Author: Jonathan Blundell

I'm a husband, father of three, blogger, podcaster, author and media geek who is hoping to live a simple life and follow The Way.

Quote of the day

“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
Theodore Roosevelt 1907

You’re not always right

Kevin Hendricks has some great thoughts on sharing our faith and beliefs with others. Sounds a lot like me…

I used to think obnoxious but true statements were a great way to tell people about my faith. I’d buy T-shirts plastered with them, bumper stickers proclaiming them, even music centered around them. I was very proud of my boldness.

But I didn’t realize how completely ineffective it was. I didn’t realize that instead of opening a door of conversation, I was kicking in the door and slapping the owner in the face–and expecting them to be grateful.

It’s kind of embarrassing when I think back on it. I’ve since realized (and am continually reminded) that is no way to change minds.

You Need a Connection
Bumper stickers don’t convince anyone. They’re intended to be inspirational–a rallying cry for the troops–not conversional (can I make up that word?). At best they’re confrontational–and how effective is confrontation from a total stranger?

If you really want to change someone’s mind, you need a relationship, a connection, a story. And if you really hope to change someone’s mind, you better be prepared to have your own mind changed. Perhaps not your core convictions changed, but your assumptions, your judgments, your impressions will be changed. It has to be a two-way street, otherwise you’re not listening.

Who did you twitter about on Super Tuesday

Twitter just released a graph showing name mentions of all the remaining presidential candidates on Super Tuesday.

Looks like Obama was the clear winner with each candidate getting a spike when they spoke that night.

See the graph for yourself.

And here’s a look at Twitter traffic during the Super Bowl.

Oh – and according to the Twitter blog – looks like AT&T was sucking up all my SMS messages last week and early this week.

The first question

219px-mdhuckabee.jpg
From Mike Huckabee:

The first question I am often asked these days is: “Why are you still running for President?”

It is because I believe that I am the best candidate to represent you in the fall against the Democrats. Why? Because I have core conservative beliefs that I have never wavered from:

I believe in the Human Life Amendment and I will fight for it from Day 1 of my Presidency.

I believe in the Marriage Amendment.

I believe in massive tax reform and am an advocate of the FairTax.

I believe that President Bush’s tax cuts should be made permanent.

I believe in the Surge, our troops and General Petraeus.

I believe the 2nd amendment is one of the best ways to protect us from tyranny and I will work tirelessly to protect it from activist judges.

I believe in real border security and have proposed a detailed 9 point plan to secure our borders.

I believe the best judge is a conservative judge that won’t legislate from the bench.

These are some of the reasons why I am running for President and let me also say that YOU are another reason. I am running to give you a voice in the process. To lift up your voice with mine and to tell our Party and our government that we need to do better. We need to think big and fight for our ideas.

There’s lots of voting left to be done before our Republican Party’s nominee is decided.