Leah requested a photo of my apron. Did I mention I actually made this apron, too? Seriously, I can get so much dorkier if you just stick around. So here it is: me in all my nerdy glory, frosting a cake.
To lessen the complete loser I've proven myself to be, last night I went out for happy hour. Betsy and I checked out the Sweet Basil in our neighborhood. We weren't sure what to order, so our server said he would just pick a few things for us and bring them out. So adventurous! (This is seriously the exciting part of the evening. Now that I've written this I'm not sure why it's the part that makes me feel like less of a loser.) Everything was great, and the food was like $2.50 but the catch is you have to buy a full price drink for about $7. Kinda silly. After dinner we walked up to Washington Park. I hadn't been there before. The rose garden is amazing! It just keeps going forever. We also walked around Twenty-third and stopped at Bleuet for frozen yogurt. This was like serious frozen yogurt, not the stuff that tastes like ice cream. It was more like someone put plain old yogurt right in the freezer, ate it, thought it was good and opened a yogurt shop. I didn't like it so much, but the shop design was cute!
Betsy borrowed the book Jesus for President and is getting ready to read it, so we talked about politics a little. I was saying how I just wish someone could please explain to me how in the world the Republican party thinks it lines up with Christian values, because it makes absolutely no sense to me. She said the thing she liked was the idea of smaller government. She felt that if all of the government programs weren't around then people would help people at a more personal level, rather than a large government agency that loses track of people and money. She said it more eloquently, of course, but it was the first time I could see where they were coming from with that idea. I still don't agree at all. It's totally idealistic and I don't think it would ever work for many, many, many reasons, but at least she didn't have to attack anyone to get her idea across. It was a nice change. Because reading comments from posts like this, this and this only fuel the fire of hatred that burns in my soul towards the extreme right. And I know they feel the same toward liberals. How are ever going to get over ourselves and DO instead of ARGUE? I'm so over the sides and corrupted politicians and the hate I feel... and suddenly I remember there is another option. Jesus.
3 comments:
I can definitely say the same thing about Democrats as far as not understanding how their views line up with Christian values at all (you can read some of my thoughts at http://brianwurzell.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/will-evangelicals-vote-for-obamabiden/, if he ever gets around to posting my comment. I'll be blogging about it later anyway, of course). Contrary to popular belief/the left-biased media, Democrats don't have a monopoly on "helping people," and conservatives are not all greedy, evil money-mongers. The left just thinks it's the responsibility of the government to take care of people instead of individuals and private enterprise helping others through voluntary charity, as conservatives, and your friend Betsy, believe. FYI, Cody and I listened to an excellent podcast by Dan Miller about his son's venture, called Sisters of Rwanda (sistersofrwanda.org) that you might find interesting.
I'm glad Betsy was able to share her opinion without anger... or hatred for people who have views that differ from her.
Another thing I will never understand about liberals is all the anger and hatred they have for anyone who doesn't agree with them. It happens now and then with conservatives (Ann Coulter, the occasional crazy redneck, my dad), but I have yet to read or hear the opinion of anyone from the left that isn't outright hateful. I had a friend say on her MS today, "I CAN'T BELIEVE OBAMA IS DOWN IN THE POLLS! WHO ARE THE IDIOTS SUPPORTING MCCAIN/PALIN?!?!?!" I was just like, whoa, so she thinks I'm an idiot. Thanks. I'm all for free speech and don't mean to sound like I'm trying to censor you, but you DO have friends (and maybe even family) who are Republicans and/or politically and socially conservative. Saying that you have a white-hot burning hatred in your soul toward the extreme right won't do much to nurture those friendships with people who perhaps fall into that group, like me... nor will it help your witness for Jesus. Not that I'm this perfect witness for Jesus... I'm just sayin'. If that's how you feel, then I don't understand why we're friends. (Perhaps because I am SO GOOD at returning phone calls? And books? Because I do believe that I'm the one with your original copy of Jesus for Prez. Muahahaha!).
I'm watching our new puppy play with THOR and it's really cute. Maybe that will help lighten things up? :) Whatever, I still love and miss you anyways.
Hmmm. Do we really need to wait for the government to be smaller for people to help people? The fact is health care, minimum wage, and social security were only started recently because things were so bad (look at the depression). Sometimes we need big government to step in and set a few limits and level the playing field because we all know we don't have the same opportunities and life and sometimes no matter how hard you try you keep falling down.
I don't agree 100% with any party, just like I don't agree 100% with my friends, my family or a church, but that is ok, it is what keeps life interesting. What I do not understand is how people could vote for the same ideas and policies that we have had over the last 8 years because clearly that hasn't worked out so well for us, or for the future American's that will inherit our debt.
andrea,
let me start off by saying thank you for calling me out about hurting my relationships and witness by my harsh words. i think you of all people in the world would know me well enough to know that i exaggerate everything to make a point - nonetheless, i shouldn't have said that. i was trying to express my honest feeling of unending frustration with extreme right-wingers, so please understand i don't actually hate them.
i don't think i said anything about democrats having a monopoly on helping people. however, i think what you said is pretty correct about them wanting government to take care of people. it would be a beautiful story if people voluntarily took care of one another on a large scale, but the fact of the matter is: we don't. we have had a republican president for 8 years and i'm not seeing that happening. there are too many people in this country without any health insurance and too many with inadequate/unaffordable insurance. the insurance and pharmaceutical industries are a corrupt mess. please show me what it is i'm not getting and what has stopped the conservatives from living out these beliefs regardless. and in the meantime, while we're waiting for people to freely give their time & money (which i'm sure people will be uber-generous with if they're paying less taxes) to step up and take care of those lazy people who have been taking advantage of the system for decades, what do you propose? you said something on brian's blog like, "jesus didn't say hey ceasar do something about these sick people & give everyone the same amount of everything to be fair" but one, we obviously live in a different day where we have the ability to keep people healthy by reasonable measure and two i'm pretty sure no candidate has suggested we all pool our money together and distribute it evenly (although that sure does sound biblical! jesus was a socialist! ha!), so way to exaggerate to make a point! (sounds familiar lol!) bottom line: jesus loves us even though we don't deserve it and it cost him everything. this is why i think the left is showing christ-like behavior by wanting healthcare for everyone. maybe "big government" isn't the best way, but it's the best option i've seen to take care of the masses thus far. and it's sure as hell better than murdering people by not letting them have access to doctors and medicine.
as for the abortion/soldier justification you made i have to say that's bullshit, my friend. the arguement "voluntary military" maybe true (mostly - but i had a very up close and personal experience with the usmc and i can tell you there is a fair share of shady shit going down, as well as pressures and last resorts that get people (esp. of lower classes) to join... but that's another blog), but that doesn't account for every single innocent person that has been killed. just because civilians are getting murdered on distant soil doesn't mean they aren't made in the image of god, too. they didn't volunteer to die because we went to war. and your statement about soldiers not going out of their way to kill/torture is irrelevant, not to mention ignorant. this may be the exception to the rule, but it still happens. and happening at all is all too many. since becoming a christian i no longer support "a woman's right to choose" however i won't stand behind banning abortion for the fact that statistics show the abortion rates do not change when it becomes illegal. women will still end up in desperate situations and choose to kill a baby whether it's legal or not. instead these women will now be forced to brake the law and risk their life as well. so if the stats show we lose babies or we lose babies and women, i'm going to choose the least amount of death. i think you know my heart about adoption and wanting to help women face their hard choices - but a law won't stop abortion. just like it doesn't stop drugs and homosexuals. so maybe when conservatives stop big government and start voluntarily taking care of everyone they can fix this stuff, too.
i think a lot of people are so caught up in the election craze they fail to realize that the next president can't change the world. sure, it's a powerful position, but america is a free country with democratic voting and a system of checks & balances. i wish people would stop acting like it will be the end of the world if their candidate doesn't make it. if we spent half as much time arguing and take their campaign fundraising and use it for something good we'd really be getting somewhere.
my question in the post was asking how we, as americans, as humanity, are going to actually do something about the injustice in the united states, in the world. i wasn't asking for comments about how hateful the baby-killing liberals are... i suppose "if only they were able to see the benefits of conservatism as opposed to putting blind faith in our government" we'd have world peace. this is exactly what i'm sick of. and here i'm heaping a few more coals on that white-hot fire of mine. shit.
p.s. unbiblical to the core? it might surprise you that i've spent hella lot more time on mccain's website than obama's (none of his videos worked and it irritated me so i didn't stick around) and the very foundation of his campaign "country first" is unbiblical if i ever heard it. i don't plan to vote for either of these guys. btw, are you done with jfp... luckily the simple way sent me another copy, but i'd still like to have that one to pass on to others in time to read before november. :)
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