From the monthly archives:
Drudge has posted the flashing siren. I don’t want her to be president or vice-president of the United States, but I hope she’s OK.
Update: Hillary’s OK. Stomach virus. Rush says she was probably dizzy from the 180 degree turn she made on abortion last week. 
More on her “faint scare.”
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Personally, I think the Democratic National Committee should select the best-qualified candidate. I bring up the color and sex issue only to mock Democrats’ obsession with votes while they care nothing about putting “people of color” in leadership positions. Read this sarcastic post.
From the Los Angeles Times:
The seven candidates seeking the job — a group headlined by former presidential contender Howard Dean — has spent the last several weeks trooping to regional Democratic forums around the country, holding fundraisers to build campaign treasuries that exceed $200,000, juggling demands from influential interest groups and deluging the 447 voting DNC members with calls pursuing their vote…Former Ohio Democratic Chairman David Leland and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, the only African American in the contest, have drawn limited support.
While Bush is appointing black women and Hispanics to high-profile positions, let the white boys at the DNC fight among themselves. Who cares? Howard Dean, Michael Moore: What difference does it make?
Unrelated link: Check out last night’s blogger symposium with myself, Hugh Hewitt, John Hawkins and Karol Sheinin.
Update: Looks like screaming Dean is a shoe-in. We shall overcome some other day…
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Left-wing commentators, in Britain as in much of Europe, have focused disproportionately on the difficulties that any state must undergo during a transition process. To many of them, every terrorist bomb, every murdered election official, every sign of heightened military alertness — even the loss of a British aircraft — makes a nonsense of Iraq’s democratic aspirations. (Source)
Substitute Britain and British with America and American, and the paragraph applies to leftists in the United States as well.
The Iraq election is now a part of history. Over 70 percent of the electorate turned out. In our lifetimes we’ve seen the fall of a brutal dictator under the watch of a vilified and hated American president. But even the New York Times (reg. req.) had to concede that election day in Iraq was a success:
Courageous Iraqis turned out to vote yesterday in numbers that may have exceeded even the most optimistic predictions. Participation varied by region, and the impressive national percentages should not obscure the fact that the country’s large Sunni Arab minority remained broadly disenfranchised - due to alienation or terror or both. But even in some predominantly Sunni areas, turnout was higher than expected. And in an impressive range of mainly Shiite and Kurdish cities, a long silenced majority of ordinary Iraqis defied threats of deadly mayhem to cast votes for a new, and hopefully democratic, political order….This page has not hesitated to criticize the Bush administration over its policies in Iraq, and we continue to have grave doubts about the overall direction of American strategy there. Yet today, along with other Americans, whether supporters or critics of the war, we rejoice in a heartening advance by the Iraqi people. For now at least, the multiple political failures that marked the run-up to the voting stand eclipsed by a remarkably successful election day.
Aside from this editorial, I won’t be linking to news stories. The biased headlines tell you all you need to know about MSM’s coverage of the elections. But if you must read the stories, do so with delight as jaded leftist journalists try to spin the overwhelmingly positive news coming out of Iraq into something negative. They’re so predictable, it’s boring.
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Maggie Gallagher gave me permission to post this e-mail. She sent it in reference to this column in the Washington Post (reg. req.):
“Did you see Fred Hiatt’s column this morning? Maggie
Statement from Maggie Gallagher, January 29, 2005
Yesterday I sent a letter to the Washington Post, asking the paper retract the specific claim the Bush administration paid me ‘to help promote the president’s proposal.’ For, as I wrote, ‘whether Howard Kurtz and the Washington Post acknowledge it or not, it is this specific charge and not the question of disclosure that is feeding the media coverage.’
This morning, the editorial leadership of the Washington Post has done an honorable thing by retracting this charge: ‘[Gallagher] was not paid to covertly espouse administration views in her columns.’
I hope that other media outlets that, relying on the reputation of the Washington Post, repeated that false charge as fact will show the same integrity and issue their own retractions or corrections. I specifically ask the New York Times to retract the charges made in its January 27 editorial ‘The Best Coverage Money Can Buy.’”
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According to blogger Stacy Harp, who says she received an e-mail from Michael McManus’s son, the government funds in question went to his non-profit organization and not to him personally:
After checking our records, HHS paid a total of $10,199.98 to Marriage Savers, Inc for making six presentation (including travel expenses). We were also were awarded a federal grant of $48,993 (via a competitive bidding process) in a “capacity-expanding grant” to adapt our materials to serve unwed couples having babies out of wedlock. These funds came to Marriage Savers Inc. not to me personally. They are only 2.7% of the $2.1 million we have raised, mostly from churches, foundations and individuals….In addition to my work as President of Marriage Savers I write and self-syndicate a column, Ethics & Religion, to about 35 newspapers. There is no connection between my column and the federal funds awarded Marriage Savers.
It’s a fine line. I still think he should have noted this in the tagline at the end of his columns:
Michael McManus is the president of Marriage Savers, a non-profit organization that receives federal grants.
Or something like that. There are other columnists who run non-profit organizations, and they apply for and receive money from the government. I know of at least one. Should they speak up now? If they don’t, the information will “leak” out, and people will assume wrongdoing where there is none.
(Hat tip: MediaSoul)
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It must be a slow news day. Vice President Cheney’s outfit wasn’t solemn enough for the recent Auschwitz rememberance ceremony.
“The vice president…was dressed in the kind of attire one typically wears to operate a snow blower,” quipped the sharp-witted Robin Givhan, a “writer” for the Washington Post. (Source)
With a not-so-subtle implication that Cheney, in opting to stay warm in Oswiecim, Poland, must be anti-Semitic because the cold didn’t seem to bother him on Inauguration day, Givhan says, “[His clothes] had the unfortunate effect of suggesting he was more concerned with his own comfort than the reason for braving the cold at all.”
Good grief.
Scott Sala’s blogging about this, too. We’re both bored, I guess.
Unrelated Addendum: Air America has a blog. And somebody posted my link in the comment section.
Good grief.
Speaking of Air America, Power Line’s Hindrocket just finished doing an interview with used-to-be-funny Al Franken.
Update: I’ll always have a warm place in my heart for Mean Dean. He helped me get my first Instalanche. 
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Apparently he’s another conservative columnist who writes about a particular subject without disclosing that he’s being paid by the Bush administration to write about a particular subject.
For the “What’s the big deal?” crowd, read this nugget from Michelle Malkin:
I wonder if McManus will say he “forgot” about the $10,000 payment, too. That line seems to be working pretty well now among some of my fellow conservatives. I’ll have more to say about all this in the morning, but for now, let me just say that if I accepted $10,000 or $20,000 or $40,000 in taxpayer funds for my writing, I wouldn’t forget it in one year or 5 years or 10 years. And I’d make damn sure I disclosed it in relevant columns, books, or media appearances, even if it invited condescension from the “don’t be such a holier-than-thou-goody-two-shoes-must-you-disclose-everything?” crowd.
Accepting money to pay your bills is not the problem; failing to disclose you’re being paid to push a “product,” with taxpayer’s money, is the problem, especially when readers value your opinion and “independent” viewpoint. If you’re being paid by the government to promote government policy, say so!
Developing…
Update (1/28): From Editor & Publisher:
Senior writer Eric Boehlert wrote that Salon had confirmed that McManus “championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed.â€This report emerged one day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, after revelations surrounding commentators Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher.
According to Salon, Dr. Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at HHS, had responded to the latest report by announcing that HHS would institute a new policy that forbids the agency from hiring any outside expert or consultant who has any working affiliation with the media. “I needed to draw this bright line,” Horn told Salon. “The policy is being implemented and we’re moving forward.”
McManus could not be reached for comment.
In order to remain on higher ground, Republicans need to stop allowing things like this to happen. We call upon each other to account; Democrats don’t. Let’s show the country why and how our system of values is morally superior.
Also see Pundit Payola: Williams, Gallagher Were Wrong, But What’s Right?
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The first black woman and the second woman to occupy such a high position in a president’s cabinet, Condoleezza Rice deserves praise for remaining dignified and calm in the face of blatantly racist, envious and old-haggish attacks on her character and intelligence. She’s a better woman than I.
I could use some serious counseling on how to control my temper in case my integrity is ever questioned by the likes of Ted “water torture” Kennedy or John “war hero” Kerry. And if I weren’t a Christian woman, the things I would say to Barbara Boxer…
I know you were expecting me to blog about Rice’s confirmation hearing, but I didn’t have the stomach for it. I wanted to wait until the inevitable conclusion to say that I am proud to “know” Condoleezza Rice. She’s given her life to the pursuit of serious study and government service, is unappreciated by white liberals who resent her accomplishments and independent thinking, and black liberals whose accusations of “race traitor” betray their poor reasoning ability and infantile envy toward a woman they should be proud of, regardless of her political ideology. But I’m sure it doesn’t keep her up at night.
The final Senate vote was 85-13. Voting against Rice were James “Independent” Jeffords, Barbara Boxer, Daniel Akaka, Dick Durbin, Evan Bayh, Tom Harkin, Ted “water torture” Kennedy, John “war hero” Kerry, Carl Levin, Mark Dayton, Frank Lautenberg, Jack Reed, James Jeffords and former Ku Klux Klansman, Robert Byrd.
That’s all I have to say about Rice’s confirmation. I suspect that she and I would disagree on a few things, but I’ll save those for another post. She is in my prayers, and because I am a Christian, so are the people who loathe her.
Related post: Condi Rice and the Squad of Liberal Losers
Unrelated: Nominations for the Evangelical Blog Awards are rolling in. Don’t forget to nominate your favorite blogs. I’ll post my nominations next week.
The Anchoress goes off. Also see Wizbang.
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Evangelical Underground just came up with a great idea: Evangelical Blog Awards. Go vote for your favorites!
Other announcements: Please visit and support a new blog on the block, Young Americans For Social Security Reform.
The Carnival of the Vanities is up at The Raving Atheist.
If you’re in town on Friday, stop by the Heritage Foundation and check out the “Rathergate panel,” featuring Matt Sheffield of Ratherbiased.com, Power Line’s Paul Mirengoff and Kevin Aylward of Wizbang.
The Cato Institute is sponsoring an event tomorrow. Seth Mnookin, author of Hard News: The Scandals at The New York Times and Their Meaning for American Media, will discuss his book, and Jack Shafer of Slate will comment.
Looks like I didn’t make the top 125 political web sites. Again.
What’s a GodBlogCon?
Update (1/27): Captain Ed fact-checks the New York Times. He’s fact-checking the Washington Post, too.
Go see the 54th Christian Carnival. A few stand-outs:
Fringe: “Christians today suffer from severe spiritual drought and famine, lacking in Christian principles and values, embracing worldly pursuits and pleasures, and most importantly and regrettably, the absence of Jesus-centered lives. In many respects, I’m just as guilty of contributing to these horrifying statistics as the next Christian.”
Pseudo-Polymath: “There is a common meme on the left that the reason the right does not support their government sponsored charities is that the right is more concerned with amassing personal wealth and does not ‘care’ for the poor.”
Personal Trainer: “[W]hen the drums of war sound, and peace flees over the horizon, we have a duty to respond to war in a way that is honoring to God at every level, both public and private.”
Also see Onward, Christian Soldiers.
In the Outer: “While I do not doubt that Islam has within its religion, and its scriptures, references that are suspiciously alarming to the West, the same can be said for fundamentalist Christian religion and Christian texts, read out of its context, to those outside the faith.”
Update II: Check out the CPAC Bloggers:
Ana Marie Cox, www.wonkette.com
Kevin Aylward, www.wizbangblog.com
Erick Erickson, www.redstate.org
Kevin McCullough, kmc.crosswalk.com
Sean Hackbarth, www.theamericanmind.com
Robert Cox, www.thenationaldebate.com
James Joyner, www.outsidethebeltway.com
Chris Nolan, www.chrisnolan.com
Steve McCutcheon, www.ace.mu.nu
Bryan Preston, www.junkyardblog.com
Pat Hynes, www.anklebitingpundits.com
Robin Burk, www.windsofchange.net
Karol Sheinen, www.alarmingnews.com
LaShawn Barber, www.lashawnbarber.com
Hugh Hewitt, www.hughhewitt.com
Laura Thomas, www.terrorismunvelied.com
Radley Balko, www.theagitator.com
Ryan Sager, www.nypost.com (His blog)
Ryan Zempel, www.townhall.com
Update III: HaloScan users, for very irritating and complicated technical reasons I’m sure I’d never understand, HaloScan doesn’t work well with Word Press. Try Simpletracks.
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All I can say for Big Government Bush is that he’s still light-years better than John Kerry would have been. From Michelle Malkin’s latest column:
Do you remember when immigration officials sent out flight school visa approval notices for two of the 9/11 hijackers — six months after they had committed their suicide attacks on America?President Bush proclaimed his outrage, four federal immigration officials were reassigned, and Washington vowed that such embarrassing bureaucratic paperwork snafus would never happen again.
I’m sorry to report to you that it has, in fact, happened again.
On Jan. 15, immigration officials sent a notice to Eugueni Kniazev of Brooklyn, N.Y. The letter informs Kniazev, an immigrant from Siberia, that he is now “deemed to be a lawful permanent resident of the United States.” The notice directs Kniazev to obtain a new alien registration receipt card (what we commonly call a “green card”) and instructs him to appear in person at the immigration office at 26 Federal Plaza in New York City with his passport and three recent photos….But Eugueni Kniazev won’t be appearing at Federal Plaza. He won’t be going anywhere. Kniazev, 47, was an employee of the Windows of the World restaurant located on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center’s North Tower. After working his way up from dishwasher to facilities manager and living the American dream, Kniazev was murdered in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
My ire is raised not just because of the botched paperwork. George Bush is big government, the opposite of what Republicans are supposed to be. He’s also too politically correct and concerned about what liberal journalists are writing about him for my taste. Mandate, my eye.
I hope I live long enough to see a real conservative occupying the White House.
More from Power Line.
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Do MSM types (with hiring authority) read Instapundit? If so, contact me.
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Armstrong Williams was right. He wasn’t the only one.
According to the Washington Post (reg. req.), Maggie Gallagher, book author and conservative columnist, was paid $21,500 to promote President Bush’s “strengthening marriage” initiative.
Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?” Gallagher said yesterday. “I don’t know. You tell me.” She said she would have “been happy to tell anyone who called me” about the contract but that “frankly, it never occurred to me” to disclose it….Gallagher said her situation was “not really anything near” the recent controversy involving conservative commentator Armstrong Williams. Earlier this month Williams apologized for not disclosing a $241,000 contract with the Education Department, awarded through the Ketchum public relations firm, to promote Bush’s No Child Left Behind law through advertising on his cable TV and syndicated radio shows and other efforts.
Why not? Because she got only twenty grand? Whether it was “anything near” what Williams did or not, it still looks bad. In my eyes, it taints the rest of the writer’s work. And Gallagher, like Williams, should have known better.
I know Gallagher truly believes what she was paid to write, that marriage is better for women, children and society. I know she’s passionate about protecting and preserving the family. She co-wrote a book I never got a chance to read called The Case for Marriage: Why Married People Are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially. But still.
Check out these NRO pieces, Marriage Matters and Why We Need Marriage. What we need are conservative writers and pundits who don’t take money from the Bush administration, that’s what we need! Read this Weekly Standard article, What Marriage Is For. This is good stuff! But how long will it take for her to recover from this scandal and continue writing columns like these? Williams’s syndicate dropped him. Will Gallagher’s drop hers? Whatever. She’s fallen. Williams has fallen. Who’s next? Am I going to be the only conservative pundit left, just me and my little blog?
Don’t think for one minute that this sort of thing didn’t happen under Bill Clinton (pardon the image). The Bush administration just got caught. Embarrassing. It might be unfair, but conservatives are held to a higher standard, and I think we should be. Why? Because we have a morally superior system of values. I’ll go to my grave believing that.
Note to MSM: Hire this thus-far-scandal-free conservative writer.
Related posts and links: Armstrong Williams: The Wrong Side, An Apology That Misses The Point, Covert Propaganda, War, Journalists, Etc., Michelle Malkin, The Moderate Voice, Polipundit, Wizbang…
Update: Maggie Gallagher responds:
I’m a marriage expert. I get paid to write, edit, research and educate on marriage. If a scholar or expert gets paid to do some work for the government, should he or she disclose that if he writes a paper, essay or op-ed on the same or similar subject? If this is the ethical standard, it is an entirely new standard.I was not paid to promote marriage. I was paid to produce particular research and writing products (articles, brochures, presentations), which I produced. My lifelong experience in marriage research, public education and advocacy is the reason HHS hired me.
Captain Ed says this is not another Armstrong Williams case.
Update II: The blogosphere has jumped all over this revelation. In fairness to Gallagher, I contacted her and asked for an interview so she could tell us what the deal is. She said she probably won’t do interviews today. I hope she’ll be willing to talk after the media storm has dissipated.
Free4Good has a warning for bloggers. In light of unknown factors surrounding the Gallagher story, I’ve added a question mark to the post title.
Update III: Notice how dissenters in the comment section hold Bush, myself and conservatives in general to a higher standard, even invoking the name of Christ for good measure. I told you we’re held to a higher standard, one that I proudly accept.
Just don’t go overboard, dissenters.
Update IV: Hugh Hewitt:
Howard Kurtz reports on Maggie Gallagher’s contract with the Department of Health and Human Services for $21,500 in writing services. Gallagher, who is one of the most prolific and respected writers working to promote the Defense of Marriage Amendment, provides Glenn Reynolds an additional comment. Gallagher did not disclose anywhere, so she doesn’t have the Kos defense, but the idea that what she wrote on the marriage amendment etc grew out of her contract with HHS is not plausible. Disclosure of all financial arrangements bearing on an intellectual’s work product, especially money from the government, is the best protection against allegations of impropriety, and folks in Gallagher’s position who want to take money from the government for legitimate work from the government, should find a way — establish a blog? — to list those contracts. (Emphasis added)
Also see this: Bush orders government agencies not to give payola.
Res Ipsa on Gallagher.
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I wrote All Is Vanity yesterday because something has to change.
I’m still humbled by your feedback, readership, the e-mails I can barely keep up with and endorsements from bloggers and writers I admire, since entering the blogosphere in late 2003. I’ve risen in the Ecosystem food chain, and now I’m a Mortal Human. My traffic is increasing and advertisers are lined up for a spot on my blog.
But there has to be more to it than this.
Let me explain. What I’ve accomplished in my life has been the result of risk-taking, drastic measures and leaps of faith. When I was accepted into law school, I left South Carolina for Philadelphia, broke and homeless. Everything I owned fit into my car. But somehow, I found a place to live and the student loans came through. A few years later I decided to move to D.C. With no job, no prospects and no place to live, I loaded my belongings into the car once again. Within a week, I had a job and an apartment.
Three years ago I was at a job that was stressing me out to the point where I thought I was getting an ulcer. So I decided to quit and become a writer. With no job waiting in the wings. For six months I lived off savings and wrote every day. It was during this time my first op-ed and first magazine article were published and more importantly, I’d developed the writing habit.
I had to go back to work full time, but I’m still a writer. I’m not living my dream, though. I’ve become complacent with this blog and the little writing I manage to squeeze into an already hectic day. This has led to boredom and burnout. I’m bored with blogging and burned out by the frustration of too little time to write. It’s been three years since my last drastic action, and it’s time for another.
I’ve always wanted my own business because I don’t like working for someone else. I want my time and energy to go into something I own. My father is the same way. He started an auto upholstery business 30+ years ago, and he’s still running it. The man is his own boss. Maybe it’s genetic.
Before I started writing, I talked about wanting to be a writer. Now I’m a writer. I always talk about running a writing business. It’s time to be a home-based writing business owner. I legally set up the business more than a year ago, but I’ve been busy doing other things (and dragging my feet). The lady who designed this blog is currently working on my business site. It will be a proofreading/editing/writing business. Additionally, I’ll offer typing services to book authors and assist them with formatting and preparing their manuscripts.
How can one make a living as a writer, you ask? It’s easier than it sounds. Writers are necessary. They’re all around you, but most of the time they’re unseen. Writers write the web content you scan, the billboards you drive past, the radio shows you listen to and the television shows you watch. Writers write the brochures you pick up in your dentist’s office, the annual report your company sends out and the junk mail you throw away. Scripts need to be written for the interactive CDs you buy. Companies need talented people to develop copy: advertisements, press releases, newsletters — any written material you can think of. Someone even has to write and design the menus you read in restaurants. Everywhere you look, a writer’s pen has been there.
You don’t see them most of the time because you’re not supposed to.
I want to write, I want to blog — anything that involves putting “pen to paper,” I want to do. Your task: Help me name my business. I have a name registered, but I may change it. That all depends on you. I need your creative energy. Some writers use all or part of their name for their business. Others use the city, state or area where they operate. Still others use a play on words, like The Write Help and Write to the Point.
Here are a few more examples to help you with your task: Integrity Writing (owned and operated by one of my readers), Williams Writing, Editing and Design, Edit America, The Mightier Pen, A Writer’s Eye, Writers Welcome, Threepenny Editor, Sharon Types, Bright Eyes and Coale Communications.
I’m offering a 50 percent discount on any service to the person who comes up with the coolest name, whether or not I decide to use it for my business.
By the way, this is not the drastic part I mentioned earlier. That happens in the next couple of days. (No, I’m not quitting my job.) Stay tuned…
Addendum: I forgot to add the most important part. God is good all the time, and my cup overflows…
Update: This blog isn’t going anywhere. I will continue to blog. It’s in the blood. In fact, I’ll have a blog on the business web site, which will be used to update prospective and current clients on the latest training received, classes attended, certification, software and equipment acquired, the latest news in the industry, etc.
All businesses should have a blog.
Update II: Reader Jerry M. reminded me of this: I need a tagline, too.
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I had no idea the March for Life was going on today. (Pictured: unborn baby at 15 weeks.) From CNSNews:
The 32nd annual March for Life begins at noon on Monday, and organizers expect thousands of pro-life Americans to brave the bitter cold.“The March for Life is a peaceful demonstration — an annual reminder to all of Washington officialdom that it must overturn the Supreme Court’s infamous Roe v. Wade decision which decriminalized the intentional killing of a preborn human,” said Nellie Gray, president of the March for Life Fund.
“The Supreme Court cannot, and did not, legalize the killing of preborns,” Gray said in a statement that is very similar to the one she issued at this time last year.
“But Roe v. Wade did unleash on our beloved country the feminists/abortionists’ evil agenda of ‘choice’ to kill preborn humans, and did begin the slippery slope to decriminalize infanticide, euthanasia, assisted suicide, fetal research, and more evil.”
Catch Janet Parshall today. Also see the president’s message.
Links: Congress Should Tell Women Unborn Feel Abortion Pain Pro-Life Group Says, National Right to Life, Black Genocide, Michelle Malkin’s round-up, Chain Gang blogged coverage of the rally on EWTN…
Update (8:17 p.m.): Have you gotten an error message while trying to comment today? That’s why commenting has been so light. I’m currently working on the problem.
Update (8:29 p.m.): Comments are working now. I think.
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I was scanning the headlines this morning searching for a blog topic: “Legislators back gay rights — and survive,” “Anti-Semitic violence on rise in Europe,” “Jan. 24 called worst day of the year,” “Bush declares cultural and religious war on world…”
As I sat there wondering what to write, I thought, Anybody can spin anything for any reason. So I’ll blog about these stories and add my opinion to the pot — Is this all there is? Why is what I have to say about it worth reading? Does anyone seek after truth? Do I? The book of Ecclesiastes came to mind.
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher; “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever. The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, and turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, there they return again.All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.
One day I’ll be gone from this earth (as will all of you). What will my life mean to those born after me? What contribution will I have made? What am I doing on this blog that will have lasting meaning, if what I’m doing means anything at all?
If I’m looking for satisfaction in the mere act of writing or providing “commentary,” then it’s not enough. It will never be enough. Human desire is never satisfied. The eye will never be satisfied with seeing and the ear will never be filled with hearing. But if my purpose is also God’s, that is, to look at the world as he sees it, through spiritual eyes, I can focus on a transcendent truth that never changes as the generations pass away. All is vanity without God.
Generations before me asked the same questions and struggled with the same issues. Martin Luther probably had no idea the number of lives he’d touch by hanging his 95 theses on that door at Wittenberg and neither did the soul who sat at a whites-only Woolworth lunch counter while being spat upon and called every name in the book.
If I’m living for mere accomplishments, hoping they will satisfy me, my labors are in vain. I’ve been restless lately, wanting this thing to happen quickly or that thing to be over soon, but all I know is this:
Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. (Ecclesiastes 12: 12-14)
I’m in an introspective mood today. Developing…
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From Reuters:
Legendary television entertainer Johnny Carson has died of emphysema at age 79, the NBC television network reported on its Web site on Sunday.
Carson hosted NBC’s popular “The Tonight Show” for nearly 30 years, long dominating late-night television with an estimated 12 million viewers each night. He did his final show on Friday, May 22, 1992, seen by 55 million, and was replaced the next Monday by the current host, Jay Leno.
Sidekick Ed McMahon introduced him nightly with the rallying cry of “Heeeeeeere’s Johnny!” Carson’s blend of humor, music and conversation was the last thing millions of Americans heard before drifting off to sleep.
Also see Wikipedia and MyWay.com.
Previous obituaries: Shirley Chisholm, Rick James, Ronald Reagan and Superman.
Update (1/25): Did Johnny Carson have a black granddaughter? I’m getting a lot of Google hits from searches on this.
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