Fifteen minutes of fame.  Or shame.  It doesn’t seem to matter which anymore.  Our society’s constant worship of celebrities and fascination with the freak du jour has fueled the seemingly insatiable need to get noticed—to be “somebody”.  Never mind that the “somebody” you may be is a laughingstock, a pervert, a criminal, a blowhard, or an idiot.  Just be “somebody”.

Two recent examples demonstrate the depths to which those in need of attention will stoop:  namely the “balloon boy” family and the White House party crashers.  For me, I find it interesting that these two sets of absurd fame-seekers perpetrated their fiascos the same year that my 90-year-old grandmother passed away.  More on her in a moment.

Richard Heene and his wife—the Colorado family who fed the lecherous media the juicy hoax of a runaway experimental balloon with their young son supposedly trapped inside— (more)

God or government?  It’s a question that I think we as a nation must ask ourselves as we stand at the crossroads of decisions that will have historic impacts on the very nature of our country for a generation or more. 

Although I admittedly lean toward less government, I don’t hate government—I just believe that it functions most efficiently and effectively in a smaller form.  Lately, however, with the struggling economy and high unemployment it has become clear to me that many of our citizens view government (perhaps subconsciously) with reverence usually reserved for our Creator.  Not as a holy entity and not as a source of salvation, but certainly as the all-powerful provider here on this earth.

Consider the cultural shift over our nation’s two-hundred-thirty-three years of existence.  When this great country was founded, the majority of our founding fathers were (more)