Author: Robert

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election night

first, i have friends and family who voted on both sides of the election and feel pretty strongly about it. therefore this post has nothing to do with who was right or wrong. it’s just about two things.

1) i am proud to be an american. i would have been proud to be an american if mccain had won also so it has nothing to do with obama winning … well sort of nothing. the pride comes from the fact that history was made last night with a black man being elected president and it happening without total chaos. the same would have been true if mccain and palin had been elected except it would have been a woman elected to high office. it is just amazing to think that this could happen as fast as it did. while official segregation was over before i was very cognizant of it i do still remember as a wee young thing driving through certain parts of montgomery, al and seeing obvious signs of that past struggling to survive. i also saw much of it still working in detroit, michigan when i lived there for a summer in ‘87.  i’m not sure that i honestly thought that an african-american would ever be elected to the office of president during my lifetime, nor for that matter a woman. it says a lot for american that we heal that fast. i’m not sure we are completely healed from the issue of racism (or that we ever will be) but we’ve obviously come along way.

2) the electoral map below is probably the funniest thing i have seen on explaining politics. i have not followed crikey before but i probably will start doing so now just because of that map. you have to love those auzzies.

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religulous

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i was in rochester, minnesota this weekend for the mwbc annual meeting. while i was there i thought i would go after the friday evening meeting and watch religulous. since the movie is an attempt to convince people that religious belief is stupid and should be rejected by everyone, i thought it was pretty important for me to see it. truthfully bill maher makes fun of some things in faith that deserve to be made fun of. let’s face it, if we’re honest with ourselves there are some things we do “in the name of CHRIST” that have absolutely nothing to do with CHRIST and should be ridiculed. i don’t have a problem with someone doing that. in fact, i often think it helps correct us.

one of the main problems i have with the movie is that he only presents the stupid stuff. it would be easy to reject faith if that was all there was. if the holy land experience in orlando is the sum total of what faith is all about then we probably should reject it. i think the problem in maher’s argument comes in the fact that he never considers the good that comes out of faith. visit a few homeless shelters and indigent works with me that are only operated because of the faith of the organizations’ leadership and then talk about faith being ridiculous. consider martin luther king and the fact that his actions came out his faith and then say faith is ridiculous. come with me to diriamba, nicaragua and join the baltodonas as they help the weakest in their society because they see JESUS in those individuals and then look me in the face and say faith is ridiculous. there are so many other examples: desmond tutu, mother teressa, miss lilly (mission arlington), etc. you can say faith doesn’t make sense to you but look at some of this actions that are the result of faith and say it is ridiculous. i dare you.

maybe these amazing actions more clearly represent the effects of faith than the stupid things do. after all, the world is full of stupidity and brutality. those actions do not belong just the realm of faith (just look at mao & stalin for examples of irreligious perpetrators of mass evil).

there are other issues that i could mention but judging by the response at the theater i probably won’t be discussing any of the issues raised on religulous with anyone. as you can probably tell from the photo above i was the only one in the theater. i asked the ticket guy how many tickets had been sold and he said there were probably 5 people who watched the movie on friday.

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staying to the talking points

wow. this is incredible. it’s a mash up of mccain’s and obama’s answers to questions within the three debates. it really let’s you know how obama and mccain say the same thing over and over. the tone and the words are the same every time. it’s incredible.

when i used to preach in the sunday morning services of parkview (which i think all concerned would say was thankfully rare) i would get bored of my own sermon after the second service. i hated preaching the same thing three times. i can’t imagine saying the same thing over and over.

SIDE NOTE – i’m pretty much ready for the election to be over.

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cnn & palin

i saw this a few minutes ago and thought “wow it’s about to hit the fan.” cnn said sarah palin was now talking openly about running in 2012. i was floored. then i watched the whole thing and i think cnn blew everything out of proportion but i still think palin may have screwed up. so here are my two thoughts:

  • palin did not start speaking openly about running in 2012. instead she responded to a question concerning what would happen if they lost. of course, i would imagine that as far as the mccain camp is concerned she probably responded poorly.
  • palin answered poorly. i think wolf blitzer did hit the nail on the head at the end of the segment when he said “that is not supposed to be something that you say. you are supposed to say, ‘well, i’m not looking ahead, i’m not looking ahead only to tuesday,’” i really don’t think palin has done much to help mccain win this election. in my opinion if he gets elected it will probably be in spite of her. yes, i know some of y’all think the world of her. since i think the world of most of you i’m sorry to say that i just can’t go there.
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mcdill pond

mcdill-empty

the above is a picture of mcdill pond. it has been drained in an attempt to use the winter to kill the non-native aquatic plants that have taken it over. i understand why it is being done but driving by it still make me a little sad. it will be even worse this winter because whenever you drove by mcdill you could always count on seeing people ice fishing. that want be happening this winter because when you ice fish immediately over dry dirt the results are always abysmal.

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i’ve always been a rat but never a lab rat until now

pam has suckered me into being recorded as a test subject for the com. d. department at uwsp. they need subjects with different accents and a southern accent is a rare commodity up here in the land of cheese. therefore, i will go into her department next week so that they can record my voice so their students can then deconstruct the whole thing. as always, i endeavor to persevere in my attempts to help educate the future leaderships of our world. 😉

SIDE NOTE – i’m presently reading jack kerouac’s book “on the road.” i’m only about half way through the book so things may change but at this point i don’t understand why it is considered such a great book. it’s okay. i’m interested in it enough to finish reading it but it doesn’t stand out as a great work of literature. maybe it’s just me.