I have a present for you!

Go to my wife's website, www.christinehand.com, and you will see that she is offering a free download of one of here songs! It's one of my favorites, so check it out. You can't beat the price!

Merry Christmas from us!

Find Santa Right Now!

A long time ago, many children were given a phone number to use that would report to them Santa's location. Due to a terrible typo, the children ended up calling NORAD instead! A dreadful mistake, but the officers at NORAD decided to run with it and started giving kids Santa's location in the sky. NORAD has done this ever since.

But this year, it's high tech. Check out http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.htm and you can see exactly where Santa is, right now! (He's already running around.) And if you download Google Earth, you can see it in 3-D.

Click here to read more about NORAD's tradition of helping kids locate Santa, it's a neat Christmas story.

Searching for Santa

I sumbled upon a great website called SearchForSanta.com which claims to have actual evidence of the existence of Santa.

Convinced that Santa's workshop is located at magnetic North, instead of true North, they have mounted many expeditions to find Santa and plan another one each year. Plagued by disasters and blizzards, the searches have been inconlusive.

However, there is this picture of a sled found deep in the Saudi Arabian desert. It is estimated to be 800 years old and seems to have no place in this climate far from the snow.

How did it get there? Archaeologist Dr. Hyer thinks it may have been part of Santa's sleigh. Do you find this interesting? Still don't think there is a Santa? Then explain this sled, you doubter! You think the shiek has been sledding around the dessert? Of course not!

There's even a picture. It's blurry, but you can clearly make out Santa's features. What else could it be?

Check out the site, it's a good place for kids who may have begun to think a little too postmodernly and need to be encouraged to believe in Santa. In general, it's a fun site.

The Elve's Dance

I love Christmas. I love the religious aspects of the holiday, but I also love the ol' Christmas spirit of Santa Claus and the warmth of giving gifts. This song is becoming one of my favorite songs and rather corny video is somewhat appropriate.

I bet they read Dumas, too.

Do the details of this weekends jail break in New Jersey sound a bit familiar?

First, they removed cement blocks from the walls, providing a means for escape. Then, they put dummies in their beds so no one would know they had left. Lastly, in the most ridiculous step of all, they used posters of bikini clad women to hide their escape hole.

If this were a movie I would cry plagiarism. It's The Shawshank Redemption meets Clint Eastwood's Escape from Alcatraz! Either the inmates were watching too many movies, or the warden wasn't watching enough.

Looking for a Place to Live

The wife and I have been looking for a place to live in the Dallas area. Anyone know any good places? We've found a few but nothing close to where we want to live. We have scoured the apartment locater website and they have been found wanting.

So, if you can recommend a place in Dallas for us to live, let me know.

Children's chore. I mean choir.

The other day I visited my in-law's church and was ambushed by a surprise children's choir performance. No one told me kids would be there, probably because I wouldn't have gone to see a lot of children sing like a Bob Dylan - Sanjaya duet, so I was surprised. After one song I was horrified to see my wife start to leave! I told her it wasn't fair that she got to leave and I didn't, but she left anyway to get a drink of water or something.

After the last song, she returned with a little kid behind her. I didn't understand. Did she realize a little kid was trailing her? Apparently, she did, because she said something to her as she sat down. This really threw me for a loop. Did my wife get up just to collect children from the lobby and then bring them back? Was she trying to start a little league team?

I found out later that this kid was actually a relative. "That was our flower girl," my wife patiently explained. Like I'm supposed to remember who was at my own wedding a few months ago. (I was busy) And I'm still not sure how I am related to this little kid, I think she's my cousin, or my niece. It's hard to tell because I'm pretty sure that my wife has more relatives than Tom Brady.

Church Shootings

Recently, churchgoers in the Colorado Springs area have had a lot more to worry about. A few days ago a man went on a killing spree and shot people at two different Christian locations.

No one cares. According to investigators, the gunman made no secret of the fact that he 'hated Christians'. This is obviously a hate crime, but no one is concerned about it the way they would be if it was racially motivated or if it happened at a mosque.

This is also interesting:

It is perhaps worth noting that the toll in Sunday's shootings exceeded the combined total in all "hate crimes" against Muslims in the six years since September 11.

Who cares? No one in the media sheds a tear when Christians are persecuted.

Also, there is a true hero in this story. A volunteer security guard is responsible for stopping this man. She brought her own gun and when she saw him open fire she brought him down.

Here's what she had to say about it:

"I just prayed for the holy spirit to guide me...my hands weren't even shaking."

If it were illegal to carry guns, the madman would have been the only one with the gun and she would not have been able to defend the public from this guy. I'm glad that wasn't the case. It's estimated that she saved over 100 lives. I hope she is honored by her community. I know the survivors and their families will always honor her. And so will the families of the victims who will be glad to know that this man met with justice.

Learning from LOST

My wife and I are watching the old seasons of LOST so we can prepare for the new season. It is my favorite show, but since I don't watch TV any other time (unless a football game is on) that may not mean a lot to you.

I thought something that happened early in the season was very interesting. Not interesting to just viewers of the show, but interesting to anyone.

The people who crash land on the island find a leader in a man named Jack Shepherd. He is a trauma surgeon and is able to help the wounded and organize the castaways and lead them through trials. But, something is missing.

He is able to help them with every Earthly need, but they are always wanting more. He doesn't want to officiate a funeral for those who died in the crash. He isn't interested in theories about the seemingly magical properties of the island. When the castaways need leadership in these metaphysical matters, he comes up short.

Enter John Locke, my favorite character. He is a man of faith (and rightly so, if you've seen the show) and a spiritual leader for the island. While Jack is thinking about signal fires or radio transmissions, John is thinking about how each person is growing spiritually on the island and how they can all come to a better understanding of themselves. A sense that this crash landing is not an accident, but their fate, has gripped the survivors and it is John who is able to lead them into this fate and give them answers and direction when facing the mysteries of the island, which only parallel the mysteries in their own souls.

Why do I bring this up? Because it reminds me that people are not complete without spiritual food. We can have a money and friends but still lack. Humans are needy for physical things, like food, but we also are needy for spiritual things. It seems that we have been wired to want to eat after so many hours, to sleep on a daily basis, and to ask for spiritual fulfillment regularly. Isn't that an interesting thing? Why do humans exhibit this nature but other animals do not? I've never seen chickens worship foxes or seen my dad's cattle choose different paths than their well worn cow paths in order to find happiness. LOST reminds me of just how mysterious it is that humans are built this way.

Nice Guy

(This one is a little longer than normal.  I promise to keep it short the rest of the week.)

I heard President Bush on the radio, this morning.  I am always surprised at the way he works the crowd when he is being interview by the White House press corps.  He had the room full of them laughing heartily many times.  The media does not portray him as a witty guy but he really is and his speech this morning had me laughing on the way to work.

He was exceptionally polite to the reporters.  At one point he was asked to talk about the election and he nicely told the reported he wasn't interested in being a 'pundit-in-chief' and said he could ask him another question, which the reporter thought was cool.

He said that the biggest problem in today's politics was the name-calling and hatefulness in congress and that Congress needed to fix its problems.  He mentioned that he tries to stay out of the hateful name-calling habits.  And I can't remember him ever calling a politician mean names or being rude to any of them.

Bush came on the air to say that Iran appears to have halted its nuclear program and that he intended to pursue further diplomatic solutions where Iran is concerned. 

Why does everyone call him a warmonger?  Would a warmonger haev said that?  Would a warmonger have used diplomacy to liberate Liberia from Charles Taylor and then turned the rest of the process over to the U.N.?  Would he have used non-violent tactics against Kim Jong II?  In each of these situations countless people are calling for war.  I hear someone recommending invading Iran almost every day, but Bush appears to have no intention of this.

I was told that we went to Iraq for oil, but the first company to pump oil in the new Iraq was Norway.  Furthermore, the countries that were most likely to get the next oil pump contracts were China, India, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

This is possibly because America produces more oil than Iraq.  Why would we steal from Iraq if they don't produce as much as we?  If we were going somewhere to 'steal' oil we would want Iran...

Anyway, no one has to agree with the President.  It is normal for people to disagree with him, but why do people demonize him?   Why do people say he is evil and that he should be assassinated?  He is a nice man who controls the world's largest military force but chooses diplomacy as often as possible when faced with an enemy.  It's OK to disagree with him and even get frustrated with him. 

But why the hate?  It seems immature.

Who Wants to Vote for a Woman?

I hear a lot of talk about whether or not Americans will vote for a woman in a presidential election. (If we don't talk about this every four years the media will have a heart attack or something.)

I've noticed an odd trend. Some believe that the men of America will never vote for a woman, but I don't believe this. I've yet to hear a man say to me, "I would never vote for a woman", but I have heard quite a few women say it.

Of course, this isn't a very scientific poll, but I find it interesting that numerous women have told me before that a woman wouldn't make a good president, but not the men.

My question to you is, have you noticed the same trend?

(In case you are curious, I don't, personally, believe that there is any reason a lady shouldn't rule a country. The good people of Latvia would probably tell you the same thing after watching their economy improve greatly under the leadership of Dr. Vaira Vike-Freiberga. Someone is always bound to take these posts out of context and call me a sexist, so I need to cover my bases.)