Saturday morning I casually mentioned that free samples of sangria were available at Klyde Warren Park, and the next thing I know WifeGeeding had me driving there with the kids. I saw about four sets of people throwing footballs and about three quinceañeras going on.
We ate at Off-Site Kitchen again this weekend. After our meal, WifeGeeding and I played ping-pong outdoors for about half an hour while the kids watched and fetched stray balls for us. That may have been the best part of the weekend.
We made our first visit to Trader Joe’s since it’s so heavily hyped. The best parking spot, actually, the best two parking spots, were taken up by a heifer driving a brand new Chevy truck. And it wasn’t one of those accidental bad parking jobs, she deliberately parked square in the middles of the white line. As she came out the store and saw me looking at her truck, she gave me a ‘go to Hell’ look as if she did nothing wrong.
Trader Joe’s is significantly smaller than I thought it would be.
An unexpected $39 check arrived in the mail. Apparently it was part of a class action lawsuit that involved current and former Fidelity Investments employees. I left Fidelity in May 2008.
Normally I wouldn’t care how an escaped convict was captured, but three shots to the head certainly caught my attention.
I have a feeling something negative was said regarding Friday’s Supreme Court decision at more than half of all South Baptist churches, and each time the congregation applauded. If that didn’t happen, then there was a mention of the moral decay of America with a bunch of head knodding.
Twenty years ago there was no way I’d be accepting of gay marriage. Over time, I got to know some gay people through work and became friends with them, and an old roommate actually came out of the closet. I had the misconception all they cared about was a sexual relationship and they all didn’t care for Jesus. Yet I found many do love Jesus and understood they desired everything I did in a heterosexual relationship, which is much, much more than sex. It would be insulting to say my relationship with my wife was primarily sexual, love is much deeper than that. Many see their lifestyle as sinful and immoral from a Christian point of view, but I’ve come around on that regarding a committed relationship and any explanation from me would take longer than I’d like for this post. I’m still uncomfortable seeing two men kiss, but then again I’m still uncomfortable around people who carry firearms. However, I can’t allow my uncomfortableness to get in the way of anyone’s right. And I totally support the right of any house of worship to deny a religious ceremony of two of the same sex as the government doesn’t have the right to tell churches how to do things. And I’m sure none of this coming from me today surprises any of you. I’m not asking any of you to agree with me or tell me where I’m wrong or right, I just wanted to share my perspective.
President Obama has had some big Supreme Court victories, but FiveThrityEight points out, he’s the least successful percentage wise by a large margin, at least if you track back as far as Truman.
In my 39-years of life, I’ve only lived through three Chief Justices of the Supreme Court. The average tenure of a Supreme Court Justice is 16-years, so I guess that kinda makes sense.
It’s interesting following the official White House photographer, Pete Souza. I understand many don’t like Affordable Care Act, but it would be interesting to capture the moment when President Obama was informed of the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the law, and that’s what Souza did. There’s a series of three pictures, one when someone walks into the Oval Office and the President turns his head, another of him trying to process or comprehend the news, and then a moment of victory.
The Calcio Storico, the most brutal sport on earth – in pictures – The Calcio Storico – ‘historic football’ – is an ancient form of football from the 16th century, which originated from the ancient roman ‘harpastum’, and is played in teams of 27, using both feet and hands. Sucker-punches and kicks to the head are prohibited but headbutting, punching, elbowing, and choking are all allowed
Speaking of the Wise County Blogging Lawyer, his recent post on the Attorney General of Texas’ reaction on not issuing marriage certificates is one of his finest, and lands in the top five of my favorites posted by him.
After watching last night’s ‘True Detective’, I thought George R.R. Martin might be a contributing writer.
‘Ballers’ was slightly better than last week and ‘The Brink’ still held up quite well.
There seems to be a lot of divisiveness with our country this week, and for some of us, the church as well. When this happens, I like to lean on these words by Ralph Waldo Emerson — ‘What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.’
Thanks for your well-reasoned discussion re: the same-sex marriage issue. There is much anger and divisiveness over this topic, and no one really wants to hear what the other side has to say. I've tried to avoid it, mostly, because no one changes their mind based on an Internet argument. But it is refreshing to hear someone say, "I felt one way, I thought about it, I changed my perspective, and I care about people as people." Not surprisingly to you, that's my story, too.
I have to disagree with that author about Scalia. While his opinions can be well written, his dissents have all the snarky tone of a highbrow movie critic who is so enamored with his own opinion that he nearly stumbles over himself to show the world how much smarter he is than the rest of us. Scalia's dissent in Obergefell last week was particularly pointed in its criticism of the majority opinion, to the point that he sounded like a bully child who was taking his ball and going home, while hurling the worst insults he could conjure over his shoulder as he stormed away. It was the salvo of a grumpy old man, demonstrating a need to rid himself of bile and disgust over the anger of "losing." Good writer? Technically, perhaps. But his tone and contempt remove him from the pantheon of greats, IMO.
"You must kill us first, but we're Muslim." "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." "Love wins."
I've been underwhelmed with True Detective so far. That might have changed in 10 seconds last night.
Some people park like the world belongs to them and there's no consequences. I once parked at Albertsons near Alliance and saw a "Reserved for Wounded Warriors" sign. I promptly moved to a different spot. When I got out I saw a young woman park in the reserved spot and literally run in the store. I just shook my head. When I came out, someone had keyed MY car.
As a southern born and bred preacher's kid that identifies more and more left as I age, its been a tough few months. I'm grateful for patience and the ability to bite my tongue while seeing and listening to the reactions from white christians over Ferguson, the McKinney pool incident, gay marriage, the confederate flag, and obamacare. We have a lot of work to do internally and are not as far removed from the old south as we might think.
Thanks for your well-reasoned discussion re: the same-sex marriage issue. There is much anger and divisiveness over this topic, and no one really wants to hear what the other side has to say. I've tried to avoid it, mostly, because no one changes their mind based on an Internet argument. But it is refreshing to hear someone say, "I felt one way, I thought about it, I changed my perspective, and I care about people as people." Not surprisingly to you, that's my story, too.
I have to disagree with that author about Scalia. While his opinions can be well written, his dissents have all the snarky tone of a highbrow movie critic who is so enamored with his own opinion that he nearly stumbles over himself to show the world how much smarter he is than the rest of us. Scalia's dissent in Obergefell last week was particularly pointed in its criticism of the majority opinion, to the point that he sounded like a bully child who was taking his ball and going home, while hurling the worst insults he could conjure over his shoulder as he stormed away. It was the salvo of a grumpy old man, demonstrating a need to rid himself of bile and disgust over the anger of "losing." Good writer? Technically, perhaps. But his tone and contempt remove him from the pantheon of greats, IMO.
"You must kill us first, but we're Muslim." "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." "Love wins."
I've been underwhelmed with True Detective so far. That might have changed in 10 seconds last night.
Agreed on all of the above
Some people park like the world belongs to them and there's no consequences. I once parked at Albertsons near Alliance and saw a "Reserved for Wounded Warriors" sign. I promptly moved to a different spot. When I got out I saw a young woman park in the reserved spot and literally run in the store. I just shook my head. When I came out, someone had keyed MY car.
As a southern born and bred preacher's kid that identifies more and more left as I age, its been a tough few months. I'm grateful for patience and the ability to bite my tongue while seeing and listening to the reactions from white christians over Ferguson, the McKinney pool incident, gay marriage, the confederate flag, and obamacare. We have a lot of work to do internally and are not as far removed from the old south as we might think.
Change a few words here and there, and my story on gay marriage is your story, Geeding.