Demonic or Divine?

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Mary Moloney Is More

A few nights ago, my wife and I were watching the 10 p.m. newscast on [KSPR] when we heard the anchor report that there have been no confirmed cases of the [West Nile Virus] in Missouri so far this year, according to the [CDC].  We looked at each with a befuddled look on our faces almost immediately.  For we were both sure that we had heard otherwise, and a visit to the CDC website a couple of hours later [confirmed] our suspicions.

Ah, but I took a gentle approach when I sent an email to the anchor.  For I asked if we may have misunderstood what she was reporting.

Well, I didn’t receive an email back from the anchor, but she did pass on my email to the lovely and talented Ms. [Mary Maloney], who did email me back.  As it turned out, Mary had actually written the copy for the piece on mosquitoes threatening to take over [Nixa], and I was delighted with her freely admitting that all of the facts had not been rechecked before going on the air with a story that KSPR had obtained some of from one of their news partners.  I was also delighted with her expressing a desire to get things as right as possible, and I thanked her for wanting to be more than just another very pretty on-air personality.

Yeah, she might have been just shining me on.  For on the very next night, it was reported that a judge had ruled that Apple and Samsung had both infringed upon each other’s patents, and that Apple would be owing Samsung a tidy sum of money, which left me with another befuddled look on my face after hearing from CNBC and several other news outlets a day or so earlier that Apple had clearly won in their lawsuit against Samsung over [patent infringements], but Mary may have had nothing to do with that KSPR report.

Just in case I have left you with a befuddled look of your own, there wouldn’t have been any confusion with the KSPR piece if it had of just included some context.  For the KSPR anchor was reporting on a ruling made by a [South Korean court], which came after the ruling for Apple in an [American court], which is what I had been hearing about before.

Evidently, the markets don’t hold much stock in the South Korean ruling.  For the price for Samsung stock [plummeted] anyway.

In any event, I have no doubt that Mary has some work ahead of her in the fight against misinformation, and I am afraid that she will not be able to get very far with it.  For it couldn’t have become as bad as it has without someone higher up on the management ladder being asleep in front of the monitor.  We’ll be watching to see how it goes.

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ESPN Additions

Ironically, some of the best television commercials are for ESPN and only air on ESPN.  Now, I do not know if these ads really are meant to add all the more to the viewing experience, but it works for me.

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Whattahey?

Whattahey is an old Algonquin word mostly used as a verbal expression of confusion.  According to legend, it was first uttered by the grandfather of the great Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, after consulting with a tribal holy man about what the future held for his people and being told that he had seen in the smoke of the sacred fire thousands of people dressed in really funny-looking clothing cutting grass with something on wheels that had the name of his grandson on it.  Therefore, it seemed quite appropriate as the title of a series that will feature video advertisements that have left me more confused over why they were produced than eager to purchase the product or service.

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By Their Own Authority

A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land.  The prophets prophesy lies, the priests rule by their own authority, and my people love it this way.  But what will you do in the end?

[Jeremiah 5:30-31 NIV]

Be assured that the young man will not be held accountable, but the leaders of that congregation are in serious need of repentance.  For they are still claiming to have been given power and the authority to wield it by our Heavenly Father after He has made it clear to them that they are making assumptions that they should not.

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Birther Blather

After Mitt saw fit to let loose with a little [joke], the birthers are coming back out from under their rocks again.  Alas, there is just no [reasoning] with some people.

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ESPN Additions

Ironically, some of the best television commercials are for ESPN and only air on ESPN.  Now, I do not know if these ads really are meant to add all the more to the viewing experience, but it works for me.

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Good, Bad and Ugly Ads

Since I have not been given much of a life, I watch an awful lot of television, which includes an awful lot of commercials.  Now, a GOOD ad is one that holds my attention and makes me want to at least learn more about the product or service it is for.  A BAD ad is one that quickly becomes nothing more than background noise when it cannot be skipped over.  UGLY ads are much worse.  For not only do they make we want to never see them again, they make me want to never have anything to do with the company that paid for them to be produced.  Of course, you may feel differently, but I sure wouldn’t say much about it around anyone with a lick of sense.  For I am, after all, an expert on such things—albeit only in my own mind!

GOOD

BAD

UGLY

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Ron Hearst Rocks!

It was brought to my attention that it would only be fair to write about when a member of one of our local news teams had me cheering out loud after [ranting] about the poor quality of many newscasts lately.  Oh yeah, my wife actually came a-runnin’ to see what was going on when she heard me hollering, “Now, that’s what I want to see!”

What got me so pumped up happened a few days back as I was watching a weather segment where [KY3 Chief Meteorologist Ron Hearst] was showing the movement of a couple of fairly severe thunderstorms in the area.  While he was doing so, he noticed a blue text box in the lower left part of his presentation screen with a message bout 1.75” hail reportedly falling 10 miles north of Terre Haute, and since Terre Haute is in Indiana and around 320 miles to the northeast of us, he pointed to the text box and said that he had no idea why it was there.

Hip! Hip!! HOORAY!!!

Seriously, that is all I am looking for!  For I know that none of us are perfect, and I can imagine just how hard it could become to keep everything straight while doing a live newscast.

Whereas, what has been happening far too often is no acknowledgement of anything being wrong!  Such as when another member of the KY3 news team on another broadcast went right on to the next story after reporting that a bull rider had been bucked off and trampled to death almost immediately after the chute opened at the beginning of the attempted 8 MINUTE ride at a rodeo in a town just over the Kansas state line (I think) when the ride is an 8 SECOND one!  (Needling someone about making a mistake like that would make for some great witty banter—don’t you think?)

Another recent major misinformation malfunction occurred when the anchor of another station’s newscast ended the evening with a funny little story, along with footage of the incident, about a bear checking out the lobby of a ski lodge at [Angel Fire], and calling it an Albuquerque resort, which would be like calling [The Lodge of Four Seasons] a St. Louis resort.  For they are both around 150 miles away and much closer to other well-known locations that could serve as a point of reference, such as Taos and Santa Fe, in the case of Angel Fire.  

Alas, I do not know if this means that the people in charge also don’t have a clue or that they just don’t care, but local newscasts around here are becoming a joke.  Still, they can serve as a place to hear about things that can be searched for elsewhere to find out what may be really going on.  So, I’ll keep trying to watch.

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2016 "Obama's America"

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Protecting Public Piety

By a wide margin last week, Missouri voters added what is being called [the prayer amendment] to the state constitution.  The reason why it is being called the prayer amendment is on account of it [guaranteeing] the right of citizens to make public expressions of their faith, which includes praying.  Another part of the amendment gives students the right to opt-out of classroom activities that conflict with their religious beliefs.

Oh yeah, liberals from all over are lining up to [challenge] the constitutionality of the amendment.  For we can’t be having prayer vigils being held in the hallways of our public schools while serious scientific learning should be taking place!

Alas, it is indeed a sad situation, but not for the reason that the more devoutly religious want to believe.  For no man-made law can prevent anyone from praying in the way that our Heavenly Father most wants to hear.  Neither can any amount of teaching on any subject lead any child too far away from Him.

Therefore, what are all of these “good Christians” really trying to accomplish?  Is it not that they are really wanting to protect the right to show anyone around just how pious they are?

No, what they are doing is most certainly not for our Heavenly Father’s glory.  In fact, they are doing more to diminish it than anything else.  For if you listen close enough, you will hear them (in effect) declaring that He needs them to be witnesses by praying out loud in public so that the lost can be saved, as well as (in effect) declaring that what He actually says is absolutely true cannot stand against the lies of the devil being presented as scientific fact.

Now, there would be great cause for concern if it all really did come down to His servants making a stand against evil.  For there has been a shadow across the land since the Garden of Eden, and it has been getting steadily darker with each passing day.

Oh, but what far too many (even in the Christian community) refuse to truly believe is that nothing has ever happened that wasn’t in accordance to our Heavenly Father’s will, and that He has always been with each and every one of us (even those who do not want to acknowledge His existence) every step of the way.

No, this is not to say that everyone will eventually be saved from facing eternal damnation.  For it would not fulfill our Heavenly Father’s purposes to force anyone to have to spend all of eternity with Him in His Kingdom of Heaven as an heir to all that is His in glory against their will.

In any event, be assured that the Lord God Almighty does not need anyone to do anything for Him.  In fact, He delights in taking a personal interest in every aspect of our daily lives in this world, and come Judgment Day, no one will be able to honestly say that they did not fully understand everything that He wanted them to because He will make sure of it Himself.

Tragically, that is not something that far too many in the Christian community want to hear—is it?  For they want to believe that He is depending upon them to finish the work in His absence that was started on the cross at Calvary.  For if He is not, what glory can there really be for them?

Yes, much of that sounds awfully harsh.  I am sorry, but the time has come for such.  For He has been making it abundantly clear for quite some time now that there is much about what has been presented in His name as being the truth that is quite contrary to what He actually says is absolutely true, and He has provided His Holy Scriptures as written confirmation of that.  Yet, the hardness of far too many hearts remains exceedingly great.

If you don’t believe it, please ask Him about it yourself.  Ah, but who is so deaf as the one who does not want to hear?

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5-Hour Energy Fraud?

With me suffering from [Chronic Fatigue Syndrome], my ears really perk up when I hear something about a product that might give me more energy.  Sadly, most are nothing more than a concentrated dose of caffeine, which offers no relief for me.

I have been wanting to give [5-Hour Energy] a try, but I have been reluctant to waste any more money on something basically worthless.  If you listen close to what is being said in the following commercial, I think you may come to the same conclusion as I have.

Did you catch, “Over 73%, who reviewed 5-Hour Energy, said they would recommend A low calorie energy supplement,” which is most certainly not the same as 73% of the doctors actually saying that they would recommend 5-Hour Energy to their healthy patients who use energy supplements?  Come on now, how much confidence can one really have in a product being marketed by a company trying to be that slick?

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ESPN Additions

Ironically, some of the best television commercials are for ESPN and only air on ESPN.  Now, I do not know if these ads really are meant to add all the more to the viewing experience, but it works for me.

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Good, Bad and Ugly Ads

Since I have not been given much of a life, I watch an awful lot of television, which includes an awful lot of commercials.  Now, a GOOD ad is one that holds my attention and makes me want to at least learn more about the product or service it is for.  A BAD ad is one that quickly becomes nothing more than background noise when it cannot be skipped over.  UGLY ads are much worse.  For not only do they make we want to never see them again, they make me want to never have anything to do with the company that paid for them to be produced.  Of course, you may feel differently, but I sure wouldn’t say much about it around anyone with a lick of sense.  For I am, after all, an expert on such things—albeit only in my own mind!

GOOD

BAD

UGLY

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"Dal Maxvill"

While checking to see what sites could be included in the [A Sunday Drive] on AsTheCrackerheadCrumbles for this week a couple of days ago, I ran across a site that is mostly about collecting baseball cards.  This brought up memories of my own long lost collection.

No, I do not know if any of the over 600 [Topps] cards that I had from the 1960s and early 1970s would be very valuable now.  Nonetheless, they were precious to me.

One of the things that made them so special was that I had at least one card of every starter on the [1967 St. Louis Cardinals], who beat [Carl Yastrzemski], who I also had a card of, and the Boston Red Sox in the World Series that year.  For there was Lou Brock in left field, Curt Flood in center, Roger Maris in right, Orlando Cepeda at first base, Julian Javier at second, Mike Shannon at third, Tim McCarver was catching and Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton and Nellie Briles were the main starting pitchers.

Yeah, there was someone playing shortstop for the Cardinals that year, but I couldn’t remember his name to save my soul when I was thinking about my card collection while waiting for sleep to come later that night.  I even tried going through the alphabet and thinking of names that started with each letter, which has appeared to jog my memory in the past.  Nope, not that night.

I finally asked for some help, but none was forthcoming.  That is, at least not until 15-20 minutes later, which is when, “Dal Maxvill,” came to mind (so to speak).  For I want to believe that it was actually our Heavenly Father who told me who was playing shortstop for my beloved Cardinals in 1967.

If asked, the vast majority of professing Christians would insist that what I experienced was nothing more than merely a temporary gap in my memory, and that the Lord God Almighty has better things to do than answer stupid questions like that—even if He was inclined to still seek to communicate with us directly these days.  Where would you want the line drawn between what He would care to get involved in and what He would not?

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Politics in Connecticut

The political race here in CT. is heating up to a frenzy of who did what and didn't do what.  One day I read a tweet explaining the Bible's stance on how we should choose our nation's leaders.  So I asked the question, "How do you know who to vote for seeing as none of them are completely honest?"  The response I got was quoted from the scripture as saying, " A man who has a heart for God....who hates wrong doing."  It was something like that.  So I responded back with,

Witty Banter Should Be Witty

By definition, [witty] has to do with something that is either said or done that is quite amusing and/or very clever.  To the extent of my understanding, it is more often used to describe something amusing than something strictly intellectual, such as what is supposed to be the witty banter between members of a newscast team that is often used to fill in the gaps between segments.

Yes, I am building up to another rant about the quality of our local newscasts.  For when one of the anchors on one of our local newscasts mentioned something about the wife of a former colleague giving birth to another Ole Miss fan, the other anchor quipped, “Ole Miss?  Well, maybe we can make a Cardinals fan out of him.”

Um, just in case you are as witty as she is, [Ole Miss] is a university that is mostly known for its football team (debatable, I know) while the Cardinals she was referring to was either the [St. Louis Cardinals] or the [Springfield Cardinals], with both of them being professional baseball teams.  In other words, we have a true apples and oranges situation here.  Okay, I suppose I should give her credit for keeping it sports related.

The next example doesn’t have anything to do with witty banter.  For it is about one of our local reporters reporting that a serious wreck occurred a couple of miles south of High Landville instead of Highlandville.

Since I am really not all that picky, this next example won’t have anything to do with witty banter, either.  For it is about one of our local sportscasters announcing that [Jaime Garcia] would make a rehab start with the Springfield Cardinals before joining the big league team after suffering a serious injury to his left shoulder earlier in the season, and pronouncing his name as Hay-may Garcia instead of High-me—even after conducting an on-camera interview with the pitcher!  No, I didn’t catch if he mispronounced his name during the interview, but it has taken him at least four tries since to get it right.

Keeping with sports, we have a local sportscaster who dreams of making it to the [big time], and it just might be that he is not as clueless as I give him credit for being.  For while presenting a story about the NFL wanting to make football (the real kind) an Olympic sport, a couple of the ESPN sportscasters put up a list of NFL players who were born someplace other than the U.S., and included on that list was [Tim Tebow] and [Hines Ward].

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, it is true that Tebow was born in the Philippians while his parents were doing missionary work there, and Ward was born in South Korea while his father was stationed there with the U.S. Army.  However, both were actually raised around real football in America when what the ESPN idiots were going for was NFL players who had grew up in a much different culture and started playing the game at a much older age than what most NFL players do.

No, I am not expecting perfection.  In fact, I find it quite endearing when a newscaster messes up and then corrects the mistake with nothing more than merely a roll of their eyes, and if there is time for not-so-witty banter, there is certainly time to start correcting the things that are driving me nuts.  Yeah, I really do need to get a life.

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Has Cleveland Been Cursed?

No, this is not about the city being [the mistake by the lake].  For those days are gone.

Nonetheless, the misery still continues for the fans of at least two out of three major sports franchises located in [Cleveland], and it is arguable that it is just as bad for the fans of the [Cleveland Indians].  For it has been many a moon since the last time they won the [World Series], but they did play in three during the [90s].

Alas, the fans of the [Cleveland Cavaliers] and the [Cleveland Browns] have even less to cheer about, which I place most of the blame squarely on the management of the teams.  For the Cavaliers are owned by [Dan Gilbert], who acts like he truly [owns] his players, which is reflected in their play.

Now comes the news that the Cleveland Browns have been bought by [Jimmy Haslim], who is a very enthusiastic [Pittsburgh Steelers] fan, which would be like a diehard fan of the [Dallas Cowboys] buying the [Washington Redskins], and it will surely lead to even greater depths of mediocrity for the Browns.  For every move that Haslim could make to improve the Browns would eventually hurt his beloved Steelers—especially with them playing in the same conference division.

No, nothing personal—just business cannot be used to explain this away.  For owning a professional sports franchise has to more than just a business decision or you will wind up with a team like the...well…the Browns were, which I would think that the NFL would want to guard against at all costs for the good of the entire league.

Of course, maybe Haslim can keep his heart separated from his head without making too much of a mess out of things?  For he is currently the CEO of [Flying J], which was in direct competition with [Pilot], which is the company that his father founded.

No, I am not buying it, and it makes me a little angry to even be given the choice to.  For back during the early days of my over-the-road trucking career, a wonderful group of diehard Browns fans adopted me for a couple of days while a [lake-effect snow storm] shut down all travel in northeastern Ohio, and ever since, I have had a soft-spot for them.  Not enough to have me cheering for the Browns over my beloved Cowboys, of course, but one has to respect the devotion of someone who would stand in line while being covered by freezing rain just to buy a ticket to go see a team that was more than likely going to lose the game and [break] the hearts of their fans in the process.

Hey, maybe Haslim buying the Browns might actually be a good thing?  For it might not be long before the Browns are so obviously bad that there won’t be any expectations of them ever winning a game.  Hence, no more gut-wrenching losses!

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Some Kind of Special

Be assured that I had already been made well aware of the absolute truth of the matter truly being that I would not exist unless our Heavenly Father, who truly is the Lord God Almighty and the Creator of all that exists apart from Himself, had of wanted me to.  Yes, it is the same for everyone, but this is about me—okay?

Getting back to me, it was after receiving a phone call from a certain someone that it dawned on me that I really must be some kind of special—above and beyond being created by the One who created everyone else.  For that phone call was from Rush Limbaugh.

No, I do not consider the call actually being a recorded robo call to be of any less significance.  For my name was on the list, and not everyone can make such a claim.

Adding all the more to just how special I must be is that I have been also receiving emails from President Obama, Michelle Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden and James Carville, and you know what that means—don’t you?  Yes, that is exactly right.  It means that I have some of the most powerful politicians in this country vying for my attention!

It is certainly a good thing that I am so humble at heart.  For all of this could go to my head.

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