Faith, family ducks, rumors . . . in that order

Faith.  Family.  Ducks.  In that order.  

That is the motto of the Robertson family business, Duck Commander, which, as several million A&E channel viewers know, is featured in "Duck Dynasty".  The reality show is going into its fourth season.

This week on Facebook, a rumor exploded surrounding the series' return to A&E.  Here is one version:

The Liberals and Atheists are given A&E alot of problems because of Duck Dynasty family dinner Prayer and the constant presence of guns. They want that part taken off the air. Well A&E went to PHIL and ask if they would not do that again. Phil Told them, "if we cant pray to God on the show, we will not do the show". He Said, "Guns and God are apart of our everyday lives and to remove either of them from the show is unacceptable" . Well A&E, do you want the #1 show on TV or you gonna cave in to those Liberals and Atheists ? I'm sure another channel will pick them up. Also Phil insisted that the show would air at 9PM central time so it would not conflict with the viewer's Wednesday Night Church Services. The contract was agreed upon and signed by A&E yesterday for another season and it will remain being produced according to Phil Robertson and on his terms.

It makes a wonderful story:  Christian stands up for his beliefs against a money-hungry, powerful member of the "mainstream media" and wins!  Wow!  God is great!  Praise the Lord!  No, we ain't gonna cave in to those "liberals and atheists" out there!

There's just one problem with that whole story.

It isn't true.

Snopes.com rated it "false":  http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/duckdynasty.asp after several readers e-mailed them and asked about the story.

And The Blaze (Glenn Beck's website) did an interview with the Robertsons which debunked the story:  http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/05/10/rumor-check-did-duck-dynasty-star-phil-robertson-really-say-ae-asked-family-to-tone-down-prayer-and-guns-we-talked-to-them/#respond

Not only that, Missy Robertson (wife of Jase) tweeted Phil's response when asked that question:  "Not to my knowledge."

I didn't start watching the show until recently.  In fact, my first reaction upon hearing of the premise was, "Duck calls?  You've GOT to be kidding."

My minister is a big fan of Duck Dynasty, and so are millions of others . . . and I am slowly being converted to the faith. :-)


It is true that there has been some tension between the Robertsons and Hollywood's portrayal of their faith.  Snopes comments on this in their article, and refers to a Christian Chronicle piece on the family:  http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2159776~Faith,_family_and_ducks:_Behind_the_scenes_of_

But the story of A&E being pressured to cancel the show because of complaints from "liberals and atheists", and of Phil Robertson "standing up to the liberal media" and getting his way . . . no, it looks like that is not true.


A friend of mine on Facebook recently told me that she was convinced that no one spreads gossip and lies like Christians on Facebook.  There are times--like now--that I agree with her.

This is not an example of "Christian persecution".  We Americans don't know anything about real persecution.

Real persecution is in China, where believers have to secretly meet in order to keep from being arrested.

Real persecution is in countries such as Iran, where a Christian pastor is still in jail.

Real persecution is when Christians are threatened with the loss of life and/or property and/or freedom solely because of their faith . . . and when the people in power allow it to happen (and in some cases, encourage it).

We Christians do experience a lot of criticism in the United States, it is true.  Some of it is justified, and some of it isn't.  But right now, we are still free to practice Christianity in this country.

If we Christians keep crying "persecution!" at every rumor, the day is going to come when no one will believe us when we cry "persecution!" and it is really happening.

So, let's leave the Robertsons to their faith, family, ducks, and TV show.  Drop the rumors.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

On second thought, don't bite me . . .

Today, I shared the following picture being passed around Facebook:

I added, They should have one reading, no more game invitations!

My BFF posted to me, Wanna play Words With Friends? as a joke.

I responded, "Bite me," and put a smiley face afterwards.

We were both on Skype at the same time, and when she read my answer, she was shocked.  She said she'd never heard me use the phrase before.

I've thought it, but I don't think I've said it; at least, not very often.

I told her that I would even provide the chomp if she wanted, to take the sting out of the phrase.

But then, I thought, what if there's another meaning to "bite me" other than "shut up" or "get out of my face", like I was using it (even as a joke.)

So I looked it up, and while I did find one definition reading "a response to being angry or embarrassed", I found several other definitions, including:  telling someone to go to hades, and telling someone to go do something indecent to themselves.

Oops.

I guess that just proves that the next time I say something and I'm not sure what it means, I'd better go look it up.

So on second thought, don't bite me.

Just don't send me any more game invitations through Facebook, okay?

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Yeah, right . . .

"I'm Amanda Berry . . . I need police . . . I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years. And I'm here. I'm free now."

Yeah, right.

Had I been the 911 operator who took that call in Cleveland, Ohio yesterday, that would have been my reaction.  Yeah, right.  Amanda Berry.  Probably a hoax.

And although I would have done my duty and sent police out to the address she gave, I still would have been thinking in the back of my mind, Yeah, right.  Amanda Berry.  The cops are going to go out there and discover it was all a joke.  Don't these people have better things to do with their time?

If that indeed is what the 911 operator was thinking, I can only imagine the shock she got when she found out that the young lady on the end of the line was, indeed, Amanda Berry, that she had, indeed, been missing for 10 years, that she had, indeed, been kidnapped, and that she was, indeed, now free.

Amanda Berry was one of three women who disappeared in Cleveland, Ohio, about 10 years ago.  Amanda was 16 when she vanished.  The other two women were Gina DeJesus, who was 14 when she went missing, and Michelle Knight, who was 19 when she disappeared.  

All three of them were being held in a house at 2207 Seymour Avenue.  

The details of this case are still coming out.  What we know so far is that a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, heard someone banging and screaming on the front door of 2207 and went to investigate.  He found a hand sticking out of the door and someone screaming, "Help me!"  

She couldn't get out because the door was locked from the outside.  Ramsey helped the girl kick in the door and she crawled out through the bottom panel.  

That was when she told him that she was Amanda Berry, missing for 10 years.  

Ramsey called 911, gave her the phone, and that's when she told a probably incredulous 911 operator who she was and what had happened to her.  

Three men have been arrested.

The usual questions are being asked right now:  How could no one know that they were there?  Didn't they have a chance to escape?  What happened to them?  At least one child, a 6-year-old, was also taken from the house; the news, at this time, is not giving any details about her, although it's been speculated that the child belongs to one of the women. 

By coincidence, Elizabeth Smart recently spoke at a conference on human trafficking.  She said that she understood why victims don't run and don't try to get away.  In describing her own ordeal, she said that she felt "dirty and filthy", and said, "Why would it even be worth screaming out?  Why would it even make a difference if you are rescued?  Your life still has no value."

I don't know if these women were sexually abused.  My guess is that they were.  I would not be surprised if they were.  

And I would not be surprised if, right now, they did feel "dirty, filthy, and with no value."

Somehow, though, Amanda Berry held on to the hope that one day, she would get out of that house.  She knew the address.  A press conference this morning described Amanda Berry as "the real hero".  

Somehow, Amanda Berry fought through the despair and hopelessness she must have felt at times being held captive in that house.  

Somehow, she saw her chance for escape, and she took it.  

And by taking that chance to escape, she rescued two other women and at least one child.  

The quotes from the next few days are probably going to range from, "I'm Amanda Berry, I've been kidnapped and I'm, I'm free now . . ." to Charles Ramsey's, "I am eating my McDonald's and I come outside and I see this girl going nuts trying to get outside of the house," to the police chief's, "The real hero here is Amanda Berry."

Amanda Berry.  Yeah, right.

Yeah, right!

The week that was

Last week was a week.

It began at 2:50 pm Eastern Daylight Time with two explosions at the finish line at the Boston Marathon.

It ended at approximately 8:45 pm Eastern Daylight Time at a boat in the backyard of a Watertown, Massachusetts home, when a wounded and desperate 19-year-old was finally arrested by police.

In those 113 hours, we witnessed events that we'd never seen before compressed into a single week. While there have been bombings and disasters before, rarely in American history were they happening one after the other in the same week.

We saw and heard of a bombing that killed three people and injured about 180, including many with limbs blown off.  (It was when I heard that part on Monday that I started hyperventilating.  A long FaceTime session with my BFF helped with that.)

We heard of people trying to run away from the explosion, and at the same time, we heard of the heroism of those who ran TO the explosion, trying to save lives and trying to help hurting people.  A now iconic picture of "the man in the cowboy hat", Carlos Arredondo, encapsulated that spirit:

Wednesday, we suffered through a day of media coverage when we heard, "They may have a suspect.  They DO have a suspect.  They have a suspect arrested.  They have a suspect, and they are bringing him to the courthouse.  No, wait . . . They don't have a suspect.  They don't have a suspect arrested.  They're not bringing him to the courthouse.  Oops, our bad!"

The FBI gave the media a well-deserved dressing down when they put out a statement saying, in part:  " . . . there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate.  Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting."

In other words, if you don't know what you're talking about, keep your hands off the keyboard and keep your bloody mouth SHUT!

Wednesday we also began receiving reports about a letter sent to a Mississippi Congressional representative that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin.  Then we learned that a similar letter was sent to President Obama.

What was this?  Were we in the middle of a two-pronged terrorist attack?  Just like after 9/11, with the anthrax letters?

As it turned out, it was an Elvis impersonator who believed that he was the target of a widespread government conspiracy "after stumbling onto a plot to sell body parts".  (More information here:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/04/18/obama-letter-ricin-mississippi/2092795/)  It's unlikely that the letters were connected in any way with the Boston bombings, and had this been any other week, this would have been the story the media would have led with and focused their microscopes on.

That evening, an explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant in the tiny town of West, Texas.  (Texans refer to it as West comma Texas, according to a FB friend of mine who has traveled through there many times.)  As of this writing, 14 people are dead and 200 are injured.  A father and child in the area captured the explosion on video.  When the explosion happened, Derrick Hurtt's daughter started screaming, "I can't hear, I can't hear, let's get out of here, please get out of here, I can't hear."

The media would have lead with this story on Thursday morning and stayed with it, had it not been for the unfolding events in Boston.  There is no known connection between this explosion and the Boston bombings.  There is only a town in shock and devastation.

Thursday at 5 pm, the FBI turned to the public for help by releasing the now-famous video of "the man in the black hat and the man in the white hat" strolling through the crowds at the Boston Marathon:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57580325/fbi-releases-video-of-2-boston-bombing-suspects/

The FBI reported "record traffic" as tips poured in.

And then all hell broke loose on Thursday night.

Hours after the FBI released the video, an officer was shot at MIT.

A man was carjacked, released a half hour later, and came running into a convenience store, shaking and crying out, "They tried to kill me!"

Somewhere in this sequence of events was a robbery at a 7-11 and the withdrawal of cash from an ATM.

In the dead of night, a wild chase ensued with shots fired and explosives being thrown out of a car window.  The chase ended when the car was stopped and one of the two men inside was shot (and may have detonated an explosive) . . . and then the other person backed up over the body and drove off.

I turned the radio on at 6 am Friday to hear, one bombing suspect dead, one on the run.

And all day, except for the time when I was with my tutor (I was online with her working on my court reporting theory) I either had the radio on or the TV on, or had the iPad near me in order to keep track of the news.

At 8:30 am, I started hearing reports of gunshots . . . but no suspect.  

Boston was on lockdown.  Public transportation stopped.  People were told, "do not go out, stay home," and SWAT teams went from door to door to door, searching.

At some point, we learned the names of the two men involved:  26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was the one who died in the police shootout, and 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.   

After a long day of searching, shots of Fox News and CNN News reporters standing in the near-empty streets of Boston and the surrounding areas, with trucks with the words "Bomb Squad" or "Bomb Unit" or "State Police" driving by in the background, filled with clips of family members ranging from an angry uncle who called his two nephews "losers", to an aunt who demanded, "where is the evidence?" and stated that "this was staged", to a father who said, they were framed . .  .the authorities lifted the lockdown and told people, you can go out and about your business.

It was that release that, at about 7:30 pm, allowed David Henneberry, of 67 Franklin Street, Watertown, Massachusetts, to go out into his backyard, where his beloved boat was, covered with a tarp.

He saw blood on the tarp and went over to examine the boat.

When he pulled the tarp back, he found a body, covered in blood.

He immediately retreated and called 911.

One hour and fifteen minutes later, the welcome words came over the Boston police scanner:  "We got him."

They had him alive.

Exhausted, tense law enforcement personnel left the scene to the cheers and applause of bystanders.  It is a sound you don't hear often in regards to the police.

The usual questions are going to be asked:  Why did this happen?  Where was God in all of this?  Why me?  Why them?  Was there a conspiracy?  Were all of these events linked?

I don't know the answers to those questions.  I only know that I am an average American, a witness to these events, and one who is glad that a perpetrator is off the streets . . . and who wonders, what now?  How will the people affected process these things?  How will they heal?

As an old TV show from the '60's used to say, that was the week that was.

And I pray it never will be again.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Why I left . . .

I just deleted my account at Freedom Torch and Tea Party Community.  I have also pulled out of a conservative Facebook group.  Why? Because I am just so sick and tired of wading through the conspiracy theories that are out there.

The last straw came when I read at a particular FB group that they had trouble believing the "official version" of the Sandy Hook shootings.  The other last straw came when someone posted at another group that they thought their phone was tapped because they had made several efforts to contact their senators about gun control legislation.

A friend of mine posted at FB that she doesn't know what to believe anymore.  I understand her feelings.  I think there is information being overlooked by the major media (the Kermit Gosnell trial is a case in point).  And I do think there are people that are using major events--such as the Sandy Hook shootings--to advance their own agendas.

I get very frustrated with the overload of information that is out there.  It is so difficult to sift through everything that is out there and figure out what is truth and what is fiction.  And one of my frustrations is that I can't seem to find fellow conservatives that believe in the principles of conservatism (limited government and fiscal responsibility, among other things) who don't believe in certain conspiracies.

So, in order to protect what little is left of my sanity, it's best that I limit my participation in certain groups.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

One more thing to blame on males . . .

After eighteen and a half years of living in Atlanta, and proudly announcing myself as "allergy-free", I have finally succumbed to the effects of pine pollen.

Last night I was so congested that I couldn't sleep well.  This morning I headed for the store to get decongestants, which I told my husband were of greater worth than gold. :-)

Pollen, I heard on the radio, is from male plants to female plants.  It is the male plant's way of pollinating a female plant.

In other words, all this pollen in the air?

It's the fault of males.

Which adds one more item on the list of things for which to blame males!

The suicide of God?

Today is Easter.  I ran across this picture on Facebook today:

Okay, I know it came from the group "Atheist", and I'm not sure if whoever made the picture was posting tongue-in-cheek.  Maybe I'm missing a joke somewhere.

But the person who made the picture is missing the point of the crucifixion and resurrection.

1.  God chose to incarnate, in the person of Jesus Christ.  No one made Him do it.  He very easily could have left us in our sinful state.
2.  It is true we are sinners, and it's our sin that separates us from God.  But God sees us as having worth.  He doesn't see us as "so awful", with disgust.  He looks at us with compassion, like sheep without a shepherd.  (Matthew 9:36)
3.  God, in the person of Jesus, chose to die a horrifying death on a cross.  Jesus wrestled with His forthcoming death (Matthew 26:36-46).  In the end, he made the choice to go forward with a mockery of a trial, torture, and death.  No one made him do it.
4.  The crucifixion was only part of the story.  It was the resurrection that gave the cross its power.  Had a sinless Jesus lived, suffered, and died, it would have made a sad story.  The end of the story came on what we now celebrate as Easter.  It was the empty tomb.  Ending the story at "God killing himself" robs the story of the cross of its power.  The power comes at the resurrection--"death in vain forbid[ding] his rise".

Christianity is not about God committing suicide.  It is about a God that would go to any lengths to have a relationship with His creation.  We are not "so awful that we made God kill himself".  We are so valuable to him that God did not want to leave us in our sin.

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.