Saturday, May 2, 2015

War on Christianity: American Churches Who Oppose Same-Sex Marriage Will Lose Tax Exemption | Virtueonline – The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism

War on Christianity: American Churches Who Oppose Same-Sex Marriage Will Lose Tax Exemption | Virtueonline – The Voice for Global Orthodox Anglicanism



It is high time that ALL Bible-believing Christians walk out of both the fallen Democratic and Republican parties and do whatever is necessary within the law to restore the principles and ideals which this nation was founded upon.


Yes.



Bait And Switch: How Same Sex Marriage Ends Family Autonomy

The goal isn't equality - it's abolishing an institution.

Without civil marriage, the family can no longer exist autonomously and serve as a wall of separation between the individual and the state. This has huge implications for the survival of freedom of association.---Stella Morabito


A firebell in the night, like Thomas Jefferson said of slavery.  It took bloodshed to end slavery, and it may well take bloodshed to end this.  This can explain why they want your guns.  Your ability to resist is being worn down.  Eventually, you will cave in.  The time to fight is now while there is still a chance.


The split of the GOP has happened before

It happened in 1964.  The so-called moderates would not accept Goldwater and supported LBJ instead.

I'd have to check this, but I know I've read it somewhere before.  In fact, I think that this event has shaped American politics since.  The conservative wing is deathly afraid that the so-called moderates will bolt on them like they did in 1964.  So, the conservatives just don't challenge the so-called moderates.  Who runs the party then?  Hint:  It ain't the conservatives.

The LBJ landslide gave us a failed war in Vietnam, unlimited immigration, and a more radical leftist Democrat party.  The conservatives must fear this, so they will take a lot of garbage off the so-called moderates.

Time to flip the thing over.  If you can be intimidated, you won't be free.  The conservatives have to free themselves to fight the left.  Otherwise, the so-called moderates will own them.  Time to leave the GOP.


Top 10 Reasons to Oppose Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision

Life News dot com



The reason I'm pointing to this is not only do I agree with it, but also that the Supreme Court's apparent willingness to go along with same sex marriage is really just another Roe V. Wade.



I should also reiterate that for a so-called "conservative" court to do this pretty much should slam the door shut on any illusion that the Establishment wing of the Party can be trusted.  For they have to have heard the arguments against Roe V. Wade for the longest time.  Thus, they aren't in opposition to it in principle, as they should be if they were reliable, or otherwise, if they weren't against Roe in principle, to make another decision like Roe would be utterly unthinkable.




Friday, May 1, 2015

ISP issue appears to be resolved

Looks like I got my internet service back.  Whoop-dee-do.

Spent the whole day on a trip, and now I'm writing deep in the evening, and there's nothing to say.  Imagine that.

There's lots to do and little time to do it.  As for me, I'm tired as all get out.  I'm just checking in to see if the computer works and it does.  Yay.

Things should get back to some sort of normalcy this weekend, but it's now time for some shut eye.  Later.



Checking in May 1, 2015

https://youtu.be/roNHZMxue_Q

Thursday, April 30, 2015

ISP down

don't know what the problem is.  lite posting until resolved

The confusion of taking the law as a moral entity

The law is amoral.  The law may be conceived in morality, but its practice is amoral.  It's practice is adversarial, and thus the rule of the jungle prevails.  Hence, the law will set free an OJ Simpson, but will convict an innocent man.

Thus, the rule of law is always in effect.  What may be missing is the morality of an outcome.  But the law is what it is.  It is designed to produce an outcome, but not necessarily one in accordance with morality.  For the law is explicitly amoral.

Huh?  Well, take the OJ trial.  The moral outcome would have been to punish the murderer.  But this didn't happen.  You may claim that the rule of law is broken, but actually the rule of law is what brought the result.  It's the result that offends one's morality, but it isn't because there's no law.  It's because the rule of law produced an outcome that wasn't in accordance with morality.  You had your trial, but that's all the law affords.  If you don't get that right, you're shit out of luck.

Still confused?  Well, it is confusing.  I once made that mistake myself.  One lives and one learns.  The law doesn't concern itself with anyone's morals.  It just is what it is.

I'll try to remember that in the months and years ahead.  People who screech that the rule of law has been violated are just confused about what the law really is, and what it ain't.


Drainage system for the Quonsets

There's one fella at one of my usual stops who has shown a keen interest in what I'm doing out at da Ranch.

So, he asks me when am I going out there again.  I say: "probably not in a long while".  But after just a few days, the bug is starting to bite again, and I'm thinking about another trip.

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?????????????

Yeah, it's nuts, I know.

But what else am I going to do?  Well, if I'm going to go, I have to have an objective.  What could that possibly be?  Lately, I've been thinking about the water problem, and how the potential exists to capture all the water needed from rainfall.  Now, the quonset that I built isn't drained properly, so that can be corrected with a drainage system that I can install.

So, now there are two things I could do while there.  One is to repair damages to the quonset, and two, to add a drainage system to it.

A third thing is to add upgrades.  One upgrade would be aluminum siding so as to stop the rot that must creep in from the wood being exposed to the elements.

A drainage system should be simple.  Since two by fours line the outside edge, just place a drain rail on top of it, and a receptacle on each end so that the water can drain into it.  The receptacle cannot be that large, so it must be pumped out.  A small pump can drain it into a larger holding tank.

An idea just occurred to me that since the quonset is 8 inches above the ground, the area under would most likely hold enough water by itself, that no other tanking would be necessary.  In other words, build the tanks into the quonset itself.

It is too late to build one for the currently existing quonset, so the new versions can have it once I get around to building those.

I don't know of any existing tankage that I can attach easily to the quonset.  It may require that I build my own.  Here's an idea that might even work, but it ain't cheap.  The form fitting tanks can receive the water directly from outside and be held there inside the quonset for as long as needed.

This will go into the water subseries of the off-the-grid series of posts.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Home again, 4/29/15

Weird day.  Not bad in terms of business, but the thoughts running through my mind is what made it weird.

I'm shocked at what I'm thinking.

And what is that?  I won't say.  It is probably enough to be trouble, I guarantee you.

But trouble is what there will be.  Always is, always will be.  Trouble is our lot in this world.

I know all this reads pretty weirdly.  Let me put it this way:  the decision of the Court will be one of the biggest betrayals in American history.   What the response will be will tell you everything that is to come.

It hasn't happened yet, and it may not happen.  But it doesn't look good.


When a Tax Strike is Justified

According to this story, Obama's Lawyer says churches could lose their tax-exempt status if the court rules for same sex marriage.

A ruling like that usurps the Constitution, which forbids the government from setting up a church.  The government is making itself a church, and is outlawing all others.  If the government does this, it should no longer command anybody's loyalty.

There are church leaders who say that they will defy the ruling.  We'll see.  I don't think they have any choice, but to defy.  The government has crossed a line that must never be crossed.

Those who do not resist are just "hired men" who care nothing for the sheep.  They'll run away when the Big Bad Wolf Government Man comes.

Update:

To be fair, the Court hasn't decided the issue yet.  I am reacting to what the tea leaf readers are judging to be the direction that they will go with their decision.

How to handle this if the Court goes Rogue on us?   At the very least, there should be passive disobedience, like Gandhi or Martin Luther King.  The churches need to find a way to resist even if they lose their tax exemption.  Growing their own food, perhaps?

Come to think of it, the government has usurped the church.  Didn't the church feed the people when hunger was a problem?  Did they not provide health care?  If the church can feed the people again, perhaps they can regain the respect of the people.  They sure don't get it by being doormats for the left wing to walk over.


Baltimore riots

Everybody seems to want to weigh in on what the trouble is here.

The trouble in Baltimore is like the trouble all over Western society.   At the very least, the very least, the trouble is that the government is too large, and assumes too much authority over too many aspects of our lives.  The solution that will be offered in Baltimore will be the same one that is making the society sick in the first place--- more and more government.

I note also that the Supreme Court is leaning toward same sex marriage.  This is supposedly a conservative court.  If it were truly conservative, it would over rule same sex marriage and allow it to be decided at the local level.  If it is decided in favor of same sex marriage, it would be violating the same principle as the abortion ruling.  Not only would the Court be redefining morality, and thus entering upon an area that is forbidden to it, but it is taking over a local decision and nationalizing it without cause.  There is no cause to be doing this.  Instead, the Court may do exactly the wrong thing, as all of our so called leaders keep doing exactly the wrong thing time after time.

I don't think anyone really understands what's going on here.  If I may offer my theory?  My theory is that everything has been commercialized to the point in which nobody does anything without a monetary gain in mind.  Nobody does anything for the love of it.  Nobody will do a thing unless they get a personal gain from it.  Call it a type of selfishness.  They will not do the right thing because in order to do the right thing, it will mean that they will have to give up some advantage that they just can't live without, or so they think.

Nobody will serve the community just for the love of it.  Nobody will sacrifice their interests for the good of the community, for the sole reason that they love their community.  Nope.  If they don't get paid, they won't be doing it.  The community can go to hell for all they care.  So, it goes to hell and everybody wonders why.

My analysis isn't even mine.  It comes from the Gospel of John.  Jesus said that the sheep will follow the Good Shepherd and no other.  If it is a hired man, he will abandon the sheep when the wolf comes, because the hired man cares nothing for the sheep.  The Good Shepherd will gives his life for his sheep and the sheep will follow him and nobody else.  Otherwise, the sheep will scatter.  So it has come to us.  The sheep have scattered because there are no Good Shepherds anymore.


Tuesday, April 28, 2015

So, what's really going on?

I axed that question earlier today.

The answer is that nobody knows.  Not even the highest of the highest muckety mucks know what the f8*k is going on.

There's no conspiracy because the people in the know ( supposedly ) could not possible want things to go badly.  What's in that for them?  They can't wish for an outcome that leaves them worse off than before.  The only response to that is that they don't think anything is wrong at all.  To them, it's all hunky dory.

The people who that don't believe things are hunky dory should be smart enough to be able to change things so that a better outcome can be possible.  But that isn't happening either.  They are either wrong, which could explain why they can't change things because if they were more competent, they would know what to do; or they are right, but haven't figured out what to do yet, or perhaps there's nothing that can be done because it is a hopeless case.  We haven't got anybody who can fix this because nobody is good enough to fix it or change it.  If they aren't good enough to fix it ( or change it ), then the chances are that they don't know what's going on either.

I think all the people who claim to be unhappy about the current events are full of crap.  The people who are happy are also full of crap, but at least have enough competence to get what they want.


The potential that exists

In terms of rainfall to be collected, the amounts, when calculated on a large scale, can be overwhelming.

For example, on my last trip, over a three day period, it rained .22 inches.  For every acre, which consists of 43,560 square feet, this computes out as follows:

43560 sq. ft * (.22/12) ft = 798.6 cubic feet.  Since there are 7.48 gallons per cubic foot, then the amount of rainfall when collected together in one spot would be 5974 gallons.  That's enough for one person to have 16 gallons every day for an entire year.

Clearly, there is no need to use an entire acre for capturing rainfall.  Since it rains about 12 inches per year out there, that one spell of rain (.22 inches) would be about 22/ 1200 hundredths of an inch or not quite 2% of an entire years rainfall.  Putting it another way, in order to get the same result over the year's time, we could use just 1/50 th of the area.   It says here that only 799 square feet would do it!  Let's run the numbers and see if that's right.  Since 12 inches equals a foot and 799 is almost 800, lets say that we get 800 cubic feet of water.  Yup, it checks out.

Naturally, the rain doesn't fall evenly throughout the year.  You may get most of the rain in a short period of time.  The rest of the year may be bone dry.  In such a case as that, would it be better to prepare for a lot of rain, even if the odds are that on any one day that you won't get it?

But it seems crazy to get water storage that is capable of collected several thousand gallons at a time, but in a place where it rains so little most of the time.  You can look for something about like that, and it would cost a bundle to buy it and set it up.

What the heck, lets put this in the water subseries of the off-the-grid posts.

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Want to remember this

A reminder to myself that I want to think about how to use shrink wrap to make the quonset huts air and water tight.

My eldest brother, who I refer to here as "number one", expressed doubt that I could make a small RV type trailer air tight.  There may be something to that as it seems to be a problem getting the plastic and the wood and the metal to go together tightly.  It so happens that if you use shrink wrap as I've seen it used, you can make some really tight fits, as it stretches a lot, but can be bundled up into a strong stringlike structure.

I may also revisit making a quonset hut on top the of the 5x8 trailer.  I think I rejected that idea, but I may bring it back because of its simplicity.

Number one doesn't like RV's at all.  However, I think that an RV is the only thing that may work out there.


Almost like watching the news from another country

It's not the country I grew up in.

News is always negative. If it's good news, it isn't news.  That's always been true.  But the stuff nowadays...

Boner says they can't stop the Iran deal.  Really?  You've got GOP control of both houses and you can't stop the Iran deal?  Conservatives fear that the GOP leadership won't repeal Obamacare.  Really?  How did the GOP get back into control if it weren't for opposition to Obamacare?  Recently, I heard that the Fast Track Trade Authority will negate any enforcement of immigration laws.  Really?  Tell me again what the big issue was in last year's elections.  Wasn't it immigration?  And they want to give Obama MORE power over it????

A conservative says he wants to unleash the power of "no".  Really?  Then why do you stick with a party that refuses to do what they were elected to do?  Conservatives are powerless because they choose to be powerless.  They refuse to do anything that will move the needle on the insanity meter back towards normal behavior.  He points at liberals, but they need to take a good hard look at themselves in the mirror.  They are being walked on because they let themselves be walked upon.  He thinks he needs to say no to liberals.  He needs to say no to the establishment wing of his own party and separate from them.  They couldn't get elected dogcatcher without conservative support.

But they'll never do that.  Why?  I dunno.  Maybe most of what you hear is Bravo Sierra.  That includes what you hear from so-called conservatives.  Unleashing the power of "no"?  Ain't gonna happen.  If it was gonna happen, it woulda already.

Anyone out there know what's really going on?


Monday, April 27, 2015

Home again, 4/27/15

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig.   Been awhile since I had that feeling after a long day behind the wheel of the van.

It was mostly because of the long commute home.  It took me at a half hour longer than what I think it should have.  What can I say?  This one may have been on me.  I got impatient with one way and chose another, which was undoubtedly worse than the first.

I missed something while I was gone, and I'm kinda glad I did miss it.  Somebody died, and they found him in the restroom at work.  Imagine coming across that.  I was glad I wasn't there to witness that one, and what came after.  Not that I didn't like the guy, he was eminently likable chap.  Once upon a time, many years ago, I stumbled across what I think was a dead guy at the entrance of a gas station.  I tell the proprietor about it, and a cop looked at me like I had something to do with it.  Well, not really, it just seemed that way.  Death seems unreal at times.  People have a hard time dealing with it.  I'm not different.

There wasn't as much curiosity about my trip that I thought there might be.  Only goes to show you.  You can drop dead like that poor guy did, and maybe somebody notices it, or maybe not.

I figured I could do my prep for moving out there during my free time.  I forgot already how little of that there is.



Resumption of work schedule begins today

Oh, goody.

Well, at least be grateful that there is a job.  Things could go south in a big way, which could mean no jobs at all.

As I got up this morning, I thought of how tight the schedule really is.  As I write this, there is less than an hour before you have to start preparing for work.

In that short span of time, I have to come up with something for the blog if I want to keep putting things up.

People at work will be curious about what I did out there.  I put up a pic on my smart phone and made it my wallpaper.  It is a pic of my little shed that I built.  It is so modest that I am embarrassed.  So little to show for so much work and expense.  A consolation is that most of the cost was for stuff that I still have.  Consumables like food and motel space only made up about a third of the expense.  I won't have to spend money for the tools and equipment I bought.

Besides the pic, I can tell a few stories.  I left those out until now.

One story is about the cattle somebody had placed on his land, which was a few miles away from me.  He failed to put up a fence, and so the cattle started "free ranging".  They liked to get on the road and follow the road.  This little herd consisted of about 10 cattle.  Anyway, this guy's herd made it to my property while free ranging.  I got a bit upset at this, finding these cattle on my land.  But then I realized that this guy was fighting a losing battle.  The cattle probably wouldn't have left his land if they had sufficient food.  The dude was probably falling behind in his schedule.  Even worse, if he wasn't feeding them, he wasn't watering them enough either.  I wouldn't be surprised if he lost his herd.

It only goes to illustrate that this ain't no easy task to settle that land.  You really have to know what you're doing.

It is probably best to start modestly, and try to get a foothold out there.  Starting off with some big animals like that--- too ambitious.

And I thought I was being too ambitious.

It could be that I've got it wrong.  But having your cattle miles away from where they are supposed to be could not have been his intention.  Getting them back could be a problem.  They could have wandered off anywhere in search of food and water.

There's a reason that there's so few people out there.  Things like this can discourage a person.

I have no great options left to me.  I have to make this work.  I think I've got a good plan.  We'll see.


Sunday, April 26, 2015

Updating my "Best of" posts

I was doing this on a regular basis, but stopped for some reason.  I don't remember why.

Anyway, it is quite interesting to go over these items one by one and see which ones make it and which ones don't.

One thing really gratifying is how many "Brainstorm" posts made the "Best of" list.

Brainstorms may never be implemented, for they are only ideas.  But just one really good idea can make a fortune.  Chuckle.  Here I am eschewing the reliance upon money and writing some like that.


Kaw-Liga - Hank Williams

Charley Pride has a version of this that's pretty good.  But this is the original.






Beekeeping videos from LDSPrepper, plus other sources

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More useful videos from LDS Prepper.

A couple links to videos on beekeeping.  Watched one, but the other will have to wait.

He recommends a book, but I haven't bought it. Perhaps I will, but there may be more than one way to skin a cat.  I figured maybe I'd raise the type of crops that bees like, so I consulted this website.   There was a mention of farmers markets and I managed to locate a site on chron dot com that lists them in the Houston area.