[full story | via Byond Marketing]
February 14, 2007 by Gene
Why I Want To Be Rich
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January 14, 2007 by Gene
Rooting Interest
I love watching competition. I can easily watch soccer, football, lumber sports, world strongest man, and just about anything else. If they came up with rules and strategies for competitive fence painting, I could watch it.
As a general rule, I don’t root for professional sports teams. Players are as loyal as the next contract. Teams are as loyal as the player is useful. For players it’s a job (one they might love) and for owners it’s a business.
I have no problem with the business of sport. With that being said, it is the old Seinfeld observation, “We are just rooting for laundry.” The players change. The owners change. The uniforms don’t (for the most part).
This is year is different. I am rooting for the New Orleans Saints.
Not because I think Coach Sean Payton is doing a great job. (He is.) Not because they play a great style of ball. (They do.)
The reason is simple. If the Saints win one more game and make it to the Super Bowl, then New Orleans will be part of the single most hyped event of the calendar year. An event, which last year had more than 140 million views.
This will give CBS the chance to do a number of stories on the city. They will be able to do:
* Look how much joy and hope a silly game can bring a community.
* Look how much the players have learned for living through this with strong, hopeful, beautiful, loving people who just want their city back.
* Look how far we have to go is getting the city back to where it was.
As they chant down on the bayou “Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints, Who Dat?”
Let’s hope next week, for the sake of a city, no one.
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January 10, 2007 by Gene
Smell in NYC
Results of Scott Adams’ investigation into the smell in NYC found this:
So I Googled the Jacob J. Javits Convention Center to see which groups are in town. Sure enough, the National Legume Growers Association is having its annual convention. 26,000 attendees spent the day sampling beans, and then dispersed to unload their mystery gas in elevators, hotel lobbies, and cabs all across midtown Manhattan.
[via Dilbert Blog]
Okay, so he did make it up. Too funny!
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November 22, 2006 by Gene
Morning OJ
By far the best blog post on this insanity:
I really object to this:
If I Did It? How about “If I HAD Done It”?
Verb tense, folks, verb tense!
[via Jen is Famous]
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October 10, 2006 by Gene
Like Me
Sometimes it is hard to say out loud, to people I have just met, that I am a Catholic (with all the current scandal) and Christian (because of the certain flavor of Christian which has taken over the political landscape).
Whenever Catholics or Christians are portrayed in TV or movies it is usually some characture of these things I fear. But from time to time there is an exception.
I don’t watch much TV and it has been years since I have followed a show regularly, but this season, that has changed. I have been sucked into NBC “Studio 60″.
Patton Dodd over at Idol Chatter offers this reflection on one of the characters of the show. [link to full article below]:
But “Studio 60″ contains a giant caveat to its ongoing critique of evangelicals: Harriet Hayes (Sarah Paulson), the evangelical Christian star of the show-within-the-show. She’s hip, she’s hot, and she’s hilarious. She’s a credible, likable character, and she’s a Christian. When, on last week’s show, Harriet argued to Matt that a particular joke should be taken off the air so as not to offend the small town that was the joke’s butt, I wanted to stand and cheer. That’s the kind of thing a good person–not just a good evangelical–would do. And letting an evangelical be a good person and a good character… well, it’s enough to make us think that Sorkin might have talked to a Christian or two rather than just read about them in the newspaper.
More importantly, Harriet is an accurate representation of a fact rarely mentioned: Evangelicals aren’t just (and aren’t all) politically active home-schoolers and megachurch-goers. They are also people who live and work in every aspect of the marketplace, including (gasp!) the entertainment media. That’s right: When you’re watching “That ’70s Show,” attending a Broadway play, and listening to a favorite indie pop song, you’re often being entertained by evangelicals, unawares.
I mention this not as a triumph of evangelicalism (perish the thought), but just to note that Sorkin is making sense of the poles of religion in American life. What seems aggravatingly abnormal in some instances–crazy Christians–has an astonishingly familiar, and more congenial, face in other instances. Sorkin seems to understand that evangelicalism is more than the sum of its parts. Thus far in “Studio 60,” he’s achieving something resembling a fair representation of evangelicals: They are those boycotters, those megaphones of moral values; but they are also men and women whose personal expressions of faith are more complicated and nuanced than the big picture reveals.
More importantly, Harriet is an accurate representation of a fact rarely mentioned: Evangelicals aren’t just (and aren’t all) politically active home-schoolers and megachurch-goers. They are also people who live and work in every aspect of the marketplace, including (gasp!) the entertainment media. That’s right: When you’re watching “That ’70s Show,” attending a Broadway play, and listening to a favorite indie pop song, you’re often being entertained by evangelicals, unawares.
I mention this not as a triumph of evangelicalism (perish the thought), but just to note that Sorkin is making sense of the poles of religion in American life. What seems aggravatingly abnormal in some instances–crazy Christians–has an astonishingly familiar, and more congenial, face in other instances. Sorkin seems to understand that evangelicalism is more than the sum of its parts. Thus far in “Studio 60,” he’s achieving something resembling a fair representation of evangelicals: They are those boycotters, those megaphones of moral values; but they are also men and women whose personal expressions of faith are more complicated and nuanced than the big picture reveals.
[full article | prayer]
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September 28, 2006 by Gene
Out of Order
I know the media is a business. In some ways it gives us what we want, but…
I was saddened to see the front page of USAToday today. The Terrell Owens story received a bigger headline and more prominent placement than Bailey, CO.
[In a special way please pray with! (remember to refresh the web page to see today's prayers) | need prayer?]
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August 16, 2006 by Gene
BlazeBlog
The fire is creeping slowly towards the southeast part of town (about 5 miles away), and the weather is not cooperating.
“They’re wondering what supplies you need,” a Casper College employee asked a Red Cross volunteer.
“Uh, rain,” he said.
“Uh, rain,” he said.
Photo from last night:
Up to the minute details and stories from locals at the BlazeBlog
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August 14, 2006 by Gene
The Attack Has Begun
The Squirrel Boy predicted this 14 years ago…
…and we laughed.
But he was right. The attack has begun.
On opposite sides of the world, none the less.
See the proof here and here.
Keep your eyes on the trees.
[via Dave Barry's Blog]
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August 1, 2006 by Gene
Measured Response
I am always a fan of a measured response in the face of uncertain circumstance. We live in a media environment, which is desperate for eyes. News, sports talk radio, political parities, and everyone else seems to speak in these grand hyperbolic statements.
In light of all that, I am becoming more and more a fan of the measured response. When we have measured responses we say things that don’t look so silly a few days latter, and are probably closer to the truth.
In all the Mel Gibson flack I found this column. I have no idea who Rabbi Daniel Lapin is. But I thought these were a few thoughtful paragraphs from his response to what Mel Gibson is reported to have said and the response of the American Jewish community.
I am not saying that I agree or disagree with anything I have quoted or the article that is linked. I just point in admiration to someone who is not screaming and yelling, but is thoughtfully responding to something that has happened. He is asking the question, what does this really mean to me, my people, and how does it call me to respond, not just to this act, but in my daily life.
As for the remarks Gibson made while intoxicated, ancient Jewish wisdom informs us that one way we can know what a person is really like is by how he behaves when he is drunk. From this we can safely assume that Mel Gibson doesn’t think much of Jews.
However there is another nugget of ancient Jewish wisdom emphasizing that we owe atonement for that which lies in our hearts, only to God. If I have an unworthy thought in my heart about you, I need to make good with God but I don’t owe you an apology unless I act upon that thought. We humans are morally obliged to make good to other people only for those things we do, and not for any thoughts we have in our minds.
[a little later]
My question for Jews, especially the heads of the alphabet organizations is this: “Which is more likely to lead to increased affection and respect for Jews everywhere? Recognizing that human prejudices exist and working respectfully and amicably to change people’s minds and hearts, or grabbing headlines by strident accusations full of self righteousness and intolerance?”
However there is another nugget of ancient Jewish wisdom emphasizing that we owe atonement for that which lies in our hearts, only to God. If I have an unworthy thought in my heart about you, I need to make good with God but I don’t owe you an apology unless I act upon that thought. We humans are morally obliged to make good to other people only for those things we do, and not for any thoughts we have in our minds.
[a little later]
My question for Jews, especially the heads of the alphabet organizations is this: “Which is more likely to lead to increased affection and respect for Jews everywhere? Recognizing that human prejudices exist and working respectfully and amicably to change people’s minds and hearts, or grabbing headlines by strident accusations full of self righteousness and intolerance?”
[full column]
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May 11, 2006 by Gene
Super Blow Out Sale!
APeX Ministries has a new web store. To celebrate APeX is having a super blow out sales on many items.
Check out sales items here!
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The news conference had Branson flanked by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and British ex-diplomat Crispin Tickell. The goal of the prize is to tackle one of man’s greatest issues – global warming – by spurring development of new technology.
“Man created the problem and therefore man should solve the problem,” Branson said of greenhouse gases at a news conference.