Again, I haven’t blogged in some time now, but I want to make a short comment about the murder of Dr. Tiller, the abortionist who specialized in partial birth abortions. I and every other person who is truly pro-life condemns his murder and all acts of violence in general. I am passionately pro-life and absolutely loath the taking of unborn human life through abortion, and especially loathe late-term abortion. But I also hate the taking of already born human life. As much as I hated what Tiller did for a living, his life was as important as the life of an unborn baby. You can’t both talk about defending unborn life and not care when an already born person is murdered. And on the other hand, you can’t only care when a grown person is murdered but not be concerned about the lives of babies who can survive outside the womb who are murdered by an incredibly gruesome “procedure” that not even its supporters feel comfortable talking about in detail. It’s double talk.

People who call themselves pro-life but who don’t care that Tiller was murdered and people who call themselves “pro-choice” and who are outraged about Tiller’s murder but don’t care that millions of unborn babies are murdered every year have something in common after all. Both groups of people are hypocrites. They care only about one side of an equation but not the other. And their logic doesn’t add up.

Being pro-life means that you’re in favor of life. For everybody. And that includes being in favor of life for people who disagree with us.

Violence is not a solution to the debate over abortion. And for those who claim that they believe the Bible, they should remember that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12, NIV). In other words, other people – even those who most strongly disagree with the sanctity of life – are not the problem or the enemy. The battle to protect the unborn, like many battles before it, is really a battle to change people’s hearts and minds. You can’t do that with bullets or violence. The only way to do that is through love.

Pro-life means that everybody’s life is important and has irreplaceable value. Let there be no confusion in thinking that a person who would murder another human being, for whatever reason, is “pro-life.” They’re not.

In case people have wondered why my blog has been inactive for a while, the reason is that I’m working very hard in doing research for what I hope and pray will become my first book. I’ll reveal more information when I get further along, but I have been spending all my spare time (time not working or with family) doing research. I’ve got hundreds of pages of notes that I’ve compiled and a pretty high-level outline. I’m shortly going to be in search of a literary agent and/or a publisher. I will duck my head in more frequently to do some more writing, but I just haven’t had a lot of spare time. Hope everybody’s been doing well – TVV.

When President Franklin Roosevelt was inaugurated in 1933, he faced intense pressure from the American people to do something about the country’s disastrous economic state. In response, the new President initiated a large number of new government programs within the first one hundred days of his first term. Since that time period, observers have paid particular attention to the actions of every new American President during their first one hundred days in office.

So far during the young tenure of President Obama, he has enacted a number of policies that relate to the issue of abortion. On his fourth day in office, the President lifted restrictions on United States Government funding for groups that provide abortions overseas. And on his thirty ninth day in office, the White House announced that it planned to reverse the conscience clause, a rule that, among other things, protected health care workers who refused to perform abortions because of moral objections to it.

Since President Obama is still in the earliest stages of his own Presidency and as I am praying for him to do the things that will be in the best interests of all Americans at every stage of life, I’d like to help him understand the impact of his decisions so that he can make better decisions. To do this, I want to talk a bit more about another First Hundred Days. The First Hundred Days of the life of an unborn baby.

Let’s imagine that a baby was conceived on January 20th. As of the date of this writing (March 3rd), that living being would not even technically be considered a fetus yet – that person is still called an embryo. Many people, including the President and many of his supporters, think that this life does not yet have recognizable rights as a human being. But as we will see, that life has already amassed an impressive set of accomplishments. And by the first hundred days after conception, the baby will have successfully completed an aggressive and diverse agenda worthy of respect.

Let’s look at some of the things that happen during the First One Hundred Days after conception.

Day One (January 20th). Conception. Think of this as a biological equivalent of Inauguration Day. Like its political equivalent, this day is the beginning of a term.

Regardless of your gender, your race, nationality, political affiliation or age, every event in your life can be expressed as a time offset from your own personal “Day One” – the day you were conceived. If this day hadn’t happened, none of the days that you’ve lived since then would have happened either. Your biological life can’t be traced back to any other single event other than this one. On this date, the human reproductive cells that come together at conception in effect take an oath to begin doing all the massive infrastructure work that is needed in order to allow a new human being to take his or her first breath about 280 days later. And if this living being is not killed, either through miscarriage, abortion or stillbirth, it will indeed accomplish every aspect of the bold agenda that it embarks upon on Conception Day.

Day Twenty One (February 9th). Another infrastructure project is well underway as the foundations of what will eventually become the baby’s spine start to develop. And on the health care front, the baby’s little heart begins to beat – a heartbeat that will continue for the rest of his or her life. No matter how old you are, the heart that beats inside of you today began beating when this top priority was enacted just three weeks after Conception Day. Pretty impressive.

It’s also worth noting that by the time most women realize that they’re pregnant – at about Day 14 – these key milestones will be accomplished only about one week later. Which shows that even during a period of slow news, the unborn baby is quietly and efficiently working behind the scenes to build a better future.

Day Thirty Six (February 24th). A key priority for environmental air quality is initiated on this day as the unborn baby’s lungs begin to form. And in an expansion of the infrastructure projects already underway, the baby’s hands and feet now have some level of discernable fingers and toes. The lymphatic system begins to form and within a week, brain activity will be measurable on EEG devices.

Day Forty Nine (March 8th). This date is a day of tremendous accomplishment given the unborn baby’s short time in the womb. Although still in what’s called the first trimester (the biological equivalent of the honeymoon period), the baby now has at least started forming all essential organs – all positioned in their proper place in his or her little body. Whoever you are, every one of your vital organs had started developing not just within the first One Hundred Days after your conception but, in general, during the First Fifty Days. Quite impressive! The unborn baby may have critics who aren’t happy with the fact that he or she is in place. But they certainly can’t criticize the fact that the baby has already tackled an incredible number of issues in a remarkably short time period.

Day Fifth Six (March 15th). As much as the baby has accomplished in terms of infrastructure, there is also a focus on both communication infrastructure and entertainment. By this time period, the baby’s ear begins to look very similar to the way that it will look when the baby is born. In addition, the eyelids become more advanced in their development.

Day Eighty Four (April 12th). Another major milestone, involving the handling of food, is underway as the baby develops tooth buds, which will eventually become the baby teeth. Freedom of creative expression is also touched on as the baby can now make a fist with his or her fingers and has a well-formed face. And yet more attention is paid to regulation of the environment as the baby’s liver now produces red blood cells.

Day One Hundred (April 28th). By this time period, being much more comfortable in its role, the baby either can make active motions and sucking movements. The baby has started to develop a fine layer of hair on his or her head. The bones become harder and more muscle tissue begins to develop. The liver and pancreas produce fluid secretions. While it may not be known what the ultimate legacy of this baby’s life will be, it can certainly be said that the baby is off to a very impressive start.

Within the First One Hundred Days after conception, the unborn baby has accomplished essentially everything that makes a human being a human being. There are some who see no problem with interfering with the unborn baby’s pursuit of its noble agenda -  which is to be born - the culmination of the tasks it began tackling on Conception Day. They do not understand all the things that the baby has already accomplished or realize that since Day One, the baby has been on a mission to be born, which is a mission that definitely will be fulfilled unless the baby is aborted, stillborn or miscarried.  These people need to become more aware of the things that the baby is doing behind the scenes.

And I write this because, in spite of all the things that an unborn baby accomplishes in the First One Hundred Days, supporters of legalized abortion support a process that may kill this already accomplished baby anytime up through Day 168 – or even beyond in some cases. They need to realize that although talented politicians can address a large number of their agenda items in a short period of time, these accomplishments pale to the accomplishments every one of us made during our own early days. Prayerfully, they will consider these things and keep them in mind as they craft policies that will affect those very ambitious unborn.

Racism is something that has infested the thinking of people of all colors. There are black racists just as there are white racists. But I believe that all of them, regardless of their skin color, use the exact same patterns of thinking. In fact, if I could reduce what I consider the definition of racism down to one simple formula, I would describe it as follows.

Racism is a state of thinking in which life and most things in it are defined by the never-ending struggle of "us" versus "them," in which "us" and "them" are defined by racial and ethnic boundaries. People who view members of their own racial or ethnic group as "us" and see their side as pitched in a lifetime struggle against members of another racial or ethnic group, "them," are people who tend to be racist in their thinking. The only difference between white racists and black racists is their respective definitions of "us" and "them."

Racists tend to believe that whenever enough of "them" get together and have the opportunity, they will naturally stick it to "us." That's what most of "them" really want to do to "us." That's the reason why you can't ever really let your guard down around "them."

They think that most of "them" are fundamentally unlike most of "us." They think that after God made the animals that live in the water and the animals that live on the ground, that He then made "us" and then made "them." They're not sure why God made "them" to be so different from "us" but they know that they'd rather keep their distance from "them" and spend as much time as possible around our own kind. Besides, they think, what could most of us have in common with "them?"

Racists don't necessarily hate "them." Sometimes, in fact, they might really like some of "them." They recognize that some of "them" - the good ones - aren't like the majority of "them." Now, of course, most of "them" are up to no good, but a few of "them" are all right.

And they might even acknowledge that some of "us" are no better than some of "them." There are some of "us" who act just like "them." They must have been raised around "them" or have spent too much time with "them." They think that some of "us" are confused about who they are and must think deep down that they're one of "them." Those of "us" who are like that - the traitors - aren't to be trusted any more than one of "them."

Racists are generally pretty convinced that they have a pretty good knowledge of "them." Maybe they're pretty sure that most of "them" are violent. Or most of "them" hate most of "us." That most of "them" are rich. Most of "them" aren't patriotic. Most of "them" are stupid or, on the other hand, that most of "them" look down on "us." The racists know perhaps that there are some among "them" aren't like that. But they're positive without a doubt that most of "them" are.

Racists think that the only way to stand a chance against "them" is for most of "us" to stick together. Those of "us" who haven't been tricked by "them" need to band together before all of "them" do what they've always wanted to do to the rest of "us." They ridicule some of "us" who tell them that they're wrong to think the way that they do. "Just wait," they tell us. "You don't know 'them' the way I do. Someday, you'll see what they really think of 'us.' And then come back and tell me that I'm wrong."

Most people, both black and white, who get locked in this way of thinking end up spending the rest of their lives that way.  Being people who are too foolish to realize that they're being foolish. Being, figuratively speaking, like the folks who think they've seen the whole world but who have never stepped foot outside their hometown.

But some people do eventually emerge from their ignorance. Some get to know enough of "them," talking and developing relationships with "them" that they start to realize that they have more in common with some of "them" than they thought they did. Maybe, they think to themselves, there are a lot more of "them" who are like "us" than they originally thought. Through developing relationships, these people can get to the point at which they realize that maybe racial and ethnic boundaries aren't the right way to define "us" and "them." After all, they learn, there are quite a few of "them" that believe the same thing as "us." And there are a lot of "us" who don't act like "us." Eventually, these people find friends and allies in places they never expected. Mainly because they opened their eyes and looked for them.

And the point of all of this - and the way out of "us vs. them" thinking - is to realize that you can't look at a person and tell whether or not they're one of "us" or one of "them." You can't determine this by the color of their skin, by their age, by the part of the country they come from or by whether or not you think they talk with an accent. You can't tell this by the way they dress, by how much money they make or how much education they have. In fact, the only way to determine whether someone is one of "us" or one of "them" is to know what's in their heart. And the only way to do that is to get to know them as an individual. And the more people do this, the more they'll realize that there are a whole lot more of "us" in the world than there are of "them."

Within the past hour, our nation just inaugurated President Obama, the first African American to have taken the oath of office. As the President pointed out, sixty years ago, his own father would not have been able to be seated in a local restaurant but since then, our nation has grown to the point at which the color of one's skin does not prevent someone from taking the highest position in the land. When the President was born, there were still places in this country in which blacks could not vote, use the restroom, or live. Today, this country has proven that we have grown to an amazing level in the way that we think about the things that divide us.

It is time for our nation to stop being divided by barriers such as race and ethnicity. We are all Americans.

I have been and will still be critical of the President's policy on abortion. But I will also be praying for the President and his family every single day. I will be praying that God will give him wisdom, protection, and that he will do an outstanding job in leading our nation. I think he has done an outstanding job during the transition period and I will be praying that he will make the decisions that need to be made at this point in time.

May every American support and pray for the President and his family.

And America needs to congratulate itself - not because of the skin color of the person who is now our Chief Executive - but because we as a nation have grown to the point that for the overwhelming majority of Americans, it didn't matter one way or the other. God Bless America!

Today, our nation honors the birthday of our most famous Civil Rights leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was not only a brilliant leader - both a visionary man and an outstanding writer and speaker - but also an extremely brave man. He faced off against a system of injustice that was widespread throughout the country and especially throughout the south, a system that was founded upon the idea that one group of people is better than another. Without any weapons or ammunition and in the face of the most brutal and violent tactics imaginable that were used against him and his supporters, King did the one thing that no army could do. His words and his example changed people's hearts and minds. He helped change the country from a place in which segregation was not only legal but legally mandated into a place in which almost nobody wants to be identified as a racist. He walked bravely into the presence of people who had been enemies. And he made quite a few of them want to be brothers.

Thank God for the life and dream of Dr. King.

The University of Wisconsin is planning to open an abortion Clinic to abort the unborn babies of women who are between 13 and 22 weeks pregnant. Let's review exactly what happens in that part of the pregnancy.

At three weeks after conception, an unborn baby has a beating human heart. At seven weeks, the unborn baby has detectable human brain (EEG) waves. By eight weeks, the baby has every major organ in place and developing - every major internal organ that the baby will ever have as an adult - present and accounted for. By 12 weeks the baby can suck their thumb and can experience physical pain.

And this clinic wants to start aborting babies the following week - after the point at which they can start feeling pain and after the baby has every bodily part that makes a human a human.

This isn't about women's health. This is a case of sickness.

I've been sort of busy doing research for what will one day be my first book. I have slacked off on blogging a little bit (but I shall return). In the meantime, on a lighter note, I've been noticing how much we pay attention to our political leaders and their look-alikes, as we all saw with the physical similarities between Governor Sarah Palin and actress Tina Fey. But Palin isn't the only person in politics who is closely resembled by someone in show business at some point in time. Here are a few other similarities I've noticed.

I'll be back sometime soon with something of actual importance to post.

President-Elect Obama (When he was younger)	Michael Jackson (When he was Michael Jackson)

George Costanza (Or a young Dick Cheney)	Vice President Cheney (Or an old George Costanza)

Joe Isuzu	Mitt Romney

Sometimes, we are forced by circumstances to respond to things. And history defines us by how we react ...

In the 1960 Presidential Election, Vice President Richard Nixon faced off against his longtime colleague, Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. A number of prominent black leaders, including Baseball legend Jackie Robinson and Atlanta Pastor Martin Luther King, Sr., were supporters of Nixon who did not trust Jack Kennedy. Their dislike of Kennedy got more intense when he decided to make Texas Democratic Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, a man with a mixed record on civil rights, his running mate. The Republicans had been making inroads with black voters, who supported FDR and Truman and were expected to do even better in 1960.

Early in the year, in late January, four black college students at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro, North Carolina, decided that they had done enough complaining about segregation and decided to try to change it. On February 1st, they entered into a Woolworth's store, which got much of its business from black customers. They made small purchases from the integrated area where customers of all races could purchase goods. And then they sat down at the lunch counter which was reserved for white customers only. They asked to be served. They were reminded that black customers were not allowed to sit in the lunch area but were expected to order their food from the "colored" take-out counter. The young men asked why they were allowed to buy merchandise from the store but not allowed to be served. They refused to leave and also were refused service. But their actions that day erupted a wave of nonviolent protest that ultimately changed the policies of segregation in the upper south.

Within months, blacks throughout the country were beginning to protest policies that effectively treated them as second class citizens. Many white students in the north joined in by boycotting national chains that practiced segregation in its southern stores. Many of these companies were forced to change their policies. However, the city of Atlanta, a source of pride in the south, remained a significant holdout.

And so, three weeks before the Election of 1960, a group of young black college students in Atlanta staged a nonviolent sit-in protest in the prestigious downtown Rich's Department Store.They had persuaded the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had become famous in the wake of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts five years earlier, to join them. Their goal was to peacefully defy orders to abide by the store's segregationist policies in order to get arrested and to bring attention to the problem. They got their wish: Rev. King, along with 51 other individuals, were arrested. King said during his arrest "I don't feel that I did anything wrong going to Rich's and seeking to be served. We went peacefully, nonviolently, and in a deep spirit of love." He added that the previous year, his family had spent $4,500 dollars at the store but that they still weren't allowed to eat there.

Two days later, the students were released from jail on the condition that they participate in no more sit-ins for a month as the store tried to negotiate its policies. But Rev. King was not released with them. It turns out that the previous May, Rev. King and his wife Coretta had been driving a white female family friend to Emory University in Atlanta. He was pulled over by a DeKalb County police officer "on suspicion." And he had committed a serious offense: he was driving in Georgia with an Alabama driver's license. He was fined twenty five dollars and given a suspended sentence. But because he violated the terms of the suspended sentence by participating in the sit in, he was now being sentenced to four months in a hard labor camp.

After the sentencing, King was awakened from his sleep in the local lock-up. He was taken, bound, to the back of a Sheriff's car and driven, in the middle of the night, to a destination unknown. The officers would not answer his questions about where he was going. King thought he was about to meet his fate with a lynch mob, as had happened to a number of other black men in parts of the deep south. He later described the long drive and the uncertainty that accompanied as nearly unbearable. He spent time thinking about his family and how he feared he would never see them again. He and his wife Coretta had two children - a daughter who was about to turn five and a son who had turned three during his time he was incarcerated for the sit-in. His wife was six months pregnant with their third child.

King's destination that night was the Reidsville State Prison, a place with a ferocious reputation. When his wife learned that this was where he was headed, she became even more frantically stressed and strongly believed that her husband would be killed in prison and that their unborn child would never know his father. The King family reached out to both the Presidential candidates for help.

Nixon, who had a strong civil rights record and had known King personally, was trying to maintain a careful balancing act in a close election. He did not want to anger segregationists in the south, who viewed King as an avowed enemy and had a vitriolic opposition to any form of integration. He had already during the course of the campaign avoided getting too close to black voters or addressing black audiences because he had a hope to win portions of the south that at the time did not appreciate such gestures and which were being alienated from the Democratic Party partially because of the party's increasingly liberal positions on support for integration. Some of Nixon's aides and supporters, including Robinson, pleaded with him to make a statement. Any statement. Nixon refused. When asked during the crisis whether or not she had heard from the Vice President, Mrs. King responded to the reporter's question by saying "No, he's been very quiet."

Kennedy, who did not have a strong civil rights record and had been viewed with suspicion by a number of prominent blacks, but who had recently started trying to close the gap, was also reluctant to get involved. After all, the south was a Democratic stronghold and Kennedy also did not want to do anything to overly antagonize segregationists. But he did do two important things. He called Mrs. King from his hotel room and asked her if there was anything that he could do to help her. At the same time, his brother Bobby negotiated with the judge to arrange to allow King to be released on bail. Mrs. King told reporters that Kennedy was "thinking about us" and would "do all he could to help."

King was released from prison unharmed.

Kennedy staffers made sure that black voters were aware of the fact that Kennedy had helped King while Nixon did nothing. They put together a pamphlet titled "The Case of Martin Luther King" and derided the Vice President as "No Comment Nixon." This information was widely distributed in the black community in the weeks prior to the election. Those closest to the incident also seemed to have been persuaded by the relative reactions of Nixon and Kennedy. King's father renounced his support for Nixon and endorsed Kennedy. King's good friend Ralph Abernathy  wrote "Since Mr. Nixon has been silent through all of this, I am going to return his silence when I go to the voting booth." King himself later wrote in his autobiography that he regarded Nixon to be a "moral coward" and opined that Nixon would have won the support of black voters in the 1960 election if Nixon had mustered the courage to say and do something.

And in that election, it made a difference.

In the book 1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon by David Pietrusza, on page 408, the author writes

Nixon captured only Virginia and Florida in the old Confederacy. He narrowly fell short in Arkansas, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Texas (Ike had taken the latter two states four years earlier). The Solid South had remained solid. Nixon had tossed away the African American vote essentially for a chimera. Worse than a chimera. Kennedy's newly energized black vote had helped move Illinois, Michigan, and New Jersey, Missouri, and quite possibly, Texas and Pennsylvania into the Democratic column. That meant 76 electoral votes even without Texas and Pennsylvania, a whopping 132 votes with them, minimally short-circuiting an easy victory for Richard Nixon.

Black voters responded to Kennedy's gesture and Nixon's silence by turning at least four close states that otherwise would have gone for Nixon to Kennedy. This incident, and Kennedy's response to it, made the difference in the Presidential Election, as was acknowledged by both President Eisenhower and the RNC Chairman. Furthermore, the GOP's upward momentum with black voters was killed - from that point until today. Richard Nixon still managed to win 32% of black voter support - eight times the level of support that Senator McCain got a month ago and more than twice the level of support of any Republican Presidential Campaign from that point until today.

And the moral of the story is that sometimes, circumstances are thrust upon individuals unexpectedly. Richard Nixon did not ask for the King crisis and was forced to react to it. But his reaction was to try to not offend segregationists - in his case people who were unlikely to vote for him anyway. He tried to pick the safest response. And it backfired. Kennedy, who had far more to lose by angering the segregationists, made a gesture anyway. And it paid off for him handsomely.

And the lesson that politicians and the rest of us alike should bear in mind is that we always have to be prepared to stand up for what is right. Even if we run the risk of being criticized for it.

A while back, I introduced a new comedy modeled after a family of business execs who came together to beg for taxpayer money and to do ... whatever they wanted with it. Since the news came out recently about how a lot of the execs of the bailout firms bailed themselves out with big bonuses after getting the taxpayer money, I thought it was time for a spin-off. Let's visit the Bail Out Bunch at Christmastime.

A Very Bailout Christmas
(Sung to the theme of "The Brady Bunch")

Here's a story of a comedy that's not funny
About some guys who got a gift from all of us
Their firms got taxpayer bailout money
And the execs got gigantic bonuses

Here's a story of workers paying taxes
Earning fractions compared to the execs
They might as well have bought them gifts from Saks'
The big bonuses came from their small paychecks

The Bail Out Bunch
The Bail Out Bunch
We've given them a great big Christmas gift!

Been a busy day and haven't had time to blog (if you notice the pattern, I tend to unload about every three days or so when I get a few hours and ... whammo ... paragraphs start flying). But I've been inspired by the latest fall, this time of Democratic Illinois Governor Blagojevich, to create the official Politician's Hall of Shame - sort of an Oscars for the worst excuses for leaders. Think about it. Some of these guys aren't just corrupt but creatively corrupt. Corrupt in a dramatic way. Corrupt in comical ways. Corrupt in ways that went even beyond what those Hollywood guys could think up.

I'll have to admit. I don't think I'm a dumb person but I don't think I even would have thought of trying to sell Obama's vacated Senate seat. I guess I would have been thinking about ... oh .. I guess trying to help stop all the murders that have been affecting young people in the Chicago area. Trying to keep the economic crisis in the midwest from affecting my state. I guess I have no career in politics. But Blagojevich, along with an amazing number of pols from both parties, deserves to be remembered for his contributions to what the public thinks about politicians.

I've been bothered for a long time by the fact that many in the homosexual community believe that the beliefs of most Christians - the belief that their behavior is a form of sin - are motivated by hate or intolerance. I don't hate or dislike homosexual people at all - in fact, there are people whom I like very much who happen to be gay. But I do believe that homosexuality is a sin. And I don't believe that saying so constitutes "hate speech," the crime that some foreign Pastors have been charged with just for saying in public that homosexuality is a sin.

The best way to show why it's not hate speech to call someone's behavior sin when God's Word says that it's sin, we're going to use an example of a man we'll call "Tim." Tim is representative of a lot of men in this country. Tim is a straight man. And every week he goes to church and has to hear about why some of his behavior is sinful and why God wants him to change.

Question of the day: Is Tim's Pastor being hateful to him? Listen to Tim's letter and decide for yourself whether or not hate speech is involved. And then ask yourself what's the difference between Tim's situation and the situation of others who feel that they are subjected to hate just because others disagree with them and say so publicly.

Hello,

I think I'm a good person. I work hard, obey the law, go to church, and try to treat everybody well. I volunteer to help in my church and I also give financially. I think I'm a pretty good guy and I think I deserve as much respect as everybody else.

But every once in a while - a lot, actually - my Pastor reads out loud, to the whole church, this part of the Bible and other verses like it. I feel like he's talking directly to me. It makes me very uncomfortable. And I get this tone of disapproval when he says it - something I get from others as well. I sort of feel like I'm getting picked on. And I'm getting tired of it.

He keeps talking about how it's a sin for me to lust after women. I've tried to change and tried really hard to be different. But I don't think I can help it. I think this is how I am and I was born to feel the way I do. So I feel like he's saying that there's something wrong with me. He seems very harsh and judgmental when he talks about how God doesn't approve of people like me - guys who like women and maybe look at things we shouldn't and think thoughts we shouldn't. I see a lot of people in the congregation nodding their heads in their condemnation of me. I wish they'd be a little more tolerant of people like me. It's like they're afraid of young straight guys who aren't married yet. I'm not doing anything to hurt anybody. They need to learn to be a little more tolerant and less hateful and judgmental toward me.

 

All I'm saying is, I'm tired of coming to church and having people tell me I'm a bad person just because of something that I can't help about myself. That's judgmental. Why aren't they singling out other types of people - people who steal or are lazy? Why do they have to tell anybody that God has a problem with something they're doing? But, I swear, it's like every week or two, there's some comments talking about how it's a sin to be lustful and a sin to have sex outside of marriage, a sin to look at certain types of things on TV. Why can't they talk about something else and at least let me feel a little more comfortable? And then he goes and says something about how it's wrong for me to be living with my girlfriend. I feel like he just uses his pulpit to try to constantly hammer people like me. I wish I had been one of those guys who didn't constantly struggle with this stuff. But I'm not and God has got to accept me. I know He wouldn't be happy with the fact that the Pastor keeps telling me I'm a bad person by telling me that all these things that I do are wrong.

I guess I just don't think that the church should be a place where people get talked about all the time. I feel almost as if I was being persecuted just for being me. I think they need to work much harder to make sure that everybody is comfortable the way they are. I mean, if you really love me the way you say God wants us to love everybody else, why would you say things that might make me feel bad about the way I am?

 

Anyway, I hope one day I will be able to enjoy a service without people harassing me.

Sincerely,

Tim

Hey, folks! Let's have a conversation about human life. But, in order to do this, we need to talk very briefly about human death. This is certainly not one of my favorite topics and so we'll keep this part very short. But when any of us physically dies, the law says that our death must be certified or recorded. Medical professionals can actually lose their licenses if they don't promptly issue death certificates to the newly departed (dead people do vote, you know).

How is it determined that somebody is dead? Well, there are a number of ways but it is generally accepted to be when their heart stops functioning and/or when their brain stops showing activity according to an electroencephalograph (an EEG). The loss of heart and brain activity are indicators of physical death.

Enough morbid talk. Now let's talk mostly about physical life.

If the heart and brain are used to indicate whether or not physical life has ended, why wouldn't those same things be used to determine whether or not physical life has begun? And if we are required to have a death certificate which is based upon an event in which heart and brain stop working, would it be so crazy to have a certificate that is truly the opposite of the Death Certificate? I mean a document that marks the beginning of the same things that a Death Certificate marks the end of.

I already can imagine some of you shouting at what I'm writing. We already have this, TVV! It's called a Birth Certificate. And, rest assured, I have heard of Birth Certificates. I've got one myself. But a Birth Certificate is not the opposite of a Death Certificate. The biological conditions that those documents certify are not symmetric or opposite of one another. Let me explain why.

One can be declared dead when they have no pulmonary activity and/or they have no measurable brain activity. This is in part what the Death Certificate certifies. But a Birth Certificate certifies the moment of physical entry into this world. And many months before a baby enters this world by exiting his/her mother's womb, the baby already has a beating heart and measurable brain activity. A Birth Certificate does not mark the opposite end of the continuum for the things that are marked by a Death Certificate.

The human heart begins to beat 21 days after conception. Since many women discover that they are pregnant at about fourteen days after conception, this means that within about a week of a mother-to-be discovering that she is expecting, the baby already satisfies one of the conditions that won't end until one day, hopefully far into the future, when that person is issued a Death Certificate.

Human Brain Activity is detectable on an EEG at about six weeks after conception. This is the same test that is performed on adults to determine whether or not they are "brain-dead." And so this means that the baby, just one month after mom discovers she's pregnant, meets a second condition that, if applied to already born humans, would make them legally alive.

And so if we were to officially document the moment that the things that stop working when the Death Certificate is issued start working, we'd have to go back long, long before the Birth Certificate could be issued. We'd have to go back to the beginning of the pregnancy. The moment of conception is actually the true start of the human development life cycle, as every other event occurs at some predictable time offset from this root event. Nothing happens before conception and every other event in a person's life happens at some time offset from the moment they were conceived. But if we were going to officially document just the moment at which the human heart starts beating, using it as an indicator of life just as the absence of it is used as an indicator of death, we would certify that moment, one week after the positive pregnancy test, with a Life Certificate. The unborn baby's tiny beating heart will continually beat for the rest of their life.

An ultrasound picture of an unborn baby smiling.

Actually, all types of other interesting things happen prior to the Birth Certificate being granted. Unborn kids do the darnedest things. Those of you who are parents probably think you saw your child's first smile. But you didn't - unless you have an advanced ultrasound device around the house. Studies show that babies smile as early as three months before birth. They start yawning nearly three months before that. They make finger movements at 15 weeks. They can not only recognize their mother's voice but can also differentiate between melodic tones.

So, perhaps you are expecting a baby or know someone who is. If you haven't already, you might want to make a record of the news. Because almost immediately after you learned of the news, that unborn baby qualified for a Life Certificate! Please feel free to print one out for them, to remind them that that small child has already accomplished something that will stay with them a lifetime.

I try to use humor to talk about a lot of issues that are important to me. I've been at this blog for almost a year now and am now in the process of writing my first book. In the time that I've been writing here, I've seen a lot of things happen in the news that aren't that funny but at the same time are funny in the sense that they're almost comical. I became very invested in one particular candidate, Mike Huckabee, who I agree with on most issues and who I think is the best Republican candidate in decades, only to see him shoved aside in favor of other candidates that I would never vote for. And after he got shoved to the side, I watched in amazement as the leaders in his party, the same folks who shoved him to the side, followed almost step by step all the tips I wrote out in How to lose to Barack Obama.

I'm in a little bit of a spot. I actually agree with the Republican Party about more issues than I disagree with them on. I care a lot about the sanctity of human life, which begins at conception and so I generally never vote for Democrats. But as an African American, I have refused to join the Republican Party because I have never felt for the most part that the GOP wants me - up until now, the national party has felt perfectly comfortable with ignoring people like me altogether. And after watching closely the way that the GOP has behaved over the past year - getting rid of its own best candidate because a bunch of media personalities in New York told them to - has made me sort of laugh at the party. I've been laughing at the Democratic Party for years. But now they've become the well-oiled machine and the Republican Party has become the creaky relic. I'm just glad that I am a registered Independent - I feel comfortable enough to laugh at both parties. However, the issues that are important to me - life, small government, racial inclusiveness, concern for those who aren't making much money, the end of a tax on productivity - aren't being addressed by either party. And so while I'm laughing, I'm actually crying at the same time.

Anyway, here's a recap of some of the things I wrote that try to make lemons out of lemonade. And, for your information, I don't watch television as much as the Hollywood influence here might suggest.

	"The Bailout Bunch" A family of unsuccessful executives come together as one big family of private entrepreneurs living off of taxpayer money. Tons of laughs for the family (eh - the family of execs - not your family, my family or the families of their workers).
	"The Opposite" The Republicans would have done well to do the opposite of everything they did during the primaries.
	The Seven Steps to Becoming an Unimportant Voter The perils of getting too serious in the commitment to a political party, both of which are secular and both of which exist primarily to get and keep power.
	Before you blame the faithful, blame the unfaithful For those who blame "values voters" for the free fall of the GOP, here are some other factors that may have contributed to that shipwreck.
	Benching Your Own Best Player Would any team going into a competitive contest sideline its own best player? Most would not, but the GOP did.
	Hiring the lesser of two evils Why it's not necessarily a bad idea to vote "none of the above."
	Jedi Mind Tricks and Return of the Jedi Mind Tricks We all know that President-Elect Obama ran an excellent campaign and is a very smart guy. But could his opposition have run such a bad campaign because they were under the influence of Jedi Mind Tricks?
	Urbanophobia A short discussion of Urbanophobia, the Republican Party leadership's pathological fear of being associated with more than one or two black folks. (This is a distinct condition from Ebonitis, which is the pathological apathy they feel toward the need to reach out for the aforementioned black folk).
	Debunking "Choice" Why almost everything you've heard about abortion is wrong.
	Taxes and the "regular guy" An progressive tax system doesn't just affect the rich. Here's how a couple of regular guys get abused by the system.
	They Keep Betting On The Wrong Horse Why is it that the Republicans kept picking everyone except for the best candidate?

A couple of months ago, I really started to pay attention to how the Republican Party was really doing almost everything the way that Obama and his team probably wanted them to. They blindly repeated almost every misstep that Senator Clinton had done in her failed quest to topple Obama's candidacy - but did so in an even clumsier manner. I asked myself how could a party that had been so successful in winning elections make so many incredibly foolish moves. I concluded that the persuasive Senator must have used Jedi Mind Tricks to convince the Republicans to do almost exactly what he wanted them to do. I wrote an article about this some time back. It didn't get that many votes on Real Clear Politics, but at least I thought it was funny. And since it's tough to keep coming up with original material, I decided to do a sequel. I call it "The Return of the Jedi Mind Tricks."

After being soundly beaten, the Republicans have escaped to a remote camp so that they can plan their next move. The first issue to be addressed is the leadership posts in the Galactic Congress, the place where the Republican opposition has lost 57 seats in the lower chamber and at least 12 in the upper chamber in the past four years. The young Obama spoke to party members. "You do not want to change leadership. Losing sixty nine seats isn't that bad. At least you didn't lose seventy." The party member stared blankly and agreed. "Uh ... yeah. No changes. You don't change horses in the middle of the quicksand."

Then they were set to decide on a new leader for the RNC. Among their choices were one guy who knew how to run an extremely successful campaign with almost no money and another guy who knew how to grow the fledgling rag-tag group of Republicans to include new members. The young Obama spoke to another Republican. "You don't want somebody who isn't already in your little club. You need some old blood." The Republican stared back blankly and repeated the thought. "I don't want any new ideas. Those guys on our side who have been successful in getting lots of new recruits had better out of here!"

Later, a few of the Republican Generals were at their hideaway trying to determine why they were nearly annihilated during the past two battles. Obama decided to use his Jedi tricks to confuse his opponents and throw them off the trail. "You didn't lose because some of your officers were convicted of crimes, because you doubled the national debt or because you lost decisively lost every ethnic minority group in the country. You lost because of the media." The Generals responded on cue. "The liberal media did is in. That's the problem. Our plan is that we shall hope that they become less liberal by 2010."

And, to seal the doom of his political adversaries, Obama the Jedi spoke to some weakminded soldiers in order to get them to turn against the only one who could used the Red Side of the Force to defeat him. "That guy from Arkansas is not a real conservative. All he does is talk about eliminating the Income Tax, stopping abortion, preserving gun rights and rejecting bail-outs. He's a liberal. You need to warn the others!" The soldiers laughed nervously and repeated what they had been told. "Yeah. He's a liberal. We can't trust him - he hasn't even changed his positions."

Will the Republicans continue to behave as though they were doing the bidding of their opponents? Or will they snap out of their Jedi-induced trance and realize that they are the ones who now need to change - to reach out to all Americans, to stick to principles such as the protection of life and limited government, as well as to stop rejecting those on their own side who do all of this? This saga will unfold over the next four years. But one thing is for sure. If the Republican opposition doesn't change, the young Obama won't even need to draw his saber. If they don't change, his opponents will disintegrate themselves without him needing to lift a finger.

"Excellent! I see that my opponents have unlearned what they once had learned."

(Don't miss the next exciting episode. The Bailout Bunch takes a vacation to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon! Unfortunately there isn't enough room on the expensive jets for either the taxpayers or for their own hard working employees who did everything they could do to keep their businesses going. But the execs have a fantastic time!)

A lot of people are using the opportunity of this month's catastrophic loss by the Republican Party in every branch of Federal Government and all over the country as evidence that the party's problem - the reason for the declines - is the party's embrace of Evangelical Christians. To these people, the party's embrace of social conservatives is the obvious cause. It is, as Kathleen Parker of the National Review put it, the gorilla in the pulpit. To her, and in the opinion of a number of others who have spoken up lately, a major reason for the GOP disaster is spelled G-O-D.

Well, the losses that the GOP have experienced since 2004 have been pretty catastrophic - one could even compare the political disaster to that of a historical disaster, sort of a parallel to that of the Titanic. And when catastrophes happen, whether natural or man-made, some people tend to blame God for it. But before people solidify on that conclusion, we need to do a proper investigation in order to see if there are other factors that might have led to the crash.

So, let's dig through the GOP's wreckage and see what else might possibly have led to the accident. We don't have to search that deep in the water - in fact, we can come to a pretty accurate preliminary conclusion if we mainly concentrate on the debris that has accumulated since the 2004 election. I have a sneaking suspicion that when we complete our investigation, we might be able to officially let God off the hook.

Blame Factor 1: Incompetence

One reason the public may have soured on the GOP that had nothing to do with its emphasis on G-O-D might have been because they lost confidence in the way some worldly matters were being handled. For example, just ten months after the Republicans won the Presidency, the Senate, the House and the majority of Governorships, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast. And although the response was bungled at every level of government, it was the response of the Federal Government, the government of last resort, that everybody across the country remembered the most. The flood and the aftermath of the flood led to the confirmed loss of 1,836 lives - more than half the number of people who died in the 9/11 attacks. On top of that, 705 are still missing. Do you really think the President ever truly lived down the negative publicity brought on by "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job" or by the image of him viewing the devastation from aboard Air Force One? If so, I'll pray for you.

And of course, there is the matter of the ongoing Iraq War, which, until the surge in 2007, had been widely perceived as going very badly. As well as the doubling of the National Debt - most of it occurring even before the Wall Street bail-out - symbolized by the debt clock in New York City making headlines as it ran out of digits because the debt grew too large. And of course, the bail out itself, which cost a fortune but didn't work. 

But enough examples. Clearly you can see by now that if the GOP didn't embrace Evangelicals, none of this would have ever happened, right?

Blame Factor 2: Self-serving leaders

Some other contributory causes of the shipwreck art also not in Heaven but on the earth. And in some cases under the earth. Since the 2004 election, the GOP has seen its House Majority Leader criminally indicted and forced to resign from office. One of its Congressional Appropriations Committee members pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to bribe, mail fraud, commit tax evasion and also served prison time. Another of its Congressmen pled guilty to conspiracy and making false statements and served seventeen months in prison. Then the news broke that a Republican Congressman, who was on the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, had been sending lewd text messages to underage Congressional Pages - and that the party leadership had known about it to some degree but declined to act. After this came the news that a Republican U.S. Senator had at one point been a client of a prostitution service. And then an infamous airport sex sting that netted yet another Republican U.S. Senator. The public doesn't seem to mind followers who serve God. On the other hand, they're completely fed up with leaders who serve only themselves.

But of course, we all know that the blame for all of this can be laid squarely at the feet of the Evangelicals. Disagree?

Blame Factor 3: Exclusivity

Of course, no investigation of the GOP disaster could be complete without a discussion about the party's failure to be competitive with any ethnic minority groups, with young voters, or with moderate income voters. In fact, the Republican National Convention looked quite a bit like the Titanic ballroom. You just knew that there had to be a wider mix of people out there somewhere who might have enjoyed the fine food and fine folks. But it turns out that they never were even invited to the feast.

After making some inroads with all of these demographic groups in 2004, the GOP spent much of the past four years steering the ship way south in this area. Well publicized antagonism or neglect by a few in the party toward minorities inflamed a groundswell of support for the Democratic Party - even in the days in which Senator Clinton was presumed to be the inevitable candidate. And instead of being faithful to the GOP's legacy as the Party of Lincoln, the party leaders seemed to embrace a strategy that did not reach out to a broad enough slice of America. Which further increased the likelihood of a disaster as well as increased the magnitude of it.

And if the party  would have just gotten rid of those pesky Evangelicals - who tend to be the most inclusive segment of the Republican Electorate - the band in the ballroom wouldn't have had to move up to the deck to start playing in the night air. Right?

Blame Factor 4: "It's unsinkable"

Thanks to SouthernDoc for pointing this one out! I guess one down side of winning seven out of the past ten elections is that one tends to get an air of invincibility. Not just that you probably won't lose but that you almost can't lose. It's not enough for some people to be entrusted with the future of a political party that was founded on great ideas. For some people, it's about being King Of The World!!

And some members of the crew flirted dangerously with disaster for years, not believing that the machine that they controlled would ever fail to beat the increasing tides against it. So much so that they imposed even more on those faithful workers in the engine room ("men ... we're thinking about disregarding all the issues that are important to you. Okay, enough talk ... now back to work ... faster!!"). So much that they regularly taunted those in the other nearby ships, building up ill will without realizing that they would need to one day depend on their mercy for rescue. Because they didn't really believe they would ever face a disaster this grave, they took risks that were foolish and concerned themselves more with showing off their prowess than in trying to reach the destination that they originally set out for.

And yes, if you haven't figured it out yet, those Evangelicals must somehow be behind all of this.

Blame Factor 5: They ignored the iceberg warnings

When coasting in the unfamiliar waters of a historic election against a sympathetic and charismatic opponent, with the tide roaring strongly against her, the officers of the good ship GOP did what came naturally to them. They stared into the low visibility of the nighttime sky. And then they fired up all the engines and headed into it full blast. Charge!!!!

Further investigation of the GOP shipwreck shows evidence that the party spent an extraordinary amount of time charging full steam ahead at their opponent - a tactic that worked in 2004 against a less capable adversary but clearly didn't work out so well this time at all. Throughout the entire General Election campaign, nearly half - 47% to be exact - of McCain's ads were negative (35% of Obama's ads were negative). And during the week of September 28th to October 4th, 100% - all - of McCain's advertising budget went to negative ads. All of it. The public was inundated with various facts about then-Senator Obama's past, even as Congress hotly debated the bailout bill and many people saw their life savings evaporate. The result? Obama's unfavorable rating fell from 36.8% on the 28th to 35.8% on October 4th. McCain's unfavorable rating rose during that period from 38.4% to 40.2%. The more McCain tried to convince people why not to vote for Obama, the more people saw reasons to not vote for McCain.

The crew was advised by a few wise people not try to win the election by trying to demonize Senator Obama. In retrospect, it sure seems like they were carrying binoculars, as they somehow saw danger ahead while the Captain and his near-sighted crew thought that the coast was clear. Before long, the danger was way too close and the ship had already been moving way too aggressively to change course.

Looking in hindsight, it also seems clear that kicking off the Evangelicals clearly would have prevented even this part of the catastrophe - right. Well, except for the fact that the guy who was perceptive enough to warn them about the iceberg would have gotten kicked off as well. Hmmm. On second thought, maybe N-O-T.

Conclusion: Blame the Crew

And so from this short investigation, one that didn't even get into the more deeply buried debris, we can see that this accident was not the fault of the Evangelicals. The faithful, those workers in the engine room who have powered every vessel that has successfully reached its destination over the past two decades, are not to blame. They didn't make incompetent decisions. Or betray the public trust. Or refuse to welcome new people aboard the ship. Or place the ship on a disaster course. All of these things were done by the captain and crew - the same captain and crew who not long ago were drawing praise from some of the same people who are now blaming G-O-D for the disastrous outcome.

None of these problems - some of the main reasons for the GOP disaster - were caused by the party's welcoming of Evangelicals. And if people really plan on making the faithful feel less welcome on future voyages, they have to ask themselves, who's going to work the engine room?  Who's going to be fired up to move the soon-to-be rebuilt ship into service? Who's going to get excited about climbing on a remodeled ship that is such a stripped-down version of its original design that it amounts to being essentially just a cheap replica of the Democratic boat? Especially when they can go across the bay and hop on the real Democratic vessel?

They can go ahead and try to kick the faithful out of the engine room and off the ship. And then change the course of the ship so that it goes nowhere near their territory. All of this could potentially make the next voyage safer.  But that's only because that boat is never going to have the momentum to even leave the dock.

Don't mind my brief self-indulgence here. I really like trying to tell stories and make analogies in order to try to make a point. I've done that a lot over the last few months on various issues. I'm going to do a brief recap on some of them. I think of them as Veggie Tales for grown-ups. Here they are:

And in case you've never noticed the categories wayyyy at the bottom of the page, here are a couple of the things that I have a lot to say about.

So, pardon the indulgence here, but I felt like pointing out a couple of these. Hope you enjoy them if you haven't read them before.

Yet one more reason why the GOP needs to reach out to blacks, Hispanics, and young people ... look at the demographics of the states which increased congressional seats due to reapportionment. All have either elevated percentages of blacks or Hispanics as well as many young people in them.

If they don't do this or don't see the need to do this, stick a toast in it because they're done for quite a while.

It may be 2008 in America, but the Republican Party has not radically deviated in its approach from the "Southern Strategy" that helped Richard Nixon to victory in 1968 and which has been used many times over the past four decades. NOTE: I am not calling the Republican Party racist - I've pointedly said many times that this is NOT what I believe. But I am saying that the one thing that the post-1964 Republican Party has never had the willingness to do is to actually try on a consistent basis to make its case to minority voters. Many of them have literally not bothered to show up. And somehow, there are people who are still scratching their heads trying to figure out what happened. In the words of Homer Simpson, Dolt! The Republican Party last week lost every single ethnic minority group in America by at least a two to one margin. What's worse is that the national Republican Party has not tried hard to reach out to minority voters and some people still don't see the need.  In an America in which most people want to come together, will the Republican Party realize that their image - of a party that is pretty monolithic - is hurting them enough to commit to changing the perception?

Take a look at the exit polls from 2008 and compare them with the polls from 2004:

I'll write more about this later, but, if the bottom picture doesn't say anything to you, I'm not sure what else will. These are the seven states that haven't voted Democrat since at least 1996 (before last Tuesday), all of which Obama won. Look at the Demographics of these states. If McCain had won these states, all of which Bush won in 2004, he would have won the election. In almost all of them, there are above average numbers of blacks, Hispanics, and young people - three groups of people that the GOP has pretty much ignored (especially blacks, whom the party has written off).

So, to our Republican Governor friends who are meeting today in order to figure out what hit them, this is one of the things that hit you. The Southern Strategy has come back to bite the GOP where it hurts. It's time that we not only unify as Americans but have our major political parties interested in reaching out to all Americans.