Five Least Favorite
As I sit here at a restaurant, I started wondering what my five least favorite foods are. Then I thought, “Why not write a blog on my five least favorite foods, Bible characters, and Presidents.” I bet no one else has ever written a blog exactly like that.
Let’s start with the foods. I can’t help but think of George HW Bush, who caused quite a storm when he told the world he hated broccoli. He said he hated it when he was a child and he hated it as an adult. He went a little bit further saying that now that he was President, he didn’t have to eat it anymore.
Truckloads of broccoli showed up in Washington DC to protest such an outrageous statement. Personally, I’m a big fan of broccoli, but I completely understand those foods you were “forced to eat” as a child being off limits to your adult menu. Most, but not all, of my five least favorite foods have been around since my childhood.
Although I’m going to save my least, least favorite food till the last ones, don’t get me wrong, I will avoid all five of them if at all possible. Being an adult does have some advantages.
My five least favorite Presidents have either personally affected my life, or their style has not been to my liking. Whether someone likes or dislikes a President is a matter of personal choice. These are my five least favorite Presidents.
One of my favorite things to read in the Bible is the different characters that pop up and how they handle different situations. I have found that even with those who generally get portrayed poorly, I can even find some motivation for my life. That influence might happen to be how not to do it through.
Here we go:
Fifth Least Favorites:
Oatmeal and Grits – Perhaps the most-bland food on the face of the earth. The gritty texture makes me think this must be what it is like to eat sand. Some people tell me, “You just need to put some fruit in it.” To this I reply, “Why don’t I just eat the fruit by itself?”
I will sometimes eat oatmeal every day for a couple of weeks before I go for tests my doctor sends me to. You have to get those cholesterol numbers down, so you don’t hear about it during your next doctor’s appointment, don’t you?
I have also had grits mixed with shrimp and lots of cheese. Of course, anything with shrimp and cheese would be good to me. I guess I just totally ignored the grit part because the other parts were so good.
President Jimmy Carter – Oh, I’m so, so sorry to have to put him on this list. He has done so much since he has left the Presidency that it almost makes you forget how bad his Presidency actually was. I usually try to shy away from political things on this website, but his term personally affected me.
Just graduating from high school, I had the world to conquer. I took a job as a plumber’s helper while I was still living with my parents. The Dodge Aries I purchased was my first new car. The 21% interest I paid on it didn’t hurt until the economy crashed, my hours were cut, and just about all my paycheck went to paying for that car.
Then came the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Every night on the news the anchormen let us know that this was day whatever it was until the Crisis ended on day 444, or on Ronald Reagan’s inauguration day. Carter tried. In the middle of it, he sent some helicopters in to rescue them, but those helicopters crashed in the middle of a desert before they even got there to rescue the hostages.
The economy crash, foreign affairs were a disaster, and poor Jimmy would go down to a landslide defeat in the next Presidential election. Surprisingly, the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate were all from the same party during Carter’s term. They just couldn’t get along. Sound familiar?
Cain – We might as well just start at the beginning. God created Adam and Eve. Out of that relationship they produced their first two children: Cain and Abel. The two brothers made sacrifices to God. God liked Abel’s sacrifice better and Cain decided he would fix that problem, he killed Abel.
So, two generations in, we have the world’s first murder. It’s not one of those motive type murders where one person does something to another and revenge boils over to murder. No, Abel didn’t do anything to Cain. He was just showing God how much he loved Him. Basically, Cain kills Abel because Abel gave God a better gift.
Maybe I’m just getting old, but one of the most annoying things to me is selfishness. It’s not that I’m immune to this, because I get just upset with myself as I do with others when selfishness is the main motive in someone else’s or my life. People just don’t give God the opportunity to take care of them because they are too busy taking care of themselves.
Cain’s main motive was selfishness. He never thought of the world around him or how the effects things he would do would affect others. Instead of taking God’s rebuke as something he could improve on, Cain decided his way was the only way to resolve the situation.
Fourth Least Favorite:
Asparagus – Maybe the best way to describe this vegetable is to go out in your yard and cut a twig off one of the branches of a tree. Now spray paint it green and eat it. Welcome to the asparagus world, except the painted twig might taste better.
This tends to be one of those vegetables that costs a little more. Maybe it’s the spray paint. But my parents didn’t have a lot of money, so we didn’t have to suffer with this vegetable very often. Still, in my opinion, the money could have been better spent on hot dogs.
John Adams – Boy do I hate wasted talent and John Adams was full of talent. Adams would just hop on the self-pity train and never get off. When I read a biography on Adams, often I have to take a breather and I find myself telling him, “Stop! Please stop!” He would get so upset that people didn’t have confidence in him, but he rarely displayed confidence in himself.
I’m sure you are like me and come across those people who you think might not be too bad to be around if they just didn’t remind you all the time how unfair it is that they are mistreated. Truth is, things are the same, if not worse for others. It’s almost like they think you need to convince them they should have a better life than you do. Welcome to the world of being around John Adams.
Oh, what an amazing resume this founding father has, though. Adams was the winning attorney in the Boston Massacre case, he assisted in writing the Declaration of Independence, he was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, he helped negotiate the peace treaty with Great Britain that ended the Revolutionary War, he was an Envoy to France, Minister to the Netherlands and to the United Kingdom, he was the first Vice President, and second President. I’m sure there is more that I have left out.
With all that talent, why did John Adams have to be so annoying? The greatness he always sought could have easily found him if he didn’t spend so much time feeling sorry for himself.
Judas – This is a pretty easy choice. With the possible exception of the devil himself, Judas is probably the biggest villain in the Bible. The Jews, who sent Jesus to Pilate, would also fill that villain role, but Judas was a close friend to Jesus, and he had been part of His inner circle.
How could anyone betray a friend like this? You have, not just a friend, but you are in the daily presence of someone who has such a loving heart. You get to see Him do miracles, cast out demons in peoples’ life, heal people who have suffered lifelong illnesses, and seemingly be able to answer every question that comes His way, even the ones designed to trap Him.
And yet, almost every day, I do the same thing. I betray Him because of this thing called sin. Even worse, I know that this Jesus died for me. Judas killed himself before Jesus died on the cross, so he didn’t witness the extreme Jesus would have gone through for him.
Maybe what bothers me most about Judas is that he reminds me of my sinful life. Translated: I also choose to place myself, or my ways, before I place God and the choices He wants me to make.
Third Least Favorite:
Tofu – Who came up with this food anyway? Did someone see a sponge and say, “Hey, if we make something like a sponge out of dried soybeans, do you think anyone would eat it?” Not me.
I think tofu is one of those foods where “they” have convinced some gullible people that it is good for them. I’m not sure how something that tastes so bad can be good for you, but I guess medicine doesn’t usually taste that good either. Still, I only take medicine when I have to, not as a dinner choice.
But if tofu is so good for you, why don’t they have pumpkin versions of it? Now-a-days there are pumpkin versions of everything. Even if you don’t like pumpkin, I’m sure there is a pumpkin version of your favorite food. So, until there is pumpkin tofu that comes out, I’m not going to buy into this “tofu is good for you” conspiracy.
Lyndon Johnson – Sure LBJ accomplished a lot, but I’m really not a fan of bullies. Johnson was perhaps the biggest bully of the Presidents. He would twist your arm, beat you down, withhold funding to your constituents, or send whatever attack dogs he needed to send your way to get you to vote his way. Why he would even hold up his pet beagle by the ears in front of television cameras and he just seemed to laugh at the thought it might upset someone.
Just like our current presidents, Johnson would not veer off his message. Opposing opinions were just something for him to laugh about or people for him to destroy. I believe much of the intolerance and failure to work together, that we see today, took as its example Lyndon Johnson.
One thing I think all of our current Presidents have forgotten is that we do not elect a king. The wild slinging of executive orders totally bypasses the Congress which the “people” actually elect to represent their opinions.
Bullies like Johnson, look to things like compromise as a weakness. The result has been that we elect one Republican President, then we elect a Democratic President to follow him. The intolerance of one party’s decision just gets completely flipped once the next party’s President gets elected and pulls out his executive order pen.
Balaam – Often I think it would be so much easier to actually have God or one of His angels talk to us to tell us what to do. What we often forget is that God does send messengers our way and often they come from surprising places. Even when He does send His messengers our way, we still don’t listen.
Balaam is a prime example of this. He started off well, but his own self-desires kept his ears only listening to what he wanted to hear. The king of the Moabites wanted Balaam to curse the Israelites who were sitting at his border. The king was even willing to give Balaam great treasures to do this. Balaam told the king’s messengers he could never do that unless God Himself told him to do that. He would have to inquire of God.
Just like most temptation that comes our way, Balaam did really good on the first round, but faded as more rounds came along. When more requests, and even greater suggestions of personal rewards came his way, Balaam started thinking maybe God’s will was what he personally wanted, rewards for himself.
The king wanted to personally appeal to Balaam, so he sends his messengers again asking Balaam to come to see him. Balaam says he will have to appeal to God, but one can’t help but believe his appeal was more like, “Come on God. I’ll be good. I promise if You do this for me, I will do whatever You say.”
God relents, or at least that is what Balaam thinks God is telling him. Off Balaam goes and he is all excited about his trip. God really doesn’t like Balaam’s attitude. As Balaam heads off on his donkey, it appears God decides to kill Balaam for his poor attitude, but Balaam has a loyal friend that goes all out to protect him.
Who is Balaam friend? It’s his donkey. God sends His death angels to kill Balaam, but the donkey stands in their way. How does Balaam repay his donkey? He beats and beats him and tell him to move right along because Balaam can’t see the death angels.
Then the donkey turns toward Balaam and speaks. Yes, he actually talks to Balaam. “Why in the world are you beating me? I’m just trying to protect you,” the donkey says. Then God opens Balaam’s eyes, and he sees the angels. I’m sure Balaam was filled with regret and relief. Balaam states he has seen the light and he will change.
Just like many of us, Balaam promises to change if God would just do something or spares his life. If you stop reading the story here, you might think all was good. The story seems to hint that it has a happy ending and Balaam has finally learned his lesson. Balaam even blesses, not curses the Israelites when he meets up with the king of Moab.
The king is, of course, furious, but for some reason he still has not given up on Balaam. If you leave this part of the story and go a little further in the Bible, you will see that was not the end of the whole story. Balaam even advises the king to have the Moabite women seduce the Israelite men to convince them to turn away from God. Balaam was always looking for loopholes to make God’s message “work for him.” His heart wasn’t trying to do God’s will, it was looking out for Balaam.
Often, we, too, looks for loopholes to make God’s message to us more about us than it is about doing His will. We can even be heard bargaining with God: “God, if you do this for me, I promise I will….” When the trouble has passed, we often forget about our part of the “deal.”
It’s easy to come down on a character like Balaam, but, if truth be told, we wouldn’t want God to come down like that on us. So, characters like Balaam make me a little uncomfortable. If God can get upset with someone who tries to bend His word to make it say what they want it to say, well, I would sometimes be in trouble, too.
Second Least Favorite:
Calamari – Okay, I have fished using squid and I can’t see how any reasonable person could ever let this touch their lips. As disgusting as it is to look at and feel, it’s even worse tasting. Just imagine cutting up a rubber boot, covering it with batter, and then deep frying it. There you have calamari.
Once my stepdaughter took my wife and me to a Vietnamese restaurant to get Pho. Pho is a Vietnamese soup that my wife loves. Understanding that soup was not always my first choice of menu items, my stepdaughter suggested another item on the menu. It looked pretty good, but it had calamari in it. “No problem,” said my stepdaughter, “I’ll just get them to make it without it.”
My stepdaughter ordered for me, and the waitress, with her broken English, wrote it down. Well, when the order came out it came with calamari. I pointed it out to my stepdaughter and told her it was no big deal because I could just pick it out. “No,” she said, “that’s not what you ordered.” She called the waitress over and explained that it was supposed to come without calamari.
It became outright laughable when the waitress came back with the “corrected” order. It had twice as much calamari in it. Again, I told my stepdaughter I would just pick it out. This time my stepdaughter gave into my request.
For those of you who might believe in karma, you are probably saying, “That’s what you get for bad-mouthing calamari.”
Absalom – King David was a great king, but it appears his parenting skills could have used some work. When you have a few wives, I guess you can only expect to have a boatload of children. Now let’s make matters worse, let’s add in a few concubines, which probably produced even more children. It doesn’t sound like the makings of a real happy family.
Absalom was David’s third son. Amnon was David’s oldest son. Absalom had a sister, Tamar, who would be a half-sister to Amnon. Amnon had the biggest crush on his half-sister, and he devised a plan to get intimate with her. He would pretend he was sick, then he would ask for her to fix him a meal so he could feel better. Once she brought the food up to his room, he would dismiss everyone but her. Then he would make his move.
Amnon basically rapes Tamar. Then Amnon wants nothing else to do with her. Heartbroken, and totally feeling abused, Tamar confides in Absalom what has been done to her. Absalom plots his revenge for the wrong done to his sister. He has Amnon killed.
David finds out what happened, and he doesn’t want anything more to do with Absalom, but he doesn’t really punish him. Instead, he banishes him. Someone talks to David, and he allows Absalom to come back, but he still doesn’t want anything to do with Absalom.
Then Absalom plots to overthrow his father, David. David flees and Absalom sleeps with David’s concubines so everyone will know that is what he is doing. Then Absalom is killed as he was trying to chase his father down.
Okay, this is wrong on so many levels. When pride fills someone’s heart so full that they believe their happiness or goals are the only thing that matters, well, there is something wrong with that person. God wants us to imitate Jesus. Pride can be the biggest roadblock to doing that. Absalom was definitely full of pride.
Warren G. Harding – When the people elected Harding President, I bet they thought they were getting quite the bargain. With all the problems America was facing, Harding basically ran on a platform of: “Let’s just return things to normal.” He came up with his own word: Normalcy.
Everything seemed to be going fine, but then Harding died in office. It was then that America discovered the true Warren G. Harding. He wasn’t anything like the image he portrayed. From what I’ve read, unless you are a true Harding fan, he might have been one of the laziest Presidents we ever had.
America was in the midst of Prohibition, which meant that alcohol was a big no-no. It was the law of the land. Harding never ran on a platform that he would get it repealed. He was never an outspoken critic of Prohibition. Yet, he often held card games, with friends, at the White House, where alcohol was freely served.
Harding pretty much gave cabinet positions to friends and let them pretty much do what they wanted. Most of those choices turn out to be looking out more for their own interest than the interest of the country. Most of these scandals would come out after Harding’s death.
Although Harding’s wife is often portrayed as bossy, Harding seemed to look to a mistress for comfort instead of working it out with his wife. If he couldn’t work it out with her, he could have at least broken off the relationship before taking on another one.
It has been said that Harding’s wife, Florence, found out about his affair. Some have even speculated that she had Warren poisoned. When Harding died, Florence refused to allow an autopsy.
So, with Harding, we seemed to have gotten a President who tried to make everyone happy instead of facing conflict. When you only try to make everyone happy, you usually compromise your beliefs and make yourself miserable in the process. I guess surrounding himself with “friends” was his method of dealing with life.
Harding would die in office and never really have to face the consequences of his actions, or lack of actions. History, however, has come down pretty hard on his administration.
The Absolute Least Favorite:
Olives – All the other four items on this list I could actually eat if I was forced to, but not olives. You can try to fool me by putting them on pizza, because they can sometimes look like mushrooms when they are cooked. I love mushrooms. I will pick olives out, or spit them out every time, though.
I once went to visit someone’s grandmother. It was about lunchtime. I wanted to make a great impression. The grandmother asked if I would like an egg salad sandwich, which sounded really good to me.
The grandmother asked if I would like olives in the egg salad. I had never eaten an olive before, and I will at least try something once. Besides, I had never encountered a food that I just couldn’t eat before. That all changed with that olive-laced sandwich. It was full of olives, too. I could not even force myself to take a second bite.
The wise grandmother could sense my lack of fondness for the sandwich and my fear of totally ruining my first impression. She asked if it would be okay if she made me an egg salad sandwich without the olives. My huge smile of relief brought a giggle to her lips, and all was good with that first impression.
Martin Van Buren – One of the things America seems to have forgotten is patronage. Patronage used to be a driving force in elections. Basically, the party that won the election was able to hire and fire all government employees. That meant, if you had a government job, there was very little security in it unless you caved into the demands of whoever won the election.
Soon party bosses took over the job of dispensing jobs. With that came demands from those bosses. They not only demanded that you voted for a candidate, but you also had to contribute financially to their election fund. If you didn’t, you lost your job. Most people couldn’t afford to lose their jobs, so they just went along with that game.
Those who didn’t play along with the party bosses, not only lost their jobs, but they also faced the wrath of the party bosses. Of course, the party bosses didn’t do the dirty work, they had cronies at their beck and call. These cronies would do whatever it took to destroy these opponents.
I don’t want to say Martin Van Buren was the first crony to devise this destruction, but he was one of the first to become President that exercised that option. Before Van Buren, most Presidents first taste of patronage was when they were elected, and they got to fill all these jobs. Friends and supporters would come out of the woodwork. To most of the Presidents this was often more of a headache than a blessing.
Martin Van Buren helped organize the Albany Regency, which would go on to control New York politics for many years. His influence, good or bad, was felt in New York. When the Albany Regency teamed up with Tammany Hall, another dominant political powerhouse in New York City and the state of New York, they were almost unstoppable.
One person on their radar was DeWitt Clinton. When Clinton became the Governor of New York, these organizations went out of their way to destroy him and those associated with him. Clinton’s popular Erie Canal project was no match for Van Buren or Tammany Hall, though. Van Buren knew it would help his state, so he was forced to help push it through the New York legislature. Still, he always kept Clinton, and those close to him, in his sights and would do anything he could to help destroy any of them.
Shortly after Van Buren was elected Governor of New York himself, newly elected President Andrew Jackson tapped him to be his Secretary of State. During this time in our history, the Secretary of State was considered the second highest office in the land, only being overshadowed by the Presidency itself.
Van Buren was only Governor of New York for forty-three days before he became the Secretary of State. It is still the shortest time anyone has served as the governor of New York.
After Andrew Jackson decided not to run for a third term, the popular Jackson threw his endorsement Van Buren’s way. Van Buren easily won an electoral college victory over popular general William Henry Harrison, 170 votes to 73 votes for Harrison, in the election of 1836. Two other candidates picked up the other 40 electoral votes.
Shortly after taking office, the Panic of 1837 hit. Usually, anytime the citizens pockets get hit, the President’s popularity takes a hit. Van Buren was no exception.
Van Buren followed Jackson’s Indian removal policy. He would send General Winfield Scott to push the Indians further west in the famous Trail of Tears campaign. But Van Buren broke with Jackson on the slavery issue, and that might have hurt him with members of his own party.
With all this negative stuff going on, Van Buren would lose in a rematch to William Henry Harrison in the Election of 1840. Harrison, who died about a month after he took office, would be followed by his Vice President, John Tyler. No one, of either party, wanted Tyler in the next election, so Van Buren would try again.
In the election of 1844, Van Buren would not even get his party’s nomination. James K. Polk would win that honor and the Presidency. Since Polk promised only to serve one term, Van Buren would try again in the election of 1848. Turned back by his party again, Van Buren would win the nomination of the Barnburners Party. He would not receive a single electoral college vote in the Election of 1848.
Van Buren is my least favorite President because he seems to have been the one that grabbed for power the most. He would always try to pull out all the political tricks to further his cause. The voice of the American public became less important than the voice inside Van Buren’s head. I believe that started a trend of self-interest that has steadily gotten worse with Presidents. That has not been good for our country in my opinion.
King Saul – The shy, handsome young lad that would become Israel’s first king, would prove to be quite the disappointment. The prophet Samuel was a little upset on Israel’s insistence that they have a king, but God had the final say and Samuel fell in line with God’s choice.
Sometimes I wonder why God places some people in certain positions. Since He knows all, you would think there might be a better choice. Saul might be one of those that it would be easy to think that.
Saul started off very well. Victory after victory piled up and the people of Israel probably thought, “Wow, this guy is really something.” But somewhere things started falling apart for Saul. I look back and see one of his early “bad” moves was with Goliath.
If you really think about it, Saul had faced much greater enemies before, but Saul didn’t usually rely on Saul when he faced those enemies. Saul sought God’s help. Somewhere out there Saul stopped thinking of them as God’s victories and he started thinking of them as his victories.
Saul’s fear of this giant must have been quite noticeable because no one else was willing to stand up to this bully. It took a little boy with an attitude that rang, “Goliath has no right to talk to us that way, but what is even worse is he is talking to God this way.”
So, this little boy with a few stones and a slingshot is sent out to face this well-armored giant with years of experience. What kind of leader sends out a little child to face a legend of a soldier? It was so laughable that even Goliath laughs.
Of course, we know little David slays the giant and he gives the glory to God. I guess the king got reminded that victories aren’t individual accomplishments, but God-given choices. Refusing to learn that lesson, Saul decides David is destroying his image and he needs to eliminate David.
Again, what kind of leader puts aside all his other business and chases a young man who he is jealous of? What’s more, David is one of Saul’s biggest fans. At least twice David could have killed Saul, but he still thought of him as his king.
Saul made the top of the list because he is a combination of all the others on my list. He looked at David’s gift to God and the Israelites as more of a threat than how he could use his gifts to be the amazing leader he was completely capable of being. Sounds a little bit like Cain, doesn’t it?
Saul had annoying self-pity like John Adams, he wasn’t even able to get along with his own people like Carter, he went out of his way to try to destroy his enemies like Van Buren, and he thought his kingdom was there to serve his whims like Harding.
Saul would betray a loyal friend like Judas did, he would try to find loopholes so he could skirt what God was really trying to lead him to do like Balaam, and like Absalom he would do whatever it took to have absolute power.
I bet Saul even liked oatmeal, grits, asparagus, tofu, calamari, and olives.
