Someone please explain

Why is that Protestants give stuff up for Lent?

I really don't get it.

And I'm curious.

As long as 90 days

The hysteria is great, so it seems, in the South.

Ammunition sales are astounding. Firearms that normally sell reasonably priced are going for much, much more than most of us have ever seen (well, maybe just before the Brady ban went into effect).

Gun stores and ranges are doing a very brisk business. Brisk business is wonderful to see in this economy, especially selling products that have been around in our economy since before the founding of the actual nation itself.

People tell me I should be worried.

I'm not.

I don't need my guns.

Yet.

I may never. I hope I don't. I would rather simply enjoy the things I do have and not need nearly as many of them as I, even now, think I do.

It's not as though I believe Big Brother is going to come take them. No, they'll be much more slick than Willy ever imagined. Taxes, insurance, restrictions, etc. If they want them badly enough, they'll make my life miserable trying to keep them.

I hope I finish my sojourn here before that day.

For now, I have them if I ever do need them.

And that one over which I recently shared my lust here

It's on order. Special order. Ambi-safety; beveled mag-well; and 24 lb recoil spring (and a few other goodies) will round out the graces of an already fine tool. It could take 90 days, but I think that's just good capitalistic customer service. Sell you on the product, but tell you that you can't have it just yet.

We see it all the time with movies and video game systems.

BTW, new object(s) of lust - here (yes, the fancy-schmancy mean-looking carbon fiber one) and here.

I've shot the latter, but have yet to try my hand with the former.

I require a field test to really decide (and a lot of extra $$$).

Hoping for that field test April 11th at Rocky Knoll Sporting Clays. We shall see.

Worth repeating

Some things are worth repeating . . .

"How completely satisfying to turn from our limitations to a God who has none. Eternal years lie in His heart. For Him time does not pass, it remains; and those who are in Christ share with Him all the riches of limitless time and endless years. God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves. For those out of Christ, time is a devouring beast; before the sons of the new creation time crouches and purrs and licks their hands. The foe of the old human race becomes the friend of the new, and the stars in their courses fight for the man God delights to honor. This we may learn from the divine infinitude."

A.W. Tozier - The Knowledge of the Holy Chapter 8, "God's Infinitude"

path to nowhere

Much thanks to www.edwinleap.com for bringing this to the (at least some) public attention.

There's this one quote that really gets to me . . . "The goal, Daschle’s book (link mine) explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept 'hopeless diagnoses' and 'forgo experimental treatments' . . ." Hopeless diagnoses - now that's an interesting little snippet. I hate that term. The diagnosis has no bearing on one's hope unless the only hope is to find a physical cure. And if we forgo experimental treatments then the new bugs and nasty things that kill us in unseen ways will just get worse. In another 10, 20, 30 years the mortality rate for anything will approach medieval times.

I don't want the folks taking care of my parents, children, wife, family, friends, etc. to " give up autonomy and 'learn to operate less like solo practitioners'” because some new beaurocracy (the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology - created to "monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and 'guide' your doctor’s decisions (pp 442, 446 of the bill).) decided it wasn't cost-effective. I'll pay the freakin' bill if I have to work three jobs and sell the dog if that's what it takes to get my loved one quality care.

I hate politics, but even worse, I hate the fact that our government feels the need to stick their noses into everything under the sun. If it's not the constitution, it's basic human compassion.

Consider this little smidgen from the article, "In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision. "

Anybody else see the slippery slope of euthanasia popping up it's ugly head here?

I'm not one to protest in public. I'm not likely to walk around some gubbermint office with a picket sign shouting curses at people not intimately involved with matters at hand, but if it was one of my family members . . . somebody would be getting a phone call and maybe a personal visit explaining the finer details of compassion.

I am not in favor of socialized medicine. I am not in favor of the tack that everyone gets what they can afford.

I am much more in favor of our entire country developing an ethic that values human life and works to make people's lives worth living.

Of course, I still think the gubbermint can only fail, and miserably, at developing that ethic. I have never thought it was up to them in the first place.

Because it's not.