Martin World News

 

On the news page for today:

FoxNews: But at least it wasnt CBD, right?

Headline: Graduation cigar saga involving HS lacrosse team boils over as school officials, family attorney trade barbs

This is the beginning-of-my-morning stupid story that triggered this post. Ipswich HS in Massachusetts had their lacrosse team make it to the state semis, when they were forced to forfeit.  What was the crime, you ask? Well...

- Pictures on social media surfaced of 6 graduating members of the team smoking post-graduation cigars, a no-no for them according to their state athletic association.

-They claim they were 'fake' cigars, containing "Chammomile and English breakfast tea", because "they were aware of the rule and didn’t want to jeopardize the team going into their "Final Four" game."

-The father of one of the students was not only the one who posted the pictures, but procured the cigars for the boys, "so the kids could follow the tradition of smoking cigars after graduation."

-While the picture showed to the media just had the boys holding the 'fake cigars', the School board had another picture they didn't release- one where  it " showed smoke and a lighter, as well as the fact that the cigars were significantly shorter than they were in the first photograph." In addition, the photos were all swiftly- but not swiftly enough- pulled off of Facebook.

- and finally, the father produced a receipt for the "fake cigars"- with the date and time of purchase conveniently "smudged out."

So here's your chicken or egg moment: what was the cause of this? Stupid parent, stupid kids, or stupid tradition?

GB News: Seems reasonable to me

Headline: Zack Polanski suggests pro-Palestine activist who broke police officer's spine with sledgehammer shouldn't go to prison

Zack Polanski, BTW, is the leader of the British Green Party, which is apparently a holding tank for idiots and lunatics.  My case?  He thinks a 7-year, eight-month sentence is "gut wrenching" and far too long "protesting to save lives in Gaza, with 'terrorism' used despite no jury convicting them of it."

The crime?

-After breaking into an arms factory with 2 buddies, Fatema Rajwani took a sledgehammer and broke the back of policewoman Sgt Kate Evans. Not to mention they caused £1.2million in damages in the factory.  This factory was apparently an arms supplier to Israel.

The UK has become a literal cesspool of stupidity.  Two teenage and younger girls go to trial because one of them brandished an axe at an immigrant who wanted to kidnap and rape the other- after months, the charges were finally dropped against THEM this week.  But the Green party thinks breaking someones back should be a misdemeanor as long as it is in favor of the immigrant.  You try to justify that; I say, if you don't believe that satan is real and ruling in England, you are blind.

Moscow Times: Sounds like just another day on MSNBC

Headline: SPIEF 2026 Was A Tragicomic Encapsulation of Russia's Economic Quagmire

This is a rather long opinion piece on the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), held in early June, by writer Tatyana Rybakova.  It was amusing reading, but I get the average joe will fall asleep weeding through to the good stuff.  But some highlights are fun reading, to wit:

-The conference was pre-opened by a Ukrainian drone attack, which shut down the airport and made some delegations late.  The ones that made it were "entertained" by a pair of media moguls who told the crowd (in her paraphrase) " In brief: if Russia continues its killing and defeats and robs its enemies, grabbing the world by its throat, everything will turn out well for Moscow. But if the war ends, everything would get worse. Much worse."

-There was excitement about having "an American delegation" at the forum.  That definitely unofficial delegation? " ...an architect advising Trump on the construction of the White House ballroom, along with ever-present actor Steven Seagal and Candace Owens, a blogger and conspiracy theorist."

- There was more excitement- and perplexity- when businessman Kirill Dmitriev announced that plans for a tunnel connecting Russia and Alaska "would be signed as soon as tomorrow".  This tunnel, by the way, is speculative at best.  According to a linked article, the "Trump-Putin tunnel" is more joke than reality, with cynics suggesting they should hire displaced Palestinians from Gaza to build it, since they are so good at tunneling underground ( a future job for sledge hammer boy?).  When the disbelieving crowd turned on Dmitriev, he had to admit that the signing was just for a firm to do a feasibility study.

-The Governor of the Central Bank was a no-show, and speculation led to two different 'official stories'- one that she was at a funeral, and then later that she was on sick leave.  This led to the pithy truism by our author: " In Russia, the presence of two purported truths is interpreted as the lack of any truth. "

- Finance Minister Anton Siluanov came out saying the budget is so empty that it will be 2029 at least before the economy turns around.  After which, he tried to calm the crowd by saying that " he noted that people were afraid that tax rises had gone too far, but insisted they hadn’t. "  Sure, buddy.

-Apparently Putin committed a Biden (or Trump, to be honest) when he said that Russia was doing so well that they had conquered "2,400 thousand square kilometers" of Ukraine, when Ukraine only has just under 604,000 square kilometers.  Realizing that they have not yet conquered 4 full Ukraines, the 'thousand' was removed from the official transcript.

-Finally, in the exhibition halls were several displays our author commented on, but her favorite? "The most impressive of all was the stand run by Donetsk separatists, which displayed regionally themed fragrances with names “The Resilience of Metal.” Or “Steppe Wind.” "  Personally, I can't wait for Dove Men+ Care to market a 'resilience of metal' body spray.

Okay, so these were pretty windy posts, let me see if I can find a good, short knockout closer.  

Xinhua:  One picture worth a thousand square kilometers, er, words

Headline:Crayfish-themed parade held in Xuyi, China's Jiangsu

How 'bout some pictures?

 I do have some from the last time the boys were over, back on the 5th...

Drinking a Blue Moon (which the kids 'bought me' for my birthday), and still needed five tries to get a snap with the darn LEDs on...

"I'm Daddy!" because he stole  his barstool

Only one take needed for GOOD beer...

Dancing to 70's music

And now, how about today?

Clouds still a bit iffy- we had tornado watches all last night

Remember when we used to beat the sunrise?  Neither of us are up for that anymore...

There appears to be an overturned footbridge in the creek...

Bunny (dead center behind the chicane)

Misty finds a kids fishing rod

That cloud looked like a giant mushroom

Amazingly, the woods was not buggy at all- but it was muddy.  Misty managed to pull to hard on one patch and I went down KABOOM!  I'm thinking that counts as my bi-annual fall-on-my-butt since we rarely go to the Green Hole anymore.

Wisdom Truck 22

 

This week, we begin to go through Psalms, and we start with Psalm 2.  It's fairly small, if you so choose to follow along. It is a classic creme-filled doughnut, with symetrically opposite outsides and a powerful middle.  The part we'll be focusing on is the back end:

Psa 2:10  Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 

Psa 2:11  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 

Psa 2:12  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. 

A lot of points to cover, starting with, "Who is the author?"  Many Psalms have subscriptions that directly tell you who wrote them; this one does not.  Howver, we have evidence from the New Testament:

Act 4:25  who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? 

Act 4:26  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’— 

which matches the first part of Psalm 2:

Psa 2:1  Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 

Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 

Psa 2:3  “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” 

So we know this was written by David.  We also know (one look at Psalm 22 tells you) that David was a prophet, and this is a direct warning- not only to ALL rulers, but specifically to those John tells us of in Revelation:

Rev 17:12  And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. 

Rev 17:13  These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast. 

Rev 17:14  They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.” 

And God's reaction? Well, there are two; one is in our target verse- "lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled".  The other is in the transition from side one to 'creme filled middle':

Psa 2:4  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 

Now the other thing is, "Does 'Kiss the Son' really mean Jesus?"  And it gets a little hairy here.  The word, "Son" is בּר bar, and in strict Hebrew this is clean or pure, so the Jews translate this as "embrace the pure".  However, this is NOT the way it should be taken- it is NEVER used in this manner in the OT.  Rather, it is an Aramaic add-word, which literally means, "heir".  Here though, we need to look at the creme-filled middle for context:

Psa 2:6  “I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.” 

Psa 2:7  I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the LORD: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father. 

Psa 2:8  Ask Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance, the ends of the earth Your possession. 

Psa 2:9  You will break them with an iron scepter; You will shatter them like pottery.” 

This is the passage (presumably) Paul uses in Hebrews 1 to establish that Jesus IS God.  'Son' here is בּן

bên, which is used almost 2,000 times as son in the OT.  From context we can logically see that 'bar' in v12 equals ben in v7: Jesus is both Son and Heir.

I believe that the wisdom of Kissing- literally 'fastening to'- the Heir is the theme the 2 witnesses of Revelation 11 will be preaching to the people under the Anti-christ's rule.  And as in the days of Noah, as Jesus said, no one will be listening.  But right now, in this world, we still have the Spirit of Wisdom available to us.  So don't wait- Kiss the Son!

The weekend...

 Well, after prayers of thanksgiving, I have gotten out of a woe-is-me mood And can now update you on the weekend without whining (a lot).

It has been a HOT weekend, so Misty and I have been basically home bound except for a bark park stop this morning.  Yesterday, though, we went on another "Beer Tour".

What added the extra wrinkle was that yesterday was Tour Fort Wayne, which despite what they might tell you was basically about 500 bicyclers going from bar to bar.  One of those was Fortlandia, and so after trying our best not to run over a drunken bicycler to get into the parking lot (We no lie almost saw one get clobbered just before we got there), we pried our way into the barroom, squeezed into the last two seats at the bar, and after they served about ten bicyclers lined up to get drinks to take out onto the patio, I got a Standing Hampton while KC had a Dad's Not Drinking That Craft Crap.  KC was not of a mind to stay for more than one, and he decided we would move on to another local brewpub, the Hoppy Gnome. (Not before I got me another growler of Dr Evil's Belgian Golden!) This was fancy almost to the point of us being underdressed, but they had some decent brews.  I had a flight of Knockabout stout, Beanforager milk stout, Wheatness Protection Wheat Ale, and Pretty Fly For A Light Guy blonde ale.  These were all low ABV, so I started first with a higher octane St Bernardus ABT 12, which is a 10% quad.  KC tried their Apocathary Kolsch and Tinkerer's Pale Ale.  Of Course, for me the quad is tops (rated world class), my light flights were just okay, but the stouts were real good (not so much as the Standing Hampton), the Knockabout was pretty comparable to a Bell's Edmund Fitzgerald.

I wrote that last paragraph rather poorly, so feel free to fit these two anecdotes in where appropriate:  1) Running over drunken bicyclers became the joke du jour for the day; 2) KC decided to pickkkk up the tab, loooked at the tab and said, "Wow, you're a cheap date!" I responded, "Yeah, but I don't put out." KC: "None of my dates do..." Waitress:  "Not many of the girls do anymore..."

After that, up north to Arena for non-craft beers (well, I had a Yuengling), and some chow.  KC's loaded fries provided him with a spot of Ranch on his lap- in the worst/funniest possible area.  Finally, we watched much of the hockey game at the Dupont.  Among the highlights there was when soimeone played a certain song on the jukebox- a song the bartender hates so much, he went outside for a "cigarette break"! (Needless to say, he didn't stay out long; but finished the song doing exaggerated vocals to it.

Today, I was a bit down- one thing triggering another, triggering another, which led me to be down on every and all.  But then I took my own advice and thanked God for all He has given me, got on a pastor I follow's website to pray for the peoople in his prayer list, and I'm basically back to good.  I'll just put it this way:  I hope Jesus gets done grooming me into the person He wants me to be before I can retire soon....

Pictures

 Well, I would love to regale you with what's going on in life, and post tons of pictures of our latest walks, but... It's been a pretty quiet week.  However...

A few days ago, I captured our resident red squirrels....

Scamper was busy being a moo pig at the bird feeder...

While Camper, as usual, stayed near the shed door

Today, our other Squirrel completed shed #4...

"Oh, look, it's me!"

"What about me?  I shed all the time!"

"Oh.  Okay!"

Wisdom Truck 21

 

We come to the climax of our tour of Job, when God himself speaks.  Note that two conditions are now present that were not earlier: one, the back and forth, "woe is me", dialogue between himself and his friends, and two: he was actually ready to listen, after Elihu gave him 'the facts of life', as it were.  To hear God you have to be 1) willing to shut up, and 2) willing to listen.

Now God hits him with a lot in chapters 38-41, but if you take a step back and big picture the passages, it neatly breaks down into 2 sections that are each bookmarked with a question.

SECTION ONE

Question one: 

Job 38:1  Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 

Job 38:2  “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? 

Job 38:3  Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 

Question two:

Job 40:1  And the LORD said to Job: 

Job 40:2  “Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.” 

So big picture:  God starts with telling Job he doesn't really know what he's talking about.  Then, He proceeds to describe to Job all the things that God in His Wisdom has set up:

-38:4-11: The designing of the universe;

-38:12-15 The concept of time;

-38:16-20 The depths of the unseen world;

And so on.  Midway through this, God uses a little of the sarcasm Job used (indirectly) on Him right back:

Job 38:21  You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great! 

What God is doing here is destroying Job's right to question Him- God had NO duty to Job, not even that of appopinting a mediator- though He eventually would with Christ!  By calling Job a 'faultfinder', God is pointing out Job's sin- not questioning God, but the attitude that God had wronged him.

SECTION TWO

Question one:

Job 40:6  Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: 

Job 40:7  “Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. 

Job 40:8  Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right? 

Question two, this time about midway through:

Job 41:10  No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? 

Job 41:11  Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. 

Who God is talking about we will hit in a second.  This second section turns towards a less esoteric, more in-Job's face showing of the vast difference between God and man.  God does this through the description of two creatures that blows away the entirity of the evolution/10 billion year old universe.

The first of these creatures, described in 40:15 to 24, any little kid could tell you, is a dinosaur- specifically, something like an Apatosaurus.

Job 40:17  He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. 

Job 40:18  His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. 

Job 40:19  “He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword! 

Job 40:20  For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play. 

Job 40:21  Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh. 

Job 40:22  For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him. 

Job 40:23  Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth. 

I want you to think hard on this:  If this was a creature that died out 70 million years before man existed, and not discovered by man for at least another 3,000 years, WHY would God describe it to him?  The commentators, most of whom never heard of dinosaurs, tried to pass it off as a hippo- and I doubt I need to find a picture of the back end of a hippo to convince you that its tail has very little resemblance to a cedar!  The point was, that this was a creature Job knew he could not kill; and yet, the God Job tried to make himself even with had MADE him, even before He made man.

The second creature after this Behemoth, was called Leviathan.  Again, commentators and skeptics have tried to scale it down into 'a crocodile'.  What crocodile have you seen that could do this:

Job 41:18  His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. 

Job 41:19  Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. 

Job 41:20  Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. 

Job 41:21  His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. 

..... 

Job 41:27  He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. 

Job 41:28  The arrow cannot make him flee; for him, sling stones are turned to stubble. 

Job 41:29  Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins. 

Job 41:30  His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire. 

Job 41:31  He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 

Job 41:32  Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired. 

You would say, "This sounds like a fire-breathing sea monster"; you would be right.  And if it was a fanciful creature, WHY would God be using it?  If you believe, as I do, the Bible is the Word of God, you have to believe these creatures existed with man. 

In studying this, I found a little corroboration in the form of the Roman Marcus Attilius Regulus, a Counsul and general in the 260s-250s BC.  According to several sources, during his invasion of Carthaginian Africa in 255 BC, his army came to the Bagradas River.  There they encountered a beast much like what was described in Job.  It nearly shattered his army (which was then defeated by Carthage), until a lucky shot from a catapult hit a weak spot in that armor and broke its back.  The finished it off and skinned it, and that skin- 120 feet long, or three times the size of the largest recorded crocodile- was sent to Rome.

Did this really happen? Who knows- a defeated general might say anything.  However the skin was attested to in more than one source.

Point being that after the first line of questioning, Job said, basically, I'll shut up now.  By the second, he saw himself- and God- for what they really were...

Job 42:1  Then Job answered the LORD and said: 

Job 42:2  “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 

Job 42:3  ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 

Job 42:4  ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ 

Job 42:5  I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 

Job 42:6  therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” 

Now Job and God were good; because deep in Job's heart, he had never wronged God in disbelief.  The three friends, however, had been deceived by the demonic,and God basically told them, "If you want forgiveness, ask Job to pray for you, because I'm not listening to you."  Which brings us to the flip side of where we started:   3)God can ALWAYS hear; but 4) He won't listen to sin.  

Martin World News

 

Okay, I have at least two stories that could be taken as mildly amusing...

CNN- Shoulda said it then...

Headline: Jill Biden says she worried Joe Biden was having a stroke during 2024 debate

YOU were worried? That poor man had no buisiness being out there.  But, let me ask you, Jill, what was it you said that night?

 In a post-debate event that night, Jill Biden said, “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question. You knew all the facts.”

You know, had you said something about a stroke, or at least acknowledged that, "We beat Medicare" wasNOT a correct answer to any question, maybe Harris might have done a bit better in the election that fall.  Better late than never doesn't always apply.

KTLA Los Angeles:  Perhaps a branch office was not required...

Headline: Bizarre U-Haul tree branch rampage damages a dozen cars in North Hollywood

My thanks to Bo Snerdly's X account for showing me this one.  And let's see what happened via the police report...

“V1 (the U-Haul truck) traveling eastbound on La Maida Street, struck a very large tree branch, which ripped off and lodged itself between the truck and its trailer,” police said in the statement.

Police said the U-Haul truck continued eastbound on La Maida Street, resulting in the tree colliding with and damaging 12 other vehicles parked along the street.

As you can see, this was no small tree branch.

"She has huge rearview mirrors on both sides, like, there's no way you couldn't see and feel," said Nate Bridges, one of the North Hollywood residents who witnessed the chaos unfold. "It was a huge mistake, obviously. It was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen."

One person harmed and maybe helped, was witness Clark Heiser, whose Prius (which he was living in while trying to get his music noticed), whose immediate reaction was:

“What the f— lady!” Heisler could be heard yelling at the U-Haul driver after the truck came to a stop up the street. “You couldn’t tell? You just hit everybody’s car down the street!”

But soon later, he put on his rose colored glasses and said:

Clark says his Prius was totaled in the incident, because they no longer make replacement roof panels and the car is only worth around $3,000. He hopes that if anything good comes from the ordeal, it's that more people view the video he posted on his Instagram and begin listening to his band Papercut Massacre. 

Can't say I didn't try to help.  I'll see if I can find their tunes later.

RT News: If ya can't beat 'em...

Headline: Pope used AI to warn about dangers of AI – researcher

Recently, our friendly neighborhood Pope issued a 42K-page encyclical called  ‘Magnifica Humanitas’, in which he discussed a growing concern to most in-the-know people- the lack of oversight of AI programs, which he and many others feel may end up being harmful.  But...

Despite its appeal for AI to be regulated and “disarmed,” large portions of ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ show some telltale signs of being written by AI, Zhang claimed in a blog post on Tuesday.

“Phrases and punctuation much more commonly used by AI are much more present in this papal encyclical than past encyclicals,” Zhang wrote, pointing to the document’s use of em-dashes (127 instances, compared to 26 across four encyclicals by Pope Francis) and “tricolons: a series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses used for rhetorical effect.”

Not surprisingly on this big of a work, the problem might just be the men who Leo XIV sublet the work out to:

The fact that certain paragraphs appear completely free of AI suggests that “some senior Vatican officials heavily used AI assistance for this encyclical and many (probably including Pope Leo himself) didn’t,” Zhang wrote.

Or maybe Leo himself is a figment of AI.... "Look at them, not at me..."

(NOTE: This is a totally fictitious attempt to start a viral rumor.  Feel free to spread it!)

Xinhua: And speaking of AI...

Headline: Robot tea picker takes on West Lake's delicate harvest

I watched the video- sure looked like he was grabbing a lot of imaginary leaves.  A friend of the Pope's, perhaps?

(BTW:  I tried to screen shot it and crop it on Paint, but the new paint has hidden the crop function somewhere that I can't find it.  So I went to grok and HE did it.  Grok 1, Pope 0.)

And certainly after all that battle, the closer should be a good one...

Japan Times: At least it's not during Pride Month

Headline: At Kawasaki’s ‘penis festival,’ phalluses are vessels of compassion

I only get so much of this story without signing in, but here's the gist.  Shinto gods live in mikoshi, temporary abodes that can be paraded about on special occasions.  One such occasion is the Kanamara festival in Kawasaki, Japan.  What sets this fesitval apart is what that name means- the Festival of the Steel Phallus".  During this festival, the gods get to ride around in replicas of the original Steely Dan (wiki how the band got its name for further details).  But the star of the show is...

"...a fuschia clored, 2-meter tall sculpture- that happens to be named Elizabeth."

"All right, fellow deities- short straw rides in Elizabeth this year."