Freedom of Relgion - under attack or freedom of favoritism?

The Sun Sentinel reported a story about a very nice home in an upscale community, and the adjacent lot, are “tax free” due to the religious exemption. For Joe Average, this property would cost about $64,000 in taxes a year.

If this property was a church I wouldn’t mind as much (even though Jesus said something along the lines of “pay Caesar the money owed to him” referring to taxes). But it is not. The Sun Sentinel describes the property being used as:

“Church representatives say they use the property to house missionaries working in Haiti and as a home for the church founder”

That’s right; the founders personal home is tax free due to the religious exemption.

Here is the kicker. We have some friends in our Pagan / Wiccan groups who tried to claim religious exemption but were denied by the county since “Paganism and Wicca are not recognized religions”. In other words, only Christian, Jewish, and Muslim places of worship are “recognized”.

I guess someone packed us up and made us leave the USA without our knowledge (is Florida still part of the US?). I thought we had the “freedom of religion”? Hmm..

Oh, wait, we have this little document called “The United States Constitution” and the very first Amendment is:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Being the first Amendment (well, Amendment I for all of you law people) means it was the fist thing that came to the writers’ minds. It was the most important part of this document. If not, it would have been further down the list.

So, the Broward county officials feel that they can override the most significant part of the founding document of this nation by creating laws that benefit one religion over another.

Watch out America, our “Freedom of Religion” is under attack also.

Global warming vs. the real threat to humanity

Seriously, I do not think global warming is going to be a serious issue. Sure, there will be issues with a serious climate change like this but it would open up many more opportunities. Imagine the Midwest able to farm all year round and even parts of Canada and Russia can farm all year? It would open up more shipping routes in the Arctic ocean allowing much faster shipping from Europe to the far-east (which would hurt Panama’s economy with fewer ships going though the Panama canal).

Sure, hurricanes would be more intense but due to increased wind shear, there would be fewer hurricanes. Arctic and Antarctic ice would melt and raise seal levels so we’d have to leave some coastal areas (most of the people who live on the coast can afford it anyway).

Our real threat, which I’ll admit may not be a threat for a few to several hundred years, is the end of our current warming cycle. No, I don’t mean our 150 year trend of warm weather (after the last “mini” (really a micro) ice age). We had a similar warming period about 2,000 years ago when the Roman Empire was in its height. There was a lot of good farming. Warmth allows us to grow more food, raise more cattle, and opens up trade routs that formerly would be inaccessible.

I mean the earth, over the past 10,000 years (the time we, humans, have thrived) has been though a very long warming period. We had a sample of the real threat about 150-400 years ago. We had a mini-ice age (the worst was around the 1850s). Most of Europe has to think of new agricultural processes etc.. Luckily, the “New World” was discovered and foods that were available in Central America (potatoes, yucca etc..) were able to thrive in the cooler environment but the cooler age was devastating to Europe, which thrived during the previous warming period.

Our real threat is the next ice age, even if it is as minor as the one that ended roughly 150 years ago. Imagine the polar ice caps reaching South Carolina, Texas, and central California. Imagine Europe much like Siberia.

And we need to keep an eye on this, no one knows when it would happen and back in the 1850s when the ice age ended things went pretty close to normal after the worst of it which means the Earth has the ability to switch the environment as needed.

One thing we need to look at is the “belt” in the Atlantic Ocean that brings warm waters to north-western Europe. People think of New England and New Brunswick, Canada as cold places but think of northern France and southern UK as warm, but in reality, the European counterparts are actually further north than the North American locations. Why? That conveyor belt.

It has been theorized that global warming can slow, even halt, this warm current which would create a much colder environment to north-western Europe. Big deal, right?

A colder environment will create more ice and the Arctic Ocean could start to freeze again. This will slow the motion of the water in the Arctic Ocean. Moving water doesn’t freeze. If you don’t believe me, try to freeze a pot of water while you stir it. It will not freeze. So, this ice will not only reflect more sunlight but it will also slow the movement of water in the Arctic Ocean, thus allowing more of the water to freeze. Once the Bering Straight is frozen over, then the movement / circulation will stop, creating a very large icebox. As the ocean freezes, the ice will creep down over northern Asia, Europe, and North America. All of a sudden, all of these great farmlands are now unfarmable. The US’s Midwest will become a permafrost (like modern day Siberia). With more ice in the Arctic (and Antarctic) there will be less rain so places that could become farmlands (the Middle East, northern Africa, and northern South America) may be deserts.

I’m not saying this will happen overnight but it is something we will have to face generations ahead of us. Global warming will be an inconvenience for us compared to what the next ice age may do.

Comcast - YOU SUCK!!!

Yes Comcast, YOU SUCK. You are the worst ISP I’ve ever had (except for AOL). I just spent ANOTHER 30 minutes with no service.

I’ve had your “service” (and I’m using the term loosely right now) for about three months and in that three months I’ve had more down time than I did with six years with DSL, and this includes after two major hurricanes and three regular hurricanes. Every few days the service goes out. When I call, it’s usually back on by the time I get to speak to a human and if it isn’t it is always some “routine maintenance” (who does that when everyone is trying to use the service?), “the node is down”, or that my modem is bad (and they never seem to have an answer when I ask them how does the modem affect the TV?). I love that last one. My modem works and they are never willing to pay me back a restocking fee if I still have problems after I buy a new modem (like hell I’m going to keep it).

It’s funny, though. If I am a day late on my payment they turn off my service very quickly. Like they have someone watching all of the bills come in and if they don’t see mine, they flip the switch. Kill my service! Then, bill me extra for making a payment over the phone or “late fees”. But you feel you can just turn off my service whenever you want.

Your technician never even showed up my first few appointments. Not even a call and when I called, I was told “oh, we tried to call you” (complete bull, no calls came in) and then I get the “well, we can’t get him back out for a week (funny how my first call I could have him at my house (well, the appointment anyway) within 48 hours. Sure, the first thing he says it is my modem (go back to the first paragraph). But, he tightened a few things and it helped for maybe a week.

Comcast – you suck and if we weren’t screwed over by AT&T we would leave your service and go back to DSL. It must be nice to have a monopoly on this kind of service, you can charge whatever you want and treat your customers like crap and there is almost no place we can go.

We are Google, resistance is futile.

First a US court ruled that Google must release the viewing habits of everyone who has ever visited YouTube (Story here). Now, this month’s Discover magazine has an article appropriately titled “Google’s Eyes are Watching You” with a secondary title “No Place To Hide”. It’s quite scary actually. Google has become a modern day juggernaut of information many of which we (the population) thinks is safely tucked away somewhere or not even kept. Just imagine what a company like Google could learn about you just from your searching habits (who doesn’t use Google now?).

Guess what, anonymity went out the door the second you logged onto your PC and went onto the internet. Google is watching. Google is in your PC, in your home, and in your mind. You think I’m lying or paranoid, don’t you. Just imagine, how much do you search every day? Do you have that little Google toolbar that is packaged in with just about every game you buy on the internet now? It’s all keeping records of you, what you watch, and now, thanks to Google Earth and Google’s acquired company, Keyhole (yes, the same company that headed up spy technology for the CIA though the 80s) can now even watch you.

Go ahead, go to maps.google.com I just typed in my address and I saw my car. I know it is recent because we had some landscape changes after hurricane Wilma that is there. You can even see the debris piles and tarps on our roofs, so I guess this shot is from between fall of 2005 and summer of 2006. You can look up anything, your house, your ex’s house, military bases; I just saw the Kremlin, the Pyramids, and Tower Bridge all within a few minutes of each other.

It’s not scary to see these images now, most are not too recent (between 1-3 years old) but what about as this technology advances? Hell, I just now went onto Google Streets and I just saw myself walking my dog and my parents cooking (this picture I know is recent since they only got rid of a fence a month ago and it is not in the picture). Luckily, my sister’s street isn’t part of Google Streets yet.

Google is everywhere and is in everything. While I agree this technology can be helpful it can also be very dangerous and has a large amount to be abused. Imagine this in the hands of stalkers? Terrorists? Just enter “Earle Ammunition Depot” and you can actually see the trains that are parked in this “highly secret” (not anymore) base. You can see the planes at Offutt AFB, even.

I’m sure it is just a matter of time (I think less than a year) that Google imagery and records will be “credible evidence” on a regular bases in our courtrooms.

Google is the Borg. Google is Skynet. Google is everywhere, resistance is futile.