Reclaiming The F Word

The Fruit of the Spirit?

"And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love - and they'll know we are Christians by our love." - One of the first songs I remember singing at Mass when I was a kid. 

I wonder if this song ever made it into the hymn book Sarah Palin grew up singing out of as she was growing up in that small Alaskan town. I wonder if her pastor is embarrassed. I know that, as a Christian, I was mortified on Wednesday night. And things didn't improve much yesterday as her partner on this ticket took the stage. 

Continue reading "The Fruit of the Spirit?" »

Well, actually, pretty much nothing was happening "here" for the past week or so except some sitting in the sun enjoying a little bit of vacation as summer came too quickly to an end. But boy o boy was there a lot happening out "there." 

Let's start with the wonderful: 

Now this is what I'm talking about. 

My post on The Audacity To Laugh was featured on the Faithful Democrats website earlier this week. Readers commented that I was maybe making a mistake by not taking the McCain campaign's underhanded, malicious, and all out nasty tactics seriously enough. One of the other writers at FD spelled out the evidence that McCain really IS trying to paint Obama as the Anti-Christ in scary detail. I responded that, even if that's true and the McCain campaign is serious, it just won't help to turn all self-righteous. Nobody likes a prude.

Well, it turns out that, by refusing to get his boxers in a bunch, Obama has allowed McCain's junior high-school advertising campaign to backfire.

Continue reading "LOL" »

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

Most of the people I know think the economy is in the crapper. We've got a war that won't end, a social safety net with holes in it bigger than elephants (ironic allusion intended), banks on the brink, polar ice caps turning to slush...but what we're apparently really worried about is...what does Barack Obama think about HELL.

Continue reading "What In Hell?" »

Like lots of others today, I'm troubled by the trouble city newspapers are in. Here in Chicago, the Tribune has just announced deep staff cuts - including way too many among reporters - and yet another turnover at the top. The Sun-Times has been going through similar turmoil for some time. I get two papers delivered and read another half a dozen or more online every day. On her way out, Trib editor Anne Marie Lipinski said, "Your newspaper is both a joy and a powerful engine for good."

I don't think we realize what we stand to lose.

Continue reading "Newsworthy" »

Just in case ya'll thought I was going soft on you...

Sisters face each other in the finals at Wimbledon in a match that rivaled any other, from any other year, in terms of intensity and entertainment - and then go on, emotionally and physically exhausted from battling each other, to win the doubles trophy together. And this story makes page SEVEN in my newspaper.

(See a late edition P.S. to this post at the very end...)

I've heard some people say this has been the silliest season of all, evidenced by all the attention given the celebratory Obama fist pound. But I'm not so sure it's all that silly. For starters, it's being reported today that one news commentator - Fox's E.D. Hill, who infamously suggested this was a "terrorist fist jab" - has lost her job over it.

Anyway, that's what William McGurn is arguing online at The Wall Street Journal today. 

At the time when the idea of a Roman Catholic leader conjured up images of the fascist Francisco Franco, John Kennedy promised politics devoid of religious impulses and vowed to be a president whose faith would be "his own private affair." In McGurn's view, Kennedy's view "hardened into a new orthodoxy which denies those motivated by religious principles a place in public debate" - and chased millions of religious Democrats out of their own party.

Barack Obama is reversing that trend.

When this presidential primary season began, I could not have been more excited. Things were happening that I - and countless other people - have always dreamed about but never thought we'd actually live to see. It wasn't hard for me to choose my candidate when the polls opened on primary day here in Illinois. I'm part of the demographic group that went for Hillary by the millions. But today I was proud of her and proud of my country as I listened to her endorse Barack Obama.

Something's Happening Here

Well, actually, pretty much nothing was happening "here" for the past week or so except some sitting in the sun enjoying a little bit of vacation as summer came too quickly to an end. But boy o boy was there a lot happening out "there." 

Let's start with the wonderful: 

LOL

Now this is what I'm talking about. 

My post on The Audacity To Laugh was featured on the Faithful Democrats website earlier this week. Readers commented that I was maybe making a mistake by not taking the McCain campaign's underhanded, malicious, and all out nasty tactics seriously enough. One of the other writers at FD spelled out the evidence that McCain really IS trying to paint Obama as the Anti-Christ in scary detail. I responded that, even if that's true and the McCain campaign is serious, it just won't help to turn all self-righteous. Nobody likes a prude.

Well, it turns out that, by refusing to get his boxers in a bunch, Obama has allowed McCain's junior high-school advertising campaign to backfire.

Continue reading "LOL" »

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

Most of the people I know think the economy is in the crapper. We've got a war that won't end, a social safety net with holes in it bigger than elephants (ironic allusion intended), banks on the brink, polar ice caps turning to slush...but what we're apparently really worried about is...what does Barack Obama think about HELL.

Continue reading "What In Hell?" »

Like lots of others today, I'm troubled by the trouble city newspapers are in. Here in Chicago, the Tribune has just announced deep staff cuts - including way too many among reporters - and yet another turnover at the top. The Sun-Times has been going through similar turmoil for some time. I get two papers delivered and read another half a dozen or more online every day. On her way out, Trib editor Anne Marie Lipinski said, "Your newspaper is both a joy and a powerful engine for good."

I don't think we realize what we stand to lose.

Continue reading "Newsworthy" »

Just in case ya'll thought I was going soft on you...

Sisters face each other in the finals at Wimbledon in a match that rivaled any other, from any other year, in terms of intensity and entertainment - and then go on, emotionally and physically exhausted from battling each other, to win the doubles trophy together. And this story makes page SEVEN in my newspaper.

(See a late edition P.S. to this post at the very end...)

I've heard some people say this has been the silliest season of all, evidenced by all the attention given the celebratory Obama fist pound. But I'm not so sure it's all that silly. For starters, it's being reported today that one news commentator - Fox's E.D. Hill, who infamously suggested this was a "terrorist fist jab" - has lost her job over it.

Anyway, that's what William McGurn is arguing online at The Wall Street Journal today. 

At the time when the idea of a Roman Catholic leader conjured up images of the fascist Francisco Franco, John Kennedy promised politics devoid of religious impulses and vowed to be a president whose faith would be "his own private affair." In McGurn's view, Kennedy's view "hardened into a new orthodoxy which denies those motivated by religious principles a place in public debate" - and chased millions of religious Democrats out of their own party.

Barack Obama is reversing that trend.

When this presidential primary season began, I could not have been more excited. Things were happening that I - and countless other people - have always dreamed about but never thought we'd actually live to see. It wasn't hard for me to choose my candidate when the polls opened on primary day here in Illinois. I'm part of the demographic group that went for Hillary by the millions. But today I was proud of her and proud of my country as I listened to her endorse Barack Obama.

The Audacity To Laugh

So how do you explain "The One" ad the McCain campaign is running in which they make fun of Obama for being a pretend messiah? (Well, that's the best way to put it. At worst they accuse him of being a false messiah i.e., the anti-Christ. But I don't believe there's enough theological sophistication or biblical knowledge at work in that campaign to even be aware of this possible interpretation.)

Here's how I think it went down: An old, battle-scared, desperate staff let a group of emo college kids, wracked by cynicism and high on Red Bull, have the production studio for a night. 

And, if the truth be told, what emerged is a pretty funny - in a David Letterman kind of way - shtick. The honorable Mr. Heston as Moses parting the Red Sea?!? I laughed out loud, a snorting i'm-glad-i-wasn't-drinking-milk-out-of-a-carton-in-my-junior-high-school-cafeteria kind of laugh. 

Continue reading "The Audacity To Laugh" »

Posted at 11:18 PM in Politics, Religion, Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: mccain attack ads, obama and brittany, obama as moses

Most of the people I know think the economy is in the crapper. We've got a war that won't end, a social safety net with holes in it bigger than elephants (ironic allusion intended), banks on the brink, polar ice caps turning to slush...but what we're apparently really worried about is...what does Barack Obama think about HELL.

Continue reading "What In Hell?" »

Like lots of others today, I'm troubled by the trouble city newspapers are in. Here in Chicago, the Tribune has just announced deep staff cuts - including way too many among reporters - and yet another turnover at the top. The Sun-Times has been going through similar turmoil for some time. I get two papers delivered and read another half a dozen or more online every day. On her way out, Trib editor Anne Marie Lipinski said, "Your newspaper is both a joy and a powerful engine for good."

I don't think we realize what we stand to lose.

Continue reading "Newsworthy" »

Just in case ya'll thought I was going soft on you...

Sisters face each other in the finals at Wimbledon in a match that rivaled any other, from any other year, in terms of intensity and entertainment - and then go on, emotionally and physically exhausted from battling each other, to win the doubles trophy together. And this story makes page SEVEN in my newspaper.

(See a late edition P.S. to this post at the very end...)

I've heard some people say this has been the silliest season of all, evidenced by all the attention given the celebratory Obama fist pound. But I'm not so sure it's all that silly. For starters, it's being reported today that one news commentator - Fox's E.D. Hill, who infamously suggested this was a "terrorist fist jab" - has lost her job over it.

Anyway, that's what William McGurn is arguing online at The Wall Street Journal today. 

At the time when the idea of a Roman Catholic leader conjured up images of the fascist Francisco Franco, John Kennedy promised politics devoid of religious impulses and vowed to be a president whose faith would be "his own private affair." In McGurn's view, Kennedy's view "hardened into a new orthodoxy which denies those motivated by religious principles a place in public debate" - and chased millions of religious Democrats out of their own party.

Barack Obama is reversing that trend.

When this presidential primary season began, I could not have been more excited. Things were happening that I - and countless other people - have always dreamed about but never thought we'd actually live to see. It wasn't hard for me to choose my candidate when the polls opened on primary day here in Illinois. I'm part of the demographic group that went for Hillary by the millions. But today I was proud of her and proud of my country as I listened to her endorse Barack Obama.

What In Hell?

Most of the people I know think the economy is in the crapper. We've got a war that won't end, a social safety net with holes in it bigger than elephants (ironic allusion intended), banks on the brink, polar ice caps turning to slush...but what we're apparently really worried about is...what does Barack Obama think about HELL.

Continue reading "What In Hell?" »

Like lots of others today, I'm troubled by the trouble city newspapers are in. Here in Chicago, the Tribune has just announced deep staff cuts - including way too many among reporters - and yet another turnover at the top. The Sun-Times has been going through similar turmoil for some time. I get two papers delivered and read another half a dozen or more online every day. On her way out, Trib editor Anne Marie Lipinski said, "Your newspaper is both a joy and a powerful engine for good."

I don't think we realize what we stand to lose.

Continue reading "Newsworthy" »

Just in case ya'll thought I was going soft on you...

Sisters face each other in the finals at Wimbledon in a match that rivaled any other, from any other year, in terms of intensity and entertainment - and then go on, emotionally and physically exhausted from battling each other, to win the doubles trophy together. And this story makes page SEVEN in my newspaper.

(See a late edition P.S. to this post at the very end...)

I've heard some people say this has been the silliest season of all, evidenced by all the attention given the celebratory Obama fist pound. But I'm not so sure it's all that silly. For starters, it's being reported today that one news commentator - Fox's E.D. Hill, who infamously suggested this was a "terrorist fist jab" - has lost her job over it.

Anyway, that's what William McGurn is arguing online at The Wall Street Journal today. 

At the time when the idea of a Roman Catholic leader conjured up images of the fascist Francisco Franco, John Kennedy promised politics devoid of religious impulses and vowed to be a president whose faith would be "his own private affair." In McGurn's view, Kennedy's view "hardened into a new orthodoxy which denies those motivated by religious principles a place in public debate" - and chased millions of religious Democrats out of their own party.

Barack Obama is reversing that trend.

When this presidential primary season began, I could not have been more excited. Things were happening that I - and countless other people - have always dreamed about but never thought we'd actually live to see. It wasn't hard for me to choose my candidate when the polls opened on primary day here in Illinois. I'm part of the demographic group that went for Hillary by the millions. But today I was proud of her and proud of my country as I listened to her endorse Barack Obama.

Newsworthy

Like lots of others today, I'm troubled by the trouble city newspapers are in. Here in Chicago, the Tribune has just announced deep staff cuts - including way too many among reporters - and yet another turnover at the top. The Sun-Times has been going through similar turmoil for some time. I get two papers delivered and read another half a dozen or more online every day. On her way out, Trib editor Anne Marie Lipinski said, "Your newspaper is both a joy and a powerful engine for good."

I don't think we realize what we stand to lose.

Continue reading "Newsworthy" »

Just in case ya'll thought I was going soft on you...

Sisters face each other in the finals at Wimbledon in a match that rivaled any other, from any other year, in terms of intensity and entertainment - and then go on, emotionally and physically exhausted from battling each other, to win the doubles trophy together. And this story makes page SEVEN in my newspaper.

(See a late edition P.S. to this post at the very end...)

I've heard some people say this has been the silliest season of all, evidenced by all the attention given the celebratory Obama fist pound. But I'm not so sure it's all that silly. For starters, it's being reported today that one news commentator - Fox's E.D. Hill, who infamously suggested this was a "terrorist fist jab" - has lost her job over it.

Anyway, that's what William McGurn is arguing online at The Wall Street Journal today. 

At the time when the idea of a Roman Catholic leader conjured up images of the fascist Francisco Franco, John Kennedy promised politics devoid of religious impulses and vowed to be a president whose faith would be "his own private affair." In McGurn's view, Kennedy's view "hardened into a new orthodoxy which denies those motivated by religious principles a place in public debate" - and chased millions of religious Democrats out of their own party.

Barack Obama is reversing that trend.

When this presidential primary season began, I could not have been more excited. Things were happening that I - and countless other people - have always dreamed about but never thought we'd actually live to see. It wasn't hard for me to choose my candidate when the polls opened on primary day here in Illinois. I'm part of the demographic group that went for Hillary by the millions. But today I was proud of her and proud of my country as I listened to her endorse Barack Obama.

Crabby Monday

Just in case ya'll thought I was going soft on you...

Sisters face each other in the finals at Wimbledon in a match that rivaled any other, from any other year, in terms of intensity and entertainment - and then go on, emotionally and physically exhausted from battling each other, to win the doubles trophy together. And this story makes page SEVEN in my newspaper.

Gimme Some Dap

(See a late edition P.S. to this post at the very end...)

I've heard some people say this has been the silliest season of all, evidenced by all the attention given the celebratory Obama fist pound. But I'm not so sure it's all that silly. For starters, it's being reported today that one news commentator - Fox's E.D. Hill, who infamously suggested this was a "terrorist fist jab" - has lost her job over it.

Obama Is No John Kennedy

Anyway, that's what William McGurn is arguing online at The Wall Street Journal today. 

At the time when the idea of a Roman Catholic leader conjured up images of the fascist Francisco Franco, John Kennedy promised politics devoid of religious impulses and vowed to be a president whose faith would be "his own private affair." In McGurn's view, Kennedy's view "hardened into a new orthodoxy which denies those motivated by religious principles a place in public debate" - and chased millions of religious Democrats out of their own party.

Barack Obama is reversing that trend.

Thanks, Hillary

When this presidential primary season began, I could not have been more excited. Things were happening that I - and countless other people - have always dreamed about but never thought we'd actually live to see. It wasn't hard for me to choose my candidate when the polls opened on primary day here in Illinois. I'm part of the demographic group that went for Hillary by the millions. But today I was proud of her and proud of my country as I listened to her endorse Barack Obama.