First food

You gotta love your kids' firsts. This is a picture of my soon to be 4-month old son eating his very first "solid" food. It is times like these when one realizes just how much we take for granted.

Today I got into a discussion with my 12 year old daughter. It was mostly a one-sided affair (as most of our deep discussions are), but meant to try to teach her something about life other than which shirt matches what pants. I have always felt that the creation of this world is a miracle. To me, life and creation prove, without a doubt, the existence of God. I don't believe that science explains away God, but rather supports His existence just as a matter of reason.

Life is just too delicate and too complicated to be an "accident". When you think about how children are created, how they develop, and how they take half of mom and half of dad into the world, it is just to awesome a happening to have been devised by chance. When you think about how mom produces milk to feed baby, how the sperm joins with the egg, how the cells divide, and how baby grows and learns, it just seems way too involved to not have been planned out by some Higher Existence.

When you realize we are the perfect distance from our sun to support life, and have the perfect atmosphere for our existence, and that this planet gives us all we need to survive, again I believe it is too much to all be an accident. No, to me God planned this out, created it all, and now gives us the freedom to do with it as we please. He has given us the tools and the rules, it is up to us to follow them.

So, I will continue to enjoy these first, hope for more, and follow God's plan for me as I struggle in this world. Whatever He has in store for us, we will continue to count our blessings, work hard for success, and share the love we feel.

American Character

Bah humbug!

I just listened to the President's speech and the democratic response and have no reservations about what is the right course of action. I take the President's side here.

Why?

Well, I am not a "cut and run" type of guy. I see the war in Iraq as the battlefield for superiority between the terrorists that would fight us and the will of the American people. Forget about the reasons we got there. Forget about the WMD's, Saddam's madness and murder, and the tyranny we decided to depose. Forget about America's failed foreign policy that has alienated Arabs in the Middle East. Today, al Qaeda and Muslim extremists are fighting our soldiers in the streets of Baghdad, and we simply cannot afford to cut and run. We cannot tuck tail and embolden a group of bastards that have declared war on us, who have said repeatedly they wish to eliminate our way of life, and who have tested our American character and attacked us on our soil.

The war on terror isn't just being fought in Afghanistan anymore. And we must have the guts and the fortitude to fight it wherever it needs to be fought. If Iran wants to test us, let's answer their call. If North Korea wants to push us, let's push back. It is high time the American character be proven to be a no nonsense, tough, and equal to any challenge. The faster the world understands that we cannot and will not be pushed, the faster they will stop pushing.

This can only be done with the resolve of the American public. Let's inform our Congressional leaders that we will not stand for divisiveness. That is not to say that we want our President to have carte blanche, but we certainly do not need the politics of 2006 giving our enemies the advantage of a divided America. We must resolve to win in Iraq, no matter what the costs, and to do so decisively.

To do anything less is only to endanger us all in the future. Period.

The best website I have found for weight management

I am in the process of getting "back" into shape and losing weight. Not an easy task for a soon to be 40 year old who has been out of competitive shape for years. Still, as I look at my wife and kids, I know I have to do something to prolong whatever natural life I have left. Leaving things to fate has never been my way.

I started to count calories. At first I was just curious to see just how much I actually ate, and relate that to how much I should be eating. Everyone should do this, particularly if you want to lose weight and get in shape. I started Googling for calorie counters that would help me put a number to the food in my list. Then I stumble on an absolute awesome website!

Go to http://www.calorie-count.com. Create a profile and use it daily. This website not only has the nutritional information for more foods than I have ever heard of, but also can help you determine how many calories you are burning. Pretty need stuff. You can put a host of activities in your activity log and relate that to how many calories you are consurming. This website also gives you information on some diets, and allows you to analyze a recipe for nutrional value. Plus, there are forums that will allow you to get information or converse with others about diet, excercise, or motivation.

This is the absolute best website for those of us dieting or getting in shape. It is a "must" tool if I have ever seen one. Take a look!

Oh, BTW, I am not affiliated in any way with this website. It is just that good.

Comforting Embrace

My brother-in-law sent me this clipping via email. I realized you just don't get stories like this too often. Here's a man, probably away from his own children for months, offering solace, compassion and comfort to a child he doesn't even know. We should not be there? Insurgents, wonderful, God-fearing Muslim insurgents, killed this girl's family and shot her in the head. Wonder if God is still having pride in these animals calling Him great.

Remember, if our soldiers weren't sacraficing so much to fight these bastards in a far away land, this could be any one of our children this stranger is holding in Anytown, USA. I know, someone is saying "if we weren't there, then this wouldn't have happened." Wrong. It happened every day in Iraq under Saddam. The difference is then we could turn our blind eye to it. Now, it makes news.

Thank God for men and women like this soldier. I am sure this man could kill if he had to, but the compassion he shows here is testament to humanity and to an America few get the chance to see. I believe there are more people like this man in my country than there are of the mentality and brutality of the insurgents and terrorists we fight. This is NOT our Vietnam unless we turn it into one.

Same old new day?

Did you ever just wake up with a revelation? I did, and it revitalized me yet again. Today will certainly not be the "same old new day" for me!

First, when my eyes opened for the very first time this morning, the first thing I saw was my wife. Now that may not seem all that stupendous to you, but you have to understand some things in order to get why it is an awesome thing to me.

See, I snore. I snore loudly. Call it the weight gain, or the lack of exercise (all of which will change on this new day), or just my innocent way of torturing those I love, but the truth is whatever you call it it surely annoys my wife when we sleep. So, in the essence of maximizing her already depleted sleep schedule (a toddler and 3 month old will do that to you), she has this method of making me turn my head the moment it turns it's ugly way towards her. She must have this internal alarm that sets off the moment my head makes it's way in her direction. I call it an internal alarm, she calls it a freight train coming out of my mouth.

You also have to understand my wife is beautiful. Not just in the "you are so beautiful in the inside" kind of way, but in the "wow, that's hot" kind of way. So to wake up with this awesome sight filling my brain is to illicit feelings that, no matter how hard I would try, just aren't going to be addressed in quick fashion (she kills early birds for a late breakfast). One reason I don't play the lottery is because I believe I already won it the day she married me, and to think I could win again would only be tempting fate. Honestly, I could be poor and not have many material possessions, but her hand in mine would make me very, very wealthy.

Well, off to the gym. Nope, no pressure here to be hard and sexy, lean and muscular. Just the realization that I want to live this life as long as I can in order to enjoy this quite different new day over and over again.

The Torments of God

I have been watching a lot of You Tube videos lately about the war in Iraq. I really wanted to get both sides of the issue, so I started not only watching posts placed by our soldiers, but also posts placed by our enemies. I am not easily swayed, but I do listen to reason. I am patriotic, but not so much to believe our government is innocent and not the cause for some of our conflict. I support our troops but certainly wish like hell we didn't need to be over there. There is so much propaganda from both sides that it is hard to tell what is true and what is not.

I also believe it to be more patriotic to question our government than to be a sheep to it. When a United States citizen can not protest or question his/her government, then we have "jumped the shark".

All that being said, I have to say that our enemies have lost their way. I am no Christian, so I don't think any part of me could be called a "crusader", but I wonder in my heart of hearts if religion and it's radical side have severely impaired the judgements of our enemies, just as it has the minds and hearts of "religious" zealots throughout history. It leaves one to wonder, are we the torments of God?

I believe firmly in God, in His existence, in His mercy, and in His power. I also believe that he has given us a gift in the messages placed by people before us. All major religions, from Buddhism to Islam contain the precepts for a perfect world and a great life. Treat others well. Do not steal. Do not kill. Show compassion. Show mercy. Value life to enjoy it for eternity. We honor not only God Himself, but ourselves in our Humanity, by being all of these things. It isn't funny, but rather sad, that those who believe themselves closest to God are the antithesis of all that has been taught about what God is about.

An example of this would be in one video I watched. In this video, Muslim extremists shout Allahu Akbar (God is great) while blowing up a vehicle. I also heard them screaming this as they sliced a man's head off. So, I wonder, what would God think about all of this?

Would God think He so great as an innocent man's head is sliced off (while alive mind you) for no real reason? Does God actually believe it great when we blow each other up? Does God get all tingly when we butcher each other for senseless ideology and religious extremism? After reading the Bible and the Quran many times, I cannot seem to find it in me to believe the God I have read about and prayed to; the God who has shown me beautiful sunrises and love, could possibly be the God these radicals believe find pride in them for destroying it all for so many people. Oh, and I am not just speaking about our enemies.

If Gandhi proved one thing it is that you don't need to be violent to get things done, you just need to be right. Had Gandhi been a violent man, many more Indians would have lost their lives and the world would have lost a great example of true leadership and humanity. India may have eventually gained her independence, but the road would have been paved with the corpses of many more of her people to get there. Gandhi also proved that if you want to have your enemies listen to you, let peace be your weapon.

If Osama bin Laden had been a peace-loving man, and a true man of Islam, then he would not have to be in hiding and could have a far greater voice in how his world is changed. Instead, he must cower in a cave and only have those who already agree with him hear his voice. Nothing like being a champion of others who no one will listen to. Plus, how many Muslims would have been still alive to follow the peaceful examples of change in a true man of peace? Or is it that Islam is truly a violent religion?

Yet, here we are, in the midst of brutal and inhuman war, prepared to the utmost for an attack at any time in our country, and past all the charity humans have extended each other in times of crisis, we have the evil that men do to each other. Someday, perhaps, we will get past ourselves, our borders, our religions, our skin tone, our sex, our "things" and learn to live with each other in peace and prosperity. Maybe Muslims won't have to blow up Christians and Christians won't have to burn witches and try to dominate the world. Maybe, in this exercise of euphoria, we become humans instead of sections of humanity. One thing for sure, it won't happen in my lifetime. Today, even in our best of times, we somehow find it in ourselves to somehow become the torments of God.