Love is?

What an interesting day I have had. My “in” box of work was full to overflowing, so I came in early to delete some of the chores I had to do, before I got more chores to do. Well, that didn't work out. Waiting on my doorstep was more work to do. Which, if I were to be a nice guy, I would have to do first. Since I am pre-disposed to being nice…now I am working franticly to expunge the workload. When ten o'clock came around I stopped to check out Tim and Jerry’s Experimental Blog and decided to pen a few words, well not “pen” actually “process” a few words. My how our language has twisted.

I wish I could just come in and "delete" my chores! Ha ha ha! I think you've demonstrated another way the language has changed. We "delete" items off our to-do list. At our house, we "pause" board games. Ah, the computer age.

“THEY” have twisted it by just accepting misappropriated words; take for instance the word love. "I love my new truck", "I love Italian food", and "I love my wife" are all said with the same breath. Reality is that my new truck I find handy and usable, Italian food is extremely enjoyable, and I adore my wife. Accuracy is lost in the word love; this is so deplorable for love has some of the most noble of features. Love is sacrificing, sometimes to the death. Love can help someone endure great suffering. It inspires kindness, prepares our food, and fills our souls with contentment. For me, Love is above all and undeniably the most important aspect of my life.

You won't get any argument from me with stuff like that! I couldn't agree more.

Herein contained are more thoughts you may just love?

Egads, what a sentence!

“Love is never having to say you’re sorry”, according to some brainless philosopher. The truth is Love is saying you’re sorry for everything for any micro-compulsion of distaste. For example:

Hmmmm... I'm not sure about that. Perhaps the brainless philosopher meant to say that Love means never requiring an apology. I'm not sure about a relationship in which one must continually be apologizing for every "micro-compulsion of distaste".
“I’m sorry I didn’t say ‘excuse me’ when I farted.”
“I’m sorry I said ‘farted’ in mixed company.”

“I’m sorry I reacted poorly to your tirade.”
“I’m sorry I said tirade when I should have said … something kinder.” (Really there is no kinder word)

“I’m sorry you mistook my exuberance for anger.”
“I’m sorry you are right, I was angry.

Oh my, that hits close to home.

But of course that second statement is really a lie. When you say that, you are just trying to get out of the conversation without really dealing with the larger issue which caused your exuberance to be mistaken for anger. Trust me, I've been there.

There is an evil Me. I keep him pinned up inside and only allow him to talk if I need some humor in my life.

Evil Me might say.

“Yes I farted, and what did you want me to do, hold it until I went all Hindenburg on you?”

“Oh, I understand, there is only one person in this family who is allowed to erupt like the mouth of Mt. St. Helens.”

“It was exuberance, I only said it was anger to shut your pie hole.”

There now, the "Evil You" speaks the real truth!

If my wife is reading this, none of these refer in anyway to you…that is, I’m sorry that you thought in any way, shape, or form that these statements were referring to you. O.K. I apologize for intimating you’re anything less than the perfect person you are. Forgive me?

Carole, I think Jerry needs some time in the "Pain Room". Several hours should suffice, and turn up the Neural Neutralizer.

Open mouth, process foot. Evil Me be quiet now.

All this reminds me of that old Star Trek episode where Kirk gets split into his "good" half and his "evil" half. As I recall he needed both sides to function well.

Here is another way to say it:

If I speechify with the words that inspire men to greatness, and have not love I am as significant as a butterfly’s belch at Niagara Falls.

If I could foretell of future disasters, and understand puzzles and figure everything out; and don’t love, I am a pimple on the butt of humanity. If I could ask God to move a mountain and He did it; without love I am less than road kill.

If I was rich and gave it all away to help someone in need, and actually ran into a burning house to find my neighbors cat. At the same time if I didn’t love the right way, my burning up means nothing.

Love puts up with someone. Love gives you a Popsicle on a hot day. Love doesn’t want what someone else has got, or brag about the stuff he has or thinks of himself as a “betterthanyou”.

Love is not pushing his way in, just looking to get, or is he easy to get mad, and when he is mad he shrugs his shoulders and lets by-gones be by-gones.

Love is sad when the someone gets hurt, but when someone gets smarter, he’s as happy as a dog in a dumpster.

Love stands in front of someone in danger, goes out on a limb for someone, wants only good things to happen for others, and sticks it out to the end.

When you love someone everyone always wins.

This is a complete knock-off of First Corinthians Chapter Thirteen, verses 1 through 8a.
For the real thing read this.

Excellent!

I don’t think God has his nose up at me, for re-saying it this way.

Love is grand.

P.S. I finished writing this at lunch time, and I am mostly caught up with my work.

A Brokeback Vendetta?

"The Matrix" is one of my all-time favorite movies, and their sequels, while far from great did at least provide a fun diversion, so on the strength of the Wachowski brothers' record I went and saw "V for Vendetta" last weekend.

Ok, so the hero of the movie is a terrorist who blows up buildings. I knew that going in. He only blew up empty buildings, and only killed the "bad guys", so I had no problem with that really. It was symbolic -- a statement he was making -- I got that. (Even though I never could buy mere vengeance as a noble cause to root for.)

You and I are different for sure. I find it hard listing all the things I know about a movie as things I find offensive, and then going to see the movie anyway. I am a big fan of Tom Hanks for he has procuced some of the most memorable moments in movie history. However, I am not going to go see The Da Vinci Code. I do not wish to contribute one dime to a person who would defame anyones basic beliefs. This desire to defame is malicious and unkind.

You may have misunderstood me. I did not say that I found any of these things "offensive". When the kids leave their dirty underwear in the hallway, I find it offensive. Ideas are not offensive to me. In fact, I love a movie that presents almost any idea WELL. I love to have my thoughts provoked. That's what I was hoping for here, going in.

I make it a point to see movies and read books that present points of view different from my own.

The Da Vinci Code is a whole 'nother ball-o-wax. I read the book. With regard to presenting its ideas well, it excels. I am a little interested to see what the movie does with some of the ideas in the book. I've read that they are diluting the ending to make the film more palatable to Christian audiences. If they do this, it will be the first time I've ever heard of a Hollywood movie changing the source material in that direction.

And the future is run by a neo-Christian fundamentalist/fascist regime that persecutes Muslims. I knew that going in, too. I was prepared for that. All stories about dystopian futures are about pressing the current ideologies to their uttermost extreme. They try to show us ourselves at our worst. They try to warn us away from an ugly future by showing us what we would look like. Portraying a future run by Muslim extremists would not serve that purpose.

What I was not really prepared for was the whole "Brokeback" aspect.

Must every movie now be about gays and lesbians?

I'm sorry, call me a homophobe or whatever, but I just cannot buy homosexuality as a noble way of life. During my stint here on earth, I've known several people with what I would call "gender confusion issues", and I've never seen it be a good thing.

I wonder if there is a term for being disgusted about a thing or attitude like "homogusted". This constant and continuous unrelenting desire to force the whole "gay" thing in the limelight has me homogusted.

I don't think there is such a term... but apparently there is now.

And besides that, I just don't understand it. I'm sorry all you noble-minded, good-hearted gay people out there, but I just don't. Let me explain.

In a pinch, I will sometimes use the handle of a screwdriver as a hammer. I've done it, I admit. I'm either too lazy to walk out to the shed and get the hammer, or I don't know where a hammer is. Either way, I know I am using the screwdriver for a purpose it was not designed for. I know that it is going to be a little more difficult to drive the nail in with the screwdriver handle. It will take a lot of extra swings, and I will miss the head or glance off it at an odd angle many times. I accept that as the cost of using the tool for a purpose it was not designed for.

When I am using a screwdriver this way, I accept the difficulties and hazards and so forth as part of the package. My reasoning is that the difficulties involved in using the screwdriver's handle to drive my nails are less troublesome to me than the difficulty of getting up and finding my hammer.

All this is simply to say, if a person has what we might call "male parts", how can he say he's meant to use them with other guys? I don't get it. If a person has "girl parts" how am I to believe that she is meant to use them with other females? It seems to me as absurd as a man trying to make an argument that driving nails is the proper use of a screwdriver.

I acknowledge your right to do with your tools what you want, but if you make it a practice to use your screwdriver to drive your nails, and try to use your kitchen knives to turn your screws -- I mean if you are able to convince yourself that this is the right and proper way for you to use these tools -- you are going to have a hard time getting anything done.

I'm not trying to judge anyone here. All moral issues aside, really. You can use your screwdrivers to drive nails if you want to. That's not the point. It seems that society today is trying to make us believe that driving nails is a perfectly proper use for a screwdriver - on an equal footing with screwing screws, and I just can't see it. Look at the darn things! They have a specific and well-defined function for which they are obviously designed. I can certainly understand a person might have the desire to use his tools for purposes contrary to their design, but why must we go the next step, beyond reason, it seems to me, and try to believe that they were designed for these other uses? I just can't.

I wish everyone to note I did not use the screwdriver/hammer analogy.

So you disagree? I thought it was a good analogy....

Now back to the movie.

I could not buy V's "cause" as anything but a visceral desire for revenge, and so I didn't really buy the public support for him. I think the writers could have made their story better if they had made V a believer in something. As it was, V was nothing more than a person who had been sorely mistreated and wanted to get back at the specific people who had wronged him. While this is certainly a good movie motive, and it worked well in "The Bourne Identity" , it did not work here because the story was trying to be something grander than a revenge story. Can you imagine if at the end of "Bourne" we saw thousands of people marching on Washington demanding that Mr. Bourne be given his due, and heard some lofty speech about how Jason Bourne was "my father and my mother, my brother and my sister... he is me, and you, and everyone...", etc. Ugh. It doesn't make any sense.

And where were the great fight scenes I'd read about? When V finally gets down to kicking butt, it's just some slow-motion knifing, and a lot of squirting blood. It was underwhelming after seeing the showdown between Neo and Agent Smith in the Wachowski's last movie.

All in all, I cannot recommend this movie at all. It's not even a thought provoking story, unless you count thinking about all the ways it failed. If you want to see Hugo Weaving in a great movie, go see The Matrix again. If you want to see Hugo Weaving be great in an average movie, see the Matrix sequels.

Even after you chose to afflict yourself with Hollywood's christogusted movie, I am sorry you had to go through that.

Thoughts from a Passive Observer

There was a family filled with unending, incomprehensible trauma. One cycle followed the other with greater intensity; trauma after trauma was inflicted on the family members with the ending results being a lifetime of guilt and oppression. I knew the family well but only after the children were pretty well grown. After they had gotten to know me well some of them were comfortable enough to talk to me. I watched, knowing what had happened to them, and with a great amount of sorrow I tried to speak my concern. It was a concern of a twenty two year old kid then, and it held exactly that much weight. I was a passive observer to disaster.

Passively observing I wept.

Issues of mental health, issues of child molestation, issues of violent rages all inflicting their miserable soul-killing frustration on the family. Days passed into months and months into years; now I am almost twice the age I was then and I still see the ruins of hope for happiness lying in shambles around their lives. Fear has overwhelmed.

Mental disease and molestation and violence have become an unwelcome portion of their lifestyle. It is in their dreams and their adult relationships. Testing and twisting new relationships out of sorts. It draws the strength inexorably from those around and grows worries and fears within loved ones. This pain is as virulent as the bubonic plague. It is an ugly as hurtful as it can get. The offender is now long dead. His lips do not speak deception and intensity anymore. His psyche does not rape anymore. His temper cannot volcano anymore. His sins carry all of his evil now. (see picture above, left)

Passively observing I weep.

I could have become more aggressive, and become interfering. However I would have been shouted down. I would have been ostracized and ultimately shunned, and the good that I would have done would have melted into a puddle of deeper sorrow. Humans bent on evil and family members bent on love are the most tenacious defenders of the status quo. Better the devil you know…

I recognize that God is capable of “laying down the law”. He could simply do away with the piece of trash human and set things aright. He could adjust the brainwave patterns. He could antabuse the offender. But that is not what happens. God seems to passively observe. Helping when He can. Teaching when He can. Being a confidant when He can. Being a friend and father to those who will let Him.

Your god sounds like a kindly old gentleman in an old-folks home. He can't really help anyone, can't really accomplish anything, but he tries -- "when he can". Listen to that! "When he can..."! Let's hear it for this nice, old god... he's trying! Maybe he'll give you his shoulder to cry on, "when he can"!

Never let it be said I cannot be unclear, but also never let it be said I will not try to be clearer. God acts when He can, and when he has to (can I hear a testimony brother Jonah).

And who is this "peice of trash human"?! God could "do away" with him and "set things right"? Your god sounds like a Nazi, only Hitler at least had the balls to DO something, rather than sit by and lamely watch the "trash" muck up the world.

I think God has a desire to interfere as little as possible with the ways of man He does not wish to look like a bully like Satan ( do I have a testimony brother Job?)

Why not SAVE the poor guy? Isn't that what God is supposed to be doing with the lost? I thought he came "to seek and to save", not "seek and destroy".

Their rebellion was what caused them to be lost in the first place. If they continue in their rebellion is God obligated to save them?

It really sounds like your trying to make excuses for why, as you say, "God seems to passively observe." I agree that it seems that way, but I reject your explanation.

I've known people like the one you describe, as you may know. I would prefer to believe that when they are released from their flawed mind, which contorted and constricted their thoughts, they find themselves finally able to see things as they really are and with the shakles off they are able to commune with God and find peace.

If a person is born with a flawed brain -- with chemical imbalances or what have you -- that make it virtually inevitable that he will fail in life, who's really responsible for his actions? That is a hard, but very important, question that Christianity has tried to brush off for 2000 years.

This is a large question, one that is specific to each case as well as trying to devine what is God's responsibility to his creation or his children. I don't think it is "brushed off" as much as it is impossible to answer in general terms.

Who is responsible for the path that a train takes? The man who sits in the engine, or the one who laid down the tracks?

And the truth is that we are ALL born with flawed brains. The flaws work like deep-worn grooves that are impossible for us to escape on our own. That's where God comes in.

There appears within this behavior a built in “ugly factor” He will look ugly ( see picture to the left) if He interferes and ugly if He doesn’t interfere.

I disagree. Interference from God is a wonderful thing. Would that I saw more of it! And less of the sham that men use to exploit our hopes!

So He chooses the way He sees will do the most good. He passively observes and compassionately responds.

I'm sorry Jerry, if you are "passively observing" you are NOT "compassionately responding". The two are opposites. If I see my brother have need, and "passively observe", what good does it do? None. If I compassionately respond, I am not passive, but active.

I could be wrong, it just seems that way to me.

You could be, and in this case, you are. But I still love you. ;-) Right back at ya kiddo.

I know, you may not wish to think of these things. You may wish to mentally and passively observe.

I hope that all the people who want to bring about good things in this world do not choose to "mentally and passively observe".

Now to a lighter side: The sunsets in Idaho have been marvelously colorful this late winter early spring. Reminding me of my favorite Ziggy cartoon. The sun was rising and Ziggy was admiring the beauty. The sub title read: “Way to go God!” In my thinking lately I have been thinking a lot about praise. Ziggy was praising God with the single exclamation. Giving credit where credit was due. Since praise is so important to God that He “inhabits praise”, maybe praise for one another is important. Maybe praise is part of the answer to some of the SIN in the world. Maybe less fighting will occur if praise replaces it. I was just thinking it would be hard to punch someone in the face who is always telling you about how they admire what you have done or who you are.

While I agree that a beautiful sunrise is a wonderful thing, and smile whenever I see that Ziggy cartoon, I must say that I am conflicted about this. I guess I'm not quite ready to lighten up.

Oh, come on give God a break will ya?

A colorful sunrise is caused by the refraction of the sun's light by billions of drops of water in the air, and helped along by various impurities in the air. It may be somewhat mysterious to you and me, and it may be a complete mystery to some, but it is really no mystery to mankind in general. While I can give God credit for creating a world in which lovely sunrises are possible, I know too much to think that God actively or consiously "creates" each one.

What would you think of a great artist who devotes all his time to creating great works of art while his own children starve to death? Would you praise him for his art? Could you? What if he only occasionally created truly great art, but most of the time he just painted the canvas flat gray?

Could you imagine a painting that always morphed, and had a mind of it's own whose only peramiters for change is the paint on the canvas. What a world.

All this pie in the sky might be poopy in the eye.

It might be. I know I'm all screwed up.

If we need to be told to do something, we don’t do it naturally. This means we would need to purpose to do it.

True!

If you like my blog ideas, leave a comment. I am a sufferer of praise-achiest. (I ache if I don’t get some praise). Yes, I know that’s nuts. Welcome to my world.

Jerry, you are a fun person to argue with! And that's high praise coming from me!

As Og the troglodyte might say, “praise good”.

And if you take away the "O" from "good" you get "God", but if you take away the "D" from "devil" you get "evil". See where I'm going with that? If you do, seek psychiatric help!

Insanity and me

What a day it has been, insanity has taken a step closer to me. Michael Douglas is criticizing Brangelina!!! Pot is black, kettle is black, and nothing has changed!!! Lest you think I really care, I don't!!!!!! My son told me that my college professor was wrong; you should use an exclamation mark!!! if you wish to emphasize the statement you are trying to make. My professor said your statement should be emphatic enough that there is no need for an exclamation mark. Tell me what you think.

1. There's a tornado!
2. That dad gum thing just picked up my house and spit it out like a preacher spits out sinners.

Jerry, we are living in the era of instant messaging. Your son's professor is lucky to get his students to write whole words, much less sentences. You can't expect today's young people to write out complex, meaningful thoughts, when they routinely spend hours of time writing stuff like this.

Brangelina is a smashed together form of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. From now on I wish my wife and I to be called Jerole. (Carole, and Jerry) Molly and Tim would Timolly. My stomach is retching. My life is way to short for such compound names.
Who ever invents these: get a life!!! andStop it!!!!

O. K. no more !!!

On the contrary! My life is too short to have to say "Jerry and Carole".... You are Jerole to me from now on! It's the ultimate in conjugal unity!

Really this is interesting coming from a coupled smashed name like Timolly, which sounds like Mexican food entree'.

LOL! You're right! I didn't notice that... and I love Timollies!

Dress up Tell me how you feel about this one. Think before you participate.

Wow. That's awful. However it makes me proud of my religious heritage that no one is rioting anywhere or bombing anything or killing anyone over this. Imagine if someone put up a similar site depicting Mohammed? How many would die?

I see they have managed to find a way to get Zacarias Moussaoui out of the death penalty, sad state of affairs that one. See previous blogs to see how I feel about that miscreant.

I'm not so sure of that. News articles as recent as this morning say that the case is still in court. Of course the defense is going to come up with something. That's their job.

I have a theory for the reason men sometime refrain from getting directions, and it is contrary to popular feminine belief. It has been my experience that verbal directions (and this is, for the most part, all you can hope for) has most of the time been confusing and inadequate. Take for example: That's an easy one, just go down this street till you get to the first stop light. That's Jefferson street Ain't that right, Joe Bob, Jefferson street is the first light? Uh huh, that's right, Jefferson Street. Well doesn't matter. That's a one way and you can't turn on it anyway. Just keep going for three or four more lights, turn left go say ¼ of a mile and you'll see a Church with a tall steeple. That's the Methodist church; anyway the next street is Larson Lane. Turn on that, it's a one way but it is going the way you need to go. Four or five blocks on Larson you'll come to a cul-de-sac whose name I don't remember but just after that is the Road you need turn left about a ½ mile and there's Wal-Mart.

I will without a doubt turn on Jefferson Street: The one way to nowhere.

You hit the nail on the head! How I hate that!

I do not understand rainbows. How do they form? I am having a hard time understanding that the prism effect comes from light beams shining through raindrops. My mind cannot wrap around the concept. However; I am content seeing a rainbow. I do not have to wrap my mind around the visual effect rainbow. I just smile and say, ahh.

Love that site! I spent almost half an hour looking at all the cool pictures of rainbows and rainbowy things. Cool. There are so many amazing things in the world.

Gravity is the same way. Have you ever paid attention to the way things fall? Even the rapid descent of a cannon ball is a masterful thing to behold. A strap falling off of a load on the back of a semi-truck, watching the wriggling looping contortions cascading to the ground truly in defies anyone ability to express in words. It happens fast so you either have to pay close attention or have a camera handy.

Gravity is easy to explain: the world sucks. the sun sucks. the universe sucks.

I do some landscaping on the side. Last week I pointed out to my son how life is tenacious. There was a rock with a crack; inside this tiny fissure an elm seed had propagated and had grown to 5 inches in height. It had managed to survive the grueling high desert heat with little water, and no soil. Life is such a precious thing; it will tenaciously grasp even the smallest chance at survival. Would that all people saw and respected and encourage this tenacity. Human life is no different. Randal McCloy Jr., a coal miner in a cave in West Virginia is a fine example. I heard he finally went home to his family yesterday.

And yet life is so fragile. And sometimes death seems so arbitary. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, every year about 1400 children die in the U.S. due to unintentional drowning. 91% of these are not related to boating. These are infants and small children that drown unattended in bathtubs and swimming pools. Unintentional drowning is the second leading cause of death among toddlers 12-24 months old. What's going on here? If life is so precious, why does it hang by so slender a thread?

Life: Hang in there baby.

Life is a thing of beauty.

But gravity sucks. Doesn't that just about say it all?

Driving from the Passenger's Seat

My wife insists that driving from the passenger seat of the car is the proper role for a wife. This way she can concentrate on the important things: the mistakes I make. She can do this without having to be bothered with things like paying attention to her own business.

Amen, brother! Preach on!

There are a few things that are particularly distressing to me regarding this. Can a person really overcome the predilection of wincing when the person next to you is making the sucking/hissing sound that proclaims peril is near? I am fairly certain that this is genetic, prehistoric or something like that. Will this lead to a creation/evolution debate? Also doesn't a person already feel they are completely inept when, absent-mindedly and completely innocently, they miss the turn everyone is diligently looking for? Does it really need to be pointed out? And why is it that I realize I missed the turn twelve seconds after her, and two seconds before she starts to point it out? Is this bane or blessing? Feels like bane to me; blessing to her.

What really burns me up is that just when I need her to say something, she'll clam up and I'll get into an accident, or get pulled over or something! Then she'll use that to justify future passenger-seat driving!

On the same subject did you happen to notice that from the passenger seat objects appear closer than they are? Definitely true, for the hissing/sucking sound is most profoundly utilized when danger is four or five blocks away.

I hope you do not misunderstand me. This becomes a source of entertainment. My wife realized the peril that she is reacting to is really non-existent, and after the sucking/hissing sound has dissipated she sheepishly says, "Sorry." Whereupon I smile and say, "That's O.K." Big of me, huh?

Life is grand. It is indeed.

RFID Implants and the End of the World

Greetings to all who read this.

Last week I read a story in the Seattle Times (or maybe it was the PI... Anyway, it was the paper some guy had left at the table in the Taco Time) about a man near here who has implanted an RFID chip in his hand, and rigged his car and house to it, so that he can open his car doors and his house with a wave of his hand. It has other features too -- for example, I think it has his emergency medical information on it.

When I was younger, I had heart problems. Because my heart slowed to 19 beats per minutes while I slept, they installed a pacemaker inside my chest and just underneath the skin. It really was an amazing device. It not only controlled the rhythm of my heart, it could sense when my heart was misfiring and add additional beats to compensate for the irrythmia. Also, they could adjust the micro-voltage to give just the right amount of electricity to make the heart beat as well as the duration of the micro-voltage. The doctors could adjust all of these things with a device outside of my body.

During the years that I had pacemakers, the inventors were enthusiastically changing and improving the device to be more manageable, to do more and be better at what it could do.

The point is, sure, it will open the door and let you into your computer, but in a few years.... maybe it will open your bowels and shut off your breathing!

Hmm, I realize that sounds a little paranoid, but just a little.

The article went on to talk about the rising new fad of getting RFID implants. Now that all the young people (men and women) are comfortable with all kinds of body piercings, tattooings and so forth, the new edgy thing is to get RFID implants. I guess there are several hundred people in the U.S. with these things now, and it's on the rise.

The possible application of these gadgets is endless. Apart from identification and door-opening and car-starting, they could contain credit card information and a whole host of other stuff from library cards to gamertags. Perhaps they could make identity theft more difficult.

Now, as I read this, the first thing I thought about, as any Christian of my generation would, was the "Mark of the Beast". From the time I was out of diapers, I've been hearing predictions about evil computer chip implants. Does anyone remember the film "A Thief in the Night"? In that film it wasn't an implant, but some kind of computer-readable code stamped on the skin. I remember a funny sketch from a 70's Christian comedy group called "Isaac Air Freight" where an angel in heaven is planning out the end of the world, and talks about how convenient it will be to get a computer chip implant in the right hand so that you won't have to carry credit cards or cash around.

As I continued to read, I thought about how things have changed. Christian young people today have not seen "A Thief in the Night", and if they did, they'd probably spend most of the time laughing at the bad acting, 70's hippy-music, and silly stamped-on computer code (everyone apparently gets the same code, which doesn't make much sense). Today we have "Left Behind" and the ultra-crappy "Omega Code" which do not seem to evoke the same response.

Does anyone leave the theater after seeing "Left Behind" and lay awake all night in fear that the rapture will come? I don't think so. Yet I can attest that millions of teenagers sat in stark terror as the credits rolled after "A Thief in the Night". It seemed like the rapture was probably going to happen tomorrow, or next week. Certainly before the end of the year!

I started wondering then whether young people today would even make the same connections that I do when thinking about this. The world has evolved a lot since I was young. Today I routinely see conservative Christian men sporting ear-rings and pony-tails. I know of a conservative evangelical pastor of a large church in the Bible-belt who (at least for a while) wore a pony-tail and an ear-ring. This is the same man whom I once heard preach for 30 minutes on why Christian men should not grow facial hair!

Today's Christians just don't seem to care about the things we obsessed about when I was young.

In my world, I see the younger generation more concerned about living a life with God in the center, this is their obsession. It is wonderful to see.

Wow, Jerry! You're being nicer than usual here. Did you have pancakes for breakfast? Is this the new Jerry?

But seriously, I'm not saying anything about the young folks' passion for God. It's there today as much as it was in my day. I love the whole earring and pony-tail thing. I'm always trying to grow my hair out long enough to wear one myself, but the wife and kids say I look silly.

From the mouths of babes. Death to ponytails. My son wore a ponytail for a while, it was only an attempt at humorous rebellion. Rebellion.... I wonder.

The strange thing for me is that I can envision a world in the not-too-distant future where the RFID implants are commonplace in and out of the church and no one thinks twice about it. It's not that I'm even against it. It's just weird to me. Like I'm in a Twilight Zone episode. It makes me think I guess.

So here's my question: is this all a fulfillment of those end-times prophecies? Is this like the case of the frog in warm water, slowly boiled to death?

Tadpoles have the answer, when frogs are simmering away. These things are cyclical from "everyone did which was right in there own eyes" to "they burned down the groves, and everyone worshipped God in the high places."

What's this about tadpoles? Are they impervious to heat? I'm totally missing the point of this paragraph.

Just so we are clear (you not getting the symbolism and all) the tadpoles are the younger generation (this is the first time I used this phrase, am I now officially old?) they are managing to stay out of the pot with a firmer reliance on the divine than I have seen in my generation.

If I get an RFID implant am I taking the Mark of the Beast? What if it's just a convenience and I can get it in my LEFT hand? The Bible says that it will be in your right hand or forehead, and that it will be required to buy or sell. If it's not required, and it's in my left hand, does it count?

I am a pre-tribulation rapture kinda guy. Go ahead and get it in your left hand; let God sort it out afterwards.

Ok, sure... but, ummmm..., you go first...

I will not be able to get one in my hand I will have been raptured.

Right to exist?

Here Tim and Jerry discuss the death penalty, assisted suicide, and other sunny topics.

Do we really have the right to exist, and if we do can we give that right away. I was thinking about Zacarias Moussaoui the terrorist that pleaded guilty to plotting to kill 3000 people in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and wherever else. Unabashedly proclaiming he did it and he would do it again. Does his lack of care for the right for others to exist negate his right to exist? After all if he did not feel obligated to devote any fealty for someone else’s right to exist does that mean he does not believe in the right to exist, and in doing so does that not mean he would even care if anyone allowed him the same right?

Herein is the reality of how I view the issue: The bullets cannot travel fast enough to the brain of Zacarias Moussaoui. He gave up the right to exist the moment he declared killing 3,000 people to be a worthy task. (By the way, that is a more horrific task than appears on the surface familial losses, and the anguish, and the pain, and the scars, and the…)

Jerry, do you read what you write? A person gives up his "right to exist" by saying that killing someone is a worthy task? You don't have to actually kill someone, but just saying it's a worthy task is now enough to secure the death penalty? Surely you jest!

No jesting here. The man planned, assisted, and bragged. The man who gives the gun to a murderer knowing he will commit the crime is just as guilty. Also he still declares it a thing worth doing and would do it again. The man is a rabid dog. He needs to be put down. In minimizing his role you tacitly endorse his horrific crime.

There is no crime in bragging of course, but IF the man planned and assisted, I agree with you. I'm surprised that you seem to know so much. Do you know this man personally? Have you received your subpoena to testify, since you are obviously an expert witness?

Don't you believe in "due process"? Taking a man's life as punishment for a crime has got to be the last resort. It cannot be done lightly or quickly, as there is no appeal.

This Zacarias Moussaoui may indeed be worthy of the death penalty, but not unless it can be proven that he actually killed someone. Planning to kill someone does not get you the death penalty. Saying it would be a good idea to kill someone does not get you the death penalty. That's why we have a criminal justice system, and "rule of law". We don't just put a bullet in a man's brain because we don't think he's a good guy. We don't put a bullet in a man's brain even if we know he's a terrible guy who wants to kill people, and would do so given the chance. That's sometimes frustrating, but it's very important.

As I understand it, the effort to secure the death penalty for Mr. Moussaoui has to do with proving that, had he told the whole truth to some FBI agents during a interrogation prior to 9/11, they could have prevented the attacks. If he did not have information which could have prevented the attacks -- in other words, he was the al-Queda equivalent of an uninformed lackey who just wanted to be a big-wig -- then he is not really guilty of anything worthy of death. He's a bad guy to be sure, even an awful, horrible guy, but being those things is not enough to get you the death penalty.

Now I will expostulate an even harder question. If a person believes in the right to exist, can they also relinquish the right to exist? A person in deep, deep pain who feels it beyond their ability to live a life worth the effort; can they give up the right to exist?

Yes, it's called suicide. People give up their right to live every day in this way, so that certainly answers the question of whether it can be done. I think your real question is, do people have an obligation to go on living as long as possible, no matter what. That's the hard question behind all this "assisted suicide" business.

For the people who want to relieve themselves of the burden of life I yield to a more knowing person. I will say, however; hope is the thing. If you have no hope, you may have an argument. If you have hope, hang in there baby.

By "a more knowing person" I assume you are referring to myself, and thanks for the compliment. It's about time you came to this realization!

How do you get your head through the door?

So are you in favor of legislation to legalize assisted suicide? I would be surprised to hear that!

I think I would never presume to endorse assisted suicide, I have many more issues with this issue than what I have written here. Life is too precious to waste.

Hope is such a hard thing to measure. When someone is just low on hope, it can seem like there is none at all. If I had jumped off a bridge every time I thought all hope was gone, I'd be dead several times by now. Looking back on those times I can see now that hope was just ebbing, or maybe a little farther away than usual, but never gone. "While there's life, there's hope" as the old saying goes. Or like Captain Taggart says: "Never give up! Never surrender!"

Things That Make Dead People Cry

Greetings to all who read this.

Here Tim and Jerry spout off about the state of the world, and other matters. Jerry's blue and Tim is green. Have truer words ever been written?

On the list of things that make dead people cry, coming in pretty high on the list is an out-of-control drunken Irishman claiming St. Patrick his patron saint. St. Patrick chased serpents out of Ireland -- it may have been better if he'd chased out the spirits.

Mardi Gras (or “Fat (Show the Real Me) Tuesday” as I like to call it) is another. This day aches the soul of the people who try to be as good as they can all the time. Who are the dead people that are crying? Everyone that tried to live a life pleasing to his or her creator.

I'm with you on this one. I just don't get the way they're talking about Mardi Gras now. A lot of people cavorting naked and drunken in the streets. Crime and debauchery. I'm supposed to feel good because the poor battered people of New Orleans are able to do this? Oh look, that poor woman who lost her possessions is dancing in the street bearing her breasts! Good for her! Oh, and that man who lost everything is drunk, dressed like a whore and stumbling through the crowd! Wonderful! I can see why prostitutes (and their clientelle), alcoholics and crooks like to go, but why should we hold this up and some great tradition?

The fine speeches given by the irrepressible civil rights leaders at the funeral for Coretta Scott King had her husband Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln in a spin. The funeral was for her not her movement, although….

Hmmm... not sure where you're going with that Jerry. Please expound. Maybe we can make that a topic for a future post. What did they say?

On the brighter side, my church has a bell that tolls when we are in church. Not calling us to church, but rather tolls to let those who are not in church know: We are learning how to be better people here. Come join us.

Hmmm... Is that what we are doing in church -- learning to be better people? It's sometimes difficult for me to see that happening. It seems like very little progress has been made after 2000 years of "learning to be better people". I wonder if that's really the message being transmitted by that bell? If a church bell tolls in a city and no one hears, does it make any noise at all?

Yes, God hears it and he is happy because of all the people inside learning to become better people. Is it so hard to find the joy, even in church?

Good verses evil? People who are trying to be good, verses people who don’t care how what they do affects those around them? I can’t seem to get a good picture.

It's you and me verses the rest of the world Jerry, and guess who's winning?

When those whom you love and know to be good give you what seems like insurmountable grief, are they evil? They are trying to do what they feel is best.

Oh my, have I been there. Yes, Jerry, there is evil here.

"those you love" -- that's good. "...and know to be good" -- that's good. "give you grief" -- that may not be good in and of itself, but it can't be avoided and can work for good. "doing what they feel is best" -- well, that's usually good, even when it's misguided. The really evil part is in the phrase "seems like insurmountable". It's hooked tail is in "seems like" and it's bloody horns come out in "insurmountable". And it lurks in you and me. How do you like that?

Argh!

I couldn't agree more.

Once again I find myself in a state of confusion the size of Texas. That’s enough room for a lot of people… care to join?

I'm living there and trying to leave!

But I suspect it's the same all over.

After reading this post again I came to the conclusion I am in a funk. Life is too short.

Welcome to Our New Blog

Greetings and salutations to all you great people out there in cyberspace! This is the new blog I've created for my brother-in-law Jerry and I to go at it. This should be interesting! Come back often, but be careful what you wear, there may be blood and I wouldn't want you to ruin your nice clothes.

To get things started right, I think I'll tackle the difficult and controversial topic of American Idol contestants!

I personally couldn't give a rat's posterior for any of them other than Taylor Hicks. I will quit watching the moment he is voted off. I've already purchased his CD at lasersedgecd.com, and I recommend you all do so with haste. The song "Hell of a Day" is my favorite so far.

Jerry, when you get around to posting your thoughts on this subject, I suggest you do so in a different color within this same post. That was our esteemed readers can keep things seperate, but don't have to search through the posts for our thoughts on a given topic.

Taylor Hicks, wow I cannot believe we agree on the same singer although I am rooting for two people. A girl whose name I forget right now and Taylor Hicks, never before in the history of my life have I seen someone with such and enthusiasm for what he loves to do; with the exception of Tim who seems to have the same enthusiasm for disagreeing with me!

To any one brave enough to read our posts: We tend to offend unintentionally. So we are counting on your courage to buck up under the pressure an feel as free to disagree with us as we feel free to disagree with each other. And we will disagree; it is within our stubborn inquisitive natures to do so. We enjoy our cyber-conversations and hope you will also.

To follow up, I realize that Taylor's performance of "Easy"is not universally considered the standout performance last night, but he's still my pick. He's just so cool and fun to watch. I get the impression that he's acting and singing just like he would if he were standing on a some bar room stage. I don't really think he will win the competition, but no matter what he does on American Idol, he'll be a success in the real world.