Archive for June, 2009

Jun 26 2009

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Jonathan

Lots to Get Done

Filed under Home, Outdoors

It’s been a beautiful (but hot) last several days, and that has allowed Becky to get outside and work in her flower beds. I’ve done a little bit in the evenings after I’ve gotten home from work, but this week has worn me out. We’re short one at work, and it’s been one of the most busy weeks we’ve had in a long time.

Hopefully today when I get home from work I’ll get outside and cut down another tree to use for firewood. I’ve been needing to do that all Spring, and Spring has gotten away from me. I really want to try to have enough this coming Winter to last us all Winter long so we don’t have to run our electric heat any more than we have to.

There’s always work to be done in the garden. I’m actually kind of proud of it this year. Becky and I have been able to get out and keep it pretty clean from weeds and everything this year, so it looks much nicer than it did last year. We’re already getting some squash and zucchini out of it, and Becky has eaten a few cucumbers that have come in. Soon we’re going to be covered up by a lot of this stuff and we’ll be scrambling to get it canned and/or frozen.

Yard work never ends either. It seems like the yard was just mowed yesterday, and it needs it again. Hopefully I’ll get some time to take care of that this weekend sometime as well.

Yep, we’re staying busy. I mostly enjoy it though. I don’t enjoy being worn out from it, but I do enjoy the good sleep I get as a result.

2 responses so far

Jun 25 2009

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Jonathan

Michael Jackson Dead at 50

Everybody around the world knows who he was. He was a very popular entertainer and people around the world loved him. He had a lot of accomplishments, and all of the news media are talking about how great of a person he was and how much they will miss him. It would be comical if it wasn’t so serious, but everywhere I look, everyone is saying ‘rest in peace’.

Nowhere in Jackson’s life can I find that he ever came to know Christ. I won’t go so far as to say he lived completely for himself because he gave to charities and such, but even some of that was pretty controversial. What I will say is that he did nothing for the cause of Christ. According to my Bible, and according to his testimony, he is far from Heaven.

Hell is real. It is hot. Everything Jackson did here was temporal. Nothing lasted. Nothing he did will help him. Nothing. People will say that his influence lives on, and his spirit lives on in his music, etc. I don’t deny that. But it still will not help him. It will not help you, either.

Everyone, if all you live for is to satisfy the flesh, whether it be with music or anything else, it is all temporal. It has no lasting eternal benefit. I’m not against having fun, but if you’ve never been saved, you’ll end up with the same fate as this ‘great’ person.

If you are saved, our first priority ought to be to please God. I can’t think of much of anything about this person that pleased God. Especially his music.

I expect harsh comments, and will only censor vulgar or otherwise filthy language. Otherwise you may speak your mind. I reserve the right, however, to cut it off at any time. It’s my blog, my rules.

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Jun 09 2009

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Jonathan

President Obama

Filed under Opinion, Politics

As much as I dislike him, he is the president of this great country. Because it is still a free country, and freedoms that I have are still protected, I’m going to voice my opinion.

Barack Hussein Obama doesn’t have the guts to stand up and be what he should be, and as elected, is supposed to be. Instead, he blames all of his problems on former president Bush. Now, I’m not going to get into the debate about whether or not Obama actually inherited problems from Bush. I wasn’t pleased with everything about Bush. I’ll leave it all at that.

However, nearly 5 months into the presidency, Obama is still blaming everything on Bush. Let’s recap a little bit, first looking at unemployment rates as an example.

During the first part of Bush’s presidency, unemployment was rising, and topped out at 6.5% in early 2003. Since then, it has gone down, bottoming out at 4.1% in October, 2006. Since January, 2007, the rate has been on a climb. Hmm…Isn’t that about the time when Democrats took over Congress? When Obama took office in January, 2009, unemployment was at 8.5%. For the month of May, it is at 9.1%.

Obama said earlier this year when he was pitching his stimulus package that if it wasn’t passed immediately that crisis would turn to catastrophe, the recession would last longer, millions more jobs would be lost and businesses would close.

That’s happened. But wait, wasn’t that stimulus package passed? It didn’t boost the economy, it made things worse. And he’s still blaming Bush. Man up, Obama.

Next up, Chrysler. Obama’s administration forced bankruptcy on them. Chrysler had made a deal with the UAW to freeze wages, promise no strikes and a few other things to save money and survive as a corporation. But no, they wouldn’t hear of it. Bankruptcy was demanded. A deal with Fiat was demanded. Chrysler wanted no part of it, but they were forced by our government.

Next up is healthcare. Obama is saying the same thing again – if we don’t act now, it’s gonna get real bad! Just like the stimulus package has rescued our economy from the pits of despair (Oh, wait. That was the fuzzy warm dreams the Obama supports had last November), and how our government has ruined social security, they’re going to save all of us from the insanely high healthcare costs. (Can you sense my sarcastic tone? It’s there in case you couldn’t tell.)

Imagine this – a government that controls healthcare. Say goodbye to most of the freedoms you enjoy today. Whatever the government decides is ‘risky behavior’, we will be banned from or our healthcare costs will be raised significantly. They’ll be telling us what kind of car we can drive, how far we can drive, what we can eat, and who knows what else. Do you jog frequently? Oops, might sprain an ankle – your rates go up. Do you eat out at restaurants? Oh, they use the wrong kind of oil – your rates go up. The businesses that will be mandated to provide this healthcare will be forced to fire people to save money and remain in business, contributing even more to the growing unemployment rate. By the way, the Obama administration saved or created 150,000 jobs over the last 100 days. I guess that would be cool, except there have been over 2 million jobs actually lost during that time.

Our government has already taken over a company (GM) and sold part of it to China. I’m anxious to see what all Obama and his administration can get their hands on before their time is up.

I haven’t even gotten into moral things like abortion and religious tolerance. Even without that, what I’ve talked about in this post sickens me to think Americans actually wanted this trash. I suppose you all still blame Bush too? Of course, he did make Katrina hit New Orleans. I forgot.

6 responses so far

Jun 04 2009

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Jonathan

Want Customers? Show Some Courtesy!

Filed under Rant

I’ve refrained from this in the past, but it’s gotten to be too much to let it go any longer. As it says in the title section of this site, every once in a while I’ll go on a rant. So here goes.

I went to the little convenience store around the corner this morning to get a snack. I actually go to this store all the time, and I’ve run into the same thing many of those times that I’ve gone. However, this one has convinced me not to go back. I’m going to name it in this post in case the owner(s) decide to do a Google search someday to see what people think about their place. J & C Market at 90 E Tennessee Ave in Oak Ridge, TN is the little store I’ll be talking about here.

When I walked in this morning, there were probably 3 or 4 people there, not including the loudmouth behind the counter. She was talking, trying desperately to talk above the noise, to a lady sitting at a table in the store. That’s not such a terrible thing in itself I suppose. I went about my business to pick up the snacks I wanted.

When I got to the counter, this loudmouth continued to yell to this other lady in the store telling her about some deadbeat guy buying video games instead of paying a mortgage. This is now happening while I’m standing there trying to pay for the snacks I wanted to purchase. Not only did she continue yelling, but she was stepping aside as to look completely around me to continue this extremely important conversation. Her interactions with me constituted of only “debit or credit?” when I handed her my bank card. And she had to ask that twice because she was so intent to stay focused on this other conversation.

No, this is not the way to keep a customer. I’ll go to the Rocky Top a mile down the road before I visit this store again. At least they pretend to care about the customer and pay some mind when they’re being given money.

2 responses so far