Hint

After getting the girls up from their afternoon nap, I usually sit on their floor to play with them for a while. Yesterday Kayla grabbed a book, picked up my hand, placed the book in my hand, then sat in my lap for me to read to her.

Translation for men: when a girl starts giving hints, they cease to be hints.

Scraping Bottom

In case any KC-ers were wondering, Price Chopper has hit a new low. The other day Amy was in line and guy was trying to buy a few items, one of which was a can of breadcrumbs in dire need of a price check. After a few minutes he pulled out a knife, made a threat about slicing someone's throat, and ran out with only the breadcrumbs. That's one deperate cook.

A few days before that, some drunk guy was lying in the doorway passed out. Apparently his buddies had dropped him off there after he was over his limit. And what happened with dropping him at his house, fellas? Oh, that's right, it's funnier to wake up in the arms of a cop.

Classy.

Peace-ful Competition

Tonight was the opening ceremony for the 2005 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. You gotta admit, they know how to do some good fanfare.

A few facts:
-Eighty countries are competing.
-Ethiopia has over 70 million people, but only 2 competitors. Selah.
-Germany has 20 million people, and 161 are competing (the third largest showing, I believe).

Yoko Ono (John Lennon's widow) spoke about peace and gave the first few lines of his song, Imagine. Peter Gabriel then sang the song. It is very universalist. It was also very ambiguous ... and somewhat pointless. I know it was more of a political/idealogical "can't we all just be nice to each other" thought, but it really is futile when you think about it.

It's also ironic that, besides war, the talk of peace happened at the most polarizing competition of every four years. Everyone is there to win for themselves, to kick the other's nether-regions while making them cry, to get the gold, not coddle the weak link from the other country "until we all get a fancy gold medal". They are there to be the winner and create a loser, not see how level they can make the playing field. That's what competition is.

It kind of goes with this old joke/observation. "Two men observed a down-trodden person. 'Communism or Capitalism (use whichever you prefer) can put a new suit on that man,' said the first man. The second man replied, 'Yes, but Christianity can put a new man in that suit.'"

The issue with this supposed peace is that it is more about outwardly hiding your true self ... well-wishing with your mouth in the 1% of your public presence while cursing them with the 99% of your private thoughts and intentions. Being nice-ish has never been the isssue; becoming new has. While being nice is definitely a decent step in the right direction, becoming new is the only answer to True Peace*. And that has to happen from the inside out.




*Except for Theocratic Dictatorship (when Jesus rules the world, no questions asked), which will happen in the Millenial Kingdom, but that's another discussion. And it still is primarily concerned with happening from the inside out.

Four Year Anniversary!!!

Amy and I celebrated our four year anniversay the other night. What started out to be somewhat of a hassle of an evening ended up being quite nice.

I made reservations at a fancy restaurant that required a minimum of "business casual," which is two steps down from tuxedo-penguin stuffy ... which incidentally is about ten steps up from, "It's stuffy in this Waffle House." But when we got there, we were seated next to a boisterous party of eight. We looked at the menu and calculated that a decent meal would cost $150-200, easy. With a tip of my proverbial hat, I created an excuse for the hostess at the front door, grabbed my coat, and we headed out the door.

I always try to do something unique and memorable for special occasions, but next time I'll know 1) when they don't list prices, it ain't cheap 2) when there are at least four categories of wait staff preceding your server, it ain't cheap (because you're paying the "wine steward" even if you don't want any) 3) when the wait staff you've met each has a different foreign accent, it ain't cheap and 4) when everything on the menu is exotic, but none of it appeals to your appetite, it ain't worth it.

We ended up at a great place that has quiet booths complete with privacy curtains. With a great meal, light conversation, and the beauty of my heart seated right next to me, I was a happy man. I love my wife, and I love how she loves me.

Perspective

The CEO for General Motors has decided to take a fifty percent pay cut. Aw, how sweet. Such a giver.

What they neglected to report was that he makes about $10 million a year (all things included), plus he will receive $4.6 million per year as pension when he retires. And the pension is not tied to how well the company does; even if the comapny goes bankrupt, he still gets a check.

Come on. Going from $10 million to $5 million isn't "roughing it," especially when you can retire to almost $5 million a year waiting for you. Going from having a job in a productive automotive plant to not having a job is difficult. Even going from a $70,000 job to a $35,000 job is rough. But once you break a certain threshhold, you gotta ask yourself what the point is. I mean, what's the difference between $2.4 million and $3.8 million, for instance? It's one hundred good workers trying to care for their families, that's what. No sir, no brownie points for you, Rick Wagoner.

"EIR has determined that since 2000, the top executives for the Big Three U.S. automakers have collectively looted their companies for between $500-$750 million in obscene total compensation—equal to the wages of 15,000 production workers for one year. Instead, they should have fired themselves."

The Difference Is HUGE

Not that you did, but if you had any question as to the difference between Islam and Judaism (or Christianity), here's an article to shed some light. It boils down to violence ... murder, really.

Most Jews and Christians don't threaten to kill people over a cartoon. Murder isn't par for the Christian/Jewish course.


"Armed militants angered by a cartoon drawing of the Prophet Muhammad published in European media surrounded EU offices in Gaza on Thursday and threatened to kidnap foreigners as outrage over the caricatures spread across the Islamic world ... Foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers began leaving Gaza as gunmen there threatened to kidnap citizens of France, Norway, Denmark and Germany ... Gunmen in the West Bank city of Nablus entered four hotels ... also searching apartments ... to search for foreigners to abduct ... Thursday's events began when a dozen gunmen with ties to Fatah approached the office of the EU Commission in Gaza. Three jumped on the outer wall and the rest took up position at the entrance ... A leaflet signed by a Fatah militia and the militant Islamic Jihad group said the EU office and churches in Gaza could come under attack ..."

Observation

Please tell me I am not the only one who has noticed that most Oprah shows are hour-long infomercials!

I'm not intentionally trying to "skewer the sacred cow", it's just something I picked up on. My apologies to the women-folk who haven't noticed ... in other news, there is no santa or easter bunny ...

Appeasing the PETA people

A home makeover show created a multimillion-dollar home the other night. Millions upon millions. Usually they make a great multi-thousand dollar home, but this was different. It was for victims of hurricane Katrina. No, no, not for people--for animals. Yes, animals were placed higher on the list than actual people who lost everything to that storm. Great job, ABC. You really know how to keep your standards high.

Yes, I said animals. Ridiculous. Let me say it again: that's utterly ridiculous.

It was a family who rescued animals and didn't have the space, so the show built everything brand new for them--for animals. Come on, now. I'm all about providing a nice home for little Fluffy, but if you want to spend millions on a "deserving family," why not actually do it for real people who were displaced by the hurricane instead of creatures with an eight year shelf-life?

This whole "animals are worth as much as people" lunacy drives me nuts. I'm not talking about abusing them, that's not cool at all. I'm talking about placing them on the same (or even similar) level as a person. There's no justification for that. Just for clarity sake though, where do these people stand on abortion? Where's the value for human life?

I can't talk about this anymore. I'm getting too upset.