I knew they were working on a video, but I didn’t know it was finished. Only recognize the lead singer, although some of the other actors in the video seem familiar. Still, pretty cool; check it out.

Bipolar Bear Mania Music Video- Holy Rolling Empire from Chelsea Coles on Vimeo.

Second time in seven days that I’ve worked remotely part of the day from a coffee shop. Second time in seven days that, while working remotely, I’ve overheard serious conversations about discipleship, ministry and outreach to young people.

The first time was a middle-aged woman and a 20-something talking about an upcoming foreign mission trip. Way cool convo to overhear. Today, it’s two male 30-somethings, one dressed in medical scrubs who seems to be interviewing the second about how he would define a successful religious leader. Not so interesting.

By their language, it was easy to identify these folks as Evangelicals, not mainline Protestants, Jews, Catholics or Muslims, and maybe they don’t have offices in which to meet or maybe they think the witness of talking about God in public is important. Whatever the case, one thing is for sure, they’re willing to drink mediocre java while chatting – the two places I’ve had to work remotely (due to transportation sharing with offspring lacking wheels) in the past seven days aren’t Cafe Luce or Raging Sage or Epic Cafe, which, btw, is currently featuring the wacky Ryn Gargulinski as Artist of the Month. ‘nuff sed.

Image via Wikipedia

In a speech Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu uttered words that heretofore have never crossed his lips in public: Palestinian state.

Of course, being one of the most stubborn men in the Middle East – a place rife with stubborn men on both sides of the wall – Netanyahu had a whole lot of conditions to the state he was proposing, including forbidding the Palestinian state from having a military, controlling the airspace over its land and making military pacts with other states. In addition, the Palestinian state would have to pledge to call Israel the “Jewish homeland,” ignoring that 1/5 of the population of Israel is Arab and accept “natural growth” in illegal Jewish settlements currently in the West Bank. There would be no sharing of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority would have to agree to fight Hamas, the radical Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip and has called for the annihilation of Israel. How the PA could fight Hamas without a military was not addressed by Netanyahu.

While some might think this a step in the right direction, and most pundits note this is BN’s “alright already” to Barack Obama’s strong Middle Eastern address last week, Netanyahu’s speech makes me want to pull my hair out. (more…)