Southern fun in the warm sun

Raider Fan and The Bride were visiting family in Cumming, Georgia the other day when we passed by this gas station. What is it about these old well-preserved structures?  Is it simple nostalgia or does their existence cause us on some level to understand that the pace of change has left us with a sense that there is no stable ground upon which we may stand?

We at ABE Ministry, at least in some sense, welcome the celerity of chaotic change as it is a constant reminder of the need to hate the world and to love Jesus, King of Heaven and Earth, Our Lord, Our Creator, Redeemer, and Savior for He, and He alone, is our rock, our stability in this wicked and wild world.

O, and, yeah, the station is neat...

Rich, the Bride's brother, made us some Texas Style Brisket, smoked low and slow - 225 degrees for 15 hours - and Raider Fan feels pity for those who have never eaten this fair fare.

Try it at home, here's the recipe; and all the reader has to do is get his own self a smoker and use some charcoal and some apple wood chunks and go low and slow after applying a dry rub.

O, and do use a mopping sauce; it makes the brisket taste mo'better

The thirteen pound brisket after its dry rub baptism and overnight nap in the fridge:

No, Raider Fan can not describe just how good this brisket was, suffice it to say that there is nothing else like it in the world.

The next morning, Rich took Raider Fan to get some breakfast for the girls.

Yeah, that's what Raider Fan thought initially; but,what the hell, when in Georgia...

Yeah, agreed. In Wellington, the town officials would have closed this dump down two decades ago but this is rural Georgia and things are done differently there.

And look, there are cars lined-up to pick-up their orders of Cat Head Biscuits and Country Ham or Cat Head Biscuits and Sausage or Cat Head  Biscuits and Ptomaine. The biscuits were as large as they were dry; they are called Cat Heads owing to their size and, no, Raider Fan has never eaten a cat's head and so he doesn't know if the naming of those biscuits also had anything to do with that.




Of course, after breakfast the girls had to stalk the aisles of an antique store and we at ABE Ministry were not as excited about that as they were.

They were as excited about visiting and discovering heretofore unexperienced goods roughly the same way that Bill Clinton became excited when he was on the campaign trail and went to Las Vegas the very Memorial Day weekend that the brothels were having a two-for-one sale.

This was the one thing in the store we almost purchased to hang outside the doors of ABE Ministry:

O, the last photo is from the side yard of sister-in-law, Andrea, in Franklin, Tennessee.  Luckily for her a Bluebird has chosen to nest in her bird house.  Raider Fan had to snap the photo from inside as Bluebirds are as beautiful and shy as brides used to be on their wedding night.

Pope invites invasion of Europe and terrorists respond

Pope Francis begs forgiveness for the behavior of those who defend their land and invites worshippers of a false religion to continue to try and enter Europe where they are, by the nature of their false faith, constrained to try and turn once Christian Europe into Mahometan states.

Now, he could have just recommended that Italy, and the rest of  Europe,  send these invaders back - every single one of them - to Muslim States and and to tell the Muslim countries to take care of their fellow false worshippers and he could have even suggested Europe help fund their moves to those crummy countries.

Look, there are plenty of those Mahometan countries already in Africa:

Percentage of Muslims Per Country

Data Source: Pew Research | Printable Version

The most solidly Muslim countries in Africa are located in and around the Maghreb, the Sahara Desert, and the continent’s eastern horn. The most solidly Muslim countries in Africa are: 1) Morocco, 2) Somalia, 3) Tunisia, 4) Mauritania, and 5) Sudan.

Size of Muslim Population Per Country

Data Source: Pew Research | Printable Version

 The African countries with the largest Muslim populations are located in and around the Nile river delta, the Niger river delta, and the north-west Sahara. The African countries with the largest Muslim populations are: 1) Nigeria, 2) Egypt, 3) Algeria, 4) Morocco, and 5) Sudan.

But, no, Our Pope gave public support for this silent jihad

Pope Francis celebrated mass on the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Monday to commemorate thousands of migrants who have died crossing the sea from North Africa, underlining his drive to put the poor at the heart of his papacy.

The choice of Lampedusa for his first official trip outside Rome was highly symbolic for the pontiff, who said news reports of the deaths of desperate people trying to reach a better life that had been like "a thorn in the heart"...(Luckily for him it wasn't shrapnel in his heart)

He saluted the migrants, many of whom are preparing to fast during Ramadan, and thanked the people of Lampedusa for taking them in and setting an example of solidarity to a selfish society sliding into "the globalization of indifference".

"We have become used to other people's suffering, it doesn't concern us, it doesn't interest us, it's none of our business!" he said during his homily from an altar built from an old fishing boat painted in Italy's red, green and white colors.

...The islanders have sometimes seen their home transformed into a refugee center, with improvised campsites dotting the hills above the port but they have largely welcomed the migrants and there have been few tensions or problems.

Normally a sleepy island that lives mainly from tourism and fishing, Lampedusa's normal population of some 5,000 has been outnumbered on several occasions by migrants waiting at the portside or in the main reception center to be transferred to Sicily and mainland Italy.

So, here is one result of the questionable policy of the Pope; Jihadists are amongst those he welcomes.   Indifferentism is deadly.

By Nick Squires, Rome

7:05PM BST 24 Apr 2015

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Italy dismantled an alleged Islamist terrorist network with links to al-Qaeda on Friday, claiming the extremists had planned to attack the Vatican. 

Italian authorities said the network included two men who were bodyguards of Osama bin Laden before he was killed in a raid by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011. 

Early morning raids were carried out across the country. Nine suspects were arrested, while another nine were being sought, three of whom were believed to be in Italy. All were Pakistanis and Afghans...