TuscanyCircle - Recent posts

Dog Politics

Wayne — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:13:57 -0500

My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365. His meals are provided at no cost. He visits the doctor once a year for his checkup and any other times during the year if any medical needs arise. For this he pays nothing and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house much larger than he needs, but he is not required to do any upkeep. If he makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep; these accommodations are absolutely free. He is living like a king and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day.

I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head: my dog is a leftist!

(hat tip prrose)

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Government Indoctrination

Wayne — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:59:06 -0500

Public education indeed:

A school district in Arizona has filed a lawsuit against a handful of taxpayers seeking a court ruling that they have no right to ask for public records, sue the district or even complain to anyone about the educational institution's activities.

Just what is so public about government schooling? Taxpayers can't ask for public records. They cannot petition the government for a redress of grievances. They cannot even exercise free speech by complaining. This is what the public schools want.

I really don't know how the evil that is public school can be made more obvious to the morons, so-called Christians included, who suck this teat of poison.

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"The U.S. Census & My Fair Share"

Charla — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:30:34 -0500

Thought I would post a link to my hubby's new blog, called "A Simple Man's Blog." He just wrote a little blurb about the census so thought I'd send it on.

http://runfromtheleft.blogspot.com/

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Workplace theft

Wayne — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:50:59 -0500

I started a new job a couple months ago and have since enjoyed some small-time persecution for being a Bible-believer. Each night I fail to lock up my stuff in my office, some of it is stolen. So far, this has been limited to food (e.g., candy). When I told my boss, he said he'd experienced no such problems and made no effort to report it or do anything about the continuing problem. I cannot report it again to official channels, because it's not anonymous and my boss would see this as an end-run. My contract would likely be dropped and I'd be unemployed during a depression.

My office is also not maintained by the custodial staff. It's never vacuumed. The trash is not emptied. The desk is not dusted. All of these chores are performed on my neighbors' offices but not on mine. My neighbors also have no problem with theft of their personal items, although they did implicate the nighttime custodial staff in my thefts. In fact, one neighbor has left money on his desk for months at a time without a single pennyb taken.

The only difference I can fathom is that my office had a small Ten Commandments display (two inches high). This marked me as a Bible-believer. I say "had" because I'm now taking it home for fear of having it stolen, irony notwithstanding. Persecution of Christians in America has been a growing trend, be it in big ways like murder (which cannot be legally defined as a hate crime since it's against Bible-believers) or in small ways like theft. Coincidences aside, I don't know whether or not I'm being persecuted, but it's well within the realm of feasible.

What can we do? Praise God! To be persecuted for His sake is among the greatest honors we can endure. Mind you, I would enjoy catching the evil culprits and seeing them punished, but in this culture, that is increasingly unlikely. So enjoy the honor while we wait for His perfect justice to be served.

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The Roles of Church and State

paulfranklin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:18:02 -0500

How can we blast the Government for intruding into places it shouldn't be when we are unwilling to tread in those same places which we are commanded to be.

As Christians our responsibility is to glorify God through obedience to His commands. And clearly, one of His commands is to help the hungry and the poor, and those who are powerless.

7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out;
When you see the naked, that you cover him,
And not hide yourself from your own flesh?
8 Then your light shall break forth like the morning,
Your healing shall spring forth speedily,
And your righteousness shall go before you;
The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. - Isaiah 58:7,8 NKJ

Clearly, if we as individual Christians, and the organized church, were to step up to the responsibility of caring for the poor and the hungry, then there would be no need for the Government to be involved in these matters. And more importantly, the light of the love of Christ would shine for all to see that they may come to know Him as their personal Savior. As it is, though, the Government is involved with feeding the hungry and providing for the poor in large part because the rest of us, including the church, aren't.

I have been convicted that one of my responsibilities as a believing Christian is to help at least one of the following groups of people:

1. Prisoners
2. Orphans and Widows
3. The hungry and the poor
4. The elderly

If you are a Christian, then this should be a priority of yours also. In the past days I have seen examples of fellow Christians following God's command to help those who are less fortunate.

1. One Sunday School class member has started going into prisons and nursing homes and preaching to and working with inmates and the elderly. He feels a call from God to do this, and he does it as a volunteer almost every week. He started this about a month ago.

2. A couple who are close friends of mine feel called to adopt children, at great expense to themselves (it costs over $20,000 to adopt a child, typically). They are currently in the process of adopting a second child (in addition to their three biological children). They home school, and the mother stays home full time to raise the children in a Godly home.

3. Another Sunday School class member (who was recently laid off from his job) has been taking food to the homeless in Gainesville every Monday night for many months. He has taken the time to develop relationships with church, government, school and business officials and arranged through them to provide facilities and food, Bibles, and clothes to groups of both the poor and the homeless. Through his Sunday School class which has several people who have experience in the food service business, he has arranged to have groups as large as over 400 served. None of the people involved get paid, the food is donated, and there is no organization other than discussing the next project during Sunday School class time.

Certainly each of us could donate an hour or two of our time a few times through out the month and pursue a similar "ministry".

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Health Care, the Constitution, and the Freedom to Tell the Truth

paulfranklin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:39:22 -0500

Judge Napolitano is the youngest life-tenured Superior Court judge in the history of the State of New Jersey. Here is video of Judge Napolitano discussing the constitutionality of the Federal Government regulating health care, along with intrusions into other personal freedoms including the freedom to tell the truth. This is worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=7n2m-X7O...

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Earthquake magnets?

Dave — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:53:15 -0500

In a story both tragic and comic, a Haitian family fled their native country in the wake of the earthquakes earlier this year. Unfortunately, their destination was Chile, where they experienced yet another quake. The family survived both quakes, but now they are doubly-homeless and considering moving once again.

I hope I can find out where they're headed. If I do, I definitely won't be vacationing there!

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Starbucks defends life

Wayne — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:15:53 -0500

This may be enough to make me start drinking coffee.

The major news media was replete with reports over the weekend that the coffee company, Starbucks, "has no problem with customers packing heat while placing their orders."

I agree with Chuck—it's sad that this is newsworthy, but our culture has become so antagonistic toward human life and freedom. With this news, Starbucks asserts its defense of life...and, frankly, the protection of themselves by armed customers. Bully for Starbucks!

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Apple Whine

Wayne — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:00:22 -0500

Patent lawsuits, the refuge of the sore loser, constitute Apple's strategy for market success.

Apple thinks it owns the concept of the touchscreen Web phone and it wants other cell phone makers to pay for copying the iPhone or to stop altogether.

I can almost see the 2yo temper tantrum here. HTC's smartphones and every touted feature of the iPhone long predate the crappy Apple phone. HTC's phones always have been and still are more capable than Apple's. This is the real threat to Apple and why they're having a hissy fit. Given a level playing field, they can't win the market legitimately.

Patents and copyrights are incompatible with natural law (i.e., they're immoral), as is the ubiquitous and ill-defined "intellectual property" concept. Nevertheless, soulless institutions have no compunction about playing the game with the given rules even when the rules are wrong (nor do damned individuals).

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Don't ask "why"!

Dave — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:20:22 -0500

If a police officer tells you to do something, you had better do it, quickly and quietly. Otherwise, you might find yourself in cuffs. That's what happened to Minnie Carey, a 61-year old woman. An Atlanta police officer, Brandy Dolson, told her to move. Ms. Carey asked, "Why?" Ms. Carey was then arrested and held in jail for nine hours. She was subsequently charged with disorderly conduct, and she had to show up for three hearings for which representatives of the government (the prosecutor in one case, and Officer Dolson in another) failed to show. The charges were dropped at that point.

I haven't been able to get a great deal of information about this case. This article states that the Civilian Review Board has upheld Ms. Carey's claim of false arrest, but I don't know what that means, exactly. As far as I know, Officer Dolson is still on the job.

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