The Peaceful Gnome

Cool photo, not so cool fire...

Here is an awesome Pastor's round-table from Issues Etc. on the Holy Spirit:

Americans have become terrified of all risk, just look at any airport or watch kids riding bikes or skating with pads and helmets and being tracked via GPS... We've become a nation of cowards whimpering for big mommy government to protect us from the nasty scary real world, giving up every vestige of freedom in exchange for the mere illusion of safety. We need to risk failure or even injury, we should enjoy a little bit of danger, otherwise life is just too pathetic to bother with. IMO.

And the pig responds, "It ain't no more." Nice.

SFGate: Day in Pictures Source: www.sfgate.com Careful, somebody spilled some freedom: The correct translation of these characters at an art exhibition in Beijing is "Caution slippery," but this one works too.

C S Lewis and Galileo by Hobbits, Narnia & Spirituality Examiner, Mark Sommer Source: www.examiner.com Today marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s telescope, an invention which helped promote the Copernican view of the universe. It also is seen by many as the start of the divergence of religion ...

What's it all about, where are we going? The journey is the thing after all. Or so I think anyway, and I'm certainly enjoying the journey even if it's not the point, so for me it works :-) Here's a bit from Alan Watts Theater , a few little cartoon presentations, Matt Stone and Trey Parker -created, of recorded passages from Alan Watts presentations. I found this on Sandra Dodd's web sit after doing a Randomize me search. That's a good way to find cool things on her site, it's so big and full of unschooling wisdom I never know what to look for, but since it's all good anyway random works ;-)

Warm and sunny buy its nice under the oaks. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I am hiking on Pleasanton ridge right now. Alone for once as no one else wanted to come with me. It is sort of peaceful actually. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

So, whenever I want to embed audio from Issues Etc. the embed button is missing. I don't know why. Anyway I'm trying to fake it by pasting in the url of the mp3 that is up into an old embed. Lets see if it works ;-) Update, it worked! :-) This is Issues Etc. reviewing a sermon by Pastor William Weedon who writes Weedon's Blog . It's about the proper way to respond to things like the ELCA apostasy: Click here if you don't see the embedded audio player to go to Issues etc. on demand page.

Here is some perspective about just what a $100,000,000.00 cut from the Federal Budget means.

So now I am seeing if I can post a photo... Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

So I opened a twitter account. Why? I have no idea. But then thought I'd try blog posting via email. Thus this post. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

I'm often asked for help with computer problems that I really have no idea how to fix, yet I almost always find my way through. Here is a flow chart from xkcd that actually shows you how to do this yourself, it's the exact method I use! :-) Cool. Click to embigenate image.

Heh, this was found by doing an "Angry Gnome" search on Google. I figured since it looks a bit like me I'd share ;-) Maybe I'll use it in my Profile pic instead of the real one ;-)

Back on June 3rd I declared that if they closed the California state parks I would just jump the fence anyway . I am not alone in this idea now. In Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle Tom Stienstra wrote in the Outdoors section that " When it comes to passion, I'll tell you this: Nobody is going to keep me out of the state parks. A lot of people feel exactly the same...It's also my belief that the state's residents already own these parks, and we don't need somebody's OK to use what already belongs to us, within rules designed to prevent damage, of course ." You tell them Tom! Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/23/SPOJ19B4BS.DTL#ixzz0P34sWWLO

Adapted from Google news story. God Smites ELCA convention with warning shot , more to follow: Winds tore off part of a 90-year-old metal church steeple ( note cross ripped from steeple and left dangling upside down ) in downtown Minneapolis and damaged at least 40 homes in south of the city. Jack Freitag said he was standing in the lobby of the Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis when he saw "a wall cloud from the south coming across the parking lot." Then a "very loud roar" came through as he saw signs being blown around in the wind. The wind tore off part of the church's 90-year-old metal steeple around 2 p.m. while about 120 people were inside, said church spokesman Joe Bjordal. "I was worried about the people then," said Freitag, who told everyone to seek shelter in the church's basement. No one was injured. Outside the church, strong winds ripped apart large outdoor tents and scattered chairs and folding tables across the parking lot that...

They are not really Lutheran any more, nor Christian for that matter, IMO: The ELCA Formally Endorses Homosexuality: How to Respond Posted using ShareThis

I dunno. I guess I'm just feeling cranky for some reason. ;-/ Last week I didn't do much at all, just was in recovery mode from the long week of Pat's vacation, which I'm going to pay him back for in a couple of weeks when we run off to San Diego for the Woo Hoo! Serenity, Topanga, (but not Lora), and I did go off to Shadow Cliffs for a bit on Saturday afternoon. We were only there for a little while. I'm glad I got the yearly East Bay Parks membership because that way I don't mind if we go and then the kids decide to leave after an hour, I don't get bent out of shape over wasting the $6.00 parking fee cause I didn't have to pay it! :-) We set up the new tent I got in the back yard and the kids slept in it Saturday night, they seemed to enjoy that. There now, it's not all cranky political rants now. :-)

Hey, now lets make fun of the mentally ill! :-)

Ah, the spread of totalitarianism in Europe continues: STOCKHOLM, August 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Swedish Association for Home Education (ROHUS) is asking for support from the international community to stop an attempt by the Swedish government to outlaw homeschooling. The new legislation argues that because a child's education should be "comprehensive and objective" it must be "designed so that all pupils can participate, regardless of what religious or philosophical" views of parents or children. The government's explanation of the draft law says, "there is no need for the law to offer the possibility of homeschooling because of religious or philosophical reasons in the family." Read the full story here. This is the direction the Democrats want to take us, toward a more European style of government, health care, education and taxes as well. Sadly the Republicans are nearly as bad and just want to decorate the place with more flags while...

Muhammad in Hell; Dante's Inferno Canto 28, verses 30-31; Illustration by Gustave Dore Source: Gutenberg Project A cask by losing centre-piece or cant Was never shattered so, as I saw one Rent from the chin to where one breaketh wind. Between his legs were hanging down his entrails; His heart was visible, and the dismal sack That maketh excrement of what is eaten. While I was all absorbed in seeing him, He looked at me, and opened with his hands His bosom, saying: "See now how I rend me; How mutilated, see, is Mahomet; In front of me doth Ali weeping go, Cleft in the face from forelock unto chin; And all the others whom thou here beholdest, Disseminators of scandal and of schism While living were, and therefore are cleft thus. A devil is behind here, who doth cleave us Thus cruelly, unto the falchion's edge Putting again each one of all this ream, When we have gone around the doleful road; By reason that our wounds are closed again Ere any one in front of him re...

This sort of thing just makes my blood boil! Maybe it is now time for a new Crusade to free those Christian lands still occupied by the violent Muslim heretic vermin; on to Constantinople! Free Antioch! Free Alexandria! Wipe Islam off the face of the earth once and for all! Or not, whatever... we certainly should not allow the threat of punk violence from followers of a false prophet now burning in hell to dictate what we can publish in our own universities! From the Guardian: Publisher bans images of Muhammad in new book Yale University Press has ditched plans to reprint the Danish cartoons and other caricatures in a study of the controversy Protesters in Peshawar in February 2006 burn a Danish flag in protest at the Muhammad cartoons. Photograph: Arshad Arbab/EPA Yale University Press has decided against reprinting the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad in a book examining the controversy, after being advised by Islam(ic) and counter...

Cool video about education in India. It's about 20 minutes long and very interesting. He gets to the point of essentially advocating a form of unschooling starting about 1/2 way through. Education is "self-organizing."

The terrorism double standard, if they do it to us it's terrorism, if we do it to them it's just war. Bombings Worse than Nagasaki and Hiroshima by Laurence M. Vance Shared via AddThis

It is odd that the only people who meekly tolerate the humiliating groping and searching and insulting assumption that everyone trying to board an airplane is a terrorist, are Americans. People from the third world are offended at the treatment that is meted out to virtually everyone at American airports and even just getting on an American airline in another country. It is very sad when the people of a nation that once prided itself on its freedom are willing to bow their heads in humble submission to their masters and shuffle off to be strip searched on the whim of a low IQ punk in a cheap uniform. Pathetic. No airlines for me until the "War on Terror (by people we don't like)" is declared over and done with and we return to sanity and freedom. Row over US Bollywood 'detention' Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan has appeared in more than 7...

He's talking about "unschooling" without calling it that. Which is good in a way since so many people react to "unschooling" the way they do to "anarchy." :-) I tend to like to get up in peoples face with this sort of thing in order to challenge their assumptions, but sometimes it is good to re-frame the conversation in such a way that confrontation is minimized. So, I don't disapprove of using words like "autonomous or informal learning".

Ah, what a long glorious run he had :-) The Father of the electric guitar has passed on to Rock and Roll Heaven at the age of 94. :-( Also check out this nice story about him here .

Imperial Twilight Observing America's Decline and Transformation Wednesday, August 12, 2009 Getting Out From Under the Dollar Local businesses in Pittsboro, NC have issued their own paper currency : A few dozen local businesses banded together this spring to distribute the Plenty – a local currency intended to replace the dollar. Now 15,000 Plenties are in circulation here, used everywhere from the organic food co-op to the feed store to, starting this month, the Piggly Wiggly supermarket. Last popularized during the Great Depression, scrip, or locally created stand-ins for U.S. currency, is making a comeback. Pittsboro, population 2,500, is one of a handful of communities that launched its own money in recent months. It reports an avalanche of calls from other communities that have lost faith in the global financial system. "The Plenty is not going to get siphoned off to Wall Street, or Washington, or make a stop in Bent...

Father Hollywood posted this YouTube of Libera , I enjoyed it so I'm pasting here as well :-)

A friend sent a version of this to me in an email. For some reason someone had added 40 years to Regina Brett's age in the oft forwarded version. I suppose they thought it gave it more "authority" as the wisdom of the ages if it came from a 90 year old instead of a 50 year old. Sadly this is typical of forwarded stuff I get, it is badly distorted or just plain false in almost every case. But the content was pretty good so I looked up the original, which took less time than it did to write this paragraph, and posted it here for others to enjoy: Regina Brett's 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on Posted by Regina Brett September 20, 2007 14:03PM Originally published in The Plain Dealer on Sunday,May 28, 2006 To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here's an update: 1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good. 2. When in...

Now, this is just plain sad. Can you really imagine giving up the glorious liturgy and the sacraments (FYI, Lora has a solo during the distribution of Holy Communion, toward the end of this mp3 around 59 minutes in, nice job :-) , which are the very means of grace , and that have been passed down for millennia within Holy Mother Church, in exchange for this crap ? Father Hollywood has some good comments about this on Gottesdienst Online, This is What Liturgy Prevents.

Us vs. Them... they are evil we are good and righteous and holy. But really, dead is dead and if it's your child lying bleeding on the ground it doesn't make much difference if it's because someone was fighting to impose democracy or theocracy, your child is still just as dead. War: a stupid idea every time. Our Suicide Bombers by Tom Engelhardt -- Antiwar.com Shared via AddThis

I tried not to comment on this but I can't let this abomination pass. Sotomayor is a declared anti-white racist, not fit for any court let alone the Supreme Court of these united States of America, she will be sworn in for no other reason than that she is Hispanic and a woman . The only thing about this that really shocks me is that she is not a declared Lesbian as well, though that could come later on I suppose. This is what affirmative action is and it makes me want to puke.

Routes Toward Trustful Parenting and Children's Freedom in Our Time Your child navigates, but you provide the pond.

Science and the Sacred from the Bio-Logos foundation provides a very nice take on science in harmony with faith, here is today's offering: The Necessity of Faith - Science and the Sacred Shared via AddThis

Great stuff from XKCD. This assumes you are familiar with both Deep Impact and The Little Prince , lacking either bit of knowledge the cartoon loses most of its dark humor. :-)

The Lutheran Church, the church of Abraham, Moses, Peter, Augustine and every other believer in history: Where was the Lutheran Church before Luther? Posted using ShareThis

The article linked below demonstrates that, in spite of my constant denigrating of the state of freedom in the American Empire, it remains true that our forefathers left the lands of Europe seeking freedom and they planted those ideas pretty deeply here. As oppressive as our police state has become over the last hundred years, when one compares it to the vile socialist-totalitarian states of Europe, and I'm talking about England, Sweden and Germany here, not Russia, we almost seem free here. Whoda thunk it? HOME-SCHOOLING: Losing ground all over Europe - Washington Times Shared via AddThis

Hysterical, idiotic overreaction to minor incidents. If the guy had a real bomb they would have shut down the airport for a week I suppose. Just more grandstanding by idiot Govco vermin desperately struggling to justify their pointless existence. Ah well, it will never impact me because I will never fly and so will not subject myself to such nonsense, not unless the American Empire and its police state government are disbanded and the Republic is restored... which is not going to happen, ever.