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Thursday, November 30, 2006

The Power of Words.

















"I meant what I said and I said what I meant; an elephant's faithful, 100 percent" (Horton the Elephant).

I happen to believe in the power of words. They can both hurt and heal.

"Stick and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me."

Baloney! Whoever thought that up wasn't 6'4" and 90 lbs. soaking wet in Jr. High. words can hurt.

That's why I think the use of the right words is so important - words that mean something.

With that in mind, I point you to this article on doublespeak - the kind of use of wods that politicians can tend to use; words that say something but have no meaning. Check out this article by Calvin Woodward of the AP (see the full article HERE):

In Washington, words are a moving target that conceal at least as much as they reveal. Doublespeak runs through the discourse on Iraq, terrorism and domestic matters to a point where it's hard to tell what is going on.

"By corrupting the language, the people who wield power are able to fool the others about their activities and evade responsibility and accountability," Cato's Timothy Lynch argues in his polemic against doublespeak - an outgrowth of the doublethink and newspeak of George Orwell's "1984."

But nefarious "War is Peace" Orwellianisms are not the only impulse at work, by a long shot.

Some of Washington's bland euphemisms are calculated mainly not to offend. Just as Dead End signs have been replaced in some communities by No Outlet ones, congressional oversight investigators tend these days to find "challenges" in the behavior of agencies, as they politely put it, and not quite so many "problems" - how rude.

Democrats will go to the wall in defense of abortion rights without uttering that unpleasant word, abortion. Instead, they are champions of "choice" or, in a less guarded moment, "reproductive choice." (The cause is advocated by progressives, formerly liberals.)

The wish to be technically accurate was behind the decision of the Agriculture Department this year to squeeze "hunger" out of the equation when considering how many people go hungry.

Hunger, in the words of advisers whose recommendations were accepted by the department, is "an individual-level physiological condition that may result from food insecurity."

The department reasoned it cannot truly measure hunger because it surveys households, and households do not get hungry - people do.

The terms "low food security" and "very low food security" replaced the old descriptions of "food insecurity without hunger" and "food insecurity with hunger."
How about this for an idea: "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one" (Matthew 25:37).

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Sorry it's been so long...

...but I've been slammed at work ('tis the season).

Here's a little something from the folks at The Church You Know.



See the rest of their videos at www.thechurchyouknow.com. I would recommend "Attendance" and "WWJD" for sure.

And if you've ogt some money burning a hole in your pocket, check out the TCYK store, where you can buy the Wally the Worship Leader/Pete the Praise Pirate Android. According to the good folks at TCYK, "Where there's a Wally, there's a way to worship." They also correctly note that kids love pirate-led worship.

That's what inspired me to become a worship leader when I was but a wee lad... a worshipping pirate.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

You asked for it!

I've been asked to post the videos we used for announcements the past three weeks.

Here they are...

The Governator


Ross Perot


Gone in 60 Seconds

Friday, November 10, 2006

Whew...





Ever go to a conference and get rocked so much that you feel like you've been in a fight with Mike Tyson - only both your ears are intact when you're done? That's what the Drive Conference was like for me.

Check out Mark Waltz and Tony Morgan's blogs for their great posts on the sessions:


I wanted to do some mroe live-blogging, but I was getting a spotty wireless signal at North Point. Oh well, Mark and Tony did a great job.

Oh yeah... I got to meet Mark and Tony, too. That was pretty cool. I wish I had been awake - I was pretty strung out on the whole east coast-west coast time thing. I doubt I made a very good impression - and I would have liked to have hung out more - but it was nice to meet the guys in person.

It was also great to see my friends Julie, Sandy, Bill, and Tyler from North Point (and Buckhead and Brown's Bridge).

Whew... It's good to be home.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Argentinean Dinner


























Oh my... what a dinner. We found a restaurant last night for dinner called Pampas. They feature authentic Argentinean cuisine and utilize the traditional method of grilling a la parilla over a bank of oak wood and hot coals. It was really phenomenal.

The service was wonderful, the food was unbelievable, and the bathrooms were extremely celan and nice! All in all it was a 10!

Here's what we ate...

Appetizers:
  • Empanadas Pampas (traditional beef, ham & cheese, chicken, and corn & cheese)
  • Mariscos Fritos (fired calamari and rock shrimp in Pampas criolla sauce)

Entree:
  • Costilla (22 oz. bone-in ribeye steak) with grilled onions

Sides:
  • Esparragos (grilled spinach)
  • Crema de Choclo (creamed corn)
  • Batatas Fritas (fried sweet potatoes)

Dessert:
  • Molten Chocolate Cake

More Drive Bloggers

Just found some more people blogging here at the Drive Conference...

Live Blogging from the Drive Conference #1















Andy Stanley is amazing. This morning he is talking about the importance of addressing "systems" in "fixing" issues in the church (or anything). WOW!

Last might it was about making the gospel accessible to the lost - keeping the rungs at the bottom of the ladder (cf. The Coucil at Jerusalem - Acts 17:19 "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God").

Other people blogging from the conference:

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Drive!





No, it's not another post about Fancy Parking. I'm headed out in the morning to the Drive Conference in the ATL.

I hope to do some live blogging from the conference (as opposed to dead blogging).

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Incredible Fishing Video!

I like to fish. In fact, the oldest blonde boy and I fish just about every year when we go camping. We suck... we don't really know what we are doing... but in spite of all that, we catch a fish once in a while.

These guys... they are in a league of their own. Don't miss the very end of the video!



HT: A Time for Shenanigans

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Halloween Fun

Another Halloween is in the bag...