Ain't Complicated

Every Dime

Our coin box — shot with my cheapo cellphone

OK, so the expression every dime has been featured of late. So I’ll contribute to the FOL project. I Googled the phrase and what follows came up in the top ten results. Click the link to see what I left out. Or what has changed since I did my search.

Details thin on stimulus contracts

Although President Obama has vowed that citizens will be able to track “every dime” of the $787 billion stimulus bill, a government website dedicated to the spending won’t have details on contracts and grants until October and may not be complete until next spring — halfway through the program, administration officials said.

Recovery.gov now lists programs being funded by the stimulus money, but provides no details on who received the grants and contracts.

Yup. That was at the top, though not surprisingly.

Among the remaining nine of the Top Ten:

Fafsa in time saves every dime

Renovated Boshamer worth every dime it cost

The Porsche Boxer Is Worth Every Dime

Termite inspections, scams or worth every dime?

Squeeze every dime out of it

Oh, and by the way, how many dimes do you see in the photo above? (Remember to click the image for a larger view.)

Counting Noses…

…and “marking” doors. 😯

Census GPS-tagging your home’s front door

…140,000 workers hired…to collect GPS readings for every front door in the nation.

Just because I thought you should know.

Disclaimer: I didn’t verify this information with other sources.

I Hung Up on Him

The caller ID informed me:

Phillips Co Sec 503-224-0858

I don’t know what the guy’s speel was, except that it had to do with investing.

I apologized for interrupting and told him we just aren’t taking this kind of calls.

He re-launched his speel. Unfazed.

So I interrupted him again with the same message.

He just didn’t get it.

He kept on talking!

So I hung up on him.

Just three or four minutes ago.

Whoever he was and whoever they are, I just gave them some free advertising.

Now please honor our entry in the National No Call List.

Thanks.

Morning News Lines

Sixteen people banned from entering the UK are “named and shamed” by the Home Office Ya s’pose Michael Savage is feeling shamed?! 🙄

On May 5, Mexican dominance irks other Latinos Is this about Mexican imperialism? 😯

Michiganians mine bodies for cash to make ends meet The worn-out pro-death line ought to work for these folks also: “It’s my body!”

Emanuel: Thwarting Iran easier with Israeli-Palestinian talks Israel, beware! 🙁

What’s your choice for news line this morning?

Peace, Part II

Furious Berlusconi demands apology from wife

Now, which emoticon should I use?! 🙄 😯 😥 😆

I don’t know if either of the Berlusconis are Christians, but I suppose one could also wonder who the real Christians are in this next story.

U.S. denies letting troops convert Afghans

The U.S. military denied Monday it has allowed soldiers to try to convert Afghans to Christianity, after a television network showed pictures of soldiers with bibles translated into local languages.

General Order Number 1 from the U.S. military’s Central Command forbids active duty troops — including all those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan — from trying to convert people to their religion, considered a crime in many Muslim countries.

[…]

“The translated bibles were never distributed as far as we know, because the soldier understood that if he distributed them he would be in violation of general order 1, and he would be subject to punishment.”

No man can serve to masters, Jesus said once upon a time.

Besides, those soldiers are there to kill people, not save them. Or am I missing something?

Other reading: Kosovo and Serbia: A Case Study Regarding Christians in the Military

Peace

from 1 Thessalonians 1:1

In my Bible reading this morning, my troubled heart grabbed at that single word in that verse.

Then in casting about for a background to use for it, I remembered a photo my friend and minister Peter Turner took last week while we were in Mexico with several other Mission Board members.

Beautiful flowers on a thorny saguaro (aka sahuaro) cactus — peace in the storm.

Maybe it will be just what you need as well.

(Thank you, Lord, for that reassuring promise: peace.)

Quiz: Identify It

Here — from among the scores I took on my recent trip to Mexico — are six photos. (No, clicking on these will not take you to larger versions. Sorry.)

Beneath each photo is the identity question that goes with it.