Mirror, mirror on the wall....

FORGET BARACK'S SINISTER SMILE... IS THIS THE SCARIEST PICTURE YOU'VE EVER SEEN, OR WHAT???

She likes to conserve

Fall fashion tips, pt. I

I applaud Target for employing the talents of more upscale designers, I really do. And now that Isaac Mizrahi is finally moving on there is a nice little platform available for whomever can clamor to the top of the not-quite-a-department-store market.

But seriously, who do they think they're fooling offering this jacket to middle America?



Yeah, I know I'm stereotyping "middle America" a little by asking that question. But I sincerely believe the majority of Target devotees are not going out in public wearing this. They're not even wearing it in the privacy of their own homes. Maybe, just maybe, their little girls are using it for playing 80s career gal dress-up, but I doubt it.

Trust me, if you're not Japanese you will look ridiculous in this "fashion-forward" piece.

One of the Many

The following is an excerpt from a local Reformed church's website. It is a section of the Belhar Confession, recently adopted by several RCA (Reformed Church in America) members.

"...we reject any doctrine which absolutizes either natural diversity or the sinful separation of people in such a way that this absolutization hinders or breaks the visible and active unity of the church, or even leads to the establishment of a separate church formation; [or any doctrine]which denies that a refusal earnestly to pursue this visible unity as a priceless gift is sin..."

It is esentially saying, "we refuse to allow part of our church to separate from another part of our church that is openly sinning" and "we have to keep our congregation together at all costs, because if we don't we are being sinful."

Now ask me again why it's so hard to find a home church here.

Ain't No Change in His Game

Last Thursday, in political threads all across the nation, the twitter was undoubtedly focused on John McCain's recent television ads targeting Obama's elitist persona. Perhaps you have not seen these ads? They liken Senator Obama to Britney Spears, citing his recent jump to celebrity status as he caroused around the globe, spreading his unfounded message of "change" to other unfortunate countries (tip: they don't cast a vote, so conserve your fuel, will ya?).

The virtual newsrooms have picked up on the story, each one clinging to a barebones story for fear of promoting an actual opinion, though predictably, the focus is on Obama's reaction to these ads, not even attempting to give equal time to McCain's intention behind them.

I do not support McCain. I am yet undecided on casting a vote at all come November 8th. However I must ask are McCain's jabs about Obama's undeserved popularity so far from the truth? Isn't Obama just using a brand of surface-grazing rhetoric that any celebrity with an opinion finds impossible to resist shouting to the audience, now that an audience is so ready and willing to listen? The question is, is McCain's claim unsubstantiated?

"Basically what they're (the current administration) saying to you is, 'We know we didn't do a good job, but he's (Obama) too risky.' Well let me tell you something. When we are in such dire straits economically, when our foreign policy has gotten so messed up, what's the bigger risk: choosing change, or choosing to do the same things that got us into this mess in the first place?"
--Barack Obama

He sure talks like a celebrity; scripted. But I've heard Ben Affleck speak about Darfur off-the-cuff with more compassion.

Obama's brilliant conclusion that "choosing change" would automatically improve the state of our economy and foreign policies is sophomoric. Will choosing a socialist system (which Obama subversively supports by way of increasing government control and programs to the nth degree) really turn this country around within his- at most- eight year career? It's a little more than audacious, it's just plain idiotic.

But if Obama really wants to push ahead with his rhetoric, his elitist priorities, his "I-know-better-than-you" platform, let him do it. And if he is still in need of a VP runningmate, I nominate Ginger Spice, formerly of the Spice Girls. She's been a UN ambassador for ten years so she's got the experience, and she might lend just the kick of girl power Obama's campaign needs. Just a suggestion.


McCain's two ads targeting Obama's celebrity status





One response: pay attention for the Obama camp's response ("Blah blah blah"). Now who's acting like a political child?

From one disenchanted politico to another...

Ladies and gentlemen, I implore you:

If you haven't read it on her blog, please visit the link below to read my friend Parisienne Farmgirl's recent rant about the Great One, Barack Obama. She couldn't be closer to the target on several of her statements therein.


Parisienne Farmgirl's spot-on analysis of B.O.

Immigration gumballs

An interesting illustration of what effect the U.S. policy of taking in immigrants actually has on the poverty-stricken people we are purporting to have compassion on by doing so.

The Full Armor of God: day one, Attributes

This is a wonderful commentary from Matthew Henry on the spiritual armor we must all wear as Christians. I hope you find it edifying as I do. Related texts: Isaiah 59:17, Ephesians 6:13-17, 1 Thessalonians 5:8.

"Spiritual strength and courage are needed for our spiritual warfare and suffering. Those who would prove themselves to have true grace, must aim at all grace; and put on the whole armour of God, which he prepares and bestows. The Christian armour is made to be worn; and there is no putting off our armour till we have done our warfare, and finished our course.

The combat is not against human enemies, nor against our own corrupt nature only; we have to do with an enemy who has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls. The devils assault us in the things that belong to our souls, and labour to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. We must resolve by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee. If we distrust either our cause, or our Leader, or our armour, we give him advantage.

commentary by Matthew Henry

His purpose is not contingent on our doing- praise God!

"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.


For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing,

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;

and it shall make a name for the LORD,

an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

Isaiah 55:10-13

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To?

Women don’t swoon anymore; have you noticed? Women used to swoon over every little thing: a tidbit of passionate speech from their husbands (sometimes in a handwritten letter); the warm spring air wafting into their bedrooms accompanied by the scent of lilacs; even the clip-clopping sound of a horse’s heavy steps down the road, signaling a trip to the city was in her near future. Indeed the city itself could produce fainting ladies, with its bakeries’ cases piled high with melt-in-your-mouth pastries, excess of tiny shops crammed with treasures and trinkets, and streets that pulsed with the comings and goings of their inhabitants.

Of course, no one writes real letters anymore, or lingers in their bedrooms beyond an alarm clock’s blast, or travels by horse. We order our pastries by the dozen from Dunkin Donuts, unearth trinkets on eBay and cringe at the thought of mixing into the comings and goings of all those city people, preferring to travel by car, alone. But is there nothing left to swoon about?

We still have our gardens, do we not? Wriggling above ground from dry, sandy soil I see bright green beans, zucchini curling on its vines, cantaloupe and squash growing fat and happy, pumpkins and, if treated most tenderly, plump, shiny green peppers. Hollyhock blasts upward in dazzling magenta like fireworks exploding while its neighbor decadent Hibiscus laboriously unfolds huge crimson petals around a most sensuous inner - ahem - shaft. (I couldn’t resist!) Meanwhile tiger lilies, untamed and slightly mischievous, stretch their necks high to bask in the sun, only for a moment before they begin their unruly migration both above and below the soil’s surface. Their cousin, Asian lily, standoffishly refuses to bloom for anyone. Instead, she is inclined to shade the unknown plant that lives below her in a statement of duty, all the while leeching all the moisture from the soil in a most un-ladylike fashion.

Ah, the sumptuous drama of it all! And I’m talking about beans and buds here, people!

And of those letter-writing husbands, who extolled their wives’ graces to everyone they met; are they so far from what we have now? The language is different, to be sure, but are they not as just in their praise as men of yesteryear? There is no sweeter sound than the clatter of a fork on a well-cleaned plate of something I’ve thrown together into a pan. For at the precise moment my fears he will notice how ramshackle and devoid of presentation it is becomes unbearable, he licks his lips and declares, “You’ve never made a bad dish!” And if that compliment wasn’t enough, sometimes it is followed with, “I’ll do the dishes tonight.”

Never were words more entrancing!

In conclusion, ladies, count your blessings. Your life could be filled with the passion, heartbreak and subsequent melancholy of French novels from the 1800s, and if you would dare that path it is not hard to find, though it is ill-advised. But if your desires are of a hearty, more modest and long-lasting variety, I suggest you look in your own backyard.