Living in the Land of the Lost

I preached at FCC on September 27 on the topic of evangelizing the lost. I wanted to use something with a contemporary theme, and since Will Ferrell's "Land of the Lost" was one of this country's biggest DVD releases of the summer, I decided that it was a tailor made idea. So, I titled my message, "Living in the Land of the Lost." I included the title slide above (from the powerpoint presentation of the message) here on the blog because it got a big laugh and I thought you might be wondering why. Yes, I once again went goofy on the Photoshop, and the image includes not only me but FCC's other ministry staff members as well.

At the beginning of the message, I played a video of a young boy playing in the woods and getting lost. Here's a link where you can watch the video: "Lost in the Woords". I hope you enjoy the message, and feel free to post comments or ideas relating to it.

Click on the link below to open up the message in your audio player, or right click and select "Save Target As..." to save it to your computer.

"Living in the Land of the Lost"- Rob Clifton (9-27-2009)

Rob's Ramblings....

(From the Flora Christian, September 18, 2009 edition)

I haven't posted one of my newsletter articles from the Flora Christian (our congregation's newsletter) in a while, but I was particularly proud of this one. Enjoy!

Rob's Ramblings....

This past weekend, I travelled to Chicago to help a good friend celebrate turning 40. Having crossed that bridge already, but not THAT long ago, I felt I was the perfect choice help him out. We attended an epic rock and roll concert at Soldier Field, at Chicago style pizza, and walked Michigan Avenue. ALL of Michigan Avenue, I think. Anyway, as is my custom, I felt like I should share with you a few things I learned on the quick trip to our state's largest city (and de facto state capital):

1. Riding the train is my new favorite way to travel. I don't have to stay awake, and there's no pesky near-vomiting experience upon take-off or landing. Plus, the most INTERESTING people ride the train....



2. English is apparently a foreign language in Chicago. Who knew?



3. Trains stop for "smoke breaks" occasionally. The train I rode up did not, but the train I rode back did. I asked the conductor on the return trip why this was the case. She simply replied, "I'm a smoker," and lit up.



4. Catching a cab after a concert at Soldier Field is not easy. Or cheap.



5. My new theology of heaven includes a room where they serve Chicago style deep dish pizza.



6. If you choose to have your lip pierced, and you wear exotic lip jewelry, it IS possible to get your lip ring stuck in the rim of a disposable coffee cup lid. Again: Who knew?



7. Helping good friends celebrate the milestones in their lives is one of God's greatest blessings for His children.

There's probably more, but I'll just leave it there. I also want to mention that I helped my wonderful, beautiful wife Joni celebrate her birthday this past week. I won't tell you her age, but I WILL tell you that she was the most beautiful bride I have EVER seen when she was 20 years old (we've been married for almost 19 years!).

Thanks to ALL who helped with the Block party this past Sunday. We could not have done it without each and every person who helped carry tables and chairs, fixed food, helped with games, and all of the other little things that go unnoticed by most people. It is a testimony to how much our church family cares about each other and our community.

See you Sunday! Rob


Click Here to see some pics of the trip to Chicago & the U2 concert. (Facebook)

Daily Devotions-Again

Our local radio station, WNOI 104 radio in Flora, has morning devotional thoughts each day provided by different ministers from the area. This past week (8/10/09 - 8/14/09) I provided devotions. I recorded them in our building, saved them onto a CD, and took the CD to the station for the station manager to play each morning.

I have been experiencing a rebirth in political awareness lately, so I decided to go with a theme of praying for our leaders.

Just click on the links below to listen to them in your media player. You can also right click on them, select "Save Target As" and then save them to your computer to listen. If you have a slower connection or they hesitate a lot as they play, this is your best option. NOTE: If you hear something dumb, that is not because of your internet connection!


Monday (8/10)
Tuesday (8/11)
Wednesday (8/12)
Thursday (8/13)
Friday (8/14)


As always, I invite you to give them a listen and let me know what you think!

Who needs the First Ammendment Anyway?

I was amused by a story I read on AOL News earlier today. The headline read: "Obama 'Joker' Picture Pops Up In Los Angeles and Across the Internet." Now, as a political conservative and someone who has questioned many things that our president has done, I found that intriguing. So, I clicked on the link and read the short story.

It seems someone has depicted President Obama as The Joker (a la Heath Ledger) with the word "socialism" at the bottom and posted it around Los Angeles and on the internet. Predictably, liberals are in an uproar over the image, with many calling for an investigation as to the identity of the "mystery" artist. (Just a suggestion, I'd look for that guy who got sued over the "Hope" image....)


The writer of the AOL article, Christopher Weber from PoliticsDaily.com, correctly pointed out that the same liberals were noticably silent when someone posted a picture depicting then-president George W. Bush as Satan.

Upon further investigation on the web, I have found many outspoken liberals (in chat rooms and blog posts everywhere) who are calling for the image to be banned from the internet and the artist to be punished. Our Constitution is an interesting double-edged sword. We cannot apply the first ammendment only when we like the message that is being presented.

Several years ago an artist placed a picture of a crucifix into a bottle of urine, took a photiograph of it, and called it art (actually, he called it "Piss Christ"). It was even subsidized by our federally funded "National Endowment for the Arts." Conservatives and Christians all across the nation were outraged and wanted the artwork banned, even though the artist claimed it depicted what we as a society have done to Jesus. It was the artist's first ammendment right to produce such artwork (although I don't believe it's the kind of artwork the NEA should be paying to help produce), even though it was disgusting, disturbing and insulting to many Americans.

The first ammendment can be a pesky thing: either ALL speech is protected, or none of it is. We conservatives got really tired of hearing the character of President and Laura Bush attacked by lilberals on the web and in public. But no one I personally know called for censorship of the internet because of the negative and often vitriolic language. Unfortunately, now liberals are going to have to put up with the same kind of stuff.

Personally, I believe it's in bad taste either way. I think we should be able to question our leaders and even expose their actions in public. We can write and blog and cry "foul" from the rooftops if that is what we deem necessary. I would prefer the attacks to be kept in the political arena and steer clear of a politician's family and private life. But just because I don't like what is being said, I can't call for it to be hidden or the "offenders" to be arrested or fined or both. That's what our first ammendment guarantees: the right to say what we want about our nation's leadership without fearing arrest or retribution from the government.

I think that liberals are going to have to thicken their collective skin for the next three and a half years. There are going to be PLENTY more attacks against President Obama where this one came from. It's going to be a LOOOOOONG time until the next presidential election, and I don't think things are going to get more "civil" between now and then....


References:
PoliticsDaily article on Obama/Joker Poster
DailyMail (UK) article on Obama/Joker Poster
LA Weekly article on Obama/Joker Poster
Piss Christ artwork

Vacation 2009: Walkin' in Memphis!

I’m going to post this blog now, even though I’m going to put part of it in the Flora Christian next week. I had a really good time on my family vacation, and I wanted to put some reflections about it here before I forget everything.

We went to Memphis, Tennessee. We stayed just north of Memphis in Meeman-Shelby State Park. We got a cabin there which slept six people (2 BR, 1 bath) and had a full kitchen and nice, large living room. There was a TV, but since it only got 3 or 4 channels, and these were in digital and the TV reception was “hit-and-miss,” we pretty much did without TV for the week. We were back in the woods, overlooking a lake. It was really nice and very relaxing. We also didn’t get cell phone coverage there and there was no internet. Hannah about DIED! But it was nice to be pretty much “unplugged” for the week.

We left Flora on Saturday, July 25 at about 10:30 am. Our intention was to drive down to Sikeston, MO, and take the kids to eat at Lambert’s Café (home of the world famous “Throwed Rolls”). We thought we’d get there about 3:00 and miss the rush. We got there pretty much on schedule, and there was a 2 hour wait. We kept driving. We got to our cabin before dark, unloaded the van, and headed back to Millington, TN to Walmart to get our food and supplies for the week. We then went back to the cabin and settled in for some serious relaxation. I have to mention that the drive from our cabin to Millington was about 6 miles. It took 20-25 minutes. The roads were winding and narrow, and without a GPS to guide us (Thanks Lane & Brian!) we would NEVER have made it! We got dinner at a Krystal hamburger joint, which the kids did NOT care for but I liked because they were like White Castles. When we got back to the cabin, we watched Veggie Tales movies on DVD (this would become a nightly theme).

On Sunday, we slept in and got up when Joni made us a fantastic breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, juice and milk! I need to backtrack here and talk about worship. We don’t know anyone in the Memphis area, so we weren’t sure about finding a place to worship. So, we took the family to Mt. Vernon, IL, on Friday to Central Christian Church’s Friday night worship experience. We had a great time and even met some FCC friends while we were there (Paul, Alicia, Matt, Bethany & London). Anyway, back to Sunday—we spent the morning relaxing in and around the cabin, and then went to the pool in the park for the afternoon. I’m not one to lay around “tanning,” but it was nice to park in a deck chair and not worry about cell phones, websites, or email for the afternoon. Everyone needs time occasionally to simply “unwind,” and I got mine there beside the pool while the kids swam and Joni relaxed in a chair beside me. We went back to the cabin and I grilled the meat for dinner (pork steaks, chicken breasts, hamburgers and hot dogs) while Joni fixed the rest of the meal. After dinner we watched another Veggie Tales movie—“The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.”

On Monday, we got up and after breakfast decided to go on one of the walking trails in the park. (Breakfast, by the way, was Dad’s biscuits & gravy.) The trail was rated as “moderate,” which was only the terrain. The rating did not cover the hoards of mosquitoes or the mud. Holden also did not warn us that his sock had a hole in it (on his heel, of course) and didn’t tell us about the blister on his heel until we were about a mile into the hike. This caused us to turn around and walk the trail in reverse to get back to our van quicker. Joni carried him about a quarter of a mile and I carried him about a half a mile, and then he said he felt better and walked the rest of the way himself. It was hot and VERY humid, so we went back and took showers and still had half the day left. Joni made a Mexican lunch (tacos, nachos & cheese, and some Mexican soda—Barrilitos) before we headed in to take a driving tour of Memphis. We drove by the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, and then decided to walk some of downtown. We went down Beale Street, heard some live Blues (several bands, actually), went in the Hard Rock Café so Hunter could buy a t-shirt, walked past the FedEx Forum (where the Memphis Grizzlies NBA team plays), and went to the Gibson Guitar Factory. We didn’t do the factory tour, but Hunter and I went in the factory store and saw more $5000 guitars in one location than I had seen in a while! After that we drove to Sun Record Studio (where Elvis Presley first recorded) and took some pictures. Then we drove to Mississippi so Hannah could say she had been in 5 states on vacation (IL, MO, AR, TN & MS). After some shopping at a mall, we went back to the cabin and watched another movie—this time “The Hunt for Red October—before going to bed.

Tuesday was Graceland day. First, we went to the Peabody Hotel and saw the marching of the “World Famous Peabody Ducks.” I won’t take time to tell the tale here if you don’t know it—just visit their website. Then it was off to Graceland, where we took the mansion tour, went through the airplanes, went to the car museum, and visited each and every one of the 14 gift shops on the premises. Holden is a HUGE Elvis fan, and he enjoyed the tours (especially the mansion) as much as anyone. After Graceland we went back downtown and went to the Mud Island Riverpark. They have a scaled down version of the Mississippi River which you can wade that dumps into the scaled down Gulf of Mexico. The kids had a great time doing that and visiting the true scale version of a river paddleboat in the Mud Island museum. Of course, we rode the hanging monorail that goes from downtown Memphis to the island. It was a REALLY long day, and after we went home and had leftovers from all of the fantastic meals Joni had cooked, we packed up to leave and went to sleep without even watching a movie!

We left and came home on Wednesday morning. We got to Sikeston at about 2:30, and this time waited about 10 minutes before getting a table at Lambert’s. The kids liked the food, but LOVED the rolls being tossed all around. They each caught at least one and buttered them up and ate them. For those of you who have never been to Lambert’s but HAVE gone to the Beef House in Covington, IN, the rolls are about the same (I know your mouth is watering by now!). The restaurant is a fun experience, especially with kids along. But we were tired and ready to be home, so we got back in the car and made it back to “the farm “ around 6:30.

As always, I learned something while on this family vacation. At the risk of a lawsuit from CBS or Worldwide Pants, here are the Top 10 Things I Learned on my Memphis Family Vacation:

10. Just because you can afford to buy a bikini, doesn’t mean you should wear it in public. I’m just sayin’….

9. Elvis is still the King in Memphis.

8. Without Joni, our family vacations would be a DISASTER! She cooks, cleans, plans, keeps track of the money, and keeps us from getting lost. In other words, pretty much like at home. I guess she didn’t really GET a vacation….

7. You name it: if it’s made, they’ve put Elvis’ face on it.

6. This just in: fire is hot, water is wet, and Memphis barbecue is GOOD!

5. Beale Street is a fun family destination. In the daytime….

4. State park cabins are more fun for a family vacation than hotels. The meals are better, and it’s a LOT cheaper—which makes it perfect (for me!).

3. No matter how much you love your job and like the people you work with, EVERYONE should take a vacation now and then.

2. Someone should invent safe and legal tranquilizers for kids in the van/car on a family vacation. It would REALLY reduce interstate road rage!

1. I LOVE my family!!!

You can see my pics from the vacation on my Facebook page by clicking HERE.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Godliness

This past Sunday, July 5, I preached the morning message at our church. I have always been a little uncomfortable preaching "patriotic" messages. Not because I am unpatriotic, but for other reasons. I talk about it at the beginning of the message, so I'll just let you listen to it.

Before the message, I played a video which featured audio clips of Presidents F. Roosevelt, Kennedy, Reagan, and George W. Bush, and Billy Graham. Here's a link where you can watch the video: America.

Click on the link below to open up the message in your audio player, or right click and select "Save Target As..." to save it to your computer.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Godliness- Rob Clifton (7-5-2009)

Worthy Offerings

I preached the morning message at FCC on May 17, and I was asked to post the audio here. There was a video lead-in to the message, which I will try and post a link for as well. The message is part of a series we are doing entitled, "Standing Tall in Tough Times." My particular topic was stewardship of our resources. I thought the message went over fairly well, and I'm happy with how it all turned out.

To view the video I used, click on the play button below. The video is from "The Lucy Show," and I haven't got any idea how old it is or when it originally aired. If you care about these details, this should give you a great chance to use some of your internet-sleuthing skills.



The link below is to the audio of the message. To listen, you can try and click on the link below (it should open the file in your media player), or you can download the file to your computer and listen to it. To do this, right-click on the link and select "save target as" and save the file to your computer desktop or somewhere you can find it. Then open the file from your media player (i.e. Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc.).

Worthy Offerings (5/17/09) -Rob Clifton

FCC Worship Band

I was bragging on our worship band a couple of weeks ago, and someone challenged me to sort of "put my money where my mouth is." One of the things we do from time to time is take old hymns and use the words with other tunes. Nothing new or original about that, I know. But some of the choices are fun, and our band handles them really well. They are a great bunch of musicians who have allowed me to organize them, and then play and sing with them. So, I have attached part of our worhsip time from last Sunday (4/26/09) so that you can hear our rendition of "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."

Now, let me get this straight with you before you listen to the audio: this is raw audio content. It has not been mixed or mastered, mainly because I don't have good equipment for that and I'm kind of lazy. There's WAAYYYY too much of my singing on this recording, and I REALLY hope it didn't sound like that when it was live in our auditorium! Also, I am NOT a "real" music minister. In fact, my actual title is "Associate Minister of Worship and Involvement." Real music ministers are men and women who have exceptional musical talent who use it in service to God and the Church. I am a minister who organizes and leads worship. There is a really big difference. Music ministers are musical professionals who engage in ministry. I am a preacher/teacher who engages in music as well as other kinds of ministry. I'm not unrealistic about this, and neither is anyone who regularly worships at FCC: they understand this! I'm not fishing for a compliment or trying to make you feel wierd and tell me I'm great. Just listen and enjoy a new twist on an old song, and a really good group of servants who lead worship at FCC a couple of times a month!

FCC Worship Band (4-26-09)

"If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31

(From the Flora Christian, May 1, 2009 edition)


As June 6 approaches, I can’t help but think that something incredible is going to happen on our missions trip to Colegio Biblico. I think that Satan must be on full attack! First, the Drug Cartel violence in the Western part of the border area between Mexico and Texas (over 400 miles from where we will be) has been well publicized. Now, an outbreak of the latest animal flu (Swine Flu this time) is making international news. Someone asked me recently if I thought that God was trying to send us a sign about our trip. My response was, “Yes. I believe He’s telling us to ‘Go For It!’” Trust me when I say that the proper precautions are being taken to deal with these issues as we plan the trip. My new passport came in the mail last week, and I have to admit that I’m getting excited!

This Sunday (May 3), we will be having a short meeting to discuss some relevant matters related to the Missions Trip. This is especially for the people who are already signed up to go. If you have not done so, make sure you get the $25 deposit to me or to Sue Campbell as soon as possible. If you are going on the trip and cannot make the meeting, let me know so I can discuss some of the things with you privately. We will meet right after the 10:30 am service in the Chapel. The meeting will not last more than 15 minutes.

Keep praying for our Missions Trip team, as well as Jorge Mercado and the Colegio Biblico family. If God is not in this trip, it will be a failure. But if God is in it, there can be no other outcome than complete success!

She Makes Her Daddy Proud!

This is a video of Hannah singing with the high school chorus last Friday (4/17/09) at the spring concert. She is a freshman at North Clay High School in Louisville, IL. For a very small school (about 200) they have a VERY talented music department.

The song is called "What Are You Waiting For?" and was recorded and made popular by Natalie Grant. The shirts with the words on the front were part of a different song, but the idea was to put words of virtue or positive impact that were meaningful to each student on there. Hannah picked the word "modesty," which is a very accurate description of her and the way she acts. Of course, she takes after her mom and is a straight A student, and is active in our church youth group as well. She really does make BOTH of her parents very proud!

You can view the video on YouTube by following this link:
What Are You Waiting For?

Pictures for the message below....

After I posted the message from 3-29, someone asked me if I could include the pictures I talked about at the beginning of the message. So, here they are. #4 is a photoshop that I did myself, of myself as the new Presidential Press Secretary. Anyway, have fun with the rest of these, they're just some unbelievable things I found on the internet.





AND, by the way, I don't need any HATE-mail from any Cubs fans. I don't hate the Cubs, I don't really even dislike the Cubs. I just included that to irritate the Cubs fans in our congregation. I'm a Cincinnati Reds fan: I am NOT going to be making fun of anyone about being a loser. (However, my team HAS won a couple of World Series' in the last century....)

Unbelievable!

I preached this past Sunday (3-29-09) at First Christian Church in Flora, which is the congregation where I serve as Associate Minister. The message was kind of a follow up to the message from the previous week, which was shared by our other Associate Minister, Ben VanHyning. His message was on sexual purity, and included a Purity Pledge for teens, parents, and the Church body. I followed up with a message on purity, but my focus was not on sexual purity: it was on honesty and integrity within the body. I was pretty happy with how the message came out.

To listen, you can try and click on the link below (it should open the file in your media player), or you can download the file to your computer and listen to it. To do this, right-click on the link and select "save target as" and save the file to your computer desktop or somewhere you can find it. Then open the file from your media player (i.e. Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc.).


Message: "Unbelievable!" Rob Clifton (3-29-2009)



P.S.- Once again, the picture at the top of this post is the title slide I used in the presentation for this message. The titles slides I create (some of which you see on this blog) are all created using royalty free art and Photoshop Elements. If you want to use the image in your own church or another presentation, but would like to change the titles, names, dates, etc., I would be happy to send them to you in Photoshop format so you can manipulate them. I also might have something you haven't seen here which fits a theme you are using. Just email me at rcfcc@aol.com and let me know what you are interested in!

Daily Devotions

Our local radio station, WNOI 104 radio in Flora, has morning devotional thoughts each day provided by different ministers from the area. This week (3/9/09 - 3/13/09) I provided devotions. I recorded them in our building, saved them onto a CD, and took the CD to the station for the station manager to play each morning.

The devotions will be played between 8:45 and 9:00 am each day this week. You can listen to them "live" on WNOI by clicking the link above and then clicking on "listen live click here" near the top of the page. Or, you can click on the links below and listen to them directly from here. I'm getting ramped up for "March Madness," so the devotions this time have a sports flavor.

Monday (3/9)
Tuesday (3/10)
Wednesday (3/11)
Thursday (3/12)
Friday (3/13)

Give them a listen and let me know what you think!

Eccessive, Exaggerated, Extravagant Love

Bill was out of town this past weekend, so I had another opportunity to share the morning message with our congregation on Sunday, February 15. Of course, it was a "Valentine's" message, based on the love one person showed to Jesus. The text was John 12:1-11, and the title was, "Eccessive, Exaggerated, Extravagant Love." Yes, I am aware that the title sounds like the title of someone else's sermon. In fact, it the the title of three different sermons, that I combined into one. The fact that I'm willing to admit it ought to get me something, right? (Besides being labelled as a "plagiarist" that is....)

This particular message was recorded at our 8:15 am service. I preached basically the same message in both services, but this one is a little more concise. In the 10:30 am service, I used a powerpoint game that I created based on famous duos in music, television, and movies. The game took about 6 minutes, which made the audio longer, and without the visuals, it wouldn't be as good. In place of the game in the earlier service, I told some bad Valentine jokes I got off the internet. As you will hear, I was trying to break the ice and loosen that early crowd up, and it worked fairly well. As it is, the message below is a few seconds shy of 37 minutes. It's a little longer than I wanted, but I was still happy with how it went.

To listen, you can try and click on the link below (it should open the file in your media player), or you can download the file to your computer and listen to it. To do this, right-click on the link and select "save target as" and save the file to your computer desktop or somewhere you can find it. Then open the file from your media player (i.e. Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc.).


Message: "Eccessive, Exaggerated, Extravagant Love" Rob Clifton (2-15-2009)



P.S.- The picture at the top of this post is the title slide I used in the presentation for this message. The titles slides I create (some of which you see on this blog) are all created using royalty free art and Photoshop Elements. If you want to use the image in your own church or another presentation, but would like to change the titles, names, dates, etc., I would be happy to send them to you in Photoshop format so you can manipulate them. I also might have something you haven't seen here which fits a theme you are using. Just email me at rcfcc@aol.com and let me know what you are interested in!

Reaching Upward

The ministry staff at our congregation has come up with a theme for 2009 which is titled, "Reaching Upward, Inward and Outward." This theme is based on Isaiah 6:1-8, and we are currently in the midst of a series of sermons based upon the same theme. As the worship minister at our congregation, I preached on January 18 on the theme, "Reaching Upward." The exact title was, "The Five Whoppers of Worship."

O.k., a little explanation on the audio. First of all, there are two links instead of one. I don't usually include the special music with my messages when I post them, but Joni sang this song and it goes really well with the message itself. So, the first link is Joni singing the special music. Second, this message is from the 8:15 service. That's pretty early for most people, so a lot of the humorous things (or at least things I thought were funny) didn't get much of a response. Plus, this crowd is smaller than our 10:30 service and generally a lot more "reserved." But the recording made of the later service left out the special music and the first part of the message, so I posted this one. Finally, my intention here was not to chastise or confront people unnecessarily. But some of this material is confrontational by nature, because we ALL have times when we try to elevate ourselves to God's throne. If you find yourself struggling with some of the things I said, do what I did when I was preparing the message: examine WHY you are uncomfortable. It just might be that you have believed one of the lies.

To listen, you can try and click on the link below (it should open the file in your media player), or you can download the file to your computer and listen to it. To do this, right-click on the link and select "save target as" and save the file to your computer desktop or somewhere you can find it. Then open the file from your media player (i.e. Windows Media Player, iTunes, etc.).


Special Music: Joni Clifton (1-18-2009)

Message: "Whoppers of Worship" Rob Clifton (1-18-2009)

It Starts....

A lot of people have questioned me about my silnce over the 2008 presidential election and inaugaration of the United States' first half-white president, Barack "Middle-Name-Deleted" Obama. I think you all probably know what my personal feelings are regarding his politics. Time will tell if my predictions are correct: that he will trade in a short-term economic fix for a long-term drain on our national economy, that he will appoint liberal federal judges who will further erode our freedoms and the moral fiber of our nation, and that he will cater to left-wing radicals who will sell our safety and security as a nation for a peaceful chorus of "I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke." We'll see. He's promised to make us a better nation, and if he keeps his promises, then we'll all be better off. I do NOT want him to fail in his efforts. I just don't think that continuing the liberal policies of Carter and Clinton will produce the results that he has promised. If I'm wrong (and my liberal friends can PROVE it to me), I'll admit it, albeit reluctantly.

But I am sickened by the lack of journalistic impartiality that I saw this week. I won't debate who is to blame for the screw-up of the Presidential Oath of Office. If you're a conservative you think President Obama choked. If you're a liberal, you think Chief Justice Roberts sabotaged the event. If you're an American, you're probably a little red-faced over the whole thing no matter WHO is to blame. But can we admit that if it had been President Bush, we would have had to endure countless hours of ridiculous commentary about his unfitness to be in office. I'm just a little tired of the mainstream media (MSM) giving Obama a "pass" for every silly or stupid thing he does. He appointed a Treasury Secretary who got caught cheating on his taxes. He appointed a Secretary of State who's husband is on the payroll at several foreign countries, some of whom have (shall we say) "strained" relations with the U.S. His Chief-of-staff is tied to a convicted felon (Rezko) and has questionable ties to an impeached and soon to be removed from office governor (Blagojevich). But this is a time of "hope" and "change." I just wonder why the media isn't asking the obvious question, "If change is so important to our President, why does it seem like it's politics as usual?"

Let's give him a chance. Let's hope he is really a closet conservative. But let's not give him a pass and pretend that he walks on water and lives without sin. A friend asked me on Tuesday, "I didn't watch the rock-n-roll show today. Did they put him on a donkey's colt, lay down palm branches, and shout 'Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord' as he went into the White House?" Well, no Brian, they didn't. But I'm sure that if they could have gotten a few more dollars, they might have.

Let's also hope that the media get's over their collective case of "Obamamania" before it's too late.