* If God exists, or doesn't exist, what difference will it make when you die?

* I was asked this question in 1970 by the local draft board, about my petition to be classified as a conscientious objector (unwillingness to kill anyone or engage in violence) What would you do if someone were raping your mother?

* How do you remain patriotic and loyal to a government that you no longer believe is representing your best interests?

* What would you do if you knew you were sick but had no health insurance or means to pay for treatment?

* If your 8 year old asks you if there is a Santa Claus that will come down the chimney this Christmas, what would you say?

* If the bank accidently gave you a $100 bill instead of a $1.00, would you take it back?

* If the government asked you to kill someone you didn't know or have anything against, would you do it?

* Suppose you knew your neighbors electricity was turned off for inability to pay, and it was zero outside. What would you do?

* Is it possible for you to simplify your life?

* Have you ever not talked for an entire day?

* Have you ever fasted for 24 hours?

* With the New Year coming up, can you make one New Year's resolution with good intent?

* Do you say hello to everyone you pass by on the street?

* Would you give a dollar to a beggar?

* If you knew you were going to die within 6 months (let's say for sure), what would you do?

* What is keeping you from being happy?

* If someone offered you a billion dollars, for this lifetime, or immortality, which would you chose?

* Where is the place that you feel your best and most powerful at?

* Who in this world would you miss the most if you never saw them again?

Hard questions. Never asked, never thought about. Add some of your own. It sometimes does us good to think about the unthinkable. The unfathomable. The mystery.

Crap, did it ever snow here. 10 1/2 inches. Makes it tough on the dog, whose butt is about ten inches off the ground. Makes for an entertaining site when he needs to go.

I'm not a big fan of snow. I never have been. I wouldn't mind a balmy 78 degrees every day. To hell with the four seasons.

The snow makes me think about the heart attack I had 6 years ago. Not suppose to shovel snow. Ten and one-half inches of snow on the driveway, and I have to watch my wife shovel and snow-blow us out. That hurts.

A reporter for the local paper wrote an article about how it took her ten hours to get from Chicago to Galesburg, which is normally a 3 hour trip. It made for a good article, but one I never would have written. Being out in such weather, she obviously lacks commonsense, which a reporter needs a lot of.

The snow started about midnight on Friday, and ended at noon. I took some pictures around two in the afternoon. Unfortunately, they aren't good enough to post. Too white.

I am making the best of a bad situation. Changing lemons into lemonade. I'm making whiskey slush out of snow. It's really pretty neat, and really good. Southern Comfort, orange juice, lemonade, tea, sugar, and snow. Put it in the ice cream maker until it stops running. Than, you forget about the snow and start drinking it. Revenge is sweet.

The rush has started. Democratic hopefuls in 2008 are already coming out of the woodwork. The Republicans will soon start. They better be talking about some of the following in order to get my vote:
* Get out of Afghanistan and Iraq immediately.
* Establish some level of universal health-care.
* Do not renew the tax breaks for the rich.
* Raise the minimum wage. It has not been raised for ten years. Congress has raised their salary seven times during that period.
* Equal access to education. If you make the grades, you go to college. Guaranteed.
* End lobbyist influence and dramatically lower the allowable contributions by any one single person, organization, business, etc., to say $100 per year.
* Work on a balanced budget and reducing the national debt.
* Make it hard and unattractive for big business to ship all our jobs overseas.
* Stop the wall. It's a waste of taxpayer dollars.
* Promote and finance alternative energy sources.
* Sign the Kyoto agreement.
* Make Bush quit giving government land to his buddies.
* Undoing everything Bush has done.
That's all I ask. Well, there might be a few other things, but this is a good start. Add your own. Don't be shy. After all, they work for us. At least that was the original idea.

It was on a casual shopping trip to downtown Hot Springs, Arkansas. I think it was two days after the election. A lady who owned one of the shops was talking to a guy out on the sidewalk. She was saying how terrible it was that the Democrats won everything, and how the liberals would now let all the child molesters out of prison. Immediately after the election, I had made a promise to myself to remain clam and not rub in our victory. So much for self-promises. I said, Lady, if your going to talk about politics and liberals and Democrats, at least get it right. I remained her that we had learned our lesson about releasing child molesters, that the last time we had done so he turned Republican, got himself elected to Congress, and molested the White House pages. Needless to say, I won't be shopping at her store in the near future.

I don't think it is spiritually healthy to attempt to persuade someone to believe the way I do. I believe God dwells in each of us and needs to be discovered from within. An evangelist is a fancy word for a salesman. True, it might make the salesman feel good, to think that he or she has saved someone. But it does the saved an injustice. It takes away the mystery and makes the journey less than authentic.