happy thanksgiving!

a disturbing warning

A disturbing warning comes to Americans from an African pastor ("Fire In My Bones" newsletter from Lee Grady, Charisma Magazine - emphases mine):

Mbijiwe Mwenda (The Kenyan pastor, founder of Glory Cathedral Church in Nairobi) says we are being naive to ignore Barack Obama’s ties to a dangerous Kenyan politician....

Mwenda’s main concern: That Democratic presidential challenger Barack Obama has a cozy relationship with Raila Odinga, an avowed Marxist politician who now serves as Kenya’s prime minister. Obama, who made taxpayer-funded visits to Kenya in 2004, 2005 and 2006, campaigned for Odinga in 2006.

During public appearances in Kenya, Odinga introduced Obama as his cousin. But later a family member denied that claim, saying that Odinga and Obama’s father, Barack Obama Sr., simply came from the same village. Both Obama Sr. and Odinga are from the Luo tribe, Kenya’s third largest.

When Odinga ran for president of Kenya last year and lost by a slim margin, tribal violence erupted amid claims of voter fraud. About 150,000 people died (many were killed in machete attacks), hundreds of churches were burned and 600,000 villagers were displaced. The international community had to broker a peace deal, allowing Odinga to serve as prime minister while his opponent, Mwai Kibaki, was named president.

Today, Odinga hopes that Obama will win the White House on Nov. 4 to boost support for his bid to become president of Kenya in 2012.

Pastor Mwenda says he is amazed that Americans don’t seem concerned that Obama is tied to Odinga. He rattled off a list of facts that Charisma has verified:

Odinga was trained in communist ideology in Europe and holds Marxist views. “He even named his son Fidel Castro,” Mwenda says.

He has obvious ties to Muslim interests and even received funding for his presidential campaign from Libya. Although he officially claims to be an Anglican, Mwenda says, “[Odinga] has been very sympathetic to Muslims and some say he is a Muslim secretly.”

Odinga fits in nicely with Arab leaders’ plans for Africa. When they convened in Nigeria in 2001, they released a statement indicating that Kenya is to play a key role in spreading Islam throughout southern Africa. Says Mwenda: “Odinga is a dangerous man. A dictator.”

Odinga has promised to enact Sharia law in “Muslim declared regions” of Kenya—meaning that pork would be outlawed, women could not drive and crimes would be punished according to Islamic tradition.

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feather paintings

Earlier this week I got an email with some stunning photos of feather paintings - but no artist's name given. Here are three of them.


A little sleuthing on the internet brought me face to face with the artist - Julie Thompson, formerly of Alaska, who now lives in the Puget Sound region of Washington State.

She paints on naturally molted peacock feathers with acrylic paints. Each feather painting takes weeks to complete. She started this form of painting in 1990 and has built up quite a collection in her internet gallery.

Her work is often sold at local craft fairs and is on display in some galleries. She has also sold to collectors across U.S. and Canada as well as Germany, Ireland and Japan. Find out more about her and her work here. Check out her various galleries: Wings, Hooves, Paws, Fins and Miscellaneous.

(I'm annoyed, though, that someone would lift the feather photos off her web site and circulate them in an email without acknowledging the artist. Whoever put that email together in the first place without crediting the artist - SHAME ON YOU!)

Lynden WA

Tulips in the quaint little town of Lynden Washington, where we went last Thursday to celebrate my birthday.



Lynden is very Dutch - as you can see by the building details and the windmill that dominates Front Street.




We had lunch at the Dutch Mother's Restaurant (a Reuben sandwich for him, turkey/craisin/Oriental dressing salad for her with coconut cream and bumbleberry pies for dessert). This giant mural in the room where we ate made us feel like we were actually eating in a sidewalk cafe in the old country.