Wet and Cold Wednesday

1.  81 year-old Joe Paterno got a three year contract extension.  Penn State has improved the last few years and calls for his retirement have subsided.  Multi-year contracts in college football mean nothing.  They are only there to “insure” recruits that the coach is on solid footing.  I hope I’m still in the game when I’m 81.

2.  I believe leadership is inclusive and exclusive.  I believe that those called to lead certain groups/churches/organizations is an exclusive groups and it’s not for everyone.  However, I believe those leaders are called to include others as the group moves forward.  I think I know what I’m trying to say, but I don’t think I said it very well.

3.  Okay, okay.  I got a nudge to comment on this whole Illinois Governor fiasco so here it goes.  The whole deal is that this guy(I can’t spell or say his name so he is “this guy”) was trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by President-elect Obama.  He had his list of names and was going around, allegedly, to see who the highest bidder was.  This, of course, is illegal.  It is not, however, unheard of.  Politics world-wide has a long history of this “pay to play” style of involvement.  Elections have been bought and sold as easily as government positions.  I think there are three issues going on here.  #1 is that this guy, the Illinois governor, is rumored to be a complete nutjob(that is the scientific name).  Not just the typical jerk politician, but crazy crazy.  One former colleague informed this guy of a death in his family while this guy was on the phone.  This guy covers the mouthpiece and asks the man, his colleague and friend, if he can count on his family for a campaign contribution.  No hanging up the phone.  No “I’m sorry for your loss.”  Normal people don’t do this.  #2 is that Chicago politics has been steeped in corruption for a looong time.  Read any book on the Kennedy election.  See how many former Governors are in prison or may soon be going to prison.  Will it ever change?  That’s not to say that all Illinois and Chicago politicians are corrupt.  Which leads us to  #3.  Barack Obama now must overcome this scandal that he may or may not have had anything to do with.  So far it appears that no one on the Obama team knows who talked to who or when, but there are lots of recorded conversations between “this guy” and members of Obama’s team, who to his knowledge had no contact with the governor’s(this guy’s) office.  Now, Obama is appointing many people to his staff and Cabinet who have ties to Chicago.  This is not unusual.  We often promote and use who we know.  It happens everyday in churches, clubs, and schools.  However, with the cloud of corruption hanging over Illinois, I wonder how wise it is to continue promoting people from there.  On a side note:  Obama has not promoted or named any Republicans or southerners to his staff and cabinet.  President-elect Obama needs to realize  that something stinks in Chicago and if he’s not careful it will follow him to the White House.

4.  The good thing about the library is that you can check out movies for free.  The bad thing is that I end up getting movies like Camp Rock and Alice in Wonderland.  Camp Rock wasn’t that bad, but the lip syncing in all the musical movies gets to me as well as the fake guitar playing.  At least learn some chords and fake it right.  I really got it to see my kids dance.  Drake is a dancing machine, clothed or unclothed.

5.  Christmas is a week from tomorrow.  Valkyrie, Bedtime Stories, the Spirit, 7 Pounds, and the Wrestler are some of the movies I want to check out over the holidays.  Gotta look at plugged in online to check out their content before we go.  I also want to take the girls to see Bolt.  Looking forward to a week home and preaching in Denton on the 28th.  My sermon is already done so I can rest easy over the Holy days.  We also get to introduce our family to our new Beagle, Daisy Mae.

6.  I’m reading a book on Duke’s 91 and 92 National Championships.  I’ve got them on tape somewhere.  It’s not as easy to get acquainted with college players anymore because so many of them leave school early.  When you go to 4 Final Fours in a row(three championship games in a row) then everyone gets to know you, and non-Duke fans learn to hate you even more.  I guess I didn’t realize or remember how close we came to a UNC-Duke national championship game which would have eclipsed all sporting events before or since.  It would have also started Armageddon.

Well, it’s a busy day with lots to do.  Anyone else read Francis Chan’s “Crazy Love?”  Starting on that today.