In a recurring Groundhog Day tribute of their own, the editors of National Review annually post Jonah Goldberg's excellent 2005 paean to the classic Harold Ramis movie, Groundhog Day. Here are the closing paragraphs of Goldberg's article, A Movie for All Time.

Ultimately, the story is one of redemption, so it should surprise no one that it speaks to those in search of the same. But there is also a secular, even conservative, point to be made here. Connors’s metamorphosis contradicts almost everything postmodernity teaches. He doesn’t find paradise or liberation by becoming more “authentic,” by acting on his whims and urges and listening to his inner voices. That behavior is soul-killing. He does exactly the opposite: He learns to appreciate the crowd, the community, even the bourgeois hicks and their values. He determines to make himself better by reading poetry and the classics and by learning to sculpt ice and make music, and most of all by shedding his ironic detachment from the world.

Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin, the writers of the original story, are not philosophers. Ramis was born Jewish and is now a lackadaisical Buddhist. He wears meditation beads on his wrist, he told the New York Times, “because I’m on a Buddhist diet. They’re supposed to remind me not to eat, but actually just get in the way when I’m cutting my steak.” Rubin’s original script was apparently much more complex and philosophical — it opened in the middle of Connors’s sentence to purgatory and ended with the revelation that Rita was caught in a cycle of her own. Murray wanted the film to be more philosophical (indeed, the film is surely the best sign of his reincarnation as a great actor), but Ramis constantly insisted that the film be funny first and philosophical second.

And this is the film’s true triumph. It is a very, very funny movie, in which all of the themes are invisible to people who just want to have a good time. There’s no violence, no strong language, and the sexual content is about as tame as it gets. (Some e-mailers complained that Connors is only liberated when he has sex with Rita. Not true: They merely fall asleep together.) If this were a French film dealing with the same themes, it would be in black and white, the sex would be constant and depraved, and it would end in cold death. My only criticism is that Andie MacDowell isn’t nearly charming enough to warrant all the fuss (she says a prayer for world peace every time she orders a drink!). And yet for all the opportunities the film presents for self-importance and sentimentality, it almost never falls for either. The best example: When the two lovebirds emerge from the B&B to embrace a happy new life together in what Connors considers a paradisiacal Punxsutawney, Connors declares, “Let’s live here!” They kiss, the music builds, and then in the film’s last line he adds: “We’ll rent to start.”

Read the whole thing.

I think Groundhog Day is one of the best movies ever made. I remember watching it on VHS with my wife, years ago; though it does not have an explicitly Christian message, the movie is brimming with redemption. Watching it for the first time surfaced in me an exquisite sense of joy. (And, in my one beef with Goldberg over this article, I thought Andie MacDowell was plenty charming).

If you haven't already watched Groundhog Day, I highly recommend it. If you have, get with the spirit of things and watch it again (and again, and again, and . . .)

Seen on long-time blog friend Jennifer's facebook page:

Every day is Christmas - God With Us. Every day is New Year's - Mercies New. Every day is Easter - He is Risen! Every, every, EVERY day is Thanksgiving.

Amen x infinity.

Now to live like that . . .

In case you are wondering...

1. I'm reverting back to what my second favorite team was back when I was a kid...and going against my grown-up tradition of rooting for the NFC team or the underdog. I just can't root for the Giants in good conscience. So now I'm all in. Go Patriots!

2. This video and song was recorded early in 1986 as a response to the Chicago Bears Monster Hit Single...the Super Bowl Shuffle. So in this song the Patriots predict that they will beat the Bears in SuperBowl XX. Whoops. Bears won, 46-10.

I figure that unearthing this song and re-releasing it to the world will result in a Patriots victory this time! I mean, come on, Spenser can't be wrong!

"God who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing—or should we say ‘seeing?’ There are no tenses in God—the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven trough the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath’s sake, hitched up. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves."

- C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Had this thought while I was running this morning: in my lifetime, the adjective "irreverent" has gone from being a criticism to being a compliment.

Today I was reminded of this quote by the great Winston Churchill (or at least attributed to him - I don't have it sourced yet):

"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

This is going to be a rough year. Hang tight, people, use your God-given discernment, and pray for our country.

P.S. The sad part is that these days every year is an election year.

In an earlier comments thread I predicted this rematch. I'm not sure who will win, but I'll go ahead and just say the Giants, to balance out all the Patriot-love.

Who do you think will win? Let us know in the comments.

On this date, exactly two years ago, I made the following predictions.

Monday, January 18, 2010
Predictions
Posted by Philip @ 2:24 pm CST

1-Mitt Romney will win the Republican Nomination in 2012... but will ultimately lose to Obama.

2-Wearing your pants too low will finally go out of fashion, the direct cause being the "Pants on the ground" song which the general public will start singing behind the backs of guys wear their pants that way. The harassment will just become too much, and one man will have destroyed a fashion with a little song as catchy as a commercial jingle, and decent Americans everywhere will rise up and call him a hero.

3-Arnold Schwarzenegger will make another Terminator movie after he moves out of the governor's mansion...because he will be desperate for popularity.

4-Joe Biden will not return for Obama's second term, citing family and personal reasons, and Hillary will insist on being VP.

5-Obama will kill the "From Moon to Mars" space program, saying we need the money here on earth.

6-Joel Osteen will resign from public ministry because of depression. Dude's gonna burn out.

7-We will find Osama Bin Laden.

So how am I doing?

Status So Far
1- Looking good so far. The probability that I will be right has increased.
2- Looking good so far. What do you think? Seen anyone wearing their pants too low lately?
3-Looking really good so far. News Story from April, 2011 that Arnie will star in Terminator 5 and will be directed by Justin Lin.
4-Not looking good, but not out of the question. People are talking about it.
5-Partially right. Obama killed the Bush version of the plan that involved going to the moon by 2020 and then Mars after that for financial reasons as I predicted. However, the plan now is to go to an asteroid and then Mars.
What I meant was that he'd cancel "Project: Constellation" which he did, but we are still going to Mars, so I wasn't totally correct. Sigh.
6- Not looking good. At all.
7- Done. Nailed that one. My one definite so far.

I was 1-4 last weekend, although I didn't mind being wrong on a couple of those.

Grain of salt included, here are my predictions for this weekend's games.

New England over Denver
Houston over Baltimore
New Orleans over San Francisco
Green Bay over New York Giants

I'm still calling a Saints-Patriots Super Bowl.

. . . the best entry I've seen so far to the "Political Views" profile on Facebook.

At this point, I think even the Patriots better be careful underestimating Tebow.

Congratulations to the Broncos. Very few people thought that they would win against the Steelers. I had the Steelers making it to the Superbowl, actually. But I'm happy to be wrong.

I'm looking forward to next week - and fervently hoping for the nearly unthinkable: an AFC match-up between the Broncos and the Texans in Houston in two weeks.

Sports Illustrated has a rundown of some columnists' predictions of the playoff games that start today.

Here are mine:

FIRST ROUND
Bengals over Texans (even though I'll be rooting for Texans)
Steelers over Broncos (even though I'll be rooting for Broncos)
Saints over Lions
Falcons over Giants

SECOND ROUND
Ravens over Steelers (though I always root against the Ravens)
Patriots over Bengals
Saints over 49ers
Packers over Falcons (though I'd be rooting for the Falcons)

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS
Saints over Packers
Patriots over Ravens (in a very, very tight game)

SUPER BOWL
Saints over Patriots (though of course I'd be rooting the other way)

Obviously if the first round doesn't go the way I'm predicting this weekend, the rest is all wonky.

C. Michael Patton over at Parchment and Pen posts about his depression, nearly two years later. Below is an excerpt:

Two years later, there are still times when driving down the road, playing a video game with my kids, or drinking a Coke out of a bottle that I notice that recovery is chronic. “Oh, yeah,” I say to myself. “That is what it is like to be notice good things.” During these times I want to call out to God and say, “Time out!” Whatever made me realize again what I took for granted before needs to find its way to the shelves of the store.

Two years later I know there are places I cannot go in my mind. Two years later I look through the peep-hole in the door of my emotions before I let anything in. Two years later I long for a glory that knows no tears in a way I had not longed before. Two years later I am stable but scared. Scared that it might happen again. Two years later, my heart does not know how to respond to others who are groping for hope in a dark mind. I want to grab their depression by the neck and kill it, burn it, smash it, and choke it. I hate it.

Many end these type of messages with the “But I am glad I went through this” type stuff. My sister says that she is glad I went through it. Okay, fine. Gotcha. Neat. But I don’t know if I am. I think I would rather not live with the haunting memory of that time. At least not now. To know that this actually exists in this world . . . Really? That? Torture, hunger, blindness, poverty, even holocaust are things I gawked at before. But depression is from a planet I could not imagine existed. A dark planet. A cold and lonely planet that no telescope can see, no pictures can describe, for which no analogy of being can be found. It only exists in theory before you have been there. But I think I would have rather seen it through the telescope. When I returned from that world, a part of me was left behind. I think I would have rather not had that passport stamped.

But I serve a God who is sovereign and does not have the word “meaningless” in any dictionary signed by him. In this, I suppose, you can pull my teeth until I say “Okay, it was good for me to go there. Better to go to the house of the morning than the house of feasting. Okay. Yeah, okay.” In glory, you will not have to pull my teeth to say this. But for now, you still do.

I encourage you to read the whole thing, and also his original post on the brokenness of depression from April, 2010.

There was a time in my life when I thought that the "blues" and times of slight hopelessness and small despair that I sometime experienced could be called "depression". Then I experienced depression second-hand in the lives of people I love, and I realized that I didn't know what I was talking about.

It's hard now to express what I think of this terrible condition. At least not in words that are fit to print in a family blog. I think C. Michael Patton said it well, above: "my heart does not know how to respond to others who are groping for hope in a dark mind. I want to grab their depression by the neck and kill it, burn it, smash it, and choke it. I hate it."

When Christ's kingdom is fully realized, depression will be a thing of the past. It will be cast into the lake of fire along with our enemy and all the other curses of fallen creation.

If you are currently suffering from depression, or in that baffling, helpless state of trying to help and encourage someone you love dearly who is wearing the dark sackcloth, my heart goes out to you. May the mercy and rescue of God be yours in abundance, and may joy truly come in the swift-approaching morning.

I was introduced to this by youngest daughter. At first I didn't know what to make of it, but I think it's darn funny (and innovative).



Fact!

(also, though we share a surname, there is no relation that I know of to the BoredShorts people).

Here is a real-life scenario of a friend of a friend of mine. I'll call the young lady Laura. She has been dating a Baptist guy for a year (I'll call him John). Her parents are Church of Christ and pretty hard-core about it.

John talked to her parents last week to ask for Laura's hand. The parents told him that the only way they would give their blessing is if he becomes CoC. He told them that was going to be a decision they would make as a family, but neither he nor Laura have a desire to become Church of Christ (or, in her case, to remain Church of Christ). They have been attending a non CoC church together. Laura has expressed that she has learned more about God's grace from her friends, John, and her new church than she ever did from her parents or their church.

Her parents have made remarks to Laura that John is leading her to hell, and they are worried about her soul. The parents want to sit down and talk with them both.

What advice would you give this young couple? They are both believers. I am not familiar enough with the Church of Christ to know how to approach this.

John and Laura gave me permission through my friend to post this on Thinklings. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I'd especially love to hear from those of you in the Church of Christ or who have CoC friends or family, but if you have any advice or knowledge at all on this your insight will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Do you have any predictions for 2012?

I'm going to posit a few:

1. Here's a bold prediction: Barack Obama will not win re-election.

No, I am not underestimating the man. He's very, very good at campaigning, he is personally popular (though his current job approval ratings are pretty low). And, though I disagree with most of his policies, I believe he is a smart and talented politician.

But . . .

I don't think you can underestimate how bad the global economy is looking. There are just too many downward pressures: the financial ailments of the Eurozone, the instability in the Middle East, our large debt burden. For most voters, the economy is the biggest issue right now, and I don't expect it to improve very much between now and November 2012, though I hope I'm wrong. If it hasn't improved, I think Obama is done.

As a side prediction, Obama will replace Joe Biden as his running mate with someone else - perhaps Hillary.

2. Mitt Romney will win the Republican nomination and will be elected President. This is, of course, a corollary to my first prediction, and if I'm wrong on #1 I'll get a twofer fail. Regarding Romney, like him or not, he will be the most palatable alternative to Obama for most Americans. And they will vote for him, if things don't improve significantly in the economy.

3. The New Orleans Saints will beat the Pittsburg Steelers in the Superbowl. I'm never right about sports predictions, but I had to try. I'm assuming Big Ben's ankle gets better. And I realize that the Packers are having a great year. But what the hay.

5. Blo will post on Thinklings at least once in 2012. Hey, a guy can dream.

So, what do you think? Do you have some predictions, or want to take me to task for mine? Have at it in the comments.

Well, my technical issues resolved themselves quicker than I expected, thankfully. Thinklings has been upgraded to Bloo version 1.35 (as yet unreleased, but just about ready to be set loose).

Here's what's new in this release:

• Bloo now supports full comment moderation
• The comment thread subscription is enhanced. For instance, you can now cancel your subscription to a comments thread - every comment email you receive has a link which, if clicked on, will unsubscribe you
• Added two new spam Captchas: Bloo Captcha (which we've been using here for awhile and which is currently in force for Thinklings comments) and Google's reCaptcha service.
• Private Site, a new Bloo extension SnapOn, which allows you to set your entire blog private, meaning that only logged-in users can see it
• Max Links Spam Filter, also a Bloo extension SnapOn, in the Spamicide collection. Spammers, we hates them. we hates them forevah!!
• Emails coming from the system now look better (or that's the theory)
• Fixed a bug that caused comment counts to show no comments when viewing posts by category
• Performed various other bug fixes and architectural improvements

For some of you who have been thinking about starting to blog, and want to go the less-travelled road, you might think about giving Bloo a try. Be part of something small! (As you can see, marketing and snappy slogans are not my forte)

I'll be upgrading our little blog to the latest version of Bloo later today (this is a pre-release upgrade. I want to test the new software for a day or two here before releasing it into the wild).

I'm targeting the upgrade for maybe 7:00pm tonight, just in case you're on and everything crashes.

Update: OK, I said 7:00, but I guess I meant 8:30pm. Upgrading in 5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .

Update 2: Sigh. I've run into technical issues unrelated to the upgrade. May need to wait on this until I get those doped out.

Yesterday at work I went to lunch with some friends from work. The conversation turned toward spiritual matters (one colleague is a Christian, the other a Hindu).

It was one of those conversations . . . one in which I could have steered things way, way more toward the necessity and exclusivity of Jesus and farther away from the ecumenical "all religions are at their core the same" direction the talk went. Long story on that. But I got tongue-tied, and I could not figure out a way to get the right word in.

I didn't add anything of value to the conversation. This is ridiculous. What on earth is wrong with me?

I would appreciate prayer in this area, plus would love to hear about more positive experiences if you have some to share. I admit that I struggle a lot with personal evangelism.

Thanks.

Tonight I watched Frank Capra's masterpiece It's a Wonderful Life with my bride. I love that movie. Jill loves the fact that, no matter how hard I try not to, I get misty in the last scene.

Something occurred to me during the climactic "never been born" section of the movie that has never occurred to me before: I wonder how many people watch this show these days and think "Pottersville looks a lot more fun than Bedford Falls."

Pottersville, with its bars, dancing girls, gambling houses and gin-joints that serve hard drinks to men who want to get drunk fast fits far better into our coarsened, entertainment-saturated culture than the quiet streets of Bedford Falls, with it's Bijou, Emporium, and that wonderful old Bailey building and loan. Pottersville moves, and has the flashing lights, raucous crowds, and the frequent gunshots to keep our short attention spans jumping. No one's bored in Pottersville.

For my part, I'm hoping to spend more time in Bedford Falls in 2012.

"Zuzu's petals! Zuzu's . . . they're . . . they're here, Bert!

What do you know about that? Merry Christmas!"

Merry Christmas, everyone, and may you have a wonderful new year!