John W and Dave Ramsey are RIGHT

John W borrowed my theme, so I am going to give him some linky love. :)  Go to his blog and read this entry.

Oh, and be sure to go back one entry on his blog and check out his awesome\scary\crazy news from a couple of weeks ago!

Dr. Dobson is RIGHT

So the headline on Drudge today is about how James Dobson is attacking Barack Obama over some of Obama's statements from a while back.  True enough, he did spend a lot of time talking about Obama on the broadcast.  But he spent just as much time talking about the problems with Republicans over the last decade or so.

He's really just affirming what I've been saying since it became apparent that John McCain was going to take the Republican nomination.  Christian Conservatives don't really have anyone that we can trust this year to champion our causes.

He started the broadcast with some comments about Tim Russert, with a clip from an interview he did on Meet the Press in 1998.  In the interview, you'll hear we had the same problems then as we do now - We voted in a bunch of so-called Conservatives and they did nothing.

It looks like this is going to be a horrible year for Republicans and I for one am not upset about that at all.  They have to learn not to bite the hands that feeds them so to speak, and this is the year to start that process.

Anyway, if you want to hear the Dr. Dobson's broadcast to get a clearer picture on what all the hubub is about today, click on the link below.  I'm not going to say I agree with everything that they got worked up over, but it's still a pretty good listen...

http://www.oneplace.com/common/player/oneplace/CustomPlayer.asp?bcd=6/24/2008&url=http://swn.edgeboss.net/wmedia/swn/oneplace/wm/ffd/ffd20080624.wax&MinTitle=Focus+on+the+Family&MinURL=http://www.oneplace.comhttp://www.oneplace.com/ministries/focus_on_the_family/&MinArchives=http://www.oneplace.comhttp://www.oneplace.com/ministries/focus_on_the_family/archives.asp&Refresh=&AdsCategory=MINISTRY.FOTF&Show_ID=132

Remembering Tim Russert

Yeah, I'm pretty late on this one.  Truth is, I didn't really find much reason to blog about Tim Russert.  I didn't know the man.  The only reason his death struck me at all was because I knew like most other people who have spoke or written about him that he was one of VERY few truly objective journalists out there.  You all know that I follow politics quite a bit, so of course I've watched Meet the Press quite a bit.  I used to watch Fox News Sunday when Tony Snow was the host, but after he left Meet the Press was the only one I cared to watch, and then only occasionally.

Anyway, after the events surrounding his death were explained, it was clear to me that he worked himself into the ground.  You rarely see this.  It is something to be admired and it is something to be sad about.  How much of a "family man" could he have really been if he worked so much?  This is something we all of to deal with at points in our lives.  I'm sure Tim was the same.  It's clear he loved his family very much.  But he also loved his profession - a little too much in my opinion.

When discussing Tim Russert's death with my boss the other day, he said that there are some "celebrities" that pass away and you barely notice.  And then there are others that you stop and think, "Oh man.  That's a shame.  He\She will be missed".  I think he hit the nail on the head.

Finally, the main reason I wanted to blog about this today was to point you to Peggy Noonan's article on the subject.  I think she hit the nail on the head too as far as why the media focused on his death as much as they did.  They truly don't understand what being "normal" is.  Tim was just a normal guy with a normal background who made it to the top of a world filled with supposed "elites".  They were baffled by that, and finally had a chance to explain it after his death.  Article is here.  Text below.  Enjoy.

A Life's Lesson
June 20, 2008

When somebody dies, we tell his story and try to define and isolate what was special about it—what it was he brought to the party, how he enhanced life by showing up. In this way we educate ourselves about what really matters. Or, often, re-educate ourselves, for "man needs more to be reminded than instructed."

I understand why some think that the media coverage surrounding Tim Russert's death was excessive—truly, it was unprecedented—but it doesn't seem to me a persuasive indictment, if only because what was said was so valuable.

The beautiful thing about the coverage was that it offered extremely important information to those age 15 or 25 or 30 who may not have been told how to operate in the world beyond "Go succeed." I'm not sure we tell the young as much as we ought, as clearly as we ought, what it is the world admires, and what it is they want to emulate.

In a way, the world is a great liar. It shows you it worships and admires money, but at the end of the day it doesn't. It says it adores fame and celebrity, but it doesn't, not really. The world admires, and wants to hold on to, and not lose, goodness. It admires virtue. At the end it gives its greatest tributes to generosity, honesty, courage, mercy, talents well used, talents that, brought into the world, make it better. That's what it really admires. That's what we talk about in eulogies, because that's what's important. We don't say, "The thing about Joe was he was rich." We say, if we can, "The thing about Joe was he took care of people."

The young are told, "Be true to yourself." But so many of them have no idea, really, what that means. If they don't know who they are, what are they being true to? They're told, "The key is to hold firm to your ideals." But what if no one bothered, really, to teach them ideals?

After Tim's death, the entire television media for four days told you the keys to a life well lived, the things you actually need to live life well, and without which it won't be good. Among them: taking care of those you love and letting them know they're loved, which involves self-sacrifice; holding firm to God, to your religious faith, no matter how high you rise or low you fall. This involves guts, and self-discipline, and active attention to developing and refining a conscience to whose promptings you can respond. Honoring your calling or profession by trying to do within it honorable work, which takes hard effort, and a willingness to master the ethics of your field. And enjoying life. This can be hard in America, where sometimes people are rather grim in their determination to get and to have. "Enjoy life, it's ungrateful not to," said Ronald Reagan.

Tim had these virtues. They were great to see. By defining them and celebrating them the past few days, the media encouraged them. This was a public service, and also what you might call Tim's parting gift.

I'd add it's not only the young, but the older and the old, who were given a few things to think about. When Tim's friends started to come forward last Friday to speak on the air of his excellence, they were honestly grieving. They felt loss. So did people who'd never met him. Question: When you die, are people in your profession going to feel like this? Why not? What can you do better? When you leave, are your customers—in Tim's case it was five million every Sunday morning, in your case it may be the people who come into the shop, or into your office—going to react like this? Why not?

* * *

One of the greatest statements, the most piercing, was something Chuck Todd said when he talked on a panel on MSNBC. He was asked more or less why Tim stuck out from the pack, and he said, "He was normal!" In a city, Washington, in which many powerful people are deep down weird, or don't have a deep down, only a surface, Tim was normal. Like a normal man he cared about his family and his profession and his faith. Pat Buchanan later said they're not making them now like they used to, Tim's normality is becoming the exception. The world of Russert—stability, Catholic school, loving parents, TV shows that attempted only to entertain you and not to create a new moral universe in your head—that's over, that world is gone. He had a point, though it's not gone entirely of course, just not as big, or present, as it used to be.

Which got me thinking about one way in which Tim was lauded that, after a few days, was grating. And what's a column without a gripe? Tim, as all now know, was a working-class boy from upstate New York. But the amazement with which some of his colleagues talked of his background made them sound like Margaret Mead among the indigenous people of Borneo. An amazing rags-to-riches story—he was found among an amazing Celtic tribe that dragged its clubs across the tangled jungle floors of a land called "Buffalo," where they eat "wings" and worship a warrior caste known as "the Bills." Here he is, years later, in a suit. This reflected a certain cultural insularity in our media, did it not? Tim came from a loving home, grew up in a house, in a suburb. He went to private Catholic schools. His father was a garbageman, which when I was growing up was known as a good municipal union job. Tim's life was as good as or better than 90% of his countrymen in his time. His background wasn't strange or surprising—it was normal.

Something not fully appreciated is the sense of particular sadness among conservatives, who felt Russert gave their views and philosophy equal time, an equality of approach. When Kate O'Beirne had a book out on the excesses of feminism a few years ago the only network show on which she was asked to give the antiabortion argument was "Meet the Press." When I was on the book tour in 2000 for "The Case Against Hillary Clinton," Tim's was the only show that asked me to state my case at length, balancing it with an appearance of the same length by a Hillary supporter. I'm not sure network producers understand how grateful—embarrassing word, but true—conservatives are to be given time to say not only what they think but why they think it. Russert was big on why. He knew it was the heart of any political debate.

* * *

On the train coming back from his memorial on Wednesday, I talked to Tom Kean, a former governor of New Jersey and chairman of the 9/11 Commission. He told me of how a few years ago Tim, concerned about nuclear proliferation, invited Mr. Kean and Sam Nunn on "Meet the Press" to talk about it at length. No particular hook, he just wanted to gin up concern in Washington on an issue he knew was crucial. Mr. Kean said he had listened closely to all the journalists the past few days talking about how Tim prepared rigorously, was open-minded, civic minded, serious. He hoped they were listening to themselves, hoped they were reflecting on what they said. Emulation would be good there, too.

Obama is RIGHT

Bet you never thought you'd see that title, huh?  No, I'm not jumping on the Obama bandwagon or anything like that.  I just want to give credit where credit is due.  From this article, taken during a "sermon" Obama gave yesterday at a church in Chicago...

 

CHICAGO: Addressing a packed congregation at one of the city's largest black churches, Senator Barack Obama invoked his own absentee father to deliver a sharp message to black men, saying "we need fathers to realize that responsibility does not end at conception."

In an address Sunday that was striking for its bluntness and where the candidate chose to give it, Obama directly addressed one of the most delicate topics confronting black leaders: whether absent fathers bore responsibility for some of the intractable problems afflicting black Americans. Obama noted that "more than half of all black children live in single-parent households," a number that he said had doubled since his own childhood.

Too many fathers are "missing from too many lives and too many homes," Obama said to a chorus of approving murmurs from the audience. "They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it."

...

"Don't get carried away with that eighth-grade graduation," he said, bringing many members of the congregation to their feet, applauding. "You're supposed to graduate from eighth grade."

...

"I know how hard it is to get kids to eat properly," Obama said at the time. "But I also know that if folks are letting our children drink eight sodas a day, which some parents do, or, you know, eat a bag of potato chips for lunch - buy a little desk or put that child at the kitchen table. 'Watch them do their homework."'

...

What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. Any fool can have a child. That doesn't make you a father. It's the courage to raise a child that makes you a father."

Obama spoke of the burden that single parenthood placed on his mother, who raised Obama with the help of his maternal grandparents.

"I know the toll it took on me, not having a father in the house," he continued. "The hole in your heart when you don't have a male figure in the home who can guide you and lead you. So I resolved many years ago that it was my obligation to break the cycle - that if I could be anything in life, I would be a good father to my children."

But he also acknowledged his own flaws as a father, citing the breakneck schedule of the campaign and the rare days he spends with his children.

"I say this knowing that I have been an imperfect father," he said, "Knowing that I have made mistakes, and I'll continue to make more, wishing that I could be home for my girls and my wife more than I am right now."

 

As the article mentions, he does sound a lot like Bill Cosby here.  This is a message that our country needs to hear, and it's good to see so many people delivering it.  Thank you Barack Obama.  And a slightly belated Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there.

The future of TV commercials

Wow!  Watch this video...

 

As I said in the subject line, you just watched the future of TV commercials.  How crazy is that??!!

At first it will piss all of us off and we'll be like, "Them SOBs! (excuse my language :))  I can't believe they just interrupted Family Guy with a commercial!  Ain't no way I'm watching Bill Engvall now.  Bill, you just got erased from my DVR!"

Then we'll be like, "Man, they did it again!  That Bill Engvall show was pretty funny though.  Maybe I'll watch it this week."

Then we'll just get used to it and won't care. Heck, we probably won't even bother to fast forward through the commercials any more because the station will run one commercial at a time throughout the show and it will be too much trouble to fast forward.  And then da man will claim victory.

At least I was RIGHT

Yeah, I know.  Been forever since I have posted anything.  I've thought of a few things here and there, but just haven't taken the time to blog about them.  Continue to watch my shared items, though.  I usually have a decent amount of activity there.

Ok, so there was a scare or two when Rush Limbaugh decided to start "Operation Chaos", whereby he asked conservatives to register Democrat and vote for Hillary during the primaries.  But one of my predictions from this blog entry in February has effectively been fulfilled as of yesterday with Barak Obama sealing the Democrat nomination.

Rush had quite an impact on damaging both candidates.  For that I give him a lot of credit.  He also may have caused one of my other predictions to be wrong - I said that I didn't think Obama would offer Hillary VP and that she would never accept.  With all that has gone on since then, nothing would surprise me now.  They both have to do some damage control to keep the party united, and coming together as a team would help a lot.  Although I think Obama could pick someone else and end up getting more votes, it's hard to say what he will decide at this point.

But I still hold to my original prediction about our next president.  Obama is going to win.  He's shown himself as even more of a liberal than many originally thought.  But you know what?  So has McCain.  McCain is saying things to attract a constituency that HE CAN NOT WIN.  And he's driving conservatives even further away.  Read or listen to any conservative commentator and you will quickly find that none of them are excited about McCain.

At this point, I think it's going to be a landslide victory for Obama. We'll just have to see if he says or does anything that ruins his chances.  Keep in mind though that McCain is going to have a really hard time attacking Obama on anything, as any negative comments will be painted as being racist - no matter what they are about.  Obama has the media on his side more than Bill Clinton had them back in his heyday.

So yep, I was RIGHT.  But that doesn't exactly make me feel good at the moment.  At this point, I'm just going to pray that the conservatives that are left in Congress after November can make progress on lessening the impact of the crazy liberal bills that are going to flow through Congress over the next couple of years.  And then for REAL CONSERVATIVES to run and win in 2010.