Povey Prattle

Bake a cake they said. Put rockets on they said....     Source:  A Tampa FL radio station website  

An American Company called Hobby Lobby placed a full page advertisement in our local Sarasota Herald-Tribune newspaper today.   I am certain that the same advertisement appeared in many other American newspapers. You can read it here: http://www.hobbylobby.com/assets/images/holiday_messages/current_message.jpg In my opinion the advertisement is a bit of “cherry-picking” in which Hobby Lobby   ( a privately held Company whose owners are Evangelical Christians)   strives to assert that the United States of America is a Christian nation. Notwithstanding that that there is no such thing as a “Christian nation” (see this from an evangelical scholar)…..   “ Jonathan Merritt, an evangelical Christian writer and blogger for the Religion News Service, “……… arguing that conservative evangelicals shouldn’t call businesses “Christian” in the first place. “The New Testament never—not one time—applies the ‘Christian’ label to a business or even a governm...

As an American citizen by choice I make it my business to read the American Declaration of Independence on or about each Fourth of July. It is a (mostly) noble,  brave and audacious statement, made by those who for the most part considered themselves to be British, but who chafed under the foolish and unjust laws of the British Monarch as they were applied in the thirteen colonies. Of course the Declaration did not arise in a vacuum.  The framers were most likely aware of the Dutch Declaration of Independence (see http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/dutch_independence_1581.html  ) and the English Bill of Rights of 1689 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689  ) Our Declaration, as I have said, is mostly noble, and brave, and even audacious.  It makes for great reading and deep thought and reflection. That is until, referring to King George,  it says this. "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured t...

My good and blessed friend B. can no longer drive on account of his near blindness. He recently e-mailed six of his good friends with a request that one of us would drive him to an appointment.  He added these words "I hate to be dependent". I responded by saying that I and his other five friends like him so very  much ,  that we are more than pleased to be asked to drive him hither, thither and yon, and that  we would do  so even if we did not like him ! I added: "I too hate to be dependent  -  until  I remember I an dependent every single day.  Water flows freely from my faucets, my home is supplied with electricity, and the trash and garbage are collected. Life would be entirely difficult or unmanageable without such services upon which I depend". I could have added so much to this list of daily dependencies. For indeed our lives would be impossible without all those dependencies which we take for grant...

The American fast food chain "Steak 'n Shake" advertises (1) Irresistible, thick, hand-dipped Vanilla Milk Shake made with real milk. Topped with whipped cream and a cherry .(2) Hand-crafted Steakburgers What in the world do those words "hand-dipped" and "hand-crafted" mean?  I suggest that they are rather bogus words, designed to create the impression that the shakes and burgers are created with personal skill and artisanship, and are therefore of a higher quality. It's a bit of phony baloney - especially when we know that "Steak 'n Shake" burgers retail for about four bucks and that the shakes cost about three bucks. Besides which  -  I don't want any grubby hands involved in dipping my milk shake, or "crafting" my burger! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "There's one sucker born every minute" is a common phrase which ...

My beloved colleague and friend the Revd.. Andi (Andrea) Taylor preached at St. Boniface Church on Siesta Key, Sarasota FL yesterday.' The assigned gospel passage was Matthew 10:37-42. Andi zoomed in in these words (attributed to Jesus)  from the gospel :  "  42 and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.” She reminded us that getting a cup of cold was no easy task in first century Palestine.  A person would have to go to a fast floating creek, or  to a very deep well to get cold water. It was a good sermon which "spoke to my soul". For you see ----  my extremely difficult and oft-times obnoxious neighbour   E is holed up in a Nursing Home down in Venice, some 20 miles from here. You may remember that I discovered her "all sick and hallucinating" in another neighbors' driveway at 5:00 a.m. . back in early May, and that I ca...

The Sarasota FL "Herald-Tribune" recently carried a photo' of some local high school athletes, females and males,  who were being honoured an some awards ceremony or another.   There they were in their best duds,  and smiling for the camera.  The pity was that the camera was too far way.  So we saw these eight or ten athletes being pictured from head to toe, when a head and shoulders shot would have been far more engaging.   What I mean is this:  The athletes themselves, their family members and friends their coaches were most likely not a bit interested in the various fashions on display.  What they wanted to be featured  was the smiling faces of these successful young adults.   It was an  example of unimaginative photography.   ========================================     Here is another example.  It is a set piece photo' taken by a staff photographer on the MV Discovery. ...