This picture says it all…thanks to historiclols.cheezburger.com

Tomorrow we’ll spend a few hours huddled in a small sanctuary with family and friends, memorializing and saying goodbye to my 16 year old cousin: the victim of a motorcycle accident that claimed his life in a matter of hours, earlier this week.

The events are still so sudden that they seem unreal for everyone, especially for his mother and father. It’s hard to grasp, and hard to justify the way a life so young can end so suddenly in our modern world. Worse yet, it’s difficult for me to see how we can say goodbye to such a special person in a number of hours…it seems that we should spend days processing this and comforting one another.

During this time of thoughts and questions, I am surprised to see the relevance of my studies: I’ve been translating the book of Ruth this month, a book where a mother looses her husband and two sons. Naomi’s reaction is nothing short of ours: she’s bitter, and she blames God for making her that way. It’s situations like this that I believe God is ok with our anger…and he’s ok with us expressing that anger. The important thing is that we keep our lives open to His response. We cannot shut ourselves off to His voice. He is secure enough not to be angry in response. He will reassure us of His kindness, His trustworthyness, and His love until we see Him again.

Times like these remind me of one favorite song, which I’ll share with you in video and in lyrics:

Wilderness: The Supertones

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz3cVQ9LglA[/youtube]

Click Here for Lyrics Read the rest of this entry »

It was shocking for me to discover recently that Ronald Reagan was recorded in an LP discussing the dangers of a socialized system of medicine. I looked for a transcript of this talk, but was unable to come up with one. Instead, I’ve chosen to link to an excerpt from the LP, that I think is just as relevant for today as it was on the day it was recorded.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnLa1BvtaxM[/youtube]

If you would like some more perspective on socialized healthcare, please see my previous video post on the subject, along with this post, by Jeremiah Krieger.

It’s common for me to hear people compare the national debt policies of George W. Bush and Barak Obama…but this is just an unfair comparison. I have not found a better illustration, called the national debt road trip, by blogger ‘Political Math’. Especially since he keeps his data sources simple: direct from the government.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5yxFtTwDcc[/youtube]

See more videos and commentary on national policies at http://politicalmath.wordpress.com/

Or follow him at http://twitter.com/PoliticalMath

The major cellphone carriers are adding a pretty stiff contractual obligation to their cheap phones…mandatory data plans. That’s right: get a Blackberry, and iPhone, or another qualified ‘smartphone’ from these carriers, and lock yourself into one of the more expensive plans for your contract term.

AT&T’s current users are exempt from a mandatory plan upgrade until further notice, but any upgrades since Sept 6th are subject to the penalty of these stipulations.Read the details of their deal by clicking here.

Verizons dates and phones are a little different. Their requirements have apparently been in place for a while, but are also subject to many changes. Read more about the details of their requirements here.

I’m not able to offer much more knowledge about this right now, but wanted to make sure any chance readers of this article are informed. I am personally outraged, and will not buy a phone from one of these carriers again…regardless of my need for a data plan. This kind of requirement appears a bit manipulative to me…money hungry and insensitive to their unsuspecting customers.