Stream of Consciousness

Is writing not enough?

2012-01-30T14:12:00.001-06:00

As one might derive from the fact that I have a blog, I fancy myself as a writer. The best things about being a blogger are that I have no overhead - thanks to my free Blogger account - and I don't need to worry about poor reviews from critics; mainly because I doubt any self-respecting critics have heard of me.

Bill Watterson...now HE is creative!

As I glory in my creative freedom, I do still pine for the day that I will be a full-fledged, published novelist. The only problem is, by the time my novel(s) are ready to burst onto the literary scene and sell millions of copies in forty languages, will writing a novel be enough? I watched the video below on the BBC and, if the message is to be believed, written novels are now only one part of a larger media production.

Click to watch: Fiction Gets Technology Makeover

I work a full-time job that only takes up half of a day. Unfortunately, it's the first half. This leaves scant time available for plot and character development, endless drafts, happy daydreaming about how to turn a phrase just so, and all those other authorly things. I know what you're thinking, "Well, if you only work half-days, then use the other time to write, you ninny!"

About that.

In my line of work, half-days mean 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. (half of a 24-hour day), with lunch usually at my desk. There's another hour or so for driving to and from the office, chores at home, time spent with my lovely wife...and so on. Did I mention how much I love sleep?

But this isn't a, 'woe is me' blog belaboring my as-yet incomplete novels. I'd like other writers to weigh in on whether, to paraphrase Shakespeare, 'The novel is the thing,' and whether I need to be a creative writer and a multimedia specialist.

"Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand—a business as safe and commendable as making soap or breakfast foods—or it should be an art, which is always a search for something for which there is no market demand, something new and untried, where the values are intrinsic and have nothing to do with standardized values."

Willa Cather

I'm not convinced there are any new and untried novels out there (except for mine, of course). After all, there are really a finite number of themes to write about - love, betrayal, etc. Many modern (i.e. popular) novelists seem to believe that these themes can all be refreshed by casting the protagonist as either a vampire, werewolf or zombie; or someone in conflict with one of these misunderstood monsters-du-jour. In which case I would put their product (e.g. Twilight) firmly in Ms. Cather's first category of writing.

I don't have all the answers. But I do have questions. And the question today is, can I focus solely on writing my books or do I have to partition some of my ever-shrinking writing time to decide on things like (the need for) book trailers, companion websites, interactive content, multi-media overlays, etc.?

From what I've found concerning book trailers - admittedly something that should likely not be pondered at all until the novel is complete - it's not a matter of, 'Should I have a book trailer?' as much as making sure I have a good one. Angela Wilson, a multimedia producer is interviewed on this blog regarding, among other things, the need for authors to have a media kit. It's been very difficult to find specific information on multimedia in publishing beyond these few nuggets.

The BBC video I linked to above scares me into believing that I have to media-ize my novel, yet there seems to be no great oracle of advice concerning how to do that on the great, wide Internet. My gut tells me to just write the darn novels then worry about such things. But, as I've alluded to above, will that be enough?

How about some input from the writing community? What do you think?

X

I'll try the veal

2012-01-27T13:56:00.000-06:00

"What would you like this evening, sir?" the waiter inquired ingratiatingly.

After perusing the menu for several minutes, I still didn't have a clear idea of what I most felt like eating for dinner. He was standing there, looking at me; pen poised expectantly over his order pad. I may have begun to perspire under the pressure. An image of a cartoon ogre popped into my head, "I'll try the veal," I blurted.

I'm here all week...

Last week in my blog No Apologies, I briefly tackled the subject of apologetics. In my readings since then, I seem to keep coming across interesting concepts, either in articles, blog entries or just in my own head, that center on the subject.

The more I read and think about this, the more it seems that for most folks, Christianity is like veal: just another choice. In other words, being a Christian has less to do with truth or at least any real commitment to God - than it does with just being a personal choice like what to wear today or what to have for lunch.

Any real discussion on religion that includes Christianity is, frankly, in error.

"WHAT?!?!" you exclaim. "Christianity is the largest religion in the world!"

Nonsense.

Despite what you might read on www.adherents.com, or what you might learn on Wikipedia, Christianity in it's true form is not a religion, per se. I would hazard that most people when asked what the term religion means would answer something like, "It's the practice of religious beliefs," or "something to do with the ritual observances of faith."

Buddhism is listed as a religion, yet in Buddhism there is no god. Wikipedia - referencing www.adherents.com estimates that the non-religious/agnostic/atheism crowd numbers 1.1 billion, making it the third largest religion in the world. Then in the footnotes, they confusingly state: Nonreligious includes agnostic, atheist, secular humanist, and people answering 'none' or no religious preference. Half of this group is theistic but nonreligious.

Huh?

Where's your Buddha now, Beni?

I look at religion as the unnecessary but comfortable trappings of belief. Once we choose to believe in something, we need little things to affirm that we made the right choice when the going gets tough. The Jesus on your dashboard, listening to Let it Be and being reminded of Jesus' mom, the cross, Star of David, or other symbols worn around the neck, hanging on the wall, or smiling at us from your bumper.

Can't we just all get along?

The Coexist folks believe - and please, correct me if I'm wrong - that if we'd quit trying to force our religion on each other, the world would be a better place. I see it as a cop out. It's like going to a restaurant and ordering a glass of water. Not making a choice is still a choice. Even worse, making a choice because it feels the best - seemed like a good idea at the time - allows you to recant at a moments notice. Kind of the modern, real-life equivalent of Beni when faced with the danger that the mummy was going to eat him.

So what on earth does this have to do with apologetics?

Today I was thinking about this while posting a comment on this blog. The gist of the blog was sort of an academic structuring of apologetics and suggestions about which particular aspect would have a greater impact on bringing non-believers or seekers around to our way of believing. I found the comments section to be a more spirited read than the actual blog post - something I occasionally look for here on The Stream.

After reading the blog and many of the opinions, I posted my own - I couldn't help myself. But in reading, and rereading, my response, I discovered that the opening of my response was the most important - not that the balance wasn't good stuff - but the rest of what I wrote was merely in support of those earlier three sentences:

I didn't accept Christ in my life because someone convinced me that Christianity was the best option. Although I can point to people in my life who influenced me to start considering Christ, and eventually, to start talking with God; I am a Christian today because of a singular event in my life when I clearly heard God calling me to Him - and answering that call.

Like apologetics, the rest is just additive. When I go to a restaurant and select veal, or fish, or whatever, it's because that's what I feel like at the moment. I did not choose Christianity to be my religion. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. There is a HUGE difference between the two.

In the end, what most folks call religion is not something (in my humble opinion) that can be changed like socks. And, I suppose, that's where apologetics comes in. Followers of Christ believe that He is the way, the truth and the life and that no one comes to God (the Father) except through Him. Because of that, we do feel compelled to share our faith and beliefs with others. It's not that we're trying to disrespect what other's believe. Seriously. We believe that God has given humankind a gift - the ability to have a personal, loving and individual relationship with Him.

If you get a cool car or a nice bracelet or tickets to the Superbowl as a gift, you will share that fact with others, right? You'll give others a ride in your car and ask, "It's nice, isn't it?"

You might lend your bracelet to a friend so they can enjoy it too. You might even invite your friend to the Superbowl if you have an extra ticket.

It's like that with Jesus. Only infinitely better.

What do you think?

Uncle Oscar

2012-01-26T22:07:00.000-06:00

This Slate article lambasts the Oscars - otherwise known as the Academy Awards to the bourgeois masses. An Academy Award is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers. And these days it seems like just about anyone associated with a film - and now the Oscar for best gaffer in a musical or comedy...

The Academy Award of Merit - the official name for the Oscar - is a statuette of a knight standing on a reel of film gripping a crusader’s sword. Which may explain why Hollywood has been on a crusade to drive high quality films from the cinema. But that's a blog for another day. In case you're wondering where the name Oscar came from, the statue was actually nameless until 1931 when, according to Hollywood legend, an Academy secretary claimed that it looked like her uncle Oscar.

But enough about the 8.5 lb., gold plated, tin and copper statuette - Dan Kois' Slate article seeks public opinion on how to fix the Oscars - which is also the official nickname of the telecast that highlights the most prestigious awards.

I don't believe that Kois thinks there is anything fundamentally wrong with the concept of the awards themselves, it's more to do with the delivery of the telecast. He seems to be hung up on the poor hosts, dumb categories and interminable dance numbers. My take on fixing the telecast has more to do with how it used to be rather than containing anything useful for increasing the quality of this March's ceremony. So, in a sense, this blog is about as valuable as the films that will be nominated for the awards themselves.

37 million people are reported to have watched the Oscars last year. That number did not include me. I grew up watching Bob Hope then Johnny Carson host. To me, these were the halcyon days, er nights, of Oscar. I like Billy Crystal - I'll still watch City Slickers if I come across it channel surfing - but I'm not sure he exudes the appropriate gravitas to carry it off.

18-time host Bob Hope

To truly be able to host the Oscars, you need two things; the first is pure, unadulterated star power. Hope had it, Carson had it. Crystal? Eh! Not so much. I'm racking my brain trying to think of someone who might have the requisite star power and I'm failing miserably. Is there a star left in Hollywood? Clooney? Pitt? Hanks? Maybe. But then I think they would fail the second test: the ability to be funny. I don't mean insulting (Ricky, are you listening?), I mean truly, hilariously, inside-jokingly funny. Part of it involves having the stature (see #1) to not fear reprisals; part is that certain je ne c'est quoi that the greats had. Conan? Leno? Letterman? Stewart? Nope. Sorry. All of those guys are way too obvious.

Franco and Hathaway - not exactly Astair and Rogers...

Wait, you say; this is the Terrific Tens; a new century. What about having a lady host? Okay. I’m game. Take the criteria above and tell me who’s got it? Oprah? Sorry, not funny. DeGeneres? Sorry, she’s funny and can probably pull off the humor, but she doesn’t have the star power. Ellen did host one year...one year.

Think about it. The stars of the fifties, sixties, and even the seventies (with those hideous tuxedoes) were stars that didn’t have to work at being stars. They weren't movie stars because we made them stars...they just were. Lauren Bacall? Bogart? Peck? Wayne? Taylor? I could go on. They were Hollywood. Today, Hollywood is just a place in California. The iconic sign is more famous than the studios or the pictures they produce. Back in the day Hollywood was the place! Bogey would have squinted through the smoke and said, “The thing that dreams are made of.”

Movie stars...

Then he would’ve kicked James Franco’s butt.

What do you think?

No Apologies

2012-01-22T11:56:00.000-06:00

All in all is all we are...

Kurt Cobain sang these words in the Nirvana song All Apologies. It would not be appropriate for me to comment on where Kurt was coming from, but I believe it's fairly obvious in hindsight that he was struggling with his place in the world.

The search for ourselves - for purpose - seems to be paramount in each of us. My own, personal, opinion is that as the years unfold, humanity as a whole seems to elevate self a little more with each turning page of the calendar.

All in all is all we are? That phrase almost sounds like an indictment of the thought that each of us is just a drop in the sea of humankind. One drop being as good - or bad - as any other. And in the end, with the realization that each of us is no better than one another, comes the cry, "Is this all we are?"

There seem to be three major thought lines when it comes to God:

God is the creator of everything and if I believe in one of the major interpretations (i.e. Islam, Christianity or Judaism) I will go to Heaven
God can be found in a unique and personal way by each person; in fact, God may be different for each of us so we cannot restrict our definition of an infinite God with any finite religion
God does not exist

Christians are often castigated for trying to force our religion onto others. And I have to admit that with some Christians there appears to be an element of the inferno present as they go about trying to convert others.

Images of the inferno abound...

What can you say to someone who believes there is no God - or maybe even more difficult - to someone who believes there are an infinite number of gods, perhaps as many as one for each of us?

I find it interesting that the defense of Christian belief is known as apologetics. Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind is that we (yes, I count myself among the Christians) must somehow apologize for our faith - or at least apologize for speaking to others about it. I think what many would want us to apologize for is the concept that whoever is without faith in Jesus will suffer an eternity of torment, in separation from God.

I don't want to get into a debate about heaven and hell today, although readers can feel free to raise those questions in the comments section and I'll be happy to participate in the discussion!

What I wanted to share was one statement articulated by Alistair Begg this morning. To preface his words, I want to highlight Romans 1:19-20...

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

In other words, the proof of God is all around us - if we only take the time to perceive it. How this was presented by Pastor Begg was thus:

God's disclosure of Himself in creation is sufficient to convince, but not convert.

Knowing that a little more explanation would help clarify his point, Pastor Begg continued with the assertion that Romans 1:19-20 was sufficient to render men and women accountable to God, but was not sufficient to convert them to God.

These assertions are not only at the heart of why Christians feel compelled to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those who deny God's existence, but also why we believe it is crucial to share the Gospel with anyone who does not believe in His redeeming grace. Simply put, to truly believe that Jesus is God's Son, that He died on the cross to save humankind from eternal separation from God, is to be appalled at the thought that even one of God's children will face eternity without God.

So, without apologizing for my beliefs, if I talk to you about God and the need that all of us have for salvation, it's not because I'm trying to convert you in the sense of forcing you to believe something. The evidence is all around us, but it is up to you to convert yourself. In a way, a part of number two above is correct: each of us has a personal decision to make regarding our relationship with God. It is not that there are an infinite number of gods, it's just that He has the heart capacity for an infinite number of personal relationships with His children.

No apologies.

X

Eye of Newt

2012-01-21T20:14:00.001-06:00

As usual, the networks have extrapolated polling results from a tiny fraction of actual votes and declared Newt Gingrich the winner of the 2012 South Carolina republican primary. There's no doubt that this is a crucial election for the future of America. So, let's take a look at some things that we're fighting for:

Lego Ninja

Lego isn't for squares anymore

In between...well, I was going to say acceptance speeches, I was bailing from the incessant chatter of folks who want us to believe they know what they're talking about. Shrek the Third was airing on Cartoon Network. Our candidates keep talking about saving our country from the evil Lord Obama for the next generation.

Shrek

Wave your torches and pitchforks!

I think it just reinforced the truth that there are no Prince Charmings...even ones that sing Al Green standards.

Let's take that thought - the Next Generation. What is our next generation being raised on?

Dancing Bananas

Dancing banana...with buttocks

To summarize, we're voting in the 2012 Presidential election because we want the right person to lead our country and resolve the crippling economic issues that will decimate our country and leave it in shambles as the Ninja Lego connecting, Ogre loving, banana dancing generation comes of age.

To be fair, if we elect Newt as our president, maybe this had something to do with it:

See, it won't be so bad, if someone turns you into a newt...you can get better.

What do you think?

Soap oR Money?

2012-01-19T17:28:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I wrote in this blog about struggling for subject matter. Today, it's clear that there are major topics of great import that can yea, verily, be blogged for ages. As a matter of fact, I could probably milk these two topics for a week's worth of blog posts, if not more.

HR.3261e, entitled "To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes," better known as SOPA or the "Stop Online Piracy Act," certainly has folks in a lather.

I have to admit, I haven't read the entire bill but if social media is to be believed, passage of HR. 3261e would signify the end of life as we know it. Perhaps a more rational view can be found in this Slate article. Matthew Yglesias (no relation to Julio that I know of) opines that a little piracy is not necessarily a bad thing.

Frankly, I'm of two minds about that school of thought. First, as a writer - albeit with very little copyright material in the public domain that people are willing to pay me for - I am totally with those who fear that the fruit of their creative loins, as it were, is in danger from scurvy-infested Internet pirates seeking to make off with their (our) intellectual booty.

Image courtesy of some website...

However, as inferred in the caption underneath yon image of our most famous modern-day pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow (aka Johnny Depp), I freely borrowed said picture - that someone slaved over for days - to spruce up my low-rent (actually no rent) blog.

Does that make me a pirate? No more than setting my Facebook profile to Pirate English does, I'm afraid. In fact, my use of this image brings no material benefit to me at all and could conceivably provide additional, free advertising for the film in question.

The story would be different if I was getting paid to write this blog and was able to generate more revenue for myself through the inclusion of Johnny's mascara'd image. Even so, unless I was raking in significant lucre merely through the inclusion of a copyrighted image, it's doubtful that the studio and it's heirs and appurtenances would be losing out.

One last note before we move on...the Internet - the part that remained open yesterday - was awash with cries of anguish from students denied their primary research source...Wikipedia. I'm no modern scholar but when I was taking some college courses in the last few years, Wikipedia was not on the approved reference list. So kids, maybe you need to start using that old social media fallback from days gone by: the Library.

My favorite (fictional) librarian

Second on my list of never-ending topics is the excitement of the unfolding republican primary. The current front runner, Mitt Romney, is an amazing amalgam of a man seeking to be everything to everyone.

Regular readers of The Stream will have no doubts as to my theology - or, if you do, I've done a poor job of communicating and have yet another never-ending topic to mine! But we'll get to the theological side of the Mitt Romney question in a moment. First, let's look at his candidacy from a secular viewpoint.

R. Money, a Slate article about Mitt by John Dickerson, talks about Governor Romney's propensity to try and make out like the everyman, but somehow he always ends up making comments that highlight how much money he has. I'm not averse to people making money; I think it's wonderful. And I'm definitely in line with folks who think we need rich business people to give a lot of us jobs. But no one likes a person who keeps bringing up the fact that they have a lot of money. That's gauche.

Case in point: Dickerson highlights a comment Mitt made when talking about his speaker fees; Mitt is quoted as saying part of his income came from "...speakers' fees from time to time, but not very much." Apparently, the actual amount was nearly $400,000.

This clearly highlights how out of touch Governor Romney is with the great majority of the American people. If you asked me this year how much money I had available to spend on Christmas gifts for my entire family and I answered you, "Not much," the actual amount would be nearly $400.

We're talking factors of ten here...

At heart, the issue is not about Romney being wealthy. It's about his ability to translate the skills that made him wealthy into real benefit for America. I don't think he can.

Another large issue with Governor Romney - even though he won't cop to it - is the fact he is Mormon.

Will the real Joseph Smith please stand up?

Christians believe in the human birth and death of Jesus Christ - and in His divine resurrection, and that Jesus was also the Son of God - the second person of the Holy Trinity. God is not three different entities when we talk of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These refer to different iterations of the one, true God.

In his article Could you vote for a Mormon, Dr. Jerry Newcombe raises a few valid points about Governor Romney's chosen faith. Dr. Newcombe begins by noting importantly that, "Mormons tend to make great neighbors and friends; they tend to be honest and hard-working people."

This isn't about tearing down people, it's about clearing up the fact that Mormonism does not line up with traditional Christianity. So, if you're a Christian and you are contemplating voting for Mitt Romney because you believe his faith is your faith...you might want to take another look.

That is, of course, unless you buy into the idea that when you die, you too can become a god and get your own universe to play in; kinda like an eternal game of The Sims.

I'm just saying...

In summary, if I download a song or two from the Internet or watch a video on YouTube of a copyrighted song like the one below, the world will not end. And Simon Le Bon won't go broke.

And Mitt Romney likes being rich more than he likes you. And he believes that he will die and become a god; which won't be much of a change from being president - if he gets elected. Well, except gods get their own planet, not just part of one.

What do you think?

Paper or Plastic?

2012-01-18T21:35:00.002-06:00

I've been in a bit of a funk lately; I feel like the blog is going well, with my writing output becoming more frequent. However, the last few days I've been considering what would make a good subject for the next entry. As you may have gathered by now, I believe I have found a worthy theme:

Driving home today I heard NPR roll out a teaser about an upcoming story - a skier in trouble for...wait for it...wearing plastic underwear.

Unfortunately I didn't get to hear the story but it is on the NPR website.

Briefly, Slovene World Cup Alpine skier Tina Maze had her full-body stocking (worn under her ski suit) confiscated by the International Ski Federation (FIS). Apparently, those nice, neutral folks from the Swiss Ski Federation accused Ms. Maze of wearing plastic undergarments in an effort to gain a competitive advantage.

Schuss!

I know what you're thinking...how could plastic underwear aid a downhill skier? Honestly? I don't understand the technical parts of this sport so I'll just present exhibit A:

Competition suits and clothing worn underneath, such as underwear, etc.,may not be plasticised or treated by any chemical means (gaseous, liquid or solid) and must have a minimum permeability of 30 litres per m2/sec. [Specifications for Competition Equipment and Commercial Markings - Edition 2011/2012; Section 5]

I know most of my ardent readership won't have time to pour over the entire fifty-four page tome dedicated to keeping the playing field, er slopes, of professional skiers everywhere level. But obviously, the Swiss believe that those sneaky Slovenes, to whit, one Ms. Tina Maze, has secretly plasticized her under-suit-garments in an effort to gain more velocity.

SKI Magazine Editor-in-Chief Greg Ditrinco related to Robert Siegel on NPR's All things Considered how the difference between fifth place and first place can be measured in hundredths of seconds. I'm no mathematician but it sounds to me like if downhill skiing were the Kentucky Derby, the first five horses would cross the finish line - at least to the naked eye - in a virtual dead heat. So naturally, the FIS wants to make sure the rules are clear. And thanks to Mr. Ditrinco, I now know that air penetrating the outer suit will create drag as it permeates any undergarments; whereas air that is caused to flow around the skier, say, by plastic underwear, would create less drag and therefor give said skier a scientifically measurable advantage over the competition.

Fox Sports reports that although FIS President Gian Franco Kasper has agreed Ms. Maze's undergarments passed muster with regard to permeability the underwear should not be worn because it might contain some plastic parts that could prevent a body from breathing.

Right.

I'm sure the Swiss were merely concerned that Ms. Maze's fabric wasn't breathable and was thus a hazard to her health. Kaspar went on to say that, "We have to change our rules. It has to be made very clear — if (underwear) is plastified, it is forbidden."

Let me refer you back to Exhibit A. What on earth is not clear about, "...must have a minimum permeability of 30 litres per m2/sec."?

I know Alpine skiing isn't the top priority on everyone's list but could it be that, like Ms. Maze herself believes, everyone is making a tad too much of this?

C'mon Tina, tell them what you really think...

It's time to ask yourself what you believe...

2012-01-14T12:02:00.001-06:00

The title of today's blog comes from the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. [Paramount, 1989]

In a pivotal scene, Walter Donovan (Julian Glover), an American industrialist who has thrown in with the Nazis in search of the Holy Grail, has just shot Professor Jones (Sean Connery). Donovan asks Indy (Harrison Ford) in effect, 'Do you really believe in the Holy Grail?'

It seems an odd question; with all of the death-defying action that has taken place, would Indy have really gone through all that if he didn't believe? But you could make a case that Indy was in it for fortune and glory, as he famously intoned in the second installment of the Indy franchise [Temple of Doom, Paramount, 1984]. And his seeking for the grail could have just been a way to help complete his father's lifelong quest and mend a relationship that had been tenuous at best.

Of course, in the heat of battle how often do we have time to really consider the important questions?

As life is steaming along full-speed and you are careening from one event to the next, do you ever stop and ask yourself, 'What do I believe?'

We all have a handy pouch that we carry around the stock answers in. You know the ones;

As some of you know, I finished up my annual Bible reading this week. Today, I started this years' reading. I decided to go with the English Standard Version [Crossway, 2001] because the goal of ESV is to be very accurate (word for word) yet very readable. This morning I embarked on a chronological plan provided by the great folks at the Blue Letter Bible. If you are looking for a new - or maybe your first - site for online Bible study, BLB is the bomb.

So what?

So, a chronological plan - as you might expect - presents the Bible in the order that the events happened, as near as we can determine. Naturally I began with Genesis and read chapters one through three. Most will know that these chapters deal with creation and our removal from the Garden.

While reading, that line from The Last Crusade just hit me right upside the head...it was time to ask myself what I believed. I thought about what possibilities exist for creation:

God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it. (the Bible account as documented in the book of Genesis)
The heavens and the earth and everything in it have come to be as a result of some cosmic event and over time have evolved into what we see today

With some variation, those are the two main schools of thought regarding how we got here.

Those who believe - or lean toward - number 2 can be very logical, factual and, dare I say it, evangelical, in their belief. It seems like those who adhere to number 2 do not recognize the logic inherent in believing number 1. After all, isn't that all based on the Bible, a book written by fallable men? And aren't most people who believe in the creation account just taking it on faith with no real proof to sustain their beliefs? So obviously that belief is flawed, right?

I'm no apologist and I'm not here to sway you to either belief. All I'm saying is that it's time to ask yourself what you believe - and then ask yourself, 'Why?'

Go outside, look at the sky, the trees, the grass, the flowers, the mountains, animals, an apple (not your phone), your wife, mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter - anything existing naturally (i.e. not manufactured like a car, home, etc.). Where did they come from?

The big, blue marble

I'm looking out my kitchen window. The sky is a vibrant blue; there is a large evergreen in our backyard swaying in the wind. I can't see the wind, but I know it's there because the tree is moving. And because if I went outside I would be able to feel the air moving against my skin. There are pine cones hanging from a few of the branches. I'm not an expert but things like acorns and pine cones are the mechanism trees use to make more trees. The grass in the yard is mostly brown; it's not dead...just dormant because it's cold. In the Spring it will turn green again - even if I don't go to Lowe's and get any weed and feed. Because that's what grass does.

Our beautiful earth...

Why?

Because supposedly billions of years ago there was a big explosion out in space and somehow, in a completely random series of events, enough particles came together to form a planet. And over billions of years those particles continued to connect in different (random) ways to form mountains, rivers, trees, oceans, grass, animals and ultimately people. They formed in such a perfect way that they could be self-sustaining.

...came from this?

Which school of thought takes the most faith? The one that believes what a book that is thousands of years old says? The one that believes there was a guiding hand that lent purpose to the creation of the earth and everything in it?

Or the one that asks you to believe that all of it - every little thing - came about, in essence, by accident?

It's time to ask yourself...

X

Whatever Happened to MySpace?

2012-01-12T14:32:00.000-06:00

Not too long ago, you couldn't navigate the wide waters of the Internet without seeing a reference to MySpace or hearing about one of your friends' latest posts, someone else's latest post or something. Heck, not too long ago, I was OCD about Mobsters and a couple of other MySpace games.

My name is X and I was a Mobsters addict...

I needed an intervention.

The appeal of MySpace - at least for me - was that you could customize your profile with cool wallpaper, section it off to let your friends know your deep, dark secrets - at least what movies you liked and what books you read; you could even embed some cool music and take advantage of a few other neat features. It was the Internet equivalent of getting a tattoo. Deeply personal, in that, "Hey, look at me; I'm cool," sort of way. You've noticed by now that although I've highlighted MySpace, I haven't linked to it. Sorry, no can do...

After a couple of months, I started noticing something: although there were older people like me on MySpace, a lot of the people I played against or happened to chat with were young - a lot younger than me. And while it's cool to hang out with young people and vicariously relive that time in your life, conversations that begin with, "How old are you?" don't typically go very high on the intellect scale. I'm not an intellectual; I don't even play one on television. It's just that, for the most part, tastes in music, movies, life, and discussions about socially relevant topics don't come off very well on MySpace, especially when one of the conversants complains, "This is like arguing with my dad!"

Me leaving MySpace is probably the Internet equivalent of pulling your finger out of the ocean. The water quickly closes over the hole and there is no sign that your finger was ever in the water. I doubt anyone is sitting around, these several years later saying, "Gee, whatever happened to X; that guy was cool."

No; I'm not really cool. But this train of thought got me wondering. If I eventually found MySpace to be a bit of a bore, packing up and taking my social media presence to FaceBook (and Blogger), I wonder if anyone else did? In fact, I wondered if MySpace was still out there, chugging away on the Internet, signing up indie musicians, rebel teens and old folks looking to be hip just one more time.

The answer appears to be yes, and no.

According to a list I found on Wikipedia highlighting social networking sites with more than 100 million users, MySpace isn't cutting the mustard; it's not on the list at all. Unsurprisingly, FaceBook is king with a reported number of active users exceeding 800 million. That's pep. 800 million-plus active users. Not just people that signed up to see what all the fuss was about - people signing in and doing business.

The remainder of the list - which contains only thirteen sites - is made up of a few I've heard of like Windows Live, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the new kid on the block, Google+. The remainder are a complete blank to me. Has anyone checked their Vkontakte account lately? Apparently more than 140 million users have; at least as of October 2011.

Vkontakte - In contact is the loose translation - is considered to be a FaceBook clone popular in Russia and a few of the ex-Soviet republics.

From Russia, with like...

Take that, MySpace.

But don't be sad, according to one social networking survey I stumbled on, MySpace is still ranked a respectable number 2, behind FaceBook and ahead of several others that appear to have a more active subscriber base. So, at least according to TopTen Reviews, MySpace is still relevant for a segment of the population. It just appears that it's an ever-decreasing segment.

And if you link to the survey page, you'll even notice that, across the top of the page is the prompt:

LIKE OUR REVIEWS? SUPPORT OUR SITE BY LIKING US ON FACEBOOK OR GOOGLE PLUS...

I think that's a more telling statistic than the entire survey report ever will be...

What do you think about social networking? Where are you hanging out?

X

Review: Seven Days at the Links of Utopia

2012-01-10T08:10:00.001-06:00

These days, I don't get much chance to read for pleasure. As a wanna-be-writer, that is probably a bad thing. I used to think that because I am writing a novel, I shouldn't read any fiction lest it somehow color my own work and mysteriously cause me to plagiarize. But now I think that reading other stories broadens my outlook and strengthens my imagination. We'll see.

The full title of the book I just finished reading is Golf's Sacred Journey - Seven Days at the Links of Utopia. Which, of course, is a mouthful; but describes much about the story. David L. Cook's tale begins with a professional golfer in one of his first big tournaments. I don't think that the book ever actually reveals the young man's name since it is written from his point of view. In any case, life isn't going very well for the young man. He flames out in spectacular fashion on the tournament's last day and drives off into the west Texas middle-of-nowhere landscape like Rebecca fleeing Manderly.

His life is shattered; his self worth, having been all bound up in his ability to play golf, has just been rendered worthless. His heart, his psyche, his very soul, are all in tatters as he blindly drives in an effort to escape the humiliation.

Utopia, Texas is a real place and, in the book, is where the young man finds his hole to hide in, and also where he makes life's greatest discovery.

I haven't seen the movie...

There is nothing that says folksy Texan like Robert Duval. Thankfully, I didn't even know there was a movie when my boss loaned me the book to read. It took me a couple of weeks to finish Seven Days at the Links of Utopia, mostly because I could only get to it in bits and snatches.

Nothing against Mr. Duval - and I might even watch the movie now - but I'm glad I didn't know about it ahead of time. Johnny, Duval's character and the man in the story who becomes the young golfer's unsought mentor, is a character best left to our imaginations.

The seven days our protagonist spends in Utopia change his life forever. I'm not going to tell you how, exactly, because I don't want to spoil it for you. Suffice it to say he is not the same man when he leaves. Seven Days at the Links of Utopia is a psychological pick-me up for every golfer - or any athlete for that matter - that has ever struggled with the game (and who hasn't?). It's an introspective look at our insides - what makes us tick - and for many of us I imagine what we find is every bit as unsightly as the young golfer who has stumbled upon this place called Utopia.

But the greatest lesson this book shares is one that has eternal consequences. And that makes every minute you spend reading this book important.

In the interest of fair play - and so this review doesn't sound like a commercial for the book and movie - there are a few things that have tarnished my experience. One, after reading the epilogue, I went to a website dedicated to the Seven Days concept. I discovered the movie, of course. But I also discovered that you can join the author on your very own Utopia retreat and experience some of what the young golfer lived in the book. You can also get on board with the radical new putting technique that is used to such great effect in the story. There is a Seven Days gift shop where you can buy all sorts of Seven Days-themed golf merchandise.

It all seemed a little too commercial for me after coming out at the end of the book with a great feeling that the story was one which revealed a lasting truth that all of us need to hear.

I'm not saying don't read the book - quite the opposite. I heartily recommend you read Seven Days at the Links of Utopia. But read the book before you watch the movie or browse the website. Let the story envelope you and I hope you will find the simple pleasure of a well-crafted tale, just like I did. And after you read it, I'd be happy to talk about it with you after we bury some lies.

Author's note: This review is based on a completely unsolicited experience from my reading of this book. Although I was loaned the book to read, I did not receive it from Dr. Cook or any of his representatives.

Guilty

2012-01-07T11:25:00.000-06:00

Unappeasable. That is the word that pulled me up short in the middle of my Bible study this morning. Unappeasable. Dictionary.com does not have a definition for the word. As close as I could get was appease, which means to satisfy, allay, or relieve; so unappeasable would mean something along the lines of unable to satisfy, allay or relieve.

The word unappeasable was in 2 Timothy 3:3; now, lest I be guilty of taking a word or verse out of context, the entire passage reads:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. [2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV)]

As a follower of Christ, it is uncomfortable for me to read this passage. Because when I do, I have to look in the mirror that Paul is holding up for his young disciple Timothy and see where I have fallen short in my own faith. Paul wasn't chastising Timothy, he was warning him of times to come.

Whether you are a Christian, atheist, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, agnostic or whatever, I believe you would be hard pressed to argue against today's world mirroring what Paul wrote. Does that mean we're in the Christian end times? Will the Mayan prophecies come true (if you believe certain interpretations of the Mayan calendar, etc.)?

It was the end of the world for these poor folks...

I only have to look back a couple of weeks or months and see where unappeasable may have applied to me. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are prime examples of when many of us eat way too much. It's not that I wasn't full, it's just that there were so many good things to eat; it can be hard to say 'no'.

This blog isn't big enough to look at each word Paul used to describe the last days and comment on how accurately each can be applied to our world today. I could get on my horse about reality shows, idol shows, sporting events, homes, cars, money, clothes, jewelry, food, drink, movies, TV, the Internet, physical relationships...well, you get the idea. It's not hard to find evidence that we are unappeasable.

Do people still carry riding crops?

Now, I don't think that there are billions of people running around trying to figure out how they can get a Rolls Royce and sip champaign in front of the Department of Health and Human Services. Still, it's hard to argue that we like to be comfortable. But where do you draw the line between comfortable and unappeasable?

I know I'm guilty of crossing that line...what do you think?

X

Do what?

2012-01-05T12:55:00.000-06:00

Are you kidding me?

I could make this a long, angst-filled rant, but I'm going to try my best to keep it short and sweet. I read an article today that highlighted how an inebriated woman damaged a painting at the Clyfford Still museum in Denver. A $30 million dollar painting...

Reports are that the woman did an estimated $10,000 worth of damage to the valuable artwork by punching it, scratching it, and, ahem, sliding her buttocks against it.

There are so many things wrong with this - pardon the pun - picture.

Would you pay $30 million for this?

First and foremost, in my humble opinion, there is NO PAINTING ON EARTH that is worth $30 million dollars. Especially not one that looks like the artist stood in front of the canvas with two brushes, one with red paint and one with black paint, and then let someone tase them.

I am not saying that Mr. Still wasn't a talented artist. I'm just saying I don't care who you are, there is nothing you can paint - I don't care when, I don't care how, and I don't care what style - that could possibly be worth $30 million dollars.

If 1957-J no.2, the name of the artwork, is truly that valuable, please sell it and use the proceeds to feed some hungry people in Denver or something. I suspect the reason the woman did what she did - at least in part - is because of her total incomprehension that 1957-J no.2 was valued so highly.

Of course, she could just be in need of therapy.

What do you think?

Zeus must be green with envy

2012-01-04T09:25:00.000-06:00

Today I viewed a slide show from Time.com highlighting ten objects that had been carried into space. The first picture showed three Lego figurines that have accompanied the Juno probe. The Juno probe was launched on August 5^th, 2011 and will arrive in orbit around the planet scientists believe was the first to be created in our solar system sometime during the year 2016.

I could get lost in all the information that is available on the Internet concerning this mission. Although not a huge space nut, I do think it’s cool that we are exploring the space around us. The NASA Juno website is especially cool with a haunting soundtrack reminiscent of Myst and other neat multimedia tidbits.

But the real impetus for today’s blog is those three little Lego figures:

Two fictional characters and a scientist?

In case you can’t pick them out, here’s who is riding Juno on its five-year trek to Jupiter:

Jupiter: On the right is Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods (or Jim Morrison). Jupiter makes all the sense in the world, right? I mean, the mission is to explore his eponymous world. Luckily he has his trademark lightning bolts handy in case things get dicey.

Juno: In the middle is Juno, Jupiter’s wife. One website I found, that talks about the Roman gods, mentioned that Jupiter was a little scared of Juno. That must be because she used to hit him with the frying pan she is holding in her hand. I swear when I first looked at this picture I thought to myself, ‘Why are they sending a Lego image of Chris Evert into space?'

Galileo: On the left, we have Galileo Galilei, the Italian physicist, mathematician, astronomer and philosopher. Naturally, he’s holding a telescope and a soccer ball-sized rendition of Jupiter – the planet – not the Roman god. I can only imagine that Galileo is a tad cranky about a couple of things; one, his head looks ridiculous. The least NASA and Lego could have done was give him a comb-over. And two, he’s no doubt thinking to himself, ‘How did I get stuck on a five-year space journey with two mythological figures?’ NASA could’ve put a red velvet hat on him and he would’ve looked like Santa Claus bearing astronomical gifts.

I don’t really believe in extra-terrestrials. But for the sake of argument, what if some alien life forms are cruising by Jupiter around 2016 – maybe the ones that are in that cloaked ship out by Mercury – and happen upon these three figures. What are they going to think about Earth and the people who inhabit our planet?

What do you think?

X

We love legends

2011-12-30T09:04:00.000-06:00

I am drowning under the annual end-of-year lists that permeate the run up to our calendars rolling into a new 12-month cycle. Some of them are kind of cool (the top ten soccer goals of the year) but the majority are somewhat lame (7 cars for your new year's resolutions...seriously?). However, the one that caught my eye this morning was Year in Review: In Memoriam 2011 on MSN.

All of us have different outlooks on life; and that's just fine. I believe strongly in one thing, others believe something else. Obviously a lot of folks like to keep up with all the happenings in the celebrity world. I've touched on our loosening definition of celebrity before but now seems a good time to take a deeper look into who we (or maybe just the media) think is someone deserving of the term legend or icon...

Amy Winehouse

I've listened to some of Amy's music; I don't like all of it but some of it's OK. I had to resist the temptation to insert a less-than-flattering picture of Amy. There are so many out there that give testament to a troubled life. I'm sorry we lost her so young, but legend?

I didn't realize they had high heels in Egypt...

Is it fair to say one person is a legend and another is not? The whole legend discussion is still open for debate but I will grant that Ms. Taylor is a screen icon. She was definitely old Hollywood royalty and as the first actress to be paid $1 million for a picture? She's got some cred.

Beware of people offering you fruit...

Steve Jobs has millions of acolytes. And these don't include the millions more that just have an iPhone. In a business and technology sense I suppose you could say he classifies as a legend. Still, there's something about this whole picture that makes me wonder...

OK, this one is easy...

Jeff Conaway had a couple of popular roles; one as Travolta's sidekick in Grease and another as Bobby on Taxi. Icon? No; legend? No. I pray he rests in peace.

Can I ask you just one more thing?

Everyone loves Peter Falk as Columbo. I don't know why; they just do. I grew up watching Mr. Falk play the shuffling, disheveled detective in the 1970's. But I also thought he did swell as the grandfather reading the fairytale in The Princess Bride. Icon? Maybe; legend? No.

Andy had some serious eyebrows...

Here's another guy I remember seeing way back when. It's crazy to think that an unassuming yet opinionated journalist could be considered a legend. I would have to vote yes on his icon status but only his eyebrows were legendary. Rest in peace Mr. Rooney...

I know several people that thought Ryan Dunne's show (I can't say the name) was crazy funny. I'm sorry he passed away but no, he's neither legendary nor an icon. He gained celebrity by doing insane things, one of which eventually killed him.

One sad thing about any in memoriam list is how many people we know of that died this year. More poignant is how many regular people we know that died this year. Mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters.

I may seem a bit callous deflating the status of the folks highlighted in this blog. I will ask for your forgiveness in advance for that was not my intention. What I strove to communicate is that our society looks at celebrities as our legends and icons. In fact there are millions of ordinary people that no one (but a few) has ever heard of who passed away this year. Many of them were far more extraordinary in their contribution to society at large than most of those we term celebrities.

There is no right argument for this. All of us - each and every one - has value as a creation of God. I mourn the passing of each of His children and pray that good decisions were made before their lights were extinguished on earth. I fear that for some on this list, that is not the case. Fortunately, for anyone reading this, it's not too late...

And to those few who do stop by The Stream periodically to read whatever digital claptrap I happen to come up with, thank you; God bless you; and God's blessings on you and yours in the coming year.

In closing, I'll list one more that we lost in 2011. He wasn't the most important man on the planet. He did not control the fate of nations. He did not write the great American novel. But he made us laugh and he made us think. Thank you Sherwood, where ever you are...

Sherwood Schwartz in 2004

I remember these castaways..

Happy New Year everyone...

This just in...

2011-12-29T10:34:00.001-06:00

[Approx. 1003 BC - Threshing Floor of Kidon] A servant of King David, Uzzah, was struck dead today. Eyewitness accounts are consistent and reveal that in the moments leading up to his death Uzzah did nothing that could have been considered sinful in the eyes of the Lord. After interviews with members of the King's entourage, it appears that just before his death, Uzzah had been walking next to a new cart carrying the Ark of the Covenant. Although details are few, the brother of the deceased - Ahio - and other witnesses say the cart tipped sideways and, fearful that the most holy Ark would fall to the ground, Uzzah reach out a hand to steady the heavy wood and gold object. It is believed that immediately after touching the Ark, Uzzah died.

Uzzah falls to the ground just before his death (anonymous photo)

King David has declined all interview requests but is reported to be furious that God would strike down one of His servants, especially one who was a member of an elite team bringing the Ark back to Jerusalem. Our sources have also indicated that David will leave the Ark with Obed-Edom, the Gittite, while the King considers the situation and mourns the loss of Uzzah.

Attorneys for the deceased are considering options on behalf of Abinadab and his family.

© Jerusalem Press International

==============================================================================

Of course, this press account of the events detailed in 2 Samuel 6 and 1 Chronicles 13 is fictional. As I studied 1 Chronicles 13 this morning, I wondered how our modern culture would react to such an event occurring today.

No doubt there would be reporters from major news sources on site; there would be satellite trucks, microphones, make-up artists and other accoutrements of the modern news engine. Eyewitnesses would be telling their stories to anyone who would listen; some with an eye toward turning a profit. 60 Minutes would no doubt be there with special access interviews and disturbing inside information.

But what of the real story?

I've heard several comments over the years about how (and why) God would kill someone who was just trying to help. David, Uzzah and all of the people in this procession were bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. Wouldn't it be sacrilege to let the Ark fall to the ground? After all, this was the holy chest in which the Ten Commandments were kept. The Mercy Seat, where God Himself appeared to the High Priest, was the lid of the Ark, sculpted with two cherubim, outstretched wings touching above the surface.

What seems to be lost in the modern world we inhabit is the nature of obedience. It is untenable for some to be placed in a position where absolute obedience is required. God had told Moses and Aaron that no one could touch the holy things [Numbers 4:15]. But our (human) instinct is to believe that there are exceptions to every rule, no matter what. There will always be circumstances where a rule can be bent, circumvented or completely broken - and for good reason.

On the surface, this seems to be one of those circumstances.

Uzzah was merely trying to keep the Ark from falling. However, what is overlooked by our modern interpretation is that God's rules are absolute. Despite the fact that this rubs against the grain of our sensibilities, there was no room for interpretation.

Has anyone considered the hubris inherent in Uzzah's actions? If the Ark was the object of God's presence on earth, wouldn't it be presumptious of us to assume that God needs help?

Something else that may often be overlooked by those who read the Bible is that while God may seem harsh in His dealings with us, He is not capricious, He does not act on a whim. If He said it, we can bank on it. As harsh as it may seem, this is a silver lining we can take away from Uzzah's death: God keeps His promises.

So what's the point of this event in history? For me, today, the point is we can know that some things in life (and death) are absolute. Truth is not something we can interpret for our own benefit. And there are indeed times when we just need to do what we've been told - even if it doesn't make any sense at the moment.

What do you think?

2011 in Inanity

2011-12-27T14:13:00.000-06:00

It’s nearly the end of the year – or the beginning of another – if you’re more of a glass is half-full type. In this natural environment of mental wandering, I thought it would be nice to talk about some of the most inane news stories I’ve seen this year. And since I suffer from CRS (can’t remember stuff), most of them will be recent.

Jesus had short hair; seriously.

Jim Caviezel portrayed Jesus in The Passion of the Christ

Perhaps the font of inanity are Brian Palmer’s Explainer articles on Slate. In this edition from December 23^rd, he opines on why Jesus would probably not have had the long, flowing hair He is popularly depicted with. Since becoming a Christian, I’m more acutely aware of the artistic image of our Savior – or mis-image, as the case may be. Ancient believers in God were probably not much different than us today in the sense that many seemed to prefer their deities to be good looking. Certainly the Old Testament didn't shy away from going on about how David, Solomon, Absalom, Esther and others were not hard on the eyes. Yet in his Messianic prophesy, Isaiah noted that Jesus would be an average Joe [Isaiah 53:2] …He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.

Although the real reasons that Israel rejected Jesus as Messiah are more complex, it doesn’t take much to imagine how different it might have been if He had been muscular and handsome.

Charlie Sheen and Egypt are homies.

Today (see, I told you these would be recent) an article on Gawker.com listed the year’s top hashtags. Since Twitter in and of itself is somewhat inane, this may be redundant.

#Egypt
#Tigerblood

No caption required...

I’m definitely not implying that the events in Egypt this year were inane…far from it. However, that a Twitter hashtag relating to Charlie Sheen would be number two on the list shows us just how much inanity exists in our world today. Of the two top hashtags, one has global significance while the other, well, doesn’t.

He’s a caddie for Pete’s sake.

I'm thinking he cashed all the checks...

Way back in November ESPN ran this story about Steve Williams. In a (sports) world brimming with drama, excitement, heartbreak and a host of other visceral emotions, Golf doesn’t jump right out there. It’s understandable when the media makes high theater out of Tiger Woods winning the 2008 US Open in a playoff…on a torn knee. I mean this is the stuff that packs us in theaters to watch Rocky. Fast forward three years to a world drunk on American Idol, X-Factor and way too much Snooki; now, ESPN presents the pure and emotional drama of…a bunch of golfers and caddies having a few drinks and telling off-color jokes. Was it in poor taste? Absolutely. Was it news? I doubt it. Was it inane…you be the judge.

The 2011 Republican debates.

No, that’s not the number of debates that have been held leading up to the Iowa Caucuses; it just seems like it. I know it’s kind of like fishing a baited pond, but politics and inanity just kind of go together these days. There were – and continue to be – so may inane moments leading up to the kickoff vote in Iowa it’s hard to pick one. I really didn’t want to single out Governor Perry but for sheer inanity, I’d say this sums up the overall tone of the Republican debates.

Maybe he enjoyed a caucus or two backstage prior to the debate? According to Dictionary.com caucus is Medieval Latin for drinking vessel.

Surely there are thousands of inane events that permeated this year. What are your favorites?

X

Red sky in the morning...

2011-12-22T09:03:00.000-06:00

I"m not much of a sailor; God didn't give me inner-ear stability I guess. But we've all heard the proverb that begins Red sky in the morning...

Since I'm usually arriving at work around dawn, I can use the old sailor's wisdom to determine what our weather will be. This morning, it was definitely red:

Red in the sky and red on the map...

As we approach Christmas, I thought a little bit about the larger context of Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning. Can we take that simple proverb and expand it to encompass other parts of life? In Matthew 16 Jesus said, "When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times."

This was in response to a request by the Pharisees and Saducees for Jesus to give them a sign from Heaven. At this point, Jesus had accomplished many things and the signs of who He was and what He was about were there for all to see through His work; yet the teachers of the Law were not convinced - they wanted a sign. It's interesting that all the miraculous things that Jesus had done already were overlooked - or ignored - in an effort to get our Savior (to paraphrase the book and film wizard Gandalf) to perform parlor tricks like some cheap conjurer. If you're a Lord of the Rings fan, you'll remember that Samwise had no doubt that Gandalf could turn him into something unnatural, he didn't need to ask for a sign.

In a sense, we haven't progressed at all in the last two thousand years or so. We all seek signs from the world around us; signs to aid us in making decisions. I already knew it was likely to rain today and had my umbrella in the car as I drove to work. The radio weather person confirmed the storm front you see in the picture above from The Weather Channel that also predicts - no doubt accurately - that we'll have some serious rain today. Red sky in the morning...

But that was exactly the point of Jesus' retort to His inquisitors. We, all of us, can easily read the signs in the sky: Red sky in the morning, sailor's warning; red sky at night, sailor's delight.

Which way do I go?

And that's my thought for today...what signs do we follow in our own lives? What signs do we look for in order to make wise decisions? Do we act and then wait for positive or negative feedback from our friends, family and co-workers to validate whether a particular action or statement was wise? Do we seek out Dr. Phil or Oprah and listen to what they have to say on a particular subject before making up our minds?

Beni and the charms...

This seems to be my day for film references...in 1999's The Mummy, the smarmy ex-legionnaire Beni is confronted by the mummy. In true Red sky in the morning fashion, Beni pulls out a handful of bling that would make Mr. T blush and one by one begins chanting prayers based on each amulet's origin. I don't remember each one but Beni had something representing Buddha, Jesus, and who knows what else. However, it's the Star of David and the Hebrew prayer that arrests the mummy. Hebrew was the language of the slaves in Egypt - and the mummy needed a slave...Beni was saved...for the moment.

Sunday we'll celebrate Christmas. Christmas gets more and more airplay with each passing year. Christians get up in arms about how society is taking Christ out of the holiday; secularists wish the Christians would lighten up. Erstwhile peacemakers are running around trying to create all-inclusive holidays that we can celebrate together.

What's your sign this year? As you celebrate Christmas, are you truly honoring the birth of Jesus or are the tree, presents and meal plans taking priority? What sign are you seeking that the road you're on is the right one? What color is your sky this morning?

X

For that 'hard-to-buy-for' person...

2011-12-12T08:36:00.000-06:00

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's age; maybe it's attitude. A few years back, you'd never find me listening to anything but music in my car. With the advent of the CD and, more recently, the MP3 format, one might posit that radio as we know it would fade away like a weak signal on a lonely Arizona highway.

Where's that station...

But as visitors to The Stream might have noticed, I occasionally derive inspiration from my daily doses of National Public Radio. Conservatives amongst my friends may be horrified to learn that I think NPR is a wonderful thing - with the possible exception of Terry Gross. Don't get me wrong, Ms. Gross is a great professional; I just don't personally appreciate the directions she takes in (some of) her interviews.

What about those gift ideas?

Right. Listening to Morning Edition on my drive in today, I heard a brief story about what a great cook Martin Ginsburg was. For the uninformed - which I was until about 6:20 this morning - Mr. Ginsburg is the not-so-well-known (late) husband of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Forgive me for using the familiar, but Marty Ginsburg was apparently well known in his own right for many things, one of which was for being an excellent cook.

Justice and Mr. Ginsburg

All this is riveting I'm sure, but stay with me...what got my attention during this morning's segment wasn't the fact that Mr. Ginsburg was an accomplished chef; it wasn't that he was married to one of our Supreme Court justices; it wasn't even the fact that a bunch of people put together a cookbook to honor Mr. Ginsburg (on the occasion of his passing, may he rest in peace). What caused me to sit up and listen was the fact that you could buy said cookbook in the Supreme Court Gift shop.

Say what?

Now, after researching this a little further, it should be noted that the gift shop is actually entitled the Supreme Court Historical Society Gift shop...but that's sure not the way NPR put it out there this morning. Maybe I just missed the nuance.

In any case, as we draw near to the day on which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ (i.e. Christmas), some of you may be stuck for what to buy the person in your life who has everything, or never likes what you give them, or whatever.

Starting at the low end - there's actually a link in the left frame of the gift shop's website to gifts that are priced at $0 - $20. Something tells me none of these gifts are free ($0). Anyway, clicking on the link yields sixty-one gifts in that price range, ranging from Supreme Court Pencils (a bargain at 95 cents apiece) - complete with two-headed, gavel-shaped erasers...

Work is now in session...

...to a key-keeper turtle for $19.95. I have no idea what this turtle is doing in the Supreme Court Historical Society gift shop. It doesn't have a logo or anything on it - it looks like the standard key-holding turtle you can buy at the hardware store and hide amongst your bushes in case you forget your house key...I don't know, maybe someone forgot the key to the Supreme Court one day and came up with this great idea...

There are several more price ranges to browse through, all of which have quite interesting items for those on a variety of budgets. But I thought I'd take a peak at what sort of top-of-the-line gear you could score for $500 and up...the highest price range available.

These are sweet!

The next time I pick up a dress shirt, I'm going to be thinking about how cool it would be to have these sterling silver, solid 14kt. gold and gold plated cuff links holding my sleeves together. Then I'll remember the $595 price tag and enjoy my buttons.

The rest of the high-dollar gifts aren't nearly as exciting. For the princely sum of $1,000, you can actually join the Supreme Court Historical Society. And the benefits of membership? Mostly, getting copies of quarterly newsletters and a few other publications. Although you also receive an invitation to some swanky dinner once a year (for which you have to pay extra, I think). But hey, you also get 20% off on any item in the gift shop, so those cuff links are looking better already...

Feel free to browse and, by the way, you could pick up a copy of the tribute cookbook dedicated to Mr. Ginsburg - a tasty bargain at $24.95. But sadly, it's currently out of stock.

Merry Christmas!

Space...the final frontier (that we'll never get to?)

2011-12-06T07:43:00.001-06:00

Mark this down on your calendar:

Yesterday, according to this article on MSN, our shiny Keppler spacecraft discovered what is believed to be an Earth-like planet, orbiting a sun not unlike our own. The catch? It's roughly 600 light years away.

We can't get there from here...

I'm not against exploring our universe. I think it's kind of cool, actually. I still remember watching the Apollo missions on TV and hearing those famous words, "One small step for man..."

I do have lingering doubts though about spending $500 million on a spacecraft that is cruising around taking pictures of far-distant planets in neighboring solar systems. As neat as all this is, I have to ask:

What's the point?

Let's just say for the sake of argument that Keppler 22b is found to be the Goldilocks planet (you know, the one that's just right).

Road trip!

What are we going to do with that amazing nugget of information? After all, Keppler 22b is six hundred light years away. I'm not very agile with numbers but I have it on pretty good authority that it would take in the neighborhood of 7 million years for someone to get there from here, in our present technological state - assuming for the moment that we could figure out a way to attach a big enough gas tank to our ship.

Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, estimates there are 1 trillion planets in the Milky Way alone. "Surely some of them have undergone what Earth has undergone and developed life, and eventually what we call sentient life," he says.

So, it appears that it's relatively easy for scientists to take probability and trot it out a ways to buy into the possibility of extra-terrestrial life - or at least life-sustaining worlds - yet it's difficult for some of these same scientists to consider the possibility that the Bible is correct and our universe was purposely created. I mean, with all due respect to Carl Sagan, we've spent billions and billions of dollars and found pretty much bupkis.

But I'm not writing to discredit science or start another round of Big Bang vs. Creation Smack Down.

In fact, Shostak goes on to note that the argument (for extra-terrestrial life) is simply one of probability. "If we are the only intelligent beings in the galaxy, or for that matter in the universe, then we are truly a miracle," he says.

Now there's something that makes sense, don't you think?

In any case, let's get back to my original question: Let's say that Keppler or some other, future, exploration system finds an Earth clone; a planet that mirrors ours and can easily support life.

Home sweet....ach!

Is it possible to get six or seven billion people onto spacecraft and over to the nearest life-sustaining world? Not if you believe we will never be able to economically break the speed of light barrier, and have the technology to do it in huge proportions, ferrying people, livestock, agricultural supplies, etc. to our new home. Oh, and I hope there's plenty of water there or that we also have the technology to generate A LOT of it.

As excited as I am that we're exploring the universe and finding cool stuff out there, I really can't get too overwhelmed at finding a planet that might, possibly, be in the neighborhood of supporting life. Right now, we couldn't even get a couple of folks over there to check it out - much less put together a large-scale exodus ala Battlestar Galactica.

So enjoy the pictures, artist's renditions and bubbly prognostications of sister worlds, etc. I'm going to finish my coffee and think about ways to make this old Earth a better place to live.

What do you think?

It's all about me...not

2011-12-01T13:12:00.001-06:00

Unless you live in a cave, high in the Himalayas - with no satellite reception or 3/4G air card, you have heard the news that Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) is in the midst of an ugly investigation into allegations they were complicit in the (alleged) horrific child abuse by one-time defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. I say alleged because we live in America where one is innocent until proven guilty. However, in the court of public opinion, Sandusky has already been convicted and the torches and pitchforks came out early. To be fair, I rank among those that believe with so many allegations stacked up, there has to be a least some truth to the accusations - and I wrote about it in this entry.

Penn State is a brand?

On NPR this morning, I listened to a short report about a session University leaders had with Penn State students. Apparently, a large number of erstwhile Nittany Lions are concerned that the value of their degree is diminishing even as we speak in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. Using a handy online tuition calculator, and what I believe are the out of state costs per credit hour, I came up with a walloping $63,840 in tuition costs alone for a shiny Turf Grass Bachelor of Science degree. Interestingly, a run-of-the-mill BS in Business costs the same.

So I suppose it's not out of line for PSU students to be concerned that the value of their degrees - in whatever discipline - could be tarnished by recent developments.

What stunned me though, was the sense of selfishness that came out of the report. I'm not naive enough to think that there isn't competition between University graduates or that certain degrees aren't considered more prestigious than others. I get that.

But every comment I heard was something along the lines of, "What are potential employers going to think when I trot out my Penn State degree in the interview?"

With the answer to that rhetorical question being, "You went to Penn State? Well, thank you for coming in to speak with us...we'll be in touch." Followed by the sound of their resume hitting the bottom of the garbage can as they left the building.

What?

Really?

There are hiring managers in the workplace that would seriously hold the sins of Jerry Sandusky and the rogue's gallery of enablers at Penn State over its graduates' future? That would be like me interviewing Florida State graduates in the wake of the Free Shoes University scandals or academic cheating scandals by football players and calling them Criminoles. Granted, what Sandusky is alleged to have perpetrated is so far beyond comparably petty events that sports fans like to trot out when their team is winning...

But still; I'm not going to hire you because of some completely unrelated event that happened before you even attended the university?

The first thing that Acting Penn State President Rodney Erickson should've said when fielding the first few comments about student's concerns over their diminishing returns?

It's not about you - it's about the kids.

Next question.

X

Love Stinks

2011-11-19T16:57:00.001-06:00

The J. Geils Band, founded in Boston and generally remembered as a feel-good, party band in the 1970's and 80's released an album entitled Love Stinks in 1980. The title track made the Billboard Top 40, and the LP peaked at number 18 on the album charts. The song Love Stinks is an ode denigrating the concept of romantic love.

I remember liking this song; it had an infectious beat, a funny video and it fit into an ethos that resonated with a lot of young men - and probably women, too - real love was way too dangerous, tricky and painful. Maintaining a relationship with a woman was hard work, darn it, and wasn't it easier to just maintain casual relationships that were fun and didn't come with all the drama?

Confession time...

I married young. Really young. Eighteen-years-old-young.

By the time Love Stinks was released, my marriage was already in trouble. I'm sure there are some eighteen-year-olds out there that can marry and have a great relationship until the day they die. Unfortunately, I wasn't one of them. I could go on and on about the why's and wherefors of how my first marriage unraveled. I could even pile on and talk about what a HUGE mistake my second marriage was. But all that would be just beating around the bush. The fact is, I had no idea what love was all about. I didn't know what it was, what it took to find love, where to look, what to do with it once I found it and most importantly, how to take care of it and make it grow into something spectacular over time.

I put it forward that there are very few people in the world today who really have a bead on true love. What shapes our view of love in the world today? Are all of us growing up without the necessary foundation we need to recognize exactly what love is?

I browse a lot of news sites on the web; NPR, MSN, CNN, Slate, local newspaper sites and more. Of these, Slate seems to be the most hip. I don't have time for a survey, but I would guess that younger people would be more attracted to Slate than the others - it seems somehow more edgy, more modern.

Looking on Slate today, I can't say I'm surprised that there were at least three articles on pornography. One was talking about how today's pornography would be better if it wasn't for the demeaning nature of how the women were treated. This, according to the author, was due in great measure to the founders of some well-known men's magazines. If these guys didn't hate women so much, pornography would be fine. Really?

Perhaps the most disturbing article bemoaned the lack of sex education in public schools and even went as far as saying we should adopt the Dutch model, incorporating the concept of pleasure into any sex education programs we administer to young people. A sociologist referenced in the Slate article quoted research showing that the Dutch model, where parents accept their minor children's relationships and even let them have sleepovers with sex partners, results in much better health outcomes for teenagers.

Excuse me?

If I didn't know how to find, process and nurture love as an eighteen-year-old, how on earth are younger teenagers going to learn it from parents letting them have intimate sleepovers with their young paramours?

In my humble opinion, there is only one place where we need to be steering each other to learn about love.

Ask yourself this question: Who invented love?

If you answered God, go to the head of the class.

The first three words of the Bible say, "In the beginning..." The book of Genesis then goes on to chronicle creation and subsequent events. One of the most important of these was the partnership of man and woman. God didn't put Adam and Eve together and say, "Okay you two, give it your best shot; and if it doesn't work out..."

A lot of folks like to pick out verses that seem to cast a negative light on women and love relationships with men. Despite his reputation as a hard-liner, I think Paul said it well in Ephesians 5:25, 'Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church...' and a few lines later in verse 28, 'In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies...' In those two verses Paul laid it out as plain as it gets. Men, ask yourself if you're loving your wife as Christ loves the church (his people) or even as much as you love yourself.

You know why my first two marriages failed? Because I didn't know what love was. I had some weird view of love based on the fractured relationship of my parents coupled with a vast panoply of societal influences that had absolutely nothing to do with love. In truth, my ex-wives could have said to me, 'Your love stinks,' and been accurate.

Unlike J. Geils' assertion, it's not love that stinks - it's (usually) our love that stinks. We need to learn what love is before we can have love, receive love and give love. And as usual, the answer is easy to find, if you know where to look.

What do you think?

X

Author's note: As of today, I've been married more than 22 years to my lovely wife. I'm still learning how to love her the way I'm supposed to, but God is helping me through the learning process every day.

This post is not about Tim Tebow

2011-11-18T07:57:00.001-06:00

After going for so long - several months - without writing much of anything, the blog faucet has apparently been turned on. I'm not up to a post every day, or several posts a day as those professional bloggers do, but I have a boiling cauldron of subjects in my head that want to be written about; the trouble is, which one do I pick when I can only write occasionally as time and circumstance dictate?

It's Friday morning; I've had a subject in my head for about 24 hours that has been working itself into a full-fledged thought line that would make a bang-up blog post. And then last night happened...

Tim Terrific does it again...

It's getting to the point where casual fans or those who aren't even really football fans are starting to be touched by the buzz surrounding the man who some call the worst quarterback in the NFL. The problem is, this mess of mechanics, this poster-boy for what is not an NFL-caliber quarterback...is winning. The Denver Broncos are 5-5; not a stellar win-loss record. But they are 4-1 since Tebow began starting games and, believe it or not, are a half-game out of first place in the generally woeful AFC West.

But this blog post is not about Tim Tebow...

I've been thinking a lot about human nature lately. It actually started back in September or October as I was getting ready to head off to Haiti on our latest mission trip. One of these days I'm going to break down and start learning Creole. If God continues to call me to Haiti it's a given that learning the language is something I need to do. But in lieu of learning Creole this year, I brushed up on the little French I know and while researching Les Cayes, the area where we were going to be working, I ran across some Haitian proverbs.

Recent readers may remember the proverb Dye mon gen mon that I wrote about on November 14th. Beyond the mountain is another mountain. The proverb that got me thinking yesterday is Degaje pa peche. The literal translation I found was managed by sin. However it's more colloquially understood to mean to get by is not a sin. What does that mean? Basically, it means if I have to do something that I might not normally do - lie, cheat, steal, bend the rules if not completely break them - in order to get by...to feed myself or my family or to somehow survive, then it's not a bad thing.

I think Solomon recognized this mindset back in the day; Proverbs 28:21 [NIV] says, "To show partiality is not good--yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread."

Motorized bike...sort of

In the grand scheme of things, getting a boost from passing vehicles while riding your bike is probably not something many people consider sinful. However, our translator said it was illegal (as it is in the USA). We all agreed the greater risk likely lay in the danger, not the illegality. Driving through Haiti - especially in Port au Prince - can be harrowing enough. But holding on to a speeding truck while riding a rickety bike? The man in the picture was apparently willing to break the law in order to cut his travel time significantly, even at the risk of physical harm, if not arrest.

All of this got me thinking about how we live out our Christian faith. What things do we do each day or maybe just occasionally that would fall under the heading of to get by is not a sin? Do we speed in our cars to get somewhere more quickly - kind of like the man on the bike? Do we hit the express lane at the grocery store with more than ten items because we have somewhere else to be? Do we cheat on our taxes because we need that extra money this year from our return? Do we take advantage of someone else's misfortune when it benefits us and no one knows? Do we throw someone under the bus at work because it makes us look better or gives us a leg up for promotion?

I could go on...and I could give specific examples of where I've fallen short of God's perfect standard...today, yesterday...even while I was in Haiti on mission. How bad is that?

We are creatures who desire comfort. We like to be comfortable. And we like to feel important and valulable. So I totally get the mindset behind to get by is not a sin. And as I've mentioned before, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere so, can we really blame them if hitching a ride, keeping some found money, snitching a loaf of bread for their family...doesn't feel like it's a bad thing?

I'm not writing this to judge the man catching a free tow. I'm trying not to be the judging kind. What I want to do - and what all of us need to do more of - is think about stuff. You may be reading this and you're not a Christian. You might be thinking to yourself, 'How can that guy possibly turn any subject into a discussion about faith?'

The answer to that is, 'Because everything we do impacts our faith.' Jesus' Apostles personally witnessed some amazing things during His time on Earth. But when Jesus told them to go and make disciples of all nations, he wasn't talking about them just going and telling them about the Gospel of salvation, he wanted their whole lives to be a witness for others. He wanted their faith to be an unspoken component of the Gospel that, like creation, bears silent witness to its veracity.

As Christians, we often quote Romans 1:20 when talking to others about how God's creation speaks for itself. Apply that to your life. If someone you know is talking to others about your faith, can they say it (your faith) speaks for itself? Or do they stumble over some of the things you may have done to get by?

Degaje pa peche may be true on Earth, but if we claim to follow God, we are held to a much higher standard. Yes, salvation is a free gift from our Creator, but our faith should reflect His grace, not the same old, worldly attitudes we carried with us before. I know I've got a ways to go, but I'm trying.

What do you think?

Recalculating

2011-11-14T13:42:00.001-06:00

How much time do you spend wondering about your life? Family, friends, work, church, recreation, habits, addictions, issues, health; the list goes on and on...

Or is it more likely that you - like me - tend toward what, in the political or corporate realms, is known as damage control? If things are going well in your life; if you're getting enough to eat, you've got a comfy place to sleep and watch television or movies or play video games or read, if things are going okay at the office, you've got no major blow ups in your relationships...things are good, right?

But when you wake up one day and find yourself lashed to the railroad tracks and hear the whistle off in the distance...to quote a popular beverage commercial, "Here we go!"

Nell is saved from mean ol' Snidely...

That's when things get crazy and you wish you could hear that annoying GPS voice say, "Recalculating!"

For those who may not have a GPS yet or who haven't seen (or don't get) one of the more recent Allstate commercials...the ones that have the character I like to call the Allstate Harbinger of Doom...

Sometimes recalculating is a good idea - like when you're lost with only a vague idea of where you are and the GPS can actually recalculate and get you back to recognizable terrain.

But often, as is the case with the video above, recalculating at the wrong moment or in the wrong way can have disastrous consequences.

If you would've asked me ten years ago or maybe even five years ago, 'How about you go down to Haiti and spend some time with a few hundred kids,' I don't know what, exactly, I would've replied. But I can pretty much guarantee it would not have been, 'Sure, when do we leave?'

God has a way of leading us to recalculate.

As followers of The Stream will know, I just returned from my second mission trip to Haiti. the organizers call what I do in Haiti Vacation Bible School. I don't really go along with that. Maybe it's the years I've spent recently teaching VBS in Florida or even teaching teachers how to teach VBS at their churches...something about Haiti and the kids we minister to and the term vacation just doesn't seem to mesh.

Maybe it's the fact that Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere...

Maybe it's because the culture in Haiti doesn't lend itself to the term vacation...

In a country where life revolves around a daily effort just to have food, water, and shelter...vacation anything seems out of place.

Recalculating...

The week I spent in Haiti was awesome. It was not without challenges...but it was just as rewarding as my first trip last year. The people we worked with were just as committed to helping the people and children we ministered to. The people and children we ministered to were just as happy to see us.

Dye mon, gen mon...

In Haiti there is a saying that reflects the difficulty of life the Haitian people face every day. Dye mon gen mon basically means beyond the mountain is another mountain. One of the things that surprises just about everyone is how mountainous Haiti is. The mountains make everything a little harder there...often a lot harder. But while there are those who use the expression to give up, after all, why try so hard when we'll just face another mountain when we get over this one; there seems to be a mindset that is more along the lines of getting over this mountain will prepare me for getting over the next one.

Recalculating...

What do we know about mountains...

For example, the second day we were in Les Cayes, our Bible school team went to two different schools. The first one, pictured above, consisted of a two-story, cinder block building. Upstairs were the older kids. Bare walls, no windows, a nasty old chalkboard, no doorway between the three classrooms. And here we were, a group of weird Americans who showed up to play some games, sing some songs, make flowers and talk about God and life. It would have been easy for them to look at us and say, 'You've got no idea what our lives are like. You can't relate to us now be gone with you.'

Instead, we found a group of roughly middle school to high school-aged young men and women who welcomed us, listened interestedly to what we said, laughed with us, sang with us, made silly paper mache flowers with us, and felt so comfortable with us after a couple of hours that one even decided it was okay to ask us hard questions about God. Beyond this mountain is another mountain...what do we think God thinks about that?

Recalculating...

Life in Haiti is not all sweetness and light...

The picture above is a very mild example of what passes for daily life in much of urban Haiti. Port au Prince especially has areas of heart-wrenching squalor and poverty. Our team spent time during our trip discussing how we felt God wanted to use us - to use our church - going forward. Did He want us to continue to minister to the people of Haiti alone or should we step out farther and go with the message to places where many have not heard?

Before we arrived home, I think most of us were ready to cast our steps farther abroad. But not too many weeks after we returned to the States; returned to our nice homes, comfy beds, and refrigerators that dispense ice and water you don't have to wonder about, we are already talking about a place in Northern Haiti where there is only one church.

Recalculating...

X

C'mon man!

2011-11-08T08:29:00.001-06:00

The title phrase is used humorously on ESPN's pre-game coverage of Monday Night Football. I didn't watch the pre-game or the game last night. I spent time at our new home with my wife watching something else and talking about the passing of an old friend, among other things.

But in the back of my mind was the continuing reaction to the abuse scandal unfolding at Penn State University. I am having a hard time processing the fact that grown men acted the way they have been alleged to have acted. Jen Floyd Engel, a Fox Sports (dot.com) reporter I'm beginning to admire for her well-written and insightful articles, wrote something today that kind of sums up my thoughts on the matter.

A sidebar in Ms. Engel's article contained a poll asking whether long-time coach Joe Paterno should step down in the wake of these allegations.

FOX SPORTS POLL

Thankfully, 59% of respondents said yes, Coach Paterno should step down. I'm one of them, and I'll tell you why:

Joe Paterno is the head coach of the Pennsylvania State University football team and as such, next to the university's athletic director and other institutional officers, is the authority in charge of football facilities. Young boys were abused on his watch, in his facilities, by people who had been on his staff. Others in Coach Paterno's chain of command witnessed these events and either did nothing, or hid behind some heirarchical rules.

I'm sorry, but to the 41% of poll respondents who believe Paterno is somehow above the fray on this one - that's roughly 8,160 people - I believe you are horribly misguided.

In my opinion, the buck (i.e. responsibility) stops at Joe Pa's desk. He is the man in charge. He had the opportunity to take action and stop the abuse. He didn't. At the risk of being humorous in the middle of a deadly serious discussion, if the president of Penn State doesn't have the guts to fire Joe Paterno, get Donald Trump in there because today, right now, someone needs to walk into Paterno's office and say, "You're fired."

What do you think?

Are you ready for some...futbol?

2011-11-06T20:44:00.000-06:00

The NFL (no Febreeze league) is in full swing; those who know me know that I'm more a fan of the type of football where players use their feet (for more than kickoffs, punts and field goals). I've been keeping up a little with the NFL thanks to my annual membership in a long-running fantasy football league. After this weekend's action, I should be comfortably in (at least) third place.

Followers will also know that I just returned from Haiti and that Jesus has been on my mind a lot lately - as He should be all the time.

But I wanted to update everyone on some potentially exciting news in the world of futbol...

On January 18th 2010, I posted about Landon Donovan's loan move to Everton FC of the Barclay's Premier League. For those who live under a (sports) rock, Landon is widely regarded as the best American football (soccer) player at the moment. He currently plays for the LA Galaxy who are, as we speak, playing Real Salt Lake for the privilege of taking on the Houston Dynamo for the championship of Major League Soccer.

Gazing back toward the UK?

And while getting past RSL to the championship game is a priority, there is already some chatter about Donovan reprising his loan move to Everton during the upcoming MLS off-season.

I, for one, believe LD will make the move. Last year, he had played an awful lot of football between the MLS season, the loan to Everton, the World Cup...he needed a break. But this year, he can take a few weeks off and head to Everton during the Premier League's January transfer window.

Everton could certainly use some help as they are currently languishing in 17th position, just one above the dreaded drop-zone.

Come on Landon...make the jump.

X

Jezi se wa!

2011-11-06T10:29:00.001-06:00

It's been about a week since we returned from Haiti. Last week I was able to attend services at Ferris Hill Baptist Church, home of the team that went on this year's mission to Haiti. Today, we gratefully accepted the extra hour of sleep afforded by the return to Standard Time, but missed out on worship up in Huntsville due to some, er, health issues. Everyone is fine but somewhat indisposed to phrase it politely. We had looked up several local churches on the web, one or two that I had visited, a couple that our neighbors attend and another that is nearby. Next week!

Thinking about worship brings me back to our experiences in Haiti. I came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ rather late in life, accepting Him as my savior in 2001. Although I like music, I'm not musical and I've always found it somewhat uncomfortable to be overly demonstrative during worship services. This is not because I don't love God and am not moved by the Holy Spirit, it's just because I'm not going to give Jesus shout outs or wave my arms around just because everyone else is doing so.

As a member of Ferris Hill for the entirety of my new life in Christ (so far), I've discovered that Southern Baptists in general are not a very demonstrative lot when it comes to worship time in church. A quick note to those for whom church is not a regular occurance...although we may refer to the entire service as worship, once you are in church the term worship generally refers to the part of the service in which the congregation sings praise to God.

After revival services at night - church is a party!

With apologies for the long-winded explanations above, all of that was to contrast how we worship God with how the Haitians worship God. It's not an acceptable practice to go about taking photographs during church in Haiti so we were only able to get shots afterward. Suffice it to say that in a Haitian Baptist church, worship is dynamic! And even an old fuddy-duddy like me is swaying and clapping by the end of the night.

You may be wondering about the meaning of this blog's title: Jezi se wa!

That is Creole for, "Jesus is king!" It's a phrase that features often during worship in Haiti. And as I was thinking about how to continue this blog series for our experiences in Haiti this year, I kept thinking back to how often we heard Jezi se wa and how often we saw the name Jesus when we were in Haiti.

Christ on the cross in Les Cayes

Just down the street from our hotel was the traffic circle in the picture above. Can you imagine pulling up to a major intersection in your town and seeing a twenty-foot tall cross with a life-sized Jesus hanging there? What an incredible daily reminder of what God has done for all of us.

Jezi se wa!

After our frantic trip to Les Cayes from Port au Prince; after finally getting settled in our rooms following a tasty chicken and French fry dinner; after a decent night's sleep and some seriously strong coffee (sorry, no creamer); we went and worshipped God last Sunday morning at the church in which we would be serving at revival during our week in Les Cayes.

Sunday afternoon, we went back to the church and spent some time with the kids there, playing games and getting to know them. Sunday night we had revival. In between, we continued to ponder and plan for the next day's Bible school. Being somewhat settled, we did what most of us would do when feeling a bit out of our element - we went in search of the Internet!

Facebook and Skype are our friends!

It was awesome to speak with - and in some cases see - our families. Modern technology is amazing. It's still somewhat unbelievable that in a small Haitian town, we could hit the dining area in our hotel and get access to the wider world through wireless satellite Internet access. The ability to communicate across the globe always reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 about the Gospel of the Kingdom being preached to all nations - and then the end will come. There is nothing that will help you get over the discomfort of travel and circumstance like remembering that you are actually doing what Jesus has asked you to do.

Jezi se wa!

It had been morning and evening on our second day in Haiti. Monday was to kick off all of our teaching ministries: Pastors, ladies and children. This seems like a great place to stop for today. Thanks for reading and stay tuned to hear about our teaching experiences and see pictures of the kids!

God bless you.

X

…but the greatest of these is love.

2011-11-01T10:14:00.000-05:00

Bienvenue!

The welcoming banner at our hotel in Les Cayes

This is the first of I’m not sure how many blogs that I will post over the next few days or weeks in an effort to share thoughts and insights gained from our church’s recent trip to Les Cayes (Aux Cayes) Haiti. This was my deuxième voyage to Haiti and this trip was very different from the first one I went on last year. I’ll write more on those differences later.

Many people ask about what we do when we go to Haiti; in effect, they’re asking, “Why do you go?” For some, it’s not enough that we are spending time with men, women and children, loving them, sharing with them, teaching them, feeding them…giving them something hopeful, something different from their everyday life. I’ve had people tell me that I don’t need to go to Haiti, or anywhere for that matter, and push my beliefs on the people who live there. I respect anyone’s freedom to share their opinion on that with me. I also respectfully disagree.

For one, I’m not pushing my beliefs on anyone. I’m sowing seeds. Each one of us has a choice to make regarding what we believe. All I do – all we do – when we go on an international mission is try to bring light into the life of the people we encounter. That light may be a smile, a helping hand, a meal – or it might be medical care, a new roof, a home.

In 1^st Corinthians 12, Paul explains why all of us have to work together for the good of one another and how each one of us has gifts and abilities that we need to use for God’s glory. As I drove to work yesterday, my first day back from Haiti, I wondered about people who don’t believe in God – or maybe do believe in God, but don’t think He’s actively involved in our world. Where is the purpose in their life? From birth to death, they eat, work, play, laugh, cry, get angry or whatever – and then they die. And that’s it. King Solomon must’ve felt a little like that when he wrote what has become the book of Ecclesiastes. How empty it would be to get up in the morning and think that whatever I accomplish today has no ultimate meaning or purpose.

But I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole today.

Our team consisted of seven people led by our Pastor, Brian Nall of Ferris Hill Baptist Church (Milton, FL). Three of us had been on mission last year and four were experiencing it for the first time. The first of many catch phrases that came out of our trip to Les Cayes is: “Well, last year…” and then you fill in the blank. The four new missionaries wanted to throttle us by Tuesday after about the hundredth time we began a sentence with those words.

The team in Port au Prince

This year’s trip was completely different than last year’s. The location was different, the travel experience was different, the climate was different, the kids were different, our in-country team was different, the hotel experience was different, the schools were different, and our team was different.

Corina, Julie, Laura, and Patrick: I’m sorry for beginning so many sentences with: Well, last year…

The ladies in the back setting out for Les Cayes

The first thing that was different was change. Our first hint of the week to come occurred right after we made our way out of the crowded Port au Prince (PaP) airport at about 4:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Our itinerary called for an overnight stay at the mission house in PaP (about 15 minutes from the airport) and then a five-hour drive west to Les Cayes on Sunday morning. We were all prepped for that after getting up in the pre-dawn hours to make our 7:00 a.m. flight out of Pensacola.

Everyone out of the bus! Fixing one of our flat tires...

It was a l-o-n-g journey to Les Cayes Saturday night. I think we stopped about five times. A couple for gas and such before we left PaP, and three on the highway. One to tighten lug nuts, two to change flat tires and then to switch vans after the last flat tire so we could complete the journey and get to our lodging in Les Cayes.

Brief word(s) about the term: highway. Potholes; unsafe bridges, detours through a convenient dry wash, speed bumps, mountains, curves…Last year we had a relatively pleasant (sorry Rebekah) drive to Mirebalais. This year, we had Dramamine.

Through God’s Grace, we finally made it to Les Cayes at or about 9:30 p.m. Our in-country team had called ahead and the hotel staff (bless them!) had a late meal of chicken and – of all things – French Fries waiting for us. Believe it or not, the food helped everyone’s stomach feel a little better. Or maybe it was our favorite drink:

Anyone for a Sprite or fifty?

After dinner, we trooped upstairs to our rooms – three to a room – and were lulled to sleep by the soothing roar of the diesel generator outside. Apparently, it’s cheaper to run the entire hotel off of generator power than pay the government for electricity. In any case, we were most grateful for this modern – if somewhat noisy – luxury. We had survived the journey and were looking forward to a night’s rest and then a morning of worship in God’s house.

We talked a lot about God’s creation during our week in Haiti and it seems appropriate that I end this particular blog here, at the end of our first day. Thank you for reading and I hope you come back to The Stream to catch up on the rest of our mission adventures!

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Here's your sign...

2011-09-08T12:43:00.001-05:00

Bill Engval, one of the Blue Collar Comedy team, uses my title when presented with a statement or situation so clearly ridiculous as to defy common sense. For example, I might use it when confronted by the cadre of folks who feel that police lying in wait and springing a speed trap is unfair, despite the fact that they're breaking the law. After all, police should not be able to use stealth to catch people breaking the law - they should have to sit on the side of the road with their light bars bursting in air, so those who are breaking the law can quit before they are caught. I mean, heck, in Alabama they have those big signs with big orange letters that say: CAUTION - TROOPERS AHEAD.

Here's your sign.

I don't have TV where I'm living now. I mean, I have a television - I just don't have any service. As a result, the constant barrage of reminders that President Obama will speak on the economy tonight, likely laying out his plan for economic stimulus through an insfrastructure rebuilding program, is not really getting me excited. Don't get me wrong; I'd like to watch it, and probably would, if I had TV service. And it's not like I'm going to stroll into the nearest sports bar and ask them to change the channel from the Braves' game to the President's speech before a joint session of congress.

Here's your sign.

Which brings me to the impetus behind today's blog: in this article on MSN, writer Allison Linn puts forth that the occurance of joint sessions of Congress are rare. Her exact phraseology is: President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak to a rare joint session of Congress Thursday...

My takeaway from her usage is not that it's rare for the President to speak to a joint session of Congress (which it is), but rather that joint sessions of Congress themselves are rare.

You would think (I do, anyway) that in the midst of the worst econmic crisis since the late 1920's, our Congressional leadership might think it worthwhile to meet more often in an effort to evaluate the problems, and define and implement solutions. After all, isn't that why they were elected in the first place?

Here's your sign.

Perhaps our problem lies not so much with our Presidential leadership, but rather in the workaday habits of the House and Senate, where politics rules the day instead of good old-fashioned problem solving.

For those of you with TV service, enjoy the show. I'll read about it tomorrow morning...not that I expect such a rare event to foster any forward momentum.

Here's your...nevermind.

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Earthbow - volumes 1 & 2: A Review

2011-08-20T18:26:00.002-05:00

Relocating to Huntsville, AL wasn't on my to-do list for 2011. Those pesky employers always have other plans though. Fortunately, God has a plan for our family; and wouldn't you know it includes us living in Huntsville? Although I'm seriously missing my family while we work through all the relocation issues, there is one silver lining to my lonely time...I get to read!

Between family, church, work, TV, Internet and on and on and on, there are a host of things that have kept me from reading as much as I'd like. But living up here by myself, in a home with no TV and no Internet means I can catch up on some reading (and hopefully writing, too).

The novel I completed today is nothing short of stupendous. If you have even a passing interest in reading epic series in the fantasy genre, you simply must read Earthbow.

With thanks to Amazon for letting me borrow the cover art...

Sherry Thompson burst onto the literary scene a few years ago with her debut novel, Seabird, the first of the Narentan Tumults. Earthbow - divided into volumes 1 and 2 - chronicles the second Tumult.

Reading Seabird first would help acclimate you to Narenta but it's not mandatory for you to enjoy the amazing story of Xander, Coris, Renea, Harone and what feels like a cast of thousands.

I picked up the Kindle version which includes both volumes and downloaded it to my HP TouchPad. Since I had read Seabird, I was on fairly familar ground with Earthbow but only because I had an introduction to Narenta. Earthbow is a stunning, stand-alone novel that is full of adventure, magic, intrigue and danger. It will take the reader on an emotional roller-coaster ride and as you get farther and farther along - just like on any great roller-coaster - you will not want to get off.

Earthbow revolves around the story of Harone na Hithe, a young enchanter initiate, and Xander, the Outworlder of the second Tumult. Coris na Cathel, freshly knighted into the service of the self-styled Lord of Latimus - Cenoc - is also a major player. Xander, whose sister Cara was the featured Outworlder in the first Tumult (see Seabird), arrives in Latimus with no clue regarding what, exactly, he is supposed to do to save Narenta from the second Tumult. There's a lot of talk about him using the Earthbow, an enchanted bow that he carries (but has no idea how to use), and some chatter about stones and Shadow Lords and all.

The storyline of Earthbow is complex but Thompson weaves it expertly, blending multi-dimensonal characters and an array of plotlines mixed with dark and light enchantment that is easily the equal of that boy wizard story you may have heard of. But make no mistake, this is not Harry Potter stuff. If I had to categorize the Narentan Tumults at all, I would definitely lean more toward The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings. And I only say that because of the sheer scope of Thompson's vision and the depth with which she has created her world and characters.

I could go on and on but I don't want to give away anything; Earthbow deserves to be read - and enjoyed - so that you can see what a fantastic new world Sherry Thompson has wrought for us to inhabit. With all of the turmoil in the book industry these days, it's easy to overlook major new talents - especially those who don't have the might of major publishing houses behind them. However, don't make the mistake of overlooking Earthbow and the other Tumults as they come; you will be less for the missing.

Earthbow is published by the small but rich house of Gryphonwood Press.

5 Minutes

2011-05-26T09:33:00.001-05:00

Today's world demands we make the very best use of every minute of every day. Even our television shows are changing from the comfortable, predictable formats we grew up with to frenetic episodes of shows like 24 where an entire season is scripted around a 24-hour period of time. In a world like that, a 5-minute block of time becomes an incredibly valuable period during which we need to accomplish important things.

This song from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is a representation of different ways to consider time. Do you fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way? Do you hang on in quiet desperation? The song says it's the English way, but I think for a lot of people around the world, it’s the normal way. But one line from the song is certainly true: we are all shorter of breath and one day closer to death with each passing minute.

So the question then becomes what are we to do with the time we have left?

Which brings me back to 5 minutes.

This morning, it took me 5 minutes to read Acts chapter 3.

By the time I finished getting ready for work and left the house, I was only able to catch the last 5 minutes of David Jeremiah on 97.1 FM.

Two 5 minute blocks of precious time; and what did I gain?

Acts 3 follows the Apostles Peter and John as they heal a man who had been crippled since birth. It took them less than 5 minutes. Reading Acts 3 and listening to David Jeremiah teach on the armor of God from Ephesians 6 – and then considering what, if any, connections there were, I thought, what does it actually mean to be a Christian?

Before the crucifixion, Peter and others believed in their heads that Jesus was God. It wasn’t until after the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, that they believed in their hearts.

In 2001, I had another 5 minute period of my life to live. One night, after driving home from work, my belief, my willingness to be a follower of Christ moved from my head to my heart.

Are you frittering away the hours in an offhand way? Are you living in quiet desperation? All of us are shorter of breath and one day closer to death. Before time runs out, what will happen in your head? In the next 5 minutes, will something happen in your heart?

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The secret to happiness

2011-05-21T08:29:00.001-05:00

I'll open with apologies to my vast readership for being silent so long. Those that know me understand that there is a lot going on ... son graduating from high school, wife's surgery, my impending unemployment...

Still, I have had a stupendous blog idea just about every day driving to work - I really should write them down - but by the time I get there and become immersed in the day...well, you know.

But today is different; my inner writer has finally gained ascendancy and I will put forth letters.

What is the secret to happiness? The world would have us believe that it is different for everyone. I don't necessarily disagree with that but I believe that the true source of happiness is the same for everyone - it's the manifestation of life from that common source that is unique for each of us.

Dictionary.com has some interesting definitions of happiness.One such reads, 'Happiness results from the possession or attainment of what one considers good.'

From that, we can determine that either something we have or something we don't have will allow us to be happy. A little farther along in the same definition, it confusingly reads, 'Contentment is a peaceful kind of happiness in which one rests without desires, even though every wish may not have been gratified.'

So which one are you? Are you happy because you have obtained something that makes you feel good or do you feel good despite the fact that you have not obtained everything you want - and can live with that?

Of course anyone with Internet access can see that a Google search for secret to happiness yields over forty million results. I think that bolsters my premise that most of us believe that our own happiness is a unique set of criteria. That, and there are a lot of people trying to sell [insert oxymoron here] self-help books.

So what is the secret to happiness?

A friend of ours posted this status on Facebook yesterday:

The Grand Essentials of Happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for...

Let's look at each one of those essentials more closely:

Something to do: Secular and non-secular sources alike mostly agree that for us to be happy we need a purpose. The Bible clearly tells us that God created us to worship Him. That is a HUGE stumbling block for a lot of folks. I had a great conversation with a friend of mine the other day in which this subject played a major part. Look more closely in Genesis and you'll see that worshipping God for Adam involved him fulfilling the purpose for which God created him - caring for the Garden of Eden. So God created Adam to be the first gardener. Not a very lofty position in our world but by living out that purpose, Adam was worshipping God. Wow. By doing what we are created to do, we can worship God. Nice.

Something to love: God instilled in each of us a desire to love and be loved. The Bible says that God is Love. The Bible also says that we are created in His image - not necessarily to look like him physically, although we don't know about that - but if God is Love and we are created in His image, then we are love also. God gave Adam a partner, Eve, because He said it was not right for Adam to be alone. He gave Adam a conduit for love. While fulfilling his purpose, Adam had someone to love, and someone to be loved by.

Something to hope for: Adam and Eve had no hope of ever getting back into the Garden. Can you imagine? Created and raised in paradise and then expelled into a dusty, hostile world. With no hope of ever regaining the deep, personal relationship they had enjoyed with God the Father.

God is Love.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

With this one short verse in John 3:16, God gives us the most powerful hope we could ever ask for. We are born into the same dusty, hostile world that Adam and Eve were put into. We are born with the same lack of hope that they faced as they stood with their backs to the most perfect place on Earth. But God loves His children and He has given us a 100% ironclad promise. We have a way to get back to Him. We have a way to get back to that perfect place where we can enjoy a deep, personal and eternal relationship with the God of the Universe.

The Bible is crystal clear on this: God came to Earth in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. He lived a perfect life - unlike me - and died on the cross for my sins. He then rose from the tomb and ascended back to Heaven, where He belongs. But the HUGE thing we need to get here is this: God promised to come back for us.

We don't know when - only He does - but we know he will. Our hope in Christ is not the hope of the world. We're not hoping we get a bike for Christmas, we're confident in the hope that God will do what He has promised. And He's batting 1000 so far.

So now you know the secret to happiness. Use what God has given you - in effect worship God through the abilities He has created you with. Love the specific person He has given you and love everyone the way He loves us. Finally, live with the eternal hope that you will once more be in that close, personal relationship with him. It may not happen at 6:00 p.m. today, but it will happen when He has decided it will happen.

You know the secret to happiness...what are you going to do with it?

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The mortality rate for humans is 100%

2011-03-24T17:37:00.002-05:00

Let that sink in for a moment.

The debate concerning our eternal destination never really subsides but this article on MSN published today adds some new fuel and has, perhaps, rekindled the fire. Pastor Chad Holtz has lost his job. According to the article, he was dismissed in part because he posted on Facebook expressing his support for a new book by Rob Bell that basically says Hell doesn't exist - or at least that no one will spend an eternity in torment there. I haven't read Mr. Bell's book yet but he presents a compelling case in this trailer:

In addition to making the case for us to buy and read his book, Mr. Bell is also casting verbal stones at the core belief of Christianity: that Jesus died on the cross for our sins - and the sins of all people, everywhere. In effect, Mr. Bell is saying - at least without having read the book yet it sounds like he is saying - that Jesus died for nothing.

I have to ask the question: if everyone can get to heaven without the need to confess Jesus Christ as their savior and experience a real heart-change - then why did Jesus have to die at all?

It's all well and good to say God is love and the true good news of the Gospel is that God loves us unreservedly - which He does - but the word gospel means good news and if the Gospel of Jesus Christ includes his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven as payment for our sins, it's a bit presumptuous to try and change the meaning of His death to suit a personal, theological view.

I understand completely the comment about Ghandi; one of the hardest things to get our heads around as Christians, or anyone else for that matter, is how we can believe that good people of different faiths - or no faith - will end up in eternal torment.

I don't have the answer to that question. All I have is what the Bible says and despite what a lot of folks think, the Bible is clear and unambiguous about how to get to heaven.

I'm not trying to stir the pot or put anyone's beliefs down. I'm just speaking out for what I believe, and what the Bible says. At the end of the day, I don't have any issues with atheists, muslims, hindus, budhists or anyone of any different faith. More than with any of those good people, my real concern here is for Mr. Bell - a Christian - who has taken it upon himself to dilute the truth of the Gospel. I'm sorry, but we can't just change God's plan because we don't agree with it.

Coincidentally, I posted a verse from Deuteronomy this morning on Facebook - before I even read this story - that I think applies in this instance:

I will personally deal with anyone who will not listen to the messages the prophet proclaims on my behalf.

Deuteronomy 18:19 [NLT]

Mr. Bell, are you listening?

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What's the big deal about Big Government?

2011-02-21T12:18:00.003-06:00

If you listen to any news program - radio, television, Internet - for any length of time, you will hear someone complaining about big government and someone else justifying it. That is the world we live in right now.

Rabbit hole #1: Why is Internet capitalized? Aren't radio and television important anymore?

My name is Xanthorpe and I used to watch Fox News.

There. I said it. Is this how folks who abuse drugs or alcohol feel when they finally admit a dependence?

Frankly, I can't much stand to watch any news program on television these days. I remember when I was a kid and trustworthy newscasters like Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were on the tube every night. And Walter Cronkite. If it came out of Walter's mouth, it was gospel.

Rabbit hole #2: Don't you hate it when people begin a sentence with Frankly or Honestly? Does that mean everything else they've said isn't true?

So what's the problem with big government? Here's my theory:

We don't trust the people who can afford to serve their country without drawing a salary to make the right decisions for us.

Conversely, we don't seem to trust anyone running for office who we have never heard of and who doesn't have much money. They're just not electable. Whatever that means.

I can certainly understand our reticence toward letting the Rockefellers of the world run our country unchecked. History is rife with examples of the privileged few exercising said privilege for their own benefit when put in positions of power.

And I can appreciate that we don't want Joe Schmoe off the street being given the keys to the nuclear car, so to speak. Heaven forbid we elect ol' Joe and after watching a Hannity and O'Reilly marathon he's all heated up and decides to push the button.

But isn't there a happy median? Not any more, apparently. Listening to NPR the other morning, the resident political pundits opined that 2012 could be the first election in history where both major party candidates have at least $1 billion to spend on the presidential campaign.

Seriously?

Upon hearing that report, a friend of mine wondered what would happen if one of those candidates offered to take a large chuck of that and put a down-payment against the national debt. I told him that's a nice idea and Mr. or Ms. Candidate might even get elected. But it's probably illegal to use campaign funds to pay down the national debt.

I'm just saying.

What does big government represent? To me, it's the federal government having so many employees that if we closed down unnecessary departments and trimmed the ones we needed to keep, it would make the nation's unemployment rate untenable.

Rabbit hole #3: Think flat tax and no need for thousands of IRS employees and private-sector loophole experts.

In other words, it (big government) is what we have now.

What else does big government represent? The power to tell states what to do. The power to tell the people of this country that they must buy health insurance and if they don't, they can be fined.

It's one thing to tell us we have to pay taxes. And I'm okay with that - if we're going to have a standing military and people at the federal level to handle international relations, trade, and all those sorts of things, I understand that it takes money and I'm prepared to chip in my fair share.

I'm even okay with the whole Social Security thing. It's kind of comforting knowing that I'll reap some small financial stipend from all those hard-working years. Maybe...

But for a government to tell me I have to buy health insurance? That's along the same lines as a government telling me I have to drive a particular kind of car because it's safer or that I can't eat pork rinds because they're bad for me.

Rabbit Hole #4: I don't really eat pork rinds - but I do eat bacon.

That kind of government is just a little too big for me.

What do you think?

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Bubbles are worse than road rage...

2011-02-18T07:46:00.000-06:00

Don't tell anyone, but I am starting to type notes to myself on my Blackberry while I'm driving. It seems I have my best ideas for writing - be it blog entries or advancing the plot of my novel Night's Edge - while driving. I try my best to only do this if I'm at a red light; maybe I need to go on a Blackberry fast.

I recently had a friend who had a crisis. My friend and I had talked periodically about getting together for months. Most recently, he had even asked that we get together so he could talk to me about something that was bothering him. My life is busy - but no busier than others - and certainly not busy enough to put off spending time with someone in need, right?

These recent events got me thinking about how we interact with those around us. Unfortunately perhaps, the picture that sprang to mind was that of Lady Gaga making her grand entrance into the recent Grammy Awards ceremony.

I'm not a fan of Lady Gaga but my perception of her symbolism here is unmistakable - the egg protects her from the harshness of the world around her while still acknowledging her specialness. Or maybe not, but that's what started me thinking yesterday...

Remember, I was in my car - my own special bubble; we all have one. A few years ago, I couldn't read a paper, watch the news or talk to someone without hearing stories of road rage - horrifying tales of drivers folllowing people, confronting other drivers at traffic lights, pulling guns, running people off the road for perceived slights...it was rampant.

Now? I can't recall the last time I heard a road rage story.

Have we all retreated into our eggs, our bubbles? Have we unplugged from society? Shelved our emotions in favor of just not caring at all? A phrase I hear a lot of lately is, "I'm done with that."

Are we done with each other?

What do you think?

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Excess luxury makes it hard to remain humble

2011-02-14T15:06:00.004-06:00

I have another business trip coming up on the 1st of March. It's been a busy winter of travel and I've been thinking a lot about how all things travel have changed since I began moving about the globe as a young boy. The impetus for this entry - the last straw if you will - came from this inncouous list of Deluxe Room Features and Amenities at my upcoming home-away-from home in Rochester, NY:

Signature Bed with luxurious 310 thread count linens
Upgraded Bath Amenities including curved shower rods
Complimentary Wireless HSIA and spacious work desk
Ergonomic chair
LCD Flat Panel Televisions with Premium Cable
Mini Refrigerator/Honor Bar
Room Service until midnight
Coffee Maker and Tea Service

It's a fairly standard list, but what caught my eye is the second entry. I don't consider myself sheltered and I'm definitely not a spoiled traveller. As long as I have a bed, a shower and an iron, and it's clean...Still, I have to admit ignorance regarding the promotion of curved shower rods to the pantheon of upgraded bath ameneties. Sorry, all you folks that still use straight shower rods; so much for your curb appeal.

Travelers these days enjoy a nice bouquet of features (except on the airplane), even from historically low-priced inns. Though one might think there would be more powerful tag lines to lure prospective customers. Most business hotels have the ubiquitous ergonomic chairs and the in-room coffee maker. Just about all have a small fridge and wireless internet access.

Moving up the ladder I've seen the Flat panel LCD televisions popping up more frequently. Room service after midnight? Eh. I suppose that's a nice feature but I stay away from room service like the plague anyway because of the cost but if you're on expenses I suppose that's a perk.

To put all this in perspective, when I lived in Dubai and travelled around Europe, the Middle East and Africa, our company - bless their hearts - put us up very nicely, thank you. Hilton, Sheraton, Inter-Continental; 5 stars all the way. the Sheraton in Kuwait City, remodeled after damage from the first Gulf War, had an indoor golf video game. And when I say golf - I mean with real clubs and full swings and hitting the ball into a screen that calculated your ball speed, spin and shor trajectory.

When placed against a curved shower rod, well, you get the picture.

What do you think?

in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti...

2011-02-07T16:01:00.000-06:00

...Play Ball!

Last night was the second Super Bowl I had ever watched in a church. Watching the biggest spectacle in sports - at least in the USA - in a church is an interesting experience. We had food - and anyone who knows Baptists knows we're not going to skimp on the food! We had plenty to drink (no, Baptists don't drink alcohol in church; we don't even drink wine for the Lord's Supper) and a halftime show that sounds like it beat the real thing by a mile.

Pregame:
Yesterday was a super winter's day in NW Florida - mid-50's, sunny, light to no wind. Many of us arrived early at the student center with our covered dishes, snacks and drinks. After depositing mine on the two tables in the back, I grabbed some kids and went out to the parking lot to play some football - you know, the kind you play with your feet. Didn't everyone?

Kickoff: (including pre-game, pre-kick, pre-coin toss, pre-coin toss call, pre-commercial, post-commercial, some more commercial and, hey! What are those 22 guys in uniform doing on the field?

Oh, and I can't forget the strangling of the cat; otherwise known as Christina Aguilera attempting to sing the National Anthem. And look, I know how hard it is to get in front of a room full of people to speak or perform. I can't imagine the pucker factor of trying to sing a song in front of a live audience of one hundred thousand people and untold millions around the world. Look at it this way:

In the first half, Jordy Nelson, a young Packer wideout dropped what would've been a long gainer. I listened to several fellow Baptists bemoan what they perceived as an automatic catch. Yes, the ball did go right between Mr. Nelson's hands but in all fairness he was laid out and fignting off the challenge of a Steeler's defender. Still, that's what he gets paid for right?

Aguilera is a world-renowned singer. A performer on top of her game. Shouldn't we be able to bemoan the lyrical jumbling she brought to our nation's theme song? In fact, I wonder if this is an indictment of our school system - notwithstanding the fact that a young Christina may not have even gone to school in the United States - I mean, I could probably sing the National Anthem from memory (at least the first verse).

But that's right, they don't do that sort of thing in our schools any more.

Seriously, what a relief to finally get the game underway.

First Half:

The Packers owned the Steelers in the first half, well, right up until the end anyway. I was distracted by all those pesky kids wanting to play more football outside. Don't they realize when the game finally starts the grown-ups want to eat too much and yell at the big screen?

Halftime:

Pastor Brian - our awesome pastor at Ferris Hill Baptist Church - gave a great devotional that used football's yellow and red flags as object illustrations. The yellow flag is used in football by the officials to denote a foul - something that someone has done wrong. In life, this is the conviction we feel when we have stepped outside of God's rules. The red flag is used by coaches to challenge the call on the field - an attempt to overturn that call and change the outcome of the play. In life, there is only one way to change our eternal outcome, and that is to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.

If we don't make that decision, sincerely and heartfully before our demise, there is no changing the outcome of where we will spend eternity. No one will be able to throw the red challenge flag for us.

Second Half:

Sigh. I admit, I'm a sucker for the kids. They wanted to play some more, so outside we went into the semi-dark parking lot and - away from all the cars - we played some more football (soccer, for those of you who didn't get my earlier reference). I was able to make it back into the student center for the last quarter and enjoyed some final munchies, a nice cup of coffee and a Green Bay Packer victory.

Honestly, I didn't really care who won but I decided to pull for the Packers for a couple of reasons. One was Ben Rothlisburger. I saw him pointing at the sky when he threw a touchdown. I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, but his past behavior still weighs heavy on the scale of public opinion. Second, The Packers hadn't won this thing in a while and I just thought it might be nice to see the cheeseheads from Title Town take home another one.

Vince Lombardi said, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." Well, if you want to win in the game of life, there is only one way. Jesus said it best in John 14:6, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

What do you think?

X

I'm in a state

2011-01-25T19:04:00.000-06:00

Here we are; once a year we make the effort to sit still long enough to listen to a carefully scripted presentation that acknowledges what we already know about the state of our union and gives us some uplifting statements to make us feel better about it all.

I decided to turn on CNN in the hotel room and follow the coverage with them through the evening. I always used to believe that CNN was reasonably impartial as a news source although I wasn't naive enough to think they weren't leftward-leaning.

But what was the first thing I saw? Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room - which reminds me of Presidents making world-shaping decisions...

and also - like a train wreck - reminds me of Mike The Situation Sorrentino.

Of course, my most up close and personal memory of Wolf was him ducking and covering while covering the first Gulf War in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. I was in Riyadh where we were receiving daily Scud attacks and there he was freaking out on global television...not his best moment.

But I digress...

So there I am tonight trying to put that image of Wolf out of my mind and take his pre-SotU coverage seriously and who is the fist guest I see? Bill Maher.

In modern parlance, I thought to myself, 'Oh...my...gosh.'

The king of the liberals is on the air. My grandparents, parents and teachers always told me, 'If you can't say something nice about someone, don't say anything at all.'

You have no idea of the internal struggle that is causing at the moment.

Okay, here goes...

Mr. Maher said that President Obama should pull our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan...and every other foreign country in the world.

Leaving aside what we would do with all those troops (border guards or 20% unemployment?), I suppose the money we saved on foreign deployments might pay for every man, woman and child in the USA to get a university degree.

Since I'm still struggling, I think I'll do some more ironing, call my wife, do my taxes and generally forget that Maher's satanic image (oops) ever burned the surface of my cornea.

Enjoy the speech...and feel free to come by and tell me what you thought of it.

X

The moon is in the 7th, er, 8th house...

2011-01-14T13:07:00.000-06:00

Life has not been kind to us within the realm of time lately. After my last series of posts chronicling the painful, partial replacement of my wife's right knee, time has been - to paraphrase composer Richard O'Brien - fleeting.

And now, the very fabric of time, well, at least the part astrologers calculate, may be stretching.

In his article on Fox News, Jeremy Kaplan reveals how the shifting positions of the moon and stars over the last few millennia have called into question the accuracy of our current Star Signs.

I'm traumatized by the fact that a mere 3,000 years ago, Libra, my star sign, didn't even exist. So if I had been born back then, what would I be - Ophuchicus the snake handler? Thank goodness not. That honor is reserved for those born between November 29th and December 17th.

In the new age of Astrology, I will revert to Virgo, whose traits are, according to Astrology online:

Modest and shy
Meticulous and reliable
Practical and diligent
Intelligent and analytical

And on what they refer to as The Dark Side:

Fussy and a worrier
Overcritical and harsh
Perfectionist and conservative

They're totally wrong - I mean who would believe such clap-trap anyway? Of course, I may have to consider the ramifications of the small chance there may be some truth to their pseudo-scientific ramblings. A study! Yes! I propose a study; of course we'll need to read the library and convene committees and such but only on odd Thursdays when the temperature is above seventy degrees Fahrenheit.

Bah!

I've lived my entire life as the diplomatic, peaceable, idealistic, easy going, sociable Libra. I suppose I'll have to change.

Not.

The major prophet Daniel warned against things like sorcery and astrology in his writings on the life and experiences of King Nebuchadnezzar. When asked to interpret the King's disturbing dreams in Daniel 2, "The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, 'There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king's matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.'"

Of course not. And Daniel wisely never took credit for his ability to correctly interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dreams; he always gave God the credit - the One who is the only one able to see into our hearts and minds and know the truth of what we are about.

Astrology has always been akin to a game of Clue - only on a larger scale. People alone cannot predict the future nor can they determine the type of person you are or will be by the alignment of the planets, stars and Earth at the moment of your birth.

So while this makes for an exciting story I think it's more along the lines of cocktail party chat fodder than anything requiring more than a curious comment.

What do you think?

X

Walking already - I think it's nap time

2010-11-23T16:27:00.000-06:00

We've made it through a good portion of the grogginess of post-surgery blues and the joy of a liquid lunch - I think I can see a cheeseburger in my wife's future very soon! Unbelievably, the professionals from the hospital's torture - er physical therapy - department came by to take her on a leisurely stroll...

Now it's nap time. I feel a little guilty about being sleepy but getting to bed after midnight and getting up at 3:30 a.m. to get ready and come to the hospital makes for droopy eyes. She is on her side with the leg and knee supported by pillows and the lights are dimmed.

I will endeavor to stand watch without falling asleep. Thinking of that reminds me of Mark 14:37.

Still, I am wondering about autumn in Florida. I've heard of temperatures in the single digits and below zero up north. Here today? Roughly 78 degrees...

The chapel caught my eye on the way back to the room. It seemed a shame not to make use of such a peaceful place - the beauty of the stained glass and the words of Psalm 20 were just what the doctor ordered.

And for a certain author friend, I almost saw a Seabird when I looked at the chapel window the first time.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers...We really appreciate it!

X

Praising the Great Physician

2010-11-23T09:46:00.000-06:00

No, I don't mean Dr. Hartsfield - although he is a great surgeon!

My lovely wife is out of surgery and Dr. Hartsfield reports all went according to plan, and for any surgery, that's a good thing! She'll be in recovery for about another hour or so and then it's upstairs to our luxury suite overlooking the parking lot. And tomorrow begins the hopefully short road to recovery, with tortu, er I mean physical therapy and...Pain Management!

I've always thought pain management was an oxymoron, or at least an undesirable activity. I mean, I understand what pain management is and why some folks need it but I want to eliminate my pain - not manage it.

Of course, I'm a wuss, so...

What do you think?

X

Third time is the charm

2010-11-23T08:12:00.000-06:00

As I write this entry, I an in the lobby of Gulf Breeze Hospital, a member of the Baptist Health Care family of medical centers.

My wife is undergoing a partial knee replacement - her third knee surgery this year. After two 'scopes, an injection program and copious physical therapy, our doctor has decided that this is the best option for her to finally get over the knee problems that have been a thorn in her side for so long.

I'm a little slow, so asked the doctor to draw me a picture. Amazingly, it looked a lot like the one below:

You see, the problem is, my wife had torn her meniscus a couple of times and the knee joint had reached a point where the top bone was rubbing on the bottom bone. Friction in a joint, especially a load-bearing joint, is not a good thing.

Basically, they are going to readjust the knee joint, put in the two pieces you see in the x-ray image above, and sew it all back up with staples holding the 3-4 inch opening together.

Amazingly, she will be walking on it today!

Most likely we will have an overnight stay so the staff can make sure everything is going according to plan and we'll get to go home tomorrow.

We are praying for a full recovery according to God's good plan (plan bon dew in Creole). And once Nance is all better, I'm going to go in for some adverb therapy.

X

You want to know what faith is?

2010-11-20T08:50:00.000-06:00

So many people today question faith. What is it? What, or who, should we direct it toward? How do we cling to it in the worst of times? Over the last ten years I thought I had made some progress in understanding the answers to those - and many more - questions. This morning, I discovered I don't know squat.

If you want to make that discovery for yourself, read this article about a man named Chad Arnold. The journey that this man - and his family - have been on moved me to tears. As I read, I thought of Bible passages I have learned that spoke to what he has gone through, what he's going through and what he will go through. It's not that God's Word is insufficient in Chad's case - quite the opposite - it's just the thought of, "What can I possibly say that could connect with what Mr. Arnold has gone through?"

He is a walking illustration of what the Bible is all about. Sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph. You want to know what faith is? Just read about Chad and his brother Ryan and all the rest.

Chad's blog continues to document this story as he and the Arnold family continue to live through the loss they've experienced. I am astounded by their faith and challenged by their lives.

What do you think?

X

Leaving on a jet plane...

2010-10-22T07:53:00.000-05:00

Not that I've been verbose lately, but I'll be offline for the next week or so. I'm part of a team that is headed to Mirebalais to lead a revival, teach Bible school for children and generally minister to the community there.

This is something new for my walk of faith and I'm looking forward to what God has in store for us in Haiti.

Tonight is going to be a rush of shopping, packing, and last minute study and preparation. But come tomorrow, I'll be on the plane and in God's hands.

If you're the praying kind, please pray for safe travel, no tropical disturbances, and our hearts. These folks have been through so much - we want to have a positive impact on their community.

Bon voyage...

X

Football is barbaric...sometimes

2010-10-06T15:12:00.000-05:00

Or what the Americans call football; it's a rough sport. I'm fine with that.

What I'm not fine with is punks taking cheap shots. Punks like T. J. Ward.

Fox Sports reported that Ward was fined $15,000 for the hit. That's like you fining me $15 for beating the crap out of someone for no apparent reason. Not much of a deterrent, if I was inclined to be a thug.

And of course, Ward said he wasn't trying to hurt Shipley. They always do.

I think Jordan Shipley was a gifted receiver at Texas; don't know much about him as a Bengal but I'd guess he's got a fair few years ahead of him in the No Foul League, er, NFL.

How many times do we need to watch as players stand around after such vicious hits while the object of their destruction gets carted off to the hospital.

Anyone remember Darryl Stingley?

The play in the video above is clearly helmet-to-helmet: a serious foul now in the NFL. Didn't stop Ward from tagging Shipley though, did it? And these players spend more than $15,000 on a night out. Chump change.

Shipley was lucky, he just suffered a concussion. Lucky; right.

What do you think?

X

The next book I buy...

2010-10-05T06:57:00.002-05:00

...will be a copy of the new release from Dr. David Jeremiah, The Coming Economic Armageddon.

Now I'm not the Chicken Little type, but I think Dr. Jeremiah has made some good points - some scary points. Undertaking a year of research, he has put together some statistics - real numbers - that point to the inevitability of the U.S. economic system crashing.

Many non-Christians out there may sigh, roll their eyes, and say, "Oh boy, another end times scenario from the Christians...yawn."

But in listening to Dr. Jeremiah on the radio the last couple of days, he has dispassionately reported the numbers - numbers about our economy that are dismaying in the least, and frightening at worst. He's not making these up - this is information that is out there for anyone who spends the time to find it. Our debt load, our devalued currency, our inadequate tax base...

Whether you are Christian, Jew, Muslim or believe in something else entirely, if you are American and have a stake in our country's continued viability, you should read this book.

X

To believe in God...or not

2010-09-11T13:17:00.000-05:00

Greetings, blogosphere. I've missed you. Seriously.

New responsibilities at work have kept me from posting at all since the World Cup. My goal has always been to get at least one post up a week, so that should tell you how busy life has been.

I think today's entry is of suitable import to merit extra effort and a return to regular blogging.

As I prepared for our small group session this week - on making a case for God's existence - I looked around the Internet and read a few opinions on God. At the Philosophy Talk blog, I read Ken Taylor's post and many of the comments that followed. There was something almost cavalier about the author's dismissal of God's existence and I wondered at the depth of emotion displayed across the spectrum of belief as people commented.

I can't force anyone to believe in God and I can't convince or argue anyone to a belief in God. Each of us has to make that decision on our own. Jesus died on the cross and defeated death so that we could have a personal relationship with Him. All I can do is share that with anyone, and whether they choose to accept Him (or not) is their decision.

Responding to Mr. Taylor's post, I asked, "Would the atheists be happy if God forced himself on us? If we were all little white-robed-wearing proselytes with no free will?"

Who knows?

Secularists seem to want me to take responsibility for my own life, yet, when I do that and make the most important decision anyone can make, they mock.

Blaise Pascal had a personal experience that revealed to him the existence of God. Then he chose to present the case for belief in a mathematical, reasoned way. And people still mocked him.

I'm not saying that Pascal's Wager is the best foundation on which to believe in God - far from it. But for those that are seeking meaning in this life, it is one of countless arguments for at least considering the truth of God's existence.

The Bible, from beginning to end, is the story of God's effort to redeem mankind. Over and over, time after time, humanity turned away from God to our detriment. Over and over, time after time, God gave humanity another chance.

Finally, as was His plan all along, God said (Disclaimer: I am paraphrasing here), "Here's what I'll do - I will make the ultimate sacrifice and blot out all the terrible things humanity has done, is doing and will ever do. All anyone has to do is believe in Me, accept that what I have done will re-establish the bond I had with humanity in the very beginning, and those who choose to receive My free gift will be with Me for eternity, in peace."

Remember when you were a child and were punished for disobedience. You didn't like that but if you were honest with yourself you admitted that you had messed up and deserved to be punished.

Hell wasn't created for us but as we continued to disobey God over the centuries, it was clear that of the two places available to spend eternity, it was the most suitable for the disobedient.

But you say, "That's not fair!"

What's not fair about it? When you were a kid your parents told you, "If you do this then here's what will happen."

God has told us over and over, time after time, what will happen if we disobey Him. He has given us free will, as well as the full knowledge and awareness of the consequences should we choose to be disobedient.

I'd say that's pretty darn fair. If we had no idea - if we went through our entire lives without the Bible or church or any knowledge of God and His eternal plan - and we ended up in Hell because we had stolen a pack of gum when we were 14, then that would be unfair.

But He has revealed His plan to us; He's given us the rule book; He's told us everything we need to know in order to believe in Him and re-establish our relationship with Him. He's given us the road map to Heaven.

And He has given us free will to choose how we will live our lives. To paraphrase Rod Serling, "There's a signpost up ahead, and on it are two destinations."

Which will you choose?

Dogpile!

2010-06-22T14:28:00.001-05:00

I usually don't like to kick a person - or, in this case, a country - while they're down but let's face it, Les Bleus deserve it. Les Bleus - The Blues - France's national football team, lost badly today to tournament host South Africa in the last Group A match from the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The scoreline read 2-1 but in reality South Africa controlled the match from start to finish. It didn't help that French midfielder Yoann Gourcuff was sent off in the 25th minute, leaving his countrymen to defend against a motivated South African side for the remaining 75. In truth, Bafana Bafana (South African term for 'the boys') should have scored more. Doing so might have seen them through to the knockout stages in place of Mexico, but it wasn't to be.

So much for the good ol' days...

How could the 1998 world champions fall so far? Let me throw out a few nuggets...

Coach Raymond Domenech, after a 2-0 thumping by Italy dumped France out of the 2008 European championships, proposed to his girlfriend in the post-match interview. Nothing like being self-absorbed after an embarrassing team loss.

Prior to this year's world cup, Domenech prepared a full program for his 24-player squad: mountain bike training, weights, swimming and hiking. It doesn't look like they kicked many balls in the Alps...

Prior to the aforementioned 2008 European Championships Domenech admitted his team selection was influenced by astrology. Maybe that's why two of his best options, Arsenal regular Samir Nasri and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, weren't even selected?

Earlier this year, French winger and all-around (not-so?) good guy Frank Ribery was implicated along with Benzema and several teammates in a prostitution scandal involving a minor. Yikes!

Once Les Bleus actually got to the World Cup, they managed to score a grand total of one goal in three games. Striker Nicolas Anelka was dismissed from the team after allegedly making derogatory remarks concerning/to Coach Domenech during the halftime break of France's humiliating 2-0 loss to Mexico.

In protest, the entire French team refused to practice this past Sunday, apparently in a display of solidarity with the dismissed Anelka. Jean-Louis Valentin, the French team director, resigned afterward due to being 'fed up' with the team. You think?

Fitness coach Robert Duverne also stormed off the practice field Sunday, tossing his accreditation away in anger after an argument with French captain Patrice Evra - who, by the way, didn't even play against South Africa today. Badges? We don't need no stinkin' badges!

What a complete and utter train wreck.

At least, for the French, c'est finis. Now the rest of us can focus on really important matters - like the USA beating Algeria in a must-win to make the knockout round after being denied a clear winning goal against Slovenia by Malian referee Koman Coulibaly. Not that I'm bitter.

And speaking of dog-piling; the Irish, who were eliminated in a World Cup qualifier play off by, of course, Les Bleus, reportedly donned somberos and downed tequila shots after Thursday's win by Mexico over the French. Erin go bragh!

This World Cup has more drama than a WWE Smackdown. If this doesn't bring in the fans, I don't know what will.

But to the French...boux houx...and au revoir!

X

Morality Play or Discrimination?

2010-06-14T11:38:00.000-05:00

According to this report on MSN, a teacher was fired from a private Christian school for having sex outside of marriage. The teacher is now suing the school on discriminatory grounds.

At the risk of offending all free thinkers out there, I think the firing is justified, and here's why:

a) It's a private, Christian school
b) The teacher signed an employment application which clearly states, "...that as a leader before our students we require all teachers to maintain and communicate the values and purpose of our school."
c) The Bible is clear that sex outside of marriage is a sin

It should have been no surprise to the teacher that engaging in sex outside of marriage would put her employment at risk.

I am not setting myself up as a judge here. I'm merely expressing my opinion that considering the values and policies of her employer, the teacher should have been aware of at least the possibility that things could go this way.

I suspect that as a result of the pending lawsuit, the school will be required to spell out in their policies and procedures the types of behavior that are not allowed - that is, if they are allowed to keep some level of autonomy regarding said policies and procedures.

This whole situation is sort of a shame because, if you're a Christian and an adult, you should know these things already.

What do you think?

X

Freaky Friday...

2010-06-04T21:10:00.000-05:00

...no, not the one with LiLo.

You can tell it's a World Cup year when they have videos like this one out...

Short post today but honestly, it's quality over quantity, wouldn't you say?

X

You can't have it both ways...

2010-05-27T16:50:00.000-05:00

Last year I picked up a book by Bill Wiese entitled 23 Minutes in Hell. I read it, shared it with friends and then it started collecting dust. I happened upon it this morning and spent a few minutes browsing through the beginning again...

This question arose: How many Christians believe in Heaven but don't believe in Hell?

I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a mainstream Christian church that actively discusses Hell these days. The Bible says, "Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death." [Revelation 20:14]

As near as I can tell, Hades is not Hell - it is a place where our spirits go to await judgment. For those who are saved, it is a place of rest...Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." [Luke 23:43]. And for those who have not accepted Christ as their savior, well, I think Mr. Weise's book sums it up very succinctly.

It's not going to be pretty.

We all seem to love the books and stories that talk about Heaven and listen intently when people share their near-death experiences and how peaceful, etc. they were. And that's all well and good, but if we are to take God's word at face value - as the Truth - then we can't have Heaven without Hell.

If you'd like to know more, pick up a copy of Mr. Weise's book. Alternately, there are several videos of him floating around on YouTube.

If you're convinced that there is a Hell and that you don't want any part of it, well, read Romans 10:9 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Everyone has free will - you can pick where you spend eternity. To paraphrase the French Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "Choose wisely."

What do you think?

X

And then there were 23...

2010-05-26T13:48:00.001-05:00

U.S. Men's head soccer coach Bob Bradley has named his final 23-man squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as announced on the US Soccer web site. Here is our team:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (2010), Marcus Hahnemann (2006, 2010), Tim Howard (2006, 2010)

DEFENDERS (7): Carlos Bocanegra (2006, 2010), Jonathan Bornstein (2010), Steve Cherundolo (2002, 2006, 2010), Jay DeMerit (2010), Clarence Goodson (2010), Oguchi Onyewu (2006, 2010), Jonathan Spector (2010)

MIDFIELDERS (9): DaMarcus Beasley (2002, 2006, 2010), Michael Bradley (2010), Ricardo Clark (2010), Clint Dempsey (2006, 2010), Landon Donovan (2002, 2006, 2010), Maurice Edu (2010), Benny Feilhaber (2010), Stuart Holden (2010), José Torres (2010)

FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (2010), Edson Buddle (2010), Robbie Findley (2010), Herculez Gomez (2010)

All in all, I'm not too surprised at the choices Bradley made. There are quite a few debutantes to the World Cup stage and, amazingly, only four of the final twenty-three ply their trade in the MLS domestic league. This speaks to the depth of international experience this team boasts and should give fans of the beautiful game here in the U.S. some hope that we will post a good showing this go-round.

I think it's a bit much to ask for that the US team will penetrate deep into the draw, but a strong second place showing in the group stage is almost expected. Unfortunately, that will most likely earn us a meeting with a slightly injury-depleted but still dangerous Germany, the projected winner of Group D.

As always, our international hopes will be hanging on the pace and presence of Landon Donovan. The difference this year is that he has some help. His scorching hot scoring partner from the LA Galaxy - Edson Buddle - made Bradley's cut, and a rededicated DeMarcus Beasley from Scotland's Rangers should offer plenty of speed on the left wing - a prospect we've been waiting years for.

Physically, we look strong in the middle of the park with Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley, but there are still questions all over the defensive end.

I'd like to see the proposed starting eleven in action for the final friendly before the team departs. I believe that game will show us a lot of what we have to look forward to. ESPN will be broadcasting the game against Turkey on May 29th at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Tune in and support those Yanks!

No trumpet playing band...

2010-05-24T08:37:00.000-05:00

Ever have one of those days that fairly screams, 'Beautiful!'? Today started just like that. It's already getting hot in Florida - I'm talking in the nineties during the day with, maybe, a low of seventy-two. But this morning, the humidity was down and it felt cooler. I left for work and drove through the tree-lined, residential streets of Bagdad. The window was down, the air was cool. The oak trees were a vibrant green and the early-morning sky was impossibly blue. After thanking God for such a great day, I turned on the radio and heard this song...

The Doobie Brothers - Listen to the Music

Maybe it's because the Doobies were my first concert, maybe it's just because this song and this morning went together so well - who knows - it just fit. Traffic was light, the wind was cool and the sun rose at my back while I drove to work over Escambia Bay...perfect.

I'm no stranger to horns and synthesizers - I love jazz and new wave from the eighties - but this morning, the pure guitar sound of the early Doobies was just what the doctor ordered.

I liked the Doobie Brothers with Michael McDonald - he has such a great voice...

The Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes

But there is something about the early Doobies - straight forward guitar and vocal harmonies with a solid backbeat - that harkens to a simpler, more innocent time.

What drives the soundtrack of your life?

X

In a big country...

2010-05-19T20:29:00.005-05:00

I just finished listening to this solid example of Eighties Scot's Rock, or whatever that particular genre was called. We just called it New Wave.

The chorus of the song goes like this:

And in a big country, dreams stay with you,
Like a lover's voice, fires the mountainside..
Stay alive..

(I thought that pain and truth were things that really mattered
But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered)

I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert,
But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime..

In my youth I never paid much attention to lyrics - I was an American Bandstand kind of kid - if it had a good beat, and you could dance to it, that was enough for me. Heck, a lot of the songs I listed to, you couldn't tell what they were singing anyway.

But for some reason, I thought about this song today and then it came on the Internet Radio at work. I'm not shilling for them so I won't tell you which one. But they do have a nice New Wave station or two.

In a big country, dreams stay with you...

America is the big country. Not the biggest country, but the big one - the one everyone seems to want to get to; even today. When I was what is referred to as an expatriated American, we had a saying, 'The States are a great place to be from.' That was merely a chic statement at the time but true nevertheless. Even in Beirut, all the folks I ran into were not unhappy that I was American. They thought it was cool.

They didn't have MTV in the old days...

But you can't stay here with every single hope you had shattered...

How often, especially during the King Bush the Second years, did you hear some flaming liberal from Hollywood spout off about moving to France? About as often as one of those tightwad conservatives replied, "Need any help packing?"

If America, the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, now has a busy exit door, is there another Big Country? Environmental disasters; natural disasters; military disasters; political disasters; social disasters. Sounds like the sixties...almost.

But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime...

I don't think the majority of American people want much - despite the calls for Obama's head when he bailed out Wall Street and Detroit and left us holding the bag. It's telling that many of the rabble-rousers had voted for him just months previous. No. It would've been nice to give the billions to the people - how about $50K per family? Wouldn't that have stimulated the economy? Oh, I forgot...if the banks aren't loaning money, that's bad. So if we didn't need the loan...

We just want to live and breath and see the sun in the wintertime. Icelandic ash notwithstanding.

We live in a big country where dreams can still stay with you. Dreams that don't come from Washington.

What say you?

X

And that's how you do it, kids...

2010-05-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of stories - good and bad, inspirational and insipid - leading up to this summer's Football World Cup. For the uninformed, this year's tournament marks the 19th edition of what has become a global footballing phenomenon - and the first World Cup held on the African continent.

Injuries have dominated the news as the major European club seasons are wrapping up. Charlie Davies (F), Oguchi Onyewu (D), and Clint Dempsey (M) of the US team all went down with injuries during their respective seasons. Of the three, only Dempsey and Onyewu have recovered sufficiently to be invited to the pre-World Cup training camp by US Men's Team coach Bob Bradley. Sadly, Davies, who was nearly killed in a violent automobile accident last year, has not returned to full fitness, although he is well along in his recovery.

David Beckham, who fills a dual role playing midfield for U.S. club Los Angeles Galaxy and Italian giants AC Milan, went down with a freak tear of his Achilles tendon. The injury will likely prevent Becks from participating in his record fourth World Cup.

Germany, certainly one of the teams to watch in this year's footy-fest, were stunned this weekend as captain Michael Ballack went down with torn ankle ligaments, thanks to a late challenge by Kevin-Prince Boateng, in Chelsea's FA Cup victory over relegated Portsmouth. Fans of conspiracy theories will no doubt be exploring the coincidental timing of Boeteng's tackle - especially since he plays for Ghana, who are in the same World Cup group as the German squad.

Even non-players are getting in on the action as English Football Association Chairman Lord Triesman has stepped down from his FA post as well as the chair for England's 2018 World Cup hosting bid. Apparently, Lord Triesman was secretly taped speculating on whether the Spaniards and Russians were in cahoots to bribe some referees...or something like that. And of course, that bastion of British journalistic integrity - the Sunday Mail - appears to have thrown in some questions concerning Lord Triesman's relationship to his outer - and former personal aid - Melissa Jacobs.

Scandal, injury and intrigue aside, the best story I've seen so far is the next chapter in the Oguchi Onyewu injury tale. After rupturing his pateller tendon in a World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica, "Gooch" hasn't been able to play for his club, AC Milan.

For the love of the game

In an incredible gesture - Onyewu has signed a one-year, unpaid extension with the Italian Serie-A third-place finishers. You heard me right - unpaid. Can you imagine A-Rod, Peyton Manning, or LeBron James opting out of their salaries after sitting for a year due to injury? Isn't that what insurance and contract guarantees are for? In these days of prima donna sports personalities, Onyewu's loyalty and commitment to his club and contract are exemplary. In fact, here are AC Milan's exact words, ""This is an exemplary gesture that deserves our sincere congratulations."

I don't know about you but I'll be cheering a little louder for Gooch as the U.S. men take the field on June 12th.

U.S. Men defeated Spain 2-0 in 2009 Confederation's Cup

How about you?

X

That's Outrageous!

2010-05-04T07:37:00.000-05:00

In the past couple of weeks, I've heard enough outrage and umbrage over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to, well, fill the Gulf of Mexico. Don't get me wrong, I am appalled at the impact this spill is going to have on the Gulf ecosystem.

At the same time, I'm trying to be a little pragmatic - with anything mechanical, there is always a risk of failure. Frankly, I think the oil industry has done very well in cleaning up its act. How many wells are in the gulf? How many hurricanes have they weathered? I can't remember another major disaster like this. Folks refer to the Exxon Valdez - but that was a ship - and that was wholly a result of human error. We don't know what caused the Deepwater Horizon explosion yet, but I think we're talking apples and oranges here.

The biggest thing that jumped out at me as I watched President Obama this weekend - and it was reinforced by subsequent news reports - is that we're not addressing the larger issue.

No doubt we need to clean up this spill and hold the oil companies - not just BP - responsible. But what about seizing the day? What about taking this opportunity to draw a line in the oil sheen-coated sand and say, "Enough is enough." Wind, solar, battery, fuel cell, even nuclear (or nucular, if you like George). We have plenty of energy alternatives that can be developed. We've already got several companies producing road-ready, fully-electric cars.

I would so drive this car

Granted, models like the Tesla S (pictured above) are still expensive, but how much would it take to bring this technology to the masses? It's reported that BP is spending $6-7 million A DAY on the oil spill in the Gulf - and that's going to go on for some time.

Can you imagine what we could accomplish in terms of alternative energy technology if we spent $6-7 million a day in a concerted effort?

I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of the Gulf spill and the ongoing risk to a huge natural habitat along the Gulf coast - but I think we're missing a larger opportunity. Let's take those broken eggs and make an omelet, people.

What do you think?

X

Rich man, poor man...

2010-05-01T11:12:00.002-05:00

I was glancing through the comments at the end of this article on the challenges facing U.S. Men's soccer coach Bob Bradley, when I came across a comment that highlights a monumental truth regarding soccer in the USA.

A soccer oracle with the odd name of SignGuyDino hit the nail on the head when he opined, "In the world, soccer is the poor kid's game. In America, it's the rich kid's game."

I thought about that for a minute and realized the truth of it. Our oldest son just finished his freshman year in college. He didn't play club ball growing up and only played three years on his High School team. yet even with that lack of experience, he was able to get a partial scholarship to play at a small NAIA school in central Florida - Webber International University. But let me tell you, that is one expensive college. Is our son getting some great coaching and a great education? Absolutely - but it ain't cheap.

Our younger son, still a junior in High School, has been playing for the local club team, FC Santa Rosa, to boost his skill level. We are struggling to keep that dream alive. At $70 per month for club dues, it's not too pricey as club soccer goes, but the start up costs, uniform fees, tournament costs, etc. all add up. And in this economy, with a spouse who fell victim to layoffs, yeah, it's expensive.

I think what SignGuyDino was trying to say is that if you go to just about any other country in the world, soccer is played at the street level. Kids grow up playing the game anywhere they can. The professional leagues have academies to draw in the better prospects. National teams sponsor camps and other opportunities for kids of all age brackets - not just to showcase their talents, but also to offer real and valuable advice on what they need to do to improve.

Soccer is the world's game and it's looked upon across the globe like we look upon football, basketball, and baseball in this country - as a way to escape the poverty of the streets through excellence in athletic endeavor. I'm tired of hearing couch pundits rip American soccer - and I'm guilty as charged, although I still play the game - but many of their rants have substance, if not style. That dino guy also said that, '...in the U.S. soccer is played with a soccer mom mentality,' and he's right. We need to get serious about building a national organization to develop soccer in America. We need private companies and public organizations to help finance the growth of the sport in this country. We won't need the gravy train forever; once the sport takes off and the infrastructure is in place, then we'll begin to see the U.S. emerge as a real challenger on the biggest stages of the world's biggest sport.

What do you think?

X

For more in-depth commentary on the Beautiful Game than I can offer, check out the great blog by Ives Galarcep - Soccer by Ives

Greed is not good

2010-04-28T13:17:00.003-05:00

Last week, I was driving to work and heard a report on NPR noting the expansion of the annual NCAA Basketball tournament to 68 teams from the current 64.

I don't watch much basketball - pro or college - except for the Gators. But after their amazing back-to-back championships in 2006-2007 it's been a little slow in Gainesville for Billy Donovan and the Gator Nation. At least we've had Tebow.

No doubt there are a plethora of pundits who could, would and will expound on the value of adding additional participants to the round-ball love-fest referred to as March Madness.

Personally, I believe it's all about the money.

In the 1987 film Wall Street, Michael Douglas' Gordon Gecko is famous for saying, "Greed is Good."

I couldn't picture them making that movie today. The only people we would see at the theater would be wielding torches and pitchforks - not tickets.

NPR reports that the NCAA signed a 14-year, more than $10.8 billion deal that will expand television coverage beyond CBS - although they will still have sole possession of broadcast rights for the coveted Final Four. More than $10.8 billion? Does NPR not know how much more or is the NCAA just equivocating? Greed.

Another reason I don't care for the expansion of March Madness - and believe me, it won't stop at 68 - is that it plays into the new mentality that everyone is a winner. I'm all for self-esteem, but if we want everyone to be a winner, why play? I wonder how the organizers and sponsors of the NIT Tournament reacted to this news. Where will the teams come from that will be added to the NCAA tourney? I'm guessing from the NIT pool. So the NCAA gets better and the NIT, well, doesn't.

Not to mention that with a bigger pool of competitors, the NCAA and CBS will have to come up with a new name. Either that or just pretend - like Major League Baseball - that the old one still applies. Boy's of Summer? March Madness? With more teams, I can't see the NCAA tournament fitting into March. Oh wait. The final this year was played on April 5th. Too late.

I'm sorry to be all Johnny Raincloud about this. Coupling a sport I really don't have much interest in with a Trump Taj Mahal full of money...

Could you fit $10.8 billion in this building?

... none of which benefits the players, is just a recipe for disaster. But here's a suggestion: next March, how about just going outside with your kids and playing basketball. That's free and a lot more enjoyable. Isn't that a mad idea?

What do you think?

The Ginger Prince once more...

2010-04-18T21:01:00.000-05:00

Paul Scholes scored a dramatic goal on Saturday to give Manchester United an injury-time victory on Derby Day. The tie at Eastlands was fraught with drama if not goal-scoring panache. United are the Cardiac Kids of English Football, albeit a bit long in the tooth these days. But oh how many times have I sat in downcast misery as the clock struck 90 minutes - only to erupt in rapturous glee the next as Solskjaer or Keane or Cantona or fill-in-the-Red-Devil-hero-of-the-day here, has wrenched a victory or crucial draw from sure defeat. This time, a day after signing a one-year contract extension, the 35 year-old Scholes provided the honors.

The Ginger Prince in flight

There is still work to be done. Even with an inspired win over their City rivals and Chelsea's somewhat shocking loss to in-form Tottenham Hotspur, United have tough games ahead in their quest for an unprecedented fourth Premiership crown on the trot. Ironically, that challenge starts next Saturday at Old Trafford against the very same Spurs that have gifted the Red Devils with championship hope once more.

So while crimson-clad fans the world over rooted their hearts out for Spurs this past weekend, next week will be spent throwing them under the proverbial bus. With any luck, the Ginger Prince will be in the driver's seat once more.

What do you think?

X

A Magical Mystery...

2010-04-14T08:10:00.000-05:00

I don't know. Maybe I'm more in tune with the Vatican since watching Angels and Demons. This morning, up pops the news that the seat of Catholic power has made peace with the Beatles.

I had always imagined amazing and secretive meetings in the cloistered confines of Vatican City. Bishops, Cardinals and the Holy See praying and strategizing on how to blunt the progress of atheism and spread the love that is Jesus and His Holy church.

Frankly, I'm a little disappointed.

Someone in the Vatican has actually been keeping track of the anniversary of John Lennon's 1966 famous - or infamous - quip that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus.

Forgiven?

Forty years since the breakup of the iconic band, it's time for the Vatican to issue an official forgiveness proclamation?

Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano paid glowing tribute to how the Fab Four's melodies transcend their mortal sins and "...live on like precious jewels."

Amen.

What do you think?

X

Cell phones are evil

2010-04-13T12:45:00.001-05:00

I just walked across the parking lot to pick up something for lunch - all of maybe two hundred yards one-way - and noticed a young lady pulling out of the drive-through lane whilst putting her food down, driving, glancing around for other traffic, and ... talking on her cell phone.

This just struck me as wrong on several levels.

1. Isn't it rude to both the restaurant employee and the person on the other end of the call to be on the phone as you place your order, pay and pick up your food at the drive-through window?

2. Personally, I find it annoying and a little painful to have to hold my cell phone between my neck and my ear so I can use my hands for other things (like driving and shifting gears). I would imagine others would as well.

3. Pulling out of the drive-through lane while trying to accomplish several things at once tends to take a little away from all of them - something that seems a tad dangerous when one of them is paying attention to your surroundings while operating a motor vehicle.

I don't subscribe to the thought that cell phones are evil because they contain some inner demonic properties, as show in this video...

On the contrary, I believe cell phones are evil because of the cultural, societal and behavioral changes they engender in us humans.

Before everyone gets all defensive, I'll admit that I am the first to embrace all that is cool about cell phones. I've been using them since you needed a bag to carry one around. But I still get cranky when I see people blatantly ignore rules and/or common sense in the use of their mobile phone.

Ten years ago, I was flying to Riyadh and was perturbed to note how several passengers, on our final approach to King Khalid International Airport, already had their cell phones out, on and dialing. This despite the clear instructions from the crew to wait until we were inside the terminal building to use cell phones. I tell you, if I had died because someone couldn't wait to call their buddy and say (in Arabic), "Hey, Mohammed; guess where I'm calling you from?" I would have been some cheesed off.

Since then, the airlines have caved. I have determined that the use of personal electronic devices is not really dangerous because of wireless signals causing potential interference with the aircraft's navigation systems - it must be that they're more worried about said personal electronic devices becoming personal electronic missiles in case of some mishap on approach/landing.

Still.

In the common sense category, is driving a motor vehicle while organizing your lunch, talking to your friend and trying to note any potential hazards to navigation really a good idea? Or has multitasking become so de rigueur that merely doing one important thing at a time is considered slacking?

I put today's observation in the same category as the woman I passed the other morning who was reading a book while driving down the interstate. My gosh, is driving so downright boring that we need to engage our brains in some random activity in order to stay awake?

Seriously?

According to the Governor's Highway Safety Association, 21 states now ban texting while driving. My state (according to the table at the GHSA website) has no bans in place. Not even for school bus drivers.

I wonder where the kids get the idea that using a cell phone is OK while driving?

Even more amazing, Florida (my state) as recently as 2005 had a law banning localities from banning cell phone usage. (Business Week). Is that not evil? The state banned individual communities from enacting safety laws to protect the taxpayers.

Perhaps the cell phone isn't actually evil. Maybe it just brings out the latent evil in all of us. With lawsuits stemming from inappropriate photographs taken with cell phone cameras to the latest sexting craze, it's obvious that humanity will strive to find evil uses of this, and other, technology.

What do you think? Are cell phones evil?

X

A moment of lunar-see

2010-04-02T08:29:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week, I was driving to work and saw the moon so close I thought it was crashing to earth. The sun had not yet broken the eastern horizon and our nearest satellite hung in the brightening sky like a luminous silver ball, looming low and large in the western sky.

I couldn't help but be awed by the beauty of the dawn. But there were other elements to the morning. Beauty in the shape of the aforementioned full moon, silver against the sapphire morning sky. Undulating fog as I crossed the bridge, heading due west into God's night light as it slowly set. I had never seen fog like this: I wasn't driving through it - but off to the south it rose and fell across the bay and the hidden barrier islands as if shaping itself into some kind of spectral roller coaster.

Alongside the beauty lay function - the still-new looking bridge; three lanes of pale concrete stretching across the watery blue expanse, making my journey so much shorter. We appreciate the purpose of this span even more than before - since its predecessor had been tossed aside like so many Lego blocks by the force of Hurricane Ivan. My old car still humming along, taking me to work and the slim aluminum light poles...dark now in the morning but ready to light my way home at the other end of the day.

And ugliness. The belching smokestacks of the chemical plants north of the bay. How much ugliness do we endure for the sake of modern convenience? Much more than I see in my world. Perhaps that's the trick: the better we hide the ugliness, the more we are willing to tolerate it. But this morning, white and gray smoke plumed forth from the stacks, inexorably craning into the impossibly blue sky like the pillars of Olympus - if they had been designed by some heartless, soulless character from an Ayn Rand novel.

Beauty; function; ugliness. A microcosm of our world. God created this blue planet for us to live on and care for. He gave us beauty and function, but I think that we have far surpassed ourselves as creators of ugly. Do we turn from it? Do we embrace it? Do we use it as motivation for change?

What do you think?

X

I know where the Holy Grail is...

2010-04-01T08:26:00.000-05:00

...sort of.

I watched a very interesting program on History International last night that opened with an investigation of the Kensington Runestone. The Kensington Runestone is a large slab of rock with enigmatic runes carved into the surface on several sides. A farmer, Olof Ohman, found the stone entwined in the roots of a tree he felled on his farm in 1898. The Ohman farm was located about two and a half miles northeast of Kensington, Minnesota.

What does this have to do with the Grail?

It was late, and I was tired, but as best as I could follow, the Kensington Runestone is purported to have been buried in Minnesota in the year 1362. You heard right - 130 years before Columbus discovered the New World, some other Europeans were in MN. It's pretty clear that Norse explorers had been to what is now known as North America prior to Columbus but again, what does that have to do with the Holy Grail?

As near as I can tell, the program on History International made the case that it was actually the Templars that buried the stone. The program investigated various sites in Newfoundland and the United States where artifacts and other runestones have been found. This included a trail of clues that led to the storied Oak Island Money Pit in Nova Scotia.

No one has been able to breach the ingenious booby trap that floods the pit with sea water when explorers get to a certain depth. There are many theories about what lies at the bottom of the pit - money, jewels, priceless documents, and yes - even the Holy Grail.

I started thinking about that this morning. Let's say one day someone devises a way to beat the trap and recover whatever lies at the bottom of the pit. Let's allow that it is an ancient cup of Hebrew origin. What will that mean? People will accept it as the Cup that Christ used at the Last Supper. Others will argue unto death that no one can prove he actually drank from it.

In the end, what will be gained?

It is not the cup that holds meaning for us - it is the search within all of us for life's meaning. What is God's plan for our lives? The Grail is just how that search is objectified for some.

Now, if they find the Ark of the Covenant, that would be a different story!

What do you think?

X

RIP Robert Culp

2010-03-29T08:06:00.000-05:00

I'm not much for worrying about what happens in Hollywood, but wanted to note the passing of another of the old guard of actors (Culp was a writer, too).

I Spy was way ahead of its time - a great show and a great example. Isn't it amazing how they were able to make an entertaining show without resorting to F-bombs everywhere?

So long, Mr. Robinson...

Life is crazy busy...

2010-03-26T11:50:00.001-05:00

...but there is still time to stop and find the peace that passes all understanding. And it doesn't hurt that you can have a chuckle while you're doing it!

For those who remember the old (and blush-inducing) Sir Mix-a-Lot tune, this one is better!!

What do you think?

X

There goes my tan line

2010-03-24T13:37:00.001-05:00

I read in this CNN article how Obamacare will impose a 10% tax on indoor tanning beds. Score one for the home team! Of course, with every seemingly positive piece of legislation, there is always one group of folks that is disgruntled. In this case, it's the lofty-sounding Indoor Tanning Association. Indoor tanning must be bigger than I thought - maybe that's why their industry association is cheesed-off about their members having to pay a 10% tax - which of course means indoor tanners will have to pay an extra 10% to get that golden glow without the annoyance of getting sand in their drawers. I don't see any impact on the indoor tanning industry - I think they're whining because customers who can barely afford indoor tanning today will have to give it up.

I guess that means the doctors who treat skin cancer will have less work, too. Hang Obamacare! It's ruining the economy.

The CNN article also mentions another option that was considered: putting a tax on elective cosmetic surgery. With all of the Botox parties and whatnot, I would've thought that idea to be a slam-dunk.

Apparently Congress disagreed and instead slapped those Huns over at the Indoor Tanning Association with the 10% levy. I suppose all the beautiful people over at the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery have a little more stroke on Capitol Hill.

What do you think?

X

Ray of hope for US Soccer

2010-03-18T16:19:00.001-05:00

The last year has been hard on the US Men's Soccer team in terms of injury. Davies, Onyewu, Dempsey, Holden...I've probably missed some more, but the first three are key players for the national team ahead of this summer's World Cup.

Today, I'm breathing a little bit easier. Clint Dempsey who has recovered from his knee injury and is working his way back into the first team at Fulham in the Barclay's Premiere League scored a sick goal to overcome a 3-1 deficit and seal the Cottagers advance into the quarter-finals of the Europa Cup - Europe's second-tier club competition.

A picture is worth a thousand words...

It may have been an attempted pass; it may have been blind luck, although many pundits are assigning glowing adjectives to Dempsey's strike.

Whatever the case, with Clint rounding back into form, things are looking up...

What do you think?

X

Erin Go Bragh!

2010-03-17T07:55:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again; when all the wanna-be Irish erupt into a frenzy of green and proclaim their Irishness. I blogged a bit about Ireland yesterday without even really thinking that today was the day everyone get's all het up about.

Thanks to History.com, I learned that the first St. Patrick's Day parade did not take place in Ireland but in the United States. Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City on March 17, 1762. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as fellow Irishmen serving in the English army.

But who among today's revelers knows the origins of St. Patrick? The son of wealthy English parents, St. Patrick was reputedly taken captive by Irish bandits, who also plundered his parent's estate. During the ensuing six years of captivity, St. Patrick turned to Christ for comfort. According to writings, God came to him in a dream and said it was time to leave, after which St. Patrick escaped and returned to England.

However, in another dream, an angel came to St. Patrick and told him that he must return to Ireland for missionary work. After fifteen years of study St. Patrick did so, ministering to Christians and converting the Pagans. Many believe that St. Patrick is responsible for bringing Christianity to Ireland.

So, far from the green beer and raucous parades, today should be a day spent in prayer and thanksgiving. Perhaps the party atmosphere comes from the original celebrations of St. Patrick by the Irish, which included church services in the morning and then feasting in the afternoon.

Although much about St. Patrick is clouded by the mists of time, it's clear that he was used in a great way by God to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a beautiful land.

What say ye?

X

Thanks to Joan Schroeder and her article on Helium for background on St. Patrick.

Mysteries from the past...

2010-03-16T08:40:00.000-05:00

I am, perhaps oddly, drawn to Irish things. My grandfather, the late Dermot Peter Paul Patrick Joseph Dunne, came over on the boat from the Emerald Isle - so perhaps it's not so odd after all.

I have yearned to return to Ireland ever since spending time there when I was in secondary school in Cirencester. Alas, opportunity has not opened the door. But now, I have something new to hope for: a chance to visit the burial mound at Newgrange...

This article from National Geographic describes the popularity of the oldest known burial site in Ireland - older than the Great Pyramid at Giza as well as Stonehenge.

What makes Newgrange, and other mounds scattered around the River Boyne, so intriguing is their alignment with the sun during various times of the year. At Newgrange, the winter solstice sun shines through a tiny window above the door at dawn, illuminating the floor of the the burial chamber at the end of a sixty-foot passageway.

For about seventeen minutes, twenty people a year are drawn at random and descend the passage to witness this amazing feat of ancient engineering. Although I'm not sure if it's the saints that go marching in, I would like to one day be in that number.

Why was the tomb aligned with the Winter Solstice? How did the builders design and construct such a precise structural alignment? Was it simply to honor their dead kings? Were they celebrating the rebirth of the sun? I don't know, but I'd like to go and have a look anyway.

Wouldn't you?

X

US Soccer continues missteps...

2010-03-15T09:09:00.001-05:00

Well, I was wrong. Way back in January I sort-of predicted that Landon Donovan would extend his loan spell at Everton after a great start with the Toffees.

The BBC has reported that his loan spell has officially ended on schedule.

I still believe this is a bad move.

This is a world cup year; we've had some significant injuries to top US players and despite Dempsey's return to action with Fulham last week, and the positive reports regarding Charlie Davies and Oguchi Onyewu recoveries, I believe the US national team's form heading into the most important summer in US Soccer history is a concern.

If I were Bruce Arena (I should be so lucky), there is no doubt I would be taking the hard line to get Landon back to the Galaxy ahead of the MLS season - especially with news of Beckham's Achilles injury. No matter what folks think, Becks makes an impact for the Galaxy and without him on the pitch until mid-summer, it's even more crucial to get Donovan back.

But that's short sighted. MLS exists to grow the sport in this country. This year, that means the best showing possible in South Africa. With Donovan's stellar form - surprising to some - in the Premier League, the Galaxy should be looking at the longer view.

Congrats on your success overseas Landon - it was long overdue. I hope you get the chance to return to the Blues. You deserve it. The Everton fans want it. And US Soccer needs it.

What do you think?

X

My name is Xanthorpe and ...

2010-03-10T08:44:00.002-06:00

... I watched the Oscars.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I watched the annual I love myself fest that Hollywood foists on us. First off, I respect the ability it takes for people to memorize large chunks of information and then imbue the recitation of said chunks with the gamut of human emotion. Heck, to cry on cue?

But lately, the Oscars have just gotten way out of hand. Gift baskets that cost more than the annual household income in most non-developed countries; political and social diatribes that go way beyond Thank You. And a steady parade of hosts whose primary goal seems to be outdoing their predecessors.

What I liked about the 2010 Oscars:

Coming away with the knowledge that there are movies out there that I need to watch - namely Blind Side and Up
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin making fun of George Clooney
Sandra Bullock winning for Blind Side (and her acceptance speech)
James Taylor
Finding out Matt Damon won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay for Good Will Hunting
Tim Robbins talking about Morgan Freeman

I'm sure there were other entertaining moments, but...

What I did not like about the 2010 Oscars:

The pre-game show known as Red Carpet something-or-other. Never have I seen a more nauseatingly obsequious bunch of kiss-kiss in my life.
Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as co-hosts. I really liked Steve Martin early in his career. Now? Not so much. Alec Baldwin? Dean Martin was smooth - Alec Baldwin is slimy.
Actresses who feel the need to reveal. Enough said.
Miley Cyrus' dress - besides being totally unflattering and unsuitable for a young lady of her vintage, she looked very uncomfortable in it.
Constantly panning to James Cameron as his ex-wife won all the major awards for Hurt Locker. Good for her but dang! Let's leave off trying to stir the pot already.

Overall, I suppose it was adequate but I just can't help missing the Oscar telecasts I grew up with. Stars were stars - think Bogart, Cagney, Wayne, Stewart, Fonda, Newman, and on the lady's side, Davis, Redgrave, Hepburn, Crawford, Gardner, Garland, Welch. And many more.

As for the hosts, I don't think you could top Bob Hope and Johnny Carson. Billy Crystal was okay, but it hasn't been the same. When Hope and Carson put on a tux and walked out on stage, they owned the house. I don't think you can say that about Martin and Baldwin - they were just accessories.

I'm not promising to watch the 2011 Oscars...I may be cleaning the bathroom.

I'll leave you with a classic clip and you can let me know what you think of this year's telecast - and what your favorites are from years past.

What do you think?

X

Ones and Zeroes vs. Tangible Assets

2010-03-03T08:53:00.000-06:00

As a conservative, I'm a failure.

Not in an I'm gonna be Al Gore's buddy now or I can't wait to get a poster of Mike Papantonio on my wall kind of way. No, it's more insidious than that: I'm a huge fan of NPR.

Oh, I've still got my core values intact, but I do get a large majority of my news and views on the world from Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne in the morning and Melissa Block, Robert Siegel, and Michele Norris in the afternoon. Every once and awhile, I catch Fresh Air with Terry Gross - that one really hurts, because I just know she's really a liberal.

Less damning perhaps is my affinity for weekend fare such as Car Talk, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and my personal favorite: Whad'Ya know? with Michael Feldman. I swear, I'm going to Wisconsin one day - just to try and get on that show.

This morning, I heard a segment entitled Tina Brown's Must Reads. I have no idea who Tina Brown is or why her opinion should shape my reading habits, but I listened anyway. Amongst the chatter about books and articles I would expect NPR to promote, Ms. Brown highlighted a NY Times article Publishing: The Revolutionary Future by Jason Epstein.

Mr. Epstein discusses a variety of angles on a topic that is getting a lot of traction as electronic publishing seeks to supplant the traditional tomes of yesteryear.

I found his article interesting reading, not just from the standpoint that at some time in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future I'll be seeking a publisher for my own novels; but also because moving from the printed word to an ephemeral world of digitized works is a philosophical and social issue as well as a business and marketing one.

Let's say that 100 years from now printed works are all but gone - decayed on shelves, tossed in the dustbin...forgotten. All the great literary works and non-fiction texts have been converted to online libraries.

And then the lights go out.

Catastrophe or opportunity? The loss would be catastrophic for sure. But future writers would be assured of continuing relevance in our increasingly sterile and digital world.

What do you think?

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Cultural flip flop

2010-02-18T11:02:00.001-06:00

I was driving home from work a couple of days ago, listening to Fresh Air on NPR as Terry Gross interviewed Ken Gormley, the author of The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr.

I'll tell you right off the bat, I just know that Terry and I wouldn't get along all that well. I like her show - she's a good radio interviewer, but she leans way too far left for my comfort. That said, her interview with Gormley was interesting fare.

I don't have a lot of time for recreational reading but Gross' interview on Tuesday night was inspiring enough for me to almost buy Gormley's book. You can read about the interview here, if you're so inclined.

What I got out of the interview is that whatever evidence of misconduct Ken Starr and others dug up about the once-Governor of Arkansas and then-President of the United States Clinton, the most important outcome of the Starr investigations and subsequent impeachment hearings was the polarizing effect they had on American politics.

In other words, it was purely incidental that Bill Clinton continued to live an immoral and unarguably adulterous lifestyle while rising to and occupying the most powerful office in the world. The largest apparent travesty was the violent wedge that drove Republicans and Democrats farther apart - and how that continued chasm colors every effort to pass legislation today.

Although I, perhaps naively, believe that our President should be above the moral fray - notwithstanding Carter's admission to Playboy that he had committed adultery in his heart - most people I spoke with at the time considered Clinton's dalliances inappropriate but nothing to get worked up about. Sort of a boys will be boys attitude; consenting adults, and that sort of thing.

Fast forward to the present...

Tiger Woods has been vilified in the press for pretty much the same behavior for which we gave our 42nd President a pass. Whoa. What changed?

Were Tiger's objets de l'amour consenting adults? Check

Was Tiger in a powerful, public position? Perhaps a check - certainly Tiger's brand and image made him the most recognizable sportsman worldwide.

Was a wife in the dark as to her husband's behavior? Debatable - who knows what Hillary knew? But the public revelations of said behavior certainly warrant a check.

Tomorrow, Tiger is making his first public statement since revelations about his numerous dalliances surfaced. It will not be a press-conference, per se; more along the lines of round one of seeking forgiveness, regaining public approval, and Tiger positioning himself to move on.

To Tiger I say, "Be patient."

Bill Clinton is all over the place these days. Raking in public speaking fees, heading up worldwide charitable organizations, hanging out with decision makers at international conferences.

Water off a duck's back.

People want to love Tiger. Everyone loves a success story. But if there's one thing I've learned about the always-fickle American public, it's this: As much as we root for someone to succeed, we are equally quick to turn on them like a pack a snarling hyenas. An ugly truth to be sure, but the ugliness doesn't make it any less true.

What's my point? If we can forgive Mr. Clinton for lighting his cigar in the nation's living room, certainly we can forgive a mere golfer; someone who makes his living hitting a little white ball.

I don't know. Am I crazy? What do you think?

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Conmemoratio

2010-02-16T08:36:00.002-06:00

A light has gone out in the literary universe. One might not put Dick Francis in the same conversation as Poe or Shakespeare or Dante or some other revered author, but for me, he
was a novelist - and a great one at that.

Dick Francis, courtesy of www.dickfrancis.com

Mr. Francis was a very successful National Hunt jockey in the UK. He won over 350 races and was champion jockey in 1953-1954. Upon retirement, he published The Sport of Queens, an autobiography, before going on to write forty-one bestselling novels. Among his numerous accolades, Francis won the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association’s Cartier Diamond Dagger and is the only three-time recipient of the Mystery Writer of America’s Edgar Award for Best Novel, winning for Forfeit in 1970, Whip Hand in 1981, and Come to Grief in 1996, the same year he was make a Grand Master (lifetime achievement).

In my early days of reading - we're talking junior high school here - Mr. Francis' works were ones that I devoured eagerly. My father's library had all sorts of highbrow fiction and non-fiction, but alongside Alistair McLean and Helen McInnes, Dick Francis novels like Nerve, Flying Finish, and Blood Sport were thrilling peeks into the world of (mostly) British horse racing - with a mysterious and often murderous twist.

Over the intervening years, I occasionally picked up a Francis novel, always knowing that it would be a rewarding and entertaining read. There are very few things in life that are a dead cert, but a Dick Francis novel is one of them.

Thank you, Mr. Francis, for all the hours of exciting reading you provided for myself and countless other fans.

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Book plug Friday...

2010-02-12T08:19:00.001-06:00

Just a quick plug for a great book, Seabird by Sherry Thompson.

Buy it here...

I read Seabird several years ago and am looking very much forward to the next chapter of the Narentan Tumults in the form of Earthbow - due out any day now.

You can read R. L. Copple's review here and in case you missed last year's Seabird blog tour, check it out for great reviews and links.

What are you still doing here? Go and read Seabird!!

You'll be glad you did.

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Top 3 SB XLIV Commercials

2010-02-08T08:13:00.001-06:00

OK - there must be terabytes of print on the Internet about the Super Bowl today - if not more. Here is my contribution...

#3 - Focus on the Family: A lot of folks are tearing this one down, but I applaud Mrs. Tebow - she put her baby's life above her own. Isn't that what all mothers do?

#2 - Doritos Dog Collar - This didn't make most top 10 lists but I thought it was hilarious. I like dogs, I like Doritos and, well, I don't know - it was just funny to me.

#1 - Betty White Snickers: This is just hilarious. Betty White is so funny..."That's not what your girlfriend said."

Too much...

Honorable mentions: Puxatawnee Polomalu, Kia, Hyundai... What are your favorites? Which ones did you hate?

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Fair play isn't dead

2010-02-04T08:35:00.002-06:00

For all the haters out there - you know who you are - that say soccer (football) is a sport filled with posers, hooligans et al, here's your sign!

Credit 101 Great Goals for finding this one and The Beautiful Game for highlighting it.

That's right, these are two teams from the professional league in Iran, as 101 puts it, 'one of the 'Axis of Evil'. Normally in football, if a player goes down, play is allowed to continue unless there appears to be a serious injury. In any case, it's usually the referee that blows the whistle to stop play (Rule highlight: That's why there is extra or 'injury' time at the end of each half).

In this case, the opposing keeper was down for the count and the loose ball fell to an opponent who had worked his way into space and was preparing to shoot into an open net. Instead, the striker kicked the ball into touch (out of bounds) and pointed to the injured keeper.

Fair play, indeed.

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