It seems that the former senator from NC, and the perpetual presidential candidate, John Edwards, is at it again. 
   This time the senator who is "for" the down-trodden, (in case the folks on Pluto didn't hear it, Edwards' father was a mill-worker) has been caught billing his campaign war-chest for $400 haircuts and man-spa visits.
   Am I the only one who finds this despicable?  How can anyone take anything this guy says seriously?
   We all know about the Orange County (NC) Taj-Mahal, we have all seen the primping on You-Tube, and now he gets his nails done and facials at a spa, along with a wash-cut-dry-set.  His wife seems more real than this phony.
   Who does he think he is fooling?
   As stated earlier on this blog, he is definitely NOT the man (she-man) to run the country.  I wonder if Osama is scared?

From the "there's a tear in my beer" file:  I understand that Merle Haggard is promoting Hillary Rodham for President.  God help us!

From the "let's take the moral low ground" file:  isn't it ironic that NBC fires Imus for a joke (albeit a horrible one) and then decides to air the ravings of a mass murderer.  NBC is pathetic.

  Is it really any wonder that there is so much apathy in this country?  All the hypocrisy will surely lead to our further downfall and eventual collapse.

The horrible, senseless massacre at VT yesterday will result in liberal Congress-people, and Senators calling for "stricter" gun control measures.  As if the entire episode could have been avoided if 2nd amendment rights were further eroded.
   I submit that the problem is not with guns and their control.  The problem, according to our Creator is in the desperately wicked human heart.  Jesus Christ said "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders . . ." (Matthew 15:19)
   How could this tragedy been prevented?  I do not know, and perhaps as one criminologist said last night on TV, it could not have been prevented.  I mean really, how could anyone that a guy was going to completely flip out and go kill everyone he saw?  How does the nation of Israel know when a suicide bomber is going to enter a bus filled with innocents and blow them up?  How do our soldiers know when they cruise the streets of Iraq who will set off an IED?  How do you and I know when we go to the mall that someone will not have flipped out and do similar?  (BTW, it happened recently here at our mall.)
   However, with all of that said, many will seek to BLAME someone for this massacre.  Already there are those calling for the immediate firing (and would imagine the prosecution) of the president of VT and the police chief.  Others will blame the "soft" gun laws in Virginia.  Others will seek to blame President Bush (why not, he gets blamed for everything else).  Everyone will be blamed, except, ironically the young Asian man who actually perpetrated the horror.  Many will seek to blame "society."  This makes me gag!
   We live in a sin-stricken, cursed world.  People will continue to mock God, mock His gift of salvation in Christ, refusing to repent of wickedness, and blaspheming the Holy Spirit.  And things like this will continue.
   I call on my fellow Christians to rise up and SHINE as lights -- we are indeed in darkness.

    With all due respect to Speaker Newt Gingrich (who I happen to like and appreciate), I must disagree with his latest remarks.  It seems that Newt has called for the resigination of the Attorney General.  He joins a chorus of Democrats (led by Majority-leader wannabe, Chuckie Schumer, liberal from NY) in calling for his head.  Of course Newt makes a good case that the whole matter of firing several US attorneys has led and will continue to lead to "distractions" for the Administration. 
   Distractions, smactions!  Since when should a leader - be he the AG or the POTUS - quit becasue of "distractions"?  Forgive if I am wrong, but I thought the President and the Attorney General could hire and fire any US attorney they wanted to?  Isn't the AG the head of the US Justice Department?
   Everyday I get further and further disgusted with the state of affairs in Washington DC.  It is SO political, that it is sickening and deadly (just ask the troops who are about to get their needed funds cut becasue of politics). 
   When will the leader, the statesman, arise who will unite this country?  Is it even possible?  Will the two-party system even allow it to happen if it could?
   As stated, I like Newt, I would seriously consider voting for him for POTUS -- he has ideas and that is good; he is a thinker.  At the same time, I cannot allow myself to forget that he is also a savvy politician -- and perhaps not the statesman that I'm looking for.

   I read this morning via a link on Drudge, that Dr James Dobson,"psychologist and author" was dissin' on Fred Thompson -- referring to him as "not a Christian."
   The reporter at US News & World Report wanted Dr. Dobson's take on the current field of Republican hopefuls for 2008.  The article gives me concern, for several reasons.
   First of all, I think that Dr. Dobson may indeed see himself as a "kingmaker."  Since when does he speak for all Christians and conservatives?  I did not vote to give him the authority, the power, the audacity to speak for me, did you?  He does not speak for me.  It scares me to think that another Christian "leader" is SO involved in national politics -- that he loses sight of his calling as a Christian minister -- to seek to win souls and help sinners by pointing them to Christ.  Dr. Dobson would not be the first person - with all good intentions, maybe considered righteous intentions, important intentions - to become totally enamored with the US political scene to the detriment of many, including himself.  Will people that need to be reached with the transforming Gospel of Christ listen to one so enamored and involved in sheer politics of picking and choosing who can and cannot win a primary?  Is Dr. Dobson so wedded to the current political "issues" of this world that he has forgotten where his real citizenship lies?  I know, I know, he surely sees himself in the long line of world changing evangelicals, like Wilberforce.  And no doubt, Dr Dobson has indeed done a lot, a world of good --but politics will not save a person from hell.  I wish we could get Christians as fired up about the Kingdom of God as we can about who gets the Republican nomination!
   One more thing, I am not sure I like Dr. Dobson's judging Fred Thompson's Christianity.  I don't know Fred Thompson, never met him in my life.  Perhaps Dr Dobson has met the man, and Thompson told him he was in fact NOT a Christian.  If so, make the statement.  If he hasn't talked with Fred Thompson about spiritual matters, use caution.  Judge, but judge carefully.
   Should Christians be involved in politics?  Not a problem, but it can become a problem.  As Christians, may we "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness."  Not lose sight and seek an earthly kingdom.  May we not be so enamored to be "kingmakers" as we are to be "King servers." 

This week, on its cover, TIME says that a case can be made that the Bible should be taught in public schools - albeit very carefully.  I have not read the article yet, but have better knowledge, I am sure, than even the fine writers at TIME could pass along.
  Just yesterday I had the privilege of meeting and listening to a young teacher in our local NC public school system.  This young man teaches Bible at a local high school and a ta a middle school.  The students who take his class are certainly not forced to take the class -- it is offered as an elective.  Would you believe that over the course of a year he might have some 400 students take his class?  For the students that are "assigned" his class by the administration, (perhaps the student didn't sign up for enough electives and the admin had to place the student "somewhere") this teacher will even call the parents and let them know that indeed their child is in his class -- so there "will be no problem."  He has yet to have a parent take their child out of his class.
   The state of NC approves the class, seeing the Bible as a work of literature and as an historical document in the life and founding of the US.  They approve the class, but (get this) they will not pay the teacher to teach it.  The funding for this comes from the community.  The teacher is on the payroll of the school, with state benefits, but monthly the school system sends our local "Bible Education Foundation" a bill for reimbursement.  I know, this is astounding to me. 
   The teacher cannot give an invitation for the students to receive Christ, obviously.  He does not make an issue of his "personal beliefs" but he is aware that the Bible is God's Word, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, as a students read it and study it - even in an "academic" way, tremendous things can happen.
  "The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit . . ." (Hebrews 4:12)
   As a final thought in his talk yesterday, this teacher -- in a public school, a Christian man, teaching the Bible to high school and middle school students, who want to learn it -- said that the biggest negative has not come from ACLU-types, but actually from CHURCHES!  In my opinion, for silly and sad reasons which I do not have time to go into -- but they are not of the state/church separation variety -- but more of the "Which version of the Bible is taught?"
   I pray for this warrior for Christ on the front line.

   I am usually the first to enjoy a good John Edward joke.  My barbershop has a great picture of  a man from Edwards' hometown who claims to be his "cuzun."  It is fantastic. 
   I enjoyed thinking that Edwards was squirming from the obvious hypocrisy when he speaks about "two Americas" - the haves and the have nots - and it is reveled what his mansion is like.
   I have loved the YouTube segment of "Don't I Look Pretty" with the Breck-girl in full swing.

   And though I think she can say anything she wants to, I didn't neccessairly think it a good idea for Ann Coulter to call Edwards a "faggot."  That shows weakness, tremendous weakness, on her part.

  On more serious notes, I continue to feel that he used the US Senate and the citizens from North Carolina as a stepping stone to what he is doing now -- seeking the ultimate prize -- the White House.
  I also continue to think he is way out of his league when it comes to leading this nation with the world in the current state that is in -- radical Islamists seeking to undo us.
   I think his political philososphy is wrong-headed.

  However, I am saddened at the news today that his wife Elizabeth has had a recurrence of cancer.  Obviously, this is sad news, and we should keep the Edwards in our prayers.  I doesn't matter how much you disagree with someone politically, and get a kick out of seeing them satired, this is obviously something completely different.
   Cancer is horrible.  But I like the Edawards' approach -- keep on living, man, as long as you live.  Fight.  Be strong.  Be courageous.  Don't quit.  Don't ever, ever, ever give up.  Hopefully others will see their "fight" and will be inspired to fight themselves; fight to "suck the marrow out of life."
   I hope Edwards loses -- politically that is.  I hope the Edwards' win, too -- in living this God-given life to the absolute fullest.  I think they are already on their way. 

   It seems to me that the people I talk with have come to the conclusion that one day -- probably soon - we will have "universal" health care for every American.  Of course this will be set-up and run by the federal government of the United States of America. 
   Have we lost our marbles?

   Can you imagine the federal government, you know the ones who totally botched the New Orleans Katrina crisis running the health care system in this country?  Will liberals think about this for a moment, please?  One cannot place the entire blame on the White House for the mess in New Orleans post-Katrina.  The president is of course the leader of the country, but let's face it, he is still one  man -- one lonely man I imagine.
  A lot can be blamed on the fact of government bureaucracy.  It is sickening, it is damaging, indeed as we saw in New Orleans, it is deadly.

   Now, think of the same bureaucracy "managing" health care for you and me and our families.  Medicare is already a nightmare to try and figure out; medicaid is a simply a nightmare (a costly, irresponsible one at that).

  It is easy to see who will suffer the most in "universal health care" in this country -- the middle class tax payer.  The hard working American, the ones that have made this country the greatest on earth will always get the shaft from our government.  It is a shame.  It makes my head and stomach hurt to think about it all.  Too bad I can't take the time off work ( I gotta pay my insurance premiums) to go stand in line at the doctor's office -- behind the people that I am already paying for their health care.

Boy, the drive-by media is having a field day with General Peter Pace's comments concerning homosexuality as being immoral and having no place in the US military.  I say, "Stand firm General Pace and do not cave in!"

   I will begin this article by saying that I have never really had a fondness for the senior Senator from New York, Charles Schumer.  It is somewhere in my mind that I remember him as a loud, obnoxious member of the US House of Representatives, and thinking to myself -- "Gee, what a liberal, obnoxious windbag."  Once I had that thought I pushed him far out of my mind.  Then I wake up one day and find that he has been elected by the people of New York to serve them as their Senator.  I wished I had stayed asleep.
   The Senator seems SOOOO proud of himself for winning the elections in November.  He was right there, arm in arm with Dingy Harry and Rahm and Nancy basking in November election returns.  Now I think he thinks HE has a mandate from the people of this country.
   Case in point:  this past weekend the Senator comes out and boldly states that HE thinks that the Attorney General of the US should leave office NOW!  Why?  Because HE said so, that's why! 
   I get the impression that Senator Schumer is disgusted with Dingy Harry.  He's not brash and bold like HE is -- in fact HE should really be the Majority Leader.  I think he might very well see himself in this role -- right now.  Dingy Harry is there due to senority and compromise and earning his stripes.  Senator Schumer is much more the leader of the party of moveon.org.  He hates the 2nd amendment, he hates fetuses, and he seems to hate the Bush White House.  He doesn't mind letting anyone with a camera and a microphone know what HE hates either.  Added to all of this, don't you just love that little smirk -- like a little obnoxious kid in school who was always picked on because he was a nerd, and NOW HE is getting it done -- all the way from the United States Senate as the Senior Senator from the great state of New York.  "How do you like ME, now?"
   So should AG Gonzalez obey the Senator and quit?  I don't think he will.  I don't think Senator Schumer hired him to begin with so how can he fire him?  Hey, but didn't HE sound the leader saying it?! 

   Of course the BIG news of the moment is the Libby verdict.  No one seemed to care about this case until the "guilty" verdict was rendered by a Washington, DC jury of Mr Libby's peers.  Now, we see all the time the "corruption that permeates this administration."  It is hard to believe that the same people who say that are the same ones who defended the Clinton administration.
  Now the question is, "Should the President pardon Mr. Libby?"  I personally think it is way too soon to render a judgement on this question.  It will need to go through all the appeals.  As we know the furor on this will die down in a day or two, and then perhaps at some point in the future, the President can quietly consider such a pardon.  It is way too hot right now for that to happen.
  But what might could happen is that the Vice President, Richard Cheney, will step down.  It will be presented that it is becasue of his health problems -- which he will severely grit his teeth in announcing -- that he must step down from office.  Of course we will know that it is political pressure that will cause it.  I like Dick Cheney, at least I like most of his positions.  I have never met the man of course, but he seems to be likable.  I think his motives were good on Iraq, but good motives don't always result in good policy or good implementation or good results.  More should have been considered before we went to Iraq.  It has turned out far worse than I think the VP ever thought it would.
   Mr Cheney, I believe, is such a loyalist to the President that he would go down if it spared his boss.  I know that he is a bull dog, tenancious, and has endured many tough battles and is not a quitter.  However, I think he will step down.
   Am I wrong?  Perhaps.  But it seems to me that the President needs something to happen to salvage his presidency.  Too much excess baggage is being drug all around.  Drop some of it, and make something good happen.  Will the VP stepping down for "health reasons" make it happen?  I don't know.  We'll see.

   Today marked an event that strikes me as kind of sad.  At least two presidential contenders for the Democrats nomination, Obama and Rodham, spoke in Selma, AL on an historic day.  It seems that this marked a significant day and place in the history of civil rights in this country.  Brave and courageous men and women stepped up and stepped out into a brave new world -- they took the privileges of every free American, and decided to be treated not as second-class citizens.  This certainly is to be admired and appreciated and applauded.
  What saddens me is that the entire thing is now used as a political stepping stone.  Today's apperarance gave the impression that both of the aforementioned candidates were going there to solicit votes; to garner black support for their political aspirations.  The press played it up as which contender would land the KO punch and come out with the victory in Selma.  The whole episode with the politicians sickens me.  It cheapens the sacrifices made.
   In fact the entire crop of politicians going after support -- Republicans and Democrats -- right now all kind of make me sick.  It seems that everyone is caught up in a power game; craving power and influence for THEMSELVES.  Where is the statesman who puts America first, their fellow citizens first, the needs of this great nation first, whose greatest concern is the type of future our children will have?  Where are they?  I see a bunch of blow-dried, consultant-guided, slicksters all in it for themselves, going whichever the wind blows --all to get the POWER.
  It scares me to think that Americans have become so apathetic or desensatized or cynical that we do not expect better from people running for public office.  We don't care, and the nation and our furture is like a snowball headed for hell.
   May God shed His mercy on our land.

   I read this morning on Baptist press, the news agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, that Richard Land and Ted Kennedy had joined forces.  I never thought I would see the day!
   Richard Land is the head of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission -- our spokesperson in DC.  He came out on support of and witnessed to a Senate Committee on the merits of Kennedy's "Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act."  It seems that this gives the federal government, in particular the FDA, further control of tobacco and how people use it.  Personally, I do not like it anytime when the federal government has further control over anything!  Every time a law is passed, a little more of our freedom erodes.
  Should people smoke?  I would argue no, they shouldn't.  Should Big Brother make that decision for them?  No.  All of these bans, on trans-fat, on smoking, on SUVs, on obesity, on . . .  (you name it), is further government encroachment on our lives.  Government, and those in power over others' lives, don't know when to stop.
  I imagine Brother Land lauds himself a "conservative."  Hello?
  

   There are a few things that bother me today . . .

Why does ABC news advertise heavily, build-up, hype, the return to work of an injured journalist when our American soldiers do the same everyday?  Where are their stories?

Why do politicians and "preachers" tell the rest of us how we must live and then they do not do the same?  For instance, the fact that Al Gore spends $30,000 a year on utilities at his own home, takes gigantic limos everywhere he goes and I doubt he flies commercial as he jet-sets around with the Hollywood elite collecting Oscars and telling the rest of "us" how we are to blame for the earth's heat-up.  Another for instance, John Edwards, he of "two Americas" rhetoric, lives in a monstrosity of a house he had built in Orange County, NC -- what may be, besides the Biltmore estate, the ritziest home in the state.  The "preachers" who stand and exhort the congregations to follow Jesus, He who had no place to lay His head, and they live like arab sheiks; Christ, Who humbled Himself to the point of coming in the form of a bond-servant and dying a humiliating death on the cross, "preached" by "pastors" whose egos are so big they cannot even fit in the room.

Why will people be snowed by liars, novelists and sensationalist movie directors and refuse to believe the Bible?

Why do kindergartners carry knives to school and wave them at teachers?

Will we be overcome with evil, or will we overcome evil with good?

   I had the wonderful privilege of listening to a funeral home director speak this morning on life -- the abundant life that Christ jesus came to bring.  It was great to hear a person whose entire life is dealing with death and grief everyday, speak of bringing heart and life into his world. 
   I agree that we as Christians, even, are not very good at dealing with death.  We weep with those who weep, we take food and offer comfort -- for a day or so.  Usually when the dirt has not had time to even settle on the grave site, we are gone to the next "crisis."  How often do we think about the lonely person we just left standing at the cemetery?  Do we continue to reach out and extend that hand of solace two weeks later?  Are we being the body of Christ in that person's life? 
   Christ came that we might have LIFE (see John 10:10).  Are we so enamored with life - or what passes for life - on this earth that we forget everlasting, eternal life that begins for the child of God right here and now? 
   Jesus said that He was the way, the truth and the LIFE; He came, He said, not that the world would be condemned but that the world through Him might be saved -- to everlasting life. 
    Oh yes, I was challenged this morning by this funeral director who has such a passion for life and The Life.  May we speak more of Him, preach more of Him, share more of Him, rejoice more in Him.

   Yestrday I was looking in almanac, actually a quite interesting one by a man named Schott, who seems to be from the UK.  The lamanac however was all about America and compiles all kinds of information that makes for interesting reading -- especially for someone like myself who suffers from "subject ADD". 
   Anyway, in the book there is a small section on "Government" and I was looking at the sub-section on the US Supreme Court.  Of the nine justices that presently reside on the bench, five are graduates of Harvard Law School.  Two are graduates of Yale, one from Columbia and one from Northwestern. 
   Now I imagine that all of these folks are pretty smart -- even if they make seemingly unwise decisions sometimes, and the philososphy that undergirds those decisions is flawed. However, to get to that level you have to have something on the stick.  But F-I-V-E from Harvard?
   A young person may be aspiring to someday serve on the US Supremem Court, and that is a noble goal.  In these United States of America we teach our children that they can be whatever they set their minds to be (sometimes I fear we build up false hopes, but nonetheless,) we are a meritocracy, aren't we?
   I wonder.  It seems that graduating from Harvard overwhelming increases one chances of serving on the Court, at least graduating from an Ivy League law school.
 
   Now, let's think for a moment about serving God Almighty.  Does it matter where one is "from"?  I don't think so.  In fact as we study the Bible we see over and over the Lord using the most unlikely folks to serve His ends.  Perhaps it has something to do with God receiving all the glory and we sharing in none.  I am quite thankful that God doesn't just call WASPS into His service; that He doesn't just save whites; that to be used by Him all He asks is a submissive spirit, a child-like faith.
   Serving our Father who is in heaven -- that's a higher privilege than even "serving" on the US Supreme Court.  You don't need a college degree, much less one from Harvard, to serve the Master.