Grace

I can’t help but feel overwhelmingly blessed lately. There are so many things in my life that bring such joy, and I know that all of these things are graces given by the Father. In no way do I deserve the life and blessings that I have been given. I have an amazing wife who is one of the most loving and genuine people I know. I have a beautiful daughter who makes me laugh and fills my heart with joy. I have a church that reminds me daily of God’s love and challenges me to be a better man. I have the privilege of serving Christ’s body as my occupation and vocation. I have been forgiven and am loved by God. I have been blessed so much, and sometimes I’m not even sure why. This is grace.

Another Fine Piece of Journalism

What makes a man a man? What makes a woman a woman? Maybe I’m just a rural simpleton, but I’ve always assumed that being a man or a woman had at least something to do with the kind of reproductive organs you have. I know I’m naïve, and forgive my being blunt, but I always assumed that the fact that I have a penis qualified me as being a man, maybe not a manly man, but a man nonetheless. Apparently I was wrong….at least according to the major news organizations in our country.

Have you seen the story of the person in the above picture? Barbara Walters had “him” on her top ten list of fascinating people of 2008. Several months ago ABC News reported the headline, “Pregnant Man Weeks Away from Giving Birth.” CNN reported just over a week ago, “The pregnant man who gave birth to a daughter earlier this year says he is expecting a second child.” These aren't tabloids. They’re supposed to be reputable news organizations. The pregnant man has been on Oprah and Larry King, and the buzz and absurdity goes on and on.

Can I just say something to help clear things up for anyone who’s confused? Here’s my headline….this just in…“The Pregnant Man Has No Penis.” That’s right. This is not a story of a modern biological miracle. The pregnant man in fact has a vagina, uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes…yep, the whole female reproductive system which according to my very basic understanding of gender make him not really a him but a her. There is no real earth shattering story here. It’s a simple case of a woman who feels that she is a man, so she has taken hormone treatments, had some cosmetic surgeries performed, and has begun to act as if she were a man. But, she still has all the raw materials of being a woman.

This story is only a story because the news media has been sensationalizing it and manipulating ignorant people by reporting vague details about the person’s true gender. Most reports, like the ones above, refer to the person only as a man. A few reports say that he was actually “born as a woman,” but even this comment leads one to infer that she had an actual sex change operation. The story just isn’t a real story.

Now, if someday they figure out how to truly impregnate a real man, that will be a story worth reporting. I for one, look forward to that day, because then we men can finally dispel the myth that childbirth is so painful. I mean, come on, how bad can it be?

Just kidding, ladies.

Merry Christivus

So, Jill and I were decorating for Christmas yesterday…I know, I know, it’s not even Thanksgiving yet; but what can I say, we love Christmas and we’re going to be out of town for Thanksgiving anyway….and as I was putting up our fake Christmas tree, I discovered this perfect blending of the symbols of Christmas and Festivus. It’s part Christmas tree, part Festivus pole. You can put your presents under it Christmas morning, and then air your grievances next to it in the evening. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, you need to watch more Seinfeld.

The First Supper

Last meals can be pretty important. I think it must be one of the highlights of the whole death-row experience. Jesus had a pretty important last supper with his disciples, but I've never given much thought on first meals. Well, here's Jovi's first experience eating solid foods (if you can call them solid). Anyway, she's doing a pretty good job with it. You can tell that she enjoys it by the death grip she gets on that spoon.

Parable on Tax Cuts

Most of the time when Jesus taught, he used parables. Why? I think it was because we can all relate to stories and see truth that we might not otherwise grasp. Somebody sent me this modern parable yesterday regarding our current tax system. It illustrates the absurdity in what so many people argue about taxes and economics. Hope you enjoy:

A brilliant explanation of our tax system, the impact of a tax cut, and the public reaction -

Every day 10 men go out for a beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would look something like this:
The first 4 men (the poorest) would pay nothing
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh would pay $7
The eighth would pay $12
The ninth would pay $18
The tenth (richest) would pay $59

So that is what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. "Drinks for the ten now cost just $80."

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would pay their "fair share?"

They realized that $20 divided by 6 was $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everyone's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so - The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)
The sixth man now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings)
The seventh man now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings)
The eighth man now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings)
The ninth man now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings)
The tenth man now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings)

Each of the six was better off than before and the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got $1 out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10." "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I." "That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get back $10 when I only got $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man did not show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beer without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money among all of them for even half of the bill!

And that my children is how our tax code works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most dollar benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas or in Mexico where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Everyone's Biased...Except Me and CNN

If you've read my previous post from a few days back, you'll already know that I'm not overly excited about any candidate this year. But, I am still following all the news as close as the next guy. I may be a pessimist, but I'm at least a well informed pessimist. I'm typically on the conservative side of political issues, and one thing that drives me nuts is the blatant bias shown by most of the media. The above was the picture for the headline story on cnn.com which read, "Wall Street ends one of its scariest months." Now, let me just make a few obvious observations. 1.This is the headline on a day in which the Dow Jones closed up over 144 points. 2.The election is just over three days away, and does anybody notice what button this dude happens to be wearing? I wonder if the people at CNN noticed and picked this picture for a reason.

This is an ongoing pattern for CNN. They use so much subtle manipulation in what they do that I can't imagine anyone being bamboozled by it, but of course they claim to be the "unbiased" media. I don't care if they are liberal....please just admit it and stop pretending to not have an agenda. Everybody has an agenda, just tell us clearly what we already know.

Just over a week ago, I laughed out loud when I read three different headlines for the day's main story. The first said "Gas Prices Drop 30 Cents." The second said "Largest Single Day Drop in the Price of Gas in History." CNN's headline said "Gas Prices Drop; Still Higher than Last Year." No agenda there....totally unbiased.

A Brisk Fall Walk

I'm getting excited for the time that Jovi can actually do more than crying, eating, sleeping, pooping, laughing, and the latest...rolling over (but only onto her belly, then she's stuck and begins to crying again). I try to do stuff with her all the time, but she never really seems to be to interested. So, I took her for a walk yesterday, and I think you can tell by the expression on her face that she was pretty excited about it. It's gotten much colder here the past week or two so we bundled up and hiked around for about 1.5 miles. She did pretty well. She didn't cry at all. She didn't do much of anything....just chilled with her daddy. One day I hope she enjoys it.

Victory in Defeat

I have a good friend in Minnesota who is a big sports fan and loves the Minnesota Vikings, but as a Vikings fan it hasn’t always been easy. A few years ago, the Vikings had the best record in the NFC and were highly favored over the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC Championship game. The winner would have to go on to face the Denver Broncos the previous year’s Super Bowl champs. My friend told me that he secretly wanted the Falcons to beat the Vikings, because he figured the Vikings were going to break his heart again if they made the Super Bowl, and he didn’t want them to become the first team in the NFL to lose 5 Super Bowls. Now, that my friends is true pessimism and cynicism. When he told me this, I laughed. How could any true fan secretly hope that their team loses the big game? Well…now I might understand.

My beloved Buckeyes have played in the past two National Title games and has lost them both. The media has been brutal on the Buckeyes. I’ve heard them referred to as the Buffalo Bills of college football, despite the fact that they won the National Title game back in 2002. Over the past 2 years they only lost 3 games, they just happen to be really big games. Anyway, Saturday, the Buckeyes lost a close game to Penn State, assuring that they have no chance of playing in this year’s title game. I cheered for them throughout the whole game, but at the end, I had to breathe a sigh of relief and say, ‘at least we won’t lose three straight national titles.’ So, Tom, if you’re out there, I feel your pain, buddy.

War, what is it good for?…Destroying evil regimes and establishing human rights.

I find myself becoming increasingly frustrated and cynical as I follow politics this year. With the election only days away, I keep asking, are there any good options? I’m not so sure. I watch the debates and find myself screaming at the television, “Please, tell me what you really believe and stop clouding everything with your jargon! Let’s get rid of all the red herrings, straw men, and shallow appeals to emotion, and give me your clearly defined system of beliefs and plans for action.” Yeah, like that’s actually going to happen. I feel as if America is drifting into the abyss, and the political options we have aren’t really going to change anything other than the rate at which we travel to the abyss.

With that said, I’ve also been wondering if democracy is really as great as everybody in our country seems to think that it is. I know that doesn’t sound very P.C. or even very American, but hear me out. I’m not anti-democracy (or a democratic republic in our case). It does seem to be the best form of government in our modern political world. Freedom is intrinsically good, but without all the other virtues, the inherent value of freedom is quickly diminished. If the hearts of people become selfish, hateful, greedy, and evil, then it doesn’t really matter whether they are ruled by monarch, a dictator, or a freely elected corrupt government. Evil people within a democracy will produce evil and corrupt forms of government. We tend to think of Adolf Hitler as a classical case of dictator, but he rose to power in a Germany that held free elections. Just because a society has fair and free elections doesn’t guarantee that the people are going to make the right kinds of decisions. I suppose democracies are better than autocratic forms of government because if democracies become evil and corrupt, the people have nobody to blame but themselves.

I think a discussion on democracy is particularly relevant when we think about the war in Iraq and any other wars in which we end up occupying a country for a long period of time. I’m certainly not one of these “anti-war” people. I have no problem with our country defending ourselves and our national interests. But, I do have one question. I have heard over and over again that our goal is to establish democracies all around the world. The popular myth seems to be that if we simply establish fair and free elections all over the world, the world will become a utopia of freedom. Not only does this goal seem impossible to truly accomplish, it seems to me that even if it were accomplished, it would not bring about the results that we desire. For example, if we were able to overthrow a dictator in a country where the majority of people have a worldview based on radical Islam…simply giving them fair and free elections wouldn’t really do much good. If the vast majority of people in a society believe it is virtues to murder infidels in suicide bombings, to enslave minority groups, and to oppress women, then a democracy will produce no better results than a dictator.

What needs to happen for our military to be successful is not simply the establishment of a democracy, but the conquering of destructive worldviews and the enforcement of inalienable human rights. Freedom is great, but freedom without virtue is hollow. Evil dictators need to be defeated, but they must be replaced by governments that have a better worldview than the dictator they are replacing.