AJS OPINION
Opinion: A belief or conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by knowledge or proof.

For all you West Side Story or musical fans here is a good one.  Thanks for the link to Leonard Sweet.

or click here to the link.

I was sent a link to this song, thanks Cath.

Well I think thanks, but it is quite confronting!

Another view with some wisdom in it!

My Thoughts on Michael Jackson

There has been so much in the Media about Michael Jackson this weekend. As for how I feel to a large degree I’m sad, in fact I was sad before he died. Michael was an Icon of my teen years and his music defined many of the moments I had as a teenager and musician. It made me sad to see him abuse his body and have so much plastic surgery. It made me sad to see him abused by minders, sad to see his family subjected to a bizarre lifestyle and sad to see him go from the king of pop to the joke of his later years.

He was an amazing singer song writer, dancer, and performer. and the things he broke open set the scene for all the music to come after him.

SO I hope History will be kind to him and remember what he achieved and not the bizarre lifestyle of the last few years. In my view he was a gentle and innocent soul who was misunderstood and abused by those around him. His naive nature meant he constantly was set up to fail and to fall into the bizarre and weird.

The challenge I feel as I watch all the tributes is, what is my legacy? am I prepared to be a pioneer? am I prepared to lead instead of follow? am I prepared to challenge the perceptions of me or do I believe what others say, even when it’s not true? am I naive? am I prepared to walk the lonely track of creativity at any cost or am I. to quote jack Black on school of Rock…"owned by the man"!

So thanks to Michael and for his gifts to the world, may he rest in Peace and I hope have found commitment to Christ as a part of his walk so that in heaven when we sing together there will be that characteristic sound of Michael singing with all his might for something of greater value than anything the earth could ever offer.

Richard’s Ramblings: My Thoughts on Michael Jackson

Wisdom from a Facebook friend.

Sue Seegers at 4:58pm June 27

You know this note has made me think.
I actually don’t think that people care any more that MJ passed away than they would their friend Bob next door.
The difference is that so many people worldwide know MJ or know who he is (same for any celebrity), so the grieving can be done as a group rather than just alone with no-one else noticing. It’s not that the world has stopped, but that the world all has the same topic on their mind just at this moment. That doesn’t make it any more significant than any other death, just larger in impact of who knows….

Facebook | Andrew Snook

This just goes to show I am by far in the minority! 

Google mistakes Jackson queries for attack

Posted 5 hours 24 minutes ago
Updated 5 hours 25 minutes ago

A deluge of search queries for Michael Jackson led Google News, the news aggregator of Web search engine Google, to initially believe it was under attack, the internet giant said on Friday (local time).

Google, in a blog post on the company website, said that "millions and millions" of people around the world begin searching for news about the pop star on Thursday as reports emerged about his hospitalisation and death.

It rated the "hotness" of Jackson-related searches as "volcanic."

"The spike in searches related to Michael Jackson was so big that Google News initially mistook it for an automated attack," Google said.

"As a result, for about 25 minutes yesterday, when some people searched Google News they saw a ‘We’re sorry’ page before finding the articles they were looking for," it said.

The "We’re sorry" page tells users their query "looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application" and forces them to type in a series of squiggly characters before it will process their request.

Popular micro-blogging service Twitter also suffered a slowdown in performance on Thursday as users exchanged thousands of messages per minute about Jackson’s death at the age of 50.

Web portal AOL said its AIM instant messaging service was down for about 40 minutes.

Yahoo! said the news area on its front page received five times its normal traffic and its front page story "Michael Jackson rushed to hospital" was its "highest clicking story" ever with 800,000 clicks within 10 minutes.

Google mistakes Jackson queries for attack - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I will say right off the top that I am well aware I don’t speak for the majority and that I don’t get the music industry.   But I really can’t understand the response to Michael Jackson’s death.  He was at best an artist and I just don’t see the great significance in his contribution.  I don’t see what positive change his “art” brought to our communities.

The media response is just over the top.  I saw this cartoon that sums it up for me.

The response is manufactured, and really says nothing!  it is just part of creating this myth called the Celebrity.

This is an interesting concept.  The questions is it is wrong, how do we attract and keep men interested.  If it is right, will it work and once the beer is gone will men stay?  We need to know the answers to this issue!

Church blesses fathers with beer - Telegraph 

Church blesses fathers with beer

Bottles of beer will be given to fathers who attend church, in an alternative "blessing" for Father’s Day.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM BST 20 Jun 2009

A senior bishop has backed the move, which is part of a Church of England initiative to put a Christian emphasis on the annual celebration of fatherhood.

Concerns over the lack of men attending services year-round has led clergy to offer a range of incentives today, including free beer, bacon rolls and chocolate bars.

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It is the first time that the Church has attempted to treat Fathers’ Day in the same way as Mothering Sunday, which has traditionally formed part of its calendar.

The plan to distribute ale has upset groups working to tackle alchohol abuse, but the Rt Rev John Inge, the Bishop of Worcester, said that it could help churches to attract more men.

He argued that the free beer was intended to be symbolic of "the generosity of God".

Men at St Stephen’s church in Barbourne, Worcester, will be handed bottles of beer by children during the service. A prayer will be said for the fathers before the gifts are distributed.

The Ven Roger Morris, archdeacon of Worcester, who will be leading the service at St Stephen’s today, said that it was a practical way of sending a message to fathers.

"I don’t see any other time that we can stop and remember fathers, and this is a gesture saying ‘Here’s something that will bless you,’" he said.

"Posies of flowers are given to mums on Mothering Sunday and we wanted to give a laddish, blokeish gift to the men. A bottle of beer hits the mark. The whole of life is to be celebrated in church."

However, Don Shenker, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, criticised the Church, claiming that it was acting irresponsibly.

"Bearing in mind the country is facing rising health harms from its high level of alcohol consumption, anyone in a position of authority or respect should perhaps think twice about promoting alcohol to the public," he said.

Bishop Inge said that it was wrong to claim that the move would encourage alcholism, and encouraged churches to use it as a way to reach out to men.

"Jesus created a lot more wine at a point in the party when some thought that there had already been enough drinking. He was all in favour of partying," the bishop said.

"We give wine away every Sunday, so giving away beer could be said to going downmarket a bit, but it’s an attempt to speak of God’s generosity.

"It’s something that could be used as part of a service to encourage fathers to come. Once they are in church, hopefully they will be challenged by the deeper questions around fatherhood."

The bishop said that the Church was keen to support fathers and "to do everything possible to encourage them to take their responsibility very seriously".

A survey conducted by Opinion Business Research (ORB) found that less than a fifth of men claim to attend some type of church service once a month, compared with more than a quarter of women.

Some churches are trying to lure men back with the offer of free food. St Michael’s, Amersham, Buckinghamshire, is holding a Hog Roast on the church forecourt and St Mary’s, Arnold, Nottingham, will serve bacon rolls as men arrive at its service.

The Church has also published resources for clergy to use to hold special Fathers’ Day services, including prayers for children to thank their fathers.

Church blesses fathers with beer - Telegraph

Would I be wrong to think that the disease in the green wedge as been deemed to may be affect those in a specific section of the world and thus has grabbed the major attention?

Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog: Interesting… Swine Flu in Perspective…

Will we one day look out from the West and care about what we see?

I preached today at Berwick Church of Christ.  The message was from Numbers 22 about Balaam and his Donkey.  I hope it challenges you to make a difference!