New Year's Resolution

I have only one thing to say about New Year's Resolutions. I am not making any this year! That's it... period! Every year it's the same old thing, everybody makes a big list of impossible resolutions. Most of the things on the list never get accomplished...so what's the use?

Instead of a usless list of impossible resolutions I will just promise myself one thing this year. I will try my best to be a better person each and every day. This means I will smile more, take time to stop and smell the roses, be more loving to my wife and family and strive to be a better Christian in my daily life.

Sounds easy enough, doesn't it? Not really, old habits are hard to break and you know the devil will be throwing road blocks in my path. However, I realize that God will give me the strength to overcome these obstacles and will show me the way around the roadblocks.

Pslams 54:7 "For he has delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes."

OK, so maybe that is a New Year's Resolution after all? At least it's not a long list of promises I know I can't keep. Do yourself a favor this year, make your resolutions reasonable. Set goals that you can accomplish, you will feel much better about yourself.

I wish you a Happy and Blessed New Year.

War in Iraq

Saturday in Washington, D.C., more than 100,000 people gathered to speak out against the war in Iraq. There were familiar faces such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Joan Baez, and Cindy Sheehan. President Bush was not around to hear their protests; he spent the day in Colorado and Texas monitoring hurricane recovery.

I am a Veteran and served in Vietnam so all of this protesting brings back bad memories for me! I lost many friends in Vietnam and it really hurts to see people protesting the war. Death is a part of war, and we fight the enemy abroad so we will not have to fight them here at home! Have we forgotten 911?

I am proud to be an American, I am glad that I served in the military and fought for our country. I respect our leader, President George W. Bush and I belief we should be in Iraq.

I say this to all the thousands of protesters, “Get a clue people, don’t you have anything better to do than protest?” What if Instead of wasting time and money going to Washington if every one of those 100,000 plus people gave $1.00 to hurricane relief, now that would make a difference.

I know this a controversial subject, so I look forward to receiving many comments to this article.

Lost is back and better than ever

Lost started the new season and the show was excellent! We finally get to see what is down inside the hatch! I’ve been trying to figure out this show from the start; here is what I think is going on.

Here are the numbers that Hurley keeps running into. 2+4+32+615+1+8+4=666! Originally he said they were given to him in a physch ward, maybe Desmond gave them to him. 666 is the devil’s number, is Desmond the devil. He was nice to Jack before and helped him, but the devil often pretends to be nice.

What about the others? Could they be God? They are taking children, but maybe the reason is to protect them from the devil. The island could be a place where “lost” souls are struggling between good and evil.

All of the characters on the show are lost in more ways then one. They all have committed some sort of sin and have problems they are struggling with. This show has been tough to figure out, but it’s starting to come together. This is my theory; I would love to see your thoughts, so please leave a comment.

Photo from www.abc.com

Dancing with the Stars - Rematch

Did you miss “Dancing with the Stars” last night on ABC? Don’t worry; there will be an encore presentation on Thursday, September 22 at 8/7c. Then at 9/8c we will find out who the winner is.

Personally, I like John O’Hurley and Charlotte Jorgensen. I think they are elegant and graceful on the dance floor. Kelly Monaco is awkward and more concerned about showing off her body than learning how to dance! Her partner Alec Mazo is a good dancer but his body language tells me he can’t stand Kelly! Maybe that’s why there is no chemistry between them. Unlike John and Charlotte who definitely have chemistry.

I don’t think it was fair the first time around when Kelly won because she was already an ABC soap star. That was kind of like stacking the deck in her favor. Then of course all the men probably voted for her because of her body! I thought we were judging on dance skills not nice looking bodies.

The show was fantastic; I watched every episode and was pulling for John O’Hurley the entire time. I hope John and Charlotte win this time around…they deserve it!

I would like to see Brad Garrett from “Everybody loves Raymond” on the show. I have seen him dance on “Raymond” and he’s a great dancer. Who would you like to see on “Dancing with the Stars”?

Stop the Hurricanes

Why do we need hurricanes?

It looks like there is yet another hurricane coming to the United States. Here is my question: why do we even need hurricanes. We already know where they come from. Most hurricanes are formed in the North Atlantic Ocean and are pushed westward by the trade winds. Why don’t we just stop them in their tracks in the middle of the ocean before they get here? I’m sure we have the technology available to just blast them apart!

*There have been numerous techniques that we have considered over the years to modify hurricanes: seeding clouds with dry ice or Silver Iodide, cooling the ocean with cryogenic material or icebergs, changing the radiational balance in the hurricane environment by absorption of sunlight with carbon black, exploding the hurricane apart with hydrogen bombs, and blowing the storm away from land with giant fans, etc.

Project STORMFURY was an ambitious experimental program of research on hurricane modification carried out between 1962 and 1983. This and other research programs were discontinued. I think we should keep on with the research and eventually someone will come up with a successful way to stop the hurricanes.


* Excerpt from the NOAA: http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/C5f.html

Photos from NOAA

The Pledge of Allegiance

Considering all the things that are going on in this country today, do we really need to be fighting over the Pledge of Allegiance? Come on now Mr. Newdow; get a clue! There are hurricanes, wars, high gas prices terrorism and a plethora of other things to worry about in the United States that are much more important than two words!

THE PLEDGE

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

I seem to remember that we have been down this road before and Michael Newdow dragged his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. The case was dismissed because he did not have legal custody of his daughter on whose behalf he had sued.

Here’s a solution, how about if we continue to say the Pledge of Allegiance in our schools but when we get to the phrase, “one nation under God”, if someone objects to saying that then they may remain silent during that sentence! That way everyone wins, we still get to pledge and we respect the right of the students who don’t believe in God.

In these troubled times this country needs to pull together not squabble over the little things. Personally, I am a Christian and a Veteran and I take offense to people who dishonor our country by not reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

I hope to seem many comments on this post.

Disciples Bible Study

My wife and I have started a 34-week Bible study. The name of the study is Disciples, we actually did the same study 13-years ago, and this is our second go-around. It was awesome then, and I am sure it will be very enlightening again. I think I will start another blog specifically for Christian entries.

I have seen blogs about all kind of things, but not too many Christian blogs, so I think this will be a good project for me. I hope that many of you who read this blog will also check out my new Christian blog.

We had so many folks sign up for this Bible study class at our church that the Minister had to split the class up into two different evenings! What a wonderful thing for our church.

These Bible study groups are great because not only do you learn about the Bible, you also get to know the other members of the class as you share your feelings with each other.  We are really looking forward to this study. I will keep you posted.