Rylee and Heather at Turner Field

Braves
Originally uploaded by sbarkley.

This has been awhile, but I pretty much had a Braves weekend earlier this season. On a Saturday we went with my brother and his wife, Heather, who is holding Rylee here. The next day I caught a day game with Amy's brother and dad. Both games were wins over the Cardinals.

Universities tolerant of all viewpoints, except Christian

Though I've never been to a Promise Keepers meeting myself, it doesn't seem that an organization devoted to drawing men to take care of their familes would give anyone a problem. That's not the case, though, for groups opposed to PK.

Evidently, the notion of having a rally at a state university is just too much diversity for those with no tolerance for this group's message. Note the comments of the Promise Keepers rep: "If you're going to be an open organization, and if you're going to invite in a diversity of opinions, Christianity, certainly, gets a seat at the table." Preach it, brother.

In promoting diversity and tolerance, those doing so typically say others opposing are afraid of change and what might be presented could shake the normal way of thinking. Perhaps. What if men started taking the PK message more to heart and became more involved in their familes? What would happen if husbands and fathers invested more time in their wives and children?

Maybe tolerance/diversity people are right in this case, even if they didn't mean to be. Too bad they follow their own logic only when it suits them.

No way dude! Petra's retiring!

Deciding to not take a page from the Stones and instead call it a career, the members of Petra have decided to retire. Back in the day, this was the first band I listened to that made me realize I wouldn't go to hell just because I liked hard music. Guitarist Bob Hartley is still the man. My personal favorite album? Beyond Belief.

Interesting that when they first came on the scene Christian bookstores wouldn't even carry their music. Now it's a multimillion dollar business. Third Day, Switchfoot, P.O.D -- they all owe a big chunk of their success to Petra.

San Francisco losing its families

An interesting article. It seems there are fewer and fewer mom/dad/kids families in San Fran. It's at the point that the mayor has put finding a solution at the top of his agenda.

Some random thoughts ...

Wow, it's been longer than I meant to be since my last post. I've been really busy writing at work for the paper. Wednesday was the worst commute of my entire life. Truly, I hope the guy who drove the dump truck full of gravel on 285 is okay, that way a thousand fleas can invade his armpits.

Two hours and forty-five minutes -- that's how long it took me to make a drive that normally is about an hour. At one point I really started wondering if I might as well turn around and go back to the building, crash on a couch and be there for work in the morning. In the time it took me to get home I could have watched an entire baseball game. That's nearly three hours of 24. It's almost a couple of Back to the Future movies.

Thankfully, the next two days weren't that bad. Tonight, Amy, Rylee and I had steak and chicken fajitas here and went to Brusters for ice cream. Good stuff.

For any of you aspiring journalists out there, here's some places for you to go for tips on how to get better. Poynter and Bob Baker's Newsthinking have already given me some tools to use.

Wondered what it might be like to be persecuted?

Unless you hop a plane to Somalia or China, it's likely you won't experience true persecution as a Chrisitan in the U.S. However, if you want a taste that gets a little closer, but still not being the real thing, that opportunity is now there for you with this group offering persecution experiences.

Teacher fired for using religious music

This kind of hits close to home. I got in a debate one time with a friend/coworker (who was also an athiest) who was upset over music with Christian overtones being used at a school function. His stance was that no religious references of any kind should have been used, mine was that we live in a Judeo-Christian area of the world. The song choice reflected the culture. If I were living in Utah, I would expect references to Joseph Smith, in the Middle East, to Muhammed.

NC Pastor resigns following political remarks

This was a quick way to put a stop to the media attention given this story. There's a fine line here people are talking about: Should the church have any involvement in politics, and if so, where is the line to come to a stop?

I have no doubt this guy crossed the line in what he said from the pulpit. He messed up when he singled out John Kerry and those who supported the Democratic candidate. The final meeting where he resigned had several tense moments. Read here and scroll about halfway down to get pretty much a play by play on it.

At the same time that people are coming down on this guy, though, for his comments, I wonder what they would say to the German churches who said nothing during the rise of the Nazis. At some point leaders of faith do have to take a stand on their precepts, even in political matters if topics of morality are being discussed.

Carolina church in hot water

Oh boy. This was bound to happen sooner or later. One side says they were forced out because they areDemocrats (actually, one is a Rebublican) while the other is saying they're just stating that Christians should vote according to the Bible.

Problems with Vonage

You've seen the commercials, right? "People do stupid things, like pay too much for phone service." Well, we tried to go the Vonage route and save a little on our phone bill. We're trying to cut corners, and one of those areas we looked at was our phone bill. There was even a time when we considered dong away with our regular phone and going all cell, both my Amy and I have phones of our own. The problem with that, though, is we get bad reception at our house, so that was a no go.
Amy thought she had it figured out with this Vonage thing. For those of you who don't know, this is a phone setup through the Interet; you just have to have high-speed access, which we do.
As with everything electrical, things didn't go as smoothly as it should have. I hooked everything up right according to the idiotproof CD that came in the box, but no dial tone. I placed a call to a guy from India. Due to the fact that I was talking in Southern English dialect on a cell with bad reception and he was speaking in a heavy Indian accent, we basically had to say everything at least twice to be understood. He went through several steps with me on checking my connection, often going back to the phone to check for a dial tone, but nothing happened.
I could tell he was getting frustrated. At times he would place me on hold to talk to a "supervisor," but I could only imagine him talking to a coworker about this moronic American who probably didn't even have the computer plugged in ("Jabir, I am telleeng you, Theees maan ish shtoopid! I keep telleeng heem and telleeng heem but eet ees no good!")
After nearly an hour, he tells me I will be connected to a "Level 2 supervisor." About 30 seconds after that, while on hold, the line goes dead. I look at the phone and see no bars. Remember, bad cell and bad reception. Perfect.
I decide to try again Monday night at around 8:00. This time I get a gal (Indian, but a little easier to understand) who simply decides defeat won't be an option after I explain my first bout with the Vonage box. Oh, she had no idea.
About an hour later, we're still trying to figure out why I can't get a dial tone. We've checked everything, and I'm panicking because 24 is about to come on and I've got to see how Jack Bauer is going to keep a nuclear warhead from going off. I am told once again I'll be connected to the mysterious "Level 2 supervisor," but after about 10 minutes on hold and Jack preparing to storm a Chinese emabassy, I put priorities in order and hang up.
There you have it. Staying up to date on the happenings of a fictional show is more important to me than saving money on my phone.

The worst place on Earth

North Korea is a place that we all have very good reason to believe is as close to hell as we can imagine. The only reason we don't know the extent of its misery for sure is that Kim Jong-il won't let anyone have a look inside. This guy, referred to as "the Gargoyle" by Neal Boortz (I like that) is the ruler of what has basically become a slave state, according to the writer of this article
Call it the macabre side of me, but I've been fascinated with rulers of a country who can oversee the systymatic torture and murder of its citizens. I've read up a little about Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot in this regard. We've heard the stories about Sadaam and guys like Idi Amin. To have the conscience that allows one to place an entire country under their despotic thumb and force servitude, or outright kill 'em if they pose a threat, is something that's gone on for a long time, and I can't figure out why that is so.
I remember the stories for the 90s on North Koreans starving in large numbers. Check out what the author of this piece says he was given to eat on a tour of the country as a "privileged guest." The most fascinating thing here, though, may by the nighttime sattelite picture of the Korean peninsula. It speaks the truth not only literally but figuratively.