Of The People, By The People, And For The People

We’ve all heard this catchy phrase before.  Do you know where it came from?

A) Declaration of Independence
B) U.S. Constitution
C) Bill of Rights
D) Gettysburg Address

Anyway…I digress.  The future of our federal government was shown to me clearly this afternoon.  And it was by none other than Dave Ramsey (not Rush Limbaugh).

Dave was chatting with a caller in his unique style and they were dabbling a bit into politics and the current financial mess.  Dave’s basic point was that the time will arrive in the coming years when this bunch of characters in DC will be run out of town on a rail by the voters.  It will take a bit of time, but it will happen and here’s why…

The dramatic impact of the worsening economy on our daily lives is fundamentally changing our spending, saving, and investing patterns.  Think about it — you’re seeing and living this yourself.  If you didn’t have an “emergency fund” built up before, I bet you’re working on one now.  You’re thinking twice about dropping $500 for that new sofa.  You have canceled your satellite radio subscription.  You’re maybe even clipping coupons for your trip to the grocery store.

All these things and more are moving our families to real fiscal responsibility.  When that movement reaches a critical mass the guys (and gals) in DC are in big trouble.  American voters will finally realize that a common sense, responsible approach to money management is making a difference in their family and will expect the same from our federal government.

Trust me folks — the day of reckoning is coming.  Anyone who wants to run for President in 2012 or 2016 will have an army of support if they preach (and practice) common-sense fiscal responsibility.

Go Back to Bed Kids!

Am I a bad parent if I buy this for my girls on their upcoming birthdays?  Let’s just say that if I had a nickel for every time I read someone’s Facebook status about “my kids getting up too early this morning” I could buy a dozen of these.

For children just out of the crib, Teach Me Time! features a dual-color nightlight that turns green when it’s “Ok to wake!”

This convenient (for parents, that is) feature was inspired by homegrown solutions to the problem of young children bounding out of bed at very early hours. If you’ve ever taped over the minutes digits of an old digital alarm and instructed your son or daughter to not get up until “this number is a six”, then you’re one of many (sleep deprived?) parents who understands the need for the dual-color nightlight.

Teach Me Time’s! nightlight has flexible timer settings. You define the time that it turns on (soft yellow glow), the time that it changes color from yellow to green (“Ok to wake!”) and the time that it turns off. If desired, the color-changing option is easily disabled.

And if you are interested in purchase for yourself, check it out here: http://www.americaninnovative.com/products/teachmetime.php

You Won’t See This Commercial on the Super Bowl

Let’s not get into the decision of NBC to deny this TV ad for the Super Bowl broadcast tonight.

I’m curious to know your thoughts about this type of messaging moving our pro-life cause forward.  Seems to me that we can take great leaps when we make it personal like this.  We win any reasonable debate (and move pubic opinion) when the focus is on the child, where it truly belongs.

My thoughts?  I love this ad and hope to see it all over TV, internets, iPhones, you name it.  Would love to see more pro-life financial support going to support this type of activity over the coming years.

DIY Inaugural Celebration

This was just too good to pass up.  Only in America my friends…only in America!

Lego Master Craftsmen Create Barack Obama’s Inauguration

Lego master craftsmen have been putting the finishing touches to a model White House, motorcade, and even queues to the porta-loos, as excitement surrounding the upcoming 56th inauguration of a US president reaches fever pitch.

Obama will be sworn in as the 44th American president and first African-American president in Washington on Tuesday. But those who simply cannot wait can already see what the theme park describes as a “pre-enactment”.

Visitors to the California attraction can see Mr Obama and his whole family constructed out of the multi-coloured Danish bricks.

Crowds of mini Lego people surround the construction, with onlookers including outgoing George W. Bush and Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Check out the entire story here

Check out the amazing photos here

The Dream is Alive and Well (in the GOP)

As we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream today, here are a few thoughts to share.

First off, I do think it’s quite poetic that our nation is preparing to inaugurate our first African American president as we celebrate the life and dreams of our greatest civil rights leader.  I hope that our freedom and liberty are shining through to the rest of the world as we go through a peaceful and orderly transition of power…it’s truly remarkable when you think about it.

As I was watching one of the morning news shows today, they ran a nice video vignette of the civil rights movement through the years.  I was struck by the fact that the speeches were entirely from Democrats including (JFK, LBJ, RFK, Barbara Jordan, Jesse Jackson, etc.).  There was not a single Republican speech sprinkled in at all.

That got me to thinking about the fact that the GOP does have a great history of leadership on civil rights issues and at least in Texas we have outstanding African American Republicans elected to statewide office.  One would never know that from what we see in the mainstream media.  Just consider…

• Currently, Texas is the only state to have 3 African Americans serving in statewide office—all are Republicans: Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, Texas Supreme Court Justice Dale Wainwright, and Railroad Chairman Michael Williams.
• Since Republicans became the statewide majority in 1994, 8 minority Texans have held statewide office; yet in the 122 years that Democrats controlled the State (1872 – 1994), only 4 minority Texans held statewide office.
• The Texas Republican Party was formed on July 4, 1867, in Houston by 150 African Americans and 20 white Texans.
• 2 of the first 3 statewide leaders of the Republican Party of Texas were African American.
• The first 42 African Americans elected to the Texas Legislature were Republicans.
• President George W. Bush was the first president to appoint an African American as Secretary of State (Colin Powell). He also appointed blacks as National Security Advisor (Condoleeza Rice), Secretary of Education (Rod Paige), and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Alphonso Jackson). In his second term, he appointed the second african american Secretary of State (Condoleeza Rice).
• Of the 5 African Americans who have ever been U.S. Senators, 3 were Republicans.
• The 13th Amendment abolishing slavery passed Congress with the support of 100% of Republican members but with only 23% of the Democrat members.
• When the 14th and 15th Amendments extending civil rights and voting rights to African Americans passed, not even 1 Democrat in Congress voted for those amendments.

They Think I’m God?

The title got your attention, didn’t it?  Please don’t think of this as an arrogant post, it’s actually written because God is humbling me in an important area of my life.

I’ve written previously about my mentoring/discipleship lessons with Joe.  He and his wife are meeting one-on-one each week with me and Jennifer, leading us through a discipleship curriculum provided by our church and letting us glean nuggets of wisdom from them.  Let’s just say it’s been tremendous!

One of the main themes Joe has been drilling into me is how I treat my wife and daughters.  It’s such a huge responsibility that we don’t take seriously and we cannot carry out successfully in our own power.  Joe talks quite often about what type of father I should be for our two girls, and I listen because he and his wife have raised two fine young women (now with kids of their own) that today love and serve the Lord admirably.

Our lesson Monday morning was on the attributes of God’s character — both incommunicable (only God has these) and communicable (people can develop these).  Our discussion camped out quite a bit on God’s patience and slowness to anger with his children.  I shared that this is a constant struggle for me in my own life, as I inherited a quick temper from my father.  A practical struggle has been my patience with the girls in cleaning up their playroom or taking care of their daily chores.

So Joe, being the wise man he is, starts to share with me how a young lady’s relationship with her earthly father is a large factor in her relationship with her Heavenly Father.  I’ve heard this before…but it really sunk in for me that morning over waffles at Denny’s.

I have no doubt that my girls have every confidence and assurance of my love and affection for them.  But I also have no doubt that I could show them God’s patience and grace in a much better way.  My hope and prayer is that they will see in me this wonderful communicable attribute of Gods’ character that He continues to shower upon me each and every day.  This will allow them to know a loving God in his true nature, and not some distorted angry version that we put in our own minds.

I’m sure when (and if) Mrs. Theologian reads this post, she will be there to remind me of this hope and prayer when I go over the line.  That’s okay — it’s one of the reasons I chose her for my wife in the first place — she keeps me in line!

NCAA Bailout

I think we all know the real reason we don’t have a college football playoff — money!  The six big conferences don’t want to stop the gravy train that is the BCS.  Well, here’s my solution…

Let’s get the NCAA in on the federal government bailout money.  Give them $100 million a year for 3 years if they agree to a championship playoff with at least 8 teams.  After 3 years, I guarantee they will find that a playoff generates more revenue and doesn’t keep the “student athletes” out of class any longer than the BCS system does now.

In the meantime, a few thoughts after last night’s game…

1) Tim Tebow really is Superman.  I haven’t seen a player carry his team to a championship like that since Vince Young with Texas.  I absolutely love that jump-pass of his down on the goal line.

2) I’m hearing lots of talk today about a Plus1 game for the championship.  That would pit the top two teams in the rankings in one final game AFTER the BCS games are complete.  This would be even worse than what we have now.  Just consider that we’d have Florida, Utah, Texas, and USC all making a legit case for playing in that championship game.

3) The Mountain West Conference should receive an automatic bid to the BCS next year.  They finished with both Utah and TCU in the top 7 teams and BYU is no real slouch.  Remove either the Big East of the ACC, I don’t care which.  They had Virginia Tech and Cincinatti as their top teams, finishing at 15 and 17 respectively.

4) The tiebreaker for Big 12 rankings at season’s end should be past performance in the BCS bowl games.  I’m sick and tired of OU going to the BCS games and playing lousy each and every year.

Now That’s Living Your Faith

My friends, this is what being a follower of Christ is all about.  Talk about being salt and light in the world around you.  I hope this wonderful story about the players and parents of Faith Christian School (right here in Grapevine) brings you a little Christmas cheer, as it did for me.

They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas.

It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through.

Did you hear that? The other team’s fans?

They even made a banner for players to crash through at the end. It said, “Go Tornadoes!” Which is also weird, because Faith is the Lions.

It was rivers running uphill and cats petting dogs. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gainesville side and kept cheering the Gainesville players on—by name.

“I never in my life thought I’d hear people cheering for us to hit their kids,” recalls Gainesville’s QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. “I wouldn’t expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!”

And even though Faith walloped them 33-14, the Gainesville kids were so happy that after the game they gave head coach Mark Williams a sideline squirt-bottle shower like he’d just won state. Gotta be the first Gatorade bath in history for an 0-9 coach.

But then you saw the 12 uniformed officers escorting the 14 Gainesville players off the field and two and two started to make four. They lined the players up in groups of five—handcuffs ready in their back pockets—and marched them to the team bus. That’s because Gainesville is a maximum-security correctional facility 75 miles north of Dallas. Every game it plays is on the road.

Full story from Rick Reilly at espn.com

Google Gives the Shaft

The madmen of Mountain View (Google Brass) are cutting back just like the rest of us.  Seems they have cut out Christmas bonuses this year, and instead are giving all employees a shiny new Android cellphone by — you guessed it, Google.

This is a double-barrel kick in the groin as the employees get stuck with a phone that is far behind the iPhone, Curve, Bold, and others.  But they also are not seeing the cash bonuses which in years past have been as much as $20,000.  The corporate policy doesn’t even allow them to resell it on ebay.

Let’s just hope that Cousin Eddie doesn’t find out.  He just might take the RV to kidnap Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt.  This is just as bad as a subscription to the jelly of the month club.

I can’t help but wonder if Google and T-Mobile are pulling this shennanigan because they need a way to clear out inventory since the Android phone is no competition to the superiority of the iPhone.

Texas Stadium

Seems appropriate to share some sentimental thoughts on Texas Stadium today.  I’ve always been fascinated by the place…mainly because God is always watching His Cowboys through the hole in the roof.

Here are some highlights of a few games that I’ve attended.  It was really cool growing up because dad was such a huge Cowboy fan.  We usually made an effort to attend one game as a family each year.  Very special times.

1983 – Thanksgiving with Grandparents

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Dallas with my grandparents and cousin (mom’s family).  We stayed downtown at the Adolphus and ate lunch at Neiman Marcus one day.  Chris and I were amazed by the flavored butter.  Cowboys beat the St. Louis Cardinals handily that day.

1986 – Stewart Family Game

I think it was the Redskin game that year.  We drove down Saturday with the Stewart family (Bob, Mary, Donna, and Sheryl) in their family van.  All the kids were tortured on the trip as we had to listen to audio tapes on the four basic personality types.  I remember very well going to Magic Time Machine for dinner after the game and waiting over 2 hours for a table.

1988 Ketelle Guys Trip

We drove down with Jay Ketelle and his son David, just me and Chris with dad.  Memory from this game was the Giants fans behind us spilling their beer on us during the game.  That’s okay because Cowboys ended up winning and we gave them a hard time the whole game.

1992 Pep Rally

This was one of those silly spur-of-the-moment college roadtrips during my freshman year at HSU in Abilene.  It was Thursday at lunch and my roomate Travis Durham and I had the crazy idea to drive 3 hours to Texas Stadium for a Cowboy pep rally before the NFC championship game against the Niners.  We recruited Jennifer Hawkins (now Henry) and Sara (can’t remember her last name) to go with us.  Made it back around 2am and went to class the next morning.

1995 – Thanksgiving with Jennifer

We decided to do another family Thanksgiving game, but this time Jennifer came along with us.  She and I were dating very seriously and she came to the game with all four of us.  Then we went back to her family’s house for dinner that night.

1997 – Suite with Hershey Folks

One of the perks dad had in his job with Hershey was game tickets…other than all the free candy.  Hershey had a suite at Texas Stadium for a few years to entertain their best customers.  This year he got the Chicago Bear game early in the year and I got to join him with my buddy Joe Weir.  Only time I ever watched a Cowboy game in a suite.

1999 – Last Game with Dad

Dad came down from Amarillo with Chris and his buddy Gib Webb.  We had the Hershey seats on first row behind the visitor bench (they got rid of the suite).  It was a bitterly cold day late in the season and we had a blast razzing on the Philly players throughout the game.