Reunion was a huge success

Man, what a time we had this weekend at the what I hope is only the first of many reunions to come. I really got to know more about some of my family over the course of the last few days. Also learned what a Cajun microwave is and how it works. And Cajun horseshoes. There were five generations of family represented, what a rich heritage we have!

Here a couple of pictures from the weekend. The first one is of the Cajun microwave I mentioned earlier, it is the most amazing contraption that I've ever seen. Google it to learn more. The second picture is of a building right across the street from my cousin's home in Slaughter. Presently it is home to a World War II museum. But back in the 1920's and 1930's it was a bank. And the story goes that at some time (I'm guessing early 30's) it was robbed one day by a couple of people who would soon become legendary... Bonnie and Clyde . The story is , they got away with $500, which I'm sure was a pretty good sum back in the Depression days. They made their getaway up the street and headed north into Mississippi. It was just a matter of time, though, before the law caught up with them , and they were ambushed and killed by a posse of Texas and Lousiana officers on May 23, 1934 on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana.

whoa!

Marie went down like she'd been shot, on DWTS tonight..Glad she was ok. She didn't get much sympathy from it though, when the scores were announced. I predict that it'll be the Cheetah girl vs the Spice Girl in the finals...

reunion

Well its almost time for the first annual "official" Lofton/Montgomery reunion. This weekend should be filled with lots of nostalgia, laughter, and sharing many precious memories. I say "official, because we've had "mini-reunions" from time to time, usually Thanksgiving or Christmas, but this is the first time we've actually taken the time to plan something specific. A couple of my cousins and I came up with this idea back in July at the funeral of my uncle. We are hoping to make this an annual thing, because as we got older, and more of our relatives pass on, it holds more meaning. I will have more posts, and pictures from the events, hopefully beginning Sunday or Monday.

Warning----Contains Political Uncorrectness

A couple's 25th anniversary was approaching, and the husband, as usual, was struggling to come up with an appropriate gift to mark the occasion. For several years, the wife had been nagging him to buy her a sports car, with no success. As the anniversary date drew closer, she began to become more and more insistent in her demands for this car, and he kept refusing to give in to her demands. Finally, the day before the anniversary date, she informed him that come tomorrow, there had better be something in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 4 seconds. Or else, she would beat him to within an inch of his miserable life. So, he sighed and said OK, I give up.

The next morning she jumped up and ran out to the driveway to find....a set of bathroom scales.

Duh huh!

priorities in the news media

Ben Stein is a commentator who appears on various programs on occasion, offering insights about society. I have heard his comments a couple of times, but don't remember hearing this one. But it pretty much hits the nail on the head when it comes to what people consider "newsworthy"..

Can some kindly soul please take pity on little me and explain why it's important that I know about celebrities who get sent to jail, get to leave, and then get sent back again?

Can someone explain why I should care about whether a plastered movie star goes to jail in the first place?

This is a world in which the United States is engaged in a defense and foreign policy nightmare in Iraq and another one in Afghanistan. The same people who killed 3,000 Americans on 9/11 are hurting us badly in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are resurgent all over the Middle East. They threaten to make the Arab-Israeli situation far worse than it already is.

In such a world, who cares what Hollywood stars are drinking or whether they're in jail?

Iran is about to get nuclear weapons, or so it would seem. The North Koreans have nuclear weapons and have breached a deal with the U.S. to stop making them. This is serious business. Why, in times as dangerous as these, do we care about what movie star is dating which other movie star or how many swimming pools their rehabs have?

Why do we spend so much of our day agonizing about movie stars, and big busted blondes, alive and dead? Is it to escape thinking about the real problems we have? If so, it's a mistake. Not too many real problems go away by being ignored.

Is it because we're too stupid to know what's important? When the barbarians were at the gates of Rome, did the Romans gossip about Roman actresses?

Our enemies are serious about beating us. Except for the men and women in uniform, not too many of us seem serious about beating them.

Time to pay a lot more attention to the real stars … the ones in our military wearing battle dress uniforms over body armor in Iraq and Afghanistan … and a lot less about how much time Paris Hilton spends in jail.

well how about that

According to my sitemeter, something truly amazing, sensational, tremendous, fantastic, mind-boggling, and stupendous has occured. I am in an exclusive club now, having reached the level of 200 total visits to this blog. So, what prize do I get for achieving this? Will a celebrity arrive at my house to present me a big fat check? Or at least give me a gift certificate to some place or another?. Nah, I doubt it..Its just another milestone to be commemorated, mostly inside my mind...Oh well, I guess I should thank everyone for stopping by, I couldn't have done it without your being curious to see whats going on here..So, THANKS EVERYONE:)

Oh, here's another bit of trivia for you..

HUNKY DORY
Meaning: To be okay, everything is good.
Example: As long as mom is happy, eveything is just honky dory.
Origin: Huncho-dori was a major street in Yokohama that was frequented by American sailors on leave during W.W.I. To be in Huncho-dori was to be enjoying leisure activities, and having a good time.
Alternatively,t The archaic English word "hunk" meant "goal" and is probably derived from the Dutch "honk" also meaning "goal". To have reached one's goal is to be satisfied and happy.

Now ya know!

the 3 R's

Remember when we were just starting school, we went to learn our 3 R's..reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic? Sometimes we struggled so hard with those things. Well, there are 3 R's in our spiritual life we have to struggle with as well. Remorse, Regret, and Repentance.Sometimes, there are things in our lives that it seems like "everybody is doing it, so it must be OK". But right or wrong doesn't depend on how many people do it. I've been convicted recently about something that I thought was OK, because I knew so many people were doing it. But I see now that in God's eyes, it's stealing. So, I've had to work on my 3 R's. It started off with the first R-- Remorse..Then the second --Regret..The 3'rd R, Repentance, the most important one. Because you can feel Remorse and Regret, but if you don't Repent, nothing really changes, does it? And with His help, I won't do it again. Thank you, Lord, for the conviction of the Holy Spirit to keep me on the right paths.

why most suicide bombers are Muslim

well how about that...they're just sexually frustrated

According to the Oxford University sociologist Diego Gambetta, editor of Making Sense of Suicide Missions, a comprehensive history of this troubling yet topical phenomenon, while suicide missions are not always religiously motivated, when religion is involved, it is always Muslim. Why is this? Why is Islam the only religion that motivates its followers to commit suicide missions?

The surprising answer from the evolutionary psychological perspective is that Muslim suicide bombing may have nothing to do with Islam or the Koran (except for two lines in it). It may have nothing to do with the religion, politics, the culture, the race, the ethnicity, the language, or the region. As with everything else from this perspective, it may have a lot to do with sex, or, in this case, the absence of sex.

What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.

So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies, polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in the region.

However, polygyny itself is not a sufficient cause of suicide bombing. Societies in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean are much more polygynous than the Muslim nations in the Middle East and North Africa. And they do have very high levels of violence. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from a long history of continuous civil wars—but not suicide bombings.

The other key ingredient is the promise of 72 virgins waiting in heaven for any martyr in Islam. The prospect of exclusive access to virgins may not be so appealing to anyone who has even one mate on earth, which strict monogamy virtually guarantees. However, the prospect is quite appealing to anyone who faces the bleak reality on earth of being a complete reproductive loser.

It is the combination of polygyny and the promise of a large harem of virgins in heaven that motivates many young Muslim men to commit suicide bombings. Consistent with this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other (nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single.

22 ways to be a good Democrat

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

2. You have to believe that businesses create depressions and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than Nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Iranians and North Korean communists.

4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach fourth graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about

nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San Francisco or Portland do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make "The Passion of the Christ" for financial gain only.

12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, and A.G. Bell.

15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is normal and is a very nice person.

17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been In charge.

18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and a sex offender belonged in the White House.

19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying transvestites in drag and bestiality should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

20. You have to believe that illegal Democrat Party funding by the Chinese Government is somehow in the best interest to the United States.

21. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right wing conspiracy.

22. You have to believe that it's Okay to give Federal workers the day off on Christmas Day but it's not Okay to say "Merry Christmas."

and the winners are....

STUPIDEST STATEMENT OF THE YEAR
1) "No fruit loops!” Ex-Dictator Saddam Hussein on his breakfast of choice while in jail.
2) "They think work is a four-letter word." – Senator Hillary Clinton, speaking about kids today.
3) "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." - Vice President Dick Cheney, on Iraq.
4) “What do you think you’re looking at, sugar tits?” Mel Gibson to female Sergeant in Malibu, California following his arrest for drunk driving.
5) "My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this past week," Harry Whittington, after Dick Cheney shot him in the face. February 17, 2006



THE DUMBEST MOMENT OF THE YEAR
1) Zinedine Zidane head butts Marco Materazzi in the World Cup final and is ejected.
2) Vice President Dick Cheney shoots friend
3) Britney Spears speeds with her baby’s head close to steering wheel
4) Danish Newspaper Jyllands-Posten publishes the controversial Mohammed cartoons
5) Protesters violently demonstrate against the Danish Mohammed cartoons



STUPIDITY AWARD FOR MAKING A STUPID SITUATION STUPIDER
1) Mel Gibson offering to urinate on the floor following his arrest for drunk driving.
2) Britney Spears almost dropping her baby after driving dangerously with him twice, and then talking about it on TV
3) Nick Flynn trips on his shoelaces, falls down a set of stairs and smashes three priceless antique Chinese vases in a museum. Flynn then criticized the museum for not taking better care of its displays.
4) The Bush Administration in Iraq
5) Deciding not to tell anyone after Vice President Dick Cheney shoots his friend.

more things that make you go hmmm...

Each year 30,000 people are seriously injured by exercise equipment.

More than 50% of the world have never made or received a telephone call.

The word "set" has more definitions than any other word in the English language.

Due to gravitational effects, you weigh slightly less when the moon is directly overhead.

A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.

In its ancient form, the carrot was purple, not orange.

Snails breathe through their feet!

Its illegal to own a red car in Shanghai, China.

The first CD pressed in the USA was Bruce Springsteen 'Born in the USA'.

The bat on the Bacardi symbol is there because the soil where the sugar cane grows is fertile from the excessive guano (bat droppings.)

2 out of 5 people live in China or India.

Montpelier, Vermont is the only U.S. state capital without a McDonalds.

Coca-Cola was originally green.

It is impossible to lick your elbow.

90% of people who read that will attempt it...

Recycling one glass jar, saves enough energy to watch T.V for 3 hours.

Annually, the amount of garbage dumped in the worlds oceans, is three times the weight of fish that is caught from the oceans.

Most lipstick contains fish scales!

What's the most shoplifted book in the United States? The Bible!

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

97% of all paper money in the US contains traces of cocaine.

More than 10 people a year are killed by vending machines.

In America in 1977, the punishment for smuggling marijuana was 15 years less than the punishment for smuggling coffee!

hurray

Its Saturday at last! I've had a pretty good week, only worked 2 nights( Tuesday and Friday). There were a couple of deferred holidays left in the bank, so I figured now was as good a time as any to use 'em up. Mom had a couple of tests done this week, and everything turned out fine, so thank God for that. At work for the past 2 weeks, we've been training a new associate for the weekend shift. He did much better than a lot of trainees I have seen come and go over the years. Seemed like he was able to grasp the concept of what we do on third shift more easily than most. We still have 2 nights left , so Tuesday and Wednesday we will get in some last chance intensive training. Then, its off to the jungle for this guy. I hope that what we have tried to teach him will serve him well in the days ( or nights) ahead. On another front, I found this site that lists unclaimed funds for the state of Mississippi, its run through the office of the state treasurer. So, I'm checking it from time to time, who knows..maybe an unknown relative left behind a few dollars thats just sitting there, waiting to be claimed. Oh well, a guy's gotta have a dream....

Someone sent me an email today with these pictures attached. It's like food art, I guess you'd call it. Whoever took the time to do these, sure has a great imagination:) Enjoy...

3 stands

Stand ON God's word.
Stand OUT from the world.
Stand UP when facing persecution.

2Ti 3:1 But know this: difficult times will come in the last days.
2Ti 3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good,
2Ti 3:4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
2Ti 3:5 holding to the form of religion but denying its power. Avoid these people!
2Ti 3:6 For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions,
2Ti 3:7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
2Ti 3:8 Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men who are corrupt in mind, worthless in regard to the faith.
2Ti 3:9 But they will not make further progress, for their lack of understanding will be clear to all, as theirs was also.
2Ti 3:10 But you have followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, and endurance,
2Ti 3:11 along with the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from them all.
2Ti 3:12 In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
2Ti 3:13 Evil people and imposters will become worse, deceiving and being deceived.
2Ti 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing those from whom you learned,
2Ti 3:15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
2Ti 3:17 so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

october

Well here we are, new week, new month begins today. Renewal, thats a good thing. We are having revival services at church this week ( through Wednesday). I remember a time though, when revival lasted from Sunday through Friday, and sometimes even longer than that, if people were responding to the Holy Spirit. And not just nightly at 7 pm, but there was also a morning service. What happened? Have the preachers run out of steam, or have we as people just gotten to where we don't want to hear too much preaching? It certainly isn't because God is finished speaking to us. I suspect it's us as people have too much other "stuff" going on to have a 2 service a day, 7 day long revival. Thats sad.