Your Favorite Blockhead!

To give a synopsis on my morning today, I take a look at Facebook, and I stumble across a source posted by one of my more politically-driven friends. For confidentiality, we will call her Nancy (yes, as in Nancy Reagan). After posting an article for her viewers to read, one of her followers begins to personally attack her politically and personally. We shall call this person Doyle. Doyle gets a response from Yours Truly, telling him that he is a bully and how my wife and I feel sorry for him. His response was that I needed to “grow some thicker skin.” Now, to digress for a second, you may realize that my last post was about being conflicted about seeking justice or finding refuge, and a little bit of bullying thrown into the pot. “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just,” Thomas Jefferson stated in his 1781 Notes on the State of Virginia. Time Magazine put it this way: “Jefferson was aware of the dichotomy between his idealistic words and the brutalities of slaver...

I do not remember the last time I was so conflicted inside. For the first time since I started blogging, I am not writing because I am full of ideas that correspond, whether they may be in an outlandish or useful way. This time, I am torn in multiple directions, intellectually and spiritually. But one thought comes to mind clearly: It is so easy for us to contextualize what Scripture says, is it not? That being said, I guess that means I will need a Scripture for the basis of this blog, right? Well, I have one. The 21 st Century King James Version of Matthew 26:52 reads, “Then said Jesus unto him, ‘Put up again thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.’” One of the main topics in the headlines of the news today is bullying. This morning, I happened to catch a portion of the Today Show with Kathie Lee and Hoda conducting an interview with Kelly Wallace, Chief Correspondent of IVillage and psychologist Jennifer Hartstein. At first, I wa...

Yes, this will be the continuation of a blog I wrote last year on my Facebook page. No, it does not make any reference to the historic and HORRIFIC Cherokee Trail of Tears in the 19 th century. Just to clear the air… As my wife and I were driving home the other day, we were listening to the popular listener-supported Air1 radio station. This was our anniversary of Mission Bay, San Diego. I had asked her to marry me on May 6, 2010, while we were sailing out on Mission Bay. As we were pulling into the driveway of our home, we were hearing a testimonial on the air that went something like this: a man had rented a U-Haul from a company where the manager had tuned every single radio station in every U-Haul truck in the lot to Air1. This gentleman started to leave the lot when a certain song came on. It caused him to return the keys 20 minutes later to confess that he was going to use the U-Haul to get his stuff from his house and leave his wife, but this song made him stop dead in his...

For the longest time, I have not been able to explain why I feel so strongly about voting. Well, I happened to stumble upon this old blog that Kidd Kraddick wrote on his MySpace. And the best part was, this was written during my tour in the Navy. This concept, this influence of voting in our American culture is not new, friends! So, this is what Kidd says about it... October 23, 2006 We all say we support the troops. Many of us have had the yellow ribbons on our cars. Some of us have even been involved in sending care packages to our troops. On November 7th, we're going to see who really does and who really doesn't support the troops. I think the single most disrespectful thing I could do to our 140 thousand soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is to not vote on November 7th. We have sent them to another country, far from their families, to sacrifice their lives so that a democracy can be formed in a place that has never had one. So the people will be free to govern thems...

Last night, I received a heart-breaking text from a very close friend of mine. My wife and I have always had the support of this sweet girl. For confidentiality reasons, and to bring stronger emphasis to this blog, we will just call her 'Seagull'. Seagull tells me that her day has been shot to hell. Her boyfriend has dumped her and she answered him back with a text. Ya know, the kind as Nixon described during the Frost/Nixon interviews, "I gave them a sword, and they stuck it in...and twisted it with relish..."? He had told Seagull that he was not sure that GOD!! wanted them to be together. After all that I have learned this year, by reading books by 'Christian' authors, and learning how to critically think about salvation and the history and diversity of not just the Christian faith, but the Church itself, all I could think at that moment was, "WOW! What a coward!" Now, before I get rolling, I want to mention that this is not meant to be a Christia...

This is going to seem strange. A guy, writing a blog in regards to fashion?!? Well, this married man has good reason to write about this topic: I have learned NOT to be afraid of fashion, thanks to my beautiful and oh-so-patient wife. What triggered my urge to speak out about this? Well, it all began in one of my classes last semester. A friend of mine exclaims out loud, "What is it with women and their shoes?!?! I JUST DON'T GET IT!!" I whipped around in my seat, a man being married less than half a month, and said, "Bro, you are NOT going to win that argument! Don't even try." Suffice to say, my response to his outburst got a round of applause from the girls in the class. What I have learned about women's shoes is this: typically, their shoes say something about them. The shoes are as much a part of their identity as men and football. The shoes can tell you how they feel that day, whether comfort or 'take a second look, boys' is their goal.  ...