Coming from an older family, I have to do this every so often.  My maternal grandmother, then my father’s father, then his mother, then two of my uncles, with other family members sprinkled in between.  I swore off funerals, I just couldn’t do it anymore. I would send a card, flowers, and visit the family, but I couldn’t bear another funeral.

Then my dad died.  Not exactly an optional funeral.  Not only did I have another funeral to visit, I needed a suit– which isn’t “off the rack” for a guy my size.  So, in the middle of all the preparation, I had to visit a tailor.  I was looking for something I probably would never wear (or want to wear) again.  What I came out with was the most perfect suit I’ve ever worn… for one dollar.  You see, I took a paid week of vacation off from my job, and they– without me knowing it– gave me back the vacation time on the sly.  One perfect suit– one dollar.

This weekend, I pulled The Suit out of the closet.  Oh, I wear parts of it (usually just the slacks and shirt) every now and then, but only for funerals do I wear the entire thing.  Pulling it on is almost a ritual– from the dress dress hose (calf-high like are worn with kilts) to making sure the handkerchief is tucked into the breast pocket (and make sure another one is tucked into the right hip pocket…) to the dress boots I always wear.

The Suit came out of storage for my cousin.  The son of a Baptist minister, he was a WWII SeaBee, who would not speak of his time in the Pacific.  The only thing missing from his service was a reference to the Navy’s prayer for burial at sea.

“… looking for the general Resurrection in the last day, and the life of the world to come, through our Lord Jesus Christ; at Whose second coming in glorious majesty to judge the world, the sea shall give up her dead; and the corruptible bodies of those who sleep in him shall be changed, and made like unto His glorious body; according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.”

——-

Other families are pulling out their suits today.  One of the pro-liberty crowd is absent– straightarrow has passed on.  The man was almost ever-present on gun blogs, always sharing a bit of his wit in every comment.  To some, he was blunt– I just thought he was honest.  Allow me to quote something that was quoted over at Weer’d's–

…our concept of freedom and liberty, not exactly the same things, has been so diluted in our modern citizens that they really have no mental capacity to deny their emotional training, at the hands of government, to see clearly what has been lost.

Even though the intellectual capacity may exist in its raw state, the spirit needed to question oppressive authority is all but dead in a great many of our people. Many of them being too young to remember liberty are not aware that what we now have hasn’t always been so. By the time they gain enough wisdom to listen to their elders, their elders have died, taking with them the ideals of liberty and rugged individualism that made and kept this country great for many many decades. Until modern media simply overwhelmed truth and history. –Straightarrow

Here’s to absent friends.

For now, just keep Brigid in your prayers… she has pneumonia.

I grieved my Lord from day to day,
I scorned His love so full and free,
And though I wandered far away,
My mother’s prayers have followed me.

Refrain:
I’m coming home, I’m coming home,
To live my wasted life anew,
For mother’s prayers have followed me,
Have followed me the whole world through.

O’er desert wild, o’er mountain high,
A wanderer I chose to be;
A wretched soul, condemned to die,
Still mother’s prayers have followed me.

He turned my darkness into light,
This blessed Christ of Calvary!
I’ll praise His name both day and night,
That mother’s prayers have followed me.

——-

One of the verses that ties to this hymn is… touching to me.  “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.” (2 Timothy 1:5)  I can imagine Timothy reading this letter and reflecting back on his mother and grandmother, tearing up a bit as he did so.  I know I did while reading that verse, and reading the words of the hymn.  Oh, thank You, Lord, that mother’s prayers have followed me…

Bob S.’s wife has cancer, Dr. Lott just got out of the hospital, and Weer’d's wife has a visit with the doc.

Support requests:

Tam and Roberta X have a tree trying to go all Entish on them.  Just under a grand (!!!) to take it down.

Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
But the church of Jesus constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never ’gainst that church prevail;
We have Christ’s own promise, and that cannot fail.

Today is Everybody Draw Mohammad Day.

Here is my contribution:

Yeah, cheesy, I know, but I can’t draw people worth crap.  This was first brought to my attention by Miguel, and I decided to get in on the act.  Other good depictions of Mo come from DirtCrashr, Alan, Breda, Chris Muir and Miguel.  Lissa shares my artistic challenge and re-posts our government’s EDMD entry, and Rustmeister isn’t participating due to a jihad declared by Mullah Malaise.  The EDMD website is still up (for now), and the outrage over their Facebook group has begun to build in the Muslim world.  Heck, the Wall Street Journal has equated EDMD to flag burning.

The Origin

This all started due to South Park wanting to have Mohammad on, dressed in a bear suit.  Not show him directly, mind you… but have him as a character.  This (of course) riled members of The Religion of Peace, including one Zachary Chesser Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, who sent a oh-so-discreet warning to Matt Stone and Trey Parker:

“We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show…” [...] A photo of Van Gogh’s body lying in the street was included with the original posting, which has been unavailable to some Web users since news of the item broke earlier this week [...] “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”

On 15 April he posted a Twitter message: “May Allah kill Matt Stone and Trey Parker and burn them in Hell for all eternity. They insult our prophets Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses.”  I have to point out two things here.  One, this guy doesn’t sound like he’s been listening to the Jesus I know that much.  Two, this guy posted this on Tax Day and didn’t get that much attention, but the Tea Parties did.  Hello, media bias!

The Reaction

One word: retreat.  Comedy Central re-did the Mohammad-in-a-bear-suit bit, and cut the final monologue (which was Kyle talking about not giving in to fear and intimidation).  The reaction from the media was (essentially) a deep sigh of relief and wiping of the brow, with a small sprinkling of public officials getting the message.  Penn Jillete said it best in a response to Seth McFarlane: “I think you cheapen Matt and Trey’s morality, strength and courage when you say ‘is the joke worth it?’ Because the question is: what is morally right?“  (Wait a second… me and Jillete in agreement on something related to morals… this is bizzaroland…)

Make no mistake, this New York Times piece has it right… this is the front line of a cultural war.  This writer nails it:

It is clear that the Revolution Muslim group isn’t really focused on South Park as much as it is focused on America, Hollywood and American foreign policy. The group hates the American way of life, capitalism and freedom. The group is attacking people’s right to choose their religion, their soul mate [unless their soul mate is in The Cause -- Dixie], their movies, their music and their political candidates. It is an assault on freedoms and therefore, everyone who loves this country must speak out against the group’s threats of violence.

This struggle is going to be made harder by the fact that some in our society won’t even admit the battle is happening.  (Like Bin Laden, they can’t quite come to grips with what’s happening.)    Heck, quite a few in the media like the terrorists (while tap-dancing around certain friends of the President…).  Sen. Lieberman was surprised when the Pentagon wouldn’t refer to the Ft. Hood shooter as a “terrorist.”  I wasn’t… heck, Obama can’t even spare the money for a government agency designed to keep terrorists from getting visas.  Muslim students here in the U.S. won’t even disown Hamas:

The struggle won’t be made easy by those here at home, either… I remember reading several left-wing websites just after the Ft. Hood attack, and the general tone was “those fundy teabaggers need to watch the terrorists in their own ranks and leave the peaceful Muslims ALONE!“  One man even tried comparing Ft. hood to the shooting of Dr. Tiller.  For the record– targeting an individual is murder.  Randomly killing people in a group is an act of terrorism.  But then again, that goes against Larry’s Handy Guide to Terrorism, so I may be wrong.

(On a side note: Christians have a sense of humor, and don’t take umbrage at things like a man named Lord Jesus Christ,  so why is it the media is always trying to pin crap on us?  Seriously, if one more person tries to paint McVeigh as a “fundy”…)

However, the reaction to the South Park episode will be minor compared to the one that will be generated by Geert Wilders’ new film, “Islam Rising.”  This gentleman was only recently allowed into the U.K to speak, and I hope this signals an about-face by the people of the U.K. in regards to Muslim extremism.  (I doubt it… the big new mosque across from the Olympic Park will have plenty of users…)  Hey, at least the U.K. isn’t finacing terrorist groups through welfare, right?

The Times Square Bomber

On 1 May, a naturalized citizen (who had recently made several trips back to his native country of Pakistan) attempted to set off a bomb in Times Square.  Luckily, the device failed, but the bomber almost got away.  The media instantly began hoping this wasn’t a Muslim, and Mayor Bloomberg stated that it probably was a Tea Party member.  Reports (that have been denied) even state that signal intelligence (SigInt) aircraft may have been used to find the bomber.

In the aftermath, it was found out that the bomber was taken off the national terror surveillance list by the Obama administration.  Why was he on the list?  Because he had been on terror-related websites since 2006.  Does our government decide to patch the holes in the current system?  Maybe enact “sensible fuel and fireworks laws” to keep anybody from building a FAE bomb?  No, they decide they want to hurt terrorists who are American citizens by stripping them of their citizenship.

As Tam points out, it’s odd that nobody is squawking about Congress trying to rule (ex-post-facto, to boot) that a citizen isn’t a citizen… or even the President cracking jokes about using Predator drones against American citizens.

Obama is turning out to be worse than expected… but, hey… at least he’s not Bush, right?  (Yes, I’ve actually heard that from a Democrat.)  Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go dig a bunker…