found it on digg.com

...and these are the pictures i took from my window...


he was in baltimore yesterday to meet with a faith based program. apparently, he shared about how his faith helped him overcome his alcohol addiction. watch the video here

the motorcade included about 10 police motorcycles, 5 passenger vans, a bunch of black suburbans, a police helicopter, an ambulance, some tricked out SUVs with mega antennas on them (they looked like car-sized nokia cell-phones with wheels), and a limousine with flags on the hood.

i have always heard it said that there are decoy vehicles to mask the president's actual location, but with "W", i get the feeling he has some fun with it.  you know, really switching it up on people. i wouldn't be surprised if he came out in the morning and said, "Well boys, I think I'd like to saddle up and drive the ambulance over there today."

to get the motorcade from dc to baltimore, they closed every road along the way 30 minutes ahead of time...including the 35 mile stretch of I-95N !  Martin Luther King Blvd., the road in the picture, was closed for at least 1 hour in the morning and another hour for W's ride home (where he most likely dressed up in a motorcycle cop uniform, rode the police harley, and yelled "wooo,doggy" all the way home)  

i have a secret appreciation for counter culture.  i think that's why i like living in baltimore's arts district.  in our part of town, you can go outside wearing anything you want.  its is like being a kid again because you can wear green socks, two different colored shoes, pants that don't really fit and a t-shirt from 1973 and no one will say a thing.

obviously, i don't always approve of the methods or reasons groups or individuals counter their culture.  what i appreciate is the natural inner strength it takes for someone to do something differently and to sometimes stand alone. i feel like the ability to counter a culture is a gift of God, but it is a gift that can be used for the bad, good or great depending our choice.  i secretly appreciate my tattooed, occasionally bathed, pixie-haired neighbors because i believe they won't just take up another seat at church when they are filled with the new life of Christ, they are more likely to counter all cultures that stand against the kingdom of God.

i believe Christ calls people to a counter culture.  not a counter culture marked with a apathy and general disdain for the "status quo", but a counter culture marked with passion and strategy at bringing down the strongholds and sins of our generation.

John 15:19 (NLT)
The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.

1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

Hebrews 11:13 
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.