Something uplifting

As some of you might have noticed, I have a link included
on this blog for LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS

This is a blog that Steve Goodier maintains. I have read
his inspirational messages for years and have every one
of his books. Steve is a United Methodist Minister and
inspirational speaker.

Rather than blog about all the things that are really
bugging me, I decided to direct you to Steve's website.

If you want to be uplifted and made to think.........
Check this out. Read the last two entries and any
of the previous ones for a dose of inspiration and
grace. (Last two are BELIEVE IT and THE HAND)

http://stevegoodier.blogspot.com/

Enjoy and have a good weekend!

Rene'

Friends.....

Love is blind...

Friendship

closes its

eyes.

"Your friend is the woman who knows all about you, and still likes you." -

Elbert Hubard

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is

seldom known until it be lost." - Charles Caleb Colton

I arrived home today to find this beautiful basket of flowers and a

candle from my dear "Florida" friend. I never knew how to appreciate

all our little midnight trips and marathon phone calls until she moved.

I miss her.

I can tell her anything. She finishes my sentences. She knows all my

faults and loves me anyway. She remembers my youth and builds me

up while understanding what I had to endure.

She's better than any medicine or salve when I'm sick or blue.

I never enjoyed flowers any more than the ones I received this date.

But, even more rewarding was the long phone call afterward.

God blesses us with true friends......and I'm thankful.

Who is the REAL evil ?????

Propaganda......ideas, facts, or allegations spread deliberately to
further one's cause or to damage an opposing cause also a public
action having such an effect (Merriam-Webster Dictionary )

Who are we as a country if we simply follow along and believe some
of the propaganda allowed to be printed in our newspapers? As a
parent, grandparent, teacher, friend of a soldier, we should be
interested in the TRUTH. God gave us a brain and the ability to
comprehend the truth and yet we sit idly by allowing others to
promote their selfish agenda that is filled with lies and misrepresentations.

Are you aware that it is a matter of public record the consulting fees
paid to our former presidents and their families. The Bush family
has literally "earned" millions and millions from the Saudi's while
preaching that we should fight the "terrorists." George W Bush
received financial help from Bin Laden YEARS before he was elected
president.

It's always interesting (and sad) to me to read a "religious" column
about patriotism and the evil democrats when the facts are so clearly
opposite of what she proclaims.

Investigate and study. The future of our country depends upon it.
We have wasted the last decade believing lies and being brought
to our knees financially. This Memorial Day there will be
thousands of families without their loved ones who sacrificed
their lives for an unjust war.

Check out a few of these links:
(From The New York Times)

The New York Times reports: “The episode has been retold so many times in the last three and a half years that it has become the stuff of political legend: in the frenzied days after Sept. 11, 2001, when some flights were still grounded, dozens of well-connected Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, managed to leave the United States on specially chartered flights. Now, newly released government records show previously undisclosed flights from Las Vegas and elsewhere and point to a more active role by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in aiding some of the Saudis in their departure. The F.B.I. gave personal airport escorts to two prominent Saudi families who fled the United States, and several other Saudis were allowed to leave the country without first being interviewed, the documents show. ... The material sheds new light on the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, and it provides details about the F.B.I.'s interaction with at least 160 Saudis who were living in or visiting the United States and were allowed to leave the country. Some of the departing Saudis were related to Osama bin Laden. … The Sept. 11 commission examined the Saudi flights in its final report last year, and it found that no Saudis had been allowed to leave before national airspace was reopened on Sept. 13, 2001”H327 Intelligence Whispers reports: “Financial ties between Al Qaeda, Saudi Arabia, and American banks do not end with the Texas payments. A former chief of Mossad confided that Israeli intelligence was well aware that Al Qaeda funded its activities through the top six U.S. banks; including Nation's Bank … The copies were provided by Israeli military intelligence. The source of the funds was Saudi. Furthermore, a U.S. intelligence source recently confided that Florida Governor Jeb Bush was heavily involved in the spiriting of members of the Saudi Royal family out of Florida on a U.S. government plane after the attacks of September 11, 2001. A third check provided by Israeli military intelligence is drawn on the Saudi American Bank, which has an office just across the street from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC in the Watergate complex. The former head of Saudi intelligence, Prince Turki bin Faisal, who acted as the Saudi government’s main interlocutor with Osama bin Laden, is due to take up the post as Saudi ambassador to the United States.”H328 It is disparaging to see the actions taken by the Bush family after 9/11 bounced and twisted around by Washington bureaucrats whose present salaries are paid for by US taxpayers. Plain and simple, Ambassador Prince Bandar and prior President George Bush Sr arranged to have members of the bin Laden and Saud families sequestered in certain areas of the US by flying them around within the US when all other flights were grounded. No one was allowed to interrogate them. After the US airspace was reopened they were secretly allowed to fly out of the US. The Saud family is the prime patron of the Bush family and has the ability to demand such preferential treatment. With bagman Bandar’s corrupt Washington reward scheme, it is assumed those Washington bureaucrats who questionably assisted the Saud and bin Laden family members will be rewarded with Saud family lobbyist consulting fees after their government service retirement. We cannot believe Washington will accept Prince Turki as ambassador when his complicity in overt criminal acts against US citizens is so apparent. We can see how citizens of the US should be finally given the information about the “Great Satan” members lurking in Washington. It is a travesty the US establishment media will not divulge the acts of these people to US citizens.

AND HE SHALL BE JUDGED
Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has always answered his detractors by claiming that history will one day judge him kindly. But as he waits for that day, a new group of critics—his administration peers—are suddenly speaking out for the first time. What they’re saying? It isn’t pretty!!!!
http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_9217 (Rumsfeld)

http://men.style.com/gq/features/topsecret (slideshow of classified documents/Rumsfeld)

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/gallagher292.html (Citigroup/laundering)

(Guess who leased the building that went down first on 9/11?
What records were being stored there)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_2et5WMvVQ&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Flightworkers%2Eorg%2Fvideo%2F77024%2Fe%2D911%2Dmedia%2Dbreakthrough%2Ddenmark%2Dconspiracy&feature=player_embedded

(also - google the Saudi government's consulting fees to the Bush family and the
connection and just how far it goes back) here's a little taste of what you will find......
On September 27 the Wall Street Journal reported that the bin Laden family had invested at least $2 million in a fund operated by The Carlyle Group. An unidentified "foreign financier" told the Journal that the total investment was likely to be much larger. The Carlyle Group is a merchant bank specializing in buyouts of aerospace and defense companies. (A merchant bank is a bank that deals mostly in long term corporate loans and underwriting, often with an emphasis on international finance.) The Carlyle Group has high-level connections to the Republican party: George Bush Sr. is a paid spokesman, former Secretary of State (and head of Bush campaign post-election operations) James Baker is senior counselor, and former Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci is the group's chairman. According to the Journal, all three have traveled to Saudi Arabia in recent years to meet with the bin Laden family.
The corporate name of the bin Laden family business is transliterated from the Arabic as Binladin. The Saudi Binladin group is a $5 billion business, built by family patriarch Mohammed largely from Saudi government construction contracts. The military barracks at Dharan, Saudi Arabia, were rebuilt by the Binladin Group after the 1996 truck bombing. The family has officially disavowed Osama, who worked briefly in the family business, and is believed to have inherited at least $50 million.
Although not stated explicitly in the Journal report, it is implied that the Carlyle Group was among the banks whose records were subpoenaed as a part of the investigation of the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. Through a spokesperson, former president Bush said that he recalled only one meeting with the bin Laden family, which took place in 1998. She admitted that there were at least two meetings after being confronted with a thank-you note from a meeting in 2000. Mr. Carlucci is the former chairman of Nortel Networks, which has conducted joint telecommunications ventures with Binladin Group. Mr. Baker reportedly met with the bin Laden family in 1998 and 1999. Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense during the Reagan administration, and now chairman of Forbes, Inc., met with the bin Laden family twice in recent years, according to the Journal.
President George W. Bush has been linked indirectly to the bin Laden family, as well. During the time that W. was a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard, his friend and fellow guardsman, James W. Bath, was the business representative in Texas for Salem bin Laden, Osama's older brother. Bath continued to act in that capacity until 1988, when Salem died in a plane crash. The Houston Gulf Airport, in League City, TX, was among the properties Mr. bin Laden invested in on Mr. Bath's recommendation. Hopes that the airfield would find increased use over time, handling overflow from Houston airport, never materialized. The estate has been trying to sell the property since Mr. bin Laden's death. Mr. Bath reportedly received a 5% commission as his fee in transactions in which he represented Mr. bin Laden. Bath also invested $50,000 in two funds controlled by George W. Bush during this time, but maintains that the dealings were unrelated.
In 1984, however, George W. Bush's oil exploration company, Bush Exploration (previously Arbusto Energy) was suffering financially as sources of investment disappeared in the face of uncertainty regarding oil prices. After one attempted bailout by an oil company called Spectrum 7 faltered, Harken Energy bought Spectrum 7 for $2 million. George W. Bush received stock worth approximately $500,000 and a consulting fee of $120,000. Harken Energy was run by Alan Quasha, a New York lawyer who was also a Republican Party fundraiser. Sheikh Abdullah Bahksh of Saudi Arabia, a 16% shareholder in Harken Energy at the time, was represented by a Palestinian-born Chicago investor named Talat Othman, who served with George W. Bush on the board of Harken Energy. Othman made at least three separate visits to the White House to discuss Middle East affairs with then President George Bush. At about the same time, and just prior to the Gulf War, Harken Energy, with no previous international or offshore drilling experience, was awarded a 35-year petroleum exploration contract with the emirate of Bahrain.

The REAL enemy and evil are the ones spouting patriotism and
promoting propaganda. America needs to WAKE UP.

Idiosyncrasies..........

I read a blog this week that made me go..............hmmmmmm?
The writer was bemoaning his inadequacies with the English
language and the using of proper grammar and spelling.

It made me think about all my English teachers. I always said
that English was my least favorite subject and how weak I felt
in that area. I never had an English teacher that really inspired
me until college. In fairness, I really liked my teachers, but most
of them had been teaching 30+ years, had problems, or were just
not that interested any longer. One year we spent the whole year
learning and reciting and writing on " I think that I shall never
see a poem lovely as a tree." Needless to say, this didn't do a
lot to prepare me for entering high school English the next year.

Then, in my 40's, I went back to college. I was given this speech
about how my skills had deteriorated and that I would probably
have to take "refresher" courses. They had me scared to death
and I had to take the ACT the next day (since it had been over
20 years they wouldn't accept my prior ACT score). I stayed
up all night and was so afraid I would be led out to a firing squad
and refused entrance. The moral of this story is......never be
afraid. They called me the next day and I had set some type of
record. I scored perfect on 2 sections of the ACT (with English
being one of those sections) and missed very few overall. I was
elated simply because of how scared they had made me the day
before! I honestly believe that the simple acts of working for
over 20 years, voracious reading of newspapers and books, and
just living life improved my English skills. Having said that, I
am FAR from perfect and unfortunately write like I talk. I never
know when to shut up! My sentences are too long and sometimes
confusing. Thankfully, I don't do this for a living!

However, it was brought to my attention during my employment
that I had a "gift" for proofreading or catching errors. We might
have a 500 page spread sheet and I could always find the wrong
number. When I read a newspaper and see misspelled words,
it drives me NUTS! I can still recall reading a story about a
disturbance with taking a dog in a local restaurant and the writer
used the word "quiet" instead of "quite" or a headline having
the word "Circiut" instead of circuit. I understand completely
that it would be impossible to publish a newspaper without
mistakes. We all make mistakes everyday. That's just one of my
idiosyncrasies or what we refer to as our OCD problems. We all
have them. I have friends that e-mail me every week and we
compare what errors we found that week in the papers. It's just
our little "thing."

I had reason to think about all that this week. A relative visited
and was talking about a mutual acquaintance. Seems this person
and her mother have a real problem about judging people. They
talk about how someone looks, what they drive, where they live,
how clean they keep their house, how much they make - you get
the picture. I was told how much it meant to my kids that they
never heard anything like that growing up. An example was
given about two of the nicest people in this town and how these
two women were making fun of these two people and the "rolls"
on their necks and their weight. It seemed so odd and just
unbelievable to me. These two people that they were talking
about were actually taking valuable time from their weekend
(they both work) to mow their church's lawn and grounds. To
be completely frank.....these two women should be the last two
people on earth to be talking about anyone else. You know the
saying about skeletons in closets......well, they would need a very
LARGE walk-in.

I decided that my little idiosyncrasy of noticing misspelled words
was pretty harmless.

I had intended on writing something about how we cope with
what life throws us. So, I'll leave you with this thought.

Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The
way you cope with it, is what makes the difference!

Be kind to one another and appreciate your little idiosyncrasies.

A Mother's Love

A mother understands what a child does not say.- Jewish proverb

I was talking to a friend yesterday and relating how excited I am on
the Fridays when my son comes home from college. I always have
a big meal fixed and look so forward to catching up on his life. When
I was just seven years old, I started cooking the family meals in our
home. Therefore, I have always equated cooking with a way to
show my love to family. I enjoy it and it warms my heart when they
seem to enjoy it in return.

Yesterday, as I was cooking, I thought of my dear mother-in-law.
When I first married my husband, it seemed so strange that we
were expected to show up EVERY Sunday for a big family meal
at his mother's house. This was a tradition that I wasn't familiar
with and on some Sunday's, I just wanted to go home from church
and vegetate after a long work week. However, I warmed to this
tradition very quickly. His mother stood for over 8 hours every
day through the week on a hard concrete floor at her job. Yet, on
Friday, she would head to the grocery and pick out a menu for
our Sunday get-togethers. She always prepared a special meal
with love and was always hopeful that everyone could show up.

I remember one Sunday when she had fixed her famous fried
chicken with homemade "little" biscuits and gravy and all the
fixings. That particular Sunday, all the kids and grand kids
showed up. She usually fixed such a big meal, that there were
enough leftovers for supper, too. On that Sunday, the chicken
ran out rather quickly. About five hours later, my husband
leaves for a few minutes and comes back with two big packages
of chicken and says, "Mom, could you fry us some more chicken
for supper?" That poor woman got up and fried two more chickens,
made biscuits and gravy. Oh.....A Mother's Love........

Years later, we would laugh about that memory. We all asked her
why in the world she agreed to fry all that chicken. She said
because he asked me to. She loved her kids beyond measure.
She once told me that as my kids got older my worry would change.
She explained that when they are small and have a problem, we
can jump in and try to help them solve it. When they are adults,
we are just as worried, but sometimes lack the ability to solve
their problems. They are beyond our control or ability to help.
She said that those are the kinds of problems that worry you even
more. I didn't understand it at the time, but that was a profound
observation. Your kids are always your babies, no matter what
their ages and you always worry and pray for their lives to be
smooth.

This weekend will be hard for me. I miss my mom and mother-in-
law. The last few years of both of their lives, it was me that fixed
meals for them. My mother-in-law always enjoyed my meals
so much and was always so appreciative. I miss her. I miss her
for so many reasons, but I'm thankful that she taught me the
importance of family and the fellowship that goes with a meal
prepared with love.

Happy Mother's Day!

"God could not be everywhere and therefore He made mothers".-
Jewish Proverb

Just thinking.........

“When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.”
(Wayne Dyer)

“Each of us will one day be judged by our standard of life -- not by our
standard of living; by our measure of giving -- not by our measure of
wealth; by our simple goodness -- not by our seeming greatness.”
(William Arthur Ward)

The fallout over Miss California's statements just won't stop! Makes you
think about that saying from Proverbs that says "Those who live in glass
houses should not throw stones" She's all upset over the nude photos of
her being released.............

I sat in my dentist's chair for over 4 hours on Monday. He's a great dentist.
I really appreciate his skill and the kindness of his office staff. His parents
lived right down the street from where I grew up. His mom was a teacher
of mine. We made the mistake of ruining our perfect friendship by casually
mentioning politics. We are polar opposites on the political front, and while
some of his statements surprised me, it didn't change how I felt about him.

It's healthy to have different opinions. It's one of the things that makes this
country so great. I was pleased after getting so many e-mails from you to learn
that it's not the differing opinions that upset people, but the judgment attached
by some.

I had a lot of different beliefs when I was 30 years younger. Now, I am pleased
that life has led me to a discovery of some of my mistaken beliefs. It saddens
me to hear racist or homophobic remarks. I heard both in a public business
this week. I have a friend that was pretty homophobic. Then.........they
discovered they had a gay child. I had a friend that knew how I felt about his
racist remarks. Then, his child married someone of a different race. I had a
friend that used to be pretty judgmental about child-rearing. Then, I shared
my thoughts about raising each child on what you, the parent, feels is the best
course for THAT particular child. Every child is different. Every parent has
different ideas of what is right and wrong. We might make completely opposite
decisions about a child-rearing decision, but we both can be right. What might
be acceptable for one child, might be too much responsibility or freedom for
another. I'm so proud of both of my kids. With the grace and help of God, I
had a really easy road as a Mom. That's all the gift I need for Mother's Day.
I'm truly blessed.

I just keep going back to Matthew 7. "Judge not, that you be not judged."
(verse 1) And, especially Matthew 7:3 ..............
3"Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice
the log that is in your own eye?

Just thinking...................................................................