Are we a peacekeeping nation?

i have been in hiatus for awhile, so i have probably lost all of my reader. lol. so i will post this for myself and it will help me process. as some of you may know from previous blogs that i am reading the new brian mclaren book, "everything must change". it has been a slower read than some of his other books, because it takes me down many roads i have never been in regards to thinking about the greatest issues of the world. i really probably need to be processing all of this with someone who either is reading the book or understands some of these issues and world affairs better than myself. this post will be a few statements from the book in regards to the US's role in providing arms to other countries.

"... after the vietnam war era: mcnamara concluded that is would be rational to limit the armament costs by producing larger runs of each weapon and selling them abroad. the us also happened to be running a three billion dollar general trade deficit. foreign arm sales would be a way to balance the situation."

"my country (the us) can boast that we produce 53.4 percent of the world's weapons." jimmy carter said, "we cannot have it both ways. we can't be both the world's champion of peace and the worlds leading supplier of small arms."

"80% of the top buyers of us weapons were countries that our own stae department labeled undemocratic or countries known for their failure to uphold human rights, such as egypt and saudi arabia."

"it is estimated that every year small arms kill more people than the atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki put together."

i read these quotes and have so many emotions and thoughts. i am not sure what to think but somehow it does not all make sense. we get pissed off at all of these other countries but do not even police ourselves. we definitely as a country serve money over god. we may say that we are for peace with our mouths, but it seems our actions say something so different.

An All Around Good Weekend

i just thought i would land over here and share the highlights of my above average and maybe you could say a great weekend. the pic is just becuz it is awesome and will draw more attention to the post. lol. so here are the highlights:

• the silver bullets (kade's soccer team) continued to reign terror in division U-8 soccer of ayso region 60. i do admit that i am not a soccer fan and you will never catch me watching it on tv, but i love to coach the silver bullets. they are a great group of 6/7 years olds who are so much fun. if you were to visit our practices you would think i am running a basketball practice. i have turned basketball drills into soccer drills. they keep space... the pass... and the play defense. i am one proud coach!
  
• the trojans took care of the tree loving cal bears! it seems if we can beat arizona state next week, which will be a tough one. than destroy the care bears on Dec. 1. oh you want to know how much o love the silver bullets.. i gave up tickets for that game because i have a game at 1 pm and the usc vs ucla game begins at 1230. it is our last game and just could not miss it! so all the trojan haters get ready for us to make run for another bcs bowl. our team travels well for bowls, so as long as we stay in the top 12 in the bcs rankings (currently 11th). we will be chillin in a bcs bowl for the 5th year in a row. the dynasty is not dead!
  
• i saw american gangster at 10 am on sunday while most of you were chillin in a pew :) it was a great movie and it took me about half an hour to recover from wanting to start my own drug cartel and shoot people. lol. you must see the movie. very good. denzel is always good though.
  
• i watched football with friends the rest of the day and than hit the house church of alhambra to end the day. we had a great discussion on death and grieving and jesus in the middle of it. very interesting because a few friends lost people this week.
  

oh well, that was the weekend of j-lou! i hope you enjoyed the journey and brian's book and some people i have met lately i am contemplating a trip to uganda or some other war torn country. peace.

usc comments for all you haters!

ok... this one is for del rio (there is your link lol) and all of my friends that love to hate on my trojans! we lost. i watching the game and lacked confidence in the offense to come back as in past years that i knew they would come back swinging. but i was not as disappointed and do not see the dynasty as dead. florida lost there 3rd game this week as well, but i am sure they are not dead. we are having a bad year, we have had a lot of injuring and the back ups have not filled the gaps as in other years, but i am excited about the development of pieces. i love the haters to bring it on! it will make it all better when we rise back to the TOP! but i promise to wear my trojan gear, invite people to watch the game this week at my house and keep moving supporting the team. i remember carson palmer playing so BAD and than BOOOOOOOOM he went off. we can hopefully the same will take place with sanchez... if not mustain waits in the wings. it seems as if everyone is panicking and that the program is falling apart. yeah... i am sure pete likes that. no excuses... we lost.

oh and the care bears lost... so that always improves a week.


oh and those stinkin red sox won! i will boycott espn for three days in my displeasure for them winning! lol.

Everything Must Change

i bought this book, because i buy most brian mclaren books. i am always hoping that his thoughts and ideas will challenge me or help give me words to explain my thoughts and emotions that have evoked doing ministry over the years and bring clarity to my mission and purpose as a follower of christ. i know many people dislike brian and that is ok and it seems ok with him. it seems he has chosen to spend his time going forward than trying to defend himself to everyone who seems to be against him. i am glad to say that for some people that i meet that do have issues with him most are pretty open to dialogue about the ideas he brings up. others love to throw simple comments instead of sitting down over coffee and sharing a difference of opinion but being able to keep a great christian friendship, but that is ok also.

this book, "everything must change" has caught me of guard though. it truly has gotten myself thinking about the societal structures in our world and my place in building them up or my place in bringing them down. he makes a comment that

"for some of we are happy going through life knowing as little as possible about economics, politics and ecology. As long as we pay our credit card bill, avoid going to jail, and enjoy a cold drink, we'd rather not deal with the complexities of the societal machinary around us."

he nailed me! this was a perfect description of me for so many years, but over the last few years i have taken small steps into the waters of some of these areas. i think i have taken small steps because i am afraid of the changes that i would need to make to fully take the plunge. ecspecially, when my thinking and ideas run smack dab into the way i like to live my life some times. i think i also have walked slower, because i have issues with how people perceive me. i must admit that i like people to like me. lol. and since as i tread into the waters on these issues, many of the people that "liked me" seem to not like me. because i seem to land on the opposite side of them and than they would like to just get in arguments with me and call me names. but as i read this book and have dialogues with others on the topic i am truly challenged to walk forward and not care what people think. i already have no desire to defend myself to people who are not willing to share a true friendship first and than talk. i just do not have time or the energy for that anyway . i have two boys and barely have enough energy to be a single dad and very little energy to wait for that right girl to land my way. haha.

i do not post much, but maybe this book will push me over here a little more. but i am on facebook! so you can visit me there! lol if i do post again on this it will be about "framing stories". a little more confusion from j-lou. peace.

bad sports week ... but there is some light shining through!

i think the title of the post sums of the week... here is all the bad things that took place

• usc looses to the 41 point underdog team in nocal. congrats and much love to john liotti and all of east paloalto who were dancing in the streets after the game. i hope no cars were blown up in the celebration.
  
• the yankees loose to the indians.... i am know an indian fan.
  
• i loose to samdog by one point in fantasy football.
  

here is the light shining through the clouds:

• the care bears looooooooose to notre dame. read my post awhile back and i joked that this would occur, but never thought those stinkin care bears would ruin the chance to see notre dame go 2-10. but it is always nice to see ucla loose.
  
• kade's soccer team destroyed another opponent. kade even scored a goal and the team still has not been scored on all season long. i am a great recreational activity coach.
  
• the basketball season is opening soon and the bulls did not trade for kobe. so i am still a bulls fan. lol.
  
• mark sanchez will start for the trojans this week and the john david booty era maybe over. it will be fun to see if mark's potential and hype will live up to anything.
  
• ucla (the cuddly care bears) are still unranked

i think that wraps up the sports week. so hope you have a splendid sports weekend and we will see you soon. peace.

evan loves the tunnel after the game!

he does not play much in the game but he loves to run through the tunnel at the end of the game.

j-lou updates

hey i just thought i would give u a few updates....

• kade still has his mohawk and his teacher and school love it! yeah for public schools... booh private schools who do not let kids express themselves! :)
  
• pray for evan... he is really having a tough time with school. he is back at his old school that he seemed to like. pray that he will adjust to the fact that he needs to go to school.
  
• soccer is on! i am not a big soccer fan, but i enjoy coaching kades team. these kids are focused and are running other teams off the field. evan's team is a lot of but evan not too interested, which i am fine with. he may be more like me and have no interest in playing soccer.
  

that is all for now... oh yeah i was at the usc game and they are looking good. i am hoping for a usc show down in new orleans at the sugar bowl so i can meet up with whoever to watch the game and call it katrina relief. i think www.tigersgo.org will help me not have to get a hotel.