They're Baaack!

This is great. A lot of things from my childhood seem to be having encore appearances. Things like He-Man, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers and my most recent "re-discovery", Garbage Pail Kids. You remember Garbage Pail Kids, they were first created as a mockery of Cabbage Patch dolls, those disgustingly cute little dolls with pudgy cheeks and birth certificates. (Those things were bigger than Tickle-me Elmo's) They threw out the cute thing and dove straight into the disgusting part. The trading cards/stickers came with (and still do) a piece of dry taste-free bubble gum. Well now you can create your own Garbage Pail Kid online. (Finally, the technology that we've all been waiting for.) You can try it for yourself here.

Coincidence or a sign from God?

With all of the inclement weather that we've been having lately, the Smith family has sort of been "under attack." Get this: Last Thursday's big storms knocked out power and flooded some areas. (Our basement got wet, no big surprise.) But it was last Friday that we were "targeted." Perhaps it's El Nino'. . . in reruns. The strong winds and dumping rain knocked over the top half of a tree in my parent's front yard. It wouldn't have been any big deal but, my parents had returned home from camping earlier in the week and had parked the trailer, (You guessed it) in the front yard. So when the tree broke, the trailer was there to soften it's fall. So Friday evening we were over there, cutting the trailer free. Luckily, it didn't seem to cause any damage but nonetheless Dad's going to have it looked at just to make sure. It wouldn't be so weird if that were the end of the story. That day, I was borrowing my mom's minivan because my truck was in the shop. (See my previous entries for more on that.) Anyway, when the storm hit on Friday afternoon, I was at work. The wind blew over one of those 30 Ft. tall evergreen shrubs. (I know 30 Ft. is pretty big for a shrub but, this thing definitely wasn't a tree.) So it just happened to land on my mom's van. Once again, no damage but it did look like I had a Christmas tree tied to the bumper. Then Friday night, the power went out at my parent's house, causing the sump pump to stop working, resulting in the basement flooding, a bit. This too wouldn't be so strange if last year's flooding didn't do the same thing. Thankfully, we had some friends with a great carpet cleaner that was able to suck out most of the water. I ask the question whether or not this is coincidence or a sign from God because my parents have been considering moving. I wrote this blog and upon reading it, it made my mom have different feelings about moving. Also, I caught a lot of flack from my uncle about trying to lay a guilt trip on them. I didn't have those intentions but, I guess it could have those appearances. So, how do I feel about them looking for a new place now? Fine, as long as they move to a place on a hill, with perfect gutters and downspouts and a garage large enough to keep the trailer in. Until they do that, I'll be watching the weather channel and the real estate ads.

I knew that. . .

Well, I got my truck back already. Turns out I was right. It was a thingamajig. Oh, the real name for that part is: relay switch. Apparently it was wearing out and not getting the fuel pump to do it's job effectively. So all it really took was a real car guy around to fix it. He did it in 30 minutes, for about $55 bucks. Thanks Franko. I highly reccomend him. If you need your car fixed look him up at Don Sitts in Cuyahoga Falls. Relay switch. Yeah, I knew that. . .

Because I'm a "car guy!"

Well, I had mentioned in one of my previous blogs that my truck was running rough. I thought that I had taken care of it but, apparently not. My truck is out of commission. My buddy Nelson and I worked on it last Saturday, after our softball game. (Which we won. - I say this to mark the occasion because in the 3 seasons that I've played softball in the church league we've never won a game.) Anyway we replaced the spark plugs, and put in a new fuel injector. Got our hands greasy and even made grunting noises while tightening down the thingamajigs. (For those of you that aren't "car guys" a thingamajig is a car part that you don't know the name of.) We got everything put back together and the truck was running better but, not exactly working the way it should. So I did what any "car guy" would do and: Called my dad to see if I could borrow his car. That worked out well because he and mom were camping last weekend so he obviously wasn't going to be using it, so I did. Problem solved.

- "But Josh," you say, "what about your truck. You didn't solve that problem."

You're right I didn't but, when I had to give dad his car back I did the next thing that a "car guy" would do: I drove the truck anyway. And it drove just fine. I had a seminar that I had to be at and so I drove the truck out to the hotel and parked it. Once the seminar was over I went out to start it up and. . .nothing, of course. It wouldn't start. So I did the next thing that a "car guy" would do: I opened up the hood and stared at all the parts that for some reason weren't working. So after I stared at it for a couple of minutes - (I was really letting my truck know who's boss. I mean a stern look and everything) - I got back in it and tried to start it and. . .

- "It started!", you exclaim.

No, of course it didn't start! Stop interrupting! So I did the one last thing that I knew a "car guy" would do:

- "You had it towed to a mechanic."

Yessir, how did you know?

- "You're not really talking to me - you're just typing extra things to make it seem like dialogue."

Oh.

- "You better finish your story. . ."

Okay, thanks. Anyway, I told the mechanic what I had done with the thingamajigs and what happened. He asked me why I did those things, so I told him. . . It's because I'm a "car guy."

A Follow Up to "What do they have to say about it?"

They actually said something, er, well not exactly the people I'd thought or wished would say something but, some Muslims have actually condemned the murder of Nick Berg. The thing that weirds me out about all this is that it's other terrorists groups saying this is wrong! Hezbollah & Hamas!! Hezbollah aka Islamic Jihad - as in suicide truck bombers in Beruit or those that conducted the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847. (more here)(or here - see "Lebanon") Hamas - you know them as the suicide bombers in Israel. (more here)(or here - see "Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip") For some reason, these groups condemn the brutal murder of Nick Berg by men claiming to act on behalf of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (more see "Military") Isn't that a little bit of a double standard guys. I mean come on, you can totally endorse your women and children strapping explosive vests on and killing off people in busses and markets or driving trucks packed with explosives into buildings but killing someone with a sword is wrong? Wow, you are crazy. For more on terrorism see www.state.gov

Family Resemblance?!?

I want to give a big congratulations to my good friend Nathan & his wife Sonya on the birth of their son Ezekiel. (8lbs 7 ounces - 18 inches long) Typing that out makes me wonder, why don't we ever give weight and height as a standard part of our birthday "info"? You know like, "James Monoganan, 41, 237 lbs, 6 oz.)" Anyway, happy birthday little guy. Thought you all might enjoy some photos: Here's the new family and Dad holding his son. Ezekiel's first close up. Is that a little smile. He must be warming up to the camera. . . He's got Sonya's eyes! And Nathan's smile! Wow. Doesn't it usually take years before they really look like their parents? Well, this is definitely an outstanding child! In all seriousness though, congratulations guys. You've been blessed and we all know you'll raise him to be a man of character and faith.

From the Golden EIB microphone, to my blog, to you. . .

Don't be fooled by those who say that we're just like the terrorists who we're trying to take out. Take a look at an attempt to make the connection between the atrocities in war and what happened to Nick Berg. From RushLimbaugh.com:

RUSH: Cliff in Washington, Missouri. You're next. Hello, sir. It's outside of St. Louis. Nice to have you wish us. CALLER: Thanks, Rush, thanks for putting me on. Rush, I'm just as outraged at that video as you are, but Rush, I wonder if you've seen a video, pick any city in Iraq, and we bombed trying to hit insurgents and we hit a house and there are three kids in a bathroom and their body parts are on the floor, would you be just as repulsed? RUSH: Nice try, Cliff. Why do you want to do this? Would you give me one – CALLER: Rush— RUSH: Cliff, hang on, just a question. Give me one shred of similarity between the example you just gave and the Nick Berg video. CALLER: Rush, it's all atrocities, okay? I mean, the end result is still the same, Rush. We don't see video of that. We don't see video of people with their body parts laying apart but it's happening, Rush. RUSH: Cliff, let me try -- CALLER: You know that, Rush -- RUSH: No, don't put words in my mouth because I'm not going to accept your premise and this is one of the problems that I have. You sound like an otherwise reasonable guy. You sound like you've got a modicum of intelligence out there, yet you wish, you search, you actively seek out a way to make equivalent our actions with these terrorists in the Nick Berg video. I don't understand that. What is the compulsion so many Americans have to want to draw these lines of equivalence between us and this human debris? Let me address your specific example. We're in a war. We have insurgents like this al-Sadr fellow and his terrorist cohorts and they've taken over a town and they've taken prisoner of the kids you're talking about, and they're hiding behind them. They are cowards. We are not there to murder. We are not there to maim and kill children. We are not there to burn down their homes or their schools and weren't. We are rebuilding their schools. We are rebuilding their hospitals. Their schools are open, their hospitals are functioning, the electricity is back with more wattage and power and functionality than it ever had under Saddam. The U.S. military does not target civilians, the U.S. military does not target children, the U.S. military does not seek them out for wanton murder and call it war. So when I see those images, yeah, and I haven't, but I know they exist. I don't sit around and beat my chest over it and say, "Ho-ho, look what the mighty United States of America did." I blame the people who are responsible for it, and that is the cowards who are using those children as shields and using their women as shields and it frustrates me to no end that you don't also see this. You know who these people are. It is not a mystery. They are not good, there's nothing good about them. They are perverted, they are demented, they are pure trash human debris. They have declared war on us. They treat their own kids far worse than anything that might happen to them as a result of the United States riding to their rescue. These are the people that strapped bombs on their own kids and send them out to be blown up, and they lie to them, and they say, "Do this and you'll get to heaven. You'll meet Allah," or whatever it is they tell them. They are willing to kill their own kids to save their own lives. They are nothing. They have no value. They are not to be respected. They are not to be protected. They are not to be understood. They are to be eliminated. They do not bring anything decent to their own country, to their own people, to their own families, to their own population. They bring destruction. They bring death. They bring misery. They bring poverty. We, the United States of America, and the people of this country, banded together via our elected officials and our money are attempting to save these people from their own so-called leaders. In the process, unfortunate things happen, but it is not our aim. It is not our purpose. It is not our desire. We do not put these kids on television and do to them what was done to Nick Berg, and then ask CBS to broadcast it to the Arab world. And the idea that you can call here and try to establish some degree of similarity offends the living hell out of me, Cliff. Go ahead and vote for John Kerry. Go ahead and vote for your favorite Democrats, and go ahead and open the borders to the people that murdered Nick Berg and let 'em come on in because we're not going to have the guts to stand up to them because we're too busy feeling guilty that we're just like them. And you, Cliff, are going to be among the first to go. Because you're going to think they're going to understand you. And they're going to look at you as an absolute dupe and an idiot, useful or otherwise, and you're gone. You need to be thanking God there are people who have the vision and the courage to see this for what it is and are willing to put their lives on the line to protect ignorant people and people who are otherwise doing other things and don't care what's going on, to protect them so they can go ahead and live their lives as blissfully as they choose. We do not need to be stringing people up who are trying to bring decency and freedom to other peoples in the world and make examples of them and say they're no different than al-Sadr, al-Qaeda, Zarqawi, whoever it is was in these pictures that murdered Nick Berg. I'll never understand the way you think, Cliff. But what I've realized is there's no talking you out of it. I don't even know if there's any shaming you. How you can even call here after having known what's on that video and dare say that there is some similarity to what we, the people of the United States believe and do, to what was done to Nick Berg in that video, makes me as repulsed and angry and fearful as I was when I watched the video.

What do they have to say about it?

I was reading the news on Page 2 of glennbeck.com and he had a link to an article entitled An Apology to the Pigs of the World . I like to be informed on what others are thinking and I thought it looked interesting. So I read it, and as I was reading I found myself nodding my head in agreement. Where is the outcry from the Muslim population? It's not like the news channels can't find any of them. They're always available to express their fear that the general public is going to rise up against the innocent muslims. But not once have I heard a muslim leader condemn what's going on in the name of allah. I heard Sean Hannity asking on tuesday afternoon where the "Martin Luther King Jr." of the muslim faith is? Why is there not a vocal outcry from any muslim leader to stop the violence. So what do they have to say about it? nothing.