Data from Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys shows that 15.0% of Democrats in the workforce are currently unemployed and looking for a job. Among adults not affiliated with either major party, that number is 15.6% while just 9.9% of Republicans are in the same situation.

from Rasmussen Reports.

tags: politics, unemployment

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Leonid over Mono Lake:  someday maybe I’ll get there.

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A Russian priest gunned down in church

from ABC News.

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Heh…

Climategate.

Charlie Martin

Instapundit

InForum Blog

William M Briggs

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The Manhattan Proclamtion (yea and nay)

Denny Burk

John Stackhouse

Dead Theologians

Feeding on Christ

Truth for Life

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Junk Food Produces Weak Christians

Indeed.

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How to kill an idea (anybody in corporate America will get this.

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Sarah Palin

American Thinker

Star Trek (the new one) – my first “Star Trek” experience in…8 1/2 years.

Playing the Pharisee Card

Posted using ShareThis

(I’ve cut and pasted the article under the fold – because I think that they’ll rotate the article off the page eventually and I want to keep this one around…

Why?  I love anything and everything that keeps me pointed to Christ and His finished work on the cross.  When I am centered there, when Christ is on the cross, there is no room for my works, my righteousness, my goodness (or lack thereof)

Read more »

Alleluia! Sing to Jesus
By: William C. Dix, 1837-98

Alleluia! Sing to Jesus;
His the scepter, His the throne;
Alleluia! His the triumph,
His the victory alone.
Hark! The songs of peaceful Zion
Thunder like a mighty flood:
“Jesus out of every nation
Has redeemed us by His blood.”

Alleluia! Not as orphans
Are we left in sorrow now;
Alleluia! He is near us:
Faith believes, nor questions how.
Though the cloud from sight received Him
When the forty days were over,
Shall our hearts forget His promise:
“I am with you ever-more”?

Alleluia! Bread of heaven,
Here on earth our food, our stay;
Alleluia! Here the sinful
Flee to You from day to day.
Intercessor, Friend of sinners,
Earth’s Redeemer, hear our plea
Where the songs of all the sinless
Sweep across the crystal sea.

Alleluia! King eternal,
Lord omnipotent we own;
Alleluia! Born of Mary,
Earth Your foot-stool, heaven Your throne.
As within the veil You entered,
Robed in flesh, our great high priest,
Here on earth both priest and victim
In the eucharistic feast.

Alleluia! Sing to Jesus;
His the scepter, His the throne;
Alleluia! His the triumph,
His the victory alone.
Hark! The songs of peaceful Zion
Thunder like a mighty flood:
“Jesus out of every nation
Has redeemed us by His blood.”

Talitha Piper – “Godward“.

Found via an interview with her on “Nobody416″

My two favorite questions:

Olivia: Your mom talks about how you always have known that you were adopted and they’ve been very open with you. How has that impacted the way you see adoption?


Talitha: I see adoption as a little picture of how God adopts us. The excitement, the pain, the sorrow, the joy!  I think that I wouldn’t connect earthly adoption to heavenly adoption if it wasn’t for my parents giving me a godly definition (and example!!) of adoption.

and

Olivia: Has being physically adopted effected your perception of spiritual adoption?


Talitha: Yes. I kind of touched on that on another question. But I can say it again! Being physically adopted is very special, but being spiritually adopted is ten thousand times better!! My family is only biracial. God’s family is multi racial. That is so amazing! I have been adopted twice in my life. Physically and Spiritually! I thank God everyday for that!

Also discovered:  Noel Piper’s blog, who will be starting a series on Talitha’s adoption and being a bi-racial family…this is a good start!

I was a little concerned that the dog would get over protective with Tom around for the first time since Toby came to live with me.

WRONG!

The dog seems to like Tom better than he likes me…he follows him around, climbs up on the couch next to him, hangs around him.

Appears to have abandoned me…

It may be that his previous owner was a man, so he sees Tom as that “guy figure”.

Anyway, they get along.

Earlier this week my mom dislocated her artificial hip (again).  This time they did surgery (her second major surgery in 6 months) and they ended up not having to replace the whole joint, just the socket.

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I just got a call from Dad – they’re giving Mom 2 units of blood (I’m not sure what the numbers mean, he said it should be 12 and it’s 7).

Her good leg is now her bad leg.  So she can’t put more than 20 pounds on her bad leg and her good leg can’t support her at all.

The good news is that she’s consented to be transfered to a rehab center close to their home, rather than insisting on going to a home when she’s released.  The social worker said that the rehab center will be able to keep her there until she can walk with a walker (which means that they’ll be working on the “bad” leg [now her good leg] which hasn’t been worked on because she was using her good leg [now her bad leg] and the walker.

So, in the long run, this could get her walking with a cane *sooner* than she might have been otherwise!

Issues, Etc.

• The Manhattan Declaration
• The Catholic Church and Government Social Issues

White Horse Inn

• Is Living Like Jesus Enough?

I don’t generally “do” Thanksgiving Day.  This year I’m really not.

Tom and I are at home, we got take-out rib tips and we’re getting ready for a movie marathon (Transformer 2 and the new Star Trek movie)

But I am thankful.

I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up
and have not let my foes rejoice over me.
O LORD my God, I cried to you for help,
and you have healed me.
O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol;
you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit

Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger is but for a moment,
and his favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may tarry for the night,
but joy comes with the morning.

As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
By your favor, O LORD,
you made my mountain stand strong;
you hid your face;
I wa dismayed.

To you, O LORD, I cry,
and to the Lord I plead for mercy:
“What profit is there in my death,
if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?
Will it tell of your faithfulness?
Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me!
O LORD, be my helper!”

You have turned for me my mourning int dancing;
you have loosed my sackcloth
and clothed me with gladness,
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.
O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever! (Psalm 30 ESV)

Here is a link to the Kaiser Family Foundation that has a variety of ways that you can look at the different plans on the table.

my mom dislocated her artifical hip.

She will be transfered tonight to a specialty hospital and the hip will be replaced tomorrow. She is mid-recovery after a difficult back surgery, so time spent way from physical therapy will be a big setback.

My lead teacher, Becky is in the ICU with H1N1 complications.

She is immuno-compromised after cancer treatments (she is partway through a round of chemo – not for cancer but for rheumetoid arthritis) and the complication that she is dealing with is her asthma symtoms.

This morning we were in the church service (which almost always is started with prayer).  This morning Jeremiah (the worship leader) just jumped right into the music (and he is the best “pray-er” I have heard at this church).

He was leading the music at the right speed, but after the intro when he started singing it was at twice the speed we should have been singing.

After the first line, he stopped…”Somebody up here needs to calm down and I think it’s me.  Let’s stop right now and pray.”  And he did.

After that…it was wonderful.  It’s not the teaching or the leadership that keeps me going to this church…it’s Jeremiah.

“All Creatures of Our God and King”

All creatures of our God and King,
lift up your voices, let us sing:
Alleluia, alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beams,
thou silver moon that gently gleams,
Refrain:
O praise him, O praise him,
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
ye clouds that sail in heaven along,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Thou rising morn, in praise rejoice, ye lights of evening, find a voice, (R)

And thou, most kind and gentle death,
waiting to hush our latest breath,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Thou leadest home the child of God,
and Christ our Lord the way hath trod: (R)

Let all things their Creator bless,
and worship him in humbleness,
O praise him, Alleluia!
Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son,
and praise the Spirit, Three in One: (R)

A pair of bald eagles have a nest about twenty minutes away from my house

a few posts to pre-publish next week…

listen to this week’s White Horse Inn…

Make next week’s coffee (I drink my coffee a little on the warm (not hot) side, and I use a french press so I make it ahead of time and put it in a sealed carafe in the fridge. Saves a bunch of time in the morning.)

laundry…

laundry…

laundry…

grocery shopping…

declutter 1/2 hour (box up kid stuff hanging around)

watch television (yes, I have to put this on my “to do” list – and that’s when I knit)

organize meds and supplements

next chapter of “Parables of Jesus”

download and edit photos for class project

upload photos to CVS to print

HT: Gay Patriot

quiz is here.

Alger Falls are so close to the road…the square shadow is my car.

A study conducted by UCLA’s Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is In her menstrual cycle. For example: If she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features. However, if she is menstruating, or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire…

No further studies are expected.

The Parables of Jesus: Entering, Growing, Living, and Finishing in God’s Kingdom by Terry Johnson

If you ask, “Why did Jesus teach in parables?” most people will answer:  “to make it easier to understand.”

When the disciples asked Jesus why He taught in parables, He answered, ”

This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
” ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. (Matt 13:13-17 ESV)

According to Jesus, He used parables not to make it easier to understand, but to make it more difficult to understand!

Why?  Johnson puts forward the thought that parables were perfect for Jesus’ “purposes in election”.

He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. (v.11)

I think the verse that follows contradicts the imposition of the doctrine of election into this passage, though.

Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. (v.12)

I think this verse says that (even if there is no doctrine of election and we all start out with the same ability), those who have even a little bit of understanding will be given more…and those who refuse to listen to the Word will have even what they started with taken away.

But the point remains that Jesus used parables to illuminate the truth to some…and to veil it to others.