I was going to write something up about the supposed “War on Christmas”, but then I found this write-up over at American’s United and decided, they did a much better job than anything I could write.  So, go on over there and enjoy the read.

The Supposed War on Christmas

And I really wanted to wait until after Thanksgiving to do it, but as the article states, the Religious Right started early this year, so I will too.

I agree with what the article is saying.  The merchants don’t care about Christmas, all they care about is getting you to spend money in their shops.  They will do and say whatever is most likely to get you in there.  There is no war on Christmas…just a war to get your money.

Maybe next year we should start a war on Kwanza or a war on Hannukah or even a war on Ramadan.  It’s not only the Christians that are being ignored!! (sarcasm on high)

The Austin Area Interreligious Ministries was told they can’t use facilities owned by the Hyde Park Baptist Church for their 23rd annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration.  The celebration brings together people from a variety of faiths including Christians, Jews, Muslims and Hindu’s “to share in gratitude for the gifts and blessings of our world”.

Apparently, members of the Hyde Park Baptist Church are refusing because the celebration includes Muslims.  They do not want a non-Christian organization to pray on their property or within their facilities.  Luckily another more accepting organization, Congregation Beth Israel, has come forward to provide a location for the event.  This is exactly the type of event that is needed to help understanding between the various faiths and to show people how much they have in common.

You can read more about this here.

Below is a quote from the article from a representative of Hyde Park Baptist Church.  Try to read it without scratching your head, “although individuals from all faiths are welcome to worship with us, we cannot provide space for the practice of these non-Christian religions on church property.”

So it’s ok for Muslims to come and listen to the Baptist’s, but the Baptist’s can’t listen to the Muslims or even allow the Muslim’s to pray on their property.  Does this statement imply that any non-Christian faith is not permitted to pray on their property?  How Christian of them.  What’s the big deal?  Are they afraid their congregation might convert?  Is their land so holy they are worried that God will retaliate against them?  Why not use this as an opportunity to learn from each other and to start to see how much they might have in common.  Instead, they foster an us versus them attitude which will instill itself within their congregation and create more strife.

It seems that for some, religion isn’t about bringing together, but about segregation.

Religion:  Dividing the world, one faction at a time.

Now that my Home Theater Project is wrapping up, I’m starting to get my money’s worth from Netflix.  I’ve watched a few movies since Flock of Dodo’s such as Bridge to Terabithia and Deathproof, but nothing really worth reviewing.  I enjoyed them, just didn’t feel like writing anything about them.  But last night I watched 1408 and really liked it.

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Well, what do you know, one day after the Governor prayed for rain, Georgia actually got some.  The reports say up to an inch of rain fell in parts of the state.  It’s amazing…I guess it didn’t matter that a chance of rain was already forecasted before the Governor prayed, people like Pat Robertson are still claiming the prayers were answered.  Call me cynical, but I would think an answer to this prayer would involve a Noah like rain, you know enough to actually help.

Here’s a quote from a meteorologist from the National Weather Service about this small amount of rain.  “It puts a little extra water in some of the smaller tributaries and reservoirs, but it doesn’t provide any significant long-term benefit.  We need months of above average rainfall to start putting a dent in this”.

Now that doesn’t sound like an answer to the prayer to me.  In fact, the storm apparently ripped the roof off the top of a Baptist Church in Tennessee and some children were injured by flying glass, hopefully not seriously.  I guess if you’re going to make an omelet, you have to break some eggs, even if you’re God.

You can read the full article here.

The good news is there is a continued slight chance of rain in the forecast for the next few days with the highest chance on Thanksgiving, so hopefully they will get some significant rain that will actually help.

I bit the bullet and starting spending some money.  I opened up the wallet for the receiver, the digital music system, a pair of speakers and the power conditioner.  My wallet definitely feels a lot lighter, or more correctly, my credit card feels a lot heavier.  I even pulled the trigger on the TV.

If you want all the details you have to click the link to read the rest.

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My mom lives just outside Atlanta Georgia and she’s been telling me all spring, summer and now fall that they need rain.  Now the situation is getting to the point of being a severe drought in the area which is not a good thing.  So the Governor of Georgia has decided he should pray for rain as if that is going to help.

I always liked George Carlin’s view on prayer.  He says, why bother to pray if when something bad happens or your prayer isn’t answered, you say well, it must be God’s will.  George says it much funnier than I can.

Instead of praying, why doesn’t the Govenor work harder on a course of action to get his state through this terrible time.  Skip the prayer and stop questioning God’s will.

I just finished watching the Nova program Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial and all I can say is it was exceptional.  The program started with a historical view of the battle between Evolution and Creationism then to the events that occurred in Dover Pennsylvania in 2004 that led to the trial there.  The show then interlaced pieces of the trial and the events occurring in the town during the trial, using reenactments and the trial transcript to bring key moments to the viewer.  What was amazing to me was the extent to which supposedly religious people would lash out at those who supported the science teachers to the point of death threats not only to them, but to their kids as well.  Just horrendously unjustifiable.  I can bet God himself had to shake his head in disgust at those people when that happened.

After watching the show, I did come away with the realization that this debate/fight will never be over because it’s not one that involves logic.

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“I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Senator Charles Grassley (R – Iowa), has sent a letter to six televangelist organizations asking for details on their “expenses, executive compensation and amenities given to executives“.  He is following up on complaints he has received regarding these organizations and the potential mis-use of their tax-exempt status.  These groups are to provide him with their information by December 6th.  The organizations involved are:

1. Paula White – Without Walls International Church
2. Joyce Meyer – Joyce Meyer Ministries
3. Creflo Dollar – World Changes Church International
4. Eddie Long – New Birth Ministries Baptist Church
5. Kenneth Copeland – Kenneth Copeland Ministries
6. Benny Hinn – World Healing Center Church

Three of these people, Creflo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn are on the board of Regents of Oral Roberts University which has had it’s own issues lately.

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The Sunlight Foundation has released an overlay for Google Earth that lets you see where your tax dollars are allocated within the house defense appropriations bill.  It tracks all the earmarks that were in the bill and plots them on Google Earth.  Pretty cool.

To get it, first download Google Earth.  Next, install it, of course.  Then download the Sunlight Foundations house defense file overlay from the link on their page.  Then run the overlay file.   It will start Google Earth and there will be hundreds of push pins on the map representing everywhere money was allocated in the bill.  You can click on the pins to get more detail on the amount and purpose of the funding.  After clicking on the pin, you can follow a link to EarmarkWatch.org to find out who sponsored that particular funding and some more detail on the project.

The picture below shows the Texas area with the funding overlay push pins.  Click on the thumbnail to get a bigger view.

Hopefully, they do more of these to help better figure out what parts of spending bills are pork and which are necessary.

I was flipping through a trade rag at work today and came across an article on IPTV.  In case you aren’t in the know, IPTV is what the phone companies are trying to do to compete with cable by providing TV over the Internet to the homes in their area.

Anyway, in the article was a sidebar asking “Which TV Watcher Are You”, with a link to a website hosted by Microsoft to take a survey to find out.  You may wonder why Microsoft..well, they are one of the players in the market for software that supports IPTV.  The survey groups people into one of 10 different categories such as “Value Maximizer”, “Individualist”, “Trendsetter” and “Otherwise Occupied”.  I went ahead and took the test and turns out I’m “Otherwise Occupied”, which basically means I’m too busy to watch TV and when I do finally sit down to watch I don’t find much that interests me.  But apparently, I buy a lot of music.

Actually, this is pretty close to accurate.  So go ahead, give it a try, it’s 11 questions, takes about 2 minutes and they only ask for your zipcode and TV provider and you can lie if you want about that.