My little brothers have been pestering me to update my blog (I think they’re my only avid readers), so here’s an update.

I’ve been ridiculously busy with my internet business stuff for the past month, which is why I’ve neglected this blog. I’ve been feverishly working on some new projects, and things are going well.

Christmas was great, New years was nice.

We went to my cousin’s wedding back east. It was a happy time spent with family, the wedding was lovely, but the temperature was too cold for me. I do like the trees, and the New England homes… but too cold. Maybe I’m just getting old. Driving home from Denver International Airport, I couldn’t help but notice that this windswept, treeless desert of a state we call Colorado just feels like home.

This just in from International Christian Concern (www.persecution.org):

Saudi $20 Million Promotes Islam while Covering Over Persecution against Christians

(December 16, 2005) - Saudi Arabian Prince Allaweed’s $20 million donation to Harvard and Georgetown for Islamic studies and to promote Islamic/Christian understanding is an act of supreme hypocrisy and duplicity. Perhaps the only thing more shameful than the Prince offering these gifts with a straight face is Harvard and Georgetown’s gracious acceptance of them.

At home, Saudi Arabia has a zero tolerance policy towards any religion except Islam. It has a long record of arresting, imprisoning and torturing those involved in Christianity. Just ten years ago, Christians were even subject to execution.

In Saudi Arabia, children are indoctrinated throughout their educational journey in the hatred of Jews, Christians and the United States. At the same time, Saudis spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the United States for positive press and for influence in the United States Congress. Their message is that they are America’s constant friends.

Behind the United States’ back, however, the Saudis have been spreading hatred around the world. Anywhere Islamic radicalism and violence are present – from Nigeria to Sudan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Indonesia – the hand of the Saudis is evident. They have spent billions for mosques, Islamic boarding schools, and Imams in these countries and elsewhere, including in the United States. Their money is an inroad for their hatred and philosophical control. Their aim is to spread their hatred, period.

In the United States, the Saudis distributed Islamic materials through their embassies that instructed new immigrant Muslims not to mix, greet, or become involved with Jews, Christians, or any other infidels. These booklets instruct visitors and immigrants to hate Americans. In fact, the Saudi government forbids Muslims from becoming American citizens, joining the U.S. military, or supporting Americans in any way.

Mayor Giuliani chose not to accept gifts from Saudi Arabia for the rebuilding of lower Manhattan post-9/11. Georgetown and Harvard would be wise to do the same if they wish to take a stand in keeping with their name and status.

As far as the prince is concerned, we would suggest that if he truly wishes to make a difference in Islamic-Christian relations that he should start at home with the cessation of arrests and beatings of Christians. If he wants Americans to learn more about Islam in a positive light, he should revise the educational materials that Saudis are raised on that teach them to hate the Jew, the Christian, and the American.

I received this as a forwarded “viral” email today. It’s obviously a one-sided perspective, but nevertheless seems to contain some truth about the beliefs behind Progressive Insurance, and I feel the ACLU is Anti-Christian to the point that we should not support organizations who support the ACLU. This is from Donald E. Wildmon of the American Family Association:

In one of his recent columns, Chuck Colson relates the following story.

In a Texas classroom, children were told to draw a tracing of their foot, and then put a message on the drawing. One little girl wrote “Jesus Loves Me” on hers. What happened next shows the abysmal state of religious tolerance in America.

As Fox news anchor John Gibson relates in his new book, The War on Christmas, the child’s teacher ripped the tracing off the board. “Don’t you ever do this again,” she said. The little girl burst into tears.

When her outraged father called the school, nervous officials told the child to make another tracing. She did so—but this time, instead of scrawling “Jesus Loves Me,” she drew a tiny cross that was so small it was almost invisible.

Behind nearly every such incident you will find the ACLU. According to the New York Times, Peter Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance, believes in the mission and work of the ACLU so much that he gave them $8.5 million.

Chairman Lewis’ gift helps the ACLU promote their anti-Christmas agenda such as:

- Removing nativity scenes from public property
- Banning songs such as Silent Night from schools
- Refusing to allow students to write about the Christian aspect of Christmas in school projects
- Renaming Christmas break Winter break
- Refusing to allow a city sponsored Christmas parade to be called a Christmas parade
- Not allowing a Christmas tree in a public school
- Renaming a Christmas tree displayed on public property a Holiday tree

In addition to their war on Christmas, the ACLU uses gifts like that from Chairman Lewis to:

- Sue states to force them to legalize homosexual marriage
- Force libraries to remove porn filters from their computers
- Sue the Boy Scouts to force them to accept homosexuals as scout leaders
- Help legalize child pornography
- Legalize live sex acts in bars in Oregon
- Protect the North American Man Boy Love Association whose motto is “sex by eight or it is too late”
- Censor student led prayer at graduation
- Remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance
- Remove “In God We Trust” on our currency

Recommended action: If you have a Progressive Insurance policy, cancel it. If you don’t have a Progressive policy, let Chairman Lewis know you will not be buying one. (We recommend you do not purchase Allstate Insurance. We will explain our recommendation in a future letter.)

Click here if you have a Progressive policy
https://secure.afa.net/afa/afapetition/signpetition.asp?id=1490

Click here if you do not have a Progressive policy
https://secure.afa.net/afa/afapetition/signpetition.asp?id=1500

Extremely important! Please forward this to your family and friends. The vast majority of them probably aren’t aware of Chairman Lewis’ gift to the ACLU.

Thanks for caring enough to get involved.

Sincerely,

Don

Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association

Well….you heard the man–stop helping the ACLU outlaw Christmas, and go cancel your Progressive policy!

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Today I got my home phone bill from Qwest, and found out I got “slammed” by a long distance company called USBI. In case you’re not in the loop, slamming is when they change your long distance provider without your permission.

If you go to any search engine and do a search for “USBI long distance” you will see that they have a long list of complaints ranging from slamming to other types of fraud, and I didn’t see anything in the first page of results that suggested they might even be a legitimate company.

I was charged $5.00 by Qwest for making the switch, and $5.15 by USBI for their monthly fee.

To top it all off, my long distance account is supposed to be “locked” by Qwest so that this sort of thing can’t happen. That means that USBI actually impersonated me to get the switch, or someone on Qwest’s side is in on it. Based on my previous and current experience with Qwest, I’m guessing the latter.

Look…don’t even get me started on Qwest because it will only raise my blood pressure to unsafe levels. I’ll have to save that story for another blog entry. All I can say is that the Qwest “Spirit of Service” and their “Promise of Value” are an ironic joke when it comes to taking care of their small business customers. If anyone from Qwest ever happens upon this blog and wants me to change it, tell Vice President of Marketing Mark Pitchford to give me a call and I’ll see what I can do. I once wasted an entire day trying to contact him about the three “promise-filled” letters he mailed to me.

According to Qwest customer service, it’s “not possible” to contact Mr. Pitchford. I am sure it will also not be possible to have them reverse the charges they just scammed me for on my long distance bill, but at least it’s only $10.15…plus another $5.15 for next month’s bill since I’m sure it’s too late to cancel…not to mention a cancellation fee from Qwest…and a couple hours wasted on the phone trying to get it taken care of….hmmmm, maybe I’ll just let those fraudulent scammers at USBI have my money.

One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, that’s what. From SPACE.com:

The Hubble Space Telescope has caught the most detailed view of the Crab Nebula, revealing the intricate epitaph of a long-dead star.

The nebula spans a patch of space six light-years across and has proved an attractive target for professional and amateur astronomers alike. One light-year is the distance light travels in one year, about 5.8 trillion miles (9.7 trillion kilometers).

Wispy filaments, primarily of hydrogen, weave through the Crab Nebula, at the center of which sits a neutron star that spins 30 times per second.

What does a youth pastor with too much time on his hands do? A great spoof of Sir Mixalot’s Baby Got Back. A great viral video which seems to have made its way around the web, but I just learned of it today…

http://www.whiteboydj.com/babygotbook.html

If you want to download a bigger-screen version you may be able to here (we’ll see how long this lasts before the University of Illinois realizes they’re blowing bandwidth by hosting it)…
https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/cdchen/shared/book.wmv

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Feeling somewhat inspired, I decided to make a painting this weekend. I used acrylic on a 16×20 pre-stretched canvas. Having been accustomed to oil paints, the acrylic was a nice change (no dizzying smell, no mess). However, the particular acrylics I used were too transparent, so I ended up going back over some of the yellows with oil…so technically I guess it’s a mixed-media painting. I painted the entire thing with one fanbrush–not that it counts for anything.

A bit of the painting is cut off in the photo due to not taking the picture quite straight-on.

The ironic thing about this painting is that I decided to change its orientation after I finished it. I had originally painted it horizontally, but just before signing it, I concluded that I liked it better vertically. So I did a 90-degree rotate and signed it. There was a time when I would have considered such a move to be in disregard to the integrity of the work, but I’ve learned that art often involves looking beyond what you first see, and looking for a better perspective even when the current view is “good”. By forcing yourself to move beyond what it good, you can often find something better. In this case it’s highly subjective, so you might like the painting better horizontally, or not at all! Here was the original orientation…

The annual Christmas tree cutting is one of my favorite days of the year. Beyond a fun tradition, I like to think of it as more of a “hunt”, and I take pride in finding the “best” tree each year. This year was no exception…it was a glorious day in the mountains, and I dressed in camo to make sure I could sneak up on that perfect tree. Our family tradition is further typified by the using of an extraordinarily dull hatchet, which increases the sportiness of the event–although I have to admit one of our family friends won the prize this year for taking his beast of a tree with a pocket knife.

That’s not our tree behind us, but we did find it nearby.