Apparently you get an all video edition of best web junk this week.  Here it is…enjoy

I am opposed to dressing dogs up at all times.  This is the only exception I have ever seen because this AT-AT costume is beyond awesome

Same theme, less awesome

This is so good, it could be a Pixar short

A convention with no controversy is boring.

This year I attended Tuesday only.  I had obligations on Monday that kept me away from the pastor’s conference, which I’m sure I would have enjoyed.  There was really only one major piece of business this year; amending and restructuring of the constitution.  Most of the changes were for streamlining purposes and it was not controversial.  For example, we renamed the annual session the annual “meeting.” (Exciting huh?) The election of officers was completely uneventful.  Only one ballot was even necessary (CJ Bordeaux was elected as second VP), as President and first VP were unopposed.  (In slightly related news, my great-uncle, Don Mathis, was elected as president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention.)  Even the budget, which involved substantial cuts, only had a few comments from the floor.

Compare this to last year, when we were doing away with giving plans, or to ’07 when we were defunding the colleges as they began electing their own trustees.  Those years had a different feel to them.  In a year like this when everything is routine, we are simply going about our business controversy free.

I almost titled this post Baptists like to Argue.  At a business meeting where everything is cut and dried you begin to hear people say things like “this thing was railroaded,” or “they are just going to elect who they want.”  It’s weird; it’s almost as if we are creating controversy where there is none.  In this case I know that is it.  We in NC are too recently past the major controversies to be organized.  It ought to be a reason for celebration.  Hooray, we are controversy-free! But instead it’s boring.

I must confess, I am as guilty of this as anyone else.  I think the controversy is interesting.  I bet that next year’s SBC is the best-attended in a while.  Not just because it’s in Orlando and we can sneak out to Sea World (not Disney though ), but because of the controversy that seems to be swirling around the GCR Task Force.

That’s my two cents.  I’m glad we are not fighting, but it’s not nearly as interesting as the controversy.  Maybe next year I’ll make a motion for some controversy.  I already have one in mind.

This is probably the neatest Halloween costume I’ve sen this year

Here is the first runner up

yep…WIN

Whoever thinks that Twitter is a waste of time should look at this list of people to follow.  This tweet from @common_squirrel alone is worth joining

Here is some useful knowledge for you

This could possibly be the best commercial I’ve ever seen

I enjoyed this very much

Here is part one of this year’s story.  Have fun adding to it, it’s in a tab at the top -

It was November and William was out for his daily walk through the neighborhood.  It was cold this morning but walking through the neighborhood was better than a treadmill and looking at the same wall for an hour.  As he arrived back at his house he checked the mail and found a package.

There was no return address on the package and he didn’t remember ordering anything so he opened it as he was going into the house.

The package contained a t-shirt that said, “I’m with stupid,” a note that read “wear this on your trip,” and a plane ticket to Brazil.

“At least it’s not a train ticket,” he thought, recalling a frightening dream he had about a year ago.  He began to debate in his mind whether he wanted to be a part of another mysterious adventure.  The ticket was for a flight tomorrow at 7 a.m. so he had a while to make up his mind.

Remember this?

That story did not go at all the way I expected it to.  I certainly didn’t see Michael Strahan showing up.  It was kinda fun

Well it’s November again, NaNoWriMo, so let’s take another crack at writing a collaborative story.  Again this year I’ll make a tab at the top with a link to the story.  You add your contribution in the comments and I’ll move it up to the body of the story.

The one thing we need to make it better is your contribution.

Here are the rules.  same rules as last year:

1. No one can write two consecutive portions
2. Portions may not be longer than 400 words
3. Be aware of continuity.  Please read the story and relate your section to the rest.  We don’t want this to turn out like Snoopy’s novel.   Not too many meanwhiles etc.
4. No quick endings.  Please don’t have aliens destroy the world, or some sort of catastrophy to end the story short
5. Please don’t negate the contributions of others, (e.g. Then he woke up…it was all a dream)
6. Careful of content/language.  Try to write your portions without swears or non PG-13 content.
7. I reserve the right to edit your portion for spelling grammar and format.
8. Have fun

Finally – Try this. even if you don’t think this is your thing or if you aren’t creative, write one sentence.  Give it a shot.  I think this might be fun.

Each month I collect the interesting searches that bring people to my blog and share them with you unedited.  They are simply cut-and-pasted exactly as they appeared.  Whatever you see in parenthesis is my commentary.  This month it seems like 40% of searches  included the word tattoo.  But only a few were funny.  Really it was a pretty boring month of searches overall

• fence tattoos (really? a tattoo of a fence?)
• dinosaur conversation
• “is america being punk’d” obama (No idea why this would bring anyone to my blog)
• tattoo speaker
• who is john galt tattoo (I have no idea)

This is probably my favorite fail of all time

I’ve never heard of this, but now I want to see it in person

This is a very entertaining story, but I wouldn’t want to be this guy

This is about 50 minutes of video.  But I promise you it is thoroughly interesting, and that you will never watch a cop show the same again

If you only watch one video about the Spitzer Space Telescope, it should be this video

I appreciate my Pastor.

This post is nearly identical to last year, feel free to skip it.

Pastor Weeks at the new 1.3 Billion dollar Yankee Stadium

I am a very critical person, and I find that I am very often critical of Pastor Weeks.  Much more than I should be.  I want to take this opportunity to say publicly that I appreciate him.  he is n excellent pastor and in the 5 years I’ve known him he has been nothing but good to me.

Even though he is nearly 60 he still is willing to  learn.

He loves our church.  If anyone needs him, they know they can call.  If you have a birthday or an anniversary, you can count on a phone call.

He loves his family and knows they are his legacy.

He loves the Bible, and has regular quiet time and does his best to communicate it to us each week.

He loves missions.  More than any pastor I’ve ever known, he emphasizes missions prayer, giving, and going.

Thanks for allowing me to ramp & rave

Oops…I guess I sort of left my regular readers hanging.  I promised this last week.  I found myself to be much busier than I expected last Thursday, and now I have sort of lost my energy for this post.  But since I said it was coming, here you go.

Jon Stewart deals in what he calls “fake news.” He is thoroughly self-deprecating, and often laments that he is taken seriously by so many.  In reality The Daily Show is not so much “fake news” as it is commentary on the news.  Most of the Jon Stewart shtick is to point out how terrible news coverage is.  This video I linked to as a prelude to these thoughts illustrates this perfectly.  In it, he shows that CNN did a fact check on a Saturday Night Live sketch, while not even questioning a senator on his views of healthcare reform.  Then there is a barrage “leave it there” quotes.  This is the way that CNN doesn’t bother with fact checking.  They just bring in 2 points of view and debate.  Then end whenever it’s time for a commercial.

The daily show has repeatedly done critiques of the same sort on the networks and each of the cable news channels.

You might say that this is just rampant cynicism and not Neil Postman-like criticism of the news.  But even if it is just cynicism, it illustrates the same point – television news is in terrible condition.  Clearly Stewart is no Postman in terms of gravitas (to use a good cable-news word), and he is much more political, but his criticism is valid nonetheless.

The only thing lacking from Stewart’s criticism is the why.  Postman explained the why. News is terrible because the news organizations exist to make money, not to protect the first amendment.  If it is more profitable to show debates than truly look at the issues being debated, then debates will continue.  And Saturday Night Live is simply more interesting than charts and graphs looking at the financial impact of a given healthcare reform bill.

I guarantee nobody would say this at Christmas

This is hilarious (be warned it has a couple of swears)

I think Ryan should go with this look

You know how people are always seeing faces in random stuff?  This one I totally see

Also in seeing pictures where they may or may not exist is this awesomeness

I know everybody has seen this by now, but c’mon, it’s hilarious