Friday Hodgepodge V

My soul

I found this one via El's blog. I think it is accurate, but I somehow wish it wasn't so truthful!

You Are a Dreaming Soul

Your vivid emotions and imagination takes you away from this world So much so that you tend to live in your head most of the time You have great dreams and ambitions that could be the envy of all... But for you, following through with your dreams is a bit difficult You are charming, endearing, and people tend to love you. Forgiving and tolerant, you see the world through rose colored glasses. Underneath it all, you have a ton of passion that you hide from others. Always hopeful, you tend to expect positive outcomes in your life. Souls you are most compatible with: Newborn Soul, Prophet Soul, and Traveler Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Considering what's been going on in our nation's capital...

I think that this is an excellent observation:

The big thieves hang the little ones.
~ Czech Proverb

Let's Not Forget Jill Caroll

Journalist Jill Caroll remains a hostage threatened by murder by Islamic terrorists. I continue to pray for her release. Let's not forget her.

Islam and the West

The growing rage of Muslims in regard to the Danish publication of cartoons depicting Mohammed seems absurd and crazy to most who have spoken to me about it. I have no answer. I do realize that not all Muslims are enraged—but primarily the fundamentalists and those Muslim clerics who are egging them on.

There is an excellent article, Islam and the West: Clash of Symbols, not Civilizations by Abdul Aziz Said, that addresses this issue. He writes, in part:

In conflict situations, people under stress react by reducing their own beliefs to a small, workable subset in order to fight and protect themselves, assuming a form of fundamentalism which overemphasizes ymbolic meanings or gestures, implicitly closing off the ability to hear and communicate with others. A 'clash of symbols' is being waged between Islam and the West.

Observations

These are non-scientific observations. I know of no scientific studies to validate any of them. They are based upon what I have observed over the past 40 or so years. I am sharing them because today I had a conversation with a social worker who I supervised when I was a F.O.S. (Field Office Supervisor) for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the 1970s and ‘80s; he shared similar observations that he has made over a 40 year career as a social worker. Some day I may write a post about each of these:

1. When a clergyperson who has pastored the same congregation all of his/her career retires, the new pastor finds that the congregation is usually 30 or so years behind contemporary theological thinking. As Reinhold Niebuhr (I think) observed: “Why is it that old pastors who have not read a new book in at least thirty years seem to be so wise?”

2. I have known, professionally or personally, four women who were addicted to drugs. (There have probably been more that I did not know were addicts). In the case of each of these women, the guy who supplied them with drugs in exchange for sexual favors was in this late thirties, unemployed, and lived with his mother. Are these men unique—or is there a connection between unemployed thirty-something drug pushers/addicts and living with their mothers?

3. During the years that I worked in child protective services, either as a case manager or as a supervisor, I observed a religious connection. In the worst cases of child physical abuse, the abusers were a fundamentalist Protestants of a sect type denomination; in the worst cases of child sexual abuse, the abusers were a “fallen” Roman Catholic. I have no idea what this observation mean.


Norton’s Internet Security

My subscription to Norton’s Antivirus definitions was to expire on February 4th and, of course, Systematic has been reminding me of this for the past six weeks. Thursday night I decided to re-subscribe. Of course, when I got to the Systematic site, it was apparent that purchasing Norton’s Internet Security program was a better bargain than just renewing my subscription to the virus definitions.

I did and downloaded it. What I didn’t expect to happen was that it took more than two hours to install and I was unable to do the computer work I planned. Then, after installation, Norton’s Internet Security literally took over my computer, disregarded my responses to questions, and shut and restarted the system four—yeah, I said 4—times.

Why does Systematic always do this to me?


Alex

The nut made this comment to my post of January 31st:

You must post pictures of the cat! It's a blogger thing doncha know - Friday dog and/or cat blogging!

Of course, I have posted numerous pictures of Alex since I have been blogging, but I like the idea of posting Alex pics on Friday. So below are a few more; none are very recent.

Little Alex hasn’t been feeling well the past two days. He vomits up almost everything he eats. Alex has an appointment with his vet on Saturday, unless of course he seems to worsen and then I’ll take him to her immediately.