Bill-O'-Notes® » Bill O’Neill

The Bridge Over the Lemon Fair

Bill O'Neill — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 02:44:09 +0000

The bridge over the Lemon Fair near our home was closed yesterday afternoon due to a large hole that appeared. This morning, while at the Shoreham Service Center getting fuel (and hot coffee) WCAX-TV, Channel 3 in Burlington, Vermont was there getting some local reaction.

Motive v. Justice

Bill O'Neill — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:59:48 +0000

If I read one more [so called] news story on this insidious shooting in Arizona as one that is an act derived from or linked to “divisive politics” I’m going to go on another 30-day news-fast. We are a society woefully obsessed with “motive” and not content with “justice” for those who break the law. The “social outcast with wild beliefs steeped in mistrust” who opened fire and killed six people was trying to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday. Here’s the story. After droning on in the article about every societal ill and political basis or justification, there is one line in a paragraph all to its own: “It was not clear whether those issues motivated the shooter.” Never let a meta-narrative get in the way of a good story, tragic as it may be.

Wretched Truth Will Out

Bill O'Neill — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 20:07:48 +0000

I just heard this while listening to Wretched Radio. Todd Friel reviews a rabbi’s perspective on the matter of truth and then presents audio from an episode of ER entitled Truth Will Out with guest star Hal Holbrook delivering a very convicting message on truth to a garden variety central casting post-modern helper. Here is the audio….

Addison County Gospel Choir

Bill O'Neill — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 21:55:12 +0000

Here’s the audio from the last performance of the Christmas season yesterday for the Addison County Gospel Choir. I recorded the performance which was held a Brandon Baptist Church in Brandon, Vermont on Saturday, 11 December 2010.

Smokestack Waits, Wobbles, Oops

Bill O'Neill — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:16:30 +0000

Here is a video of an attempt to drop a 275-foot smoke stack in Ohio in the right direction. Kids ran, screaming. No one hurt. Lights went out. Adults blushed. 10…9…8…7…6…5…4… Quick observations include this: 1. The CHILD had the most sense among all of the people when she had the sense to turn and run and yell to the ‘grown-ups’, “RUN!” 2. Check out the last worker to make a dash for it and how much she delayed to the very end! File Under: The best-laid plans of mice and men oft go astray.

That’s Peggy O’Neill

Bill O'Neill — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:30:44 +0000

My mom, Peggy O’Neill, turns 89 on November 14th. Still going strong, Mom’s still very much this ‘middle-aged’ guy’s Mom and is as invested in her role as wife, mother, and friend to many as she has ever been. It goes to prove that while our roles change over time, we still can serve God in important ways. May we forge against the tide of this day to disregard our elders. “Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the LORD.” Leviticus 19:32 NASB [Originally posted May 9, 2010] It was September of 1943 when Peggy Riley loaded up her brand new, yet very used green 1932 Model “A” Ford coupe with its rumble seat and Kelly green spoked wheels, blessed with questionable brakes and glass jars of water for a radiator that was wont to boiling-over. Armed with a new bachelor’s degree from Emmanuel College in the Fenway in Boston and with a desire to teach, the single child of Pearl and Jimmy Riley, a local “poor man’s lawyer” from Lowell, drove northward into the relatively distant and far-off village of Newmarket, New Hampshire. Peggy had jumped at the Continue reading →

Abomination for a Church

Bill O'Neill — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:22:15 +0000

Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas – that’s the abomination dressing itself up as a church every Sunday morning and then traveling nationwide to protest as funerals of fallen United States soldiers. And it happened again. This time, residents of a small town sent the clearly lost souls back on the road to spew their false doctrine elsewhere. Here’s the story from Fox News “We got everybody here early so we could take up all the parking spots,” Rebecca Rooney of Weston, Mo., told Fox4kc.com. “We did that so Mr. Phelps wouldn’t have a contingency that was really close.” It seems that there is a steady drumbeat of the lunacy associated with Westboro Baptist Church. Their modus operandi is not the Great Commission, the spreading of the Gospel message, but one of co-opting solemn moments like those of a funeral for a loved one, a loved one whose notoriety is borne out of fearless service to our nation. In the book of Matthew chapter 28, verses 18-20, Jesus commands, Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Continue reading →

FLATUS TAXUS! $700K Taxes to Study Cow Burps?

Bill O'Neill — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:48:51 +0000

Oh, waiter? Belching bovines, Batman! Seven hundred thousand dollars in federal tax money to study burping cattle? Really? As a friend of mine just remarked, “Meanwhile back at the ranch I am looking for loans to send my kid to school.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. “Cows emit most of their methane through belching, only a small fraction from flatulence,” said the project’s principal investigator, Ruth Varner of UNH’s Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. Pass the Lea & Perrons. Instead. The Manchester Union Leader reports that we are going to fund nearly three quarters of a million dollars in research to the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH to study burping cattle. While I enjoy a belching bovine as much as the next guy, would we not be better off putting a cork in that project for a decade or so just to see how it all, well, works out in the end? Oh, I can hear the naysayers: “How many more must perish before this great nation of ours recognizes our grievous irresponsibility in this matter as we pass gas to the generation of our great grandchildren?” Pass the Lea & Perrons. Indeed.

Peter Shumlin, You’re Confusing Me

Bill O'Neill — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 01:28:58 +0000

Mr. Shumlin, you are confusing me. In tonight’s mail you sent me two large, glossy color cardboard mailings for your candidacy for Vermont governor. One mailing is a photo of a pouting little girl writing with her pencil. The slogan? “If Brian Dubie wins, she loses.” The other mailing from you? It’s a woman with a fiery stare and the words, “Brian Dubie thinks abortion should be illegal” and “Brian Dubie will endanger our freedom and our health.” Your shell game is shell-shocking, Mr. Shumlin. So, Mr. Shumlin, you claim that if PRO-LIFE candidate Brian Dubie wins, then young life “loses”? How can you as the pro-abortion candidate point the finger of endangerment to “health and freedom” to the pro-life candidate? With a straight face? There is nothing more protecting of young life than advocating that they get the chance to breathe air in the first place. All of this is about as inconsistent as your position on “saving” $40(M) million in tax dollars by early release of prisoners spending NEW tax money up front in order to do that, AND also spending $33M from the “savings of $40M to start early childhood education programs. Your shell game is shell-shocking, Continue reading →

“We call this…. ‘Growtivation’”

Bill O'Neill — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:35 +0000

“You can’t stop it. Coming to a town near you….” This video parody would be be funnier if it didn’t get so close to the matter of what, tragically, is going on in so many Christian churches across much of America and the western world today. “We call it… ‘Contemporvant.’” www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RJBd8zE48A “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4 [NAS] Many seekers and professed Christians are presenting themselves in “modern” or “mega” churches needing to be fed the Gospel message and are going away hungry, lost. Here’s the link. of a resource explaining the damaging pattern of church growth, a primer on the foundation of the ‘movement’ at Saddleback Church and Rick Warren. In 1998, Dr Dennis Costella attended a PDC seminar where Rick Warren taught that the following had to occur to transform a traditional church into a growing PDC (purpose driven church): A contemporary-styled, non-threatening “Seeker Service” must replace the traditional Sunday worship service; The dress must Continue reading →

Senator Boxer Entitled to Her Title?

Bill O'Neill — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 04:51:31 +0000

Senator Barbara Boxer has worked so hard for her title. Perhaps it is time to give her a rest? I’ve worked so hard for that title. Call Me Senator from RightChange on Vimeo The question remains, is Senator Boxer entitled to her title? Her constituents will decide in November.

Shumlin Should Have Brought Ice Cream

Bill O'Neill — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:17:09 +0000

Video: Vermont gubernatorial candidate Peter Shumlin (D) poorly executes his lame attempt at a surprise visit on the headquarters of challenger Brian Dubie (R) prior to a scheduled broadcast debate nearby. Swing and big miss for Shumlin but you be the judge. www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzaOmTwsI48 Notice Shumlin, flanked by rolling cameras (statewide TV news) and others in this obvious set-up intended to embarrass an unprepared challenger. Dubie was not at the location when Shumlin arrived with a box of central casting donuts. Also, notice the Dubie spokesperson who steps up and hits out the talking points and then hands the copy to Dubie’s challenger and then generously offers Shumlin some Dubie bumper stickers. She did everything but offer him a fresh diaper for the walk over to the debate. It looks like someone at Brian Dubie’s office got a heads-up call in order to have a video camera rolling and aiming at the door as Shumlin came it. Judging by the entourage of supporters and media, the parking lot activity was likely not difficult to notice from within the Dubie campaign office. Politics is a full-contact sport but Peter Shumlin played it like flag scrimmage.