Issue 27

If you're not interested in Cincinnati news, this probably isn't the post for you. I'm fascinated with politics but am leery to comment about specific voting issues because of my role in a local congregation. We have Democrats and Republicans in our church, in addition to independents and non-voters and I think you could make a Biblical case for any of these perspectives [of course, you could probably make defend communism Biblically too, so what does it prove?]. So while I love to watch the American political process play out, I don't want to come out with official endorsements.

That said, I think things change a little bit when it comes to local politics. Usually there are no overlying Christian ethical issues at stake [ex: abortion] so it mostly boils down to opinion/preference. So the following is by no means an endorsement, but food for thought as election day nears.

The biggest issue facing the Cincinnati Metro area this November is Issue 27, a proposed "jail tax." Passage of this issue would raise the Hamilton County sales tax from 6.5% to 7% for eight years, reducing to 6.75% for the next seven years after that. The tax increase is supposed to raise $736million. A similar tax was voted down last year by county voters because the language was suspect [nowhere was the construction of a new jail even mentioned]. The county commissioners decided to overstep the voters and enacted the tax anyway, but a group of citizens petitioned to get the issue on the ballot for approval again this fall.

Support of this issue is pretty popular around here, because everyone wants to fight crime. The Hamilton County Sheriff, a long-time local politician with a solid base of supporters, has warned the public that voting down this referendum would put jailed criminals back on the streets. Somehow, in addition to their release, the Sheriff claims a slew of assault rifles would be back on the streets as well [which still confuses me: do they give guns to them when they leave the jail?]. The message coming across is simple: unless you want to see Snake Plissken roaming the streets of Cincy, pass this levy.

Now if it was totally necessary, I would vote for a jail without hesitation. But there are issues surrounding this issue that are indeed cloudy and need to be explored. Among them are . . .

• The city rents out jailspace to the US Government for their criminals, something that the county is not required to do. There is absolutely no benefit for the county for this except a stipend that is cheaper than what the county currently rents beds for from neighboring counties [so taxpayers lose money on the deal] and favors which the general public would never see anyway. So instead of looking out for the good of the local crime situation, the county loses jail space to the federal government who is responsible for that issue.
• We are told that the condition of the Queensgate jail is deteriorating to the point that it's unsafe. I've been all over this city and have seen some shoddy construction and this jail is in much better shape than people realize; the Queensgate jail has passed all building inspections and is in no danger of collapse. Interestingly enough, the sheriff has refused local media the opportunity to tour the structure with photographers to confirm this claim. So follow this reasoning: the jail is collapsing because we say it is. Trust us. Give us money.
• PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THE COUNTY COURT SYSTEM. Only a very small percentage of criminals are there for long term periods of time. The purpose of the jail is to hold criminals until trial and sentencing until they are sentenced to a state facility. The biggest drain on housing is people forced to wait overnights/weekends to see a judge. The logical solution for this would be to institute a night court [remember Bull?] to process these claims immediately. This would be an investment but would still be more cost effective than this levy.
• Even worst case scenario, the people being "released early" are not dangerous criminals. They are people who are charged with low-grade misdemeanors such as public intoxication. These people still have their day in court.

You just have to ask yourself: is it worth three-quarters of A BILLION DOLLARS without making every effort to try other alternatives? But that was never investigated. Ironic that Republicans are usually known for lamenting the tax-and-spend Democrats but in this case a Republican has led the charge, with some Democrats supporting and others criticizing. This issue supersedes party affiliations. But, most importantly, proponents have the big money backing to make it work. And for that reason it will probably pass. Could you imagine if someone wanted to take that money and invest it into community education/jobs programs, into fighting the our horrendous infant mortality rate, or into affordable housing for the poor? It would be called "a handout" and quickly defeated.

But these are some of the root issues surrounding the crime problem in this county.

Instead: build bigger jails.

It might make sense to you, but it doesn't to me.

Simmer Down

Chris Mortensen's "insider info" that someone in the Bengals organization wants Chad Johnson traded has really sent this town into a tizzy. It's seems almost all the local media endorse the idea, thinking his antics too much [a losing streak requires someone to blame and they reckon it's Chad's fault the defense can't stop anyone]. I guess the guy having a little too much fun is the problem. The rest of the nation is catching wind of this, as even Jim Rome noted on his radio and television programs today how some people in this city are hating on CJ. Another example at the ignorance in some of our sports media representatives.. And it forces me to make a bold statement:

Chad Johnson could be the best wide receiver I've ever seen.

He's not the fastest. He can't jump higher than other receivers. But he catches ball that I've never seen people catch before.  He can contort his body to make catches that are amazing. That's why he's amazing. And that's why I'm glad he's a Bengal.

Without Chad, TJ Houshmandzadeh is just a guy with a long name. Without him the "high powered Bengals offense" is non-existent. Without him, Carson is still great, but with him Palmer is a superstar.

And some morons in the media want him out of town? Get a grip.

Chad, if you read this blog [and being a fellow Walnut Hills resident, I'm sure you do] the fans in Cincy love you. Stick with it here and we'll get your back.

The Little Incidents

So it rained a lot the past few days. We know this because water is leaking in our walls around our flue pipe. At least we won't have to pay for it because it should be covered with our condo fees.

But the rain altered Kelly and Kaelyn's daily routine of getting the mail from the mailbox.

I'm the man, I should get wet.

My neighbors were out by the mailbox and I started to explain to them our condo leakage, encouraging them to check their chimney area. As I stood their talking with them, I struggled to open our mailbox. The key wouldn't go in.

This is interesting too because we had a new mailbox installed a couple of weeks ago. The local post office is dragging its feet getting us the brand new keys so we're still using the old box. The box where the keys don't work well.

So my neighbors want to check to see if their place has water leakage and don't want to wait for me to get my mail so they go inside.

Immediately after they go inside, I finally get the box opened and pull out our mail. Prominently displayed on the top of my mail is a magazine.

A Playboy Magazine.

[Quick Sidebar: I can imagine the perverts doing a Google search for "Playboy Magazine" ending up at this blog post and being severly disappointed. Sorry, guys, no nekked pics here].

Understand that I do not subscribe to said magazine. It must have been sent to me by someone getting my name/address on a mailing list. I bet it was those people at Biblical Archaeology Review [now there's a link for the perverts].

And understand that I did not look at the contents of the magazine. I did what a self-respecting man would've done.

I gave it to my wife.

And I told her it wasn't mine.

Come to find out, it wasn't really a magazine but a catalog. Who knew they even had a catalog [be careful how you answer that]? But, honestly, you couldn't tell that from the cover. It looked identically like a Playboy magazine . . . or at least the ones I've seen portrayed on television.***

All this had me thinking all night [and not about nekked chics].

I'm trying to show my neighbors [the ones who I talked to at the mailbox], who aren't Christian, that our faith can be relevant to a normal life. Additionally, I'd like to exemplify that we can also live up to a certain moral standard. Does me getting Playboy Magazine hurt my [moral] reputation with them? Probably. At the very worst, if they saw me pull that magazine from our box I'd have to stutter about how "it's not really mine" [doesn't everyone claim that?] and awkwardly explain why it was in our box in the first place. So maybe it doesn't hurt my cause in their eyes, but I can't imagine that it would help.

And that's when I trace this whole thing back to a string of little incidents.

It was raining so I went to get the mail instead of Kelly and Kaelyn. Imagine her shock if she had gotten the mail, while holding our daughter, especially in front of those neighbors. It would probably have been embarrassing. But it didn't happen.

Of course, Kel and Kaelyn didn't go out to get the mail because of all the rain. The same rain that caused the leak in our house. And the rain was the conversation piece that I used with my neighbors, leaving them wondering about the dryness of their own condo so that they went inside. Otherwise, they might have kept talking with me and have seen my retrieve a Playboy from my mailbox. But it didn't happen.

Another thing that prolonged me from getting the mail out of the box was because I was fumbling with the key. It's an old key and doesn't work that well. We were supposed to be using those new mailboxes now, which would've used new keys. A new key would've probably worked perfectly. If the key worked the first time, my neighbors would've definitely seen a Playboy in my daily mail. But it didn't happen.

I'm not saying all this happened because God was looking out for me.

Well, maybe I am.

I just thought it was interesting how all these little incidents, however troubling, made my day.

And all that without having to see nekked chics.

***Just in case you're wondering, Kelly looked at how to get taken off their mailing list and it told you to send a letter snail mail with your full information and your customer order code. If you never ordered anything with them, why do you have a customer code in the first place?

Among Other Things . . .

. . . we've been busy.

Weekend Sports Recap

• I was so disappointed that UC lost to Pitt on Saturday. Even more disappointed that I couldn't get it on any cable channel but was forced to watch it online. Murderers Row is coming up for the Bearcats [South Florida, WV and, dare I see, UConn?] so it'll be interesting to see what Brian Kelly does with this team.
• Ohio State's defense is amazing. Say what you will about a weak Big Ten, but if this team can get back to that BCS title game they will go out of their way to redeem themselves from last year's blow-out loss to Florida.
• In a related note, Steve Spurrier is still a putz. His team gets punked by Vanderbilt and he uses it as an opportunity to try to rip on Ohio State. The Old Ball Coach needs to realize that Florida was all he had and he will never be relevant again.
• My buddy Alex is a huge LSU fan and even he would admit that this year's version of the Tigers aren't as good as every national commentator thinks they are. What we have this year in college football is a whole lot of medicority.
• Since we had church last night I really didn't watch the Bengals play. Listened to the first half on the radio before our gathering and it was depressing. While I'm excited for the win, this team is still in the cellar looking up at Cleveland. If they can pull off Pittsburgh this week, the face a suspect Bills team [sorry, Greg] and could be 4-4. If that happens, there's hope.
• My second favorite baseball team is the Boston Red Sox. And since I despise almost all things Cleveland, I loved the 3 games to 1 comeback they put up. Justin Dustin Pedroia, a rookie, has the biggest game of his life in a Game 7? Amazing. I'm pretty sure the Rockies dream run ends in Boston. Too much pitching.

And one last observation . . . well, more of a rant: Working out at Xavier this morning, I caught Keyshawn Johnson interview Chad Johnson on SportsCenter. Keyshawn makes me want to hurl. How ESPN justifies keeping this clown is beyond me. He is one of the most uninformed commentators I've ever seen and only detracts from any respectability they had. If they want to televise crap like this, don't call it journalism.

Keyshawn's whole career was "me" oriented [remember he authored a book entitled "Give Me The Damn Ball" before he had ever done anything in the league] and he's trying to paint Chad Johnson as a selfish player? A little pot/kettle action there Keyshawn. Listen, I like about 80% of Chad's antics, only get frustrated with some of his midweek press conferences, but his performance on game day had very little to do with the Bengals losing streak; FYI Bengals fans, Chad doesn't play defense. Despite all the negative attention the media wants to put on him, he still catches balls that I've seen no one else catch. If he wasn't walking the walk, I'd be angry with him. But I'm not.

And then Keyshawn comes in wearing a suit, brandishing an ESPN microphone and we're supposed to take him seriously? Youtube the interview and tell me if that interview wasn't anything more than an opportunity for Keyshawn to try to show Chad up. He's just jealous.

Memo to Keyshawn: just because Chad's going to eclipse Key's stats in every category, just because CJ already has one more Pro Bowl than you had in your entire career, just because he was smarter in marketing himself than you could've envisioned, just because he has all the endorsement deals you wish you would've had, and just because he's an all-around better player than you ever were doesn't mean he's gotta hate on him in your new role as a reporter. Oh, and don't go bragging about your championship ring you "earned" while playing for a team known as a defensive juggernaut. You were more selfish than Chad ever has been.

I would take Chad over Keyshawn any day, week, month or year. And I bet I'm not alone.

Huge

The implications of this admission should be huge to the majority of evangelical churches. In short, Willow Creek has admitted that they way they did discipleship, in which they invested millions and which they encouraged other churches to emulate, was flawed. And yet large numbers of megachurches and wanna-be-megachurches subscribe to this theory. This deserves a much more thorough treatment on my part but I'd be interested to hear some thoughts on this.

People In My Life

It seems I'm always catching people up about the life activities of people I know. So I figured I'd take a little time to drop some pertinent information about people in my life.

My older brother Chris and his wife Heather are expecting their fourth child any day now.

Childhood friend Steve Levering, and his wife Beth, just had their first child, a boy named Tyler.

College roommate Aaron Levering [Steve's cousin] and his lovely wife Tia are expecting their fourth child. Additionally college roommate [and Best Man in our wedding] Jason Badami and his lovely wife Dalea [Maid of Honor in our wedding] are expecting their fourth child. All those kids wouldn't fit in the old college dorm room.

Somewhere, right now, someone else we know is most likely getting pregnant. And that's icky.

Our friends, the Burgesses, have some new employment. Aaron is now teaching at Cincinnati Christian University and his wife Dorota started a new accounting job in Northern Kentucky.

Our friends, the Duebbers, finally moved into their rehabbed Price Hill home. It . . . looks . . . awesome.

Friend and Echo leadership team member Tim Tucker is now holding down two jobs and still has time to do stuff for the church.

Friend and Echo-ite Tim Sampson recently lost his father. Please keep him and his family in prayer.

Echo attendees Dan and Angie [soon to be Bielecki] are getting married this weekend and I'm now doing the wedding ceremony. Follow that up with Nate and Julie [soon to be Keyes] and we're in the midst of a season of church weddings.

Echo's first official member, Emily Hill, is now back in the United States, on "holiday" from London. Hopefully she left the accent in Wimbledon. In a related note, her sister in Melissa is ready to be named 2007 MVP at Echo.

Kelly's brother Scott and my future sister-in-law Jessica will be getting married in just a few weeks . . . on Halloween . . . and I have no costume.

League of Justice pastor Russell Smith is excited about his church's homecoming this weekend. Plus he knows all the best downtown restaurants.

College classmate Matt Mehaffey is planting a church in Miami, Florida. Very cool.

College classmate Jake Follis is blogging. Odds are he'll fail at it.

College classmate, and former co-worker, Kelly Butler and her husband Charlie have a beautiful little girl named Brooklyn. You should be reading about her.

College classmate Mike Morehart is a Cleveland fan, but I still like him.

I'm sure there's much more, but I wanted to get some of them down. Feel free to add your own updates. Maybe I should do this more often.

Hmmmm

Isn't this like winning the ugly contest?

All Things Osteen

I haven't really done an extensive post on Joel Osteen, though I did talk about health/wellness gospel here. Since his new book is out [which I refuse to hyperlink because I love you] there's a lot of J.O. talk going on. Many well intentioned people get excited because his ministry is going so well and his messages sound so pragmatic. It is my belief that every American Christian should familiarize themselves with the fallacies of his teachings because they are not Biblical, nor are they the message of Jesus. So here's some places to get more info:

1. The 60 Minutes video from Sunday.
2. A reaction to this piece.
3. More from the guy who criticized Osteen in the 60 Minutes piece.
4. A review of his new book.
5. Why Christian bookstores should refuse to sell his book.

That should be enough to get you started.

I've Been Busy . . .

. . . and blogging will be tough this week, so you can catch up with Kelly's account of how we spent the past couple of days.

Quick Prayer

Dear God, Happy Boss's Day.

Love, steve

No Joy In the 5-1-3

The Bearcats play awful and lose to rival Louisville. The Reds hire Dusty Baker, a.k.a. The Young Pitcher Killer, to be their manager.

These things come in threes, you know.

So the Bengals lose tomorrow and Carson Palmer spontaneously combusts.

So is life in the 'Nati.

All Things Environmental

If Al Gore wins the Nobel Peace Prize over a woman who risked her life to smuggle 2,500 children from the Warsaw ghetto during World War 2, then the voters are no better than Grammy voters. UPDATE: Yeah, he won. And the world is so happy for him. I feel a rant coming on.

Still Holding Strong

It was almost a year ago that I first predicted a Barack Obama presidency. I'm still going with that pick, even though the polls seem to contradict this prediction. Honestly, these early polls don't mean as much as people think. Iowa and New Hampshire can totally alter the face of the election [see Howard Dean]. And you never know what will surface in the middle of the campaign [see Gary Hart].

Although a Clinton/Giuliani match-up seems more inevitable than ever, I sincerely doubt we will see one or both of them come out of the conventions with their party's nominations.

Understand that I'm not supporting Barack, but merely suggesting he'll win this thing.

What Kind Of World Is This?

In the same county in which a little girl died after being left in the car in extreme heat by her mother, and within a few months time of this horrible incident, another woman left her child locked in the car while she went grocery shopping. This is messed up.

Comparative Chaos

Today I joined Professor Aaron Burgess [someone actually called him "Dr. Burgess" today] as he participated in a panel discussion on religion at the UC Raymond Walters campus. He was the Protestant representative, as there were a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Catholic priest, and a Reform Jewish rabbi present. The audience was a group of senior citizens who were participating in a community education program. The subject was, "Can science and religion coexist?" Aaron is a dedicated student of theology and philosophy and is incredibly articulate. He did an excellent job of presenting instances where both religion and science are fanatical and suggested a balanced approach between the two is necessary. As for all the other participants, I'm still not sure what they were saying. I'm not even sure they knew where their faiths stood on the issue. How anyone could've gleaned anything useful from this dialogue is beyond me. But at least Aaron and I had some good laughs about it.

Among the things I observed:

• The elderly and cell phones: a scary combination. More phones rang there than would ever go off in a normal setting. Additionally, one of the older gentlemen on the panel even answered his phone in the middle of someone else's speech.
• The elderly and the worldwide web: an even scarier combination. A person repeatedly made the following statement: "You can find all this information on my email." He meant the internet.
• This dialogue confirmed to me that the mere presence of the Creation Museum hinders the conservative Christian position in our region. People assume that if you actually believe events in the Bible actually happened you agree with the AIG position.
• A Jewish rabbi nodding in approval of a statement from a Muslim imam. Wish I had a camera phone.

But perhaps the most impressive statement was made by the priest who said, "honestly, I don't think there's such a thing as a fundamentalist Catholic."

Classic.

Inked

"Almost half of all Americans under 30 have one, and 40 percent of adults 26 to 40 have a tattoo." That and more in this article [and no, I'm not a regular CBN reader].

I swear I got mine just as it started getting cool [spring of 1995]. I thought I would be different. Now I'm normal. I still want another one, just not sure what I'd get.

True story: I hid it from my mother the entire summer. When she saw it for the first time, she got a washcloth and tried to rub it off.

Endorsed By Beit Carr

As you continue to nail down your fall television viewing schedule, do yourself a favor and catch the pilot of Pushing Daisies over at ABC's website; you can watch the entire first episode free with limited commercial interruption. This is one of the more creative shows I've seen come out in years. I'd explain the premise but you'd do better to watch it to find out.

Catch it now before all the cool kids are doing it.

About Global Warming

Is global warming real? Yes. Is it the most important problem our world faces? Not by a long-shot. If you're looking for an informative article about finding some middle ground on this issue, here it is.

Interesting tidbits from the article:

• Environmentalists lament the rising temperatures in Greenland when, in reality, the temps in 1941 were warmer there than it is today.
• As a result of global warming oceanic water levels could rise between 6 inches and two feet in the next century. It actually rose a foot in the past 150 years. Ironically, relatively no land was lost to the ocean as people figured out how to construct barriers to prevent land loss.
• While rising temperatures will cause 400,000 more heat-related deaths each year, the lack of extreme cold spells will save 1.8 million lives.
• One of the battle cries of the environmental lobby is "save the polar bears." Enacting suggested environment changes would save one additional polar bear every year at a cost of billions, while hunters kill 300-500 bears every year. Wouldn't it be easier to outlaw polar bear hunting?

Earth worship has been around since the beginning of time. I am just continually amazed that we now twist use scientific data to perpetuate it.

The Changing Face of Cincinnati

Kelly told me about a huge open house this weekend throughout the city center called The Ultimate Urban Tour of Living. Yeah, lame title, but they're showcasing the newest construction, from places you could afford to places that . . . well, you wouldn't see them if there wasn't a tour. Best news: it's free. I'd suggest carving out a little time in  your schedule this weekend to check it out.