The years top ten posts

 I tried doing a new Martin World News today, but Jimmy Carter passed into history today and pretty much swamped the front pages.  Not that that news wasn't more important, but he coulda gave me a two minute warning or something.  (ASIDE:  I think he was a good man.  President, not so much, but he made up for that.  And God doesn't judge on scales, thankfully.)

So I decided to get on my stats page and see what posts of mine got the most looks.  And there were some surprising results.  And I thought I'd share them with you.

10- With 58 looks, "Pictures" from March 3rd of this year.  It was a pretty basic, weeks-worth-of-walks post.

Among them this one, which reminds me- last year, they had that "Stay off the ice" sign out from around Thanksgiving until April.  This year, the river has frozen over twice, but no sign of it.

9-With 59 Looks, "Vacation Monday" from July 1st this year.  Another picture post, this time featuring...

...foxes!

8- With 62 looks, "The Big Wet One" from June 25th, 2013.  That time that we- me and Scrappy- got caught in a full fledged severe thunderstorm almost a quarter mile from home!  I had forgot that we almost ran into a skunk that night, too...

7- With 73 votes, "A Post About Nothing" from March 2nd of this year.  Besides discussing the Misty barf incident from #10, it was a memoriam to my ex- mother-in-law.

6- With 82 looks, "Pictures" from October 5th this year.  This one featured the "Crow dance", and my current screen saver...

5- With 115 looks, "A Prayer From Indiana", a bit of my testimony as part of a friend's "50 States of Pray" blog hop from Christmas Eve, 2013.

4- With 117 looks, "Comments And Respect" from January 25th, 2014.  One of the most commented posts, it involved equal parts of someone I considered a friend being IMHO imperious, and me being hot headed.  If you disagree with me, that's okay; but telling me, Do you "SINCERELY" believe you've earned the right to disagree with me?  That's still not gonna fly.

3- With 133 looks, "A to Z with Lil'Ol'Me? from June 14th, 2016.  This was a delightful a-to-z questionnaire that Debbie the Dog-Lady shared as part of a blog hop.  I may have to re-visit this in the coming days.  Among the shocking revelations: I was in love with the Justad sisters from the band Tangerine...

2- With 142 looks, "What Government Is For" from June 27th, 2010.  An epic three-cornered battle between me, Laurie's brother, and a young atheist, that provoked a long, intricate comment debate.

And #1- With a whopping 409 looks, "Sunday Stuff" from July 31st, 2011.  Using the Book of Job to get beyond saying a meaningless, "I'll pray for you," to someone in pain.  Amazingly enough, this is the one of these still in the all time list    (#9), but maybe that means God has been using it to help others.  I truly hope it has.

It amazes me how much of this was old posts- 80 % of the looks were from posts written before this decade!  I imagine that is a lesson to all of us of the lastingness of what we write today...

Wednesday Bible Study: Abraham plank by plank part II

NOTE:  Once again this appears on Sunday, so you can sleep in on New Years. 

 One of the things I learned this week was about where Abram's family actually came from.  I was researching Ur (where they were) and Haran (where they stopped off)  and at some point, I hit an article where an obviously non-Biblical scholar seemed to be bashing the Bible on two points.  One was the phrase, "Ur of the Chaldeans", pointing out that the Chaldeans (as such) weren't in existence then.  Which would be valid, except that "Chaldeans" weren't a people- they were the priestly class of the second Babylonian kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar's fame.  And as Ur was a holy city to the Sumerians of Ur, Chaldean is as valid as 'priestly class '.

The second is more interesting.  He pointed out that DNA testing (and I don't know where he got this, but whatever) showed that the Israelites originated as Amorites.  He went on to spend many minutes bashing the Bible for "Speaking poorly of the Amorites, as if the Hebrews wanted to distance themselves from their true origin."  Friends, let's go to the Word of God in Ezekiel:

Eze 16:1  Again the word of the LORD came to me: 

Eze 16:2  “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 

Eze 16:3  and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 

So that DNA evidence proves the Bible's accuracy once again, although the commentators I use are from a time that didn't have this knowledge and thought it allegorical.  At this point, I may have you confused, so I want to step back and explain as much as I can what was going on.

So timelines from the Bible and from science don't exactly match- mainly because 'science' can't figure out that Creation and the Flood were real events.  Be that as it may, we can figure this much about those days.

Classical education starts civilization with the cities of Sumer (which included Ur), which were then replaced by the Akkadian "empire" of Sargon.  After him a group called the Guitians came in; we know little about them, because the name was just a placeholder for barbarian tribes who came in and established a kingdom or two.  After they were overthrown and assimilated, native rule returned, but not without more problems in the Amorite tribes.  This may have also been a placeholder name for a group of 'barbarian tribes' (think "illegal immigrants"), so says our scholar above (which also kinda puts a hole in his logic).  At any rate, it seems a solid guess that Abram's ancestors were among those who infiltrated Ur and friends at this time.  In what the scholars name as 2100 BC, a king named Utu-Hegal built an "Amorite Wall" to keep them out.  It was supposedly somewhere between 94 and 100+ miles long- but wasn't anchored at either end, so the Amorites just went around it.  And it wasn't well kept-up, and soon yet another people, this time Elamites, began to cross in and raid.

My guess is this was about the time that Abram was born into.  The Book of Jubilees tells a story of the fields of the Ur- area being constantly raided by "ravens", and famine breaking out.  But Abram, the story goes, knew a way to scare them off that they never returned, and then taught the people better farming techniques to alleviate the famine.  My guess is, the 'ravens' were an allegory for Elamites/Amorites raiding the fields, and about that time, the Sumerians won some sort of temporary victory.  In fact, scholars call this time period the "Sumerian renaissance".  But it wouldn't last for long; between increasing raids, failing agriculture because their irrigation methods soaked the land in salt, and the growing power of Amorite Babylon, the old kingdoms of Mesopotamia began to change.

Between one or more of the three, Terah, Abram's dad, probably thought this idea of Abram's that God wanted him to move to Canaan was a good idea.  Remember, the Bible account says, 

 Gen 11:31  Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 

But Stephen tells us in Acts 7 that Abram was called to journey while still in Ur.  Using both the Bible and the Book of Jubliees, we can guess Terah was 130 years old and Abram 60+ when they hit Haran, which was on the caravan route around the desert to Canaan, and close enough to where Hittite power was in its beginnings to justify the 'matriarchal line' from Ezekiel 16.  Terah, who we are told in several places was an idol worshipper (including Joshua 24), was attracted to the big festival to the god Sin held in Harran on their New Year known as the Akitu Festival, probably... and Abram, torn between the call of God and loyalty to his family, tarried there for 14 years, while God waited.  

And that wait is ironic, definitely God's timing:  14 years God waited for Abram to journey to Canaan; and 14 years from the birth of Ishmael to Hagar, Abram's attempt to 'help' the Lord with His promise, until the promise is actually fulfilled in the birth of Isaac.

So what planks do we learn from all this?  1- you can trust the Bible; if a scientist denies the Bible, it is he that will end up learning. 2- If God calls, don't wait!  Jesus taught this Himself...

Luk 9:59  To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 

Luk 9:60  And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 

Luk 9:61  Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 

Luk 9:62  Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

Which ties into a third: You may find yourself choosing between Jesus and family.  Choose wisely...

Mat 19:29  And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. 

Christmas breakfast '24

Darn, forgot this blog likes me to talk first or it will turn the pics upside down!  Try again... 

Isaiah and Grayson "eating"

"Adults" eating

Grandpa annoying Grayson

Their idea of posing

Misty got three toys- she was in seventh heaven

Every time you asked her if she liked her presents, she barked

Closing their eyes for the big present...

New bikes!

"Best Christmas ever!!!" was heard

Even neighbor Snickers was interested

Laurie's Christmas sweater

Grayson and Misty played chicken- Misty moved first

M10 show week 146

 

Elvis:  Dang, this new big screen we';re workin' with is kinda weird ta get used to!

Yeah, I don't know if it's that, or hunger, or head cold, but yeah, it makes you feel a bit taller, don't it?  Anyway, we have the front end of the year's top 20, this week's 10, and 1979 coming up!  Let's kick it off with this week's only new debut on the ten...

Sure!  We pulled this one from 2021, from the band Japanese Breakfast.  Comin' in at #9, it's called... and thus the reason we tried it... Kokomo, Indiana...

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

***NOTE:  after pigging out on 5 Guys, and a near catastrophic sneeze, we resume your normal broadcast****

So before we get onto target year 1979, let me give you links to the first set of this year's top 20 M10 songs...

20- Broken Bells, The Mall And Misery. It spent a week at the top in April. 

19- illuminati hotties, Sleeping In.  It stopped at 2 during the Month of Linkin Park, AKA October.

18- Beach House, Somewhere Tonight.  Believe it or not, this clip from Conan is the first time I saw them 'live'.  It spent a week at the top in September.

17- The Honeycutters, Jukebox. Another victim of Linkin Park, stopped at #2, the biggest hit of our 'alphabet songs'.

16- Amira Elfeky, Everything I Do Is For You. The biggest hit so far for my Goth girl, it held the top for 2 weeks in February.

So let's go to 1979, where the US is topped by Escape- The Pina Colada Song- by Ruppert Holmes.  I remember having no clue what a Pina Colada was back then, even though I was a world-wise junior at Heritage High...

World-wise, what a laugh!

No argument there.  That song was also a #1 in Canada, and 3 in Australia.  Meanwhile, Canada and Australia are kind of a "best of times, worst of times" for me.  In Canada the top spot went to Styx's Babe, which is an all-time cringe for me.  It would also hit the top in the US (and be hugely overplayed), and yet again, #3 in Australia.  But Australia has one of my favorites at the top this week- the Buggles and Video Killed The Radio Star.  Canada had it at 6, but apparently programmers in the US felt insulted and it only made 40 here.

So the big movers actually movin' this week?

As a matter of fact they are!

5- The Eagles, The Long Run.  Up 8 spots, 28 to 20, it would go 10 US, 9 Canada, AWOL in Australia.

4- Dionne Warwicke, Deja Vu.  Up 11 to 26, it would be 11 US, 34 Canada, 69 Australia.

3- Prince, I Wanna Be Your Lover.  His first big hit, also up 11 to 24.  It would go 11 here, 62 Canada, MIA in Australia.

2- Fleetwood Mac, Sara.  Up 12 to 31 this week- a week that it would likely have been the original M10's #1- it would reach 7 here, 12 in Canada, 11 in Australia.

And a surprising biggest mover:

...Rufus and Chaka Khan, Do You Love What You Feel?  It moved up 13  to #39 this week, but that was about it; it would peak at 30, and never charted in either of our other countries.

Ka-THUMP!  Wow...

It does happen sometimes.  Anyway, here's the rest of this week's part of the year's top 20...

15- Linkin Park, The Emptiness Machine. One of LP's back to back #1s, it kept illuminati hotties out of the top the first two weeks of October.

14- Rainbow Kitten Surprise, Meticulous. Definitely one of the oddest bands to grace the M10, it was tops for 2 weeks in June.

13- Trans-Canada Highwaymen, Heartbeat It's A Lovebeat. This super-cover band took the top 2 weeks in January.

12- Pierce The Veil, Karma Police. One of two big hits this year from Australia's Like A Version program, they topped the chart in July.

And finally for this week...

11- Lorde, Take Me To The River. From the Talking Heads tribute, it topped the first week of June.

Buddy, take the rest of the ten, my voice is giving out...

Yer voice, yer typing this!  Anyway...

10- Black Keys drop 5 with I'm With The band...

8- Linkin Park stuck at 8 with Cut The Bridge...

7- Matt Berry down 4 with I Gotta Limit...

6- Up 4 fer Midlake and Roscoe...

5- Down 3 in week #8, Lucinda Williams an' While My Guitar Gently Weeps...

4- Up 3 fer the Cowsills and She Said To Me...

3- Also up 3 for Maggie Rogers an' Don't Forget Me....

2- Up 2 for Geowulf an' Dreaming...

And still on top...

...Junior Senior's Move Your Feet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Next time, tune in TUESDAY for the New Years Eve Party, and the Song of 2024 reveal!

Martin World News

 

Once again it's time for a romp through the worlds headlines, this time focusing on the Giants of the world- and on my own twisted takes.

FoxNews

I'm not feeling it, frankly

Rand Paul has released his annual 'Festivus Report' on government waste, and among other spendings, he highlights...

-Agency for International Development (USAID) spent $20 million on a Sesame Street spin-off show in Iraq, titled "Ahlan Simsim," in an effort to promote "inclusion" and "mutual respect."

-The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reportedly gave New York University (NYU) over $400,000 to study whether lonely rats seek cocaine more than rats who are in positive environments.

- The senator also mentioned the Biden administration giving $2.1 million to fund Paraguay's border: "Nothing says "America First" like securing someone else’s border," Paul wrote.

Others included a $1.5 M research project that basically bolted kittens to a spinning wheel to observe the effects of motion sickness on them; $10 K for an ice-skating drag show called 'Beards On Ice'; and a $12 M pickleball complex in Las Vegas.

So after you get done with your pickleball game and have hit the casino, secure in the knowledge that grown men pretending to be women aren't going to be affected by dizziness; and can go to sleep happy to dream knowing Uruguayan ne'er-do-wells aren't sneaking into Paraguay, where local rats are dealing with their cocaine addiction in a positive environment.  And all that peace of mind cost you a mere $36,010,000.

CNN

Bonnie King Chuck says no to chocolate eggs

King Charles released his annual (well, the monarch's annual) list of Warrants (Americans, think 'royal seal of approval'), and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, Cadbury Eggs, and even (gasp) Marmite fail to return to the list.

The blow to Cadburys and Unilever (for Cadbury's, the first time they didn't make the list since Queen Victoria first added them in 1854) come apparently because they weren't playing nice- ignoring the Ukraine inspired injunctions against doing business in Russia.  Cadbury CEO Dirk van de Put says to MWN reporters, "It is a bit of a sticky wicket, but we believe it will be mitigated by that warrant from the Czar and his family... wait, what?"  One thing I don't find surprising is Ben and Jerry's (owned by Unilever), playing fast with the rules, because as we know here in the states, nothing says, "I'm a communist" like a nice tub of B&J's Half Baked.

***Note:  The phrase "MWN reporters" denotes items that might not actually have been said, at least not to the person credited.***

BBC

A denial is the same as the truth, these days

The Kremlin is saying reports from Turkish media aren't true that the Brit-born wife of deposed Syrian monster Bashir al-Assad has NOT filed for divorce and wants to leave Russia.  According to the Turkish reports, the possibly-unhappy couple "were living under severe restrictions in the Russian capital, and that the former Syrian first lady had filed for divorce and wanted to return to London."  After Bashir recently let slip, "I never wanted to come to Russia anyway", the Turkish report seems at least somewhat believable- not that it matters to the former Asma Fawaz Akhras; the UK foreign ministry poured ice water on her hopes when the report came out: "(UK foreign secretary) David Lammy said: "I want it confirmed that she's a sanctioned individual and is not welcome here in the UK."

He added he would do "everything I can in my power" to ensure no member of the Assad family "finds a place in the UK".

"Great Mohammed on a stick", Bashir was quoted by MWN reporters, "I just wanted to stay in Syria where I could be tortured for all my secrets and then have my corpse drug through the streets.  Now I'm stuck in this two room rental- with HER."

France24

I think I saw this one before

For me, the title said it all:

How French soldiers train for trench warfare

And in my mind, I said, "In a world of hypersonic missiles and drones, the French are once again preparing for the previous war.  Or was it the one before?"

Moscow Times

When the Bear does it in the woods...

One thing that Vladmir Putin might do even better than Trump: making things happen with but a word:

During Putin’s annual press conference and call-in program last week, a mother-of-five complained to the president about high prices for flights.

“You are right, there is such a problem. We are already talking about this with the relevant managers,” the Kremlin leader told the woman.

Putin said airlines have introduced “small, insignificant” discounts that fail to take into account the financial burdens parents of multiple children face when traveling.

“This practice must be stopped,” he said.

Within hours, Aeroflot and Ural Airlines announced 50% discounts for kids 2-12 years old (2 and under ride free already) on all in-Russia flights starting well before a Putin-set deadline of January 14th.  Now if he could just say something to Charles about that Cadbury warrant...

News.AU

Like we couldn't have guessed that one

Thanks to Australia's news for pointing out to those of us hoping 2025 would be better than 2024, that 2025 starts out with Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday...

...or, to abbreviate, WTF.

Japan Times

Reason # 12,567 why the world sucks now

The headline:

Police called out to investigate suspicious Santa in Wakayama

I wish this was a funny story, but it isn't.  The Santa in question " a young man dressed as Santa Claus who was spotted handing out treats in front of Yuasa Municipal Elementary School."  He was just, as it turns out, trying to do a good thing; but in a world where we have idiots streaming themselves spraying bananas in a store with bug spray to get likes, they couldn't take the chance.  Still, Santa should have talked to school officials first to stay off the Naughty List.

Deutscheland.de

If it had a cost listed, it coulda made Festivus

Because this is just the kind of, "Don't we already know this?" survey I'm sure Congress would have allocated 6 figures for... 

Many respondents regard the conservation and restoration of ecosystems as a high priority for society: the study is based on a representative survey in which 94 per cent of adults and young people agreed that nature conservation is necessary to combat climate change. Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke commented: “The nature awareness study shows that people care about a healthy and intact natural environment.” 

Or, as the original headline put it, "People In Germany Care about Nature."  No fooling?

Finally....

Taiwan News

I'm guessing I won't make dress code here

'Michelin-starred chef Lam Ming Kin (林明健) has unveiled Afterglo, an elegant restaurant and wine bar nestled in Taipei's Regent Galleria.'  The headline drew me to one of the notable food items...

 The "buby tea chicken nuggets with caviar" transform street food into luxury with generous Ossetra caviar and gold leaf garnish. Thigh meat with skin and cartilage is marinated for three hours in dozens of Indian spices and mala powder, then coated in golden fluffy batter. 

The crispy exterior gives way to tender meat with cartilage crunch, balanced by French crème fraîche and enhanced by the briny caviar. 

Caviar Chicken Nuggets, not what you get at Maccas.  As far as I can tell, it costs the equivalent of $18.95 for 4 nuggets.  Could we leave out the 'cartilage crunch, though, maybe?

Pictures

 It has been a bit of a fight to get walks in, what with crappy weather.  For example, Friday...

...it snowed.

"And I don't like snow near so much as I did as a puppy!"

But it was a fast-melting snow, so by the time the temps dropped Saturday....

"I don't care!  Let's go!"

And go we did- though she didn't know it was her Gotcha Day...

Interesting... fuzzy ball

This guy had no intention of moving until he had to...

Every few steps, a mouthful of snow

"At least my drink spot isn't frozen (yet)"

At least there's water again in South Canal, even if frozen

Checking for unfrozen at the river

"Not much..."

Back into the complex to interrupt a squirrel party

"What's this- TREATS!"

"And a new toy!!"

It's supposed to be a crab, but in her mouth it looks more like a tick IMHO, lol!  

Sunday it was just too darn cold for my white butt, but we did go out Monday AM...

At least it isn't too bad... but the wind...

"Daddy, this water's all froze!"

At least we're out of the wind at the Duck Pond

Both banks frozen

I think that ball will be lonely for a while

Replaced the big, ankle turning stones here with hardpack.  Nice!

Nobody on the road/nobody on the beach/ a feeling in the air/summer's out of reach...

This is Misty letting me know she's mad about taking the short way through the woods