Last night was the first time in memory that I ever missed a world series game. This is so out of character. Instead of watching the game I went to see the Turtle Island String Quartet! I had completely forgotten about the series.
A mental slip like this calls for drastic measures. I'm calling the doctor and making an appointment for a psychiatric assesment.
If it were anything but a world series game.......
I, Me, Mine.
(with apologies to George Harrison)
All through the day
I me mine, I me mine, I me mine.
All through the night
I me mine, I me mine, I me mine.
George Harrison
Captains log: Sometime in 2004.
A few years ago I noticed the possibility that I might be self-centered. It wasn't an overpowering awareness that sent me to my knees begging forgiveness. It was subtle. I noticed I had a tendency to cut people off in traffic, to scream at stop sign runners and a few other things like rushing to the checkout stand in order to beat the little old lady with two items while I only had a basket full. Okay, maybe it wasn't a tendency. It was the way I acted. Good grief, I'm a sinner. Thankfully the thought left as quickly as it came.
The selfishness of the world had always been obvious. Things like cutting someone off in traffic, not opening doors for others and letting kids run wild in restaurants are rampant. Even I did it and knew full well that I was in the wrong every time. Hey, I'm not perfect. I'll try and do better. And I did! Except in school parking lots. Oh, and at stop signs. But I didn't cut off little old ladies at the grocery store.... as often.
Then came the clinker. The one thing that began to drive me crazy. Everybody started talking about themselves. Really, they did. Okay, it wasn't like everybody in the world suddenly started talking about themselves. I started to notice that virtually every sentence was about "I, Me, Mine". It was awful. "Listen to 'em", I said, "I this. I that. Me, me, me. They all sound like the gulls on "Finding Nemo!" MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!"
"CAN'T ANYBODY SAY A SENTENCE WITHOUT USING A FIRST PERSON SINGULAR PRONOUN?"
I was soooooo glad that I wasn't like them. (Luke 18:11) Or was I? I started listening to myself. I used FPSP's, too! Not a little bit. A lot.
"I'M JUST LIKE THEM! ARGGGGH!"
"Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." (Phil. 2:3-4)
Captains Log: 47 days before Lent 2006.
The pastor has asked us to participate during Lent. The idea was to give up something during the 40 days of Lent. Not just something that wouldn't be missed like not going to Africa to be a missionary or to not eat spinach. It has to be something dear or important to us. It's supposed to be a reminder that God gave up His Son (John 3:16) for us.
Guess what I gave up.... That's right! First person singular pronouns. And peanut butter. Hey, I love peanut butter! Giving up FPSP's wasn't easy to do. I had to think about everything I was going to say in order not to use a FPSP. Imagine having to think before you speak. Going an hour was hard enough, but I was going to go 40 days. There were many thoughts about God giving up His Son.
Thinking about others was the other side of the coin. As Philippians 2:4 says,
"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also
on the things of others.”
In order to not use FPSP's another person had to come into the picture. It was no longer "my house" it was "our house". Not "what will I have for dinner " but "what will we have for dinner". The subject could no longer be me but others.
There was no way I could go that long without using FPSP's. I was a failure but the lessons learned were invaluable. Next year I'll have to give something else up for Lent because I'm going to continue the practice of not talking about myself. Maybe I'll give up peanut butter.
Try it. You'll hate it but you'll love the lessons.
Ladies and Gentlemen hold on to your hats. There is truth that the USA is not a democracy. We are a Representative Republic.
SAY WHAT?
That's right. We vote for senators and representatives and it's up to them to carry our wishes because we vote for them.
A democracy is mob rule. The USA is not governed by mob rule.
SAY WHAT, again?
Allow me to evince you with a brilliant analogy.
A ship carrying 5 disgusting males and 1 charming and beautiful female wrecks and they are stranded on a deserted island.
One man decides to ask the woman for her hand in marriage. She turns him down because he's disgusting. The others follow suit and are similarly declined. The men declare that they are going to vote in order to instigate compelled marriage. It will be fair because everyone will be allowed to vote regardless of age or mental capacity. The vote is 5 to 1.
Get it?
Got it?
Good.
My apologies to Danny Kaye.
Can you believe it? Amber Mangum, a seventh grader, was approached by an employee of the D.D. Eisenhower Middle School, in in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and told to stop reading her Bible during her free time at school or face disciplinary actions.
Huh? In the U.S. of A? Sad but true.
What does the U.S. Constitution say?
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.It's clear as day. How in the world can anybody say that what she did was unconstitutional?
This article makes total sense. The democrat party has always been the party of racism. Now they're the party of the plantation. To the democrats the government is the plantation and they want to keep us completely dependent upon it. No thank you, democrats.
By Kate Monaghan
CNSNews.com Correspondent
October 02, 2006
(CNSNews.com) - A radio ad sponsored by the National Black Republican Association (NBRA), a grassroots activist group, not only touts Martin Luther King, Jr. as a Republican but also states that 'Democrats passed those black codes and Jim Crow laws. Democrats started the KKK,' and 'Democrats fought all civil rights legislation from the 1860s to the 1960s.'
The radio ad begins running in Florida on Monday. It has already run in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia, causing controversy among Democrats as well as Republicans.
According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Senate campaign of Maryland's Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele asked the NBRA to stop running the ad and called it 'insulting to Marylanders.'
The problem with the ad, according to Kevin Martin, a member of the conservative black leadership network Project 21, is not that the ad isn't factually true but that the NBRA is using a dead man to further its cause, something he said is a Democratic, not a Republican tactic.
'We do not need to stick words into a dead man's mouth,' Martin told Cybercast News Service, 'no, not for our policies. Our policies do win at the end of"
