Archive for November, 2011

I saw this sign down at Wayside Christian Mission while my son and I served breakfast this morning —

“Just because you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean that the circus has left town.”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I saw this on Facebook from a long time friend. How appropriate for today….. and the rest of the 364 days.

“It isn’t happy people who are thankful, it is thankful people who are happy.”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Good stuff to know today.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Below is a Wordle that I created to reflect the thanks during this special day of Thanksgiving. Praise God for my overflowing cup.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours,
…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I have really enjoyed watching Tim Teboe grow and mature from his role in college to his leadership in the NFL. Take a quick look at this interview and listen to where he is coming from. It is indicative of a servant disciple who is unashamedly Christ focused, humble, and with priorities that are in the order they need to be. He is human and he will make mistakes (which I can guarantee the media will vilify him for) but right now he is on a path with Christ and right where God needs him to be.

I look forward to continue watching his career — with the NFL and as Christ’s disciple with a high visibility platform to spread the Gospel and good news of salvation through Christ.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

“Winston, come into the dining room, it’s time to eat,” Julia yelled to her husband.

“In a minute, honey, it’s a tie score,” he answered.

Actually Winston wasn’t very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington.

Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its “unseemly violence” and the “bad example it sets for the rest of the world”,

Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be.

Two-hand touch wasn’t nearly as exciting. Yet it wasn’t the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey. Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included all potatoes, cranberry sauce, and mincemeat pie), it wasn’t anything like real turkey.

And ever since the government officially changed the name of “Thanksgiving Day” to “A National Day of Atonement” in 2020, to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims’ historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.

Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting. The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the Tofu Turkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold.

Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating that all thermostats – which were monitored and controlled by the electric company – be kept at 63 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.

Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the family.

Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of life-saving medical treatments. He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone, except Government officials, was forced into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort.

“The RHC’s resources are limited”, explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the phone. “Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Ed couldn’t make it either. He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines – for everyone but government officials. The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didn’t want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there.

Thankfully, Winston’s brother, John, and his wife were flying in.

Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion. No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his hemorrhoids. Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added “inconvenience” was an “absolute necessity” in order to stay “one step ahead of the terrorists.”

Winston’s own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022. That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for “unequal scrutiny,” except Government officials, even when probable cause was involved. Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine.

The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of seven progressives and two conservatives to leave the law intact.

“A living Constitution is extremely flexible”, said the Court’s eldest member, Elena Kagan. “Europe has had laws like this one for years. We should learn from their example”, she added.

Winston’s thoughts turned to his own children. He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him. Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 55,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it.

His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether. Perhaps it was the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism, or any of a number of other calamities was “just around the corner”, but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility.

It didn’t help that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018, which outlawed smoking anywhere within 700 feet of another human being. Winston paid the $15,000 fine, which might have been considered excessive before the American dollar became virtually worthless as a result of QE13. The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated was, once again, to “spur economic growth.”

This time, they promised to push unemployment below its decade-long rate of 19%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful.

Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement. At least, he had his memories.

He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the Good Old Days; long before government promises to make life “fair and balanced for everyone” realized their full potential.

Winston, like so many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change when they didn’t happen all at once, but little by little, so people could get used to them.

He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there was still time, maybe back around 2011, when all the real nonsense began.

“Maybe we wouldn’t be where we are today if we’d just said ‘enough is enough’ when we had the chance. Maybe we could’ve saved ourselves. We’ll never know.”

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

If you are a regular reader, you probably know that I don’t have much patience nor pay much attention to the ninety-whine percenters who are blathering out there. On top of adding initiative, work ethic, values, and manners to the traits these folks are lacking, you can also add the word “bowel” to their “movement” definition.

But rather than spend time ranting about it (which was done much better by this re-post by Dave Ramsey), I am going to share several of the clever, witty and spot on pictures that have come across my inbox.

and finally…..

That last one cracks me up!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

This morning I woke up early with my son so we could head to Scouts today for their Scouting For Food drive. This collection of canned goods from the local community will help augment the local food pantry and is a great way for the boys to give back to the community.

Our small den packed into my wife’s truck and we headed to our assigned neighborhood. We told the boys to be on the lookout for bags of food that people were instructed to leave on their front porch or doorstep. Soon enough at one of the first houses we passed by, one of the boys spotted a tan plastic grocery bag right out on the front porch of this house that sat about 50 yards off the street. We sent two of them up to retrieve the goods. We watched them from the truck walk down the driveway towards their target and turn onto the walkway headed to the front door. As they got to the steps of the front porch we saw the bag move, then arch and stretch. It turned out the bag was a Garfield colored cat! We all started laughing in the truck as the boys then had to explain why they were there to the homeowner who just came out the door. He did not have any food to donate so they returned empty-handed to the truck trying to stay composed and hiding their smiles…..all while we were laughing hysterically.

It was a pretty funny Scouting For Food fail because from the street, that cat totally looked like a tan plastic grocery bag full of food.

Here kitty, kitty.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

The video below is appropriate today because it is a day of rest, a day of worship and a day made for the Lord. The adorable little girl belts out a very inspirational version of “The Lord’s Prayer” in song. Enjoy!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I hold those who serve our great country in uniform in high regard. One day of recognition and observation barely scratches the surface of the sacrifice our servicemen and women selflessly give.

I hope those of you veterans bask in the glow of your service and sacrifice. As an ordinary Joe, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

NOTE: I used the picture of the Marines planting the Stars and Stripes on Mt. Suribachi as recognition for the Marines birthday this past week.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net