Is Homosexuality A Sin?

In my quest to ask Christians to rethink the way we view Gays and homosexuality and for my gay friends to not give up on God just yet, I've been asked the same question from both sides, "Is Homosexuality A Sin?" In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar, "It's a trap."

I've made a concerted effort to not answer this question. Not because I don't have an opinion. I've avoided it for two reasons: One, the answer is irrelevant to my goal, which is ending the "war" between Christians and Gays. Jesus walked amongst all people, and believe me, they/we were all sinners. No one was ever even close to being holy and sinless in the eyes of God and yet, God still chose to walk with sinners. He talked to them, served them and died for them. Yes, Gays too. Being sinless was never and will never be a requirement for fellowship with God.

The second reason is that the question is a trap to undermine the overall goal. By answer the question, one way or the other, I immediately alienate myself from both sides of the battle. I'm starting to sound like a mediator and to some degree...I am. 

Look, if I answer the questions, "Yes, homosexuality is a sin." Christ's message is lost. Go through the gospels and you'll notice something interesting. Christ dealt with the lost with love and the issue of sin was the conversation. The woman at the well, who slept with numerous men, Christ address the emptiness she felt by taking men into her bedroom. Jesus told her that God could satisfy that thirst and she believed Him. Go and sin no more. To the hated tax collector, Matthew, Jesus says, "Follow me." Jesus didn't ask for repentance from greed and for taking advantage of the poor. "Follow me."

On the other hand, every moment that Jesus judged a person about their sin, it was always in the direction of religious leaders. Often their complaints dealt with why Jesus would associate with sinners. After all, they are icky. Does this sound familiar? When It comes to the war between Christians and Gays, we are the religious leaders that Jesus is condemning.

Conversely, if I answer the question, "No, homosexuality is not a sin." Christ's mission is lost. One thing that I'll say about my fellow Christians, is that we love the God of the Bible deeply. We've all received God's love and forgiveness and we want you to experience the same love. It's amazing and it brings freedom. If I say that homosexuality is not a sin, I will be pointed to about 6 passages and verses in the Bible that deal directly with homosexuality and then I'm standing in Christian court defending whether or not I believe in the Bible.

At the same time, to God it doesn't matter whether I believe homosexuality is a sin. What does matter is that God made you and he knows the struggle you've had all you life trying to come to grips  with your sexuality. He doesn't judge you, because He knows why you feel the way you do. So who cares what I think. I have no authority to judge you and I don't claim to have it.

So, I choose to not answer the questions. Is it the coward's way out? Maybe it is, but as I said before sin or not a sin, it's irrelevant. Look, do I believe divorce is a sin? We've somehow managed with either ignore that sin or we've somehow managed to love those who go through divorce and restore them into the good graces of the church.

The Hobbit and the High Frame Rate Experience

This post is more about the High Frame Rate 3D experience than it is about a review of the Hobbit. I really like the Hobbit and I definitely have opinions about it as compared to the Lord of Rings Trilogy, but I want to talk about the new technology applied to it.

So, unlike the original Lord of the Rings trilogy the Hobbit was shot in 3D and in certain theaters you could view it in 48 frames a second, which is twice the frame rate of all movies you've probably ever seen in your lifetime. That's certainly true for me.

The Not-So-Good.
Watching the Hobbit at the high frame rate was incredibly bothersome to me, especially in the beginning of the movie. As you may know just like the Lord of the Rings the first half of the movie is a lot of talking and exposition. What was so bothersome?

Unnatural movements
At the high frame rate, it looked like everyone was movie twice as fast, even though everyone was moving at a normal pace. If you didn't see it for yourself, trust me it just looked weird.

Unnatural clarity
I just saw the Hobbit yesterday on film (not digital) and although the clarity was not very good, I didn't care. I think partly because I'm accustomed to seeing movies like this. Now that I'm watching most of my movies at digital projection theaters, movies still look like they are movies and that you're watching a pristine print of the movie.

The high frame rate looked too clear. Almost as if you're on the sound stage with them. And that's my point, it feels like you're on a sound stage and not in the actual Shire, which is what I hoped they wanted your experience to be. I remember watching old Dr. Who shows and they were shot on a nice clean sound stage. The problem is that it just looks unnatural.

Here's what I liked. After the 90 minute mark, I got used to the new format. The scenes in the underground caves and caverns, where freaking amazing. The clarity worked so well in these dark environments as opposed to the bright locations of the Shire and Rivendale. It's definitely worth seeing the second half of the movie in this format.

Should you go out and see it at 48 frames a second? If you want to try something new, yes do it. If you want a traditional movie going experience, definitely not. My complaint about 3-D movies today is that after 10 minutes, I don't care if I'm watching 3-D. With HFR, you notice problems right from the beginning and these imperfections become noticeable all throughout the movie. It's not bad, but it's different and noticeably different.

Let me also make a final important point. This is the first movie to incorporate the high frame rate technology. I would not say that this was a failure. I can definitely see that the technology can improve over time. I'm hoping that my complaints will be address in the second movie.

After thoughts on Les Miserables

There was one element of Les Miserables that someone pointed out that I didn't address and that was the fact that all the singing was done live to film as opposed to being prerecorded and lip synced on set.

My thoughts...It's admirable but I don't think it added any value to the movie.  I'm not being negative about it. I appreciate the effort it was cool to see, but at the same time, if you're going to record one of Broadway's best films and preserve it for history, why not have a perfect recording and soundtrack.

This is exactly why I won't be purchasing the soundtrack to the film and will opt for the original London cast recorded. It's perfect and includes all the music from the play.

Also note that the although the singing was done live, the orchestra was added after the fact, so you're not really getting a perfectly live performance.

I wonder if Russell Crowe's performance would be been improve had he been allowed to prerecord in a studio.

All this said, I still stand behind my previous remarks - Anne Hathaway gave a top notch performance of I Dreamed a Dream, Hugh Jackman although not a true tenor brought emotion and passion to his voice, Samantha Barks is an amazing talent and incredibly hot.

When I think about the great movie musicals, I could really care less if they had be sung live or prerecorded. West Side Story, Chicago, Mary Poppins, My Fair Lady, the list goes on and on and I don't think a live performance would have made these movies any better.

Les Miserables - A Honest Review

I'm back from watching Les Miserables with the wife. My background with the Les Mis phenomenon is I saw the stage production many years ago and loved it. I also liked the movie with Liam Neeson. Suffice it to say, I'm a fan of Les Mis and of musical theater in general. So what did I think of the movie.

I loved the movie and being a fan certainly helped. At the same time, this movie will do nothing to convince your other jaded friends who hate watching musicals on film.

Let me address the bad before I address the good. Here are the common complaints of movie musicals.

1. People just break out into song. Yes, that's the whole movie. People singing everything they feel and every last piece of dialogue. There's a seen when Hugh Jackman is trying to escape and he quietly approaches an ally in an open courtyard. He then proceeds to sing his distress in his loud tenor voice.

2. Producers would rather have A-List Hollywood stars that can kind of sing, instead of actual actors who can actually sing. Case in point, Russell Crowe can't sing. He's the weak link in the movie.

3. Schmaltz galore. "Schmaltz" literally means "rendered chicken fat." Basically a series of overdone and over produced love songs and emotional vomiting.

If you have friends who had movie musicals, it would be pointless to tell them, "But then, you've never seen Les Miz!" You'll lose the argument and become a laughing stock to your friends.

To me this movie, represents every complaint man has ever laid against movie musicals all rolled up into one movie. The saving grace for this movie is:

• An amazing story of forgiveness and redemption.
• Incredible music and lyrics, which made the broadway play the best ever.
• Fantastic performances, especially an Oscar-Winning performance from Anne Hathaway and yes, Hugh Jackman.
• Faithful adaptation of the original musical.

Despite the fact that this is a Hollywood Movie Musical, the story, music and performances make it one of the best movies of 2012.

On top of that, I love the fact that this British movie featured an entirely American and Australian cast. Take that England!

Yes, Anne Hathaway delivered an emotional performance as Fantine. She packed a lot of punch in her 20 minutes of screen time in this 2 1/2 hour movie. I cried during her song.

Hugh Jackman was made for the role of Jean Valjean. His voice is good even when he could not quite reach the higher register.

I don't know who Samantha Barks is but she is super hot as Eponine. Pretty face, muscular arms and a four inch waist.

Look, I walked away from the movie glad that I could revisit the performances from the stage play, but it just does not translate from stage to film. You really have to see it live. The main reason this didn't work was there's a suspension of disbelief that works on the stage, but in a movie when the transition of events move too quickly, it makes you question what happened. For example...

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

At the end of the movie, Jean Valjean gets in a carriage to leave Cosette and Marius. The carriage leaves and cuts to the wedding, which immediately cuts to the church where, Jean Valjean is sitting alone in a chair about to die. This all takes place in duration of 15 minutes. How the hell does this happen?

You buy it on stage, but not in a movie.

FINAL WORD. If you're a fan of Les Miserables, like me, or musicals in general you'll love the movie and think it's great and amazing. If you dislike movie musicals for all the right reasons, you will hate Les Miserables.

My Kid's Second Exposure to Gays and Lebians

As a Christian, being for or against Homosexuality is usually a theological discussion than a real life experience, because honestly, most Christians that I know, don't have gay friends. For me that's not true, I have a few gay friends, relatives, closeted and open.

As a father, how exactly do I handle the "gay" topic with my five-year old. That issue was thrust upon me recently and I get the feeling that gay and straights may not like how I handled it.

Last Sunday, I took my daughter to Disneyland and we happen to do almost every Sunday. The traffic into the park was usually heavy and it took move over an hour to park. We entered Disney's California Adventure and whammo, I discover that it's Gay Days at Disneyland. How do I know? 80% of the men in the park are wearing red shirts. 

How would I know this? The Anaheim Angels won their first World Series several years ago. I wore my team's red and white proudly at Walt Disney World during their gay days and I sadly no one hit on me.

Back to today, so my daughter and I walked through the park to go on rides. Every moment, gays and lesbians holding hands, being affectionate and sitting in front of and behind on all the rides.

So how did my daughter respond to the "debauchery" that surrounded her. Simply, she could care less. She just wanted to go on rides and find toys for me to buy her. My moral duty was to just let her go on rights and refuse to buy the toys that she wanted. In fact, that was the only drama I had on this trip. She never asked me why those two women are holding hands, why that guy has his arms around another guy or why did those two dudes kiss. Honestly, I don't even this she noticed...she just wanted to go on rides and eat candy. 

To my Christian friends, I guess you would want me to point out that being gay or lesbian is a sin and God hates that. To be honest, that's not the kind of Christian I want my daughter to be. It would kill me to have her walk up to anyone and start pointing out the sins in their lives. With all my heart, I want her to love others and let God do the judging.

You may also ask, aren't you afraid that gay relationship and marriage will warp her definition of a family. You can talk to her personally, her idea of a family is far from warped. Here's here understanding of family. She has two parents who love her very much. She has aunt, uncles, cousins, grandparents and until recently great grandparents who love her and whom she loves in return. She has aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, who are not even related to her, but she knows they love her very much. That's family. It doesn't make a difference if these people are men or women, she just knows that they are special people in her life and she loves them.

My cousin and his partner are looking to adopt a child. I hope a miracle happens and they do get a chance to adopt. They would make great parents. At five years old, all my daughter will understand that her second cousin will have two parents who love him/her very much.

To my gay friends, I guess you would want me to point out that gay relationships are as normal as straight relationships. C'mon, she's five. She just wants to go on the Ariel ride and buy toys with her dad. To be honest, she's not ready to enter the political world of sexual equality, she just wants to ride rides.

My job, as a father, is to her to love you, gays and lesbians, as God loves you, unconditionally. To treat you as God would have her treat you, as one of God's creations.

So gays and straights, I admit it, I wussed out and didn't discuss with my daughter whether homosexuality is right or wrong. I just wanted to ride rides at Disneyland with my daughter.

Rethinking my stance on gay marriage (maybe)

I'm looking back at my blog and its been a long time since I've written on the subject of Gay Marriage. A few weeks ago President Obama came out in favor of gay marriage.  Maybe I'll write about the politics of gay marriage, but I wanted to respond to an aspect of gay marriage that my Christian friends have brought up on a few occasions.

Simply put, why would I, Alan, an evangelical Christian, be in favor of gay marriage, with the knowledge that gay marriage "displeases" God and legalize "sin."

So Why Homosexuality?

I find it interesting, there are hundreds of thousands of sins in the Bible. Why in the last 4 years have we singled out Homosexuality as the sin Christians will battle publicly and to the point that we will legislate and make a presidential campaign issue.

A friend of mine told me that my support of gay marriage "displeases" God. Also, that if you've read my blog on Gay Marriage, you know that I believe that Christian have done wrong by alienating ourselves from the LGBT community and rather than reaching out to this community we've done far worse by condemning this community at every turn.

Essentially I was "accused" of sacrificing God's definition of marriage in exchange from building a bridge to the gay community (which is not necessarily wrong).

Does my support of gay marriage "displease" God? I know you want to give me a straight answer. Well…I'm not going to give it to you. Instead, I want to point the fingers back at you.

As Christians, we believe in the sanctity of marriage. So much so, that we are spending millions of dollars defending marriage between a man and a woman and defining it as such legally. If marriage is so sacred that we can not legally allow two individuals of the same sex, who love each other to get married. Then we, as Christians, must fight as vigorously to enact laws that violates God's intention for marriage. I've got three to start with:

• Pre-marital sex
• Adultery
• Divorce

Look, fellow believers, I will rejoin the cause of defending marriage, if we work just as hard to enact laws banning pre-marital sex, adultery and divorce. I'm in fact one who can speak to this for I have committed none of these sins in my life. I had sex with only one person, my wife.  I've never cheated on her and I don't plan on divorcing her ever.

So if you want me to help ban gay marriage, I propose that we make it illegal for two single people to have sex before marriage, because this "displeases" God. Since the man is more likely to be the initiator in pre-marital sex, first time offenders will need to attend abstinence courses and for repeat offenders will need to attend sex rehab clinics.

If you want me to help ban gay marriage, I propose that we make it illegal for married people to commit adultery. Since this is one of the ten commandments, the punishment must be especially harsh. Jail time for men. For women, we'll create an adultery registry and we'll just add them to this national database. Better yet, why not slap a giant red "A" on their clothing. Lest we forget, adultery "displeases" God.

If you want me to help ban gay marriage, I propose that we make divorce illegal. By law, we will nullify all divorces across this national. Biblically though, if you divorced due to adultery then you're free and clear, but then you're under arrest for committing adultery. If you are divorced, your marriage with your first spouse is now restored. If you are remarried, your current marriage is null and void and you must immediately move back in with your first spouse. Any children born in these now nullified marriages will be branded as "B@st@rds."

Excuse me now as I remove my tongue from my cheek. To my Christian friends, I have a question for you. Why is it so easy for us to condemn gays and lesbians for being gays and lesbians to the point that we create laws banning them from getting married, when at the same time refuse to legislate the sins that we Christians are more likely to commit?

Think about it. Christians are more likely to displease God by having pre-marital sex, commit adultery or divorce our spouses than we are of committing a homosexual act. Don't you think that by creating laws banning pre-marital sex, adultery and divorce, we would not do it?

When we stand there supporting proposition 8, how exactly are we not hypocrites?

I'd like to thank everyone for sending me the Bible verses condemning homosexuality. Believe me, I've known them all decades ago. At the same time, you know the verses regarding pre-marital sex, adultery, and divorce.

I'm going to end this blog the same way, I ended all the other ones. Christians end this war against homosexuals now! Stop this legalistic battle, we're fighting and be the salt and light to the world that God has called us to be.

-----

Epilogue. I've been asked many times, do I believe that homosexuality is a sin? I'm going to answer the question this way. I believe the Bible is God's inspired word and that it is both infallible and inerrant. I believe that the way Christians treat the LGBT community is abhorrent and makes God weep. More to come.

Freedom of Speech and the Abortion Debate

So, I'll just say this and you can let it settle in. My name is Alan and I'm pro-life. I believe life begins at conception.

Hello...you OK? So what are you feeling? Do you hate me? Has this one statement changed your entire opinion of me? Can we still be friends?

I'm more or less picking up from my last blog on Freedom of Speech. The world today has taken an Us vs. Them mentality. And I forgot to mention that I'm a born-again Christian. Have I lost you?

Since getting involved in Improvisational Comedy and surrounding myself with democrats, atheists and pseudo-communists, I've always been considered an outsider. He's a great guy, except for the fact that he's a Republican. I was not liked for a long time when Bush beat Kerry.

So let's talk Abortion. Here's the problem with where the debate has taken us. The two sides of the debate are apples and oranges.

For the apples, life begins at conception, therefore abortion is murder.

For the oranges, women have the right to choose and no one has the right to control what a woman does with her body.

Do you see it? Two different sides of the same coin. One side focuses on the definition of "life" and the other focuses on the definition of "choice." Pro-lifers completely ignore choice because "life" is sacred. Pro-choicers completely ignore the beginning of life, because choice is a right.

So because we are so entrenched in our positions, our only form of debate is mockery and ridicule. From the right, you're nothing but baby-killers. On the left, you want to enslave women.

Here's the problem for the left and the right. Somehow we feel that even if we entertain the other side's point of view, we are betraying our own beliefs. But in honest debate, you have to have to consider the idea that maybe the other side has a point. Maybe there is merit in their beliefs.

To the Pro-Choices, I challenge you with this question, "if life does not begin at conception, when does it begin?" Embryos, fetus, baby. Even you know that an infant passing through the birth canal does not constitute life. So when? Honestly, I can't see why partial-birth abortion is acceptable to anyone.

To the Pro-Lifer, you have to consider do you want to live in a world where the government can dictate what you can or can't do with your own body. Do you really believe in Forced Birth? What about rape and incest? Read the story of David and Bathsheba. There's a Biblical equivalent to abortion in that story.

Before I end, let me tell you my personal take on legalized abortion.  I'm Pro-Life and proudly so. I would like to do away with abortion, but I don't believe I can do it through legislation. They only way to win the abortion debate is to lower the demand for abortion. How? Responsible discussions of sex to teens. Awareness of the growing number of parents want to adopt children.

That said, Can we bring back the art of debate where we look for common ground and not to win.

Are We Losing Our Freedom of Speech?

Slowly. Little by little. We are giving up small pieces of our freedom of speech. Not only, our freedom of speech but our freedom to believe in whatever we want, right or wrong.

It's not like we're going to jail for our beliefs but we are losing our jobs, we are publicly shunned and ridiculed because we refuse to believe in what is considered main stream thought.

If you're honest about debate, just want the news and televisions shows. For example, I've come out against the way Christians are treating homosexuals in their words and deeds, but at the same time, Christian should have the right to believe in their own convictions.

Recently in Riverside, pressure was placed on a teacher for stating she thought homosexuality was a sin. Is that worthy to lose your job and livelihood. Now the debate has turned to birth control. Catholic organizations are being pressured to provide birth control to employees against Catholic convictions. Again, I have no problem with birth control, but why should catholics be penalized for following their beliefs.

Here's an example of such politically correct bullying: Susan G. Komen and Planned Parenthood. In short, Susan G. Komen withdrew financial support to Planned Parenthood. Read the story and tell me how SGK was not bullied back into financially supporting Planned Parenthood. How exactly is this not legal extortion?

I'm always concerned about public debate. Why, because it is no longer a debate. The left and right have become so polarized that rather than hearing the opposing side, we've become comfortable with mockery and ridicule. Our society is lost once we accept the us vs. them style of debate.

I always believed in healthy debate, understanding the opposing viewpoint and then finding common ground. The problem today is that if we truly believe that I'm right and your wrong. Then the only way to win an argument is to kill your opponent. The last time this happened was the civil war. Is our only future, a cultural civil war?

Making Fast Work of Jury Duty

I got called into jury duty today. They were kind enough to let me travel cross town to Newport Beach and make me be there by 8:15.

Thanks guys, not only do I have to travel far but now I have to drag the kid out of bed an hour early. Needless to say, I got there late. I arrived at 8:30 and was done at 9:30.

If you ever get called to jury duty service, here's a few hints. If they need to Pre-screen you for a potential juror, they will ask you to line up so that they an scan your badge. Make sure that you're the last in line. They will always fill up the needed spaces long before your turn in line.

Another thing I learned is that if you make it on a jury and the prosecutor asks a question, "do you think driving above the speed limit is legal because it's the speed of the flow of traffic?" Answer "yes." they kick you off.

An hours worth of work is not bad for jury duty. I've done my time as a juror once and I no longer thinks its interesting to participate in a trial.

Back to Blogging - What Have I Been Up To?

Like many of my past blog posts, I've stated that I want to get back to blogging more. I won't make that promise because I'll probably wait another year be blogging again.

Let me take a moment and update you on where I'm at with my life. One year ago, my cousin and I have been working solid trying to start an improv comedy theater. In that time we have actually been able to do that.

Quick plug, if you find yourself in North Orange County, stop by the Secret City Comics Society in Downtown Fullerton for what OC Weekly has dubbed the Best Improv Group of 2011. www.secretcitycomedy.com

As humbling as that is, this little project of ours has sucked up a lot of my time. Now that things are rolling along, I have come to the realization that I need to get a real job next year. The question is doing what? I have no freakin' idea.

I'm not excited about getting behind a desk again. I like doing free lance work, but I'm a horrible sales person. I like teaching. I like public speaking. I've thought about working in ministry again, but my support of gay marriage and the homosexual community has pretty much killed any chance of working for God.

I'm content at the moment. So check back and let's see where I am.

My Disappointment with Justice League no.1

OK. I'll admit it. I'm a Marvel guy. I read comics books when I was Junior High and stopped reading in the late 80's when I went away to college.

Now that I'm older, I decided to get back into comics. When it comes to DC Comics, I only read Teen Titans in the 80's.

So now that DC has decided to relaunch with the New 52, I figure its a good time to see if it's worth jumping into the new DC Universe.

Sadly, I'm a little disappointed with Justice League #1. Why? High expectations and unmet expectations.

From a business standpoint, DC has to bring in new readers. They need Marvel readers like me and they need the general public to give comics books a chance. In my opinion, they failed with the release of Justice League. Here's why...

If I'm going to jump into the DC Universe, I need to be wowed when I read the first issue. The cover of Justice League is great, you entice me with a star studded cover and only produce Batman and Green Lantern. I will say I like the story, but because I only saw two main characters, the end of the first issue left me wanting. I mean, how many issues will I have to buy in order to see all of the League? How much money will I have to invest to get my payoff?

Here's what I might have done. Start this issue a year into the relaunch. Show me all the characters doing what they do and then use the individual comic lines of each character fill in the gaps of the first year. I hate the fact that I have to buy 4 to 5 issues before I can decide whether it's worth following.

I'll try a few of the other titles, but DC had a chance to put their best foot forward. They did not with Justice League.

I'm not going to say DC failed with the relaunch, but I will say they squandered an opportunity.

Sharing the Gospel with the Kid

At some point in my child's life, I would love her to accept Christ into her heart. Well, I think I'm almost there.

Me: Who lives in your heart?

The Kid: Jesus!

Me: Who lives in mommy's heart?

The Kid: Mary.

Me: Who lives in my heart?

The Kid: Jesus' friend.

Me: Who lives in Lexy's (the dog) heart?

The Kid: The donkey.

I think we're pretty close.

Unions - The New Double Standard

Please tell me where I'm wrong in this whole Wisconsin union battle.

Union's sole source of income is membership dues. They take member
dues and spend millions supporting Democratic candidates. These
candidate then win the election and in return negotiate worker
contacts that the state can't afford. Democrats agree to these deals
because they received contributions from the unions.

Is it me, or do you not see a conflict of interest? It's almost as bad
as starting a fake war so that Halliburton can receive millions in
defense contracts.

-----------

Second point. Unions are talking about it's members being stripped of
rights. That's funny. What rights are they talking about? I don't
remember ever having the right to collective bargaining when I had a
job. I should be so lucky.

Sent from my iPad

Things To Do On Long Car Trips

Today I took the kid to my Grandmother's house for Chinese New Year. The trip is about an hour long and I decided to bring my wife's iTouch with us. Why? Because I can load it with Caillou and she can watch a few episodes on the way. Worked like a charm. She watches movies and I can listen to Howard Stern without her hearing anything inappropriate.

It got me thinking about how I handled long trips in the car when I was a kid. I'll tell you we did a lot of long trips. Every Sunday, we'd be at my grandparents for dinner. That's one hour. After dinner, we'd drive my aunt to her dorm room at UCLA, then home, that's a good 90 minutes. Then twice a year, we'd travel 6 hours to San Francisco.

There's was nothing to do in the car. The radio was alway set to the news or classical music. BORING! Reading made us car sick and with six people in the car, it was alway cramped and uncomfortable.

I remember only one thing that made the time pass quickly. It was a device that we called the "Tape Recorder." Good old tape recorder. It was one of those small handhelds. I used the tape recorder three ways:

1. Bootlegging music. Long ago KFI was a top 40 station. In the morning was the comedy duo, Lohmen and Barkley. I'd just record the show and music onto the tape. I could edit out songs that I didn't like and have 60 or 90 minutes of musical pleasure. Illegal yes, but it provided monoral bliss.

2. Bootlegging movies. Junior high was the only time in my life that we had cable television. There was this movie channel called Showtime. I decided to tape record the sound from movies on Showtime. My ambitious plan only allowed me to record only one movie. Only one? Yes, most movies where rated R and I never had the time to sit for 90 minutes and record uninterrupted. My parents usually wanted to watch something else. What was that movie?

The World's Greatest Lover

Starred Gene Wilder as a wannabe Rudy Valentino. I can still remember bits of audio from that movie. Part of me still wishes, I had recorded The Bad News Bears.

3. My Own Radio Show. One day, I discovered that if I plugged our headphones into the microphone input of our stereo, I had a fully functional microphone. This began my first foray into radio broadcasting. I'd grab my parents 70's music albums and spin the hits. I must have made at least 10 broadcasts.

With the handheld recorder, I would also record shows on those long trips. It annoyed my family. They hated to hear me make them and worse, they hated hearing it over again in the same trip.

Thank God for portable DVD players and Satellite radio. But at the same time, this passive viewing of entertainment really does nothing to stimulate creativity in my child, like it did for me 35 years ago.

Union Hypocrisy

Here's a fascinating segment from the Daily Show. It exposes Union Hypocrisy against Walmart. Essentially, Unions hire temporary workers to walk picket lines for them. They are paid minimum wage without benefits and when the job ends, they no longer can ear a wage.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Working Stiffed
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Obama's Promise to Save Homes

Source: Associated Press

In 2009, President Obama signed a law to help homeowners save their homes from foreclosure. Must like other federal programs, the law was meant to help but in facts helps very few people. Worse, it gave hopes to millions of home owners and instead left them hopeless and resentful of the federal government and President Obama.

Here's the facts.

• President Obama promised to save 4 million homes whose home value declined in comparison to the principal of the mortgage.
• Only 449,000 homes have been saved thanks to this problem.
• As of August, 680,000 homeowners were denied new loans. This is a 51% disqualification rate.
• This month, only 18,000 homeowners are bothering to apply. Compare it to the 100,000 applicants in the first month the program was available.

This is just another lesson of how useless it is to count on the government to get the economy going again. They pledge millions of dollars but the requirements are impossible to meet for the average American.

Something else to consider, all this stimulus money is earmarked for government and public works jobs. That means if you want to work, you have to work for the government or for the powerful unions.

Obama's Failed Stimulus Package

When Obama first became president, he created and signed into law the largest spending bill in the nation's history. It in fact doubled the national deficit in one fell swoop.

He made certain promises too. He told us that if we passed this spending bill the nation's unemployment rate would not go above 8%. The current national employment rate is at 9.6%. He also said that it would create jobs.

To my Democrat friends, I have to ask you two questions. The first is, he promised the employment rate would not go above 8%. What happened? Why did it go up? There's only two answers you can give. The first is Obama was wrong. This means that from an economic policy standpoint Obama doesn't know what to do about the economy. The other is that Obama is a liar. He just wants to spend money and will say anything and promise anything to get it. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's incompetent.

This is why we need to remove Democrats from power, because they have no idea how to get us out of this economic mess. No comes word that he wants to propose another stimulus bill. All they can tell us is that George Bush and the Republicans got us into this mess. Well, they're half right. The economy began to tank in 2007 when the Democrats gain full control of Congress. The problem here is that George W. Bush signed every single spending bill so that he can continue to fight the war in Iraq. To me this will taint my opinion of him. He made the problem by not limiting the Democratic Congress.

This is my second question. Why did the first stimulus bill fail? It's failed because Americans were led to believe that the government would be responsible if they were given billions of dollars. If I gave private industry and government each $1 billion, who would spend it better? If you say the government then you don't know much about the government.

Let's take a look at the city of Los Angeles. According to the International Business Times (and reported nationwide), Los Angeles received $111 million from the 2009 stimulus bill. The money was earmarked to create jobs. Today, the number of jobs it created and saved was 55. That's over $2 million a job. The Los Angeles Department of Public Works received $70 million from the Stimulus Package. They created and save only 45 jobs.

Listen my Democrat friends and please tell me this does not disturb you. I can guarantee that if you gave the "rich" as you call them $181 million, you can damn well be sure they would create more than 100 jobs.

The only response that I hear from Democrats is that the city didn't get the money fast enough or this is George W. Bush's fault. Please someone tell me why they think based on these facts that President Obama knows how to fix the economy.

Mr. President let me tell you how to fix the economy. STOP EFFIN' AROUND WITH THE ECONOMY. That's right stay away. Stop trying to take over Wall Street. Stop trying to tax us for carbon emissions. STAY THE HELL AWAY.

All signs show that the economy is ready to come back. The problem is that no one wants to hire new employees because they don't know how much more money you'll take away because you want to raise taxes on the rich and two, Obamacare is driving up the costs of health care.

I'm just a simple guy and any pragmatic person when given the facts can see that you don't have a clue. We're tired of you blaming Bush. Fix the problem.

TNA is going in the wrong direction.

I know it's been a long time since I've written. Things will change now that I have a little more time and with the election season coming up, I'm sure I'll have a lot to say.

I'm going start a little light on the subject matter. As a fan of professional wrestling one of my greatest memories of wresting was the Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW. I loved the real drama and competition that existed between the two companies.

As we know, WWE won the war and bought WCW. This left WWE as pretty much the wrestling monopoly. Now comes TNA. They started as a Pay-Per-View only show and then moved to Spike TV. This little company was an upstart featuring Jeff Jarret as the figure head.

Last week after watching TNA, I pretty much had it. To me, here's the main difference between WWE and TNA:

WWE has youth and excitement.

TNA has the elderly and not much more.

I'm watching TNA and I'm seeing my heroes of the past working away the final years of their career. Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Mick Foley, Kevin Nash, and the original members of ECW.

Back in the Monday Night Wars, WCW stole the top talent from the WWF. TNA picks up the used up talent from WWE.

Don't get me wrong, I love seeing my heroes of the past. But at some point it gets pathetic. Although I will admit it's pretty pathetic seeing Bret Hart in a WWE ring as well.

TNA has all these story lines where wrestling legends overshadow the young, original talent from TNA's beginning. AJ Stiles, deservedly, is given a top position in the company, but what happened to everyone else, like Christopher Daniels and why are they intent on destroying Samoa Joe's career.

I'm not seeing anyone new making through the ranks of TNA.

The WWE on the other hand is highlighting their new talent, while at the same time mixing in the veterans. Case in point...Wade Barrett and the Nexus. When did you ever see a group of 9 first year rookies headline a main event. Almost every member of the Nexus deserves to be in the WWE, especially Daniel Bryan, who is undoubtedly exciting to watch.

I know that TNA owes Spike TV ratings, but you're no longer going to draw an audience by resurrecting the past. TNA's problem has always been it's weak ability to tell a story.

And the Diva's are much hotter than the Knockouts with the exception of Tara (vah vah voom).

Double Standard: Helen Thomas and Israel

Another entry in the Double Standard. How is it that Democrats get a free pass on Anti-Semitic comments? What Conservative could get away with making the same statement as Helen Thomas. "Get the hell out of Palestine!"

Wrapping My Head Around Lost

So here is my understanding of what Lost was all about.

There's this island. It's a special island that lives and breathes through a series of intense electromagnetic wells. At the center of the island is its heart.

The island selects a guardian to protect its heart.

A long time ago, the guardian was a woman who we'll call Mother. Bored with her job, she happened upon two babies and decided to raise them as the new guardian. The babies where Jacob and the Man in Black. Being the manipulative mother that she was, she gave both sons certain power. For both they received eternal life, but for Jacob, she gave him the ability to set the rules for which he could govern the island.

The Man-in-Black banishes himself to live with the visiting humans. He discovers that they are evil and want to use the power of the island for their own good. The Man-in-Black allies himself with the visitors in order to use their knowledge of how to harness the island as a way to get off the island.

Mother, disturbed with the news, stops the Man-in-Black and purges the island of the visitors. Thus stopping their efforts. A fight occurs. Mother dies leaving Jacob as the new guardian and the Man-in-Black becomes the smoke monster and determined to see Jacob fail as the guardian. His mission is to kill the island.

Jacob now in charge has set the rules of a new game. There are two objectives: one, prevent the smoke monster from killing the island. Bring more and more visitors to the island to show that man is not inherently evil but can make the right choices.

Jacob brings Richard Alpert, Danielle Rousseau, Widmore and Gang, the Dharma Initiative, Yemi, Desmond, Oceanic Flight 815.

Interestingly enough, the Dharma Initiative is the most evil of the group. As scientists, they've been able to find each of the individual electromagnetic wells and built research stations on top of them. Each station has its own uniques purpose.

At one point they breached a well (The Incident). As a result they had to build the Swan Station on top and punched numbers into every 108 minutes and this caused all pregnant women on the island to die during child birth.

Because the Dharma initiative was getting close to finding the heart of the island. Jacob was forced to purge the island of the Dharma initiative and start over with Oceanic 815.

He carefully selected candidates and got them on the flight. Many of these selected candidates lived sad and troubled lives and they were often met with tragic deaths.

Soon the candidates, were whittled down to Jack and Hurley. After killing the Smoke Monster, Hurley becomes the new guardian after Jack sacrifices himself to resurrect the island from death.

With Hurley in charge and able to set the rules, he honors his friends from Oceanic 815 and especially Jack because he felt that Jacob had really screwed up their lives to play this stupid game with his brother.

Hurley creates the flash sideways. In the Flash Sideways, he gives each of his friends a chance for one week to be with the person they loved. Sayid and Shannon, Sun, Jin and Jeon, Hurley and Libby, Sawyer and Juliet, Ben, Danielle and Alex. Every except Jack and Kate. As Jack moves on from life to death, Hurley brings everyone together to let Jack know that he didn't screw up their lives but made their lives better. Jack even had a son David to show that he was not his father.