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Ingenious!
If you live in California you have probably seen one of these. No, not the Mercedes SL500, but the license plate frame which says 11-99 Foundation. The 11-99 foundation is a charitable organization which supports familes of California Highway Patrol employees. Primarily they help out in cases of sickness or death. This is a very good thing.
But the puzzling thing is the way they go about it. The license plate frame is an example. For a $1800 donation to the organization you get a license plate frame, a certificate and a wallet with a special 11-99 badge in it. The wallet has a place for your ID just opposite the badge. The perfect thing to hand to an officer who has just pulled you over.
Now, perhaps they don’t intend to create the impression that this sort of prominent identification with the program is helpful in avoiding prosecution by the Highway Patrol, but the general public certainly thinks it is. For example:
“Well for those who don’t believe in the CHP11-99 Foundation, this story will make you change your minds. In California, time around 3pm. …I looked to my left for on coming traffic and didn’t see anyone, so I pushed it from around 55mp to 100 in no time. All a sudden I see a front bumper next to my side door? I was in shock, then looked quickly and it was a black bumper with steel guards. Guess what it was a COP… He told me I was clocked at 102 ! I told him some Mustang was on my *** on 85 and I wanted to get him off my bumper. I gave him my CHP-1199 badge and membership card….He comes back and tells me he doesn’t know what to do, 1. give me a ticket or 2. give me a warning. Well he gives me a warning and says goodbye”
So, when I see something like this on a fast car – and they are always on fast cars… it tells me something about the driver. Sometimes it means that they really care. But you can care in private right? Care without the badge and license plate frame? So my mind rejects that approach and assumes the worst. I really think they need a tagline. Something like:
Really, I don’t know what else to think. Would tax cheats wear their fraudulent returns so proudly?
This is an excerpt from Culture of Corruption!
You can see an update to this story here.
I have been reading through the Gospels again and taking a look at Jesus all over again. What I have realized is that the Jesus I was taught about in Sunday school and even today in church is a sanitized, cleaned up, tame version of the Jesus that is in the Bible.
What characterized Jesus and the 12 was their unpredictability. Jesus was always surprising the disciples, by eating at the wrong houses, hanging around the wrong people, and healing on the wrong day. The disciples never knew what to expect with Jesus. One minute he could be teaching a large crowd, or walking with the disciples. The next minute he was cursing a fig tree for bearing fruit out of season. And after that he was in the temple making a whip and trashing the place. If that’s not enough after trashing the temple he sat down with the people he didn’t send out, and began to teach. When the disciple finished making new rules, no kids around Jesus; don’t let the crowd touch Jesus; don’t talk to the Samaritan woman; don’t let people waste expensive perfume, Jesus told them to knock it off and the rebuke was often followed by a lecture.
The pharisees wanted Jesus to be like them and I think today we want Jesus to be like us, tame, predictable and domesticated. But the truth of it is that Jesus is not like us, he is unpredictable, he is not tame, he is not domesticated. When Jesus is present everyone is uncomfortable, yet glad at the same time. People don’t like surprises, they don’t want to be uncomfortable. We want a tame Jesus.
When we tame Jesus we lose our awe. Lose your awe of God and your left with and impotent deity (Mike Yaconelli).
We need to again get back to a relationship with the real untamed, unpredictable Jesus of the Bible. When we come into contact with this Jesus, that is when we become alive.
Why can’t our brilliant governments figure this out?
Top 13 Reasons that Unchurched People Choose a Church
(research conducted by Ranier)
Top 9 Reasons that Church-Attenders Choose a Church
(research conducted by the Barna Group in 1999)
Top 6 Things that Keep the Formerly Unchurched Active in the Church
(research conducted by Ranier)
What is Blog Action Day:
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.
I’m in, Are You?
You may be familiar with some of the old war propaganda aim at women. These are a couple of familiar images from World War II.
The ones you might not be so familiar with are the ones aimed at women. Asking women to watch who they are talking to and what they are talking about. I’m not sure why they are targeting women there were many men that were at home and could have talked as well.
There are many more of these WWII war posters here. Here’s one last poster for you.
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I have finished a couple more websites. The first one is a refresh of Simone’s Photography Website.
I also finished another photography site for a client in Ontario. Captured Beauty Photography
There is a gang of kids that own our complex. They’re cute, and they’re mine. They rule this complex with their “Ariel” scooters and a trike. And they call themselves the “Groovy Girls!”
For the most part they are a nice gang. But some times they can be mean.
But their not always mean.
Here’s the ears of their operation. (There’s a new bird in the complex.)
A gang meeting.
Riding out to find that new bird.
The ‘hood is safe for another day. Let’s get a group picture.
Their moto: GROOVY GIRLS NEVER GIVE UP!!!