JOSH H - Radio Producer

JOSH H - Radio Producer extraordinair for Pete 4 to 7 p.m. weekdays.

Stephen Fowler; Good Guy? Surely unwise however.

World's worst husband - maybe

I've never seen TV's reality show WIFE SWAP. ( It's about swapping cultural mores by swapping wives from one household to the other to direct the family activities for a week. No "hanky-panky" involved.) Well, Gayla, a somewhat heavy-set patriot from Missouri was sent to a San Francisco suburb to play mother to the Fowler family while Renee Stephens went to Missouri. Stephen Fowler, a fairly wealthy venture capitalist, did not take kindly to Gayla and was ultimately quite verbally cruel. Very cruel. His performance on the show and the accompanying youtube videos created a major firestorm for the Fowlers/Stephens. He is currently the most hated and despised man in the USA (exceptions would be the whole of our Congress - but that's another post). His wife who is a Life Coach and Diet Therapist apologized on her website and he has too. He has since resigned from a couple of boards he served on and is probably in hiding - literally. His wife says she has requested he go to therapy and get help.

His apology on his wife's website was quite well done, but...... In the course of the TV show he offended military personnel, mid-westerners, people with weight problems, people without college diplomas and the vast majority of Americans in general. The avalanche of angry/enraged comments by people who either saw the show or have seen the youtube videos has been astounding. Several thousand people have posted their hatred and vitriol on various sites. It's quite interesting, if you're not the Fowlers/Stephens or their two young kids. Who knows how genuine his written apology was.

Mrs. Stephens, in her apology, insisted that her husband is not like that and also indicated he had done the show to please her. There maybe some truth that Stephen Fowler is not actually satan incarnate. Surely televisions editors live to highlight conflicts and paint portraits of people that are shallow, superficial and often inaccurate. But on the show the "milk of human kindness" is totally missing from Stephen Fowler.

REGARDLESS of what happens in the remaining 20 to 30 years of Stephen Fowler's life, he will NEVER live down his brief stint on television. There is no mea culpa available on this earth that will convince a majority of the angry citizenry that he is anything but a total, "limey scumball" (he's British).

And that's bad. He acted horribly, he may or may not be horrible. We don't actually know. He has ruined his reputation FOREVER and his marriage and family may or may not survive. His performance was that terrible. That is sad.

FINAL THOUGHTS. I realized a few years ago that it is basically NOT in your best interest to go on T.V. I used to be periodically interviewed by local television stations regarding mental health issues. But I no longer do that. I finally recognized that nothing particularly good could come of being on TV, and possibly something negative would. The best I could hope for was a "wash." So I no longer expose my vulnerabilities and stupidities willingly to the camera. Nothing to gain, much to lose.

OBAMA and BIN LADEN

If John McCain would have been elected, he would NOT have had the political support to enter Pakistan and go directly after Bin Laden. The anti-war left and progressive wing of the Democratic Party would have raised a "hue and a cry." Hearing and threats of impeachment would have headlined the pages of the newspapers and been the topic of cries of alarm via NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN etc.

BUT, Obama could. While we conservatives would bemoan the double standard that allows a Democrat to enter Pakistan but not a Republican; we would certainly support Obama sending the troops in. I would think we wouldn't announce our incursion into Pakistan but he would have the national political backing to do it. No Republicans would demand a hearing. And the Democrat left would probably turn a blind-eye with the exception of Cindy Sheehan. The main-stream media would refuse to cover her dissent.

I say, "President Obama; on Jan. 22 send the special ops teams in and lever that Islamic murderer out of his cave. I won't have a word of criticism."

Renee Banks LPN Jacksonville, Florida R.I.P.

RENEE BANKS a really wonderful and Godly lady died unexpectedly yesterday. She was loved by all who knew her including residents and staff at the nursing home she served for many years. She will be so missed; especially by me. She was the first nurse to greet me and we became great friends. Our worlds were different but we shared our age, our love for God and our compassion for others. She was only 59 and she had four adult children of whom she was immensely proud.

I will miss her.

Chinese Apples in Amsterdam

This should be fun. Tom's upcoming language and culture adventures.

Disaster preparation

Tom Braun gives pithy advice on surviving the next FLORIDA HURRICANE.

Men of Purity conference Sept. 19, 20 - Jacksonville

My husband is addicted to porn?

Encourage men in JACKSONVILLE to attend Friday night and Saturday morning meeting at Sunrise Community Church in Atlantic Beach.

Are you tired of porn controlling you?

(904) 249-3030

Ya'll Come

Lloy Ball wins Gold

Sadly, we don't see men's volleyball in my part of the world but I love competitive volleyball. Turns out the USA has a setter, 36 year old Lloy Ball who led our team to its first gold medal in 20 years. The thing that blows my mind is: a setter is 6'8". You always think of setters as kinda short guys. But even the setters are tall.
Our victory against a huge Russian team was historic. Their blockers were taller than our hitters. We had 2 "short" spikers; Priddy and Salmon, both about 6'5". But they were fast to the ball and their speed enabled them to make a good percentage of their spikes.

Then we beat the Brazilians but that battle has not yet been posted on nbcolympics.com. I look forward to seeing it.

Congrats to Lloy who has apparently taken considerable heat in the past for our losses, deserved or not. He got his and in doing so the USA got ours.

Way to go Lloy. May your tribe increase.

Obama vs McCain; the probability scales

Obama will CERTAINLY raise taxes
McCain MIGHT raise taxes

Obama will CERTAINLY NOT save social security
McCain will CERTAINLY NOT save social security

Obama’s judges will CERTAINLY move the USA towards European socialism
McCain’s judges will ??????????????

Obama will CERTAINLY help legalize homosexual marriages
McCain MIGHT help legalize homosexual marriages

Obama MIGHT persecute Bush/Cheney and Rove after the fact
McCain WILL NOT persecute Bush/Cheney and Rove after the fact

Obama will CERTAINLY grow big government
McCain will PROBABLY grow big government

Obama will CERTAINLY increase the national debt
McCain will CERTAINLY increase the national debt

Obama will CERTAINLY work for no limits to abortion
McCain will PROBABLY maintain current limitations.
( Neither will reverse Roe v Wade )

Obama will CERTAINLY work to shut down conservative talk radio
McCain PROBABLY won’t work to shut down conservative talk radio

Obama will CERTAINLY allow “hate speech” to be used against Conservative Christians
McCain MIGHT allow “hate speech” to be used against Conservative Christians

Obama will CERTAINLY pursue amnesty and benefits for illegal immigrants
McCain will PROBABLY pursue amnesty and benefits for illegal immigrants

Obama will CERTAINLY make small business more difficult
McCain will PROBABLY make small business more difficult

Obama will CERTAINLY withdraw troops from Iraq
McCain will CERTAINLY withdraw troops from Iraq

Obama will CERTAINLY NOT interfere with the U.S. Slouching towards Gomorrah
McCain will PROBABLY NOT interfere with the U.S. Slouching towards Gomorrah

Obama will NOT be a new and different politician
McCain will NOT be a new and different politician

Obama will CERTAINLY make us wish for a return of Bush/Cheney
McCain will CERTAINLY make us wish for a return of Bush/Cheney - grin

NEITHER of them will save the country from itself.

A LOT of money goes a long ways

WASHINGTON - The ex-mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday she will not participate in DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter.

Rielle Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, says his client is a private individual who is not running for public office and that she wishes to maintain the privacy of her and her daughter.

YA HAVE to wonder how much Rielle's desire for privacy is costing John Edwards Inc.
A pretty penny no doubt. Rielle will never have to work again and the baby, of course, is totally taken care of.

It's all about the money here.

JOHN EDWARDS CONFESSES; PARTIALLY

The National Enquirer has certainly nailed some of it. John Edwards DID have an affair with Rielle Hunter. He says the baby isn't his but says there's been no paternity test. (There may actually have been a paternity test for all we know.) He says he never loved her (Rielle). He says he told wife about it in 2006 but when Bob Schieffer reported talking on the phone with Elizabeth Edwards this evening, Schieffer said she seemed to be very upset. Old news generally doesn't make one that upset.

Here's the deal; John Edwards is in the incomplete repentance stage. As Jim Rome ( L.A. sports talk jock ) would put it, Edwards "needs to come correct."

But that's hard to do; seems to me the truth comes out incrementally.

Reading the blogs; defenders of John Edwards are all over John McCain for his divorce from his wife - THIRTY YEARS AGO. I read that McCain has long since taken responsibility for his divorce but who knows. I think the 30 year gap is going to make the "moral equivalence" a little hard to pull off.


My advice to John Edwards - if he wants to stop the bleeding.

Send out a press notice admitting:
" The baby is mine."
" I screwed up beyond belief."
" I'll support the child in all ways."
" I'm praying my wife won't divorce me."
" I'm thru with being in the public eye for the foreseeable future."

"Goodbye"

Jim Rome is right of course; you got to "come correct."

EXCELLENT EXPOSITORY PREACHING AND TEACHING IN JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA

Wonderful, loving people and if you want to "dive deeper" into Scripture and you live in Jacksonville, Florida; by all means come visit.

Worship service and teaching starts at 10 a.m.

(904) 249-3030

LIV TYLER vs ZACK NEWKIRK

"Where this “Hulk” begins to sag is around the time Liv Tyler appears on screen, which is coincidentally the same spot all films starring Liv Tyler begin to sag....." more

Not sure Zack HATES LIV TYLER; but possibly he's not her biggest fan.

If he could talk to her he'd probably change his mind.

"Liv; have your girl call Zack's girl."

A wedding

What I live for

ETHANOL EQUALS BAD GAS FUEL PUMP PROBLEMS

I drive a '94 Maxima with a lot of miles on it but it has just rocked along until this last month. It started to drive like it was running out of gas. I checked, it wasn't. Called my long time mechanic, Fern Bienvenue, who is actually a teaching mechanic for a major Japanese auto maker. He asked if maybe I'd gotten some bad gas. He suggested I buy a pint/quart of rubbing alcohol and pour it into the tank in case there was a water build up. I did; car continued to stop unexpectedly; act like it was starving for fuel. Then the "check engine" light went on and stayed on. It was now obvious that even when I had those "good fuel moments" that my 6 cylinder was running on 5. I took it to Fern, who analyzed the problem and informed me that a fuel injector had failed. He mentioned that they almost never fail. Failure is so rare he had to order the part out of N.Y. and I live in a big southern city. The part is about the size of a spark plug. Unluckily it cost $150.00. Fern said we would have to fix that before we did anything else. A few hundred dollars later the fuel injector was fixed.

This morning the Maxima AGAIN was having fuel problems. Fern told me to pick up a fuel filter. (He says, do the inexpensive repairs first. Did I mention I love my mechanic?)

I realized that less than a month ago ( JUNE 2008 )signs began to appear on the fueling pumps where I buy my gas. The signs say "10% Ethanol.

ETHANOL; BIG PROBLEM, particularly for older cars.

When I bought my car filter this a.m. at ADVANCED AUTO, I asked one of the guys if fuel pump sales were up. Garett replied: "THRU THE ROOF."

ETHANOL manufacturers are claiming; "No Problemo."

THEY LIE! "BIG PROBLEMO."

So the gov. has forced us to buy BAD GAS which will be very expensive due to automobile repairs of fueling systems plus the price of corn is thru the roof. Did I mention that Ethanol is BAD GAS? Did I mention that Ethanol is actually more expensive to manufacture than gasoline?

You're gonna find out on your own but I'll warn you; fueling system repairs in your old car may well exceed the VALUE of your older vehicle.

THAT SUCKS. But we "the people" keep insisting we save the planet. Somehow 10% Ethanol saves the planet? Don't think so but it will force everybody to buy much newer cars.

The problem isn't "them." It is "US."

ABORTION CHANGES YOU

For some woman, abortion is the ticking time bomb waiting to go off 20 years after the fact. Some women can't stop crying.

If you're hurting here's a place to start. http://www.abortionchangesyou.com/

LUCY

LUCY! Coolest librarian evah!

DAN BURLESON and MARIA BURLESON

Wonderful welcomes to our new assistant pastor and his family; Dan and Maria Burleson.

They're now officially a long ways from Southern California.

We're thrilled they are here.

TOM BRAUN WRITER EXTRAORDINAIRE

Moving to the Front