A Prayer for Obama STILL?

The man was reelected by a solid margin, his popularity is skyrocketing, and there are still people whining this awful crap?  New (and already former) friend on Facebook posted it this morning like it was something all brand new and shiny!  I had him pegged for a durf, but he's the friend of a friend, and he sent me the friend request about two weeks ago.  I ditched him this morning, the moment that puke slid across my feed.

I really do have a "zero tolerance" policy on that one.  Especially when it slides out of the keyboard of some snickering git.  Maybe Ted Nugent can hook him up, huh?  Nards of a feather and all that.

Here's a little more of Psalm 109.  Because either they're stupid and don't know what it means (you know, the pick-and-choose but don't comprehend "convenience Christians") or else they DO know what it means in context, but they think they're sly and sneaky, preserving deniability if anyone says, "Whoa, that sucks!"  With the right so often crying that their awful statements have been "taken out of context," let's look at their "Prayer for Obama" in context.

Here you go:

	Set thou a wicked man over him:          and let Satan stand at his right hand.
	When he shall be judged, let him be condemned:          and let his prayer become sin.
	Let his days be few;          and let another take his office.
	Let his children be fatherless,          and his wife a widow.
	Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg:          let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
	Let the extortioner catch all that he hath;          and let the strangers spoil his labor.
	Let there be none to extend mercy unto him:          neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
	Let his posterity be cut off;          and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

Oh, gosh, that's maybe not so cute, is it?  That is, in fact, maybe wishing death upon our President and horrors upon his children and wife.  More than anything, it's a scumbag use of what they claim is "divinely inspired truth" as a cheap stick with which to poke a politician because they're mad their guy didn't get elected.  Oh, yeah, nothing speaks true faith and sincere love of God like that.

Losers.

I did post about this over three years ago. That there are STILL morons spraying this garbage is astounding.

Completely unhappy about being awake this morning.  But I've already cleaned one bathroom, including scrubbing the toilet, sink, and tub, and have the dishwasher going.  When I finish this, I'll move on to another bathroom.

Danged Cardinals are driving me nutty--they're out there singing and cavorting like it's spring.  It looks like spring because it never really looks like winter here--the grass stays green, my dianthus and pansies are still alive (not blooming, but alive), my parsley and spinach are still alive, so standing at the window, watching and listening to the birdies?  Fools you.  And then you open the door and that blast of cold air comes in and dashes your hopes.

Speaking of dashing hopes, Epinions paid out yesterday--markedly lower than the month before.  That's because, apparently, Google and Ebay (Epinions' parent company) are on the outs, and so Google isn't including our reviews in their top search results like they used to.  And it's true--I went out and searched for my reviews, which used to come in top of the Google heap (or at least on the first page of search results), but no more--they're just not there.  Which makes me invisible to folks looking for information about products.  My Logitech K800 review is bottom of the SECOND search return page.  Bottom of the second page, and that's if I include the word "Epinions" in the search term!  Without it?  I'm not even on the first four pages, and I quit looking after that!  It's no wonder I'm not taking any hits!

Just had this Oklahoma house bill of horror skid through my world (it PASSED on February 19th).  Hey, folks?  I'm just gonna say it because, mortifyingly, it seems to require saying:

SCIENCE IS FOR SCIENCE CLASSES AND RELIGION IS FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASSES!

It's 2013, and we still have people trying to spew their religion in public schools?  We still have people pushing creationism to our public school students?  And don't call it "creation science"--science MEANS something, it's not just a word you can tack on in hopes of lending your faith some sort of credence.

Humans and Dinosaurs co-existing.  Screw science, there's the picture!

Speaking of schools and what's being taught, we're ditching the crappy world history book we've been using with our boy and bucking him up to my college "beginnings to 1500" book.  I was working up a test for him yesterday and found some glaring errors--like 3,000 year errors.  The kind of errors that could totally screw up his idea of when things happened.  Hey, you get what you pay for, and that was a cheap book.  My college text isn't.  So that's how we'll go.

Eating up a blood orange, then it's time to clean bathroom and get on school work for the day.

In case you'v never seen one, here's a blood orange peeled.  Not as tasty as the Sumo--more navel-ish, less mandarin-y.  But good, especially if you like your oranges more acidic and less sugary.

I Love Canada. And Fruit, too.

So, I never knew much about Canada growing up.  Sure, I'd been to Ontario, I'd been to Quebec, I'd even been to New Brunswick, but these were all short jaunts, not opportunities to explore or really learn.  I mean, after all, how much am I going to learn about Canada from that tawdry cheese-fest that is Niagara Falls (make no mistake, I love it, but it's utterly gaudy)?  These were all, of course, pre-Passport-at-the-border visits.  Canada's not as convenient these days.

Niagara does tacky so well!

I learned nothing about Canadian geography when I was in school.  Nothing.  No provinces, no capitals, nothing.  I learned more about Canada watching Mick Jagger cavort with Pierre Trudeau's wife than I ever did in a public school setting.  And I was okay with this--I mean, I made a few efforts to memorize the provinces and such, but my brain just didn't want to grasp and really retain the information.  I didn't really care until I had a child and decided I didn't want him to be as ignorant as his mother when it came to Canadian geography.

And then came the Toronto Song.

I don't remember how I came by the Toronto Song.  I think my sister may have tossed it my way. All I know is that my then six year old grabbed it and RAN.  And I thought, "Okay, the song's a bit rude, but it's funny, and more important, it's making this stuff STICK in a way it never has."  And it wasn't just sticking for ME, it was sticking for my boy, too.  At six years old, he knew more about Canada than I did at 39.

Now, that's not the visual version I prefer, but the video I like can't be embedded.  But here's the link:

The Toronto Song (my preferred video version)

Yes, it's rude, but understand, it was written by a Canadian comedy team and meant to lampoon the rivalries that pop up between provinces.  I KNOW Ontario doesn't suck, I KNOW Quebec isn't revolting.  But this is a fun song, and it really did lay those provinces down in a way that has stuck in our heads.  I mean, I always knew Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, and Quebec were "East-ish," along with Ontario, which was "a little less East-ish."  I always knew the Northwestern Territories and Yukon were way north and way cold.  I knew British Columbia was seriously west.  I knew that  Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta were somewhere in the middle, and that Calgary was in Alberta and has a big rodeo.  Probably better than many Americans, but not great.  But now?  Thanks to this marvelously snotty, silly song, I know where they ALL are!

I have shared this with Canadian friends.  Only one was openly hostile about it--in fact, she got downright ugly.  In a "provincial rivalry" kind of way.  It was adorable, and I never played the song for her again.  My other Canadian friends either liked it or were polite enough to pretend they did.  Those Canadians can be marvelously polite, can't they?  It's one of the many things I like about them.  Seriously.  I like the heck out of Canadians, I think sometimes I'd like to be one.  They're smart, funny, saner, and take better care of their own.

We bought a whole slew of really beautiful produce at Wegmans Thursday night (that's night before last).  Some amazing, giant, knobby-looking oranges that resemble nothing so much as Rocky Flats minneolas--you know, used to be a minneola, but has been radiated to something more muscular and scary?  LOL, these are called "Sumo" mandarins, and they are a wonder to behold!  They're huge (as tall as the star fruit, markedly bigger than the other oranges), and they're gorgeous and I can't wait to eat one!  We also got blood oranges (haven't had a blood orange in ten years, easy), our minneolas, plus Macoun, Jonagold, and Opal apples.  Never seen Opals before.  I wasn't the only one oohing and ahhing over them, either.  Here's a pic of part of the haul (left out the bananas and salad fixings).

I didn't pull out ALL of it, just representative pieces.  Those are D'anjou pears, a kiwi, and a star fruit, too.  Along with bell peppers, of course.

The gigantic Sumo, surrounded by (right to left) blood orange, minneola, and navel.

I came across a blog the other night, folks were talking about the strange dolls they'd found while on vacation.  They were piled next to light posts and road signs.  Not tons of them, just a few.  I was strongly reminded of the dolls my ex and I found in the cemeteries in Paris.  Some were very plain, very basic, but some were more colorful, like this:

Note the funky little bag she's carrying.  If you watch any "Supernatural," you'll probably think of that as a "hex bag."  Many of the little grave dolls had these.  Now, don't mistake me--there were many graves that had DOLL dolls--you know, baby dolls.  Especially children's graves.  This was something else.  Am I an atheist?  Of course I am.  Am I deeply skeptical and not given over to much superstition?  Absolutely.  And when my ex bent down to pick one up as a "souvenir?"  I leapt forward and said, rather sharply, "DON'T TOUCH THAT!"

Sure, it sucks that he was contemplating lifting something off a grave, and I'd have yelled at him over that, too.  But this was something more.  It was a deep, from my gut reaction.  I laugh about it now, and no, I don't believe the little dolls can curse you, and yet there's just enough of me that still raises hackles at such things that . . . well, better safe than sorry?  I feel ridiculous saying it, but it was a strong, "No, I don't believe in it, but why mess with it?" feeling.

No, I will not turn in my Atheist card.  Thing has cost me far too much in so many ways.  Or, rather, people's response to it has.  It's mine, I've earned it.  I'm proud of it.

Today is a dietary day off.  So's tomorrow.  I've lost nine pounds in two weeks.  If I gain back two, and then lose another four or so next week?  Hey, net loss.  And I'm not being AS crazy this weekend.  Plus, I'm finding it easier to get back on Monday mornings.  And that's good.

Oh, and bad paneling, too.