I just got off the phone from an international call to a close friend who is marooned on an island off the coast of Venezuela. I say it that way to keep from feeling badly about the true circumstances and I use as my justification the fact that he is, in fact, living on a desert island surrounded by ferocious man-eating sharks. And the racket from the dance clubs can get on your nerves, too.

Click here to read on, my friend.

There was a time when I wouldn’t have said that under my breath in a howling wind storm, but now I am willing to volunteer it in print. Thank you, Annie, for the gift of your youngest daughter and for meeting me half-way.

Click here to read on, my friend.

I just noticed that a banner ad from DentalPlans.com is appearing on this site. This is a good thing. As of a few days ago, on the advice of a dental tech., I went there and signed on with a plan called Dentemax. If I’d known about the ads, I’d have clicked through from here and gotten a (tiny) further discount.

All of the plans on the DentalPlan.com site appear to be the (so-called) ‘discount plans’. This seems to mean that they function essentially like insurance would, but do not have nearly the legal hurdles to jump over, so can be profitable with much smaller fees.

Like many insurance plans, there is a hefty up-front fee that the cardholder will have to pay, but there is also a substantial discount. Nobody uses these cards for frivolous purposes, but they easily pay for themselves. A couple of cleanings and a single filling could easily garner enough of a discount to pay for the years coverage.

I paid $104 for an individual plan on Monday. It was effective at 12:01 Tuesday morning and shaved somewhat more than $600 off work (lower partial denture and 3 extractions) that was already scheduled by 10:30 am Tuesday.

No questions.

That, for me, is your basic ‘no-brainer’.

I have friends who pay $72 a month for Delta Dental insurance and they pointed out that their $72 x 12 is roughly equivalent to the $900 that I still had to pay for this work. But they will be paying that $72 x 12 again next year, while I don’t expect to replace the partial denture that soon. If ever. And, if I do, I’ll get the $600 discount all over again.

More than that, they get their insurance through a group plan … something many of us can only look at wistfully, like marzipans through a shop window.

Dentemax (DentalPlans.com) is worth investigating. If you feel like doing me a favor, refresh the screen a few times until you see either a full banner ad for DentalPlans.com come up  below or their text ad. Then click on the ad. If you’re in pain and need the help in the morning, by all means head there without waiting another moment.

I’m not ‘selling clicks’ … my member # is 802674XXX. I ‘drink my own kool-aid.’

Can you recommend another blog or web site I should be following? I already follow (and recommend) Sheep and Goats. From time to time I comment there and occasionally you will find Tom commenting here, as well. We’ve exchanged emails “behind the curtains” and he seems like a genuinely likeable Brother. I’ve also been introduced to “The Ultimate Bible Reference Library” and some other commercial sites such as “Theocratic Ministry School Software”. I use, and recommend, “Service Record” from Savard Software which comes as shareware with a nag-screen. If you hate nag screens as much as I do, you’ll send Br.(?) Savard the (lifetime) registration fee because you won’t want to get rid of the software. By the time you’ve used it for a few months you’ll wonder why it isn’t available over the literature counter. Well it’s not … get over it … but you can get it free online. This program is begging for an open-source simulacrum or Doppelgänger so as to speed translation and feature acquisition.

BTW, as I write this, Tom’s newest post contains the memorable line: “am I really so immodest as to think what is needed in the brotherhood is 7 million carbon copies of ME?” Read the rest of the post and I think you’ll agree that there is a need for all of us to be thinkers.

However, with so much of what a search turns up turning out to be, at best, ‘junk’ after a few pages (apostates and opposers have to show their cards eventually), I could certainly use your help in locating ‘the good stuff’. I’m sure that I have no more than scratched the surface, if that.

I define “The ‘good stuff’” as material that complies with instructions from the Faithful & Discreet Slave regarding the various “do’s and don’ts”.

You may notice that I’ve been steering toward a more open expression of my religious beliefs here. That trend is expected to continue. Along the way I will no doubt alienate some readers while becoming more attractive to others. I read all of the comments appearing here several times a week … so right here is a good place to respond with any recommendations you might have. Feel free to self-recommend, too. If it’s ‘the good stuff’, I’ll say so. If it’s not, I’ll say so.

Right here.

If you like the changes, please spread the word.

– Bill

Got this from Twitpix … it’s a photo from Chile.

The scene on the left is the TOP layer of an overpass. These people made out better than the ones below. The lesson here is not that God is randomly smacking people around, but that he told us this time was coming.

It’s here.

He also told us some other things about this time and they will show up, too.

Are you ready? Are you even getting ready?

The next photo is from Haiti. It’s a tent city wedged in among a mix of wrecked and still-standing buildings. Soon there will be pics from Japan … and then? Who knows? Maybe Portland, Oregon, Manhattan, New York or an Aleutian Island. The issue really isn’t ‘where’ these things happen, but the pattern of them.

There were over 280 quakes this week.

– Bill

In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance, Scott Rasmussen observes that the American people are “united in the belief that our political system is broken, most politicians are corrupt, and neither major political party has the answers.” He adds that there is a “growing disdain for the unholy alliance between the largest corporations and our government… Some of us are ready to give up; some of us are ready to scream a little louder. But all of us believe we can do better.”

Click here to read on, my friend.

Humility among men, it seems, is generally most highly valued among those of modest accomplishment.

But is this idea scripturally sound? Click here to read on, my friend.

Just a reminder that “Quote Friday” got its proper attention at its due time every week this month. The most recent quote posted is below. You might want to slip on over to the full page to see the rest.

February 26:

Death had to take him in his sleep, for if he was awake there’d have been a fight. – Woodrow Wilson, speaking of Teddy Roosevelt

Where I come from, geographically and morally, we still speak of a man has “standing up on his hind legs” … a reference to the rearing up that a stallion will do when entering conflict. To embrace conflict as a matter of common course is, undeniably, wrong. But so is avoiding conflict when it should be engaged in. And yes, there are times when conflict should be entered into.

Click here to read on, my friend.

Look at the final comment on the linked page. Christian love is universal. Anything less is something else.

While the world holds its breath for Clintons’ stents and worries about whether it will rain instead of snow for the winter Olympics in Vancouver, a true heroine passed away on Monday.

She was a quiet sort of woman. All she did that was exceptional was hand the Nazi’s a daily defeat. What she did took extraordinary courage.

Miep Gies would have been 101 next month. You probably don’t know her by name, but she and four other co-conspirators hid Otto Frank and his family from the Nazi’s.

Two of those co-conspirators were identified and captured by the Nazi’s.

You might not remember Otto Frank and that’s okay; he survived the war.

But perhaps you’ve heard of his daughter, Anne.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/Woman-Who-Hid-Anne-Frank-from-Nazis-Dies-at-100-81220562.html