Mark Driscoll on Manhood

This is Mark Driscoll. He is one of the pastors at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Even though he identifies with evangelicals, he's received a lot of criticism because he spends a lot of his ministry time talking about sex. Even so, he seems to me to be a genuine follower of Jesus Christ and definitely has a clue about the truth. In this particular clip, he begins by talking about John the Baptist and how he went from boyhood to manhood without any intervening adolescence. He sees adolescence as a modern invention that keeps boys from becoming men and I think he's on to something. Please watch and listen. See if you don't find yourself agreeing with his message.

Another Edition of the Police Blotter From the Flathead Beacon

Once again, Flathead County Montana is the place to be. Where else can you get police reports like this:

Unhappy Horses

Flathead County Sheriff's and Kalispell Police Reports

By Christie Burns, 04-09-12

Wednesday 4/4

7:57 a.m. Someone called in worried about a young man who was sitting cross-legged next to a pile of vomit under the overpass in Evergreen.

8:32 a.m. A young man was arrested after stealing his mom’s friend’s vehicle.

9:14 a.m. A man on Valley View Court reported that a Lab was in his yard barking.

9:36 a.m. A Columbia Falls resident said that the trash in the neighbor's yard is blowing around in the wind.

12:56 p.m. A Marion resident called in to discuss the recent cat poisoning situation and new developments.

1:22 p.m. Someone called in to talk about a small herd of “unhappy” horses on East Reserve Drive.

3:54 p.m. Reportedly, a young girl was en route to burglarize a man’s home on Haywire Gulch. Apparently, this is an ongoing problem. But this time no such burglary took place.

4:04 p.m. A Kalispell resident claimed that his neighbor was “messing up” his sewer but declined to say how.

7:19 p.m. Someone on Eighth Street West reported that the neighbor threatened to shoot a stray dog with a pellet gun.

  

How the Dead Vote

This is the Attorney General of the United State - Eric Holder. On Thursday, April 3, an anonymous young man walked into "a Washington, DC polling place at 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW, on primary day of this year--April 3, 2012--and giving Holder’s name and address. The poll worker promptly offers the young man Holder’s ballot to vote." He was not Eric Holder. This according to Breitbart News.

This should be enough to make even the most uninformed voter realize how important it is to have a voter ID law in place. But perhaps there's a reason why the politicians don't want to do this? Maybe, they know how to use it to their advantage? If an unscrupulous person had a list of recently deceased people on election day, he or she could spend that day voting in the name of the dead for the candidate of their choice. It could certainly explain why Chicago always goes Democrat on and election day. So when election day roles around in November, bring out your dead. Vote vicariously for them and for you candidate. Or as they say in Chicago, vote early and often.

Religion Run Amok

The clip below if from a movie produced by the cast of Monty Python called "The Life of Brian". It's a humorous look at how faith and God's Word can be twisted to suit the purposes of others.

Some wield their faith as a weapon or an instrument of personal power. They feel empowered to act on God's behalf. They become righteous in themselves. They fail to understand that if we are righteous, it's only because of the grace shown to us by God in the first place. He would much rather we practice grace and mercy. Vengeance, if any is required, will be extracted by Him. People are free to choose God's will or their own and yes, there are consequences for each choice and sometimes it is necessary to put someone outside the fellowship for making the wrong choices. But if they choose restoration, people of faith are required to forgive when repentance is evidenced. Further, it is not our place to continually thump our brethren for past indiscretions that the Lord has forgiven. We along with them must move forward in faith and grow in the knowledge and wisdom given us by Jesus. I praise the Lord everyday for second chances. If He can give them, so can we.

Eternal Hope

On the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put Him!"

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I do not know where they have put Him." At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus.

 "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will get Him."

Jesus said to her, "Mary."

She turned toward Him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).

Jesus said, "Do not hold onto Me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to My God and your God.'"

Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!"  And she told them that He had said these things to her.

The competition between Peter and John to get to the tomb first is interesting. Even after all they been through, they manage to attach some importance to who will be first. More importantly though, it is the women that discover the empty tomb first and it is a woman that is first charged with spreading the news that the Lord has risen. 

Out of death the hope of life eternal was born. Jesus, the Son of God, rose from the dead after a cruel execution, destroying the twin enemies of humanity, sin and death. It is now possible, thanks to this ingenious plan, for all of us to have hope of eternal life.

Bad Joke Friday

Three buddies are sitting around a campfire discussing how they would like to be remembered at their funerals and what they would like to be said about them over their caskets.
The first guy says, “I would like to hear them say that I was a great doctor of my time and a great family man.”
The second guy says, “I would like to hear that I was a wonderful husband and school teacher who made a huge difference in our children of tomorrow.”
The last guy replies, “I would like to hear them say, “Look! He’s moving!”

An elderly man suffered a massive heart attack. The family drove wildly to get him to the emergency room.
After what seemed like a very long wait, the doctor appeared, wearing his scrubs and a long face.
Sadly, he said, “I’m afraid he is brain-dead, but his heart is still beating.”
“Oh, dear God,” cried his wife, her hands clasped against her cheeks with shock.
“We’ve never had a liberal in the family before!”

One afternoon, a young man, who was an avid golfer, found himself with a couple of hours at his disposal. He quickly came to the conclusion that if he hurried and played very fast, he could squeeze in nine holes on the fairways before he had to attend a business dinner.
Just as he was about to tee off, an old-timer hobbled over and asked if he could accompany the young man as he was golfing alone. Not able to refuse the request, he allowed the old gent to join him.
To his surprise, the man played reasonably well. He didn’t hit the ball far, but he puttered along steadily and didn’t waste time.
They reached the ninth fairway, and the young man found himself with a tough shot.
There was a large oak tree right in front of him, directly between his ball and the green. He considered how to take the shot for a good long while. Then the young man heard the old man mutter, “You know, when I was your age, I’d hit the ball right over that tree.”
With that challenge placed before him, the youngster swung hard and hit the ball right smack into the top of the tree trunk, from where it thudded back on the ground, not an inch from where it had been originally.
The old man offered one more comment: “Of course, when I was your age, that oak tree was only three feet tall.”

Good Friday

Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, but the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

"Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father save me from this hour'?  No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!"

Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said and angel had spoken to him.

Jesus said, "This voice was for your benefit, not mine. Now is the time for judgement on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself."  John 12:23-32

Pink Slime and Meat Glue - The Battle Rages On

Well, I hope you've had dinner, and if you live in Iowa, you already know what I'm going to talk about. A battle is raging here and in other states where beef cattle are raised and processed. It's over a filler product used in beef processing called "lean finely textured beef" (LFTB) or "pink slime". It's an interesting byproduct of the beef processing business that has been around for decades. It has been eaten by millions of Americans and has been declared safe by the USDA for human consumption. It is so safe that the USDA did not even see a reason to require labeling of beef products that contained the LFTB. Then in 2008 a documentary was released called "Food, Inc" that exposed the manufacturing processes involved in creating "pink slime". They also pointed out that 70% of all preformed hamburger patties sold in the US contained the "pink slime" aka LFTB. These patties are served in school cafeterias, fast food restaurants and sold grocery stores. We've been eating them by the ton and we been none the wiser or worse off for it...or have we? It is a realistic question to consider when you know something of the process in which "pink slime" is created.

It begins at the processing plant where the beef is rendered down to its constituent parts for packaging and sale to the public. What is left from this process is called the trimmings. It contains bits of fat, meat, gristle and whatever is left on the floor and cutting tables of the processing plants including e. coli bacteria and other micro-organisms. These are the same items that in the past got sold to pet food companies. Now though, these trimming are placed in large centrifuges and spun at high rates of speed, separating the meat from the fat and gristle. What you are left with is very heavily tenderized and lean bits of beef that are very much like a paste. This beef then has to be rendered fit for human consumption and so it is mixed with water and ammonia to kill the bugs that remain. The ammonia is then "washed out" and the "pink slime" is ready to be added to ground beef for the production of pre-formed patties and the hamburger you might buy at the grocery store meat counter.

The concern is the ammonia. Does it all get washed out? The answer is, apparently not. Traces have been found in many samples, but not in amounts that are believed dangerous to humans.

The other concern is an economic one on the other side of the table. Millions of people work in meat processing plants across the mid-west and south. Millions of dollars are invested by stock holders through 401k's and so forth. The industry leaders are telling us that if "pink slime" is banned or abandoned by the meat buying public, the meat processors will have to shut down production. Millions of dollars will be lost and millions more will be unemployed. So you can see, this has become quite a problem where none existed before. What to do, what to do.

What do you want to do about it?

The other item that has not been in the news as much is "meat glue". That got your attention didn't it? Yes, there is such a thing as "meat glue". What do they use it for you ask? They use it to glue meat together you silly rabbit. They will take bits and pieces of choice and prime cuts of meat left over from processing and sprinkle them with a chemical called Transglutaminase. It gets rubbed into the remainders, formed in to a steak sized roll and wrapped in plastic. After a period of time (overnight?), the "meat roll" is unwrapped and sliced into steaks for sale to the public. If the meat scraps were beef tenderloin, it is sold as beef tenderloin and so on. This is perfectly legal because Transglutaminase has also been deemed safe by the USDA. Please look at the meat below. It is at once delicious and also well glued.

Both of these meat processing practices have been going on for decades. They are just now getting publicity in the media. I have heard of no one dying from "pink slime" poisoning or "meat glue" overdoses and yet these practices bother me now that I know about them. How do these economically driven practices really effect us? We are a meat eating nation and the beef industry carries a lot of clout. Would they tell us if consuming these items was having a deleterious effect on us or our offspring? The money alone that is involved is enough to create silence of those that are suppose to be the watchdogs over these matters. Perhaps labeling is the answer. Let the public vote with their pocketbook. Even so, if these practices are halted, there will be many without jobs as plants close. This is unfortunate. What would you do? Cynically speaking, I tend to think that once government confirms that something is safe or dangerous or a health hazard, then the opposite must be true. 

Bad Joke Friday

-----------------------------------------
In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand.
He approached her and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?”
She responded, “Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you’ll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.”
The lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?”
She again replied, “Why yes, I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a
youngster, too. He’s lazy, bigoted, and he has a drinking problem. He can’t build a normal relationship with anyone, and his law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes, I know him.”
The defense attorney slumped in his chair.
The judge asked both counselors to approach the bench and whispered:
‘”If either of you asks her if she knows me, I’ll send you both to prison.”
--------------------------------------------

 ---------------------------------------------
A drunken man gets on the bus late one night, staggers up the aisle, and sits next to an elderly woman.
She looks the man up and down and says, “I’ve got news for you. You’re going straight to hell!”
The man jumps up out of his seat and shouts at the driver, “Stop! I’m on the wrong bus!”
--------------------------------------------

 ------------------------------------------
One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Alex standing in the foyer of the church staring up at a large plaque. It was covered with names with small American flags mounted on either side of it.
The seven-year-old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the little boy, and said quietly, “Good morning Alex.”
“Good morning Pastor,” he replied, still focused on the plaque.
“Pastor, what is this?” he asked the pastor.
The pastor said, “Well, son, it’s a memorial to all the young men and women who died in the service.”
Soberly, they just stood together, staring at the large plaque.
Finally, little Alex’s voice, barely audible and trembling with fear, asked,
“Which service, the 8:30 or 11:00?
-----------------------------------------------

The Police Blotter from The Flathead Beacon in Kalispell, Montana

You really can't write comedy this good. What follows here is the Police Blotter page from the Flathead Beacon in Kalispell, MT

Thursday 3/22

7:36 a.m. A Kila resident discovered a dead cat on his porch.

9:08 a.m. Reportedly, someone in a Jeep has been “casing” the Columbia Falls neighborhood of Sunrise Creek Drive.

12:20 p.m. A Kalispell woman reported that she was being harassed by someone she assaulted.

12:24 p.m. A Columbia Falls man complained that stray dogs have been congregating in his yard.

1:50 p.m. A Kalispell man found a suspicious post card in his mailbox and thinks he has a suspect.

2:35 p.m. A man called in and wanted to know if he could check his roommate’s girlfriend’s identification to make sure that she is of age.

3:30 p.m. A woman saw a gray horse standing on Farm to Market Road but was unable to say where exactly it could be found.

4:25 p.m. A young man on Fourth Avenue East threw a tantrum when his mom asked him to take out the garbage.

4:38 p.m. At least three dogs were at large in Hungry Horse.

5:23 p.m. A man on Western Drive claimed that a package was stolen from his doorstep.

5:37 p.m. Terriers were on the loose on Empire Loop.

What city would not trade their crime levels with these? This is great. It's like Andy and Barney in Mayberry. I think I would like to live there. It is what normal used to be. They still have the 'good old days' in Kalispell. Sounds like a good place for an old Ground Hog. I'll have to stay away from those Terriers on Empire Loop though.

 

The Very Latest in Beauty Treatment From Russia

A facial you'll never forget.

 "A client receives a medical-cosmetic massage by way of African snails at a beauty salon in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on March 23, 2012. Salon owner Alyona Zlotnikova claims that the slime from the snails quickens skin regeneration, eliminates wrinkles, and removes discolorations and scars."

Escargot for the face.

This from the Hungaree website. 

First Timothy Chapter 4 - Personal Instructions For Timothy

From the New International Version of the Bible, First Timothy 4:1-5

The Spirit Clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

Commentary

In chapter 4 Paul begins to lay out a set of personal instructions and advice to Timothy about how he should carry out his ministry in Ephesus. Expanding on his earlier comments in chapter one about false teachers, Paul tells Timothy that the Holy Spirit made it quite clear to him that false teachers would come. They would abandon the faith to serve the doctrines taught by demons. He called them hypocritical liars with consciences that had become useless due to prolonged abuse. He particularly attacked those that taught various forms of asceticism as a means of salvation. Allegedly, abstention from marriage or certain foods would make you holier. The material world with it's various customs and diets were supposedly evil and had to be shunned. About this, Paul said nothing could be further from the truth.

The real facts were that God had created these things as gifts for us to accept from Him. They were to be received in thanks to Him and to be enjoyed in the way intended. They were most definitely not to be rejected as evil. Everything that God created is good. It's only our misuse, abuse or rejection of them that could make them evil.

Questions

1. In verse 1, how did Paul say he got this information about people abandoning the faith?
2. In verse 2 Paul talks about false teachers, calling them hypocritical liars with consciences seared as with a hot iron. What does this mean? Is it possible for a person to lose his or her conscience? How do you suppose they got into that state?
3. In verse 3 Paul talks about two specific false doctrines of a legalistic nature that Timothy had to deal with; they involved abstention from marriage and certain foods. When does abstention from something become dishonorable to God? What is the difference between these practices and taking part in certain spiritual disciplines like fasting, meditation and silence?
4. By saying that marriage and certain foods were intrinsically evil, what were the false teachers saying about God?
5. Instead, how should these things be accepted by a Christian?
6. Does this mean that evil cannot come from these good things?
7. What are some things that you consider to be gifts from God and for which you are thankful?   

From the New International Version of the Bible, First Timothy 4:6-10

If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales; rather train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.

Commentary

So now Paul tells Timothy how to address the false teacher issue with the church in Ephesus and also how to prove himself as a worthy pastor. The process would be simple. Timothy would point out to the congregation the things that Paul just mentioned in a calm, but firm way. He would reaffirm the truth first taught by Paul in Ephesus years ago, and thus prove his worth as God's minister. Further, neither Timothy or the church should have anything to do with the myths and old wives tales that were being promoted by these false teachers. It was far more important to simply train yourself to be godly. Self discipline to focus on God's purposes is far more valuable than self denial. And while physical training has some value, spiritual training has worth that goes beyond this life and into the next. Spiritual health requires spiritual exercise like regular Bible reading and prayer. The more a Christian knows about God's word and the more a Christian prays, the better off he will be spiritually. He will be a lot less likely to fall under the sway of a false teacher and much less likely to accept their myths and superstitions. The true spiritual athlete puts his hope and trust in God, thus assuring himself of his own salvation.

Questions

1. Paul told Timothy to point out the facts about these false teachers to the Ephesian church. How do you think he did that without offending or upsetting some people?
2. How can we point out scriptural truths to our worldly friends and errant Christians without becoming defensive or making them mad?
3. Paul advised Timothy to avoid myths and old wives tales and instead focus on godliness. Can you think of any superstitions or old wives tales that are popular today?
4. Why should Christians avoid superstitions entirely?
5. How do you train spiritually?
6. How is it different from what the false teachers were advocating in Ephesus?
7. Do you know people that call themselves Christians, but reject parts of God's word? Offer some examples of what they reject and what their reasons are?

First Timothy 4:11-16 from the New International Version of the Bible 

Command and teach these things. Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

Commentary

Paul now gives specific and precise instruction for Timothy to stand his ground against the false teachers, all the while maintaining his Christian walk as a leader and as a man. A show of confidence backed by the scriptures and his way of life should be enough to do this. He should not let them use his youth against him and he should not feel obliged to yield to them simply because they are older. Even older people can be wrong. No church agenda should be allowed that is not in line with God's word. Paul tells him it would also be wise to immerse himself in Christian study and practice and not to neglect the gifts given him by God.

Questions

1. Timothy was commanded to pass on the information Paul was giving him, even in the face of opposition and objections from those that thought he was too young and inexperienced to be doing so. Should a preacher's age ever be an issue?
2. Timothy was to set an example for the church in speech, life, love, faith and purity. Does this mean there is a higher standard of behavior for preachers?
3. What do you think Timothy's gift was?
4. How does watching your life and doctrine save you?

An Appetite for Drones???

Hungry? There's  a new app for your smart phone that allows you to have your tacos flown directly to your location. The Huffington Post says Tacocopter  will deliver your tacos via an unmanned helicopter by merely pushing an icon on your mobil phone.

Indeed, the concept behind Tacocopter is very simple, and very American: You order tacos on your smartphone and also beam in your GPS location information. Your order -- and your location -- are transmitted to an unmanned drone helicopter (grounded, near the kitchen where the tacos are made), and the tacocopter is then sent out with your food to find you and deliver your tacos to wherever you're standing.
You pay online, so the tacos are simply dropped off at your feet by the drone helicopter, which then flies back to the restaurant to pick up its next order.

I wonder how they will do with pizza?

They Are Resigning And The Ground Hog Digresses

Since September 1, 2011, there has been a wave of resignations in the banking community worldwide. I do not know if this is normal turnover, but most of these people were high ranking individuals in their respective institutions. There are similar high ranking resignations taking place in the insurance industry, health care and governments all around the world. In the banking industry alone, there have been 358 resignations in major institutions worldwide. A list of these along with the reference site can be found by clicking this link to American Kabuki.  I can't believe that this is normal. My gut tells me that something is up. People of this stature do not simply leave the gravy train unless they sense that the gravy is about gone.

Another individual named Gabriel has been tracking resignations of high ranking individuals in private industry, insurance, health care and government. Click on this link to read his insights. 

The question is, where did the gravy go? Is my little thimble of gravy safe? How can I safeguard it?

Since 2008 and the collapse of the real estate market and the derivatives debacle, banks throughout the world have been constantly on the edge of collapse. So far and since before it began, the answer has been to create more currency and bail out those banks in trouble. Can we continue to do this forever or are those in resignation mode aware that we cannot? Are they making provision now to prepare for the day the feces hit the oscillating wind device? If this is the case, should we be making similar provision?

The problem here is not us that use banks and banking products. The problem is the way in which banks make their money with compound interest and creation of previously non-existing and unbacked cash reserves. If you or I set up a business to do what modern banks do, we would be arrested for loan sharking among other things.

Perhaps there is a better answer for dealing with the fumbling of the international bankers; one which would take care of the problem for good and smash the useless banking cartels worldwide forever. We could do what they are trying to do in Egypt - Repudiate The Debt owed to these monsters. Why not? And after that, we can reform the banking system and make it impossible for these things to happen again. We might consider sending the people responsible for this mess to jail too. The image of Ben Bernake behind bars is somehow pleasing to me. So, rather than an actual revolution, why not a financial revolution that makes central banking, baseless currency and compound interest illegal? Make banks local and do not ever let them acquire international power again.

It has to start some time. Why not now?

It's Friday....I'm Late...Here Ya Go

A guy walks into a post office one day and sees a middle-aged man standing at the counter methodically placing “Love” stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. He then takes out a perfume bottle and sprays perfume all over them.
His curiosity getting the better of him, he goes up to the man and asks what he is doing. The man says, “I’m sending out 1,000 Valentine cards signed, ‘Guess who?’”
“But why?” asks the man.
“I’m a divorce lawyer,” the man replies.

A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with
a group of 6-year-olds.
After explaining the Commandment to “Honor
thy father and thy mother,” she asked, “Is there a Commandment that
teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?”
Without missing a beat one little boy answered, “Thou shall not kill.”

The old priest lay dying in the hospital. For years he had faithfully served the people of the nation’s capital.
He motioned for his nurse to come near.
“Yes, Father?” said the nurse.
“I would really like to see Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi before I die,” whispered the priest.
“I’ll see what I can do, Father” replied the nurse. The nurse sent the request to them and waited for a response.
Soon the word arrived. Harry and Nancy would be delighted to visit the priest. As they went to the hospital, Harry commented to Nancy, “I don’t know why the old priest wants to see us, but it will certainly help our images.” Nancy couldn’t help but agree.
When they arrived at the priest’s room, the priest took Nancy’s hand in his right hand and Harry’s hand in his left. There was silence and a look of serenity on the old priest’s face. Finally Nancy spoke.
“Father, of all the people you could have chosen, why did you choose us to be with you as you near the end?”
The old priest slowly replied, “I have always tried to pattern my life after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
The old priest continued, “He died between two lying thieves. I would like to do the same.”

Can't You See I'm On the Phone

This story from the Mail On Line in the UK came with a picture worth a few thousand words. I gotta get me one of these for my phone...

Ingenious. Who needs Blue Tooth? And the best part has got to be the red halo he's going to have on his head and face. That's one snappy looking cell phone gadget.

The 188 Day Major Earthquake Cycle Theory Update

It's a little early (by two days) but Reuters is reporting a major earthquake in Oaxaca, Mexico today of magnitude 7.4 on the Richter scale. This confirms a general pattern close to the 188 day cycle discussed on 3/17. Dave Graham of Reuters says,

A major earthquake struck Mexico on Tuesday, damaging buildings and forcing evacuations in the capital and reportedly knocking down some homes in rural areas.
Office buildings shook and office employees fled into the street when the 7.4-magnitude quake rattled Mexico City. Cell phone lines went down and traffic snarled in the capital moments after the quake, which lasted for more than a minute.
The governor of the southwestern state of Guerrero, Angel Aguirre, said he had received reports of 500 homes damaged, with some of them knocked down, but he gave no more details.
In the Pacific coast beach resort of Acapulco, tourists ran out of cafes and restaurants, a local resident said.
"I swear I never felt one so strong, I thought the building was going to collapse," said Sebastian Herrera, 42, a businessman from a Mexico City neighborhood hit hard in a devastating 1985 earthquake that killed thousands of people.

I'm thankful this was not on the New Madrid fault in the US, but there's still time. It will be 188 days on Thursday, the 22rd. I'm thinking this Mexico city shaker was it though. We will see.

 Please the USGS quake map and Here is the USGS quake detail sheet

Earthquake Details

• This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

Magnitude	7.4
Date-Time	Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 18:02:48 UTC Tuesday, March 20, 2012 at 12:02:48 PM at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	16.662°N, 98.188°W
Depth	20 km (12.4 miles)
Region	OAXACA, MEXICO
Distances	136 km (84 miles) SSW of Huajuapan de Leon, Oaxaca, Mexico 162 km (100 miles) WSW of Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico 170 km (105 miles) SE of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico 322 km (200 miles) SSE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 15.8 km (9.8 miles); depth +/- 6.5 km (4.0 miles)
Parameters	NST=438, Nph=440, Dmin=312.8 km, Rmss=0.88 sec, Gp= 79°, M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=9
Source	Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D) Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	usc0008m6h

Have You Considered Teaching The Dogs to Play the Piano?

To lighten the mood I thought you might enjoy watching a French woman train her golden retrievers how to play a specially designed dog piano.

Big Brother Goes Live in September 2013

Well, provided that the world does not end in December of this year, we will all have something to look forward to in September of 2013. Just when you thought 'they' had everything nailed down and there's nothing more that can be done to ensure our security and our complete loss of privacy, Wired Magazine discovers the Utah Data Center in Bluffdale, Utah. In the April edition of the magazine, James Bamford uncovers the new National Security Agency Utah Data Center for storage of collected intelligence from around the world and for code breaking.  Bamford says, 

Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.” It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration—an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans’ privacy.

With collection posts located all around the world and within the United States as well as satellite reconnaissance, the NSA and the US military were in need of greater and greater server storage space for the intelligence collected by these and other methods. This facility should do the job nicely. Bamford writes,

 
Given the facility’s scale and the fact that a terabyte of data can now be stored on a flash drive the size of a man’s pinky, the potential amount of information that could be housed in Bluffdale is truly staggering. But so is the exponential growth in the amount of intelligence data being produced every day by the eavesdropping sensors of the NSA and other intelligence agencies. As a result of this “expanding array of theater airborne and other sensor networks,” as a 2007 Department of Defense report puts it, the Pentagon is attempting to expand its worldwide communications network, known as the Global Information Grid, to handle yottabytes (10²⁴ bytes) of data. (A yottabyte is a septillion bytes—so large that no one has yet coined a term for the next higher magnitude.)
It needs that capacity because, according to a recent report by Cisco, global Internet traffic will quadruple from 2010 to 2015, reaching 966 exabytes per year. (A million exabytes equal a yottabyte.) In terms of scale, Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO, once estimated that the total of all human knowledge created from the dawn of man to 2003 totaled 5 exabytes. And the data flow shows no sign of slowing. In 2011 more than 2 billion of the world’s 6.9 billion people were connected to the Internet. By 2015, market research firm IDC estimates, there will be 2.7 billion users. Thus, the NSA’s need for a 1-million-square-foot data storehouse. Should the agency ever fill the Utah center with a yottabyte of information, it would be equal to about 500 quintillion (500,000,000,000,000,000,000) pages of text.
The data stored in Bluffdale will naturally go far beyond the world’s billions of public web pages. The NSA is more interested in the so-called invisible web, also known as the deep web or deepnet—data beyond the reach of the public. This includes password-protected data, US and foreign government communications, and noncommercial file-sharing between trusted peers. “The deep web contains government reports, databases, and other sources of information of high value to DOD and the intelligence community,” according to a 2010 Defense Science Board report. “Alternative tools are needed to find and index data in the deep web … Stealing the classified secrets of a potential adversary is where the [intelligence] community is most comfortable.” With its new Utah Data Center, the NSA will at last have the technical capability to store, and rummage through, all those stolen secrets. The question, of course, is how the agency defines who is, and who is not, “a potential adversary.”

All of this tells me that the NSA will be able to collect and store every scrap of information ever produced in history as well as everything written that passed thru the internet since its inception. Information is power. The power to collect, manipulate and use it...all of it...seals the deal. Regardless of what happens to the world economy, this information will allow complete control and anticipation of events world wide. There will be no escape from this NSA technology as long as we continue to use this kind of technology ourselves. I get closer daily to a decision to unplug completely. As much as I like the web, computers, smart phones and all the attendant technology that goes with it, I really hate the idea of the government ALWAYS being in my business. It might soon be time to go off the grid...or find a way to defeat them at their own game and shut them off.

One final note. I hear that the new Windows 8 operating system will have a shut off button encoded in it so that people like the NSA can shut you down remotely if they do not like the info they got from spying on you. The day is coming when online critical assessments of government will cease because those being criticized will be able to reach out and shut down the critic. Total control.

We need a major earthquake in Bluffdale, Utah to temporarily end this madness...but maybe they can stop that too.    

The 188 Day Major Earthquake Cycle Theory

Have any of you heard of the 188 day major earthquake cycle? It is interesting and while it has its problems, there does seem to be something to it. Briefly, the theory says that every 188 days a major to mega size earthquake happens on a specific geometrical grid on the planet. The supporters of the theory claim that this 188 day cycle is verifiable as far back as earthquake records are kept. There are two problems with this theory that are obvious to me and I know nothing about geology or earthquake frequency. First, there are earthquakes daily throughout the world, so to establish a pattern, one must first limit the quakes used for the theory to 7.0 magnitude and above. Even then, it becomes necessary to cherry pick the data for quakes in the 7.0 range. Secondly, the adherents to this theory always use a Mercator projection map for their line drawings. The earth is not flat people. An Italian sailor figured that out some time ago. So what would their "geometrical lines" look like on a globe and what would the 188 day theory predict then? I cannot not say. Nevertheless, there does seem to be a pattern of sorts, especially in the near term. Here is a list of "cycle" quakes.

Chile earthquake (February 27, 2010) - 8.8 mag
New Zealand earthquake (September 4, 2010) - 7.1 mag
Japan earthquake (March 11, 2011) - 9.1 mag
Fiji earthquake (September 15, 2011) - 7.2

There are 188 days between each of these quakes. If you project out 188 days from the Fiji quake last September, we land somewhere between March 21 and 23 of 2012, which just happens to be next week. If you look at the map above, the guy that made it has narrowed his focus to the western hemisphere and the eastern Pacific. The areas circled in black a more than overdue for a big quake. One of these areas is the New Madrid fault in the south central US. The last time there was a major quake in this zone was December 31, 1811 and it was disastrous; estimated at an 8.8 judged by the records of the time, it rung church bells as far away as the New England coast. It also changed the course of the Mississippi river creating a lake where there was not one before and for a brief time the river actually was flowing backward.  The New Madrid fault is centered in the Tennessee Valley between the states of Missouri, Arkansas and Tennessee.

So next week could be interesting to say the least if this theory holds up. If nothing happens, they will be grasping at the data available and probably claim some minor quake as proof of their cycle. We will see. In the mean time, here is a scary video from You Tube about the theory. The scenes from the Matrix are kind of unnecessary in my opinion and the music is bad, but the video presents some interesting "facts". You can sort them out. In the meantime, good luck next Friday.