Category: news item

  • New stuff is in the air

    There must be something in the summer air that has got me going… but there are all sorts of things swirling around my head.

    Sometimes I pray "stupid prayers" to God. I asked Him to take what I’m doing and blow it up for you. Maybe that meant "destroy" or maybe that meant "make it cooler than I can imagine." But He’s God and He is in the process of blowing some stuff up in my life.

    Let me narrow it to two categories.

    1. Light Force. I’m not satisfied that we are missing close to 3100 students from the schools we’re supposedly trying to reach. I’ve been praying about that a lot lately and seeking Godly counsel. I’ve come to a simple conclusion that flows directly out of what I taught for the last 28 weeks in Acts. We need to get busy spreading God’s virus in a dead and dying world without Christ. All that to say… in the coming weeks I plan on exploring a lot and meeting with a lot of people to talk about developing a new "foyer" environment for 7-12th graders in Romeo.
    2. Website-o-rific. Holy cow… I’ve made a lot of websites in the last few weeks. Most of them are still "shells" for what is to come. In the coming weeks I’ll be completely moving all of the churches sites/subdomains from fbcromeo.org to romeochurch.com. In the process of doing that I’m launching several brand new additions to the church’s family of sites. So there will be loads of cool new things to look at as we develop sites for our leadership teams, kids ministry, student ministry, young adult ministry, married couples ministry, and even our main church site. Holy cow… that’s a lot!

    As I  reflect back on 6 weeks ago… I was completely worn out and exhausted. I’m praising God that with a little rest and time away, I’m feeling charged back up… more creative and carefree than ever.

    God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
       his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
    They’re created new every morning.
       How great your faithfulness!
    I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
       He’s all I’ve got left.

    God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
       to the woman who diligently seeks.
    It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
       quietly hope for help from God.
    It’s a good thing when you’re young
       to stick it out through the hard times. Lamentations 3 (The Message)

  • Three Cheers for Northern Ireland

    Nulster27
    I know this story isn’t hitting the news around home since it doesn’t fit the "if it bleeds, it leads" category, but it should.

    BELFAST, Northern Ireland: Protestant leader Ian
    Paisley, who spent decades refusing to cooperate with Northern
    Ireland’s Catholic minority, was elected Tuesday to oversee a
    power-sharing administration alongside his longtime Sinn Fein foes.

    The unopposed election of Democratic Unionist Party chief Paisley,
    81, as "first minister" of a new 12-member administration heralded an
    astonishing new era for Northern Ireland following a 9-year struggle to
    forge a Catholic-Protestant administration, central goal of the
    U.S.-brokered Good Friday accord.     link

    I don’t pretend to understand the troubles, but it is extremely exciting to think that long-term peace in Ireland seems to be arriving. Along similar lines, in the past two weeks both the UVF and UDA have publicly announced that they are ceasing their paramilitary actions. In the UVF announcement they basically said, "We ending all arms dealings and putting arms dealers far enough away from locals that they won’t have access to any more guns."

    Of course… this is all great news from Kristen and I as in 6 days we’ll be leaving for Northern Ireland. I know it’s just my theory, but I am certain that there is a correlation between these steps towards peace and the burgeoning "revival-like" movement of Christ in Northern Ireland.

  • Suck it up ICANN

    LISBON (Reuters) – The U.S.-based Internet governing body rejected a
    proposal on Friday to create an adults-only zone on the internet, or a
    .XXX domain.


       

    Supporters of an .XXX domain argued it would make it easier to
    confine sex sites and filter them out. Opponents argued it would make
    pornography on the Internet easier to find.


       

    The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
    (ICANN), which manages the Internet’s domain-name address system,
    decided to reject the application for .XXX sites at a meeting in
    Portugal. Story

    Shame on ICANN. They had a simple way to keep pornography out of most people’s home and they decided not to.

    Why this was a great idea:

    • ICANN could easily mandate that domain registrars monitor the content of their registrants. There really aren’t that many domain registrars on the planet. And just forcing the top 3-4 would control 95% of the problem. Registrars who failed to comply could simply lose their status the way RegisterFly recently did.
    • Forcing all porn sites onto .xxx domain names would enable Internet Service Providers to allow customers the choice whether to allow porn into their homes or not. Literally, you could block .xxx domains completely from your house in the same way you can with cable TV. Even the most clever kid couldn’t disable a firewall and see something because it would be blocked at a level so far up the line that it would be virtually impossible.
    • This is the right thing to do. ICANN may have said no this time, but they will admit to it being an active debate. This simply means that people need to keep talking about it and it will change. Clearly, the European Union wants this to happen. Certainly in some parts of the globe pornography is big business to local economies… likewise it is funding the underworld in many areas like Russia and Southeast Asia.
    • Pornography should not be accessed accidentally. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten porn laden email, pop-ups, comment spam, and other snares that accidentally lead to me seeing something I shouldn’t. And I consider myself fairly web savvy. The fact that my kid can try to find Disney’s website and get to porn accidentally, or that she can find porn at all in my home is an outrage. ICANN is completely culpable and must act.

    What can I do? I think the only thing I can do is not let the story die. It’s a very simple solution to a growing epidemic. As JR Mahon said on YMX a few weeks ago, "We are literally growing a porn generation; a generation that think it’s cool to have porn stars inside of their brains." I don’t know about you… but I don’t want my kids growing up thinking it’s cool to have porn stars inside their brains.

  • Swiss Invaded Someone?

    Liechtenstein_castle
    This story will make you snort milk out of your nose. The Swiss military, renown the world over for their absolute neutrality… accidentally invaded their eastern neighbor Liechtenstein.

    "We’ve spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it’s not a problem," Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

    Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

    Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in
    Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault
    rifles but no ammunition. "It’s not like they stormed over here with
    attack helicopters or something," he said.     Story

    I actually visited the Liechtenstein with my mom a long time ago. It was a pretty cool place that I’d like to go back to. I guess I’ll have to ask Swiss military how to get there. Or, at the very least, use the compass on my Swiss Army Knife.

    HT to Patti

  • Tara Grant Murder

    Just heard the news conference. Sad news from our area.

    Sheriff Hackel just announced that they found Tara’s body in her garage.     Her husband is the "one and only suspect" and they are currently looking for him. Apparently he took off last night when the sheriff’s executed the search warrant on their home. Right now the man’s lawyer is on the news saying that he is "deeply concerned of his well being."

    What a sad ending to a very odd mystery. Let’s hope that justice prevails in this case.

    Update: I don’t have any inside information of any kind. But the news is reporting that they’ve found Steven Grant.

    Update 2: There is a press conference going on now at 8:00 PM. It appears Steven Grant is in the hospital with frost bite and hypothermia, they are planning to transport him to the Macomb County Jail sometime tomorrow. Mrs. Grant’s body is at the morgue, there was an autopsy performed today and they are planning a funeral now. The second part of this story is going to be the prosecution. There is already a public battle about the search warrant and everything else.

    Her sister Alicia also gave a statement. She is obviously thankful for all the efforts in finding her sister, gives praise and thanks to God, and expresses some family thoughts about Tara. She called this "a most gruesome act." She closes by reminding all that the families faith in God is their cornerstone at this time.

    It’s hard to express what the community is feeling right now adequately. Romeo/Washington is a small town in suburban Detroit that isn’t used to murder. There hasn’t been a crime of any type in this serious in many years. And while no one I know really knows the Grant family, there was a sincere outpouring of concern and emotion for the kids today at church. It’s interesting to me since the community just doesn’t know how to react.

    Final update: I’m amazed the there are still people coming for information on the murder of Tara Grant. If you are looking for answers about why God allows this type of thing to happen in the world, please email me at mclanea@gmail.com or check out my church… First Baptist of Romeo

    Here’s the story on CBS’s website. Discuss in my Newsvine thread.

  • Why the Romeo School Bond Failed

    Last night, Romeo Community Schools bid to bond $93 million for capital improvements failed when the people voted it down. The tally was 2095-3323. A couple of weeks ago I posted about why I thought it was a crazy bond.

    Let me outline 3 reasons Romeo’s school bond failed:

    1. Bad Marketing: It’s impossible to convince the public that they need to spend $93 million with projections and statistics. People respond emotionally to educational issues.
    2. Bad Marketing: Using district employees as agents of propaganda causes suspicion. It was clear that the district was using district funds and man hours to promote the bond. Did teachers really need to write hand-written appeals? Did wasting teachers work hours demonstrate that the district would manage more money better? I think not.
    3. Bad Marketing: We have a community full of Bear Market types right now. Asking people in a Bear mindset to spend $93 million is a joke.

    Let me list three marketing ideas for the next time this bond comes to a vote: (Because it will)

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  • The Power of a Press Release

    Yesterday was a slow news day here in Detroit. An a local church plant must have sent a press release about their new teaching series on sex. How do I know that?

    The lead story on Fox News Detroit was "Detroit Church Holding Sessions on Sex"

    Never mind the fact that this series has been and is being done by tons of churches across the country. That wasn’t the remarkable thing that got it as the lead stories on the local news. It was that they sent a press release on a slow news day. That was remarkable, that got their name out. Hats off to the Epic Church for a job well done.

  • Crazy Bond Proposal

    Romeo_smHere in Romeo, there is a proposal to bond $93 million to build a new high school as well as a fair number of other projects. It’s a lot of money and the politics that it has brought about are quite interesting.

    I’m an optimist. I like to see what is happening in the Detroit area as a "market refinding" time as the auto industry continues to struggle to contain their costs. I feel it is merely a matter of time until the Detroit area finds a new source of industry to subsidy (backfill) the continued decline of Ford, GM, and DaimlerChrysler. Unlike a lot of my neighbors I don’t think that these companies will leave Detroit. But I think in order to stay, they will make some drastic moves, maybe even eliminating more local job…  which trickles down to effect the many support businesses in and around Romeo today. I think that during this market correction, those people buying and investing in our area will benefit the most. Such as, people purchasing homes cheaply now will benefit by a bounce to come.

    But I’m not happy about this current bond issuance. I have a few reasons I will be voting against it later this month:

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  • Britney is not that innocent

    Baldbrit

    The headline reads, " Bald Britney sits for new ink at Los Angeles tattoo parlor." Story

    Could it get any more perfect? Coo Coo for Cocoa Puffs.

  • Predictable school closure

    Frozenstiff
    This is the 2nd or 3rd year in a row that Romeo has canceled school the day after the Super Bowl. It would be irresponsible of the school district to schedule classes the day after the Super Bowl in 2008. I don’t know what they should call it, but it’s clear that the administration, students, and everyone else anticipated that just about any weather phenomenon would lead to schools being canceled.

    Legitimate
    That said, it’s currently -4 F at our house. (Not inside) That’s just about as cold as it gets around here. I don’t want to be that old man who says, "When I was a kid I walked to school in snow waist deep, uphill, both ways, with no shoes on." Nah, but they didn’t cancel school in South Bend very often. (They are today) And if we did have school when it was this cold I didn’t have to walk to school because someone would give us a ride.  

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