Because He Lives, I can face tomorrow. Life is worth the living, just because…
Archive for September, 2007
It’s alright to celebrate homosexuality, publicly support perversion, and publish what many Christians consider blasphemy, but we sure don’t want to offend any Muslims now, do we? No sir, we’re an open and diverse nation, and we’ll bow down to any kind of perversion or multiculturalism (as long as it isn’t some old dead white guy religion like Christianity). This morning’s example comes from Chicago….
So long, Halloween parade. Farewell, Santa’s gift shop.
The holiday traditions are facing elimination in some Oak Lawn schools this year after complaints that the activities are offensive, particularly to Muslim students.Final decisions on which of the festivities will be axed will fall to the principals at each of Ridgeland School District 122’s five schools, Supt. Tom Smyth said.
Parents expect that the announcement is going to add to the tension that has been building since officials agreed earlier this month to change the lunch menu to exclude items containing pork to accommodate Muslim students. News that Jell-O was struck from the menu caused such a stir that officials have agreed to bring it back. Gelatin is often made with tissue or bones of pigs or other animals.
Seems like it’s starting early this year, doesn’t it? In the interest of not offending anyone, they show a remarkable willingness to toss out their own culture, their own traditions, and invent something meaningless to everyone.
..Following the example of Lieb Elementary School, Columbus Manor School will exchange the annual Halloween parade for a fall festival next month. The holiday gift bazaars at both schools also will remain, but they’ll likely be moved to the PTA-sponsored after-school winter festival. And Santa’s annual visit probably will be on a Saturday.
I’d like to ask, what ever happened to the idea of coming to America to be Americans? Have we polluted our own culture to the point that it’s no longer worth promoting or defending? Is it no longer worth sharing? Is it so cheapened now that we can no longer expect others to want to share it? That’s pretty pathetic, if it’s true. And do you think it’s only confined to big cities, like Chicago, San Francisco,and Seattle? How about this report, about a school in the small town of Nyssa, Oregon…
..The “Five Pillars” of Islam – charity, fasting, prayer, belief and pilgrimage – are being taught to public school students in Nyssa, Ore., under the guise of world history, the school has confirmed to WND, even though a parent raised a complaint about the same teachings a year ago.
In a letter to parents following the concerns that were raised at that point, Supt. Don Grotting and other school officials told parents that the text called “Journey Across Time” features a chapter on “Islamic Civilizations.”
As part of that, “class activities have included guest speakers (including an American soldier serving in Iraq and a practicing Muslim woman who is an American citizen living in Mountain Home) who talked about geography, dress, climate, religion, economy and culture and student skits, in which students prepare and perform three- to five-minute skits about the tenets of Islam belief: charity, fasting, prayer, belief, and pilgrimage.”
I’ll guarantee that the students do not get a similarly thorough treatment of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or even what American Patriotism is about.
Perhaps the last 20 years of putting multiculturalism ahead of American culture has so diluted the culture, no one remembers why it was worth fighting for? We’ve bent over backward trying to convince ourselves that “all nations and cultures are equal”, but we’ve forgotten why this one we’re letting slip away is worthy of protecting and being proud of. The result of trying to change a red white and blue culture for some rainbow dream culture is turning out to be that muddy blech color you get when all your watercolors run together… hardly worth showing to anyone or hanging on the wall, in my humble opinion.
Beethoven to Bluegrass, too much fun!
I had the toy car out this morning, before the rain comes in. I think I’d like to take it pheasant hunting next month, and try to get some pics of it with the old (’50’s) Browning humpback shotgun my Dad gave me to use. It might be kinda cool… couple of pheasants on the hood, with the A5 leaning on the fender. Hmmm…
I was listening to one of the local vets on the radio the other day as he was talking about dogs that bite. He mentioned that it is more often the little dogs that get a panic attack going and start biting. I thought of that this morning while reading this article, about the Israeli airstrike on Syria, and the resulting panic it has caused in Iran. Watching that little weasel from Tehran strutting around in New York like a rock star, reminded me of the little mixed breed rat terrier let loose on the floor of the Westminster Kennel Club show, thinking he was some kind of “best of breed”. At the same time he’s enjoying this celebrity, he’s ratched up his posturing and threats, even making what some suggest is a declaration of war against America and Israel. Humorous to most watchers…
A sure sign of panic is to make a threat that everyone knows is a bluff. So our and Tel Aviv’s response to Iranian bluster is a thank-you-for-sharing yawn and a laugh. Few things rattle the mullahs’ cages more than a yawn and a laugh.
Yet no matter how much fun this sport with the mullahs is, it is also deadly serious. The pressure build-up on Iran is getting enormous. Something is going to blow and soon. The hope is that the blow-up will be internal, that the regime will implode from within.
.. then I remembered, cornered little dogs bite. And cornered little men with “end of the world” belief systems do worse than that.
Ahmadinejad is on record as stating he believes he is to have a personal role in ushering in the age of the Mahdi. In a Nov. 16, 2005, speech in Tehran, he said he sees his main mission in life as to “pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance.”
Read both links for a view you aren’t getting from the TV talking heads. We live in interesting times.
Retired Geezer had a post that reminded me just how wonderful we have it here in Idaho, with a picture of some monster zukes from their garden. We’ve been blessed as well, and besides all the fresh we’ve had, our little freezer is just about full. Thank you Lord, for these thy gifts!
Perhaps you’ve heard the rustling and growling noises? The gun owners of America are stirred up again, this time by an impassioned article by Laura Washington from the Chicago Sun-times. Many of the gun blogs are discussing this article today, and I wanted to mention it here for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. The title alone is provocative enough, Lets Pry Open Those Cold, Dead Hands (she doesn’t need the link). Since we aren’t dead yet, whatever is she thinking?
..Whenever I write about the plague of gun violence, I get a huge blowback from the gun lovers of America.
The rabid response of the gun lobby is damning, but impressive. They out-gun, out-email, gun-control advocates by more than 20 to one. Their ability to organize a rapid response is exactly the opposite of FEMA. The gun army, made up almost exclusively of white men from suburban and rural areas, is loaded for bear.
The People of the Gun are beating their drums on websites from Keepandbeararms.com in Washington State, to alphecca.com in Vermont. Every time a plea for gun restrictions surfaces on the Internet, the gun stalwarts furiously post hundreds of missives in homage to the Second Amendment.
Well, yeah. Same thing happens whether it is a free speech issue, or a freedom of religion issue. The Second Amendment is there, just like the First. It is part of America, Ms Washington. And another part of America is standing up and getting vocal about what is right, and what we believe in.
This writer mentions a network news poll taken after the V-Tech shooting, that purports to show that a majority of Americans want stricter gun control.
..After last spring’s massacre at Virginia Tech, ABC News polled adults nationwide and asked: “Do you favor or oppose stricter gun control laws in this country?” Sixty-one percent favored them, 36 percent were opposed and 3 percent were “unsure.”
Let’s see here, is that the same poll that sampled only 788 of 301 MILLION Americans? Are you kidding me? But she jumps on that one line of one poll and claims that a majority of Americans want stricter gun control, but the all powerful gun lobby yada yada yada. Sounds like the same argument we get from Pelosi when she says the Democrats have a mandate from the majority to end the war in Iraq, but the eeevvilll George Bush has illegally taken over the country, run roughshod over the majority, and is now the dictator-in-chief and ignoring the “will of the people”. If the true majority of the American people were against the war, they could get it ended. And if the true majority of the American people thought guns were an evil thing, they would have been banned a long time ago.
Did Ms Washington point out that the same poll shows those same Americans were 50/50 on whether stricter laws would even be effective? No. How about a poll that would allow a headline like this “30% Larger Poll Sample Proves Americans Are Evenly Divided On Gun Control”? There is a CNN poll that reflects that. Or how about a Pew Research poll of 1508 Americans, showing only 37% in favor of banning the sale of handguns? Reporting about polls is nearly meaningless, when you can pick and choose what you want to report.
The other thing that comes into play in this article is the play on emotions…
..Marches may generate publicity, but they don’t influence decision makers. If we are going to keep pistols and assault rifles away from the playlots, family shopping malls and our colleges and universities, progressives must “bare” our arms.
Maybe we’re different here in Idaho, but we don’t have a big problem with pistols and assault rifles on our playgrounds. We do have a problem with criminals, adult or juvenile, it doesn’t matter, and we have some gangs. It’s already illegal to shoot human beings in Idaho, as it is in most of the rest of the country. It’s also illegal to shoot houses. Come to think of it, it’s illegal to throw rocks through the front doors of businesses, but that didn’t stop those who burgled a bunch of shops in the valley earlier this week. But the gun banners don’t talk about human beings. They don’t talk about criminals, or illegals, or mental defectives, or terrorists. They don’t talk about gangs, or the adults who prey on the kids with drugs, and sex, and money. They want to treat all of the problems by taking guns away from law abiding citizens.
She does make an interesting comment about the black murder rate..
..African Americans have plenty of motivation. According to a recent report by the U.S. Justice Department, nearly half the people murdered in the United States in 2005 were black. Most lived in cities and were felled by guns. While blacks make up about 13 percent of the nation’s population, they comprised 49 percent of all murder victims.
Now, at the risk of being called a “blackophobe”, or worse, can I point out that the writer didn’t go far enough with more of her statistics? Surprise. If you go to the Bureau of Justice website and read some of the stats, you see the following facts. Number one, homicide victimization rates for blacks were 6 times higher than the rates for whites. And Number 2, offending rates for blacks were more than 7 times higher than the rates for whites. There is a lot more of interest from that website, but that makes my point well enough. After all, the writer of this article brought the race issue up, and tied it to gun control.
If Ms Washington and her followers were truly interested in “the children” and the awful problems of violent crime, they would get off the Brady bandwagon and start “baring their arms” in the causes of stricter law enforcement, drug control, and immigration control. They would mobilize their churches, not against the corner gun shop, but against the corner pusher. They would support real efforts to strengthen families, especially black families, by building a culture that makes heroes out of real fathers, and a virtue out of honest work. They would become unsleeping crusaders fighting against the culture that makes role models out of pimps, gangstas, and thugs. Real men protect their communities, not their “turf”. Real men value women and children as human beings, not things. Real men think of their families and their country, more than themselves. Ms Washington, we have a man problem, not a gun problem.
And by the way Ms Washington, REAL writers don’t blame all the problems on “white men from suburban and rural areas”… what kind of racist crap is that?
Today was the first day to order the new Idaho vehicle license plates that feature the NRA logo on them. Tomorrow is the official ceremony.
The National Rifle Association specialty Idaho license plate will go on sale Monday, September 24, at your local county auto-licensing office. The Idaho Transportation Department will be holding an introduction ceremony on Tuesday, September 25 at the Idaho Correctional Facility in Boise at 1:30 p.m.
The plates will take up to 5 characters on them. Cost, according to the DMV, is $60 for the first year, and $40 renewal after that. This plate is unique however
..because the NRA recognizes Idaho’s need for road funding, the NRA has generously agreed to allow the special plate fee collected from this plate to go straight into the Idaho Highway Distribution Account, to help build and maintain roads. All other specialty plate fees go directly into the sponsoring organizations’ accounts.
Interesting idea. I think I’ll keep my elk plate for now though, and let the extra funds go to Idaho wildlife.
Fifteen minutes west of town, past fields of corn, mint, onions, and beets, we stop at a simple farmhouse and exchange pleasantries with the owner.
“Well, wha’dyaknow, it’s the bird hunters! Did you get into any last time?”
So we chat about last time, brag a little, ask if there are any still back there. He gets to talking about the trees he wants to take out over the winter, and then we talk about his buddies who are visiting. They own the fancy fishing rig parked in the drive. Hear about the 8 foot sturgeon they caught earlier in the day. Then he tells us to head on back, and to “do good”.
We take the truck around back, along the feedlot boundary and up the irrigation canal, parking where we can get to one of the ditch crossings at the back of our farmer’s property. Put on the vests, get out the orange Fudd hats, collar up the pup and we’re hunting.
There’s supposed to be a pretty serious rain front coming in. All week long we’ve been worried it would arrive too early in the day and ruin our hunt, but the Lord has blessed us this day and the edge of the front is still aways west of us. So far, the wind hasn’t picked up, but since we’ve started a little early because of the weather, the doves aren’t really flying yet. Our plan is to hunt the grove of trees and then along the ditch banks out awhile for quail. Let the pup work, and stretch our legs, maybe get some shots. He and the dog take the north side, I take the south, and we head out.
There is nothing like an evening hunt, late in the summer. It’s still warm enough not to wear the heavy coat we’ll need next month in pheasant season, but not sweltering like it was when the season started three weeks ago. Some of the nearby fields have been brought in, leaving a rich stubble, but others are still up. There’s still water in the ditch and the trees nearby still have their leaves. We can see the bands of clouds at the head of the front moving up the valley towards us. What a magnificent day.
The dog is young, but he’s learning well and doesn’t get out away from us, so the first quail he gets up are close enough to shoot. Trouble is, they’re between us and they drop into heavy brush at the bottom of the ditch, so neither of us gets a shot. He can’t work them out of the cover so we continue on down the ditch. We don’t see any other quail here, but as we come to a field that has been brought in I jump a half dozen doves off the ground, going away from my buddy. I’m slow bringing my gun up, think I’ve missed my shot, but a straggler jumps up late and one shell later he’s on the menu.
We continue down the ditch, around the corner, beside a beet field. Doves jumping in here, but crossing us, so we get no good shots. We turn around and head back, and find a patch of goathead burrs. Clean the pup up, and our pant legs, then we’re good again (note to self: put one of those strawberry pluckers in your vest to save your fingers next time).
The wind is coming up now and we can see some birds flying, but they’re quite high. And as we get close to the spot I jumped them once, I see that they came back. Ready this time, I make my way closer to them, but they’re more wary this time, jump sooner, and instead of all going one way like last time, they all go in different directions. My one shot hits its mark though, and there are now two in the pouch. After all the walking the only other quail we see are closer to the house, the “special ones my wife feeds” the farmer told us. We think she should knit them little orange vests.
It’s starting to get dark, and close to cutoff time. The wind is up good now, and the clouds are coming in, the moon flying in and out of them. We take opposite corners and try to disappear into the brush along the fenceline hoping for some last minute flyover shots. Off in the distance we can see flashes of lightning. A couple more small flights go over, halfway between us and the moon, and going about 60 miles per hour. He tries a couple shots, but without result, and then the day is over.
We walk back to the truck, put away the guns, and the pup, and head back into town. Pup falls asleep before we make it to the road. It’s full dark before we get back to town, and the lightning continues, more frequent now, and closer. It’ll be raining hard and cold by morning, and many of the dove we saw will be gone before we get another chance to hunt.
But this evening was about perfect. Thank you Lord, and may we go again?
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