Can I tell you something. Got to tell you one thing. If you expect the freedom that you say is yours prove that you deserve it. Help us to preserve it or being free will just be words and nothing more.
Kansas, 1974
Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 (English Standard Version)
1The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
2Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
3What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
4A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.
5The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises.
6The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
7All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they flow again.
8All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
9What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
10Is there a thing of which it is said, "See, this is new"? It has been already in the ages before us.
11There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance
of later things yet to be among those who come after.
Today I am thankful for/that:
- An opportunity not to worry about my problems.
- The helpful hands of others.
- Summer time sunshine.
- Evening birdsong.
- Summer flowers.
- Effective insect repellent.
- Real hope.
- Friends.
What are you thankful for?
I remember some years ago the "Behold the power of cheese" ad campaign. One of the commercias said something to the effect that mankind went to the moon, discovered it was made of cheese after all and never went back. I always found that commercial to be amusing. That fateful flight took place forty years ago today.
Back from my vacation and ready to comment on the craziness in the world. So...
- North Korea has been shooting off missiles left and right and kidnapping American journalists (remember them?) as a cover for the fact that the dear leader is dieing of pancreatic cancer. They put me so much in mind of a small terrified child that doesn't want to take its medicine.
- Like a friend said, this is how you make new racists. Idiots. The follow up story doesn't make anything clearer or sound better. The comments on that second story are a hoot as well. I wonder how much of that bluster those people have in real life?
- I found this story about Iraqis being disgruntled that they are still seeing US service men and women on their streets amusing in light of the stories (here's just one) about the bombs that keep going off in their streets.
I've been saying for weeks that the last time it rained this much the Irish starved, a reference to the potato famine of the 1800s that lead to the migration of a large segment of the Irish of the time to American shores. So I felt pretty vindicated when I heard this story on the radio, Growers Worry Blight Could Wipe Out Tomato Crops. Potatoes and tomatoes are in the same family and vulnerable to some of the same diseases in this case potato or late blight. We aren't likely to have a famine though thanks to the wide availability of fungicides and the lack of a meddling government making matters worse. Your produce may cost you a bit more though. Although with food prices they way they have been you might not notice the blight driven price increase among the other reasons the cost of your food is going up.
Today I am thankful for/that:
- Vacation. Nothing like a little time away to make you appreciate sleeping in your own bed.
- Perhaps my favourite summer time sound of all, the cicada.
- Summer flowers.
- Baby girl, aka Jewel, in all her snaggle toothed, stair climbing, toy tossing, paper eating glory. She seems to learn a new trick every day.
- The mouth of CNY, aka Sophia, who said today, "Mommy the bug dope says OFF on it!"
- Ethan the match maker who found someone else for Sophia to pretend to marry so he wouldn't have to marry her as she demanded.
- Isaiah's you-didn't-do-it-right face when I sing his favourite songs out of sequence or fudge one of his familiar routines.
- Many helpful hands to lighten the load.
- My church family. Feels like I haven't seen them in forever (it's only been two Sudays which kind of is forever for me).
What are you thankful for?
Today I am thankful for/that:
- Ethan and Sophia didn't fight the entire time they shared the backseat of the van.
- Everyone was mostly well behaved during our drive to NYC.
- A night out with my sisters (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, sweet!).
- The men and women of the United States military.
- Sis3's high school graduation.
- Good old home cooking.
What are you thankful for?
Listening to the President's press conference on Tuesday it struck me how flat and emotionless his voice was. He spoke about people dieing in the streets of Iran in the same flat tones that he used to speak about the economy and government run health care. It was really eerie. I wasn't the only one to notice either.
I was impressed by the question that was asked on behalf of the Iranian protesters, even if it was asked by someone from the Huffington Post. That is until I learned that it was all staged.
After the obligatory first question from the Associated Press, Obama treated the overflowing White House briefing room to a surprise. "I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post," he announced.
Obama knew this because White House aides had called Pitney the day before to invite him, and they had escorted him into the room. They told him the president was likely to call on him, with the understanding that he would ask a question about Iran that had been submitted online by an Iranian. "I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet," Obama went on. "Do you have a question?"
Pitney recognized his prompt. "That's right," he said, standing in the aisle and wearing a temporary White House press pass. "I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian."
Pitney asked his arranged question. Reporters looked at one another in amazement at the stagecraft they were witnessing. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel grinned at the surprised TV correspondents in the first row.
So much for the free press. Nice show though.
- With the apology issued by the US Senate for slavery last week it seems that baseball is being surpassed by apologizing as the national pass time.
- This (from the article linked above) raises a few questions.
The resolution, which passed on a voice vote late in the day, was sponsored by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), a white Jew who represents a majority-black district in Memphis. Cohen tried unsuccessfully to join the Congressional Black Caucus this year.
- Why would a white guy want to join the CBC?
- Why would the CBC reject someone who represents a majority-black district in a major city?
- How does joining the CBC serve the interests of a representatives constituents?
- Does the CBC actually do anything worthwhile?
Cohen faces a tough fight against airline lawyer Nikki Tinker, who is black, in the Democratic primary Aug. 7.
Oh, never mind. This is just race pandering politics as usual.
- Interesting how, despite our President's tepid responses to the protests of the Iranian people, America is still being blamed for the Iranian people being dissatisfied with the tyranny of their leaders. That Great Satan boogieman is just too good a scapegoat to give up not matter what we do. Might as well be guilty of what they accuse us of and meddle away.
Sophia had me write these words on the back of one of the Father's Day gifts she made for he daddy.
Daddy likes books, grading, getting books in the mail, writting numbers,
going to work, writing words at work, drawing circles at therapy for Isaiah to cut
out.
Happy Father's Day.
Today I am thankful for/that:
- A rainy day to spend in bed.
- The written word. Sometimes the pen, or keyboard and internet connection, really is more powerful than the sword. At least the ones holding the swords always seem to think so.
- All of my birthday wishes and well wishers.
- My earthly father.
- The father of my children.
- Nap time!.
- Peas fresh out of the garden.
What are you thankful for?
