He isn't resigning...wait...oh yes he is!

So Rumsfeld is out. I thought he wasn't going anywhere. Funny how things have changed in less than 24 hours. Mr. President, may I make a suggestion: How about Cheney too? It's time to start looking toward 2008. Right now there appears to be no one on the horizon to face the coming Clinton/Obama ticket. Say it isn't so!

Your New Speaker...

America has spoken and Nancy Pelosi will be the new Speaker of the House. Uh-oh... Look out Republicans... The investigations are about to begin. Maybe the Repubs will actually fight back. In some ways they were better as the minority party anyway.

From potential president to former Senator

Wow! It can happen fast. Months ago George Allen was being mentioned as a possible presidential candidate. He looks to be far from the Whitehouse now. They say its too close to call but it really does look like our new Senator will be Jim Webb. Maybe this will awaken some of the government expanding, big spending, debt building, fence straddling Republicans out there. I fear, however, that they just may just see a need to be more "moderate." We will see. I used to think that if the Republicans could gain control over the Congress and the Whitehouse we would see things straigthened out. Boy, was I dumb.

I get it already

Maybe I'm just watching too much TV these days. I watched the Pats/Colts games Sunday night and the CMA Awards last night. It's more than usual for me but nothing extreme. Here's my issue: I think I have seen/heard the new Chevy truck ad(s) approximately 5,ooo,ooo times! "This is our country..." I am now fully committed to NEVER owning a Chevy truck. And I'm not too excited about John Mellencamp either: "From the east coast...To the west coast..." How about little "Rain on the Scarecrow" instead!

It's Election Day...Finally

Finally it's here: Election Day is underway and I am relieved. I don't know how it is elsewhere but it has been nonstop here in Hampton Roads. Virginia is a hotbed for "contested" races this year. George Allen and Jim Webb have been in an absolute blood bath. One of the congressional races here has been ferocious too (Phil Kellam vs. Thelma Drake). I don't even vote in that district but I still have to suffer because of the advertising assault. Every other commercial on radio and television is a political ad. I'm so sick of it. At least now we can return to the normal advertising drivel and tripe that we've come to expect.

I hope he gets sick!

Jesse Duplantis is not a guy I look to for biblical guidance. The other night, however, I did listen to him for a few minutes. What's up we these word/faith guys? He's going on and on about how Christians aren't supposed to get sick! Does guy even have a Bible? If he does, he can't be reading it. What amazes me is that people actually think this guy is preaching the word. Amazing! I hope he gets sick... not fatally so... just sick enough that he can't preach. Or, better yet, maybe he could get sick during one of his sermons about not getting sick. That would be perfect. For more on Jesse check this out: http://www.discernment.org/wordfaith/jesse.htm

Open Pandora's Box

I found this free streaming music site recently and it's really very cool. Basically you select and artist or a song and they build a music station that reflects that preference. I have several "stations" that I have set up. Pandora is pretty extensive and offers a real range of music types. Here are some of my stations: Elvis, P.O.D. , Harry Connick Jr., Hall & Oates, Third Day, Jim Reeves, Project 86, Mute Math, Michel Buble, Trace Adkins, Chris Isaak, Superchic(k) & more... It is a great way to discover new (or old) artists that sound like performers you already like. They've also added a new "Quickmix" feature so you can play all your stations together.

WARNING: Pandora doesn't seem to consider lyrical content when finding similar artists for your station(s). So a Christian group like Project 86 will generate similar style bands but the lyrics may be quite different.

I have a bad feeling...

Republican Senator George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb "debated" last night. I've supported Allen for a long time based mainly on his stint as Governor here in Virginia many years ago. I was disappointed in George's performance last night. He seemed too scripted and too interested in dropping Hillary Clinton references whenever possible. Honestly, his campaign is highly negative - I keep getting stuff in the mail about how Webb opposed women in our military academies 27 years ago! It's getting old but I'll stay with George for now. I have a bad feeling, however, that many other Virginians will not...

"You can't have that in here"

Yesterday I struck up a conversation with a new face at church. He was a young casually dressed soldier from Montana. I usually ask new folks how they found us. His answer was a story like those I've read about. He said he started the morning at another church but ended up with us where he "felt comfortable." He said two guys at work told him about their churches. He went to fellow soldier #1's church first and entered the building with his cup of coffee. He said he was approached by a woman who didn't identify herself or even greet him. She simply said, "You can't have that in here" and walked away. He exited the building to put his coffee back in his car and then decided he should give fellow soldier #2's church a try instead. He also said everybody was really dressed up at the other place like it was a fashion show. So after the coffee incident he chose to give us a try. I'm glad he came and felt comfortable with us but I'm continuallly amazed at "church folks." If that lady ends up in heaven I hope her mansion is next to a Starbucks!

Bench Blesoe

I'm no Dallas Cowboys fan by any stretch. As a fan of the Redskins it is my duty to pull for any team that plays Dallas, but I'm reluctantly willing to offer the boys some advice: BENCH BLEDSOE! I rarely watch an entire football game but did watch about half of yesterday's Cowboys - Eagles game. Drew Bledsoe completely tanked and he's been looking like this for quite some time. I realize Tony Romo may improve Dallas' chances at winning even at the expense of my team's playoff hopes, but Washington isn't going anywhere this year anyway.

Where is baptism?

So I get an email - The Christian Standard Online Newsletter. In it is an announcement about four new church plants. I love new churches so I pick the first one, Hope Community Church, and check out their website. I scan around and locate their "Beliefs." As I flip through the pages I come to "Salvation." I know I shouldn't have looked, but here is what it says:

5. ABOUT SALVATION
We believe people are made in the image of God, to be like Him in character.People are the supreme object of God’s affection, and the pinnacle of His creation. Although every person has tremendous potential for good, all of us are marred by an attitude of disobedience toward God called “sin”. This “sin” separates people from God and is the root cause of many of the problems we face in life. The penalty for our sin is eternal separation from God. We believe that Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin, and by this to give us eternal life. This salvation is a free gift by God's grace. (But this gift, although free, is not cheap— for it cost God the life of His own beloved son). A person is restored to a relationship with God, or, “saved”, only by faith in Jesus' finished work on the cross, and if this faith is real, it will produce repentance—which is a change of mind concerning sin and everything not pleasing to God—that results in a total change of actions and deeds. We believe that repentance is not optional, but necessary proof that one has true biblical faith.

Okay, so where is baptism? Unfortunately I'm not surprised. At least they didn't give some compromised innocuous double talk drivel about baptism that is so common on "our" websites these days. Here is a sample from another Stadia church plant in Ashveville, NC: Our faith journey begins when we give our lives to Jesus Christ, and we express our commitment and unity with Christ through baptism by immersion. I don't know which is worse - double talk or complete ommission. I hope this isn't typical of their church plants.

Tennis Anyone?

I acted totally on impulse. Last Friday my wife and I joined a local indoor tennis club. We have time together on Friday mornings (my day off & the children are in school) so we visited the Centre Court Racquet Club here in town. By the time we left we had purchases two used racquets and joined for a year! My wife has never played and I'm not very good, but we decided it was time to learn. Lessons may be in our near future.

What goes around...

From "The New Republic" - "Then came Macaca-gate, a historically idiotic blunder in which, at a lily-white rally in southwest Virginia, Allen singled out a Webb campaign volunteer of Indian descent for ridicule, twice calling the young man "Macaca"--a term that, in certain Francophone countries (including Tunisia, from which Allen's mother hails), is a derogatory epithet for dark-skinned folk. Thanks to botched damage-control by Team Allen, the flub quickly became national news, the senator's poll numbers began sinking, and Virginians suddenly had themselves a real race. " OOPS! It seems like I remember Sen. Allen throwing Trent Lott under the bus when the Mississippi senator made his infamous comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party. Well, George, like they say: What goes around comes around!

PS. I'm still voting for you!

Come on Andy!

Will this U.S. Open be the turning point for Andy Roddick? Will this be the watershed moment for the best American player in tennis? I certainly hope so. Roddick looked to be the man until Federer starting rountinely spanking him. Well things are changing... Andy has "Jimbo" Connors behind him now as his new coach and I think he is making a difference. Andy looks like he has some fire in his belly. I've always loved his game - the huge serve is the best part. And he does wear his hat straight which I like too. So, Come on Andy and win this thing!

COACH

Coach Bacote. He was my High school football coach back in the early eighties. I think of coach pretty much every Labor Day. I remember having football practice every year on this holiday. Someone would always ask "Coach, are we off on Labor Day?" Coach would ask: "What does labor mean, son?" We always practiced and we always had a cookout afterwards served by the cheerleaders. I'll write more about Coach Bacote later.