Friday, November 11, 2005

Thanks.


Today, I'd like to join my voice expressing thanks to the many people who served our country in the military.
Most volunteered, many did not.
All deserve the gratitude of every American.
Today is about giving respect and honor. Not politics.
Thanks again.

Addison Groove Project

This week's featured "check-em-out" band is Addison Groove Project. I stumbled across them on the Live Music Archive, which is a web site dedicated to providing access to live performances.
The bands on this site are supportive of taping live performances and the acts range from the typical jam bands (moe, String Cheese Incident, Grateful Dead) to surprisingly eclectic acts. ...And They'll Know Us By The Trail of The Dead, the Cowboy Junkies, Jason Mraz and Los Lonely Boys all have multiple shows available to listen to.

I like this site because it lets me get away from the shadow of Clearchannel and hear music I would never find on a radio dial. Does every city in America have a "Kiss-FM" station now?

Let us know if there is an act there we need to hear.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

I never thought of it that way...

Wow.
Usually I try to look at things from both sides of the coin. My wife even accuses me of always "taking the other side" in any discussion we have. The Devil's Advocate, you might say.
But when it comes to celebrities and the limited view of their lives we are afforded, I form opinions quickly and easily.
So imagine my surprise when I read an article about T.O. that made me re-think what I said yesterday. It made a compelling argument that ignoring Mr. Owens is not the thing that would hurt him most. There may be one thing that could drive him even crazier than being marginalized.
Pity.
We should pity him.
Because, after all, in this new world we live in, it's not really his fault.
Read the article.

Parents wanted

Wake sent me an e-mail and a link to this article in the NY Times. He asked me to post this quote from it and include his comments:

"The looks I would get when I went in there made me so nervous that I would try to buy the food as fast as I could and get out," said Laura Brauer, 40, who has stopped visiting A Taste of Heaven with her two children. "I think that the mothers who allow their kids to run around and scream, that's wrong, but kids scream and there is nothing you can do about it. What are we supposed to do, not enjoy ourselves at a cafe?"
What are you supposed to do? Parent! Which means that sometimes you don't get to enjoy yourself. It means that sometimes you have to leave because your child cannot get control. Is the whole world supposed to suffer whenever your child has a bad day? No wonder these children don't learn to control themselves in public settings. Their parents have such a high sense of entitlement they see their needs as superceding the needs of others. And that is what their children learn. Send in the Super Nanny!
Kurt's comments here:
Revisionist history is at work here, but I know there were times we had to leave due to the manner my girls were acting. But very few.
The best occurance of this happened when I wasn't present. Stephanie was shopping at Target with Nicki (our youngest), who was about 3 at the time. Nicki had seen something she wanted in the toy section, but my wife had said no.
Nicki started to pitch a tantrum.
Stephanie told her they would leave if she didn't stop her tantrum.
Nicki kept on, so Stephanie started to wheel the cart toward the exit.
In the first indication that Nicki was watching too much TV (and learning more than we thought), Nicki changed what she was yelling.
"HELP! STRANGER DANGER! YOU'RE NOT MY MOTHER!"
They did make it out of the store without her mother being arrested and Nicki was "persuaded" to not resort to that tactic again.

Parenting is hard work. Believe us old people when we tell you that having a child is going to change your life forever!

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Terrell Owens should be quiet.

If you've been under a rock or have no interest in pro football, you've heard about T.O. This idiot has the audacity to complain about his employers (the Philadelphia Eagles) who happen to be paying him millions of dollars.
Kevin Blackistone has a great column about this man and his selfishness. He's upset because the Eagles have decided he is no longer a positive contributor and asked him to stay home the rest of the year. Of course, he will still be paid about $800,000. But he will lose $400,000 for the games he has been suspended for. Dale Hansen had a great line about T.O. last night on the local news:
"T.O. is like an 8 year old that has been grounded for not cleaning his room. Now he wants to clean it and be un-grounded."

I need to buy a ticket for the MegaMillions this week (I hear it's $260 million). If I win, I'll offer to pay his salary next year if they make him stay home again.

Monday, November 07, 2005

No committed gay couples here

Okay, the results are in.
Yesterday, Texans overwhelmingly voted to define marriage as between one man and one woman. That's how my religion defines it also, so I won't have to change my life thank goodness.
The amendment to our constitution also included "prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage."
No civil unions here. No recognition or recourse for couples that are in monogamous, long-term relationships as far as property rights, insurance benefits or even hospital visits - after all, they're not really a family.
It seems most Texans think it better that gays and lesbians sleep around, drift from partner to partner and bring their kids up in "serial" family enviroments, with different adults as heads of households every couple of years.
Oh my gosh!
At first I thought that most Texans were prejudiced against homosexual couples.
But I just realized they're not. Otherwise they wouldn't want homosexuals to be just like them (only without the expense of the divorce)!

Loving God and Caring for Creation

While Kurt is busy with work I thought I would be a good big brother and pick up the slack in posting rants. So here goes:

The call from evangelical Christians for a more responsible environmental policy is starting to be noticed. Both politicians and the news media are discovering that evangelical Christians believe that the Bible demands they support responsible efforts to care for creation. The New York Times has an article today noting this.

NY Times, Nov. 7: With increasing vigor, evangelical groups that are part of the base of conservative support for leading Republicans are campaigning for laws that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists have linked with global warming.
...."We believe that we have a rightful responsibility for what the Bible itself challenges," Mr. Cizik, the National Association of Evangelicals vice president for governmental affairs said. "Working the land and caring for it go hand in hand. That's why I think, and say unapologetically, that we ought to be able to bring to the debate a new voice."

For once the NYTimes has recognized that evangelicals can be intelligent articulate advocates for what are perceived to be liberal causes. Maybe in time they will come to catch a glimmer of an understanding of what motivates the mainstream evangelicals in America. That we're not the knee-jerk, Bible thumpin', lime-light loving, self-appointed spokesmen they usually cover. Someone must have put a copy of Sojourners magazine in the executive washroom. Jim Wallis, Sojourners' editor, is unabashedly evangelical in his faith, and provocatively liberal in his politics. But he refuses to allow his faith to be co-opted by secular causes. Something that has happened to far too many politicians. Consider this senator's response as reported in the same article.

A major obstacle to any measure that would address global warming is Senator James M. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who is chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and an evangelical himself, but a skeptic of climate change caused by human activities.
....Mr. Inhofe said the vast majority of the nation's evangelical groups would oppose global warming legislation as inconsistent with a conservative agenda that also includes opposition to abortion rights and gay rights. He said the National Evangelical Association had been "led down a liberal path" by environmentalists and others who have convinced the group that issues like poverty and the environment are worth their efforts.

I don't know about Mr Inhofe's faith, but I am certain that it is exactly issues like poverty and the environment that are worth the efforts of myself and my fellow evangelicals. I worship the Living God, not the idol of Conservatism. The presumption of conservative Republicans that they can set the moral agenda for faithful Christians is as repugnant to me as the way in which Democrats are dismissive of the significance of faith in our lives.