How to Effectively Beat A Red-Light Camera Ticket

Yes, I know, I also prefer original and fresh content on the various blogs I read. So don't bother reading this excellent blog post about how you might be able to deal effectively with a traffic cam ticket. I don't care, I saved the copy in Evernote, just in case…

You Probably Can't Stomach Another Example of Racism, But…

… check out all of these RACISTS stating opposition to Obama and ObamaCare!

I'm Adding Oprah To My List…

Oprah Winfrey's comments here disgust me. She simply cannot comprehend that some (actually, a LOT of) reasonable people could hold opinions very different from her own, so the only thing her self-limited mind can offer up is that it must be a shallow bias such as racial prejudice. Sadly, she is among many who attempt to marginalize people with differing opinions with that incessant, nonsensical and unsubstantiated claim.

And before you say it, Oprah's comments (NOT Oprah herself) disgust me not because she is "African American," but because she peddles her unearned political influence to shut down meaningful and reasonable dialog about extremely important issues (and not-so-important issues, too, like a $40,000 purse, but that's another reason altogether to be disgusted…).

I notice the only way the Far Left usually refers to anyone they disagree with as "racist" is behind their online anonymity or some other indirect way. Why don't they just come up to us in person and spew that crap to our face?
…
I sent this message to the Oprah Winfrey Facebook page:

Oprah, please don't stoop to race-baiting. A lot of reasonable people hold opinions and beliefs very different from President Obama, and those differences have nothing to do with racial prejudice. Making accusations like you made here:

(link to above video)

may serve to substantiate the popular narrative that Conservatives are mostly racists, but it alienates us and marginalizes our views. Wouldn't you rather be know for listening to and discussing a variety of opinions and outlooks, or are you only interested in left-leaning perspectives? The Right listens to the Left's positions all the time - how about facilitating some balanced dialog that builds on what we all have in common, and moves us all forward from there, since the old "divide and conquer" tactics don't seem to have worked out so well?
…
Wanna join me in holding my breath, waiting for a reply?

Is This a Little Too Thought-Provoking?

This may be just a little too thought-provoking for some, but here goes:

How many of you remember when the APA removed general homosexuality from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) in 1973? I do. Do you remember concern being raised that the APA would someday do the same for pedophilia? I do.

Guess what.

Since I'm probably on a roll here with provocation of thought, I might as well add a little something as I wonder whether this has had any influence on the APA's latest move:

If you have no idea what any of this has meant, currently means, and will mean to the American culture and society in the future, I suggest you wake up, study up, and stop being part of the problem.

Dare I Add to What The Dalai Lama Said?

"We are visitors on this planet. We are here for ninety, one hundred years at the very most. During that period, we must try to do something's good, something useful with our lives. Try to be at peace with yourself, and help others share that peace. If you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the goal, the true meaning of life."

- The Dalai Lama 

If I might be so bold as to add:

"If you make it your life's work to help others contribute to other people's happiness, you will have both found and shined light on the goal for others to see, and strengthened the true meaning of life for all humanity."

- Paul Tannahill

The Old "Guns On Campus" Issue Revisited

At the college where I work, students and other campus visitors who hold a concealed weapons permit are allowed by statute to carry concealed on campus, but employees are not, because of a college policy. This results in the college not permitting people it knows from being able to defend themselves and other employees and students, but letting relative strangers carry freely. As a former Marine and law enforcement weapons instructor, it seems a little out of whack to me, as well as to numerous responsible permit-holding employees I know.

Please don’t strike back with an emotion-laden response to this issue, as a wealth of solid facts and statistics back up the position that a policy that allows trained and license concealed carry permit holding employees to carry in the workplace drastically reduces workplace violence. I have studied this issue for years, and I encourage you to do your own research if it concerns you.

This story brought all of these thoughts to mind for me.

Treat People Different To Give Them Equality. Wait… Huh?

From an old Facebook note I wrote a couple of years ago:

---

I attended an education symposium yesterday, where I heard these statements from a panel of educators promoting “equality” for students of color:

“If you want high grades for people of color, you have to reward faculty based on that model.”

"Students need educators that look like they look."

"Treat different people and situations differently - that's the only way we can achieve equality."

I was just a tag-along at this symposium, probably the least-educated and lowest-ranking person in the entire room, so I didn’t offer up a comment to the panel, but if I would have, it would have sounded something like this:

“I’m a newcomer to academia, having built my career in the workforce, in military, government, and private sector workplace training and development. We had pretty much moved past the point of stressing about people’s skin color and race (there is only ONE race: human), but instead promoted the general idea that we all are to strive to further the organizational mission by training and supporting people in their various roles. A red man hires a brown woman to supervise a yellow man to help a black woman train a white man for his new job, with everybody recognizing each other as just people - that’s what gets the job done. “Red, Brown, Yellow, Black and White, they are precious in His sight.” And they are all precious in OUR sight, too.

Accommodating and enabling relationships built on skin color (or, as you call it, “race”) does our students a disservice, and does not prepare them well for life out there in the real world, the workplace that has largely moved past a perpetual focus on differences, and toward a focus on what we have in common to contribute to the mission. You may want to continue embracing  your old-fashioned race-based quotas and efforts to divide along lines of skin color, but the real world movers are PEOPLE who practice mutual respect and dignity across all lines of differences.”

iOS 7 First Impression

I like iOS 7 so far, but I miss the drop shadows behind the icons. The 2-dimensional flat look reminds me of Windoze. The next update to Mac OS X sure better not follow suit, or I'll start a "Give Us Our Mac OS & iOS Drop Shadows Back!" Facebook group. 

Help Kickstart World War 3!

Polar Shift Plotted

Want to see how much the magnetic North Pole has been migrating over the last couple of decades (it averages about 25 miles a year), and where it is projected to move in the near future? Download this file and open it in Google Earth.

Amazing Flash Flood / Debris Flow Southern Utah

Boy Prays to Barack Obama

How To Turn A Beer Can Into The Only Camping Stove You'll Ever Need

How To Turn A Beer Can Into The Only Camping Stove You'll Ever Need from Tom Allen on Vimeo.

Document Expert Could Topple Obama

Question: "How will Obama’s lawyers discredit a forensic document expert that their own law firm extensively relied on? Answer: They won’t be able to discredit him. If they do happen to try to discredit him, every single case Perkins Coie has employed Reed Hayes for will also be discredited."

Read more here.

What a Tragic, Wasted Opportunity

I am just so sad that the first black president of the United States turned out to be such a divisive, hating failure. He has turned out to be something else this country will be ashamed of in the history books, should we last long enough to have history books that tell the story of this time. What a tragic, wasted opportunity.

Martha Finney

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Why Aren't We Here Yet?

California Democrats Pass Bill That Protects Pedophiles

"When the law was passed in California, Republicans did attempt to add an amendment specifying that pedophilia is not covered as an orientation, but the Democrats defeated the amendment.  What the Democrats either failed to realize or didn't care about was that, by labeling pedophilia a sexual orientation, discrimination laws apply and pedophiles cannot be barred from jobs such as teaching preschool based solely on their pedophilia."

How anyone can embrace this evil ideology is beyond me (and don't even get me started on abortion!).

Source:

http://www.charlesmphipps.com/2013/04/california-democrats-pass-bill-that.html?m=1

Let's Be Like Laos

I just read an article about Laos. We bombed them extremely heavily them during the Vietnam war, and they weren't even involved. People there are still getting killed from unexploded US bombs and mines. The writer noticed how nobody he met seemed to be resentful or angry about it. They only expressed kindness and forgiveness. He finally asked his tour guide if their forgiveness is genuine. He replied by asking if anger can change the past.

Atlas Shrugged

Have you read and/or watched Atlas Shrugged? If so, what did you think of it? If not, why not, and what are you waiting for?

What The Heck Is That Guy Doing!?