New Meaning to "Get Right Church"

I am in the middle of writing my term papers, but I can't help stopping to post regarding this ridiculous thing I just read.

Backing up... Last week I was outraged to read about something called "Justice Sunday", a political rally that took place at a church in Louisville, Kentucky. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson shared the stage with Senator Bill Frist and shared this pearl: "The future of democracy and ordered liberty actually depends on the outcome of this struggle." He was talking about ending filibusters, by the way.

And then tonight I read... a church in North Carolina voted out nine church members because they refused to support President Bush. I didn't mistype. The pastor of the church told members last fall that anyone who planned to vote for John Kerry needed to leave the church. Here's the link, you have to read it to believe it.

I've had enough of this. I'm tired of Christians -- ministers! -- allowing themselves to get pushed around by politicians who have reduced the idea of moral values down to abortion and gay marriage. Why do they find it acceptable to ignore thousands of verses about poverty, protecting God's creation the environment, and war? Is anyone actually reading the New Testament??

This is too infuriating and I've got to get back to my work...

I guess I can be thankful that my minister teaches from the writings of Paul rather than the talking points of Karl Rove.

NYSC

this is a pathetic topic for a post, but I needed to write something... it's been too long.

Top 10 reasons that I love New York Sports Club

10. quick check-in
9. i can get into more than 140 locations
8. reservation system for classes
7. showers are only somewhat nasty
6. "club abs" - who'd have thought that it's possible to do 25 minutes of crunches?
5. spinning class - turn down the lights and let me enter the zone...
4. "xpressline" - a weight workout for every muscle group in less than 20 minutes
3. boxing class - taught by a former pro, the most tiring 75 minutes ever
2. no ambient music!
1. it's exactly 43 steps from the front door of the New York Stock Exchange

Mamet

American political campaigns increasingly approach the naked avowal of their function as a potlatch. In the potlatch, Pacific-Northwest Indians would set fire to all they own, in an attempt to gain status over a rival - daring their opponent to match their power to destroy. The pols, likewise, involve their rooters in a potlatch of waste: Party A must be more powerful than Party B (and, so, more worthy of fealty) as their ability to waste is greater. How odd, when, one would think, the politicians' primary responsibility would be to act responsibly in management of the assets of their constituents.

- excerpt from "Pleasure Pilgrims" by David Mamet

Snow!

As I requested in my 2/12 post, we got our snow! Maybe not quite as much as I had hoped, but enough to provide some nice pictures. Check out a few of them below...

Snow-covered Gates at our corner

Snow-covered Gates at softball fields

Snow-covered Gates

Snow-covered Gates at The Pool

Snow-covered Gates

What's the Story?

I'd like to try a game. I'll describe something I glimpsed today on the way to class and you make up the backstory.

Walking through the village at 5:45pm, I passed a nice restaurant just outside of which I saw a man - about 28 years old - using a fine-toothed comb and a small pair of scissors to trim the eyebrows of another man - perhaps 50 years old - who grumpily endured the grooming.

So what's the rest of the story?