Ohhhh yehhh!

I fired our group's first shot of opening day and took down this 8-point buck with my muzzle-loader. Its rack measured 18-inches inside.

6 dies!

At least one good thing happened in the US for the cause of conservatism. Issue 6 (Ohio's ballot initiative which was a Constitutional Amendment introducing casionos to Ohio) lost. Hey, grab onto whatever bright spot you can.

Palin 2012!

I'm not shedding tears right now. I did my grieving back when Mike Huckabee lost. I hope that this has taught the Republican party a lesson. If they want our support, then they need to offer us a real conservative. And, no, Sarah Palin does not count. It would have taken a death to put her in the top office. But I would like to see her back in 2012!

You said WHAT?!

I was listening to the radio today, and heard the funniest thing. The BBC was interviewing a government official in India about their recent space launch. The interviewer pointed out that many people would be opposed to a country with such rampant poverty spending millions on space exploration, instead of on poverty relief. The Indian said, "We are not a poor country. We are a very rich country, with a lot of poor people."

Huh?!

I expect to see that guy showing up in American politics some time soon.

The still scary quote

I had been thinking of this earlier post, and wanted to bring it back out:
http://dewhurstchris.blogspot.com/2007/08/scary-thought.html

Ditto

I think I can empathize, Mr. McCain. Obama affects me the same way!

Source: Jim Bourg/ Reuters

Hypocriters are running loose!

Over the last few years, I have observed several instances of hypocrisy that have edged me closer and closer to the boiling point. Last night, someone finally tipped me over. At 10:38 P.M. someone anonymously (or should I say COWARDLY) posted the following comment to a post my wife put on her blog about our kids' Halloween costumes, "I'm just a lurker but felt I should comment. I'm really confused. Not to be rude or anything but, aren't you supposed to be Christians? I thought you folks were holiness? I thought Christians shouldn't celebrate Halloween."

In answer to COWARD, maybe Christians shouldn't celebrate Halloween, but the same could be said of Easter and Christmas – the two most sacred Christian days of the year.

"Many of our modern Christmas traditions began hundreds of years before Christ was born. Some of these traditions date back more than 4000 years. The addition of Christ to the celebration of the winter solstice did not occur until 300 years after Christ died and as late as 1800, some devout Christian sects, like the Puritans, forbade their members from celebrating Christmas because it was considered a pagan holiday."[1]

And how will you refer to the days of the week, if you are a true Christian?

• Sunday – "Sun's day" (derived either from the name of the Scandinavian sun Goddess Sunna or from"Sol," the Roman God of the Sun.")
  
• Monday – "Moon's day"
  
• Tuesday – "Tiu's day" (Tiu was the English/Germanic god of war and the sky)
  
• Wednesday – "Woden's day" (Woden is the chief Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic god. Woden is the leader of the Wild Hunt. Woden is from wod "violently insane" + -en "headship".)
  
• Thursday – "Thor's day" (Thor is the Norse god of thunder. He is represented as riding a chariot drawn by goats and wielding the hammer Miölnir. He is the defender of the Aesir, destined to kill and be killed by the Midgard Serpent.)
  
• Friday – "Freya's day" (Freya (Fria) is the Teutonic goddess of love, beauty, and fecundity (prolific procreation).)
  
• Saturday – "Saturn's day" (Saturn is the Roman and Italic god of agriculture and the consort of Ops. He is believed to have ruled the earth during an age of happiness and virtue.) [2]
  

"The name "Easter" originated with the names of an ancient Goddess and God. The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly, the "Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility [was] known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." 1 Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: 'eastre.'" [3]

The same scenarios bear true in the case of Halloween. There are some bad and some good things that are a part of Halloween. The story of Halloween is one of the Catholic church trying to mix and match with its beliefs and the customs of the world.

"By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas." [4]

If you want to say that Halloween has become something that you are uncomfortable with, I can fully agree. My wife and I distance ourselves from much of what goes on. Frankly, the majority of it is evil and has no part in the life of Christians. But don't excommunicate me if I carve a jack o' lantern, or allow my kids to dress up and go to a Halloween party at a family resort.

Then, when we were in South Dakota with my family this September, we were informed that my parents could not eat at McDonald's, because their church and others were boycotting McD's because McD's supports The National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC). After 13 days with my parents, I finally convinced them to rethink their position, as the boycott was very hypocritical. Before you boycott Wal-Mart or McDonald's, perhaps you should ask yourself if you have ever patronized any of the following businesses. The following is only a partial listing of the corporate sponsors of NGLCC:

Kudos to Mom and Dad! They gave up their hypocrisy!

Sources:

[1] The Pagan Origins of Christmas By Royce Carlson
[2] http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm & http://www.crowl.org/Lawrence/time/days.html#Sunday
[3] http://www.religioustolerance.org/easter1.htm
[4] The History Channel

Oops!

This is a very convicting story I read on SermonIllustrations.com:

"An author for Reader's Digest writes how he studied the Amish people in preparation for an article on them. In his observation at the school yard, he noted that the children never screamed or yelled. This amazed him. He spoke to the schoolmaster. He remarked how he had not once heard an Amish child yell, and asked why the schoolmaster thought that was so. The schoolmaster replied, 'Well, have you ever heard an Amish adult yell?'" - Reader's Digest.

Visualize the Bible

This is a really neat picture that illustrates the interconnectedness of the Bible. You'll need to click on the image to be able to read the caption: