So when John McCain says its tough to be prod of America there is no backlash but when Michelle Obama makes a similar statement the world is up in arms. This is the type of hypocrisy that angers me. Now I know that John McCain did not mean anything unpatriotic by his statements and how they can be viewed out of context. I understand this very much but what I do not understand is why it is so easy to afford him this understanding and not Mrs. Obama for her statements. We all have to do a better job at being objective, and stop hanging onto the trivial things and address what will make this country a better country.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0608/McCain_doesnt_pick_up_on_Michelle_Obama_joke.html
McCain doesn’t pick up on Michelle Obama joke

So a man finally got a question into McCain and he had a very different sort of question.

The questioner noted that he had been educated at Princeton and Harvard and made more than $300,000 a year.

“How can I be proud of my country?” he asked.

Get it — he was mocking Michelle Obama and her statement earlier this year that her husband had for the first time in her life made her proud of her country.

Well, McCain either missed the joke or decided to ignore it and answer the question literally. I think it was the former because the individual asking the question had a thick accent that sounded to be either Indian or Pakistani, perhaps suggesting to McCain a recent immigrant grappling with America’s image abroad.

“I’ll admit to you that it’s tough, it’s tough in some respects,” McCain said, seeming to lend credence to Michelle Obama’s observation.

McCain said America needed to be “more humble, more inclusive.”

He observed that one of the ways to be proud of the country was to look at our history — and the sacrifices U.S. troops have made abroad.

McCain let his questioner follow up and the individual repeated, but didn’t clarify, his line.

In closing, McCain said he was proud of America in part “because of you and what you’ve been able to achieve and accomplish.”

February 14, 2008

Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shall make me to know wisdom. Psalm 51:6

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Psalm 51:13

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 51:17

This passage comes out of the Book of Psalm and just to give you some background, it is David’s prayer to the Lord to forgive him of the sins, which he had committed with respect to the story of Bathsheba. Over the summer my Pastor preached this scripture and I remember the title being something like, “in order to fix it you must face it”. For months after that I actually recited this whole chapter during my prayer just trying to ask the Lord to show me the way. The words are powerful, for we must ask for forgiveness but while asking for forgiveness we need to come forth with a sincere heart and be genuine. It talks about letting your inner most truth be confessed to the Lord so that he can provide you with wisdom to make better decisions, to move further in life. Its give and take though, while we are asking for forgiveness, strength, and knowledge we must also be willing to work. The work may just be sharing some word, getting more involved in your church or simply being that rock for someone else through their hard times. The sacrifice as I see it is that we have to give ourselves, we have to depend on faith rather than sight. In a world where we need everything at our fingertips that’s a tough concept, but largely the things we see are not what they are anyway so it might be wiser for us in 2008 to put a little more faith in the Lord and less faith in what we may see, and think is good for us. Peace and Grace be unto you!