What the hell is pottage?

By Angelaisms

So Mitt Romney recently had a rally in Illinois, during which the following “point” was made by a young woman in the crowd:

“You‘re all for like ’yay freedom and all this stuff and yay pursuit of happiness.’ You know what would make me happy? Free birth control!”

Clearly, a woman of this intellectual caliber possesses a far greater understanding of the world than myself. She sounds absolutely nothing like a drunken frat boy who would follow up this statement by throwing his arms in the air, shouting “WOOOOOOOOO!!!!” and high-fiving all his friends while farting into the microphone. Despite my obvious disadvantage, and the fact that I’m sick of the whole birth control non-issue anyway, here is my response to Liberal Illinois Chick:

Yeah, that’s cute. You know what makes me happy? Video games. I loooooove my video games, RPGs especially. (“ZOMG, she just threatened us with grenades!” Relax-, it stands for “role-playing games” — the kind that don’t need latex and safe words.) I’ve played through and beaten most of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior/Quest games, and am literally still angry and all shake-fisty that my PS3 isn’t backwards compatible. (Damn you, Sony!) I have multiple max-level characters in World of Warcraft, Everquest II, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. I know for a fact that the time I’ve spent on those games alone adds up to more than a full year of playtime — and that’s not counting the I-don’t-even-want-to-know-how-many hours I’ve logged in front of Tetris, Dr. Mario, Gran Turismo, Dynasty Warriors, SSX, Legend of Zelda, Super Mario Bros., Angry Birds, Minesweeper…

You get the idea.

“But wait,” you say. “Video games are entertainment! Birth control is for health!” Well, that point is disputable. It is true that there are many medical reasons for women to be on hormone therapy. But the vast majority of American women who are using the pill, or one of its cousins, are doing so for one simple reason: to have sex without worrying about being “punished with a baby.” (Thanks, Mr. President!) Given this fact, it is easy to make the case that hormonal contraception could be considered little more than a recreational drug. Sure, there are lots of benefits to a healthy sex life. There are a lot of benefits to playing video games as well. But the bottom line is that, just like I don’t have to pick up that controller, you don’t have to drop your pants. And neither of us should be forced to pay for the other’s entertainment.

That’s the surface argument, and it is a good one. But let’s delve a little deeper here into what you’re actually saying. It’s exactly the same as a point that Senator Rand Paul made awhile back — and while he was skewered in the press for saying it, it’s 100% true: Whenever you start demanding “free stuff,” what you are doing is advocating slavery.  …

Read the rest (it’s so worth it!) of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of… Orgasms?” By angelaisms – March 26, 2012 @
http://misfitpolitics.co/2012/03/eb-ready-life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-orgasms/

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Obama DOJ retreats on 2 FACE prosecutions

Last week, in an abrupt about-face, the DOJ dismissed the Pine case, which they had earlier appealed. Not only was the case dismissed, the department also agreed to pay $120,000 in attorney fees.

Prior to the DOJ’s appeal, Florida resident Mary Susan Pine thought her legal battles were over when the lower court judge dismissed all charges against her. The dismissal was based on the complete lack of evidence presented by Attorney General Eric Holder.

In dismissing the charges, Judge Ryskamp openly chastised Holder, questioning his motives for bringing the charges in the first place.

The judge’s comments raised the issue of whether there might have been a conspiracy between the government and the abortion clinic to violate Ms. Pine’s free speech rights.

Following this rebuff, the DOJ promptly filed an appeal, which has now been dismissed. Finally, Ms. Pine has been vindicated.

The dismissal of the Pine case came on the heels of the DOJ dismissing all charges against Ken Scott, another peaceful pro-life advocate being unjustly prosecuted under FACE.

Please see http://www.lldf.org/category/freedom-of-access-to-clinics/ for an overview of prosecutions under FACE.

Source:
The U.S. Department of Justice Continues to Retreat – March 26, 2012
http://www.lldf.org/in-the-public-square/the-u-s-department-of-justice-continues-to-retreat/

 

Doesn’t he mean “less accountability to American voters”?

When you consider the garbage he’s pulled when he still had a re-election campaign ahead of him, this is really really frightening!

Click on graphic to embiggen.

Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/03/president-obama-asks-medvedev-for-space-on-missile-defense-after-my-election-i-have-more-flexibility/
H/t Pete @ https://polination.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/the-monday-grudge-32/

Lagniappe: A Little Something Extra

I got this in my daily email from jewelrymakingdaily@interweave.com. It just tickled my fancy, so I thought I’d share.

This month I’ve officially been a southwest Louisiana resident for one year. What a year! The music, the food, the people, the environment–sometimes it feels like being in a different country, and I just love it. I’ve slowly picked up the vital terminology, such as “cher” for a term of endearment for a loved one, “sha” when you see something incredibly sweet or precious, the French “oh, mais non!” when something simply won’t do, and “lagniappe” for a little something extra.

The idea of lagniappe (pronounced LAN-yap) has been around for centuries. Mark Twain writes (hilariously, of course) about learning the “limber, expressive, handy word” lagniappe in his 1883 book Life on the Mississippi: “We picked up one excellent word-a word worth travelling to New Orleans to get. . . . We discovered it [in] a column [in] the Picayune the first day; heard twenty people use it the second; inquired what it meant the third; adopted it and got facility in swinging it the fourth.”

Twain writes that when a child (or an adult, even) buys something in a shop, the typical response is “give me something for lagniappe,” to which the shopkeeper tosses in a little something extra–an extra piece of candy, or bread, or whatnot, “gratis, for good measure.”

Lagniappe isn’t just an extra thing, though; it can be added compliment, affection, or feeling. Twain continues, “When you are invited to drink, and this does occur now and then in New Orleans-and you say, ‘What, again?–no, I’ve had enough;’ the other party says, ‘But just this one time more–this is for lagniappe.’ When the beau perceives that he is stacking his compliments a trifle too high, and sees by the young lady’s countenance that the edifice would have been better with the top compliment left off, he puts his ‘I beg pardon–no harm intended,’ into the briefer form of ‘Oh, that’s for lagniappe.'”

I’ve become so enamored by the sweet idea of lagniappe–especially during a time when everyone is cutting back instead of giving–that I try to carry it with me everywhere I go and expand the idea to every part of life. It even applies to jewelry design.

I might have lost you just then–but hang with me. Within a single jewelry design, sometimes it’s that little something extra–the small contrasting punch of color, a bit of sparkle, some soft fibers or ribbons–that brings a piece full circle and completes the design. It’s hard to describe it, but you’ve all felt that little click when your jewelry design just comes together. You know it when you see it.

When designing a piece of jewelry, sometimes it takes some experimenting to discover just what the lagniappe will be, but no piece is complete without it. It could be ribbon that softens a wire or beaded jewelry design, a shape that adds balance to the whole piece, or a pop of color that draws your eye into the details of the design. Even the simplest jewelry designs have it, and sometimes there’s more than one.

For me, the little extra touch that brings my jewelry designs together recently is color, and that is most often achieved by the addition of ribbon or other fibers. When I participated in the Bead Soup Blog Party last fall, my necklace had three lagniappe jewelry design elements in it: the addition of a short piece of ribbon knotted onto it, a surprising punch of red among all the green, gold, and blue hues; and the idea of four focal pieces that allowed the wearer to choose from “four fronts.”

Sometimes the lagniappe is the final element that you test in your design when you finally know it’s right, or it could be the element that a friend points out specifically when commenting on one of your jewelry designs–something like, “Oh cher, I like that necklace! I love the bit of blue ribbon,” or “Sha! Look at that cute little bird on your bracelet!” That’s how you know your jewelry design is finished, with lagniappe!

By Tammy Jones, editor of Jewelry Making Daily

The lagniappe on this piece was the brown glass leaf.

Chrissy Originals: http://www.chrissyoriginals.com/ooh_rah.html

Click on graphic to embiggen.

THE MONDAY GRUDGE

Posted by Pistol Pete

I have no idea where I’m going,but I’ll know when I get there

 

 

AFRICAN-AMERICAN LYNCH MOB

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/25/african-american-lynch-mob/

Occupy the Bible

Click on graphics to embiggen.

The fundamental error the Left makes in their social gospel is to equate wealth with morality.

The Bible has a lot to say about wealth, poverty and morality.

But the one thing the Bible does NOT do is make either wealth or poverty an outward sign of any person’s moral virtue or lack thereof.

The Left says having wealth is proof positive of an evil heart. But the Bible says that wealth is a blessing from God.

“Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.” ~Genesis 26:12

“The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys.” ~Job 42:12

The Left says that anyone who works hard is a greedy, hateful bastard. But the Bible says that laziness is bad, saving and investing are good, and hard work is meant to bring profit.

“One who is slack in his work is a close relative of one who destroys.” ~Proverbs 18:9

“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. ~Proverbs 10:4

“A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.” Proverbs 13:22

The Left says people who work for others are “wage slaves” and that people who benefit from the work of others are evil. The Bible says the opposite.

Anyone who does not take care of his own family “has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” ~1 Timothy 5:8

“King Solomon was greater in riches and wisdom than all the other kings of the earth.” ~2 Chronicles 9:22

And Jesus tells a parable in which he commends the two servants who worked to increase their master’s wealth, while condemning the one who refused to do so. (Luke 19:11-26)

The Left quotes “Blessed are the poor” from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to supposedly prove that the rich are bad and the poor are good. But Jesus did not say “Blessed are the poor.” He said,

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” ~Matthew 5:3

The distinction is enormous. “The poor” are those who lack material wealth. “The poor in spirit” are those who know they need God (not the government).

Some point to Luke 18:18-20 as justification for their lionizing of the poor and condemnation of the wealthy. In this passage, we learn of a time when a wealthy ruler asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life.

Jesus recited the commandments … do not murder, do not commit adultery, etc. The man said he had always done those things.

Jesus then said, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When the rich man heard this, “he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.”

Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

If rich people could never enter the Kingdom of God, it is easy to see why some assume this means all rich people are evil. But that interpretation makes no sense, since it would have to follow that when the Bible says God “blessed” Isaac and Job with wealth, he was giving them the very things that would keep them out of His Kingdom!

I was taught that the “eye of the needle” was a gate in Jerusalem that a loaded camel couldn’t fit through, but I read an article on-line that says there is no historical basis for this and that what makes more sense is that Jesus was simply employing hyperbole, which was a common teaching tool in Jewish communities.

I have to agree, since He does the same thing in at least two places in the Sermon on the Mount:

“If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away.” ~Matthew 5:30

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye?” ~Matthew 7:3

So, yes, Jesus did tell that one rich guy he had to give up all his worldly goods. But maybe that’s because that man was more attached to his stuff than he was to God.  After all, another teaching in the Sermon on the Mount is,

“You cannot serve both God and money.” ~Matthew 6:24

And Jesus did NOT tell Zacchaeus, another very rich man, that he had to give away all of his possessions to gain eternal life. When Zacchaeus declared,

“Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus declared, “Today salvation has come to this house.” ~Luke 19:8-9

Obviously, wealth and poverty in and of themselves are morally neutral. Ditto, debt.

The Bible makes it clear that debt is something to avoid.

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” ~Proverbs 22:7

But the Bible also says it is okay, sometimes even laudable, to lend. Surely, God would not tell us to participate in causing another to sin. However, if we do borrow, He definitely expects us to pay it all back!

“Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” ~Matthew 5:42

“When a man … takes an oath to obligate himself by a pledge, he must not break his word but must do everything he said.” ~Numbers 30:2

The Left boasts a great many loud and mean-spirited people demanding free stuff. The Bible gives us St. Paul:

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” ~Philippians 4:11-13

Could the Government Gimme Occupying Lefties GET any further from God’s truths? 

Source:
http://www.gracecentered.com/what_the_Bible_says_about_money.htm
http://www.biblicalhebrew.com/nt/camelneedle.htm
http://christianpf.com/the-bible-and-debt/