Is this guy serious?

I don't think the crowd even knows if he is joking or not. Obama pauses as if he either realizes he said something stupid or he thinks the crowd is stupid enough to applaud. I haven't figured out which.

I'm sorry, this isn't even close to being true, it isn't even believable enough to fall into the 'urban legend' category. Maybe we need a new 'Obamyth' category.

I think I'm getting old

This is one of my favorite songs right now.

I remember when I use to be like a rocker and stuff.

Wow, I guess things change.

Obama and steps toward global socialism

IBD has a great article on the Millennium Development Goal and Obama's push toward global socialism through the taxpayer's pocket.

It's a great piece, but these are my favorite snippets:

-We are citizens of the world, Sen. Obama told thousands of nonvoting
Germans during his recent tour of the Middle East and Europe. And if the Global
Poverty Act (S. 2433) he has sponsored becomes law, which is almost certain if
he wins in November, we're also going to be taxpayers of the world.

-Obama would give them all a fish without teaching them how to fish.
Pledging to cut global poverty in half on the backs of U.S. taxpayers is a
ridiculous and impossible goal.

-Never mentioned is the fact that America's population, just 5% of the
world's total, also produces a stunning 27% of the world's GDP — to the enormous
benefit of other countries.

-During a time of economic uncertainty, the plan would cost every American
taxpayer around $2,500.

This is what I am waiting for

I know a lot of people who are switching to the CFLs. Personally I hate the color of the light they produce. Plus my wife tends to get migraines from weird fluorescent lighting. Basically, I'm not a big fan.

I am waiting for LEDs and the folks at Purdue are helping out.

HT : MM

So how many were there?

Here is a great article that talks about coverage of the Obama speech in Berlin. The Obama team made claims to the media that there were 200K people there.

Other estimates were slightly smaller, by like 90%.

Nice.

Is America an Empire

I have heard it said before and it was recently brought up in a debate that America is an "empire". I don't like the term for several reasons, because it seems to me that America is anything BUT an empire, so I looked it up.

Here are the 10 definitions of "empire" offered up by dictionary.com

1. a group of nations or peoples ruled over by an emperor, empress, or other powerful sovereign or government: usually a territory of greater extent than a kingdom, as the former British Empire, French Empire, Russian Empire, Byzantine Empire, or Roman Empire.
2. a government under an emperor or empress.
3. (often initial capital letter) the historical period during which a nation is under such a government: a history of the second French empire.
4. supreme power in governing; imperial power; sovereignty: Austria's failure of empire in central Europe.
5. supreme control; absolute sway: passion's empire over the mind.
6. a powerful and important enterprise or holding of large scope that is controlled by a single person, family, or group of associates: The family's shipping empire was founded 50 years ago.
7. (initial capital letter) a variety of apple somewhat resembling the McIntosh. –adjective
8. (initial capital letter) characteristic of or developed during the first French Empire, 1804–15.
9. (usually initial capital letter) (of women's attire and coiffures) of the style that prevailed during the first French Empire, in clothing being characterized esp. by décolletage and a high waistline, coming just below the bust, from which the skirt hangs straight and loose.
10. (often initial capital letter) noting or pertaining to the style of architecture, furnishings, and decoration prevailing in France and imitated to a greater or lesser extent in various other countries, c1800–30: characterized by the use of delicate but elaborate ornamentation imitated from Greek and Roman examples or containing classical allusions, as animal forms for the legs of furniture, bas-reliefs of classical figures, motifs of wreaths, torches, caryatids, lyres, and urns and by the occasional use of military and Egyptian motifs and, under the Napoleonic Empire itself, of symbols alluding to Napoleon I, as bees or the letter N.

Which, if any, of these do you think applies to the United States?

Don't be too hard on him

One huge problem is that he isn't the chairman of the committee... or even a member of it, for that matter. Of course you can't really blame him, he has been gone from the Senate almost the entire time he has been a Senator.

Again, the talk show hosts can't find ANY material to joke about with Obama?

The EGO on this guy is something else

The whole trip has been quite the fiasco. If you have missed a single moment of it, don't worry there are about 40 different news outlets that you can go to and see every single second of Obama's trip (I think most cut to commercial when he needs to use the restroom).

From his speeches to the actions of his campaign, the size of this guy's EGO just floors me! Is this all a spin to play down the fact that the guy has no experience? If they make him larger than life does it down play the fact that his ideas are the same old liberal garbage that has been the bedrock of the Dem party for the last thirty plus years.

I think this picture said it all for me. Obama's campaign putting up campaign banners all over the grounds at the Western wall in Jerusalem. Considered one of the most sacred sites in Judaism. Aren't some places just considered inappropriate to be campaigning? Whose vote is he trying to get?

I thought Obama was above special interests?

There is a New York Times piece about Obama and his votes in the Illinois State Senate. Obama had a number of times where he voted "Present" on important issues.

One of those was an issue involving abortion. Knowing that Obama favors abortion up until the point of natural delivery (opposing a ban on partial birth abortion and even opposing a measure that would have required Doctors to care for a child if an abortion failed and the baby was born ALIVE), he still voted "Present" on some important abortion legislation. Why?

Because Planned Parenthood told him to that's why.

Here is a quote from the article.

Pam Sutherland, president of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, said Mr. Obama was one of the senators with a strong stand for abortion rights whom the organization approached about using the strategy. Ms. Sutherland said the Republicans were trying to force Democrats from conservative districts to register politically controversial no votes.

Ms. Sutherland said Mr. Obama had initially resisted the strategy because he wanted to vote against the anti-abortion measures.
“He said, ‘I’m opposed to this,’” she recalled.
But the organization argued that a present vote would be difficult for Republicans to use in campaign literature against Democrats from moderate and conservative districts who favored abortion rights.

Wow and people say Bush is stubborn

You know, if Obama could swallow his monster ego for a minute and say, "you know what, I was wrong. The surge has worked and we need to finish the job in Iraq and bring 'the surge' to Afganistan" then he would win over a big chunk of the voting block, whether he really meant it or not. The problem is that he would tick off his kook followers. Tough spot. Commi-Katie did surprisingly well trying to stick it to him though, I was impressed.

President for 8-10 years of these 57 United States

Evidently the four year presidential term will be up for debate under Obama. And the late night TV hosts can't find ANYTHING to dig on this guy about? Pa-lease!

Link: sevenload.com

Hind sight is 20/200?

Terry Moran was interviewing Obama, and to his credit, asked a real question and gave Obama the opportunity to "adjust" his position on the surge and the progress that he can now clearly SEE in Iraq. But Obama STILL doesn't get it.

The funny thing about this video is the anchors. As you watch it, the "obviously in the tank for Obama" guy says that Americans don't care about the surge, then gets put in his place by the lady. His demeanor totally changes after that. I don't think that he actually even looks up or makes eye contact with anybody after that. Homeboy got schooled.

Al Gore won, but who was the runner up?

I receive an email a couple of times a week from a guy name Edward Fudge. They are called Gracemails and they are Edward's answers to Biblical questions. Very interesting. This week was something totally different. It was not written by Edward, but by Dr. Matt Soper. I am sharing it here in it's entirety. Good stuff. Enjoy.

guest gracEmail®Dr. Matt Soper
THE PRIZE

In 2007 Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change won the Nobel Peace Prize. The runner-up was a lady named Irena Sendler, who died on May 10, 2008. I want to tell you her story.
* * *
Sendler was a social worker in Warsaw, Poland when the Germans occupied it in 1939 and herded Jewish citizens into the infamous Warsaw Ghetto (they were later transported to concentration camps). She went in and out of the Ghetto several times a day under the guise of providing humanitarian aid, persuading Jewish parents to entrust their children to her. After smuggling the children out, she found Polish families to “adopt” them until the end of the war, or entrusted them to the protection of Catholic convents. She and her underground movement provided new names and identities to the Jewish children and only she knew their whereabouts. She was ingenious in finding ways to smuggle the children out of the Ghetto, using city sewers, underground tunnels and other routes, hiding them in boxes and suitcases. She even trained a dog to bark in the back of the car so it would stifle the cries of a scared child when they passed through a German checkpoint. Ever wary of German spies and surveillance, she wrote the names of the children, their aliases, and their adopting family on cigarette papers, and buried the papers in jars in her garden.

Eventually the German Gestapo caught her, severely tortured her, and sentenced her to death. Her humanitarian organization saved her by bribing the guards transporting her to her execution. The guards left her in the woods, unconscious and with broken arms and legs, telling superiors they had shot her. She was listed on public bulletin boards as among those who had been executed, so for the remainder of the war she lived in hiding, daring not even to attend her mother’s funeral. She continued her work for the Jewish children, able to walk only with crutches. After the war, she dug up the jars and attempted to find the children and return them to their parents; most of the parents had died at the Treblinka extermination camp. She was, however, able to return almost all of the children to extended family members.
Sendler’s story circulated after the war. In 1965 she was recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations (Oskar Schindler was also recognized thus). In 2003 she received the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest civilian decoration. In 1999 a high school teacher in Kansas encouraged four of his students to investigate her life; they created a play, "Life in a Jar," that has had over 240 performances in the United States, Canada and Europe. There are plans for a movie. In my admittedly less-than-thorough investigation, I have found no indication that Irena Sendler was a religious person. Neither was Oskar Schindler. I am reminded of what the apostle Paul writes in Romans 2:14-15, that when non-believers act righteously they are in a sense confirming the image of God in which they have been created and God’s creational predisposition towards justice.

I am wondering how much people will remember global warming fifty years from now (do we remember the “ice age” scares of the 1970’s?). But lives of courage, nobility, love, charity, and sacrifice leave timeless imprints in the world._________________________

Copyright 2008 by Matt Soper, Senior Minister of West Houston Church of Christ in Houston, Texas. For a free subscription to Matt's weekly internet essay, "The Way I See It," send a message here or to TheWayISeeIt@westhoustonchurch.org , write "SUBSCRIBE" (no quotes) in subject line and reply to the confirmation message. For archives of Matt's essays, click here or go to http://mattsoper.blogspot.com .

Last couple.

Close up of the tile and carpet.

Kitchen pantry.

Laundry room... with a window :)

Backyard pics

This is a panorama type shot from the back corner.

Then switching corners to show the other side yard. Big side yards. Lots of space for pretty much anything you want. Lots of room for the dog. :)

More

The clean top stove (nice).

















Looking out from the kitchen into the dining area and living room. Vaulted ceiling, very open.



















Mater bath and closet. Shower on the left, vanity to the right. Walk in closet. Very roomy.

























Standing at the glass door looking back toward the kitchen. The front door is right near the middle of the picture.

Pictures of Granny and Papa's New House!

These pictures are for Granny's benefit because she hasn't seen her new house yet.

I have.

And it'g cool. :) Literally, the builder left the air on for us. Nice.

From across the street.

From the drive way.

The kitchen and a close up of the kitchen cabinets.

View from the kitchen sink.

Obama's Op-ed in the NYT

I must say that I was irritated at the tremendous amounts of denial and out right lies in the Op-ed from Obama in the NYT this weekend.

The guys over at the PowerLineBlog broke it down and it is a must read.

The fact is that Obama and the Dems in general were banking on the fact that the surge would fail. They were hoping for our military to be defeated. I mean, for a moment just let the reality of that sink in. The guy that wants to be the Commander in Chief of our armed forces was betting on them to lose.

Unfortunately for him, but for the benefit of the rest of the world, General David Petraues is a military genius and our troops are as tough as they are professional.

The surge worked.

The war in Iraq is being won. Obama's revisionist history doesn't change the fact that he was wrong.

Live life to the fullest

I don't want to bring anyone down on a Monday morning. But then again, its a Monday morning so it is probably the bottom of the trough for you anyway :)

But this is a great piece by Mike Gallagher, a friend of Tony Snow, who lost his wife to cancer two weeks ago. Tony and his wife had been an encouragement to each other. This is a very touching tribute from a dedicated husband to the woman he loved.

Get the Kleenex.

Another good man down

I just read that former WH press secretary (and the best one I've ever seen), Tony Snow, passed away from cancer.

You can read about Tony here. I use to listen to his radio program when it was on and he was always a very articulate and entertaining person, not to mention a very level headed conservative.

As nice as he was you would think that putting him in front of the WH press corp would be like throwing a sheep to the wolves, but Tony kept them on their toes and threw plenty of punches of his own, but in such a way that you had to like him whether you agreed with him or not.

Okay, an innappropriate person making an inappropriate comment :)

Talk radio was having a ball with this one yesterday. It isn't that people shouldn't be by-lingual. I thought it was a good idea, so I learned Spanish. My choice. This says a lot about Obama though.

- He's saying WE should all be embarrassed, when he himself doesn't speak any other languages
- The same old liberal ideology. Europe is good and enlightened and America is stupid. I've been to Europe. No, they don't all speak English (or Spanish). But imagine for a second you lived in AZ and did business with people in NM and they spoke Spanish. You'd learn Spanish. If you look at a map you'll realize that in the matter of a few hours of driving you can go through three COUNTRIES. That puts a premium on learning other languages and like I said, not ALL Europeans do it, because they don't need to.
- What people are pushing for is that all government business be conducted in English only. For the cost savings ALONE this would be beneficial.

One more completely innappropriate video for the day

Jesse Supports Barack, well okay, most of Barack...

Sorry had to post it. If you are ever on a news show, let me just tell you now, the best thing to do is assume that the mic and the camera are ALWAYS ON.

A follow up campaign comercial from McCain

This is a nice follow up to yesterday's post about Obama switching positions.

Gotta love it.

Slick little politician.

Sweet! I love to see a lib tick off his base!

While I can't say that I agree with the over all opinion and theme of this piece, but it is awfully entertaining and makes an excellent point.

For all of the fancy and empty speeches and rhetoric, Obama is the same old politician that we have seen for 232 years, but with less experience. In fact I saw another piece that totaled up the working days in the Senate between when Obama took office and when he announced his presidential bid and it was only 143 days. Classic.

Like every other politician (nothing new under the sun), Obama has been moving to the right to try and appeal to a broader electorate and try to hide his past of being the most liberal member of the senate (even if he really only worked as a Senator for 143 days :).

Even more recent than this piece he has said that partial birth abortion should remain illegal, except in cases where it affects the mother's health (never) and that he would withdraw troops from Iraq gradually and intelligently. A sharp contrast from the primary debates.

Of course I don't buy any of it. When it comes to campaign promises you really need to look at the persons record. For Obama that spells, consistently PRO-Abortion(100%), higher taxes (just to make things "fair"), increasing every kind of social program anybody every dreamed up, and cutting funding for any type of weapon or training that we would ever need for a military operation.

I hope the shine if finally off the apple. I hope people are finally starting to pay attention. Nothing new to see here folks, just your average politician speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

What a wirl!

Wow, that was an awesome weekend! Crazy, but awesome.

About a month or so ago I tried out for the Kidstuf program at SSCC. I was trying out for one of the characters, but the kids’ pastor called me up and asked me if I would be willing to do the Word. Well, it turns out the character part that I had tried out for was only in 1 show last year since they only do Kidstuf once a month right now, but the Word happens every month. I was really excited about that! I talked it over with B, who was really excited for me and so I got my first script last week. Very cool.

Well, Scott (the kids’ pastor, who does not yet blog) also asked me if I would be willing to participate in the weekly kids’ large group teaching team. I agreed to go and watch it just to see what it is like. Thursday rolled around and the person in charge of the large group called and asked if I would be willing to go ahead and be the storyteller for the large group on Sunday. Uh… I guess that would definitely give me an idea of what it is like, so I spent a good part of Friday and Saturday reading through the script. We normally go to the 10:30 service, but since I was going to be storytelling and B wanted to watch to see if she wanted to be one of the praise leaders for kids’ large group, we decided to attend the 9 am service.

I must say it was awesome. We finished the first part of the Simply Jesus series in a series. The first one was “Encounters”, this one is “Stories”. Awesome, unapologetic, straight from the word stuff. I loved it. Check it out if you get a chance (this week’s isn’t up yet, but look under the Simply Jesus category and pick any of them, they are all awesome).

Anyway, then we went to the kids’ large group and I got to be a French chef and a story teller… four times. I went through the 10:30 and 11:59 services. It was a ball. Number one I love acting like a goof ball and number two I got to teach kids about Godly virtues. It was great. The whole team in there is just awesome!

Now, on the fourth we got invited over to the leaders of the small group that we have been hanging out with. They had the most awesome set up, we went swimming and then played games. The kids had a BALL playing with the other kids, especially in the ultimate basement of kid entertainment (okay, I thought it was pretty cool too). We didn’t watch any fireworks, but we played some really fun games and met some great new friends. B and I had a ball! BTW Settlers of Catan has to be the best board game ever!

THEN Heather and Chris came over on Saturday afternoon for some taco pile up and some Phase 10 (or seven). I have to say, I REALLY hate it when I get in a rut in that game! Ugh!!

Still a lot of fun though.

Throw in three and a half hours of yard work (started at 5 in the morning on Saturday), some laundry, some house cleaning, and some prep work for the serious week of house painting that I have to do this week… and it was a pretty exhausting, but fun, weekend.

The Company We Keep

Now there is something to be said to reaching out to individuals who are hurting, lost, and outcasts. Obviously as Christians that is exactly what we are supposed to do.

However, reaching out and hanging out are two different things. Talking with a prostitute to show her that somebody cares and thinks that she means something to God and to people is one thing. Sharing her corner and signing up with her pimp is a totally different story.

On a political note; we've seen the kind of people that Obama CONTINUALLY associates with and calls friends and mentors.

Here is a video about two such people. A special husband and wife team. I've mentioned them before but this is definitely worth watching.

Do you know enough?

Part of the process of becoming a citizen of this country is learning a little about our history and our government.

Take the quiz.

How did you do?

The DNC Kicked Off Their Run Up to the Convention

The convention may be two months away, but yesterday Denver kicked off the series of festivities leading up to the convention and to get things going they had a singing of the national anthem. Check it out. What's that you say, you've never heard that song before? Well, evidently the artist/activist that was chosen to sing the song decided to use the tune from the Star Spangled Banner, but sang the words to what is known as the "Black National Anthem".

Gotta love the activist Dems appealing to main stream America.

CA Rep is Above it All

Above the bills, the mortgages, and the responsibility.



That's right... and she is a congresswoman from CA.

The best part is that YOU are paying for her $1300 a MONTH ride.

Congrats! Your tax dollars hard at work.

The Truth About Our Soldiers

The next time you hear someone deriding our troops and the war in Iraq, think about this picture for a minute.

The caption under the picture said this:

U.S. Army Task Force Regulators 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment Staff
Sgt. Fred Hampton, of Lexington, Ky., kneels on a knee to talk with a young
Iraqi boy at the future site of Regular 6 Park in the Thawra 1 section of the
Sadr City District of Baghdad on June 20. Photo: Tech Sgt. Cohen Young, Joint
Combat Camera Center Iraq.

Look closely at the picture. Living in AZ I know (partially) how incredibly HOT it must be in Iraq. Can you imagine how hot the sand and the dirt must be in the middle of the day. This is what our guys are like, he takes a knee in the dirt so that he can lean down, talk to one of the kids from the village, and offer his foot as a cooler place for little feet to stand.

I guess it's good to be king

Rush Limbaugh has quite a list of accomplishments to his credit:

- Completely changed and invigorated the entire AM dial and redefined talk radio (for starters)
- Hosts the most listened to radio show in the history of broadcasting
- Has conducted interviews on a variety of issues, obviously mainly with politicians, including multiple interviews with the president and vice president

He is on the air for three hours a day and according to the Drudge Report, currently makes about $38 MILLION a year, that's right a YEAR. If you don't count the days he takes off, which I figure come out to about four weeks a year, that comes out to about $57,000 an hour. Not too bad. Of course there is prep time in there as well, maybe another three hours a day (probably not, because he has "staff"), so that would bring his total down to $26,400 an hour.

But that was his old contract. :)

According to Drudge he just signed his new contract. It's good through 2016, that's 8 years at... $400 million. Drudge also mentioned that this included a NINE FIGURE signing bonus. NOT BAD.

That would put his hourly at... over $34,700 an hour. Nice.

According to Drudge, "Earnings now pace him ahead of the annual salaries for network news anchors: Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer — combined!"

I guess it's good to be king of the EIB Network.

Rush on.

Capt Ivan Castro

I love to read stories about our troops. I believe that we have not only the best trained and equipped fighting force that the world has ever known, but the most honorable one as well. The stories are touching. I'm not an emotional person at all, but the stories of these men, who not only live their lives in service to our country, but live their lives in such a brave and admirable fashion are amazing.

Capt. Ivan Castro is one such man. You can read his story here. He is the walking epitome of determination. His story is inspiring because his life is inspiring.