what do you thing of me
• Talking too much - Always a need to be right
• Never asking questions to encourage others to talk
• A poor or nonexistent sense of any humor whatsoever
• The need to dominate any conversation with their own opinion no matter what
• A lack of any capacity for true empathy
• No true transparency --- Not letting people into your life
• Clingyness - inappropriate contact for personal reinforcement

I know people like this and so do you. They are sad and friendless. I don't know if they can be helped. I have tried to help the man I mentioned. I don't think he will get there because he blames everyone else around him for his friendless state. He will end life with a small funeral.

How to win friends and influence people would be a good book to read. He won't. He, well, read the list above. He has a profound personality defect.

If you want to have friends, you have to be a friend. He's not.