Griner dunks over Gators as Baylor moves on

Brittney Griner has become the second woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game, throwing one down with her right hand early in the second half of Baylor's game against Florida on Tuesday night. Griner's dunk came off a pass from Kimetria Hayden after the Baylor guard came up with an offensive rebound near the basket. Candace Parker of Tennessee dunked twice in an NCAA tournament game in 2006 against Army. It was Griner's first dunk of the season and sixth of her career. She's one short of Parker's career record. Source: ESPN

Lifetime casts all-black 'Steel Magnolias' remake

I love this idea. I am a huge fan of the original and cannot wait to see this take on it.

Last fall, Lifetime announced plans to create an updated version of the 1989 movie 'Steel Magnolias' with an all-black cast, and so far the project has snagged stars like Queen Latifah and Phylicia Rashad. According to Entertainment Weekly, Queen Latifah is set to take on the role of M'Lynn Eatenton (originally played by Sally Field), and will also serve as executive producer on the project along with Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. Condola Rashad will play M'Lynn's diabetic daughter Shelby, as previously played by Julia Roberts, while Condola's real-life mother Phylicia Rashad will portray the widow Clairee. Alfre Woodard's on board to portray Ouiser Boudreaux; "Pariah's" Adepero Oduye is set to take on beauty assistant Annelle; and Jill Scott is expected to play hairdresser Truvy. The President and General Manager of Lifetime Networks, Nancy Dubuc, said in a statement that the cast that's been assembled is "astounding." To be directed by Kenny Leon, "Queen Latifah, Phylicia, Alfre, Jill, Adepero and Condola are some of the most celebrated women in music, film, television and stage ," Dubuc said, "and we could not be more thrilled and honored for them to bring Robert Harling's poignant story about the strength of women to a whole new generation." Last year, Lifetime described the new "Steel Magnolias" as revolving around a close group of women in Louisiana, which makes it sound like it'll stick close to the original adaptation of the stage play, but only time will tell if that's the case. A premiere date is expected to be scheduled for later this year.

Source: CNN's "The Marquee Blog"

Long overdue!

That's exactly what this entry is. I cannot believe it has been so long since I have made an entry. So much has happened to me, my family, and the world in this span of time. I so look forward to updating you on the happenings both to and around me.

Until then, take care of yourself and don't just say it, but show someone you love them.

- B

"Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned."

One of the greatest abilities God has given each one of us is the ability to believe. When you believe, you can overcome any difficulty."

- Joel Osteen

"The value of your personal network isnt determined by size but diversity. Build friendships with people different from you."

- Rick Warren

"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do."

- Henry Ford

"If you believe in faith and keep speaking victory, favor, health & wholeness, you will see positive changes begin to happen in your life."

"Stop doing the same boring things day in & day out! Don't just think outside the box; GET RID of the damn box!"

- Rev Run

"Haters are like crickets. They make a lot of noise: you hear 'em, but u can't see 'em. When u walk right by 'em, they're quiet. #SquashEm"

"I speak peace to the inner turmoil that lurks like clouds in the recess of ur soul. Let there be light, wisdom, and a sense of direction!"

"The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles."

"Divine guidance is an invaluable resource. Without it, you are like a sailor unable to find his way because he has no compass on his ship"

"3 types of people to stay away from: the UNinspired, the UNexcited & the UNgrateful."

- Rev Run

"If you are too consumed with the way you think things should go, you won?t hear God speak or recognize His promptings."

- Joyce Meyer

"Don't just ask God what He can or is going to do for you. Ask Him what you can do for someone else."

- Joyce Meyer

"God gives us the strength to do what is right, but we are the ones who must choose it. He won?t do it for us."

- Joyce Meyer

"Do you love your lady? Your kids? Really? Saying you love someone is not enough. (The proof of love is the investment of TIME! - M. Murdock)"

"FEAR NOT! God's grace always kicks IN. When your strength wears OUT." - 2nd Corinthians 12:9

"Faith requires us to be sure that we will receive what we can't even see taking place right now."

"When we grab on to the Word of God during times of agitation, it will settle our hearts and calm our souls."

- John 14:27

#HoldYourPeace

"If God gave you all you want, you wouldn't depend on him the way he wants."

- Rick Warren

"When you feel like nobody even knows that you're alive, remember that God sees and cares. He has His eye on you!"

- Joyce Meyer

"Choose to inhale, do not breathe simply to exist."

- Mattie Stepanek (1990- 2004),
Poet and Peacemaker

"Get rid of guilt & condemnation today. Don't go around feeling bad about yourself. Realize that God loves you and walk in His goodness today."

- Joel Osteen

"God <3's you so much. Not only is He cheering for you, He stepped out of the stands and rigged the race. In the end, you win. Go."

- Kirk Franklin

"Expect something good to happen today. Let your attitude be, 'If anything good can happen today, it will happen, and it will happen to me!'"

- Joyce Meyer

"A good man's footsteps are ordered by the Lord and the Lord delights in his ways."

-Psalm 37:23

"Is your problem really your problem, or is your attitude toward your problem the real problem?"

- Joyce Meyer

"You can be a blessing to people no matter how simple your gifts and talents may be."

- Joyce Meyer

"Your Creator wants more than these monthly/weekly reports. Talk to the Lord daily."

- Rev Run

#CommunicationIsKey

"The Lord will make PERFECT that which concerns me."

- Psalm 138:8

"There is a friend who will never let you down or leave you. That friend is Jesus."

- Rev Run

"God forgives us and remembers our sin no more; therefore, stop remembering that which He has already forgotten."

- Joyce Meyer

"When things get hard, spend more time with GOD, lean more on Him and receive more grace from him."

- Joyce Meyer

#LeanWithIt #RockWithIt

"When things get hard, spend more time with GOD, lean more on Him and receive more grace from him."

Pillow Talk

A bed is an interesting object. It's something we can all relate to. Almost everybody has one-whether it's a mat on the floor or a California King- unless they are experiencing some pretty unusual conditions. Another interesting aspect about beds is that they typically reveal us in our most transparent and unpretentious moments. We can wear a lot of disguises out in the world. We can pretend to be someone we're really not at work, at the gym, at a party, at the supermarket, and even at church. But when we go to bed, all semblance of superficiality is stripped away, and we become the person we really are. Our beds represent the most personal and private part of our lives. And it's here, in this place where our true colors are revealed, that the Psalmist calls us to meditate or dwell upon the things of God-who He is and what He's done. Why here? Why on our bed? Because God wants us to acknowledge and invite Him into every aspect of our lives, especially the most personal and private places. Nothing should be off limits to Him. And if that makes us uncomfortable, it's a sure sign that something is "off" in our lives and needs adjusting. If we can't be close to God in the place where we are most real, are we really ever close to God at all? We need to see our beds, the place of rest and repose from the world, as a sanctuary where God is invited, and not a place where we retreat from Him.

Father, may we invite you into every corner of our existence, and may you be our meditation day and night.

Where We Belong

€The Book of Psalms begins with the word blessed, which is an apropos opening note in this scriptural symphony. One cannot walk away from the book without being blessed by the Lord in some form or fashion.

This first Psalm goes on to describe God's blessing as belonging to the man who doesn't mingle with the wicked but who frequently finds himself in "the Law of the Lord." Next, the Psalm paints one of the most powerful and poignant pictures in the entire Bible. It compares the man who reads the Scriptures with a tree that's planted on the banks of a free-flowing river:

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalm 1:3 NKJV)

Just as a tree requires water in order to flourish and thrive, men and women need the Scriptures in order to enjoy fruitful and abundant lives. Trees were made to know water, and we were made to know God's Word. When either is deprived of their natural need, they fall way short of what they were intended to be and do. They whither and wilt, their branches become bare, they provide no shade for the weary, and have no fruit to offer others. But as they begin to drink their intended life-source, their roots become sturdy and secure. Their boughs and branches grow long and strong until...fruit!

The natural tree is truly a picture of the spiritual man. Our fruitfulness depends upon our being rooted in the Word.

My prayer:

Lord, help us in every possible way to be people who are permanently planted in your Scriptures, which is where we belong.

Reflection:

What does this passage reveal to me about God?

What does this passage reveal to me about myself?

Based on this, what changes do I need to make?

Credits: Active Word Daily Devotional; Pastor Bob Coy

'Reign Over'

To "reign over" something is to have absolute authority and control over it. God has ultimate rule over the earth, and he exercises his authority with loving care. When God delegated some of his authority to the human race, he expected us to take responsibility for the environment and the other creatures that share our planet. We must not be careless and wasteful as we fulfill his charge. God was careful in how he made this earth. We must not be careless in how we take care of it.

Credits: Life Application Study Bible Devotion

A case of mistaken identity

I once handed a coin to a shopkeeper, who didn’t even look at it before handing it back to me with the explanation that it was counterfeit. When I asked him how he knew, he told me that it was too lightweight. A genuine coin would be heavier than that one. To me that emphasized the fact that, to be able to correct any case of mistaken identity, the first requirement is to be fully aware of true identity.

It’s not impossible that you might be suffering from a case of mistaken identity, even now as you are reading this. Are you thinking of yourself as ill, old, tired, unloved, unwanted, injured? Are financial troubles or a family difficulty weighing you down? If so, gaining a clearer understanding of your spiritual identity will make a huge difference.

The very first chapter of the Bible describes our identity as God’s creation: “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion....” It continues, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:26, 31).

Right now, you are very good – spiritual, made in God’s likeness. You include qualities such as strength, intelligence, goodness, patience, honesty, joy, and love. Even if you don’t feel their presence, they are there because God’s image has to be like Him. You are no fake; you are the real thing.

In the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mary Baker Eddy offered this: “Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love” (p. 477). The more clearly we see that divine Spirit gives us our identity, the more we can prove our freedom from any inclination to believe that anything unlike God has a right to a place in us or in any part of our lives.

Mary Baker Eddy answered what she described as the “oft-repeated inquiry, What am I?” this way: “I am able to impart truth, health, and happiness, and this is my rock of salvation and my reason for existing” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 165).

The revelation of Christian Science shows us how to make this practical today. Since God expresses Himself in us, when we use those words “I am,” whatever follows needs to be good. For instance, it’s helped me be ready to challenge any thought that says, “I am afraid” or “I am sick” or “I am bad.”

I’ve had occasions where I’ve gained new confidence, been freed from fear, or even been healed physically as a result of seeing myself as expressing God’s infinite, ever-present good. Through my study of Christian Science, I’ve learned that the one Mind, divine Love, reflecting Himself in me, gives me my identity. Therefore, if facing an illness, I’ve found myself saying aloud, “That has nothing to do with me. I’m not like that. I’m like God. That’s just a case of mistaken identity.”

With that instant and vigorous denial, no appearance of imperfection and no mental picture of inharmony remains.

No wonder the Christian Science textbook states, “Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil” (Science and Health, p. 571). It seems quite logical, then, to conclude that whatever negative issue we’re facing can be dismissed when we are confident of God’s loving care for us.

It’s so reassuring to be able to declare, “That’s merely a case of mistaken identity. I’m not like that. I’m God’s pure reflection.” The dictionary corroborates that conclusion by its definition of the word “pure,” which reads, “containing nothing that does not properly belong.” Surely that gives the complete denial to anything that threatens to fool us into believing that we could be unlike God in any way.

As God’s likeness, we can understand that nothing bad ever originates in us. God is the original, and He is only good. We are His reflection; that is our identity. And as we grow in the understanding of our God-given identity, we’ll find a true sense of life and healing.

Credits: Beryl O. Nathans, Christian Science Monitor

Justin Timberlake raps the house with Jimmy Fallon

"The Flintstones" turn 50

They are perhaps more recognizable among children as the funny-looking characters that adorn their daily multivitamin, but today "The "Flintstones" are 50! At first we thought, “How can a family that lived circa 1,000,000 B.C. be just 50?” But then we remembered it was a fictional cartoon.

Hanna-Barbera’s "Flintstones" TV series premiered on ABC on September 30, 1960, and was among the first of a new brand of television series – the hybrid that worked on both child and adult levels. "The Flintstones" centered on a working-class couple “from the town of Bedrock," Fred and Wilma, who lived next door to their best friends, Barney and Betty Rubble.

Fred and Barney worked together at the quarry for their boss, Mr. Slate, and when their wives weren’t dragging them to the opera, they enjoyed bowling and meetings at the Water Buffalo Club. Bedrock also saw its share of garden-variety wacky neighbors of varying eccentricities and had a revolving door of celebrity visitors. It was practically the Aspen of its day. Of course, the stars had names like Cary Granite and Stony Curtis.

Fred and Wilma were the first couple ever to be seen on television sharing a bed, according to the U.K.'s Telegraph, which has compiled a list of the 15 things you may not know about the cartoon. The show was even co-sponsored by Winston cigarettes at one point, with Fred and Barney appearing in commercials advertising for the company, the Telegraph points out.

Google has marked the day with a "Flintstones"-themed Google doodle tribute. How will you celebrate? When the sundial indicates it’s time to slide down the dinosaur’s tail, we’re going to head home and get ready to watch CNN’s Anderstone Cooper 0° (you know, because the world was flat and there was no 360° to speak of).

Yabba Dabba Do!

Credits: Katie McLaughlin, CNN

UK fans already in line for tickets

There are a lot of sports franchises in a lot of places in the world, so this statement doesn't come lightly: Few fan bases anywhere support their teams as well as Kentucky's. Minus the political overtones and occasional deluge of riotous violence, Kentucky basketball fans are insane in the way South American soccer fans are insane, which makes them entirely admirable. And, yes, sometimes a little bit annoying. (For example, the Kentucky fan who has sent in the same mailbag question -- "Why do you hate Kentucky and love everyone else?" -- 20 times, reworded slightly each time. You know who you are, dude.)

Anyway, the latest example, as if we needed it, is this report from the Lexington Herald-Leader. Big Blue Madness tickets are being distributed Saturday morning on Kentucky's campus. Anticipating demand, school officials asked Kentucky fans not to camp for tickets until Wednesday morning. Kentucky fans complied. Which means there are hundreds of people sitting in tents in Lexington, Ky., in their second day of a four-day wait for tickets to a practice. See? Insane.

But, hey, at least the weather should be nice. Less insane that way, perhaps.

According to the Herald-Leader, Kentucky fans aren't just waiting in line; they're actively protesting on behalf of Enes Kanter's eligibility. "Free Enes" T-shirts and signs have overtaken the landscape. Supportive? Sure. Useless? Definitely. But you can't ask the folks waiting for practice tickets in tents to be all that rational about signage. Nor, um, would you want to.

Credits: Eamonn Brennan, ESPN

Most Americans believe in God but don't know religious tenets

Americans are clear on God but foggy on facts about faiths.
The new U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey, released today by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, finds that although 86% of us believe in God or a higher power, we don't know our own traditions or those of neighbors across the street or across the globe.

Among 3,412 adults surveyed, only 2% correctly answered at least 29 of 32 questions on the Bible, major religious figures, beliefs and practices. The average score was 16 correct (50%).

Key findings:

•Doctrines don't grab us. Only 55% of Catholic respondents knew the core teaching that the bread and wine in the Mass become the body and blood of Christ, and are not merely symbols. Just 19% of Protestants knew the basic tenet that salvation is through faith alone, not actions as well.

•Basic Bible eludes us. Just 55% of all respondents knew the Golden Rule isn't one of the Ten Commandments; 45% could name all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).

•World religions are a struggle. Fewer than half (47%) knew that the Dalai Lama is a Buddhist; 27% knew most people in Indonesia are Muslims.

"People say, 'I have a personal connection with God and that's really all I need to know.' Who am I to argue?" says Pew's Alan Cooperman, a co-author of the report.

But religion, as a force in history and a motivator in present times, "has consequences in the world," he adds, so an intellectual baseline, whatever your faith or lack of faith, can "shape your role as a citizen in the public square."

The top scoring groups were atheists/agnostics, Jews and Mormons. These tiny groups, adding up to less than 7% of Americans, scored particularly well on world religion and U.S. constitutional questions. It's unclear why, although highly educated people overall did best on the quiz, researchers say.

It may be that the conscious choice to take a minority faith or philosophic stand requires an intellectual engagement with religion to a greater degree than experienced by Protestants and Catholics, who dominate U.S. culture. Eight in 10 atheists and agnostics grew up in a religious tradition, chiefly a branch of Christianity, says Greg Smith, a Pew senior researcher.

The single question most people answered correctly: 89% knew that according to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court, public school teachers cannot lead their classes in prayer.

But only 36% of respondents knew teachers are allowed to teach classes comparing world religions, and just 23% knew that teachers can read from the Bible as an example of literature.

"If the public thinks there are greater restriction than there really are, how much impact does this have in the real world when they are looking at religion's place in public life?" Smith asks.

Most respondents have some understanding of the First Amendment: 68% knew that the Constitution says "the government shall neither establish a religion nor interfere with the practice of religion." But, says Smith, "they don't get the specifics."

Questions about half of respondents nailed: 51% knew Joseph Smith was a Mormon; 54% could name the Quran as Islam's holy text. (The survey was conducted May 19-June 6, before a Florida pastor's threat to burn the Quran made headlines.)

Stumpers: Just 8% knew Maimonides was an influential Jewish rabbi. Only 11% knew that the fiery preacher and theologian who participated in the First Great Awakening, an 18th-century Protestant revival, was Jonathan Edwards, not 19th-century evangelist Charles Finney or today's Billy Graham.

Smith says education was the single best predictor of how people scored.

Respondents who went to graduate school answered twice as many questions correctly as people who didn't complete high school.

Overall, men scored better than women, whites score better than blacks and Hispanics, and Southerners did worse than the rest of the nation, Smith said.

The authors say they didn't give the public a grade on its religious knowledge like a school test, such as an A or F.

Why? Because, they say, "We have no objective way of determining how much the public should know about religion."

Credits: Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Google Street View Goes Live in Antarctica

Antarctica isn't exactly known for its streets, but that didn't stop Google from unveiling its Street View feature on the coldest continent on Thursday. After running into opposition in Germany and the Czech Republic over the controversial imaging service, Antarctica was a welcome change, Google employees tell the Guardian: There were no legal proceedings to deal with or privacy concerns from penguins. "This allows people to understand the contrast between New York's Times Square and being on the edge of a glacier looking at penguins," geospatial technologist Ed Parsons told the paper, describing how much the technology has changed since Street View was launched three years ago. Over the next 24 hours, Street View images will go live from Antarctica, Ireland, and Brazil, giving Google an on-the-ground presence on all seven continents.

Credits: Slate Magazine

Charity Directs Callers to Phone Sex Line

A limited-edition cereal featuring Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco was pulled from shelves this week after it was revealed that a charity phone number listed on the box was directing callers to a phone sex line. The mistake was discovered after an Ohio family called the number on speakerphone with their 9-year-old daughter in the room. PLB Sports, the company that markets OchocincO cereal, apologized for the mistake, explaining that the correct 888 prefix for the Feed the Children charity had mistakenly been replaced with an 800 number. Chad Ochocinco also issued an apology on Thursday, only a day after he encouraged his Twitter followers to buy the cereal and "Start your day with a lil suga!!!"

Levi Johnston for Mayor of Wasilla?

I am just going to let the video speak for itself.

If Facebook exsisted years ago!

 

Homemade gift series #1: Vanilla extract

What a clever gift idea. Not to mention, a wonderful excuse, er, I mean reason to keep some "good quality" Vodka on hand. I am going to attempt to post this entire series.

For the last few years, one of the most prized possessions in our pantry has been a gigantic bottle of imported Mexican vanilla extract.

It’s not that imitation stuff that you get on sale at the store, with weak vanilla flavor and added sweetener. This stuff is pure unsweetened vanilla extract. It makes pies and cookies and homemade ice cream and sweetbreads and cakes and countless other things we make at home sublime.

A month or so ago, I noticed that our big bottle was finally running low. We decided to stop by an ethnic grocery to look for some replacement, but just as that conversation was happening in our home, our old friend Carrie posted about her experience making homemade vanilla extract.

It turns out that it’s pretty simple. Get some decent vodka (not the cheap stuff that often has impurities), some vanilla beans, slice open the vanilla beans, and toss them in the vodka bottles. Store, shake about once a week, and in a few months, you’ll have amazing homemade vanilla extract.

Even better, if you can find some small bottles, you can easily give this homemade extract away as gifts to your friends who bake things in their own kitchen.

So that’s exactly what we did.

After some hunting, I found a great bargain on 3 1.75 liter bottles of Smirnoff (since you need to use at least a mid-level vodka – you can also use rum, if you’d like). I paid $12 per 1.75 liters of it – about 7.4 cups. Considering that a cup of vanilla extract will last quite a while, we’ll be making a lot of extract.

The challenge, however, was finding the beans. Our local grocery store wanted $5 per bean pod for organic vanilla beans. Considering you’re supposed to use a few bean pods per cup of extract you want to make, that adds up fast, making this seem prohibitively expensive. Carrie found a better deal – she was able to pick them up for $0.79 a pop at her local co-op. Still, not inexpensive enough.

So I went online and checked out every website I could find about making homemade vanilla extract. After sending a few emails, multiple people suggested that I check out Vanilla Products USA, which sells vanilla beans on eBay and has a 100% buyer feedback rating.

I bought a pound of beans from them, shipped to me for $24.99. They threw an extra quarter pound of beans into the package for me.

What does a pound of vanilla bean pods look like?

A pound of these beans totaled about 160 pods, so we actually bought 200 pods for $24.99 – about 12 1/2 cents a pod.

So, our cost per cup of the raw ingredients for the extract is about $0.38 for three pods, plus $1.75 for the vodka, making a cup of this extract cost just a smidge over $2. Since a good extract is used only a teaspoon at a time, the cost per use of this extract is about four cents.

So what did we do?

Sarah and I took turns cutting the beans. We would take a bean, slice it lengthwise (as seen in the picture), and tear it into two halves. Then, we’d plunk both halves into the vodka bottle.

One (obvious, in retrospect) thing we discovered is that the beans add volume to the bottle. The solution is easy – pour off about a cup of the liquid before you begin adding beans, then fill up the bottle after you’re done adding the beans.

We added different amounts of beans to each bottle, just to experiment. Based on the materials I’ve read about vanilla extract, there won’t be an enormous strength difference between the bottles of extract.

Once we have our beans in the bottles, we just seal ‘em, shake ‘em vigorously for a minute or so, and then put them in a cool, dry place. After that, shake the bottle(s) once a week or so and you’ll have usable extract in a month, though most sites encourage at least two months of extraction and as many as six months is sometimes encouraged.

As you can see, the vanilla extraction has begun! The bottle on the left is after only an hour of extraction and you can already see the browning of the liquid.

What’s next? Each week, shake the bottle to keep the extract going. We marked it on the calendar, actually, to remind ourselves. When the extraction is done (we’re shooting for about December 15), pour out the extract and filter out the beans, the pods, and other particulate matter. A few coffee filters should do the trick wonderfully.

From there, you can put the extract back into the bottle or into other containers as per your desire.

For gift giving, we’re going to give the extract in small glass bottles with lids (we’re looking for ones that will hold a cup, or eight ounces). Since we know that we’re going to need these but we have time to search for them, so we can put our bargain-hunting skills to the test. At the end of the series, we’ll show you our final product (with some home-designed labels).

Credits: Trent Hamm, Christian Science Monitor

Iran's Ahmadinejad: US used 9/11 to prolong world domination

How absolutely absurd is this? Ahmadinejad, addressing the UN General Assembly, says Iran will host a terror conference to investigate who was really behind 9/11.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced from the United Nations in New York Thursday that Iran will host an international conference on terrorism in the coming year that among other things will discuss who really carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, who delved into the 9/11 tragedy in the context of a speech focused on what he called the “crisis” facing capitalism and the Western-dominated world order, said history will record that a failing world dominator used the attacks as a pretext for occupying two countries, Afghanistan and Iraq. Citing a list of conspiracy theories over who destroyed the twin towers, he said that, whoever the culprits, the United States proceeded to use the events to try to prolong a dying world order of domination.

Addressing the annual opening of the UN General Assembly, just miles from the site of the deadliest of the 9/11 attacks, the Iranian leader said the US responded to the attacks by firing up a “propaganda machine” to convince the world that war was the necessary response.

“We were all saddened for the 3,000 lives lost on 9/11,” he said, but he added that “since then hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

The walkout

The US delegation and others walked out of Ahmadinejad's speech after he began enumerating his theories as to who could have been behind the 9/11 attacks, the second of which was that "some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East in order also to save the Zionist regime." The US holds Al Qaeda responsible for the attacks.

Ahmadinejad said the international conference he proposed would “study terrorism and the means to confront it.”

The controversial leader, who had to pass by chanting protesters railing against his rule on his way into the UN headquarters, was –despite his 9/11 tangent – less fiery than in past years, though in some ways no more modest. He unilaterally assigned the General Assembly the task of designing within one year a new UN governing structure free of the control of a few powerful countries sitting on the Security Council – a body he called one of the world’s least democratic and just.

Ahmadinejad did not directly respond to the invitation Western powers have extended to Iran to return to negotiations over its nuclear program – other than to repeat that Iran is always open to dialogue that is based on mutual respect and equal rights. But he did speak at length on the global nuclear issue, criticizing nuclear arms as a tool of domination for the few who possess them, but extolling nuclear power as a clean and inexpensive energy source for all.

'Nuclear energy for all'

Declaring another goal for the coming year, he said 2011 should be proclaimed “a year of nuclear disarmament” with the motto: “Nuclear energy for all, nuclear weapons for none.”

Ahmadinejad’s address followed by a few hours President Obama’s declaration to the same international gathering that Iran is the only signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty unable to demonstrate to UN nuclear energy officials that its nuclear program is solely peaceful in nature. As if in response, the Iranian leader acknowledged Iran’s lack of full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but said Iran is exercising its international rights.

“Yes it’s true, we have never submitted to the IAEA’s illegally imposed pressures,” he said, “and we never will.” As for the fourth round of economic sanctions approved earlier this year, he said they are merely “destroying the remaining credibility of the Security Council.”

Despite such worldly issues, much of Ajmadinejad’s speech focused on theological themes and a world where he said man’s spiritual nature is obscured by materialistic pursuits.

As he has often in the past, he railed against a Western society that destroys “the purity and exquisiteness” of women. And he referred to the recent controversy over a proposed burning of the Quran by a Florida minister, calling such acts evil but then concluding that “the truth cannot be burned.”

He then held aloft both the Quran and the Bible, and declared, “We pay respect to both books.”

Credits: Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor

Step Aside - What's Done In The Dark

There are no words for how this makes me feel!

Study: No increased autism risk from mercury-based perservative in vaccines

Exposing a fetus or young infant to vaccines with the mercury-based preservative called thimerosal does not increase the risk for autism, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

"This study adds to the evidence that thimerosal-containing vaccines do not increase a child's risk of developing autism," lead study author, Dr. Frank DeStefano of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tells CNN.

Researchers studied the medical records of 256 children diagnosed with autism and 752 typically developed children born between January 1994 and December 1999. The children were between 6 and 13 years old when the medical data was reviewed – 85 percent of them were boys. The research concluded that there was no evidence that children exposed to the mercury in the vaccines were at risk for getting autism.

According to the CDC, an average of 1 in 110 children in the United States have some form of autism and boys are 4 to 5 times more likely to have autism than girls.

In 2004 the Institute of Medicine reviewed existing research regarding a possible link between vaccines and autism and concluded "that the body of epidemiological evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism."

Still several advocacy groups and many parents believe vaccines caused their children's autism.

Earlier this year, a federal court set up by Congress to decide claims over vaccine safety, ruled scientific evidence presented did not establish a link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism.

Dr. Geraldine Dawson, Chief Science Officer for the advocacy group Autism Speaks calls the study in Pediatrics significant because it found higher levels of thimerosal exposure were not linked to a higher risk for autism. "One study can't answer all questions, but this study adds to a large body of evidence indicating that early thimerosal exposure through vaccination does not cause autism." She adds, "we encourage parents to have their children vaccinated and to establish a trusting relationship with their child's pediatrician so they can discuss any concerns they have."

Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, has long argued that there is no connection. He writes about how believing in this connection can put children at risk in his book "Autism's False Prophets." Offit says "this is at least the 6th study done on thimerosal - they've all shown the same thing. There's not a relationship between thimerosal and autism." Offit suggests it's time to move on and focus on other possible causes of autism.

"1,000 TIMES NO!"

Los Angeles Parents Put Daughter's Naming Rights on the Market for $750,000

Sure, it's expensive to raise a kid these days, but really? A pair of Los Angeles musicians are hoping to fund the rearing of their daughter the way cities fund stadium construction: naming rights. The couple posted a craigslist ad Saturday offering up their unborn baby's middle name to corporate sponsors. The $750,000 price tag seems a bit steep. This baby girl will initially weigh in at less than 15 pounds, and Izod got an entire sports arena for $1.4 million a year. But as her proud parents point out, the winning corporation "will be presented to thousands of potential customers every month as our baby grows and is signed up for scouts, called on in classrooms, and mentioned in pediatrician offices." Although the parents sound open to just about anything ("we're having a girl but product name needn't be feminine"), they do, like all good parents, have some favorite names picked out: "Our list of hopefuls includes SONY, SAAB, Jet Blue, Converse, Hot Pocket, Gibson, and Ludwig (we're musicians)."

Credits:Slate Magazine

Super Mario Bros. has sold how many copies?

Super Mario Bros., the most classic of all Nintendo games, celebrates its 25th anniversary this week. In the quarter century that followed, the game's hero – a mustachioed, red-capped plumber – has appeared in more than 200 titles.

Mario is clearly a cash cow for Nintendo, a company that has always banked on nostalgia. How many copies are we talking about?

Nintendo says the original Super Mario Bros. has sold more than 40 million copies. Many of those came bundled with the Nintendo Entertainment System, but the number has ticked ever higher, thanks to re-releases and the Wii's virtual console.

But what if you added in all the "core" Mario titles? (Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, etc.) Roll 'em all up, and you've got 240 million copies sold. That's definitely enough coins to earn a 1-up.

Credits: Chris Gaylord, Christian Science Monitor

If a co-worker gets you down

Strife due to difficult relationships at work, either with a boss or co-workers, can turn the workday into drudgery. It may seem easy to categorize others and justify our indifference to them, but instead there’s a healing, solution-oriented route to take.

Some time ago I was working in close quarters with a producer, editing a television show. We were in a small closet that was stuffy, warm, and uncomfortable, and my temper was hot. Running the tape back and forward, adding music and voice over and over again, was tedious. Trying to agree on what should be left in and what should be taken out led to a grinding conflict. I wanted to throw away the whole project and leave, but I knew that wasn’t going to solve anything. I had to calm my thought and see my fellow worker and boss, as well as myself, as inherently good, a child of God.

I knew from my study of Christian Science, in which I was seeking to know more about God, our Creator, that He is Love. He created all things good and flawless. Nothing can oppose this mighty truth. Mental stress, dislike, irritation, antagonism are mortal thinking. They have nothing to do with our true being, the reflection of Love.

Mary Baker Eddy recognized this when she discovered Christian Science and wrote a textbook for self-instruction titled “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” In it she wrote: “A material world implies a mortal mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God” (p. 507).

In my situation in the studio, I saw that it was not a person who was the problem, but impatience, self-will, and self-justification that were in the way. Deep down I knew these had no power. God’s all-power is independent of material conditions. I remembered this statement of Mrs. Eddy’s: “When error strives to be heard above Truth, let the ‘still small voice’ produce God’s phenomena” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 249).

So I refused to be intimidated by fear, hatred, or inharmony of any kind. I held to the fact that unreasonableness and bad temper do not belong to the sons and daughters of God. Soon the work progressed. We were finished, and we both felt satisfied.

The true sense of work and our relationships with others is found in right thinking. Love lifts us above every limitation. As God, who is divine Principle, is recognized as the only cause, there can be no discord. We can accept and realize the omnipresence of divine Love.

Credits: Nancy Robison, Christian Science Monitor

You Are Custom-Made

We recently purchased a sofa with a somewhat unusual shape that fit the room exactly where we needed it. It seemed custom-made, even though it was secondhand.

Because the sofa certainly had not been specially manufactured for us, I began to think about why I even thought of it in the context of being custom-made, since that notion often elicits a sense of unaffordable luxury. Certainly, the sofa wasn’t luxurious – or expensive. No, what made me think of it this way was that it appeared just when I needed it, complete and perfect.

The sofa to me was more than an attractive furnishing for comfort. My delight in it came from the qualities it represented – its perfect fit in economy, form, color – all qualities that can be seen in spiritual ways. Those qualities are understood in the theology of Christian Science as having their source in God and are evident in so many ways. God is Spirit, the only Creator of the universe, including each of us as the ideas He has conceived. What God creates is like Him – entirely and provably spiritual. And we’re created to include everything we need – all the qualities of His goodness.

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Monitor, recognized with impeccable spiritual logic that what God has made expresses His nature in every attribute. She described in this way the ideas that God, as the divine Mind, has created: “From the infinite elements of the one Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only through the spiritual senses” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 512).

Each quality and condition of what is good and needed is actually found in Spirit. And that means each individual includes them also. The divine Parent of all identities is constantly providing the atmosphere of pure joy, the environment of infinite possibilities, the substance of spiritual good, for each one. We are created to fit in life, or being, in the most fulfilling, delightfully individual way.

The book of Isaiah in the Bible describes this. As recorded in the King James Version, God declares, “This people have I formed for myself, they shall shew forth my praise” (Isa. 43:21). “The Message” paraphrases that passage with this encouraging statement: “a people custom-made to praise me.”

Every man, woman, and child is precision-created to express God’s divine purpose – and to joy in it. Viewed another way, purpose, joy, and fulfillment are spiritual qualities that express the divine will. God creates no mass-produced individualities. Even the concept is self-contradictory. Individuality is the unique expression of our loving, even doting, divine Parent, of the divine intelligence that creates and forever nurtures our growth and development.

God creates no misfits, no unneeded identities. There are no lapses where someone has fallen through the cracks, missed his calling, outlasted her usefulness. Infinite Mind loved each one into being, with a creative intelligence that never fails to prepare and secure the perfect place for each one, for now and eternity. Every individuality is forever wanted and needed, and therefore is perfectly planned for. New satisfaction, freshly orchestrated by God, continues to come to us through our unfolding understanding of God’s plan for us.

We were created to fit the niche where we can best express and glorify our Creator and express our uniqueness. You were created by your Creator to fill your niche. It uniquely fits you, in order to lift you, enlarge your capacities, and bless you. That will bless others as well. You can trust this and move forward in your life on its basis. You are custom-made.

Credits: Suzanne Riedel, Christian Science Monitor

Is College a Good Investment?

Among the American middle class, there is a belief that all people have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of matching Bed, Bath and Beyond coordinates for their child's college dorm room. Starting college is, as the Washington Post's Sarah Kaufman puts it, "a rite of passage, part of orderly progression toward success." Or is it? Kaufman asks whether the freshmen currently flocking toward campuses are falling prey to a "herd mentality" that is actually hurting their chances for success. After all, Americans are now more weighed down by student-loan debt than credit-card debt. If someone invested $200,000 instead of spending it on tuition at a top-flight school, in 50 years they'd have $2.8 million to help console them over their lack of a degree. Yes, on average, college grads make more than people with just a high-school education, but Kaufman's experts point out that that's an average. "If you major in accounting or engineering, you're pretty likely to get a return on your investment," one economics professor says. "If you're majoring in anthropology or social work or education. ... I've talked to some of my own students who've graduated and who are working in grocery stores or Wal-Mart. The fellow who cut my tree down had a master's degree and was an honors grad."

Credits: Slate Magazine

John Calipari visits 102-year-old fan

Here's a bummer about getting old: Until you get really, really, really old -- the kind of old that's so old you're not sure if you want to be that old -- people don't care. Being 80 is rarely seen as an accomplishment. But when you reach a certain threshold, people care more than ever. You get your photo on the "Today Show." Your relatives mention you in casual conversation. ("My grandpa is 104, and he still walks a mile every day!") People clap for you at weddings.

And, perhaps most importantly, high-profile college hoops coaches come visit you on your birthday.

At least, one does. Kentucky coach John Calipari, master of the positive public relations stunt (and, by all accounts, a genuinely caring and outgoing guy), visited Dr. Gifford Blyton, a 102-year-old Kentucky season-ticket holder for 62 years and a former professor under eight different presidents at Kentucky, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Calipari is traveling in support of his latest book, "Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life," but he stopped the book tour for the momentary visit with Blyton at Fat Boys restaurant in Georgetown, Ky. (Mmm. Fat Boys. I've never been there, but any restaurant named "Fat Boys" is bound to be delicious. I bet there's lots of gravy.)

In any case, Calipari left the meeting with a ready-made quote straight from the inspirational coachspeak handbook:

“You give money, and you're giving a fraction of what you have,” Calipari said last week. “But when you give your time, you're giving everything.”

Which, like all good inspirational coachspeak handbook quotes, has the benefit of being both hokey and true. Fans eat this stuff up, and it's no wonder why. Calipari is good at a lot of things -- recruiting, meshing teams together, coaching defense -- but creating a genuine sense of outreach and community in his adopted home might be his best, and perhaps most admirable, trait.

Credits: Eamon Brennan, ESPN

Ten things I know about the mosque

1. America missed a golden opportunity to showcase its Constitutional freedoms. The instinctive response of Americans should have been the same as President Obama's: Muslims have every right to build there. Where one religion can build a church, so can all religions.

2. The First Amendment comes down to this: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." It does not come down to: "The First Amendment gives me the right to repeat the N-word 11 times on the radio to an inoffensive black woman, and when you attack me for saying it, you are in violation of my First Amendment rights."

3. The choice of location shows flawed judgment on the part of its imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. He undoubtedly knows that now, and I expect his project to be relocated. The imam would be prudent to chose another location, because the far right wing has seized on the issue as an occasion for fanning hatred against Muslims. It has also narrowly reframed the project as a mosque, rather than a community center with a prayer room, which is what it would be. To oppose it on the grounds that it is Muslim is religious prejudice and nothing else. The Muslims who attacked the World Trade Center are not the Muslims who are building the center.

4. One buried motive for the attacks on Park51 is exploitation of the insane belief of 20% of Americans that President Obama is a Muslim. Zealots like Glenn Beck, with his almost daily insinuations about the Muslim grandfather Obama never knew and the father he met only once, are encouraging this mistaken belief.

5. The Bill of Rights has a parallel with pregnancy. You can't be a little pregnant, and you can't be a little free. Nor can you serve yourself from it cafeteria style.

6. Somewhere on the Right is an anonymous genius at creating memes. Sarah Palin floats a suspicious number of them: Death Panels, Ground Zero Mosque, 9/11 Mosque, Terror Babies. Her tweets are mine fields of coded words; for her, "patriot" is defined as, "those who agree with me." When she says "Americans," it is not inclusive. These two must have been carefully composed in advance to be tweeted within 60 seconds of each other:

By using the evocative word "shackles" she associates Dr. Laura's use of the N-word with the suffering of slaves. By implying Dr. Laura was silenced by "Constitutional obstructionists," she employs the methodology of the Big Lie, defined in Mein Kampf as an untruth so colossal that "no one would believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously." She uses the trigger word "reload" to evoke her support of Second Amendment activists while attacking "activists" for evoking the First.

7. Many Americans and a great many politicians have either never taken a civics class or disagree with what they should have learned there. The major opinion sources in America that seem to devote the most attention to the Bill of Rights are Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, all distorting it as an everyday practice. Bill O'Reilly, to his credit, doesn't indulge in this.

8. A meme is infecting our society that Muslims are terrorists and hate America; they are the enemy. It is a cliche to say, "the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful," but is true. When Muslim nations are bombed by America, can those nations be expected to applaud? In Iran after 9/11 there were candlelight marches in sympathy with the United States.

9. I find hope in the words of two American strippers interviewed by the Wall Street Journal. Cassandra, who works at New York Dolls, just around the corner from the proposed community center, said she worried that calls to prayer might wake up the neighbors. The WSJ writes: "But when she was told that the organizers aren't planning loudspeakers, she said she didn't have a problem with the project: 'I don't know what the big deal is. It's freedom of religion, you know?'"

Chris works in the Pussycat Lounge, even closer to the site. When the airplanes struck the World Trade Center, Chris became a Red Cross volunteer working with survivors. The WSJ writes she "sat on a barstool in a tiny, shiny red dress and defended Park51. 'They're not building a mosque in the World Trade Center. It's all good. You have your synagogues and your churches. And you have a mosque.'" Chris lost eight of her friends on Sept. 11, 2001, firefighters from the Brooklyn firehouse she lived next to at the time, but "the people who did it are not going to the mosque."

Cassandra and Chris reflect American values more instinctively and correctly on this issue, let it be said, than Sarah Palin, Howard Dean, Newt Gingrich, Harry Reid and Rudy Giuliani, who should know better.

10. I wonder how many Americans realize the community center is not intended for Ground Zero. What will be constructed there includes a 55,000 square foot retail mall. This mall will be deep enough to connect with subway lines -- deep enough, that is, to theoretically be embedded in the ashes of some of the 9/11 victims.

What might have been more appropriate? On September 12, 2001, I wrote a little op-ed column:

A Green Field

If there is to be a memorial, let it not be of stone and steel. Fly no flag above it, for it is not the possession of a nation but a sorrow shared with the world.

Let it be a green field, with trees and flowers. Let there be paths that wind through the shade. Put out park benches where old people can sun in the springtime, and a pond where children can skate in the winter.

Beneath this field will lie entombed forever some of the victims of September 11. It is not where they thought to end their lives. Like the sailors of the battleship Arizona, they rest where they fell.

Let this field stretch from one end of the destruction to the other. Let this open space among the towers mark the emptiness in our hearts. But do not make it a sad place. Give it no name. Let people think of it as the green field. Every living thing that is planted here will show faith in the future.

Let students from all lands take a sunny corner of the field and plant a crop there. Perhaps corn, our native grain. Let the harvest be shared all over the world, with friends and enemies, because that is the teaching of our religions. Let the harvest show that life prevails over death, and let the sharing show that we love our neighbors.

Do not build again on this place. No building can stand here. No building, no statue, no column, no arch, no symbol, no name, no date, no statement. Just the comfort of the earth, to remind us that we share it.

Credits: Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Journal

Betty White Scores Emmy For Hosting 'SNL'

The Betty White phenomenon keeps getting bigger.

White won an Emmy Award for best guest actress in a comedy series for her turn as "Saturday Night Live" host. The honor came Saturday at the creative arts ceremony that is precursor to the main Aug. 29 Emmy show.

The trophy is the fifth prime-time Emmy received by the 88-year-old White, according to the TV academy. Her previous honors came for classic sitcoms including "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "The Golden Girls."

So far this year, besides the "SNL" gig, White made a splash with the new TV Land sitcom "Hot in Cleveland," scored with a clever Super Bowl commercial and played a mad librarian on ABC's sitcom "The Middle."

She did not attend Saturday's ceremony, which included presenters Jane Lynch of "Glee," Elizabeth Mitchell of "Lost" and Christina Hendricks of "Mad Men."

Neil Patrick Harris was a presenter and winner, taking the trophy for best guest actor in a comedy series for his appearance on "Glee." The guest acting trophies for drama series went to John Lithgow for "Dexter" and Ann-Margret for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," which has won Emmy acting honors for six consecutive years.

Harris, who stars in "How I Met Your Mother," shared in another award. The Tony Awards show, which he hosted to critical acclaim, was recognized as best special class program.

The top network winner was HBO with 17 trophies, followed by ABC with 15 and Fox with nine. CBS, NBC and PBS each claimed seven. "The Pacific," HBO's World War II miniseries, captured a leading seven creative arts awards.

Four trophies went to "Disney Prep & Landing," an animated Christmas special. Other big winners, with three trophies each, were freshman sitcom "Modern Family," "Saturday Night Live" and "The 25th Anniversary Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Concert."

Randy Newman won a trophy for original music and lyrics for "When I'm Gone," written for the departed series "Monk."

John Leverence, senior vice president of awards, received the Syd Cassyd Founders Award for his service to the TV academy.

The creative arts ceremony will air Friday on the E! channel. Next Sunday's 62nd annual prime-time Emmy ceremony, with Jimmy Fallon as host, will air live on NBC.

Other winners at the creative arts Emmys, which honor technical and other achievements, included:

Host, reality or reality-competition series: Jeff Probst, "Survivor," CBS.

Voice-over performance: Anne Hathaway, "The Simpsons: Once Upon a Time in Springfield," Fox.

Reality program: "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution," ABC.

Commercial: "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like: Old Spice Body Wash."

Animated Program: "Disney Prep & Landing," ABC.

Nonfiction series: "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," PBS.

Writing for a variety, music or comedy series: "The Colbert Report: 5076 (in Iraq)," Comedy Central.

Music composition for a series (original dramatic score): "24: 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.," Fox.

Music composition for a miniseries, movie or special: "Temple Grandin," HBO.

Choreography: "So You Think You Can Dance," Fox.

Casting for a drama series: "Mad Men," AMC.

Casting for a miniseries, movie or a special: "The Pacific," HBO.

Casting for a comedy series: "Modern Family," ABC.

Costumes for a miniseries, movie or a special: "Return to Cranford (Masterpiece), Part 2," PBS.

Costumes for a variety-music program or a musical (more than one award possible): "Jimmy Kimmel Live: Episode 09-1266)," ABC; "So You Think You Can Dance (Top 12 perform)," Fox; "Titan Maximum: Went to Party, Got Crabs," Cartoon Network.

Costumes for a series: "The Tudors: Episode No. 408," Showtime.

Credits: NPR

Just start it!

One of the biggest themes of The Simple Dollar is goals. I find goal-setting – figuring out a specific goal, writing it down, coming up with a specific plan to get there, and following that plan – to be incredibly empowering. Diving head-first into such planning has quite literally changed my life, as it made The Simple Dollar and my subsequent writing opportunities possible. It made paying off all of our credit card debts, car loans, and student loans possible, leaving us with just a mortgage. Goal-setting gave me a framework for writing two books in the past three years, and it’s giving me a framework for learning how to play the piano and countless other personal objectives.

If you roll back the clock five years, I was buried in debt. I had vague dreams of being a writer. The Simple Dollar hadn’t even popped into my mind yet.

What took me from there to here? I attribute it to goals, of course, but there’s something much more specific than that at the core here.

The start.

The Simple Dollar was born because I sat down one evening and decided to stop dreaming about it and start doing it. I threw together a rough site design on Blogspot and wrote my first article within a couple of hours.

I started paying off debts because I sat down one evening and decided I needed to get my financial life under control. I studied all of my debts, came up with a plan for tackling them, and started cleaning out my closets within the first few hours.

When I look around my life, there are so many other things I would love to accomplish. I have several big household projects that are just sitting on the back burner. I’ve got ideas for two future books and at least two blogs I’d love to start. I’d like to run a 5K next fall.

Big goals, big dreams. None of them will happen until I sit down and make the decision to get started with them. I can dream all I want, but until I get started, nothing will happen.

Which brings us back to you.

Almost all of us have a dream or two floating out there. A big home project we’d like to pull off. A career change. A lifestyle change. A diet change. A change in our social circle. A new skill we’d like to learn.

It is so easy to dream about these things. But it’s not the dreaming that changes a life – it’s the doing and the accomplishing.

Today is the day to get started on one of those big goals.

Here’s my challenge to you. Tonight, go home and spend two hours on the big thing you’re dreaming most about in your life. Sit down, figure out a plan for how to get from where you’re at to where you want to be. Write out that whole plan. Then take the first big step towards getting there, whatever that might be.

You’ll feel so good about things that you’ll barely be able to wait until your next opportunity to take a whack at it. Soon, you’ll find yourself moving towards a goal that you thought was out of reach – and growing as a person at the same time.

That’s a big win, no matter how you slice it.

Credits: Trent Hamm, Christian Science Monitor

'Turducken,' 'Vuvuzela,' And More New Dictionary Words

Facebook History

Credits: this isn't happiness

Your place in God's family

It was obvious. Summer vacation was at its peak. On the road, carloads of families and friends were coming and going – bikes piled in racks on the backs of cars, canoes strapped to the tops, boats pulled by trailers – enjoying a week, maybe two, with their loved ones.

My own family and some dear friends were returning from a week in a rented cottage in the mountains. There we enjoyed walks, real treks, swimming, picnicking, fishing, games around the fire in the cool evenings, mornings reading on a porch with a serene view.

On the highway, though, observing this stream of families just enjoying being families, I found myself returning again and again to an offhand but withering remark someone made during our week together about a family we knew. It seemed unjust and cruel.

It’s my practice to pray when I’m disturbed about something, and so when this kept coming to my thought, I turned to God to confirm in prayer the spiritual facts. Someone had recently shared with me a spiritual fact about the concept of family in an e-mail message. She wrote, “Family is evidence of God’s love for all of Her children – not a collection of disparate personalities, not a source of discord or frustration. Family, as a reflection of God’s love, is harmonious, a source of strength and peace.” Though this lifted my thought somewhat from the slur on that dear family, still the cruel remark returned and seemed more impressed on my thought than even these comforting statements about the spiritual concept of family.

Family is an adored idea in the hearts of many, evoking warmth, love, affection, and support. But like all things human, families are subject to failures, faults, even deep sadness. I realized that to get the loft needed, I had to go higher. And what helped me was an unexpected realization.

For months I’d been thinking about God’s sons and daughters as His spiritual, complete idea – the reflection, the very image of God, as described in the first chapter of Genesis. Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, amplified that description in her work “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” where she wrote, among many other descriptions, that “man is the image of Love” (p. 475). And I was contrasting this concept of spiritual man with the mortal personality we are accustomed to thinking of as us – a mixture of good, even bright personal attributes, and an assortment of shortcomings, faults, and frailties.

The spiritual individuality, our actual identity, was expressed masterfully by Christ Jesus. One small episode has meant much to me in highlighting the difference between the material personality he shunned and the spiritual identity that he lived. In Matthew’s Gospel a man approached Jesus with this understandable greeting: “Good Master.” Jesus answered him, but corrected the greeting with the question “Why callest thou me good?” and added, “there is none good but one, that is, God” (Matt. 19:16, 17).

Had Jesus accepted that the good he expressed was personal, he would have subtly claimed a mortal personage, a mixture of good and bad. His faithfulness to his true nature, the Christly idea, saved him from the mortal trappings of personality, hinging on mortality, which includes sinning, being sick, and dying. Turning a mortal identity down in an apparently harmless context literally saved his life. His resurrection was the result of understanding his spiritual selfhood at all times.

Then it dawned on me in the middle of the night. If we are each God’s spiritual idea, actually unburdened by mortal personality and free to express our likeness to God, then family, God’s loving idea, is also free from having a personality. In spiritual reality, in all of God’s universe of ideas, there are no bad families, unloving families, dysfunctional, broken, or cruel families. There is just God’s family, which Mrs. Eddy described when discussing how “[a] human sense of Deity yields to the divine sense, even as the material sense of personality yields to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite Principle and infinite idea, – as one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love" (Science and Health, pp. 576-577). We all fit in this family; we are all at home in Love.

The “Our Father” from the Lord’s Prayer is the head of every household. And that opening address in this healing prayer is spiritually interpreted as “Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious” (Science and Health, p. 16).

With this realization, my thought was at rest, and I could see this as a waymark for my prayers – not just for a particular family, but as the basis for upholding the peace and goodness of family as God’s idea.

Credits: Rebecca Odegaard, Christian Science Monitor

Ground Zero Mosque: Digging a Hole in the Soul of America

I must admit that I was not fond of the idea of a Islamic community center and mosque being built near the site where the World Trade Center once stood. But this artircle opened my eyes and I am now second thinking myself.

It was a day we will never forget. It was a day that changed the course of this nation forever. It was a day that permanently bruised our hearts, with the potential of healing almost seeming impossible. Yet, with love, faith and compassion, we showed the world and showed ourselves through the promotion of one of our nation's greatest values -- tolerance -- we can overcome fear and hate.

Today, ten years later, I peer through the front windows of my apartment and still see a large gaping hole that once was the home to the World Trade Center. I pass by the firehouse on my block and say hello to the firemen who lost almost all of their guys on that day. This is my neighborhood, my backyard. And in my backyard, I have no tolerance for a new fear-mongering, hateful rhetoric that has sprung up over the proposed $100 million Islamic cultural center that they plan on building blocks away from Ground Zero.

It is not insensitive to put a cultural center of any sort, that has a place of worship, anywhere in our city. This is what makes our country and our city great. As a nation that was founded by men and women who were being persecuted for their particular faith, we should know that the best path to finding freedom is finding freedom for others. We were formed as a pluralistic society and this means we welcome all religions. Islam did not attack the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, sick and twisted men did, who not only hijacked four airplanes but also hijacked a religion. Let us not stereotype the over one billion Muslims around the world because of the evil acts of a few. A decision like this one, to support or not support the construction of this center, defines who we are as a nation. It's at the essence of our values, our freedom of expression, freedom of religion and religious tolerance.

As the Chairman of The Foundation Of Ethnic Understanding, my partner Rabbi Marc Schneier (also the Vice President, World Jewish Congress; Chairman, World Jewish Congress United States) and I have worked tirelessly to promote dialogue among different ethnic groups all over the world, particularly Jews and Muslims. We have witnessed the power of the fostering of this dialogue. We know that we must fight Antisemitism and Islamaphobia together and at the same time. We welcome and support this cultural center, as it will continue constructive conversations around a moderate approach to co-existence between all people, regardless of religious preference. In fact, we strongly feel that this center will bridge the divide that many of our nation's citizens have with the Islamic faith.

There are moments that define our nation. There are moments that test the strength of our character. There are moments that test the essence of our freedoms. Let this be that moment and let us pass this test with grace and dignity. As I will not stand for any sort of Islamaphobia in my backyard.

Credits: Russell Simmons, CNN

2010 Could Be Hottest Year Yet

Duh! Thanks for that news flash!

Federal climate scientists say that 2010 is shaping up to be the hottest year yet seen, with average global temperatures for the first six months of the year beating the previous record, set in 1998, by 1.19 degrees Fahrenheit. The National Climatic Data Center's scientists added that this year's warm weather did not appear to be a one-off. "Each of the 10 warmest average global temperatures recorded since 1880 have occurred in the last fifteen years," the center reported. The center also notes that Arctic sea-ice shrank to record lows in June, covering an area almost 11 percent lower than the usual June average, marking the 19th consecutive year of summer ice declines. At the other end of the Earth, Antarctic sea ice was up a little more than 8 percent, in the largest June expansion on record.

Credits: Slate Magazine via MSNBC

Fat-Bottomed Girls Are More Forgetful

I wonder if this applies to men as well. If so, I think that I may have found the root of all my forgetfulness.

Researchers have long known that fat people can suffer cognitive impairments, but a new study suggests that the location of the flab can make a difference, too. Women who carry their weight on their hips experience markedly more deterioration of memory and cognitive function than those who carry their fat higher on their body, researchers found. The exact reason isn't yet known, but scientists speculate that hormones released by hip fat could cause inflammation and lead to reduced cognitive ability. The findings suggest that obesity could play a role in the decline of mental ability as people age and that certain body types could be more vulnerable to the effect than others. "The fat may contribute to the formation of plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease or a restricted blood flow to the brain," said the study's lead author. "The added weight definitely had a detrimental effect."

Credits: Slate Magazine via CNN

18th Century "Ghost Ship" Found at Ground Zero

On Tuesday, workers excavating the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan stumbled upon an astonishing find: the hull of an 18th century ship. Archaeologists were summoned, and upon further investigation, the hull turned out to be more than 30 feet long, making it the biggest archeological find in Manhattan since 1982. The wooden frame was "so perfectly contoured that [it was] clearly part of a ship," an archaeologist told the Times, noting that the whole ship may be two to three times bigger than the portion found. Experts suspect that the ship was used as landfill material and say that it probably hasn't been disturbed since the 18th century. Because construction couldn't be stopped and the timber began to deteriorate as soon as it hit open air, archaeologists had to race against time and the weather to take the ship's measurements. "I kept thinking of how closely it came to being destroyed," an expert told the Guardian.

Credits: New York Times

Julia R. Ewan neighbors question church leaders over proposed move

This is a piece of local news that caught my eye this morning. Are the members of this neighborhood association completely oblivious to what their comments are doing to the image of their neighborhood? While the argument could be made that physical image of their neighborhood while be impacted, one thing is for certain. The perceptual image of their neighborhood may never be the same.

"An overflow crowd of 200 people squeezed into the former Julia R. Ewan Elementary School cafeteria Tuesday night in an emotional meeting where neighbors expressed concerns to Vineyard Community Church officials about the church's plans to buy and move into the building.

Several made it clear Vineyard was not welcome in the neighborhood, off Richmond Road between the Idle Hour Country Club and Henry Clay Boulevard. Some residents have signs in their yards opposing Vineyard's proposed move.

Some at the meeting said they were concerned about increased traffic throughout the neighborhood, parking, noise, and outreach programs the church might have. Others worried the church and its ministry to the poor would lower property values.

Valerie Askren, president of the Fairway Neighborhood Association, said the forum was intended to let residents communicate their concerns with the church.

A Lexington Board of Adjustment hearing on a conditional use permit for the church is scheduled for July 30.

The Rev. Kevin Clark is pastor of the church, which now meets at 817 Winchester Road. He said the church has a contract on the building for $1.5 million, pending approval of the conditional use permit.

Community Trust Bank has approved a loan for the church, Clark said.

In addressing the audience, Clark started off with an apology, saying Vineyard "had no idea we would cause this much ruckus in this neighborhood."

One of the missions of the church is serving the poor, which Clark said, "We are honored to do." But he said there were misconceptions of how that is carried out.

The church does not plan to open a homeless shelter, a soup kitchen or clothes closet. Vineyard partners with groups such as God's Pantry, Lexington Rescue Mission and the Catholic Action Center at their sites to feed, clothe and house the poor. He said there was no reason for his church "to reinvent the wheel."

Several people expressed concern about the traffic that a Christmas toy giveaway has attracted to Vineyard's church on Winchester Road. Executive pastor Jimmy Fields said it drew about 3,000 adults over several days in December.

One resident asked whether the church would agree to a deed restriction to not have the giveaway at its new location. Clark said no, but added that the Catholic Action Center, which runs the toy giveaway, is discussing keeping the project at the Winchester Road location even if Vineyard moves.

To meet city requirements, the church needs 100 parking spaces, which Clark said it can provide. The school had 86 spaces. The church has found ways to add an additional 50 spaces.

The 500 worshippers at Vineyard are distributed among three services, one on Saturday evening and two on Sunday morning. The church will have teams in the parking lot and on nearby streets to prevent blocked driveways. An emergency telephone number will be published in the Fairway Neighborhood newsletter for residents to call if someone has parked "inconsiderately."

One woman told Clark he was not being candid in saying how the church would handle additional cars if the church grew. It has grown from 12 members eight years ago to its current size of 500.

Another resident asked: if neighbors raised the money, how much would the church take to back out of its deal to buy the school from the current owner? The owner, Bill Meade, bought the school at auction in May 2009.

Meade, who was sitting on the front row, promptly stood up and said, "How much money have you got?"

A couple of people said Fairway was an inappropriate neighborhood for the church that says unabashedly it serves primarily the poor and the meek. "There are not many of those in this neighborhood," one speaker told Clark."

Credits: Beverly Fortune, Lexington Herald Leader

My reason...err, excuse for not being on here

I really have slacked off on writing or posting things here on my blog lately. For the few people who actually read this, I apologize. Believe it or not though, there is actually someone other than myself to blame for my absence. Her name is Angenette Crawford-Sharp. She is my wife. For the last four-and-a-half years, she has been a Middle School Science Teacher. the most dedicated, almost to a fault, Middle School Science Teacher that any school, student or parent could hope to have. She was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING at what she did. Unfortunately, that meant at times that our children and I went on the back burner.

The woman has boundless energy. She was getting up at 4:45 am so that she could get dressed and be at the bus stop by 5:46 am. She would ride the bus to the Transit Center where she would transfer to the bus that would take her down the street that her school was on. This entire process lasted until roughly 6:30 am. You have to understand that this was late by her standards. Before we lost our car, and she was able to drive to work, she was there at 6:00 am so that she could have "ample" time to set-up for the day. The roughly 45 minute travel time which that time of the morning would take about 12 minutes in a car was a real cramp to her style.

The school day actually started at 8:30 am and would last until 4:00 pm. During that time she would teach 5 classes and end the day by conducting a meeting because she was the Team Lead. She attended countless meetings on her team and departments behalf and relayed that information to her constituents in a timely and efficient manner. She handled all discipline issues and discipline referrals for her team. She coordinated field trip and PRO activities with the other 8th grade team and their team lead. She also worked very hard to coordinate her lessons with the other 8th grade Science teacher. All the while, he made no attempt to do the same. Last but not least, there were the parent contacts. I would guess that she spent a third of her day emailing or calling parents. She talked to them about their child's grades and what it would take for them to get the grade that the parent wanted. She talked to them about their child's discipline or more appropriately put, lack thereof.

Busy day right? I get exhausted just thinking about it. Guess what though. It is just getting started. At  the end of each day, she would hitch a ride home with a co-worker of her's who lives on our side of town. At this point you may be wondering why she didn't catch a ride with that person in the morning to avoid having to get up so early and ride the bus. The answer is fairly simple. That person did not get to school early enough to allow my wife the time that she needed to prepare for her students and her day.

Once she arrived home, I would immediately run out the door and head to work. Which left her at home alone 4 out of 5 weeknights. From the time she walked in the door, she would entertain our children who would cling to her from the moment that she walked in the door until the moment that their head hit the pillow that night. She fed them a snack even though most days I had just given them a snack. She prepared dinner and had it on the table at 6:00 pm every night. She bathed them, read to them and then put them down to bed at 8:30 pm.

It was at this point, nearly 16 hours into her day, that she would take a shower, and get herself ready for bed. But only so that she could sit in bed, surrounded by papers and projects that she was grading and lessons that needed prepared for the next day. A few times, I would come in the door between 10:30 pm and 12:30 am and find her slumped over in this pile of papers asleep. But most of the time, she was still hard at it, insisting that she "finish looking over one last classes" assignments for that day.

It wasn't until I turned the light off and insisted that she lay down that she finally conceded that the day was in fact over. This generally happened around 1:30 am. Only so that she could get up and do it all over again in roughly 3 hours.

You may or may not have noticed that my last blog entry was posted on June 3rd. My wife's last day of the school year was on June 4th. Since that day, I have delighted in every moment that I have been able to spend with her and our children Lauryn and Ben. Especially her. I am attempting to make up for the lost "us" time that we missed over the last 4 and a half years. And that friends, is why I haven't posted a blog entry for the last 13 days. I have been spending time with my wife.

I will do my very best in the coming days and weeks to do better about posting on here. I must warn you though. I don't anticipate my wife starting her new job as a Nursing Assistant until mid to late July. So, if my entries are sparse in the time in between, I do hope that you understand. :)

Golden Girls Star Rue McClanahan Dies at 76

Golden Girl Rue McClanahan has died at the age of 76.

"She passed away at 1 a.m. this morning," her manager, Barbara Lawrence, tells PEOPLE. "She had a massive stroke."

McClanahan, who played man-happy Blanche Devereaux on the still-popular '80s sitcom Golden Girls, had suffered a minor stroke earlier this year while recovering from bypass surgery. Lawrence adds that at the time of her death Thursday, McClanahan “had her family with her. She went in peace."

Still in syndication, Golden Girls ran on NBC from 1985 to 1992. Only last year, McClanahan's costar, Beatrice Arthur, died from cancer. Estelle Getty died in 2008. Surviving star Betty White, 88, is currently enjoying a remarkable resurgence in her career, having recently hosted Saturday Night Live.

Born in Healdton, Okla., Rue lived in six towns by the time she was 8. Her father was a road builder who moved from one project to another. She found solace in acting ("the only thing I ever wanted to do") and after four years at the University of Tulsa moved to New York, where she worked as a part-time file clerk while trying to find jobs in the theater.

Her first job was off Broadway, in 1957, and she finally hit Broadway in 1969. TV work came from soap operas, until she made it on CBS's Maude, starring Beatrice Arthur, starting in 1972. She played Maude's best friend Vivian.

But it was Golden Girls that put her on the map and led to fame, fortune – and several husbands. In all, she had six, including actor Morrow Wilson, whom she wed in 1997 and who survives her, as does a son, Mark Bish, from her first marriage.



Credits: Charlotte Triggs and Stephen M. Silverman, PEOPLE