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Hillary's Red Phone



Are we to believe that if Hillary becomes president and is awakened by a phone call at 3 in the morning, she won't answer it until after she puts on her makeup?

Invasion of Privacy?

Do eagles have a right to privacy? Nah!

If I Were Obama . . .

Tonight there will be yet another debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The alarming thing about the Clinton campaign is that after all these months, her team still hasn't figured out a strategy "that works." She claims to be the candidate who is "ready on day one" to step in and take over as president. But her claim is lame. Even with the Clinton "machine" working for her, she hasn't yet figured out how to campaign for the presidency; why would anyone believe she knows how to be the president.

Hillary's campaign is like three legs of a stool—attack, admire, emote. The reason they don't work is because there is no seat holding them together!

If I were Obama, I would respond to her attacks with simple words like these: "Hillary, there may well be things in your past that I could dredge up and use against you. But my staff members and I have better things to do. We're not going to waste our time and energy dragging you down; we're going to use every minute of our time and every ounce of our strength building up America."

Hillary just doesn't "get it," and she surrounds herself with equally clueless advisers. Good-bye Clintons!

Eagles at Norfolk Botanical Garden
keep viewers guessing


Is this the mom? the dad? or the other woman? No one seems to know for sure. If you've not been following the soap opera at the Eagles' Nest in Virginia, you can watch the action (or inaction) and catch up on previous episodes here: http://www.wvec.com/cams/eagle.html

Show, don't tell

This passage from the Bible doesn't seem to have anything to do with writing and publishing, but take a closer look. It confirms advice that editors keep telling authors: "Show, don't tell."

A man with leprosy came to [Jesus] and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." (Mark 1:40-44)
But, surprise, the man didn't do what he was told to do, but what he wanted to do. Instead of showing himself to the priest, he went around telling everyone what had happened.
Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. (Mark 1:45)
The phrase "to talk freely" used along with "spreading the news" is the ancient form of publishing. It means to preach or to proclaim widely. Only in modern times has the word "publish" become synonymous with "print."

Jesus wanted this man to "show" that he had been changed before he told everyone about it. I wonder what would have happened differently if he had obeyed.

Pleasant Words

Pleasant words are a honeycomb,
  sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.
   —Proverbs 16:24

Working at a remote location. :-)

Pleasant Words

The wise in heart are called discerning,
 and pleasant words promote instruction.
  —Proverbs 16:21

Rules & Writing

While I was speaking on Saturday at the Women's Leadership Conference at Cornerstone University, I surprised myself by saying something I had not thought of before.

I was explaining that it's generally better, in a series, to use short words or phrases first, as in "arts and letters" and "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Early in my editorial career, I would explain to authors that it just sounds better this way. But then I discovered that there really is a "rule" about this. On Saturday, while I was speaking, I realized that authors are more likely to go along with changes I make when I can tell them there's a rule about it than when I just say, "Trust me, this is better."

This got me thinking about human nature and our love/hate relationship with rules. We don't like rules, but we don't believe something is true or right if there isn't a rule for it. So then I started thinking about Adam and Eve and whether God's real reason for giving rules is to find out if we trust him enough to believe what he tells us is good and what is not. When he finds out that we don't trust him, he has to add more rules to protect us from our failure to trust.

In Christ, God proclaimed once more, in yet another way, that the good life he has in mind for us is not about following rules; it's about being in a loving and trusting relationship with him. As a result, we'll also enjoy a good relationship with others—one in which everyone looks out not only for personal interests but also for the interests of others (Philippians 2:4)—not because there's a rule, but because there is love.