The 30 Day Challenge

Nancy Leigh DeMoss is one of my favorite podcasts. She is like your favorite Sunday School Teacher, and though the program is supposedly for women only, she has many male listeners.

Her 30 day challenge is designed for women who have problem marriages or those whose marriage has lost its luster.

Here are the rules...

1) For 30 days not a single negative word leaves your lips concerning your husband. You say nothing negative about your husband to your friends, your family... or to your husband.

2) Every day, for thirty days, you think of something positive or something you admire about your husband... And you tell a friend or family member... And you tell your husband.

That's pretty much it. I've really enjoyed listening to the women's comments, the most common of which is that they didn't realize how negative and un-encouraging they'd been until they took the Challenge. Their husbands reactions were varied, but all positive.

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The Weekly Chan

Bauer Still in Hiding

Indiana Democratic House Minority Leader and owner of the worst hairpiece known to man, Patrick Bauer, is still hiding in an undisclosed Illinois town (Urbana).

If you have seen this man, and can stop laughing, please call the Indiana State House and report your location (in Urbana).

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Why Collective Barganing Doesn't Work for Government Employees

On Fox News today I heard an excellent reason why state and federal employees shouldn't be represented by unions. I wish I could credit the guy by name, but I didn't catch it.

He said that government employees have a monopoly on services... That if Chrysler had a strike, he could purchase a car from Toyota... But if government employees strike, there is nowhere else to go for services.

When teachers unionize... Or air-traffic controllers... Or city workers that remove snow from the streets... The threat of a strike takes on a dimension that is not seen in the world of competition. Unionized employees in the private sector are limited by supply and demand, prices, and competition. But government workers have no competition... The public that hires them is basically at the mercy of the unions.

If you choose to work for the government, whether it's the military, or teaching, or the county road crew, you should give up the right to collectively bargain... Or look elsewhere for work.

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The Worst Best Pictures

MSN is my Home Page on the Internet, and they regularly feature fragments of trivia and tripe from the popular culture. Today they featured what one of their writers concluded were the worst of the celebrated Best Pictures from Hollywood.

They tarred and feathered Chicago, Shakespeare In Love, A Beautiful Mind... And I totally agree that they were terrible. But the writer also took a swipe at Driving Miss Daisy, The English Patient, Rain Man, and Out of Africa... All of which I've seen more than once, and would enjoy seeing again in the future.

As you know I'm almost never critical... But I've decided to come up with a list of Celebrated Movies that Totally Suck. The movie Chicago won't make the list, because I will only include movies I was able to sit all the way through.

10. A Fish Called Wanda... It's a wonderful thing when a great cast gets together, but if the story isn't worth telling? But that didn't stop the Academy from nominating it for best original screenplay.

9. The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover... Bo-Ring! Helen Mirren couldn't save this waste of film. But the thing actually won some awards.

8. Mullholland Drive... Watching this movie was a painful and disappointing experience because I kept expecting it to turn into something clever. Turns out it had no more continuity, at least in reality, than a dream you might have after eating too much Italian food. David Lynch was Nominated Best Director.

7. Ghandi... "They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me, then they will have my dead body." I wanted a crack at that after wasting my time watching this movie. It won 8 Academy Awards and stole the the Best Actor Award from Paul Newman in The Verdict. I figure the film won awards because the man Ghandi is one of The Left's favorite Jesus substitutes.

6. The Piano... Nominated for Best Picture... In the two hours I wasted watching this movie, the only thing that captured my imagination was Holly Hunter sitting naked on the bed.

5. Gangs of New York... Nominated for Best Picture. I do not cozy up to films in which I despise every character. By the end of the movie you sort of wished everybody would die so the movie could be over.

4. American Beauty... Won Best Picture. Oh really? As I recall, this picture had latent homosexuality, masturbation, murder, teen nudity, drugs, and pedophilia as its redeeming qualities. No wonder it won.

3. Shakespeare In Love... Won best picture. I thought this movie was a complete bore, and I figure it won because it showed one of Gwyneth Paltrow's nipples. It's sad, because it beat out another, much better movie, the nippleless Saving Private Ryan.

2. Pulp Fiction... Nominated for Best Picture. Again, a movie full of unlikable characters that you wish would just go away. A pitiful, disjointed plot.

1. Midnight Cowboy... Won Best Picture 1969. With the rise of television, in the 50's and 60's the movies didn't really know what to do with themselves. Midnight Cowboy represents that era perfectly. I watched the movie, and I just didn't care.

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What a Difference a Mob Makes

In Wisconsin Democrat Legislators are somewhere in hiding as AWOL teachers occupy the state house. The Democrat National Committee is helping organize the show and is shipping in AFL-CIO strong-arm guys and other union thugs to support them... All in an effort to overturn the election of 2010 and thwart the will of Wisconsin voters.

Rather than accept Wisconsin's budget realities and accept a benefits package like those in the real world... Like yours and mine... The teachers and their union would prefer that Wisconsin would raise taxes on people like you and me, so that teacher pay and benefits can remain better than yours and mine.

I just feel bad for the children... Home from school... Think of all the liberal indoctrination that they're missing out on.

Funny... The Tea Party groups never shut down a single school... They never occupied a state house... They met peacefully... No rent-a-mobs were employed... And yet they were characterized as dangerous, hateful, and racist. Obviously they just weren't doing it right... Maybe they need "thug lessons" from the Democrat Party.

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Serena Branson Appears to Suffer Mini-Stroke on Camera




This is hard to watch because I've seen my mother do this several times. In Mom's case, it is generally a kind of seizure that effects her speech for a period of time. But Ms Branson may have had a stroke, or TIA... Sometimes referred to as a mini-stroke. She has since said that her face and arm were feeling numb at the time of the event.

The sad thing is this... I looked on YouTube for the video, and most of the posts were video-taped from a television set and was accompanied by young people laughing. I suppose if you're young and ignorant, this is funny.

I understand that Ms Branson's mother persuaded her to see a neurologist and hopefully the cause has been diagnosed and treated.

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The Anticipatory Mood

Today the temperature in north-central Indiana crept above the 60 degree mark, which though not terribly unusual for this time of year... After the winter we've had - it feels like a freaking miracle. The despised and hated snow is going away.

Everyone is in a better mood, too... They are anticipating spring.

Soon there will be days in the high 60's and 70's... There will be sunshine and hammocks and Kindles... There will be girls in revealing outfits... There will be gardening... The scent of new-mown grass... the aroma of grilling meat... Longer days...

But today it's just an anticipatory mood...

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CBS Reporter Lara Logan Suffers Beating, and Sustained Sexual Assault

First of all, the New York Post is quoting an unnamed source that the attack was not a rape. As soon as I read that I felt a little less nauseous. Hope it's true. The attack in downtown Cairo lasted 20-30 minutes, and was stopped by a group of women and the Egyptian Army.

I'm not sure how it happened, but I can certainly figure out why it happened...

This very beautiful woman had no business reporting inside a mob of men who think she is trash and fair game because they are Muslim and she is an infidel.

Long ago a very pretty woman, a Christian friend of mine told me that she wanted to do prison ministry. I begged her not to, questioning her safety... And I told her that when the inmates were with her, they wouldn't be thinking about Jesus.

I feel bad for Lara Logan and her family. But I can't help wondering, "What was she thinking?" What was CBS thinking?

It's not right. Pretty girls should be safe. But you have to consider reality once in a while... and use a little common sense.

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Father TV

I believe it could be reasonably argued that when Satan captured Hollywood, much of the American Church was appropriated at the same time. Ozzie and Harriet... meet Will and Grace.

But that's not what I'm concerned about right now. Right now I'm concerned about America's regional accents.

We used to be a country of regions, with rich and varied accents and dialects. Television has changed much of that. Children are not raised by families and communities any more... They are raised by networks. Networks all sound the same, and children will naturally speak like the controlling authorities that raise them.

Some day in the not-so-distant future, no one will sound like a slack-jawed inbred from Stinking Creek, Tennessee. How poorer for it we will all be.

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It's About the White Woman

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) took to the House floor Tuesday night to criticize what she called a "demeaning" Pepsi ad that aired during the Super Bowl.

"In this month of African-American history where we're trying to celebrate what is good and great, it certainly seems ridiculous that Pepsi would utilize this kind of humor," she said. "It was not humorous. It was demeaning — an African-American woman throwing something at an African-American male and winding up hitting a Caucasian woman."




Let us cut through the crap for a moment and admit that if the cute jogger had been an African American woman... There would be no problem.

I would wager my retirement fund that when this commercial aired in homes across America, many black women cheered when the white girl got creamed... And phrases were uttered like, "Teach her to flirt with our men!"

So I agree with Rep Sheila Jackson Lee that the commercial was unfortunate... Because many black women are angry that for some black men, a white woman is a status symbol, a prize... the preferred companion... this sexualized culture's predominant symbol of beauty.

I believe the commercial was funny, but insensitive... And there would be no issue if the jogger hadn't been a cute little blond.

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The Winter from Hell

As you know, I've never been one to complain. I am the embodiment of optimism, the personification of buoyancy, and the very incarnation of good cheer. I laugh at hardship, I snicker at adversity...

But after the snow and the ice that we so recently endured, today we suffered another 5 or 6 inches of snow as Mother Nature lifted her skirt, dropped her panties, and took a huge dump on central Indiana. That bitch!

But spring will come... And my fancy will lightly turn to thoughts of love... And serious gardening. I will mow... I will till and sow... I will flirt with the comely widow across the street... Who has thus far only shown interest in my tomatoes. I will flourish... I will thrive... Unless current atmospheric burdens cause me to go postal and expunge all life from my neighborhood...

Ah... The sweet uncertainty....

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Dodging the Bullet

The Great Tuesday Night Storm created no power outages in our part of Indiana. All evening long the Doppler radar showed us to be right along the line separating rain from snow. I learned that this area evidently delivers only tons of dry sleet. So... our power lines, our trees were not coated with freezing rain, and remained intact.

Answered prayer.

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Forecast: Ice and Misery

There is a very good chance I will have no electricity in the morning. No phone, no lights, no motorcar, not a single luxury...Like Robinson Carusoe, Primitive as can be.

I do not fear the cold. I do not fear a lack of bathing and hot food. I have three toilets so it will take a few days to fill them... It's a little disgusting, but no fear is involved.

I fear the boredom. No Internet. No computer games. No TV. Just crappy radio until my batteries give out.

And, my blind 89 year-old father is not cooperating. I wanted to get his kerosene heater ready to go... Just in case... He said no. I went to town and purchased batteries for his radio... As I was installing them he went out onto the ice to get his mail... with no hat on. Geez.

So this may be good-bye. I may go outside in the freezing rain and slowly become frozen and immobile... Just like the Tin Man. Oh crap.

Remember me fondly. I was a good man... A Godly man. I was a man of peace and good will... If not crossed.

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