It has been so hot outside that I spend my waking day light hours in the house soaking up the air conditioner. As my mother said "a idle mind soon wanders into confusion" I find myself pondering why our society chooses certain ancient rules and ignores others from the same sources. For example today's reading of the bible as scheduled by the IBS "read the bible in a year" program says "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety." This quote was from 1 timothy 2:11-15. As anyone can see that looks around America and most of the western world we long ago decided this instruction did not apply. We have a woman associate pastor. Many college professors are women. Many, not as many as there should be, are CEOs of major and minor corporations. Many women are bosses of men in the work place. Obviously we disagree with Paul. Even further disagreement is that we do not think childless women are unsaved just because they have no children. How do we justify the neglect of this instruction yet accept Paul's instructions against other activities. We, in our secular society, sure don't believe that all governments and rulers are authorized by God and thus must be obeyed without dissent.

Either all the commandments, instructions and laws promulgated in the new testament apply or none of them do. I am so confused that the same people who condemn homosexuality (ye shall not judge) support female leaders. I am confused that those who oppose abortion often support the death penalty. I am confused by those who claim to be Christians yet refuse to belief the Bible is true in all it's stories.

I heard you stir at that post modern secular heresy! I spent most of my adult life in scientific endeavors and learning. There were many, many things that were scientific nonsense when I graduated high school that are now main stays of our modern life. Electrons tunneling through non conductive material was ridiculous in 1959. Insulation that is glowing red hot but that can be held in one's bare hand—foolish fantasy!

I believe that we just do not know enough about how God did what God did to even be close to being able to say the bible is mythology. I don't know how God did what God did but I do know what my science and my mind tell me about how God did it. We should never give up studying the world with every bit of the brain power and science that God enabled. Those who attack things like evolution are simply trying to limit God to something they can understand. To liken God to a watch maker is such an insult that I am surprised God doesn't strike the whole crew with boils.

I think I am most troubled by what I perceive as an overly legalistic ways of viewing the New Testament. Once Christians fall into that trap we will be as doomed as the Jews. We must depend on God's grace in all things. God knows our heart.

As I was setting up the front yard sprinkler for the second time this week, in a possibly futile attempt to keep my azaleas alive, my mind wandered far away to a yesteryear when our parents took that final move to Texas in 1952, and where I would within 2 years find my future and present wife, and recalled the overheard talk of the old timer famers and ranchers in the grocery stores and hardware store of Markham, Texas about how dry it was and of them telling wild tales of loosing cattle and tractors in the cracks in the ground only to be topped by the next slow talking tobacco spitting leathery old man. When I had all the heat I could stand and was certain the water was not falling on the street I withdrew to my webbie room and aimed all 4 fans right at my desk. I spent the next few minutes placing weights on various piles of paper. Eventually the whirlwind was tamed and I began to Google for information about Texas drought. It turns out that, according to this amazing map that 1952 and 1952 were only mild drought years in the part of Texas where we lived. The year that I started high school saw that drought spread across the entire Midwest. Fortunately farming practices had changed since the 30s or we would have had another dust bowl. In my exploring I found a reference to Texas Parks about the drought. I have subscribed to Texas Parks and Wild Life (successor to Texas Parks) magazine since 1981 so I was curious about how they operated and presented data about the Texas drought of the 50s. What I read there and in other references presented by Google search is that we ain't in a drought yet but likely historians looking back at these years 50 years from now will decide we were in a severe drought. I know the last couple years in Houston sure remind me of the dry years when I rode the school bus from Markham to Tidehaven High School and we drove pas mile after mile of dead or dying cotton and maise. Nineteen fifty six was so dry the piss ants had to change their names due to lack of liquid.

The Texas Parks reference include clippings from two NEWSPAPERS detailing the parks board effort to construct parks just for Negros as part of the stupid separate but equal philosophy of race relations. Separate has never been equal. Any one who doubts that there has been some, not nearly enough but some, improvement needs to read these clipping.

Finally—Hey! Quit that sighing. I am almost done. Or in Texian I'm fixin to be done. I did not know that Texas ever officially experimented with weather modification. "In 1967, the Texas Legislature passed the Texas Weather Modification Act. The TNRCC is responsible for the weather modification program, which permits "cloud seeding" and promotes research and technology related to weather modification. On the local level, the Colorado River Municipal Water District in the Big Spring area has had this type of program for 25 years. The West Texas Weather Modification Association (WTWMA) has received a permit from TNRCC to begin a cloud seeding program in a seven-county area. WTWMA proposes to cover 5.2 million acres in the cloud seeding program at a cost of $300,000 to $400,000, or about 7 cents per acre.

TNRCC estimates that for every $1 dollar invested in cloud seeding, there is a $20 to $25 return in production of the land. TNRCC also found that, contrary to popular belief, cloud seeding tends to prevent flash floods and heavy rains by producing gentle rains over a long period of time.

In 1970, then Governor Preston Smith initiated a statewide cloud seeding program for three months. In July of that year, Texas suffered flooding, and the cloud seeding experiment was blamed. No data exist to back that claim, but the event left cloud seeding stigmatized. Some people go so far as to say it is equivalent to 'playing God'." I found this fascinating example of typical "pie in the sky" bureaucratic puffed- up thinking in "Window on State Government" by Susan Combs Texas State Comptroller of Public Accounts. Can you believe they actually spent money trying to make it rain on demand. Hell we cannot even predict tomorrows rainfall or temperature with any great accuracy.

A very good interactive site for displaying drought conditions around the USA is at national drought monitoring website.

Lastly I ran across a paragraph tht pretty much sums up the course of human existence.
"There's a survival process always that takes place. Those that survive, they live to tell the story. Those that don't, they go do something else. That's the way it works in our culture."

The Robertsons of Cement Book is on-line at http://lyn1937.tripod.com/cement/index.html.





My Wind Chime store is not selling so I am cutting the prices in half. Buy now! Help CAMERON!

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TOMATO PIE

This tomato pie is topped with a mayonnaise and Parmesan topping, along with some basil and seasonings.

Ingredients:
Pastry for a 1-crust 9-inch pie, unbaked
evaporated milk
4 cups sliced firm ripe tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
1 large clove garlic, smashed and minced

Preparation:
Line pie plate with pastry; flute edges and brush shell with evaporated milk. Bake at 450° for 5 minutes. Fill the baked pie shell with sliced tomatoes and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and basil. Combine mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, and minced garlic; spread over the layer of tomatoes. Bake at 350° for 35 to 45 minutes, or until tomatoes are cooked and pie is done.
This recipe can be found HERE.

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TOMATO CASSEROLE

Tomato casserole recipe is scalloped tomatoes with butter and bread crumbs, along with stewed tomatoes and onion.
Ingredients:
2 cans (about 14.5 ounces each) stewed tomatoes
1 tablespoon finely minced onion or 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
1 1/2 cups soft bread crumbs
1/4 cup melted butter

Preparation:
Mix tomatoes with onion. combine bread crumbs with melted butter. Alternate layers of tomatoes and bread crumbs in a 1 1/2-quart casserole, ending with a generous crumb topping. Bake at 400° for about 20 minutes.

Serves 4.
This recipe and many more tomato recipes are HERE

 

Information is the currency of democracy.
Thomas Jefferson

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