Category: Random thoughts

I made fajitas for lunch today. Took the leftovers with me to work.
Man! (or non-gender-specific exclamation), I make some gooooooooood fajita.

From a speech President Bush made on March 8, 2004:

“My opponent spent two decades in Congress. He spent a long time in Washington and he’s built up quite a record. Senator Kerry has been in Washington so long that he’s taken both sides on just about every issue. Senator Kerry voted for the Patriot Act, for NAFTA, for the No Child Left Behind Act, and for the use of force in Iraq. Now he opposes the Patriot Act, NAFTA, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the liberation of Iraq. My opponent clearly has strong beliefs–they just don’t last very long. . . .”

State run media in North Korea is pushing John Kerry for U.S. President.

“Pyongyang seems to hope victory for the Democratic candidate on November 2 would lead to a softening in US policy towards the country’s nuclear weapons programme.”

North Korea knows Kerry will be soft on defense. Hopefully, Americans will realize it in time.

I’ve been debating a man on a message board about marriage and the Bible.

I’ve pointed out that recent events in Canada and Europe have led to the restriction of the freedom to practice one’s religion and the freedom of speech. (Christians have successfully been sued for “hate crimes” for calling homosexuality a sin).

My position is that the same may happen here. My debating opponent had this to say about the moralilty of the Bible:

I can view what i see as immorality in the bible as absolutely immoral
(this would include espousing a belief that those who believe a different religion
are going to hell. Which of course doesnt really fly with our freedom of
religion beliefs in this country)

He actually believes that Christianity is unconstitutional. He believes Christians are not allowed to hold Christian beliefs. Canada and Europe have already taken steps to prevent Christians from expressing their beliefs. Is the same thing starting here?

John Kerry again is demonstrating a sad lack of foresight. Kerry is now saying he would grant state-sanctioned gay couples all the 1,049 federal benefits married couples lay claim to.

That’s fine Mr. Kerry. How are you going to pay for it?

Now regardless of your position on gay marriage, there are significant consequences to this plan. The impact on Social Security survivor benefits alone would push the federal program past the breaking point.

But then again, Kerry has already made it clear that he wants to raise taxes.

John Kerry is on the stump trying to tell people how he will protect jobs. Here is his solution:

“…he would order a 120-day review of all trade pacts. He laid out specific guidelines for companies wanting to send jobs overseas, including at least three months’ advance notice for affected employees as well as notification of the Labor Department, state agencies and local government officials.”

That certainly would make it more difficult for jobs to be shipped overseas. Which brings up the law of unintended consequences. Pretend you are an employer with offices in Colorado and offices in Mexico. Demand goes up for your product and you need more people to make your widgets. You want to create jobs in Colorado. Now wouldn’t you stop and think twice knowing that you would have to go through all these hoops if you need to relocate jobs later? Or worse, you may want to eliminate jobs when demand slumps, but worry about employees (union?) filing suite saying you are moving the jobs and accuse you of violating Kerry’s regulations. It doesn’t matter that you aren’t moving them. You now have to pay legal expenses to show it was job elimination not relocation.

It’s just too much legal liability. Nope, instead you will create those jobs in Mexico as insurance that you won’t have to deal with the bureaucratic nightmare later. He blames President Bush for jobs relocating. He will do even better by making sure they aren’t created here in the first place.

I just got back from seeing The Passion of The Christ. My opinion:

Stunning.

First, how anyone can claim the movie is anti-Semitic or portrays all Jews poorly was not watching this movie. In the movie, there are members of the Sanhedrin who courageously try to defend Jesus, obviously unsuccessfully. Many others walk out of a trial that clearly becomes a farce.

I have heard other criticism that Pontius Pilate is treated too sympathetically. I saw his actions as cowardly. The movie portrays his motivations exactly as I’ve believed. That is, he notes Jesus was innocent, yet he is more concerned with politics of releasing Jesus than making a principled stand to free an innocent man.

Watching the torture of Jesus was horrible. Mel Gibson showed excruciating detail of what the Romans did to people. Even more moving was seeing those scenes through the eyes of Mary as a woman watching her son dying.

Through it all, Jesus message of love and forgiveness is not lost. It is emphasized even more by showing flashbacks in between scenes of the crucifixion. The short resurrection scene shows us that his sacrifice was not in vain.

Mel Gibson took “the greatest story every told” and produced the greatest movie ever made.

This one is funny.

Earlier this week, I mentioned that Mel Gibson refused to publicly disavow his father’s discounting the holocaust in WWII. On Thursday, Little Green Footballs, posted a quote from a radio interview Hutton Gibson (Mel’s father) had with a radio station and made remarks like, ““It’s all – maybe not all fiction – but most of it is.”

I certainly disagree with those statements. What I find as sad are calls from LGF readers in the comments section demanding Mel Gibson publicly denounce his father.

Mel’s refusal to denounce his father is a sign of his integrity. Mel Gibson made it perfectly clear in the Sawyer interview that he believes anti-semitism is unChristian. At the same time, those Christian beliefs tell him to honor (not necessarily agree with) his father and mother. It is not his place to publicly condemn his father’s views.

People say its a good thing to know another language. I’ve never really had the aptitude for it though. I figure, if God wanted me to speak a foreign language, He wouldn’t have invented English.