Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category

Happy…? Halloween…!

Friday, October 16th, 2009

Bill and Ann for Halloween

Well I don’t celebrate ‘Halloween’ but it’s hard to resist drawing attention to others who might feel right at home in the holiday. Then again, this year I may be invited to a party in DC, so….

Anyway, wrapping up my diss prospectus rewrites and planning my future beyond where I’m at now, expecting to leave in six months, Godwilling. Autumn here, leaves about to change, hope to get it on camera.

Nothing much to say, missing Europe with implacability… not to mention Israel…. shalom.

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Speechless: Silencing the Christians

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

I picked up this book at Barnes and Noble. Being a Christian, I was curious about its claim, which is partly that Christians are being jailed for railing publicly about homosexuality. It was written by Donald Wildmon, who now joins the hate brigade led by the likes of James Dobson, Phyllis Schaffley, and Anne Coulter, to name the few.

I was a spiritual child of the 80s, and having been in Christian radio during that time, was no stranger to Wildmon. Both as a volunteer and financially, I supported his attempts to help abused children. I have not really heard his name since then though and am not surprised to see him wind up on the hate bandwagon.

Is there bigotry against Christians? Of course there is. There is bigotry against every cultural sect. Is the media partly responsible? Of course they are. So are Christians to join the fear crowd in spotting a new but old enemy, that of the Big H and holding it responsible for the Christian’s current censorship woes? Well, apart from the obvious ludicrousness, are we not tired of beating this dead Homo horse into the ground…? This constant contention that gay people are the problem is warped, twisted and out of focus, and being undone today with the steady coming out of Christians who are also gay.
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Know Thy World

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

I presently look for — but do not expect to recoup after this fruitless search so far — a small USB drive by PATRIOT that I carry in my pocket. I last saw it on the table next to me in a coffee shop Tuesday night. It is 16GB and has a black rubber exterior with red print on it. I am still waiting for the $35 rebate from Patriot through NewEgg. Of course, the USB drive has files on it which identify me so I am sure that if someone finds it s/he will notify me accordingly….

The problem is, I may be possessing things. Or I may be forgetting things. In defense of the latter argument, I offer the following list. In January I had eight boxes sent to me Media Mail through the USPS. They were labeled on the outside, and inside four of them were around 525 music CDs. When the packages arrived they were damaged beyond belief. So far I have replaced over 150 jewel cases, will never see some CDs of which several were just pieces, and regret that I am now daily reminded — as each new missing disk comes to mind — of the evil world in which we truly live.

Yes, it is a world of terrorists, but it is also a world of greedy, desperate, uncaring, selfish, violators. This particular activity appears to be a big business, and if we could get the FBI out of their stupid DVD copyright warning state to actually catch criminals, they might want to look at these operations which are stealing from citizens through federal offense by opening their mail and then profiting wildly from their booty, and some of them are seemingly networked across the country, making it look like multiple companies even though they are a single group of thieves.

At present I am in the process of replacing some of these CDs (by buying them back from some of the online thieves?) — look at some of the names on Amazon, while not all are questionable even though they actually are called buyback*** meaning they buy back but in reality it is you and I who are buying back — I certainly cannot afford to replace all, especially the collectibles which are a total loss, which at least half of these were. So far I have replaced around five and hope to replace at least 10. The entire process is just way too expensive and has left me at times faint of heart since these are some of the best pieces of music I owned.

If I did anything with my CD collection, I cherished it and took exquisite care of its contents as if they were my children, as I do with my DVD collection. But my valuable CD collection arrived at my door trashed, obviously rifled, and several boxes retaped. They looked like they were dropped from an airplane and just handling them gave me a sensation of worthlessness.

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