Shipwrecking Columbus

I was going to write about Columbus Day. I had a cute little graphic picked out and everything, see? But this blog is about life along the rabbit trail and exploring where it may lead. This week it led to Obama getting the Ignoble Peace Affirmation.


A contributor identified as mtlmnr49 had this to say on Yahoo!Answers:

The Nobel Prize committee clearly supports and endorses an agenda that reduces the role of the United States in the world, promotes global governance over national sovereignty, and brings about equality among nations by reducing the standard of living of prosperous nations rather than promoting economic freedom in the developing world.

When examining the records of the last three US politicians to win the Peace prize, the agenda of the committee is easily seen. Woodrow Wilson's work in subjugating national sovereignty to the League of Nations won him the prize in 1919, Jimmy Carter's 2002 Peace prize was given in support of his opposition to the US's right to defend itself without authorization from an international authority, and Al Gore won the prize for endorsing a policy that requires the Western World to lower its standard of living by up to 30% in the hopes that it will lower global temperatures by less than 1 degree over 100 years.

It was upon reading this that the rabbit trail forked away from my intended comments on Christopher Columbus's family life and toward the award.

I think that it is important for those folks who do not wish to sound foolish when commenting on this event to realize that nominations for this prize closed eleven days after Obama's inauguration. Eleven days, or twelve if you count parts of days, because the nominations closed February 1, 2009, but I can be generous—call it less than two weeks, then.

Clearly this prize was awarded, not based on verifiable actions and accomplishments, but upon what a small group of people with the power to make this decision alleged to be true.

Now I ask you, are you going to live your life and make choices that affect others as if Obama is bringing peace on earth?

Lapbooker Freebie

Spice up your homeschool with sweet apple cider, pop some corn, and decorate with colorful autumn finds! Embark on a wonderful learning adventure about this season and all that it holds. Examine how seasons change, find out what autumn is all about, discover the life cycle of pumpkins and apples, see how candy corn is made, and much more.

Pious mercy is a symptom of sin.

My great thesis for this week is:
Pious mercy is a symptom of sin.

I know, it sounds a bit off, right? Pious is good. Mercy is good. Since when do two positives make a negative?

Not in the math books, perhaps. But in real life it does in the case of pious mercy.


I posit that celerity in granting pious mercy is frequently indicative of hidden sin in the life of the grantor.

They "forgive" quickly because they do not wish to be too closely scrutinized themselves. Swept neatly under the rug. Or so they wish. It is the old 'judge not, that you be not judged' crowd.

Most folks won't venture to pray as David did in Psalm 59:5 when he implores God, "Do not be gracious to any who are treacherous in iniquity."

Why not? Is it mean to want the wicked to fail? Our cultural answer is yes, that is mean. The scriptural answer is no, that is righteous.

The remarkable thing is that there are scriptural promises of the righteous being able to laugh at the downfall of the wicked. That must take tremendous depth of maturity. Or else purity.

The Flood of 2009

The Stats:
The numbers are in, and for the eight-day period beginning Monday, September 14 and ending Tuesday, September 22, our area recorded in excess of 18 inches of rain. Most of the week had been intermittent showers. When it did shower, the rain fell gently to moderately. The creek had been running about 4" deep before the rains began. By Saturday afternoon it had risen another 3 feet, but was still a full foot below the bank. We had very steady rains from mid-night Saturday through noon on Sunday, and when I checked on Sunday afternoon, the creek had flooded into the usual low areas that get washed out a few days every year. Sunday night was stormy and thundery all night long. By mid-morning on Monday the 21, we had over 18 feet of water in the woods.

The Story:
We have a fairly long trail through our 7-acre woods. It dips and rises and dips again before reaching the creek. After a week of rain, over three-fourths of it was under water. Not only did we have beeches in the glen, we had beaches. This, of course, is far too tempting for young men with a sense of adventure. 'Time to grab the inner tubes and go for a swim!

A flooded wood is not a pond, no matter how much it may look like one. At the bottom of a pond you might find worms, some insect larvae, maybe a mussel, and a lot of mud. The worms like to stay in the mud. At the bottom of a flooded wood, you will find flooded ant hills. The ants do not like to say in a flooded ant mound. So they don't. The ants will swim for their lives!

It turns out that if an ant finds someone swimming through the forest, their little ant brains think, "Oh whee! A resting place!" If an ant does it, I'm not sure if it is still called a beeline. I suppose it would more accurately be an antline. But anyway, that is what they make toward people who take adventuresome swims through the woods.

You may need that information someday. Now you are prepared.

Yawn...

☼

First a yawn.
Logs are sawn.
Then it's dawn.

© 2009

Perseid Meteor Shower

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Once again, the Perseids have proven themselves to be harbingers of inclement weather. Even during drought conditions of former years they succeeded in drawing an overcastting of diaphanous clouds—except for the year that the date coincided with a near-full moon. That year the wash-out was from light, not water. (FYI - This year's moon is a waning gibbous one.)

Perseids (sometimes Perseides) is a patronymic of Perseus, used to designate his descendants. And Perseus was the Greek champion of mythology, son of Zeus and Danaë. Not with the happiest of childhoods, young Perseus was thrown into a sea chest with his mother and drifted to the island of Seriphos where they were rescued by a fisherman—or maybe not. The old stories do not always agree. As an adult, he was the hero who bagged the head of Medusa. Killing, danger, and high adventure ensued, but eventually he saved and married Andromeda and fathered Perses. Today, the ancient heroes are remembered in the stars, when you can see them.
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For more ~ http://www.qsl.net/w8wn/hscw/prop/perseids.html

Forum Musings

At one of the online communities I sometimes visit, the question arose, "Why aren't parents protected, or at least given the benefit of the doubt when they believe they are acting in their child's best interests?" It was rhetorical, but what do I care? I have a ready answer.

Parents are not protected because our nation, as a corporate body, has lost her knowledge of God—because many people of the past two generations never obtained such knowledge to begin with.

I have heard social workers, educated people who would be highly offended if you suggested that they were not 'good Christians,' say that the Bible is wrong, that it was written for a primitive tribal culture, and that there are things more important than parental love.

If you believe the scriptures, God is calling them fools. It's all there in Proverbs 1:22, "Scoffers delight themselves in scoffing and fools hate knowledge." The New Testament covers it again in Romans 1:21-32. They just do not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, (except when it builds them up, of course.)

Parents are not respected because parenthood is one of the most God-like roles a human can fulfill. People who have not grown up with knowledge of God do not trust Him. They feel safer trusting public schools and government and the courts.

I am not posting to turn this into a parental rights diatribe, (though admittedly, the previous paragraphs could be framed into a good introduction for one.) Quite the opposite; while reading about societal disrespect for parenthood, I had another revelation. After parenthood, being a judge is another God-like role a human can fulfill. If the Church ever gets her act together and starts preaching sound doctrine on the Judgment of God, then judges won't be respected anymore than parents are. There may be a silver lining to that, but it will be a filmy one.