Misguided Left wingnuts

Yet another example of the extreme Leftist good intentions run amok! Free the Gnomes indeed!
http://www.freethegnomes.com/mailbag.html

One cause after the next has been taken up by this group of radicals but now they are truly off their collective rockers. They claim the gnomes are being held captive in our gardens and demand their immediate return to their "native woodlands".

There are several problems with their logic on this one.

First: They (the Gnomes) do not wish to return to the woodlands. They have traveled the world seeking to establish new colonies and have settlements in gardens worldwide. Threatened with being returned to the land of his forefathers I heard one young gnome cry out in anger "this is my home!"

Second: The woodlands where these creatures of earth originated have all but vanished. Logging and urban sprawl have taken over much of their homelands.

Third: If they were sent back to the woodlands it would create such overcrowding that they would no doubt die from diseases or starvation.

Fourth: Having lived in gardens for several generations, the average gnome could not fend for himself in the woods and would be easy prey for ferocious killer chipmonks or rabid bunnies...or worse!

Please folks, do not be drawn into this foolish attempt to right a wrong that never was! Help the Gnomes defend their right to live in any garden anywhere, free from fear of being deported to a strange woodland. Free to raise their young without fear of being "saved" by the extremists and their misguided attempt to do that which is too frightening for the average Gnome to discuss!

SAVE THE GNOME! To support this counter movement I ask that you join me in combating these gnome enemies by sending a check to ME. I guarantee that not a single penny of your generous contribution will be spent on anything that would in anyway make my garden less Gnome friendly.

For more information on what you can do please leave a comment with your credit card information, your drivers license number, your social security number, your bank name, branch location, the pin number for your ATM card and your mother's maiden name. I promise that after I max out your credit card and empty any and all bank accounts I will sell your identity to the highest bidder. This statement is true ... trust me...

Freedom of religion

In many areas freedoms such as we in the USA enjoy are unknown. We are still free to voice our opinions on matters of politics, to worship or not as we are so inclined. To move about our lives and pursue happiness, apply ourselves and seek riches or to run for office. And by law, all citizens are entitled to these freedoms. Or are we?

Every day we experience prejudices. We are told that we must not speak out in government meetings or schools if we are going to discuss our religions. That it is immoral of us to take a stand against anything or any teaching that is based on our religious beliefs.

An atheist is not told to be quiet when he stands up anywhere to say there is no God, that Christians are all hypocrites, or that we need laws to prevent Christians from voicing our faith in public schools. They ban prayers, call us fools for believing, sue us for any demonstration of faith to which they or their children may be exposed. It is ok for them to use foul language, mock our God, and flaunt their "lifestyles" to us and insist the schools teach that their ways are to be accepted to our young while we are not allowed to even say the name God out of fear that their child may hear it!

I believe it is time to insist on freedom for Christians! To demand that we and our beliefs be afforded respect and the freedoms guaranteed to us by the constitution. We can no more leave our beliefs out of our politics than an athiest can leave their anti God sentiments out of their thinking.

I firmly believe in freedom. I believe in an Atheists right to deny god. After all, who am I to even attempt to deny anyone a right that was given them by the very God they are denying? God gave man freedom of choice.

I will continue to support your right to not believe. I will support your right to reject God. And all I ask in return is that you support my right to Believe and to speak as freely of my beliefs as you do of your non belief.

I will not be personally offended if you say there is no god...please stop being offended when I state that there is!

Please do not try to remove my freedom to discuss my faith. Please understand that your discussions pointing at Christians as hypocrites and or fools is offensive to me and statements that there is no God, or about the "evils of organized religions" is still a discussion of religion even if you are arguing against it instead of for it. Your rights do not extend to the right to usurp my rights. Your rights to disbelief are not more important than mineto belief.

Keep one thing in mind. If my beliefs are correct then by telling someone about them I may play a part in their being saved from an eternity in Hell. And if your belief is correct, we are nothing after death and it really won't matter to anyone.

Life is but a dream

Life is but a dream... much of it seems hazed and surreal, shifting from sadness to joy and stopping here and there in between. Yesterday weaves itself through dreams of tomorrows and today is split evenly between what was and what will be. Life is but a dream...wake me not...for in every dream there is an new me to explore and a new you to discover. Dream your own dreams, weave them into the fabric of mine and share them with all who wish to partake of them. Dream... Dream... Dream...For who can say that their reality is of more importance or woven of a finer fabric than my own.

Dreams are... well, they are dreams... they are made up of our experiences, the sights,scents, sounds,tastes, textures and emotions of our existence. They morph about and shift shapes they are their own reality but are without substance. Ephemeral, Misty shadows that peek into the recesses of our minds when we let down our guard. They show us that which we love, that which we despise, that which we seek and that which we seek to hide. They are our hopes, our aspirations, our desires,our loves, our fears, our likes and dislikes, they are made up of whole cloth, the wholeness of our very being and yet they are not real, they are only dreams...

Did I just sit here and write all this... or is it a dream... for in truth I am but an inarticulate soul... incapable of original thought... dreaming... weaving old thoughts and ancient ideas into my dreamworld and wrapping myself in an imaginary cloak of wispy thoughts that I believe are mine but actually belong to a graduating senior who is quoting some obscure French existentialist. Life is a dream... a wonderful dream...

Self restraint.....

I have been working hard on using self restraint on the forums of my favorite web site. I discovered right away that it is not easy to keep my opinions to myself and even harder to refrain from commenting on a posting that pushes one of my hot buttons. At first it was easiest to just refrain from posting anything at all. Then slowly I began to enter into the topics that were safe and talk about things that were non controversial.

I don't know how many times I typed responses to posts that were about issues that I have strong opinions on and then deleted them without hitting the send button. But today It seemed to take a lot more effort on my part to not reply than usual.

So what trips my switch and makes me antsy to respond? Well, it can be a lot of things. Today the worst was a comment about people in the fire ravaged part of the state and how God gave us brains and how it is foolish of all those people to live in homes built in areas that God designed to be burned as a part of it's normal life cycle. Hmmm, very callous statement in a forum that had people discussing how they could help the fire victims and some of the people that had been evacuated from their homes were checking in to let their friends know they are ok or to ask if others had been heard from yet.

I typed a lengthy reply that Since mankind had been kicked out of the Garden of Eden, there is no safe place to build where fire, flood, earthquake, avalanche, hurricane, tsunami....some form of natural disaster would not be a threat. Where were they supposed to build a home? That placing blame on the victims was insensitive and out of line. Now, of course, I spent a lot of time on wording it and it was quite lengthy and I was really itching to send it when I stopped.

I got up from the computer and went outside for a cigarette to think about it before I hit that send button. As I sat there I started asking myself why I wanted to reply to this persons comment. Not why was what they said upsetting but why reply? What purpose would it serve? Would it make any of the victims feel better? Would it teach this person anything? Would it somehow make me look more caring or make anyone think more highly of me if I attacked this person? Would it undo any damage the poster had done or heal any resentment? The answer was a resounding NO to all the above. So I came back in and hit the delete button, clicked unwatch this thread and went to work.

So, have I finally learned self restraint? Well, I'm working on it....

testing Pixamo blog inserts

This is Pyxle at the park. just a short clip to test this feature of Pixamo

Well, it put a picture up that if clicked will take you to the sign in for Pixamo but the video is only viewable if you log in. This makes it awkward for blog purposes.