This Guy Falls Down

The GOP at a crossroads

I'll be honest - I'm kind of a newcomer to the Republican party. Until 2004 I would have considered myself an independent, and in the elections of 1992-2000, I voted for no less than three political parties for president (I'll let you try to figure that out on your own!). But it feels like I've walked into a room at a party where the hosts are having an argument and everybody's standing around trying to act like nothing's happening and it's awkward. As we move into Super Tuesday this week, some major trends are coming to a head:

• How big of a deal is a candidate's faith? All five of the remaining frontrunners in both parties call themselves Christians. And it hasn't been said out loud, but I'm made to feel that if I don't vote for Mike Huckabee, I'm not voting for the "Christian candidate". Why in the world is this?
• Mitt Romney: Hugh Hewitt loves the guy, and even wrote a book about it. In a lot of ways, he is the most electable Republican. But there seems to be an asterisk with him. Is it because he's a Mormon? Or is it because he's not a "social conservative", even though he's changed his tune on abortion and homosexual marriage.
• The "social conservative" vs. the "fiscal conservative" vs. the "national security conservative": you have a representative of each left in the running, but it's not that simple. People in other camps are hesitant to rally around McCain, the "national security conservative", because of his voting record. People in other camps are hesitant to rally around Romney, the "fiscal conservative", because he has flip flopped on social issues. And people in other camps are hesitant to rally around Huckabee because he appears weak on national security.

McCain appears to be the frontrunner at this point, but regardless of who wins, how does the party move forward as we move into the general election? And the elephant (ha!) in the room is Obama. As odd as it sounds, opposition to Hillary is the most uniting force in the Republican camp right now. But if Obama wins the nomination, things will get really interesting. And any kind of split in the GOP will only work in his favor...

Hewitt made a great point on his CNN interview earlier in the week that Giuliani should have stayed in. A brokered convention might have been the best thing that could have happened.

What's anybody else thinking? Who are you voting for? And how do you think this thing's gonna shake out?

Day 8, Blog 8: Tall Skinny Kiwi

Since my last post featured an article I discovered through Andrew Jones' wonderful Tall Skinny Kiwi blog, why not make him the (drum roll please)... (wait, no the drums are too loud...that's better)...BLOG OF THE DAY!!!

I think I discovered Tall Skinny Kiwi through Hugh Hewitt's 2005 re:create address. Hugh was spouting out a long list of blogs to check out, and was going through a list of "Christian bloggers". I had gotten kind of bogged down, but I think the name "Tall Skinny Kiwi" struck me as more than a little interesting. So I started checking it out on a regular basis, and I think to this point he is the only "God blogger" that I read*.

I recommend Andrew's blog for two reasons:

• One, he travels a lot. Something about people who travel a lot is that they always wind up with the most amazing personal stories. And personal stories make for great blog entries.


• Two, besides being an influential voice in the "emergent church", he is very good about linking to others who are joining in the conversation. If you read his blog and diligently follow the stories he's linking to, you can get a good feel for where the emergent idea is headed.

So check out Andrew's blog. You'll be glad you did...

Brian McLaren in the Charlotte Observer

Brian McLaren has "emerged" as leading voice in the faith community over the past few years. And while he likes to lay out his theology in just about every book he writes, it feels like his views on many areas are sort of evolving before our very eyes. Last week he did an interview with the Charlotte Observer. Maybe it was because of the timeliness of the interview (South Carolina primaries last week), but McLaren got asked (and shared) his opinions on EVERYTHING, from faith and politics to Christians and homosexuality to WWJD bracelets. This one is worth checking out - it feels like one of those "definitive" interviews you'll want to refer back to later...

(via tall skinny kiwi)

Who woulda thunk it? I'm semi-famous!

Shaun Groves, aka Shlog, has posted one of the funniest things I've seen in recent memory. These guys randomly snuck into the Grammy's last year and did interviews disguised as the local ABC affiliate. Several "semi-famous" artists, including ourselves (and just about everyone else in our category!), Wolfmother, Ministry, Al Jarreau, Lambofgod, Mastodon, etc. did interviews. I totally remember them because of their Lionel Richie schtick. But you've gotta see it for yourself:

Thank you, Shaun Groves. Thank you.

Day 7, Blog 7: Career Songwriter

In posting the Future of Music Blog yesterday, I came to a cool realization. That blog is part of a whole network of music blogs out of the Berklee College of Music. While I could probably do a separate feature on several of the blogs on there, Career Songwriter in a standout. Andrea provides practical advice for songwriters to help you come up with ideas. Not just ideas, but marketable ideas. Hence the name Career Songwriter. And she supplements this with just enough information about the music business. So get out your guitar, get a pen and paper, and get ready to do some songwriting!

Yeah, fool! I got meme'd

I love these. From Alice at the fairfax:

1. Pick up the nearest book ( of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

So here goes. (Clears throat) Ahem...

A universal groan. No rest now. The rattle of the rails being dropped, a general cursing. Chamberlain reformed the regiment out in the road. Dispatch from Vincent: Move out.

That would be from Michael Shaara's timeless The Killer Angels. I'm ashamed to say I've never finished it, but I'm trying to work through it once again.

Or how about this?

This the real problem of the global-warming argument - it means well, but by almost expropriating the public agenda, trying to address the hardest problem, with the highest price tag and the least chance of success, it leaves little space, attention and money for smarter and more realistic solutions.

That's from Bjorn Lomborg's Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming . I know that's only one sentence, but he goes into a long bunch of statistics right after. Amazingly though, I think that one randomly selected sentence pretty well sums up the gist of the book.

OK, so whom do I tag?
Randy is the guy I always ask what he's currently reading.
Traci is feeling guilty for not reading unChristian, so her book has gotta be good.
Patrick is always suggesting cool reads.
Dennis should bring some Canadian flair (no Rush biographies please!).
Let's see what Adam's up to.
And, to go out on a limb, Steven James is an author. Maybe he can read us page 123 from his new book or something...

Day 6, Blog 6: The Future of Music

Today I'm highlighting another great online resource that doesn't get updated as much as I would like. But even though it hasn't been updated in several weeks, The Future of Music blog has a lot to offer. Dave Kusek was one of the authors of a vastly influential book a couple of years ago called, you guessed it, The Future of Music. Since that book's release, he has used the blog format to update on the state of the music industry in light of the book. And as some recent posts around here will attest, there has been a lot going on as of late. Read this blog to get a sense of where things might be headed.

Here we go again: this guy talks about global warming

I figured since I already ran everybody else off with the diesel fumes, I might as well talk about global warming. Wait! No, stay! It won't be that bad, I promise.

I haven't talked about it in a long time, but that doesn't mean I haven't been looking into it. I think I've gotten it to a pretty good place. I just read a couple of good books on the subject that I'll share with you, and then I'll talk about where I've landed on the issue. But to give you an idea, here's a little preview of where I'm going:

• There are people on either side screaming about the issue, but the climate change/C02 set shares many goals with the "no dependence on foreign oil" crowd. There are things we can do, for a decade or two, that will make sense regardless of whether GW is for real. That should buy some time for more research to be done, modeling technology to get more accurate, and a good assessment to be made before we commit trillions of dollars to an idea everyone's not on board with.
• Let's focus on the 'global' before the warming. This is the idea I'm the most excited about, and the idea that people within church circles have embraced to an extent, and should embrace more. Before we try to literally change the atmospheric makeup of our planet to try and help poor people, why not start helping poor people now in less expensive, more tangible ways? Ideas like World Vision, Compassion, Make Trade Fair, Make Poverty History all come to mind...

See that wasn't so bad? So give me a few days, maybe 5 posts tops, and we'll see how this goes...

On a side note, the last time I did this I got some pretty vicious email. While that's fine and I'm ready for that, just remember one thing: I'm not an expert, I'm just a guy who likes to read!

Does this blog smell like diesel fumes?

We did a show in Canada on Sunday. A few minutes before the show I go to get a shirt out of my bag and EWWW what's that smell? It's diesel fuel. I guess it spilled on my bag on one of those little truck things at the airport where they take your bags to the plane. After I had opened my bag, the fumes were everywhere. People are reacting like that scene in Anchorman, "It is quite pungent - stings the nostrils." And then people were trying to come up with just the right combination of what the smell was. It was so bad.

I told the Air Canada people about it and they offered to give me a bag that my grandmother might have dug back in the '50's. The bag had probably been in that office since the '50's, but didn't help me much here.

Well that's only the beginning. Obviously all of my clothes reek of diesel. But the bag itself is so bad I don't know where to put it. I woke up in the middle of the night pissed off because it's all I can smell. I put it in a closet but I can still smell it. Then I realize it's ME. I guess from handling the bag I got it on my hands.

Last night we're in L.A. and I take all of the clothing I have with me down to the laundromat for a cleansing. Not gonna happen. You had to have some kind of special card to use the machines - they didn't take cash. So I'm on my third day of wearing the same clothes. Maybe I should just set my luggage on fire and start over.

Just let me know if this blog reeks too. I'll go in the other room.

Not so fast, say labels: QTrax debut delayed due to licensing issues

From the Associated Press:

A distributor of Internet file-swapping software abruptly postponed the launch of its free online music service until it can finalize music licensing deals — a detail the company omitted when it threw a star-studded coming-out party over the weekend. Qtrax's ambitious, ad-supported music service promised unlimited, advertising-supported music downloads with the blessing of the major recording companies. That claim began to unravel just hours before Qtrax's scheduled debut Monday when Warner Music Group Corp. issued a statement that it had not authorized the firm to distribute its artists' music. Other major record labels soon followed.

Read entire story HERE.