Ain't Complicated

Defraud Not

“Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well” (Proverbs 5:15).

Guys, if the girl isn’t your wife, keep your hands off.

Gals, if the fellow isn’t your husband, keep your hands off. (And his as well!)

Kissing, holding, handling, hugging, fondling, cuddling — even that, if between non-spouses, violates the above verse. In my opinion.

Even if I indulge in it “only” in my mind, I have sinned. Jesus said so.

As the world’s standards of morality continue their downward trend, I purpose to be faithful to my God and to my wife.

As the church herself becomes increasingly lax in far too many instances, I purpose to keep up my guard.

It’s tough.

Different Look

What’s with the different look here?

Not much, really.

I just did a quick upgrade of the WordPress software.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll have time to return Ain’t Complicated to its previous look.

June 6

1944 — The “D-Day” invasion of Europe begins as Allied forces storm the beaches of Normandy, France.

1844 — The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is founded in London.

1882

George Matheson was hurting. It was not physical pain that cut him, or regret for the blindness that had robbed him of sight by the time he was eighteen. Rather, it was anguish of spirit.

It was on this day, June 6, 1882, the day of his sister’s marriage. His family was staying overnight in Glasgow, Scotland, leaving him alone in the Manse (a parsonage). Something happened to forty-year old George as he sat alone there in the darkness of his blindness, something known only to himself, something which caused him severe mental suffering. He never confided to anyone what the problem was, and yet his heart cried out to Christ.

As his heart moaned, words welled up in his mind, words of comfort. “I had the impression of having it dictated to me by some inward voice rather than of working it out myself,” he said later. He jotted the lines down.

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

1925 — Walter Percy Chrysler starts up the Chrysler Corporation.

1933 — The first drive-in movie theater opens.

1968 — Democrat Senator and Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy dies a day after he was shot by Sirhan Bishara Sirhan.

1752 — Fire consumes one-third of Moscow, the destruction including 18,000 homes.

1833 — All aboarrrrrd! President Andrew Jackson becomes the first President to ride a train.

1882 — More than 100,000 inhabitants of Bombay die as a cyclone in the Arabian Sea pushes huge waves into the harbor.

1889 — The Great Seattle Fire destroys the entirety of downtown Seattle.

1932 — The first gas tax in the United States adds one cent to the price per gallon.

1990 — US District Court Judge Jose Gonzales rules that the rap album As Nasty As They Wanna Be by the 2 Live Crew violates Florida’s obscenity law; he declares that the predominant subject matter of the record is “directed to the ‘dirty’ thoughts and the loins, not to the intellect and the mind.”

2004

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of Ronald Reagan, and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby direct that the flag of the United States be displayed at half-staff at the White House and on all buildings, grounds, and Naval vessels of the United States for a period of 30 days from the day of his death. I also direct that for the same length of time, the representatives of the United States in foreign countries shall make similar arrangements for the display of the flag at half-staff over their Embassies, Legations, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and stations.

2005 — the United States Supreme Court votes to ban medical marijuana.

2008 — I saw a link to a calculator that reveals when your share of Earth’s resources are fully consumed — and thus, when it’s time for you to die. Or at least when you should start buying ERCs (Earth Resources Credits).

Learn About Life in the Shoe

Except here they’re out of their shoe and in someone else’s.

And it doesn’t seem to have panned out too well.

But it does make for a funny read.

Here you have the outer edges of the sandwich:

The Great Getaway

Paul and I like to take an overnight getaway in June before our marriage takes its annual battering during harvest in July and August. This time Paul went above-and-beyond and booked a lunch cruise tomorrow on a ship in Portland and a room at the Holiday Inn. Through Priceline of course.

So we checked in this afternoon. The room was on the fourth floor, and beautiful. And cold.

[…]

Just a few minutes ago he left again, saying something we couldn’t understand. I don’t know if the drain is fixed or not. He’ll probably be back soon with his toothbrush and pajamas and popcorn and a movie.

Go visit your Holiday Inn for your next romantic getaway, the one with three curved sides, on NE 2nd just across from the Rose Garden.

So there you are — a ringing undorsement of the kind I thought I had posted for the Super 8 in Tucson at West Starr Pass Blvd (but which I can’t find here now).

Paul and Dorcas, I hope today is better. And if that guy showed up again, I hope he brought his interpreter.

Death Wishes

I saw two headlines and thought of my post title.

Israel to attack Iran unless enrichment stops

“If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective,” Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

“Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable,” said the former army chief who has also been defense minister.

It was the most explicit threat yet against Iran from a member of Olmert’s government, which, like the Bush administration, has preferred to hint at force as a last resort should U.N. Security Council sanctions be deemed a dead end.

Iran has defied Western pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment projects, which it says are for peaceful electricity generation rather than bomb-building. The leadership in Tehran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel — believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal — and U.S. targets in the Gulf for any attack on Iran.

Mofaz also said in the interview that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be wiped off the map, “would disappear before Israel does.”

Somebody needs to teach that Mofaz fellow to be direct and unvarnished in his approach. 😉

For instance, he could just up and say, “Ole Mahmoud’s got a death wish.”

Disclaimer: I’m not making light of a volatile situation.

Accused 9-11 mastermind welcomes death penalty

The accused al Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks stood in a U.S. military court on Thursday, sang a chant of praise to Allah and said he would welcome the death penalty.

“This is what I wish, to be martyred,” Pakistani captive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the highest-ranking al Qaeda operative in U.S. custody, told the Guantanamo war crimes court.

He and four accused co-conspirators appeared in court at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base in Cuba for the first time on charges that could result in their execution.

As the judge questioned him about whether he was satisfied with the U.S. military lawyer appointed to defend him, Mohammed stood and began to sing in Arabic, cheerfully pausing to translate his own words into English.

“My shield is Allah most high,” he said, adding that his religion forbade him from accepting a lawyer from the United States and that he wanted to act as his own attorney.

He criticized the United States for fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, waging what he called “a crusader war,” and enacting “evil laws” including those authorizing same-sex marriages.

Is that truly his wish?

(When I read comments like that in such a context, I wonder how the individual making them ended up being taken alive.)

Then I focused on a third headline…and wondered if it might fit here as well.

Obama meets Clinton in private

Likely U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama met privately with former rival Hillary Clinton on Thursday as the party sought to unite for the general election campaign after a long nomination battle.

Many folks seem to think putting Hillary on the ticket would constitute a death wish on Barack’s part. Some think so in a political sense; others, in a literal sense. 😯

But never mind Obama and Clinton. Guys, if you choose the wrong gal, you could be entertaining a death wish. I say that because I remember A Tragic Lament I read in Proverbs 5 this morning.

Secretly

Well, maybe not anymore. 😀

Study secretly tracks cell phone users outside US

Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.

The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States.

It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.

The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.

Researchers used cell phone towers to track individuals’ locations whenever they made or received phone calls and text messages over six months.

If there’s no big uproar from the masses, will “they” do this more and more to us?

Revealed: Secret plan to keep Iraq under US control

A secret deal being negotiated in Baghdad would perpetuate the American military occupation of Iraq indefinitely, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election in November.

[…]

Under the terms of the new treaty, the Americans would retain the long-term use of more than 50 bases in Iraq. American negotiators are also demanding immunity from Iraqi law for US troops and contractors, and a free hand to carry out arrests and conduct military activities in Iraq without consulting the Baghdad government.

I can hardly imagine that plan surviving.

Bilderbergers set to meet in D.C.

The annual secretive gathering of representatives from West European and North American countries, known as the Bilderberg Group, is scheduled to begin [today] in the Washington, D.C., area.

[…]

The Bilderberg Group is an elite invitation-only conference of influential members of the business, media and political communities. Past attendees have included Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

[…]

While the group claims its purpose is to facilitate discussion among Western powers, many see the group as a means toward globalization.

The highly secretive conference is off limits to press, but past reports from sources that have managed to penetrate the high-security venues have stated the meetings emphasize a globalist agenda and dismiss national sovereignty as regressive.

Will the Trilateralists and the Illuminati and the Jesuits and the Rothschilds be there as well? Hey, just asking!

And, in closing, this:

A leading anti-aviation activist has secretly flown to New York to hold meetings with American airport protesters – and see the sights.

Updates on Previous Posts

Flushing the Mission

Toilet troubles on the International Space Station (ISS) could force Russian cosmonauts to return to Earth early, a Russian official told Interfax news agency Tuesday.

“It’s true, we have a problem with the flushing system. This is a serious matter,” warned Vladimir Solovyov, chief ground control official for the Russian section of the ISS. “In such circumstances there’s even the possibility of an emergency departure from the station.”

The main ISS toilet broke down last week, forcing the crew, two Russians and one American, to use back-up facilities.

The US shuttle Discovery delivered spare parts Monday, as well as an extra seven astronauts. Repairs are scheduled on Thursday and Friday, Solovyov said, Interfax reported.

Just so the facilities don’t back up. 🙄

And I would expect faster service from the plumbers if the parts arrived on Monday! 😯

Especially if the number of tenants went from three to ten.

But maybe the plumbers are out and about on other service calls.

I suppose, though, that the same folks who delivered the parts also brought along ~~a PortaPotty~~ their own facilities to share with the ISS crew.

Polygamist sect clarifies marriage policy

“The church is clarifying its policy on marriage,” said Willie Jessop, a spokesman for the Fundamental Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He told reporters the church would advise FLDS families “neither request nor consent” to the marriage of underage girls, though he stopped short of saying the church ever violated the law.

“In the FLDS church, all marriages are consensual. The church insists on appropriate consent,” he said.

The change in policy comes after a Texas judge issued an order Monday allowing parents of hundreds of children seized from the sect to begin picking up their kids.

[…]

The logistics of retrieving the remaining children may not be so simple, though, since some parents have children at different facilities across the state.

Under the judge’s order, the Department of Family and Protective Services will still have the right to visit and interview the children.

These unannounced visits could entail medical, psychological and psychiatric examinations, and the parents must not intervene.

Also under the order, the parents must attend and complete parenting classes. The families must remain in the state of Texas and notify the department within 48 hours of any trips more than 100 miles from their homes.