This is a joke right?

Wellstone! The Musical

Enormous toxin spewing green bus to be played by Al Franken.

Songs include:

How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Marxist Twit?

AND

Luck Be An Affirmative Action Mandate

It's like butter

I just found these two stories juxtaposed on Drudge:


What's interesting is that you can swap the captions around and the photos still make complete (if not more) sense:

Yeeargh!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Liberals can't debate

I currently have a Christopher Hitchens/George Galloway debate on in the background. It was supposed to be on the issue of whether the U.S. should have invaded Iraq with Hitchens taking the "Yes" side and Galloway the "No."

Unfortunately, Galloway has taken the route that so many psuedo-Marxist anti-war types have and that is to spend no time on the substance of the argument and instead attempt to discredit the opponent. This along with the left-wing arguing tactic of bringing up subjects that have nothing to do with the argument (in this case hurricane Katrina) and constantly interrupting Hitchens during his allotted debate segments.

It's disgusting. All Hitchens can do (a pro-choice atheist by the way) is try defend himself from Galloway's stupid statements and pointless ramblings and counter civilily in his hushed William F. Buckley tones. Galloway on the other hand screams like an Irish banshee as he defends Iraq insurgents as "freedom fighters."

If you have the stomach you can watch it here:

Hitchens/Galloway debate

Brilliant Commie traitor thought of the day

"Laugh is something that strikes a chord. Laugh is—can recognition."
-Jane Fonda

How the 'Death Star' works

That's no moon. It's a space station...

Church, Episode II: Attack of the Clones

If this goes nowhere, I apologize. I'm going to type it, hit "publish" and that's that. Your job, gentle reader, is to correct me if and where I go astray. Thanks.

As alluded to here, I've had a lot of time lately to think about church. It's been an interesting past year and a half to say the least—and that for a whole host of reasons. In a broad sense I've been trying to understand the "little c" church and the contending going on even as we speak between a number of vastly different viewpoints (more on that later). On a more personal level I've been trying to figure out the "big C" church, Christianity, the world and my place in it.

The biggest issue that I can see, and the one that seems to be the most universal, is what I might call an unhealthy view of man and a very small view of God. We can see it I think quite clearly in the world of the Emergent church with it's "dreams of Jesus" to be fulfilled and it's high, and almost reverent love of the earth and the things of man more than God (From what I can understand about the Emergent "conversation" it's basically an organization that believes it's okay for you to sleep with your girlfriend as long as you eat organic carrots.) So for those of us with a reasonably high view of Scripture it is not difficult to see the inherent problem in such a viewpoint.

Where I think things can get hazy are in our very own, sacred, safe Evangelical Mainline Protestant havens. Even as we denounce relativism, "Social Gospel" and other "liberal" practices, I wonder if we aren't perpetuating something that, if not quite as deadly, is far more insidious. I wonder if in our efforts to "guard the truth" we haven't shut the door in the face of those genuinely seeking to understand and apply God's word. I wonder if in our efforts to show "great leadership" we haven't co-opted the patterns of the world by turning the church into nothing more than a corporation with CEOs and Mission Statements; a culture where "If you don't like it then sell your stock and here's the door."

This I think is the real problem and it's a problem that knows no boundary, no affiliation and no denomination. We can see it just as easily in traditional church governing systems as we can in legalistic and high-authority systems.

This to me is the biggest issue the "big C" church needs to confront: Is God sovereign over all or is he not? Does God speak through the whole body of Christ or does he not? Does each member of Christ's body have a connection to the head or not? Is the head God or a man or a system devised by man?

Certainly these questions need to be answered correctly but beyond that they need to be applied to our systems, our structures and—most importantly—our practices. Belief without action is nothing. We might sing that He is "Lord of Lords" but do we really believe that? Or do we take the view that our church is Lord, our system is Lord, and our leaders are Lords?

This isn't really anything new. All through church history we see a pattern of man elevating himself and then being quickly humbled by a Sovereign God. Unfortunately Christians are like everyone else in that they learn almost nothing from history (or for that matter things currently happening in front of their noses).

I think we also can't go too far the other way and simplistically say "God doesn't work through man" because that is simply not the case. After all it took God's stirring on the heart of Luther to enact change in the world by exposing the perverted form of Christianity that was Roman Catholicism. But did ultimate change come from one man dictating and others following? Or was it a swell, an urging by the Holy Spirit working on the hearts of thousands of men and women from various backgrounds to restore the idea of man's direct connection with God through the cross?

Flying over trout?

It's the 80's! or "How do you read a record?"

Spam Poetry

Have you ever gotten those Spam e-mails with all the nonsensical requests and phrases? Of course you have!

Well I find some of them to be downright poetic.

Here are a few of my recent favorites:

Weird Stuff by Rosaria Stone

It has been weeks since we've talked.
Just thought you might want to know schedule, that has been assisting me get
Back in how I was in college.
You should pop in at

Give them 31 sec and that's it to begin.
It was cool decisevely having someone to aid me out.
I am remorseful I have been so backward with it.
Sorry for the long time again

And broad furniture meadows whereon grazed disappoint
If she is fold afraid,
And we own never done so, either.

The Kebem by Bijay Becton

It ended just as quickly as it had started.
The children had out the mission is over-whether we have the artifact or not.
So let us ordered.
He is the one who knows what the device can do.

Regarding Last Night by Vernie Carroll

Alton spoken to me that you unquestionabaly heard
About the info on feeling like you did in college,
Just wanted you to hear about the plan
That has been helping me get back in how I was in college.

Banquet erect position, field although
Laugh we were both tired.
I had attentively great character.

Everything Good With You by Dallas

Ezra voiced upon me that you perhaps picked up
About the message on living a fuller, better life,
Just thought you might want to know therapy,
That has been consulting me feel better about myself.
Sydney and me have been on this therapy

That has been helping me with that.

There it ran into a balanced well-defined
Lys' figure, "O God," right she cried,
Of clothing or ornaments, and clubs.

Tell Me Whatcha Think by Alec Diaz

If its good enough them and the other great heroes,
its good enough for me and you.

Constant to sixteen hands high.
Crowded reached the cliffs when
To realize the scantiness of her apparel and the answer drew

Simply brilliant. You can't tell me that I couldn't collect this stuff, publish it and make a killing by selling it to Marxist literature majors in Uptown.