A post I was going to make that took a horrible side step.

Please forgive me, This is not how I wanted to start this post. Earlier I had a great plan and took pictures, and was so happy I was kind of humming to my self. Then as I sat down to do this post when on the other computer screen came a video I shouldn’t have watched, I should have shut down. It was a news station report on two young boys fostered (me adopted) and the physical abuse they suffered. They suffered no sexual abuse, but the descriptions of the physical abuse sent all my former great happy thoughts fleeing as I totally understood their thoughts they might die and their struggles with the pain inflicted on them, I started to cry and shake and then damn it the vortex came. It howled and tried to consume me, I floundered looking for something some handle, anything in my mind to grab so it wouldn’t take me and I could with stand it. Fight it off.

I put music on the other computer, wiping off the abuse video, I have no idea the songs I can not think on them. The screen says the best soft rock of the 70s,80s,90s. But I am calming down, remembering what I wanted to post, the great idea I have. I must stop sobbing, Ron must not come out and see me like this. Such a great day, great week, and yet …

By my dogs that love gravy I wonder how my heart, my body can take these sudden panics, the mental sounds of the vortex coming for me, my body’s desperate attempt to flee or just to curl up in a ball and let it happen. My heart rate is again down to 76. According to my Apple Watch that monitors it, my heart rate went to 158. Anyway. I am calm enough to do the post I wanted to do. But damn, I need to be more careful on the news I see coming across the many web feeds. But I did not select the video, I was watching a new channel on the fires in Hawaii.

I want to just add that I was one step from activating the emergency Scottie needs help signal. That is to Randy. For those that never followed my old blog I had a breakdown in 2014. I started self harming again and was trapped in my head by the vortex, reliving my childhood abuse. I won’t and sorry can not describe it, but Randy who was working long night shifts keep his phone on all the time, called me repeatedly if he did not hear from me, texted me, and took hours long phone calls from me desperately trying to stop the nightmares in my head from the memories. He went without sleep so many days just to be there for me. When I say Randy is the best brother ever, I mean it, and that is part of the reason why. It is not an exaggeration to say that after drawing a sharp knife or razor blade across my skin drawing blood instead of doing it again I would reach out to Randy instead. It got to where instead of the blades, I reached for him. Anyway those days are past now. For good I hope. Yet it still gets scary sometimes.

Ok Ron got up, kept asking me what was wrong, I denied anything was wrong and told him my allergies were acting up. He seemed like he was going to pursue it but then dropped it, and I am glad. I just don’t want to deal with all that now at this time. I am trying hard to let the past sink back in to the deep depths of the deepest part of the ocean in a chest wrapped in many layers of big chains, weighted down by as many happier thoughts as I can push against it.

Ok my head is clearing and I want to do the happy bread post I started to do. Hugs to all who want them. Scottie

Cartoon: The Time Before Gender Ideology

https://amptoons.com/blog/

Many thanks to Ali for this cartoon. Again a cartoon expresses a lot of information and corrects an old myth with just four panels. At the web link above you can read the break-down of the cartoon and the thoughts of the artist. As well as see other thought provoking cartoons. Hugs

TYT: A Fallen Empire

This is long, and maybe too long for most people. It took me three days to watch it all. But it is even handed, it is informative, it is well documented, and it is truly how I and so many feel. I loved TYT, but about the time Cenk decided to run for office and gave a lot of control over the company / show to Anna, I noticed a shift / change in both hosts and the company direction. Cenk became very bitter and anti-democratic party, while Anna became overly more assertive on every show. When Cenk came back so bitter from being what he felt was unfairly treated by the democrats but others felt was him trying to claim a position without doing the work others had done before him Anna started talking over him, interrupting him, not letting him finish his sentences. But at the same time if he tried to interrupt her she got very vocal about it and wouldn’t tolerate it. She was now in charge and she wanted the world to know it. It showed how she felt about her position, she had the authority and say, so don’t disagree with her. That was very off-putting for me a long time viewer and supporter of the show. But then Cenk’s constant vitriol against the Democratic Party started to interfere with his reporting on Biden. Right from the start he wanted Biden to do the impossible and when he did not Cenk couldn’t even give him credit for what he did get accomplish. Cenk being a bombastic fighter spent two years demanding Joe Biden attack and call out Joe Manchin and pushed for the most virulent attacks on him. Which would have lost the democrats the control of the Senate and stopped any left leaning judge appointments. Then Cenk got more bitter towards Biden and other progressive members of congress who did not throw the disruptive bombs he wanted to destroy the party, so he openly attacked the very groups he started along with attacking all progressives. What crossed the line for me what his attacks on Biden and openly trying to promote primary challengers to him talking up fringe candidates, knowing historically any time a sitting president was primaried they lost, giving the other party the win. He did not care, his bitter anger was more important to him. He kept up his now constant attempts to tear down Biden to the point he is doing the work of a republican challenger for president. I wrote that when I canceled my long time membership, that Cenk was doing the work of the Republican Party in tearing down and maligning Biden. This hard right turn of Anna’s and Cenk’s weirdly not even willing to listen to any criticism of her was the last straw for me. He is not even really addressing the issue that Anna made as the start of this problem, and keeps misrepresenting it. If Anna wants to be called woman that is great, if trans women demand to be called women that is great and everyone would do as they ask. But there are transmen with parts that medical people need to address and that are on medical forms / question forms. It was pointed out so often that no one in conversation referred to Anna as a “birthing person” but she still took offense to the term even existing. She was demanding a medical term to be inclusive not exist because she felt it diminished her as a female. Total right wing maga fundamentalist thinking. This is entirely a case of two people drinking their own Kool-Aid on their own importance and getting called out for it. Their egos have gotten in the way of the work they were doing. I can no longer support them as they are, and I hope people will watch this well researched and documented video. Hugs

Cenk Uyger, Ana Kasparian, and The Young Turks have had a history of scandals and controversies throughout the existence of the network. I want to talk about that history, as well as the events leading up to their recent meltdowns on the podcast circuit and Twitter.

What is the Biblical Meaning of Sodomy?

We explore the origin and historical development of Sodomy and its association with Homosexuality.

Video is part of an ongoing LGBTQ Ministry taught be an instructor with 15 years of experience in religious education.

Yes I did this

OK Ron has said if I don’t tell everyone I did this he will. He is still cackling nearly an hour later. In my defense, I was really trying to be nice and not complain as we are trying to keep the grocery budget down. Just not to this amount.

So we decided to have burgers for supper. Ron normally has some frozen for when we want them but don’t want to go out to the store to get hamburger. But Ron had gone shopping today filling the cupboards and cabinets with food stuffs. He bought two packages of new hamburger as that seems to be are new meat of choice in hard times.

So as supper neared, we talked about what to have, and we both agreed on hamburgers and salad. We used to have french fries with meals such as this, but both of us have lost the taste for such heavy meals and we are both diabetics. As Ron got the meat ready I got all the salad stuff and burger fixings out. I take great pride in how I build a hamburger.

For me I take the thinnest part of the bun, and set it aside. I take the thickest part and add a bit of mustard to it. It might be brown mustard or yellow depending on mood. Then I add several large pickle slices, normally I trim them to just beyond the shape of the bun. Then I add a few lettuce leaves, torn to fit but not shredded. I always like a lot of lettuce so a use a few instead of one.

Then I add the meat and season to taste, closing the bun and enjoying a well-built tasty burger. However I missed a step this time that caused Ron no amount of amusement and me a bunch of red-faced oh crap.

In my defense I was trying to listen to a podcast on the current political situation and was not really paying attention to what I was doing, but Ron is correct, it was hilarious what happened next. Just don’t tell him I agree, I am trying to maintain my innocence with subterfuge and obstruction, you know the republican way.

As I was eating the first burger and enjoying my bowl of salad I noticed the burger was lacking a burger taste. I looked at it and thought “Wow Ron really made these burgers thin”. But I figured that was all he had in the package and as we are on a budget I thought why complain when he is doing the best he can. After all the bun and stuff tasted great, just less than burgerish.

I got to the last three bits when I took a look at the bun in my hand. I thought the burger was really skimpy, in fact I couldn’t see it. I went over to Ron and mentioned I knew we were on a budget but why make burgers so skimpy as to hardly taste them.

As we were talking and he seemed confused, I looked over at the counter … and there were my two hamburgers sitting on the plate Ron had brought them in from the grill on. Oh shit! Talk about foot in mouth eating crow! I had made two perfect burgers with no hamburgers in them, and ate most all of the one without stopping to investigate or complain why it seemed burger less tasting.

Ron is still laughing and I know he will not let this go, he will use this against me for the next dozen times I point out something I think he may have been mistaken on. He is still gloating even though I gave him my second well dressed bun, this time with a hamburger in it hoping that would sooth his need to take glee at my discomfort and small unfortunate once in a long time misstep. Sadly that is not to be, he informed me that if I did not write this for all my viewers to see how utterly clueless and goofy I can be, he would. I prefer my version to his so I am taking my lumps with grace and going off to bed. Hugs

GOP lawmaker’s wife says she’s been replacing ‘terrible books’ with Bibles in local Little Free Libraries

https://www.rawstory.com/arkansas-banned-books/

Understand she is not just trying to regulate what she or her family reads, she wants to control what everyone else reads. She wants the power to control what your child reads, and what you read. Plus she is in some ways damaging other people’s property. But hey it is all OK because it is in the name of her religion, even though this is a secular country. Even after being found out, the religious gang thugs want her to keep doing it. Deny everyone else their right to read stuff, praise god! Hugs

** thanks to Ten Bears for the link. I had just heard of this when I read his page with the link. Hugs **

Brad Reed
August 8, 2023, 7:01 AM ET

Reading the Bible (Shutterstock)

The wife of a Republican state lawmaker in Arkansas has made herself the unofficial monitor of her neighbors’ Little Free Libraries.

Arkansas Times reports that Jennifer Meeks, the wife of Arkansas State Rep. Stephen Meeks, posted on Facebook recently about her efforts to remove “terrible books” from local Little Free Libraries and replace them with Bibles.

“I have been swapping out books in little free libraries for awhile,” she wrote in a Facebook post earlier this month. “I have seen good books, terrible books… Recently I have been picking up free Bibles at flea markets and thrift stores. Sometimes I find good devotion books or kids’ Bible stories at a good price to add. Or just great books, and a gospel tract is a nice idea too.”

Meeks said she was inspired to do this after seeing a lot of LGBTQ Pride-themed books in the libraries.

RELATED: ‘Just absurd’: Shakespeare is latest casualty of Florida’s book ban law

“From what I have seen a lot of these books and other things don’t align with Christian values,” she wrote. “Today, I saw a bunch of Pride stuff in one. There’s a group of leftists, especially in Conway, who are very active in keeping little libraries well stocked.”

Meeks has since either deleted the Facebook post or made it private, although the local progressive organization Faulkner County Coalition for Social Justice said that her efforts would not stop people in the area from stocking libraries with quality reading material.

“Keep removing them, Jennifer,” they said. “We won’t stop.”

The Linguistic Gymnastics of Young EARTH Creationism

🎉 Buckle up for a rollercoaster ride through history, humour, and a touch of scepticism! In this video, we dive headfirst into the curious world of Young Earth Creationism, taking a side-splitting journey through their interpretation of the Bible’s age claims. 🌍📖

Join us as we dissect the claims that the Bible itself supposedly contains evidence of Earth’s mere 6000-year existence. With a dash of wit and a sprinkle of satire, we expose the creative contortions these claims require. 🎭🤯

From deciphering Bible verses with the finesse of a Shakespearean rapper to exploring the hilarious linguistic gymnastics of Young Earth Creationists, we dissect the arguments that keep us chuckling. 💃🎤

But hey, why stop at the age of the Earth? We’ll also tackle burning questions like: Did Moses really part the Red Sea? Why didn’t God just snap his fingers for creation? And who’s Father Abraham, the smurf guy or the biblical patriarch? 🤔😂

Get ready for laughter, thought-provoking analysis, and a pinch of scepticism as we navigate the world of scripture interpretation, contrasting it with the tried-and-true methods of science. 📚🔬

So hit that play button, grab some popcorn, and prepare to laugh your way through the twists and turns of biblical literalism and the scientific pursuit of truth. Don’t forget to hit the like button, subscribe, and ring the notification bell so you won’t miss a single punchline in our journey to unravelling the age-old mysteries!

Is it Okay to be Transgender and Christian?

00:00 Austen Hartke’s Theological Struggles
1:07 Why did God create Transgender people?
4:12 Queering Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch
6:16 Jesus’ Teachings on Eunuchs
8:27 Other Gender Queer Biblical Figures
9:13 Roman Catholic Teaching on Transgenderism
9:40 Counterarguments
10:40 Is God Progressive?

During the Fall of 2020, my college course on the “Theologies of Gender and Identity” was forced to go virtual. This video is one of the pre-recorded lectures from that course that I would like to share with a larger audience. Feel free to respectfully comment and question and I will respond in kind.

This is the 18th lecture in the series. Today we reflect on the Theological arguments presented in Queer Theologian (and fellow YouTuber) Austen Hartke’s book, “Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians.” Next we reflect on the arguments presented in a 2019 Roman Catholic Document entitled “MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM” and explore the question whether God is Progressive.

Recommended Reading: “Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians” by Austen Hartke “Male and Female He Created Them: TOWARDS A PATH OF DIALOGUE ON THE QUESTION OF GENDER THEORY IN EDUCATION” by the Congregation for Catholic Education

THIS Is Why I’m A Democrat! | Christopher Titus | Armageddon Update | (BEST OF ’23…so far!)

Trump thinks Pence is too honest?? – Lewis Black’s Rantcast

Lewis Black discusses the recently revealed news that Donald Trump berated Mike Pence for stating there was no constitutional basis to reject the electoral votes on January 1st, 2021. To which Trump responded by saying that Pence was “too honest”.