Very interesting article in the Washington Post, Answering to No One, by Walter Mondale (Jimmy Carter's VP). He gives a history of the role of the vice president, and then comes to Dick Cheney. His words affirm what I've felt for a long time.

Cheney set out to create a largely independent power center in the office of the vice president. His was an unprecedented attempt not only to shape administration policy but, alarmingly, to limit the policy options sent to the president. It is essential that a president know all the relevant facts and viable options before making decisions, yet Cheney has discarded the "honest broker" role he played as President Gerald Ford's chief of staff....

Through his vast government experience, through the friends he had been able to place in key positions and through his considerable political skills, he has been increasingly able to determine the answers to questions put to the president - because he has been able to determine the questions....

I've never seen a former member of the House of Representatives demonstrate such contempt for Congress -- even when it was controlled by his own party. His insistence on invoking executive privilege to block virtually every congressional request for information has been stupefying - it's almost as if he denies the legitimacy of an equal branch of government. Nor does he exhibit much respect for public opinion, which amounts to indifference toward being held accountable by the people who elected him.

Whatever authority a vice president has is derived from the president under whom he serves. There are no powers inherent in the office; they must be delegated by the president. Somehow, not only has Cheney been given vast authority by President Bush - including, apparently, the entire intelligence portfolio - but he also pursues his own agenda. The real question is why the president allows this to happen.

Posted at 08:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Connor, like our cats, can fall asleep in a variety of positions. Here is he contorted in sleep, on our loveseat and in his crib. Cute stuff, but sure doesn't look comfortable.

Posted at 09:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last Saturday Pam and I saw the movie/musical "Hairspray." My goodness, that was fun! After the opening song by Tracy Turnblad, "Good Morning Baltimore," I turned to Pam and said, "This is going to be a good movie."

Hairspray was delightful from beginning to end. The music and dancing were incredible. Mom and Dad--are you reading this? You'd love this movie.

I'd rank Hairspray as the best movie I've seen this year. And we've not seen any duds yet. We've seen seven movies, and I'd put them in this order: Hairspray, Evan Almighty, Live Free or Die Hard, Shrek the Third, Oceans 13, and Transformers. (Yes, we skipped the third iterations of both Spiderman and Pirates.)

Posted at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last Sunday, our worship team played about six songs during an afternoon service for another church group. The local Charismatic Orthodox Church was dedicating its new facility.

Yes, you read that right--Charismatic Orthodox. Two words you don't see together often. The New Jerusalem Charismatic Orthodox Church.

We held the service in an open-sided tent on their property. A generator in the bed of a pickup truck powered our amps and instruments. The strong breeze kept blowing my music around.

I suppose about 100 people were there, probably half black, half caucasian (which says something real good about them). They had bishops all over the place, and plenty of clerical collars. The lead pastor was a big black fellow, probably a former defensive end. Real nice guy.

The denominational head came up from Florida to say a few words. He was a fairly young guy, maybe 50 years old, with a very short ponytail and a purple shirt. He kept an informal bearing, almost playing the part of the cut-up as he bantered with the local minister. I liked him. He told about what they're doing around the world--not in a lot of places, but in several places--and I was impressed with their spirit and vision.

After the service, I told the minister, "You have a great thing going here." He said, "As long as we can keep politics out of it." I gave him a thumbs-up.

The Charismatic Orthodox Church is committed to inviting other groups to use their facility. An organization that provides up to 2500 meals daily to poor children works out of their building. So does a prison ministry and, I think, some other groups. They want to be a blessing to the total body of Christ. They had named their building--big block letters on the outside--"Community House."

I thoroughly enjoyed getting acquainted with these fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Good people. And they seemed to like our music, too.

Posted at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I went to the doctor yesterday, the first time since I turned 50. Visits to the doctor are going to be decidedly less fun than in the past. As if they've ever been fun. Maybe fun, if you compare them to going to the dentist.

For several years, I've been taking a 5mg tablet for high blood pressure. Well, Doc didn't like my blood pressure reading. So he wrote me a prescription for a second pill. And then, for good measure, he told me to take a baby aspirin once a day. I've gone from one pill to three pills, and I'm only 50.

This morning I took the two prescription pills, which come in simple containers, and saved the baby aspirin for last. It was not easy to reach.

I tore open the box. The bottle had one of those plastic casings holding the cap in place. After some effort, I nicked it with a fingernail and was able to tear the plastic off. I then tried removing the plastic cap, but it wouldn't budge...until I realized you had to line up two arrows just right. Even then, the cap was too small for my fingers, so I used my teeth to wrench off the cap.

Now I was confronted with one of those cardboard circular inner caps. I tried pushing it in with a finger, but couldn't do it. So I hit it with some nail clippers. Finally, I could get to the baby aspirin.

Not so fast. There was still a wad of cotton blocking the way. I stuck my fat index finger into the bottle, but couldn't find a way to force the cotton out. So I just pushed it to the side so I could pour out a pill.

By that time, I was definitely in need of a hypertension supplement.

I'll work on the cotton ball tonight. I'll extract it using my Channellock needle-nose pliers.

Posted at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I went to Pizza Hut for lunch today. As I left to pay my bill, the clerk, a young gal, said, "What'd ya have, Sweetie?"

I just gave her my bill and money. I hate it when waitresses call me stuff like that.

She counted out the change and said, "Here you go, Li'l Darling."

Li'l Darling? What in thunderation!!!

These are terms you would normally think of sweet young things saying to old codgers, for whom there is no attraction. A pretend, game-like kind of false flirting to let geezers think they've still "got it." If some young stud approached the check-out register, I seriously doubt she'd call him Sweetie or Li'l Darling. That would seem like genuine flirting. Rather, she'd probably be holding her breath, hoping he noticed her hair or something, maybe ask for her phone number.

But me? No, I'm totally harmless. Just another old guy.

Posted at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Connor was dedicated this morning. Allen and Carolyn went forward with Connor, Pastor Tim asked them some questions about their commitment to raising Connor, and then Tim took Connor in his arms and prayed over him. Then we watched a video presentation showing photos of Connor (most of which I took) by himself and with various people (including two photos of Connor sleeping on me).

It was nice. And it was extra meaningful to Pam and me.

Posted at 09:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is our anniversary--18 years. Pastor Tim called attention to it during the service, and asked me the secret to marriage. Standing at the keyboard, I moved to my microphone and said, "Listen to my wife and do everything she says." The ladies seemed to enjoy my response.

After church Pam and I ate at Biaggis, a wonderful Italian restaurant. We go there maybe once a year, and often in conjunction with our anniversary. The place is expensive. Our bill, before tip, was an uncannily even $50. I had Shrimp Oregonata, which I order nearly every time.

As we sat down, we heard a large group sing "The Doxology." Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below....". That was their prayer for the meal. It was a good-sized church group, mostly older people. And that got me to thinking about the mere idea of holding a church get-together at a place like Biaggis.

We would never do that at Anchor. Unthinkably expensive. Some people could afford it, but not most. For too many, going to Lee's Chicken would be as much as they could afford...if that. I remember when we took Carolyn and Allen to Bob Evans, and Allen, in 27 years, had never eaten there. At a Bob Evans.

But here was a large church group, and when they asked each other, "Where should we go to eat?", somebody suggested Biaggis, and everyone said, "That sounds good." For those people who thanked God for whom all blessings flow, money is not an issue. I think I can safely assume that their church is located in the suburbs.

And they would probably be puzzled by my musings. I would have been puzzled, before we went to Anchor eight years ago. I saw no problem with eating at nice restaurants; it was something to which we were entitled, due to our incomes. We gave it no thought. The position of the poor in Fort Wayne was nowhere on our radar. Being a good Republican, I would have argued that if poor people got off their duffs and worked, they could have flowing blessings and eat at places like Biaggis, too. Simplistic and naive and clueless and altogether wrong. I'm sure God just smiled and thought, "Steve dosn't get it now, but someday he'll at least start to get it."

But the underclasses are firmly on my radar now. I think about our flow of blessings all the time, and the comparative lack of flowing blessings among other people who also love God. People who are now my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ. I reflected on the act of paying $50 for a meal, even once a year for a special anniversary meal. I am very pleased that I think about this stuff all the time. Because I once was oblivious, and now I'm not. Jesus was never oblivious about this.

Posted at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Two days ago at work, about 11:30 am, I received an iChat instant message from Erinn. Erinn is in China, working with a group from Huntington University that is teaching teachers of English in Zhuhai City, a major city in China. It's a very neat opportunity. Erinn worked in my office until last November, when she accepted a high school teaching job.

Anyway, Erinn said some plans had changed, and she needed to do a presentation. But she was having trouble gathering photos for a PowerPoint presentation. She just needed some photos of typical American sports--basketball, baseball, football, soccer, golf, etc. She tried Google images, but the vaunted Great Firewall of China wouldn't let her find anything. Evidently American sports photos are considered enemies of the state. She had been trying for a good while, but in vain.

So she was wondering if I could help her out. Could I use my graphics resources to send her some suitable photos. I have a good library of photos on my computer, and among them were some sports photos, which I quickly located. I dropped a football photo into the iChat window and hit the Return button. A few seconds later, the image having appeared on her screen, she responded, "Ooh, that's a nice one." Or something like that.

I dropped in photos of people playing other sports--basketball, golf, hockey, even skateboarding. All got through. Amazing. I drag a photo into a message field, send it, and almost immediately it appears on Erinn's screen on the other side of the world. Sometimes technology can be radically cool.

"It's been a pleasure circumventing cyber tyranny," I told her as we ended our chat. And I imagined Chinese cyberspooks, frustrated by their inability to stifle iChat, scrambling black helicopters and dour sunglassed men in black SUVs to Erinn's IP node.

Apple iChat. Think Subversive.

Posted at 06:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Connor started crawling two weeks ago, and now, he tools around everywhere. Getting into everything. Grabbing. Touching. Inflicting no small amount of anxiety on our cats. He hasn't caught Jordi or Molly yet, but it's just a matter of time before he sneaks up on one of them while they're sleeping. Molly was sleeping peacefully when a baby hand touched her tail. She bolted with maximum haste.

Our house now features numerous barriers. A gate going into the kitchen. A crib blocking this route, boxes here and there, my accordion in yet another place. All to impede mobility.

The little guy continues to change our lives. I'm not sure I'm all that crazy about this crawling stuff. When he just laid in one place, flopping arms and legs but going nowhere--yes, those were the good ol' days. Days now gone forever.

Posted at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We on the Anchor worship team once had a habit of saying to the congregation, "Let's all bow for a quick word of prayer." Or something like that. The important word was "quick." Pastor Tim told us he would prefer that we not use "quick" and "prayer" together. It sounded like we wanted to rush through "prayer" to get to more interesting stuff. And he was exactly right.

And so, for the past couple of years, we've tried to wean ourselves away from that, and we've succeeded pretty well. But it's fascinating how easily the word "quick" wants to keep inserting itself.

• "Before the service starts, let's get the worship team together for a quick prayer."
• Prior to a potluck: "Let's all bow for a quick prayer, and then you can line for up for your food."
• "Before we launch into our board meeting agenda, Bill, would say a quick prayer for the meeting?"

Chris Kuntz, Anchor's former worship leader, is now worship leader at Union Chapel. He introduced the group, and when they finished, he came up again to say a few words before the group did one last number. And Chris said something like, "In a moment I'm going to say a quick prayer, and then we'll hear one more song." Tim Bauman and I made contact and just smiled. Chris, who had, with Tim's promptings, helped us nearly eradicate "quick" from our prayer lingo, had relapsed. He was still doing "quick" prayers.

Pastor Tim would be appalled.

Posted at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Pam and I have seen five movies this summer. Didn't realize it was that many until we counted them up. We go the first four months (at least through April 15) without seeing any movies at theaters. So all five of these have been in the past six weeks or so.

• Shrek the Third. Pretty good. I'm afraid the whole Shrek thing may be losing its appeal for me. The first Shrek was great, the second one very good, this one...still plenty of laughs, but as if I was laughing at jokes I'd already heard.
• Oceans 13. Pretty good. Not as good as Oceans 11.
• Evan Almighty. Very good. We laughed a lot.
• Live Free or Die Hard. Very good. Of course, we're Die Hard fans, as well as Bruce Willis fans. And we love high body counts. And Justin Long is the Mac guy in the Mac/PC commercials, and we're most definitely Macintosh people. So of course we loved this movie.
• Transformers.Okay. We saw it this afternoon. Kinda cheesy, but some good action. If they do a sequel, I'll skip it.

Posted at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today's the perfect day: 7/7/07. The 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year. Two months ago at my grandma's funeral, my Aunt Ruthie said she was holding a party on this day. She was inviting 7 guests, I think they were having a 7-course meal, and I'm pretty sure the starting time was 7:07 pm. She was really building on the "seven" theme.

Lots of people are getting married today, adding a bit of Lucky 7 to their vows. Whatever works.

Posted at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's a fun fact for you: 60% of grocery carts harbor the type of bacteria normally found on toilet seats. Think about it. The last person to use the cart sat a little kid in the basket, complete with drool-covered fingers. This is where you now lay your lettuce.

And a fun link: "How Cheney Abused His Power in War on Terror", from Britain's Sunday Telegraph. I'd already seen most of this, but never such a complete collection of Cheney's Vice Dictator shenanigans.

Posted at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've got something pretty neat going on with these other four churches in our neighborhood. We held joint Sunday night services during Lent, and did a neighborhood Vacation Bible School a few weeks ago (the Mennonites hosted it, but Marsha from our church was the director).

Today we had a picnic in the park a couple of streets over from Anchor. Four of the five churches participated. Grace Presbyterian headed this up. They rented a big grill and organized a variety of games. It was nice. I'm thoroughly enjoying getting acquainted with these fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Fundamentalists fear being somehow contaminated or theologically compromised if they collaborate with other churches. I think there is some of that among us United Brethren--not fundamentalists (though we have our contingent), but conservative evangelicals. We're leery, at least people "in the know" (as in, mostly ministers). Fortunately, this isn't an issue at Anchor. Nor, I think, is it generally an issue with the rank-and-file UBs, who don't "know enough" theologically to erect barriers between themselves and other Christians.

Not that Anchor would link arms with just anybody. We're talking about just five of the churches in our zip code; there are more than that. Five like-minded local congregations. Church of Christ, United Methodist, Mennonite, Presbyterian, and United Brethren. There are other United Brethren churches in our city, but none in our neighborhood. Strategically, it makes sense to link arms with these four other churches. And so, we are.

More United Brethren churches need to do this type of thing. Larger churches don't "need" to, from a strategical standpoint, or at least don't think they need to. They have the resources to do things themselves, and have more of a "we can do it ourselves" mentality. In general. But for smaller churches, like Anchor, it makes a huge amount of sense.

Posted at 09:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)