American Kryptonite:

“It’s like the Manifest Destiny all over again, except instead of consuming everything in their path for God, they did so with the same fervor and sense of entitlement for their new god: themselves.”

I have a difficult time with war. I hate seeing suffering, by anyone. There is that human part of everyone that wants to see the bad guy get what they have coming to them. This feeling was brought to view when the news came across that Saddam’s two sons were found and killed in a raid yesterday.

I realize that certain measures are necessary and that if certain people are take aren’t taken out of power, they will continue to abuse it. For example, I am supportive of my country taking down Saddam’s regime. What I do have a difficult time with is that during yesterday’s raid, a 12 year old boy was killed... believed to be Saddam’s grandson.

Having a burden for the youth of the world, hearing that makes me a little upset. Granted, it is very possible that being of that lineage, he grew up to hold the same this true that his father and grandfather did/do and had the potential to become the next Saddam or Hitler or whatever. I also know that when boys grow up in a certain situation, they tend to follow the example led by their father.

My hope is that everything that has been said is true, as far as the urgency for removing Saddam’s regime. I have heard all the stories about his sons torturing and mutilating people... maybe God used the United States military to take them down. I often struggle with that thought to.

(Disclaimer: I’m not Anti-American, because I am one and I enjoy my freedoms. I also have great respect for the men and women that have died to keep those freedoms alive. What I am against are those things which stray from the principles that this country was founded on. Believe it or not, this country WAS founded on Christian principles. The following paragraph or so is just a few pieces of the truth)

It isn’t like we, the United States, are a totally moral, God-centered nation any more. Look at the track record, the cheat and slaughter of North American Indians out of land... Roe vs. Wade... Homosexual and other immorality toleration.... these are just to name a few. So I guess that the United States isn’t really that close to living by God’s principles.

Then too, neither were Babylon or Assyria.

“In America it’s wonderful all you have to do is fake it. Own everything you want, all you have to do is take it. Live for today, don’t think about tomorrow. Have a good time in America-Gomorrah.”

Power Outages and The Easily Amused:

Ok, so I didn’t write anything about last night and I have been falling behind on my blogs, so I guess that I’ll just type about some stuff that happened yesterday. If you don’t live within the boundaries of PA or don’t watch the news, you may not have heard about the weather that we just got hit with.

Yesterday seemed like a normal summer’s day. It was bright, sunny, and warm. Because Sunday night’s plans didn’t work out (those plans being going to Weaver’s Ice Cream shop), we planned on doing the Weaver’s thing Monday night. So the basic plan was this: meet at Weaver’s at 8 pm, have ice cream and such, then go out to Kim’s for some soccer and a bonfire.

However, plans changed at about 5. I went out to my van after checking out and it started to rain....hard....Now that would have been fine, but the wind was just insane! The van was rocking... So I decided that I was just going to go back into the building for a while.

I was stranded until about 6ish and proceeded, with the plan. I ended up at Weaver’s at around 7:50 only to discover that power was out from Watsontown to Allenwood. So I waited until everyone else showed up... I knew that Dan, Anna, and Kim, but Josh showed up as well, yet Kim didn’t. So that was cool.

However, we were left with a dilemma: what were we going to do now? We had come up with the thought of going to Dunkin Donuts, yet I had the crazy idea of going to Rita’s Italian Ice. Everyone was down with that. So Dan ran Anna home to leave her vech. there and meeting us at Rita’s while Josh and I went to Lewisburg to get gas and meet them at Rita’s. However, once we arrived at Rita’s, and realized a sick irony.... Rita’s power was out as well.

Our path led us back to Dunkin Donuts. Wow. I haven’t laughed that hard in a while. Our banter and discussion went from India’s McDonald’s CurryMcChicken to G.I. Joe the International Hero (with the package still baring the red, white, and blue stripes...France maybe?). “Trained in the dojo of deliberation with the karate chop of negotiation and antiwar - pea soup blend.”

So needless to say, our discussion was hilarious. However, what I came home to wasn’t. Our power was out... 3 hours AFTER the storm hit. Didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Oh well, I guess in this situation that you just have to play the cards you’re dealt and don’t let the guy across the table know you have a crappy hand.

The Weekend Report:

Sorry everyone that I wasn’t able to write this weekend, it was slightly busy. All day Saturday, I ran around with the family running different errands and such. Along with that day, I searched for the guitar amp with potential for future purchase as well as a jack plate for my guitar (p.s.: the one presently in my guitar died... not happy.) I played through a nice little all tube amp.... small amp, BIG sound. I liked it. No luck on the jack plate. GRR!

Later Saturday evening, I was supposed to play guitar and hang out with Matt and Anna, but Matt never showed up. I ended up teaching Anna some guitar stuff and just hang out. It is great to have friends that you don’t have to worry about anything being misunderstood as something more than it is.

Sunday, I rushed around trying to get my India movie burned to a DVD. It was great fun to put together and know that it is finally done. That being said, I guess those who know what I was putting it together for, I preached last night. It was super cool. I was able to share my a minimal amount of what God did in India while we were there. I just hope and pray that lives were touched and things went well.