Misrepresentation/destruction of the first ammendment

I simply cannot hold my tongue, or keyboard, in this case, any longer.  With that being said, here goes...

     The whole "scandal," as it's being called, about Phil Robertson's GQ magazine interview, and what he said in the interview, literally makes me sick to my stomach about the state my beloved country has fallen into.  He is being labelled by liberal news media and the organizations like GLAD and the NAACP as being intolerant of other people's lifestyles and even race for what he said in this magazine article.  Are you kidding me?!?!  A&E network has suspended him indefinitely from the Duck Dynasty TV reality show for what he said.  Everyone in these venues are saying that his views were expressed and they were wrong, intolerant, hate-driven, etc.  Phil's views?!?!  I question if any of these "news reporting" organizations or "TV network execs" has even read the article.  Mr. Robertson merely quoted or paraphrased in layman's terms what it plainly, clearly, and literally states in the Bible.  Which, for those who may not know or refuse to acknowledge, is the written Word of the one living God, our heavenly Father.  They are not merely the views of one man.  He is just a messenger, of sorts, trying his best to reach people who might not be reachable otherwise.  His comments that he, with his own eyes, never seeing the mistreatment of African American folks when he was growing up has also been misconstrued by people into meaning that he thinks that African Americans should have been treated the way they used to be.  If you never saw it happen yourself, with your own eyes, then it sounds like you were raised properly, in a community that treated each other as equals.  How can the NAACP be upset over that and use it for their next "cause?"  I don't get it.
     The simple fact of the matter is that Phil Robertson is standing up for what we, as Christians, should stand up for every single day that God blesses us with on the Earth, belief and faith in what God Himself had people to write down for us to study, learn from, and live by, His Holy Word, the Bible.  It is the truth.  It is not to be misinterpreted to mean what we want it to mean to help us feel better or justified in our behavior.  It is what it is.  Truth.  Plain.  Simple.  Truth.  It also teaches us that it is not our place to judge others, to love your neighbor as you love yourself.  Phil Robertson exemplifies this example like very few others do, and his comments in GQ being misrepresented as his views and being called a hater of the gay and lesbian community and the African American community is literally stupid!!!  He simply expressed what is written in the Bible about homosexual behavior, and what he saw, or didn't see, with his own eyes growing up in Louisiana.  That's it!  Nothing more!  He is trying to help teach, and help us all learn something.  That something, folks, is how we might be spared eternal damnation when our time in this life is over.  That we do have hope of eternal life, through Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.  We as a country, should really listen to Phil and those like him, who follow, live by, and try to teach others about the sacrifice that God made for all of us, by giving His only Son, to live among us, suffer, and die, so that our sins might be payed for in full if we choose to acknowledge, and believe that He is the Son of God, the way, the truth, and the life.  Misconstruing the Word of God to mean what we want it to mean or what we need it to mean to make us feel better or justified in our behavior is the worst kind of betrayal to our heavenly Father!  We all need to realize that the Bible is the truth, God's Word, and not subject to debate.
     Unfortunately, the Constitution of the United States of America's first amendment should apparently contain the following addendum after what it clearly states about having the right to free speech.  After the amendment concludes it should apparently read:  "unless, of course, you are a Christian, believe that the Bible is the truth, and wish to express anything contained therein.  Even though, this United States of America, is being founded using the Bible as our guide to how to treat our citizens.  You cannot express any thought, opinion, belief of, quote directly from, or any reference to God's Holy Word.  Otherwise, you might offend someone.
      I will add in conclusion, that I personally have very dear friends who are members of the gay/lesbian community.  I have never been, nor will be judgmental of their choice of lifestyle.  I love them as people, as Jesus teaches us to do.  I, too, will have to stand before the Lord and be judged for my choices in life, as they will.  It is not my place to judge them while here.  We're in the same boat as far as that goes.  I, do, however, believe what the Bible clearly states:
     " There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel."            
--Deuteronomy 23:17

    I support Phil Robertson, and the entire Robertson family, and I sincerely pray for God's richest blessings upon them and their supporters.  I sincerely hope that another network will pick up the show, for I feel that a show you can watch with your family without having to worry about it having to be censored or bleeping out every other word, is a refreshing change that is sorely needed.  Also if the aforementioned addendum is ever added to the first amendment, my wife and I will take our first plane ride...to find another country to live in.

God bless all of you, God bless the Robertsons, and God bless America

Father-in-law progress

Hey all

My father-in-law, Donald, has been, for the last couple of months, dealing with being diagnosed with bladder cancer.  The end result of lots of testing, scraping of tissues inside his bladder and the muscle just beyond the bladder wall, and several trips to Jackson, MS, to see the urologist he was referred to, was that he had stage 2 cancer in his bladder and the muscle just beyond the bladder wall.  Stage 1 cancer, but since it was in fact in the deeper muscle, it automatically becomes stage 2.  He had surgery yesterday in Jackson, to remove his bladder, prostate, and surrounding lymph nodes.  This surgery gives him the absolute best success rate percentage of eliminating the cancer, and the best success percentage for his not ever having to worry about it coming back.  The surgery went exceptionally well, better than his doctor hoped it would!  He has opted to have the "bag" for urine disposal, versus having a bladder "made" and having to re-learn what it feels like to have to go urinate again.  I think this was the best decision.  He has an NG tube right now, but hopefully he will get this out tomorrow.  That will help him tremendously, as he says that's bothering him more than the pain and discomfort from the drainage bags and such.  They will have him up to walk in a little while, and he's already been up and sat in a chair for a while this morning first thing.  For someone who's just had this kind of surgery yesterday, he looks terrific!!  I know this will be real tough for a few days, and then it'll be quite an adjustment for him to make, getting used to his new "normal" and completing the recovery process in general, but so far he is handling things a lot better than I thought he might.  This man has had NO SURGERIES, HOSPITAL STAYS, OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, in his entire 63 years of living!  Impressive, to be sure, and very blessed also, but it can make it very scary for your first time to be something of this magnitude as well.  He has made me very proud for the way he's handled all this.  Very proud!!  Also, my mother-in-law, my wife, and my brother-in-law, have handled this very well, too.  I'm so proud of each of them!!  They've never seen Dad down, or in even a similar situation, and this has been hard on them also, to see him this way.  But, they have done a tremendous job of being positive, and being encouraging to Dad.  I call him Dad, you see.  They call me their second son, not their son-in-law.  Means the world to me.  Dad's taught me everything I know about repairing things around the house, building stuff, etc. and I look forward to continuing learning from him, once he's recooped, and now that he's cancer-free!!  Just a tremendous man, and the center and patriarch of this family.  Love you, Dad!  You're the man!!  Should be about next Tuesday when he gets to go home from the hospital, and Tina and I will be here until he and Mom can come home with us.  Thank you to everyone for their prayers, thoughts, well-wishes, and support.  Will post here or my G+ page, or both, in the next few days, on Dad's progress.

God bless and geek on!

Vacation commences!

Nashville! What a city! Got here, staying at the Opryland Hotel. What an awesome place! Here's the view from our room's balcony:

been a long time, been a long time...

How fitting Led Zepplin's tune is for this one, huh? Haven't blogged, gamed, or much of anything in a good, long while. I've been trying to devote my time to my wife and family, so no one should take this personally if I haven't responded, called you back, etc.  I've had a few PCs on the bench, too, and haven't returned them in timely fashion, so again, my apologies to those concerned.  My baby, Tina, has been steadily improving in her health, but still has issues with pain and discomfort.  My father-in-law has bladder cancer, and though we found out recently through several doctor trips to Jackson, MS, that it isn't AS serious and urgent as was first told to us by a doctor in Tupelo, it IS still cancer.  It is STILL possible he may have to have bladder removal surgery, pending pathology results from a new scraping of the muscle tissue.  If it is indeed deeper in the muscle beyond the bladder wall, even though it is stage 1 cancer, not stage 2 (as was originally thought), he still will have to have his bladder removed...just not as soon.  If it is NOT in the muscle, though, he could then try less invasive treatments, and if they get rid of it...wonderful and done!!...if not, then he could do the removal surgery.  Just waiting on the new pathology results.  Everyone's a lot more okay with it than they were at first.  Cancer is a scary word to hear for someone you love so much.  This man's been a real dad to me since I've been in this family, and I'd do anything in the world for him.  On a lighter note, he got to retire at the first of March, so congrats Dad!  You've earned it!  Enjoy!!  You folks need to understand...my family means the world to me.  It should mean this to everyone.  Never take your family for granted.  I lost my real dad a while back.  We hadn't seen each other or spoken in 31 years, but I was the one the authorities and funeral directors contacted when he died.  Very bizarre situation.  I wish it could've been different somehow. My stepdad, who came into my life after I was grown (21 yrs old or so), was a truly great man, and was wonderful to my mother...and to me, so I was blessed to know him.  I'm going to try to be more responsive to friends and clients, so please bear with me.  I do miss Guild Wars, and SWTOR, and all my gaming comrades.

Tomorrow, Tina and I will be going on vacation, so I'll try to start getting better about staying in touch starting Friday or Saturday after we return.  Prayers, please for my father-in-law.

God bless and geek on!