I can’t take it anymore…here comes some stream of conciousness thoughts on the President’s speech…

• It started out alright, talking about healthcare reform and education, immigration, etc… - 9:15 pm
  
• Seriously, is it even possible for Bush to make a speech and not mention 9/11? - 9:25 pm
  
• Can we count the number of times he says the words “kill”, “evil”, “terror”, and “enemy”…if it was a drinking game I would be shitfaced. - 9:30 pm
• He says the threat of terror will never be over…well, although 9/11 was a tragedy, I feel that those extremists hated America long before that event occured. It’s not something new. - 9:37 pm
  
• I thought this was the state of our union, our country…not an update on the war. I thought that was what he was supposed to do two weeks ago in a special address. Oh wait, he didn’t say anything new. - 9:40 pm
  
• Nancy Pelosi looks annoyed at him. In fact most of the audience looks irritated. - 9:44 pm
• I find it odd he’s wearing a blue suit. I feel like it should be black. - 9:47 pm
• Haven’t we already failed Iraq? And ourselves? - 9:48 pm
• More key words - “chaos”, “harm America”, “tragedy”, oh and again 9/11 - sparing the American people from the danger. - 9:49 pm
• Alright, I would have liked to hear more about balanced budgets, education, healthcare, immigration, poverty, etc… etc… but it seems we’re wrapping up with 10% devoted to that and the rest to the war on terror. - 9:50 pm
• War on terror is a generational struggle…ummm…what about the generations before us? Is this the legacy we want to leave our children? Increasing our military and willingness to kill others in the name of defeating terror? - 9:51 pm
• Do you think Bush knows that Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Israel are all different issues and situations? Or are they all just the axis of evil? - 9:53 pm
• OK, the HIV/AIDS in Africa part was good… - 9:55 pm
• Where is your kindness, courage and self-sacrifice, Mr. President? It seems to me all you want to do is kill people in the name of fighting terrorists. - 9:57 pm
• Haha, he called him “son of the Congo”…and DAMN he’s tall! - 9:58 pm
• 200 million for Baby Einstein. I can’t decide if that’s a nice story or a bit frightening. - 9:59 pm
• OK these are nice hero stories. - 10:01 pm
  

Same old shit, different day of the week. Bush is a lone cowboy who doesn’t care what the nation, or the world says. He doesn’t listen to the UN, our allies, or even our military. I’m not saying that a new administration is going to completely change things in Iraq and fix the country, I’m not saying that there aren’t real threats out there, and I’m certainly not saying that we should forget about 9/11 and all the people that have died in Iraq after that…but damn I’m counting down the days until 2008.

On Saturday I took a random turn and drove down to Staunton to visit my good friend. He had told me about this movie documentary called Jesus Camp that looked intriguing. I was sad to see that it was not playing at any of the “artsy” theatres in the DC area, so I had to drive over 2 hours to see it! I could go on and on about this, but I’ll try to keep it brief. I really hope that people go out and see this movie; it’s certainly more frightening than Super Size Me or Fast Food Nation.

The movie was great, it was actually filmed from a pretty unbiased view, and was hardly narrated save for a radio talk show host and some clips from various other radio announcers. The film was shot around the hearings for Judge Samuel Alito and takes place in Missouri and at a camp in North Dakota. The most disturbing thing to me about the entire movie was the fact that the main focus through it all was children. There were some young kids shown - the main 3 highlighted ranged from age 7-12 I think, but through the piece you could see kids as young as 3 involved. These were children who were supposedly experiencing visions and Christ speaking to them, speaking in tongues and crying for forgiveness of their sins and the sins of those around them. In reality, they were all simply regurgitating the words and beliefs of the adults around them. These kids are experiencing thoughts and emotions that many adults don’t even understand. How can they even process it? They cry about their sins and about not being good enough for God. They approach others to try to move them towards Jesus. Free speech is one thing, and the great thing about our country is the premise that we can all believe and follow whatever religion we want. But this…is something else.

The basis of the movie was that these kids are being trained. The leaders used the argument that in places like Pakistan and other countries - kids are being taught to become suicide bombers and to hate America, so why not use our children to spread the word of Jesus. (Or, spread the word that there should be less separation of church and state).

Personally, I think that Evangelicals are scary. They supposedly preach the “gospel” and the truth, but in reality it’s a huge almost cult-like following. According to the movie, 25% of America (or, 80 million) identify themselves as Evangelicals. They firmly believe that the government is an institution out to get them - these kids in the movie took turns taking hammers to porcelain mugs with the word government written on them. Many of the children are home schooled and basically taught that anything scientific is fiction, not fact. They say that the country took a downturn when prayer was removed from schools and that there is a problem with that. How can you denounce a government and system that you yourself are not a part of, or have a desire to be?

The best part of the movie, by far, was the fact that Pastor Haggard was spotlighted in it towards the end. Of course, there was no way of knowing what was to become of him by the time the movie was released, but I found it fantastic that he was shown denouncing homosexuality, and quoted saying something along the lines of, “someone paying you $1,000 to keep your secret. I know what you did last night!” I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the irony. There was also a side note in the movie that stated that he spoke to President Bush every Monday with a board of advisors - contrary to reports now. (On that note, I do feel really bad for his family through all of his recent headline news.)

The second best part of the movie was when they brought out a life-size cut out of George W. Bush, and they all touched it and “blessed” it…basically worshipping him. I mean….wow. I can think of a whole lot of other uses for a cardboard cutout of our fearless leader, and that would NOT be one of them. The Evangelicals were rejoicing that they already had one of them in the White House, ecstatic that Alito got named to the Supreme Court, and gloating in the fact that eventually all of their carefully-groomed children will become prominent members of society and essentially rule the country (taking part in the very system they criticize).

The third thing that got me was the issue of abortion. They had these children crying and praying for unborn children, holding small statues of fetuses (supposedly the size of 7 weeks) and weeping for them, wearing red tape that said LIFE over their mouths (stating that the unborn don’t have a voice). I mean, say what you want – pro-life or pro-choice…but to put that in the hands of children? I was appalled.

I guess I can relax a little in the knowledge that at least half of those kids will probably turn away from the church by the time they are adults.

It’s the other half that I’m worried about…

On Saturday I took a random turn and drove down to Staunton to visit my good friend. He had told me about this movie documentary called Jesus Camp that looked intriguing. I was sad to see that it was not playing at any of the “artsy” theatres in the DC area, so I had to drive over 2 hours to see it! I could go on and on about this, but I’ll try to keep it brief. I really hope that people go out and see this movie; it’s certainly more frightening than Super Size Me or Fast Food Nation.

The movie was great, it was actually filmed from a pretty unbiased view, and was hardly narrated save for a radio talk show host and some clips from various other radio announcers. The film was shot around the hearings for Judge Samuel Alito and takes place in Missouri and at a camp in North Dakota. The most disturbing thing to me about the entire movie was the fact that the main focus through it all was children. There were some young kids shown - the main 3 highlighted ranged from age 7-12 I think, but through the piece you could see kids as young as 3 involved. These were children who were supposedly experiencing visions and Christ speaking to them, speaking in tongues and crying for forgiveness of their sins and the sins of those around them. In reality, they were all simply regurgitating the words and beliefs of the adults around them. These kids are experiencing thoughts and emotions that many adults don’t even understand. How can they even process it? They cry about their sins and about not being good enough for God. They approach others to try to move them towards Jesus. Free speech is one thing, and the great thing about our country is the premise that we can all believe and follow whatever religion we want. But this…is something else.

The basis of the movie was that these kids are being trained. The leaders used the argument that in places like Pakistan and other countries - kids are being taught to become suicide bombers and to hate America, so why not use our children to spread the word of Jesus. (Or, spread the word that there should be less separation of church and state).

Personally, I think that Evangelicals are scary. They supposedly preach the “gospel” and the truth, but in reality it’s a huge almost cult-like following. According to the movie, 25% of America (or, 80 million) identify themselves as Evangelicals. They firmly believe that the government is an institution out to get them - these kids in the movie took turns taking hammers to porcelain mugs with the word government written on them. Many of the children are home schooled and basically taught that anything scientific is fiction, not fact. They say that the country took a downturn when prayer was removed from schools and that there is a problem with that. How can you denounce a government and system that you yourself are not a part of, or have a desire to be?

The best part of the movie, by far, was the fact that Pastor Haggard was spotlighted in it towards the end. Of course, there was no way of knowing what was to become of him by the time the movie was released, but I found it fantastic that he was shown denouncing homosexuality, and quoted saying something along the lines of, “someone paying you $1,000 to keep your secret. I know what you did last night!” I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the irony. There was also a side note in the movie that stated that he spoke to President Bush every Monday with a board of advisors - contrary to reports now. (On that note, I do feel really bad for his family through all of his recent headline news.)

The second best part of the movie was when they brought out a life-size cut out of George W. Bush, and they all touched it and “blessed” it…basically worshipping him. I mean….wow. I can think of a whole lot of other uses for a cardboard cutout of our fearless leader, and that would NOT be one of them. The Evangelicals were rejoicing that they already had one of them in the White House, ecstatic that Alito got named to the Supreme Court, and gloating in the fact that eventually all of their carefully-groomed children will become prominent members of society and essentially rule the country (taking part in the very system they criticize).

The third thing that got me was the issue of abortion. They had these children crying and praying for unborn children, holding small statues of fetuses (supposedly the size of 7 weeks) and weeping for them, wearing red tape that said LIFE over their mouths (stating that the unborn don’t have a voice). I mean, say what you want – pro-life or pro-choice…but to put that in the hands of children? I was appalled.

I guess I can relax a little in the knowledge that at least half of those kids will probably turn away from the church by the time they are adults.

It’s the other half that I’m worried about…

On Saturday I took a random turn and drove down to Staunton to visit my good friend. He had told me about this movie documentary called Jesus Camp that looked intriguing. I was sad to see that it was not playing at any of the “artsy” theatres in the DC area, so I had to drive over 2 hours to see it! I could go on and on about this, but I’ll try to keep it brief. I really hope that people go out and see this movie; it’s certainly more frightening than Super Size Me or Fast Food Nation.

The movie was great, it was actually filmed from a pretty unbiased view, and was hardly narrated save for a radio talk show host and some clips from various other radio announcers. The film was shot around the hearings for Judge Samuel Alito and takes place in Missouri and at a camp in North Dakota. The most disturbing thing to me about the entire movie was the fact that the main focus through it all was children. There were some young kids shown - the main 3 highlighted ranged from age 7-12 I think, but through the piece you could see kids as young as 3 involved. These were children who were supposedly experiencing visions and Christ speaking to them, speaking in tongues and crying for forgiveness of their sins and the sins of those around them. In reality, they were all simply regurgitating the words and beliefs of the adults around them. These kids are experiencing thoughts and emotions that many adults don’t even understand. How can they even process it? They cry about their sins and about not being good enough for God. They approach others to try to move them towards Jesus. Free speech is one thing, and the great thing about our country is the premise that we can all believe and follow whatever religion we want. But this…is something else.

The basis of the movie was that these kids are being trained. The leaders used the argument that in places like Pakistan and other countries - kids are being taught to become suicide bombers and to hate America, so why not use our children to spread the word of Jesus. (Or, spread the word that there should be less separation of church and state).

Personally, I think that Evangelicals are scary. They supposedly preach the “gospel” and the truth, but in reality it’s a huge almost cult-like following. According to the movie, 25% of America (or, 80 million) identify themselves as Evangelicals. They firmly believe that the government is an institution out to get them - these kids in the movie took turns taking hammers to porcelain mugs with the word government written on them. Many of the children are home schooled and basically taught that anything scientific is fiction, not fact. They say that the country took a downturn when prayer was removed from schools and that there is a problem with that. How can you denounce a government and system that you yourself are not a part of, or have a desire to be?

The best part of the movie, by far, was the fact that Pastor Haggard was spotlighted in it towards the end. Of course, there was no way of knowing what was to become of him by the time the movie was released, but I found it fantastic that he was shown denouncing homosexuality, and quoted saying something along the lines of, “someone paying you $1,000 to keep your secret. I know what you did last night!” I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the irony. There was also a side note in the movie that stated that he spoke to President Bush every Monday with a board of advisors - contrary to reports now. (On that note, I do feel really bad for his family through all of his recent headline news.)

The second best part of the movie was when they brought out a life-size cut out of George W. Bush, and they all touched it and “blessed” it…basically worshipping him. I mean….wow. I can think of a whole lot of other uses for a cardboard cutout of our fearless leader, and that would NOT be one of them. The Evangelicals were rejoicing that they already had one of them in the White House, ecstatic that Alito got named to the Supreme Court, and gloating in the fact that eventually all of their carefully-groomed children will become prominent members of society and essentially rule the country (taking part in the very system they criticize).

The third thing that got me was the issue of abortion. They had these children crying and praying for unborn children, holding small statues of fetuses (supposedly the size of 7 weeks) and weeping for them, wearing red tape that said LIFE over their mouths (stating that the unborn don’t have a voice). I mean, say what you want – pro-life or pro-choice…but to put that in the hands of children? I was appalled.

I guess I can relax a little in the knowledge that at least half of those kids will probably turn away from the church by the time they are adults.

It’s the other half that I’m worried about…

On Saturday I took a random turn and drove down to Staunton to visit my good friend. He had told me about this movie documentary called Jesus Camp that looked intriguing. I was sad to see that it was not playing at any of the “artsy” theatres in the DC area, so I had to drive over 2 hours to see it! I could go on and on about this, but I’ll try to keep it brief. I really hope that people go out and see this movie; it’s certainly more frightening than Super Size Me or Fast Food Nation.

The movie was great, it was actually filmed from a pretty unbiased view, and was hardly narrated save for a radio talk show host and some clips from various other radio announcers. The film was shot around the hearings for Judge Samuel Alito and takes place in Missouri and at a camp in North Dakota. The most disturbing thing to me about the entire movie was the fact that the main focus through it all was children. There were some young kids shown - the main 3 highlighted ranged from age 7-12 I think, but through the piece you could see kids as young as 3 involved. These were children who were supposedly experiencing visions and Christ speaking to them, speaking in tongues and crying for forgiveness of their sins and the sins of those around them. In reality, they were all simply regurgitating the words and beliefs of the adults around them. These kids are experiencing thoughts and emotions that many adults don’t even understand. How can they even process it? They cry about their sins and about not being good enough for God. They approach others to try to move them towards Jesus. Free speech is one thing, and the great thing about our country is the premise that we can all believe and follow whatever religion we want. But this…is something else.

The basis of the movie was that these kids are being trained. The leaders used the argument that in places like Pakistan and other countries - kids are being taught to become suicide bombers and to hate America, so why not use our children to spread the word of Jesus. (Or, spread the word that there should be less separation of church and state).

Personally, I think that Evangelicals are scary. They supposedly preach the “gospel” and the truth, but in reality it’s a huge almost cult-like following. According to the movie, 25% of America (or, 80 million) identify themselves as Evangelicals. They firmly believe that the government is an institution out to get them - these kids in the movie took turns taking hammers to porcelain mugs with the word government written on them. Many of the children are home schooled and basically taught that anything scientific is fiction, not fact. They say that the country took a downturn when prayer was removed from schools and that there is a problem with that. How can you denounce a government and system that you yourself are not a part of, or have a desire to be?

The best part of the movie, by far, was the fact that Pastor Haggard was spotlighted in it towards the end. Of course, there was no way of knowing what was to become of him by the time the movie was released, but I found it fantastic that he was shown denouncing homosexuality, and quoted saying something along the lines of, “someone paying you $1,000 to keep your secret. I know what you did last night!” I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the irony. There was also a side note in the movie that stated that he spoke to President Bush every Monday with a board of advisors - contrary to reports now. (On that note, I do feel really bad for his family through all of his recent headline news.)

The second best part of the movie was when they brought out a life-size cut out of George W. Bush, and they all touched it and “blessed” it…basically worshipping him. I mean….wow. I can think of a whole lot of other uses for a cardboard cutout of our fearless leader, and that would NOT be one of them. The Evangelicals were rejoicing that they already had one of them in the White House, ecstatic that Alito got named to the Supreme Court, and gloating in the fact that eventually all of their carefully-groomed children will become prominent members of society and essentially rule the country (taking part in the very system they criticize).

The third thing that got me was the issue of abortion. They had these children crying and praying for unborn children, holding small statues of fetuses (supposedly the size of 7 weeks) and weeping for them, wearing red tape that said LIFE over their mouths (stating that the unborn don’t have a voice). I mean, say what you want – pro-life or pro-choice…but to put that in the hands of children? I was appalled.

I guess I can relax a little in the knowledge that at least half of those kids will probably turn away from the church by the time they are adults.

It’s the other half that I’m worried about…