Black or White
John Aubrey Anderson

After a few chapters, I was starting to compare John Aubrey Anderson to early Frank Peretti, as there is definitely some focus on the kinds of spiritual warfare that one sees in This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness. And I would certainly mean the comparison as a compliment — especially for a first-time novelist. But in retrospect, that really wouldn’t be a fair comparison, as Anderson finds his own voice very quickly.

Black or White takes place in rural Mississippi in the 1940s and 1950s. Although the story encompasses many characters, the two best friends that are focused on are Missy Parker, a 7-year-old white girl, and Junior Washington, an 11-year-old black boy. The Parkers and Washingtons live near each other, and Junior’s father is employed by Missy’s father at his cotton gin.

The racial differences play very interestingly. Given the time and place of the story, segregation runs pretty rampant in general society, but the Parkers don’t buy into it. If anything, the Washingtons have to remind them occasionally of their “place” in such a society. Sometimes the Parkers don’t care; other times, they understand that they’d be doing more harm than good to their black friends.

Fairly early in the story, we begin seeing the spiritual warfare going on around the lives of these people. As I said, it’s a bit reminiscent of early Peretti, but not derivative. And as the book unfolds, we see that it’s not as pervasive either. Certainly the spiritual issues are in the forefront, but it’s only occasionally that we see past the visible.

I’ll tell ya — Anderson really knows how to keep his readers going. He is able to deliver a tense scene with an unknown outcome stretched out over several chapters without frustrating the reader. And on the flip side, when the action slows, the story is just as interesting as it works as a character study. All in all, this is fabulous depth for a first-timer.

Throughout the story, knowing God and making Him known is the over-riding theme. As the book starts, the Washingtons are actual Christians, whereas the Parkers are good people who go to church because mama went to church. Events unfold such that the Washingtons are able to show the Parkers the difference eventually.

There’s not a whole lot more that I can say about the book without spoiling things. Suffice it to say that Black or White is a great read, and I’m looking forward to the other books in this series.

I just got thanked for attending a mandatory meeting.

Now THIS is a vehicle!!

HT to BHT.

From the guys that brought you the Micro$oft Surface parody comes a parody of the Nintendo Wii Fit.

HT to Kommander Krusty.

Jimmy Carter criticizing the Bush administration is about as surprising as Atlanta pollen in April. His latest statement that this administration is “the worst in history” isn’t really surprising either. As he becomes more and more irrelevant, he has to say increasingly outlandish things to get back in the spotlight and pimp his latest book.

But another statement that he made was so crazy, that its cognitive dissonance is hilarious. Having beat the Iraq War drum into the ground, Carter went after the Faith-Based Initiative program:

“The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion,” Carter said. “As a traditional Baptist, I’ve always . . . .”

Because, as we all know, “traditional Baptist” money has “always” been given liberally to whomever needed it, regardless of their belief system. That’s why I left the SBC — when I found out that my offerings were being used to re-build Buddhist temples.

(or any philadelphian who votes for obama should be drowned in swiss cheese)

At least John Kerry had the right idea to pander in Philadelphia. Yeah, he ordered his cheesesteak with SWISS cheese (shudder) and ate it like his charm school teachers showed him and the other girls how. But at least he gave it the old elementary-school try.

Barack Obama didn’t even do that:

Sen. Barack Obama sampled $100 [per pound] ham, but didn’t chow down on a cheesesteak during a visit to the Italian Market yesterday.

Yeah, ’cause nothing says pleasing the blue-collar Philly crowd like munching on insanely-expensive foreign ham.

By the way, before the hordes of Hillary Clinton supporters that read this blog get excited, she hasn’t been to Pat’s or Geno’s either.

But Obama last night told a crowd of supporters gathered at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, “I’m going to get a cheesesteak the next time I come.”

What? You mean you’re stupid enough to come back to this city?

HT to Philadelphia Daily News by way of Michelle Malkin

Here is how I thought it was supposed to work:

• Clinton supporters play the sex card (if you don’t support her, you’re being sexist)
• Obama supporters play the race card (if you don’t support him, you’re being racist)

Then a Clinton supporter comes along and plays the race card.

My inner eight-year-old just fell out of his chair laughing. Everything about this post is juvenile. If you can’t think of any occasion or demographic in which a fart joke would be funny, then don’t bother reading this.

First, we have the latest Wii console game from Japan: Super Pii Pii Brothers

And, not to be outdone by those dang ferners, we have a US product: BARF Frozen Dog Food

WordPress was today bought by the Gannett Company (publishers of USA Today) for the sum of $42,042,042.42. Gannett immediately went to work on colorizing the administrative dashboard of the popular freeware blogging software: