Let’s consider something lighter for a change: riddles.

I submit one I just invented. The three parts are separated to allow you to guess in stages, with the third part the easiest for guessing (the three parts make up the same riddle). Traditional ones are interspersed. I’ll give a hint for my own riddle: It’s not nearly as dark as it first appears.

With a Coldness (part one) by Jonathan Whitcomb

With a coldness kills a walker
With a rock it makes a blocker
With a hole it hides a stalker

***

Used in The Hobbit

Voiceless it cries
Wingless flutters
Toothless bites
Mouthless mutters

***

With a Coldness (part two)

With a foot that never walks
It never eats; it never talks
But may look down on soaring hawks

***

Old Riddle put to rhyme by J.W.

Feed me, I grow
Touch me, I bite
Always I glow
Water’s my fright

***

With a Coldness (part three)

Bravest men can die on whim
Rivers run away from him
Gawkers gaze from highest rim

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Will you be surprised?

Answers

The Hobbit riddle: the wind

Another old riddle I put to rhyme: fire

“With a Coldness:” a mountain

This morning I noticed how few persons had viewed my newest Youtube video compared with the hoax video that it was intended to expose. It was more than a million to one favoring deception over my exposure of that deception. To be specific:

Hoax from Canada

“Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” has now had over forty million (40,000,000+) viewers who watched an apparent toddler being carried up into the air, for a short distance, by an apparent bird of prey. An animation studio in Montreal, Quebec, soon admitted that it was a computer-generated imitation of reality: There was no real toddler and no real bird.

Exposure of the Hoax-Video (31 views by the middle of December 28, 2012)

A humorous look at why “Golden Eagle Snatches Kid” is a hoax.

I was about half through my creation of the expose-video when I learned that Centre NaD, an animation school in Quebec, had made public the true nature of their video. By the time I had completed my own project and uploaded it to Youtube, on Christmas Eve, many expose-videos had already appeared, some of them with many thousands of viewers.

In reality a woman was acting a part, not reacting to a real attack

Attitude of Gratitude

Today, for a minute, I started to slip into the quagmire of self pity, for my hours of work in trying to make an entertaining video (that reveals the truth) was overshadowed, by a million to one, by a work of deception. The student animators in Canada may have spent fifty times as many hours on their video than I had on mine, but how many Youtube viewers were deceived by their product!

There may be, at this time, many thousands of parents and grandparents around the world who are nervous about taking small children to city parks. They were among those forty million viewers, but did not catch the later revelation that it was an admitted hoax. I’m glad that my own videos and books do not cause such an unnecessary problem.

I now realize the short-sighted and narrow perspective in my self pity. Truth will prevail, in time; and I have already had my own Youtube-popularity success with “Ropen-Pterodactyl American Eyewitness.” That video, that I edited and uploaded, has had over 300,000 viewers.

We need to remember to be grateful for what truth we have and what means we have to promulgate it. The future victory of truth is assured, regardless of how popular or unpopular it may be among some people at present.

Frigate Birds and Freak-Like Nerds

The Frigate bird, also called “man-o’-war bird,” flies far from the conflicting opinions of the living-pterosaur controversy. How irrelevant! But again it has been brought up as if evidence for the nonexistence of the ropen of Papua New Guinea.

Why do I celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in the month of December? To the best of my knowledge, shepherds did not keep watch over their flocks by night late in December, in the area of Bethlehem; it would have been too cold. But we join, at year’s end, with many Christians from around the world, in celebrating His coming into the world.

What is the true meaning of Christmas? Living in accordance with the gift of eternal life given to us by the Son of God, Jesus Christ. It is in forgiving and being forgiven, improving, in giving, and learning and loving, and in hoping that many others will enjoy all the blessings that we have received.

The full light of His coming into the world lives in his resurrection, after suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and giving his life for us on the cross. Consider the following lines from “Through my Savior:”

Now in the morning of shadow waning,
Like when the light of morning filled a tomb,
Grant us forgiveness: both giving, gaining;
Fill us with light: Dispel avenging gloom.
Once in a garden the blood was dropping;
Once on a cross the voice of mercy said:
“Oh my Father, forgive my brother;
I forgive him with the blood I shed.”

The Light of the World

Only a few days [earlier], a boy from Erin’s class at school had died in a car accident. She had seen a lot of people crying at the funeral, and she had cried a lot herself. She hadn’t known the boy that well, but Erin knew his family loved him as much as her family loved her. She felt scared to know that something like that could happen to someone her age. . . .

The story ended, and a recording of the prophet’s voice came over the loudspeaker. He bore his testimony and read a scripture from the Bible: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). . . .

The scripture said that everyone would die—young people, old people—everyone. Erin knew that, of course, but she hadn’t thought about it much before. She thought she was too young to think about such things. But she wasn’t too young to have a testimony of the truth: because of Jesus Christ, everyone would live again.

My sisters and I, decades ago, loved for Mommy to read to us from the orange books (by Childcraft), including Poems of Early Childhood. If you can get hold of a copy to read to your three-year-old or four-year-old, how fortunate! The old Childcraft books from the 1940’s and 1950’s are not easy to find now.

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on a tuffet,

Eating of curds and whey;

There came a great spider,

And sat down beside her,

And frightened Miss Muffet away.

Little Boy Blue

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn;

The sheep’s in the meadow, the cow’s in the corn.

Where’s the little boy that looks after the sheep?

He’s under the haystack, fast asleep.

.

Reading to Children

When a pre-schooler sits on the lap of a parent and hears an interesting story for children, that child notices that the parent is reading. The child may not understand anything about how letters form words and words form stories, but there’s no doubt about a connection.

Child Care Resources in California

For short-term child care help, babysitting may be preferred, in some cases; but the average hourly rate for family child care is much lower than that of a truly professional babysitter.

A Specific Noun

For those of us who speak English, is there any commonplace idea that we prefer not to be labeled with a word? The natural direction of growth for the English language is to add a word to our vocabulary when we find something new that we value. How unnatural to officially dilute a word, so that it refers to additional things, not originally intended!

Think about the possibility that a politician or judge or group of persons might change the meaning of a word in the English language. How often has an English word been officially changed through legal means? Not often.

What about the relationship of husband-wife? Why make the word “marriage” more vague? Why try to force on society the opposite of the naturnal evolution of language? Progress naturally involves adding words and phrases, as new objects and ideas emerge. Forcing a word to be more vague is fighting against progress, the opposite of nature, the opposite of progress in language evolution. Does the husband-wife relationship no longer have any value? Is it really not worth having a word specific to it?

The Value of True Marriage

For those who feel that this relationship between a man and a woman, the husband-wife relationship, is of great value to society—those persons should have no difficulty understanding how important is this concept: The husband-wife relationship deserves to have a name specific to itself.

In Addition

For those tempted to ridicule any of the above, beware of bulverism, that counterfeit of sound reasoning, that sneak thief who hides his crowbar under the business suit he wears only to deceive you. Look not for one point of weakness in somebody’s reasoning, and then dismiss everything that person says as if an imperfect person cannot have anything worthy to say, for the sneak thief will already have his crowbar at the dead bolt of the door to sound reasoning. Bulverism breaks through to steal truth when we are distracted.

For those looking for an excuse to label me a “gay hater,” as if I were against persons who label themselves “gay,” what about my poem that refers to same-gender attraction in the following lines?

“The lonely oak, against the storm, unmoved, Now bending away from the sea, Will someday rest, at home across that depth.”

A person who has long-term same-gender attraction but who avoids the sin of same-gender sexual activity is “the lonely oak.” What is the future rest awaiting that person? “At home across that depth” refers to heaven.

I do not hate anybody. I love people and I love the truth, especially when it gives us permanent joy and dispels the dark shadows that would otherwise cross the path of life’s journey. If I feared “gay” persons, I would not write a poem that included a reference to such a person going to heaven.

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Traditional Marriage T-shirts

In God we trust – to preserve marriage between a man and a woman

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North Carolina a Political Headache for Democrats

Official Proponents Appeal Prop 8 Decision to Entire 9th Circuit

Another Vote for Marriage

Why I Fight to Uphold Traditional Marriage in Washington

Obama and the Truth About Marriage

The war between the United States and Germany in the 1940’s is irrelevant here; this compares freedom of speech in two nations, regarding who was responsible for the 9-11 attacks on citizens and buildings in America. How do our present freedoms in the USA compare with the freedoms of citizens of Germany during the rule of Adolf Hitler?

I now write under the candlelight of the young Helmuth Huebener, for I have been enlightened by the documentary on his short life: Truth and Conviction. The teenaged spokesman of truth was martyred because he spoke against Nazi oppression and internal-terrorism. His accomplishments deserve far more than a few side notes, but a critical point cries out for acknowledgement: We in the United States in the early twenty-first century enjoy freedoms hardly dreamt of by German citizens during World War II.

Helmuth Hubener, at the age of seventeen, was beheaded by the Nazi leadership. Why? He had written pamphlets that condemned atrocities committed by that leadership. Why? He recognized the depravity of the Kristallnacht terrorism and he recognized the truth when German radio broadcasts contradicted common sense. Although Hubener gained only about two active followers during his lifetime, we now know that he wrote the truth about that Nazi leadership.

Looking at the general case, when a citizen writes about government oppression against freedom, that government’s reaction is enlightening, even when its goal is to snuff out the candle: regarding freedom of speech, ignoring the writer proves him wrong and putting him to death proves him right.

What about the “truthers” of early twenty-first century America, those who write that leaders of American government have covered up critical information or were even responsible for the atrocities of September 11, 2001? Have all of those writers been convicted and beheaded? No. Their writings appear to have captivated thousands of followers and perhaps millions of sympathizers. Compare that with the two active followers of Helmuth Hubener, the two young men who were convicted of assisting Hubener (passing out pamphlets), for those two were sentenced: five years and ten years of prison. To the best of my knowledge, no American publisher or editor has been sent to prison for complicity in publishing a book that suggests U.S. government involvement in the attacks of September 11, 2001.

I don’t condemn writers for trying to sell books or publishers for printing books; I am a self-published author. But when a book is written on the foundational idea that the government may have been the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks of 9-11, what is proven by the publication, distribution, and sales of that book? The foundational idea of that book is proven wrong by the existence of that book.

No government that is remotely like the leadership of Nazi Germany can survive when pamphlets or books are freely written and distributed with emphasis on the corruption of the government. One of the strongest disproofs of the ideas of “9-11 truthers” is the popularity of the ideas. That said, I have no desire to break their crystals or to arrest their leaders; I just want to break down a gross mistake and arrest foggy thinking.

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Child care or babysitting in California

I once read a comment, from a young man if I recall, about the possibility that the Book of Mormon had been changed, over the past two centuries, presumably to cover up a non-Divine origin of the original 1830 version. It appeared to me that this commentator had not actually read the Book of Mormon but was speculating based on his imagination (and perhaps on what other critics had speculated) for he gave no detail, no example, no reference. He had imagined wrongful changes but had not actually found anything. How much better to read before commenting!

On my laptop, I have the text of the 1830 version of the Book of Mormon, and I sometimes compare it with the modern version. It’s usually hard to find any difference unless one gets the editor’s eye to notice punctuation changes. How obvious that there was no textual evolution from 1830 to the present! Those relatively few changes not involving spelling, grammar, or punctuation, can be explained without any reference to any coverup or any hiding of a non-Divine origin. The 1830 version, in spite of numerous instances of human weaknesses (in both ancient and modern mortals), is a compilation of scriptures originally written by ancient inhabitants of this continent, and it came to us through the power of God. How much we can learn by reading the Book of Mormon!

Book of Mormon Examined

Comparing 1830 text with 1981 version of Alma 4:6*

The above text* was chosen at random. What is the difference? In the modern version, the word “judges” is not capitalized, and the words “fine-twined” are connected by a hyphen. In addition, there is no comma after “gold.”

So after 151 years, all the changes in the English Book of Mormon, for this verse, amount to one capitalization change, one addition of a hyphen, and one subtraction of a comma.

Grandin Print Shop, Palmyra, N.Y.

The Book of Mormon and the Birth of Christ

So why does that verse in Alma mention “Jerusalem” as the place where Jesus would be born? The Nephites probably had almost no knowledge of the smaller towns around Jerusalem, for they had been separated from that city for centuries and for thousands of miles. They knew the name “Jerusalem,” which is relatively close to Bethlehem, so that is the location-name used.

Modern Changes

This is not to say that nothing other than punctuation or spelling has been changed since the 1830 edition. But nothing seems to have been changed by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in any reasonable way resembling a coverup of any truth about the origin of that 1830 printing of the Book of Mormon.

Let’s take a hypothetical example, not what has happened but what might theoretically happen if a modern editor makes a careless alteration of text. What if I were to attempt translating part of the book of Alma into some obscure language of Papua New Guinea, with no help from LDS leaders? Let’s take Alma 7:10, including “he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers.” With my many years of experience with the Bible, I recognize that Bethlehem, not Jerusalem, was the birthplace of Jesus Christ. Why not correct that obvious error while translating from English into the Kovai language (spoken by natives in Gomlongon Village on Umboi Island)?

Sometimes trying to fix an error can be worse than leaving it alone. In Papua New Guinea, or most anywhere else, Christians unfamiliar with any text in the Book of Mormon can be suspicious of what seems to be competition with the Bible. How would they react on learning that the Kovai version of the Book of Mormon says “Bethlehem” and the English version says “Jerusalem?”

How could the natives of Gomlongon Village ever know about the English version? I speak from the experience of a 2004 expedition in Papua New Guinea. To get to Gomlongon Village from Los Angeles, it took me about one week, after four plane flights, a trip on a small ship, an adventure on a banana boat, and a strenuous hike up a jungle trail. I can testify of how remote Gomlongon Village is from Los Angeles. But the nation of Papua New Guinea has three national languages, and one of those is English, and three minutes walking west from Gomlongon will take you to the Baptist Church, where one of the youth leaders speaks and reads English.

Changing “Jerusalem” to “Bethlehem” is technically a valid correction; Mormon himself may be the last one who would object to that change. But it would open up too many opportunities for Christians to be deceived into thinking that there had been a coverup. With all that, however, that change (unwise as it would be) would not actually invalidate the Divine origin of the Book of Mormon; it would simply make it easier for some potential readers to be distracted and dissuaded from reading it.

This bestselling fiction by Paulo Coelho delighted me for several days. I recommend it to LDS and non-LDS readers, without reservation.

The Alchemist actually has little reference to the one called by that title, until well into the story, and he is not the principle character, although he plays a critical part. Rather than give away any of the plot myself, I’ll quote from the front cover:

. . . about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself a king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. . . . what starts out as a journey to find wordly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within.

Before January 17, 2012, the Wikipedia page on the book had stated that The Alchemist had “sold more than 65 million copies.” On that date, I corrected what seemed obvious to me was an error, after which the Wikipedia page stated the following.

According to AFP news, it has sold more than 65 million copies in more than 150 countries, becoming one of the best-selling books in history. But according to the publisher HarperCollins, (back cover of paperback English edition), at the time of that paperback publication, all of Coelho’s many books had sold sixty-five million copies total; according to the author’s web site, twenty-one million copies of The Alchemist have been sold.

I was surprised that nobody had caught this error before I had, for I rarely examine Wikipedia pages critically. Wikipedia truly is not an encyclopedia.

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Child Care in Long Beach

How important that we each receive a personal testimony of the Divine origin of the Book of Mormon! Without that spiritual witness, we might be deceived by shallow criticisms. The following is taken from one of my pages of “Book of Mormon Examined.”

Christ in the Book of Mormon (and where he was born)

Why does it refer to the birth of Christ at Jerusalem?

“And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.” (Alma 7:10)

. . . Those were the words of the prophet Alma, as he taught the Nephites, in about 83 B.C., on the American continent. Those people had been separated from their homeland in Israel for five centuries, surely ignorant of geographic details like the names of smaller towns around Jerusalem. They were thousands of miles away.

We could compare their situation to ours, should we travel across the world and visit people who knew nothing about small towns in our homeland. Why would we use the name of a small town to tell them about where we came from, if there is a large city near that town and the foreigners we were talking with knew of that large city?

So why does that verse in Alma mention “Jerusalem” as the place where Jesus would be born? The Nephites probably had almost no knowledge of the smaller towns around Jerusalem, for they had been separated from that city for centuries and for thousands of miles. They knew the name “Jerusalem,” which is relatively close to Bethlehem, so that is the location-name used. How simple!

Last month, while waiting for hamburgers at a BurgerKing in Lakewood, California, the kindergartner I had just picked up from school started testing me on my math skills. An approximation of our conversation has been published on the blog Long Beach Child Care.

Kindergartner to a grownup: “How much is a hundred plus a hundred plus a million plus a hundred plus a million.”

Grownup, after using his hands to keep track: “Two million, three hundred.”

Kindergartner: “How did you do that?”

Grownup: “I used my hands.”

Kindergartner: “This time, don’t use your hands. How much is a million plus a million plus a hundred plus a million plus a hundred plus a hundred?”

Grownup makes an estimate.

Kindergarner: “How did you do that?”

Grownup: “I used my head.”

Kindergartner: “This time, don’t use your head.”