I cringe every time I hear politicians, TV talking heads and even generals and admirals refer to our troops as “kids.”

In utter disbelief, I read Mayor Harold Logsdon’s revisionist history column in Peachtree City’s Update newsletter. (Attention Councilman Harman: In your last candidate essay you said you chose “to oppose the Kohl’s plan.”)

Oh, what a relief it is, to turn 65 and qualify for Medicare!

As the baby boomers (born after 1945) head toward Medicare, they’ll join a group confronted with bewildering coverage choices they never realized were there. Every fall, starting Nov. 15, Medicare beneficiaries have to make decisions about their coverage for the next year. Of course, it’s happening this year, too.

It’s a sure thing that when family gathers at my house for Thanksgiving dinner, there will certainly be a hot, gooey dish of homemade macaroni and cheese on the table.

This will probably kill his career, but I rise to praise Sen. Joe Lieberman, the independent Democrat from Connecticut.

“What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
— Jesus

Acting on complaints from the public, Senator Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, has launched an investigation into alleged financial wrongdoing involving six high-profile televangelists, all of whom run “non-profit” organizations.

I’ve heard it as long as I can remember. “God is in control!” The phrase is usually used when one has come to the end of their understanding and they just can’t figure things out. Sometimes it is used in a good way, like when someone is genuinely putting their faith in God to take care of an important matter in their life. Other times it is used by people to humbly hide behind God, putting all of the responsibility for a matter on Him, and shunning any responsibility that they should be taking. So let’s examine this from the scriptures. After all, everything we believe should be scriptural, and if you want your beliefs to be scriptural, there is one thing you must have ... scripture.

For the second time in as many years, immigration has fizzled as a wedge issue at the polls. In 2006, Republicans hoped to use anger over illegal immigration to maintain control of Congress, but failed miserably, losing races even in states like Arizona and Colorado that have experienced large influxes of illegal aliens.

The story you are about to read is true. The names have been changed to protect the bureaucrats.

A few months ago, I met a contractor in a bar. He told me about his business, and I asked him how many people he employed.

So now we find out that NBC News wants to hire Rosie O’Donnell as a show host, and my question is: Was Hugo Chavez not available?

God chooses the strangest people to do His work in the earth. In 1 Kings 18:20-39, the story is told of Elijah the Prophet who calls down fire from heaven. It is a dramatic account of one man calling out to God and receiving an awe-inspiring response.

You don’t have to be a Harvard University researcher to figure out that the media is infected with liberal bias — or to realize that some left-wing journalists will use any means necessary to create ideological narratives that fit their worldview.

This has to be the Entitlement Age, because nobody I know of would call it the Age of Common Sense.

You take these two, I suppose you call them, ideals — entitlement to blessings and benefits on the one hand and shrewd appraisal of the way life works, and you find, I think, they match poorly, if at all.

After reading the title of this article, you might be expecting some thoughtful insight into a happy married life. Perhaps you think that after over six years of writing a weekly newspaper article, somehow I’ve been able to come up with some tidbit of knowledge that maybe you haven’t been able to grasp which will lead to marital bliss. Nope, sorry — I ain’t that good. But read on, it’s still a funny story. And like the other stories I write, it’s all true. Well, most of it anyway.

Among the many mindless mantras of our time, “making a difference” and “giving back” irritate me like chalk screeching across a blackboard.

Tax reform — Most every candidate running for state office has talked about some form of it. Finally after years of talking about it, it appears that the Georgia General Assembly will deal with tax reform next year.

To the victors go the problems — I am writing this prior to the election, so congratulations to whomever won. In Peachtree City the warm-’n’-fuzzy feeling should wear off swiftly since there are some hot topics to be addressed.

Like the war on terrorism, progress in the immigration war is also mixed.

A federal judge in San Francisco has temporarily prevented the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration from using mismatched Social Security data to penalize employers who hire illegal aliens.

This year, I decided, the birthday present I most wanted was not to get in our annual argument with Mama. So, I gave it to myself.

In a poem she managed to lose, the writer describes the simple ritual of coffee and newspaper she and her husband share each morning. Then his departure, a quick peck on her cheek, the “Love you” which has replaced “Goodbye.”

Answers to your questions about life, religion and the Bible

Pastors get some of the darnedest, most interesting questions from people in their churches and people they meet. Here are a few that I’ve gotten over the years of my ministry and via email since this column started.

Judge Michael Mukasey seemed a shoo-in for confirmation to attorney general when he was nominated in September, but now his nomination seems in genuine peril. Democrats who were quick to praise his stellar credentials are suddenly mum on whether they’ll vote for the retired federal judge — that is if his nomination even makes it to the floor of the Senate.

Two weeks ago I arrived at San Francisco airport. The young, attractive, personable black woman at the rental car desk wore a badge that said “Trainee.” I smiled and said, “That’s an odd name.” She laughed. I asked whether she was from San Francisco. She replied, “No, I’m not from here. I’m from Atlanta.”

“Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?” asked humorist Bob Orben.

Providence smiled on me again last week when some information on an unknown child (at least to me and a few others) of Beverly Byram fell into my lap. Her name was Martha Byram, she married John Parker, and she was an ancestor of my third cousin, Chris Wren, of Alabama. This child was not among those posted on the Bethel UMC Website from which I obtained my original information on Beverly's children. Martha was born about 1808 in North Carolina, according to the 1850 census.

About 11 years ago, I became a pioneer. After 25 years as a pastor of churches that were established when I began to serve them, I chose to plant a new mission congregation. I became a “church planter,” a “pioneer.”

I don’t see glee oozing from between every comma in David Kirkpatrick’s New York Times magazine article this past weekend on the “evangelical crackup.” He’s a good reporter, whose coverage of conservatives I regard as generally well balanced.

Let’s face it; the drought is bad, really bad. Lake Lanier will be dry in 71 days, and Lake Altoona before that. What’s a person to do?