Finally, An Update

This picture is one that I hope conveys just how disappointed in myself. I feel like he looks.

Last week, I was sent a link the other day that gave me instructions to notice the date on the post and read the 1st sentence. This is the link that was sent http://estebansdiario.blogspot.com/2009/03/updating-soon.html .

Being interested, I clicked on the link and must say I felt bad. I've had plans to start a new blog with more focused content, and dropped the ball on following through due to work schedule and planning of the new blog.

My apologies for the delay on the new blog and lack of updating. I only had about 50 regular readers, and I doubt any of you had difficulties making it through your week without my random thoughts.

However, to those of you that did read occasionally (if you're still around), I invite you to check out my new blog by clicking here.

It's been up for a couple of weeks, but didn't have any content. As of now, only the 1st post has been published. It's a book review that I did for Thomas Nelson Publishing of The Noticer by Andy Andrews.

Updating Soon

I'll be updating again in a week or two about some changes taking place to Gracious Rants and the posts I write. Until then, I'll share a few more recent pictures of Ian and Hudson.

Ian is growing up fast.

Hudson trying to walk.

Hudson-he's oblivious that a picture is being taken, he just wants the camera.

Hey, does it look like they're planning something? I think they're planning something!

Israel/Palestine: What Do We Really Know?

I ran across this piece on CBS news that gives us a glimpse into the Israel/Palestine story that we seldom get to see.

Some may read this and blame the "left wing" media for spreading such a view. Instead of viewing this as an anti-Israel piece, maybe we should view it for what it is and ask ourselves the questions it leads us to ask.

For far too long we have supported Israel (which I am not necessarily against), but why, and at what cost?

After watching it, I asked myself those questions, which led me to look into pro-Israel lobbyist groups.  What I found raises even more questions that I will seek when I have the time.  For now though, this should suffice.  Just an honest questioning of why we support Israel.

With the economic problems our country faces, and the amount of money we blindly send to Israel, now is the time to re-evaluate where and who our money is going to support throughout the world.  It's time to understand what exactly it is that is being done with the money and military supplies we send to our allies.  The rest of the world is well aware of what our tax dollars are doing on our behalf, why aren't we?

Again, I'm not attempting to suggest who is right or wrong, nor do I pretend to understand the deep emotions that consume both sides of this conflict.  But with each passing year and each new administration we become more accepting of what our government is doing (the exception being whatever party it is we oppose and our disagreements with them), and there are too many questions that need answers when it comes to what our politicians are doing on our behalf, not just here at home, but throughout the world.  

Top 20 "Most Frequently Viewed" Bills

I have cut back greatly on my political intake over the past couple of weeks.  However, I still have a few places in which I can stay informed, yet can avoid much of the negative comment that accompanies some other sources.

Today on OpenCongress.org, I ran across this list of the 20 "most frequently viewed" bills of the current legislative session.

I find the placement of H.R. 833 to be encouraging.  If you happen to love to read proposed legislation (I don't see why you wouldn't), you should check this one out.  

Given the history of this particular proposal, I won't hold my breath, but the fact that it is the sixth on the list like this, suggests people are at least hearing about it.  That alone is a step forward. 

Gaining Interest On Money That Isn't There

I know that economics is not an interesting subject to the average American.  I seem to be a strange exception to the norm, along with a handful of others.

The Federal Reserve, which despite it's name, is a private bank that loans our country with "monopoly money" and charging interest to boot.   Oh, and it just so happens, that is illegal.  But that is exactly what the Fed does.  

Since the Fed's inception, we have racked up debt that is quite possibly impossible to ever pay off.  The means by which money is "borrowed" and "created" (no distinction between the two) threatens to leave Americans with nothing more than a fist full of paper.

Congressman Ron Paul has done some of the preliminary work when it comes to educating people about the Fed and proposing ways in which we can regain control of the creation of money.  Many, including myself at times, see these efforts as futile.  

I don't pretend to have a plan that would remove this damaging monetary system and replace it with a better one.  And even though some of the best advice I've ever received tells me to; "never complain about something without being able to propose an alternative", I will have to ignore that advice at this point.

I take that back, I have a complaint and a proposal.  My complaint would be that the Federal Reserve is robbing the working man and threatens the sovereignty, security and prosperity of our nation and my proposed plan is for our government officials to have an honest discussion of what it would take to replace the current system of printing valueless currency with one that provides a value-backed currency that is coined by the U.S. congress as the constitution says it should be.  

All we could ask for is a discussion among those who represent us and supposedly work on behalf of Americans keeping in mind what is for the good of the whole.  That would be a great place to start considering that to date, none of congressman Paul's legislation, at least in the last decade, has even made it onto the agenda of a congressional sub-committee meeting.  

My guess is that until Americans seek to understand the system in which they are bound and demand, at least a discussion on the issue,  we are only going to get more of the same.

If you've stayed with me to this point, you are a trooper.  I now leave you with, for your viewing pleasure, a video of Ron Paul questioning, Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke.  The questions Paul raises are questions that deserve answers and they are questions we cannot afford to ignore asking ourselves.

My Theological Worldview

A buddy of mine had a post on his blog recently outlining how he scored on Quizfarm.com's "Theological Worldview" quiz.

Finding this to be an interesting, I decided to take it too.  Here is what the quiz creator, svensvensven, has determined to be my theological worldview:

You Scored as Emergent/Postmodern You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this. Emergent/Postmodern 89% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 79% Charismatic/Pentecostal 71% Classical Liberal 68% Roman Catholic 46% Modern Liberal 46% Neo orthodox 43% Reformed Evangelical 32% Fundamentalist 11%

I'm not sure what to make of these results because I'm not sure what I think of the terms "emergent" and "postmodern".  In many ways I feel that these terms are too general and have been used in the past to describe "new" theological movements that now are not so new and have names like "neo orthodox" and "evangelical".  

The only other thing I might add is that many of the questions may not have been fully understood due to my lack of knowledge of certain Christian doctrine.

All in all, the analysis is probably more accurate than not.  The biggest element to my current view of theology has to do with my belief in the ultimate authority of the Bible and the lack of ability we have individually or as a group of believers to nail down a complete understanding of what God's Word is telling us.  

I feel that God's Word is alive and applicable to the past, present, and future.  Through community, transparency, and dialogue we allow His Truth to be the living, breathing Truth that it has always been.  

If we put God's Word and our understanding of it in a box, making it a closed case, we turn the dynamic story of God into a static story that can not effectively be bring the relevance to our lives as it was intended.

That's just my layman's take on the theological worldview that is "emergent".  If you would like to take this quiz yourself, you can do so here.  

I'd love to hear your thoughts on either your own or any theological worldview you may be familiar with. 

Best Sports Story of 2008

In a world with so much negative, we must celebrate the positive.  When I first heard this story, I knew it should be passed along.  Not that it needs my help to spread, it is a story that stands on it's own and will probably become nationally recognized if it isn't already.

At the end of 2008, ESPN's Rick Reilly wrote this story; it was the story of the Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State back in November.  A prep-school vs. a school of young offenders.  It could have been just another game for both, but because Grapevine Faith obviously takes it's mission seriously, their coach Kris Hogan saw the game on the schedule and wanted to take advantage of what he called "A great ministry opportunity".  

Reilly chose this story as his "Christmas story", because in his opinion, it was one of the best sports stories of 2008, and I tend to agree.   I was first made aware of the game, through an interview with coach Hogan, which I heard on 103.3 ESPN.  In the midst of the infamous 100-0 game, which drew attention from around the country to Dallas area sports, I give credit to Galloway & Co. for avoiding the negative "hot topic" and choosing to instead go positive with this story. 

NBC 5, KXAS in Dallas, featured this story last night.  It was a feature that was very well done, with thoughts from many of those who experienced the power of this game and the lives that were changed because of it.  The feature added so much to the story that, to my knowledge, had only been written about. 

The young men from Gainesville State have been given something.  You can hear it in their voice and see it in their smiles.  As Rick Reilly pointed to at the end of his article; often times, it is the gifts that cost nothing, that can prove to be the most valuable gifts of all.  In this case it was hope.  

Because of one coach and his discernment in realising the opportunity that lay ahead.  Not only did the kids from Gainesville State come away with a different perspective, just hearing the story as a non-participant does the same for me and I would assume I'm not alone.

Below is a picture of Gainesville State, celebrating the positive while on the losing end of a 33-14 game under the famous "Friday night lights" of Texas HS football.  Despite the score, I think we can say without a doubt that everyone walking away from this game was a winner.

                                                                                                          photo by: Melinda Wright

An Inconvenient Subject

Our economy seems to be an inconvenient subject lately.  If it is good news and hope for our economic future that people seek, there really is never a  good time to talk about it because there is no good news to share.

Some may think that that thought is too negative and that we need to have a positive outlook and hope for our economy's rebound for there to even be a rebound.  Some will say that ours is an economy that is largely based on emotion and peoples willingness to invest in the "American dream".

It's hard for me to accept that our emotions play too much of a part.  Even if I were to concede the fact that certain "collapse" may be pushed back a bit, but our money will be used whether or not our emotions are positive or negative.

Until our money is "sound", there will continue to be an alternate reality to the one we are spoon fed by those we deem to be professional.  The reality is that they will do what they want until we stop it.

Glenn Beck devoted a portion of a recent broadcast as a way of introducing the mainstream crowd to this idea.

 

This is not so much a political issue to me.  Left or right play no part on issues of liberty and justice.   This is about social justice and the moral obligation we have to our neighbors here and abroad.   It threatens to haunt our children and all who follow until it is properly dealt with, and we have virtually NO allies in government when it comes to our economic life.  

I'm not sure what dealing with it looks like, but I'm quite certain that we don't have time to vote everyone out of office that would need to be gone in order for "business as usual" to work.  When it comes to this issue and it's urgency, our voices have to become one and be heard as thunder through the halls of thieves.

So as inconvenient as this problem is, it is one we are faced with.  Whether a republican, democrat, libertarian, independent, green or could care less about politics, this is what we are faced with.

President Obama spoke at length about unity, encouraging those with different faiths and political beliefs to seek a common ground as a way to retake our political system and way of life from those that are actively working to destroy them.  Could this issue be that "common" ground?  Could a principle on which our president admittedly stands be the catalyst that creates a stand-off between two groups that find their common ground?  On one side would be the politicians uniting in the effort to line their pockets, and on the other side the people unite to reclaim their country.  I sure hope that's the case, and that history truly does repeat itself.

The People Have Their Own Money?

Back in the middle of the nineteenth century there was a man named Alexis de Tocquville.  A man that once said:

The American Republic will endure until the day congress discovers it can bribe the people with their own money.

After reading this, it's obvious that he lived in period in which Americans had their "own" money to be bribed with.  

Could it be the absence of "modern distractions" that gave him so much free time that he was actually able to consider the future of America.  

Invisible People

After spending about 3 hours this weekend watching every video on this site, I felt compelled to share it with everyone.

Personally, no matter how uncomfortable it is, I don't know that turning our head away from the problem of homelessness.  

Reagan Worse Than Nixon?!

Wow!  I don't know what else to say about the claim that Reagan was worse than Nixon.  Needless to say I am interested in how someone would draw that conclusion.

It may also be needless to say that this kind of assertion is brought to us by Bill Press, host of a liberal talk radio show and former chair of the California Democratic Party during the Clinton years.  Press has written books with titles such as Bush Must Go & How the Republicans Stole Christmas.  Not to say that the Republicans didn't steal Christmas (whatever that means) or that Bush didn't need to go, but some titles can give you some big clues as to the views and agenda of an author.  I personally like the books in which you wonder how it got it's title until you've read into the book a bit.

Press' latest book is titled Trainwreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and not a moment too soon).  The title is not what caught my eye on this one though, it was the back cover that reads:

Ten things Trainwreck reveals that REPUBLICANS HOPE YOU NEVER FIND OUT

• Why the conservative movement that spawned Reagan, Gingrich, and Bush is now dead.
• How many core conservative principles the Republicans have betrayed.
• How Republicans have made us less safe, not more.
• How Republicans became the biggest spenders of all time.
• How much bigger the federal government has grown under conservative rule.
• How many Republicans got caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
• How Republicans went from protecting the environment to plundering it.
• How the party of peacekeepers became the party of perpetual war.
• How Reagan was worse than Nixon--and Bush worse than both.(emphasis added)
• Why conservatives can never again be trusted with power.

So there you have it.  Those are the topics this book will attempt to cover and prove in some sort of meaningful way.  I realized after reading these points, that I had to read the book.  

At this point in time for America, I would usually feel that this kind of discussion is unhealthy for our country.  Government needs to stop the blame game and do what it was created to do; which is not spreading democracy by the way, that is the job of each individual American and a result of our leading the way by example, not by force.  Another reason I would normally not read this, is because I already agree that conservatism is on it's way out the door with Bush & don't care to hear a liberal use the opposition's downfall to make his side seem more relevant, especially since liberalism has not proven itself to be any better.

I feel that we may just be in store for a new way of approaching politics.  I hesitate to call it ideology, but in reality, there is an inevitability to ideology.  I would not foolishly say that we should remove it completely, but I would propose a new, more dynamic ideology that can change with the variables we are forced to live and govern ourselves through.  Conservatism and liberalism are too static in my opinion, and any attempt at calling yourself a "moderate liberal" or "compassionate conservative" is an attempt to once again mislead us into believing something has changed within the political system that is leading us down a road to destruction.

It is important to see the error in the current political theories at work today and as I read further into this book, I find that it is not just a partisan attack, but a thoughtful analysis (so far) of the fundamental flaws that make conservatism unable to produce the results it claims to.  For instance, Press quickly raises the interesting question (in my own words); If a movement's fundamental belief is grounded in an animosity toward government and it's involvement in virtually every aspect of life, how can you make a case for placing that movement in a governing majority?  That kind of thinking is better suited for a minority role in the governing process, and playing the role of "power police".  However, placing conservatism in the political majority simultaneously contradicts the staunch "anti-government" sentiments that have become an ideological foundation for conservatism. 

It is important that we ask these questions, that is why I find this book interesting.  And I am very interested in how Press feels that Reagan was worse than Nixon.  However, I agree that Bush was worse than both, so he may have a decent reason he feels that way, although I have no clue what it is would lead a liberal or conservative to make a case for that claim. 

Till then, if you happen to have any thoughts on the death of conservatism or the poor health and inevitable death of liberalism, I'd love your comments.  Will a new ideology emerge in place of the current two that have proven themselves ineffective?  Or, could either ideology be re-structured in a way that allows for a more "realistic" or "dynamic" way to engage politically?

What A Difference A Year Makes

Back in February, I wrote a post in which I called Glenn Beck a baby for voicing his disapproval of Mcain as the Republican nominee.  I was also obviously turned off by his habit of using humor to explain his positions on different issues because I wrote:

In my opinion, Glenn Beck has taken over the top spot from Sean Hannity as the most annoying voice in media as far as I'm concerned. With all the bells and whistles and attempts at being funny and angry at the same time.

Come on Glenn, figure out what it is you want to do. If you want to talk politics, then let's do it. If not, I'm sure experience would make you a front runner for a show on a network like !E. Then you could talk about Britney Spears. That would fit you better I think.

I'm still not quite sure what I heard from Beck that warranted such verbal vomit, but needless to say, in February of this year, I honestly didn't care for Beck's talent.

But when people say "what a difference a year makes.", and the view I hold of Glenn Beck today, makes that cliche the only response I could possibly have other than a verbal apology to the man himself.

Someone I know in talk radio quickly gave Glenn Beck's name as one in response to my question of current industry talent.  This led me to seek out what it was that might validate, what I considered to be, a strange answer to the question of industry talent. 

My curiosity and respect for the one who named Glenn as such a talent allowed me to be able to be more open-minded when listening to Glenn's show.  As someone who has always believed in the importance of open-mindedness and thought of myself to be so, it didn't take long for me to see how closed-minded I had become in many ways.

If you are going to listen to talk radio or already do, you should make Glenn Beck one your options.  I'm not saying everyone will share my appreciation, but if you are truly open-minded you will see a guy who broadcasts who he is to millions of people everyday, making himself more vulnerable to his listeners than I often do to my own wife.  You will be listening to a man who has struggled with many personal difficulties since an early age.  He will not hesitate to share these personal struggles with millions, so that through his struggles, others can be encouraged through theirs.

That is a man following his passion of making the world a better place to be, figuring out a way to make a living doing it to boot.  

I used to wish that I could turn my passions into my life's work.  The time I've spent listening to Glenn Beck has allowed me to go from "wish that I could", to "I know that I can".  That far outweighs 99% of everything else on talk radio (I'm leaving a 1% chance that there is an on air personality that is as genuine as Glenn that I have not yet heard). 

So just in case he's one of the few visitors to this blog.........Thanks Glenn!