Something’s Gotta Give!

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Between doing my exceedingly complex taxes, writing & editing for my business, waking the farm from its long winter’s nap, picking up the slack while my wife’s been sick, fighting the Wal-Mart that’s supposedly coming to town, trying to fight the RealID monstrosity, editing a novel and novella for publication, and writing another novel…well, this boy is strung out!

What’s gotta give? The finale of my series “Banking on God.”  The bad news is that I won’t be able to finish it this week, especially since the final posts will be on the tough financial times we are facing as individuals, churches, and a nation. Plenty to say on that, and I want to give it proper attention.

So I’ll be picking up the series next Monday, I hope. Thanks for understanding.

Meanwhile, here are a few links you should check out if you haven’t already:

Jan at the view from her (which is possibly my favorite blog title) regularly discusses a number of issues facing Christian singles, especially from the female point of view. Though I long ago tied the knot, I was single long enough to still resonate with much of Jan writes. Plenty of great insights into Christin living in general, too.

Travis at On the Other Hand talks some of the same financial smack as I do here, but interspersed with talk on comic books! How cool is that?

Rick at RickIaniello charts that wise middle course on all things theological. Lots of common sense Christianity at that blog. Love the “I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse” photo of Rick + cigar.

The Pearcey Report is the online news source of first regard should I need a dose of newsblogging. Plenty of secular news, plus news of peculiar interest to Christians.

Milton at Transforming Sermons gives Cerulean Sanctum a lot of link love. Here’s to you, Milton, for locating consistently superb writing from other fine bloggers and sharing it with us.

And lastly, if you love genuine horror stories, check out Mish’s insights at his Global Economic Trend Analysis blog. Read enough posts there and you’ll be ready for the finale of my series next week! (HT: Oengus Moonbones)

Have a great weekend,

Dan

A Handful of Random Musings

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After yesterday’s heavy post, I don’t have any thoughts deep enough to develop into full-length posts. Most of what remains comes under the heading of political or economic, so if that’s not your style, today’s not your day…

Mormonism: The Flex Religion

Mitt’s gone, but the flip-flopping remains. While I’ve not seen any pundits draw this observation, Romney’s playing to the poll figures not only made him the Republican version of Bill Clinton, but it perfectly mirrored the former MA governor’s religion.

How so? Well it seems to me that Mormonism itself is as poll-driven as the former presidential candidate. Take a look at the bad press Mormonism has received in years past for upholding certain politically incorrect doctrines, and not a month goes by before the LDS’s head prophet comes up with a revelation that addresses the bad press and spins church doctrine in a more politically correct direction. Believe me, such PR corrections come around like clockwork. When the LDS was lambasted in the media for its doctrinal stances on women or on dark-skinned members, the head prophet quickly received a convenient new revelation from “god” and changed church doctrine to appease the peasants.

Explains a great deal about Mr. Romney when you think about it.

Hand That Economist Some Goat Entrails, Stat!

It amazes me that vast herds of economists are stumbling around wondering where this recession came from. Business Week has an article discussing how economists are suddenly waking up to the possible problems of unlimited free trade with countries whose costs of living are a tenth of what ours are. They talk about the fact that such trade may actually only benefit a rich few here in the States while hurting the middle class masses.

Ya think?

And in other economics news, The Wall Street Journal ran an article on Monday that had economists agog that American companies seem to be rolling in dough, though the majority of their non-boardroom employees aren’t enjoying that largess.

Someone needs to tell today’s economists to move out of their tony Chevy Chase, MD, neighborhoods and meet the common man!

Meanwhile, I’m going back to college to get my doctorate in economics considering it doesn’t seem to take more smarts than what you’d need for an adult continuing-ed class in flower arranging.

You Are Getting Sleepy, Sleepy…

Is it just me or does anyone else find Barrack Obama’s rise to prominence eerie? Here’s a man who never held any national public office until a few years ago, has yet to complete one full term of office at the national level, yet may very well become the next president! I find the whole thing unnerving and have got to wonder what spell people are under. There’s just something about Obama that gives me the creeps. (And don’t even try to play the race card with me; I’ve been an Alan Keyes supporter for many years.)

Wither CT?

Again, is it just me or has Christianity Today magazine become utterly irrevelant? Not only has it lost its cutting edge, but in an effort to seem culturally-aware, it lost whatever doctrinal center it may have once possessed.

Mormonism: The Redux

Prediction: Just as 9/11 seemed to put Islam on the religious map, I predict that Mitt Romney’s failed campaign for the White House suddenly gets people interested in Mormonism’s claims. Prediction #2: A few years from now, Mormonism will be hip with the “enlightened” crowd in the same way that the disaffected suddenly “discovered” Islam.

…And a Bowl of Tea Leaves, Pronto!

For years, this blogger has contended our economy is caught in what promises to be an unending string of boom and bust cycles with the busts lasting longer and longer each cycle.

And now, here comes the science!

Yep, I definitely has to get me one of them economics PhDs.

A Little Too Close to Home

From 'The New Yorker'

Intelligent cartoons? Yep, that’s from The New Yorker.

Like they say, it’s always good to end with a laugh.

Blogging Angry

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Last week probably wasn’t this blog’s bright, shining moment.

Oh yeah?! Well, you can just...I did something last week that I’ve never done before: blog angry. I’m not an angry person, not in the slightest. I grew up with an angry dad, so anger is not something I like dealing with. As far as I’m concerned, we in this country get too cheesed off too easily over things that don’t matter in the long run.

I don’t visit angry blogs anymore. They drain too much emotional energy, especially since they never seem to have practical solutions to the issues that make them angry.

Anger without focus is about as unhealthy as it gets.

Unfortunately, the state of our country today is such that most of our anger is directed against nebulous sources. That not only fuels further anger, but leads to frustration and despair. When what is causing the anger cannot be located or reasonably addressed…well, it’s destructive.

I’ve spent most of the last two weeks angry, not a normal state of being for me.

I don’t have much, but what I do have I’d like to preserve. Not in an idolatrous way, but because they are good things worth conserving so that generations to come will be grateful for me fighting the battle.

I’m now fighting the biggest company in the world. Needless to say, that’s not an easy battle. It’s asking more of me than I have, but I also can’t lay down and give up on what’s important in life, especially at a time when more and more people are coming around to the values I hold dear. To be a champion of those ideals for others, only to lose in my own backyard is galling.

As someone who makes a living with words, to see our local library levy go down to crushing defeat was more disabling to me than I would have guessed. Then again, I had no reason to believe the levy would fail. At any time my family has about 30-50 books checked out of our library. I’ve got a hotline to the staff. New books on the shelves are like candy to my family. The power of story blesses people in the brightest and toughest times. Why would anyone vote against that? To see that threatened brings out the father bear in me, I guess. ROAR!

At the beginning of last week, the Lord gave me a discouraging word I didn’t want to hear right now. And sure enough, I had to drink that bitter cup down to the dregs. On Friday, we got the bad news, leaving us still drowning in the wake of the tsunami I discussed a few months ago. I’ve now run out of all options and I don’t know what to do. So I’m going into the Christmas season about as low as I can go, hoping and praying for an elusive miracle.

People who study human behavior say that a person under extreme duress reacts with his “shadow personality.” In my case, the normally exuberant, extroverted Dan becomes sullen and withdrawn. Not angry becomes angry. Content becomes frustrated. Spiritually-oriented becomes secularly-oriented.

So my apologies if the tone here recently seemed indignant. I don’t want Cerulean Sanctum to become an angry blog. If anything, it’s supposed to be the antithesis of that pattern.

Tomorrow, I’ve got a post on community that I think will rock. It won’t be angry, just hopeful.

Stay tuned.

Thanks for being a reader.