I say NO!

This will be short and sweet... more on this to come later.

The Economic Spending Plan (that stimulus you keep hearing about) is being debated in the Senate. The plan includes an atrocious amount of money alloted for programs that make you scratch your head in wonder... "How does that help the economy or America?" Speak up and tell your senators you don't want our country in completely unnessary debt. There is another way.

To email your senator, go to www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm, select your state and let your thoughts be heard! (If you live in TN, you are looking for Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker.)

Jammin'

I just got home from "Jammin in Your Jammies," a fundraiser for Children's Hospital where families pay to basically go to a giant pajama party complete with karaoke and dance contests. Me and a friend from work were supposed to be helping with snacks by the pool (the event happens at a big hotel in K-town), but there were too many volunteers so we volunteered to, uh, watch the dance contest. There were winners in age divisions and then there was the big family dance off. Families had to hold hands and dance as a group and were judged to get a prize. One of the event sponsor's was a local radio station that plays top 40. The morning dejay emceed the contest and provided the music. The song for the family competition was a song that I loathe and actually had a conversation about earlier this week. It's a girl singing and it goes like this: "I kissed a girl and I liked it; I kissed a girl just to try it." It's a catchy song, very upbeat and very easy to sing along with. But it really bothered me to watch moms, dads, and little kids dance to this song. Everyone was having a great time and the dejay was rocking out and singing along. It wasn't that long ago that a dad would have asked for another song to be played so his little girls didn't have to hear that, or a mom would have told her kids they'd have to sit this one out because that wouldn't be their winning song. But no one seemed to notice or care. What happened to us?

Adoption

Most of you, "my readers" :) , probably know my friends Todd and Leeanne. Just in case you don't, they have four kids: two daughers and two (adopted) sons. Last Sunday night our church observed the Lord's Supper. The girls were sitting on the first row, Leeanne and the boys were sitting on the second and I was a couple back. I was looking at the boys with their mom and thinking about how lucky they are and how much adoption really means. Just before their adoption became final last summer the girls and me were having a Punky Brewster afternoon (it's okay to be jealous!). The girls started talking about the adoption and Kortney said something that will always stay with me. (Leeanne, I apologize for not telling you this before). Her sister, I'm sure, was talking a mile a minute and Kortney just calmly said, "Erin, all this time I never realized we could have lost them." I was so amazed to listen to this (almost) ten year old grasping the security of adoption.

I don't think we, as adults, grasp the security of our adoption in Christ. As believers we have been adopted by our Savior--it can never be undone, we can never be lost. At work last week we had a conversation concerning suicide and if a person who committed suicide could go to heaven. My answer (which not everyone agreed with) was, "if the person has accepted Christ, absolutely." I have heard this argument so many times: 'Suicide is murder and how could a murderer go to heaven?' A murderer goes to heaven in the same way a liar, a thief, a cheat, a jealous person, any sinner does--the blood of Christ. Deciding which sin(s) will keep a person from heaven is limiting the power of the cross. His blood either covers all sin or none. We don't get to choose. We need to stop underestimating the power of our Savior.

I just finished reading Michael Catt's "Prepare For Rain." He talks about how we try to think outside the box because so many try to put God in a box. I love what he says we all have to learn about the box: There is no box!!

Oops!

Oops! I haven't blogged in a month...or two...or a little longer. So what have I been doing?...

Housesitting... I'm house/dogsitting for a friend who is working with a church in Korea for 3 months (3 weeks left). The hardest part--remembering when to put the trash out. Ha!

Dating... Since my blog on never dating, I've been on a couple of dates. While it was fun to spend time with adults, it confirmed even more that it's worth the wait for the right person.

Sewing...I made my first quilted purse as a Christmas present for my mom and I'm working on an idea for one for me. And after that... well, I could be for hire. ")

Reading...I read a book at work (yes, I get to read at work some days) that a co-worker thought I'd love because it is Christian/inspirational fiction. I don't normally read fiction (unless it's a classic) but she really wanted me to try it. And so I read an amish love story. The best part is that it was book two in a four part series, so I still don't know if amish Annie and outsider Ben will ever get to be together. ha.

More Reading... I got Micheal Catt's book "Prepare For Rain" for Christmas. Catt is the pastor of Sherwood Baptist Church (think "Facing the Giants" and "Fireproof"). The book really is just the story of what can happen when a church decides to believe that they are serving the God of the Impossible and to Expect More. (Sound familiar to anyone??) Catt challenges us to not try to make our church into the next Sherwood, but to discover the unique plan God has for our church in our community and to trust God in going after it. I recommend the book. Exciting stuff.

And More Reading... The week before Christmas, me and my best bud Rachel went to Starbucks (thanks for the giftcard Maggie & Hanna!!) and to McKay's. We were looking for a couple of books in particular and, of course, left with a basketful of other books. I have been buying history books there and got really excited about a book I found that day...a history of the KGB. (I know, I know. But I'm okay being a nerd.) This book is very interesting, but also sort of scary. So much of it sounds like something from the show "Alias" (the best show ever next to Punky Brewster) or the Bond movies, and it is has been going on for decades, inside the U.S. And it makes me wonder what we will face as a nation and how we will handle it with a new CIA director with no experience in intelligence. (You knew there would be a political twist, didn't you?) Please don't lose interest in the world just because the election is over.

Coaching... I've coached Upward basketball the past three years and this was going to be my season to just be a spectator. So... I'm coaching the "Thunder," third through sixth grade girls. They are a sweet group... not very big, not very aggressive... perfect for basketball. :) We had our first game last week. We didn't win, but they did a great job focusing on the things I told them I wanted them to work on. And they are really excited about memorizing the verses, which is more important than the basketball anyway.

Another morning, another article . . .

I feel like some writers have been reading my blog. Ha! Today it is Cal Thomas writing about the election. His article begins with thoughts about undecided voters--that being undecided at this point should be nearly impossible if you've been paying attention at all and that if you haven't you shouldn't vote. I won't include the whole article, since I just did that. But I will quote 4 paragraphs for you:

[on the last debate]
"Why didn't McCain challenge Obama's promise to cut taxes for the middle class? As Jack Kemp and Peter Ferrara wrote in Wednesday's Wall Stret Journal, 20 percent of the middle class pay only 4.4 percent of all federal income taxes, while the bottom 40 percent of earners pay no taxes at all.
To say that only "the rich" should pay more and that those who pay little or no taxes should get a check to make things "fair" is George McGovern redistributionism, even socialism. That economic model was soundly rejected in 1972 and in subsequent elections.
McCain should propose ways to allow more people to become rich. We should reject Obama's plan to penalize those who have worked hard to become well-off. That's real fairness.
Individual initiative, risk-taking, an entrepreneurial spirit and optimism are what built and sustained America through many challenges over the last 232 years. Government can't produce those qualities in any of us. We must produce and renew them in ourselves."


Mr. Thomas also questions why Tom Brokaw didn't ask tougher questions during the debate, including questions about Senator Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers. I've read some debate that Senator Obama's association with Bill Ayers is not close enough anymore to really be concerned about. Excuse me, but just having someone who is anti-America with a terrorist background (Ayers) think a candidate (Obama) is a good choice for our next president is red-flag enough for me.

"Just the Facts. . ."

This article was in the Knoxville News Sentinel the morning after my last blog. As I read it, I thought, "Everyone needs to read this article." I'm not a huge fan of this paper, but this article gets my seal of approval.

"Do facts matter in presidential race?" By Thomas Sowell

Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time"

Unfortunately, the future of this country, as well as the fate of the western world, depends on how many people can be fooled on election day, just a few weeks from now.
Right now, the polls indicate that a whole lot of people are being fooled a whole lot of the time.
The current financial crisis has propelled Barack Obama back into a substantial lead over John McCain--which is astonishing in view of which man and which party had the most to do with bringing on the crisis.
It raises the question: "Do facts matter? Or is Obama's rhetoric and the media's spin enough to make facts irrelevant?"
Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Sen. Christopher Dodd and US Rep Barney Frank, who for years--including the present year--denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.
It was Dodd, Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.
Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the president. So did Bush's secretary of the Treasury, five years ago.
Yet, today, what are we hearing? That is was the Bush administration's "right-wing ideology" of "deregulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?
We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then-Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't.
Is that the free market? Or do facts matter?
Then there is the question of being against the greed of CEOs and for "the people." Franklin Raines made $90 million while he was head of Fannie Mae and mismanaging that institution into crisis.
Who in Congress defended Raines? Liberal Democrats, including Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus, at least one of who referred to the "lynching" of Raines, as if it was racist to hold him to the same standard as white CEOs.
Even after he was deposed as head of Fannie Mae, Raines was consulted this year by the Obama campaign for his advice on housing.
The tie between Obama and Raines is not all one-way. Obama has been the second-largest recepient of Fannie Mae's financial contributions, right after Dodd.
But ties between Obama and Raines? Not if you read the mainstream media.
Facts don't matter much politically if they are not reported.
The media are not alone in keeping the facts from the public. Republicans, for reasons unknown, don't seem to know what to counterattack. They deserve to lose.
But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the advancement of his own career with rhetoric and who has for years allied himself with a succession of people who have openly expressed their hatred of America."


If you're thinking this article is just racism, let me point out that the author himself is black. If you would like to know more about the terrorist association or the pastor/mentor who causes great concern, research Bill Ayers and Jeremiah Wright. If you are wondering why you've never heard anything about the dangerous side of Senator Obama, I encourage you to get away from the mainstream media. On CNN tune into Glenn Beck and on FoxNews tune into Hannity & Colmes and the O'Reilly Factor. You may amazed at what you haven't heard.

More Election Thoughts

I keep hearing these arguments to vote for Senator Obama: 1) "McCain's one heart attack away from death." 2) "Palin's one heartbeat away from the presidency." Both arguments imply we don't know how long Senator McCain will live, so we shouldn't elect him. Did I miss something?? Is Senator Obama immortal? Is he immune to all cancer, all disease? Does he never get sick? Do accidents not harm him? If so, he should be in a comic book, not the White House.

This election gives me a feeling that isn't really anxiety or fear. It's a call to pray for this country like never before. Obviously Americans want change; but do we realize that responsibility belongs to us as well as the leadership? I look at signs promoting "Obama for Change" and wonder if people realize just how much change there would be? A change from the ideas of the American dream (I'll work hard for that) to borderline socialism (the government will provide it for me)--a move away from being responsible for yourself. I'm so tired of watching people put their hope in a man as if he's more than a man. You could say he's a man successfully climbing the political career ladder and shaking things up on the way. . . or you could see him as a man who hasn't stayed in one place long enough to have the accomplishments to back his words, a man trying to fix everything, including what isn't broken. I didn't set out to write an anti-Obama blog. I just challenge us all to make a decision not based on age, charisma or flashy words.

My prayers are not "please let McCain win," though I do pray for him, Governor Palin and President Bush. My prayer is for people to make a decision that is for the good of America and that no matter what happens on November 4th, American people will support America, not tear it down--that Christians will be bold in their lives and live the difference we need.

I guess the election just baffles me. The things we apparently cling to are surprising. 'McCain's too old and Palin's too young'--people seem to cling to that. 'Obama has relationships with known domestic terrorists, has advisors in his campaign that were part of the economic fall, has sat in the congregation of a man who is anti-American and not afraid to curse it (I mean, shout it) from the pulpit, has no military experience, has spent most of his national political career campaigning and not working. . . '--people just seem to think that those aren't fair arguments. Call me crazy, but it concerns me.

'Undecided voters'. . . a term I don't understand. With the gazillion of news channels (rough estimate :), talk radio, and the internet, there is no reason to not be informed. And to vote uninformed is just irresponsible. You may be reading this and thinking that I take this all too seriously. To you I would say, "This is serious, this is real, this is history in the making. Don't take it lightly."