Free Hugs?

Before I forget, I want to introduce you all to my new blog buddy, Kathy. She is also from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, like Justin. I really connect with her personal reflections, which make up most of her blog posts. She is a very deep and very real person, the kind I truly value as a friend in real life. Stop by to say hello and offer her some encouragement. Tell her you found her through me.

Now, on with the show...

Don't expect anything more than some general randomness from me today. I hope to make it interesting.

First up is Free Hugs. Juan Mann is a guy who lives in Australia. In this age of social disconnect, he just wanted to give people a free hug. The local authorities tried to put a stop to his sweeping campaign that started with just one man holding a sign offering "FREE HUGS." What happened was powerful. Watch the video and see for yourself.



If I could, I would give Mr. Mann a big hug. How about this as a controversial way to offer the love of Jesus Christ to those who simply need to be reached out to? How about this as a way to offer young men and women a way out of the siren song of homosexuality. I have a personal testimony in this area, but that is for another day.

In honor of FlipFlop(cheaterpants)Momma, she was correct. It was General George Meade. He wasn't a bad general either. Grant hit a point where he was proving incredibly more effective, though, so he was put in command. Grant was a great general. As was William Tecumseh Sherman. It is sad that Sherman is so over-shadowed by Grant and Lee. Truth be told, Sherman may have been the most brilliant of them all, depending on how you look at it. Lee could out maneuver and out-think any opponent. Grant was an excellent general, and I think would have surrendered sooner than Lee had if circumstances had been the inverse. Sherman knew exactly what it would take to win the war. His march through the south is still remembered to this day by many southerners with still a sense of bitterness. He was quite kind to the civilians, but he burnt every major town from Atlanta to Savannah to Columbia, SC to the ground. Whatever food his men could not eat was burned or animals slaughtered. I love one of his quotes where he says something to the effect of "It is good that war is such a horrible thing that we might not grow too fond of it." Yet, he was able to balance his perspective. He also said, "War is the remedy our enemies have chosen, and I say give them all they want." I could go on and on, but I won't.

Oh, and the Battle of Gettysburg was fought because the Army of Northern Virginia wandered north to try to bring war to us and terrorize the Union civilians and turn the tide of national opinion against the war. Lee's army was camped outside Gettysburg with the intention of seizing the finished goods of the local shoe factory when Meade caught up with him. That is why that battle was fought there.

Hugo Chavez is here in the US for the 61st annual UN General Assembly in New York. The guy is a Cretan and a man who peddles the words of the precious Gospel to further his own objectives of hatred and war as cloaked in false pretenses of peace and equality. He spoke at a church in New York where he lashed out at president Bush with ferocity and then tied in a few mis-applied and completely out of context verses from the Bible. He was introduced by Danny Glover who embraced him before his speech. That is pretty sad. I used to respect Danny Glover. I used to respect Wil Smith too, I suppose. What is wrong with these people?

I finally have the Social Security Benefits Planner certification monkey off my back (hooray!!). I'm in cruise control for a few days while I recover from that and let my ears recover from their pain. I have narrow ear canals that are very sensitive. I have to wear ear plugs when I sleep. When I don't, I don't sleep well. So I am just cruisin' right now, trying to do a decent job at stuff while phoning it in as much as possible without compromising my ethics. I'm just working to get by. Oh well.

I suppose I'm off for the day.

Blessings,

Big J

"Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it." Fyodor Dostoevsky