Newt Gingrich

I have this strange fascination with Newt. He is, I believe, one of the more intelligent people I've ever met. But even better than his intelligence is his understanding of how to use language.

I met Newt at a small, private reception in Austin hosted by Fleischman-Hillard. Now I'm not sure there are many issues on which Newt and I might find common ground. But at the Austin gathering, he framed all of his policy priorities using language which made me believe that I agreed with him on everything. Remarkably, I think I was one of two Democrats in the room so this would have been an audience that would have responded well to some Republican red meat.

Gingrich was on Meet the Press this last Sunday. Here is what he said about the war in Iraq.

MR. RUSSERT: Let me start with Iraq, on the minds of all Americans, and show them what you said a few weeks ago up in New Hampshire. “Former House speaker Newt Gingrich told a New Hampshire audience that unless the Bush administration admits that the war in Iraq is a ‘failure,’ it will never develop a strategy to leave the country successfully.” Why is the war a failure?

FMR. REP. GINGRICH: Well, the war’s a failure in part because the strategy, as I told you on this show in December of ‘03, has been wrong consistently, it’s been a strategy that was far too American. Second, it’s a, it’s a failure because the instruments of national power don’t work. And it’s important to understand we all focus on Maliki’s government. The, the Baker-Hamilton Commission reports that out of 1,000 people in the American Embassy, 33 speak Arabic, eight of them fluently. Now, at some point we have to have a national conversation about the fact that, outside of the uniform military, none of the instruments of national power work, and they need to be fundamentally overhauled. This isn’t about policy. It’s as though you wanted to go to Boston, I wanted to go to Los Angeles, and the car standing outside was broken. Doesn’t matter what our policy agreement is, the car doesn’t run.

That from Newt Gingrich! It is sad how far this President has fallen.

The problem we Americans all face at this point is that there really aren't any options in Iraq. No matter which path we choose to follow, we will still have a leader in the oval office who is completely incapable of any kind of management or leadership. Remember in 2000 how Bush bragged about having an MBA and what great skills he would bring to the Oval Office because of his MBA? Clearly they don't teach leadership or management skills in business school.

So, what should we do. 1. Secure Baghdad. If that means more troops on a temporary basis then that means more troops. 2. Give every unemployed Iraqi a job that pays well rebuilding the country. (An idea Gingrich talks about with Russert.) 3. Pay off warlords to hand us the terrorists.

Will it work? I don't know. But I would imagine if we are employing virtually every Iraqi and paying off the warlords and we become the gravy train for these folks it will become very easy to get people to turn against the terrorists. And that helps us with security. And the more secure the country the easier to build an economy.

"What the Hell Happened to Christianity?"

The title of this post comes straight from a commentary on CNN.com. It is a provacative title and I agree with their basic premise that those Christians with the loudest voices, the theological right, spend too much time screaming about deamons and damnation and not nearly enough (any?) time focusing on the message of love that was the basis for Jesus Christ's life on earth.

The commentary is on the website as a tool to promote Anderson Cooper's look tonight at "What is a Christian?" It also is a tool to promote a documentary series focusing on the authors and their Punk church that is currently airing on the Sundance channel.

The CNN show and the Sundance show interest me on a number of levels.

1. What is a Christian? I have to tell you, when I was a member at Westlake Hills Presbyterian Church I never felt like a Christian. I felt like an outsider. No matter what we did to get involved in church activities, I always felt like that church was its' own special little Christian clicque that I just didn't measure up to. I wasn't Christian enough. Then we joined Hope Presbyterian Church and I felt much more comfortable with the people but that church lacked energy. (By the way, Fred Morgan, the pastor at that church knows what he's talking about theologically.) Now we've moved to Denver and it is hard to get excited about joining a church when the last two experiences haven't been that great.

2. Does anyone pay attention to the New Testament anymore? I feel like Christianity is stuck in this Old Testament rut.

I recently saw a post on another blog where someone told the story of the bible in 50 words. What was interesting to me is that 65% of the 50 words came from the Old Testament. Since when did the life of Christ get so uninteresting to Christians? Shouldn't most of our focus be on the New Testament? Think about it. The old testament is full of interesting and entertaining stories about God causing strange things to happen to (strange?) people. The New Testament is the authorized biography of Jesus Christ who just happens to be the namesake of one of history's most dominant religions. If we are going to give priority to one of the two Testaments shouldn't it be the New instead of the Old?

3. Will Joel Osteen's theology get you to heaven? In other words, is love enough? For those of you that don't know, Joel Osteen is the minister at a church that meets inside an NBA arena. It's a huge church and they fill the seats every week. Osteen, like the authors of the CNN comentary, doesn't focus on sin and the prospect of possibly going to hell. He focuses almost exclusively on the power of love. A minsiter down in Sugarland, Texas, told me that he thought Osteen served a useful purpose but was pretty theologically light. He said you can't have Christianity without some discussion and focus on the fact that Christians believe there is a hell and you may go there.

OK, enough religion for today. I know there are a handful of people with strong relgious beliefs that read this blog. I'd love to hear your take on this if you can tear yourself away from your seminary studies long enough to type something.

Immigration in America (Read the Strib Story)

This week, Federal agents raided multiple Swift meatpacking plants across the country. One of them happened to be near my hometown. 230 individuals were detained in the raid, almost two percent of the town's total population.

Imagine what happens to a community when 2% of your population is put in jail in one night. Each of those 230 individuals were folks living financially week-to-week if not day-to-day.

Think about what happens to those families when that income is wiped out.

Think about what happens to the economy in that town when that income is wiped out.

Immigration reform is needed but it is a tricky issue and not one that can be solved by blathering button pushers on Fox News. To get an excellent sense of how complicated this thing is, click here to read the Minneapolis Star-Tribune's story on this raid.

Girls Got Game

So we did it. We went to a girls basketball game. Highlands Ranch vs. Ridgeview. Great defense wins games.

First, some meaningless thoughts on the game. #1 for Highlands Ranch just looks like a basketball player. At 5'10" she's listed as the tallest girl on the team but she's got a nice outside shot and can bury the three. #11 for HR played aggressive and was a lot of fun to watch but she wasn't concentrating and ended up on the bench with a bunch of early fouls. HR has a sophomore that got plenty of minutes last night but you could really tell she was a sophomore. This girl must be good to get those kinds of varsity minutes but I sure could tell the difference in approach and in the way she carried herself vs. how the seniors behaved. Finally, HR has a young team with only 3 seniors. They looked pretty good. Short -- but good.

Now to the important stuff. My 4 year old now knows that girls can play ball. More importantly, my two year old now knows that girls can play ball. I'm not sure if this next sentence is true or not but the two year old seemed a bit shocked by the aggressive and fast play. I'm not sure she'd ever seen other girls run and collide the way the girls last night were running and colliding. I'm glad she saw it.

I think we will continue to alternate between girls and boys games as the season wears on. We also need to make it to Boulder to see the Buffs play.

Boys vs. Girls

I have a four year old boy and a two year old girl. Friday night I took them to see a high school boys basketball game. This was a new experience for my daughter but my son has been to multiple high school games and two college games.

As we drove away from the game Friday night I mentioned that this time we watched boys play basketball but that next time we would probably go see girls play. I want to make sure my daughter sees games with girls playing.

My son, however, surprised me. He said, "Girls don't play basketball!" When I told him that girls do indeed play basketball he said, "That's strange."

Now fast forward to Sunday night. I ask my son and daughter if they would like to go to another basketball game. They both said, "YES!" Then I mentioned that this time it would be a girls high school basketball game. My son immediately looked disappointed. I asked him why and he said that watching girls play just isn't that exciting. I asked why not. He said because they don't dribble or block shots.

Hmmm.

He was surprised again when I told him that girls do indeed dribble and block shots.

Wonder where he picked up those attitudes?