THIS WEEK IN THE GARDEN JOURNAL

Blogbat's Happenings

Shocking Crimes in China

The 9th Circuit Commandments that Appeal

Also: LOST IN TRANSLATION- a new feature

BusyBat Keeping Abreast of Cupids Latest

This week was a long and arduous one. Numerous times I wanted badly just to sit down and write, but was simply just too tired to do so. As is often the case, many things of note have taken place this week in the world around us and many things have come to mind that I so earnestly desire to share. But the moment to share them would not come until now. Aren’t you lucky?

As I begin to reassemble my thoughts and pick through all my notes-to-self this Valentine’s Day and after witnessing all of those sickeningly sappy diamond commercials I have been forced to endure since well before the Super Bowl, I was able to arrive at my first point for this blog:

Cupid must die.

That said, at least Cupid isn’t going around flashing us his bare right breast. Truly, we have some things to be thankful for. With regard to other matters of cupidity, Janet Jackson, according to the latest reports is poised to make a cool set of digits on her upcoming new album due to the media exposure since Justin Timberlake made a boob of CBS and the NFL two weeks ago. Justin by the way has seen an increase in sales of his fine work to the tune of hundreds of thousands, according to Forbs.com. And while AOL threatened to go after a partial refund of its Super Bowl advertising dollars (presumed of course in response to only partial exposure of Janet’s chest….Ex-Arthur Andersen execs working hard at AOL these days) CBS has counted out a cool $170 million. If the affiliates of CBS end up getting slapped with FCC fines while the female part of the famous Flashing Jacksons makes money in promotions, it might be safe to wager a few parties will be taking some time to talk matters over with their legal departments… At the same time I have noticed in all of this that as performers go, Janet has been the one to take all of the heat, while in classic Hollywood sexist form Justin has gotten off (no intended play on words there) quite nicely with little more than some noteriety and hightened album sales. Let us pause and remember this is the same Hollywood that lectures us on equality and the nobility of fairness. This of course is why it is fit to print how most male singers become hits in the business, but not so fit to print how so many female singers...well, and probably actresses make it big in the business.

In the Name of Compassion

Blogbat was able to spend some time in a worthy way Wednesday. During Belmont University’s spiritual emphasis week which typically highlights a particular charity it feels will broaden student awareness of worthy causes, Blogbat helped to man a booth for this week’s charity, Compassion International. Compassion, a Christian-run charity is one of many such charities Blogbat supports because of its effectiveness not just in feeding children, which it does quite well, but also in educating them and assisting their families with new ways to overcome their poverty. Compassion integrates with and enlists the aide of local residents as educators and so forth in order to further build community pride and bonds between children, families and educators that can be lasting and productive. Compassion is an organization the fruits of which transcend every culture and faith and is, no matter your background, a most worthy cause.

Churchgoers Watch in Horror as Church Bulldozed, Parishioners Arrested by Chinese Communist Police

China out of a page from the Kristal Nacht playbook, has been aggressively pursuing a policy of bulldozing the worship places of any group they have deemed contemptible. The most recent victims are among a 1,500 member congregation which saw its building destroyed recently (Click here to see the smuggled video, courtesy of VOM). The video also shows members being literally carried off and arrested and one only assumes based on the history of so many other such cases, also beaten, subjected to hard labor or worse. Not just limited to Christians, many other groups including Buddhists, Muslims and Jews are also victimized by these abuses in both China and Tibet against one of the most sacred of human rights. That is, the right to security of person and religious community and expression.

It seems the mighty arm of the plainly superior idea of communism is terrified to death of meek little congregants getting together to discuss their “superstition”. Naturally, because the Chinese government knows their own ideoloy is vapid, their only option is to squelch any competing world view before the inevitable happens: the socialists who themselves rule in the seat of complete luxury, are justly removed from power.

But many things come to mind as well with regard to the state of things in the Chinese State. And it both makes me more passionate about the American Founding Father’s ideal of Freedom of religion from state control and a sense we need today to evaluate if perhaps, at least in principle, some of this here also has slipped.  But in China it is but a distant dream. In a country where the second born is sentenced to die, or a first born if she is a girl, no longer is the human spirit, let alone the human life the treasure cherished. It is only a tool or a liability. Enter George Orwell.

In China there are some houses of worship which are permitted. They are churches whose ideas have been watered down to be churches of the men of Beijing, and not the churches of any particular Deity. In the words of the above-linked WorldNet Daily article, “the official churches are restricted, to varying degrees around the country, in their doctrine and practice." Yet the Chinese worshippers in spite of all this find it far more desirable to belong to places of worship without walls where they can find  warmth, love and meaning, than any ornately walled and towering façade that would seem to them just a prison.

-          As an aside on the matter of religious liberty, it might surprise you to consider that non-profit organizations in the US which comply with IRS regulations with regard to what is said from the pulpit in some sense are arguably running as state-sanctioned churches in a nation where such a thing is patently unlawful- churches and synagogues in exchange for not being forced to pay a tax are often prohibited from supporting candidates and causes which reflect the values and traditions they feel are important. This seems like a bit of a blind spot in our culture today, However. One that runs counter to the spirit of America; a people who placed religious institutions as the cornerstone of public thought and ideals, far out of the reach and influence of the government those ideals would purge. But if ideas cannot be allowed to influence culture, then how good are those ideas…or of what good are they? Regardless of how you feel about theology and politics, the fact that doctrine and passion is decided in the Department of Treasury should have most of us and at least some of the “separation of church and state” folks up in arms…at least if they were intellectually true to their supposed cause.

The Ten Suggestions on Shakey Ground 

Speaking of religious values and a vapid society, I needn’t mention here how the Ten Commandments are such a dangerous thing. You surely know this already- they probably taught you this in school- and if not, they teach it to you every night on the news and in “entertainment”. I am sure by now you have been thoroughly enlightened to the fact that all of the talk of not murdering, of honoring parents, not lying or stealing and so-forth that goes on in the Decalogue is but merely a way to oppress self-expression. The worst part of it is that it was handed down by a Deity and not by a wise, all knowing, ever-changing (which seems contradictory) think tank, thereby precluding our modern brain-trusts from easily amending these frustrating rules of conduct.

Gay marriages in of all cities San Francisco is against state law? Who cares what goes on in the state of earthquakes and mudslides, the law is wrong and the moral high-ground is always greater than the law. Or so now we hear peeping from underneath the rocks of left wing hypocrisy...

Surprising as it may seem to some, for some reason the media and the courts aren’t going after this in quite the same way they did when Alabama Judge Moore threw egg on the face of civility and "disregarded the rule of law" in pursuit of his (ahem, and most Americans’) moral high-ground. I guess we are to now believe the posting of the Ten Commandments is far less moral and more damaging to the media-pushed paradigm of society, than destroying the sanctity of marriage.

Soon by writ all around the country polygamists, animal lovers, those wishing to enter sustained incestuous relationships and the like will begin clamoring to marry as they see fit. Moral relativism isn’t only found in Arkansas, you see.

This week we introduce a new fairly regularly futured occurrence...

Lost in Translation: a weekly electronic supplanting of perfectly good sentences into other languages and directly back again…several times. Why? Because it's funny. Well, and it illustrates a point.

This week's experiment is done with Icelandic and English.

TO THINE OWN SELF BE TRUE…

1. Cats that eat dog poo are sicker than you may think. Not simply because they are cats and not simply because they are engaged in such behavior. But I should let you judge for yourself.

2. Tómatssósa þessi borða hundur poo ert valda einhverjum ógleði en þú mega hugsa. Ekki einfaldlega því þeir ert tómatssósa og ekki einfaldlega því þeir ert upptekinn í svo sem atferlis-. En ÉG öxl láta þú dómari fyrir sjálfur.

3. Catsup ;l) eat doggy poo art create einhverjum í óhag nausea while you be allowed think. Not simply accordingly they art catsup and not simply accordingly they art engaged into such as behavioral While I öxl put you ref pay lip service to thyself.

4. Tómatssósa l ) borða hvutti poo list skapa einhverjum í óhag velgja á meðan þú vera leyfa hugsa. Ekki einfaldlega samkvæmt því þeir list tómatssósa og ekki einfaldlega samkvæmt því þeir list upptekinn inn í svo sem eins og atferlis- Á meðan ÉG öxl setja þú dómari borga hræsni til sjálfur.

5. Catsup l ) eat doggy poo art create einhverjum í óhag into óhag tepidity meanwhile you be permit think. Not simply accordingly they art catsup and not simply accordingly they art engaged in such as as though behavioral Meanwhile I öxl put you ref pay hypocrisy to thyself.

Allowing others' interpretations of what you say and who you are to be the standard of your own perceptions (not to mention theirs) is about as beneficial as dining on a carrot with a straw.