Only in America.
This week a search for the missing body of Jimmy Hoffa was brought to an end. This was but the latest in a saga that has stretched back thirty eight years, since the boss of the Teamsters Union went missing.
During that time millions of dollars have been spent on digging up half the state of Michigan to come up with Hoffa's remains. The drama has filled tabloids with rumors and lurid accounts of Jimmy's grizzly end.
Heavy equipment has been used to dig up swimming pools, tear apart warehouses, excavate under barns and demolish pig farms.
This week's fiasco was undertaken on the "sure word" of a mobster called Anthony Zerelli, who swore he knew where Jimmy was to be found to the nearest inch!
Now forty FBI agents and a small army of forensic anthropologists have packed up and gone home without so much as a finger nail.
Many years ago Jesus said: "Seek and ye shall find."
Now there's a sure word that can be trusted and a Person WORTH searching for.
Jubilate.
Ian
I have not commented on the war in Syria since the up-rising nearly three years ago.
However, when President Obama declared that he was going to arm the rebels last week, I thought that the situation deserved at least a short post.
John Kerry, Secretary of State, said that the rebels "must be armed to redress the balance of power and save innocent lives."
Which is tantamount to saying "The house of Syria is on fire and we are pouring on gasoline to put out the blaze".
This surely is a conflict that Islam must decide, since the two sides slugging it out are Shia and Sunni Muslims. Therefore what business has the "Christian West" intervening in this ugly brawl?
If one Canadian or American or British soldier dies in this unholy mess it will be one too many.
I have just returned from a tour of the battlefields of Europe where enough blood was shed to satisfy the gods of war to the end of time! Why not let it rest there?
Jubilate.
Ian
When I was in my twenties, a guy called Alistair Cook gave a weekly broadcast Called "Letter from America". Start to finish it ran for over fifty years.
Some of the stuff he commented on boggled my mind.
I got the impression that America was not only a magical nation but also one that was was profoundly mixed up. The balance was often in doubt.
This week I'll call this mini-series "Letter from America" and the balance has certainly swung to the "Mixed up".
An announcement from the American Medical Association a couple of days ago.
"Obesity is no longer a condition. It is a disease."
O my! So our chubby friends will no longer say: "I am obese."
They will be be able to say: "I have obesity."
How liberating. Others will be able to join in the chorus and say:
"I have drunkenness. I have pornography. I have sex addiction.
I have pedophilia..." The list is endless.
No more demeaning terms like gluttony, lust, perversity etc.
It is just our common humanity and we celebrate it together.
To which I must reply:
"ONLY IN AMERICA"
Jubilate.
Ian
