There was quite a bit of media coverage on the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) parties across the country, replete with signs, bumper stickers and t-shirts. Many of the events were rants on President Obama, assumed to be “Republican” TEA parties. Others were somewhat issues oriented. However, I thought the best witticism directed at Congress was the little toddler wearing a diaper and holding a sign saying, “I didn’t read the bill either!”

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

Well, not me. At least not right now. That’s a quote from the film “Network.”

One of the things that always excites me about Easter is that it kicks off the spring and summer season so Sundays, until Labor Day weekend, will be the stuff of which memories are made. Especially for kids.

By Harold Brown

Earth Day approaches again, and with it the self-flagellation that comes with what passes for “environmental consciousness” across this nation.

Answers to your questions about life, religion and the Bible

Pastors get some of the most interesting questions from people they meet and people in their congregations. Here are a few questions that I have received in my years of ministry and via email for this column.

In the hours that followed the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples were men whose hope had vanished. Their expectations, plans, dreams, and ambitions had all disappeared with Jesus as the stone rolled over the tomb. They were frightened, despondent, and discouraged.

“If you don’t deal with criminal behavior, then it will continue.”

That’s the lesson all right, as relayed by New Jersey Democratic Congressman Donald Payne, who, this week, acquired the standing to speak in such terms.

The scourge has once again descended upon us all, coating everything with a fine, gritty layer of yellow. My black Lab has magically turned into a yellow Lab. When the wind blows, a cloud of yellow almost blots out the sun. And the simple act of breathing is not so simple anymore.

China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government bonds. But, instead of buying more of those bonds as our skyrocketing national debt leads to more bonds being issued, China has been selling some of its U.S. government bonds this year.

Democracy and majority rule give an aura of legitimacy to acts that would otherwise be deemed tyranny.

Think about it. How many decisions in our day-to-day lives would we like to be made through majority rule or the democratic process?

Mary called last evening. She calls often enough that, if I’m busy, I sometimes hand her off to Dave while I continue what I’m doing.

[Editor’s note: A version of this column originally appeared in The Citizen in 1998.]

What if the mainstream media had been around approximately 1,976 years ago, this week after Passover? Return with me to sample today’s media coverage back then, courtesy of the Jerusalem Constitution and CNN (Centurion News Network) ...

At the end of a bull fight comes the “el momento de la verdad,” meaning “the moment of truth,” denoting the point in the contest when the matador finishes the bull off. Ernest Hemingway introduced the phrase to American readers in 1932.

At dinner time on the last Friday in March, I parked next to an ambulance on the courthouse square in Newnan with my 7-year-old daughter, Kristen, in the back seat. This would be her first trip to Golden’s Cafeteria, soon to be a favorite since she loves pick-your-food restaurants that give a kid the power to choose.

There is a childhood friend who is very dear to me, our lives having been tangled together in one way or another like kudzu clinging to a chain-link fence.

Ronda Rich, the Southern author and columnist, recently wrote about small town newspapers. Her column reminded me of my early flirtation with a journalism career. I’ve always enjoyed reading the newspaper. Any newspaper from any city. Big or small. I especially appreciate the small town papers.

I would start writing this column from the beginning, but I wouldn’t really know where to start. Being born in Salem, Mass.? Living in Swampscott? My life on Swan St. in Beverly? Being king of my elementary school for three years? There are plenty of stories about growing up in Massachusetts, but I think it is far more relevant to discuss my life in the South, which started when I was 17, because over the years, a lot of people from all over the country have moved to the Fayette County. Things are different down here, even though they probably get more similar to the rest of the country every day.

[Editor’s note: The community service mentioned below is this Friday, noon to 1:30 p.m., at the Peachtree City First United Methodist Church on Robinson Road near its intersection with Ga. Highway 54.]

March news flash: The Congressional Budget Office has forecast a U.S. budget deficit of $1.8 trillion for this year.

This economic crisis is too useful for Obama to want it to end. When Rahm Emanuel — and later Hillary Clinton — spoke of never letting a good crisis “go to waste,” many people were shocked. But now Obama seems to embody the corollary: that the crisis should continue until he has thoroughly milked it to reshape American politics, society and the economy.

You really can’t have “gay marriage,” you know, irrespective of what a court or a legislature may say.

You can have something some people call gay marriage because to them the idea sounds worthy and necessary, but to say a thing is other than it is, is to stand reality on its head, hoping to shake out its pockets.

When Meredith Willson wrote the wildly popular musical “The Music Man” half a century ago, Harold Hill proclaimed trouble had come to River City, Iowa, in the form of a pool hall, which he claimed would corrupt young people unless the local citizens bought the musical instruments he was selling and got their kids into a marching band. He promised that playing music would keep kids from “fritterin’ away their mealtime, suppertime, chore time, too” and going to the track to watch “some stuck-up jockey boy sittin’ on Dan Patch.”

[Editor’s note: The community service mentioned below is this Friday, noon to 1:30 p.m., at the Peachtree City First United Methodist Church on Robinson Road near its intersection with Ga. Highway 54.]

There was a time when the Church was one. There had been heresies, defections, and departures but, for the most part, for a thousand years there was the “one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”

This week, I’m printing the second part of a Fayette County resident’s prescriptions for cutting the school system’s budget.

If the mindset of many Americans so prevalent today had been present in 1776 there would have been no American Revolution.

The occasion was an anniversary party, one of those events where you dress a bit fancier than Sunday clothes but not as fancy as Saturday night shindig clothes.

The Georgia General Assembly adjourned the final day of the session on Friday night at 11:59 p.m. It was a hectic final week with several important pieces of legislation getting enacted, while several others were held over to next year. I wanted to give a brief overview about the final week of the session and follow up with a more comprehensive wrap-up in the weeks to come.

As recently as a week ago, an acquaintance came up to me, looking as though she was about to divulge a state secret.

The following is based on John 6:24 – 35, where Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”

What do you want?

Michael Boylan is enjoying Facebook.

OK, that was never my status on what is arguably the nation’s (maybe even the world’s) top social networking site, but I do like Facebook. With the site closing in on 200 million members worldwide in a few days, there always seems to be something in the news about it. Some people say it is doomed to fail or that it is a stupid concept for narcissistic people to stroke their egos, while others focus on the business model and wonder how someone could hit on something so big.