Partisan bickering and nastiness among Congressional members on Capitol Hill these days is well-documented. One practice, however, that always promotes a spirit of bipartisanship in Congress is pork barrel spending -- which, as defined in Wikipedia (so it's got to be right!) is an "appropriation of government spending for localized projects secured solely or primarily to bring money to a representative's district."
In layman's language, it's how members of the House and Senate creatively "bring home the bacon" for their states and particular districts. One infamous example that comes to mind is the "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska that was supposed to connect the town of Ketchikan (population 8,900) with its airport on the island of Gravina (population 50) at a cost of $320 million. Yet as much as the practice of pork barrel spending is scorned, no doubt those Congressmen and Senators who've gotten behind certain projects use them as pawns (either directly or indirectly) when election time rolls them and say, "Look what I did for you!" if a particular project happens to benefit their constituents.
Apparently, pork barrel spending is down in Fiscal Year 2010. Nevertheless, it's still rampant (9,129 projects), as the nonprofit Citizens Against Government Waste organization documents each year in its book, appropriately titled: The 2010 Congressional Pig Book Summary.
Granted, the estimated $16.5 billion price tag for these pork barrel projects isn't much when compared to the out-of-control spending that's taken place in Washington over the past 25-30 years. But the following snippets I found in the 2010 Pig Book summary once again points out how widespread pork barrel spending is ... and how it cuts across party lines.
According to the book, each of these items "meet at least one of CAGW’s seven criteria, but must satisfy at least two:
"•Requested by only one chamber of Congress;
•Not specifically authorized;
•Not competitively awarded;
•Not requested by the President;
•Greatly exceeds the President’s budget request or the previous year’s funding;
•Not the subject of congressional hearings; or
•Serves only a local or special interest."
Without further ado, here are a few highlights (lowlights?) from the book's "Oinkers" of 2010, which recognizes "perseverance in the mad pursuit of pork":
-- The Thad the Impaler Award: To Sen. Thad Corcoran (R-Mississippi) for ringing up $490 million in pork.
-- The Jekyll and Hyde Award: To Rep. Leonard Lance, (R-New Jersey) for what the book says is "his ever-changing stance on earmarks; first signing a no-earmark pledge, then receiving $21 million in earmarks, then supporting the Republican earmark moratorium."
-- The Kick in the Asp Award: To Madeleine Bordallo, a delegate to Congress from Guam, who secured $500,000 for brown tree snakes control and interdiction. (Talk about a snake in the grass, huh?)
-- The Narcissist Award: To Senators Tom Harkin (Democrat, Iowa) and Robert Byrd (Democrat, West Virginia) -- Harkin for securing $7.2 million to continue the Harkin Grant Program, and Byrd for securing $7 million, which is headed to the Robert C. Byrd Institute of Advanced Flexible Manufacturing Systems.
-- The Hal Bent on Earmarking Award: To Kentucky GOP Rep. Harold "Hal" Rogers, who secured $10 million for the National Institute for Hometown Security.
Other selected pork barrel "highlights":
-- $250,000 secured by GOP Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky "for construction of the Monroe County Farmer's Market."
-- $775,000 for the Institute for Food Science and Engineering (IFSE). which the book stated was "requested by Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee member Mark Pryor, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (both Arkansas Democrats) and Rep. John Boozman (a Republican, also from Arkansas). One of IFSE’s research areas is called 'Pickle Science and Technology' which the institute’s website boasts, 'is dedicated to increasing product value by improving production and quality of pickled vegetables.' "
-- $349,000 "for swine and other waste management by Sen. Kay Hagan, House appropriator David Price and Rep. Bob Etheridge (all Democrats from North Carolina)." Swine and waste managment, huh? (Both appropriate for pork barrel spending, wouldn't you agree!)
-- $1 million "by Senate appropriator Mary Landrieu (Democrat from Louisiana) for the Sewall-Belmont House in Washington, D.C., which holds private events, offers catering, and is visited by tourists who are encouraged to leave donations."
-- And my personal favorite: $400,000 appropriated by Sen. Herb Kohl (Democrat from Wisconsin) for the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture. According to the book, "One of the institute’s projects is promoting 'Slow Food.' As an answer to fast food, 'Slow Food' has been, according to the institute’s website, 'expanding over the past decade from dealing with issues of quality in cooking to include environmental and sustainable agriculture, social justice, and food sovereignty, among others.' "
Heck, I'm wondering if I can lobby a Congressman or Senator to secure $1 million or $2 million, and then have them send it my way. Then I can conduct ongoing research (using myself as a case study) to determine what effects doing absolutely nothing all day has on the human body.
Discover more about how Congress creatively pigs out on your tax dollars at: http://www.cagw.org/.
Mike Sandrolini
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Saturday, April 17, 2010
A short list of unique tunes from the 1960s (with videos!)
I've embraced many technological changes over the past 20 years ... except for one: the iPod -- that pocket-size contraption devised by Apple which allows you to store, and listen to, your favorite tunes. (In other words, your own personal jukebox.)
I do own an iPod Nano, which I won as a door prize early in 2009. Funny thing is, I've never taken it out of its plastic case. It's still sitting on my kitchen table.
Some Baby-Boomer habits are tough to break. Forget the iPod; I prefer my car radio, which is preset to 12 FM stations (6 on the FM1 band; 6 on FM2). Each station is either set to a rock, classic rock or oldies channel.
There are laws in the books that forbid talking on hand-held cell phones or texting while driving. I hope no municipality ever conjures up a law that prohibits drivers from punching buttons on the radio while one's vehicle is in motion because that's my major driving faux pas.
I still enjoy the element of surprise that radio provides. You never know what tune you might hear next.
During one recent button-pushing session, I dialed into the middle of a verse from a classic hit that I recall first hearing as a snot-nosed youngster with a crewcut on Chicago's WLS-AM when it was a Top 40 station --"California Dreamin' " by the Mamas and the Papas. The group featured the late Mama Cass Elliot, Denny Doherty, John Phillips and John's second wife, Michelle -- the lone surviving member of the group (who's been married 5 times herself).
John made infamous posthumous headlines last year when his daughter, Mackenzie Phillips (One Day at a Time and American Graffiti), revealed in her memoir that she and her father reportedly had an incestuous relationship. (So much for my innocent childhood memories of the Mamas and the Papas).
Dirty laundry aside, the Mamas and the Papas recorded a handful of chart-topping singles during the mid- to-late 1960s. Here's a link to the video clip from "California Dreamin" (don't laugh too hard, those of you who don't remember, or never lived through, this era!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtVIhDgo_uU
What follows are a few more tunes from the 1960s (along with my own liner notes) that, for whatever reason, stood out in this impressionable child's mind back in the day:
"These Boots Are Made for Walkin' " (Nancy Sinatra, 1966) -- I remember first hearing Frank Sinatra's daughter belt out this ditty during, I believe, a family vacation in Minnesota. When you're a kid, and someone says, "One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!," your ears perk up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRkovnss7sg Memorable lyrics: You keep lyin' when you oughta be truthin'; you keep losing when you oughta not bet. You keep same-in' when you oughta be a' changin'. What's right is right, but you ain't been right yet. A year later, Nancy and Ol' Blue Eyes teamed up for a duet, titled, "Somethin' Stupid," which also topped the charts.
"Touch Me" (The Doors, 1968) -- The following video clip is what I actually viewed live on the family black-and-white Zenith when Jim Morrison and The Doors appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show (a program that turned out to be a welcome reprieve after having to sit through Lawrence Welk at my Grandmother's house): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PECk9A-07Pw Memorable lyrics: I'm gonna love you 'till the heavens stops the rain. (Whatever that means ... then again, Morrison was a poet.) Morrison appeared to be on his best behavior that night -- a stark contrast to his performance with The Doors a year earlier on Ed Sullivan when CBS execs threw a fit after Morrison promised he wouldn't say the word "higher," which was part of the song, (as in high, a drug reference) on national TV -- but did so anyway. (Fast-forward 40-some years later, and just about anything goes on national TV nowadays. Ed Sullivan must be rolling over in his grave.)
"Age of Aquarius" (The 5th Dimension, 1969) -- The No. 1 hit of 1969 -- and the opening song in the musical "Hair" -- became an anthem of the psychedelic/long hair/peace/free love/war protest 1960s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LANwIgpha7k&feature=related Memorable lyrics: When the Moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars. Then peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars. Actually, these lyrics, according to astrologer Neil Spencer in a Wikipedia entry, are "astrological gibberish as Jupiter aligns with Mars several times a year and the Moon is in the seventh house for about two hours every day." (But hey, whoever said song lyrics either had to make sense or be factually correct?!) The 5th Dimension also had hits such as "Up, Up and Away," "Wedding Bell Blues" and "One Less Bell to Answer." The group's most famous members, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., eventually married and performed as a duo, with a No. 1 hit in 1977: "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)."
"Incense and Peppermints" (The Strawberry Alarm Clock, 1967) -- Great name for a band, and this tune had it all: a good groove, good harmonies, cowbell throughout (what song couldn't use more cowbell?) and strange lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhYLz63csS0&feature=related Memorable (strange) lyrics: Tune-a by the cockeyed world in two. Throw your pride to one side, it's the least you can do. Beatniks and politics, nothing is new. A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view. I get the "beatniks and politics" reference (both were centerpieces of 1960s culture). In order to try to understand the rest of this number, I plugged the phrase, "Incense and Peppermints lyrics meaning," into Mr. Google (still can't bring myself to use Bing). According to faq.com, the gist behind Incense and Peppermints is this: "The psychedelic age was in full swing when Incense and Peppermints became popular. Incense is often burned to mask the smell of marijuana. Peppermints are used to mask the smoke on a person's breath." OK, I get it now.
"Hair" (The Cowsills, 1969) -- The Cowsills, a family pop group from Newport, Rhode Island, consisting of 6 siblings and their mother, Barbara, were the inspiration for Shirley Jones, David Cassidy and The Partridge Family in the 1970s. "Hair" -- the group's renditon of the title song from the musical -- made it to No.2 on the pop charts in 1969 and was a million seller. Ironically, The Cowsills were all clean-cut. They each donned wigs for this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFy-yzj02FE Memorable lyrics: Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair; shining, gleaming, streamin', flaxen, waxen. Give me down to there (hair!), shoulder length or longer (hair!); here baby, there mama, everywhere daddy daddy (hair!). The Cowsills also appeared on Ed Sullivan, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and American Bandstand. A few of the band's original members still perform together periodically. In fact, their most recent performance took place earlier this month at the Quad Cities Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf, Iowa.
I do own an iPod Nano, which I won as a door prize early in 2009. Funny thing is, I've never taken it out of its plastic case. It's still sitting on my kitchen table.
Some Baby-Boomer habits are tough to break. Forget the iPod; I prefer my car radio, which is preset to 12 FM stations (6 on the FM1 band; 6 on FM2). Each station is either set to a rock, classic rock or oldies channel.
There are laws in the books that forbid talking on hand-held cell phones or texting while driving. I hope no municipality ever conjures up a law that prohibits drivers from punching buttons on the radio while one's vehicle is in motion because that's my major driving faux pas.
I still enjoy the element of surprise that radio provides. You never know what tune you might hear next.
During one recent button-pushing session, I dialed into the middle of a verse from a classic hit that I recall first hearing as a snot-nosed youngster with a crewcut on Chicago's WLS-AM when it was a Top 40 station --"California Dreamin' " by the Mamas and the Papas. The group featured the late Mama Cass Elliot, Denny Doherty, John Phillips and John's second wife, Michelle -- the lone surviving member of the group (who's been married 5 times herself).
John made infamous posthumous headlines last year when his daughter, Mackenzie Phillips (One Day at a Time and American Graffiti), revealed in her memoir that she and her father reportedly had an incestuous relationship. (So much for my innocent childhood memories of the Mamas and the Papas).
Dirty laundry aside, the Mamas and the Papas recorded a handful of chart-topping singles during the mid- to-late 1960s. Here's a link to the video clip from "California Dreamin" (don't laugh too hard, those of you who don't remember, or never lived through, this era!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtVIhDgo_uU
What follows are a few more tunes from the 1960s (along with my own liner notes) that, for whatever reason, stood out in this impressionable child's mind back in the day:
"These Boots Are Made for Walkin' " (Nancy Sinatra, 1966) -- I remember first hearing Frank Sinatra's daughter belt out this ditty during, I believe, a family vacation in Minnesota. When you're a kid, and someone says, "One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!," your ears perk up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRkovnss7sg Memorable lyrics: You keep lyin' when you oughta be truthin'; you keep losing when you oughta not bet. You keep same-in' when you oughta be a' changin'. What's right is right, but you ain't been right yet. A year later, Nancy and Ol' Blue Eyes teamed up for a duet, titled, "Somethin' Stupid," which also topped the charts.
"Touch Me" (The Doors, 1968) -- The following video clip is what I actually viewed live on the family black-and-white Zenith when Jim Morrison and The Doors appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show (a program that turned out to be a welcome reprieve after having to sit through Lawrence Welk at my Grandmother's house): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PECk9A-07Pw Memorable lyrics: I'm gonna love you 'till the heavens stops the rain. (Whatever that means ... then again, Morrison was a poet.) Morrison appeared to be on his best behavior that night -- a stark contrast to his performance with The Doors a year earlier on Ed Sullivan when CBS execs threw a fit after Morrison promised he wouldn't say the word "higher," which was part of the song, (as in high, a drug reference) on national TV -- but did so anyway. (Fast-forward 40-some years later, and just about anything goes on national TV nowadays. Ed Sullivan must be rolling over in his grave.)
"Age of Aquarius" (The 5th Dimension, 1969) -- The No. 1 hit of 1969 -- and the opening song in the musical "Hair" -- became an anthem of the psychedelic/long hair/peace/free love/war protest 1960s. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LANwIgpha7k&feature=related Memorable lyrics: When the Moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars. Then peace will guide the planets, and love will steer the stars. Actually, these lyrics, according to astrologer Neil Spencer in a Wikipedia entry, are "astrological gibberish as Jupiter aligns with Mars several times a year and the Moon is in the seventh house for about two hours every day." (But hey, whoever said song lyrics either had to make sense or be factually correct?!) The 5th Dimension also had hits such as "Up, Up and Away," "Wedding Bell Blues" and "One Less Bell to Answer." The group's most famous members, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., eventually married and performed as a duo, with a No. 1 hit in 1977: "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)."
"Incense and Peppermints" (The Strawberry Alarm Clock, 1967) -- Great name for a band, and this tune had it all: a good groove, good harmonies, cowbell throughout (what song couldn't use more cowbell?) and strange lyrics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhYLz63csS0&feature=related Memorable (strange) lyrics: Tune-a by the cockeyed world in two. Throw your pride to one side, it's the least you can do. Beatniks and politics, nothing is new. A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view. I get the "beatniks and politics" reference (both were centerpieces of 1960s culture). In order to try to understand the rest of this number, I plugged the phrase, "Incense and Peppermints lyrics meaning," into Mr. Google (still can't bring myself to use Bing). According to faq.com, the gist behind Incense and Peppermints is this: "The psychedelic age was in full swing when Incense and Peppermints became popular. Incense is often burned to mask the smell of marijuana. Peppermints are used to mask the smoke on a person's breath." OK, I get it now.
"Hair" (The Cowsills, 1969) -- The Cowsills, a family pop group from Newport, Rhode Island, consisting of 6 siblings and their mother, Barbara, were the inspiration for Shirley Jones, David Cassidy and The Partridge Family in the 1970s. "Hair" -- the group's renditon of the title song from the musical -- made it to No.2 on the pop charts in 1969 and was a million seller. Ironically, The Cowsills were all clean-cut. They each donned wigs for this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFy-yzj02FE Memorable lyrics: Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair; shining, gleaming, streamin', flaxen, waxen. Give me down to there (hair!), shoulder length or longer (hair!); here baby, there mama, everywhere daddy daddy (hair!). The Cowsills also appeared on Ed Sullivan, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and American Bandstand. A few of the band's original members still perform together periodically. In fact, their most recent performance took place earlier this month at the Quad Cities Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf, Iowa.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Here's a PC solution to team nicknames that are offensive ...
Putting pressure on schools to stop using nicknames that certain groups deem offensive isn't exclusive to the politically correct decades of the 1990s and 2000s. It's been going on longer than that.
Check out this list of schools/teams that have either dropped their old nicknames for new ones and/or have discontinued using their mascots at: http://www.jayrosenstein.com/pages/honormascots.html
In certain cases, I can understand the need to change a school or team's nickname because it's blatantly offensive. The most classic example that comes to mind for me is Pekin (Illinois) High School, whose teams were called "the Chinks" until 1980. (The school's mascot was a student dressed as a Chinaman who wore a coolie hat and banged a gong when the team scored a point.)
A few miles up the road from Pekin is the city of Peoria, home of Bradley University and the Bradley Braves. The school has kept the nickname Braves, but dumped its mascot several years ago.
Bradley is on a list of schools being watched by big brother NCAA for what it deems "hostile and abusive use" of Native American imagery. (Yes, this is the same principled organization which sets rules and regulations for everything under the sun, yet never seems to pass up an opportunity to make more money on the backs of student athletes. See Exhibit A: the NCAA is considering expanding the recently concluded NCAA men's basketball tournament from 64 to 96 teams.)
I noticed this week Bradley's students voted in a nonbinding referendum that asks school administrators to come up with an "appropriate" mascot. Pat Oklendorf, editor of the Bradley student newspaper, told the Associated Press he believes "a lot of people seem to be attached to the Braves name, but they want some sort of character (aka, a mascot)" to be put in place.
Here's a thought: if the NCAA really believes any member school whose teams bear a nickname it considers offensive to Native Americans -- or any other group, for that matter -- why not simply inform officials at each school that they have one year to get rid of the nickname and come up with a new name? That'll put an end to forcing schools like Bradley to continue walking this silly PC tightrope. (On a completely different tangent, why is it that there's never much of a fuss made about professional sports teams which have turned handsome profits with nicknames such as the Indians (Cleveland) the Braves (Atlanta), the Redskins (Washington), the Chiefs (Kansas City) and the Blackhawks (Chicago) for decades? Just wondering.)
I've got an even better solution: since every group likely can find something offensive in every team's nickname, why not do away with nicknames altogether -- from high school, to college, to pro teams? That's right! A clean sweep. No nicknames.
Think about it. Members of PETA, for example, are probably offended by teams that use animal nicknames. And I imagine any team called "the Cougars" not only would offend PETA members -- it would get an earful from single women over 40 who choose to identify themselves as cougars!
What about teams that are called "the Devils," or go by some other demonic name. It's got to offend some, if not all, Christians, right? And can't the same be said about atheists, who no doubt find nicknames such as the Friars, the Preachers (Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, Tennessee), the Praying Colonels (Centre College, Danville, Kentucky) and, of course, the Saints, offensive? Then there's the Vanderbilt University Commodores. Hey, isn't that Lionel Richie's old band? They certainly have to be offended!
We have the Agnes Scott College (Decatur, Georgia) Scotties, the New York Lower East Side Prep Immigrants, the Eufaula (Oklahoma) High School Ironheads (somehow I can relate to being an Ironhead), the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Lewisville (Texas) Fighting Farmers and the Laona (Wisconsin) Fighting Kellys.
Then there's the Yuma (Arizona) High School Criminals (What are the cheers like at that school? Go Criminals ... fight, fight, fight!?), the Madeira (Ohio) Amazons (just the girls' teams), the California State University-Long Beach Dirtbags (that's the name of the baseball team -- I kid you not!) ...
And last, but not least: the Watersmeet Township (Michigan) Nimrods.
On behalf of Nimrods everywhere, I take offense to that!
Check out this list of schools/teams that have either dropped their old nicknames for new ones and/or have discontinued using their mascots at: http://www.jayrosenstein.com/pages/honormascots.html
In certain cases, I can understand the need to change a school or team's nickname because it's blatantly offensive. The most classic example that comes to mind for me is Pekin (Illinois) High School, whose teams were called "the Chinks" until 1980. (The school's mascot was a student dressed as a Chinaman who wore a coolie hat and banged a gong when the team scored a point.)
A few miles up the road from Pekin is the city of Peoria, home of Bradley University and the Bradley Braves. The school has kept the nickname Braves, but dumped its mascot several years ago.
Bradley is on a list of schools being watched by big brother NCAA for what it deems "hostile and abusive use" of Native American imagery. (Yes, this is the same principled organization which sets rules and regulations for everything under the sun, yet never seems to pass up an opportunity to make more money on the backs of student athletes. See Exhibit A: the NCAA is considering expanding the recently concluded NCAA men's basketball tournament from 64 to 96 teams.)
I noticed this week Bradley's students voted in a nonbinding referendum that asks school administrators to come up with an "appropriate" mascot. Pat Oklendorf, editor of the Bradley student newspaper, told the Associated Press he believes "a lot of people seem to be attached to the Braves name, but they want some sort of character (aka, a mascot)" to be put in place.
Here's a thought: if the NCAA really believes any member school whose teams bear a nickname it considers offensive to Native Americans -- or any other group, for that matter -- why not simply inform officials at each school that they have one year to get rid of the nickname and come up with a new name? That'll put an end to forcing schools like Bradley to continue walking this silly PC tightrope. (On a completely different tangent, why is it that there's never much of a fuss made about professional sports teams which have turned handsome profits with nicknames such as the Indians (Cleveland) the Braves (Atlanta), the Redskins (Washington), the Chiefs (Kansas City) and the Blackhawks (Chicago) for decades? Just wondering.)
I've got an even better solution: since every group likely can find something offensive in every team's nickname, why not do away with nicknames altogether -- from high school, to college, to pro teams? That's right! A clean sweep. No nicknames.
Think about it. Members of PETA, for example, are probably offended by teams that use animal nicknames. And I imagine any team called "the Cougars" not only would offend PETA members -- it would get an earful from single women over 40 who choose to identify themselves as cougars!
What about teams that are called "the Devils," or go by some other demonic name. It's got to offend some, if not all, Christians, right? And can't the same be said about atheists, who no doubt find nicknames such as the Friars, the Preachers (Johnson Bible College, Knoxville, Tennessee), the Praying Colonels (Centre College, Danville, Kentucky) and, of course, the Saints, offensive? Then there's the Vanderbilt University Commodores. Hey, isn't that Lionel Richie's old band? They certainly have to be offended!
We have the Agnes Scott College (Decatur, Georgia) Scotties, the New York Lower East Side Prep Immigrants, the Eufaula (Oklahoma) High School Ironheads (somehow I can relate to being an Ironhead), the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, the Lewisville (Texas) Fighting Farmers and the Laona (Wisconsin) Fighting Kellys.
Then there's the Yuma (Arizona) High School Criminals (What are the cheers like at that school? Go Criminals ... fight, fight, fight!?), the Madeira (Ohio) Amazons (just the girls' teams), the California State University-Long Beach Dirtbags (that's the name of the baseball team -- I kid you not!) ...
And last, but not least: the Watersmeet Township (Michigan) Nimrods.
On behalf of Nimrods everywhere, I take offense to that!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
The Case for Christ (Happy Easter!)
This weekend, many of us will gather with our families to celebrate Easter. We'll likely attend a church service -- Easter and Christmas are the two dates in which churches of all Christian denominations see their greatest attendance -- and head off after the service to an area restaurant for a nice dinner. (And if you're one who has given up a specific food item for Lent, you'll likely feast on that item Sunday!)
But Easter, of course, isn't about church services (as good as they are) or dinners, Easter egg hunts, chocolate Easter bunnies or Easter baskets. Commemorating Christ's death and resurrection is what Easter's all about. Remember when holding up a John 3:16 sign in the end zone was the rage at college and pro football games? Well, there's meaning behind John 3:16. It's a verse in the New Testament that is one of Christianity's centerpieces: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
At the end of his research, Strobel reached this conclusion: "In light of the convincing facts I had learned during my investigation, in the face of this overwhelming avalanche of evidence in the case for Christ, the great irony was this: it would require much more faith for me to maintain my atheism than to trust in Jesus of Nazareth!"
Although there are many documented cases of near-death experiences, Piper lays out compelling reasons -- medically based and otherwise -- why what he experienced does not fall into this category. I'd simply recommend that you read this book and its sequel, Heaven is Real. I couldn't put either of them down. And I can tell you after reading both books that I won't be typing in comments labeling Piper a huckster.
Happy Easter!
But Easter, of course, isn't about church services (as good as they are) or dinners, Easter egg hunts, chocolate Easter bunnies or Easter baskets. Commemorating Christ's death and resurrection is what Easter's all about. Remember when holding up a John 3:16 sign in the end zone was the rage at college and pro football games? Well, there's meaning behind John 3:16. It's a verse in the New Testament that is one of Christianity's centerpieces: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son; that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
This is the hope I have as a Christian. But admittedly there are times when I could use some reassurance. So if your faith needs a boost, I'd like to recommend a couple of books this Easter weekend you might want to check out.
I lifted the title for this blog post directly from a book, called The Case for Christ, published by Zondervan. It was written in 1998 by Lee Strobel, a former teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, IL. What's interesting about Strobel is that he was once an atheist. And I can certainly relate to him because he's a fellow journalist. (Strobel was a legal affairs reporter at the Chicago Tribune.)
It took Strobel nearly 2 years to research this book, and he approached his research from the mindset of an atheist. He conducted interviews with 13 leading scholars and authorities, and examined such questions as, "Do the biographies (contained in the Gospels) of Jesus stand up to scrutiny?" "Does archaeology confirm or contradict Jesus' biographies?" "Was Jesus crazy when He claimed to be the Son of God?" "Was Jesus' death a sham and His resurrection a hoax?" "Are there any supporting facts that point to the resurrection?"
The other book I recommend is titled, 90 Minutes in Heaven, by Don Piper with Cecil Murphey (Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group). A New York Times bestseller, it's the story about Piper -- an ordained minister whom medical personnel ruled had died instantly after his car was hit head-on and crushed by a semi that crossed into his lane in January, 1989.
EMTs became involved with others at the scene, and left Piper's body alone for 90 minutes. They then checked for a pulse again. No pulse. Shortly thereafter, a minister arrived on the scene, and authorities allowed him to pray over Piper's lifeless body, which was covered by a tarp. Piper miraculously regained consciousness.
Piper underwent 34 surgeries and still lives with debilitating injuries. But between the time he was initially declared dead and regained consciousness, Piper describes in vivid detail his time in heaven, where he was reunited with relatives and friends who had died before him -- and the sights and sounds he experienced while there.
EMTs became involved with others at the scene, and left Piper's body alone for 90 minutes. They then checked for a pulse again. No pulse. Shortly thereafter, a minister arrived on the scene, and authorities allowed him to pray over Piper's lifeless body, which was covered by a tarp. Piper miraculously regained consciousness.
Piper underwent 34 surgeries and still lives with debilitating injuries. But between the time he was initially declared dead and regained consciousness, Piper describes in vivid detail his time in heaven, where he was reunited with relatives and friends who had died before him -- and the sights and sounds he experienced while there.
I've read plenty of skeptical comments on Web sites which dismiss Piper as a fraud who's out to make a buck. One post said Piper's books "follow a 3-step program: 1. Go to heaven; 2.Come back and tell about it; 3. Make money."
Although there are many documented cases of near-death experiences, Piper lays out compelling reasons -- medically based and otherwise -- why what he experienced does not fall into this category. I'd simply recommend that you read this book and its sequel, Heaven is Real. I couldn't put either of them down. And I can tell you after reading both books that I won't be typing in comments labeling Piper a huckster.
Happy Easter!
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