The Bible - The Mini-series

Don't know how many of you watched The Bible on the History Channel.  Was able to watch four of the five parts myself.  Overall, thought it was pretty good.  There were some parts either condensed or left out, but it would be difficult to get all the details and all the stories in within a 10 hour window.  They managed to get the overall theme of most stories out for all to see.  If it managed to bring the Word of God to just one person who didn't already have it, imagine Mark Burnett and Roma Downey would say it was all worth it.

To their credit, they didn't forget to include the not as good parts of the stories.  Moses was shown to be a murderer.  David's affair with Bathsheba was covered pretty well, too.  Paul's persecution of the early Christians was also featured.  Only problem I saw with it was the only name they used for him was Paul.  As most of you probably know, he was Saul until his experience on the road to Damascus.  Is a pretty integral part of the story.  Shows his rebirth through Jesus and all that.  But, the overall gist of the story of God using the person you would least expect to do His work came through.  Funny how that's a consistent theme throughout the Bible.  Almost makes it difficult for us "regular" folks to say no when God calls us to do something, don't it?

The Paul story also showed some things never change.  After he had his conversion, folks had a hard time with the fact he had accepted Jesus and was a different person.  They had a hard time forgiving him for his past transgressions, too.  Have to admit, when I see someone (most of the time some celebrity) say they have accepted God and changed their life, am ashamed to say my eyebrows go up and wonder what their angle is.  Do my best to look past it, but some times are easier than others.  Never root for them to fail, though.  Sad to say, have a hard time forgiving people sometimes, too.  Have always heard the expression, "I'll forgive you, but I won't forget."  My initial thought every time I hear it is how can you say you have forgiven someone if you won't forget what their transgression was in the first place.  But, I digress....  The point I was trying to make is Christians have just as hard time today forgiving people as they did 2,000 years ago.  Human nature, I reckon.

Overall, thought The Bible was very good and it lived up to the hype.  Doesn't happen very often.  When I found out two months ago that Mark Burnett and Roma Downey were involved with this, wasn't surprised about Downey but was a little surprised about Burnett.  Mostly because all I really know about him is Survivor.  Will look at that show in a slightly different light now.  Well done!

Hello, It’s Me Again

WOW!  It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog.  Reckon that’s what I get for saying I would update it every week.  Still had the fight song from that other school on here. Well, the music has been changed and there are several things happening now that I feel the need to comment on.  So, if you are ready to see if I can get back into the swing of things, here we go:

• Want to start by recommending a TV show to you.  Almost hate to admit I watch Lifetime, but their show Coming Home is one of the best shows on TV right now.  It’s about U.S. military personnel returning home from various parts of the world to surprise their families.  It’s very well-done.  Odd how my allergies tend to make my eyes water so much during the show.  It usually features one story throughout the hour and includes several others during the course of that story.  Highly recommend you check it out Sunday nights at 9 central;
  
• Went away for vacation for a week and came back to a war in Libya.  Been interesting to see the comments around this war.  In my mind, it’s not much different than what happened in Iraq.  Had a looney tune running the country who needed to be taken out.  Just about everything the Colonel has been accused of, the dictator was guilty of, too.  Nobody has really mentioned the parallels between the two cases.  At least I haven’t seen or heard it.  Not sure if President Obama had the authority to do what he did (probably didn’t unless the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (look it up) is still in effect), but it’s gonna be hard to put the horses back in the barn now til it’s over one way or the other.  Hopefully we won’t need to send in ground troops.  One interesting thing to me is Ghadaffi, Qadafi, or however he spells it, said at the beginning Al Qaeda was supporting the rebels.  Have read several articles that say he may be right on that.  May end up fighting these folks again……just like Afghanistan….;
  
• On a side note, one of the best tweets I saw leading up to this was someone saying you know your president is looking bad when the French are being more aggressive than you.  That was before we started sending missiles but the French had already said they were prepared to bomb the Libyans.  At the time we were saying we were going to sit this one out.  How’d that work out for us?;
  
• President Obama has had several oxymoron moments this month.  Mr. Nobel Peace Prize has now gone to war (at least by his own choice this time).  Interesting.  He also received an award for the alleged transparency in his administration in a ceremony held behind closed doors with no media present.  That just seems like typical Washington-think to me;
  
• Food for thought:  Back when W was president and gas prices skyrocketed, conspiracy theorists were coming out of the woodwork yammering about how he was trying to line the pockets of his oil buddies.  Funny how you don’t hear those same comments now that the price of gas has doubled since the new president has been in office.  Wonder why?;
  
• Watched the HBO Inside Sports show on college football.  Have to admit it did not appear to me that the former players were lying.  Not sure if that’s cuz what they were saying was true or if they were having a Constanza moment.  (Remember what George told Jerry right before the lie detector test?  It’s not a lie if you believe it?)  Tend to believe there’s some truth to them receiving money cuz I believe it goes on at all (or at least most) universities, especially the big time programs.  Don’t know if the players should be paid or not.  Do know many of these kids come from less-than-affluent households so they have no money for clothes, shoes or many other essentials needed to go to college.  NCAA rules don’t allow them to hold jobs, either.  There’s no easy answer to this problem;
  
• Auburn is certainly paying a heavy price for their national championship at this point.  Can’t recall any other champions that have had so much turmoil this soon after winning.  Allegations of players getting paid, recruiting improprieties, starters getting arrested for felonies, alleged gang activities just to name a few of the things that have come out since they won.  Can’t enjoy their championship and hasn’t even been three months, yet.  Mr. Newton probably has a lot to do with this.  Inadvertently, that is.  People started looking closer at Auburn when all of his brouhaha started.  The NCAA’s screwy ruling in his and Ohio State’s cases hasn’t helped anything, either.  Have a sad feeling AU will be in USC’s boat in a couple of years;
  
• Been a crazy year in the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament.  Have heard some people griping about VCU and Butler making it to the Final Four.  Just can’t make some folks happy.  Most people root for the underdog but no one actually wants them to win.  Glad to see some new blood succeeding myself.  Although, seeing as how Butler played in the championship game last year, not sure if you can really consider them new blood anymore.
  
• Saw where Phil Collins announced his retirement from the music business the other day.  Hate to say it, but figured he had already retired cuz hadn’t heard from him in a while.  Was definitely one of the biggest names in music in the 1980’s.  Love his work.  No music from him this time, but maybe in my next post;
  
• On a lighter note, anyone else follow the Egyptian cobra on Twitter?  It got over 200,000 followers in just a matter of a few days, me included.  Whoever was doing it was pretty funny and had some really good tweets.  Hope they keep it up even though the snake has been returned to its proper cage now.

Well, that’s all I got for now.  Feels good writing again.  Will have to try harder to keep it up this time.
Thanks as always for making it this far.  Hope you are doing well.

A Vote Is Just A Vote

Sometimes a vote is just a vote.

Been reading all this analysis as to why Kris won American Idol instead of the anointed one. People have been speculating about this, that and the other. Have even broken it down to Red States vs. Blue States like a presidential election. Wish more people would take the presidential election as seriously as they have this.

Didn't see this as a gay vs. straight issue. Didn't see it as a West Coast vs. the Heartland issue. Sad to say, don't think the overall public has enough smarts to think that deeply. That saddens me, but that is a whole other blog.

Most people could care less about the whole gay/non-gay issue, the glam look, or who the judges and producers wanted to win. There's a reason why there are more light rock radio stations than hard rock. More people like to listen to the softer music without all the screaming. When you look back at the history of the show, it's been the Lite FM singer over the Rocker every time. In the end, that's who the people voted for again.

Whether either of them will be huge is still up in the air. For every Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, there's a Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks. If Kris is not suffocated by an Idol machine that didn't want him to win, he has a pretty good chance. If Adam learns you don't have to scream every time you sing, he does, too. They are actually both pretty good and would not have been upset by either winning.

As Chris Daughtry, Elliot Yamin, and Clay Aikin have proved, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose, only that you get noticed. (You hear that, Allison?)

Have a happy Memorial Day and take the time to thank a veteran this weekend. I know it's about remembering those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Unfortunately, we cannot thank them so thank the folks we can. If you know a family member of someone who died while defending our country, make sure and thank them, too. And, by all means, pray for all of them whether you thank them or not.