4.28.2010

Does this seem a bit pushy to anyone else? Have any of you ever been ordered to contribute to a gift for a colleague rather than asked to donate? I'm offended. Thing is, I barely know the person who is retiring. I like her well enough, I guess -- but I really don't like being told not only that I must donate, but how much.

* * *

Dear women colleagues,

L____, M____, P____ and I thought it would be a nice thing to present E____ with a retirement present at our get together in May. A $10 contribution from each one of us, will enable us to give E____ and her husband a weekend getaway, maybe in Chicago.

I volunteered to collect the money from each of you. Please bring $10, cash or check, at the graduation ceremony. I will also bring a card so we can all sign.

Please let me know if there any objections.

Thank you for making this job (collection) easy for me.

Sincerely,

A____

4.27.2010

...and a happy 28th to the J.Mo.

4.18.2010

ATTENTION ALL SINNERS, DOUBTERS, HOMOSEXUALS, AND UPPITY WOMEN! YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HEAVEN, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO HELL, NEITHER PLACE EXISTS - ENJOY THE ONLY LIFE YOU KNOW YOU HAVE! WE ARE STUDENTS ADVOCATING A NON-RELIGIOUS ETHOS - LIVE LIFE, JOIN SANE

This is one thing I shouted on the UC Berkeley campus yesterday for Cal Day. Cal Day is a day for prospective students and their parents to visit campus to learn about the departments, campus, and activities. The atheist group that I am a part of was tabling, and I decided to become an atheist street preacher. I called out those listed above, plus masturbators, ravers, blasphemers, immodest dressers, condom users, the promiscuous, potheads, drinkers, foreigners, bacon lovers, infidels, harlots, and a number of other types of people identified on the sign I'm standing with below.

There were people who were just annoyed with the yelling, and I did have a guy show me his bible and say "This is the truth", to which I replied "It's all a bunch of stuff made up in the desert thousands of years ago." My chants also included
  • WE ARE ATHEISTS AND WE ARE PROUD!
  • KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, WE LOVE YOU
  • YOU WILL NOT BE ADMITTED TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, IT DOES NOT EXIST, BUT YOU ARE A PART OF THE KINGDOM ANIMALIA, THE CLASS MAMMALA, AND THE SPECIES HOMO SAPIENS
  • DO NOT LIE AWAKE AT NIGHT WORRYING THAT YOU WILL GO TO HELL, ENJOY WHAT COMES NATURALLY TO YOU
  • WE WON'T CONDEMN YOU, WE CAN'T, WE ARE JUST LIKE YOU!
  • (when I would include Immodest Dressers)WEAR WHAT YOU WANT, INCLUDING YOUR HEADDRESS OR YARMULKE, WE LOVE YOU
  • (and while in the middle of campus, near the "Stop the Cuts" signs) ENJOY CAL DAY, YOU DID ALL THIS, NOT SOME MAGIC SKY FAIRY, THIS IS YOUR SCHOOL!
This was all followed by telling people who we were and to join our group. My goal was to reach those teenagers who are doubting and to inform them that we exist, even if they didn't notice our table. I was running on adrenaline all day, definitely, and my voice was killing me afterward, but I had a lot of great conversations with people who were really happy to see and hear me. Everyone sitting at the table told me that my yelling was good because when I wasn't yelling, many fewer people came by.


I am pointing at a specific term in this picture particularly for your [and my] amusement. This poster includes a number of terms that have been seen on posters of street preachers, condemning such people, which is why we have "Cal Fans", "Obama Voters", "Money Lovers", and "Dirty Dancers". The guy on the left is the VP/webmaster of our group.

I also had a lot of fun just being able to yell things. It was interesting to watch others attempt to yell, because they didn't have nearly the volume I could muster. And I know we're not all atheists on here, but this was just too exciting to not post about :D

Car Pictures will be coming soon too

4.16.2010

Food
I love this warm weather. I love being a homeowner. I lov
e having a backyard - and I love being a gardener! Check it out, my seedlings are so happy! They will be even happier once they are in my belly. Or rather, once their food parts are in my belly.
So far I have tomatoes, beans, sugar snap peas, snow peas, basil and chives. The rosemary and bell peppers haven't sprouted yet. The spinach, carrots, green onions, regular onions, cantaloupe, watermelon, pumpkins, summer squash, cilantro, oregano, and cucumber seeds haven't been planted yet. And I still need to purchase some baby strawberry plants as well as a couple of apple and pear trees and some raspberry, blackberry, blueberry and grape plants. Who knew you could grow grapes in Minnesota?!
I am in way over my head, but it is going to be delicious. My backyard is extremely sunny (yay!). The dirt patch in the middle will be transformed into a firepit & embers grill soon. That shed will someday house a couple of hens, once I change some city ordinances - or maybe before then.. I can be a rogue suburban farmer!

4.09.2010

...my landlord e-mailed this to me. I thought it was bad when my students were forwarding trumped-up political propaganda bullshit, but my landlord? A middle-aged man who is a respected professional in my community? (An asshole, but definitely a respected professional.) I mean...come on.

* * *

A retired Constitutional lawyer has read the entire proposed healthcare bill. Read his conclusions and pass this on as you wish. This is stunning!

The Truth About the Health Care Bills - Michael Connelly, Ret. Constitutional Attorney

Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business, and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats, and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled by the government.

However, as scary as all of that is, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people, and the businesses they own.

The irony is that the Congress doesn't have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with! I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access, by the appointees of the Obama administration, of all of your personal healthcare direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide...

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance, or if you have private insurance that is not deemed acceptable to the Health Choices Administrator appointed by Obama, there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a tax instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn't work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the due process of law.

So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much, out the original ten in the Bill of Rights, that are effectively nullified by this law It doesn't stop there though.

The 9th Amendment that provides: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people;

The 10th Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.

I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights... Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to "be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution." If I was a member of Congress I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it, without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway, I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.

For those who might doubt the nature of this threat, I suggest they consult the source, the US Constitution, and Bill of Rights. There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us.

Michael Connelly
Retired attorney,
Constitutional Law Instructor
Carrollton , Texas



AFTER HAVING READ THIS, PLEASE FORWARD....

If you don't care about our constitution, or your rights under it, just do nothing.

WE MUST HOLD CONGRESS ACCOUNTABLE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.