Month: September 2010

  • Tons of News …

    Two weeks have gone by and there was a ton of news out there.  Fenty-Rhee-Gray triangle.  Skins lose a nail-biter verse the Texans.  Lindsay Lohan admits she failed a drug test.  Paris Hilton admits the cocaine was hers and wasn’t allowed entry into Japan.  Vincent Jackson blames San Diego for not letting him get traded because he’s greedy and SD wants too much in return for making another team better.  Wait.  I’m sure there was more than that.  Then again all I got is this interesting article I saw today.  Give me some time I’m sure I could surpass her.  Though I’m sure Chewy wouldn’t let me.  Then there’s the resurgence of bedbugs and stink bugs.  yeah.

  • Today Marks the Ninth Anniversary of 9/11 …

    We live in fear.  Our President lives in fear.  Our Secretary of State lives in fear.  Our military leaders live in fear.  Our celebrities live in fear.  The United States of America live in fear.

    The terrorist have won …

    It’s amazing what the threat of one thing would do to a country.  Reading all the commentary and shout outs on not to do something that this country was founded on was truly amazing.  Most said what Pastor Terry had in mind was “un-American” or “not the right thing to do” even though our fore fathers fought for the ability for all Americans to have religious freedom.  What we saw were the reactions of people who “feared” what the terrorist would do to us.  Uh, hello that’s how the terrorist win.  They want us to live in fear.  They want us to always second guess ourselves.  They want us to fear what the terrorist would do and we are.  Our country lives in fear.

    What Pastor Terry plan to do was unthinkable.  Christians are called to live by Christs grace and extend that grace to others.  We are supposed to remove the idols in our lives.  Doing that by force to those who do not believe won’t allow them to see Christ’s sacrifice but only the hate that all mankind has.  To denounce false teachings is one thing but to actively eradicate non-Christian items brings us back to the time of the Crusades and shows how lost of a people we can be.

    I do applaud Pastor Terry for doing two things: he brought to the foreground the mindset of the country and how one religion believers are firmer in their faith than another.  We now see a country that really does live in fear.  That we’re not going to defend the principals and rights of this country.  That we are scared of what another small, radical group would potentially do to us.  Fear is a powerful weapon and our little country just got slammed into a school hall locker with the door hitting us on our face.  Lastly, we see Islams around the world rallying to defend themselves and their beliefs.  It wasn’t really them denouncing radical Islam but them supporting it and the beliefs of their religion. 

    As Christians, I rarely see believers in mass defending our faith.  Do we not Stand for Christ? 

  • If We Include the Twilight Books Can We Call It Even? …

    There’s been a ton of press on the Florida pastor who plans on burning the Koran on the anniversary of September 11.  Hillary has said no.  Petraeus has said please don’t.  Angelina has spoken out against it.  It’s odd that none of them actually bring up that Pastor Jones has the legal right to do so.  Through out history Christians have been attacked, their symbols burned or defecated, their follower’s martyred and no one says a peep.  No one cares and that’s probably because they know real Christians won’t do anything.  Nada.  Nothing.  They’ll let God be in control and let judgment happen upon the disbelievers in His time, not ours.

    I saw a quote by Jones that I think sums it up:

    From a religious stand point he is right about speaking out against Satan and satanic things.  However, I think his approach is slightly off.  He wants to target radical Islam by burning the Koran.  Non-radical Islam use the Koran as well.  Not only will he piss off the radical Muslims but he’ll also do the same to the non-radical versions out there. 

    Ideally, all those people speaking out against Jones I’d rather see them speak out against the real problem.  No, it’s not Jones being un-American, it’s that radical Islam needs to be addressed.  If more Muslims spoke out against it or other countries did so then things maybe different.  Unfortunately, everyone knows if you speak out against it you get a Jihad placed upon your head.  (Hopefully that doesn’t happen here)  People need to learn how to attack the problem not those who are doing it.

  • Sharka …

    Over Labor Day weekend, Chewy and I took a short trip to Portland, OR to visit her side of the family.  While we were there we stayed at the posh Avalon Hotel and Spa which was gotten at Hotwire prices.  The hotel was pretty nice.  The free breakfast was pretty good with a selection of banana bread, scones, fresh fruit, various cereals and yogurt.  As guest we were able to use the spa, sauna or weight room if we wished.  We didn’t actually know this before we got there otherwise it would have been nice to have tried out a few of the facilities.  Really we were just at the hotel for the night because we planned on staying at Chewy’s brothers place but since we were there for his surprise party we couldn’t show up early.

    Chewy’s brother was turning 40 so his wife wanted to throw a huge surprise party for him.  It just shows the  type of person Chewy’s brother is because not just family showed up but friends from New York, South Carolina and Washington state showed up.  That’s a lot of traveling just for one birthday even if does only happen once in a person’s life.  Her brother was extremely surprised.  More like shell shocked (TURTLE STYLE!) and really appreciated seeing his family, his wife’s side of the family and a bunch of other friends in his house after work.  Another nice surprise was a good friend was flying in from New York but couldn’t show up til around 11pm so we had to keep the birthday boy up until his friend showed up.  It was a tearful moment.  And then the rest of us went to sleep.  I mean it was close to 3am for us. 

    After a hearty breakfast we went bike riding around the waterfront.  We all rented various double or quad type of bicycles to do this.  There was a Green Beret dude in our quad and I’m pretty sure he was doing most of the peddling for all of us.  I probably helped a bit but not as much as him.  There were parts of my legs that hurt because they haven’t done that type of work in decades.  Yes, decades.  Still it was fun.  After biking we ventured to the Chinese gardens, which severely mucked with my allergies.  Though somewhere in all of this I must have caught a cold which led to a sinus infection.  yeah!  For dinner we went to this new fangle Chinese place called PING (or is it P:NG or maybe P|NG).  It wasn’t bad.  We did enjoy some of the dishes but since it’s a fusion sort of fancy pants restaurant the quantity of food was small.  All in all it was decent.  I think I prefer more authentic places where it’s quantity and quality at the same time.

  • Why Glenn Beck? …

    Trying to keep up with both weekend rallies and all this hoo ha ha about who’s criticizing who’s religion it’s amazing that people think Glenn Beck is the Religious Right’s, conservative Christian voice now.  I mean really?  Glenn Beck?  Sure he’s a smooth talker unlike ‘W’ was but Glenn Beck doesn’t even fit any of those descriptors of “Religious Right” or “conservative” or “Christian.”  He’s just a white Republican who’s got a BIG mouth.  Ok, so his analysis of Obama’s “Christianity” maybe dead on but still he went from Catholism to Mormonism – a religion recognized as Christian to one that somewhat recognized as Christian. 

    I know people are going to argue about what’s Christian and what’s not but ultimately when the time comes it won’t matter.  Christ’s children will be worshiping God with the rest of the family after everyone else is thrown into the pit of fire.  For those still on the fence, you still got time.  Don’t know how much time but there’s still time to accept Christ as your savior.