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| Check it out...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2929&l=f729a&id=502671168
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| Independence Day.
Fireworks, cookouts, watermelon, family, friends.
Freedom.
Happy birthday, America.
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| If you had never seen or heard of an elephant before, could
you draw one? Is the image of an
elephant something you could come up with on your own?
As humans, we have been blessed with the gift of
creation. Many people use this gift,
some more skillfully than others. It’s
amazing to hear a symphony or see a beautiful painting and know that someone at
some point created it. Some of us prefer
to create with words, in speech or in print.
This gift is something that we take for granted even though we use it
almost every day.
Of course, our ability to create comes from the Master
Creator. In fact, our creations are
simply imitations of His work. He first
created music. Our art simply imitates
the world that He made.
That’s why I asked my original question. Uncle Mak took our team to an elephant camp
for rides and the elephant shows. It got
me to thinking about creation.
Personally, I would never be able to come up with an elephant. Or a platypus. Or a hand, nose, or hair.
We serve an awesome God, a wonderful Creator. Our creations should bring glory to Him by
the way that we imitate His creation.
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| Usually, I feel very blessed to live in a state where many of my
leaders share my values. Today, though, those leaders apparently set
those values aside for reasons that remain a mystery. Moments
ago, the Republican-majority South Carolina legislature elected a new
state Supreme Court Justice. Unfortunately, the gentleman whom they
elected has a track record of voting against traditional family
values. According to Palmetto Family Council and South Carolina
Citizens for Life, Judge Donald Beatty voted in favor of abortion on
several occasions as a Representative in the S.C. House in the early
'90s. Also, according to Citizens in Action, he is a major opponent of
firearm rights and has an established reputation as an "activist judge"
in Spartanburg County where he currently serves as an Appeals Court
Judge. How did our conservative leaders let this man slip through the
cracks? Now, concerned conservatives in South Carolina will not only
have to fight special interest groups & dirty politics to get
things done. Now we must also battle a judge who will most likely
legislate from the bench.
On the other side of the coin, a big thank you to the Representatives
and Senators who stood in the face of pressure and voted for the
conservative candidate. My personal thanks goes to my legislators,
Rep. Eric Bedingfield and Sen. Danny Verdin. Thanks guys.
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| ...that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life,
liberty, and the pursuit of...digital television? What?!?
Before I explain, give me some credit. I've had this blog for a long
time (571 days according to xanga and, no, I don't want to upgrade to
premium) and I've tried my hardest not to talk about responsibilities
of our government that I feel would be better held by the people or the
church. As tempting as it is to list my opinions here, I'll refrain.
If you want 'em, call me and we'll have a phone debate. Sorry, I'm
digressing, but my point here is that I've held my tongue many times,
often deleting a post after it's been typed. I can't hold back on this
one, though.
The other day I happened to catch the noon news. This is rare for me,
because I get most of my news online and, as my dad likes to point out,
those TV guys are usually a couple of days late anyway. Anyway, being
somewhat of a technology junkie, it caught my ear when a reporter on
our local NBC station started talking about TV companies completely
phasing out analog signals over the next two years. I was already
beginning to formulate an appeal to my dad for a new digital TV when
the reporter said that analog televisions would still work as long as
the consumer added a digital converter to the setup. My dreams of a
new TV shattered, I almost missed her statement at the end. She said
that those of us with analog TV's in 2009 will qualify for up to $80
from the federal government to help with the purchase of the previously
mentioned converter.
Yeah, folks, that's right. We have a national debt of
$8,837,256,326,384.47 (as of 4 PM GMT today according to
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/) and the government wants to put our
tax dollars towards making sure we can watch Monday Night Football. I
couldn't believe it, so I checked online. Cnet.com confirmed the story
and provided me with more detail
(http://news.com.com/Feds+unveil+digital-TV+subsidy+details/2100-1028_3-6166416.html).
I won't go into all of it here, but let's look at the bottom line.
Congress has allocated a total of 1.34 billion dollars for this little
project. Yeah, that's $1,340,000,000.
I wish I had caught wind of this earlier. I'd love to tell you to call
your legislators and tell them to vote against such a frivolous waste
of money, but the bill has already passed. You can, however, express
your disappointment with the irresponsibility of our leaders.
Government already has its fingers in places where it has no business.
This just adds to the list.
That's my rant for the month. Catch ya later.
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