Last night my parents and I were watching a movie when the power went out. Not completely surprising since it was our first 100+ weekend and air conditioners all over town were gasping from the strain. My first thought was of a book I read a couple weeks ago where the power goes out worldwide and people are forced to start over from scratch. Quite quickly I checked my watch and cell phone to make sure fiction wasn't becoming reality. ;)

We ended up playing pinochle by candlelight and headlamp and had quite a few laughs before the power kicked back on an hour later. What a different world it is with electricity! I remember standing around the desert in Senegal when our car ran out of gas, surrounded by complete black stillness...

Saw a great cartoon as I read the funnies yesterday before church -- it reminded me that a couple months ago I was watching an 80's movie <courtesy of Netflix> and was astonished to hear the enviromental pitch that manmade global cooling was going to bring about a new ice age. We humans must be mighty powerful, only 20 years later we've now made it too hot to survive. Check out the cartoon here.

And I just saw the trailer for the new movie from the folks that brought us Facing the Giants. Looks pretty good:

Posted by authorjodi at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm not sure which is the bigger irritation -- junk mail or forwards. Unfortunately my spam filter isn't 100% perfect, so every once in awhile I have to scan through my junk mail folder with one eye closed trying not to see the profane subject lines. I've been getting loads of Nigerian bank scams lately, but this morning I got a new one that actually made me sorta mad. I know I shouldn't invest emotional energy in scammers, but is nothing sacred anymore?

Dear Beloved in Christ,
 
It is by the grace of God that I received Christ in my life, knowing the truth and the truth have set me free, having known the truth; I had no choice than to do what is lawful and right in the sight of God for eternal life and in the sight of man for witness of God & his mercies and glory upon my life.
I am Mrs.Edwards the wife of Mr. Spelling Edwards, my husband worked with the Chevron Texaco in Egypt for twenty years before he died in the year 2002.We were married for ten years without a child. My Husband died after a brief illness that lasted for only four days. Before his death we were both born again Christians.
Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my matrimonial home which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of ($6, 000, 000,00) with a Bank in Nigeria. Presently, this money is still with the Bank and the management just wrote me as the beneficiary to come forward to sign for the release of this money or rather issue a letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf if I can not come over.
Presently, I'm in a hospital in Ghana where I have been undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer. I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a few weeks to live. It is my last wish to see this money distributed to charity organizations anywhere in the World. Because relatives and friends have plundered so much of my wealth since my illness, I cannot live with the agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to any of them.
Please, I beg you in the name of God to help me Stand and collect the Funds from the Bank and as soon as the fund enter your account take 30% of the total money, while 70% will be for work of God.
I want a person that is God fearing that will use this money to fund churches, orphanages and widows propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. The Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth. I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit this money and my husband's relatives are not Christians and I don't want my husband's hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers. I don't want a situation where this money will be used in an ungodly manner. Hence the reason for taking this bold decision. I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the Lord. Exodus {14 VS14} says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I don't need any telephone communication in this regard because of my soundless voice and presence of my husband's relatives around me always. I don't want them to kn! ow about this ! d evelopment. W it
As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact to the Bank in Nigeria where the money is been deposited. I will also issue you a letter of authority and deposited certificate of claim that will prove you as the new beneficiary of this fund.
Psalm 23
Your in Christ,
Mrs.Edwards

Posted by authorjodi at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thousands of primary pupils were prevented from making Father's Day cards at school for fear of embarrassing classmates who live with single mothers and lesbians.

Read more here.

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The first time I gave more than a passing thought to ethanol as an alternative fuel source was when I was driving from Pennsylvania to Idaho last summer. I drove for four days, and it seemed to me a good portion of the time I was driving through corn fields with signs posted every so often identifying them as destined for ethanol production. That was right in the middle of the China food and toy scare, and almost as an aside I found myself wondering why we were growing all this corn that we wouldn't be eating. Why not have the Chinese grow the ethanol corn and have us grow our own food so we wouldn't have to check the labels on everything we eat?

Somewhere in the middle of my four day spree I filled up my motorhome with 10% ethanol fuel...not too much later I vapor-locked because of that self-same ethanol and lost an hour of travel time waiting for the engine to cool down.

Needless to say I was unimpressed with ethanol.

Continue reading "Ethanol Arrogance." »

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Seriously. How can we expect youth to grow up normally when we're removing every single societal element that once stood firm? Not only are we teaching kindergartners that they need to experiment with sex and drugs to figure out who they are; now we're redefining cultural pillars that go back to the foundation of the world. We used to have creative math, where 1+1 didn't necessarily equal 2 if it made you feel bad about yourself -- now we're espousing creative biology. No more male and female He created them. Just check out the new guidelines at a juvenile detention facility in New York:

While all residents may ask to be called by a preferred first name rather than their legal one, the policy says males who believe they are female must be called "she" and females who believe they are male must be referred to as "he." Staff must use the preferred name and pronoun in any documents they file.

There've been numerous stories recently about new laws under consideration in Florida, California, Colorado, and the New England states where public restrooms and locker rooms are being opened beyond the traditional -- and quite frankly logical, rational, reasonable, etc. -- definitions.

And as we've been doing for decades, we're exporting our cultural degeneration to the rest of the world. Here's a story out of Thailand I saw recently:

For teen boys who prefer to dress as girls at one rural high school in Thailand, taking a bathroom break no longer means choosing between "male" and "female" restrooms. There's now a "transvestite toilet."

For a very interesting read about where this is all headed, check out this article about the clash of gay rights and religious liberties over at NPR. It's sorta long, but well worth the read. Pay particular attention to Act Three.

Posted by authorjodi at 01:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Quick little roundup of stories I saw today:

• A father was having trouble with his 12-year-old daughter's internet use and ordered her to stop surfing. She disobeyed and posted inappropriate pictures of herself, so he grounded her from going on a school outing. Sounds reasonable so far, right? Too bad they live in Canada, where the girl was able to retain an attorney and find a judge to rule that staying home from an outing was "excessive" punishment for the crime <via WND>.

• Again in Canada, a case of suspected sexual abuse was opened for an 11-year-old autistic girl...because the case worker saw a psychic who told her a girl with the initial "V" was being abused. There was no other evidence besides the psychic's, um, report, but the mother had to defend herself in an investigation <via WND>.

• And finally, a couple has been sentenced to three months in jail...for homeschooling. No, for now this couple isn't from California <although we might be seeing that story soon>, they're German <via WND>.
  

Posted by authorjodi at 04:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm pretty sure I haven't watched a full episode of Oprah since I was living in Scotland ten years ago teaching English to 25 Korean and Chinese adults. I'd been teaching in Seoul, but the Korean organization I worked for thought it'd be a good idea to take us to Scotland for English immersion.

Aberdeen is home to the thickest accent in Scotland so my teaching partner and I were really relieved to find the church we chose had a visiting Brit as interim pastor. We had difficulty understanding the announcements and singing, but at least we heard the sermon...so you can perhaps imagine how well our students did with their immersion experience. But I digress.

It was a fairly stressful episode in my life, and one thing my teaching partner and I did was institute routine whenever we weren't working. We got home to our flat around four, completely exhausted from the day's efforts, and flipped on Oprah. After that hour I'd drag myself off the couch to make dinner while she watched Star Trek, then she'd clean while we watched another American show I can't quite remember.

Continue reading "Oprah Does Her Best to Legitimize Polygamy." »

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