The stupidity of the masses...

I keep reading stories on news sites about people's objections to various religious references in public places. Most recently where a street in NY was named "Seven in Heaven" to honor firefighters who died on 9/11. To quote one of the complainers: "The attacks on 9/11 were an attack on America. They were an attack on our Constitution and breaking that Constitution to honor these firefighters is the wrong thing to do." 

How have we gone so far astray in our country in our misinterpretation of the First Amendment to our Constitution concerning the separation of church and state? Our forefathers left England to escape, among other things, the imposition of the monarchy-mandated Church of England. To prevent that from happening again, the framers of the Constitution added the Bill of Rights amendment that states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

We have turned that reasonable prohibition of a state-sponsored religion into a crusade against all aspects of Christianity (still the country’s major religious contingent) in virtually every public institution – the courts, the schools, local government, federal government. While we seem to be able to approve the building of an Islamic mosque within eyeshot of the former World Trade Center, we are now not supposed to list the Ten Commandments in public places, use the phrase “one nation under God” in our pledge of allegiance, do not permit voluntary prayer time in our schools, and are under pressure to take “in God we trust” off our currency and coin.

What does this have to do with the disallowance of a government establishment of religion, let alone free exercise of it? Nothing! It has to do with political correctness run amok, catering to any minority that expresses objection to what another group feels is important. This is a significant misinterpretation of what is actually written in the Constitution.

I am neither a religious zealot nor a constitutional authority, but the wording quoted above, to me, specifically allows the expression of Christian faith in public places as it also allows the building of a mosque in New York, the celebration of Kwanza, or the rights of Jews to celebrate Hanukkah or Yom Kippur in a public place. If, for example, the Jewish community wants to place a menorah in front of the Courthouse for Hanukkah or Muslims want to have a public celebration of their faith during Ramadan, they should be given that opportunity if they meet the requisite rules just as Christians should be allowed to have a nativity scene on display during Christmas. The same holds true for Hindus, Buddhists, Jews or Animists – and, yes, even Atheists. But to allow any one of those groups to protest an equivalent celebration by another and to have such protests agreed to by the authorities violates the Constitution, is discrimination in the extreme and should not be tolerated.

I totally concur with the principle of not permitting a state-sponsored or even a state-supported religion. But that disallowance does not extend to the public celebration of a faith (or lack of faith).

MY Oregon Ducks

How many national championships in a row do you think this Duck team will win? 5? 6? I think we're looking at a minimum nine-peat. And, how much better do you think Thomas is than Masoli? Dixon? Is he better than Tom Brady yet? Joe Montana? Abraham Lincoln? Chuck Norris?? What do you think are our chances of increasing our point per minute scoring average? I mean, I think we will easily put a 100 on somebody this year but could we average that for the season? Should we really even play the rest of our games? What is the precedent for a team leaving its conference and joining the NFL? I still think we would go undefeated, but at least we could get a little better competition. 

OSewe fan checklist

-Wake up to sounds of roosters.

-Close windows to prevent naked lineman entering home.

-Genuflect before terry baker shrine.

-Eat breakfast of grits, raw eggs and milk directly from cow udder.

-Put on sports bra replica jersey

-Jump on tractor and stop at campus ag building to “visit” sheep.

-Ride tractor to burrito bowl parking lot.

-Get totally drunk on PBR and pass out before even entering stadium.

-Wake up at halftime and stumble into your seats.

-Boo home team.

-Rush field prematurely before realizing refs called a penalty and the game really isn’t over.

-Upon upset victory, knock down goalpost, killing fellow students in the process.

-In a drunken, excited stupor, head to local watering hole a.k.a. the “cock”.

-Punch a national guard soldier night before he leaves for Iraq.

-Steal university golf cart for a joyride.

-Break into woman’s house completely naked, go into 3 point stance and get tazed by cops.

Football and Berries

Here's something I don't understand... Why can't we put pre-season NFL games on TV? I realize that there are a few on tv, but why not more? Some will say the cost is too high, and to them I say you do not know what you are talking about. Some will say it's pre-season and who gives a crap? Well, to them I would say guess what? It's been 6 FREAKING MONTHS since football was last on TV and damnit people are going to watch it! This time of year is sports purgatory. No NBA. No NFL. No college football. Just baseball and I'd rather watch grass grow than watch that garbage. Come on, NFL... Sell some sponsorships, get these games on network and/or cable tv. And not the NFL network.

Also, I hereby proclaim Pomegranate to be the new Cranberry. There was a time, when, cranberry was in everything. And I mean EVERYTHING. That cranberry salesman must have been raking in serious commissions and sales trophies. That stuff was in all your favorite juices, sodas, cream cheese, pork chops, you name it. Now that the cran-fad has faded, pomegranate has been allowed to surface, and man, is it going to be bigger than cranberry. See, the thing is, pomegranate tastes better than cranberry, and is therefore more versatile. You'll probably see it in all kinds of things you would not expect. Myself, I'm thinking of creating some kind of cranberry-pomegranate hybrid, which I will call Cranagranate. Just send the sales trophies to me now.

Alright, my last point will be about integrity. There's a simple saying in this regard: "Do what you say you're going to do" I will leave it at that. Have a good night all.

Memories

Today we honored the memory of my great-grandfather Robert Stanley Goodman. He passed away last month at the age of 89. Known to the family simply as "Grandpa G", he taught me a great deal about boating, fishing, the outdoors, and also life in general.

Grandpa G was an honorable man. He served the United States in world war II, in Germany and France. He was a family man, raising a son and a sister-in-law that he and his wife took in as their own child when her parents passed. He was one of those men who was proud, and rarely spoke about emotional matters. I suppose it's a product of that generation. He was a no-nonsense man and I had a tremendous amount of respect for him.

I was very fortunate to spend a great deal of time with Grandpa G during my early teen years; in the summertime I would call him up to go camping 2 or 3 times a summer. Unbeknownst to my mom, at the early age of 14 and 15, he would often let me drive his truck, with a boat in tow, up to the lake. We had wonderful trips to Timothy lake on Mt. Hood and to Lake Simtustus on the Deschutes river in central Oregon.

Grandpa G always had a story to tell. Most often, he loved to tell me the story of his honeymoon, when he and my grandma took a motorcycle tour of Oregon. At the time, the Mt. Hood national forest was just recovering from a devastating fire. There was not a tree on the mountain. Yet he always marveled that, not even 50 years later, the forest was thriving. A great example of mother nature's resiliency. I heard this story countless times. He had a knack for repeating himself.

At some point in our trips, I pointed this out to him, which he found to be very amusing. This then became the story that he would recall to me, or anyone else who would listen. As I grew older, and our trips ceased due to me working, or going to school, I found myself missing the story. We always made 1 camping trip during the summer with the whole family, and without fail, upon his arrival, he would immediately recount to the family how when they passed the trees on the way up, he would start to tell the story to grandma, and she would reply "I know, I know!" It was a classic Grandpa G moment.

Grandpa G taught me how to drive a boat; he was a firm believer that the best lessons were taught hands-on. I took a lot from that. I always wanted to learn how to ride a motorcycle from him, as he was an avid rider, even until his time of death. I am truly sorry I never got to experience that.

Grandpa, I miss you. We're going camping in 2 days and it's not going to be the same without you. Just know that Joshua will have that story memorized by the time he is 8. Your wisdom and lessons will be your legacy to me, and my son, and his children. We all love you.

The inspiration and the creation

So here we are, on day 1, and lo and behold, it's actually 2AM by the time I am getting around to posting this. So, with much credit to Michaela, and a tiny sliver of credit to Cadey, I am beignning my blog of 1AM thoughts with this: Old sayings...

"It's a crapshoot"

Where in the world does this saying come from? My feelings tell me that it has nothing to do with people actually shooting crap. What a mess that would be. I mean, think about it. Shooting... crap. Not a pretty sight. And given the context of the modern-day (and I say modern-day because I am assuming the saying is really old) usage, what the hell does it have to do with shooting crap? I don't even want to begin to try to hypothesize about it.

"The shit hit the fan"

Just imagine it. it almost makes you want to vomit.

"Like shooting fish in a barrel"

Does this really take place? Why are the fish in a barrel? And why, if they are, do you need to shoot them? Why not just grab them outta there? Who came up with this? I have serious doubts as to whether or not this ever really happened. What would be a modern-day saying? I can't even think of one. That's how crazy it is.


That should be enough to chew on until tomorrow. This blog will most likely be a friday and saturday night event only, so enjoy it!