In God’s Country

Right now I am totally having a blast w/ itunes and the whole prospect of organizing my music and copying the album cover art.  I have it playing on random and when it gets to a song w/o album cover art I go to Amazon and copy the album cover art and paste it into the itunes song.  So nerdy but so much fun to see all the cool album covers.  Oh, and I am very proud that I have now over 1,000 songs in my itunes library.

Because I have moved from one part of the country to another, I have noticed the particular displays of wealth and status for the Southern California area. Sure, folks out here like to show off their beautiful homes, big cars, fashionable clothes, and cool stuff. Lot’s of really white teeth and dyed hair and hip sunglasses.

It’s hard not to get sucked into it. For example, I drive a truck that I really love and of which I am convinced God gave to me. But Southern Californians really love their trucks – big, bad and custom. I must admit, I have developed a slight case of truck envy.

But how could I give up the truck God gave me so that I can look cooler and haul more stuff? I don’t think it is supposed to work that way. In fact, Jesus says that we shouldn’t think another minute of the “things of this world” but that we should set our heart on his kingdom first and then all other things will fall into place.

I am thinking how to help my sixteen year old daughter figure this out when she moves out here in a few months. I want to tell her not to compete – partly because I can’t compete with all the resources that wealthier parents obviously lavish on their children. And that treatmnet the children grow to expect.

I want to communicate how confidence in who you are in Jesus is what is most satisfying to life. I anticipate that will be a difficult message to deliver.

This year’s American Idol Champion will be Katherine McPhee.  She blows everyone else away.

The male runner up will be Chris Daughtry. He has super talent.

Now Chris might win the championship if Katherine McPhee has a bad night.  It could happen, but she is totally solid.

The runners up will be Paris Bennett and Taylor Hicks.  I do like Mandisa and Elliott, but they won’t get it done.

Just thought I’d post my picks now.

Let’s hear it for the USDA and the Alabama Department of Agriculture!  They have successfully isolated a cow with mad cow disease!
The news seems to be reporting this as something with which to be concerned.  But I think it is a thing to be celebrated.  It shows that the system works.  An infection was identified and no other cows seem to have been infected or affected.  Furthermore, no one ate the mad cow’s infected flesh and became mad people.

This is the same type of success that has occurred over the Abramoff and Duke Cunningham scandals.  In those cases, the Justice Department acted on information and successfully pursued individuals who subsequently confessed to their guilt.   These too are success stories.  They are not deficits of our ethics laws or enforcement agencies.

It’s funny to me that when things work, people get upset.  I think those who have been critical of politicians and lobbyists because of a few unethical individuals – who, by the way, have plead guilty and are going to jail – would rather make sure that there is no possiblity of unethical behavior.  But how do you write laws or regulations to keep people ethical?

When scanals erupt, people want something to be done.  I recently received a call by a fellow asking what the state legislator I work for was going to do to address political corruption.  I told him that my boss couldn’t do anything about the unethical behavior among federal officials and asked him if anything was lacking in our state regarding ethics.  He said he knew of none but that “something should be done.”

The good news is that whether it’s mad cows or mad politicians, things have already been done