Amazon.com Best Sellers in Music June 26, 2009 10AM
I listed the top 15, click to enlarge or just go directly to the site.
Could this be a bit of an economic stimulus?
1 comment June 26th, 2009
Archive for June 26th, 2009
Does God answer prayers to do someone ill?
Ever since Pastor Wiley Drake declared not once, but three times, on national radio that he was praying for the death of President Obama, he has been trying to clarify.
Yes, he really does want God to smite Obama. No, it’s not a partisan prayer. Yes, it’s in the Bible, he says, and no, he wasn’t kidding. He’s deadly serious.
The former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention said he’s merely practicing the age-old art of “imprecatory prayer”—a theological term for praying that bad things happen to bad people.
Imprecatory prayer can turn a verse into curse through reciting Scripture aimed at one’s foes. Rather than asking for, say, healing or a win in the big game, these prayers request that God smite one’s enemies with—among other things—plagues, death and eternal damnation.
“That doesn’t mean I spend every waking hour praying for the death of the president,” said Drake, who leads Buena Park Southern Baptist Church, near Anaheim, Calif. “Of our prayers, 98 percent should be good prayers and 2 percent should be imprecatory.”
Though Scripture says Jesus told his followers to love their enemies and pray for them, the Bible also depicts King David pleading with God to vanquish his adversaries. While famed Christian apologist C.S. Lewis found such imprecatory psalms distasteful and “devilish,” even he could not deny their existence.
Derided by some as a bad Judeo-Christian imitation of voodoo, the literal practice of imprecatory prayer has some newfound fans.
I wonder how these words from Jesus fits into all of this:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Add comment June 26th, 2009
He’s Looking For A Goddess
Finding My Goddess
Smart, Sexy, Spiritual Goddess Desired for Awesome Relationship with Extraordinary Man.
One Gentleman’s Quest to Find His Goddess.
Are YOU a Woman Who Has Most of the Extensive Goddess-Qualifications?
Hi. I’m Mark. Thanks for visiting my web site.
I’m looking for a true Goddess for life-long intimate relationship and awesome marriage. She is HIGHLY intelligent, VERY sexy, and DEEPLY spiritual.
Read more about his quest here: www.findingmygoddess.com
This man has a lot to say, I mean the guy wrote quite a bit, but his piece towards the end caught my attention:
May each woman who replies to this ad be PERMANENTLY surrounded by Angels of God and a Shield of Light that admits only Light, Love, Beauty, Joy, Wisdom, Truth, and Divinity into her body, mind, heart and soul, and that reflects back and ABSOLUTELY PROTECTS her from anything that is not of God regardless of how “well intended” or “spiritual” or “common sensical” its source may appear to be.
Add comment June 26th, 2009
Online Missionaries Needed
Seeking spiritual guidance through search engines is so popular these days that a legion of online missionaries is being assembled in Orlando to answer the cyber-prayers.
Global Media Outreach — a ministry of Orlando-based Campus Crusade for Christ International — has formed a partnership with Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood to recruit and train 5,000 online missionaries by 2010.
“We are overwhelmed. We don’t have enough online missionaries to handle what we are getting now — which is a wonderful problem,” said the Rev. Allan Beeber, Orlando director of Global Media.
Global Media has more than 90 Web sites aimed at search-engine seekers of God. Type in a query about Jesus, and WhoIsJesus-Re ally.com shows up in the results. Type in a question about God’s existence and Jesus2020.com shows up as a sponsored link. There are religion-based Web sites for teenagers, Marines, soccer players, Boston Red Sox fans, and The DaVinci Code.
At the bottom of each Web site is a feedback form that asks for names, e-mail addresses and a space for comments and questions. About 30,000 people a day fill out that form and press the send button, Beeber said.
Those contacts and comments are forwarded to one of the Global Media’s 2,900 online missionaries trained to answer questions of faith — or refer to someone who can.
What I cut and pasted above is actually from two different sections of the article, so it might not read well together, but then again, it might. Either way, I just wanted to provide you with what I considered the meatiest part of the article.
On second thought, Carolyn from Boston is an avid reader who is a vegetarian, so that comment could be taken the wrong way. Sorry, Carolyn.
Add comment June 26th, 2009
Flapjack Fiasco
Layers from bottom to top: pancake; cookie dough; pancake; peanut butter and jelly; pancake; chocolate and bananas; pancake; caramel, oreo, marshmallow, sprinkles, M&M’s; pancake; caramel buttercream frosting granished with Trix cereal.
(submitted by Caroline Smith and Tamara Coger)
1 comment June 26th, 2009
Dog With Born With No Eyes Can Play Catch
Add comment June 26th, 2009
Ralph Reed Launches New Values Group: ‘Not Your Daddy’s Christian Coalition’
Ralph Reed, the Republican operative who built the Christian Coalition into a potent political force in the 1990s by mobilizing evangelicals and other religious conservatives and who did similar work to help George W. Bush win two presidential elections, is quietly launching a group aimed at using the Web to mobilize a new generation of values voters. In addition to targeting the GOP’s traditional faith-based allies—white evangelicals and observant Catholics—the group, called the Faith and Freedom Coalition, will reach out to Democratic-leaning constituencies, including Hispanics, blacks, young people, and women.
“This is not your daddy’s Christian Coalition,” Reed said in an interview Monday. “It’s got to be more brown, more black, more female, and younger. It’s critical that we open the door wide and let them know if they share our values and believe in the principles of faith and marriage and family, they’re welcome.”
“There’s a whole rising generation of young leaders in the faith community, and rather than nab the publicity I did at Christian Coalition, I want to cultivate and train that rising generation,” Reed said. “One question is, who is our future Barack Obama, doing local organizing just like he was in the 1990s?”
I was a little fascinated with this part:
The Faith and Freedom Coalition has been quietly active for a few weeks but has attracted no news media notice so far. Reed said that was intentional: “We’re less focused on the pyrotechnics than on being a strong grass-roots presence all the way down to the precinct level, which has always been my emphasis.”
The timing worked out well for not attracting a lot of attention, with the events of the South Carolina governor and all.
Add comment June 26th, 2009
The 100 Most Influential Taglines Since 1948
More than 400 nominated taglines and jingles were sent to 100 advertising, marketing, and branding professionals on both the client and agency side.
The survey was restricted to taglines and jingles created after 1948 (the advent of commercial broadcast TV).
Informants were asked to rank their top 10 taglines and top 3 jingles based on the following branding criteria:
* Longevity: Have they endured the test of time?
* Equity: Have they become synonymous with a company or product?
* Portability & Memorability: Have they exercised an influence on our culture, media, and language?
* Originality: Have they broken new ground in the advertising industry?
Nominated taglines and jingles were given a weighted ranking based on the number of votes they received and the rank they were assigned.
Here’s the bottom five:
96. Did somebody say McDonald’s? (1997)
McDonald’s
97. Ring around the collar. (1968)
Wisk Laundry Detergent
98. It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile… (1980s)
Oldsmobile
99. The toughest job you’ll ever love. (1970s)
U.S. Peace Corps
100. Share moments. Share life. (1990s)
Kodak
Add comment June 26th, 2009
Bag of Randomness
- I mentioned yesterday that I booked a dental appointment because of the offer of four free teeth whitening sessions with a regular appointment while I was at the health fair at work. Normally I don’t do these sort of things, but since I need a dental checkup and I really don’t like my dentist all that much, I decided what the heck since their office wasn’t that far from where I work. Well, I decided to do a little research.
- The dental office is one of those contemporary eco-friendly places. No paper is used in the office, everything is kept digitally, and everything is energy efficient from light bulbs to computers. Oh, and toothbrushes are made from recycled yogurt containers.
- They offer free Wi-Fi, which doesn’t really wow me, but each patient chair or whatever you call them, or maybe it’s each room, comes with an iPod dock and a customizable play list. This makes me want to find out what kind of music the dentist can’t stand and select all those songs, but on second thought, she has the ability to inflict pain, so I better be careful.
- A Mac bar is located in the lobby and Snuggies are provided if you get cold.
- Snacks are organic and locally grown. I never been much for eating right before a dentist, because Mom always told me to brush my teeth before going there. Now that I think about it, that doesn’t really make a lot of sense, they are going to clean my teeth anyways.
- And the place looks ultra-modern, which is going to leave this bubba from Mineral Wells feeling a little out of place. Feel free to read a little more about it here.
- My sister called from Vietnam while I was at work. Isn’t it just amazing, when you really think about it, that someone on the opposite end of the Earth can have a real time conversation with you using a device about the size of a deck of cards you carry around in your pocket? When you think about how far we have come regarding technology, it’s funny how often we complain.
- I think Obama was smart to hold comment regarding the Iranian election. Ahmadinejad yesterday states that the the U.S. should not interfere with their elections. When all the protests started and were growing in number, it all happened with no comment from Obama, and the Iranian leaders couldn’t blame any outsiders for rallying the protesters since it all started from within – so the revolt is a direct cause of their own people, not some outsider. By Obama has now since made a statement about the election, and now the Iranian leadership is diverting attention to us rather than the protests.
- Bill Nye Explains: The iPhone 3GS’s Oleophobic Screen
- Kayak.com and Bing.com sure do look similar
- The other day WifeGeeding and I checked out one of those The Art of Shaving stores in the mall just for the heck of it and learned a few new things. For instance, a straight edge razor will last a man for a lifetime. And the cheapest disposable razor to use is a safety razor since the replacement blades are cheapest.
- But the safety razor doesn’t really look that safe.
- Normally when I shave, I fill the bottom of the sink up with hot water to rinse off my razor. Some people just rinse the razor off under a running faucet, but that never really gets all the hair out when I try it. I told the store representative that I rinse my razor out with warm water, and he said I should rinse it out with cold water to maximize the sharpness of the blade. That is, when the blade is cold, molecules are closer together and the blade is sharper. When the blade is warm, the metal is expanded and is not as sharp. But of course, use warm water to wet your face.
- I caught a Texas Country Reporter episode recently, haven’t seen an episode in years. It really is a great show that features the best of Texas. Little known fact, but the host of the show was on the very first Southwest Airlines flight.
- In 1998 they just didn’t have the heart to break it to Elivs Grbac: The Sad, Hilarious Tale Of Elvis Grbac, 1998’s “Sexiest Athlete Alive”
- This is the only picture I have seen of Kenny Baker inside R2D2. I never really thought of it before, but after looking at that picture I perfectly understand some of the movements of that droid.
- I have to give T.O. credit for showing up at his football camp in the area even though he no longer plays or lives here.
- Letterman had Johnny Depp and Megan Fox on his show last night – I wonder if any show has had a sexier male and female guest on a show.
- The Michael Jackson death was a surprise, but not shocking, if that makes any sense. The way he was living his life and just the way that he looked, well, everyone knew he wasn’t going to be an old man.
- I always thought of him as a cross between Elvis and Howard Hughes in terms of talent and personality.
- Yes, he had his problems, many of them, but as an artist he was extremely gifted and talented.
- One crazy thing about him that sticks out for me regarding him is the Super Bowl. Fox didn’t have the NFL, and one year decided to have an IN Living Color special air during the Super Bowl halftime with a countdown clock so no one would miss the game. This was a time when the Super Bowl half time show were getting pretty lame. The NFL didn’t want to have any of that happen again and miss out on any advertising dollars, so the very next year they brought in the biggest name they could think of, Michael Jackson. I do believe that was the Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl when the Cowboys routed the Bills.
- You know Elizabeth Taylor isn’t taking the news well.
- I visited his website about twice an hour for several hours just to see if there was going to be an update. Most of the time it just had tour and ticket information, and later there was just a red background with an image of him with his name and the title of King of Pop.
- Yes, I was a big fan of his growing up. He and U2 are probably the biggest voices of my generation.
- MTV actually started to play music videos again. After his death was announced I turned over to the channel and noticed it was nothing but Michael Jackson videos for several hours. That’s a fitting tribute. I’m sure the teens and tweens didn’t understand why the heck MTV was playing so many videos, while us adults can remember a day when that’s just about all they did. I actually watched for a while, and man, the guy was a visionary.
- The dude from MTV News that was announcing the death was not very good at reading from a teleprompter. As a matter of fact, it was almost comical. He’s no Kurt Loder. I wonder how many of you actually know who Kurt Loder is.
- The same announcement aired after every video and commercial break.
- TMZ was the first to announce his death. You know they have hospital employees in all the area LA/Hollywood hospitals on their payroll just so they can the inside scoop on things.
- Most of the major news networks didn’t want to get the story wrong and withheld making the official death announcement. You really can’t blame them for that.
- What is crazier is that someone made the decision to have an hour long special put together to air that night. But you know that all the news agencies have something already put together for all the major celebrities.
- It was crazy that before the evening news started his death was speculated/announced just about twenty minutes before and the news leading with the story and then having to put Farrah Fawcett’s death aside. Wow, two icons.
- It was interesting to see that at 6:30 PM Central time when all the gossip shows such as Entertainment Tonight and Extra come on and none of them have up to date information. I always knew they filmed those things earlier in the day.
- The Jackson family seemed to have bitter feelings towards each other for a long time, but I think they were able to get things in order before Michael’s death.
- I bet the Fawcett camp is saddened by the death of Jackson, but will benefit from his death by not being as intensly covered.
- I feel sorry for the patients and family for those at the UCLA Medical Center. The crowd and media that gathered there was just insane.
- His death caused many sites to respond slow because of traffic.
- The authorities were smart to move his body by helicopter, no telling what the crowd outside would have done.
- Last night Jimmy Kimmel started his monologue with the news of Jackson’s death, and then actually made jokes about the man and his actual death and even had the audacity of asking if it was too soon to do such a thing. Kimmel is usually a funny guy, but that was just crass.
- The first ever luau occurred at The White House last night, and I hear inflatable sharks were put in the fountain. But I doubt we see much coverage of the event due to Jackson’s death.
- Speaking of not being covered, Walter Cronkite’s family has put out a statement stating that he is not expected to recuperate.
- Grace.
5 comments June 26th, 2009