....and there it is

Many people have searched, but few have actually found it.

If you want to know where it is click HERE

Yes, it is the Flippin Church of Christ

Fair and Balanced

Fox News' Scott Norvell reported a story that truly showed both sides of an issue.

GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defimation)evidently is up in arms about their representation on six networks (there are 6 now?)

GLAAD said it analyzed 95 upcoming shows on six networks and counted only nine gay or lesbian characters on eight programs, or about 1.3 percent of the total number of characters. It said there were no transgender or bisexual scripted characters on the networks. It also said 513, or 75 percent, of the characters were white, 81 (12 percent) were African-American, 18 (3 percent) were Asian-Pacific Islander and 49 (7 percent) were Hispanic.

"When you look at primetime's dismal lack of LGBT characters — combined with the continuing under-representation of people of color, gay and straight alike — it's clear that the broadcast networks have a long way to go before they accurately reflect the diversity of their audience and our society," said GLAAD President Neil G. Giuliano

The other side of this issue is found in U.S. Census data:

According to the U.S. Census, the population of the United States in 2005 was 75 percent white, 12 percent African-American, and 3 percent Asian-Pacific Islander. Some 35 million of the country's 281 million residents, or about 12 percent, identify themselves as being of Hispanic origin. The same census estimated the number of same-sex couples to be 1 percent

In other words, the character representation is right on the mark. Of course their representation is quite excessive if you ever see MTV's show they call the "real world"

AIDS Epidemic

Last night ABC news aired another hack news story about AIDS in America.

The word 'Epidemic' was used many many times in the piece. 'Pandemic' was even used more than once.

An epidemic is (according to Webster's:
1 affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time.
2 a : excessively prevalent

I looked it up on the CDC website this morning. From before 1982 through 2002 there were 859,000 cases of AIDS reported. If we assume a population of 280 million which is a low estimate, that means the affected population is .3%

The peak was in 1993 with 104,713 cases. By 2002, the number of cases dropped 58% of that.

That doesn't look like an epidemic to me.

Don't get me wrong, I believe HIV and AIDS are terrible diseases that hurt a lot of people and families. Most cases are due to behavioral choices which do need to be addressed.

But the 'epidemic' claim is greatly exaggerated.

I should know better and expect less from ABC.

Outrage...well, not really

I got a little chuckle from all the news reports yesterday from Watertown, NY. The story is about an 81 year old woman that was asked to not teach Bible school anymore at a baptist church. The only public reason given was that the church has decided to not allow women to teach men in Bible school.

The funny part is the media's outrage that a church is taking a "literal view of scripture". I didn't realize we had a choice on whether we take literal writings literally or not. Isn't it pretty clear what are literal vs. poetic or apocolyptic writings?

Maybe they shouldn't let her teach a Bible school because she doesn't seem to grasp the ideas of inspiration and authority of scripture.

Iron Man

Set aside 4 minutes and 11 seconds for this.

I'm so glad I'm not flying

I'm glad I'm not flying today. Not because of the new security rules, but because I know I would wind up either having a stroke, or killing someone in line.

For over 24 hours now there has been around the clock coverage and countless stories about the items you can no longer carry on planes. Never the less, lines are backed up because people are still trying to bring their lotion, lipstick, or coffee through the security checks.

Even without the non-stop news stories about it, DFW Airport has people walking up and down the security lines with sandwich-board signs telling everyone that all liquids and gels must either be checked or thrown out.

I'm usually behind the person who is on their first flight in 10 years anyway, who doesn't understand the process.

Do these people not see the news or any media at all? Do they just ignore the signs and verbal instructions given to them while they are in line?

I'm getting all frustrated by it and I'm not even impacted yet.

I feel the pain in his voice

Style?

I recently visted the website of a local church that calls itself a church of christ. I did a search on Yahoo and their listing even came up as "Non-Traditional Church of Christ"

I thought that was funny so I visited the site.

From what I can tell, this church is very concerned about their perception and style. They are very proud of their drama, multimedia presentations, and contemporary music. I'm sure somewhere in there they talk about the gospel. I just can't find it under all the style.

It sounds like a good place for some entertainment, but I don't see anything about worship. Maybe my bible omitted entertainment from between Spirit and Truth when it talks about worship.

At least now I know what "Non-Traditional Church of Christ" means....no thank you