South Carolina's Sanford faces uncertain future

Does this story strike anyone else as funny?

Maybe ironic is a better word.

A husband is unfaithful, so hang him up to dry. Push him to leave his job because he cannot be trusted anymore. He, heaven forbid, made a mistake. Unforgivable!

I mean, after all, one of the *gasp* 10 commandments says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery"!

Hmmm... but wait! What about the other 9 commandments? In particular, thou shalt not KILL. We have a president who has personnally ensured late term abortions of viable children were able to be carried out. Yet he is a hero in most people's eyes.

So let me get this straight, cheat on my wife, and I'm a dog. Kill my child before its born, and I'm a hero.

Something is wrong here.

And per ginsu... of course, there is MORE!

What about "Remember, keep holy the sabbath"? Oh, I'm sure all those people pulling for the Governor's resignation go to church every Sunday. Yeah, right.

Don't forget, "I am the Lord, your God, Thou shalt have no other God's before me." Power, sex, money, greed. These are today's golden calves. But I'm sure these aren't on anyone's mind. In particular the political machine running to get the Governor out of office. No chance is missed when power is at stake. Who cares about the man, his family, the people of the state? He didn't right? So lets all go in and analyze this to death and make sure his family has to relive this 10,000 times before its over. Just in time for one of them to get so depressed that they take their own life. Then... the world will be happy, and Hell will have one more resident. But it won't be him. He'll have asked for forgiveness, and it will be granted him. It will be one of his children, or his wife. One of the innocent ones.

And you know what? It will be our fault.

For all those "holier than thou" types out there, remember two things, Mt 7:21-29 and Jn 8:2-11.

Be Prepared

I was never a really good boyscout when I was a kid. My older brothers were all scouts and my father was at one time the scoutmaster. But, by the time I was old enough to be a boyscout, my older brothers were beginning to move on to other things. The only thing we shared in common was one real year of white water canoeing. That was all I was really in it for, and it was a blast. Beyond that, all of the badges...well to say it well from a great movie..."We don't need no stinking badges!"

But I do remember one thing... the motto: Be prepared!

Be prepared! That meant a lot as a kid. It meant have your pocket knife handy. Have a compass and some rope. You could never have too much rope, because who knew what you might need to lash together. I was never much with knot tying... but I certainly WAS ready!

I was thinking lately that the concept of Be Prepared! certainly is making a comeback in my life. Living in south Florida, every year I get prepared for hurricane season. A few years ago, we were lucky (bad word choice, I know) to be hit with a few hurricanes which tested my preparedness. I learned a few things, like... its tough making coffee before dawn on a balcony when you try to hand pour boiling water into a coffee filter. Its even tougher cleaning up the balcony from coffee grounds without a healthy rain storm when you have no water. So I got smarter. Now I have a French Press coffee pot. Heat the water up on the camp stove, have some pre-ground coffee... and I'm good to go! Hot coffee post hurricane.

Beyond that, the late economic challenges have brought Be Prepared! even more close to home. I've moved into a house with a big back yard, relative to other South Florida homes. I've got things growing in the yard to suppliment my groceries: tomatoes, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, avocados and some kind of south American fruit that looks like a peach but is a lot smaller. I've had mangoes for breakfast every morning for the last 3 1/2 weeks. It really does pay to be prepared!

The real question is, is it time for the next level of Be Prepared? I received an e-mail this morning from a group called the 1776 Coalition. They sent me this long e-mail about survival and being a survivalist. It was all about Be Prepared! According to the coalition, the US is on the verge of collapse socially, and the military may have to come in and keep the peace. Although, it was all about doing it by yourself and screw your neighbors. I personally have a problem with that. In the end, they offered a series of books with a subscription to either 12 or 24 monthly issues. Now, think about it... according to them...this is "time sensitive" and needs to be dealt with immediately because we are on the verge of chaos, yet they are going to give me a subscription for 24 months. Guys... with chaos, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get my subscription delivered. I'm just saying...

But it doesn't end there! Oh no! My Be Prepared morning is starting to sound like a commercial for Ginsu knives. CNN this morning is reporting more issues with North Korea. Specifically "US READY FOR NORTH KOREA MISSLE". Ok, so this is one time, I'm glad someone else is on the Be Prepared! list. I think Gates must have also been a boyscout. Hopefully he was a better one than me. I'm not sure my tomatoes will be enough for a nuclear shot. Unless the radiation makes them grow really really big.

And then of course for those of you that are Catholic... I follow what happens in Medjugorje. You know... every month there are messages from our Lady. Trust me, its pretty impressive try www.medjugorje.net to get info. Anyway, there are these secrets associated with it. Things that will happen to help us come back to the church, and come back to God. Ok, so some of us may not make it back, which is the point of the secrets and their revealing. The secrets have been made known to a select group of individuals and as the date of their happening comes close, they will be revealed to the world. The way in which they will be revealed will be as follows: A local priest will be told 10 days prior to the event. He will meditate and pray about the event for 7 days, and then will tell the world. Now no one other than the individuals involved in these events knows what will be involved. One of the secrets was apparently so catestrophic that prayer has averted it. Now please don't take any of my comments as belittling these preported events or how they have determined to make them public. That's not my perview. However, when these secrets ARE made public, there are a whopping 3 days to react prior to their happening. Now, 3 days to do what? Be Prepared! Be Prepared! How does one prepare for something we don't even know what it is? Good question! I haven't a clue. But it seems that like with hurricane season, we could prepare a bit physically, a bit spiritually, and a bit emotionally. For us Catholics, it would mean going to confession, and continuing to go, once per month. Getting back to Mass, and praying more. For everyone, it would mean forgiving grudges we've long held, etc.

3 days though... some of these secrets are chastisements. Chastisement is punishment. Punishments, though deserved, helps us to get on the right path. Chastisement... though people don't seem to want to focus on this part... means people are going to die. I mean, I could be wrong, ask either of my ex-wives... I've been known to be wrong. But if people are going to die... shouldn't we have as much of those 3 days as possible to....pray and ask for forgiveness... so we aren't one of the ones kicking the bucket? I think so... I mean...yes... Be Prepared! But if you don't think even us prepared ones aren't going to be on our knees 24/7 for those 3 days you've got another thing coming.

So... I e-mailed EWTN... figureing they, the premier provider of Catholic news and info would have a plan for disceminating the news during those particular 3 days. I mean... this isn't just news, per se, but information. Like... in 3 days... this is said to going to happen. You might want to get on your knees and begin praying. I mean, its kind of like hurricane preparedness. You don't want to have to use your supplies, but there are times when you need to do so. For EWTN, I figured they wouldn't WANT to have to use a communication plan, but they may HAVE one...

I was wrong. They don't. Not only don't they, but they e-mailed me back and said it was "pre-mature" to have a plan for what to do in those 3 days.

Now, I'm confused. I've got information from Medjugorje, and there are messages from our Lady saying Be Prepared! And now I have conflicting information from EWTN, the leading Catholic news and information provider saying it is premature to Be Prepared! Boy this sounds an awfull lot like that e-mail I received earlier today saying that Chaos is imminent! But buy our 2 year subscription...

As for me... Here's my plan! I'm going to continue growing my tomatoes... and going to go to confession, I haven't been in a couple of months... and I'm going to watch for the announcement that will tell us that we've got 3 days... When that happens, I'll be e-mailing as many as I can. Honestly, I'd rather be the boy who cried wolf... than the man who cried from losing so many dear friends because they weren't prepared.

Wisdom of the years

As I was driving into work today, trying to think of all of the things I'd rather be doing other than actually going to work, my mind drifted, as it will, to what will I be doing later in life. Will I ever really retire? Will I have enough money for retirement? Will Social Security still be around?

I'm not that old, only 45, but I still wonder about these things. But then I thought, I will probably work until I can't work anymore. Its just me. I had my first job at 12, working as a laborer on a construction site with my brother. My brother was 15 and upset that I was making the same amount of money as he was. He got through it. The coolest part of the job, other than making money at 12, was driving the dump truck around the job site. A Ford F-350 Super Duty. Trust me, to a 12 year old, this was heaven.

Back to the present... or rather...the future. Now I finally get the title of those movies! What will I be doing in the future? Will I retire? I have always worked. It would be nice to think that I could laze about with nothing to do. But I don't even do that on my days off now. Boredom city is coming my way. Ok, so I won't retire. Maybe a Wal-Mart greeter? I could do that. Hand people shopping carts all day long until I needed my nap. Give me a depends and I could be there all day long. No, I'm not making fun of older people. Its reality. As much as I don't want to believe it, the body just doesn't work as well when we get older.

But what about the mind? My father is 85. He is on all kind of medications for diabetes, heart, etc. and THOSE impact his mind a bit. When he wakes from dreams, he sometimes is still in them, remembering people or times from the past as if they are the present. My father retired from being a family practitioner at the age of 73. He told me once then, that he could still do the job, but with medicine, people's lives are at stake. And you don't know, what you don't know. And what if he mis-diagnosed, or gave the wrong prescription and someone got hurt? He made the decision to retire then. So, while enjoying his grand children and his life with my mother, he has spent the next 12 years living.

One thing I noticed though in this living, was an... adjustment. When working, my father was THE family doctor in the area. When he retired, they made him the Grand Marshall of the 4th of July parade! He had over 30,000 families that had been patients of his. Families, not individuals! He had been president of the local medical association. He was KNOWN!

Now, he's just the cute, sweet old man that walks with a cane. I wonder about those 12 years though. His 12, my 12, and everyone else's 12. All that knowledge. All of that experience. All of that everything. And then the business side of me kicks in. All of that resource! All of that experience! How can that be taken advantage of and provide people some ability to LIVE, to stretch their minds, and who knows... perhaps get some supplemental income on the side!

So... here goes... what about a brain trust? A knowlege bank? A question answering or thought provoking service? Or just thoughts on issues in general. Like how should we address global warming? By asking people who have lived, gained experience and seen life from beginning to end. They are no longer tied to the need to gain income or experience, but have the Wisdom of the years... perhaps... we could use this blog as a view from the edge... to tap into that, the Wisdom of the years.

Let me know what you think. Let me know if I'm out here on the edge all by myself. Its ok if I am, I've been here before.

Mojave Desert Cross Memorial Defended in Supreme Court

Hi, welcome to the edge. The edge of what? I don't know yet. But its starting to feel like the edge you feel when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed. The edge you feel of a knife when you accidentally cut the tip of your finger and it bleeds all over just before you are done making dinner. Its starting to be the edge of when a relatively normal guy is pissed off enough to start writing blogs. Too damn many opinions of people are being heard by everyone with little or no balance. I'm getting e-mails from ultra conservative Republicans which are pissing me off, and I'm reading articles on attempts to take down memorials because they contain a cross... and that pisses me off. Ok...so I'm pissed off, and this is beyond the edge.

So, here is the first one. An article was published today about the Supreme Court reviewing a lower court's finding that a WWI memorial in the Mojave Dessert had to be removed because it contained a cross. That cross offended the plaintiff. As such, a lower court ruled that it needed to be removed, and it has been covered by a plywood box.

You know what, I'm offended that the plaintiff was offended! Should I ask that HE be removed? Maybe I should. One thing I'm certain of, is that the people that are being memorialized, and their families, weren't and aren't offended.

Realize that taking the public land issue to its ultimate conclusion, Arlington National Cemetary is covered in grave stones that mark with a cross, a star of David, etc. Should all of these be removed? If so, than aren't the markers effectively athestic? I am offended by the athest's lack of religion, so I think their lack of marking needs to be removed. So, how about NO grave markers. Lets just use mounds like the Native Americans did. Who knows, maybe they had the same idiotic arguments that we have and were offended all over the place. The Hopi didn't like what the Lakota had, the Cherokee didn't like what the Iroqois had, etc. They were all offended and ended up with mounds also.

People... We the People... Some of us are Christian, some of us are Jewish, some of us are Muslim, and some of us are something else. Public land is ALL of our land... and we ALL have a right to use it. There is lots of it. If you don't like how I'm using it, YOU have rights. You have a right to be offended. And guess what, you have a right to offend me. And the best part of it is... I have a right to IGNORE YOU!

Get over it... and leave my cross alone!

http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=95838

I wonder if this is how the pilgrims were starting to feel when they left England in the first place...