faith

Now Faith is the Substance of things Hoped for,
The Evidence of things Unseen...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Local Folklore

http://www.pantheon.org/areas/folklore/folktales/articles/kanati_and_selu.html

This is a really interesting Indian legend from whereabouts I grew up in NC. Hope you enjoy it. Their whole site is interesting and worth exploring. Kudos to the Encyclopedia Mythica!

ttfn
Rose

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Letter

This lady makes a lot of sense. Thanks to Stella for sending the text to me. So, I wonder if hubris will keep the 'ruling class' from listening. With the American war for Independence, there was a lot of faith in God. The French Revolution, not so much. The grim determination to wipe out faith in this country could seriously backfire on the "let them eat cake" crowd. Take heed, folks and remember the Bolshevik Revolution- those who thought they would rule everybody ended up dead or in Siberia and the people worse off than before. This was never supposed to be- the government was not supposed to be ruling the people here, certainly not oppressing them. You may think that because it has slowly been happening since the 1860s that the people do not realize what is going on- remember what happens when a "sleeping giant" is awoken. There are an awful lot of people here and you may think you have fragmented us beyond any hope of uniting- you may think God does not exist- those two errors, friends will undo you. Look at history- the 'bad guys' without fail think they can outsmart God and look how that has turned out. God help America.
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GLENN BECK: I got a letter from a woman in Arizona . She writes an open letter to our nation's leadership:
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"I am a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me.
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Instead, we are burdened with Congressional Dukes and Duchesses who think they know better than the citizens they are supposed to represent.There must be someone. Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now.You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties.
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What kind of nut-job am I? Well, these briefly are the views and issues for which I seek representation:
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One, illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels.. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This is not to be confused with legal immigration.
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Two, the STIMULUS bill. I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you No, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed.. Freeze, repeal.
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Three: Czars. I want the circumvention of our constitutional checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars. No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution, and honor it.
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Four, cap and trade.. The debate on global warming is not over. There are many conflicting opinions and it is too soon for this radical legislation. Quit throwing our nation into politically-correct quicksand.
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Five, universal healthcare. I will not be rushed into another expensive decision that will burden me, my children, and grandchildren. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night without even reading it. Slow down! Fix only what is broken -- we have the best health care system in the world -- and test any new program in one or two states first.
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Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty fully restored. I want less government in my life, not more. More is not better! Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real [Constitutional] obligations. Why don't you start there.
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Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes -- how did they pull that one off? Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with any of our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.
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Eight, redistribution of wealth. No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs -- and that is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person! Why do you want me to hate my employers? And what do you have against shareholders making a profit?
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Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.
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Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Every company must sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. (Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid?) We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.
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Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk.. Please stop trying to manipulate and appease me with clever wording.. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation. Stop hiding things from me.
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Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now.Take a breath. Listen to the people. Slow down and get some input from nonpoliticians and experts on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed-reading our bills into law.
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I am not an activist.. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent.. I work. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.
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I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not.It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot.
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There is needless urgency and recklessness in all of your recent spending of our tax dollars.From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on bringing our concerns to Washington .
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Our president often knows all the right buzzwords like unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words.. Stop treating us like we're morons.We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done.
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You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented.. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone... and we are now looking at you.You have awakened us, the patriotic freedom spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you.
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For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office.We have canceled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will. There are candidates among us who will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution. Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this.. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution, and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them.. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you.If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole damn congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming."

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Saint Valentine's Day

I love that picture! I loved that tree, too- and these were my favorite people in the world growing up- my brothers and my cousins (Mom's not in this pic, sadly). There's a swimming pool and a high fence where this used to be. :-( We used to love playing in all the backyards- it was mostly older people on our street back then and it seemed to us that we had a whole world in those back yards. Rick's in the top branch, Ted and Jamie are on the lower one, Timmy is on the swing, and Jake is standing by the trunk. I'm in the middle. Thanks to whichever of you put this on Facebook- I don't have a copy of it (Mum... if there are any, please copy them for me!)
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Happy Saint Valentines Day!! And for those of you who observe Lent, I'm pretty sure it starts on Wednesday. :-)
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I'm having my DH build me a Tardis where it can be seen from the road- I may use it as the entryway for my greenhouse (he says he's determined to build me one dear old thing!). It'll be GREAT! And some will wonder and some will KNOW... heehee
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I'm with Aunt Judi, I don't know that the older version of Emma could be improved upon- they did such a great job with it and the characters were portrayed so well. Cranford was so good. BBCAmerica's shop has Return to Cranford and the final 10th Doctor specials, too. Unfortunately there has been a run on the action figures- the main thing my DD wanted for her birthday- they're really hard to find (not sold out) for sale in America. I think that if we can get so much of everything from China, we ought to be able to get stuff from the British Isles without all the fuss. But, that's just me- I'd rather have things that were made here, in the British Isles, or even Europe- free places- and the duties ought to be just as cheap as they are for China.
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And I will not even go into all the conspiracy theories concerning the government and the power companies. All I can say is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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And totally oops on the fact that there are supposed to be no parties during Lent. I would have scheduled them all earlier- if I could! But, we don't exactly do the reveling thing, so it should be okay. And big, duh moment on me. Week of unleavened bread and Passover coming up and what do I do but buy a big pack of yeast for my bread machine. I reckon I'll ask Mum to keep it for me till it's all over- that and anything else that has yeast in it- food prices are to high just to chuck it all out. We've got till the end of March, but I just don't see making that much bread between now and then. And folks- up close, yeast is truly weird. It looks creepy and slightly sinister. I may be prejudiced since I've had a few Lucy Ricardo experiences with it, but one expects to hear whispery laughter when you open the jar.
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Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
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So, the snow has been so beautiful. It's been wonderful to have a real winter again. The fog line on the higher mountains was magical looking- all frosted when the fog lifted- and in a lovely pattern that looked like waves from the sea. (sigh of contentment).
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Again, I must say- Thank God I'm out of college!
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Well, I reckon I'd better get on with supper soon. The natives are getting restless.
Yummy recipe (all approximates)

Crush up Nutter Butter cookies and smash down in bottom of pan with melted butter(just enough to lightly coat them)
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Melt semi-sweet chocolate with a little butter (just a smidge) and some evaporated milk and pour it on top (it should be consistency thick, so it dries crunchy)
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Blend peanut butter and cream cheese and spread on top of that (I used one package of cream cheese for a layer that was about 1/5" thick)
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Spread a layer of cool whip, fairly thick
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In blender, put Jello instant pudding 1 box chocolate, one vanilla and its regular amount of milk
and pour on top
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put in refridgerator and let set- serve cold
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That was DS's birthday 'cake'. DH wouldn't try it, but the young'uns and myself thought it was wonderful!
ttfn
Rose

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Happy Days are Here Again


Great, great movie from 1961. Netflix has it & also for instant viewing over the Web. It's worth a look.
BBC's Emma (Jane Austen) from 1972 was really good, too. Who else could keep kids interested in the classics like the BBC?
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Interesting thing happened on a hike the other day near Poplar Camp, Virginia. My daughter and myself stumbled across a really, really old American Chestnut tree. Yep, the kind that mostly all perished in a blight many moons ago. But, here was this one standing proud next to the ruins of an old cabin on a mountain trail seldom used by any save the deer. Beautiful!!
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The kids had their fun building snow forts and playing the battle of Ithillian. I'd have been out there, but we're shy one pair of coveralls. So, I videoed them out the back door and made spaghetti for when they thawed out. They had a blast and are hoping we'll be able to figure something out so we can all 3 have a moonlight snowball war. :-) I'll try to let y'all know how that turns out.
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I spent last evening watching Emma with the kids and cutting up quilt squares. Not stressing over homework, just enjoying being a homemaker. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift(s)!!!
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I wonder if Saladin and King Richard were both Masons. It would make more sense if they were- their attitudes and actions toward eachother, etc. I reckon the way I see the Masons is like the Boy Scouts, all grown up and really, really old (as in the group itself). Now, all the cult-under-every-bush types, please, let me have my little illusions. It helps my prayer life and my joyometer. :-) At least they're not wastoids like some of the "brotherhoods"- not around here anyways.
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DH is watching a western with really annoying music. It seems I will be going outside soon after all. He has to have the volume cranked, poor old thing. ;-p And it's getting on my nerves!!!
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So, ttfn. Hope it won't be too long 'till our next little chat. Now, I'm off to help the Gondorians win their city back!
God Bless!!
Rose