Guest Post: It’s “Cool” to Be Patriotic
Posted by admin - 19/11/08 at 09:11:21 amBy Richard Larsen
As much as I enjoy sports and respect professional athletes for their athletic prowess, I’ve never been much of a fan of them off the court. For the most part, I find them totally egotistic, self-serving, and intellectually vapid, much like most Hollywood types.
There have been some notable exceptions to this generalization. I think of some greats like Bill Russell, John Stockton, Andre Agassi, Julius Erving, Jerry Rice, and Larry Bird. They were not only phenomenal athletes on the court, but they appeared genuine, sincere, and thoughtful off the court. They were more than just athletes, they were the type of people you wouldn’t mind having your children emulate and lionize.
One prominent athlete I’ve had little regard for has been Kobe Bryant, guard for the Los Angeles Lakers. He came onto the NBA scene with a splash in the post Michael Jordan era when the NBA was hungrily seeking a new “face” for the league. As a prodigious high school player in Philadelphia, Bryant opted to bypass college and go directly to the pros.
His play has become legendary, and his highlight reel is nearly as full of spectacular plays as Dr. J’s (Julius Erving) and Michael Jordan’s. But as a youngster in the NBA, it was all too evident that the accolades heaped upon him went to his head, and he became the epitome of self-centered, pampered professional athletes. His antics off the court have been a deterrent to holding him in higher regard.
But to many, especially youth, Bryant is an icon of “coolness.” His jersey, the Laker yellow #24, is the top selling NBA jersey, as is evidenced even on the streets of Pocatello.
In light of his “coolness,” it was extremely gratifying to hear his interview with Chris Collinsworth, a former wide receiver with the Cincinnati Bengals, on NBC this week. Collinsworth asked Bryant, “Tell the story when you first got your USA uniform.” To which Bryant responded, “Well, I had goosebumps and I actually just looked at it for awhile. I just held it there and I laid it across my bed and just stared at it for a few minutes; just because as a kid growing up this is the ultimate, ultimate in basketball.”
Collinsworth continued, “Where does the patriotism come from inside of you? Historically, what is it?” Bryant answered, “Well, you know it’s just our country, it’s… we believe this is the greatest country in the world. It has given us so many great opportunities, and it’s just a sense of pride that you have; that you say ‘You know what? Our country is the best!’”
Collinsworth took it a step further, “Is that a ‘cool’ thing to say, in this day and age? That you love your country, and that you’re fighting for the red, white and blue? It seems sort of like a day gone by.” Bryant replied, “No, it’s a cool thing for me to say. I feel great about it, and I’m not ashamed to say it. I mean, this is a tremendous honor.”
Bryant climbed several notches in my esteem with those comments. Here is the icon of “cool” for youth, not just in our country, but as we see in Beijing, around the world, and he’s saying it’s cool to love America, and recognize American exceptionalism for what it is.
The founding principles of this nation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and our uniquely determined dependence on deity for our very existence as a country, have made us the envy of the world. Of equal significance is our adherence to principles of freedom and liberty even in our economic system. Why else would China, a nation with nearly 4 times our population, and an economy of roughly 1/5th the size of the U.S. go into the Beijing Olympics declaring openly that their primary goal was to achieve parity with the U.S.? I for one would be much more impressed by a move to achieve civil rights parity with the U.S.
For some reason, many Americans who enjoy the fruits of freedom here don’t seem to appreciate enough the tree from which those fruits grew. They lament a purported fall from grace and somehow think it’s “cool” to belittle and disparage our country. They point incessantly at the great moral evil of slavery, while failing to concede the monumental moral victory of our nation in eradicating it. In my estimation, not only is it possible to love America and all she stands for while being critical of politicians and policy, but I think that is what’s meant by dissent being the ultimate form of patriotism: a devotion to America and a commitment to her perpetuity so great that we speak out in opposition to those policies that we’re convinced challenge the role of America as an ensign of freedom to the world.
I’m grateful for Kobe Bryant’s expressed love of country, and am equally grateful that he never went to the Obama’s church or we might never have heard them.
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Client 9 and 3/4
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Politics Post
Posted by admin - 17/11/08 at 04:11:22 amI try really hard not to get to political on here, unless something really annoys me. It seemed today politics wouldn’t leave me alone, and now I have to vent.
First I read over at Raging Rainbows this morning about John McCain giving an interview about picking a potential VP. You can read it in The Weekly Standard.
What annoyed me were the following quotes about what would and wouldn’t be acceptable in a VP candidate . . .
“I think that the pro-life position is one of the important aspects or fundamentals of the Republican Party,” McCain said. “And I also feel that–and I’m not trying to equivocate here–that Americans want us to work together. You know, Tom Ridge is one of the great leaders and he happens to be pro-choice. And I don’t think that that would necessarily rule Tom Ridge out.”
“I think it’s a fundamental tenet of our party to be pro-life but that does not mean we exclude people from our party that are pro-choice. We just have a–albeit strong–but just it’s a disagreement. And I think Ridge is a great example of that. Far more-so than (Michael) Bloomberg, because Bloomberg is pro-gay rights, pro, you know, a number of other issues.”
“You know,” I really am just shocked and actually disgusted. First of all, on Bloomberg, no I don’t “you know” know what the other number of issues that might count him out are. I’d love for McCain to clarify, but I don’t think he knows either. Clearly all he could, you know, remember was the gay thing. Guess that’s what’s important?
Second, what am I to take from these statements? That potentially dead fetuses are less of a problem to him than living gay people? That while he doesn’t agree with abortion, he can tolerate someone who does. However he just can’t tolerate someone who likes the gays?
What really makes me sad is that I actually liked John McCain, once upon a time. I thought he was a Republican I could actually vote for. I believe so did the BF. However it seems everything I/we liked about McCain no longer exists. Everything he seemed to once stand for went out the door when the presidency came knocking and became a real possibility.
The other thing that found its way to me today was sent to me by my friend, God love her. This more than anything made me laugh. It was an email about Obama and how evil he and the liberal media are.
Basically the email asserts that the liberal media will not let anything negative be said about Obama, and to test this if you make a post on YouTube about Obama that is negative that not only will it disappear or never get posted; but you’ll be sent all sorts of nasty porn spam email. The email then links to some church website with a video of some guy calling for a boycott of Obama because of this, among other things. What’s amusing is that the video of this guy . . . you guessed it . . . is on YouTube.
Own Your Failure
Posted by admin - 14/11/08 at 06:11:56 amLast Thursday, Katie and Alex sat in our living room and listened with rapt attention, broken only by moments of pure joy, to the speech given by Senator Barack Obama at the end of the Democratic National Convention. It was a good speech, and I think it was densely filled with meaning and information - a refreshing change from most political nonsense I hear that is mosty opinion opinion opinion.
After going through his thank-yous and introductions, Obama turned to the issue of the last eight years of failed leadership this country has had to struggle through by saying about the Republicans that “It’s time for them to own their failure.” As soon as I heard this line, my brain lept into action. Owning their failure is absolutely something that the Republicans should do - they have lots to own up to! But, to paraphrase Obama, it’s not only about THEM, it’s about US. We are all to blame for the failures of our government and the systematic disassembly of the American Dream.
Minutes after he had spoken the words, I had purchased OwnYourFailure.com. The next morning, I got to hacking, and a few hours later launched a site where anyone can take responsibility for one of the failures of the Bush Administration. I Twittered about it, and submissions started rolling in. Then, other people Twittered about it, and even more submissions rolled in!
After just 5 days, more than 200 people have submitted their failures to the site. Watching the submissions come in has been a surprisingly interesting experience. While some people have done what I initially (and snarkily) intended them to do - fascitiously claim responsibility for Bush’s failed policies - many people have posted genuine feelings of guilt, remorse and anger at their own personal failures. What I think becomes very clear, reading through these admissions of guilt, is that there is a very real re-awakening of civic duty and responsibility happening in this country. I think people are really starting to realize that they cannot risk being apolitical. Post after post, people are recognizing that the problems we face now are directly linked to their failure to get informed, to get registered, to go out and vote in 2000 and 2004.
It is really an amazing thing to read these confessions. I feel honored and privileged to have stumbled into this amazing record of the zeitgeist. Here are some of my favorite confessions so far… and you can always add your own!
K from Colorado takes responsibility for: I voted in the Presidential election once when I was 18 and became so disillusioned I didn’t vote again until I was 34. I feel I have contributed to the recent failures in our government by being one of too many Americans who don’t let their voice be heard by voting in every election.
Jenn from Tokyo, Japan (expat) takes responsibility for: I’ll take not raising my voice and fists in moral outrage that the U.S. tortures people who are never offered a fair trial. With no legal recourse. Who could potentially be innocent. So sorry!
Derek Wallace from North Hollywood, California takes responsibility for: I worked in the advertising/marketing field of the car industry for several years and helped not only brainwash people into buying things they didn’t need, but also helped them contribute to global warming/international resource wars/Third World exploitation/toxic pollution/health threats in the process. I didn’t directly sell the cars myself, but if I hadn’t done my job, hundreds of dealerships across Southern California would not have been able to achieve the kind of success they had from 2003-2006.
Hannah from Virginia takes responsibility for: Going along with No Child Left Behind. Every day of my first year of teaching, dragging my students toward a place where they could pass the damn test was at the core of my teaching, rather than creativity and exploration. I’m sorry to have failed them, their families, and their community.
Rachel from Austin takes responsibility for: Failing to prevent the income gap from widening.
Ariel from Boise ID takes responsibility for: I VOTED FOR BUSH THE FIRST TIME! I SWEAR TO GOD ON MY FIRST BORN CHILD I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING! I JUST VOTED LIKE MY PARENTS ALWAYS DID!!!! And I will never forgive myself!
And I think my #1 favorite:
Christopher from Bakersfield, CA takes responsibility for: Not knowing then as much as I know now. I’ll continue my research.
A minor note of little current importance - I was able to launch this site so quickly because I built it using the PeoplePods framework for social sites that I will eventually release through my new company, XOXCO, Inc.
China’s Olympic problem
Posted by admin - 13/11/08 at 03:11:45 am
Ever since Bejing was announced as the host of the 2008 Summer Olympics there have been calls to boycott the games due to the violence in Tibet. In recent weeks, those calls for boycott have grown louder and louder - even briefly encompassing my views.
However, as horrible as the situation in Tibet is, boycotting the Games will not change anything. The nations of the world should embrace the games for what they’ve been for over a century (and for a long period a couple of millennia before that); an event that promotes peace and shared joy and sorrow through sports.
You’re probably thinking I’m either ignorant of the true situation in Tibet, or possibly, I’m just an arrogant American who wants to watch us dominate the world in most sports yet again. Actually, it’s neither. I think in order to bring change to Tibet, and a lesser extent Taiwan, the opposite of a boycott should occur; we should overrun the country with every form of media and expose the closed and corrupt Chinese government for what they really are.
Recently, the Chinese government announced that it would not allow foreign media to shoot live shots or broadcasts of Tiananmen Square during the Olympic Games.
The Chinese Communist Party anticipates protests of their government during the games, and likely fears a second Tiananmen Square Massacre, this time shown to the world in the era of the 24 hour news networks.
The action of closing down foreign media proves the CCP’s absolute fear of free media and free-thinking individuals (i.e. the student protesters, the Tibetan monks, etc.). By boycotting the games, we’re limiting the access that our journalists have even further.
Instead of a boycott, we should send every willing journalist to China during the Olympics. Not only to cover the Games themselves, but to uncover the lies of the CCP and expose their fraud to the world. Break every rule and ignore every threat that the Chinese government places on the media.
The Chinese government would be well within their rights to jail journalists. But, would they? Especially when the entire world is watching and judging their every move? I’m not sure they would.
The result would be a wealth of information available to the world that would rally every nation to demand Tibet’s freedom, or at the very least, their protection.
Boycotting the Games only turns a blind eye. Embracing the Olympics (not China), could be the catalyst that brings the change.
The Privacy of Politicians
Posted by admin - 11/11/08 at 01:11:08 amIt’s possible I am going to ruffle some feathers with this post, and I know I have been more 
focused on politics than on liberal faith this past few weeks. It’s that time in the political year. And, there is a parallel to life in the ministry that I think is instructive.
I usually agree with Barrack Obama, but not on the issue of privacy for politicians. This issue is one of the reasons I decided against pursuing a career in politics, (even though ministry is not much more private). I just can not agree that the family and personal life of a politician is not the business of the people they serve.
There is no “right to hold political office”. Serving in political office is not like having a job (just like ministry is not). It is a privilege, and for that privilege there are certain costs. One of those costs is that, by accepting political office, you are accepting the reality of living a publically lived life. Ministers do the same, if usually on a different and smaller scale.
The size of the public that can and should take a critical interest in your life is proportional to the size of the political realm that you serve. If you are a local politician in a small town, then it is appropriate for the citizens of that small town to pay attention to your finances, to your family life, to your moral and ethical decision making, both personally and professionally.
As your political realm increases in size, so too does the size (and resources) of the public that has a legitimate interest in your personal life. By the time a politician has moved to national political ambition, they also must accept that the national public does indeed have a right and responsibility, as well as the resources, to know just about everything in your personal life.
Many may not think this is fair. I disagree. There is an easy way to regain the privacy of a private citizen… become a private citizen again.
Now, I’m not saying that the politician must air out all their dirty laundry on the six o’clock news… nor am I expecting our politicians to be paragons of virtue all of the time. If there is one lesson I have learned in ministry, it is that humans are messy, and it is that messy aspect to who we are that gives us our challenges and trials, our successes and failures, our beauty and our ugliness. There is messyness in the life of every individual and in every family, and that messyness is what makes us interesting and gives us the opportunity to change and grow.
What you do not get, when you accept a life in politics, is the right to keep everyone out of your messyness. Try to divert the story, try to spin it, that is all fine and an accepted part of the political game. That is how politicians play in this particular field. Ministers are required to act differently, to accept their own messyness, learn from it, and be an example of how to grow, change, and transform. I think politicians do well when they follow this kind of path instead of the “spin and divert” game, but that’s just my opinion.
What I do not accept that politicians can do is to create a rule that their “personal” life is off limits. When you accept or seek public office, you accept a publically lived life. If you want to protect your privacy, and indeed the privacy of your family, then do not accept or seek public office.
Just as a colleague once said to me, about accepting a life in the ministry.
Yours in Faith,
David
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Hooray for Hockey Moms
Posted by admin - 09/11/08 at 11:11:02 amAs a woman, I take offense to the tactics being used by the media to accuse Alaska Governor Sarah Palin of being incapable of balancing motherhood and the vice-presidency should she be elected to the White House alongside Arizona Senator John McCain this November.
While I may disagree with her politics, I have to admit that her nomination to the VP slot is a big deal. Hillary Clinton herself proclaimed during her speech last week at the Democratic National Convention that she and her campaign had made eighteen million cracks in the glass ceiling. This is one more.
Sarah Palin’s capability to fulfill the duties of Vice President shouldn’t be questioned simply because she’s a mother with young children. No one has asked Senator Barack Obama, who has two young children himself, if he will have the time to balance being fatherhood and the presidency.
I commend Sarah Palin for continuing to push up against that glass ceiling, though I may not be a Republican, I admire her for holding strong to her beliefs, supporting her family, and ignoring the naysayers. I’d like to think America has come a long way since the 1964 film “Kisses for my President” which featured a female President who resigned when she become pregnant while in office ‘for the good of the country.’ I guess we’ll just have to see.
The RPV’s changing veepstakes logic.
Posted by admin - 07/11/08 at 05:11:24 amThe RPV on the McCain naming Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate today:
“John McCain hit it out of the park with his selection of Governor Palin,” said Delegate Jeffrey M. Frederick, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia. “This is a bold, fresh, and exciting choice that clearly demonstrates that Republicans aren’t reading from a script, but giving the nation a real choice: between an inexperienced Senator running with a Washington insider; versus a true independent-minded maverick American hero running with a successful and dynamic female executive, a conservative and a reformer, who couldn’t be further from Washington-as-usual.”
The RPV on the potential for Gov. Kaine to be Obama’s running mate, six days ago:
Frederick added that Kaine’s weak leadership and lack of any signature accomplishment was too much even for Obama to ignore.
“Tim Kaine’s only virtue as a potential running mate is that he would not have overshadowed Senator Obama - as he is one politician in America less prepared to lead America than Obama himself” said Frederick. “But by every other measure, Kaine would have been a disaster for Obama: a first-term liberal governor with absolutely no accomplishments, who just abandoned his home state in the midst of a massive budget deficit to campaign for a promotion,” Frederick added.
Gov. Palin, fresh from a teeny town’s city council, with just two years as governor as one of the least populous states in the nation? Bold, fresh, exciting, successful, and dynamic. Gov. Kaine, three years into his term as governor, on the heels of four years as lieutenant governor, following a term as mayor of Richmond? Weak, first-term, no accomplishments, abandoning his home state to campaign for a promotion.
Got it?
WTC to Green Party Conference
Posted by admin - 03/11/08 at 02:11:05 amA Challenge to the membership of the Green Party of England and Wales
Dear Friends,
Please read this carefully if, as I do you value the future direction and success of the Green Party in the British Isles.
Over the last four years a new phenomenon has emerged on the internet which is likely to spill over into direct political action at the grassroots and which will assign forever the conventional ‘old style’ confrontational politics to the dustbin. This grassroots challenge, which is gathering strength on a daily basis, is in pursuit of one thing only…..the TRUTH about the underlying reality of our modern world, and the methodology of those working to shape it to their own ends, rather than for the benefit of all its human and animal inhabitants.
In the USA, the Green Party’s presidential candidate, the courageous former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, is asking for the truth about what really happened on 9/11. She knows there are huge problems with the official narrative of what happened on that fateful day, indeed with the whole ‘War on Terror’, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of innocent lives and is so voraciously eating into our civil liberties and basic freedoms. The US Greens are unashamedly a major player in this burgeoning American Truth Movement. The same cannot be said for the Green Party of England and Wales where the ‘leadership’ and ‘establishment’ of the party under Caroline Lucas and Jean Lambert has deliberately chosen to ignore this huge and ‘embarrassing’ issue in the vain hope that it would go away. Well it hasn’t and now the British Greens are left looking rather foolish and out of touch with reality.
I joined the then Ecology Party back in 1978. For a short period I was National Agent (my main success being to organise over 100 candidates for the 1983 General Election) before being elected twice onto Party Council. During that time I organised conferences and helped to build bridges between the so-called ‘fundis’ and the ‘realos’ as the Party agonised how to proceed after its breakthrough success in the 1989 European Elections. Some wonderful opportunities were lost then because of childish infighting and the inability of some key players, many of whom are still active in the ‘leadership’of the Party today, to work as a team.
When I joined the Ecology Party, we prided ourselves on being the ‘Anti-Party Party’ - we were determined to break away from the hierarchical structures of the other conventional parties. We wanted to empower and mobilise ordinary, decent people back into the decision-making processes and so overturn the tiny political elite who had, and still do have, a stranglehold on real power in this country and, indeed, the world. I just cannot believe that today the Green Party of England and Wales, a Party to which I gave fifteen years of my life, is now seeking to elect a ‘Leader’ just to keep the ‘controlled’ and ‘elite-owned’ media happy. And, worse still, the chances are that you will elect Caroline Lucas who, whilst I appreciate she has worked and campaigned extremely hard on many green and social issues, has failed repeatedly to question the events of 9/11 and the whole ongoing War on Terror, despite being given compelling information and evidence by myself and others (please email me for the evidence of this). Caroline, I’m afraid, is no Cynthia McKinney when it comes to pro-active truth-seeking!
It really does hurt me to say this, but the Greens in Britain today are largely an irrelevance as people on the internet and at the grass roots are waking up and making the connections which prove beyond all reasonable doubt that we’re heading for an Orwellian ‘Big Brother’ police state. This nightmare scenario is being assembled slowly but surely by a tiny, secretive global elite in order to ensnare all of us. This was what David Icke was saying at the recent Haltemprice and Howden by-election - an election that we can prove was a sham and a scam (go to www.wholetruthcoalition.org for the evidence).
And before you simply dismiss David Icke (whom the Green Party ‘establishment’ likes to demonise), please consider that in doing so you’d be refuting the findings of modern Quantum Physics and a mass of political and historical evidence, plus the collective knowledge and wisdom of the indigenous peoples around the world who have oral traditions going back thousands of years. I also happen to know, having met Cynthia McKinney myself, that she is open minded enough to want to meet with David at some point in the future to discuss his research. Closed minds, my friends, do not get to the truth!
I’m afraid the Green Party has stopped listening and learning and it has certainly stopped questioning. How many of you reading this know that there was a major hurricane, Hurricane Erin, off New York on the morning of 9/11? What do you know about Tesla, Directed Energy Weapons and the Hutchison Effect? Have you heard of HAARP and, if so, what is it for? Do you know that other planets in our solar system, including Mars and Jupiter, are displaying temperature increases and ‘climate change’ at the same time as Earth? Are you absolutely certain you can trust Al Gore - what do you really know about him and the Clinton administration he was involved in? What do you know about the Amero and the North American Union? What do you know about the UK training charity Common Purpose? And how much do you know about the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations? Have you heard of Dr Royal Raymond Rife? And what really goes on in the Bohemian Grove? Who really funded and supported Adolf Hitler and the Nazis? And just what is this New World Order to which Gordon Brown many times referred in his pre-appointment speeches in 2007, and his predecessor Blair before him??
Please, can I ask all of you to take time out to do some very serious research of your own, once this conference is over. It is vital to educate and empower yourselves, indeed all citizens quickly, before the projected Orwellian nightmare kicks in. Along with my good friends and fellow truth-seekers Belinda McKenzie, Andrew Johnson and Penny Pullen, I’ve set up the Whole Truth Coalition (UK). Working with many other individuals, organisations and campaigns, WTC UK is acting as an information clearing-house to help people do their own research whilst encouraging the setting up of local Truth Groups to tackle head-on our elected representatives who, knowingly or unknowingly, are allowing the Hidden Elite to carry out their sinister agenda unchallenged. Please go to www.wholetruthcoalition.org to find out more about what they - and we! - are doing.
Thank you for taking the trouble to read this - with possibly a major war brewing and economic problems already afflicting millions time is most certainly not on our side, so please take this warning seriously. The signs are extremely ominous that another 9/11-style ‘false flag’ operation leading to a war against Iran (and possibly others) is on the cards before the end of this year. Again, if you email me, I will send you information clearly showing ‘Big Brother’-style preparations for massive civil unrest being made in this country by those ‘in the know’.
With all best wishes and here’s hoping that the Green Party of England and Wales wakes up quickly to the ‘Big Picture’ and undertakes the right actions to expose what is REALLY going on, before it is too late.
‘All that is needed for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’ (Tacitus). Greens are good people - please put that goodness into properly-focused action NOW!
Justin Walker (Cumbria) jrgwalker@aol.com
5 September 2008
PS To see Cynthia McKinney speaking about 9/11 watch ‘The Elephant in the Room’, one of the latest films on 9/11, focusing on the progress to date of the international Truth movement. ‘Elephant’ won Best Documentary award at the Independent London Film Festival in May 2008 and has been widely-acclaimed. You can watch the film for free online at http://nosmokewithoutfire.co.uk
Watch on Google Video:
metacool: From Obama to Pink to Oprah
Posted by admin - 02/11/08 at 07:11:51 amIn life, pick where you want to go as much as you can, work like hell to get there, and be persistent. Learn all the time. Do good. Engage everyone around you by pursuing your passions. Help others. Do good work. Bring cool stuff to life. Above all, start.
metacool: From Obama to Pink to Oprah
amen to that. read metacool — diego is great.