Can you make people trust in god with cash?

16 August 2008 6:53pm

I got a nifty little bulletin on my list today pointing to this survey, with an accompanying message of "Send this to all your christian friends!!" and "if you agree that we should keep 'in god we trust' on our money you should forward this, if you don't, delete it". That was the gist of the message, anyway.

I wouldn't say I'm deeply offended, but I am offended. Spreading this around with a message that says "only tell christians!" seems kind of silly. (Don't tell the Atheists!! They'll spoil it!) Do you actually want this poll to represent the opinions of the majority? Or only when it's YOUR majority?

As an atheist, I am all for a secular government. Treating all people the same regardless of what their color, gender, dress size, wallpaper color, or religion might be is a big part of being an American to me. Government sponsored religion probably sounds all nifty keen until you realize that it may not be your religion the government sponsors. It certainly won't be once the government is done sticking their fingers in it.

I'm not in favor of having a god on my money, but I don't really care one way or the other. I like to pick my battles and this is way down there on the list, under a lot of other things. (eg. public funding of "faith based services") I can't really give a theist perspective, but personally, I would fail to see why your god would give a crap about a couple of words on a piece of money. Do you stop believing if you aren't validated every time you open your wallet? I didn't think so.

So! In closing. Go vote in this poll. Vote with your heart and mind. Research the subject if you feel the need. And as you vote, think about all the different types of people who are trying to live together peacefully and happily in one big nation. Whether it be under god or not.

A terribly eventful weekend.

04 August 2008 8:09am

Spare a cheer for a sky so clear. Eduard managed to miss us, which makes me quite happy. This is our first brush with a tropical event since we moved into our mobile home just under a year ago. We decided to trust the forecast that it was going to go whomp on Texas, and stayed put even though it was "recommended" that we evacuate. Before you think I'm a total nincompoop for staying, let me tell you that we are practically on top of the line the emergency people used as a divider between "safe" and "not so safe". We're about 10 yards south of I-10, which is their usual arbitrary line. People living in travel trailers and mobile homes south of Interstate 10 were told they should move north of I-10 and stay with friends or family. Is moving a quarter of a mile to the north really going to save my butt? Probably not, so we decided to stay. Fortunately it barely brushed us, and all we had to deal with was some stiff breezes and some vicious misting rain.

Unfortunately, monday afternoon before Eduard visited, we started smelling a funny odor. Burning celery, in case you're curious. Yeah, it was pretty gross. We established fairly quickly that it was coming from the air-conditioner vents. Investigating the a/c was easy, scrambling to get it entirely shut down because it was on fire was less than pleasant. Evidently the hose that's supposed to route the collected condensation from the coils has a bit of a kink in it. The water tray overflowed onto the blower motor and blower controls, shorting them out. So, here we are, on the eve of a possible hurricane (or heavy tropical storm), wondering if we can get an electrician to come out without charging us an "emergency service" fee.

We were very lucky and I just have to say, the electrician is awesome. The same guy who hooked up our trailer when we moved it and fixed a grounding issue we were having at the same time. Harold Deloach is his name, and if you're in the Lake Charles, LA area and need electrical or a/c work done, CALL HIM. He came out that evening, didn't charge us an arm and a leg, and did what he could to fix our immediate issue and stay within our budget. We'll have to have a bit more work done before the heater will work, but considering we won't need the heater until November, it seemed like a good trade off for being able to eat this month.

On being "Southern"

03 August 2008 6:24am

I recently had a friend post a bulletin on myspace entitled "I am 99% Southern". The basic idea is that you check off, on this list of 33 statements, what you have done or currently do, multiply the number of affirmed statements by 3 and repost as "I am X% Southern". Guess what? I'm 74% Southern. I'm not from the south, and about the most un-southern person I know. What amused me was that of everything I checked off, a lot of them were things I did when I was in Utah and Idaho. (ie. fishing, camping, horse-back riding, driving a truck, owned land, been swimming in a lake or river, parked a vehicle in a yard, gone on a field trip to a ranch/farm) There were a few that I've either never seen someone from down here do or rarely seen. I've never seen someone in Louisiana "wear long sleeves year round, even in summer", for instance. They'd keel over dead. Some of the items could be considered to be southern, I guess. Make that one thing. "Owning or displaying a confederate flag" is the only one that seems to be even close to accurate.

Then there were some other items listed that I don't consider to be "southern", like giving a child a toy gun or living in a house in the middle of nowhere. I hate to break it to the southerners, but most people who live in the country speak with a "drawl", so they don't have that one all to themselves either. I think the one that bothered me the most was the mention of church. Not just because it mentioned church, of course. "You also go/have gone to church on Sunday." I knew more people in Utah that went to church every Sunday than I have ever known to do so here. Take into account that it is Utah I'm talking about, which isn't exactly the heathen state. But just the concept that someone out there thinks that going to church regularly is something only a southerner would do disturbs me.

I know this is just supposed to be a cute little "test", but isn't it just a bit divisive? If anything that test should be labeled "I am X% Country", which doesn't sit right with me either. I'm not any more "country" than I am "southern". It smacks of "southern pride", which seems a bit silly to me. Why would you be proud of where you were born? Did you have any control over that? It's right up there with taking pride in the color of your skin or where your ancestors came from. If you want to be proud of your own or your ancestors' achievements, now that would make sense.

Reading back over this, I realize it sounds as if I'm trying to stomp all over southerners, and I'm really not. People are just people, no matter where they're from, what color they may be, or where their ancestors lived. I think the more of us (humans) that realize that fact, the better off we'll be. I'd like to see the pride that is a "sense of superiority" emphasized less, and the pride one can take in one's achievements emphasized more. At least, that's what I was shooting for. I guess I missed. Probably because I've never fired a gun... (statement #27)