Life on Snow Hill

As most (if not all) of you know, there was some fairly heated discussion on a recent post I wrote about the Knoxville Church Shooting.  It made me think of this cartoon that I saw a while back, found again on this website (to give some credit – sadly I’m not sure where it came from originally).   –edit – Thanks to Hunter in the comments below, the image comes from http://xkcd.com/386/

In my younger days I used to debate, argue and all out fight sometimes over different things on the internet, whether it was on a blog, message board or other interactive communication platform.  As a lot of us know now, nothing productive ever comes of it.  Most people are there to simply argue, whether they actually believe what they’re saying or not.  I whole-heartedly believe there are a lot of people out there just to argue for the sake of arguing – nothing more.  They simply take the other side of an issue just for the fun of being controversial.

Sometimes this is a healthy thing – it can force people to fully think about things they’re saying, or to back up why they believe what they do.  Honestly that is one of the more helpful things I learned from never-ending flame-wars.  But again, for the most part (and this is the biggest lesson I learned) these things are just that – a never-ending flame-war.  Nobody wins, everybody loses.

I got sucked into it in the aforementioned post.  I didn’t intend for it to turn into an argument, but I sort of expected it to, if that makes sense.  In other words, I wasn’t going to let the possibility of it stop me from speaking my mind and saying what I believe.  But I guess that’s how they all start, huh?

This story has already made national headlines.  Here is a link to a local TV News channel’s coverage of the story.  I won’t go into the details of the incident itself, so I urge you to read the story if you’re not already familiar with it.

What I did want to comment on is that I’m fairly surprised that there wasn’t someone in that church that was armed.  We’re in East Tennessee, a generally rural region, which is an area where most people like their guns, and quite a few follow the necessary steps to obtain a state-issued carry permit.

I’ve heard of way too many church shootings around the country in the past couple of years.  It seemed that each story I heard was literally closer to home.  I live about an hour’s drive from Knoxville, and this is the closest it’s gotten (so far).  I do have a carry permit, and I carry everywhere that it is legal.  I refuse to be in a situation such as the one these approximately 200 people were in – defenseless and helpless, their fate resting on the whim of an individual wanting to cause as much harm as possible.

Surprisingly, I haven’t heard the first thing about gun-control in this case.  Maybe, just maybe, they’re backing down a bit since the ruling of the Supreme Court on the 2nd Amendment meaning what it says.  But it could be too that they’re waiting until after the election to push it too hard in hopes that Obama will get into the White House.  Then they’ll really start pushing it.

On the church itself, I’ll make a few comments.  I don’t want to sound insensitive in these comments, so I’ll preface them by saying that if a gunman walked into a Hell Raiser’s biker bar and started shooting, it is just as wrong.  That said, a Unitarian Universalist ‘Church’ doesn’t stand for anything.  About the only good thing they believe in is the freedom of religious expression.  It is a lot of what this country was founded upon.  Beyond that, their beliefs consist of individuals developing their own personal theologies, tolerance of religious ideas (every religion has merit), and on and on.  Basically, anything goes, as long as it feels good.  Nothing is mentioned of the Bible at all on this particular church’s website.  Come to think of it, after browsing around a couple of other Unitarian Universalist ‘Churches’, I can’t find any mention of the Bible at all.

It was a violent incident that occurred in this auditorium, and I truly feel for the people that experienced it.  But I can’t bring myself to call them a church congregation, for they are not truly a church.

First of all, I’d like to bring to your attention my opinion of this sorry excuse for a man. (Jesse Jackson, that is)  He’s a racist anti-American and doesn’t deserve to live in this great country.  For what it’s worth, my opinion of Barack Hussein Obama isn’t much different.

Last Sunday, Jesse said of Hussein, and I quote, "See, Barack been, um, talking down to black people on this faith based . . . I wanna cut his —- off."  But don’t take my word for it – you can see the video here.

Jackson said in a press conference later in the week, "And this thing I said in a hot-mic statement that’s interpreted as a distraction, I offer apology for that.  I don’t want harm or hurt to come to this campaign."  Jackson said that he was trying to emphasize that Hussein’s moral message should "not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of black males, but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy."  He took issue with Hussein’s statements about how black men failed to uphold their responsibility as fathers.  Jackson said other issues should be highlighted, including unemployment, the mortgage crisis and the number of blacks in prison.

I’ve given my opinion on unemployment in the past, so I won’t go into that.  As for the mortgage crisis, if people wouldn’t get in over their heads it wouldn’t be such a big deal.  And as for blacks in prison, if they’d stop committing crimes, they just might not go to prison.  They’re tried by jury just like white people are…

If there is anything good that Hussein has said, it’s that fathers need to stick around and be responsible.  And Jackson is taking issue with it.  Really though, they’re all just a bunch of idiots.

Just for kicks, I did a Google search a few minutes ago on "hot topics".  Of the news sites that were returned, what stuck out to me was that several of them listed things like celebrity news, sports news or some other form of entertainment information.

Looking at the front pages of more popular online news sites give you the same feeling – celebrity, sports and entertainment news.  Celebrity divorces, which celebrity was where yesterday and who saw them, a sports star’s wife filing for divorce – why is this stuff newsworthy?  Because America wants it in the news, that’s why.

These days, more Americans are driven by entertainment in some form.  Now, when I say ‘driven’, I mean that is what they live for.  They don’t live to provide for and take care of their families, although they may make a feeble attempt every once in a while.  They don’t give priority to making sure ALL of their children’s needs are met.  But these days, adults will procreate because it is fun, but then won’t do what is necessary to take care of their offspring.  They live to have fun.  Their kids suffer because of it, and are in turn raised to believe that all that they need to live for is to have fun as well.  It all comes back to entertainment – sports, movies, celebrities…you name it.

Personally, I’m tired of being littered with information about the latest Hollywood wedding, and subsequent divorce every time I open the front page on an online news site.  Because of this, I honestly rarely visit them any more unless I hear about something by word-of-mouth and I want to go look it up.  I’m tired of being bombarded by ‘news’ of what Tom Cruise did last weekend, or what reasons Cynthia Rodriguez has for wanting to divorce A-Rod.  This is not news!

News is covering events around the region, state, country and the world.  I will concede that there is room in the news for some entertainment news such as a new movie coming out or which players made the all-star team.  But covering the every move of the Spears sisters is ridiculous.  Cover the latest successes in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Cover that earthquake in China, or the Presidential race.  Some of these other people should get real jobs and contribute positively to society.

This is another Summer holiday where families and friends will be getting together, having cookouts, and attending fireworks shows (or lighting up their own fireworks).  It’s always a good time, but somebody invariably gets hurt in a roman candle fight or bottle rocket war.  Although fireworks safety is a legitimate topic, that will not be the meat of this post.

What does the 4th of July mean to you?  Is it what I’ve just described?  Good for you – you enjoy time with your family and friends and good clean fun.  I will be participating in activities like that as well, and I look forward to them.  However, that is not what this holiday means to me.

Rather than referring to it as ‘the 4th of July’ or simply, ‘the 4th’, I’d rather refer to it as Independence Day.  You may ask, "Why did you title this post as the 4th of July then?"  My response would be something to the effect of enabling you to find it.

Independence Day (July 4, 1776) is when the Declaration of Independence was approved by Congress and adopted to set our country Independent from the rule of any other.  King George wanted nothing to do with that – he wanted America to fall under his rule and continue to be British colonies with people that served him.

British Parliament began taxing the people in the colonies to pay their debt for the Seven Years’ War.  That is where the "No taxation without representation" slogan came from, and it expressed the views of many colonists.  Great writers such as Thomas Jefferson began arguing that Parliament was the legislature of Great Britain only, and that the colonies had their own legislatures.  The only connection to British Parliament was their loyalty to the crown.

And so it began that the Declaration of Independence was written.  It was something the people wanted.  The king had issued a proclamation of rebellion in response to Congress’ second petition to the king for his help in addressing colonial grievances.  This petition was sent in hopes to avoid bloodshed, but the king basically set rules and laws in motion to punish anyone exhibiting ‘rebellious’ or ‘traitorous’ actions.

Now I’m starting to get too deep for my own good, but this is some very interesting research, if you’re willing to search it out for yourself.  You can, however, get a really good idea of what was going on, and why American wanted independence from Great Britain by simply reading the Declaration.  The signers knew they were basically signing their death warrants, but they believed the cause of freedom for this great country was worth much more than their own lives.

Tags: 4th, day, independence, july

Al Gore continues to show more and more hypocrisy.  According to a Tennessee Center for Policy Research article, his power consumption has risen over the past year, in spite of his ‘green’ renovations.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner seems to be more about making money by scaring everyone into going green rather than truly going green himself.

I’m ashamed that he is a Tennessee native.  This global warming alarmist is about as anti-American as they come.  He’ll fly around all over the place in his personal jet emitting more greenhouse gases in a month than you or I would in an entire year.  The fact that he couldn’t even carry his own state in his presidential bid speaks volumes.

Just shut up already, Al.

Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, a local family built a gas station/convenience store in a little rural town. Everybody knew everybody, and it was a fairly clean, family oriented place. As time went on, the family decided to sell the store. Some guy from who-knows-where comes in and buys it. His first move was to apply for a beer license.

The entire community went to the courthouse to object to the application the evening it was considered. After seeing the outrage and hearing all the objections to the idea of selling beer out of that store, the owner decided to withdraw the application, much to the dismay of his wife. Most members of the community, myself included, put a couple of dollars on a table for the guy to pay him back for his application fee, since the good-natured guy decided he wouldn’t sell beer in the dry community. All was well.

Until one day, a few months later, the owner is now proudly displaying on his road sign, “COLD BEER”. From that moment on I personally never set foot in the store again. He knew the community didn’t want it, but was able to legally proceed because of a technicality on the laws regarding the distance between school grounds and an establishment that sells alcohol. The store is almost literally in the school’s back yard. Well, it was.

About a week ago I drove past the store, and saw that it had been burned. I hadn’t heard of anyone being hurt, and was concerned about that, but my first thought about the store itself was, “Good. It’s gone.”

Another recent event that I’m sure everyone has heard about is the news about Ted Kennedy. First, let me talk just for a minute about his record – his constant tearing down of America.

He is one of the (if not the) most liberal figures in modern government. His record is one of tearing down Christian values – values this country was founded upon. For example, he voted against a partial-birth abortion ban. In other words, he wanted to make sure it was legal for a baby to be murdered in cold blood during its birth.

He also is a huge supporter of gun control. Without going into a lot of detail on the 2nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, I’ll just say that we are guaranteed the right to own firearms. He voted against a bill that would prohibit confiscation of legally owned firearms during a ‘disaster’. Much like the type of thing that happened after hurricane Katrina ruined Baton Rouge. Authorities started going door to door and confiscating everyone’s guns. The argument about the guns themselves is one for another day, but that is an illegal and communistic act to say the least. It reminded me a lot of what I’ve read and heard of Nazi Germany.

Last, but definitely not least, Ted Kennedy is also a proud public supporter of same-sex marriage. It is a wicked thing that God burned an entire city for, and still hates today. I don’t care what anyone says, God did not make anyone a sodomite – they make that choice on their own. But that is also a topic for another day.

Ted Kennedy’s record speaks for itself. He has done everything he can to tear down this country. As I’m sure most of you have heard by now, he has been found to have a cancerous brain tumor. They say the average survival rate for patients with this particular condition is about 15 months.

With all the wickedness he is allowing, and even actively supporting, I really have a hard time feeling sorry for him. That’s all I can really say about it. It’s poetic justice.

Some of the words and phrases I have used in this post were plagiarized from my dad. He put into words what I was already thinking, though…so I figured it was ok.

Tags: brain, kennedy, ted, tumor

I’ve noticed this email signature showing up in more and more emails lately:

Please consider the environment before printing this email

Why not print the email if I want/need to?  My take on this whole idea is that trees are a renewable resource.  I have a small inclination to print each email that sports that tagline and send it via USPS to the sender.  The only problem with that is it costs nearly $.50 to send anything in the mail these days.

Now, don’t get me (too) wrong.  I’m not for throwing trash out the window of the car unless there’s a prison crew cleaning up trash on the side of the road.  (Hey, they need to be kept busy – my tax dollars are paying for their A/C and cable TV)  In other words, pollution isn’t cool.  But at the same time, I’m not going to put anybody down for driving a gas-guzzling pickup truck or SUV.  If that’s what they want, and they can afford the gas, I’ll cheer them on.

Anyway, I’m getting a little off the subject.  This signature has come from people that seem to me to be the know-it-all, or holier-than-thou type.  That is, in the emails I’ve personally received that include the signature.  To me it’s ridiculous.  Again, trees are a renewable resource.  They’re always going to be around.  I haven’t researched this out myself, but some say that if we don’t use paper, there aren’t as many trees because when trees are cut down for paper, more are planted in their place.  Maybe they’re planted more densely?  I’m not sure.  I do know, however, that new trees are growing all the time.  In fact, I have 5 or 6 growing in my back yard right now.  So there – I’m allowed to print emails now.

First of all, I won’t link to anything related to this because there are pictures everywhere, and this is a family friendly site.  But if you’ve seen the news today you’ve probably seen at least a blurb about it.

In Houston, a senior girl planned just like any other to go to her senior prom.  The only problem was, she cut half of the dress away.  Well, probably not literally, but there wasn’t much of a dress to speak of.  The school staff and prom sponsors wouldn’t let her into the ballroom at the hotel where the event was held.  This prompted her to cause a scene and demand her money back since she couldn’t get in.

Things got heated enough for someone to call the cops, and they handcuffed her and escorted her out of the building.  I’m not clear on whether they took her to jail or to her house, but I’d hope she was smart enough to choose ‘home’.  In her own words, they gave her that choice.

Now for the main idea of what I wanted to get at.  First of all, if this was an image I saw on TV while my wife and I were at home watching, she would have covered my eyes.  It was really just about that revealing.  Once I saw how much of the dress wasn’t there, I blushed and closed the page.

So what I want to ask is, “What was she thinking??  Where were her parents?  What were THEY thinking??”  There is no way I’d let my daughter go out of the house dressed even in twice as much clothing as this girl had.

Some people really just have no brains.  But more importantly, no morals.  Good for the school and prom sponsors for having at least some morals about themselves and upholding them.

I’ve been watching the news on this as much as I am able, but I haven’t been able to completely bring myself to a solid opinion on the whole matter.  On the one hand, it is a religious deal (although in my opinion it is a cult), and the government should stay out of it because of freedom of religion.  On the other hand, these are some young kids that appear to be unable to make their own decisions because of the rules the sect lives by, and they are being forced into arranged marriages at very young ages.

Some refer to it all as a statutory rape farm, which is probably the best description in a nutshell I’ve heard on it.  Others are comparing it all to sexually active teens everywhere else in the world, and they have a good point as well.

My whole thing is that these kids are being brainwashed from the day they are born.  They don’t know that it’s possible to be any different than how they are raised.  I don’t have any problem with people believing the way they want to believe, but when it crosses the line where they are brainwashing kids and forcing them into situations of questionable legality and ethics, then I have a problem.

Any way you look at it, it’s disturbing all around.