Ramblin' with Roger

Sacrilege

‘Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.’

I’ve harped on the notion of Christian nationalism, specifically as sacrilege. Individuals and denominations trouble me. The Atlantic highlights a charismatic group in Tennessee, largely behind a paywall.

“Their version of the Kingdom mapped neatly onto the political goals of social conservatives, libertarians, and, more recently, the MAGA movement. The Kingdom would have limited government, free markets, two genders, one kind of marriage, and one kind of God. The ‘right now’ part, meanwhile, offered an urgent paradigm for mobilizing grassroots believers out of the Church and into electoral politics, government, education, and all other realms of life where they were to assert God’s dominion.

“New apostles and prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation spread these ideas through decentralized networks of churches, international prayer ministries, schools, revivals, and prayer rallies, attracting followers who could find a sense of power and purpose in building the Kingdom. Leaders spoke of believers as ‘warriors’ or ‘God’s army’ or even ‘special forces,’ and churches as ‘military bases,’ and certain apostles as “generals.” They believed that being a Christian meant being in a constant state of spiritual warfare.”

Separation of church and state

It is one thing for a church to believe this, as wrongheaded as I think it is. But I draw the line when representatives of the US federal government promulgate it. FOTUS sharing an AI-generated image on Truth Social depicting himself kissing a golden statue of Jesus Christ, with an American flag in the background, is truly gagworthy. It doesn’t take a religious scholar to compare the relic to the “golden calf” from Exodus, idolized while Moses was bringing the Ten Commandments.

However, I was more appalled by the Department of Defense regularly inserting Biblical messaging into the cheerleading for war.

The Rev. Benjamin Creamer has been a particularly insistent challenger of this attitude. This past weekend, “the official account of the DoD posted Isaiah 6:8, which reads, ‘Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me.’

Along with the post were images of soldiers and war machines that had the caption “send me” in the middle of them.

Creamer writes: “I found it ironic how they conveniently skipped Isaiah 2:4 where he writes about the Lord’s desires for the world: ‘Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.’

“If you will recall, the Department of Homeland Security did a recruitment video for ICE with the same exact passage. It was a video of Shia LaBeouf from the movie Fury quoting this passage from Isaiah.

“It shouldn’t matter our political affiliation; this should disturb every American.”

DoD head

This is not a recent trend with this regime. Baptist News noted: “On May 23, during a commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.,” and “while in France for the 82nd anniversary of D-Day,” Hegseth claimed the verse. “The Pentagon later released a video of Hegseth’s participation in D-Day commemorations titled ‘The Boys of D-Day Said: ‘Send Me.’’” It included not only his quotation of Isaiah 6:8 but an anti-immigrant screed.”

Creamer: Our military is meant to defend the Constitution, not the scriptures of a particular religion. Even scriptures we Christians hold deeply sacred and holy.

“It should also deeply disturb us Christians in the way the Bible is being used by departments like the Defense and Homeland Security. When they equate recruiting ICE agents and sending our military to war with answering the call of the Lord, and they are in charge of where those agents and our military are deployed, who then is ‘The Lord’ in that scenario? They are equating service to them as being the same as service to the Lord.

“That is heresy. That is idolatry. That is blasphemy. It is taking God’s name in vain…

“There is also a deep irony in using Isaiah 6:8 to encourage people to fight wars because Isaiah repeatedly warns against trusting military power.

Examples include Isaiah 2, which envisions a future in which, ‘They shall beat their swords into plowshares…” Isaiah 30 criticizes Judah for relying on military alliances instead of trusting God. Isaiah 31 specifically condemns reliance on horses and chariots from Egypt.

“A recurring message throughout Isaiah is to trust God, not military might.”

Movie review: Toy Story 5

Jessie faces Lilypad

My wife and I went to see the movie Toy Story 5 on a weekday afternoon at the Spectrum 8 in Albany because I had to. I’ve seen Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999) in the cinema well before we had a child. When we watched the third film (2010), we didn’t take the kid. For the fourth (2019), the three of us all saw it at the movies, but not together. I even saw a couple of TV specials, Toy Story of Terror! (2013) and Toy Story That Time Forgot (2014). But I never saw the Lightyear (2022) movie.

So I guess I’m as invested in the TS universe as others are in the ones for Star Wars, Marvel Cinematic, or LEGO.

Bonnie, the eight-year-old who inherited Andy’s toys in TS4, is rather content with playtime, which is represented wonderfully in a handmade-looking style. But her parents are concerned. They buy her a new smart tablet, Lilypad, so Bonnie can chat with her dance class members. Has Bonnie outgrown her toys?

On the outskirts of town, Blaze, a nine-and-a-half-year-old, loves animals: a horse, Daffodil, and the family pig, Jimmy Dean. (The name cracked me up.) She has a display of her model horse collection in her room and still enjoys playtime occasionally.

Sheriff Jessie and the other toys, including her deputy, Buzz Lightyear, worry that Lilypad will usurp Bonnie’s attention. The action goes from there, including the return of Woody. A unit of high-tech Buzz Lightyear toys crash-lands on a deserted island, and they too end up in the main plotline.

The cowgirl

This is very much a Jessie story. There’s a brief reprise of When She Loved Me from Toy Story 2 early on, which was a hint for me. How much has the cowgirl mattered over the years?

At the same time, the movie seemed to be set up to bash online technology, yet in the end found a place for it.

Rotten Tomatoes gave Toy Story 5 a 92% (critics)/94% (fans) positive rating. It “largely sidesteps franchise fatigue” through its redirected focus. We liked it a lot, and even got a little, er, emotional. Aside from the core characters, most of the TS tribe was underutilized, but it would have made the story too bloated.

It was strange, though. There was a father and child in the theater, but they left early on, leaving us to see the film by ourselves, which was too bad; I like getting audience reaction.

Not underwater

national news

A few people checked in with me last week with sentiments such as “How did you and your family fare during the deluge?” and “I saw there was bad flooding out your way; hoping everything is ok.”

Yes, our house is not underwater. The basement was damp, but there was no water on the floor.

It’s rare for upstate NY news to appear on the national newscasts, but it’s been “a thing” for a few days now. There was real damage in areas not far from our home. In West Albany, which is part of the town of Colonie, but only about 2.5 miles from our house, people were evacuated by boat.

The flood-prone areas – the city line to Colonie on Central Avenue (see above), the area around Stuyvesant Plaza at Western Avenue and Fuller Road, for two – caught some drivers unawares. According to a news report, one guy drove one way on Central at 4:30 a.m., picked up a passenger, drove back, and got stuck.

From the NWS: “July 29, 2026 was the 2nd wettest calendar day on record for Albany, NY with 5.45″ occurring! The daily record missed the all-time calendar day record set by the Tropical Storm Floyd rainfall back on Sept 16, 1999 when 5.60″ occurred at the Albany International Airport. The rainfall yesterday did pass the 4.69″ measured from Irene back on August 28, 2011. Daily records for Albany go back to 1874.”

It was a fairly narrow geographic band of rain, but the places that were hit got hammered. You may have seen the centuries-old grist mill in Castleton-On-Hudson, just 10 miles south of Albany, obliterated.

Cohoes Falls is quite pleasant, but it’s no Niagara Falls, except that day.

By comparison

Do you know what I did that day? Nothing. I never left the house, didn’t get dressed.

It had been a hectic few days before that. My wife had dropped me off to visit a sick friend on the previous Friday. When I got home via bus, my wife had left her keys in the door. The next day, I couldn’t find my keys.

So I don’t know whether I lost them inside or outside the house, which made the search more exhausting. Are they in the sofa, did they fall out of my pants on the bus, or something else?

Then, when my wife and I went to the movies on Monday, I turned off my iPhone. After the film, I tried to turn on my phone, but I saw “SOS,” which meant my phone was showing that I had lost my Internet connection.

I tried multiple times: toggling Airplane Mode, turning it on for a few seconds, then off to refresh my network connection; restarting my iPhone; toggling my cellular line/eSIM off and back on in Settings; resetting Network Settings. Nothing.

The next day, my provider messaged, “You’ve turned off our service on your phone.” I didn’t, but I went to THAT setting and turned it on.

Neither losing keys (my wife made more on Tuesday) nor not being online was a real crisis, merely a bother.

But they were enough stressors that I took the rain day to do nothing.

Sunday Stealing Invites You to Be Bold

Niagara Falls

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

This week’s meme was stolen from blogging mom Blue Milk. Back in 2008, she stole it from an invitation-only meme. It was originally a very loooong meme, with more than 100 questions in all. Too much for me! So it’s been pared back to 35. If that still seems daunting, remember all you have to do is bold the ones you’ve done. If you’d like to elaborate, feel free.

Bold the Ones You’ve Done

But I’m not going to do that because the whole post is bold. Sunday Stealing Invites You to Be Bold. BTW, I loved that TV show.

Have you ever …

1. Slept under the stars - Of course. Sometimes, I even liked it

2. Played in a band I think once, in junior high school, and I hated it because I was playing percussion and had to wait something like 74 measures to come in. It was anxiety-producing, and I think I was late.

3. Visited Hawaii  - No, but I was invited to go. There’s a story about that.

4. Visited Easter Island – No.

5. Watched a meteor shower – I believe so.

6. Seen the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace - I’ve never been to the UK

Walt’s World

7. Been to Disneyland or Disney World  - No. My wife and I thought that we “should” take the Daughter there, but she never seemed all that enthused. I don’t think she understood what a Big Deal it was.

8. Climbed a mountain  - Yes. As I noted recently, it was to my detriment.

9. Held a praying mantis – I believe so

10. Been to the Louvre – Well, TO the Louvre, but not IN the Louvre.

11. Had food poisoning - Yes, including quite possibly this year.

12. Eaten vegetables you grew yourself – As a kid, yes. It was never my joy.

 13. Slept overnight on a train  - I don’t believe so, though I’ve slept from NYC to Charlotte and arrived around 4:30 a.m.

14. Built a snow fort – Undoubtedly.

15. Held a lamb -Possibly at a county fair; uncertain.

16. Gone skinny dipping – At least twice, once in Broome County (the cops showed up) and once in Ulster County

17. Been on a cruise (day cruises and dinner cruises count) – At least twice, my wife and I took a Dutch Apple Cruise up and down the Hudson River. It’s rather cool. This reminds me that some performer was singing Sweet Caroline, which reminds me of Hank and John Green’s version of Sweet Caroline.

There was another time we were on the Hudson and went through one or more of the Erie Canal locks. And we went on the now-closed Albany Aqua Ducks, which naturally reminds me of Aqualung.

18. Seen Niagara Falls  - several times, most recently in 2011

Roots

19. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors – it depends on how far back one wants to go. My maternal grandmother’s house is where her mother grew up. I’ve been in Wilkes-Barre, PA, where some of my paternal grandmother’s people grew up. But I’ve not been to Ireland or Nigeria or places like that.

 20. Sung karaoke - Yes, at least once at a work conference.

21. Sat for a portrait – yes, but generally by a caricaturist

22. Walked on a beach by moonlight - Yes

23. Been transported in an ambulance - yes, when I was in a car accident when I was 19

24. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling  - Yes, when I was in Barbados in 1999 on our honeymoon, but I wasn’t very good at it

25. Kissed in the rain - Yes

26. Played in the mud  – of course

27. Gone to a drive-in theater – several times growing up. I specifically remember seeing The Dirty Dozen.

28. Changed your vehicle’s oil yourself – well, it wasn’t my vehicle, but I did do this. Once. With constant instruction.

29. Taken a martial arts class  - no

30. Visited the Vatican - never been to Italy

31. Volunteered at a soup kitchen or food pantry - yes, but it’s been several years

32. Sold Girl Scout cookies – for some reason, yes, for friends’ kids

33. Bought a used car – no, nor have I purchased a new car

34. Sat on a jury – no, but I was in the courtroom in 2007 and 2014

35. Ridden an elephant – No. Or maybe yes? At a circus when I was a kid?

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Top Pop Singles of 1976, part 1

rollercoaster, hangover – ain’t love grand?

These are the top pop singles of 1976. Okay, many of them. The songs that were #1 on the Billboard charts for multiple weeks, plus those that were there for only one week but were in the Top 10 for at least 10 weeks, are represented.

The follow-up will include other #1 songs on the Billboard charts, as well as #1 songs on non-Billboard charts.

Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright) – Rod Stewart (Warner), 8 weeks at #1, gold record

Silly Love Songs – Wings (Capitol), 5 weeks at #1, gold record

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart – Elton John and Kiki Dee (Rocket), 4 weeks at #1, gold record

Disco Lady – Johnnie Taylor (Columbia), 4 weeks at #1, platinum record

Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry (Epic), 3 weeks at #1, platinum record

December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night) – the Four Seasons (Warner/Curb), 3 weeks at #1, gold record. A story: When I was working at the NY Small Business Development Center in 1998, we were underbid for a national contract to provide reference services to the SBDCs across the country, something we had done since 1992. Figuring we wouldn’t be there by December, we in the Research Network decided to have our Christmas party in September. We played this card game where we had to respond to the specific cues. One was to name a pop song that included a year and provide at least 8 consecutive lyrics. One answer I gave was this song: “Oh, what a night, late December back in ’63.” As it turned out, one librarian took another job, two were laid off, but four of us were hired to provide services exclusively for the NY SBDC.

From one of my favorite albums

50 Ways To Leave Your Lover – Paul Simon (Columbia), 3 weeks at #1, gold record. When this came out, my comic book buddies thought that both Stan and Lee referred to the Marvel writer, and that Jack was King Kirby. No one could figure out who Gus was.

Kiss And Say Goodbye – Manhattans (Columbia), 2 weeks at #1, platinum record

If You Leave Me Now – Chicago (Columbia), 2 weeks at #1, gold record

Love Hangover – Diana Ross (Motown), 2 weeks at #1; 12″

Afternoon Delight – Starland Vocal Band (Windsong), 2 weeks at #1, gold record

The rest were number one for one week

(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty – KC & the Sunshine Band (T.K )

A Fifth of Beethoven – Walter Murphy/Big Apple Band (Private Stock), gold record, instrumental. Eventually on the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack.

Disco Duck (Part 1) – Rick Dees & His Cast Of Idiots (RSO), platinum record. novelty. This single may or may not be in my attic right now.

I Write the Songs – Barry Manilow (Arista), gold record

Love Rollercoaster – Ohio Players (Mercury), gold record