Fear Not

Have you ever wondered what the rest of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech was about when he said, "... the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" during his first inaugural address to the nation. It is as relevant today as it was in 1933. Without further ado ...

****************

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days


In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.


More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.


Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.


True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.


The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.


Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.


Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.


Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.


Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.


Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.


Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.


There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.


Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.


The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.


In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.


If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.


With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.


Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.


It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.


I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.


But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.


For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.


We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.


We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.


In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.


VIA History Matters Source: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, as published in Samuel Rosenman, ed., The Public Papers of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Volume Two: The Year of Crisis, 1933 (New York: Random House, 1938), 11–16. 

AS ALWAYS

PIO

Layla's Party

Layla is turning five years old. Kim gave her a birthday party Saturday at her house. Scout put up the Halloween decorations. Kim decorated for the party. Together they did a great job. It was a beautiful day for an outdoor party.

The front yard was decorated.

Layla entertained us on the drums.

The Reeves and Burchfields were there.

Layla and her cousin sang for us.

Layla is enamored with Taylor Swift, hense the sequined dress and blonde wig. She got to go to a Taylor Swift concert a couple of weeks ago.  She got a pink drum set for her birthday, too. She's a lucky little girl.


This was the first time we all went to Layla's party. I think our favorite part was watching the kids bob for apples. Layla's grandmother JuJu dunked the kids heads. 


Happy Birthday Little Layla. We love you.

AS ALWAYS

PIO

Bats and Bees

The other night I was watching a PBS program about the American bat. An alarming number of bats are dying because of White Nose Syndrome (WNS). White fungus has been found growing on their muzzles and other parts of their bodies. They normally hibernate deep within the caves in winter to maintain a warm temperature but the bats infected with the white fungus hang closer to the entrance of the cave. They have low body weight and exhibit strange behavior. They are known to fly in the daytime during cold winter days when there aren't any insects to feed on or water to drink. Bats are nocturnal mammals that hibernate.

The fungus was first reportedly growing on bats in New York. The disease has since spread all the way south to Tennessee, and beyond. The fungus is killing huge populations of bats. 

You may not realize how important bats are to our ecosystem but they really are. Without bats to eat millions of insects during warm weather we would be more susceptible to diseases like malaria and typhoid. Bats eat mosquitoes, and moths, and other flying insects. For information on bats and how to build a bat house you can check out Benefits of Bats here.

This mysterious fungus is spreading across the United States. 

For years, we have heard about bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) spreading across the United States. Millions of bees just disappeared. It has been attributed to a loss or confusion of direction, or disease, or insecticides or herbicides. Bees are also being attacked by mites which weaken and kill off the hives. This new episode of lost colonies is just one more assault on nature's wonderful little pollinators and honey makers.

You probably think I am being overly melodramatic about bats and bees but every living creature in the ecosystem has a purpose. Without bees we wouldn't be able to pollinate enough of our crops and that would cause a food shortage. Without bats we would be eaten up by mosquitoes and it would become unbearable to work or play outdoors in warm weather.

I worry about the world in which we live and the destruction of this fragile cycle of life we depend on. 

DDT,  dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was an efficient pesticide used to control malaria and typhus in World War II but was banned in 1972 after an environmentalist movement. It was devastating on the environment, particularly birds. Bald eagles were nearly extinct until the ban. Their eggs were so brittle that they couldn't survive because of the DDT. DDT was linked to cancer and diabetes in humans.

Nature seems to be turning on itself and destroying the very things we depend on to help and protect us.

Pine trees are infected with pine bark beetles across the south. We used to have plenty of pine trees on the hill behind our house and the ground was covered with pine needles. I loved the pine carpeting of the woods underneath the trees. The trees are infected with beetles. Now, Magnolia trees, hickory bushes (aka Chinese privet) and brambles are springing up underneath the pine trees that were there when we first came here. The pine trees are dying out and there aren't enough pine needles to cover the ground any more so other vegetation is taking over the undergrowth.

I don't know how to help the bees and bats and prevent the pine bore beetle but I hope we can figure something out or else we will all be in trouble. Instead of using chemicals we need to utilize nature's help.

Other diseases are infecting plants across America. One is attacking azaleas and other woody plants and trees in our environment. It is called Sudden Oak Disease (SOD). It can kill oak trees, rhododendrons, and many more indigenous plants. I'm beginning to believe Mother Nature is out of whack.

I've also noticed there aren't near as many lightning bugs as there were when I was a kid. They're disappearing too. When the plant life, and the insects, and mammals start disappearing you know we're in danger.

We depend on this planet to sustain us and provide for us. We are nature's gardeners. We need to take better care of earth. She's all we've got.

An article was posted on the Rome News Tribune on March 12, 2013. Deadly to Bats Confirmed in Northwest Georgia

I found this in Salon on May 1, 2013.  How Neglecting Bees Could Endanger Humans

White Nose Syndrome Cure*
http://news.discovery.com/animals/common-bacterium-cures-bats-white-nose-syndrome-150515.htm


orig. 10/13/11 
*edited 5/16/15

AS ALWAYS

PIO

Fall is Here

Loofah plant

Birdhhouse goards

(Double Bubble) goard *

Loofah plants

Drying peppers

Elaeagnus aka 'Silverleaf' or 'Ugly Agnes'

Tiny white flowers

It has a sweet aroma

Turnip green garden for fall

I'm glad that Donny planted some turnip greens for a fall garden. We love eating greens so our little garden will be a pleasant addition to our food supply.


I have been drying peppers in my dehydrator. After they dry I put them in a bag until I get enough to crush in my food processor. We use the red peppers on our spaghetti and in chili and soups. This year I am drying red bell peppers and going to mix it with the cayanne and banana peppers. 


I wanted to show off our Elaeagnus bush. When you flip the leaves over it is silver underneath. Tiny flowers are all over the bush. The smell is heavenly.


* I made that up

AS ALWAYS

PIO

SEX

WARNING: THIS POST IS NOT FOR EVERYONE

Recently I have become aware of a couple of things that I had never thought about or considered before. If you are squeamish and want to avoid anything disgusting or shocking, stop reading now.

FIRST

I stumbled across a group on Facebook that opposes circumcision. I started reading some of the testimonials about men who had been circumcised and the problems they suffered because of it. The first testimonial was about a man who couldn't experience sexual pleasure because of his circumcision. Other stories told of men who felt betrayed by their parents and the doctors who circumcised them. Even some Jews are speaking out against circumcision. 

What really caught my interest and sparked my indignation was when I read that circumcision was performed to remove the foreskin of the penis to deter the desire to masturbate. Circumcision removes the most sensitive part of the penis with millions of little nerves that enhance pleasure. This practice was mainly common in Jewish and Muslim cultures. Only about 30% of the male population in the world are circumcised. Most European men are not circumcised. In America it is considered acceptable and even recommended by most doctors.

I didn't realize that women are also circumcised in other cultures around the world until a famous model, Iman, the wife of David Bowie, spoke out against it. Circumcising of the female is far more drastic than male circumcision. It is considered Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) because they remove some or all of the exposed female genitalia. The clitoris is removed to reduce the libido of the female. Sometimes the vaginal opening is sewed shut. This procedure is usually done by a circumciser on babies from a few days old to older little girls. It is usually done without anaesthesia or sterile conditions. This drastically reduces the woman's desire to have sex.

I was shocked to see a video of a woman in America who had been circumcised when she was a little girl. She told about masturbating when she was a child to relive tension. Her mother, a very religious woman, took her to the doctor and had her circumcised. The woman was clearly uncomfortable talking about being mutilated but wanted to spread the word that this kind of unnecessary assault happens everywhere, even in America.

I read that some circumcisions on men are so severe when they have an erection that it causes pain, and some even bleed around the scar on the penis. The foreskin of the penis is removed because it has been believed to prevent diseases when the penis isn't cleaned properly. Men are being circumcised in countries like Africa where HIV is rampant because they believe it will help prevent the disease. What they don't say, though, is that it is no more preventative and cost efficient than condoms are.

Improperly performed circumcisions can cause the penis to lean to the left or the right.

The more I read and researched this information on the internet, the more I realized that this practice is archaic and a brutal unnecessary ritual.

The foreskin on the penis is a natural lubricant that protects the glans of the penis and gives the woman more pleasure. There shouldn't be a need for lubricants during intercourse. The foreskin protects both partners from chaffing. If that is not reason enough to reconsider circumcision, ask yourself why you are doing it. If you are doing it because everybody else is doing it that is a stupid and uneducated reason. If you aren't doing it for religious reasons (Jewish, Muslim), why are you having your baby circumcised? Some people said "so the baby will look like his daddy". Really people, are they going to compare equipment with each other? Seriously. 

Like mamma used to say, "Just because everybody else is jumping off a bridge doesn't mean you should do it, too?" 

How about cutting everybody's little finger off when they are little? That makes just as much sense as cutting anything else off of a healthy normal baby, especially their genitalia.

It is unthinkable to think that any intelligent woman in America believes it is right to circumcise (FGM) little girls. Both practices should be abandoned unless there is a serious medical condition requiring it. I can't think of one.

For more information go to The WHOLE Network or on Facebook or find information on Wikipedia.

SECOND

I was watching TV late one night and saw a show about "the dancing boys of Afghanistan". http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/12/dancing-boys-afghanistan

This story was equally disturbing.

The ancient practice of 'bacha bazi' (boys for play) is practiced in Afghanistan. It had been in practice until the Taliban banned it. That is one thing I have to agree with the Taliban about but now the practice is reviving.

Bacha bazi is the practice of men buying young boys from their families and taking them in to learn to make music and dance as a woman for the men in the community. Women are not allowed to perform for men because of their backwards and primitive culture so they have devised a way around it. Owners of the dancing boys take them to entertain during ceremonies like weddings or birthdays. Their culture prohibits women from attending these parties. Young boys dance seductively and dress in feminine clothing to entice the men. The owner of the young boys uses them as concubines to relieve the men's inhibitions. The boys are kept until they are 19 or 20 or so and no longer desirable.

After the boys are no longer servants they are free to live as a man in society. They can even get married and have a family if they want to but there is still a stigma attached to them.

One young boy said that he was 15 and when he turned 19 he would probably no longer dance but have a harem of bacha bazi boys. Another man said he would like to have sex with the bacha bazi boy if he could. One man said he would like to have his own bacha bazi boy if his wife didn't mind. And yet another old man said his wife didn't have any say in the matter. If he wanted a boy to live with him, he would.

These are the type of men that you wouldn't trust with your sheep. I naively thought that God had wiped out the sodomites when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. I can not imagine a community of men who rape and have sex with young boys.

Homosexuality is one thing. I don't think you can help how you are born, but a whole culture that practices sodomy just because they don't respect women is bizarre. They would rather sleep with a boy than go to a prostitute. And I don't condone going to prostitutes but that seems more natural. 

I've decided men are more like dogs than I thought. They will hump anything. Maybe that's what men are doing when they are 'on the down-low' in America. They're just sex addicts. Maybe they're not really closet queers.

It appalls me that this obscene custom isn't reviled and squashed. What kind of people are the people of Afghanistan who would do such a perverted thing? I cannot understand such twisted logic. I wonder how the women of the culture feel about the practice. I wonder how the families of the young boys feel about prostituting their children out for a pittance to destroy their innocence. The whole culture condones sexual slavery. That is abhorrent. 

The bacha bazi boys should not be mistaken for homosexuals. They are slaves, owned by a master who can whore him out to anybody or anything. The young boys interviewed all knew of bacha bazi dancers who had been killed. They admitted it was a dangerous life unless they totally complied.

This ancient practice has been perpetuated for centuries. They all need to come into the light and come into the twenty first century. Their culture is primitive and deeply disturbing. 

Epilogue

Both of these subjects are very disturbing. I know this wasn't an easy article to read. If you have read this far, I commend you. I believe that knowledge is power and knowledge should be shared. Until we bring the truth into the light we will be stumbling around in the dark. I don't know how you feel now but I bet you will look at sex in a whole new light from now on.

AS ALWAYS

PIO 

OCTOBER

It seems like summer barely got started and now it's over. The weather has changed and everything is taking on an autumnal feel. That's good if you don't like 90° temperatures, although I do. The cooler temperatures and breezes are a nice change though. I like having the windows open and hearing the crickets and frogs at night.


Donny planted collard greens in the garden where our squash garden had been. We haven't had a fall garden in years. I look forward to having fresh greens this year.


I pulled the loofah plants off the vine and picked some red peppers to dry. I'm going to crush them and put them in baggies so I can sprinkle them in foods when I cook. 


It's almost Halloween. You can tell because Scout has already been digging around in the barn looking for Halloween decorations. He likes to decorate for the holidays. I told him that he could take anything he wanted but he would have to bring it back packed back up if he wants to store it here. You wouldn't believe how many messes he likes to make. We still have a box of Christmas lights sitting on the carport from last year.


Speaking of Scout and his messy ways, I think Kim is starting to understand why I was always griping at him and staying on his butt about doing things. They are living together now and she gets to see first hand how much he makes messes.


I went into the bathroom after he took a bath here one day and there were hairs all over my faucet and in the sink. I got on to him and told him that he was developing bad habits since he wasn't living here anymore. He didn't leave hairs all over the faucet when he lived at home. And, why the heck was he taking a bath and shaving here? He said the lighting was bad at his house and he could see to shave here. I told him he better clean up after himself if he wanted privileges around here. Egads! He's devolved. That's not good. 


I was chewing his ear off one day when I told him he was a lot like his father. He doesn't pay attention to me, either. Scout admitted that Kim accuses him of the same thing. I don't understand men, but I do know them. I've lived with three men for long enough to know it doesn't matter how many times you tell them something, unless they want to hear you, they're not going to listen. Some things you can not change. Believe me; I have tried.


I hate going behind everybody and cleaning up after them so I gave up. I felt defeated until I found FlyLady and learned to change my stinking thinking around. I realized I couldn't change anybody but I could change myself. I've clung to my shiny sink and my kitchen routine. That is one think I can control.


Donny and I are usually empty nesters until Colt comes home for the weekend. I've gotten used to feeding the pets and cooking dinner for two again. It's usually quiet around here but on the weekends I have my baby home. He and I watch TV into the wee hours of the night.


The boys are going to fix my speedometer and brakes on the Buick this weekend. With any luck we might even get a few more things done around here. I love having my family around. Maybe we'll get to see Kim and the baby, too. 


Last week Jason brought Tristan to visit. Jason is 'another son'. He and Allen grew up with Scout and Colt. I loved watching little Tristan running around in the backyard chasing cats everywhere. They don't visit very often.


We used to have little boys running around in the backyard all the time. God, I miss the good old days.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Joann, Shannon, Alesha, Lon, Layla, Matt, Devan, Michelle, Kelly, Debbie, Chase, Barry, Diane, Summer

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Kelly and Troy

AS ALWAYS

PIO

Something Borrowed

~~~author unknown, shared on the internet via southern discussion group~~~

MAKE SURE YOU READ ALL THE WAY TO THE END
WHERE IS THE GARDEN OF EDEN
AS IT WAS TOLD IN THE BIBLE,GO TO THE GREEN THEN THE BIBLE

Read all of this one, it is interesting!!

Near the bottom--the part highlighted in green--will give you GOOSE BUMPS!!!

You don't want to miss this! ((*_*) )

VERY INTERESTING-

1. The Garden of Eden was in Iraq .

2. Mesopotamia, which is now Iraq, was the cradle of civilization!

3. Noah built the ark in Iraq ...

4. The Tower of Babel was in Iraq ..

5. Abraham was from Ur, which is in Southern Iraq ...

6. Isaac's wife Rebekah is from Nahor, which is in Iraq ...
7. Jacob met Rachel in Iraq .

8. Jonah preached in Nineveh - which is in Iraq ...

9. Assyria, which is in Iraq, conquered the ten tribes of Israel .

10. Amos cried out in Iraq ..

11 Babylon , which is in Iraq , destroyed Jerusalem ..

12. Daniel was in the lion's den in Iraq .

13. The three Hebrew children were in the fire in Iraq (Jesus had been in Iraq also as the fourth person in the Fiery Furnace!).

14. Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the 'writing on the wall' in Iraq .

15. Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq

16. Ezekiel preached in Iraq ...

17. The wise men were from Iraq ...

18. Peter preached in Iraq ..

19. The 'Empire of Man' described in Revelation is called Babylon --which was a cityin Iraq..

And you have probably seen this one: Israel is the nation most often mentioned in the Bible.

But do you know which nation is second?

It is Iraq !

However, that is not the name that is used in the Bible.

The names used in the Bible are Babylon , Land of Shinar , and Mesopotamia .... The word Mesopotamia means between the two rivers, more exactly between the Tigris And Euphrates Rivers .

The name Iraq means country with deep roots.

Indeed Iraq is a country with deep roots and is a very significant country in the Bible.

No other nation, except Israel , has more history and prophecy associated
With it than Iraq ..

And also, this is something to think about:

Since America is
Typically represented by an eagle.
Saddam should have read up on his Muslim passages ...

The following verse is from the Koran, (the Islamic Bible)
Koran (9:11 ) - For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle.. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah;
And there was peace.

(Note the verse number!) Hmmmmmmm?!

***********************************
bible scholars, is this right?

~~~comments welcome~~~

AS ALWAYS

PIO

All My Children

All My Children went off the air after 41 years on American Broadcasting Company last Friday. ABC is owned by the Disney Corporation so you could say the house of Disney killed All My Children. What had been a rich and entertaining serial drama became a shell of itself as stories focused on the younger demographic. 

Older, more mature characters were displaced by vapid, young, attractive performers with little legitimate experience. Their acting skills had to be honed on the set and in front of the cameras. Instead of giving us stories with substance 'the powers that be' started recycling storylines. It seemed like an attempt to drive long time fans away from their beloved soaps. 


When they weren't able to drive the fans away with shallow storylines, they moved the entire production from the east coast to the west coast. I've no doubt they were hoping the top stars (i.e. Susan Lucci, Cameron Mathison, Alicia  Minshew, etc.) would refuse to relocate. Then they would have blamed the stars who didn't go for the failure of the show. I believe Susan Lucci surprised them by signing on and commuting to the west coast to film each week for a year and a half. She went on a book signing tour for 'All My Life' and promised her fans that All My Children wasn't going to be cancelled. When Miss Lucci came back to AMC from her book tour in April the mouse pounced. 


ABC finally announced they were pulling the plug on two of their soap operas and going to replace them with low budget programs. All My Children was being replaced by The Chew, a cooking show. One Life To Live is going to be replaced next year by The Revolution, a fashion show. I've read rumors that Katie Couric was going to have her own talk show on ABC soon. That would probably knock General Hospital off the air.


A great cry went up from the fans and they sent letters and emails to ABC and Disney protesting the demise of their beloved soaps. The fans raised such a ruckus Prospect Park made an offer to buy the rights to produce the soaps online. ABC had declined other legitimate offers. The deal from Prospect Park is a total unknown. Soap operas have always been on radio, first, and then television. The transition from television to the internet is shifting it into a completely new genre. Nobody knows how this will work. Nobody knows if this will even work!


Now I am surfing the channels looking for something interesting to replace my hour of All My Children. I would rather do that than spend every day angry because I lost my show. Today I am watching Days Of Our Lives. It shouldn't take long to get interested in that. I've already seen a couple of familiar faces from my soaps. 


I don't know if the Prospect Park venture is a ploy to divert all the All My Children fans or if it will really come to fruition. Even if it does go online that is no guarantee that it will survive. They will have to draw back enough fans to make the show viable. I've already heard grumblings about having to buy a box to convert the programs to our computers. If it's going to cost a lot of start up money and paying a subscription fee I doubt I will be interested in watching soaps online. That is sad and depressing.


I don't know why ABC sold out to Disney. It appears the executives at Disney want to micromanage daytime TV and don't care for or respect the daytime audience. Soaps haven't failed over just the past few years. They were being destroyed for decades. I have seen so many 'who's the daddy' and 'dead baby' stories that I am conditioned to accept it without question. You wouldn't believe how many 'back from the dead' characters I have seen resurrected over the years.


It's hard to explain to people who don't watch soap operas why we are so invested in them. The characters become familiar like family members. I've watched Erica Kane evolve and grow over the years. I used to hate her and her pompous attitude. Over the years I have grown to understand her and accept her for who she is. 


Although the writers have been dismantling and sabotaging the characters over the years, I remember when they were more innocent and likable characters. That is owed to the incredible actors who shine through and make you root for them even if the writers seem to be making this crap up as they are smoking crack.


I want to thank the wonderful actors and crew for producing such a wonderful show over the years and for their dedication to the fans. They have gone above and beyond the call of duty when they were forced to relocate and film the program in California. Many actors on soap operas used their down time to work on Broadway when they weren't on the show. Moving to the west coast changed their ability to perform in theater. Despite all that, the actors and some of the crew went with All My Children. 


ABC deserted AMC after 41 years. OLTL has been on the air 42 years. They are like two old divorcees who were dumped by their uncaring and unappreciative husband for a new, upgraded model. The fans will not forget. 


I plan on boycotting ABC after OLTL goes off the air in January. I will never support Disney again. No more Micky Mouse lunch boxes. No more Disney toys for the little kids in my life. No more Disney what-so-ever. No matter what, I am not going to be a watcher of The Chew or The Revolution. They are too lame for words. Yuck!  

The 100th  Edition

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Please don't forget to vote for J.R. Martinez on Dancing With The Stars on ABC. He is a wounded veteran who had a storyline on AMC. He also went to Dalton High School in Dalton Georgia. He is a real sweetheart. 1-800-868-3410

AS ALWAYS

PIO

Who's Keeping Score

We have a running joke in the family about who is the better driver; or should I say, really, who is the worst driver. Needless to say, "yours truly" held the record for a very, very long time and was teased and reminded constantly. Thanks boys.

When the kids were young they were with me the time I was backing out of the carport and tore the five foot wooden gate right off the hinges. It had so much momentum it bounced into the yard. Thank goodness I was driving the Mercury Marquee. It was an old yellow station wagon, built Ford tuff. 

Another time I scraped the side of Scout's Toyota as I was backing up in the driveway in my Ford truck. I didn't even see it. Donny scraped the other side.

One time when I was driving through Ringgold, I screeched up to a four-way stop so hard that it threw the timing chain off. Don's step-daddy, Charlie, said he'd never seen anyone do that before. I didn't know whether to be proud of that, or not. I think I was driving the station wagon that time, too. It was like driving a Sherman tank. The car was practically invincible.

I was trying to pull the boat out of a campground.The axle got hung and I nearly pulled the wheels off of the trailer. It was so warped we couldn't drive it home until Don crawled under it and tried to straighten it out. He was afraid I was going to take out some mailboxes on the windy little roads near Harrison Bay. Frankly, I was too.

I've had more close calls than I care to remember. Once I almost ran over some obnoxious woman when I changed lanes in town. I was driving the truck with a big white camper on it and it was hard to see out of the mirrors. I thought I was safe so I moved into the right lane. I pulled into the Chamber of Commerce parking lot and started to get out.

I didn't realize I had cut someone off until a car whipped in beside me and a woman started screaming at me because I had cut her off. She claimed I hadn't given a signal but, since my truck is old you have to turn the signal off and on by hand, I had turned it off when I stopped and couldn't prove it to her.

She was screaming about how I could have killed her baby and wouldn't shut up. I told her I was sorry I hadn't seen her but she must have gotten in my blind spot because I had checked the mirrors. I told her that I wouldn't have hit her baby, I would have hit her side of the car, if anything. She wanted to turn me into the police. I told her to go ahead and tell them what happened and see if they cared. I hadn't done anything on purpose and nobody was hurt so she should shut up. She finally left and I never did see the law.

Those are just a few of the examples of my bad driving record. 

One day Donny, and the kids, and I were in the backyard. Donny was going to move the station wagon. At the time we had a homemade power pole in the middle of the yard. Donny backed clean over that thing! I was so happy. Finally, somebody else had done something stupid while driving. The mantle had been passed. The best part about it was the fact that everybody saw. Scout, Colt, Jason, Allan and I had witnessed it. 

Scout told me about a couple of close calls but he managed to avoid having a wreck. Scout was driving in the country on a holiday when a car veered into his lane and nearly hit him. He said he had to drive halfway in the ditch to dodge the  other vehicle. Scout was afraid he would flip the truck. He thought the driver had to be drunk as a skunk to do that.

Everything was fine until Colt started to drive. He was terrible at tailgating other vehicles. I was always telling him to back off and not get on people's bumpers. Colt drove my Buick to Dalton College every day. One morning he rear-ended a car that was turning in to the school at Valley Point. He called me very upset. He figured I would be furious. I was just grateful that nobody was injured.

I am thankful that the guys will try to fix everything. They worked together to cut and replace the front of my Buick with another front end. Thankfully, with Scout's car expertise and Donny's skill in building, the car was perfectly square. No shop could have done better.

The title of worst driver has been passed on to Scout's girlfriend, Kim, now because she hit Colt's truck after it had been restored. She scraped the fender. She hit it while it was sitting in our driveway. Sound familiar? Welcome to the family, Kim. 

AS ALWAYS

PIO

Old People

One day Scout called me from his cell phone to ask me if he had left his keys in Colt's car. I said I didn't know but I'd go check for him. It was about to come a storm. I ran out to the car and checked the passenger side in the front and back but couldn't find any keys. I looked between the seats and then went around to check the driver's side in the floorboard. Colt's and Scout's coolers were in the car but I didn't check them. I took Colt's cooler out so I could pour the water out and came back inside.


Colt had climbed in the shower and I was waiting on him to get out and check everywhere again before calling Scout back to tell him if we found them. Scout called me back to ask if I had found his keys and I told him I looked everywhere, even between the seats, and I couldn't find them. I told him I'd let him know if Colt found them and then I hung up. Colt finally got out of the shower and ran to the car to look for Scout's keys. I told him that Scout said they could be in the back seat or maybe they were in the back of Bob's truck.


Colt went outside to check. He couldn't find them. He came back inside with Scout's pink cooler. There weren't any keys in the cooler so I called Scout and told him we couldn't find his keys. Was he sure he had lost them there? Did he need them to drive his car? And did he need a ride to Bob's to look for his keys since we couldn't find his keys.


Scout finally told me he was looking for his SHOES, not his keys! That's when I knew I was deaf but, in my defense, he was talking on a crappy cell phone. His alarm on the cell phone didn't go off till 8 o'clock this morning. Yeah, it was the crappy cell phone's fault. That's right. Oh yeah. 


I bet Scout thought I'd lost my mind when I said I even looked between the seats for them.

Times like that slap you right back into reality and remind you how you are no longer the young person smirking at the poor old goofy person who couldn't hear and misunderstood everything. I am now that poor old goofy person that misunderstands things. I don't want to be that old fart. I want to be the hip, young, cool one. 

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Donny cleaned out our fenced in garden where the squash had been growing. He mowed down weeds and raked up debris. He only left a few pepper plants and a couple of vines running up two sides of the fence. One vine was growing five beautiful double bubble birdhouse gourds. The other vine on the opposite fence had loofah plants all over it. 

I was so excited and hoped they would survive. I wanted to dry them and use them. Everything was about halfway grown when I noticed someone had stolen the gourd growing outside of the fence wire. That had to be the horrible neighbors. I only had four gourds left.

Naturally, I went inside and told Don all about somebody pulling the gourd off the vine. I was mad for a couple of days but I still watered them and checked the vines every day.

I was outside one day in the yard and noticed the leaves on the loofah plant were wilted. It shouldn't have wilted that bad. I tried to water it until I saw it was cut! Don had cut it with the weedeater. I yelled at him for killing the entire plant. I couldn't believe he would do that since he knew they were there. Men!

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I have a little crock pot that I use to cook dry beans. The base is separate from the pot. I cooked some October beans one day but they weren't done by dinner so I put the little crock pot in the refrigerator for the next day. The next day I put the crock pot in the microwave to warm the beans. I was going to put it back in the base to keep them warm until I fixed dinner.

I needed to run to the dollar store to get a couple of things for dinner so I told my husband that the beans were in the microwave. He was getting ready to take a bath, but I stressed that the bowl was in the microwave. All I wanted him to do was put the beans in the (base of the) crock pot after they were heated. I ran to get pet food and salmon.

When i came back home I unloaded the car and started to cook supper. I looked over at the crock pot and saw the white crock wasn't in the base. I looked in the microwave but they weren't there. I saw the crock pot sitting on my butcher's block but it was empty. Don had dumped the crock pot of beans into the base of the crock pot. I flipped out. Old people!

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I've decided this is the way to let off steam. Rather than rant and rave I'd be much better off just blogging about it. Nobody listens anyway and Donny and I are both deaf so it doesn't do any good to yell. He doesn't even listen when I'm not yelling.

AS ALWAYS

PIO