I am so thankful I have my hubby here. The days are getting shorter and cooler. It's that time of the year when I tend to get reflective, moody sometimes. But my new life is so happy and busy I don't have time to bed sad. Tonight we cooked together. Hubby likes to show me his Kosovo dishes. Sometimes I cook something American he's never tried before. Sometimes it's hit or miss, depending on our tastes. For the most part we like each other's foods.
Albanian Beans
1 small bag of small white beans, washed and cleaned
2 T Oil
Salt to taste
1 heaping T of Hungarian paprika
Medium onion, chopped
Add beans to cooking pot, add water, add salt.
Simmer beans until tender.
When beans are done, chop a medium onion and brown it in oil. The pieces can be white with brown edges, but the smaller pieces should be brown for it to taste right. Don't burn the onion. Turn off heat. Add a heaping tablespoon of paprika to the onion and stir it in until it's no longer lumpy. Spoon some liquid from the beans into the onion pan and stir. Then pour and scrape all of the onion mixture into the beans. Stir and serve with lots of bread. It's tastier than you think!
Note: don't stir the paprika directly into the bean water. It will clump up, becoming nearly impossible to stir in.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Projects
List of accomplishments in the (near) 5 months since hubby immigrated.
- Old paneling removed from walls and ceiling
- New wallboard put up & mudded
- Gigantic moldy hole in the ceiling cleaned and patched
- Old rotten picture window removed
- New picture window installed
- New ductwork in hallway (thanks to my daughter---the heating expert)
- Sidewalk and porch cracks cemented
- Hole in back yard filled
- Rotted fence removed
- Ants and earwigs banished from house
- Eave vent nailed on underside of eaves to prevent sparrows from nesting in them
To do list.
Paint wood window and door sills (outside)doneScrape and paint eaves. done- New fence & gate for side of house
- Build drop ceiling for hallway to hide ductwork
- Build wall and access door for furnace room
- Paint walls and ceiling
- Rent dumpster
- Clean out garage and remove old shingles
- Install new roof on garage
- Finish kitchen (yikes---another big job!)
- New carpet (last)
- Sell house
Thursday, September 19, 2013
So...this is written in the Quran...twice
Surely those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve. [Quran 2:62]
Surely those who believe and those who are Jews and the Sabians and the Christians whoever believes in Allah and the last day and does good -- they shall have no fear nor shall they grieve. [Quran 5:69]
The true Quran is written in Arabic. It can only truly be understood if you read and understand Arabic. All translations are open to interpretation, so there are several explanations of the above text.
Let's look at three interpretations of Quran 2:62
Those who believe and those who are Jews, Christians and Sabeans, [in fact] anyone who believes in God and the Last Day, and acts honorably will receive their earnings from their Lord: no fear will lie upon them nor need they feel saddened. - T.J. Irving
Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. - Yusuf Ali
Lo! Those who believe (in that which is revealed unto thee, Muhammad), and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans - whoever believeth in Allah and the Last Day and doeth right - surely their reward is with their Lord, and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve. - M. Pickthall
---------------------------------------
It is interesting to note that Muslims are required to believe the Torah (Old Testament), Psalms and Gospels! And I wonder how many non-Muslims who thought it might be ok to desecrate the Quran know that Muslims revere ALL the Holy Books as revealed by the One True God, the Creator. For instance, this is the forward written in the front of one translation:
Please Note: The Quran sometimes written as "Koran," is the holy book of the Muslims, who believe that God has revealed His word and message to humanity throughout the ages. For example, we believe that Moses was given the Torah, David was given the Psalms, and Jesus was given the Gospel. In the same way. we believe that Muhammad was given the Quran. Muslims therefore treat the holy books of other religions with great care and respect. For instance, we do not read these books in the bathroom, place them on the floor, or handle them unless we are in a state of ritual cleanliness. It is our request that you treat this book with the same respect and handle it as you would your own scripture.
So...if Muslims are not afraid to read the Bible.....why are Christians afraid to read the Quran?
The true Quran is written in Arabic. It can only truly be understood if you read and understand Arabic. All translations are open to interpretation, so there are several explanations of the above text.
Let's look at three interpretations of Quran 2:62
Those who believe and those who are Jews, Christians and Sabeans, [in fact] anyone who believes in God and the Last Day, and acts honorably will receive their earnings from their Lord: no fear will lie upon them nor need they feel saddened. - T.J. Irving
Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. - Yusuf Ali
Lo! Those who believe (in that which is revealed unto thee, Muhammad), and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans - whoever believeth in Allah and the Last Day and doeth right - surely their reward is with their Lord, and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve. - M. Pickthall
---------------------------------------
It is interesting to note that Muslims are required to believe the Torah (Old Testament), Psalms and Gospels! And I wonder how many non-Muslims who thought it might be ok to desecrate the Quran know that Muslims revere ALL the Holy Books as revealed by the One True God, the Creator. For instance, this is the forward written in the front of one translation:
Please Note: The Quran sometimes written as "Koran," is the holy book of the Muslims, who believe that God has revealed His word and message to humanity throughout the ages. For example, we believe that Moses was given the Torah, David was given the Psalms, and Jesus was given the Gospel. In the same way. we believe that Muhammad was given the Quran. Muslims therefore treat the holy books of other religions with great care and respect. For instance, we do not read these books in the bathroom, place them on the floor, or handle them unless we are in a state of ritual cleanliness. It is our request that you treat this book with the same respect and handle it as you would your own scripture.
So...if Muslims are not afraid to read the Bible.....why are Christians afraid to read the Quran?
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
The myth of religious freedom in America - our sad history swept under the rug
A very important article we should all read.
Americas True History of Religious Tolerance
EarlyTimeline:
In newly independent America:
1779 - Thomas Jefferson (as Virginia's governor) drafted a bill that guaranteed legal equality for all citizens of all religions, including those of no religion in the state.
The bill did not advance until Patrick Henry introduced a bill in 1784 calling for state support for “teachers of the Christian religion.”
Future President James Madison stepped in and laid out reasons why the state had no business supporting Christian instruction. It was signed by 2,000 Virginians.
Among Madison’s 15 points was his declaration that “the Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every...man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an inalienable right.”
Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. “Who does not see,” he wrote, “that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?” Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.
Patrick Henry’s bill was defeated 12 to 1. The Virginia legislature took up Jefferson’s plan for the separation of church and state.
1786 - the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom became law.
After the bill was passed, Jefferson proudly wrote that the law “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew, the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan (Muslim), the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.”
Madison wanted Jefferson’s view to become the law of the land when he went to the Constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787.
The U.S. Constitution clearly stated in Article VI that federal elective and appointed officials “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution, but no religious Test shall ever be required as a qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
"This passage—along with the facts that the Constitution does not mention God or a deity (except for a pro forma “year of our Lord” date) and that its very first amendment forbids Congress from making laws that would infringe of the free exercise of religion—attests to the founders’ resolve that America be a secular republic. The men who fought the Revolution may have thanked Providence and attended church regularly—or not. But they also fought a war against a country in which the head of state was the head of the church. Knowing well the history of religious warfare that led to America’s settlement, they clearly understood both the dangers of that system and of sectarian conflict."
"It was the recognition of that divisive past by the founders—notably Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison—that secured America as a secular republic. As president, Washington wrote in 1790: “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunity of citizenship. ...For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”
He was addressing the members of America’s oldest synagogue, the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island (where his letter is read aloud every August). In closing, he wrote specifically to the Jews a phrase that applies to Muslims as well: “May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
"Late in his life, James Madison wrote a letter summarizing his views: “And I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”
"The anti-Catholicism of America’s Calvinist past found new voice in the 19th century. The belief widely held and preached by some of the most prominent ministers in America was that Catholics would, if permitted, turn America over to the pope. Anti-Catholic venom was part of the typical American school day, along with Bible readings."
1832 - mainstream Protestant majority fuels wrath against newly founded Mormon religion, a mob tarred and feathered Joseph Smith.
1834 - a Massachusetts convent was burned to the ground by an anti-Catholic mob.
1838 - Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs ordered all Mormons expelled from his state. 3 days later rogue militiamen massacred 17 church members, including children, at the Mormon settlement of Haun’s Mill.
1844 - Philadelphia, anti-Catholic sentiment fueled the Bible Riots in which houses were torched and 2 Catholic churches were destroyed and at least 20 people killed
1844 - a mob murdered Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum while they were jailed in Carthage, Illinois. No one was ever convicted of the crime.
*quotes are from the article linked at the top of the page.
Left out of this article is the internment of thousands of Japanese American citizens during WWII
Americas True History of Religious Tolerance
EarlyTimeline:
- 1564 establishment of a Huguenot (French Protestant) colony at Fort Caroline (near modern Jacksonville, Florida)
- 1565 the Spanish commander, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, wrote to the Spanish King Philip II that he had “hanged all those we had found in [Fort Caroline] because...they were scattering the odious Lutheran doctrine in these Provinces.”
- 1600's Puritans banned Catholics from the colonies, including all other non-Puritans.
- 1659 - 1661 - 4 Quakers were hanged in Boston
- Throughout the colonial era, Catholics, especially French and Spanish Catholics were discriminated against in the matters of property and voting.
In newly independent America:
- Massachusetts - only Christians were allowed to hold public office, Catholics were only allowed to do so after renouncing the Pope's authority.
- New York 1777 to 1806 - Catholics banned from public office.
- Maryland - Catholics had full civil rights but Jews did not.
- Delaware - required oath affirming belief in the Trinity.
- Massachusetts, S. Carolina and some other states had state-supported churches.
1779 - Thomas Jefferson (as Virginia's governor) drafted a bill that guaranteed legal equality for all citizens of all religions, including those of no religion in the state.
The bill did not advance until Patrick Henry introduced a bill in 1784 calling for state support for “teachers of the Christian religion.”
Future President James Madison stepped in and laid out reasons why the state had no business supporting Christian instruction. It was signed by 2,000 Virginians.
Among Madison’s 15 points was his declaration that “the Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every...man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an inalienable right.”
Madison also made a point that any believer of any religion should understand: that the government sanction of a religion was, in essence, a threat to religion. “Who does not see,” he wrote, “that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?” Madison was writing from his memory of Baptist ministers being arrested in his native Virginia.
Patrick Henry’s bill was defeated 12 to 1. The Virginia legislature took up Jefferson’s plan for the separation of church and state.
1786 - the Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom became law.
After the bill was passed, Jefferson proudly wrote that the law “meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew, the Gentile, the Christian and the Mahometan (Muslim), the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.”
Madison wanted Jefferson’s view to become the law of the land when he went to the Constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787.
The U.S. Constitution clearly stated in Article VI that federal elective and appointed officials “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution, but no religious Test shall ever be required as a qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
"This passage—along with the facts that the Constitution does not mention God or a deity (except for a pro forma “year of our Lord” date) and that its very first amendment forbids Congress from making laws that would infringe of the free exercise of religion—attests to the founders’ resolve that America be a secular republic. The men who fought the Revolution may have thanked Providence and attended church regularly—or not. But they also fought a war against a country in which the head of state was the head of the church. Knowing well the history of religious warfare that led to America’s settlement, they clearly understood both the dangers of that system and of sectarian conflict."
"It was the recognition of that divisive past by the founders—notably Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison—that secured America as a secular republic. As president, Washington wrote in 1790: “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunity of citizenship. ...For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.”
He was addressing the members of America’s oldest synagogue, the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island (where his letter is read aloud every August). In closing, he wrote specifically to the Jews a phrase that applies to Muslims as well: “May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”
"Late in his life, James Madison wrote a letter summarizing his views: “And I have no doubt that every new example, will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion & Govt. will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.”
"The anti-Catholicism of America’s Calvinist past found new voice in the 19th century. The belief widely held and preached by some of the most prominent ministers in America was that Catholics would, if permitted, turn America over to the pope. Anti-Catholic venom was part of the typical American school day, along with Bible readings."
1832 - mainstream Protestant majority fuels wrath against newly founded Mormon religion, a mob tarred and feathered Joseph Smith.
1834 - a Massachusetts convent was burned to the ground by an anti-Catholic mob.
1838 - Missouri Governor Lilburn Boggs ordered all Mormons expelled from his state. 3 days later rogue militiamen massacred 17 church members, including children, at the Mormon settlement of Haun’s Mill.
1844 - Philadelphia, anti-Catholic sentiment fueled the Bible Riots in which houses were torched and 2 Catholic churches were destroyed and at least 20 people killed
1844 - a mob murdered Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum while they were jailed in Carthage, Illinois. No one was ever convicted of the crime.
*quotes are from the article linked at the top of the page.
Left out of this article is the internment of thousands of Japanese American citizens during WWII
Thursday, September 12, 2013
September 11
Always a painful day, and in an odd coincidence I was reading the book last night and the author was talking about 9/11.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
I am reading this book, it is amazing, everyone should read! Seriously, in this day and age, when cultures are mixing, yet we still don't understand each other, have heard many bad things, many false things (on both sides), we all need a way to understand each other.
A Deadly Misunderstanding
A Deadly Misunderstanding
Monday, September 2, 2013
People of the Book
I don't recall hearing this term before, but it refers to the three followers of monotheistic (one God) Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. All three religions received divine scripture from the One Creator who is called Elohim in Hebrew, Alaha in Aramaic, God in English, and Allah in Arabic.
Now let's clear up a misunderstanding about names.
In pre-Muhammadan times, Arabs worshiped a moon god called Hubal, whom they also referred to as "Al-ilah". In Arabic, the word ilah means "god". Al-ilah means "the god" (Al means The). After God revealed divine scripture to Muhammad, converted Arabs began praying to the One God, the Creator, pronounced in Arabic as Allah.
Now, listen to this. Our word, "God" is derived from the German pagan word gott, the name of a water spirit. The Latin word Deus, Spanish Dios and French Dieu all descend from the Greek word Zeus. When Christians pray to God they are not praying to a pagan water spirit or to Zeus!
So how then can we accuse Muslims of praying to a moon god?
Now let's clear up a misunderstanding about names.
In pre-Muhammadan times, Arabs worshiped a moon god called Hubal, whom they also referred to as "Al-ilah". In Arabic, the word ilah means "god". Al-ilah means "the god" (Al means The). After God revealed divine scripture to Muhammad, converted Arabs began praying to the One God, the Creator, pronounced in Arabic as Allah.
Now, listen to this. Our word, "God" is derived from the German pagan word gott, the name of a water spirit. The Latin word Deus, Spanish Dios and French Dieu all descend from the Greek word Zeus. When Christians pray to God they are not praying to a pagan water spirit or to Zeus!
So how then can we accuse Muslims of praying to a moon god?
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