Twelve years ago a baby entered the world.  He was not happy at the event.  He suffered multiple bruises, both eyes were black, and his collarbone was broken by the rapidity of his delivery.

The rest of the family, sitting at the other end of the hall in the hospital, heard the pained screams.  One of  the other kids commented, ‘”That must be him!”

How true.  How very true.

Today that baby turns twelve.  It’s been a short trip from there to here, at least for his parents.  Of course, there have been and continue to be immense changes as he matures.  Slowing down and being quiet are not two of them.

But today is his birthday.

Happy birthday, Jon!  Hope there are dozens more!

Just slow down and be careful.  Please?

As the text along the top of my blog states, I have been called many things in my life.  “Normal”, sane”, “competent”, and “desirable” have never been among them.

But one thing sticks out.  And 27 years ago yesterday I “earned” a new name:

Daddy.

While my failures as a father are legion, I am proud of all four of my children.  Chris was the first.  My grandmother, “Mee Maw” always used to tell me that I was “special” because I was her first grandchild.  Well, Chris will always be “special” because he was our first child.

Hope your birthday was a happy one, son.  May there be more than 27 additional ones in your future.

We love you!

Tomorrow, January 4th, 2010, my wife’s stepmother will be having open-heart surgery.  The doctors say that she needs an aortic valve replacement and a bypass of a 100%-blocked blood vessel.  Shirley is 84 years old and not in the best of health.  But in order to give her a few more months or years she and my father-in-law have agreed to let her undergo this serious procedure.

We found out about this on Christmas Eve while we were up in Rockford, Illinois.  Shirley had a heart catheterization procedure while we were there, and it was then that her doctors determined this need.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, Shirley is 84 and not in the best of health because of recurring heart problems (congestive heart failure at least three time in the last two years).  Yet she can have major surgery less than two weeks after a diagnosis.

Hold that thought for a moment.

Last week our daughter Allison had a regular checkup with her doctor.  He detected something that could indicate a major problem (and those are all the details that I will give).  Scrambling to fit things into holiday schedules, we were able to get her to a hospital for testing the very next day.  Fortunately the testing proved that the indications were not serious, though Ally will need to undergo routine checking for problems for the rest of her life.

Here’s the common thread between the two incidents (besides being health-related):  in both cases we were able to make the decisions ourselves and seek immediate treatment for medical issues.  Under the so-called “health care reform” packages being forced through the government system at the moment, such decisions would have been in the hands of faceless bureaucrats who would have no real stake in the lives of these two people.  Shirley would probably either be refused treatment because of her age and condition, or she would have to wait for weeks or months to get her surgery, which would result in her death before such a procedure would be completed.  Do not doubt me on this.  This is the way that the Senate and House plans are structured.  This is the way it is done in England and in Canada, among others.  This is what our Democratic Overlords insist is best for us mindless sheep.

As for our daughter, the tests that she underwent would not even be allowed for someone of her age.  She is, by most standards, too young to have such a problem. She would have to wait at least 25 years before she would be eligible for testing, much less for treatment.  This, too, is buried in the fine print in both bills that are under consideration and “reconciliation”.  Look it up for yourself if you don’t believe me.

I am getting fed up with a bunch of power-hungry animals grabbing for glory and doing their best to destroy everyone’s lives except their own.  At the very least they should enforce the same “care” upon themselves as they are forcing upon us.  But since they are so much better than us (according to themselves, their worshipers, and the fawning fools that call themselves “journalists”), we are supposed to sit back a vicariously enjoy their lives of privilege while we scrape by on the leavings.

One only has to look at history to see some parallels here with the monarchy in France before their revolution. King Louis and Marie have been replaced by King Harry and Queen Susan.  I shall not mention what position in the palace that our current president holds.

In Alabama we are blessed with two senators who are standing up for what is right.  In the house, the Congressman that represents my family is strong.  The neighboring Congressman just switched parties, though many conservatives don’t want him either.  I feel sorry for those states who have no representation for those who oppose this unconstitutional seizure of power by the Federal government.

I’m thankful for what I have in the way of health care and health insurance right now, thank you very much.  The current system is working fine, just as Rush Limbaugh pointed out after his incident in Hawaii last week.  We do not need, nor do the majority of us want, government-controlled health care, or even competition from government in the health care or health insurance fields.

Please leave us alone.

Please?

Christmas.  There is so much that can be and has been said about this holiday that I cannot add to it.

It is a wonderful time set aside for celebrating the miraculous birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Those who argue about possible pagan roots for this holiday are merely blowing smoke.  While the exact time of Christ’s birth is unknown, and while there are no commands to celebrate it, there is no reason not to do so, and one date is as good as another.

Let us not just use the day for eating and drinking or giving and receiving gifts or for visiting family and friends.  Let us reflect on this awesome, indescribable gift that God gave us.

And let us accept Him, the Babe in the Manger, Who is also the Lamb of Calvary and the Risen Lord of All.

Merry Christmas!

Here’s a brand new look for the website.

Quite a bit different, isn’t it?

I will be tweaking the colors, arrangement, and content for a bit.  I think it will work better.

Oh, and I signed up for a Twitter account.  My 5 most recent “tweets” will appear on the right side of the page.  Maybe now I will have fresher information on the site, if this works out.  I can “tweet” from the cell phone, too, so there is really no excuse now.

Unless I wish to have pity on people and not subject them to my delirious ramblings.

Enjoy.  If you can.

UPDATE #1 14Dec09:  I added the marble background and expanded the height of the color gradient behind the header logo.  I also adjusted the order of the boxes in the sidebar and the orientation of the header. I changed the look of the sidebar boxes. This theme package is AWESOME!  Now I need to add some links like I forgot to do earlier – like 2 years ago earlier.

They gave the Heisman Trophy to WHO?????

I can rush for 30 yards against Auburn.  My DOG can rush for 30 yards against Auburn.  My PET ROCK can rush that far.

I cannot believe that there were not some kind of shenanigans, payoffs, promises, or threats that brought about this result.  This is a travesty, it is sick, and it is totally, totally, totally WRONG!

The so-called Heisman Committee (or whatever they call themselves) have completely soiled themselves and lost all possible credibility EVER.

The natural choice for this year’s trophy would have been Tim Tebow of Florida.  No other college football player has ever accomplished what he has.  And he did it after missing a game and a half with a concussion.

But he has won it before.  And he was blatantly Christian in his acceptance speech two years ago, and they could not risk such a thing again.  Plus, he’s not of the right “ethnic” background, since someone of the incorrect “ethnic” background won it in the last two years.

The second obvious choice would have been Colt McCoy of Texas.  He was as important to his team as Tebow was to Florida.  And he was the runner-up last year with a slightly worse performance.  But there’s the “ethnic” problem there, too. And he is a quarterback, and a quarterback has won it for the last 2 years, so that would not be “fair”.

Mark Ingram was from Ala-stinking-cheating-nogood-bama, he was not a quarterback, and he fit the other “criteria” to keep the hustlers from complaining. But no one with any sense, observational powers, knowledge of football, or anything other than basic stupidity can say that Ingram was as valuable to his team as Tebow or McCoy (or a couple of the other candidates) were to their team throughout the year. His “performance” against Auburn gave the lie to that notion.

BTW, someone asked why I was rooting for Florida in the SEC championship game against Ala-gag-a-maggot-bama.  My reply was that I would rather cheer for a team with a quarterback who is openly and unashamedly Christian than to root for a team that is coached by Satan.  Or however he is spelling it now.

I WANT MY HEISMAN!  I DESERVE ONE TOO!

Except that I do not play for the “right” team and have the correct “ethnicity”.

grumble grumble grumble

It’s Thanksgiving.  Too often we all get too caught up in the excitement of visiting family and friends, eating, eating again, eating some more, putting away leftovers for eating later, and planning the battle strategy for the “Black Friday” sales at Walmart, the mall, or other retailers.  We too often forget the real meaning and intended function of the day.

For what am I thankful?  Let me list a few in no particular order:

• I am thankful that there is a God Who cares about me and has provided a way to eternal life that does not involve some convoluted process or a fine balance between good and bad works.  He has given me a gift – one that I do not deserve, cannot earn, and can claim by merely asking.  Then He is merciful to me, forgiving me for being human.  He listens to me whine, beg, and stomp my feet, and He answers in the way that is always best for me and that glorifies Himself through me.  He sends me blessings each moment, from the breath that I take to protection from enemies seen and unseen.  And He has placed within me a sound, quick mind and talents in music and speech for which I still cannot find enough uses.  I guess most of all I am thankful to Him.
• I am thankful for my heritage.  I come from a family that on both sides has a history of strong faith and practice.  I have been blessed with ancestors who loved God, and I now have a wife and children who love Him as well.
• I am thankful for a good, stable, secure job.  I am blessed with a father who is very intelligent and inventive, and he has parlayed his talents into a niche in the packaging industry that no one else fills.  He started the company 25 years ago with the intent of manufacturing the machines and providing his sons with good jobs.   With my knowledge and my involvement now I know that I can be employed for quite some time building and servicing these machines.  My job also allows me to spend time improving myself and learning more about different areas that can help me and help the business.  I am paid a very generous salary so I can support my family and help out my grown children.
• I have a good church where I can serve and worship.  God has given me the ability to stand before people and teach His Word, sing His praises, and lead others as they sing and worship Him.
• I have a good home.  It may not be everything that I would wish to have in a house, but it is functional and pleases my wife.
• Speaking of wife, I am VERY grateful that God sent me a lovely and talented woman to whom I have been married for over 30 years.  She has proven herself to be a great mother, a fantastic teacher, an incredible cook, and the love of my heart.
• I am thankful for my four children.  Are they perfect?  Of course not.  But looking around at other families I can see that our children are smart, sensible, and well-behaved.  I am proud of all of them.
• I am thankful for the country in which I live.  No other place on earth or in history has ever been like the United States of America.  Many (even some citizens!) look at our country as flawed, imperfect, and in need of drastic change to be “acceptable” among others.  But the motto “E Pluribus Unum” (”Out of many, one”) still applies, and there is still no nation like this one.

I could keep going, but it is time to go and be thankful elsewhere.

Take a moment today and thank God for everything.  Then thank someone close to you for what they are and what they do.

It is called “Thanksgiving” for a reason, you know.

The last several weeks have been very hectic.

I spent the first week of October in Las Vegas for the packaging machinery exhibition. Vegas holds no interest for me. Lots of lights, noise, and glitz, but nothing of substance. No morals, either. Not my kind of place.

As soon as I returned home, we drove to Greenville to visit Ally and for Ally and Lori to attend the wedding of a friend’s daughter (congratulations Stephanie!) We drove back home on Monday, then on Thursday I, my dad, and another associate flew over to Greenville for a business conference at Bob Jones University. It was fantastic!

Since then I have been busy at work with meetings, programming, service, a service trip to Nashville, vendor meetings, and special events at church. Plus, the basketball season is underway, and Ben is playing on the varsity squad and Jon plays on both the elementary and JV teams. Nothing like a quick hour-long trip at bedtime to rescue a group of kids from a disabled bus.

Of course, there’s also the ongoing guilt about things such as straightening the garage (which hasn’t really been done since we moved in here 10 years ago), completing some music composition and arranging projects, catching up on reading, cataloging and transferring tapes and old records to CD, cleaning up computers, and updating the look of the website (should I start “tweeting” and including my Twitter feed on the site? I’m thinking about it).

So now that I’m done feeling sorry for not accomplishing anything, I’m going back to work. At home. Keeping a sick kid.

At least it’s quiet!

Last week I traveled with Ben and his classmates to the nation’s capital.  I have never until now been able to visit, and I enjoyed it, though it was a whirlwind trip.

This will be a rather lengthy post, so I will break it here.  If it interests you to read further, continue after the jump.

Rush Limbaugh was back in action today, and he was discussing the reaction to the story of one of the President’s “czars” who had resigned amid controversy.  The reaction on NBC News centered around the fact that the revelations of this guy’s past came from the Internet and not from “trusted” news sources.  Here’s a portion of Rush’s comments from today’s show, regarding statements by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times:

FRIEDMAN:  The Internet is an open sewer of untreated, unfiltered information, left, right, center, up, down, and requires that kind of filtering, by anyone.  And I always felt, you know, when modems first came out, when that was how we got connected to the Internet, that every modem sold in America should actually have come with a warning from the Surgeon General that would have said “judgment not included.”  That you have to upload the old-fashioned way, church, synagogue, temple, mosque, teachers, schools, you know, and too often now people say and we’ve all heard it, “but I read it on the Internet,” as if that solves the bar bet, and I’m afraid not.

RUSH:  So you people are idiots, you don’t have the capacity to understand what you read, whether it’s true or not, you need filters, you need the professionals, you need the experts like Tom Brokaw and Tom Friedman and so forth.  The Internet is an open sewer . . . So I guess it’s an open sewer for them, too.  They just can’t stand it.  Their monopoly is gone, they just can’t stand that they are not the ones anymore to get to determine what’s news and what isn’t.

You’re not supposed to have the opportunity to be this informed, that’s the real problem.  You know too much.  This is threatening democracy in their arrogant, conceited view.  Every modem sold in America should come with a warning from the Surgeon General?  Who uses modems anymore, for crying out loud?  Do you use a modem, Brian?  I’m sure some people do, but every modem should come with a warning from the Surgeon General that says “judgment not included”?  That’s right, and you’re not capable of making your own judgment.  We have to let Tom Friedman and Tom Brokaw make judgments for you.  They’re the ones that are qualified; they’re the ones that are highly trained; they’re the professionals.  You’re just a rube, an idiot.

Such is the elitist mentality of those who think they know better than others because of their “education” or their “position”.

Translate that same attitude into church and you get the elitist attitude that the “common” person in the pew cannot possibly understand Scripture without the “enlightened understanding” that can only come from one of the “educated elites”.  I don’t mean to paint with too broad a brush here, but many preachers I know and have read or heard possess this mentality.  They, and they alone, or others of their “intellectual level”, are the only ones truly qualified to read, understand, and interpret the Bible.  Those who attempt to do so on their own risk falling into doctrinal heresies such as befell several in the 1800’s who began spin-off denominations with some peculiar semi- or extra-biblical beliefs and practices.  I recently read something by a current seminary professor and some who agree with him that reinforces this attitude.

I’m sorry, but I have to totally reject that position.  As a member of the “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) I have unfettered access to my Heavenly Father with intercession by His Holy Spirit, who, according to the Lord Jesus, was sent specifically to “guide [me] into all truth” (John 16:13).  Granted, without prayerful consideration of the Book, and without careful study of the context, the history, and the meanings of the original words behind the translations, it is possible for *anyone* to fall into error.  Studying is certainly easier now with the availability of many fantastic online and computer-based study tools (I like e-Sword and Bible Explorer).  With such fine study helps, with a prayerful and reverent attitude, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, anyone can understand what God has to say in His Word.

But, like Mark Twain, many reject the Bible for personal reasons.  Twain reportedly said, “It ain’t what I don’t understand in the Bible that bothers me, it’s what I do understand in the Bible that bothers me.”  So the choices are to ignore it, reinterpret it to say something else, or change your opinions to match what is written.

I’ve made my choice.  What’s yours?