Now, more than ever, Iraq the Model

Please read the last couple of entries from the Iraqis blog. There's a permanent link over on the right side, or click here now.

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Easter Sunday on the South Side

Oh, woe to those who don't live in our little town. Sunday morning the alarm clock rang at 5:30 am. I stumbled out of bed to get to church so I could get the coffe plugged in. The sunlight was just fading into the sky and I thought about the family and friends that were down at Bellerive Park for the Sunrise Service. This little park is a perfect place to watch the sun come up as the view to the east is introduced my the Mighty Mississippi River, then slowly told by the flat terrain of western Illinois. I've yet to make this service because I'm always back at church getting their breakfast ready. On this chilly morning I knew they wouldn't be long. I was right; they showed up ready to eat at ten after seven. Tom Boyer and his wife, who live on the corner of Bellerive and Louisiana are always the first to arrive. Tom is a veteran of the Korean War and he will always approach me to say, "Do you need help with anything?" "No, thanks, Tom, just have a ...
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Concert for George

The Concert for George, a tribute to George Harrison, was on PBS the other night and we all sat down to watch it. It brought me to tears several times. What exactly brought on the tears? Well, it's like this: Eric Clapton was of course a close friend of George's for many years. So he was the producer of the show. Jeff Lynn was there too. Jeff Lynn is one of the premiere rock producers ever. So the show was just plain good. But what really did it was the authenticity of the guitar work. George Harrison was "just the guitar" player of the Beatles. So they happen to be the biggest rock act ever, he's still just the guitar player. You don't hear the extended solos from Harrison that we've become used to in the rock n roll world. Typically, just 8 bars - sometimes 16. When he took the solo, it counted. It had melody. It meant something. So Clapton was smart enough to get two great guitarists to back up the sound for this concert. And man were they good. The...
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Religion vs. Anti-Religion

Make no mistake, folks who want to see the Ten Commandments taken out of every civil building in the country are not non-religious ; they are anti-religious . And, there's a big difference between the two. Non-religious people do not believe in God. God doesn't exist, He/She/It didn't create the world, nor do they, or have they, ever interceded in history. Obviously not, if they don't exist. But, if people really believe this, then they can be said to have a belief system. We call these belief systems Religion. So, really, they are religious, just not in the way that I am. That's great. Then there are the anti-religious people. These are folks who think that religion is bad and should be destroyed; wiped away from history once and for all. These people, I believe, are, in fact, very religious. We might call them fundamentalist. They believe so strongly in their system that all other systems need to be done away with. Like a Crusade or a Jihad you might say. Well I...
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