25 Things

Well, I was tagged on Facebook so, by the law of the internet, which cannot be rescinded, I am obliged to tell the world 25 random things about myself.

Though I will obey the law of obligation, I will not make other people partake in this spectacle, though feel free to pick it up yourself if you’re it suits your fancy.

1. I once wandered the streets of Hollywood for an entire night, having no money and no place to stay. The freaks do indeed come out at night.

2. I have terrible eyesight.

3. I know a guy who’s cousin used to date Mel Gibson.

4. I’m gonna steal one from my wife, I really don’t mind changing diapers all that much. I kinda fail to see what the big deal is.

5. I can play the bassoon. And not badly, either.

Not for the Faint of Heart

This is the trailer for the new short film 22 Weeks, the true story of an abortion gone wrong—the baby was born alive—and the clinic staff refused to do anything to help him or the mother.

I had the privilege of attending the premiere, meeting the film maker, the star, and the actual mother from the story at the March for Life in D.C. last week.

This film is of top notch quality and is a gut-wrenching look at the reality of abortion. I’m not sure how anyone could watch it and come away unchanged. Check out the trailer and buy the movie here. It’s only ten bucks for crying out loud.

A question for my protestant friends…

…if any of them still read this blog.

The claim goes that the very most central thing to the Christian religion is “the gospel”, typically defined in conservative protestant circles as believing that faith in Jesus Christ, apart from any work of any sort, is one’s only hope of salvation.

So the question comes, what if a denomination was to continue to approve this (or whatever nuance you care to put on this) formulation of the gospel, but then approved something like female ministers. Or approved of homosexuals. Or declared that marriage was not necessary for God-blessed sexual unions.

Would this Church still be a proper Church in your understanding?

That is to say, if you don’t violate the reformation understanding of the gospel, how far can you go and still be considered within the pale of protestant “orthodoxy”?

Get Ready…

…for the new hit record from Seven Society – Think Absurdly About Them

Not really. I never do these memes, but this one looked fun. It’s the Band Name Meme and here’s how you play:

1. Band Name: Random Wikipeda Link
2. Album Title: Random quote generator (take the last four words from the first quote on the page)
3. Album Art: Flickr Interesting Photo (pick one)
4. Tell what your band sounds like, where they are in their career, etc. (That’s my own addition)

Seven Society has that sound that somehow gets played on both Top 40 and alt rock stations by some mystery of the cosmos. You know, heavy guitars with whiny “I might kill myself toniiiiight” kind of lyrics in big feel-sorry-for-me choruses. Most of their songs start with a plinky guitar arrpegiated guitar riff and you know that bass player’s laying on the 5th string of that bass like it’s going out of style. They wanted to play hardcore, but the money just wasn’t there.

Their sophomore album, Think Absurdly About Them, seeks to match the success of their debut, Where the Pain Lives”, which featured the hit single “Dead Without You”. It is not likely to do so.

How far?

A question, bearing in mind, I don’t think it’s time yet. Even our current president-elect has not, in my opinion, given just cause for an uprising.

But…

When will it be time to rise up? Would 90% taxation be cause enough? What about genocide proper, not just the quiet genocide of the unborn that so many Christians are content to live with? What about limiting the number or gender of children? What about forced sterilization? What about forced abortion? What about open government funding of human cloning for the purpose of organ harvesting? What about forced mixing of human and animal genes? What about forced restriction of the preaching of the gospel?

Where, if anywhere, do my dear and few readers feel is the point beyond which you do not?

Here we go, folks

“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”

– Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Today’s Recommendation

A man who’s back catalogue of rich material is leagues deeper than his hits, Cat Stevens.

A special shout out to his early album Tea for the Tillerman.

Gotta love the market

Yeah, so trying to do the responsible thing, I started a retirement account at work a few months ago.

You’re young, they said, take the risky portfolio, they said. Made sense at the time.

So my nickels and dimes have been hoarded away each month and swept off into who knows what stock to the tune of $600.

What do I have left now? $515. I regularly did better than that playing $2 a hand Spanish 21 at the old-people-casino in Lewiston, ID in college.

Seems to me I just paid some dude to set fire to $85 of my money. Good work if you can get it, I suppose. Needless to say, I’ve cut off contributions to that fund for the time being.

Sometimes you have to say Goodbye

As of Sunday, Chili’s took it’s place on my List of Places I Won’t Eat At On Principle (Unless I Do). This list also includes such purveyors of crap as McDonalds and Subway. Now, I generally try to avoid fast food, but when I have to eat it, I try to make sure it’s not from places on my list if humanly possible.

Well congratulations, Chili’s, you finally sucked hard enough to make the list.

It’s a sad day for me, really. Growing up, all the cool kids at church would go hang out at Chili’s after services on Sunday nights or Wednesday after youth group.

It was a huge rite of passage the first time my parents let me go with. I remember the night clearly. It was the summer before my freshman year in high school. I felt so grown up, hanging out at a sit-down restaurant with my cool high school friends!

Chili’s was where all the cool stuff happened. That’s where all the older kids would go to talk about important high school stuff. That’s where the knowing, worldly-wise kids would make knowing, worldly-wise conversation about topics of which I understood only the mysterious fringe. It was tantalizing, to say the least.

Celebrities think you are a moron

Seriously, this makes me want to stop watching every form of media and not vote just to spite Leo Dicaprio.