this isn’t the first time i’ve blogged about conversations on real time with bill maher. in spite of having regular (weekly, probably) disagreements with some of maher’s positions, it’s one of my favorite shows because of the blend of maher’s humor and the show’s candid conversations.

i’m not a walmart hater. i have many friends who are, but i’m not. at all. in fact, i think walmart is actually good for communities. there’s certainly some negatives that come with its presence, but ultimately, i think offering products at lower prices is good for lower income families.

i say that simply to establish that i’m not the type who looks for reasons to bash walmart.

but yesterday, as i entered a local walmart, i was greeted with a large sign that hung above the entrance. here’s the sign:

why am i blogging about penn jillette? moreover than that, why am i blogging about penn jillette again?

if, over the last couple days, you were to take a peek at the theological social media circles i run in, you’d be hard-pressed to miss the stunning story that matthew paul turner shared on his blog. delivered in 2 parts (part 1 and part 2), he shared the story of a guy named andrew who, until recently, was a member of mark driscoll’s mars hill church in seattle. you can read turner’s posts to get the full story, but in essence, this guy became subject to church discipline for confessing to sleeping with his fiancée and for having an inappropriate (platonic) relationship with another girl.

over the last couple weeks, as jeff bethke’s video (above), ‘why i hate religion, but love jesus’, was hitting critical mass on the web, i began writing a post about it. that post quickly made its way to my ‘drafts’ folder (which only has 5 posts all-time). it wasn’t that it was particularly controversial or incomplete, it was just that i felt like the support & the criticism across the internet was overstated and largely unhelpful. the web really didn’t need one more blog post.

but.

hands down, my favorite christmas album (or albums, i guess i should say) is sufjan’s christmas collection, songs for christmas. between 2001 and 2006, sufjan recorded a series of EPs for friends and family each christmas. finally, these were all released to the public and have become a staple for me.

if you’ve never seen hbo’s boardwalk empire, some have described it as the sopranos set during prohibition. while that might be an overly simple description, it does offer a bit of insight into the nature of the show: gangsters, deceit, betrayal and violence all executed perfectly by a brilliant script, visionary directors and an inspired cast.

while the entire season (the show’s second) has been a good one, this past sunday’s episode was particularly powerful. a lot of major plot twists and character insights were contained in this episode, but it was a simple dialogue that most caught my attention.