This is a song I heard just a couple weeks ago and utterly fell in love with. It was written by my friends Danielle Kane (nee Bixby) and Rick Vandivier, and I performed it(with a few tweaks, as I'm nowhere NEAR the guitarist that Rick is)at the 3/29/09 service at Unity of Fremont, CA. So here's my version:
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Again I say - "impossible" doesn't exist!
Thanks to my friend Ed for sending me this. A man whose car is caught UNDER an overturned semi - AND WALKS AWAY.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Happy Birthday, Mr. Spock!
Today is Leonard Nimoy's 78th birthday! Born on March 26, 1931, Nimoy is best known for playing The half-Human, half-Vulcan Mr. Spock on Star Trek - a role he will in part reprise in the new "rebooted" Star Trek movie coming out in early May.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Don't mince words...
What I can't stand about Keith Olbemann - he never says what he REALLY thinks...
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
St. Patty's day humor...
This one from my Dad...
As a bagpiper, I was asked by a funeral director to play at
a graveside service for a homeless man who had no family or
friends. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery in the
remote countryside and this man would be the first to be
laid to rest there.
As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became
lost and being a typical man, did not stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the
crew who were eating lunch but the hearse was nowhere
in sight.
I apologized to the workers for my tardiness and stepped to
the side of the open grave where I saw the vault lid
already in place.
I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long but
this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered
around, still eating their lunch. I played out my heart and
soul.
As I played the workers began to weep. I played and I
played like I'd never played before, from Going Home
and The Lord is My Shepherd to Flowers of the Forest . I
closed the lengthy session with Amazing Grace and walked to
my car..
As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I
overheard one of the workers saying to
another, "Sweet Jeezuz, Mary'n Joseph, I never
seen nothin' like that before and I've been
putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
As a bagpiper, I was asked by a funeral director to play at
a graveside service for a homeless man who had no family or
friends. The funeral was to be held at a cemetery in the
remote countryside and this man would be the first to be
laid to rest there.
As I was not familiar with the backwoods area, I became
lost and being a typical man, did not stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late. I saw the backhoe and the
crew who were eating lunch but the hearse was nowhere
in sight.
I apologized to the workers for my tardiness and stepped to
the side of the open grave where I saw the vault lid
already in place.
I assured the workers I would not hold them up for long but
this was the proper thing to do. The workers gathered
around, still eating their lunch. I played out my heart and
soul.
As I played the workers began to weep. I played and I
played like I'd never played before, from Going Home
and The Lord is My Shepherd to Flowers of the Forest . I
closed the lengthy session with Amazing Grace and walked to
my car..
As I was opening the door and taking off my coat, I
overheard one of the workers saying to
another, "Sweet Jeezuz, Mary'n Joseph, I never
seen nothin' like that before and I've been
putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
Sunday, March 15, 2009
A hard decision
Thanks to my mom's cousin Delores for this one:
A man wakes up in the hospital, bandaged from head to foot. The doctor comes in and says, 'Ah, I see you've regained consciousness. Now, you probably won't remember, but you were in a pile-up on the freeway. You're going to be okay, you'll walk again and everything, but..... something happened. I'm trying to break this gently, but the fact is, your willy was chopped off in the wreck and we were unable to find it.'
The man groans, but the doctor goes on, 'You've got $9000 in insurance compensation coming and we have the technology now to build you a new willy that will work as well as your old one did -better in fact! But the thing is, it doesn't come cheap. It's $1000 an inch.'
The man perks up at this. 'So,' the doctor says, 'it's for you to decide how many inches you want. But it's something you'd better discuss with your wife. I mean, if you had a five inch one before, and you decide to go for a nine incher, she might be a bit put out. But if you had a nine inch one before, and you decide only to invest in a five incher this time, she might be disappointed. So it's important that she plays a role in helping you make the decision..'
The man agrees to talk with his wife. The doctor comes back the next day. 'So,' says the doctor, 'have you spoken with your wife?'
'I have,' says the man.
'And has she helped you in making the decision?'
'Yes, she has,' says the man.
'And what is it?' asks the doctor.
'We're getting new countertops.'
A man wakes up in the hospital, bandaged from head to foot. The doctor comes in and says, 'Ah, I see you've regained consciousness. Now, you probably won't remember, but you were in a pile-up on the freeway. You're going to be okay, you'll walk again and everything, but..... something happened. I'm trying to break this gently, but the fact is, your willy was chopped off in the wreck and we were unable to find it.'
The man groans, but the doctor goes on, 'You've got $9000 in insurance compensation coming and we have the technology now to build you a new willy that will work as well as your old one did -better in fact! But the thing is, it doesn't come cheap. It's $1000 an inch.'
The man perks up at this. 'So,' the doctor says, 'it's for you to decide how many inches you want. But it's something you'd better discuss with your wife. I mean, if you had a five inch one before, and you decide to go for a nine incher, she might be a bit put out. But if you had a nine inch one before, and you decide only to invest in a five incher this time, she might be disappointed. So it's important that she plays a role in helping you make the decision..'
The man agrees to talk with his wife. The doctor comes back the next day. 'So,' says the doctor, 'have you spoken with your wife?'
'I have,' says the man.
'And has she helped you in making the decision?'
'Yes, she has,' says the man.
'And what is it?' asks the doctor.
'We're getting new countertops.'
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Jon Stewart vs. CNBC. Part 2...
So Jim Cramer's taking it personally...GAME ON! Where's the damn popcorn?
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
The Coming Evangelical Collapse?
This from an Op-Ed in today's (3/10/09)Christian Science Monitor by Michael Spencer, himself an Evangelical.
I've long suspected Christianity would pay a steep price for its wholehearted embrace of exclusively Republican politics - many times at the expense of its religious principles (the 9th Commandment and Matthew 25:31-45 come to mind immediately for me) - and it appears I'm not alone in that view:
To my way of thinking, this shows the main reason why Jefferson's "Wall of Separation" between church and state is such a superb idea. Politics, by its very nature, will inevitably corrupt faith, and thereby weaken its ability to respond to forces within the culture:
You can read the rest here.
I've long suspected Christianity would pay a steep price for its wholehearted embrace of exclusively Republican politics - many times at the expense of its religious principles (the 9th Commandment and Matthew 25:31-45 come to mind immediately for me) - and it appears I'm not alone in that view:
"We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.
Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.(snip)
Evangelicals have identified their movement with the culture war and with political conservatism. This will prove to be a very costly mistake. Evangelicals will increasingly be seen as a threat to cultural progress. Public leaders will consider us bad for America, bad for education, bad for children, and bad for society.
The evangelical investment in moral, social, and political issues has depleted our resources and exposed our weaknesses. Being against gay marriage and being rhetorically pro-life will not make up for the fact that massive majorities of Evangelicals can't articulate the Gospel with any coherence. We fell for the trap of believing in a cause more than a faith."
To my way of thinking, this shows the main reason why Jefferson's "Wall of Separation" between church and state is such a superb idea. Politics, by its very nature, will inevitably corrupt faith, and thereby weaken its ability to respond to forces within the culture:
"We Evangelicals have failed to pass on to our young people an orthodox form of faith that can take root and survive the secular onslaught. Ironically, the billions of dollars we've spent on youth ministers, Christian music, publishing, and media has produced a culture of young Christians who know next to nothing about their own faith except how they feel about it. Our young people have deep beliefs about the culture war, but do not know why they should obey scripture, the essentials of theology, or the experience of spiritual discipline and community. Coming generations of Christians are going to be monumentally ignorant and unprepared for culture-wide pressures."
You can read the rest here.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Best takedown in the history of takedowns...
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