Didn’t watch much of the Superbowl. And I’m not one of those people who watches the commercials either. I figure sooner or later I’ll see the commercials again. (What company spends all that money on a Superbowl commercial and doesn’t bother recycling it during regular tv?). Talking about the Super Bowl commercials is the type of inane discussion that goes on morning talk radio. Which ad did you like the best? Well, none of them. They’ll all be forgotten in 3 months.
The Raiders, for the most part, played terribly. The Raiders fans treated the Titans fans pretty bad during the AFC Championship game. So we were all hoping the Bucs would set them in their place. And Oakland’s fans rioted anyways. Would anybody mind telling Oakland that they’re actually a suburb of the glitzier San Francisco? No one goes to Oakland for vacation, unless they’re going to an A’s game.
And I kept hearing about how there’s a city of Tampa, yet the Bucs are forever linked to Tampa Bay. From what I understand Tampa Bay also includes St. Petersburg in this broader community. Kinda like how the Carolina Panthers are not the “North Carolina Panthers” as if to half heartedly include South Carolina as the “home crowd.” Sure they might play an exhibition game away from their home North Carolina stadium (Where do they play anyways?). South Carolinans are fooling themselves into thinking they “own” the Panthers.
Besides, both California and Florida have too many sports teams anyways. Florida by itself has 3 NFL teams. Remember when it was just the Dolphins? And I’m not going to bother counting California teams. When was the last time you heard of Alabama having a pro sports team? Sure, they signed up for the WLAF and XFL, but only because they had to. I’m just saying that the pro-teams of all the sports need to be geographically redestributed. Don’t have 2 teams in the same city. Move them elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the Tennessean has too much time on its hands. An actual graphic showing a dog shooting? Did the public demand this? Analysis of the audio from it? I guarantee you there’s a child going hungry in Cookeville right now. Bigger problems in this world.

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
–Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 28, 1963

Happy MLK Day. It’s time to reflect on the role of equality in America.
Martin Luther King Jr. has been elevated to the pseudo-status of an American saint. Was it his ideals? Was it his guts to stand up against something which he wholeheartedly thought was wrong? Something as silly as having separate water fountains and entrances for the different races. Something silly like African Americans having to give up their seat on a bus for a white patron.
Then again sometimes I wonder if King would have supported some of these more radical race issues. Like the government paying compensation to slave decendents.
Even affirmative action could be considered racist since admission and hiring policies are primarily based on race instead of “the content of one’s character.” I wonder if King would have supported this idea.
How does America celebrate MLK Day? I noticed the SciFi Channel was playing a Quantum Leap marathon today. I’m not sure what that has to do with King, although the show did deal with race and equality issues sometimes. Several people went skiing this weekend. Maybe that’s how many white people celebrate MLK day.
During my school years we didn’t get MLK Day off. Yet many of my African American classmates decided to take off on MLK Day for whatever reason. This runs completely opposite of what King fought for. He fought so that children of all races could attend school together.
Is fighting racism important to me? Yes. However being male, middle class, and white, there are some things I’m not able to fully understand. To my knowledge I’ve never been turned down for something based solely on race.
I don’t have many African American friends. I had a black friend in high school. He was cool. We would joke around with him during band camp. Asked him if the weather was “Africa Hot?” As if he would actually know how hot Africa’s weather was.
They say that the most segregated hour in America is on Sunday mornings. Most Americans worship in seperate church (seperated by race). Many times this is done by choice. Its unfortunate because we’d probably understand each other alot better if we’d worship together.
I think we as a society are better off than we were 40 years ago as far as race relations. We still have some time to go. As long as race is used in hiring decisions and university admittance….. As long as hate groups are still around, we’ll still need to be making a concerted effort to try to build better race relations.

For those of you who care, (and apparently there are plenty of you who do care), I’m going to Paoli again this weekend with another church group. So hopefully I’ll have a good time. There’s plenty of snow for it.
The Tennessean, Newschannel 5 and Channel 4 all have photo galleries of the snow.

It’s times like these when I’m glad I’m unemployeed. My parents said they left work in downtown Nashville at 9:30AM. Took them until 4PM to get home.
School buses couldn’t take school children home. So some had to turn around and head back to school. Parents are probably beside themselves. Trying to get to their kid at their school, yet not being able to get to them. Kids are probably taking it in stride. Oxymoron. Being at school, yet being told “Schools are closed.”
By my measurement, we got 7 inches at the house. Biggest snowfall I’ve seen in a while.
Tonight we’ll have to worry about that black ice. Black ice is that unholy scourge brought upon by freezing temperatures and moisture. I’ve never actually seen it, which is why it is so dangerous. I’m expecting at any moment Ron Howells to scream at the camera…with bloodshot eyes saying “FEAR THE BLACK ICE!!!!”
I’m supposed to be leaving to go skiing tomorrow. I think we should still go if Murfreesboro Road and the Interstate is ok. But likely it will be called off. Imagine that. A ski trip called off because of snow.
Dogs and cats living together…mass hysteria!

Mt. Juliet Baptist Minister in Custody on Weapons Charges. We might have another Dale Gribble (ala King of the Hill).
I take a common sense approach to gun control. Convicted felons should be prohibited from owning guns. Everyday citizens should be allowed to get a gun within a reasonable amount of time. I know from experience, I can walk into any Kmart store and get a shotgun without a waiting time. Answer a few questions and you’re on your way with a Kmart brand shotgun. Shotguts are reasonable weapons of home defense….burgarly etc… Automatic machine guns don’t really have a real extra value in protection. Their only value is to gun collectors and criminals. One bullet from a shot gun will kill just as easily as a machine gun’s bullet. Why do they still manufacture these weapons? Maybe to arm policeman fighting against the drug dealers who possess the weapons illegally.
I don’t own a gun for various reason, mostly because it is because it is more likely that someone in my immediately family would get hurt, than a criminal.
I certainly don’t believe in this government conspiracy to take up all the guns and turn us into a socialist/communist state. It aint gonna happen. Wasn’t the “right to bear arms” amendment about militias, rather than individual gun ownership?
Gun sellers should show common sense when selling guns. If someone seems overtly nervous or speaks of killing their wife when purchasing a gun, then the gun sellers shouldn’t sell it to them. Didn’t the NRA think it was reasonable to have a computerized automatic background check for handgun purchases. Isn’t this reasonable?
As far as this music minister is concerned, “he done messed up.” Apparently he owned some unregistered automatic machine guns which are prohibited. If he is a gun enthusiast, he probably knew better. And it is only making news because he is a minister. It could be blown way out of proportion. It will be interesting to see if his church keeps him around (the “he who is without sin cast the first stone” approach).
Guns and church activities don’t mix well. I can remember Johnny K. telling me stories of a particular church camp where a “responsible” adult brought a gun to camp and was showing it to the kids. That’s not to say Christians can’t own guns. They just should use common sense when bringing them to church activities.
Well the ski meeting was what I expected. No real surprises there. The only significant thing I got from the meeting is who I was rooming with and how much it actually cost for the chaperones. I was pleasantly surprised that we did get a significant discount for chaperoning. We spent alot of unnecessary time pondering over the room lists (Is there chaperones in each room???). These and other burning questions like “Should we have a curfew?” were also discussed at length. This isn’t summer camp. I think we’ll be able to survive 2 nights. Common sense stuff was also discussed like “help the kids learn to ski.” “Help them put on their lift ticket tags.” Junk like that. This isn’t rocket science. I’m not staying up late at night wondering if we have a flashlight in each van. The entire 30 minute meeting could have been taken care of in 5 minutes with a typed up list. Those of us who have been year after year already know the proceedures. Nothing changes.
There’s a Walmart in China.
What life is like inside North Korea
I just noticed on the Today Show this morning that they’ve resorted to interviewing Martin Sheen as an expert of weapons of mass destruction. “I’m not the president, but I play one on tv.” It’s only 40 minutes into the show and they’re interviewing this so-called expert. Why should I care what Martin Sheen thinks about Iraq?

I watched the NewsChannel 5 report on David Slater, former minister at West End Church of Christ. Last summer he was caught trying to steal credit cards from cars in a Brentwood YMCA parking lot. In the interview, he seemed at peace with himself. He said he had gotten into finanicial trouble and turned to stealing instead of asking for help.
Is he sorry? Probably. I’m sure he’s apologized to his church and family, even though it didn’t specificially say it in the interview. In any case it’s not mine to judge. He didn’t hurt me directly. Still, it compounds my general feeling that I never really can completely trust anyone. Well…let me restate that. I can trust some people, however nothing really surprises me anymore. If someone goes and does the direct opposite of what I would think they would do, it wouldn’t suprise me.

A lady at church said she wouldn’t be surprised if the terrorists tried to attack Disney World next. From experience, Disney World has little security in actually getting into the park. There are no x-ray machines and bags aren’t searched. However there is security inside of the park (including plain clothes security personnel). It could be easy to target Disney World. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen. There are more than just Americans at Disney World. Many times the park is filled with foreigners. An attack on the happiest place on earth would outrage the world. It would cement the world’s resolve to elminate terrorism.
Throughtout this whole September 11th affair, I’ve come to realize that there are some very evil people out there. Why do they hate us so badly? Is it jealousy? Is it our support for Israel? These people have shown that they do not fear God. They don’t adhere to the basic concepts of their religion…that all human life is precious.
Harry Potters Children’s Home
Potters Children’s Home still has the same webpage they’ve had since I was in college. I went to school with the guy who originally did it. During that time, I remember having a discussion with a friend about whether or not small businesses and organizations really need their own domain. Keep in mind this was 1996 when not everybody and their brother have their own domains. Now the organization has their own domain (pottersministries.org) which they plan on using on their webpage which isn’t setup yet.

Why does a dinky city like Anaheim, which I only know as being the home of Disneyland, have a baseball team? Have you noticed much of the South has very few baseball teams? There’s the Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins, Tampa Bay Devil Rays, Texas Rangers, and Houston Astros. But compared to the Northeast, the South has very few teams. Chicago, New York, and San Francisco/Oakland have 2 each. But somehow the South has been looked over for the most part. Is it because southerners don’t want to attend those middle-of-the-Summer games during the muggiest weather?
I don’t care about baseball. Behind tennis and golf, it is probably the dullest spectator sport out there.
Led Zepplin will tour again. Not that I’m a big fan of them. I have trouble naming their songs. I was first introduced to them in high school when some guy in my chemistry class talked about them constantly. Their songs are pretty good. Nice rock songs.
So here is my story relating to Led. We have a jail ministry at church. Some of the ladies from the congregation had gone to the county women’s jail. They were singing hymns with the inmates. They asked if anyone had any requests. One lady requested “Stairway to Heaven.” According to the ladies, it was very hard not to laugh outloud. “We don’t know that song,” was the response to this request.
Yesterday somebody found an undeveloped roll of 35mm film at church. They were going around asking if anyone had lost it. Not finding anyone, I decided to volunteer to get the roll developed to see what was on there. It will be interesting to see what pictures I get back. For some reason I decided to get the 4 inch double prints, rather than the cheaper 3 inch doubles. I am hoping the roll was left over from last weekend’s retreat.
Check out this Bizarre parking accident.