Sunday, September 6, 2009

Anyone can play guitar.




Can someone please tell me one productive thing the Republican Party has done this year?

I'm not being a smart ass, that's a legitimate question. Where is their heath care reform plan? Where is their education reform plan? Out of all the things they've done to try and stop the President from accomplishing anything, have they once submitted an alternative? Is this all they have to contribute now...the backwoods hillbillies trying to shout down senators at town hall meetings, using words they don't understand to try and slander the President, and over-reacting like children who just want to take their ball and go home when the President wants to encourage and inform the kids about what's going on with their education in the next four years. I thought I'd seen the extent of their inanity with all that "birther" tripe, but all these hissy fits about the President talking to their kids... its just the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. At the beginning of the year, I would've never played the race card but now after seeing how Republicans are willing to behave and talk when the President has barely even done anything, I'm starting to question how different the health care discussion would be if our President was just another cracker from Tennessee.

I understand that if you didn't vote for him, you're probably not going to like the things he does, but its time to face reality. He won the election. I mean, he REALLY won the election. Besides, we all had to suffer through 8 years of your boy embodying everything we didn't want for America so I feel like I can speak from experience when I tell you, (as Jon Stewart so elegantly put it) "Its supposed to taste like a shit sandwich."

That's all I'll say about it. Grow up, Republicans. And do us all a favor, open a book and learn what the hell "socialism" means.

Quiet Company had two shows last week. College Station was cool but I think our Dallas show was one of our worst shows of all time. I know I totally phoned in my performance, and I kind of felt bad about it, but I just really didn't want to be there. That's rare, but it does happen.

Harper and I have been spending a lot of quality time together since Leah had two weddings this weekend. It would, of course, be better if Leah were here, but me and the bug have been having some good times. I call Harper "bug" in case you were wondering. I don't know why I started doing it but I like it, so I'm not going to stop.

Leah and I watched the documentary "Hell House" which, if you don't already know, is a documentary about a church that puts on a "Hell House" which is like a Christian haunted house where the goal is, admittedly, to scare people into a faith decision by enacting scenes of life gone wrong. Leah has actually been to a Hell House in Tyler and as it is bound to do, it scarred her opinions of Christianity. Its really sad because I found myself really liking a lot of the people from the church and thinking how they seemed really smart aside from the horrible ideas they had about bullying people into faith. Anyway, its shooting fish in a barrel to pick apart the theology behind a Hell House but the movie reminded me of one of the funnier things about church or rather, prayer.

Let me give you an example. Imagine if I were to have a conversation with my brother Seth the same way people talk to god. It would probably go like this:
Hey Seth, its really good to see you, Seth. And Seth, I'm so glad we're brothers, Seth, because some people don't have siblings at all, Seth. Seth, you're my bro, and we'll be bro's forever, Seth.

See what I mean? I wonder if god ever stops listening halfway through a prayer out of sheer annoyance.

5 comments:

  1. It really bugs me the way the republicans have set out to make sure that Obama can't accomplish anything. I really believe that it is deliberate, and that they want him to fail so that they can complain about all his broken promises and feed us BS in the next election about not getting excited over rhetoric. When the fact is that he hasn't been allowed to do anything.

    I like that you call Harper bug. I used to call Sylvia Peanut, 'cause that's what she looked like on our first sonogram. :) Of course, now that she's a toddler I call her Destructobot. I say it in a robot voice, though, and she thinks it's funny.

    The whole idea of a Hell House really pisses me the F off. Over the summer I made another attempt to start going to church because it's hard to find places to make friends with other young married couples who have kids... but about 4 weeks into attending the young families small groups I had yet another classic encounter with someone whose close-minded conservative BS made me contemplate starting a scene. The fact is I don't like who I am around people like that. I get so angry at their not-so-subtle digs at issues that are very important to me. And I get that their beliefs are just as important to them, but I do my best not to badmouth conservatives knowing that I don't know these people very well. It just upsets me that I do not get the same consideration. And I hate that one or two people being asshats can ruin my entire experience of their church. And I think if they knew that, they wouldn't even care. And that's probably the worst part for me.

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  2. yeah, hell house. I've seen that documentary. We don't like the idea either.

    I really agree with what you are saying about prayer. I think when we use God's name so flippantly, that that's what the commandment is talking about when it says not to take the Lord's name in vain. It's meant to be respected. A professor told me once that early Jewish boys were not allowed to speak the name of God "Elohim" out of reverence and when scribes would be copying text from the Torah that each time they wrote the name of God, it had to be done with a fresh quill.

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  3. AAAHH I almost watched Hell House the other day but then backed out at the last minute. I went to one when I was tweleve or so, and ohmygosh. Never again.

    Personally, I think it's weird when people refer to God as "Daddy" (is it just crazies that I know that do this?). That is so so so WEIRD to me.

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  4. I much prefer "bug" for Harper than the other nickname I have heard you use. LOL

    I really do not understand all the objections to the President's speech either, even though there are some issues on which we disagree.

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  5. I've heard people use "Daddy" in prayer as well, and it just so happens that I know why they do this. Its been a while but I think I remember correctly. When Yeshua is on the cross, he refers to Jehovah as "Abba" which is the very intimate word for father, most closely translated to "Daddy." So its understandable, albeit a little off putting, for Christians to want to address god in this way.
    Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think that's it.

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