Friday, January 21, 2005

Snow, snow, glorious snow!

Beautiful, white, fluffy snow is falling! You might ask why would I be excited about that, but it's late January in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro, and we have had almost no snow all winter. Snow is beautiful, snow is fun. It also looks a lot nicer than the dirty streets and brown lawns. I say LET IT SNOW! Plus, I own a 4-wheel drive truck, and it would a waste to not get to use it a few times a year. Also it'll be a boon to all the businesses that are dependant on snow. Snow economics are pretty big in a state like Minnesota. 5-7 inches should be good for the day.

My love made it safely back from the excitement in DC. She had a great time, experienced some uncofortableness with some protestors, and will have great memories.

MrCLM

Inauguration part II

Well, my love survived the events of the day. Her dad was able to get some good video footage of the protestors just before they broke down the retaining wall and subsequently got the fire hoses and Pepper sprayed. She flies back on a red-eye for work tomorrow. Hopefully the winter weather will hold off long enough for her to get back to Minneapolis on time and in one piece.

Domestic
It is my personal hope that President Bush will become more domestically focused in the next 4 years. I realize that Iraq still needs to be cleaned up, and we'll be lucky if that is completed by the end of this new term. I also know there is much to be done in Afghanistan, but I think a lot of good has take place there (outside of the replanting of the poppy and increase in drug trafficking). I don't know if the Social Security plan he has laid out is the domestic turn I am thinking about though. I am looking forward to see where things go on health care and medicine policies. I am very interested in the Federal Marriage Amendment proposals that have been bounced around this past year. I am interested to see if minimum wage will go up in the next 4 years. I think immigration policies will be something that will need some attention. I think the No Child Left Behind will need to be overhauled. There are quite a number of other things that I hope he will turn his attention to over the next 4 years. I think this next 2 years will be by far the most important though.

China distraction
I find myself thinking lately about China. Part of it is because I am writing a paper on the Transformational Leadership of Hudson Taylor. Much of it is because it's been pretty quiet "over there" in the wake of the Tsunami and the focus on the election and Iraq. We do hear about China from time to time when oil is being discussed, but beyond that I don't recall much in the press over the past 45ish days on China. I think China and our relations with them will be very important in the next 4-6 years. Perhaps the most imporant 4-6 years in the history of our relationship.


Disconnect
Sometimes I wonder to what extent is there a disconnect between President Bush and the "will" of the average people in the USA. He won the popular election this time, which many falsely believe means that 51% of the adults voted for him. Only something like 60% of eligible people voted in the past election IIRC. That means about 30.5% give or take a bit actually voted for the President. I appreciate much of what he is trying to do, while not agreeing with all that he has been doing.

MrCLM


Thursday, January 20, 2005

Inauguration and misc. thoughts

The love of my life has safely arrived in Washington DC for the 2005 Inaugaration and susequent celebrations. Weather in Chicago led to a re-routing of her flight, and the resultant and inevitable "your luggage is on another plane..." She'll get it later tonight when it arrives in DC. I wish I was there, as it would be cool to see the inauguration. I think it would be equally as interesting to see the protesters who may show up tomorrow.

I am currently in a class on Christian Social Ethics. I am constantly amazed by the positions that some people who call themselves Christians hold, and this comes from both ends of the spectrum of the uber-conservative and the whiney-liberals. I stake no claim as the final authority in this realm, but I do think that the Bible is pretty clear on things we should believe and ways we should behave within that context. Someday when I am no longer contrained by my Seminary training I would like to spend more time examining this and come up with a plan that I would hope to impliment in any church I work in to find a Bible driven balance. And I'm not talking about something wishy-washy, but something that people can be held accountable to.

I just watched the T-wolves loose another game. They are playing their worst basketball since KG's rookie season. If the season ended today, the T-wolves would not be in the playoffs. The fact that KG has taken this all fairly well is pretty surprizing. I've expected him to blow up on somebody on quite a number of occasions. I'm actually using a reference to Kevin Garnett this weekend in a sermon I am preaching at my church on 2 Timothy 3:16-17. I'm looking forward to Friday when they play my favorite team the Seattle Supersonics.


Monday, January 10, 2005

It's all Greek to me..

I am now on my second go around in trying to learn Biblical Greek. I don't think the second time is any easier than was the first. I do think this go around will be more fruitful though, and certainly more fun. It's amazing how much we can grow in just a few short years, even as adults.

I have a T-Mobile Cell phone and the reception is garbage where I live. You would think after the 7 calls to customer service they might get the idea that I'm not joking. You would think the fact that at any given time there are 3000ish people on campus in a given week might get them to take corrective action. You would think living at one of the busiest traffic areas of the Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro area would afford us good coverage. You might think that, but you would be wrong. I could renew my contract with them and get a new phone etc. but why do so with such poor service (both reception and customer).

The Vikings beat the Packers today in a fantastic NFL playoff game. It was a delight to watch the greatly out numbered Packer fans squirm in their seats in the Champp's we were in while watching the game. I am a Lions fan at heart, but will cheer for the Vikings most Sundays.

The Seattle SuperSonics won agian tonight, defeating the Miami Heat in the NBA. Danny Fortson was very effective in neutralizing Shaq and Vlade Radmanovich on fire, especially in the 4th quarter.

I am getting married in 2005. I expect that we will get married at Wayzata Evangelical Free Church. Today we went to Wooddale church in Eden Prairie and took the Prepared test to see what things we might need to discuss and work through. It should be interesting to see what the results are next week. We need to pick a date soon, so that we can start to make arrangements and the like. It's going to be a great year.