Following is a movie review by Your Business Blogger(R) originally published by the Scripps Howard News Service. Get updates on Twitter.
WHY SAVING PRIVATE RYAN FALLS SHORT
By JOHN WESLEY YOEST JR.
"Please tell me I've been a good man," Private Ryan tearfully begs his wife when, as an old man, he visits the grave of the man who died for him. "Tell me I've led a good life."
Well frankly, Ryan, your life probably wasn't all that special. At least not good enough for another man to die in your place. No man is "good enough," no man is truly worthy of the ultimate sacrifice. In his heart, Ryan knows this. And so do we.
But as Hollywood prepares to honor the depictions of sacrifice in the movie "Saving Private Ryan," it's worth reflecting on true worth of that ultimate gesture. ...
...There is an Unknown God that we all seek. Speilberg was on to truth in depicting Captain Miller as "the teacher," a rabbi, a Christ-figure. In its final moments, the movie reveals its allegory of man's yearning for Christ. Only in this context does "Saving Private Ryan" make sense. Private Ryan cheated death, but he didn't cheat eternity. Was he good enough? No man is good enough.
In the end, Ryan falls to his knees before his savior's grave feeling his unworthiness. Asking in anguish the movie's central question: was I worthy? The only answer Speilberg leaves us with is a silently waving flag and Ryan's hollow cry ... I tried to be a good man! The difference between saying "I was a good man" and admitting, "I am not worthy" may seem slight. But traversing the chasm between the two provides the true liberation Ryan was seeking.
In Spielberg's movie, Ryan is saved by Everyman. But the captain's grave provided no ultimate answers. For salvation, Ryan should have kneeled before an empty grave.
Read the rest at the jump.
Dog tags with P38
Service Number blurred
***
Thank you (foot)notes:
Originally published by
the Scripps Howard News Service
Also titled
The Salvation of Private Ryan by The Virginian Pilot.
Jack and Charmaine This is wedding anniversary week in our household: We celebrate for 7 days.
Men's Health magazine reminds us why marriage works. The April issue from last year has six compelling reasons to marry, by Anna Maltby.
Anna is a woman.
But the advice is still good,
If you are susceptible to vice, find a wife. She'll save you from yourself -- and improve your life -- in a variety of ways...
1. Increase your pay
A Virginia Commonwealth University study found that married men earn 22 percent more than their similarly experienced but single colleagues.
[VCU is a terrific school located in Richmond, Virginia. Usually Conservative. Good.]
2. Speed up your next promotion
Married men receive higher performance ratings and faster promotions than bachelors, a 2005 study of U.S. Navy officers reported.
[If the Army wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one, goes the old joke -- it looks like the military is a-changing its perception of the value of a helpmeet.]
3. Keep you out of trouble
According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report, male victims of violent crime are nearly four times more likely more likely to be single than married.
[Your Business Blogger(R) has not been in a bar fight since getting married. But every few years I got to get the caps replaced on those cracked up front teeth from an altercation back in single days. And I wish that ringing in my ears would stop...]
4. Satisfy you in bed
In 2006, British researchers reviewed the sexual habits of men in 38 countries and found that in every country, married men have more sex.
5. Help you beat cancer
In a Norwegian study, divorced and never-married male cancer patients had 11 and 16 percent higher mortality rates, respectively, than married men.
[Charmaine is forever pestering me to get a(nother!) physical. Goodness, I had one back in the 90's. And the colonoscopies every 5 years are her idea too. Such a pain in the ...]
6. Help you live longer
A UCLA study found that people in generally excellent health were 88 percent more likely to die over the 8-year study period if they were single.
The accountability and friendship of marriage works.
Excuse me now, I've got some yard work to do.
As one academic studying the men-marriage-maturity transformation wrote, "A rake, now out raking leaves,"
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
But we actually celebrate two anniversaries.
Two constants every man needs.
His car.
His woman.
Jack and Charmaine 1990 (Order may not be important to some.)
Even as Charmaine and I are moving into our 20th year of marriage toward that death do us part part; the other anniversary is a milestone of over two decades.
Alert Readers are thinking, I know Jack -- how did he do it?
How did he survive all those years?
Without a coffee cup holder...?
The Germans do not believe that people should drive and drink...coffee. Ergo, no coffee cup holder in that old model.
Let's face it. The majority of new automobile sales in America are made because of the buyers' wants, not needs. Often they are just tired of their cars; they look old and out of date, or they need repairs to put them back into top condition, or their neighbors or coworkers have acquired new cars.
Lyrics to KISSES SWEETER THAN WINE here. My favorite version is by Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt.
In May of 1987 Your Business Blogger(R) bought a new car from American Service Center in Arlington, Virginia from former Redskin football player Joe Tereshinski.
We had a film crew from South Africa at the house today interviewing Charmaine on the campaign.
The rest of the world is confused at our continuing frictional discourse on abortion. Most of the world has real restrictions on abortion on national levels. The world does not understand that we do not.
The USA is one of the few countries in the world that has abortion on demand for any reason through all nine months (and longer under the Obama Born Alive Abortion Plan). Including China where the government makes the demand -- not the mother.
Unless the baby is a girl -- then everyone wants the child dead...
Or in India where abortion also is used for sex selection to allow only male babies born. Because boys are superior to girls as all advanced nations know.
USA abortion proponents tell us that the "health of the mother" is the only exception. Scare quotes are used in print and air quotes are used in conversation as John McCain does.
The quoting is used because the "health" issue is the exception that swallows the rule as Clarke Forsythe at Americans United for Life reminds us. Because anything, anything can be interpreted as "health." As in mental health. As in a bad hair day. Any reason is sufficient reason to abort.
There are no exceptions.
The Supreme Court has so ruled. Not we the people.
"This is a historic election," says Charmaine Yoest, [Ph.D.] president of Americans United for Life. "With the next president having the opportunity to appoint one, two or even more justices," she adds, the election could change the law "on the life issue."
If McCain loses the exit polls will be scoured but many pundits seem likely to blame it on centrist concerns about Palin during a financial crisis.
"It's really clear that there are some people out there who would like to make her a scapegoat if things don't go their way Tuesday," said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life Action, which opposes abortion rights.
"But she's has very clearly connected with the base of the party and the life and family voters and I think that is going to give her a really strong base going forward whatever happens," she said.
California Proposition 4 is endorsed by Americans United for Life, among others.
This is an organization that has worked to slowly erode women's access to abortion care with bills that limit available abortion methods after 12 to 13 weeks of pregnancy; require waiting periods, biased counseling, and ultrasound viewings prior to an abortion; create burdensome and medically unnecessary regulations for abortion clinics; assert that fetuses feel pain during an abortion; and allow health care employees to refuse to counsel, refer, or treat patients for any service to which they object.
She intends it to be dire and evil, but it comes out good and accurate. Something Biblical in there...
J. Margaret Datiles, staff counsel for Americans United for Life representing the interests of the weakest citizens of the United States and abroad has an article in The Washington Times, A price on your head. Good read. Would get us ready for money saving suicide plans under an Obama administration.
The liberal Mark Warner is running against conservative Jim Gilmore for Senate in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Mark Warner says that the "Right to Lifers" and the National Rifle Association and Homeschoolers and the Christian Coalition is,
"Threatening to what it means to be an American"
Why do these liberals hate normal people?
Warner and Obama believe in abortion on demand through nine or ten months.
Warner and Obama do not believe in the right to bear arms.
Warner and Obama do not believe parents should educate their children.
Warner and Obama believe in homosexual marriage.
Warner and Obama believe in our surrender in the wars.
Warner and Obama believe in raising our taxes.
This is normal?
Listen to the short audio clip of Mark Warner, his voice dripping with disdain, on our conservative values,
Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger(R) served as Assistant Secretary in Health and Human Resources in governor James Gilmore's administration.
L to R: Roxane and Jim Gilmore; Charmaine and Jack Yoest
***
"I was told that if I voted for Barry Goldwater that there would be war in Southeast Asia.
And sure enough, I voted for Barry Goldwater and there was war in Southeast Asia," went the popular joke after Democrat Lyndon Johnson was elected president.
We are now told that if we vote for John McCain we will have endless war in Iraq. I will vote for John McCain...and if Obama steals the election -- we will, indeed, have endless war in Iraq...
Friday was Charmaine's last day at FRC. They gave her a nice send off. It was less like a funeral and more like a celebration -- a celebration like many funerals should be: She's going to a better place, but we wish she were here.
Later, Your Business Blogger(R) returned with the Penta-Posse to her office to gather up the pictures and files and stuff and stuffed all into the monster-SUV. We left no action, email, paper, or child behind.
It took 'til 9pm to clear out. This is how job changing is different from death:
Crossing over to eternity: Your inbox will be full.
Crossing over to another job: Your inbox will be empty.
The only thing she took with her were the memories and the comfort that she would be seeing all of her old friends again somewhere, sometime again.
Some things don't die...
Friendships endure: Relationships in the Body are eternal.
Then again, maybe job-changing and death are exactly alike.
It is with mixed emotions that we announce that Dr. Charmaine Yoest, VP for Communications, has accepted the presidency of Americans United for Life.
While this is great news for Charmaine and even better news for AUL, it is a deep loss for us.
During Charmaine's time at FRC, we have gained a whole new level of visibility in the national media, developed an excellent new web site, built out the first video studio in FRC history, overhauled our media center to make it state-of-the-art, obtained record op ed placements, and maintained quality radio programs heard on hundreds of stations nationwide.
Charmaine and her entire team can be justly proud of these accomplishments. It's good to know that her gifts will now be deployed at the helm of one of best-known and most successful pro-life groups in the country.
We wish her and her family well in the weeks and years to come, and we're confident our paths will cross many times as we work to protect innocent human life.
One of the Rules of Males is to be able to fix things and know the differences of Make, Model and Year of the various cars on and off the road.
At left is one of the 1957 Chevys Your Business Blogger(R) owned a number a decades ago -- back when the mid-fifties Chevys were viewed as street racers of their day (at least by local law enforcement). These Chevys started out as transportation, then hot rod and now museum piece. Few are driven on the street now-a-days except during parades.
So to continue with The Dude's Real Education we traveled to Snow Hill, Maryland for the weekend to visit the annual classic car show and for The Blessing of the Combines with friends and family. A new combine goes for some $200,000. Farming is expensive.
But it was the cars that caught our attention.
Alert Readers will remember that Your Business Blogger(R) has also owned a number of Corvettes. At the car show, there was a well maintained 1964 convertible that was selling for $49,500. I sold mine for considerably, considerably less, long, long ago.
These days it's not the old cars that break down...it's the old guys.
Women! Are you looking for your man to display some emotion? Take him to an old car show! Ask him three questions:
1) Did you ever own one of these old cars?
2) What did you sell it for?
3) What are they worth now?
Give him a hug, but do not make a scene as he begins to cry. The other men present know what is going on and will avert their eyes when an old car-guy breaks down.
I'm told it happens a lot at old car shows.
(Let's not call them antique cars, just yet. Please)
A key vehicle series to know is the differences between the '55, '56 and '57 Chevys.
The Dude learned fast. And learned the secret access to the '57's gas cap.
At left: Driver's side Tail Fin opened revealing the gas cap.
Photo Credit: The Dreamer.
The Blessing of the Combines at Snow Hill, Maryland, August, 2008. I did not find the owner of the red 1957 Chevrolet two-door sedan pictured, but would like to acknowledge him, if possible.
"It is something you only want to do once," said Gary Bauer.
"What's that?" I ask. "Running for president?"
"No," he says. "Falling backwards off the platform."
Alert Readers will well remember Gary Bauer falling off the podium while flipping flapjacks on his run for president. It was funny and no one got hurt.
Except, maybe, his chances for president...
The Baby-Boo, the caboose on the Penta-Posse, made a similar slip and fell off the elevated platform at a press conference today.
Falling is something everyone has to do. Baby-Boo has got his 'falling' out of the way -- and is now ready to run without a slip for president.
Baby-Boo may not be 35 years old, but, then, he's not that much younger than Obama.
Gary Bauer still laughs about his tumble and the uncertainly all presidential campaigns generate on the trail. Gary is a class act. (Your Business Blogger(R) would still be mad and a-blaming someone...)
She says that all voters should care, "...[A]bout the public policies the person is going to put in place."
Charmaine is pictured at left on an earlier CNN appearance debating abortion.
The policies of which Charmaine speaks are the 'vote-changing' issues Grover Norquist writes about in his book Leave Us Alone: Getting the Government's Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives.
The Leave Us Alone coalition is made up of groups who want the government to do only constitutionally-restricted work, and to, well, leave us alone.
Following is a short list of loose associations Norquist cites who want less government and less outside intrusion:
The Alert Reader will note that this conservative Leave Us Alone coalition includes the Pro-Life community. This is the only group in Grover's group that wants the government and the courts to protect life and stop the option of killing of unborn children -- just as the government stopped the option of slavery.
The Christian Left is willing to sacrifice freedom in order to pay higher taxes -- this small segment that occasionally attends church is delighted with large government and the government confiscation of property, life and wealth.
These young Christians are confusing government with God -- remember, for most liberals, the government is their god.
The Leftist group is a bit confused on Biblical teaching and looks forward to the tyranny of a ObamaNation. Mature followers of Jesus Christ look to the Ten Commandments, including the directive, Do Not Kill, or more accurately, Do No Murder.
The deliberate taking of innocent life is a vote-changer for thinking Christians.
Obama makes clear what he will do about the killing of babies -- born and pre-born,
"Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, it's never been more important to protect a woman's right to choose. Last year, the Supreme Court decided by a vote of 5-4 to uphold the Federal Abortion Ban, and in doing so undermined an important principle of Roe v. Wade: that we must always protect women's health.
"With one more vacancy on the Supreme Court, we could be looking at a majority hostile to a women's fundamental right to choose for the first time since Roe v. Wade. The next president may be asked to nominate that Supreme Court justice. That is what is at stake in this election.
Your Business Blogger(R) has a degree in Education and was pressured by the National Education Association (NEA) to join the union years ago.
"The NEA is great when you get sued," said the (very large) union rep.
I declined to teach and went into a less violent business: The Army.
The NEA is having their convention in Your Nation's Capital next week. On July 2nd Pro-Life Educators and Students (PLEAS) will be conducting a rally at the Washington Convention Center from 10:00am and 2:00pm.
This press conference would have my attention even if I didn't have 5 kids in the public schools or if Charmaine wasn't speaking.
If Charmaine is speaking, you'll want to listen. And this time we own the mic.
Charmaine is pictured above elbowing aside pro-abortion NOW President Kim Gandy at a open press conference in 2005. This is the only Women in Combat of which conservatives would approve.
PLEAS Coordinator Bob Pawson says, "Pro-Life teachers, school employees, parents, and students are invited to come pray and peacefully picket...Hillary Clinton and/or Barack Obama will surely address NEA's 9,000 Delegates, as they did last year."
Pro-Life teachers are concerned that their teacher union dues support and promote abortion and political candidates who tolerate the holocaust of the unborn.
Pawson explains, "Late-term abortionist George Tiller spoke at NEA headquarters for the [pro-abortion] Feminist Majority Foundation's Leadership Conference in March 2008." Watch the YouTube video here. Warning: graphic pictures of dead children.
No pro-life speakers or political candidates are supported by the NEA.
NEA union President, Reg Weaver is backing Obama; "every public school employee needs to get squarely behind the Obama candidacy."
"The National Education Association supports...the right to reproductive freedom" -- the abortion code-words.
The "NEA supports the ...Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision which now permits abortion on demand through nine months of pregnancy. The NEA is silent on the Dred Scott decision which also codified the ownership of one human being by another. The Dred Scott slave owner is the Roe v Wade feminist.
UPDATE: Press Conference at the Family Research Council building at 9:30 to 10:15am, then on to the presser at the Convention Center at 10:30am.
Charmaine's talk reminded us of the eternal values. Life and Death; this side of eternity and beyond.
At a recent funeral -- they seem to come faster and faster as we get older and older -- we talked about burials. Cremation, well, lights our fire and speeds up that dust-to-dust transition.
Charmaine asked what we plan to do with the ashes, where on earth to put them. We talk about the extended family's burial plots.
"Where do you want to get buried?" She asks.
"37º18'N, 137º55'E," I say.
"What?"
"The Sea of Japan," I remind her. Women!
"What's there?" she wonders.
Bonefish.
***
June 18th is the day we remember the loss of USS Bonefish.
My father, then only a teen-ager from Jersey, left high school, went to war and was assigned to the submarine, USS Bonefish. Just before the final mission of the Bonefish, my father walked off the gangplank - transferred to another assignment. Another man took his place.
On its eighth mission, on June 18, 1945, the Bonefish was lost fighting the enemy in the Sea of Japan, with the loss of all 53 officers and men. It was the last U.S. submarine sunk in World War II...
The article was first published by a number of outlets including the Virginian-Pilot in my hometown.
Wednesday, June 18 - Pre-Assembly Workshop: Re-Engage: Christ as Culture's Hope
Dr. Charmaine Yoest is Vice-President of Communications for the Family Research Council. In that role, she oversees all aspects of FRC's strategic communications and messaging. Dr. Yoest is an author, a political analyst and an expert on domestic and international social policy. She has served as a Contributing Editor at the Heritage Foundation in Policy for FRC. Dr. Yoest holds the Ph.D. and M.A. in Politics from the University of Virginia. She and her husband, Jack, live with their five children in the D.C. area.
Dr. Yoest will speak to the ways the Gospel message intersects contemporary culture and its influence on the hearts and minds of women.
Sinclair Ferguson is Senior Minister of the First Presbyterian Church (ARP) of Columbia, South Carolina
and Professor of Systematic Theology at Westminster
Theological Seminary. A graduate of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, he is the author of some two dozen books, has authored numerous articles and has contributed to various symposia. His writing interests have ranged from works of scholarship to books for children. He has served as minister of two congregations
in Scotland, one on Unst, the most northerly inhabited
island in the United Kingdom, and the other at the center of Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. For more than twenty years he has been a member of the faculty of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia
and Dallas, and has served as a visiting professor in various other seminaries.
Sinclair and his wife Dorothy have been married for thirty-five years. They have three sons, a daughter, and three grandsons.
Jeff Jeremiah began serving as the Executive Pastor/Stated Clerk of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in October, 2006. Prior to that he served as pastor of First Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Renton, Washington for twelve years. His ministry in the EPC began in 1987 when, as an associate pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church of Bethesda, Maryland, the church joined the denomination. At Fourth Presbyterian his pastoral responsibilities ranged from diaconal and visitation ministry to executive pastor and senior associate, beginning his ministry under Dr. Richard Halverson in 1980.
He is convinced that the church of Jesus Christ must come to grips with the 21st century reality that the United States is a mission field and that the missional agenda of the EPC is the most effective way forward.
Jeff has been married to Cindy for thirty years. Together they have three sons – Daniel (26), Jeffrey (24) and Michael (20) who all live in Washington State.
Robert Norris, host pastor, has been Senior Pastor of Fourth Presbyterian
Church since 1984. Rob came to Fourth after serving three years as Executive Pastor of Program at First Presbyterian Church, Hollywood,
California. Originally from Wales he also previously served as Assistant Minister at The City Temple, London, Chaplain to the City of London University, and Chaplain to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. He holds degrees from Kings College, London, and St. Andrews, Scotland, has served as adjunct professor at Reformed Theological Seminary, and has taught in seminaries in Ukraine, Malta, Japan, and Sudan. He and his wife Caren have five children.
Bill Vogler, Moderator of the 27th General Assembly, will speak at the Moderator’s Service of Communion and Prayer on Friday morning. Rev. Vogler is the founding pastor of Grace EPC in Lawrence, Kansas, where he has served for the last 19 years. Bill has served on several committees in Mid-America Presbytery and General Assembly.
Bill has been married to Karen for 34 years. Karen has served in women’s ministry in General Assembly, Mid-America Presbytery and at Grace. She leads Bible studies and retreats on various books of the Bible, prayer and reading through the Scripture. Bill and Karen have three children (Joshua, married to Nicole; Sarah, married to Damon; and Grace, a Sr. at Kansas State University), and one grandchild (James to Josh and Nicole).
Denis Haack is the author of The Rest of Success: What the World Didn’t Tell You About Having It All, and has written articles for such journals as: Reformation & Revival Journal; Eternity; Covenant; and World. He is currently working on his Master of Theological Studies at Covenant Seminary in St. Louis. His undergraduate studies were done at the University of Minnesota and University of New Mexico. After a few years of living in a Christian commune (yes, that’s right, they were hippies), he staffed a church as a youth pastor and was recruited by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship with whom he eventually became area director of New Mexico, Arizona, and part of Texas. To support himself and his family, he did everything from pumping gas to delivering flowers to starting a janitorial business that didn’t boom until he gave the business to a friend who took the idea and ran with it. Before he and Margie owned a home, he always declared that their lawn would be made of rocks so he wouldn’t have to mow, but he’s now the proud owner of a self-propelled Honda lawnmower which he also uses to mulch every leaf that blows into the yard.
Denis will bring a keynote address and lead one of the breakout sessions. Learn more about Denis and his ministry at www.ransomfellowship.org
Steven Garber has a classroom among many people in many places. Known as “a public teacher,” at the heart of his own calling is the longing that people understand the integral character of faith, vocation, and culture. He directs The Washington Institute, whose core conviction is that the church and society are renewed as a richer, truer vision of calling is taught and practiced. Steven is the author of The Fabric of Faithfulness: Weaving Together Belief and Behavior. A Senior Fellow for the C.S. Lewis Institute, he has contributed to the volumes, Faith Goes to Work: Reflections From the Marketplace and Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalogue, as well as to the Mars Hill Audio journal, (Tacit Knowing, Truthful Knowing: The Life and Work of Michael Polanyi). A native of the great valleys of Colorado and California, he, his wife Meg and their children live in Virginia where they are members of The Falls Church.
Steven will bring a keynote address and lead one of the breakout sessions.
You can find out more about Steve and his ministry at www.washingtoninst.org
Walt Mueller is the founder and President of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding, serving churches,
schools, and community organizations around the world: in their efforts to communicate the Gospel cross-culturally by helping those who know and love children and teens to understand today’s rapidly changing youth culture. He has appeared on numerous media outlets internationally – including CNN, Fox News, and the BBC – to discuss teenagers and their world. The work of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding has been embraced by the federal government, offering CPYU numerous opportunities to be salt and light in the culture-at-large. He is the author of five books including Engaging the Soul of Youth Culture:
Bridging Teen Worldviews and Christian Truth, and the Medallion Award winner, Understanding Today’s Youth Culture, which is currently being totally re-written with Zondervan. Walt’s commentary and analysis
on youth culture is heard on CPYU’s daily radio program, Youth Culture
Today. He earned his B.A. in Sociology from Geneva College, his M.Div form Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his doctorate in ministry to postmodern generations from Gordon-Conwell Theological
Seminary. Walt and his wife, Lisa, live in Elizabethtown, PA., and have four children: Caitlin, 23, a recent graduate of the University of Pittsburgh; Joshua, 21 a junior at Messiah College; Bethany, 19, entering
college; and Nathaniel, 14 in the ninth grade.
Walt will be leading one of our breakout sessions.
Richard Cizik, an EPC minister, is Vice President for Governmental Affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals. His primary responsibilities include setting NAE’s policy direction on issues before Congress, the White House, and Supreme Court, as well as serving as a national spokesman on issues of concern to evangelicals. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Whitworth College; an M.A. in Public Affairs from the George Washington University
School of Public & International Affairs; a Master of Divinity from Denver Seminary; and an honorary Doctorate of Ministry from the MethodistEpiscopal Church in Christian Leadership. He is the author of over one hundred published articles and editorials, author and editor of The High Cost of Indifference (Regal Books), a contributor to On Christian Freedom (University Press of America), and the Dictionary of Christianity
in America (Inter-Varsity Press). Richard and his wife, Virginia, have two boys, Rich Jr., and John, ages seventeen and fourteen. The family resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Richard will be speaking during the lunch gathering at the Hyatt Regency
on the National Association of Evangelicals’ landmark document “For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Engagement,” to which he was a major contributor.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger(R) served as a Deacon in the EPC.
Charmaine and I are indebted to the Fourth Presbyterian Church. We met there. I picked her because she was virtuous and industrious. I don't know why she picked me... The Alert Reader will notice that both the Norris's and the Yoest's have five kids in each family: We will fix Social Security all by our selves.
This is in no way an endorsement of Richard Cizik, who does not believe that abortion is the evil of our time. He would be more comfortable in another mainstream denomination -- like say, the ones that are losing membership for fuzzy thinking and confused Biblical interpretations.
What is the purpose of life? The EPC gives the answer in the first question. At the jump.
Your Business Blogger(R) of Management Training of DC, LLC, is a licensed agent for the William Oncken Corporation presenters of Managing Management Time(TM) fondly known as Monkey Management. No, evolution is not taught. But I do subscribe to Intelligent Design.
Charmaine will be speaking from her experience as a senior adviser to the Huckabee for President campaign.
Alert Readers will recall Charmaine also served in the Reagan Administration as a White House (unmolested) intern .
She also served in the Office of Presidential Personnel under Bob Tuttle, current Ambassador to the Court of St. James's.
The Women in Politics panel is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 27, 2008, from 9:30 to10:45 a.m., at the Darden School's Abbott Auditorium.
From UVA,
...[S]peakers on this panel: UVa. alums
Charmaine Yoest [Ph.D.] (Family Research Council, former adviser to Mike Huckabee) [confirmed]
Cheryl Mills (advisor to Hillary Clinton) [confirmed],
and Janet Napolitano (Governor of Arizona) [awaiting confirmation].
We may also ask [other] alums... The panel will be moderated by Vesla Weaver, assistant professor of politics and a UVA alum as well.
At this point, our conception of the Women in Politics panel is:
More than ever before, women - Republicans, Democrats and Independents - are making a difference in the American political arena and U.Va. alumnae are among those leading the way. Please join us for a panel discussion of the contemporary role of women in American politics.
Potential topics include the 2008 presidential election, the historic role of Senator Hillary Clinton's candidacy and the short list of women who may be considered as vice presidential nominees in both major political parties.
For more information on the conference, please visit the conference Web site.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Tips for visiting Mr. Jefferson's University. While at UVA, never say 'campus.' Say 'grounds.'
Address Ph.D.'s not as 'Dr.' but as 'Mr.' or 'Ms.' in keeping with our third president's sense of fraternite and Voltaire and all things French. Egalite run amuck.
Your Business Blogger(R) of Management Training of DC, LLC, is an adjunct professor of management at NOVA and a licensed agent for the William Oncken Corporation.
FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – 9AM-3PM*
WHAT: A grassroots training seminar designed to educate and equip citizens to promote traditional family values in your community. Learn practical how-tos for effective communication and creating and managing your message to be persuasive in the public debate!
WHERE: Thomas More College
Merrimack, NH
Charmaine will be speaking on the power of words to frame a debate. She noticed that Your Business Blogger(R) has a line drawing of the HMS Victory over his desk; a profile of the body of the ship that Lord Nelson made famous in the sea battle at Trafalgar against the French; against Napoleon. The English won, as usual.
VICTORY. There is no ship in the Royal Navy named "Success." And this is where President Bush gets the Global War on Terror wrong: Men don't die in combat for "Success in Iraq." They will sacrifice and die for "Victory."
We don't have "Success in Jesus." We have Victory.
The wordsmith knows the difference. (And the Christian...)
Charmaine will also speak on Bimbos. If you are anywhere in the Northeast, go visit and sey hey to Charmaine.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
"Bimbos" as we are using it, is the intellectual property of Merrie Spaeth. Another brilliant women who knows the power of words. And like Charmaine, she worked for Ronald Reagan, of course.
Spaeth reminds professionals and public speakers to always recite the positive and to never repeat the negative accusation -- usually advanced by a commie reporter. Public affairs should only be handled by professionals.
When I say 'public affairs' I am not speaking of Bill Clinton's weaknesses...
Most Americans think the country is on the wrong track. Representatives like Heather Wilson may have been a part of the deterioration of the GOP branding and why citizens are dismayed: Republicans are not behaving like Conservatives. Wilson she wanted women in combat. She advanced abortion. This is not a conservative. Wilson just lost her primary race. Thank goodness.
Watch Charmaine's debate with Heather Wilson(R) from New Mexico a few years ago on women in combat. Ignore the Army women exposing their breasts.
The Dreamer scored in the 93rd percentile in Math for her grade in the Commonwealth of Virginia. I promised her a reward night out -- But a daddy-daughter-dinner-date at Subways won't be happening.
A good deal of her education was in homeschooling where Your Business Blogger(R) worked with her on that topic that counted: Counting. The hard sciences that "girls don't do well."
Not good in Math? Not my girls. My expectation was that they would do well in the quantitatives. (Parent and teacher expectations are the biggest variable in the success of students.) My wife is a genius with SPSS and regression analysis . The Dancer and The Diva are rabid readers and love 'rithmatic -- and are bloggers.
The Penta-Posse are outliers on the bell curve of school age young'ums.
So. I promised The Dreamer a night out. But not at Subway. The restaurant is off the good-guy list for two reasons:
1) The company doesn't care for homeschoolers, and
Subway, the sandwich restaurant, wants to hear your child's story – unless he or she is home schooled.
The national chain's "Every Sandwich Tells a Story Contest" offers prizes and a chance to be published on the Subway Web site and in Scholastic's "Parent & Child" magazine but specifically excludes home schoolers. Subway's website states:
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. Contest is open only to legal residents of the Untied (sic) States who are currently over the age of 18 and have children who attend elementary, private or parochial schools that serve grades PreK-6. No home schools will be accepted.
Subway will probably say they excluded home schools because of the main prize ($5,000 worth of athletic equipment to the winning child's school). But Subway could have given it to a local park, church or school of the winning home schooler's choice.
Subway's Web site promotion not only misspells "Untied (sic) States," but offers the grand prize winner a "Scholastic Gift Bastket (sic) for your home."
Subway's leadership clearly does not understand the value of homeschooling. In addition to learning how to spell, we are keeping our kids clear of the public schools' Family Life Education: Which is, as is commonly known, Sex Ed taught by liberals. When almost 20% of teens have herpes -- one would hope that this objective fact might persuade our feminist free-lovers that the condom classes might not be working.
Nope. The public payroll sex trainers are working even harder.
Here's some of what appears in Family Life Education for grades six through eight,
6.1 The student will learn that there are many health care and safety agencies in the community. No need to talk with mom or dad, or aunt Sally or uncle Joe. The Planned Parenthood abortion clinic is just around the corner.
6.7 The student will be able to describe the etiology, effects and transmission of the HIV virus. Clean needles for drug users? Contaminated blood supply? This is more important than spelling or math? The school will not reveal the detail of homosexual sex acts in the spread of the HIV virus. I did see a very nice man who teaches the course, however.
6.8 ...[E]valuate ...sexuality, and gender stereotyping... The feminists are determined to get women in combat in the armed services.
7.7 The student will recognize that sexual behaviors are conscious decisions... The public schools are a bit confused even about their own world view: homosexuality is a conscious decision; a preference -- not an orientation. FLE lurched into the truth.
So Subway supports only public schools, can't spell and doesn't like homeschoolers.
Dinner at Subway? No sirree -- We all are a-going to Chick-fil-a. Chick-fil-A
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Tom Peters once remarked that excellence should permeate an organization, especially for managing the perceptions of the customer. This is why managers make so much money. Airlines, in the consumers' mind, must understand that if the tray tables are dirty, the airline doesn't do engine maintenance.
The Army taught if boots were not shined, the soldier couldn't shoot straight.
If Subway can't spell, their food will make you [sic].
Your Business Blogger(R) just received an email from Alert Reader Janice who tells us about Hillary's presence at the State Street United Methodist Church in Bowling Green, KY,
I just received an email letting me know that, yes indeed, the Paul Fryman who was our former student at Asbury was the pastor who preached at State Street UMC in Bowling Green, KY this past Sunday when Hillary was there. He has been the subject of abuse because his sermon was on adultery. He has received hate mail and all sorts of attacks – including accusations of being a pedophile and needing therapy, etc. He has chosen (wisely) not to react or respond at all. Paul is a humble, guileless servant of Christ.
The service and Paul have been distorted unbelievably.
Here are some facts, in case someone asks you:
· Hillary's people called Paul and told him she would be in his church, it was not a request.
· He told her people that they were in a series of sermons and that the morning sermon would be on adultery from the Sermon on The Mount, making sure she knew what she would hear, the bulletins were already printed.
· Paul’s sermon was 12 minutes (not the hour-long that was in the press – that was the length of the whole service)
· Paul acknowledged the presidential candidate’s presence in the service (some reports said that she was ignored and unwelcomed).
· Reporters sat in the service with their laptops – did not participate in the service respectfully.
· His sermon will be put online as soon as possible so that people can judge for themselves. [he called for members of the congregation to make a new commitment to their own marriages and to be aware of the temptations that they face – it was not an attack against Hillary
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Alert Reader Janice is a former Board Member of Asbury College and, with her husband were professors at the Methodist institution of higher learning.
But what is news is that CNN can't spell. Nancy writes into CNN,
May 18th, 2008 5:15 pm ET
Just a note - please check the spelling on the word "alter," which I belive [sic] should be "altar". Or at least that's how it's spelled at my church. See, all democrats are not Godless heathens.
Nancy must be pro-life...
CORRECTION: Janice Crouse, Ph.D., is a current member of the Board of Directors for Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky.
As you are aware by now, on this Tuesday May 13th the Harbour League will be hosting a talk by the Hudson Institute president and THL board member, Dr. Herb London. In consideration of the attendance of our entire board of trustees, the event will take place at: The Cloisters, 10440 Falls Road in Lutherville, Maryland and not at the Harbour League's office.
The evening will begin at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30pm)with a talk given by Dr. Herb London entitled, "America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion". Dr. London will suggest that the rise of secularism in the United States is a flaccid response to the challenge presented by the fanaticism of radical Islam. In the so-called war of ideas we are handicapped in our ability to thwart the inroads of fanaticism by a reflexive belief in relativism, one dimension of secular humanism.
The rise of secular humanism not only challenges the traditional antecedent of the nation, it is an ineffective response to the challenge of Islam. The result? If you don't know what you believe in, you are unable to defend what is worthwhile. Something that, if understood, can change Maryland for the better.
Following the talk and question and answer session, there will be a dessert reception that will give you a chance to talk with any member of member of the board regarding the movement.
To RSVP to this for this event or to the dinner prior to the talk please visit www.TheHarbourLeague.org or call 410-753-4560.
We look forward to seeing you there.
The Harbour League
2800 Quarry Lake Drive, Suite 140
Baltimore, MD 21209
410 753-4560
410 415-0800
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Herb London's daughter, Stacey London, will NOT be present (I don't think). Although he might answer questions...
Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine and The Dude will be attending.
The Diva's root canal
credit: Dr. Eric Arbuckle Our family has endowed a chair -- not at the local university -- but at our dentist's office. You can use it if is not booked. We treat the chair like a fractional ownership of a Gulfstream G4.
The Penta-Posse has busted out more front teeth than an entire hockey team.
Your Business Blogger(R) is also minus a front tooth due to a basket ball mishap. Non-stop dental work is required to correct alterations caused by various bar-fights from decades past.
Jack and Charmaine This is wedding anniversary week in our household: We celebrate for 7 days.
Men's Health magazine reminds us why marriage works. The April issue has six compelling reasons to marry, by Anna Maltby.
Anna is a woman.
But the advice is still good,
If you are susceptible to vice, find a wife. She'll save you from yourself -- and improve your life -- in a variety of ways...
1. Increase your pay
A Virginia Commonwealth University study found that married men earn 22 percent more than their similarly experienced but single colleagues.
[VCU is a terrific school located in Richmond, Virginia. Conservative. Good.]
2. Speed up your next promotion
Married men receive higher performance ratings and faster promotions than bachelors, a 2005 study of U.S. Navy officers reported.
[If the Army wanted you to have a wife, it would have issued you one, goes the old joke -- it looks like the military is a-changing its perception of the value of a helpmeet.]
3. Keep you out of trouble
According to a recent U.S. Department of Justice report, male victims of violent crime are nearly four times more likely more likely to be single than married.
[Your Business Blogger(R) has not been in a bar fight since getting married. But every few years I got to get the caps replaced on those cracked up front teeth from an altercation back in single days. And I wish that ringing in my ears would stop...]
4. Satisfy you in bed
In 2006, British researchers reviewed the sexual habits of men in 38 countries and found that in every country, married men have more sex.
5. Help you beat cancer
In a Norwegian study, divorced and never-married male cancer patients had 11 and 16 percent higher mortality rates, respectively, than married men.
[Charmaine is forever pestering me to get a(nother!) physical. Goodness, I had one back in the 90's. And the colonoscopy was her idea too. Such a pain in the ...]
6. Help you live longer
A UCLA study found that people in generally excellent health were 88 percent more likely to die over the 8-year study period if they were single.
The accountability and friendship of marriage works.
Excuse me now, I've got some yard work to do.
As one academic studying the men-marriage-maturity transformation wrote, "A rake, now out raking leaves,"
UPDATE: School Officials direct student (our Diva!) to remove Pro-Life T-shirt. DEVELOPING...
The Penta-Posse L to R: Baby-Boo, The Dancer,
The Diva, The Dude, The Dreamer The Roe Effect Today is the Sixth Annual National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day.
The bright blue t-shirt shows a baby growing and growing then black -- nothing. So simple even school age children understand what abortion does.
So compelling that even the teen-aged Dreamer donned the shirt.
Our five wee-ones will be wearing the garment-billboard today at school and around town.
Here comes trouble.
Our public school system is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic party, Planned Parenthood and the teachers' union.
(The only debate allowed is who would be better for the country, Obama or Hillary. And how awful Ronald Reagan governed and when global warming will kill us all. War is not the answer, etc and etc...)
National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day So our city is our mission field.
The schools will not be happy to see Pro-Life T-Shirts. We will be setting up a legal defense fund when the sheriff comes a-calling. Details to follow.
The American Life League sponsors the annual trouble-making event. The legal eagles at the ALL non-profit have provided a helpful handout for the students if they are confronted with the intolerant abortion lovers.
Free Speech in the public schools? We'll see.
Growing, Growing...Gone Pro-Lifers are the new Progressives.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
UPDATE: It took 8 minutes before one of the Penta-Posse principals called -- comparing abortion to the disruption of "liquor, cigarettes or guns..." The school is really unhappy with the Pro-Life T-shirt. Your Business Blogger(R) was most polite. DEVELOPING...
UPDATE: The school leadership has made The Diva turn her shirt inside out -- Charmaine found out and lost her sense of humor -- the t-shirt is right side out, we think. A school official asks The Diva, "What will you say when the kindergarteners ask about your t-shirt?" The Diva doesn't miss a beat, "That doctors kill babies..."
The Diva protesting at the Afghan Embassy, 2006
She is no stranger to controversyIf you are a student at a public school, you have a right to wear a pro-life shirt to school. Our experience is that most young people who wear a pro-life shirt to school on National Pro-life T-shirt day do not have any problems. Occasionally a misguided school official may ask you to remove the shirt. This is a violation of your rights.
Read more at the jump from the good-guys at the ALL.
"Stacy London is co-host of The Learning Channel's What Not to Wear and has been with the show since its first season. After growing up in Manhattan, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vassar College with a double degree in 20th-century philosophy and German literature."
Stacy London is a very bright young woman with a father almost as famous, Herb London.
[Stacy] began her career as a fashion assistant at Vogue magazine and later returned to Conde Nast as the senior fashion editor at Mademoiselle. She has styled fashion photos for other editorial publications, including Italian D, Nylon and Contents.
The Harbour League is hosting a star-studded event on May 13th in Baltimore, Maryland. Make plans to be there. Eli Gold runs the non-profit think tank and writes,
I want to make you aware of a very special evening that The Harbour League will be hosting. It is an evening that will give you a chance to meet and chat one-on-one with leaders of today's conservative movement.
America's Secular Challenge Stacey Herb London
On May 13th, 2008 The Harbour League will host an evening with the board. This will be the first time that our entire board will be in one place at one time to answer your questions regarding today's conservative movement, where we are and where we are headed.
The Harbour League's Board of Trustees includes: Eli Gold, Chairman; Herb London, President of the Hudson Institute; Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform; David Keene, President of American Conservative Union, as well as various other leaders in the movement.
The evening will begin at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30pm) with a talk given by Dr. Herb London entitled, "America's Secular Challenge: The Rise of a New National Religion". Dr. London will suggest that the rise of secularism in the United States is a flaccid response to the challenge presented by the fanaticism of radical Islam.
In the so-called war of ideas we are handicapped in our ability to thwart the inroads of fanaticism by a reflexive belief in relativism, one dimension of secular humanism.
The rise of secular humanism not only challenges the traditional antecedent of the nation, it is an ineffective response to the challenge of Islam.
The result? If you don't know what you believe in, you are unable to defend what is worthwhile. Something that if understood can change Maryland for the better.
Following the talk and question and answer session, there will be a dessert reception that will give you a chance to talk with any member of member of the board regarding the movement.
I also would like invite you to a private VIP dinner prior to the evening's event. For the first time we will open the board's pre-event reception and dinner to the first fourteen reservations.
The cost for dinner is $200 per plate (dinner is discounted for members). This is an opportunity to have an intimate dinner with these opinion leaders. So reserve your spot soon! Dinner reservations can be made by calling The Harbour League at 410-753-4560.
The presentation and dessert reception is free for Harbour League members, $5 for non-members. Please feel free to forward this invitation to your colleagues. A RSVP is highly recommended since seating is limited. Media covering this event should contact The Harbour League in advance.
I hope to see you at the event on May 13th.
Sincerely,
Eli Gold
Chairman
When you RSVP click "America's Secular Challenge."
Stacy London will not be there. Sorry for the bait and switch: Terrible marketing. My bad.
But her father, Dr. Herb London, will be there. Meet the proud papa and get a hint on why she is a success. And buy his book.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
More on Stacy London at the jump
Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine and one of the Penta-Posse will attending -- we hope to see you there!
UPDATE: Alert Readers noticed that Your Business Blogger(R) originally spelled Stacy as "Stacey." Error corrected and she provided a nice pub shot -- a class act.
Management Training for Church Leaders:
The QuestionsYour Business Blogger(R) would often tease Preachers about their work-load.
After all, they only work one hour a week. On Sunday.
Pastors always laugh at that old joke. Diplomacy is part of their discipline.
But as managers, Pastors have double duty.
They have the work of an individual contributor.
They have the responsibilities of management.
Between the christening, marrying and burying, they really do have the hardest job on this side of eternity.
***
The Christian Church which shepherds believers and their faith worldwide, is nevertheless much like any organization in terms of order and structure. Basic management principles apply.
Pastors often must focus on numbers: numbers: attendance, budget, seating, parking, programs.
But the Pastor as manager doesn’t manage numbers, he manages behaviors.
If not of the congregation, then hopefully of his staff.
The following questions concern management strategies. The numbers will follow once skills are in place.
All church organizations and staffs experience personnel challenges and management concerns. The following questions concern management strategies and skill building for pastor-managers who can benefit from knowing that the numbers will follow once the staff is trained and trusted, and skills are in place.
Remember:
The Pastor leads people and manages behaviors.
The Pastor doesn't manage numbers; he manages behaviors.
The Pastor doesn't manage staff; he leads people.
The YouTube video presents 5 common questions. Here are the 5 answers and bonus solutions to many church management problems.
1. What does the church leader, the manager really do?
Plan, Lead, Organize, Control, Motivate.
The pastor’s focus must be on both the congregation and his staff. This requires skill building and continuous learning as the pastor also undoubtedly must commit serious time and attention to study and sermon preparation.
Here the Pastor is radically different from the manager in business and government. In business there are many areas of which the manager will know little or nothing. But he depends upon department heads to support him.
A great deal of the Pastor's time is consumed in the research and review of the sermon. This is work that only the Pastor can do -- this is vocational time.
The Pastor is one of the few managerial disciplines that has considerable management time and the vocational-knowledge responsibilities of an individual contributor.
For most managers the formula is simple: Knowledge plus Network equals Success. The manager's success is dependent on getting his network...to work. To succeed, the manager needs the support of his Ruling Board, outside peers, and staff.
2. What does the individual contributor do?
The work. The individual contributor does the hands-on work -- in business it would be the accountant, brick layer, college professor. This is the vocational, the knowledge-worker.
The manager, in a routine management position, has few vocational duties.
Except for the Pastor.
His is one of the few positions requiring both extensive hands on -- sermon writing -- and management skills. Little wonder Pastors run out of time.
3. Pastors, why were you hired?
If management wasn’t mentioned, that’s not unusual. Indeed, the search committee had a list of KSA’s (knowledge – skills – abilities), but often they don’t delve into management maturity or the candidates ability to garner support of his network. Pastors usually are hired for their wisdom and judgment.
Traditionally, seminaries haven’t focused on the day-to-day management challenges. So even pastors over 50 may only have the management maturity of a twenty something. Henry Ford once said that, "If you take all the experience and judgment of men over fifty out of the world, there wouldn't be enough left to run it."
4. Can the church manager be a victim?
Many Church leaders feel this way – but the Pastor must have impact on his church and the community. The manager must be in control of events or favorably influence outcomes.
The successful Pastor- manager is able to develop a team that is proactive. The Pastor and his staff are on the "offensive" for good. For example, a church received visits by the police for violating noise level ordinances. That church was on defense.
The best Pastor-manager and his team would have anticipated any community friction and worked out solutions.
5. What happens when the team/church staff is angry?
Even if the staff displays no emotion because they are “people of faith,” they still need
a trusted manager to whom they can turn and who knows how to deal with their concerns and get to the bottom of the matter. The worst outcome of an angry staffer in a church work environment is not disobedience, but incentive-stifling compliance. Such negative attitudes, in turn, damage the manager who will often need his team to protect him from (his) mistakes.
In the army the cliché was, “Take care of the troops and they will take care of you. And if you don’t take care of the troops, they will take care of you – the troops always get even.” But even if the staff displays no emotion, the manager will often need his team to protect him from (his) mistakes. The worst outcome of an angry staffer is not disobedience, but supervise compliance.
Of course church staff aren't really into vengeance; they just hurt, withdraw, and stay
out of sight as much as possible. This is especially true for staff with a distracted pastor-boss and it is why staff-building events, lunches, silly contests and required prayers together seldom work.
Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine
and the Penta-Posse on Easter Sunday
2005 Grand Canyon6. Who are the church ‘constituents’ and ‘customers’?
This is the classic dilemma in the non-profit world – the disconnect between who gives and who gets. The constituents, who tithe in the pews, are not the customers; recipients of charity from the pastor’s discretionary fund or outreach budget are the actual customers.
These ‘customers’ probably are not even members of the church. This poses unique challenges for church managers and staff, who need skills and understanding. Many church employees, especially the young, don’t know that the dynamics they find frustrating are the result of working for a non-profit.
7. When is counsel, coun-‘sell’?
A council of advisors - akin to a church’s Administrative Board or Vestry - should ‘sell’ counsel, advice to the pastor. The pastor can buy the advice or not and making the best decision is the wisdom of mature management.
If the senior pastor isn’t trained to make good decisions by asking for recommendations, people at all the other levels will suffer the consequences and have no opportunity to express themselves.
8. What is the most important concern for the church staff? The work/ministry, the people/congregation or the boss/Pastor?
The Pastor. (Staff and Pastors always get this wrong – staff thinks it has the answer and gives the wrong answer. Pastors know the right answer and give the wrong answer, out of embarrassment…)
Even in the atmosphere of 'servant leadership' the Senior Pastor is the final arbiter, the final decision maker and sets the tone for decisions made by subordinates.
Here again, the church leader is quite different than other business leaders. In any other 'industry' some managers might prefer to be low profile. Pastors do not have this option; commanding a pulpit three times or more a week puts him, well, front and center whether he wants to be seen or not.
It is the Pastor's direction that counts in making decisions on the strategic direction of his church. Every church staff member, of course has his work to do.
The staffer does not have his own agenda.
Only the Pastor.
9. Is office politics good or bad?
Politics is the normal interaction of people and power and position and process. Office politics in a church setting is a tool to be acknowledged and used by church management.
10. Is it better for the church leader to have the answers, or to ask the questions?
Neither. It is best for the church leader to have competent staff who anticipate questions, research alternatives and present recommendations. Why does the pastor have to think of everything? (I know, I know…I’m sorry to ask.)
But if the structure only allows for a few associate pastors – those who insulate the church leader or senior pastor – to offer information, the intelligence and experience of other staffers who work in different parts of the church is wasted.
The subordinate should bring not only questions, but suggested answers. The church leader can then grade the answers and make decisions on staffer’s recommendations.
11. How does the Pastor know when he is managing well?
The best church staff will bring a memo/course of action/decision that will require nothing more than the Pastor’s signature.
There is friction if communications channels aren’t in place. Many challenges may not even be known to some staffers who could make a difference; the manager should be looking for input.
12. Does the Associate Pastor have the “right” to church resources?
Nope. The mere position of authority may or may not command compliance from the church bureaucracy. It has to be earned.
Church managers, like mid-level managers in any organization, do not have a "right" to assets or support from his peers in sister departments -- even if the manager's position warrants.
The professional manager nurtures his network.
13. Who is the boss? Who is the subordinate? How can an observer tell if the Senior Pastor they trust as their spiritual leader is the one really making the decisions?
The military has the template. There is a term for a subordinate in the Army called, “Action Officer.” There is no doubt when the superior officer and junior officer work together, that the action, the next steps remain with the lower ranking Action Officer. Management training teaches managers and staff to understand who is tasked with an assignment and what the follow-up will look like. Training reviews the understanding of clean lines in the chain of command and who has the next move.
14. Is there a relationship between the time a manager ‘works’ and the results?
No. The manager should see himself, not just as the captain of a ship – but as the helmsman with a light touch on the rudder. Where the slightest movement, the smallest effort moves the rudder and can direct the largest vessel.
15. What is the Pastor responsible for?
All that his church does, or fails to do.
Even if The Senior Pastor delegates to another pastor and gives him both the responsibility and the authority, the congregation will likely still demand that the Senior Pastor do it instead: the christening, marrying and burying.
16. What makes for the best Associate Pastors?
If the Associate Pastor, or any staff, waits until being told what to do or has to ask what to do, the senior pastor is not running a healthy organization -- he is running a kids-daycare center for adults. Associate Pastors need to know what to do, how to do it, and when. Training and discipline preparation for them is not unlike the Army’s definition: Prompt obedience to orders or the initiation of appropriate action in the absence of orders.
Every Senior Pastor’s deam.
Every Senior Pastor should be training his successor.
17. When should the church leader raise his voice? – When should the church leader not take counsel?
When the sanctuary is on fire. And a fire-and-brimstone sermon, to be sure.
Emergencies are the few times that a direct order -- or direct shouting -- is required. And maybe not even then if you’re Presbyterian…
In most instances the Pastors should make a moment to take council of the mature adivsors. Seldom in any situation will the manager need to raise his voice.
Mark Siljander and
Your Business Blogger(R) And I'm not alone.
"You know about that cliche: Want a friend in Washington, DC, get a dog?" Mark asks me.
"Yep, Truman, I think..."
"Not true," says Mark, laughing.
"Johnson?"
"No, no, the cliche is wrong." He's upbeat. A former public servant, currently indicted, unworried, unhurried.
Another congressman, Asa Hutchinson emailed us, "I consider myself an informal advisor and friend" of Siljander.
He still has friends. In this town! Alert the media...
Well, maybe not that.
Mark has been unjustly targeted and will be cleared. But this is when -- with most indicted congressmen -- friends who were actually "friends" and don't recall knowing le accuséd.
This is a case study on having friends. (Mark does have the added benefit of being innocent...)
"No one has left me," says Mark. "Except the media, thank goodness."
The helicopters, the satellite dishes, the circus have stopped blocking his drive way.
His friends stayed with Mark. Clients, however, have become a bit skittish. It is business, you see.
So his business has stopped, the bills have not. And the kids refuse to stop eating.
So what has caused all the ruckus? The government is confused over the source of funding for Mark's research. (Yes, yes, confused government is redundant.) Alert Readers can read the product of the work.
Get Mark's new book is A Deadly Misunderstanding, published by HarperCollins.
< A Deadly Misunderstanding
by Mark D. Siljander
Buy the book,
I did. His 13 trips to Sudan in 2007 seem to have raised some concern. And Mark speaks lotsa languages.
This is getting Siljander in trouble. Perhaps he should have traveled with Louis Farrakhan. And worshiped with Jeremiah Wright.
But instead of running for President, Mark Siljander was teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ attempting to bridge cultures.
And is paying for it dearly.
But Mark is taking this well and is not whining about the injustice --
(Nobody likes a martyr: that's why they killed so many of them...)
***
Alert Readers will recall that Congressman Siljander was the author of the Siljander Amendment to HR5490[5], which says simply that life begins at conception and would be under protection of the 14th Amendment.
Al Gore voted for it.
Mark has spent his life working on the issues that conservative, pro-life, God-fearing citizens care about.
He needs your help today.
Friends have set up a defense fund to help cover his legal costs. Please buy his book and contribute to his defense.
Please send contributions payable to:
"Greenberg Traurig, PC",
put on memo "Siljander Trust" and mail to:
The Honorable Edwin Meese
c/o Mr. Joe Reeder
Greenberg Traurig, PC
2101 L Street, NW
Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20037
Donate to this hard working friend. One never knows where random injustice will strike again.
On June 26, 1984, the U.S. House of Representatives was considering the Civil Rights Act of 1984, a bill to expand the reach of key provisions of four previously enacted federal civil rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Pro-life Congressman Mark Siljander (R-Mi.) offered a one-sentence amendment to revise the bill's definition of the key term "person."
The Siljander Amendment read, in its entirety, "For the purposes of this Act, the term 'person' shall include unborn children from the moment of conception."
The House conducted a straight up-and-down vote on the Siljander Amendment which failed, 186-219.
Mark Siljander is a car-guy. Elected to congress at 29, he tooled around town in DeLorean. (Jalopnik reports a comeback in 2008.) One of his projects was a frame-off restoration of a Hurst Olds 442.
Mark's wife sent us an email. Excerpts at the jump.
Charmaine, Your Business Blogger(R)
Penta-Posse at the Grand Canyon
Easter 2005A few years ago Alert Readers will recall that Your Business Blogger(R) et al attended a Sunrise Service on the rim of the Grand Canyon in John McCain's home state. The Grand Canyon is Federal Property, but the surrounding locals quietly support a congregation of church and state.
McCain is a Red-State kind of guy -- even though Arizona is one third blue.
So it is likely that McCain would permit a continuation of Easter Services on Federal Lands.
But would any Democrat candidate? Obama or Clinton?
We may have a hint. We know the church habits of Obama and the Clintons.
Cross Obama attends the Hate America First church and is mentored by Jeremiah Wright.
The Clintons attended Foundry Methodist church when they lived in the White House in Washington, DC.
Your Business Blogger(R) attended services a time or two at Foundry Methodist during the Clinton tenure. It is a liberal church that differs from Obama's church only by degree, not kind. I stopped visiting.
Your Business Blogger(R), John Wesley Yoest, now has little use for the church founded by John Wesley.
The United Methodists at Foundry have run off the Biblical rails,
"...we proclaim this statement of welcome our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters: we affirm you..."
Obama and Clinton support liberal churches. Clinton's church supports Obama's church. It is likely they would both enforce liberal theology. It is certain Obama and Clinton will both support liberal positions.
Sunrise Service, Grand Canyon
Photo Credit: The Dreamer
I would predict that either Democrat would shut down Easter Services at the Grand Canyon.
Barack Obama with
America Hater Jeremiah Wright "I'm here to help you get elected. Do you want me to campaign for you? Or against you?" Quipped Jerry Falwell to a conservative candidate.
Your Business Blogger(R) once served on the Board of The Family Foundation in Virginia and had the honor of meeting Falwell and learning how he was so effective in politics.
The burden of the candidate is to know how to gather support, package it and send it forth, was Falwell's philosophy. Falwell has a lesson for Obama.
Jeremiah Wright had said, "God D@m America" from the pulpit. Wright is a part of Obama's life, formerly with the campaign.
Gary Baurer, left, Jerry Falwell, and John McCain far right
Liberty University function, Lynchburg, Virginia, 2006
photo credit: Charmaine Barack Obama must distance his candidacy from his pastor. Obama's problem is to know who should do the talking.
And it's not him.
Every sales professional, account manager and marketer knows the value of using surrogates, or testimonials as they are known in business. The classic Xerox sales training program, Personal Selling Skills or PSS, taught that a sales rep only uses proof when faced with customer skepticism of the value proposition.
To use a third party if the sales rep was not believed.
If the customer didn't believe the sales representative, then, and only then would the sales pro present backup evidence -- a believable third party endorsement who does the talking. The sales rep knows that this is when his voice is silent and the customer should hear the testimonial from another customer or respected authority.
The salesman, like the politician must shut up. Difficult for both to do.
Barack Obama is sounding like a salesman who keeps talking and talking when the sale is not being made. It sounds like pleading, like whining -- even if the words are elegant: it doesn't sell.
Your Business Blogger(R) carried as bag as a sales guy for decades and made the same mistakes as Obama is doing, but without the eloquence. But the problem has a simple sales solution.
Barack with the cussing "Reverend" Wright or to a much lessor extent, McCain with Pastor Hagee, should not keep talking. The candidate as sales guy is not going to fix the unfavorable endorsement in this instance.
Only the witness, the source of the testimonial, the endorser can help the candidate/sales rep. Obama has said enough.
Jeremiah Wright could help Obama by telling all, telling early, telling often -- only Wright can now convince voters that Obama does not hold Wright's Hate America First position. Only Wright can, well, preach that Obama does not believe that white people are evil. Only Wright can now say that Obama has different values.
Only Wright can make right.
Wright should do the talking -- but with out the hate, with out the cussing.
But McCain shouldn't worry: Wright won't be able to do it. And Obama will continue to think he can talk his way out of this.
Obama is wrong. And he will lose.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Charmaine served as senior advisor to Mike Huckabee for president campaign.
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. addresses
the 2,600 attendees at last year's Summit
Photo Credit: Peter Shinn Hold September 12 on your calendar for the Values Voter Summit in Your Nation's Capital.
Called "the most exciting meeting there is in Washington" by author and radio host Bill Bennett, FRC Action's 2007 Values Voter Summit (formerly "The Washington Briefing") attracted over 400 national and international members of the media, a waiting list of speakers, and thousands of values voters representing nearly every state in the union and many foreign countries.
On September 12-14, 2008, 60 days before an historic election, FRC Action (a 501c4) will host its third annual Values Voter Summit at the Hilton Washington in downtown D.C., and you are invited.
As a participant in one of the conservative movement's must-attend events of the year, you'll have the opportunity to hear from some of America's key leaders at a decisive moment in our nation's history, including invited speakers such as Newt Gingrich (confirmed), Chuck Colson, Lou Dobbs, Bill Bennett (confirmed), Lt. Col. Oliver North, Gov. Bobby Jindal, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Star Parker (confirmed), Justice Clarence Thomas, Patricia Heaton, Roger Hedgecock (confirmed), House and Senate leaders, and all the 2008 presidential nominees.
Charmaine at the podium 2006 In addition to lively discussions on issues ranging from life, marriage, school choice, and radical Islam to judicial activism and religious liberty, attendees can take part in: celebrity book signings; breakout training sessions; Radio and Bloggers' Row; special co-sponsored meals hosted by Focus on the Family Action, American Values, and Alliance Defense Fund; a unique student track (including a Friday night reception); and the Faith, Family, and Freedom Gala Dinner on Saturday evening.
The Values Voter Summit is quickly becoming one of Washington's most anticipated weekends of the year. Packages start at just $95 for adults and $50 for students and pastors. Sign up now and enjoy a $25 early-bird discount! Registration opens online tomorrow, March 15, at www.valuesvotersummit.org. Call 1-877-372-2808 for more details.
The Superbowl is the Christmas card deadline for most folks sending out a yearly update(!). Not here. Tax Day is a dual deadline for us this year: cards and forms. Alert Readers will recall that the Huckabee campaign provided a delightful distraction for Your Business Blogger(R) and Charmaine and the Penta-Posse this past season. Merry Christmas!
Trinity United Church of Christ/Religion News Service
Sen. Barack Obama and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright God D@mn America,
God D@mn America,
God D@mn America...
The "Reverend" Jeremiah Wright cussing for the congregation.
"We started the AIDS virus...
America is still the No. 1 killer in the world...
We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians"
Barack Hussein X. Obama tithed some $22,000 to Wright's church to enable him to use other profanities such as "SH!T" from the preacher's podium.
Goodness.
"Elmer Gantry" Wright gives new meaning to "Bully Pulpit."
Charmaine will have a one on one interview with Neil Cavuto to discuss the impact of Obama's pastor's statements and whether it will negatively impact Obama in the general election. Check local cable listing for Your World with Neil Cavuto.
Ronald Reagan said that personnel is policy. Obama is constantly telling us that he would surround himself with capable advisors. Because "Reverend" Wright has been one of them, the country should be worried.
Anyone who gets recruited for a top management job is hired for his wisdom and judgment. Obama admitted he's not old enough to display any wisdom to compete with McCain. Now Obama is demonstrating he doesn't have any judgment either.
Hit time is scheduled for 4:05 eastern. Please email us and let us know what you think. Your thoughts will be added to the comments section once our platform is repaired.
###
Charmaine at Princeton UniversityThank you (foot)notes:
See RONALD KESSLER's article in The Wall Street Journal. At the jump, Mr. Obama consulted Mr. Wright before deciding to run for president. And now Obama doesn't wear an American flag lapel pin. Mrs. Michelle X. Obama is not too happy with America either. Watch the video.
If Obama doesn't win and McCain does, Wright's first sermon might well be To H3LL With The Chief...
Chuck Colson Zondervan, the publisher of Chuck Colson's latest book, The Faith, Given Once, For All has invited Reasoned Audacity to offer questions. Later this week, on Thursday, March 6th, Colson will be considering what Charmaine and Your Business Blogger have submitted. Please email us your thoughts -- Colson will also review blog comments.
A few years you said that America is no longer a "Christian Nation." Can you expand on this statement?
America is not a Christian nation in the sense that it is dominated by Christian values. It has become largely post-Christian. We still have a strong Christian heritage; in effect we live off of that in many respects, because it provides the moral undergirding that allows our free society to continue. In God & Government you’ll find I deal with this in some depth, as I do also in How Now Shall We Live? I didn’t in The Faith, simply because The Faith is really about the fundamental doctrines all true Christians share, not about whether America is succumbing to secularism.
Also, in The Faith, you identify secular atheism and militant Islamism as the two main threats to Christianity today. If you had to pick between them, which do you think presents the greater threat and why?
As to the two threats to Christianity today, the greatest and most immediate is militant Islam. Islamo-fascists want to destroy us, and have access to weapons of mass destruction. So fortifying us against the assault of extreme Islamists is critical. But it’s a hard choice, because secularism is rotting us out from within. I guess it’s simply a question of which is the more urgent.
A number of years ago Colson remarked that, "America is no longer a Christian nation." I've asked Colson to expand on his observation.
Colson's tag line is What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters. Colson reminds the Alert Reader that Christianity is a world-view that seeks out truth -- and believes that truth is knowable. Colson gently takes on Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens and Chris Hedges and Barry Lynn. Colson uses winsome argument. With a subtlety that Your Business Blogger has yet to master...
Colson notes that a majority of Christians do not believe in absolute truth and 60% cannot name 5 of the 10 commandments.
Knowing Jesus is a start. But is this really enough? A baby Christian should grow in knowledge. Bill and HIllary Clinton and Barack Obama might very well be able to say "Jesus is Lord" and believe in their hearts that He was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. The book of Romans would say that this is enough. Is Obama saved? If he passes St. Paul's litmus test, he would be. But Colson explains,
"Christians must see that the faith is more than a religion or even a relationship with Jesus; the faith is a complete view of the world and humankind's place in it. Christianity is a world view that speaks to every area of life, and its foundational doctrines define its content. If we don't know what we believe -- even what Christianity is -- how can we live it and defend it?"
Italics in original.
Get The Faith
by Chuck ColsonMy second question for Colson would be, "Can a person be a mature Christian and permit abortion; to be pro-choice?" Is the Christian who believes in abortion "rights" practicing "Faith without works..."?
***
"Be ye transformed by the removing of your minds..." goes the old Bible study joke. Colson writes that we indeed become new creatures, renewing the mind. Taking on new habits; discarding the bad. Colson is a living testimony to this transformation. But it's not what many might think. My third question for Colson, "How on earth did you stop smoking cigarettes?"
Colson continues, "Christians do not impose; they propose a vision of a culture of life, to educate and persuade..." In academia and in business we call this continuous learning. Christians would call this growing in faith. To move from milk to meat. And Colson lives this out. At a mature age he changed his position on capital punishment after visiting mass-murderer John Wayne Gacy in prison. Colson also did a thorough study of C.S. Lewis's essay "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment." Colson's book is worth reading if only to learn of a man's journey to a compassionate defense of capital punishment. (Pages 189-190.) Any reader over 50 -- or teenager, to state the obvious -- will marvel at a man over 50, who can change his mind...
Colson closes his book on the spread of the good news in China. Rick Warren, who also wrote a blurb for Colson, once said that Christianity is being run out of Europe and Islam is rushing in to fill the vacuum. The religion of Marxism has been ruled out of China and Christianity is blossoming forth. China may very well become a "Christian Nation" as South Korea has become.
Colson points out that the variable for America's success is Christianity. He quotes an American journalist who reported on the Chinese study of American financial prowess. "We have realized," said the Chinese researcher, " that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics."
In Colson's footnotes he credits reporter Aikman for his writing, Jesus in Beijing. In consulting in China, Your Business Blogger was amazed to learn that the Christian society-change agents were...the lawyers. Imagine, lawyers who go to church. This is why there is hope for China.
And less for American politics. Obama said that,
"I think that it is a legal right that [homosexuals] should have that is recognized by the state. If people find that controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans."
There is no mention of same-sex hook-ups in the Sermon on the Mount. The Book of Romans is hardly obscure. The passage Obama refers to is from the first chapter,
Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Obama gets the Bible wrong. He's got lots of Christian company. He should read Colson's book.
The Mike Huckabee Christmas video is getting praised/condemned as a political ad. Many pundits are calling the ad the product of (a nearly evil) genius. Alert Readers will see a 'floating cross' moving behind Huckabee.
Your Business Blogger was curious about the video clip so I loaded up the Penta-Posse in our giant SUV and headed to Little Rock for a look-see.
I sat down for lunch with Chip Saltsman, Mike Huckabee's campaign manager. I ask about the technical aspects of the cross placement in the ad. "How did you do it?"
"I didn't," says Chip. He is amazed at the end result, but honestly didn't know how the barren bookshelves morphed into a cross on camera. He is believable. It would be simple to accept credit for the perfect pitch.
Chip continued, "A cross in the background? I didn't have time to plan that. Wish I did..."
So Huckabee's campaign general gets credit for the comforting Christmas message with just the right touch with the right symbolism.
Chip is a lucky man.
Chip Saltsman
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
For the record, Your Business Blogger thinks the 'cross' is a large 'plus' sign. And a terrific addition to the campaign.
Our good friend Gary Bauer sends this out. YouTube must view. Merry Christmas.
Logan, the Sky Angel Cowboy
I’d like to share with you a phone conversation between Logan, a 12-year- old boy, and a Houston radio station. Logan tearfully reminds us, in a way only a child can, of the essence of Christmas and of Christian faith. You can listen to the 2:20 minute conversation:
Merry Christmas. Again. I said it.
So sue me.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
We guess from his writing that Gary Bauer is leaning toward Fred Thompson. Your Business Blogger likes Mike Huckabee. Charmaine is Huckabee's Senior Policy Advisor.
Henry Hyde The nation is mourning the passing of Henry Hyde. He will be remembered for his low-key, impassioned speech on impeaching Bill Clinton (perjury and obstruction of justice) and for the Hyde Amendment.
Your Business Blogger remembers him as a gentleman. I met Congressman Hyde a time or two and every time I would see him he would stand and greet me.
Alert Readers will note that I am (much) younger than the deceased Congressman and I had no where near his status or rank.
But he stood up for me. And stood against a president lying and breaking the law. Hyde was a stand-up kind of guy.
He stood up for no-bodies and everyman, and everyman loved him. (Except the Clintons.)
Henry Hyde will be remembered for many things, but for most people, he was a gentleman.
Reaction in Congress was mixed along predictable lines. Hatch said Friday that Clinton's statement showed the proceedings where justified.
"The combination of the president's acknowledgement, the significant suspension of his Arkansas law license, and the imposition of a fine demonstrate that the allegations arising out of this investigation of President Clinton's past actions were not based upon partisanship. They were based upon the facts and the law," he said.
Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde, the Republican former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who led the prosecution in Clinton's Senate trial, said the admission "vindicates" the House impeachment effort. Hyde's Democratic counterpart, Michigan Rep. John Conyers, called the deal "a sensible accommodation" that ends "this long national farce over an extramarital affair."
The Penta-Posse at Four Corners, 2005
What is the future of the social contract?
"Despite the sustained economic growth of recent years, Americans are increasingly concerned with economic security. Even before economists began reporting signs of recession, skyrocketing health care costs, faltering pensions, and burgeoning inequality frayed the fabric of the American social contract. America's social contract is an evolving, complex web of legal and informal relationships between households, employers, government, and civil society that extends beyond particular federal programs. Now is the time to strike a new bargain between these sectors, rethinking the rights and responsibilities of each. Breathing new life into the American social contract is needed to keep pace with our 21st century economy and build the conditions for sustained growth and healthy families."
Start: 12/03/2007 - 9:00am
End: 12/03/2007 - 3:00pm
The Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Ave, NW The East Room
Washington, 20036
The New America Foundation's Next Social Contract Initiative invites you to join a discussion to help redesign the American social contract. Speakers, discussants, and panelists will return to first principles and address the roles that government, business, families, and civil society have to play in the next social contract.
The Next Social Contract Initiative aims to reinvent American social policy for the twenty-first century. Through a program of research and public education, the initiative will explore the origins of our modern social contract, articulate the guiding principles for constructing a new contract, and advance a set of promising policy reforms.
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D., Vice President for Communications at Family Research Council, appeared on CNN Headline News October 16, 2007 to discuss a proposal at a middle school to dispense contraceptives to its students.
Click thru and watch the video -- and listen to Richard Veilleux, the Executive Director from the Maine Assembly on School-Based Health Care. Richard does not discourage sex among 11 year-old girls.
Richard has a 12 year-old daughter -- he said he would not be upset if his daughter was having sex.
As long as his pre-teen didn't smoke a cigarette after...
One wag once said that, "the masses are @sses." Does the entire country think like Richard from Maine? Will the entire country slide into a Hillary-land next election?
Do the masses think like Charmaine -- or Richard?
Is our country without standards or commonsense values? Can the country embrace something other than Hillary or Baywatch?
No, we were not taking in mountain scenery in Colorado. Charmaine and Your Business Blogger were looking for the youngest finishers at yesterday's 32nd running of the Marine Corps Marathon.
Billed as "The Peoples' Marathon" a runner had to be among the first 30,000 to enter. The run takes place from the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia ending at the Flag Raisers at the Iwo Jima memorial.
The run route passes Arlington Cemetery were my dad and friends rest.
We three had been following a work-out regiment for months, following the military dictum that the more one sweats in training, the less one bleeds in combat.
No one is bleeding, but everything still hurts. Charmaine didn't cry as much this time.
The marathon was run with, well, military precision. The Marines run a class act, having some experience with logistics and human relations and victory.
And business.
Challenge Coin from USAA The MCM is expensive. To help underwrite the event businesses lined up. Sponsors included CVS/Caremark; Wal*Mart; Brooks; CISCO, Saturn, Arlington, Virginia; Aetna; AT&T; BAE Systems; Bar Clif,; CROCS, Crystal City: EDS; jetBlue Airways; Maggiano's Little Italy; Rosslyn; symantic; UPS; VSP; The Washington Post; Sodexho: Einstein Bros Bagels: Her Sports; News Channel 8; ABC 7; HOT 99.5; BIG 100.3; DC 101; 97.1 WASH-FM; 98. WMZQ; SportsTalk 980.
"Today we've been chronicling the fallout from the surprising remarks made yesterday by conservative Senator Sam Brownback, who startled a lot of people in GOP primary politics by saying that he'd grown "more comfortable" with Rudy's abortion views after meeting with him face to face.
The latest: A top official with the Family Research Council, a top social conservative group, expressed surprise and dismay at Brownback's dalliance with Rudy in an interview with Election Central.
"The wording is curious," said Charmaine Yoest, a vice president at FRC. "It goes beyond what I would have expected of him."..."
The Washington Briefing hosted by the Family Research Council in Your Nation's Capital this weekend was a success.
Over 400 people were issued media credentials. The media hits are still being counted. The FRC straw poll was mentioned a half-dozen times on the FOX debate last night.
This just in from FRC,
...the Briefing was covered by well over 400 members of the media, including 31 bloggers. C-Span broadcast the event live gavel-to-gavel and camera crews from all five networks and countries including Norway, Italy, Germany, Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands were present. The Briefing ended up with over 1200 media "hits" -- 1000 stories in print, as well as 235 in television coverage.
Charmaine at the podium
addressing last year's
crowd of 1,700 The Family Research Council is having their annual Briefing in Your Nation's Capital.
This year will be interesting. All GOP presidential candidates will speak. Sen. Sam Brownback, Rudy Giuliani, Rep. Ron Paul, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Rep. Duncan Hunter, Sen. John McCain, Gov. Mitt Romney, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Fred Thompson.
No Democratic candidate has accepted.
Liberals: won't fight; won't debate.
From FRCAction,
The Washington Briefing 2007: Values Voter Summit is cosponsored by American Values, Focus on the Family Action, Alliance Defense Fund and High Impact Leadership Coalition.
The Briefing will be held October 19-21 at the Hilton Washington Hotel in Washington, D.C. A presidential straw poll, exhibit hall, radio row, book signings, bloggers' row, and much more will be packed into this three-day conference. Saturday evening Dr. James Dobson will be honored at a gala dinner where he will receive FRC's inaugural Vision and Leadership Award.
Members of the media must register for FRC media credentials prior to the event.
Contact J.P. Duffy at jpd@frc.org or fax, names, numbers and e-mails on company letterhead to 202.393.2134.
In addition to the GOP presidential candidates, the speaker line-up includes Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, Chuck Colson, Gary Bauer, Bishop Harry Jackson, Alan Sears, Mark Levin, Roger Hedgecock, Rich Lowry, Paul Weyrich, Dr. Richard Land, John Fund, Ed Meese, Ben Stein, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, Representatives Marsha Blackburn and Jean Schmidt, Star Parker, Phyllis Schlafly, Senator Rick Santorum, Michael Steele, Father Frank Pavone, Bill Bennett, and Judge Robert Bork.
Charmaine, as Vice President for Communications for FRC will be working The Political Blogosphere with Soren Dayton, Political Consultant; David All, The David All Group; Matthew Eppinette, Americans United for Life; Erick Erickson, RedState; Joe Carter, Director of Web Communications for FRC
Attendees at the Summit will now have the chance to make their own assessments of the GOP contenders in person at the Summit. In addition, members of FRC Action (see the web site address that follows) can vote in the first-ever Values Voter Presidential Straw Poll, either online or in person on October 19 and 20.
Gary Bauer has an excellent analysis of how liberal Democrats behave in power. Their disrespectful behavior would not improve if another Clinton were in the White House.
Charmaine has given congressional testimony and Your Business Blogger has attended a number of congressional hearings. Hearings are usually conducted with decorum and respect and dignity. The high ceiling-ed hearing rooms are treated as sanctuaries; like churches. And people are mindful of being considerate and deferential.
But not these days.
Bauer, as usual, gets it right on yesterday's hearings -- and his message deserves a wide audience.
The Inmates Are Running The Asylum
I spent most of the day on Capitol Hill yesterday, meeting with members of Congress and discussing important issues. The terrain is familiar to me, though it can be hostile at times. I have worked in this town for three decades, served eight years in the Reagan administration and have been through some tough hearings myself.
But yesterday something happened that I have never seen before, and even the Washington Post felt compelled to report the “theatrics” on page A2 today, noting, “the lid came off” of the liberals’ anger during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
Simply put, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Peter Pace were ambushed by radical activists and liberal Democrats on the committee. Senator Robert Byrd, chairman of the committee and the top recipient of campaign cash from MoveOn.org, whipped the audience into a frenzy. Here is an excerpt from the Washington Post:
“He [Byrd] invited the audience in the room to join him in heckling the witnesses [Secretary Gates and General Pace], creating a responsive Greek chorus.
“Byrd: Are we really seeking progress toward a stable, secure Iraq?
“Chorus: No!
“Byrd: Is our continuing occupation encouraging the Iraqi people to step up?
“Chorus: No!
“Byrd: Are Iraq's leaders doing the hard work necessary?
“Chorus: No!
“Emboldened, two dozen hecklers in the audience from the antiwar group Code Pink continued to shout at the witnesses and wave signs for the better part of an hour. Finally, after Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) challenged Pace on his view that homosexuality is immoral, the hearing collapsed as the hecklers shouted down the nation’s top military officer.
“...When the proceedings resumed, minus two dozen pink-clad demonstrators, Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) felt the need to ‘go on record with how disturbed I am about the conduct that occurred here. Such tension, such chaos, such disrespect.’”
What is described here is a mob scene in which top officials charged with the defense of our country were verbally harassed and insulted by arrogant politicians and a cadre of loud-mouthed radicals. Secretary Gates and General Pace were not there to offer testimony about the war. They were intentionally set up and they walked into a trap.
That kind of petty partisan behavior is disgraceful and unbecoming of the United States Senate. While I appreciate Senator Mikulski for speaking up, it’s no wonder that Congress’ approval rating has fallen to record lows lately.
By the way, when Senator Harkin decided to bring up the issue of open homosexuality in the military, General Pace reminded the senator that the U.S. Military Code of Justice prohibits homosexual activity -- and adultery. To which Sen. Harkin retorted, “Well, then, maybe we should change that.”
Wow! I wonder what the good folks back in Iowa think of that idea. I hope they will keep it in mind next year when Harkin runs for reelection.
Global Warming = Higher Taxes
Liberals in the House of Representatives are putting the finishing touches
on a plan to combat global warming, and, of course, it involves higher
taxes. Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee is being very blunt about the facts of the plan, saying, “I’m
trying to have everybody understand that this is going to cost and that
it’s going to have a measure of pain that you’re not going to like.”
In making his call for “shared pain,” Dingell is proposing – and you might
want to sit down for this – to hike gasoline taxes 50 cents a gallon;
phasing out the interest tax deduction for home mortgages; and a new tax on
carbon emissions of $50 per ton, which would increase the cost of
electricity, winter heating fuel, etc., etc.
I’ve been saying for some time now that this debate was headed in precisely
this direction. Regardless of the science or the value of being good
stewards of the environment, liberal Democrats are turning the policy
debate on its head and using it as a tool to accomplish their agenda of
bigger government, higher taxes and more control over your life.
Democrats Debate Values; Go Off The Deep End
An interesting question was posed to the Democrat candidates during last
night’s debate in New Hampshire. A member of the audience told the
candidates about a situation that occurred last year in Lexington,
Massachusetts, in which second grade students were read a “fairly tale”
about prince who could not find true love until he met another prince. The
book is called “King and King” and it is being used to indoctrinate young
children about same-sex “marriage.”
This concerned citizen asked each of the Democrat candidates, “Would you be
comfortable having this story read to your children as part of their school
curriculum?” Their responses were revealing.
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards responded, “Yes, absolutely. I
want my children to understand everything about the difficulties that gay
and lesbian couples are faced with every day, the discrimination that
they’re faced with every single day of their lives.”
Barack Obama essentially agreed with Edwards, noting that children need to
understand that some people are different. Then it was Hillary’s turn.
“I really respect what both John and Barack said. With respect to your
individual children, that is such a matter of parental discretion,” Clinton
said.
Well, actually, it’s not. When the father of a child in the Lexington
class objected to what his son was being exposed to, he was told that
homosexual “marriage” was legal in Massachusetts. When he continued to
protest the school’s blatant disregard for parental rights, he was
arrested. Parents later sued the school district and a judge dismissed
their suit. So much for “parental discretion.”
I’m pleased to report that several Republican presidential candidates today
are noting just how extreme and out of touch the Democrats have become on
values issues. Earlier this year, the Democrats participated in the first-
ever “gay debate,” demonstrating the influence the militant homosexual
movement wields within the party of Clinton and Kennedy.
My friends, today’s news – liberal Democrats haranguing our military
leaders; trying to raise taxes through the roof; and forcing homosexuality
on our children – once again illustrates the stakes involved in the 2008
elections. I’ll be reporting even more in the days ahead. I hope you are
ready, and I hope you will support us!
A basic in sales is: Know your market, Know your product, See a lot of people, Ask them all to buy.
A product logo seen on the screen, large or small, generates sales. A product placed in a movie will get a lot of people to see a product in use by celebrities. Tom McMahon, as usual, has a multiple matrix on product placement and the public good:
An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Strategic Product/Logo Placement To Cover Up The Naughty Bits
Say you're the Program Director for Spike TV and you need to run a Julie Andrews movie. The Sound of Music is for the chicks, Mary Poppins for the kids, but the 1982 movie S.O.B. would be perfect.
And the movie would now pass, as McMahon suggests, the scrutiny of the Family Research Council...
ET and Reeses Pieces Another movie made in 1982, ET, also had a product placement. When Reeses Pieces were displayed and eaten in the classic movie E.T.:Extra-Terrestrial, sales tripled.
Hollywood says that movies reflect culture and really do not have a pushing or leading effect on behaviors.
This is, of course, nonsense. Very smart people spend a lot of very smart money to influence the public behavior through advertising in entertainment. Because it works.
Movies move our culture. But Hollywood does not often act in the public good -- Hollywood should retain Tom McMahon to get it right.
The Cowboy Poet and Larry Craig Charmaine had just finished her book, Mother in the Middle: Searching for Peace in the Mommy Wars, so we put The (little) Dreamer in the car and went book-flogging across America.
Our travels took us to Boise, Idaho, in the flyover country of conservative book buyers. The local Family Policy Council invited us to their fund-raiser and Charmaine spoke behind headliner and popular Senator from Idaho, Larry Craig.
She wrote about the experience for Policy Review, formerly owned by The Heritage Foundation, and now under The Hoover Institute masthead. She begins,
Rudy Gonzalez, a "cowboy poet" with a handlebar mustache and a home-on-the-range accent, strummed his guitar, then launched into a joke. The crowd relaxed into laughter as he regaled them with tall tales and folk wisdom.
Reading Charmaine's old article now seems like anything but a trailer for Brokeback Mountain.
This is the Idaho Family Forum's annual summer fundraiser, the Spud Bake, where this group of moms and dads marks the end of summer by eating baked potatoes. Lots of them. Followed by spud-shaped ice cream.
But cowboy poetry soon gave way to public policy. U.S. Senator Larry Craig rose to address the group, and the question-and-answer session that followed was brisk and well informed. The Idaho Family Forum (IFF) and its supporters are dedicated to changing cultural trends that are undermining the stability of families -- from no-fault divorce to teen pregnancy to chronic welfare dependency.
Larry Craig's talk was red meat to this Red State.
His remarks were sincere, but looking back was he being, as we now say, authentic?
Or does Craig's resignation announcement today indicate something more. That his "wide stance" -- a sort of big tent across men's room stalls for anonymous homosexual sex -- now means that one cannot be homosexual and conservative?
(Many of our Log Cabin Republican homosexual friends vote pro-life. Believing that if science ever finds that "gay gene" that mothers will root out gays in the womb and abort to eliminate this "orientation" from that family blood-line.)
Nope. Larry Craig was cheating on his wife.
Once in the Army, Your Business Blogger had a battalion commander, a Lieutenant Colonel Paul Funk, who gave poor marks to a Major who had a weakness for women; his wife not included. We young lieutenants were a bit perplexed: this Major, a Vietnam Vet was being penalized for personal behavior that had nothing to do with his job. How judgmental! How intolerant!
The word got around, as information does in any organization, that LTC Funk did not consider any lines between the personal and the public and the private.
He said, "If a man cannot be loyal to his wife, how do I know he'll be loyal to me?"
The same if true of politicians. Maybe even more so. If a Congressman or Senator cheats on his wife, it is a matter of when, not if, he will cheat his constituents.
Larry Craig took the correct action by leaving the Senate.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
LTC Funk continued with his medieval sense of duty and chivalry and honor. He was rewarded, and advanced to become a Lieutenant General and hero of the First Gulf war. I understand he retired quietly back to his hometown of Roundup, Montana. I've been blessed with a number of talented bosses and he was one of the best.
The genius is in the writing and in keeping all gambits created by the individual writers in sync, so the piece has a tonal consistency and a narrative flow. A lost art in Hollywood? It's really one of the best movies of the year.
The Simpsons Movie PG-13, 87 minutes Contains adult material. In theaters.
Matt Groening of MATT GROENING PRODUCTIONS/PRODUCER of BEVERLY HILLS, California has donated the maximum to liberal democrat Barbara Boxer.
"A major national religious conservative group is mounting a telephone campaign intended to keep Republican Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander on the ideological straight and narrow when it comes to hot-button social issues.
The Family Research Council is placing automated calls (sometimes known as "robo-calls") to Nashville households about legislation that would include attacks motivated by the victim's sexual orientation among the offenses covered by federal hate-crime laws."
If you have never listened to a "robo-call" here's your chance.
Catch Charmaine's voice on the automated call here. Link courtesy of the Nashville Post, where,
"...FRC Vice President for Communications Charmaine Yoest warns voters about "legislation that would provide extra punishment for certain crimes committed against specially protected classes of people." Yoest urges the call recipients to telephone Alexander's Nashville office and urge that the senator vote 'no' on any hate-crimes bill that grants special protection to people because of their sexual preferences."
Note also the language: The liberal reporter Thomas Wood says sexual orientation. Charmaine says, sexual preference. It is a sexual preference, not a genetic "orientation."
The liberal says hate crimes. The conservative says thought crimes.
John Edwards is close -- there may not be two Americas, but there are certainly two world views.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Alert Readers will recognize the Official Family Research Council portrait of Your Business Blogger's wife, Charmaine. It was the subject of some debate.
Dr. Drew Pinsky from Discovery Health Channel
(By Jonathan Alcorn For The Washington Post)
Dr. Drew Pinsky recently gave a talk for the Independent Women's Forum in the Rayburn Building in Washington, DC.
The audience was some four dozen young women.
The interns who actually run the government in Your Nation's Capital.
Pinsky advised the young nubile college aged co-eds that they have three options with sex:
A) Drink Juice 'em up and go. Liquor is quicker -- for girls. Beer Goggles -- for men.
B) Steady Joined at the hip. Live together shack-up. Trial marriage.
C) Hook-up Friends with benefits. Also known as f**k buddies.
He mentions no fourth option.
I would, if asked, submit Bruce Cameron's rules. And if you read the rules, the Alert Reader would well understand why I am not retained as a speaker for the IWF.
This is not your mother's conservative movement...
Pinsky is an imperfect spokesman for the religious right; he once gave out free condoms as a promotion for his Web site.
"By the way, sometimes it's just fun," Pinsky said of youthful sex. "I'm not saying, 'Oh, my God, we have to have a funeral march.' Sometimes it's fun. It's not a bad thing."
The WaPo is wrong. (This is not news.) The Independent Women's Forum makes no claim to be faith based. IWF takes no position on abortion. IWF makes no moral judgments on sex.
The Washington Times column Inside the Beltway's by John McCaslin, reads,
[Pinsky]described the college social environment as "unnaturally intense," as it gives women three basic options: to engage in an "intoxicated physical encounter with no commitment" (a hook-up), to begin a "joined at the hip" relationship or to agree to a "friends with benefits" arrangement. The women in the audience agreed that none of these options is ideal.
While leaving the larger moral and cultural implications up for consideration, Dr. Pinsky advocated personal responsibility, integrity and most importantly, an openness for dialogue.
This is code-talk psycho-babble for "sex only after three dates." Something "The [other] Rules" would advocate.
Except that in any of these scenarios, the girl is -- used, drunk, infected, pregnant.
Or worse.
She gets a broken heart.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Your Business Blogger's wife, Charmaine, has served on the IWF Advisory Board. She does not endorse the recommendations of Dr. Drew Pinsky.
Form Bruce Cameron's Rules for Dating My Daughter, Rule Four:
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without using a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate, when it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.
The Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right (Hardcover)
by Ellen Fein (Author), Sherrie Schneider.
Michelle D. Bernard, President and CEO of the Independent Women's Forum says,
The reviews are in! This year's Sex and Dating Conference for Capitol Hill interns was the best ever. Not only did we garner an unprecedented amount of media coverage- including a major piece on page A2 of The Washington Post-we felt that the interns who showed up were eager for a serious discussion of sex and dating mores in a safe atmosphere...
At IWF, ...We felt that, without offering judgments, Dr. Drew Pinsky, led a thoughtful-and fun-discussion of campus mores. He repeatedly asked if hooking up is such a good idea, why is it that students find they must be intoxicated to hook up?
Dr. Drew Pinsky's philosophy needs adult supervision. People, moving down the hyway of life, need real guidance, real guardrails.
Happy Fourth of July! Your Business Blogger is a Flag Waver. And got college course credit for the effort.
Your Business Blogger with the American Flag,
Foreman Field, Old Dominion University
One of my Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) responsibilities was as a member of the Color Guard. Our job was to present the colors at various functions on various holidays. For the singing of the National Anthem or the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.
Rather patriotic displays.
This morning the Penta-Posse carried The Flag on their bikes in the local Fourth of July parade in our neighborhood.
Fire trucks, police motorcycles, pancakes.
Because he had the biggest flag, The Dude got to lead the parade. And we look forward to the fireworks tonight.
Your Business Blogger with the flag of the
Commonwealth of Virginia Kevin Emdee, on left with weapon would later be in my wedding. He attended without the M-14.
Yes, the state standard is not vertical. The photographer insisted that I move the flag as to not obscure my visage.
I readily complied to his reasonable request.
And breaking protocol for a greater good.
Happy Independence Day! From Your (insufferable) Business Blogger.
Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.
...They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.
Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.
And for us at home -- fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas,...help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.
...And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade.
A post from last year and the year before by Charmaine.
Every time we've made the left turn onto Eisenhower Drive, and passed through the imposing brick gates of Arlington National Cemetery, I've been overwhelmed with emotion. Family members of those buried at Arlington National Cemetery are given a special pass and may drive onto the Hallowed Grounds to visit the grave of their loved one. It's an enormous honor which makes me feel humbled.
The Penta-Posse
at Arlington National Cemetery
My husband's father served thirty years in the United States Navy, and died the year I married into the family, so I didn't know him well. And the fact is, after a lifetime of nine-month Mediterranean tours, wars, and rumors of war, there is a lot my husband doesn't know as well.
However, over the 15 years that we've been married, I have gotten to know my mother-in-law well. She doesn't talk either about the sacrifices she made, but there is one story that she has told me several times.
Once, when my father-in-law was out on tour, and she was home with three small children, the car broke down and, of course, she had to take care of it. My husband marched up and said, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll fix it." He was about five years old at the time.
My mother-in-law laughs. . . the little man, takin' care of things. But it makes me cry.
We owe a lot to our military families.
When we visited Arlington this past week, we passed at least three funeral ceremonies on the way to Section 64. I lost track of the fresh graves and the still-standing tents, either just vacated by other grieving families, or awaiting the afternoon's fresh, raw sorrow.
As we pulled up on Bradley Avenue, an Air Force honor guard was marching precisely back to their bus after a ceremony for an airman who had been a POW in Korea. While we searched for my father-in-law's headstone, an empty horse-drawn caisson lumbered past, and settled briefly in the shade nearby, awaiting their next assignment. . .
We found my father-in-law's headstone: The front has the Christian Cross with the old Chief's Curriculum Vita. Chief Yoest cut high school to catch World War II. He retired with rows of ribbons and a "v" device, and pinned butterbars on his boy. He now has a grandson, The Dude, who bears his name and wants to be a Navy pilot.
The reverse of the stone is blank, awaiting the inscripton for Chief Yoest's high school sweetheart, his wife, Jack's mom, "Babcia" (Polish for Grandmother), who is still with us. In the end, they will be buried together, an honor she earned.
As we turned to go, the Diva took her jingle-bell necklace from around her neck, and left it on the headstone. A fitting tribute for a warrior.
Sailors, rest your oars.
We drove back down Bradley Avenue -- past a fresh grave covered by a tarp. In front of us, sparkling in the bright sunlight of a gorgeous day, stretched row after row of white marble markers, orderly, peaceful, some weathered, others new and crisply chiseled . . .
I turned to the Penta-Posse. "I want you to look," I said. "I want you to understand, that each one of these headstones represents someone who gave their life so that you could be free."
They were quiet and solemn. The weight of it is beyond measure.
The Dreamer said, "Don't cry, Mom."
We made the right turn onto Eisenhower. We drove slowly toward the exit, passing the drive to the Tomb of the Unknowns to our left, until we came to a crosswalk thronged with tourists. The guard on duty motioned to the crowd to stop, and we drove through, passing through the gates, back to a busy day, leaving behind -- the curious crowds, the chattering school children. . . and the silent stones.
Charmaine on an earlier
FOX appearance Data is showing that the public is most uncomfortable with abortion.
Charmaine will be discussing the trend -- as Naomi Wolf said, "The fetus beat us."
Hit time is 12:30 pm Saturday 19 May 2007 on FOX. The Fetus
Beat us.
The proof. Charmaine appeared with Tucker Carlson to morn the loss of a pro-life leader, Rev. Jerry Falwell.
on left: Bauer, Falwell, McCain on far right
at Liberty University. Falwell
has been described as a 'kingmaker.'
May 2006
credit: Charmaine Yoest Charmaine will be interviewed on CNN and on Tucker Carlson on MSNBC today to discuss the impact of the loss of The Rev. Jerry Falwell who died at his desk in Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
Tucker on MSNBCCharmaine and Your Business Blogger have worked with Falwell on a number of issues over the years.
He will be missed.
CNN Hit time on CNN is 6pm eastern tonight.
Hit time for Tucker is 4:08 eastern -- right now...
Anderson Cooper Charmaine recently appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 to debate the teaching of Intelligent Design in the nation's classrooms. Rob Boston from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State was the combatant on the other side.
See the Darwinian reaction at Talk to Action. It's annoying enough that the networks omit Charmaine's credential, but the only slight worse is misspelling our name. Spelling counts.
Also insulted by the assault on the religion of evolution is My Thinking Corner and Notes from Evil Bender. Talk to Action can't spell and Notes can't discern gender. The GLBT would be pleased.
the Jaded Skeptic, Odd Jack; An outpost maintained for SECULAR DIALOGUES, PROGRESSIVE DISCUSSIONS, and SOBER EXCHANGES...and some SILLY PRATTLE has The Blogswarm cometh
The creator of the Peanuts comic strip, Charles Schultz, has an eternal perspective.
Charles Schultz
1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America pageant.
4. Name 10 people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.
The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners .
Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:
1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with
Easier Right?
The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care .
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia .
Glenn Beck
on CNN
Charmaine will be coming back again this week on the Glenn Beck Show on CNN to discuss the cultural implications of the shooting at Virginia Tech.
The Killer Was Evil. He Made an Evil Choice.
Liberals do not want to hear any debate on Good and Evil. Because Liberals cannot, of course, name Evil.
Because they would then have to acknowledge Good.
Because liberals cannot acknowledge our Creator from which all Good flows.
Hit times are thrice tonight, Friday: 7, 9 and 12 midnite Eastern on your CNN Headline News cable outlet.
Charmaine on remote on the DC set
for Glenn Beck who is taped in NYC Photo Credit: The Dude Please tune in and let us know what you think.
And listen to a conservative Political Scientist who can name Evil.
Jamie Allman Your Business Blogger will be interviewed on the Fox radio affiliate in St. Louis, Missouri. Host Jamie Allman would like to talk about my experience as a "member" of the White House press corps at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
But it wasn't my first experience with the, well, habits of the White House press corp.
White Press Corps
Reserved Seating
Your Business Blogger
took the sign and
took a seat Charmaine and I were dating during her tenure in Reagan administration. She would often take me back to the White House press briefing room (built over Franklin Roosevelt's swimming pool) to fetch a press release or some such.
I expected the press room to be as immaculate and awe-inspiring and dignified as the rest of the rooms at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
But no.
The place was a dump. Yes, the podium and backdrop were spotless. But that was it. Trash was everywhere, waste cans overflowing. Cables, equipment and crumbs underfoot. I thought that the cleaning service was lax. (In the White House?) But no, they all, from Dan Rather on down lived in the squalor. The cleaning crew could barely keep up with the waste-management.
Those guys didn't pick up after themselves.
They made a mess and depended upon others to clean up after them.
Things haven't changed much from the 80's. Which is why people read blogs today...
Hit time is Thursday 19 April at 7:45 CST – 8:45 am my time here in Eastern.
If you live around St. Louis, tune in and let us know what you think. If you are outside the area, not to worry:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
Rolling Stone
always provocative Rolling Stone has an excellent analysis on the God-fearing voter effect on presidential politics.
Evangelicals in Exile; The Christian right is reeling from its biggest electoral defeat in a quarter century - and now they're talking about abandoning the GOP byline ROBERT DREYFUSS,
"To ensure that Republicans get the message in 2008, the religious right is redoubling its efforts to mobilize its political machine -- including tens of thousands of churches, hundreds of radio stations and two national television networks."
The liberal thinking is that the Jesus-God-fearing voter votes as one. One candidate; one block.
O that we would. 30% of Evangelicals voted for Clinton. Gary Bauer at one time encouraged John McCain. Liberal democratTIC candidates still get some Catholics.
Robert Dreyfuss continues,
The Family Research Council, a leading lobby for the Christian right, is planning a huge expansion on the Internet, including videos and podcasts, to reach millions in next year's election. "We want to be sure that the lessons of the last election have been learned, and that the Republicans understand that we are not a lock for the GOP," says Charmaine Yoest, the council's vice president of communications. "When you're looking at razor-thin margins, you better pay attention to your base."
New Media is key. A percentage point or less, will win. Jim Ceaser, who sat on Charmaine's dissertation committee, made this clear in his book The Perfect Tie (list price: $69.00).
The other James, Carville, agrees,
"It's not like you have to win 'em," says James Carville, the Democratic strategist who engineered Bill Clinton's rise to power. "You just have to do better. Even if you go up five points, it's a big deal."
Dreyfuss quotes Charmaine, who gets it right (of course...)
The swing certainly got the attention of the Christian right. "Man, a couple of points difference -- that's what the political consultants get paid the big bucks to deliver," says Yoest of the Family Research Council. "In a divided electorate, that's significant."
Dreyfuss warns, Rolling Stone
The group fired an early shot across the GOP's bow in January, when it delivered a videotaped response to President Bush's State of the Union speech. "The president failed to draw a line in the sand on behalf of life," charged Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council.
Dreyfuss quotes Perkins,
"What will become of the culture of life, of the defense of marriage?" The council displayed a chart [above] on which it noted the number of times the president mentioned the Christian right's core issues: marriage, 0; abortion, 0; stem cells, 0; cloning, 0; abstinence, 0; and values, 0.
Be sure to bookmark and track Family Research Council's New Media advances at the FRCBlog. (Unpaid link.)
Your Business Blogger is attending the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Your Nation's Capital. And received White House Press Pool credentials.
So my fellow press jackals kindly let me know that it was very bad form for me to clap for the president. Whooping and cheering is frowned upon in the press gallery. We all must keep a professional, detached demeanor, you see.
And don't even think about reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
The Plege was led by Marine Corporal Michael Blair. Got his body blown up by an IED in The War. He still hobbled up and stood tall for the 1600 attendees. I looked at Cpl Blair...then over at the press corps.
The White House Press Corps -- I was reminded of a slander my old First Sergeant would often invoke: They all wouldn't add up to a pimple on a corporal's backside. Except Top didn't say backside...
('Top' is the term of endearment for the senior enlisted rank-holder in a company size Army unit.)
So I join my fellow Jesus-loving Christians, who are in the Catholic tradition. [Caution: Christian humor to follow.]
Catholics are easy to spot -- they're the one's with tabbed Bibles...to make the individual books easy to find.
Protestants smugly don't need the table of contents and page numbers; having grown up with 'sword drills' to find a particular Biblical passage. Although we Protesting Protestants could use the sacrament of confession...
...Or maybe just this Calvinist.
(I'll match my humility against anyone's.)
Anyway, Austin Ruse began the welcoming after the breakfast meal.
A war protester yelling something about stop the war was quickly and safely escorted from the ball room. It was not clear if she was addressing President Bush...or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. (Not present.)
The President starts by complimenting the Catholic crowd, "You make a Methodist feel at home." Bush noted the wisdom of the planners that the breakfast bash, was "...on the Friday after Lent...[so you can now] eat the bacon..."
George Bush speaks about the sanctity of human life -- he is at home in this pro-life crowd. Standing O's.
Laura Bush did not attend.
In the gathering:
Wendy Wright, Concerned Women for America; Janice Crouse, Ph.D., Beverly LaHaye Institute. Justice Alito, Bill Saunders, Board member of the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast
Reverend Thomas G. Bohlin, Vicar, Prelature of Opus Dei in the United States
Colleen O'Boyle, CRC; and
Diana Bannister, Shirley & Bannister
putting the PR in PRayer Jacqueline Halbig, Board member of the National Prayer Breakfast
The Breakfast is the kick-off for the day-long conference. The National Catholic Prayer Breakfast was created and influenced by Pope John Paul the Great for a "New Evangelization, new in ardor, methods and expression."
Well Done, good and faithful servants.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
Schedule at the jump.
All links are unpaid.
Be sure to watch Charmaine on Cavuto today between 4 and 5 on Fox in a debate on Imus. (Not present.)
To today where Sir Mix-a- Lot, (a Grammy Award winner, natch) tells us, (fortissimo)
I like big butts and I can not lie...
To hell with romancin'
She's Sweat, Wet, got it goin like a turbo vette...
So ladies (yeah), Ladies (yeah)
Do you wanna roll in my Mercedes (yeah)
Then turn around
Stick it out...
Baby got back...
OK...So Nash and Sir Mix are saying the same thing. But there is a difference in, well, style.
And this culture war is seen in the counter-cultured Icon Imus in his depreciation of black women.
Fox News Pop culture confusion also caused by Kanye West, who symbolizes the Imus counter-example. West is a producer for gangsta rapper, Ludacris, who is best known for "edgy" lyrics:
I got my twin glock .40's cocked back/Me and my homies, so drop that.
My shotguns are cold and hard . . ./My triggers are always talking about some squeeze me, squeeze me.
Hollow bullets I pull it,
I'm about to live in vain
And then I drill 'em,
refill 'em,
make sure they feel the pain.
And my favorite, "I've got ho's in different area codes."
Ludacris can make this rhyme.
A style like Ogden Nash, content like Tony Soprano: Ludacris and Kanye and Mix-a-Lot . . . and Imus hangin' with the ho's at Bada Bing.
Is insulting black women reserved for black men?
Should Imus be banished to satellite to cuss it out with Howard Stern?
Or should the high standards of Your Business Blogger -- the morally virtuous -- impose moral superiority on the gutter-mass-media-mouths?
Charmaine takes up these questions on FOX. She will be returning to Cavuto's show on Your World with Cavuto, Friday (the 13th!) at 4 pm Eastern. On Fox News.
Charmaine, the weather vane, will point us in the right direction in these times of confused moral compass headings.
Charmaine, Your Business Blogger
Penta-Posse at the Grand Canyon
Easter 2005 In this political season, every Presidential Candidate will be in church on Easter.
A photo op, if nothing else.
Two Easters back we traveled west on business and celebrated Easter in Arizona.
Your Business Blogger had the Family celebrate our Faith with tax supported Freedom at the government owned and operated Grand Canyon.
I remember asking the officiating pastor at Sunrise Service if liberals were attempting to shut down the event at Mather Point. Church/State and all that.
He said, "We've been having [Easter sunrise service] for decades. No one has bothered us." Preaching on public land. Imagine.
Alert the (main stream) media. Call the ACLU.
The sponsoring church secures the permit and 1,600 people show up well before dawn. To watch the sun rise.
How Abortion Harms Women
Princeton University Charmaine and Your Business Blogger will be a-traveling with the Penta-Posse (minus The Dreamer at crew camp) to Princeton University over the spring break.
Charmaine will be giving a talk on abortion/women/work/life. Alert Readers will remember that she used to teach a course The Family and Politics at The University of Virginia.
A lecture titled "How Abortion Harms Women" is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 4, in 16 Robertson Hall.
The talk will be delivered by Charmaine Yoest, [Ph.D.] vice president for communications at the Family Research Council, a nonprofit lobbying organization that promotes socially conservative views.
Yoest also is project director of the Family, Gender and Tenure Project at the University of Virginia, a nationwide study focused on parental leave policy.
She is the author (with Deborah Shaw Lewis) of "Mother in the Middle" and is working on a new book, "A G.I. Bill for Moms: Mothers, the Market and the American Way."
The talk is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions.
The event is free and is open to the public. Come by and join us and let us know what you think.
...duked it out before (in an exchange at Commentary on international law) with Anne-Marie Slaughter, the Dean at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. She is, though, a fair-minded liberal in the great but dying academic tradition of allowing all thoughtful voices — including, yes, conservative voices — to be heard on campus.
Ken Blackwell Ken Blackwell recently joined the Family Research Council. He will be introduced by Tony Perkins.
Plan on coming to see Charmaine also. And the Penta-Posse and Your Business Blogger.
Ken Blackwell will give a talk on Lessons of 2006: Moving Forward to 2008.
A must see,
if you're in DC.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 29, 2007 CONTACT:
J.P. Duffy or Maria Donovan, (866) FRC-NEWS
Washington, D.C. - Tuesday, 3 April, at 5:30 pm, Family Research Council and the Board of Directors, will host a reception in honor of Mr. Ken Blackwell, a former Undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Mr. Blackwell is joining the Family Research Council as the Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment, where he will focus on issues such as family economics, tax reform, and education. The evening reception will include remarks by Mr. Blackwell on the 2008 presidential election as well as an opportunity for media interviews.
When: Tuesday, April 3, 2007
5:30 pm
Where: Family Research Council
801 G Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001
Please RSVP: 1.800.225.4008, they need to get a headcount for the (free) hors d'oeuvres and refreshments. Business attire is preferred.
Ken Blackwell's appointment at FRC was noted by the Associated Press, where he is quoted,
“They (FRC) asked me to sort of build up the economic and fiscal dimension and show how that is an important part of what they do and what they find to be important. One of the areas where Buckeye and FRC share a public policy interest is in the area of advancing school choice and parental empowerment. It’s 21st century civil rights,” Blackwell said.
Blackwell, a former state treasurer, is well-suited to discuss economic issues, but his position against abortion and on other issues will allow him to speak to many constituencies, FRC President Tony Perkins said.
“Ken is well rounded as a former (Cincinnati) mayor, secretary of state, gubernatorial candidate. He has a well-rounded conservative portfolio,” Perkins said. “He has consistent conservative positions and he has not been bashful.”
Please come and welcome Ken Blackwell.
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
And be sure to see Charmaine on Anderson Cooper 360 tonight, Monday, at 10:00pm Eastern. She will be debating Intelligent Design, Creationism and Evolution in the classroom.
Sen. Bob Casey's first moment of truth in the U.S. Senate is approaching. And the issue is stem-cell research...
Given his campaign commitment to oppose federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, and given the role pro-life Pennsylvanians played in electing him, you would think the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2007 would be a no-brainer for Casey. Yet, suddenly there is some question about his position...
Despite the position candidate Casey took last year, bloggers pushing for embryonic stem-cell funding this year - bloggers including the Daily Kos and Californians for Cure -- have listed him as one of the "Swingable Seven," a group of senators who might be swayed on the issue...
Who would have thought that so soon in his Senate career young Casey would face a defining dilemma: Will he still follow in his father's footsteps, or trample on his legacy?
Dr. Yoest, this article, though obviously well-annotated for its time, is now almost 10 years old. Much has changed in the economy and in numbers of single-parent households. Mobility of jobs and therefore of families has increased.
Given your educational background, I would hope that you could provide a similarly well-annotated update to this nearly decade-old albeit thorough analysis...
Charmaine might be updating some of the data on air. She is scheduled to be on Fox News this Saturday, 31 March, to discuss the NIH's longitudinal study on day care by the NICH&HD. Hit time is between noon and 1, but is not confirmed.
She also did a tape-to-live segment for Anderson Cooper on Intelligent Design. Free Speech and open inquiry might still be possible in the public schools. Or should liberals censor and gag?
Most Americans (64%) say they are open to the idea of teaching creationism along with evolution in the public schools, and a substantial minority (38%) favors replacing evolution with creationism in public school curricula.
While much of this support comes from religious conservatives, these ideas particularly the idea of teaching both perspectives have a broader appeal. Even many who are politically liberal and who believe in evolution favor expanding the scope of public school education to include teaching creationism.
But an analysis of the poll also reveals that there are considerable inconsistencies between people's beliefs and what they want taught in the schools, suggesting some confusion about the meaning of terms such as "creationism" and "evolution."
The Pew poll also has data on political party public perceptions,
The public also has distinctly different perceptions of both parties when it comes to dealing with religion and personal freedoms.
By a wide margin 51% to 28% the Republican Party is seen as most concerned with protecting religious values.
By a nearly identical margin (52%-30%), the Democratic Party is perceived as most concerned with protecting the freedom of citizens to make personal choices.
Bob Knight and Brent Bozell
Photo Credit: Michelle S. Humphrey
from the Media Research Center It seemed that many of the clients of Your Business Blogger were having challenges finding integrity in job candidates. Even business schools are forced to teach ethics. Goodness.
Smart Human Resource gurus have always used an unspoken, intuitive cultural profiling to test job candidates.
Bob Knight's Survey quantifies with hard numbers what managers have all been feeling over the last few years.
And it turns out the HR professionals may have been right. People these days have a ...flexible compass on truth.
The Culture and Media Institute released this report at The National Press Club on Wednesday in Washington, DC. I ask Bob, "What should hiring managers use to determine a good job candidate from one that would break the law, lie, or use drugs?"
"This is a problem for business and for us all," Bob said later. The variable on honesty can be measured by the professed attendance at a house of worship. "The determining line would be going to church at least twice a month." However, Bob was quick to remind me, "You can't ask that in a job interview."
Questions based on Faith Based Hiring practices would be, well, discriminating.
In favor of the crooks and liars and liberals.
In The National Cultural Values Survey: America: A Nation in Moral and Spiritual Confusion, Bob finds that,
The survey reveals that 74 percent of Americans believe the nation is in moral decline, and that a culture war is indeed occurring in America.
Indeed. First-line supervisors see this daily and battle with the challenge of finding ways of selecting good employees.
Managers would often gauge an aspect of culture and class of a job candidate by observing the prospective employee's behavior at a restaurant. Table manners were important, but the astute manager watched how the candidate would treat the wait staff.
Bob Knight's Survey takes this test to a higher level and gives a vignette on measuring honesty in a table called, Cheating on a Restaurant Bill,
You are out to dinner with a group of friends. When the check arrives you notice that several
items are missing from the bill. Your friends say you should just pay the bill, and that it’s the
restaurant’s own fault for making the mistake. What would you do?
85% of church-going conservatives would Tell the waiter and pay the right amount. Only 52% of the Godless liberals would be forthright.
The 18th-century atheist and culturally-correct philosphe, Voltaire, recognized this problem. Even though he believed Christianity was an "infamy," he wrote that "I want my attorney, my tailor, my servants, even my wife to believe in God."
Voltaire wanted this accountability to God not for his employee's eternal salvation, but as a Total Quality Management System. "...Then I shall be robbed and cuckolded less often," he concluded.
The Frenchman and the Jesus-loving Christians. Voltaire hated them. But he hired them.
And mark your calendars for Media Research Center's 20th Anniversary Gala on 29 March. Your Business Blogger and Charmaine will be there with some of the smartest people in DC. You be there too.
Business Pundit has more data that supports one of Bob's findings -- children make us more honest and better people. See Do Parents Make Better Managers?
Ronald Reagan
addressed the 1984
NRB Convention Charmaine and The Diva flew south to Orlando, Florida this morning for the annual NRB convention and exposition. Charmaine's team will be manning the Family Research Council's trade show booth.
President Bush at a previous
NRB convention
Reagan and Bush appreciated the NRB. And so, it seems, some of the current (GOP!) presidential candidates also appreciate the gathering of Jesus-loving media professionals. Charmaine is scheduled to link up with Mitt Romney on Sunday and John McCain on Monday. She'll do updates here and at the FRCBlog.
If you are anywhere near Orlando or at the convention -- go visit the FRC booth!
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Thank you (foot)notes:
See 7 Steps in Making Money at Trade Shows
Which answers the following issues for trade show attendance: Why are we here?
Get professional help.
Logical Logistics.
Center of Attention.
Propaganda.
Follow Up.
Return on Investment.
I am an enthusiast for Trade Shows. But remember, the purpose is to sell.
Charmaine will be speaking at the Second Annual Conservative Women's Conference at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachuetts on February 24, 2007.
The Alert Reader will note conservative and Harvard in the same sentence.
Who knew?
Alert the media.
Charmaine's talk will be A Higher Ambition: Women at the Intersection of Sex, Power and Purpose.
Other good-guys scheduled to speak at the conference:
Kerry Healey (Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, 2003-07, candidate for MA Governor, 2006)
Chriss Winston (first woman to head the White House Office of Speech Writing as Deputy Assistant to the President for Communications and Director of Speech Writing for President George H.W. Bush)
Kathryn Lopez, Editor, National Review Online. Her topic will be "Speaker Pelosi Does Not Speak for Me."
Women in the Military (tentative): Captain Kristin Hort, USAF
Women in Academia: (tentative) Mary Keys, 2006-07 Visiting
Women in MA Government: Christina Bain, Executive Director for the Governor's Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence
"Pro-Life and Pro-Woman": Linda Thayer, Massachusetts Citizens for Life
Panel on Balancing Family and a Career in Public Service
Carrie Severino, HLS graduate and clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
Dr. Mildred Jefferson, retired surgeon and former chair of the National Right to Life Committee
Greer Swiston, Commissioner, Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women, Candidate for State Representative from Newton Harvard University
But even with this august panel, expect no real changes at Harvard with the new incoming president, the first female in its herstory. Drew Gilpin Faust comes from Radford and is a former director of the Women's Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. See a course sampling at the footnotes: Liberals simply cannot help themselves.
From the organizers, The purpose of the conference is to provide conservative, college-aged women with the opportunity to hear from women who are successfully countering the liberal environments that surround them. Young women, especially on the Harvard campus, are often assumed to be liberal feminists; our conference aims to dispel this unfortunate myth.
The New York Times refers to the new president as Chainsaw Drew (which Your Business Blogger likes) and that she, "...[H]ad dialogues with [her] dead mother over the 40 years since she died." Your Business Blogger has an occasional monologue with my dead dad, but he has not yet dialogued back.
THEORIES OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY -- ...we will turn to contemporary debates about the limits of transgender identity, gay pride and gay shame, the commodification of identity, the meaning of “queer,” [the Q-word used in the syllabus, no hate mail, please]
WOMEN: US HISTORY 1865-PRESENT -- ...women's liberation, and gay rights...
SCIENCE OF SEX & SEXUALITY -- “On Being Male, Female, neither or both” concluded ... with the following statement: “The definition of sex was (and is) still up for grabs.” In our post-modern world, we have become accustomed to the malleability of gender identity and sexuality. We are also aware that individuals undergo sex reassignment surgeries but by large we assume that transgender people are transitioning from one discrete category to another. Queer activists certainly challenge this assumption, preferring to envision sex, gender, and sexuality on a continuum, but these days even scientists don’t concur about a definitive definition of sex...
KING KONG: MONSTERS & THEIR BRIDES -- This course will incorporate a historical overview of gender, sexuality, race, and religion in monster images...
USA Today Originally published in USA Today. This article highlights the liberal emphasis on separating children from parents. The argument remains current.
"[Gregory Kingsley] now stands virtually alone in court; the next scared child who needs protection may not be as bright and determined as Gregory. Most are stuck in the system; it should be held accountable. Children shouldn't be forced to go mano a mano with their parents in a court where they could so easily become pawns in a much larger chess game.
THE EDITORIAL PAGE; Today's debate is on CHILDREN'S RIGHTS and whether they should be heard in court"
OPPOSING VIEW: Beware the legal precedent enabling children to sue their parents. It will harm children.; Charmaine Crouse Yoest [Ph.D.] is a [former] policy analyst [now Vice President] for the Family Research Council, Washington.
One fact is certain: Gregory Kingsley's life has been tragic. This trial should generate a long-overdue uproar over our foster-care disaster.
But it mustn't generate a legal precedent enabling children to sue their parents. Ultimately, such a far-reaching ruling would harm children by separating them, in legal theory, from the protection of their parents. Parents should not be our target when the system is the culprit.
Fundamentally, children need protection. If parents violate that duty, the state may step in. This case highlights the state's failure; but do we really want attorneys - with a myriad of personal agendas - to be the next line of defense? Gregory, for instance, is represented pro bono by an attorney who won the case striking down Florida's parental-consent laws on abortion.
With the exception of her attorney, few defend Gregory's mother. She claims her "right'' to her child without, apparently, recognizing that those rights are rooted in an awesome responsibility. Most people, however, know that lack of contact with a child for a year (or less, even) is clearly abandonment.
So why is the state of Florida only now filing for termination of parental rights, clearing the way for adoption, when Gregory has been in and out of its care for several years? This failure is the appropriate target of legal wrath. For the sake of other children in its care, Florida should not be let off the hook.
Gregory now stands virtually alone in court; the next scared child who needs protection may not be as bright and determined as Gregory. Most are stuck in the system; it should be held accountable. Children shouldn't be forced to go mano a mano with their parents in a court where they could so easily become pawns in a much larger chess game.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Originally published in USA Today, Sep 24, 1992. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Human Resource Management Tip: Hire the homosexual? Maybe, but be slow to award "partner" benefits. The public and, I dare say, stockholders, prefer traditional marriage.
It's time to make final plans for Blogs4life, the second annual conference of pro-life bloggers. The event is hosted by the Family Research Council on Monday, Jan. 22, prior to and after the March for Life in Washington DC and will be show live, over the internet.
The conference program has expanded and is filled with noted pro-life leaders including:
Tony Perkins (President, Family Research Council)
Ramesh Ponnuru (National Review Online Senior Editor)
David Prentice (Senior Fellow, Family Research Council)
Peter Samuelson (President, Americans United for Life)
Joe Scheidler (Founder, Pro-Life Action League) – tentative
Paul Schenk (National Pro-Life Action Center)
Bobby Schindler (Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation)
Jill Stanek (WorldNetDaily Columnist, Pro-life Speaker)
The morning session will feature Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA)!
The afternoon session includes a panel discussion, moderated by the FRC's Charmaine Yoest, on the New Media. During this time you can expect to interact with a lively group of pro-life bloggers, videocast experts, media consultants and movie makers. Click here for the complete schedule.
Blogs4Life is an excellent opportunity for individuals and organizations to network with pro-life bloggers and develop an understanding of how weblog technology can be used to strategically promote life and transform ideas into action as we move toward a post-Roe America.
You can show up at the door for all or part of the conference but we would be most grateful if you register before the event so that the FRC can make adequate accommodations for food and beverages.
Point/Counterpoint in the New York Daily News
Charmaine Yoest: Equal rights or radical fems?
Treaty too radical for life in U.S.
Charmaine wrote a column back in 2002 warning the country about an insidious United Nation's program (yes, that is redundant, I know) the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The liberal Democrats (again redundant, I know) are working to Eliminate US Soverignty. Here's how.
New York Daily News
By CHARMAINE YOEST
Radical feminist activists are engaged in a stealth campaign. Unable to pass their social agenda domestically, they are attempting to impose it using the weight and influence of an international treaty. The Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) is a massive international Trojan horse, a threat to U.S. sovereignty, cloaked as an effort to protect human rights.
Resurrected from well-deserved political dormancy by Sens. Joseph Biden and Barbara Boxer, the treaty narrowly passed the Senate Foreign Relations Committee this week. Next stop is a vote in the full Senate.
Presented as an elevated tome enshrining principles of timeless truth, the guts of the treaty are a leftist utopian wish list: government wage-setting, paid maternity leave, nationalized child care, free maternity-related health care, gender-blind military service and quota-determined political parity for women.
For ratifying countries, these mandates are overseen by an obscure tribunal known as the CEDAW committee. The United States would be required to report to the committee. That way, Cuba's human-rights expert on the committee can provide oversight of America....
Policy Review
November & December 1996In the mid-nineties, Charmaine wrote a column for Policy Review magazine. One of her articles reviewed the Family Policy Councils. The FPCs are state based non-profits considered faith-based, cultural and economic conservatives.
A conservative president usually needs Ohio to win. And the embrace of the Family Policy Councils.
These state-based organizations work somewhat with the Family Research Council in DC and Focus on the Family in Colorado.
Originally published in 1996; and even more important today.
State Groups That Fight for Mom and Dad
by Charmaine Crouse Yoest
Rudy Gonzalez, a "cowboy poet" with a handlebar mustache and a home-on-the-range accent, strummed his guitar, then launched into a joke. The crowd relaxed into laughter as he regaled them with tall tales and folk wisdom.
This is the Idaho Family Forum's annual summer fundraiser, the Spud Bake, where this group of moms and dads marks the end of summer by eating baked potatoes. Lots of them. Followed by spud-shaped ice cream.
But cowboy poetry soon gave way to public policy. U.S. Senator Larry Craig rose to address the group, and the question-and-answer session that followed was brisk and well informed. The Idaho Family Forum (IFF) and its supporters are dedicated to changing cultural trends that are undermining the stability of families -- from no-fault divorce to teen pregnancy to chronic welfare dependency.
Led by executive director Dennis Mansfield, a former businessman, the IFF is part of a growing national movement of independent, state-based policy organizations called Family Policy Councils (FPCs). There are now more than 30 such organizations across the country, loosely affiliated by shared goals, common strategies, and mutual support. In order to win the ears of lawmakers, the media, and academics, they prefer research over rallies and education over activism.
Continue reading at the jump
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger served on the Board of Directors for The Family Foundation, a Family Policy Council in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
"Eternal Father, Strong to Save," commonly known as The Navy Hymn, was sung at the funeral of President Gerald Ford today.
"Eternal Father, Strong to Save": The Navy Hymn
Eternal Father, Strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid'st the mighty Ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to thee,
for those in peril on the sea.
O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
and calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!
Most Holy spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!
O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee,
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
Text from a publication of the Bureau of Naval Personnel
This hymn is often used at funerals for personnel who served in or were associated with the Navy. Eternal Father was the favorite hymn of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was sung at his funeral at Hyde Park, New York in April 1945. Roosevelt had served as Secretary of the Navy. This hymn was also played as President John F. Kennedy's body was carried up the steps of the capitol to lie in state.
Causation or Correlation? Homosexuals are taking over the leadership of the Episcopal Church. And the main stream church is losing membership.
Rodney Stark in The Victory of Reason reminds us that the Episcopal Church lost 55% of its membership from 1960 to 2000.
Gary Bauer emails,
For the Episcopal Church, the breaking point was the 2003 ordination of an open homosexual as a bishop and the willingness of other church leaders to embrace same-sex “marriage.” For those who believe in the church’s historical teachings on human sexuality, teachings firmly rooted in the Scriptures, this was a bridge too far, and it set in motion what appears to be a major schism within the church.
The Reverend John Yates, rector of the 275-year-old Falls Church, told his congregation, “This whole situation isn’t about us. It’s about the next generation and the next and the next. … For the sake of the children, we must be faithful to Christ.”
The Yoest's visiting Truro Episcopal Church December 2005
Mainstream churches, like Mainstream media are declining and dying. But not conservative churches such as the Presbyterian Church of America. Of which we are members, of course.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Karl Rove mentioned in off the record remarks heard by Your Business Blogger, that he read and recommends Rodney Stark's book. Which would be another reason liberals will hate it. And normal people will love it.
Rocky
at the base of the steps Your Business Blogger was in Philly recently and wondered about the Rocky statue that was briefly at the top of the 72 steps to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Since September, the statue is now at the base of the steps.
So I decided to ask the man who might know, Sylvester Stallone.
Why? I asked him.
Rocky Sly says, It's better where it is -- at the base of the steps. At the top was the completion -- the end -- but it's not the completion that counts -- it's the journey. The Effort; The Passion.
Or, as Rocky says in the movie, The Beast trying to get out.
Success on this side of eternity and finishing the fight, the race, for the other side of eternity. The passion and The Passion.
The new Rocky movie was about the beast, the fire in the gut getting out and lighting up the world.
The Completion and incidentally, The End.
Your Business Blogger and Charmaine were guests for a premier showing of the film in Your Nation's Capital a few weeks ago. A must see. Blood and a beating and a victory...although not quite what you would think. And not quite a tie.
The pre-screening was at the Regal Theater on K Street in Georgetown, DC.
After the viewing, we were invited with a few dozen of our closest new best friends to meet Sylvester Stallone at the Four Seasons.
I made a little wager with Charmaine: when Rocky walked in, he'd get a standing O. Charmaine said O, no -- it will be respectful silence.
As it happened, we were both right; both of us winning. (A nice way to end a marital debate, as well as a movie) When Sly walked in (with only three handlers, security out of sight) there was enthusiastic applause -- but not standing and shouting as I would have thought, and I almost did, Charmaine enforcing a restraining order on my arm...
Sylvester Stallone at three score years and zero body fat and six Rocky movies (Rambo et.al. aside) strolled in wearing a comfortable-looking blue long sleeve shirt and blue jeans and funky shoes Charmaine could not ID. He sat at the head of a long conference table to talk about The Final Rocky Movie.
His Faith made him do it. And Jesus was in the details.
The music score kept up the motivation: A big score for a little man, he says.
The music alone is enough to have Rocky Top any opponent.
No wonder Sylvester Stallone was comfortable in Washington, DC: Congress now looks just like Hollywood...
Except Hollywood might have more conservatives than Congress.
Sly (we are on first names, natch) is a real professional at work, especially in how he worked the room. He is immediately likable. I'd vote for him. And see his movies.
(And he embodies the difference between liberals and conservatives:
Reagan was an Actor who became a Politician.
Clinton was a Politician who became an Actor.
Stallone is genuine. Authentic. Transparent.)
He spent some 40 minutes sharing his Faith and eternal values and how that made the movie moving. He loves Jesus and Liberals hate him. (Both Jesus and Rocky.)
The Diva and The Dude with
Art in Philadephia There is room all over Philly for all manner of "art" but not Rocky at the Top of the Museum of Art. The Rocky Statue is not considered art but only a "movie prop."
Besides filming most of the movie in the city, mostly in Kensington and South Philadelphia, Stallone has made several trips the last few months. The Rocky Balboa statue returned in September to the base of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, not far from the steps where the fictitious hard-luck fighter made movie history. And Stallone promoted the movie at a Philadelphia Eagles game earlier this month, earning another boisterous reaction.
Not many movie characters are as synonymous with a city as Rocky and Philadelphia.
Rocky Balboa is in theaters now. And be sure to stay to the very end -- terrifc clips of common tourists running and boxing at the top of the steps. Required activity when visiting Philadelphia. Like eating at Pat's.
Full Disclosure: 2 movie tickets were provided at no charge, no popcorn and no request for a favorable review. I did attempt to sell out. The PR team didn't bite.
Charmaine on ABC News Charmaine appeared on ABC News last night. She was interviewed on the "Christmas Wars" where Seattle airport removed Christmas Trees.
Even the airport Santa Clause was concerned.
And now, airport management, has re-installed the trees.
As has been often noted, the problem for Platonic and Aristotelian political theory is that they venerated a social hierarchy with a foundation firmly established on inequality and misogyny. The family could be relegated to meaninglessness because the individuals involved in the institution were consigned to irrelevancy in the classical teleology. In Schochet’s formulation, the family served as the “rudimentary form of association,” but this did not confer value on it – the family was not a “building-block” of society, rather it was the raw material. Since the state was formed by a rudimentary, natural coalition of families, the family and the state were in one sense equivalent. But this was an equivalence much like the relationship between logs and a fire: the logs are used to provide the material for the fire, but they are then consumed in the generation of the heat and the flames.
The rise and spread of Christianity challenged, and ultimately overthrew, this paradigm. With Jesus Christ’s teaching that men and women, slaves and free people are all equal before God, the individual was no longer dispensable. Elshtain argues that Christianity directly challenged Aristotle:
Christianity defied [Aristotle’s] rigid categorical separation of human beings by declaring that the potentia of every single human being was as great as any other and equal in God’s eyes. . . One reason the figure of Jesus remains important to political thought is his insistence that the realm of necessity. . . is not a despised forum for human endeavor. . .
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Thank you (foot)notes:
This work was originally published by Charmaine at the University of Virginia.
Plato and Aristotle by RaphaelII. Classical Political Theory: Plato and Aristotle
While as moderns we tend to congratulate ourselves on having discovered gender equality, and imagine the past to be a wasteland of misogyny and hierarchical patriarchalism, the really radical explorer of equality was one of the earliest political theorists, Plato himself. (It should be noted, however, that this was a theoretical exploration that extended only to elite men and women.) When he constructed his model utopian Republic, Plato envisioned a society marked by a strict equality between men and women, at least among the leadership philosopher and guardian classes. Shorthand descriptions of his schema usually refer to “philosopher-kings,” but Plato himself was careful to underscore that his template for leadership was gender-neutral. After Socrates finished describing the education necessary to produce the leaders of the kallipolis, Glaucon comments: “Socrates, you’ve produced ruling men that are completely fine.” To which Socrates responds: “And ruling women, too, Glaucon, for you musn’t think that what I’ve said applies any more to men than it does to women who are born with the appropriate natures.”
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Thank you (foot)notes:
This work was originally published by Charmaine at the University of Virginia.
Your Business Blogger and Charmaine and the Penta-Posse were honored to attend a private screening of The Nativity Story Saturday morning before last, in Northern Virginia. This is an unpaid review. We even bought our own popcorn.
(Multi-plex Theaters: the movies are a front; The real money is in the concession stands.)
Joseph and Mary and
baby Jesus it was screened in his backyard, The Vatican. The Nativity Story is a (true) story about an unmarried pregnant woman. The Catholic Church frowns on such conditions.
You would have thought that the Pope would have granted an indulgence for this one exception, this one out-of-wedlock birth.
Maybe just this one. Mary's. The Pope should have watched The Nativity Story.
For the Baby Jesus: Prophet, Prince and King.
I don't blame him, though, for being leary of a Hollywood interpretation of the Savior's birth. Given their track-record. But they played it straight, remained faithful to the original script, and have made a movie well worth seeing.
The movie opens on December 1st. Even though the Pope didn't see it; you should. Go see it this weekend and let us know what you think.
Charmaine didn't care for the Deep Space 9/Gabriel the archangel character. Too much a-blending of science fiction and theology. Not that Godless liberals could tell the difference.
The film gets its PG rating for the violence. Which really wasn't all that bad for our times, or for the turn of the last millennium. The movie opens with Roman soldiers drawing their short swords to chop up all the baby boys under two. No blood, no gore was depicted. (The Dude, pre-teen, was mildly disappointed.) But the scene was terrifying enough. Your women-folk will cry.
However, no actual babies or animals were harmed in the making of the film. Only in real life.
The Three Wise Men
Herod, right and his son. Really Bad Guys.
One of my favorite parts was where Herod's tax collectors would extract interest and penalties totaling one-third of a man's estate. Crucifixion compels compliance.
However.
However, we haven't seen a 1/3 tax rate since, well, Christ was born.
Goodness, tax collectors nowadays take 45% of our income each year.
Maybe the Romans were more civilized than we are today.
When you go to the movie, do get there on time, it starts fast with little credit rolling at the beginning.
And as Keith Appell from Creative Response Concepts says, "Prepare to be entertained."
My hero of the movie, and on this side of eternity, would be Joseph. His actions taking care of Mary, make him a better man than most. Especially for the shame he'd have to endure.
The other (anti) hero would be Herod, for keeping taxes low.
The Nativity, The Birth changed the world. The movie could change your life.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Publicity for the private screening was ably handled by Creative Response Concepts who invited Your Business Blogger, Kith and Kin to attend the screening for New Line Cinema.
By DON BABWIN, CHICAGO (AP) - A public Christmas festival is no place for the Christmas story, the city says. Officials have asked organizers of a downtown Christmas festival, the German Christkindlmarket, to reconsider using a movie studio as a sponsor because it is worried ads for its film "The Nativity Story" might offend non-Christians.
New Line Cinema, which said it was dropped, had planned to play a loop of the new film on televisions at the event. The decision had both the studio and a prominent Christian group shaking their heads.
"The last time I checked, the first six letters of Christmas still spell out Christ," said Paul Braoudakis, spokesman for the Barrington, Ill.-based Willow Creek Association, a group of more than 11,000 churches of various denominations. "It's tantamount to celebrating Lincoln's birthday without talking about Abraham Lincoln."
Charmaine will be debating the impact of the value voters and cultural conservatives on this week's election.
On Anderson Cooper 360 tonight live. Hit time is 10:20pm EST on CNN.
Tonight's Show,
Left, right and righteous. A "360°" special on what's next for Christian conservatives. Are they moving away from the GOP? Tune in tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
Sean Hannity
The Peak Experience
from back stage Your Business Blogger was backstage with Sean Hannity of cable FOX fame. He was about to give a speech to a packed house of 1,800. "Delegates" as John Fund from The Wall Street Journal called the attendees. They came from across the country for The Washington Briefing, hosted by the Family Research Council.
Hannity looked great; sounded great. He was up. But he should have been down. No matter -- he wanted to talk about how to make the country better. And he was a business case study on The Peak Experience.
Sean Hannity, Charmaine Yoest, Tony Perkins
In the small talk before his introduction and as he stashed his luggage (yes he carried his own bags) we learned that he had been giving speeches and doing his radio show across the country. He got only two hours sleep the night before.
We were witness to The Peak Experience.
The guy was working non-stop. And he didn't need the money. But he wanted to give his speech for The Family Research Council, even if the scheduling fates had him sleepless in DC.
Yes, adrenaline kept him up. But it was more than a chemical dependence.
It is a cliche that doctors don't get sick during epidemics; sailors don't get sea-sick in a storm; electrical power-line repairmen are at their safest and most efficient when the lights and lines are out.
If there is a real emergency for your company or an extraordinary circumstance, your staff will know and will rise to meet the challenge. Especially if you, manager, have so trained and motivated your team that they know that they are making a difference. Doing important work. Work that's bigger than themselves.
The Peak Experience works only if real. Epidemics, tempests, blown power grids are difficult to fake. (Although some CEO's I know would try to trick the staff. It seldom works.)
The crisis, the impending event, the project must be more than a 'stretch goal.' Your team won't work Sundays for still another artificial and moving target.
The Peak Experience is an emergency; an extraordinary misalignment of the stars that doesn't take a day off, doesn't worry about overtime. And will have your team working through days at a time.
Alert Readers will recall that Your Business Blogger holds for working only 6 days each week.
Ancient Jewish tradition holds that there are exceptions where work can be done on the day of rest, the Sabbath. If your "ox falls into a ditch," -- your livelihood is on the line or there is a life or death situation -- rules can be circumvented.
But The Peak Experience, where the company ox is in a ditch, is the exception to resting.
Remember, The Peak Experience is not normal. But sometimes can be anticipated. When working the Y2K rollover, my team worked the final month -- that would be December, 1999, for our younger readers -- straight through. And we knew it would be a success.
The Peak Experience is a rush that will enter your company lore and last for years. Get ready. It will happen. If something looks like The Peak Experience, don't be afraid to work the staff to death.
These unusual events should be perceived and received as 100 year floods. Very rare, low probability, high impact. But if The Experience occurs too often, then Peak begins to look like SOP. Something ordinary.
But not Hannity. Not that morning. Sean gives a soaring speech. And gets a standing O. He knew to work The Peak Experience.
And so will you.
John Fund and
Your Business Blogger
at the FRC Briefing
The Peak Experience
FRC Action, the c4 component of The Family Research Council sponsored a briefing this weekend at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC. Your Business Blogger attended with Charmaine and the Penta-Posse. Charmaine at the
podium for the
FRCAction Briefing
Tony Perkins, President of the FRC, has an open letter to Barry Lynn
An Open Letter to the Reverend Barry W. Lynn
Dear Reverend Lynn,
I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your presence this weekend at our Washington Briefing, Values Voters Summit 2006. I was delighted to see your name as a paid registrant for a number of the activities. As head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, you, of course, disagree with us on a number of issues.
Your support of same-sex marriage and abortion coupled with your opposition to school choice and any public recognition of God would make most people think our differences are vast. However, your willingness to attend our Briefing shows that even you recognize the importance of concerned citizens being involved in public discourse.
While you are here, I recommend you attend our Saturday session, The Role of Churches in Political Issues, moderated by Dr. Kenyn Cureton with speakers Reverend Herb Lusk, Reverend Dr. Richard Land and Reverend Dr. John Guest. I am sure you will find it enlightening as the panelists discuss how to apply the teachings of the Bible to the issues we face today.
It is reported that many Evangelicals do not vote and I'm sure you would agree such citizenly neglect is detrimental to any democracy. That is why we are holding our Briefing and also participating in nonpartisan get-out-the-vote rallies around the nation. Thanks again for being with us.
Antonin Scalia I lean over to Charmaine and say, "Hey, that guy looks like Scalia."
Antonin Scalia was sitting in the seminar like any other nobody at a American Political Science Association convention a few years ago in Your Nation's Capital. He even asked questions, deferring, as befitting an academic setting, to the august panel of experts. The room hushed as he spoke: We were in the presence of a gentleman.
We chatted him up after the panel. He had a firm handshake, direct eye contact, direct language. We love him.
Not everyone does.
Seth Godin Seth, the Master Marketing Guru doesn't care for Scalia. Him being all that is wrong with America. Scalia or Godin, your pick depending on your world view of politics.
But this is not a problem for Your Business Blogger: I am on all three sides of the debate. The country has no better Supreme Court justice than Antonin, no better marketer than Seth. And now no better elliptical trainer than Smooth Fitness.
On this, Seth and I would agree, I think.
Smooth Fitness I bought a Smooth Fitness piece of hardware last month. Recently, I received a follow-up phone call from the Smooth Fitness Director of Customer Experience, Keith Menear. We talk about the terrific Smooth Fitness CE 3.2 Elliptical Trainer machinery, my smooth on-line purchasing experience, the constant follow-up and Smooth Fitness touches. Actually, Keith let me do all the talking, which is how I prefer to do business anyway. I subtly let on how I am a world famous, very influential blogger.
Keith brightens audibly, I could see the light coming through the cell phone, "Are you the Purple Cow guy?"
I tense up, "What?"
"You know," says Keith, smiling. "The blogger who wrote Purple Cow?"
"Who?"
Keith is excited, "Yes, the staff let me know this author..."
"--Never heard of him--"
"...who just bought one of our ellipticals."
Time to surrender. "Oh, I guess you mean that struggling marketer, Seth Godin."
"Yes, that's him! The staff is psyched -- Seth Godin just placed an order."
"Well, I suppose he has some name recognition...would be great for your business, huh?"
Keith is floating off his Aeron, "Right, I hear he's quite a superstar."
"I suppose...well, this is nice Keith. Now, what can I do for you?"
"What was your name again...?"
[sigh]
Smooth Fitness
Some Assembly Required In any event, customer service was outstanding. The Dude, a pre-teen in my Penta-Posse, read the directions (something I've never done before), followed the directions (something I've never asked for) and completed the assembly and had me working out in an hour. Silent and smooth as silk.
Smooth Fitness
Under Construction by
The Diva & The Dude Your Business Blogger has very simple tastes -- the best in everything. I have noticed, however, a near fatal flaw in the Smooth Fitness product. Shared unfortunately, with my old Mercedes: no place for my coffee cup. (The only thing that ever had a cupholder was my computer...)
And please understand that Smooth Fitness products are frightfully expensive. And worth every dime.
This is an unpaid endorsement. So far. Smooth Fitness has a referral program -- drop my name (if you can remember it) (no one else does) when you order and I get a few bucks from Smooth Fitness. To buy a coffee cup holder for my ellipitcal trainer.
Josh Trevino, Charmaine, John Aravosis Last July '05 Charmaine traveled with a team of bloggers to the G-8 Summit in Edinburg. The Summit was soon forgotten in the 7.7 blow-up of London. In keeping with the reporting dictum: If it bleeds, it leads.
Anyway, the war on terror came to the England bloggers and made a few, a happy few, band of brothers.
John took a picture of Charmaine in a pub -- it was perhaps one of the best photographs of her ever taken by anyone (and she takes a good picture -- the camera likes her). And he posted on his site. Gorgeous. Sadly, he removed it when his readership became...animated, over his friendship with a conservative.
Charmaine and John became fast friends fast , as one would expect. Shared danger. Shared experience. Shared pursuit of the truth. John and I know each other only thru email and vector Charmaine. I genuinely like the guy.
And we disagree on most everything political. But John was always a gentleman. In debates and IRL.
One of our disagreements would be homosexuals in the military. I think they can serve their country elsewhere -- where I say, "out," John says "out of the closet."
And Lieutenant Alexander Raggio's award-winning paper at the army's West Point academy brought out our differences. And sharp words from John.
LT. Raggio's paper is a philosophic defense of allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the armed services. He would advocate dropping the ban on homosexual service.
But our debate turned a unfortunate corner when John's hair caught fire with the inflammatory "BIGOTED" cliche ricochet.
John's emotion-laden invective makes him read like a blogger yes, a blogger. But his insults missed his mark -- that would be Charmaine and me in his target-rich environment.
Winston Churchill once said that nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.
But I am not exhilarated, even with John's off-target bigot-bomb.
I am saddened not because he missed, but because he pulled the trigger. Firing into the crowd that contained his remaining conservative Jesus-Freak-friends on the right.
I expected a more reasoned debate from John. I expected more from a friend.
Alexander H. Raggio's paper is Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Don't Be: A Philosophical Analysis of the Gay Ban in the US Military. His paper won the prestigious Brig. Gen. Carroll E. Adams Award, and was written up by AP.
A few months ago, President Bush paid tribute to Staff Sergeant Dan Clay, who died in Iraq. The President read portions of a letter Dan wrote to his family. But his full letter gives a powerful testimony to his eternal values -- my friend Stacy Harp at Writing Right has posted that letter:
MOM, DAD, KRISTIE, JODIE, KIMBERLY, ROBERT, KATY, RICHARD, AND MY LISA: Boy do I love each and every one of you. This letter being read means that I have been deemed worthy of being with Christ. With MaMa Jo, MaMa Clay, Jennifer ... all those we have been without for our time during the race.
This is not a bad thing. It is what we hope for. The secret is out. He lives and His promises are real! It is not faith that supports this ... But fact and I now am a part of the promise. Here is notice! Wake up! All that we hope for is Real. Not a hope. But Real.
But here is something tangible. What we have done in Iraq is worth any sacrifice. Why? Because it was our duty. That sounds simple. But all of us have a duty. Duty is defined as a God given task. Without duty life is worthless. It holds no type of fulfillment.
The simple fact that our bodies are built for work has to lead us to the conclusion that God (who made us) put us together to do His work. His work is different for each of us. Mom, yours was to be the glue of our family, to be a pillar for those women (all women around you), Dad, yours was to train and build us (like a Platoon Sgt.) to better serve Him. Kristie, Kim, Katy you are the five team leaders who support your Squad ldrs, Jodie, Robert and Richard. Lisa you too.
You are my XO and you did a hell of a job. You all have your duties. Be thankful that God in His wisdom gives us work. Mine was to ensure that you did not have to experience what it takes to protect what we have as a family. This I am so thankful for.
I know what honor is. It is not a word to be thrown around. It has been an Honor to protect and serve all of you. I faced death with the secure knowledge that you would not have to. This is as close to Christ-like I can be. That emulation is where all honor lies. I thank you for making it worthwhile.
As a Marine this is not the last Chapter. I have the privilege of being one who has finished the race. I have been in the company of heroes. I now am counted among them. Never falter! Don't hesitate to honor and support those of us who have the honor of protecting that which is worth protecting.
Now here are my final wishes. Do not cry! To do so is to not realize what we have placed all our hope and faith in. We should not fear. We should not be sad. Be thankful. Be so thankful. All we hoped for is true. Celebrate! My race is over, my time in war zone is over. My trials are done. A short time separates all of us from His reality. So laugh. Enjoy the moments and your duty. God is wonderful.
I love each and every one of you.
Spread the word ..... Christ lives and He is Real.
Semper Fidelis
Always Faithful
* * *
God bless the Clay family. How humbling -- we all live more safely today because of the ultimate sacrifice of their son. Greater love hath no man... May we make grateful and good use of that gift.
When Charmaine attended the National Religous Broadcasters (NRB) tradeshow, she decided to help make a difference by making trouble with a book.
Books make a difference.
Especially the Good One. Look for the effect of those printed pages, especially with interesting developments in China. And it's not just the utilitarian totalitarians preparing for the Beijing Olympics. On my visit to China, I learned how the legal profession was building a framework to speed international transactions. Growth is coming from the young.
And coming from the young new lawyers in East Asia. Yes lawyers. Heaven Forbid. It seems that the legal minds have been studying legal foundations in other cultures and traditions. End up studying Judeo-Christian concepts, then studying Jesus.
And come away with a new look on life.
Would that our lawyers here in the USA were so diligent.
With Bob Fu and Peggy Dau
Mailing a Bible to China! Following is a cross post from Reasoned Audacity and Bibles for China: Voice of the Martyrs.
One of the best parts of being at NRB is meeting some of the wonderful people in ministries represented here. The Voice of the Martyrs has a large booth here and they are offering NRB attendees the opportunity to mail a Bible to China.
I did one for each of my children -- so I now have names of five people in China for our family to pray for.
Tonight, Thursday, The Washington Insiders were invited to a private screening of World Trade Center. I got in on a waiver. I would have been easy to pick out of this cool crowd: I was the only one with a bucket of (fattening) buttered popcorn, slurping a giant Coke.
Your Business Blogger, Charmaine
Melissa and Rob Bluey
Charmaine and I joined Rob Bluey, blog editor at Human Events and his wife Melissa from The Atlantic Monthly and the smart crowd at a Cinema near Charmaine's office to see Stone's newest movie.
What it was and what it was not.
It was not a conspiracy movie.
It did not bash Bush.
It was not sappy.
It was not about stupid, church-going nuts.
It did not mock marriage.
It did not blame America.
It did not support radical Islam.
It did not mock Marines.
It did not mock Jesus.
It did not mock cops.
It did not mock family, faith or freedom.
Charmaine says, "It was a Hallmark Hall of Fame special...on steroids." Jim Pinkerton, from the New America Foundation DID NOT tear up. Me neither.
But the theater was a bit dusty. That stuff can get in your eyes. Or was it dust from the movie?
This is a movie that you will see in a few weeks and you will be glad you did. After the viewing, there was no applause, little talking. At the end, the crowd audibly exhaled, as one.
People moved out as if leaving a wake. Tony Blankley and his significant other were the last, the very last to leave. They were moved.
Laura Ingram moved out quick; she was among the first out. Dr. Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention expected to walk out early and didn't.
We spoke to Blankley. He was surprised at Stone's movie, "Good, True, Patriotic, Religious."
Kate O'Beirne from Nation Review was a bit more skeptical about Oliver Stone, "His other movies don't sell, nobody goes to them. So he made this to appeal -- to sell. He wants to make money."
And so he will. You must see how Stone can make a movie with Jesus, yes Him, without a smirk. Mel Gibson can do Passion, sure. But Oliver Stone?
Better check the temperature in Hell. The impossible has happened. Oliver is redeemed.
Special thanks to Mike Thompson, Senior Vice President of Creative Response Concepts, who coordinated the event for Paramount Pictures.
More on the movie at the jump.
The Raw Story has more. Read the Comments, liberals still believe "9/11 was an inside job no doubt." And my favorite, "Hey cons, Jesus says watch this film or you'll go to hell."
Charmaine, wife of Your Business Blogger will be speaking at the Political Plenary Panel,
A bi-partisan discussion on political conversation across the blogosphere, featuring answers to questions such as: What makes a political blog insightful and interesting, versus a dime-a-dozen rant? What role will political blogs play in the upcoming elections and future campaigns? Where can a blogger find insightful content from which to draw? How can a blogger facilitate legitimate political conversation on his or her political blog?
Charmaine will be joining:
Hugh Hewitt / Professor of Law, Author, Nationally Syndicated Talk Show Host
Blog: hughhewitt.com
So I ask Charmaine, isn't Britney Spears a God-fearing Jesus-loving celebrity superstar? Or is it Christina Aguilera?
"Britney Spears," says Charmaine, who knows all things cultural. Charmaine has the female X-chromosome, which, as scientists have proven, is absorbed from the inner pages of People Magazine. "She is oh-so spiritual," she says.
Not Christina Aguilera?
"I don't think so," says Charmaine.
Christina Aguilera
"Christina, Britney -- How would you know the difference?" I ask.
Charmaine says, "Britney is pregnant..."
"...And bare(foot) -- just the way I like 'em."
Charmaine doesn't laugh.
Britney, the church-going-girl might be making money, but she's not making a difference.
Britney Spears' Heart to Heart"So, there's no 'Christ' in Christina?" I ask.
Charmaine still doesn't laugh, "You're still not funny."
But she gives a thin smile.
I reply, even as my my extra Y-Chromosome rebels, "Yes dear."
The Penta-Posse
at the famous
Jack Rabbit Trading Post
on Rt. 66 But sometimes marketers and Hollywood lurch into Calvin's truth.
The Puritanical is not tyrannical.
Two items:
1. Disney's new movie "Cars" ended with the hero making (what for Hollywood is) the supreme sacrifice. And,
2. The movie took in $60 million on its opening weekend.
"Cars," a heavily marketed film whose star is a talking race car named Lightning McQueen, is competing for the family audience with animal cartoon "Over the Hedge," which had weekend receipts of over $10 million.
Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution, expects "Cars" to cross the $100 million line sometime next weekend.
"Cars," featuring the voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt and racing icon Richard Petty, is the first Disney-Pixar collaboration since Disney acquired Pixar in January for $7.4 billion.
The feature, which is rated G for all ages, tells how Lightning McQueen learns valuable life lessons during a forced pit stop in a sleepy town. It is directed by John Lasseter, whose "Toy Story 2" opened at $57.4 million.
The sleepy town is located on the by-passed Route 66. John Steinbeck, in The Grapes of Wrath, blessed Route 66 as the "Mother Road." As in apple pie and America. Alert Drivers west of Chicago will know the road and the story well. The 2400 mile road links The Windy City to LA.
Get Your Kicks on
Route 66
TV from the 1960'sLast year Charmaine and Your Business Blogger took the Penta-Posse out west down parts of Route 66. Self Discovery, just like the early 60's TV series Route 66. We didn't take a Corvette -- we took another Chevy, the monster Suburban.
Down parts of Route 66. A Car Guy's Highway. It is the subtext of the "Cars" movie. An earlier time when America and Hollywood were proud to be great.
Today this greatness, this self-denial can only be marketed with a cartoon. But it's a start.
We took the Penta-Posse and other assorted family to see "Cars." Tickets, popcorn, drinks, candy; a great time. Thank goodness financing was available. Heatsongs reminds us to stay well past the credits after the movie.
More history at the jump.
See Your Business Bloggers' nostalgia for old Vettes, old times and getting kicks. On Route 66.
We all are accountable. To our Maker. Elected officials are also accountable to voters.
and the GOP doesn't seem to be listening...
During a tour of duty as a government appointee, my husband, Your Business Blogger, learned that the most important character of his elected boss was his sense of Duty (he was a former Army Officer). And to keep his campaign promises.
We all are accountable. To our Maker. Elected officials are also accountable to voters.
and the GOP doesn't seem to be listening...
During a tour of duty as a government appointee, Your Business Blogger learned that the most important character of my elected boss was his sense of Duty (he was a former Army Officer). And to keep his campaign promises.
Your Business Blogger never quite trusts a man until I know a bit of his story; his road traveled; his pain.
In college I volunteered for the local Civil Air Patrol. The unit was run by Raymond Francis, who owned a business making prosthetics. Artificial limbs.
"Losing a limb always changed people," he said. " Not just physically. They either became the best person in the world...or the worst."
Charmaine blogged on life changing pain when we traveled to the Air Force Academy last year.
These last few weeks have been ones of death and dying; a month of contemplating the purpose of pain and the meaning of suffering. It is a time for revisiting places of meditation, pondering the spaces man has devised for grappling with the eternal questions of mortality.
The famous chapel on the grounds of the United States Air Force Academy nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains is more truly a cathedral. Outwardly, it is all sleek silver-wing metal, with seventeen external buttresses, knifing severely skyward. Designed to evoke an air-frame, the architecture does not immediately summon spiritual devotion.
Photo credit: Helena Yoest
But cross the threshold, step inside, and one is transported to another plane. The solemn air is bathed in the soft splendor of muted light. While the stern steel silhouette dominates the external view, the interior reveals the fragile panels of stained-glass that the harsh ribs support. The intricate glass panes filter and animate the sunlight, illuminating the sacred space with almost a visual hush.
At the front of the chapel, a single row is roped off. "Reserved" the sign says, for all the United States aviators who are missing in action or prisoners of war. The only occupant of the pew is a single, burning candle.
"Greater love hath no man than this. . ." reads the plaque. The Scripture it alludes to concludes: "that a man lays down his life for his friends."
My thoughts immediately fly to my boy, my sweet Dude, who wants to be a fighter pilot. And baby Boo, who will almost certainly want to follow his older brother. My heart blanches. How could I bear it? And yet so many other mothers -- gold-star mothers -- even this very day, must find a way when their sons have given the last measure of devotion.
* * *
The war in heaven, and its reflection that we see through a glass darkly, is one of the great mysteries of human life. The existence of egregious earthly evil is incomprehensible. . . yet for every act of aggressive hatred is its spiritual foe -- the love of humans one for another that confronts and overcomes all would-be destroyers.
At the back of the chapel, a Lucite case displays a picture of a little boy who was "Cadet for a Day." In a series of three pictures, we saw a grinning boy, sitting in a cockpit dressed in a flight-suit, surrounded by a smiling corps of cadets.
My husband was drawn to the display immediately, wanting such a grand experience for the Dude, our own boy.
Down at the bottom of the picture, however, in small type, the caption read:
Make-a-Wish Foundation.
No, no. Not my boy.
Where are the answers? Why must the innocent suffer? The vast, vacant space of the chapel responds with a twilight hush.
Your Business Blogger is, no doubt, at some legal exposure on publishing the license plate of the Bush hater. A legal defense fund will be established when notified by counsel. Again.
Charmaine and Michelle
protesting at the Afghan Embassy So the Little Woman is on her way to Nordstroms with two of our girls a few weeks ago. They decide to stop by Your Nation's Capital and visit with Jesse's Girl. Maybe do some window shopping, have a spot of tea, try on some Manolo Blahniks.
And stop the Muslims from sawing off another Christian head.
The Dreamer and The Diva,
learning to take over the worldThe Dreamer and The Diva are enjoying a take your daughters-to-work day of protest and havoc. The Roe Effect gone wild.
This is the place for women in combat.
Charmaine and Michelle
are plotting... The chicks are hatching a plot. Of World Domination. Because of superior moral clarity. And will power.
They are synchronizing strategeries. They will advance.
Charmaine and Michelle
are plotting....their place on the bracket.
They advance in the winner's bracket. If one has to come in behind anyone, a woman couldn't do better than Michelle.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Tom McMahon has the sharpest moral vision in the blogosphere. Simple is hard. Visit his 4-Block World. Truth is simple.
Hugh Hewilt, 3-Time Emmy Award Winner;
Charmaine Yoest
photo credit: Jack Yoest Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. The fifth of May is our wedding anniversary. Chuck deFeo, Director of Online Strategy for Town Hall, Beyond the News.com, with the Salem Web Network, asked us to join him with 300 of our closest friends in Your Nation's Capital. Karl Rove would say a few words.
Which is odd since he didn't know it was our anniversary. And no one mentioned it. The dinner was off the record, but I think I can report that Karl Rove was silent about Your Business Blogger and the Little Woman.
Other than forgetting our anniversay, Rove was quite engaging.
Charmaine, Mark Steyn making a point,
Michael Medved backgroundThere was a panel with Dennis Prager, Mark Steyn, Bill Bennett.
In the audience, asking questions, was Hugh Hewitt, James Dobson, Frank Gaffney, Mike Gallagher.
We picked up a copy of Hewitt's new book, Paint the Map Red. The Entertainment Industry has the best SWAG.
Janet Parshall; Elaine Bennett of Best Friends; Michael Medved. Some of the brightest stars and thinkers in the business.
Ken Blackwell, the next president Governor, of Ohio spoke.
There were some very, very smart people in that room. I wasn't one of them. I felt like a, well, journalist.
David Aikman moderated the panel. He spent two decades with Time magazine. He's the former Beijing bureau chief. He is such an unTimely kind of guy. (David and Dennis Prager greeted each other speaking fluent Russian.) Anyway, he wrote Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power. David says that China is changing. They are beginning to understand the rule of law. Lex Rex. He says most of the young lawyers--lawyers! there are Christians. Go figure.
I read Aikman's book. He starts his book with a lecture from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing in 2002. Aikman quotes a Chinese academic speaking to a group from the USA visiting China:
One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world...We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don't have any doubt about this.
The Chinese don't doubt the source of our cultural heritage. Sadly, American liberals do.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
The National Day of Prayer was Thursday, May 4th. George Bush spoke.
... is the leading provider of radio programming, online resources and magazines targeted to the Christian and family themes audience. ...Salem Communications currently owns and operates 95 radio stations nation-wide, with 60 stations located in the top 25 most populated U.S. markets. ...Religious formats constitute the third largest radio format in the United States. Currently, over 2,000 radio stations are identified as having primarily a religious format. Approximately 52% of Americans been identified as listeners to religious formatted radio.
Read more on Salem's Editorial Board: Hugh Hewitt, Terry Eastland, Janet Parshall, Albert Mohler, Jr., Michael Medved, Phillip Johnson and David Aikman.
The Saving of Private Ryan Movies about the American Soldier in this generation always regress to anti-war screeds.
Jarhead
the movie Charmaine and I rented Jarhead the other night. Slow moving movie. She mumbled, "Boring. I thought liberals could make movies..." then dozed off. Mercifully.
Jarhead missed the mark. Off target. Unless you wanted to bone up on Marine mast*rb*tion. Combat Jacks. Hollywood style.
Saving Private Ryan was only marginally better. Following is a review by Your Business Blogger originally published by the Scripps Howard News Service
WHY SAVING PRIVATE RYAN FALLS SHORT
By JOHN WESLEY YOEST JR.
"Please tell me I've been a good man," Private Ryan tearfully begs his wife when, as an old man, he visits the grave of the man who died for him. "Tell me I've led a good life."
Well frankly, Ryan, your life probably wasn't all that special. At least not good enough for another man to die in your place. No man is "good enough," no man is truly worthy of the ultimate sacrifice. In his heart, Ryan knows this. And so do we.
But as Hollywood prepares to honor the depictions of sacrifice in the movie "Saving Private Ryan," it's worth reflecting on true worth of that ultimate gesture. ...
...There is an Unknown God that we all seek. Speilberg was on to truth in depicting Captain Miller as "the teacher," a rabbi, a Christ-figure. In its final moments, the movie reveals its allegory of man's yearning for Christ. Only in this context does "Saving Private Ryan" make sense. Private Ryan cheated death, but he didn't cheat eternity. Was he good enough? No man is good enough.
In the end, Ryan falls to his knees before his savior's grave feeling his unworthiness. Asking in anguish the movie's central question: was I worthy? The only answer Speilberg leaves us with is a silently waving flag and Ryan's hollow cry ... I tried to be a good man! The difference between saying "I was a good man" and admitting, "I am not worthy" may seem slight. But traversing the chasm between the two provides the true liberation Ryan was seeking.
In Spielberg's movie, Ryan is saved by Everyman. But the captain's grave provided no ultimate answers. For salvation, Ryan should have kneeled before an empty grave.
Read more at the jump.
Dog tags with P38
Service Number blurred
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Originally published by
the Scripps Howard News ServiceAlso titled The Salvation of Private Ryan by The Virginian Pilot.
Charmaine in
the White House Today is the National Day of Prayer. Charmaine was invited to the East Wing of the White House this morning to have a conversation in preparation. About Family, Faith and Freedom.
President George Bush
in the East Wing
Reserved Seat
This podium is the place for strong women
Yoests & Dobsons
White House Correspondents' Dinner, 2005 Shirley Dobson is the
Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force.
Your Business Blogger carries many burdens. The lightest was marrying over my head.
Henry Hyde "What do you want to be when you grow up?" is asked of children. And adults.
As for Your Business Blogger? When I grow up? I want to be a Wise Old Man.
Just like Henry Hyde. (He's made fewer mistakes than me.)
Charmaine and Your Business Blogger saw Congressman Hyde again at a DC event this week at the Willard. He was being honored by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC).
Hyde, the 82-year old Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is a warhorse who sometimes bucked his own party.
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council wrote,
When he first introduced his amendment to cut off federal funding of almost all abortions in the immediate aftermath of Roe v. Wade, it seemed to many people in the political world that abortion was "settled law." Both Houses of Congress were firmly in the hands of liberals who supported abortion. Even the Republican Ford administration had decided that the federal government should pay for abortions--because the Supreme Court had ruled them legal.
A tale of two sales guys. One made the big, small. The other made the small, big.
Cross Your Business Blogger recently was privileged to view an advance screening of the movie trailer about Wilberforce and his lifelong fight against slavery.
Amazing Grace. Due out in March, I saw the movie thru a marketing lens.
Wilberforce was able to sell a very big project by making the intangible, tangible. From global-big to individual-small. He made the individual slave real to the individual Member of Parliament.
Today, MacLeod is able to sell a very small project by making the tangible, intangible. From individual-small to global-big.
The alarm went off at 3 AM. Could we manage to rouse five tired children and make it to the sunrise service at the Grand Canyon 90 miles north? Having come this far on our westward adventure, we wanted to try.
But the Penta-Posse got themselves up, into the ski clothes we'd laid out to combat the cold, and beat me into the truck. (They may have been eased along by the chocolate and jelly beans the easter bunny left. . .) In fact, they were in such high spirits that they wanted our progress up Arizona Rt. 180 through the Coconino Forest to turn into a race with the lone hatchback we encountered along the way in the dark.
As the little car left us in his wake (Dad, c'mon, let's go!!) Jack told the posse that we would let the hatchback "hit the cow" for us and tried to refocus their attention on seeing who could guess how low the temperature would go. The Dreamer "won" when the thermometer dropped to 17 degrees. I worried about the wind-chill on the canyon rim. Then, we crested a hill and came up suddenly on the hatchback, which was stopped dead in front of us as a herd of six or seven deer charged acrosss the road.
The mountains to our right, capped in snow, glowed with the reflected light of a full moon.
We reached the canyon at 5 AM just as the faintest light began breaching the eastern rim. We parked along the shoulder near Mather Point; the Dancer had fallen asleep again and didn't want to venture into the cold -- we wrapped her in a blanket and joined the others who were streaming in the direction of haunting music playing on a loudspeaker at the outlook. We were early enough to be among the first there; eventually around 1600 people arrived, filling up the platform, the stairs to the outlook, and lining the rim looking out over Mather Point.
The Dreamer, the Dude and the Diva scrambled up to a perch atop a large boulder, while Jack and I settled in to lower seats along a rocky wall with the Dancer and Boo.
By now, a faint pink light was spreading along the horizon. We had made it! My eyes filled with tears as my apprehension and tension from the press to get there was replaced with a sense of awe at the majesty in front of me.
Then the cold started to seep in. The Dancer started to cry. She settled in to Jack's lap and buried her face in his chest. A little later, the Dreamer came down to take her so that they could warm each other. Boo slept on.
Half an hour left until the service and now the light was spreading and we could see the growing crowd around us more clearly. My worst fears about the wind-chill never materialized, but it was very cold. A stranger came over to the Dancer and the Dreamer, and wrapped them in a blanket. "Here," he said, "you look cold. This is an extra."
It wasn't an extra. We were among friends. He is risen. He is risen indeed.
The service started and Boo began to cry. Then he settled quickly into my shoulder. . .
The sun broke over the northeastern rim with a brilliant glow, revealing the colors of the canyon in all their glory. Red, green, pink, orange. Deep clefts of darkness and shadow. The Colorado silently running in dizzying depths below. A raw wood cross on the edge appeared to hang in the air, silhouetted with the vast expanse of the canyon behind.
Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!
Hail, the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to Thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail, the resurrection day, Alleluia
Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia
!
Afterward, the Dude and I stood and looked over the canyon. "This is awesome," he said.
He is risen. He is risen, indeed.
###
Originally published on 28 March 2005 by Charmaine. Crossed Posted on Reasoned Audacity.
The alarm went off at 3 AM. Could we manage to rouse five tired children and make it to the sunrise service at the Grand Canyon 90 miles north? Having come this far on our westward adventure, we wanted to try.
But the Penta-Posse got themselves up, into the ski clothes we'd laid out to combat the cold, and beat me into the truck. (They may have been eased along by the chocolate and jelly beans the easter bunny left. . .) In fact, they were in such high spirits that they wanted our progress up Arizona Rt. 180 through the Coconino Forest to turn into a race with the lone hatchback we encountered along the way in the dark.
As the little car left us in his wake (Dad, c'mon, let's go!!) Jack told the posse that we would let the hatchback "hit the cow" for us and tried to refocus their attention on seeing who could guess how low the temperature would go. The Dreamer "won" when the thermometer dropped to 17 degrees. I worried about the wind-chill on the canyon rim. Then, we crested a hill and came up suddenly on the hatchback, which was stopped dead in front of us as a herd of six or seven deer charged acrosss the road.
The mountains to our right, capped in snow, glowed with the reflected light of a full moon.
We reached the canyon at 5 AM just as the faintest light began breaching the eastern rim. We parked along the shoulder near Mather Point; the Dancer had fallen asleep again and didn't want to venture into the cold -- we wrapped her in a blanket and joined the others who were streaming in the direction of haunting music playing on a loudspeaker at the outlook. We were early enough to be among the first there; eventually around 1600 people arrived, filling up the platform, the stairs to the outlook, and lining the rim looking out over Mather Point.
The Dreamer, the Dude and the Diva scrambled up to a perch atop a large boulder, while Jack and I settled in to lower seats along a rocky wall with the Dancer and Boo.
By now, a faint pink light was spreading along the horizon. We had made it! My eyes filled with tears as my apprehension and tension from the press to get there was replaced with a sense of awe at the majesty in front of me.
Then the cold started to seep in. The Dancer started to cry. She settled in to Jack's lap and buried her face in his chest. A little later, the Dreamer came down to take her so that they could warm each other. Boo slept on.
Half an hour left until the service and now the light was spreading and we could see the growing crowd around us more clearly. My worst fears about the wind-chill never materialized, but it was very cold. A stranger came over to the Dancer and the Dreamer, and wrapped them in a blanket. "Here," he said, "you look cold. This is an extra."
It wasn't an extra. We were among friends. He is risen. He is risen indeed.
The service started and Boo began to cry. Then he settled quickly into my shoulder. . .
The sun broke over the northeastern rim with a brilliant glow, revealing the colors of the canyon in all their glory. Red, green, pink, orange. Deep clefts of darkness and shadow. The Colorado silently running in dizzying depths below. A raw wood cross on the edge appeared to hang in the air, silhouetted with the vast expanse of the canyon behind.
Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!
Hail, the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to Thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail, the resurrection day, Alleluia
Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!
Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!
Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!
Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia
!
Afterward, the Dude and I stood and looked over the canyon. "This is awesome," he said.
For all of you who live in the Baltimore and Washington DC area I want to invite you to an event at our church this Thursday night featuring author and C. S. Lewis Scholar Art Lindsley. Here's the announcement from the church:
C. S. Lewis has found a new generation of fans with the overwhelming success of the movie adaptation of his book "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."
You are invited to a lecture and a dessert discussing C. S. Lewis and the importance of the imagination in his life and writings.
Date: Thursday, March 30, 2006
Time: 7:00 -- 9:00pm
Location: Glen Burnie Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Arthur W. Lindsley, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow -- C. S. Lewis Institute
Art Lindsley has served at the C.S. Lewis Institute since 1987. Formerly, he was Director of Educational Ministries at the Ligonier Valley Study Center, and Staff Specialist with the Coalition for Christian Outreach. He is the author of the books True Truth and C. S. Lewis's Case for Christ and is the co-author of the book Classical Apologetics along with R.C. Sproul and John Gerstner. He has written numerous articles on theology, apologetics, C.S. Lewis, and the lives and works of many other authors and teachers. Art earned his M.Div. from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Pittsburgh.
So. In my dual goals of 1) World Peace and 2) Keeping the little woman out of Nordstrom's, I dispatch Charmaine on a bit of civil(ized) disobedience. She takes two of my little women to attempt to cause havoc in Your Nation's Capital. Protesting at the Afghan Embassy last Friday.
From the Agence France-Presse:
Helena Yoest, 9, bows her head in prayer before taking part in demonstration, in front of the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC, to call for a stop to the prosecution of Abdul Rahman.
Three Dog NightYou are invited to Washington DC's hottest rock and roll party.
The Best Friends Foundation presents
"Do You Remember When
Rock Was Young?"
6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 4, 2006
Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
2660 Woodley Road, NW, Washington, DC 20008
Featuring live performances by:
Three Dog Night:
Joy to the World,
Mama Told Me
Sister Sledge
with lead singer Kathy Sledge
We Are Family
Don't miss this fun night of great music, great food
and great company which benefits the girls and boys
in the Best Friends and Best Men programs.
No speeches, no auctions. Just come dressed to dance!!
Proceeds from this annual event are the primary source
of funds for the Foundation's elementary and middle school
Best Friends and Best Men programs and the high school
Diamond Girls Leadership and Best Men Leadership programs.
Sister Sledge with lead
singer Kathy SledgeSecretary of State Colin Powell says:
I always present the Best Friends program as one of the answers to the problems we have in our society...it is a winner, and I know that many more communities will be embracing it.
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for you
as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend.
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me and bend
your force to break, blow, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
labor to admit you, but, oh, to no end;
reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
but is captived and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you and would be loved fain,
but am betrothed unto your enemy:
divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
take me to you, imprison me, for I,
except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
Picking up the theme of searching for God. . . and finding him, Maxed Out Mama writes a deeply personal story of her own spiritual journey. And she points us to another story of answered prayer that I have thought of many times this week since I first read it.
Sadly, Kobayashi Maru has just learned this week that his brother has a recurrence of leukemia, and the doctors are telling him he will not live to see Christmas. In the midst of his anguish, KM shares a remarkable story of hope and comfort:
My brother asked the priest an age-old question: what is this prayer thing? what am I supposed to do? how do I pray? The priest replied: prayer is like catching a butterfly; do not struggle and run after it; be still and it will land on you. Nice metaphor, he thought. Beautiful.
Priest leaves. Ten minutes pass. My brother sits quietly. My sister-in-law comes home with my niece who runs in the door ahead of her. Without saying a word, my niece runs to her toy chest, opens it and pulls out... a stuffed butterfly... and sets it gently in my brother's lap. "Daddy", she says, "I want you to have this because I love you very much."
Paul Hogue, over at My Dogs Are Smarter, has written a nice response to my piece on suffering. (Check out the dog pic on his profile page - very funny.)
His observation that "God cares more about me--the real me: who I am in relation to who He wants to make me," reminded me of an interview I recently read with Rick Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life:
Life is a series of problems. Either you are in one now, you have just come out of one or you're getting ready to go into another one. The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort. God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy. . .
I used to think that life was hills and valleys - you go through a dark time, then you got to the mountain top, back and forth...I don't believe that anymore. Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it's kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.
No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on. And no matter how bad, things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for. You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.
Here's Warren's site. I hadn't realized that I subscribed to the "peaks and valleys" philosophy. But I did. . . even though my actual experiences are closer to the parallel track he describes: there is always something to be thankful for.
New York Daily News
John Donne
