QUARANTINE BLOG # 456

June 29, 2021

Tomorrow is the last day of Pride Month, and as it comes to a close, the NFL has released a new commercial that makes clear its support and embrace of the LGBTQ+ community.  The 30-second spot begins with the line, “Football is gay” as cheering plays in the background.  Football is lesbian.  Football is beautiful.  Football is queer.  Football is life.  Football is exciting.  Football is culture.  Football is transgender.  Football is queer.  Football is heart.  Football is power.  Football is tough.  Football is bisexual.  Football is strong.  Football is freedom.  Football is American.  Football is accepting.  Football is everything.  Football is for everyone.”

And I always thought football was a game, not a political platform!

👉  At the U.S. Olympic track and field trials, they’ve played the national anthem one time every night.  On Saturday, the song happened to start while outspoken activist Gwen Berry was standing on the podium after receiving her bronze medal in the hammer throw.  While the music played, Berry placed her left hand on her hip and shuffled her feet.  She took a quarter turn, so she was facing the stands, not the flag.  Toward the end, she plucked up her T-shirt with the words “Activist Athlete” emblazoned on the front, and draped it over her head.  “I feel like it was a set-up, and they did it on purpose,” Berry said of the timing of the anthem.

USA Track and Field spokeswoman Susan Hazzard said “the national anthem was scheduled to play at 5:20 p.m. today. We didn’t wait until the athletes were on the podium for the hammer throw awards. The national anthem is played every day according to a previously published schedule.”

Berry said. “But I don’t really want to talk about the anthem because that’s not important.  The anthem doesn’t speak for me.  It never has.”

“We don’t need any more activist athletes,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said during an appearance on Fox News.  “She should be removed from the team.  The entire point of the Olympic team is to represent the United States of America.  It’s the entire point.”

👉  Let’s continue our look at misquotes with one that colored a potential Vice President of the United States as less than bright.

“I can see Russia from my house,” is attributed to Sarah Palin when she was on the Republican ticket with John McCain.  Sarah Palin didn’t actually say that she “could see Russia from her house.”  This quote was  attributed to her after Saturday Night Live aired its first sketch featuring Tina Fey doing a Sarah Palin impression in 2008. 

During her first sit down interview as John McCain’s running mate, ABC newsman Charlie Gibson asked about Sarah’s foreign policy credentials. 

Gibson: What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?

Palin: They’re our next-door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.

The actual quote is quite different from Tina Fey’s, but the facts made little difference (Does it ever when you are a Republican being covered by the lame stream media?).

👉  Would you be surprised to learn that Dorothy Gale did not say, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore”?  Maybe a bunch of people in the 1940s got sucked up by a tornado and bumped their heads, but instead of dreaming about a visit to Oz, they dreamed Dorothy said, “I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore.”  What Dorothy actually said is, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”  Poor Toto’s been dropped out of the quote.  Don't forget the little dog, too.

👉  I found a great list of “Strangest Foreign Rules Banning Things that are Normal in the US.”  We’ll finish them over several days, but here’s a start.

Reincarnation without permission is prohibited in Tibet.  Buddhist monks must obtain special permission from the Chinese government in order to reincarnate.  If a person or organization fails to obtain permission to reincarnate, the state can legally pursue a criminal action against them.  They’ll face administrative sanctions, which could involve paying a fine or other punitive measures.  However, the exact punishment someone might face is unclear.  I guess it depends on what or who you are when you come back.

Certain male hairstyles are forbidden in Iran.  Certain looks, which were described as “homosexual” and “devil-worshipping,” were banned within the country.  Some of these hairstyles include spiky cuts, mullets, ponytails, and long gelled hair.  Shops who cut and styled these “un-Islamic” hairstyles could be closed, and plainclothes militia could intercept and punish individual members of the population who did not follow the rules.  An Islamic-approved haircut has been known to be very close to the shoulders, and the head ends up missing.

Being overweight in Japan could incur a fine.  Japan actually polices the waistlines of their citizens.  In 2008, Japan instituted a law that forces companies to regularly measure the waistlines of employees who are 40 to 74 years of age.  If their waistlines are too large, the company they work for could incur a fine.  In addition, the individual will be given dieting guidelines in order to get their measurements back to the government-mandated guidelines.  And if you don’t make your government prescribed weight, then what?

👉  Some signs for the times:

This was not an exchange between my sons and me.  But it could have been!

👉  Today’s close is from “First 15.”

Isaiah 48:17-18 offers a hopeful yet heart-wrenching promise of God: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”  What would it be like to experience peace like a river?  What would it feel like to float on a continual stream of rest and contentment?  How would past circumstances have turned out differently if only we would have listened to the commandments of God? 

Isaiah makes it clear that a lifestyle of peace and righteousness is readily available to us if we will simply follow the Lord our God “who leads [us] in the way [we] should go.”  Let’s open our hearts and minds to the Spirit of the living God today and ask him to mold and shape us into followers of his direction.

What situation lies before you today in which you need the direction of your all-knowing, loving heavenly Father?  Where do you need peace and righteousness today?  Where do you need your path illuminated?  Dive into the word and God’s heart under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and search out his commandment for your life.  Tune your ears to the frequency of God’s Spirit and listen to whatever he would say to you. 

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