I read in the newspaper yesterday an article in the USA today about blogging.  They were talking about MySpace.  They mentioned in the article Xanga and Facebook.  They were talking about how popular these sites are becoming.  They are talking about you and me.  More and more attention is given to these personal journals.  I had never heard of a blog until my brother in law set mine up about one year ago.

Most people don’t know what to make of it.  I have heard that polls show that half of America has still never heard of a blog.  I tried to set up a blog with MySpace one day.  I couldn’t figure out how to do it.  So I signed up and never really used it.  I am sort of slow to learn stuff on the computer so I probably needed someone to show me how it worked.  I don’t even remember my name on the site anymore.

I was trying to figure out how to make friends.  I realized on MySpace there appeared to be a greater emphasis on pictures.  I wanted to find something like a blogring to find people.  I finally gave up after about 5 minutes.

I know all these people that have all these different blogs.  I am not sure how they keep up.  I know people who have a LiveJournal account.  I pretty much just stayed here because I had all the friends I needed and it didn’t make sense to try to maintain more than one site.

Today I would like to discuss the issue of the different types of blogs and communication tools.  I want us to look at the advantages of Xanga, LiveJournal, MySpace and some of the others you are familiar with also. 

Why do you use a xanga blog as opposed to another blog?

My last post was somewhat of a confessional in that I admitted to killing a bunny.  There were three running across the street and I think I only hit one.  So not only did I kill the bunny but I killed it in front of its family.  I also ran over a squirrel once.  I crushed its back side and it was stuck in the pavement because it was crushed and yet it was still alive.  I decided to run it over to take it out of its misery.  I really felt bad about it.

I also was driving down the road one day and I hit a deer.  I posted before that when I was four I killed my Aunt’s dog.  It is time for confession.

What is the largest animal you have killed?

I drove today from Illinois to North Carolina.  I am in staying in Asheville, North Carolina this week.  I was only 26 miles from reaching my destination and I drove right by a cop.  He jumped out of the road after me.  I didn’t know what speed I was driving but I knew I was way over.

He pulled me over and asked me if I knew how fast I was driving.  I am wondering if anyone has ever answered that question.  Why admit guilt?  So he told me I was driving 80 in a 60.  I thought they just gave you a 20 mph buffer zone.  I got a ticket.

The fastest I ever drove a car was when I was in high school.  I had the car floored with a max speed of 85.  I am sure I was going over 100.  The car was shaking I was going so fast.  I got home on time.  I did run over a little rabbit though. 

What is the fastest speed you have ever driven a car?

A few people have asked recently how to increase comments on their xanga site.  In fact, I get that question a lot.  I even asked someone else that question recently.

I was at a friend’s house about a month ago.  A guy sat next to me and started talking about blogging.  I just listened and didn’t say much.  He kept talking about it and finally mentioned that he had his blog on xanga.  I didn’t mention that I had a blog.  I just listened to him talk.  I told him I was familiar with xanga.

He mentioned how popular his blog was on xanga.  I asked him what led to his great popularity.  He mentioned that he writes thought provoking post.  He thought he wrote post everyday people can relate too.  He thought that led to more people commenting on him.

How does a person increase the amount of comments they get?

I asked what would Jesus think about America.  I want us to look at what Jesus would think about some of our major social issues that have become political issues.  For example, how Jesus would respond to issues such as the pro-life and pro-choice movement.  Would Jesus be a fiscal conservative or a liberal?  Would He be in favor of universal health care?  Would he be in favor of affirmative action?

What would Jesus think of our major social issues?

I am sorry about my last post about Tom Delay.  I should pick someone a little more well known by the masses.  How about we talk about Jesus?  There is this question of WWJD?  The question is What Would Jesus Do?  Christians are supposed to ask themselves this question to determine how they are supposed to act.  What would Jesus do if He was in this situation?

I want to change the question a little.  What would Jesus think?  If Jesus was looking at America today, I wonder what he would think.  Would he be impressed with what we have done? 

What Would Jesus Think?

Tom Delay has said he will not try to retain his position as House majority leader.  He has been struggling with campaign finance charges.  He had to step out of the position temporarily last fall.  He was trying to get his position back until he just announced he was giving up that effort.

Are you happy or sad to see Tom Delay go?

Many of you may be familiar with that fact that they found gay penguins in the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan.  These penguins refuse to mate with their female counterparts and will only have sex with each other.

Should the gay penguin’s partners be covered under the insurance plan of their gay domestic partner?

A great deal of the discussion in my last post centered around whether homosexuality was right or wrong.  There were those who labeled it as wrong or immoral.  Others labeled it as natural and genetic.  Still others were undetermined.

Who determines what is right and what is wrong?

Recently I posted about homosexuality and adoption.  I want to talk about this on a more broad context than just adoption.  I want to talk about what I think is the main difference between two opposing views. 

On the one hand, you have people that believe that homosexuality is similar to the hardships that certain minorities faced in the past.  They believe that minorities were mistreated and set back because of something silly like the color of their skin.  In fact, it wasn’t too long back in American history that minorities were slaves.  They were not allowed the same rights as other Americans enjoyed. 

I have heard certain groups advocate that homosexuals are going through that same stage.  They are fighting for civil rights.  They are fighting for the right to be treated equally.  These people tend to believe that a person was born homosexual and has no choice in the matter.

On the other hand, you have those that argue that homosexuality is an action.  They believe that it is a behavior choice and therefore hold the person responsible for this choice.  These individuals will typically believe that homosexuality is either immoral or at least something other than the best choice.

Is the current fight for equal rights of homosexuals similar to the fight for civil rights among minorities?