Choice

Saw this:

Retirement Living

After many years of discussions between Chris and me about upkeep and remodeling on our various shelters we lived in, I came to the conclusion that if we just lived in a shack we wouldn’t have to keep it up.  Of course Chris assured me that the shack would soon fall down.  Here is my ideal. 

No Worries

Here is what Jay Sekulow said:

The Same-Sex Marriage Cases: What Happened and What they Mean

By

ACLJ.org

Filed in:

TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE

11:00 AM

Jun. 26, 2013

Earlier this morning the Supreme Court of the United States struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act and held that the supporters of Proposition 8 in California did not have standing to defend Prop 8 in federal court. 

You can read the DOMA ruling here.

You can read the Prop 8 ruling here.

Essentially, the DOMA ruling means that the federal government must provide the same benefits to same-sex spouses as opposite-sex spouses, if the same-sex marriage has been lawfully performed.  In other words, if a gay couple is married in a state that recognizes gay marriage, then the federal government will recognize that marriage on the same basis as a traditional marriage.

The Prop 8 ruling is far more complex, but the bottom line is that it likely clears the way for same-sex marriage in California.  It does not, however, have any real implications for marriages outside of California.

Critically, neither ruling establishes a federal, constitutional right to same-sex marriage.  Those states that have marriage amendments defining marriage as the union of a man and woman are untouched by these rulings.  Those states that recognize same-sex marriage are similarly untouched.

The bottom line?  The definition of marriage is reaffirmed as a matter primarily of state law, not federal law.  The issue goes back to the states, and for the foreseeable future, states will continue to define the parameters of lawful marriage.

Tags » DOMA, Marriage, samesex, federal, States, Prop 8

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May Be Painful For Musicians To Watch

I loved this You Tube which shows how "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" may have been written if it had been written in the 40's though 90's.  My musician son said it was kinda painful to watch.

If You Stood on Your Head You Couldn't Please Everyone

Someone once said:  “You can please some of the people some of the time, all of the people some of the time, some of the people all of the time, but you can never please all of the people all of the time. “  So if we try to please others we will never win!                      

Jessica Fletcher, protagonist on the TV show, “Murder She Wrote,” is one of my heroes.  In the show she writes murder mysteries and always helps people, often by solving murders.  But there were in every show people who would say, “She is just a busybody.  She should mind her own business. “ But she prevails and helps everyone in spite of their resistance.  At the end of every show, when the closing theme song comes on, happiness again abounds. 

Then there was the time my husband and I were driving to California from Washington State with another couple.  We wanted to stop for dinner at one of the many eating establishments along the freeway.  One person didn’t like fast food.  Another didn’t want pizza and a third didn’t want to go to the restaurant, which was known for slow service.  It took several hours of negotiations but we eventually agreed and we finally had dinner!

Currently, my best friend from high school, Nancy, is helping her daughter, Ann, plan her wedding.  Nancy and Ann are two levelheaded gals.   When the hostess of one of Ann’s Bridal Showers became unglued because she found out that Ann would have two showers, they were surprised by her feelings.  When Ann reminded her that she had had two showers also, the crisis was averted.

These types of relationships keep us humble.   We have to seek God in prayer and ask for wisdom and peace in all of these seemingly mundane decisions.  But I guess that keeps us in the habit of consulting God so that when some really “big” thing comes along we will automatically seek Him.

Iran Still Wants Nuclear Weapons

Evidence emerging of Rouhani’s radicalism, once approved of hiding Iran nuclear work.

Joel Rosenberg

In Uncategorized on June 19, 2013 at 4:24 pm

Hassan Rouhani’s radicalism is coming to light.

Despite the widespread enthusiasm in world capitals and the media that there is new hope in Iran because a “reformer” has been “elected,” evidence is continuing to emerge that Hassan Rouhani is exactly what I have portrayed him: a dangerous Radical Shia Muslim who is deeply committed to the Ayatollah Khamenei, and Iran’s nuclear program, and to building atomic bombs in secret.

Consider the latest reporting:

•   Hassan Rouhani was endorsed by the only Iranian leader ever to publicly call for Israel to be destroyed by nuclear weapons.

•   Iran’s Hassan Rowhani rules out halt to uranium enrichment programme (London Telegraph)

•   A “Pragmatic” Mullah? (Wall Street Journal) –”[Rouhani] chaired Iran’s National Security Council between 1989 and 2005, meaning he was at the top table when Iran masterminded the 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people, and of the Khobar Towers in 1996, killing 19 U.S. airmen. He would also have been intimately familiar with the secret construction of Iran’s illicit nuclear facilities in Arak, Natanz and Isfahan, which weren’t publicly exposed until 2002.” Rouhani also “called on the regime’s basij militia to suppress the student protests of July 1999 ‘mercilessly and monumentally.’ More than a dozen students were killed in those protests, more than 1,000 were arrested, hundreds were tortured, and 70 simply ‘disappeared.’”

•   Rohani once approved of hiding Iran atomic work (Reuters)

“Years before he became Iran’s president-elect, Hassan Rohani spoke approvingly about concealing his nation’s nuclear program and said that when Pakistan got atomic bombs and Brazil began enriching uranium, ‘the world started to work with them,’” reports Reuters. “The comments offer an intriguing window into the past thinking of Rohani, widely seen as a moderate or pragmatic conservative, whose surprise victory in weekend elections to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was perceived by the United States and other Western powers as positive — at least at first glance.”

“Rohani has said he intends to pursue constructive interaction with the world and ‘more active’ negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, after his predecessor’s belligerence was met with painful international sanctions and military threats from Israel and the United States,” notes Reuters. “Ultimate decisions on Iran’s nuclear program will remain in the hands of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Western diplomats familiar with Rohani’s work as chief nuclear negotiator from 2003 to 2005 told Reuters the 64-year-old cleric was no pushover and had always been firmly committed to Iran’s nuclear program. He was secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005. It was in the autumn of 2004 that Rohani gave a sweeping speech to Iran’s Supreme Cultural Revolution Council called ‘Beyond the Challenges Facing Iran and the IAEA Concerning the Nuclear Dossier.’ In that speech, that is available on the blog Armscontrolwonk.com, Rohani said Iran did not want nuclear weapons.”

“As for building the atomic bomb, we never wanted to move in that direction and we have not yet completely developed our fuel cycle capability,” wrote Rouhani. “This also happens to be our main problem.”

“But he argued in favor of a kind of nuclear fait accompli to force the West to accept Iran’s enrichment capabilities,” noted Reuters. “He also referred to Pakistan’s successful acquisition of nuclear weapons in a positive light.”

“If one day we are able to complete the (nuclear) fuel cycle and the world sees that it has no choice, that we do possess the technology, then the situation will be different,” Rouhani said.

“The world did not want Pakistan to have an atomic bomb or Brazil to have the fuel cycle,” he said. “But Pakistan built its bomb and Brazil has its fuel cycle, and the world started to work with them. Our problem is that we have not achieved either one, but we are standing at the threshold.”

“Rouhani also discussed the decision by Iran to conceal its nuclear activities in the late 1980s and 1990s, when it relied on an illicit nuclear procurement network connected to the father of Pakistan’s atomic weapons program, Abdul Qadeer Khan, to purchase enrichment centrifuge technology. ‘This (concealment) was the intention,’ Rohani said. ‘This never was supposed to be in the open. But in any case, the spies exposed it. We did not want to declare all this.’”

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