Followers

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Wild flowers in kansas




Posted by Picasa

June 28, an important day in history

 


Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand

  

1914: On this day in 1914, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his consort, Sophie, were assassinated by Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, Bosnia, precipitating the outbreak of World War I.

  


 
 

1919: The Treaty of Versailles was signed at the Palace of Versailles in France, signifying the end of World War I.

  

1902: Notorious American bank robber John Dillinger was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.

  

1894: The U.S. Congress declared the first Monday of September as Labor Day, a holiday to honour the American worker.

  

1838: Victoria was crowned queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

I find it very interesting that World War I officially ended on the same day that it unofficially started. Likewise that Queen Victoria was crowned queen on this day. One would assume that this would be some sort of a holiday.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Watch out for those Home made goodies!

On the Opinion page of the Manhattan Mercury, Tuesday June 26, 2007, an article appeared written by Dale McFeatters of Scripts-Howard News Service entitled "Some homemade brownies seem well worth soldier's risk."

At the Bangor International Airport in Bangor Maine a group of volunteers called "The Maine Troop Greeters" have been greeting troops going to and from Iraq and Afghanistan all sorts of homemade goodies. This has been going on since 2003 and during that time over 500,000 soldiers shared in the good will of the community. At first the airport even allocated a room where the treats could be found. But no more.

Airport authorities became concerned about the potential for a lawsuit because they had no control over the conditions in which these goodies were prepared. The local concessionaires claim they never complained, but what concessionaire in his right mind or even his left would go on record as complaining about goodies going to the troops. End result: no more goodies for the troops.

McFeatters suggests that the goodies be allowed again with a sign up over the door warning the troops of the risk that they run eating this undocumented food. Oh yes, the article mentions that there is no record of any soldier coming down sick as a result of the goodies, but we all know it could happen anytime.

My spin on this story is simple. It is a great example of our bureaucracy out of control. You can't just do good deeds without making sure you followed all the rules for doing good deeds. Since 1934 our bureaucracy has grown at an astronomical rate. These agencies are a power unto themselves and little or nothing can be done about their decisions.

A good friend of mine worked in a mine/mill operation in the state of Utah. He said that OSHA would come in and make a list of changes that had to be made for the safety of the workers. So the mine/mill would make the changes. About the time the changes were made the EPA would show up and they would have a list of changes that needed to be made. Some of the changes contradicted the ones OSHA had made. Finally the Bureau of Mines would show up and we would have the same game played. New changes that reversed what the previous two agencies had put in force.

So what is the answer. Well, we need an agency to oversee the agencies. Maybe several new agencies whose role is to oversee the agencies. In time we could then establish more agencies to oversee the agencies that are overseeing the agencies. Job security at least.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Blogging from Microsoft Word 2007

This is just a test to see how it works to have a blog sent from my Word Processor.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

My Gas Bill

It's summer. It is also a time when your gas bill should be very low. We cook outdoors on the grill or on an electric range in the kitchen. Oh yes, we also have a microwave oven that gets plenty of use. So for what do we use natural gas? Our water heater.

I opened the latest bill from Kansas Gas Service and noticed that the bill was for $40.68. That seemed like a lot of hot water. Basically there is just my wife and me at home. The three dogs and cats avoid baths like the plague and prefer cold water. So why the high price of gas in June?

The bill details the expense. The actual cost of the gas was $18.68. That seems a lot more reasonable than $40.68. Added to the actual cost was a service charge for $12.25. Service charge? What in the world is the service charge? I never called the gas company to do anything. They didn't check out my system. The closest I had to having a gas company employee was the guy who came by and read the meter. Am I being charged $12.25 to read the meter? If so, I could learn to read the meter myself. Or, if not, I would hope that the meter reader gets the entire amount. Forget about a Christmas present for this guy. He gets one every month.

Then there was a delivery charge of $5.00. Now I know I missed something. I thought this gas was coming through a pipeline laid underground. But now I learn it is being delivered. I need to find out when this happens and keep the zoo inside. I would not want to get cross wise with the gas company because the delivery boy was attacked by my two vicious attack cats. Fortunately the dogs are too mellow to attack anything. Only one of them is dumb enough to take on the attack cats.

Then there is a fee for Weather Normalization. It is only 40 cents. Our weather has been anything but normal around here this year. Now I know why. We are paying enough for Weather Normalization. When did the gas company get in the weather business?

Then there is a fee of $2.03 for a Gas Hedge. My wife will be glad to know we are getting another hedge. She has converted our little piece of corner property into a jungle. Now I find out the gas company is providing a hedge. We are not sure where it is, but according to the bill it is there.

Finally we have all the taxes and the Franchise fee.

Total for the bill for the gas that originally cost $18.68 is now $40.68, of which $22.00 are all these extras.

Monday, June 18, 2007

"Concert on the Prairie"

Due to the kindness of some members of the Zeandale Community Church we were privileged to attend the renowned "Concert on the Prairie," July 16. It is traditionally held somewhere in the Flinthills region of Kansas. If you want an idea of the level of scenery in this area check out a recent issue of National Geographic which contains a photo essay on the Flinthills.

To give you an idea of the notoriety of this concert, the day the 5000 tickets went on sale, they were snatched up in minutes by people who had pre-ordered them online months earlier. Our friends planned to go on line the next day and get their order in for the 2008 concert.

The concert is a massive project. It requires bringing an entire orchestra into the middle of nowhere. No power, no water, no shade, no road. Participants have to walk over a mile from the temporary parking lot to get to the actual site, so there is no motor traffic around the program. Instead the guides are on foot or on horseback. Many of the guides are professional hard working cowboys in their own right, none of the drug store variety. But the scenery is fabulous, lush and green with occasional prairie flowers.

The concert is an all day affair that impacts the entire community wherever it goes. This year the concert was in Wabaunsee County. The economy of this county is based on agriculture and most of that agriculture is ranching. Ranching is not a profitable business. it takes 5-7 acres of land just to feed one cow. So if you had 100 cows (or steers) you would need 500 to 700 acres of land. Very few people can make a living from 100 cows. It is safe to say that this area is economically depressed.

The town of Eskridge went all out for the concert. They took some of the empty storefronts in town and turned them into art galleries for people to see. They had all sorts of sidewalk vendors selling food to the visitors. The United Methodist Women hosted a lunch spot in the park and sold sandwiches and home-made ice cream for a very reasonable price. The food was great.

My wife and I are diabetics, so we opted to skip the homemade ice cream. But our host got some and sat in front of us and savored the entire dish while we had to look on. I got him back in church the next day by telling the congregation what he had done!

At the concert site several tents were set up for venues that operated throughout the day. A great deal of information was presented at the venues. Or you could just sit out and soak up the Kansas sun. The day was breezy which made the heat, around 90 degrees, quite bearable. A huge barbeque kitchen was open for those who wanted to eat. As the day progressed the line to the food venue grew increasingly longer. Some people brought their supper to the concert.

A military re-enactment group from Fr. Riley brought a color guard that dated from the 1800s. The men were in full uniform and were horseback.

The concert was moving. The selection of pieces was superb. The best part for me was Dvorak's New World Symphony.

About 9:00 pm the concert was over and the crowd began its trek back to the parking lot. It was obvious the ones who attended enjoyed what they had seen and heard. Traffic flowed smoothly out of the parking lot and down the several miles of gravel road until we reached the edge of Eskridge.

Friday, June 8, 2007

"The Privileged Planet" author loses privileges at ISU

Go to the following web link to read about this man who has produced an excellent scholarly rebuttal of the Darwinian evolutionary explanation for our universe. Because he did so he angered the academia who are so hung up on the worship of Darwinian evolution. The same academicians want everyone to be tolerant, to allow free speech, as long as the tolerance and free speech is in their direction. When a Christian speaks up then he/she can count on retribution, not rebuttal. I believe this demonstrates the fraility of the arguments of the Darwinian evolution crowd. In preaching class there was a saying, "Weak point here; shout louder."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/733rlosv.asp

Last fall a colleague and I went to Kansas University to hear the world renowned atheist "evangelist" Richard Dawkins. He was a slick audience-manipulator that knew all the right buttons to push in Kansas, even though he comes from England. It was sickening to be in an audience of a thousand cheering atheists. In fact, it was downright uncomfortable. My friend and I were glad we got out without facing mayhem.

I am presently listening to Dawkin's book The God Delusion. It is being narrated by none else than Richard Dawkins. The venom and vitriol against Christianity flows like a river from this book. Religion, but more specifically Christianity, is responsible for all of the ills of the world. The church never did and never will do anything good.

So a university professor who stands up for the Designer/Design theory of creation gets the ax because he doesn't sound like Richard Dawkins.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Fathers in church

When I first became acquainted with "church" in the 1950s, real men did not go to church. It was a "women and children" thing. I remember that many children, especially boys, looked forward to reaching the eighth grade because that meant they didn't have to go to church anymore and could spend more time on Sunday with Dad. If Mattingly is correct, things have not changed much. So the issue is, How do we make the church more appealing and have more meaning to men?

This column was syndicated by Scripps Howard News Service on 05/30/2007

When it comes to who fills the pews, every Sunday is Mother's Day in most
mainstream American churches.

And what about Father's Day? That can be a touchy subject for pastors in
an era in which men who religiously avoid church outnumber active
churchmen roughly three to one. Worship just doesn't work for millions of
ordinary guys.

"What churches are doing isn't getting the job done. Mom is having to take
the kids to church because Dad doesn't want to go," said Marc Carrier,
co-author, with his Cynthia, of "The Values-Driven Family."

"That leaves Mom in charge of the spiritual upbringing of the children,
which means faith is a Mom thing and not a Dad thing. ... So why is little
Johnny -- who is 25 and has his first child on the way, whether he's
married or not -- never in church? The odds are that his father was never
in church."

Church attendance among men had already fallen to 43 percent in 1992,
according to the Barna Group, which specializes in researching trends
among Evangelicals. Then that number crashed to 28 percent in 1996, the
year before the Promise Keepers movement held its "Stand in the Gap" rally
that drew a million or more men to the National Mall -- one of the largest
gatherings of any kind in American history.

No one involved in national men's ministries believes that those stats
have improved. That's one reason why a nondenominational coalition wants
to hold a "Stand in the Gap 2007" rally on Oct. 6, hoping to gather
250,000 men at the Washington Monument and on the Ellipse, just south of
the White House.

The American numbers are sobering, noted Carrier, but they are nowhere
near as stunning as another set of statistics in an essay entitled "The
Demographic Characteristics of the Linguistic and Religious Groups in
Switzerland," published in 2000 in a volume covering trends in several
European nations. The numbers that trouble traditionalists came from a
1994 survey in which the Swiss government tried to determine how religious
practices are carried down from generation to generation.

Apparently, if a father and mother were both faithful churchgoers, 33
percent of their children followed their example, with another 41 percent
attending on an irregular basis and only a quarter shunning church
altogether.

But what happened if the father had little or no faith? If the father was
semi-active and the mother was a faithful worshipper, only 3 percent of
their children became active church members and 59 percent were irregular
in their worship attendance -- with the rest lost to the church
altogether.

If the father never went to church, while the mother was faithful, only 2
percent of the children became regular churchgoers and 37 percent were
semi-active. Thus, more than 60 percent were lost.

This trend continued in other survey results, noted Carrier. The bottom
line was clear. If a father didn't go to church, only one child in 50
became a faithful churchgoer -- no matter how strong the mother's faith.

"These numbers are old and they are from Switzerland, but they're the
only numbers that anyone has," said Carrier. "Someone needs to find a way
to do similar research in America to see if the same thing is happening
here. This is shocking stuff."

At the height of the Promise Keepers movement, researchers did study one
related trend in churches that began emphasizing ministry to men, said the
Rev. Rick Kingham, president of the National Coalition of Men's Ministries,
a network of 110 regional and national groups.

Surveys found that if a father made a decision to become a Christian, the
rest of the family followed his example 93 percent of the time. If a
mother made a similar decision, the rest of the family embraced the faith
17 percent of the time, he said.

"It seems that when a man takes that kind of spiritual stand it usually
affects everyone else in the whole constellation around him, including his
family and even other men that he knows," said Kingham, who is helping
organize Stand in the Gap 2007.

No one wants to minimize the importance of faithful mothers, he said, but
it's clear that "fathers play a unique and special role in helping their
children develop a living faith -- especially their sons. ... There's no
way to deny that."


Terry Mattingly (www.tmatt.net) directs the Washington Journalism Center
at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes this
weekly column for the Scripps Howard News Service.