Before I go to bed tonight I wanted to pen an open response to everyone who thinks this is the worst thing that has ever happened in America politics. The truth is your going to wake up tomorrow and your world will be exactly like it was today. I remind you of the words of Lord Acton “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” While Bush was president there was a brief moment that they controlled the Senate too, And what huge changes came to the issues that we say we hold dear, none. Abortion is still rampant, and your coveted Gay Marriage issues is still in the air. So why is that?
The truth is any party that controls completely begins to get skittish about what it does next. Consider this, there is no more enemy to fight. You can’t blame the President or the Congress, or the Senate. Your failures become your own. No one else’s. So the natural human tendency is to slow down, be more careful and pull back on your outrageous agenda. The truth is even if Obama set out to revolutionize America, he would only accomplish 1/2 of what he’s promised. But in reality it will be far less then that, because of the fear factor.
Some of the issues that Conservatives hold so dear are really a straw house. Take Gay marriage as an example (maybe the example). The truth is passage of gay marriage changes nothing in my life. As a conservative (not republican) Christian, passage of gay rights has no effect on my life. The state can choose to give rights to gay marriage and it changes nothing on what I know the word of God has to say about this and many sins. It doesn’t change our churches stance on sin, or our choice of fellowship. If it did, it would be a violation of church and state. Feel free to change the law, we are foolish to assume that this country would continually stand behind the truths that we find in the word of God. We like to think this is a Godly nation, and blessed by God for it. The truth is, this government like all governments is turned which ever way God chooses, and our government has no effect on the truth of the Word of God.
Now cause I know anyone can read this blog I want to clarify an issue. I am not standing here telling anyone who is Gay that your evil or bad. I’m in fact saying that all mankind is evil and bad. Your sin is no different then a straight couple who engage in pre-marital sex, or the man who lies, or steals, or cheats. I am using or to clarify that it’s not a violation of all of these laws that makes us sinners, it’s the violation of ANY of these laws that makes us a sinner, and in need of God’s forgiveness.
This country is founded on diversity, we are after all a melting pot. And it’s this diversity that makes America a strong and independent nation. i wouldn’t want it any other way. The truth is the America I love lives in the center, she is not right or left. And like any good Grandfather clock, the pendulum swings right then left, and time is tracked by the passage of the weight to each side. For the next few years we may see the pendulum swing the other way, but from this comes a learning lesson that the evil that has infected America these past 8 years is not because of the Republicans, but is in fact a misguided dream of what government is capable of accomplishing. Government can’t fix the problems in your life or community, only you can. A friend of mine John Kreicbergs wrote today in his blog his excitement in this election, and the promise he made himself regarding this election. That he would take an involvement in his community to in act “change” for America. This is the greatest lesson of this and any election. Only you can change America, not a man, not a party, not an administration. If this election motivates you to take a stand and begin to care for your community and those in need, this election is a win.
I’m not a supporter of McCain, after much debate on who I would vote for I’ve settled in on Bob Barr, and I know we won’t win on Tuesday, I’m excited about what it could mean, if America shows Washington what we think of the crappy choices they are shoving down our throat…. All that being said, I must give props to McCain for his amazing performance on SNL. No one, No one, can touch his open honestly irreverent approach to making fun of not just him self but the entire political process… Great job, if I didn’t think you wanted to go to war with every country that looked at us funny I’d vote for you! After all it is the republicans who believed that we need to stay out of foreign affairs so many years ago…
Either way, here is by far the best Political candidate guest staring on SNL.
In a world where everything gets smaller, more compact, and portable… this parody of Microsoft’s new surface technology really makes you wonder if Microsoft has lost their focus… Great video.
I think we’ve all had days where this seemed like a great idea. Now if I can just get my weapons cache to be covered by my IT budget I’ll be ready for those dirty Pastors!!!
It’s been a rough last few days but we’ve made it to Wall, SD home of Wall Drug, and more nick-nacks then you can shake a stick at…which I don’t recomend, turns out they are rather breakable. I’ll give you a quick recap on the action up till now, unfortunately Cell phone service and Wifi access are all but extinct out here.
Day One:
We left Kansas City and Headed to Norfolk, NE to drop off a ton of stuff for Lisa’s upcoming wedding. Before leaving town I had a honey-do list that would make most “honey’s” cry, but some how I managed to get “almost” all of it done…. I dropped Heather off at work, so I could pack up the car, ran home, packed up the car, cleaned the first floor of our house, got the oil changed, mowed the lawn, took a shower, put new sheets on the bed, laid towels out for some guests who would be staying at our house while we were gone, then hit the road to pick Heather up.
The trip went smoothly till about 10pm. The the rain started, and it got pretty heavy at times. As we hit Highway 275 at freemont, we stopped for some coffee and snacks. Ran into a truck driver who said he thought he heard that 275 was shutdown due to water on the road. Well, we called Travelers Information (511) and it sounded like it was open. So we drove a good 15-20 min down 275. About this time a cop came screaming up behind us with his lights on, so I pulled over and he flew by us. About 5 min latter I’m parked on the side of the road watching him put up a closed road sign. Now in retrospect I don’t understand why I did this next part. So I’m watching this Highway patrolman standing in the rain, helping two street workers put a big sign in the street that says “Road Closed”. So I feel the need to get out of my car and ask, “so is the whole highway shut down?” The cop was very polite and said, “Yes, you’ll have to go back the way you came”. What that cop should of responded with is “No, we’ve left a 6″ strip of the Highway open, so if you can drive on your right two wheels you should be fine….” I can be a little slow at times.
So we decided to get a No-tell Motel in Freemont, and stay the night. Now I’m not going to say the place was gross, but we didn’t take our shoes off if we were touching the floor, and one of the chairs spoke to us, begged us to clean him… So yea, it was gross.
Day Two:
We got going early and dropped the good off at Lisa’s friends house and headed to Wall! Wow, that was a long drive, but we survived it. Gas is no longer hovering under $4 a gallon, we now have officially hit $4 a gallon out here. Watching all these SUV’s roll by I’m not sure how they are paying for their gas! It’s got to be extremely expensive. Due to the weight in our car, I’m watching our MPG drop like a rock. Normally we’d get 35mpg average over the whole tank. Now we are averaging about 28-30mpg. I can only imagine what these monster SUV’s are really getting.
We got our Hotel in Wall, SD. I’ve never loved a Motel 6 more in my life till after last nights No-tel Motel. This place is the taj-mahal of motels! It’s Heathers birthday today, so we decided to go out for a nice dinner at a restaurant in Wall. We had a great time and met a cool waitress from the Ukraine who comes to the US to work during the summers to pay for her entire year of schooling back home. I’m going to ignore the fact that this is probably a blatant violation of US immigration laws, but we had a great time.
Morning of Day Three:
Today is our big day, very little driving and lots of vacation fun! We’ll first drive through the Blackhills national park and I should get some killer photos today, then make camp in Custer State Park, which should take us right by Mnt. Rushmore too! From here on out, I’m assuming I’m going to have little to no internet or cell coverage, but if I get some I’ll be sure to post our photos.
Well we leave for our week long camping trip in a matter of hours. I’ve just finished loading the car up and for the record, I now have the worlds largest puzzle in my car! There are certain items that must go in, in a certain order or they don’t fit. Specifically my wife’s luggage, it can stand up in the back of the car, but only if it’s in first, then you put it in sideways, jimmy the bottom to the left, shake it vigirously as you angle the top up, push down on the handle, curse, rotate the base, curse, stub your thumb between the roof of the car and the luggage, push very hard, and oh yea, curse.
Well it’s packed up and ready to go, and honestly this trip could not have come at a worse time for me, we’ve had lots of strange issues at work, I feel like I’m leaving my employees (http://twitter.com/shanepardue & http://twitter.com/reba_chambers) high and dry while the boss goes and has fun…but the trip is planned and the car is packed so, see ya!
I’ll be posting from time to time but mainly you can watch my twitter feed for all the details about my trip. Using shozu I’ve found a way to be able to take pictures from my camera phone and automatically post them to twitpic which then creates a tweet with a link to my picture! pretty cool! The picture your seeing here is a picture I took with my camera phone, which then posted to twitpic & twitter. I love technology!!
Yesterday our church officially celebrated it’s 65th Anniversary. It was a great time, during the service through the magic of video we were able to hear from all three of our past Senior Pastors and then we headed over to the ballfields for some BBQ and fellowship with over 2000 church members and friends from our community.
So I decided to bring out the camera and I thought I’d share what I caught.
Well it’s simple really, It’s been a long day! It was time to clean out all the old crap that an IT department collects over the years. So We’ve been lifting and sorting and cord wrapping all day! Got rid of lots of junk, to make room for the new stuff that will be coming offline now that our capital budget was approved.
Then at 4:30 I had a stern conversation with Progressive, which I must say I was very satisfied with. Although originally their proposal of me paying my $500 deductible seems rediculous when our car was parked in a friends driveway when he hit it with his car, they were quick to call State Farm and get the matter worked out. I know corporations have a tendancy to forget the customer in the red tape, so I can’t blame Progressive, but I will praise them for quickly working out the issue and getting the problem taken care of. Great Job guys! I was ready to cancel my insurance if I had to pay $500 only to get paid back once insurance company A paid insurance company B. But now I feel that they are responsive to their customers and heard my concerns and got it worked out!
Thanks to Melissa in Customer Service for getting it worked out and making the phone calls to get this worked out. Melissa you let me vent my frustration and concerns without getting defensive and dismissal! That’s unfortunately rare these days! Someone, anyone at Progressive GIVE MELISSA A RAISE! You don’t want to loose someone that good!
Now I’m home, relaxing and watching some TV and it’s raining outside…. Life is good! And that is why I refuse to post to my blog tonight!
I no sooner got our taxes out and relished in the idea of our nice return when it happened. A friend of our ran into Heathers car in their driveway. It’s bad enough to consider that we not get to pay a deductible out of our refund check, but it’s extra sticky cause we know the party involved, very well. So it seems fitting that it would be today not just due to the immutable effects of Murphy’s law but also cause I’m reading Prov 10-15 today. Where the focus is on the mouth and it’s fruit. It’s difficult when the real world issues of life collide with a friendship, and getting all the details taken care of and discussing it is always a trying time. But today’s reading has made one thing clear. Watch what comes out of your mouth, at a time like this they will inevitably be very sensitive to what we say and do feeling guilty about the accident. While we are naturally frustrated, the truth is this is why they call them accidents, they are an accident. Truth be told in 30 days this will all be over and we can move on with our lives, but for now it feels like there is a 400 lb gorilla in the room.
Well lets try this again…. Last week I did a horrible job of keeping up with our new assignment of reading through Proverbs in a week. I could give you some fantastic excusses about how our firewall broke, I worked a ton of overtime and my time in the word was replaced with time on the pfsense website…. But those would be excusses and from what I’m reading today, that won’t cut it.
Today I’m reading Proverbs 1-5. I always struggle with this portion of Proverbs cause I feel like God is just nagging us to not foresake his law. So in the spirit of a rebellious teenager I respond like any arrogant teenager would, I read it like I’m listening and walk away thinking well that wasn’t really about me. Eh, wrong! The truth is we all forsake God’s law everyday. Even though we are saved by grace and free from the law God makes it very clear that we still need to know and understand his law and words. Why, because although I’m not required to avoid pork, or wear fringe on my clothing, their are lessons to be learned from God’s word that if we ignore it we ignore the wisdom that God so graciously offers us every day.
Truth is he doesn’t need to nag us, he could just say, “hey here it is, I gave it to you, if you ignore it it’s your problem.” But God knows it’s necessary to spur us on because he knows our flesh. He knows how lazy we are, and how uncommitted we tend to become over his word.
These 5 chapters have become more clear to me today. It seems to be God’s pleading to us to not ignore what he’s telling us while we watch the inevitable downward spiral that ignoring God takes us too. As I begin reading chapter 5 you find that the stubborn follower of God now finds himself knee deep in sin with little options to pull himself out.
Sins like that, it’s easy to get into; it only takes a lazy attitude, exhaustion, or a feeling of what I deserve…. Then comes apathy and selfishness…Followed by the end of sin and ignorance.
Jim Edwards
Before I go to bed tonight I wanted to pen an open response to everyone who thinks this is the worst thing that has ever happened in America politics. The truth is your going to wake up tomorrow and your world will be exactly like it was today. I remind you of the words of Lord Acton “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” While Bush was president there was a brief moment that they controlled the Senate too, And what huge changes came to the issues that we say we hold dear, none. Abortion is still rampant, and your coveted Gay Marriage issues is still in the air. So why is that?
Day One:
