Transparent Community

A sign is causing heated arguments outside of a church in Jonesville. Pastor Roger Byrd of Jonesville Church of God put the sign up which reads “Obama Osama humm are they brothers?”

Pastor Byrd says the sign is not meant to be racial or political but rather to make people think. “His name is so close to Osama I have a feeling he might be Islamic therefore he doesn’t recognize Christ,” Pastor Byrd said. Barack attends Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

Eugunia Foster is offended by the church sign. “I’m embarrassed and hurt. I’m surprised a small town like Jonesville still has this separation. It is racial and hatred,” Foster said.

Pastor Byrd told News Channel 7 he would ask his congregation to vote on whether to keep the sign. They voted unanimously to keep the sign up Sunday night.

Jonesville Church of God does not have any African American members.

Really? No African-Americans in Pastor Byrd’s flock? Not one? In a city that’s about one-third black? Why aren’t I the least bit shocked?

No doubt, I’ll be called an elitist for pointing out a few facts:

* Pastor Byrd is a dunce.

* Median household income in Jonesville fell 17% between 2000 and 2005, from $22,227 to $18,500. That’s well below the median for South Carolina ($39,316) and for the US ($44,389). In other words, the economics being pushed by Bush, McCain, and the rest of the Republican Party has absolutely devastated this community.

* Many members of the Jonesville Church of God will vote for McCain because they are prejudiced against either blacks, Muslims, or both. The people who will do this are morons.

Time Management

Let’s say you have a typical life and try to live it in the healthiest way. You might allocate your 24-hour weekday this way:

Sleep: 8 hours
Exercise: 1 hour
Work: 8 hours
Eating: 2 hours (leisurely)
Hygiene: 1 hour
Travel: 1 (Commute, errands)

That leaves you three hours for family time, sex, shopping, food preparation, chores, household repair, volunteering in the school, and so on. If you have a dentist appointment, or your talkative relative calls, or American Idol has a two-hour special, you’re tapped out.

It’s a challenge to live a happy life if you aren’t giving enough attention to all of those categories, yet doing so is nearly impossible.

One time management strategy is to be independently wealthy, freeing up eight hours a day. But that option isn’t available to many. And apparently it isn’t fulfilling because most rich people continue to work full schedules.

Another strategy is to ignore the fact that you are slowly killing yourself by not sleeping and exercising enough. That frees up several hours a day. The only downside is that you get fat and die.

A third path is to work less than you could, live economically, enjoy each day as it comes, and try not to think about living on cat food when you retire.

Which strategy have you picked?

“Around election time, the candidates can’t do enough. They’ll promise you anything, give you a long list of proposals and even come around, with TV crews in tow, to throw back a shot and a beer,”

“But if those same candidates are taking millions of dollars in contributions from the PACs and the lobbyists, ask yourself, who are they going to be toasting once the election is over?”

“You can’t spend the better part of two decades campaigning for NAFTA and PNTR for China, and then come here to Pennsylvania, and tell the steelworkers you’ve been with them all along. You can’t say you are opposed to the Colombia Trade deal, while your key strategist is working for the Colombian government to get the deal passed. That’s something you can’t do,”

“That’s not respect. That’s just more of the same old Washington politics. And we can’t afford more of the same,”

Barack Obama on Hillary Clinton

“She is running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment. She’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley,”

“Hillary Clinton is out there like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday. She’s packing a six-shooter. Come on, she knows better. That’s some politics being played by Hillary Clinton. She knows better. Shame on her.”

Barack Obama