So we move to Texas -- nearer to my beloved Rangers -- and are welcomed to our new home with 12 losses in the last 13 games.

Is there any room on the Astros bandwagon?

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From the files of straining a gnat and swallowing a camel:

"Canceled by Georgia football fans, a campaign to pay for the father of a Boise State football player to travel from Iraq to Athens, Georgia to watch the two teams play on September 3. Several members of an Internet messge board for Georgia fans took up a collection to raise $2,700 for Dan Miller, the father of Boise State offensive guard Tad Miller, after reading about him in a newspaper. (Dan is a retired police lieutenant who's training police officers in Baghdad.) But NCAA compliance officers at both schools quashed the idea because the payment would violate the NCAA rules that bar athletes and their families from receiving special benefits from fans or boosters. 'Makes no sense to me,' said Sam Hendrix, the Georgia fan who launched the campaign. 'It just hits me that...(the NCAA has) lost touch with reality'" (Sports Illustrated, Vol. 103, No. 7, P. 20).

Sounds like the frustration of Sam Hendrix echoes the often exasperated tone of Jesus at the misguided focus of the Pharisees. Remember their rules regarding the Sabbath? The Sabbath, meant to bless the people of God turned into the most awful day of burden by the time the Pharisees finished fencing their mandates around the Sabbath principle.

God bless you and me today to get His point...not to embark on an adventure in missing the point!