God’s Dominion

I’m not sure if you’ve heard about this, but Focus on the Family has produced a pro-life commercial with Tim Tebow to be aired during the Superbowl.  For those who don’t know, Tim Tebow was the quarterback for the University of  Florida and led them to a championship as well as winning the Heisman Trophy.  Well, when his mom was pregnant with him there were complications and the doctors recommended aborting him.  She refused.  Now he’s a fine Christian young man who may be headed to the NFL.  I think their point is fairly obvious.

Well, a pro-choice organization (who apparently is pro-choice only if you choose their viewpoint) thinks CBS shouldn’t air the commercial (http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,583999,00.html).  I think my favorite quote is, “This organization is extremely intolerant and divisive and pushing an un-American agenda.”  Right.  Apparently their view is that the Christian church is intolerant and divisive.  I might agree in some circles, but I certainly wouldn’t say “extremely”.  They make is sound like a terrorist organization.  I guess they blame Focus on the Family for the crazies who run around shooting doctors.  These are probably the same people who believe all muslims are terrorists because a few extremists are.  Using that logic, all Americans are murderers and thieves.  I also wasn’t aware that the Christian point of view (upon which this country was founded) was un-American.

I don’t see this is an intolerant or divisive commercial and see presenting varying points of view as very American.  Isn’t freedom of speech American anymore?  Or have we turned into Canada where you can’t even preach the Gospel in public because it calls homosexuality a sin.  I’m glad CBS is sticking to its guns and airing the commercial anyway.  I think people only don’t want opposing viewpoints heard when they’re not confident in their own.  I’m happy for Focus on the family and Tim Tebow and I hope all this additional publicity helps their message.

In related news, the US Postal Service is releasing a stamp honoring Mother Teresa on what would’ve been her 100th birthday.  Guess what?  It’s being opposed by the “Freedom from Religion Foundation”.  Why?  Because the USPS has a regulation against honoring “individuals whose principal achievements are associated with religious undertakings”.  Yep.  Apparently helping the poor is now a religious undertaking and should not be honored.  When you think of her is the first thing you think of any religious message she spread or her humanitarian work?  My guess is for most of you it’s her humanitarian work.

What a country we’ve become where “freedom of religion” and “freedom of speech” now means you can’t spread your beliefs in public.  While Obama is trying to make us a socialist country, these organizations are trying to make us a communist one where only what the state spews is acceptable.  I say, if you’re not happy here, move to China.  You’ll love it there.

Well, that’s all for now.  More ranting to come later.  Laterz!

Many of you know that today is Veteran’s Day, but how many of you know what that means?  I would hope at the very least you take the time today to thank those who have fought for and died for your country and your freedom.  I know at times it doesn’t appear they’re fighting for us, but every time they fight it’s for us.  Some may argue that our wars in the Middle East don’t really protect us, but how many domestic terrorist attacks have there been since those wars began?  Anyway, I don’t want to turn this into a debate about our foreign policy.

Veteran’s Day actually began as a celebration of the end of World War I (“the war to end all wars”).  It was first celebrated on November 11, 1919 as Armistice Day on the one year anniversary of the signing of the peace treaty (signed on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918).  Congress passed a resolution in 1926 for an annual observance, and Nov. 11 became a national holiday beginning in 1938.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1954 to change the name to Veterans Day as a way to honor those who served in all American wars.

If you run into any current or former soldiers today, please take a moment to thank them for their service whether or not they ever fought in a war.  They were willing to even if the situation didn’t arise.  I once saw a posting online where somebody said that he didn’t consider somebody a hero if they were just doing their job.  I think that’s ridiculous.  A soldier who puts his life on the line chose that profession.  He is a hero the day he makes that decision.  I don’t care if he’s getting paid to do it.  He didn’t make that decision because of the pay.  Thank you to all those who made the decision to stand up and defend our country.  You have my highest respect.

There are some facts and figures (some of which I pilfered here) at this site: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/014342.html

Laterz!

I know that God has a plan for us and that His plan will happen even if we don’t do what we’re supposed to.  However, I wonder what happens if we miss our opportunity.  We shouldn’t if we’re truly in tune with Him, but think about Esther.  If Mordecai wasn’t there to nudge Esther or if he hadn’t heard about the plot, the Jews still would’ve been saved, but would Esther have missed her opportunity?

I sometimes wonder about my own missed opportunities.  The chances I’ve blown because I’m too stubborn or just out of touch.  I’m sure I’ll find out when I get to heaven, but I’m hoping I haven’t missed many.  I pray that my future holds very few missed opportunities as I attempt to become more in line with God and His will.  I pray that for all of you, as well.  Laterz!

Wow.  I believe we have truly hit rock bottom when we’re not allowed to fly the American flag anywhere in America:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,566341,00.html

In my opinion, if you’re offended by the flag in the country you live in, leave.  If you find your resident country offensive you shouldn’t be living there.  And I think that every American should stand up for that.  Too many men died for that flag for some stupid apartment owner to force people to take it down.  I hope the media backlash forces them to change their policy, but either way they’ve demonstrated they’re too cowardly to stand up for America in the face of whomever they’re afraid of offending.

I love immigrants who come here legally and love this country, like my parents.  However, I will never support any immigrant who doesn’t like America or is offended by her flag.  Go to Canada.  Better yet, go to China.  If you don’t like free enterprise, try socialism or communism.  Like the saying goes, “You don’t got to go home, but you got to get up outta here!”  That’s my message to all you offended by the American flag in America.  Guess what?  If you’re offended by my post, that’s my message to you, too.  Laterz!

First of all, welcome to those who clicked through from Facebook.  Now, on to the meat…

I find belief to be an interesting thing.  It has absolutely no impact on fact.  Whether or not you believe in gravity will not affect whether or not you hit the ground when you step off the roof (please stick to stepping off single story buildings.  I don’t want any injuries due to my blog postings.).  Whether or not you believe in God does affect whether or not He actually exists.  I find it rather humorous that people will debate facts as if they are opinions.  You can choose not to believe a fact (some still believe the earth is flat and some believe we never landed on the moon…despite all the stuff we left behind still being visible).

On the flip side, belief plays a huge role in effort and accomplishment.  Henry Ford said, “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.”  If you begin something (whether it’s a project, a game/sport, or anything) believing you’ll succeed, you have a much better chance of succeeding.  You will see every obstacle as a challenge to be met to achieve your goal.  If you go in believing you’re going to fail, you won’t put as much effort into it.  You will see every obstacle as a stumbling block in your way.

While I will let you believe whatever you like about facts (they are usually easy to prove, disprove, or lookup), I will fight tooth and nail against you believing you’ll fail.  The first step to success is believing you’ll succeed.  Once you’ve conquered that, it just gets easier from there.  Laterz!

Update!

Oh, irony of ironies.  Check out Scott Adam’s (creator of Dilbert) blog posting today. Not exactly the same, but very much along the same lines.

So, I’m sure you’ve all heard all those organizations (like the ACLU) harping about the “Constitutional separation of church and state.”  Most people believe they have a pretty good leg to stand on, even if they personally disagree.  Heck, even the Supreme Court seems to agree sometimes.  I have only one problem with all of it….there is no Constitutional separation of church and state.  Go ahead.  Read the Constitution.  I’ll give you a few minutes.

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Done?  Good.  Did you see anything in there about a “separation of church and state”?  No?  Didn’t think so.  The term actually comes from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson.  I guess it’s really a “Jeffersonian separation of church and state”.  I think it will be interesting to see if the United States returns to its Christian roots (we were established as a Christian nation and there is ample evidence of that in the Founding Fathers’ writings, but that will be for another post) or turns into a country completely devoid of religion.

Interestingly, it’s Christianity that seems singled out by many of these entities and governmental agencies.  I’m not sure why that is but I’ve seen religious groups get approval to meet in government buildings or at lunch at high schools while Christian groups are banned due to the separation of church and state.  I guess the other option is that we simply turn into a nation against Christianity.  I think there are a few of them out there already.  Perhaps we will learn from them.  Nah.  Laterz!

I’m sure everybody knows by now that Michael Jackson has died at 50.  It’s plastered all over the news.  Meanwhile, on the same day,  Lt. Brian Bradshaw, one of our US soldiers currently fighting to keep us safe and free also died in Afghanistan.  Good luck trying to find an article about that one.  I’ll bet they didn’t need to raffle tickets to his funeral, either.  Now, I’m not trying to take away anything from Michael, but I’d have to agree with Lt. Bradshaw’s family that it’s a little ridiculous that the men dying to protect us have gotten so little attention.  In light of the recent 4th of July celebration, remember those who put their lives on the line every day to allow us to celebrate our freedom and independence, not just those who entertain us.  Laterz!

I don’t know if you saw this article, but I thought it was interesting:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,522659,00.html?test=latestnews

Apparently, this woman put up a flag in her cubicle in honor of Memorial Day.  Somebody else in the building was offended.  I don’t have a problem with our flag offending somebody….they are more than welcome to leave.  I would never bow to somebody being offended by a symbol of our country.  If they don’t like it, they can move to Canada.  I remember when after 9/11 flags were popping up everywhere.  In Berkeley, California, they didn’t let the fire department attach flags to their fire trucks because they may offend somebody.  I find it interesting that people want to come here for all the opportunity, but at the same time they are offended by this country.  You can’t have it both ways.  If America, its symbols, its beliefs, its policies, or its actions offend you, leave.  Go home.  Go to Canada.  Go to France.  Go anywhere.  My two cents.  Laterz!

So, a coworker became a US citizen a couple of weeks ago.  That got me to thinking, why do we separate ourselves so much?  We divide ourselves into nationalities, races, religions, etc.  Some are inevitable (like gender), but what is gained by dividing into nationalities? or race?  In my opinion, nothing.  If a country simply takes care of those who pay taxes there, the same number of people are paying into the kitty as getting out.  It wouldn’t surprise me if there were even fewer wars.

Then, there’s the church.  The church is even worse.  We divide ourselves into denominations and race there, too.  I’ve seen Mexican churches, Brazilian churches, “white” churches, “black” churches, Vietnamese churches (Garden Grove was 52% Vietnamese when I lived there).  We divide ourselves up more than than the world does.  I know people like to go where they’re comfortable, but Jesus was the master of making people uncomfortable.  I figure if it was important to him, it should be important to the rest of us.

Thoughts?  Laterz!

So, those of you in the area know that interstate 94 has been under construction for 118 years (okay, maybe not quite that long, but it sure feels like it).  Well, it just so happens that I take that route to get to work, at least until it warms up and I can start taking the train (I have to bike 3 miles to work from the station).  Over the past week or so, I’ve noticed something rather interesting.  It seems that they change the traffic pattern every day.  Why would you do that?  The result is that we get traffic backups at random spots.  They’ve been using “express lanes” which are separated from the other two lanes by concrete barriers.  So, people are driving down the street thinking they know where the express lanes are when suddenly, one appears in front of them and they’re in the wrong lane.  The result is a massive backup while people change lanes at the last minute to avoid or enter the express lane.  What’s up with that?  I realize that Chicagoland has only two seasons (winter and construction), but that construction season comes every year.  You would think they eventually figure out how to run it.  Guess not.  Laterz!