Dennisblogging, part 7: Beach web cams

Links courtesy of ABC 33/40:

Orange Beach
Panama City

Dennisblogging, part 6: This is not good

It's been raining for about three hours. It began about 10 minutes after I took photo #2 below. Already, parts of Jefferson County are under a flash flood warning.

The latest forecast track takes Dennis right over the Florida-Alabama line. As Dennis heads northwest, that means southern and central Alabama will be on the east side of the hurricane -- the side that gets the more powerful inbound winds and the lion's share of the rain.

Stay tuned ...

Dennisblogging, part 5: Photoblogging

There goes the first boom. The sky is getting blacker by the minute. (Note the time stamps on the photos, but add an hour. My camera apparently doesn't automatically update when we switch to Daylight Saving Time.)

6:14 p.m.:















6:31 p.m.:

Dennisblogging, part 4: The catometer

So far, the catometer (cat-o-meter) looks good vis a vis the approaching Dennis. Both of mine look as if they could care less:


















If anything, I think they look annoyed that I interrupted their afternoon naps. Sorry!

Dennisblogging, part 3: Dennis Hall of Fame

Hurricane Dennis. We don't like him here at GGB Central. Here are some guys named Dennis we do like:








Dennis Quaid. If you're a sci fi fan and haven't seen Frequency, check it out.








Dennis Miller. What can I say? This guy's a comedic genius and a conservative. (Kinda handsome, too.)








Dennis DeYoung. Never met a high note he didn't like. I'd "Come Sail Away" with him any ol' day.

Dennisblogging, part 2: Jimmy Buffett fantasies and fond memories

Ooops ... wrong Dennis. But while we have him here, let's gaze at him for a moment before going to ...

... this Dennis.

Scary.

It's Saturday morning, 10:30 a.m., and already things are beeping at me. Between the weather alerts I get on my cell phone from our local ABC affiliate to Weatherbug chirps on my desktop, Hurricane Dennis action is already heating up. (Speaking of heat, it's already 91 degrees here in the Magic City. Yikes!)

Can you tell I'm a weather nut? Did you have any doubt?

My area already is under an inland tropical storm watch and a flash flood watch. I-65 between Mobile and Montgomery already has been relaned for all-northbound traffic to accommodate the refugees.

My heart breaks for those people. They've already been through hell with Hurricane Ivan back in September. I haven't been to the Gulf since summer '04, but I read yesterday that about a third of the condos in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach still are uninhabitable. Another hit, and it could be a VERY long time before the Alabama Gulf Coast fully recovers.

Our Gulf Coast is one of the real treasures of living in this state. The old-world flavor of Mobile ... the unbelievably charming Fairhope on the opposite side of Mobile Bay ... the dazzling white beaches of Pleasure Island. The thought of losing any of it makes this Alabama girl very, very sad -- along with pretty much all of the four million people in this state.

For most Alabamians, the Gulf Coast is a treasure box of sweet memories. I'll never forget a weekend I spent in Fairhope about 10 years ago to attend the wedding of two church friends. The bride was originally from Fairhope, and what a cool place to call home. EVERYTHING in that town of about 10,000 is pretty. Even the trash bins are hidden within clean, white wooden boxes with impatiens planted on top.

Three girlfriends and I made the long trek down after work one Friday night. We'd rented a cottage at a B&B called Villa Whimsy. Before settling in, we stopped at the famous Old Bay Steamer for piña coladas and fresh seafood. We sat along the restaurant's built-in aviary and watched chartreuse and aqua birds hop and flutter.

Later -- very tired and very full -- we found Villa Whimsy and checked into what I can only describe as a Jimmy Buffet fantasy: The walls were covered with bamboo up to about six inches from the ceiling. The rest of the walls and ceiling were painted midnight blue with gold stars. The king-sized bed had ship's rope wrapped around the four posters. The TV sat on what looked like an old ship's chest with Mardi Gras beads spilling out.

We all just looked at each other and smiled.

The next morning, our hosts prepared a delicious breakfast and served it to us on the deck that looked out onto Mobile Bay. The afternoon wedding was at an old church in town, the reception at the bride's home, "Peppermint Cove." (EVERYTHING in Fairhope has a cute name.)
I could give you several more stories ... the week I spent on Dauphin Island on a school trip in 7th grade ... a thunderstorm witnessed two years ago from the deck of a condo in Gulf Shores ... more than one good meal eaten at landmarks such as Hazel's, Coconut Willie's and Live Bait.

I'm reminded of a few lines from a Jimmy Buffett tune, "One Particular Habor":

I know I don't get there often enough
But God knows I surely try
It's a magic kind of medicine
That no doctor could prescribe

I wasn't able to make my annual trek to the Coast this year because of all the moolah I had to shell out for the Big Move.

I just hope there's something waiting for me when I finally return.

Dennisblogging

Hurricane Dennis, that nasty little bugger, is about to stir up trouble for us Alabamians. And yes, even Birmingham -- some 300 miles from the coast -- can get clobbered when you have a hurricane this strong headed straight for you.

I am deeply concerned that our beautiful Gulf Coast, still torn up from September's Ivan, cannot handle another battering. In fact, if Dennis remains a category 4 or -- shudder -- becomes even stronger, this could be catastrophic.

Meanwhile, I know more than one person who had trees fall on their homes during Ivan. Lucky me, I didn't even lose power. But if you know anything about Birmingham, you can't go anywhere without running into a tree, and there are LOTS of 'em around the GGB's new domicile. Nevertheless, I plan to stick it out and will hopefully be able to blog from my iPaq downstairs if being in the office upstairs looks a little dicey.

More to come ...

Solidarity with Britain

Thanks to an idea by Michelle Malkin, I, too, will keep the Union Jack flying up top today. Scroll down for updates.

God bless the people of the UK.

From The Guardian: If you need information on someone who may have been injured in the attack, the British police have listed this emergency hotline number: 44-0870-1566-344.

UPDATE: Reuters reports that the London attacks fit the Al Quaeda pattern.

UPDATE II: I can't help wondering if it's mere coincidence that this attack occurred the day after London was awarded the next Olympiad. Certainly rubs salt on the wound.

UPDATE III: Timeline of this morning's events.

UPDATE IV: From an Islamicist Web site:

“Rejoice, Islamic nation. Rejoice, Arab world. The time has come for vengeance against the Zionist crusader government of Britain in response to the massacres Britain committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Is it just me, or do all terrorist press releases/proclamations sound like bad dialogue from a third-rate adventure movie shown at 2 a.m.? Maybe Al Quaeda is populated with frustrated screenwriters and guys who flunked their literature classes. Who knows. They all sound like they're trying to write a new chapter of the Quran or something. What miserable, pathetic jerks trying to make something of their miserable, pathetic lives.

I heard the news today, oh boy

Oddly, I had intended to title yesterday's post "I heard the news today, oh boy," but another Lennon tune seemed more apropos.

A few random notes:

Now that innocent people are dying on Western soil again, the people who blow up planes, trains and automobiles are "terrorists" rather than "insurgents." (Although I've noticed the AP is scrupulously avoiding the t-word except in direct quotes.) Speculation abounds as to whether this is the job of Islamicists or, rather, the IRA or an anarchist group. (My money's with Al Quaeda, but we'll see.) Tony Blair looked noticably shaken in his press conference. I have no idea if this will galvanize the British against terrorism and in favor of the WOT or if they'll crumple like the Spaniards did. Considering how they've dealt with IRA "insurgents," I'm assuming the former, but I could be wrong. The UK is in a much different situation vis a vis its Muslim population than the U.S., and the UK does not have a large evangelical Christian population, a group that is a primary engine of pro-Israel sentiment in the U.S.

Will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Not to be cavalier, but at least I can get some real news now.

Imagine there's no heaven? No thanks!!

It's these kinds of stories that make you thank -- and question -- God:

Shasta: Duncan Kidnapped, Molested Dylan and Me (Fox News)

Thank God that happened to no kid in my family ... but who would want that to happen to ANY kid?

The atheists say there is no good answer to evil such as this, and therefore there is no God. I do believe in God, but I have no good answers to evil such as this, either. At least, no answers that soothe the soul and brighten the spirit when there are monsters roaming the countryside who devour innocent children.

But I cannot take John Lennon's advice and imagine that there is no heaven, and no religion, too. No, John, I'd prefer to believe there is a heaven where Dylan now is safe in the arms of God and no molester or murderer ever can touch him ... and a hell where an unrepentant child molester and murderer receives justice.

Is it not stories like this that drive home the fact that yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as evil? If we cannot find it in six million Jews murdered or 3,000 executed in burning skyscrapers, can we not find it in the living nightmare of rape and murder committed against children? Can imagination or affirmation or meditation fix that???

White House hypocrisy over Mexican stamp

The White House is criticizing Mexico's issuing a stamp that features a cartoon character that unflatteringly depicts blacks. I wish the White House would worry more about Mexico's outrageous complicity with illegal border-crossers than a silly stamp.

Yeah, the stamp is offensive, but it's really none of our business from an international relations standpoint. However, it is very much our business when Mexico City issues a guide on crossing the border, including illegal crossings!!

Bush needs to stop doing the Macarena with Vincente Fox and dam up the borders. That we have not had a domestic attack since 9/11 is perhaps more due to sheer dumb luck than brilliant foreign policy.

Liveblogging the Richard Scrushy verdict

11:47 a.m.: Much blather about Scrushy leading prayer with his "Amen Corner."

(For those of you not familiar with the trial, Scrushy suddenly decided to join a mostly black church after he was indicted. He also hired a black attorney. Birmingham proper has a large African-American contingency. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.)

11:50 a.m.: The GGB prediction -- he'll get off scot free. Not because I think he's innocent.

11:51 a.m.: Anyone who's ever worked for HealthSouth will tell you the idea that Scrushy knew nothing about the fraud being perpetrated by the corporation is complete bupkus.

11:58 a.m.: Verdicts being read. He's been acquitted on one conspiracy count. Waiting for the others.

11:59 a.m.: Counts 1-15. Not guilty.

12:03 p.m.: Not guilty on all counts. What did I tell you?

Schmuck.

The quotable Coen brothers

Inspired by AFI's 100 Top Movie Quotes, I thought I'd share a few of my faves from the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, one of the most quotable movies ever.

• "Damn, we're in a tight spot!"
  
• "You two are dumber than a bag of hammers."
  
• "I've said my piece and counted to three."
  
• "We ... thought ... you ... was ... a ... toad!"
  
• "I'm the damn paterfamilias!"
  
• "Well! Ain't this place a geographical oddity! Two weeks from everywhere!"
  
• "Mrs. Hogwallop done R-U-N-N-O-F-T."
  
• "Is you is or is you ain't my constituency?"
  

Fairly unbalanced

I've had about as much as I can take of the Dead & Missing Kids Revue and the Gitmo Follies.

Spent considerable time at my computer Saturday working from home, so much of the time I had Fox News keeping me company. Over the course of several hours, here were the big stories:

- Natalee Holloway is still missing.
- Detainees at Gitmo eat better than our soldiers and get free ice cream if they're good.
- Three little boys died in a car trunk when it accidentally shut.
- A 14-year-old girl died from a shark attack in Florida.

Not one ... not ONE ... mention of the watershed Supreme Court decision from last Thursday that basically said the government can take your property if Mr. Big Land Developer wants it. If I didn't follow blogs, I doubt I would have known about this.

Folks, as much as I love FNC, this is ridiculous. Aside from the minor public service value of these missing/dead children stories, at the end of the day, it doesn't make much difference to me. Not that I don't emotionally respond to these families' plights. I do, and my prayers are with them.

But for the love of Pete, Fox has Geraldo Rivera and Greta Van Susteren in Aruba detailing every sniffle. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is using the Constitution for toilet paper.

(And don't even get me started on Gitmo.)

So, dear Fox, please, alert me if they find Natalee Holloway or if they actually charge someone with a crime. (I have yet to figure out the Dutch legal system.) Until then, could we have some real news?

UPDATE: Oh, I forgot. They also mentioned that Runaway Bride Jennifer Wilbanks was interviewed by Katie Couric and her story may be made into a TV program.

Lord. Help. Us. All.

Wilbanks supposedly said that she ran away because she was afraid she couldn't be the "perfect wife" for her fiancé, John Mason.

No argument from me, Jen!

We make lousy gods, part III

(See my first two posts on this subject here and here.)

Michael Jackson and a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Funny where you find a little revelation.

In my two earlier posts on this topic, I talked about how fame and money screws with your head. Too much of it and you start thinking you're the Supreme Deity and live in a fantasy world of your own construction while, to the rest of the world, you just look like a buffoon. And to have the audacity to commission a painting of the Lord's Supper with yourself in the role of Christ as Michael Jackson did. Sheesh.

But I realized that Michael Jackson simply put his money where the human heart is. Frankly, we all like to star as God, don't we?

And what about that Excel spreadsheet? Oh yeah. I was working on my finances earlier and realized I'd severely overshot my budget for the month. At his height, Michael Jackson was worth half a billion. I earn about a hundreth of a percent of that, and I don't do that well with it. Would I do any better if I were earning gobs of money? I doubt it.

Michael Jackson had the money and the power to live out the basic human tendency: To do exactly what we want to do and not have anyone else tell us "no." Not that that is an excuse for reprehensible behavior. I hope that even if I had his fame and bank account I'd refrain from committing (alledged) felonies, and I'd appreciate it if he'd do likewise.

But if you had such power and insulation from the real-world consequences of your actions, just what sort of demons would come crawling out of the darkness?

I am glad I am not Michael Jackson, but in the cosmic scheme of things -- compared with God -- I am no "better" than he is.

We make lousy gods, part II

As I originally wrote here, human beings don't do well with near-omnipotence when they're suddenly rich and famous -- a la Michael Jackson.

So you can imagine how my ears pricked up when an interviewee on last night's broadcast of Why Michael Jackson Won (A&E) said that above his bed, Jackson has a painting of the Last Supper. Except the figure seated in the center is The Gloved One himself, not Jesus Christ.

::: shudder :::

Some clear thinking on Gitmo

I won't waste your synapses on a rant on Senator Dick Durbin. (I've already waxed eloquent on outrageous Nazi analogies here.)

Kathleen Parker rightly observes today that Gitmo deserves some scrutiny nonetheless, and Durbin's rantings are a distraction from some real problems at Gitmo, namely the sexual humiliation of male detainees by female soldiers.

Note: Might want to wait 'til after lunch to read this.

Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya ...

Question:

If Natalee Holloway had disappeared in Deadhorse, Alaska, would half of the world's journalists still be there?

And now that the Michael Jackson trial is over, will the other half of the world's journalists be jetting down to the Caribbean to speculate on who gave Joran van der Sloot that hideous haircut? (Note to the media: Please stop pronouncing the young man's first name as "urine.")

I must say, thought, I do relish the sight of Fox News' Rick Leventhal in his tropical whites.

Meow meow

Now HERE's something you don't see every day:

Oregon Cat Born With Two Faces

Cosmic narcissism

Via the Mudville Gazette, via Michelle Malkin, here's a charming story of "pastor" Fred Phelps of "God hates fags" fame in action again, this time protesting at the funeral of a fallen US servicewoman:

Phelps protests funeral

It's difficult to put into words how much I despise stunts like this.

This is beyond the pale. As far as we know, the late Corporal French wasn't even gay. (Not that that would justify anything.) Rather, Phelps is claiming that US deaths in Iraq are God's judgment against his church being bombed six years ago.

::: long sigh :::

Cosmic narcissism and religion is a very bad mix.

'Nuf said.

Why Thriller went to File 13

This pretty much sums it up.

My prediction

Michael Jackson will continue to play house with underage boys, if the adulation of the courthouse crowd is any indication of people's persistent stupidity when it comes to celebrities.

There will be another incident. This man is incapable of self-control. His head would explode if he did the very thing to protect himself from future allegations: Stay away from children.

And just for the record, my old cassette tape copy of Thriller went to File 13 some time ago.

Jacko verdict

::::: eyes rolling :::::::

He's bad, I know it.

UPDATE: To the person holding the "repent" sign -- I agree with your sentiments, but please, put down the poster board. You make us (Xians) all look silly.

UPDATE II: Watching him walk out of the courtroom, I think Jackson is on Xanax and ludes.

UPDATE III: If the verdict had been guilty, just what would that woman have done with the doves???

Folks, I have to admit, this is our legal system working properly, so to speak. They had no direct evidence and the accusers seriously lacked credibility.

However, our society is NOT working properly when a man who sleeps with underage children is venerated by screaming throngs.

God help us.

The inmates are running the asylum

All right, I'm getting cranky again.

Check out today's Nealz Nuze at Neal Boortz' site. (Today only -- I think the page refreshes daily.) Scroll down to "Border Insecurity." Deranged Canadian Gregory Despres was allowed into our fair land after customs agents relieved him of a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chainsaw stained with blood.

Apparently his arsenal of weapons -- coupled with the fact that he's straight of central casting for a part in the next Friday the 13th film -- was not enough to get his sorry self sent back to Canada. (Which highlights the absolute inanity of customs enforcement. We spend millions keeping weed from entering the country, but a maniacal, chainsaw-toting Canadian? No problema!)

Well, wouldn't you know it. Mr. Despres wound up murdering an elderly couple. The husband's head was cut off and stuffed into a pillowcase. Is anyone surprised? Anyone? Anyone?

If this isn't proof positive that the people in charge of our border security are brain damaged, I don't know what is.

And one more thing: I am seriously beginning to think that Jennifer Wilbanks is on something.

Almost famous?

Although I'd never want to be as famous as Michael Jackson, it's trés cool to get a little recognition for your work.

The GGB was mentioned in a roundup of "blonde bloggers" at Blogcritics.org. Specifically mentioned was my rant about the f-word documentary. (And the challenges of reading Neal Stephenson when you have ADD. Oy vey!)

Should I tell them that I'm actually closer to brunette now? Mmmm ... nah ...

We make lousy gods

You have to feel a little sorry for the King of Pop.

Yeah, I think he's a creep, too. I don't believe for a second that all he did with his bedmates was have milk and cookies and read Dr. Seuss.

But Michael Jackson may, in part, be the victim of "godhood" imposed on him by unparalleled talent, outrageous luck and a mass media machine to make it all happen. When you have a multi-million-dollar bank account, a fairtytale home and the adulation of millions who worship at the Church of Michael, you can pretty much do what you want ... even if that includes hacking your face into a death mask.

Fabulous wealth + worldwide fame = self-destruction. Look at Elvis Presley. At least he stuck with chrome suits and Krispy Kreme as his vices. Nevertheless, he ended up dying on the toilet in his early 40s. Who thinks that Michael Jackson will make it to 60, either in or out of jail?

It's not good to be a god when you're just a human being. Virtually unlimited influence, power and wealth? Elvis couldn't handle it. Michael Jackson couldn't handle it. Who could?

GGB on hiatus

Unless I can get the home computer back online shortly, the GGB will be on hiatus until Monday the 6th.

Please send only worshipful and fawning comments while I'm offline.

Yeeeeoooowwwwww!!!!

I can hear the squeals from the arse-smacking that Victor Davis Hanson just delivered to the more-enlightened-than-thou.

'The business end of a dream deferred'

What a great phrase from Darryl James. Read his experience about being single and over 30.

I hear ya, bro.

(Hat tip: La Shawn Barber)

That effin' documentary

*** READER ADVISORY -- EXPLICIT LANGUAGE ***

In response to my post about a proposed documentary on the f-word, blogger Carol had this pithy comment:

I'm surprised that someone who is so interested in language, writing and behavior would be so skeptical about a documentary like this. While I agree the letter is a bit overblown, it actually sounds like an interesting idea. It's been awfully perplexing to me that at a time when the country is at war, there's still plenty of time for our leaders to help us get our national panties in a twitch over boobs and bad words. Given that, I think a documentary exploring rhetorical hysteria is a great idea.

Touché, Carol. Why not give it documentary treatment? Are bad words just that ... bad words?

Granted, the movie isn't finished, but I'd be willing to bet that when it is, the f-word will be infused with some sort of gravitas. It'll be a mantra of liberation and enlightenment. What was profane will be sacred.

Don't laugh. Stay with me a minute.

Do you remember what the f-word means? Sexual intercourse. At its best, something special. Something sacred as in shared between two and no one else.

But fucking? That's different. Anyone can fuck. Now we fuck around, we fuck off, we tell people to fuck themselves. "Fuck" represents the lowest common denominator of the human sexual act, which is why it is/was considered an obscenity.

Now, I am not necessarily opposed to the word when used as intended. I am opposed, however, to elevating it to sacred mantra.

Same thing has happened to other vulgarities. Do a Google on the word "cunt" and see what I mean. Thanks to Eve Ensler and the Vagina Brigade, I'm being told to embrace the word "cunt." No longer a derogatory term for a woman's sexual organs, it's supposed to represent the power of my feminine sexuality and liberate me from the rigid sexual morés of the past.

In other words, I am my cunt and my cunt is me. Mmmmm, yeeeaaahhhh. Right.

That's what I find boring -- the preoccupation with the crude and the attempt to elevate the common to the divine.

I wanna be an ad exec

Hey! I've got a great new concept for the next big pharmaceutical advertising campaign:

Have attractive, healthy-looking, upper-middle-class people talk about what a load of crap their lives were before taking ritavectinagra. Show shots of them limping on the playground with their grandkids, barfing into a toilet, having entire limbs fall off, stuff like that. Cut to cool graphics of ritavectinagra entering the bloodstream and making limbs grow back. Cut to peppy music and shots of people hauling surf boards into tsunamis and biking up the side of Mt. Everest. Be sure to include speedy rundown of side effects, which include nausea, hair loss, pimples, ingrown toenails, hives, impotence, major organ failure and coma.


Oh ... what? It's been done already? Shoot.

GGB summer reading list

I seem to be doing my best writing in e-mails to friends. Here's a recent excerpt:

"Loved Snow Crash. [A former boyfriend whose name shall be withheld] actually gave me Cryptonomicon as a gift Christmas before last. (I think it was a guilt offering.)

"Right now I'm trying (again!) to read Diamond Age. Neal Stephenson's prose is very dense, and I've discovered it doesn't make a really good poolside read, which is what I need now because my circuits are so fried, so this weekend I picked up a copy of Mary Higgins Clark's latest."

I think Neal Stephenson is sci fi's answer to Tom Clancy. At least I have a clue what he means when he writes about "buckminsterfullertubes." :D But sometimes all that detail clogs up the pipes of this ADD-addled brain.

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a ...

Blogger Michelle Malkin recently received an invitation from Napoleon Dynamite casting director Jory Weitz to appear in a documentary about the f-word. (She declined.) Read all about it here.

Just how bored are we as a culture that we think an obscenity deserves documentary treatment? Good grief, you'd think Weitz was talking about global warming or beating baby seals the way he described the earth-shattering implications of the f-word in his letter to Malkin:

Boiler plate - this film will examine the long history of the word, trace its use through time and present all sides of the current and ongoing debate over its use.

OK, I know ... they'll delve into issues such as First Amendment rights, censorship, etc. Yeah, whatever. They also plan to bring in "important personalities" such as Sam Donaldson, Miss Manners and Alanis Morrisette, who I'm sure will be happy to tell us how she liberated female anger when she inserted the f-word in her hit song "You Oughtta Know." I wonder if they'll also interview Beavis and Butthead. ("Huh ... huhuhuhuh ... he said the f-word.")

Let's be honest. Hollywood of late has been delighting in the f-word like a potty-training two-year-old showing us his poo. Or, perhaps I should say like a 13-year-old boy who thinks he's the first one to discover profanity and is gleefully horrifying his parents.

I find it ridiculously boring. Chalk it up to well-fed Westerners to become enraptured with trivia.

QotD

"Flush a koran down the toilet and thousands riot and kill. Flush a bible (sic) down the toilet and you get an NEA grant."

-- Poster "Jeremy" in the comments section of Little Green Footballs, in response to this post.

Runaway bride story boon for sloganeers

The Jennifer Wilbanks fiasco has spawned its own cottage industry. Go to www.cafepress.com and do a search on "runaway bride." I though this messenger bag was particularly choice.

My prediction is that to "pull a Wilbanks" will ignobly enter the American lexicon just as "Lewinsky" has become a euphemism for, well, you know.

Dangit! Why didn't I think of that?

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/ts/042805missingbridega

Let's see if he actually gets payment. (I thought it was a pretty darn good likeness.)

UPDATE: Whoops. Time to get the butter.

Some reflections on the American Idol controversy

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz .......................

One man's take on runaway brides

Thank you, Frank J.! (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin)

http://www.imao.us/archives/003120.html

Please send Jennifer Wilbanks to her room

Note to the news media: Please do not grant Jennifer Wilbanks any more ink or air time. I’m already sick of seeing her face, and she doesn’t deserve it.

If the situation had been reversed, there would be no calls for "understanding" or "compassion" for the runaway groom. He’d be drawn and quartered by now.

Jennifer Wilbanks wimped out. Pure and simple. I’m glad she’s alive, and maybe she needs medication, but she also needs to grow up.

UPDATE:
Note to the WWJD crowd harping about "compassion": I am not condemning Jennifer Wilbanks to anything; I am not making pronouncements on the state of her eternal soul or whether Jesus forgives. (He does.)

I'm only saying that she is not a victim in the true sense of the word and it's ludicrous to characterize her as one. The press should focus its attention elswhere and not give her the satisfaction of notoriety, if that is indeed what she's looking for.

She obviously needs help but she also needs to be held accountable for putting her loved ones through untold anguish, deceiving the public and lying to law enforcement.

I'd be more likely to give her a pass if she were 14, but she's 32. Grownups do not fake their own abductions to get out of unpleasant and stressful situations. The cut hair they found indicates that she wanted people to think she was the victim of a crime, not that she merely skipped town and didn't tell anyone (which is not a crime).

Folks, with all the publicity surrounding the Laci Petersons and Chandra Levys of the world, I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner. We can't set a bad precedent and let her completely off the hook.

File under 'I am not making this up'

The case of the exploding German toads, as reported by Little Green Footballs:

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=15626&only=yes

Cuff 'em all, I say!

Several years ago, I spent a particularly forgettable year teaching second-grade Sunday School. It took me and another woman to handle eight kids, including one who was "hyper" and would tell you so … after he got through turning the classroom into something resembling the Baghdad Hilton.

So when I saw the video of the five-year-old who went berserk and wound up in handcuffs, I was filled with secret glee.

Yeah … videos can be misleading, so I won’t make a definitive statement on this particular case. But let it be known: I am sick and tired of seeing kids who beat up on adults and no one does anything about it.

A few years ago, I attended a party of mostly 40-something adults. While noshing in the kitchen, I saw a mother tell her nine- or 10-year-old daughter she couldn’t play outside in the cold. The kid swatted her on the backside; mom did nothing. I nearly dropped my drink.

Later, another woman was calmly – calmly – talking about how her 16-year-old daughter had hit her so hard she’d bruised her arm. Nearly dropped my drink again. I figured the little brat I saw in the kitchen would one day be bruising her mother, too.

Hit my parent? Not unless I wanted to get the worst spanking of my life and be confined to my room for the next decade. It was unthinkable. If you were born in the ‘70s or before, you’re probably nodding your head.

I just don’t get these parents. And don’t tell me I don’t understand because I’m not a mother. I’ve already had to administer the hand-slap to my one-year-old niece when she reached for something she wasn’t supposed to. I will not hesitate to spank her little bottom if she ever strikes Aunt GGB.

And while the moonbat child "experts" complain that I’m "teaching her violence," the kids who aren’t spanked continue to spiral out of control and wind up top story on the evening news.

Or maybe that's the point – to get your 15 minutes of fame via your psycho child?

New digs

Finally, FINALLY got moved in! Still a lot of boxes to unpack. My home office looks like a warehouse.

My male cat only took a few hours to leave the safe haven of my lingerie drawer, but the female is still hiding under the bed.

More later.

Random thoughts ... er ... rants

Blogging may continue to be sporadic until the GGB gets her living situation situated. Until then, here are random thoughts (rants) of the day:

Worst thing about moving: Spending money. (On movers, deposits, cleaning services, boxes.)

Best thing about moving: Spending money. (On new curtains, rugs, appliances, etc.)

Dumbest anti-illegal-immigration argument: "We’re a nation of immigrants." No, we are not. For the record, I am not an immigrant. My ancestors arrived in the Carolinas more than 300 years ago, so I think I am safely in the category of "native." Don’t try that argument on me again, or I will not be responsible for my actions.

People’s faces I am sick of seeing: Martha Stewart. Britney Spears. Michael Jackson. I don’t give a rat’s patoot about any of them and it scares me that so many people do.

Dang funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time: Jay Leno’s "Jay Walking" segment on The Tonight Show. You can download clips from the show’s Web site. Hilarious.

Best anti-tax-day rant: The invincible Rachel Lucas at Blue-eyed Infidel strikes again. Makes me feel better that I still haven’t filed my taxes. (Ooops!)

So that’s why I’m still single: http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/archives/2005/04/more_women_than.html

If you have time to kill: You must check out one or more of these sites:
http://acme.com/heartmaker
http://www.band-name-generator.net/
http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/
http://george.says-it.com/
http://www.cyborgname.com/

OK. Back to real life. Have a great day.

The GGB is tired

I am tired, folks.

Eyes-glazing-over, brain-fuzzed, desperately-need-a-12-hour-nap tired. I'm chugging Coke and snarfing Nutter Butters (I know ... awful but terribly delicious) in a desperate attempt to elevate my blood sugar.

It's been a major week. Between the wrenching dynamics of the Terri Schiavo case and more mundane but also important issues such as my impending change of residence, I am "'bout ready to tump over," as we say in the South. And I'm recovering from the crud.l I'm supposed to have dinner tonight with a friend at our favorite Indian restaurant, and I hope I don't flop face down in the sev betata puri.

Civilized society

I ate lunch today and washed it down with a soda, thus successfully delaying my own death by avoiding starvation and dehydration.

I can feed myself. I can speak, walk and move. I work and pay taxes, which means I am considered a productive member of society and cannot be disposed of.

But I’m being harsh. That Terri Schiavo was lucky. Her husband was merely carrying out her wishes when he denied her the supremely unnatural and heroic intervention of food and water. I’m sure that a man who is living with another woman and has two children by her can be trusted to make life-and-death decisions regarding his helpless wife.

And anyway, Terri Schiavo was given morphine at the end to ease her painless and elegant death. And she was beautiful at the end. I know it’s true because a lawyer said so.

That lucky duck. What a great blessing to have your unfaithful husband and a phalanx of lawyers and judges say to hell with your heartbroken parents and siblings, your husband is boss and if he says you once told him you wouldn’t want to live in this "state," then by golly what he says goes.

We wouldn’t want those pesky Republicans and right-wing Christian zealots possibly interfering with the sanctity of your marriage. No, no, no, we wouldn’t want anyone to further their political career by having the audacity to say that maybe you should be kept alive and given a chance to be rehabilitated rather than warehoused or killed.

After all, who but a knuckle-dragging, Bible-thumping IDIOT would want to care for someone like Terri Schiavo?

Excuse me now … I’ve got to go join the protest over serving foie gras in Oregon. No ducks are going to be mistreated on my watch! Hell, no ... we're a civilized society.

QotD

"My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going, I do not see the road ahead of me, I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

"And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always, though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone."

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

(Hat tip: Boar's Head Tavern)

A GGB must read

Dennis Prager gives us an overview of why the Judeo-Christian tradition is to "choose life."

In light of Prager's comments, George Felos' statements about Terri Schiavo looking "beautiful" in her dying takes on an added dimension of creepiness.

(Hat tip: Boar's Head Tavern)

So who's really suffering here?

I visited the official Terri Schiavo Web site yesterday. Watched the videos. I'm not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but here's the official GGB diagnosis:

Prior to having her feeding tube removed, Terri Schiavo was not suffering.

She didn't appear to be in pain or agitated. I think Terri is unaware of the fact that she is disabled. In fact, I think she's one happy camper as long as she's kept comfortable and has human contact. (Her "lighting up" at seeing her mother was an unmistakable emotional response and not just a reflex, IMHO.) Meanwhile, her family seems to be devoted to her care.

So ... who's really suffering here? Michael Schiavo.

Terri's beating heart stands in the way of his marrying his longtime fiancee' and the mother of his two children. Her beating heart stands in the way of whatever financial benefit he may gain from her death. Michael doesn't want Terri to be put out of her misery, he wants to be put out of his own misery.

The fact that the judicial system has not declared him unfit to be her guardian is a crime, an absolute crime. And all the mewling about how often this case has been run through the courts is making me ill. The fact that some people consider judges the final arbiters of TRUTH scares the dickens out of me.

Time for Jeb to call in the cavalry. If it's not too late.

If C.S. Lewis knew about the Schiavo case

Just read it.

"Screwtape Revisited" by Meghan Cox Gurdon in National Review Online.

What she said

Mincing no words as usual, Rachel Lucas at Blue-eyed Infidel has some of the most potent and cutting statements I've seen about Terri Schiavo's slow death by starvation and dehydration:

Would it be okay if someone walked up to her bed right now and punched Terri in the face? Why not? Why can't someone just physically beat on her until she dies. She can't defend herself any more than she can feed herself. The courts have declared that she is to die, so why not speed it up? Choke her. Put a pillow over her face. You don't even have to be violent about it, just use tape to close off her nostrils and cover her mouth completely. It will only take a few minutes.

And this:

If society thinks it's okay to let her die, then fine. Let her die. I'm a big fan of not letting living things suffer when they don't have to. Which kinda is the main reason I think starving her to death is wrong.

And it's also the reason why I think that you are completely [expletive deleted] insane - not to mention a rotten human being - if you truly think it's wrong to let her live in a PVS state because she is capable of suffering by persisting in that state, but it's okay to starve her to death, because she is incapable of suffering from the long, slow, painful death of dehydration and starvation.


Read the whole thing here.

Don't hand me no lines, and keep yer hands to yourself

Undies and T-shirts for the chaste:

Fox Features - Fashion Takes a Vow of Chastity

OK ... the T-shirts I can understand, but if you're down to your skivvies before your date gets the message ... ???

(Hat tip: Boar's Head Tavern)

Other voices on Michael Schiavo

Michael Schiavo's behavior leaves much to be desired. According to Evangelical Outpost, the Schiavo case also exposes some horrendous problems with family law.

And the Jollyblogger gives us another perspective on Michael Schiavo -- this time from the Cross.

All things considered -- the Terri Schiavo case

The coverage of the Terri Schiavo case is driving me nuts.

I honestly don't know what to believe about this poor woman's condition. Each side has accused the other of cherrypicking witnesses and "experts" to support their own agenda. I don't know enough about the science of brain injury to ascertain whether Terri is still "with" us at all and, if she is, to what degree.

Nevertheless, there are a few things I just cannot in good conscience overlook:

1. We should not be starving human beings to death. I don't care if Terri has the mental capacity of a turnip, you don't do that to human beings.

2. I find the testimony of those involved in therapeutic and rehabilitative services compelling. I don't understand why a judge hasn't ordered and enforced some sort of regimen of therapy to try to improve her condition. (If any readers know of such an order, let me know.)

3. Michael Schiavo cannot mock his marriage to Terri by living with and having children by a live-in girlfriend and yet simultaneously claim that as her "husband" he has first dibs on her life-or-death decisions. That just doesn't wash.

It's this last point that haunts me. Yes, he has turned down cold, hard cash to keep his wife alive, but please ... why doesn't he just divorce her, live happily ever after with his cupcake and wash his hands of the whole mess? If Michael Schiavo had cared for this woman in his living room for the past 15 years instead of locking her away in a hospice (which is for people with six months or less to live, by the way), I'd be much more inclined to believe that he has this woman's best interests at heart.

But I just don't believe it. I just don't.

It looks like this may be the last stop for Terri. She's been without food and hydration for five days now.

God have mercy on us all.

End those nasty litterbox odors with ... Jesus!

I'm still deciding what I think about this:

NBC10.com - News - Couple Sells Candles That Smell Like Jesus

Buckblogging

Veering from the usual politics and religion ...

I'm renting the entire 10-disc series of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century from Netflix. Keep in mind that I was 9 when this series went on the air and probably 11 or 12 the last time I saw an episode. Oh, my, my, my ... the things you pick up a quarter-century later ...

1. A lot of the episode titles sound like porn movie names: "Unchained Woman." "Planet of the Slave Girls." "Planet of the Amazon Women." (I have a feeling that was deliberate.)

2. The show's writers apparently thought music wouldn't develop much in five centuries past disco and Earth, Wind & Fire.

3. Those food discs they eat in the 25th century must contain Cortislim or something. No one except the bad guys have any body fat. Even Dr. Huer looks pretty buff for a dude his age.

4. Gil Gerard's wardrobe is a laugh riot. It's either that white spandex Federation uniform or tunic-and-leggings combos that make him look like a refugee from Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Not to mention that in every other scene, he must show his chest hair or be (practically) naked. Not that I'm complaining.

5. Speaking of which, I still think Gil Gerard is hot.

I'm back ... I think

Sorry for the dearth of posts lately, sports fans. The GGB's schedule has ratcheted up a few notches, and my home computer has serious "issues." I try to keep the day-blogging to a minimum, so ....

DUH of the Day

Canadian tourist discovers that Communist dictatorships actually try to control the lives of their citizens, and CNN has the story.

(Hat tip: Babalu Blog)

Babalu Blog: The Honeymoon is Over

The gospel according to Coppertone

This is an actual excerpt from Revolve, a Bible repackaged to look like a teen fashion magazine, complete with beauty secrets like this one:

As you apply your sunscreen, use that time to talk to God. Tell him how grateful you are for how he made you. Soon, you’ll be so used to talking to him, it might become as regular and familiar as shrinking your pores.

I kid you not.

Revolve was the best-selling "Bible" of 2003. Its publisher, Transit Books (division of the usually dignified Thomas Nelson ), said this ain't your daddy's NIV. They created this bible-zine because teens said traditional Bibles were "too big and freaky looking."

I could comment further, but I think you know what I'm thinking.

Connecting the Oscar dots

Now, don't get me wrong. I like movies. Liberals make some of the best of them. But do you think they're getting the picture, so to speak? Note these two headlines:

Rock Can't Prevent Oscar Ratings From Sinking Like a Stone

Oscar Audience Applauds Louder for Fahrenheit 9-11 Than Passion

As Ben Stein would say, "Anyone? Anyone?"

Agence France Presse: Bin Laden a "Dissident"

::: groan :::

lgf: AFP: Bin Laden a "Dissident"

I loathe the body electric

It's after midnight at a trendy local club -- the kind of place I visit maybe once a year. I realize how woefully out of touch I am with the club scene when I can't help noticing all the bursting bustlines on young women who probably don't have the DNA for it. Of course, when you're trying to diet yourself into supermodel shape, the boobs are often the first to go. Next stop before the tanning salon and the hoochie mama clothes: the plastic surgeon.

Has the sexual revolution caused us to hate our bodies? I mean really. Is all the dieting and surgery and fake this and that really evidence that we just LUV ourselves and can't get enough of our own pulchritude? Or is it self-loathing disguised as self-improvement?

Maybe anorexia and chronic obesity are two sides of the same coin. Maybe the plastic surgery craze has the bizarre compulsion of cutting as its shadowy sister.

Few generations before us have been so obsessed with the flesh. We worship sexuality and ask it to give us more satisfaction, pleasure and importance than it is capable of.

Then when it fails to live up to our godlike expectations, we knife it into submission ... or into oblivion. We starve it into perfection or gorge it beyond recognition.

Sex as a commodity demands a level of consumer satisfaction that sex as a unifying force does not. One depends on perfection and novelty -- the other allows for flaws, imperfections and weakness.

Think about it.

Enough already!

This is starting to make me cranky:

High School Teacher Accused of Sex with Student

And don't give me that BS that this is every schoolboy's dream. These women need a power trip and they're getting it by seducing teenagers. Gag.

Yahoo! News - White House Wishes Pope Speedy Recovery

And so does the GGB.

Yahoo! News - White House Wishes Pope Speedy Recovery

A GGB public service announcement

Disturbing. Profoundly disturbing. Please read, even if you don't have teenagers of your own:

Michelle Malkin: The new youth craze - self-mutilation

::Eyes rolling::

It's one of those days my home state embarrasses me:

Yahoo! News - Court Rejects Appeal on Sex Toy Sales Ban

Dang, I'm happy

Rachel Lucas has had a blogosphere reincarnation as the Blue Eyed Infidel.

Who wants hot pork sandwiches?

First, he's a spendthrift, driving the nation into record debt. Now, he's out to "do a world of hurt":

Yahoo! News - Bush Plan to Kill Funding Faces Long Odds

Excuse me ... federal money to teach people about the underground railroad? We have to have federal money to accomplish that? Sheesh.

Bonus points if you recognized that Tanita Tikaram song.

Join the revolution!

The MSM may sneer, but for bloggers in less free parts of the world, the penalty for speaking your mind is much harsher.

Show your support for jailed Iranian bloggers here.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

'Operation Spike'

WorldNetDaily lists their annual 10 most underreported stories. (Note that you read about #7 right here on GGB!)

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

WorldNetDaily: The year's 10 most underreported stories

Charles Rangel: poster boy for cognitive dissonance

I'll let you read it for yourself:

NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs

#1 Saudi export: hatred

In case you haven't heard, an extensive study has blown the lid off Saudi exportation of hate ideology to US mosques:

Persecution.org - International Christian Concern

New Jersey murders case update

Update on the Armanious family killings in New Jersey. (Hat tip: VodkaPundit.)

Jihad Watch: New Jersey murders case update

A GGB must read

Courtesy of Babalu Blog ... and some sobering comments about our neighbors to the south:

Babalu Blog: The Cuban Solzhenitsyn

Gangsters in pajamas

Unhinged moonbat alert!

Michelle Malkin reports that the response to Eason Jordan's resignation is, predictably, hostile toward the blogosphere. Witness William Boykin, who posted at the PressThink blog:

New York Post Online Edition: postopinion: "'Jordan has just been tire-necklaced by a bloodthirsty group of utopian, bible-thumping knuckledraggers that believe themselves to be bloggers but are really just a street gang.' "

Pajama-clad street gang, William, you forgot the pajama part!!!

A terrorist by any other name

I am so sick of seeing headlines such as this one reported by Yahoo! today:

"Insurgents Attack Bakery, Mosque in Iraq"

I'm sorry, there is only one proper designation for people who deliberately target civilians in revolt against the authorities and that is terrorist.

All terorrists are insurgents, but not all insurgents are terrorists. The Associated Press, et al, either hasn't picked up their dictionaries lately or they're deliberately using word games to obfuscate the situation in Iraq. (I strongly suspect the latter.)

Let's review:

terrorism: the unlawful use or threat of violence esp. against the state or the public (italics mine) as a politically motivated means of attack or coercion (Merriam-Webster)

OR ... the calculated use of violence (or threat of violence) against civilians (italics mine) in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimindation or coercion or instilling fear (WordNet)

insurgency: The quality or circumstance of being rebellious. An instance of rebellion; an insurgence. (American Heritage)

"Terrorist" is an appropriate and accurate word to describe people who blow up bakeries and saw the heads off civilians. They are not merely "rebels" or "guerrillas," their active targeting of non-combatants places them in the unique category of "terrorists."

My guess is the AP knows this and understands the emotional and ideological recoil at the idea of terrorism. Therefore, the murderous goons in Iraq are merely "insurgents."

That's why God made ibuprofen

From Australia's Courier-Mail: Union calls grow for menstrual leave

Ugh ... do I even have to say why this is nuts?

Joel Osteen: part 3

Ed Note: I decided to dispense with the francais and just go with good ol' numerals. :)

Before I do another expose on the Smiling Preacher from Houston, let me say that I mean none of this in ugliness or hatred toward Osteen, his family or his ministry. I cannot peer into Osteen's heart, but I do believe that what he preaches is dangerous to anyone who reads, whether they are believers or not.

T.J. at Soli Deo Gloria makes a particularly salient point about Osteen's views on God's justice. (Hat tip: Boar's Head Tavern) (And no, that's not the only blog I read these days. :)

TheoreticalPolitics's Xanga Site - 2/4/2005 6:59:58 PM:

"[Interviewer] Your book mentions a man who financially wronged you and your wife Victoria. You say later he lost everything -- he lost his money, his family -- while God 'prospered [you] through several real estate deals.'

[Osteen] Exactly. That's very clear in my mind. We could have sued him, we could have gotten very ugly. But we said we're going to let God fight this battle. He was another Christian man; he just wasn't living by Christian principles. I believe we kept a good attitude in the tough times when we weren't getting our way.

I believe those are times of testing and I can tell you, God did prosper us more than we could ask or think. On some of these real estate deals, it's just again, God's favor and God's blessing. I believe you're sowing seeds for that when you're doing the right thing when the wrong thing's happening.

I don?t think it's just snap your fingers. We've got to have an attitude of faith when things aren't going our way.

I'm HORRIFIED by his attitude towards this attitude. Osteen never once mentions that (a) he's forgiven the man and/or (b) that he prayed that the man would be blessed by God. What he's basically saying is that he chose not to sue the man in question because he knew that God would do far worse to the man and his family than Osteen could do. He does not seem sorrowful in the least of what happened to this man. All people are sinners, and we should not gloat about others? misfortunes.

Osteen's attitude is completely in contradiction to Christ's commands in Luke 6:27-36. For the purposes of this post, however, I will quote specifically from verses 27, 28, and 35.

27But I say to you who hear, love your enemies"

If I may add, I also can't help wondering if Osteen and his wife attempted reconciliation with this fellow Christian. Sad, sad, sad.

A GGB reading assignment

Comments to come ...

FOXNews.com - Views - Tongue Tied - Artists Under Attack, Muslims Against Advertising

Joel Osteen: part deux

Larry King "interviews" Joel Osteen. Warning: Do not partake of beverages while reading this.

Hat tip: Boar's Head Tavern

Joel Osteen: do not read on a full stomach

My mates over at Boar’s Head Tavern are having a field day outing Joel Osteen. (No, he's not gay ... he's, well, read on ...)

In case you haven’t heard of the guy, he’s the pastor of Houston’s Lakewood Church, the largest in the US with a membership larger than many small towns. (25K at last count.) He’s also making the folks at Amazon rich with his book, Your Best Life Now, which includes endorsements from everyone from Pat Robertson to Cashflow … excuse me … Creflo Dollar.

I had to see what all the excitement was about. I streamed one of Osteen’s monologues … excuse me … sermons from his church’s Web site. I could stand only about five minutes. Then I read an excerpt from chapter one of his book.

It’s worst than we thought, maties. This guy makes me sick. I mean, really, really sick.

He opens his tome with a story about a guy who realizes his "mediocre" thinking is the only thing standing between him and a swanky bungalow on a hillside in Hawaii. He then goes on to say that God wants us to chuck that mediocre thinking and start dreaming big, darnit! (Great … and while we’re at it, God, give me whiter teeth, a tighter butt and firmer boobs, too.)

Speaking of teeth, butt and boobs, we then hear the story of Miss America Tara Holland, who was able to finally win the crown after "reprogramming her mind" and ridding herself of the "hurtful memories of losing." (Oh, puhleez. I once competed in a prelim to the Miss Alabama Pageant. I didn’t even make the top 10, and would you believe I got over it pretty quickly? Amazing, huh?)

Let me say that I have nothing personal against people with big houses or the winners of beauty pageants, and I don’t think God does either. But let’s get back to Mr. Osteen …

Then he relates the story about how his wife’s "speaking words of faith and victory" eventually got the happy couple out of the slum they were living in. (" … an extremely old house that had experienced some foundation problems, preventing all of our doors on the inside from closing properly." Oh, the tragedy!)

"God has so much more in store for you, too," he says. "Start making room for it in your thinking. Conceive it on the inside. Start seeing yourself rising to a new level, doing something of significance, living in that home of your dreams.

"If you look carefully, you will see that God has been trying to encourage you. He's allowed people to cross your path who are far more successful than you are, who have much stronger marriages, who are enjoying His favor in marvelous ways."

Are you gagging now? Shall I pass out the Pepto?

Hey … I’m all for people enjoying the fruits of their success, dreaming big and having goals, even material ones. What I am friggin’ nauseated over is Mr. Osteen’s insistence that God’s favor equals "bigger, better" and "more, more, more."

If anything, I’m trying to trim down my life, buy less stuff, get rid of the clutter and crap, spend more time with my loved ones, spend more time with God, give away my money and time. And if God makes me wealthy or influential in the process, fabulous.

Or … maybe not. Have you checked out the lives of the rich ‘n’ famous lately? Not a pretty sight. (Think: Paris Hilton) I just read a column that says CEOs are suffering from debilitating depression at a significant rate. This quote says it all:

According to a report in Psychology Today magazine, corporate executives — and especially entrepreneurs — may be even more vulnerable to depression than other people. And yet their stories are shrouded in silence because the cultural mythology around success forbids such feelings of weakness. How can someone so wealthy feel so empty?

Again, this is not a rant against the rich. Lord knows we need good CEOs in this world as much as we need good garbage collectors. No, I’m not going to get all simplistic and say that money is evil and there is inherent virtue in being poor.

But people with big houses and titles have not necessarily made it in the eyes of God. When the preacher of America’s largest church starts saying they have, we have a big, big, big problem.

QotD

boortz.com: Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze: "Anyway, it was Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, sitting there looking like they should be selling jewelry or sex aids on the shopping channel. "

Straight from the horse's mouth -- a GGB must read

The voice of radical Islam, interviewed by a Christian publication. Read it and judge for yourself who we are dealing with.

'There Can Be No End to Jihad' - Christianity Today Magazine

Hat tip: Boar's Head Tavern

QotD

"Can a song be 'of God' and still be terrible? Can a movie be 'of God' and be poorly written and poorly acted? These are silly questions, since we all know that if 'of God' means intended to honor God, then all kinds of homely results are acceptable. But if by 'of God' we mean, 'this is from God and can't be criticized,' then I am going to yell 'Manipulation!'"

-- The Internet Monk

No Oscar for Jesus

So, Passion is not up for Best Picture. Yawn.

Although I think it was a better film than Mike Straka does (and I'm not cynical about Mel Gibson's motives), this column says it all:

For Caviezel's Sake, Stop!

Snort!

Heh, heh, heh ...

lgf: Holy Warriors vs. GI Joe

Update: Elmo taken.

Update II: For Pete's sake, people, Drudge and the blogosphere are WAY ahead of you.

A few questions for you Jacko fans

I just want to know a few things about the throng of Michael Jackson fans who greeted him at the courtoom today:

1. It's Monday, presumably during regular business hours. Why are you (A) not at your job or (B) not in school?

2. If (A), how old are you, and are you still living with your parents?

3. If (B), where are your parents?


Any full-grown adult who turned out to cheer on this creep -- or any adult who let their kid cheer on this creep -- oughtta be locked up, too. Sheesh.

Let (Iraqi) freedom ring

Here's something we all need on a Monday:

comparevideo: The Iraqi Elections

Link takes you to a page where you can link to a slideshow of the Iraqi elections set to Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man." Get out your hankies.

(Hat tip: Michelle Malkin)

QotD

"Three cheers for shame and guilt, I say, those often-belittled guides on the road to morality. How can you feel proud of your good acts, if you're not capable of feeling heartily ashamed of the bad?"

-- Laurie Morrow

The truth is out there

During my morning bathtub musings, I thought about Truth. (I probably shouldn't attempt that before my first day's cup of coffee, but bathtubs are highly conducive to musing.)

Truth scares us, doesn't it? Whether it's Galileo's assertion that the Earth is, in fact, not the center of the universe to those pesky little bloggers pooping on Dan Rathers' party, we tend to run from the truth.

As Fox Mulder said, the truth is out there. I don't think he meant that it's just located somewhere, waiting for us to find it. It's OUT THERE. It is not us and we are not the truth. The truth exists whether we like it or not.

I'm getting cranky at this generation's tendency to deny the truth, and I'm not just slamming on the Democrats or Dan Rather. As long as we sidestep truth (and by that, I mean both objective fact and transcendent values), we are essentially trying to be our own gods. We become our own highest moral authority as we try to bend reality (or the perception of it) to meet our own goals. It's bad policy.

Musing over.

Bad theology and the single girl

Note: If you are a non-Christian, this post may not be of interest to you. If you are a Christian -- single or married -- please read on.

A recently divorced cyberpal sent me a "message from God" supposedly written by "St. Anthony" in 1247. If you are or were a Christian single, no doubt you've seen it before. Google it -- it's all over the Web. But because I'm a nice GGB and don't want you to leave my blog just yet, I'll repost it here:


ON, HIS PLAN FOR YOUR MATE

Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone ~ to have a deep soul relationship with another, to be loved thoroughly and exclusively. But God, to a Christian, says, "No, not until you are satisfied and fulfilled and content with living loved by me alone, with giving yourself totally, unreservedly to me alone ~ I love you, my child and until you discover that only in me is your satisfaction to be found, you will not be capable of the perfect human relationship that I have planned for you. You will never be united with another until you are united with me ~ exclusive of anyone or anything else, exclusive of any other desires or longings. I want you to stop planning, stop wishing, and allow me to give you the most thrilling plan existing ~ one that you can't imagine. I want you to have the Best. Please allow me to bring it to you ~ you just have to keep watching me expecting the greatest thing ~ keep experiencing that satisfaction knowing that I am ~ keep learning and listening to the things I tell you...you must wait. Don't be anxious, don't worry, don't look around at the things others have gotten or that I have given them. Don't look at the things you think you want. You just keep looking up to me, or you'll miss what I want to show you. And then, when you're ready ~ I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than you would ever dream. You see, until you are ready and until the one I have for you is ready...I am working even this minute to have you both ready at the same time...until you are both satisfied exclusively with me, and the life I prepared for you, you won't be able to experience the Love that exemplifies your relationship with me...and this is Perfect Love. And, dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful Love, I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with me, and to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty and perfection and love that I offer you with myself.~~ Know I love you utterly.~~ I am God, Almighty; believe and be satisfied.

St Anthony 1247


Besides the fact that I seriously doubt this was written in the 13th Century by a saint (the only St. Anthony I can find listed in the Catholic Encyclopedia lived in the third century and was the founder of Christian monasticism -- ha!), this is some of the worst tripe I've ever read.

It's a nice idea -- focus on God while you wait for a mate. Don't worry, have faith. All nice. But if you look at what it really says ...

"No, not until you are satisfied and fulfilled and content with living loved by me alone." Oh, OK. I guess I should forget having friends or meaningful relationships with my family members, too, right? And that thing you said in Genesis about man being alone being a bad thing? I guess I should forget that, too.

"You will never be united with another until you are united with me." Um, I thought I was already united with God through Christ. So, now I have to pretend I don't need human relationships to really unite with you? Is that what you're saying, God?

"Don't be anxious, don't worry, don't look around at the things others have gotten or that I have given them." At least that's Biblical.

"I'll surprise you with a love far more wonderful than you would ever dream." This is good news! I'm guaranteed to get a mate ... er, just as long as I get to where I really don't want one, right? In other words, you're obligated to respond to my behavior. Cool.


Sarcasm aside, folks, crap like this has caused untold misery and guilt for lots of single people I know, myself included. (Although by some accounts, it's helped others. Whatever. I don't see how bad theology helps anyone.) It puts people under the burden of thinking that their spiritual development involves somehow eliminating their natural, God-given impulses and desires to have loving relationships with others. It falsely frames true spirituality as some sort of pseudo-nirvana state where earthy love cannot go and should not interfere. It wrongly teaches that earthly gifts are rewards for spiritual progress. Worst of all, it implies that the single and struggling Christian is somehow less righteous because he or she wants a mate -- and that their singless is some sort of indicator that God is holding out of them until they reach critical spiritual mass.

Baloney.

My advice? Actually read the Bible if you want to know what God is saying.

On the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camps ...

... members of the Russian parliament pull this crap:

Yahoo! News - Russian Lawmakers Target Jewish Groups

This makes me ill, almost as ill as when paranoids were predicting outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence in the US when The Passion of the Christ was released. Didn't happen, and that's because the locus of anti-Semitism is not here. Look across the Atlantic, folks.

Hat tip: Little Green Footballs

Gotta weigh in

This "prom dress" is causing quite a stir in the blogosphere:

New York Post Online Edition: style

Let me just say: This isn't pretty.

The fashion industry has largely forgotten the fine art of clothing the female body and has crossed the line from sexy to scary. Although, I'll have to give Halle Berry and Catherine Zet Jones high marks for wearing evening gowns that show skin but for some reason don't send you running for the remote.

However, Britney Spears, J-Lo, Christina Aguillera -- all of their best-known outfits displayed but didn't accentuate, revealed but didn't enhance, showed off but didn't show up.

Thumbs down!

Stupid church tricks

I'm not one to spare the rod when my own religion needs a whack. Read and weep.

I love liberals

Sometimes, I hate being a conservative. Well, I don't really hate being conservative because I think conservatism makes sense, and I like to make sense.

On the other hand, there are the imminently fun, clever and wacky people I associate with, hang out with (and once in a blue moon fall in love with) who are about as different from me politically/religiously as peanut butter is different than wasabi. And I wonder, as I sip my Starbucks in my tie-dyed shirt and Birkenstocks, am I in the wrong tribe?

I once told my mother that if I'd been alive during the '60s, I woulda been an anti-war protester. Okay ... you say those sort of things when you're in college. But I probably would have because while I was in college, I was trying desperately to be a liberal, which is to say I was an idealist trying to embrace what seemed the embodiement of idealism. However, I was trying to be a liberal at a Baptist university, which is not very liberal at all. I might have been liberal for Bob Jones University, but definitely not for Harvard.

So I kept the tie-dye and the Starbucks addiction -- and the idealism -- but realized I just couldn't intellectually embrace liberalism as it is today, nor could I entirely jettison the evangelicalism I was steeped in, although I've traded in Southern Baptist-ness for high-church Anglicanism. Somewhere, idealism had to fit into the real world, which in my view has a few immutable truths that liberalism attempts an end-run on. On the other hand, liberals seem to make most of the best music, films and art, and I'm an artist, so I'm constantly the odd woman out in many of my circles. Good grief, I'm a GOP bellydancer. How many of THOSE do you find on the planet?

I love my lib friends. In fact, it's uncanny how often I'll really dig a person ... then find out they're a lib. Idealistic people are the ones unafraid to try new things because what is possibility for others is glittering reality within the horizons of their own minds. (I'm not sure that sentence entirely made sense.) Therefore, libs, who I find unswervingly idealistic, may break boundaries that make us conservatives uncomfortable, but on the other hand, sometimes the apple cart needs upsetting.

I keep a quiet understanding with my liberal friends that we just won't talk about certain things. In the meanwhile, yes, I'd be happy as a friggin' clam to attend your movie premiere or your cultural festival or your fabu party that includes half the gay population of Birmingham.

Just don't ask me to vote for Hillary -- please.

Liveblogging the inauguration

Note: Hit "Refresh" occasionally to see my latest comments. I will periodically re-publish this post so my latest comments will show up.

11:43 EST: George W. has aged noticably but looks lots better than Jimmy Carter did at the end of his first term.

11:44 EST: God bless Justice Rehnquist! And was it an accident that the prayer included portions of the Pledge of Allegiance, including the Newdow-lawsuited "under God" phrase, hm?

11:45 EST: Uh ... where is Ter-AY-zah?

11:50 EST: What is it they say, comparing the number of words in the Ten Commandments and the Declaration of Independence with the federal guidelines on the sale of cabbage? It's always struck me how elegantly brief the oaths of office are.

11:51 EST: That is an awesome fur coat on the mezzosoprano. (Sorry ... missed her name.) Boy, this is insightful political commentary for ya!

11:57 EST: Mark it, folks. George W. Bush is the prez again.

11:59 EST: Sounds like an enthusiastic crowd as GWB begins his address.

12:00 EST: Years of repose and then the day of fire. "We have seen our vulnerability." GWB is nicely framing the logic for his foreign policy.

Human beings have rights and values because they bear the image of their Maker. GWB invoking the long-forgotten thoughts behind the Declaration of Independence. "Freedom by its nature must be chosen." Excellent.

"The difficulty of the task is no excuse for avoiding it."

This is not the strongest job I've seen GWB do on a speech, and he seems to be waiting for applause, but I like the way he is framing the universal appeal of freedom. "No one desires to live under tyranny."

"Americans of all people should never be surprised by the power of dieals. Eventually the call of freedom comes to every mind and every soul. Liberty will come to thsoe who love it."

"The United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors." Tall order, GWB. Go for it.

"To serve your people, you must learn to trust them." That goes for the US gov't, too.

"Division among free nations is a primary goal of our enemies."

GWB is firing up now. He's feeling the force of his words.

"Life is fragile and evil is real. And courage triumphs." This is one of the most inspiring addresses I've heard since Reagan. GWB is really calling us to something big.

Now we're getting into domestic policy. This is sounding more like a stump speech now. :-\

I thought GWB started out a little canned, but he got fired up talking about the ideals of freedom and how it has universal appeal because all humans are made in the image of the Creator. This is one of the most memorable speeches I can think of since Reagan’s and JKF’s inaugural speeches.

GWB is truly calling the nation to a higher task. This is so much more refreshing than the usual "government is the answer to all our problems" tripe. GWB is talking about universal, timeless principle and individual character and responsibility. Amen.

Geek Girl Brunette?

The GGB is fiddling with her hair color again, and I can no longer say I am a true blonde. According to the box of hair color, I am officially "Navajo Bronze." :)

So, do I change the name of this blog? I report, you decide.

UPDATE: I'm not sure what it says about my blog that a post about my hair color has drawn the highest number of comments. :-)

Reality check

From today's Front Page Magazine:

In England this month, Israel was found by the London Daily Telegraph to be the country least desirable for a vacation, least deserving of respect, one of the least democratic and second to the least safe of all the countries in the world.

Now ... does anyone still think that Prince Harry's "Nazi" stunt was an accident?

QotD

Whenever you hear a group of people start to express an opinion with the words "Hey hey, ho ho...." you know that you're getting ready to listen to a group of idiots saying absolutely nothing.

-- Neal Boortz

This is an anti-anti-PC retaliation/revenge post

A Jersey City, N.J., family of Coptic Christians has been found murdered, and although robbery has been bandied about as the motive, many suspect that the family was targeted by Muslims because Hossam Armanious, the head of the family, had traded angry barbs with Muslims on a Web forum.

I don't have Mr. Armanious' comments in front of me, nor do I have the police reports, but as you can imagine, I have my suspicions along with the rest of the Coptic Christian community. But what struck me is the tortured way an NYC police detective on Fox News (didn't catch his name) just described the possible nature of this "hate crime":

"an anti-Muslim retaliation/revenge killing"

Here's what the NY Post said:

"We have proof of robbery at this point," said a source who labeled everything else as speculative, including concerns that Armanious was killed in bitter revenge for anti-Muslim statements attributed to him in an online forum."

Oh, I see. The crime's root factor was anti-Muslim sentiment, not anti-Christian sentiment. If only Mr. Armanious had played nice-nice, everything would be OK.

I guarantee you if the situation were reversed, you wouldn't hear goofy terms like "anti-Christian retaliation/revenge crime." It would be played as an anti-Muslim hate crime, plain and simple.

Stay tuned, folks. Hossam Armanious could be our Theo Van Gogh.

UPDATE: Some sense from a friend of the slain family:

"This was a terrorist attack," said Amgad Zakhari, 32, a real estate investor who has known the Armanious family since their arrival in the United States. "It was to make an example of Egyptian Christians, to silence them. It has to be a religious motivation."

(Hat tip: Michelle Mallkin)

The bitch is back

I'm really not a bitch.

Of course, this is the forum where I bitch to the world, so maybe it's appropriate.

It's just one of those nights when I'm channeling in-your-face Elton John lyrics like, "You almost had your hooks in me, didn't ya dear?" and "I'm still standin'! Yeah, yeah, yeah!"

If you know me at all, you know what I'm talking about.

Annyyyywaaayyy ...

What to bitch about ... how about Michael Newdow's effort to ban prayer from the inauguration? (I've always thought that this guy was the atheist version of Judge Roy Moore.)

My problem with the whole PDR (public display of religion) thing is people on both sides give PDR way too much credit. They think PDR is going to unleash an uncontrollable wave of religious fervor -- Michael Newdow's worst nightmare and Roy Moore's fondest dream.

It doesn't work that way, folks. Jesus said as much. So, let's recognize PDR for what it is -- at best a general, ceremonial, nicey-nice public acknowledgement of some higher power.

So, Mr. Newdow, you can relax. As long as that's all the "religion" your children ever get, they will be quite safe from any real chance of conversion.

UPDATE: We apparently had some weird font issues. Hope you guys can read everything now. :)