...at which I felt an extraordinary amount of emphasis was placed on the need to make disciples. As a new church-goer and a skeptic about conservative Christianity, I found the whole discussion to be pointless. The topic at hand was how to build new churches. By evangelizing of course! Well, why do we need new churches? So we can evangelize more. The whole thing is sort of sickly cyclical. Our small groups were supposed to discuss our ideas for evangelizing. I suggested to my group that the best way to evangelize would be through action... through showing our commitment to love and justice by making a tangible difference in the lives of our community members.

A woman in our group looked at me blankly and asked how that could possibly be helpful in spreading the Gospel. I was simply astounded. As far as I'm concerned, that IS the Gospel, pure and simple.

My church (that is to say, denomination) is not a notably conservative one. My own home congregation is actually incredibly liberal (we offer Bible studies on LGBT issues and have been known to coordinate events with nearby Catholics, Universalists, and Buddhists). But the influence of conservative, and I would say, ultimately spirit-killing ideas like this whole conversion obsession has infiltrated even mainstream churches, which is disappointing.

The only conclusion I can come to is that the modern church of America simply has no connection to the God of justice, mercy, and peace spoken of in the Bible and in human experience. I still believe in God and Christ, but I've stopped going to church and started worshipping by serving others. What did Jesus do, indeed.

Cheney as loyal opposition my ass. The only person to whom Dick Cheney has ever expressed any love, reverence, or loyalty is Dick Cheney.

America rewards incompetence with political power and corruption with wealth.

As a Republican, Grassley should be well-acquainted with both these customs.

[...] Obama's Democratic National Committee instead chose to launch a political attack ad against us for not supporting the stimulus plan exactly as the Obama administration saw fit...

Um, excuse me, but even after the Republicans had their way with the bill and neutered it in every imaginable sense, and allowed Democrats to believe that if they kept paring it down they might support it, they STILL acted as a single bloc in voting to oppose.

No one would be mad at the Republicans if they had simply voted against the stimulus on principle. But they played cat-and-mouse and cut the stimulus to pieces before voting against it, even though they knew it would pass. The Republicans are trying to have their cake and eat it too: They've managed to cut out anything truly helpful from the stimulus bill, and now they get to say they were against it to begin with as well.

It's so much easier to believe someone who wants to change "politics as usual" when they aren't a member of the party that continues to play Russian roulette with the world economy.

Cost of a cheap cell phone: ~$50

Cost of a cheap home: ~$100,000

Y'know, if all those homeless people just STOPPED BUYING CELL PHONES, about 2000 of them could pool their resources together and buy one trailer home somewhere.

Limbaugh = Henry VIII?

Don't flatter Rush. Henry VIII may have been an overweight egomaniac who ruined lives, but at least he could justify his antics as the desperate, if misguided, attempt to provide his country with a stable future via a legitimate male heir.

Rush Limbaugh has no such noble goals motivating his petty personal corruptions. He would rather see his (our) country torn apart under the rule of a black Democrat than amend his own ideology to reflect reality.

As a current Minnesota resident, it disgusts me to see the lengths to which Coleman will go all in the name of preserving his old senate seat. Every time things aren't going his way, he immediately changes his strategy to the next thing that looks most likely to make him the winner. Franken has been consistent and courteous throughout the entire process. Given the fact that he ought to be casting his vote as a Senator already, he has been remarkably patient.

But I, for one, am getting impatient with Coleman for his egotism and self-serving nature. Were it not for his legal tapdancing and his attempts to keep his own political career afloat, Minnesota would be saving thousands of taxpayer dollars on the recount and on court costs, and we would also have our full representation in Washington now.

This reminds me of a story involving professional orchestra auditions. For the longest time, no women could break into a professional orchestra. All sorts of excuses were made... women just weren't technically skilled enough, they simply were not up to the standards of their male competitors. These were the rationalizations made by major conductors because they never accepted women into their orchestras. Obviously it had nothing to do with sexism.

Then came the idea of the blind audition... the candidate plays behind a screen without speaking or otherwise introducing him or herself. Within a couple years of implementing this, women and men were being accepted into orchestral openings on a nearly equal basis.

If ever a story illustrated the absurd attempts we will make to excuse our "nonsexism" and "nonbias," this one does. Maybe if it were possible to judge the humor of women from behind a screen, not knowing their sex and not bringing out expectations of how unfunny they are to the situation, we would find that women are actually every bit as funny as men, just as they are every bit as good playing orchestra music.