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Our Daily Thread 7-15-13

Good Morning!

On this day in 1099 Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders.

In 1789 the electors of Paris set up a “Commune” to live without the authority of the government. The very first Hippies? 😯

In 1870 Georgia became the last of the Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union.

In 1876 George Washington Bradley of St. Louis pitched the first no-hitter in baseball in a 2-0 win over Hartford.

In 1922 the duck-billed platypus arrived in America from Australia, and was exhibited at the Bronx Zoo in New York City.

In 1958 five thousand U.S. Marines landed in Beirut, Lebanon.

In 1968 ABC-TV premiered “One Life to Live”.

And in 1973 Nolan Ryan became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season.

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Quote of the Day

“News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.”

Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe

Now that’s a name. 🙂

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That’s almost as cool a name as this one. 🙂

Next up, well I did mention platypus’……… 🙂

And for birthday musicians today, Mr. Joe Satriani. Consider this your wake-up call. 🙂 Flying in a Blue Dream, live.

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Anyone have a QoD for us?

89 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-15-13”

  1. Well, I’ve been watching for a while hoping someone who had something to say would be first. I guess it’s up to me. Continuing from yesterday, we sing “In Christ Alone” in church several times a year. We also sing “Before the Throne” and “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” from time to time (the organist moves to the piano for these). I am a traditionalist, but love these and like singing them periodically.

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  2. I think I managed to one-up my sister on FB (not easily done, as I tend to not “get into it” with her). She’s an atheist-Quaker (whatever that is), big-time pro-choice (having had an abortion, herself) and is ultra-liberal. From time to time she links to something called the “Christian Left,” which had this to say this morning: “Um, we don’t live in a country where we allow vigilantes to kill kids, mmmkay? Say whatever you want about “the evidence.” The evidence is this: One person had a gun; One didn’t; One person is an adult; One was a kid; One person was minding his own business; One was looking for a fight; The kid is dead and the vigilante is free. Not OK. Not OK by any stretch of the imagination.”

    Me: There’s a lot that’s unfortunate about this case, not the least of which is the fact that people who weren’t there at the scene and weren’t there in the courtroom continue to try to use it in support of their own agenda.

    Her: What agenda would that be? Life?

    Me: Well, if someone is seriously “pro-life” there are far bigger outrages than this one to pursue.

    The only thing she could think of to reply was “Wow.” I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean.

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  3. Hard to have those conversations, Linda. I have topics that I just don’t mention in my family of siblings. Sweet that I can talk about those things with my children.
    I had company for dinner tonight and we had such a good visit that I missed being first tonight 🙂
    One was a single lady translator who just had her dedication. Didn’t finish translating the New Testament, but most of it. God is so faithful. After struggling with little interest shown by the language community, at the dedication they were all so thankful and enthusiastic. It helped tremendously that they had small, solar players with the recorded scriptures for sale. As folks heard the Bible in their language, it had great impact. One fellow explained to another that he taught himself to read by listening and following in the Bible.

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  4. Hello, ladies.

    Linda- “Pro-choice” believers will not listen to any reasoning whatsoever. Their only agenda is to allow any woman to kill an unborn baby up until the baby is born naturally, Only then do they consider it human life. Never mind all the evidence saying it is a living human well before birth.

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  5. Good morning. I don’t have anything to add either, after all the excitement of yesterday.
    Except to say that was a weird clip about Inigo Montoya.
    Weatherman says most of the rain is over for a while. Hot and humid this week.
    I’m happy to see the rain go.

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  6. …in 1973 Nolan Ryan became the first pitcher in two decades to win two no-hitters in a season.

    AJ- do you remember the time a pitcher lost a no hitter? I think it was the Yankees at Cleveland, and the Yankee pitcher walked a batter in the bottom of the ninth inning, spoiling a perfect game. Then he lost it when there was an error, allowing the runner to score the only run in the game. So you had a pitcher winning a shut-out and a pitcher losing a no hitter in the same game. Must have been back in the 80s or 90s.

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  7. Okay, so I missed the details. Here they are, according to Wikipedia:

    On July 1, 1990, (Andy) Hawkins pitched a no-hitter for the Yankees against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park but lost the game. Hawkins dominated the White Sox into the eighth inning, but after retiring the first two batters, Sammy Sosa reached on a fielding error by Yankees third baseman Mike Blowers. After Hawkins loaded the bases by walking the next two batters, Robin Ventura lofted a fly ball to left field. Rookie Jim Leyritz, fighting a blustery wind, had the ball glance off his glove for an error, allowing all three baserunners to score. The next batter, Ivan Calderón, hit a fly ball to right field, which Jesse Barfield lost in the sun and dropped for another error, allowing Ventura to score. The Yankees could not score in the ninth, giving Hawkins the loss despite not allowing a hit.

    Interesting that the winning run was scored because of a guy named Blowers” getting an error. Ironic name, that one.

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  9. Ah, the endless combinations that are baseball . . .

    Not sure how being pro-life or pro-choice can get mixed up in the Zimmerman case. I am glad it is over.

    Just watched The Princess Bride again at our city’s summer outdoor movie night and was struck again by how brilliant the acting was, especially Mandy Patinkin.

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  10. Good morning everyone. It was so nice to be able to go to church and worship with my wife at my side. My wife has this beautiful soprano descant she uses when she sings hymns. I have missed that sooooooooooooo much.

    AJ, I believe Tennessee was the last state to rejoin the union.

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  11. Good morning. “Alfred Charles William Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe”. I’d never heard of him, but that is quite a name!

    I like the two middle names thing. It used to be more common, but maybe it is making a comeback. Our 6th Arrow has two middle names. We had so much input from the rest of the arrows in coming up with a name for her, that she could have wound up with even more middle names than that. We limited it to two. 😉

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  13. Interesting conversation, Linda. I so understand that situation. Just reading Jesus’ words again in Matthew and how he came to divide families. We see that clearly in our families. It is sad, but I would rather have Jesus, as the song says. I can only pray for wisdom for when to speak the truth in love and when to remain silent.

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  15. Joe,

    Georgia was actually re-admitted twice, first on july 21st, 1868. then again on july 15th 1870. But it is Wikipedia, so………

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederate_States_of_America#Significant_dates

    Tennessee – July 24, 1866
    Arkansas – June 22, 1868
    Florida – June 25, 1868
    North Carolina – July 4, 1868
    South Carolina – July 9, 1868
    Louisiana – July 9, 1868
    Alabama – July 13, 1868
    Virginia – January 26, 1870
    Mississippi – February 23, 1870
    Texas – March 30, 1870
    Georgia – July 15, 1870

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  16. Disheartening piece by Albert Mohler on our nation’s biblical illiteracy (and that’s among those who identify as Christians):

    http://www.sbts.edu/resources/magazines/love-for-a-bible-not-read-a-call-for-biblical-literacy/

    “… Americans may demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in the courthouse, but they seem unable to remember what exactly they are. …

    “… One poll indicates that at least 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Another survey of graduating high school seniors reveals that more than 50 percent thought Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that the Sermon on the Mount was preached by Billy Graham. We are in big trouble. …

    “Christians who lack biblical knowledge are the products of churches that marginalize biblical knowledge. Bible teaching now often accounts for only a diminishing fraction of the local congregation’s time and attention. The move to small group ministry has certainly increased opportunities for fellowship, but many of these groups never get beyond superficial Bible study. …

    “Churches must recover the centrality and urgency of biblical teaching and preaching. …

    “…This generation must get deadly serious about the problem of biblical illiteracy, or a frighteningly large number of Americans — many church members included — will go on thinking that Sodom and Gomorrah lived happily ever after.”

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  17. Linda, I feel your frustration.

    I know it was supposed to be “funny,” but a friend from my college days (lesbian, heavily into women’s “rights”) posted something on fb last night that compared religion to a part of a man’s body — It’s ok to have one and “be proud” of it, but don’t show it in public, don’t push it on children, and do not write laws with it.

    Can anyone say hostile?

    And I’m sure she considers herself to be, um, tolerant, open-minded — embracing all of those time-honored liberal values, you know. 🙄

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  19. After all the dirty tricks that the media, the prosecution, the witnesses, and the judge pulled in the Zimmerman case, the one thing no one can say, is that the man was guilty. They wanted it one way, but there was no evidence to prove it.

    It’s over. Let it go, and let the man live his life. What’s left of it….

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  20. Ephesians 3: For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, 7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.

    Praise God, that we are part of the promise. That was we study the Word of God, it reveals to us the promise of God and that it is the Hoy Spirit that is used to reveal the truth of God’s Word. This is why it is important that we do not change the Word of God to meet societies views, but we let God change us to meet His views, even if it goes against all of what societies says is right,

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  21. Donna – Either my niece or my SIL also posted that one time.

    From some of the conversations I’ve seen on Facebook, it seems we all have at least one of those rabid liberals in our families. I have more than one. And sadly, my daughters are tilting that way, too. 😦

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  22. If I can make a generalization, liberals tend to post more hostile/partisan posts on fb than do conservatives, although I may simply have concluded that because I move in such far-left circles being on the left coast, etc. 😉

    But they seem the first to be “offended” (!!!!!!) and the last to realize they’re offending. 🙂

    As in clueless? Sigh.

    I guess that’s because they’re right (in a very self-righteous way) and everyone else is, well, simply wrong (because racism and homophobia explain ALL of their motives for whatever they believe; if they’re trying to be really generous, they will allow for ignorance being a factor).

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  23. MiM,

    Basic Bible literacy? Pfffttt…..

    Not when you can have the social justice gospel instead. 🙄

    Read it and weep. You’ll want to, believe me.

    http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/antheabutler/7195/the_zimmerman_acquittal__america_s_racist_god/

    “God ain’t good all of the time. In fact, sometimes, God is not for us. As a black woman in an nation that has taken too many pains to remind me that I am not a white man, and am not capable of taking care of my reproductive rights, or my voting rights, I know that this American god ain’t my god. As a matter of fact, I think he’s a white racist god with a problem. More importantly, he is carrying a gun and stalking young black men.

    When George Zimmerman told Sean Hannity that it was God’s will that he shot and killed Trayvon Martin, he was diving right into what most good conservative Christians in America think right now. Whatever makes them protected, safe, and secure, is worth it at the expense of the black and brown people they fear.

    Their god is the god that wants to erase race, make everyone act “properly” and respect, as the president said, “a nation of laws”; laws that they made to crush those they consider inferior.”

    “As a historian of American and African-American religion, I know that the Trayvon Martin moment is just one moment in a history of racism in America that, in large part, has its underpinnings in Christianity and its history.”

    Scariest part? She’s also a college professor.

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  26. MiM,

    Here’s another. More social justice from the pulpit. Again, weeping.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/15/pastors-push-pro-trayvon-martin-rhetoric-churches-/

    “Pastors around the nation followed the not-guilty verdict in George Zimmerman’s murder trial with some blunt talk to their flocks on Sunday — many of whom were dressed in hoodies, the clothing that 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was wearing when he was fatally shot in Florida.

    “We should be raising Cain because, if we don’t, history has a way of repeating itself,” said Rev. Aaron Williams of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle, Wash., The Blaze reported.”

    ““We’re standing with the Martin family. We’re standing with the community,” the bishop said.”

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  27. My young Christian friend, whom I’ve mentioned has an undue influence on my Chrissy, is leaning more & more liberal on just about every issue (homosexuality, same-sex marriage, abortion, the Zimmerman trial). I’m trying to be the Titus 2 type of older woman to her, gently urging her to think biblically.

    Our latest discussion was on abortion, & her stance on that issue surprised me. She tells me she is strongly pro-life, but pretty much she believes that it is better for a baby to be aborted than to come into a life where he will be abused or neglected, or end up in foster care.

    Then we got into a discussion on the matter of pregnancy resulting from rape. In trying to lead her thinking to biblical principles, I wrote (in a private message, not publicly) …

    “As a Christian, I believe that God has a purpose for every life He allows to be conceived, that He endows each life with intrinsic value & worth. It seems to me that supporting even limited abortions is a kind of doubting of that, & doubting that God can do wonderful things in those lives, & in the lives of the mothers who give them birth.”

    Her rather indignant response contained this … “Of course I believe that God has plans for every life. But I cannot believe He would advocate putting a woman through hell after a rape.”

    I haven’t pursued the discussion past this, but one of my thoughts is what if the baby that you say would put her through hell is actually God’s gift of grace & healing?

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  32. Karen, your young friend is a good example for Donna’s link about biblical illiteracy. She seems to have reduced God to an indulgent father and Christ to a passive Saviour. The Bible has some hard cases of how God takes evil things and brings good out of them. Consider the case of Judah and Tamar or even Lot’s daughters. Yet if the children of either horrible relation had been aborted (or Tamar burnt with fire as they wanted to do to her) Christ’s human line of descent would have been cut off – for Pharez, the eldest of Tamar’s twins, was the line of Judah through which Boaz and David came; and Lot’s eldest daughter bore the founder of the nation of Moab, one of whom, Ruth, married Boaz and bore him an heir. I doubt your friend is capable of understanding the significance of such stories just now – she might twist them – but begin to confront her with Scripture in your exchanges. .If she is genuinely seeking after the things of God, she will at least consider it. If she is simply “nesting in the branches” (Matthew 13:32) she may well be offended and leave, but that would be better than claiming to know Christ and not doing the things He said – for God will judge those who take His name unworthily (I Corinthians 11:29).

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  33. We had a very nice birthday celebration with our son on Saturday. I am without a working internet connection so I am at the library for a few moments and wanted to say hello. The library is loud today since it appears a summer camp group came in. Remember the days when quiet was the rule in the library?

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  36. Janice I forgot to wish your son a happy birthday Saturday…I share the day with him…well, technically he shares the day with me….I was here long before he was!! 🙂

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  37. I thought I’d follow up on my FB saga. I haven’t posted anything more and don’t intend to, but one of my sister’s overly intelligent friends added this. I have no idea what it means, but love the “poor young men just walking down the street” part.
    “I am with you Bonnie Wow .This was outrage poor young men just walk down the street .I pro-Life to but some people thing that young man life not a outrage it is outrage.”

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  39. linda–like talking to a wall. Anyone who paid the least attention to the case would know that is simply not true.

    Good points, roscuro. Karen, you might point out that God had Jesus, his own dear son, die a very violent and painful death on a cross for OUR benefit. God alone sees the big picture. We may never see it in this life. Sometimes we are blessed to see it along the way at some point. Many times we simply miss out on the blessing we could have received, if we hadn’t just eaten the bowl of pottage, instead.

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  42. All is well at the Little Farm on the Prairie. I don’t k ow how she does it! Left overs for supper bath then bed.
    NJL’s 5 yr old is now 7 is cute as a bug.
    I am ex quested but brought it on myself. I shouldn’t have bought I e cream with sprinkles. 😉

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  45. The snake was just a little snack the cat picked up. Nothing to worry about. Unless he left it on the front mat, because it was not there when I looked.

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  51. (We got Chico from our Latino neighbors — the boy, probably 10 years younger than me, grew up to become an LA County Sheriff’s deputy, I haven’t talked to him in several years … Memories.)

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  64. Some of us like 57, but have other things to do. I hope that someone has taken #64 before I post this. But if I get it, oh well. It was the year my mom died. Maybe I’ll go read some online comics for a minute or two before posting this…

    Here goes…

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  70. Nice theme song. We didn’t really watch The Waltons much at all, so I don’t remember the music to it very well.

    The dog in the video looks like the neighbor’s dog who likes to hang out here. His name is Jack, and it was funny to see in the credits that The Waltons’ producer’s last name was Jacks. 😉

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  71. Looks like a hound dog — a colleague had a coon hound that looked like him, though he was spotted.

    It was a good show — appealed to my mom because she was a kid during the Depression. I liked it because John Boy was an aspiring writer.

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  74. Donna @ 23:30:39 🙂

    No redheads in my family (siblings & parents), although I did have some very slight reddish highlights in my brown hair when I was younger.

    My hubby’s two oldest sisters and one of his brothers has red hair, so I wondered if any of our kids would have red hair, but none of them do.

    Hubby used to be blonde as a child, and his hair gradually darkened, that now he has darker brown hair than I do. A lot of people who did not know him as a child wondered how two parents with medium to dark brown hair could have three kids with very blonde hair. 😉

    Of course, now those three are having the same thing happen to their hair. It’s hard to tell that 1st Arrow was ever blonde, and 3rd and 5th Arrows are heading in the same direction. The boys don’t care, but the girl (3rd Arrow) is not pleased.

    At least her hair isn’t turning gray like mine. 🙂

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  75. I got my red hair from my dad, but his began turning brown in his 30s, I think.

    Mine took longer to start to change, but now it’s more brown/auburn than “red,” I have to admit. 😦 It still looks pretty red in the bright sunlight, though.

    I have yet to get much gray, however, so I’m reluctant to start “coloring” it even though I’ve been tempted to add some “pop” to it. But it seems like then you get trapped into a fairly cumbersome and expensive process which I have no desire to do until absolutely necessary.

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  76. How nice to be greeted in the midst of these posts! Looking at my lovely valley view. I actually have a blog that I haven’t posted on for a couple of years, but the heading shows my view down the valley. Had to stand on a ladder to take the picture as I didn’t want the screen and the security bars to show. My daughter made my blog and then told me I had one. I think that it is under Grandma Jo.

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  77. Ha. It reminds me of a couple years ago when a colleague and I were talking about a coyote we thought we both saw in our town — he described the color of it (in all innocence) as “dirty brown, like your hair.”

    Boy, the glare I shot him. … 😮 It made him tremble. He looked downright scared, asking if he’d said something wrong.

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  79. oh, are we discussing hair now? Mine has gotten darker and darker, but very little gray, which is kind of nice for a kinder teacher. We need to look young to keep up with the kids.And I did go to the weight room today, but now it is time for a nap.

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  81. I don’t want to color my hair, either. I don’t think I need any chemicals soaking into my head — I have enough trouble with my brain as it is. 😉

    I found (or, rather, my husband and my hair stylist did) my first gray at about age 22, in underneath layers that weren’t readily visible to most people. I thought I’d be following in the footsteps of my maternal grandmother, who was reportedly almost completely gray by 30, and who started a many-year process of getting her hair colored. But I really did not get any gray in noticeable places until last year, about 2 months after turning 50.

    I briefly considered going back on my I’m-never-going-to-color-my-hair promise to myself after suddenly having a lot of gray pop out. A few months before that, I had read the book Color Me Beautiful for the first time, and it mentioned that gray hair looks the worst on Autumns, of which I am one, because of my natural hair and skin tones. Gray anything (clothes, accessories, and by extension, hair) is not a flattering color for an Autumn.

    So, what’s a girl to do. 😉

    I’ll just be a rebel and proudly sport my gray, I think.

    That’s the mood I’m in now, anyway. 🙂

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  83. “dirty brown, like your hair.” LOL. That reminds me of a conversation a couple of clarinet players were having down in the orchestra pit of a musical we were playing for.

    “My hair is blonde.”
    “Your hair isn’t blonde!”
    “Well…it’s sort of…blondish.”
    “Yeah, more ish than blonde.”

    😀

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  85. Ha. Yes, That’s when I began to realize my hair had changed.

    I mentioned something about being a redhead to someone and they said “You’re not a redhead.”

    “Yes I am,” I insisted.

    “Well, I wouldn’t consider you to be a redhead.”

    “Redheads some in a range of shades,” I said, refusing to back down and defending my turf.

    Anyway, over the past couple years — with remarks like hers and the one comparing me to, heavens, a coyote — I’ve acknowledged that, OK, so perhaps my hair isn’t *quite* as red as it once was … 🙄

    But I’ll color my hair when the time comes, probably. I’ll hate myself, but I’ll do it. 🙂

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  86. A coyote?! For heavens sakes, the things people say!

    Well, I’m heading off to nigh-nigh land now. I’ll probably be dreaming my hair is an entirely different color…we’ll see what it looks like tomorrow. 🙂

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  87. I don’t color my hair, but I do like to get a perm every six months or so. One time when I went in the stylist told me that she hadn’t recognized me sitting there as my hair had gotten so dark.
    I suppose you all are sleeping now? I did have a nap, but it is only 4 pm now

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  88. I know, imagine being told you have hair the color of a coyote’s coat.

    And he genuinely wondered what he’d said wrong … I think several women in the newsroom gasped, he knew he had somehow stepped right smack in something. 😉

    I eventually forgave him.

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  89. My hair started going gray in my late twenties. I was still living in Chicago for a decade after that, and had a fair amount of gray at the end. I was bound and determined not to color it, but I was already “grayer” than any woman I knew under 70, other than one fifty-something woman who had way too little concern for how she looked (she’d wear clothes that were stained or torn). It was part of the reason I left Chicago–a smallish part, but a real part. I couldn’t stay in Chicago and not color it, or I’d look like a slob, but I refused to color it. That was just one bit of evidence I didn’t “fit” in Chicago, and I needed to leave. It still is nowhere near half gray, and I still do pluck an occasional gray hair, but I have quite a bit of gray, especially near the temples. It’s otherwise a mix of shades, from dark brown to a few blonde. My mom was a redhead, very distinctively so. When she was mostly gray in her seventies, people referrred to her as strawberry blonde (and they probably assumed she colored it).

    Oh yeah . . . in Chicago I once had a roommate with dirty blonde hair (sorry, Donna), more brown than blonde. She came home angry one day. She’d gotten her driver’s license renewed, and she printed on the form that she was “blond.” The tester insisted she was not blond; her hair was brown. She told him it’s a little darker than usual since it’s winter, but my hair is blonde and not brown. He wouldn’t back down, so her driver’s license declared to the world that she had brown hair. A husband and seven kids later, I doubt she cares much today how people label her hair color. (Me, I always sort of wanted black hair, the glamorous color. I was glad it wasn’t red or blonde, so brown was my second choice, but black was my first.)

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