…and it doesn’t include a new congresswoman named Krystal Ball.

Seriously! Check out her Facebook page, and tell me it’s not a parody! 1.) The name; 2.) The Obama-meets-Globetrotters logo; 3.) The “info” page (her favorite books include “The Origin of Wealth: The Radical Remaking of Economics and What It Means for Business”??); 4.) And comments like this one: “Tell Krystal Ball you support her in being an openly psychic nominee for the Democratic party.”

Joe “You Lie!” Wilson has been made into a randomized website. (H/T to @JakeTapper)

I jumped into President Obama’s latest healthcare speech in the middle (wife gone, two rowdy boys causing all sorts of trouble), but what I heard was reassuring — assuming, of course, it’s anywhere near accurate. That’s the problem with presidential speeches about Congressional actions: they’re often more idealistic than realistic. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The things the president said he was looking for — greater competition among insurance providers, market-based cost controls, even some malpractice reform — are all things that conservatives (including moderate conservatives with a libertarian bent and liberal nuance, like myself) should applaud. Applaud they did, at least on that last, but something tells me that tomorrow they won’t take Obama’s words on the others at face value. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ll apologize up front for the overuse of quotation marks as indicators of sarcasm. That said, it has been disappointing to watch the level of “outrage” amongst “conservatives” these past few months on any number of “issues,” most recent of which is a back-to-school speech by President Obama that will be broadcast Tuesday across the country.

Our own local paper reported that school officials will provide alternate activities for students whose parents don’t want them watching Obama’s speech. Which is fine, so far as it goes — one wonders why schools don’t make it so easy for parents who don’t want their children immunized, for instance, or subjected to all manner of “tolerance” seminars — but what possible reason would one have for not wanting their child to see it? The same talking heads who are denouncing the speech are the ones who claim superiority on most issues of “patriotism”; since the presidency is set up by the Constitution, it would seem they’d at least let the guy tell their kids to do their homework and not play so many video games.

Read the rest of this entry »

My main criticism with “conservatives” (most who label themselves as such deserve the sarcastic quote marks), put most aptly by the always insightful (and actually conservative) Andrew Bacevich:

Only those who recognize the omnipresence of sin—recognizing first of all that they themselves number among the sinful—can possibly anticipate the moral snares inherent in the exercise of power. Righteousness induces blindness. The acknowledgment of guilt enables the blind to see. To press the point further, the statesman who assumes that “we” are good while “they” are evil—think George W. Bush in the wake of 9/11—will almost necessarily misinterpret the problem at hand and underestimate the complexity and costs entailed in trying to solve it. In this sense, an awareness of one’s own failings and foibles not only contributes to moral clarity but can help guard against strategic folly.

“Fresh until March 2010″… So read the label on a bag of coffee at a Starbucks in Nashville. My boss and colleagues decided to stop there on our way to Alabama (and seemed a bit puzzled that I, the real coffee lover of the group, didn’t partake), so I killed time by looking over their vast array of merchandise.

Anyway, I just want to let anyone know… Coffee shouldn’t sit on the shelf that long. At what point did it arrive at that Starbucks, I wonder? How long before that was it roasted? I’d wager a pretty penny that the beans in that bag were roasted in Spring of this year, and so by their “freshness” date would be nearly a year old once brewed, if not even older!

For the record, coffee should be ground right before it’s brewed, and used within a couple weeks of the roast date for optimal flavor. The more time passes between roast and brew, the more bitter notes and the less nuance will be in the cup.

Just another example of how even those who think they “know coffee” — and, no offense, but Starbucks customers seem to think they know a whole lot — either don’t know or don’t care about truly remarkable, truly fresh, truly delicious coffee.

(NOTE: This was written and posted
entirely on my iPhone… The wonders of technology!)

Sundays for me are different than they used to be, mostly because we now attend church services in the evening rather than in the morning.

Creativity is something that is nurtured, not manufactured. The problem with “creative” work is that, well, it’s still work.

Rest of American Christian World: You’re missing out.

It’s 2:50 p.m. as of this writing, and I’ve got another couple hours of relaxing to do before church begins. And since my wife is away and my kids are napping, I’ve returned to the dreaded athletic club ads and found within myself a new ray of light.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yours truly happened upon a site people use to do illegal downloading, and this was the biggest ad on the page. What does it say about faith, digital disobedience, and the state of human relationships? I don’t know, but it’s pretty funny.

Did I click? Of course! From the site:

This is an ideal destination for Christian men and women to find friends, dates, and even soul mates, all within the faith. In just minutes, you can create a profile and be ready to mingle with other members in your area. Our vast membership base and user-friendly interface make ChristianMingle.com a source of Christian romance around the world.

Enjoy our chat rooms, instant messenger, message boards, Bible verse of the day, searchable Bible, and many other great features. Sign up today to start enjoying the Christian community at ChristianMingle.com.

And here’s a quote from a happy couple:

Jason and I were matched through CM … After a few weeks, we went on our first date and when we finished what we had planned, we decided to go to WalMart and walk around so we could talk longer. Before we knew it, 5 hours had passed. … It has been an incredible experience and we both feel that the other is the last person we are going to date (hint hint)!

Thanks ChristianMingle! Thanks WalMart!

Matt of E+F, Laryssa and Gabe of Lil Dragon, and the author (behind camera) get their creative juices flowing.

At E+F, we work with an outfit out of Nashville called Lil Dragon Entertainment. Gabe and his cohorts help us translate our ideas onto video, mostly for television commercials. He’s been busy lately, and so have we, on a number of projects: WKU Football commercial, Web-only ad for WKU Alumni Association, new Bowling Green Athletic Club commercials, and a coming trip to Auburn to do Auburn’s men/women basketball commercials. The first and last are to be dramatic, the middle ones humorous.

That said, here are my memories of our meeting over Spencer’s fare yesterday:

Read the rest of this entry »

File this under “Things Known for Years by Those Paying Attention”:

Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose.

Those are the words of Col. Timothy Reese, a U.S. adviser to the Iraqi military, in the rarest of communications — a soldier suggesting that he and his colleagues should actually withdraw.

Pundits like Larison and Bacevich have been saying this for years; the former a “paleoconservative” and the latter a military expert of the realist school. And their overarching premise has been this: American pols have never undertaken to understand Mesopotamia, have little if any understanding of what drives these people, and can never be a real agent of change there as long as the goal is something as romantic as “liberation” or “democracy.”

Iraq never attacked us, and in fact does not play any sort of strategic role in the region; all along its borders are our allies, places with no organized ill intent toward us or any real ability to mount an offensive. It’s time to leave, and in fact it was never time to arrive.