September 27, 2012

"10 Ways Church People Fail Their Pastors"

10 Ways Church People Fail Their Pastors

Even if you don't like it. Even if it offends you. Even if your mind wants to tell you the man is resisting the Lord and that nothing about that sermon is in answer to your prayer. Give thanks to the Lord for that message. Believe that God is at work. After all, He does not finish His reconstruction of a man's preaching in one fell swoop. It takes time.

At every opportunity, I tell deacons and other leaders of churches that they are sent to obey Ephesians 4:3, keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. They should be the first to notice threats to the unity of the church and quick to confront troublemakers. If they leave it to the pastor, he is placed in an awkward spot since despots usually direct their diabolical activities toward him. For him to have to oppose them makes him look defensive and self-serving.

Let the lay leadership of the congregation rise up to those causing trouble and hold them accountable.

But this is about you, church member. You will stand before the Lord some day. Better to be safe and to have been faithful and supportive of those sent by the Lord as your shepherds and overseers (see Acts 20:28), than to have made their lives miserable by your incessant carping.

September 23, 2012

To Washington State DUers

I know you vote by mail.

Here is a handy link to use while you do it.

http://progressivevotersguide.com/2012/washington/primary/?src=GSEWVGA&P=1


That is all.

September 18, 2012

Non Tax Payers by State

When will the Tea billies ever "get it"?


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According to this map, the Obama States pay more, the Romney states are the "freeloaders"


I am proud that my state is blue...in more ways than one.

August 11, 2012

So much for the "Maverick" angle.

Sarah Palin.

About as far from Washington DC as you can get. After her handlers finished drumming in to her head that she was an "outsider", Palin used the word "Maverick" so often that I can't envision a Tina Fey routine without it.

Fast forward three years and polls show that the US citizen gives a higher favorability rating to BP during a massive oil spill than they do to Congress.

Today, Mitt Romney is suffering poll creep in the "unfavorability" category. So what does he do?

He brings in a Congressional leader.

Good strategy?

I say no.

Americans despise what Congress has been doing and the polling consistently reflects that.

July 24, 2012

Substitute heroin for guns

literally:

Heroin doesn't kill people, people kill people.

If Heroin is outlawed only outlaws will have heroin.

Heroin is just an inanimate object. It can't kill anyone by itself.

Only careless people die from heroin accidents.

Heroin is my hobby and I have not hurt a single soul by owning it.


Using RW logic, I just made a very strong case to legalize heroin.

It is a strong argument.....isn't it?

June 29, 2012

Teaparty legwork

Walmart

I typically avoid the place like the plague, but I felt that buying a couple of itunes redeemable cards was worth the time saved by going elsewhere. I'm not, after all, buying chinese music with them.

I guy at the entrance, set up at a table, wants me to sign a petition for no new taxes. He had another petition to support charter schools. Kill two birds with one stone I guess.

I was rather blunt with him and to his credit, he was respectful.

When I left the store, I sat in my car and watched him for a bit. In my estimation, a very small percentage of folks signed his petitions.

It gave me hope. I did have to ask myself why I never see people with progressive views doing similar work at popular storefronts. In every case, it has been a teaparty agenda.

So a couple questions....

Is this unique to my area or are you folks in different areas seeing more similar groundwork being done for the conservative agenda?

Was Walmart aware of this guy's views and allowed him access because of it? Or would they grant access to an opposing political view?

Why is it that taxes have become such a volatile issue when folks are getting raped by banks and going bankrupt from expensive health care?


I just don't get it. Misplaced anger? They are mad but not smart enough to know what to be mad at?

March 31, 2012

John Lennon quotes: Do they still hold water in 2012?

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."

"The older generation are leading this country to galloping ruin."

"The youth have hope because it's their future they're hopeful about and if they're depressed about their own future, well, then we are in a bad state. And we keep hope alive by keeping it alive amongst ourselves."

"It's fear of the unknown. The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that--it's all illusion. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it's unknown and it's plain sailing. Everything is unknown--then you're ahead of the game. That's what it is. Right?"

"Possession isn't nine-tenths of the law. It's nine-tenths of the problem."

"Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

"I don't believe in killing whatever the reason!"

"It doesn't matter how long my hair is or what colour my skin is or whether I'm a woman or a man."

"I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It's just that the translations have gone wrong."

"When I hold you in my arms and I feel my finger on your trigger I know no one can do me no harm because happiness is a warm gun."

There's nothing you can know that isn't known."

"If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliche that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal."

"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it."

"God is a concept by which we measure our pain."

"The basic thing nobody asks is why do people take drugs of any sort? Why do we have these accessories to normal living to live? I mean, is there something wrong with society that's making us so pressurized, that we cannot live without guarding ourselves against it?"

"The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility."

"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted."

"All we are saying is give peace a chance."

"The more I see the less I know for sure."

"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."

"A working-class hero is something to be."

"You may say I'm a dreamer, But I'm not the only one.I hope some day you'll join us and the world will be as one."

March 25, 2012

Brazil has demanded that 17 Chevron and Transocean executives surrender their passports

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15692

Brazil has demanded that 17 Chevron and Transocean executives surrender their passports while they await the outcome of criminal charges brought against them for a spill that took place off the coast of Rio de Janeiro last November. The company has also been sued for $11 billion in damages by a Brazilian federal prosecutor.

Chevron has issued a statement claiming the charges are "outrageous and without merit.” “We have sought to perform our operations in full compliance with Brazilian laws and industry practices and to comply with all applicable licenses and authorizations,” says a company press release issued Wednesday.

The jury is still out on the facts of the case. But it is hard to sympathize with a company that has played fast and loose with national justice systems in order to avoid paying compensation for toxic spills of immense proportions in the Ecuador by Texaco, a company that Chevron merged with in 2001.

Between 1964 to 1992 Texaco admitted to dumping more than 16 billion gallons of toxic “water of formation” into the streams and rivers used by local inhabitants for their drinking water, decimating indigenous groups and causing dramatically increased rates of cancer, according to a summary from Rainforest Action Network.

March 20, 2012

Canceling my summer vacation to Disney World.

Will never, ever spend a dime in Florida.

Calling for the same consumer activists that went after Limbaugh to do the same.

Big money needs to take a long hard look at the terrible social costs from their hate inspired party of choice. The wealthy have crawled into a political bed with the Limbaugh inspired ilk for the sole purpose of getting a tax break.

I'm white, old, and sick to my stomach. My heartfelt condolences to the Southern black community and the family of the murdered child.

March 15, 2012

Carl Sagan explains the GOP downfall

Alienating groups such as women or Latinos is another successive slice of the pie.

It takes roughly 90 successive divisions of slicing a pie in half to reach the atomic level.

Republicans have reached the critical limit for slicing the American pie.

A philosopy of division is ultimately a phliosophy of political weakness.