Having just arrived home from a wonderful NZSO concert where the lovely and vivacious Sa Chen did a fantastic performance of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, I plonked myself down in front of my window on the cyber-world to do a round of my favourite blogs.

And there was Dave Walker’s breaking news of how 2 Chronicles 31:7 is the 30638th most popular verse in the Bible out of the 31101 verses that make up the Bible. From the sublime, full circle to the alternatively-sublime, in the space of an hour is quite a fast trip, but I just felt like giving Dave’s blog an extra plug since I think he is a very nice person.

Here is a photo of Dave’s Cartoon Blog up on my monitor just a minute ago. He is writing here about heaps… because that is what 2 Chronicles 31:7 is all about. If you have your Bible handy and feel inclined to look it up, that is well and good. But if you don’t then just read on because this is what that verse says:

“They began doing this in the third month and finished in the seventh month.”

What it is they were doing was piling things in heaps. Dave gives a further analysis of this verse over on his own blog (do check it out) so I wont go into it here, but suffice to say, this verse is not a particularly well-known or popular one out of the Bible (going on the number of times it is quoted on the Internet) and Dave had an idea… This is what he writes:

“Feel free to post your own devotional thoughts on 2 Chronicles 31:7. It would be great if we could bump it up to the top 5. This would perplex a lot of people, which I'm all in favour of.”

Well, I don’t have any devotional thoughts on that verse at the moment, but that could change anytime later. For the meantime, I will just leave it at that and go search for Schumman’s PC in A minor to download for my iPod. Back in the near future…

One of the reasons for the existence of Judah’s Journal is to provide true information on the subject of Islam, helping to dispell some of the many myths that people believe about it, and to highlight the dangers it poses for our western civilization.

You might like to see how you go on answering the following questions.

The correct answers can be found by researching the resources on the page “Just what is it about Islam?” (see left-hand sidebar) or else in the first comment made to this post.

There are no prizes for gaining 100% other than your own inward glow of satisfaction, but you are very welcome to boast of your success (or confess your failings - for kindly commiseration, of course) in the comments section below.

1. What does the word “Islam” mean?

2. What is the name given to the principle of abrogation by which contradictory surahs are correctly interpreted?

3. Is it true that Islam normally separates state and religion?

4. What is the word for “holy hypocrisy” which allows Muslims to deceive and give a false rendition of truth - or simply not tell the truth when it suits their cause not to do so?

5. There is a simple Islamic proverb that says: “If you can't cut your enemies' hand, - - - - it.” What is the missing word?

6. In which century was Muhammad born?

7. What is Muhammad’s full name?

8. Is it true or false that the pre-Islamic Allah was the pantheistic Moon god with three daughters?

9. Is it true or false that Muhammad could neither read nor write?

10. Who became Islam’s Caliph on the death of Muhammad?

11. Islam has divided into numerous sects. What are the three largest ones?

12. What is the name of the unseen beings (not angels) that Muslims believe exist?

13. Name the five pillars of Islam.

14. What are the words of the Shahada?

15. What is Jannah?

16. What is the Ka’aba?

17. What is the Jizya?

18. What is the name given to the legal verdict given based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the recorded sayings and deeds of Muhammad)?

19. Muslims divide the world into two sectors: Dar-al-Islam and Dar-al-Harb. What do these two terms translate to in English?

20. Islam may be the fastest growing religion today, but are there more Muslims, Christians or Hindus in the world?

Well, I think now I must have heard it all. This morning’s newspaper reports that a nursery school in Britain is teaching the kiddies to sing a new song. To avoid causing offence to anyone of darker skin tones, the old nursery rhyme has been re-worded to “Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep, have you any wool?…”

The Sure Start centre near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, said: “We have taken the equal opportunities approach to everything we do. No one should feel pointed out because of their race, gender or anything else.”

Er yes, but what happens when a child looking at a black sheep now believes it is a rainbow sheep, then looks at a rainbow in the sky and wonders why it is not black? And is that child being taught there is something wrong with the colour black that it must be coloured everything in the paintbox except what it is? This is becoming totally confusing. Oh wait a moment, this is the beginnings of colour theory… that black is the sum of every colour in the rainbow. Now I get it. How very clever. Of course these children must also be taught that what’s in their paintbox is only half the story and in fact, if you mix all those colours of that rainbow in the sky by feeding them back through a prism, the result is not black at all. It kinda makes black really be white afterall. All very interesting stuff, of course.

But the truth of the matter comes back to calling a spade, a spade. I had it said to me recently that Political Correctness is just the Christian’s “Golden Rule” in practice - doing unto others as one would want done to oneself. If I don’t like my toes trodden on, then I must apply the same principle to other people’s toes. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If I believe I am right, then you must be allowed to believe you are right also. Well of course you can - that really goes without saying. But it goes beyond belief (er, literally!) as the implication is that we are both believing the truth even although we may totally contradict each other and one of us logically and rationally clearly has to be wrong. Oops, my inbuilt bullshit alert has just sounded. That has to be an essentially PC definition of itself. It is not how I would define Political Correctness which I believe to be just plain dishonesty. And it is worse than just plain dishonesty since it distorts and controls thought processes to suit a particular socio-political agenda. Through it we are moulded to the thinking of the current age, to that of the masses, to that of all the other rainbow or otherwise sheep in the paddock.

Do Rainbow Sheep actually exist?
If in doubt, ask Google. I did, and Google came up with an answer.
Here it is: Rainbow Sheep

Now, off to do something worthwhile with the rest of my day…

Oh-oh, I know I should have stayed close to my own patch this evening! Trust me to go meandering. Now look what’s happened! I’ve just stumbled upon it. I didn’t realize until I got to the bottom, of course, but there it was…

Three people you would like to see take this quiz:
1.
2. My friend from New Zealand, Judah (hey, can't help but rope someone else into this — )
3.

Drat! Now what am I to do?

Well, my friend from Toward-the-Goal did have me laughing with some of his responses. I was trying to imagine him sitting there in plaid flannel pajama pants seriously typing away at his keyboard, but somehow plaid flannel pajama pants and being serious just don’t go together too well in my mind. Sorry John, but what a hoot! Now I shall think of you in that get-up whenever you turn up online anywhere. Hehehe. Well, I did have to get you back for getting me into this, didn’t I? Hey folks, hop on over to his site and read the rest of his answers. And while you are there, some of the other stuff he posts to his blog is quite interesting also.

Well, it looks like I shall have to rise to the challenge. Just imagine a kid jumping into the swimming pool, eyes squeezed tightly shut and one hand holding nose. Here I go splash…!

Three names you go by:
1. Judah.
2. Mum-girl
3. Q (no, I’m not filling you in!)

Three things that scare you:
1. Islam
2. What teenage boys get up to when their Moms are not there
3. Big cats - lions and tigers, I mean

Three of your everyday essentials:
1. Granny naps (not that I’m a granny but I believe in getting in a little practice)
2. Food
3. Medication (sigh).

Three things you are wearing right now:
1. Navy tee-shirt
2. Denim jeans
3. Gold Medic-alert bracelet - and my wedding ring

Three of your favorite drinks:
1. Water
2. A classy NZ white
3. A smooth Aussie red

Three of your favorite songs — at the moment:
(Not really being into songs, I have the following to offer instead)
1. Jean Sibelius ~ The Lemminkainen Suite Op.22
2. Beethoven ~ Symphony #7 in A, Op.92
3. Smetana ~ The Bartered Bride

Three things you want in a relationship (besides true love):
1. Companionship ~ especially in sharing the chores
2. Humour ~ the kind that makes you laugh yourself silly
3. Trust ~ complete

Two truths and a lie (you guess which ones are which):
1. I am a South Island Kiwi
2. I used to own and ride a motorbike and can tell a sheep truck 10 miles further up the road
3. I love the way moths dart everywhere at breakneck speed to land in your drink just as you raise it to your mouth, oh and finding a fly floating in your coffee after you wondered what that thing was touching your lips. Grossed out yet? I’m sure I can find some more such things I absolutely love…

Three of your favorite hobbies:
1. Quilting
2. NZ Symphony Orchestra concerts
3. Writing

Three things you really want to do badly right now:
(I think John means “really badly want to do”, don’t you John?)
1. Call in my fairy godmother to clean house
2. Instill 25 years of maturity into my son’s brain
3a. Finish quilting some of my quilts
3b. Become less pedantic about adverbs (sorry - just teasing!)

Three places you want to go on vacation:
1. Oman
2. Norfolk Island (again)
3. Bozeman, Montana (again)

Three things you want to do before you die:
1. Tidy up
2. Empty my In tray - have nothing essential unfinished
3. Use up my fabric stash

Three ways that you are stereotypically a chick / guy:
1. I peck sweetly (and eat whole grains as well)
2. I once laid an egg - he hatched a while back
3. I don’t crow like the roosters.

Three people you would like to see take this quiz:
1. Shakespeare
2. William Wordsworth
3. The Southern Hermit (yep, your turn now!)

Phewwwww! I got to the end of it. Well John, how did I do? Does anything there look as good as your plaid flannel pajama pants? Blame it on Micah. He can blame it on his brother.

There, now I have shattered my image, not that I am sure what it was in the first place. But a little silliness is sometimes a necessary antidote to the serious stuff. There has been plenty of that happening of late, and I for one find the current world news and the stories behind it is enough to scare me witless when I think of how things could become if the trend is not halted.

If the worst comes to the worst, let’s laugh while we can.

Well peoples, I would like to draw everyone’s attention to the comments posted to the previous Journal entry. If those who wish would like to take a peek, that will save me from bringing any of them to the “front page” here.

After the serious stuff that has gone before, it is possibly time for a bit of light-hearted liplabour or my reputation will be getting one-sided… and also distorted since many of my online friends know me quite differently again, finding they need to watch where they put their legs or one will be found longer than the other.

Oh, Nooningscaup? Just an old word referring to the labourer’s resting time after dinner.

Playing with AltaVista’s Babel Fish automated translation service the other day reminded me of all the good laughs you can have playing with words. Babel Fish might know a lot of languages, but it takes a very technical approach that can provide for hilarious reading. If you need cheering up, try writing a little paragraph in the textarea box then choose a language into which you would like your paragraph translated. Don’t worry that the result means nothing to you - unless you already know that language - and then click again to have it translated into yet another language you don’t know. And now for the fun part. Ask Babel Fish to convert what it came up with back into English. Was that really what you said in the beginning? What on earth could you have been thinking?

As a kid we used to play a game with a storybook (Alice in Wonderland was always a good choice) and a box of little cards each with one noun written upon them. One person was the designated reader and would start reading, stopping each time when coming to a noun, and we would take it in turns to supply a substitute noun from the box. The reader would continue as though nothing was amiss, and often the more fluent the process, the more bizarre the story, and it would often become so funny that the “round” ended when we all rolled around on the floor cracked up with laughter. For some reason the vision of a Duchess sitting on a guinea pug and nursing a knitting needle once had me in stitches. I don’t know if kids ever play these games anymore, unless there is a digitalized version of it online somewhere around. No doubt Google knows where they are.

Cleaning out my computer files I came across a couple of attempts I once made at rewriting Wordsworth. Being rather a fan of his, I can’t think why I was rewriting him, but it was probably a bit of verbal doodling while waiting in between interruptions, my life being full of those and giving rise sometimes to a mindset of distractions.

Sorry Wordsworth
©Judah

I wandered lonely as a shroud
Looking for a ghost to wear
When all at once a shriek so loud
Sounded in my startled ear
My weakened knees and fluttering heart
Had me feeling none too smart

And then an echo echoed long
Followed by an eerie wail
That stretched into a hideous song
Of spooks and wraiths beyond the pale
My stomach heaved and I was sick
And ran away almighty quick

(er, try again…)

Sorry again, Wordsworth
©Judah

I wandered lonely as a shroud
Looking for a ghost to clothe
When suddenly an echo loud
Of shrieks and moans around behove
That I had stumbled on a wake
A party of the dead forsake

These night time wanderings I must stop
They do my wits not one bit good
If sleep would not escape to drop
My mind into this haunted wood
I might have more that’s sense to make
Some rhyming words of worth to spake

Oh Wordsworth I have let you down
This fan of yours in pensive mood
Is vacant when the words don’t crown
Inspiring thoughts in solitude
And all she hears are eerie cries
Of creatures that volatilize

(end)

Yes, well. I don’t think Wordsworth is easily improved upon.
But enough of this nonsense.
Would you prefer some more serious stuff next time? OK, I’ll see what I can do.