Click to enlarge. My friend Sherry sent me this and said I might finding a contraption like this useful. I replied that I've often found I had more books open than would fit on my desk, so this looks like the answer! An early version of Windows? (Or would that be Mac?)We've enjoyed unseasonably "cool" weather here for the last two weeks - daytime highs in the 90's. We're about to pay the piper. We'll be north of 110 degrees by the end of next week. But tomorrow is the summer solstice so we're due.
I heard today that the experts no longer use the term "global warming." I hadn't noticed. They stopped calling it that because people took the term to mean that they would feel warmer where they live. And in the middle of winter, or in Phoenix over the last two weeks, people would dismiss the issue because, "hey, it's not warmer." So now they call it "global climate change." Same dynamic, just without the inference of noticeable and universally higher temperatures.
I gotta believe that the ruling party in Iran looked at how the Chinese handled Tienanmen Square and followed suit. That means overwhelming and unrelenting use of military force. In the falling Soviet Union the soldiers ultimately refused to fire on their countrymen and the government collapsed. The Chinese military felt no such compunction and apparently the Iranian forces don't either. They've promised a stronger response tomorrow to anyone who ventures into the streets and most think that means live ammunition instead of water canons and batons. Will that quell the uprising? Probably. People don't want to die. But the ruling party will lose support from the masses, something that they have enjoyed until very recently. And that will, IMHO, only prolong their inevitable downfall. The Iranians are not third-world citizens, uneducated, unaware and impoverished - willing to obey so long as they have food for today's meals.
I haven't written titles for my sermons in more than a decade. Sermon titles passed away with the printed order of service. (Both live on in some churches.) But if I were to title tomorrow's sermon it would be "Summum Bonum."
So, what's my passage?
And do you know the poem by that name? Robert Browning.
The Phoenix metro area finished 7th on the list of rudest (most rude?) cities in America, based primarily on the number of road rage incidents we have. It does happen frequently here, and too often it has resulted in a fatality.
I drove Gerta into town for lunch today and was struck (figuratively speaking) with just how small she is. For reasons understood only by under-40 males we have way too many 4x4 pickup trucks jacked up so far that it takes a ladder to get in. And monstrous SUV's. Sitting at a stop light next to one of those beasts is either scary or funny. Not sure which.
Why do people need four wheel drive in a place where it rains ten days a year and never snows? It's not like they'd ever take those massive chrome-adorned pieces of driveway jewelry off road.
Gerta is running well. I still have to figure out that idle issue; it's either the mixture or, more likely, the return spring needs a bit more tension. But even on her best day Gerta moves along at a rather relaxed pace. It's hard not to feel mellowed out in a little 50-horse blue bubble. (By comparison, a Dodge Neon has 150 hp.) If a '67 Beetle had background music it would be "All We Need Is Love" by the Beetles.
On the way into town, after getting passed by a guy in one of those giant pickup trucks who could hardly wait until the road widened to four lanes so he could get around me, I thought about road rage. Would people lose their tempers and engage in dangerous and aggressive driving if they drove little cars? Does driving a 2-ton beast embolden them by giving them a feeling of invincibility? Put 'em in a 1700 pound tin can with nothing between their knees and whatever is in front of them but two sheets of 18 gauge steel and a gas tank. NOW let's see how aggressive they'll drive!
Maybe besides saving gas putting everyone in small cars would remind people that they're one second of stupidity away from death.
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