Author Archive

Thanksgiving

I like the real story of Thanksgiving… as told by the right.

On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work.

“But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford’s detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness,” destined to become the home of the Kennedy family. “There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves. And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims – including Bradford’s own wife – died of either starvation, sickness or exposure.

“When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod and skin beavers for coats.” Yes, it was Indians that taught the white man how to skin beasts. “Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. “Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments. Here is the part [of Thanksgiving] that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share.

“All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belong to the community as well. They were going to distribute it equally. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. Nobody owned anything. They just had a share in it. It was a commune, folks. It was the forerunner to the communes we saw in the ’60s and ’70s out in California – and it was complete with organic vegetables, by the way. Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.

“That’s right. Long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened? It didn’t work! Surprise, surprise, huh? What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation! But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years – trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it – the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild’s history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.
“‘The experience that we had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years…that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing – as if they were wiser than God,’ Bradford wrote. ‘For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense…that was thought injustice.’ Why should you work for other people when you can’t work for yourself? What’s the point?

“Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen? The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford’s community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? ‘This had very good success,’ wrote Bradford, ‘for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.’ Bradford doesn’t sound like much of a…” I wrote “Clintonite” then. He doesn’t sound much like a liberal Democrat, “does he? Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes.

“Read the story of Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41. Following Joseph’s suggestion (Gen 41:34), Pharaoh reduced the tax on Egyptians to 20% during the ’seven years of plenty’ and the ‘Earth brought forth in heaps.’ (Gen. 41:47) In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves…. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London. And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the ‘Great Puritan Migration.’” Now, other than on this program every year, have you heard this story before? Is this lesson being taught to your kids today — and if it isn’t, why not? —  Rush Limbaugh

Blog — Multi-User WordPress

Word Press today announced the new multiuser version, named WordPress MU.

WordPress, the open source way to blog announced it’s new Multi-user blog software today. Named WordPress MU, for people like me who host and manage many blogs, as a writer and website consultant, the idea that I can easily manage multiple users is great. Check out more at WordPress.org – Jon Burgess

Epic Guide continued

The guide has been a bit dry, but we’re back up to speed, check back soon.

Things that we have soon,

• Microsofts new website development tool.
• Google Doc’s and Spreedsheet
• The Miami Fight

Saddam asks to dye by firing squad

Atleast someone is making sense these days,

BAGHDAD — A thinner but combative Saddam Hussein said yesterday he would rather die by firing squad like a soldier than hang “like a common criminal,” as the defiant ex-president made his final appearance before the tribunal until it renders a verdict. – The Washington Times

Bad Ass

I’m so ready to go to Wordcamp, it’s going to be just like Space Camp, but a bit more nerdy.

France forgives Zidane Head-butt

In a not so shocking move, France has forgiven their fallen Soccer leader Zidane, who head-butted a Italian.  I’d say that if the French won the game, Italy would have attacked France, knowing that the streets of Paris where built for foriegn marching armies.

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5775686

“A poll published Tuesday in Le Parisien newspaper showed 61 percent of the 802 people questioned forgave Zidane. No margin of error was provided, although it would be plus or minus three percentage points in a poll of that size.”

“In the poll, 78 percent of respondents said Zidane was the tournament’s best player – in line with his selection as the Golden Ball winner by World Cup journalists.”

The French are idiots, and soccer is a boring sport.  At least American’s got to see some action when head-butts flew.

Google Checkout

The announcement that Google has created a credit card payment system called Google Checkout to compete directly with EBay’s PayPal and the rest of the merchant account industry, is both good and bad news.  This opens up a bigger door to a number of legal responsibly in areas such as Contracts, E-Commerce Disputes, International Transactions, Ethics and Intellectual Property.

Google has always tried to be easy to use and confidential, so the first benefit is to have a system that is safer than using a credit card online. Google stores your credit card data and never gives it to the merchants, so your credit card is not directly used in transactions, which has been PayPal’s exclusive model over the past few years.  This is obviously attractive to buyers, because security is a big issue on the internet.  It also is good for sellers because Google is providing the transaction protection and fraud guarantees to the merchants.

The bad news is that Google is quickly becoming the world’s information giant, which will strongly test Ethics and Intellectual Property rights.  Not only does Google contain the best data mining tools and search ability, but they also store ALL the information they gather.  Google is rumored to have the largest grouping of servers in the world, not to server up web pages searches, but to actually store data, such as whole websites that have been cached, so much of the information found on the internet is actually being stored at Google server farms. Google will now have the ability to collect vast amounts of personal information directly from users, such as address, full names, and credit cards.  Traditionally all information that is in Google databases was collected from other websites, so personal data found on websites isn’t necessarily right or complete, it is only as good as it’s source.  The question must be asked who owns that data?  Does Google because they captured and stored it, or does the creator of that information?

Recently Google refused to turn over information the United States Attoney General about viewing habits of internet surfs in regards to child pornography.  So Google holds its information in high regard and will protect it for as long as possible.  However, once credit cards get tied into the transaction process, more attract against Google may come because of the simple fact that money is involved.

Google must be wary of the contractual agreements with its users.  Credit card information is highly regulated, so they will need to fulfill the government mandated agreements, meaning they may not be able to cross data with search data.  Google will be on the leading edge of the Internet E-Commerce Dispute law, they will need to be prepared to defend against lawsuits and lobby for proper laws and regulations.  They will be the testing ground of internet law.

Why is baseball America’s pastime?

Pastime is defined as, “An activity that occupies one’s spare time pleasantly.”  I think pleasantly is a nice word.  Pleasant is what a grandma is.  Pleasant is when you take a nap on a Sunday afternoon.

I think drinking a cold beer with friends is a nice pastime, it occupies free time, and it can be quite pleasant, especially if you’re not routing for the Bills or Clippers.

So it begs the question, what makes baseball a pastime, more importantly, America’s pastime?

Baseball can be considered is an activity, sometimes the players run, not too much to break a sweat. They definitely spit and scratch themselves, that’s a decent activity.  Baseball is only done in your spare time, not even real players would play baseball if it wasn’t during their spare time.  Watching baseball can be pleasant, especially on a nice evening with a beer.  I don’t think the players think its to pleasant, especially with drunk fans yelling at you, critiquing your play, telling you your lazy, telling you that you should have a * next to your name.

With what I can think of baseball, it’s a nice pastime, but what I can’t connect is the “America’s” part.  I think calling something “America’s” means that it’s the best, the greatest, the toughest, have the most heart, and provide some action.  Baseball really isn’t any of that.  Baseball is simple, fairly easy to play, and contains about 5% heart and 5% action.

That brings me to my next question, if baseball is easy, played by highly paid “designer” athletes, why the $#%@!!!! did my fantasy team go 1 for 38 tonight?  I mean, that’s more than a perfect game for the other team.  That is an infinitesimal .026 batting average.  That’s so small, I think a sperm is larger.  I have two #$%&@ complete games against me.  I’m losing 16 to 1, to a guy that’s batting .143!!!!!

Why oh why do normal sports fans like myself put up with fantasy baseball?  There isn’t anything you can really do in fantasy baseball to change the outcome.  Anything can happen, the odds prove it, there is no strategy, no thought, and absolutely no reason to give yourself a heart attack over. Baseball is alright, but fantasy baseball sucks.

When asked, “joining our league?” I thought, “I waste too much time watching my scores, and I don’t even win.” But my friend said, “we’ve got to beat my brother“, so that sealed the deal, I was in!  So now I think, this is just like the time I retired from bowling, because it’s a dumb game and definitely not a sport.  So I’ve had all I can take, I’m retiring!!!! I sticking to just the gridiron, America’s true pastime, where the bad asses kick a little ass, and it happens to go well with beer.

Google’s Romance – An April Fools Joke or Not?

Google has a great April’s Fools Joke, new Google Romance.  Check is out at http://www.google.com/romance/tour.html

WordPress’ April Fools Joke/Hoax