It is the perfect holiday weekend with great weather, good friends, family and fun.

My family is very patient with my quirks. I’m here, but sometimes not here…
Aware of how blessed I am even in the midst of festivities, my mind meanders farther than the ground I stand on.

Where are you now? is a question they often don’t ask, because I tend to answer. :^)
No point in spoiling a party….

Laos
The BBC has a report that Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders are trying to stay on top of.

A court in Laos has sentenced two European journalists and an American pastor to 15 years in jail, in connection with the killing of a village security guard.

They were sentenced after a two and half hour trial. There is no mention of any church organizations stepping forward for the pastor, Naw Karl Mua.
Laos is a communist country with a population of 52 million. The average income yearly is $300.00US.

Nigeria
What would westerners do if gas prices went up 54% overnight?
Nigeria’s capital is tense after riot police moved in to control a general strike.

Where do you lean?
PM Pilgrim has a great rant on what god-bloggers focus on.

The gospel is a challenge to all of us to accept the free gift. It is about the love of God. Sometimes we have to point out sin. But I have a hunch that sometimes what we need to do more is offer people our hand and friendship in love and grace and let them know how we have overcome the sins of our lives in Jesus. That is a whole lot more hopeful than talking about how bad someone else is. ‘Cause that someone else is me.

So, enough of a rant. We won’t get rid of sin. We won’t stop sin. All we can do is become a community of brothers and sisters who have found a better way.

Yeah. Beggers telling other beggers where to find bread.

Shooting the messengers
Dave Winer, founder of Radio/Userland, has helped thousands and thousands of people get into blogging. He took his blog down with a firm statement.
He’s back, and hopefully his point is well taken. People have limits, and it is people that blog.

Tropical Bill
While I enjoy a nice weather day, millions of people aren’t.

Good News for bloggers
Can my American readers tell me what this means for them? And those of us on US servers? It’s a ninth circuit court of appeals ruling. It deals with libel and republishing and free speech.

“One-way news publications have editors and fact-checkers, and they’re not just selling information — they’re selling reliability,” said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “But on blogs or e-mail lists, people aren’t necessarily selling anything, they’re just engaging in speech. That freedom of speech wouldn’t exist if you were held liable for every piece of information you cut, paste and forward.”