Family Update for 2008

Hi Everyone,

Well another years has got behind us and boy what a year it has been for the Piddlemeyer klan!  It is time for that annual update on our family to yours.  Christmas greetings to all of you from the far north!!

Its been a tough year for me and James.  He got laid off from the cemetary and that led to financial problems.  Instead of coming straight home he stopped at the Sidtrack Tap that day and was arrested for battery.  I tried to comfort him by saying it is a good thing when deaths are down and health is up!  We celebrated with just a small purchase at the corner guy and that's when this cop...good old what's-his-name Frommish recognized me.  Well the dog started yelping and I was caught with a few capsules in my sweather pocket.  Four thousand dollar bond later and 3 nights in the slammer and we came home.  The TV was still running and all the cats were hungry as heck as you can imagine!

The answering machine was just chock full of messages and that was in September.  I didn't lissen to enny of 'em until after my 1st paycheck down at the motel.  How can I, Janice, be so fortunate to have a job when everyone else is unemployed!  Well Ma always did say I was a digger and a scrounger.

All 3 of our kids have gone in 3 different directions over the past year.  Fennel, last ah heerd from him he was still going from place to place with his boys in this band of his.  He's one tough young'un they're band is called "Knell"  and he plans on writing songs named after the 3 strings on his guitar for next year:  'Bland', 'Chert', and 'Dickel'.  So far Fennel has staid outta trouble and his pals I hear are quite the ladies men...and men's men.  I am so glad those juvinile detention days are behind pa and me now!

Our lovely Mace has giggled her way out of more trouble then I can remember in 2008.  Her two kids, one's my grandchild, are growing up just like their father, wherever he is.  Shroom is 4 and a handful and Bart is 3 and still not potty trained.  When she was released from Leavenworth on good girl behavior the lawyer accidently misspelled 'larceny' as 'alimony' so not only is her record clean but she's getting a monthly check from one of the inmates.

I am so proud of Anise I know she looks silly in the picture looking at her big brother but I could never get her to look straight into the camera.  Oh yes she lies and lies a lot but her and Fennel used to go 'round and 'round until I wanted to shoot both of them.  I'm so glad that's over.  Last year Anise made over $100,000 as a Leader.  She won't tell me what a Leader does but I know its okay because she wouldn't lie to her mother.  Anise is the hood ornament on the Piddlemeyer Rolls Royce but don't ya'll tell her brother and sister I said that!

Our next family reunion will be July 4th, 2009 we're all going to meet at Motel 6 in Mississipi then go to our usual place down on that casino on the beach.  That one with the big string of little flags on top that look like James's white laundry flapping in the breeze.  I thing we're all going to be fine this little dip for James is only temporary until things start happening again you know.  Give us a call on my cell phone and come on buy our house.  But don't come empty or all at once I don't want to raise eyebrows agin like the last time.  Lord bless us everyone!!

The Piddlemeyer Family

Intelligent Design

Today I was scooping up a new wallpaper from the National Geographic website. I enjoy animals and this time I found a glowing photo of a lion pride. For many years I supported NG with my subscription but no more. It became so sure of itself with regard to evolution that it was obnoxious. It wasn't scientific at all it was defacto acceptance of foregone conclusions with no apparent flexibility to new data. This isn't scientific its religous so I dropped them but I appreciate their free photography. At one time it would've been a dream of mine to work for them in that capacity.

Now, as you can see in the illustration above, they are finally admitting nature possesses a quality that can only be described as Intelligent Design. Substitute "nature" with the name of God "Yahweh" and it fits. Take out the smirking comment about "got right the first time around" and you have an appreciative magazine that I would subscribe to once again. Unlike Man Yahweh does not make mistakes. Are you with me?

Once you give credit to God for his creation and not worship the creation but the Creator then the door is opened to you. It doesn't prevent you from calculating the potential energy in the sinews of the hind legs of a cheetah switching directions and accelerating from 30kph to 0kph to 43.5kph. Worshipping God does not prevent you from plugging in the 35Kg mass for the cheetah and graphing inertia vs potential energy. It doesn't prevent you from indexing the DNA of the cheetah to a certain point and comparing that to a dog's DNA for gestation periods!

Reader? Are you with me? Do some research on famous scientists of the past whose very last names make up units of measure, have world-wide fame and acclaim and whether or not they were bible believing saints. If you are an atheist this will shock you with the discovery that Christians have brains! We are all around you and we believe in the inerrancy of the Bible and the exitence of a creator God. Ever heard of someone say "okay I've planned this project all out and now I'm going to breath life into it!" God creates with His breath that is why it takes breath to pronounce His Hebrew name 'Yahweh'. Say it out loud don't be afraid and you will see. God creates with perfection the first time around unlike you and I.

Atheist reader when you insult Christian scientists and wish them dead you are looking Blaise Pascal, Charles Babbage, Leonardo da Vinci, Issac Newton, and Joule among 100's of others and saying the same thing!

What's so Good About Disaster?

Disaster is fine as long its not happening to me! I told the salesman "I don't care about county codes and I don't care about ease of egress my daughter wants a certain style of Roman curtain from Pottery Barn Teen and the widest width is 44 inches. Now do you think Pottery Barn would be selling curtains that don't fit anyone's windows? No they would be selling curtains for the sizes of windows the most people have and her windows are 6 inches too wide." Now I am practically agreeing to spend $1,600 for windows for no reason. Dave insists I cannot narrow my window size because of county egress blah blah...and besides labor only covers replacement not additional masonry.

Then Dave comes up with the brilliant idea that if I get slider windows for her bedroom I can buy 2 Roman shades. Privacy will be maintained by the wide vinyl strip going down the middle of the slider window. Makes sense Dave let's work up an estimate I says. Blah blah and we do insulation and blah we do roofs, he says on the way to his truck. Just before getting into his truck and driving off he says "Mr. Fiddlepoofer I think the county will decline the slider window they have a tendancy to only approve installation of windows that have the same style as the previous ones." Aye Chihuahua!

Another brilliant side note to windows is that I live in a "coastal community" and this means that storms can cause more damage to us than others like say, in Kansas. Grab your propeller beanie cap and put it on your head for this next brilliant rule: If my home had 4 windows and I wanted to replace 2 windows at once then that is replacing more than 25% of my windows and the county insists that I buy impact resistant glass windows. However if I replace just 25% of my windows at a time then I can use any glass window.

Everytime America experiences a disaster you get the picture of a giant screw being tightened down on the freedoms of its people to minimize risk. Everytime someone has an injury driving, like say death then you get the picture of a giant screw being tightened down on the freedoms of its people to minimize risk.  What if I want to live dangerously and have a 44" window a fat fireman cannot crawl through or non-impact rated glass? Our government authorities make it sound as if we are bungee jumping over the crocodile infested waters of the Nile if we have a doorstop that props open a door. "Oh the firecode! This hallway (made of steel, glass, and mortar) would be engulphed in flames if air was allowed to go through a doorway propped open!"

In the year 600AD a daddy in a community of Indians living in this coastal area could look up at the sky and say. "Alufna pult snapo fnu fnee klapboo-ah-ah!" Which means "I see the rim of a great hurricane approaching. Let's calmly gather our family and things and walk a few miles away from the sea. We have 5 suns to do this." (editors note: their language was not as verbose and a lot more fun to speak). Ten days later they came back to the sea, gathered the fallen palm fronds to patch the chickee hut and resupply the commode cabinet, and got on with their lives.

Disaster is good because it helps you learn lessons you didn't learn the easy way.  It is also good because, like the Six Million Dollar Man, we can rebuild 'him' to be stronger, faster, smarter.  Our forces of nature, the market economy, and simple human weakness keeps us on our toes, refines us, hardens us; that is our lot in life.  "A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will spring upon you like a bandit!"  You have heard it all before- "Don't count your chickens before they are hatched!"  = Don't start making a public holiday for a president that isn't even in office yet.  "I attended the school of hard knocks." = Learning what isn't taught in school and applying it in such a way to not repeat mistakes.  "

C,D,F's of Faith

There is not a whole lot I can say right now. I am exasperated after this extended election season. The wind changed direction today and tonight as I was walking around campus I could smell the sea. The wind felt good on my face. Kind of like sailing but without the responsibility.

The Christian life just doesn't change. Let me pause right here and say that I hope the word "change" does not have a stigma attached to it now. Leave it to evil to ruin good words like 'gay' and 'change' and 'diversity'. I still have the promise of John 3:16, I still have the Great Commission directive, my lamp is still on the lampstand.

Last night I was reading the "Schleitheim Confession of Faith"[a] and that is a chapter in the book I'm reading about the Reformation Movement. This effort on the part of Swiss Christians was called to differentiate themselves from brothers and sisters who began taking on more liberal ideas, as conservative as they were compared to now. This essay of doctrinal beliefs forms the basis for the Mennonite denomination. It covers the idea of expelling an immoral brother in order to restore him/her. It covers the topic of communion and so on. There is one topic I am finding both easy and yet difficult to swallow or comprehend and that is pacifism.

The Schleitheim Confession reinvigorates the idea that defense of community and country with the "sword" is not an ideal of Christ's for our lives. You saw this in the massacre in Pennsylvania a couple years ago. The brethren (Amish) came forward and publicly forgave the criminal and then hired a bulldozer to demolish the school house where it had all taken place. At once this underscores the terribleness of punishment in the afterlife for some reason. Is this weakness or strength to be a conscientious objector when it comes to defending your family, community, your town, your state, your nation?

Murder can be forgiven but have you ever thought of the sin that cannot be forgiven? Some call it the unforgivable sin other sources call it blaspheming the Holy Spirit. This sin is something both our new president and Oprah Winfrey have committed publicly. By being shown the basic truths of Christ, supposedly accepting them, and then with haughty authority declaring there is more than one way to Heaven is the unforgivable sin. Making laughter out of scripture in public from Deuteronomy to Matthew with the intent of pointing out error in the Bible as it applied to BO's doctrine of change. This is very serious and now he is our President?

I have 7th grade home-schooled boys in my class that understand things that this law school graduate cannot believe in. A man who spent at least 20 years X 35 weeks in a Chicago church who has availed himself to so little Bible reading and studies that he cannot comprehend the most basic truths? That if he had just read a Bible commentary it would've explained what confuses him. I wonder how many books BO has actually read in his life and whether the Bible is one of them. This is exalting yourself above God, something Lucifer did before there was a plan of salvation.

That is why Barack Obama is a doomed man and that is why Oprah Winfrey is lost and doomed for all of eternity. Those that are like them too, their disciples if you will. Very very sad depths. On that fateful day when the grave claims their shells his soul will hear "I gave you all the luxuries of life, you have been in comfort but now these people whom you have ridiculed will receive my comfort and peace and you will long for a single drop of water forever and not get one."

That is why the Westboro Baptist Church deserves credit, though they are human and full of faults and frailties, they stand and declare the truths of God, their greatest love. I was washing my 3 dishes in the big stainless steel sink of the campus kitchen tonight. On the marker board where the chef normally writes down ingredients and supplies needed to be ordered was this algebra problem. I have no reason why it was there. Maybe he was trying to help his daughter. Maybe the salad people, though retirees were trying to help a grandchild over the phone. But the problem was an expression of truth in long form starting with knowns like A=B, and 2A=B. Step by step it went on a few lines until the solution was B=1.

The problem has two solutions- B=1 or B=0. Step by step logic plainly concluded that '1' was the answer. Maybe I'll post an article about logical fallacies commonly made. For now the solution is binary. you are either with Christ or without Christ. Find a way quickly to own the truth that saves your soul or thank God right now for His indescribable gift!

[a] prepared at a conference of Anabaptist Swiss Brethren, 1527 Translation by Dr. John C. Wenger 1945

Era of White Guilt is Over

 A NEW ERA - HAS NO COLOR !

-By Tom Adkins
Look at my fellow conservatives! There they go, glumly shuffling along, depressed by the election aftermath. Not me. I’m virtually euphoric. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not thrilled with America ’s flirtation with neo socialism. But there’s a massive silver lining in those magical clouds that lofted Barak Obama to the Presidency. For today, without a shred of intellectually legitimate opposition, I can loudly proclaim to America : The Era of White Guilt is over.

This seemingly impossible event occurred because the vast majority of white Americans didn’t give a fluff about skin color, and enthusiastically pulled the voting lever for a black man. Not just any black man. A very liberal black man who spent his early career race-hustling banks, praying in a racist church for 20 years, and actively worked with America-hating domestic terrorists. Wow! Some resume! Yet they made Barak Obama their leader. Therefore, as of Nov 4th, 2008, white guilt is dead.

For over a century, the millstone of white guilt hung around our necks, retribution for slave-owning predecessors. In the 60s, American liberals began yanking that millstone while sticking a fork in the eye of black Americans, exacerbating the racial divide to extort a socialist solution. But if a black man can become President, exactly what significant barrier is left? The election of Barak Obama absolutely destroys the entire validation of liberal white guilt. The dragon is hereby slain.

So20today, I’m feeling a little “uppity,” if you will. From this day forward, my tolerance level for having my skin color hustled is now exactly ZERO. And it’s time to clean house. No more Reverend Wright’s “GXd DXXX America ,” Al Sharpton’s Church of Perpetual Victimization , or Jesse Jackson’s rainbow racism. Cornell West? You’re a fraud. Go home. All those “black studies” programs that taught kids to hate whitey? You must now thank Whitey. And I want that on the final.

Congressional Black Caucus? Irrelevant. Maxine Waters? Shut up. ACORN? Outlawed. Black Panthers? Go home and pet your kitty. Black separatists? Find another nation that offers better dreams. Go ahead. I’m waiting.

Gangsta rappers? Start praising America . Begin with the Pledge of Allegiance. And please…no more ebonics. Speak English, and who knows where you might end up? Oh, yeah…pull up your pants. Your underwear is showing. You look stupid.

To those Eurosnots who forged entire careers hating America ? I’m still waiting20for the first black French President.

And let me offer an equal opportunity whupping. I’ve always despised lazy white people. Now, I can talk smack about lazy black people. You’re poor because you quit school, did drugs, had three kids with three different fathers, and refuse to work. So when you plop your Colt 45-swilling, Oprah watchin’ butt on the couch and complain “Da Man is keepin’ me down,” allow me to inform you: Da Man is now black. You have no excuses.

No more quotas. No more handouts. No more stealing my money because someone’s great-great-great-great grandparents suffered actual pain and misery at the hands of people I have no relation to, and personally revile.

It’s time to toss that massive, obsolete race-hustle machine upon the heap of the other stupid 60s ideas. Drag it over there, by wife swapping, next to dope-smoking. Plenty of room right between free love and cop-killing. Careful…don’t trip on streaking. There ya go, don’t be gentle. Just dump it. Wash your hands. It’s filthy.

In fact, Obama’s ascension created a gargantuan irony. How can you sell class envy and American unfairness when you and your black wife went to Ivy League schools, got high-paying jobs, became millionaires, bought a mansion, and got elected President? How unfair is that??? Now, Like a delicious O'Henry tale, Obama’s spread-the-wealth cam paign rendered itself moot by it's own victory! America is officially a meritocracy. Obama’s election has validated American conservatism!

So, listen carefully…Wham!!!

That’s the sound of my foot kicking the door shut on the era of white guilt. The rites have been muttered, the carcass lowered, dirt shoveled, and tombstone erected. White guilt is dead and buried.

However, despite my glee, there’s apparently one small, rabid bastion of American racism remaining. Black Americans voted 96% for Barak Obama. Hmmm. In a color-blind world, shouldn’t that be 50-50? Tonight, every black person should ask forgiveness for their apparent racism and prejudice towards white people. Maybe it’s time to start spreading the guilt around. After all the white middle class American is now "the disadvantaged"!!!!

A bit of earth

    In the movie The Secret Garden there is a scene involving the niece and the uncle that is symbolic to me of American history.  The Secret Garden movie is one of my daughter's and I all time favorite movies to watch together.  The movie takes place in an overwhelming estate I think in the Scottish highlands.  Sweeping views of meadows and hedges, rocks and sky and against all that is this enourmous and oppressive and forboding mansion.  You have the son who is constantly ill, weak, puny, overprotected and spoiled.  A strict  and oppressive head housekeeper/nurse.  There's the father and the niece these comprise the main characters.  The niece is probably no more than 12 years old as portrayed.

     The scene I want to talk about is where the niece discovers the long abandoned secret garden that was built for the son's deceased mother.  The garden is long uncared fore and seemingly sealed off.  Its door hidden in ivy.  Upon discovering this secret place full of possibilities the girl goes off to ask her uncle for permission to play in it.  So the symbolic scene has this hardy and forward little girl braving the presence of her depressed uncle.  She goes into his study.  He has these two enourmous Bull Mastiffs that move like tigers and they go on alert and growl as the girl enters the room.  Her uncle has his head listlessly leaning on his hand in this depression that never leaves him in most of the movie.  A massive fireplace with a fire but the room still cold and forboding.  She approaches her uncle with permission and timidly says "Uncle can I have a bit of earth?" or something to that effect.  After explaining her discovery he laughs and gives her permission.
     
     All of you who are reading this who are of the European culture and homeland  are a part of this discovery of a secret garden called America.  You living in Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, England, France, nordic countries and others all could have ancestors who got to a point in their lives where they heard of a secret garden full of possibilities and you asked permission to take leave and "have a bit of earth".  The rest of you who didn't have the guts to come to America or otherwise had no reason to leave stayed behind.  This is oversimplifying history by quite a bit but my main point is you all have reason to be proud of what your ancestors have accomplished.  You cannot denegrate their choice, you cannot prance around claiming superiority in life, culture and politics.  We in the US are you and you over there back east are us!

      Some of you left Europe for noble reasons and some for far less than noble reasons but yet here you are centuries later your ancesters deceased!  We took our bit of earth and made something and you too did with what you have.  When you criticize us and our life over here you are criticizing yourselves too.  It could've just as well been you on those boats 100, 200, 300 years ago.  Be proud of us and what we've done with our bit of earth and don't endlessly distance yourselves, alienate yourselves or mindlessly critique us unless you want to remind us these many years later of why we left Europe in the first place.  I'm no different than my ancestors and if I thought my life would be better in my ancestor's native Germany then I'd pack my life and leave it all behind.  If it were that simple.  But I could as easily end up in Quebec or Germany for that matter due to the mixed backgrounds.

     Can we all just content ourselves with where we are and take care of our bit of earth and tend it to renew and bloom?  Our government is flawed because it is run by human beings but so is yours.  At least ours had a goal of simple freedom in more ways than when we originally left Europe.  I don't want a presidential candidate or anyone tell us we need to be more like Europe.  Nobody has ever said "Our nation needs to be more like Africa."

Brad Paisley and Josh Turner Marriage Tune-up

    Coincidental or maybe not to the Marriage Tune Up weekend I downloaded some mp3 files that caused me to think about what is wrong with folks struggling marriages and what is right with thriving ones. Now you may not care for Country music or maybe you do but there are some substantive but simple songs out there being published. That was an understatement. Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood sing together on Oh Love:
'You're the simplest truth and you're the biggest mystery.'
'Deep as the life from God's own breath. Endless even after death.'
The lyrics go on and are worth listening to. Thought provoking, appreciating the timeless qualities of love.

     Some songs tell stories about us that are worth listening to. Paisley again telling a story in Waitin' on a Woman. Reminds us of what and why and how we fell in love. Uses humor and testimony from an older man to place things in perspective. Taking the long view the old story teller says he has read statistics that man is always the first to go and no wonder. It takes the woman time to get ready. Old love persists to death with the old story teller speculating that he'll just get to the other side and find a bench, if they have one, to sit on and wait. When was the last time we showed patience to our mates? is a question a struggling man needs to ask himself.

     Mr. Paisley then sings another song, on a different album, in harmony this time with Dolly Parton called When I Get Where I'm Going. The listener is transported into what can be assumed as husband and wife characters; hearts in synchrony anticipating the mysteries of Heaven by reflecting on the hardships of life. Shedding the weight of sins and struggles carried during the years of life. The two dream of seeing the face of God and stroking the mane of "The Lion of Judah" and to love and have no fear and to hear the Hallelujah. The song has more substantive healing power than most of the hymns we sing in church.

     Now Josh Turner is another Country artist that also turns out substantive songs. In Everything is Fine the listener is shown an example of someone who is appreciating the simple basics of life. How God has blessed him in ways that would seem silly to most. A character that prays to God and instead of asking for something makes a point to thank Him for his life. Husbands really need to turn of the TV or the PC and take a walk and just ponder what God has done for him lately. It tends to shed away all those disappointments the world brings on and maybe even the disappointments a wife might bring on. Christ got alone with his heavenly father and away from the world for refreshment. Men need to do this too...and not be intoxicated at the same time with anything liquid or otherwise.

     King Solomon said there is a time for every season. A time for holding and a time to refrain from holding. Another song, called The Longer the Waiting by Josh Turner, talks about anticipation of a reunion. In that process the fact of knowing a separation had to occur but in reunion there will be treasures and rare things. The man promises that he will give up his second love to be united with his first love forever. In this case his second love is his work and service to country but any thinking person can get a lesson from this song. It is a metaphor that demands patience from the woman and promise keeping from the man for sweet reward.

     Either I'm over simplyfying the problems people have in relationships or I find help in the strangest places. Not saying that all troubled marriages are the failing of the man but from my experience a lot can be said for just keeping your antennae up for help for your heart. Here I downloaded some mp3 songs just because I liked the first 15 seconds of the songs but in listening more deeply just to 7 songs strengthened my life and my marriage. Another piece of advice I would give to struggling couples is to attend, by yourself, the marriage ceremony of someone you don't know. Times when I've been on duty when a marriage ceremony was performed here I'd sit by myself out of sight in a balcony area occasionally and watch and listen and remember. Respect the aged and talk to them. That's free. Encouragement can come from the darndest places and not cost any more than 7 dollars.

May God bless your Marriage!

And We For the Sake of Christ All Things Bear

And We For the Sake of Christ All Things Bear
by Fatima Al-Mutairi
May the Lord Jesus guide you, Oh Muslims
And enlighten your hearts that you might love others
The forum does not revile the Master of the prophets
It is for the display of truth, and for you it was revealed
This is the truth which you do not know
What we profess are the words of the Master of the prophets
We do not worship the cross, and we are not possessed
We worship the Lord Jesus, the Light of the worlds

We left Mohammed, and we do not follow in his path
We followed Jesus Christ, the Clear Truth
Truly, we love our homeland, and we are not traitors
We take pride that we are Saudi citizens
How could we betray our homeland, our dear people?
How could we, when for death - for Saudi Arabia - we stand ready?
The homeland of my grandfathers, their glories, and odes - for it I am writing
And we say, "We are proud, proud, proud to be Saudis"
We chose our way, the way of the rightly guided
And every man is free to choose any religion
Be content to leave us to ourselves to be believers in Jesus
Let us live in grace before our time comes
There are tears on my cheek, and Oh! the heart is sad
To those who become Christians, how you are so cruel!
And the Messiah says, "Blessed are the Persecuted"
And we for the sake of Christ all things bear
What is it to you that we are infidels?
You do not enter our graves, as if with us buried
Enough - your swords do not concern me, not evil nor disgrace
Your threats do not trouble me, and we are not afraid
And by God, I am unto death a Christian - Verily
I cry for what passed by, of a sad life

I was far from the Lord Jesus for many years
Oh History record! and bear witness, Oh Witnesses!
We are Christians - in the path of Christ we tread
Take from me this word, and note it well
You see, Jesus is my Lord, and He is the Best of protectors
I advise you to pity yourself, to clap your hands in mourning
See your look of ugly hatred
Man is brother to man, Oh learned ones
Where is the humanity, the love, and where are you?
As to my last words, I pray to the Lord of the worlds
Jesus the Messiah, the Light of Clear Guidance
That He change notions, and set the scales of justice aright
And that He spread Love among you, Oh Muslims
Editor's Note:  Fatima was murdered by her own brother, a cleric and member of the Commision of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.  
http://www.persecution.com/topStory_saudiBrotherKilling.html