Ben Stein: interesting guy

Take a quick look at this video.

General TravestShammockery

Seen over the weekend. This one might trouble me even more than the "Anybody but -fill in the politician-" sticker. Hope? Hope? From Politicians. Are you serious?

Don't Get me wrong. I like Barack. As a politician, I guess he's ok. I'll probably vote for him in the primary here, but mainly because I find him less obfuscating than one Hillary Rodham Clinton. And by less, I mean by just a very, very, barely intelligible margin. He is after all, a politician.

These people act like Barack Obama isn't a politician. He's been doing it for a while people. He's not different from these other people. He's a greedy power hungry, politician.

I know what you want to ask. It's ok. Go ahead. "Sam if all politicians are ethical degenerates in your book, what if somebody with actual character tries to change?" The short answer: it gets sucked out of them by the reality of our system. Our system is better than despot-led and starved countries in other parts of the world, but the reality is most all politicians are owned. Barack is no different. Change is not simply avoidable. It's nearly impossible. And Barack doesn't really care about change. He just wants to be president, so he can decide what does not change.

Hope in Politicians: Priceless.

Husbands, Fathers, Manhood

1. Load and Install iTunes on your computer.

2. Go to iTunes store and Podcasts.

3. Download and Listen to "Mars Hill Church Sermon Audio" - Get the one from 10/1/2007 "Fathers and Fighting"

4. Repeat as Necessary.

Sometimes people need a slap in the face. I think sometimes is fast becoming often in our brave new world (Oops).

It's Division I Football!!

Ah, the joys...Sometimes as one travels around and runs into all kinds of totally irresponsible people who refuse to take any responsibility for their children, a little person in someone's head might mimick Dan Hawkins and say "You're a parent! Grow up! You're kid doesn't need a buddy! They need a dad/mom!"

The video below is pretty self-explanatory and pretty much just ridiculously funny. Check it out.

Why do YOU struggle with the Church?

Oh, I don't know, it just seems fake. hmmmmm. This is hilarious and saddening at the same time.

Ah, freedom and intellectual integrity

So the President of Columbia University took a lot of heat yesterday for inviting the Iranian Leader Ahmadinejad to speak at the institute of higher learning. He then proceeded to rip him a new hole. Check it out. Also, if you'd like to hear some intellectual dishonesty, look at Ahmadinejad's responses. My brother and I especially took pleasure from Mr. Bollinger commenting on Ahmadinejad debating the truth of the holocaust: "You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated." & aside: "will you cease this outrage?"

Quote applicable to current event

"Those who wish to sacrifice essential liberties for a bit of temporary security deserve neither and will likely lose both." - Benjamin Franklin

Current Event: Andrew Meyer at John Kerry Event at the University of Florida.

Please disregard the F-bomb and the unnecessary "God Bless America" Garbage at the end of the video. I think the editor of this video went a bit far.

Church essential number one: Brokenness/Wholeness

It seems a key element in any kind of effective church is the ability to grieve healthily. A corporate outpouring of this character is stoked by all of the individuals' willingness to sit in hard places, and believe and hope for redemption.

I believe God has an inner fire in each of us, but so often we let it die because we are broken by life, sadness, pain...

A friend of mine once related a similar situation to me using an analogy of a broken glass (paraphrased):

"Sam for such a long time, all I could do was sit and say look at the broken glass; what am I going to do? My glass is broken...After some time, I realized there was glue, and the glass could be put back together. It wouldn't be put back together, though, without blood-without your hands being cut over and over again. It also would never look the same as it did before. How could it? with glue holding glass together like mortar with bricks. However, it can again serve its purpose." That purpose? A vessel. "Be filled and spill" also comes to mind. This cannot happen if we believe we, in and of ourselves, can do it. We can't. We break, we weary, we despair. But there is much to say for our past pains becoming strengths that can be used by a perfect Creator as he deems fit. Not for our own glory, but for his own. We are broken, but our brokenness can be made new, can be re-sculpted for good (what was intended for evil).

(I'm really thinking out loud here and trying to dream a little bit. I welcome your input and thoughts, criticisms and questions. I'm hoping to think of more of these and bring them together for a more cohesive whole.)

Revel in it friends...

You always want what you can't have. Crap that's funny.

What's interesting to me is that nobody ever broaches the topic (mainly because it's not funny, exciting, or interesting) of what happens when people go get the thing they don't need simply because they can't have it. Usually they're left holding responsibility for some crap they didn't want. Think about it.