Don't Mess With Fletch!

I think we could all agree that Fletch is one of the greatest movies of all time. It's got everything: Chevy Chase, Norm from "Cheers", great music, high speed car chases, basketball dream sequences, and great lines like: "Oh, thank God...its the police" and "Could I borrow your towel for a sec? My car just hit a water buffalo" and my favorite: "Look, defenseless babies!"

I also assumed that the rest of the world agreed with me. But today I found this article that disagrees with me: http://www.slate.com/id/2166941?nav=ais. Well, disagrees is too light of a word. This guy actually hates this movie. It makes him angry. Even though I've read the article, I still can't understand why he hates it so. I can understand his arguments, but really...how could you hate this movie? Why is he putting so much thought into this movie? Is it really necessary? Is he related to Mr. Underhill?

When I was 15 (when the movie came out) I don't remember thinking, "Wow. Fletch has a big problem with rich, conservative authority figures. I think he's reacting to the recent re-election of Ronald Reagan and the unnerving decline of liberalism. Somebody should say something." I just enjoyed the movie. And I still do.

Theological Worldview Quiz

Just in case you're questioning your call to a certain brand of theology, here's a quiz that may help define it for you: www.quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=43870. I've discovered that I'm a Wesleyan Holiness/Postmodern/Neo-Catholic freak. What are you?

The Great Gas Boycott of '07

I was told a couple of times last week that I needed to not buy gas on Tuesday, May 15th. Supposedly there was this great gas boycott organized for the day. The idea was that if no one bought gas on Tuesday, we would send a message to the oil companies that we weren't going to take it anymore. High gas prices, that is.

It really didn't matter to me because I already had a goodly amount of petrol in my tank, so I was able to drive by many gas stations on Tuesday without any sacrifice and observe how the great boycott was going. And they were full of customers. Not very surprising. Here's some theories on why it didn't work:

1. Not everyone has the internet, especially Facebook and the ability to join a group specifically designed for the purpose of not buying gas.

2. People need gas and don't care about a stupid boycott that won't work anyway.

I also read an article that said the boycott was pointless because its not a true boycott. When you boycott something, you are vowing to stop an action for a prolonged period of time, like a hunger strike or the 1980 Moscow Olympics (or the 1984 LA Olympics). The Great Gas Boycott was only for a day. It didn't stop the purchase of gas, it only delayed the purchase of gas. If you didn't buy it Tuesday, you could've gone on Wednesday. There's no sacrifice involved. A true boycott would be to not buy gas over a prolonged period of time. That would really hurt the oil companies and force them to take action. What happened Tuesday didn't hurt them at all. They're going to make their money later in the week regardless. It really only hurt the owners of the gas stations who have no control over the price of gas. They hardly make any money off gas anyway.

So, the boycott didn't work, people still bought gas on Tuesday, and what was our reward? Gas was $2.99 on Tuesday. It's now $3.19. Unleaded. Good work.

Alpha Male

So, I've volunteered to be a small group leader at my church for our new Alpha program. Pretty much we just watch a video of some English guy talk about God and then we split up into small groups to talk more about it. I go to my assigned location in the Alpha kitchen to await my group's arrival. One woman sits at the Alpha table. Then another, and another, and...another. At last count there were six (6) women (middle aged or greater) at my Alpha table awaiting my Alpha guidance. Now I'm not sexist or anything; I really appreciate a woman's Alpha input, but I needed/wanted at least one other Alpha male in my Alpha group. I was completely overwhelmed. I felt like I was hosting a taping of The View - Alpha style.

I've been told that men have a very limited vocabulary and women have an extremely open one. These Alpha women used all of my words for the next two days. I couldn't talk at all for 48 hours. I had heard too many Alpha words. Too much Alpha information. Don't get me wrong, it was a good group; but I didn't have to say much at all. They said I did a great job; I didn't say anything! Needless to say I was Alpha tired. All I wanted to do was go home and watch Lost. Which I did.