Outside Looking In

Carole spent her entire adult life leaning over the fence around the inner circle, but no one ever opened the gate.

Can't make this stuff up

Mrs. Warr wears this shirt on occasion.  Woman walked up to her the other day, "Oh, I'm a conservationist, too.  I like your shirt!"  She ran her eyes down to the bottom of the garment, then, "Nevermind," spun on her heel and walked away.

I would like you for supporting what I like, but if I don't like what you support,  I don't like you.

Twenty-first century.

Our World, Their World

The prandial conversation turned to matters of societal responsibilities to the less fortunate.  The Lady said, “As Jesus said, ‘Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime."’”  With a mild demurrer, but no rebuke, I suggested that while that was a well-known saying, we have no evidence that Jesus said it.   In response to the question, “When were you hungry, and we fed you?”  Jesus did say, “When you did so unto the least of these, you did it to me.” 

In any event, we veered a bit from the topic to explore the biblicization of common sayings.  Conventional wisdom is rife with bon mots and platitudes which are credited to The Bible.  “Spare the rod and spoil the child” is one of the most often misplaced (or misquoted) “scriptures.”  What actually is in the Bible is this:  “He who spares the rod hates his son.”

Bible and other classical literature notwithstanding, we live in a day in which darned few people know much of anything.  Except technology.  They know technology and how to utilize it.  Puts us old duffers in a whole different world, and one, I think, that the younger ones hope soon fades completely from societal memory.  

Now how did I turn a dinner conversation into a rant?

Oh, Please Give Me a Break

Heard today that a group of "parents" is suing Apple because their kids are addicted to games on the I-Phone and it is costing them "a lot of money."

Question: Who bought the kids the dern phones?

Resolution: Take the dern phones away and give the kids something to do. Or lock them up until they magically become independently wealthy.

Sheesh!

Addressing Responsibility

Bruce Wydick, Professor of Economics at San Francisco University wrote,

"Like most protests, the Occupy Wall Street folks are better at identifying something that is wrong than identifying a way forward that is right.

"The Occupy Wall Street movement shares more than it would like to admit with the Tea Party, its populist complement on the right. Rather than taking the approach of self-reflection and personal ownership of sin that Jesus imparts to his followers, each of these movements seeks to externalize blame onto a culpable Other. It is Immigrants or Muslims or Obamacare or Greedy Corporations or Corrupt Wall Street Financiers who are to blame for our problems. But obviously not … Us."

The article from which I extracted these quotes appeared here and it is a bit long, but well worth the time it takes to read it. Only serious-minded people need apply.

Sports Report

Goldilocks and the Colts are now nil-eight.

Someone said there was a World Series. Does anyone know who won? Does anyone know who the opponent was?

Vaguely recall that "World Series" might have something to do with baseball.

Happy Halloween. Don't take any candy apples. (Yes, life was better before there were so many sickos.)

Church Growth

I was talking to the Spouse about an article on church growth in today's society. She said,

It's a tough time to build up a church, trying to reach "heatherns"(sic) because they won't listen. It's not like the days when people were a lot more gullible and didn't have anything to do, so when a revival or a carnival would come to town it was an event. They'd go to a revival to listen to a hell-fire preacher and maybe be convicted and get saved.

So I got to thinking. "Sophistication" and a plethora of choices for entertainment might indeed be a couple of factors impeding the growth of the church. But people need the Message just as much as they ever did.

The Great Experiment

Superintendent of Schools, large district, explaining the difficulty of managing a public school system said, We have to take everyone, the blind, the crippled, and the crazy.

There has been outrage expressed.

True, it may not have been a "sensitive" thing to say, but it is the truth.

Some people don't want the truth.

T-Mobile, AT&T, and DoJ

The U.S. Department of Justice sued to block AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile USA, saying the deal would "substantially lessen competition" in the wireless market. The complaint was filed today in federal court in Washington.


The which I sort of alluded to in a post on String Too Short to Tie several weeks ago.

Hurry! Hurry!

email is the new snailmail-- far too slow for today's whippersnappers.

...and did you know that phone etiquette now requires that you text in advance to let someone know you are going to call them?
Yeah, right. That'll be the day, ooh, ooh, ooh, uh.

Kids Playing in Neighbor's Yard

tunny bits, said roscoe.
you mean "tuna" bits, roscoe?
no, dan rabbit, i mean tunny bits.
oh, rabbit it is then. would you like fries with that?
flickin ratzen katzen jimmin rammin. don't you unnerstans nuffin?
now that's some mighty fine cussin, right there.
I'se not yore cuzzin, cuz'n, said roscoe.
then whufore is you swearin up such a swear?
jis funnin witcha.
ain't funny, roscoe. nock it off.

A Tale of Two Governors

We've long chosen our entertainment idols more on the basis of looks than on the foundation of talent.

We pick our political leaders the same way, apparently. "Well, he looks presidential." The two republican front-runners surely bring that to the table if nothing else.

It is a well-known fact that "looking good" is more important than any other factor in success.

And looking good and being rich is aces up.

One Nation, Indivisible

Remember when you were a kid you would roll a drop of mercury out onto the sidewalk, then hit it with a hammer?

. . . . . .

. ..

From O to . . . . . .

. . .

instantly. Some force has hit our nation with a hammer. Liberal progressivism? Progressive liberalism? Hardheadedness? Unwillingness or inability to be reasonable?

(I know what you are thinking. He played with mercury? Addled his brain, it did. Oh, yeah? We collected scrap lead, melted it down and made our own sinkers, too. Know how to make shot?)