Goldfish And Clowns

Okay.  Are the kids asleep, exhausted from a hard day’s night of trolling the neighborhood for a supply with which to satiate the craving of their next candy fix?  Has the sugar high now been replaced by the inevitable low?  Are they now dreaming of how soon can they get past this Thanksgiving deal and move on ahead to the good holiday, i.e. Christmas?  Good.

Now, and only now, can the shocking truth about Halloween be revealed.

It’s all an excuse for adults to buy “kids” candy for themselves.

Oh, we think we’re fooling everyone.  That extra bag of Pixy Stix?  Just in case more trick-or-treaters come than expected.  The giant bag of Smarties?  Ditto.  You have to be prepared, right?  Better grab an extra bag or two of Snickers.  Maybe some Milk Duds too.  Never know what will happen.  And no matter what, absolutely do not run out of Tootsie Rolls!

But it’s long since past the time when small fry are out plying their beggarly trade.  The porch light is switched off, the candles inside the pumpkins snuffed out.  Another Halloween come and gone.

But… but… what’s this?  Candy left over?  Lots of candy left over?  Oh my.  Well, can’t take it back.  Guess we’ll just have to eat it ourselves…

… as we pull out five bags worth of different types that were never even opened and dig in.

‘Fess up, fellow adults.  We dream of this time of year.  We furtively wander through the candy aisles for Halloween the moment they’re up at our local store, taking careful note of which sugary delights we normally avoid buying for fear of getting at best a quizzical but far more often disapproving look (”Don’t you know that’s for kids?”) are now available with the perfect excuse for purchase: it’s for the trick-or-treaters, of course!  But of course.

Then at the first possible moment we swoop in, scoring bag after bag knowing full well none of which will see the light of day on October thirty-first.  More specifically, the light of night as we open the door to the little urchins mooching goodies.

Oh, we give them candy.  Is it our fault it’s from the one bag of stuff we wouldn’t eat if our lives depended on it.  It was the first one we grabbed.  Honest!  No really it’s true I swear.

All those other bags?  They just happen to be hidden well out of sight until everyone is out of sight.  Completely forgot we had them.  Oh well, our bad.  Can’t let them go to waste.

And so they’re ours.  All ours…

… just as long as your own kids don’t find them.

I was walking through my not terribly friendly but still neighborhood BART station this morning when I noticed an assortment of “No on 8″ signs set up throughout the walkway that leads to the fare gates.  For the uninitiated, they referred to Proposition 8 on the California state ballot which if passed will reverse the state Supreme Court decision from earlier this year which legalized gay marriage.  Having already dodged the couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses posted at the front of the walkway, I resolved to quietly bypass the young man and woman who were standing close in front of the fare gates handing out No on 8 pamphlets.  Besides, I had my McCain/Palin hat on.  Surely they’d take one look at that and write me off as a potential convert to their cause, right?

Wrong.  The man tried to hand me a pamphlet as I passed by, saying to me as I did so, “Please vote no on 8.  I want to stay married.”  At which point I freely admit the words of Kinky Friedman came to mind: “I support gay marriage.  I believe they have a right to be as miserable as the rest of us.”  Then again, Friedman is a lifelong bachelor, so how would he know.

One would think with me being, well, me I’d be worked up on the subject of gay marriage.  Truth is I’m not.  I am fully aware of what the Bible says about homosexual activity.  I cannot and will not attempt to sidestep Scripture.  Not an option.  Never an option.  I am also fully aware that I have dear friends who are gay, including one who is a Christian, and that I’ve seen two people in love who are the same gender.  I don’t understand it and I don’t get it and it’s as alien to me as it gets.  But it’s there and it’s real.  So I honestly don’t know what to think.

That said, I can’t generate any enthusiasm to support gay marriage.  It’s a legal Pandora’s box that has nothing to do with alarmist “they’ll teach it to our kids in school” hysteria.  Rather, it’s a basic question: how do you define who can and can’t get married?  If you say two consenting adults regardless of gender, how then can you prohibit blood relatives?  Or enforce the age limit?  If you take away the fundamental definer — man and woman — what is there to legally keep any less restrictive definer in place?

This is the conundrum I face and will face next Tuesday when I step into the voting booth.  Gay marriage is a bitterly divisive issue.  One look at the increasingly strident rhetoric and disturbing, increasingly aggressive behavior by fringe members of one camp against any and all on the other makes this all too clear.  Also true is that the issue can divide someone within.  Which is where I am.

I don’t know.  I honestly don’t know.

It must be a nice world Obama worshipers supporters live in, one where everything has an easy explanation and when that’s challenged invoking the Johnny Cochrane defense (when there is no defense for the accused, attack the accuser) is perfectly legitimate.  Jew-hating racist pastor for twenty years?  He missed all those services, thus proving it’s possible to be a devoted member of a church without ever actually attending.  Best buds with domestic and international terrorists?  He’s never seen them kill anyone.  Repeated comments about redistributing wealth?  Why, that’s not socialism; he’s talking up a middle-class tax cut!  R-i-g-h-t.  No wonder Ralph Barbieri, one of the sports blab bozos at KNBR in San Francisco which carries among other teams the Giants, is such a fervent Obama supporter.  To be one requires the same level of disconnect from reality as that which permeates his favorite baseball team’s fan base, the one which for years insisted the only juice connected with Barry Bonds was maybe orange — team color, y’know — and besides we’ve got Tim Lincecum who’s not only going to win the Cy Young award every year for the next twenty or so seasons it’ll be renamed after him.  World Series for sure!

Although presenting reality to such people has the approximate effectiveness level of splashing water on the Rock of Gibraltar in the expectation it will immediately dissolve, if for no other reason than the sheer joy of being able to officially say “I told you so” when their world comes crashing down let’s take a look at one of Jeremiah Wright’s recent missives.  Yeah, yeah, I know; just because someone attended someone’s church for two decades and has called him a mentor and friend doesn’t mean his thinking or whatever it’s called has any influence.  But of course.  However, indulge me for a moment.  As a sidenote, you might want to take a moment to peruse the words of the guy whose church I attend.  Back to Wright; this comes straight from a church bulletin dated July 23, 2006.  And he didn’t even wish me a happy birthday.  Harrumph!

There is a two-ton gorilla sitting in the living room and nobody wants to acknowledge its presence!

God have mercy on me if I ever used the word ‘gorilla’ in any sense whatsoever when speaking of the black church or any member thereof.  But since I’m a McCain supporter, obviously I’m a racist bitterly clinging to my guns and religion.

We not only will not talk about it.  We pretend we don’t see it!

But enough about the mainstream media and Obama.

Jews and Muslims are killing each other in Lebanon, Beirut and Israel.

At the time this was written, Israel had invaded Lebanon in retaliation for Hezbollah terrorists having used bases in southern Lebanon to launch rocket attacks at Israel along with staging raids to kidnap Israeli citizens.  Obviously the whole thing was the fault of those Jews, right?

Sunnis and Shiites are killing each other in Baghdad and Afghanistan.

As they have been for centuries.  Your point?  And just for fun try preaching tolerance to those zany kids.  Let me know how that works for you.  But before you give it a whirl, try looking up the history of the two sects.  Then get back to me on how you’re going to put an end to this.  I’ll be waiting… just like I’m still waiting for an Obama supporter to provide justification for why someone should vote for him based on his qualifications and experience.

Muslims and Christians are killing each other in Sudan and northern Nigeria.

It’s mostly Muslims killing Christians.  And in case you haven’t noticed, it’s about the oil, stupid.

Faith (what people believe) is causing more deaths than HIV/AIDS, the world’s fastest growing pandemic!

Number of AIDS-related deaths in 2007: two million.  2.2 million in 2006.  Estimated deaths from war per year in recent history: 36,000.  Good thing to know Wright’s math skills equal his theological acumen.  Oh, and thanks for telling us what the word ‘faith’ means.  Never would have known if you wouldn’t have told us.  And if your congregation is so stupid to need the definition, you’ve done a really suck job of teaching them.  Now haven’t you.

Faith (what people believe) turns family members into lifelong enemies.

Okay, kiddies, read along with Uncle Jerry.  From the Gospel of St. Matthew, chapter ten, verses thirty-four through thirty-six: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law — a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’”  Don’t like it?  Go argue with Jesus.  Be prepared for it being rather one-sided.  And not in your favor.

Faith (what people believe) leads some people to hatred of others, murder and demonization of God’s other children — those not like “us” or those who don’t believe what we believe.

Quite true… about some religions.  Jesus?  He was into this “love your enemies — do good to those who hate you — bless those who curse you” thing.

Where has the tolerance of those who are not like “us” gone?

You tell me, Mr. US of KKK-A G-D America.

Is it possible to live on the same planet with people whose faith is different from ours?

Is it possible to pose a stupider rhetorical question?

Is it possible to live in the same country?

Yes, despite the efforts of racists such as yourself.

Is it possible to live in the same state?

If San Francisco and Los Angeles can do it…

Is it possible to live on the same block?

You’d let me move next door to you?  I mean, what with my bitterly clinging to guns and religion and all.

Is it possible to live in the same family or the same house?

I do believe Jesus addressed this already.

Can faith (what we believe) and tolerance (allowing others to believe what they believe — without denigration, condemnation, demonization or subjugation) co-exist?

Every time I hear the word ‘tolerance’ Ezekiel 13:9-11a comes to mind: “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations.  They will not belong to the council of my people or be listed in the records of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel.  Then you will know that I am the Sovereign LORD.  Because they lead my people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall.”

This world does not define tolerance when put into action as St. Paul defined it for the believer in Hebrews 12:14: “Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.”  To be holy means living in the truth as well as speaking the truth.  So what is truth?

Inconvenient though it may be, there is absolute truth.  There is right and wrong.  This world defines tolerance as every everything being equal and equally valid, including all religions.  This is not how Jesus defined it.  Not only did He declare Himself to be the Son of God, He also said, “I am the way and the truth and the light.  No one comes to the Father except through me (Jn. 14:6).”  Sorry, everything is legitimate crowd, but that doesn’t leave much wiggle room.  As in none.

Dr. Martin Luther King said we need to learn to live together as brothers and sisters in this world, on this planet and in this country (and I would add in this city and in our families!)

He also extolled the virtues of integration.  I’ll keep that in mind as I see you segregate and isolate yourselves then cry discrimination.

We need to learn tolerance.

Just as long as it doesn’t include suffering fools lightly, which is the only way you’ll get off the hook.

We need to learn to live together as God’s family or we will all die together as God-forsaken fools!

Being a fool doesn’t always lead to death.  You’re still breathing, aren’t you?

Think about that this week.

That’s the problem.  We do think.  You?

Pray about it and then do something about it!

I just did via illustrating through Scripture and facts you are a babbling bigoted moron.

Which says what about someone who attended your church for two decades?

Being a denizen of the San Francisco Bay area, I have resigned myself to a world where it’s all 49ers all the time.  Thus, I had no choice but to note the recent change in the head coach position.

This past Sunday, new head coach Mike Singletary discovered two things.  Yes, the 49ers really are that bad.  Two, you do hear some, shall we say, interesting questions from the media.

Before the game, FOX Sports sideline reporter Danyelle Sargent was interviewing Singletary.  One of her questions was (quote) “I heard that your mentor Bill Walsh was one of the first phone calls that you made when you found out that you had the job. What does it mean to you to be the head coach of the 49ers?”

To her surprise, Singletary didn’t answer the question.  He seemed almost speechless at that particular moment.

Why?

Bill Walsh, the legendary 49ers head coach who won three Super Bowls during his tenure with the team, wouldn’t be in a position to take the call.

He passed away in July of last year.

Wonder who Sargent heard about that phone call from.

Three reasons:

1. He’s actually done something in life.
2. He’s a better speaker.
3. He’s honest about what he believes.

Let’s look at these one at a time.

1. He’s actually done something in life.

Despite having used Microsoft software pretty music exclusively since the days of Windows 3.1, my next PC… will be a Mac.  Why?  Having used one at work for a while, I state from experience it simply works better.  It’s faster, more reliable, far less prone to freezing up or crashing… it just works.  Which is all I want from a computer.  Now, who co-founded Apple and came back to lead it back to the forefront of personal computing?  Jobs.  Who in his spare time developed a keen eye for talent along with the wherewithal to know how to get things started without getting in the way.  Which movie studio consistently puts out instant classic films?  Only one: Pixar.  And who started Pixar?  Yup.  Jobs.

Now, exactly what has Obama ever accomplished professionally other than give the occasional pretty speech?  Speaking of speeches…

2. He’s a better speaker.

Content, not the wrapping it comes in, determines the value of the spoken word.  Oratory skill can mask vapid fluff for a while.  But only for a while.

Compare any of Obama’s supposedly great speeches with these excerpts from the commencement address Jobs gave at Stanford University in 2005:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Compare that, backed by deeds, to Obama’s empty words of hope.

3. He’s honest about what he believes.

What’s currently the first item on Apple’s home page?  Something extolling the virtues of the recently designed MacBook?  Positive stories about the iPhone?  Maybe the iPod or iTunes?  Nope.

It’s about Apple’s opposition to Proposition 8, the California state initiative on next week’s ballot that if passed would reverse the recent state Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriage in the state.

The issue in question aside, Apple led by Jobs (I believe it can be safely assumed he either approves of the front page content on his company’s Web site) is stating what it believes.  No apologies, no playing dodgeball.  Here’s our stand.  Take it for what it is.

When has Obama ever been anything other than disingenuous about his relationships with people such as Bill Ayers or Jeremiah Wright?  His politics?  His proposed policies?  His fundamental political and social views?

{{listening to the soothing sound of chirping crickets}}

This is why I like Steve Jobs more than Barack Obama.

An interview with Barack Obama on Chicago radio station WBEZ in 2001.

As I mentioned earlier today at Restrictor Plate This in the comments area of the open thread for today’s NASCAR race at Atlanta, I’ve given thirty days notice at SportsBlogs Nation that I’ll be leaving next month.  Indulge me as I explain why.

First off, my leaving SBN is in no way due to any dissatisfaction with the organization or the people involved.  I have nothing but praise and appreciation for Tyler, Trei, Jim, and Markos along with everyone else at SBN.  They have been unfailingly supportive and appreciative from the first time I heard from Tyler back in late March of last year when he graciously extended an offer to join the network.  Not once has there been so much as a whisper of complaint, criticism, or censorship in any fashion.  Not once.

SBN is assembling the absolute finest group of sports bloggers on the planet.  To a one they are the best of the best.  I was and am honored to be considered worthy to be one of them, and I will always be proud of my association with SBN.  I am especially proud to have had some part in bringing John Butchko, who writes the Jets blog at SBN, on board so his superb quality writing can enjoy the wider audience it deserves.

So why am I leaving?

In recent months it has become increasingly apparent to me that the need to communicate about Christ has become paramount in my blogging.  In the NASCAR blog I had from August of 2003 until I joined SBN in April of last year I often wandered off on tangents which although occasionally entering the realms of politics or pop culture mostly focused on spiritual matters.  The need to return to such a manner of writing has been weighing heavily on me, with the weight growing ever greater as time has gone by.

SBN is an inappropriate venue for such writing.  Again I stress that not once has anyone involved with SBN raised a single word of disapproval to anything I have written there.  However, it would be disrespectful to SBN to start writing in the manner I once wrote and in which I feel led to resume writing.  That is the sole reason why I am leaving.

I can say with confidence that SBN will become a major force in not only sports blogging, but sports writing period.  It is a network with both a clear vision as to where it wants to go and an intelligent, properly executed business plan designed to get it there.  I wish it and all its bloggers nothing but the best, for this is what they deserve.  I will be cheering them on every step of the way, and I will always be proud to be an alumnus of the best sports blogging network there is.  Also, I have no doubt whatsoever that those who will be taking over for me at my NASCAR blog Restrictor Plate This and my San Jose Sharks blog Fear The Fin will embody the quality for which SBN is deservedly known.

As to me, my plan is to dust off The Diecast Dude’s (Mostly) NASCAR Blah Blah Blog in time for the start of the 2009 NASCAR season.  A tremendous amount of work needs to be done porting over five plus years worth of entries, and I can only hope to be done in time for next year’s Daytona 500.  I still have much work to do here in bringing over all the posts from the old location, so if you find me huddled in a corner somewhere mumbling something about font formatting and re-setting the publish date I hope you’ll understand!

I will always be grateful to SBN for the opportunity it provided, and I will always cherish my time with it.  But I must move on by moving back, as it were.  In the meanwhile I will be here on a regular basis, so please stop by once in a while and say hi.  When the brand new old digs are ready I’ll let you know.  Hopefully I’ll see you there.

And maybe — just maybe — there’ll be a polar bear there waiting to say hello.

… I’m leaving SportsBlogs Network next month.

Much more on this tomorrow.

Nothing in particular to say tonight…

… which I doubt will be the case tomorrow night.

More then.

We do think about odd items to embroider on the banners we fly as battle flags in the political conflict, don’t we.  ”Do you know how much the RNC has spent on outfits for Sarah Palin?”  ”Do you know how much Barack Obama spends per suit?”  Do you know how unspeakably irrelevant these things are to anything germane to the real world?  Um, probably not.

There’s a growing disconnect in this land permeating both left and right when it comes to those who communicate and those who accept the communication.  Preaching to the choir while accepting a generous love offering from the congregation is now standard operational procedure in this era of “look at me — SQUEE!” snark and snipe passed off as journalism.  Opinion and commentary no longer reside on the op-ed page.  They live everywhere.  Rare indeed is the news story not marinated in personal viewpoint to where it is the overriding flavor.  Let not facts get in the way of a good blast, pro or con.  Aren’t I clever?  Am I not speaking truth to power?  Where’s my Pulitzer?  Where’s my Weblog award?  When’s the next social gathering of my tribe’s mutual admiration society?  Lather rinse and repeat daily.

The main thrust behind blogging on a level other than the personal journal once was creating a new kind of journalist and/or columnist.  There would be a different fundamental, one based on genuine communication not to, but with the people who read their material as opposed to one dispensing pearls of wisdom from atop their ivory tower.  That was the idea, anyway.  But do we have this?  No.

An illusion of inclusion is the fuel behind most major blogs these days.  Agree with me or us, you can be part of the cool kids.  Look, your comments in print!  Aren’t you special.

Actually, no you’re not.  Do you genuinely believe the author or authors at Huffington Post or Daily Kos or Michelle Malkin or Instapundit care one little bit about what you think?  Embrace reality.  They don’t.  Their purpose is broadcasting their views and in most cases padding their bank account.  Certainly there’s nothing wrong with writing for a living.  But at least be honest about it. Don’t strike a pose as the great facilitators of interactive dialog.  You’re not.  You never were.  You never will be.  You speak, they listen.  The relationship goes no father.

But what about you, comes the question.  You hold forth on your viewpoints.  You almost never print comments disagreeing with you.  Correct on both counts.  So what’s the difference?

Simple, really.  It’s in the sidebar: “one man, one voice, one opinion.  Consider it as you will.”  I’m not seeking to be a leader; I’m not preaching any evangel save Jesus Christ crucified and risen along with a set of four tenets I’ve developed over the years I call the blogging evangel:

1. The ability to broadcast your opinion neither elevates nor validates your opinion.
2. If you’re doing it for love, blog.  If you’re looking to get paid, try porn.
3. E-mail.  Answer.  Always.
4. Never become what you profess to oppose.  Never.

Not that I always live up to any or all of the above.  I often fail.  That does not negate the principles any more than a Christian who commits a sin negates the Word of God.  No, I’m not comparing or equating the blogging evangel to the Gospel.  It still matters.

Someday, somehow, it’d be nice to have blogging back.  This will start when the “leaders” demonstrate leadership in the manner Jesus spoke of:

When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road”  But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.  Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all (Mk. 9:33b-35).”

Don’t hold your breath waiting, though.