tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65578852024-03-23T12:48:04.766-05:00Pocket Full of MumblesWhat's done is done, and this puppy's done. Visit me over at <a href="http://www.pearlsandlodestones.blogspot.com">Pearls & Lodestones</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1067125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-43465903627663724842011-11-29T14:18:00.001-06:002011-11-29T14:18:22.558-06:00My New Deadly Robot Blog!<span class="fullpost">This is to let all the world know that I, even I, Roboticus Severeus Animaticus will destroy the human race, one greasy spot beneath my steel-clad shoe at a time. Everything man holds dear, down to his smallest dog will, quite literally, feel the weight of my power before vomiting their nasty eyes from their crushed skulls. I, Roboticus Severeus Animaticus, have spoken.</span><span style="font-style: normal;"></span>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-84621455874296280412007-09-17T23:28:00.000-05:002007-09-18T17:30:27.635-05:00Who am I kidding!?I've had trouble enough keeping up with the one blog let alone the six blog monster I proposed in a previous, and now deleted post. Six is way too much for me to handle, as busy as I am, therefore, I'm paring it down to three. the main page will be "<a href="http://www.pearlsandlodestones.blogspot.com">Pearls & Lodestones</a>" and the remaining two will be tabbed links.<br /><br />It's better this way.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-91948114064645380712007-09-11T00:02:00.001-05:002011-09-10T23:12:07.642-05:00To Shine That Much Brighter<br />
It is said the Egyptians built with eternity in mind-- perhaps inspired by the Sphinx itself which is older than Egyptian civilization. It’s said also, that Caesar found Rome brick and clay, and left it marble. The Pyramids still stand, the Coliseum still stands, the Acropolis still stands, but the Twin Towers do not. We build to satisfy our egos, but we don’t build for posterity. In three thousand years, will there be anything left in America to exemplify the culture of our time? Will we leave a mark, or will others leave marks upon us? <br />
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It’s been said of one era or another, <span style="font-style: italic;">"these are evil times…"</span> but times are neither good nor evil. Rather, it’s the hearts and minds of Men that shape the times which create pain and suffering enough for others to name these times evil. World War II saw evil times; Hitler’s Final Solution, America's own use of atomic weapons. There were evil times in Korea, and Vietnam, and the killing fields of Cambodia, but the times themselves were not evil. Again, it was the hearts and minds of Men. The times are not evil, Men are. Change the heart of a man and you can change the world.<br />
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But can any one man or woman change the world? Can any one Nation make a difference? While it’s true the United States has had a hand in inspiring and helping to shape today’s world, it’s also true there are those who have resisted this change, seeing in the U.S. a great evil; rather to be destroyed than emulated. They cry out that the west meddles in things that don’t concern it, that it forces its own ideals and belief system upon nations incapable of defending themselves against its unwelcome intrusion. The Taliban government of Afghanistan recently arrested several westerners for trying to convert Muslims to Christianity; an offense punishable by death. Not too long ago the Chinese used tanks against their own people in Tienanmen Square, simply because they wanted to be more like the West. U.S. companies push such products as cheeseburgers, Coca Cola, and ‘decadent’ television programming upon starving third world countries. They turn a blind eye to those who see these companies as intruders, not as business adventurers; but as subversive attacks upon the core values of nations which didn’t want or even care about Kentucky Fried Chicken, before Colonel Sanders stepped off the plane. <span style="font-style: italic;">"We’re just making money!"</span> the West cries, but others see this as an attempt to weaken their culture and their sense of national pride. When the Pharaohs built the great pyramids it’s certain they never envisioned Burger King moving in next door. China is only now beginning to open its borders to the West. They need the money; they want the money, but how much does that Big Mac really cost? How much will it cost the West? <br />
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‘But the West is decadent! It has lost its moral center!’ Many who hate her call America a Christian nation, and in this they demonstrate their ignorance. Certainly the United States was founded on Christian principles, but those principles have eroded over the last three centuries. America today is but a dim shadow of what it once was. ‘Christian’ is a word bandied about by everyone; the Right, the Left; the Agnostic and Atheist alike, but less than ten percent of avowed Christians even put their faith into practice. The mind of this nation has changed, and Morality is now viewed subjectively at best; where once the people held to a belief in God, and right and wrong were seen as black and white issues, is it any wonder Christianity has fallen from grace? Every nation we thrust our interfering hands into can see the truth in this, so why can’t we? Could it be the Emperor has no clothes after all?<br />
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Times have changed, however. It no longer takes months on horseback to reach the Pacific Ocean from the Big Apple. It doesn’t take years for ships to circumnavigate the globe. Weapon of war have also changed. Where once armies faced one another with swords and knives and spears, they now face each other not at all; they simply make a call and push a button. Where once they rained arrows down upon enemy ranks, they now rain devastation from the skies, leveling whole cities. War has become too clean, and so we balk when the children of the Third World use our methods against us, albeit with less finesse and less concern for innocents (though that point could be debated). But destroying ten thousand innocent lives is not acceptable, no matter who pulls the trigger, pushes the button, makes the call, or hijacks the plane. And justice should be required of everyone responsible, no matter where the blame falls. <br />
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Mercy, however, should not be forgotten. Any thought of revenge should be put aside. America should not concern herself with revenge; it is not a pure enough motive for what must be done. For what must be done is terrible in and of itself. A life for a life will not return said life. Death cannot be undone. And since it does not lie in our power to give life, we should be careful in our deliberations to take life. Hunt down those responsible, yes. Make them pay the ultimate price for their crimes, yes. But let us not take pleasure in what must be done. <br />
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Changing the hearts and minds of <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> men is impossible. It is human nature to set ones own needs above the needs of others, but its man’s capacity for self-sacrifice that sets him above nature. A dog can only be a dog, it cannot choose to rebel against millions of years of evolution; but man most certainly can. He can say to himself, <span style="font-style: italic;">"I could die in this collapsing building, but I will work anyway to save the life of someone who might yet be alive."</span> <br />
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Today in Manhattan civilian volunteers are finding ways to make a difference; digging through the rubble, assisting in the hospitals, donating blood, giving money, praying or simply holding a stranger in their arms as they weep. This is man at his best. This is what he aspires to, but never seems to find until times like these. The times aren’t Evil, men are. But despite the times, it is comforting to know there is still good in the world, that Evil no matter its magnitude only serves to make Goodness shine that much brighter. <br />
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The Egyptians built things to last, as did the Greeks and Romans, but then they never saw anything so big as a jumbo jet falling from the sky. It’s not likely even the pyramids could have survived such an attack unscathed; neither could men. But we <span style="font-style: italic;">will</span> survive. That is what we do. Judgment must come, but so must rebuilding. Terrorists thought to destroy a national symbol; they think even now to force us into the bunkers for fear of other such attacks, but we must not give in to this. Find those responsible, punish them swiftly, with mercy, and then rebuild. The Towers are dead, but the ideal is not. Build a memorial to the lives lost, by all means, but rebuild. Show the enemy the measure of our strength, our courage, and our resolve. Rebuild and show the world that these places are sacred; the Spirit of America does not reside in buildings, but in the hearts of her sons and daughters.<br />
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Who will ever forget September 11, 2001? Who will ever forget the loss of so many lives, or the tears shed? Who will ever forget that at 8:50am ignorance took a stab at killing something that could not be killed? They have taken untold lives, but they have not destroyed America. Let us rebuild. Let us learn to build for posterity, and hopefully leave in our wake something that will endure.<br />
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ELAshley<br />
September 11, 2001Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-64077585125261789542007-09-10T21:00:00.001-05:002007-09-10T21:02:35.724-05:00America Is Winning in Iraq, and Treasonous Democrats Are LosingMore outrage over the party of hypocrites and liars...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-80895744421470775022007-09-10T20:55:00.000-05:002007-09-10T20:57:53.286-05:00Burns me up, too... bunch of hypocrites<blockquote>Norman Hsu. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a huge scandal. It reaches into the depths of the Democrat establishment. It touches very deeply their presidential front-runner to the core, and the broadcast media have done everything possible to downplay it or ignore it. The same media that focused on what shoes Fred Thompson was wearing in Iowa -- hey, they were Guccis. I wear 'em, too. Way to go, Fred. Screw you, elitists. What the hell are you drinking and eating behind closed doors, and what the hell kinds of diamonds and jewelry and shoes are you wearing? Phony baloney, plastic banana, good-time rock 'n' roller rear-end orifices. I've had it. I have literally had it with these people. They're hunting down every Fred Thompson client, every Rudy Giuliani client ever represented in hopes of finding an embarrassing association. They've gotta look no further than down the end of their own noses to find Norman Hsu, and there is ample evidence that this is standard practice. This is the way business is conducted with the Clintons, going all the way back to Clinton's days as governor in Arkansas. And yet, where, my friends, are the investigative reporters? Where is our old buddy, Brian Ross, who couldn't wait to unload the details on Mark Foley? Where is Brian Ross? <br /><br />Why don't we know where Norman Hsu's money came from? The guy was bankrupt just a few weeks ago. Where is his money coming from, and the people he's bundling money for, these poor Paw people, Paw family out there in California, lots of pets, no money. The mail carrier, donating 244 grand over three years to the Democrat party. How in the hell is this possible? Where is this money coming from? I thought that the media, the Drive-By Media, and the Democrats, were all concerned about campaign finance reform. Here we have a consistent pattern of Clinton and the Democrats taking money funneled from Asia to help fund their campaigns, people who have fled the country before they could be questioned. Hsu himself was a convicted crook. He jumped bail, he reestablished himself in New York, became a huge Democrat donor, he was on the lam for 15 years on charges in California while raising money for Democrats. He's caught. He jumps bail again. Now he's hospitalized under still-uncertain circumstances, quote, unquote. And what do the media want to talk about? Anything but Norman Hsu. Oh, no, no, can't embarrass the Clintons, can't do anything to derail that candidacy. Clinton campaign gets a couple questions thrown at them about it, no media frenzy, no persistent follow-up. (Clinton impression) "Why, I'm as surprised as I could be. Why, you coulda knocked me over with a feather when I found out that guy was on the lam." Mrs. Clinton is just as surprised with everything. She doesn't know diddly-squat about anything. And Clinton isn't alone, folks. <br /><br />Remember that small, left-wing weekly out there in the Bay Area, broke a story a few months ago about how Dianne Feinstein, chairman of an important subcommittee overseeing military contracts, made millions through her husband's investment in certain companies during the war? The article describes extraordinary efforts by Feinstein using her official position to inquire into certain contracts, suggest certain directions the Pentagon should go with their contracts, and so forth. Where's the follow-up to this? You better believe, if this were Cheney and Halliburton, every reporter in the Beltway would be on this story, but it's died. It's gone away, no investigations, no hearings, no nothing, no ethics committee looking into it. This is very serious stuff. It really is. For all the talk about congressional oversight, the Democrats protect their own. There hasn't been a single hearing on Hsu by Leahy, Conyers, or Waxman. In the meantime, Republicans are eager to throw everybody on their own side overboard and under the bus. There hasn't been a single hearing on Feinstein and her husband by Pat Leahy, John Conyers, or Henry Waxman. There won't be, either, folks. There won't be any editorials demanding these hearings, either. They want to protect these liberals. They want to help them with their mantra about the Republicans' culture of corruption. And it burns me up.</blockquote><br />--Rush Limbaugh<br />September 10, 2007Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-31042362369031699522007-09-10T01:37:00.000-05:002007-09-10T02:05:30.225-05:00Six Years On-- Intaglio'd Nation<p></p><br />"Howard cringed browardly afrimentors who all but glimmered their mimic storied beds. Whimsy whiffs of beluga pasternings wove one tapestry wriggled in blue cummerbunds, dressed to kill on horrors unstittering in grim limniaries. <br /><br />"But we, dear Tempestuous, we light and matted neutrinos thriftingly simeous, heady brews and whoring what jabberous tea moulds befell. We pampled and riffed our ways uncharted to singing like gassy spherics of marzipaning minges. How sweet it wereously swooned!<br /><br />"Oh! We were browardly presidential; Howard not least among afrimentoring and gibbon! We fellows of briar-teethed hirsuted affectations! How sweet we wereously swooned!"<br /><br /><br /><br />--EL Athrhymicly Hue<br />091007.014832.1Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-35519057452878787172007-09-07T19:49:00.000-05:002007-09-08T01:10:32.767-05:00Dollars to Doughnuts, He Votes 'Democrat'<p></p><br />The evidence?<br /><br /><ol><li>He's a resident of Broward Co. Florida. </li><li>He works-- or rather <span style="font-style: italic;">blogs</span> --for a Liberal rag.</li><li>He doesn't believe in God.</li><li>And has a poor grasp of Satire.</li></ol><br />But why 'Democrat'? Surely there are atheist's (Oops! Sorry... <span style="font-style: italic;">Agnostics!</span>) who vote Republican... Though I will venture out on a limb and say <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> number is very small. And surely there are <span style="font-style: italic;">Agnostics</span> who write at Republican rags, and they could all, also, have poor grasps of Satire.<br /><br />Some here would want evidence... numbers... but it's been my observation that these people only want numbers when they don't like the tone/tenor of the message. Democrats demand cold hard numbers, but even when they get them, they discount them as flawed because the 'numbers' haven't been 'gamed' by the Liberal *<span style="font-style:italic;">Ministry of Truth.</span><br /><br />Republicans on the other hand tend to be more accepting of numbers, except when they come from the aforementioned <span style="font-style:italic;">Ministry of Truth</span>. Anyone can game numbers, anyone can claim truth is on their side, but truth-- as I once stated on this blog --is on <span style="font-style:italic;">no ones</span> side. And truth, like Lady Justice is color blind... seeing only Black and White; no shades of gray, nor even whiter shades of pale.<br /><br />But Democrats can't see this. For Dems, Truth is mutable.... but allow me to move back toward the center of my purpose here by saying that this is <span style="font-style:italic;">THE</span> key issue surrounding my complete and utter contempt for Liberalism, and most Democrats by extension. Because their philosophy of intellectual and ideological openness extends only to those things in which they approve or themselves support. In this they expose the depths of their own 'hypocrisy'-- that word gets bandied about a lot 'round here.<br /><br />To then castigate ones' ideological foes as narrow-minded bigots while himself a 'narrow-minded' bigot is, I believe, a classic illustration of hypocrisy. So when a <span style="font-style:italic;">bona fide</span> hypocrite-- by virtue of the fact that <a href="http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2007/09/d_james_kennedy_has_a_place_in.php">D. James Kennedy has a place in hell</a>, despite Bob's abject disbelief in that 'Realm of Perdition's' very existence --then when called on the virtual carpet for his 'insensitivity' resorts to a position of cowardice by claiming his 'Essay' was poorly constructed satire-- in lieu of an apology. Even going so far as to claim to 'come' from Christians... even having Christian friends. <br /><br />Sounds like bigotry to me, the same kind that makes excuses for itself by claiming to have 'black friends' or 'gay friends' while trying to build oneself up as a paragon of tolerance. And this is the nature of Liberals, specifically, and Democrats in general; their tongues are fertile fields of Truth, their hearts: gardens of Justice. Yet the fields lie fallow, and the gardens provide naught but stone for bread...<br /><br /><blockquote>"If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: normal;">--the Tempter</span></blockquote></blockquote> <br />Well, if Bob can cowardly retreat to the skirts of his poorly constructed satire, I can stand firm and unyielding before my brilliantly constructed sarcasm. And unyielding disdain. Listen closely, Bob, and you'll hear me mutter, not at all under my breath, with a contemptuous spit at your feet... <br /><br /><blockquote>"Filthy Democrat! You're what's wrong with this nation! You're responsible for America's moral ambiguity, for it's outright hostility of Godly values. How dare you level charges against James Kennedy while so obviously ignorant of Spiritual matters? And your <a href="http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2007/09/god_help_me.php">apology</a> is anything <span style="font-style:italic;">BUT!</span> An 'apology' masquerading as thinly veiled insult." </blockquote><br />It takes a pretty sick, disgusting ideologue to cowardly attack a man at his wake. Did he ever bother to publicly attack the man of God while he yet lived? While he tirelessly and joyfully performed his Lord's will?<br /><br />I find it highly amusing that those who claim to not believe in Hell repeatedly invoke it's fiery wrath upon men of God they particularly despise-- are there any they don't? --like Jerry Falwell, and now, D. James Kennedy.<br /><br />Bravo, Bob! Well done! Thanks for that stunning display of gracious liberal aplomb, and Democratic moral superiority. <br /><br />Don't look for any satire here, Bob. You'll find the furniture matte and unvarnished.<br /> <br /><br />----<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >*</span>Dude! If you haven't read George Orwell's <span style="font-weight: bold;">1984</span>, you're a cultural moron.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-47168719984059363212007-08-29T19:23:00.000-05:002007-09-01T15:40:44.608-05:00Lizard Spit, High-Water, and Indecent Proposals<p></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />..::Updated::..</span></span> Saturday, September 1<br /><br /><br />This past Saturday I was out at Westgate, a local all-purpose community park. What was I doing? Walking of course. I had gotten off from the flower shop early and decided to go for a walk. I do this 4 days a week... even if it rains.<br /><br />Well, I ended up at my favorite music store first. I bought a bottle of Lizard Spit, half a dozen picks, and a guitar stand. And the owner wanted to talk. A lot. But he's a nice guy so I didn't mind.<br /><br />Thirty minutes later I'm at the park and I'm disappointed in the fact that it's raining. I reminded myself that it was my own fault for chatting at the music store, but I had my umbrella with me, and decided come drizzle or high-water I was going to get the exercise I came for.<br /><br />I hit the trails. I figured with the canopy overhead there'd be less rain, but the truth is, within ten minutes I was soaked-- <span style="font-style: italic;">even under the umbrella!</span> Some of the trails are hardened clay... except when it rains. So, after about a half mile of slip sliding away I decide to get back out on the tarmac.<br /><br />Less than ten minutes later, a sleek red Pontiac pulls up beside me and my umbrella, and the window eases down.<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> "Hey! You ever been to Imaginations?"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> "Nope. It's not my thing." <span style="font-style: italic;">[as far as I know Imaginations is a nightclub, and as I said: 'Not my thing!']</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> "You ever been there? You look like the type."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">[I'm thinking: 'Type! What the hell 's that mean!? A bald, frumpy, 40-something looks like 'the type'?']</span> "No. I don't go to places like that. You need directions?"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> "No. I know where it is, I was just wondering if you liked going there."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> "Sorry. Never been."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">[pauses half a sec then asks:]</span> "You want to get in? It's raining you know."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> "No thanks. I'm here to exercise come drizzle or high-water" <span style="font-style: italic;">[with that I begin to walk on]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">[Calling out]</span> "Hey!"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">[I stop]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> "You ever let someone blow you off?"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">[......Huh?]</span> "Wha?"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> "You like getting blown?"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> ".....uh... Sorry. Not my thing" <span style="font-style: italic;">[I begin to move off... again!]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> "Hey! How 'bout letting me blow you off!"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> "Sorry. Nope. Not my thing. Now scram!" <span style="font-style: italic;">[At this point I pull my trusty knife out and lock the blade open... I've decided to name my knife 'Stig']</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">[undeterred]</span> "Come on! How do you know if it's not your thing unless you try it. Come on, get in the car."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">[I ignore the driver and begin walking across a grassy area, my knife still open and clearly visible... and yes, it's still raining]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Driver:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">[Finally drives offs</span>]</span></blockquote><br /><br /><br />To my own shame, the first thought that went through my mind was, "Now why couldn't a woman have asked me that!?"<br /><br />Come to find out 'Imaginations' is a 'Gay' bar, and like I told the driver... not my thing. No bar is, in fact.<br /><br />Now perhaps this man (young, black, good-looking-- <span style="font-style: italic;">hitting on a white guy, no less!</span>) was a cop looking to bust him 'a pre-vert, but I have to ask: what kind of pervert asks that kind of a question in the first place? Who cares if he's a cop! To ask that kind of a question! What kind of sick mind thinks talking that way-- even to entrap --to another man?<br /><br />And it happened in poe-dunk Alabama! And if it's happening here, imagine the degree to which it happens in the rest of the country! Hell! The <span style="font-style: italic;">WORLD</span>!<br /><br />For the record. I finished my walk completely freaked. And when I approached a police officer at the park, I was told that because I didn't have the presence of mind to get his license plate number (didn't have a pen anyway), there was nothing he could do.... snickering while he said it.<br /><br />And for the record, Idaho Senator Larry Craig must resign immediately.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Update:</span></span> It's unusual that I have a Saturday morning off... very unusual... pert near never... anyway... <br /><br />Out at Westgate Park again, this time without the rain, but all kinds of gray overhead, and a nice cool-- as in Fall-ish --breeze. Right at the end of my walk I end up next to where a security guard is parked, so I ease over and ask him about last Saturday; did anyone else report being propositioned.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Security Guard:</span> "Black guy? Six-two? Driving a red Monte Carlo?"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Me:</span> "I thought it was a Pontiac... but yeah."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Security Guard:</span> "We had several complaints about that person."<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Me:</span> "Was he an undercover officer trying to grab some perverts?"<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Security Guard:</span> "No. Not this guy. The police got called a bunch of times last week, and it wasn't until someone with a camera on their cell phone took a picture of the Queer, and a picture of his tag. The police rounded him up. If it ever happens again, make sure you get the tag number so we can do something about this kind of thing..."</span></blockquote><br /><br />And yes, the Security guard really said 'Queer'. Score one for the good guys.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-37657474697825613642007-08-28T20:12:00.000-05:002007-08-29T19:21:25.419-05:00Points, Pillars, Pearls and Lodestones<br></br><br /><blockquote>"...I want the ability to change to be a part of my personality. Can any of you Christian Conservatives say the same?..."<br /><br />--BenT, previous post</blockquote><br /><br />In the context BenT himself presents, 'change' implies trading one previously held 'truth' for a newer, shinier, <i>BETTER</i> 'truth'. In terms of Christianity, what kind of fool trades a pearl for a piece of lodestone?<br /><br />We can argue points-- which, ultimately, mean little in the grander scheme --but not pillars. Dan and ER in particular, and BenT to no small degree, all too often question the pillars. They're not interested in honest discussion with honest 'give and take', they want only to change <span style="font-style:italic;">MY</span> mind... make <span style="font-style:italic;">ME</span> capitulate. Dan especially seems to delight it the practice, while hiding behind the skirts of mutual disapprobation-- a clever ploy, which usually comes off, in my ears, as smug enlightened superiority... I get the same from BenT more often than not.<br /><br />Is there any wonder why I'm bored to tears with all this?<br /><br />As a Christian-- who is by no means perfect, nor claims to be --anyone who chooses to call me brother MUST accept the pillars. We can agree to disagree on the rest.<br /><br />Not everyone (or organization) who calls himself 'Christian' is in fact Christian. There are certain things one <span style="font-style:italic;">MUST</span> believe to be Christian. We've had this discussion here before and I won't engage in it again now. But BenT wants to know if I (and any other Conservative Christians out here in Blogland) am as mature and enlightened as he to <span style="font-style:italic;">ALSO</span> "want the ability to change to be a part of my personality." Sounds like smug superiority to me, but I'll answer it. <br /><br />If the ability to change means to compromise what I know, beyond any shadow of doubt, to be true, then I say, "No. Absolutely not.". But if that 'ability' means allowing the pillars to stand leaving all else subject to the aforementioned ability to 'change ones mind', then I say, "Sure, why not?"<br /><br />But Dan, ER, and BenT don't want me stand for something as immutable as the pillars I am trying very hard to defend.<br /><br />I've tried to stay out of this and other discussions here for reasons I've already stated. The previous post most certainly began an an elegy for what America no longer 'Is'. But I am not the one who injected politics-- I merely commented on it. But what, pray tell... what ideology/philosophy... is responsible for the sad state of modern America?<br /><br />BenT, in a private discussion last week, seemed to think the United States constitution is a 'Guiding' document, but not to be taken literally today because it is outdated in that it's crafter's did not envision a world filled with modern technology and global-relativeness, which did not infect <span style="font-style:italic;">their</span> primitive minds or social mores.<br /><br />But you can't have it both ways. The Constitution is either written in stone on ALL issues, or it's a worthless scrap of 210+ year old parchment.... There is too much hypocrisy in this discussion as it currently stands... primarily on the Left, but <span style="font-style:italic;">Everyone's</span> hands are dirty. Everyone.<br /><br />My focus in turning to God is to find something better for myself, personally. Of course! But it doesn't end there-- and no one here seems to have caught on. Part and parcel with what I desire for myself is a need to tell anyone who will listen that it doesn't all go black when we die... there is something beyond this life, and no other 'deity' known to man has revealed Himself to the extent that God has. Because of that everyone has a choice to make, and it's the most important decision <span style="font-style:italic;">ANYONE</span> will ever make.<br /><br />As for what I stand for... to be my brother, you must accept these pillars:<br /><br />1. Jesus is God in human flesh<br />2. He was born of a Virgin<br />3. He died a substitutionary death for all Mankind<br />4. He rose from the dead<br />5. He ascended into Heaven<br />6. He sits now at the right hand of God the Father<br />7. He is returning (Physically/Bodily/In the flesh) to establish His EARTHLY kingdom, which will last 1000 years. <br /><br />The rest is negotiable. But don't ask me to trade these pearls for a pocket full of lodestones.<br /><br />As to politics, for 'Leftists' who blindly, and hypocritically point their fingers at 'Rightists' I have only one thing to say....<br /><br /><br /><br />....but then I've said it all before, haven't I? And not a bit of it has ever sunk in.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-30511280493103001582007-08-17T14:58:00.000-05:002007-08-17T15:24:36.771-05:00Learn to do well... or else<span style="font-size:85%;">[originally posted in comments at <a href="http://marshallart.blogspot.com/2007/08/spinning-wheels.html">Marshall Art's</a>]</span><br /><p></p><br />We <i>SHOULD</i> be protecting our borders, our ports, our nuclear facilities. We should take a more isolationist stance in the world. Our borders ARE too wide open, not just in terms of defense, but in terms of culture and decadence. America, once a proud virtuous woman on a church pew, is now little better than a $20 whore on a street corner. Oh, how the <span style="font-style:italic;">virtuous</span> have fallen!<br /><br /><i>WHEN</i> (not "If") we are attacked again, we <i>WILL</i> have ourselves to blame. Because America has become fat, lazy, hedonistic, perverted, and dare I say it? Dangerous. Not simply to the world, but to herself!<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind"</span><br />Hosea 8:7<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."</span><br />Galatians 6:7<br /><br /><br />Go ahead, Hypocrites! Point your fingers and wag your heads at those who try to live virtuously and fall. Did you extend a hand and offer to help them up? Is there no stink of impropriety on you? Do you not also reek of lust, hatred, murder, avarice?<br /><br />America is getting, and will continue to get, everything she deserves.<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>"Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it."<br /><br />Isaiah 1:16-20</blockquote><br /><br />...Or don't. Continue to live in filth if you wish. Do you enjoy the whoredoms the world offers? Do you take delight in such things? If emptiness is your promised land... Behold! You are already there. <br /><br />But if you want something better...<br /><br />Please reconsider God's plea in <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=isaiah%201:16-18&version=9">Isaiah 1:16-18</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com57tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-62621440487418466142007-08-08T12:30:00.000-05:002007-08-08T12:33:05.372-05:00Peace Declaration, August 6, 2007<p></p><br /><blockquote>That fateful summer, 8:15. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast ― silence ― hell on Earth.<br /><br />The eyes of young girls watching the parachute were melted. Their faces became giant charred blisters. The skin of people seeking help dangled from their fingernails. Their hair stood on end. Their clothes were ripped to shreds. People trapped in houses toppled by the blast were burned alive. Others died when their eyeballs and internal organs burst from their bodies―Hiroshima was a hell where those who somehow survived envied the dead.<br /><br />Within the year, 140,000 had died. Many who escaped death initially are still suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, and a vast array of other afflictions.<br /><br />But there was more. Sneered at for their keloid scars, discriminated against in employment and marriage, unable to find understanding for profound emotional wounds, survivors suffered and struggled day after day, questioning the meaning of life.<br /><br />And yet, the message born of that agony is a beam of light now shining the way for the human family. To ensure that "no one else ever suffers as we did," the hibakusha have continuously spoken of experiences they would rather forget, and we must never forget their accomplishments in preventing a third use of nuclear weapons.<br /><br />Despite their best efforts, vast arsenals of nuclear weapons remain in high states of readiness―deployed or easily available. Proliferation is gaining momentum, and the human family still faces the peril of extinction. This is because a handful of old-fashioned leaders, clinging to an early 20th century worldview in thrall to the rule of brute strength, are rejecting global democracy, turning their backs on the reality of the atomic bombings and the message of the hibakusha.<br /><br />However, here in the 21st century the time has come when these problems can actually be solved through the power of the people. Former colonies have become independent. Democratic governments have taken root. Learning the lessons of history, people have created international rules prohibiting attacks on non-combatants and the use of inhumane weapons. They have worked hard to make the United Nations an instrument for the resolution of international disputes. And now city governments, entities that have always walked with and shared in the tragedy and pain of their citizens, are rising up. In the light of human wisdom, they are leveraging the voices of their citizens to lift international politics.<br /><br />Because "Cities suffer most from war," Mayors for Peace, with 1,698 city members around the world, is actively campaigning to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020.<br /><br />In Hiroshima, we are continuing our effort to communicate the A-bomb experience by holding A-bomb exhibitions in 101 cities in the US and facilitating establishment of Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Courses in universities around the world. American mayors have taken the lead in our Cities Are Not Targets project. Mayors in the Czech Republic are opposing the deployment of a missile defense system. The mayor of Guernica-Lumo is calling for a resurgence of morality in international politics. The mayor of Ypres is providing an international secretariat for Mayors for Peace, while other Belgian mayors are contributing funds, and many more mayors around the world are working with their citizens on pioneering initiatives. In October this year, at the World Congress of United Cities and Local Governments, which represents the majority of our planet’s population, cities will express the will of humanity as we call for the elimination of nuclear weapons.<br /><br />The government of Japan, the world’s only A-bombed nation, is duty-bound to humbly learn the philosophy of the hibakusha along with the facts of the atomic bombings and to spread this knowledge through the world. At the same time, to abide by international law and fulfill its good-faith obligation to press for nuclear weapons abolition, the Japanese government should take pride in and protect, as is, the Peace Constitution, while clearly saying "No," to obsolete and mistaken US policies. We further demand, on behalf of the hibakusha whose average age now exceeds 74, improved and appropriate assistance, to be extended also to those living overseas or exposed in "black rain areas."<br /><br />Sixty-two years after the atomic bombing, we offer today our heartfelt prayers for the peaceful repose of all its victims and of Iccho Itoh, the mayor of Nagasaki shot down on his way toward nuclear weapons abolition. Let us pledge here and now to take all actions required to bequeath to future generations a nuclear-weapon-free world. <br /><br /><br />Tadatoshi Akiba<br />Mayor<br />The City of Hiroshima</blockquote> <br /><br /><br />Previous Declarations can be read <a href="http://www.pcf.city.hiroshima.jp/declaration/English/index.html">here</a>...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-8324725594625523122007-08-08T12:25:00.000-05:002007-08-08T12:34:50.683-05:00August 6, 1945 -- 8:15 a.m.<p></p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5692/359/1600/Hiroshima%20Cloud.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5692/359/400/Hiroshima%20Cloud.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-style:italic;"><br /><br /><br />"Let all the souls here rest in peace as we will never repeat this mistake."</span><br /><br /><br />--Apology etched into the granite cenotaph in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />PERSONAL NOTE: <span style="font-style:italic;">I ask you... What need have the Japanese people to apologize for Hiroshima? Or Nagasaki? Why is it Americans today rarely demonstrate this level of humility?</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5692/359/1600/Hiroshima%20Dome.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5692/359/400/Hiroshima%20Dome.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><blockquote>"On this, the sixtieth anniversary of the atomic bombing, we seek to comfort the souls of all its victims by declaring that we humbly reaffirm our responsibility never to 'repeat the evil.'<br /><br />" 'Please rest peacefully; for we will not repeat the evil.' "<br /><br /><br />Tadatoshi Akiba, Mayor<br />The City of Hiroshima<br />August 6, 2005</blockquote><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5692/359/1600/Hiroshima%20Man.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5692/359/400/Hiroshima%20Man.png" border="0" alt="" /></a><span style="font-weight:bold;">"...more than 300 thousand souls of A-bomb victims..."</span><br /><br />We still do not have an accurate count of human casualties inflicted by the atomic bomb, but it is estimated that approximately 350,000 soldiers and civilians were in Hiroshima at the time of the bombing. After the bombing, radioactive substances fell to earth and remained on the ground for some time. Thousands of people who came into Hiroshima to help with relief activities or look for family members were exposed to this residual radiation. Like those who were directly exposed, many fell ill and some even died. By the time the acute effects were dying down at the end of December 1945, approximately 140,000 people (±10,000) are estimated to have died as a result of the bombing of Hiroshima.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5692/359/1600/Hiroshima%20Child.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5692/359/400/Hiroshima%20Child.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>The phrase "more than 300 thousand souls of A-bomb victims" refers to all survivors of the Hiroshima bombing known to have died thus far. To clarify the human damage done by the A-bombing of Hiroshima, a Survey of the A-Bomb Survivor Movement has been conducted regularly since 1979. In 1998, this survey confirmed that 273,212 had died by that year. A total of 30,017 names were added to the register of A-bomb victims between 1999 and 2004. Thus, the total number of A-bomb victims is now estimated to have exceeded 300,000.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-60041960850192830872007-08-08T12:23:00.000-05:002007-08-08T12:38:34.962-05:00To This Date....The U.S. has yet to issue an official apology for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But that doesn't mean the U.S., as a nation, shouldn't issue an apology. While the U.S., seemingly, cannot issue an <em>official</em> apology, there is nothing to keep a sitting U.S. president from offering an unofficial <em>personal</em> apology. There is nothing at all keeping individual Americans from doing the same. <br /><br />Before anyone decides to accuse me of wanting blood and death on the one hand-- in the here and now --while decrying blood and death on the other, sixty-one years ago, let me point you to the preamble at the beginning of the next post,<i> In Memoriam -- Part I</i><br /><br /><blockquote><em>As much as I recognize the necessity of war, I find it nonetheless to be among the worst of human proclivities...</em></blockquote> <br /><br />Atomic weapons. Seriously, what good has come of them? Deterrence? Okay... but don't you think the world is less safe with this genie now irrevocably out of the bottle? What of Iran and her quest for the A-bomb? <br /><br />The U.S. has the utterly unique and infamous distinction of being the only nation to ever have used atomic weapons on another nation. Japan has been the only nation in history to have ever tasted of the suffering borne upon-- to quote myself --atomic winds. It wasn't enough for the U.S. to drop one bomb. One would undoubtedly have ended the war with Japan... the simple threat of a second would have, IMHO, done the trick. But the U.S. wasn't content with dropping just one. It's as though the powers that be looked at the film footage, and said, "Good God! Would you look at that!!! ...Let's do it again!"<br /><br />Yes, the war needed to end. Yes, Japan started it all by attacking Pearl Harbor; a day interestingly referred to as 'a date which will live in infamy.' Nevermind the fact that Pearl Harbor suffered 2,300 to 2,900 casualties, depending on which source you use, while the Hiroshima bomb alone, in the initial blast, killed approximately 80,000 men, women, and children.<br /><br />Every death is regrettable. Every shot fired, a failure for humanity. We cheapen ourselves by the use of weapons against our neighbors, and we are lessened by the loss of each life we take. <br /><br />No I don't like war at all. But neither do I like the idea of men, burdened by an oppressive and insane ideology, killing 241 marines... and getting away with it. Neither do I like the idea that this same ideology mutilates and murderers women for sexual impurity, whether they're guilty or not (guilt being a non-issue as far as I'm concerned...genital mutilation and stoning are barbaric). I hate the idea that these people, warped by evil, find the idea of co-existence with other cultures is anathema to them... that they would rather fly jet liners filled with passengers into skyscrapers filled with workers... not soldiers... and if a certain faction within this country had its way, this murderous ideology would get away with that too. <br /><br />This war did not end with Afghanistan-- Islam knows no physical border... has no tangible homeland. this war will not end with Iraq. This war, in fact, has only just begun, and few seem to realize it. While we fight like a pack of dogs over a few bones of contention, what's to stop these marauders from sneaking past and hitting us again? We're not paying attention. We haven't learned anything from the past. Not from Chamberlain, not from Hitler, not from Pearl Harbor, not from Hiroshima <span style="font-style:italic;">OR</span> Nagasaki, not from Korea, not Vietnam, not Beirut, not Mogadishu. Israel, it would seem, has learned lessons we have not... Specifically, that War is indeed hell.<br /><br />So... If I choose to stand with Hiroshima and decry the use and proliferation of atomic weapons, it's because I've gotten a big eye-full of what's going on in the world... and I'm surprised as hell that you haven't.<br /><br /><br />What follows, then, are two of my own tokens of apology....Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-78541628456667249372007-08-08T12:01:00.000-05:002007-08-08T12:39:23.250-05:00In Memoriam -- Part I ..::Revisited::...<span style="font-style:italic;">As much as I recognize the necessity of war, I find it nonetheless to be among the worst of human proclivities. Here then is my apology for dropping not one, but two atomic bombs on Japan in the summer of 1945. Admittedly, I know little of Japanese culture; what is appropriate, what is not, so it's likely I may owe yet another apology.... <br /><br />Please use the 'Here's More' link for the full post.</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Deflowering the Crysanthemum</span><br /><br /> She was led to a small stage prepared for just that moment; the moment they would demonstrate to the world the limit of their power over a nation, through one woman-- as though the horrors they had already unleashed were not enough. It was not enough to destroy her cities, ruin her people, her friends and family, now they would mock and shame her. Make of her something she would not otherwise have chosen. But this is the way of the victorious; they delight in examples, believing even their own propaganda; that they are righteous, and more deserving of victory... That their actions are somehow necessary. <br /> But she went willingly. Up three steps of aged and polished wood; probably stolen from a decimated temple. And where had they found the shoji screens? --Their paper windows intact and the purest of whites.<span class="fullpost"><br /> They had made her paint herself in the traditional paints of a geisha, but they were ignorant and so made her paint her entire body. She did not argue... They did not understand. Her hair and pubic mound made a stark contrast to the gleaming white of the paints and she thought... How beautiful. They robed her in a kimono, crimson with yellow dragonflies, and briefly she smiled. They laughed and barked like dogs to one another; their tongues shaped about rough words... Their meaning a mystery.<br /> Chosen from among the victorious were three men, stripped to the waist of their pine-hued shirts, and ringed about the spot where she was to kneel before a gathering of strange pale faces and stranger eyes. She looked out and over their heads to the ghost of a city, its once proud buildings, the temples, the gardens, all gone; blown to ash in the blink of an eye, and scattered upon atomic winds. <br /> How many dead? Thousands? She began to cry-- tears drawing lines down the planes of her face --and then steeled herself... The victorious needed this display; garish and brutal as it was. What did it matter if they performed their little Noh play upon the charred bones of an entire city... An entire nation; once proud, now fallen to earth like cherry blossoms in spring...<br /> But this is summer. The end of summer. She looked to her left and saw an ensemble of taiko drums, drummers all but naked. None would look upon her; they understood her shame, and shared it. A Shakuhachi player stood with flute in hand, his head bent and eyes cast down. His breathing was rhythmic, his kimono dirty. But the flute... Ahh, it was magnificent! She turned to her countrymen and bowed slightly, then turned back to her audience.<br /> They were a strange people; prideful, uncouth, and so utterly ignorant. They shaped the world to their purpose rather than shaping their lives to the world about them. Their cities were ugly, and nothing about their culture held any sense of tradition. They were upstarts... Children. But children with powerful toys. And they’re eyes... So foreign.<br /> A man in uniform-- a general perhaps? --rose from his seat up front and turned to face the gathered. He raised his voice and spoke in his rough tongue. He used his hands expressively, but the tone of his voice was dogmatic and said he held her and her nation in contempt.<br /> "We are the defeated," she softly spoke, and one among those that ringed her whispered brokenly in her tongue.<br /> "Forgive us Hiroshima, forgive us Nagasaki."<br /> Another of the three grunted harshly and the first fell silent.<br /> "It is easy to ask forgiveness when there is no consequence to face." She replied softly. "I will forgive you when the dead do." And though she couldn’t see it she felt him bow his head to her.<br /> The general quickly finished and motioned to the drummers. As one they struck their drums, building swiftly a rhythm to which she could sing. Their bodies soon glistened with the sheen of sweat, and the power of their drumming grew, intent on stirring the victorious. The Shakuhachi player raised his flute and began a mournful dirge in counter to the beat of the drummers, yet his own rhythm matched them. Together they played perfectly, beautifully... But the assembled did not appreciate this, it was clear on their faces; it was alien to them.<br /> She knew the words she was to sing. The song had been written for her, by aliens, and memorized in the long hours between dawn and this very moment, but she would not sing it. They knew little of Japanese, and would not know what she sang. <br /> The man directly behind her undid her deep black hair, removing the long bamboo pins that held it, and she felt its weight as it fell long to her waist. She felt the first tug of the shears at the nape of her neck-- My hair! They are cutting my hair! It had taken years to grow... --and she began to cry once more. And through her tears she saw the child in the first row, a very young girl... What kind of people brings its children to such a spectacle? Barbarians!<br /> The little girls eyes were the lightest shade of blue, and her hair-- in contrast to her own --was a lighter shade of yellow than the chrysanthemum in her tiny hand. She wore a dark blue dress, and her shoes shone bright and new. She stood close to her mother who held her hand.<br /> There was a final tug, then release, and she looked about to see her beautiful black hair lying around her. The men to either side of her barber took hold of the crimson kimono’s collar and drew it open, exposing her breasts. Their hands tugged at the sash and they stripped the fabric entirely from her, letting it drop to the platform to cover her hair. She sat kneeling, hands folded in her lap. She shone like polished bone, entirely covered in the white paint.<br /> Some in the crowd turned their heads, embarrassed to look upon her nakedness, others seemed to gloat, but all held an air of ambivalence. None but the child looked saddened. Then she felt the hands on her, wet with water as they began to make a show of washing her clean. There was symbolism in this of course, the drummers could see it, the Shakuhachi player could see it... And she began to sing.<br /> It was a song to stir souls, had the victorious possessed such... It was a beautiful melody. The song trembled deep in her throat and crashed out over the audience. It was clear none understood her, but they understood the melody... Understood its pain and suffering, and understood in its cry a longing for a way of life now gone. Whether they realized it as such or not, they also understood that with two swift, cowardly blows, they had managed to decimate not just two cities and countless lives, but an ancient culture as well. But again, that is what victors do. They tear down the temples and the shrines and the theaters and the houses and reshape the land to their own liking. What changes will these men bring? What new ideas to supplant the old?<br /> Her song rose and fell as hands washed her. She felt them move over her breasts, her stomach, to her thighs and the dark place between. She could feel their fingers move over her skin, but she could not sense a desire in them, they did not grope or fondle, only wash. Her face her neck, her shoulders, her back. They lifted her arms and she held them out like the very image of their crucified god on its hideous totem. They delight in torture; yet revere the god they killed! It’s not unusual to feel great respect for a vanquished foe, but worship? Never!<br /> If she were in the bathhouse she might have felt desire for these men whose hands touched what no other had, but not here. This was her shame... To be stripped of her mystery; a Noh play devoid of tradition, performed for barbarians. The hands cupped and lifted her breasts, moved under her arms, down her back to her buttocks, and lower. The drummers drummed, the Shakuhachi player played, and she sang as the men shamed her.<br /> When at last their hands left her, she finished her song and looked about her. The stage was washed in white, the pretty kimono ruined, and her hair... The men stood and left the stage, leaving her where she sat, their hands and arms now white. The general rose again to speak many words, none of which she understood. The drummers were led away. The Shakuhachi player followed. And when the general finished, the men who had led her to this place, mounted the stage to help her rise, and led her down the same steps of aged and polished wood, leaving white prints upon their dark surfaces like the footprint of ghosts.<br /> Movement dark and swift caught her eye and she looked to see the child running to her. The girl stopped shyly and looking up into her face, smiled and held out the chrysanthemum. She bowed deeply to the child and took the offered gift.<br /> The girl said something in her beautiful voice; her eyes held sympathy and embarrassment, a genuine sorrow for the painted woman.<br /> "Thank you, little one." She said, bowing deeper. 'I will remember your kindness."<br /> A soldier led the girl back to her mother, who fussed over and scolded her, admonishing her for her bravery. Would the child remember? Will she understand what she has done in years to come?<br /> They did not clothe her, but led her naked back to where they had held her, where they had prepared her for this spectacle. Her escort did not touch her, but directed her with their grunting, and pointing, back and forth in their savage tongue. Soldiers gawked at her, countrymen bowed to her, averting their eyes. She would, of course, commit suicide; her shame was too great. No more parties on the palace lawn, no more plays, no more poetry, no more cherry blossoms in spring. The victors had stolen it all. But she would compose a poem for her death-- though none would ever hear it.<br /> They came at last to the tents that were her prison. They would take her inside and allow her to wash and clothe herself before escorting her back to the palace, but she could not go back now. She could not bear the look of shame in her father’s eyes, or bear to hear her mother weeping. She would be a reminder to them, of their own shame... Better to die, with honor. So she would run! She would find a place untouched by their hideous weapon and perhaps find a shard of glass to cut her wrists, and compose her death poem.<br /> And as if thought were motion she leapt away from her captors and ran, ignoring their shouts. She heard them begin to chase and she ran harder. The sound of their boots fell farther and farther behind. Pain shot up from her feet as rocks and glass cut her soles, but she ignored it. There was only running... The pound of blood in her ears, and the beat of her heart. There was only running, breathing... And the sound of thunder crashing through the sky, thunder so powerful it ripped the breath from her, and threw her hard upon the torn earth.<br /> There was little sound now; only a loud hum over the shouting of men, the feel of their boots shaking through the ground as they neared her... Her own breath, heavy and labored... The beat of her heart, and the hot, wet feel of blood draining from the hole in her chest... They had shot her... Not thunder at all...<br /> Lifting her head she looked over the ground to the ruined city, to ghostly survivors picking through the rubble, and there lay the Chrysanthemum. The world about it seemed colorless, but the flower was a bright dusty yellow, the color of pollen. It layed in her dimming sight a stark contrast to the desolation that framed it, and reaching for it, she pulled the flower to her breasts. Her lips moved with her last breath and shaped the words of a poem.<br /> "What was it she said?" Asked one soldier.<br /> The gunman knelt at her side, brushed a spill of hair from her eyes, and recited,<br /><br /> <i>"...Chrysanthemum pure<br /> Amid fields of wide ruin <br /> Its lovely hair shorn."</i><br /><br /><br /><br />ELAshley<br />Written in one sitting<br />September 1, 2001<br />10 days before 9/11<br /><br /><br />I posted this last year [and the year before as well], and the version you've just read is slightly different-- Some additions, some subtractions, and a lot of changes in punctuation. It would seem Stephen King is right: 'Set your work aside for at least 6 weeks... give it a rest... then come back to it with fresh eyes and edit your work.' This version is better. And since I am the author, and this has never seen publication anywhere but here, I guess I'm free to edit as many times as I wish-- though I suspect a time will come when it will need to be left alone, lest it lose whatever charm it had at its birth.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com82tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-71155427395558723872007-08-08T12:00:00.000-05:002007-08-08T12:40:09.543-05:00In Memoriam -- Part II ..::Revisited::..<blockquote>"Forgive us Hiroshima, Forgive us Nagasaki..."<br /><br /> --Deflowering the Chrysanthemum</blockquote><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">In Memoriam</span><br /><br />What is coming?<br />I asked of the sky<br />No thought that blue<br />Could ever reply<br />But countless birds<br />Away did fly<br /> "Something comes"<br /><br />What is coming?<br />I asked again<br />And felt the brush<br />Of Insistent wind<br />Pursuing a path<br />Only Avians wing<br /> "Something Comes"<br /><br />What is coming?<br />I asked of the sun<br />The air grown hot<br />To blister my tongue<br />Flesh to ash<br />And in a flash, done<br /> Something has come<br /><br />Yet I remain<br />My ghost, my bone<br />Remembered this day<br />In memorial stone<br />Etched in apology<br />I've no right to own<br /> Something has come<br /> ...and gone<br /><br />May it not be forgotten<br /><br /><br /><br />ELAshley<br />080605.102501.6<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Revised:</span><br />080606.013316.1<br /><br />Of course, factually, birds were incinerated in flight, and no wind rushed save those winds atomic, and those that held Enola above the fray.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-26246901310600583502007-07-25T09:21:00.000-05:002007-07-25T15:58:15.196-05:00Interludes in the Control RoomYesterday afternoon in the control room, I had two short conversation with a few coworkers...<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #1:</span> "Did you watch the debate last night?"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">EL:</span> "No. I had better things to do. How can you debate 8 or 9 different guys and have time enough to give substantive answers to lame questions?<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #1:</span> "Not all the questions were lame, you know they were posted online by some 3000 people.."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">EL:</span> "yeah, I heard. Weren't those thing available on YouTube all afternoon? couldn't the various campaigns have scanned them over a bit to get a picture of what the 'askers' wanted, and prep their answers ahead of time?"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #1</span>: "Don't know about that... but you can check out the questions they asked on CNN.com"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">EL:</span> "I'll pass. I'm just not interested at this point. All these debates so far from even the first Primary... It just looks like a big infomercial for the Democratic Party. The only two who're really standing out are Obama and Clinton, with Edwards running a close third."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #1:</span> You know, if Clinton wins..."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">EL:</span> "I've heard tell there's an 80% chance of that."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #1:</span> yeah, looks like, but if she wins she'll likely get reelected which means we'll have lived through 32 years of only two families ruling the country?"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">EL:</span> "Ruling? <span style="font-style: italic;">[chuckles]</span> Yeah, scary ain't it? Clinton messed up his eight. Didn't retaliate after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Did nothing substantive after the USS Cole... nothing after our Embassy's in Africa were bombed. And we tucked tail and ran after Mogadishu? Isn't that what the democrats are trying to do now?"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #1:</span> "Right. Do we really want another eight years with two Clintons in the White House again?"<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">...::FADE TO INTERLUDE #2::...</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #2:</span> "What will they call Bill if his wife becomes president?"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #3:</span> "Probably the "First Man"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">EL:</span> "Naw, Adam's the First Man. Let's please not compare him to Adam, however apropos... or not."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Coworker #2:</span> "I think we should call him the 'First Lady'." <span style="font-style: italic;">[Chuckles all around]</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">EL:</span> "What about the "First Ladies Man'?" <span style="font-style: italic;">[Guffaws all around]</span></span></blockquote><br /><br />Now, I thought "First Ladies man" was cute. Thought maybe I coined a term. But google, as of this morning, has the listing for <span style="font-style: italic;">"First Ladies Man" + "Clinton"</span> at 408. Anyway, Clinton's two terms were near disasters, Bush's hasn't been much better; albeit he actually acted like a president when we were attacked... he rarely defends himself from unjust criticism... Now we have 8 more years of Clinton to look forward to? What a complete and utter disaster for this country!!<br /><br />What? Are we going to 'ping-pong' the presidency back and forth between two families for the foreseeable future? Will Jeb Bush run after Hillary's stint? This is ridiculous. Anyone but Hillary, please. Even John Edwards.<br /><br />Though I'd much prefer a Newt Gingrich, or a Fred Thompson... someone with back bone.<br /><br />Back to the debate: The only candidate on the stage with both courage and intellectual honesty (and, according to Rush, <span style="font-style: italic;">'The only adult on stage'</span>) was Joe Biden.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;">YouTube Questioner:</span> "Dear Presidential Candidates. See those three flags over my shoulder? They covered the coffins of my grandmother, my father, and my oldest son. Someday mine will join them. I do not want to see my youngest sons join them. I have two questions. By what date after January 21st, 2009, will all US troops be out of Iraq, and how many family members do you have serving in uniform?"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Sen Biden's Response:</span> "There's not a single military man in this audience who will tell this senator he can get those troops out in six months if the order goes today. Let's start telling the truth. Number one: you take all the troops out, you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the green zone where I've been seven times and shot at, you better make sure you have protection for them or let them die. Number two. So you can't leave them there, and it's going to take a minimum of 5,000 troops to 10,000 just to protect our civilians! So while you're taking them out, governor, take everybody out. That may be necessary. Number three, the idea that we all voted, except for me, for that appropriation, that man's son is dead. For all I know, it was an IED. Seventy percent of all the deaths occurred have been those roadside bombs. We had money in that bill to begin to build and send immediately mine resistant vehicles and increase by 80% the likelihood none of your cadets will die, general -- and they all voted against it. How, in good conscience, can you vote not to send those vehicles over there as long as there's one single, solitary troop there?"</blockquote></span><br /><br />Good answer Senator Biden!<br /><br />Senators Clinton? Obama? Care to respond?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-19441630870052649852007-07-22T14:27:00.000-05:002007-07-22T14:37:41.328-05:00My Narrow-Minded FaithThank you Ms. Green. Eloquent as always.<br /><br />----<br /><br />There is no God but God Almighty: The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, The Angel of the LORD, the Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ the Savior of the World, currently sitting at the right hand of the Father.<br /><br />All Praise, All Glory, All Worship to God in the Highest. And to Jesus His Son, soon to be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, who will sit upon the throne of his father David, in Jerusalem, and will rule the world in peace with an iron rod. We will beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. What a day that will be!<br /><br />Hallelujah!<br /><br />Amen!!<br /><br />----<br /><br />Today is the day of salvation! Seek Him while He may yet be found!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-65544318836050726022007-07-22T00:23:00.000-05:002007-07-22T00:35:30.483-05:00Worth remembering-- for it's beauty, if nothing else<p></p><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">The Garden<br /></span><br />How vainly men themselves amaze<br />To win the palm, the oak, or bays,<br />And their uncessant labors see<br />Crowned from some single herb or tree,<br />Whose short and narrow-vergèd shade<br />Does prudently their toils upbraid;<br />While all the flowers and trees do close<br />To weave the garlands of repose.<br /><br />Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,<br />And Innocence, thy sister dear!<br />Mistaken long, I sought you then<br />In busy companies of men:<br />Your sacred plants, if here below,<br />Only among the plants will grow;<br />Society is all but rude,<br />To this delicious solitude.<br /><br />No white nor red was ever seen<br />So amorous as this lovely green;<br />Fond lovers, cruel as their flame,<br />Cut in these trees their mistress' name.<br />Little, alas, they know or heed,<br />How far these beauties hers exceed!<br />Fair trees! wheresoe'er your barks I wound<br />No name shall but your own be found.<br /><br />When we have run our passion's heat,<br />Love hither makes his best retreat:<br />The gods who mortal beauty chase,<br />Still in a tree did end their race.<br />Apollo hunted Daphne so,<br />Only that she might laurel grow,<br />And Pan did after Syrinx speed,<br />Not as a nymph, but for a reed.<br /><br />What wondrous life is this I lead!<br />Ripe apples drop about my head;<br />The luscious clusters of the vine<br />Upon my mouth do crush their wine;<br />The nectarine and curious peach<br />Into my hands themselves do reach;<br />Stumbling on melons as I pass,<br />Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,<br />Withdraws into its happiness:<br />The mind, that ocean where each kind<br />Does straight its own resemblance find;<br />Yet it creates, transcending these,<br />Far other worlds, and other seas;<br />Annihilating all that's made<br />To a green thought in a green shade.</span><br /><br />Here at the fountain's sliding foot,<br />Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,<br />Casting the body's vest aside,<br />My soul into the boughs does glide:<br />There like a bird it sits and sings,<br />Then whets and combs its silver wings;<br />And, till prepared for longer flight,<br />Waves in its plumes the various light.<br /><br />Such was that happy garden-state,<br />While man there walked without a mate:<br />After a place so pure and sweet,<br />What other help could yet be meet!<br />But 'twas beyond a mortal's share<br />To wander solitary there:<br />Two paradises 'twere in one<br />To live in Paradise alone.<br /><br />How well the skillful gardener drew<br />Of flowers and herbs this dial new;<br />Where from above the milder sun<br />Does through a fragrant zodiac run;<br />And, as it works, the industrious bee<br />Computes its time as well as we.<br />How could such sweet and wholesome hours<br />Be reckoned but with herbs and flowers!<br /><br /><br />--Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">First publication, circa 1681<br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-64104528659617514432007-07-21T21:16:00.000-05:002007-07-21T21:29:59.111-05:00<span style="font-size:130%;"><div align="center">Tammy Faye Messner</div></span><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-size:130%;">1942-2007</span></div><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgbZLRKaMKUOTrYNnkDBE5mIf_H5E3IoPAoyFhLrz_x7HWNIcN0Mo-apwpJn8N7LOk2WO5_vCLaIGIwBNlNKrP3N-biYMGcUJ2SQcVZZTQ2LTedq1l-znoEQf2alVM5nmazdnBQ/s1600-h/Tammy+Faye.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrgbZLRKaMKUOTrYNnkDBE5mIf_H5E3IoPAoyFhLrz_x7HWNIcN0Mo-apwpJn8N7LOk2WO5_vCLaIGIwBNlNKrP3N-biYMGcUJ2SQcVZZTQ2LTedq1l-znoEQf2alVM5nmazdnBQ/s400/Tammy+Faye.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5089842289892364514" /></a><br /><div align="center">"May the good Lord bless and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May he lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace."</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-92037092161271392382007-07-21T16:19:00.000-05:002007-07-21T16:42:23.747-05:00ISAIAH 5:20, 24<p></p><br /><blockquote><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Bauer: Evil of Islamo-fascism evident in U.S., Israel</span><br />Jim Brown <a href="http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/07/bauer_evil_of_islamofascism_ev.php">OneNewsNow.com</a> July 17, 2007<br /><br />A prominent pro-Israel activist says "elites" in America are afraid to confront what he calls "the gathering storm of Islamo-fascism." And the evil behind Islamo-fascism, says Gary Bauer, is nearly incomprehensible.<br /><br />American Values president Gary Bauer has told the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) conference in Washington, DC, that freedom of religion and freedom of speech are under attack from a "sick" and "evil" philosophy that is behind the terror campaign currently being waged against Israel.<br /><br />Bauer, who was greeted with a 20-second standing ovation after being introduced, said a certain group in America wants to make excuses for Islamo-fascism.<br /><br />"If a bunch of Iraqi children are blown up because they're accepting candy from a U.S. soldier, these elites blame George Bush," Bauer shared. "If rockets are pouring into northern Israel from Hezbollah, these elites blame Israel. They come up with a thousand excuses -- 'well, it's social injustice; it's poverty' -- all sorts of things to explain away what's happening."<br /><br />The former presidential candidate characterized the fight against Islamic terrorism as "a great battle between good and evil." In addition, he said, the fruits of the Islamo-fascist ideology are evident in the terror campaign being unleashed against Israel.<br /><br />"[W]e've all seen the photos and the pictures of mothers in Gaza leaping with joy at the news that their son [or daughter] has blown himself up, as long as they're assured that he killed Jews in the process," Bauer pointed out. "Every mother, I believe, has been imbued by God with the impulse to protect their young. But this philosophy is so evil it can even make a mother shed that normal motherly emotion."<br /><br />CUFI's Second Annual Israel/Washington DC Summit continues through Thursday, July 19.<br /><br /><div align="center">----</div></span><br /><blockquote>"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! ...as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel."</blockquote></blockquote><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Personal Note:</span> This nation <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >IS</span> sick, and it's not simply a Democrat vs. Republican, or Liberal vs. Conservative issue. It's a <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Light</span> vs. <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Darkness</span> issue. It's a Children of God vs. the Children of Satan issue. The war is ratcheting up, but FEAR is not at issue here... not for the righteous, for what have we to fear knowing Light has already won? All we must do is hold the ground given to our care and defense. And warn as many as will listen that the time for choosing Light is now. Better now than tomorrow, for no one is promised tomorrow.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-61546091331574791932007-07-20T14:28:00.000-05:002007-07-20T14:46:43.479-05:00Need Any More Proof that Democrats are Idiots?Republicans are trying to insert language into a Homeland Security bill that will protect, from civil liability, Americans who report suspicious behavior to the authorities... ala the Flying Imam's who are currently suing the passengers who reported <span style="font-style:italic;">THEIR</span> suspicious behavior. All the evidence appears to paint a picture of deliberate suspicious behavior. And guess what? Yeah, that's right. Democrats are trying to kill the language that would protect citizens who turn in the bad guys. That means the clerk who reported to the authorities the Fort Dix plot could get sued. Why don't we take it a step further and make it illegal for anyone to report crime anonymously via community "CrimeStoppers" program. That'll teach the dirty snitches. <br /><br />Have the democrats learned nothing from 9/11? Do they not believe the heated testimony of those who want to kill Americans? Pull out of Iraq? Punish the citizens who report suspicious behavior? <br /><br />Democrats are too dangerous to hold office.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-47863959775205301622007-07-19T20:17:00.000-05:002007-07-19T20:19:09.394-05:00That's Right! No BLOODBATH after Vietnam PulloutJohn Kerry never disappoints. Always an entertaining liar.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-714804680867486732007-07-19T19:53:00.000-05:002007-07-19T20:01:27.194-05:00The Limbaugh Compromise<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >What follows is brilliant. And it'll never happen. Democrat in Congress don't have a single complete spine between them... Nope, I take it back. Joseph Lieberman DOES have a complete spine. </span><br /><br /><br />"I want to present a hypothetical here. I know this would not happen, but I'll offer a compromise, the Limbaugh Compromise to the Democrats in the Senate and in the House. The Limbaugh compromise: <br /><br />"I will agree to pull our troops out of Iraq if you Democrats will agree to my conditions after the defeat, and here are my conditions to agree with you on a pullout. <br /><br />"When Al-Qaeda celebrates after we pull out, after we admit defeat, every TV image of Al-Qaeda celebrating must be a split screen. On one side, Al-Qaeda celebrating; on the other side, I want pictures of Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer and Carl Levin smiling and congratulating themselves. <br /><br />"When Al-Qaeda slaughters Iraqis after we pull out and we see the pictures of this on TV, every TV image must show a split screen. On one side of the screen, the bloody slaughter scenes; on the other side of the screen, pictures of smiling Harry Reid, smiling Chuck Schumer, smiling Carl Levin congratulating each other with big laughs. <br /><br />"When Al-Qaeda takes over another village, ransacks another village, another town, another city, after we pull out, on one side of the screen, I want desperate villagers running for their lives. On the other side of the split screen, I want pictures of smiling Harry Reid, smiling Chuck Schumer, smiling Carl Levin, shaking hands and embracing and congratulating themselves. <br /><br />"When the American flag burners in the Middle East start burning [our] flag and the president and vice president in effigy, I want one side of the split screen to show every image of that happening. I want the flag burners. I want the characters of Bush and Cheney being burned in effigy, and on the other side of the split screen, I want pictures of a smiling Harry Reid, a smiling Chuck Schumer, a smiling Carl Levin embracing, shaking hands, laughing and congratulating themselves. <br /><br />"I think that's a reasonable compromise, and I've offered it here in all sincerity. If the Left will agree to this compromise, I will join them in calling for a pullout from Iraq."Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-3460914455008899922007-07-19T15:08:00.000-05:002007-07-19T19:47:53.133-05:00Christians Crucified In Iraq, Dutch MP SaysThe tolerant religion of peace...<br /><br />Comments on this article at BosNewsLife are not very 'Christian'. Here are all the comments-- in order --from a poster calling himself "Mohammed"<br /><br /><blockquote>"We we conquer Europe...starting with the Netherlands, Belgium ,England ,Germany and Sweden. Your children will be of Arabic blood. We will own your women. your children and your property. The demographics are on our side and you have spit upon your christian heritage. With time...not war or violence...we muslims shall overtake you, conquer you and your children will be as servants in thier own land."<br /><br />"In Europe...christians are a minority and getting even smaller. It is furtile ground for Islam This once staunchly ancient christian continent will be overcome by Mohammed. The new E.U. doesn't even mention God or mention its christian heretage. Athiesm and Masonic Relativism rule supreme in Europe. It is ready to fall to the forces of Islam...give us a mere 50 years and Europe will be Muslim."<br /><br />"We will overtake Europe and America shall be the next to fall. Within 100 years Islam will be the predominate religion. The fastest growing religion in America is Islam. Your wives and children are weak "Relativist". They shall take up the righteous name of Mohammed. They shall be fathered by Arabic blood .Give us but 100 years and America is Islamaic.You lost...we won!"<br /><br />"No...you so-called christians permit abortion, gay marriage and interbreeding between human and animal. You do nothing...nothing. Your so enthralled with your own perverse world. You will be converted to Islam...your women shall lay with real men of God. You perverted christians will reap what you have sown...death of the spirit and sons of satan."<br /><br />"Yes...you are weak. Allah shall stand on your pitiful hand wrigging. We have all the oil...you are slaves to oil. Your country will soon colapse because you need Arab oil. Your children shall cry from hunger and your young men shall fight for scrapes. Your women shall give themselves willingly to our Islamic way of life to feed thier starving children. Victory is ours!...watch the next 10 years and see how you will beg Allah and Muhammeds mercy!"<br /><br />"You make me laugh...your oil fields can't even pruduce 1/2 of what you need daily. When your economy collapses...Islam will be there to convert the remnant that survives after you kill each other over a loaf of bread. Have you seen you dollar lately...its worth nothing! Time is short for you christians."</blockquote><br />And Democrats want to cut and run in Iraq. Just remember, America deserves every terrorist action upon her soil because she has forgotten God. And Washington D.C. is 'Infidel' Prime.<br /><br />Another commenter, Jacques, has this to say...<br /><br /><blockquote>"Muhammad is right but partially only: We Christians have discarded our Christian heritage, allowing monstrous things in our societies such as abortion, cloning, same-sex, pornography: God's chastisement is upon us and we will suffer a lot under the Islamic yoke and perish under its sword unless we repent and we come back to our Christian roots. But Muhammad is wrong bcs the Christian martyr's blood will call revenge of God upon Islam. Islam will be destroyed and all Muslims will convert to the true faith or will perish: There are a lot of prophecies saying that. Islam was on the way to disappear one century ago: It is our money (the money of OIL) that revived it along the 20th century. That's the mistake of the Islamists: They believe that's their strong faith that make Islam to expand, while that's only their financial power."</blockquote><br />Amen. Islam is doomed to a future of blood and fire. Islam will never know peace apart from God. Not Allah, but the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the Angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God. No muslim will enter Heaven.<br /><br />Yeah. You can comment.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557885.post-38104550116654703862007-07-18T15:06:00.000-05:002007-07-18T15:09:05.389-05:00Sorry, no commenting except for team members. Wanna be one? Send a request. For now I'm simply tired of it all. Have something to say? Send it via email... maybe it'll find its way into comments. I'm not long for this blog anyway.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5