Technology, Innovation & Telecomm

A few questions:

1. Do you accept the notion that the U.S. government’s acknowledgement of divine rule under one God represents the imposition of religion on you as a citizen?

2. Does that acknowledgement change, in any way, your day-to-day behavior?

3. Are you willing to concede your right to view, respect and perhaps promote a religious document or belief, based on the assertion that some small minority is offended by that same document or belief?

4. Do you believe that those who wish to eradicate the mere appearance of religion, do so for the greater public good?

5. Do you believe that if you are offended at someone else’s belief, that they should not be able to display the artifacts of that belief in public?

6. Do you think that there is no such thing as absolute right and wrong?

7. Should the country pass laws that represent its moral foundations?

8. Should a country even have a moral basis?

Here’s what some of the founding fathers had to say about those questions and more:

Thomas Jefferson:

#1 Declared that religion is: “Deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support”

#8 “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?

George Washington:

#8 “And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintaind without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on the minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principal.”

#4 “And of fatal tendency…to put, in the place of the delegated will of the Nation, the will of a party;- often a small but artful and enterprising minority…they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the Power of the People and to usurp for themselves the reigns of Government; destroying afterword the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion…”

Andrew Jackson:

#3 In reference to the Bible: “That book, Sir, is the rock upon which our Republic rests.”

John Jay (first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court):

#7 “Providence has given to our people, the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians as their rulers.”

William Jay (son of John Jay, first Chief Justice):

#5 “He who admits the authority of the Bible will not readily acknowlege that whatever is “highly esteemed among men” must be right, nor that which is unpopular is, of course, wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln:

#6 “In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, I believe the Bible is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this Book. But for this Book, we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man’s welfare, here and hearafter, are to be found portrayed in it.”

…

The phrase “separation of Church and State” was originated by Thomas Jefferson. The principle that he was communicating was far different than what we see being represented today. The phrase originated in a letter that Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists, who had suffered great persecution for their faith. He borrowed some phraseology from Baptist minister Roger Williams. Jefferson’s letter stated this: “…, I contemplate with solemn reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church and State”. — he was reassuring them that the United States government would in no way interfere with the free expression of their religious freedoms. Nowhere did he imply that the government was to be disassociated with religion or the Christian principles on which it was founded. Nor was there any communication that the belief system on which the government was based would be forced on anyone else.

When you think about the freedoms you have today, please take the time to remember what the principals were that were set as the foundations of so many of them.

Don’t allow a “small but artful and enterprising minority” to erode the basis of what made this country so great. Don’t be fooled by that minority into thinking that you have the right not to be offended.

Don’t allow a judiciary whose purpose was to ensure the proper application of the Constitution, to now make policy, all while usurping the authority of the those that you elected to represent you.

Freedom is like a kite: Without restraint, it can’t remain aloft.

Our thoughts, prayers and support go out to all those affected by the atrocity of the cowardly attacks on the UK. We’re with you.

…it’s embarassing really.

Something over 10 years ago, just after we moved into this house, I took it upon myself to remove the baseboard in our living room and hallway. The notion was that I would refinish the hardwood floors and replace the baseboard straight away, adding a lovely country appeal to the rooms.

Well…the floors got refinished.

10+ years later, I finally got around to putting up baseboard. Those who know me will attest to the ongoing ribbing I’ve taken (deservedly, I admit!) over this issue. Well, rib no more fans! I’ve just today finished the work! The funny part is that we’re now going to be putting carpeting back in where I had re-worked the floors… Time has a funny way of dealing with such matters.

In any case, I’m sure that my friends and family will easily find other topics to rib me about, given that I’m somewhat gifted with a virtual bull’s-eye where that kind of thing is concerned. My wife has already coined a new phrase suitable to the situation: “10 Years and 3 days to get my baseboard!” Why three days? ‘Cause that’s how long it took from the time that I started putting it up ’til I finished this afternoon…

Why rush these things?

I should have known when my friend Bob went ’splat’ on the ice of the hillside, that trouble was ’round the bend.

We were helping another friend, Steve, move some items from his in-laws-to-be that were destined for his new home. Mainly, we were there to move a refrigerator out of the basement to it’s new residence a few miles away. Oh yeah, it was dark outside too.

The first clue that trouble was ahead should have been the fact that it was January. The next should have been the glare of ice on the lawn leading down to the back entrance to the basement. Funny thing. Did you know that when it snows then melts, then freezes again, the result is ice? Three (relatively) intelligent adult males and that somehow didn’t strike a note with any of us.

Anyhow, as we made our way down the hill and around the back, poor Bob took a pretty hard fall on that glassy sheet, sliding toward the side of the house. Steve and I were having our own troubles staying upright when we finally made it into the “safety” of the basement. All’s well, right? Nope. Besides the fact that the ceiling height in that basement was about 5 feet (the net result being that we all banged up our foreheads multiple times), we still needed to get the refrigerator back to the truck. The thinking was, after our adventures getting to the basement, that we would strap the ‘fridge to a hand truck and try to take a slightly different route back to the U-Haul (or whatever the vehicle of choice was, I can’t quite recall) so as to avoid the nice skating rink on the hillside. Even though there was still snow on the ground in line with the path we were planning, it seemed like a safer bet to have it under foot than the other form of frozen water. We thought it was a great plan at the time…

Steve chose to steer the appliance from behind while Bob and I guided the thing from the front. That part was going ok, and we were making slow but steady progress until we got to the little rise in the lawn that required a bit of heaving on Steve’s part and a bit of shoving on Bob’s and my part.

Now, you need to know that Steve had elected to wear treadless deck shoes for our little moving adventure and you also need to know that neither Bob nor I knew this.

While Steve was heaving to help pull the ‘fridge up the little rise, his shoes’ lack of tread became an issue…and both his feet slipped out from under him. Remember, he had the hand truck and appliance tipped toward him while he was backing up this little rise. When pressure overcame friction, the whole shebang landed on top of him. After a second or so of surprise, I lost my composure. If I had a camera and had been cruel enough to think of it, I would have taken a picture or two. It was like something from a Saturday morning cartoon. There was a refrigerator laying in the snow, with two arms extending from the sides at the top and two legs sticking out of the bottom…and Steve yelling for us to get the thing off of him. He didn’t sound like he had been hurt and frankly, I was laughing so hard that when Bob and I got the load off of him, I had to sit down in the snow to regain my self control. Thankfully, the hand truck and the mushy ground had helped to prevent any injuries to poor Steve.

I’m not sure what the moral of the story is here, but I can tell you that snow, deck shoes and refrigerators are not a good combination in the middle of January, especially when you add three supposedly intelligent males to the mix…