God's Loan

It seems that God wants to loan me money.


I'll be honest I'd rather have him give it to me. Maybe let me find a lottery ticket and win. but hey, I can see a loan. Teach me some responsibility. He does seem to be making this a bit complicated though.


I'll be honest I haven't opened the envelope yet to see if it actually has a holy hankie in it. I am also vaguely curious as to what interest rate God will charge for a loan. I do know from reading the Old Testament that every seven years debts should be forgiven so it can't be a very long term loan. (Ever noticed how those "We believe every word of the Bible folks seem to miss that little part?)

Oh what the heck, let's open it and see......

Ah he is not loaning me money, he is loaning me the holy hankie which I am supposed to write my name on and put it in a Bible and sleep on it tonight then open my sealed prophecy tomorrow after sunset and mail the hankie back to the senders with a list of what I need and God will bless me.
Hmmmmm....

Is it really cynical of me to wonder how they are making money off this?

Iraq again

Somewhere in Iraq three American soldiers, based just down the road from where I am writing this, are being held captive by Al Queda. It is possible that I have met one or more of them in the past, not likely but possible. Allow me to be frank. I don’t expect we will ever see these soldiers alive again. I expect that Al Queda will torture them and kill them and video tape it to put on the internet so we can all see them die. These are the people that if the Democrats in Congress have their way will be left to try and influence and shape events in Iraq. They will try their level best to make it like Afghanistan was. A violence torn society run by fundamentalist extremists that they can use as a base of operations to extend their plans to other areas of the South West Asia and then the world in general. There is a chance of course that someone else will exterminate them if we decide to pull back and hide in our shell like a turtle. Other Sunni insurgent groups have begun attacking them because they are so vicious and unrestrained in their killing. So maybe we will get lucky. I doubt it though.
I am not going to argue the issue of whether we should have invaded Iraq in the first place. Frankly at this point it is irrelevant. We are there, we have created a situation where groups like Al Queda can operate and grow. We have an obligation to ourselves, our posterity, and the people of Iraq to FINISH WHAT WE STARTED. If we don’t, someone else will. Maybe it will be the Iraqis themselves, but I expect that the AQ plan to keep sectarian violence stirred up there will prevent the kind of organized response needed to quell them. Maybe Iran will move in and crush them (AQ is Sunni after all) and expand the Shiite influence. (not sure if that is a great option myself) god knows, maybe the Europeans will sit up and realize just how close this will get to them and do something about it. (not holding my breath there). I expect though, that it will be us, or more accurately, our posterity, that will have to deal with this. And why will our children have to face this mess? Because we are too gutless to finish what we started. Ooh, it’s not politically popular to finish this war so we’ll just declare some artificial end point and leave. I honestly cannot see how those folks that want us to run home and hide can’t see the disaster they will be creating in the future.
It just boggles my mind sometimes how absolutely short sighted we are as a nation, as a people, and as a species.

Found in the yard.....

Last year I wrote about the death and burial of one of my dogs. Rainy Sunday

I mention in there that I spread a handful of wild flower seeds on the grave. Well nothing grew there last year at all, but this spring a dark green buhsy plant started up there. I nearly pulled it up a couple of times but each time decided not to because it looked "interesting".
Well, here it is


Some kind of a poppy it seems. I'm glad I left it.

Double tapped......

Ok, so I've been hit twice with the Thinking blog thing. I really should be flattered considering how little I have been posting lately. Shot number one came from The ZombieSlayer, and then I got one from The Blue Girl. which I'll be honest sort of surprised me because we haven't been on really good terms lately. She points out that we differ WIDELY on the War in Iraq. And even though we agree on many other things that one has sort of risen to fore lately.

but at any rate, I guess I can't put this off any more so I'm looking for 5 blogs that make me think. To start off with, if you don't read ZS and BG you should. But I'm not going to back tag them for this.

1. Mental Meanderings This blog is VASTLY under read. More of you should go. It is fairly spotty in updating but the writing is good, the opinions are well thought out, and topics vary widely. Make it a regular stop.

2. The Deep End of the Pool Jen is a refreshing writer. A younger person who is sincerely asking questions and offering opinions. At time she may seem a bit naive to us cynical old folks but that is good. It is a sure sign that she hasn't been corrupted any any of the professional thought shapers of the world. Always a good read.

3. Appalachian Patria. A self professed hill billy from (surprise) Appalachia serving in Iraq. He is winding down his tour and is eager to come home. Seems like he is burning out a bit but I can understand that. I've been there. Go back and read the old posts. There is ALOT of good stuff about Iraq and his life at home to be found. Highly recommended.

4. The Big Lizard This is a recent find for me. Sort of a diametric opposite of Blue Girl. I'll be honest, I am still not sure about this one. (I have a basic distrust of anywhere that makes me register to leave a comment) But it is worth checking out every once in awhile.

5. Hard to say here actually. I am sort of in a toss up between Saurkraut, UWL, and A Red Mind in a Blue State.

All three are good and I enjoy them.

there are a couple of honorable mentions that would have been up except the writers have pretty much quit. Both were soldiers in Iraq and were very interesting to read.
A. Big Expensive Animal
and
B. The Dreadcow

Go and read them both.