Who Is Happier?

If I were to ask you who were happier, Republicans or Democrats what would you say?
Married or unmarried? Christians or non-Christians? Why?

Pew Research has a fascinating poll out with data they have obtained.

Before you go there, who is happier Repubs or Dems? I am curious as to why you think so.

One might think the results are no-brainers, but what should we as Christians do with this data? Do we have a RIGHT to be happy? Should we feel guilty if we ARE happy?

I've Been Tagged

Jason tagged me so here goes:

4 jobs that I have had
Assistant Yard Foreman-over all non welding activities for a welding firm-60 hr weeks
Heat detector- detecting cows in heat at the massive Braum's dairy (blame Jason)
Home builder
Firefighter

4 goals for this year
Lose weight
Work less
Prepare for retirement
Do more with family (play more golf with Nate and shop/travel more with Evette, visit Nat)

4 movies I like
Oh Brother Where Art Thou
Excalibur
Blazing Saddles
We Were Soldiers

4 places I have lived
Tuttle Oklahoma- in 15 different houses
Norman Ok-for one semester
Silverton CO- one to two weeks a year since the early 90's
Sorry I can't stretch it to 4.

4 TV Shows I Watch
That 70's Show- reruns
Survivor
Kris Angel MindFreak
Wife Swap

4 Websites
Various Bloggers- see who I link to, and who they link to, etc.
Drudge Report
Christianity Today


4 Vacation Places
Colorado- Silverton, Durango, Lake City, South Fork
Grand Canyon
San Antonio
Eureka Springs

4 Favorite Foods
Steak-Ken's or Primo's
Spaghetti-Evette's
Ribs- Ken's
Mexican Food- Ted's, Carlitos, Los Vaqueros, etc., etc.(This list is too restrictive)

4 Places I'd Rather Be
No Place I'd rather be than right here, right now
except maybe ...
Colorado in the summer
Cozumel in May/June

I tag EVETTE, who will post here, and TINA, who will post here Paradigms Lost

Do Politicians Ever Take Time Off?

Watching the funeral for Mrs. King today I was struck at how low some are willing to go to advance their political agenda. I would hope that if the governor or president were to attend my funeral, that neither would be attacked by their political opponents.

Regardless of your political views or personal disdain for our leadership, etiquette would require one to refrain from bashing our President at a service to honor the deceased, whose life did deserve reflection and honoring.

I have heard the term plantation politics used by some, this looked like plantation pandering to me. Speakers shook hands of dems and refused to shake hands with our president? Hillary and Bill took the opportunity to start campaigning, Jimmy Carter struck twice below the belt, and Rev.? Lowery's actions were disgusting, but perhaps they feel this is how she wanted them to behave?

This behavior is not new. Sen. Wellstones funeral was used as a platform to attack conservatives, even as the Wellstone family asked all to refrain from partisanship and the Ron Brown funeral was exploited as well. Humor is fine, applauding is great, but insulting the leader of the free world in his presence, while we are supposed to be honoring a leader of non-violent resistance struck me as odd.

I remember Pres. Clinton speaking after the OKC Bombing. It was then that I started to respect him as our leader, even when I disagreed with some of his actions. I don't recall our Republican governor or anyone else using the opportunity to chastise him on that solemn occasion.

AFA and Muslims

Two news stories piqued my interest this week. The story where the American Family Association was complaining about an episode of Will and Grace and the story of Muslims across the world rioting over a cartoon depicting Muhammed. I say depticting Muhammed because that is against their religion, even if he is depicted in a neutral or flattering way.

On the one hand it is good to see that Christians are not rioting and burning TV Studios because of an irreverant use of the term crucifixion by Spears, but on the other hand why does a Christian group care what is done on a show that I am sure they encourage people not to watch anyway? If no Christians are watching, who then is offended? If you say God, that may be, but there other things that offend Him more I'll bet.

With the Muslims it was clearly poor judgement by those cartoonists to do that, but is does show that Muslims do not understand the concept of free speech. Like they also don't understand democracy, civil rights and many other things we Westerners take for granted. Which makes me wonder how all this talk of democratizing Iraq is going to turn out.

These situations illustrate to me (as a believer in Christ), that the best way to handle these insults would be to just ignore them. We would all be better off.

I am talking about non-Christians supposedly offending Christians. When a professed believer does something inappropriate or unbiblical, then yes they should be told of their mistake and given a chance to explain themselves. It should still be handled with charity.