Insight or inundation . We learn about what we want to , from life’s journey. We may not always be right ,but we try to have a broader view of the World , and it’s events then may be common for us “Plain” folks.
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16. A store in our State of SC has been caught selling Raccoon meat . It was a gas station-variety type store . It would be a bit problematic buying one”s meat where one bought the gas , seems to me .
Our local McDonald’s fast food place smells exactly like a pig-pen ,at least the pig-sleeping area. Kind of a musty unwashed small. I know , because in our past we used to raise Pigs . But that fast food joint is still open . Pig food is probably more nutritious then fast food , too.
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15 . Habitat For Humanity , is a world wide organization based in south Georgia . They have a goal of supplying housing for needy peoples . They recently dedicated a house locally , with appropriate news coverage of the project .
We have never been involved with any of their projects , though we had a tenant once that ended in one of their houses, as the owner. It was a “single’ mom in her upper 20′s with 3 kids who was then in her 4th marriage , with her then current husband in SC state prison at that time . Her father mentioned to me at the time that ,”She can sell the house in 5 years and make lots of money”. So , We don’t know , but suppose that it is a good program , to supply houses for folks , though a secular one . As in Religion not being any factor at all in the building or ownership of these basic houses. I think that is one of their by-laws that that is that way.
We may point out that the father was The Main Tenant , the daughter was just staying there between marriages , which was most of the time .Mar 28-11
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14. On Saturday ,Alaska Airlines had to cancel 150 flights which kept up to 12000 people on the ground . Was it bad weather , or wild animals on the runways , or some other uncontrollable misfortune ?
No , none of the above . Somewhere , an electric transformer blew , blanking out the main computer bank of Alaska Air. And kapoof, it was gone . The ability to fly all those Planes . We still remember where they used to have back-up batteries or even generators rigged up , so power failures do not disrupt things as drastically as that .
I very recently discussed with an Amish man how the Amish can make it without Computers . “Actually” he stated , “A number of Amish have good regular access to Computers , especially where there is Wi-fi ,and the sun is shining , to charge the laptops with”. Mar 27-11
Maybe the Computer is really indispensable ., if even the Amish are on-lined !
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13. No. 6 , below, evolved over the past week about the corrupting of Truth ,how it destroys everything it touches. Sometime we would like to do an Amish article , and discuss how our backgrounds affect us. I dislike Amish-bashing of any type . We don’t even care to see young folks doing ‘Amish’ suppers , it is like making fun of them. But then the intriguing question is , how can people 2 or 3 generations removed from Amish life still draw the same conclusions on life”s questions , though from a slightly different or advanced psychical plane ?
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12. We are wading our way through a huge book .The late Super Liberal , Arthur m. Schlesinger’s posthumous book , “Journals 1952-2000”. Published in 2007 this 900 page tome has a lot of insight into a noted Liberals’ thinking process. We only paid $1 for this new copy at a deep discount source . We may be the only Mennonite that has dared to read it , we fear .
The take on Former pres. Jimmy Carter , a democrat . ”Carter was not a Baptist , but a Calvinist at heart , he would have loved to burn people at the Stake ”. ”A Cold calculating selfish person in every way , with a famous false smile ,that fooled people”. He also disdained President Carter because Carter claimed to believe the Genesis account of Adam & Eve in the Garden.
Wow , and we thought we were sometimes too sharp with words!
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11. Mar. 20-11 If you happened to look at the full moon last night , you may have noticed it was extra bright , the brightest and sharpest it has looked since 1993 . It is because of some astronomical anomaly of some sort .
And did we see it ? No , though we looked twice ,at midnight and at 2 o’clock. A very small localized rainstorm hovered over our part of the county all night , so be it . Ah well , there is still tonight .
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10. We often think of various government rules and decrees as intrusions on our liberties .
In 1970 Corning Glass Corp. spent a lot of time and huge amounts of $$$ , inventing a safer car windshield , a truly tempered one that shattered into harmless pebbles in an accident . AMC used those windshields the next year on most of it’s cars . Since it was about 20% more expensive , all the major car companies stuck with their Laminated windshields , that was 2 layers of glass , with some sort of sticky stuff in the middle to hold the sharp pieces together when shattered.
Thousands of people were dying every year , of cuts to their heads and throats , from sticking their heads through the glass car windshields in accidents . It took Government decrees in the mid-70′s to force all car companies to use the safer glass , and seat belts too. By then Corning Glass had written their invention off , and almost went bankrupt then because they could not sell the windshields to the big car makers in 1970. A shame , indeed .
Greedy car companies sacrificing lives to save a few dollars.
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9. Like an old friend , the Reader”s Digest Monthly magazine arrived today . It is a lot smaller then it was years ago , but it is getting back to the information trove format it used to be . For a few years there , they were somewhat like a comic book with newsy tidbits.
And did we just mention the latest issue was rather slim ? Well, after we removed the 20 sheets that had ads printed on both sides , it was even slimmer . We enjoy doing that .Although it almost is something we do without thinking ,we must remember not to do it at the Dentist”s office or just anywhere , ripping out unneeded pages.
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8. And now about light bulbs without electricity. . A Brazilian scientist has perfected how to get about 50 watts of light into a dark room for free, at least on sunny days . You take an empty 2-liter bottle , an ounce of bleach ,fill the thing with water and stick it half way through the roof , it glows when the sun shines on it . Those bottles are almost indestructible , except for the cap, it”s good they found some use for them . Google “2 liter bottle for light” for online instructs.This should even be allowable for Amish ,except they may have to do with green light in the roof, that is because Mountain Dew bottles are green. Mar15-11
Update Mar 18-11 If you haven’t stocked up on the 100 watt old-fashioned light bulbs , you are most likely too late . In most parts of the country , they are gone , wiped out ,ziltched. It’s not till Jan-12 that they are outlawed . you can still get them on EBay though , for about 4 times the money . Remember we told you about it here . several months back.
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7. The Time Change this spring has been earlier then usual . Is it designed to get folks up early ? After all , we don’t live in Pa. with their “nose to the grindstone” life.
The old saying is ”Early to bed, early to rise , makes a person healthy , wealthy, and wise ” ..
To that I would retort with my aunt Martha”s (Mrs Pete Yoder) comment in her old age .She lived Amish and hard all her days.
“All my life I have heard it said that –Morgan Stund hadt gold ins mund— (Morning hour has gold in its mouth). I”ve done that all my life and never found it”" End of Auntie Martha’s quote.
Aunt Martha raised Chickens for the eggs , and got up at 4 or so every morning to light lanterns and roust the hens early with the hope they would lay 2 eggs in one day . at least she tried ,
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6.When Church Schools go kaput , Can that Particular Church be far behind it ?
In the last several years , several Plain Anabaptist Christian Schools we know of have closed their doors .At least 3 come to mind here , that we are somewhat familiar with. In retrospect , a case can be made that often those were just symptoms of very serious spiritual problems in the sponsoring Churches involved in each School .
Spiritual Decadence comes to mind , where meeting after meeting is held to ‘ fix’ problems , The often overlooked good news is the Bible has all the answers needed .
The Problem of Churches that have Serial Meetings about pressing issues, and never seem to solve anything , has intrigued me for some years .It got to the point that we avoided any and all part in those kinds of things . Meetings like that feel , and I believe often are ,an Evil influence that are easy to avoid.
I have reached a tentative conclusion from experience on the cause -effect of that , and that is , it is often all about Truth , biblical Truth , that is . Once Truth has been Breached, subverted , or truth driven away (As in Truth Bearing Preachers ,perhaps).Nothing then seems to work , even if the smartest and the most sincere Reasoners give it their all , seemingly to no avail . Even Biblical Truth presented no longer is seemingly effective in those cases .
Hidden or open sin can and will hurt a Church or entity too, It always has , but then Sin has always seemed to be close by . But The Church Still stands , in spite of Sin ,and always has .
Corrupting of Truth may have a corrosive affect hard to fathom . Turning to Truth has no equal .Perhaps the Biblical example of Nineveh would come to mind here . Truth did them no good at all until they engaged in the first step , and that was True and extended Repentance . Skip that step of repentance , and you are just treading water . Truth never has a chance to take effect , in lives or Churches , because Biblical repentance never had it”s way. How about 40 days of it ?
That a School loses it’s vision and purpose , often is a reflection of the Spiritual condition of the local Church body running it . It is quite possible , perhaps probable , that a Church like that can still function as an entity for a time, But be spiritually hollow and cold . Perhaps like a hollowed out oak tree , that still looks somewhat good on the out side , but inside is nothing at all .There almost seems to be a connection involved here , of Christian Schools failing , and an organized apostasy becoming the accepted reality , of Church Life. Instead of believing or trusting in God , it is all about oneself , or ourselves.
Organized apostasy as a religion is nothing new . The entire Amish religious movement comes to mind , as it affects many of us even if we claim enlightenment from it. Amish are often the epitome of organized self-righteousness in many ways, the Stricter they are , the more darkened they tend to become in Spiritual understanding . The World media tends to be enthralled by many things Amish lately. One of the Amish”s main ‘selling” points is that they have stood the test of time . I would point out here that to the eye of the Lord , they have only been around less then half a day .(400 years).
And why are we talking Amish here ? Perhaps it is the thought that if we do not try to understand where we come from in Spiritual heritage, we may have difficulty seeing where we are going . And also , I”ve never heard of an Amish day School closing down ,except for demographics . (No longer needed , not enough kids or something)
mar 13-11
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5. the Japanese Earthquake thing is huge , the death toll may reach many many thousands . The entire island of Japan was moved a whole 8 feet .If the Nuke plants melt down , it will get even worse.
And what is the suggested antidote for Nuclear fallout ? Specialized Iodine tablets , of course , taken at the approach of any distant fallout .And who has a good store of them in a corner of a drawer , that they never expected to use ,even now ? Your humble writer”s family ,of course .
If you do have some of these pill packets , they never expire , so keep them accessible , especially if you live close to a nuclear plant . Here in upstate SC , we live fairly close to the 8th most dangerous one in the US ,in oconne county SC
update mar 16-11 It is hard to get a clear picture of what is happening to that reactor ,in Japan. It does not give confidence that the Japanese mindset is as it is .
One has to remember the group of Japanese businessmen who took the elevator down to the lobby, and to safety, of that 2nd tower on 9-11 . They let a ports authority official talk them into just returning to their upper floor office , as everything was supposedly normal , just before the next plane hit below them , and they all perished . The “Monkey see , monkey do “” “Do only as you are told”, ethic is strong in Japan . That is not good for handling a Nuclear emergency like this.
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4. the only US coin worth it’s weight that circulates today is the lowly Nickel . Made up of 75% copper and 25% nickel , the base metal in each one is worth about 7 cents.
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3. If you see or perhaps have one of those so called “Bradford Pear”" trees that are in full flaming Bloom now, Hear this . They may look pretty , but what you have is a non-native junk tree. Imported from China or someplace , they have no useful purpose ,besides making lot”s of work , and are universally despised by horticulturists . if you have a whole row of these you have a whole roll of junk . They may look pretty , but so did the imported Starlings and English Sparrows two centuries ago . Take a chain saw to them so your neighbors don’t feel so sorry for you .
Perhaps the type of Folks that have trees like that , are perhaps the type that collect “Thomas Kincade’ collectibles . Ugh. Start up the Chain saw again ..Mar 08-11
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2. We have just returned from a 5 day cruise out of Jacksonville , Florida , which went to Key West and Nassau , Bahamas . On the ship one of the crew mentioned to us that just 2 weeks previously , the Templeton tours had put on the Great annual Gospel Singing cruise on this very same boat .The 2050 passenger Carnival Fascination ship .
They were of course without the Bars and casinos being open on that chartered Christian cruise , From Feb 13-19 . When we got home we looked it up , and sure enough , they had gone.One of the sponsoring singing groups still had the room price sheets up from the singing cruise . After checking up on the price for exactly the same room , the same number of people , the same number of days on the same Ship . On the “singing cruise ” , they paid exactly Two and one half times what we did 2 weeks later.
Our bar bill was $0. 00 , and we never entered the casino at all .We even took along our own water bottles and Cokes . Admittedly , we stayed away from certain areas at certain times . But that is still a lot of $$$ just for getting sung to , and perhaps the Ship did not make a lot off of us .An interesting number noted by the purser was that our Cruise had 2400 passengers . It is rated at 2050 passengers but is allowed up to about 2500 paying persons by putting in more then 2 to a cabin . Mar. 06-11 ..
(Our bill for Tickets, port charges, tips and taxes was almost exactly $1800. And that included Travel insurance , too. Using the price scale still up , the Bill for exactly the same cabins for the same folks , on the same ship on the Singing Cruise would have been just a tad over $4500. , for a family of 5 . No travel insurance figured in here .)
The Carnival Co. has to get it”s money. The Templeton Co. has to make it”s , and the 25 groups of Gospel singers are mostly on for free too .Then take into account the lack of income from the Drinking and gambling , and the shore excursions too , and it adds up to a lot higher cost ,for the Singing Charter cruise.
The experience exceeded our expectations , and we visited a foreign country too .
Several things to remember So you have an enjoyable trip .
Do use a travel agent or professional ,they handle the sticky details ,and save money and unhappy surprises.
Do get your proper ID’s and make sure you have them with you . Our boat Left an old lady and her daughter standing at the Pier in Jacksonville Fl, because the Older lady had forgot her papers .
The Carnival Boat folks act as the Immigration Gatekeepers , as we found out when we got off at the end of the Cruise . At 8;10 we were still in our stateroom . By 8;30 we were on the freeway driving home . After leaving the Boat we walked a long gauntlet through the terminal , never stopping or showing our papers at all . About a half dozen teams of immigration officers were watching closely , very occasionally they would pull someone out to check things . That was how they debarked 2400 + people in 2 hours .
Do Re-board the boat an hour early on stops . We also left an extended family of 7 at Key West that never showed to re-board. The Boat Blew it’s whistle a number of times and waited an extra 30 minutes , in vain . Someone’s Cheap vacation turned expensive real quick .
The Card they give you on the boat keeps track of exactly who is on the Boat and who is not . We Slipped out of Nassau a half hour early because everyone was accounted for .
Shore excursions are often a waste of $$$$. there are so many things you can do with just a bit of research , or just start walking , till you find something .Getting away from the fellow Ship”s passengers may be a worthy goal here . Watching the local entrepreneurs eye a motley Shore excursion group is an eye opener indeed.
We hired a nice Real estate agent- taxi driver In the Bahamas to give us a 2 hour tour of the things we wanted to see , then he dropped us off at the Beach By the Straw market in Nassau , close to the Ship . ($80.). Mar 10-11
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1. The Medical profession has made tremendous strides in the past 100 years . Medical Doctors went from being scorned and avoided as butchers to being almost revered in that time , for their results. So have pharmaceuticals , or prescription drugs .
Probably one of the the most hideous “cures” practiced in the last 2000 years was what was known as “Bloodletting “‘. This thing about bleeding the patient , for almost any and all ailment , kept world population low almost by itself . George Washington was almost bled to death because he had pneumonia , and died from it . Up to about 1925 , some medical schools were still recommending it . How awful indeed.