Search results for: “good news”

  • Oops, wrong car

    This has to be one of the funniest cases of grand theft auto ever recorded. So good that there weren’t any charges pressed at all. Although stealing a 1989 Toyota Camry could hardly be listed as "grand" theft. More like "did you a favor" theft.

    Woman’s Key Works in Wrong Car
    1989camry
    ATHENS, Ohio (Feb. 6) – A college student who reported that his car
    was stolen got a surprise when he learned a woman had mistaken it
    for her daughter’s car and taken it — using her key.

    Kate Anderson of Athens became an accidental car thief when she
    went to pick up her daughter’s car near an Ohio University building
    last week. Anderson spotted the nickel-gray Toyota Camry and used
    her daughter’s key to unlock the car, start the engine and drive
    home- without realizing that the car wasn’t her daughter’s. Read the rest

    The first thing I thought of when I read this story was my 1987 Chevy Corsica. With that car, you didn’t even need a key to start it. You just turned the ignition and the car started. With the Corsica I think the key hole in the ignition was just a place to store your keys as I remember multiple times driving down the road and hitting a bump, only to have the keys land on the floorboard.

    HT to Sallyb for the story.

  • A man of his word

    I caught this on ESPN’s website. It’s too good to not be true:

       Wiese, a die-hard fan of the Chicago Bears, signed a pledge in
    front of a crowd at a Decatur bar last Friday night that if the
    Bears lost Sunday’s Super Bowl, he’d change his name to that of the
    man who led the Indianapolis Colts to victory.

       Final score: Colts 29, Bears 17.

       So Tuesday, Wiese went to the Macon County Courts Facility and
    started the process of changing his name.
    Link

    What an idiot. I mean, Peyton Manning may have led his team to a Super Bowl championship… but changing your name to Peyton Manning? Yuck.

  • Big Announcement

    Yesterday I posted this on YMX.

    Big Announcement: Coming February 1st, 2007.  Then, in a board I labeled "Big Announcement Speculation" I posted, "As we’ve announced in the News area… we’ll be announcing something
    big and fun on 2/1/07. Other than saying that it’s "big" and "you’ll
    like it" and "it’s important" we can’t really say much more. But, we’d love to hear your speculation!
    "

    Of course, I’m not going to say anything about what the announcement in here. But as I added later in the thread (95 replies so far!) "It’s free." I think it’s something that will help take the site to the next level. Yeah, I’m excited about it and I’m not good with secrets.

    (more…)

  • Germany’s solution for bored adolescents

    How many times have parents laughingly told me about their high school student who said, "I’m bored" and got glared at by a 15 year old too good to do a little work?

    Well, apparently this isn’t something that just happens in the United States. In Germany, they’ve been floating the idea of taking these "bored kids" and sending them to places that will put them to work.

    “Look, this isn’t really my responsibility, you know. I am the DEVELOPMENT
    Minister, okay? But I am more than willing to react to this unmet
    demand,” said the irritable, red-haired minister. “Every day, we are
    hearing from young people who want to ‘do something’,” she continued.
    “And these calls are reeeally starting to get on my nerves. After all,
    I have a lot of important DEVELOPMENT issues to deal with, too, you know.”

    Wieczorek-Zeul’s planned program will be aimed at people between the
    ages of 18 and 28 who have a high school diploma or an equivalent
    certificate and want to work in a developing country for three to 24
    months – and who are also willing to sign a statement promising not to
    call her ministry anymore. The ministry will also pay them 580 euros in
    hush money per month during their stay.

    “So you, too, please feel free to volunteer,”
    she snapped at the latest caller who finagled his way past her
    secretary. “Otherwise we might think about making this program
    mandatory.”
    Full story

    You know, this isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever heard. In fact, it actually fits into what students want to do. They want to change the world… so it looks like Germany is thinking of making that happen.

  • Whom Shall I Fear?

    Slide1
    These are the talk notes from Sunday’s service. It was a cool chance for me to "close out" 2006 and help our church look forward to 2007.

    **Note: The images we used for this message were from a Simply Youth Ministry freebie a few months back. Gasp! We used imagery that was used at Saddleback? Doesn’t that mean that we are Purpose Driven? (Man, I’m a bit snarky on January 2nd)

    (more…)

  • Thank You Mr. Rumsfeld

    RumsfeldI’m not the most pessimistic person in the world. In fact, I am perhaps the only American left that believes in our president and thinks that the war in Iraq is good for Iraq.

    It obviously not a popular thing to say. Even today, when Donald Rumsfeld was conducting his last town hall meeting at the Pentagon, he was cut off by all the networks. After nearly 50 years of public service, the politically minded schmucks running the networks haven’t changed.

    All the networks managed to show a tearful outgoing Secretary of Defense. The news hounds struggled to keep the cameras rolling as the first question came about "What have you read while in office?"

    In a moment clearly planned, the next question was from a proud father and soldier who stood up and said, "I would like to thank you for…" Then CNN cut him off. They instantly went back to the negative news on the war in Iraq. A quick flip to MSNBC and FoxNews showed the same thing. Fox actually cut from Rumsfeld to the scary music and "another bombing in Baghdad." Puke. I’m just sick of it.

    At the same time, it almost 22 months until the next Presidential election… and the news agencies have already anointed Barack Obama and Hilllary Rodham Clinton as the democrats best chances at taking the White House.

    Jonvertical
    Excuse me?
    Do the American people need to be dared once again? I know that they think that electing Bush twice, despite the presses best attempts to prevent it was a fluke. I actually think that the liberal media is the worst enemy of the Democratic party. I’m no politician, but I think that the most electable person in the country may be a celebrity such as Jon Stewart. 

  • Gag me with a Christian Spoon

    I ran across this story over on Marko’s blog. Things like this make me absolutely sick, but it’s true… people are developing Christian-themed subdivisions. Two excerpts are puke-worthy:

    Near the entrance, before the road turns to reveal new homes starting
    at $400,000, a restored chapel sits under the shade of trees.
    [Read the article]

    It’s good to know that Christians aren’t mixing with the riff-raff that buy houses under $400,000. I mean, if you can’t swing a mortgage payment of $3000 or more, God isn’t blessing you. Excuse me while I run to the bathroom.

    But their developments seem to be trying to sell a certain way of life.
    They’re mixed-use developments, meaning commercial businesses will go
    in with the homes, but there are restrictions as to what can go in
    these areas. Banks and gas stations are going up, but don’t expect to
    see anything that caters strictly to vices.

    "Of course we’ll
    have some restaurant locations here, but no bars. No massage parlors.
    Nothing like that that would be damaging to people’s character, as part
    of our restrictions," he said.

    This type of mixed-development is just a bad idea. Forcing American-Christian morality and sensibilities, notice I didn’t say Biblical morality, into a society just doesn’t work. After all, Jesus wouldn’t want anyone associating with people who frequent bars or massage parlors, would he? Let’s be real… developers develop subdivisions, not the New Jerusalem. It didn’t work for the Puritans and it won’t work in Tennessee. You cannot create sin-free zones where people will make the right life choices. As if Christianity were merely a lifestyle choice? Even if it were a lifestyle choice, this clearly isn’t a God-honoring choice. We know that Jesus was not impressed with the Pharisee’s who did exactly this. Jesus clear does not want his people separating from the world, how come people continue to think this is a good idea? I’m dry heaving here for again.

    Of course Joe Swanson, the developer mentioned in the story, got his start as a Jesus-junk peddler. His son now runs Swanson Christian Products where you can buy such essentials of the faith as the Plan of Salvation Band, fish tie tacks, and "I have Jesus in my heart" stress balls. So I suppose this is just a large scale Jesus-junk scheme. To steal a line from John Stassel, give me a break!

  • Protect Yourself from Cyber Bullies

    Protect Yourself from Cyber Bullies

    The following is an article I’ve submitted for publication to the Romeo Peach. I thinks it’s a relevant topic for anyone who uses the internet for community purposes.

    The other day Kristen and I watched a Primtime special
    called, “How Mean Can Teens Be?” The investigation was about a new form of
    bullying that many students participate and experience, online bullying. “Cell phones, instant messaging and personal Web sites like
    MySpace and Facebook are now common weapons of “cyberbullying,” used
    to spread gossip, rumors and bequeath public lashings — leaving teenagers with
    painful battle scars.”
    http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2421562

    (more…)

  • Presidential Address

    BushI watched the President’s address last night. Of course, his speach brought up all sorts of memories of September 11th, 2001 when he gave a similarly timed address to let the nation know we would respond. Much of what he said reminded me of how strong he was during those days immediately following the attacks.

    He re-enforced some strong reasons for continuing on with what we’re doing in Iraq and Afghanistan. I know that some people see it as a purely political issue, but I really think that this strategy, and all of the terror plots that have been thwarted in the last severa, have proven that if we had done nothing… we’d be far worse off than we are currently. I don’t catch a lot of speaches by the President, but this was the strongest I have heard in quite a while.


    Across the broader Middle East, the extremists are fighting to prevent such
    a future.  Yet America has confronted evil before, and we have defeated it
    — sometimes at the cost of thousands of good men in a single battle.  When
    Franklin Roosevelt vowed to defeat two enemies across two oceans, he could
    not have foreseen D-Day and Iwo Jima — but he would not have been
    surprised at the outcome.  When Harry Truman promised American support for
    free peoples resisting Soviet aggression, he could not have foreseen the
    rise of the Berlin Wall — but he would not have been surprised to see it
    brought down.  Throughout our history, America has seen liberty challenged,
    and every time, we have seen liberty triumph with sacrifice and
    determination.


    At the start of this young century, America looks to the day when the
    people of the Middle East leave the desert of despotism for the fertile
    gardens of liberty, and resume their rightful place in a world of peace and
    prosperity.  We look to the day when the nations of that region recognize
    their greatest resource is not the oil in the ground, but the talent and
    creativity of their people.  We look to the day when moms and dads
    throughout the Middle East see a future of hope and opportunity for their
    children.  And when that good day comes, the clouds of war will part, the
    appeal of radicalism will decline, and we will leave our children with a
    better and safer world.
    [See the full transcript or watch the video]

  • Metro Detroit Youth Workers Lunch

    Friday afternoon I had the joy of connecting up with a great group of people for my second Metro Detroit Youth Workers lunch. This one was much smaller, but much cooler than the last one. Man… a good atmosphere is everything.

    Things I liked…

    • Talking to some of the same people from last time. I met up with Jim Stoltz again… he’s a youth guy in Commerce. (Wherever that is) I just like the guy, he’s pretty cool. Of course, I have a Moody connection with him, so that’s always a good start.
    • I liked hearing from the old timers. They had good stuff to say. I needed to be encouraged and I was.
    • I got to talk to people about what God is doing at my church and what God is doing with youth workers through YMX. It was cool because I was worried I would talk to people about YMX far too much. But in fact I got to talk about things in the right order… I talked to people the most about my family. I got to talk to people the "next most" about my ministry. And I got to talk to people a very little about YMX. That made it 100% worth my time.
    • I loved hearing about what God is doing in and through so many ministries and businesses. I left encouraged that we are just a little closer to overcoming a satanic oppression of church competition that exists in the Metro Detroit area. I want to be used by God in playing a small part in overcoming it.
    • It was very cool that Dave over at Faith Lutheran seemed somewhat interested in being a part of a local network again. It’s been far too long and we really need to figure out how to make it happen.
    • Of course, it was great seeing Jason Raitz. Can’t put a finger on the "why" parts of it, but I just think he’s a great guy.
    • It was fun hooking up with the guys from YFC and talking about 3Story. I don’t know if they are serious or not… but I’m interested in helping them teach adults in Metro Detroit 3Story.

    Most of all… and I can’t explain this excitement… I’m geeked about seeing a lot of these same folks in Cincinnati this November. The YS convention should be oodles more fun and I should get a lot more out of it because I know so many more people. I’m really looking forward to this in November.