Coaching Change!

One year ago, the Vikings fired Mike Tice (who missed the playoffs and finished with a 9-7 record). Tice was replaced by Brad Childress, former offensive coordinator for the Eagles. At the time, we (the fan base, ticket buyers, purple bleeders) were told that Childress was an offensive genius.

Last night against the Packers, the Vikings racked up 3 First downs, 104 yards total offense and a defensive touch down. It is hard to get less than 3 first downs. Not since the Les Steckel (affectionately called Lester the Molester) season have Vikings fans been treated to such angst.

The local apologists tell us to calm down. You can't fire a head coach after one season. He's a first year head coach. Be patient - things will work out.

WHAT !?!

This guy refuses to make any adjustments! The play book looks like something we used to draw up in the dirt (only with less pizazz). The play calling is atrocious. When it is third and nine, why do you call a passing play that makes it back the line of scrimmage? When Dion Branch came available, did we even try to get him? The receivers on this team are miserable. Last night we were treated to Troy (brisk-for-hands) Williamson try and catch the ball with his face guard. Favre carved them up like Christmas turkey.

There are other first year coaches that seem quite capable, and some of them have less to work with than Childress. The Vikings fired Tice for missing the playoffs at 9 and 7. Childress will be lucky (like Christmas miracle lucky) to finish 7 and 9.

Oh and there have been firings after 1 year disasters in this league. Les Steckel was run out of town and Art Shell is on his way out at Oakland.

The Vikings need to admit they made a mistake and hand Childress his walking papers.

Russia - Our Friend?

Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, Murderer-in-Chief and former KGB Officer is at it again.

In 2001, George Bush declared that Putin was a man we could work with.

In 2006, Vlad (the impaler) has been linked to numerous deaths, including the Polonium poisoning incident in London. The offensive use of nuclear materials could be interpreted as an act of war. The Scotland Yard investigation leads right back to Moscow (and dare we whisper the Kremlin).

Vlad has other aspirations. He just bullied Shell Oil into relinquishing rights to oil fields. Those fields were developed using Shell shareholder money and technology. Czar Putin all but held a gun to Shell's head and stole the investment. (Who knows maybe Vlad did hold a gun to someone's head.).

Now he has turned right around and is threatening the same treatment against British Petroleum.

In many ways we could turn the clock back fifty or one hundred years and see the same things. Czar Nicholas was pretty corrupt. Lenin, Stalin and the rest probably murdered ninety million people between 1920 and 1953. The Gulag still functions. People vanish off the streets, and the violence that has plagued Russia over the centuries once again walks openly.

Czar Vlad is busy arming the Iranians, selling off slightly used Russian military technology to the Chinese and developing a new generation of Soviet (oops I meant to say Russian) nukes. They threaten their smaller neighbors and seek to oppose American foreign policy.

For all of you who hate America, just remember it was America (not Europe, not Asia, not Africa or the Middle East) that stood between the Free World and Soviet aggression. In the final analysis, the world will look to the Stars and Stripes to stand in the gap once again.

Robot Rights

We have all heard about animal rights. the idea that animals have rights equal to people. Now don't get me wrong I have had pets all my life. I love my dogs and cats and even the annoying parakeet, but they are animals.

Now someone wants to grant rights to robots. So what is a robot. It is a lump of plastic and metal fashioned to perform a task.

That description could apply to a Roomba - an automated vacuum cleaner. Your PC - your %$#@ PC. The PDA that keeps you on schedule. The MP3 player that has reduced a room full of stereo equipment to something you clip on your belt. The cell phone that never shuts up, and on and on it goes.

Okay lets take technology. The avergae usage span for a desk top or laptop is approximately 24 months. Servers last longer, but only because they a bigger pain to swap out. PDA and cell phones last until the next big fad comes out. In the last 2 years, the technology available to cell phone users has exploded.

So what do you do when your computer runs like molasses in winter and the cell phone doesn't seem so new compared to the latest and greatest. Generally, we hand it down to grandma or the kids. Eventually, they grow out of your benevolent gift.

Sooner or later, these electronic gizmos need to be retired permanently. My preference is to blast them to bits using heavy caliber weapons. I suppose if we grant them rights, my form of payback will be branded insensitive and illegal.

And the stockings were hung...

Christmas is the happiest time of year. You see I am in charge of the stockings, and stockings are a very big deal in my house. I spend a good six months figuring out what to put in each one. I try to make each present small and wonderful.

And our family continues to grow. This year we gained a new daughter (in-law), and next year a grand son and new son (in-law). Our little clan that started out so long ago as just two is a healthy dozen. So the gift selection is a constant challenge.

But there is one gift I can only tell you about.

None of this would have happened unless the greatest gift of all had come a long time ago. Isaiah writes:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Michael Card's album The Promise focuses on the propohecy and fulfillment that occurred in Bethlehem--the City of David--the House of Bread. Jesus did not come in the traditional sense of a warrior-king, but He still intended to conquer our hearts. That's the gift and wonder of Christmas that everyone from a infant child to great great grand parent can come to a saving knowledge and eternal life with God.

Jesus is the present, but like all presents you need to open it. It isn't complicated. All you need do is ask Jesus to come and live inside of you and confess your sins and ask for his forgiveness. Salvation and eternal life is for everyone.

Reflections

Weddings are a good time to take stock of what is important. We had such a moment in the life of our family this past weekend. My son married the love of his life on Saturday in a marvelous ceremony.

Pastor Don delivered an excellent message. He spoke of the begiining and end of days. Ben and Annie have embarked on their new life together, and should Jesus tarry, they will end it many years from now.

Most of us are in the middle years of that journey. We have our ups and and downs, failures and successes. It is the middle journey that can be so difficult and we all know of people who have slipped away from one another.

It is so vitally important that in the busy time of career, family, and kids that couples remember who their best friend truly is. It is a struggle to keep that flame kindled. There are many things pulling us away from the love of our first days. I can easily say that the love of my life, the woman I asked to marry me 30 years ago on Christmas Eve is also my very very best friend.