If you haven't seen it, please go to my friend Cliff's blog and take a look at the picture of him and his lovely wife Marilyn. It's on his post for Tuesday, 11/27. http://cliffmorrow.blogspot.com/

Really - go see this picture. I mean it, stop reading this right now and go look at the picture!

Okay, now we're just being silly. You must click on the link to Cliff's blog and see the pic.

Then come back and leave your comment here.

A rerun post (slightly edited) from April:

Monday, April 23, 2007

An Inconvenient Truth

I read it, as promised, and once I got past the first several pages of Mr. Gore giving himself credit for advances in environmental issues and placing blame on President Bush for a variety of ills, I now see that global warming is happening. I am not a scientist by any stretch of the imagination (neither is Al Gore) however, I have some questions. I found the two most convincing evidences of global warming he presents are the melting glaciers and the evaporation of Lake Chad in Africa. If humans and their machines are causing global warming, why do glaciers melt when they exist in areas where human population is sparse? And science has been declaring for centuries that without interference, naturally occurring phenomena tend toward decay, so why wouldn’t glaciers melt anyway? Glaciers are ice and ice melts. Maybe we are in the midst of a cosmic hot flash. Watch an ice cube - the smaller it gets, the quicker it melts. The same would apply to glaciers. How did CO2 cause the evaporation of Lake Chad when the auto-human ratio in that area is something like 20 people to every car, while in the US, where the auto-human ratio is pretty much 1-1, most of our naturally occurring bodies of water remain at a constant level? Mr. Gore quotes his college professor’s findings of rising CO2 levels which he tracked through several years over Hawaii, but why wouldn’t the CO2 levels be on the rise over Hawaii since the entire collection of islands is made up of volcanoes in various stages of activity?If you hold to Evolutionary theory, the earth is millions of years old. If you are a Creationist, the earth is about 6,000 years old. Climatology has only been around for the past 400 years or so and accurate records of climate changes and meteorological phenomena are even younger. Ice cores and tree rings (dendroclimatology) can give clues as to what climate changes have taken place, but can not give us the reasons for those climate fluctuations. Given the large scale studies needed and the long time periods required to scientifically prove cause and effect in climatology, it is at best, a stochastic process and should be studied as such. The late Dr. D. James Kennedy (who held nine PhD.’s) said that only about 3% of the scientists in the world have the skills, knowledge and experience to fully study and understand the issue. They need to examine all the possible causes in order to determine the truth. Studies of Galactic Cosmic Rays hold some interest in the effects of sunspot activities on climate fluctuations. In the meantime, the “what you can do to help” section is old news. I’ve been doing most of it since the 1980s, except for the curly-que light bulbs, which are new. I will continue to do so. And I close this rant with Haggai 2:4-5 “And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So DO NOT BE AFRAID.” (Emphasis mine.) And Genesis 8:22 - "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."
I choose to believe the Word of God over Mr. Gore's book.

Here are a couple of interesting blogging ideas that I stumbled on to from my new Blogspherian pal, Paul:

http://writingfromthehip.blogspot.com/2006/02/adventures-where-im-from.html Check out the George Ella Lyons link in this one.

http://writingfromthehip.blogspot.com/2007/02/joy-of-you-yous.html

Happy birthday BROOKE!!!!
I hope you're having a GREAT day!

On a lighter note:

Let all Blogospherians come together and help make "hitonius" a word! The definition is 'worse than horrible.' For example, getting bucked off a horse is horrible. Getting bucked off a horse and winding up in traction is hitonius. For more, go to http://jamiesmindlessblather.blogspot.com/

Global Warming Advances Abortion....
I'll keep this one short and sweet. I was just browsing my usualy rightwing hate sites and found this article (that was sarcasm, for some that didn't understand ballet humor). The title says it all, from the Daily Mail. "Meet the woman who won't have babies - because they're not eco-friendly". Read it, but if you like kids or have them, you may not like what you read.

This woman not only had her self sterilized because she believes humans are a burden on the planet and she is helping to save it, but she aborted her pregnancy for the same Global Warming / Environmental reasons.

As another blogerspherian put it, maybe its not a bad thing some people don't re-produce. But what I really dislike here, is that eventually she or someone like her will tell me or my children they can't re-produce or will have to pay a tax or limit re-producton because of the burden. Maybe we'll all have to buy carbon credits from Al-Gore to have a baby?

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving..and Merry Christmas Everyone!

“When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed;
When you are discouraged thinking all is lost.
Count your many blessings, name them one by one
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done….”

I’ve been humming that old hymn since I read Cindy’s post the other day! Here are my top five:

#1. My Salvation: I am forgiven and I have received eternal life in Christ.
This is probably an oversimplification and no doubt, full of holes, but here it is.
We have laws to abide by, which have been established by our founders and legislators. For instance, we have a speed limit. We have a police force that is charged with enforcing those laws. Everyone at one time or another has inadvertently gone over the speed limit, but as soon as the traffic cop pulls you over, you know exactly what you did wrong and will be held accountable. If you go to traffic court, you will come before the judge, who is responsible for convicting you or finding you not guilty. You know you will be found guilty based on the evidence given by the arresting officer and you will pay the penalty.
As Creator, God established 10 laws that He expected us to follow. Only 10. Five of them deal specifically with our relationship with God and the other five deal with our relationships with each other. We couldn’t keep only 10. Near the end of the Old Testament, it had been whittled down to 3: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8. We couldn’t keep those either. What’s more, we didn’t even care that we weren’t keeping them. Since God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” 2 Peter 3:9, he provided His Son to come to earth and receive the punishment we deserved. He then provided us with access to the Holy Spirit, so that we would have discernment in knowing the difference between right and wrong.
It’s as if I had committed a murder, even though I knew that taking a life is a capital crime. I stand trial in defiance, having no defense to offer on my own behalf. I’m found guilty and sentenced to die for my crime. Then the Judge volunteers to be executed in my place. And so the choice is mine: do I accept the Judge’s offer and go free? Or do I choose to die in my own defiance?

“When you look at others with their lands and gold,
Think that Christ has promised you His wealth untold;
Count your many blessings. Wealth can never buy
Your reward in heaven nor your home on high.”

#2. Randy, James, Jack & Emily and my extended family
I am thankful that I am married to the nicest, most generous and kindest man on the planet.
I am thankful for the lessons I learned through the sorrow of losing James in 1981.
I am thankful for Jack and the good son he is. He’s working his way through college, he is pursuing worthwhile goals and he is getting to be a great cook!
I am thankful that Emily still has eight toes and no other ill effects from her accident. She, too, is working her way through college and has devoted herself to a righteous life and developing her craft, setting her own standards high and working to achieve them.
My extended family: what can I say? I wouldn’t be who I am without them. I think I drive them all nuts, but what the heck – they have to love me anyway.

“Are you ever burdened with a load of care”
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessing every doubt will fly.
And you will keep singing as the days go by.”

#3. Friends, old & new
I have two friends in my life right now (Mary and Joani) and I can not remember a time when I did not have them in my life. I’ve often joked that we’ve been friends since “in utero”, which is true. Our families lived in the same rural neighborhood during the years the three of us were born. I can’t imagine what a hole there would be in my life without them. My new friends include people I have never met from all over the world who are from walks of life I can only imagine. An executive IT in England; another in Florida; a forest ranger in Colorado; and this list will continue to grow. And I have friends who share my passion for horses and trail riding. Most of these I have known for only a few short years, but they are just as precious to me as Mary and Joani.

“So amid the conflict whether great or small
Do not be disheartened, God is over all;
Count your many blessings angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey’s end.”

#4. Music
I’m thankful that God filled the world with music and then gave us ears to hear.

#5. Books
Especially Genesis through Revelation. But I have a passion for the written word that defies description. If only I never had to sleep, I could get so much more reading done!

“Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.”

PS – If you want to hear the tune for this hymn, go to http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/o/countyou.htm

!! ANNOUNCEMENT !! ANNOUNCEMENT !!

Everyone who lives within 20 miles of Tekamah: please mark your calendars for Saturday December 1 at 7:30 PM. My writing partner, Beverly Lydick and I have teamed up with Cliff Morrow and Emily Carson to write and produce a community theatre production for the Diamond Willow Regional Theatre.
It’s entitled the “DWRT Radio Show” and it’s filled with silliness in the first half and lots of great music in the second half. Tickets are only $5.00. Where else can you get a deal like that for LIVE theatre. And this is filled with original material! I’m tellin’ ya’ it’s worth every penny!

Casa Herrera Alert!!! Casa Herrera Alert!!!

For those of you keeping track, and still actually reading Casa Herrera (which is practically no one...) I received a call from Adrian last night. All is well in Casa Herrera, it was great to hear from him. However, I get the sense that the blog is pretty much dead...

He was shocked to hear that I have a tentative dinner / breakfast appointment with LaDawn. I think Leah will be jealous.

This post / public service announcement was not in anyway sponsored by Casa Herrera. For those of you that deleted the link, its casaherrera.blogspot.com

Casa Herrera Alert!!! Casa Herrera Alert!!!

‘Twas in November of ‘55
All my siblings were already alive.
With Shirley’s birthday on Saturday
And Dad’s on Monday
I squeezed in between them, and was born on a Sunday.

For every birthday until she ceased to bake
Mom made her traditional Angel food cake.
So white and tender with a crispy crust,
A drizzle of frosting was always a must.

No matter the hardship that it might create,
A card with $5 accompanied the cake.
It may not sound like very much,
But it came from her heart, with her Mother’s touch.

So today is number 52
And there’s so much that I wanted to do
Before I reached this time of my life…
Where did the time go? I tried to keep track
I’d do a lot differently if I could go back.

I was planning on accomplishing wonderful things
That would gain the respect of statesmen and kings.
I should solve global warming and make world peace lasting,
But somehow the answers have slipped right on past me.

But now that I’ve had some time to reflect
On what’s most important, on what counts for the best;
Sometimes it’s a smile and the time it would take
To deliver a card, a five, and an Angel food cake.

Should the Government Bailout Foreclosures "Victims"...
Recently I was watching a news segment which featured a New York family on the verge of losing their home. The premise of the story was they were fighting the bank and the "system" (whatever that is) to save their home. I felt bad for them for about a second.

What's interesting to me is that the hosts were eager to sympathize with the family and really made it out to be a terrible problem in this country. It turns out that Mom and Dad were both working and had good jobs, but seemed to bite off a bit more than they could chew and couldn't afford their mortgage payments because their interest rates increased.

Wow!! Who could do such a thing and force this poor family out, somebody should help them.. I mean, how can "Big Banking" suddenly increase rates and their cost of home ownership! This "poor" family bit off more than they can chew, and simply made a poor financial decision. So Uncle Sam should step in and lend a helping hand, right? Wrong!!

To some politicians, biting off more than you can chew is no longer a personal responsibility thing, its all of our problem.

In an early August appearence CNBC Hillary Clinton was touting how she would help...Unsurprisingly, she’s demonizing lenders and brokers like she does "Big Oil."
She also said..“I think a lot of the lenders have really taken advantage of what is a really tough economic situation for many Americans,” and to top it off proposed a $1 billion federal fund for local and state programs that help at-risk homeowners avoid foreclosures. She said those programs could help the “unsuspecting families” linked to unfair mortgages.

In my opinion, people need to be fiscally smarter and think for themselves. Borrowers should NOT be rewarded with taxpayer money for over-extending themselves. Sort of like financial Darwinism...

Forgetting the fact that most people freely took out loans well beyond their means, politicians on both sides of the aisle say they are entitled to keep their homes. So they plan to take other people’s hard-earned money and give it away…not because these individuals did anything to deserve it, but simply because they need it.

Jonathan Hoenig at Smart Money could not have put it any better...

...Those who advocate for such measures tend to think with their hearts instead of their heads. When challenged about the morality of such schemes, they usually present a tragic example about a down-on-their-luck Rust Belt family who are in danger of being evicted from their home. Dad lost his job at the plant, mom is on dialysis and takes care of the kids, all of whom desperately need braces and new books for school. The argument is always an emotional one: “Don’t you want to help poor people in need?”

But a government bailout is not charity — it’s coercion. Americans are incredibly charitable people, last year donating a record $295 billion. But when you donate to Habitat for Humanity, for example, you do so voluntarily, deciding how much you’d like to give and to what particular cause. When Hillary pledges $1 billion in financial aid for homeowners, however, it’s not her money; it’s the taxpayers’, many of whom would undoubtedly prefer to give to any number of other deserving recipients....

There was a foreclosure a couple of streets down from me here...May be a good buying opportunity.. hmmmm

A good laugh.

La Dawn’s recent posting reminded me of this; I used to be on a women’s bowling team and one day we were talking about pulling on a clean pair of pants or shirt and discovering a dryer sheet in the leg or sleeve. We chuckled over it mildly and then a little later, Donna discovered something lumpy in her pants pocket. She reached in and found it wasn’t in the pocket at all, but underneath the pocket. While we watched and giggled, expecting it to be a dryer sheet, she pushed it down the leg, squirming and wiggling until it fell out at the bottom. It wasn’t a dryer sheet, but a pair of pantyhose. She said, “I wondered where those went!” and the four of us all laughed so loud and long everyone stopped bowling and looked over to see what was so funny. That’s a pretty good laugh, when you can make a bowling alley fall silent!

Maybe you had to be there.

31 years.
If I had to do it all over again I'd do it with you! Happy Anniversary, Hon! I love you.

Hello OSM Faithful! I'm Joe B. First of all, I'd like to thank Janell Carson for loaning me the prestigious One-Square-Mile platform to share my thoughts and opinions. I'll be "fair and balanced" and use data to back up almost everything I say, assert, or spew (depends on your point of view). In the spirit of fun, Janell (my political, conservative, neo-conn soulmate) provided me with a list of topic questions I missed during my August Hiatus. What a great way to get started.

Q: When you were 18, what did you imagine your future would look like? How close is your reality to your vision?
My reality is no where close to my original vision...At 18, I was still in 11th grade. I was a year behind because I flunked. Despite the early setback I always wanted to make a better life for myself and whoever my family was to be. 16 years later, I could never have imagined the life I have today. I have a beautiful wife, great son and job with global responsibility. I've lived in 3 cities and visited 13 countries including Panama, Paris and Buenos Aires.
Q: What is one piece of advice you wish you'd been given as a young person? Have: Self Reliance, Self Accountability and Self Respect, don't ever ever give up on anything you want...
Q: What is the best money you ever spent? 17 Days in Europe with my wife, Time share in Cancun (Went 6 times)
Q: What was your biggest financial mistake-the complete waste of money that haunts you to this day? I sold 500 shares of ORCL 6 months before it went up 50 points in 1999 that may change as I try to sell my house in South Florida.
Q: What has been the best surprise of married life? And the worst?
My wife is my soul mate... First year is the hardest.
Q: What is the best thing about being a woman? And the worst?
Best thing - Not being accountable for anything and relatively little ability to reason... Worst.. having to do dishes (you feminists should have loved that one...hopefully you know I am kidding)
Q: At this point of your life, is there a dream which you will never fulfill? What is it and what makes you so sure it's out of reach? I nearly joined the Marines out of HS, I regret not going. I let friends (who are no longer friends) talk me out of it...I am very happy with the way my life turned out, and would have made the best of it regardless of the path I chose but I regret not answering the call. My overall dream, to serve my country in some capacity, is not out of reach. I will fulfill it... politically perhaps?
Q: What else do you want to share?
I believe compromise is a good thing in business and in marriage, but not on core beliefs. I don't let anyone or anything shake what I believe (some people may consider that close minded)...I believe the USA is the greatest country on the planet and give her the benefit of the doubt as all Americans should