Yours Truly

Yours Truly
Janet Fauble at home

Friday, January 30, 2015

More on Super Bowl

Despite all the friends on Facebook I do not get all the posts that many probably send or share as I found out tonight when using an app called Flipboard.  Why I did not receive a couple that were posted on Flipboard is more than I know but it happened.  So when I share this I realize that not everyone will receive it either.  I wonder what Facebook thinks it is doing. I hate it when they think that they can control each and every message we send or receive but that is the impression that they give me.

I went downtown Wednesday to see the Phoenix party site which has been built especially for the SuperBowl.  They have a place called Superbowl Central which is located inside the USAirways entryway.  One enters through an archway to find a huge musical stage where musicians perform all afternoon and night.  Verizon has a platform where people can enter to climb stairs, get their photos taken, recharge their phones, tablets, iPods and iPads,  and look down on all the crowd assembled below.  Inside this entertainment area is where all the major networks broadcast their news of the proceedings, and interview various visitors for the  big game.  A climbing wall is erected at the south end near Jefferson Street.  The 49th Superbowl has a huge Roman Numeral display which turns out to be a huge screen which in the evening is lit up with videos of the football games.   All the skyscraper buildings that are in the vicinity are painted with huge scenes depicting the games, the ads, and the trophy.  

Across the street from the Superbowl Central are blocks of vendors who are giving prizes, food, and information about their products.  I entered the Pepsi Cola hyped up display to learn what I could get if I stood in line long enough.  Turned out that for that long wait we get our picture made, playing the role of fan, and then earning a prize. I got a real live pepsi cola to drink which accompanied my tomtits and dip, and pizza from Papa Johns's after I discovered them a few blocks away.  The crowds are huge, the lines are long, and the atmosphere on opening day was a bit curious.

I had taken the light rail since it enabled me to use park and ride.  That was a surprise to learn how many cars actually park at the site where i parked. I had to go to the top to find a place to park.  People who work take up all the spaces.  This lot has the most spaces available for parking and it was nearly full.  When I left it was nearly empty.

I had a ticket for the light rail but I was surprised to learn that on the return trip home that those of us who had tickets would have to produce our tickets to even get on the platform. I then learned how tight security really is since it had never really entered my mind.

The most interesting person I saw in all of this adventure in Super Bowl attendance is a man who boarded the train.  He had a mohawk that was so stiff and so high as to make everyone whisper and look at him as if he were some freak.  He had wax on it that made it stand up.  It was hideous. I was tempted to take a photo of it but I held back.  Dang it!  It was unreal.  His hair was so long it was unbelievable to see it sticking up in the air.

Everyone else was normal!

Truthfully, the football game does get lost and forgotten in all the partying and fun.  Probably at the NFL experience which is in the Convention Center a few blocks away the game matters.  Not out on the street. Except for the shirts announcing which team is being supported, nothing about the game even comes through.  But nobody will forget Papa John's or Tostito Alley.

The t.v. does show all the football chatter.  We can see that at home.  Downtown, all we want to do is mingle and chat.  I met a lot of people who were friendly.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Juno, The Blizzard of 2015

If the media is correct, the Northeast will have a historical blizzard tonight but so far all the reports do not appear to be very serious.  However, the scare tactics taken by the governors has created a total absence of traffic in the major cities and highways of the affected states.  It is a ghost town as most people are happy to comply with the advice by staying indoors. Cold will do that to most people.  A good strong fire is especially welcome on cold winter evenings.

However, sad to say, on Twitter it seems that the poor in NYC are freezing in their cold apartments.  What a problem to imagine and it will be worse if the power goes out as threatened in some areas for this is supposed to be a blizzard with huge gales and winds that will bring about many downed lines.  Strangely enough the warning only came a day before the threatened storm.

Guess what! David Letterman actually appeared on stage with a comedian and a guest star from a t.v. show who filled the time for his Late Show.  He promised to be back tomorrow night.  That will be exciting to see if he can actually pull that off.  I wonder now how fare he lives in distance from the studio where he works his show.

It was rather amazing to see him perform and hear the laugh track that truly fit into his comedy tonight.

Now I see that Regis Philbin is hosting The Late Late Show and is now talking to Martin Short in a person to person interview.  Who would have thought?  I am watching it right now while occasionally checking in at CNN or Weather Channel to learn about about how the storm is progressing.

Facebook for some reason is not working for the past two hours.  I do not know what the problem with them is at this time but I am noting it here to not forget it.


Sunday, January 25, 2015

Forever Young recipe

OREVER YOUNG FOOD -- a recipe provided by Louis Gittner

2 cups of peanut butter (use a ‘natural’ kind)
2 cups of raw honey
1 cup wheat germ oil
1 cup crushed ground almonds
1 cup crushed ground sunflower seeds
1 cup coconut
1 cup toasted sesame seeds
1 cup chia
1 cup lemon juice

Mix peanut butter and honey together. Add other ingredients and stir well. Store in refrigerator up to 4 months (maybe more).

This recipe is rich and you only need a tablespoon to get good benefits. Louie said that one tablespoon of this mixture had as much protein as one cup of meat.

Tip: I use a small food processor for chopping the almonds, sunflower seeds and coconut.


FOREVER YOUNG FOOD --my own version

1 to 2 cups of dry peanuts (not salted)
½ cup lemon juice
1 cup raw honey
1 cup wheat germ flakes
1 cup finely chopped almonds
1 cup finely chopped sunflower seeds
1 cup finely chopped coconut
1 cup toasted sesame seeds
1 cup finely chopped dates (dried figs could also be added or substituted for the dates)
5 heaping tablespoons flax seed powder (use the powder, not the whole seed)
8 to 12 heaping tablespoons Nutritional Yeast (not Brewers Yeast or Bread making yeast)
25 capsules of Bee Pollen (take the capsules apart and just use the Bee Pollen)
1 package dried mixed berries (cherries, raisins and cranberries) – not chopped

In a food processor, chop peanuts with lemon juice, put in large bowl.
Add other ingredients and stir well.
I use a small food processor to finely chop almonds, sunflower seeds, coconut and dates.
Mixture will be stiff.
You can roll into balls or put in a container and scoop by the tablespoon for a mid-afternoon snack. Don’t eat too much. This is a very rich combination of powerful foods.

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China's dog meat trade

In recent months, there have been petitions trying to impact the use of dogs in China for food.  Tonight I received a post that illustrated how the Chinese use puppies to eat for their meals.  The cruelty of the method sickened me so that I am using this blog just to emote.  I am outraged about it but there is absolutely nothing I can do. I have often seen Chinese markets that made me nauseated but nothing has disturbed me more than the sight of this poor puppy being used to fill some Chinese belly!

Yes, we can sign petitions.  We can write letters. I see through Change.org that there are several petitions.  More disturbing was the fact that a town was celebrating its dogmeat festival for which there was a petition to stop it.  That petition was a sound and sensible warning to the Chinese of the dangers in eating dog meat.  It mentioned how many dogs in that particular region suffered rabies, and how often that particular town had had trouble with rabies.

In making a remark about the insanity of this kind of mistreatment to a poor animal, I received another which was worse. There are videos on youtube which also show the horrors of the dog trade in China.  I read the explanation and warning about the effects of watching the film so that I would not watch it. I cannot stand cruelty to animals and I did not want this to enter my consciousness since the author said it might stay with me for years.  It is so horrendous to watch.

All the comments on this European effort to change life in China was to denounce the Chinese of course, but many are full of despair and negativity about the chances of change in China.  The Chinese do believe that their diets should include such fare as this so that they harvest animals cruelly.

The friend who sent it to me said that they had no soul.  It does show that they do not fully understand the concept of lovingness.  They do not get joy out of seeing a baby animal in the same way that we do.  What kind of people is it that can do this to a helpless animal is what I want to know.  I know that environment has always been a reason that sociologists and psychologists explain behavior but this is the saddest and sorriest community in the world that has never learned to care for and protect animals.

It puzzles me to see how much joy in life that these Chinese people are missing.  They are truly amongst the poorest of people in the world in that respect. I remember reading years ago how Mao Tse Tung had said that while they were poor they could at least paint flowers.  If you can paint a beautiful flower, why can't you value you a precious life?

I am distressed about this.  Let us hope that we can bring change to this body of people who so dreadfully seem to need it.  Only a starving fool would ever treat a dog in this fashion!

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Politics in America

We have some very difficult times ahead of us in this country.  Barack Obama is at the end of his term with only two years to go before he is a free man, once more only a citizen and not a chief executive.

But the Republicans who won a majority in the last election in both the Senate and the House are suddenly acting as if they are possibly more powerful than the President which is making things a bit tense.  However, tense as it may be, the people will have a chance to see what would happen if the Republicans gained any more power than they already have.

The Republicans have taken off proving that they intend to make their views and opinions dominant.  The problem will be to know if the American public is aware of this or not.  Too often, Americans tune out politics rather than tuning in.

One issue that has popped its ugly head is that of Iran and its nuclear weapons so that the Majority leader Boehner has invited Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress without even consulting President Barack Obama, and Benjamin Netanyahu accepted.   Netanyahu and Obama do not get along very well so that this appears to be an insult and an affront to the President who has decided not to invite Benjamin to the White House or to the State Department.

I believe that Benjamin Netanyahu palpably hates Barack Obama. I am certain that he scorns him as much as he had Yasser Arafat from the way he behaves.  So his action to accept John Boehner's invitation to speak says volumes about his attitude about Congress and the President.  In this case, I am definitely disapproving who I call Bonehead Boehner's decision to do this stupid and meaningless act.

Naturally, all the Obama haters will approve of this insult to the White House, but I personally find it distasteful, repugnant, and downright insulting and wrong.  The President is the person who should have initiated any such visit by Netanyahu and not John Boehner who is bonehead of the week in my opinion.

Netanyahu is upset with Europe who has finally acknowledged the Palestinians as a state so that the Palestinians have charged Netanyahu with being a war criminal.  Turkey is one of the main countries that is opposed to the Israeli's for having bombed a ship that was carrying medical  supplies to the Palestinians for the wounded and the ill.  Netanyahu is having a hissy fit about being considered a war criminal but the nations who believe it have the United Nations assistance.

I suppose that Netanyahu is wanting to impress Congress with how dangerous the Iranians are.  Europeans and Americans are both trying to work out a program with Iran to limit their nuclear capabilities.  So that is the reason that Boehner has asked Netanyahu to speak to Congress, to attempt to persuade them to fear Iran already more than they already do.  What a useless and unnecessary speech!

No matter what happens, this is a most unpleasant event which spells real trouble for both Congress and the President who had said that they had wanted to work together.  Like heck!  It looks as though they are declaring war on each other.  Not what Americans want to hear right now.

But I am hoping that the Republicans do show all their cards now that they think that they have the upper hand.  It will either make Americans approve or disapprove their antiquated thinking.

There is little doubt that America is moving.  America is making great changes.  Some appear to be for the good while many seem to be going backward instead of forward.  I think that we are spending way too much time on war games rather than building bridges, highways, and other infrastructure programs to keep the nation safe and sound.

If the Republicans really want to be accepted as credible then they will have to prove that they have the interests of the nation at heart, not their own petty personal interests.  Americans themselves are going to have to learn not to go to extremes in deciding upon the leaders of our country.  Too many serious issues which caused a particular party to win are too often neglected and forgotten once the elected official takes office.

Headlines persuade people too much.  Illegal immigration, excessive force by police officers,  ISIS and Al Qaeda, school shootings, and sex trafficking are problems making the news daily it would seem.  Just the problem of gun control alone sets people on fire.  Children who kill their mother in a Walmart, or their baby brother at home, or the latest one is a child who killed himself using his parent's gun are the latest bad news headlines we read.  It is senseless!

So I do not anticipate any good news in the coming months, and for a time, it made me feel depressed.  I mean who can feel happy about all the bad news that we are fed on a daily basis but we must know what is going on around us.  I overdose on positive thoughts to make me realize that I am very lucky, very fortunate, not to be bothered by any major problems of my own but more by learning of the plight of others.

Yet I can do nothing to solve any of these problems.  I can only listen and hope that someone who has the power to impact these miserable lives will do so.  It is an endless cycle of bad news from each and every part of the world.  Surely, there is something that someone can do to right these wrongs.   We would hope.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Super Bowl 49

Deflated balls are the cause for concern about the New England Patriots. It seems that 11 balls out of 12 were found to be deflated during the playoff game between the Indiana Colts and the Patriots.  Supposedly, the balls were found to be perfect before the game began but during the course of the game an interception made one of the Colts report that he believed that the football was lighter than it should have been.  That complaint led to an investigation after the game which has proved that the balls that the Patriots used during the game were 2 lbs lighter than regulation play allows.

So today Tom Brady, quarterback for the Patriots, had a news conference to answer questions put to him by reporters about the problem.  Naturally, he protested his innocence in knowing anything about the problem, and his fans and friends believe him while his detractors naturally do not believe him.

Enemies of the Patriots are calling the Patriots cheaters while others are supporting them.  I personally believe that when the Colts realized that the balls were not properly inflated that they should have told the referees about it at the time.  Had they done that, they may have been able to correct it even if had delayed the game.  It would be better than this ongoing ridiculous means of painting the Patriots as cheaters.

The most interesting comment  that Tom Brady said at the news conference is that the NFL had not yet talked to him about it.  He should have been a bit more truthful about realizing that the balls were not inflated properly but he ducked it by saying he was too busy thinking the process of the game rather than worrying about the pigskin itself.  I frankly do understand why it is odd that a receiver from the opposition team would notice it right away but a quarterback would not sense it.  I think that is why people think that Tom Brady is not telling the truth, but he asserted that he had nothing to do with altering the balls, and had not noticed anything unusual at all.  

For 11 balls to be determined to be under inflated makes me wonder.  How can that many balls lose the same amount of air during a game?  Who has the ball when the team goes into a huddle?  Where is that ball at all times?  Why is it that only one team suffers that problem while the other teams balls do not?  Can a receiver carry some hidden device to puncture the ball?  Or while nobody is looking, (with all those cameras) is some keeper of the balls playing around with them?  

I wonder if this will be solved at all because all the enemies of the Patriots are talking big time punishment worse than that they have suffered before.  Some even think that they should not play in the Super Bowl.  Without proof and evidence of guilt, there is no reason to go that far.  But the time to correct the problem and penalize the Patriots was when the game was played, not after. It is done now.

And on that fact, the Colts are being humiliated by some saying that even had the ball been a beach ball or a brick, that the Patriots would have won anyway.  The Colts were that bad in that game, which for a fact is true, but did the Colts just decide to not even bother once they realized that the balls were deflated.  Maybe they called a halt to the game realizing how far the Patriots might go to win the game.  As if the size and weight of the football is the criteria that makes one win a game. In the case of a passing game, it is that important.

At any rate, it has left a black mark on the game now that it is being overly discussed, mocked, and satirized.  Some video tonight ridiculing Tom Brady and his balls is making the rounds of the internet.  

What a shame!

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Experimenting.

I learned  a few lessons tonight on photo blogs.  I have not really known how to make a photo blog but I am trying to figure it out now.  Well, I just looked at all the photos that I made from month to month in the past year. I am happy that I took them and I have resolved to take some this year as well, but so far I have taken only a few. I have a new phone as well so that may make a lot of difference.

It is getting late and I must go to bed.  I will work on this more now that I have made some inroads. I will try to put a few here for the purpose of this first experiment.Now if I want to add some copy what will happen. I see what happened.  I took these pictures last summer sometime.  My hair has grown since then.  I will publish these simply to prove that I have learned a few things about photos.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Gotta go to bed now

Super Bowl will feature Seattle Seahawks vs. New England Patriots


Finally, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots will face each other February 1, 2015 in the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.  This football stadium probably shares a lot in common with the new concert hall that  just opened in Paris.  It is too far out of town for most to travel to see.  It is in the northwest corner of the Valley, but most of the activities that will promote the party set will be either downtown in Phoenix  or in this side of town, in Scottsdale.

The game itself will be on the first of February but the party will be all week long, and now that the teams are settled, all the major activity in this town starts now.

A local casino is giving each of its regular customers a chance to win two tickets to the big game by using their players cards when playing games at the casino.  I think that is one of the smartest promotions I have heard yet.  Who would not want to have a chance to win tickets to the game?

It just so happens that the Phoenix Golf Tournament is taking place that same week, and the main talk of the town has been that Tiger Woods has decided to play in the Invitational this year.  Now, isn't that just too ducky for words!  He has not made an appearance here in years, but with all the brouhaha about the SuperBowl he is one more superstar to add to the mix.  Nobody can miss the magnanimity of this action, can they?

Play ball!


Sunday, January 18, 2015

Captain Arabia and Captain America

Tonight there was another post about ISIS but it was a bit of a spoof!  Someone added a video spoofing ISIS that was entitled Captain Arabia.

It was full of humor imitating Americans in some ways that turned out not to be flattery but more satire and a bit of an  insight into the way Americans puff themselves up.

I mean really!  When Hollywood has to make movies called Captain America you do have to wonder, are we so lacking in self esteem that we have to have a movie or a comic book even called Captain America.   I then thought about all the other nations of the world who must wonder about our narcissistic movies that have to portray ourselves as the saviors of the world.

Captain Arabia does do the mean thing to a little kid by breaking his trophys that he has collected so that the little boy cries.  A lot like the Islamic tribes in Niger who had a hissy fit over the Charlie Hebdo magazine.

There is no doubt that Americans can dish it out.   But can Americans take it when dished back at us?


Piers Morgan

In case you do not know who Piers Morgan is,  I will give a little background on what I know about him.  He had been a judge on America's Got Talent before he somehow or other landed the job of replacing Larry King on the CNN Larry King show.  He is from Britain but has been a television personality in the USA for some time now.  He is presently seen on Celebrity Apprentice as a judge or commentator with Donald Trump.

When he was on CNN I began to follow him on Twitter so I have been listening to him for some time.

I just checked his Twitter page to see his statement "One day you're the cock of the walk, the next a feather duster".

l agree that Piers Morgan is a very controversial man who angered many gun owners when he went on the attack about the NRA and the use of guns in America.  He received many protests about that and likewise many insults.

I am not about to say that he does not deserve all the criticisms and even some of the insults. I find him to be quite annoying and insulting many times as well but worse than his stand on guns is often his overly sychophant behavior about politicians and celebrities.

He appeared at the parties before the Golden Globes to listen intently to Bill Clinton when he gave some speech.

Bill Clinton has sure come a long way from his introduction of Michael Dukakis at the Democratic convention years ago when he introduced him to the world...Piers seems to think that he is the greatest speaker that he has ever heard.   His tweet said so.  He clearly had not heard Clinton way back when.  I can never forget that long boring effort.

I am just wondering when it is that Piers thought himself to be cock of the walk...he is molting now.




Friday, January 16, 2015

Rewrite Musings

Last night I went to bed but had to pour out my thoughts in my journal about things that were on my mind.  Reading it this morning I see what is wrong with it so that I may be delete it.  I was just musing aloud at a  time of the day when I wanted to sleep without worrying about those things.

I did not mention that Ivan Andrassew, the Hungarian journalist, had a brain tumor which meant that he would die soon or if operated upon, become partially paralyzed.  This story came to me from the Budapest Beacon. I had never heard of Ivan until this post but I did read the story about his courage and his honesty.

Four of his final blogs were published with this article about his death.  His concern for his son was obvious in one of the blogs.  Because I have been thinking about dying so much myself, always worrying and wondering when that time could come, this blog did impact me enough to decide to sit down to write a bit about the things that were on my mind at the time.

I see that they drifted from one topic to the other.  The story about the abused infant had come after some long discussion with some pro-life people on a post from the ACLU.    I am convinced that most of the world problems all begin at home in the heart of the family.  There are many children who come into the world who are not wanted, and who suffer miserably at the hands of parents who truly find them a burden and a problem for them to bear.  I do not believe for one minute that people who live in comfortable circumstances should try to inflict their beliefs on people who cannot handle the lifestyle that a child brings.  I get very disgusted with the sanctimonious who think that they can speak for the unborn.  They truly cannot.

So when I read that story of extreme sickness directed against a helpless infant it outraged me.

There had been a time when I had not believed in the use of the death penalty.  There are many cases which truly deserve to be treated with only the death penalty, and in my opinion, this is one of them. The man who did that deed should have his own life taken from him.

For some reason, I jumped to the problems of Muslims in the world today, since their atrocities are being paraded across the stage of news media.    More of their atrocities are on the internet since these ISIS members know how to use computers with ease.  I guess that is why I mentioned Janice and Carolyn from the CPT word processing group that I had learned years ago in Flint, Michigan.

Janice was a black muslim.  Whether Carolyn was Muslim or not, I am not really sure.  She was a black woman also who was from Houston, Texas.  I swore that I would never send any of my children to a school where blacks taught after I had taken that course.  The fact that they were Muslim never really impressed me until now.  I did not really know then what it meant to be a Muslim but I know that Janice explained that until she and her boyfriend finally married that neither had had the respect of her community.  But after they finally took their vows they seemed to be acceptable.

I do not really know how Muslims treat or deal with common law living.

So this is not really a rewrite as I have decided to let it go as it is.  I was just rambling forth at an early hour of the morning, just wanting to dump ideas onto my journal.

This is just a recap and explanation of loose ends.

Musings

On Facebook tonight I read about the death of a Hungarian writer whose blog was placed at the end of the obit to the Hungarian journalist/writer.  His blog touched me and prompted me to write this piece in my ongoing journal.

He had suffered an operation in which he was placed in a mask of a kind.  Some kind of device in which his head was placed to undergo this operation on his brain.   Apparently, for some time the operation had been effective because he seems to feel that it had been worth it, but he was dying, and nothing could prevent it.

His blog is very touching and it made a strong impression on me.  Too many times, we need to read other people's experiences to help articulate our own.  His name was Ivan, and while I have put all my other devices to sleep, I will have to wait to search out his last name.  He was being given much praise for being an honest man.

To write honestly about one's feelings is not always wise because in truth we change our feelings and opinions so much that if we do write how we feel at one minute, an hour later we can realize that we have totally revised our thinking on the subject.  It is not a good idea to take what a person says in one time period as meaning that he is to be held to that for a lifetime.

Because of the ongoing current problems regarding the world of Islam in which too many innocent and decent people who are practitioners and followers of the Muslim faith are being truly hurt and injured by the radicals and the terrorists who are following to the letter words that Mohammed may or may not have said.

Years ago in a word processing course, I learned skills on a word processing system taught by two Muslim girls in Michigan.   The one girl told me that she had had to learn by memorizing everything, that Muslims are taught to repeat exactly all the teachings of the faith that they learn.  Not a single word can be changed so that if that is true then all of Islam continues to live by lessons taught in centuries past so that not a single word is changed or altered.   These were modern day women who are a part of the American educational system, but who were Muslim in their faith.  Yet, they did break the rules of the faith since they lived with the men instead of being married to them.  It amazes me that people do not realize that all religious bodies have people within the faith who cannot always do all the requirements of the faith.  It is not just Jews, Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims but also I am sure that even atheists and agnostics have a hard time following all the precepts of their nonfaith.

So while I do believe firmly in my faith, I am at odds with the followers of the faith who preach and teach it in ways that do not necessarily coincide with my own beliefs.  I am both very conservative and also very liberal in my interpretation of the written word.  I tend to believe that lessons are to be tempered with the times in which we live.

I do believe in the sanctity of life but I also believe and know that no child should ever be brought into a home in which he or she will not be wanted, welcomed, and loved.   There are horrendous stories of child abuse that simply make me want to take those people who had those children and jail them forever, deprive them of ever having more children, and in some cases, executing them.  One of the worst stories came to be known that happened in Missouri where a woman allowed a man friend to sexually abuse her four month old infant daughter. After forcibly sodomizing the poor infant, the evil man strangled her.  What a suffering for a poor child whose mother was so demented and sick that she would allow her child to suffer such sexual abuse!  That woman should be deprived of children forever in my opinion, but I feel even worse punishment should be dealt out to the male in the case who damaged and harmed that little girl.

For that reason, I would rather that woman would have aborted that fetus long before it ever came to have to endure a dreadful life at the mercy of such a creature.  I do not truly consider her a woman at all, but a sick and ill beast.

And that is why I get tired of the ignorant who believe that religious beliefs are such that they can impose their will onto young women who know that they cannot care for a child and should not have one.

No matter which religious belief it is, there is only one reason that anyone has one.  Usually, it is because their family taught it to them so that they attend church and believe their faith as a heritage. Whether family, friend, or just merely seeking to find a faith, one learns from others all the stories and lessons that accompany that faith.  One does not acquire religious belief spontaneously from within one's self, but one has to learn it from another.

In the final analysis, when any group comes to agreement upon a belief, a goal, a desire, that group can accomplish great things through it.

Men of science have proved it through countless discoveries, whether they be in industry or medicine.  Businesses have grown and flourished through acceptance, agreement, and achievement.  Men of faith have taught one another to develop large communities of families devoted to living rewarding lives dedicated to doing good to one another.  Nations grow from such beliefs in concepts and ideas.

When conflicts arise, one's faith, one's belief will often be pitted against another.  The world of Muslim has developed following the faith of its founder and prophet, Mohammed, and finds itself pitted against a world which does not believe in any of the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.

Sadly, the wars between Christians and Muslims has been historic and often the success or failure of one of the two faiths has led to the rise of that faith in a given location.   Most of the Muslim world has been centered around Saudia Arabia due to the holy cities located there.  But the faith spread far and wide since Muslims spare no one when it comes to the faith.  Infidels who are not of the faith are executed, and therefore, most Muslims who are not born into the faith are coerced into the belief by fear alone.

Today, executions are exacted in the same method of centuries past.  Very little has changed in the practices that govern the followers.  So beheadings are commonplace for those who are charged and found guilty of violating Islamic law.  In photos now being distributed by ISIS men are being seen thrown from the top of buildings to fall to their death below, and a woman is stoned to death for some violation attributed to her.

To those of us who have learned to have mercy, compassion, and love for our neighbor, these practices are abhorrent.  Watching a young child have a gun placed in his hand to kill two men coldly and mercilessly is nauseating.  But this is what the terrorists have done to young children in Syria and Iraq.  These children are being trained to kill. They are called the young cubs of the Caliphate!

The world is aghast!


To be continued...

Friday, January 9, 2015

Thoughts about the Charlie Hebdo attack

Well, the gunmen were killed before the Air Asia black boxes have been found.  The tail section is going to be lifted up tomorrow.  Two more bodies were discovered, and the belief is that the plane did not break up in the air.

The gunmen who stormed the Charlie Hebdo building expected to be martyred it would appear, so that the end came today in a printing building in northern France.  No video tape was made of their exit from the building but it made me think of the scene in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  They came storming out of the building through the doors shooting at the police who had them surrounded.  Inside the building was a man who hid inside a box to avoid detection.  He called the police to give them information.   This story will be told and retold in many ways I just bet.

I did a search of the history behind the Charlie Hebdo cartoons which began apparently in Denmark when 12 cartoons of Mohammed were printed.  NBC did a video showing the timeline from that event which aroused such animosity and hostility amongst the Muslims to the present day.  This video is on my Facebook timeline.  It finally made sense to me as to why the Charlie Hebdo group continued to mock and humiliate the Muslims through abuse of Mohammed and other Muslim problems.  A cover story on the problem of the Burqa humiliated the women who have to wear these garments.  I could see why that would be very offensive since they essentially say through a cartoon drawing to stick the Burqa up your butt!  A tiny piece of burqa is seen peeking out of the rear of a naked woman running down the street!  Myself, I could imagine drawing one of the cartoonists with the magazine in that same position!   Don't give it out if you can't take it!

The Beast showed 16 covers that are considered over the top in offensiveness!  That burqa caught my attention as well as another of man being made in the image of God. I should hate to think that God really ever looks like most of these men in their ugly faces.

I like certain kinds of satire.  I like to see people who are smug, conceited, overly greedy,  or lustful get ridiculed for their behavior.  Even the self righteous who think that they know it all regarding what God really wants from his created subjects need to be exposed for their own pride and prejudice.  But I do not really approve disrespect or insults. I like humor to be subtle, not slapstick.

I did  own one version of the Koran.  I may even still have a copy.  I found it very strange to say the least.  I also have read that there are many different interpretations of it.  It seems to me that this male dominated body of people have maintained a belief that they want to nurture for their own purposes.  Learning of the biography of Mohammed and his lifestyle has made me believe that he is not a prophet nor a holy man.  There are any number of books about him, and the one that I read was by a man who had been reared as  a Muslim but who undertook the job of showing that Mohammed had been only a businessman who knew how to take advantage of people to make himself a powerful ruler at the time.

When I learned the age of his wife I was appalled. He is in truth a pedophile, a criminal, and as a result, girl children have suffered miserably for centuries.

There is no way I will ever accept him as a man of God. Sorry, but that is how I feel about it. So for that reason alone, I am in sympathy with the cartoonists instead of the Muslims.  The more that they can expose the truth about Mohammed the better I like it.

It is a good thing that the gunmen were killed as quickly as possible.  They have achieved their martyrdom and finally have learned of the fallacy of their beliefs.  However, learning of their history did make me feel sorry that these orphan children had no real home at all, no real friends at all. Being used by the mercenaries of al qaeda and ISIS has betrayed them to a fate that none of us can truly say.

I honestly do not wish anyone to hell.  God truly loves everyone in such a way that nobody can ever fathom. God in Mercy will have love for any and all who are of his creation. Believe it.  Rejoice in it!

Paris Shootings January 7, 2015

The New Year got off to a blaze of glory when two gunmen entered a magazine publishing office in Paris, France to gun down several members of the editorial board and bystanders who got in the way. The bystanders were policemen naturally.

This is a peculiar story which is playing out now in a manhunt while police in France try to find and arrest the gunmen who did this horrible deed.  It is a combination of the two most stupid gunmen in history who either accidentally or deliberately left their calling card with their i.d. on a car that they had used.  Immediately, the police knew who these gunmen were despite their efforts to cover their faces when they committed the crime.  I mean really....who is stupid enough to leave their calling card behind as they even go so far as to switch cars to make their getaway.

A whole day has passed without the police being able to apprehend them.  Supposedly, they are on foot in a forest north of Paris and whether they know it or not, are surrounded by the police on all sides. It is presumed that they may be hiding in a cave if they had found one, or else, at least are taking cover somewhere so that search lights have not yet detected them.  They had been spotted by helicopters abandoning their car to go on foot into the forest.  I have not yet heard whether the car has been found.

Since these two are possibly Islamic terrorists, though born and raised as foster children in France, they are described as tools of al qaeda.   It is said that they told one of the women with whom they talked to tell the media that they were with Yemen al qaeda.  The woman who let them in through operating the security code to open the doors for them was assured that she would not be killed since they would not kill women.  Most are speculating that this act of murder was done to avenge the prophet Mohammed who has been desecrated by cartoons and lampoons in their weekly magazine of satire on religious leaders as well as political leaders.

As I recall, the group who are at the helm of this company are atheists who try to provoke and attack each and every major religious group that they deem fit for critical ridicule.  They have been particularly targeting many Islamic leaders as well as even the women who wear the burqa.  I saw 16 of their covers through a website called The Beast.  I read tonight through CNN that ISIS has praised the gunmen who performed this attack on a French publication staff.

I found many of the covers disturbing and more than provocative so that if that is the cause of this action taken by the gunmen, it would seem that death squads may be sent to squelch such publications.  Of course, all of the world is standing up for the right of freedom of expression, or free speech as we call it, and are bonding together, probably not really knowing what it is that has caused this violent reaction to covers alone.

The gunmen are brothers if in fact the i.d. card does belong to the one brother.  They are supposed to have ties to al qaeda and have traveled to Iraq possibly to have been trained for military duty.  Since they are still on the loose, it is not certain that they are the men as portrayed in the i.d. card but it is likely that they are.  A third man had been named but he turned himself in when he saw his name, so one wonders how it is that his name came to be tossed around so loosely.  He is supposed to have an alibi at the time of the shooting since classmates say that he was in school at that time.  True?  Who knows yet for sure, but he is at least trying to protect himself.

I hope that the two gunmen are found soon just to end this tragic story in a quick finish.

The black boxes from the Air Asia plane have been heard from the Air Asia flight.  I had wondered which would happen first, the discovery of the black boxes or the apprehension of the gunmen.  I guess I know now.  It won't be long before both cases will be closed I am hoping.  But what an introduction to the new year!

Extreme cold is hitting everything east of the Rockies.  It had already hit us two weeks earlier so now it is the East's turn to suffer a cold spell unlike any that has been known in this millennium.  Records are being broken everywhere.

And it is only January 9 right now....I can just imagine that this year is going to be a real doozy!

Friday, January 2, 2015

New Years Resolutions

I really do not make New Years Resolutions since most are broken too soon after the day is done!  I always have the same intentions but as usual, always find a way to forget all about them.  I am hoping that I can win the lottery or the horse races as usual, and that is always a cause with me.  I have been working on lottery games since the early 70's so that I never give up but I seldom play either. I know the enormous odds.  I have a system though that does decrease the odds by a lot, but even with my system the odds are better at horse races than at lottery draws.

So I am back at work, bringing my lottery info up to date and trying once more to see if I can cash in in the near future.  My calculations are simple.  There are definite patterns to lottery games.  Nobody can believe it but the fact remains that it can be won if one studies the hit and miss patterns.  I always noticed in Bingo games that the same numbers are repeated over and over, and so it is true in lottery games as well.  If you can find the numbers that are on a hot streak, you can improve your chances immensely in a given streak.

And that is all for now...I am going to bed.

January 01, 2015

I have developed a pattern of waking and sleeping, but today I actually slept an hour later than usual so that I missed the first part of the Rose Parade.   I caught the last half.  After the parade, I watched football and horse races on t.v.  I began watching Michigan State University play Baylor.  MSU was dreadful at first, being able to only get field goals but never being able to get a ball across the goal line.  No t.d.'s which exasperated me.  I began watching horses just to get away from the frustration, and I would occasionally check back to see how they were doing.  In the second half, MSU began to pick up some steam so that they were within one touch down of catching Baylor who was way out in front.  I watched them score to make it a 41-35 game.  I thought great! Now they could at least maybe  get another with five minutes to go. How I figured that I will never know but luckily I was right as they scored with 17 seconds remaining to go ahead of Baylor 42-41 when they made the point after.  What a game!  I was so happy.  Then the playoffs for championship game were to be contested between Oregon and Florida State University and Ohio State University and Alabama.

Oregon whopped the daylights out of Florida State University and I finally could see that Oregon is a team that is relentless about winning as they defeated Florida dreadfully.   It made me shake my head in wonder.  Oregon is a bit tough and mean.  I wonder if they ever did put in their third string or not. They are huge men!

Finally, Alabama and Ohio State ended the long day of football frenzy with a very exciting and nail biter game.  For awhile, OSU looked about as bad as MSU had looked in the previous game in the first half.  It could only get field goals it seemed, while Bama scored t.d.'s to lead but at halftime OSU was within striking distance as it caught up to be one point behind Bama.  However, after the halftime ended, OSU played an entirely different game to lead the Bama team in a total turnaround.  However, never let it be said that Bama gave up!  They fought a good battle, so that the final score was only a touchdown away from OSU.  A very hard fought game.

Baylor's coach took it hard that he lost to MSU.  I suppose that both Florida and Alabama felt the same way but I did not hear them say so.  I did hear Baylor's coach say that he felt bad for his school and his team, and he was genuine in his sorrow.  It was an exciting day of college ball that is the beginning of a long time hope of having the top teams play each other in a game to prove which one should be named Number One.  So for sure, it will be either Ohio or Oregon come January 12, 2015.


Neither Oregon or Ohio State can call it quits yet!  They have one more game to play!  Imagine the anticipation!