1.
We’ve had our Berkey water filter for about 9 months, and it recently started running soooo slowly. The filters are reusable, you just have to scrub them off every now and then with a Scotchbrite. I asked husband dear to look up how to clean them because that’s man work. (Any job that involves taking things apart is man work around here. If I take something apart, there’s a good chance we’ll be buying a new one.)
Turns out we’ve had the filters in upside down this whole time. It works much better now and flows faster!
2.
This is awesome. What do famous writers think about other famous writers?
A hint: Here’s what William Faulkner has to say about Mark Twain.
A hack writer who would not have been considered fourth rate in Europe, who tricked out a few of the old proven sure fire literary skeletons with sufficient local color to intrigue the superficial and the lazy.
3.
So glad Congress took up the pressing issue of whether to let Puerto Rico vote on becoming a state sometime in the future. It’s not like there’s anything pressing to do, such as fix unemployment or take care of the immigration meltdown in Arizona. ::sarcasm::
It’s a novel way to drum up more income tax revenue, I suppose.
4.
The repair guy came to look at the oven. He did not speak English, which was very annoying.
He called his boss on his cell phone, talked, handed the cell phone to me, I talked, handed to cell phone to the guy, and so on. Translator by cell phone is one way to annoy the customer and make things way more complicated than they need to be.
I think the government should solve this problem by enacting a Communications Stimulus, throwing trillions of dollars at developing an implant that will instantaneously translate any dialogue and beam it directly into the brain.
Maybe Apple will develop an app for the iPhone. I’d totally buy one then.
5.
I don’t really understand what all the uproar is over this AZ immigration bill. It says that one will only be asked to provide proof of citizenship if there’s a reason to think a person is not a US citizen, and that showing a driver’s license will be considered proof enough.
I have to show my license when I write a check, go to the doctor or use my health insurance card, get my own money out of my own bank, or return socks to WalMart without a receipt. What is the big hairy deal? It’s okay for TARGET to require a DL to buy a videogame or bottle of wine, but a cop can’t ask for it after he has reasonable suspicion?
As an aside, every time I’ve ever had any contact with a police officer I’ve had to show my ID. Even when I’VE called them, such as when my debit card got stolen. I had to show it when I got stickers for my car and when I bought spray paint, too.
6.
Mr. S got his orange belt in aikido! He was so proud of himself and so am I!
7.
I don’t have a number seven, but I gave you eight items last week so now we’re even.
Alicia (1)
Amanda (1)
Angie @ Bigbearswife (1)
Birdie (1)
christy (1)
Dawn (1)
Grandma Margie (1)
Jennifer (1)
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
RE: #5:
MilehiMama, do YOU have any relatives living in AZ? Have you asked any of their opinions on AZ’s new “Walking While Brown” law? Are any of those relatives of such a complexion that they might be considered as possible illegals?
Perhaps you should ask one or all of those relatives their thoughts on why there is such a brouhaha over that law (in AZ, domestically, & internationally), or why the mayor of Phoenix is suing the state-with his own money-over this law, before you declare your ignorance and indifference on this issue (“I don’t know….”)!
The big problem, in my opinion (as a non-attorney and non-resident of AZ), is that any person can be forced by the police to prove his citizenship for doing nothing more than looking like a potential illegal alien. “Reasonable suspicion” isn’t defined in the law; indeed, AZ has asked the federal gov’t for assistance in determining exactly what that “reasonable” suspicion may be. If YOU, or John Smith, or I come into contact with the police (even if you or I were the caller), then yes, we would be required to show our identification. But for doing nothing other than looking like a cop’s idea of an immigrant?
Isn’t “Show us your papers!” the one line you hear over and over again in Nazi movies?
Show us your papers, LOL. I don’t think it’s out of place for a police officer to ask to see ID. My whole point is that people ask for ID ALL THE TIME. When you buy things, when you return things. If you buy cold medicine. If you buy spray paint, alcohol, cigarettes. Yes, I have to “show my papers” (i.e., driver’s license) if I need Sudafed.
It is not true that one will be forced to “show papers” simply for their complexion, and frankly I expected you to know better and actually look at the issue, not blindly follow mainstream media reports.
And you know we have relatives in AZ. I have friends in AZ, too. And the “for doing nothing more than looking like an illegal alien” is just not true. My whole point is that the law has been exaggerated and demonized – when the law is simply the state passing a law similar to a federal law that already exists.
The fact is, the Supreme Court has said that this type of law is constitutional.
You can read the text of the current bill here. If one can’t provide a DL, ID, or sufficient proof of citizenship, they’ll take you to the federal immigration building. Not a concentration camp, not a cattle car, not a mass grave. Is the comparison to the Nazis really justified, or it demagoguery?
Also, it appears that Arizona is specifically addressing the concerns of law enforcement and citizens by clarifying and strengthening the language to make sure it is not ambiguous.
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/Arizona-lawmakers-OK-several-changes-to/qNpxW7Jonkm9shejhnkiSQ.cspx
Such coincidence! I had no idea why our water has been running so slow. For months and months it’s been like that, maybe a year or more even.
But the ‘new filter’ warning light hadn’t come on so it didn’t occur to me that that might be the problem. I thought it was limescale furring up the works and couldn’t think what to do about it.
A few days ago the warning light came on and I ordered the new filter which arrived today. I fitted it as soon as it arrived and the difference is amazing! At last we can fill our glass in under half an hour. It had been such a pathetic dribble before that, I used to prop a glass and leave it there, which often resulted in overflows as I would forget about it.
I wish I’d thought of changing the filter earlier, that silly warning light is hopeless.
Congratulations to Mr. S.!
“Truly, as I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it Me.”
Said by your God the Son, written in Matt 25:40.
The civil authorities did ask Christ to identify himself, actually. But I’m not going to get into a verse slinging match with you, because I don’t think showing your driver’s license is a religious issue.
I guess my concern with the new AZ law is that people could be potentially asked for documents for doing nothing other than walking down the street. I have no problems with police asking for ID under any circumstances if the person is suspected of doing something. I also don’t mind providing my ID to cash a check or go to the doctor, but it concerns me when people could be singled out if they aren’t doing anything wrong.
I believe the iphone does have an app for that.
Thank you, Lynn, for illustrating my point in a succinct and direct manner. Your comment echoes the thoughts in my word, almost word-for-word. I appreciate that very much.
The other point I had -illustrated by the quote from the Gospel- is that immigrants (particularly illegals) -are certainly counted as among the “least” of those persons residing in the USA, at least as seen (this is a mass generalization) by some laws, i.e. the new AZ law. Are these people -almost all of them devout Catholics- not deserving of even a minute amount of compassion? I’m not a practicing Catholic, but I nurture a very loving relationship with Our Lady on a daily basis, in particular, Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is through her insight and love that I have come to love the poorest among us here in the states – the undocumented illegal immigrant, and his children. I suppose it is that love, that charity, that fires me up so passionately when discussing this new law. I feel that we are all beloved children in the eyes of our Maker, no matter our nationality, skin color, language, or traditional culture. I feel that we as native-born Americans can only benefit from welcoming our brothers and sisters from below the border with welcome arms, and the new law in AZ hurts me in a way I never thought possible, as it hurts my brothers and sisters from Latin America, for no reason other than the station of their birth.
Rosy,
I am not getting your point. How is asking someone for a driver’s license uncompassionate? How is it uncharitable to require people to follow the law? Do you think nations should not have borders, then? (Which is an entirely different point and argument.)
Do you really think that asking a person who has already been stopped by police for another reason to show ID is harming “the least of these”? That it is a terrible burden, a sin crying to Heaven for vengeance? I don’t. And if the person cannot produce ID, the cops call in the federal immigratioin officials to ascertain immigration status.
Further, the undocumented illegal immigrant is one of the most exploitable people in our nation, and defending their undocumented status is not charitable. All that does is create situations where employers (and criminals) can use them as disposable people. Being an illegal alien in our country, encouraging them to remain undocumented in a misguided attempt at charity does nothing more than place victims in harm’s way.
Should we welcome them with open arms? The ones who aren’t trying to smuggle drugs, people, and weapons; the ones who are fleeing horrific violence, yes. And our schizophrenic border policy helps no one. But simply saying everyone should turn a blind eye and pretend it’s not happening helps no one either.
If you did have a fired up love for them, you wouldn’t be defending the current status quo which creates a shadow underground society of second class citizens. Which is what we have now.
Use that fired up love to agitate for reform in their homeland. Use that passionate charity to push for reform of our immigration laws so that they make more sense. Actively seek to put the drug runners who make border life – on both sides- so miserable. Use it to seek justice for all, not get full of righteous indignation over the enforcement of our laws. The fact is, a foreign national or immigrant is already required to keep their paperwork with them. And if one doesn’t have paperwork, and is not a US citizen, then the fact is that a violation of our rule of law is occurring. The AZ law doesn’t change any of that, it just requires police officers to inquire IF they have a reasonable suspicion. And then turn the matter over to the feds, if circumstances warrant.
And PS, I don’t think they are necessarily devout Catholics, I think you are using that phrase in an attempt to tug heartstrings. They may be cultural Catholics, they could be atheists or Mormons or Wiccans or Muslims, it doesn’t change any of the facts.
PS, I’m curious. WHY do you nurture a loving relationship with Our Lady, if you reject that there is anything special about her by rejecting her Son? If her Son is a nobody, a faker, a myth – then that makes her a myth, too.
She is my Goddess, and that is all you need to know. Obviously I am not able to express myself in such a way that you understand what I am trying to say, so I will say no more.
But… she’s not actually a goddess and never claimed to be. I guess you’re right. I will never understand a religion in which you can make anyone or anything a god or goddess. Kind of makes the point of GODhood moot, KWIM? Why not make me your goddess? Why not just make yourself a goddess? What is the point of a god or goddess if they have no omnipotence or godlike powers? You certainly can’t give the attributes of God to some one just because you want to or you believe hard enough.
And, if that’s “all I need to know”, you shouldn’t open up a discussion of Wicca on my blog. You know I’m gonna talk about it. Especially when you are wielding the BVM as a blunt weapon to try to make an emotional point.
ETA: Also, you can’t use the bible to defend your beliefs if you reject the bible.
Firstly, I am not a Wiccan and never will be. I am an ‘independent’ witch. Also, I don’t reject the Bible – there is as much truth in the Bible as there is in any other tome of truly great literature (Shakespeare, St. Augustine, Tolkien, Irving, Hardy, Morrison, Kingsolver, etc). If you were to learn an unbiased history of religion (as it has existed in the past 10,000 years of recorded history) you will realize that the traditions of your Church are based on far more ancient ‘pagan’ traditions; however, your Church holds to the tradition that the Mother of the God is a person, created as a person, and chosen by the God to bear His Son. In all of the more ancient religions upon which the Catholic Church bases its traditions, the Mother of the God is the Goddess-the female counterpart of the God-Who is both Her Son and the One to impregnate Her. For more on this subject, I encourage you to Google “Saturnalia,” or “cycle of the Goddess and God,” or something similar. I prefer to belong to a spiritual belief system which not only does not acknowledge “original sin” (or any concept of sin as defined by your Church), but also regards the Mother of the God as an equal to Him, not as just another lowly human creature elevated by Him, at His whim. My beliefs are not new (not to me, nor to the world in general), and have not been embraced by me for any sort of ‘convenience’ but because I never – not EVER – believed the stories presented to me (in catechism classes, in religion classes in the many Catholic schools I attended in my youth) as dogma and doctrine. I have always had unanswered questions about the nature of God and the relationship He had/has with the Mother of God, dating all the way back to the first moments of my very first first communion class. I perfected acting (pretending to be a believing Catholic, despite the fact that before my confirmation, when I was 11 years old, I had decided I had to leave the Church upon reaching adulthood, as it did not hold any answers nor comfort for me) for about thirteen years until I was a legal adult and able to pursue the answers to my long-held spiritual questions on my own. It has taken me nearly twenty years to see my beloved Goddess in clear eyes, and now that I see Her, now that I know Her, all of my struggles, my pain,[REDACTED] has been worth it. I don’t want to come across as invalidating your religion or your beliefs (or those of your dear husband, my brother-in-law), I just want to let you know that my beliefs are different. I sincerely hope we can agree to disagree, but if we cannot, the onus is on you.
Edited by moderator
Sorry, everyone told me you were a Wiccan. Did you just compare the Bible to Toni Morrison? I think perhaps we have different definitions of truth.
So, if the Mother of God is equal to her son, and Mary is your goddess, therefore her Son is God (or at least, *a* god).
What does that mean to you? God, goddess. How are they different from humans/nondeities? What is the point of your gods?
Sorry, Rosy. I knew you when you were a little thing in her first Communion class and I’m pretty sure you were not so precocious as to “question the relationship to the Mother of God” the ancient religion blah blah blah from 10,000 years ago. Nice try, though. I don’t doubt you questioned, just that you questioned in that way at that age.
I’m quite familiar with the whole Mary as Isis etc. etc. ad nauseaum theology, I just don’t find it convincing in the slightest.
[REDACTED]
AND BTW, you didn’t answer any of my actual questions:
Why not make me your goddess? Why not just make yourself a goddess? What is the point of a god or goddess if they have no omnipotence or godlike powers? You certainly can’t give the attributes of God to some one just because you want to or you believe hard enough.
How is asking someone for a driver’s license uncompassionate? How is it uncharitable to require people to follow the law? Do you think nations should not have borders, then?
and a new one, just cropped up:
Do you think the bible is true, or is it fiction?
PS again, you can’t use Shakespeare, Morrison, or Thomas Hardy to shore up your argument either.