a couple of weeks ago i heard about james dobson writing a letter from a chcristian in 2012 during an obama presidency, read it here http://focusfamaction.edgeboss.net/download/focusfamaction/pdfs/10-22-08_2012letter.pdf
i was understandably frustrated after i read it,as a centrist non-partisan cynic of all things and people political, i grew increasingly angry with how dobson portrayed voters who are christians and a president who professes christ. then i read this blog article http://www.neueministry.com/index.php/2008/11/a-reply-to-dobsons-letter/ it was great and exactly how i felt. i live near people that are dobsonites and it is scary to me that the face of the church in america for a long time has been focus on the family, while they do great things for and about families, they are constantly hurting the church and keeping people away from jesus. i still believe that we just need to love other people and let god sort the rest out. Jesus said to the womwn caught in adultery in John 8 "neither do i condem you, go and leave your life of sin." I am good with that

why i will cry when he dies

I have been struggling lately with new post ideas. Then I came across this article by Rick Reilly about John Wooden, I have been a fan for a long time. So read this and enjoy.

This column is for UCLA freshman walk-on Tyler Trapani, who will probably see zero minutes this basketball season, and yet will be my favorite player.That's because Trapani is the great-grandson of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden.
Tyler, I've admired your great-grandfather for 40 years, known him for 20. Every couple of years I sit down with him, just to breathe the clean, clear good sense that pours out of him. And it occurs to me that I may even know a few things about him that you don't.
For instance, he turned 98 two weeks ago, but did you know he should've been dead at 35? During World War II, he was scheduled for a tour of duty in the South Pacific on the USS Franklin when an emergency appendectomy put him in the infirmary. The Franklin left without him. It was eventually hit by a kamikaze, killing 724 crewmembers. Much the same happened years later, when your great-grandpa didn't take a flight from Atlanta to Raleigh that he had a seat on. That plane went down. Everybody died.
WOODEN NEVER MADE MORE THAN $35,000 A YEAR, INCLUDING 1975, THE YEAR HE WON HIS 10TH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, AND NEVER ASKED FOR A RAISE.
"Pure, blind luck," Wooden says, holding on to the arms of his wheelchair. "I don't believe in fate."
Well, I do. I believe your great-grandfather was spared so he could be an example of how to live morally and simply and well.
For instance, he and your late great-grandmother, Nell, had the truest love I've ever seen. Junior high school sweethearts, they were married 53 years until Nell died in 1985. To this day, he writes her a love note every month and sets it on her side of the bed. He has never kissed anyone else.
I once asked him if we could write a book together about how to make love last. He agreed—until the day we were to start. I'd been waiting on his porch for half an hour when he finally opened the door, tears streaming down his face. "It's too soon," he wept. And Nell had been dead 15 years by then.
With stocks cratering today, people fret about having to give up their gym membership or their Lakers tickets. Please. Your great-grandfather grew up on an Indiana farm without electricity or running water. He lived his teen years during The Great Depression, listening to his father read poetry by the light of a coal lamp. He never made more than $35,000 a year, including 1975, the year he won his 10th national championship, and never asked for a raise.
I know some people think he's about as relevant as the Edsel, but I don't. For years, UCLA freshmen rolled their eyes when he gave his famous lecture on how to put on their socks and sneakers. Beau Bridges, the actor, was a Bruins walk-on one year and thought he was nuts. But he never stopped. Anytime he sees you before a game, Tyler, he goes into it, right? "I want to see you do it," he'll say. "Pull up the socks, make sure there are no wrinkles. Now, put your shoes on, start from the bottom and tighten them up from the bottom up." It's gotta drive you bats, but you've got to admit, you've never had a blister.
Life of Reilly Bonus Content
Former Bruins coach Steve Lavin reflects on the legacy of John Wooden
He is as square as a pan of fudge and honest as a toothache, but I love him. Unlike so many coaches today, he didn't see the game as his own personal Hollywood screen test. He'd sit quietly on the bench, a rolled-up program in his right hand. In 27 years at UCLA, he remembers getting only one technical. "I really didn't deserve it, either," he says. "Someone behind me called the ref something not very nice. And the ref thought it was me!" Forty years later, he still blushes.
Your great-grandfather is his own man. He changes his principles as often as his haircut, which is to say, never. He believes in team, not star. And so he loves Chris Paul and is "disgusted" by Allen Iverson. He hates the dunk and college's one-and-done rule. He admires you not for your unselfish style of play—although he sighs and admits you have "heavy feet"—but your 4.3 GPA. Oh, and he loves that you never mentioned him when you applied.
I worry about him, though. Earlier this year, his walker caught on the rug and he fell. He was on the floor—with a broken wrist and a broken collarbone—from 9 p.m. until someone found him at 7 the next morning. "What'd you do that whole time?" I asked.
"Froze!" he said.
Now he has someone with him 24/7, which is one reason he's selling "the best car [he] ever owned." So what about buying it, Tyler? You know how chicks love a pimped-out great-grandfather's 1989 Ford Taurus, right?
When I said goodbye last week, I mentioned that the next time we visit, he'd be 100. "How will you celebrate?" I asked.
"Probably from a stretcher," he said.
And he'll still be the most upright guy in town.

I was thinking about the financial brouhaha that has been going on, and how it really points to the fact that we need a new paradigm in America. I have thought for a long time thatWal-Mart could help solve a lot of problems if it just actually cared for it's employees a little better. It is a multi-million dollar corporation and yet most of it's employees don't have health care. If I were the head of wallyworld I would pay my employees better or at least get them coverage. Look at Starbucks, it it no wonder that thier coffee is so damn expensive, they give all of their employees health care (yeah I know they just closed 600 stores but you get the point). So many of the pols in washington talked about the greed on Wall st. that I had to laugh. What about the greed in everybody's heart? Nobody wants to care for his neighbour any more. Shoot, I have friends that all they care about is making money, and they are great loving Christian people, but when it comes to governmental and political action they just want to make money themselves (and get bigger and better stuff) and let everybody do the same, for themselves. I just think that if we are ever going to solve some of the problems in this country, and maybe even spread the gospel a little, we need to change the way we do things. Like how this elaction is about ideals, lets make it about change, real change. Not like either one of the major candidates is talking aobut, but change the way we deal with each other. Change the way we conduct out lives. Then maybe jsut maybe the people at the top will change too. But the whole Reaganomics trickle-down theory has never worked, ever. Because people are greedy. That is capitalism at its peak performance: One winner, many losers, period. and untill Americans realize that the market economy is really the market way of life, nothing will change. Not politics, not education, not even religion. Power to the people!

I was thinking about art the other day. Art is nice, it makes me feel good. I really miss good art, like good radio. Where I live there is not much in the way of good radio. There is a local public radio station, and the state npr news station. Both good, not great (at least not all the time) but good. Growing up in SoCal, we had several good radio stations that when combined made for really good radio. But not so much here, it is a shame. On the other hand, there has been a slight movement in visual arts in my neck of the woods. It is not great art, r at least I don't think it is great, but at least there is a movement of people looking to create. And that at least is great.

Political ramblings about policy

So I was thnking today as i was listening to 'silver and gold' by U2. I was thinking how so many people get politics and policy screwed up. Also how so many people don't fully understsnd how our governments policies affect the rest of the world. I have been fortunate enough to have traveld to two different countries that have been touched by american policies in one way or another. First I travelled to El Salvador in 1992, and in talking to the locals, they felt that the American way to solve problems was to throw money at them. I distincly remember a large modern office building that was jsut a shell. Broken windows and grafiti were all the action it was seeing. Our guide said that it was built by the Americans but they just gave the money and left. In Contrast there was a German hosptial and school. The Germans as a matter of policy built the buildings and helped train the Salvadorian staff. They even had some German doctors working at the hospital alongside the locals. Our guide said that made all of the difference. Instead of throwing money at the problem and hoping it changed, the Germans helped change the problem. Most Americans, in the policy making world, don't do that. I the was lucky enough to go to South Africa in 1996. The horror that was Aprthied was still visible. I went to Soweto and saw Mandella's house (very small for a president, but it did have barbed wire and security cameras) along side the carboard and corrugated steel shaks that black south africans lived in. As a matter of policy, the Reagan administration did nothing, no sanctions, no military support of regime change (shoulda had W in office maybe he would have fought Botha) nothing. We can see that things turned out well (that is a different topic ) and even though we should have done something, things turned out for the best there and SA is a great succsess story as far as change and reconcilliation. Is it a perfect place? No, but they have done grate things and are progressing along well. But as far as our policy, it could have been better. But most people here never see the effects of our policies and think that we are doing what is best. There is a reason the term Ugly American came about people! Our governments policies direcly effect how you are viewd by the rest of the world. think about that during this election season.

Getting High

So I climbed a 14er today. (Mountain over 14,000 feet tall for the uninitiated) adn now my knees hurt a little and got sunburned. For myself though it was the first time this summer being at altitude, which is hard to say the least. I was thinking about giving up bt that is crap. I finished and made a vow to get out and into the mountians more. God would want it that way, I'm sure.

Paranomal Paranoia

So I was thinking about ghosts the other day.... Not really but it sounds good. I was thinking about the past however and I thought about what people go through to keep that past alive. Take me, I still wear an earring. I am a father that is pushing my upper thirties, should I still wear an earring? Why the hell not I say. But I am not like those recreation league softball guys trying to prove that I should be palying in the bigs. I just think that our pasts (or ghosts if you will) are a part of us, we can't just let them go floating away. We have to maintain contact with them to learn from them and keep our youth alive. It keeps us on our toes for sure.