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Our Daily Thread 2-25-14

Good Morning!

Today’s header photo is from me.

And this one is from Mumsee’s place.

cropped-mumsee1.jpg

On this day in 1751 Edward Willet displayed the first trained monkey act in the U.S.

In 1836 Samuel Colt received a patent for a “revolving gun”.

In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized a graduated income tax.

In 1928 the Federal Radio Commission issued the first U.S. television license to Charles Jenkins Laboratories in Washington, DC.

And in 1933 the aircraft carrier Ranger was launched. It was the first ship in the U.S. Navy to be designed and built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier.

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Quote of the Day

“The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost.”

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For some reason the first on this day item reminded me of this. 🙂

From VeggieTalesOfficial

Today is Dr. Ralph Stanley’s birthday.

And it’s George Harrison’s as well.

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Anyone have a QoD for us today?

65 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-25-14”

  1. First you need to know two things.
    1. Every sinner has a future and every saint has a past.
    2. I used to be the most judgemental person you have ever known. Life smoothed out the corners and took me down a peg ot two.

    People tell me things. Many years ago a man told me the reason he left the Navy was that he had AIDS as I was opening his checking account. One of my dearest friends confessed he smoked crystal meth for 16 years…the entire list escapes me this morning. I look in the mirror and call myself “plain vanilla–whitebread”.
    Yesterday morning one of the admins at work was complaining that her boots were uncomfortable and commented that she was going to have to realize she couldn’t wear high heels anymore. I made my standard comment about life being too short to wear uncomfortable shoes, blah, blah, blah.
    That lead to her telling me that she used to work in 6 inch heels, …back when she was a stripper. She said “You are probably going to look down on me, but I used to be a stripper.”. Over the years I have learned to control my facial expressions (for the most part). I looked at this tall, plain, mousy looking woman who was confessing to having been a stripper and LAUGHED. Really? Yes really. From there she told me how she did it for 9 years, made really good money, but didn’t have anything to show for it. She smoked it all up in her crack pipe and with crystal meth. She told me of almost overdosing. Begging her sister to keep her awake all night so she wouldn’t die. How her father came to her house, told her to pack her bags and took her home. Perhaps I should call this the story of the Prodigal Daughter?
    Today she is a member of her church, married to a wonderful man who treats her like a queen, they are building a pool business together while both still working at their regular jobs and she is quite involved in animal rescue. She has been asked to speak at several women’s shelters and treatment facilities, but says she is too shy to stand up in front of all those people and tell her story.
    Me? I am still laughing and wondering what it is about me that cause people to tell me these things about themselves.

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  2. HI Kim. Nobody tells me anything. But they used to confide in me occasionally.
    I’m glad no woman evertold me she used to be a stripper. But that’s a thing between women.

    😉

    But the story ends well, doesn’t it?

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  5. Cheers, Donna! This is the place where everyone knows you and loves you and it doesn’t require an alcoholic beverage to think highly of one anither!
    (Referring to the Cheers series on tv.)

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  6. Really great photos and I am left guessing what all those creatures are, but I know they are not monkrys or apes (Veggie Tales 🙂 )

    At Mumsee’s I believe I see goats and either a horse or cow or both. But what kind of bird is that, AJ, and what kind of trees?

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  7. My father used to say that some people are born with a priest’s collar around their neck (figuratively speaking) and everywhere they go, people confess things to them.

    My father was like that (of course, he was sitting at bars most of the time when these stories came out), and I am too (never in a bar). It may be a genuine interest in people, like you and I have, Kim, or the fact we look like we know what we’re talking about and people who need to confide, seek us out.

    Who knows?

    It’s a gift from God, however, and an honor to share the confidences of people who need someone to remind them God loves them. Keep up the good work!

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  8. Our neighborhood dog sitter told me she used to dance naked in clubs. Said she transitioned to dog sitting after she realized you quickly became “too old” to do that line of work. 😉

    Yeah, I know better than to join a friend’s FB thread with people I do not know (and I would never have done it — I avoid gay discussions like the plague — if my friend who did the original post wasn’t also a Christian, though apparently misguided on this issue).

    But I didn’t argue. I merely suggested there were other views and made quiet reference (no direct link) to the First Things piece I linked to on the political thread here.

    Then all you-know-what broke loose with one woman who became unhinged and began throwing around the bigot and hater words. Sheesh. This woman clearly wasn’t a believer and was incapable of discussing the issue rationally. But I felt bad for my friend on whose post this was taking place, I’ve had “friends” on some of my posts who don’t know each other begin to argue and it’s exceedingly uncomfortable.

    So I remained silent but she continued to taunt me, calling me out by name, in a string of posts that just wouldn’t quit, finally asking me if I’d “slinked” away because I realized I was wrong (adding lol, which was so weird, but whatever …)

    I thought about it while walking the dogs last night, my intent was to say nothing more. But the passage came to me about how a soft answer turns away wrath (OK, so the first passage that came to me was the one about don’t answer a fool’s folly, but I figured posting that would get me more of a beating, probably deserved!).

    So when I got back I asked her to accept my apology as it was never my intent to stir up discord but I obviously had done just that and I was sorry. I said I was at fault in that sense, said we could simply agree to disagree with no hard feelings, then told her to have a good night.

    Silence after that.

    At least it shut her up. 🙂 She never said another word. Whew.

    Some people out there are downright scary.

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  9. Looks like a song sparrow to me. I used to have one that sat on top of the apple tree in the front yard and sang every morning, I loved it. Then the cat got it. Cats are annoying.

    Those are two horses, some goats, and some sheep. The black and white horse was given to us as a wild and crazy young thing, kicking and biting. My sixteen year old daughter now rides her every day.

    The lovely mansion you see in the background is the hunting mansion the boys built a couple of years ago. It is twelve feet above the ground (a creek and cattails), not insulated and not completely enclosed. They slept in it for an entire year. No electricity, no water, no heat. It had to have been cold and they all had rooms in the house, but warm sleeping bags. I noticed they slept in the house this year. I have never been up there.

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  12. Is A J and family very busy with Mouse?: Kittens have a way of consuming vast quantities of time all in the name of bonding.

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  13. The trees are a variety of arborvitaes. The bird is just a sparrow, but he sat so nicely that I took his pic. What I was really after were the squirrel and rabbit eating together below him. You’ll see them soon.

    The ones at Mumsee’s are all monkeys. You can tell because they all have tails.

    Tails=Monkey
    No Tail=Ape

    I thought Larry explained this already…….. 🙂

    🙂

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  17. AJ, one of Bisley’s favorite toys is a balled up paper wrapper from a Steak and Shake burger. It is lightweight so she can easily bat it around with her paws. And it smells good, too. She also likes to carry it around in her mouth. I was rather puzzled when I found it in her food dish this morning. Surely there is a message in that and I am too humanly dense to pick up on it.

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  18. AJ’s bird is a male house sparrow, a bird that is not native to the USA but, along with the non-native starlings, one of the birds we are most likely to see daily.

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  19. Bisley? Short for Miss Bosley? 🙂
    Everyday is an opportunity for a new name. Does Mouse collect new terms of endearment day by day?

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  20. So first AJ makes it a pet thread, now it’s going to the birds. I guess I need to send another river picture, only this time I’ll make sure the river is in the picture! (Maybe I can get one with an eagle in it to keep with the bird theme.)

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  21. A friend and I exchanged belated birthday/Xmas gifts about 2 weeks ago and I deliberately left the empty gift bags with tissue on the floor. Annie’s endlessly intrigued.

    Last night she was pawing at the closed dry sink cabinet, a cupboard she explores quite regularly (and most recently only about a week ago). I opened it up and her eyes got as big as saucers, like she’d never, ever, EVER seen this place before!

    In she slinked, looking here and there and everywhere …

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  23. Ok, a bit of a rant over my recent FB mishap — I’m a little bothered that my Christian friend, the originator of the post, didn’t at least privately come to my defense a little bit. She pretty much left me out there to twist in the wind. I know she disagreed also with the idea that Christian business people should have a conscience right to opt out of gay wedding preparations, but surely she has some understanding of the very real issue it raises for some?

    Oh well. I just know if it were my post and one of my friends behaved so badly toward another friend, I’d at least send a private message apologizing for the behavior.

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  25. Donna – As you know, I’ve had those nasty Facebook encounters, too, even, like you, on a Christian friend’s post.

    What I find distressingly amazing is that you can be as gentle as a lamb, merely point out that there may be another side of the same-sex marriage issue, & you are instantly labeled a bigot or a hater. I have read various people, who are usually level-headed, write that there is no good reason to oppose same-sex marriage. Period. It’s almost scary.

    One young woman pointed out that she is in favor of same-sex marriage because she is open-minded, not close-minded like me. That was after I wrote that I had read on & considered the issue from both sides, & she refused to consider what the other side might be.

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  26. Donna – Like you, I’ve been left twisting in the wind. I have found that many, if not most, of my liberal friends have few or no (other than me) conservative friends, but several of my conservative friends have several liberal friends.

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  28. Karen,

    Sure, I’ll try it. If not you can email it. If you post it on your Facebook, I should be able to copy it. Go ahead and try it. I’ll check it later and see if it works. 🙂

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  29. Karen, I’ve seldom seen such a shut-down on dialogue as I have on this particular issue for some reason. As I said, I generally avoid discussing it on FB like the plague but thought since a Christian friend posted it that there might be a *little* give and take allowed. Guess not! In the old days I would have been tarred and feathered by that bunch (if not worse!).

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  30. And this was an interesting post by a staffer at our church on the future challenges he anticipates (he’s a law school grad) to home schooling in the U.S.:

    “Home schooling seems to be the next political issue targeted by the left; they will win; thankfully it’s not hard to see the legal train coming.

    “Religious parents who don’t want their children conformed to the likeness of the civil religion should start thinking now in terms of the impossibility of a completely unaffiliated parental education. Our children will be pre-categorized as having special needs requiring social services over-sight and evaluation, and that over-sight and the evaluative procedures themselves might be more damaging to the child than public schooling itself.

    “It’s crucial in matters of social change coerced by law to move prior to the necessity because responding after the ball is in play is at least painful and at worst impossible.

    “The attitude that we won’t take measures to pre-conform to the expected outcome because we don’t like the direction is a dangerous path. You can still fight the direction of the societal pressures after taking measures to protect the family. Moving now to organize into cooperatives, church schools, private schools, religious schools and coextensive learning groups is the minimum parents of very young children should do (homeschooling parents with older children or whose children have already aged out will not have as passionate a response). Deciding now to finish a teaching degree so as to legitimize in the public judgement one’s role as an educator might be the second most important action in planning for a future as a home educator.

    “Just as a warning that should be plain to the home educator: that a person without a college education is going to be taken by the state to be qualified to teach their own children will probably fade from public life very quickly. Minimally you will need to come into a common educational relationship with others that do have such state accredited degrees.

    “The culture at large has already adopted the stance that if someone isn’t doing anything wrong they should be fine with a deep state involvement and intense regulation of their activities, especially in regard to one’s parenting and the raising of children. The idea that the parent is to be considered a good parent until someone has good reasons that prove otherwise is almost gone. That the parent would want to raise and educate their child without state influence and the expressions of state regulation seems absurd to the majority of the voters.

    “This isn’t something that’s going to change overnight, so with the public opinion as it is there’s no roadblock to resist governmental action to institutionalize the home schooling project.
    And there is a lot of money involved here that stays at home when children are educated at home besides that they miss out on the state preferred cultural indoctrination.”

    Thoughts?

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  32. Donna and Karen,

    That’s the reason I avoided the topic on World. With certain people there is no reasoned response on the matter, only emotional. You can’t win with such an intolerant person. And when you won’t consider the other side, you are the intolerant one. They just don’t see that. It’s pearls and pigs. I usually avoid it in the news thread too, although I do have one for tomorrow on Holder telling state AG’s to ignore state laws banning it. For that reason I’ll post it. Not for the gay topic, but to point out the lawlessness of this DoJ, Obama, and Holder. Again.

    And remember, they’re using Alinsky tactics. Don’t be intimidated.

    I believe that’s what behind the reaction, or lack of, from your friends. They see, and know all too well, what happens when someone disagrees. Part of their silence is simply to avoid having that unreasonable wrath turned on them. This is how they silence opposition. Speak truth reasonably, calmly, and nicely, and then be done with it. They have no choice but to simmer in the misery they create for themselves, but you don’t have to. Speak your mind, and the truth, and forget it. Life’s too short.

    I found that petting a cat helps too. 🙂

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  36. Wow, Donna,
    .That opens a big can of worms.
    Sounds like the homeschools better be the early birds and take care of those worms.

    I think that is probably a good analysis. Our family seems to have hit right in the golden days for homeschooling. We were not the pioneers, and we got into it before the liberals knew what to do with it.

    One thing I felt as we were doing our homeschool was that it actually allowed for more money to be devoted per public school student because our son was not getting his allotted portion. From a pure budgetary standpoint it seems the school system would be happy. But I guess if the number of students are down then they may get less money. Smaller class sizes are preferable, too, and homeschoolers help with those public ratio numbers, too, as in pupils per teacher.

    Academic results from homeschooling are so good that it should put a muzzle on the mouths of some liberals. And here in Atlanta I belonged to a homeschool support group that most would consider to be liberal. It was inside the perimeter and liberals are a majority in this area. We knew people in the group from son’s Boy Scout troop. It worked well for us for a few years but then we got into classes at highschool level that were Christian based. Had to drive further for those groups outside the perimeter. We had lots of options for classes as long as I was willing to drive all over town, which I did.

    It really felt like liberals were making it hard for homeschoolers who wanted to go to our local county college which by most standards would be an easy in for public school students but the requirements for homeschool students made it near impossible unless the student was under an umbrella group. I considered it my county’s loss. My son had such high test scores that it would have helped their rating, but they preferred to exclude homeschoolers. Also, for the GA Hope scholarship, homeschoolers had to prove themselves before getting the award that others got up front. That would make it hard for some homeschoolers to afford their first semester of school. So in these ways I have personally seen liberals in the education system bearing down on homeschoolers. I could write more, but someone else needs to chime in.
    .

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  37. As some of you have found out, I have some ‘friends’ who will get quite nasty of fb about anything with which they disagree. They can go ballistic on the most innocent post. I try to be very careful what I post. However, there are times I feel I must speak out or defend someone else. Often times it will be one of my children who is being lied about and accused. They can usually hold their own, but if it is MY post in the first place, I do not think they should have to be out there alone. If they foolishly respond to someone whom we all know is not able to be reasoned with, I will stay silent. The bible warns about getting into fights between others.

    These people have made me very wary of what I post. Of course, that is the idea. As the video, “Silent No More” says, if they can shut all opposition up, they will win. It is our children and grandchildren who will suffer from it.

    I have been very grateful to have some fb friends message me their support for me. It is heartening, even if they do not want to say it in the actual thread.

    All of this does help us be careful of our words and how they affect others. In one way, that is valuable. We often hang around our “own” and don’t realize how others ‘hear’ us. It also sharpens our thinking. The best thing is that is should bring us to our knees for the Lord’s help and wisdom.

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  38. Aj is correct (@ 3:36) in that they use Alinsky tactics. You don’t have to apologize to those people because that is their plan. You’re sorry and they win.
    They push back and you will back off because you don’t want controversy. But controversy is their stock in trade.
    Have you noticed that with the Obama administration there is always “something”? They keep the pot boiling.
    I have read a couple of Alinsky’s books and I have “Reveille for Radicals” in front of me because I wanted to spell “Alinsky” correctly.
    The idea is to make a radical proposal and the “moderates” will cross the aisle and go half way in order to “get something done”.
    Next time, they will go the rest of the way.
    They never give up.]
    You will see the monitors in the newsrooms under another program.
    Watch for it.

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  40. Beautiful bird sitting so prettily up there AJ…I love to watch birds! Mumsee’s place looks so peaceful and beautiful….and all those animals get along in the same pasture?
    I try to stay away from controversy on FB…especially when my nephew posts something to “bait” someone like me into an arguement. He knows I am most willing to speak with him face to face…but I won’t take it to FB 🙂 I have a friend here who turned away from The Lord and now claims to be a “sort of atheist”…I do put scripture verses on my page from time to time and once she messaged telling me to never stop doing so….she finds peace and encouragement in reading the verses…His Word will not return void…yep….

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  42. Kathaleena, well said. It’s quite the dilemma as we are essentially being intimidated to be silent — it’s an art to know how and when to engage while being very careful with what we say and how we say it. It becomes easier to avoid it altogether, of course.

    But I was also thinking yesterday that my friend (who did the original post) surely has some other Christian friends who may only be silently “watching.” I would have been more willing to discuss the matter further were it not for the one woman who became unhinged and took after me (in all of her subsequent posts which I was ignoring, she used my full name so it would “ding” a message to me that I’d been directly mentioned — I have no idea how stable she is but it was clear that she was way too emotional and angry to engage.

    I wish my friend would have done what yours did, and at least send me a private message to smooth things over if nothing else. I’m disappointed in her.

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  43. Donna’s worms: I could be in trouble with my high school education. Interestingly, the ps likes me to sign my children in (they are special needs and that translates into more money) and don’t mind when I take them out (they are special needs and that translates into very difficult children) and they like them to come in and test because, amazingly, my special needs children seem to make a huge turn around both socially and academically. Their scores bring up the school system’s scores. Too bad about the high school education, guess I am not qualified to teach them anything….

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  45. Matthew 11:1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples, that He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities.2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples 3 and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”7 As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. 9 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. 10 For this is he of whom it is written:‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,
    Who will prepare Your way before You.’

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  48. On Donna’s homeschooling post:
    First, the writer is guilty of fear-mongering. I’m not saying that regulations for homeschoolers will not get more stringent. However, the whole attitude of “hang together, or we all hang separately” is unhelpful. Such tactics only serve to drive panicked parents into unwholesome organizations such as the one recently discussed on this blog. Oh yes, there were the same dark messages sent out when I was growing up. Fear shuts down the ability to find a reasonable solution.

    Home schooling groups didn’t do a lot for my family. In the early years, we were in a mixed religious/non-religious group that arranged field trips and science fairs. There was no registration, just a loose association. When their children reached the teen years, all the other families in the group re-enrolled their children. My mother had no example of what to do for high school (she had been a public school teacher); and thus, my parents fell an easy prey to ATI’s promises of no need for grades or higher education. I have already said what that group did to us.

    [Note: I have since found out that we could have taken our high school credit courses from home, had we simply enrolled in a local high school and registered with the independent learning centre funded by the province. I have taken a few of the courses since finishing college and they are high quality and not as liberal as we were led to believe. One course actually talked about a Christian historian’s method as an alternative of how to interpret history.]

    When we first started homeschooling, the local school board would send out an inspector each year. My mother would provide learning plans for each of us and examples of our work. The inspector would talk to each of us to see how we were coping. It was all very friendly – the first inspector, who came several years in a row, was an elderly gentleman who approved highly of us; the next one was a young man whose parting comment was, “This is a wonderful place for children to grow up in.” The last inspector came after we had joined ATI – I think we were in our first year of the program. She was a woman, non-Christian, with high educational qualifications; yet she seemed very interested in the possibilities of such a program. She must have given a good report, because we never had another inspector come.

    When I think back to those experiences, to the type of provincial government in power (left-leaning for those early years), to the open Christianity of my parents, to the fact that my mother used corporal discipline and didn’t try to hide the fact – I remember the passage in Romans 13:3, “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil.” I knew families who failed to teach their children and allowed abuse to occur. The only homeschooling family I know to have been investigated by the police, deserved it. Parents who say they can do it better than the public school, should expect to be held to a higher standard. If, in spite of our best efforts, they still shut us down, so be it, but we must make sure that our methods are not the problem – See also I Peter 2:13-25.

    By the way, I have a sibling in the states and a relative in Canada who are currently homeschooling. One is fairly independent, just interacts with online groups; the other is part of a group like the one my family was a part of, but once again, mostly independent. Both have had no problems with the authorities.

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  50. We also, before doing that group, did an informal group at our small neighborhood church with a few families through the church. A retired school teacher who was also our children’s department Sunday School director led that group to give the moms a once or twice a week break. Miss Becky was and still is an angel. She is at my husband’s church. Her husband died a few years back. We were on the same page politically and it was through Miss Becky, at my suggestion, that the children in the group get God’s World News which led us eventually to get World Magazine, and as one thing leads to another, you might say I am here on this website thanks to Miss Becky!

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  51. This is interesting. My pastor just posted a thread discussing the very issue I got into trouble with before. I shared I’d already been beat up by someone who came unhinged on me with a similar thread, so he posted there would be no “unhinging” allowed on his. 🙂 We’ll see how that conversation goes and maybe I can get some tips from him, he’s always such a gracious debater.

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  54. I’m sorry if that sounded curt. But this is someone I know and respect — he’s a good thinker and does not speak off the top of his head. He’d be the last person to engage in “fear mongering.”

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  56. I’m probably the only one here who remembers when that song was popular. But I don’t know what it has to do with a dogfight. If you look on the 9 selections (as they are now) you will have an option for “Yours” and “You’ll Never Know” (how much I love you).
    I had forgotten about Vera Lynn, she was popular,during that time. I heard her a lot, but didn’t know that she was pretty. I never saw her.

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  57. Those pilots know a liitle something about flying those birds! At times in the video the planes did look like eagles 🙂

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  58. Seems that maybe I had a college professor who loved Vera Lynn…I know the name just not the details and that was the first thought that came to me.

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  59. Donna, when I read the comment, I had to fight down the familiar feeling of fear that I first met growing up, when similar rumours of government interference and shutdown circulated constantly. I am sorry, I should not have worded that first sentence the way I did. I did not mean to imply that the writer intentionally exaggerated the problem to gain a following.

    Incidentally, my mother, though a former teacher, did not have a degree. In her day, it was only necessary to have one year of teacher’s college to teach in a public school.

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  61. I believe all the aerial footage came from the movie, The Battle of Britain, which was filmed in 1969. I saw it as a 12 year old with a boy who had just moved to Fort Worth from the Texas Hill Country town of Fredericksburg (which is largely German). His ancestors had been in Texas for 130 years, but his grandparents still spoke German. I remember he rooted for the Germans in the movie.

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  62. And I realize a lot gets lost in the translation — he’s a soft-spoken, brainy father of 5 who has served as legal counsel to World Vision for many years. He’s definitely not your “alarmist” type.

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  63. Donna J, The Piper article was very good.

    One of the great things about this site is that it is a place where we can honestly say what we think. For that we thank you, AJ.

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  64. AJ – Thanks. But I just realized that the photo I wanted to use was one of my daughter’s photos that I was tagged in, so I’m not sure she would want me using it. Right now we’re in a bit of a crisis, so I’ll wait a bit in trying to get a photo to you.

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  65. I had been out of education for a while, raising my kids, and then brought my credential up to date so that i could sub in my kids school and know more about what was going on. I only subbed for one day, then they asked me to coordinate a home school program for the school. I enjoyed the opportunity to encourage home schoolers.

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