What are you listening to?

There are many bands out there…too many to number. But there are a few are bands that you should really listen to. I was thinking about this because a favorite band of mine that broke up a few years back is getting back together (Further Seems Forever) with all the original members. This excited me! It also had me looking through my itunes to find bands that I might suggest you listen to. So, without further adieu here is the list in no particular order…well alphabetical.

Artist vs Poet

As Tall As Lions

Athlete

The Bird & The Bee

Block Party

The Civil Wars

Imogen Heap

Lovedrug

LoveHateHero

Mae

MEW

mewithoutYou

Mumford & Sons

Muse

The Swell Season

 

Here are the bands that I know I should be listening to…and have on itunes…but don’t listen to. (or listen to as much as I should)

Arctic Monkeys

The Arcade Fire

Bon Iver

Grizzly Bear

Iron & Wine

 

So, there you have it. What is missing from the list? What are you listening to?

Can a Christian…

…not be a fundamentalist.

Short answer Yes.

Long answer YES! In fact I would beg to argue that fundamentalism is such a stretch of the Gospel that it leads to heresy. I make no apologies here but my intent is not to offend. Here is the thing. The Jews thought that they had to keep all these laws and it would bring them closer to understanding God; make them more holy.

This is where Paul (and you can read it for yourself in Galatians, Hebrews, etc.) comes in and says, hold on a second. You have become slaves to the law. You have let the law, not bring you closer to God but have let it  pull you so far away from God that you are leading others…others who think the law is the way…to become slaves to the law as well.

As (a) Christian(s) I(we) need to be careful of how many things we want to put between us and our relationship with Christ. Listen, God can tear down walls, but why build them in the first place?

Cheers!

Can a Christian…

…be something other than a republican?

Well as a matter of fact yes they can! Despite popular misconceptions not all Christians are republicans. Now, I’m not talking about the ones who some how claim to be democrats…please don’t even get me started! I’m talking about the ones who are tried of big government. The ones who are tired of all the lobbyists and big bankers making all the rules.

Here is my problem with the left and right. They are so completely out of touch with the public that neither side really knows what we want. Here is what I want…and I’m sure that there will be plenty on the right that will disagree. I don’t really care about the left haha.

1. I believe abortion is murder and should be illegal.

2. I believe that we should have the right to bear arms.

3. I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman…but banning gay marriage is not a solution.

4. I believe that people that are in this country illegally should not be here. I don’t care what color you are, what language you speak, or what job you supposedly stole from me. If you are here illegally then you need to go.

5. I believe that war should be a last resort. (I’m still not sure where I stand exactly on this issue, thanks James! But I think we need to know exactly what we are going to war for before it happens.)

6. I think that the president needs to do something he promised, and that is be transparent. When Obama was elected he said that everything would be open and everyone would know what was going on (a paraphrase of course). Now, I don’t want things in the open that are going to harm others (cough wikileaks!) but I do want him to be honest…is that so much to ask?

7. I don’t think that making more laws solve anything. The problem is we have enough laws already and we don’t enforce them. All we are doing is making the government bigger and allowing them to control more and more aspects of our lives.

 

If you want to read more I will post some links…now…some people out there…welll are kinda crazy. So, with that…go to infowars with a grain of salt. Sometimes they get all conspiracy theory and it just gets weird haha.   

Info Wars

The Constitution Party

Let Freedom Ring USA

Cheers!

The Unpopular Truth

The truth offends. The truth is direct and without question. The truth is…truth. If you cannot accept the truth then you say the truth is a lie and that the truth cannot possibly be truth. You therefore manufacture your own version of the truth, even worse regurgitate someone else’s version of the truth. You now believe in nothing. You believe in nothing so much that, that nothing, becomes your truth. You become so enamored and seduced  with your version of the truth that the actual truth angers you. Because real truth, true truth, threatens your version of truth. It enrages you to the point that you call the truth a lie. You are blind to the truth and discussions of your truth become nothing more than sessions in you being right and everyone being wrong that disagrees with your truth.

The year is 2010…there is no more truth…

Reflections

So, I just posted my final post for the Unofficial Lancaster Bible College Blog. Ending it was rather bittersweet… I just never received the support for the blog that I thought was going to happen. Fortunately for you…I will still be updating this. This blog after all is my personal posting so I will keep up with it as much as possible. That is all for now…

Contest!

So, from time to time I get invitations to test out video games. Well, starting tomorrow I will be testing out Lord of the Rings Online during a closed beta test. This is by invitation only but I received 2 beta test codes (you need these to access the game). I thought that instead of just sitting on the second code and not using it I would give it away to some lucky person. So, if you are interested in testing out the game and want to enter here are the rules.

All you have to do is follow me on twitter….twitter.com/higgins82 and send me a direct message with your email address (that way I can send you the beta code). Once I get all the emails I will randomly select one and send out the code. That’s all you have to do! The beta test opens tomorrow so the contest will end tonight at midnight (eastern time). I will then pick someone and send out the code.

You will most likely be notified sometime tomorrow afternoon! So good luck! If you want information on the game to to LOTRO!       

An Open Letter to Craig’s List Scammers

This has gone on far too long! All I’m trying to do is buy a decent car for a decent price and in the process sell my car. I wasn’t born yesterday and I (think) that I’m smarter than most people out there. So when I get an email like this (I will post it below) please forgive me when I have an outburst of anger.

So here is the deal I emailed a “lady” about a vehicle I saw listed on craig’s list. It was a little below price but not enough to warrant an immediate hatred towards human kind. This was the email I received:  

Hi  ,
Thank you for contacting me regarding my truck. I am a 25 years old single mom with 2 kids. I am now in a divorce with my ex and I am in desperate need of money to pay the mortgage on my house.First of all I want to tell you that the truck is in perfect condition, and the price includes all the shipping costs and insurance so you will not have to pay any extra charges if you can't come to Michigan to make the deal.My brother works at a shipping company and he can handle the shipping for me with no charge.

 

First of all…I didn’t ask how old you were…it’s not that type of craig’s list ad. Second of all…do I get the 2 kids with the truck? No? Ok, then don’t tell me about them (they are probably brats anyway). Thirdly, Refer to my first problem…I don’t care about your marital mistakes.  And finally, the way they all end these emails…promise to ship the car. Well, I live in Lancaster…the car is posted in…Lancaster …no need to ship…I’ll not need it shipped. What made the email priceless is when this idiot (and I use that word in the most compassionate way possible) copy and pasted that same paragraph at the end of the email…so I got to read it twice.

So, all in all this has left me with a serious distaste for humanity. So for all you atheists out there who find your faith in humanity…try to buy something on craig’s list.