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.

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.

Jehovah’s Witnesses were nearly crushed in 1918 when the bulk of their Governing Body was arrested on false charges and sentenced to long terms in prison. Their spiritual Brothers were not yet well equipped to carry on the work without strong leadership and the barely-begun work faltered, stumbled and appeared to have been extinguished.

That was, in a sense, a good thing; as it made patently clear that this work was not going to be the work of man alone, but if it was to succeed at all, it would have to be the subject of heavenly direction. Click here to read on, my friend.

Everyone else, listen up.

I hate GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and their insidious sidekick, chemical farming, with the same passion I reserve for pedophiles, politicians, abortionists and big bankers.

Click here to read on, my friend.

Just this month Forbes called Monsanto heroes.

(hack, cough, cough) Balderdash. I try not to use stronger words, but they would certainly apply.

I should probably post this link on my long-neglected organic gardening blog and, after I post it here, I might just do that.

But this blog gets somewhat more traffic and I think that this video, about the effects of chemical farming in India is instructive. I know that your time is valuable. I’m asking for 30 minutes of it with the promise that I will not waste that 30 minutes. Start by viewing the film for the first 26 minutes.

Click here to read on, my friend.

I just had a really good day that I am thankful for. It was busy, productive, included good friends, a couple of laughs and some cookies.

What’s not to like about a day like that?

Click here to read on, my friend.

I just ran across a compilation of the speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. in their audio form (mp3 format) and I thought you might have an interest in listening for yourself.

ML King was a great man, but in the end – as an assassin’s bullet proved – he was no less mortal than any of us. And that makes the risks he took, the challenges he faced and the victories he won all the more precious as an example of what it means to be an adult of any race in any nation in the present day.

Click here to read on, my friend.

There is a conundrum when setting a goal: set it too big and failure looms large in the headlights but set it too low and interest wanes almost immediately.

Click here to read on, my friend.