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4th of July | Midland

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:45 GMT

Happy Independence Day! Photo slideshow of the 4th in Midland

Palin & the Punditz ...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:00 GMT

Already lot of discussion this weekend of the "why" behind Sarah Palin's announcement to step down, a year-and-a-half early, as Governor of Alaska.

For her part, Palin claims it's because she doesn't want to serve the remainder of her term as a lame duck governor, saying "many just accept that 'lame duck' status and they hit the road. They draw a paycheck and they kind of milk it. I’m not going to put Alaskans through that. I promised efficiencies and effectiveness."

Personal observation ... didn't she also promise to be the governor, at least through the end of her elected term, when she took her oath of office?

Already, the punditz are having their say ...

"Is it too early to get a jump on 2012," one asked. "I say make your presence known on all the major shows, maybe write a book or two, and be in the face of everybody, then in 2010 announce a run for President."

"Huh????? Winners never quit," another insisted. "How is quiting being the Govener DURING your first term lead well into running for president?"

Not everyone sees the move as inexplicable or nonsensical, suggesting that her quitting as Alaska's governor now, could increase her chances of being America's president in 2012. NBC’s Chuck Todd offers his analysis, and says that being a private citizen opens a lot of opportunities for Palin the individual.

The naked lamp is lit..

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:46 GMT

Perhaps you read the bizarre story about the airline passenger who suddenly felt the need to strip naked and lay in his seat thusly, causing the flight to land in Albuquerque. Obviously this poor fellow had some break with reality, but on some plane trips in the past I can almost identify with him. One such trip in 1988 comes to mind.The wife, at the time, and I had been at my family's home on

"Have You Loved Your Newspaper Today ..."

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:00 GMT

That's the question Karen asks with this post at Pen in Hand.

Karen and I are among those who are not employed as journalists anymore, yet remain "insufferable proponent of the local press." We find ourselves at odds with those who - for whatever reason, by whatever means - would have you think that their personal, usually-virtual properties are the sole reliable repositories of information, inquiry and integrity.

"I worry that people will discover, all too late, the value of a strong local newspaper," Karen wrote in November, 2008, when she announced her departure from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "Bloggers are nothing without professional journalists -- don't let anyone tell you different."

In her latest post, she writes, "whether you live in Cleveland or Charlotte or New York City or San Francisco (I know you Europeans don't need this nudge), please support your local newspaper today. Buy it, read it, shop the advertisers and tell them why you're there."

It's something I hadn't thought of, each morning, when I'd get my coffee and the paper at the local convenience store ... but she's right, you know.

Out of Africa ...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:30 GMT

Men, women and children from West Texas are returning home from the east Africa nation of Uganda, where they have been engaged in Christian mission.

The 2009 Uganda Mission Team from First Presbyterian Church of Midland has been sending back regular reports from Uganda, along with photos, which have been collected under the Uganda Mission heading at West Texas Missioner.

Almost Born on the 4th of July ...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:00 GMT

George M. Cohan, one of America's most honored entertainers, who so ably set the spirit of our nation to words and music, was born on this day in 1878

"A baptismal certificate," it's been reported, "indicated that he was born on July 5, but the Cohan family always insisted that George had been 'born on the Fourth of July!'" The son of vaudevillians, young George Michael would take to the stage, himself, as an entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer and producer. At one point, he was known as "the man who owned Broadway."

A wonderful tribute, including anecdotes about the man and his career, can be found in his obituary in the New York Times, which appeared on November 6, 1942 ... just a year after America entered the Second World War, it bid farewell to the man whose music - with songs like "You're a Grand Old Flag," "Over There" and "Yankee Doodle Boy" - helped raise morale during the First World War.

Dandy songs, from a true "Yankee Doodle Dandy"

Not to be disqualified

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:02 GMT

Wednesday morning I got up with Cyndi at 5:00 AM, once again, to go to the gym and lift weights for one hour in Body Pump class. I can’t believe I got up so early – this is not who I am or who I hope to be or even my ideal of a perfect guy. I am, in my DNA, a night owl, and I would rather stay up all night reading than get up so early in the morning. The story I told myself when the alarm went off at 5:00 AM was that I wouldn’t be any happier getting up at 6:00 AM, or even 7:00 AM. And it’s impossible to make an impact on the adult world the way I want to if I sleep in to the double figures every day.

One reason I got up so early on Wednesday was because that’s the day Cyndi teaches and I wanted to go to her class, to support her and learn from her and watch her do something she’s very good at. But as supportive as that sounds, I’m not really so noble. Cyndi has been teaching early morning classes of one type or another for most of our marriage and I have almost never gone to any of them. Way back in the old days I stayed home because one of us had to get the kids up and ready for school. Then in later years, I didn’t go simply because I wanted to sleep instead.

But this past spring, and now summer, I’ve been trying to get fitter and build more muscle and lose a significant amount of weight, and I cannot fit in enough workouts using only the middle parts of the day. To reach my goal I’ve had to inconvenience myself.

As Erwin McManus wrote (in Wide Awake), “You can’t just sit back and hope that the life you long for will simply come to you.” Anything worthwhile is hard work and inconvenient.

This morning as we went through the warm-up sequence with light weights, all of me (back, shoulders, legs, arms, knees, neck, hair) was stiff and gripey for being called into action so early. I had the same thoughts I’ve had during the first few moments of many road races, and many heavy backpacking trips, and every marathon: Why am I doing this? Who thought this was a good idea? Why can’t I live a normal life that isn’t so hard?

But after working through squats and clean-and-presses and triceps and biceps, well, I eventually tossed aside my doubts - probably because those thoughts were displaced by other thoughts of proper technique and pain management. But also because, at some point, I started to feel strong and mighty and lean and hard, in my own way, and then I was proud of myself for working so hard when most of my friends were still asleep.

And then, after an hour, we were done. We’d finished with abs and even with our cool-down stretches. I was ready to go home for a hot shower (or maybe to crawl back into bed for 30 minutes).

The Apostle Paul wrote: “But I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (I Cor. 9:27, NAS)

To be honest, I don’t know exactly what that means. I doubt Paul went to weight lifting classes. I think he probably was a runner at some point in his life because he referenced it so often in his writing.

But even more mysterious than Paul’s workout discipline is - what did he means that he would be disqualified? Disqualified from what? Preaching? Writing? Traveling? Mentoring? Who knows? We’ve all been influenced by teachers or preachers who weren’t the least bit concerned with physical discipline, who were decidedly unfit and didn’t care. They didn’t seem to have been disqualified, so what did Paul mean? I don’t know.

But I do know that working out and running and gives me a life with more choices. I can take a group of guys from my Bible study up Guadalupe Peak. I can join my band of brothers, the Iron Men, in an outdoor boot camp workout and share lives with them. I can walk 70 miles in one week with Cyndi and John in Karimoja, Uganda.

The most surprising thing is that I’m not good at any of this. I have no natural athletic skills; I run too slow, weigh too much, limp too often, and quit too soon.

Yet, I never take it for granted. I’m grateful to God for the opportunity. As John said while we were cooling down after a run at Aberdare, Kenya, “Working out is a luxury.”

I don’t know how long I will keep this 5:00 AM thing going, but I hope to always be doing whatever I can do, whatever it takes, to keep from being disqualified to teach and preach and influence. That would be too much to lose.

“I run in the path of Your commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32

A trillion here, a trillion there ...

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:16 GMT

"A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money." That's the famous quote attributed to Everett Dirksen. Now days a billion seems insignificant compared to the trillions of dollars each of the new government proposals are projected to cost.

A friend told me about a recent article describing how Republican pollsters were trying to get people to focus on how much the Obama programs would cost. According to the article, GOP pollsters would ask people to "think of a dollar as one second - one dollar, one brief tick of your watch. A million seconds, the pollster explained, equals eleven days. A billion seconds equals 31 years. And a trillion seconds equals 310 centuries." They must have done some rounding, and math checkers might come up with a few more centuries, but that certainly is a big chunk of time no matter how you add it up.

The number "trillion" really is a big one, and most of us don't encounter it in our daily lives, except when we try to comprehend the government. So let's do the math.

1,000 = one thousand
1,000,000 = one million
1,000,000,000 = one billion, and
1,000,000,000,000 = one trillion.

A trillion is a "one" followed by 12 zeros and four commas. For a visualization of a guy standing next to a trillion dollars in 100 bills check out this image. It's like a "Where's Waldo" with a tiny little Waldo.

Interestingly, the number of votes cast in the 2008 presidential election, 131,257,328, is remarkably close to the total number of taxpayers, 135,719,160 (2006 number). Let's divide the trillion dollars among the taxpayers, and each gets $7,368.16. (It was divided equally so as to satisfy Mr. Obama's share-the-wealth needs even though the burden wasn't shared equally.)

WolframAlpha tells us there are 6.57 billion people on the planet (as of 7/2/09). So each of them could get $152.21.

Breitbart tells us that China is holding $700 billion in U.S. bonds, so we could pay that off and still have $300 billion left over to give each U.S. resident almost a thousand dollars! Or Congress could squander the remainder on pet projects.

If there are any trillionaires out there Forbes doesn't report them. So maybe we should create one. Devise a computer program whereby one form 1040 is selected at random from all the IRS forms filed in 2008, and that person gets the trillion dollars and become the richest person on the planet.

And what if Barack Obama happened to be that winner? We all know he would be so altruistic that he would plow it into a healthcare program for the uninsured. Ya think? George Bush would probably buy land. Bill Clinton or Mark Sanford could afford to make a million indecent proposals to some lucky lady.

In any event, a trillion dollars is one heck of a lot of money. And it's depressing to contemplate the fact that voters are so acquiescent. At least we now know what "hope" and "change" meant.