Sad but true

First, I congratulate all of you who read the title of this post and immediately thought of the Black Album....  we're on the same wave length (you can decide if that's a good thing).

I was reading this post on Jason's blog and he was essentially saying that the video below really saddened him (don't go by my summary, read the post yourself).  Though I see his point, I found it to be quite funny insomuch as it seems to be purposely misstating the beliefs a several religions in an attempt at slightly edgy comedy.  Watch it and tell us what you think....

Change back

Tammi commented on the last post regarding the changed format of my comments box.  I had switched from the standard full page to a newly-available embedded type.  I thought it was pretty slick but she pointed out that it no longer gave to option to have follow-up comments emailed to you.  I find this to be a great time-saving feature so I reverted back to the old format.  

So for those of you who never comment and didn't really notice....  there you go - more information than you needed.

Early Voting

I actually went and voted this morning.  I had planned on it yesterday but I was diverted to go play xbox over my lunch break.  It wasn't so much that I value Halo (1 or 2) over my civic duties, but when you have a week to cast an early ballot and only one lunch to blow your friends up with video rocket launchers, well......

Some of my observations about elections and voting today:

Random person in line with me:  I took up my spot in line and realized I was directly behind a guy - whose name I couldn't remember at the time - who I helped guide on an antelope hunt last fall with Pack String Ranch Outfitters.  Now I have recalled that his name was John something-or-other but since that eluded me I just stood behind him quietly.

Most bizarre aspect of polling locations:  A faux ballot the size of sleeping bag (for us to review while in line) when in reality I will be voting on a computer.  Why not a more usable multi-page pamphlet?  If it was just a blown-up version of the real ballot it would be reasonable but I'm tapping a touch-screen so what's the point?

Second most bizarre:  After talking to folks at the entrance and standing in line for 10-15 minutes, the poll worker who checks your ID is still required to ask, "Are you here to vote?"  A half-dozen smart alec remarks came to mind but I decided (being in a battle ground state) I better not jeopardize my vote.

Question I can't answer:  On my ballot every Dem candidate was on top (presumably alphabetically, listed by party) except for president in which McCain-Palin had top billing.  Why?

Best voting booth quote:  Mark, delivered dead-pan upon learning that they were out of 'I Voted' stickers - "If you don't give me a sticker, how will I know not to vote again?"

Get in, vote and then give me your stories.......

Poll Results and Thoughts

The final results are in...  because I'm tired of it and we have plenty of votes.

• 34 total voters (in my poll) of which 31 plan to actually vote for president  in the upcoming election.
• From that number, 23 are going McCain and 4 for Obama....  This is about the breakdown I expected.
• 4 are either undecided or voting 3rd party.
  

My unabridged thoughts about this are:

If, like in my poll, only 8% abstained from voting (either on principle or from laziness) we would be having a record turn-out this year.  In reality, you would have to add all those who visited the site and didn't bother to vote, whereby my mock election would be even less popular than the actual election.

Not making any correlations, but the percent voting Obama (11%) in my poll is coincidentally almost the exact same portion of the US population that believes Elvis is still alive (hehehe).  No commentary there....

And the fact that 2/3 of my readership are McCainites may indicate that I'm a far right fascist.

Reverse Christianification of Secular Junk

I am going into this post assuming that most of the readers are familiar with we Christians' propensity for taking popular secular stuff and Christianizing it in an attempt to be.... maybe funny, maybe relevant, maybe holier than thou.  Some of the obvious highlights are:

• Our local Christian station refusing to play a secular song unless it is recorded - completely unchanged - by a Christian artist.
• T-shirts like Lord's Gym which take a known phrase or brand and give it a clever (?) twist.
• Church signs like this one: 

(please feel free to comment on your favorites which I've neglected to mention)

We all know that this is a strange phenomenon but I think we ought to acknowledge that is goes both ways.

You have the WWJD; "what would Jesus DRIVE" campaign and the WTFWJD (if you don't recognize that one right off, don't Google it - just trust me that it's a very secular version of that acronym).

Or how about the Darwinized ichthus (AKA Christian fish), followed by the chomping Christian fish, followed by another posed Darwin fish....?  Sure it's a slightly more clever knock-off than most Christian ones but a knock-off nonetheless.

Or the "Jesus was a community organizer" tag-line.  I've seen it used by Christian and secular Obamatons alike but it seems to have a whiff of knock-offism to it.

Then you have those that are hybrids like the "Jesus is my homeboy" shirts.  I still can't figure out whether that one was designed as an uber-cheesy Christian thing in the vein of the photo above or a secular shirt trying to co-opt the image of Christ.  If you think about it, it works either way.

So what do you say?  What's your favorite/least favorite knock-off from either direction?