0800, 27 August Isaac Stalls
In Pensacola this morning, there is some wind, there are some half-hearted showers. So far, so good.
We continued our preparations yesterday, bringing in the plants, bird feeders, and assorted watering cans and my potting bench. I boiled water for our large Qatar coffee thermos, and filled the freezer with more water containers. I took some of the heavier things off the walls and cleared my desk of anything which could fly around, then, in a flurry of compulsive activity, polished the desktop, since it’s been a while since I have seen it empty.
Now . . . we wait.
Last week, I was telling a friend that we’ve been in Pensacola two years now, and I am starting to get edgy. We’ve moved so often, that at the two year point, I feel the need to start packing up. I find myself looking at houses online. At the very least, I think about moving the furniture around. (AdventureMan hates it when I move the furniture. He takes it personally. He thinks I am mad at him, LOL! No! I am just restless.)
We have been asking God’s mercy on the Gulf communities, and now New Orleans. If you have the eyes to see, the Weather Channel has been talking about the dry winds that have been disrupting Isaac’s efforts to organize into a full fledged hurricane. The storm in huge, but the center is disperse. They are saying that it will mean a lot of wind, a lot of rain and a surge in the water level. None of this is new to Pensacola, nor to most communities on the Gulf. God is merciful. We can weather this slow storm, God willing.
Here are some photos from last night, as clouds and rain move in. So far, no where near as threatening as the normal Pensacola heavy rains and thunderstorms.
The Problem with Interpretation of Holy Scriptures
Who foresakes the fear of the Lord?
Job 6:14
‘Those who withhold* kindness from a friend
forsake the fear of the Almighty.*
I like that thought. We are all interconnected. One of our major purposes for our creation is to connect with one another, to show kindness to one another. But others translate this verse differently:
New International Version (©1984)
“A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
New Living Translation (©2007)
“One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you accuse me without any fear of the Almighty.
English Standard Version (©2001)
“He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
New American Standard Bible (©1995)
“For the despairing man there should be kindness from his friend; So that he does not forsake the fear of the Almighty.
King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
GOD’S WORD® Translation (©1995)
“A friend should treat a troubled person kindly, even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty.
King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
To him that is afflicted pity should be shown from his friend; even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
American King James Version
To him that is afflicted pity should be showed from his friend; but he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
American Standard Version
To him that is ready to faint kindness’should be showed from his friend; Even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
Douay-Rheims Bible
He that taketh away mercy from his friend, forsaketh the fear of the Lord.
Darby Bible Translation
For him that is fainting kindness is meet from his friend; or he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
English Revised Version
To him that is ready to faint kindness should be shewed from his friend; even to him that forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
Webster’s Bible Translation
To him that is afflicted pity should be shown from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
World English Bible
“To him who is ready to faint, kindness should be shown from his friend; even to him who forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
Young’s Literal Translation
To a despiser of his friends is shame, And the fear of the Mighty he forsaketh.
(These translations are compiled on the website Biblos)
To me, this is why we need the Holy Spirit, to help us discern what the words are intended to mean. The bad part is that we often choose the meaning which supports what we want to believe, we re-inforce our own distortions and misunderstandings with scriptures.
Abstinence Only? Mississippi Has Highest Teen Pregnancy Rate Rate In the USA
Sex Education or Abstinence? Do you think there might be some connection between Mississippi’s highest state in the nation teen pregnancy rate and their policy of abstinence only? (For non-US people, ‘abstinence-only’ is code for NO SEX EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS. Some people think that teaching young people how sex works, and how to prevent pregnancy gives them ideas they might not try if you didn’t teach them about it or gives them tacit permission to engage in sex.)
* State has nation’s highest teen birth rate
* New law allows abstinence plus sex-ed teaching
* Studies show sex-ed works to prevent teen pregnancy
By Emily Le Coz
TUPELO, Miss., Aug 26 (Reuters) – Artasia Bobo, a 16-year-old Mississippi high school sophomore, was only 12 when she got pregnant and doesn’t recall receiving much in the way of sex education.
Holding her 3-year-old daughter, Annsley, after cheerleading practice recently, the honor-roll student said she’s now an advocate for comprehensive sex education offered as soon as possible.
“What I went through is nothing any girl would want to go through,” she said. “It changed my life. I love my daughter, but if I could go back in time, my life would be a whole lot different.”
Mississippi, the poorest U.S. state, has the nation’s highest teen pregnancy rate. Yet until this year, the state allowed schools to forgo sex education entirely.
That changed with a state law passed last year that mandated school districts adopt either abstinence-only or abstinence-plus sex education policies. Before the new law, any district that did teach sex education had to teach abstinence-only.
Under the new law, a majority of Mississippi’s public school districts this year adopted abstinence-only policies that avoid or downplay the issue of contraceptives.
Twenty other U.S. states and the District of Columbia also require sex education, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based non-profit organization focusing on sexual and reproductive rights.
After the law took effect at the beginning of July, 81 districts chose abstinence-only and 71 chose abstinence-plus, the state Department of Education reported. Mississippi kept no record of how many districts taught abstinence-only under the old law, department spokesman Jon Kalahar said.
“SERIOUS PROBLEM”
Mississippi reported 55 births per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19 in 2010 – more than 60 percent above the U.S. average, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in April.
The state also has one of the nation’s highest infant mortality rates and among the highest rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea infections among teens and young adults, according to the Mississippi Department of Health.
“It was obvious we had a serious problem in the state,” said Democratic state Representative Cecil Brown, who chaired the committee that championed the bill. “You can’t stick your head in the sand.”
Abstinence-only allows districts to teach about the benefits of avoiding sex until marriage, the consequences of bearing children out of wedlock and how to reject sexual advances. Such programs also teach that abstinence is the only certain way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.
Although a discussion of condoms or contraceptives is allowed under this policy, it cannot include demonstrations of use and must present the risks and failure rates of such devices, the law states.
Abstinence-plus must include all those topics and can also teach about the causes and effects of sexually transmitted diseases and how to prevent them, according to the law.
“Before this year, not a single school district had adopted any policy on sex education,” said Jamie Holcomb Bardwell, director of programs for Women’s Fund of Mississippi. “The fact that 71 adopted abstinence-plus is one of the biggest victories for young people in Mississippi this year.”
Bardwell said she’s encouraged that many of the districts with the highest teen pregnancy rates adopted not only abstinence-plus policies, but also implemented sex education programs proven effective for changing teen behavior.
COMPREHENSIVE SEX EDUCATION
“Research shows that when young people have access to a curriculum that’s not abstinence-only … when it includes medically accurate information, they’re more likely to have lower pregnancy rates and lower sexually transmitted infection rates,” she said.
Studies published this year by the Guttmacher Institute show teens who received comprehensive sex education, including instruction on birth control, waited longer to have sex and had lower rates of pregnancy.
That might have been the case for Bobo, but such a course wasn’t offered when she got pregnant. Nor will it be offered this year, since her district chose an abstinence-only policy.
A statewide survey conducted in 2011 by the Social Science Research Center at Mississippi State University found most parents support comprehensive sex education in schools.
Among them is 40-year-old Renee Bobo, Artasia’s mother.
“They’re getting it from TV and from friends, anyway,” said Bobo, who works nights so she can care for her granddaughter while Artasia attends school. “They should get the straight facts from an informed instructor.”
The Lee County School District in northeast Mississippi adopted an abstinence-only program for the first time this year. Superintendent Jimmy Weeks said health classes had previously touched on the subject but this will be the district’s first dedicated sex-education class.
The school board picked abstinence-only because “we don’t want to come across as saying, ‘Hey, premarital sex is OK, let us show us how you do it without getting a disease,'” Weeks said.
Sixteen percent of Lee County births in 2010 were to teens, according to the Mississippi Department of Health. In Itawamba County, where Artasia attends school, the rate was 16.5 percent.
Coahoma County in the Mississippi delta, which at 23 percent had one of the state’s highest rates of births to teens, recently adopted an abstinence-plus program after four years of teaching abstinence-only, said Superintendent Pauline Rhodes.
“I’ve seen first-hand the devastation of children having children, and I have seen students on their way to a promising career have to drop out,” Rhodes said. “I’ve always felt that until we can get a handle on teen pregnancies, we will not be able to get a handle on juvenile delinquencies.” (Editing by David Adams and Jim Loney)
I believe abstinence can work – in a relationship where both people believe in abstinence. How do you apply abstinence to a multi-cultural society where religious, personal and moral values differ? Abstinence DOES prevent pregnancy – but even teenagers in the most virtuous families find the lure of sexual activity irresistible, and can end up pregnant. I like it that Mississippi is taking the pragmatic step of combining abstinence teaching AND sex education. Give them enough information to avoid bringing children into this world who are unwanted and born to parents not capable of parenting.
Isaac Headed Away From Pensacola
Just another little shift, but the cone of probability now excludes Pensacola!
5 M Sunday 26 Aug and Isaac Wobbles A Little More to the Left
. . . and straight into poor Louisiana, who surely needs no more hurricanes. Oh, poor Louisiana!
Tap Tap Whiiiiiinnnneee Screech in Pensacola
Pensacola is a Job kind of city, circumstances keep sending lethal blows and Pensacola keeps bouncing back, but not without pain. Already, we have had floods this year, record rains, and several of the places who were flooded, Waterfront Mission, Manna Food Pantry, Loaves and Fishes, etc. were charities on which the poorest of the poor, the jobless, the homeless and the transients, rely.
And now Isaac.
Sunday mornings, as in many towns in the South, the people go to church. The biggest churches are Baptist and then maybe Methodist. Then comes the rest of us, the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, the Congregationalists, the Unitarians, the Mormons, so many different kinds of Christians!
We hit the early service, which, for one of the last Sundays in August, was relatively well attended. After church, while it was still relatively cool outside (in the 80’s F. not the 90’s F.) we put up our window shields and brought all our outside furnishings inside. Tomorrow we will bring the plants into the garage. Anything that can be picked up by a high wind can become a missile; we want to give the high winds as little ammunition as possible.
All aroound us we can hear the tap tap of hammers hammering in plywood slabs (those who were lucky enough to buy plywood early; rumor has it that there is no more plywood to be found) and the whiiiiinnnee of electric drills screwing window coverings on and the Sccrrreeeeech of window coverings being drawn closed. We are also exchanging phone numbers, so we can help one another if the worst happens, and we suffer a direct hit.
Today, Father Tim reminded us in the midst of all our self-absorption and survival-oriented errands that we are to be a blessing to others. I saw that happen when Hurricane Ivan hit Pensacola, and our son stayed. He met another fellow living nearby and they have become fast friends. Out of the worst circumstances, can come great blessings.
We trust God has this all in his hands. And we also continue our preparations against the coming of Isaac.
The newest 5 day forecast shows Isaac has wobbled to the West:
Ominous Signs in Libya; Shrines Destroyed
I’ve been watching for news out of Libya, and have been surprised at how little there has been – and then this. This is not a good sign. This is not Libyan; this is outside influence. Similar destructions are going on in Mali; an intolerant branch of Islam beieves saints shrines to be idolatry. From today’s AOL /Huffington Post News:
TRIPOLI, Libya — Attackers bulldozed a Sufi Muslim shrine and mosque in the Libyan capital on Saturday, one day after hardliners razed a similar shrine and library elsewhere in the country.
It was not immediately clear who was behind Saturday’s attack, the third on a Sufi shrine in Tripoli in recent months, although officials have blamed past vandalism on Islamic hardliners, some of whom are followers of the ultraconservative Salafi doctrine.
Libya is a deeply conservative Muslim nation, and Islamists were heavily repressed under longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was captured and killed in October after an eight-month civil war. Since then, there has been a string of attacks on shrines across the country belonging to Muslim sects.
The campaign appears to be aimed mainly at shrines revered by Sufis, a mystical order whose members often pray over the tombs of revered saints and ask for blessings or intervention to bring success, marriage or other desired outcomes. Hard-line Salafi Muslims deem the practice offensive because they consider worshipping over graves to be idolatry.
Libya’s Grand Mufti, Sheik Sadek al-Ghariani, condemned the vandalism and said it was the government’s responsibility to protect the graves.
“No group outside of the government should use weapons and it is the responsibility of the government to provide security and prevent religious strife and division,” he said in a statement Saturday.
Resident Abdullah Zakaria said he saw the bulldozers destroy the Sufi tombs Saturday morning. Hours later a group of men bulldozed a mosque in the same area that also contained tombs.
Security officials closed the road leading to the shrines and mosque but did not intervene to stop the men from attacking the mosque hours later. Police were seen instead protecting a nearby hotel.
Interim President Mohammed el-Megarif said in a televised speech Saturday called the actions “unacceptable” and vowed the perpetrators would be prosecuted. He also called on citizens and the security services to be more vigilant in preventing disruptive behavior.
Following the civil war, Libya has been largely without a military or police force and has relied on disparate militias to provide security and protect government installations.
Libyan writer Fathi Bin Eissa, a Sufi, said he had hoped the police would investigate who ordered past desecration of the shrines and wanted answers as to why security forces moved to protect the hotel, but did nothing as the mosque was being bulldozed before their eyes.
A security official said the police were ordered only to ensure violence does not break out.
Other attacks have taken place in the past against shrines in the eastern cities of Darna and Benghazi.
More recently, extremists on Friday bulldozed one of Libya’s most important Sufi shrines and Sufi libraries in the city of Zlitan, 90 miles (145 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.
Security officials say the attackers took advantage of deadly clashes between tribes in Zlitan this week to attack the more than 500-year-old shrine and library.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
26 August: Isaac Projected Straight into Pensacola
That red dot where Hurricane Isaac is projected to hit, right there on the Florida /Alabama border, that’s Pensacola.
We’ve checked with all the old timers in the area; they all say unless you are in a mandatory evacuation area – the beach – to stay. Pull in all the garden furniture, anything loose. Have a three to five day supply of food you don’t have to cook, medications, emergency funds, flashlights / candles, etc., water, lots of water, bottled for drinking and more for flushing, if the water mains become disrupted. The major factor at this time of year is losing electricity; if you lose electricity you lose air conditioning, and it is still hot and humid.
Our son and his wife have sturdy shutters they are closing over their windows; we will put up our coverings today.
The sky is blue and placid; still the calm before the storm. Who would know what chaos is coming, were it not for these forecasts?
FBI Sending Me a LOT of Money! Or Arresting Me?
Would the real FBI blind-copy me on something of this nature? Would they have sent it from an e-mail address that looks like this:
Fb.Info FbteamC@carrot.ocn.ne.jp
LLLLOOOOLLLLLLLLL! I needed a good laugh for today.
Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Intelligence Field Unit
El Paso Federal Justice Center
660 South Mesa Hills Drive
El Paso, TX 79912 USA
URGENT ATTENTION
I am special agent Mark A. Morgan, from the Intelligence Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). We just intercepted/confiscated one (1) Trunk Box at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Texas. We are on the verge of moving this consignment to the bureau headquarters. However, we scanned the said box and found out that it contained a total of USD$10.5M. Investigation carried out on the Diplomat who accompanied this box into the United States, revealed that he was to make the delivery of the fund to your residence, as these fund are entitled to you, been Contract/Inheritance over due payments. The funds were from the office of the Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Minister of Finance, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Furthermore, after cross checking all the information we found in the box backing you up as the beneficiary of the funds, it became known to us that one of the documents is missing. This document is very important and until we get the document, the box will be temporarily confiscated pending when you will provide it. The much needed document is the Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Delivery Certificate (DISDC). This document will protect you from going against the US Patriot Act Section 314a and Section 314b. This delivery will be tagged A Diplomatic Transit Payment (D.T.P) once you get the document.
You are therefore required to get back to me on this email (officefdagnt@gmail.com) within 72 hours so that I will guide you on how to get the much needed document. Failure to comply with this directive may lead to the permanent confiscation of the funds and possible arrest. We may also get the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF) involved if do not follow our instructions. You are also advised not to get in contact with any Bank in Africa, Europe or any other institution, as your fund are here now in the United States of America.
Agent Mark A. Morgan
Special Agent in Charge
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Intelligence Field Unit
El Paso Federal Justice Center
660 South Mesa Hills Drive
El Paso, TX 79912 USA
Email:officefdagnt@gmail.com
Confidentiality Notice: This communication and its attachments may contain non-public, confidential or legally privileged information. The unlawful interception, use or disclosure of such information is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, or have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by reply email and delete all copies of this communication and attachments without reading or saving them.
Dead Fox in the MIddle of the Road
This morning as I made my early rounds, I saw a dead cat on the road outside our house.
“How sad,” I thought, “someone’s sweet kitty didn’t make it across the road.” It is odd, though, you don’t see a lot of cats here outside. Most people keep their cats inside, or within a limited area outdoors.
When AdventureMan got up, he said the same thing. We hoped someone hadn’t just dumped a cat out there; we know there are cases where people just can’t care for their animals anymore, but there are places that will take domestic pets in and try to re-home them. Just to dump them is so unfair to an animal who is used to being fed and (hopefully) loved.
AdventureMan got a couple heavy duty garbage bags and we double bagged them. He put on some non-latex rubber gloves and we headed to the road. When he picked up the dead cat, we got a real surprise. It wasn’t a cat at all, but a skinny little fox! Also very dead, and not very healthy looking.
We both scrubbed down, and hope that we didn’t get any kind of rabies virus or anything else on us, but meanwhile, I am wondering – where on earth would a fox make a burrow in our suburban neighborhood? I am sure he was heading down to the bayou for a drink; it hasn’t rained for a couple days now and he must have known there was water in the bayou (although not great water to drink with all the contaminants flowing into it from lawns and gardens and car washing, etc. ) but where does a fox family live??
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