I recommend the reading of Julie's entire post. I so echo Julie's thoughts - Focus on the Family is such a mixed bag. So much of Dr Dobson's ministry has helped so many young families.. I can still remember his great video series back in the late 1970s.. he helped me to become a better husband and father. Yet the ministry of Focus has become mired down in politics and known predominantly for their anti-gay political positions.For ten years, I listened to Dobson's daily program and got much support and help in my tasks as a stay-at-home mom. I heard programs on homeschooling, Creative Memories photo albums, how to handle toddlers, ways to find joy in ordinary life, tips for keeping your marriage healthy, how to live on one income, decorating for Christmas on a budget, dealing with in-laws, recovering from an abusive childhood. I heard lectures given by some of the biggest Christian writers and speakers all without having to leave home to go to a big conference in another city. I felt encouraged in my daily life: I could do this, it wasn't too hard, I could be close to my children and keep my family together.
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Dobson became enamored of the political process and the possibility of shaping policy through the muscle he'd developed in the family ministry. I was on board for the anti-abortion agenda, but I've never supported his position on gay marriage or prayer in the schools. Yet the courting of morally questionable Republicans (whose own families were hardly models of the kind of health and spirituality Focus intended to cultivate) and his increasingly shrill reaction to those in opposition made me withdraw support from Focus on the Family.
Slumdog Millionaire tells the story of two brothers and a young girl who survived the horrors of watching their mother be murdered and then growing up in poverty in India. The movie is set against the backdrop of the popular "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" game show.. but the show has little to do with the movie.
Brownback spokesman Brian Hart told the National Catholic Reporter, “Our chief of staff ... had never seen, heard of or approved it,” suggesting the letter was entirely unauthorized.I am sure that Sam will think twice in the future when he deals with faith and prolife advocacy groups. It is a good reminder for us all that the faithful do not always act in good faith.. especially when money is involved.
Hart, who didn’t return our requests for comment, told the magazine that Brownback’s Senate staff has “reached out to both the organization responsible and the mail house [responsible for printing and distributing the letter] and directed them not to use Sam Brownback’s name, signature, likeness or representation in any way moving forward and expressed that we are not pleased with the content of the letter.”
But Brownback’s chief of staff, Glen Chambers, painted a slightly different version of events in an e-mail to Catholic Advocate founder Deal Hudson, who provided it to POLITICO.
“As I mentioned to you on the phone, I think we’ve gotten to the bottom of the confusion over the mail piece,” Chambers wrote. “Neither the senator nor I had seen the letter or were aware of it. I figured out that you did get permission to use his name on the piece from a former campaign staffer in February of last year.”
I sincerely wish our new president well but find myself disappointed in his approach to our nation's problems. I think that he is either out of touch with the data or willfully ignorant of it.. not sure which is worse.President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end "tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans," and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won't see their taxes increased by "one single dime."
This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can't possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama's new spending ambitions.
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The bottom line is that Mr. Obama is selling the country on a 2% illusion. Unwinding the U.S. commitment in Iraq and allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire can't possibly pay for his agenda. Taxes on the not-so-rich will need to rise as well.
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Mr. Obama is very good at portraying his agenda as nothing more than center-left pragmatism. But pragmatists don't ignore the data. And the reality is that the only way to pay for Mr. Obama's ambitions is to reach ever deeper into the pockets of the American middle class.
The subject of cryogenics is a strange one because it assumes that the human soul or spirit will freeze in time along with the human body. I mean really.. does anyone think that preserving our bodies with liquid nitrogen will save us.. maybe we have all been watching too much Star Trek.LOS ANGELES – A spokeswoman for Simon Cowell says reports that the "American Idol" judge wants to be frozen after death are greatly exaggerated. Cowell was making a tongue-in-cheek remark at a dinner in London two weeks ago with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other guests, spokeswoman Lisa Dallos said Tuesday.
But the cryogenics comment that Dallos said was meant as a joke was trumpeted in a number of news reports as a serious plan by Cowell, a music industry executive and TV producer ("America's Got Talent," Britain's "The X Factor").
The other day my cyber-friend Gary offered to play around with my blog's banner.. and amazingly.. overnight.. he came up with this new banner. He is working on a few revisions.. but I liked this one so much I changed it. 
I guess I am a bit of a pragmatic conservative. I think the pragmatist in me causes me to express my conservative ideology in ways that seem to be realistic and practical. Sometimes this looks more like the leanings of a centrist but I don't think that I would qualify under Weston's definition.A centrist wants to promote what is best for society, tolerate what is good enough, and prevent what is harmful.
Conservatives want to promote what is best for society, and prevent everything else.
Liberals want to promote all options (except the truly dangerous ones) as equally good.
If your first reaction to this is, “Who is to say what is best?” you are a probably a liberal.
If your first reaction to this is, “Why settle for mediocrity?” you are probably a conservative.
Since we really can't scientifically explain the origins of the universe then lets just say that there was a "Prime Mover" that started it all.. and let's call that "God".Now that really made an impression on this impressionable teenage boy and for the next 10 years gave me cause to be a practical agnostic. Interesting enough I still went to the Episcopal Church with my mom every week. It really didn't bother me to go because I still believed in God.. just not a personal God.. not a God that heard prayers.. not a God that really made any difference.. just this "Prime Mover" that got things going.
The story is told in Adrian Desmond and James Moore's authoritative biography, Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist. When Darwin's daughter Annie died at age 10, Darwin came to hate the God he blamed for this. This was in 1851, eight years before Darwin released Origin of Species.This story reminded me of the many people that I have come across in my life that blame God for their misfortunes in life because of their fundamentalist belief that God causes everything that happens in the world.. good and bad.. sweet spring rain or Hurricane Katrina.
Around the time of Annie's death, Darwin also wrote that if Christianity were true, then it would follow that his grandfather Erasmus Darwin and many of his closest family friends would be in hell. Darwin found this utterly unacceptable, given that these men were wise and kind and generous. Darwin's rejection of God was less an act of unbelief than a rebellion against the kind of God posited by Christianity. A God who would allow a young girl to die and good people to go to hell was not anyone whom Darwin wanted to worship.
This got me to thinking about how government often excessively taxes items like liquor and cigarettes but does not tax other "sins" like gambling (anyone buy a Lotto ticket lately?), gluttony (yes, some do want to tax junk food) and greed (how would they tax that?).“We don’t understand how cigarettes should be paying for children’s health care,” said Rhonda Bowles, manager of the Tobacco House, a smoke shop in North Kansas City.
“Here we thought we had a smoker in the White House, someone on our side,” Bowles said, referring to President Barack Obama’s history of cigarette smoking.
'If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon.'In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:
So I thought that I would check this idea of what it means to be a weasel using the dictionary. Here are a few excerpts:Bob, what do you have against these cute little weasels? They have a bad rap. They are clever and sneaky for self preservation.
I think there are weasels is every organization and I won't make excuses for them.
I do have trouble getting behind a post labeling people as weasels whether they be sports figures or pastors.
I'm very "weasely" in a lot of my behavior.
None of us are very admirable when the things we wish to hide are laid bare.
My first reaction was to comment this way to Alex:For most pastors that anger is directed at stupid lay people, stubborn church boards, or indifferent church bureaucrats.
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Not a lot of tender comments about the sheep that these shepherds are responsible for. Lots of desire for transforming the world, becoming a missional outpost, and enough social justicing to make mainline liberals drool with envy. But not much tender love for those people, as Willimon put it, whom Jesus loves and calls into community with him.
This really speaks to the dysfunctional atmosphere in churches.. to Pastoral Entitlement and maybe why these folks stray.I have to wonder.. when I read such drivel.. if God is a part of this kind of religious dysfunction.. and if he has really 'called' some of these folks to pastoral ministry.
Beverly Eckert (pictured) died this morning when Continental Express Flight 3407 crashed into a Buffalo, NY neighborhood. Her husband, Sean Rooney was killed in the attack on the World Trade Center, and she was the co-chairperson of the group Voices of September 11th.
Lawmakers in 11 states are considering bills that would offer or require ultrasounds before a woman gets an abortion. The most stringent are proposed laws in Nebraska, Indiana and Texas, which would require a doctor show the ultrasound image of the fetus to the woman, despite legal challenges to a similar measure in Oklahoma.Now this is an abortion pre-requisite that I agree with.. I think that women contemplating an abortion should be required to view an ultrasound of the life growing inside of them.. what would be the harm in it?
A similar bill was proposed in Wyoming but it was defeated in a state House committee before reaching the floor.
"Many times, these are young mothers who are in vulnerable situations. And they are about to make a very grave choice." said Nebraska Sen. Tony Fulton of Lincoln, who introduced the ultrasound bill (LB675) there. "This is about informed consent."
Sixteen states already have laws related to abortion ultrasounds, some requiring they be performed and others requiring a woman be told where she can get a free ultrasound.
Recently I have written about Corporate Weasels and Religious Weasels. Today I write about a different flavor of weasel.. but weasels none-the-less. This past week has been resplendent with news of two "heroes" from the world of sports that have fallen a bit. Here are a few excerpts from their "confessions":"It's not my decision. It's theirs," Phelps tells the Associated Press of USA Swimming's suspension determination. "I have nothing to say, but if that's what they want to do, that's their choice. It's something that USA Swimming came up with. It's fair. Obviously, for a mistake you should get punished."NY Yankee Alex Rodriguez on the news that broke over the weekend that he used steroids:
"It was bad and stupid judgment, and something I'll always live with."
“When I arrived at Texas in 2001, I felt an enormous amount of pressure. I felt like I had all the weight of the world on top of me and I needed to perform, and perform at a high level every day.Last week I talked about the Phelps fall with my son and said that I thought that it was simply a reflection of the times.. Michael simply "got caught" doing what many people do.. I guess you could say the same thing about A-Rod.
“Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid. I was naïve. And I wanted to prove to everyone that I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time. I did take a banned substance, and for that I am very sorry and deeply regretful.”
You are a dreamer, a visionary, and a straight up idea person. You are very creative. Even if the things you think up are a bit wacky, they often are brilliant.
I packed some clothes in a a gym bag, gave my 1992 Miata a good waxing and pointed it west on Route 66 for an adventure from Kansas City to the Santa Monica pier and back again. The only constraint for this trip was that there was a two week round trip time frame. Other than that, there was no specific destination, no itinerary and no expectations other than to keep the four wheels on Old Route 66 as much as that is even possible.
She dodged the broken pavement of New Mexico and Arizona. She outran a thunderstorm in Oklahoma. She busted thru a dirt devil in Texas, and kept up with the freeways of L.A. Like a trooper. But the most memorable moment of the trip was falling in line with a caravan of 11 Corvettes in western Arizona on their way to a car show. Eleven Corvettes and a lone Miata chasing each other slightly over the speed limit. We had met them earlier in the day in a museum parking lot. I parked along side of them and jokingly told some of the members, "Shhhh, don't tell my car, but it thinks it's a Corvette." This gave them a laugh.
"I have been pondering what advice to give them about money. What I keep coming up with is this: Do not act like typical Americans. Do not fail to save. Do not get yourself in debt up to your eyeballs. Work and take pride and honor from your work. Learn a useful skill that Americans really need, like law or plumbing or medicine or nursing. Do not expect your old Ma and Pa to always be there to take care of you. I absolutely guarantee that we will not be. Learn to be self-sufficient through your own contributions, as the saying goes.
The economic crisis is growing more serious every day, and the time for action has come.And here is a definition that the president and his democratic cohorts in congress would do well to understand:
Last week, the House of Representatives passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which will jumpstart our economy and put more than 3 million people back to work.
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The stakes are too high to allow partisan politics to get in the way.
That's why I've consulted with Republicans as well as Democrats to put together a plan that will address the crisis we face.
bi·par·ti·san: Of, consisting of, or supported by members of two parties, especially two major political partiesI have not seen this kind of approach in the bailout bill that the house passed last week.. if anything it had a bit of bipartisan opposition. I believe that the president is sincere in his desire to be bipartisan but last week's activity by Democrats in the House of Representatives was very partisan.
I am generally tired these days of professional politicians who have been in office for most of their lives. We need to find a way to limit their "service" to us."The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office."
* Height: 122'1"This ski town of about 2,400 residents already holds the record for tallest snowman, dedicated in 1999. Since then, they have been waiting for someone else to break the record. When no one rose to the challenge, the folks here decided they’d have to break the record themselves.
* Weight: 13,000,000 lbs. of snow
* 5 foot wreaths for eyes
* 16 skis for eyelashes
* 48 ft. circumference fleece hat
* 130 ft. scarf
* 6 1/2 ft. Maine-mica snowflake pendant
* 30 ft. spruce trees for arms
* 3 truck-loader tires for buttons
* 2,000 ft. of rope hair
