Stateside With Rosalea: Superstars On Sunday

**Whatsisface Superstar**

Eewww! Did I detect a tinge of green in the aura of White House chief of staff Andrew Card this morning when he was asked on ABC's This Week how he felt about presidential adviser Karl Rove having been considered for Time magazine's Person of the Year award? According to Card, Rove's a "superstar" so that's why he was considered.

Later in the interview, Card called someone else a superstar so the word seems to have stuck in his mind for whatever reason. As he defended everything the president is planning to do in his second administration and all that transpired in the first, Card began to sound more and more like Comical Ali, and his obvious discomfort made him look more and more like Al "wooden spatula" Gore.

Not surprisingly perhaps. Card trained as an engineer and has split his time between representing automobile manufacturers inside and outside the government, so obviously he's just your regular nuts and bolts kinda guy.

**Thingamabob Superstar**

Very common on the news and in the papers of late are lamentations about how stores are having Holiday Sales and people wish you Happy Holidays. Folks who grew up celebrating this season as Christmas--and they make up the vast majority of those who claim a religious affiliation here in the States--are getting a lot of airtime and page space on the matter.

Now, I have no way of gauging whether this is a new phenomenon or just simply one that is being brought to the fore, for whatever reason, by the media. But, golly, when Bob Schieffer devotes his commentary to it at the end of this morning's Face the Nation, then you better believe the attention's not going away any time soon.

**Son of Mary and Joseph Superstar**

Actually, the most awkward moment regarding this phenomenon came on a Saturday morning gospel show I was listening to on listener-supported radio station KPFA, whose mission is the very epitome of inclusiveness. The DJ played a song from a live album that's being released in 2005 of Kirk Franklin singing Jesus is the Sweetest Name I Know.

In his intro to the song Franklin says that he's tired of being politically correct, and that you hear a lot of talk about God these days--from the Muslims and the Jews--but you never hear the name Jesus. He tells his audience of "bloodwashed believers" that Jews, Buddhists, Muslims will all be on their knees before the Lord when He returns. Lord save us, is all I can say!

**African Superstar**

With all the business in October surrounding the election, I missed the news of who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize so I'm grateful to This Week for showing some clips today of the recipient, Wangari Muta Maathai, looking so delighted and so impassioned about her belief that from small seeds mighty trees do grow.

Please take the time to read her December 10th Nobel Lecture at

http://www.nobel.no/eng_lect_2004b.html

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