GOD DISCRIMINATES

SATURDAY, JULY 22, 2023 

CHRISTIANITY / BIBLE / REVELATION


“It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. 

To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 

The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.  

But as for the cowardly, 

the faithless, 

the detestable, 

as for murderers, 

the sexually immoral, 

sorcerers, 

idolaters, 

and all liars, 

their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

- REVELATION 21:6-8 ESV

DULUTH

SATURDAY, JULY 22, 2023 

TRAINS / DULUTH / NORTH SHORE SCENIC RAILROAD

One of my favorite tourist lines: the North Shore Scenic Railroad, with tracks along the bank of Lake Superior.  These are former DM&IR tracks, not sure if they still have ownership or trackage rights in the era of CN.  

Put some sugar on your salad...

WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 2023 

FOOD / SALADS / DRESSINGS

I actually like leafy-green salads.  Just plain old lettuce and some salad dressing is just fine with me.   I prefer to make my own vinaigrettes, but that's not always doable.   As is often the case with food, it takes far longer to properly make a good vinaigrette than it does to eat the salad it's on.    

So during one of my shopping trips to Wal-Mart, I decided to pick up an entire platoon of good, old-fashioned salad dressings in a bottle.  Most of these are just 8oz size, but variety is the spice of life--so I bought several small bottles to try rather than a few large bottles, even though that would have been far more economical.  I only bought 12oz if the smaller ones weren't available in that flavor.  

So we have, from left to right:

1. 8 oz Hidden Valley Ranch
2. 8 oz The Original "Western" 
3. 12 oz Wishbone "Russian"
4. 8 oz Kraft "Thousand Island"
5. 8 oz Kraft "Raspberry Vinaigrette" 
6. 12 oz Kraft Creamy Poppyseed

The Kraft Creamy Poppyseed only came in a 12oz bottle.  Never had it before, thought I would give it a try, and I LOVE IT!  Might be my new favorite factory made salad dressing. 

If you've never had Kraft Raspberry vinaigrette, give it a try.  It's lovely mix of sweet & sour that goes great with just about any vegetable.   Highly recommended. 

The Original "Western" is a childhood favorite, as is the very similar Wishbone "Russian".   They are both very sweet, somewhat similar to Chinese "sweet and sour" sauce in taste, but not quite.   These salad dressings have a ton more flavor than traditional sweet & sour sauce.  

The Kraft "Thousand Island" is an absolute classic that most people like.  You can even use it as a topping for cheeseburgers, or as classic ingredient for Reuben sandwiches.   

Hidden Valley Ranch is an iconic classic dressing that goes good with lots of food, even chicken nuggets.   It is the ONLY salad dressing of the bunch that has NO ADDED SUGAR.  Everyone loves ranch dressing, and for good reason.    

Kraft lets's everyone know, right on the front of their label, that they DO NOT USE high-fructose corn syrup in their salad dressings!   Instead, they just use regular, plain old sugar.   As a matter of fact, other than the Ranch dressing, these are all LOADED with sugar or corn syrup.   

Honestly, the ingredients in most of these are a rather unhealthy combination of seed oils and sugar of some type.   If you use them, use them sparingly.   The one that might be the safest, surprisingly, is Hidden Valley Ranch.  

More importantly, this photo is why I love living in the USA so much: we have such an incredible array of choices in life, even for what we want to put on our salads.  

- Pseudo Boethius 





THE TIME OF THE SECRETS IS SUBSTANTIALLY "IMMINENT"

SATURDAY, JULY 8, 2023 

CHRISTIANITY / END-TIMES / MEDJUGORJE

Until very recently, the Virgin Mary was constantly appearing to four people in Medjugorje in the tiny country of "Bosnia and Herzegovina" in the former Yugoslavia.   

They have told us that they have TEN SECRETS about the future, and those secrets will be revealed in due time.   The first three secrets are basically going to set the state, and then the next seven secrets will reveal the wrath of God against the inhabitants of earth.   The visionaries are in their late 50's right now, and it is believed that these secrets will most likely be revealed in the next few years.   The apparitions began when they were young teenagers during the civil wars that broke-out after the disintegration of Yugoslavia back into a collection of small nations.   These visions gave people a lot of hope in a time of great violence and misery.  

There is certainly a feeling amongst concerned Christians world-wide that we are headed for the end-times.   Whether or not these visionaries are for real, only God knows. 

How Christianity Is Different From Every Religion

SATURDAY, JULY 8, 2023 

CHRISTIANITY/APOLOGETICS/JOHN LENNOX

This is a very interesting lecture by John Lennox about the core tenets of Christianity.   Sadly, there are several points he makes that are quite good, but overall, he is teaching a very narrow, and unbiblical view of salvation.   But there's a lot here to think about, and the "heresy" he teaches is incredibly subtle, and not easily discerned.  

Sadly, I do not time to breakdown his talk and praise his good points and refute his bad points, but I'm putting it here as a reminder to come back to it.   Still well worth listening to.