Annual annoying post.

Tis the season to ann-oy me, fa la la la la........... la.........la..........la..........la.


Okay, long time readers feel free to skip this one, you've heard it before.

The rest of you, prepare for me to offend you, again.

I hate Halloween. Hate it Hate it Hate it.

I be hatin'

Why? Because I am an over the top conservative Christian, self proclaimed Jesus Freak, and worshiper of the one and only true and Living God? Well, call it what you wish, I don't like this holiday.

And I am gonna tell you why..........

" Oh its just sweet little kids having a good time, eating some candy, and playing dress up, what could be wrong with that "

Nothing, if that's all it was. That is not all it is no matter how much you want to paint it that way. You can stick your head in the sand all you want, that's not all it is, that's not what it was, and it keeps getting worse and worse every year.

Some people might say that it 'was' a pagan festival, but that's not what it is now. They would be wrong (in my opinion of course). There is no positive or alternative spin you can put on it, its a celebration of the occult. It is condoning witchcraft, sorcery, and divination. It is a Wicca holiday, a witches holiday, and a celebration of moving out of the light into the darkness. The purpose of the date is because that is the time at which we begin to have more darkness and less light in the calender day.

Some might say, but what about all hallows eve, the celebration of the Saints. Well, back in the day, the Roman Catholic church, in one of its more corrupt moments ( my opinion again) attempted to move a holiday from May to a place where it overlapped with this pagan holiday in an attempt to bring the pagans into the Catholic faith. The told the Druids ( or maybe the Celts, cant remember) that they could keep their holiday, but now it was a celebration of something different. The pagans said thank you, but kept practicing the old traditions. The attempt at conversion never fully took, the pagans were still pagans but the Roman Catholic church of the day profited from the expansion.

Some might say, well, just going trick or treating cant be that big a deal, right? Well, its roots are not exactly pristine either. The ancient priests of the pagan religions would go out among the people to collect needed items for their festival. They would approach the villagers and tell them that they needed to treat them or else they would be tricked. In this way they forced the population to provide for their sacrifices and ceremonies. The alter for these things would be decorated with the skulls of their enemies. These people believe in reincarnation. Dead souls would be punished by being returned to earth in the form of animal, cats were a favorite.

Are you starting to see where some of this 'harmless' stuff has its roots?

My kid came home from school today with a goody bag she got IN CLASS that contained candied human body parts. Is this acceptable, or is it just me? (don't answer that) They also had a Halloween party. There had better be a Christmas party that at least mentions the reason for the season. In fact, if some mom or dad thought it was appropriate to send ghosts, pumpkins, and sweet tarts shaped like arms and legs home, I hope they appreciate the goody bag I send in for Christmas with stickers that proclaim Christ as the Saviour home with them!! ( okay, maybe I better think that thru a little, but I am grumpy right now)

I just sucks (pardon my language) that I now have to find a way to tell Gracie she cant keep the ghostly sucker, witch covered pencil, and candied thigh bones.

One more thing, the Jack o Lantern. Look up who Jack was. Too evil to go to heaven, too powerful to go to hell. Its just a story, but its a story that still produces millions of representations all around America every year.

I know I am extreme. We celebrate Christ, not Santa. We celebrate Jesus, not some dopey bunny, and we don't celebrate the darkness that wants to attack us.

If your not a Christian because you don't believe and don't want to, then that's your decision and I pray that someday God reaches you. If you are a Christian and don't see anything wrong with doing Halloween, I don't judge you, its your choice, but I would ask that you look a little deeper into the Word and pray about the issue in Faith.

Well, I know I have annoyed you at this point, so I will stop now.........

Comments welcome and I will attempt to respond to each one.. Thank you.

APB

All Points Bulletin:

This just in:

Tickle has been reported missing. MIA, AWOL, vaporized, gone, location unknown. She was last seen in Mt. Vernon Illinois in route to South Korea via Kansas. It is unknown at this time what exactly happened or when she disappeared. There are many rumors and stories however.

The first rumor is that she has been abducted by aliens. Worshippers of the Hale Bopp comet have been reported as saying they saw her just a few weeks ago near a black hole just outside our solar system. They claim that she was wearing a hula skirt and coconut bra with Perry Como playing in the background. This is the least likely scenario because it is a well known fact that she hates Perry Como.

The second rumor is that she has been abducted by a renegade gang of escaped penguins. One witness, a trustworthy looking heffalump, claims to have spotted her in an alley in the Bronx being chased by some penguins. The heffalump called the police but when they arrived they could find nothing of Tickle. The penguins were still there, but they just stood there a looked cute and cuddly. The heffalump also claimed to have seen Elvis in a Burger King in Kalamazoo Michigan a few years ago, so her story is skeptical. The police were all woozles, so we are skeptical about trusting them either.

A third rumored sighting comes to us from an island off the south eastern shore of Africa. A king, King Julian to be exact, claims to have seen the New York Giants on his Island as well as claiming that Tickle was with them. I don't know about you, but this reporter doesn't think the Giants have a game in Madagascar, so why would they be there, and why would Tickle have hitched a ride with them? Upon further conversations with King Julian, he seems to be just a little too enamored with himself and might just be seeking attention.

The fourth, last, and most plausible rumor is that Tickle is actually a double super secret double agent. Tickle is actually a spy working for both North and South Korea. She may have gone underground if she thought her cover had been blown, or one of the two parties has her and is trying to pry information out of her. The truth might just be that she really is loyal to the United States and may be in hiding trying to find a way to contact her superiors in Washington. Once she makes this contact a commando force of Green Beret squirrels will be sent in to rescue her. If this doesn't go as planned she may be held hostage until a hostage exchange program can be arranged. It is rumored that a French spy ( named Fritz) of some prestige is being held somewhere in the Midwest, Ohio most likely, and he could be traded for Tickles freedom some time in the future.

Now for the Weather:

I partly sunny with a chance of rain or snow followed by flood warnings, hurricanes, and lost children in helium mylar balloons, film at 11..............

Lets talk..........

President Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, bully for him, but can somebody please explain to me how exactly he pulled that off at this exact moment?

First lets make sure we understand what the prize is for, and lets read it instead of assuming shall we?

The Nobel Foundation is established under the terms of the will of the engineer Dr. Alfred Bernhard Nobel, drawn up on November 27, 1895, which in its relevant parts states:
"The whole of my remaining realizable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital, invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind. The said interest shall be divided into five equal parts, which shall be apportioned as follows: one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery or invention within the field of physics; one part to the person who shall have made the most important chemical discovery or improvement; one part to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine; one part to the person who shall have produced in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction; and one part to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. The prize for physics and chemistry shall be awarded by the Swedish Academy of Sciences; that for physiological or medical works by Karolinska Institute in Stockholm; that for literature by the Academy in Stockholm; and that for champions of peace by a committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Storting. It is my express wish that in awarding the prizes no consideration whatever shall be given to the nationality of the candidates, but that the most worthy shall receive the prize, whether he be a Scandinavian or not."

Okay, there it is, now lets discuss it. The first thing I highlighted was the words, preceding year. I will allow for options here, was the preceding year the standard calendar year from January to January? If it was, the what was Mr. Obama (not yet President Obama) doing during that year that made him eligible for the prize? As far as I can tell, all he was doing was running an election campaign and raising money for said campaign. He spent a small amount of that time on the foreign circuit glad handing and such after his victory, but by and large that was a year full of nothing but campaigning. Does that campaign do anything to work towards Fraternity between nations? No I don't believe it did. As he was not yet president he could not reduce standing armies, nor could he do much towards a peace congress. So, if the year were to run from January to January, I don't see that he did anything that would even remotely put him in the running for the prize.

Now lets assume that maybe the year is defined like a fiscal year and runs oh say from June to June or something like that. That would put him in a better position to accomplish some of the requirements listed in Mr. Nobels will. That does however limit his time significantly. Instead of having 12 months worth of deeds to qualify, he only has something like 5 months give or take a month since we eliminated everything prior to him actually taking office and having the ability to accomplish any of these tasks.

Now lets repeat the process, what has President Obama done since inauguration to earn himself a peace prize? Has he been: the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses? I can't say that he has. He certainly has not reduced or abolished any standing armies. If anything he has increased our presence in Afghanistan with the intention of increasing it even more as he adds and shifts troops away from Iraq. He has implemented, or at least requested, a host of budget cutting measures like cutting funding to the Air Force and cancelling a missile deployment program, but he has not reduced the standing armies in any way. As an aside on these two budget items, President Obama was quoted as saying that he wanted to cut funding to the Raptor (F-22) because it was fiscally irresponsible to keep spending such large amounts of money on outdated technology. Well, that sounds good to me on the surface, unless you realize that the Raptor is the most high tech warbird ever devised or built and is still decades ahead of anything anyone else in the world has been able to come up with. Its the pinnacle of stealth, speed, and performance, but its cut as being outdated technology? One of two things just happened, either the President is ignorant and/or hopes we are ignorant of what the Raptor is, or, the next generation of warbird is ready and hasn't been revealed to the public yet. Either way, this was a dumb thing to say out loud. As for the missile deployment, that would happen no matter who was in office because it was only ever a diplomatic ploy to begin with. We neither have the materials, the resources, or the interest in renewing the cold war, which is what that deployment would do. This was just a reminder of what could happen if we went back to the days of ol'. Russia got the message and we withdrew the proposal. In light of this, the President has done nothing to reduce the standing armies. That only leaves holding and promoting peace congresses. So, what has he done to do this? Well, nothing. The administration has offered to give Pakistan 1.5 billion a year for 5 years if they keep after the Taliban and allow us to do the same, but they haven't even yet accepted that offer. The administration has engaged in a global apology tour with a nice stop in the middle east to basically say that maybe we have been a little hasty in the past, and now we should be a little more discreet in our actions. I don't think that's it either.

At this point, I am at a loss. I could toss out two cynical guesses. He got it for his campaign that kept Hillary out of office and tossed the Republicans out of power. That's one lame guess. Another lame guess would be that the folks in Norway figure he is going to bankrupt the country here shortly and thus we will recall our troops due to lack of ability to fund our global influence. I doubt that's it either, although its not out of the question.

The last thing that I have highlighted is the statement that, " The most worthy shall receive the prize" This alone should worry us because even if I missed something that the President has done, should I have been able to miss it if it was grandiose enough to get him the recognition of the most worthy?

Here is a fun fact for you, along the topic of bankrupting America. The total sum of U.S. currency now in circulation (as of October 9th) is just over 900 billion dollars. As of the end of the fiscal year, the national debt topped 1.4 Trillion dollars. We spent 500 billion more dollars than what is even in existence. That means our government spent every existing dollar over and over and over and over again, and then spent billion upon billions in dollars that don't even exist.

Let us now begin to prepare for the fall of the Greatest civilization. I suggest we begin by hoarding food and ammunition. I think I will run out an by a HAM radio and a CB radio while I am purchasing a couple of 10 lb. bags of flour. You can use a window screen to shift the bugs out ya know.

Observe - O - Meter reports........

This weekend was a great weekend for football in spite of the fact that most of the teams I follow lost their behinds this week, it was still great. My Buckeyes did manage an impressive win, but the Browns are still struggling. The best football game was my local high school game, the Little Miami Panthers put up a good fight against Wilmington but they were just not up to the task. Those Wilmington boys were just freakin huge. I don't know the real stats, but from the stands it looked like the Panthers had safeties and cornerbacks that were about 5'-3" tall and Wilmington had receivers who where 6'-7" or so. The mismatch was huge. Anyway, I wont bore you with this stuff, I want to bore you with something else instead.

I don't attend many high school football games. Its just not my thing. I went to a few while in school and a few rivalry games (Reading vs. Deer Park) in the last few years, but with children comes changes. I now attend several pee wee football games each year and Little Miami Homecoming each year. I do this because Gracie gets to cheer at homecoming with the big girl cheerleaders. Its the cutest thing in the world to watch all these half pint cheerleaders do their thing standing next to some serious teens. The little ones love it because they get to feel special and share the 'big stage' and the teens seem to love it too, because the half pints are just so stinkin cute, and they are working and trying so hard. Something like 15 squads of girls from 5th grade down to kindergarten get to be on the sideline the entire first half with the varsity girls scattered amongst them. It is a real event. I don't know about the rest of the kids but to Gracie its like a jie jie mei mei ( I am sure I spelled that wrong) kind of thing. ( Big sister little sister in Chinese).

Well enough of that, the thing I wanted to bore you with today is my observations at the football game. I spent most of the first half watching the cheerleaders and the game upon occasion while sitting in my seat, or standing as events warranted. I enjoyed the game and enjoyed my Gracie, but with 2 minutes left in the half it was time for me to go face the crowds and retrieve Gracie from her coaches. I was now running loose in the crowd and it is time to start observing my surroundings.

One thing I notice right away is that there is a fence that surrounds the entire compound. There are grassy areas, shelters, high spots, low spots, observation towers, and mud flats. I am at a high school football stadium, but suddenly I realize that its really a wildlife nature preserve.

I mean think about it.

Out on the plains (the field) you have two herds of rams butting heads over and over again, most of which are trying to impress the lambs and all of which are trying to win the title of being the strongest.

Through the rubble and in the small places you have packs of wild hyenas roaming loose looking for food and harmless mayhem ( that would be boys between 9-13 years old). They roam around and get into stuff while hunting game such as hot dogs, pretzels, and the ever elusive wild Mountain Dew. They stay tightly packed together until they accidentally stumble upon a lions den, and when the lion roars they all freeze for a moment until most of them scatter. ( One of their mommas is the lion of course)

Over on the grassy knoll you have a herd of Zebras all milling around in circles talking with each other, but they are tightly packed and looking in all directions like there is something amiss but they are not sure what. ( they are the Freshman girls ) Around them you have a circling pack of salivating dogs that keep wandering and roaming around waiting for one of the Zebras to stray too far out from the herd. ( they are the Freshman boys)

On the one edge of the stadium you have what is called the "student" section. This area is filled with monkeys. You have your chest beating gorilla guys, your crack smokin spider monkeys, your bouncing and flipping chimpanzees, and your co-ed lemurs. Next to the student section is where you will find the penguin section. ( the police, cute and cuddly boys, cute and cuddly)

Behind the stadium, and almost under the stadium you will find some random odd creatures. You will find male and female rabbits who are obviously frightened and cold because they are snuggled up in a little dark hole trying to keep each other warm. Tomorrow there will be more bunnies I am guessing. ( get a room kids, or not, go home alone and take a cold shower my brotha )

This is also the place to find the pink headed cockatoo and green headed song birds. You will also see Motto Motto and the other male hippos trying to find their way to the pond. This is also the place where you see the alligators chasing the lemmings. ( lemmings are the 6-9 year olds that big brother and big sister were supposed to be watching but have since escaped and now dad (gator) has to coral before momma (lion) finds out.

Lastly we have the peacocks. Now, I realize in the real animal kingdom, the peacocks with the colorful plumage are male, but in this world the teen girls are the peacocks. The teen girls all walking around with their short skirts, foofed hair, make-up, and hooters hangin' out. (what did he say?) Observation, teen breasts are pretty, perky, attractive, plumpy plumpy, oh -la. They are nice to look at and pleasant............ HEY, girls, I mean peacocks, cover that stuff up a bit would ya !!!!!!!!!! I am 41 years old, I don't need to see your 17 year old mammaries. I know its October and that means its Breast Cancer Awareness month, but that doesn't mean you need to walk around with 'em hangin' out all over the place......

Maybe I am getting old, maybe I am losing my mind, or maybe I am just raising a daughter, (or possibly all three), but the peacocks really need to not flaunt the plumage so much.!!

Well the park rangers (coaches) eventually helped me find my way off the reserve, all is well.

Random deep thinks...........

1. Decisions now become your circumstances later
2. Don't push the red button!
3. You cannot bludgeon, cajole, or manipulate someone towards revelation, you can only lead by mirroring the image, the work cannot be done by you. ( now that was deep)
4. Not even the rocks are forever.
5. Successful education comes from being able to discern the difference between need to know, nice to know and not to know.
6. Don't lie to your friends, your memory isn't that good, don't lie to your enemies, they have already assumed the worst anyway.
7. If a salesman has three first names, don't trust him, if he has three last names, you cant afford him.
8. Man who throws shoes has cold feet.
9. Never be ashamed of who you are, always exercise caution in what you do.
10. Trivia is the accumulation of things in your head, knowledge is understanding those things, wisdom is knowing how to use them.
11. Grow through adversity, it magnifies the joys.
12. Spend time with your children everyday and they may actually want to spend time with you when they are grown.
13. Give of yourself and share what you have, but do not expect recompense or you will surely be disappointed.
14. Our level of success is not connected to tone of our skin, but to the tune in our hearts.
15. Success can be defined as only dying once.
16. Talking is a skill, listening is a virtue.
17. Almost nothing in this world can be accomplished alone, but sometimes the ones that helped us the most are the ones who stood in our way, or tore us down, because it is they who taught us about strength, courage, and perseverance.
18. If you can help, reach out your hand and do so, if you need help, reach out your hand and accept it, if no one is there to help you, then that means you have the strength to do it yourself, so get up and do it anyway.
19. Just because your not perfect, and your not, doesn't mean you should accept your flaws, or give up trying.
20. Measure twice, cut once.
21. Strength can be determined by knowing when to stand up and fight, and when to walk away.
22. Always remember and never forget you have a choice.
23. Be nice to fuzzy things and to scuzzy things.
24. Getting to the top requires a climb, if you are climbing up, that means you were at the bottom, so don't look down at those who are not climbing as far or as fast.
25. Pay attention to your surroundings, enjoy them and be aware of them because you are surrounded by beauty but frequently too absorbed in your own issues to notice.