Spinuzzi’s Blog

3 Doors Down has a song called “Duck and Run” that I really like. Here’s a part of the lyrics and the reason I like it:

All my work and endless measures
Never seem to get me very far
Walk a mile just to move an inch now
Even though I’m trying so damn hard
I’m trying so hard…

The Freshman sat in his dorm room at the University of Texas at Arlington. Everything was ready for leaving. The instructions concerning his stuff were written. The charter fishing boat in Galveston, Texas had been located. The charter rate was fairly cheap, as this was mid-week instead of on a weekend. All of The Freshman’s belongings in the room were neatly packed, except for the weight belt, of course. He had cast his own weights for SCUBA diving out of lead. The belt was fully loaded (it would take him down deep and down fast), but could be hidden under the long, loose shirt he wore. By the time the charter fishing boat operator could react to The Freshman being overboard it would be too late - The Freshman would be too far down, out of reach. Safe. Finally safe.
The Freshman took one last look around. He was calm, having planned his exit for weeks. He loved the water, and this way there would be no body to bury, no expensive casket and burial plot to cost his parents money. The Freshman had cost them enough. It all made sense: Why stay here? This life was futile. Pain. More pain. Uselessness. Time to check out, lift the burden. He had explained it all in the letter that would be found here in the dorm room. (more…)

Years ago I had contracted with Coburn’s Barbecue in Big Town, near Dallas, Texas to do some overnight repairs to the restaurant. I had two employees with me, including one young man I had hired just for this one job. When the managers were ready to leave they came over to where we were unloading our tools from my truck and made and interesting inquiry. They asked if we were armed. This was before we had concealed-carry here in Texas. My regular employee and I exchanged glances. I asked “What do you mean?” The manager said “Do you have guns on you?” I wanted to know why he would ask that. His reply was “Because I’m not leaving you here alone all night in this part of town if you are not armed.” My employee grinned, and I assured them that, yes indeed, we were carrying. The managers said good, and goodnight. After they left my young temporary employee, his eyes wide said “But, but I don’t have a gun!” I pulled out a large hunting knife and gave it to him, saying “Use this, then.” He was again reassured and happy. We worked hard all night without incident – and without fear.

On April the third of this year the Des Moines Register reported that James Spiers, a 10-year employee of Pizza Hut, was fired for carrying a concealed handgun while on the job. Spiers was a pizza delivery guy. He knew about the dangers of his job and legally obtained a concealed carry license for his own protection. He carried his gun in spite of a prohibition to do so by Pizza Hut Corporation.
Spiers was found out when he had to defend himself against (more…)

More and more draconian laws are being proposed and passed to address the “problem of global warming”, in spite of the fact that increasing numbers of scientists, and I mean a lot of scientists, are denouncing the lack of true science and data behind the global warming/ greenhouse emissions warnings we are hearing about daily from politicians (yeah, the experts!) and, particularly, the UN. See this article from World Net Daily about The Petition Project(link), a movement to expose the lie of global warming from a scientist’s point of view.
So why do we hear all these politicians and political bodies preaching this doomsday message? The answer is in their proposed solutions. See this on a proposed carbon tax by a Canadian politician. Also, look at all the carbon tax initiatives to discourage people from creating carbon. Notice that companies can buy carbon ‘credits’. It is all about money for governments, and that means money and control for politicians and political entities such as the UN. Right now there are those who are proposing a carbon tax on having children, as the children will make more carbon. (more…)

Fox News reports (here) that Ricki Lake is under fire from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the AMA for advocating home childbirth. They contend that home is not the safest place to have a baby, instead stating that the safest place is in a hospital, birthing center, or other “approved” facility. Well, of course they would say that, not because it is true, but because if the trend continues they will lose their hold (read that as ‘source of income’) on the general public. To try to retain their hold on our money, these medical associations want to pass legislation to force us to pay them for what women have done for millennia without them: (from the article)

The AMA resolves in the statement to support state legislation “that helps ensure safe deliveries and healthy babies by acknowledging that the safest setting” is a hospital, connected birthing center or other approved facility.

This is big business taking away our freedoms in order to take our money.
We had our first two children in a hospital. We elected for natural childbirth, but in the hospital’s birthing room. Our first daughter was born with the help of two interns and myself, as the nurse refused to call our physician, even after I emphatically informed her that the baby was crowning and my wife was at 10 cm. dilation! The doctor got there well after the birth. Then the hospital personnel got upset when, after two hours, we were ready to go home. Were they worried about the baby? Were they worried about my wife? No, they wanted us to check into a hospital room, even if only for a few minutes, so they could charge us for it.

Our next child, a boy, was born at the same facility. We had instructed the doctor and staff NOT to give my wife any drugs, such as Pitocin. Pitocin is commonly used to make the uterus clamp down to stop bleeding. Interestingly, if you just let the baby nurse right away, the mother’s body releases a substance which does the same thing, naturally and gently – unlike the ‘hard’ clamp-down of Pitocin. Pitocin is also transferred through breastfeeding to the baby. You can’t make me believe this is good for a newborn. (more…)

According to Reuters, researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that brain scans of homosexual men showed similarities with the scans of heterosexual women, and the scans of homosexual women showed similarities with heterosexual men. Specifically they said the scans showed that homosexual men and heterosexual women have more symmetrical lobes, whereas homosexual women and heterosexual men have similarly unsymmetrical lobes. They also noted that blood flow in the ‘fight or flight’ area of the brain was similar in homosexual women and heterosexual men.
Hmm, so are we to conclude that, hey, if there are similarities like this then there is a biological reason for homosexuality? Or does it stand to reason (more…)

Recently we renewed our contract with the evil telephone overlords (AT&T), mostly because our old phones were falling apart. They gave us “free” phones as long as we agreed to a two-year contract. Carol got a Sync and I got a Blackberry 8310. I may be going back overseas, so I thought the Blackberry would be cool since I can get an international data package and use it for internet and as a GPS device. Well, the phone is locked for AT&T sim cards, which is to be expected, so I started looking into how to unlock it in case I needed to use a non-AT&T card somewhere. After a lot of perusing the internet forums I was resigned to having to pay someone 19 to 24 USD to get the unlock code. There were scores of posts praising these guys for their prompt and helpful service. But the more I thought about it I wondered just how these guys could offer such a service. Was there some special software, maybe? So I searched a little more and started finding a few posts by a few crusaders who wanted to expose the plot. They are emphatically trying to let people know that all you have to do is call your carrier and politely ask for the code. They may wish to know why - “I’m going to be traveling outside the country” - but generally will give you the code if you act informed and polite. Some may say they can’t do this, or it will take a day, but if you, nicely, persist, you will find they can do it in just a few minutes. Some people reported that they were even given the unlock code for their device by a carrier they did not do business with.

Don’t mow your lawn - go to jail..
Yahoo news reports that Canton, Ohio has decided to include possible jail time for offenders who don’t mow their yards to the city’s liking. Apparently they think that the $250 fine isn’t enough. My question is: who is going to mow the home-owner’s lawn while he is in jail? Perhaps after three weeks in jail they will haul him before the judge, and being a repeat offender, assess another 30 days in jail. Sounds kind of like debtor’s prison to me.

If that’s not bad enough, Cameron County, Texas justice of the peace Gustavo Garza is forcing fathers to spank their teen-aged children in front of the court as punishment for truancy – or more accurately, in order to avoid a $500 fine. Not only is this “justice” forcing parents to ‘discipline’ their children against their will with what is evidently a heavy piece of wood Garza provides, but (more…)

I have been very unfaithful here and haven’t posted anything for a long time. Call it depression. I suppose I have just been discouraged about many things, including what God has given me to do here. But I know I must repent and get back to causing trouble again. Not just for the sake of causing trouble, mind you, it just works that way in this world when you go searching for Truth. Hey, my Lord was a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offense”; I can at least hope to be a pebble of stumbling - and maybe cause some others to stumble into some of the Truth that God has been gracious enough to lead me to. Of course I have not gone willingly. No, I have to keep stumbling on my pride (ow!), and my vanity, (down again!). Then ask God to help me dress my scrapes and heal the knife wounds in my back - try to keep focused on Him instead of my own self pity (poor pitiful me). He reminds me that when I fall I did it to myself. This, of course, includes getting all depressed about my situation or about how people respond to me.
So here I am, repenting again. It is so easy to be like the Israelites of old and say “I will do it!” and tell you (and God) “From now on I will be faithful and make posts!” Instead I will only promise to try really hard to be more faithful about doing so. Please do yell at me if I don’t, as I am dense and sometimes need to be yelled at.

We live out in the country, surrounded by thick woods. We have domestic animals
on our place, including: our two horses, a bunch of chickens, some noisy but
amusing ducks, a couple of turtles, some guppies, too many cats, and one watchdog - ‘Shae’. We keep the horses for pleasure. Carol likes the chickens, but they also provide great eggs (we can hardly eat the tasteless store-bought eggs anymore). Carol likes the cats, and I tolerate them because they keep snakes and rodents away from the house, chicken pen, and horse barn. And then there is Shae, our dog. Certainly the kids love her just to play with, but I think her most important function is that of a watchdog. In fact, that is what Carol got her for while I was in Iraq.

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