Life on Snow Hill

There isn’t really much I can say about the events of September 11, 2001 that hasn’t already been said time and time again.  I will say, however, that in my 27 years of my time here on earth, that was the most horrific day of my life.  I was nowhere near New York, DC or Pennsylvania when those jets went down, but the mere idea of our country being under attack was unheard of to me until that day.  Sure, I’d seen the Oklahoma City bombing, and the deal with the bomb at the Atlanta Olympic games, but this was the largest scale concerted effort of anyone launching an attack on my country in my lifetime.

I still remember the morning it all happened.  I remember the faces of the people around me, and the shock and disbelief they portrayed.  I remember the fear and panic that set in on everybody that day.  I remember how everything seemed to just stop in this country, and focus on this event.

Those terrorists got what they wanted that day (Well, except for their 72 virgins or however many it was their god promised them), but they haven’t seen the last of us…

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.

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

Anyone that follows gun news at all has known about the case before the Supreme Court about the gun ban in Washington, DC.  Basically, the law stated that if you owned a handgun, it had to be disassembled and unloaded when it was in your home.  This way, they can ensure that you’re defenseless if you’re attacked while in your home by those who didn’t comply with the ban.

But I digress.  On Thursday the Supreme Court ruled that the ban was unconstitutional.  They ruled that the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution actually means what it says – that you and I as individuals have the right to keep and bear arms.  They said that what Congress did when they drafted the amendment was "to codify a pre-existing right, rather than to fashion a new one."  That right is one guaranteed by God as the basic right to self-defense.

A couple of things are disheartening to me about this case, however.  They took no position on on whether it was right or wrong for the federal or state governments to regulate guns.  Also (and this bothers me most), the ruling was barely in favor of the Constitution, with a 5-4 vote.  In other words, 4 of the Supreme Court justices who took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States ruled that it didn’t mean what it actually says and wanted to take away our best means of self-defense.

The four dissenters completely ignored the ideas behind the 2nd Amendment.  They ignored what great men said about our ability to defend ourselves, not only from burglars and other bad guys, but from our own government.  Maybe that is what they are afraid of…

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

For those of you who know me, yes, this is a gripe about the company I work for.  For those of you who don’t know me, it is still a gripe about the company I work for, but I’m just not telling you exactly which company that is.

Also, for the record, I like my job.  I’m just not in total agreement with some of the decisions the company makes, and some of the management within said company.  Now that that’s out of the way, on to the meat of my post.

For the first scenario, there is an immigrant that is going through all of the necessary processes to move into the US.  I’ve got no problem with this individual personally, and have no issues with that family moving into my country.  However, I do not agree with the process the company is using.  A new job was created for this individual, but to keep the Department of Labor off the company’s back, the job had to be posted and made available for anyone to apply for.  The general idea of the law in this area is that for the work visa to be valid, the company has to show that no one in the country was qualified for the job.  Now, this process within the company is a joke.  The job was posted, and was very vague so that just about anybody with any experience was qualified according to the wording of the job posting.  But when an application is submitted, some little something is found that disqualifies the individual.  So basically, someone in the US is still without a job so that someone from outside the country could have it.

I won’t go into how unemployment affects the economy other than to say that more money in more Americans’ pockets is a good thing.  One thing is for sure, this practice isn’t the way to combat unemployment – it’s totally opposite.  I just better never hear anyone involved in this process say anything about unemployment in this country or they’ll know exactly what I think about all of it.

The second scenario is based on the fact that large companies look to save money every way they can.  This is always a good thing.  Except for when it causes even more Americans to have no job.  Certain things within the company are outsourced to other countries who provide cheap labor.  While this makes good business sense and gives jobs to those nice folks overseas, it isn’t helping out our own economy at all.

I’ll step off my soapbox now.  Thanks for listening, and good night.

As a kid, I always longed for the Olympics to come on TV again.  I didn’t care if it was the Winter or the Summer games – it was all fun to watch.  Of course, it was the most fun to watch when America won the contests.  It showed that America was the best.

But then America began getting professional athletes from home and from abroad, in an effort to guarantee victory.  Only on the American teams would you find Asian, Hispanic and African athletes.  For the China teams, you’d only see Chinese athletes.  For Mexican teams, you’d only find Mexicans.  I’m not a racist or anything, but does something seem a little off?  Yes, I agree that there are a lot of people from around the world that simply love America and want to live here.  But Americans should represent America – not everyone else.  I won’t go into a lot of the politics that are going on behind the scenes to get these foreign athletes to compete for America.

Which brings me to my real reason for hating the Olympic games lately.  For the past several cycles of the Olympic games, it seems that you hear about nothing but the politics surrounding the games.  I’m sure 99.9% of you are aware that the games are in China this year.  Lots of people are protesting the games because of how China is violating human rights.  I honestly just simply haven’t cared for the past few years because it’s always ‘something’.  I realize the world is falling apart politically, but when its stories are mixed in with everything, it gets a little tiring to hear about it.  I suppose the key here is that I, along with many of you I’m sure, need a break from all the political mumbo-jumbo every once in a while.

So if I don’t care, then why am I even bothering to write about it, you may ask?  I suppose this is my own little form of protest.  Although I technically don’t care enough about it to protest, so I guess this is more of a 4-paragraph essay about me not caring.