My Very Favorite April Fool's Joke EVER....

I first saw this about 2 years ago. It was posted on a web page that was mocked up to look exactly like CNN's page. It's a classic.

Rapper Snoop Dogg converts to Mormonism

By Aaron Nichols
CNN

DIAMOND BAR, California (AP) — In what some may consider an unexpected move, rap artist “Snoop Dogg” has reportedly converted to Mormonism after nearly a year of study with the fast-growing, Utah-based faith.

Snoop Dogg says he “can’t get enough of the Book of Mormon.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman for Snoop Dogg — whose real name is Calvin Broadus — said he considers himself extremely fortunate to have discovered such a deep sense of spiritual fulfillment at this stage in his life.

“Mr. Broadus is also very pleased to find that his family is as enthusiastic about attending church services as he is,” the spokeswoman said.

However, Snoop Dogg has not been enthusiastic about publicly sharing his experience and declined to be interviewed by CNN for this article. In fact, he reportedly informed producers of his E! reality show “Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood” that this particular aspect of his family’s life was off-limits to the cameras. Still, he left open the possibility of addressing the subject in future episodes.

According to the Associated Press, Snoop Dogg was first introduced to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the Mormon Church is officially known, after attending a Gladys Knight concert in an LDS meeting house in Los Angeles.

Knight, who very publicly discusses her conversion to Mormonism several years ago, invited Snoop Dogg to what is known to the Mormon faithful as “Family Home Evening,” a church program that encourages families to set aside Monday evenings for gospel-centered lessons and family togetherness.

Though Snoop Dogg has been hesitant to publicly discuss his recent spiritual journey, he commented on the experience of attending his first “Family Home Evening” in a recent interview with People Magazine.

“I was hooked from the start,” Snoop Dogg said. “We talked about the purpose of life, played Mousetrap, and ate brownies. The kids thought it was off the hook, for real.”

In what Snoop Dogg now thinks was anything but a coincidence, Mormon missionaries had knocked on his door just one week before the Knight concert. He said he had initially turned them away because of what he knew about the strict Mormon health code, which prohibits members from smoking, drinking alcohol, and using drugs.

“Y’all know me,” he said grinning broadly. “There were just certain things the old me — the “natural man” — needed to do. And these young guys are telling me that God’s not down with disrespecting ourselves. But it’s cool now.”

Snoop Dogg said his conversion marks the end of his old life, one that included frequent run-ins with the law. Snoop Dogg was convicted in 1990 of cocaine possession and charged with gun possession after a 1993 traffic stop. In 1997, he pleaded guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence.

In 1996, Snoop Dogg was acquitted of murder after a purported gangbanger was killed by gunfire from the vehicle in which Snoop Dogg was traveling.

Snoop Dogg dismisses critics who claim his conversion is intended to placate a Salt Lake County judge, before whom he is appealing an alleged probation violation.

“Listen, the haters will say what they will,” Snoop Dogg said. “I can only do what I feel is right.”

Has Anyone Else Noticed...?

Yesterday I was sure I was mistaken, or that the Fox News reporter had made a one-off commentary error.

In discussing President Obama's statements on the US involvement in strikes against Libya, she said that the president was speaking from Brazil where he was on a "diplomatic mission".

For more than a week before his departure the president's trip to Brazil with his family was being portrayed as a "vacation" to Rio.

And then I heard another Fox reporter today talk about the president's "good will" mission to Brazil today.

Doublespeak, anyone?

Just Missing My Dad....

Dance With My Father
by Luther Vandross

Back when I was a child
Before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high
And dance with my mother and me and then

Spin me around till I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure
I was loved

If I could get another chance
Another walk, another dance with him
I’d play a song that would never, ever end
How I’d love, love, love to dance with my father again

When I and my mother would disagree
To get my way I would run from her to him
He’d make me laugh just to comfort me,
Then finally make me do just what my mama said

Later that night when I was asleep
He left a dollar under my sheet
Never dreamed that he
Would be gone from me

If I could steal one final glance
One final step, one final dance with him
I’d play a song that would never, ever end
‘Cause I’d love, love, love to dance with my father
again

Sometimes I’d listen outside her door
And I’d hear her, mama cryin’ for him
I pray for her even more than me
I pray for her even more than me

I know I’m prayin’ for much too much
But could You send back the only man she loved
I know You don’t do it usually
But Lord, she’s dyin’ to dance with my father again
Every night I fall asleep
And this is all I ever dream

On US Inaction in Libya...

Worth reading (the link at the bottom, not my ramblings)...

And, for what it's worth, anything we do now may well be viewed by Libyans as too little, too late. Their resentment and mistrust of us will have only grown as President Obama has waffled, sent ambiguous messages, and planned his vacation while "waiting for the UN" to act.

Understand, I am not a proponent of acting to help Libyan rebels. I frankly think that any people who want freedoms need to be willing to, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, pledge to each other and to the cause their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. So far, in our history, the people we have "liberated" seem to have lacked that personal investment. Yes, France came to our aid in the late 18th century. But they did not jump into the fray with money or troops until they were confident of two things: 1) We really wanted it, and 2) we were going to win. Our efforts to co-opt foreign support for our cause began long before Lexington and Concord; long before the Declaration of Independence.

And if you're really going to try to overthrow your government, you should not begin the revolution by throwing rocks and hoping the US will join in by dropping bombs. You should come to the US Embassy, Consulate, or that of one of our allies. Present your plan. Outline your leadership structure. Explain how your revolution will be better for us and the rest of the world than the last one was. Wait to throw that first rock until you have credible evidence of all the support you will need.

Libya debate still could benefit from more rigor (updated) - By Peter Feaver | Shadow Government

A Man of Character...

“Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live as well as think.” said Emerson.

Character is, at its root, what a man is. It is beneath the “who” – that is simply a symptom of the “what”. It underlies the “how” and “why” for the same reason.

A man of character sees the world as he sees himself, and true virtuous character guides a man to see himself in the bare light of truth.

He will no more abhor the flaws he sees than he will adore the strengths.

In his honesty, a man of character will understand that he, as all things in nature, is a composite character – a melding of strength and weakness, wisdom and folly, disinterest and passion, patience and temper, tolerance and prejudice, and on and on.

A man of true and virtuous character seeks to understand his purpose, to know his place and to do his duty, regardless of the outcome.

A man of character is not swayed or discouraged – he does not lose heart in the face of adversity or setbacks. I believe that William Shakespeare masterfully portrayed this in his dramatization of the Battle of Agincourt. In 1415 Henry V, king of England, led a small expeditionary force into France to reclaim English territory. As they sought to retreat to England via Calais, they were opposed by a vastly superior French force. The French outnumbered the English by more than 4 to 1 – and by some counts the numbers were 36,000 French to 6,000 English with English knights outnumbered 10 to 1. The English were also suffering greatly with fatigue and disease.

As the English surveyed the battlefield-to-be on the morning of 25 October 1415, the king’s cousin, Westmoreland, is portrayed to have said wistfully, “O that we now had here but one ten thousand of those men in England that do no work to-day!”

Not an entirely irrational desire, under the circumstances.

Henry was not only a leader; he was a realist. He knew that wishing for more men would do nothing but focus the mind of his army on their desperate situation. Instead, he declared his personal belief, exposing his moral compass to his army. Honor, at all costs. Here is what Shakespeare envisioned Henry’s bold and resoundingly final reply to have been.

“What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.

“God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.

“By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.

“No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!

“Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

“This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

“He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'

“Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.

“This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.”

But virtue goes beyond outward courage, and character lies deeper than marrow. A man of character indeed seeks to find his virtue, his divine purpose, the end for which he was designed.

When he does, he defines a course to achieve it. Nothing will dissuade him in his relentless pursuit. And at the same time, he will not forget the injunction of the Savior, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” A man of character seeks to have a Godly love for his fellow creatures.

The weak, the infirm, the simple, children, women, elders are not objects of contempt, nor are they objects of his condescension. The man of character views these with compassion. He treats these with kindness. He does not mock or take advantage. He does not ignore or avoid. He embraces them as his life path crosses theirs. He revels in the richness of their perspective and experience. All mankind are his “friends”.

As “Dear Abby” is said to have advised, “The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back.”

The much-maligned Sarah Palin once said that, “we should pray that our soldiers are on God’s task” in the wars we are fighting in the Middle East. I think she is right; after all, whose task should they be on instead? In fact, I think that we should not only pray as she said, but even more, we should pray that we are on God’s task in our actions of every day. A man of character knows that he is on “God’s task”.

The man of character has done more than lived a life of self-denial. Hermits, ascetics, mystics all live that way, yet what do they contribute to the world? An absence of evil is not the same as an abundance of goodness. The man of character has simultaneously put off his natural tendencies and desires, while nurturing the divine seed that is in him. He has replaced lust with love and pride with contentment in every dimension of his life.

As the man of character goes through the world, all people who meet him are lifted to a higher plane – one from which they will go on, never being the same again. He sees the world as good because he plants the seeds of good in it.

Clinton Frustrated....

Please visit the URL below.

It's strangely comforting to know that Hillary Clinton is as tired of President Obama's ambiguity and lack of leadership as I am.

She should really read D'Souza's book to understand her boss a little better.

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2011/03/17/031711-news-hillary-2-2/

What...?

Okay, I know that there is really nothing any president could do about the disaster in Japan. Earthquakes, tidal waves, and nuclear meltdowns are out of anyone's control.

But there is an element of decorum and human decency that requires the most powerful man in the free world to stop what he's doing and address a real human crisis. Why can't President Obama focus some of his attention on Japan?

And he really could do a lot to mobilize relief efforts in the wake of the disaster. He is supposed to be a leader in the world; a man among men. Surely he could use the influence of the Presidency to get other countries in the region to help out.

Perhaps, you say, he's tied up in talks with the Saudis about their sending 1,000 soldiers into Bahrain. Or is he in a secret strategy session with President Sarkozy planning to gain air superiority in Libya? Maybe he is talking with General Petraeus, who is in Washington for the first time in 9 months, about our progress in Afghanistan. He could be meeting with governors of states bordering Mexico to plan how the federal government can provide better security against increasingly brazen drug gangs. What about finally sitting down to make a plan to deal with the ongoing catastrophe of Haiti? Hell, he could even be reviewing a report on the current ecological state of the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon disaster last year!

The absolutely pathetic thing is that he is concerned with none of this. He is working with ESPN today. He's taping his picks for the NCAA basketball championship series. They'll be broadcast tomorrow.

Once again, President Obama and his administration succeed in demonstrating how completely inept they are and how out of tune with the demands of leadership this president is. How can they wonder why people don't feel confident or comfortable with his abilities?

But think about it further. His action - or inaction - is not so nonsensical.

A few months ago I talked about a book written by Dinesh D'Souza called "The Roots of Obama's Rage". In it D'Souza concludes that Barack Obama is motivated - even animated - by his father's anti-colonial views. Look at the president's level of concern with Japan's well being.

Zero.

But this makes sense if you look at Japan. They have an Emperor. They were a military imperial force in the early and mid-20th century. In fact, Japan dominated Indonesia - Barack Obama's childhood home - for most of the Second World War. He would naturally harbor some deep-seated anti-Japanese sentiment.

In his mind, Japan may just be getting their comeuppance. Just as he tacitly agreed with Jeremiah Wright, that 9/11 was "America's chickens coming home to roost", he may feel the same; Nature, offended by Japan's audacity in seeking to commit imperial rape on its neighbors nearly a century ago, is now wreaking vengeance.