Bill Maher is perhaps the vilest man on television, but he has a soul... a soul bound for eternal damnation. No, I do not like the man; I find him condescending, arrogant and consistently infuriating, but that's okay. I'm allowed that. What I am NOT allowed, however, is to hate him.
I have no other choice, therefore, but to pray for him. His soul is without price. Were you able to mine the entire universe of all it's resources; gold, diamonds, energy, metal, etc, you could not reach the value (in terms of eternity) of even one human soul. Your soul is the most precious thing you possess, and you should not be weighting it down with blasphemy and sin.
If anyone ever need prayer, it's Bill Maher.Without forgiveness through Jesus Christ our Lord, he is doomed. Who knows how much time this man has left; we can't even know our own appointed time. It's clear, then, that today is the day of salvation. Right now. This minute. Don't put it off.
I encourage all of you to put this man's name on your prayer list.
Bill Maher's Tim Tebow tweet sparks calls for HBO boycott
No one, not even Kim Jong Il, need ever end up in hell. But that is likely where he is now. I would not wish that fate on anyone.
He had his life, and squandered it. He lived like a king, albeit in more communistic terms, but he was, for all intents and purposes the emperor of North Korea. He lived sumptuously while his people starved (Luke 16:19-31). He blustered and shook every sabre at his disposal over any and every threat (most of which whose sole desire was to see his people treated more humanely). But Kim Jong-Il was an irrational and paranoid man.
His is a kingdom that truly deserves to fall. It remains to be seen, however, whether or not his son is cut of the same cloth. Will he be able to consolidate power? Will he follow in his father's godless footsteps and join him, in time, in the fires of hell? Or will he find faith? Here now is someone we can pray for-- Kim Jong-Un. Someone for whom it is not too late.
No prayer now can help the father, however. He will get his day in court, as it were, at the great white throne judgment, but that judgment, I should point out, is for the wicked-- not for anyone with any hope of seeing heaven.
It is better that a man live in fear of the Lord, rather than any man with power to starve you... kill your body. Better to fear God who can destroy both body AND soul in hell.
I would say, 'God, grant him peace,' but that's not to be his fate. There is no peace for the wicked; not in this life, or the next.
And now he knows for certain the existence, glory, and holiness of God. And he knows hell... Intimately.
It's a shame, actually. No one should ever have to end up there. Not even the likes of Hitler, or Bin Laden. God is not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.
It's too late for him now. And it's too late for any of us to pray for him. But surely there is some like him which you know; it's not too late for them. You can pray now for them. And continue praying. God hears those kind of prayers... the persistent kind.
the Mask we wear
is wrought of air
press-dried ~ hard
and daubed with care
it does not hide
the face it bears
but hides the eyes
and heart it shares
what lies beneath
our tongue and teeth
are but dogs and vipers
loosed in sheath
take it off
and all will know
the face we've hid
and fear to show
yet the Mask is brief
it's like a leaf
swift from bud
and on to grief
we'd all do well
to speak our minds
cast off the shell
we hide behind
off, or on
~ it's naught to me
but worn to long
it becomes thee
ELAshley
120711.095449.1
Revisions:
120811.042517.6
120811.051126.6
...with an even more intriguing answer:
Did Noah's flood cover the Himalayan mountains?
"The key is to remember that the Flood didn't have to cover the present Earth, but it did have to cover the pre-Flood Earth, and the Bible teaches that the Flood fully restructured the earth. "The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished" (II Peter 3:6). It is gone forever. The earth of today was radically altered by that global event."
I remember watching a documentary years ago; a speculation concerning the 'global deluge' archaeological digs around the world not merely suggested, but pointed to. One portion I remember vividly was an animation of 'the fountains of the deep' breaking open the continent, pushing lands west and east; literally creating the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Too many people today, however, will accept any theory other than one that validates the biblical account... of anything!
So. DID Noah's flood cover the Himalayan mountains? No. It didn't have to. Those mountains didn't exist prior to the flood.
MORE EVIDENCE...
How about whale fossils in the Chilean desert?
Researchers from the USA and Chile reported, in November 2011, a remarkable bone bed on the west coast of northern Chile near the port city of Caldera, about 700 kilometres (440 miles) north of the capital, Santiago. Excavations uncovered the remains of some 80 baleen whales of which more than 20 specimens were complete. They also found other kinds of marine mammals including an extinct dolphin with tusks and a sperm whale.
...
The site in a corner of the Atacama Desert is now well above sea level and over a kilometre from the shore.
The Latin word from which the English
word "religion" is derived means "to bind up."
Jesus did not come to bind us up in rules and regulations or
rituals of devotion, but to set us free to be men as God intended.
Genuine Christianity is NOT religion.Neither does Christianity require one to be religious... just faithful.
New evidence of Noah’s Flood from Mexico
Dinosaur dig reveals dramatic insights into the degree of devastation, not so long ago...
"Researchers tried to reconstruct the sort of environment that could explain
the remarkable evidence they were finding in the area, but by ignoring Noah’s
Flood they were hard pressed to make a plausible story. It was clear that the sediments
pointed to a large watery catastrophe involving mass deaths but they were straining
to find a modern analogy."
Read the entire article here
------------
More than a few problems exist in the findings of 'accepted' science, and not just in the field of archaeology. Accepted Science tries to force its findings upon its preconceived notions; namely, that there's no room for God and the events of the Bible in its rational world of science-- God, to the adherents of accepted science, is irrational. It is not irrational, however, to ask from where do all our legends of dragons and such come, and draw a conclusion that perhaps, just perhaps, dinosaurs and man lived concurrently... and not aeons apart.
Who would be hurt by such a conclusion?
Perhaps the same people-- albeit in different robes; a different kind of people --who forced Galileo to recant of face excommunication. The unsaved world can't afford to accept that any element of Biblical history (especially The Flood) might just be true. To do so would force them to reevaluate the entire foundation of their science.
There is a mural in downtown Dothan, Alabama (there are, actually, a lot of murals), a tribute to Chief Eufaula of the Creek Indian nation. In 1836 while leading his people (numbering in the thousands) westward to new lands set aside for them--a reservation--he was afforded the honor of speaking to the Alabama legislature in the city of Tuscaloosa, then the capital of Alabama.
Here is his rather short address to those lawmakers. I wonder, though, if had he known what awaited them on their Trail of Tears, might he have addressed them differently?
“I come here, brothers, to see the great house of Alabama and the men who make laws and say farewell in brotherly kindness before I go to the far west, where my people are now going. In time gone by I have thought that white men wanted to bring burden and ache of heart among my people in driving them from their homes and yoking them with laws they do not understand. But I have now become satisfied that they are not unfriendly toward us, but that they wish us well. In these lands of Alabama, which have belonged to my forefathers and where their bones lie buried, I see that the Indian fires are going out. Soon they will be cold. New fires are lighting in the west for us, they say, and we will go there. I do not believe our great Father means to harm his red children, but that he wishes us well. We leave behind our good will to the people of Alabama who build the great houses and to the men who make the laws. That is all I have to say.”
"Tell General Howard that I know his heart. What he told me beforeI have in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed.Looking Glass is dead, Tu-hul-hil-sote is dead. the old men are alldead. It is the young men who now say yes or no. He who led the youngmen is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people --some of them have run away to the hills and have no blankets and nofood. No one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death. Iwant to have time to look for my children and see how many of them Ican find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs,my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fightno more against the white man."
Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé people, October 5, 1877At his surrender in the Bear Paw Mountains of Montana
We make promises, and pretensions toward trustworthiness, but Americans have found it very difficult to make good on any promise, to any person or people.
Nanci Griffith wrote beautifully on this national character flaw of ours... this land we've taken for our own... where the white man does as he pleases. She is a truly gifted songwriter. You can listen to it here
Deadwood, South Dakota
Well, the good times scratched a laugh
From the lungs of the young men
In a Deadwood saloon, South Dakota afternoon
And the old ones by the door
With their heads on their chests,
They told lies about whiskey on a womans breath
Yes, and some tell the story of young Mickey Free
Who lost an eye to a buck deer in the Tongue River Valley
Oh and some tell the story of California Joe
Who sent word through the Black Hills
There was a mountain of gold
[Chorus:]
And the gold she lay cold in their pockets
And the sun she sets down on the trees
And they thank the Lord
For the land that they live in
Where the white man does as he pleases
Some flat-shoed fool from the East comes a-runnin'
With some news that he'd read in some St. Joseph paper
And it was "Drinks all around" cause the news he was tellin'
Was the one they called Crazy
Has been caught and been dealt with
And the Easterner he read the news from the paper
And the old ones moved closer so's they could hear better
"Well it says here that Crazy Horse
Was killed while trying to escape,
And that was some time last September,
It don't give the exact date"
[Chorus]
Then the talk turned back to whiskey and women
And cold nights on the plains, Lord
And fightin' them indians
And the Easterner he says he'll have one more
'fore he goes
He gives the paper to the Crow boy
Who sweeps up the floor
And the gold she lay cold in their pockets
And the sun she sets down on the trees
And they thank the Lord
For the land that they live in
Where the white man does as he pleases
Where the white man does as he pleases
As he wants to, as he pleases
I recognize the need for an honest-to-goodness apology, but how do you apologize for wholesale destruction? I apologize every year for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but I have no illusions it can ever be accepted; to quote the unnamed woman in my yearly apology...
"I will forgive you when the dead do."Because of this, I can understand why our own 'flat-shoed fool' tried to apologize for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and I can understand why he was refused. Words have meaning, and because of this words must never be issued lightly or without the weight of authority, and responsibility. How does one apologize for 80,000+ instantaneous deaths, and tens of thousand later in lingering illness and cancer? How does one apologize to the Indian nations for what America has done to them? How does one apologize for the bondage, slavery and atrocities committed upon an entire racial group?
You can't. Not even money can repair the damage--though in our hubris and pride we continually attempt to purchase the assuagement of our national guilts, but these attempts never work. It's easier to say "I forgive you," than it is to actually forgive. Resentment and bitterness rarely ever completely leave our hearts.
Apologies therefore may be impossible but atonement is not. As I stated earlier, words must carry the full weight of their meaning, nothing held back, or they are meaning-less; words alone are insufficient in terms of atonement. There must be action behind those words. And that action must be consistent with the words we employ.
Listen to Chief Joseph's address in Washington, 1879, two years after his surrender of the Nez Perce Indians...
At last I was granted permission to come to Washington and bringmy friend Yellow Bull and our interpreter with me. I am glad I came.I have shaken hands with a good many friends, but there are somethings I want to know which no one seems able to explain. I cannotunderstand how the Government sends a man out to fight us, as it didGeneral Miles, and then breaks his word. Such a government hassomething wrong about it. I cannot understand why so many chiefs areallowed to talk so many different ways, and promise so many differentthings. I have seen the Great Father Chief [President Hayes]; theNext Great Chief [Secretary of the Interior]; the Commissioner Chief;the Law Chief; and many other law chiefs [Congressmen] and they allsay they are my friends, and that I shall have justice, but while alltheir mouths talk right I do not understand why nothing is done formy people. I have heard talk and talk but nothing is done. Good wordsdo not last long unless they amount to something. Words do not payfor my dead people. They do not pay for my country now overrun bywhite men. They do not protect my father's grave. They do not pay formy horses and cattle. Good words do not give me back my children.Good words will not make good the promise of your war chief, GeneralMiles. Good words will not give my people a home where they can livein peace and take care of themselves. I am tired of talk that comesto nothing. It makes my heart sick when I remember all the good wordsand all the broken promises. There has been too much talking by menwho had no right to talk. Too many misinterpretations have been made;too many misunderstandings have come up between the white men and theIndians. If the white man wants to live in peace with the Indian hecan live in peace. There need be no trouble. Treat all men alike.Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live andgrow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are allbrothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all peopleshould have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all riversto run backward as that any man who was born a free man should becontented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If youtie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen anIndian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, hewill not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked someof the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say tothe Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white mengoing where they please. They cannot tell me.
I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men aretreated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in acountry where my people will not die so fast. I would like to go toBitter Root Valley. There my people would be happy; where they arenow they are dying. Three have died since I left my camp to come toWashington.
When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of myown race treated as outlaws and driven from country to country, orshot down like animals.
I know that my race must change. We cannot hold our own with thewhite men as we are. We only ask an even chance to live as other menlive. We ask to be recognized as men. We ask that the same law shallwork alike on all men. If an Indian breaks the law, punish him by thelaw. If a white man breaks the law, punish him also.
Let me be a free man, free to travel, free to stop, free to work,free to trade where I choose, free to choose my own teachers, free tofollow the religion of my fathers, free to talk, think and act formyself -- and I will obey every law or submit to the penalty.
Whenever the white man treats the Indian as they treat each otherthen we shall have no more wars. We shall be all alike -- brothers ofone father and mother, with one sky above us and one country aroundus and one government for all. Then the Great Spirit Chief who rulesabove will smile upon this land and send rain to wash out the bloodyspots made by brothers' hands upon the face of the earth. For thistime the Indian race is waiting and praying. I hope no more groans ofwounded men and women will ever go to the ear of the Great SpiritChief above, and that all people may be one people.
Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekht has spoken for his people.
It would seem Chief Joseph and Martin Luther King, Jr. shared a dream.
You're mysteriously transported to 1939. You're a civilian outside a Nazi concentration camp. Soldiers have just shot and dumped hundreds of Jews into a shallow grave. Some of these Jews aren't dead, but you've just been ordered to get into a bulldozer and fill in the hole. If you refuse the soldiers will kill you and add your body to the grave. What do you do?
You're taken back a few years, before the carnage begins. You find yourself in a hotel room with a high powered rifle in your hands, aimed out the window, the sight centered on Hitler's chest. Knowing what you know about what he will soon set in motion, do you pull the trigger?
You find yourself transported decades earlier. You're a nurse in a hospital, and before you in a crib is the new born Adolf Hitler, the child who will one day murder 11 million people, including 6 million Jews... Do you place your hand over it's face and smother it?
Is it ever justifiable to take an innocent life? The Babe hasn't committed any crime. The new Führer has yet to begin his campaign of extermination. Those bodies in the grave, some still alive, cannot help the circumstances of their birth. What do you do?
You know what? I like The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. I like it a lot. I watched it Saturday afternoon for the 4th or 5th time. I know it catches a lot go flack, but the haters are just ticked that it's not a Vin Diesel flick. But I love Lucas Black. I don't think we get to see enough of this young man in movies or TV. I know, I know, Tokyo Drift is basically "Karate Kid" with ricers... albeit fast ones... but I love just love this movie.
In all fairness to the film, the second outing 2 Fast, 2 Furious isn't a great film at all. It's a very poor sophomore outing (on it's own*) with a weak plot, though it does advance the mythology somewhat (as did Tokyo Drift), but the way I see it, the first two films enjoyed some continuity in that Paul Walker stars in both. The third outing, Tokyo Drift messes with the continuity thing very differently, in that Vin Diesel shows up at the end, and one main character, Han, dies... which is strange, because Han is in Fast and Furious, the 4th film. The events of Fast and Furious take place before the third film, as one scene shows Han saying he's going to Tokyo where he's heard about an interesting racing scene happening. Strange continuity, but I love these films... especially Tokyo Drift.
But Lucas Black is a good actor, and has far more depth than the likes of Shia LeBeouf!
*Strange Continuity - It's all explained here.
One of the most intriguing lines in Tokyo Drift, to me, is what the Yakuza uncle said to his nephew in reprimand... for an "overlooked detail"...
For want of a nail, the horseshoe was lost
For want of a horseshoe the steed was lost
For want of a steed the message was undelivered
For want of the undelivered message the war was lost
Speed-- too much of it --allows for greater slacking in one's attention to detail. No detail is trivial. Every step on any journey of any distance is important.
Scientists have proven wrong, it is feared, the foundation upon which modern physics is built.
Speed of light 'broken' at CERN, scientists claim
The science world was left in shock when workers at the world’s largest physics lab announced they had recorded subatomic particles travelling faster than the speed of light.
If the findings are proven to be accurate, they would overturn one of the pillars of the Standard Model of physics, which explains the way the universe and everything within it works.
Einstein’s theory of special relativity, proposed in 1905, states that nothing in the universe can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. But researchers at the CERN lab near Geneva claim they have recorded neutrinos, a type of tiny particle, travelling faster than the barrier of 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometers) per second.
The results have so astounded researchers that American and Japanese scientists have been asked to verify the results before they are confirmed as a discovery.
If it turns out to be true, don't expect too many people to be banging the drum for the "new world order" in the physical world. Change comes slowly to enlightened thinkers. Especially when said change threatens to alter the established order; careers, fortunes, prestige, and power could be lost. Truth get's blurred when fortunes, careers, and power structures are threatened.
German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) had this to say about Truth...
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
This is seen even today in the fields of medicine and physical science. As it was in the days of Galileo, so it is today: western medicine, man-made global warming, evolution. Anyone who publicly doubts these canons is branded a heretic, or 'flat-earther,' and no better than a racist.
Regarding Medicine and Physical Science, there is too much money to be made off the fear of the eschewing the former to lift its metaphorical boot from the throats of its victims, and too much ideological capital already spent to allow the latter to ever admit its obvious flaws.
Here's a truth: The unregenerate heart will always seek to build its fortune on fear, be it of the personal or the preying upon variety, and fear will drive it to untold mongeries to build its fortunes higher than mere necessity dictates.
Avarice is king, necessity and truth be damned.
Take a quick read of Psalm 114. I'll wait...
There are many people, in many Christian circles who will tell you that God doesn't send storms or earthquakes to judge people, cities, or nations. Trouble with this point of view is a whole host of Old and New Testament examples of just that. So what are we to make of last month's earthquakes- two on the same day? Add to that question the strafing of the east coast by hurricane Irene? The extreme drought condition in Texas, and the fires that now burn there? California always seems to be burning... Coincidence?Is that what all this is?
A question has been nagging me for the last several years; a question I've tried very hard to ignore. Truth is, I didn't want to think about it, let alone write about it, or put in the inevitable toll of hours in research the question will involve-- I say 'will' because I've only just begun to dig into that research, and the writing will take more time than this one post. Quite honestly, I don't know if I'm writing a book or if I'm just answering a simple question with a rather longish answer.
Without belaboring the issue here's the question that's been hounding me for the last three or more years:
How much will it take-- how sinful must this world become --before God steps in and says 'enough is enough'?
While I've been to several other countries in my life all of them were when I was considerably younger, so I'm not going to try and over analyze the cultures of other countries, but stick primarily to this country, the United States of America.
Now comes 'disclaimer' time. I don't subscribe to Mark's whole caveman deal, and diets from 100,000 years ago; I don't buy into the whole evolution thing. But! Everything I've read elsewhere bears out Mark's conclusions as to diet and exercise; what is optimum and what should be avoided at all costs.
All this comes from an excellent book called Primal Blueprint, by Mark Sisson. This is a very detailed read-- lots of background and supporting data. The diet will be the hardest thing you try to do. Why? Because the diet is 'primal'... it harkens back to the days before the cultivation of grains. Can you imagine NOT eating bread? Cereal? ANYTHING with some sort of grain in it? Including beans and legumes? It's not easy to do. But the ultimate benefit to your body and overall health is enormous. I credit this approach to much of my own gains, or rather, loses.
Can you swear off ALL grains, beans & legumes for 30 days?
At Mark's Daily Apple, there's an ad at the top of the right column where you can receive a free 92-page eBook that outlines the whole Primal experience without all the chemistry lessons and nutrient breakdowns in the big book. Just give him your email address and you'll get a download link. This eBook is just enough to get you curious, I think... enough to where you just may decide you need to buy the book. I do get emails from Mark once or twice a week, because of this.
But Going Primal is much more than just diet. Here's an interesting bit of trivia. Did you know that going barefoot is healthier for you than wearing shoes? Shoes, in the long run, actually do more harm than good.
Getting and staying physically healthy is the best way to reach your potential in all the other thing(s) God has called you to do.
I heard Mayor Bloomberg recite the last several lines of an American Poet Laureate Billy Collins (2001-2003), a poem called The Names. It's hard to get any meaning from any stanza of poetry, let alone from the last few lines of any work, let alone from an unknown bit of verse from an obscure (as most American Laureates are) poet; everyone knows Shakespeare, and no one really struggles to understand his context or where it fits in the 'here and now'. The lines were meant to be moving, I'm sure, and perhaps the poem, in it's entirety, is.
I understand the reasoning behind The Names... it's what we do each year on September 11. We recite the names of 3,966 people taken from us (not counting terrorists). But it didn't truly resonate... not for me it didn't. There was no great history behind it or depth to its tone. There was nothing truly great about the poem itself except the reason Collins felt compelled to write it. Perhaps it was the Mayor's poor delivery. I've always felt poetry is best received from the author's own voice-- only he knows where all the hidden emphases lay.
But there was a real American poet at Ground Zero yesterday. Real as in, we know you and love you.
Paul Simon performed a muted and ethereal version of The Sound of Silence. He knew where all the hidden emphases lay.
The song is both dirge and warning, and while its tone fit the mood of yesterday's memorial, I wonder at its appropriateness. But there's at least one woman in the video above who both appreciated Simon's performance, and sang along.
Three paths to God? Nope. Sorry. There's only one way to God, and that is through His son Jesus Christ of Nazareth alone [John 14:6, 6:44, Acts 4:12].
For all that I appreciate everything Glenn Beck has done to restore some semblance of patriotism and constitutionality in America, as a Mormon his world view is already a bit distorted. As the truth cannot be found in Mormonism, it's not surprising it can't be found in the words he spoke in this video.
One other bit of inaccuracy... Moses did not chisel the commandments of God onto stone tablets. GOD wrote upon the tablets with His own finger -Exodus 24:12
When it comes to matters of the Constitution and the history of early America (specifically the founding of this nation and its documents) I'll gladly hear what Beck has to say. But in matters of God and faith, well it appears there is truth in the old saying that no one is perfect, i.e.; no one can know and understand everything.
I applaud him for what he tried to do in Israel this month, but his message was a sieve-- it couldn't hold truth.
An Affair Over Tea
I came for the tea,
Said I. And she
With eyes like kohl
In diamond lit dew
Smiled. Whereas we,
'neath our lush camellia tree,
Sojourn singly, the soul
Of this deep amber brew,
Bids us sit. The bowl,
To its subtle brim,
Where ripples swim
Sings, 'Drink deep of me.'
Our cup is empty
Said I. Then she
Lips blush like figs
Bright softly wet,
On this lets agree...
I'll fill you, if you fill me;
My soft petal to your stout sprig!
Our engagement now set,
'forget the din,' * quoth she
Then plunging ladle deep and up
Smoothly filled my empty cup
Singing, 'Drink deep of me.'
I came for thy tea!
Spoke I. And she
Cup shy to tongue
And a lilt to her gaze
Answer now, I challenge thee...
Lovest thou my heart more than tea?
For though we are yet young
Wilt thou love me all my days?
Stay thy cup! Thy troth unsung!
'Neath stars, moon, sun, camellia bowers
Pledge thou me thy love's endless hours?
Ne'er tiring to drink deeply of me?
Of thee, thy tea?
Asked I. And she
'Yes' in her eyes,
Come drink of me
Of mine own heady brew!
You sing to me, and I'll to you
Of our live's desires
'neath the circling sun!
And I smiled, filled with its fires
I would that our cups never empty
That your lips soft and chastely
Ever desire to drink deep of me!
I came for the tea!
She said. And she,
A dapple of sun
On her soft silk brow,
Smiled, I would drink thee
Daily, nightly, bold and lightly
Oolong, White, Matcha, Pu'er
Hot, cool or chill,
Wherever you are
And her lips kissed the brim of her porcelain cup
Brow softly down, her eyes looking up
Come, drink only of me!
For an age of me!
Forever of me
Come, my love, let's tea!
ELAshley
062411.044007.6
Revisions:
091211.105641.1
102011.125103.6 [including last two stanzas]
Only me?
Then come, let's tea...
-----
* "Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world."
--T'ien Yiheng
Rogue planets? Unwed to any star? Japanese astronomers now claim to have found such free-floating planets. Could it be that Immanuel Velikovsky's infamous book Worlds in Collision is now vindicated?
Was a rogue planet the titular force responsible for some of the Bible's most famous miracles?
Velikovsky is still near-universally poo-pooed, and more's the pity. People still accept the more than 150 year old findings of Darwin in spite of some of his scientific conclusions' complete real(read: modern)-world failure. Let's face it, there were things about the human cell Darwin could not have known; science had not advanced enough to give him a proper view into the inner workings of the cell. He didn't even know about DNA which was discovered (and not by the name 'DNA') 10 years after his Origin of the Species was first published in late 1859.
Before the early 1860's the cell was thought to be simply a bag of protoplasm with a nucleus. Darwin's understanding of DNA, therefore, was non-existent-- though he did have a grasp on the idea of mutations within what would later be called DNA.
I've said all this to say that we often assume that what we know at present is the 'end all, be all' of human understanding. Velikovsky, to many, is considered a crackpot, even though he's been right about a number of things.
But wandering stars? Even the bible spoke of such things... Jude 13
The Trouble with Happiness
Alexander Green, Whiskey & Gunpowder, May 16, 2011
"Every life is lived between the poles of joy and sadness. Laughter and love are part of it. But so are pain and suffering. To deny the tragic aspects of the world is to suppress a large part of what it means to be human..."
Great artists often try to awaken us — or stir our conscience — by reminding us of the more doleful aspects of life. In response to the 16th Street Church bombing in 1963, an attack by the Ku Klux Klan in Birmingham that killed four girls, saxophonist John Coltrane wrote "Alabama," an instrumental work that expresses anguish and sorrow more eloquently than words."
In 1890, Vincent Van Gogh, overcome by feelings of worthlessness, walked out into the southern French countryside and shot himself in the gut with a pistol. Just 37, he died from the wound two days later. Yet in the previous two years — and despite his bleakness — he completed more than 200 paintings, many of them masterpieces.
Handel, after years spent at the top of the musical world, fell into terrible poverty, ill health, and deep depression. Yet from the depths of profound despair, he completed his greatest work, "Messiah."
Beethoven raged against advancing deafness and his own finitude, yet created immortal works during this period, including his Fifth Symphony; his only opera, Fidelio; his late string quartets; and the Ninth Symphony, with its triumphant "Ode to Joy."
We all want to be happy. But life is also about education, work, courage, honor, empathy, and resilience in the face of hardship. Real contentment comes from a feeling that your life is worthwhile, that it is dissolved into something meaningful and great. That leads to gratitude.
And gratitude, it turns out, is an indispensable part of happiness."
It's worth a read, if you have time.
Let's start with a beaver. I like beavers. I like Mr. Beaver in the first Narnia movie. I like anything with innate ability to build a house... even if it has to cut down the forest with its bleeding teeth to do so.
I also like Mel Gibson, despite the all-around angry guy he's become, or has finally allowed us to see. I've loved him as an actor ever since Galipoli, my first Mel Gibson film, a beautifully poignant and tragic historical epic.
I'd title this post as one in a long line of my "Pithy Reviews" but I haven't seen this film. I simply hope to. Judging strictly from the trailer alone it appears to be just what the doctor ordered for Mr. Gibson... both personally and professionally. I can only hope there is a lesson in the sets and dialogs of The Beaver that will give Mr. Gibson some personal clarity and, perhaps, a point in the right direction.
One review I've read claims this is not a drama... and is not meant to be comedic. I can only imagine how uncomfortable some might feel watching a man brought to this depth of depression and not be asked to laugh. The previews takes pains to make us want to laugh, so... how does that work? A drama that's not a comedy but asks us to laugh anyway. What is funny about a man who breaks down and struggles to find his way back? I hope I get to find out.
Pithy Review
(a few years late)
The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke. The most depressing movie I've ever seen. I want to say it was also beautiful, but now that I think about it... many of the camera shots were beautiful; the imagery was captivating, but there was nothing beautiful about the story. In short, The Wrestler is a personification of personal despair and flogging loneliness.
I'm not even sure I liked it; I felt enthralled by something I couldn't pull my eyes away from, like a train wreck you see coming but can't turn away from. There wasn't even a Rocky fanfare at the end... not at the beginning, the middle... no where. It opened without a shred of discernible hope, and it died that way. Even at the end with the hope of a Talia Shire moment in the person of Marisa Tomei... Nothing.
Disaster porn. You don't want to see the blood, the tears, or the bodies as you drive slowly by... but neither can you turn away. I've always liked Mickey Rourke, and his performance here was stellar, but a more depressing film he could not have made.
In the end I was, perhaps, more impressed that I sat all the way through it without changing the channel. Which means I'll likely watch it again sometime in the future.
Sucker Punch
viewed: 040211
Anyone who's seen the trailers? That's pretty much the movie, in terms of action. The creators chose not to tell you that there was another dark, depressing, less visual facet to their film. Nor did they bother to inform you that it is this other facet which propels all the action. Without the part you didn't know about, the rest falls apart.
As a whole, the movie is ultimately tragic; a Romeo & Juliet without a Romeo. You know how it's going to end in the first 8 minutes. They tell you. So don't be surprised or ticked off when it happens. But it's this knowledge that keeps you rooting for Baby Doll. You want her to win. You want her to escape her fate, but with the final rap of a small hammer it's done.
Sucker Punch succeeds very well in this respect; the investment you make in wishing her well. Another plus in Sucker Punch's favor is the music-- forget the art and color, you already knew that was in there. But the music! Specifically, White Rabbit (originally of Jefferson Airplane fame) by Emiliana Torrini.
She totally owns this tune. Before Emiliana all we had was Jefferson Airplanes cheap two-and-a-half minute, albeit great tune. Truly great. But Miss Torrini's version, clocking in at just under 5 minutes 10 seconds... modern, embellished, loud and explosive, is worth the .99 cents I spent to download at Amazon. Jefferson Airplane ends White Rabbit abruptly with little fanfare, leaving you wanting more. It's a shame it took 40 years for someone to explore the lengths to which Jefferson Airplane could have taken this iconic tune.
You may have heard Sucker Punch described as 'eye-candy'. Well, it is. The whole thing, not just the hookerishly-clad chickies. Even the depressing parts. And that's about as negative I can be. Would I buy this on DVD? I haven't decided yet.
But I am pleased with my music download.
I've got a headache. The kind that shoots spears of lightning down the muscles of the neck and back-- it's a vice that seems to know but one direction. Headaches, for me, cause everything else to grind to a near standstill.
I wrote a poem once, while in the beginning throes of a migraine. As short as it is, it still took more than an hour to get right.
This time around my inspiration came not from the headache, but from a single word which caught my eye while scanning a random page of text... That word?
Capulet
Capulet sing
To the morning sun
Of all the things you haven't yet done
Ask him to stay
A little long 'neath his cover
Give you more time
Alone with your lover
Capulet sing
Capulet sing
To the dark starry night
Sing of the things you haven't got right
Ask them to shine
A little long in the sky
Give you and your lover
More time for goodbye
Capulet sing
Soft-throated murmurs
And sighs on the bed
Clasped and fervent
To the boy you have wed
Oh, Capulet sing
Of eyes deep and burnished
Tongues steeped in honey-sweet dew
Your lips on the curves
Of your dear Montague
Oh Capulet sing
Poison and daggers
Are terrible things
Sing and let go
Without fear or doubt
To your sweet Montague
Unstained and devout
Sing Juliet and maybe you'll see
A life beyond whispers
And cold rosary
Capulet sing
To the cold fates of love
Pray to the God who watches above
For Romeo rises
And Mercury too
Tumult and Tybalt
By the hand of your poor Montague
Oh, Capulet sing
Soft-throated murmurs
And sighs on the bed
Clasped and fervent
To the man you have wed
Oh, Capulet sing
Of dreams for the future
Of love, unembattled and true
Your lips on the breast
Of your dear Montague
Oh, Capulet sing
Capulet ring
Capulet love
Till the morning takes wing
Oh, Capulet love
Oh, Capulet sing
Daggers and poisons
Are terrible things
ELAshley
033111.110726.
.113625.1
This is more of a song and, as is rarely the case, I actually have a melody for it-- I already know the chords, I know notes of the whistle between chorus and verse. The poem/song is what's called an aubade. The tune 'Save Tonight' by Eagle Eye Cherry, is a fine example of an aubade.
Of the Fiction/Nonfiction variety...
"There's a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state; the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people."
--Commander William Adama, Battlestar Galactica, quoting Jefferson while commenting on the unrest in Egypt.
While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
Behold my brethren...
[Link]0050 GMT: We've all heard of the religious harmony displayed during protests in Cairo. But now we have images showing the chivalry displayed by Christians of Egypt, during this time of crisis: @nevinezaki has this photograph, showing Christians, forming a human chain around their Muslim countrymen to protect them while they pray in Tahrir Square, Cairo:
You and every other American, past and present, who did not stand up for the only known source of goodness in our society-- namely; God.
Consider the thoughts of Dr. Michael Youseff...
It came as no surprise to me that, immediately after the shooting, the liberal media jumped on the bandwagon with accusations. Because the congresswoman was a Democrat, members of the press surmised that the shooting had to be an act of "right-wing extremist groups."
Why didn't they wait to comment until they had examined the psychological history of the young gunman? What about evidence of occult worship found in his home? Why was it okay to immediately and emotionally target a group of people without all of the facts?
There is something else they have overlooked. Those who are fighting so strongly to have God removed from our culture do not realize that when God is kicked out of public life, He will not be replaced with "nothing." Instead, Satan and his demons are hard at work and are waiting with baited breath for the vacuum created by God's name being evacuated from a society. The void that remains will not be empty; it will be occupied by Satan and his minions.
Attributed to Spinoza is the oft quoted phrase, "Nature abhors a vacuum." And, since nature is the product of a loving God, it must therefore be true that God Himself abhors a vacuum. I imagine God sees the vacuum as waste, whereas evil views it as an opportunity. What does that say about those who saw in the Arizona shooting an 'opportunity' to strike out at those they hate? Namely, all those who offer an alternative to Liberal ideology, and whom the Left deems a threat to their social agenda.
Dr. Youseff is correct; you cannot kick God out of education and the public square and expect nothing to fill the void. We are reaping what we've sown. Nothing more, nothing less.
Only an idiot points his finger at any one person-- Sarah Palin, for instance --for purely partisan reasons, to assign personal blame. This is the same mentality behind the Obama administration's steadfast refusal to appoint proper blame to radical Islam for the Fort Hood shooting, the Underwear Bomber, and the Time Square Bomber; all adherents to the religion of Islam.
This is the rub for many honest thinking Americans-- how can one group (specifically progressives) deflect blame for the religion of Islamic perpetrators of crime, despite overwhelming evidence against their faith, and yet blame anyone and everyone conservative without the slightest scintilla of evidence? How? Because the Left isn't interested in honest-to-goodness Truth. What they're interested in is ideology-- their own.
And it's an ideology void of God.
Want someone to blame? Take a good hard look at yourself. What have you done to defend rightness and goodness in your world? What did you do to defend God, and the right of everyone to freely worship and teach Him in public?
The reason so many people want God expunged from the public square is because they want to be able to do as they please without any fear of social guilt. If God is banished, who can tell them that what they choose to do, and how they choose to live, is wrong?
Jared Laughner is to blame. He pulled the trigger. If anyone else is to blame it is we who stood by and allowed the godless to strip us of our Constitutional right to freely worship the only true God... YHWH, Jehovah, Hashem, the LORD G-d Almighty, to whom each of us owes our very existence.
What was it Edmund Burke said?
All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Stand up for God, and fight back against those who hate Him-- and PRAY! Nothing else can push back against the growing tide of violence.
After Thought:
I have to wonder if the Left, Media and Democrat Party included, has abandoned commonsense. Do they think they can win votes by abandoning sound, logical reasoning? Fomenting hatred toward their political foes is going to sweep them back into power, how? The unprecedented level of death threats against Sarah Palin since last Saturday's shooting helps their cause, how? It was right and good that Obama took the stance he did last night against apportioning blame unduly and unjustly. He should have said as much, publicly, days ago... his words appear to have sounded upon deaf ears among his base. And, I have to wonder, had he spoken out days ago, would it have made any difference?
Pardon my language folks, but the very sound of this man's voice makes me want to projectile vomit.
It's not illegal to have an opinion. But neither is it illegal to be a complete and utter moron. If this is what passes for enlightened thinking on the Left, then let's hope the Left is quickly relegated to defunctory status-- the sooner the better. I'm not sure how much more idiocy I can continue to take from men like Maher. I think I'd rather gouge out my ears than have to listen to the likes of this buffoon. Praise God the Left was dealt that embarrassing defeat last November.
This man isn't going to like hell one bit.
How's this for an interesting dichotomy? Our president insists:
but NOT proof of citizenship.
There's something wonky with our president's priorities, not to mention a bit self-serving.
But have it your way, America. After all, this nation resembles more and more the neighborhood Burger King than the America our Constitution describes. Yes, the Constitution is ALWAYS good, but when you can add or remove-- at will --any ingredient that doesn't tickle your palate, is it still the same advertised burger? Or have we, by adding and subtracting the things we do and don't like, created an altogether new burger?
President Obama does seem to enjoy a good burger, but then there's nothing wrong with that... unless your name is Michelle.
I'm coming out of a week-long illness/fugue. On the 23rd I helped a co-worker carry a number of cases of printer paper to "the dungeon," and that night I thought I was on my way to the emergency room. Sitting in an office all day doesn't offer much in the way of exercise, and so, I ended up over-exerting myself.
I felt uncomfortable all Christmas weekend while visiting with my family, and it only got worse upon returning home. But last night... FINALLY, after some prayer at church Thursday evening, I seem to be out of the woods.
I literally thought I was going to die. Without going into specifics, I hurt something in my neck and chest while carrying those boxes, and that hurt kept me light-headed and heavy-chested, with muscle spasms up both sides of my neck.
I didn't go to the hospital... don't have the money for it. So I relied on prayer, fasting, and a number of healthy cocktails. I'm feeling so much better, but not entirely out of the woods.
I give God all the credit, with kudos to sensible 'natural' applications, for getting me to a new year. Whether I live or die, it's all in His hands anyway, but it's nice all the same to still be here.
It is my wish that everyone have a rich (spiritually speaking) and prosperous 2011.