Beholding the Beauty

Today, I sent the following to Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA): Senator Boxer, You worked tirelessly to end the ill-conceived War in Iraq, and I applaud your efforts on the front. I write to you now because I am concerned that the U.S. is about to get itself involved in yet another ill-conceived conflict, spending yet more money that we don't have to support the perpetrators of unspeakable atrocities, and harm the cause of democracy world-wide by encouraging even more sectarian, religiously oppressive, anti-freedom activities. I'm referring specifically to the statements coming from President Obama and others indicating that the U.S. will be sending military assistance to the rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar Assad. The line of reasoning in support of the rebels has been the reports (unlikely and unconfirmed, but let's assume for the sake of discussion that they are accurate) that Assad has used chemical weapons, which is against international law, and so sho...

What happened last night in the gallery of the Texas Senate is ATROCIOUS, and should be considered so regardless of your standpoint on the bill in question. First off, neither we as a nation, nor Texas as a State, are a "democracy". In fact, the Constitution of the United States specifically requires all participant States to have be republics, not democracies, and the Constitution of Texas explicitly states that Texas is, in fact, a Republic. That means representative government. What is so atrocious about what happened last night, is that rather than allowing the rule of law (including filibusters) to work, the so-called "people" simply overrode the law. I say "so-called" because the people shouting in the gallery were NOT elected. They (illegally, in my opinion) inserted themselves (via their voices) in the place of the ELECTED representatives (on both sides!) in the Senate well. I say it is atrocious because this sets a precedent of "barroom...

Context matters.  A lot. Case in point: the Protestant notion of "faith vs. works". http://onbehalfofall.org/2012/06/23/st-paul-and-the-works-of-the-law/

I just noticed it's been a month and a day since I posted last!  Man, how time flies! Anyway, I've been (as usual) super busy, and will remain so through the end of next week, so here's a quick quick rundown of some things I've been up to lately.  I'll expand on a couple of these after next week, when I have more time:  * Went to a Four-Day Defensive Handgun Course at Front Sight, and passed the skills test with a "Distinguished Graduate" level, which is the highest you can get.  To receive a "DG", you must "shoot down" 0-13 points.  That is, your points must be with 13 of the maximum possible.  I "shot down" 9.   In other words, I missed 3 shots, but they were still in the "body" on the target -- they weren't complete misses, just outside the "optimal" area.  (Complete misses are -5 each.)  I was one of two people in a class of 39 to receive a DG.  * Been working on some super secret projects tha...

The crux of the "marriage" question, both in the religious and civil realms, is over the provision of services or attachment of privileges to a status. It is not really about the status itself, because if there were no consequences of that status (e.g. access to services/privileges that would not otherwise be granted, or restriction for privileges, etc. that would otherwise be granted), the status would be irrelevant, and people could do whatever they wanted to and call it whatever they wanted to and it would make no difference. The State currently provides privileges, etc., for having the status labelled "married". In addition, that status, as far as the State is concerned, is -granted- BY the State through 1) it's assigned agents (e.g. judges and military officers) or 2) agents it recognizes. It recognizes, currently, as agents, holders of several non-State offices, e.g. religious leaders, ships' captains, etc. The first category of these (the judges),...

This has been a whirlwind of a month!  I've been incredibly busy, which is why I haven't really posted here much (my apologies). Anyway, here's what I've been up to: Work I have a client for whom I've been building a rather complicated website/database combination, part of which  went live already, to a select list of about 17,000 people, and the other part of which is scheduled to go live next Monday, to the rest of the world, but initially marketed to over 700,000 people. Dance I've been taking dance workshops and dancing pretty much every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday night: blues dancing at the Firehouse 5 on Sunday and Wednesday nights, country dancing at The Davis Graduate on Mondays, Fridays, and occasional Wednesdays after blues, and on rare occasion I'll hit up salsa or swing or hip-hop/club here or there on a Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday night. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but I got myself involved in some drama ...

Having learned a few things of the vagaries of time and chance, I find it more and more important every day to give thanks for all things (even -- and sometimes especially -- the things that I don't understand), judge no one (it's not my job!), and love every one (even my "enemies"). And in doing these things I find that more and more, I receive life more abundantly, I am pardoned my own transgressions, and I have no enemies at all: only dear and precious friends.