To each

And to all

Our Prayers that yours is a wonderful

Thanksgiving Day

The Clarks

Amnesty, anyone?

Barrowed from the Chicago Tribune.

Have I missed something?

There is something happening in our society at this time that has me just a little or maybe a lot confused. The events of the last month have brought some confusion to my thinking and with some with whom I have presented my query. So I will present it here hoping for someone who will try to help me understand.

Point one.
There is a portion of our society that stands back and says, “What? We don’t need that piece of paper. We are in love. That little piece of paper won’t mean a thing. We have our love, isn’t that all that all we need? Will we be more in love after we get it?”

Point two.
Then another portion of our society stands back and demands. “We want that little piece of paper. We are entitled to it. We want to get married. We will get the courts to give us this right.” They are making every effort to get that little piece of paper.

Now, would someone invest the time to try and show me what is going on?

Mervi

Structure,

“Structure is the means of moral living.”

“Biblical structure tends to bring more deep seated pleasure and to foster longer, healthier lives.”

“Morality simply demands pleasure on the long term (God’s terms) rather than on impulse.”

“Morality is concerned with long term lasting results.”

“A train is free to run most rapidly and freely when it is “confined” to the tracks.”

“Holiness always has good results.”

Don’t laugh! These are not the quotation of a Pentecostal writer. Has anyone, beside self, read a book titled, “Competent to Counsel?”(pgs 160 – 161)

The base of this chapter is that we as humans need a structure to live and move within. The best and only true structure is the Ten Commandments. Along with the point that we need to have instructors to teach us the structure that Jesus desires us to have in the New Testament.

Oh, I am reading this book for the third time;
Mervi

D.N.A.

I lifted this article from the Ney York Times this morning,

The same technology could be applied to any other extinct species from which one can obtain hair, horn, hooves, fur or feathers, and which went extinct within the last 60,000 years, the effective age limit for DNA.
Though the stuffed animals in natural history museums are not likely to burst into life again, these old collections are full of items that may contain ancient DNA that can be decoded by the new generation of DNA sequencing machines.
If the genome of an extinct species can be reconstructed, biologists can work out the exact DNA differences with the genome of its nearest living relative. There are talks on how to modify the DNA in an elephant’s egg so that after each round of changes it would progressively resemble the DNA in a mammoth egg. The final-stage egg could then be brought to term in an elephant mother, and mammoths might once again roam the Siberian steppes.
The same would be technically possible with Neanderthals, whose full genome is expected to be recovered shortly, but there would be several ethical issues in modifying modern human DNA to that of another human species.

Here is the link to the complete story.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/science/20mammoth.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Will this ever be done, knowing that ever is a LONG time?

Just a thought;

Mervi

OH Thank you! I have found it!

Thank you OH thank you so much for your help.
I only have one more request.
Would someone help me to make sure I get it screwed on correct?

Auto Bailout (Union ??)

I am afraid that there is more truth than fiction to this cartoon.

Barrowed from the Chicago Tribune,

Mervi

Prop 8

Please bear with the lengthy article I barrowed from Dennis Prager this afternoon. I have been somewhat amazed, concerned, troubled and down right confused. Those who saw Prop 8 fail are now out in arms and in larger groups that I thought to see. The backers of Prop 8 are letting the world know that they have been wronged. Mr. Prager’s article makes a lot of good old common sense to me. I would ask you to at least read the portions I chose to copy. For the complete article the URL is at the end.

"Gay is the new black is one of the mottos of the movement to redefine marriage to include two people of the same sex.
The likening of the movement for same-sex marriage to the black civil rights struggle is a primary argument of pro same-sex marriage groups. This comparison is a major part of the moral appeal of redefining marriage: Just as there were those who once believed that blacks and whites should not be allowed to be married, the argument goes, there are today equally bigoted individuals who believe that men should not be allowed to marry men and women should not be allowed to marry women.
It is worth noting that the people least impressed with the comparison of the gay struggle to redefine marriage with the black struggle for racial equality are blacks. They voted overwhelmingly for Californias Proposition 8 which amends the California Constitution to define marriage as being the union of a man and a woman.
The fact is that states like California already grant people who wish to live and love a member of the same sex virtually every right that marriage bestows except the word married.

A certain number of gay men will feel better if they can call their partner husband and some lesbians will enjoy calling their partner wife, but society as a whole is not benefitted by such a redefinition of those words
And so, the movement appropriates the symbols and rhetoric of the back civil rights struggle when that struggle and the movement to redefine marriage have next to nothing in common."

http://dennisprager.townhall.com/columnists/DennisPrager/2008/11/18/is_gay_the_new_black

Thank you stopping by, your comments would be appricated;

Mervi

Early Morning

I stood this morning in center of a country road. I stood watching the Eastern sky, as that gray of early dawn pushed the darkness of the Midnight Blue across the sky. I stood and watched as Orin, Polaris, the Greater Dipper and the lesser all yield to the morning gray. The outline of the mighty Sierras became more and more pronounced as the morning gray over came the night.
As I watched a thought started within me and that thought turned into a prayer there in the middle of a country road, “Oh Lord in this short time frame I call today. Let that light that you have given me fight back the darkness in some life. Allow that darkness to be chased away some of the fear, of what is not seen. Oh Lord allow them to see, just the outline, of that great mountain of God.”

Just a thought:

Mervi

It's Monday !

Just a couple of thoughts.

I am upon my old soap Box!

Here is a story that creates some very deep feeling in me. I was raised in a home with a drinking father. I have both seen him drive and been in the car with him when he was far to drunk to operating a 2,000 lb missile. The man who is the direct cause of the devastation to this family needs to be proscuted to the extent of MURDER!!
YES! I do have very strong feeling about someone who is behind the guidance system of this large a projectile. It was done by choice! It was done knowing they were impaired! It is / was not the first time.
Yes! A second time, if my dad in a very impaired and repeated condition would cause this type of loss. He should be proscuted to the complete end of the law.


"Amanda Jahn was driving home from teaching a violin lesson, her two young children strapped into their car seats, when a vehicle came barreling through a stop sign and slammed into their car.
A repeat drunken driver was behind the wheel of the other vehicle, officials said."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-dui-deathsnov12,0,1585608.story

I have stepped from my soap box.

Now for something on the liter side. How fast do we require computers to be?

"KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - How fast is the new supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory? If everyone in the world performed one mathematical calculation per second, it would take 650 years to do what this machine can do in one day."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081111/D94CEO9G0.html

This computer could only be used by Bill Gates and Donald Trump as they calculate their tax returns.

Have a great weekend;

Mervi

Am I listening (?)

I get a regular article from this Jewish school. I very much enjoy some of the thoughts and ideas that they present concerning the Old Testament and the Torah. Here is part of this mornings article.

Ziegler School of Rebbinic Studies
Rabbi Cheryl Peretz, Associate Dean Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies

"Communication - the two-way exchange of ideas, facts,

thoughts or feelings - is the key to any successful relationship.

The reality, as Steven Covey, author of

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,

outlines is that most people do not

listen with the intent to understand,

they listen with the intent to reply.

The failure to listen, to hear, is not just about the words

that are missed, but cuts to the core of the connection

that exists between two people.

.When one person feels like another is not listening,

it creates a deep abyss, a void so intense that it

leaves one feeling invisible, lonely, violated.

Over time, it can destroy any good parts that

remain in the relationship.

And, while this can happen in any relationship,

it is so much more difficult in the most intimate ones,

between life partners."

Just a thought for the day;

Mervi

Just an old dead rose.

I took this picture Tuesday in my back yard. One dead, dry, gone and with all its beauty stripped away rose. As I looked at the remains of this rose there is a text that keeps coming to mind, “the summer is passed and the harvest is over and still we are not saved.” As I sit here and type I have a concern for many, where are they in the seasons of life. Are they in the summer, the time of planting and preparation for life? Are they in the time of harvest, hard work with rewards, seeing the things they worked for come to in to being and enjoying the growth and its rewards? Or are they in the time when it is almost all completed the smaller task after the harvest, the cleaning and preparation for another harvest, the raking and cleaning? But still where is the Lord in our life? Has He changed location in our priorities?

Just a thought;

Mervi

San Francisco (1)

The infamous Rock.
When I go back for surgery I am hoping that we will have the time to make a trip to the Rock.

Near pier 39 we found the Rain Forest Café. This is the third one I know of.

These fish are in a very large salt water tank made in the shape of an upside down “U”.

Their colors are simply beautiful.

Mervi

A video for Veterans Day

I picked this video up this morning from Kim Kamando's site.

I hope it will touch you as it touched me;

http://videos.komando.com/2008/11/11/american-anthem/

Mervi

Let us not forget!

One picture is worth a thousand words!

Please remember those who have served and are serving in our Military services.

Mervi

Thank our Lord for your teenagers!!

I found this picture sometime back and forget about it. This young lady has become the Genius books record holder for the most facial piercings.

So, the next time you walk by one of your teenagers, blow their mind. Stop and tell them how good they are doing.

Mervi

Home from UCSF.

I have returned from our trip to UCSF the outcome is that I am looking at my third surgery on my right kidney. For some reason that kidney keeps producing cyst, the one that is there now is approximately eighty inch across. The surgeon has asked that the hospital get my in STAT, a must before the first of the year. The cyst is between the kidney and another organ. Thus it is pressing against the kidney causing damage to the kidney it’s self. Your prayers are asked and very deeply appreciated.

Mervi

Can you believe this one?

WELLINGTON (Reuters) -
A New Zealand rape victim drove her rapist to a police station when he fell asleep in his car after assaulting the woman, local media reported on Wednesday.
Vipul Sharma, 22, was found guilty of abduction and two charges of rape by the Auckland District Court Tuesday, court officials told Reuters Wednesday.
The New Zealand newspaper said Sharma met the woman at an Auckland bar in 2006 and later drove her first to a park where he raped her in the back seat of his car.
After the attack Sharma allowed the woman to drive and fell asleep in the passenger seat, so the woman drove him to Auckland Central police station where he was arrested, said the newspaper.
"She showed a lot of bravery and common sense. I have nothing but respect for what she has endured," police detective Simon Welsh told the newspaper.

(Reporting by Michael Perry; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Have a great day;
Mervi

Just a note to my friends in the land of blog.

Virginia and I will be voting here shortly and then headed to UCSF, I have a third rather large cyst on my right kidney. I have an appointment with the specialist who removed the last cyst. He drained over 700 mml of cystic fluid from the cyst before he could remove it. I am asking your prayers both as we travel and our meeting with the Doctor on Wednesday afternoon.

Mervi

Last post before election day.

Sign form the rear of a Septic Truck!!

Mervi

From the judge who kept the Ten Commandments.

The following is a poem written by Judge Roy Moore from Alabama . Judge Moore was sued by the ACLU for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom foyer. He has been stripped of his judgeship and now they are trying to strip his right to practice law in Alabama ! The judge's poem sums it up quite well.

America the beautiful,

Or so you used to be.

Land of the Pilgrims' pride;

I'm glad they'll never see.

Babies piled in dumpsters,

Abortion on demand,

Oh, sweet land of liberty;

Your house is on the sand.

Our children wander aimlessly

Poisoned by cocaine

Choosing to indulge their lusts,

When God has said abstain

From sea to shining sea,

Our Nation turns away

From the teaching of God's love

And a need to always pray

We've kept God in ourTemples,

how callous we have grown.

When earth is but His footstool,

And Heaven is His throne.

We've voted in a government

that's rotting at the core,

Appointing Godless Judges;

Who throw reason out the door,

Too soft to place a killer

In a well deserved tomb,

But brave enough to kill a baby

Before he leaves the womb.

You think that God's notAngry,

that our land's a moral slum?

How much longer will He wait

Before His judgment comes?

How are we to face our God,

From Whom we cannot hide?

What then is left for us to do,

But stem this evil tide?

If we who are His children,

Will humbly turn and pray;

Seek His holy face

And mend our evil way:

Then God will hear from Heaven;

And forgive us of our sins,

He'll heal our sickly land

And those who live within.

But, America the Beautiful,

If you don't - then you will see,

A sad but Holy God

Withdraw His hand from Thee.

~~Judge Roy Moore~~

This says it all. May we all forward this message and offer our prayers for Judge Moore to be blessed and for America to wake up and realize what we need to do to keep OUR? America the Beautiful.Pass this on and let's lift Judge Moore up in Prayer.?????? He has stood firm and needs our support.

IN GOD WE TRUST!

Mervi

Your vote is needed!

This Sunday before election day, I ould ask you to consider the following.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ONE VOTE

Mary W. Morgan, Supervisor of Elections

The most often heard excuse for not voting in an election is "my one
little vote won't make a difference." Yet history is full of instances
proving the enormous power of one single vote. In many cases, the
course of nations has been changed because one individual ballot was
cast -- or not cast -- depending upon your point of view. Consider
this:

*In 1645, one vote gave Oliver Cromwell control of England.
* In 1649, one vote literally cost King Charles I of England his
head. The vote to behead him was 67 against and 68 for -- the ax
fell thanks to one vote.
* In 1714, one vote placed King George I on the throne of England
and restored the monarchy.
* In 1776, one vote gave America the English language instead of German (at least according to folk lore.)
* In a 1955 city election in Huron, Ohio, the mayor was elected to office by one vote.
* In a 1959 city election, mayors of both Rose Creek and Odin, Minnesota were elected to their respective offices by one vote.
* In the 1960 presidential election, an additional one vote per precinct in Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, and Texas may have altered the course of America's modern history by denying John F. Kennedy the presidency and placing Richard Nixon in the White House 8 years earlier. * In 1962, the governors of Maine, Rhode Island, and North Dakota were all elected by a margin of one vote per precinct.
* In 1984, a Monroe County, Florida commissioner was elected by one vote.

Please use your ONE vote on election day;

Mervi