My Life by Golda Meir

I’ve been reading My Life, by Golda Meir, and it’s a real eye-opener. It details the life of this amazing woman, and her part in the struggle for an autonomous Jewish state in Israel, and what they went through to establish it. I knew the British resisted their efforts during and just after WW2 to settle in Palestine, but I was amazed at the extent to which they went, to block that settlement.


Anyway, I just read a passage that describes the airlift of Yemeni Jews into Israel in late 1948. These Jews had been isolated as a people in Yemen for 2000 years or so, having been relocated there by the Romans, and serving as serfs and slaves since then, with no rights at all. Golda describes meeting the first planeload, and talking with an old man who had just gotten off the plane. She asked “Had you ever seen or been on a plane before?”

He replied “No, I never had even seen one up close.”

She said “You must have been terrified.”

“No, I was not. Why would I be frightened? I remembered the prophecy in Isaiah: ‘You shall mount up with wings of eagles’”

And she writes “Then he recited the whole passage from Isaiah, blessed God, and said “This was the fulfillment of that prophecy – why should I be afraid?”

I read that with tears streaming down my face – the simple faith of these people in God’s promise to preserve them was amazing!

This book will be a permanent part of my own personal library, and I highly recommend it for all who would like to learn more about what has been happening in Israel and the Middle East.

Learning Curve

Ahh yes -- there is indeed a learning curve associated with Windows 7. Also with MS Outlook, and a few other new bells and whissers on this beastie. But I'm learning!

Along with the new stuff on the machine, we've been busy with canning -- picked two rows of green beans this morning, and we (Dorie, mostly) have 18 pints of them in the canners right now. Should taste good come winter time! On Saturday, she put up two dozen+ pints of pickles -- zucchini pickles, dills, and a few jars of habanero dills as well.

Looked out in the garden the other day and saw this:

then a few evenings ago, this guy was lying in our back yard:

They don't seem to be nipping any more of our produce, and they're fun to watch!

More pix of the garden soon.

BTW -- that brown and white one is called a "piebald" deer. This one is a little deformed -- some are moreso -- due to the genetic aberrations that caused the cool color scheme. It seems to be healthy enough, though, and was out back dancing about the other evening while Dorie was bringing in the laundry off the back line.

Back on the air!

OK -- I've got computer again! Now for the bit of a learning curve that comes with Windows 7.

Computers!

I'm temporarily sans computer, getting updated to Windows 7 and a few other goodies.

Back soon, I hope.

Interesting tomato snatcher

I'm missing some Roma tomato plants from out back of my regular garden, in a spot where there were no tomatoes before. I had hoped to avoid the tomato blight for some Roma paste tomatoes that we will can for making sauce later. This critter has been nipping them. We see it morning and evening. Finally got a picture -- not a great quality picture, but enough to show what I'm dealing with.
Hoping to see it on opening day of deer season, as I love venison steaks and spiedies. And that hide will make a beautiful jacket!

Arizona law

Someone just sent me the MSNBC poll asking the question "Do you support Arizona's tough new law on illegal immigration?"



ABSOLUTELY!


When you stop to think of it, what’s the first thing they ask you – a natural-born American citizen – for, when you go to the doctor’s office? Your ID!

Likewise when you cash a check, get stopped for speeding, (or even jay-walking) open a bank account, buy insurance, take out a loan, or mortgage, get a library card, buy beer (at least in NY State), buy a plane ticket, walk into the courthouse!!!, visit an inmate, etc etc etc, you're required to show your id. And that’s for CITIZENS! So what’s their beef?

I answered as above, then went to look at the poll, and found that 95.7% of responders ON AN MSNBC POLL are supportive of Arizona's law!

95.7% !!!!

Yet bho (ptooie!) is determined to file suit against the state of Arizona and its governer Jan Brewer, to put a stop to the law.

It's about time he understands that it's "WE THE PEOPLE" -- not "ME THE PRES"

If you're interested, the poll is at

http://world-news.newsvine.com/_question/2010/05/12/4274124-do-you-support-arizonas-tough-new-law-on-illegal-immigration

Doom, Despair, and Agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery ...

It's not to that point yet, but it could get there if I keep thinking about the news.


Someone asked what I thought of the following article re the oil spill.


http://www.rense.com/general91/oilor.htm

All hyperbole aside, there may be something to it.



Can you say “Revelation 8:8?”



Anyway, my friend was wondering about the immense pressure at the ocean floor, over a mile down. Why does it not simply smother the well?

Right off the top of my head, remember the pressure is relative, so it’s the differential that matters. Think “bends,” and the need for divers to come up slowly from great depths in order to equalize pressure.

The pressure at the bottom is the same on everything down there. Add a unit of pressure to one side of the equation (the stuff coming out of that well) and it’s higher than the pressure of the water trying to hold it down.

I’ve read about the “volcano theory” before, and it is indeed scary. Who knows how interconnected everything down there is?

No, I'm not thinking "Journey to the Center of the Earth;" any prehistoric beasties are emerging as tar balls. But they're leaving a rather large gap down there in all that heat, that has to be filled with something. Like, maybe, Florida? I can see the price of orange juice going up a lot.

A couple of simple illustrations that happened not far from where I live:

A friend from church said one day that he had to save up for a new well, as their well had collapsed on itself, and they had no water. The water table is high right around here, and there’s no natural reason a well should suddenly do that.

I remembered that I had been by his place a couple of times shortly before that, and they were rebuilding the road (Route 79). Both times I had to wait for trucks to unload gravel fill in spots where the road bed had settled. They had huge tamper machines compacting the fill as they dumped and spread it and you could feel it for hundreds of yards in every direction. I told him to file a complaint with the DOT, and sure enough, they traced his well failure to the hydraulic pressure traveling through the ground with sufficient force to collapse the well. They paid to replace his and several neighbors’ wells.

Another incident happened north of Syracuse, back in the 60s, where they were filling sinkholes in the building of I81. After days of dumping and compacting, they were interrupted by a farmer who drove over to complain that he now had a new mound in his hay field. The pressure had followed a fault line to a weak spot, and created a bulge.

I’m wondering if our recent earthquake just outside of Toronto, and felt in this part of NY State, might even be a fore-runner of things to come as a result of pressure changes caused by this blown well.

Do you think it's time to start circling the wagons yet?

I know I’m not investing in Florida real estate real soon ... maybe California orange juice?