In the midst of my anxieties over events in our country this last week I am reminded of the verse in the old civil rights hymn, We Shall Overcome, which declares that like a tree standing by the water, we shall not be moved. Finding the reference in the opening Psalm I would now like to share it with you. But first:
This Thanksgiving I am thankful for the word of God,
which comforts me when this world I live in seems to go crazy,
which assures me that truth and justice will ultimately prevail,
which leads me to keep putting my trust in the Lord Who "knows the way of the righteous".
Psalm 1
How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And in this law he meditates day and night.
He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in what ever he does, he prospers.
The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
For the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the wicked will perish.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Sunday, November 23, 2014
When Angels Come For You
When Angels Come For You
There will come a day
your heart will stop
your eyes will close
your head will drop
no more excuses
on that day
when angels
come for
you
Brothers, sisters
sweet aunt mary sue
the clock is ticking
just for you
I hear the tocks
I know what's true
when angels
come for
you
How many years
you've walked right by
creation painted
in the sky
and known what's right
but still you try
when angels
come for
you
His heart is broken
because of sin
which blinds the man
and enters in
then spends a life
not knowing Him
when angels
come for
you
There's still a chance
to be set free
it only takes
humility
you must let go
of all you see
when angels
come for
you
The tombstone said
there wasn't strife
you helped your neighbor
loved your wife
but is your name written
in the book of life
when angels
come for
you
One last word
I must add here
you would do well
to live in fear
if you don't know
what's very near
when angels
come for
you
There will come a day
your heart will stop
your eyes will close
your head will drop
no more excuses
on that day
when angels
come for
you
Brothers, sisters
sweet aunt mary sue
the clock is ticking
just for you
I hear the tocks
I know what's true
when angels
come for
you
How many years
you've walked right by
creation painted
in the sky
and known what's right
but still you try
when angels
come for
you
His heart is broken
because of sin
which blinds the man
and enters in
then spends a life
not knowing Him
when angels
come for
you
There's still a chance
to be set free
it only takes
humility
you must let go
of all you see
when angels
come for
you
The tombstone said
there wasn't strife
you helped your neighbor
loved your wife
but is your name written
in the book of life
when angels
come for
you
One last word
I must add here
you would do well
to live in fear
if you don't know
what's very near
when angels
come for
you
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Star Wars Rosary
I left the Roman Catholic Church the day it finally dawned on me that no one, not even a Spirit filled pope, would be able to change anything of substance in Catholic doctrine. I was convinced that the pagan thoughts and practices that were interwoven with Christian belief beginning even in the early centuries of the faith could not be extracted without either schism (the majority wanting to retain the old beliefs) or the death of Roman Catholicism as a religion. Of the three legged stool - Church tradition, the teaching magisterial of the Church and sacred scripture, tradition and church teaching substituted for the Holy Spirit, over road scripture, and would be defended to the death by the bishops and bureaucracy of the Roman Catholic Church.
So having left that church as one that still knows and loves so many still in it, a number of whom are true believers in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, I do from time to time like to point out the contradictions of church teaching and tradition with the Holy Word. These are all so obvious if one does not have to think that father knows best but instead believes that sacred scripture is indeed inspired and can be understood by even a simpleton with the help of the Holy Spirit.
My inspiration today was a statement tweeted by Pope Francis earlier this fall;
"The Christian who does not feel that the Virgin Mary is his or her mother is an orphan."
As have been all the popes in my lifetime Pope Francis (the hope of modern day liberals) has a deep devotion to Mary. This pope even has a special devotion to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, which he picked up in Austria and then introduced to his flock when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Airas. This is a prayer to Mary that because of the immense mercy that exists in her heart one should surrender into her hands the ribbon of their lives (all their worries and pain and problems). The prayer declares the trust that Mary will undo those knots.
The University of Dayton, which has a large Marian studies center, publishes a list of Marian statements made by Pope Francis. In October this year Francis is quoted 18 different times invoking and referencing Mary in his addresses to various groups. I will only share the following two;
October 25: Pope's remarks to The Schoenstaff movement.
"Mary is Mother, and one cannot conceive of any other title of Mary that is not 'Mother'. She is Mother because she brings us Jesus and she helps us with the strength of the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus will be born and grow in us. She constantly gives us life. She is Mother of the Church. She is maternity. We do not have the right, and if we think we do we are mistaken, to have a psychology of orphans. A Christian does not have the right to be an orphan. He has a Mother! We have a Mother!"
October 31; Pope's address to Fraternity of Charismatic Convention.
"I was told about prayer groups in Charismatic Renewal in which the Rosary is recited together. The prayer to our Lady must never be lacking, never!"
I was always taught that Catholics don't worship Mary when they pray to her, they only "venerate" or honor her. Yet here it is pretty clear that not only are Catholics encouraged to pray to her she is also given attributes that belong to God alone. What the Father desires, what the Son has done and the outworking of the power of the Holy Spirit, in Catholic teaching are all routed through Mary. She is the dispenser of graces, she is the co-redemtrix with Jesus for the salvation of our souls, she is the queen of heaven, she is mediator between us and God, she is the one who loves us because she is mother, she is the one we should trust.
Contrast that to what Romans 8: 14-17 teaches, especially about our status as orphans;
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out, "Abba, Father". The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."
The following comes from a post I did in 2007 called - Star Wars Rosary.
One of the forms of adoration to Mary is the rosary. The roots of the practice began in the 10th and 11th centuries. In certain monasteries monks would pray the psalms every day. There are 150 psalms and these were divided in 3 groups of 50. Later on the common people wanted to adopt this practice but because most were illiterate they would substitute memorized prayers such as the early forms of the Hail Mary in place of the psalms.
Catholic legend says that Mary appeared to St. Dominic (founder of the Dominicans) in 1214 and give him the first rosary. The rosary is a set of beads, 50 of which are for the Hail Mary prayer. There are other beads for the Our Father and Glory Be prayers, the Apostles Creed and places to contemplate events in the life of Jesus or Mary called The Mysteries. For example, one of the glorious mysteries is called; "Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth".
In 1858 Mary appears to Bernadette at Lourdes and the apparition is wearing a rosary. In 1917 Mary appears to 3 children at Fatima and tells them that for the conversion of the world everyone must do penance and pray the rosary daily. Pope John Paul II was very devoted to Mary and especially to the apparition of Mary at Fatima.
There are actually quite a number of other Marian apparitions. The most famous recent one began when Mary appeared to some children in the Croatian village of Medjugory in 1981. Ever since she has given a least one of them a monthly message (all are available at the Medjugory website) which usually includes a request to do penance and to pray the rosary daily. The fact that tens of millions of people go to these places should remind us that Mary veneration is not just a blast from the past.
I have a personal story about saying the rosary. My mother grew up in the Reformed tradition but because my father was Catholic that meant that his children must be raised Catholic. About the time I was in 5th grade my mother had a crisis of faith which led to her becoming Catholic. Of course I was pleased when my mother became Catholic but the down side came when initially she wanted to be a very devout Catholic.
For awhile during the summer before my 6th grade mom would gather her innocent little children into our hallway, in front of the crucifix hanging on the wall with palm branches stuck behind it, and ignoring the sounds of other children outside, happily enjoying the forbidden pleasures of freedom, she would lead her tiny clan in saying the rosary, using the same boring tones as the ladies from the rosary guild who would sometimes lead the school children in the saying of the rosary before the mass that began each academic day, a monotone "halemaryfullofgracethelordiswiththeeblessedartthoughamoungwomenandblessedisthefruitofthywombjesus", over and over.
My mother really didn't understand anything about my asking Jesus into my life when I was 22. In her mind I had become "religious" and a little overboard at that. After a couple of years, although still Catholic, I immersed myself in scripture and read many books written by non Catholic authors. It had already become obvious to me that scripture contradicted many Catholic practices.
One day my mother stopped by to visit Jackie and me at our little place in Kalamazoo. She and my dad had just come back from Europe and she said that she brought back a present for me. Our of her purse came an ordinary little rosary. She proudly gave it to me and said; "The Pope blessed it." Now I must tell you in my mind I pictured the Pope walking through a warehouse somewhere in Rome full of holy cards, rosaries and other religious objects while waving his hand in one great swoop and saying in Latin; "Bless this stuff."
I realized that my mother was trying to express a spiritual connection in terms that she understood but I soon became really distraught at the thought that maybe my parents were actually missing a saving relationship with Jesus. A day or two later I was kneeling by my bed, pouring out my heart with as much emotion as I ever had, praying for the salvation of my parents. In the midst of that the Spirit of the Lord settled upon me and unspoken gave me the assurance that they were right with God. Even though we couldn't talk the same talk, and even though our theologies were quite different, God had given me a life long peace about them.
Jackie and I sent our oldest 3 children to a Catholic school for a few years. When Ben was in 2nd grade he came home with a black plastic rosary that the school gave each of the kids. Jackie went into his room, decorated with sports and Star Wars items and noticed his new rosary hanging from his top bunk. Curious she asked Ben why he had it hanging like that. Now the rosary has a medallion which usually has a picture of Mary on it but in Ben's 2nd grade mind the image of Our Lady of Fatima on the black plastic medallion looked just like Darth Vadar from the Star Wars movie. And so he proudly displayed it. We thought it was quite humorous and were actually relieved at the limits of Catholic school indoctrination.
Prayer beads have been around for thousands of years. Jesus could have been addressing those types of prayers in Matthew 6 when He said;
And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the gentiles do; for they suppose they will be heard for their many words.
Jesus then provides a pattern for prayer which is now called the Our Father. Well guess what? Repeating the pattern as a prayer with endless repetitions was exactly what Jesus was telling us not to do. And saying 10 Hail Mary's to each Our Father is not exactly addressing our prayers to the Father as Jesus taught.
Our heavenly Father wants to change our lives and draw us closer to Him. He speaks to us through His Holy Spirit in many ways. It is the Holy Spirit, not Mary, that always works to reveal Jesus to us because we can go directly to the Father through Jesus. To hear God we need to have a heart that seeks Him and is willing to respond to what He says. When I cry out to God from the depths of my heart and worship Him with made up songs and unknown tongues and weep in response to a verse of scripture that I've reflected upon, moving me to repentance, that is better than ten thousand rote prayers.
The veil has been torn in two. Neither priest or minister or saint or Mary should be an intermediary between us and the Father.
So having left that church as one that still knows and loves so many still in it, a number of whom are true believers in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, I do from time to time like to point out the contradictions of church teaching and tradition with the Holy Word. These are all so obvious if one does not have to think that father knows best but instead believes that sacred scripture is indeed inspired and can be understood by even a simpleton with the help of the Holy Spirit.
My inspiration today was a statement tweeted by Pope Francis earlier this fall;
"The Christian who does not feel that the Virgin Mary is his or her mother is an orphan."
As have been all the popes in my lifetime Pope Francis (the hope of modern day liberals) has a deep devotion to Mary. This pope even has a special devotion to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots, which he picked up in Austria and then introduced to his flock when he was the Archbishop of Buenos Airas. This is a prayer to Mary that because of the immense mercy that exists in her heart one should surrender into her hands the ribbon of their lives (all their worries and pain and problems). The prayer declares the trust that Mary will undo those knots.
The University of Dayton, which has a large Marian studies center, publishes a list of Marian statements made by Pope Francis. In October this year Francis is quoted 18 different times invoking and referencing Mary in his addresses to various groups. I will only share the following two;
October 25: Pope's remarks to The Schoenstaff movement.
"Mary is Mother, and one cannot conceive of any other title of Mary that is not 'Mother'. She is Mother because she brings us Jesus and she helps us with the strength of the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus will be born and grow in us. She constantly gives us life. She is Mother of the Church. She is maternity. We do not have the right, and if we think we do we are mistaken, to have a psychology of orphans. A Christian does not have the right to be an orphan. He has a Mother! We have a Mother!"
October 31; Pope's address to Fraternity of Charismatic Convention.
"I was told about prayer groups in Charismatic Renewal in which the Rosary is recited together. The prayer to our Lady must never be lacking, never!"
I was always taught that Catholics don't worship Mary when they pray to her, they only "venerate" or honor her. Yet here it is pretty clear that not only are Catholics encouraged to pray to her she is also given attributes that belong to God alone. What the Father desires, what the Son has done and the outworking of the power of the Holy Spirit, in Catholic teaching are all routed through Mary. She is the dispenser of graces, she is the co-redemtrix with Jesus for the salvation of our souls, she is the queen of heaven, she is mediator between us and God, she is the one who loves us because she is mother, she is the one we should trust.
Contrast that to what Romans 8: 14-17 teaches, especially about our status as orphans;
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by which we cry out, "Abba, Father". The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together."
The following comes from a post I did in 2007 called - Star Wars Rosary.
One of the forms of adoration to Mary is the rosary. The roots of the practice began in the 10th and 11th centuries. In certain monasteries monks would pray the psalms every day. There are 150 psalms and these were divided in 3 groups of 50. Later on the common people wanted to adopt this practice but because most were illiterate they would substitute memorized prayers such as the early forms of the Hail Mary in place of the psalms.
Catholic legend says that Mary appeared to St. Dominic (founder of the Dominicans) in 1214 and give him the first rosary. The rosary is a set of beads, 50 of which are for the Hail Mary prayer. There are other beads for the Our Father and Glory Be prayers, the Apostles Creed and places to contemplate events in the life of Jesus or Mary called The Mysteries. For example, one of the glorious mysteries is called; "Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth".
In 1858 Mary appears to Bernadette at Lourdes and the apparition is wearing a rosary. In 1917 Mary appears to 3 children at Fatima and tells them that for the conversion of the world everyone must do penance and pray the rosary daily. Pope John Paul II was very devoted to Mary and especially to the apparition of Mary at Fatima.
There are actually quite a number of other Marian apparitions. The most famous recent one began when Mary appeared to some children in the Croatian village of Medjugory in 1981. Ever since she has given a least one of them a monthly message (all are available at the Medjugory website) which usually includes a request to do penance and to pray the rosary daily. The fact that tens of millions of people go to these places should remind us that Mary veneration is not just a blast from the past.
I have a personal story about saying the rosary. My mother grew up in the Reformed tradition but because my father was Catholic that meant that his children must be raised Catholic. About the time I was in 5th grade my mother had a crisis of faith which led to her becoming Catholic. Of course I was pleased when my mother became Catholic but the down side came when initially she wanted to be a very devout Catholic.
For awhile during the summer before my 6th grade mom would gather her innocent little children into our hallway, in front of the crucifix hanging on the wall with palm branches stuck behind it, and ignoring the sounds of other children outside, happily enjoying the forbidden pleasures of freedom, she would lead her tiny clan in saying the rosary, using the same boring tones as the ladies from the rosary guild who would sometimes lead the school children in the saying of the rosary before the mass that began each academic day, a monotone "halemaryfullofgracethelordiswiththeeblessedartthoughamoungwomenandblessedisthefruitofthywombjesus", over and over.
My mother really didn't understand anything about my asking Jesus into my life when I was 22. In her mind I had become "religious" and a little overboard at that. After a couple of years, although still Catholic, I immersed myself in scripture and read many books written by non Catholic authors. It had already become obvious to me that scripture contradicted many Catholic practices.
One day my mother stopped by to visit Jackie and me at our little place in Kalamazoo. She and my dad had just come back from Europe and she said that she brought back a present for me. Our of her purse came an ordinary little rosary. She proudly gave it to me and said; "The Pope blessed it." Now I must tell you in my mind I pictured the Pope walking through a warehouse somewhere in Rome full of holy cards, rosaries and other religious objects while waving his hand in one great swoop and saying in Latin; "Bless this stuff."
I realized that my mother was trying to express a spiritual connection in terms that she understood but I soon became really distraught at the thought that maybe my parents were actually missing a saving relationship with Jesus. A day or two later I was kneeling by my bed, pouring out my heart with as much emotion as I ever had, praying for the salvation of my parents. In the midst of that the Spirit of the Lord settled upon me and unspoken gave me the assurance that they were right with God. Even though we couldn't talk the same talk, and even though our theologies were quite different, God had given me a life long peace about them.
Jackie and I sent our oldest 3 children to a Catholic school for a few years. When Ben was in 2nd grade he came home with a black plastic rosary that the school gave each of the kids. Jackie went into his room, decorated with sports and Star Wars items and noticed his new rosary hanging from his top bunk. Curious she asked Ben why he had it hanging like that. Now the rosary has a medallion which usually has a picture of Mary on it but in Ben's 2nd grade mind the image of Our Lady of Fatima on the black plastic medallion looked just like Darth Vadar from the Star Wars movie. And so he proudly displayed it. We thought it was quite humorous and were actually relieved at the limits of Catholic school indoctrination.
Prayer beads have been around for thousands of years. Jesus could have been addressing those types of prayers in Matthew 6 when He said;
And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the gentiles do; for they suppose they will be heard for their many words.
Jesus then provides a pattern for prayer which is now called the Our Father. Well guess what? Repeating the pattern as a prayer with endless repetitions was exactly what Jesus was telling us not to do. And saying 10 Hail Mary's to each Our Father is not exactly addressing our prayers to the Father as Jesus taught.
Our heavenly Father wants to change our lives and draw us closer to Him. He speaks to us through His Holy Spirit in many ways. It is the Holy Spirit, not Mary, that always works to reveal Jesus to us because we can go directly to the Father through Jesus. To hear God we need to have a heart that seeks Him and is willing to respond to what He says. When I cry out to God from the depths of my heart and worship Him with made up songs and unknown tongues and weep in response to a verse of scripture that I've reflected upon, moving me to repentance, that is better than ten thousand rote prayers.
The veil has been torn in two. Neither priest or minister or saint or Mary should be an intermediary between us and the Father.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Someday When I Retire
Someday when I retire I will spend my idle time sorting through stacks and stacks of driver's permits and proof of insurance documents that I did not give back to my clients, even after they accused me of keeping those documents when they could not produce them themselves. I did this, not out of any spite or malice but solely for the purpose of having something really interesting to do after my useful labors are over.
Someday when I retire I will write a book called The Encyclopedia Of Stupid and regale you with stories of people slowly cruising past our auto test site, staring blankly at our large orange cones, yellow test lines and examiner standing there clipboard in hand. After the third time past I give up and wave the poor suckers in, then watch them drive 100 yards to the end of the parking lot, come back, lean out the car window and ask if this is where they do auto tests. "No" I say, "you must be confused. "This is a Keep Safe Michigan site where we offer coffee and donuts to tired drivers. Would you like a cup?"
Someday when I retire I will think about my test subjects from this morning. First up was 40 year old Kevin. When I asked him if he had a previous driver's license he said no, just thought it was time to start driving. When I asked 40 year old Kevin to sign his name on the form he asked; "Can I print my name or should I use cursive?" When I asked him to do the sight side parking which is akin to backing up an auto into a driveway or garage while looking out one's driver side window Kevin takes an S route, ending up 90 degrees the wrong direction. Try as he may from this position he cannot extract himself. If this were an actual garage it would now have two extra doors, one on each side.
That was followed by 20 year old Nedim who when turning right out of our parking lot onto Clyde Park Avenue at the beginning of the driving portion crossed over not only the first and second lanes but also the turning lane to get into the far left lane so we could head the wrong way down Clyde Park. Two minutes later after we got back home and Nedim realized that maybe there was something a little wrong with that maneuver he drives off Lord knows where or how all by himself.
That was followed by 18 yr. old James Brown. James drives right through the 4 way stop in the residential area near the beginning of the driving test. When we got back a few minutes later and I explained the error of his ways he did not feel good, da da da da da da da.
And that was followed by 20 year old Rohullah. His permit said "corrective lens" so I asked him if he brought his glasses with him. He tells me no, he only wore them one day and that he doesn't need to wear glasses. I tell Rohullah that unfortunately the day he decided to wear them was when he took the eye exam and that he could not legally drive with out said glasses. He didn't feel good either, da da da da da da da.
This morning is why I don't trust anybody out there on the roads.
Someday when I retire maybe I'll ride the bus. I was told last week however that in Grand Rapids you need to avoid bus number 1 that goes downtown. The roads there are really rough, the bus is designed to carry 40 but they always have about 60 passengers so people need to stand in the aisles, which may be a better option than sitting anyway because the homeless ride bus 1 all day to keep warm and some of them cannot hold themselves so they wet their pants and the regulars all feel the seats before using them.
Ah! So someday when I retire maybe I will sit by my window in the fall, watch the trees turn their brilliant reds and oranges and yellows and whenever 10 or 20 leaves hit the lawn I will be all over them. I thought of that the other day when after I mowed the grass and cleared off the leaves and wondered how long the yard would look so nice I got whacked in the head by an errant orange missile.
Someday when I retire I may help out 88 year old Hank who is in charge of the drop off area at the local Bibles for Mexico Thrift Shop. The last time I was there I saw him struggling with a large sofa and love seat that someone left out side in the rain the night before. If was now worthless but still Hank needed to move it to the appropriate dump site. Even though he clearly required assistance with this he insisted that he didn't. "That's OK" I say loudly so he can hear me. "I'll help you with this and then you can help me unload my computer keyboard and mouse."
Or, maybe someday when I retire I will spend my idle time sorting through stacks and stacks of ? ? ? ?. Wait. Did I just say that?
Someday when I retire I will write a book called The Encyclopedia Of Stupid and regale you with stories of people slowly cruising past our auto test site, staring blankly at our large orange cones, yellow test lines and examiner standing there clipboard in hand. After the third time past I give up and wave the poor suckers in, then watch them drive 100 yards to the end of the parking lot, come back, lean out the car window and ask if this is where they do auto tests. "No" I say, "you must be confused. "This is a Keep Safe Michigan site where we offer coffee and donuts to tired drivers. Would you like a cup?"
Someday when I retire I will think about my test subjects from this morning. First up was 40 year old Kevin. When I asked him if he had a previous driver's license he said no, just thought it was time to start driving. When I asked 40 year old Kevin to sign his name on the form he asked; "Can I print my name or should I use cursive?" When I asked him to do the sight side parking which is akin to backing up an auto into a driveway or garage while looking out one's driver side window Kevin takes an S route, ending up 90 degrees the wrong direction. Try as he may from this position he cannot extract himself. If this were an actual garage it would now have two extra doors, one on each side.
That was followed by 20 year old Nedim who when turning right out of our parking lot onto Clyde Park Avenue at the beginning of the driving portion crossed over not only the first and second lanes but also the turning lane to get into the far left lane so we could head the wrong way down Clyde Park. Two minutes later after we got back home and Nedim realized that maybe there was something a little wrong with that maneuver he drives off Lord knows where or how all by himself.
That was followed by 18 yr. old James Brown. James drives right through the 4 way stop in the residential area near the beginning of the driving test. When we got back a few minutes later and I explained the error of his ways he did not feel good, da da da da da da da.
And that was followed by 20 year old Rohullah. His permit said "corrective lens" so I asked him if he brought his glasses with him. He tells me no, he only wore them one day and that he doesn't need to wear glasses. I tell Rohullah that unfortunately the day he decided to wear them was when he took the eye exam and that he could not legally drive with out said glasses. He didn't feel good either, da da da da da da da.
This morning is why I don't trust anybody out there on the roads.
Someday when I retire maybe I'll ride the bus. I was told last week however that in Grand Rapids you need to avoid bus number 1 that goes downtown. The roads there are really rough, the bus is designed to carry 40 but they always have about 60 passengers so people need to stand in the aisles, which may be a better option than sitting anyway because the homeless ride bus 1 all day to keep warm and some of them cannot hold themselves so they wet their pants and the regulars all feel the seats before using them.
Ah! So someday when I retire maybe I will sit by my window in the fall, watch the trees turn their brilliant reds and oranges and yellows and whenever 10 or 20 leaves hit the lawn I will be all over them. I thought of that the other day when after I mowed the grass and cleared off the leaves and wondered how long the yard would look so nice I got whacked in the head by an errant orange missile.
Someday when I retire I may help out 88 year old Hank who is in charge of the drop off area at the local Bibles for Mexico Thrift Shop. The last time I was there I saw him struggling with a large sofa and love seat that someone left out side in the rain the night before. If was now worthless but still Hank needed to move it to the appropriate dump site. Even though he clearly required assistance with this he insisted that he didn't. "That's OK" I say loudly so he can hear me. "I'll help you with this and then you can help me unload my computer keyboard and mouse."
Or, maybe someday when I retire I will spend my idle time sorting through stacks and stacks of ? ? ? ?. Wait. Did I just say that?
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Ice Caps, Polar Bears And CO2
I wrote the following blog post a few weeks ago and then put it on the shelf because, oh I don't know, the timing didn't seem quite right. Then the other day I heard that John Coleman, the award winning meteorologist who started The Weather Channel came on CNN to declare that (A) There is nothing historically different about our current climate (B) Man made climate change has not been demonstrated (C) Being introduced for the interview and debate as a "climate change denier" shows a bias which promotes climate change but excludes facts (D) There is no overwhelming consensus among all scientists that man made climate change is happening, and (E) the guy he is going to debate who is the current CEO of The Weather Channel is not a scientist whereas he is.
That seemed to fit in pretty well with my post so here it is.
About 6 years ago a local TV head meteorologist wrote that in his mind the book was not closed on global warming. A couple of years ago the head meteorologist from a rival station made basically the same comment. In case you are thinking that these are just pretty boys pretending they understand science let me give you another take. Both were fascinated with weather even when kids and as weather geeks today they continue to spend amazing amounts of time studying and trying to understand weather patterns and what makes what work. They are surrounded by the same types of people. I mean, when severe weather breaks out in West Michigan and their channels interrupt regular programming to give you endless details of reverse curves in a front 10 miles away you would think that everyone was wetting their pants they are so excited.
Some years back 9000 PH D's and 31.000 scientist and meteorologists signed a petition questioning some of the base beliefs of global warming advocates calling global warming "a hoax". This was of course derided by the global warming click and when they discovered that a couple dozen names on the list were suspect they painted the entire list as loons and fakes. But as I've said before, whether truth or not, it's all about politics. Sadly the true believers don't realize that it's also all about money, power and government control and that their supposed leaders are men and women without scruples who have another agenda besides the health of mother earth.
So let's talk facts. Of course, even though these are facts everything is debatable. For example. Since it has not been proved that ocean temperatures are rising as fast as predicted a new claim by the pro global warming crowd is that the oceans are storing all that heat well below the 600 meter level. I've read on both sides opinions on the current and future effect of the oceans storing in their depths an immense amount of heat but who am I to judge. For every point on either side there is a counter point. At least there should be some debate. So here goes:
Today there are 19 colonies of polar bears world wide comprising between 25,000 to 30,000 individuals, most of them in good shape. Currently about 3 or 4 of the colonies are considered stressed. In 1975 there were between 5,000 to 10,000 polar bears. At that time international treaties to limit the hunting of polar bears came into effect, obviously contributing to their increase in numbers.
About 70% of the world's fresh water is contained in Antarctic ice. This year ice coverage in Antarctica is at an all time high as measured by modern methods. Most of the ice sheet in Antarctica is one top of land (the increase is sea ice) and because the average snowfall in the interior is extremely low and the maximum temperatures never gets as high as 10 degrees Fahrenheit there is scant chance ocean levels will rise due to melting Antarctic ice.
In contrast, a lot of the ice in the Arctic is sea ice. This ice sheet increases and decreases according to the seasons. When sea ice melts it does not raise sea levels just as a glass of water filled with ice does not overflow when the ice melts. The last decade has seen slightly longer Arctic melting seasons although things tended to moderate a bit this year. Global warming scientists predict an ice free Arctic by 2050 and the extinction of the polar bear caused by their change of diet from seals to ? Coke. The global warming scientists who get all the money and press tell us, despite pretty good evidence otherwise, that polar bears can only survive on a seal diet or else they will resort to cannibalism.
Ah, facts. Funny things those. Not to be confused with computer models where garbage in means garbage out. I've checked numerous on line sites, both pro and con global warming. The facts listed below come from FriendsofScience.org They have wonderful visual charts which really provide a clear sense of the statistics.
The description for human caused global warming is "anthropogenic global warming", or AGW.
In the comments below GHG stands for green house gas.
The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Global Warming.
AGW sceptics do not deny that humans have some effect on climate. The questions are, how much, is it scientifically verifiable and is it necessarily bad?
AGW sceptics do not disagree on the direct greenhouse effect of CO2. They disagree on the climate systems response to that radiation effect. The main problem that AGW sceptics have is shown by their claim that computer climate models greatly overestimate the effects of GHG emissions likely by a factor of 3.
AGW would warm the exo-tropics much more than the tropics, reducing the temperature difference that drive storms. So global warming actually reduces storminess. Studies show that colder climates had more severe storms and the actual number of strong tornadoes have been declining over the last 40 years.
Since the spiked temperatures of the El Nino in 1998 temperatures as measured by both surface and satellite have been flat despite the rise in CO2. IPCC climate models predicted +0.20 per decade. Actual has been -0.054 per decade. Although there have been increases in temps in parts of the world and decreases in others there has been no average increase in global warming for the last 16 years! (one reason that the press is no longer calling this crisis "global warming" but rather "climate change".
95% of GHG's are water vapor. Warming causes more water vapor in the lower atmosphere but declining water vapor in the upper atmosphere, where it has more effect on warming by a factor of 80.
Historical records seem to indicate that the Minoan, Roman and Medieval periods had warmer temperatures than today. Greenland was farmed for awhile by the Vikings just before the last mini ice age.
Solar activity measured since 1600 shows direct correlation between solar activity and temperature.
IPCC computer models include little if any natural factors such as solar activity.
There is no evidence that a warmer climate will increase extinction rates.
The Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System shows a declining trend of world drought over the last 30 years.
Global sea ice in 2014 has risen 300,000 sq. km greater than the 1979-2008 average.
Atmospheric methane has risen 0.2% over the last 10 years. The IPCC forecasts methane to increase 6 times faster than recent obllservations.
And finally from other notes - Ocean levels are not like lake levels. Sea level varies in different parts of the world because of gravity, winds and other factors. The Indian Ocean is about 200 feet below average and the coast of Ireland is over 200 feet above average. Water expands as it warms and sea levels have been gradually increasing which should be totally expected if long term natural trends mean anything. Even though some low lying islands in the Pacific have lost dry land, because coral reefs are still being produced the last couple decades have seen an actual increase of island land by 11%. Antarctic ice is in no danger of melting and Arctic sea ice as discussed before will not raise sea levels. That leaves Greenland which is still chugging out those large chucks of ice, but not at a clip that is radically different than the past.
The idea that 97% of scientist believe AGW is a threat to our planet is a totally bogus number. But don't believe me. Do your research.
That seemed to fit in pretty well with my post so here it is.
About 6 years ago a local TV head meteorologist wrote that in his mind the book was not closed on global warming. A couple of years ago the head meteorologist from a rival station made basically the same comment. In case you are thinking that these are just pretty boys pretending they understand science let me give you another take. Both were fascinated with weather even when kids and as weather geeks today they continue to spend amazing amounts of time studying and trying to understand weather patterns and what makes what work. They are surrounded by the same types of people. I mean, when severe weather breaks out in West Michigan and their channels interrupt regular programming to give you endless details of reverse curves in a front 10 miles away you would think that everyone was wetting their pants they are so excited.
Some years back 9000 PH D's and 31.000 scientist and meteorologists signed a petition questioning some of the base beliefs of global warming advocates calling global warming "a hoax". This was of course derided by the global warming click and when they discovered that a couple dozen names on the list were suspect they painted the entire list as loons and fakes. But as I've said before, whether truth or not, it's all about politics. Sadly the true believers don't realize that it's also all about money, power and government control and that their supposed leaders are men and women without scruples who have another agenda besides the health of mother earth.
So let's talk facts. Of course, even though these are facts everything is debatable. For example. Since it has not been proved that ocean temperatures are rising as fast as predicted a new claim by the pro global warming crowd is that the oceans are storing all that heat well below the 600 meter level. I've read on both sides opinions on the current and future effect of the oceans storing in their depths an immense amount of heat but who am I to judge. For every point on either side there is a counter point. At least there should be some debate. So here goes:
Today there are 19 colonies of polar bears world wide comprising between 25,000 to 30,000 individuals, most of them in good shape. Currently about 3 or 4 of the colonies are considered stressed. In 1975 there were between 5,000 to 10,000 polar bears. At that time international treaties to limit the hunting of polar bears came into effect, obviously contributing to their increase in numbers.
About 70% of the world's fresh water is contained in Antarctic ice. This year ice coverage in Antarctica is at an all time high as measured by modern methods. Most of the ice sheet in Antarctica is one top of land (the increase is sea ice) and because the average snowfall in the interior is extremely low and the maximum temperatures never gets as high as 10 degrees Fahrenheit there is scant chance ocean levels will rise due to melting Antarctic ice.
In contrast, a lot of the ice in the Arctic is sea ice. This ice sheet increases and decreases according to the seasons. When sea ice melts it does not raise sea levels just as a glass of water filled with ice does not overflow when the ice melts. The last decade has seen slightly longer Arctic melting seasons although things tended to moderate a bit this year. Global warming scientists predict an ice free Arctic by 2050 and the extinction of the polar bear caused by their change of diet from seals to ? Coke. The global warming scientists who get all the money and press tell us, despite pretty good evidence otherwise, that polar bears can only survive on a seal diet or else they will resort to cannibalism.
Ah, facts. Funny things those. Not to be confused with computer models where garbage in means garbage out. I've checked numerous on line sites, both pro and con global warming. The facts listed below come from FriendsofScience.org They have wonderful visual charts which really provide a clear sense of the statistics.
The description for human caused global warming is "anthropogenic global warming", or AGW.
In the comments below GHG stands for green house gas.
The IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Global Warming.
AGW sceptics do not deny that humans have some effect on climate. The questions are, how much, is it scientifically verifiable and is it necessarily bad?
AGW sceptics do not disagree on the direct greenhouse effect of CO2. They disagree on the climate systems response to that radiation effect. The main problem that AGW sceptics have is shown by their claim that computer climate models greatly overestimate the effects of GHG emissions likely by a factor of 3.
AGW would warm the exo-tropics much more than the tropics, reducing the temperature difference that drive storms. So global warming actually reduces storminess. Studies show that colder climates had more severe storms and the actual number of strong tornadoes have been declining over the last 40 years.
Since the spiked temperatures of the El Nino in 1998 temperatures as measured by both surface and satellite have been flat despite the rise in CO2. IPCC climate models predicted +0.20 per decade. Actual has been -0.054 per decade. Although there have been increases in temps in parts of the world and decreases in others there has been no average increase in global warming for the last 16 years! (one reason that the press is no longer calling this crisis "global warming" but rather "climate change".
95% of GHG's are water vapor. Warming causes more water vapor in the lower atmosphere but declining water vapor in the upper atmosphere, where it has more effect on warming by a factor of 80.
Historical records seem to indicate that the Minoan, Roman and Medieval periods had warmer temperatures than today. Greenland was farmed for awhile by the Vikings just before the last mini ice age.
Solar activity measured since 1600 shows direct correlation between solar activity and temperature.
IPCC computer models include little if any natural factors such as solar activity.
There is no evidence that a warmer climate will increase extinction rates.
The Global Integrated Drought Monitoring and Prediction System shows a declining trend of world drought over the last 30 years.
Global sea ice in 2014 has risen 300,000 sq. km greater than the 1979-2008 average.
Atmospheric methane has risen 0.2% over the last 10 years. The IPCC forecasts methane to increase 6 times faster than recent obllservations.
And finally from other notes - Ocean levels are not like lake levels. Sea level varies in different parts of the world because of gravity, winds and other factors. The Indian Ocean is about 200 feet below average and the coast of Ireland is over 200 feet above average. Water expands as it warms and sea levels have been gradually increasing which should be totally expected if long term natural trends mean anything. Even though some low lying islands in the Pacific have lost dry land, because coral reefs are still being produced the last couple decades have seen an actual increase of island land by 11%. Antarctic ice is in no danger of melting and Arctic sea ice as discussed before will not raise sea levels. That leaves Greenland which is still chugging out those large chucks of ice, but not at a clip that is radically different than the past.
The idea that 97% of scientist believe AGW is a threat to our planet is a totally bogus number. But don't believe me. Do your research.
Saturday, November 1, 2014
The Long Coal Train
The Long Coal Train is one of my favorite posts from when I did the 2 Timothy 2: 1-2 blog. This one is from August of 2007.
I am still trying to figure out how to cut and paste copy using my new Chromebook. Oh well.
The Long Coal Train
I am still trying to figure out how to cut and paste copy using my new Chromebook. Oh well.
The Long Coal Train
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