Four men, one calling: To serve and protect. When tragedy strikes home, these men are left wrestling with their hopes, their fears, their faith, and their fathering. Protecting the streets is second nature. Raising their children in a God-honoring way? That’s courageous.
CBN.com – Touted as a powerful motion picture about police officer dads who struggle with their roles as fathers, Courageous hits some marks and misses on other accounts. All in all, this new movie from Sherwood Pictures, the same production company who brought Fireproof and Facing the Giants to theaters nationwide, is better than these previous works. Courageous‘ biblical message is clear and good, but its delivery, from a critical cinematic standpoint, is weakened by some rookie acting and overwhelming dialogue.
THE MOVIE IN A MINUTE
Police officers Adam Mitchell, Nathan Hayes, David Thomson, and Shane Fuller are confident and focused on the job as they serve and protect their community. That same drive fades at the end of the day when they face their biggest challenge – fatherhood. Being a “good enough” father doesn’t cut it when tragedy strikes and these four men’s faith are tested. When secrets are revealed and life becomes unbearable, they must draw closer to God and their families to survive.
THE GOOD AND BAD IN COURAGEOUS
More engaging than Fireproof, the Kendrick brothers’ Courageous pens and films a story with real heart and lasting purpose. It’s a bit predictable, but it does reaffirm biblical teaching on the importance of fathers in the family and examines the themes of grief, betrayal, forgiveness, and redemption. Unfortunately, these strong messages may not translate to a wide unchurched population as well as the producers would like. Too much dialogue distracts from the story’s action, telling moviegoers instead of allowing the story’s truths speak for themselves.
Filling the lead acting role, director/co-screenwriter Alex Kendrick holds his own, but one can’t help but think an actor with more experience could have pushed this film up the quality scale a notch or two. The acting props have to go to his supporting castmate, newcomer Robert Amaya. In the role of Javier Martinez, Amaya brings emotional depth to the film and an occasional laugh along with it.
Rated PG-13 for some violence and drug content, Courageous is not a kid’s movie. Teens and adults will be fine seeing this new movie. It’s clean of foul language, but does include some violent gang scenes, including a shooting.
IN THE END
Courageous is worth supporting. It’s a Cinderella industry story as these Sherwood Baptist Church guys acheive box office notoriety with each new movie. Courageous does have its weaknesses, but its strong message will speak to hearts this weekend – and that’s the goal.
For more reviews like this one, sign up to receive CBN.com’s Entertainment email update.
Hannah Goodwyn serves as the Entertainment producer for CBN.com. For more articles and information, visit Hannah’s bio page.
Amy Smith: “DCFS is made up of amazing people, from investigators and case workers, to adoption specialists…
The only failure in the system is the lack of enough foster and adoptive homes to serve these children.”
There are approximately 7,000 children in Arkansas foster care within a year, but less than 1,000 foster parents available to care for those children. Plus, there are more than 500 children and teens available for adoption through Arkansas foster care. The numbers are staggering and unacceptable.
Even more heartbreaking is the fact that these children are removed from their homes because of abuse, neglect or other safety concerns within the home, all situations completely out of their control. That’s where The C.A.L.L comes in.
Children of Arkansas Loved for a Lifetime (The C.A.L.L.) is a multi-denominational Christian organization created to answer the profound and desperate need for more foster, adoptive and respite care homes for foster children living in the state. Mary Carol Pederson, executive director, spearheaded the creation of the organization in 2006, and along with a team of dedicated people, incorporated The C.A.L.L. in 2007.
Through a partnership with Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS), The C.A.L.L.’s mission is to “educate, equip and encourage the Christian community to provide a future and a hope for the children in foster care.” The C.A.L.L. provides prospective foster and adoptive parents the opportunity to complete state-approved training within a church setting and within a more convenient timeframe.
One of the primary means of sharing the organization’s message is through informational meetings, in which a video is typically shown and prospective foster and adoptive parents can begin the paperwork process.
Amy Smith and her husband, Jason, first saw this video about four years ago when The C.A.L.L. visited their church. At the time, the Smith’s three biological sons, Luke, Landon and Clay were four, two and 12 months.
“The day the video played, we had no idea how drastically our lives were about to change,” said Amy. “Once we were informed of the need for foster parents in Pulaski County, there was no turning back.”
Amy—an occupational therapist for Pediatrics Plus, and Jason, an ear, nose and throat otolaryngologist for Arkansas Otolaryngology Center (AOC) in North Little Rock—completed their training to become foster parents in March 2006. “The training is the same for respite, foster and adoptive parents,” said Amy. “Respite care is short-term, just a couple of days, allowing another foster family a break.”
As trained and certified foster parents, the Smiths took in a newborn in August of that year. “Conner was born on August 6th, and we brought him home from the hospital on the 10th. At the time, we were not looking to adopt, only desiring to foster. Conner was not an easy baby, and life was not easy with four boys under four. My husband was always the one who kept us focused on our purpose. We wanted to not only touch a life for someone else, but we wanted our boys to learn this life is about helping others by sacrificing along the way.”
After Conner’s first birthday, his birth parents’ rights were terminated and the Smiths adopted him. “He was our son long before that,” said Amy. “Our boys have never been jealous or felt anything but love toward their little brother. They’re the biggest blessing God has ever given us. All four are ‘all boys’—loud, rambunctious and always hungry.”
Amy is now a board member for The C.A.L.L. Pulaski County and is quick to point out that DCFS does the best job they can, under the circumstances. “It is not the system that is broken, but our society,” she said. “DCFS is made up of amazing people, from investigators and case workers, to adoption specialists. Everyone I’ve met along the way loves these children and wants the best for them. The only failure in the system is the lack of enough foster and adoptive homes to serve these children.”
The C.A.L.L. currently has programs in 18 Arkansas counties, in addition to Pulaski. But, according to Pederson, 68-percent of children who come into foster care have to be placed outside of the county, hindering biological parent visitation and forcing the child to switch schools. To help remedy the situation, The C.A.L.L. needs more foster and adoptive parents, as well as funding. “The goal of DCFS,” said Pederson, “is to obtain 1,000 more foster parents statewide.”
Those who want to help, but are unable to foster or adopt could consider becoming a “founding family.” For $65 a month, founding families help place one child with a caring family.
For more information about fostering or adopting, volunteering or donating to The C.A.L.L., contact Mary Carol Pederson, 425-4735, or visit TheCallInArkansas.org.
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Of course, being a Christian is the first step in bringing hope.
Discovering Your Purpose In Life
Like most people, you may have wondered why you are here on Earth. Do you think your existence is an accident or are you here for a reason? Is there some purpose for your life? According to the Bible, you are not a mistake and you were created by God for a reason.
Created For A Reason
The main reason God created you is to make you part of His eternal plan (Romans 8:28-29). God wants us to be in Heaven with Him and to tell people about Him. His plan is for every person to be saved from their sin and Hell and to spend eternity with Him (2 Peter 3:9). Unfortunately, some people choose to live their own way and abandon God’s plan for their life (Proverbs 14:12).
What Are You Living For?
Most people seem to believe that the main purpose of life is enjoyment and personal fulfillment. Are you living for things such as money, fame, success, fun, possessions and power? The wise King Solomon accomplished many great things and had all that anyone could desire, yet described it all as meaningless (Ecclesiastes 1:2). How about you? Are you more consumed with the pleasures of life than what happens to your soul when you die? The Bible says “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul” (Mark 8:36)?
Life Is Short Compared To Eternity
Hopefully, you would agree that what happens to you eternally is far more important than what happens to you on Earth. Think about the word eternity. That is far beyond trillions and trillions times longer than our earthly life. It is so hard to even comprehend that concept because it never ends. You may have a great life or a terrible life on Earth, but either way it will come to an end someday. Then, you will spend everlasting life in either Heaven or Hell (Matthew 25:46). Please think carefully about where you will go after you die as it can happen any day.
The Problem
Too many people assume they will go to Heaven when they die based on their own concept of God. The reason why everybody can’t spend eternity in Heaven is because sin separates people from God (Isaiah 59:2). You have rebelled against God and committed a sin every time you broke one of God’s commandments by stealing something, telling a lie, hating somebody, disobeying your parents, having a lustful thought, or countless other things. God hates sin and will severely judge each and every one of your sins. Just being a good person or believing in God won’t erase your sin either. The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
The Good News
The good news is that no matter how severe your sins are, God made a way for you to be forgiven and be declared innocent on judgment day. “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Being a good person or being religious won’t rescue you from your sin. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9) The word grace means “undeserved favor”. Your sin separated you from a perfect and sinless God, but Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins and later rose back to life (Matthew 28:5-6) so you can have everlasting life in Heaven. Even though none of us deserve Heaven, God was kind enough to make a way for us.
Receiving Forgiveness
It is not enough to just believe that Jesus died for your sins. You must personally trust in Jesus to save you from the penalty of your sin (Romans 8:1-4). You must also be willing to repent (turn from) your sin (Luke 13:5) and follow Jesus as Lord of your life (Romans 10:9-10). Doing this mends your broken relationship with God and allows you access into Heaven.
Live For God
You were created to know God and to live for Him. That is why you exist. Only then does your life have the meaning and purpose God intended for you. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). To live your life for the glory of God means that you will love, obey, worship, please, and trust Him. This should not be a burden, but a pleasure because of what He means to you.
The Choice Is Yours
You never know how much time you have left on this Earth and nothing is more important than where you spend eternity. Hopefully, you will decide to follow Jesus so your life can be used to glorify God. Please make this choice right away, because after you die it will be too late.
I am currently going through his film series “Free to Choose” which is one the most powerful film series I have ever seen.
PART 4 of 7
The massive growth of central government that started after the depression has continued ever since. If anything, it has even speeded up in recent years. Each year there are more buildings in Washington occupied by more bureaucrats administering more laws. The Great Depression persuaded the public that private enterprise was a fundamentally unstable system. That the depression represented a failure of free market capitalism, that the government had to step in to perform the essential function of stabilizing the economy, of providing security for its citizens. The widespread acceptance of these views, sparked the enormous growth in the power of government that has occurred in the decade since and that is still going on. We now know as many economists knew then that the truth about the depression was very different. The depression was produced or at the very least, made far worse by perverse monetary policies followed by the U.S. authorities.
Far from being a failure of free market capitalism, the depression was a failure of government. Unfortunately, that failure did not end with The Great Depression. Ever since, government has been attempting to fine tune the economy. In practice, just as during the depression, far from promoting stability, the government has itself, been the major single source of instability.
DISCUSSION
Participants: Robert McKenzie, Moderator; Milton Friedman; Robert Lekachman, Professor of Economics, City University, New York; Nicholas Von Hoffman, Syndicated Columnist; Peter Temin, Professor of Economics, MIT; Peter Jay, British Ambassador to the United States, 1977_1979
MCKENZIE: And now we join the invited guests here at the University of Chicago, as they discuss Friedman’s interpretation of those events and their implications for today.
LEKACHMAN: The 1929 crash, the succeeding calamities, were not the first of their kind. Capitalism has been subject to severe depressions since the beginning of the industrial revolution. This was the first time, however, government tried to intervene seriously. It did it very badly. The lesson I would draw is a very simple one: Government is unavoidable; the expectations of the public are proper; government ought to do better oddly enough the government did do better until very, very recently. Until, I would say, October 1973, even, government did reasonably well in fulfilling the expectations of the public. I’m an unrepentant proponent of government intervention, intelligent government intervention. But I would describe much of the intervention which has followed the great 1929 crash as quite intelligent.
MCKENZIE: Let’s take a further look, though, at this argument that just as during the depression, far from promoting stability, the government has itself been the major single source of instability.
VON HOFFMAN: I_I don’t think there is any stability this side of the graveyard. I mean, I think __ I don’t think it matters what system you’re working under, you are not going to __ you are not going to have a level and hold it under any system with living human beings.
TEMIN: Governments are larger now and therefore more of a source of an influence for good and for bad. And I think like Mr. Von Hoffman that you can’t get perfect stability, given that you’re going to have governments, given that there are legitimate functions of governments, there are also risks in having the government be as active as it is.
MCKENZIE: Peter Jay.
JAY: I think that government is a god that has failed. I think that we have too much of it and need less of it. I think it has failed to prevent both the modern forms of economic instability and the prewar ones. I do not, however, think that government is the original or primary source of that instability, and I do not think that simply getting rid of the government, or greatly reducing it, which I’m in favor of, will, by itself, remove the instability.
LEKACHMAN: I would put it this way: There was __ there was a great economist, with a suitably esoteric doctrine, which could nevertheless be translated as Dr. Friedman did in the film, into simple English, at the same time as there was the widespread hardship of The Great Depression and the natural yearning of human beings not to repeat anything like it. So you have a coincidence of an appropriate theory, with an appropriate public sentiment, and I suppose the symbol in the United States was the passage of 1946 of the Employment Act of that year. Which, it was a weak measure, but it was nevertheless a public declaration of an obligation of government to do something about employment, and economic prosperity, and a good thing, too.
MCKENZIE: Now that’s the __ really the crux of the matter. Do you agree it was a good thing too, that obligation was accepted by government at that stage?
JAY: I think it’s very important here to distinguish two completely different issues. There is the rather narrow issue as to whether Keynes was right or wrong in believing that you could stabilize the economy with regard to really one essential variable _ unemployment _ by a certain technique which he talked about. We may now think that he was wrong, but that’s a quite separate issue from the broad political philosophical issue associated with socialism, associated with social democrats, and many other so-called left wing political thinkers, that the duty of government, so far as it can, is to concern itself not only with defense and law and order and the traditional things, but also with the social welfare and the economic welfare of a society. Now that’s a broad philosophical __
MCKENZIE: Is that a disaster, as Milton seemed to be implying, or was it a good and helpful, useful thing to happen?
JAY: Well, that is one of the great __ perhaps the greatest of all debates in political philosophy, as to whether or not it is right or is not right to believe that a society, collectively, should concern itself with these things and has the right, having concerned itself, through law and through government and in other ways, to move to try to correct these things.
VON HOFFMAN: Well I just __ it seems to me that Americans have believed that for the last century. I mean William McKinley ran on the slogan of a full dinner pail, so that the notion that this is a government responsibility for prosperity dates from the 1930’s I think is erroneous. What I wonder about after having seen that film is this: We have in 1929 __ we have the man who could have saved it dead two years and in 1946 we’ve got the man who might have saved it dying. So what I have to ask is: Are we doomed to find out the right answer only too late? Is it possible that our __
TEMIN: Or should we just look for somebody who’s recently died.
VON HOFFMAN: Exactly. Rummage the morgues. (Laughter)
MCKENZIE: Well, you asked the question __
FRIEDMAN: No, and I think the question is a very different one. And it goes to much of the discussion to this point. Everybody looks for the right man. You say, “Government __
VON HOFFMAN: You brought’em up.
FRIEDMAN: Those men at that time. Quite right. But a system which depends on the right man is a bad system. The Federal Reserve was a bad system because it depended on the right man working it. The idea of demand management, of the kind of thing we’re talking about where Keynes’ death mattered, was a bad system because it depended on a particular man working it. The notion that the problem that Bob Lekachman brought up, that the problem is not the government interferes, but it does it unintelligently, is again a demand for the right man, the man on the white horse who will know what to do. My whole view is very different. It is that it’s the system that’s wrong, and that we’ve got to have a system that the right way to accomplish these objectives is to have a system which doesn’t depend on whether you happen to have the right man pushing the buttons at the right time.
TEMIN: The problem is somebody has to __
FRIEDMAN: Which relies on the __ on establishing a framework within which an invisible hand, within which the activities of people all over are jointly to produce the kind of result. It won’t produce perfect stability; but it’ll produce a far higher degree of stability, a far greater level of freedom, and a far greater level of prosperity than the kind of thing we’ve had with these governmental interventions.
TEMIN: Somebody still has to design the system. You can’t take the people out of it entirely.
FRIEDMAN: Of course.
TEMIN: Unless you’re in the grave as it says.
FRIEDMAN: Of course, but the __ that doesn’t __
TEMIN: But the question is __ I mean it’s said that generals always fight the last war. How do we know that the system won’t fight the last war? We probably won’t have another depression exactly like 1929 to ’33.
MCKENZIE: But, but __
TEMIN: But that doesn’t say we won’t have another depression or another stagflation or another crisis of some other source.
MCKENZIE: But is this process reversible? Because you argued that the public, having been appalled by The Great Depression, in effect demanded of government that they accept responsibility for wellbeing of the economy, for management of the society and so on. Now, that expectation having been raised, can it be reversed?
VON HOFFMAN: Let me answer a question you didn’t ask and say that it seems to me that what we’re getting here is the question of sort of social astrophysics. And that is, do we have an unseen hand, or are we on the war star where we are trying to design a computer that is going to take care of the navigation of this thing. In other words, it seems to me that’s our central question. Is there a mechanism that you can put right in the center of the spaceship that will operate regardless of who is the captain on the quarterdeck at any one moment in time? I don’t think that’s an economic question. I think that’s a question that goes to religion.
I am presently involved in the counting down of the best Coldplay songs of all time, but I am also in a series here reviewing the upcoming songs on Coldplay’s new cd that will be released soon. Here is a review from Rolling Stone:
Coldplay
Debut new song ‘Charlie Brown’
June 6, 2011
Coldplay debuted a handful of new songs at the Rock am Ring festival in Nürburg, Germany yesterday, including this uptempo number called “Charlie Brown.” If there was every going to be a rock band to name a chiming, anthemic rock song after Charles Schultz’s perpetually glum and clumsy comic strip character, it would have to be Coldplay, right? It’s a very earnest song, but there’s a charming, self-aware bit of humor in Chris Martin invoking the iconic Peanuts sad sack.
Coldplay – Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall Published on Jun 28, 2011 by ColdplayVEVO The new single, taken from Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall EP (featuring two more new tracks). Download it from http://cldp.ly/itunescp Music video by Coldplay performing Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall. (P) 2011 The copyright in this audiovisual recording is owned by […]
This is “Music Monday” and I always look at a band with some of their best music. I am currently looking at Coldplay’s best songs. Here are a few followed by another person’s preference: My son Hunter is a coldplay nut and his 19th favorite song is “Glass of Water.” The whole album is very […]
This is “Music Monday” and I always look at a band with some of their best music. I am currently looking at Coldplay’s best songs. Here are a few followed by another person’s preference: My son Hunter’s 20th favorite song: Coldplay – Speed Of Sound Hunter Hatcher comments: Speed of sound takes me back to […]
Here is an article I wrote a couple of years ago: Solomon, Woody Allen, Coldplay and Kansas What does King Solomon, the movie director Woody Allen and the modern rock bands Coldplay and Kansas have in common? All four took on the issues surrounding death, the meaning of life and a possible afterlife, although they all came up with their own conclusions on […]
Coldplay – 42 Live Coldplay perform on the french television channel W9. I wrote this article a couple of years ago: The Spiritual Search for the Afterlife Russ Breimeier rightly noted that it seems that Coldplay is “on the verge of identifying a great Truth” and their latest CD is very provocative. Many songs mention […]
CP I wrote this article a couple of years ago. Are Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin looking for Spiritual Answers? Just like King Solomon’s predicament in the Book of Ecclesiastes, both of these individuals are very wealthy, famous, and successful, but they still are seeking satisfying answers to life’s greatest questions even though it seems […]
Coldplay seeks to corner the market on earnest and expressive rock music that currently appeals to wide audiences Here is an article I wrote a couple of years ago about Chris Martin’s view of hell. He says he does not believe in it but for some reason he writes a song that teaches that it […]
Views:2 By waymedia Coldplay Coldplay – Life In Technicolor ii Back in 2008 I wrote a paper on the spiritual themes of Coldplay’s album Viva La Vida and I predicted this spiritual search would continue in the future. Below is the second part of the paper, “Coldplay’s latest musical lyrics indicate a Spiritual Search for the […]
Coldplay performing “Glass of Water.” Back in 2008 I wrote a paper on the spiritual themes of Coldplay’s album Viva La Vida and I predicted this spiritual search would continue in the future. Below is the first part of the paper, “Coldplay’s latest musical lyrics indicate a Spiritual Search for the Afterlife.” Coldplay’s latest musical […]
Coldplay – Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall (Official) The new single – download it now from iTunes at http://cldp.ly/itunescp (except in the UK, where it will be released to download stores at 12.01am on Sunday June 5th). Written by Berryman / Buckland / Champion / Martin / Allen / Anderson. Produced by Markus Dravs, Dan […]
The Sixty Six who resisted “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal (Part 5)
This post today is a part of a series I am doing on the 66 Republican Tea Party favorites that resisted eating the “Sugar-coated Satan Sandwich” Debt Deal. Actually that name did not originate from a representative who agrees with the Tea Party, but from a liberal.
Rep. Emanuel Clever (D-Mo.) called the newly agreed-upon bipartisan compromise deal to raise the debt limit “a sugar-coated satan sandwich.”
“This deal is a sugar-coated satan sandwich. If you lift the bun, you will not like what you see,” Clever tweeted on August 1, 2011.
WASHINGTON (DC) Congressman Ben Quayle (R-AZ) released the following statement Monday after voting against the amended Budget Control Act:
“Last week I voted for the Boehner plan because— while imperfect—it made adequate strides to get our fiscal House in order. The final debt-ceiling bill, however, goes in a direction that I cannot support. Due to the design of the bill’s trigger mechanism, I am concerned that President Obama will be able to use the threat of tax hikes and drastic defense cuts to continue to amass record levels of spending.
“Though I didn’t support today’s bill, I want to commend Speaker Boehner and the House Republican Leadership for changing the culture in Washington and compelling Congressional Democrats and the Obama Administration to finally recognize how central America’s debt problem truly is.
“On another note, it was a very special moment seeing Congresswoman Gabby Giffords cast her vote on the House Floor tonight. Both sides of the aisle greeted her with a loud standing ovation. It was a nice way to end what has been a very tense few days in the House.”
Great documentary on Coldplay. I have written a lot on Coldplay the last few years and I see something spiritually happening with the group as they continue to search for a deeping meaning in life.
The ASTRA Award winning music documentary – Max Masters Coldplay – was voted MOST OUTSTANDING MUSIC PROGRAM for 2009.
Sarah Linton Productions and The Post Box produced the Max Masters documentary to coincide with the album release of ‘Viva la Vida’.
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Lead singer Chris Martin has said that the lyrics are about being devoted to someone, wanting to do anything for them – writing a song for them, swimming across the sea for them and so on. He said that it’s not necessarily a romantic devotion, but someone that you look up to and would do anything for, a brotherly love. (thanks, Adam – Sussex, England)
The band came up with the line “Look at the stars, look how they shine for you” after looking up at the night sky. They were recording in Wales, which had a nice, clear sky.
The color yellow can have many negative implications (“Yellow Journalism,” “Yellow Fever,” a “Yellow Card” for a foul in soccer), but for Coldplay, it is a beautiful color. According to lead singer Chris Martin, “It was simply because that word sounded nice, it just seemed to fit, no other reason. None of the other colors would have sounded right really!” The Beatles were kind to the color when they used it in their song “Yellow Submarine.”
Martin initially wrote the words and melody, then the rest of the band wrote the other bits and pieces (the hook, the riff, fillsetc.).
“Yellow” is a term that can mean cowardly or afraid. From this standpoint, the singer could be afraid and nervous to show his love, until he “ran across” and “jumped across” for her. He finally got the nerve to express his love. (thanks, Stefan – Winona, MN)
This was a hit in their native England, but it didn’t do nearly as well in the US, where it took Coldplay longer to catch on. The song did have tremendous crossover appeal, however, and got lots of airplay on Modern Rock, Adult Contemporary and Pop radio stations.
The video is one continuous shot of Chris Martin walking on a beach in England. The plan was to shoot the band walking along a sunny beach with lots of people lying around, but Coldplay drummer Will Champion’s mother died shortly before the shoot. The film crew and extras were already hired, so with the band’s blessing, Martin went by himself while the other members attended the funeral. It was raining that day, so instead of using the extras, they had Martin alone on the beach. Parachutes is dedicated to Champion’s mother. (thanks, Rich – Llanelli, Wales)
The video was shot at a fast shutter speed to achieve the slow-motion. In order for Martin to sing along, he had to lip-sync to the song played at double speed.
Coldplay was in England recording other tracks for the album while this was being mixed in New York. They hated the results of the mix and flew to New York to make sure they got the sound they were looking for.
ABC Television used this song to promote their shows. The campaign featured bright yellow backgrounds.
This won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album. This was nominated for Best Rock Song, but lost to “Drops Of Jupiter” by Train.
When performing this song, Chris Martin used to change the song’s melody. However, R.E.M’s Michael Stipe advised against it: “Stop doing that. People want to hear the songs the way they know them.” The Coldplay vocalist began singing all their songs in a straightforward way.
This song starts off with a guitar playing and then merges more into other instruments including drums. The singer, Chris Martin, then begins to sing after a small instrumental introduction. It is about 4 minutes 30 seconds long but every second of this song is like a bit of heaven.
I am immediately hooked by this song and it to me seems to the one of the best love songs out there. He talks about how everything is “yellow” and it is said that he choose this particular colour because he was thinking what to write in the blank and looked across at the yellow pages!
This wonderful love song expresses love to it’s fullest in where a person would give his/her all for the one they love and to me the chorus tells me that he is saying that the soul is what should be looked at when determining a lover. I don’t know if that is what he meant but this is what I choose to interpret it as.
This is “Music Monday” and I always look at a band with some of their best music. I am currently looking at Coldplay’s best songs. Here are a few followed by another person’s preference: My son Hunter is a coldplay nut and his 19th favorite song is “Glass of Water.” The whole album is very […]
This is “Music Monday” and I always look at a band with some of their best music. I am currently looking at Coldplay’s best songs. Here are a few followed by another person’s preference: My son Hunter’s 20th favorite song: Coldplay – Speed Of Sound Hunter Hatcher comments: Speed of sound takes me back to […]
Here is an article I wrote a couple of years ago: Solomon, Woody Allen, Coldplay and Kansas What does King Solomon, the movie director Woody Allen and the modern rock bands Coldplay and Kansas have in common? All four took on the issues surrounding death, the meaning of life and a possible afterlife, although they all came up with their own conclusions on […]
Coldplay – 42 Live Coldplay perform on the french television channel W9. I wrote this article a couple of years ago: The Spiritual Search for the Afterlife Russ Breimeier rightly noted that it seems that Coldplay is “on the verge of identifying a great Truth” and their latest CD is very provocative. Many songs mention […]
CP I wrote this article a couple of years ago. Are Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin looking for Spiritual Answers? Just like King Solomon’s predicament in the Book of Ecclesiastes, both of these individuals are very wealthy, famous, and successful, but they still are seeking satisfying answers to life’s greatest questions even though it seems […]
Coldplay seeks to corner the market on earnest and expressive rock music that currently appeals to wide audiences Here is an article I wrote a couple of years ago about Chris Martin’s view of hell. He says he does not believe in it but for some reason he writes a song that teaches that it […]
Views:2 By waymedia Coldplay Coldplay – Life In Technicolor ii Back in 2008 I wrote a paper on the spiritual themes of Coldplay’s album Viva La Vida and I predicted this spiritual search would continue in the future. Below is the second part of the paper, “Coldplay’s latest musical lyrics indicate a Spiritual Search for the […]
Coldplay performing “Glass of Water.” Back in 2008 I wrote a paper on the spiritual themes of Coldplay’s album Viva La Vida and I predicted this spiritual search would continue in the future. Below is the first part of the paper, “Coldplay’s latest musical lyrics indicate a Spiritual Search for the Afterlife.” Coldplay’s latest musical […]
Coldplay – Every Teardrop Is A Waterfall (Official) The new single – download it now from iTunes at http://cldp.ly/itunescp (except in the UK, where it will be released to download stores at 12.01am on Sunday June 5th). Written by Berryman / Buckland / Champion / Martin / Allen / Anderson. Produced by Markus Dravs, Dan […]
Former Arkansas Razorback and Chicago Bears great Dan Hampton shows off his Super Bowl ring while talking with Sport Talk – The High School Show host Dave Barr about everything from Ryan Mallett to high school sports. He was signing autographs during our remote at the Pleasant Grove Wal-Mart in Rogers.
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Former Arkansas Razorback Dan Hampton refuses President Obama’s invitation to the White House. I would have gone if it were me. It is an honor and you have to respect the office in my view. I am not a Democrat, but I would love to see the band Chicago play at 4pm this Saturday with the Clintons. The Arkansas Times Blog reported that tickets are free.
My good friends Craig and Dana Carney grew up in Jacksonville with Dan and remember when he was a band geek in the 10th grade for the Jacksonville Red Devils.
President Obama invited the 1985 Super Bowl championship team to visit Washington, D.C., earlier this month. The Bears had been scheduled to meet with President Reagan in January of 1986, but the Challenger disaster forced the White House to cancel the planned meeting.
Hampton gave three reasons for not attending:
1. Wives and children of the players weren’t invited.
That does seem like an oversight by whoever planned the meeting. Granted, children of the players are most likely adults by now so it’s not like a 5-year-old is getting snubbed, but surely the White House could have pulled out some more folding chairs for the event.
2. He says he’s “not a fan of the guy in the White House.”
A frequent reason given by those who decline White House invites, whether it be for Obama or any president who came before him. This sounds lame and takes a tremendous lack of perspective. Declining an opportunity to go to the White House and shake hands with the President of the United States because you don’t like the guy’s opinion on health care seems petty. Does Hampton not have any friends who are Democrats?
3. “It was 25 years ago. Let it go.”
I’m sort of on Hampton’s side on this one (though not enough to make it a valid excuse for declining). It’s not like every Super Bowl team was going to the White House back then; the Bears were only the second team to get the invite. The 25-year-old canceled visit is a thinly veiled excuse to invite the team from Obama’s adopted hometown for a visit. What about other championship squads? Where’s John Riggins’ and The Hogs’ invite? The 1974 Dolphins can’t get any love?! (And Florida’s a swing state, Barack!)
The showdown in Wisconsin has generated competing claims about whether state and local government bureaucrats are paid too much or paid too little compared to their private sector counterparts.
This is a fair point, so we need to find some objective measure that neutralizes all the possible differences. Fortunately, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has a Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, and this “JOLTS” data includes a measure of how often workers voluntarily leave job, and we can examine this data for different parts of the workforce.
Every labor economist, right or left, will agree that higher “quit rates” are much more likely in sectors that are underpaid and lower levels are much more likely in sectors where compensation is generous.
Not surprisingly, this data shows state and local bureaucrats are living on Easy Street. As the chart illustrates, private sector workers are more than three times as likely to quit their jobs.
This helps explain why the unions are treating the Wisconsin debate as if it was Custer’s Last Stand. The bureaucrats know they have comfortable sinecures and they are fighting to preserve their unfair privileges.
This Center for Freedom and Prosperity video looks at all of the data and reveals a pecking order. Federal bureaucrats are at the kings and queens of compensation. State and local bureaucrats are like the nobility. And private sector taxpayers are the serfs that worker harder and earn less, but nonetheless finance the entire racket.
The video closes with a very important point that the right pay level for many bureaucrats is zero. This is because they work for programs, departments, and agencies that should not exist.
What do the Department of Justice, the National Federation of Independent Business and 26 state Attorneys General have in common?
They’ve all requested writs of certiorari from the United States Supreme Court to determine the fate of ObamaCare in the matter of United States Department of Health and Human Services v. State of Florida.
Politico thinks the DoJ request means President Barack Obama is either very smart … or very dumb:
It could be one of the smartest political moves the Obama administration has made — or a historic mistake that could kill not just the health care reform law but the president’s chances for reelection, too.
By asking the Supreme Court to rule so quickly on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, the administration is taking a huge risk that the justices will rule against the law right in the middle of the 2012 race — either striking down the whole law or just slicing out the requirement for nearly all Americans to buy health coverage.
The only person seeming to be of little or no weight, worth or importance in the context of this story is our own Attorney General Dustin McDaniel. It was his office that supplied the quote above by way of explaining why he chose to forgo joining the 26 other states that now seem poised to have their day before the Justices.
So our questions to Mr. McDaniel are thus: Do you still maintain that this suit is frivolous given the Obama Administration’s cert petition? And will you stand with 26 other Attorneys General and the people of Arkansas in their effort to fight this unconstitutional law?
Or will you side with Mr. Obama?
And don’t think we don’t remember how Mr. McDaniel availed himself of the opportunity for Democratic brownie points by testifying in support of Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor–a likely yes vote on the ObamaCare issue.
We spy Dustin!
Gotta love C-SPAN.
Anyone think there might be a television commercial running in the spring of 2014 with juxtaposed images of Mr. McDaniel and Ms. Sotomayor?
Red Arkansas Blog wrote a good piece that I wanted to pass along. What do the Department of Justice, the National Federation of Independent Business and 26 state Attorneys General have in common? They’ve all requested writs of certiorari from the United States Supreme Court to determine the fate of ObamaCare in the matter of […]
Obamacare at the Supreme Court The time is finally here for the Supreme Court to hear this case. Obamacare Has Arrived in the Supreme Court Hans von Spakovsky September 28, 2011 at 11:00 am The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) stole a march on the Obama Administration this morning by filing a petition with […]
The third monthly luncheon with featured speaker Ernest Istook was excellent. First, we got to hear from Dave Elswick of KARN who came up with the idea of this luncheon, and then from Teresa Crossland of Americans for Prosperity. Below is a portion of Istook’s biography from the Heritage Foundation: Ernest Istook Distinguished Fellow Government Studies Ernest […]
While many people have a fairly good grasp of what inflation is, few really understand its fundamental cause. There are many popular scapegoats: labor unions, big business, spendthrift consumers, greed, and international forces. Dr. Friedman explains that the actual cause is a government that has exclusive control of the money supply.
Friedman says that the solution to inflation is well known among those who have the power to stop it: simply slow down the rate at which new money is printed. But government is one of the primary beneficiaries of inflation. By inflating the currency, tax revenues rise as families are pushed into higher income tax brackets. Thus, inflation transfers wealth and resources from the private to the public sector. In short, inflation is attractive to government because it is a way of increasing taxes without having to pass new legislation to raise tax rates. Inflation is in fact taxation without representation.
Wage and price controls are not the cure for inflation because they treat only the symptom (rising prices) and not the disease (monetary expansion). History records that such controls do not work; instead, they have perverse effects on both prices and economic growth and undermine the fundamental productivity of the economy. There is only one cure for inflation: slow the printing presses. But the cure produces the painful side effects of a temporary increase in unemployment and reduced economic growth. It takes considerable political courage to undergo the cure.
Friedman cites the example of Japan, which successfully underwent the cure in the mid-seventies but took five years to squeeze inflation out of the system. Inflation is a social disease that has the potential for destroying a free society if it is unchecked. Prolonged inflation undermines belief in the basic equity of the free market system because it tends to destroy the link between effort and reward. And it tears the social fabric because it divides society into winners and losers and sets group against group.
Hannah Goodwyn serves as the Entertainment producer for CBN.com. For more articles and information, visit Hannah’s bio page.
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