My Critters

I love critters, whether bugs of small animals or whatever! I seem to find them everywhere I go, and whenever possible I like to snap a picture. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the 20 live bees I once caught and put inside a jar or a few other fun moments, but these are still some fun ones.



I caughts this spider at work. I brought it home but Hannah was not as thrilled by it as me :-)



This lovely beast fell from the tree to his death. He looks pretty comfy here, though, almost like he was just sleeping... oddly enough, another squirrell dropped down dead a couple days later.



This was a neat grasshopper type bug I found on the hood of my car. It was far too cool to not get a picture of.

Here is another spider I caught at work.

I love walking sticks, and here is one I found at work.

Here are some walking stick I found that were mating. (The fat one on the bottom is the female)

I never quite figured out what this was. It was obviously alive but its face looked painted on rather than actually being a face. To be perfectly honest I do not even know if that was his face! But that goofy tongue looking thing made this bug too cool to pass up.

Hannah and I were driving in Florida when this little guy walked out from under our hood and onto our windshield. He was able to hold on until we reached 55 mph.

I still have not figured out what this thing is... :-)

I found this dead snake on the driveway at work.

This is a live snake I recently caught at work.

This wasp is an old friend of mine. I caught him across the street from the Warehouse in our barn location. Rather than kill him, I stuck him to a box with two nails squeezed against his waist to keep him in place. I visited him ever time I went to the barn, was able to pet him and watch his stinger pop out and go back in. Then after three weeks of being stuck there, he died. It was a sad day when I came in and realized he was gone. But he still sits there stuck to the box to this day. It has been over a year.

Here is a field mouse I caught today. I saw his scurrying across the driveway at work so I chased him down and stepped on him... which was enough to kill him. So I bagged my game and showed it off around the shop.

My Head Is Going To Explode!!!

That is my post.

The "Tragedy" of the Civil Rights Movement

Audio was just uncovered of Barack Hussein Obama in 2001 where he said the following:

"You know, if you look at the victories and failures of the civil-rights movement, and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to vest formal rights in previously dispossessed peoples. So that I would now have the right to vote, I would now be able to sit at a lunch counter and order and as long as I could pay for it, I’d be okay, but the Supreme Court never entered into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and sort of more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society.

And uh, to that extent, as radical as I think people tried to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution — at least as it’s been interpreted, and Warren Court interpreted it in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties: [It] says what the states can’t do to you, says what the federal government can’t do to you, but it doesn’t say what the federal government or the state government must do on your behalf.

And that hasn’t shifted, and one of the, I think, the tragedies of the civil-rights movement was because the civil-rights movement became so court-focused, uh, I think that there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change. And in some ways we still suffer from that."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iivL4c_3pck

Amazing Grace

WOW, I just finished watching the movie "Amazing Grace" and it was the most inspiring movie I have seen in a long time. When I saw it come to dvd last year, I thought, "Oh, this must just be a sappy, long, cheap looking movie" and kept putting off watching it. Well, Hannah's mother rented it and left it for Hannah and I to watch, so I stuck it in tonight and I was a hundred times better than I ever imagined it to be! "WOW" is the only word I can use to describe it. The production quality itself is astounding and Ioan Gruffudd fills out the character of William Wilberforce so powerfully that you totally forget you are watching only a recreation of his life. The depth of his character just blew me away. Until now I had never known the story of William Wilberforce and how he with seemingly only God on his side fought the evil of slavery... and after many years of passionate devotion toward his cause and through the amazing grace of God he was able to see its end in Britain. Seeing a true story like this can not help but cause a person to reflect on their own life. He became a part of something far larger than himself and devoted everything he had to it, and just seeing it makes me think about my passion and what I am devoted toward. At this point I feel that I am most passionate about taking care of my wife and daughter. And to be perfectly honest probably right under that would be my passion to bring Christ to my unsaved friends and co-workers. But when it comes down to it, I really do not feel like I have the passion or direction that William Wilberforce had. I wish my life was that simple and I could see clearly before me my specific calling and devote everything I have toward it. At this point I feel that God wants me to devote myself to my family, but at the same time I feel that He has more, a wider mission or a bigger picture for what He wants to do with my life. I guess I will just have to be patient and wait for Him to make that clear. God is faithful, and I know He will reveal it all in His perfect time.

You Won't Hear This In Schools

Excerpt from Liberal Fascism, by Jonah Goldberg, pp. 11-12

But this whole discussion misses a larger and frequently overlooked point. The New Deal did emulate a fascistic regime; but Italy and Germany were secondary models, post hoc confirmations that liberals were on the right track. The real inspiration for the New Deal was the Wilson administration during World War I...

Indeed, it is my argument that during World War I, America became a fascist country, albeit temporarily. The first appearance of modern totalitarianism in the western world wasn't in Italy or Germany but in the United States of America. How else would you describe a country where the world's first modern propaganda ministry was established; political prisoners by the thousands were harassed, beaten, spied upon, and thrown in jail simply for expressing private opinions; the national leader accused foreigners and immigrants of injecting treasonous "poison" into the American bloodstream; newspapers and magazines were shut down for criticizing the government; nearly a hundred thousand government propaganda agents were sent out among the people to whip up support for the regime and its war; college professors imposed loyalty oaths on their colleagues; nearly a quarter-million goons were given legal authority to intimidate and beat "slackers" and dissenters; and leading artists and writers dedicated their crafts to proselytizing for the government?

Saturday

I am about to go to sleep, but what have I done today?

1. Got up around 8:00
2. Watched Seinfeld with breakfast while Riley Joy crawled around
3. Riley went down for a nap
4. Went to the Library and picked up "Liberal Fascism" and Hannah got some girly books
5. Did some dishes and some reading
6. Got on the computer
7. Hannah made peanut butter popcorn and we hung out and watched "Dan In Real Life"
8. Called my mother
9. Put away some laundry
10. Put Riley Joy to bed
11. Called my dad
12. Watched "The Osterman Weekend" in bed while Hannah slept

That was my day. Now I sleep.