What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Thursday, October 16, 2025

Martin World News- X edition

 So today I was perusing X as I listened to the shuffle, and saw stuff that I thought might make a good...


...Martin World News, X edition!  


1- What you get with an American Pope


Through Breitbart, with a confirmation from grok.  See here's the problem between religion and faith.  Religion tells us this is a good thing, uniting people.  Faith tells you a supposedly Christian Church is encouraging people to worship the demonic and march happily into hell.


2- Yer joking right?

Leading Report

@LeadingReport

·

6h

BREAKING: Kamala Harris suggests she was the most qualified presidential candidate in U.S. history.

Please.  You were barely the most qualified candidate in a room alone with Joe Biden.  I just posted my first X poll on this.  Let you know if I get any votes in the comments tomorrow.


3- Timing is everything, I guess

In last week's NASCAR race, Ty Dillon asked if his spotter, Joe White, had let the leader, William Byron (who was right behind him and closing) know he was pitting this lap.  He supposedly answered in the affirmative, but Byron HADN'T heard anything.  The result should be obvious- Byron's race ended in Dillon's trunk.


So flash ahead to Wednesday, as the teams made their way to Talladega for this Sunday's race.  And then...


Joe White

@White_Joe47

·

4h

Got to Talladega. Parked the bus, got fired. In an uber to the airport to go home for the weekend.


"I have a great idea.  Let's just string him along until he's 350 miles from home, and THEN fire him.  Stay classy, Kaulig Racing.


4- Go Woke Go Broke episode 1, 386


JUST IN: NBC News has terminated 150 staff members from its diversity units — NBC Black, NBC Latino, NBC Asian, and NBC Out. The layoffs account for about 7% of its workforce amid growing financial troubles. 




If you are an actual news unit, why do you have to have "diversity units" to pander to your 'target audience'? Oh, yeah.  So now, we wait to see if they go to actual news reporting, or find a new group to pander to.


5- Stay tuned for further updates

Shannon Hill


@ShannonMFHill


·

4h


I hate when I’m on X and am rudely interrupted by a jogger bouncing off my windshield. 


Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Wednesday Bible Study: Hell, part 2

 


An old blogging acquaintence recently posted a rant against President Trump (kind of) about his actions detrimental to the LGBTQ community, saying that it just showed nothing but hate.  Which I would have just shrugged and said, "well you know how this person is, not a surprise" -EXCEPT for the post title that showed their true target: "An open letter to Christians like my parents."  At that point I had to respond.


Respectfully, I explained how the opposition to LGBTQ was not out of hate, but of love.  The Bible clearly states, I said, that these things are sin.  And while the actions of politicians and perhaps even the parents mentioned might not be strictly 'by the Book'- beings as we are all fallen and imperfect- the sin remains.  We can love the sinner, and show them their error, but we cannot abide the sin.


Not surpisingly, this was not a pleasant return I received;  and I had set my mind not to further engage.  I recently saw a Chuck Swindoll devotional which basically said, "Don't waste your seed on the stony ground.  At a certain point, you need to just rely on prayer."  And I saw that as wise advice.  But then today (as I type), I got another, thought out and kinder response from this person.  Kinder, but no less wrong.  That my "hate" was endangering my soul, and I should go back to the God I supposedly follow and see how I am supposed to love and encourage everyone.


And I thought, this is exactly why God has me on this subject.  Let's look at the hard truth of the Bible:


1Co 6:9  Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, 

1Co 6:10  nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 

1Co 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. 

My acquaintence, I'm sorry to say, is greatly deceived.  You cannot practice what God has named sin unrepentantly and enter the Kingdom.  The God they want me to obey does not exist.    Another verse that might be helpful at this point:


Joh 5:8  Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 

Joh 5:9  And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. 

Joh 5:10  So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.” 

Joh 5:11  But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’” 

Joh 5:12  They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” 

Joh 5:13  Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. 

Joh 5:14  Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” 


People like my acquaintence like to point out that "Jesus ate with sinners", etc.  What they don't look at is NEVER ONCE did He heal or forgive someone and say, "Now go back to what you were doing, it's cool."  Obedience is a struggle.  Disobedience is easy, and the road to Hell is wide and smooth.

So why is it that this person thinks they can pick and choose what they like from the Word of God and ignore the rest?  An easy answer is, "they never read the Bible", but it isn't the right answer.  Paul lets us in on what's really going on:

Rom 1:26  For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 

Rom 1:27  and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 

Rom 1:28  And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 


In another section Paul explains God gave them a "strong delusion";  basically, they made a choice- like we talked about last week- and so He removed the gentle, guiding hand of the Spirit from their way.  And Jesus told us what happens next:

Mat 12:43  “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 

Mat 12:44  Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 

Mat 12:45  Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” 


And the next step is obvious:

Rom 1:32  Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. 

Or, derision to those who don't.  Sometimes, derision is harsh words and insults- hatred, bigotry, fascism.  And sometimes, derision is, "I think you got God all wrong."  I think we will end this post with in my opinion, the most chilling words in the Bible:

Jer 5:30  A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land. 

Jer 5:31  The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end? 

Monday, October 13, 2025

How to succeed on X

 So tonight I was looking at an X-post that gave you what to ask grok to learn how to increase your feedback.  I will try to use these things in telling you what I learned.  

1- Humor is good, but you need more personal stories, to hit'em in the feels...


(on the bright side, I had to learn how to stick a gif on a post to do this...)

2- I need to do more threads, less one shots.  But... but that's what my blog is for, isn't it?


3- I need more posts with pics or memes (see the method to the above madness now?).

4- I need to up my weekend activity, and post more about trending stuff.  Hey, listen, I'm 63 years old, for me Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons are trending.


"Pretty spry for 90, guy!"

5- Everybody scrolls by, nods, leaves.  After 2 hours, the algo buries them.  I guess I need a billboard to get attention or something...



6- The groups I frequent don't have a high growth "signal".  Maybe I should bill myself as "Hakeen Jeffries's white half-brother."  


"Don't I have enough problems with the mariachi thing, ese?"

7- Posts need 10%+ non-follower interaction through trends (which we just discussed) and hashtags.  I just want to say, a month or two back, there was a X-driven "stop hashtags" deal going on.  Now I need them.  So...

#########################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################!


But hidden beneath all the other suggestions, is the main two things: 1) Spend 7 hours each day posting stuff, and 2), another 8 thinking about what to post.  Oh, and another 3 hunting down pictures, memes, and gifs to go with them so I can turn one short, sweet, rational thought into a thread.  


I dinna think itsa gonna happen, paisano...

Saturday, October 11, 2025

A dog story

 Well, not really, but this post has a lot of doggie elements to it.  But first...


Last night it was me and the grandboys for a few minutes.  Their dad had put all the stuff on the couch for them to be able to play playstation ( or whatever game setup it is) so Isaiah could pack it in the duffel while he took a shower.  Somehow, Isaiah forgot to pack, of all things, the controllers!  So KC ran back to get them, and Laurie was out.  First off, I told them, "If your dad comes back and says the controllers were on the couch, Isaiah is the poop head; if (as Isaiah claimed) they weren't, your dad is the poophead." To which Grayson replied, "I am the poophead!"  Isaiah and I looked at eachother and said, well okay then.  Moments later, I opened their happy meal toys- "li'l" Shaggy and Daphne from Scooby-Doo, with fright masks.  They decided to play school with them.  "We will be studying biology," Isaiah announced.  Then he asked his "pupils" this question:

"What is the square root of a tree?"

I later said, "You don't know what biology is, do you?"  Isaiah said no, and I breathed a sigh of relief.


Now some doggie pictures.  From Wednesday:


The look at the new door paint job I promised last time




The river is very anemic now...

KC had come over Thursday night, and had bought himself a new outfit, with hat, shades, shirt, and shorts.  Along with a 10% ABV "hard lemonade" that tasted more like apple juice + everclear, and so when I finally decided to get a pic of the outfit, it looked more like I took a picture through his eyes and not my camera:


On the subject of dogs, you might remember on my last music post, I mentioned AJR's A Dog Song.  The next week, I never did an M10 because Laurie was on vacay and I spent the time with her.  So this week, the chart had some extreme moves, and one of them was that A Dog Song debuted at #2- a thing that has ever happened only once before (and I swore I would never do again), and this time with an asterix beside it...



***********************************************

This morning was Misty's vet appointment- she has to get a shot for her Addisons Disease once a month.  So instead of a walk, we went to the bark park.  She has a "schedule" she keeps at the dog park, and first on the list is to tear across the length of it at what I assume to be top speed.  I noted today, it takes her about 3 seconds to cover the distance, so when we got home, I google earthed the length of the dog park (133 feet) and asked AI to figure her speed based on my 3-second estimate (because it's far too early to math).  And the answer I got was that Misty hits 30.23 MPH. So if you wonder why we go everywhere on her leash, there's your answer.

She's also known since yesterday that this morning was "shot in the butt" day- and was she ready!  She LOVES the car ride.  My plan was to show you the "exotic dancing" she does when we go to head for the car on video, but...
...of course she didn't do it this time.  Just standard running around.  Misty's the poop head!

Wednesday, October 8, 2025

Wednesday Bible Study: Hell part 1

 


A couple weeks ago, we looked at the almost-heaven set up of the Millenium.  Now, I want to sart looking at the other side of the coin.

I know there are a few statements that will come with this, starting with, "Is there really such a place as Hell?" Well, Jesus in the Gospels talked about it more than He did of Heaven- at least 70 times He referred to "Gehenna", "the Outer Darkness", and other names for the same thing.  Another is, "Is there really a Devil?"  Not only did Jesus quote Scripture TO Satan, but think on this- almost every religion has some form of ultimate evil.  Iblis in Islam, Ahriman in Zoroastrianism, Mara in Buddhism, the Rakshasas in Hinduism.  If you believe in God, you believe in a Satan.  Of course, "our" Satan is described throughout the Bible, with his 'origin story' being told in Ezekiel 28:12-19.


Perhaps the most problematic question is, "How can a loving God condemn people to Hell, or even make such a place?"  Here's your answer.  If you believe that there is a Devil, Satan, you know what he has done through the ages.  From the first murder of Abel, to the monstrous genocides of men like Tamerlane, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao, to the rapes performed on little children by pedophiles, every one of these things had a beginning in the imaginings of Satan.  So you say to yourself, "This is a beast that warrants a punishment beyond time, a pain beyond comprehension."  Now here is the thing- every being on earth is given a choice by a loving God who won't force the choice on anyone- choose him, or follow Satan.  And if you choose to follow Satan, You follow him where he goes.  Yes, the staggering punishment is meant for the beast that brought us into every sin- But you followed him there.


So very quickly, we have established there is a Hell, there is a Satan, and why a Loving God made both.  Wait a minute, "why he made BOTH?"  Yes, because of LOVE.

Do you love a robot?  A being that has no choice but to do what you want it to?  (Perhaps an "inflatable sex partner" would be a better analogy, but...)  Wouldn't you rather have someone to love who chooses to love you back?  Of course you would, if you're not a sociopath.  SO WOULD GOD.  So every being He ever made was given that choice.  And the grandest being He ever made, made the wrong choice...


Eze 28:12  “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord GOD: “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 

Eze 28:13  You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. 

Eze 28:14  You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 

Eze 28:15  You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. 


...and now, the potential for everyone to make the wrong choice was there.  Remember, I said, "potential."  No one forced Adam to sin...

Gen 3:5  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

Gen 3:6  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 


If Adam and Eve had made the right choice, they (and prospectively, we) would have been immortal, unable to age or die, always pleasing to Our Lord.  But another thing to remember- Adam WAS all those things.  He was, quite simply, the best of us.  If he fell, we would have also, eventually.

So why make us so weak?  God is like us in that He wants to be WANTED, He wants to be NEEDED.  Look again at the passage from Ezekiel.  Lucifer (the devil's name at first) was created PERFECT.  Perfection became a reason, in his mind, NOT to need God.  We were made weak so Christ could show his strength IN us.  Lack of perfection should have driven us TO God...  but thanks to Satan's lies, we sought perfection (look at Genesis 3:5 again) instead.


God doesn't mind if we're weak.  He minds that He is NEEDED.

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

A few Pictures more

 Because everybody likes posts they don't have to work at after a hard days work, here are some pictures:

Bright Saturday Morning

Hmm... an event incoming...

It's the Grote truck!  That means it's the annual car show.

Milkweeds busting open

The Breakfast Club


Lots of people out


The Swamp is completely dessicated

Misty senses varmintage

River is Waaaay down


Just as the cranes like it

Misty missed the critter, I missed the shot

"And you all can miss me..."


Found a tennis ball way up on the cricket field

Misty looking for what just went splash



I will note here that Grote had the music turned up so loud, a quarter mile away through trees and buildings, I kept looking for the car with its bass up too high going past.

Then a small sample of Sunday pics...


Painting our buildings... I'll show you the finished results later.

Almost another three feet the river went down


No, this isn't what they've been throwing on the WNBA courts- just a slightly damaged doggie toy


Friday, October 3, 2025

Pictures

 I would have had some yesterday but my batteries were both dead, and the charger was having a maladjustment of some sort.  Yesterday, you say?  Why weren't you at work?  Well, I was- for a quarter-day.  You see, my part of the job was on a week from Monday ( and that working most of the week solo!), and the sewers had much of next week wrapped up.  Oh, and, we just lost our second big customer in about 6 months.  Why?  It's like this:  When we were an independant company, we searched and worked on innovations.  Innovations keep you growing.  But once we got bought out by the big bucks, the Biden economy and the bottom dollar pared things down to the point that the innovators were gone, replaced by the ones valiantly trying just to maintain the status quo.  Specific to this instance, we were making boat covers (because that's what we do) for a client of which the attachment mechanisms were causing scratches on the boat.  Instead of changing the system to another type (and all the re-design that would entail), we kept trying- and failing- to build the system better.  The customer got tired of design not taking the hint, so they ordered one last stock-up order and said, "See ya later."

So after 1st break, I was chatting with the boss, where he told me the bad news, lamented that, "When you hit a downturn, what you need to do is focus on innovation to keep customers, and if the downturn persists, then downsize", which our big bosses don't do.  They own enough other companies in our genre that they basically tell everyone, "sink or swim", without so much as providing swim trunks.


Okay, rant over, pictures up.


At least it's another Bright Blue Day...

Mrs Cardinal, one of many who greeted us this morning

My attempt to snap Una Paloma Blanca



Good morning, Big Guy

Nothing says 'severe drought' like cracks in a stone path


Colors coming in

Setting up for cricket day, from the south ridge.  The fans were coming across the PFW bridge when we got there.

I would have had a better shot at the flock, but my camera's auto shut-off kicked in just as they went overhead.

Misty valiantly looking for froggies, but no luck


Ducks in the foreground, geese in the back

Sharing her dip with a slime coated beer bottle

This guy really chewed us out!