Take a listen to Pastor John Hagee speak at length about how God controls the weather “to correct man for his behavior that does not fall in the parameters of the word of God.”

In the audio you’ll hear Pastor Hagee speaking about his belief that Katrina was sent by God to stop a “homosexual parade” scheduled to take place in New Orleans.

As Pastor Hagee prays over Gustav, I hope he asks God what on Earth he’s trying to stop this time.

Anyone know what kind of snake this is? I tried Google, but didn’t see it. This was in the front yard.

I read chapter 3 “Attack By Stratagem” of Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Here is the end of that chapter:

17. Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

18. Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Sometime during the newscast tonight, the monitors in the newsroom slowly started to look the same as networks and cable news channels began switching to live coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. It was the beginning of a roll call that would make history as the Democratic party nominated the first black candidate for President of the United States.

The 5 p.m. newscast had just ended in Studio A, and I was getting my things to leave when there was a slight commotion on the convention floor. Hillary Clinton had joined the New York delegation. As I watched Hillary make a motion to suspend the vote in favor of nominating Barack Obama as the party’s candidate for President, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride in my country and accomplishment for the Democratic party.

We are truly at an historic moment in our nation’s history. It is a moment that thankfully overshadows the choice of language and tone that still permeates the posts of some within the local blogosphere who dwell on the differences between Clinton and Obama supporters. It is a moment that will soon pass under the full weight of campaigns that will draw distinctions between the choices we have of who will lead our nation for the next four years, but it is a moment that no matter what happens will never be forgotten.

Check out this huge stag beetle I saw while watering the trees and bushes yesterday. It’s almost 2 inches long.

According to what I found online, these are beneficial beetles that help decompose dead trees on the forest floor.

I think the reason we have them is because we use untreated mulch. That does cause us to have more grubs and other pests than a yard would have, but they are kept in check by birds and another amazing insect we have but I’ve yet to photograph: Velvet Ants - huge territorial fuzzy black and red ants which are actually wingless wasps. I’ve seen about five so far - all in the mulch beds beside large rocks.

According to Wikipedia, velvet ants lay an egg in the nest cell of the cicada killers we also have in the yard. When the cicada killer larva pupates, the parasitoid larva consumes the pupa. As you might have guessed, we have cicada killers because we’ve got cicada grubs … all partying in the mulch beds together. Fun times.

I’ve never been stung by the velvet ants, but they reportedly have a very painful sting. They’re also fast, and I’ve only seen them rarely when I water near their homes in the mulch beds.

If there were a reality show that showed you the typical day in the newsroom, you’d witness a newsroom juggling that day’s stories against limited resources. In the middle of that industry reality is another reality that producers for Making News wanted to film at the Deuce for a TV Guide Channel series.

They called the boss last week and asked him if he’d be interested in letting them come in and film several episodes for the reality show Making News. I went to YouTube and found this video from the Odessa, TX series that focused on KOSA-TV. Here is one from Making News: Savannah. I think that’s just a sip of why the boss said no thanks.

So, for all of you people who hoped this was your chance to spy into the mysterious world of the Alpha Stache, you have been foiled again by the Prince of Darkness.

Vince took this picture of our recycling before taking it to Sam’s Club this week. Ever since we found out Sam’s takes paper and glass in addition to our normal recycling, we’ve reduced the garbage we send to the Middle Point Landfill even more.

Our local landfill doesn’t have a liner and fails to do proper ground water testing. What’s more disturbing is that our drinking water source, the Stones River, wraps around the western border of this landfill.

Vince and I figure we have now reduced our trash to about 1.5 bags or less per week. We sometimes go two or three weeks before even taking the trash to the curb. We now recycle all our junk mail, paper hand towels, glass bottles and all of our fast food packaging. We shred the sensitive mail and compost that with our organic wastes which becomes soil for our vegetable garden.

Here’s what we sent to recycling in this batch. The last batch was sent June 22.

• aluminum: 5 lbs.
• steel: 3.6 lbs.
• glass: 12 lbs.
• plastic: 32.2 lbs.
• cardboard / paper: 54.1 lbs.