The dumbest politician ever

A quote from a Republican: "Not only is Sarah Palin the dumbest politician ever, but she doesn't have a clue that she's the dumbest politician ever."

Nov. 4, 2008 - A History-Making Day

I wrote this to my family and friends who share my views on the evening of Nov. 4th:

"What a great history-making day for America.   The long 8-year Republican, conservative-Christian era is coming to an end… stopped, most likely, by its many failures.   The country that elected George W. Bush eight years ago and then, unbelievably, re-elected him four years later, has finally been awoken by his failures  Thanks be to God.

This election is so grand, so great, so significant in so many ways.  On CNN, I just saw Jessie Jackson standing in the crowds at Grants Park in Chicago with tears streaming down his face.  The prayers of many have been answered today.  Thanks be to God."

Los Lonely Boys - An American Success Story

Watching Los Lonely Boys: Cottonfields and Crossroads on PBS tonight, which is the story of this great band, I realized that they are truly an America Success Story. Music is in their family going back generations; their grandfather played traditional Mexican music, their father was a 'renegade' performer who brought COUNTRY music to his Mexican audiences in west Texas. These 3 brothers moved far beyond their Mexican roots to incorporate country, rock, blues, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Hendrix, etc. into their music and make it all their own.

Do yourself a favor and give them a listen: http://www.loslonelyboys.com/

Emergent Reading and Viewing List for my sister

Here's a reading list of Emergents that I put together after a great phone call with my sister this evening.

Wikipedia's page on the Emergent conversation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerging_church
What is the Emergent Church, Scot McKnight: http://www.vanguardchurch.com/mck_ec.pdf
Five Steams foe the Emergent Church, Scot McKnight: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/february/11.35.html
Emerging Church Resources: A Beginners Reference Guide: http://gatheringinlight.com/2006/06/07/emerging-church-resources-a-beginners-reference-guide/
Brian McLaren blogs on beliefnet.com: http://blog.beliefnet.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=37&search=brian+mclaren
Brian McLaren blogs on the On Faith blog: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/brian_d_mclaren/archives.html
Scot McKnight 's blog: http://www.jesuscreed.org/
Jim Wallis' blog: http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/

Books I'm reading:
Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (A Bishop Rethinks the Meaning of Scripture), John Shelby Spong
Ye are the Body (A People's History of the Church), Bonnell Spencer
Lost Christianities (The Battle for Scriptures and the Faith We Never Knew), Bart D. Ehrman
The Secret Message of Jesus, Brian McLaren
A New Kind of Christan, Brian McLaren

Books I plan on reading:
A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren
Everything Must Change (Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope), Brian McLaren


Brian McLaren: "The Worship Industry"


Brian McLaren: "Atheist"


Brian McLaren: "Jesus & The Kingdom"


Also see my previous entry.

GW and the Religious Right made me a better Christian

Over the last few years I have had a renewed interest in Christianity. My interests are along the lines of what was it like in the days of Christ, what did Christ REALLY say?, what did he really mean for us to do?, what does the Bible mean? can we really take the Bible literally, ... you get my drift. Much of my impetus has been a reaction to the Bush administration and the Religious Right's use of "Christianity" for political POWER.

Thanks to their mis-use of Christianity, I have have searched and my searching has, IMHO, made me a better Christian.

My searching has led me to places like these:
Emergent Village: http://www.emergentvillage.org/
and it's blog: http://www.emergentvillage.org/weblog/
God's Politics-Jim Wallis and Friends: http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/



Books by:
Brian McLaren:
A New Kind of Christian
The Secret Message of Jesus

I guess I'm still mad as hell

I ran across a couple of Dixie Chick vidoes on You Tube this evening (see below). After watching them I realized that I'm still mad as hell at the way the chicks were treated.

Here are the two videos I watched:

This first one is a link (unable to imbed it)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9a6RcVVW_w

Keith Olbermann

I've been watching Keith Olbermann (Countdown with Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, weeknights) for a number of months.... this guy is great.

MSNBC's sites:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

Olbermann's rants on YouTude: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Kieth+Olbermann

A New Kind of Christian

I've been reading Brian McLaren's book, A New Kind of Christian. It's a great read, eye-opening.

Cruise page

The Hooker cruise webpage.

The Chicks and the 2007 CMA

Even though the Chicks didn't win anything at this year's CMA, I hear (read) that the crowd cheered after a brief clip of Not Ready To Make Nice was shown when their name was announced (nominated for Vocal Group of the Year).