Today, a few days after his birthday, we honor the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But forty years after his murder his message is lost in the icon of King. Many of us have the day off. People will say kind words about him. Mattress stores will have their holiday sales for people of all colors can now sleep together in peace. People will talk about his dream, but very few people know what that dream was. Martin Luther King was far more complex than the man who stood in Washington D.C. and revealed his dream to the thousands upon thousands standing in hope there. His dream went far beyond racial...

Another in the popular Pat Robertson series: –Hello, Mr. Robertson.  I would like to have a word with you. –What?  Excuse me?  Pam!  PAM! –Your secretary cannot hear you, Mr. Robertson. –Pam!  What did you do to my secretary, you ni… –Now watch your mouth, Mr. Robertson.  I would advise you to keep a civil tongue, if you know how to do that. –Now look you.  I don’t know who you are, or what you’re selling, but you better get your ass out of here before I call security.  And put out that pipe!  There’s no smoking in this building! –You can...

I try to do the best I can, The same as any other man To bravely face this coming year, As last year, when it first began I face myself there in the mirror, A few more gray hairs growing here A few more errors understood, My vision just a bit more clear I’ll face the year as children would And hope the future is as good As all the years I’ve gathered in, Remembering to knock on wood. For I know mankind’s greatest sin Is looking back at what has been, And think him master of his soul When watching a new year begin For as the world goes speeding in its course I cannot change it’s...

New Years is one of those funny holidays. You can celebrate it several times during the year if you like. You can celebrate the Jewish New Year in the autumn and the Chinese New Year in the winter. And of course, you can celebrate the New Year along with Dick Clark. When I was a boy, it was Guy Lombardo. He always said that when he died he would take New Years with him. He didn’t, and in the course of history New Years will come and go whether any of us are here to see them or not. But why are there so many New Years? The reason we have so many New Years Days is because we don’t all use the...

People were very offended when President Obama received the Nobel Prize for peace this year and rightly so.  After all, we are currently involved in two, count them, two wars.  And seldom have I ever seen a person deliver an acceptance speech that defends warfare while receiving a peace prize.  You have to admit that takes balls.  Even GW never would have done that, I’m sure.  But then GW probably would have figured that only a pussy would accept a peace prize. Anyway, with all the attention on the Nobel Prizes this year, it is not surprising that, yet again, the media failed to properly...

Sometimes I lose things. Being old, that doesn’t surprise me. It happens. There are books of which I was sure I knew their whereabouts, then I go to get them out off the shelf, and they aren’t there. And at work I am always losing paperwork. I put some important form down on my desk and then three days later when I need it, it is nowhere to be found. I have even had to request new forms from time to time to replace the ones I’ve lost. And then I once lost a twenty-dollar bill. I had it in my pocket, then later in the day, in the cafeteria, I went to pull it out and it was gone....

Today we went to visit some family who live close by. It’s always nice to see those people you don’t often get the chance to see because, for some reason, busy schedules and the demands of life always seem to get in the way. Sometimes you get to be with people you haven’t seen since the last Christmas. So, after a few necessary pleasantries, you get to talking with folks and you realize how much you’ve missed them during the year. Before long, you’re chatting as if you’ve never been hanging out together all year. That’s the beautiful thing about love. It...

Well, today is Christmas. And this day always brings images of Mary and Joseph coming into the little town of Bethlehem looking for some place to lay their heads and for Mary to give birth to the child who would grow up to change the world forever, or at least as long as there are people here. It’s a beautiful story; it really is. I hope it’s true, or at least most of it. Of course there are a lot of historical problems with the story. And this all stems from the simple fact that the only sources we have for this story come from two of the gospels, Luke and Matthew. Mark and John both...

Well, I think it’s about time that I delved into the history of Christmas. I know everyone has been waiting for me to tackle this one. The truth is, overdone displays notwithstanding, that I really love the Christmas season. On those rare occasions when I’ve been in the chips I have taken a good deal of pleasure in finding gifts for the people I love. I love everything about Christmas. I love the songs. I love the lights. I love the sappy Christmas movies. I never get tired of It’s a Wonderful Life. And Love Actually is one of my new favorites. I proposed to my wife right before going in...

So Sunday was the first day of Advent. And the season of Advent is all about hope. There was a time when all the people who believed in charity and faith were in a rather poor position. They had been conquered by a people who saw kindness and mercy as a weakness. The “chosen” people who believed in a loving God who sustained them in times of tribulation were persecuted terribly. Many of these people chose to face horrible torture and death, rather than renounce their beliefs in the divine spirit of humankind. The only hope they had was in the promise that one day, a person would come...