Who ReadsThis?

I'm just curious... Who reads this thing, anyway?

Leave us a comment or whatevs if you are a part of our readership.

Ok, I'm going to bed now. See you in the morning.

Stay Gold.

The World's on Fire

I was watching the news earlier tonight and I was reminded of why I try to avoid watching the news. What a waste of time. In case you haven't been paying attention, let me catch you up: people are dying, the dollar isn't worth anything anymore, our consumption is catching up with us, the rest of humanity despises us, and gas is still super expensive.

"The paper says the whole world's on fire, but this street is quiet."
- Modern Life is War

That's the glory of America, isn't it? At least it has been in the past. The world is wasting away, but it always seems to waste more quickly somewhere else. It's never us. Give it time, though... Let's see where this recession and potential bank crisis takes us.

I'd like to think that we will bond together as a people and turn things around. I'd like to believe that things will get better. I'm hard pressed to be too hopeful, though. I have faith in the Father. I don't have too much faith right now in His people.

"Ernest Hemingway once wrote 'the world is a fine place and worth fighting for.' I agree with the second part."
- Morgan Freeman, Se7en

So it goes, I suppose.

The Bible refers to the earth as a creation of God and, essentially, God's kingdom. The Garden of Eden was His kingdom and glory. The Word tells us that His kingdom will come again to the earth.

I am glad that I trust in a God who is loving and merciful beyond our understanding because I have absolutely no idea how this could have been, or could be again, any sort of kingdom in which any sort of God would take pride. As I've said before, I have resigned myself to the fact that I will most likely live the rest of my life without ever fully understanding how He could ever rationalize that any of this would be worth His one and only Son.

Anyway, so here's to the world and the fact that it's been driving itself downward more and more quickly every day since the day it was created.

And I'm done rambling.

Stay Gold,

MMK

Have Heart

Have Heart - "Watch Me Rise"

So I say to the slaves of depression,
"Carry on, and sing the sweet redeeming song
about living this life free and long."

It goes:
"Watch me, watch me,
watch me rise for miles and miles."

This Week

This may be a couple of days old, but it's still worth mentioning:

We went to Vermont earlier this week to tour the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream factory. It was simultaneously educational, entertaining, and delicious. Here's a picture:

How delightful.

Besides that, the week has been fairly routine. We've worked out most days, read more books, watched some DVD's, and really just took it easy. Friday evening was spent in Portsmouth. We decided to have our anniversary dinner a couple of days early, so we went to a Japanese restaurant where we ordered sushi and edamame. It was my first time actually ordering sushi and deciding to eat it as a meal, but it turned out well and I actually enjoyed the meal. I'm sure we'll go back again in the future.

Our actual anniversary is tomorrow. I don't think we're planning on doing anything special. We might go see a movie and get some ice cream.

My grandpa Mabon called me yesterday morning to let me know that he had sold my car for me. While it was a good car, I am glad to have it sold. It was one of the few things leftover from the move that had yet to be resolved. Having it sold now takes a little bit of a weight off of our shoulders. The sale means, too, that I will be able to go out and make the very masculine purchase of a large TV. I have had my eye on 42" LCD flat panels for some time, but I think we will end up getting a 37" screen. It will still be plenty big and will serve our purposes. Five inches less never hurt anyone.

That's what she said?

Anyway. I don't really have a lot more to write about for this afternoon. We are going to go pick some blueberries and fruit with some other hall directors in about an hour. It should be a good time. I hope they have raspberries, too. Or green beans.

Let us know how you're doing if we haven't talked in awhile, eh?

Stay Gold!

MMK

Billy Sunday said these things about alcohol

Personal liberty is not personal license. I dare not exercise personal liberty if it infringes on the liberty of others. Our forefathers did not fight and die for personal license but for personal liberty bounded by laws. Personal liberty is the liberty of a murderer, a burglar, a seducer, or a wolf that wants to remain in a sheep fold, or the weasel in a hen roost. You have no right to vote for an institution that is going to drag your sons and daughters to hell.

If you were the only persons in this city you would have a perfect right to drive your horse down the street at breakneck speed; you would have a right to make a race track out of the streets for your auto; you could build a slaughter house in the public square; you could build a glue factory in the public square. But when the population increases from one to 600,000 you can't do it. You say, "Why can't I run my auto? I own it. Why can't I run my horse? I own it. Why can't I build the slaughter house? I own the lot." Yes, but there are 600,000 people here now and other people have rights.

So law stands between you and personal liberty, you miserable dog. You can't build a slaughter house in your front yard, because the law says you can't. As long as I am standing here on this platform I have personal liberty. I can swing my arms at will. But the minute any one else steps on the platform my personal liberty ceases. It stops just one inch from the other fellow's nose.

When you come staggering home, cussing right and left and spewing and spitting, your wife suffers, your children suffer. Don't think that you are the only one that suffers. A man that goes to the penitentiary makes his wife and children suffer just as much as he does. You're placing a shame on your wife and children. If you're a dirty, low-down, filthy, drunken, whisky-soaked bum you'll affect all with whom you come in contact. If you're a God-fearing man you will influence all with whom you come in contact. You can't live by yourself with my business?"

If I heard a man beating his wife and heard her shrieks and the children's cries and my wife would tell me to go and see what was the matter, and I went in and found a great big, broad-shouldered, whisky-soaked, hog-jowled, weasel-eyed brute dragging a little woman around by the hair, and two children in the comer unconscious from his kicks and the others yelling in abject terror, and he said, "What are you coming in to interfere with my personal liberty for? Isn't this my wife, didn't I pay for the license to wed her?" You ought, or you're a bigamist. "Aren't these my children; didn't I pay the doctor to bring them into the world?" You ought to, or you're a thief. "If I want to beat them, what is that your business, aren't they mine?" Would I apologize? Never! I'd knock seven kinds of pork out of that old hog.