A Certain Person Wrote on a Certain Facebook Page about a Certain Blog

Published by Mattress Room Press, Mequon.
When Scott's lover died of AIDS, he publicly mourned the loss.
That is UOJ repentance.

Scott Barefoot contacted me in Bella Vista and invited himself to speak to our online congregation. I imagine that is how he thrusts himself into many parishes. When I reported what he told me, that a WELS pastor, and active homosexual, was in the parish and nothing was being done, Scott retreated. I did not hear from him again.

One does not stalk a Facebook page. Those WELS photos were published for the entire world to see.
Publishing has a very close relationship with the word "public."

Welcome to the Jeske-Patterson Crime Family.

Ski uplifted Scott.
Let's face it, Ski was grinning a lot more about Katy Perry.

Ski uplifted.

When the Storm Clouds Roll, Plant More Seed

We had another five inches of rain as a bonus, after the generous rain yesterday. Now the backyard has plenty of standing water, a good-sized pond besides.

A third storm is rolling in. We heard the initial cloudburst at Walmart. When the sun came out, Sassy ordered her second walk for the day. When we came back, rain began again.

I gave the birds some older berries that were not yet eaten. I never see them as wasted. We keep fresh fruit for humans and share the older fruit with the birds. I filled the platform with fruit and saw a blue jay land for some soon after. He was soaking wet.

At Walmart I bought low cost seeds, Alyssum was only 20 cents. Nasturtium was 50 cents. Shasta Daisy - high on my list - was 50 cents. This time I used the rake to pull back some mulch, sow, and tamp it back in place.

Sweet alyssum is easily grown from surface-sown seeds (the seeds need light to germinate), and transplants are a common find at garden centers in the spring. Because of its tendency to self-sow, sweet alyssum has become naturalized across much of the United States and is recognized in California as potentially invasive. Each year I plant sweet alyssum at the top of my rock retaining wall as I enjoy it cascading over the wall’s edge. I especially like the frothy white blooms in the evening when their color reflects the fading light and their fragrance is the sweetest. Sweet alyssum also finds a home each year beneath my roses. It is attractive to several species of parasitic wasps

Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 2453-2459). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

The flowers of Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum ×superbum) provide shelter, pollen, and nectar to natural enemies, including this ladybug larva.

Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 2397-2398). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

Now that the barrels, wheelbarrow, and mopbucket are full and overflowing with rainwater, it does not seem so valuable. A few days ago I was scraping the bottom of the barrels to help the laggard plants.

When God gives us abundance, we take it for granted and even scoff at it, like gardeners who plant  too many zucchini squash, as they always do.  When there is a shortage - as there is today - of liturgy, creeds, hymns, sermons, common sense, character, and honesty - we realize what that drought really means. Unlike the rain, which comes back again, these expressions of faith do not return as easily as they are cast away.

Luther Answers Those Who Mock the Faithians. Ignorance Is Leadership Bliss in the LCMS, WELS, and ELS.

The droopey-eyed, slack-jawed graduates of Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne, enjoy using their handful of insults against justification by faith. They used to say, before they retreated to lick their festering wounds, "You are not Christians. You are faithians. You do not believe in Christ. You believe in your own faith."

David Scaer, who confuses logical fallacies with wisdom, is one source of these Dephic pronouncements, like the graphic below.

Dontcha wonder how these wonder-boys keep their jobs teaching at nominal Lutheran schools? I certainly do.

When I became a Lutheran in my teens, there was great excitement over Luther, the new edition of Luther's Works (edited by Pelikan), and Roland Bainton's Here I Stand.

Later I was happy to know Pelikan, who attended the congregation where I worked, and Roland Bainton, who lectured at Yale Divinity and helped me on my dissertation at Notre Dame. Bainton was a prolific author, who out-produced and out-sold many of the academic blowhards I have known. But Bainton offered to xerox pages for me, assuming I did not have a key book for my research.

Pelikan left the Lutheran sects - and I have trouble blaming him - and Bainton remained on the Left side of Protestantism, but they were keenly interested in Luther's teaching, whether they were always right or not.

The LCMS-WEL-ELS coalition is in free-fall because they have no interest in Luther or an honest approach to Biblical studies. Moreover, they are anti-historical about their idol CFW Walther, a convenient tool for their agenda. They cannot even face what Robert Preus did at the end of his life, in Justification and Rome, repudiating UOJ.

Walther is handy because he was poorly trained and abused by two different gurus of Pietism, Johann Gottlief Kuehn and Martin Stephan (when Kuehn died). Walther's study of Luther is no distinction, since all Protestants study Luther, if only to distort his writings and argue against him.

I can only imagine these pretenders winking at each other as they cite Walther - the ultimate authority, even though Walther pimped for his adulterous bishop. kiddnapped his own niece and nephew, and robbed his syphilitic bishop of everything--gold, books, land--once they had a phony shock story and followers to march with torches and guns. The great Walther let his future mother-in-law go to prison for the kidnapping. No wonder he did not want an early history written down and feared the first attempt was too detailed. No problem - the cult protects their own criminals while attacking their victims. Ask Ski, Glende, Disappearing Doug, and Mark Schroeder.

Cameron McKenzie claims, as the LCMS does, that his sect did not begin until 1847, but they began when Stephan ordered them and his mistresses into ships to sail to America. When they left Europe for America, seeing themselves as the only Means of Grace in Europe, they formed the triumphalistic, legalistic Missouri Synod. The date? - 1838.

LCMS-WELS-ELS are Rambachian, not Lutheran.

Pruning Shears on the KnockOut Roses. Downton Sassy Sue

"More rain! What? Three days and a flood warning?"

After rain on Tuesday and before our heavy showers on Wednesday, I went out side and cut all the KnockOut roses by 50%. They were already nearly six feet tall and were finishing a bloom cycle. By cutting them back harshly, before plenty of rain, I was converting all the bush energy to budding instead of finishing up their blooms with seeds.

A few other roses needed some trimming.

All the Father' Day roses are blooming now - in a circle around the maple tree in front. They are various colors because Gurney's does not guarantee what they send when they are $5 bare root roses.

The same is true of bulbs. Those who want the lowest prices get a rainbow collection of tulips, but tulips are far more impressive with a massive group of one color, or a color combination.

Weather Drama
Last night's rain meant black skies while the sun was shining and cloudbursts alternating with steady rain. Tuesday's rain was enough, and Wednesday's rain was way too much by itself.

The weather map for today says that we will have a big thunderstorm at 1 PM. Two different storms on radar seem to be coming from the West and up from Texas.

The birds ate frantically yesterday, even in the rain. The Jackson EZ Bird Swing often had a bird sitting there to stay out of the rain. The swing is under the eaves. Sharon Lovejoy, I believe, suggested that birdhouses are good shelters for birds in cold weather, so I may put some spare old shelves out under the eaves for a dry roost.

Downton Shepherd
The key image for Downton Abbey is the bell being rung to call a servant.

Sassy Sue decided to call for her servants by dragging her claws across the maple table near the bed. At first she did that when I was not looking. I pretended to be shocked when I found the source of the strange noise and she was a bit intimidated. When she saw that I was laughing, that became her little joke.

Now Sassy routinely uses her call system to notify me of her needs. Of course, she has these other tools:

• The neck cuddle means I identified what she wanted.
• Licking her lips and looking toward the kitchen. Ears pop up at the sound of "Food?"
• Perching on the corner of the bed, ready to take a walk.
• Drooping on the bed, still waiting for the walk.
• The Bad Daddy speech, a series of loud sad barks, is always from a failure to walk her on time.

When we are sharing the joke together, it is so much fun.

The landscaper living nearby said, "I never saw a dog that talked so much."

Several times Sassy has pouted. Once I gave a long speech about her not wanting to turn around or acknowledge us. She finally flipped over and grinned, looking for a tummy rub. This week she got a shampoo outside and a much-needed comb out. She refused to look at me that night, but made up for it the next night.

Sassy normally goes to us separately for hugs and kisses before she goes to the foot of the bed to sleep.