Howard Finster
July 16, 2010 Leave a comment
Road to Prayer by Howard Finster
Dirty Harry In The Green Zone
July 16, 2010 Leave a comment
Read this column by Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal first and then, if you’re a Democrat, you’ve got to ask yourself a question: ‘do I feel lucky?’ Well, do ya, punk?
Did President Bush lie about WMDs in Iraq? Would he do this for political advantage? Would anyone do this to gain political advantage? In this WSJ article you will find out who has lied and who sought out political advantage. And, they continue to do so. God help us.
The Big Shebang Theory
July 16, 2010 Leave a comment
In a marriage relationship, men want to be honored and women want to be loved. We all know how to do the opposite. But, when love and honor are fused, then all is well in the nuclear family.
Mel-odrama
July 16, 2010 1 Comment
There is no doubt that by now you have heard news reports replaying Mel Gibson’s rants to his girlfriend. I am not going to comment on what he has said. It is really none of my business. I will say that the media has no business playing these tapes and the public has no business listening. It is an egregious invasion of privacy. I realize that people are hungry for gossip and ready to gorge themselves on any hypocrisy that can be scrounged up. But no one I know would want to be cannibalized in the same way.
If the woman has a legitimate complaint of physical abuse against Gibson then she should get the authorities involved. Other than this, the playing of these tapes is malicious in intent and serves no real redemptive purpose. The tapes should not be used in court and should be inadmissible as evidence.
Would you want tapes of all your bad/hysterical moments played to the public? No, you wouldn’t. Mel, a devout Catholic, should know though, that God, the Operator, is listening in.
That’s Too Wicked!
July 15, 2010 Leave a comment
Holy summer in the city! Hand me my parasol. Chicago is fried-egg-on-the-pavement hot. Here are some beat-the-heat suggestions (and don’t forget to put your undies in the freezer):
The Eyes Have It
July 14, 2010 Leave a comment
The phrase “The Men Who Stare Like Goats” came into my head yesterday morning and I am still wondering why. I never did see the movie, the title of which holds the correct phrase. Yet, this is how my mind works. And, usually by this time some occurrence comes alongside the enigmatic words to give them some context and relevance. But, nothing of any consequence has happened yet. I can only tell you of what happened yesterday as I headed home from work.
Yesterday afternoon I found a single seat in the “upper deck” of the 5:04 West Line commuter. From my perch I could look out over Chicago as the train headed west. At one point, not far from the station, the train stopped where it usually did. Here incoming trains and outgoing trains wait on each other to pass. While we waited another commuter train heading east came right up next to our train, on my side, and then passed by. I could look directly across into the engineer’s cabin. There, I saw the train’s engineer reading the Chicago Sun Times as the train was moving towards Ogilvie station, his eyes focused on the day’s events. I turned back to look into our coach to see if anyone else had seen the same thing and then I saw it: staring. Four men sat ogling an attractive young woman.
The woman sat in a single seat across the upper aisle from me. A beautiful brunette, she wore a flowery silk dress with a slit on both sides and in front, a ‘V’ tucked in between two exclamation points. (My outfit was more of an “H”. I received only perfunctory glances.) This whole ‘business’ brings me back to my present free-association dilemma: Men Who Stare Like Goats. I’ll have to wait and see what meanings today brings to the fore. Maybe, though, it is staring me in the face.
In Joy So High, So Very High
July 13, 2010 Leave a comment
When two of my children were much younger they were home schooled. In the evenings after dinner I would read to my son and my daughter from Hans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories
Here’s what we read…
The Little Mermaid
The Princess and the Pea
The Little Match Girl
The Emperor’s New Clothes
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The Ugly Duckling
Thumbelina
The Snow Queen
And so many more…
…I remember reading the Snow Queen while snow was falling quietly one winter evening.
From Hans Christian Andersen’s diary, a prayer:
“Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!”
I recommend reading this book to your children:
Hans Christian Andersen: The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories, translated from the Danish by Erik Christian Haugaard,
Here are some excerpts:
“And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety–they were with God.” The Little Match Girl
“”I cannot bear it!” said the pewter soldier.” I have shed pewter
tears! It is too melancholy! Rather let me go to the wars and
lose arms and legs! It would at least be a change. I cannot
bear it longer! Now, I know what it is to have a visit from
one’s old thoughts, with what they may bring with them! I have
had a visit from mine, and you may be sure it is no pleasant
thing in the end; I was at last about to jump down from the
drawers.”” The Old House
Week in Review – July 5, 2010 –July 11, 2010
July 11, 2010 1 Comment
I don’t remember Monday.
Tuesday, on Nova, I learned that the universe is rapidly expanding away, from where to where, I don’t know. But this explains my need to be going somewhere right now. I also heard about red shifts and blue shifts (not the loosely hanging dress but light speed wavelengths) and that light travels at 186,000 m/sec. Physicists have not been able to break this speed record first clocked by Einstein. Nature has, though, and right after the Big Bang. The hyper-speed is called inflation. The temperature of the universe is universally uniform, a lovely green on the light spectrum. I also learned that light slows down when refracted by water or a prism. This will come in handy when I wear a bathing suit this summer. There was also a news report that there is a big hole in the universe. “Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size,” said Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota reported in a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. I somehow think this will involve me someday (or George Bush). (Perhaps it is the effects of progressivism waiting in the wings.)
Wednesday, during my regular doctor’s appointment I was told that I could go on roller coasters but I must wear a neck brace. This piece of news was of special interest to me especially since I hadn’t mentioned to my doctor my desire to ride a roller coaster or even the inclination to be near one. All I told my doctor during my appointment was how fragile I felt since having two surgeries on my neck for a herniated disc (C5-C6 for all of you ER nurses). I never mentioned to him that last Sunday night I saw a Great America commercial on TV. At that time I mentioned to my daughter that I would love to go but I felt I couldn’t risk it anymore with my weakened spine. My daughter didn’t care – “roller coasters are for throwing up.”
Thursday night I saw commercials for the World Cup and still felt no desire to watch the human pinball machine in action. The guys are cute, though. If the World Cup was ninety minutes of soccer guys doing underwear commercials (ala the Vanity Fair June 2010 cover), well then, I would become a soccer mom.
I don’t remember Friday night. I went to work on Friday, got on the train at the end of the work day and arrived home on Saturday morning.
Last night, sitting in my favorite Mexican restaurant, I was an OR nurse for about fifteen minutes. No, I didn’t cut into anyone. Rather, a woman pointed me out as being a nurse she knew who worked with her in the OR at Rush-Copely Medical Center. She said this because she noticed my eyes, the only part of me that would stick out of a surgical gown. Prior to coming over to me, she had her picture taken with an “El Puente” sombrero on her head and a lighted cupcake. Her scruffy boyfriend ducked under the hat with margarita in hand just in time to have his picture taken next to her. After the photo shoot she waved “Hi” in my direction and I waved back in birthday courtesy. When she walked over to me later I told her that I was good with knives and forks but that I was only a lowly electrical designer who worked in Chicago. I again wished her Happy Birthday but without my imaginary scrubs. She returned to her Margarita, one of two influences in her life at the moment.
This morning I head to church. I hope to make sense of all these things or to at least make a clean start for next week. The Lord is my Shepherd and I need to get back to the fold.
Addicted to Love
July 7, 2010 Leave a comment
With the economy doing a head and shoulders march toward another recession, our President Obama is busy at work laying tracks for his progressive soul train and bypassing the dire economic issues at hand. What economy? Obama has global warming, cap and trade, education reform and a host of other subordinate issues in his docket to dabble in first. Now, his AG Eric Holder is filing suit against Arizona’s immigration law. Stupid move and what’s this? Obama finally joined in the battle against the gulf oil spill after James Carville read him the riot act. Initially, Obama didn’t want the help of other nations to fix the spill. I guess he’s too big to fail.
On the record, Obama spent his first year in office on a national health care bill and on blaming Bush. We now have a national health care that our country can not pay for and that most Americans do not want and Bush looks better than ever. On his recent prosperity tour, Obama and his slick cohort Joe Biden proclaimed how great things are and will be in America. His “big picture” is to campaign jobs into creation by the sheer force of his community organizer will and yet, no improvements still in the economy or in the hopes of the American people.
Obama recently let us know that some people make enough money and so he means to take the ‘excess’ from them. This concept of taking someone’s property is stealing to God (see Commandment #8) but is re-labeled as “redistribution of wealth” by the god-man, Obama. And, he continues to verbally hammer away on big business even though big business, any business for that matter, is the cornerstone of our economy. Obama is the “fat cat” of fairness with Biblical disproportions
We have a president who inspires no confidence whatsoever. He’s definitely not the likes of Martin Luther King or Ghandi or even a Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter did not inspire confidence either, but he didn’t erode the national confidence as Obama has done and Obama’s reign of financial terror is not over. His big government Keynesian style economy is certainly more of a tyranny than any big corporation could ever become – you have to pay taxes. Economic slavery is only a jot and tittle away from becoming law.
Obama is more like a misunderstood child (Carter-like) who needs to constantly crusade in order to bolster his rolled up shirt sleeve poster boy image. He wants to be admired and loved. He hopes there is an Oprah in all of us to coddle him. He also believes that his image, a Harvard law grad from humble beginnings, will inspire the people to follow him. To be sure, there are lemmings still in tow. I don’t buy it and you and I can’t take it to the bank, either. With all his highly polished learning, he only knows how to get around laws. He is incompetent as a leader. And, he has become indecisive to a fault on crucial national issues while being dogmatically decisive on his own ideological issues, thereby creating havoc. Maybe he thinks that if he waits long enough the problem will go away. Or, another campaign is in order. Woodrow Wilson, move over.
Obama spends a lot to time playing catch-up because he’s spends most of time tweaking his constant mutual admiration society address in front of his favorite tele-prompters: Axelrod and Emmanuel. He is a tireless campaigner for himself. He wants to feel the love on the campaign trail that he doesn’t feel in the polls. He doesn’t seem to see anything beyond those two screens or himself. Behind the screens of this Manchurian Candidate there is a defiant scrapper (Black Panther-esque) who hones in on a certain issue of interest to himself (maybe basketball or his next golf game) and ignores everything else. He doesn’t get it. And, the American people are getting nothing but frustrated and hungry. Another great depression is headed our way if Obama remains in office. You might as well face it – this President is addicted to love.
The Fourth Of July
July 3, 2010 Leave a comment
“O Beautiful for Spacious skies:”
Our star-spangled sky awaits the launch of the surprise party.
Batteries of anxious fireworks keep cover in the bushes,
“Happy Birthday!” forever moments away.
***
The guests of honor arrive blanketed with family.
Squares of earth are filled with tonight’s squatters.
“Look!” The party now begins:
A single whistling flare finds its way up to center stage –
KA-BOOM!
Now, other party favors come out of hiding:
Reverberation Red
Whistling White
Brandishing Blue
Go-for-it Green
Poised Purple
Startling Silver
Yackety Yellow
Gracious Gold
Outspoken Orange
***
A jetting candle begins with a swoosh,
Then,
a hunting, hinting sizzle scorches a path upward
Then,
A silence pauses mid air
Then,
a whispered cork pop releases
KA-BABOOM!
A sudden burst of Spectacular etches America’s book cover.
The book:
The Land of the Free, The Home of the Brave.
***
The birthday party continues on the ground:
– Sparklers arcing on sticks, light splashing onto large-eyed looks
– Smoke bombs cloaking crowds in fogs
– Snakes coiling out of their black dot cages
– Rockets shooting straight up to find freedom
– Fountains erupting impulsively
– M80s breaking the drums of ears.
***
Heaven gazing figures are photographed,
Secretly captured by a popping flash bulb sky.
Gun powder sulphers the air,
Ashes rain down speckling faces.
***
Today, there has been preparation for the birthday party:
Parades lined the streets,
Marching bands bugled and drummed The Stars and Stripes,
Pies, apple and blueberry, were swallowed à la mode,
Picnics popped up in parks,
Punch tie-dyed white tee shirts,
Potato sack races tripped up with laughter,
Horseshoes were flung at neighbors.
***
Flags are bowed forward on porches,
Flags wave fields of stars,
Flags march stately with fields unfurled,
Flags receive honor when are hats are removed, when salutes are rendered,
Rendered by men and women who secured their honor with life and limb.
Grandparents, smiling their tearful approval from lawn chairs,
Stretch out tired legs and stand for Old Glory.
***
America, you are beautiful,
From sea to shining sea beautiful.
Tonight we see your birthday smile,
Your ear-to-ear you grin, revealing to us your dazzling braces:
“Liberty under God and the law”.
Each year we return to your birthday party with fused smiles and arsenals of hope
Seeking sparks of optimism to ignite our dreams and shoot them skyward.
With wide-eyed wonder we stare into your “Spacious Skies”
Wishing you many more.
******
© Sally Paradise, 2010, All Rights Reserved
Cindy Wity 