Google

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Something to think about

I received this from my uncle:
____________________________________________________________________

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ -- The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez, published in a Spanish newspaper on 5-22-07. It doesn't take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe -- and possibly to the rest of the world.
=====================================================

REMEMBER AS YOU READ -- IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER Date: Tue, 22 May 2007 14:30:20 -0500

ALL EUROPEAN LIFE DIED IN AUSCHWITZ By Sebastian Vilar Rodrigez(*)

I walked down the street in Barcelona, and suddenly discovered a terrible truth - Europe died in Auschwitz . We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destr oyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.

The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.

And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.

They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.

Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.

And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.

We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for hoping for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.

What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe.?

***********************************

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.

Absolutely No Profiling! Pause a moment, reflect back:

These events are actual events from history. They really happened! Do you remember?

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a:????Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40.

2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by:??? M uslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

3. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

4. During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

5. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

9. In 1993 th e World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

10. In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

12. In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:???Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40.

No, I really don't see a pattern here to justify profiling, do you? So, to ensure we Americans never offend anyone, particularly f a nat ics intent on killing us, airport security screeners will no longer be allowed to profile certain people. They must conduct random searches of 80-year-old women, little kids, airline pilots with proper identification, secret agents who are members of the President's security detail, 85-year old Congressmen with metal hips, and Medal of Honor winner and former Governor Joe Foss, but leave Muslim Males between the ages of 17 and 40 alone lest they be guilty of profiling.
As the writer of the award winning story "Forrest Gump" so aptly put it, "Stupid is as stupid does."
______________________________________________________________________

If there is a ring of teenage car thieves in a city and their M.O. is to case a neighborhood in a late model Toyota Camry, why should the police working the case have to randomly search vans driven by middle aged men? Doesn't make much sense does it?

My guess is that this does not make much sense to any of you either.

Lord save us from ourselves...

Prayers,

Pisio

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Time... Where Have You Gone???

I remember having a conversation with the son of a babysitter when I was in about 6th grade. He was much older than me, just about ready to graduate high school, and we started for some reason to talk about time. I was talking to him about how slow the year was going and how it was the same old thing everyday. It was summer. I would wake up, eat breakfast, and then it would be off for a day of riding my bike, swimming, watching movies and driving his mother absolutely nuts...

He said something that I could never quite believe then... He told me to enjoy it while it lasted because come high school I would be wondering where all the time went. He told me about all the good times he had in high school and how quickly that they flew by. It was almost like things were happening to him and then were done before he could ever fully grasp what was going on. It was like time sped up the older you got. He then proceeded to kiss the image of Cyndi Lauper on his television screen...

That conversation seems like an eternity ago, but I have never quite forgotten it. I never really have stopped to consider it, but every once and a while it just passes through my head. Why is it that time seems to speed up through the years when we need it most? Yesterday I was 18 and not dating, I woke up today and I am 31, married with a son. Those 13 years have just flown by. Seriously... Michael was just born, and I blinked and he is 18 months old...

Some days this seems like a cruel joke... I feel like I have missed out on so much, yet at the same time my life has been full and rewarding. I fon't remember the bad times, but have never really stopped to appreciate all the good times. When a friend calls or stops by, I seem to rush through the call or the time they are with me... I have forgotten about what matters most...

Man I miss being a kid. All that mattered was the person I was with and the adventure we were on that day. Do you remember making up games? We used to kicked out of the house on nice days. We were forced to go out side and play baseball or kick ball... something... when we had kicked all of our balls in to the county reservoir or let them get washed away in the monsoon rains, we had to make up our own games... like the hot lava monster who jumped out of our rock front yards. It was like tag, except in a really confined area...

I think the most profound thing is that I never was too busy to get to know someone. I used to know what my friends dreams were. I knew who wanted to be a doctor, a soldier or a fireman. I have the same amount of time now, but I do not know near as much about my friends as I used to. I am not sure why? As adults do we really not have the time to get to know someone well, or are we afraid that when we get to know someone and let them into our lives that we open ourselves up to being hurt?

HMMM... to be a kid again. To know my friends again... to know their fears, hopes and dreams. That would be awesome... Time, where have you gone, and how can we get you back?

Prayers...

Pisio

Monday, April 21, 2008

Link Referral

I have written about Entrecard.com in the past, but I have never much said anything about Link Referral. I really enjoy the time I spend browsing other blogs and reviewing them. In general I like to really think about most of the blogs I review, and try to give them honest feedback. I am sure that this does not always hold true, but for the most part I really do try.

I do not get near as much traffic from link referral as I get from entrecard, but I do get an extra 10 - 20 visits a day. This is more than the total number of visitors I would get in three days prior to joining though, so it is really nothing to thumb my nose at.

As a service goes, it is really easy to use, and I have finally figured out how to get my link referral reviews displayed on the blog. I guess that I could show all of them if I wanted, but for now I will just show a sampling about what people are saying about Random Musings of a Deranged Soul. You can read them all below in the sidebar if you want.

It is actually kinda funny. One of the comments was that my site was plastered with ads... So I removed two adboxes and some other advertisements. I had never thought that having them in a sidebar would be a distraction. Apparently I was wrong... I guess though that if I want to keep people coming, I must think of them first...

Maybe this will change someday for Random Musings, but until them I will continue to listen to my audience... I need to go join my wife now... She is not feeling well, so she went to bed early... I am going to follow her...

Prayers...

Pisio

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Settling In

I think that Jonah and I are finally getting there. Our couches and appliances are in, we have all our boxes unpacked, and today I programmed the sprinkler system... We have arrived. I guess it is about time. It has been a month since we moved into our new place. It is so nice to be able to sit on our own couch and watch movies on our own television.

Our next big project will be the back yard. We have to call and get a fence and gate installed, and then get any landscaping that we want to do approved by the HOA. This should be an adventure in and of itself. We have five months to get it done, but I would like to have it done sooner rather than later. We are really not sure what we are going to do yet. We tried to get some ideas today, but our little boy just wanted to go home. As much as I love him there are days when he really makes getting anything done a pain.

I know that we are going to try to take a swing set from my moms house. It is one of those big wooden things... 16ft x 17ft footprint. I think our little yard is something like 20ft x 20ft... Actually I am not really sure the size, but the swing set will be huge in the back yard. We will also need to build a retaining wall to flatten off the back slope a little. Like I said, this will be an adventure.

Today Jonah asked me if I had a green thumb. My guess is that she does not... we have never really had a yard to try and grow anything. Sure we had a small yard in Hawaii, but we did not have to landscape it, and everything there was fairly low maintenance. Here though it will be a lot harder, especially in the spring. It can be 90 degrees today and snowing tomorrow. We will have to tend to things a lot better than we did there. It will really be a lot of fun.

Tomorrow I get to call the fence guy. I am not really looking forward to the fence being put in. We are having a different company than the rest of the neighborhood had do theirs. They are a little more expensive, but they build fences to last in the strong winds we get out here. They have been in business a long time, and people I trust have recommended them. The problem is their standard installation has three support rails, while everyone else out here only does two. It will look a little weird when we tie into the neighbors.

I guess that is just part of being in community though. People have cut corners to save a few bucks here and there. I am tempted to, but I would rather pay upfront to have it done now than have to repair something that could not withstand the winds this summer. Hopefully all the surrounding fences will as well...

Hmm... If you have any recommendations for our back yard, please let me know. I would appreciate your insights...

Prayers,

Pisio

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Retreat

It really has been a long couple of weeks. This year's class of Confirmandi have really gotten under my skin. Individually they are all good kids, but if you get them together as a group, they are collectively rotten. Their parents are about as big of a problem as they, or quite possibly even a bigger one. I feel like I have been babysitting a bunch of 40 year olds all year. Short of wiping their butts, I pretty much have.

Well, I can say at least the year is almost over and there is light at the end of the tunnel. After May 2nd I really do not have to have much to do with them... Maybe that is a horrible attitude to have, but at least you know that I am being honest. I really have not enjoyed my job this year, at least until the last week or so. They have really gelled over the last month, and come together.

In some ways that has been rewarding. I work in a very clickish community. Our parish draws from three different school districts and a private school. Generally none of them get along with each other, and they do their best to keep it that way. This has disheartened me since I was a member of the youth group here in the early nineties. I guess somethings never change.

This time however there was a small change. They all managed to come together especially during the retreat. The young body of Christ had managed to drop their insecurities and inhibitions and actually get to know each other beyond them being D11, or D20, or St. Mary's kids. It was really wonderful to watch. I just wish that I could figure out a way to make it happen more often.

I think that is the hardest thing about youth ministry. Each group of kids is different and so something that worked last year will not work this year even though the end goal is the same. That goal being leading them deeper in their relationship with Christ. Each year that goal gets harder to attain as the distractions get more and more in number. Competing with those distractions gets harder and harder.

Each year though Christ finds a way to break through. I guess my role in that is just providing them with the opportunities to encounter Him and He will break through. Dang that is fun to watch. It has been a challenging, but fun year once again... I guess... Here's to another one...

Prayers,

Pisio

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Isn't it ironic...

Don't you think? Today, George W. Bush embraced Pope Benedict the XVI. Yesterday, former President Jimmy Carter embraced one of the top terrorists in the world...

I guess I will never understand liberals... How can they sleep at night? They do everything that they can to undermine the greatest force for peace and individual prosperity the world has ever known and they meet with people who seek out our and our allies destruction. I mean really... Had the USSR captured as much land as the US did during WWII, how much would it have given back to the citizens of the country? Oh wait... they did capture almost as much land as we did, and they gave none of it back... The captured land went from being occupied by the Germans to being occupied by the USSR... Contrast that with what did the US do? We liberated the land that Germany and their allies captured. We did not keep any of it, it all went back to being free lands.

We, as a country, stopped the spread of Communism and communist dictators and each time, we have left the countries we were liberating or protecting to govern themselves. Yet, liberals hate this country... They do not believe in individual liberty, all liberty is to come from the government... They do not believe in the power of the individual, we all need government to pay our bills and bail us out of bad decisions. They do not believe that we are smart enough to choose our own leaders... just look at the screwed up proportional distribution of delegates in their primaries and the need for elite super delegates to decide the nominee... How can any thinking person agree with these people.

Now we see Jimmy Carter emboldening a group of people who seek to destroy the United States and Israel. He just gave Hamas credibility when he met with them in the name of peace... I guess that as a conservative I am too much of a realist. The perfect world where we just wish our problems away by talking to people is not possible. There are too many bad people in the world for the liberal Utopia where we all just get along to be possible. Do I wish it were different? Yes. But wishing only leads to idealism. Carter thinks that he can go and negotiate peace with these people, but it will only be peace until they decide to start killing each other again... Didn't he learn that his foreign policy does not work?

I really wish that Utopia could be achieved... Unfortunately unless Christ comes again, it can not be. Human nature will not allow it, and even if it could be achieved it could not be long lived. Desire for power, corruption and greed would take root, and that Utopia would be destroyed... Yes... really... we as humans would screw it up some how... Just look at what we did to Eden...

Good Night...

Prayers,

Pisio

Edited for update: Once again we see why you do not sit down and give these people face time.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Bad Politics

I am tired of being called a racist because I identify myself as a Conservative. It seems that more and more conservatives are made out to be the villains, the racists and the all around bad guys, yet we believe in the power of the individual person to succeed. Conservatives do not see anyone as African-American, Mexican-American or Asian-American. We see each other as American.

We believe that anyone, regardless of color or creed can succeed if they put their mind to it. The only thing that limits the individual is the individual. You do not need government, or government programs to succeed, you only need your own God given talent and desire. The only thing that limits you is you.

Sadly, people have bought into the lie that they need government to succeed. This has enabled liberal democrats to create a permanent voting class. This class of people continually votes democrats into power. They have been promised the world, but they are brought higher taxes and more government dependency. Yet, those who would free them from these burdens are the racist bigots who want to keep them down.

Is this country really that mad? I mean for all his short comings, President Bush has the most diverse administration in history. He has appointed more minorities to prominent places of power than any president in the past. Yet, his base is made out to be anti-minority. It seems to me that if the party base of the Republicans were really racists, that they would have abandoned Bush in full force. Yet, we rallied and got him a second term in office. If we were really racist would that have happened.

Now, we see an odd thing playing out in the media this week. Obama recently referred to small town residents as bitter, and clinging to our guns and religion. This is obviously an out of touch statement to make. Far from using Religion as a crutch, there are those of us who use it as a foundation and base for our lives. Far from clinging to guns, like some fearful little child, there are those of us who choose to exercise our 2nd amendment right and own a gun. We may hunt, or collect or sport shoot and yes, we must cling to them because people like Obama seek to take them away to us.

Despite his out of touch and obviously elitist comments the main stream media is silent. Yet if this were a Republican candidate, or conservative columnist who were to say something like this can we assume the main stream media would give them a free pass. Probably not. My guess is that they would all be calling the candidate just what he is... out of touch, elitist and quite possibly a condescending asshole. I guess that all does not matter though.

You see as a conservative I believe that the will of the people should be honored. If the people are too stupid to see who is really keeping them down versus those who would seek to see them achieve their full potential then so be it. That is the will of the people. My guess is that after one, maybe as long as two terms of the liberal democrats wrecking the country, it will be along time before they see power again. That my friends will be a beautiful thing.

Sadly though, if either Clinton or Obama makes it in this term, we are in for four to eight years of potential screw ups that will take a long time recover from. They will leave a legacy of weakening our country, destroying the economy and wrecking everything from health care to private industry that will take a long time to overcome.

Well my friends, it is late, and I have to remove some horseshoe pits from my mom's house tomorrow. This racist bigot must get to bed.

Prayers,

Pisio