Underground Railroad

This Week In Blackness

2008-11-15T17:41:00.006-05:00

Get caught up if you're new to the series:

Episode #1 - Diddy
Episode #2 - Electrifying
Episode #3 - Side Booty
Episode #4 - The Breakfast Of Racist Champions
Episode #5 - White What?
Episode #6 - Shocking News!
Episode #7 - Mass Debating!
Episode #8 - Please Excuse This Sexual Harassment.
Episode #9 - But She's STUPID!
Episode #10 - Yes, we totally ignored the 2nd Debate.
Episode #11 - There's Just Too Much BLACKNESS!
Episode #12 - Obama, Obama, Obama.
Episode #13 - Black, black, blackity black.
Episode #14 - This Year In Blackness (Part 1 of 4)
Episode #15 - This Year In Blackness (Part 2 of 4)

Mr. President

2008-11-05T01:18:00.002-05:00

Tic Tac Told Ya

2008-10-28T23:17:00.003-04:00

Bailout Basics

2008-09-29T19:14:00.005-04:00

Predictions

2008-08-27T18:53:00.010-04:00

Here's my prediction for the general election:

State	Obama	McCain
Alabama		9
Alaska		3
Arizona	10
Arkansas	6
California	55
Colorado	9
Connecticut	7
Delaware	3
D.C.	3
Florida	27
Georgia		15
Hawaii	4
Idaho		4
Illinois	21
Indiana	11
Iowa	7
Kansas	6
Kentucky		8
Louisiana		9
Maine	4
Maryland	10
Massachusetts	12
Michigan	17
Minnesota	10
Mississippi	6
Missouri	11
Montana	3
Nebraska		5
Nevada	5
New Hampshire	4
New Jersey	15
New Mexico	5
New York	31
North Carolina	15
North Dakota		3
Ohio	20
Oklahoma		7
Oregon	7
Pennsylvania	21
Rhode Island	4
South Carolina		8
South Dakota		3
Tennessee		11
Texas		34
Utah		5
Vermont	3
Virginia	13
Washington	11
West Virginia		5
Wisconsin	10
Wyoming		3
TOTAL	406	132

Unfit To Lead

2008-08-22T06:41:00.001-04:00

Paris Attacks

2008-08-06T06:26:00.004-04:00

John McCain thought it would be a good idea to smear Barack Obama by comparing him to Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton:

But I bet he didn't expect to catch a smack-down from Ms. Hilton:

It's going to be a long fall for McLame...

42 Reasons

2008-06-25T18:40:00.004-04:00

This is one of the most effective political ads that I've seen in the viral video era:

Clinton Concedes The Obvious

2008-06-07T14:00:00.001-04:00

Hillary has FINALLY conceded that which everyone else has known for months now. It's a brand new day...

Be Prepared

2008-05-30T04:15:00.001-04:00

Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen either...

Prepare for a moral and spiritual struggle as we head toward the general election. It ain't just about policy, it's about people.

Yes We Can

2008-05-10T08:07:00.002-04:00

Stuff like this isn't supposed to happen, until it does...

Faux News: Rev. Wright Redux

2008-04-24T17:58:00.002-04:00

Click the title, then watch and learn how you speak truth to idiots...

2008-04-22T21:35:00.002-04:00

Okay, okay. So Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania. Kudos to her.

I'm watching the alphabet soup cable news channels, and they keep talking about how Obama outspent Clinton 3-1 and he still lost, and how bad that is.

Um, is it just me, or is Obama running against the former First Lady, and by extension, the President of the United States?

She's got built-in brand recognition. He pretty much has to outspend her just to break even. He has to work twice as hard just to get to the starting line.

The fact that he continues to raise bank over her says a lot (in my humble opinion).

And, after all this, she still does not have enough delegates to pass him.

Congrats to Clinton for winning a state she was expected to win. Wasn't she up by like 20 points a few weeks ago?

I'm just kinda tired of all this at this point. Time to lock it up.

The Audacity Of Hate

2008-03-21T17:44:00.005-04:00

Over the last few weeks there has been much Sturm und Drang regarding some of the sermons of Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Immediate-Past Pastor of Chicago’s Trinity Church of Christ, church-home of Senator Barack Obama. The crux of the current controversy has been Reverend Wright’s sin of blaspheming the righteous name of the United States of America, rejecting its omnipotence, infallibility and inerrancy in all that it declares or does. Naturally, Reverend Wright’s message has been received about as well as Jeroboam II received Amos’ acute assessment of Israel’s apostasy – with lots of large stones flung at the messenger. Reverend Wright has been called a “hate-monger,” “racist,” “Black David Duke,” and worse – everything but a child of God – for saying that America has been weighed on the scales and found wanting. This controversy, however, misses the point. Reverend Wright’s words were accurate, and it brings up a prescient point that ought to be addressed: the audacity of hope has a necessarily equal and opposite perspective – the audacity of hate.

To be clear, Reverend Wright’s words were not hateful – contrary to conservatives’ convictions, speaking the truth that the United States is worthy of condemnation does not equate to hating America. Speaking the truth that the United States has committed war crimes does not equate to hating America. Speaking the truth that the United States has been and continues to be wrong in innumerable ways does not equate to hating America. Far from that, it is in fact a call for America to get it right, to fix that which is wrong, to change course from its current destructive path to a path leading toward a more perfect union.

Hatred does come into play, however, and necessarily so. You see, that which we love, hope for, and aspire to be is intimately tied to that which we hate, fear, and wish to avoid with all that is within us. We progressives love unity and hate discord. We love tolerance and hate condemnation. We love inclusion and hate discrimination. What we love is intimately tied to what we hate, but we encounter problems when we misappropriate our love or our hatred. We hated what Ronald Reagan and George Bush were doing to the country that we love, so when Bill Clinton rescued us from that which we hated we loved him for it – despite the fact that he himself was not deserving of our love. Many of us loved what Howard Dean was offering the country in 2004 while seeing John Kerry as a pusillanimous mockery of a progressive, so the Junior Senator from Massachusetts felt the wrath of my fellow Deaniacs even though John Kerry was not deserving of our hatred.

The truth is that in many instances we are much more animated by that which we hate than by that which we love, driven by what we fear more than by what we hope for, even though they both motivate us to the same action. Many of our votes are against the one that we oppose instead of being for the one that we support. We pay taxes to avoid prison, not necessarily because we support everything that the government funds. Fear and hatred are often pilloried – and in many instances rightfully so – but fear and hatred are nonetheless valid emotions and motivations. I hate what George W. Bush has done to the credibility of the United States of America in the world. I hate what George W. Bush has done to the innocent people of Iraq and the noble soldiers of this nation. I hate what George W. Bush has done to the Constitution of the United States of America and I fear giving Bill and Hillary Clinton unfettered access to a presidency with unchecked executive power. That animates my support for Barack Obama as much as his policy positions and his ability to implement the changes that he so eloquently proposes. And yes, I do share in the audacious hope that a Black man can indeed become president of a nation that a generation ago did not even allow us to vote.

We can hate what America has done – we can even hate what America has become – without hating Americans. The problem in the current controversy’s context is that too many people conflate “America” with “White” – e pluribus unum, friends – and they fallaciously associate hatred of America’s actions with hatred of Americans, which they then mutate into hatred of Whites. The terrorists don’t hate our ever-waning freedoms; they hate our intrusions into their societies. Flag-burners don’t hate America; they hate what America has done in the world. Black Liberation Theology is not hateful of Whites, it hates the oppression of human beings, and the United States of America has a long history of oppressing human beings.

The Bible says, “Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.” There is more than adequate Scriptural basis for saying, “God damn America!” regardless of one’s theological perspective, unless one’s theology posits divine perfections in the United States of America. The Bible says, “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Over the last seven and a half years America’s policies have been anything but just, merciful, or humble. Who declared that you’re either with us or against us? America. Who invaded a sovereign nation on a bevy of lies and false accusations? America. Who has doled out money and favors to the well-to-do while ignoring the least of these our brothers? America. So what should a faithful servant of the Lord of Hosts say about the current state of the Union?

God damn America.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright was right in his assessment of the United States of America, but Barack Obama is right in his proscription for how we get from here to a more perfect union. We audaciously hope for something better because we hate the current state of affairs. We audaciously hope for a more perfect union because we hate the divided state of America. We audaciously hope for a politics where we can disagree without being disagreeable because we hate today’s politics of personal destruction. We believe in the audacity of hope, with every fiber of our being we believe, but we must also understand that such a hope is inexorably attached to the audacity of hate. We have to love that which is good and hate that which is evil, and we have to be careful not to get it twisted, because we can easily and quickly come to personify the intolerant, discordant and discriminatory perspective that we so readily decry.

I would hate to see it come to that.

A More Perfect Union

2008-03-18T22:20:00.004-04:00

If you haven't seen or read Barack Obama's speech on race, religion, and politics then go here now.

Honestly, my initial reaction to the news that Obama was going to do a major speech on race and religion was similar to Granddad's, but Barack pulled it off without a hitch, much like Huey...

Of course, there's always Uncle Ruckus...

Epiphany

2008-02-15T18:48:00.010-05:00

Every now and then I have moments of clarity, moments when things that were previously confusing make perfect sense. I had one of those moments today while reflecting on the presidential campaign when I remembered an event from last year in my own life.

I had just signed up for Yahoo Messenger (I'm way behind on some things - I just got on Facebook this year) and it sent invites to everyone in my address book. Me being a pack-rat I rarely delete anything, so there were some addresses in there that I hadn't used in over a decade. I ended up hearing from someone attached to one of those old addresses, a sister with whom I shared an intimate relationship during my freshman year in college. Actually, there's no way to sanitize it - we went at it like rabbits back then, to the extent that most people thought that I had turned her out when the truth is that she came to me well-prepared and exceedingly experienced.

Anyway, we had a little conversation before I excused myself from the chat, but I am in such a different place now from where I was in undergrad that there was absolutely no possibility of us hooking up - in any context - as she's essentially the same person that I knew back then. Back then she was what I needed, what I was looking for, and she satisfied a serious need for me back then, and I her.

Well.

But that was then. My needs today are much more complex and require a completely different kind of sister. Even back then it only took a couple months of abject carnality for me to see that I needed to do something different - and someone different - but it took many more months for me to fully extract myself from the relationship. That's why, when I got her IM and the discussion alluded to us rekindling that which once was, my reaction was revulsion.

That is what reminded me of the current presidential election, specifically the Clintons' refusal to withdraw from the Democratic primary contest. Back in 1991-2 we Democrats were desperate for someone - anyone - to put an end to the GOP lock on the presidency, and Bill & Hillary Clinton did that for us. Back then we looked past Bill's bimbo proclivities because he was the one who rid us of the Reagan-Bush years, despite the fact that he was no friend to rank-and-file Democrats. We tolerated Clinton's caving on most Democratic principles because he was our president, not their president. However, we Democrats have changed significantly in the past decade. Howard Dean began an awakening of the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party and we have found in Barack Obama a candidate that we can whole-heartedly vote for instead of the usual "Not-A-Republican" candidates that we've had to hold our noses to affirm.

It is in this context that Hillary launched her campaign for president, and I would argue that it was DOA - even if Barack Obama didn't exist someone like him would have come to the fore, because this is as much a "No" to Hillary Clinton as it is a "Yes" to Barack Obama. Hillary might have been right for 2000, and she may even have been right for 2004, but in 2008 we are so far removed from what the Clintons are selling that they might as well be hocking 8-tracks. You see, if my former fling had contacted me around 1999 or 2000 then we probably would have been married by now, had kids, gone though an acrimonious divorce, and I'd be paying alimony and child support - much like where we'd be after another Clinton presidency.

There's much to be said for providence...

Smoke and Mirrors

2008-02-10T03:18:00.000-05:00

The battle between Obama and Clinton could wind up a draw going into the convention with the nomination to be decided by the superdelegates. This, of course, would be a horrendous development. I don't think any of us want to go back to the days when candidates won or lost in back-room deals filled with cigar smoke and the scent of scotch.

Donna Brazile, the manager of Al Gore's campaign, had her own strong reaction about the situation:

"If 795 of my colleagues decide this election, I will quit the Democratic Party. I feel very strongly about this..."

According to CNN, Obama leads in pledged delegates 908 to 877 (thank you Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington). But Clinton leads in super delegates 223 to 131, which gives her an overall edge of 41. The magic number is 2,025.

What is the price for the soul of the Democratic Party? If the party rolls over the give the finger to the Democratic process the results will not be pretty. Even more important is the affect on Black folk. If Obama ends up with more pledged delegates and gets the shaft I may have to follow Ms. Brazile's lead. It isn't just about Obama, it's about Carl McCall getting pushed aside in the New York State gubernatorial election, about Kweisi Mfume getting pushed aside in the Maryland senate race. It's about the Democratic Party thinking that civil rights legislation passed forty years ago obligates the support of Black folk in perpetuity. I have heard of more than one person saying they would vote for the Republican nominee if Clinton gets the nod, and I'm sure the number would balloon if it's done in a back-room deal. It might not be a bad idea to spread the notion of a "Plan B." There's no reason to support the Democratic Party if they're not supporting us. What have you done for me lately?

I'm not a big Cynthia McKinney fan, but she is running for president on the Green Party ticket.

....I'm just sayin'...

Black Love

2008-01-25T20:19:00.001-05:00

You know, when you've had a particularly bad day and it seems like all the world is doing its utmost to destroy you, there's nothing in the world like a Black Woman who has your back, no matter what.

To love and to cherish
For better or for worse
For richer or for poorer
In sickness and in health
To have and to hold
Forever and ever.

When a sister is with you - and I mean with you - anything is possible. You can exceed every expectation. You can defeat every enemy. You can turn shocking defeat into a massive beat-down of all your haters.

I have been in the struggle all by myself and I have been in the struggle with sisters who were kinda-sorta there but not really, but I'm here to tell you that when a sister is with you, you can do anything - while one can put a thousand to flight, two can put ten thousand to flight, or as Fabolous (featuring Ne-Yo) famously put it, "I'm a movement by myself, but I'm a force when we're together."

Barack Obama did his thing and won the South Carolina Primary in a convincing fashion, but I want to show some love to the one who made this possible, the one who strengthened him when he probably felt discouraged, the one who had his back when things started to look bleak and who probably reminded him, "Yes, we can!" - Michelle Obama.

What Have You Done for Me Lately?

2008-01-22T23:32:00.000-05:00

In all this campaigning, debating, back-and-forth "love fest" going on I keep hearing about how Hillary Clinton has been so great for the Black community.

But then I realized that no one seems to be saying what she actually did for the Black community.

Which lead me to wonder - what has she done for the Black community?

I know people like to talk about Bill a lot, but I'm not really sure what sweeping changes he made either. Yes, he did appoint a good number of Black folk, more than all previous administrations combined - points for that. Incomes and home-ownership went up during the Clinton presidency, but so did incarceration rates and the income gap. In fact, President Clinton had more control over the incarceration rate by signing the 3 Strikes law than he did over rising incomes (the Federal Reserve holds more sway over the economy than the president).

But enough about Bill - what about Hillary?

What has she done?

And I don't want to hear about "a rising tide lifts boats" as an argument that her general work on health care or child advocacy speaks to her concern for the Black community - she's a good White liberal in the traditional sense, no doubt, but that doesn't say anything about the specific concerns of Black folk.

I'm not trying to bash Hillary here, I really want to know. So if you know something, please let me in on it.

Thanks

Fight! Fight!

2008-01-22T23:28:00.000-05:00

Did you see the debate last night? Man, Obama and Clinton went at it! In case you missed it...

Obama Wins Iowa

2008-01-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

Don't Migrate Just Yet! It has been confirmed that Barack Obama has won the Iowa Caucus.

Not only did Obama win, he smacked up the competition with 38%. Edwards came in second with 30% and Clinton came in third with 29%. I was hoping Obama would win, but I didn't expect such a commanding margin of victory. Eight percentage points may not seem like a lot at first glance but it really is something when you think about Hillary Clinton was expected to demolish all competition. And considering how tight the race has been and especially considering that he's a brother in an almost entirely white state.

Did you see the victory speech? Man, that was something. In case you missed it...

As big as tonight's victory is, this is only the beginning. The New Hampshire Primary is on January 8th.

Let's continue making history.

The Chocolate Migration

2007-12-23T07:42:00.000-05:00

There are some things so secret, so shameful, that people dread the day when their inner thoughts and desires are aired for all the world to see. There are some activities that are so perverse that no human being should ever participate in them, yet many do so anyway. I have found myself in such a situation, wondering if I am alone in my inner perversion, but I have found that there are many more people out there who are just like me, people who share in my shame.

Let me explain.

I first cast a vote in 1988, and it was for Michael Dukakis against Geroge H.W. Bush. In the 19 years since I have never voted for a Republican in a partisan race. Ever. I have not voted for a Republican presidential candidate, Senatorial candidate, or Congressional candidate. I have not voted for a Republican governor, legislator, or mayor. I have not voted for a Republican city councilman, property valuation administrator or dog catcher. I have never, ever voted for a Republican, but if Hillary Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee then that may well change.

God help us all.

There are two basic problems with a Hillary nomination - how she'd have to win it and what she'd do if she's elected. In order to win the nomination, with the trajectory of the primary contest to-date, Hillary will have to seriously Swift-Boat Barack Obama. We've seen a couple attempts at this already from Clinton surrogates with Billy Shaheen having to resign and apologize to Barack Obama for his remarks and Bob Kerry having to write an apology to Barack Obama over his comments. When the Clinton camp gets desperate it is quite possible for them to further go Willie Horton on Obama, and that will galvanize Black support behind Barack Obama. If Obama then goes on to lose to Clinton then the resentment against Clinton will be overwhelming, opening up an opportunity for the GOP within the Black community that hasn't been seen since Reconstruction.

The second problem with a Clinton candidacy is what she would do as president. A Clinton presidency would have liberal trappings - there will be some executive orders and signing ceremonies in the first 100 days - but the substance of it would be totally corporate from day 101 until its end. Moreover, much like Bill, Hillary would be pulled rightward in order to prove her critics wrong and to demonstrate that she has the balls to be president. An honest assessment of the Clinton years would show that the core constituencies of the Democratic Party got the shaft on the issues that matter most to them - Labor got NAFTA, Blacks got the Crime Bill, Women got Welfare Reform, gays got DOMA, and peace activists got military interventions in Kosovo, Haiti, and Iraq. I would expect more of the same from a second Clinton presidency, particularly since Hillary has been promising more of the same from the first Clinton presidency.

Here's where I become a heretic.

If Hillary Clinton defeats Barack Obama in the Democratic Primary to become the Democratic nominee, then I think the best thing that could happen for Progressives and indeed for the country is for Mike Huckabee to be the next president of the United States. Much the same way that Hillary would be pulled to the Right, Huckabee would be pulled to the Left, because when it comes to caring for the least of these Mike Huckabee is a Christian, not a Republican who mentions Jesus Christ merely to gain votes, and he is catching considerable heat from his fellow Republicans on that score, best summarized by George F. Will, "Huckabee's role...is not merely to attempt to revise a few Republican beliefs. He represents wholesale repudiation of what came after the 1970s -- Reaganism."

Amen.

I thought that I was alone in this perspective, that I was the only apostate who was seriously considering Huckabee if Hillary managed to defeat Barack Obama, but it turns out that there are many people in my neck of the woods who are quietly considering the same thing, who are looking at Mike Huckabee as a candidate that they could actually vote for instead of merely voting against the other guy - in this case, girl. A friend of mine asked me what I thought about the GOP nomination fight, and when I got to Huckabee we agreed so quickly that it scared me - we're raving about a REPUBLICAN! I then went and spoke to several other politically-active firends locally and the reaction was the same - nothing but love for Huckabee. Nobody is supporting Huckabee openly because we all want Barack Obama to win, but if Hillary becomes the Democratic nominee then all bets are off.

If Hillary Clinton defeats Barack Obama and if Mike Huckabee survives the GOP nomination then I believe we could see the beginning of the Chocolate Migration. Huckabee's Baptist background gives him the worldview and vocabulary to speak directly to the hearts and minds of church-going Black folk, and he does so instinctively. Democrats, if they're smart (insert your own joke here), will respond to this by emphasizing their secular credentials, much the same way that Republicans have won elections in the past by emphasizing their religious credentials. The new divide could easily become between those who are overtly religious against those who are not, in large part pitting those who are epistemologically conservative against those who are epistemologically liberal. Blacks, especially church-going Blacks (who also tend to be the ones that vote), are epistemologically conservative and overtly religious, and if the Democrats push their secular credentials too hard, as many are wont to do already, they will alienate many Blacks and drive us into the Republican Party on Huckabee's bandwagon, the Chocolate Migration.

The Republican Party, if it is smart, will be ready for the Democrats to over-reach and will open its tent in earnest to church-going Blacks, but it will take a great deal of political skill and finesse to merge Blacks and Southern Baptists into the same camp, a total eschewing of White Supremacy that is in no ways limited to rednecks in sheets or the GOP. It may be that no such political skill or good will exists and that Blacks will simply have to suck it up and deal with functionally atheistic corporate Democrats if we still find Old South Republicans to be too strange a bedfellow, but it will be an interesting journey over this election cycle to see if this realignment actually plays out - libertarians migrating to the Democratic Party and Blacks returning to the Republican Party. Of course, if Barack Obama becomes the Democratic nominee for president then all bets are off.

Barack, boma ye!

New Nupe

2007-12-01T15:36:00.000-05:00

Yours-truly, as of 3:36 PM today, has crossed the burning sands of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.

From right to left:

Know-1-der
Komotose
Kourse-I-kan
Krackin' Up
Keystroke (yours truly)
Kappa-Tail B

We are 6 In The City.

Comics

2007-11-14T09:49:00.000-05:00

Since I'm laid up at home with the flu today, here's some comics:

Solidarity By Line
Branding
Rage Against The Machine
Support The Troops
Baby Boom
QxR
Alienable Rights
Homeland Security
Vlad The Impaler
Jenna Deep 6
Jena 666
Die Bold
GOP Lockstep
Democrat or Republican
Quintessentially American
Enhanced Techniques
Plenary Indulgence
Bush-League...
...Clinton-Fatigue
ADM Windfall

And my favorite for today: Kuku

Observations

2007-10-17T00:53:00.000-04:00

I don't suppose the Washington Post did this intentionally, but I just saw two stories on top of each other in such a way to, at a minimum, suggest a correlation. Air Force Lobbying for C-17s Raises Questions was immediately followed by Procurement Official Questioned About No-Work Deal Found Dead - coincidence or common thread?

Also, why is it that some White folks can't tell the difference between Redface and Blackface? If you wouldn't come to a major league ballpark in Blackface then it's not cool to come to that same ballpark in Redface, and this is why I always root for the destruction of the Washington Palefaces and the baseball team in Cleveland.

Saturday Comics

2007-10-06T16:30:00.000-04:00

Shafted
Troop Surge
Collateral Damage
No Child Left Behind
Compassionate Conservatism
Ugly American
Straight Talk
Taking It Like A Man
HMO Phobia
Valley of the Shadow of Death
Flat Line
Bushwhacked
Hard Out Here On A Simp
Surrender
Fiddler On The Roofies
Food Chain
Betray Us
Choose This Day
Fake Soldiers
Oxy Incontinence
AuH₂O
Old Grey Mare

And my favorite for today: Bafoonery

Phuqm

2007-09-26T22:36:00.000-04:00

Why is it that whenever a white man says something idiotically racist the next idiotic thing to jump out of his mouth is, "I'm not a racist! I meant nothing racist by that!" Bill O'Reilly, in case you haven't heard, was shocked the other day when he went to eat at a restaurant in Harlem with Al Sharpton and found Black folk acting civil. In the great and wonderful O'Reilly's own words, there "wasn't any kind of craziness at all" during his dinner with Sharpton: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.'" While The Rude One put this into perspective in his own rude way (eschewing his usual O'Reilly article title Why Bill O'Reilly Ought To Be Sodomized With A Microphone, Part x) let me put this into perspective plainly:

Like Trent "All these problems" Lott, his words were not in and of themselves offensive - his words revealed that he himself is offensive. You can not apologize for who you are and you can not apologize for what you truly believe - that's who you are - it's just that O'Reilly has now been unhooded and we can now see plain as day that the falafel-lover thinks very little of Americans of African descent.

Phuqm.

Hanging Chad

2007-09-17T18:28:00.000-04:00

OK, I have one simple question - what is it with Florida and perverts? I mean Pee Wee Herman got caught playing in his Tampa playhouse, Mark Foley apparently played hide-the-salami with Capitol Hill pages, and now it seems a North Florida federal prosecutor got busted in a child-sex sting - in Michigan. Yes, this POS, John David R. Atchison, traveled across the country to poke a kid, and he's the one responsible for locking folks up who themselves break the law.

I say send him to a state prison and let's see how wide his stance can get...

Saturday Comics

2007-09-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

Hard Out Here On A Coon
Conservation of Compassion
Kicking The Can...
...Down The Field
Sacred Principal of Democracy
Tiananmen Squared
Un Peu D'Ennui
Domestic Spying
Stuck...
...On Stupid
Fish Story Context
To Infinity And Beyond
Personal Responsibility
Character Issue
Tweedles Dumb and Dee
Time To Get Ill
Old School
Left Unsaid
Drag Queen of Pop
Fairy Tales
Bushwhacked

And my favorites for today: Face Down... and ...@$$ Up

Fragging Message

2007-09-12T21:38:00.000-04:00

I'm sure that if the Pentagon says anything at all then they will say that the deaths of two soldiers who signed an Op Ed in the NY Times critical of America's subjugation of Iraq had nothing to do with them speaking out against Bush's Misadventure In Mesapotamia.

Of course.

I am willing to bet that the message has been received loud and clear throughout the rest of the military and that we will not see any more Op Ed pieces by soldiers in the field showing up anywhere besides the Mooney Times or Faux News.

Mission Accomplished.

Saturday Comics

2007-09-08T11:45:00.000-04:00

Mission Accomplished...
...And All That
Bush's Legacy...
...And His Supporters
Senator Klinger
Full of Excrement
Smoke and Mirrors
Obama Girl
Democracy In Action...
...Or More Of The Same
People Never Change...
...Ever
Coward Is As Coward Does
Trail Of Tears
Man O' War
Once Upon A Time
Outsourcing
Left Behind
Crime Scene
Fait Accompli

And my favorite for today: Values

Osama bin Lyin'

2007-09-06T18:32:00.000-04:00

I hear tell (via CNN) that ~~Emmanuel Goldstein~~ Osama bin Laden "plans a new video addressing the American people regarding the anniversary of the September 11 attacks" at some point between now and the 11^th of this month. For the life of me I can't figure out why he would choose now to produce a new video - it would be the six-year anniversary of the attack and the number six isn't significant in the Islamic world AFAIK. In fact, Osama hasn't produced a new video for American consumption since October 2004, just before the US presidential elections. I don't suppose this could have anything to do with the Republicans' anemic poll numbers, could it? This couldn't have anything to do with the fact that Bush et al. have nothing else about which We The People will pay so much as an iota of attention to them, could it?

It will be funny when their poll numbers drop even further after the video is released, Mission Accomplished and all that...

In All Things Moderation?

2007-09-02T09:03:00.000-04:00

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

James 1:5-8

One thing that I find to be utterly amazing is the phenomenon known as "the bandwagon" - whatever's hot or happening right now is what masses of people flock to, be it the newest trend or the hottest sports team. Whoever's on top at that moment gets all of the accolades - from Lena Horne to Jayne Kennedy to Vanessa Williams to Halle Berry - even though they're the same person at 60 that they were at 50 or 40 or 30. This year everyone is riding for the Indianapolis Colts when last year it was the Steelers and the year before that it was the Patriots - whoever is the dominant team or figure of the day gets all of the props, yet the Pittsburgh Steelers are always the Steelers, the Colts are always the Indianapolis Colts, the Patriots are always the New England Patriots, and the Lions, unfortunately, are always the Detroit Lions. There is no loyalty anymore, no conviction that I will ride or die with my team, that I am a fan of this or that actor or actress, or that I am a child of the living King. Too often we who are called by the name of Christ are as double-minded as the most fickle sports fan or trend-following entertainment junkie. We like Jesus and all, but if the party's over there then all too often we can be found right where the party's at, Jesus or no Jesus. We're sometimey with our relationship with our Savior, the One who bled and died for us, the One who made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. We try to get full-time blessings out of a part-time relationship with the Creator of the universe - as if God could be pimped.

It's because we're scared.

Within American culture one of the worst things that you can be called is an "extremist." Think about it - when is the last time that you've heard the term "extremist" used to compliment someone? Yet anyone who takes an uncompromising stand on any issue is, by definition, an extremist. Most of us are extremists when it comes to breathing - we are extremely Pro Breathing. That seems silly, of course, because you have to breathe in order to remain in the land of the living, as Lavel Crawford reminded the world on Last Comic Standing. Is it not just as silly that we would waver in our commitment to the Way, the Truth, and the Life - the only way to the Father and eternal life? Certainly there are those who will say that they can only take religion in small doses - indeed, in moderation - and with that I can agree: religion will send you straight to Hell. I'm talking about a personal relationship with the Savior, Jesus Christ. In that day religious folk will hear Jesus say, "I never knew you" while the redeemed of the Lord will hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!"

It's time for us to grow up, dining on the meatier matters instead of constantly having to be fed spiritual Similac. We need to be so solid in our walk with Jesus Christ that we can feed others, helping them to stand firm in their walk with Jesus Christ, but too often we find ourselves siding with the world against the cause of Christ - the jokes we laugh at, the gossip we call up, the mess that we deal in betrays our distance from the One who truly loves us, the One who is faithful even when we are faithless. We may not say the words "Forget Jesus!" but we nonetheless deny Him before men through our actions. "Would a child of the King say that?" "Would a child of the King do that?" "Would a child of the King act like that?" We need the courage to stand upon our convictions. We need wisdom to stick with God in each and every environment that we find ourselves in. We need to let our light so shine that people will see our good works and give God the glory, acknowledging Him as creator and accepting His Son as savior.

Who you with?

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who calls us to be extreme in our faithfulness,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

An Exercise In Hypocrisy

2007-08-28T18:04:00.001-04:00

I really didn't intend on saying anything else about the Michael Vick situation, but then I read TMQ on ESPN.com. The money quote:

Thousands of animals are mistreated or killed in the United States every day without the killers so much as being criticized, let alone imprisoned. Ranchers and farmers kill stock animals or horses that are sick or injured. Some ranchers kill stock animals as gently as possible, others callously; in either case, prosecution is nearly unheard of. As Derek Jackson pointed out last week in the Boston Globe, greyhound tracks routinely race dogs to exhaustion and injury, then kill the losers, or simply eliminate less-strong pups: "184,604 greyhound puppies judged to be inferior for racing" were killed, legally, in the past 20 years.
Hunters shoot animals for sport. They do so lawfully, while the manner in which Vick harmed his dogs was unlawful. But from the perspective of the animal, there seems little difference between a hunter with a state game license zipped in his vest pocket shooting a deer as part of something the hunter views as really fun sport, and Vick shooting a dog as part of something Vick views as really fun sport. In both cases, animals suffer for human entertainment. The animal-ethics distinction between Vick's actions and lawful game hunting are murky at best. A first-time offender should go to prison over a murky distinction?

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Vick-timization

2007-08-27T18:35:00.000-04:00

I had a full-throated rant ready to spew today regarding the asinine amount of attention paid to the Michael Vick case, but I ran across Jemele Hill's article on ESPN.com's Page 2 that said it much better (and infinitely more PC) than the invective-laden screed that I had brewing. Please read her article.

And then think about it...

Saturday Comics

2007-08-25T11:30:00.000-04:00

In Our Own Image
Infinite Ineptitude
Time Bandits
TMI
Credibility Crunch
Free Trade
Blood Debt
Optimus Sub-Prime
Primier of Dumbfuckistan...
...And His Subjects
Carnal-Minded Man
Master Bait-And-Switcher
Pound Puppy
Over/Under 18 Months
The OJ Treatment
Say Cheese
Moderation
Peer Pressure
Responsibility
Terrorism
Pro Life
Big Brother
Big Pimpin'

And my favorite for today: Fellow Americans

Already, But Not Yet

2007-08-19T10:23:00.000-04:00

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Luke 4:14-21

Sometimes, the most important thing is that which is missing. When you tell your significant other that you love them and all that you hear in reply is abject silence, that which is missing is more telling than anything that they could possibly say. Jesus, in reading this passage from Isaiah 61, read a messianic prophesy about Himself, but the telling thing about the reading is where He stopped - He stopped mid-sentence, in the middle of verse 2. Why would Jesus stop in the middle of a sentence like that? The answer is simple, yet profound in its implications for our Christian journey - the Kingdom of God was manifest with Jesus' entry into the world, but it will not be fully consummated until His return. His Kingdom is already here, but it is not yet fulfilled.

There is tension between the Already and the Not Yet, and we see this tension in many ways, every day. We witness the movement and power of the Holy Spirit on a regular basis, but we also see gross injustices going unpunished. We see God saving, healing, and delivering people from certain destruction, but we also see people cursing God and living well. We readily see the Already but we also understand the Not Yet, and this is why we earnestly yearn for Jesus' return - we want His Kingdom to come into effect in full. It is like beginning a race when all of your opponents have been disqualified - you are already assured of victory but you have not yet completed the race. It is much like the prototypical engagement period - you have the assurance of a life-long commitment but you have not yet consummated the relationship (n.b. failure to achieve the former often being connected to a failure to live up to the latter). We already have the assurance of our salvation through the in-dwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, but we have not yet been glorified in the fullness of the Kingdom of God. We praise God for the Already but we sit on tiptoe anticipation for the Not Yet.

Patience is a virtue.

I don't know about you, but I hate to wait for that which is already mine - nothing irritates me more than waiting for my food in a restaurant, waiting in rush hour traffic to get home, or waiting for a certain Texan to leave office - but Jesus said that no man knows the day nor the hour of His return, so we have no choice but to wait for Him to return and establish His kingdom in full here on Earth. It is already established, but it is not yet completed.

Are you ready for the Not Yet to become the Already?

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who has already prepared a place for us,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2007-08-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

Liberal Policy
Sinking Ship of State
BS
Root Cause Analysis
The Uniter
Privatized Accounts
Adjustable Mortgage
Big Pimpin'
Mission Accomplished
Culture of Victimization
Wall Street Post
Nothing Changes
Decision 2012
Junk
Apocolypto
Duh
Spoiled Brat
Robber Barons
Consistency
Turd Blossom
MIA
Road Toll
Bearly Affordable
Governmental Minimalists

And my favorite for today: Generational Curse

Screwed-Up Intel

2007-08-14T18:55:00.000-04:00

There I was, minding my own business, going through my daily routine of reading through the blogs after I get home from work and get comfortable, when I come across a piece written by StevenD over on Booman Tribune. Apparently, Intel - the chip maker that powers many if not most PCs, has lost its mind. They actually published the following ad:

I am hard-pressed to offer further commentary without digging deep into my alternative vocabulary, so let me just say this: I will never again buy anything with an Intel chip inside it.

Ever.

Please do read Steven D's post.

Men of Honor

2007-08-13T20:30:00.000-04:00

Considering all of the things that the United States imports from China, it would be good for the US to add one more thing to that list: a sense of honor. It turns out that the CEO of the Chinese company that exported contaminated toys to the US has committed suicide from the shame of his negligence. Apparently, it is common for disgraced officials to commit suicide in China. Can you imagine the ramifications if Asian honor was observed over here?

Caught lying in a ad? Here's your tanto.
Caught stealing other companies' intellectual property? Here's your tanto.
Caught lying almost daily about pretty much anything that comes out of your mouth? To Hell with the tanto — here's four horses and some rope.

Maybe then some of these CEOs could justify their obscene salaries...

Ain't No Future In Yo' Frontin'

2007-08-12T09:32:00.000-04:00

Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out." Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.

Acts 19:13-17

It is amazing to me just how many people try to fake it 'til they make it. As I was watching the Democratic Debate that was sponsored by the AFL-CIO this week, John Edwards consistently talked about how many picket lines he had marched during the last two years. It got to the point where Joe Biden had to call him out on the carpet, asking him indirectly where John Edwards was when he was a senator from a Right-To-Work-For-Less state - where was John Edwards when publicly and vocally supporting Labor would have cost him dearly? There are a lot of people who talk a good game, and some who can walk well when there's no pressure on them, but where do we stand when it really matters? Where do we stand when our own money is on the line? Where do we stand when it's time to put up or shut up?

The seven sons of Sceva got caught faking the funk. They thought that their little side show - a profitable show in their day and ours - could ride into town and get paid, but as Steve Martin's character noted in the movie Leap of Faith, the biggest threat to a hustle is the genuine article, and the seven sons of Sceva ran into a genuine demon. One of the most telling statements that one can make is, "I almost lost my religion!" Religious people tend to get beat down by demons, but those of us who have a personal relationship with our Savior can walk in power, we can speak with authority, and we can make a difference for the Kingdom of God. Too often church folk try to put on a show for people to see just how righteous they are, but when we come face-to-face with a demon we will quickly learn that whatever is in us will truly come out of us. If we are walking with the Savior then He will stand up within us and exude His power on our behalf, but if we have nothing but religious pretense then we will find ourselves running bloodied and spiritually naked from a fight that we couldn't win.

Ain't no half-steppin'.

It is not enough to know about Jesus, you have to know Him for yourself and you have to submit the totality of your being to His sovereign will. People can fake it til they make it but that road inevitably leads to a sons of Sceva-scale beat-down. All power and authority is in Jesus Christ, and if we expect to be successful in this Christian journey then we have to center ourselves in the middle of His will because it's all about Him - He's the headliner, we're just the hype-men. Jesus doesn't employ His power on behalf of those who contribute to His kingdom, He shows Himself to be mighty on behalf of those who are committed to Him and His kingdom.

Where will you stand when it really matters?

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants us to stand up when it matters,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Pick Your Candidate

2007-08-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

I have just stumbled across an interesting site that compares your views on issues to the presidential candidates' positions (via HEP) and then lists the candidates in order of how well they correspond to your views. From the site:

If you agree with a candidate, he gets point(s). If you disagree, take point(s) away. Unkown/other results in no points. The number of points given or taken depends on the weight you set. "Meh" is worth 1 point, "important" 2, and "key" is worth 5. The items you disagree about will be listed directly underneath each candidate (if they score greater than zero).

Here are my results:

Kucinich 49
Abortion Rights, No Child Left Behind, Embryonic Stem Cells, Kyoto, Border Fence, Same-Sex Marriage

Obama 45
Abortion Rights, Embryonic Stem Cells, Patriot Act

Gravel 38
Abortion Rights, Embryonic Stem Cells, Kyoto, Border Fence, Same-Sex Marriage

Paul 37
ANWR Drilling, Assault Weapons Ban, Guns - Background Checks, Citizenship Path for Illegals, Net Neutrality, Minimum Wage Increase, Universal Healthcare

Biden 36
Abortion Rights, Death Penalty, No Child Left Behind, Embryonic Stem Cells, Patriot Act

Edwards 35
Abortion Rights, Death Penalty, No Child Left Behind, Embryonic Stem Cells, Patriot Act, Iran - Military Action

Clinton 31
Abortion Rights, Death Penalty, No Child Left Behind, Embryonic Stem Cells, Kyoto, Patriot Act, Iran - Military Action

Dodd 24
Abortion Rights, Death Penalty, No Child Left Behind, Embryonic Stem Cells, Kyoto, Patriot Act, Iran - Military Action

Richardson 20
Abortion Rights, Death Penalty, Embryonic Stem Cells, Kyoto, Assault Weapons Ban, Patriot Act, Border Fence, Iran - Military Action

Cox -6
McCain -13
Brownback -13
Thompson -18
Huckabee -33
Tancredo -35
Romney -46
Giuliani -48
Hunter -56

No surprises there - Kucinich was my choice in 2004 before he flip-flopped on abortion, figuring that no Pro Life Democrat would win the nomination. That showed me that he lacked character and a spine so that's how I ended up supporting Bob Graham and then Howard Dean. I'm solidly behind Barack Obama for 2008 so, again, this makes perfect sense to me. Give it a try and post your results in the comments.

BTW, my results from this more detailed site are almost identical.

Saturday Comics

2007-08-11T07:30:00.000-04:00

Predatory Lending
Dream House Deferred
Occidental Protectionism
Obama Girl
Voracious Appetite for Destruction
Pandering Experience
War Authorization Vote
Big Pimpin'
Decepticon
Faith-Based Infrastructure
Keep America Weird
Kobioshi Maru
Bend It Like Beckham
Compromised Cowards
Obsequious Genuflection
Fair Trade Agreement
Chapter 911 Bankruptcy

And my favorite for today: Insane Clown Posse

Message Received

2007-08-09T22:20:00.000-04:00

This week there have been a number of people who have in some way mentioned to me the need for me to write, and I have received the message. We'll see if anyone notices the trees falling in the forest...

Too Little, Too Late?

2007-07-06T16:21:00.000-04:00

Yet another Republican senator has called for a change in the War in Iraq. Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico is the most recent GOP stalwart to wake up and smell the napalm in the morning, following Senator Richard Lugar who spoke up last week and Senator John Warner who spoke up in April.

This is why I love democracy: these guys want to keep their jobs and they know the writing is on the wall. They know that the American people from coast to coast are sick of this stupid (no planning) and immoral (no reason) war. They don't want to end up like Rick "Conservatively Asinine" Santorum and Lincoln "If Only I Were a Democrat" Chaffee (real shame about Senator Chaffee, the only knock against him was the R). And Sen. Warner really doesn't want to end up like George "Macaca" Allen.

But it seems too little, too late. We as a nation - nay, as a world even - could have used some cajones a few years ago. These guys could have stood up and said something in 2004, 2005, or even 2006. But nooo, they were too drunk off the wine power and now they lost it. And we all continue to get screwed by Bush and Dick.

The real tragedy in all of this is that it could've been different if not for the very same average citizens who are now waking up to smell the coffee and realizing they drank the Koo-Aid. The same electoral pressures that elected Democrats in 2006 and that the Republicans are feeling now could've been applied in 2004. Of course there were many across this land who didn't drink the Kool-Aid and tried to warn our fellow citizens. We tried to illuminate the folly our government's ways but no, others would not listen. We went to our own party and asked for actual representation - backbone is what we said - but no, they would not listen. We marched and protested and blogged and wrote articles and essays and screamed at the top of our lungs! But others would not listen. Our representatives failed us. Our free media failed us. Our government has failed us and in a democracy the only thing that means is that we have all failed ourselves.

Lieberman May Back Republican in '08 Race

2007-07-06T15:35:00.000-04:00

Typical Lieberman. Typical.

Why does this guy have a committee chair? It makes no sense to me.

Did this guy not just carry the Democratic banner the past two presidential election cycles? For the #2 and #1 spots, respectively?

Ugh. The one good thing I can say about the 2000 election fiasco is that at least this guy isn't in the VP spot.

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?

2007-07-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

Fellow citizens, pardon me, and allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits, and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions. Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you, that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation (Babylon) whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin.

Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions, whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are today rendered more intolerable by the jubilant shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!"

To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world.

My subject, then, fellow citizens, is "American Slavery." I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing here, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July.

Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity, which is outraged, in the name of liberty, which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible, which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery -- the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate - I will not excuse." I will use the severest language I can command, and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slave-holder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some of my audience say it is just in this circumstance that you and your brother Abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more and denounce less, would you persuade more and rebuke less, your cause would be much more likely to succeed. But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slave-holders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment.

What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments, forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then I will argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver, and gold; that while we are reading, writing, and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants, and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; that we are engaged in all the enterprises common to other men -- digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave -- we are called upon to prove that we are men?

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to understand? How should I look today in the presence of Americans, dividing and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom, speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively? To do so would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven who does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What! Am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood and stained with pollution is wrong? No - I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman cannot be divine. Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may - I cannot. The time for such argument is past.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be denounced.

What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

Frederick Douglass - July 4, 1852

Comics - in time for the Fourth of July

2007-07-03T23:48:00.000-04:00

Accountability
No Smoking
Shut Up
Tortured Logic
Do It Over There So We Don't Have to Do It Over Here
Approval Ratings
Enabler-in-Chief
Family Jewels
The Fourth Branch
Judge's Gavel
Bushism: Immigration Bill
Now Reel It In
Bunker Branch
Opinion Poll
New Federal Flowchart
Surf's Up
Weightless
This Could Be Real
Look Out Below!
Party Flop
Pirates!

Saturday Comics (on Sunday)

2007-06-23T23:01:00.000-04:00

La Pinata
Tick, Tock
Moral Relativism
Exit Strategy?
King George's Constitution
Mr. Independent
Bush Middle East Policy
True Heroes
Incarceration Report
Slippery Case
Torture or Just Humiliating?
Full of Sound & Fury, Signifying Nothing
Till September
Can It Be Saved?
Ding Dong

Juneteenth

2007-06-19T15:59:00.000-04:00

Do you know what today is? A glorious holiday celebrating freedom!

Today is Juneteenth which commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States. It was on June 19th, 1865 that Union troops reached Galveston, TX and announced that all slaves were now free as declared by the Emancipation Proclamation (enacted January 1, 1863). The holiday has grown from Texas to the international community.

Find out more about Juneteenth!

Happy Juneteenth everyone!

Saturday Comics

2007-06-16T23:02:00.000-04:00

America's Choice
Bush's Choice
White + Class Privelege
Feeling the Pinch
You Have the Body
No Confidence
Hey, is That a Monkey on Your Back?
No Competition for Democatic Presidential Candidates...
...No, Really, It's That Bad
Loyalty
Lame, Lame, Lame Duck
My Bad, Didn't Realize
Assault on Reason
Squawk
And To Think, We Could've Had Him as Our Vice President...
...Scary, Isn't It?
Ugly American
Walking the Plank
Mixed Messages
Why We Need More Choice

Too Black, Too Strong

2007-06-11T07:32:00.000-04:00

I know that there is no way on God's green Earth that this will be allowed to come to fruition, but there is an outside chance that we could see a unity ticket of Barak Obama & Colin Powell - outside, as in a 6σ outlier, but there is a chance.

Then too, Dennis Kucinich could become the 44th President of the United States...

Saturday Comics

2007-06-09T17:57:00.000-04:00

When Will They Learn?
So That's What That Smell Was!
Why You Should Give Thanks the Next Time You Pay at the Pump
Follow the Leader
A Nation of Hypocrites
Jumping the Bandwagon
Summertime Cook-out
The Bush Method of Spreading Democracy
A House Divided
Supply and Demand
Strict View of All MEN Created Equal
Jackasses
Lady Liberty
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
It Will End When We Make It End

Saturday Comics

2007-06-02T19:46:00.000-04:00

Judicial Craptivism
Sensible Immigration Policy
No Hard Feelings
The Flip-Flop is on the Other Foot
Never Too Early
True Patriotism
Que Triste

Saturday Comics

2007-03-24T13:30:00.000-04:00

While I'm waiting for them to deliver my new bed I figure a comics thread would be in order:

Go Home Gringo
Duke Prosecutor
Wasted
Bracketology
Final Four Horsemen
Republican Frontrunner
Failure To Communicate
Well-Qualified
Going In Circles
You've Gone Nowhere Baby
Might Makes Right
Too Late
Ahab's Dick
Blood Red
Fishing Expedition
Truth...
...And Consequences
Goto Gitmo
Presidential Medal of Freedom
Supreme Soviet Deputy
Behind The 8-Ball
Big Sister

And my favorite for today: Vote Different

Gone Fishing

2007-02-10T09:17:00.000-05:00

The real world calls and I'm not going to have much time to write online any more. I'll update things as I can but that probably won't be too often.

Now unto Him
who is able to keep you from falling
and to present you before His glorious presence
without fault and with great joy --
to the only God our Savior
be glory,
majesty,
power
and authority,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
before all ages,
now and forevermore!
Amen.

Word For The Week

2007-02-04T11:00:00.000-05:00

A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household! So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.

Matthew 10:24-26

Transparency.

The transparent truth is that I don't have the time to do everything that I've committed to doing. Again. I need to take stock of things and see where I need to make some adjustments.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants us to let our light shine to all the world,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2007-02-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

2008
Perspective
American History
Plan B
Do As I Say...
...Not As I Have Done
Hillary's Credentials
F*** Biden
Focused Group
Real World Economics...
...And The Inevitable Consequences
Fantasy-Land Economics...
...And The Inevitable Consequences
Mesopotamian Home Invasion
Palpatine's Republic
The Decider...
...Is As Does
Red (Ink) Man
Help Wanted
Endangered Species
Achman Is Brahman

And my favorite for today: Practicing His Love

Beyond The Ultimate

2007-02-02T19:00:00.000-05:00

Word For The Week

2007-01-28T11:00:00.000-05:00

Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:

If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Teamwork.

I find it incredibly amazing just how much American society is distinctly opposed to the Biblical norms. We live in the land of the Lone Ranger, a land where each individual is expected to pull himself up by his own bootstraps, a land where individual achievement is exalted above the well-being of the team. Politicians seek to shine in the spotlight even though their grandstanding hurts the efforts of their political party. Athletes seek to increase their personal glory even though their team needs to involve more players in the game. Managers seek to avoid all blame even though their supervisors need guidance and direction. We live in a land where everyone is out for self - self-service, self-gratification, self-help - but the Bible tells us that two are better than one because they have a good return for their work.

Together Each Achieves More.

It's a tired cliché but it is and has been true since times of old. If one falls down his friend can help him up, but it sucks to be the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Remember the old commercial where the elderly lady cries, "I've fallen and I can't get up!" How many times have we heard about an aunt or grandmother or sister who has broken her hip and nobody knew that she incapacitated, laying on the floor in agony for days? It happens more often then most of us would care to know. There are many people who have broken spirits and broken hearts, people who have been mentally broken down and are meandering through this life all alone with no one to help them up because in this land where we live a person keeps to themselves. In this land where we live a person simply doesn't put themselves out there. In this land where we live people's problems are pure fodder for television programming, and lest we find ourselves on Montel, Maury, or Oprah's couch confessing all to voyeuristic public we keep our personal baggage, issues, and drama to ourselves.

It's a matter of trust.

In many instances we would love to have people that we could confide in, people with whom we could share our burdens, people who we could lean on and who also could lean on us, but in too many instances we know with absolute certainty that people can not be trusted with our business. You tell one person your business today and you hear about it from someone else tomorrow. All too often people are not looking out for your best interest or mine, they are looking out for themselves, seeking their own self-gratification.

Many times it isn't that people mean you harm, it's just that they're not thinking about you, they don't understand your well-being to be their responsibility, but we who are called by the name of Jesus Christ are to take a different approach. I am my brother's keeper, and your well-being is my responsibility - and my well-being is your responsibility. You have to be able to trust me to not only keep your confidence but to build you up when you are weak, encourage you when you are feeling down, help you when you stumble and defend you when you are attacked. I have to be able to trust you to do the same for me, because when we live a life of love our loved-ones should know with absolute certainty that we will be there for them, no matter what. If I call you my brother or sister in Christ then why would I treat you like a stranger? Yet too often that is exactly the way that we treat each other within the church. Sure, we'll greet one another with a smile and a hug, but then we never speak to one another until the next Sunday. You could be going through hell on earth and all I know is that you looked nice on Sunday. I could be about to put a bullet in my brain and all that you know is that I was in church on Sunday. We have to stop playing church and start being the Church. The Church is the fellowship of believers, not merely a collection of self-professed Christians. The Church is a hospital for the sick, not a hospice for the dying. The Church is the place where believers can come together to strengthen and encourage one another, empathize and love on one another, fellowship and bond with one another. We don't just come to church, we are the Church - at church, at home, at work, at the grocery store - such that anywhere we go the peace of God follows us, and whenever or wherever we encounter another Christian Church is in session.

Because we're on the same team.

The world has tried to understand this team thing, realigning paradigms according to ISO 9000 or Six Sigma or whatever the newest management fad happens to be, but at the end of the day it boils down to this one central thing that Scripture has taught from the beginning - when you love your teammates your team will excel. People will run through a brick wall for someone they love. People will walk through fire for someone they love. People will jump in front of bullets, dive on grenades, and make the ultimate sacrifice for people that they truly love. Jesus said it best, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." But where there is no love there is nothing but self-satisfaction, self-interest, and self-serving actions.

Again, this is sin.

The center of sin is self, and every sin begins with the words, "I want..." Just ask Adam and Eve. God said that they must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom - she wanted it - so she took some and ate it and then gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Every sin that we have ever committed began with, "I want" and every sin that we will ever commit will begin with, "I want" - this is why we must die to self - and the best way to keep those selfish intentions in check is to maintain fellowship with other believers, members of the team, because together each of us achieves more for the advancement of God's kingdom. Lucy Van Pelt of the Peanuts cartoon gave a pointed example of this teamwork. One finger, by itself, can do very little; however, when five fingers come together and form a fist their collective power is many times greater than their individual power when standing alone. We who are called by the name of Christ need to come together, work together, and achieve together, because divided we are conquered and defeated. We who are called by the name of Christ are more than conquerors through Him who loves us, but we have to walk in that victory with our fellow believers. We who are called by the name of Christ have overcome the world by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, but we have to openly testify if we are to actualize our overcoming, if we are to make it real, if we are to be more than just another hypocrite in the church. We have to be the Church, and that means that we have to live a life of love such that our fellow believers can trust us with their hearts. That means that we have to be trustworthy enough that our fellow believers can lay with us to keep warm without worrying about their personal security. That means that we have to be strong enough in our walk with Christ that when our brother or sister is attacked we can defend them, because while one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves, and cord of three strands is not quickly broken. We have to be the Church, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit - the ultimate example of teamwork.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants us to be good teammates,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2007-01-27T06:30:00.000-05:00

Git 'R Dungy...
...vs. Monsters Of The Midway
Personal Responsibility
YouTube
Subjective Right To Life...
...Market Forces...
...And The Scientific Method
Lab Rats
Big Mama
Euthenasia
From Bad...
...To Worse
Job One
Army Of One
Smack Down
Self-Centered
Mosh Pit
Integrity Matters
Katrina's Wake
Bye-Bye Bayou
New Year's Resolution
Nuclear Grenade
Pale Face
China Syndrome
Mixed Metaphor
AFLAC
Worst.President.Ever
Self-Preservation
Little Baghdad
The Butcher's Bill
America Online

And my favorite for today: American Idolatry

Making History

2007-01-22T08:19:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we saw not one but two Black NFL coaches win their way to the Superbowl, which is the first time this has ever happened. The way things are going, we may run out of nationally prominent "firsts" by the time my future children become adults (God willing).

Which brings me to Barack Obama. Could he be the first Black president? Why not? Why not Barack Obama? Granted, we've all joked about how there may never be a Black president and the dangers he or she might face between election day and inauguration. Granted Obama has received a lot of hype without the close substantive scrutiny that, say, Hillary Clinton has been under.

But Barack's message is about hope. And why not hope for achieving the impossible? Were it not for hope and faith we would never have seen the end of chattel slavery. Were it not for hope and faith we would never have seen the end of de jure Jim Crow. Were it not for hope and faith we would never have the opportunity to see a Black NFL coach hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy above his head.

So let us keep the faith, and keep hoping. Regardless of whom you may support, do as Jesse said and keep hope alive.

Word For The Week

2007-01-21T11:00:00.000-05:00

You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48

Respect.

It is amazing just how much drama could be avoided if people treated each other with a modicum of respect. Countless wars have been fought because one leader or country felt disrespected by another. World War II came about in large part because the Germans felt disrespected by the Treaty of Versailles - they essentially fought World War I to a draw but they were treated like a defeated nation. How many millions of lives could have been saved through treating Germany with some respect in 1919? How much pain and suffering could have been avoided by treating people with respect? How many issues in our own lives could have been avoided if the situations had been dealt with respectfully?

Loving your enemies is nothing more than treating them with respect, treating them like human beings, treating them like we would want to be treated, not how we would expect to be treated. If I were running for elective office then I would expect my opponent to dig through my background (oppo research) and find unflattering things to make me appear to be unqualified for office, but I would want him to engage me on the issues that are actually relevant to the constituents of the district. In this case Jesus commands us to eschew mud-slinging and negative campaigning since that is not consistent with loving our enemies, treating them with respect. In fact, negative campaigning is quintessentially disrespectful - it promotes contempt for your opponent, driving up their negative ratings. We who are called by the name of Christ are not to promote contempt for anyone, we are to be Jesus Christ's ambassadors, spreading His message of reconciliation to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that He has commanded. We are to love our enemies and pray for those who would persecute us, even in political campaigns.

That extends to our phone conversations, too.

The nastiest mud-slinging that you will ever find is when people get to talking about someone over the phone, running their name through the mud, talking about them like they have a tail. In many ways it resembles a feeding frenzy when chum is tossed into shark-infested waters. It looks a lot like the LAPD beating on Rodney King. It is eerily reminiscent of those klansmen beating on Emmet Till. When people get to talking bad about someone it can get ugly in a hurry, and the end result is that the person is treated with a lack of respect from there on out, they are treated in ways that have nothing to do with love.

That is sin.

We love to talk about those people and their sinful lifestyles - and they are indeed sinful - but we have a lot of sin that we have to address as well, first and foremost being the lack of love that we show for those who we perceive to be our enemies, the lack of respect that we show for people who believe differently, think differently, or look differently from us. Even though people who reject Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior are destined for hellfire we are still to love them, to treat them with respect, to deal with them the same way with which we would want to be dealt. People who think differently from us may indeed be facilitating the destruction of this country as we have known it, but we still must treat them with respect, loving them as we would want to be loved - from a distance in most instances - and giving them the respect that is due to God's creation. How did Aretha put it?

R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me.

We have to treat everyone with the utmost respect, from our best friends to those folks who we would rather never see again. Loving someone and treating them with respect does not mean that you feel anything for them, it doesn't mean that you have any positive emotion regarding them, it means that you deal with them in positive ways when you have to deal with them. In many instances the most loving thing that you can do for someone is removing yourself from their presence, telling them that you can not deal with them in a loving manner and since you don't want to bring them harm you have to separate yourself from them until such time as you can deal with them in a loving manner. Loving a crackhead doesn't mean giving them money - it means cutting them off and getting them into rehab. Loving an abusive spouse doesn't mean submitting to fists of fury, it means getting out of his (or her!) presence until s/he has learned how to channel their emotions. Loving our enemies doesn't mean letting them have their way with us, it means treating them respectfully, telling them "No" instead of telling them where to go and how to get there. It's an issue of attitude, and our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus our Lord. Our basic disposition should be one of love, not in the passive doormat sense but in the sense that we treat everyone with respect, that we want that which is best for everyone, that we are concerned about the well-being of everyone. After all, worldly folks love their friends; worldly folks look after their own; worldly folks deal with people according to the manner in which they are treated, but we are called to be bigger than that. We are called to better than that. We are called to be the bearers of Jesus Christ's image, but with too many Christians when the world looks at us they see nothing more than a reflection of themselves - game recognize game and carnal recognize carnal.

Be perfect, therefore, as our heavenly Father is perfect.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to find out what R-E-S-P-E-C-T means to Him,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2007-01-20T11:30:00.000-05:00

The Birds
Lifestyle Preference
Counter-Cultural Rebels
Bull Market
Tee Time
Fore
iRaq
FUBAR
Surge
Prospects For Success
Miserable Failure
Saving Face
No New Texans
Alternative Plans
Simplicity
Mobeus Ribbon
Republican Role
Viva La Revolución
The Swift Boats Are Coming
All Things Considered...
...Less Is More
Game Recognize Game
Triangulated Redeployment
Calculated Response
Variations Of Vanilla
Hillary Rodham Kerry...
...Exorcising Her Demons
Neither Nor
Both And
Beep Beep
Domestic Terror

And my favorites for today: The Gentleman From Illinois...Restoring The Union

The Audacity Of Hope

2007-01-17T21:15:00.000-05:00

It is incredibly likely that the next President of the United States will be a Black man. Senator Barack Obama has announced that he will open an exploratory committee and that he will announce his intentions in February, around Lincoln's birthday, in Lincoln's home-state, during Black History Month.

Now we just have to convince Colin Powell's wife to let him run for president - no Republican could beat him in the primary - and we will have the first all-Black election for president, because no Democrat has anything for Obama either. Powell's not running, but Obama has rekindled a degree of political hopefulness in me - audacious hope, one might say - and it doesn't hurt to hope for the best possible scenario.

MLK Day

2007-01-15T17:59:00.002-05:00

Every January 15^th (or the Monday nearest that day) we get a million people quoting Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream speech, but as of 2007 I believe that we can safely say that said dream is at best deferred and in reality nothing more than a child's fantasy, lest you forget that some things never change. For a more realistic look at 2007 it would be better to examine Martin Luther King's words in The Drum Major Instinct, excerpted below:
The other day I was saying, I always try to do a little converting when I'm in jail. And when we were in jail in Birmingham the other day, the white wardens and all enjoyed coming around the cell to talk about the race problem. And they were showing us where we were so wrong demonstrating. And they were showing us where segregation was so right. And they were showing us where intermarriage was so wrong. So I would get to preaching, and we would get to talking—calmly, because they wanted to talk about it. And then we got down one day to the point—that was the second or third day—to talk about where they lived, and how much they were earning. And when those brothers told me what they were earning, I said, "Now, you know what? You ought to be marching with us. You're just as poor as Negroes." And I said, "You are put in the position of supporting your oppressor, because through prejudice and blindness, you fail to see that the same forces that oppress Negroes in American society oppress poor white people. And all you are living on is the satisfaction of your skin being white, and the drum major instinct of thinking that you are somebody big because you are white. And you're so poor you can't send your children to school. You ought to be out here marching with every one of us every time we have a march."

Now that's a fact. That the poor white has been put into this position, where through blindness and prejudice, he is forced to support his oppressors. And the only thing he has going for him is the false feeling that he’s superior because his skin is white — and can't hardly eat and make his ends meet week in and week out.

And not only does this thing go into the racial struggle, it goes into the struggle between nations. And I would submit to you this morning that what is wrong in the world today is that the nations of the world are engaged in a bitter, colossal contest for supremacy. And if something doesn't happen to stop this trend, I'm sorely afraid that we won't be here to talk about Jesus Christ and about God and about brotherhood too many more years. If somebody doesn't bring an end to this suicidal thrust that we see in the world today, none of us are going to be around, because somebody's going to make the mistake through our senseless blunderings of dropping a nuclear bomb somewhere. And then another one is going to drop. And don't let anybody fool you, this can happen within a matter of seconds. They have twenty-megaton bombs in Russia right now that can destroy a city as big as New York in three seconds, with everybody wiped away, and every building. And we can do the same thing to Russia and China.

But this is why we are drifting. And we are drifting there because nations are caught up with the drum major instinct. "I must be first." "I must be supreme." "Our nation must rule the world." And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. And I'm going to continue to say it to America, because I love this country too much to see the drift that it has taken.

God didn't call America to do what she's doing in the world now. God didn't call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war as the war in Vietnam. And we are criminals in that war. We’ve committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I'm going to continue to say it. And we won't stop it because of our pride and our arrogance as a nation.

But God has a way of even putting nations in their place. The God that I worship has a way of saying, "Don't play with me." He has a way of saying, as the God of the Old Testament used to say to the Hebrews, "Don’t play with me, Israel. Don't play with me, Babylon. Be still and know that I'm God. And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power." And that can happen to America. Every now and then I go back and read Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. And when I come and look at America, I say to myself, the parallels are frightening. And we have perverted the drum major instinct.
Some things never change...

Word For The Week

2007-01-14T11:00:00.000-05:00

Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.' But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your "Yes" be "Yes," and your "No," "No"; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Matthew 5:33-37

Integrity.

One thing that I have learned in my limited existence on Earth is the absolute necessity of personal integrity. You can disagree with a person of integrity and still respect and work with them. You can fight tooth and nail against a person of integrity and remain civil or even friendly after the battle. You can oppose with every fiber of your being that which a person of integrity proposes and still honor their character in fighting for that which they earnestly believe. One of the things that drew me to Howard Dean's campaign was his clear-cut character - he said what he meant and he meant what he said. He had the personal integrity to stand against the war in Iraq when certain senators were voting for it before they voted against it. He had the personal integrity to call out the Democratic Party for being too insular and excluding people with confederate flags on the back of their pickup trucks. He had the personal integrity to call for the breakup of major multi-media conglomerates even though big media can make or break a presidential campaign. Each of these stands cost Howard Dean in his campaign for president, and the biggest problem that I had with Howard Dean was when he folded under pressure regarding the confederate flag comment, compromising his integrity by apologizing for a comment that needed no apology but instead needed to be expanded upon and defended.

Just like so many Bible-believing Christians fold up every day.

How many Christians blend into society and hide their faith? How many Christians speak of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ only in circles where such talk is "safe"? How many Christians apologize for their exclusive belief in Jesus Christ, that the only way to the Father is through the Son, that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but through Him? How many times do Christians straight up punk out? We don't need any more punk Christians, we need men and women of integrity - men and women with the character to stand firm for the Kingdom of God, men and women with the character to stand firm on the Word of God, men and women with the character to stand firm under pressure because this world will surely resist the message of reconciliation, the message that Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and that in order for the world to appropriate that which Jesus has done on our behalf they have to accept His atoning work and lordship.

But how will they believe our message if we have no personal credibility?

With too many Christians our "No" mean "maybe" and our "Yes" mean "probably not." With too many Christians our personal credibility is no better than the average political promise. With too many Christians our word means next to nothing, so when we try to speak on matters of eternal importance the world has but one thing to say - whatever. That is not the fault of the world. That is not the fault of the lost and the dying. That is not the fault of those who we are trying to reach - that is purely our fault, and it perpetually poisons our personal credibility when we fail to admit as much; it shows our true character.

When we say "Yes" we must be consistent with it. "Yes" means "yes", no matter what. When we say, "I do" it can't mean "I might, unless we drift apart." When we tell people that we will do something then the job must get done, no matter the personal sacrifice that must be made. When we tell people that we will not do something then no matter how enticing the temptation we must be steadfast in our refusal to participate in it. Our problem is that we try to tell people that sex is between one man and one woman within the context of marriage while preachers are "laying hands" on church secretaries, priests are having "relations" with altar boys, and high profile men of the cloth are ousted for having adulterous affairs, even with gay prostitutes. And we want to talk about sex? You know what the world has to say - whatever.

Let your "Yes" be "Yes," and your "No," "No."

We all (well, most of us) mean well, and when we make these vows and promises we usually mean it at the time, but too often our $10 mouths write checks that our 5¢ behinds can't cash. We like to look big with our big talk but when our worldly walk can't keep up we come across as hypocritical fools, and that perception is dead accurate. We have to learn how to live a life of integrity, how to live a life of righteousness, and sometimes that means telling people that you just don't know. I am a world-class know-it-all - I am conversant on most things and I can pretty much piece together the things that I don't know much about - but even I have to say, "You know what, I really don't know" from time to time. Why did over 60 million Americans vote for George W. Bush in 2004? I don't know. Why did the Democratic Party think that John F. Kerry was the best choice for its presidential candidate in 2004? I don't know. Why did Tony Romo choke away a potential Cowboys victory? I don't know. "I don't know" is a perfectly acceptable answer, and so is, "That's none of your business" - living a life of integrity doesn't mean giving everyone Carte Blanche with your personal life; it does mean that if they happen to reveal everything about your personal life then nothing would be revealed about which you should be ashamed. We have to be consistent with our talk and our walk, not by reducing our talk to the level of our walk but by raising our walk to the level of Jesus' walk - then we'll consistently have the credible character to talk as Jesus talked. When we live a life of integrity we don't need an outside source to validate the truthfulness of our words. When we live a life of integrity we don't need to put our hand on a Bible for people to know that we are telling the truth. When we live a life of integrity the fact that we are speaking means that we are speaking truthfully, that our "Yes" means "Yes" and our "No" means "No," and we who are called by the name of Jesus Christ are commanded to live a life of integrity.

Integrity - credible character lived consistently; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to live a life of personal integrity,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2007-01-13T10:00:00.000-05:00

Latter-Day Saint?
The L Word
Flag Desecration
You (Ese) Tube
Cheerleader In Chief
Days Of Our Lives
Hell --> Naw
Goose --> Gander
False Profit
Texas Hold 'Em
5-Card Draw
Rabid Ignorance
Hoisted...
...By His Own Petard
Hail Mary...
...Full Of Grace
Too Late
Mission Accomplished...
...Or Fait Accompli
All In
Next
Lame Duck
Worst.President.Ever.
Worst.Job.Ever.
Barak! Boma Ye!
Step It Down
Isolationists
Mirror Mirror
Hammerhead
Uncle Gus
Bass Ackwards
STFU
Grist...
...For The Treadmill
Boots In The Ground
Feeding Postmodern Cannons
Bring Them Home
Hit Him Again
Mobius Policy
Freudian Policy
Yo Ho Ho...
...And A Bottle Of Rum
Long Way To Go
Theory Of Evolution
Executive Order
Slaughter House
Either Bush Either
Newspeak
SkyNet
Iraqnam
China Syndrome
Only In Utah

And my favorite for today: Durty Jurz

Incognegro

2007-01-12T20:53:00.000-05:00

The die has been cast and I am going to make some moves that will require me to maintain a less-obvious presence online. I'm still me and I'll still be here from time to time, but I need to create a bit of separation between virtual and objective reality.

He that has an ear to hear, let him hear...

Word For The Week

2007-01-07T08:36:00.000-05:00

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

Matthew 5:21-26

I find it fascinating to watch the news with an eye toward human nature playing itself out in world events, both in matters great and small. The story that I have found to be most interesting is the recent spat between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell, where the two of them are essentially playing the dozens on each other. It reminds me of many an argument that is had by children where one would say, “You’re a pig-face!” and the other would reply, “Says who?” Says who? It’s a simple question with a significant answer, because it ultimately addresses the epistemological inquiry into authority – who can speak authoritatively?

Most people’s proclamations are nothing more than the mere opinions of men, one man says this while another says that and none of them have any claim to truth. It is much like the story of three blind men who were led to an elephant and asked to describe their experience. One man, who grasped the elephant’s tail, said that it is a thin creature, much akin to a rope, while the second man grasped the elephant’s trunk and described the animal as being like a water hose. The third man grabbed the elephant’s leg and described the animal as being like a tree trunk. While each of the men was correct in describing their experience with the elephant, none of the men fully grasped the character and nature of the elephant. They could not see the elephant in all of its splendor and glory, only those aspects of the elephant that were within their reach and that the elephant allowed them to experience.

Our personal experience cannot tell us about the nature and character of God beyond that which God reveals to us. Our interpretation of our experiences, much like that of the three blind men around the elephant, can be incomplete or wildly off the mark. If we look down a railroad track our eyes will tell us that those two tracks eventually come together, but that is not truth. Our every-day experience tells us that the world upon which we live is flat, but that is not truth. Conventional wisdom said that the Pittsburgh Steelers could not win three playoff games on the road and then win the Super Bowl, but that was not truth. People lack the authority to pronounce truth – often times they are merely guessing – but Jesus creates truth by merely speaking. After all, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. God said, “Let there be…” and there was, simply by speaking. Jesus called Lazarus from the grave and the decomposed corpse became a living soul, Jesus has the authority to speak. He who healed the sick and gave sight to the blind has the authority to speak. He who gave his life as an atoning sacrifice for my sins and yours has the authority to speak. We can trust the words of Jesus Christ because He alone has the authority to speak.

But the question is this: who are you listening to? That which controls your thinking is your god, so whose words control your thinking? Whose words guide your actions? Do you keep your own council? Are you your own god? Or do you submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, responding to His words as brought to your remembrance by the Holy Spirit? Who are you listening to? Listening leads to thoughts which lead to actions which lead to habits which lead to character traits – who you listen to will shape who you are, so is your soul being shaped by the Savior or do you live by the world’s conventional wisdom? Hip Hop says that women are nothing more than disposable pleasures but Jesus says that in the beginning He created them male and female, equal in dignity though complementary in function. Society says that divorce is a perfectly fine option but Jesus says that what God has put together let no man tear asunder. The world says that every religion is of eternal value but Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life – no man comes to the father but by me.” Who are you listening to? Who has your ear? Who do you trust? In whom do you place your faith? When it’s decision time whose counsel do you keep? When someone makes you angry do the words of Jesus guide your tongue? When someone disappoints you do the words of Jesus guide your thoughts? When you get that call at 1:00 in the morning – you know, that call – do the words of Jesus guide your feet, or do you hear Marvin Gaye whispering sweet nothings in your ear? “Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!” Just because it’s good to you doesn’t mean that it’s good for you. Whose words guide your thoughts and actions?

In our text today Jesus teaches that Christians should live a life of love. It is not enough to refrain from negative actions toward our brothers and sisters, we must truly love them. I know that there have been times in my life where I’ve said, “I didn’t kill him, but I sure wanted to.” Has anyone else had that testimony? Jesus says that we are just as guilty as if we had pulled the trigger, because it is the things that come from the heart that defile us, and our hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? Some people try to push the cop-out, “Well, Jesus knows my heart.” That’s true, Jesus does indeed know our hearts, and that’s why He had to die on that old rugged cross – He knows our hearts – and that is why He commands us to live a life of love.

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, r`aka, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.” Have you ever met someone who was just mad for no reason? Just all the time mad? At everyone? For no reason? Have you ever found yourself to be consumed with unfocused anger, just mad at the world? Jesus says that wounding our brothers and sisters with our unnecessary anger is just as sinful as if we’d pulled out the Gloc and put two to the dome. As the cliché says, the heart of the matter is a matter of the heart. We are not to live this life angry at the world, mad for no reason, we are to be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead.

Living a life of love doesn’t mean being a punk – Jesus isn’t saying that we are to let people run over us and punk us out. Jesus is saying that our response to such people should be love, and if you love someone you won’t let them hurt themselves by trying to get over on you.

Say what?

God is our Father, and our Father is quite protective of His children. I have seen too many instances of people trying to pimp the people of God just to find themselves on the business end of God’s wrath. I have been through too many instances where I have turned a problem over to God and God wrecks shop exceeding abundantly above anything that I would or could have done to my enemies. This is why Paul reminds us to leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord. If you love someone then you will not allow them to put themselves in a position where they will face God’s vengeance, so we don’t have to go on that show, “Pimp my Christian” – we need to live a life of love as God prepares a table for us in the face of our enemies.

Pastor Jeff Johnson from Indianapolis told the testimony of one of his members who worked in the corporate world. The member was faithful to God, to his family, and to his church and was very good at his job. He was so good at his job that his boss blocked every move that he tried to make for his career advancement because the boss wanted the man to keep making her look good. Eventually the man went to his boss and asked her point-blank if she would help him get a promotion and she flatly told him that he would get it over her dead body, so the man went back to doing his job faithfully. A few days later the woman had an aneurysm and died, and the whole office was going to her memorial service. The man didn’t want to go but he didn’t want to be spiteful so he went anyway. As he approached the casket he was met by the regional director who greeted him and told him that people knew about the work that he’d been doing, that he was a top-notched employee and an asset to company. Then the director asked the man if he would be interested in managing the department that he currently worked in, and of course he accepted. And you know where he got that promotion? Right over her dead body!

You’ve got to be careful how you treat a child of God! The Bible says that no weapon formed against us shall prosper, and Jesus says that no man can snatch us out of His hands. I KNOW that my God is good but we have to live a life of love, not talking about those who do us wrong, not plotting revenge against those who hurt us, not returning evil for evil or even harboring resentment against those who have wronged us. Someone once said that resentment is like setting yourself on fire hoping that someone else will be bothered by the smoke. We have to live a life of love! God will handle the rest if we seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.

The second thing that Jesus teaches is that love is more important than rituals. Too often we get so caught up in the things that we do that we lose sight of the people to whom we should be ministering. Paying your tithes is important, coming to church is important, but if there’s a family emergency then you need to take care of your family first. THEN bring your tithe to the church. Notice in the text that Jesus didn’t say to forget about the offering – he said take care of the inter-personal matter first, get things right with your brother first, THEN bring your offering. Notice that the offering wasn’t used for anything else – it was set aside for worship – but the first priority was the personal matter, getting things right with the brother. If we can’t truly fellowship with each other then we can’t truly worship God, and God doesn’t want your praise or your prayers to be hindered by your petty problems with people, so before you come to worship squash any drama between you and your brothers and sisters in Christ – and don’t forget your offering.

Within the context of Jesus’ teaching the people brought offerings to the Temple – livestock, lambs, goats, bulls and so forth. The purpose of the offering was twofold: first, as an offering to God as an act of worship, but second it was for the purpose of supporting the Levitical priesthood. The Levites were given no land as an inheritance in the Promised Land since their mission and calling was the Temple priesthood, but the children of Israel were commanded to support the Levites through their tithes – since the Levites could not support themselves in ministering to the children of Israel the children of Israel were to support the Levites and their ministry.

We have the same arrangement today, since the pastor spends his time ministering to the people of God he cannot support himself through the sweat of his brow, thus the people of God are to support the man of God and the advancement of God’s kingdom through our tithes and offering. Our tradition is 10% of what we get – that was the Old Testament model, a tenth – but in the New Testament the believers had all things in common, selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need: from each according to their ability, to each according to their need. We can go with the Old Testament model of a tenth or we can go with the New Testament model of giving it all since Jesus paid it all; but all that we are asked to give is a tenth.

It’s just like that little boy with the five loaves and two fish. He gave out of a spirit of love, not out of compulsion or out of duty and he did not give begrudgingly. Love compelled him to give all that he had – his whole lunch – and due to his act of love over 5,000 people were fed. How many people can be fed based upon our love? How many people can depend on our love? How many people would be dead and gone if their sustenance depended upon our love? We have to live a life of love because love is more important than rituals. Love is more important than showing up for a couple hours on Sunday. Love is more important than going through the motions. Jesus commands us to live a life of love – it’s more important than just routine rituals.

The third thing that Jesus teaches in this text is that love can take precedence over justice. People are much more forgiving of those that they love. Many of us who are Democrats are quite forgiving of Bill Clinton for his indiscretions, but we were quite indignant about Rep. Mark Foley’s fetishes. Many of us who are Republicans got all high and mighty when it came to Bill Clinton lying to the public about a personal matter, but when George W. Bush blatantly lies to the public about Rumsfeld staying on as Secretary of Defense throughout 2008 nary a Republican blinked an eye. We are much more forgiving of our friends than our enemies, and in our text Jesus teaches that we are to turn our adversaries into friends, thereby avoiding the judgment that we rightfully deserve.

Jesus said, “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.” I have often said that rules fill the vacuum that is created by an absence of love. Rules don’t guide the interactions of loved-ones, rather principles and general understandings are the norm within loving relationships. If I love you then I am going to do right by you, and if you love me then you can trust me to do right by you. Rules aren’t needed when you operate under love, but where there is no love you are held accountable to the letter of the law. Where the is no love nobody cares about you, they only care about justice. Where there is no love nobody knows your name, they only know your docket number and your prisoner ID. Jesus commands us to live a life of love, understanding that love is more important than rituals and that love can trump justice.

We see this principle at work almost every month when some young man gets arrested for doing something utterly stupid and the camera crews find his mama. The young man could have been caught standing over a dead body with a smoking gun in his hand, finger still on the trigger, and his mama will unfailingly defend her baby. The Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins and that is seen every week on TV as some mother’s tears cover the sins of her wayward son. It was seen in Simi Valley when a sympathetic jury let four guilty cops go free in the Rodney King beating case. It was seen in LA when a sympathetic jury let OJ Simpson go free in the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ron Goldman. It is seen every day in our prayer closets when we pray for forgiveness and God hears our prayers, forgives our sins, and cleanses us of all unrighteousness.

We who have been saved by the name of Jesus Christ know that love trumps justice, because each of us has been saved by grace through faith. Each of us were loved when we were lost and lonely, saved when we were stuck in our sin-sickness, redeemed when we were wretched and worthless. Even though the wages of our sin merited death we were given the free gift of salvation by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. God demonstrated His own love in this; while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, the Righteous One sacrificed His life for us, the unrighteous, in order to bring us to God. Love can cover a multitude of sins, and Jesus calls us to live a life of love. Will you listen to what He has to say? Will you enthrone Him as Lord of your life? Who is your God? Who has the authority to speak into your life? Will you choose Jesus today?

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to live a life of love,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2007-01-06T11:30:00.000-05:00

Tis The Season
Romance Without Finance
Burr v. Hamilton
Rank Hypocrisy
The Wages Of Sin...
...Is Death
K Street Project
Peeping Tom In Chief
New Age Dawning
Boom Baby
Apocolypto Surge
Starved Beast
Whatever It Takes
Accessory To Murder
Intervention Needed
White House Spokesman
Credibility Gap
Seymour Screwed Up
Piece Of Skubalon
Fire and Brimstone
Utter Contempt
Bush Supporters
Minimum Wage
Goose --> Gander
Need One More Change

And my favorite for today: Not Soon Enough

Word For The Week

2006-12-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.

Revelation 3:14-21

Whatever.

Within American culture the ultimate expression of indifference is the utterance of the exclamation, "Whatever." Whenever something is brought to our attention that essentially means nothing to us we often exclaim, "Whatever." It is an expression of indifference but it is also laced with a tinge of contempt for the one who brings the supposedly irrelevant information to our attention. George Bush is giving a speech on his plan for Iraq? Whatever. Dennis Kucinich is running for president? Whatever. The Detroit Lions are playing a football game? Whatever. It is an expression of our utter indifference about the information that is presented to us and it demonstrates our contempt for the one who brings us the information, and it probably got a lot of use among the Christians in Laodicea.

The Church in Laodicea was an active church in Asia Minor, busy with rituals and weekly routines but they were not engaged in the advancement of the Kingdom. The Laodiceans would go through the motions of religiosity, showing up most Sundays, but while their body was in church their heart and mind was elsewhere, anywhere but in church. Their name was on the membership role but they had no personal commitment to Jesus Christ. They would send their children to Sunday School but they had no passion for the Word of God themselves. Whenever anyone would mention "tithes and offerings" they'd have but one word to say: "Whatever."

As I've traveled across this country I've seen Laodicean churches everywhere: Laodicean Missionary Baptist Church, 1st Baptist of Laodicea, Laodicean African Methodist Episcopal Church, Laodicean Church Of God In Christ, Laodicean Christian Fellowship. The name on the marquee might have said Palestine Presbyterian but if you'd have walked inside the edifice you would have found it filled with lots of lackluster Laodiceans. The biggest problem facing churches today is the fact that they are overrun with lukewarm Laodiceans - the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Pastor calls for the people to fast? Whatever. Youth ministry needs workers to help minister to the children and youth? Whatever. Music ministry needs people to sing the praises of our God and our Christ? Whatever. The Bible says that our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, but in too many instances we act just like those low-living Laodiceans. We go through the motions, showing up when we're supposed to be there, but we are not actively engaged in ministry, we are not committed to our Christ and we are not loyal to our Lord.

It is, after all, the American way.

In the United States of America the worst thing that you can be called is an extremist - America's motto is, "In all things moderation." Americans naturally gravitate to the middle of the road, choosing the Medium option. Political Moderates are exalted and praised while true liberals and true conservatives are disparaged as being fringe elements. In America everyone gets in where they fit in, never making waves but finding their rightful place within the mainstream, but we who are called by the name of Christ are not to go with the flow of the mainstream - we, as Christ's Ambassadors, are called to transform the mainstream into the straight and narrow way, but the lethargic Laodicean says, "Whatever."

This is why we have so many people who used to come to church, people who used to be Christians, people who used to believe in God - they don't see God in the Church, they don't see God in the pews and all too often they don't even see God in the pulpit. All that they see is judgmental hypocrisy 24/7 - folks say one thing but live something completely different. They see a sister having a hallelujah time in worship service that they just saw at the club the night before grinding every Tom, Dick, and Harry that she could find. They see a brother in leadership who they know to be beating and cheating on his wife. They get greeted with "I'm blessed and highly favored of the Lord!" by church-folks who are truly wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. They see people in church who claim to be Christians but who live just as raggedy as the average American, people who then want to tell them that they have to get themselves right before God.

Whatever.

This Laodicean living loses people for the cause of Christ. How many times have you heard folks talk about "those hypocrites in the church"? Those hypocrites in the church are these lackadaisical Laodiceans, Christians in name only, and Jesus says that He is about tired of these lecherous Laodiceans, that He is about to spit them out of His mouth. America believes in hedging its bets, taking a little of this and a little of that in case one or the other turns out to be wrong. It is a mentality that is predicated upon uncertainty, tying to make sure that all of their bases are covered, but the cause of Christ requires Christians to take a firm stand on faith - either you're with Jesus Christ or you're not. I love lemonade and I also love hot chocolate, but if you try to put them both in the same glass I would spit it out of my mouth. You can't have it both ways, you have to choose between hot chocolate and lemonade, between Jesus Christ and this world.

We have too many people in the church who want to have it both ways.
We have too many people in the church who want to be saved and shake a tail feather.
We have too many people in the church who want to be declared righteous but contribute nothing to the advancement of God's Kingdom.

We have too many lackluster, lazy, lackadaisical, lethargic, lecherous, low-living Laodiceans in the Church, and it's time to make a change. In 2007 I resolve that I will not be found living in Laodicea. I will not be found lacking in my love for the Lord. I will not be found in the counsel of the wicked or in the way of sinners or in the seat of mockers. Jesus knows our deeds - we might be able to hide the things that we do in secret from folks in the church but Jesus knows our deeds, and those whom He loves He rebukes and disciplines. So be honest and repent with me - I know that I have fallen short in 2006, and if you're honest with yourself and with God then you can admit that you have fallen short as well, but we have a God who is so good that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Look, He stands at the door of our hearts and knocks. If we hear His voice and open the door then He will come in and eat with us, and we with Him.

Covenant with me that in 2007 we will no longer live in Laodicea, that we will no longer be lukewarm in our love for the Lord Jesus Christ and the advancement of His Kingdom. Covenant with me that whatever it takes, whatever the cost, whatever the cause of Christ requires we will be absolutely committed to Jesus Christ, no matter what. People will call us extremists. They'll call us Jesus Freaks, Holy Rollers and Bible Thumpers acting all holier-than-thou, but whatever people say we need to make a life-long commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ and covenant one with another that we shall love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind, and we must covenant one with another that we shall love our neighbor as ourself. Folk will talk about us, but if we persevere and overcome the insults and accusations of the world - whatever they may be - then we will be given the right to sit with Jesus on His throne, just as Jesus overcame and sat down with the Father on His throne.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to leave your Laodicean living behind you,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2006-12-30T11:30:00.000-05:00

Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean
Reverent
Water Hazard
Godfather Of Soul
Fore
Then And Now
Goode God
sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY
Boom Baby
Deceitful Above All Things
Danger, Will Robinson
FDR-->GWB
High Crimes
Whatever
Return Engagement
Left Behind
McBean's Machine
Poles Apart
Dante's Year
SSDD
Four-Score, Seven-Year War
Asinine Assumptions
Buyers' Remorse
Sole-Searching
Total Failure
Baby Steps
Unmitigated Disaster
Little Big Horn
Postmodern Truth

And my favorite for today: Absolute Truth

Picture-Picture

2006-12-28T19:26:00.000-05:00

I really hate to put my hometown paper on front-street like this because I really love The Detroit Free Press - I read it daily - but their graphic tribute to Gerald Ford was eerily similar to some graphic tributes of the past...

I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'...

Happy Consumption Day

2006-12-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

On this day that drives the retail industry may you and yours recieve all of the things that make your existence meaningful...

Word For The Week

2006-12-24T11:00:00.000-05:00

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

Merry Christmas!

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to honor the Reason for the season,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2006-12-23T15:00:00.000-05:00

Season's Greetings
Freedom Of Choice
Troop Surge
No Mas
Bah! Humbug!
Shocking Conclusion
Babbling Babs
Barak, Boma Ye!
Class Warriors
Sacrificial Offering
Gay Interpretation
Rush Is Right
Lap Dance
Surge Protector
Pig Face
Biggest Loser
Bengals News
Lasting Legacy
Shoveling Manure
No New Texans
Lipstick Surge
Kuku For President

And my favorite for today: America The Beautiful

Raging Boll

2006-12-19T22:37:00.000-05:00

Just when you think you've heard it all...

Apparently there is a German man by the name of Uwe Boll who takes old video games and turns them into feature films, and it would seem that his work is exceedingly poor. His reviews online rival George W. Bush's reviews on Daily Kos, Wired calling him "quite possibly the worst filmmaker in the world," noting that "[h]is movies are haphazardly scripted, sloppily edited, badly acted and, most crucially, brutally received," while the webmaster of Something Awful penned: "Boll is destroying the childhoods and fond gaming memories of internet nerds across the country with each and every cinematic bastardization he produces."

Well, apparently this Boll fellow had his fill of being skewered by his critics so he challenged them to fight him in a Vancouver casino. Some of his critics obliged, and he summarily beat them into submission:

One after the other:

After the other:

Keyboard courage can get one's 5¢ behind into some million-dollar problems. Unless folk actually know how to fight - and enjoy taking and delivering punches - it might be a good idea to keep it a little less real in this blogging universe. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear lest the ringside bell toll for thee.

The Prince

2006-12-18T18:30:00.000-05:00

I know that I am in a bad place when I am intrigued by "thoughts" emanating from the 9th ring of Hell, also known as the Office of the Vice President, lair of the über-evil Dick Cheney. Apparently, Cheney is proposing a Final Solution for Iraq - let Iraq's Shiites slaughter the Sunnis with Iran's backing, then sit back and watch the rest of the Islamic world annihilate the Shiites in Iran and Iraq in retaliation for the ethnic cleansing of their brothers. On its face this reeks of Social Darwinism, however it is also the inevitable series of events that would follow a precipitous US withdrawal from Iraq.

What to do?

Clearly, the US cannot remain in Iraq indefinitely, serving as little more than target practice for insurgents while trying to play whack-a-mole with the Iraqi resistance. Equally clear are the implications of pulling out of Iraq right now. Here's my suggestion - partition the country into Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish semi-autonomous commonwealths under a central confederate government, move three divisions into Kurdistan to keep the Kurds from inciting a Turkish invasion and to maintain a presence in the region, and invite the Arab League to create a multinational force to enforce the Sunni/Shiite border, lest their Sunni brothers be overrun by marauding Shiites and the Final Solution comes into play.

The obvious wild-card here is Turkey, who absolutely refuses to see an independent Kurdistan on its southern border - there are a lot of Kurds in Turkey who want their independence from Istanbul. Three divisions of US troops should keep Kurdistan from making trouble for Turkey and keep Turkey out of Kurdistan, but if not then there would be nine kinds of hell to pay...

Word For The Week

2006-12-17T10:00:00.000-05:00

I am considering discontinuing this blogging exercise in order to refocus my attention on real world issues in real life. Leave me a comment if you would miss this.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to get real,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Truth And Consequences

2006-12-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

It's all about self. Too often people simply don't think about the consequences of their choices, how their choices directly and indirectly affects others - they're only worried about maximizing their own happiness. If that means that many Iraqis die then it just sucks to be an Iraqi. If that means that millions of babies die then those babies shouldn't have "chosen" to invade a woman's womb. Choices have consequences, and it turns out that the offspring of sperm donors have something to say about their conception, retroactively exercising their own freedom to choose.

IIRC, a few years ago lots of folks were Pro Choice when it came to property rights - it's not about the right to choose, it's about that which is chosen...

Saturday Comics

2006-12-16T08:15:00.000-05:00

Apocalypto Now
The Decider
Worst.President.Ever
Cute And Cuddly
K Street Brothel
Beaver Creek
Barak, Boma Ye!

And my favorite for today: Mission Accomplished

Worst Sports Owners

2006-12-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

I have had enough of these (push) polls which ask who the most overrated player is or who the most overpaid player is or who the most obnoxious player is, mostly because there is more than just a little racism involved. Rarely do you hear such polls issued when a good old American boy is in the spotlight for something unsavory (Lance Armstrong doping?), although the Bode Miller fiasco was a notable exception. When the American basketball team - arguably the best talent on the planet - failed to win the gold in the Olympics it was because they were a bunch of spoiled, overpaid pinheads, yet when America's representatives to the Ryder Cup - arguably the best talent on the planet, including the two highest ranked players in the world - desperately needed the Heimlich Maneuver it was just par for the course, of course, since they had The Hook Up.

Therefore, I think it would be a great idea to take a good look at those who make the real money in the multi-billion dollar industry that is professional sports - the owners - and see who is the worst owner from the consumer's perspective. Owners whose teams perpetually flounder, who consistently jerk their fans and their host city around, who treat their players, fans, and employees as nothing more than disposable assets, who only spend money when they are guaranteed a rate of return that prescription drug dealer equities couldn't match, or who are simply too stupid to be trusted with the public's rooting interests. Here's my top 10 list of the worst owners in all of professional sports:

10. Bob McNair, Houston Texans - passed on Reggie Bush and hometown hero (and future Canton resident) Vince Young
9. Al Davis, Oakland/LA/Oakland Raiders - jerked two cities around and his team's health seems intimately tied to his own; micro-manager extraordinaire
8. Chris Cohan, Golden State Warriors - only 5 winning seasons over the last 20 years
7. Art Modell, Cleveland Browns/Baltimore Ravens - no Steeler fan can say anything kind about Cleveland, but moving the Browns out of Cleveland was foul by any standard
6. Robert Irsay, Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts - reinvented the quarterback sneak back in '83
5. Bill Bidwill, St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals - relocated and the team got worse, much worse
4. Wayne Huizenga, (formerly) Florida Marlins - won a World Series and then dismantled the team in order to maximize profits
3. Bud Selig, Milwaukee Brewers - the very image of postmodern mediocrity, never good, never bad; Selig ought to relocate them to Laodecea
2. William W. Wirtz, Chicago Blackhawks - legend has it that the Blackhawks were once a professional hockey team
1. William Clay Ford, Detroit Lions - no such legend exists about the Cowardly Lions; Worst. Owner. Ever.

Those are my picks, what are your thoughts?

Realignment

2006-12-13T21:00:00.000-05:00

It is taught by some martial arts that the way that one gains a tactical advantage over one's opponent is to use his energy against him, by taking his attack and using it to put him at a tactical disadvantage. We see this often in boxing when a pugilist leaves his jab hanging too long and exposes his chin for a nice left hook, an error for which many Muhammad Ali opponents paid a dear price. Today's political environment bears a striking resemblance to such a set of circumstances, such that the strength of the Republican Party over the last generation could become its undoing.

Lyndon Johnson conceded that the South would be lost to the Democratic Party for a generation because of his efforts to ensure Jim Crow's death, wielding executive, legislative and judicial powers to see it through. When many conservatives lambaste "activist judges" they really hearken back to the judges in the 1960s who put teeth into the various civil rights initiatives - many civil rights laws had been on the books since Reconstruction a hundred years earlier, they simply lacked executive enforcement. Once Lyndon Johnson took a stand and wielded the full power of the federal government against the remnants of the South's "peculiar institution" the South immediately realigned itself with the Republican Party, and Richard Nixon reinforced that realignment with his execution of the Southern Strategy in 1968. Ronald Reagan would also employ it successfully in 1980, solidifying the realignment. The realignment was completed in 1994 when the Republicans overtook Congress - many Democrats In Name Only from the South switched parties once the Republicans were in control and the South became pretty close to pure crimson.

Twelve years later, that's a problem for the Republicans.

While my favorite right-winger, Charles Krauthammer, would like to minimize the significance of the 2006 midterm elections by asserting that the number of seats which swapped parties is about average for midterms in the second term of an incumbent president since 1930, he misses the point that the number of seats in play in 2006 is about an order of magnitude less than was the case in 1930. Today, gerrymandering is the norm such that less than 10% of House seats are in danger of switching parties in any given election, and most of those are due to retirements. What makes the 2006 election different is twofold: Democrats won virtually every Congressional race that was in play and the Republicans were routed outside of the South.

The extent of the Democratic victory is significant, winning at least two out of every three House races that were in play, but even more significant was the fact that the moderate wing of the Republican party was all but eliminated from Congress. With a few notable exceptions (Chris Shays et al.) the only remaining Republicans in Congress are those with an Old South heritage or mindset. The Republican leadership in the Senate consists of a senator from Kentucky, one from Mississippi, two from Texas, and one each from Nevada and Arizona. The GOP's House leadership is a bit more geographically diverse, but it still looks pretty concentrated compared to the scatter-shot of the Democratic party - spanning the breadth and width of the nation. It is indicative of one central truth that is emerging from this election:

Republicans can no longer win outside of the South.

Sure, there will be a Republican here or there outside of the South winning an election, just like there have always been Democratic pockets in Mississippi and Texas, but by-and-large the Republicans are losing the votes of suburban and increasingly secular Whites outside of the South, and that trend looks to continue and not abate.

Here's the point:

Democrats, if they're smart (insert your own joke here), will capitalize upon this by emphasizing their secular credentials, much the same way that Republicans have won elections in the past by emphasizing their religious credentials. The new divide will become those who are overtly religious against those who are not, in large part pitting those who are epistemologically conservative against those who are epistemologically liberal. While this would seem to be a slam-dunk for the Democrats there is one caveat that they will likely ignore and that will cause them to lose a series of elections that should have been theirs for the taking - most Blacks, especially church-going Blacks (who also tend to be the ones that vote), are epistemologically conservative and overtly religious. If the Democrats push their secular credentials too hard, as many are wont to do already, they will alienate many Blacks and drive us into the Republican Party, the Chocolate Migration. The Republican Party, if it is smart, will be ready for the Democrats to over-reach and will open its tent in earnest to church-going Blacks, but it will take a great deal of political skill and finesse to merge Blacks and Southern Baptists into the same camp, a total eschewing of White Supremacy that is in no ways limited to rednecks in sheets. It may be that no such political skill or good will exists and that Blacks will simply have to suck it up and deal with functionally atheistic Democrats if we still find Old South Republicans to be too strange a bedfellow, but it will be an interesting journey over the next four to six years to see how this realignment actually plays out - libertarians migrating to the Democratic Party and Blacks returning to the Republican Party. However, if Barak Obama becomes the Democratic nominee for president then all bets are off...

Barak, boma ye!

Brokeback Crap

2006-12-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

Well, it turns out that yet another Evangelical pastor has been fed to the wolves - and deservedly so - due to his clandestine gay affairs. I believe that there will be more of this in 2007, much more, because the truth of the matter is that people often jump up and down about stuff that hits close to home with them personally, and many of these White men who make homosexuality out to be the biggest afront to the Kingdom of God protest too much, methinks. (Black men have a problem with "laying hands" on church secretaries, organists, soloists, et al., but that's a topic for another day, along with the stereotypically fay ministers of music) I've said it before and it bears repeating: homosexuality is indeed a sin, and so is coveting (aka Keeping Up With The Jonses). That 42" plasma screen that you're licking your chops over? Your lust for it is just as sinful as a gay guy's lust for some other dude. Their Brokeback crap is just as sinful as your Hooters crap and my Super-sized Double-Whopper meal crap - equally crap, equally sinful.

Here's the difference, though: most of us will freely admit that our sin is indeed sin, although some of us will need a little more instruction about the sin of gluttony (yes, I'm talking about myself). The biggest problem that I have with the issue of homosexuality is that those who struggle with that particular sin insist that it is not a sin and that they should not have to struggle against that which seems natural to them. They truly don't want to know some of the things that I have to struggle with as a Black man in America - many of the things that seem natural to me could get me imprisoned for life, executed, or sent to GitMo - they would really want me to continue in the struggle against the desires of my heart. Ultimately, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

But some people prefer capitulation to struggle.

There are some significant political ramifications to this gay crap that will be felt over the next four to six years, and I'll get into that at some point this week.

Word For The Week

2006-12-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

Matthew 10:11-16

A brief word today about blessings and curses - is it for the Christian to curse a home that will not receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ? No, the Christian is not commanded (or allowed) to curse those who will not receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ, those who do not receive the Gospel are already cursed - the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus commanded His disciples to kick the dirt from their feet as a symbolic act, demonstrating that the disciples would have no part in the coming judgment against those people and removing any association with those who consciously reject the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

We are, however, commanded to leave people with a blessing (our peace) if we find them to be deserving, and that requires a degree of discernment and judgement. Ultimately we are free to choose who we will pray for and who we will not, and this is the intent of Jesus' instruction in this passage, but Jesus also taught that we should love our enemies, bless them that curse us, do good to them that hate us, and pray for them which despitefully use us and persecute us.

At the end of the day there will be times where we have to leave a place and kick the dirt off of our feet, bidding them adieu as we understand judgement to be coming their way. We should still, nonetheless, pray that at some point between now and judgment they will come to know Jesus for themselves, freely confessing Him as Lord instead of meeting Him as Judge.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to give an answer to anyone who asks,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2006-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

Order Of Magnitude
Iraqi Monitor
First Things First
Back Story
Nikita Bolton
One Of These Days
Barak Boma-Ye!
Virgin Mary
Back To The Future
Grapefruit's Next
Root Canal
Butcher Of Bagdad
Diplomacy For Dummies
Heckuva Job
El Presidente Quixote
Hail Caesar
Nut Cracker

And my favorite for today: Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh

Time Capsule

2006-12-04T00:01:00.000-05:00

George W. Bush is being unfavoribly compared to Herbert Hoover and he still has two years left in office (impeachment notwithstanding), but Bush still has one play left to try to salvage his legacy from being the single-worst president in American history. Although I've been saying it since last year I want to put this out there as an "I told you so" that I can reference in 2008 when it comes to fruition: we will see Osama's head on a pike at some point in 2008, probably in July or August (definitely before the conventions) but possibly earlier. Personally, I believe capturing Osama won't do much in real terms - everything that Bush touches turns into a heaping pile of fecal material, so it will be a bit like a kid showing off the D that he got in one class and ignoring the long string of F's in every other class, but I'm willing to bet Dubya did that too back in the day.

What's more is that the obvious question will (should) be why it took seven years to capture the one that was supposedly his top priority? My hunch is that they will say that they captured him in 2002 but kept him under wraps for security purposes, complete with time-stamped video that we could trust because this administration would never doctor evidence for public consumption...

Anyway, I just wanted to put this out there as a marker in time for when the inevitible comes to pass.

Word For The Week

2006-12-03T11:00:00.000-05:00

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown."

When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
'though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.'

"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

Luke 8:4-15

It has been shown that 75% of all Christians accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior before the age of 21, 90% before the age of 30, so why is it that the overwhelming majority of Christian evangelism targets people over the age of 30? The answer is simple, really - people reach out to their perceived peers, but in most of our cases our peers are quite comfortable on their rocky ground. We are certainly required to share the good news of Jesus Christ with whosoever will hear the word of reconciliation, but we need to focus our attention on the good ground, ground that is ready, willing, and able to receive the word of truth. Scattering seed on concrete is good for feeding the birds, but it would be foolish to expect a harvest from such seeds. Besides, we are called to resist such birds, erecting scarecrows to keep the birds at bay instead off feeding those who seek to steal, kill, and destroy the fruit of our labor.

All too often we stand along the sidewalk spreading seed and wonder why nothing's growing. All too often we walk along the pavement pointlessly searching for some simple sign of life. All too often we think that God is not blessing our labor when in fact we are being irresponsible with the seed that has been entrusted to us. We shouldn't expect a harvest when we haven't sown seed into ground that can actually support new life. We shouldn't expect to see people coming to Christ when we are spreading seed among those who are firm in their convictions that any road they choose will get them to eternity. Jesus made us fishers of men but we shouldn't expect to catch anything by dropping a net into a cup of water.

Although with God all things are possible.

What Jesus teaches in our text today is that different people will receive the word of life differently, some gladly for the moment, some happily but with no substance, some fully, and some not at all. We who have been entrusted with the message of reconciliation - "we" being all Christians - must be wise regarding how and where we sow our seed. In all things and in all places we must let our light shine so that men can see our good works and glorify God in heaven, but we shouldn't waste so much time on bad ground and pavement that we end up having nothing left for the good ground that would receive the word of truth and produce a great harvest.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to reap a great harvest,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2006-12-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

GTFOHWTBS
Birth Of A Nation
Bottom-Feeder
PxP+
Bush's Soulmate
Totalitarian Twins
Redman...
...and OJ
General Election
Run Barak Run
Rebranding
Extended and Revised Remarks
AFLAC!
A River In Egypt
Entropy
Warner Brothers Strategy
Duck Blind
Big Brother
Merlot Mouse
Time Out
Alternative Fuels
Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin
An Appetizer
Exit Plan

And my favorite for today: No New Texans

Crossing Jordan

2006-11-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

It must really suck to be Jordan right about now...

To the east of Jordan there is a full-blown civil war going on in Iraq, to the west the Palestinians are getting froggy towards one another, and Syria is about to plunge Lebanon into yet another civil war on Jordan's northern border. The only point of stability is Jordan's southern border, except al Qaeda's true enemy is the Saudi monarchy so something could jump off there at any time, especially during a time of regional turmoil. Add to that the fact that Iran is approaching the point of being able to produce nuclear weapons and the sure fact that Israel will never allow that to happen and Jordanian airspace just became insecure - if they try to protect their airspace then Israel will destroy what little air force they have, but if they do not defend their airspace then there will be hell to pay in the Arab League.

Sucks to be Jordan right about now.

Word For The Week

2006-11-26T11:00:00.000-05:00

Text:

To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Revelation 3:14-22

Context:

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question:

"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Matthew 22:34-40

There is nothing more frustrating than having to deal with people who are lukewarm about things that matter. George Bush and his Republican Party are taking this country to Hell in a hand basket and too many Americans' only response is, "Whatever." Touch-screen voting is being implemented across the country even as we see in Sarasota that 18,000 votes can instantly "disappear" in order to help one candidate over another and the only response that we hear from too many Americans is a heart-felt, "Whatever." Our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunties are being slaughtered as grist for the Iraqi mill and all that too many Americans have to say is, "Whatever." This lukewarm Laodecean attitude is the reason why wicked men can hatch their plans to deprive the populace of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness - the people will merely say, "Whatever."

This is even more true of those who call themselves Christians. There are too many Christians who are zealous for God but when it comes to their fellow man their response is essentially, "Whatever." Someone needs help with breaking the cycle of poverty? "Whatever." Someone needs food, clothing and shelter? "Whatever." Someone needs health care or to be comforted in prison? "Whatever." Many people who call themselves Christians are indeed zealous for God, but in too many instances - like a true Laodecean - their love is lacking for their fellow man.

Likewise, there are too many people who call themselves Christians who are zealous for their fellow man but whose response when it comes to God Himself is essentially, "Whatever." God requires the Christian to pursue His holiness? "Whatever." God refers to homosexuality as being uniquely abominable, using the Hebrew word חועבה "toebah" to refer to homosexuality and other practices which are abominable while using the Hebrew word שקץ "sheqets" to refer to all other practices that are simply to be avoided? "Whatever." Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life - no one comes to the Father except through Me" and the lackadaisical Laodecean replies, "Whatever."

There are too many Christians In Name Only, and much the same way that Republican In Name Only Lincoln Chaffe was spewed out of his seat in the Senate and Democrat In Name Only Zell Miller would have been spewed out of his Senate seat if he had sought another term, Christians In Name Only will be spewed out by Jesus when the eternal election day comes to pass. When we stand before God to give an account of all that we have done in this life there will be many conservatives standing before Jesus, saying, "Lord, Lord, did we not vote Republican in your name, and in your name drive out homosexuals and prevent many abortions?" just to hear Jesus tell them plainly, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" However, there will also be progressives standing before Jesus in judgment, saying, "'Lord, Lord, did we not feed the hungry, and clothe the naked and comfort the sick and imprisoned?" just to hear Jesus tell them plainly, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!" Faith without works is truly dead, and works without faith is equally dead. Only a faith that works will lead to eternal life, and that faith must be placed in Jesus Christ - the only way to the Father is through the Son.

I know, whatever.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to love Him forever,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2006-11-25T12:45:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving
Eat Up
Doggie Style
Done Did It
Turkey Shoot
Just Desserts
The Butcher's Bill
Dead Center
WTF
Stay The Course
Problem Solved
McPresident
John & Bobby Kennedy
Diplomatic Concession
Three Phat Ho's
Circular Logic

And my favorite for today: Oedipus Wrecks

Must See TV

2006-11-20T19:20:00.000-05:00

Wasn't it Ronald Reagan that said that there was no more racism in America?

To hell with him too.

Naturally, Richards has apologized, if that's what you want to call his "I'm not a racist!" statement. It sounds a bit like the guy who says, "Yeah, I had sex with a dozen school-boys, but I'm no child molester!" Some publicist said, "I think it's a career ruiner for him. ... It's going to be a long road back for him, if at all." Ranks right up there along side O.J.'s chances with White women...

Word For The Week

2006-11-19T08:18:00.000-05:00

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went into the region of Judea to the other side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?"

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."

Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

Matthew 19:1-12

One thing that I find to be exceedingly humouros is how people will scream at the top of their lungs that there is no such thing as absolute truth, that it is wrong for someone to try to assert their opinion as God's truth, yet when it comes to a heart-felt belief of theirs they immediately pirouette and embark upon a crusade to make sure that their prefered principle is followed from Alabama to Africa to Afghanistan. This does not mean that their prefered principle is necessarily wrong - it may well be a universal truth - but if one is going to assert universal truths then it would be a good idea to affirm the existence of universal truths.

This is the kind of problem that the Pharisees faced in our text today. They tried to trap Jesus, making Him take sides in a debate among the Pharisees between the schools of Shammai and Hillel regarding the correct intterpretation of Deuteronomy 24:1. It was a classic case of missing the forest for the trees as the Shammai school believed that divorce was permissible for anything indecent - even something as trivial as burning dinner - while the Hillel school believed that divorce was permissible only for something indecent, specifically infidelity.

Jesus corrected both schools, faulting them for focusing on getting out of marriages instead of honoring God's intention for marriage - a man and a woman bonded together for life - saying, "Haven't you read that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Jesus didn't speak to the mechanism for bringing a couple together, be that dating or arranged marriages or eHarmony, but spoke to the life-long commitment between a man and a woman to become a "one flesh" union.

One problem that too many people experience is the divorce of power and responsibility, especially in the Western world. Too many people seek power and not enough people seek responsibility, because the Biblical motif is one of servant leadership, not the tyranical exercise of power. People are given "responsibility for" and not necessarily "power over" - this is what Jesus spoke about in Matthew 20:25-28 when He told His disciples, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave — just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

In marriage a husband is given responsibility for his wife, not necessarily power over his wife. He is responsibile for her well-being just as Jesus is responsible for the well-being of the Church (q.v. Ephesians 5:15-33). And just like Jesus does not coerce the Church into anything, a husband is to lovingly head his household - taking responsibility for all that goes on within the household. Now any effective leader will delegate responsibility to those who are better equipped to handle those areas, such that if a poet is married to an accountant then the poet would be wise to let the accountant handle the check book, but ultimately it is the husband's responsibility - he is accountable. In many ways this is akin to the Miller Lite Man Law commercial where they ordained the "You Poke It, You Own It" Man Law. Essentially, if you put you finger in a beer while carrying it back to the guys at the table then you own that beer. Likewise, if a man decides to have sex with a woman then he is responsible for her upkeep for the rest of her days. No exceptions.

People like the power, but they too often duck the responsibility.

Jesus' disciples understood exactly what He was saying and they weren't having any part of it, saying, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry." To their thinking the only way to get their wives to "act right" was to threaten them with divorce and starvation - divorce and starvaton were closely linked back then because women weren't strong enough to be employable as manual laborers and the economy wasn't one where you could just go get an office job or work at McDonalds. The disciples, as most men of their day (and ours), were interested in having their wives serve them, in having their wives in a place below them or behind them, but Jesus corrected them by taking them back to creation - a woman's place is beside the man, not behind or under or in front of the man. The man is responsible for the woman, but the woman is his equal in dignity and stature even while he is the head of the household.

This order can be seen within the Godhead. Jesus is fully divine, yet He submits to the Father. The Holy Spirit is fully divine, yet He submits to the Son. There is a functional subordination within the nature and character of God, so it should come as no surprise that within God's creation He has ordained functionally subordinate roles for the family.

Not everyone will accept this.

Naturally, there are those who will not accept any kind of subordination - functional or otherwise - as they view themselves as prime movers, the captains of their fate, the masters of their souls. It is a cute fantasy that is easily debunked by one well-placed hurricaine or tornado, but it is a fantasy that people are entitled to maintain if they so desire, free will and all that. This is what Jesus meant when He told His disciples, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given" and "The one who can accept this should accept it." Much as it may gall some people, not everyone is called to salvation - some people are perfectly happy on their road to perdition and there is nothing that I or anyone else can do to deter or detour them - but those of us who are called by the name of Jesus Christ should accept the words of Jesus and live accordingly, fulfilling our responsibilities and exercising power from a loving perspective of servant leadership.

Man Law.

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to know where your towel is,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2006-11-18T08:45:00.000-05:00

Truth & Consequences
Faith-Based Recreation
Common Ground
Mission Accomplished
Starting Point
Bull Run
Return Of The Living Dead
A Leopard's Spots
Way Down South
Garbage Service
Change In Scenery
Loyal Opposition
Gridlock
Bi-Partisan BS
Lipstick On A Pig
Tis The Season
Freudian Fallacy
Hammer Down
Rudi 2008
Fuzzy Math
Leaving For Condi
Grownups...
...Disciplining The Impudent
Grounded
Terminal Condition

And my favorite for today: Reclaiming America

Hail To The Victor

2006-11-17T18:39:00.000-05:00

Bo Schembechler
April 1, 1929 - November 17, 2006

I was prepared to come home from work and post a scathing (if sanctimonious) screed about how everyone in Black America was catching the vapors about the passing of Gerald Levert, even while nobody seemed too terribly moved by Ed Bradley's passing last week and next to nobody noticed Ralph Wiley's passing a couple years ago. Bradley and Wiley were two Black men that I looked up to, Black men that I admired, Black men who pursued the truth and exposed it to the light of day. Ralph Wiley's medium was the written word while Ed Bradley's realm was the world of television, but both of them inspired me to be more than I am, and it really galled me that people would be so moved by the passing of an entertainer, albeit a good one and from what I hear an all-around great guy.

My mindset changed as I was shutting down my system at work and preparing to leave the building when someone mentioned to me that Coach Schembechler had passed. I thought that they were joking, here on the eve of the biggest Michigan-Ohio State game in my lifetime, but they pulled up the article for me on their PC. After the initial shock I found myself even more shocked at just how much that upset me - here I am getting caught up about a football coach that I have never met.

Mr. Kettle, meet Mr. Pot.

The truth of the matter is that I can't rationalize it as losing a great personal motivator - I've never heard a Schembechler speech. I can't rationalize it as mourning the loss of a personal inspiration - I never thought that deeply about Coach Schembechler. I can't even rationalize it as a loss for the University of Michigan - Coach has been off of the sidelines for more than a decade now. The truth is that the greatest coach of the team that I love - the University of Michigan Wolverines - has passed and I am moved by his loss.

Just like millions of Black folk are moved by the sudden loss of Gerald Lavert.

Now if you'll excuse me I need to prune the forest that I have just discovered growing in my eye...

Campaign Reform

2006-11-13T18:27:00.000-05:00

Here's an idea for future campaigns - functionally similar to the current system but much more cathartic...

Word For The Week

2006-11-12T11:00:00.000-05:00

For three years there was no war between Aram and Israel. But in the third year Jehoshaphat king of Judah went down to see the king of Israel. The king of Israel had said to his officials, "Don't you know that Ramoth Gilead belongs to us and yet we are doing nothing to retake it from the king of Aram?"

So he asked Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth Gilead?" Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." But Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, "First seek the counsel of the LORD."

So the king of Israel brought together the prophets—about four hundred men—and asked them, "Shall I go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?"
"Go," they answered, "for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."

But Jehoshaphat asked, "Is there not a prophet of the LORD here whom we can inquire of?"

The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man through whom we can inquire of the LORD, but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me, but always bad. He is Micaiah son of Imlah." "The king should not say that," Jehoshaphat replied.

So the king of Israel called one of his officials and said, "Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once."

Dressed in their royal robes, the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting on their thrones at the threshing floor by the entrance of the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them. Now Zedekiah son of Kenaanah had made iron horns and he declared, "This is what the LORD says: 'With these you will gore the Arameans until they are destroyed.'"

All the other prophets were prophesying the same thing. "Attack Ramoth Gilead and be victorious," they said, "for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."

The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, "Look, as one man the other prophets are predicting success for the king. Let your word agree with theirs, and speak favorably."

But Micaiah said, "As surely as the LORD lives, I can tell him only what the LORD tells me."

When he arrived, the king asked him, "Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?" "Attack and be victorious," he answered, "for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."

The king said to him, "How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD ?" Then Micaiah answered, "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and the LORD said, 'These people have no master. Let each one go home in peace.' "

The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Didn't I tell you that he never prophesies anything good about me, but only bad?"

Micaiah continued, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD : I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?'
"One suggested this, and another that. 21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.'

" 'By what means?' the LORD asked.
" 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said.
" 'You will succeed in enticing him,' said the LORD. 'Go and do it.'

"So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you."

Then Zedekiah son of Kenaanah went up and slapped Micaiah in the face. "Which way did the spirit from the LORD go when he went from me to speak to you?" he asked.

Micaiah replied, "You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room."

The king of Israel then ordered, "Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king's son and say, 'This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.' "

Micaiah declared, "If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me." Then he added, "Mark my words, all you people!"

1 Kings 22:1-28

Micaiah was a true prophet of the LORD. He was fully committed to the will of God. Look at verse 14 of I Kings 22. “But Micaiah said, ‘as the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that I will speak.’” Micaiah was not interested in what would advance his career in ministry, or what would ingratiate himself with the king. He was interested in and committed to doing the will of God who called him and spoke through him. Micaiah had God as his top priority, just like we are supposed to.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” David, king of all Israel and Judah, understood that he was to seek God first. In II Samuel 7, David sought to do a work for God. David was living in a beautiful palace, but the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of God’s presence, was outside in the cold under a tent. David thought this was wrong and wanted to build a temple for God in which to place the ark. But God told David, paraphrasing verses 5-17, “Thanks, but it isn’t that crucial. However, since you’re your heart is set on me I’m going to bless you.” God blessed David because David sought God first, because God was his first priority. God chose to bless David based on David’s relationship with God. Nothing was more important to David that the will of God.

The first desire of David’s son Solomon was to do the will of God. In I Kings 3, God tells Solomon to ask for anything that he wanted. Solomon praised God and asked God to give him wisdom to govern God’s people effectively to the glory of God. Since he requested something that would help him serve God and not something to fulfill the lusts of his flesh, the lusts of his eyes, or the pride of life, God blessed him with the wisdom he requested and all of the material riches and social honors that one could imagine, simply because Solomon’s first priority was the will of God. Solomon was fully committed to the will of God.

There was a young aspiring preacher who was visited by an angel. The angel said to the young preacher, “Your ministry will grow and be prosperous if you do according to all of the words I am about to speak: Never mention the word sin – ever. Never mention the word repentance or even refer to it. Offer them salvation in terms of deliverance from their problems. Motivate your people to be moral and upright human beings and your ministry will flourish. The bigger the building you build, the more people that will fill it. And everyone who commits themselves to this salvation will join me in eternity…” How many pastors have compromised their ministries in this fashion? How many preachers will only preach what the people are willing to hear? How many are committed to say that which God has told them to say only as long as it will be well received? Micaiah was fully committed to the will of God. Are we fully committed to the will of God, to seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness? Is there a prophet of the LORD here?

Micaiah was also courageous in the face of perverse authority. Ahab was the most wicked king that Israel had ever seen. The name of his wife, Jezebel, is still synonymous with wickedness to this day. A king has power over the life and death of his subjects, even the prophets. With a word he could have had Micaiah killed. Despite that, Micaiah still spoke what the LORD told him to speak – a word of rebuke and judgement – which he knew would upset the king. Look at verse 18 in I Kings 22. “Then the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, ‘Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?’”

You see, people usually know when they’re wrong, but they often want to kill the messenger for telling them that which they already know. Most messengers know this and become afraid to deliver the message, desiring to avoid the retaliation of the recipient. Parents stop spanking their children, teachers stop failing students, preachers stop mentioning sin. All from fear of what might happen to them if they take a stand for that which is right.

But you know, there were three Hebrew boys who were not afraid to take a stand for what was right. They stood up to the most powerful man on the planet, Nebuchadnezzar, and told him to his face, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” They took a stand. They were fully committed to the will of God and they were courageous in the face of perverse authority. They understood that it’s all good – for believers. The Word of God says “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” It’s all good.

God knows what we need, and if we seek him first to do His will, he will provide for all of those needs. No weapon forged against us will prevail, right? So what’s the matter with our standing power? Why can’t we take a stand? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego took a stand for the LORD. Micaiah, a prophet of the LORD, took a stand for the LORD. Is there a prophet of the LORD here?

You see Micaiah was also convinced of God’s truth. He wasn’t just running off at the lip with what he thought or what he believed or what was the logical conclusion from the scientific or statistical data. He was convinced, no, he KNEW that the word of the LORD was true. In verse 28 we find the last words recorded from Micaiah. “And Micaiah said, ‘If you indeed return safely the LORD has not spoken by me.’ And he said, ‘(Mark my words) NIV, all you people.’” He knew the truth of the Word of God, that it was without error, that it is God-breathed and useful for instruction and correction. Ahab had him sent to prison where Micaiah was to stay until Ahab returned safely from battle. Micaiah told him up front that he would be spending the rest of his days in prison because Ahab would never return from battle alive. Micaiah was convinced of God’s truth and courageous in the face of perverse authority because he was fully committed to the LORD. He was a prophet of the LORD.

Moses was committed to the LORD when he faced pharaoh and commanded him to “Let my people Go!” and the captives were set free.

Joshua was committed to the LORD when he marched around Jericho for seven days and the walls came tumbling down.

David was committed to the LORD when he confronted Goliath and God granted the victory.

Nathan was committed to the LORD when he rebuked King David and the king repented.

Elijah was committed to the LORD when he faced the 450 prophets of Baal and fire fell from heaven.

Jesus was committed to doing the will of his Father who sent him and now salvation’s free to you and me.

Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good.

Ezekiel got a taste and it was sweet as honey.

John got a taste on the Island of Patmos and it was like honey to his lips but he couldn’t stomach the testimony.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

You see there is no one righteous, not even one, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

It is written that the wages of our sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.

And God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

But in order to have salvation we must accept it, and we do that by confessing with our mouth, “Jesus is Lord of my life,” and believing in our heart that God raised him from the dead.

We must commit our life to serving Jesus Christ – our whole heart, all of our mind, our entire body and our very soul. Now, no man can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other or he will love the one and hate the other.

• You cannot serve both God and Money.
• You cannot serve both God and Lexus.
• You cannot serve both God and prosperity.
• You cannot serve both God and America.

You must choose this day whom you will serve. Whether the ancestral gods of your forefathers beyond the Atlantic or the self-centered, humanistic and materialistic gods of the Americans in whose land you live, but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

And if you will be fully committed to do the will of God, I implore you to be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey the Word of God; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Do not let the Word of God depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything according to it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Haven’t I already told you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go. Is there a prophet of the LORD here?

May the LORD bless you and keep you;
May the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
And may the LORD,
Who wants you to to be true to Him,
May He turn His face toward you and give you peace.

Saturday Comics

2006-11-11T07:20:00.000-05:00

Job One
Payday Loans
Grave Miscalculations
We The People
Personal Responsibility...
...vs. Republican Values
Stuff Happens
Toodles
Thong Song
Oh Happy Day
I'm A Democrat
Republican Eunuch
Viva La Revolution!
Republican Season
50-State Mission Accomplished
Hell To The Naw
Just Say No
Two Thumbs Up
Southern Comfort
Uppity Insurgency
No Remorse
Hook 'Em!
Rodeo Clown
Ownership Society
Colinoscopy
True Temptation
Governing's For Grownups
Presidential Campaign Season
Collateral Damage
The Vision Thing
Check, Mate
Waterboard Time
Minimum Wage
Rollin' On Dubs
Unlimited Warfare
Hand It To Republicans
Kicked That Elephant

And my favorite for today: Impeachment Suit