Samson's Jawbone

When my children were small and they used to get caught up in raucous behavior. I would sometimes wrestles them and say don't you know it is against our family rules to have fun? Well I have been reflecting recently on how our culture is losing its sense-of-humor. It is against the rules to have fun anymore. In a time of economic stress it might help if we would lighten up. Remember early in the Presidential election cycle some one asked Mrs Clinton if she knew who Ghandi was. "He owns a convenience store in Indiana," she said. She had to apologize. Now I am no fan of Mrs. Clinton, but why should she have apologized. Yes it was ethnic humor. Yes it was stereotypical, but really who did it hurt. To recognize distinctive and common cultural practices is not racist. As a matter-of-fact, I think laughing at our differences makes them more tolerable. Remember when President George Bush had to apologize for calling then Senator Obama "articulate." Now what is that ab...

As an employee of the company that gave them I of course have several thoughts on AIG's bonus payments. I understand people's angst, but think the angst is really channeled in the wrong direction. Every company has exempt and non-exempt part time, full time employees and contract employees. The government gave us the money to keep doing business, paying our contractual obligations is part of that business. I think we had the legal right the pay them. As a matter of fact a provision in the stimulus bill specifically authorized AIG pay these bonuses. Other company's such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have used stimulus money for huge bonuses. No one has said a word about them because they are GSE's and the money is going back into the hands of the politicians. Failure to pay our contractual obligations would have forced the company into bankruptcy, and the purpose of the government money was to prevent that from occurring . Remember AIG was "too big too fail....

Early in Jesus' ministry he set out to test the quality of his disciple's faith. As soon he called them he sent them out on ministry assignments (6:12). They had mostly success, but their success was interrupted by the execution of John the Baptist. So on this occasion he calls them for some relax and rejuvenation, which gets interrupted by ministry demands. So Jesus attempts to take them by boat to a solitary place the crowd follows them. As the day progress the disciples get concerned that they have no food for the crowd, and suggest to Jesus that he send the people away. He tells them to feed the people. They tell Jesus it would take 8 months wages to buy food for this crowd. Jesus asks what do you have. To demonstrate their helplessness they bring Jesus all they have -- five loaves and two fishes. Jesus promptly thanks God for his sustenance and gives enough fish and bread back to the disciples to feed the crowd, which they promptly do, leaving twelve basket fulls of left...