stupid is as stupid does – Page 57

November 20, 2006November 20, 2006

Christmas is is not for children

The paradox of the Incarnation is not just for the very young…

“Great is the mystery of the gifts! For this visible infant, who seems so young, who needs swaddling clothes for His body, who in the substance which we see is newly born, is the Eternal Son, as it is written, the Son who is the Maker of all, the Son who binds together in the swathing-bands of His assisting power the whole creation which would otherwise be dissolved.”

Random thought for the Christmas Alliance: Christmas is not for children. Oh, that’s one of the meme-themes we start hearing around this time of year, but by virtue of its categorical nature, it is simply false.

“Angel trees” for children in needy families, “toy drives” for the same purpose, MASSIVE pushes by toy sellers, Christmas programs featuring child after talentless child (or children in whom the talent bug has been well and truly squashed by teaching that doesn’t help them develop their talents but instead “clelebrates” incompetence**, blah, blah, blah.

Sometimes I/m tempted to think the spread of that meme is purposed to trivialize Christmas, but nah, it’s just a result of the general dumbing down of society. Yes, Christmas is for children, but it’s not just for childrenâ€”or even “the child in all of us” as some would have it.

No. Christmas is for everyone, but especially for adults. And I don’t mean chronological adults who are still refusing to grow up (“grups”?). I mean people who see behind the tinsel and wrapping paper and gimme, gimme, gimme spirit of contemporary commercial “Christmas” to the wonder of the paradoxical Incarnation. See it and realize that giving of themselves is the only way to honor that Incarnation, that first giant step in the greatest gift given.

So, for those of y’all who are adults and do see behind the curtain of tinsel, wrapping paper and gimme spirit to the Incarnation all of that strives to hide, here’s a suggestion for some gifts to give in the season of Advent and Christmas:

Give the present of your presence. really be WITH your family and friends. Listen to them and respond to their needs, desires, hopes and aspirations. be there in that same sense with anyone who is trapped on the other side of the curtain of tinsel and wrapping paper and gimme, gimme, gimme spirit of contemporary commercial “Christmas”â€”listen to them and respond with a revelation of the Incarnation, in large part by responding as well as you can to their needs, desires, hopes and aspirations.

And always, always do what you can to let the children you meet, no matter what their age, see a bit of the true wonder of Christmas hidden behind the curtain of their quotidian lives: the paradoxical wonder of the Incarnation.

Here’s where you start:

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. â€”Philippians 2:5â€“11

Continue reading “Christmas is is not for children”

November 18, 2006

Letting the Genie Out of the Bottle

{ed notes: I posted this last August on my blog, but I think it frames how we got here. Being a Cold Warrior for 20 years, I stared across the deep blue seas at many a Soviet vessel, many times taking the pictures for the intel files and sending up contact reports – I came to understand the Russians, the culture at the core fo the Soviet Union, have always taken the long view, while we look at life 4 years at a time as a nation. Thie story told has dramatically changed my view of the current “unrest” in the world]

Note on the end before you begin reading. The further I got into reading the subject article, the more I can’t help but think this is one of the most significant bits of intelligence the world has seen to date on the current state of world-wide affairs. It cuts across the lines of history, culture, religion, military affairs, global politics and empire building, but it tells us who is behind it all. Mark my words, it is a definitve article for every serious person to read, and more importantly, one that is worthy of many changing their beliefs on how we got here, and use the information to figure out how to clean up the mess in the aisle known as the World.

Do your own thinking, but this General has provided the “glue” to bind together a multitude of seemingly random events over the last 30+ years.

Scanning about this morning brought me to an article on how the Soviet Union masterminded the use of client states and Muslim discontent to attack us:

“Russian Footprints: What does Moscow have to do with the recent war in Lebanon?” By Ion Mihai Pacepa

The introduction:

The Kremlin may be the main winner in the Lebanon war. Israel has been attacked with Soviet Kalashnikovs and Katyushas, Russian Fajr-1 and Fajr-3 rockets, Russian AT-5 Spandrel antitank missiles and Kornet antitank rockets. Russiaâ€™s outmoded weapons are now all the rage with terrorists everywhere in the world, and the bad guys know exactly where to get them. The weapons cases abandoned by Hezbollah were marked: â€œCustomer: Ministry of Defense of Syria. Supplier: KBP, Tula, Russia.â€

If my recollection of history is correct, the Soviets have been none too kind to their Jewish population:

In the mid-1970s we also started showering the Islamic world with an Arabic translation of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a tsarist Russian forgery that had been used by Hitler as the foundation for his anti-Semitic philosophy. We also disseminated a KGB-fabricated â€œdocumentaryâ€ paper in Arabic alleging that Israel and its main supporter, the United States, were Zionist countries dedicated to converting the Islamic world into a Jewish colony.

Note: This movie has made it’s way into this country and is now on the shelves at BlockBuster for rent. Thankfully, at least Amazon knows it a faked story. Click on the link above on the title and see what they say.

As Ion points out, that people group, specifically the ones gathered in Israel, became the pawn in the great game of the superpowers in a bi-polar geo-political world, and is now, a classic case study of “unintended consequences.”

At the core, was the embarassment of the Soviets, when their client states, armed with “conventional” weaponry, supplied by the Soviet Unions central economy, had their butts handed to them in the 1967 war. As with the mentaility of most losing teams, while there are still games in the series to be played, you get back in the locker room and look at what happened on film and from personal reports, then you brainstorm a plan to not have it happen again. (Note to all those teachers who think competition among youth in classrooms and on the playing fields is a bad thing: Read this and rethink your position right now) Speaking of personal reports, check this out:

Todayâ€™s international terrorism was conceived at the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the KGB, in the aftermath of the 1967 Six-Day War in the Middle East. I witnessed its birth in my other life, as a Communist general.

I’d say you can’t get much more credible than a personal story of one who was at the table, in the room, and as part of the very first discussion on what we are experiencing today. However, I doubt the left wing, President Bush planned 9/11 conspiracy crowd will be able to honestly accept that it all was conceived, birthed and nurtured by the great Communist “Empire,” and not Bechtel or Halliburton and Dick Cheney. It would, if accepted as the truth that it is, necessarily require them to divest themselves of two major issue at the apex of their discontent:

1) George W. Bush, Karl Rove, Scotter Libby, and, yes, Dick Cheney, and big oil, the capitalist military industrial complex and “the rich” (except the ultra rich liberals from Hollywood and the Heinz families) are not to blame for the world wide terrorist movement, the domain of those who adhere to the teachings of the Koran.

and

2) Communism is, in fact, a force for evil, and while they have been removed from governing most nation-states, their heritage of tyranny, oppression, and creation of human misery carry on.

Side note: Doing this would cause the rest of their actions/rheotric to become also menaingless by association with two top level assumptions that are now shown to be incorrect. Interestingly enough, the rapid environmentalists have painted themselves into a very similar corner, it seems….Advice to anyone with an extreme argument: Know that the actual facts, read: The Trurh, or any one thing is not always apparent at the outset of your intial investigation. Lave room for the truth to come along and help your see the issue more clearly/credibily. See my book report on a well written, yet readable story of science and mankind, or discredited assumptions and theories, that did lead to greater, more precise truths.

The outcome of this desire to get back at the US, via fomenting hatred of Israel and Jewish people is affecting the world wide economy, and, in the cultural landscape of today, are resonsible for us (the world community of humanity) driving wedges between various groups of people. The bottom line for all those who didn’t figure out that Karl Mark prepetrated the most extensive “practical joke” on all of mankind, is that that the end result of socialism and Communism, is not the great utopia they all crave. For the record of those who are not away, the devastating irony of Karl Marx’s political and cultural theory is he was a retired industrialist when he published his idea. He had alrady extracted the sweat equity from the “proletariat,” and was living in luxury as a result. He suckered V.I. Lenin and company into taking it out for a 70 year spin, reusulting in miliions upon millions of deaths from the collective farms of Russia, to the killing fields of Cambodia, and more recently, as we find out, the Marine Barracks in Beruit, the World Trade Centers, various embassies of several nations, in the skies over Lockerbee, Scotland, at Munich, in Mogadishu, Dufar in Sudan, and daily in the streets of Baghdad, but those are merely a few instances.

My analysis: Communism is the most destructive social cancer we face today, which, strangley enough, is worshipped by the leftists, who also want us to embrace each and every human as worthy and equal (and I don’t disagree with that at all, as a goal). “Useful Idiots” defines these leftists properly, and Oh, BTW, that’s a term invented by Lenin, for those who he could use to further his own goals of Communism.

Before you read further, H/T: LT Smash, the first MilBlogger, for leading me to this jewel of an article.

Eagle1 at Eagle Speak discusses how the Germans in WWI used similar tactics, while using Iran.

Thanks to Little Green footballs for running an outstanding blog!

Trackbacked at:
Samantha Burns
Don Surber: Why they Hate Us

Church and State
Point Five

Continue reading “Letting the Genie Out of the Bottle”

November 17, 2006November 18, 2006

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Bread

I took the pumpkin bread recipe our Lovely Daughter sent me and modified it a little. My modifications are in italics. For example, in place of 1/2 cup of oil in the batter, I substituted applesauce. For the sugar, I substituted a target=”_blank”>sucralose sugar replacement (the most well-known brand name is SplendaÂ®). The rest, apart from the baking method and my insistence on using spices that are at least freshly-ground, is as Lovely Daughter sent it to me.

Since my Wonder Woman is still (after a whole day!) outa town, the trial loaf was mine all mine. 🙂

1 cup pumpkin pie fillingâ€”I added a medium egg to the cup measure I used to measure the canned pumpkin purÃ©e
1/2 cup applesauce
3/4 cup granulated sugar substitute (I used a sucralose-based sugar replacement)
1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly-ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly-groundnutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon freshly-ground ginger (or crystalized ginger, whichever you can get)

You may also add 1/2 cup of coarsely-chopped nuts. Your choice, although I’d avoid peanuts, since they just don’t seem right according to my mental taste buds. (I certainly didn’t use any peanuts, and I have a bag of raw peanuts to snack on right here. :-)) In the future, I may add raisins and/or chopped dates, as well. Who knows?

Heat oven to 350Â° F. Oil a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin pie filling, oil, sugar, molasses, and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. Slowly stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes.

Or, instead of all the mixing and oven baking go with my major modification: place the ingredients in your bread machine, hit the appropriate button (mine is “Batter Breads”) and walk away.

Transfer pan to a wire rack for 10 minutes. Using a knife, loosen the bread from the pan. (Or, in the case of a decent non-stick bread machine pan, just tip it out onto your cutting board.) Invert it onto a cutting board. Serve warm.

In Advance: Bake the bread and let it cool. Wrap and set aside at room temperature for up to 24 hours. Cover with foil and warm in a 250Â° F oven for 30 minutes.

To Freeze: Place the cooled bread in a resealable plastic bag or cover with 2 layers of plastic wrap. Store for up to 3 months.

To Reheat: Refrigerate the bread overnight. Remove the plastic wrap, cover with aluminum foil, and warm in a 250Â° oven for 30 minutes.

Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings

Update on trial loaf: the applesauce replacement for oil does make the bread more “chewy” and the molasses is a rather strong flavor. I might try this with less molasses in the future, but as it is, good eats.

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