[Note]:This is an opinion article – it is an opinion. By reading it you acknowledge that I have an opinion. If you think I don’t have one, please stop reading. If you think I’m proporting everything in this as fact, you’re wrong. And now back to our show….

So I watched the Moore vs. O’Reilly footage on FoxNews.com and I have to say that the time was limited and Mr. O’Rielly is a bit of an antagonist as a host [Michael Moore is not an antagonist either ;)]. That aside I was concerned with Michael Moore’s main argument which was that President Bush sent people’s kids over to Iraq and they were victims of some scheme that tricked them into a situation where they could die. Arguments about Bush’s honesty aside, if you sign up to be a soldier you are signing up to potentially go lay your life down.

Death in combat is an honorable thing and so I do not want to belittle anyone who is a soldier, but I am concerned that Michael Moore paints a picture that 12 year old US citizens are out there getting shot at because they were held hostage by the Bush administration. Soldiers are eighteen years or older to my knowledge – legal adults with full voting rights [apparently drinking and gambling are still too sophisticated for them though]. I chose to not join the miltary at a young age (unless drafted) because I did not want to lay my life down for this country. Bill Clinton, ex-President of the Untied States [that’s a joke] chose not to lay his life down as well (and boy was he heckled for that – this means you can heckle me for the same) and that is legitimate. However, if you join the military you put yourself at the mercy of a small "handful" of people in power who can send you to death on the battle lines.

I don’t like how the war in Iraq has turned into another US babysitting job, I don’t like how the US is babysitting much of the globe. I don’t like how the UN (should that be United Notions instead?) handles things either (I generally don’t like the UN). I think that much of the situation that has developed since 9/11 has been completely ignored: this is spiritual and not political. Muslim fundamentalists do not care if you’re politically aligned with the Republicans or the Democrats – they care if you’re aligned with Allah!

As a contrast, I don’t care if you’re a Republican or a Democrat either – I care if you’re in fellowship with Jesus Christ.

[Note]: This is still an opinion article

OK, I’m done now. I do want your comments if you can explain to me how the soldiers didn’t know that they could die when signing up. And if that’s the case I think we should utterly destroy the GI bill so that soldiers join the military for the sole purpose of being soldiers.

[Note]: This is no longer an opinion article

We (I) rented HellBoy yesterday because I’m always intrigued by adaptations of comic books into movies. This one generally was good, plus it had incredibly good special effects that were rather lifelike and not feeling too ‘digitized.’ The storyline was not too ‘blow the crap out of anything you can as often as you can’ and it had some unique and fun characters. The villains were incredibly cool in that the characters were all from the past and were involved with (surprise) some sort of magic – Rasputin being one of them.

What was really odd was the intertwining of spiritual things with physical things. The concept of resurrection is just blown out of the water as this one creature keeps resurrecting, but the resurrected creature keeps splitting up. Once splitting and spreading the now multiple creatures are wiped out at once to stop them from spreading. So the resurrection is quite different from a biblical definition.

Hellboy being a demon is also, um, theologically different. However, in the end I discovered one important thing: it was a fictional movie. Satanism was not pushed or the occult glorified. However, a demon was presented as having good character.

Oh, well. It was a fun movie, but Jessica didnt’ like the ending – she said it was too open ended. Sequels abound 🙂

Last night there was a show on (‘the season premiere’) called Amish in the City. The introductory bits were so bad that I went off in search of something intellectually stimulating. The idea of the show is to take six amish teens/early twenties people and mix them with six city-folk in a house whilst the Amish discover whether or not they want to go back to Amishland.

What was so bad was the brief biographies of the amish folks. Everysingle one started, “My Name is [Some Amish name] and I grew up on a farm.” Then they all (all being the first couple because after that I was done) went on to say how they had a lot of questions about city life and were really curious. Dumb.

I feel sorry for them because of the doctrine that their community holds (once baptized into the Amish community if you leave you will go to hell) makes leaving impossible on a spiritual level. However, I also feel bad because anything they might gain in a city is really superficial.

I just had to get that out of my system. Thanks for reading it.

Addendum: [August 7th 2004]
People keep leaving bizaare comments – I don’t understand it. I don’t hate the Amish, I don’t think they’re dangerous or stupid. I disagree with their doctrine and I don’t think they rightly divide God’s word. I disagree with the producers of the Television show exploiting them for this ‘series’ because I don’t think that it will add value to the young Amish folks lives nor will it be great television.

Last night Jessica and I rented ‘Starsky and Hutch’ from BlockBluster (not a typo – they irritate me, I’m just not closer to another rental place to my knowledge – and we don’t rent enough movies for netflix) and laughed a good bit. However, there were a few sexual scenes that we skipped. That aside we enjoyed the humor and really laughed at the outtakes and the gag real. It is hilarious to see Snoop Doggy Dogg dressed so funky instead of gangsta rap. He really is funny in this movizzle 😉

The real clincher for the movie was the shooting up of the horse at the drug dealer’s daughter’s batmitzvah. And the afro’s were priceless. Technology was carefully kept large and funky so nothing felt out of place. Owen Wilson delivers the best dry lines in all of Hollywood while Ben Stiller plays a good fake guy (I think that this was 10,000 times funnier than ‘Zoolander’). I wouldn’t rent this a second time due to the two scenes that were dirty – however, if you aren’t offended by that sort of material this is a pretty good movie.

“I Had An Abortion” T-shirts are available to those who have no taste. This is not speaking out on women’s rights. Pro-Choice or not you’re screaming out on top of your lungs that you had (most likely) unprotected sex and an unwanted pregnancy ensued. You made bad choices but you covered them up. Instead of humility its bragging about a mistake. This would be like Pamela Anderson wearing a shirt that says, “I have Hep-C and I rock!” Instead she’s ashamed and confesses she screwed up. If only, if only…

One thing that really impresses me about Eric Meyer, CSS guru and impromptu political analyst is that in his article Partied Out he calls a dud election a dud election. I keep coming back to the idea that neither candidate is worth voting for. I’m not a Republican and I’m not a Democrat I registered ‘unaffiliated’ in Colorado and I plan on voting for the candidate that appears to be best qualified.

Neither Bush and Kerry are qualified, in my opinion, to run this country. This country has reached a point where every politician runs the country with a bribe scheme. I was talking with my dad about this and he reminded me of John Kennedy’s statement:

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.

This quote should ring like a shot fired through the political crap that is being flung in the ‘arena’ of popular politics. U.S. citizens should be voting with a long term perspective not a selfish, short-term perspective.

If the United States politician’s job is to feed, clothe or take care of its citizens then we’ve come a long way from the starting point that was once the work of our founding fathers. They wanted to start a country that would allow for the citizens to be able to take care of their families, to provide for them, to protect them, but not to be invasive with laws, beaurocracy or dictatorial ruling.

In short, you’ve been given the right to vote. Vote, but don’t vote for either major political party if neither party represents the values of this country, your values and most importantly what is right. I had a talk with my father-in-law today and it brought me to think even more that if we’re going to be responsible citizens it may require us to vote for a third alternative for some time to get the message to the parties involved (Republican, Democrat, Green, Independent) that 2008, 2012 and 2016 are not long term enough. What is my daughter going to be doing when she’s 18 and old enough to vote (2020)? I don’t know exactly, but I’m going to vote with that in mind. And what will my great, great grandkids be doing when they are old enough to vote (2100’s)? I don’t know [I hope they’re not using Windows OS ;)] but I’m going to vote with that in mind.

I’m not saying you and I should not vote practically and that there aren’t issues to be dealt with now, but I do think that a broader perspective would drastically alter the way most Americans voted.

Read Eric’s article, read Ben’s articles (1, 2, 3). Read Trint’s posting. Read. Think. Think Some More. Then, when you have the oportunity to vote, do so. Go register if you’re not registered. Think about your great-great-great-great grandkids – they may not hear about you as an American hero or world visionary, but if you vote and pass on the ideals of this country to them, they just might think of you. I thank my grandparents and parents for thinking and talking about their worldviews with me because I learned a lot about this countries ideals through them. Ideals I plan to teach my grandchildren.