On Saturday I took a long nap and then headed to my friend’s house to order Chinese food and watch the Syracuse vs. Louisville game. Sadly, Cuse lost in the last minutes. When that was over I met up with some friends at Shirlington to see Notes on a Scandal. The movie was fantastically funny with a witty narration by Judi Dench, although it was a bit creepy at times. Not so much a story about the affair Cate Blanchett led, and more about crazy ass Judi Dench. Still, I enjoyed it and definitely recommend it!

Another great movie I saw was Waiting, which starred hottie Ryan Reynolds. Dane Cook also appeared along with some other C-list actors. The movie was definitely a hilarious reminder of my time waiting tables at various restaurants through college. There is just something about working at a restaurant…sometimes I kind of miss the craziness.

The rest of my weekend is supposed to be spent cleaning my apartment (which was supposed to happen last weekend but another long night out prevented that as well), but we’ll see how that goes. I also need to buy a new vacuum…which is turning out to be a great debacle. Who knew that finding a good one would be so hard? Every review I read sucks, and the really good ones are way too expensive. Ugh. Any ideas????

Anyway, I’m looking forward to this week as I think there are about to be some BIG changes to my world. We will see what happens, but it will certainly be shared!

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…

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…

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…

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…