Just so you know how I end up where I end up despite being frightfully human and imperfect. I read lots of stuff and post lots too. I've not read anything better than this all week.

Ecc Chap 9 start vs 9:Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them. This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me: There was a little city, and few men within it; and there came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great bulwarks against it: Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength: nevertheless the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. The words of wise men are heard in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools. Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.

No one knows what tomorrow will be for any of us. Today I will drink the wine of my labor and see and visit with the family. It is the labors of life and the time spent laughing with friends and family, these are the true gifts of life that have been given to us. Tomorrow any man including myself may find himself as a blade of grass or he may be allowed to take joy in the vanity of his labor and see the sun once more. Be both confident and humble, live for today and do the best you can. You will succeed and fail both equal gifts in the long road to wisdom.

Chap 3 11 – 15 :He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life. And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God. I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

Updated: In other words I have no idea. Chance most likely.

Posted by: Howie at 12:29 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Well, 2005 is nearly over. And with 2006 comes thoughts of midterm elections. I'm sure it won't take very long for the airwaves to become polluted with commercials for your (most or least) favorite representative to Washington. But before we begin this propaganda cycle, I think we need to take a good hard look at what has been going on. No, I'm not going to sit here and lay the ills of the world at this administration's feet. There are plenty of liberals to do that. Besides that, I'd like to focus on reality. And the reality is that our representatives, by and large, have been paying us a lot of lip service without really doing anything. Except for the bill that they just passed to relax restrictions on refinery building, I can't think of much of anything Congress has managed to get done recently. Oh, I'm sure there have been hundreds of little "pet project" bills that they have managed to get through, but there are some major issues that are being swept under the rug here and need to be addressed. I think that we need to use these midterm elections to send a message to our representatives. We need to let them know that they no longer control the issues. These are the things that we are concerned about and they have two more years to start doing something about them before we start voting them out of office.

With that in mind, I have come up with a small list of issues that I believe need attention. These are mainly issues that have been brought up, talked about and raised as standards by many representatives, then quickly hidden before any real action has had to be taken.

1. What ever happened to Social Security reform? Of course we all realize that the Democrats don't even want to talk about this, but hey, we're the majority party. It's time to do something before the whole thing collapses like the house of cards that it is. We have already forced the Democrats to admit there is a problem, but then we didn't do anything about it. Why haven't we pressed that advantage to actually get something done?

2. School Vouchers have been a hot topic for politicians to run on for quite some time now. Let's do something besides pay them lip service.

3. All (or most) of our Republicans have been spending like Democrats for the past several years. The last highway bill is a travesty that should never have been allowed to pass through a Republican congress. If they're afraid of holding up an important bill just because it's stuffed full of pork, we need to let them know that we will fully support their decision. If it's just because they want to spend like everyone else, then they need to know that we will no longer support that. Either way, they need to get the message loud and clear that it well beyond time to get government spending under control.

4. When trying to find the money for Hurricane Katrina relief, several Republicans stood up to say that it was time to take control of government spending. There were several good proposals on the table at the time. After their initial press coverage, these things seem to have disappeared. Is that from lack of support? If so, why are our Republican representatives showing so much fiscal irresponsibility? Let's get these proposals back out and start slashing at some fat.

5. When are we going to show that we value human life? I'm not talking about outlawing abortion tomorrow. I'm too much of a realist to think that's going to happen soon (if at all). But there were so many representatives ready to jump on the bandwagon when it looked politically expedient for them during the Terri Schiavo issue. Now we don't hear a peep out of them. If you were so concerned about protecting the Terri Schiavos of this nation, why aren't you doing something about it. If you don't feel that it's the federal government's place to do anything about it, why aren't you urging states to take action?

Overall, I have been quite disappointed in the actions taken by our supposed majority. With elections just around the corner, we need to make it more than clear that we can and will rally around someone who will give us more than talking points. After all, if I wanted all my money stolen and to be lied to constantly, I'd vote Democrat.

Posted by: Drew at 09:57 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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On the drive home yesterday, I happened to catch a portion of the Sean Hannity show that got me thinking. His guest was a woman who had been kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight because of her shirt. The shirt in question had a picture of the Bush cabinet and the caption "Meet The F*ckers." Hannity, while berating the woman for wearing such a shirt, said that he would fully defend her right to be able to wear it.

Of course that brings up the question of where do we draw the line? This isn't a new question by any means. In the Fifties, parents wanted Rock & Roll banned for its "evil influence" on kids (and nowadays I'm beginning to think they may have been right!). And for as long as most of us can remember, the courts have been struggling to define pornography. And I think most of the answers end up being "if it pleases me, then it's not pornography." But in our culturally diverse society, that can leave a lot open to interpretation. The sight of a woman's leg could be offensive to a Muslim, while some perverted individuals might not be offended by women having sex with animals. Certainly the reaction to Janet Jackson's breast, even amongst Conservatives, ran the entire spectrum. So, defining what is offensive and what is not in a court is going to be next to impossible. more...

Posted by: Drew at 07:51 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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Connecticut sets itself square into the middle of one of the stickiest battles our country has ever faced by granting Civil Unions to homosexual couples.

The whole time that this has been a fight, I have felt that it is wrong, but wasn't sture why. Now I think I've figured it out, at least for me. Procreation. Heterosexual relationships are the only relationships that offer the ability to procreate and continue the survival of the human species. That's not to say that every human couple is able to procreate, but there is at least an underlying reason for the attraction. Other forms of sexual perversion don't even have this to fall back on.

Now, with that being said, if a state wishes to recognize two people, regardless of gender and cohabitating as a couple for all legal purposes such as medical treatment, living wills, etc. Then so be it. But you better be careful when you word the statute because you could be leaving the door open for your state to provide a civil union between he and his sixteen wives. Or a man and his dog. Think it won't happen? It's already happening in some of the same-sex marriage states. A woman is sueing the state to get a marriage license issued between her and her dog. All I'm saying is that if you want to grant special priviliges to one sexual deviation while leaving others out, you had better be prepared for the firestorm that will percipitate.

Posted by: Drew at 05:28 AM | Comments (54) | Add Comment
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