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Showing posts from November 29, 2015

From the Talmud

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Via my colleague Stephen Parker

I refuse to hate Muslims and their Islamic faith.

I refuse to hate Muslims and their Islamic faith. So if you post anything which includes a carte-blanch condemnation of Islam, or of Muslims I will remove you as a Facebook friend, AND   as a personal friend. My life is too short for me to waste time indulging those intellectually deficient and bigotry proficient folks who hate Muslims and Islam. If you are in that "camp of hatred" you will no longer be a friend of mine.  The light of Jesus of Nazareth (whose teachings I try to follow)  simply cannot have fellowship with your darkness,

Four words which should not be put together

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We must stop saying "Boots on the Ground". Boots do not get maimed or disfigured. Boots do not get dis-membered. Boots do not live with PTSD Boots do not leave broken hearted lovers, children, parents, spouses, boy-friends, girl-friends, uncles and aunts, grand-parents, neighbours, church friends, sisters and brothers. Boots do not leave their villages, their neighbourhoods, their towns and cities to fight in wars which politicians have mandated. Boots do not know all en-compassing fear and amazing courage. We send men and women to war, not boots. Men and women who know the tenderness of love, the faithfulness of family, the delight of their children, the strength of their friendships. Men and woman who are well trained, and loyal to the orders they have been given. Men and woman who hoped to grow old, sound in limb and mind, to rejoice  in the lives of their children and grand-children; their lovers; their spouses; their dearest

Six words which are always wasted.

Get Out From Under My Feet As addressed to any cat.

I giggled at this announcement in our Church bulletin

ORGAN MUSIC of JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH During the season of Advent this year, all of the organ preludes and postludes for the Sunday morning services will feature the music of the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. He lived from 1685 to 1750, and during his lifetime composed great music for the church, especially for organ. Bach was a devout Christian, and wrote the phrase Soli Deo Gloria on the last page of every piece of music he composed, which translates to, “Only for the glory of God.” Emphasis mine (jmp).   How surprising that Bach composed music in his lifetime! (or maybe I have a quirky sense of humour).

At age 71 am I a "snazzy young man'? (NO!)

You look like a "snazzy young man". So said the clerk (shop assistant) at "Total Wine" this morning. Maybe it was because I was wearing my light blue, long-sleeved, buttoned-down collar "Arrow:" shirt, together with my brand new "Izod"  -   "wearing-for-the-very-first time" golf shorts, and a lovely cap which I bought in Bergen, Norway last year. Or maybe it was because she wanted to flatter me.   I did not play into her flattery by revealing my age. Maybe I looked like a  "snazzy young man". Indeed I looked smart, But I wish that this very pleasant  young woman had seen me at 3:30 a.m. this morning (Nov 30th 2015). At that time I left my bed to "relieve myself" I walked back to my bed (bum first) to sit down, I sat down, but I missed the bed.  I fell to the floor. In this dreadful process I managed to shove aside  a book shelf, and cause a picture to fall from the wall, I suffered "mil

The wisdom of President George H.W. Bush (and other musings about "what after?")

In 1943 Winston Churchill, Franklin D Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin met in Tehran to try to establish an agreed policy in the pursuit of the war against the Axis Powers in Europe. When victory against Germany (Italy had surrendered) was within sight, the same leaders met again in Yalta (1945). Roosevelt was exhausted, very ill, and as it happens,  very close to death.  Churchill was marginalized by both Stalin and Roosevelt. Both Churchill and Roosevelt had more faith in their own wisdoms than in the careful briefing papers their staff had prepared.  The two western leaders either ignored the recommendations in these briefings, or they refused to read them Roosevelt had no more vision than victory in Europe, and then in the Pacific. He had steadfastly refused to deal with the question "But what will we do after victory?" Churchill's  vision  (arch-imperialist as he was)  had to do with the post-war preservation of the British Empire. Of the three,