Tag: 2008

Posted on

Politics and Blogging

I am not blogging today. I just don’t have it in me. There is a lot on my mind, but its a friday off.

I am excited about Sarah Palin being selected as John McCain’s running mate. I think there is more excitement about her than there is for John McCain himself. Anyway, I am working on some political posts. I have remained silent for most of the political season here on my blog. I am not in a position where I cannot promote my political ideals, so I am going to, because I am tired of not saying what I believe. I would much rather blog about what actually makes a difference in people’s lives and that is Christ’s church, but its election season so I am going to make a few brief detours.

So, if you are looking for some blog fun today and want to express some of your political thoughts, go to the Waxy One’s Blog and share what your one platform would be if you were elected President. Click HERE to go there.

Posted on

Vetted

You probably only hear the word, vetted, every 4 years. Wikipedia’s definition is this: Broadly, vetting is a process of examination and evaluation. Specifically, vetting often refers to performing a background check on someone before offering them employment. In addition, in intelligence gathering, assets are vetted to determine their usefulness.

On Saturday, as soon as Barak Obama chose his running mate, Joe Biden for the coming election, the pundits immediately started sharing their opinion’s about his choice. Some were praising the choice, while others started questioning whether or not Barak properly vetted Joe Bidden. Why all of the questions? Well, Joe Bidden has a history of saying things that are not so popular or proper. He made what could be considered as racist remarks about Obama, saying he was the first ‘clean’ ‘articulate’ African American in contention for the democratic parties nomination, he said that ‘you have to have a little Indian accent to go into a Seven-Eleven convenient store…I’m not kidding,’ as well, he point blankly said that his now running mate was lacking the experience needed to be President and that the office of President was not the place for ‘on the job training.’ Biden later blasted Obama’s lack of foreign policy experience and comments he made concerning Pakistan and Iran. The fear for democrats who support the election of Barak Obama is that something will come out about Biden or that he will say something that could potentially ruin Barak’s chances of being elected.

What if, John Edwards was the chosen running mate for Barak Obama, and Obama chose to select Edwards as his running mate 1 month ago? The experts this weekend were saying that some candidates are not vetted as much as others because they have already been vetted as Presidential candidates, therefore they feel that Biden may have had less vetting than someone who did not run for President this year, but what if the same process had been taken with Edwards? The recent news about Edwards’ affair would have sunk Obama’s ship, as would any issues with Biden if they were to come about.

As I was running the other night, I could not help but to think, have I been vetted? Have I vetted myself? Is there anything in my life that if it were discovered would potentially embarrass my God, my family, my church, or my employer? You are probably familiar with the situation with Michael Guglielmucci, who was made famous quickly with his song Healer and the story that went a long with it. However as Michael quickly stepped into the spotlight he started getting vetted, and it was found that Michael had something in his life that did not match up with the character of the Lord he sang about. Brad had a great post HERE concerning the story, and this post is not to cast criticism on Michael because we all have sin in our lives and we have all failed, though our failures at times fall on different levels. This post is to point out that when we don’t vet ourselves and allow Christ to vet us by examining our inner most secret areas, someone will, and in the end Christ will take a hit, our families will take a hit, our churches will take a hit, our friends will take a hit, Christianity will take a hit, and we will lose all credibility and trust we have ever gained.

Join the Conversation: Have you vetted yourself lately? Most importantly, have you allowed Christ to vet you lately?

Posted on

Happy Birthday Tristan!!!

Happy Birthday to my little man, Tristan! He turns 2 today! We celebrated last night at Chuck E Cheese with a few family members and had a blast. Thankfully the rides Tristan enjoys weren’t the most popular…it was CRAZY!

Tristan is a personality in himself. He totally demonstrates how two children can be so different. He and his older brother are worlds apart. Fortunately they get along great, both demonstrate their love for each other and for their new sister Hailey. Tristan is wild and crazy and into everything, but he has that special little look that helps him slip by trouble from time to time. One of the most special things that I love about Tristan is his little (but big) hugs. He runs up to us, wraps his short arms as far around our shoulders as he possibly can and then starts patting our backs (usually the top of our shoulders because he has short arms). Its one of the cutest things I’ve ever experienced…he is so genuine. He recently started to learn how to pray when we eat together, he roughly says Jesus, Thank you, Food, and AMEN! He says Amen really good.

So once again, Happy Birthday buddy! Love Mommy and Daddy.

(Click Photos to Enlarge)

Posted on

Young Voters, Please Stop Playing!

I believe that everyone who has the priviledge to vote should. It is one of the greatest responsibilities we have in this country. This article is not a Pro-McCain or a Pro-Obama article, its purpose is not to sway voters to one camp or the other, however I do want to point some foolishness out that is driving me crazy and it has great potential to cause harm to the future of our country for our kids.

It just happens that the biggest group of culprits have outwardly and publically supported Barak Obama. A majority of young voters that I have heard from take our priviledge of voting as a joke, yet they are voting between two candidates who will have a huge opportunity to make policies and to elect judges that will be in place for the next 30+ years. Some of the laws and policies that are put into place may not have an immediate effect on those who are voting in this election cycle, but my kids will definitely benefit from them or suffer because of them in the years to come. When I step into the voting booth I no longer have just myself to think about, but now I have 3 children and a future of grandchildren that will be directly effected by the two candidates that we are voting for in 2008.

So young voter, I urge you, before you vote, please do your homework and take this responsibility serious. Over the last several months and during the primaries I have grown more and more aggravated with what I am hearing, here are a few quotes from young voters:

“I am voting for Barak Obama because he is hot.”
“We are voting for John Edwards because we like his hair.”
“I am voting for Barak Obama because that’s who my parents said they are voting for.”
“Did you hear Barak Obama’s speach? I am voting for him.”

All of these sound like great leadership principles that will benefit our country. Within those thoughts lies the answer, I reckon, to balance the budget so my kids do not have to pay back China for our generation’s debts. I can clearly hear the answer to lowering energy cost in those quotes. Within each of those statements I can hear exactly the kind of Supreme Court Justices the candidates will put on the bench. Don’t you see all of those important policy issues within those statements? It aggrivates me that not one of these voters had children, yet they are playing with my children’s future. These are not 18 year olds by the way, some were as old as 25 and they acted as if they could care less about the process, they just wanted to vote for who was cool. I would give the same criticisms to anyone voting for John McCain for some of the same foolish reasons, so far I have not heard statements as ridiculous, maybe its because he is not attracting a lot of younger voters who think in these terms?

“Sean Hannity did a “Man on the Street” Session not too long ago. Now regardless of your thoughts on Hannity, there is one thing for certain, he asks fair questions to perfect strangers about who they are voting for and why they are voting for that candidate during the “man on the street sessions.” One young lady said she was voting for Barak Obama, when she was asked what she knew about him, she knew nothing. When asked what she personally believed in and thought were important policies for our country, she named 1. Lower taxes 2. Victory in Iraq 3. Non-Government controlled Health Care and 4. Smaller government not larger government. Every issue she named was a policy issue for John McCain, yet because her parents were voting for Obama, she thought he held her values. She was 24. She admitted upon getting off the phone she needed to do more homework.”

Hey Young Voter, whether you are a liberal, a centrist, a conservative, or a libertarian…would you do your homework, identify the values you stand for, examine the policies of the candidates and then vote informed? My children and thousands of children around this country are going to live out your votes…essentially your children will too.

Join the Conversation: What do you think about the Young Vote and their Impact, both now and in the future?

Posted on

Blog Pirates

A Blog Pirate: Someone who tries to steal the spotlight from a more successful blog in order to make their blog noticed and to increase their traffic stats.

This is usually done by pointlessly criticizing posts in order to drive traffic to their blog. Most blog pirates surf the “What’s Hot” on the front page of blog hosts (I.E. WordPress.com) hunting their next victim. They also search through the tags pages to see what blogs have the most comments (thus a high level of traffic) and rips into the author of the blog and/or their content. If you have ever crossed a Blog Pirate you will see why they have to steal the spotlight, its usually because their content is not good enough to draw their own crowd and keep them.

Blog Pirates know that most authors will defend their content thus linking to the pirate and driving their readers (traffic) to the pirate’s site, they also know that when people search for key words pertaining to the victim’s blog in Google the searcher will be driven to the pirate’s blog as well, thus attracting extra traffic. Blog Pirates are interested in one thing, signing on to WordPress and immediately going to their daily stats and seeing how many hits they had that day…nothing more, nothing less.

Watch it! You may be hijacked by a Blog Pirate today 🙂

Join the Conversation! Have you ever been attacked by a Blog Pirate? Know anyone else that has? I’ve been attacked and I know others that have been attacked as well.