Tiger & such

Really, no cohesive theme today, but it's been such a long time since I regurgitated the ruminations of my mind that I felt compelled.  Can you believe I do this to relax?

• Tiger.  I'm surprised by the spears that the PGA's greatest philanderer has taken for his recent confession.  I confess I did not watch his public penance.  I did read the transcript, and it seemed pretty sincere to me.  "My fault," rang throughout.  "All my fault."  I did catch a bit of his delivery on the Olympics.  Considering his material, I thought he delivered it pretty well.  I'm dropping my stone.
  
  
  Expect there to be no criticisms from the talking heads for Woods mentioning the role his Buddhist beliefs would play in his restoration.  Had he appealed to Christ (and found forgiveness for his sin and the strength to overcome future sin), as suggested by Brit Hume, he would have been labeled as weak for needing such a crutch or as a hypocrite for dallying and then repenting.  Alas.
• Olympics.  I wasn't going to watch the Olympics this time around.  Problems swirled around these games what with global warming focusing its sole attention on Vancouver, the muffed torch lighting and the luge track tragedy on opening day.  The whole thing seemed doomed before it even began.  Then I got hooked.  Shawn White soared as high out of the half-pipe as the stadium lights that lit up the British Columbian night.  Lindsey Vonn pounded down a mountain that ate half the girls for lunch to clinch gold.  Shani Davis became the first man to win 1000-meter gold back to back in speed skating.  Watched a gut-wrenching fight for a bronze medal in cross-country skiing that went down to a photo finish.  I wish you could have seen these women gut-out those last two miles up hills and then sprinting side-by-side toward the finish line.  They knew they would not win but a medal was at stake.  Then a bit later, skiers sprinted to the line side-by-side for no medal but to earn one higher place when all was said and done.  And for their country. 
  
  Yeah, I'm watching the Olympics.  I even watched the men's figure skating, Rachel, an event where there do seem to still be a few men involved (Johnny Weir notwithstanding).
  
  
• Gaffes.  If you collected all of the public-speaking blunders of past presidents and played them across the airwaves far and wide, folks would believe America plucked its presidential candidates from the detention room of the local junior high school.  That's just the cost of doing business.  You dare to open your mouth in public and you'll find your tongue becoming dyslexic.  Is Joe Biden a moron because he recently spoke of America leading the world into the twentieth century?  I believe he knows full well what century we are in.  Chalk it up to a misspeak (though, our Veep could stand a little more of the proverb "Thinkest before thou openest thy pie-hole").  When queried about the attack on the IRS building in Texas, Massachussetts' newest Senator, Scott Brown, talked himself into an oral half-nelson.  Imbecile?  Purposefully hateful?  I don't think so.  Does Katie Couric really believe that Sarah Palin reads no magazines?
  
  
  
  I remember once being interviewed for a community member position for our newspaper's editorial board.  They asked me which columnists I most followed.  My brain locked.  I read the paper every day in those days, and I read most of the columnists.  The only one I could recall wrote inane articles about meaningless topics.  Because of the awkward silence and before my mind could stop them, my lips uttered her name.  I sounded like a dope and didn't get the position.
  Perhaps the Olbermann's of the world would be well served to cut a larger swath of slack toward such folks who have to make their living giving round-the-clock public proclamations.  If Joe Biden continues to state that we're leading folks into the twentieth century, and if pressed, he thinks we are moving into the twentieth century, then we might question whether his synapses have begun to misfire.  Now, let's see if I can heed my own advice.
• Twilight.  Mark Steyn's recent column bode's ill for the west.  A great read, but that is most often the case.  A snippet. 

On the one hand, governments of developed nations micro-regulate every aspect of your life in the interests of “keeping you safe.” If you’re minded to flip a pancake at speeds of more than four miles per hour, the state will step in and act decisively: It’s for your own good. If you’re a tourist from Moose Jaw, Washington will take preemptive action to shield you from the potential dangers of your patio in Arizona.

On the other hand, when it comes to “keeping you safe” from real threats, such as a millenarian theocracy that claims universal jurisdiction, America and its allies do nothing.

Read the rest of the piece here.

•  Big Al.  No, not Gore this time.  Haig.  Alexander Haig died today.  As we move further and further from the 1980's, many forget that he served as Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan.  No doubt his steely demeanor had much to do with the dismantling of the Iron Curtain.  Few remember that he was also a decorated four-star general.  If any remember him at all, they remember him as attempting to "Al Haig" presidential powers unto himself during the attempted assassination on President Reagan.  A funny annecdote if one had the inclination to study it through.  Anyway, many thanks to our Lord for providing our nation such a man at such a time as his.
  

• Larry Talbot.  Hollywood's newest attempt at resurrecting an old movie is out.  It's "The Wolfman."  Growing up, I loved the horror classics.  As I grew, I learned about how such literary works provided a peek into the dark side of man by transferring that sin into the character of the monster.  Larry Talbot was no exception.  An innocent, humble man gets struck by a beast and as such, becomes a beast himself.  Part-time.  Most of the time, he's just Larry.  When the moon goes full, he becomes unleashed.  A good story forces questions.  The Wolfman follows that rule.  How is it that such ordinary folks (Ted Bundy, Malik Nadal Hassan) can unleash such evil?
  
  
  I didn't see it, but from the reviews, one gets hammered with such visual depictions of animalistic brutality as to be wrenched of any questions that might have surfaced.  So macabre and horrifying has Hollywood become because they can, that the outstanding stories that may have been conjured in the minds of the writer get lost as the director unleashes a fury of graphic sex, grisly violence, or sensibility-assaulting profanity that any nuanced message is lost in translation. 
  Thank you, Lon Chaney (and Junior, pictured above).  Thank you Mr. Legosi.  Thank you Mr. Stoker and Mrs. Shelly.  Thanks for a story that addresses the plight of God's creation as we struggle within a fallen world and with our fallen nature.
• Jesus.  I've heard this before, so what came out of Elton John's mouth the other day is no surprise.  He contends Jesus Christ was a homosexual man.  It seems that most who make those assertions are homosexual men or women or strongly favor such relationships.  The simple fact that Christ had twelve male disciples does not make him homosexual any more than it makes Peyton Manning gay for putting his hands under the fanny of his center for twenty plays every game.  Sad to hear folks say such things in their ignorance.

Let's end on a high note.  Jesus told his disciples on the night before his execution, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace."  What things?  The things he told them that night (John 14-16) and the things he told them for their three years together.  And wherein could his disciples, many of whom went to their own executions, find peace?  In their Christ, their Messiah, their Savior, Jesus himself.  Dead he would be in twenty-four hours, but alive he would be three days later.  He explained.

 "In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world."

Amen!  On that note, I'm out.