Ain't Complicated

Six Healthy-Sounding Foods

Many foods have been heavily promoted as being healthy. But not all of them are. Here are some foods which are far less “good for you” than most people believe.

Energy bars

Energy bars usually contain protein and fiber, but they may also be loaded with calories. That’s fine if you occasionally make one a meal, but most people eat them as snacks.

Granola

Granola sounds healthy. But it’s often high in fat, sugar and calories. Don’t be fooled by a seemingly low calorie count; the portion sizes on the label are usually tiny.

Salad Toppings

The pecans and Gorgonzola cheese on Panera Bread’s Fuji Apple Chicken Salad propel it into double-cheeseburger territory. Before ordering a salad, check its nutrition information.

Smoothies

Added sugars can make some smoothies the equivalent of drinking fruit pie filling. The smallest serving of Jamba Juice’s Orange Dream Machine has 340 calories and an astonishing 69 grams of sugars.

Sushi Rolls

Sushi rolls vary, and the fried bits and mayonnaise in some can really jack up the calories.

Yogurts

The “fruit” in yogurt is really jam (that is to say, mostly sugar).

My wife makes some really good granola. Where can I take it to have it evaluated? 🙄

What Strangers Think

Andrée Seu has another thought-provoker over at WorldMagBlog:

“Lazarus, listen, we have things to tell you. We killed the sheep you meant to take to market. We couldn’t keep the old dog either. He minded you; the rest of us he barked at. Rebecca, who cried two days, has given her hand to the sandalmaker’s son. Please understand — we didn’t know that Jesus could do this.

“We’re glad you’re back. But give us time to think. Imagine our surprise….We want to say we’re sorry for all of that. And one thing more. We threw away the lyre. But listen, we’ll pay whatever the sheep was worth. The dog, too. And put your room the way it was before.” (”Adjusting to the Light,” by Miller Williams)

I have been praying (almost mechanically after a while): “Teach us to number our days, that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). And God has been answering: a perfect new dog-walking track that thrusts in my my face rows of granite headstones on which beginning and end dates compress full lifetimes to, well, a “mist,” a “vapor” (James 4:14). All these people I jog past are forgotten, every one. If they were anything like me, they wasted entirely too much time worrying about what total strangers thought of them.

On the other hand, let’s not forget that the impressions we create in strangers do matter. We are God’s epistle, known and read of all. We are light in the world.

Above all, of course, the child of God strives to show himself approved before God.

Fuel Prices: Alternate Perspective

Mission Network News reports:

We begin a five-part series on the high cost of fuel and its impact on outreach. This week we’ll talk about how the high costs are affecting evangelism, relief work, missionaries, mission aviation and short-term work. Today we’ll take a look at how rising costs are affecting evangelism, both at home and abroad.

Please read the article.

It won’t make the price of fuel in the States any cheaper. But it may help alter your perspecitve.

It has mine.

(For a bit.)

June 13

Friday, the thirteenth — oh, wow!

1958 — James Roth weds Noreen Byers on Friday the thirteenth. In less than two years, they begin service in Mexico. They return to the States to live in mid-1976. After another relatively-short stint in Mexico in the early 80’s, they return to Oregon “permanently.” After a little over 25 years of service in that capacity, James recently retired as pastor and bishop of Hopewell Mennonite Church near Hubbard, Oregon. So, now it’s Friday the thirteenth again — but fifty years later. Congratulations, Dad and Mom!

In other years on this day . . .

1525 – Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora — contrary to the RCCs celibacy rule for its priests and nuns.

1757 — Pope Benedict XIV grants people throughout the world official permission to have the Bible in their own language.

1774 — Rhode Island bans the importation of slaves — the first British North American colony to do so.

1900 — China’s Boxer Rebellion explodes into full-scale violence — foreigners as well as Chinese Christians are targeted.

1966 — The US Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.

1983 — After more than a decade in space, Pioneer 10, the world’s first outer-planetary probe, leaves the solar system.

1997 — A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to the death for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

2002 — The US withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

2008 — Substantial election returns show that Ireland’s voters have rejected the European Union reform treaty, a blueprint for modernizing the 27-nation bloc that cannot become law without Irish approval.

Unclaimed Entitlements Gifts

What’s this post doing under Christianity 101?!

Unclaimed Entitlements

Uncashed checks and money orders, non-refunded deposits, bank accounts and safety deposit boxes you forgot you had, insurance and retirement benefits, abandoned stocks, matured and unredeemed savings bonds, undelivered tax refunds, unclaimed trust fund payments, unpaid retirement benefits, unpaid distributions to creditors, lost securities accounts, unpaid Social Security, of VA benefits. A conservative estimate puts it at $30 billion owed to 80 million owners, held in the “protective custody” of the government.

Read the whole article and you’ll see.

(Really — click the link and read the article. It’s short.)

Anabaptist Cave

Thanks to Google Alerts, I came across this a bit ago:

Tauferhohle, or the Anabaptist Cave

But I have to say that the beauty of this Tauferhohle is beyond anything else that I experienced. I thought about the irony of the Anabaptists needing to meet here because it was so isolated and so safe for gatherings. But at the same time finding such a beautiful and peaceful place to meet. There is a water fall that goes over the front, so there is the soft noise of water the whole time you are there. And if the preacher is standing at the front, you would have the beauty of God’s creation to meditate on as you look past him or her. It is a holy and beautiful place.

Amish Mennonite Blog: Tauferhohle (Anabaptist Cave)

Sounds like a pretty (and potentially peaceful) place.

Supremely Spoken

Read these excerpts and tell me who wins and who loses:

Supreme Court rules for Guantanamo prisoners

Guantanamo Bay prisoners can go before U.S. federal judges to challenge their years-long detention, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in a landmark decision that delivered a stinging setback for President George W. Bush’s policies.

[…]

“Today’s decision forcefully repudiates the essential lawlessness of the Bush administration’s failed Guantanamo policy,” said Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union.

[…]

“The entire basis for the existence of Guantanamo Bay is gone,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Brian Mizer, a military lawyer assigned to defend Osama bin Laden’s driver, Salim Hamdan, in the Guantanamo tribunals.

“It’s a victory for all Americans because it reinforces the principle that no person or agency is above the law.”

So it’s a loss for President Bush and his administration.

And it’s a win for terrorists.

And the ACLU and Amnesty International.

Oh, and for all Americans.

On that last one, I have my doubts, but we’ll see.

I’m guessing it will end up being a loss for some terrorists and “enemy combatants” who presently are not in custody. I expect more will end up dead on the battlefield. Or wishing they were at Gitmo under yesterday’s circumstances than in the foreign prison system into which they have disappeared after being captured by Americans and being turned over to others.

Anyway, here’s another Supreme Court story from the other side of the planet (I suppose):

Top court rules against Americans held in Iraq

Federal judges cannot block U.S. military officials from turning over two Americans held in Iraq to local authorities who want to prosecute them for involvement in the insurgency or criminal activity, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

The high court’s decision was a defeat for two Americans who say they are innocent and who are being held by U.S. soldiers at Camp Cropper near Baghdad International Airport.

[…]

Their lawyers say the two men might be tortured or even killed if they are transferred to Iraqi custody and that they should have access to U.S. courts to challenge their detention and to stop their transfer to Iraqi authorities.

[…]

The Bush administration has argued that U.S. courts have no jurisdiction over the cases, partly because the two men are being held under the auspices of multinational forces in Iraq, of which the U.S. contingent is only a part.

[…]

The court rejected the administration’s arguments that the two men have no rights whatsoever to habeas corpus — the right to challenge their imprisonment.

Roberts said the right extends to American citizens held overseas by American forces operating subject to an American chain of command. But he held that U.S. courts do not have the power to block their transfer to a foreign country for criminal prosecution.

Again, who wins and who loses?

And also, can that last sentence be used by the Administration to transfer all Gitmo prisoners to a foreign country so they don’t have to be admitted into the US court system?

All in all, it seems to me that these two cases are symptomatic of the degrading national sovereignty of the United States.

Disclaimer: I may not know what I’m talking about. 🙄

PS: If I were the next President, I would appoint guys to the US Supreme Court who wouldn’t put up with this kind of nonsense. You know, maybe like those two fellows Mr. Bush stuck on there. At least, I think I would. You could write my name on the ballot in November on the assumption that I would. 😀