A Christmas Visitor

(Originally posted for Christmas 2004)

4:00 am 12/24/04

There was a knock on my front door which startled me awake. My dogs were barking which required dire threats to quieten as I answered the door.

Maybe you have heard of our weather and the unusually cold temperatures and large amount of snow that has fallen in the last 24 hours. I live just south of Interstate 64 in Southern Indiana and you may have seen the news about the closed Interstate and stranded motorists on the national news.

A man in his early fifties, about my own age, stood at the door. He was wearing tennis shoes, jeans, a field jacket and sock hat. His glasses were frosted and his pale white hands and reddened knuckles attested to the fact that he wore no gloves.

He told me he was lost and asked for directions to a certain address. I told him that he missed his mark by a mile and a half and asked him where his car was. He said he was walking.

I invited him in and sat a chair for him by the warm air from the furnace vent. He was shivering uncontrollably, a faint whiff of alcohol was on his breath. I asked if I could fix him something to eat and he refused but accepted a cup of coffee.

My wife talked to him as he warmed himself and I made coffee, I could hear him speak as I prepared his fresh coffee.

My son heard his voice and came into the living room to sit and listen, and to watch, just in case.

His story unfolded, he was homeless, he had been sleeping under a bridge over the river several miles to the West. He had decided that it was too cold and he might freeze to death if he didn't find safe shelter with more than cardboard boxes to keep him warm. About midnight, he had left his meager possessions and headed for his sisters house a mile or so from my own home. He had walked past in the blowing snow, wind and the dark but continued forward. He was lost, confused and probably somewhat drunk. Hypothermia can add confusion to even the sober mind.

As he spoke, I realized that he had mental problems as do many of the homeless.

There are places that provide refuge for the indignant, I'm sure he knew, but they don't accept anyone who is intoxicated; which I'm also sure he knew.

He drank his coffee then asked me if I would drive him to his sisters house. He then offered me two dollars. Of course I refused the money but offered to take him where he wanted to go.

I intended to take measures to see after him and he seemed anxious to leave.

As I drove, he told me that his sister was out of town but he had permission to use her house in an emergency. I was worried that he was just lying for reasons of his own but I was determined to see the thing through, even if I had to call the police to ensure his well-being through this cold weather.

As we drove up to the house, there was a porch light on and smoke coming from the chimney vent. Even so, it was apparent that there was no one home. The snow around the house was undisturbed.

I asked him if he was sure he could get in, he said, "Yes, she (his sister) told me where the key is." He reached out his hand, as if for a hand shake, and when I offered mine, pulled it to his lips and kissed it saying, "God bless you".

I was profoundly embarrassed but stayed long enough to see him dig around in the snow and find a key, unlock the door and wave goodbye.

I drove home, my thoughts disturbed, by the events that had taken place.

My wife was relieved as I returned and I started preparing food, (very early,) for Christmas Eve. As I cut up fruit for salad and prepared the turkey for baking, my son came up behind me, hugged me and kissing my head, said, "Dad, you did a good thing."

Again, I was embarrassed, not by my son's hug and kiss but by his praise.

It was the right thing to do.

My son told me that he tries to help the homeless ones that hang around his place of employment. We spoke of how little we can actually do for them and I was proud of my son for being a good man and doing the right thing.

As I continued to prepare food for Christmas Eve, my thoughts drifted to a couple seeking shelter in Bethlehem and the birth of the Lamb of the New Covenant, and I felt God's Peace.

May God's Peace and blessings be with you all!
Merry Christmas.

Time for me to put this years turkey in the oven.
Warren

Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!

Long Time, No Post!

Sometime when you're bored....

(The odd reflections in this hood are the ceiling of the paint booth)

Try....

Taking, one Shelby Cobra kit car....


Add countless hours of body work to an incredibly crappy fiberglass body....


Add three coats of Orion Silver metalflake, four coats of Kandyapple Red tinted clear intermediate coat and three coats of clear urethane....


Wet sand, lay out stripes, mask, paint three more coats of Orion Silver metalflake for the stripes and four more coats of clear over the entire project....



Over thirty two hours on a weekend; and you have a Kandyapple Red Cobra.

I did all the bodywork and paint. The kit car belongs to a friend.

All the paint materials from House of Kolors.

The suspension and differential is from a Mustang 5.0.

The engine is a race modified 351 CID Ford power plant with a low profile supercharger and special electronics. It will turn a 1/4 mile quicker than 99.99 percent of people have ever driven.

I'll try to get some more pictures up when the car is reassembled and done.

"The Last Country of Freedom and Possibility?"

In 1970 a KGB operative from the USSR, an expert in Indian culture and languages, found himself disgusted with the Soviet system and made his way to the West. His migration was at great personal risk, but he had decided he must be free and so he defected to the United States.

In 1984, G. Edward Griffin conducted an indepth interview of the ex-KGB operative, Yuri Bezmenov, which was essentially a study of comparison and contrast between the United States and the USSR. A portion of that interview is in the video below. It's important, as you watch this video, to remember that this interview is from 1984 - amazing how no one heeded his warnings and we are so much further down the path to total communism/socialism than we were then.

In 1984, Mr. Griffin billed Mr. Bezmenov as "one of the world’s outstanding experts on the subject of Soviet propaganda and disinformation and active measures." And while I've been unable to find anything on or from Mr. Bezmenov within the past few years - IF he is still alive, I have to believe that this moniker would still stand.

In November of last year, Useless Dissident transcribed a different part of this same interview. It's a great read that gives you a little bit of Yuri's background and where he's coming from in making the statements he makes in the above mentioned interview.

Very early in that interview - remember this was 25 years ago - Mr. Griffin put forth the following question:

"In this country, at the university level primarily, we read and hear that the Soviet system is different from ours, but not that different. And that there is a convergence developing between all of the systems of the world, and that really it doesn’t make an awful lot of difference what system you live under because you have corruption and dishonesty and tyranny and all that sort of thing. From your personal experience, what is the difference between life under Communism and life in the United States?"

It's clear that, although few of us realized it at the time, we were already well down the path to the one world 'convergence', ne collectivism, that Mr. Griffin mentions in his question. And today we're running down that road with the blessing of a good percentage of the [uninformed] population.

It's obvious that we never did heed bezmenov's recommendations for the proper, America-appreciating education of our youth and our citizens - So is it now too late for the U.S.?

What of the "force" he speaks of? Obama has been in office less than 30 days and we are further down the road to complete socialism than any could have thought would be possible after 30 months.

The constitution is worse than, as Thomas Jefferson warned, a 'mere thing of wax' in the hands of the Judiciary - It is now nothing more than a wad of trash in the hands of the most horrible Congress in the history of our country. The graceless bunglers making up this current Congress is working hard to reduce our country to a country of collectivism.

And if we don't stop it now, it will be too late.

Bazillions of people will go hungry tonight!

I knew we had an illegal alien problem but I didn't know it was this bad!

"Looks like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will say anything to get support for President Obama's $900 billion stimulus package.

Pelosi publicly stated that "every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs."

Moron!

Has it been two weeks? Yes, a good two weeks!

Just to Reiterate for the Record...

At the dawn of the Obama Administration we have witnessed: four high-level appointees blow up over various issues, tax and otherwise (Richardson, Daschel, and Killefer get axed; Geitner stays); the appointment of at least 12 lobbyists to positions in the Administration -- in direct contradiction of campaign promises; a pork-laden economic stimulus bill without precedent in US history; and the reversal of campaign positions concerning controversial policies like rendition.

I look forward to the next two weeks.

A few thoughts

The other day, my wife was watching TV. I don't know what was on or on which channel, I don't really watch television. But I happened to notice aging Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt, a member of his band, doing an interview.

They were acting childish and looking their age.

The anti-establishment, establishment.

Grown men that never grew up. Mental midgets that believed their success as entertainers gave them intelligence and wisdom.

Fraid not!

Talk about washed up!
They can't even claim to being anti-establishment anymore, not after their fawning displays of man love toward "The One ®".

From a post by Doug TenNapelIf
At BIG HOLLYWOOD

"If you want me to unite to your cause, then end abortion, give the people back the money they earned, fight terror, keep your hands off free speech on the radio and enable job creators to make more jobs. Until then, screw your hope and screw your change."

Don't Even Bother Raising Our Hands

The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day."

~~ Carol Marin ~~
Chicago Sun-Times columnist