die daily show die

i have been avioding the daily show for at least 3 months now, because it has turned into the new political machine for college students everywhere. i am totally sick of students who tune into the daily show then decide they are political geniuses. these kind of people need to put a sock in it. why educate yourself with this liberal leftist, slanted, spun off, poorly written, smear campaign? its the same stupid crap everyshows first segment. and yeah i know its supposed to be a comedy show, but the attacks on the president are not just jokes. they are cheap shots, that are spun off for that TOOL johnny stewart to read off and gain glory from the uneducated youth that tunes in every night.
tonight johnny was joking on the stem cell research veto that bush issued. now, we were all already aware that the liberal media does not agreee with the principles that the president supports, abortion at the front. but the daily show puts together trendy little snippetts of the president and tony snow's speeches and to make him out to be this fundementalist lying dictator. thats where the slant and spin come into the show. the president along with many members of the gop believes that a human life should not be created, only to be destroyed. he isnt agianst stem cell research, he is agianst funding this method of supply for the stem cells. he explained all of this in his message to the house of representatives. WHICH RECIEVED NO COVERAGE AT ALL. there were three parts to this bill when it was in senate, only one that bush disagreed with, and because of his strong opinions and the absence of the line item veto, the WHOLE bill had to be smashed. the part that caused the veto (which congress was well aware of before hand) a House-passed measure (HR 810) that would allow federal funding for stem cells taken from surplus embryos at in vitro fertilization clinics. President Bush has ALWAYS threatened to veto any such legislation that comes to his desk. SO WHY IS THIS SUCH A SUPRISE?
then comes bush's appearance at the annual naacp convention. all we get from comedy central is clips from kayne west, and hurricane katrina victims. agian, i wonder why. no mention of the reasons why he came or what he acually talked about. im SICK OF IT!
then colbert comes on after stewy. he is like the little guy in star wars that sits in the rafters above jabba the hut. just mimics and chimes in with the same crap. not as brash or offensive though, but still there for some reason. agian, i believe that my life would be better without these shows.

clk on myspase paige 2 c me w/pics and beers can

heres what im tired of, and yes im probably talking about you. i am sick of 1) mtv. 2) myspace & facebook 3) the combination of these things to give the youth of today a spoonful of corruption. the worst thing is that many students (at all levels) are making themselves into what they have learned from the movies and pop culture. dont understand? well its like some sort of detachment from the worlds happenings in that, the only things that are uccaptable are those things viewed in movies or agian, in pop cultures media machine.

i have been there, and still stuggle with it, which is probably why im writing this, because it seems that the best way that we identify with each other is through materialistic trendy pop language. ie- constant movie quotes as conversation, its like each new movie holds a new key that we need to have. i mean are there any more romantic situations, relationship querks, or jokes about sex that hollywood can come up with? what do these things have to do with WHO we are? what it comes down to i gues is that when i think about it i truly believe that i would be better off had i not been introduced to this perverted comedy that is the only comedy we have today on tv and movies.

and yes its perverted, centered completely around sex.
one good example, back in 1992 when mtv had a shard of credit, the reported most popular movies amound their viewers were, Terminator 2: Judgement Day (which won) Backdraft, Boyz N The Hood, JFK, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Now mtv has in 2006- Batman Begins, King Kong, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Sin City, and Wedding Crashers... guess who won? the movie centered around two guys crashing wedding parties to have sex with the guests. and of course not much needs to be said about 40-year old virgin, and sin city. but seriosly look at how freakin far we have come. if you look at the trend on what is being allowed in movies, and tv, where are we headed? i am really asking.

and i am not calling for a special group to regulate this or for anyone to throw out their tv and stop going to movies, but really, where is it leading too? i dont have the answer and dont claim to. but whats gonna be on the big screen in 10 years? are comedies ever gonna be collectively funny without sex as a backdrop?

now please excuse me while i go back to hiding in my closet.

port city community church!!!

this is a church i just visited in Wilmington, NC called PC3. they had awesome worship music, atmosphere and the most loving people i have ever seen in one place.
check the site out!

"Mission... it is such a buzz-word these days. But just because it's a buzz doesn't mean it doesn't matter! At PC3, our mission is to reach people and help them walk with God. This is what we do. We do not invest time or energy into anything else. "
"At Port City, we understand that we cannot change anything... that is God's job! So what we do is create environments where people can connect with God and one another and trust God to move and do what it is that He does... We use the term ENCOUNTER!"

Holy or not, who cares?

even though its old news by now i cant help but bring up those Prophet Muhammad cartoons that gained so much press for offending so many people. i hate to say it but Muslims may need to brace themselves for this kind of thing. look around at what america has done to Jesus. there are Jesus figurines, He is depicted as cartoon characters on several shows, south park prob the worste for that, and the symbol of the cross has pretty much lost all meaning to the average American citizen. Jesus is easily the most powerful name in all the world, our annual time table is based on him, yet He and His principles are degraded and trampled on openly everyday. do i believe its wrong? yes. but is it a constitutional right?? yes, and unfortunatley, human respect and compassion have nearly been lost at the cost of some people's audacity.

well well well...

even though its been like 3 months since an update has been done, i figure it wont hurt to start agian and put this out there.
i feel like faith in general is being put to the test today. it seems that if you have religion with a belief in God then you are seen as weak. i say this because i am in a season now where i feel that my faith is continually being attacked by stereotypes and hypocracy. maybe i shouldnt take many things personally, but i feel the need to convince people that the change that has happened in my life is real, its the only realness i have, and i want people to understand exactly where i am coming from.
in the political realm, bush is continually criticised and lumped in with extremists that act in the name of Christianity. i do not and cant defend everything that he has done, cause its not ALL right but the stereotypes are not right and not fair at all. as if Christians are some irritating race of people that should be kept far away from normal people. i strongly support separation of church and state, but not separation of God and state. if a man believes in God, should that put ANY restrictions on him????

Happy New Year!

well guys and gals, i just got back home after an awesome Christmas time family tour and its been great. the highlight of this season was a talk that i had with my father and i want to share it with everyone!
so we got into a conversation about making a difference and fighting for a cause. and i have to admit, sometimes i second guess what my purpose is and why i am here. thankfully God continues to send his word to me one way or another and most of the time when i dont even expect it. so i was just telling my father how the odds stack up and how it can be overwhelming sometimes. we were in the house where i grew up standing in the kitchen and he went to the fridge and pulled out a carrot and an egg. then he went over to the cabinet and pulled out a bag of coffee beans. he gathered them together and asked me what happens to them when they are cooked. of course i said how carrots get mushy and eggs get hard boiled and whole coffee beans would make nasty coffee. then i started to get the point. he continued by saying how all three are changed by boiling hot water and each are uniquely affected. he asked me which one i would be carrot egg or coffee. which one would you all be? the carrot when its faced with trials and pain softens. the egg hardens. but the coffee bean, the coffee not only changes the color of the boiling water, it changes the taste and smell. i was amazed at how deep this really was, then my dad told me that his pastor told the story on sunday and he wanted to pass it on.
but what a great question this poses...
when you are put in a life changing situation, do you change or compromise, or do you make the best of it and rise above?

answer the call

just a quick story,
i was in the heart of downtown atlanta last night on business and was sitting in my hotel room and decided that i needed some fresh air. i went downstairs and out into the cold and started on my way down the block. i got to the en of the first block and a man asked me for a few dollars. i told him i didnt have any, and he continued to walk with me for some reason. he just started telling me about the area and what each building was. he told me that he needed 5 dollars to get into the shelter and get some food. we kept walking and he continued his tour of the city. we talked about everything, from my hometown Wilmington, to his ex girlfriends. it was awesome. we came accross a 24 hr diner and i tried to by him dinner, and when he did not accept, i knew he wasnt really hungry. i even offered to go up to the shelter and get him in there, and agian he made an excuse. on the walk back i asked him to tell me a few things that he was struggling with in his life. he told me he needed more hours from the working pool that he went to and that he needed to pray more. i could see the tired look in his eyes, not from sleep, but from life. the whole time i felt the Holy Spirit tugging on my heart to pray with him, not for him, with him. by this time i realized it was 230 am and i had to get up in a few hours. we prayed right out front of the hotel. it was awesome. he is a 38 year old black man, he has tattoos on both arms and tears inked on his face, his name is Tommy, but everyone knows him as Red. he goes to several of the area churches in the downtown area, and knows all the people out on the streets. i made him a promise before i went back in; that i would pray for him everytime i thought about him. reader please join me, because his faith was unlike mine, and he viewed God differently than i did, but we agreed on one thing. it was that prayer was the only thing that CHANGED my life and prayer was the only thing that CAN CHANGE his life. can, i get a witness?

Is this for real?

Are there really people as ignorant in this world as the women who has a problem with this sign? I guess so. I mean really, what the heck? This is the stupidist thing I've seen in a while. Apparently, the sign displayed on a Raleigh area McDonald's that says "Merry Christmas, Jesus is the reason for the season" has offended some lady that happens to be Jewish. Go figure. Now look, Im all for respecting other and their beliefs (such as this women) but come on lady, you make it so hard to respect you!

First of all, this is a privately owned business. That would be reason number one why this is perfectly legal and appropriate. Secondly, if this women is offended by the sign, dont look at it! Im offended every day by the things I see on TV. Im offended by seeing homosexuals display affection to one another in public. Im offended by people who deny the existance of God. Im offended by alot of things, but I dont go around telling folks they cant do what they are doing no matter how much I disagree with it. Instead, I turn the other way.

So where is all this going? This issue raises an interesting question. How far will our society go to be politically correct? Talk about seperation of church and state. Let me tell you something about seperation of church and state. I think the original purpose of this policy was not to serperate the church from the state (i.e. excluding the church from entering the state even in indirect ways which is ultimately impossible) but instead to keep the state from intereferring with the church. I mean after all, considering the reason this country was founded, that would seem to make much more sense. What would happen if this women got what she wanted? She wants to sign removed. Let's say the government were to step in and force the McDonald's to remove the sign. Now that would be a clear violation of the seperation of church and state. Whate ever happened to the idea of majority rules? It seems that in the current age of this great nation, the majority is bending over backwards to please to complaints of the minority.

Okay, final thought. Rock on McDonald's! Shoot, I think I might paint "Jesus is the reason for the season" across my forehead for the remainder of the month and see what people think of that! Im not here to stir up controversy or get people mad, but if what I do or say about my faith and my belief offends someone... oops, sorry. Get over it people!
Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Christmas time

Strong post Mike, i am glad you started this, hopefully we can trick people into coming in here and trick them into reading and writing stuff. i just went to a Christmas play here in Greensboro, and it got me thinking about what Christmas time really is. i mean Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birthday, but Christmas Time is usually shopping, decorating, stressing and complaining about irrelevant things. When i watch the news and see how fed up Christians say they are about "Happy Holidays" replacing "Merry Christmas" and it really looks like we dug this hole ourselves. Christians sometimes brag about how this country was founded by Christians and on Christian values. But steps were taken to ensure that no religious institution could control government. I believe that our country would be worse off even if the Christian Church, or any church controled government. So when something like this happens you have to take it with salt, and see if we can change or support it by the rules that we created (in the Constitution). When i look at "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas" i think of the same thing, the birth of Christ. I do believe that Christians should stand up for what they believe in, but remember the sets of rules that our founding fathers gave us.