You know you’re getting old when sports stars your age begin to slow down and retire. I was reminded of this last week during the NBA finals as the commentators noted that the “elder†Shaq doesn’t play like he used to.Today Andre Agassi announced that he would be retiring from professional Tennis. He said that his last tournament would be this year’s U. S. Open. I feel like I grew up watching Agassi play tennis (or maybe I should say, grew up with him). When I played on my high school tennis team back in the late ’80’s, Agassi was the man. He was the James Dean of tennis. He…
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WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION FOUND IN IRAQ
If you were wondering whether the Mainstream Media (MSM) are biased in their coverage of the Iraq War, wonder no more. The MSM have been largely silent on the biggest Iraq War story since the capture of Saddam Hussein.On Wednesday John Negroponte, the Director of National Intelligence, provided “an unclassified overview of chemical munitions recovered in Iraq since May 2004.†The following is direct quotation from the overview: –Since 2003 Coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. –Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.…
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The Refs Close-out the Mavs, 95-92
The story coming out of this depressing series will be all about Dwayne Wade’s rising star, but the real story should be about how the referees handed some close games to the Miami Heat. The Mavericks had their hands full with the Heat, and it’s a shame that they had to compete against the refs as well. I have to say that the officiating was disgusting at some critical moments, and it cost the Mavs a championship. That being said, the Mavs were not on top of their game. They could have played much better. If they had, their fortunes would not have been determined by the poor officiating. Congratulations…
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Just When I Thought It Couldn’t Get Any Worse
Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse than the fact that the Mavs lost last night, I came across this story in the Dallas Morning News: “Pastor turns service into pep rally for God, Mavs.â€Apparently, this pastor in this Dallas area doesn’t know the difference between a worship service and a pep rally. Can you guess what his justification is for profaning Sunday morning worship? It’s pretty predictable. “We put God in a box. Why can’t we bring life into the house of worship? More people will come to church if you have these kinds of things.â€
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Mavs 100, Heat 101
I am way too emotionally invested in this series. I am dejected. What a heartbreaker.Though Dirk Nowitzki didn’t seem to be channeling David Hasselhoff (see previous post), Josh Howard seemed to be channeling Chris Webber. Josh Howard really messed up in calling the time-out when he did. Anyway, here’s the coverage of game 5 of the NBA Finals in the Dallas Morning News: “Burned: Heat outlasts Mavs, 101-100.†P.S. The officiating was horrible. Wade didn’t deserve that last foul. He went in clean and just missed a lay-up.
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Can Nowitzki Channel Hasselhoff While Shooting Jump Shots?
I am a sucker for the underdog, and therefore I am a sucker for our hometeam, the Dallas Mavericks. I was a manager at the Mavericks’ practice facility back in the bad old days when they used to lose all the time. It was really sad back then when they just couldn’t get a break.But now things have changed, and all of us here in Dallas have our hopes set on a championship. Yet after watching the Mavs lose a heartbreaker on Tuesday and an ego-crusher on Thursday, many of us are beginning to feel that sinking feeling in our stomachs again. Those of us who are fans know that…
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It’s a Baptist Thing, and E. J. Dionne Doesn’t Get It
Actually, it’s not just E. J. Dionne who’s offering an incorrect analysis of Frank Page’s election to the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Dionne and others are mistaking the dark horse for a trojan horse that would signal the beginning of the end of the conservative movement in the SBC. In a Washington Post editorial today, Dionne writes: Page’s upset victory could be very significant, both to the nation’s religious life and to politics. He defeated candidates supported by the convention’s staunchly conservative establishment, which has dominated the organization since the mid-1980s. His triumph is one of many signs that new breezes are blowing through the broader evangelical…
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TIME Magazine Credits Bloggers for New SBC President
Have you seen TIME Magazine’s analysis of Frank Page’s election to the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention? Here’s the headline and the lead of the story written by David VanBiema: The Bloggers’ Favorite Southern Baptist: The upset victory of a non-anointed candidate to lead America’s largest Protestant denomination signals the growing power of online activists, even in old-line churches . . . For those who follow the internal politics of the Southern Baptist Convention . . . the most interesting news out of their annual meeting, held this week in Greensboro, N.C., is that bloggers elected a president (source). I don’t think that this analysis of the election is…
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Derek Webb & CT on “Christian” Music
Readers of this blog know that Derek Webb and I are not on the same page politically and sometimes theologically (previous posts). Nevertheless, in an interview with Relevant magazine Webb has some salient reflections on the so-called “Christian” music industry. Here are the money lines: The whole secular/Christian thing is a total fiction. Don’t let your local Christian bookstore do your thinking for you and believe that everything they have there for sale is good and spiritually beneficial to you. If anything, we have proven that the Church unfortunately is identified with really poor art. The Church certainly does not have the market cornered on beauty. A lot of what…
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Epilogue of a Non-Scandal
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page has the best analysis of yesterday’s news about Karl Rove and the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation. I recommend that you read the entire piece, but here’s the gist of it. The tragedy of this episode is that a political fight over the war in Iraq was allowed to become a criminal matter. Mr. Wilson spun his false tale in an effort to discredit the war and deny Mr. Bush a second term. The liberal media put partisanship above their own interests in demanding a special counsel probe of “leaksâ€â€“until that probe turned on their own sources. The Attorney General at the time, John Ashcroft, passed…