This guy is certifiably batshit insane.

Truly, there is no other way to describe him.

Bush vs. Clinton: Joke Telling

It's a New Day

Time in Perspective

This is good or bad depending on how long the last 70 days have been for you...

As of this Sunday, Bush will have exactly as many days left in office as there have been since the day Sarah Palin was announced as McCain's running mate. - 72 to be exact.

I actually don't feel like she was on the national scene very long so this is good news to me!

MSNBC Live Election Day Feed

Ed Helms teaches us about voting.

Grandmothers

It is no secret that I am a fan of Senator Obama. I admire much of what he stands for both as a person and as a symbol for what this nation has been, is and can be. But what has fascinated me the most about his campaign has not been his proposals or his opinions, no matter how much I may agree with them.

It has been Toot.

In many ways the relationship that Barack Obama has had with his grandmother reminds me of my own experience. I should preface this by noting that all of my grandparents and my father have been an incredible source of strength and love and support. But after my mom decided to estrange herself from me, it was my dad's mother who really filled out that maternal role in my life. When she passed away in 2004 it was one of the strangest swirl of emotions that I have ever faced. On the one hand, I had moved in with her prior to her needing to live in a hospice care center, and had witnessed the horrible spread of cancer as it came out of remission and spread from her breasts, to her other organs, bone marrow, and finally to the brain. I was happy to see her released from pain and dementia. On the other hand, I lost one of the most important people in my life.

When I heard that Senator Obama was suspending his campaign to go visit his grandmother in Hawaii, all those phantom emotions of grief and pain resurfaced. Because while he has had to remain cool and confident on the campaign trail, I know the other thoughts that have been hanging around out back. Anyone who has lost someone significant to them knows those thoughts. Grief is not aware of our work schedules, it does not listen to us when we want to escape into a movie theater. The pangs of loss always rear their head at our most triumphant moments. So, if he is elected tomorrow, then as he gives his acceptance speech, I guarantee that Toot will be in his mind whether he mentions her or not. The same will go for the inaugural address. For me it was the moment I received my acceptance letter to Fuller, and then again when I received my diploma. Me-maw, and Pa-Paw were there, and the grief rose up, and then joy mixed with it, leaving the wonderful mix of emotion the makes your stomach turn sour and your tear ducts moisten.

At the end of it all, this shared experience is not enough for me to vote for him. If the stories were reversed, I would not be casting a vote for McCain because of shared experience. But it nonetheless picks up the thrill of voting tomorrow and takes it to a different place. One that is surely more emotional, but one that will hopefully end in the happiness that would be an Obama Victory.

Once again I have managed to say very little in a whole lot of words, so here is Senator Obama speaking about his current experience of sorrow earlier tonight. As usual, he does a much better job :)

Full-Length/Percentage View of the Race

This graph is supposed to show undecideds, Nader, and Barr voters as well, but it isn't cooperating. Anyway, Nader and Barr make up 3% of the vote, which leaves 4% as undecideds. If the current numbers are true, then McCain could get all the undecideds and still lose the popular vote. Of course, it is the key states that matter, but McCain's chances are slim overall.

For the best explanations of the how the polls work and what the likely outcomes are, I wholeheartedly recommend www.fivethirtyeight.com No one out there has done such an extensive look at the polling this campaign.

Jon Stewart Continues being Awsome Personified

In a related note, I read an article somewhere in my myriad of rss feeds about how an Obama win would affect Shows like The Daily Show and Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann because of how the shows have largely benefited due to their opposition to W. It is my hope that the DS in particular would continue pointing out the absurdities of government, including an Obama administration. Nonetheless it will be interesting to see how they adjust.

Charles

Forget Joe the Plumber, I wanna hear more about Bozo the Clown!

Christian Stewardship & Government Welfare

This is a great reminder of why the church cannot view government as a major solution to its mission in the world. I appreciate the emphasis they put on the need for personal interaction and sacrifice. Throwing money at the problem without the necessary relationship is not really something that works. I would still say that our government, and our churches both have a responsibility to look after the homeless and poor of our country, what it seems is needed however, is a new look at how we go about that.

Wazzup?!?

Richie Cunningham, The Fonz, Opie and Andy Griffith for Barack Obama

Regardless of which side you are on in this election, this is a pretty darn good clip.

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

No Ma'am- Yours is not the Christianity *I* know.

This kind of ignorance, intolerance, and lack of love bears no reflection of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the kind of approach that has nothing to do with the Kingdom of God and should be rejected outright.

Powell Endorses Obama

Endorsements don't always translate into higher poll numbers, but what strikes me about Colin Powell's endorsement is that he has probably put forth the most thoughtful refutation of things the McCain camp has argued or done. In particular his thoughts on the Muslim issue line up pretty well with what I wrote the other day, but also his refutation of the socialist charge in the second video is also very good.

California's Proposition 8- Gay Marriage Ban

In case you haven't noticed, there is another big issue being voted on in November out in California. Earlier this spring, the California Supreme Court ruled that it was against their state constitution to prohibit gay marriage. There is currently a proposition on the ballot that would reinstate the ban.

The rhetoric says that this is to protect 'traditional marriage' and keep it sacred. Well I would strongly disagree. First of all, there is no governmental authority in the history of the world which can preside over the holiness of marriage. The sacredness of marriage is under the authority of the church which is under the authority of Jesus Christ. So here I would say when it comes to marriage, the church needs to stop relying upon government to pass laws to please its will, but rather to be the church and change hearts from within.

Secondly, there is no such thing as traditional marriage. what most people are referring to when they say this is the two-parents, two-kids and a pet stereotype that arose after WWII. To be sure there are many families with this set-up, but there are also as many different combinations of families as you can think of. The rate of divorce in America is outrageous, with children growing up in all sorts of broken homes, or with grandparents and other relatives as guardians. When the church can't even conform to this 'traditional family' template, how can they even think about deciding others should too? I would also add that Christians are not the only people who inhabit this country and to presume that what we feel our religion teaches should be applied to all is not a good way to go about things.

Thirdly, if we are going to look at this from a biblical perspective, then I think the proponents of Prop 8 come to the wrong conclusion here too. I cannot stress enough that the Jesus the Bible reveals is one which sought to love everyone regardless of their actions (to speak against sin yes, but to love first. Always to love first), and furthermore, to seek out the lost, and outcast of society and bring them into the fold. In our day GLBT people are most definitely in that category. Anyone who would argue that they have not faced great hatred, discrimination and unfair or violent treatment in America is just not paying attention. So I do believe that Jesus would be seeking to care for them, and heal their pains as well.

This leads me to my fourth point. I believe it is possible to care for and love our neighbors as Christ and seek their welfare (i believe this is at the heart of the gospel no?) while still being true to our faith. I am not arguing that the Bible casts homosexuality in a positive light. However, it is a relatively small topic within scripture as compared to issues of caring for the poor, loving your neighbor, etc. Furthermore, I do not believe homosexuality is a sin which disqualifies one from being a Christian anymore than adultery, murder, pride or even terrorism do. Sin separates us from God, however, if it stopped there, none of us would be able to call ourselves Christians. If Jesus can offer forgiveness to Paul after the things he did, then I have no trouble offering it to anyone else. How they respond is not on my head, but even so, Jesus won't stop pursuing them with unbridled love and acceptance.

Finally, in light of the idea that we are to seek justice for our neighbors, and the outcasts, I feel a much more acceptable solution would be to recognize that the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world (in our case the US government) are not intertwined in such a way that we think that passing the right laws makes us a christian nation. Here is where the separation of church and state is more important than ever. the Church cannot declare the actions of the state holy, and the state cannot have a say in what the church defines as holy. So, instead of passing bans against gay marriage, there should be two separate things which happen. First, the state should only have the authority to preside over civil unions. I believe these should be regardless of sexual orientation, but they should provide any couple the same tax rights as well as things like insurance, hospital visitation and other ways the state handles unions. It should address all of the civil rights issues of homosexuals, ensuring that every citizen of this country is equal under the law. Then, the state needs to offer protection to religious institutions which allows them to make their own decisions on whether to sanctify marriage according to their beliefs and traditions. Hate speech and thoughtful decisions based upon scriptures are two different things, and the a church's decision to decline the rite of marriage to homosexuals should not be equated with hate. Of course, for this to work, churches would have to be acting as the body of Christ among homosexuals too. It is not an excuse to dehumanize them in any way.

Obviously this solution is going to ruffle feathers on both sides of the debate, but it is one I have been seeing proposed in more and more places lately, and I truly feel that it is one which allows us to care for homosexuals, affirming their humanity, while also acting out our faith within our churches.

This post has already been much longer than I had expected and I am sure I have left out a lot of points i might normally make in conversation. Below I have posted a few ads from both sides of the issue for anyone interested.


YES on Prop 8 Ads





NO on Prop 8 ads:

And I thought the last one was depressing...

The only thing missing from this video is what the protesters were saying across the street. I am not sure it would have reached the same height of ridiculousness, but I am sure it was less than loving as well.



Each person on this video is someone Jesus came to die for, each one of them is precious in his sight. May the Lord break through all of this putrid and vile hatred from both sides with his peace, love, and understanding. May we stop losing our own humanity as we deny others their own.

George Wallace was the wrong comparison

Joseph McCarthy is more like it.




I actually caught this episode of Hardball Live tonight, and seeing it a second time confirms to me that Michelle Bachmann is only taking what has been an implicit message of the McCain campaign and making it about as explicit as one can get.

Later in the program a guest described Bachmann's remarks as fascist. I don't think that does anything to help the debate either, but what is clear is that once again the Republican tactic is to create an us vs. them mentality where anyone who disagrees with them is either:

a) un-American
b) elitist
c)unholy/un-Christian
d) a terrorist
or e) (in the case of senator Obama) all of the above and then some!

While there are definitely democrats who would like to do the same thing, I feel the difference is that we are talking about party radicals in that case as opposed to a full frontal assault by almost all republicans all the way to the top of the ticket. This to me is a huge difference and one which prevents me from even considering the McCain campaign.

When you couple this appearance with the robocalls all over the nation and Governor Palin stating that she loved to visit the 'pro-America' parts of the country today (of course this statement was walked back later when they realized what she had said), you get the equivalent of a modern day Red Scare.

Proof that they can both be civil!

Both of these videos are good for a laugh. After a rough debate the night before, it is good to see that they both really can have a sense of humor about it all. Now...if only they could take that sense of humor and civility and keep it up for the last 2 1/2 weeks.

John McCain's sense of humor is not enough for me to vote for him, however it is enough to remind me why I wanted him to win back in 2000 in the first place. It still is doubtful that he will win, but it is my hope that if he were to win, he would return to his old self. One of the things that really made me angry about both Bush terms were his repeated campaign pledges of bipartisanship that were tossed aside soon after taking office. In the case of a McCain win, I do think he could work with democrats again, but it is going to take a lot of work to undo the damage he has done during the present campaign.

Anyway, enjoy the brief respite from the negativity!

McCain's Remarks:


Obama's Remarks: