The Thoughts, Musings and Feelings of a Christian Man

An Open Letter to America 2

2009-04-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

My fellow Americans

On Monday night April 26th Bill O'Reilly crossed the line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMZ8nwJCh60

At 3:15 you'll see what I'm talking about. He showed two people being murdered on national television and then went on a rant about how evil the terrorists were who murdered the man and woman in the video. He then went on to derisively state "only Army interrogation for them".

Really.

Bill, you've made the claim for years that you're a moral traditionalist. That you represent what the regular American thinks. Well this past Monday you outed yourself as a moral relativist. You don't believe in tradtional morals, you believe in morality of convience. It's ok to torture people if we think they have information, and if they don't "mistakes happen in war." The kind of morality you espouse makes justification for the torture of prisoners of war because it's more expediant to do that than it is to do things right. The kind of "morality" you endorse is hypocrisy at its worst. You claim that people on the left are all hate mongers and crazies, yet you go on to relentlessly attack anyone who dares to question you or call you the times you're wrong. You attack people all the time and then use the petulant excuse of "they started it."

Bill you're a hypocrite and a liar and worse than those you're an apologist for torture and a propogandist.

You go out of your way to try and destroy GE and conversely the NBC networks, thus costing thousands of people their jobs; but those people don't matter to you. They don't worship at the alter of Bill O'Reilly so they don't matter.

You and people like you dodge every attempt at a legitmate discussion of the torture of our prisoners in the war on terror. "It was effective" you proclaim, or "you want to prosecute someone for having a different opinion", or "do you want the terrorists to win". You don't have a counter to the point that waterboarding is torture and has been since the Spanish Inquisition, nor can you counter the point that we've prosecuted people for the crime of waterboarding so you attack your detractors instead of actually having the conversation.

In showing the video in which two innocent people were murdered and then decrying the use of the army interrogation manual and calling for more torture ("enhanced interrogation" if you want the euphemism) you tried to commit emotional blackmail and that makes you the worst kind of propogandist. The willing one.

I call on you my fellow Americans to make it known that this kind of thing will not be tolerated. We all have freedom of speech but freedom of speech means taking accountability for when you say something outrageous. Bill O'Reilly should be held accountable for what he's said and the black hearted manipulation he attempted with his airing of such a disgusting video. Speak out and let your voice be heard.

My name is John and I am a Christian by belief and an American by birth, of Southern blood and tired of seeing what's happening to our country.

The Spirit of Charity and Giving

2008-10-31T05:24:00.000-07:00

As many people know we lost Gary Gygax recently. His loss was especially hard for many of us, though we never met him, because there are a large number of us who found a place to belong. His game encouraged us to be heroes. We got to, in some small way, live out our fantasies and imagine worlds better than our own. The outcasts, the geeks, the nerds, and many of the people who society proper believes to be "weird" found that they weren't so alone in the world, that we had one another and that was ok. We formed a community and though we may disagree wildly we can always come together with the commone experience of being gamers.

Now gamers are, for a variety of reasons, a fairly generous group of people. We give gladdly because we recognize that we've been blessed and we know that reaching out to help others will make the world a better place. We know that we need to do this, not just because it's the right thing to do, but also because if we ever want the world to be what we see in our mind's eye then we need to work to get there. For us it's a matter of recognizing that people who have it worse than us who need help, and having been in the position where we didn't get help, we feel it a matter of course that we're going to help others.

I mention these things because this past Gen Con there was a charity auction held in honor of Gary Gygax's memory. The money was to be donated to Mr. Gygax's favorite charity The Christian Children's Fund. When said charity discovered that the donation money was, in part, connected to the sale of D&D they flattly refused the money. The auction found another sponsor in Fisher House so things sort of worked out for the best, but that's not the point.

The point is that Mr. Gygax was, himself, a Christian. He'd supported the charity for years and not a little of that money very likely came from D&D or other fantasy gaming products he was behind. I find it rather troubling that a charity that's always emphasized the vital need for money to help starving children refused money because they believed it to be somehow tainted by the heathen gamers.

Ladies and gentlemen I am a Christian myself. I've never made a secret of this and I'll talk about it openly and honestly given a chance. Speaking as a Christian I don't understand where this charity is coming from. We wanted to help and we were refused because we ran into the old stereotype of D&D is satanic. That hurts.

Now I'm not going to wish bad things upon the Christian Children's Fund but I would encourage people to write them and calmly explain how they feel about their refusal of funds. Don't curse them out, don't scream and yell; act like the better person. Show them you understand the spirit of giving and charity and be mature in your dealings. They very likely won't listen, people who hold a stereotype that closely rarely do, but we need to be the bigger people in all this. If for no other reason than to show everyone else that they're wrong about us.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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An Open Letter to the RNC

2008-10-21T10:27:00.000-07:00

To whom it may concern,

My name is John, and I'm 35 years old. I've been a registered Republican since the day I could start voting and I'm speaking out to you as a concerned citizen of these United States.

I am sorely disappointed with the direction that the GOP has taken with this Presidential election. The McCain campaign has run one of the nastiest and sleaziest campaigns that I've ever seen. The constant attacks of character, especially after McCain himself said that Obama was a good man, are unconscienable. They've lied about their own health care plan and have never addressed the fact that their plan would tax health care benefits as income. Replacing those lost benefits with a credit that goes right back to the insurance companies is no benefit and it certainly won't help people who have pre-existing conditions and are unable to buy health insurance anyway.

I don't think I really need to bring up the subtle attempts at the application of terror that you've been using but I will none the less. People do not need to be afraid of an Obama Presidency, McCain himself said that very thing. Yet you surround him with people like Ann Coulter who tend to use words like terrorist, and put emphasis on Obama's middle name. Let's not kid ourselves shall we? We both know what's going on with that and it's disgraceful.

Now we have the accuations that your opponents are attacking "Joe the plumber". There are a couple problems with this line of attack on your part. The first is that McCain brought Joe into the debate. The second is that Joe himself held a press conferance outside his home where he chose to express his thoughts, such as being totally against Soical Security. Now that is his right as an American, however you don't get to complain when it comes out that the person YOU dragged into this election debate turns out to not actually be a liscensed plumber. You also don't get to complain when it comes out that said non-plumber turns out to owe $1000+ in back taxes. How is this the fault of the other side when YOU and YOUR candidate are the ones who brought him up in the first place?

More troubling still are the recent rumblings of the old accusations of American citizens , particularly those on the left, as being "Anti-American". I was deeply offended to see a congresswoman on Hardball say to the world that she wanted the media to do an indepth expose on anyone in congress who's views are "Anti-American." One of McCain's own advocates, also on MSNBC, implied that only those people who voted for McCain were "Real Virginians". It is patently offensive for you to say that because someone may not agree with the party line that they're somehow not really patriotic Americans like you. Remember "Patriotism is the last resort of the scoundrel".

Which brings me to the recent accusation by Rush Limbaugh that the only reason Gen. Colin Powell was endorsing Barak Obama was race. I'd ask that you come out and condem this line of attack but I'd be wasting my breath. Is it really that unrealistic that Gen. Powell thought through this decision carefully and methodically before coming to the conclusion he did? Of course from what I've seen so far I think your answer would be yes.

In conclusion let me say that after this election I will be registering as an indedpendant. I will vote my conscience and only my conscience.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, "I'm not leaving the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me/"

John

On Sarah Palin

2008-10-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've been paying attention to the Presidential race for a while now and I've come to some conclusions that I thought I'd share with you all.

The first among these is that Sarah Palin was chosen, not for her record as a Govenor, but for purely political purposes. There were other female Govenors that had far more experience and were more widely known and respected that McCain could have chosen. Instead he chose someone who very few outside of Alaska had even heard of. Now it is his right as the nominee to pick whoever he wants, to an extent, as his VP, but my understanding is that Joe Lieberman was his first choice. It's also my understanding that the people running his campaign convinced him to choose someone else that was more in line with the Republican base and who wouldn't cause a riot at the Republican convention. In response to this he chose a woman who he had only talked to once on the phone and had only met with personally for fifteen minutes.

Sarah Palin simplly wasn't prepared for the level of srutiny that was headed her way and it's interesting that the McCain campaign has gone out of their way to shield her in a way that would never be tolerated if she was a male VP candidate. Now it is very true that there are those in the bloggosphere and the tabloid rags who were totally out of line in regards to her family, we can all agree on that one. However to equate any questioning of her record or her qualifications to be President as an attack is just insipid pandering.

The recent interviews with Katie Couric have shown that Palin is totally out of her depth in regards to a national election. It's important to remember that Palin comes from Alaska here. Alaska is one of the largest states in the Union we're told, and this is true if one is talking about land mass. In terms of population it's one of the smallest. Their total population is half that of some major cities and, like it or not, that means that she's much more used to small town politics and that just doesn't work on a national level.

It's important for me that you understand that I don't think that Palin is a stupid person. She definitely does have charisma and moxy in spades, not unlike Joe Biden in that regard. What she doesn't have, however, is any national experience. Her answers in recent interviews have been rambling responses that don't really adress the question that she's been asked and no matter how much experience you have you can't do that any more. There are too many means by which the people can call you on it.

Let me ask this one question in closing. Would we demand from any male candidate that their opponent not be condescending in a debate, or not use sarcasm? Shouldn't she be treated like she's one of the big players since she seems to want to play the game at the biggest levels?

Presidential Race

2008-09-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

I've had my fill of the disengenuous tripe that's been spewing forth from the lips of Republican nominee John McCain. In light of that allow me to make a few things known to one and all.

1. No one is ever ready to be President. I don't care what McCain, or anyone else says about the matter, nothing can prepare you to be President. Every President has had to learn on the job because every President has governed differently.

2. McCain is not, repeat not, a regulator. He's described himself as "being fundamentally a de-regulator", so any time that he says he's for regulation he's lying.

3. McCain voted against equal pay for women. That's a fact. It's in his voting record and he can't deny it.

4. McCain was one of the Keating Five.

5. In 2001 McCain voted against increased funding for medical care for our verterans. He's voted against increased funding for that several times over the years but he has the utter temerity to then say that he "cares" about the troops. If that's true why vote against the increased medical care? Aren't his fellow vets worth spending the money on?

6. Sarah Palin wasn't McCain's first choice for VP, it was Senator Joe Liebermen. Palin was chosen as a patently transparent attempt to sway Hillary voters to vote for him instead.

7. Living in Alaska and being close to Russia does not, in any way, shape or form, give you foreign policy cred.

8. If you're going to say that you have to leave for Washington immediately, then leave immediately. Don't stop for a sit down interview and then act all indignant when you get called on it.

9. McCain's television ads have been the sleaziest I've ever seen. This after promising that his campaign would be the most ethical ever run. Another lie to the American people.

10. Today McCain said that he would always tell us the truth. Well if that's true then he better own up to all the other lies he's told during his campaign so far because I have no problem with tracking them down and posting them for all to see.

That's just a few of the things I needed to get off my chest. You can agree or not, it's your choice, but right now my vote's behind Barak Obama.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

Itagaki Is a Jackass

2008-06-19T06:16:00.000-07:00

Itagaki, the creator of the Dead or Alive series, and the recent Ninja Gaiden revivals is a colossal jack ass, there I said it.

I don't think I'm alone in thinking this either because he strikes me as being a pretentious twat and I can't be the only person in the world who thinks this about him.

Maybe it's my inner child but I remember a time when games were supposed to be, oh I don't know, FUN. It wasn't about who could make the shiniest game but about things like getting the highscore and having tons of fun while trying. Super Mario Bros, Metroid, and the original Ninja Gaiden games on the NES were like that. They were hard in some areas but they were also fun. People understood them to be what they were, entertainment.

Fast forward to now where you have a man who's claim to fame is creating a fighting game with bouncing boobies and an action game that's an exercise in controler breaking frustration.

Now I'm not adverse to a game having a learning curve but when that curve is the bloody cliffs of dover from the get gothen we have a problem; because at that point it's no longer about having fun but about how much of a twit the programers were.

I think it really comes down to image, and really that all Itagaki has. He's made a point of publicly talking down to and about gamers who don't have the 360, like it was somehow the only machine worthy of him and those filthy people who like other systems were just poor plebians who didn't get it.

No Itagaki you don't get it. You see you are not a rock star. You are a game designer and games are supposed to be fun above all else and you don't seem to get that. Shigeru Miyamoto and Hideo Kojima get that games are supposed to be fun. Sure they can be difficult at times but they're still fun.

You on the other hand seem to think that only an enlightened few should be able to beat your games. This doesn't make you a better designer, it makes you a pretentious twat. Walking around like you're best thing to happen to the industry doesn't make your opinion true, but copping the attitude while also making terrible games makes you a pretentious twat.

Oh and in case you didn't get the message, that also makes you a pretentious twat.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you amen and amen

End of line

Bill O'Reilly and Fox News are in the Tank

2008-05-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

O'Reilly's officially lost it. Again.

Claiming that Fox News isn't in the tank for anyone is like me saying that the sky isn't blue and equally demonstrablly untrue.

For months Fox News has been the Anti-Obama network, going so far as to continue to talk about the Rev. Wright issue long after it stopped being news. They continued to talk about how bad and how inexperienced Barak Obama is and conviently ignoring the gaffes by the McCain camp and leaving Clinton gaffes by the wayside within days of them happening.

O'Reilly claims that he would never work for such a network that was in the tank for a candidate.

Well given Fox News history of trying to destroy the candidacy of Barak Obama where is his resignation, as he claimed he would give?

O'Reilly has a documented hatred for NBC. MSNBC is, by their own admission, a left of center news channel. I believe much of this hatred stems from the fact that Keith Olberman is fairly consistent in calling Bill on the times he gets it wrong. Bill doesn't like being wrong, after all he's the self proclaimed master of the "no-spin zone."

The problem here is that Bill uses a dishonest tactic called "ambush journalism". Where-in he sends one of the people in his employ to ambush interview someone when they're with their families, or going to work, or on vacation. If someone doesn't want to be interviewed their right to privacy should be respected, though their are exceptions to this rule (such as the Hall of Shame segments and such consumer protection stories).

The point here is that Fox News has been in the tank for a Hillary vs. McCain Presidential campaign. This can be proven by simply watching Hannity & Colmes or any number of their other programing.

So Bill where's that resignation you said you would give?

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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Giving Up a Soldier's Life, or Another Bush Travesty

2008-05-20T08:36:00.001-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080520/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_quran_shooting

The above story truly sickens me. (BTW the punishment for defacing the quran is death in most middle east countries)

The sniper in the above story shot a book. I'll grant you that it was disrepsectful of him to do so, but he's an American citizen with the same right to free speech as you or me. If this was done on an American military base then there was no crime. Those bases are supposed to count as American soil to an extent but apparently the President would rather appease the Iraqi government instead of standing up for one of his own.

Appeasment. I thought we were supposed to be against that kind of thing Mr. President. What would our stalwart ally, Israel, think of us turning over one of our own like this? What would the 4000 of our own dead soldiers, sacrificed for your war, think of this? What would the 43000 soldiers who you sent back to Iraq, despite being classified as being medically unfit to serve, think of this? Of course the questions are rhetorical. You don't care about them in the least. You claim to give up golf, around the time you're having knee problems conviently enough. But of course even this isn't true as there are photographs of you playing golf after your anouncement that you were making that sacrifice in a show of solidarity with the families of our soldiers.

I, as an American citizen and the son and nephew of veterans DEMAND that you not turn over one of our own like this. I DEMAND that he face American punishment, if any at all, and above all else I DEMAND that you pull our troops out of the farce that is the war in Iraq.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. Make He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line

The Nature of Evil

2008-05-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

Evil's not a word that we use very much anymore and that's not a good thing. Sometimes it's the only word that can accurately describe a situation. We shouldn't shy away from the Truth of a situation because describing it would make people uncomfortable, that's not honest and it doesn't help solve the problem in question.

Part of the difficulty is that people, by and large, have forgotten what evil really is. I hope, that with this post, I can shed some light on what I think evil is and what we can do to combat it.
One example of evil is the way that the Shank family was treated after Debbie Shank was injured in a horrific accident. She has severe brain damage and needs constant care. Wal-Mart paid for her care until Debbie's husband won a lawsuit on her behalf to help pay for her 24hr care. Wal-Mart then sued the shank family and won because they had a clause in her work contract gave them the right to do so. Their claim was that not only did they HAVE to sue her but they were also being generous and merciful because they were accepting less than they were owed. This is an example of evil. They knew Debbie's condition. They knew that her husband had to divorce her so that she could qualify for medicaid. They knew that her brain damage was so severe that she can't remember that her son died in Iraq and that every time she's told it's like hearing it for the first time.

What Wal-Mart did was evil without question. However the Shank's story was picked up by the media. News shows like Countdown with Keith Olberman showcased this and expressed outrage over the fiendish level of greed that Wal-Mart was showing. This, coupled with consumer outrage (and lots of prayer from Christians I hope) caused Wal-Mart to change their position and, as of today I believe, control over that money is back in the hands of Debbie's ex-husband.
During this story one Glenn Beck actually had the utter temerity to declare that the media was acting like terrorists in the way that they had handled the story. Apparently his stance was that Debbie has signed the contract so she was just out of luck. This attitude and the earlier example involving Wal-Mart itself are examples of the evil of the lack of caring about those who are in genuine need. It's selfishness made manifest and it's an ugly and evil thing.

There's also the evil of trying to lie about someone without actually lying. A good example of this can be found amongst people like Ann Coulter and some other radio personalities (including one who introduced McCain at an event, can't remember his name though) in their continued emphasis on Barak's middle name. Now while it should be abundantly clear to everyone that they're trying to pull a fast one we all know that it won't be.

For those who are wondering this is an example of lying without actually saying the lie. In putting the emphasis on Barak's middle name people like Ann Coulter are, rather coyly, trying to imply that he's a muslim when he's not. When called on it they try to spin the argument to say that they're only using his name and that there's nothing wrong with that.
If that were the case I'd agree but since I know what they're acutally doing I call them on it and call it for what it is. Evil.

To be sure there are other examples of evil in the world. They happen every day in all parts of the world. Murder, rape, child molesters, assault, etc.

How do we combat this you ask?

Well the answer is simple. The first part of combating it is to realize that God loves all of us and sent His only begotten son, Jesus, to die on the cross for all of us, and that on the third day He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. Accepting Him as Lord and Savior is the most important step. (Remember folks I'm a Christian so this point of view really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.)

Second we have to come together and work towards changing society. We have to change the hearts and minds of the people so we stop accepting things like the aforementioned evils. We have to get our hands dirty. We have to treat one another with love and kindness and care for the poor, the sick, the widows and orphans.

If we did all that then the world would be a much happier place to live. At least I think so anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line.

Truth in Media

2008-05-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

I realize that titling this entry "Truth in Media" is something of an oxymoron these days but I stand by the title anyway.

Alright now that that's out of the way we can start in on the meat of things.

Fox News (or should that be Fixed Noise) commentator Sean Hannity lied about the election. I realize this comes as something of a shock to regular viewers of Hannity & Colmes but it's still the truth.

Last night Hannity made the ereoneous claim that Hillary Clinton was leading in the popular vote. Well that's not true by a long shot. The math that Hannity presented only works if you include the votes from Michigan and Florida and then only if you give none of the uncommited vote to Barak Obama, keep in mind this is also ignoring the results of the North Carolina election AND ignored the pledge that both parties signed to not count Michigan and Florida. If you give him the uncommited vote then he's STILL in the lead in both popular vote and delegates. Sorry Hannity, as an American with integrity I can't sit by and allow the misinformation you tried to spread last night to stand. It's just not in my nature.

Now I also have to take some other people to task, Ann Coulter I'm looking in your direction since you're one of them.

There are a lot of conservative commentators who insist on using Barak Obama's full name. I'm pretty sure we all know what it is so I'm not going to be baited on that. Now the problem isn't that they keep using it, it's that they put an emphasis on the middle name. When called on it
they smile and say "well it's just his name. There's nothing wrong with it."

Well I call horse manuere on the lot of them. What they're doing is subtle, which is a miracle in and of itself where some of these people are concerned, and it pretty much embodies everything that's wrong with politics today. In emphasizing Barak's middle name they're trying to say that he's a muslin without outright saying he's a muslim. Now I don't know about the rest of you but I think that's pretty slimey. There's some pretty negative views on Islam right now and implying that someone's a muslim for the express purpose of sabotaging their election is just dirty politics. I used to expect better from the conservative movement but I'm growing increasingly disallusioned with the entire process.

It's long past time we called out the various media outlets when we catch them in a lie or doing something dishonest. At least in my estimation anyway.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line.

Evil Corporate Sleaze Bag Jack Asses

2008-03-26T16:02:00.000-07:00

I've seen some things in my time that have made me angry. I've seen news stories that have made my blood boil to the point where I thought I might have an aneurism. Today I saw a story that's got them all beat.

http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2008/03/24/disabled-woman-to-pay-back-wal-mart-for-medical-expenses/

Read the above link. The writer explains it far better than I can right now.This is, without a doubt, one of the most morally reprehensible and blatantly despicable things I've ever seen in my life. What's next Wal-Mart? Are you gonna eat some babies on live television? Maybe kick some homeless people around for the fun of it?

This is wrong. They may have the legal right to do this but it is in no way the right thing to do.

I encourage everyone to stop shopping at this corportate bloodsucking beast and find somewhere else to spend your hard earned dollars. If you must go to Wal-Mart start asking the employees about this story, tell other customers.

If enough of us keep on the media to shine a light on this injustice maybe we can embarass the jerks at Wal-Mart into doing the right thing.

I need to stop now because I'm too angry to continue without completely losing it.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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Barack Obama's Speach and the Reaction from the Donkey Fedoras

2008-03-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

Strap in tight friends this is going to get rough.

I watched the speach by Barack Obama today that covered his thoughts on race in America and his association with Rev. Wright. I found the speach to be genuine, from the heart and a real attempt by him to reach out to Americans as a whole to help them understand where he's coming from. I greatly respect that while he disagrees with the hateful things that the Rev. Wright has said he maintains a friendship with the man.

To be honest I find the entire bluster over Obama's association with the Rev. Wright to be disengenuous at best and an outright dodge at worst. People don't seem to be willing to talk about the issues with him so they go after his friendships and associations; which have nothing to do with a man being President.

I was moved by Obama's speach and the odds are that I may vote for him at the next election if he's the Democratic nominee. He spoke to things that I had been thinking for a long time. He articulated my own feelings of disenfranchisement and frustration with a system that just doesn't seem to work any more. I applaud Obama for having the courage to step up and speak from the heart on this.

The reaction from most of his critics has been positive. That's good because it shows that people listened to what he was saying and understood the context in which he was speaking. Of course there are always going to be some donkey fedoras and boy was tonight no exception. I'll go through the ones I saw, if only to cool the anger that I feel over what was said.

Glen Beck: Donkey fedora number one of the night: On Glen's show he berated the speach, and only played partial clips and the proceeded to talk about how lousy the overall speach was. Nice try Glen, but see that speach is on Youtube and anyone who cares can go find it and watch it in its entirty. Those that do will realize you were being a donkey fedora.

Bill O'Reilly: Donkey fedora number two of the night: On Bill's show he also complained about how the speach had too many bad points and how Obama won't recover because he didn't throw the Rev. Wright under a bus. Bill people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. All your press hasn't been exactly positive so you have no right to judge someone else.

Dick Morris, Sean Hannity, and Frank Luntz: Tied for Donkey fedora number three of the night: The very suggestion that a president has to be willing to throw anyone under the bus is patently offensive and is the entire reason I hate politics and politicians. All of you need to grow the frell up and stop being so bloody judgemental. Who Obama is friends with is none of your business. The only thing that you should be talking about are his ideas.

That's all for now all.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

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The Ides of March

2008-03-14T19:06:00.000-07:00

The Ides of March are upon us and with them comes the next global protest against the Church of $cientology by the internet group known as Anonymous.

The last protest, held Feb. 10th of 2008, gathered over 7600 people world wide in peaceful protest against the practices and tax exempt status of the Church of $cientology. It was an amazing accomplishment and I salute you Anonymous for pulling it off.

I'd known of the existence of Scientology for a while, I just never knew exactly what it was they believed in. Then I saw the infamous "Trapped in a Closet" episode of South Park and I thought to myself, "Wow that's a whole lot of crazy, but it's their choice." For a long time after that I never even thought about the issue.

Then something happened. I was on YouTube just randomly searching around and I found the Tom Cruise video and watched it. Needless to say I was mildly disturbed by it in many ways. So I started doing some digging. Through that research I discovered Mark Bunker's videos and began watching them with the intent of learning all I could. I checked out numerous websites and kept learning and with each new revelation I became more sure that people like the Wise Beard Man were to be admired for their work and their pickets.

It was then that I saw the first Anonymous video, and for the first time in a long, long time my Faith was rekindled. Not just in the notion that people will come together to fight injustice, but that God was looking out for me. The follow up videos stirred something in my heart and soul that I hadn't felt in a long time and I thank God for letting me stumble on to the videos and I thank Anonymous for posting them.

You are my heroes Anonymous. Keep up the great work. I'll keep writing about the pickets and the other issues I care about. You are showing us once again just what power to the people really means.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line

P.S. For further information about the abuses of Scientology please visit the following websites and come to your own conclusions.
http://www.xenu.net/
http://www.xenutv.com/
http://www.whyaretheydead.net/
http://www.whyweprotest.net/

Thank you

The President, Elections and Protests, oh my

2008-03-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

Here we are my friends and compatriots and boy do I have some things to talk about today.

The news just broke that President Bush vetoed a bill that would have banned the use of waterboarding as well as other "harsh interrogation techniques". The truth be told I expected this, though I'm not happy about it in the least. His reason for doing so, at least according to the reports I've seen, are that the CIA needs to do these things as a means of gathering crucial information needed to protect the country. That line of thought doesn't make any sense at all. Every major psychological study on this subject tell us that torture doesn't work as a means of gathering information; because people will say anything to make it stop. Even if you could get valuable information that way there is still the morality of such things. It is reprehensible to torture prisoners and to hold people without charge.

Now some of you will say that it is ok to waterboard and other such things because our enemies would do worse to our people. I'm sorry but that's not the point. The point is that we're the United States of America, we're not supposed to do those kinds of things because its evil and its wrong. As a citizen of the United States I demand that our leaders cease and decist these heinous practices and abide by the rule of law.

This leads me to my second point, the election. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm pretty sick and tired of the nonsense going on here. We have McCain on the republican side, someone who at least seems to want to talk about the issues rather than his opponents' names or whether or not they're qualified. I get the same impression from Barack Obama and I like that. Personally I'd like to see a race between Obama and McCain in the genreal election. I've seen the Clinton years already and I really don't want to go back to that again.

With that being said I have to say that I'm not really surprised at the lengths Senator Clinton seems to be willing to go to in order to be her party's nomination. Now please keep in mind that much of this is purely based on my perceptions, and I don't claim them to be the correct ones. The red phone ad is a prime example of this and I'll show you why. It is my understanding that the ad features images of young people and an infant about to go to bed and asks the question of who the audience would rather have in the white house. That kind of makes me blink because that could be construed as being really racist in a way. I might be wrong in how I precieved this so I'm willing to listen to other people and see what they though. Anyway my point is that Clinton seems to, from my perspective, be coming just short of demanding that she be the nominee no matter what. If that happens, despite who has the popular vote, then I think the Democratic party may have some problems.

My third point today is reminding you all that the Ides of March are fast approaching. This holds some special significance for two reasons, beyond the Shakespear reference that is. The first is that March 15th is L. Ron Hubbard's birthday, not really important to me but it plays into the second reason as to why its an important day. That date is also the date set for a second world wide protest against the Church of Scientology by Anonymous. I can't begin to tell you how thrilled I am at people stepping up and speaking out against the human rights abuses and villianous tactics by the organization behind Scientology. I hope to go to the Michigan protest myself but I can't commit to going because of my health. I encourage everyone to go to www.xenutv.com www.xenu.net www.whyaretheydead.net http://xenutv.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/the-ides-of-march/ and http://www.exscientologykids.com/inde...

Look into those pages and do your own research. Come to your own conclusions and speak out against injustice.

That's all for now all.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you.
Amen and amen

End of line

The Passing of a Legend

2008-03-05T06:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Gary Gygax passed away at the age of 69 and an entire community of people mourn his passing.Who was Gary Gygax you ask?

He, along with Dave Arneson, created Dugeons and Dragons the first great table top role playing game. I don't know if they realized at the time just what it was they had created. Where would many of us be without their creation?

I want to take this opportunity, though I never got to meet the man, say thank you. Thank you for creating a place where people like me belong. Thank you for every night spent around a table with friends, eating pizza and taking some measure of enjoyment at lobbing a fireball at an unsuspecting goblin. Thank you for providing an outlet for our imaginations and dreams. You created one of the greatest sandboxes that I've ever gotten to play in. Thank you for reminding us that just because we happen to get older, by no means does that mean we have to grow up.

My prayers and condolences to the Gygax family during this time.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His face to smile upon you. Amen and amen

End of line.

Taking a Stand

2008-02-23T13:42:00.000-08:00

There are times in life where a person has to take a stand. Times when you have to step up and speak out so that people become aware of a problem or an issue that's important. In recent years I've come to believe that far too few people are willing to do so because it might mean that they're inconvienced in some way. If you're one of those people then this post may not be for you.

There are problems that our country is facing, some of them old, others are new; but they're problems none the less and they have to be dealt with. We have to own up to the fact that we have allowed our civil liberties to be violated via warrentless wiretapping. We've allowed inexcusable practices, like waterboarding and rendition flights, to occur under our watch. People have stood silently while groups like the Church of Scientology have violated people's human rights, as with Lisa McPherson and Paulette Cooper. We, as a nation, have allowed 200,000 of our veterans to sleep on the streets on any given night. We've allowed drugs to rage out of control and many other issues to reach critical mass.

Well as an American citizen I'm calling on my fellow citizens to wake up, rise up and take a stand.
We have to start speaking out and work on the level of the people to bring about real and abiding change. Just changing laws won't do a thing, people have to change first and the only way to do that is to start talking. We have to talk about why we don't put more money into cancer research. We have to talk about why its so wrong to talk about abstinence in sex education as a valid choice and the only 100% way to NOT get an STD or get pregnant. We have to talk about ways to bring about a method by which people who can't afford health insurance can still get health care.

To be sure there are people talking and working on many of these issues. The internet group known as Anonymous, for example, is planning a second protest against the practices of Scientology on March the 15th. I'm glad of this because it means people are getting involved and asking questions. That's not a bad thing, in fact its the only way things ever get changed.

Find an issue that matters to you and get involved. Find ways to help your community become a better place. If all you can do is open a blog and start talking then do that but do something. Your voice matters and its time we united to bring about real and abiding change.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

The NIU Shooting and the Blame Game

2008-02-19T07:59:00.000-08:00

By now most of the country has heard about the recent shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University. They know that Stephen Kazmierczak was a troubled man who had been diagnosed with an undisclosed psychological illness, one that required him to take antidepressants. However the brain trust at Fox Noise (err I mean Fox "News") chose to interview one John Bruce "Jack" Thompson, who claims to be a Christian, about the shootings. During the course of the interview the game hating, Florida attorney lined out the real cause of the shootings. The real culprit wasn't Steve Kazmierczack, though he did pull the trigger, the real culprit was the videogame Counter Strike. You read correctly there. It was a videogame. An evil, mindcontroling game that forced Steve Kazmierczack to order guns online, load those guns and go out and shoot a bunch of people before turning a weapon on himself.

This is really par for course with J.T. though. A shooting like this occurs and suddenly there J.T. is, proclaiming that he knew this was going to happen because videogames are to blame. In his mind anyone who plays any M rated game is a potential assassin in training. A Manchurian Candidate who's ready, willing and able to kill because videogames told them too. This is, beyond all doubt, one of the dumbest things I've ever heard in my life. A videogame doesn't make you pick up a gun and start killing people. A videogame can never train you to shoot for real because a videogame has no recoil. They don't have the other compensating factors that actual shootists and firing range people are aware of. Of course a little thing like the truth or facts doesn't bother Jack Thompson. Those are things that get in the way of his legacy, which he has repeatedly stated as wanting to be remembered as the man who destroyed the gaming industry.

What people like J.T. do is play the blame game. Rather than talk about substantive matters like the lack of parental authority, good role models, rampant bullying and any number of other issues they talk about things like music, movies and videogames. Now keep in mind that I don't like all music, and there are plenty of movies that I won't support because I don't like what they are about. (Saw and Hostel are examples of these). However a taste for dark music and darker movies isn't the problem The problems are many and varied and we have to stop playing the blame game and actually start talking about the real issues.
I don't mind people speaking out against things they believe are wrong. I'm a firm believer in standing for what's right and honorable. However inserting yourself into a tragedy for the sole purpose of making money and making a legacy are disgusting behaviours and should be shunned.

Lets stop playing the blame game and start talking to one another. Nothing will ever be solved until we do.

That's all for now

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line

Weekend Protest

2008-02-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday the tenth of February something amazing happened. In more than 50 cities in 14 countries more than 9000 people gathered outside various branches of the Church of Scientology to protest the corrupt and supressive activities of the RTC. I want to make it clear that they were not protesting against the faith itself, rather they were protesting the litigious nature and bullying tactics used by the organization itself.

Prior to all this I had stumbled onto some videos on youtube by Mark Bunker that he had filmed at a couple pickets. Digging further I found his website www.xenutv.com and learned even more about the practices of the Church of Scientology. I saw behaviour that one would more attribute to a cult rather than a religion. I learned about Lisa McPherson, Paulette Cooper, Operation Snow White and Operation Freak Out. I encourage readers here to visit xenutv.com, www.xenu.net, or to google the above terms and names. Do your own research on this because I cannot put into words my outrage at the things I learned.

During this time I happened to stumble on another video. This one having been posted by one the members of Anonymous. Over the following weeks as I did more research and watched more videos I became more and more convinced that someone had to speak out about the injustices I was learning of, and then a video was posted calling for a protest on February the 10th. The day that would have been Lisa McPherson's birthday, had she been alive. A video response by the Wise Beard Man was posted calling on Anonymous to peacefully protest, to please refrain from doing anything illegal. This advice was taken to heart and thus was Mark given the above apellation.

At the protest people wore masks, wigs and scarves because Scientology representatives have been known to follow people to their homes, take photographs for purposes of harassment and a number of other bullbaiting tactics that, to be perfectly honest, make me sick. The "Fair Game" policy is one that states any critic of Scientology is a criminal and thus fair game for any measure the "Church" deems necessary, thus creating things like Operation Freak Out.

That so many people came out in support of the protest shows that the angry masses of the body politic have had enough. Seeing so many rising up to speak out against what they believe to be an injustice warms my heart and gives me hope for humanity. This is how problems are overcome and this is how the voice of We the People is heard.

Being a critic of Scientology does not make you a criminal. It does not make you a bigot or a facist. It does not make you guilty of religious intolerance. It does not mean you are afraid. It does not mean you have something to hide or are against helping people. It DOES make you a rational human being who is willing to talk about things.

It makes you wonder that if Scientology is so focused on communication why do they forbid their followers from talking about their beliefs?

To those of you still in Scientology I encourage you ask questions. Do research on your own. If people won't answer your honest questions then something is very wrong. Ask a Christian, Muslim, or Jew about their faith and they'll gladly tell you about what they believe. Why aren't you allowed to do the same? Why is it that people have to sign a billion year service contract with Sea Org to get classes that they otherwise couldn't afford? Why aren't you allowed to defend your faith? Why is it always attack and never defend?

The answers are out there and I encourage you to seek them out.

That's all for now.

May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, and may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line.

More on the Homeless Vets

2008-02-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

What a world we live in.

Bill O'Reilly remains steadfast in his statement that 90% of the homeless vets are either addicts or have mental illnesses. He maintains that there's help available and all that our wounded warriors have to do is ask for it. I call horse manure on that statement. Its not as easy as going up and showing your dogtags and saying "Hey. I'm a homeless vet and I need help."There's also the very real problem of veterans being turned away from V.A. hospitals and other offices due to lack of room or finances.

What do you say to these people Mr. O'Reilly? Whose fault will it be then? What circumstance will you blame the next time a veteran dies of hypothermia because he was turned away from a V.A. facility? What liberal group will you blame then?

This is an issue that should transcend party lines. At least Edwards was talking about the problem and demanding a solution. What did you do? You ran a smear campaign against Edwards. Trying to ridicule his position and make the problem seem less important than it really is. That's the attitude that ensures that problems never get solved. After all there's already a solution, they can just go the V.A. and ask for help. Oh wait. I've already covered that haven't I?

I'll give you credit for visiting the troops overseas. I'd give you MORE credit if you had gone without your camera crew; but then you wouldn't have the footage showing what a great guy you are. So I guess that's not going to happen anytime soon. Our soldiers deserve more than the pittance we allot to help them. They deserve the very best care available.

I promised you that I would continue to speak out on this. I look forward to seeing your "big story on the vets" this Thursday. If I find it untoward you can rest assured that I will write about it. Its long past time that We the People took a stand on this. To our wounded warriors know this. I will continue to speak out about this, and I'm one of the people who truly appreciates what you've done for your country.

That's all for now.
May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

Our Veterans and O'Reilly's Disgrace

2008-01-22T18:36:00.000-08:00

Bill O'Reilly is a disgrace. There I said it.

On tonight's show he made the statement that most of the 200,000 homeless veterans in our country are either drug addicts or have mental problems. If they need help they can go to
Veterans Affairs because that's what they're for. Tell that to the homeless Vietnams veteran who froze to death last November because there wasn't room for him at the Veterans Affairs.
I blame people like you as part of the problem Billy. I've seen your type before. People like you just can't be wrong about anything. People who have to lie to make themselves right. That's right I said lie. You, Billy, are a liar. You contine to bang the drum about John Edwards trying to make the veterans an economic issue, and while that may or may not be a factor in things, the context that I have seen has always been in relation to the treatment of our wounded soldiers. You have to know this. If you don't then you really should save the commentary for someone more qualified.

I'm not overly surprised that you didn't respond to my open letter. Your kind never does. If we don't think like you then we don't love America. We want terrorists to attack the country because we don't support waterboarding because we know it to be torture. You gladhand the troops and use them to boost your ratings and pedestrian ego by visiting the troops and bringing your camera to show what a good person you are. Your kind makes me sick.

I speak as the son of a veteran, the nephew of veterans and the student and best friend of a veteran. I speak for the people who won't call you on your lies and obvious spin job. Oh wait, that's right. You have the "no spin zone". It should read "No Spin But Mine".
One thing you can be sure of Billy. I'm not going away. I'm going to keep speaking and trying to reach the people through my own writings. I'm going to speak out against the lies that you've told about the state of our veterans until you either admit to it or go away. I will not be silent on this.

Like I said in a previous article. You're a bully, and there hasn't been the bully yet that's made me back down from what I know to be right.
As for my readers. This is an important issue for me. I hope you all keep reading.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen. God bless our wounded warriors and may He keep our soldiers still fighting from all the dark places that may harm them.

End of line.

An Open Letter to Bill O'Reily

2008-01-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

To whom it may concern,

I am the proud son of a veteran, an American by birth and a southener by the grace of God, though I no longer live in the south. I've watched your show from time to time and there are many times when I've found you to be both abrasive and condescending toward anyone who dares to disagree with you. However I feel I must speak out concerning a recent remark of yours regarding the V.A.'s statistics of our homeless veterans. According to them the numbers show that there are 195,000 (male and female) on any given night (their words here) and perhaps twice that number at some point during the year. I'd like to know what socialist, secular progressive, liberal propoganist site you'd care to blame these statistics on? You had the utter temerity to make a snide "I don't think its that many" comment to your guest as well as making the rather transparent statement that you'd make sure a veteran didn't sleep under a bridge if you were told that someone saw them at such and such a place. How dare you sir?

Like I said my father was a veteran. All of my uncles are veterans. One the teachers I had in college was a veteran of the second world war, one who had helped liberate one of the concentration camps. One of my best friends in the world is serving now. In the history of this country we have NEVER treated our wounded warriors right and its time that the American people spoke out about this. It is beyond the pale that even one veteran is homeless, it is offensive beyond reason that almost 200,000 of them are tonight. It is offensive that I hear so few of the republican candidates talking about what we're going to do about our honored wouned warriors. Our people should have the very best care available. What they get is far from it and as a citizen of the United States I will not sit by and allow this to pass without speaking out. I don't have money, I don't have position or authority; but what I do have is a voice and a blog and I intend to use it.

My question to you is this. What have you done to actually serve your country? Beyond going overseas with cameras and talking about how much you do, what have you done? Have you ever given without turning it into a talking point on your show? Why not use your position to speak out about the horrendous problem of homelessness amongst out veterans? Maybe that wouldn't be good television, or maybe you think you can bully other people into doing it by name calling and dodging the real issues.

I'm not a kool-aid drinker myself, though you will likely try to spin it that way. I am a Christian, the son of a soldier, a gamer, I believe in fair play, justice and equity. I call on you to put your money where your mouth is. Put up the money to help build good low income housing for our homeless veterans. Put up the cash to help them get the mental health care that many of them desperately need. Add your voice to the people you claim to be looking out for and demand better treatment of our soldiers. Show some humility and reach across the board to people like Keith Olberman, and work together to get the word out about this. A lot could get done with the two of you speaking in one voice about this, unlikely though that outcome be.

The proud son of a veteran, and an American

John

Communicating Hope

2008-01-14T15:18:00.000-08:00

This election cycle we're seeing someone very rare. We're seeing a man who has the very rare ability to communicate hope. Now keep in mind that I don't agree with a lot of his political stances, but Barak Obama does have the ability to talk to people and talk about hope. There are others who try but they come off as being insincere or just pandering to the crowd that they're talking to. He talks about having real change, a change for the better; and he does have a point. Hillary Clinton may have experience as a politician but that's precisely the problem. Its just more of the same. In my lifetime I've seen Reagan, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Clinton, and Bush. We don't need a repeat performance of the Co-Presidency that was the eight years of Bill Clinton.

That's not change, its just more politics as usual.
Barak represents something new, something that people like Hillary will never really understand. He represents the people, in his own way.
We're living in a time when people need to hear the message of hope. We need to hear speaches that make us stand a little taller and be reminded that its ok to be proud to be an American.

Sometimes that's what we, as Americans, need. Yes there are many problems that I've lamented over in previous posts, and yes I'll likely not vote for Obama myself because I don't agree with a lot of his politcal stances; but I'm not sure if I'd be as upset over the situation if he won. He's bringing a message to people that they need to hear. That hope isn't dead or a passe concept. Hope is something that we have to believe in because we're Americans, and look at what we've done.

I'm glad to be alive in such a time as this. To be able to look at what's going on and bring my perspective on things is a great blessing to me. To my knowledge there were only two other men who had the gift of communication to the degree that Barak Obama does, JFK and Ronald Reagan. That's pretty impressive company as far as I'm concerned.

To those voters here in Michigan that are planning on voting in the primaries, I'd like to add my vote to others who have commented on the situation.

If you want to make your voice heard vote undecided. Write in votes, for whatever asinine reason, aren't counted. Show your party that you believe in hope and that you believe in the one delivering the message.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line.

On the Death of Spiderman

2008-01-10T18:33:00.000-08:00

Yup. You read correctly. I did, in fact, title this one "On the Death of Spiderman". Why you ask? The answer is simple, because Marvel has just killed the character. Oh I don't mean that literally. Spidey is still swinging New York with the best of them. No. No I mean that, for many fans, they've killed twenty years of history. Retconned out of existence because their people decided that controversy would sell better than good stories. It speaks volumes that J.M. Stracynski wanted his name removed from the last two issues he wrote.

I haven't bought Marvel comics for years. Not since the "Spider-Clone" disaster, and every time I consider going back Marvel reminds me why I quit in the first place. They just don't get it and they never will. They've taken ever opportunity to screw job their characters and its just old. This is just the last nail in the coffin for me. If this continues I may end up not even going to the new Marvel movies. I can't bring myself to support their nonsense anymore. Which is a shame because I thought that Ironman looked like it might be pretty good.

To my fellow geeks that are, to put it bluntly, mightily pissed off at Marvel I'd like to offer my suggestions for better reading material.

Firstly: PS238, Nodwick, and Full Frontal Nerdity by Aaron Williams. The man is, in my opinion a genius. PS238 is what a superhero comic should be. Granted its about children who go to a superhero elementary school, but the heart of the stories is what's important. Nodwick is just a classic, and again an example of great story telling.

Aside from that I'd reccomend looking to other independent publishers. Track down copies of Cerberus, Poison Elves, anything really. Just take the time to look. You might be surprised what you find.

I'd also reccomend looking into manga. Yes it reads differently but in a lot of cases its better written and has far more compelling characters. Off hand I'd reccomend Rurouni Kenshin, Buso Renkin, Naruto, Revolutionary Girl Utena to name a few. Like with the independant publishers there's a massive amount of manga out there. You're likely to find at least one or two that might interest you.

And Marvel. Well Marvel Comics can kiss my geeky butt. I'm done with them.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

The State of Things

2008-01-08T16:16:00.000-08:00

Time to get in the trenches folks.

We're entering into a new year. One that has the added bonus of being a presidential election year. It is vitally important that someone be elected that will actually work to solve the problems that we, as a nation, face. I'll try to outline the things I believe to be the two big problems and what I believe to be the solutions, provided I can think of one. These are in no particular order.

1. Health Care. Too many people are without health insurance because they just can't afford it. This is something that should not be in the United States. There should be something in place, something better than medicaid, something that people can actually access if they need it. I'm speaking from experience here when I say that medicaid is broken. It doesn't help people who need it and the process to get it is designed to make you give up. Something needs to be done to fix it. It could be as simple as just making the application process easier but it needs to be done.

2. The War. I'll be honest, I don't think we ever should have gone into Iraq. I think there were situations that presented a greater moral imperative. However once we went in we should have let the generals fight how they needed to in order to win. We should have sent our people in with the best equipment possible and as much support as they needed. Since that's not how we started we've gotten bogged down in a mire that we're only now crawling out of. We are seeing some results, I can't blind myself to that, but if we're going to stay fight to win.

There are many, many other issues such as energy independance, enviromental issues, and protecting the citizenry from terrorist attacks. All of these issues are important and I encourage you to write the candidates and ask them the tough questions. Look for buzzword phoniness and call them on it. Investigate and determine for yourselves who you think is the best choice. Don't let anyone, be they pastor, union leader, teacher or friend tell you who to vote for. Look into things and vote your conscience and your principles.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

Cruelty

2008-01-07T17:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes people can be exceedingly cruel.

That's a fact of life that I learned at an early age. Sometimes though someone can go beyond the pale with it.

There hasn't been a lot of movement on another blog of mine, and I'm generally ok with that. However someone decided to comment on a post I wrote about a family tragedy. In that comment the person decided that they would ridicule my faith, using the tragedy to do so. I didn't comment on it, I deleted it.

Now there are people who are going to think that I should have left the comment there, but I disagree. Here and at my other blog I have one, ironclad rule. Disagree with me all you want, but keep it civil.

I don't particularly care if someone agrees with me or not. If you're cruel about it I will delete the comment without a second thought. If I find it goes really beyond the pale then I'll report it.

I've always found it to be odd that the people who rant the longest about the intolerance of Christians are, themselves, the most intolerant people in the world.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

A Special Christmas Message for One and All

2007-12-24T15:25:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas
聖誕快樂
メリークリスマス
Feliz Navidad
Joyeux Noël
عيد ميلاد سعيد
С Рождеством Христовым!
Buon Natale
Feliz Natal
메리 크리스마스
Frohe Weihnachten
Καλά Χριστούγεννα
Vrolijke Kerstmis

I'm sure that there are languages I missed but from the heart I wish you one and all the Merriest of Christmases and joyous tidings of peace on earth and good will to men.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

Hatred

2007-12-23T12:09:00.000-08:00

Each and every one of us has had to face hatred at some point in our lives. Its an isidious thing that can be as simple as someone making a snide comment about your choice of clothing, or as blatant as using racial epitaphs and violence. In any case it is not just wrong its evil. The problem is that we've run into in recent years is confusing real hate with politcal disagreements or diferences in philosophical and religious beliefs. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for that particular problem. What's most bothersome about it all is that so many problems could be solved if people just talked to one another.

The reason I'm talking about this is because of recent events at a site where I am a frequent poster. Gamepolitics.com is a site that talks about the gaming industry and how it relates to politics.( I mentioned them in an earlier post for those who are interested) A fellow poster there takes every opportunity he can to denigrate religion in general and Christianity in particular; even when religion has nothing to do with the news story in question. He has been asked, repeatedly, to knock it off only to have him turn around and tell us that, those of us who are Christians, are just too ignorant and superstitious to understand him and if we only gave up the things we believe in then we'd see everything his way.

Now don't get me wrong, the guy has every right to his beliefs; and I'd never claim otherwise. He's made his choice and, as a Christian, all I can really do is accept that he's made that choice and pray for him. He accuses Christians of being full of hate and wanting to legislate their faith into being the law of the land. Despite being shown the error of his logic, nope he's right and we're all just too stupid to realize it.

I'll be honest, there are things I disagree with and I'll make it known that I think certain behaviours are right or wrong. That doesn't mean I hate the person doing them, and that doesn't mean that I hate them for thinking differently than me. I actually rather like people most of the time.

My caution to everyone is this. Don't get so caught up in the "us vs. them" mentality that you lose sight of trying to actually solve problems. Remember the first rule of the fanatic: "When you become obsessed with the enemy you become the enemy". You don't have to agree with someone, but at least have the decency to listen to their arguments. Don't berate them for thinking differently than you, you can see where they might be coming from without agreeing with their philosophies. If people were more honest about that kind of thing there would be a lot fewer problems in the world.

That's all for now all. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen

End of line.

Tom Smith

2007-12-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'd like to talk about something different today. I've gotten a little heavy and deep recently so here's something a little lighter if only to lift some spirits.

Several years ago one of my very best friends, and brother in every way that matters, introduced me to the music of Tom Smith. He played Tom's "Debasement Tapes", and I think "And They Say I've Got Talent" on our way to my first Origins. I became a fan that very day. I hadn't heard much from him in a long time and I had figured that he'd either simplly stopped recording or life had just gotten in the way. Then I found his web page www.tomsmithonline.com , to say the least I was thrilled. It was then I remebered that he had been referenced in the webcomic Something Positive by R.K. Milholland, of which I am a regular reader by the way.

I had wanted to pick up more of Tom's cds but just never had the money. Then I attended the 2007 Gen Con in Indianapolis, IN. I was walking through the dealer hall when I happened upon a musicians alley. There at a booth was Tom Smith. He was friendly, congenial, smiling and seemed to be having a great time. It was also here that I bought a copy of every cd he had with the exception of "Debasement Tapes" and "Plugged". Of the cds I bought that day his Marcon 2005 live cd is my favorite.

In Tom's music I find all the passion, and genuine love of music that is present in many of the old school (and by this I mean Hank Williams Sr, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash) artists of country and folk music. I found a musical home in Tom's music, if I may wax the poetic. To be sure there are modern cds that I like, but I always come back to Tom's music because its so enjoyable to listen to. You can feel the joy coming off of the music as he sings the playful song and you can feel the loss and sense of mourning in songs like "A Boy and His Frog". Actually, listening to that particular song it almost feels like the kind of thing that Jim Henson would have written himself. I can't really think of higher praise than that.

I want to take this moment to say thank you to Tom Smith for his music. Thank you for the songs and thank you for the laughs. Thank you for the tears and thank you for the memories that spring up when I listen to your music. My mother and I would watch old Peter Lorre movies, and The Muppet Show, and many other things together. Many of your songs referance these and I remember those times through the songs.

Hearing Tom's music, to me anyway, is like a visit from an old friend. So thank you again Tom for the music and thank you for sharing it with us. You've got the love of the people, and to my mind, that's one of the best things possible.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

Takingf a Stand

2007-12-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take this moment to talk about a few things. Its likely to be a hot one today so be forewarned.

I am disgusted with the current administration. There was a point where the United States could claim the moral high ground. There was a time when we could stand proud in that fact and have confidence that there were some things we'd never do because they were wrong. Yet more and more it seems like we've left that morality behind us in the name of expediency and trying to do "the smart thing". The moral thing has become an inconvience to getting what the government says we need.

Looking back its easy to see where they've been able to justify some of this. We've slowly experienced a softening of our language to make certain terms less offensive or to gloss over the facts. I blame the media and the PC police for much of this nonsense. I blame Bill Clinton and his demand to know the definition of "is" during his depostion in a perjury defense. I blame us, as a society, for not stopping it when we could.

We have to take a stand on this. We have to demand the cessation of waterboarding as a means of "intense interrogation". We must demand that our leaders and abide by the rule of law. Whether or not our enemies do so is irrelevant. It is the right and morally correct thing to do.

As a Christian citizen and a conservative I DEMAND that the republican party denounce this practice for the barbaric and inhumane thing that it is. I encourage my fellow citizens on both sides of the political aisle to start writing emails and letters to our representatives and demand that this stop. We are a nation of laws and a nation of morals waterboarding violates both of these.

Our nation is built upon the idea that all mean are created equal and endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We must stand together as a nation and let it be known that we cannot and will not abide the travesties that have been commited in the name of "gathering information" any longer.

Ask ALL the current candidates the tough questions. Ask them if they will abide by the rule of law. Ask them if they will cease the unlawful and immoral act of waterboarding. Ask they if they will abide by the constituion in all things.

It might not be the "smart thing" to do; but it is the moral thing to do, and that's more important than anything else. It is by no means easy, but doing the moral thing never is.

That's all for now. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

Tragedy

2007-12-07T08:49:00.000-08:00

There are tragic times in life. I think we can all agree on that point. Bad things happen and hit us in the heart, it makes us angry, depressed and sometimes it makes us feel like ending it all. Sorrow is a natural part of life, its a part of what makes us human. The ability to feel emotional pain is part of what makes us appreciate the good times in life.

As a Christian, this holds especially true to me. God never promised us an easy life. never said that there wouldn't be hard times while we were alive. I accept that, and most times I readily embrace it. Over the years I've developed a personal philosophy on the matter that goes a little something like this. "There are storms in life, this we cannot avoid. What matters isn't the storm you face, but how you face it. You can either stand up and look straight into the eye of the storm saying I am a child of the Living God, bring it; or you can crumple into a ball and just hope to survive." Lately it seems like there's just been one storm after another, after another in succession; and it is hard to maintain the faith that's seen me through so much.

From being bullied and emotionally abused for my entire time in school, to the trouble I've always had finding and holding a job, to my current situation of trying to get medical assistance to help pay for a hospital stay from earlier this year. I've come through them all, by the grace of God, and become the person I am. I wouldn't change any of it, because I wouldn't be who I am without those things that happened.

I mention all this because my sister was pregnant with her second child recently. She lost the child, and that's what it was, a child. (Don't go there in trying to say anything about that.) In some ways this storm is harder for me because its not me that's facing it. As much as my sister and I don't get along I've always had her back. This is something that I can't really help with and I hate it, but its a storm of life so I can either face it as above or I can retreat.

If you take nothing else away from this post take this. God loves us. He doesn't allow these things to happen in order to cause us harm. We have to trust that God, our Abbah Father, knows what's going on and that there are reasons for them that we are unaware. Its hard sometimes, and its never truly easy; but it is what it is.

That's all for now all. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line.

Testing the Teaching

2007-12-04T07:13:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't written anything in a bit but given some recent events in my life I believe that it's time that I share some of my religious views. What I'm about to say may offend but I'm not going to apologize for that. I wouldn't be honest if I did,and if there's one thing I cherish it's honesty and integrity.

I'd been posting on a certain message boad claiming to be Christian in its content and belief system. I hadn't really paid much attention to some things as I didn't really post there all that often. Well I finally started doing some digging and I was pretty appauled at what I saw. For example they teach that there is no rapture of church and no seven year tribulation period. The second part of that is expressly false if you have any knowledge of the book of Revelation. As to the first, well there are people with differing beliefs and for the most part I can let things go, well at least if what they're saying can even remotely be backed up. Another example is there adherence to the "dead bloodline" belief that states Eve had a child by Satan (btw this claim cannot be backed up by scripture, despite their claims to the contrary).

I tired to call them on this, only to be rebuffed and to have my posts summarily deleted. Their claim was that I could not provide scripture to back up what I was saying. The problem with that argument is that I did in fact refer to scripture, I just didn't quote it. I knew that doing so would be useless because I know the type of people that they are. Any interpretation other than their own would be labeled false because their minds are already made up.

Now I'd to leave you, my honored readers and friends, with some advice that I've learned over the years concerning scripture and teachings based on scripture. Let me preface this with telling you all that I am a literalist when it comes to the Bible. I believe it to be the inerrant, infallible, perfect Word of the Living God.

1. If someone uses one sentance out of a chapter and tries to tell you what it means, stop them and ask for the context. Better yet go to that chapter yourself and read it in its entirety. If what the teacher/preacher/pastor is telling you doesn't line up with what's being said then the teaching is wrong.

2. If someone tries to tell you have to be enlightened to understand the deeper mysteries of the Bible, walk away. While its true that God will, at times, open someone's eyes to something they might not have noticed; it is not in His nature to hide things in the way that intelectuals seem to think He does.

3. If something doesn't seem right about what you're being told. Stop the person and ask questions. If their response is to tell you to just listen to them, walk away. A good indication of a false teaching is the unwillingness to be asked probative questions about it. Chances are that if you're having that feeling then its the Holy Spirit letting you know that something's up.

4. Remember that logic and faith are not anathema to each other. Deductive reasoning can help you see through a lie to the truth. For example if a teaching says one thing, and you know that logically it doesn't follow the nature of God call them on it.

5. Be wary of phony discussion. If someone asks a question and you answer it in a reasonable manner, explaining your meaning as you do and they return with three iterations of the same question, walk away. They've shown that they have no desire to hear and are only trying to goad you into saying something in anger so they can say "see this person isn't a Christian". Its manipulative and its deception, these things are not of God.

6. Anyone telling you that they and only they have the correct interpretation of scripture and is unwilling to tell you how they were able to reach that conclusion is a false teacher. They don't want those things asked and they don't desire reason. These are the people who demand blind and unthinking obedience. They ignore that Christ said "come now and let us reason together".

Knowing all this if people persist in attacking you then they've made it clear that they don't want you there. (I was actually told to stop posting at this particular board). With that knowledge you should do what the Bible teaches about moments like that, don't let the dust settle on the soles of your feet. Wish them well and tell them you'll pray for them; but don't stick around to be trapped in a never ending cycle of foolish arguments.

That's all for now all. May the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you, may He make His Face to shine upon you. Amen and amen.

End of line

Hurt

2007-11-25T05:10:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I really don't understand my sister.

We've never really gotten along but looking back on my life it seems like she's taken every opportunity to snipe at me or act ugly towards me. For the life of me I can't figure out what I ever could have done to deserve being treated like that. I'll admit that I wasn't always the best brother I could have been; but I always stood up for her and I always had her back. I don't know if she ever had mine.

I remember that she always stood with her friends, even when they were being, well I suppose unkind would be one way of putting it. I realize that I don't even know who my sister is, at least not really. She wears so many masks and has so many walls up that I don't think I've ever seen the real her.

I understand that part of it is that we're both very different people. We think differently, we have different priorities, we have different likes and dislikes. Something more is going on though, and I have no idea what that might be.

Maybe she just doesn't like me, maybe she resents the fact that I still live at home, maybe its any number of things. Whatever it is, she needs to stop. I have faith that things will work out, but its very hard when you think that your own sister may hate you for no reason.

That's all for now everyone
End of line

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T10:13:00.000-08:00

Its that time of year ladies and gentleman. Thanksgiving is upon us and I thought I'd share those things that I'm thankful for in my life.

For staters I'm thankful that I'm still alive after a very bad health scare back in April.

I'm thankful for Christ who is my Lord and Saviour.

I'm thankful that I live in the United States of America, the greatest country (next to Israel) in the world.

I'm thankful for friends and family who care about me and actually like having me around.

I'm thankful for having the freedom to write my blog here and express my distaste for so much of what's going on in the country and in the world.

I'm thankful that people have the freedom to disagree with me.

I'm thankful for my two very best friends, Mike and Al. You're both my brothers in spirit and you'll never know how much your frienship has helped me survive some of the darker times in my life.

I'm thankful for my friend Claudia who's brought love and joy into Mike's life. He's happier than I've ever seen him and for that you've got a friend for life.

I'm thankful for the future and what it holds.

I'm thankful for all the little things that most people never think of, nor consider.

And I'm thankful to you, my readers. Sometimes I don't understand why people read what I write, but I'm thankful that you're out there.

That's all for now. God bless you all and have a joyous Thanksgiving.

End of line.

Veteran's Day

2007-11-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the men and women of the United States armed forces for their courage and sacrifice. If not for their bravery and dedication we wouldn't have the freedoms we so cherish and hold to be sacred.

Thank you for you dedication to God, family and country. Thank you for being there to defend us and our constitution. Yours is a task that takes a very special kind of person to accomplish. The ability to fight, die and kill for people you'll never know is something to be respected. Doublly so since there are so many in our country who hate you for the simple reason that you joined the military.

Allow me to thank you all once again for what you do for our country. Know that there are many, many people like me who love you and honor the sacrifices you make for the rest of us to be free.

I'll close this with a quote from G.K. Chesterton: "The true soldier fights, not because he hates what is in front of him; but because he loves what is behind him."

Thank you again from the bottom of my heart. You are in my thoughts and prayers.

That's all for now and God bless

End of line.

Manhunt 2 and Parent Groups

2007-10-30T16:16:00.001-07:00

As a 34 year old gamer I've seen some moronic behaviour in my time but the recent dust up over Manhunt 2 really takes the cake.

A number of parental and child advocacy groups are urging parents not to buy their little ones Manhunt 2 because of the graphic violence the game portrays. *sigh* I'm going to explain this so that everyone can understand.

*ahem* Manhunt 2 is NOT for children! That little M 17+ in the corner of the box is an indicator of this. The content descriptors on the back that detail gore, graphic violence, strong sexual situations and the like should be another major clue.

Parents, I'm talking to you, stop being pinheads about this. Learning what the ratings mean isn't some epic quest. Its as easy as looking at the letter and asking a store clerk what it means. Failing that look at the back of the box and ask what the descriptors mean, even though most are fairly self explanatory.

It might even surprise you to know that I find the game extremely distasteful and I don't plan on buying it at all. There are many of us who feel the same way. So the next time an M rated game comes out. instead of jumping to conclusions and making assumptions, do the research and be a parent for crying out loud.

That's all and God bless
End of line.

Bullying

2007-10-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

We have a big problem in this country. Well actually we have several big problems but the one I'd like to discuss today is bullying. I don't mean the schoolyard, pick on the weird and different kid kind of bullying, though that too is a major issue with me. What I mean is the mentality that you can sue someone until they do what you want.

You see it more and more as the years go on and its getting ridiculous. By way of a for instance lets look at one John Bruce "Jack" Thompson. He's made a career, what little of it there is, out of filing lawsuits against people and companies he doesn't like in order to get what he wants. He sued Howard Stern and the parent company of his earth bound radio staion until it became such hassle that Stern moved to satelite radio where there no constraints on what Stern can say or do. Thompson proclaims this a victory because he got what he wanted by being a bully. Now Thompson has filed a lawsuit against Best Buy and the ESRB (for full details see http://www.gamepolitics.com/). He's done this before with Best Buy and other retailers. He's tried to bully Microsoft, Take Two and Rockstar games, and other game manufacturers as well.

Of course Thompson isn't the only legal bully there is either. Atheists have, over the years, tried to sue the word God out of every facet of government and the public square, regardless of what the majority wants. In the past few years we've seen a concerted effort to try and remove "one nation under God" from the pledge of allegiance, "In God we trust" from the money, and any number of other lawsuits that are in direct opposition to the will of the people. The majority want those things to stay as they are, but a small group of people have decided that their will is more important and are attempting to use the courts to bully the rest of us into accepting their vision of America instead of our own.

This nonsense has to stop and it has to stop now! This kind of moronic behaviour isn't what the founding fathers intended America to be. Instead of trying to force the people to do what you want, why not actually try and change the culture on the level of the people. Government and law won't change anyone and all this kind of legal bullying does is make more enemies. Of course some people like having lots of enemies, I don't really understand it but eh.

I understand that many will not agree or may take the second example I gave poorly, but this is how I see things. Its how I understand them. Feel free to disagree, but I ask that you do so respectfully.

That's all for now
End of line.

Under rated games

2007-10-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

We've all played them. Games that we loved that for some inexplicable reason never succeeded like they should have. Games with stellar stories and good game play that never took off, dooming them to the bargain bins of doom. I'd like to take a moment or two and talk about some of the games that I was fortunate enough to come across that were woefully overlooked by the gaming community. I hope for this to be a semi-regular feature with each one talking about a different game or games.

For this instalment Primal. I can't say enough about how good this game is. Gorgeous visuals, a great story and fantastic voice acting by none other than Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar of Babylon 5) and Hudson Leik (Calisto from Xena: Warrior Princess). Its a shame that a game as good as Primal flopped like it did. It deserved much better for trying to tell a mature story and actually using the shoulder buttons for combat instead of the standard fare. If you happen to find this one pick it up and give it a go. Just be aware that the game is rated M, in case you happen to be a minor.

That's all for this instalment. If you have any ideas of your own feel free to share.

End of Line

Israel and Where I Stand

2007-10-21T08:02:00.001-07:00

I'd like to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt and abject apologies to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel for the centuries of anti-Semitism that was born in the misguided teaching of the early Church fathers. I never knew some of the things I do now and I humblely ask their forgiveness for our mistakes.

To those of you wondering what I'm talking about: I just finished reading "In Defense of Israel" by Pastor John Hagee. To say that it was eye-opening would too soft a turn of phrase. I learned more about the history of our two peoples, Christians and Jews, in the two days it took to read than I ever have from a single pastor of any other church I've been to in my 34 years of life.

I want to let my Jewish brothers and sisters know that I stand with them in defending and supporting Israel and its right to exist. I support them in their desire to see Jeruselem undivided. I support their absolute right to defend themselves from the terrorist attacks of their neighbors. No longer should the people of Israel be forced to give up land or make concessions in the name of peace. Time and time again their neighbors have shown themselves to be unwilling to cease their attacks with no reaction from the rest of the world. Should Israel defend itself, however, suddenly everything becomes Israel's fault. This MUST stop.

I look to the pages of history and I see a trend. Every empire or imperial wannabe that has tried to destroy Israel and her people are dust in the wind. From Pharoh in ancient Egypt, who tried to work the children of Israel to death, to the Babylonians, the Ottomans, the Romans, Hitler and his Nazi goons, ALL of them have fallen to dust. Lord Jehovah looks after His people.
I stand with my Jewish brothers and sisters in praying for the peace of Jersusalem and to them I say don't lose hope. Israel and Jerusalem will endure and survive. Both history and the Bible teach us this.

That's all for now all.
"End of line."

Gaming Culture

2007-10-17T09:36:00.000-07:00

The gaming culture is nothing new. We've been around since the 1970's when Dungeons and Dragons was first published and its been an evolving culture ever since. The problem is, that, when some of our more, how should I say this, immature members speak out it does more harm than good.

When our more immature memebers speak out its usually to the tune of somebody sucks, or someone should die, or someone's gay and should shut up. It tends to degenerate into a nonsensical tirade of vulgarity and personal attacks from there. We're not going to win anyone to our side with behaviour like that. It took comic books more than forty years to break the stigma that they were the cause of moral decline and turpitude. Rock music STILL hasn't broken that stigma; and you think that the gaming culture is going to break it in only a few years? Its time to grow up and realize that the only way we're going to be able to break the stigma that gamers have is by showing people that we're not supportive of those kinds of tactics.

I'm not saying that people don't have the right to speak their mind, because they do and its an important right. However I am saying that we can and should chasitse those among us who are doing more harm to the cause than help. We should take companies to task whenever they publish a game that is purely exploitative and made solely for the sake of controversy (Rockstar I'm looking in your direction). We have to take the initiative because if we don't others WILL try to take it for us, and then we've lost.

That's all for now.
"End of line."

Racism

2007-10-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

Yup I'm about to go there.

As a Christian conservative I got heat in my college days from people who automaticly assumed I was a racist because of my faith and political beliefs. It always confused me because I knew I was anything but a racist. I detest bad behaviour from anyone, regardless of their background. Looking back on it now I realize that the racism was, in fact, coming from people that had more of a liberal perspective.

Now let me finish and show you my train of thought. I don't think that all liberals are racist; but I do see how someone could slip down that path if they aren't careful. Just like I see how somone who's a conservative could start down that path unintentionally.

The argument I hear, and I could be very much wrong here, is that someone who's a minority can't make it without the help of government and liberals because they're minorities and the deck is stacked against them.

I never really stopped to think about what was being said here but now that I do it sounds a tad racist doesn't it? Why can't someone make it through faith, hard work and determination? I was always taught that the measure of a person isn't what they were born into, but the way that they reacted to their circumstance. If we tell kids in low income areas that their only way out is rap or sports aren't we feeding a pretty negative stereotype? Why not encourage some of these kids to find ways to help the community? Become a pastor, a teacher, a doctor. Anything is possible if you work for it and believe on God to show you the way.

I believe that anyone can rise above their situation and circumstance. It just takes work and dedication.

To tell someone that they can't make it because of their birth is not only racist, its downright evil.

That's all for now all.
"End of line."

The Violent Videogame Debate

2007-10-11T09:05:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems like you can't turn on the news without seeing someone chiming in on the debate over violent videogames. The subject has been approached by multiple sides, all with different beliefs and ideas about how it should be handled. Some think that they should be banned all together, some think nothing needs to be done, and still others think that it should be a felony crime to sell a child an M rated game.

The problem is that we've gotten so caught up in the "us vs them" mentality that we're not seeing the common ground. Most gamers, myself included, don't think that children should be playing M rated games. Its not meant for their age bracket and we're cool with that. If a parent chooses to buy such a game for their kid then the onus is on the parent, not the industry as a whole.

We don't disagree on the problem, just the solution. Suing people into doing what you want is not the answer. Trying to make laws that fine stores several thousand dollars and lable a cashier a felon are not good solutions either. What has to happen is that we and our critics need to meet and have a civilized talk about what we can do to make the system work better or at least more efficiently.

The ESRB really isn't that hard to understand. The back of every videogame has a content descriptor that explains why a game is rated the way it is. If you find yourself unable to interpret what the descriptors mean, by all means ask someone working in the videogame section of your local store, most of them will be glad to explain what they mean.

We all have to work together here. Its the only way problems are going to be solved.

That's all for now.
To quote the movie: "End of line."

Christians and Gamers

2007-10-10T06:50:00.000-07:00

Its rough, at times, being a Christian in the gaming community. The bulk of the reasons behind this lie in misconceptions and mis-steps on both sides of the aisle. I'll be trying to, in this post at least, help to build a bridge between the two groups that will help us understand each other.

Misconception about Christians the first: "Christians want to force their beliefs onto everyone and make them believe as they do."

Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, we Christians DO want people to come to the knowledge of Christ and accept Him as Saviour, and witnessing to people and evangelizing are part of what we do. That being said, however, we don't want to force people into it. People are free to choose one way or the other; if they were forced into accepting Christ as Saviour then it wouldn't mean anything. Redemption must be chosen and while we do favour one choice over the other we know that, in the end, the choice must be a willing one. One made with a person's whole heart, mind and soul.

Misconceptions about Gamers the first: "Gamers are a bunch of kids."

Like the above this is a misconception that is more than a little incorrect. The average gamer's age is somewhere between 18-33. I wouldn't exactly call that a kid, would you? The idea that gamers are kids comes from the notion that videogames are only for children. This hasn't been true for a very long time. Even in the days of the Atari 2600 there were some decidedly adult titles out there if you knew where to look. You might be surprised at some of the adults who play videogames, especially things like World of Warcraft or games like Madden '08.

Misconception about Christians the second: "Christians are a bunch of killjoys and want to ruin everyone's fun."

Again this really isn't true, at least from my perspective. It IS true that there are a number of things that Christians believe that you shouldn't do because they believe those actions to be immoral. We don't believe that people are truly happy or can be truly happy living lives filled with immoral activity. Things like premarital sex, drug use, and the like are all things that we feel to be wrong. We do speak out against them, but as with the first point, we also say that, ultimately the choice is up to the individual. Whether they choose for good or for ill, the choice is theirs and we pray that they choose the better path; because we love people and want them to be able to live happy and joy filled lives.

Misconception about gamers the second: "Gamers are just one game away from going out and killing a bunch of people."

This little misconception I'm sure you're all very much aware of. Gamers are often portrayed as evil, game obsessed mad youths out to kill people because they think "life is like a videogame". I, for one, and more than a little bit tired of seeing this false portrayal used so often. It doesn't help matters much that there are certain lawyers who use tragedies as a means to push their own social agendas. They try to excuse violent behaviour in people by saying that its not their fault they killed someone, nope, it was those evil videogames that made them do it. It gets worse when these self proclaimed "champions" use their faith as an excuse for mean, and sometimes down right spiteful, behaviour. We're not a bunch of psychopaths, ready to go off at a moment's notice. Most of us are average everyday citizens, just looking for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Get to know some of us, who knows, maybe you'll find some of the most loyal friends you've evern known.

Those are just a few of the misconceptions that exist about each other. Its long past time that we stopped insulting each other and came together to reason with one another. After all Christ Himself supported that kind of thing.

That's all for now all.
To quote the movie: "End of line."

What's a Chrsitan to Do?

2007-10-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

As we enter into yet another election cycle I find myself asking an important, to me anyway, question. What's a Christian to do? I don't find Rudy Guliani to be a very appealing candidate for a number of reasons. Yet if I vote for a third part candidate, as many Christian voters are threatening to do this year, then the odds are we'll be looking at the Clintons being in office again; and I really don't want to see that again.

I think that Christians have become too attached to a singular party these days. We do need to have representation that reflects our beliefs but these days the republican party is moving further and further away from that model. The Democratic party, too, seems to be pandering more and more to the fringe of their movement as well. I truly want to believe that most Democrats don't think like the minds behind Moveon.org or Media Matters.

So, again, I ask the question, what's a Christian to do? The answer is really quite simple. Vote your conscience and vote your principals. We've compromised enough for the sake of "electability". I encourage voters to stop with the "electability" nonsense and vote what your conscience demands.

As for me? Well that's easily answered. MY criteria are as follows:
1. Be a PUBLICLY practicing Christian, 2. Be Pro-Israel, 3. Be Pro-Life, 4. Be ready to defend our country from all threats both foreign and domestic with or without the United Nations backing us, 5. Be against poverty, 6. Be against racism, 7. Be for finding common sense solutions to our common problems.

There are other criteria, to be sure, but those are my top seven. I'm sure there are those who won't agree with me. Doesn't mean I'm wrong though.

Until next time all.
To quote the movie: "End of line".

Pinheads One and All

2007-10-10T06:47:00.000-07:00

I have offically had it with BOTH political parties. There's no difference anymore between Republicans and Democrats, with the noted exception of the lies they tell the American People.

The capitulation of the Republican party in actually raising Michigan income taxes, at a time when businesses are already leaving the State in droves, is nearly unforgivable. I know it was too much to hope that the greedy, money and power hungry pinheads in our state capital would actually do something right, but this is just ridiculous.

I'm calling on the voters of Michigan to rise up and demand accountability from our elected officials. We the People DEMAND that the legislature and Govenor cut their salary by 50%. Learn what it means to live off a budget like normal people. We DEMAND that you stop wasting our money and find real, common sense solutions to the problems we face. Once you've done something to EARN more money we'll revisit the issue of your pay.

That is all ladies and gents.
To quote my favorite movie: "End of line."

Thoughts on Government

2007-10-10T06:45:00.000-07:00

Fasten your seatbelts everyone, we're in for a bumpy ride. This is my first blog and I actively look forward to letting everyone know what I think about things; and what better way to introduce myself than to lash out at Government stupidity.

I believe in common sense solutions to problems. I also happen to believe that part of that involves We the People, holding our elected officials accountable for the things that they do. That being said I hold the Michigan elected elite, on both sides of the political ailse, accountable for the state of our beloved State. All this talk about a balanced budget and not one person raises the notion of cutting the salary of the legislature. Personally I think they all deserve a 50% paycut. That would put some money back in the bank. After all I'd like to think that they'd be all for cutting wasteful spending. Maybe We the People need to look into demanding that kind of action, it would certainly put them on notice as to our state of mind.
Second thought. Stop writing stupid laws. Case in point, some time ago our "beloved" Govenor Granholm the 1st signed a law making it illegal to sell violent video games to minors. On the surface that doesn't sound so bad right? However it turns out that the law itself was unconstitutional as it was a violation of Free Speach. Now guess who gets to pay the legal fees for the court hearing that declared the law unconstituitonal? Why that would be you and me, the tax paying public. Here's a thought why not take the money for the court payments out of the salary of the legislature and Govenor.

Thought the third. There are psychotic people in both parties. Lets not pretend otherwise. We all know that both parties are beholden to special interests. John Edwards can talk all he wants about removing that influence but until he stops taking money from trial lawyers he has absolutely no moral high ground. If the Democrats ever hope to reconnect with the people then they need to stop associating with nuts like Michael Moore and the MoveOn crowd. Most people don't buy into the extreme left agenda, and I'd like to think that they don't buy into the real radical right. We are going to disagree with each other but that doesn't mean we can't find common ground upon which we can solve problems.

Its that common ground that makes us We the People; and when we finally figure out that We the People have the power to make real and abiding change will be the day that the politcos stop being stupid and do the job we elected them to do.