Axis of Evil.

How 'bout them apples?

innapropriate.

Apparently, if a catastrophe (or, in this case, terrorist attack) occurs, it's wrong to sing any song that might make people think about the event. As if they wouldn't be thinking about it all the time anyway. Maybe I'm just heartless, but the following strikes me as a bit extreme.

inappropriate

It's also pretty interesting to see what songs made the list.

foreign workers?

If these are foreign workers, I'm all for it.

Sorry, Cullin, serious response to follow. I couldn't help myself.

A question of legality

So I pose this question to everyone.

Why is it that the illegals debate has centered around the idea of amnesty and a path to citizenship? Why do they even have to be offered citizenship? Why should they be? Why not just give these 11+ million people a legal status as foreign workers?

I would love to know what others think. Discuss

Creative, Smart, FUN!

everything that deal or no deal isn't. this show BLOWS. i cannot believe that this show is on the air. is it on every night? when did bankers become bad guys? and does anyone not notice how the chances of "alot of money" vs "not much money" are always 50/50 and it is always going to come down to the wire? why are americans obsessed with the idea of getting something for nothing?


and what's with american idol. obviously this show is terrible, but it is interesting to note that they have the power to take out any prime time show that they want on another channel just by switching putting it in the same time slot? i think that's what happened with commander in chief.
that's what i've been thinking about. also the third season of arrested development will be out in the beginning of june. i think we should have a party.

War is Peace?

I read one of those quotes that pop-up on gmail today, by St. Augustine which reads, "The purpose of all wars, is peace." And although right now Cullin is thinking, "I knew there was a reason that I always loved Augustine." It got me thinking on another track--how easy it is for us to feel comfortable here, on this earth (especially given all our particular economic standings--none of us really suffer). we forget about earth groaning in growing pains and our desire to look forward to the end of all things diminishes if it doesn't become nonexistent altogether.

let me explain: i got here because i thought how easy it is for us to see the bad in a situation (like war) and thus determine that the situation is meaningless (or, at the least, should end) because it causes pain. but if we take Augustine's point, even just on a very rudimentary level, we must look past our immediate circumstances to an end result. or, to put it another way, we must see some good in the struggle (the pain, suffering, however you want to look at it) in that it gets us to another place--in this case, peace.

though i think I should interject here, that there is something in the actual struggle itself that we must embrace. I don't think we can even pretend to strive to be more like Christ without realizing there will be pain and that its supposed to be that way.

This is all quite naturally, speaking from my own experience (at least in not really suffering and thus finding too much contentment in that which fades). Maybe many of you have a much better grasp on looking forward to eternity. But I certainly feel as if by labeling and instantly judging all those things which cause discomfort and pain 'bad' we are in some sense not living in this present world--a fallen one--with a belief that something is missing but instead have come to think that we can and should have our contentment here and now. why do we act like we can find that which we desire now?

I'm not saying we should all become masochists, but I do believe there is a quality which denies the reality of the world that we live in when we think, "We can have what we want [i.e. true desires of heart] and we can have it without sacrificing anything." It's contrary to what we see in the gospel through Jesus' ultimate sacrifice and throughout His entire life.

So don't hear me as saying war is good. Sin is real and it is painful. But we have the promise from God that He will use even sin for good. Let us not think that by eliminating what is painful we will somehow live better life.

As always, please comment.

Happy Cinco De Mayo

A road sign in Caclifornia near the Mexico border.

Lets FIESTA muchachos.

bingo.

It's not immigartion If it's illegal

So as I'm sure you all know I have little to no tolerance with tiptoeing around the current situation this country faces about the constant influx of illegal aliens into this country from our souhern border. I am prepared to defend my position against any attempt, but that's the fun for me so please give it a go.
The number of illegals in this country is grossly underestimated, at minimum there are 11 million people here who shouldn't be. Just to give you an example of how disturbing this trend is, I heard today that in the past two months alone, since the talk of the amnesty began, Over 250,000 have crossed into the US. This is dangerous, illegal and should concern everyone.
A country is by definition an area with recognized borders. Is there a country of Palestine no, why becasue there are no borders. So for anyone to ask why do we need borders, you might as well ask why do we need a country. There will never be a time when no borders exist and everyone can just be a citizen of the world, I don't care what your sociology professors have told you. Do you think Iran will ever allow people to just come and go as they please, no.
But I digress, borders are very importan and our southern border is extremely important. We do lots of business with Mexico because of NAFTA, but we also do lots of business with South America because of the drug trade. How do you think most of the drugs get through. We need to seal the border through the military and through a physical barrier in order to secure the US from the invasion that is occuring. And no one can deny that it is an invasion, there is no other word for it.
One last item for this post, I know it has been slightly broad. In 1986 the US congress legalized 3 million illegal immigrants and promised to crackdown on those who came here illegaly and those who hired them. It didn't work then and it won't work now. I can't make this stuff up, you know me I'm not that smart.

with love for America

Sufjan Stevens

So far, this is the only way I know how to post music (a link to music already uploaded online). It's a new single by Sufjan called Mr. Supercomputer. Enjoy.

http://toolshedmedia02.com/ts/sufjan-stevens-dear-mr-supercomputer.mp3

True Identities (no pun intended on previous conversations)

I've noticed some concern over who we really are online, so I'm going to put up a one-time list. Just to ease fears that some 'random' might have found their way on to our blog. I guess we all just want to be someone else online. You are escapist sinners, all of you. Except for Courtney and Will (kind of).
Anyway, here we go:
stan=me, Jason--its my middle name folks
loulou=Anna Ward, her middle name, but twice
cill wote=yes, this is Will Cote, though he started out as Paranoidhead
oliver=Robert Kown, as he already noted, it's his middle name, as well
Mae=Megan Aquadro, hmmm...it would be fun to call her Mae on a regular basis, though it kind of makes me think of an Aunt knitting on her front porch
vash=Grant (and maybe Beth--I don't know, they're both in the picture), no clue as to where this one came from, Grant, you want to fill us in?
compassionate_conservative=Cullin Spellings, your guess is a good as mine on this one, I think its in reference to a book he once read by Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative
TheFirstAgainstTheWall=this is Big Dave, how did you guess?

reporting for duty

I thought it would be fun if every body but in the little comment box down there the first thing they did after got their last exam/paper over with for the semester.
I'll go first by saying that i came over here to blogtown and pinched off this very blog-post i'm writing.

When will then be now?

Soon.

ps. if anyone knows how to put up mp3's for download on this page, (an obvious wink wink to D. Mitchel) let me know.

and further, i don't like that these crazies have their fake names up here and i don' t know who they are. don't forget to leave your comments,

knife sharpener

immigration

Here's an article from Sojourners on the current immigration issue. If any of you have not read Sojourners before, they are Christian political magazines that leans to the left. I think this is a good article to read--because it gives the perspective of someone who will be affected by tighter immigration policies. Its clear that the article is trying to make a political point, but I think its still worth reading just to hear a different perspective. No, Cullin, by posting this article online, I'm not saying I agree with the point they are making.

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.current_issue

I'm in bitches!!!!!!!

A warm shout out and hug to everyone here!

i am actually curious (cullin) about what (and why) you think about the whole illegal immigrant situation.

im not sure what i think about it ... like, looking at it from a purely economic perspective, it makes sense that if people in our country dont want theses shitty/low paying jobs that they're up for grabs by others who are willing to do the work, since there's such a high demand. (how this addresses the citizenship question im not so sure).

i dont have a solution for the current situation (i think that if someone as ill-informed as myself did actually have a solution that others who were paid to figure it out would have been able to do so by now), but id still like to know yall's thoughts (if you have any).

So I'm in and you can't do anything about it.

The illegals must leave.

That article on the Israeli and Palestinian former soldiers was so interesting.

I think it's also significant in light of Courtney's earlier post re: "identity" ... and how these former fighters who are supposed to have so much of who they are be formed out of what they hate (defining themselves as "not Palestinian" or "not Israeli" etc ...). I think that here in America we are so isolated from other nations that we dont necessarily define ourselves according to nationality (on a regular basis), but there are still so many ways that we do do it (race, class, neighborhood, education ... to name a few).

Back to Courtney's comment about Identity in Christ, i think that that's something that is hard to release oneself to do. We are so used to defining everything according to ourselves and our actions (God doesnt finish our papers, God doesnt give our presentations), so trying to switch over to giving God the credit ... and even further defining oneself by God, is a huge step in the "wrong" direction ... it literally is the opposite of what we should be doing (if we're going to play the "humanist game").

Anyway, it's a very interesting article, and all should read it. Here's an exerpt that i thought was really good:

"It's a paradox," he says. "You hear a man talking about how he shot, killed, damaged your neighbor's house. But you feel empathy for him. You realize that we are all from the same background, but just from different sides. The soldier wanted to protect his people, and so did we. But we've all discovered we were wrong in how we did it."

Vash? what's Vash? please to explain s'il vous plait.

so, i guess we're keepin this one serious. gotcha.

also, who is "mae"?

ps: "oliver" is me, robert kown. fyi.

An amazing article-- former Israeli and Palestinian soldiers meeting together.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0406/p13s02-wome.html

i'm so confused and it's raining.

identity

Since Easter I have really been learning more and more what it means for my identity to be fully in Christ. I know that is 'church jargon' that our identity should be fully in Christ, but what does that actually mean. How does that effect our daily lives? Our relationships with others, etc.? It has really given me a lot of freedom and joy (and humbles me a lot) that the Lord of the universe looks on me as He looks at Jesus Christ, because Christ died for my great sin and attributes His righteousness to me. How crazy is that?

Anyways, it would be cool to discus this . . . but I am disappointed that no one has put their true identity aka name on this bog . . . what do you have to hide? hehe. I guess I am just unoriginal and not creative becuause I used my real name. Love you all.

... or are we just supposed to talk about serious stuff? (ie: eating disorders, male modeling, et al)

Hooray for the Bloggers

i dont really have anything too much to say, but i would like to point out that this is an amazing video ... im new to posting shizz in a blog, so we'll see if this works.

http://tcal.net/archives/2006/04/25/average-middle-class-white-guy-rap-you-are-about-to-be-blazed/

5:08

the time at which the first post is made.
boredom can get you to some interesting places. i hope this thing isn't a mistake.

anyway, the idea is: you have something that interests you from art to religion to politics to cars, you write it up. at the very least other people get to see it. but if you're truly lucky someone will respond.

the danger here is pretty obvious. there's quite a few controversial topics out there and plenty of hotheads to go around.

don't be one.