Sterling Griggs

The Inspirational Journey of Team Hoyt

Check out these crazy pictures: Far right: A blob of dried chocolate that dribbled from a factory vat has been turned into a shrine - because workers believe it looks like the Virgin Mary! Below left: Our Lady of the Underpass in Chicago that has people flocking to pay homage to the likeness of the Virgin Mary that has shown up underneath a highway bridge. Left: Virgin Mary toast - supposedly a vision of the virgin Mary on a piece of toast that someone actually bought for $28,000 from an online auction! It's amazing what some people will do to try and validate or add depth to their relationship with God. If you ever find me worshiping cheese bread or kissing a highway bridge, don't follow my example. Take me to get my head examined!

With the five-year observance of September 11, 2001, just recently passed, I stumbled across some interesting and sometimes disturbing beliefs that people have about what truly happened that day. Basically, there are many in our country that hold that 9-11 was nothing more than an elaborate plan implemented by our government. In other words, our government was behind the attacks on 9-11 and were responsible for the death and destruction on that day. Those who espouse these conspiracy theories base their beliefs on their own "common sense" and they believe that their point of view is easily believed with an open mind. Consider some of the reasons that they give: The damage to the Pentagon was not consistent with the damage that a fully fueled 767 would have done and the surviving wreckage doesn't match the jet that crashed. There has been no convincing video footage provided by the government that shows a plane hitting the Pentagon, even though such video is said to ex...

I ran across this article on the web the other day and had to reread it just to make sure that I was getting the facts straight. It seems like people may not be to blame after all if they are overweight. The International Congress on Obesity believes that there may be environmental and genetic contributors to obesity and therefore being overweight might not be your fault. Really? You mean, if I sit around without exercising and eating chips and snacks all day, it's not my fault if I'm fat? You mean, I'm not responsible? There are some people who have medical conditions that lead to weight problems, but to say that the rest of us might be able to write off our weight problems to genetics is ridiculous at best. It's theories like this that are working to destroy the concept of personal responsibility. We see this in so many areas: people who sue tobacco companies after they get sick from smoking for 40 years, those who blame society for all their problems, ...