REFORMATION DAY!

I cannot post this picture enough. I wonder if it looks anything like him. So lets take a little break from politics today and enjoy the day.







Soooo...Reformation Day. Reformation for Lutherans is kind of like Mardi Gras is for drunks and losers. We can get lost in it. Even without beads and floats and lots of booze. My wife loves Reformation. I have a complicated relationship with it but we come from a shared heritage of Lutheran grade schools where our tutelage was under a bunch of semi-psychotic, German Lutheran women and a couple of men and a few Pastors. All of these people were products of the various "Concordia" Universities, normally from River Forest in Chicago or from some back water place in Nebraska. They were devout people. Christian people...deeply troubled people.

Each year when the rest of the world and all of our friends were getting psyched up for Halloween we would be in dark classrooms watching film strips (does anyone remember film strips?) or black and white movies on a projector (these projectors were about he same size as a 350 V-8 engine and were rolled around on audio visual carts and had a light bulb in them that you could easily heat a room with). The film strips all showed Luther with his Monks haircut. His hard child hood (abuse implied but never confirmed) his father pressuring him to go into the law but being caught under a large tree in a Lightning storm where Luther cries out "St. Anne save me! I will become a monk." And so the die was cast.

Luther is obviously very full of himself and a good talker and makes some friends in high places. In the mean time the Pope and his people are busy building St. peters cathedral and it is badly over budget and they are taxing the hell out of everyone, including some German nobles. Now the way we learned it they befriended Luther and he began to question the papacy, the Priesthood being intercessors and of course the selling of indulgences to gain favor with God and get yourself or a loved one out of purgatory and into heaven. I know enough now to understand that is our version of history. Now my best guess is that those germans were sick to death of their Italian brethren calling shots and invoking the Holy See whenever they complained. This Luther fellow was their ticket out...oh and his theology was good to.

So Luthger nails his 95 Theses to the door of the Cathedral in Wittenberg. The Church comes after him. He is hidden and protected and ultimately the catholic church loses a lot of folks. Calvin and Henry the 8th got busy and the printing press helped spread the word. The Catholic Church which had guarded the Bible as something to only be understood by the learned stood by helplessly like the record companies did when music started being free on the internet. the Protestant church in all of it's balkanized glory, moved off on 100 new paths. He posted his Theses on October 31, All Saints Day.

Anyway, we love reformation. being a Lutheran has given me a special understanding of God's Grace as it relates to all of us but especially to me. The message of the Lutherans through reformation can be summed up as, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, because Christ died for us on the cross, which is declared through the Scriptures alone. I have always shortened it to the fact that someone like me can be saved through God's Grace and God's Grace alone. I can do nothing towards my own salvation. It has all been done for me.

So we love Reformation. We sing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" in all of it's teutonic stomp. We sing it poorly. We sing it with Spirit. Maybe somewhere Luther smiles.

Election Update

A Few Thoughts as we approach election day.
1. Restoring Sanity Rally: I am cautiously optimistic that we might see some funny clips on. This is entertainment. If you get political guidance from Comedy Central you are not getting the joke. If their jokes offend you... don't watch.

2. Election is Tuesday and I do care and I will vote. They always throw all those Judicial Names at you to vote for retention. Our Missouri Vourt plan for how we select Judges is a model in the country which big money wants to buy. Lets keep the faith but lets also get rid of bad judges. Not because of their politics, but because they are bad Judges. I will not name names but the Missouri Bar, plaintiff, defendant, criminal and divorce lawyers rate these Judges and their ratings that i am familiar with track with my own thoughts. http://www.mobar.org/data/judges10/stlcounty.htm Go read this stuff. Be informed.

3. The ballot otherwise has two propositions and 3 Constitutional amendments. It is amazing about special interests and the things that rise to the level of Constituionally needed. Really?
Amendment 1 to make County Assessor an elected position. Really? We need another election in each County? the Counties cannot manage themselves? We need to put big money is a position to hire our assessor as well as our alderman, our supervisor, our mayor, our court clerk, our dog catcher...lets do a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to elect the Mayors Secretary. That bitch has a lot of power (if it is a woman... in any case I guess I am sexist).
Amendment 2. Prisoners of war should not have to pay property taxes on their houses. I have no problem with this, who would? Still, a Constitutional Amendment? I do not mean to discount their suffering. I have never met a POW and I cannot imagine what they went through but if your going to do this then what about the surviving spouses of those who died? Once again, this is an inappropriate thing to amend the Constitution for.
Amendment 3 Attempts to make a law which will not allow theState, County or local governments to tax sales of real estate. There is no current sales tax on real estate in our State but we need to pass a CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO MAKE SURE THEY DONT! DON'T TREAD ON YOUR REAL ESTATE AGENTS LOBBY! Once again, totally inappropriate to put this kind of special interest bullshit in the State Constitution. Voting against all three.

4. On that same note how come the ORIGINAL INTENT people are never concerned about the original intent of the geniuses who wrote the Missouri Constitution?

5.. Propositions A&B. Lets all vote on how Kansas City and St. Louis fund themselves because they cannot take care of themselves. lets help them and make them change how they fund themselves. I am voting against this one. I do not live there or work there but I have. I paid my 1%. I enjoyed very little benefit but a dead, confused City does nothing for me downtown. It is NONE of my business how another jurisdiction taxes people. B is on puppy mill regulation. I love animals, especially dogs and have 2 rescue dogs. This is more regulation and more costs. If you do not want puppy mills, buy a mutt. Make animal abuse a serious crime. Oh...opur legislature could do that. Bottom line is that I am voting against both. Hey! I could jopin the party of no.

6. Glenn Becks brother Jerry, a true ditto head (oops wrong demagogue) is running for Senator against Blunt and Carnahan. Blunt of course is a family man and a Christian man who formerly carried water for Tom(The Hammer) delay who will go on trial next week and hopefully become Tom (The Felon) Delay. He is on his second wife and family and his wife is a high powered Lobbyist because Senators do not have enough money and power so why not double dip. Robin Carnahan? Really? this is the best we can do? My only comfort is that Blunt will be replacing the do nothing drunk Kit Bond.

7. Congressman for 3rd District... I cannot cheer or vote for Ed Nelson. He seems at best unstable and at worst dangerous. He was former strong man, bag man and enforcer from Matt (I don't want to be governor if people want my private emails) Blunt. He got the guy who blew the whistle on Blunt fired and cost the state several hundred thousand in legal fees. Russ carnahan is not as tough as Robin but I like his Liberal voting record so I will vote for him. He will lose.

8. County Supervisor: Dooley is going to lose. Bank on it. I am voting for Corrigan. I do not like his adds or his tactics but he is inevitable. I also think he might to a really good job. I do not think Dooley has done a bad job, I just think it is a bad year to be an incumbent and he has not established much of a legacy. I did like him giving my daughter a leadership award but...Corrigan is inevitable.

9. Republicans will win more then anyone expects. I am praying that they take control of the house and the Senate so they can shut up. I know they will start to whine regarding the President Veto but evidently the all powerful Democrats totally undermine the country in the two hears they had the majority with Bush having the Veto.

10. I am pleading with Liberals, Democrats and Progressives and everyone else, get out and vote, even if you vote for Republicans. But after you vote do not whine! You must not whine! If you do that you will start sounding like all those angry, white middle classed men who have been so oppressed by the government. No one wants that.

11. I am pleading with Republicans, conservatives, tea party people everywhere to GO VOTE! Then you can gloat but try and only do it for a month. Remember the Pelosi gloating about the new coalitions and the death of the Republican Party. The winds will blow the other way and it might happen sooner then you think. Enjoy your victory, in the case of the Tea Party I can actually say you have earned it. In the case of the Republican Party I can only say you bought it, but still, those are the rules.

Poisoning Our Children!: “The Giving Tree”

It has recently come to my attention that the Progressives have planted a time bomb in almost every pre-school across this great land and more importantly this same IED is in our own children’s rooms IN OUR OWN HOMES! Marx had “Das Kapital” and Mao had his “Little red Book” but these were mere play things compared with the insidious AND SECRET poisoning of our precious children’s young and impressionable minds with the book, “The Giving Tree”. *Although you cannot see it in the blogosphere I am pulling out my chalk board to diagram this for you. I want to make this totally FAIR AND BALANCED (TM Fox News) and even though I am an entertainer and not a journalist, I will report… you decide.*

First Published in 1964 (drawing in large numbers on the chalkboard 1-9-6-4) by “Shel” (smirking at his name) Silverstein (drawing on the board in small but insistent letters (them what killed our Lord) a noted cartoon pornographer, well known for his drawings for PLAYBOY (writing PORNO) in frighteningly large letters on black board, Silverstein penned the tome was published by Harper Brothers publishing which was of course formed in 1817 exactly 100 years prior to the time of the Bolscheveik Revolution (writing “Commies” in cursive). The publishing company now owned by genius philanthropist and all around nice guy and former Australian Rupert Murdoch who purchased it likely to keep it from being a mouthpiece for communist ideals.

That the book was published in 1964 is of course… no accident. The book was a direct response to the Glorious announcement of Barry Goldwater that he was going to run for President and was timed to coincide with Socialist Sympathizer Lyndon Baines Johnsons “War on Poverty”. (Writing the word “conspiracy” with big question mark behind it). I say conspiracy because that is not all that happened in 1964. No there was a LOT of things going on in 1964...*starting to write on the board with much agitation*..."Let me list a few of the "coincidences from NINE TEEN SIXTY FOUR!
1. The U.S. Senate votes cloture of the Civil Rights Bill after a 75-day filibuster.
2. President Lyndon Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, abolishing racial segregation in the United States.
3. The Final Looney Tune, "Señorella and the Glass Huarache", is released before the Warner Bros. Cartoon Division is shut down by Jack Warner.
4. The Warren Commission Report, the first official investigation of the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy, is published. and most ominously!
5. American civil rights movement leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. becomes the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded to him for leading non-violent resistance to end racial prejudice in the United States.

So into this very...VERY dark time we are supposed to assume that this pornographer, Shel Silverstein just happens to write this deeply subversive tome? I don't think so.

Life is full of coincidences... for idiots!

The book itself shrouds its message in an apparently innocuous tale of a small boy and a tree. The boy appears as a metaphor for the solid American boys everywhere espousing values of consumerism and adventure (an exceptional American) and the tree, innocently enough appears to give, over and over again (in a thinly veiled tribute to the socialist goals for the American State.) Lets look more closely at the text.

Originally the boy is happy. he loves the tree and the tree loves the boy... but sooner or later the boy wants money. *drawing hastily a tree with dots on it signifying apples...a big bushy tree with branches and huge trunk. The boy wants to be self reliant. The boy wants to learn how to fish. But what does the insidious tree (The centrally planned Obama State of the Progressives do?) it offers it's apples. Sapping the boy of all ingenuity and self reliance it gives him apples like the socialist Obama State gives food stamps.*Taking eraser and dabbing at each dot as he speaks until there is no more apparent fruit on the tree*.

No one can be surprised when this is not enough for the boy. now that he has been weened onto the teat of the socialist State he is...yes...ENTITLED to more.

He comes back...after a LONG time. And not surprisingly he is unhappy. VERY unhappy. he needs more and what does he need? Housing. Sewing the seeds section 8 housing the socialist State tree gives the poor boy it's branches so he can build a house Boy takes branches this is of course a veiled referenced to the for seen Sudanese crisis of gathering firewood but then...he just needed tree subsidized housing and then he would be happy. BUT HE WAS NOT HAPPY! *angrily erasing the branches and leaves off of the tree leaving a fat telephone pole of a naked tree trunk*.

The boy comes back again after a very long time and the socialist State Obama Tree tries to inveigle him with "come and play". The boy of course having been robbed of his self reliance and instincts needs more support. Now he takes the trunk so that he can build a boat. Likely a boat so that he can trade in the one world economy dominated by the United Nations! And the boy takes the trunk... the wood he did not work or sweat for and so could not appreciate and builds a boat to sail away and perhaps do trade deals with the Chinese. Who knows... we are only left to speculate. What is clear is that boy likely took good jobs overseas while letting immigrants take the jobs back here in our country. he might have even fathered an anchor baby. Who knows...who knows indeed? *sadly and slowly erasing the trunk down to a stump*

Finally the boy comes home again. Broken...sad and lonely.
I don't need very much now," said the boy,
"Just a quiet place to sit and rest. I am very tired."
"Well," said the tree, straightening herself up as much as she could,
"Well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting. Come, Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest."
And the boy did.

And the tree was happy.

And here is the final lie. Even after the tree has totally robbed the boy of everything...the tree is not happy but is satisfied, now that the boy has no life, no dreams and no hope...he can just sit and be a further drain on society and the socialist state tree comforts him and lets the poor "tired" child who has never worked for anything..."rest".

The over arching message is that the progressive Agenda provides everything. Individuals need do nothing but sit and make demands and wait to be provided for. *tearing up*..."I promised myself I would not cry but...*the camera panning out*...I just cannot live with what they have done...through this sick little book...to our children. *Panning in directly on my face as I boil into righteous...teary rage*...

So go into your house and get that book and BURN IT! Write your school boards and principals and demand that the book be removed...and burned...BURNED like a Koran or Quoran! Burn the book and keep it away from our kids... for their sake...for all our sakes! Do it now...oh....and buy gold."

Tune in tomorrow when we unmask the progressive homosexual agenda of "James And The Giant Peach"! Oh The Humanity.

Election Irritability: What Program Will You Cut and How Much?

Soooo....one week to go. As regular readers (and I do thank all 7 of you) know I have been rather silent lately. Part of the reason has to do with starting a new law practice and traveling a lot like I do not even need to make a living. Trips to Austin, Cancun, Michigan etc... leave little contemplative time and when coupled with trying to work enough to keep body and soul together there is very little time to watch and observe food, travel, music, life and of course politics. Which brings us to the real reason I have not written...politics.

We are just coming off the long dark tea time of the NPR pledge drive where I listen to Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Jamie Allman... the angry cynical chick on talk radio around lunch... and the whole sick experiment has left me even more tired then ususal and more hopeless then I have felt since the start of W's second term. Never has the discourse been so vile, low, stupid and without hope and all of this in the greatest country in the world.

Roy Blount and June Carnahan... What programs are you going to cut and how much? And don't tell me healthcare... it has not brought us here.

I feel for the arguments that are supposed to be at the core of the tea party. Smaller government. Living within our means and self reliance are all great traditional American values. Not religious values but really, REALLY good things. But seriously, where were you fucking people when Ronald Reagan, Bush the Elder and the born again moderate Bill Clinton and then Dubya were ramping up spending at a monstrous level and even Saint Reagan increasing governments size and budget deficit (with the exception of a few Clinton years every year? And every year we elect the same people who say "I am going to cut waste and fraud". That is bullshit. The political class makes it's bones every day on waste and fraud. THEY NEVER CUT WASTE AND FRAUD! But we are going to elect Christine O'Donnell and re-elect Michelle Bachman and elect that crazy chick running in Arizona because these people are serious? These are the ones who will do it?

Ed Martin and Russ Carnahan, what programs are you going to cut and how much? Ed, I don't care that you were a politcal fixer for a governor who was smart enough to quit before his secrets made him a target and Russ... well Russ, i do not care about you at all.

I want to believe it. I am a bleeding heart liberal. My religion causes me to think that Jesus would want all people to have health care (even illegal aliens) but I know the government cannot afford it, anymore then it can afford wars of choice in the middle east. I like health care more then war with a couple of trillion but it is not affordable and sustainable BUT if we can send a few thousand American boys off to be killed and in the process destabelize a region so hundreds of thousands of their people can be killed and they can legitimately blame us for it while paying trillions to do it... I will take health care (even for illegal aliens).

And now we have this silly, silly election. In my life they have always said the same thing about election cycles. In every non presidential election 40% of the country dictates their displeasure and in the next election cycle 60% decide they did not like what the 40%. Well we are in a 40% year. I will vote but many of the crazies who voted for Obama will not come out and cheer for their local congressman and Senators. I do not blame them. they are an uninspiring bunch. the only thing less inspiring is their Republican dopplegangers who are there to rescind, remand, undo, unfund and stop Obama Care. Reinstitute tax breaks for everyone and shut down government. That will work well. The minute someone's mom misses a social security check... heads will roll.

And therein lies the lie of the tea party. They want to cut government but not the government that serves them. they decry socialism but take social security, unemployment, medicare and every tax break they are entitled to and they ARE entitled to their breaks. But the others...the LAZY ones who "take advantage" of the system.... their support needs to be cut. If smaller government is the goal (and it is an honorable goal) there is only only question EVERY candidate should be asked. Which programs will you cut and by how much? The follow up being if you are going to cut taxes what dollar for dollar cuts will you make in programs to justify those cuts. But forget the follow up. Ask you candidate, which programs will you cut and how much? Which programs will you cut and how much? Which programs will you cut and how much? (Repetition is a rhetorical device). If they cannot answer and if they answer with bullshit platitudes like they are going to stop earmarks and cut waste and fraud... then they are the frauds. Call them out. Republicans, Democrats, a pox on both their houses. I will vote Democrat again and hold my nose because their politics seem slightly less stupid, slightly less selfish in concept and frankly slightly less mean.

20 years of Republicans enlarging of government (the last 20) but it takes a black President to unite the anger over big government and the self righteous bullshit about selling out our kids futures. Now the Tea Party wants us to believe that their politicians have gotten religion. Being co-opted by the Republican party illegitimizes their goals. I get the anger, I am angry too, but until our culture changes, the institutions cannot change. Changes at the top are pure laziness. If you cannot pull our country together by it's core values of inclusion, hard work, charity, self reliance and compassion then we will keep electing leaders who reflect our broken sense of values.

Change youself and become a better person. train your kids to be better persons, discuss being a better person with your friends and what you (and they) can do to make a better Country. Then our leadership can make a meaningful change. In the interim...ask these hypocritical son's of bitches...which program would you cut and how much? Then wait for a real answer.

And Another Ones Gone...CD Reviews of Neil Young's Le Noise and Old 97's Grand theatre Volume One

Soooo...I fear that I may have purchased my last CD. This grieves me as i remember Jackson Browne's ode to his father which included the line, "make room for my 45's, along beside your 78's nothing survives... but the way we live our lives." Gosh, remember when Jackson Browne had anything interesting to say or observe, back before he beat up Daryl Hannah? That was a long time ago. I have a large CD collection but it is not an oppressively large collection. My music purchases have declined as I become more and more out of touch and irrelevant and buy more and more through iTunes. And there is at least one of the rubs. I am a fan of certain artists and I am a completist, almost obsessively regarding the artists I consider essential to my snobbish, boorish, elitist, disdainful and ultimately sad musical tastes.

So when Neil Young releases a critical well reviewed CD and my stalwart if somewhat predictable icons the Old 97's both release CD's within days of one another I have to resist the urge to download and go out... to a store... with people... and buy the CD. This is even more complicated by the fact that due to my elitist disease i cannot go to Walmart or even Target and buy a CD but i have to support our local record stores... all two of them. I know there are more but stores like that one down on Cherokee are way too cool for me. I am after all, old. So I herded myself down to Euclid records (which is close) and found both CD's and... HOLY SHIT! Both CD's are $17.99... EACH! Are you shitting me?

I can buy either of the CD's on iTunes for $9.99. What do I lose? The packaging? The CD format has limited dramatically thevalue of packaging. Albums were works of art and love and contained a wealth of information written in a font size that was legible, even for old people. they were pretty. I will treasure my 300 albums more then I can ever cherish my 1000 or so Cd's. So I guess what I am saying is that I am going to sit on my completist fetish and... perhaps never buy another CD. God, that Kills me.

So quickly, "Le Noise". It is worth the critical acclaim. It is Young playing alone with Daniel Lanois production which is sparse but rather then take the Rick Rubin approach of acoustic minimalism Lanois lets Young stretch out with electric guitar, effect and his laconic, atonal vocals and although I have only listened twice... this is a really good CD and easily a top 10 Neil CD. Nuff said.

The Old 97's Grand theatre CD... it is more ofthe same. if you love Rhett Miller and his pop sensibilities it is a must buy but as with almost all the band's CD's, no new ground is broken here. I love it but i am a fan. That is the only reason to buy it.

but if you buy them...buy them both on iTunes or even better, pick out the best tracks on each CD and just buy those. "The times, they are a changing". Or perhaps they have already changed.

Lutherans...Pan Lutherans

Soooo... I am sorry for my absence. I changed law firms and then for some reason changed passwords and lost control of my blog momentarily. I have had a great month practicing law on my own but the transition effects.... the little things... like my blog. All fixed now. So when I have been thrashing around over the last month I have got to spend some time with some of my favorite Lutherans plugging in and reconnecting. It is such a reaffirming thing because of course the people I am attracted to are people who think a lot like me and they are in the main stream but so far out of the accepted mainstream of my denomination as to not even be discussed.

As a result of this what I want to do is start a blog called Pan-Lutheran where we Lutherans can band together rather then falling apart. Because that is what we are doing. Falling apart. When I grew up I was Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and we were the dominant Lutheran body in America. Then the two other groups, The Lutheran Church in America and The Evangelical Lutheran Church joined forces in the Evangelical Lutheran Church and became the biggest. Now the ELCA is splintering because the heads of their church condone gays in ministry. At the same time, my church, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has chosen an extremely conservative President who might force me out of my church.

This all makes me very sad. Lutherans come out of the Reformation as followers of Martin Luther. Although he wrote some crazy (or crazed) stuff in his later years he was a thoughtful, intelligent person. He never wanted to part from the Catholics because he understood how damaging it would be over all for the Church but... that is what happened. Protestantism resulted with a hundred (or more) different non Catholic Christian Churches and now the Lutheran Church itself has splintered into more then a dozen different groups all claiming to be the true inheritor of Luther's vision.

It all makes me sick. Luther was a man. As a man he identified problems with the Catholic church as it existed in the 1500's. I think he was right, but I have been taught he was right. The legacy he left me is that there is nothing I can do towards my own salvation. I am saved by God's Grace and by God's Grace alone. I cannot earn my way into heaven. I cannot be a better Christian then other people. I am saved and because I am saved...if I believe that, I am obligated to try (and fail) to emulate Christ and his ministry, which was to save ALL people.

Somehow this has been lost or perverted. Well intentioned, smart people believe that they understand God's will in our life better or true-er then other people which causes them to separate from the others for the sake of doctrinal purity or their own agenda. Right now my LCMS has been taken over by "Confessional" Lutherans who adhere to the Book of Concord and other writings of Luther, eschewing other views on those writings. To me these people are like the "strict constructionists" who interpret our Constitution. I mean the US Constitution, divining the founding fathers intent. These Lutheran's divine Luther's vision and all I have to say is...he was just a man. A brilliant, troubled man.

The ElCA is also polarized in it's own ranks because the leadership is taking a social/agendaized stand and admitting gays into the the called ministry positions in the Church. So there conservatives member have pulled back.

What I want to say to all these people is stop! We are weaker separated then we are united. I can (and do) pray and worship with people who do not believe as I do. I am a "bad" Missouri Synod Lutheran but I am a Missouri Synod Lutheran even though I have sincere doubts about significant (divisive) parts of our doctrine. I do not force my views on others. In fact i do not even talk about it because the people at my church are remarkable people and i am proud to worship with them whether I agree with them or not. If my Church becomes more conservative it will be hard to stay but i will try, because I love my Church.

In the great commission Christ tells the disciples to"Go therefore, making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Instead we quibble over man made, and defined doctrine. I just want to say, "stop it" and "shame on you". I know your intentions are good, whether on the conservative or liberal side but we have a great, dying Church which needs our help.

Lutherans are some of the best people I know. I would name some great Pan-Lutheran organizations but the politics of my church is poisonous enough that I know to name them, might be to damn them. So...look for my new web site. PanLutheran.com. Maybe we can hold a group of well intentioned people united around Christ's commands rather then around man made doctrine and we can do some good before we fade away. Or maybe not. But I will try.