Birds in the Rain

One reader expressed marvel at my bird habitat activities. She lives in the People's Paradise of California, with all its complications.

I do not spend much time or money on that hobby, but I get a lot of entertainment. For example, she wrote about providing nectar for hummingbirds and getting wasps as a result. Lots of wasps. An invasion.

I planted bushes for the hummingbirds, investing about $4.50 in all three, which grew and sprouted an abundance of orange blossoms. That was in Phoenix.

I can buy bird nest fluff balls from Duncraft, to help birds build their nests. Instead I have dogs who shed their own fluff for the birds to use.

I have been bringing popcorn back from the movie theater for 30 years, putting me in the awkward position of keeping my relatives from eating it all. My last attempt at feeding the birds popcorn, on the window sill, ended up with all three dogs coming in reeking of popcorn. The sill was low, so they discovered it right away.

I thought Sassy would be good at eating the loose popcorn out of the Ichaboat, but she would not vacuum it for me. I gathered it in my hands and tossed it in the bushes. Sassy went into the bushes and ate the popcorn there. If Sassy senses I am a little peeved at her, she hangs her tongue out in a grin, "Don't you just love me?"

The newly planted roses got a perfect rainstorm, last night and most of today. I always watch the feeders to see how the birds are reacting to a storm. They normally come out in droves before a storm and stay in during the storm. This time they also came out in the worst rain, perhaps signaling that the rain would last a long time.

I have a good mix for the birds at two locations, both near windows. Each one has suet, sunflower seeds, Nyjer, and water. The squirrels may raid the sunflower seeds. So far they are content with the corn on the cob. I know squirrels and most birds love sunflower, but I gambled anyway because Bruce Church reminded me of how stunning a feeding cardinal can be.

By Norma Boeckler

Another solution is to raise a field of sunflowers. I am buying the giant Russian sunflower seeds and planting them in the sunniest locations. They can create some comical scenes, with squirrels riding the heads, bopping back and forth, eating the blossoms and later the seedheads.

If you doubt the abundance God provides, count the seeds on one Russian sunflower (striped seeds).

Unfriended - Only 900 Left

One of your classmates is looking for you on Facebook.

I expressed my opinion about Obama's Cuban Health Care takeover and abortion activism on Facebook. A classmate posted on the wall of another class, "I just unfriended Greg Jackson." That was followed by some name-calling. The second guardian of the Left, who received that message, followed by unfriending me and taking down the Photoshop I created for him. I was OK with them until I supported individual freedom and the sanctity of unborn life.

I only have 902 Facebook friends left now, so I am not too sad.

I point this out only because the Left does not tolerate an ounce of dissent. They excommunicate swiftly and without remorse.

David Scaer and Paul McCain unfriended me. I thought that was pretty funny too. The LCMS leaders who fall over themselves being friendly to ELCA are gratuitously rude to others. That's what I get for correcting Editor McCain's spelling. I do not know about Scaer. The last time I saw him, he thanked me for writing against Waldo Werning. Of course, Scaer did that sotto voce.

LP Cruz on Pieper, or, The British Empire Strikes Back

UOJ Stormtroopers love to debate...their way.

LP Cruz from Extra Nos sent a perceptive note, so I asked him if I could publish it:

I have been reviewing Maier's paper again.

I found the Calov quote that Jay Webber quoted to me.

This [Maier] paper is a clear and solid refutation of UOJ and is quite complete in that it even suggests how UOJ terminology should be corrected.

The fallacy of Pieper was the thinking - Tertium non Datur, meaning, he taught that either accept UOJ or you wind up believing you are saved by works which faith is a subset of. He believed there was no other alternative position.

This is a serious blunder and people are assuming what Pieper assumed, that there is no 3rd alternative to his idea of objective justification.

It has become serious because people are saying that if you do not believe in UOJ you do not believe the Gospel. Maier's paper is very sound and he paraded his exegesis of passages. For this to not be taken up by folk in LC-MS shows to me that there must have been a political spirit operating at LC-MS.

LPC

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GJ - The basic fallacy of the Synodical Conference is the infallibility of CFW Walther. Therefore, they had to construct arguments to support everything he wrote, and Walther was prolific.

UOJ was cleverly used by the Preus brothers to push Maier out of the seminary presidency.

Rolf Preus, Jay Webber, and Paul McCain--three difference synods--promote UOJ as the pure Gospel when it is plagiarized from the Pietists. Those who reject their Calvinism are called "Calvinists"! That shows how little they have progressed from their repeat-after-me training at Ft. Wayne.