The Priest And The Ponies

The Races

Mitch, a hard-shell Southern Baptist, loved to sneak away to the race track. One day he was there betting on the ponies and nearly losing his shirt when he noticed this priest who stepped out onto the track and blessed the forehead of one of the horses lining up for the 4th race.

Lo and behold, this horse - a very long shot - won the race. Mitch was most interested to see what the priest did the next race. Sure enough, he watched the priest step out onto the track as the 5th race horses lined up, and placed this blessing on the forehead of one of the horses. Mitch made a beeline for the window and placed a small bet on the horse. Again, even though another long shot, the horse the priest had blessed won the race. Mitch collected his winning and anxiously waited to see which horse the priest bestowed his blessing on for the 6th race.

The priest showed, blessed a horse, Mitch bet on it, and it won! Mitch was elated! As the day went on, the priest continued blessing one of the horses, and it always came in first. Mitch began to pull in some serious money, and by the last race, he knew his wildest dreams were going to come true. He made a quick stop at the ATM, withdrew big money and awaited the priest's blessing that would tell him which horse to bet on.

True to his pattern, the priest stepped out onto the track before the last race and blessed the forehead, eyes, ears and hooves of one of the horses. Mitchell be every cent, and watched the horse come in dead last. Mitchell was dumbfounded. He made his way to the track and when he found the priest, he demanded, "What happened, Father? All day you blessed horses and they won. The last race, you blessed a horse and he lost. Now I've lost my savings, thanks to you!!"

The priest nodded wisely and said, "That's the problem with you Protestants... you can't tell the difference between a simple blessing and the last Rites."

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Taliban Love

From the Advice Goddess.

John Edwards Loves His SUVs - Hypocrite

Earlier I said this.

Then I saw this at Hedgehog Report. The SUVs in Johnny's runway driveway.

(click to enlarge)

Bias, Bad Reporting and Lies About Iraq

Karl at Protein Wisdom takes on the pundits and the MSM about the reporting of War on Terror and nails it big.

The Big Picture(s)

It is worth the read.

UPDATE: Dafydd at Big Lizards does equally well in a report on the 63,000 tree paper.

NYT: Analogies Are Meaningless (Unless They Favor the Left)

UPDATE: Sniper say the article is brilliant. I agree.

Interesting Fact

It takes about 63,000 trees to make the newsprint for the average Sunday edition of The New York Times.

What a waste. Except for the Sunday crossword puzzle.

Give Up My SUV?

I drive an old Jeep Cherokee. I've hauled kids, dogs, sand, gravel, lumber, drywall, have moved most of my friends and volunteered to deliver medicine during snow storms..

Edwards: Americans should sacrifice their SUVs

Shove it, Johnny boy.

I'll give mine up when you give up your jets and McMansions.

Oh, and your gas guzzling ego.

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HARBIN - 哈尔滨 - Харбин

Manchuria

This exquisite Russian Orthodox church, St. Nikolai, in the middle of Central Square, was built of wood without nails. It was destroyed by Red Guards in August 1966 during the Cultural Revolution.

HARBIN has surely one of the most extraordinary and varied histories of any city. It owes its existence principally to the Russian workers of the China Eastern Railway (see below), who built up the town at the turn of the 20th century. The second wave of Russians came in the 1920s when the city was flooded with some 100,000 White Russian refugees fleeing the Revolution, making it the largest Russian enclave outside Russia.

Harry Franck in his book Wandering in Northern China writes: "At Harbin, though still well inside China, the traveler finds himself back in Europe. He might easily believe he had crossed the line into Russia and brought up into one of its most typical cities. Streets, architecture, customs, inhabitants, are all on the Russian model."

In 1931 Japan seized Manchuria and set up a puppet government. In the mid-1930s many Russians fled Harbin for the Soviet Union (where most were arrested, of course, for espionage or counterrevolutionary activity; some 30,000 were shot) or for China, to cities including Shanghai, Tientsin, Peking and Tsingtao.

G.H. Thomas, writing in November 1936 says of the foreign community in Tsingtao:
"There are quite a few Germans and Norwegians, and altogether about three hundred foreigners, not counting the Russians. These are White Russians, refugees from the Revolution, and have a strange standing in China. They are people without a country, and their lot is a sad one. "

IN 1945, when the Soviets occupied Manchuria, many of the remaining Russians were sent to labor camps. Manchuria was not completely in Chinese hands until 1952. By the mid-1960s, there were virtually no Harbin Russians left.

Read more Here.

More from The St Petersburg Times

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Gay Conservatives Seeking Acceptance Through Sen. Larry Craig

Matt Drudge, who is called conservative, can't get enough of this or any other "gay" story.

BROKEBACK BATHROOM: SENATOR BUSTED IN AIRPORT SEX STING...

CRAIG'S LIST: TERROR IN THE TOILETS...

His Own Private Idaho...

Statement: I did nothing wrong and I regret the decision to plead guilty'...

Senate GOP Calls for Ethics Probe...

Romney Calls Craig's Actions 'Disgusting'...

*Cop Docs...

'How Did News Outlets Miss Arrest for Nearly Three Months?'

VIDEO: News Crew Reenacts Senator's Restroom Scenario...

'I AM NOT GAY'...

This behavior is unacceptable. It is unacceptable for all people including politicians. Democrats are all over this story with glee. Just look at FDL, Huffpo, etc., and you can read the glee filled hate overflowing.

Conservatives, and to a lesser degree Republicans, have noted it and moved on, except for homosexual conservatives and Republicans. To them this is an important subject to be given the gravity it deserves. They question why conservatives are the subject of these headlines when democrats are not. They question (insert point here). They insist (insert brilliant political statement here). Why?

In many instances they do so because they want to mainstream their own homosexual behavior. Make it normal by making it appear to be happening everywhere by everybody. Even by conservatives.

Sounds like self serving behavior by homosexuals using conservatism as their vehicle.

That is also unacceptable.

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