I don't have a television in my house, for the simple reason that I'm addicted to it. I shouldn't be around television like some people shouldn't be around alcohol. (Okay, so I may be overstating that just a tad).

This week I found myself stuck at a laundromat without a book and caught a rerun of David Kelly's The Practice. I hadn't seen a full episode before, but while I was at home my dad was a big fan and as he blared the sound at full blast, I heard several episodes.

Despite it's liberal bias, "The Practice" is a great drama. It paints a very realistic picture of criminal defense attorneys and their clients (as realistic of a picture as you can paint without getting boring as a totally realistic lawyer show would spend 90% of the time working out plea bargains and 10% at trial). This episode I saw was about a prison inmate who killed his bunkmate in his sleep. A female attorney tried to get him to plead guilty as he'd signed a confession, his prints were on the murder weapon, and his bunkmate was sleeping.

The prisoner defended himself in court, claiming the common law defense of necessity. He testified that a man serving three life sentences for three prior murders had threatened to kill him unless he slayed his bunkmate. The story (inadvertently I'm sure) raises some very serious problems for the anti-death penalty crowd. What happens to a man when you can't touch him? If he's in for three consecutive life sentences, what else can you do to him with no death penalty deterrent?

The story ends with the prisoner escaping from the courthouse after killing a guard. One thing I do like from what I've seen/heard of the series is that Kelly isn't pretentious and doesn't glamorize criminal defense lawyers. He's quite honest that many of their clients are guilty, that if they are released they will commit more crimes, even against the attorneys that defended them. While it's more gritty than shows like Perry Mason and Matlock, it avoids painting an unrealistic picture of the legal profession and it's clients: Clean cut all-american kids who are wrongly accused were most of them. The degree of honesty Kelly shows is refreshing and it's important that people who may be interested in law get a proper perception of what they're getting into, rather than the glamorized notions provided by Lawyer shows past.

The media claims to be smart. Oftentimes, their own pretention finds them out. One of my absolute favorite sites is PoliticalCartoons.com. Generally, the authors are clever in making their point, even if they aren't right. This week, however, I found two really dumb comics.

One cartoon showed George Bush jumping on a map of America drawn as the Incredible Hulk screaming, "Me Save America by destroying it." and the caption read, "The Incredible Bush". That wouldn't be stupid, except the Hulk never said anything like that. Such statements belong to "Bizarro", the opposite of Superman not to the Hulk.

Another comic portrayed John Ashcroft as the INS officer who took Elian Gonzalez away but this time Ashcroft was saying he would detain Elian to find out what he was up to. Stupid! If your readers have a short attention span, they'll not know what you're talking about. If they don't, they'll be reminded of another attorney general. This Attorney General who used Gestapo tactics to seize a boy from his uncle's home in the middle of the night. It reminds us of the Attorney General whose impatience, recklessness, and many would say malice aforethought led to the deaths of eighty Americans at Waco, Texas. This same Attorney General turned a blind eye to President Clinton's violations of the law, refusing to call her lawless boss to account.

The comic reminds that as unhappy as I am with some of John Ashcroft's heavy-handed tactics, I'm so glad that he. and not our prior Attorney General, Janet Reno is in that office.

Have you ever felt like you're witnessing the end of an era? America has great institutions of government that are slowly being degraded, as hardly anyone, not even the people in those institution understand how they're supposed to work. In America, the love of the church has grown cold. It's a lack of love that crosses all denominational barriers. I don't care whether you're Pentecostal, Baptist, or Catholic, there's been less of a committement to the faith.

I just finished a book by Rick Warren called the Purpose Driven Life. The book's far from perfect, especially as far as the writing goes. But if people would really apply want Warren says, Christians in America could change this country. Sadly, I fear much of his good advice will go unheeded. The heart of the church is cold and needs to awaken to God's truth. Sadly, I fear we're losing our way to sins of worldliness and materialism. The American church is becoming so cold, it's very sad.

I find myself wondering if this is the "Great Falling Away" and whether at last we will see the return of our Lord, who'll set all right. Though, we must go through the fire, come Lord Jesus, come.

Sadly, this is probably just another great apostasy that Christians must survive and fight through and that God must move to bring revival. Still, it seems worse than reports of times past. Then again, it's different I suppose when you read about something as opposed to living through it. The Saints of old thought the end was near to. Work while the light is with you for the hour of darkness comes when no man can work.

I've got to comment on this stupid article I read on BCentral yesterday. The article tells businesspeople three things they shouldn't use technology for:

1) Sending an Anonymous e-mail to one of your competior's customers praising yourself and attacking your competitor.

2) Anonymously posting libelous allegations against your competitor on public message boards

3) Rigging a Chamber of Commerce Businessperson of the Year award voting so that your competitor loses.

Now I have an honest question. Are businesspeople really this stupid and crooked? Do they really need someone to tell them, "Don't do this!"? Maybe the author was simply desperate for a topic and came up with this. We're in a sad state as a country if businessmen find these tactics tempting. Of course, if they have to be told not to do this, she may have to write follow-up columns such as, "How to Not Embezzle Company Funds" and "Sexual Harassment: It's Not a Good Idea".

When I have a case of writer's block next Winter, I can write a column suggest that it's a bad idea for baseball players to crush their arms under buildings, or how its not a good idea to make it your goal to get hit in the groin by the ball, and a follow up column on why Athletic Support cups are good for you.

I've let this place go to pot! I haven't posted anything here in two months. I've got three new updates:

Updated the Baseball Page with my latest columns. I've made my upteenth resolution to keep this page updated every week. It's really not that hard. Whenever they post my column, all I need to is change the top page, upload it and note it here, but I can be lazy and forgetful as readers of this board will note as my last post here was in mid-March.

Added the Christian Movie Night page to the Living Water Christian Fellowship page . It has pictures from the video cover and links to descriptions of all the movies we'll be showing this Summer. Hope, we have more people coming out this next time.

Added the The Screwtape Report, which is the coolest political project I've come up with. I write the columns from the perspective of Dave Screwtape, a Democratic political consultant who is writing a weekly report to fellow Democrats on strategy and policy. It's challenging writing to say the least, but it is worthwile. The reactions I've gotten from Free Republic have been extremely positive. Hopefully, I can sell the Screwtape idea to the big boys.

Pray for our troops. I'm not over in Iraq. I don't welcome this war nor am I entirely convinced that it will achieve our goals. Our President and by a 2/3 vote, our congress is convinced and so we are going to war. The decision has been made.

I'm not on the front lines and I never will be. I have a host of health problems which don't stop me from living a normal life but which would make me inelligible for military service. If I were over there, I'd hope that Americans would put aside their opposition or their doubts about the war and pray for me, pray for my safety. Our soldiers are facing a terrible trial, a time when they could meet their deaths. If we'd like someone to be praying for us, we should pray for them.

I didn't mean to suggest yesterday that those who favored a war with Iraq wanted it. Ideally, I understand everyone would have liked Saddam to leave peacefully. I think those who have supported have understood that wasn't going to happen. We've known for a better part of a year that to achieve our goal of stabalizing the region and removing a threat to the United States and peace, that war was perhaps not the preferred way to go but it was the only realistic option.

In essence, those who've been tough on Iraq have wanted war only because war is the only way that the goal can be achieved. I'm not suggesting that they're bloodthirsty, only that they see war as the only way. And if removing Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi threat is the goal, war is the only answer.

War is coming. Of that there is no doubt. Within a day or so, I suppose it will start. I hope and pray that everything will be over as quickly as people say. However, quick victories are rarely accomplished as neatly as we'd like. We may be getting in for more than we bargain for.

To the principled opponents of the war, I acknowledge their honest desire for peace. However, they've allowed to speak for them, a group of Americans so full of hatred for this country and everything that's good and right about it, that reasonable men couldn't help but tune out their message.

To the supporters of war, you have what you want. 65% of Americans support the war, we're told. That support for our President and our troops must not be abated because of high casualities. This is the risk of war. If we look at a loss of military life and we say, "For 10,000 lives it's not worth it." we should not send them all. Support our troops, remain steadfast in standing behind this war. Retreat is not option, only victory or defeat.

God bless our President, God bless our soldiers, and God bless the United States of America.

Will we just get it over with?

All this hand-wringing and false starts in the US war on Iraq. The war was supposed to start in November, then in Febuary, and now the latest deadline is Monday. The US and Britain can't allow another day. We have to strike hard and fast.

There is no debate over whether there will be a war. We all know there will be. That's been abundantly clear for a while. With or without the UN we're going Nothing is going to prove Iraq innocent (as they're not). So lets stop the games. As much as one may have problems with the war, if the President thinks we should do it, it's time to start.

Rush was wrong.

You heard me. During Open Line Friday, he had a 19 year-old College Student on-Crystal was her name. Rush made (or came close to making) some good points on the war, but was hindered by the fact that both of them were shouting past each other.

In the course of the segment, Rush managed to insult her intelligence, saying that whatever money taxpayers were spending on her education were most likely being "wasted".

Is Crystal a leftist who doesn't have a firm grasp of the facts nor an understanding of how this nation became great and how it works? Yes. Does this mean Crystal and other young people will forever be that way? No.

Amazing things happen in many cases when you find out that you are the rich. After all, it's the rich who pay the taxes and college-educated people (unless they're majoring in Art History or Philosophy) get paid more than everyone else.

You also begin to respect family and tradition more when you have a family of your own. Studies have shown that over the course of life as people get married and have children they become more Conservative as they begin to deal with the realities of life.

Some of the same students protesting today will be voting Republican by 2020, as many liberals grow up and become conservatives.

However, those that get brow-beaten and treated uncivility may be a little less likely to make the switch. While we hope that people will make their decisions based on logic and reason, human beings are still human beings. How many people do you know who will go into one Target Store and have a negative experience after which they will refuse to go to any one of thousands of Target retail outlets around the country? How many people will have a negative experience with one of several million ministers in the United States and then decide that all ministers are frauds and crooks, and furthermore the church is full of nothing but charlatans and simpletons?

The right tact to take rather than seeking to totally destroy liberal college students, is to recognize them for what they are: products of a Public School propoganda machine that has robbed and victimized them. The public school system of this country has taken children born in the freeest, strongest country in the world: a land of opportunity, a beacon to the oppressed peoples of the world, and made them believe that this country is a fraud and a shame. History is taught to point out all that America's done wrong, ignoring or overlooking what we've done right.

Because of this progranda, high school students leave school with a sense of despair about their country and thus become open to the influence of Globalists and other liberal utopian quacks who inhabit college campuses. This ought not to be! I know this country has its problems, but I see the great principles it was founded on and see something worth standing up for, something worth holding onto.

They are the victims of the propoganda machine which has robbed them of the ability to be a proud American. For that, they deserve our patient prayers, and a gentle hand, not the insulting treatment Rush provided today.

I had a good time at the Lincoln Day Dinner in Flathead County. Governor Judy Martz (R-MT) was supposed to speak at the event but opted against it due to the ongoing state legislative session. As such, we were treated to an evening with officials from the County and Tri-city planning board, as well as Secretary of State Bob Brown.

Now, as boring as that may sound to some people, it really wasn't. Both of the Planning Board folks made their work sound interesting and it is vital to the Flathead Valley's future, though I must say that one guy from the cities managed to be "about finished" for ten minutes.

Bob Brown was a simple but powerful spokesman for the Republican agenda, encouraging us that we are winning because of what the Democratic Party has become and providing a solid and constructive agenda for Republicans to improve our state.

Few men have impressed me more during my time of following Montana politics than Bob Brown. I've spent hours talking with him on the phone (and when I was in Eureka, I ran up quite a phone bill). Since I first met him in 1993, when he was a State Senator from Whitefish he's taken an interest in me and what I was doing in life. Unlike some political leaders, he understands the importance of getting young people involved in politics. Because of that care and interest, I have a lot of respect for Bob Brown.

He asked me and Jesse Mayhew (a current FVCC student) if we were going to speak. I said, "No." believing he was joking but later found that two young Republicans from Missoula had been allowed to. I could have spoken but I had nothing really to say tonight, so silence is better than empty words. After asking us about our lives and what we were doing, Brown put his hands on our shoulders and reminded us that we were the future.

As for the night itself, I was blessed to end up at a talkative table where I was drawn into the conversation and actually managed to contribute something.

Perhaps, the one thing that makes me nervous about my plans to be involved in public service is my tendency to become very shy in public occassions when I don't know my role. It's very easy to be friendly and outgoing at my wedding reception, or even church events. I know who I am and that I have a right to be approaching people. In the case of an event like the Lincoln Day Dinner, who am I and what am I doing are primary questions that fill my mind.

Of course, this might be because I'm an INFJ personality type . The "I" stands for introverted and I've learned that while some of the temperment stuff is inaccurate, that trait is definitely predominate. Those who see me in my comfort zones won't believe it but take me out of those places where I know what I'm supposed to be doing, I'm incredibly shy. How I overcome that, or use that to my advantage, I don't know but God-willing I'll find away.

Heard the President on the radio tonight while driving to the Lincoln Day dinner and later on when going to work to pick up my wife from the Lincoln Day dinner. I hadn't understand what Sean Hannity had meant when they described our President as "magnificient". After listening to the president on the radio, I understand better than I ever have before.

One thing I've noticed is that the President has slowed down. When he speaks, every word sounds well-thought out and well-considered, perhaps because they are. He understands the task that is before him, the risks involved and he's made a decision based on what he believes is right for America. Listening to the president, I trust that whatever decision he makes will be the right one.

I've notcied that the far left has attacked our president for having no respect for the world community. If that were the case, wouldn't Bush have gone to war by now? The Pentagon has been slowly pushing back it's war plan in the face of the UN's unappeasable appetite for appeasement. The UN's patience with Iraq despite lying about its possession of missles in its first report to them.

President Bush will not delay forever, however. President Bush understands the apporance of alliances and of the international community, but the President believes America is more important and will not see havoc reaked on this country because of the cowards at the United Nations.

At Service yesterday, the strangest thing happened (not to say that strange things don't generally happen at our service in general), the topic of Mr. Roger's death came up and the whole fellowship spent about 10-15 minutes talking about this wonderful man who just recently went to receive his reward. Fred Rogers from all accounts was the same person everywhere he went, full of mercy, love, and holiness. He'll truly be missed. On my big future parent to-do list is getting copies of his show for my children when I have them.

The hardest thing to do in these uncertain times is to keep faith. It seems as if our whole country is going crazy, the whole world in fact.

Sometimes, I look out on this world and on my country and wonder why I try to do anything in America's political process. It's all so hopeless messed up, so borken, it's fantastic to believe that America will ever be the Constitutional Republic it once was with limited government and a respect for decency and family.

I love America too much to stop, too much to not try, not to risk getting my brains beat in efforts that are doomed to failure. It's a role I have to play, that all freedom loving Americans have to play but no one says it's easy.

Did actually see "Signs" starring Mel Gibson on DVD and "enjoyed" some of the DVD's features such as the deleted scenes.

I found out why deleted scenes are deleted. There were a total of five such scenes:

1) A badly written piece of dialouge between Mel Gibson and his brother.

2) Two Flashbacks which really didn't further the plot.

3) A scene with a burnt dead bird on the ground which was actually better explained by some dialogue in the movie.

4) A scene where Gibson remembers dislocating his brother's arm. It made sense when he was remembering his children's birth but not this.

Conclusion: Scenes are killed mostly so we don't waste six minutes of our lives watching totally irrelevent things. And if we really want to, we can wait for the DVD.

Some updates. First, I added a poem about Rep. Dennis Kucinich. In addition, I've written several baseball columns and those can be found at the baseball page.

By the way, did you know that the term, "You're close-minded" is now synonymous with "You don't agree with me and that's just evil!"

If you read my guestbook , you'll see the following entry from Jerrod:

I think you need to get a life and allow everyone to watch you and criticize your efforts. Maybe then you will shut up before attacking someone who has done more for hurting people than your critical heart could ever fathom. You don't understand anything so why dont you shutup. People like you hurt men who try and give everything they can and stick there neck out to reach a multiple of differnt types of human beings. Carman teaches biblical truths in every way possible, not to just one close minded I-only-like-things-my-way people like yourself.

First, as to having some criticize my efforts, apparent Jerrod isn't aware that I do indeed have a little brother who knows everything, including the fact that my methods and manner of writing simply doesn't work. I appreciate the efforts of Carman. Indeed, if Jarrod would notice, I put Carman as my top link on the Christian Music page. I'm impressed with his giving free concerts (thought sadly it does appear from what I've seen on his website he has begun to charge again). I also remember seeing him on TBN, and after delivering a wonderful response telling the audience that if his singing blessed them to give God the glory. I think the only other artist I've ever seen do that is Ray Boltz.

My criticism of Carman is he's tried to be too many things to too many people. Should Twila Paris sing Christian Country-style music? Yes. Should Carman with his Eastern Italian accent attempt it? Sorry, Carman, I love you but it just doesn't work. As for Carman rapping? Um, yeah. My problems with rap music aside, he writes such wonderful rap lines as "the son of God pops no jive".

I do have some concerns about some things has done such as "The Champion" (the movie, not the song that I love). I'm sorry but I don't see that movie portraying any biblical truths. It was a remake of Rocky with a little Rambo mixed in. (I'm referring to the drug dealers that got blown up near the end.) Carman's lead character makes out with a woman who he's spent a grand total of 2 hours with in his entire life, while her son sits sleeping in the back seat. This is at best a questionable effort.

Carman has touched hearts and lives. I acknowledge that, but no mere man is above reproach. When I see things going on that I believe to be wrong, I'm obliged to let people know. Carman is a good brother in Christ, but he's not a god. Sadly many commit idolatry by elevating ministers and singers to such heights that any criticism receives a harsh response.

Doubtless, other people will be offended that I included a link to Carman's site at all. Still others will find fault with the fact that I write a baseball column. That's one thing about my site, there's something to offend everyone. :)

Long time, no post. Here are some updates.

1) More columns on the Baseball page

2) I wrote a recent article examining polling on the abortion issue and you can read it here.

3) For those of you following the Don Cyphers story, I do have an update. You can read about it here.

4) I have purchased copies of both the Writers Market 2003 and the Christian Writer's Market 2003. Hopefully, I'll get published somewhere other than Fanstop.com. I love the site, but I need to branch out.

5) I'm currently working on a novel as well as Genesis 2: Dysfunctional Families of the Bible. I'm 12 Chapters into the novel and about half-way through the class. Of course, the former is more fun and I find myself wanting to work on it rather than the class. Of course, for some reason, I feel more morally obligated to finish writing the class. It suffices to say, that once Genesis 2 is finished, that I won't be writing anymore classes for a little while anyway.