Ontario Empoblog

Courtesy Project Gutenberg, here are some of the writings of Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish visitor to Baghdad (and many other places). Thence it is two days to Bagdad, the great city and the royal residence of the Caliph Emir al Muminin al Abbasi of the family of Mohammed. He is at the head of the Mohammedan religion, and all the kings of Islam obey him; he occupies a similar position to that held by the Pope over the Christians. He has a palace in Bagdad three miles in extent, wherein is a great park with all varieties of trees, fruit-bearing and otherwise, and all manner of animals. The whole is surrounded by a wall....There the great king, Al Abbasi the Caliph (Hafiz) holds his court, and he is kind unto Israel, and many belonging to the people of Israel are his attendants; he knows all languages, and is well versed in the law of Israel. He reads and writes the holy language (Hebrew)....He is truthful and trusty, speaking peace to all men. The men of Islam see him but once in the ye...

From Ynetnews : Michael Jackson going Muslim? American pop icon announces intention to convert to Islam, according to sources in Bahrain Roee Nahmias Does this explain the anti-Semitic comments? Not necessarily. Let's go back to the beginning (no, not to Missouri law ) and look at Mohammed and the Jews . For the authority of the Prophet was creating a civic rule for Medina; and more and more he was compelled to address his time and inspirations to the practical problems of social organization, daily morals, even to intertribal diplomacy and war. As in Judaism, no distinction was made between secular and religious affairs; all alike came under religious jurisdiction; he was both Caesar and Christ. But not all Medinites accepted his authority. A majority of the Arabs stood aside as “the Disaffected,” viewed the new creed and its ritual skeptically, and wondered whether Mohammed was destroying their traditions and liberties, and involving them in war. Most of the Medina Jews clung to ...

From E! Online/Yahoo : First the American Psychiatric Association slammed [Tom Cruise] for referring to psychiatry as a "pseudoscience," calling Cruise's remarks "irresponsible." Now the American College of Radiology is up in arms over Cruise's admission that he purchased a sonogram machine and uses it to perform at-home ultrasounds on fiancee Katie Holmes. The ACR issued a statement warning that Cruise and Holmes could potentially harm their unborn baby by performing ultrasounds without the benefit of a doctor's supervision.... According to the Food and Drug Administration, the actor may even be violating the law by possessing the device. "Persons who promote, sell or lease ultrasound equipment for making 'keepsake' fetal videos should know that FDA views this as an unapproved use of a medical device," the FDA stated. "In addition, those who subject individuals to ultrasound exposure using a diagnostic ultrasound device (a prescri...

Idle Rambling Thoughts is in the middle of a series on various Christmas season events and personalities (such as Herod the Great - great at what?). This series will continue into December (note that this link won't work until it DOES continue, so wait a few hours).

As I previously noted in a Technoblog comment, I know nothing of MSN Virtual Earth. Well, I've educated myself a bit. Take a look at this view . The large white roof in the middle of the picture belongs to a former Food 4 Less and Target, now empty. The smaller gray roof to the southeast belongs to a Toys R Us, now empty. This is where the proposed Wal Mart in northwest Ontario would go. However, the Ontario Mountain Village Association prefers that this lot remain vacant, I guess.

THE WORLD THROUGH MY EYES: WHERE'S AUNT FLOW? I'm trying the Blogger "create a link" feature as implemented on another blog. All that I have to say is that I've never heard the term "Aunt Flow" before. Live and learn , I guess. And learning about backlinks. I'm going to turn them on here (if things work with my blog template).

Re the mention of "Christmas" - unlike my company , I am not politically correct. Luckily my company's holiday party is at a hotel, because after reading this I'm not so enthused about potlucks at the office. so, today at work was our "department" thanksgiving luncheon. a few weeks ago the marketing department was asked if we wanted to participate with the i.s. department. i declined and everyone looked at me like i was crazy. you know they were giving me that "it's basically a free lunch" type of look and "why don't you want to participate?"... i won't be slaving over the stove to come to work and break bread with people who have suspect hygiene practices.... so, while you all had fun with your luncheon. ms. madefromlove had a turkey sandwich from subway. Melyssa, perhaps you should have Subway prepare your turkey sandwich specially . Here's what the Poop Report said in 2002: High-School football players in Michigan were...

Checked my Blogpatrol to see what's brewing. Here's what's up: As usual, most of the searches involve Krystal Fernandez, even though I've only posted one thing about her lately. People are also searching for information on Christopher Nance, Jennifer Hawkins, Danny Bonaduce, Joe Theismann's broken leg, Jessica Hahn, and Ladytron, among other items. Someone entered a Google search for "'blind date' 'roger lodge' rebecca virgin." Assuming that only one virgin named Rebecca has ever appeared on "Blind Date." Now if the search was for Elimidate, perhaps they could only find one virgin (or, alternatively, only one person who wasn't pursuing an entertainment career). Two people found my blog by searching for "idiots" on Google. Someone wants to find a nude video of Catherine Bach (not to be confused with P D Q Bach, who's been on my mind lately). A Yahoo searcher wants to know "what happened to david stien (sic) ...

From Bunnie Diehl : How many decades after the term has ceased to have any meaning will we use the word co-ed to describe female college students? Well, it's being used in articles describing Pakistan, such as "Co-ed footrace a giant step for moderates in Pakistan." However, Bunnie notes its use in U.S.-based articles. But never fear, the thought police are here : Diane Ravitch’s masterful Language Police is an indispensible companion piece to George Orwell’s Politics and the English Language. Hilarity and distress piggyback incriminatingly as we sample the fruits of her research and analysis. Some illustrations of topics and usages booted by publishers and state agencies.... Banned as Sexist: patrolman, brotherhood, caveman, coed, covergirl, craftsman, doorman, heroine, landlord, layman, maid, mankind, man-made, old wives’ tales, ombudsman, one-man show, pollyanna, spinster, sportsmanship, waitress, yes-man. “Adam and Eve” becomes “Eve and Adam” as proof that men do no...

When going to original sources, some Missouri Synod Lutherans cite C.F.W. Walter, some cite Luther, and some cite the Bible. Few, if any, cite Martin Stephan. Let's start with the LCMS statement from its 150th anniversary: From its very beginnings the LCMS has been made up of individuals from many backgrounds -- a people called by God to live out their Christian faith together as a church. One group was Saxon Lutherans in Germany who in the early part of the 1800's were determined to remain faithful to the Word of God in spite of the age in which they lived. In the forms of a forced church union and the unbelief that accompanied Rationalism, temptation and persecution became a part of their daily lives. While they suffered both in body and in spirit because of their beliefs, they were sustained by their faith in Jesus Christ that they confessed in the teachings of the Lutheran Church. Led by Pastor Martin Stephan, these faithful Christians turned their faces in a new directi...

I dropped the Steve Rocco story after November 2004 , but it blipped up again in March 2005 . Trustee Steve Rocco scoffed Monday at warnings from the Orange Unified school board president to stick to district issues at meetings after he gave a 16-minute speech on charter schools, credit unions and his father's death. In his initial speech, delivered Feb. 10, Rocco criticized the district's handling of Santiago Charter Middle School after a teacher's arrest on sex allegations and spoke of problems at the teachers credit union. But he also spoke of his father's death.... "Today, the concentration camps are the nursing homes and medical facilities. And who are the inmates? The inmates are your loved ones," Rocco said. The speech prompted a reprimand last week from board President Kathy Moffat citing board bylaws. "The health concerns of your parents and previous interactions you may have had with law enforcement are not relevant to the functions of our schoo...

...Tim Skirvin says the following about Steve Boursy: About a month ago, rumors started flying that Steve was dead, that he had killed himself. The first I heard of it was through alt.usenet.kooks; so I didn't exactly take it seriously. But the idea haunted me, somehow. Would Steve do this? I could see it, but not *believe* it. Steve was The Kook Of Old, one of those that had both fought with me and come out with a reasonably favorable impression. He was half-way between a bogeyman and a mentor. And I had never expected to hear anything more from him again. Except possibly in regards to this page. The emails started coming in over time. I paid more attention as time past; and when reports of a Boston Globe obituary surfaced, I actually paid the $3.95 to buy a copy of it. There weren't many more details, and I don't feel comfortable posting the text; but there was an appropriate name (Stephen Smith Boursy), a relevant section of the country (Somerville, MA), and a date (17 ...

James Richards in Edinburgh made the following statement : China's government employs upto 40,000 people to watch over its 100 million-plus Internet users....To be honest I don't see a great deal of difference between China's censorship policy and that of employers averse to employees blogging about their working lives. I replied : You speak of the things that users write. Similarly, if you look at the things that users read, there isn't a great deal of difference between a firewall that suppresses information about democracy and a firewall that suppresses information about barely legal co-ed hijinks. At least in a technical sense. Each of us has a set of values, and to my knowledge there are few people who advocate true 100% freedom of speech. Ah, but as a Usenet veteran, I should have known better . Here's an excerpt from a "Freedom Knights" FAQ: 4.1) Declaration of Free Speech We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Humans are created equal, t...

Oh yeah...Ladytron. Here's part of an album review : Another disappointment is the lack of vocals by Helen Marnie who hardly appears on the album and is pretty much left to shake the tambourine or something. Huh? From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here )

I'm writing this on the Saturday night before the first Sunday in Advent. In the preceding sentence I've just opened up a hornet's nest, for those who praise Advent vs. those who don't, and for those who praise Sunday over those who don't. Perhaps this is timely: Romans 14:5-6 (New International Version) New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society 5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. Off topic - do the blue skinned descendants from Vega eat meat? From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here )

From lutherannews.info, quoting from a statement from the Lutheran Concerns Association, dated July 27, 2005. Emphasis mine: The conclusion of the LCMS convention in 2004 prompted many members to raise questions about the number of convention voting delegates. Inquiry provided information that indeed there were 176 voting delegates as a result of 88 new circuits formed by exception. The LCMS President approved these exceptions in response to requests from Districts. These added delegates could therefore have changed the results of most of the actions taken at the convention including the election of officers, the praesidium and many other elected positions along with many resolutions that could have lasting results.... It was clear that because of the complications of authority at the convention level, the board level, the office of the President and District President level the only solution was legal . Furthermore because Missouri law was clearly violated it required court action...

As Bruce said in December 2002, the devil's in the details : The Missouri Synod’s first constitution, in 1847, rejected the “mixing of churches and mixing of faith” [Kirchen-und Glaubensmengerei], which was translated into English as the renunciation of “unionism and syncretism.” The Synod’s founders did not have in mind events that would “seem” or “give the impression” of a mixing of confessions; they had real, declared, intentional syncretism and unionism in their view. Look at the examples they cited: “serving congregations of mixed confession by a minister of the church; taking part in the divine service and the administration of the sacraments of false-believing [heterodox] or mixed congregations; taking part in any false-believing tract distribution and missionary activities.” In 1847 there were “united” congregations in the German communities, where Luther’s Catechism and the Calvinist Heidelberg Catechism were both in use; the church members simply “agreed to disagree.” Suc...

Yes, I know that I posted a lot on syncretism yesterday ( 1 2 3 4 5 ), and that the first and third posts in particular discussed the David Benke situation. However, more recently, the LCMS (Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) handling of the situation has brought it into conflict with a conservative Canadian Lutheran church: Canadian Lutherans pointed out at their convention last month that they are in church fellowship with the Lutheran Church- Missouri Synod. As such, since President Kieschnick and the Committee on Constitutional Matters approved worshiping with those who deny Christ, that makes the Canadian Lutheran Church partners in the sin.... Being a church body with committees and junk, the Lutheran Church in Canada considered two resolutions : OVERTURE 1.08 To Offer Fraternal Admonishment to The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod WHEREAS it is the nature of church fellowship that those who are part of that fellowship are co-responsible for all public doctrine and practice of the...

For years, I have been arguing that the traditional one-dimensional "baby seal clubbers vs. Communists" political model is an oversimplification. Meanwhile, the Libertarians go around trumpeting a two-dimensional political model - which, coincidentally enough, proves that everyone is a Libertarian. I was thinking that a three-dimensional model of some type would suffice to describe secular political behavior. Well, I was thinking that. Then I started hearing about exopolitics . This site is dedicated to producing high quality research papers and books that focus on the political implications of what an overwhelming amount of evidence conclusively points to as an extraterrestrial presence on Earth.... Skipping all the other stuff (about how the government is keeping all of this secret), let's seriously (well, sort of) look at the political implications. Michael E. Salla, PhD, has stated the following : The report distinguishes between these extraterrestrial races on the b...

A brief pause before I start using the term "fascist" in Ontario Vineyard Village Association press releases. Heck, might as well. I probably should have started this research before writing the latest OVVA press release (which, if you haven't yet seen it, calls for a ban on carbon dioxide emissions in Ontario, California). Yet, can you imagine how an unscrupulous organization can take the true stories about carbon dioxide poisoning, and turn them into impassioned calls for a ban on exhaling? Anyway, for those who are interested (probably only myself), here's some information on carbon dioxide poisoning. From Emergency Medicine : A 50-year-old medical researcher was discovered unconscious in a large walk-in refrigerator containing 15 large blocks of dry ice. The dry ice had been stored in the 39.2° F refrigerator at approximately 9:00 A.M. that day, and the researcher had last been seen at around noon; at least three hours, therefore, had elapsed between storage and...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ONTARIO VINEYARD VILLAGE ASSOCATION PROPOSES REVOLUTIONARY POLLUTION SOLUTION Proposed Solution Will Preserve Northeast Ontario GUASTI, CA – November 25 2005 - In an unprecedented move, the Ontario Vineyard Village Association (OVVA) has proposed a revolutionary idea to reduce pollution concerns - not only in northeast Ontario, California, but throughout the entire city. According to Ontario Emperor, newly-appointed Second Vice President of the Association, "While other organizations engage in ineffective tactics, such as trying to keep Wal-Mart out of northwest Ontario, California, the Ontario Vineyard Village Association continues to advocate true solutions to the problems facing our city. Despite harsh criticism (i.e., having been referred to as "idiots" at http://environmentalrepublican.blogspot.com/2005/11/kyoto-breathing-its-last-polluted.html ), we shall continue to propose revolutionary solutions for our fair city." Over the last month,...

Environmental Republican wrote the following on Monday: The Kyoto Protocols have served the worlds purpose and look as though they are in their death throes. While doing nothing for the environment, they've given the socialist nations and organizations of the world a club with which to whack the US.... And here's two idiots who obviously didn't get the memo. Environmental Republican then links to the two idiots. Let's start with the second : I've got a nifty fun fact for you: Every three and a half minutes, on average, someone dies partly because of global warming.... Here's the thing that really makes me crazy: George Bush, besides having the gall to question whether global warming even exists, is among the TMAs (Total Major Assholes) who oppose the Kyoto Protocols because of the presumed negative impact on American businesses. Need I say it? -- Screw American businesses! We're talking about a PLANET here! The other idiot? Guess who . Your Ontario Vineyard...

Time makes you forget. Yesterday I entitled a post The NEA would be better off with Saddam Hussein's old PR guy . I had forgotten his name, his (former) title, and even his nickname. Well, the nickname was "Baghdad Bob." He used to be the Information Minister. And his real name is Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf. So, what happened to him? First, let's look at his fame. All information is from Wikipedia . Al-Sahaf is probably most known for his daily press briefings in Baghdad during the 2003 Iraq War, where his lies, fantasies and colourful description of his enemies reached further heights as the war progressed and caused him to be nicknamed Baghdad Bob by commentators in the United States and Comical Ali (an allusion to Chemical Ali, the nickname of former Iraqi Defence Minister Ali Hassan al-Majid) by commentators in the United Kingdom. On April 7, 2003, he claimed that there were no American troops in Baghdad, and that the Americans were committing suicide by the hundred...

There is an Impeach Bush Coalition blog, described as "A United Coalition of Blogs for the Impeachment of George W. Bush." Don't they realize that if Bush is impeached and convicted, Cheney will become President? This was not an issue in previous impeachments and impeachment attempts, since Clinton's impeachment did not involve Gore at all, any move to impeach Nixon would have had nothing to do with Ford, and we didn't even have a Vice President when Andrew Johnson was impeached. (I forget who would have become President if Andrew Johnson would have been convicted; it may have been the Speaker, or it may have been the President Pro Tem. Yes, I know that's not the proper name for the Senate person, but I'm gonna continue to say President Pro Tem. Tem. Tem. Tem. Ha ha ha!) Oopsie. Let's get back to the IBC, which is neither a root beer nor a THEOS computer manufacturer. Here are excerpts from the first post in the blog: The time has come. It's time...