I'm not a fan of Howard Stern, but this really hits the nail on the head...
http://www.bpmdeejays.com/upload/hs_sal_in_Harlem_100108.mp3
I thought ideas still mattered. I guess I was wrong.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The Message is the Campaign
In order to get elected, a candidate must have a message- a clear concise message that resonates with a majority of the population. Campaigns are long drawn-out processes where an unending list of issues are debated, positions are formulated, and records are examined. Nevertheless, it always comes back to the message.
Lincoln's message was simple. "I'll preserve the Union." FDR said, "I'll give you a new deal." Reagan- "I'll cut taxes and defeat Communism." Regardless of whether or not it should be, Americans choose presidents based on which candidate has the most compelling message that resonates. It's not so much about what IS right. It's more about what FEELS right. This year is no exception.
Senator Obama's message is clear and easy to explain. It goes something like this. "Over the past eight years, President Bush has ruined our economy, fed the rich at the expense of the poor, started an unnessesary war in Iraq, and earned the disdain of the rest of the world." Like it or not, this is a message that people can understand and unfortunately many identify with it.
Senator McCain, in contrast, is struggling to find a compelling message. With the exception of Iraq, McCain's message is really not that different than his opponent. He seems to be trying to "out-Obama" Obama. Take the mortgage crisis as an example. Obama says that it is the result of "corporate greed." McCain responds in echo, "Wall Street corruption!" Obama says that we are destroying our environment. McCain responds, "Commision on Global Warming!" Obama says, "No foreign oil in ten years." McCain says, "Barack I can name that tune in eight!" (with some stab about Obama's lack of support for clean coal or nuclear.)
Make no mistake, I will be voting for John McCain next month. But, I will be doing so not because I am inspired by his message, but because I believe that Obama's policies will result in disaster for the country. If McCain wants to win in November, he needs to find his message. Being the kinder, gentler, older, more-experienced version of Obama isn't working.
Lincoln's message was simple. "I'll preserve the Union." FDR said, "I'll give you a new deal." Reagan- "I'll cut taxes and defeat Communism." Regardless of whether or not it should be, Americans choose presidents based on which candidate has the most compelling message that resonates. It's not so much about what IS right. It's more about what FEELS right. This year is no exception.
Senator Obama's message is clear and easy to explain. It goes something like this. "Over the past eight years, President Bush has ruined our economy, fed the rich at the expense of the poor, started an unnessesary war in Iraq, and earned the disdain of the rest of the world." Like it or not, this is a message that people can understand and unfortunately many identify with it.
Senator McCain, in contrast, is struggling to find a compelling message. With the exception of Iraq, McCain's message is really not that different than his opponent. He seems to be trying to "out-Obama" Obama. Take the mortgage crisis as an example. Obama says that it is the result of "corporate greed." McCain responds in echo, "Wall Street corruption!" Obama says that we are destroying our environment. McCain responds, "Commision on Global Warming!" Obama says, "No foreign oil in ten years." McCain says, "Barack I can name that tune in eight!" (with some stab about Obama's lack of support for clean coal or nuclear.)
Make no mistake, I will be voting for John McCain next month. But, I will be doing so not because I am inspired by his message, but because I believe that Obama's policies will result in disaster for the country. If McCain wants to win in November, he needs to find his message. Being the kinder, gentler, older, more-experienced version of Obama isn't working.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Jesus is a Friend of Mine
To all my "emergent church" friends:
Here is what you will probably look like in twenty years...
Here is what you will probably look like in twenty years...
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Teddy and Michelle
I'm confused.
This week, the Democratic National Convention is in Denver. So far, it has been a parade of contradictions. First, we are told that we should support Barack Obama because he is a middle-of-the-road candidate who seeks to unite the country and seek common ground with Republicans. He is a Washington outsider who offers the "hope" of a new kind of politics. And yet, one of the first events of the convention was a video tribute to one of the most liberal politicians of the twentieth century, Edward Kennedy. Teddy has been the face of big-government liberalism for the past forty years, not exactly the centrist image the Obama campaign typically seeks to portray.
Second, we are told to support Barack Obama because he is a champion for "the least among us." We are told that there are millions of Americans who are victims of "country club economics" of President Bush and the Republicans. Apparently, if you are poor and disadvantaged, you need Obama and the Democrats to get elected so that you have a chance to make something of your life. Yet, speaker after speaker came to the podium to proudly announce how he or she had come from a poor family, put himself through college, and worked hard to achieve success. Isn't that what conservatives preach? If success in the America Obama wants to change is for the rich only, how did these people make it?
Third, we are told that America is still racist and sexist. Yet the keynote speech Monday night was given by Michelle Obama (an African-American female) who told her story of how she was raised on Chicago's south side by a poor blue-collar family, yet went on to obtain a law degree from Harvard University and pursue a very successful legal career. (She failed to include the fact that she and Barack managed to pull down over $4 million dollars last year.) Doesn't that beg the question? If America is so racist and sexist, how does this happen?
I told you I was confused. If you're not, let me know. I have some beachfront property in Florida I'd be glad to sell you.
This week, the Democratic National Convention is in Denver. So far, it has been a parade of contradictions. First, we are told that we should support Barack Obama because he is a middle-of-the-road candidate who seeks to unite the country and seek common ground with Republicans. He is a Washington outsider who offers the "hope" of a new kind of politics. And yet, one of the first events of the convention was a video tribute to one of the most liberal politicians of the twentieth century, Edward Kennedy. Teddy has been the face of big-government liberalism for the past forty years, not exactly the centrist image the Obama campaign typically seeks to portray.
Second, we are told to support Barack Obama because he is a champion for "the least among us." We are told that there are millions of Americans who are victims of "country club economics" of President Bush and the Republicans. Apparently, if you are poor and disadvantaged, you need Obama and the Democrats to get elected so that you have a chance to make something of your life. Yet, speaker after speaker came to the podium to proudly announce how he or she had come from a poor family, put himself through college, and worked hard to achieve success. Isn't that what conservatives preach? If success in the America Obama wants to change is for the rich only, how did these people make it?
Third, we are told that America is still racist and sexist. Yet the keynote speech Monday night was given by Michelle Obama (an African-American female) who told her story of how she was raised on Chicago's south side by a poor blue-collar family, yet went on to obtain a law degree from Harvard University and pursue a very successful legal career. (She failed to include the fact that she and Barack managed to pull down over $4 million dollars last year.) Doesn't that beg the question? If America is so racist and sexist, how does this happen?
I told you I was confused. If you're not, let me know. I have some beachfront property in Florida I'd be glad to sell you.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Johnny
"You know, Johnny was in the war."
I heard that phrase many times as a child, but the older I get, the more it means to me. Don't misunderstand, I was a very patriotic kid. I respected my elders, especially those who served their country. I just hadn't lived enough life to really comprehend it.
If you visit the little church in which I was raised, you will meet a man named Johnny. He and his wife Leona are there every week in spite of persistent health issues.
In late 1944, Johnny found himself in a remote forest near the border of Belgium and Germany. He was just a kid, so far from home, still morning the death of his twin brother who had died a few months earlier in France when Adolph Hitler sent his 277th Volksgrenadier Division into the American lines in a last-ditch effort to save his empire.
Johnny was a foot soldier with the 1st Battalion of the 393rd Regiment of the 99th U.S. Infantry Division charged with manning the front line near the German Western Wall. The German attack quickly overwhelmed the American position. Johnny said, "They broke through on our right and on our left. We were surrounded." He and his fellow soldiers spent three terrifying nights behind enemy lines, freezing in the snow and ice.
I recently had the privilege of listening to Johnny share some of his memories of those fearful days. "Thank you" is all I could muster and it didn't begin to convey my gratutude. As he was leaving, he said something I will never stop repeating. He said, "You know, freedom isn't free and the ones who pay for it don't have the priviledge of being around to enjoy it."
I heard that phrase many times as a child, but the older I get, the more it means to me. Don't misunderstand, I was a very patriotic kid. I respected my elders, especially those who served their country. I just hadn't lived enough life to really comprehend it.
If you visit the little church in which I was raised, you will meet a man named Johnny. He and his wife Leona are there every week in spite of persistent health issues.
In late 1944, Johnny found himself in a remote forest near the border of Belgium and Germany. He was just a kid, so far from home, still morning the death of his twin brother who had died a few months earlier in France when Adolph Hitler sent his 277th Volksgrenadier Division into the American lines in a last-ditch effort to save his empire.
Johnny was a foot soldier with the 1st Battalion of the 393rd Regiment of the 99th U.S. Infantry Division charged with manning the front line near the German Western Wall. The German attack quickly overwhelmed the American position. Johnny said, "They broke through on our right and on our left. We were surrounded." He and his fellow soldiers spent three terrifying nights behind enemy lines, freezing in the snow and ice.
I recently had the privilege of listening to Johnny share some of his memories of those fearful days. "Thank you" is all I could muster and it didn't begin to convey my gratutude. As he was leaving, he said something I will never stop repeating. He said, "You know, freedom isn't free and the ones who pay for it don't have the priviledge of being around to enjoy it."
Friday, July 25, 2008
Hope
Each day, I pass the Indianapolis campaign HQ of Barack Hussein Obama on my way home from work. One cannot help but observe an interesting poster hanging in the window. It is a sketched image of Obama with one word underneath...Hope. Really? Does this man really believe that he, a mere mortal, embodies hope itself?
Now it is one thing to suggest that a particularly inspirational leader may help people discover hope or find reason to hope. But Obama is suggesting that he IS hope, and that's quite another thing. History is full of people who have made this claim. In every case but one, the results have been disasterous. Let me recount a few.
I'll skip Alexander the Great, Herod, Caesar Augustus, Nero, Attila the Hun, Ivan the Terrible, and Napoleon. I'll start with the more modern incarnations.
First, we have a man named Vladamir Lenin. The Russian peasants had suffered greatly at the hands of the Czar and the Russian nobility. Along came Lenin promising hope through revolution of the masses against the elite. The Bolshevik Revolution introduced communism to Russia. Rather then delivering the hope it promised, communism produced more oppression, suffering, and untold misery than the Czar ever dreamed of.
Next, we move to Germany in the 1930's. The Allies had forced Germany to pay heavy war reparations which along with a worldwide economic depression led to the total collapse of Germany. Adolph Hitler was their Savior. He did not merely offer to show Germany the way out of their mess, he claimed to BE their hope. In their despair, the poeple made him their God. As a result, millions of men, women, and children died at the hands of the Nazis.
I could talk about Josef Stalin, Hirohito, Abdul Gamal Nasser, Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Ho Che Min, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Koumeni, Slobodan Milosovic, and Osama bin Laden, but you get the idea.
The truth is that only one human being has ever been able to claim to be hope incarnate without being an imposter. That's because he was not only a human being, but he was God in the flesh. Jesus of Nazareth did not offer hope in the form of material prosperity, enlightenment or revolution. He shunned those things even when they were offered to him. Rather, he offered hope in the form of himself...on the cross. He rose from death so that we may have hope of spending eternity in right relationship with the God who created us.
I don't know who is going to win the presidential election this year, but as I see the crowds in Berlin chanting and swooning over the Senator from Illinois, I can't help but feel a cold chill running down my spine. The bottom line is, regardless of whether or not Barack Obama would be a good choice to lead the United States, he most certainly is not the embodiment of hope. That position has already been filled.
Now it is one thing to suggest that a particularly inspirational leader may help people discover hope or find reason to hope. But Obama is suggesting that he IS hope, and that's quite another thing. History is full of people who have made this claim. In every case but one, the results have been disasterous. Let me recount a few.
I'll skip Alexander the Great, Herod, Caesar Augustus, Nero, Attila the Hun, Ivan the Terrible, and Napoleon. I'll start with the more modern incarnations.
First, we have a man named Vladamir Lenin. The Russian peasants had suffered greatly at the hands of the Czar and the Russian nobility. Along came Lenin promising hope through revolution of the masses against the elite. The Bolshevik Revolution introduced communism to Russia. Rather then delivering the hope it promised, communism produced more oppression, suffering, and untold misery than the Czar ever dreamed of.
Next, we move to Germany in the 1930's. The Allies had forced Germany to pay heavy war reparations which along with a worldwide economic depression led to the total collapse of Germany. Adolph Hitler was their Savior. He did not merely offer to show Germany the way out of their mess, he claimed to BE their hope. In their despair, the poeple made him their God. As a result, millions of men, women, and children died at the hands of the Nazis.
I could talk about Josef Stalin, Hirohito, Abdul Gamal Nasser, Fidel Castro, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, Ho Che Min, Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Koumeni, Slobodan Milosovic, and Osama bin Laden, but you get the idea.
The truth is that only one human being has ever been able to claim to be hope incarnate without being an imposter. That's because he was not only a human being, but he was God in the flesh. Jesus of Nazareth did not offer hope in the form of material prosperity, enlightenment or revolution. He shunned those things even when they were offered to him. Rather, he offered hope in the form of himself...on the cross. He rose from death so that we may have hope of spending eternity in right relationship with the God who created us.
I don't know who is going to win the presidential election this year, but as I see the crowds in Berlin chanting and swooning over the Senator from Illinois, I can't help but feel a cold chill running down my spine. The bottom line is, regardless of whether or not Barack Obama would be a good choice to lead the United States, he most certainly is not the embodiment of hope. That position has already been filled.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Dirty Harry
If you have seen any of the Dirty Harry movies, you know that Clint Eastwood's character, Harry Callahan, is not exactly into political correctness. He plays a San Francisco police detective who may not always follow the rules, but he always gets his man- usually with his 357 Magnum.
Eastwood has enjoyed a recent resurgence in his already stellar career with the release of his World War II films, Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers. Apparently, Spike Lee has been critical of Eastwood for not including enough African-American actors. Eastwood's response..."Shut your face."
Priceless.
Eastwood has enjoyed a recent resurgence in his already stellar career with the release of his World War II films, Letters From Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers. Apparently, Spike Lee has been critical of Eastwood for not including enough African-American actors. Eastwood's response..."Shut your face."
Priceless.
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