Tiger’s Road
An Accenture ad featuring Tiger Woods still up in the Atlanta airport got me thinking about the hope of forgiveness. Accenture has dropped Woods after his “unacceptable” behavior became public, but this ad is still on display. The ad shows Tiger Woods lost in what I presume is the tall grass of the British Open. He looks forlorne, cold and unhappy. Above him is the following phrase: “The road to high performance isn’t always paved.” It’s a particularly effective image given Tiger’s woes but a correlation I’m sure Accenture didn’t intend to invite.
It made me wonder how many of us truely understand what it means to forgive others or to forgive ourselves. I’ve gone through my fair share of tribulations this year and found myself pretty much on the opposite end of high performance aka success. My road has been anything but paved and yet I am still on it. We will all fail at some point in our lives, though not always as spectacularly as Tiger. What is worth holding on to when it happens, and it will, is that we are always faced with a choice: stay on the road and keep fighting or fall into the ditch and lay there. We have the power, with God’s grace, to redeem ourselves. That grace is not withheld from anyone. Not Tiger, not me, not even those who fail us. We all get a second chance and we should all be grateful for the almighty love and forgiveness that awaits us should we choose to accept it. Once we know we can be forgiven, and accept God’s grace, it’s up to us to show the power of that love by living our lives in such a way as to be an example of his redeeming power. When we do that, we will truly be high performers, no matter how hard the road we travel.
Update:
Another Accenture ad found in the Atlanta Airport, this one as laughable as the last. I like the small script in the bottom: “We know what it takes to be Tiger.” I’ll bet they do.
Interviewing Terrorists
Why do reporters insist on interviewing terrorists in order to convey a “balanced” viewpoint? CNN is up today with a story about an abortion law in Oklahoma that would put specifics about each woman who has an abortion online. They quote the Center for Reproductive Rights and the legislator who drafted the bill. So far so good. But then they throw in a quote from Operation Rescue “President” Troy Newman. And now we’re interviewing the moral equivalent of the Taliban.
Imagine an al Qaeda terrorist has just hit a local mall with a bomb. TV news crews arrive. They interview the victims and they interview police. But then, the reporter includes a soundbite from the head of the Taliban. The man had nothing to do with the act but pontificates on why terrorists should be allowed to bomb malls if they want to. Shocks the conscience, no?
That is what we have in the abortion “debate.” Troy Newman has been connected in court documents to the man who admits to shooting and killing Dr. George Tiller in the sanctuary of his church. The cell phone number of Operation Rescue’s “spokesperson” Sheryl Sullinger, a convicted clinic bomber, was found in the man’s car. This is a violent organization who made the information of where Dr. Tiller went to church publicly available on its website for “purely informational purposes.” They put the blood in the water and then released the sharks then claim no responsibility after the fact. And these are the people CNN is interviewing.
Put another way, this is akin to interviewing the head of the KKK to find out what he thinks about court ordered desegregation. Women are exercising a constitutionally protected right and they’re being terrorized and CNN’s response is to interview the terrorists. How many more people have to die before the media stops pretending like these people are legitimate? Enough is enough.
One Million Reasons to Hate Lieberman aka Fredo
MoveOn.org has raised nearly a million dollars in a campaign against Joe Lieberman. In an e-mail to supporters, Move On asked them to donate money to campaign against Joe Lieberman because of his fight against Obama’s Health Care bill. In nearly 48 hours they’ve raised almost $1,000,000. In an e-mail to supporters Move On says:
Wow! We’re only $75,000 short of raising $1 million to hold Joe Lieberman accountable for gutting health care reform! Hitting $1 million will grab the media’s attention and send a clear message to Senate conservatives that they WILL pay a price for obstructing progress.
What galls me, as a former Republican, is that it took Democrats until now to realize that Lieberman should be excommunicated. From Move On’s e-mail:
First, Joe Lieberman helped President Bush invade Iraq, and the Democrats in Washington forgave him. Then, he endorsed John McCain, and they forgave him again. Then, he personally attacked Barack Obama at the Republican National Convention, and still the Democrats forgave him. Now, Joe Lieberman is single-handedly gutting health care reform.
Frankly, if Lieberman had been a Republican, he would’ve gotten as far as item number two, endorsing the opposition party’s candidate and then he would’ve been tossed from the party. Republicans may do a lot of things wrong, but they do party loyalty right. Democrats are always willing to be the prodigal son’s father. Republicans are more like Michael Corleone. If Corleone had been a Democrat he would’ve told Fredo to go home, take a hot bath, and then come to therapy with him the next day and see if they couldn’t work things out. As it was, Corleone took the Republican route with poor Fredo. Too bad it took Democrats this long to see that Lieberman was a cancer on their party. Now they’ve let him monopolize the agenda and the focus and Obama, once again, is out to lunch refusing to get involved. To carry the Godfather theme on, Rahm Emanuel wants everyone to believe he’s Tom Hagen, but as far as I can tell his power goes about as far as Sarah Palin’s intelligence. Let’s hope the Democrats figure out what to do or we’ll all be swimming with the fishes when the health care bill fails.
Daily Show: Flight to the Poor House
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Clusterf#@k to the Poor House – Flight Delay | ||||
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Community Ballet
Living in Wichita I have sat through my fair share of community theater, some of it good, some not so good, some down right bad, some just awful. Now, I can say that I have sat through community ballet, a local production of the Nutcracker. Not so good.
My husband (33) and two children (3 and 8 months) managed to fall asleep before the Nutcracker showed up and after the Sugar Plum Fairy did her thing. Essentially, they saw a bunch of children demanding Christmas presents and a little girl waking up to hug her toy Nutcracker. Had they been awake, in between, they would’ve witnessed community ballet at its finest.
Meet the Cast of Characters:
The Old Guy who Wants to Try Dance: This is the “old” guy who thinks he can act but decided to try his hand at “dancing” who manages to Rex Harrison his way through the dance. Which is to say he just really walks through the ballet.
The Beautiful Dancer Who Never Went Anywhere: This is the woman who should’ve gone to New York and become a great ballerina but instead stayed home in Wichita because she was too scared and now stars in any community ballet production.
Idealistic Child: This is the girl who can dance and will someday become the Beautiful Dancer Who Never Went Anywhere.
Awkward Teenage Boy Trying to Dance: The dancer that makes you cringe the most because he’s so socially uncomfortable but determined to prove that he can dance if he wants too.
Guy With No Business Being Up There (usually paired with Beautiful Dancer Who Never Went Anywhere): This is the guy who tries to catch the Beautiful Dancer Who Never Went Anywhere and manages 3/4 of the time to do it but also manages to look like he’s about to spin her into the orchestra pit at any moment.
The music was beautiful, the story compelling, and the dancers entertaining, but not always as they meant to be.
Best Christmas Movie
I’ve seen one blog that is voting Die Hard as the best Christmas movie. I’m not so sure, but what movie is the best? Let me know what you think. And let me know if there’s a movie you think should be on the list!
Daily Show: Eight is Enough
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Eight Is Enough | ||||
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Daily Show: After learning the customs of Hanukkah, John Oliver plays Santa and hands out presents to Jewish children before they kill themselves.
Palin v. Shatner
As Conan says, “Good to finally see those two together.”
Alas, poor Roy! We knew him well…
Poor Roy. Some dude in a collared shirt yells, “Hey, don’t miss it!” at a Tar Heel shooting a free throw and Roy goes apoplectic and has the fan tossed from the Smith Center?
Here’s my Christmas take on the situation:
Every Heel down in Royville liked the Smith Center a lot, but Roy, who lived just north of Chapel Hill – did not. Roy hated the Smith Center – the whole basketball season. Now, please don’t ask why; no one quite knows the reason. It could be, perhaps, that his sling was too tight. Or it could be that his glasses weren’t fitting just right. But I think that the most likely reason of all may have been that his big Jayhawk heart was now two sizes too small.
But whatever the reason, the sling or his glasses, he stood there in the Smith Center hating their “fat asses.” Staring up from his bench like a hater, at the television lights in the Smith Center. For he knew every Heel sitting down in the Dome tonight was busy now planning their Smith Center flight. “And they’re heading to their cars,” he snarled and he cried, “The game’s not even over, it’s practically tied!” Then he growled with his Jayhawk heart continually grieving, “I must find some way to keep the Tar Heel fans from leaving! Why, for six stupid seasons I’ve put up with it now. I must stop the fans from leaving… but how?”
Roy puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then Ol’ Roy thought of something he hadn’t before! Maybe the Tar Heels, he thought, just don’t know how to cheer. Maybe Ol’ Roy… perhaps… should just take over from here!
And what happened then? Well, in Lawrence they say that Ol’ Roy kicked out a stupid convenient fan that day. And then – the true meaning of playing in the Smith Center came through, and Roy found the strength of *ten* security guards, plus two!
Roy sat back down on his bench, as quiet as a mouse. And he, he himself, Ol’ Roy – dreamed of Allen Fieldhouse.
Daily Show: 30,000
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| 30,000 | ||||
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Jon Stewart: Is 30,000 troops the military equivalent of Advil?
