I settle for cat blogging. LOLCATs, that is.
Archive for December, 2007
From the “but…but….but…” Dept.:
Corn boom could expand ‘dead zone’ in Gulf
The nation’s corn crop is fertilized with millions of pounds of nitrogen-based fertilizer. And when that nitrogen runs off fields in Corn Belt states, it makes its way to the Mississippi River and eventually pours into the Gulf, where it contributes to a growing “dead zone” — a 7,900-square-mile patch so depleted of oxygen that fish, crabs and shrimp suffocate.
Hmmm. Let us consider. What ultimately will prove more harmful for the Gulf ecosystem: Drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, the environmental impacts of which are minimal, OR, pushing “alternative” fuels which result in the dumping of tons of poisonous waste into the Gulf?
I wonder if anyone factored in the carbon emission from all those extra tractors, harvesters, semi-trucks and other machines required to farm all this extra land? I wonder how that compares to the emissions required to process oil from an off-shore oil rig pumped right into tanks via pipeline?
Dandelion Break
Posted: December 14, 2007 in Christianity, Random Observations, Random Thoughts, UnbloggingYou remember the Bloom County cartoons, where Opus would occasionally need to take a break from everything and sit amidst the dandelions for a while? I feel like a I need one of those.
What with all the shootings and crazy weather and the painful mediocrity of the candidates currently in the race for President, not to mention the ridiculous nonsense invovled in the anti-Christmas hype, it’s hard not to feel a little gray and worn down after a while.
And reading over my last few posts, I realize that I sound, well, pretty cranky and caustic and just generally unpleasant. I’m not really that way in person. I guess what I write here tends to be an outlet of sorts. Reading over the news and other blogs, and seeing the kind of craziness reflected there, at times it just makes my blood boil. I tend to seethe out through the keyboard, and over time, it tends to give things a pretty acerbic tone.
The blogs I really enjoy reading are the ones that make me laugh, or think, or smile. Sometimes I think I’ve forgotten how to laugh. I’ve got to be so serious at work, and so responsible at home, and things get so busy that I tend to bury any chance of catching my breath, just sitting around and enjoying things.
With that said, I thought I would take a break from calling people idiots, and just drop in some random stuff I’ve written in the past, stuff with a little lighter tone. Hope you like:
“It is not the intensity of the effort we apply to the hammer, or the chisel, but rather the marks we leave on the stone that determine how we are to be remembered.”
Don’t let the world bring you to your knees…Get there by yourself!
Love is something you are given, not something you earn.
God doesn’t expect us to be perfect – He wants us to admit that we aren’t.
God doesn’t expect us to have all the answers – He wants us to admit that we need His Truth.
God doesn’t want us to stand on our own – He wants us to kneel with Him.
The truest measure of one’s faith is his willingness to forgo the comforts of convenience and ease, and stand deeply in the midst of an uncertain situation. As we stand outside ourselves, outside our carefully constructed comfort zones and safety measures, we must face the inevitability of our own inadequacy. When faced with circumstances beyond our control, in that moment of doubt, we must turn our face toward God, and ask His intervention. Indeed, it is not until we realize how fully we our out of our depth, in situations beyond our experience, that we turn toward Him who would preserve us. Our faith is tested in the crucible of trials that we know we could not face alone. Our faith becomes tempered and hardened as the finest steel, through victories possible only through His divinity. Where there is confidence in ourselves, there is little room for faith in Him. We choose to fill that space where He would stand. Only when we step aside, and relinquish our own selfish desires for personal glory, will the Lord step in and perform a mighty work through us.
Are you trying to receive the benefits of Christ’s name without the demands of His Kingdom?
True wisdom is an understanding of the total inadequacy of your own knowledge. Those who think that they are wise and believe that they have nothing left to learn, are the fools they believe others to be. Knowledge is a thirst that is never quenched, yet still should we drink. Through our intelligence we gain knowledge, through our knowledge we gain understanding, and through our understanding we slowly gain wisdom. With wisdom comes the realization of how much we have yet to learn, and joy at the prospect of the search.
The more you know about Quantum Physics, the more sense the Bible makes.
Boys, 11 and 14, Charged With Sex Assault on Woman, 60
Me? I blame conservative Christians for stuff like this. What will all their antiquated ideas about morality and right & wrong. Clearly what these misguided youths need is more social programs, and some progressive, forward-thinking sex education about proper use of condoms.
I suspect that it was probably school prayer and a public display of the 10 Commandments that started them down this dark road.
A shame, really.
My seven year old daughter complained the other day about how one of the boys in another class was bugging her. I guess he was trying to get one of his friends to ask my daughter for her phone number. Yeah. Apparently he wants to “date” her.
Date her? She’s in 2nd GRADE!!!!
I was rather hoping not to have to face this particular specter for some time yet. B.J. is his name. I’m sure he’s a nice kid. Yeah. Right. Probably a future drop out and drug dealer.
I can’t imagine what a second grader thinks is involved in dating. Probably sharing your Cheetos at lunch or something. Now, I must admit to being somewhat torn between thinking, “Oh, isn’t that cute” and the alternative of,” Why that little…what’s he think he wants with MY daughter?! Why I oughta….”
I think I’ve discovered an easy fix. I’m gonna go all old-school on him. If he wants to date MY daughter, he’s gonna have to ask ME first! HAH! That oughta fix his little red wagon. Kind of a pre-screening. If a boy is interested enough in my little girl to face up to a grumpy old fart with a mean scowl and poor disposition, well then he might be legit. Might be.
I suppose there might, just MIGHT be a few good boys still out there; but in today’s day and age, I’m not really all that confident. I don’t cotton to no playaaz. What with me having been a bit of a playa myself in the day, I hold a pretty strong bias common to most men of daughters against the intentions and moral fiber of most of the male species. Yes, even in the 2nd grade.
I always figured that about the time she comes of age for that whole..{{grrk}} dating thing, I’d start keeping a baseball bat and a Bible by the door. When the young feller comes a calling, I’ll pull him aside for a brief chat. I’ll say something like, “Son, my daughter was raised in a Christian house with Christian values. So I’m gonna offer you a choice, my boy,” as I hold up first the Bible, then the Bat. “You follow one, or you get the other!”
Seems pretty cut and dried to me.
Do you ever feel like the Matrix is breaking down? Like there is some sort of unraveling going on that is slowly dissolving the bonds of rationality, civility, even just basic humanity in us all? Some sort of corrosive substance being poured on the foundations of our society, even the fundamental core of reality? It’s like some weird Star Trek episode where the shields are failing, and there’s some strange sort of radiation leaking through which is starting to make everyone act all crazy.
- 911 Tapes Illustrate Fear in Nebraska Mall During Gunman’s Rampage
- Florida Fisherman Finds Bag Filled With Body Parts; Cops Find More
- Reports: Mother Doped, Suffocated Her 5 Young Boys in Germany
- Girl, 7, Shot 6 Times While Protecting Mother
- Ex-Navy chaplain gets 2 years for sex crimes
He forced himself on midshipman, had sex without disclosing he has HIV - MySpace Mom Linked to Missouri Teen’s Suicide Being Cyber-Bullied Herself
- Couple Suspected in Identity Theft Scheme Face New Charges
- Woman Recovering From Facial Injuries After Teens Allegedly Attacked Her on Bus
- Hamster Horror: Boy Tortured Pet to Death
- Purported Subway Assault Caught on Tape
And from the “Just Freaking Stupid” Dept.
- Police alarmed at candy in cocaine-like packs
Mint powder from Hershey looks startlingly like dime bag, officers say
And from the, “Well, ya don’t say!” Dept.:
It just really doesn’t look good for the human race, folks.
An interesting comment thread over at Protein Wisdom. The subject? The always popular…abortion! In this instance, the case of a boyfriend who slipped his pregnant girlfriend of rufie of RU-486 and caused her to miscarry. He now potentially faces up to 100 years in prison for “attempted homicide of an unborn child.”
What caught my eye in the comments was the “kill your dog” analogy, such that you can kill or euthanize your own dog, but not your neighbors, so that’s why it was illegal for the boyfriend to kill the baby, but not the mother if she opted for an abortion.
Here’s the key, though: “boyfriend” not “father.” This line of reasoning assumes that the fetus/baby is the property of the mother, and thus the male in the equation took undo liberties with HER property. In effect, stating that the father has no rights to the child at all; pre-birth, that is. Once it’s born, suddenly he has all this responsibility, child support, etc.
I just don’t get it. Making a child takes two people. Even if the gestation takes place within the mother, it’s quite a bit of grammatical gymnastics to suggest that it is not, in fact, THEIR child from the get go.
Unless of course you treat it merely as another organ or mass of tissue within the female’s body, sort of like another pancreas or liver.
One commenter in particular, taking the pro-choice side, had some particularly mind-blowing patterns of thought in defending the much-cherished “woman’s right to choose.”
Comment by MayBee on 12/1 @ 4:43 pm #
MayBee – Looking at this from the “pro-choice” mentality, don’t they say that there is no “baby”, it’s just a “fetus”? The pro-choice activist’s rhetoric doesn’t determine or create the law. I’m pro-choice, and I say any wanted fetus is a baby.
So, apparently if you want to have the baby, then it’s a baby. But if you don’t, then it’s only a fetus. Okay. Got it. Thanks for clearing that up. Kind of a quantum physics thing, I guess. It may, or may not be a baby, depending on how you chose to perceive it, on whether or not it’s wanted. Which in turn, determines the situational morality of terminating it.
Where I come from, we call that moral relativism. A handy mechanism for rationalizing away sticky moral dilemmas, what? (more…)
Tattered Bits of Brain 
