POLITICS CANCELLED

I was going to go into a lengthy spiel on politics, but after reading a few blogs about it this morning, I'm mentally exhausted. I will make this quick, because I seriously am tired of hearing the same thing and I don't want to be another soapbox commentator. Here's my list:

1. People say that you can't be a Christian and a Democrat, or less frequently, a Christian and a Republican. I say you can't be a Christian and firmly hold to ANY party. On some level, when secular thought reigns, there will be moral disagreements with everyone. Republicans service the wealthy, but have "better morals." Democrats look out for everyone, but morally are loose cannons. And so on, and so on...
2. Obama is not the devil. I don't believe he is the Antichrist. However, as Liz said, he did have some Big Brother style ads and publicity that still are a little unnerving. And it is a cause for concern, but not the threat level midnight that everyone is yelling about.
3. We need to fully support our leaders. In their morality? No...not if it's against God. But we can't go around saying through our teeth "sure I like him...it's just that I don't like him." Or saying something about him positively and then being critical about him being president.
4. The Presidency is a job. As an issue of stewardship, I voted for who I thought would do the job best with the slim pickings we were given. I didn't decide until the Sunday before who I was voting for, and even then it was a slim margin. Did I have moral disagreements with the candidates? Yup. Political and economic ones? Yup. But if I ran a company, and I needed to hire the best man for the job, I'd be a good steward and hire the best guy for my money. If we had moral disagreements it would actually be better, then, if he WASN'T a Christian because I'd have an oppurtunity to help him get straightened out. The Presidency is a little bit of an unapprochable position, but prayer works, right?

Sorry...went longer than I thought. I hope I'm not more of the same...I feel like I may be in that realm where Republicans find me liberal and Democrats find me conservative. It's hard being a maverick. :P


Joshua

The New Broad Street Bully: Riley Cote

Go to HockeyFights.com and check out our boy Riley Cote...he's quite a slugger.


Joshua

P.S. I will wax political soon...don't worry. :P

Failure=Success

Hilarity in the everyday.


Joshua

Overall champion.

Like Liz, said, we tried to tell you.


Joshua

I=Saul: I Love 1 Samuel

So I don't do a lot of the "my life is bad because of X" posts these days, like I did in the old emo days at the beginning of my blogtacular life. This isn't that, by the way, so don't worry. (Actually it may be a little bit, but it's constructive and not whiny, and if it is let me know. :P) But I have really been trying to plow through some Bible lately and get a lot out of it, which I have.

I have been far too self reliant as of late, and I have been able to discover it with the help of those around me, as well as Scripture. Observe:

Saul Sacrifices Without Samuel (1 Samuel 13:8-13)
Saul: Being impatient and superstitious even, performs priestly duties out of imaptience, thus solidifying his downfall.
Me: I often get impatient with God's timing in my life. As a result, I try and work things into a schedule made by myself...and it doesn't always work for the best.

Saul's Rash Vow (1 Samuel 14:24-30)
Saul: Out of frustration Saul says that no one should eat until he is avenged. Jonathan, his son, who didn't hear him say this, ate some honey and made everyone afraid of what would happen. To which he replied "My father has troubled the land. See how my eyes have become bright because I tasted a little of this honey." (1 Samuel 14:29)
Me: I, at work, have a tendency to be very legalistic with my procedures. It is a little legitimately frustrating that people ignore the few things I ask, but after Rob redefined legalism for me at church a few weeks back, I realised I "care more about it than God does," as he put it. (The connection to Saul here being that I make demands that are personal and of no real import, essentially.) Outside of work, this applies more in the sense that I don't think before I do things. I sometimes make promises rashly, and it causes problems because they are either done without consideration of others, or not followed through to the end.

Saul Does a Selfish Version of What He's Supposed To (1 Samuel 15)
Saul: When told to complete destroy the Amelkites and everything they owned, he saw fit to spare the king as a prisoner, and take the best of what they had for Israel in what he thought was their best interests. Samuel proceeds to correct him, and kill the king as should have been done in the first place.
Me: Simply put: I don't always listen. In the basics of following God I leave Him hanging on the line...not staying in touch, so to speak. We all know that He knows what's up no matter what (obviously), but we also know that the fact is no excuse for leaving Him out of the loop.

The good news is, like I said in the beginning, the Word and folks that care about me have been keeping tabs and letting me know. So it's a good thing, and God's really working me through it all. :)


Joshua

Even in utter disrespect, we are "lightly esteemed."

I was reading some of 1 Samuel this morning in preparation for a little thing called READ.HEAR.PRAY.GROW and came across a section I found very interesting. The Lord tells Eli, the priest at the time, that his family basically is in shambles. His sons dishonor the sacrifices, and in 2:30 the Bible says (with regard the the unending priesthood of his family) "Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: 'Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed."

All of the definitions I found for esteem were positive. So even when we're being disrespectful, and God knows and disapproves of it, He still cares about us...still "lightly esteems" us because of His unconditional love. Things that we do still have consequence, but that is all part of the picture of God's love that He gives us. Love is not just affection, but also correction, as it was said a few verses prior in 2:25 where it reads "they would not listen to the voice of their father [Samuel], for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death." The 20/20 hindsight of the writing says that it was God's will, because it eventually happened as the book progresses and since God is in control of the bigger picture, nothing happens that He doesn't use for the good of His plan.


Joshua

I need this album!

Deftones will be releasing their 6th album, Eros, in the winter of this year. I'm dying to get it. And after hearing a 30 second clip of some of the sessions in a video featuring my favorite drummer EVER, it just made things worse. My only hope is there will be no renditions of Pink Cellphone on this record. As much as I love this band, I was so disappointed in that even being created at all, let alone being put on the record and forcing a parental advisory sticker.


Joshua

Here it is:

Words.


Joshua

Verbal economy.

I will soon be posting the updated catalog of work on my poetry site. Soon as in probably by the end of today. And maybe I'll even get a dedicated domain one of these days. :P


Joshua

Addendum.

Just a short note on the last blog...I'm not liberal. Not in my theology or my politics. I was merely conjecturing that a lot of people (particularly Christians) fight for a lot of misdirected social change. I think that all the attention and energy wasted on picketing abortion clinics, lambasting the evils of drugs, and criticizing what society sees as marriage could be used to counsel those with unplanned pregnancies into other choices, help people out of addiction, and show the Love of God as the basis for all love in all forms, physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual. My explanations of my thoughts on the particular situations were largely to demonstrate that the issues are not as difficult as we think they, despite their complexity.


Joshua

Legalize everything!

So here's where I skate an interesting boundary. I want to start this with a serious and heavy disclaimer: I do NOT endorse drug use, sexual promiscuity or immorality from the Christian perspective, or abortion. What I am about to say is a political and social commentary on a few slightly but constantly disputed topics in American society.

With that said, let's proceed.

When it comes to gay marriage, abortion, and drug use (not just medical marijuana either...I mean everything from weed to crack to meth...all of it) there is strong opposition almost constantly from ultra-conservative groups both religious and secular. For the sake of this discussion, though, I will be taking this from a Christian perspective. I had a brief discussion on the abortion end of this with Liz a little way back, and more recently talked to my dear friend Mr. Maberry about the drug portion of this thought process.

What I've been thinking about is the legalization of things that are largely moral issues. While I am not fighting to make these legal on a personal level, I'm not opposed. Why? Let's consider the alternatives.

Abortion obviously already is legal. A life is a life; from concetion to old age a human is a human. Not a choice or a fetus. With that in mind, I don't think it helps anyone to show pictures of dead babies or talk about how you're murdering someone. So why, then, am I not vehemently opposed to legalized abortion? Because the alternative, for the unfortunately desperate souls that may not realize truly what they are doing, is the old "back-alley abortion." While they're not always done literally in a back alley, they are unsafe and unregulated. What does this mean? This means you're putting TWO lives at risk now...very likely preventing them BOTH from seeing the truth of Christ. So why not at least give one person a chance? They may be on the process to ending a life before it begins, if they haven't already, but we should not judge them for it and should give them the grace that we also received and help them see where they need to go from this point forward.

A brief aside before moving on: I am not trying to be insensitive...I know people that have this situation going on in the lives of those close to them, and I am not trying to say it's okay for them to have an abortion.

So what about gay marriage? Why is that fine? Well, as I will take time to say on every point it's not...but in terms of being a legal issue this is the easiest one to handle. People are going to do what they're going to do. I realize there are issues that deal with sharing insurance and benefits that people fight against, but I think that's not really a big deal. I'll be honest, I don't think much of this one because it seems like much ado about nothing. But I also am not as informed about it either. :P

Now we come to the big one. The legalization of drugs is historically an interesting topic because a lot of what the war on drugs fights against today was at one point completely legal. Cocaine, heroin, and other opiates were over-the-counter drugs at one point. This was before the FDA, also, and before much more research was done on the effects of those drugs. Obviously the research was in favor of making these drugs known as dangerous substances. Remember, though, that alcohol was also thought of as terrifying dangerous as well during the 20's.

You may now be asking "Where are you going with this?" Well, The ATF was created to handle dangerous crap, to put it very technically. We also have the FDA to make sure that our food won't kill us and that pharmaceuticals are safe. While I have little faith in the latter duties of that department, it still does its job to a reasonable degree. With that in mind, all of the substances on the streets would be subject to regulation in both purity and safety. Laws could be put in place to keep people from using these substances while driving, just like with alcohol.

The big change would be in crime rates. Obviously the quickest drop would be in convictions for usage. But the longstanding changes would be in larger trafficking operations and the economy. Why would people buy bathtub crack made with cleaning fluids when they can go to the store that sells it in a way where you won't get shot buying, and won't get a bad batch with too much bleach in the mix? Drug trafficking would more than likely die off, much in the way that professional moon-shining did when prohibition ended. While both would still exist, they just wouldn't be profitable anymore and would naturally disappear. The economic change that would occur would be a nice bulge in tax collection. I'm not the first to say it, and I won't be the last. Tax the CRAP out of controlled substances. That oughta put a dent in the budget deficit.

So that's that. People are going to do what they're going to do, and we need to remember that. If you don't know the Truth you can't live by it. What we, and I mean the Christian community, need to do is reach out with the Gospel and change lives. I'm not saying that if a bill comes down you should vote yes to legalizing these issues because everyone else will...I know that confusing because I just seemed to endorse all this. But remember what I've said all along, I'm NOT endorsing these decisions, and when asked to vote I would likely abstain. (The drug issue would be the exception on my list with a yes vote.)

Forcing our morality into the lives of people who don't share our views is not how the Gospel gets spread. America is not a theocracy, and we shouldn't have the dream of that reality as our primary mission. Our primary mission is people...connecting people that God has placed in our lives back to Him. It's through a relationship with Jesus Christ that people will learn not to abort babies, overcome drug addiction, and learn of God's plan for relationships between men and women. Nothing else has the power of permanence as a solution as the Cross. And even then will still may struggle...but in a community of believers and with the Holy Spirit as our guide, we can be on solid ground in hard times.


Joshua

I read a lot.

The question popped into mind recently: "Is all of this reading I do purely for the reasons I want it to be?" The reason why I thought of it is because I try and read everything. Not literally everything, but subject-wise...I read books of history, politics, classic literature, modern literature, and Christian life. I'd be a liar if I said there was NO personal pride in it...but really I'm shooting for something that not a lot of Christians know and strive for...knowledge of the world around me.

Now I'm not saying that I'm some special force in the world and everyone should be like me, or that most Christians intentionally stay unculutured. But I've noticed that sometimes a thing like your reading list, if you have one (if you don't, then make one ;) ), will be filled with books on the Bible and Christian living only. There's none of the old college "well roundedness" going on. The reason why universities, religious and secular, make you take things like math when your an English major, or interpretive dance when your study to design spaceships, is that they don't want you to live in a bubble and know only what you need to do one thing for the rest of your life. Who more than Christians, then, should have a semblence of the world around them? To know of the social struggles of those both in the houses on their block and in the countries across the sea? To know God's word inside and out, and to be able to connect it with an allegory of meaning with someone in a well known novel or poem?

I recently purchased Timothy Keller's The Reason for God: Faith in an Age of Skepticism. When I went with some good friends to his lecture at UPenn a few months back, I was inspired when someone asked him the question "what do you read to stay informed?" (It was something of that nature...I can't recall the exact question.) His reply, basically, was "I live in Manhattan, so I'm a New Yorker. So I read what New Yorkers read...but on top of that there's all of the theology and Christian books. So it's a lot more than the average person, but I read both what Christians read and what the people around me read." (Emphasis mine.)

So that's my goal. I want to know God's word, and know the people around me culturally. I want to be a good steward of my mind, in both making it the mind of Christ and like one of the sons of Issachar, who had understanding of their times.


Joshua

Why I'm glad Rick Ross was a C.O.

I work with two guys who are involved with hip-hop on both a local and national level. Sometime recently I overheard talk of "I can't believe Rick Ross was a C.O., man!" I don't listen to a lot of newer rap because honestly a lot of it is the same garbage about keepin' gangsta and having lots of cars, and this guy is of that pedigree. From what I know he has taken his name from an actual convicted felon and raps about being a drug trafficker.

So now we come to the present, where he gets "accused" of working for a Florida prison facility as a corrections officer. I honestly hope it brings him down. Why? Because the world doesn't need anymore anti-heroes. There are enough bad-boy heroes in TV and movies and books and comics and music and real life that it's such a poor image of what a real hero is. And no...I'm not going to go cliche and talk about public servants or armed forces, because let's just assume that they are heroes. I am trying to say that whether in fiction or reality, we have been given a picture of heroes needing to bend the rules and be a little bad to be good. The Rick Ross situation is the far end of the spectrum, whereas he's good because he is a criminal. His drug dealing and usage makes him respectable.

All this has significance to me not just because Ed Cole wrote a chapter about it (I think it may have been Maximized Manhood...if not it was in Courage), but because you have tons of people looking up to thugs like this. And when you combine that with rampant fatherless in our country in general, but specifically in low-income areas, it makes a mess of a picture of what a man should be.

Maybe someday rap will go back to being street poetry and not CSI stories set to a beat.


Joshua

I will soon make noise, much to the dismay of my neighbors.

With the upcoming re-launch of ReaLife, I though that it would finally be time to invest money into fixing up the Little Drumset That Could. As a result...I went shopping! But after the discouraging grand total of the few things I needed to get rolling and not sound like crap, I thought "some of this I can get used and it will still be awesome." When the dust cleared, I saved about $240 by purchasing only what I needed new on GC, while the heavy duty gear that will work used was found on eBay. Fun things:



So basically I will be working with a nicer and purpler version of this:

...and I'm really excited because it's been about a year since I played a real drum set. :D


Joshua

More design shizzle.

Hopefully soon I will have some Lightmare T-shirts for sale. I will let everyone know so they can buy one for each and every person they know. No but seriously...they won't be crap. I'll keep you updated!


Joshua

GOOD NEWS!!

Stars and Scars is now running...go look at the nifty little piece I put together. And once again...if you have any web or design needs, let me know. :D


Joshua

Where are you, Dan?

To my dear friend Daniel Steinmetz,

I looked for your blog this morning. Where is it? I have no idea where to find you. You know where to find this, and if you didn't you wouldn't be reading it now would you? Comment so I will be connected to you internet ranting.

Sincerely,


J. John Moorhead

I HATE INTERNET EXPLORER

Microsoft is the enemy. I have been working for WEEKS to fix errors on this site to make it work in Internet Explorer 7. Apple won't even support Internet Explorer...and rightly so. It's terrible. Everybody please download Mozilla Firefox and use that instead. MSIE is a nightmare and should be phased out by humanity.

Thus ends my software critique of the height of my current frustration.


Joshua

Shameless plug.

I would like to direct your attention to a little link over in the "LOOK HERE" section of 3AC that says "Lightmare." That would be my fledgling little one-man design studio that from which I am trying to make some loot. I am currently looking for projects, so if you know of anyone looking for a logo, a website, a t-shirt, a flyer, a sticker, a postcard, or just some savvy advice on a color scheme, send them my way and I'll gladly work with them.

Thanks!


Joshua

Orwell's 1984=China's 2008: The Golden Shield Project and the "Great Firewall of China"

Thanks to this article in Rolling Stone (of all places) I learned a little about what China is up to these days in preparation for the Olympics and beyond. If you've ever read the book 1984, you know who Big Brother is. But even if you haven't, you probably have a general pop-culture concept of it due to mind numbing programming reality TV. It basically means that everything we're doing is being watched. In China, this is fast becoming reality.

For the big picture read the article, for the short story, pay attention.

Thanks to a "special economic zone," the Chinese government is experiencing the best benefits of capitalism without losing their communist grip on every living being in their borders. They basically turned a muddy farm town into a city of over 12 million people in the span of thirty years, and have set up the hot-spot for CCTV and facial recognition experimentation. They have used this technology to spin the March Tibet riots in their favor within their own nation, and are planning on using it to monitor even rural areas.

I don't want to be painted as a whistle-blower, or a liberal, or an armchair politician, or a conspiracy theorist, or an alarmist, or even an activist for that matter. I just want people around me who may not already know what is happening in the world see a little bit outside the borders of our country. We need to realize that we have the sweet life here, and we need to really work to remember that, as well as to help others far away realize it as well.

We all know that sanctions and laws and treaties and cease-fires and alliances and peace talks really do very little in the long run. What we need to do is have a heart soft enough to realize these aren't just articles that we can read while having our Starbucks Grande Macchiatto and then go back to our nine-to-five. We need to think outwardly...first to those around us everyday, then those around us in our region, then even farther than that...who knows how far God wants us to look as individuals. Maybe that may not stretch farther than the city you're in, but it may spread to China, where people fight for so much and may not realize they have One who fights for them.

America is amazing. Let's keep it that way by not supporting this crud. If you want to spread the word, do that. If you want to not buy anything made in China, definitely do that. But most importantly...realize that the faces and names are souls...souls that need a Savior, just like I do, everyday.

I leave with this verse, on how our perspective should reflect toward the world:

He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Acts 1:7-8, ESV (emphasis mine)

Joshua

Who Reads The Watchmen?

So last week I went and saw The Dark Knight. I will cut this short and just say that so far, barring any debacle with the Wolverine film, this is the best super-hero movie made. It stands alone as a work of art as cinema, and then you consider what justice it did in translation of the characters and stories from the comic book.

But that's not what I'm writing about right now.

There was a trailer for the next big DC comic movie, coming out in March, based on the mini-series/graphic novel Watchmen entitled...you guessed it...Watchmen. My friend Mark at work gave me this book to read sometime in May and I brushed it off while trying to read literary classics in my Attempt At Culture. But the trailer intrigued me and I got to reading.

What I found was a story both typical and uncommon for comic books: a sparce few actual super-powered heroes, with the majority of the cast being costumed normal people. Not aliens, not para-dimensional beings. Just people. I also found out that Alan Moore, writer of the Watchmen, also wrote the one-issue comic The Killing Joke, which was given to Heath Ledger as a guide for his performance as the Joker. One of his other works, whether you already know it or not, was V for Vendetta. I have yet to read the comic, but the movie was great.

What I liked about Watchmen:

• A non-serial storyline allowed for closure. People die, irreversible events occur...it's not something that can be rehashed into an ongoing title to capitalize on its success.
• Aside from the handful of fanciful elements (a single "I got powers from an atomic accident" guy, an engineered monster, and teleporting) the story was largely based in reality. It was written in 1985, so a lot of the action was set against the fear created by the Cold War.
• It provided an interesting alternate reality version of the 80's, in which Dr. Manhattan (the previously mentioned atomic fella) actually helped us win Vietnam decisively. This had many interesting consequences.

What I didn't like:

• The old post-modern views of "is there a God, and if so how do you explain science?" I've read Vonnegut, and Palahniuk, and by now it's simultaneously blasé and very sad. Blasé for the reason that so many people say that type of stuff as if it's original and intelligent, and sad for the fact that so many people say that type of stuff.
• The portrayal of sex as love was annoying. But once again...it's a dystopian/post-modern story...it was bound to be in there somewhere. It is not graphically depicted at all in the book, but watch out what you're reading...you'll want to skip a few frames in certain parts to avoid that stuff.

Overall, I do recommend it, especially if you were intrigued by the trailer. And if you haven't seen the trailer, it's here for your viewing. More on Batman later, and possibly more stuff that will hopefully make you think.

Joshua

Sudan: Beautiful Country in Danger of China's Greed, or Plagued by Darfuri Rebels?

It came out this week that The International Criminal Court (ICC) is going after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for three counts of genocide, five crimes against humanity, and two counts of murder.

For the long story, go here. I'll try and give the quick history lesson on what this means:

In Sudan, The Western region of Darfur is primarily non-Arab in it's ethnicity. While none of the country is purely Arabic, and most of the country is in fact Islamic, there is the ethnic separation between Arab-African Sudanese and Darfuri peoples that is mainly on a tribal level. In 2003 a rebellion broke out due to what was considered oppression of non-Arabs. It has incorporated many smaller groups together over the past five years, but was begun mainly by the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement. The government struck back with their own forces, as well as endorsing militia groups known as the Janjaweed. The result: a death toll of 400,000 and climbing seeded by rapid desertification in the region and then made worse by the serial rape, murder, and displacement of thousands and thousands of native Darfuri people.

So what does this mean for China then, and why do we care?

China, obviously, is hosting the 2008 Olympic Games this year in Beijing. The only frighteningly Red spot on the globe is hosting the international festival of peace through sports.

This is a farce.

China recently showed how much they loved their fellow man by continuing their oppression of Tibet, but that's for another day. Their Sudanese connections are just as nefarious, if not worse, for the simple fact that they are driven by money.

In 2005, 90 percent of Sudan's small arms were sold to them by China. In 2006, 90 percent of all oil that left Sudan went to China. Isn't a country that funds the violation of civil rights guilty by association? And if so, is it really anything more than a show for them to hold a ceremony showing how much they love global peace and harmony?

Not even Sudan can trust China, as their ally to the east is playing middle ground to keep the coffers full. In 2005, when Sudan was undergoing investigations by the ICC approved by the UN Security Council, Big Red refused to vote against the approval with their veto power. Sounds like somebody wants Beijing to be all smiles come August.

Why am I saying all of this?

Because I want to do my part to make it known that we shouldn't be afraid of China. Oppose the Olympics in any way you can...don't support the companies that sponsor the games. Is this in an angry way, or a rebellious way? No. I'm supporting Darfuri people by NOT supporting the Olympics. It's not something negative or hate filled...I'm trying to do my small part through keeping money out of their pockets, as well as educating others on the reasons that they should do the same. The important thing to remember is that their are people everywhere dying before they hear the name of Christ, and at the risk of sounding all new-age-y, we need to support life, not death.


Joshua

Welcome to the Thunderdome

So I think this means I'm switching from Xanga...ah well. I think it was a bit of a dead zone for me there anyway. Liz and I barely wrote anything at all, and Katie hasn't been on in ages. And they were the only folks of whom I really kept track. Onward and upward we go...I will later today post my happiness for news I heard about Sudan this morning. Until then, stay classy.


Joshua