Brandish Your Piece for Jesus

I'll start with this quotation, which I found on Faith & Theology, and was labeled, "a quote for Pentecost":

“It is the Spirit’s work to draw what might otherwise be a cacophonic disunity into symphony. The Spirit worked to transcribe God’s music for playing on the human instrument of Jesus of Nazareth; the Spirit now works to orchestrate that theme for an ensemble of billions.” —Mike Higton, Christian Doctrine, (SCM 2008), 161.

Because I'm not sure how to reconcile the idea that Jesus "packs heat." I found the image (great graphic!) and story at Gawker. This is incredibly disturbing:

"In light of George Tiller being gunned down in a church, this blows the mind: a Louisville pastor wants to expand his flock by encouraging them to brandish firearms while they worship." - Gawker

Here is a potential rebuttal to the Louisville pastor, from Monte Asbury's blog. It's a long quotation, but we need something to counteract the firearm brandishers! Sheesh:

"I’ve been thinking a lot about why we come here.

We need a sense of that – a sense of what we’re here for. Just making a church bigger – that doesn’t do it for me. We’ve been down that road. It isn’t enough to satisfy my hunger.

Why do I come here?

I think I want one thing more than anything else: I want to bring love into my world. I want to bring it to my family. I want to bring it to you. I want to bring it to people on the street. I want to bring it to political decisions. I want to bring it to unloved people. I want to bring it to people on the internet. I want to bring it to the nations of the world.

I want love to change this world. I want it to smother tragedy. I want it to expose selfishness. I want it to change the way my family lives, my workplace operates, my government thinks.

What I want to do here is to re-capture that source of love – and share it in such a way that you do, too – so that love will make everything you touch as you walk through your week just a little different than it was before.

But my world doesn’t get that. It thinks love is a wimpy thing, not the way of heroes. So all week long I talk and visit and write to people who are convinced the Kingdom of God is not enough, and it cannot bring what the world needs. And sometimes their arguments wear me down.

And that’s why I come here. It’s because we’re doing something together. We’re believers that the love of God is stronger than anything that’s wrong in the world. We’re determined to bring it to the places we live and work and vote and write. You’re doing something."

And hopefully, we're doing something for the common good.

Odd Cookbooks

BREAKING:

I just received a package of ephemera from a friend in Kinston, NC. She knows of my love of old/wacky cookbooks, especially of the old-school church lady or county fair variety. Anyway, she photocopied some excerpts from Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices, by George Leonard Herter and Berthe E. Herter, Herter's, Waseca, Minnesota.

Check it out -

Spinach Mother of Christ:

The Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ was very fond of spinach. This is as well a known fact in Nazareth today as it was 19 centuries ago. Her favorite music was that of the crude bagpipess of that times, and this also is a well-known fact.
Her recipe for preparing spinach spread with Christianity throughout Europe. On the eve of Christ's birth in the cave that was called a stable, Her only meal was spinach.
The early European immigrants from Germany, France and Italy nearly all brought this recipe with them.

Other chapter headings among those my friend sent:

"Sioux Method of Cracking Black Walnuts, Butternuts, Hickory Nuts and Hazelnuts"

or my favorite:

"In Case of a Hydrogen Bomb Attack You Must Know the Ways of the Wilderness to Survive"

other recipes include:

"Prairie Dog Bat Materson", "Fried Snapping Turtle or Smaller Turtle Meat, Scandinavian Style", and "Belgian Squirrel"

She says she's on the lookout for another copy for me! Yay! A quick google search tells me that I am not alone in my awe of the "Spinach Mohter of Christ" recipe. I just found 2 other quotations! There's probably more!

News and Weird News

This news reminds me of one of my favorite movies: Map of the Human Heart with Jason Scott Lee (no relation to Bruce Lee). [He's so hot!] Anyway, great news. Great movie.

Other great news from the BBC is that Burundi, the world's poorest country, is clearing away ALL the gazillions of mines in their country. A mammoth undertaking, apparently. This way, at least, the people will be able to farm again. And maybe the sweepers (sappers?) will be able to go to other countries to help them rid themselves of mines.

Which brings me to what I'd call, "news of the weird" from my home state. Boing Boing reports on an chicken bomb in Simsbury, CT. Simsbury?? Whatevs. Living on the the other side of Talcott Mountain may not be so bad after all.

La Segunda's interests

I read this morning on Green Mom Finds about how to figure out if your kid is eating seafood safely. [wtf - what kind of world are we living in!?!] And I thought of La Segunda. Yeah, she eats fish, but she loves the ocean, or at least the IDEA of the ocean, thanks to Ariel - you know the one, La Petite Sirène.

We call her our little mermaid - LOVES to swim. I mean, she will stay in water way past when it's good for her. Her lips are blue and she still argues to stay in the water. And she's fearless around it. Pools, lakes, seaside. Doesn't matter. And she loves to lie in the sand, just like her auntie, Angie, while we make a sand sculpture of a mermaid over her.

La Segunda also loves cake. Every night we need to read "Bunny Cakes." She saw this beautiful cupcake on Cupcakes Take the Cake, and couldn't stop talking about it. Me neither - I adore Peeps! Easter is just around the corner, time for my second-favorite Easter candy to make an appearance.

Well, all, "Keep your stick on the ice. We're all in this together."

Random Round-Up

Up Helly Aa - Britain's biggest fire festival and torchlight procession took place in Lerwick, Shetland, to celebrate its Norse heritage. (Doesn't it seem like it should be called, "UP! Hell YAA!"?)



In depressing news, there are even more signs that our food supply is getting grosser and grosser by the minute. (Maybe I mean Grocer?) Check this out:

• Even though we know pesticides are bad, and chemicals derived from nerve agents used in warfare are worse, there are still enough of them in the regular food found at grocery stores to cause traces of the chemicals in children's saliva and urine. [Wonder of wonders!] The same study found that when kids ate organic food, the bad chemicals were NOT present.
• You all wonder why I don't eat beef?? Mad Cow disease, my friends! I have absolutely NO FAITH that our livestock population at mega-farms is healthy. And stories like this reinforce my fears (don't click through if you're squeamish).
• On a brighter note, a 3-year study has just been launched into whether healthier food choices (and ingestion!!) might decrease aggression and violent behavio(u)r in Britain's prison population. I think I know what the findings will show, but being the amateur scientist that I am, I will wait to see the proof before jumping to conclusions!

And in even more positive news, the Australian government has announced that they plan to officially apologize to the Aboriginal people of Australia for their mistreatment throughout the years. It's about time. But a good step.







Last, but most certainly not least, here's a shout-out to my pal, Charlotte! Go check out her beautiful photos from Siena. The mosaic is amazing, right!? And the carved head (from one of the doors ?) is so beautiful. She says there's more to see.... so keep up the great work - Yay Charlotte! we're all waiting!

Phew. Well, that's all for now. Keep it tuned to this same bat channel, folks.

This makes me want to barf

I look at this picture and I want to hurl! Makes me absolutely sick. What is that, a gold telephone in the middle of all that bling? What are we doing accepting gifts like this from these oil barons?

Michael Abramowitz writes in The Washington Post: "When President Bush showed up Sunday to meet United Arab Emirates President Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan, he was presented with the biggest bling Secret Service agents said they had ever seen: a giant necklace set with hundreds of rubies, emeralds and other precious stones, holding a medallion that included a hand-painted enamel American flag.

If you read about the opulence that the press corps is experiencing, it makes you realize the extent of the discrepancy between the rich and the poor in places like Saudi or the UAE.

It all reminds me of the Russian Empire. [Even the bling looks similar!] The nobles and monarchy were riding around in gilded carriages. And the peasants were starving. No wonder they want a revolution.

At least it's good to know we've got our secret weapon on the case!

Too much time AND Candy on their hands....

Check it out! that's some Minas Tirith going on there...... It's true I used to check TORN.net fanatically, every day. It's been a while, I confess, and the distance hasn't been a bad thing, I think.

How is this OK?

From the BBC website:

"Fema employees posed as reporters at Tuesday's "news briefing" with Deputy Administrator Harvey Johnson because an agency was providing a live video feed to US TV networks, according to the Washington Post.

Six questions were posed by the Fema officials and Mr Johnson even used the typical practice of calling for a "last question".

"I'm very happy with Fema's response," Mr Johnson said in reply to one query from an employee."

More on the BBC.