YELLOW IS THE COLOR......

I had not thought of this song for quite a while, but for some reason it popped into my head this morning.  Kenbob and I used to play it now and then - enjoy.

Yellow is the color of my true love's hair
In the mornin', when we rise
In the mornin', when we rise
That's the time, that's the time
I love the best

Blue's the color of the sky
In the mornin', when we rise
In the mornin', when we rise
That's the time, that's the time
I love the best

Green's the color of the sparklin' corn
In the mornin', when we rise
In the mornin', when we rise
That's the time, that's the time
I love the best

Mellow is the feelin' that I get
When I see her, mm hmm
When I see her, uh huh
That's the time, that's the time
I love the best

Freedom is a word I rarely use
Without thinkin', mm hmm
Without thinkin', uh huh
Of the time, of the time
When I've been loved

HUMBUG

Been a while since there has been some curmudeontary here, so let's have at it!!

1.  When did it become 'cool' [and pseudo-intellectual] to pronounce news as noose?  And similarly other _ews words? Seems to be an affliction of the liberal left - hear it on NPR but not on Fox [oops, I rarely watch Fox, but when I do.....]

2.  When did reach out become the 'cool' replacement for the much simpler and more accurate ask, question, contact, etc.?  Maybe it makes the user feel more compassionate, intellectual, who knows....

3.  When will the lunatic right stop blaming Obama for everything that goes bad?  Surely there is enough to blame him for without resorting to idiotic conspiracy claims such as Obama creating ISIS and that Obama created Ebola to destroy Christians.  {I know, the latter is a parody, but not too far off of the mark}

4.  When will the lunatic left stop blaming everything on the vast right-wing conspiracy?

5.  When will CU, and perhaps other Division I universities, finally realize that college football is a farce and a huge waste of resources?  CU's football program fulfills Einstein's quote on insanity.

6.  When will the Nuggets and the Rockies figure out that their problems are not with the players but with the owners and management?

7.  Why doesn't the US fix all of the problems at home rather than trying to fix everyone else's problems?  The cost of a couple of war planes would greatly improve the abysmal conditions of schools on many Native American reservations.

8.  Why is it that some folks reject every aspect of evolution but are outspokenly certain that the eboloa virus will change [evolve] into an airborne pathogen?

9.  Why do many drivers confuse the high-occupancy lane for a high-speed lane?  Same folks seem compelled to give hand gestures to those who abide by the speed limit.

And on and on.....chime in please!

Addendum -  for those of you who may not know Andy Rooney [as referenced in FHorTG's comment], here is Andy Rooney, a true curmudgeon who looked the part!!

 

TEQUILA SUNRISE

I stumbled across an out-of-the-way music video site called YouKu - I believe it is Chinese - and it has some things that are fairly unusual and some things that you don't find on YouTube.  Here's an example from the Eagles - it may disappear at any time courtesy of the NSA or some such!!

PAUL REVERE DICK

Some of you may have noted the recent passing of Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders.  You can read a write up about Revere here.  What many folks probably do not know is that Revere [the blond in the album cover above] had a Mennonite background.  Here is a brief summary that I cut and pasted from a couple of sources:

Paul Revere Dick, the youngest of five children, was born on January 7, 1938, in Harvard, Nebraska, and raised on a farm near Caldwell, Idaho. As a Mennonite, Paul registered for the draft as a conscientious objector.  Just after his band achieved their initial success in 1961, Paul was drafted by the U.S. military but was assigned a I-W status as a CO and served his alternative service as a cook at a mental institution at Wilsonville, Oregon. Prior to his time with the Raiders, Paul attended barber college, opened his own barber shop, and also opened a drive-in restaurant, the Reed 'n' Bell, in Caldwell, Idaho.

Burial:
Hillcrest Memorial Gardens
Caldwell
Canyon County
Idaho, USA

Sometime during my college years at Goshen, a group of us traveled to South Bend to see Paul Revere and the Raiders, and to say that Paul was high energy would be an understatement.  Here are then and now videos of one of their big hits.

They also demonstrated a bit of social consciousness

Also, most do not know that the Raiders recorded Louie, Louie before the Kingsmen

And if you have the time, a whole concert can be seen here

THREE YEARS AND COUNTING

Three years ago today, Goshen College biology professor Dr. James Miller was brutally murdered at his home just a couple of blocks from the college campus.  You can read about it in a previous post here.

Some of you know that I traveled to Goshen to complete the semester in two of Dr. Miller's biology courses, and while there, I tried to glean as much information as I could about the tragedy. Sadly, three years have passed and there is virtually nothing known about the killer, motive, etc.

Here is the three-year update from the Goshen News:

 By JOHN KLINE

 
GOSHEN — Three years after a mysterious attacker killed a Goshen College professor at his home and injured his wife, there is still hope the crime will be solved.

Thursday will mark the anniversary of the unsolved murder of James S. Miller. Miller, 58, was killed at around 1 a.m. Oct. 9, 2011, during a home invasion in the 1700 block of Wildwood Court, a neighborhood practically within shouting distance of the GC campus. Miller’s wife, Linda, was also home during the invasion and was seriously injured before managing to call 911.


Goshen police were dispatched to the Miller home at 1:06 a.m., and arrived at the normally quiet neighborhood east of the college campus just a few minutes later. During the 911 call, Linda Miller told police there was a robbery in progress and that she had been attacked by a white male.

Since that frantic call, hundreds of tips have poured into the Goshen Police Department related to the murder. But Millers’ attacker remains at large and has yet to be identified.

According to Tina Kingsbury, administrative assistant with the Goshen Police Department, the homicide of Miller continues to be an active and ongoing investigation to which detectives have been assigned and continue to work on diligently.

“From that day, the Goshen Police Department has been investigating and following every piece of evidence, every lead, and every tip which poured into the department,” Kingsbury said in a statement Thursday afternoon. “In 2013, the administration of the Goshen Police Department enlisted the assistance of the Indiana State Police Cold Case Unit to review all the case details and information pertaining to the James Miller homicide. The resources available to the Indiana State Police and their Cold Case Unit’s vast experience in investigating offenses of this magnitude continue to be a great asset to our ongoing investigation.”

Along those lines, Kingsbury noted that the Indiana State Police and the Goshen Police Department are urging anyone with knowledge of the Miller murder to contact the Goshen Police Department at 574-533-8661.

Life goes on
 
The fact that the case remains under investigation is good news for many of the neighbors and families who live in the Millers’ neighborhood, many of whom now go about their days with a little more caution than they did before the attack.
 
For most, gone are the days of leaving their doors, windows and garages unlocked. Numerous homes in the neighborhood have also had new security systems installed, and it’s not unusual to see chains on many a front door.

Even so, strength and hope have remained steadfast in the community, with many residents vowing they will not let the incident define them and how they go about their daily lives.
Laverne Nafziger, who resides just a few houses down from the Miller residence, is just such a resident.

“I am not afraid,” Nafziger said during an interview at her home Thursday afternoon. “I’ve decided that I can’t live with fear, because there’s nothing I can do. I can try to be more careful about locking the doors and things like that. I lock more than I did. And I think everybody in the neighborhood is a little more cautious.”

Nafziger noted that other than some of the new security upgrades in the neighborhood, the Miller murder has had very little effect on the dynamics of her typically quite, uneventful neighborhood.

“The neighborhood has really stayed the same,” Nafziger said. “One couple went to Greencroft, and so there was a change there. Another woman died, so there was a change there, and another family left just this year, but it was because of a job change. So nobody left because of it. The community has stayed strong.”

Through it all, Nafziger said she has never given up hope that Miller’s killer will eventually be brought to justice, a hope she shares with many others in the neighborhood, including nearby neighbor Gay Lehman.

“We would all love to see the case solved,” Lehman said from her home. “I think all the neighbors do. I think it would just bring closure to the whole event if we could get it solved.”

Like Nafziger, Lehman said she typically goes about her days now with a little more caution and awareness than she did before the attack, though she is adamant that she has not let the event define her.

“I think there are more security systems, and we keep things a little more locked up than we did before,” Lehman said. “So we’re just being a little more cautious, a little more careful. But I’m not living in fear. I’m not going to let the guy have that much power over me. We’re just going to go on with life and be a little more careful. I just wish they could get it solved, and I think everybody in Goshen feels that way. So we’re just hanging in there.”

THE RADICALS

When the Radical Amish have serious disagreements with their brethren, they cut off the beards of their adversaries.  Our society convicts the offending Amish of hate crimes.

When the Radical Muslims have disagreements with anyone who does not believe as they do, they cut off the heads of their adversaries.  Much of the Muslim world either remains silent or lauds the pernicious murderers.  

However, as Harvey Yoder over at Harvspot points out, beheadings by religious fundamentalists are not new.  The early anabaptists were also know as The Radicals for their anti-establishment beliefs in the separation of church and state, adult baptism, non-violence, etc.  Below is Harvey's blogspot post:  

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Anabaptist Wolfgang Binder beheaded 1571

My wife's ancestor Hans Landis, one of the last known Anabaptists martyrs in western Europe, was executed in the year 1614, just 400 years ago.

Landis was one of thousands who were martyred for advocating for a free church, one completely independent of state control and free of all forms of coercion or violence.

One of the more common means of killing such dissidents in the time of the Protestant Reformation was beheading, next only to deaths by drowning or by burning at the stake. All of these brutalities against Anabaptists (adult baptizers) were carried out in the name of God by Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed jurisdictions alike.

Today we are shocked by similar forms of terrorism on the part of ISIL extremists. But even they have not even begun to decapitate as many people as were killed in this way by religiously controlled authorities in Christian-dominated Europe just centuries ago.

This suggests that brutal forms of torture and killing cannot be associated with any one religion, but with religious fundamentalists of any faith. Sadly, it took hundreds of years for so-called Christians to stop executing unbelievers, members of other faiths and even people of different Christian beliefs.

Maybe one day followers of Jesus will just get out of the killing business altogether.

Posted by Harvey Yoder

ELECTION PREDICTIONS - 2014

 

Over on the right side of this blog is my list of other sites that I often visit. The very first one listed is electoralmap.net and it is the handiwork of a family member - most of you can figure out who that would be!! The predictions are based on up-to-date aggregated polling data for the Senate, House and Gubernatorial races.  There is a highly interactive Senate Monte Carlo simulation page and an informative Latest News and Announcements page.  One of the saddest bits of information displays is the House race page - there are only three states where there are competitive races.  This seems to prove the point that everyone wants to throw out everyone else's bum but not their own bum.

The sites predictions were previously based on the InTrade election wagering market, but the US Government had a hand in shutting down that company - read about it in the March 2, 2014 News and Comment Section.

To see where the races are headed, I recommend visiting the site often as the elections draw closer.  Today - Republicans + 7 in the Senate for a 52-48 majority, and +1 in the House to slightly extend their majority to 235-200.  Net governorships - no change.

SEINFELD'S BUCKET LIST

I have chuckled about this quite a bit since I heard it - it's my kind of bucket list!!!