Wednesday, August 31, 2005

well, the sandal festival was only a little rainy...and the fields are growing...

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Forget Vitamin C: Coffee is an antioxidant

And Scott Ott at scrappleface has this headline:

MEDICARE TO COVER STARBUCKS ANTI OXIDANT TREATMENTS


LINK

Noah's ark

Our prayers with the hurricane victims.

We are now dry, and finally got our phone reconnected...

Saturday, August 27, 2005

Monday, August 22, 2005

Bird flu

Latest Reports show it is in Russia...and the UK is worried...

PC in the BMA

It was a Homer Simpson moment for the British Medical Association. At the end of its annual representative meeting on 30 June 2005, delegates voted to withdraw the organisation's firm and long-standing opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide. This leaves the world's most prestigious gathering of medical professionals in the absurd position of having no opinion on whether killing their patients is good or bad. Doh!...In the past few weeks, the BMA has thundered from Olympus on smoking bans in Scotland (courageous), third world disease ('indefensible'), junk food in schools ('madness') and discrimination by sexual orientation ('zero tolerance'). On issues that are not its core business, it speaks as the conscience of Britain. On the one issue in which it has literally the power of life and death, it has no opinion.


Newsflash: Floppy eardrums...film at 11...

Just what you always wanted to see!

Link via Medpundit...

Translation here

Latest hearing aid fashion



And lolo says no way ...
Headsup from Medpundit...

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Photo of the day


also via boing boing. .. they are hedgehogs, not porcupines...

Houses of the future

LINK

LINK

links via Boingboing

Except for their Ikea designs, they both seem to be yuppie mobile homes...

Wonder how the cardboard house would stand up to an Okie tornado? Or a Philippine Island typhoon?

The Martyrs among us

There is a wonderful movie about missionaries about Archbishop Romero who was killed in San Salvador...

But I cannot watch it, because in one scene, it shows a priest with his small car full of people getting a lift from him. He is going down the road and is attacked, and all are killed.

Well, when I was in Africa, this happened to some of my friends (others were killed when their hospital was raided, another when she was walking in the bush a short distance from the hospital).

such things are still happening...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- The smaller of Colombia's two leftist rebel groups acknowledged Saturday that its fighters killed two Catholic priests earlier this week but said it was a mistake...

Alas, it was not a mistake, it was an all too common occurance...

...The ELN, founded in 1964 to push for social revolution, has been accused of numerous atrocities. The number of its fighters has dwindled in recent years to about 3,500 while the country's main rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, has about 13,000 fighters.

Clergy members regularly put themselves in harm's way to try to ease the suffering linked to the conflict, but have paid a heavy price: an archbishop, a bishop, 60 priests and three nuns have been killed in the past 20 years in Colombia, according to the Church.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Multitasking anyone?

Here I am on a slow computer using dial up...
It's not easy to multi task.
First, I'm trying to read the news...slow news day, so I decided to go to the preschool discussion groups.
We are hoping to start a preschool next year, so Joy is doing paper work, Chano is designing the place, Lolo is supervising the help working to finish the building, and I am...well, doing not much except ferreting out ideas on books, freebies, etc.
At the same time, I'm trying to post news for family here, jokes for Luke, and also link reports of the latest news of Zimbabwe on my "evil Mugabe" blog...

Not easy on dial up...

And since this is the "long distance" line, I have to be off by 8 am...

One of these days we'll sign up for DSL...but I'm low man on the totum poll here, so it's a low priority.

Carnival of the Recipes take 53

Bon appetit!

Tip toe thru the garbage

We are into the second week of our "tsinalas" festival...
It celebrates our town's 4th anniversary in becoming a city...and also the mayor's sandal factory (although there are many other small sandal shops here, he owns the biggest one).

Every morning, we get up and jog in the center of town, which is one block away...until our city hall moves to it's new building in the new section of town, this is where we hold parties.

So every evening, there is another contest (kareoke one night, lip sinc another, gay dance festival another night, children's free baloon afternoon party etc.).

Last night was just a big party "with BOSE speakers"...we used to hear the music, but since the three story supermarket was built, it blocks the noise...except for firecrackers and traffic...

So when we jog, we tip toe thru the discarded papers, mango seeds, etc...Last night must have been really a success, because it was a real problem to find a path...

However, they were already starting to clean it up (if Lolo would jog at 6 am we wouldn't have a problem...but it's still cool at 5 am).

The rest of the news is in the papers: Dengue is still around, but not as bad...Bird flu, ditto...and lots of worry about AbuSaiff and Alqada...the last reports were that they sent 50 Alqada trained terrorists to 50 cities...no reports here since then, but given the 50 bombs that went off two days ago in Bengaladesh, it makes one wonder...

A bomb hit a shopping center in Zamboanga a few days ago...Of course, when you enter a mall here, they search your bags...but simple bribery to place a bomb at night would and has worked (which is why NW Airlines parks their planes in Taipei, not Manila, overnight)...

We have killings by communists in this area once or twice a month, but usually it's a politician, or a policeman...or a kidnapped businessman...not random terror...and the police and army usually kill a few of them in return...quagmire? It's been going on since the 1940's....

But there is a real worry about PROFESSIONAL terrorists hitting random civilians...so Gloria has been leaning over backward to try to settle the Mindinao uprising and kowtow to AlZahari's demands that Filippinos no longer find work in Iraq as cooks and cleaners.....remember, the Alqada bombed at least one airliner in the 1990's (probably three: one flight "disappeared" and another had a bomb go off on a runway, but usually only the Japanese bound flight is listed as terror). The Alqada also tried to kill the pope here (but couldn't get near due to crowds). So it's an ongoing problem...

In the meanwhile, politics goes on...Gloria probably has beaten impeachment...according to one ad by some lawyers, the old accusation didn't have enough information, but the new one has to be rejected because you can't petition twice in a year for impeachment, and if you try to wait a year with the accusations, there is a statue of limitations that doesn't let you do it.

Catch 22...

Of course, the tapes of Gloria planning to steal the election are sold all over, even if they were taped "illegally"...so the public is quite cynical about the whole thing...shame to Gloria, whose father actually cared about poor people...

Developing...

Friday, August 19, 2005

Where is Irving R Levine when you need him?

No link for this screed...

CNNI please hire a Catholic commentator...or one who knows something about the church...

Irving R Levine did a great job covering Vatican II-- so why can't you find someone to do a similar job on world youth day?

while trying to watch the arrival of B16 to Cologne, I had to listen to some slimey Brit babble about whether the present pope would continue to support the "opinions" of his predecessor on Abortion and homosexuality...

Ummm...fellahs, it's not a matter of opinion, but what the church has taught for 1960 years...you don't like it? Become an Anglican...but don't join the Catholics, or the Orthodox church...they tend to say that morality doesn't change simply to follow the latest fads...

And it says a lot about our news media that the commentator didn't seem to be aware of it (just like Christianne Amanpour didn't know a lot about Catholicism and had similar periods of babbling during the funeral of JP2)..

Nope, no bias here, folks, just move along...

MRI's are DANGEROUS

The first thing you check before an MRI is if the person has shrapnal or a metal valve...

But a nearby policemans' gun?

MRI's are machines that take three dimentional pictures of the inside of the body...they are a wonderful breakthru in medicine...

LINK


Of course, they make a lot of noise, and unlike CT scans, you might have to sit inside one for 15 minutes; about 10 percent of patients have claustrophobia and have to be given sedatives..sitting inside one is like sitting in a noisy coffin...and these patients and obese patients now can get "open" MRI's which leave part of the circle open so are not as stressful...

And like any magnet, it attracks metal...IV poles, policemen's guns...oxygen tanks..buttons...

It's not really funny...

The most notorious accident was the death of 6-year-old Michael Colombini in 2001 at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. He was sedated in a scanner after a brain operation when his oxygen supply failed. An anesthesiologist ran for an oxygen tank and failed to notice that the one he found in the hall outside was made of steel. As he returned, the tank shot out of his hands, hitting Michael in the head.

Timewaster of the day

From Jonah, the neocon of the Corner
Lolo, son, and farmer.

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the early rice is thriving and we are starting to replant the seedlings for the later harvest...

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Thursday, August 18, 2005

Tex Mex Adobo?


There is a new White House Chef, and she is...a Filippina...

Adobo recipe HERE

PHOTO HERE (or maybe not...it's not posting)
Chef Cristeta 'Cris' Comerford prepares a meal inside the White House kitchen in this July 17, 2002 photo. U.S. first Lady Laura Bush, on a quest for the last six months to give the White House menus a lighter, more American flair, has hired the Philippine-born Comerford as the mansion's new head chef, it was announced August 14, 2005. After trying out a number of restaurant chefs and other candidates to replace former chef Walter Scheib, the White House settled on Comerford, the first woman to hold the job. She was promoted from assistant White House chef, a job she has held since 1995. (Tina Hager/White House/Handout/Reuters)

And English Patis has another adobo recipe HERE

Don't throw out your popsickle sticks--we might want to take a trip


POPSICLE PUNT: Captain Rob, a former Hollywood stuntman, hopes to sail across the Atlantic in a real-size replica of a thousand-year-old Viking ship he has constructed from 15 million ice block sticks.
Reuters


Mugabe's democide take three

Gateway pundit has a summary of the Zimbabwean dictator's latest atrocity...yawn...

MSM doesn't care...after all, the African Union won't criticize the guy, because he fought the evil white colonialists, and the left won't criticize him because he is a Marxist who threw the best farmers off the land in the name of land reform (he didn't distribute farm land peacefully to those who lived and worked on the land, which is how we do it here. He beat them up, didn't always pay them, and then gave the land to his cronies, who don't know how to farm...lately, he's starting to give the land, the mines, and the local businesses to his Chinese friends, who at least will know how to run them)...

What was the line from that movie "I see dead people"?

Your headline of the day

Study Details Bar at Center of Milky Way

Animals three, humans zero

The newest PC religion is ecology (also the peacenik/hate America types are having a revival, but that's another story).
My husband loves nature programs, but after seeing five thousand "animals in Africa" specials and not hearing a peep about the democide in Zimbabwe or the various civil wars, one wonders about the press...

So we see this: LINK
Lions eating Tanzanians, usually children...1500 in the last 15 years.
Makes one wish the NRA would go in and teach the locals how to use a deer gun (oops: Then they'd be shot by the government as "pouchers"--no money to pay police to kill rabied dogs in Tanzania, but they have plenty of anti poucher police)...

Then we see this: LINK
Ted Turner now wants peace in Korea-- so he can turn the "demilitarized zone" into an animal park....never mind that that government is not exactly a human rights example LINK:
I mean, just because you starve a couple million people and shoot missles over Tokyo while making an atomic bomb doesn't mean that the evil Bush has the right to call you evil, right? Let's just be friends and save the animals...

One group even proposes THIS: Let's force midwestern farmers to sell their land and transplant African animals there....

This reminds me of Oklahoma, where the Nature Conservatory bought a bunch of land and remade it into "natural" environment for the buffalo...a very nice park. Of course, some argue that the great buffalo herds of the plains weren't "natural" at all, but the result of the Mississippian mound builder culture dying off first from climate change, then from European disease (When DeSoto went thru, the place was quite crowded....but smallpox etc. wiped out the culture that was already in decline). And come to think of it, Ted Turner has bought up a lot of local farms and put buffalo on them...

What no one wants to mention is that both of these groups essentially are pushing out Native Americans who actually own that area of the country...but Osage and Pawnee people don't count...

Ironically, when I was in New Mexico, I found that there was a large and thriving Oryx population...at White Sands LINK.

Not just in the national park, but at the missle testing base there...

Guess the Stealth aircraft and the Luftwaffe pilots learning to fly don't bother them...

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Coffee notes

Yesterday we stopped at Starbucks (Lolo had to get his tooth fixed in Manila)...and they have lots and lots of different coffees...

So I have linkes to Lileks STrib column about brewing coffee...

If you live in Minneapolis, you NEED coffee to warm up...even in August...

YAWN

Page Last Updated: 05 MAY 2004

via improbable research blog....

Digital music

It's not just for rock and roll anymore...

There is a classic "far side" cartoon that shows a man going thru the pearly gates, and St. Peter says "Welcome to Heaven, here's your harp"....and the second cartoon shows a man entering hell, and the devil says" Welcome to hell...here's your accordian"...

Hmmm...when I checked Amazon for accordian music, they had 28 items listed under "classical music"...

Here is an example: LINK

Here's another: LINKTWO

what next? UHOH...

Follow up links

LINK is to the NYTimes PDF files on the 911 tapes just released....

and a conservative review on National Geographic's 911 special LINK

(which will probably be on NG ASIA in a year or two)....

and THIS LINK is to more reviews of the Great Raid...

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Feast of Mary...

Lst year, I posted a link to this lovely article on my old blog...

August 15 is the feast of Mary's being taken up to heaven by God (similar to Enoch and Elijah..or the Rapture)...

And the link is to a UKTelegraph article that explains why Catholics love the feast so much...

....Original sin is thought to have brought death and the corruption of the body. Eve, before the fall, did not die, and Mary is seen as the second, better Eve. So when Mary goes to heaven, she goes straight, physically and spiritually, to be with her son, prefiguring the general resurrection of all our bodies which will happen at the end of time. Logical, perhaps, but hardly the stuff, one would have thought, to stir the simple-hearted.

Yet every Catholic and Orthodox believer possesses some image of the Virgin Mary, and prays to her,"...

.... Life is hard and everyone suffers; and religion is hard, too: it makes impossible demands, it tends to be hierarchically run, and run by men. In Christianity, the Father is, ex officio, stern, and the Son is a figure of suffering most commonly depicted at his moment of cruel death.

One feels that both of them are, as it were, very busy people, whom one hesitates to bother. Here is the Mother. No, she is not God, but she gave birth to God, proving his humanity, leading people to believe that he really was one of us. She does not judge - she understands and feels....

How often a believer who feels rejected by the world or family, or crushed by a priest, finds in Mary what the psychologists now call "unconditional love". ...

Yes, you could make the argument that Mary's humble acceptance of her fate is an engine of female subjection, but that is not how most women see her. The Church itself is often frightened of her. The words of her Magnificat ("He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek" etc) are the theme tune for all the most politically and socially subversive elements in Christianity....

Earlier, I used the word "embodied". It is the key one. One of the most powerful and, for many, most difficult things about Christianity is that it keeps the idea of body and soul so close. It is the only monotheistic religion where God appeared in bodily form, human and divine.

It teaches that he did so through an earthly mother whose body was glorified. It is perhaps not an accident that the body-and-soul Assumption was so strongly asserted so soon after Auschwitz and Belsen had shown the human body utterly degraded.

For most of us Europeans in the 21st century, the degradations are less obvious and extreme. But if you're lying on a Mediterranean beach tomorrow, indulging the disheartening dream of perfecting your imperfectible body, you might find a procession celebrating something more interesting somewhere else in the town....

Yup...fiesta time....and Catholics, who see God in all good things, see no problem with fiestas, dances, and parades of beautiful girls on one float and a statue of the saints on anther, with all of it ending at church to say the rosary...

I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV...

Can someone tell me why Yahoo thinks Hillary Clinton, Sam Donaldson, Mary Hart, Tom Green, and Peggy Fleming should teach us about health?

Ah, but they all stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night...

Deep Fried Twinkies

In an article on diets, Medpundit mentioned deep fried Twinkies...

So I thought I'd post the recipe...

Deep Fried Twinkies

Ingredients:

1 Twinkie
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup corn flour
A pinch of baking soda
Milk or beer
Oil for deep frying

Directions:

1. Chill the twinkie by keeping it in the fridge, but don't freeze it.
2. Mix the flours and baking soda together.
3. Add milk (traditional) or beer (which gives a lighter result) until you get a batter with the consistency of thin cream.
4. Heat the oil until a small piece of bread will brown in a few seconds, but don't allow to smoke.
5. Remove twinkie from freezer. Coat completely in batter. Carefully lower into hot oil and fry until golden brown.

BON APPETIT

Random North Korea Insult Generator...

Want to call someone a name, but ran out of ideas?

Don't say Kim Il Jung isn't good for anything...your insult can be generated for free on the above link...

Another timewaster from the Corner...

Happy Melon day!

Grief reaction

When I first started working at a hospital 40+ years ago, in our orientation lecture we were told that people react to illness in many ways...
Some Joked.
Some flattered you, thinking that if you liked them you could "save" them.
Some would actually bribe you.
Some would ignore you (I first worked as a nurse's aid, and the patients might ignore you as unhelpful to save them).
And some....would be terribly angry that they were sick, and they were out of control, and would be angry at you...
We were told that in ALL these cases, that we ourselves were not being addressed but it was a way to cope with illness...

Later, as doctors, we recognized that we also could be the objects of anger at illnesses, even when things go well, but especially when things go wrong...which they do at times.

Similarly, as an adoptive mom of older children, we were warned that our children might show terrible anger at us, but the anger would often be a projection of anger against their first (abusive) parents for dying or abandoning them...

This is a way of coping with something that is terrible: You blame someone else, and you then can cope with the terrible anguish inside...

What is bad, nowever, is when outsiders, who know little about it, take advantage of the anger...or naively misunderstand that projected anger is a way of coping with loss, and not especially a mirror of reality...

The Great Raid take Five

Blogfather gives a good review to the Great Raid...

Alas, with no publicity, it only came in tenth last weekend...

However, the blogosphere (Powerline, the Big Tent, Righteous Indignation,) and Amazon reviewers liked it...

WA POST review HERE...who seems to like it too...

Monday, August 15, 2005

what the well dressed dog is wearing this year


(heads up from the Rat blogspot)

Idea of the day

When you absolutely positively have to hang up the phone, try one of these...

Quote of the day


Far above the Ephel Duath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach."
The Return of the King


Trying to get fit?

Remember the old "Canadian Airforce fitness" book?

Well, it's on line...and the page has a link to download the women's version, and the easier version...

So now you have no excuse...except for arthritis, bursitis, and back pain...

The Great Raid take four

Hmmm...the CSMonitor liked it in their reviews

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Model aircraft project

The timewaster of the day from those ditzy fascist neocons at the corner...

Hmmm...wonder what I could do with cockroaches?

Cabanatuan take two

If you see "the Great Raid", remember it was filmed in Australia ( I think)...and the reason is that the little village of Cabanatuan has changed.

The link above is the "tourist" link, showing romantic nature...
 Nueva Ecija

Ah, but things have changed, and if you want to see Cabanatuan, you might actually see THIS:

Take A Closer Look

Reminds me of Tolkien's letter to his son lamenting that as things get modern they will all look alike, so there will be no reason to travel anymore...

However, if you prefer, we still have old fashioned outdoor markets...

The Great Raid (take three)

The Dallas news has a story about those rescued from the POW camp at Cabanatuan, and their reaction to the movie...

The movie poster for The Great Raid shows a square-jawed Army Ranger charging through the gates of Cabanatuan prison camp in the Philippines for the largest POW rescue in U.S. military history.

Photos by RICK GERSHON/Special Contributor
Photos by RICK GERSHON/Special Contributor
Former Army Ranger Bill Proudfit said he crawled on his stomach 200 yards through the darkness on the night he helped liberate the Cabanatuan prison camp in the Philippines.

That's the actor. Add 60 years and you have Bill Proudfit, the real Ranger. At a sneak preview for the movie, he shuffles stiffly by the poster, holding his wife's hand more for stability than romance.

At 86, Mr. Proudfit's manner is gentle, but he says he can still hit a 6-inch target from 200 yards with an M-1 rifle, and wears glasses only for reading. Still, his former 6-2 ½-inch frame now hunches a half-inch or so as he pads down the aisle to a seat in the fourth row.

"Are you gonna tell us about it today?" quips a Navy veteran sitting two rows back.

"Do you want him to narrate it?" jokes his wife, Alice.

Gathered at the Frontiers of Flight museum at Love Field is what you would call a tough room for a movie, released Friday, that claims to depict the World War II raid with "meticulous authenticity."

Here's Mr. Proudfit of Rockwall, who was among 121 soldiers who, assisted by Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrillas, rescued 511 Allied prisoners, and remembers the whole event with the clarity of a newsreel.

In row six is Bill Adair, now of Dallas, who was held at the POW camp. After being freed, he stopped at this very field on the way back to Oklahoma City, where he stepped off the plane – beefed back up to 120 pounds in hospitals from his starved 106 – and told a reporter: "Whatever you have heard about ... the prison camps is true. They were mean as hell to us." He's a war movie buff who is skeptical that Hollywood could have gotten it right.

Back a row there's Al Halbrook of Dallas, who calls surviving cancer twice "a piece of cake" compared with surviving the Japanese prison camps that still give him nightmares. He expects a documentary and hopes to recognize some of the prisoners...

The Manila Bulletin review is HERE LINK...

Read the whole thing...the good news is that they all liked the movie...other reports note that it is an "old fashioned" movie....which is probably good news...and it's release was noted by Instapundit...

The bad news is that the NYTimes didn't like it...oh well...
they seem to dislike it because:

...it illustrates a depressing similarity between reckless war-mongering and grandiose moviemaking. Historical films with vainglorious ambitions, like ill-fated imperial ventures, often overlook the human factor, a miscalculation that usually results in a rout....

Hmmm...wonder if he said the same thing for more PC "grandiose moviemaking" like Alexander or Troy?

Your photo of the day

Buffalo has heard a discouraging word


This was posted as the photo of the day on Lucianne.com...and I couldn't resist.
You see, when I lived in Oklahoma, we had lots of biker rallys and lots of buffalos...

Dr. Chesbro, call your office...

Saturday, August 13, 2005

9/11 transcripts

On a sadder note, the 9/11 transcripts have now been released...the Memory hole has them on PDF files...

The only film I know that handles what happened is a sad film called "The Guys"...

Mary Fahl rewrote the lyrics of an old Irish song as the theme for the movie...the Dawning of the day...

The Dawning Of The Day lyrics


Artist - Mary Fahl


Album - Various Songs


Lyrics - The Dawning Of The Day



This morning early I walked on
while my darling was in a dream
The last sweet days of summer bloomed
and dressed the trees in green
Then soaring high in the gleaming sky
from far across the bay
came a fearsome roar from a distant shore
at the dawning of the day

Then I called my men to follow me
knowing well that the view was dim
Though tired and worn, how they fought all morn'
as time was closing in
And my heart was sad though sore with pride
for brave lads all were they
As the angels fly, how they climbed so high
on the dawning of the day

But the edge is moving nearer now
inside the fading sun
and calling, calling out to them
my brothers, one by one
But only dust silence sounds
The ashes float away
as the twilight ends and the night descends
'til the dawning of the day

Forgive me love, I'm going now
so very far away
When darkness falls, only think me near
and do not be afraid
And please don't grieve when I am gone
Abide in what remains
'til the shadows end and we meet again
on the dawning of the day

For when shadows end,
we shall meet again
on the dawning of the day

Carrot love...

The Carrot and the Pam

Eat Your Veggies!

Manolo says, at the last, the replacement for the Tommy Lee.

Carnival of the Recipes take 52

Breakfast here:

Rice (Last night's rice)..take some oil, fry an onion, fry rice...

Traditionally, it is eaten with a dried fish (tiny anchovy type fish, take meat off bone and dip in vinegar) but we eat it with a fried egg...

Or you can make this instead...LINK...YUM THERE GOES MY DIET....

AGGH THE WORLD IS ENDING (AGAIN)

For all of you who like wooden dialogue and preachiness, take heart...the world is ending again, this time by the "left behind" people...

Of course, if you read the "LB" series, you know all of us who are stupid Catholics who did not say the right formula of belief are left behind...

You see, this is a "pre trib" movie, and catholic are "post trib"...the pretrib people think that at the last persecution, they will be zapped out fo the world, and only those who haven't been "born again" according to their definition will be left behind.


most of the people who figure they'll be zapped out of danger are middle class Americans...who feel they are so loved by God he'll never expect them to suffer..

And so My sarcastic comment is that since millions of Polish, Russian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Pakistani, Indonesian, and African Christians have been martyred, why do these rich yankees figure they get a free pain free lift home?

Max Kolbe, call your office, Sister Edith is on the line...

Typhoon, terrorism and Gloria...

If I've been off line for two days, it's because we got hit by a typhoon and our telephone line got soaked...it's dry now.

Metro Manila: Monsoon rains.

Cebu: Monsoon rains.

Davao: Partly cloudy to cloudy with rainshowers and thunderstorms.

Sunrise — 5:42 a.m.
Sunset — 6:20 p.m.

Actually, it's Storm Huaning....which hit the north and is headed for southern China...


‘HUANING’ RAINS BRING FLOODS.
Motorists make their way through floodwaters in front of the Manila City Hall following rains brought by storm ‘Huaning.’ The floods in various parts of Metro Manila slowed down vehicular traffic and created pockets of traffic jams in the cities of Makati and Pasay. (Regie D. Mason)

We didn't have high winds here, merely two days of heavy rain...only knocked a few coconuts off our trees...and washed away some of the dirt and mosquito larvae in our open sewer ditches. So hopefully, this will decrease our Dengue fever epidemic...a couple kids died in our town of it, and lots of people sick. Every employee with a headache comes to me, but so far, they only have colds or stress/heat headaches, not the high fever and myalgia (muscle pain) of dengue (the rash comes later)...

We had just sprayed our ditches and cleared and sprayed the trash in the vacant lot we just bought...as a result, the cockroaches invaded our outdoor kitchen and storage areas, so we had to spray them...remind me not to eat...

In the meanwhile, a large bomb hit Zamboanga and killed 15...what, you didn't hear about it on the news? Guess only Baghdad bombs count, not AlQuada in the Philippines (0r in India, or in Thailand, or in Turkey, or in China or in Trinidad...)...

So what is the headlines in our beloved paper?

A nice headline saying we need a moratorium on politics (!) and a photo of Gloria...she is going to the UN next week to be the queen of whatever...our staff is cynical about all this, as is Lolo...after all, why worry about little things like graft, floods, typhoons, terrorism, disease, and an impending impeachment when you can show yourself off to the bigshots at the UN?



Thursday, August 11, 2005

Don't wake up grand dad....

An 81-year-old Frenchman has been given a one-year suspended jail sentence for firing a hunting rifle at helicopters dropping water on a forest blaze.

David Thiel opened fire on 21 July when the low-flying helicopters disturbed his afternoon nap near Grasse in the south of France, court sources said.

During his arrest the man swore at the policemen and hit them with saucepans.

(heads up from Tim Blair)

Dambusters, Nagasaki, and ....

There is a lot on the news pro and con about dropping the atomic bomb...

I just scanned an article that said those who dropped it did not regret doing it...

Those waiting to invade Japan were happy about it, needless to say...since the estimated casualties were half a million dead Americans and a couple million dead Japanese...(in Saipan, 40,ooo Japanese civilians committed suicide)...

I did have a cousin who was scheduled for the invasion, and figured he would be killed, so went out and got drunk...and woke up, and "walked out" of a second story window, breaking his leg...but you have to excuse him, since his ship had been hit by kamakazi shortly before this, and needless to say was not looking forward to another similar episode...

However, back to Nagasaki: one fact little known in the US is that one pilot who was an observer of the Nagasaki bombing did affect his life.

Leonard Cheshire spent the rest of his life caring for the disabled and dying...

Ironically, most people know him not for either of these deeds, but because he is one of the pilots who devised the flying technique that was celebrated in the the WW2 movie "Dam Busters"...

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Tsinales festival


and we are also having the sandal festival here....

above link is to last year's parade...already we have loads of five foot sandals lining the streets...

We also celebrate that our tiny village is now a thriving city....

Manolo, call your office...

FIESTA TIME

Big party/fiesta time here.

First, our nephew is leaving for London to work as a nurse, so we are going to his party for lunch.

Second, our barangay (Neighborhood) is San Lorenzo, and today is St. Lawrence's feast day...there are several St. Lawrences, including San Lorenzo Ruiz, the Philippine Martyr (he worked for Jesuits in Japan and was caught in the Catholic persecutions there).

But our St. Lawrence is the Roman martyr, a deacon...the story is that he was always carrying money, so they arrested him and asked him where he hid his wealth...he said: Come and see...and took them to the slums of Rome, where he was surrounded by the poor who loved him...

He is the patron saint of Librarians and also of cooks, since he was executed by fire...and librarians celebrate his feast by serving coldcuts...

LINK


to be continued...

Monday, August 08, 2005

it's been a long day

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Ruby and daddy

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Ruby, Joy and Joy's relatives

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Ruby is ready to swim...

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going to Boracay beach

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Brussel bans Bavarian Bosoms

dekolltee.jpg
A dirndl is a traditional costume worn by women in Bavaria and Austria. It is characterised by a generally rather revealing décolleté and consists of a dress and apron with a tight, low-cut top whose figure enhancing effect is accentuated by a short white blouse. Bavarian barmaids typically dress in dirndls. However, under the European Union’s Optical Radiation Directive, which is to be voted in the European Parliament next month, employers face heavy fines if they fail to protect their employees against the risk of sunburn.


Guess they've never heard of sunscreen....

LINK

Rub It On

Q: Does it matter what kind of sunscreen I use?

A: Sunscreens come in a variety of forms such as lotions, gels, and sprays, so there are plenty of different options. There are also sunscreens made for specific purposes, such as the scalp, sensitive skin, and for use on babies. Regardless of the type of sunscreen you choose, be sure that you use one that blocks both UVA and UVB rays and that it offers at least SPF 15.

Q: What does a sunscreen's SPF rating mean?

A: Sunscreens are assigned a Sun Protection Factor (SPF) number according to their effectiveness in offering protection from UV rays. Higher numbers indicate more protection. As a rule of thumb, you should always use a sunscreen with at least SPF 15.

Q: Do sunscreens need to be reapplied during the course of a day?

A: You should follow the manufacturer’s directions regarding reapplication or you risk not getting the protection that you might think you are getting. Though recently developed sunscreens are more resistant to loss through sweating and getting wet than previous sunscreens were, you should still reapply frequently, especially during peak sun hours or after swimming or sweating.

Q: How do sunscreens work?

A: Most sun protection products work by absorbing, reflecting, or scattering the sun's rays. Such products contain chemicals that interact with the skin to protect it from UV rays. Sunscreens help prevent problems related to sun exposure, such as aging skin and precancerous growths.

Keep in mind that sunscreen is not meant to allow you to spend more time in the sun than you would otherwise. That’s why it is important to complement sunscreen use with other sun protection options: cover up, wear a hat and sunglasses, and seek shade.

Q: Some cosmetic products claim to protect you from UV rays. Can they?

A: There are cosmetics and lip protectors that contain some of the same protective chemicals used by sunscreens on the market. However, not all of these products meet the standard of having at least SPF 15, and therefore do not offer sufficient protection by themselves.





Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit

Margaret Brucia reviews this classic book:

It's something sill, I thought, and in LATIN, no less
Write a review? What to do? I was confused, I confess.
But, once I cracked it to take a good look,
I saw there was quite a lot to this book.
The Latin is easy and spunky and quick
and I laughed when the Grinch tried to look like St. Nick.
There are plenty of figures of speech in this writing
alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia are there for the citing.
And for those who like a word list near re ought to be MORE!
They reminds us that Latin does not just survive
It's ALIVE
and it needs us to help it to thrive.
So three cheers for the Tunbergs, Dr. Seuss, and Bolchazy!
For without them, I think, we could all become lazy.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Dengue fever alert

We have quite a few cases of Dengue fever locally, and they sprayed the streets here for mosquitoes again yesterday.

And now it is hitting the greater Manila area.

The Surveillance Unit of the National Epidemiology Center said that from January to July this year, dengue cases have reached a total of more than 10,000 cases. Of the number, 143 died which represents a 9 percent increase in the number of cases as compared to the same period last year.

Dengue is characterized by the sudden onset of fever, headache, and rashes. It could become fatal when massive internal bleeding occurs.

Ratz joke of the day

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Everybody's a pitchman

Your Sunday joke of the day
sniff sniff...finally we had to go home, Sunburned, but happy

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stormy weather most of the time, and we were on the windward side of the island. However we did get quite a bit of swimming in.

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Even Joy got to see the fish...

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however, Lolo enjoyed himself. Yes, the sea is that blue. and the coral reef and fish look like it came out of "finding Nemo"...

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Waiting to get on the boat to snorkle, Ruby says hi.

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Movie note

The long awaited movie based on the best seller "Ghost Soldiers" is being released...and is being highly advertised here, since many of the soldiers involved in the rescue and who were saved were Philippinos.


Set in the Philippines in 1945, "The Great Raid" tells the true story of the 6th Ranger Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mucci (Benjamin Bratt) who undertake a daring rescue mission against all odds. Traveling thirty miles behind enemy lines, the 6th Ranger Battalion aims to liberate over 500 American prisoners-of-war from the notorious Cabanatuan Japanese POW camp in the most audacious rescue ever.
Genres: Action/Adventure and Thriller

Release Date: August 12th, 2005 (wide).
MPAA Rating: R for strong

Alas, the long delay in releasing it suggests problems with the script or with production values...so I suspect it will come and go with little fanfare in the USA...

Beer garden game

Your timewaster of the day via the corner...

to keep you busy until I have time to post my photos.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Attention family

we are going on vacation, so blogging will be light for a few days...email if any problems

Hooray it's Lammas days

At the end of the history of the holiday, there are several very good bread recipes...

You can eat bread now: Atkins has declared bankrupcy, and the newest fad is (TADA)

the POLISH DIET

(CBS) From decadent jelly-filled paczkis to savory fat-saturated kielbasas, Polish cuisine has never been regarded as health food. But, as CBS News Correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports, what a nutritionist would call a recipe for heart attacks is just what one doctor ordered for Izabela Strepak. She went from a size 14 to a size 4. "I guess that's a lot," she says. She lost a lot by eating a lot - a steady diet of lard, cream and fatty meats....

I am...conventional?

You Are 20% Weird

Not enough to scare other people...
But sometimes you scare yourself.

How Weird Are You?


Yup. Just an ordinary Okie living overseas and posting jokes on a blog...no weirdness here, folks, just move along...

I am supersensitive....

Your Hidden Talent
You're super sensitive and easily able to understand situations.
You tend to solve complex problems in a flash, without needing a lot of facts.
Decision making is easy for you. You have killer intuition.
The right path is always clear, and you're a bit of a visionary.

Paper steam engine

your craft project for today from BOingboing...

Monday, August 01, 2005

Attention NYTimes

Maybe your problem is lack of diversity....

Maybe you should hire Michael Yon...

Lileks on Religious tolorance

Lileks, a master at writing irony, has this to say on why "muslims" haven't protested terror, points out that Islam is not a monolith, so you will get many many different opinions:


But what do I know. I had long conversations about Islam and Christianity with cabbies in DC, and they always ended with happy faces and salaam and go in peace. I’ve no doubt millions and millions of Muslims are content to let the Christians go about their errant path, content that in the end a just God will say okay, you crazy lug, you’re in. Just as millions of Christians are willing to say Koran, Shmoran, you’re just and upright and believe in the One Big Guy, meet you at the Old Country Buffet in the sky. Bacon bits on my side, hummus on yours, whatever....
The point is not to get to that point. We are seriously need in live-and-let-live juice applied globally by aerosol spray, the sort of thing that makes people swallow big chunky doctrinal differences and concentrate simply on the idea of a God who is out of the smiting business for the time being. Take that as your daily verse: smite not. And the first one who says “but” gets sent howling down to hell? Smite not. Tomorrow, smite we might. After a day of not smiting we might actually refocus and agree who is smite-worthy, who truly profanes God’s gifts. But today? Smite-free.

It was a good start when President Bush had a revered Imam speak at the National Cathedral after 9/11. Now it would be nice for the Saudis to invite the Pope to speak at Mecca.

Ball’s in your court, guys.

They don't need to ask the pope to speak in Mecca....just allowing Filippino workers in Saudi Arabia to own rosaries and Bibles would be an improvement...