Calvin & Hobbes - Thursday & Friday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/29/

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/30/

The Mailman's Last Day

It was the mailman's last day on the job after 35 years of carrying the mail through all kinds of weather to the same neighborhood.

When he arrived at the first house on his route he was greeted by the whole family there, who congratulated him and sent him on his way with big gift envelope.

At the second house they presented him with a box of fine cigars.

The folks at the third house handed him a selection of terrific fishing lures.

At each of the houses along his route, he was met with congratulations, farewells, cards, and gifts.

At the final house he was met at the door by a strikingly beautiful blonde in a revealing negligee. She took him by the hand, gently led him through the door (which she closed behind him), and led him up the stairs to the bedroom where they had a most passionate liaison.

Afterwards, they went downstairs, where she fixed him a giant breakfast: eggs, potatoes, ham, sausage, blueberry waffles, and fresh-squeezed orange juice.

When he was truly satisfied she poured him a cup of steaming coffee. As she was pouring, he noticed a dollar bill sticking out from under the cup's bottom edge.

"All this was just too wonderful for words," he said, " but what's the dollar for?"

"Well," she said, "last night, I told my husband that today would be your last day, and that we should do something special for you. I asked him what to give you." He said, "Screw him.......give him a dollar."

The blonde then blushed and said, "The breakfast was my idea".

Calvin & Hobbes - Tuesday & Wednesday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/27/

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/28/

Tattoo Remover

This is a funny video from Saturday Night Live. It plays with Windows Media software.

http://paulw.gray.googlepages.com/tatooremover.wmv

Here's to You, Friends!

Here's a nice Powerpoint with music about the value of email friends.

http://paulw.gray.googlepages.com/snoopy_friends_1.pps

It can be played with Powerpoint Viewer or Powerpoint.

Cannon Challenge Game

For all you artillery and war games buffs out there, here's a fun, shooting target game.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/future-weapons/games/cannon/cannon.html

Calvin & Hobbes - Monday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/26/

Cal Farley's Boys and Girls' Ranch

http://www.calfarley.org/Press%20Releases%20FORMS%20RUs/Roundups/Cal%20Farley%20Christmas%20Roundup%202007.pdf

This is a very worthwhile charity: raising problem children in a Christ-centered atmosphere. Read the newsletter for some heart-warming stories.

This page is a 3MB download which will take a while on dial-up.

Calvin & Hobbes - Sunday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/25/

Fender Skirts

Thanks to Roger for this post.

I  came across this phrase yesterday, "FENDER SKIRTS." 



A  term I haven't heard in a long time, and thinking  about  "fender skirts" started me thinking about other words that  quietly disappear from our language with hardly a notice like  "curb feelers"



And "steering  knobs." (AKA) suicide knob.



Since  I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturallywent that  direction first.

Any  kids will probably have to find some elderly person over 50 to  explain some of these terms to you.

Remember  "Continental kits?"

They  were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were  supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln  Continental.



When  did we quit calling them "emergency  brakes?"

At  some point "parking brake" became the proper term.  But I  miss the hint of drama that went with "emergency  brake."

I'm  sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would  call the accelerator the "foot feed."

Didn't  you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home, so  you could ride the "running board" up to the  house?

Here's  a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore -  "store-bought."  Of course, just about everything is  store-bought these days.  But once it was bragging  material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of  candy.

"Coast  to coast" is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement  and now means almost nothing.  Now we take the term  "world wide" for granted.  This floors  me.

On a  smaller scale, "wall-to-wall" was once a magical term in our  homes.  In the '50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood  floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting!  Today,  everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood  floors.  Go figure.
 

When'sthe last  time you heard the quaint phrase "in a family way?"  It's  hard to imagine that the word "pregnant" was once considered a  little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite  company, so we had all that talk about stork visits and "being  in a family way" or simply "expecting."

Apparently  "brassiere" is a word no longer in usage.  I said it the  other day and my daughter cracked up.  I guess it's just  "bra" now.  "Unmentionables" probably wouldn't be  understood at all.

 
I  always loved! going to the "picture show," but I considered  "movie" an affectation.

Most  of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure-'60s  word I came across the other day - "rat fink."  Ooh, what  a nasty put-down!

Here's  a word I miss - "percolator."  That was just a fun word  to say.  And what was it replaced with?  "Coffee  maker."  How dull. Mr. Coffee, I blame you for  this.

  ?
I  miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so  modern and now sound so retro.  Words like "DynaFlow" and  "Electrolux."  Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with  "SpectraVision!"

 
Food  for thought - Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago?   Nobody complains of that anymore.  Maybe that's  what castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers  threatening kids with castor oil anymore.

Some  words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list.   The one that grieves me most, "supper."  Now  everybody says "dinner."  Save a great word.  Invite  someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts

Someone  forwarded this to me.  I thought some of us of a "certain  age" would remember most of these.

Just  for fun, pass it along to others of "a certain  age"!

IF YOU AREN'T OF A CERTAIN AGE. YOU  MUST KNOW SOMEONE WHO IS.

Former US Commander Criticizes Bush on Iraq

http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-11-24-voa34.cfm

Calvin & Hobbes - Saturday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/24/

Pantries Facing Shortage

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-pantries_22met.ART.North.Edition1.36ded6a.html

Calvin & Hobbes Cartoon - Thursday & Friday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/22/

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/23/

Calvin & Hobbes - Wednesday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/21/

Pumpkin Pie

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=HY27482779

Turkey Trivia

Think you are smart?   Let the 'turkeys' decide !    This would be a cute quiz to do around the Thanksgiving table on Thanksgiving Day just to see who knows what about Thanksgiving and the bird sitting in the middle of the table waiting to get gobbled up!  Have fun -- you might even learn a few new things.

Happy Thanksgiving to you, your family and friends.

Click here: Turkey Trivia Quiz

Old Age is a Gift

Good one, Jeanette!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
pwg

------------------------------------
Old Age, I decided, is a gift.

I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body, the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the sagging butt. And often I am taken aback by that old person that lives in my mirror (who looks like my mother!), but I don't agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become more kind to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend.

I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60&70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set . They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive.. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore. I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day. (If I feel like it)

MAY OUR FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART! MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A RAINBOW OF SMILES ON YOUR FACE AND IN YOUR HEART FOREVER AND EVER!

FRIENDS FOREVER!

Forward this to at least 7 people and see what happens on your screen . You will laugh your head off!!!!!!!!!

This email was cleaned by emailStripper, available for free from

http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm

A Serious Giver

In The Giving Myths, Stephen McSwain tells of a Christmas-shopping venture with his wife. While she entered a store, he stayed on the sidewalk, where a shabbily dressed man played carols on a rusty saxophone. "He was not an accomplished musician," McSwain writes. "He reminded you of the days when your younger sister was learning to play the clarinet in the bedroom down the hall."

As his wife came out of the store, McSwain dropped a few dollars in the bucket on the saxophonist's music stand. The words "Thank you and Merry Christmas" were heavily accented.

Walking to the car, she asked, "How much did you give him?" Jokingly, McSwain answered, "Five hundred dollars." Playing along, his wife shared a mild threat.

As they continued shopping, the image remained:

I could not get the saxophonist off my mind. "Instead of five dollars," I silently wondered, "suppose I had given him five hundred. Would that have made any difference, not only to him but to me, too?"

I concluded it would have. Had I been serious enough to give him the larger amount, I would have wanted to stop, talk to him, and get to know more about him. I would have asked, "Sir, do you have a wife? Children? If so, how are they doing? Will you be celebrating Christmas this year? What about food? Do you have anything to eat? Where are you from, anyway? Can I help you in some way other than just paying you a few dollars for playing Christmas carols on your horn?"

Serious, generous giving significantly changes the landscape of your personal involvement. You will always be motivated to make a greater investment of time and energy when you go beyond token giving. Giving your money is like putting money in the bank. The more you do, the more your interest grows.

Interested? Jesus put it this way: "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:21)

Calvin & Hobbes - Tuesday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/20/

The Long, Dark Night

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/23/opinion/23herbert.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanTed=print


October 23, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
The Long, Dark Night
By BOB HERBERT
Nashville

I was making small talk with Dan and Sharon Brodrick in a waiting area
filled with anxious-looking patients on the first floor of St. Thomas Hospital. Mrs. Brodrick seemed tired, but she managed a smile. Her husband, a former truck driver who is now an ordained minister, was the talkative one.

"We found out five days after her 56th birthday," he said. "How's that for a happy birthday?"

While maintaining a pleasant facade for the outside world, the Brodricks, married 37 years and still deeply in love, are spinning toward the abyss.

"We're in big trouble," said Mr. Brodrick.

Mrs. Brodrick learned last May that she had cancer of the duodenum, and it had already spread to her liver and pancreas. Not only is the prognosis grim, but the medical expenses will soon leave the couple destitute. Mrs. Brodrick has no health insurance.

The emotional toll has been nearly as devastating as the physical. Mrs. Brodrick told her husband that she wasn't ready to leave him. "I don't want to die," she said. When he told her they had to cling to their faith in God, she replied, "I know that God can take care of this. But how's he going to do it?"

The American Cancer Society has been campaigning to raise awareness of the desperate plight of people trying to deal with cancer without health insurance. I offer Dan and Sharon Brodrick as Exhibit A.

The Brodricks never had much money, but they raised two boys and managed to buy a modest home in Gainesboro, a rural town about 90 miles east of here. Dan Brodrick severely damaged his back in an accident at work several years ago and is disabled. His wife has suffered from a variety of illnesses.

But by carefully managing their meager income, they have lived in reasonable comfort. "With a little bit of savings," said Mr. Brodrick, "and with what I've been drawing in disability, we figured we'd be all right."

But the absence of health insurance for Mrs. Brodrick left a gaping hole in their financial plan, and they knew it. She had been covered by her husband's health insurance while he was driving a truck. But that coverage ended when he was forced to retire.

"We tried to buy insurance for her," said Mr. Brodrick. "We applied to dozens of companies. But they wouldn't touch her because she already had health problems."

Without insurance, Mrs. Brodrick received treatment for her various ailments under a special program for uninsured patients at St. Thomas. But the cancer diagnosis was an entirely different story, a step for the Brodricks into a realm of dizzying, unrelieved horror.

First came the biopsy, accompanied by reassuring comments from doctors. Then came word that the tumor was indeed malignant. That was followed by surgery.

"They opened her up, and then they closed her right up again," said Mr. Brodrick.

Not only had the cancer metastasized, it was moving very aggressively. Various estimates were given, each one shorter than the last, about how long Mrs. Brodrick might live.

While his wife was being prepped for chemo, Mr. Brodrick sat in the corner of another room and spoke about what it was like to have one's life all but literally blown apart.

"It tears you down," he said. "You'd like to fight this with your bare hands, but you can't. We've been married 37 years Sept. 2, and when I think about it, it was the quickest 37 years I've ever seen go by in my life. It went by in a flash. And we have leaned on each other that whole time."

The hospital is not billing the Brodricks for its costs. "But," said Mr. Brodrick, "I've still got to pay the doctors' bills and pay for the drugs. And the drugs are very expensive."

He reeled off a long list of charges that are coming at him like machine-gun fire, bills that he cannot afford to pay.

"So we're selling the house," he said. He sat quiet for a moment, then added in a soft voice, "You shouldn't have to go live in a tent somewhere just because you don't have insurance."

He said he wanted to tell his story publicly because he knew there were millions of others without health insurance, and that there are many families, like his own, facing the long, dark night of devastating illness.

"Something has to be done," he said.

Mr. Brodrick was able to get his wife into a renowned cancer center in the Midwest to get another opinion on the course of treatment she was receiving.

"They said it was the perfect treatment for her and they wouldn't change a thing," he said. "They said the success rate with that treatment was 5 percent or less."

He looked at me. "We've got faith in God," he said. "Without that you might as well throw yourself off a cliff, because there's nothing else left."

After the motorcade

With the Kennedy assassination anniversary looming on November 22nd, here is a first-person account.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-sanderson_18edi.ART.State.Edition1.371fa5a.html

Being Thankful for the Thorns.....

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her shoes when she pulled open the florist shop door, against a November gust of wind. Her life had been as sweet as a spring breeze and then, in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a 'minor' automobile accident stole her joy. This was Thanksgiving week and the time she should have delivered their infant son. She grieved over their loss.

Troubles had multiplied.

Her husband's company 'threatened' to transfer his job to a new location. Her sister had called to say that she could not come for her long awaited holiday visit. What's worse, Sandra's friend suggested that Sandra's grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer. 'She has no idea what I'm feeling,' thought Sandra with a shudder. 'Thanksgiving? Thankful for what?' she wondered. 'For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life, but took her child's?'

'Good afternoon, can I help you?'

Sandra was startled by the approach of the shop clerk. 'I . . . I need an arrangement, ' stammered Sandra.

'For Thanksgiving? I'm convinced that flowers tell stories,' she continued. 'Are you looking for something that conveys 'gratitude' this Thanksgiving? '

'Not exactly!' Sandra blurted out. 'In the last five months, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.'

Sandra regretted her outburst, and was surprised when the clerk said, 'I have the perfect arrangement for you.'

Then the bell on the door rang, and the clerk greeted the new customer,

'Hi, Barbara, let me get your order.' She excused herself and walked back to a small workroom, then quickly reappeared, carrying an arrangement of greenery, bows, and what appeared to be long-stemmed thorny roses. Except the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped: there were no flowers.

'Do you want these in a box?' asked the clerk. Sandra watched - was this a joke? Who would want rose stems with no flowers! She waited for laughter, but neither woman laughed.

'Yes, please,' Barbara replied with an appreciative smile. 'You'd think after three years of getting the special, I wouldn't be so moved by its significance, but I can feel it right here, all over again,' she said, as she gently tapped her chest.

Sandra stammered, 'Ah, that lady just left with . . . uh . . . she left with no flowers!'

'That's right,' said the clerk. 'I cut off the flowers. That's the 'Special'. I call it the Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet. Barbara came into the shop three years ago, feeling much as you do today,' explained the clerk. 'She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had just lost her father to cancer; the family business was failing; her son had gotten into drugs; and she was facing major surgery. That same year I had lost my husband,' continued the clerk. 'For the first time in my life, I had to spend the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby, and too much debt to allow any travel.'

'So what did you do?' asked Sandra.

'I learned to be thankful for thorns,' answered the clerk quietly. 'I've always thanked God for the good things in my life and I never questioned Him why those good things happened to me, but when the bad stuff hit, I cried out, 'Why? Why me?!' It took time for me to learn that the dark times are important to our faith! I have always enjoyed the 'flowers' of my life, but it took the thorns to show me the beauty of God's comfort! You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we're afflicted, and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.'

Sandra sucked in her breath, as she thought about what her friend had tried to tell her. 'I guess the truth is I don't want comfort. I've lost a baby and I'm angry with God.'

Just then someone else walked in the shop.

'Hey, Phil!' the clerk greeted the balding, rotund man.

'My wife sent me in to get our usual Thanksgiving arrangement . . . twelve thorny, long-stemmed stems!' laughed Phil as the clerk handed him a tissue wrapped arrangement from the refrigerator.

'Those are for your wife?' asked Sandra incredulously. 'Do you mind telling me why she wants a bouquet that looks like that?'

'Four years ago, my wife and I nearly divorced,' Phil replied. 'After forty years, we were in a real mess, but with the Lord's grace and guidance, we trudged through problem after problem, the Lord rescued our marriage. Jenny here (the clerk) told me she kept a vase of rose stems to remind her of what she had learned from 'thorny' times. That was good enough for me. I took home some of those stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific 'problem' and give thanks for what that problem taught us.'

As Phil paid the clerk, he said to Sandra, 'I highly recommend the Special!'

'I don't know if I can be thankful for the thorns in my life' Sandra said to the clerk. 'It's all too fresh.'

'Well,' the clerk replied carefully, 'my experience has shown me that the thorns make the roses more precious. We treasure God's providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember that it was a crown of thorns that Jesus wore so we might know His love. Don't resent the thorns.'

Tears rolled down Sandra's cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on her resentment.

'I'll take those twelve long-stemmed thorns, please,' she managed to choke out.

'I hoped you would,' said the clerk gently. 'I'll have them ready in a minute.'

'Thank you. What do I owe you?'

'Nothing. Nothing but a promise to allow God to heal your heart. The first year's arrangement is always on me.'

The clerk smiled and handed a card to Sandra. 'I'll attach this card to your arrangement, but maybe you would like to read it first.'

It read:

'My God, I have never thanked You for my thorns. I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorns. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of my thorns. Show me that I have climbed closer to You along the path of pain. Show me that, through my tears, the colors of Your rainbow look much more brilliant.'

Praise Him for the roses; thank Him for the thorns.



God Bless all of you. Be thankful for all that the Lord does for you.

'Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.'

We often try to fix problems with WD-40 and Duct tape. God did it with nails.

Google's eyes are watching you

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-agger_11edi.ART.State.Edition1.41b6255.html

Calvin & Hobbes - Monday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/19/

Facing a Threat to Farming and Food Supply

Facing a Threat to Farming and Food Supply
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800501_pf.html

Calvin & Hobbes - Sunday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/18/

Sears and Military Call-ups

I know I needed this reminder since Sears isn't always my first choice. Amazing when you think of how long the war has lasted and they haven't withdrawn from their commitment. Could we each buy at least one thing at Sears this year?

How does Sears treat its employees who are called up for military duty? By law, they are required to hold their jobs open and available, but nothing more. Usually, people take a big pay cut and lose benefits as a result of being called up.

Sears is voluntarily paying the difference in salaries and maintaining all benefits, including medical insurance and bonus programs, for all called up reservist employees for up to two years.

I submit that Sears is an exemplary corporate citizen and should be recognized for its contribution. I suggest we all shop at Sears, and be sure to find a manager to tell them why we are there so the company gets the positive reinforcement it well deserves.

Pass it on.

Decided to check this before I sent it forward. So I sent the following e-mail to the Sears Customer Service Department:

I received this e-mail and I would like to know if it is true. If it is, the Internet may have just become one very good source of advertisement for your company. I know I would go out of my way to buy products from Sears instead of another store for a like item, even if it's cheaper at that store.


This is their answer to my e-mail:

Dear Customer:

Thank you for contacting Sears.The information is factual. We appreciate your positive feedback.

Sears regards service to our country as one of greatest sacrifices our young men and women can make. We are happy to do our part to lessen the burden they bear at this time.

Bill Thorn Sears Customer Care webcenter@sears.com
1-800-349-4358

Please pass this on to all your friends. Sears needs to be recognized for this outstanding contribution and we need to show them as Americans, we do appreciate what they are doing for our military!!!

It's Verified ! By Snopes.com at: http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/sears.asp (shows the entire article)

Honor the Southwest Conference

http://www.honortheswc.com/vision.asp

Malachi 3:3

Thanks to Jeanette for this post.
---------------------------------
Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.

One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it"

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Pass this on right now. This very moment, someone needs to know that God is watching over them.

And, whatever they're going through, they'll be a better person in the end.

Calvin & Hobbes - Friday & Saturday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/16/

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/17/

Iraq Through China's Lens

Thanks to Clyde for this post.

September 12, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
Iraq Through China's Lens
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/opinion/12friedman.html?th=&emc=th&page
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/thomaslfriedman/index.html?inline=nyt-per >

Dalian, China
It's nice to be in a country where Iraq is never mentioned. It's just a little unnerving when that country is America's biggest geopolitical and economic rival these days: China. I heard China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, address an international conference here in Dalian, and what impressed me most was how boring it was - a straightforward recitation of the staggering economic progress China has made in the last two decades and the towering economic, political and environmental challenges it still faces. How nice it must be, I thought, to be a great power and be almost entirely focused on addressing your own domestic problems?

No, I have not gone isolationist. America has real enemies that China does not, and therefore we have to balance a global security role in places like the Middle East with domestic demands. But something is out of balance with America today. Looking at the world from here, it is hard not to feel that China has spent the last six years training for the Olympics while we've spent ourselves into debt on iPods and Al Qaeda. After 9/11, we tried to effect change in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world by trying to build a progressive government in Baghdad. There was, I believed, a strategic and moral logic for that. But the strategy failed, for a million different reasons, and now it is time to recognize that and focus on how we insulate ourselves from the instability of that world - by having a real energy policy, for starters - how we protect our security interests there in more sustainable ways and how we get back to developing our own house.

By now it should be clear that Iraq is going to be what it is going to be. We've never had sufficient troops there to shape Iraq in our own image. We simply can't go on betting so many American soldiers and resources that Iraqis will one day learn to live together on their own - without either having to be bludgeoned by Saddam or baby-sat by us. So either we get help or get out. That is, if President Bush believes staying in Iraq can still make a difference, then he needs to muster some allies because the American people are not going to sustain alone - nor should they - a long-shot bet that something decent can still be built in Baghdad. If the president can't get help, then he has to initiate a phased withdrawal: now. Because the opportunity cost this war is exacting on our country and its ability to focus on anything else is out of all proportion to what might still be achieved in Iraq by our staying, with too few troops and too few friends. Iraqis can add. The surge has brought more calm to Iraq largely because the mainstream Iraqi Sunnis finally calculated that they have lost and that both the pro-Al Qaeda Iraqi Sunnis and the radical Shiites are more of a threat to them than the Americans they had been shooting at. The minute we start withdrawing, all Iraqis will carefully calculate their interests. They may decide that they want more blood baths, but there is just as much likelihood that they will eventually find equilibrium.

I have not been to Dalian in three years. It is not just a nice city for China. It is a beautiful city of wide avenues, skyscrapers, green spaces, software parks and universities. The president of Dalian University of Technology, Jinping Ou, told me his new focus now is on energy research and that he has 100 doctoral students dealing with different energy problems - where five years ago he barely had any - and that the Chinese government has just decided to open its national energy innovation research center here.

Listening to him, my mind drifted back to Iraq, where I was two weeks ago and where I heard a U.S. officer in Baghdad tell this story: His unit was on a patrol in a Sunni neighborhood when it got hit by an I.E.D. Fortunately, the bomb exploded too soon and no one was hurt. His men jumped out and followed the detonation wire, which led 1,500 feet into the neighborhood. A U.S. Black Hawk helicopter was in the area and alerted the U.S. soldiers that a man was fleeing the scene on a bicycle. The soldiers asked the Black Hawk for help, and it swooped down and used its rotor blades to blow the insurgent off his bicycle, with a giant "whoosh," and the U.S. soldiers captured him.

That image of a $6 million high-tech U.S. helicopter with a highly trained pilot blowing an insurgent off his bicycle captures the absurdity of our situation in Iraq.

The great Lebanese historian Kamal Salibi said it best:
"Great powers should never get involved in the politics of small tribes."
That is where we are in Iraq. We're wasting our brains. We're wasting our people. We're wasting our future. China is not.

Candidate Matches and Info

http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460
In this one, my top 3 are Kucinich, Gravel, and Dodd.

Answer the questions to see which candidate matches your desires for the next president:
Match-O-Matic  http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Vote2008/page?id=3623346
Mine came out Gravel, Kucinich, and Huckabee.

Every political leader on every issue
http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm

Calvin & Hobbes - Thursday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/15/

Garbage Trucks

Beware of Garbage Trucks
By David J. Polly

How often do you let other people's nonsense change your mood? Do
you let a bad driver, rude waiter, curt boss, or an insensitive
employee ruin your day? Unless you're the Terminator, for an instant
you're probably set back on your heels. However, the mark of a
successful person is how quickly one can get back their focus on
what's important.

Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson. I learned it in the back of
a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened.

I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We
were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car
jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver
slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car's back end
by just inches!

The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big
accident, whipped his head around and he started yelling bad words at
us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he
was friendly. So, I said, 'Why did you just do that? This guy
almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!'

And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, 'The Law of
the Garbage Truck.'

'Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of
garbage, full of frustration, Full of anger, and full of
disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump
it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you.

When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just
smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did.'

So this was it: The 'Law of the Garbage Truck.' I started thinking,
how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do
I take their garbage and spread it to other people: At work, at home,
on the streets? It was that day I said, 'I'm not going to do it anymore.'

I began to see garbage trucks. Like in the movie 'The Sixth Sense,'
the little boy said, 'I see Dead People.'

Well, now 'I see Garbage Trucks.' I see the load they're carrying. I
see them coming to drop it off. And like my Taxi Driver, I don't make
it a personal thing; I just smile, wave, wish them well, and I move on.

One of my favorite football players of all time, Walter Payton, did
this every day on the Football field. He would jump up as quickly as
he hit the ground after being tackled.

He never dwelled on a hit. Payton was ready to make the next play his
best. Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting.

Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from
school with hugs and kisses. Leaders and parents know that they have
to be fully present, and at their best for the people they care about.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks
take over their day.

What about you? What would happen in your life, starting today, if
you let more garbage trucks pass you by?

Here's my bet. You'll be happier.

A great Idea

Thanks, Clyde.

When doing your Christmas cards this year, take one card and send it to this address.  If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these wonderful special people who have sacrificed so much would get.

A Great Idea!!!

When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include the following:

          A Recovering American soldier

          c/o Walter Reed Army Medical  Center

          6900 Georgia Avenue,NW

          Washington,D..C. 20307-5001

If you approve of the idea, please pass it on to your e-mail list.

Calvin & Hobbes - Wednesday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/14/

Thanksgiving Flash Jigsaw Game

http://www.alighthouse.com/flashgames/novpuzzle.html

Calvin & Hobbes + Bleachers - Tuesday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/13/

http://www.gocomics.com/inthebleachers/2007/11/13/

Amazing kid

http://www.sonnyradio.com/kylelograsso.html

Coconut Cake - and others

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/taste/stories/DN-nf_coconutcake_1107liv.State.Edition1.518a713.html

See the link for other cake recipes.

Do You Support Torture?

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/DOJ/story?id=3814076

Why do we confirm Michael Mukasey as Attorney General if he will not call water-boarding torture?

Do we still have morals in this country?

Religious Coalition Urges Clear Rejection of Torture
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=9668

Yet Another Torture Memo Uncovered
http://mainstreambaptist.blogspot.com/2007/11/yet-another-torture-memo-uncovered.html

The presidency is now a criminal conspiracy
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21644133/

Calvin & Hobbes - Sunday & Monday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/11/

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/12/

A keeper

Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress , lawn mower in one hand, and dish-towel in the other. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more.

Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away...never to return. So... While we have it... it's best we love it... And care for it.... And fix it when it's broken..... And heal it when it's sick.

This is true... For marriage.... And old cars.... And children with bad report cards..... Dogs and cats with bad hips.... And aging parents.... And grandparents. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it. Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with.

There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special.... And so, we keep them close!

Why God Made Moms

WHY GOD MADE MOMS

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

2. Mostly to clean the house.

3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?

1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3. God made my Mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of ?

1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.

2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?

1. We're related.

2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's moms like me.

What kind of little girl was your mom?

1. My Mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.

2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?

1. His last name.

2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?

3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?

1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my Mom eats a lot.

2. She got too old to do anything else with him.

3. My grandma says that Mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?

1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.

2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.

3. I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms &a

mp; dads?

1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.

2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

3. Dads are taller & stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friend's.

4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?

1. Mothers don't do spare time.

2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?

1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?

1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it and not me.

3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Calvin & Hobbes - Friday & Saturday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/09/

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/10/

Spade High School Last Graduation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPNS6tMY26o

Dissent

This is from Wade Burleson's blog, "Grace and Truth to You."  He is a dissident on the Southern Baptist Convention's (SBC) International Missions Board (IMB).
The full blog entry:  http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/2007/11/imb-meeting-monday-nov-5-springfield.html


...snip

I would like to close tonight's post, at this very late hour, with this great quote I recently discovered by the great Polish dissident Vaclav Havel and one I hope might be an encouragement to my Southern Baptist friends who are on their way to paving the future of tomorrow for all of us who name Christ as Savior and are not afraid to stand on Baptist principles:

Polish dissident Vaclav Havel:

You do not become a "dissident" just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.

Check out my blog, Gray Matters:  http://pwgraymatters.blogspot.com/

Calvin & Hobbes - Thursday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/08/

Calvin & Hobbes - Wednesday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/07/

Quotes of the Day

When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.
- Mark Twain
A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.
- Robertson Davies
Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right.
- Kurt Herbert Alder

Calvin & Hobbes - Tuesday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/06/

Calvin & Hobbes - Monday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/05/

Musings and Amusings

Here's some random thoughts:

Plano East vs Plano football game on Friday night (Plano won, 28-14)

O The Plano East defense played much better. Did they read my blog entry from last Friday night?

O The winning touchdown pass was a perfect throw from Meger. It's the kind of crushing play at the right time that Plano used to execute almost every year against the Panthers.

O The pivotal play of the game was Plano's cornerback blitz sack of Riko Smalls with the clock winding down in the first half and East inside the Plano 20. There were no points on that drive; East tried to get the field goal unit on the field since they had no timeouts left. A spike of the ball would have been the right call.

O Plano's quarterback, Carson Meger, didn't self-destruct. Riko did: 2 interceptions and numerous other bad throws. What's happened to him? He was all-world in the first half of the season.

O Even Gerald Brence out-coached Johnny Ringo!

O Plano made the plays and had the athletes. Congratulations to them. I hope they go far in the playoffs.

O By my calculations, East, if it makes the playoffs (there could be a 5-way tie for third place), will face either Rockwall or Naaman Forest. You've got to worry about how the Panthers will play after their spotty defensive and offensive play the last few weeks.

O On Shoe Goop (the tube of stuff used to repair tennis shoes)
Is it just me, or does it smell like and look like the model airplane glue you used as a kid?

O ZZ Top concert on Thursday night (with Jeni, my daughter)
I have officially entered the old codger's zone. The music was too loud, even from the next-to-the-back-row center balcony seats we started in. Also, I sic'ed security on the pot-smoking, beer-drinking, profanity-speaking, finger-raising, loud fans who wouldn't sit down in the balcony seats in front of us. Even though it was loud, you couldn't hear the music or the gravelly-voiced singing clearly from up there (it was in the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie). We moved, and the sound and sight-lines were much better from the side seats lower down. After about 4 songs, all the 'Top songs sound the same, except for the Tres Hombres ones. We left after the 2nd encore, La Grange, to beat the traffic. Jeni wasn't impressed with this old, bearded band.

Calvin & Hobbes - Sunday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/04/

The History of 'APRONS'

This post is from my friend, Snuffy.
---------------------------------------------
The  principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears .

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.

In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that "old-time apron" that served so many purposes.

Send this to those who would know, and love the story about Grandma's aprons.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool.

Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

Calvin & Hobbes, Saturday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/03/

Seventies Something

Here's a post for the ladies.

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/seventies-something/index.html?ex=1351656000&en=b184014acd5c229c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Calvin & Hobbes - Friday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/02/

Sick and Dirty Washington

Excerpt from story (full link below) "Time to Apologize to Plame/Wilson" from Consortiumnews.com:

“Plame-gate” was a classic story of how arrogant leaders destroy a messenger who speaks truth to power, except this one had the extraordinary collateral damage of wrecking a U.S. national security program.

What happened was this:

In early 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney asked about a dubious report that Iraq was seeking yellowcake uranium from the African nation of Niger; a CIA officer working in a counter-proliferation office with Plame suggested that her husband, a former diplomat who had served in both Iraq and Africa might help check out the report.

At the urging of her boss, Plame sounded out her husband who met with Plame’s superiors and agreed to take the unpaid assignment; Wilson traveled to Niger and – like others who checked out the report – concluded that it was almost certainly false; on his return, Wilson relayed his findings to CIA debriefers along with an anecdotal comment from one former Nigerien official who had feared that one Iraqi delegation might want uranium, though it turned out not to be the case.

Nevertheless, while grasping at intelligence straws to justify invading Iraq, President Bush cited the Niger/yellowcake suspicions during his 2003 State of the Union address; the invasion went ahead in March 2003 but U.S. forces didn’t find any nuclear program or other WMD evidence; in summer 2003, Wilson went public with details about his Niger trip and challenged the administration’s misuse of WMD intelligence.

At that point, the Bush administration unleashed the full force of its propaganda machinery to disparage Wilson. The chosen attack line was to portray his trip as a boondoggle arranged by his wife, but that strategy required divulging that Plame was a CIA officer.

Nevertheless, administration insiders – including Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage; his friend and White House political adviser Karl Rove; Cheney’s chief of staff Libby; and press secretary Ari Fleischer – did just that, alerting reporters to the Plame angle.

...
After reading Fair Game, one is left with the sickening realization that Bush’s Washington has become a mean and mendacious place so lacking in honor that the city’s preeminent politicians and pundits don’t see any need to apologize to the Wilson family for all the harm that was done.

In a decent world, political leaders and journalists, especially, would praise Joe Wilson for his patriotism – both for undertaking the CIA mission and for blowing the whistle on the President’s abuse of intelligence to lead the nation to war.

But Washington is not that kind of place. Instead it is a city where having power – whether inside the White House or in the Post’s editorial offices – means never having to say you’re sorry.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/103107.html#When:02:10PM

Only a Sick Society Plays Politics with Children's Health

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_brooks_thistlethwaite/2007/11/only_a_sick_society_plays_poli.html

Calvin & Hobbes - Thursday

http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2007/11/01/