Archive for December, 2008
« Previous EntriesI wish you the very best of everything for 2009!
My very best wishes go out to you for 2009!
I saw a cartoon in today’s local paper with a guy and his wife barricaded in their home, speaking to someone on the telephone. He is saying: “Sorry. We’re staying in this year. We rang in 2008 and look what happened. If 2009 wants us, it’s going to have to come get us.”
I don’t know whether 2008 has been good or bad for you. It’s brought mixed blessings to us and our family. But my good wife, St. Shirley the Encourager, and I are doing okay. Probably that’s true for most of you. I pray it’s true for most of you.
And I pray God may bring you a blessed and happy new year in 2009.
I thank you for coming around to read what I’ve got to babble about from time to time and I respect those of you who agree with me and those of you who disagree with me. Wonderful we can live in a country with 1) Internet access so readily available to everyone, 2) time to go online and read just about anything we wish to find, and, 3) freedom to agree and disagree with just about any bozo’s blog out there. Hah! Take that all you tyrants out there!
Come back and see me again. I’ll continue to prattle on when I can, and I’ll always try to honor your trust in me, whether we agree or disagree. God love ya!
Is Obama the Messiah or the Aniti-Christ?
Odd question in this title, I suppose: Is Barack Obama the Messiah or the Anti-Christ?
I pose this silly question as hyperbole — I personally believe he is neither. He’s a very capable young man (I can say that since I’m officially an Old Guy past 60 now) in a very, VERY difficult position. If you’re a praying person, you ought to be praying he will do well at that job, for the sake of us all.
I live in a part of the U.S. often jokingly called the “buckle” of the “Bible Belt.” (I prefer a more amusing designation — belly button of the Bible Belt belly. Heard that from a friend once.) So I’m accustomed to letters to the local newspaper such as one today by a very concerned, elderly lady (I’m basing that on the photo accompanying her picture. She appears over 60 like me.) who seems to think many see Obama as the anti-Christ while some see him as the Messiah. For the record, her fearful letter indicated to me and other readers that she probably leans more toward the anti-Christ designation.
Amazing, isn’t it, how such fear mongering as Obama’s opponents specialized in during the election can twist the minds of so many people? He used the phrase “share the wealth” while shaking hands with the infamous “Joe the Plumber” — so millions of people are absolutely convinced he’s a socialist. In reality, the “socialism” he was pushing at Old Joe basically involves restoring 3 percent higher maximum tax rates — rates which were in force under President Clinton.
I won’t even get involved in the more tedious and absolutely outrageous silliness of anti-Obama folks who (here’s another “Messianic” image for you) virtually crucified the man on a cross of sedition because he was one of thousands who associated with a “domestic terrorist” who really ISN’T a domestic terrorist.
So good luck, President-Elect Obama, and may you prove to be a successful, capable leader for our sakes and the sake of the whole world. And for those of you still trying to cast the guy as either Messiah or Anti-Christ — Reality is calling you back. Hello? Hello?
Not superstitious, but sometimes I think this old house is haunted
I’m not a superstitious person (I don’t THINK I am, anyway) but sometimes I think this old house of ours is haunted — or maybe it’s just out to get even with me for the many years of home repair neglect it has suffered at the hands of my ignorance.
Last weekend, the house struck back — to the tune of a seriously clogged upstairs toilet line and $225 in repairs. I understand from my son (he’s an engineer and not a plumber, but he’s had to call a plumber more recently than I) that $225 wasn’t bad for what all the plumber had to do. Plus, it was on a Saturday afternoon when we had to use the plumber’s services. (Thank God for 24/7 plumbing services.)
We have a house that’s about 100 years old, give or take a couple of years. It was a “fixer upper” when we bought it. That was a major mistake because I simply am NOT a fixer-upper guy when it comes to home repair/refurbishing. Nevertheless, 30+ years later we’re still here and the old house is still standing.
In the case of the upstairs bathroom, it’s not exactly the sort of classy place where you’d expect to find Grohe faucets. It’s very much an old, low-budget, almost-never-used spare bathroom. Many years ago when our two kids were young and living at home, the upstairs in general was kept in better repair. Now that they’re gone from home, my wife and I rarely go up there except to store things.
I have no idea exactly how the toilet line got clogged. We worked on it (my wife and I makes “we”) using a plunger and several days worth of chemical treatments. We thought the problem was pretty well solved.
Until a week ago today when we were going upstairs and down to get our Christmas tree and decorations set up. In passing, we flushed the upstairs toilet twice just to see if the chemical treatments were clearing the clog. Shortly after the second flush, I heard something dripping — and discovered water dripping from one of the downstairs ceilings, right below the upstairs toilet drain.
I won’t go into the gory details, but I swear this old house really IS out to get me. Who knows what it’ll try next??
Looking foward (?) to the plumbing surprises of the new year …
What, really, does the economy hold in store for us in 2009?
Give me your best guess — will the economy improve significantly in the U.S. and worldwide in the coming new year? I really don’t know, either.
I spent some time earlier today reading some posts about “best-guess” economics, and believe me I did NOT come away feeling happy about the future. The good news is that these were not economists, merely some online marketing people who had read some articles related to the future of our financial system, housing markets, and the credit industry. In other words, they may or may not be right. If the last three or four months have proven anything they have proven that not even the “experts” know what lies ahead for the economy.
Unfortunately, when the entire economic structure of the known civilized world is hurt or “broken,” there are no quick fixes. There aren’t any simple POS systems we can set up and quickly manage all the economic chaos going on out there right now.
But I choose to have faith. I have faith that the U.S. is a fundamentally strong nation and that sound leadership and sober decisions by all of us can get us out of this mess. I reject the dire predictions of a “Second Great Depression.” For one thing, as a sort of “junior historian,” I know the present situation has similarities with the first Great Depression, but a LOT of differences, too.
We’re all in this together, and I choose to hope (and pray) that we’ll ultimately get through this together.
What adventures await in your new year?
The fun thing about a new year is trying to imagine what adventures await, both good and bad, as we look forward to it?
President-Elect Barak Obama has his bags packed and is headed for the White House. I voted for the man. I expect he and his family will do the nation credit and, even with the multitude of crises he faces, perhaps help us find solutions to the many things that need fixing in this country.
What about YOU? What lies ahead in your year that you know of? What are your hopes and dreams for 2009? How about your fears? Leave a comment and share something exciting you are looking forward to in 2009.
Personally, I’d like to pull out and dust off the old-fashioned hard-sided Samsonite luggage that’s quietly waiting somewhere near the bottom of my closet and travel. I doubt I’ll have time or money to travel much, but travel would be my favorite “dream” for the year. Should I ever win that big mega-millions sweepstake somewhere out there over the rainbow, my wife and I would happily spend our remaining years driving, flying, cruising, and otherwise traveling all over this fine land and throughout Europe, perhaps even South America.
My biggest fear this year is that our nation will struggle through another year of “business as usual” despite the best efforts of national leaders to get us out of this economic and military mess we find ourselves in.
But I really do have hope. How about you?
Ho ho ho — candidate for most horrible news story of 2008 here
The media has been saturated since Christmas Eve with the story I think is a leading candidate for the most horrible news story of 2008. I’m sure you’ve seen and heard far more about it than you care to see or hear. I’m talking about the insane person dressed as Santa Claus who slaughtered adults and kids at a party in California on Christmas Eve, then killed himself.
It’s just one of those stories that it’s hard to comprehend. One of the scariest clips I saw about it on TV was a neighbor of the monster who said the guy passed him as he was leaving his house that day and exchanged a friendly greeting.
What sort of mind says, “Hey, how ya doin’?” on the outside while thinking on the inside thinking something like, “I’m leaving to kill some women and kids as well as torch a house and destroy life in a neighborhood — ah, good, I remembered the Santa suit”???????
May God grant that the new year shows us less horror and more peace, love, and joy.
One of history’s men of mystery, Mark Felt, dies at 95
If you grew up during the era of “Watergate” and Richard Nixon’s presidency, you might remember Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, and the others involved with bringing the Nixon “Watergate” scandal to light. (If you were already a functioning adult — whatever that means — at the time, you surely do remember much of it.) One of the shadowy figures of the time who became a perennial “guess who the source was” figure in American history was Mark Felt. He died yesterday at the age of 95.
Who, you might ask, was Mark Felt? Why doesn’t his name really ring a bell?
If you are a political science or U.S. history “major”/buff/whatever, Felt might be a name you know. He was second-in-command of the FBI first under J. Edgar Hoover, then under interim FBI Director L. Patrick Gray. So perhaps the name rings a bell for that reason.
More importantly, Felt was the infamous information source that Woodward and Bernstein used to break the “Watergate” story, and who remained infuriatingly anonymous as “Deep Throat” for about 30 years. It wasn’t until 2005 that Felt’s family (he was suffering from dementia by that point) revealed his hidden identity. Bob Woodword confirmed that Felt was indeed “Deep Throat,” and the secret was finally out.
Reads sort of like a spy novel, doesn’t it? The report on Felt’s passing in The Washington Post, the paper for which Woodward and Bernstein did their work, tells of some of the incredibly clever subterfuges everyone involved used to keep the secret at the time, and the amazing fact that so many high-powered, celebrity writers/editors were able to keep the secret for so long.
And so, another chapter of U.S. history comes to a silent close.
Webmasters out there: What do you know about conversion rates?
I just finished a post vowing to get off the religion thing, so when you see a phrase like “conversion rate optimization” here, don’t panic. I’m NOT talking about religious conversion. I’m talking about a concept I’m just learning — website conversion rates.
In simple terms, your website conversion rate and “conversion rate optimization” means getting visitors to your blog or website to do whatever you’re asking them to do while they are there. If you’re successful, you get them to take the action (fill out an opinion survey; buy a product, etc.) for which you hope they came to your site. If your conversion rate is low, that simply means people coming to your site are failing to take whatever action you’re seeking of them (they’re “browsers not buyers” so to speak).
I guess there are people out there who’ve studied all this more than I and have definite suggestions about changing or tweaking stuff on your website or blog to increase your conversion rate. Sounds good to me. I may need to look into something like that.
What about those of you reading this who have blogs and/or websites? Have any conversion rate improvement tips you’d care to share with the rest of us? Go ahead. Leave a comment. Please.
To me at least, pomposity seems off the mark for Christian leaders
I wonder — do they make a diet pill designed to trim down “fatheads”? Oh, of course I know they don’t. But the last post I made has me thinking about various pompous people I’ve had the misfortune of trying to deal with within an evangelical Christian setting over the years.
I grew up in a mainline Christian environment — until I reached my teen years and got very caught up in the zeal of what might be called “fundamentalist” evangelical Christianity. Most of that won’t matter to most of you reading this, but I’m sure some of you will understand.
At this point, I consider myself leaning much more toward my mainline roots. I spent almost 20 years as an ordained minister with a very large evangelical denomination. In 1994, feeling a need for a greater “connection” to the church universal/historic, I began looking around and ended up joining a different church. I was immediately asked to resign a position I held (mentioned in my last post) as news editor of their weekly denominational magazine. I intentionally resigned my ministerial credentials, not wanting to create any perceived conflict between my new church and anyone within the old one who might wonder why I had left.
I remained — in fact, I REMAIN — on good terms with the evangelical organization, though I’m still a member in a mainline church group. I’ve always felt the important thing about being a Christian wasn’t the “label” or church name you wore, but your relationship with God in Christ.
Sorry. Not trying to preach at you, but I felt it important to clarify my ramblings somewhat: I acknowledge Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in the personal, biblical sense same as my evangelical brothers and sisters. Indeed, one of the delightful things I discovered after returning to my “mainline roots” was that there really ARE good, legitimate Christians outside that narrow evangelical circle.
And one of the most distressing things I found, both in my more evangelical past and in my mainline present, is that Christian leaders are often guilty of the same failings as their “secular” or “non-Christian” counterparts — they get too carried away with their own importance and become pompous. They even sometimes become downright hypocritical.
Yes, I know, that’s a shock, isn’t it?
I once did a short (5-10 minutes?) workplace devotional presentation titled, “If I Were God for a Day …” I had fun with it. The gist of the speech was this: Even at my best, I cannot say I would make the right decisions about who to punish and who to reward — so it’s a really good thing I am NOT God, for a day, a minute, or even a fraction of a second.
Now if we can just remind Christian leaders at all levels of the truth of that …
And that, good readers, will be my last “sermonizing” for the holiday season! (Maybe. Maybe not. Who can say?)
Evangelical acquaintance of mine loses job for leaning toward ‘liberal’
I just found out one of the finest Christians and all-around finest, nicest people I’ve had the privilege of meeting in my checkered past is out of a job for expressing somewhat “liberal” views regarding homosexuality and regarding his support for Barack Obama.
This good man’s name is Richard Cizik, and resigned Thursday as VP for governmental affairs with an organization called the National Association of Evangelicals. The NAE, as I’ve always known it, represents more than 40,000 conservative/fundamentalist/evangelical churches throughout America. It was formed back in the 1940s as a reaction to the more liberal (or perhaps “mainline,” depending on the religious circles you hang out in) National Council of Churches.
From what I’ve read, Rich had been with the NAE since 1980, and has served as their primary Washington lobbyist for evangelical religious concerns. He also worked as an editor of their various publications, I think.
He has been in and out of hot water with some of the more prominent NAE members and influential figures in recent years because he has publicly challenged individuals and member churches to more actively live out their role of stewardship in relation to the creation, among other things. That is, he has become somewhat active with environmental causes — and more vocal than some leaders within the NAE wanted him to be. The final blow, however, was when Rich was being interviewed by NPR a few days ago and said this to a question regarding gay rights issues such as civil unions and gay marriage:
“I’m shifting, I have to admit. In other words, I would willingly say I believe in civil unions. I don’t officially support redefining marriage from its traditional definition, I don’t think.”
Later, on the NAE website, the organization’s president, Leith Anderson, said of Cizik, “Although he has subsequently expressed regret, apologized and affirmed our values there is a loss of trust in his credibility as a spokesperson among leaders and constituents.” Anderson added in the website statement that he and Cizik had met following the NPR interview and the two had “mutually concluded that his resignation is a difficult but appropriate decision.”
I had occasion to meet Rich and work with him on two or three occasions in my past life as a news editor for a major evangelical denomination’s weekly magazine. The group sent me to three or four of NAE’s annual conventions over a seven year period. Rich is a great guy, and a delight to know. I wish him well and my prayers are with him as he deals with this sudden “career change,” caused by his honest answer to an honest question.
I won’t get any further into the religion and “religious politics” involved in all this stuff. Been there. Done that.
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