CHRISTIANS, CHRISTIANITY AND THE BIBLE

There have been A LOT of blogs about the "mandate" that Bush received in his re-election and how we define morality in the US now. It got me thinking about Christians and Christianity in the US. I grew up a Calvinist Fundamentalist Evangelical. Basically, pre-destination, taking the Bible literally and a lot of singing. My grandfather was a minister, my uncle's a minister and my father was an elder in the church, so as you might imagine, I spent A LOT of time in church, but to be fair, when I was younger, it was because I wanted to be there.

The Bible, by all Christian sects, is considered the Word of God (which I am personally having some doubts about, but more on that later), and is therefore the absolute written guide to understanding God and His Will. This does not include Mormonism. Mormons are not considered Christians by Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., and I believe that Mormons do not believe that the others will reach heaven either, but I don't know for certain.

Yet, I wonder how many people that claim to be Christians read the Bible. I don't expect them to be experts on the Bible, but how many parishioners have cracked it open outside of church to understand the basis of their religious beliefs.

Would their attitudes toward homosexuals, God in politics or anything else change if they read the Bible, assuming that they haven't? Would they become harsher? I don't know, but I'm curious because I know a lot of people that don't go to church that know the Bible better than people that do go to church, so like any good blogger, I started a poll to the right.

P.S. I ended the Bin Laden video poll because there was little interest after the election. The results are:

What's your opinion on the Bin Laden tape?
We will be attacked before the election
0%
Video helps Bush
33.33%
Video helps Kerry
0%
I don't know
66.67%
Total votes : 6

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BLOGROLL ME! NANOWRIMO AND MORE

Holy cripes. I'm spending way too much time "working" on my blog. Everyone was talking about blogrolling. Being a blog newbie, I thought they were talking about the "roll" of blogs they had blogmarked at BlogExplosion.

Then I started running across blogs that had this Blogroll Me! link on the side bar and numerous links to other sites. Having discovered the meaning of blogrolling, I signed up, and now you can Blogroll Me!

Speaking of BlogExplosion, I am spending way, way too much time surfing sites. Staying up until 2 AM reading other people's blogs, getting ideas for my blog, adding "stuff" to my blog doesn't seem healthy. I have to stop. Especially since I signed up for NaNoWriMo.

My sign-up actually occurred before I joined BE, but it seems that everyone on BE has joined, and they keep reminding me that I have to start writing! Putting off procrastination, I started writing last night. So far, I have 28 words. Woohoo! Only 49,972 words to go!

God help me.

And of course, I joined a couple of photo memes, as you can probably tell. That shouldn't take a whole lot of time, but all my pics on Blogger are grainer and fuzzier than they are on my computer, regardless of where the picture is hosted. Maybe the sites are compressing my images. I don't really want to start a separate photoblog, and I don't really have the time to investigate other services, so I guess I'm stuck for the moment. I would appreciate any ideas!

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PHOTO FRIDAY

Photo Friday - Radiant Submission



The candles on my fireplace mantle.

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HILLARY

I ran across Princess Girly Girl's Hillary Clinton blog on Blog Explosion and wanted to comment, but in a very Kerry-like moment, I ran out of space, so I've posted it here.

If you visit her blog from my blog, please be polite, even if you disagree!

I don't normally respond to blogs I don't agree with because it seems that dissident commenters either flagrantly, or unwillingly, end up in a pissing match. Being two women, I think there's a higher probability that we can have a rational discussion. :) No offense guys, but there's something about that Y chromosome that makes you a little nutty at times. No pun intended.

There are a lot of strong women on both sides of the "Should Hillary have left Bill" question. Neither is right or wrong, in my opinion. Personally, I would have probably left after the first 2, but I don't know what situation they were in with their child. For all BC's familial faults, he clearly loves Chelsea, so I'm going to put that aside for now.

As far as Hillary riding Bill's coattails, I think they each rode the other's "coattails" from time to time. Nearly all professional couples do it, our current president has done a lot of it, and everyone in business does it. If they're successful, they do it well because it really boils down to someone's ability to network.

In addition, everyone that makes it into the White House is dirty in some way. EVERYONE. It takes a lot of money to get to the White House, and there are a lot of compromises you have to make along the way. Equally, it's unfortunate that it's up to the American public to decipher truth from sensationalism, and then the public has to decipher the response. How much is spin, how much is truth, is there truth in the spin but they need to spin the truth so the media will run the story longer?

Not to mention, every politician is just a person. Complicated, tortured and egotistical. If everyone were put under a microscope in the same way, I think most people would run for cover. Politicians make mistakes and they do bad things. You just have to weigh the individual team's pros and cons, and even Nixon, for all his faults, was admirable to an extent (see below).

So what's worse. "No, I did not get a hummer in the Oval Office," or "Hussein is responsible for 9/11 or he has WMDs or it's for Iraqui freedom."

General Clarke stated that on 9/12, he visited the Pentagon and a group of generals told him to come inside their office because they wanted to tell him a joke.

Clarke: We don't have time to be telling jokes.

Generals: You'll want to hear this one because it's a good one.

They go inside an office and close the door.

Generals: If Sadaam Hussein didn't attack us, he's going to wish he had. The word has come down that we're going to get him for it.

Clarke: That's not very funny.

They agreed.

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PET PEEVES

Mine...

1. bad grammar
2. poor spelling
3. not turning off the lights when you leave a room
4. squeezing the toothpaste tube in the middle

What are yours?

English was born in the UK, nurtured in India, and killed in the US.

I'm guilty!

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PIAGET - 101 MOVEMENT

Mr. Bob posted something about his dad's collection of clocks, which inspired me to start posting some of the watches in my husband's collection. Starting today, about once a week, I'll be posting photos of watches that we have, or have had, in our possession that are particularly unique or beautiful.

This is a lady's circa 1950s Piaget with an 18K solid white gold band and case, Caliber 101 movement (the smallest mechanical watch movement in the world, made by Jaeger LeCoultre) and 16 diamonds around the dial case. Queen Elizabeth wore a Cal 101 movement during her coronation ceremony in 1952.








Piaget-stamped Cal 101 movement, made by Jaeger LeCoultre. This is the smallest mechanical watch movement in the world, measuring 4.85×14mm with a height of just 3.44mm. It is comprised of over 90 individual parts and 17 jewels.

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THEME THURSDAY - "SHOWCASE 2004"

Theme Thursday - "Showcase 2004"
A photo taken in the last year that is special to you.



This is a snapshot of my friend's 3 month-old and my husband. She is just adorable, and she thought he was the neatest thing. Her mom said that she never takes to anyone that quickly, but she was constantly trying to sit on his lap and look at him.



This one is special because I had to get up at 5 AM to get over there and, hopefully, capture the mist and fog. My husband, without hesitation, volunteered to come along because he was worried about me hanging out with all my camera gear in the middle of a street in the wee hours of the morning.

And yes, those are Redwood trees in the middle of the street. The residents didn't want to destroy these old beauties, so they decided to build their homes and the street around the trees. Their conservation effort vastly increased the value of their property.

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PRESIDENTS

Bush has won a second term in office. This time, he won it fair and square. Though I fear for this country, now more than ever, because of Bush's re-election, I cannot dispute the fact that the majority of Americans want him in power. It leaves me wondering what has happened to this country. A country whose political values and principles are supposed to be outlined and enforced in the Constitution.

Even though the race was very tight, it still surprises me that so many people seem to have ignored the fact that one man's singled-minded vengeance lead us into Iraq and away from Bin Laden. Bush's father outlined why he didn't depose Saddaam Hussein. If W. Bush has a logical reason for not going after Bin Laden, then tell us for God's sake.

The way it stands now, it looks like Bin Laden is pulling off a Ronald Reagan. Let them spend until they can spend no more. Bin Laden stated after 9/11 that his real goal is to adversely affect the US economy more than anything else. Can't do anything without money and resources.

Anyway, I wasn't going to rant about the election results. No matter how much you disagree with a president, I think for most people, they can agree that almost every president has done something positive. Because I'm a Democrat, I'm going to focus on Republicans and conservatives, with one exception.

Richard Nixon
Good
Nixon is the quintessential American political villain. He holds a more prominent position of infamy in most American's minds than Benedict Arnold, but aside from lifting himself out of utter poverty, during the Great Depression, to become President of the United States, during his presidency, he accomplished something, something utterly amazing and brilliant, that positively affects American and global economies and policies to this day.

China.

Through diplomatic channels, he and Kissinger opened up the human-rights violating, despotic, steroid-gymnastics-weight lifting-loving, oppressive regime of Mao's China to America and the world, without military force. Where would Wal-Mart be without China?

America's desire to keep China open, as a responsibility to the US and the world, has not changed in the past 30 or so years. However, 30 years of diplomacy and American obfuscation experienced a major setback when Bush told Charlie Gibson on national TV that he would, without question, defend Taiwan militarily if it was attacked by China. He said, "The Chinese must understand that." Hours later, he re-obfuscated.

China has the largest, and arguably the strongest and best trained, military force in the world, and it is a technologically advanced society. That's not to say that the US would lose a military battle against the Chinese or that the Chinese wouldn't be on the wrong side of the global fence if they attacked Taiwan, but military success would come at an enormous human and financial price. We're the only thing keeping China from destroying Taiwan, and we can't appear to take sides just yet.

Gerald Ford
Good
Believed in the Founding Father's principles of a free America. He believed in an America where everyone, including his wife, has a right to their opinion and a right to peacably protest. Betty Ford led a protest outside the White House during his presidency. She was a vocal opponent to some of her husband's policies. When asked what President Ford thought about Betty's actions, he told reporters that she is a citizen of the US just like anyone else and she has every right to her own political views.

Ford and Nixon both loved their wives enormously. I saw parts of Pat Nixon's funeral. President Nixon was so overcome with grief that I thought he wanted to jump into the grave.

Bill Clinton
Good
I do not believe that a president can "create" a good or bad economy, but I do believe that a president can take steps to either encourage growth or hasten a downward spiral. Clinton is the former. He greatly reduced the size of the federal government and created an unprecedented federal surplus. Unlike Reagan, Clinton didn't accomplish this feat by drastically cutting vital social programs that, ultimately, effect the economies of the lower middle class. He cut wasteful beaurocracy and eliminated duplicate positions and unnecessary overhead (managerial and otherwise) in the federal government. Most importantly, he let Greenspan do what he does best, without much interference, VERY unlike George W. Bush. By the way, I think Clinton and Reagan are a prime example of politicians that agree on principle, about some things, but disagree abouth methods.

George H.W. Bush
Good
Recognizing when he's made a mistake. Everyone in the White House thought Richard Clarke was ridiculous for suggesting that Iraq would attack Kuwait, but as soon as Clarke's prediction came to pass, Bush brought Clarke into the fold.

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PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION PLAY BY PLAY

CNN's electoral vote play-by-play is driving me crazy. I can't take it! Mathematically, Ohio is too close to call, but according to CNN, an unnamed news station is calling Ohio for President Bush. Let me think... I wonder who (FoxNews) that could be. Even the conservative reporters on CNN are saying that mathematically, it is too close to call. Michigan could also go to Bush, even though Kerry is winning ever so narrowly right now, so that's too close to call as well.

When all is said and done, if the American people legitimately vote for Bush, then so be it. He'll be our president again, but I'll wait until all the votes are counted.

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VOTING FIRST

Mu husband and I just got back from dropping off our absentee ballots. We took the day off to vote. I've voted in two other presidential elections, my husband has voted in 4. What's amazing to me is his presidential voting record, as of today.

HUSBAND
Ronald Reagn - 1980
Ronald Reagan - 1984
George H.W. Bush - 1988
George H.W. Bush - 1992
Didn't vote - 1996
Didn't vote (with great regret) - 2000
John Kerry - 2004

Once considered a died-in-the-wool Republican by most people (I don't ever recall hearing him criticize Reagan, with only minor criticism of H.W. Bush) is so mad at Bush Jr. and the Republican party that he... wait for it... SWITCHED parties! I told him that Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy advisor to Ronald Reagan and treasury official for George H.W. Bush, told the NY Times that if George W. Bush is re-elected, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party come November 3.

To be fair, I should mention that he is not a big fan of John Kerry. However, he believes Kerry's logic and approach to running the country is less flawed, less dangerous and less corrupt than that of W. Bush, in addition to believing that Bush is destroying what makes this country a beacon for the "huddled masses" seeking freedom and equality, our civil liberties.

He may read this and tell me that I've misrepresented him to some extent ( I don't think he will), but that's the message I get in our conversations together.

My polling place in California wasn't packed during the lunch hour, but they had a steady stream of voters.

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FIRST HALLOWEEN

This was the first Halloween my husband and I had together in a house, so it was the first time we had trick-or-treaters. Every time the doorbell rang, we ran up to answer the door with a bowl full of candy.

Being novice treaters, we doled out a handful of candy to every kid that rang. Predictably, we nearly ran out of candy shortly thereafter and had to make another candy run. Now we have enough candy to choke a horse!



Our only decoration, besides a skull, because we shopped too late. :(

Hubby put on a demon mask with the hope of scaring some kids, but nobody was scared. At 6'6" and 340 pounds, he was a pretty scary sight. But most kids just laughed, except one little sheep-costumed girl. She was about 5 or 6. Her father had to bring her up the stairs to get candy. She was so cute.

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HALLOWEEN GOODY TWO-SHOES

Only 59%? Must be the Bin Laden transcript.

How evil are you???



Goody Two-Shoes Origin

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