Well, after an hour in front of the TV I decided that it was enough. I'm not going to go all 09-11 and spend 8 hours in front of the TV recalling the facts again and again. Man this whole thing takes me back to the fourth grade, with the principal coming to our class with the TV set and showing us the news about the Challenger. I remember the teacher crying and all of us trying to wrap our 11 year old minds around the events of the day.

Man, what a tragedy...just brutal. My prayers are with the astronauts loved ones.

I heard that there was debris over central Texas, I pray Randy Booth and all the others at Grace Covenant in Nacogdoches are all right. I wonder what their take on the events are?

Also I wonder what impact this is going to have environmentally. Apparantly the debris is spread out over several hundred miles and it is known to be toxic. If some pieces were to land in water reservoirs that might have unfortunate results.

Turn off the TV and go out and live your life thankfully and deliberately for the One who holds our breath in His hands.

For Your Reading Pleasure

Hey all, my wife just started her own blog, You can visit her at The Gates of Eden. Look for the cherubim with big flaming sword, turn east and you'll find her.

Didn't catch the Prez's State of the Union address on Tuesday due to class, but I just read it now...I have a headache.

He got off to a good start:

"Jobs are created when the economy grows; the economy grows when Americans have more money to spend and invest; and the best and fairest way to make sure Americans have that money is not to tax it away in the first place."

"Our second goal is high quality, affordable health for all Americans...Health care reform must begin with Medicare. Medicare is a binding commitment of a caring society...My budget will commit an additional $400 billion over the next decade to reform and strengthen Medicare. Leaders of both political parties have talked for years about strengthening Medicare. I urge the members of this new Congress to act this year."

"Tonight I am proposing $1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles"

"I propose a $450 million initiative to bring mentors to more than a million disadvantaged junior high students and children of prisoners."

"As a government, we are fighting illegal drugs by cutting off supplies and reducing demand through anti-drug education programs...So tonight I propose a new $600 million program to help an additional 300,000 Americans receive treatment over the next three years."

"I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean."

The budget I send you will propose almost $6 billion to quickly make available effective vaccines and treatments against agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, Ebola and plague.

I knew there was something fishy about those Oompa-Loompas.

U.N. Orders Wonka To Submit To Chocolate Factory Inspections.

What if Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was a Powerpoint presentation?

John Armstrong Rocks!!

His suggestions at the bottom of his post should be copied and handed out to every first year student at reformed seminaries everywhere. The unfortunate thing is that the pugilists on the Warfield list will probably pick his bones dry as he will most likely not respond to any critiques. I fear that his gentle admonition may fall on deaf ears...I pray it does not.

The following story is true…no, seriously it is. I’m not sure if I really want to share it, but oh well, here goes…

Growing up in a liberal Baptist church I had an idea what the gospel was but I never really had a clear concept of what it was. On some Sundays it was being a really good person, on others the ability to manage one’s time and personal circumstances was the goal to strive for. When I heard about the cross of Jesus, words like atonement and propitiation or reconciliation were rarely used, if they were they were rarely explained. However this never really bothered me, being unregenerate at the time, because (a) all my best friends were going to that church and (b) I was deeply, madly and foolishly in love (or what I thought was love) with a girl who attended there.

During my time there I was heralded for my ability to speak publicly and for my winning smile and attitude (stop laughing). This of course set tongues wagging about how I was a natural candidate for the ministry and my pastor softly goaded me into taking a leadership position for the youth at the church, I was about 14 at the time. So with a swelled head I said “Sure” all the while thinking about the ways I could use the position to impress my object of affection.

At any rate, the leadership position for the church quickly turned into a leadership position for the Youth Leadership Team for the southern California region of the denomination. “Yep, right on schedule for the ministry” I thought. Until I met him…

No not Jesus…. well yes, OK, Jesus but also John Schneider

Yep, that’s right…Pa Kent…ol’ Bo Duke in the flesh.

I remember the scene vividly. It was the last night at a youth retreat at Chapman University and there were about fifty of us sitting on the stage of the theatre in a big circle around a cross. The stage was bathed in red from the spotlights that hung above the stage floor. We had just finished hastily scribbling our “personal shortcomings” (not sins mind you) down on paper in order to nail them to the giant cross. The director had just finished a stirring message of how Jesus sacrificed all to show how much He loved us, now we need to do the same in our churches when we left the retreat. Naturally, we were all blubbering like babies, thinking mostly of how much we were all going to miss each other until the next retreat in a few months (feel free to roll your eyes).

All of a sudden the director came up and announced that we had a special visitor who was going to sing us a song. With that John Schneider bounced up to the stage with his guitar and led us in a song. We were in awe, Bo Duke…Bo freakin’ Duke, 80’s icon, driver of the General Lee, was singing to us. To this day I have no idea why he was there, I didn’t see any camera crews that would indicate he was shooting a movie or something..

After John finished up, we just sat drying our eyes in stunned silence. When we finally realized he was done, we erupted in applause. The retreat director thanked John and then asked if he would like to join us for the rest of the session. To our amazement he said yes, looked around and then proceeded to take a seat next to me.

It all happened in slow motion. I can remember telling myself “Don’t lose your $#@*! dude, stay cool” as he headed towards me. When he sat down, he looked over at me and flashed that “I just outsmarted Boss Hogg again” megawatt grin at me and gave me a slug on the knee. Here he was, one of my heroes as a five year old, the guy everyone wanted to be on the playground (for some reason I always was Luke Duke, must have been the brown hair), sitting next to me.

The director then asked us to pair up in twos so that we could talk about our “personal shortcomings” with each other to see how we can “rise above” them. My eyes widened and my heart jumped in my throat. No way was I going to tell Bo Duke all my peccadilloes. I could feel my bladder loosening up. John turned to me and said “So do you want to go first?” I managed to squeak out a “no”. BAM went the grin again and he started talking, what about I couldn’t tell you, all I heard was white noise as John talked about some issues in his life. I summoned up enough cognitive awareness to give him the appropriate “Mm-hmms” and head nods that any good listener employs.

So then it was my turn, I gathered myself up and started to beat around the bush, but eventually to my surprise I started to tell him about how I didn’t feel valued at school and how I felt like I didn’t really fit in anywhere. My hands shook and I started to tear up again. John just smiled all the way through until I was done. He then told me about how he felt the same at times and when he did feel like that he remembered that he was a child of God and how God loved him so much that He sent Jesus to die for his sins.

I was dumbfounded, amazed. Is Bo Duke really talking to me about Jesus?

He went on telling me about the cost of discipleship and how sometimes the follower of Jesus may feel uncomfortable in this world. I guess he was assuming I was regenerate. I just sat and nodded, soaking up what he had to say. I was no longer self-conscious. We ended the session by [raying together

Now I don’t want to say that Bo Duke led me to Jesus, because I don’t know if that happened then or during a Greg Laurie Harvest Crusade that I attended a year later. But that impact that the experience had on me was tremendous. I actually started to read my Bible to find out more and that led me to a Bible Study that my friends had started at their house. The rest, as they say, is history.

The more I think about it to this day the more I give glory to God and His unsearchable ways. Mr. Schneider didn’t have to give this goofball 14-year-old the time of day…but he did and to this day I am in awe when I think about the people and events which brought me into God’s kingdom.

I've added Tim Gallant (aka Rabbi Saul) to my blogroll to the right. It was long overdue in my opinion.

Tim is currently working on his new book, Seed of the Woman and he posts snippets of his exegetical work for the book from time to time. If the sneak previews are any indication of the completed work's quality, it's going to be a good one.

Be sure to visit for some great reading and theological discussion.

Anyone catch that Hulk commercial during the first couple of breaks yesterday? Woah…it looks sweet. The CG Hulk looks great. Looks like it promises to be a great action film with plenty of mass destruction, and how can you not have mass destruction when you have a movie about the Hulk?

The Matrix commercial did exactly what it was supposed to do, which was to get my mouth foaming for the next two movies. Other than “The Return of the King” those are the movies worth scheduling some time for this year. I had not seen the trailers for the Daredevil film until yesterday, that looks like it will be excellent as well…Ben Affleck’s acting notwithstanding.

On the other hand, what was with the T3 preview *yawn*. There was nothing about that trailer that made me want to give up my $9.

The other commercials were actually pretty good this year. The ads I really liked were the Reebok Office Linebacker, The one-on-one game with young Michael Jordan v. old Michael Jordan, the beer-drinking, upside-down clown and the ESPN one with Joe Montana looking for his Super Bowl ring in the kitchen of ESPN’s cafeteria.

On the other hand do we really need to see any more of the Osbournes? Or the Osmonds for that matter. When will the fifteen minutes be up? And thanks a bunch ABC for flashing a half-naked Jennifer Garner in front of my face every chance you got. Like I really needed that.

Well I’ve had some time to reflect on it now and I believe I can conduct myself in a reasonable manner. All I can say is that we kept it close in the first quarter of the game

Seriously, that was the worst Super Bowl in recent history, if not all time. Ugly, ugly, ugly…

First of all, what was with the absolute lack of creativity in calling the offense last night. Where were the surprise plays that were supposed to shake Tampa Bay up? I knew we were doomed when a mic’d up John Lynch said during a time out that the Raiders were running the exact plays that the TB defense practiced for. Bill Callahan is a good coach but he looked every bit the rookie last night. I mean you have three All-Pro wideouts (well, two actually but Porter’s almost there) and a tailback with great hands in Garner. What the corn are you doing running Garner when you’re down by 20 points in the second quarter. Throw, throw, THROW.

By the end of the second quarter it seemed that Oakland had all but run up the white flag…you could see it in their eyes, they were in a state of shock. They knew Tampa had their number from the start.

And I’m sure they hadn’t expected their All-Pro center to go AWOL on them in the biggest night of their lives. Oh and memo to Barret Robbins, next time you need to blow off some steam, bring your Playstation. Tiajuana is not the place you want to be when focus and clarity of mind is your #1 priority (you So. Cals and Navy boys know what I’m talking about).

By the end of the third quarter, Tampa Bay had a chorus line of celebration and nothing says finishing off in style than picking off Gannon for a fourth time for a TD return. Man, Gannon looked like the love child of Akili Smith and Ryan Leaf last night. Way to go MVP. But I give props to Tampa’s D, I guess it is true that good D beats a good offense every time.

Props to Chuckie Gruden for getting inside the heads of the Raiders, Callahan included. I knew that he would be the X factor in this game. He should’ve got the MVP award, either him or the defensive line.

Well it’s pretty much over for the Raiders now, at least for the next five to ten years anyway. I expect only Jerry Porter and Rich Gannon to survive the oncoming purge…now it’s on to football purgatory for most of the pricey players as they get shipped off for draft picks.

Oh well at least I have the Lakers…

(bursts into tears)

I....I just can't talk about it right now...not without me mixing in an expletive or two.

Perhaps tomorrow.