Holiday set by Courts for Atheists!

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter & Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, Jews & observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized day.  The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed."  The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter & others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur & Hanukkah. Yet my client & all other atheists have no such holidays."  The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do, counsel, your client is woefully ignorant." The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists."  The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is 'April Fools Day.' Psalm 14:1 states 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God.' Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned."     I LOVE IT!!!

Republic or Democracy?

My purpose in writing this is not to give a great in-depth dissertation on the workings of our Government, but rather to spark a little ‘thought’ in folks to think about where we are and where we are going as a Country and what it might mean to us. So without further ado, on to the question:

The question is: Are we, that is The United States of America, a Republic or a Democracy? If you ask the average person, they will probably say a Democracy and they would be right, its sad to say. But we didn’t start out that way. This country started out as a Republic. Actually to be more accurate, a Democratic Republic. Now, lets see what the Dictionary has to say:

de·moc·ra·cy (dĭ-mŏk'rə-sē)
n. pl. de·moc·ra·cies

1. Government by the people, exercised either directly or through
elected representatives.

2. A political or social unit that has such a government.

5. 5.The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within
   a community.
   

(I took the liberty to underline certain words in the definition.)

re·pub·lic (rĭ-pŭb'lĭk)

n.

1. a. A political order whose head of state is not a monarch and in
modern times is usually a president.

b. A nation that has such a political order.

c. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of
citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives
responsible to them.

d. A nation that has such a political order.

2. a. A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of
citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives
responsible to them.

b. A nation that has such a political order.

3. often Republic A specific republican government of a nation: the
Fourth Republic of France.

4. An autonomous or partially autonomous political and territorial
unit belonging to a sovereign federation.

5. A group of people working as equals in the same sphere or field:
the republic of letters.

Which one would you want to belong to?

Now if you look at the two definitions that I have put up, they came from the American Heritage Dictionary, you will find a couple of interesting points. I have underlined them to make them stand out.

The first thing that one notices is that in a Democracy, the people are ruled by the elected representatives. Once they have cast their vote, they don’t have anymore rights! Only privileges given them by the majority and that by the elected representatives.

Now in the Republic, the people never lose their rights. The government is responsible to them. The people are supreme, NOT the government!

So, we come back to the question: Are we in todays world a Republic or a Democracy?

The answer is simple, but not obvious. The Government today operates as a Republic within itself and its members. We the People have been relegated to a Democracy. It hasn’t always been that way.

Our Founding Fathers saw a need for a government that would be subject to the People and not the other way around. By setting up a Democratic Republic and giving the right to bear arms to the people they established a form of government Of, For and By the People. This all came to an end in 1886.

More at a later date...

Well I Can't Believe It! They Do Care!

Well, it looks like I might have to eat a little 'crow'! As I said in my last post, I emailed AdSense and told them about the address thing out here. They emailed me back and said after doing some checking (I don't know what they checked, nor do I care) they agreed to sign me up.

So, hats off to Google and AdSense, maybe they care after all.

Richard

Have You Noticed A New Form Of Discrimination?

Well, here I am again, sending my thoughts, opinions and comments out over the Internet, hoping that someone might see them and comment. But whether they do or don't, it does give us an opportunity to voice our opinions doesn't it?

Anyway, I have found a new form of Discrimination today that seems to hit a few of us. No, I am not talking about 'smoking', they have been discriminating against smokers for a long time now. I am talking about those of us who live in areas where there is no mail delivery. I could be wrong, probably am, but I believe that maybe, just maybe, Homeland Security might have something to do with it. Sure, I know that they are trying to do a good "job" and are "working" hard to "protect" us, (mainly from ourselves, I think, they think or something like that). But here is the thing: I have been running into a problem lately that I haven't had in the past, trying to do business on the internet. Doesn't matter whether I am seeking to purchase something or setting up an account or just getting information, everyone today insists on a physical address!

Now, what is the matter with that? You might ask? Nothing, I have one, don't mind giving it out, but just don't try to mail or ship anything to it! It will never arrive! You know those adds on TV where Mr. Brown (UPS) is going across the desert to deliver a package? Or going through the jungle? Well, forget that here! I live so far out in the desert that even the Vorizon (can you hear me now?) man won't come out here, because he knows that they won't hear him!

The other day, I tried to order a refrigerator from Sears over the Internet. No big deal right? Wrong! I knew that "home" delivery was out of the question, so I opted for in store pickup. I went to check out and they asked me for my credit card information. No Problem. Then they asked for the Billing Address on the Credit Card. Now you wouldn't think that would be a problem, would you? Well, it was! Of course the billing address on my credit card is a Post Office Box Number. It has been for around 10+ years! But they came back with a message that said, " We're sorry, but we can not ship to a Post Office Box" !!!!!!! WHAT DOES SHIPPING HAVE TO DO WITH A BILLING ADDRESS?!? I didn't want them to ship it to my Billing Address, I wanted to pick it up in the store! Well, of course, there was no way to fix the problem over the Internet, so I ended up having to call their main office and after about two hours on the phone, going through this menu and that menu and a couple of people, I finally got my refrigerator ordered. They just couldn't understand that there are some places in this country where there is no home delivery of mail! I have been running into this more and more lately.

Google is the latest one that I have had problems with. You would think that a company as big as they are and that supposedly deals with information, would be better equipped to deal with certain situations. But, it seems that they are not. (I will probably be kicked of of blogger.com when they read this.) I signed up for AdSense. That shouldn't be a problem right? Wrong! They asked me for my mailing address where they would send the checks for all of the money that I would earn, so I gave it to them. Simple right? Well, it would be for you or me, but not them! The sign up procedure just wouldn't work with a PO Box. So, I thought, well, maybe I can figure away around this problem, I will just leave out the PO in front of Box and it should go through. Well it did! Hallelujah! It went right through! So, I have been checking my email everyday, waiting for the reply that would say that I could start putting AdSense up on my website. Well, today I got an email telling me that I have been turned down because I gave a PO Box for a mailing address and that there was no way they could work with me except I give them a physical address for them to send (mail) the checks to me. So, I have to give them credit, they did see 'through' my little ruse!

Ok, I said, no problem, I will just give them a call and explain my situation and surely they can work everything out. Did you know that they do not have a phone number for anyone who can work out this kind of problem? That AdSense, doesn't (or so I was told) have a phone number where you can talk to anybody about a problem? I wonder how Google communicates with them? They told me that I would have to go to such and such an address (url) and look through their help information to find my answer to my problem. Well, maybe I am blind, but I couldn't find one. Do you think that Google never thought of such a problem?

So, I did the only thing left for me to do. I wrote them an email and now I am waiting to see what kind of response, if any that I get back.

I will let you know what they say...

Where Have All the good Writers Gone?

Well, you can rest assured that they are not here! So, at least in the mean time, you have to put up with me. At least on this Weblog! I know that they are out there, I have even seen a few. But what is a good writer? I guess there are as many answers to that question as there are writers. Some people judge a good writer by their ability to hold your attention. That sounds good and reasonable to me. But one might also say that a good writer is known by the content of his or her writing. I have known some people who spend their entire lives reading romance novels. They say that this one or that one is a good writer. But I have to wonder about that. Maybe they can hold the attention of their readers, but what are their readers learning? Writing is like Cooking. Just because it tastes good, doesn’t mean that it is good for you. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good pork chop done on the grill. Or that big juicy porterhouse steak grilled to perfection with a huge baked potato swimming in real butter on the side! YUM! But if I ate that way everyday, I would be bigger than a house! Right now, I am only as big as the garage.

In the end I think it is about content and how that content moves the reader. If it can move the reader to think, then it is good. That is of course assuming that in the process of thinking, the reader learns something that is beneficial to both themselves and others as well. But sometimes I would be happy with just getting some people to think.

Have you ever said to your self, “I wish I had a brain?” Well, I know I have, but then you have to have a brain to say that, don’t you? I guess what I am really saying is, “I wish my brain would kick into some other gear than neutral!” I think brains work better though when you use them. I know mine does, the only problem is, it takes so much energy to get it going. Reading can be one way to get the brain working. Especially when you read something that provokes you to thought.

Have you ever heard the saying: Don’t talk about Religion or Politics? Of course you have, just as I have many times. Isn’t it funny that the two most important topics on this planet are also the two most shunned? There is a reason for that, you know. Reading, talking, even arguing over religion and/or politics is a good way to ‘kick start’ the brain into working. I think that most people have a fear of being rejected, therefore they avoid subjects that they perceive will cause them to be rejected. I have learned over the years, that it is not I that is rejected, but sometimes what I say is. After all, I am a nice guy. Anyone who knows me, would have to like me! (Well, that’s just one opinion.)

But to sum it all up, I would have to say, that in my opinion, a good writer is one who not only keeps the attention of the reader, but one who can provoke others to think. Think for themselves and not just ride along with the wave like a bunch of lemmings running to their death to jump off of the cliff, not even stopping to ask, “Where are we going and what will happen when we get there?”

My Brain Is Hurting!

Just a short little note. I have been working on about five projects in the last few days since my last post and still trying to learn new software! My brain is hurting and everything is starting to run together!

I have been working with Front Page for web design for years and I just got Dreamweaver. Need I say more?

Why do people hate Jury Duty?

I had something happen to me the other day that really got me thinking. Why do people, including myself hate the idea of being called for Jury Duty? I would almost bet if you took 10 people off the street and asked them, nine out of ten of them would tell you that if they were called, they would try to find a way out of it. In fact the number would probably be higher.

Everybody you talk to has an excuse or a ‘reason’ that they wouldn’t want to serve, but I wonder how many of them really know the reason? I think they do in their subconscious mind, but I really doubt if they ever really thought it out and know the real reason. I know I didn’t until just recently.

I guess it started back a couple of months ago. I live out in the desert. It is about 20 miles to the highway and most of that is on very bad roads. Once you get to the highway, its another 65 miles to the County Seat. We I got a summons for Jury duty. Now it was in the middle of our rainy season. Out here in the desert the rainy season can be treacherous. Our road become canals and sometimes can have ravines created in them. There are some people who can’t get out for weeks. Well I called the court house and told them my situation. The Clerk called me back and told me that the Judge said he didn’t care and that if I didn’t show up, there would be a warrant issued on me.

Needless to say, I was just a little p**sed! It is a good thing that I have a big truck with 4 wheel drive. The water was over two feet in some places. Anyway I arrived on time. I got the chance to talk to the Judge and told him about a medical problem that I have (I really do) and he excused me.

The next thing I know my daughter gets a summons and she doesn’t have a car. She called up and told them and the Judge told her that he didn’t care. If she had to walk to the courthouse she better be there or go to jail! Now I am really mad! After all, who does this JERK think he is?

I stayed up all night fussing and fuming over this thing until it finally hit me! It wasn’t the fact that we run a ranch out here and have chores that HAVE to be done! It wasn’t any of the reasons that I had worked through that made me so mad. It all had to do with FREEDOM!

Being called to Jury Duty is the one biggest offense that that the Government has place upon the Citizens of this Country that screams the fact that we are not free!

Here in America everybody ‘prides’ themselves on being free! Well we were years ago, but those days have long since passed away! But at least we can ‘pretend’ that we are free.... until we get that summons calling us to Jury Duty! Then there is no way around it. We can’t pretend any longer. It hits us full in the face! We are not free!

Stay tuned for part two. Why we should want to be a juror.

Rick Davis