Michael Moore: Anti-Bush, Anti-Arab

Interesting Article on Michael Moore and Fahrenheit 911 in the Daily Star. Link.

Why the Dems Will Lose

I know the National Review is hardly an unbiased look at politics, but they have an interesting article that contains 6 reasons why the Kerry/Edwards ticket will lose come November. Link.

Proverbs, Romans, and the Democratic National Convention

When I was a senior at High School Summer Camp at Hume Lake I made a commitment to the Lord to read the book of Proverbs and the book of Romans every month.  Somewhere along the line I added the book of Psalms, but it is so long that I split it up over five months.  Well, I have kept pretty faithful in my reading almost every month for the last 30 years.  It amazes me how each month as I read these books I find something comletely new to me in each reading.  This month I am reading for the first time in The Message, which, with its contemporary wording, brings a lot of new thoughts to my reading.  I came across Proverbs 28:2 a couple of days ago.  It says,

2  When the country is in chaos, everybody has a plan to fix it--But it takes a leader of real understanding to straighten things out. 

As I watched the highlights of the Democratic National Convention I can't think of a more appropriate verse as it applies to our nation.  We are a fragmented country right now.  Everyone has a different plan to fix what they believe is wrong with the country.  I believe that what we really need right now is a leader who can bring us all together and help us work as one.  As I watched the convention I am very concerned with the fragmentation of the Democratic Party itself.  They are trying to bring together all the different splintered groups representing the liberal side of the political system under the Democratic Party umbrella by focusing them on what they have in common: their intense hatred for the Republican Party and George W. Bush.  I tried to go into the Democratic National Convention with an open mind, to see what good might come out of the convention, but I'm afraid that rallying around a hatred for the Republican Party and George W. Bush just isn't good enough for me.  There is just too much out and out hatred on the Democratic side of the ticket this election.  Also, each splinter of the Democratic Party has its own agenda that it wants fixed, but there is no overall cohesive plan to integrate these and make this happen.  The have several lofty goals, such as providing health care for everyone, inproving education, and forming a real coalition with the UN forces in Iraq.  But, there are no details available for how the ticket plans to do this, and frankly the Democrats may win the election, but I don't believe Kerry can pull off any type of a cohesive plan.  I will wait to see what the Republican National Convention accomplishes before I make up my mind who to vote for, but right now it doesn't look like I will endorse the Kerry/Edwards ticket. 

As far as Proverbs, Romans, and Psalms go, I'll still be faithful to the commitment I made to the Lord.  Lately I have been feeling convicted to go deeper; the concepts of justification, grace, and sanctification in the book of Romans have been tugging on my soul very hard over the last few months.  Along those lines, I have 3 friends that memorized the entire book of Romans.  One of them (David Yong)  is a friend I met while living in SongTan, Korea who memorized all of Romans in English (his second language).   Now if David can do it in his second language maybe I should at least try to tackle it in my primary language.

Romans 1:1  Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.........      

Orangejack Added To The List of Blogs I Read

Through one of those 7 steps to Kevin Bacon type of links Rob of the Orangejack blog and I ran across each other in the blogosphere.  He works for Campus Crusade for Christ and is a fellow worker in campus ministries.  Anyhow, it was great to run across you Rob.  You are linked out to the right and although I don't understand your love of Clemson (I'm still mad at them for beating Nebraska in the 1980 Orange bowl), I'll still read your blog.  

An Evening at the Muny and Ted Drewe's

The 1904 World's Fair was held in St Louis and was such a success that it forever changed the landscape of the city.  Today St Louis, and the country in general, are left with several vestiges of the fair.  The 1904 Fair featured the first introduction of the Hamburger and the Ice Cream Cone to American culture.  These two American delicacies have not only come to dominate American cuisine, but have spred all over the world.   As important as the Hamburger and the Ice Cream Cone are to American pop culture, the most visible vestige of the 1904 Fair in St Louis is the site where the fair was hosted, St Louis' Forest Park.   I compare forest Park to New York's Central Park, except that Forest park is about 50% larger and has so much more to do.  The St Louis Zoo (one of the only free zoos left in the US), Science Center (also free), the Missouri History Museum and Historical Society (they have an unbelievable exhibit on Lewis and Clark to celebrate the 200th anniversary of their departure from St Louis), Art Museum (free), The Muny (an outdoor theater for Broadway-type shows that seats 11,000), a nice public golf course, ball fields, a tennis stadium where the St Louis Aces play, outdoor ice skating rink, and the giant ferris wheel all are located within the park's boundaries. 

Last night Marilyn and I took the kids to the Muny's presentation of The Music Man.  It was a solid performance.  The weather was perfect, dry and about 65 degrees.  It was very nice. 

After the Muny we visited another St Louis tradition, Ted Drewe's Frozen Custard.  If there is a better place to eat a concrete (similar to Dairy Queen's blizzard) I haven't found it yet.  Ted Drewe's has been here for around 75 years and is one of our favorite places to hang out.  We hung out until about 1:00am and then headed for home.  It was awesome!   What a perfect night.  It made for a hard time getting up and heading off to work this morning. 

Reaching New Religions

The OOZE.com has a super article on how we need to develop a new missional strategy for witnessing.  We have done a good job of training missionaries to head on off to Asia or Africa in order to reach Hindus, Buddhists, and Moslems, but what about those new religious movements that have been brewing in our own bakyard?  How do we reach those people?  Here's the link to the article.  Link.  Thanks go out to Andrew Careaga.

Andrew Careaga's e-vangelism.com Website

Jordon Cooper had a link on his blog to evangelism.com, a website by Andrew Careaga.  What an awesome website.  I have read Andrew's blog for the last couple of years and have read his books, e-ministry, and Hooked On the Net, and highly recommend each of them.  Andrew shows how we are capable of changing people's lives through how we use the electronic media.  Andrew also documents the changes in our culture that are taking form with the emergence of a generation raised on the internet.  It is compelling.  I particularly like his ideas in e-ministry regarding using the electronic media to help create community in our Christian life.  I guess I need to order his book e-vangelism and start pouring through it too.  If the e-vangelism website continues down the path that Andrew has gone so far it will be top notch, innovative, and a must read.  I've added it to the right column under the list of blogs I read.   Plus, Andrew is a local, from Rolla, Missouri, only about 2 hours away and I think he is a Cardinals fan! 

Bloggers At The Democratic Convention

The Wall Street Journal has a good article on bloggers at the Democratic convention.  It is located here.  Link.  There are about 35 blogs that have been accredited by the convention.  There's a very interesting list of bloggers at the end of the article.  Should make for some fun reading.

Hussein and Bin Laden Tie

Thanks again to Rudy Carrasco posting this link on his website.  George Bush has been pretty silent on all the Democrat's charges against him of acting without cause in the War on Iraq.  I imagine as we get closer to the election more news like this will be released that shows he acted on intelligence pointing to a tie between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.  Here's the link.  Link.

Good News Coming Out of Iraq

I have had a couple of posts over the last month where I believe the good news coming ot of Iraq isn't being reported.  The liberal media "latches onto" the bad news coming out of Iraq because they know it serves their purpose to shock the public and push the liberal agenda.  Rudy Carrasco has a post on his weblog where he links to the Wall Street Journal's documentig 12 pages of good news in Iraq.  Rudy has it in a PDF format.  Thanks Rudy for the post.  It is located here.  Link.