Quotations I like

 Linn Family Motto: Tu tene eum procul; Ego curram ob auxilium! [You hold 'em off; I'll run for help!] 

 

Humiliation is glorification. And, the reason for that is humility is an attribute of each of the three persons of God. You see you know in my tradition, we say, "Why does God do all things?" And it says, "For His own glory." That's not quite true because the Father never seeks to glorify Himself. When you go to the Father, He says, "Hey, this is my beloved Son, listen to Him." Then you go to Jesus and Jesus says, "Hey, I'm not doing anything except what my father told me to do." And, "Hey, I'm leaving soon. You don't want me to stay around because the Spirit's coming and the Spirit is what you really want." So then you go over to the Spirit and the Spirit says, "Hey, all I'm here to do is call attention to Jesus." Then you go back to Jesus and he says, "Hey, don't look at me; the Father, He's the one." ... The three persons of God - that is the original Church. And, what are we supposed to do? "In lowliness of mind, let each esteem the other better than himself." The reason for that is because that's how God acts. Each member of the Trinity delights to humble Himself to glorify the other two. JBJ Sermon on John's Gospel (2) "The Funniest Event in History" 

 

"He is too jocular, irresponsible. Such a being prefers mental anarchy. They call it freedom." _Four to Doomsday_, Doctor Who 

 

A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross" (H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America (New York: Harper and Row, 1959), 193 

 

"The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards." Sir William Francis Butler 

 

"I sleep alright - the nights I sleep." Bill Murray in _Get Low_ 

 

"Schaeffer says that nature eats up grace. And the history of Kuyperianism shows that common grace eats up special grace." 

 

"We're not going to Guam, are we?" Frank Lepidus on LOST 

 

"If a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged, an evangelical is a fundamentalist who has been laughed at." Gary Young 

 

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!'" Kuyper 

 

"Poetry is a sky dark with wild duck migration." Carl Sandburg 

 

"There is no room in the church for sin, yet it exists for sinners." Schmemman 

 

"Let us not seek to make Satan wiser than he is; he, too, is a fool." John Frame DotKoG 

 

"You gotta really hate ducks to do this." Joe Richter 

 

"[He] is so gnostic you can see right through him." JBJ 

 

"If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family—anything you like—at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren't quite so sharp; and that there's going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing.” C. S. Lewis _That Hideous Strength_ 

 

"How do you feel about duck? Our city's as famous for its teal as for its hospitality." Gene Wolfe "Empires of Foliage and Flower" in Starwater Strains 

 

"Corporations may provide lots of useful goods and services, but never count on them to take a stand for freedom." James Taranto BOTW 09/21/09 

 

"My dear Litefoot, I've got a lantern, a pair of waders, and possibly the most fearsome piece of hand artillery in all England. What could possibly go wrong?" Dr. Who _The Talons of Weng Chiang_ 

 

"There is nothing captious about a man who has attained to this, the one possible apotheosis in life, the Apotheosis of Stupidity; and he begins to feel dignified and longevous like a tree." RLS An Inland Voyage 

 

Ida: We’ve come this far, there's no turning back. The Doctor: Oh, did you have to? 'No turning back'? That's almost as bad as "Nothing could possibly go wrong" or "This is gonna be the best Christmas Walford's ever had." Doctor Who _The Satan Pit_ 

 

"[T]otal domination is the only form of government with which coexistence is not possible." Hannah Arendt, _Totalitarianism_ p. ix 

 

I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape." Miles from _Lost_ 

 

Principles of evil can only become incarnate in persons, and it is simply impossible to contradict principles without opposing persons! Henry R. Van Til _The Calvinistic Concept of Culture_ 

 

"There is nothing too stupid for intelligent people to believe." Gilbert Seldes _The Stammering Century_ 

 

The ducks always come from the direction you're not looking; so look that way. 

 

Leisure is the Humanist idea of sabbath. RJR 

 

Every generation, civilization is invaded by barbarians - we call them "children." Hannah Arendt 

 

One cannot write a history of things that do not happen. Samuel Eliot Morison _The Battle of the Atlantic: September 1939-May 1943-, p.xvi

Sadness

 The season ended Saturday with yet another skunk. Only five hen ringers for the year. Bummer.

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Need a Boat

 This year is following the trajectory of the last few. And, that is downward. Habitat is decreasing and so are the ducks. Three hunts and only three ducks. The only thing we’ve had a lot of is rain. 

If I had a boat and a vehicle to pull it, I’d hunt my old haunts. But, I’ve got neither.

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Snakes Alive

 This nope rope was killed at the WMA I hunt.

Yipes Yipes Yipes 

Here’s hoping that I may be too fat to be tempting.

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Lent Song

 

LENTEN SONG

(to the tune of My Favorite Things)

 

Sackcloth and ashes, and days without eating,

Mortification and wailing and weeping,

A hair shirt that scratches, a nettle that stings,

These are a few of my favorite things.

 

Penitence, flagellants, memento mori,

Spending nights sleeping on rocks in a quarry,

The sound of a cloak'd solemn cantor who sings,

These are still more of my favorite things.

 

Tossing and turning and yearning I'm spurning,

Passions aflame like an ember-day burning,

Corpus and carnis and wild drunken flings,

Forsaken are they for my favorite things!

 

When it's Christmas,

When the tree's lit,

When the cards are sent,

I simply remember my favorite things,

And then I can't wa-a-a-a-it till Lent.

Here Endeth the Season

 The ducks were back in East Marsh, but few and scattered. We had a few shots and ended with one hen ringer. 

Finished the season with 18 ducks total. A poor year but so much better than last year’s 5.

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On the X

 I started the day asking Mike if he was as discouraged as I was. He agreed.

So many things have conspired to make this a bad year. Although it’s marginally better than last year.

We headed south into the thin wisps of fog with heavy hearts debating where we would set up. Rumors were out that the Christmas Eve front had brought new ducks, but we’ve heard that before. 

Lots of kayakers at the ramp, but all waited until the official entry time to the WMA. A time that doesn’t leave any to set up, get hid, and cool down before shooting time. 

When we finally could set out, the fog had rolled in thick. We had to paddle by feel. We knew the weak wind was from the south and used the sense of that on our faces to orient our paddling.

We eventually got to our island. People were already shooting while we were putting our decoys out. The reason they were shooting was not just that it was legal light, but the ducks were flying. We had birds landing in the dekes while we were still in the middle of them throwing out more. 

We rushed back to blind up, it was hard to get wedged in and really hard to get palmettos up. It didn’t seem to matter. We were where they wanted to be. 

We were done in less than an hour. No cripples. All ringers. Two limits.

That’s the way I like it. 

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Long Arm

 Let’s just say I’ve learned my lesson.

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