Fiona Ma announces she’s running for state treasurer

Oh what a tangled web we spin
when office seeking we begin.
The promises we have to make
are often vague and nearly fake.
The spider does not tempt her fate;
she doesn't run -- she likes to wait.
I wish all politicians ran
right off a pier and into flan. 

Iran’s Government and Revolutionary Guards Battle for Control of Economy

From the Wall Street Journal:

President Hassan Rouhani wants to make way for foreign deals and investment by limiting the business role taken on by the Revolutionary Guards when sanctions isolated Iran.

Lady Macbeth learned it slowly;

the shedding of blood is unholy.

Let those murdering Guards

with their lonely graveyards

for the mullahs play nothing but goalie. 

California poised to end unprecedented water restrictions amid drought

When water is put on a quota,
accounting for ev'ry iota
will rouse up the people
like bats in a steeple --
until they attack like Lakota.

Subprime Car Loans

A car loan that's made as subprime
is nearly the same as a crime.
When you fall behind
you'll find that the grind
will take you for every dime!

Murder, He Wrote.

Homicides on our fair shores
increase like the pollen outdoors.
I think it's because
despite all the fuzz
the youngsters need practice for wars.

Mysteries and Questions

Alma 40:3 --  there are many mysteries which are kept, that no one knoweth them save God himself.

The wonder and the mystery, the questions and surmise;
this world is full of marvels that do take me by surprise.
As God said in the whirlwind to his humble servant Job:
"What made the deep foundations and preserves this fragile globe?"
 The merest ray of sunlight or the smallest drop of rain
a universe of speculation really does contain.
And so I relish pondering the mysteries of God;
they make me joyful and alive, and sometimes overawed.  

Richard Hengeveld

There's nothing like a good trellis
to leave wedding guests feeling jealous.
But stealing one, well --
that means a jail cell.
Even for minions of Tellus.

O Memory, please go to sleep

Alma 37:8 -- And now, it has hitherto been wisdom in God that these things should be preserved; for behold, they have enlarged the memory of this people



O memory please go to sleep and do not pester me;
I do not want to be reminded of my history.
I'm weary and I'm sated on the promises galore
that lay so thick around me and will last forevermore.
I want to slacken, just a bit; to tarry one more hour
before I have to struggle with the devil and his power.
Is it so wrong to duck my head, to ogle lesser things?
Must I always be reminded of my fledgling wings?
Ah, but who's that dust-stained traveler that goes ahead of me?
My recollection tells me he's the Man from Galilee!
So must I polish memories and keep them burning bright,
to safeguard my long journey to the sunshine from the night.   

At Facebook the deep engineers

At Facebook the deep engineers
shape all our views and our fears. 
Algorithms they use
to distort all the news;
Herr Goebbels would give them three cheers.

When looking for Life's answers

"Search the scriptures instead of the Internet"  Bonnie L. Oscarson.

When looking for Life's answers we so often turn away
from the very source of light and truth, and tend to stray
into the murky depths of cyber mountebanks who claim
to know just what is needed to win ev'ry type of game.

Embrace the word of God to find relief from daily care;
study out the meaning of those holy words in prayer.
You will find a solace that no Internet website
can give you with its graphics or its videos so trite.

The strength of Samson and the pluck of David do reside
in the sacred scriptures that we should keep at our side.
In that Awful Hour we will not be saved by clicks;
the scriptures only can deliver us from Satan's tricks!