partsofspeaking

I want to start this entry with a statement of a proud mother. My son has been awarded the opportunity to go to Boston to a national conference. I'll leave the particulars out, but I am so proud of him for his responsible behavior that led to this opportunity. Moving on. Right now, at least in this election, the Democrats seem to know who they are. They know what they stand for; it's just a matter of details of when and how to implement and who would be the best one to carry it out. They stand for big sweeping government solutions. And they are honest about it. So what about the Republicans. There seems (to me) to be more disagreement among the Republicans about issues and even what it means to be a Republican. Are we going to be Reagan Republicans? Compassionate conservatives? Libertarians? What do any of these words even mean? They all pay some lipservice to the idea that the government is based on a constitution that supports law and order and protection from ext...

I am a political junkie. I'm loving this race; there's so many personalities and so much drama (which rhymes with Obama). Unfortunately, the most qualified Democrat quit today, and I'm sorry. He was too real to be elected. And John Kerry--talk about lacking loyalty. He couldn't even endorse his own past running mate. That's just tacky. It is hard not to post on Obama. But I'm not Ann Coulter (heaven help us, she is mean, but funny at times). Let's just say he was snarky to Hillary the other night in the ABC debate, and should have shown more respect. I'm not one of those, "OOOHHH, he's really a closeted Muslim, blah, blah, blah." I just think there's not much there, despite his great speaking (and yes, for someone who teaches history of public speaking, it is nice to see a presidential candidate who really can do oratory.) But I may be wrong, and he may be president, and I would say, while it's a logical fallacy to vot...

It is my opinion, and only my opinion, that Abraham/Abram is the most interesting character in the Old Testament and at least in Genesis. Joseph is too good and his father is too sneaky and his grandfather is too wimpy. But his great grandfather Abraham is a wonderful study on progressive revelation and the possible changes in a person's life, over time, from a thoroughly pagan worldview to something much closer to a holistic and God-based worldview. There will be several posts on this, but we'll just start with Abraham and women. First, he's married to his half-sister. Uuuuuuu--for us, maybe, because we live post Leviticus 18, where it's very clear that the accepted incest of the ancient world was not morally or spiritually or genetically acceptable to God. (Which brings up the question of how literally we can take Adam and Eve, since there had to be incest in their children right off the bat. That's another subject, see below.) Second, Abraham takes anoth...