followfreedom's Xanga

Going mobile

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:17:19 GMT

Just downloaded xanga to my cell. Perhaps I'll start blogging again.

Disturbing.

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:35:09 GMT

Lend me your thoughts on this video:

Yeah you'll have to watch it in order to form an opinion. Sorry.

The Discussion.

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 11:57:22 GMT

My first Xanga entry in a loooong while.

But the shootings, first here in Oregon on Tuesday and now in Connecticut have driven me from my self imposed reclusion. First let me say that a good amount of praying for everyone involved has been done in our household starting Tuesday night and continuing today. Praying and reflection. Reflecting as I've heard pundits and reporters talk about (again) for a national discussion on gun control. I was reminded of a post I did some years ago when the Virginia Tech tragedy happened.

You can see that here. Needless to say that there exists as historical evidence the fact that it does not take guns or bullets to pull off mass murder if someone is determined to do it. (Also 911 was done with box cutters and aircraft though I don't notice any bans on box cutters. Or Aircraft)

I hear the mayor and former mayor of New York City say we need to have a national discussion on (yes) gun control. Let me point out a couple salient facts:

1) Chicago, whom President Obama loves to uphold as his shining example of a Pro-Gun Control city, has logged 436 murders as of October 2012, more than any other U.S. City. (In the same time frame 271 Americans were killed in Afghanistan thus making Afghanistan more survivable than Chicago. At least for an American.)

2) Washington D.C.'s own decades old gun control law was overturned by The 2008 DC vs. Heller case in the U.S. Supreme Court on constitutional grounds but was even an issue because it famously DID NOT WORK. The result was that crime dropped 9% to 143 in 2010. The lowest total since 1963 according to the Washington Times.

But I agree that a discussion needs to take place. But not just about gun control or the lack of. Let's talk also about another cherished constitutional right. Freedom of the Press.

The major media has been back on it's heels lately because of an under reported phenomena: The fact that people with cell phones and a Twitter or Facebook feed on the scene report breaking events faster and more accurately than the professionals could ever hope to. The world knew about major earthquakes in Chile and Haiti in seconds. Same story with the uprisings in Egypt and Syria. And remember the Iran's Green Revolution that our government rather surprisingly did not support? All on Twitter.

What's the point here? The point is that the need for pontificating journalists who all went to college for for the privilege of telling you and I what to think are now obsolete. When we hear a suggestion repeated ad infinitum about the need for a discussion on gun control, that conversation should include the future effectiveness of a media who are out of control and of journalists who have traded actual reporting for idealism.

Sometimes you just don't know...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 18:12:15 GMT

...where inspiration will come from.

And when it does it's as if someone hit you in the face with a brick.

I know my xanga account has been languishing from non attention. I've about had it with evil facebook. (Though FB is really good for some things. intelligent discussion just isn't one of them). AND my sincere honest intentions are to actually blog and not just cut and paste like I've been trying to get away with recently.

But as I was randomly surfing the internet the other day I came across a blog from a guy in my area of Portland about doing impossible things. Intrigued I checked out his most recent entry called "An Unexpected Ass Kicking about HIS totally random encounter with the man who invented ...well read about it here.

And then comment and tell tell me this isn't about the most exceptional, random inspiring thing you heard about in a good long while.

And I'll sit here brick faced and thoughtfully inspired as you do. Go ahead. I'll wait.

And let this photo whet your appetite:

(Photo by Joel Runyon, licensed CC-BY-3.0)

Want to mess with your mind? Without the man in the photo, the photo of this man wouldn’t exist. *mind blown*

Food for thought.

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:59:04 GMT

Support your local sheriff

Sun, 29 Jul 2012 01:36:26 GMT

An awesome video if you have a half hour from this website:

http://www.countysheriffproject.org/sheriffs-rising-up

Power divested means expansion of liberty while concentrated power will ALWAYS remove it.

A popular bumper sticker...

Tue, 29 May 2012 01:54:08 GMT

Just a short sort of poll question as we wrap up Memorial Day and I try to slide back into my xanga again:

"Freedom is not free." Do you believe this and why?

The stupidest holiday of the year.

Sun, 22 Apr 2012 05:07:07 GMT

A repost from 4 years ago.

If it can be called a "holiday".
Actually I think Earth Day could reasonably be called a holiday. Since the word is derived from Old English hālig dæg : or "holy day" it wouldn't be a huge stretch given the religious like aura surrounding the climate change crowd.
Especially here in the Northwest.
And from where I'm sitting now, what I'm about to do would be tantamount to standing up in church and uttering a string of profanities.

Earth Day has to be the stupidest holiday on well... earth.

No matter where you fall on the whole global warming debate (as I sit in a coffee shop, sheltered from rain, hail and 40 degree temps, not to mention the fact that my son's baseball game got snowed out the other day. In the middle of April. Sheesh!) you have to admit that in this day and age you can't go a day without being confronted with some sort of environmentalist propaganda or educational efforts whether it's sustainable building practices, recycling efforts, at work, school, on vacation, even on Saturday cartoons...etc. etc.
Pretty pervasive.
Not that I disagree with any of that. Conservation is a virtue and an American value. Ben Franklin's "waste not, want not" and all.
But, if for the sake of argument we assume (and I don't) that having one day called Earth Day has resulted in all of the above, can I say something?

Enough already. We get it.

Honestly, in the current ...um, environment, having a day called Earth Day is like waking up every day of the year to presents and turkey and still having one day a year we call Christmas.
Kind of de-values the day if you ask me.
And some cities observe the whole week. What is this? Environmentalist advent?

Even some environmentalists agree with me.

So, in an effort to balance things out and to be a bit iconoclastic, my observance of "Earth Day" will be driving around more than I usually do, breathing harder to increase my carbon footprint, using double the toilet paper and putting all my incandescent bulbs back in.

Who knows? Maybe in my small way I'll bring some significance back to a stupid holiday.

UPDATE: A related article here.
"And frankly, to hear people who are so wealthy that they're clinically obese from excess food and leisure time yammering on about what kind of light-bulbs they use, while other people are literally starving to death... It's beyond bizarre."

Amen.

While we were headed for the weekend...

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 21:00:08 GMT

On Friday while we were all looking elsewhere the president signed this executive order. I got no comments on my facebook page. Perhaps everyone is doing whatever they always do on Sundays. It seems our well meaning president has gotten good at signing controversial bills and executive orders when no one is looking. Except that it's posted on the White House website.

The need to hide the audacity is getting weaker.

I wonder if I'll get any comments here.

Which is more important?

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:35:47 GMT

A philosophical/political question for my circle of friends here: Which is more important, #democracy or #liberty?