podcasting

if you have not checked out podcasting, which are broadcasts you can download to your i-pod or mp3 player, I would highly recommend them. I do not listen to the radio enough to know when things like the Al Franken or Randi Rhoads show are on, but with podcasting I do not have to worry about this. when they update, i-tunes sends me the new show.

Sen. John Edwards two America's movement has podcast, video blogs and text blogs avaiable. I am encouraged to see him continuing to talk about poverty and not just take a corporate job somewhere as many unelected officals do.

big change at church

I realize that my blog may have become too much just politcal ramblings and not enough about other things in my life. for example I have not yet wrote about a big change at church I found out about on Mon. Our senior pastor Cal is leaving effective the end of Aug. after 16 years at the church. He was the organizing pastor and has done lots of wonderful things for Plymouth Presbyterian. He is uncertain as to what he wants to do next, but has been restless for a change and therefore is taking this leap of faith. I wonder how many of us would have the courage to leave a wondeful community/ministry for the unknown. I appauld Cal, I so happy he is doing what is right for him and wish he all the best as he discerns God's call for him. I know the next few years we will face many challenges as we go through this transistion but I think it is a very healthy thing for this church.

30 days on FX and dancing rabbits

last night I was flipping channels and came across a show I enjoy when I catch it 30 days it is from the guy who brought us supersize me and the premise is people are but in a new evironment/situation for 30 days to see how they are effected. For example one guy lived with a musilm community for 30 days.

the episode last night talked about energy and the environment and took two citizens of New York City and had them live for thirty days at a community that is off the grid in Missouri called dancing rabbit. this community is a co-op that grows their own food (most are vegans) uses solar power and fire for energy, runs cars on bio-diesel or veggie oil and builds homes out of straw.
While I don't think many people could live they way they do, they raise some interesting points and I thnk education is thier main point for doing this. One example was if every home in the US changed one light to the energy saving compact florsessennt bulbs, one whole power plant could be shut down as it would not be needed. jjust think how easy it would be to change the light bulbs in your home, at work, etc....

what are Blogs for?

one of my youth told me today that blogs are meant to be personal, for a group of friends. he was questioning the blog I have started for the youth group and if it was right for a youth group to have a blog. So I ask the question what is a blog for?

2005 Plymouth PC rummage sale

DSCN0630
Originally uploaded by scdobo.

alot of stuff, alot of volunteers and ,many of bargin hunters led to another successful rummage sale. it was great to see old friends, meet church members, work with other church members. looking forward to this annual tradtion next year.

life at church crazy lately

Things at work have been crazy lately for a number of resasons, first there has been constant activity during the day the last two weeks leading up to the rummage sale. it is amazing how much stuff people have to sell and how much of it sold on Sat. despite the rain. then Cal one of our pastors lost his 94 year old mother last week, Susan our other pastor moved last week and both of our administrative assistants have been busy with high school graduation/open house stuff as their daughters graduate tommorow night. congrats to the class of 2005.

RSS

since my last post I have discover RSS, for those who are not familar with RSS. it is Really Simple Syndication or a way to keep track or updates/headlines from blogs and websites. For example I used to go to certain websites each day like startribune.com to check out the latest news in the twin cities, now I get the headlines from startribune sent to me each day via RSS.hopefully RSS will help me to have more sources for blog entries.

Walmart movie

From Robert Greenwald who brought us Outfoxed the true story of fox news, comes walmart the movie a look at the cost of those low prices. look for this to be released in November.

Twins ballpark proposal

I get upset when I hear our elected officals trying to do everything they can to kill the Twins proposal. While it may not be the best proposal, it is now or never and we need to embrace it and look foward to watching the Twins in a "ballpark". I am sick of the arugments people make against public support of stadiums for pro-teams. Why can't these owners pay for the whole thing themselves, do you hear that when we give corporations like Northwest Airlines(who is stoping serving pretzels and maybe in the future beverages to save money) bailouts? While it might be nice to take this stance if we don't do it, another city will. Should't we spend this money on things like education and poverty? Consider the tax revenue not only from the money spent at the stadium and at businesses around it, but also the income tax the players pay to the state. so indirectly the stadium does help fund these things. The need for a referendum on this proposal, look at the NWA example and Excelsior Henderson (who is no longer in busines) and all the failed referendums for education. plus this is not a property tax increse its a sales tax that is so small you will not even notice it.

one last thing is when there is talk about the Twins or Vikings leaving, people ask if the twin cities want to become a cold Omaha? Is Omaha that bad of a place to live?

Church rummage sale/ freedom of the press

I have been busy today helping pick up stuff for our church rummage sale, had hoped to get some youth work done today, oh well maybe tomorrow.

A few nights ago on C-span(yes I watch C-span)there was a congressional hearing that dealt with the issue of freedom of the press. It was called by Rep. Conyers of MI who I really like. He was the one who spent time to invegistate the voting issues from the last election that for many was unnoticed or labeled as sour grapes. Back to the hearing they invited press from multiple sources and biases ( yes there are biases in the media, although I am beginning to doubt the liberal media myth) but only the more progressive media ( Air America, fair media, etc...) showed up. What was most interesting was the view point of the BBC chief correspondent. He talked about the difference in the way the press in England treat politicians and the press here do. He said here if a politician does not answer a question the reporter moves on and rarely does or gets followup questions, in England the opposite is true, the reporter may ask the same question repeatly until they get an answer. The other thing that stuck out of this discussion was that a group called freedom house who was started by Eleanor Roosevelt to monitor freedom around the world published a recent study. The first thing they look at in determining if a country is free is their press, and in a recent study of countries and the press the US ranked 29th. The beacon of freedom, the country that is trying to impose freedom on others was 29th in terms of the freedom of our press, doesn't that startle you?

Some examples of the changing press in this country ( some due the Bush admistration, some due to the fact our media is corporation controlled) : the 10 Downing street memo that states Bush was going to war and the facts would be manipulated to support going to war, has not been discussed in main stream media. You need to follow blogs to know about it. The radio show host who was paid by the Bush admistration to push their adgenda, the fake reporter who asked softball questions of the President, the talking points the RNC and the heritage foundation feed Fox news and the right wing talk show hosts that is portrayed as news. I could go on,but this is too long of a post already.

see
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

Sunday School teacher, what does this imply?

This morning as I was reading CNN about the fight over Bush's judical nominees, a headline caught my eye "Fight centers on Sunday School teacher" and I wondered, is there a precived stereotype of what it means to be a Sunday School teacher? Priscilla Owen the judge whom this article was about is being labeled " a Sunday school teacher". Is that who she is simply a judge and a Sunday school teacher? Does that mean that she is automatcally a good, moral person because she teaches Sunday school? Maybe it is different in the evangical churches, but in any church I have ever been involved in, we ask for volunteers to teach Sunday school, some do it for many years, others once in their lifetime, but I don't ever remember refering to one of these volunteers as a Sunday school teacher when describing them to someone. That the press would key so heavily on one aspect of judge Owen's life leads me to beleive that this was emphaised on her bio coming from the White House. I may be wromg on that, but it seems to fit with their complaint that those fillerbusting are doing so against people of faith, and besides ordained ministers who is a truly a person of faith but your sunday school teacher. For someone who works in a church maybe I am being too cynical, but this moral superiority of the Christian Right really bothers me.

Cleaning, veggiing, reviewing bible study materials

today I was really moviated to clean my apartment, maybe it was I was sick of the mess and maybe it was talking to a friend last night who mentioned she was cleaning her apartment in preparation for her mother visiting from out of town. Saw multiple episodes of Airline UK as I cleaned. I also had some time to review some bible study materials and Sunday school curriculm for the youth and adults of our church for next year. I am really intriqued by "Living the Questions" which bills its self as a liberal alternative to Alpha, which has become the current fad in adult bible study.

Judicial nominees and the fillerbuster

I think the saddest thing coming to light in this fight over Bush's nominees is how partisan the two parties are. There has been talk of compromise in this conflict but it seems very unlikely due to the stubbornness in both sides. Listening to Sen Spector of PA, it seems he really understands what is going on, he says " if persons on both of sides of the aisle were not so handcuffed by the leadership, this issue might have some resolution. He also readily admits that his party has done similar things in regards to nominations by Democrat Presidents, and it is just payback, the question becomes how do we end this cycle of it's our turn to get even. While I do not agree with much of Sen. Spector's views on issues, I think he is a great leader for PA and our country, it is a shame that some from his party have made it their mission to defeat him, because he is not "a true republican", he has the courage to voice what he believes even if it is not the party position. On a similar note it is sad to see that conservatives are expressing their desire to outser Sen Hagel of NE and Sen Voinavich of OH because of their opposition to John Bolton as the UN ambassador. Not sure if this doesn't also happen in the Democrat party, but it continues the notion prevalent in the Bush administration, either you agree with us on everything or you are against us. I would rather have someone representing me who does not blindly follow their party leadership regardless of their believe of what is best for their constituents.