This week ended with my getting my "pink slip" ... acually typed ... and on white bond paper!

But pink slips are like pink elephants and other seemingly "tragic" events in life ...

Pink elephants aside, I truly did receive written notification that my teaching contract would not be renewed on 1 July 2009. The reason given was that the overall contract between the State and my college would likely not be renewed due to the recession and a nine billion dollar budget shortfall. There was no "likely not" in the sentence that notified me that my contract would not be renewed--and it wasn't a general letter given to the many others who would be affected. I was told to go to the H.R. office in advance of a general all-faculty meeting so that the notification could be given to me privately and with (truly) gentle dignity.

Then ... at church this morning, we closed with the following song/prayer ...

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves

To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown
Where Jesus is
And He's holding out His hand

But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed

The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. "Boy, you'll never win!"
"You'll never win!"

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me

I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth

Yeh, man …

How often before have I seemingly been tossed to the unknown (usually as a result of my own self-centered sinfulness or clumsy failures)? Yes, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth!

Still, a prayer or two from the believers of you out there in the blogosphere ... would help this old curmudgeon to face the endless car payments, health costs and, oh yes, that crazy house mortgage--and a thousand other challenges that never seem to stop battering at my "boat" ... so to speak ...

For Once, Glenn Beck Was 100% ON TARGET!!!

Add another $1.2 trillion to the vertical spike on the right, and what do you have? A spike on top of the spike? The vertical scale is in billions of dollars--meaning 1,000 is a trillion dollars, etc.! Adding another 1200 billion dollars ($1.2 trillion) takes us higher even than Al Gore's Global Warming ladder in An Inconvenient Truth!!

I didn't really believe Glenn Beck while driving home earlier today when he said that the Federal Reserve would print $1.2 trillion to buy bonds and mortgage-backed securities from the US Treasury. He was quoting Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, who made the statement on Wednesday while we were all looking the other way--and awaiting Barack Obama's appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

I checked. He (Bernanke) did say what Beck said he said. They (The Federal Reserve) will buy low-interest bonds and other securities!

Apparently, Bernanke made this announcement--a most remarkable statement actually--at a moment in time when we are all so steamed up about the bonuses to bank executives that we missed the bombshell of the week. Watch for inflation to show a spike even more remarkable than the spike in the money supply that will result from this move by the Federal Reserve.

Okay, I will admit that some short-term benefits will occur, such as the lowering of interest rates (although not on my existing mortgage or car payments).

What wasn't said by ANYONE--including even Glenn Beck--is that (1) the Federal Reserve is made up of 12 private corporations so it is neither Federal nor a Reserve, and (2) they print money and then charge interest to the US Treasury for us to use the money.

Just look at the money in your wallet (if you have any left). It says "Federal Reserve Note". "Note" means that we owe it to them. It should say "US Treasury Bill".

Living with a wounded bird ... not dead, but in need of a miracle which only Jesus can provide!

Myself with sweet, wounded Richard ...

Only a peek at the recent postings on Sweetheart's blog says it all. I have my faults and, at times, the ego between my ears grows to the size of a watermelon. But, I think I know severe sickness when I see it. No, I can't really judge another person to be an alcoholic--being a recovered (I hope and pray daily) one myself.

But Richard's wounds--whether self-inflicted or externally applied--are obvious to all who know him.

Continue to pray for him. I truly believe I see a twinge of life in his seemingly dead spirit. Nothing is beyond the capabilities of Our Father, His Son and the Holy Spirit.

In the name of Jesus Christ who died for us all ...

Who throws the first stone?

With Lethal Injection, We Need Never Know!

How often have you heard "Execution is too good for him!" or "Let him rot in prison!" or "We need closure!" or "Eliminate them so that they can never kill again!" or ... there are thousands, aren't there?

Well, the State of Washington just a couple of days ago came within hours of executing Cal Brown (under medication for several years for his bipolar condition) for the admittedly heinous crimes of rape, torture and murder of a young woman at SeaTac International Airport 18 years ago.

Fortunately, there are a few who (like Jesus at the well) see the sin as separate from the sinner. We are not all self-righteous politicians and red-necked "average guys" who want harsher and harsher sentences for whatever is the "ugliest or most heinous sins" of the times--whatever century we are living in. Thus the death penalty is drying up in actuality outside of Texas in the United States of America and very much so outside of America.

Sadly though, polls show that most Americans, when asked about it, are more inclined towards the side of the Pharisees and Sadducees of New Testament times. Politicians and prosecutors are not interested in "saving" the lost sheep (a.k.a. sinner), but more interested in sacrificing human life on their own self-righteous pillars of popularity, fear and ... ultimately, votes!

Interestingly, God never gives up prodding the very worst of sinners until they turn back to the love He initiated even before their inception.

Only humans say, "Eliminate them once and for all!"

Does the argument of cloning a pet enter into the moralistic arguments vis-a-vis human embryonic stem cell research?

Canine Embryonic Stem Cells

I was kind of hoping that Sweetie-Sweetheart might have a thought or two on this before I return to matters of serious morality in my next couple of postings.

All of God's children means "ALL" of God's children!

And that includes human embryonic stem cells!

Doing some digging with Google, I learned that all stem cells are essentially the building blocks of the human body.

The stem cells inside an embryo will eventually give rise to every cell, organ and tissue in the fetus's body. Unlike a regular cell, which can only replicate to create more of its own kind of cell, a stem cell is pluripotent. When it divides, it can make any one of the 220 different cells in the human body. Stem cells also have the capability to self-renew -- they can reproduce themselves many times over.

There are two types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. Embryonic stem cells come from an embryo -- the mass of cells in the earliest stage of human development (shown above) that, if implanted in a woman's womb, will eventually grow into a fetus. When the embryo is between three and five days old, it contains stem cells, which are busily working to create the various organs and tissues that will make up the human fetus.

That is, PEOPLE--like you and me!

Keeping with his aura of Presidential demeanor, Obama said--as he signed the Executive Order (shown below), "That is why today, I am also signing a Presidential Memorandum directing the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to develop a strategy for restoring scientific integrity to government decision making."

Sounds like, "Kill 'em, if that's what you scientists want to do!" to me.

All smiles--except among the very tiniest of God's children ...

"Be still and know I am God" ... Psalm 46:10

My brother Richard and I contemplated (and meditated) on the powerful words from Psalm 46, Verse 10 (above). The quote below says it all for me:

The only real absolute truth is God himself, and our best interpretations of the Bible are only an approximation of it. God was God and Truth was Truth before there was a Bible and will continue on long after the Bible is no more. For years I read the Bible as a way of figuring out how to make God work in my reality; now I see that the Bible is a gift from God designed to pull me into his reality. I no longer think of the Bible as a landing strip for a particular belief system or theology about God, but a launching pad setting me free to explore the height, width, and depth of God’s being. [ . . . ] God uses anything and everything to stimulate my spiritual life. Nothing is wasted.” P. 59, Wide Open Spaces by Jim Palmer.

A new challenge for Serenissima ...

The ingredients of the Kitty Litter Cake aren't nearly so gross as the ingredients of the burgeoning "center" of the Republican Party.

But don't get me totally wrong ... Sarah is still the hottest candidate around and her legs make "three-pointer" Obama's look like tent poles!

Richard is Teaching His NON-gourmet Brother to Bake a Cake

Kitty litter Cake

I asked my brother Richard to clean the kitty litters tomorrow while I work from early morning (Oh-thirty a.m.) till late in the evening (roughly Jay Leno in the something-teen p.m.). Well, he turned that into a cooking lesson.

And now he's mumbling about moving his cooking lessons to Leisure World, MD.

This posting was in reply to Gem's two-legged friend's comment that my blogs were too serious.

I'm halfway there ... now, it's a matter of that "Divine" part ...

Divine Nobodies is a must read!

What a refreshing weekend read! Involving Christianity--nay, JESUS CHRIST himself--in your own life through everyday interaction with other people--as opposed to along the lines of the prescribed regulations of some belief system--Christianity or not! This was as good a read as I've experienced in quite a while.

As we all can easily (perhaps, perhaps not) learn from the New Testament, Jesus and his followers did their teaching out in the street and pretty much wherever they found themselves in that amazing First Century. And definitely with those lost souls with whom they seemed to bump into wherever.

And like Jim Palmer's "Divine Nobodies," most (save Jesus Himself) were "nobody" special in the bigger scheme of things in the former Roman Empire--just people who met other people's needs and happened to be there when the need arose.

One thing that made this book special was the author's (Jim Palmer's) exposure of his own vulnerabilities naked and bleeding for all to see and with which to relate.

Powerful stuff and yes, I believe it was "good for my soul," whatever that used to mean in my own Roman Catholic upbringing.