Change? No, Change.

I've been to Aldi three (3) times in my life, now, and I'm still not impressed.  Never bought anything during any visit.  Prices seemed good, though... at least what I priced.  I thought about buying a few things, but the carts were locked, and I didn't have a quarter.  

Also noticed there were no bags.  Until Winn-Dixie closed, recently, there was a bagger who'd take your food out and help you load the bags in your vehicle.  Tipping them well meant they'd remember you next time and be even faster.  Now, we've no bags, and have to pay for the privilege of the using the buggy to carry it all out for yourself.

Good thing Wally World delivers groceries....

I drove to Cahaba, this morning, for the first time in a couple of years.  The first place I went, as usual, was the old family land.  It was 5 acres on the Cahaba river just before the river empties into the Alabama.  My parents always talked about building a river house, there.  Instead, they sold it to some conservation group decades ago.  It's all grown up and completely useless, now.

They've put up a bunch of historical markers that look like they'll probably last just about long enough for people to say, "Remember when they put up all those cheap markers?"  What was most noticeable were the gates, chains and warning signs everywhere.  I'm glad there's still something going on there, anyway, though.  They found a couple of cemeteries I don't remember from the last time I was over that way.  Maybe little family plots.  Come to think of it, the whole place kind of looks like a cemetery, now.

Free Indeed

There's been a significant increase in traffic to this blog, lately.  Like, 100x more traffic.  Since I haven't really been posting, that makes it seem a little odd.

The world has been busy since my last post.  Even more so since the last post regarding any topic relating to current events.  Thankfully, there are friends and cohorts to bombard with thoughts and opinions on those events.  As a result, there's really been no need to post about it.

Somewhere around the turn of the millenia, the veil of politics started to lose opacity, and the Liberty movement grabbed hold.  Both of the political parties currently in power in America were clearly corrupt and against the average American.  They simply viewed us as "feeders" to fill their corrupt coffers.  The Liberty movement offered an alternative.

Still, I voted for Bush in 2000.  I was too afraid of a nut like Al Gore, who claimed credit for the internet, and had some scheme to convince simple-minded people that the world would end if we didn't start paying them more taxes.  How taxes made the 'bad' in the environment go away was never clear, but, still, many easily persuaded people fell for it.  I was too terrified of that to flesh out the alternative.

After 9-11, it became clear mistakes had been made.  Laws were passed to steal the liberty and wealth of the nation.  It couldn't have been more damaging to American freedom if had been done by design.

Michael Badnarik was the first candidate outside of the two current parties in power to motivate me.  His lectures on individual liberty and the Constitution were eye-opening.  The internet opened up the world to the ideals of liberty in his campaign.

That was 2004.  Four years later, Ron Paul showed that others were waking up, as well.  Even though he was a Republican, he'd inspired many who saw the two parties in power as the corrupt, exclusive club of elites who saw us as tax slaves to recognize the importance of Liberty.

The first campaign was successful in planting the seeds of a political awakening.  Young people began showing up to rallies in large numbers.  They started political organizations, some of which would inspire others to do the same.

Four years after that, in 2012, the second campaign proved that the two parties would never allow the system to openly return to Liberty.  Some settled on trying to help another party.  Some lost hope and resigned themselves to try to survive the Republicans and Democrats completely destroying freedom and liberty.

Others did not.  Realizing Dr. Paul's steps to work directly inside the system could be thwarted, they reasoned it was more likely to work from the outside.  They'd influence politicians, taking two wins for liberty in exchange for an L.  Then, they'd take that L, and make it one of the two Ws in the next round.

Sadly, the system finally caught on.  Some losses are worth 100x more wins.  Now is the moment for exponential growth for the cause of Liberty.  We'll fight on.  FREEDOM is worth it.

Money from God

After a conversation last week with a coworker about childhood Bibles, I went in search this morning for my first full Bible and the little New Testaments I had growing up.  Sadly, I was unable to find them.

They may be in the attic.

It's too hot to go up there.

What I did find, however, was the Bible I was gifted by my church when I graduated High School.  It was a nice little King James Version Bible, embossed with my full name.  Ironically, right before I was given that Bible, I'd purchased an expensive annotated Bible.  I carried the gift Bible to Sunday School to show appreciation for it for several years, until I stopped attending that church, but when I studied, I read my nice, annotated Bible. 

I don't believe I've cracked that gift Bible in well over a decade, although it sits, and has been sitting, on my nightstand for as long as I've owned my house... somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 years.  It was never my choice for reading after the first few years. 

As I opened it, this morning, I noticed a few things inside.  There were the usual items: an old church program, a flier for something 20 years ago... but what really caught my attention were the TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY DOLLARS IN $20 BILLS.  I have no idea where it came from, or how long it has been there.  The latest date on the bills is 2013, so it would've been put there since then.

I certainly don't remember doing it.

My fear is that someone put the money there to see if I was reading 'my Bible', not realizing that wasn't even the Bible I read.  As I sit here, in my den, I see two Bibles I've read in the last 24 hours.  Yeah, I admit, with a bit of shame, I haven't exactly been a regular enough Bible reader for a while, but if I were to want to study or look for something in my Bible, it's unlikely that old gift Bible would've been the one.

Guess someone thinks less of me for not reading that Bible, or maybe they think I just assumed it was money from God and spent it.

Independence and Law

Our Founding Fathers had the revolutionary idea that man shouldn't lord over another man.  They based this on a new philosophy put forward by the likes of men like John Locke who said things like, 

"...law teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions"

If only we'd have kept to these principles and not allowed this logic to be slowly eroded by well-meaning, but ignorant, constituencies and greedy politicians...

In spite of them, Americans have innovated and invented to the extent the world has never seen.

Maybe, if we're diligent enough, and willing to be tested by those ignorant and/or greedy stumbling blocks, we can achieve something even greater in the long run.

Not Bored

One would have to be an unrepentant liar to declare that life is boring.  Too much has occurred too recently to even contemplate that not enough is going on to stay entertained.  Even if that begins to grow tiresome, the internet has everything from history.

Maybe that's too harsh.  Perhaps you could just be lazy or self-absorbed.  Maybe that's what it takes to be genuinely bored, anyway.  

Okay, that's a bit rough on bored folks, as well.  It might simply say more about why you're feeling bored than it does about the world around us.  If you're accustomed to a certain type of entertainment, you might have become less capable of seeing the action in something else.

Likely, what you enjoy has become a little too easy to obtain.  Standards for entertainment change.  Some sort of entertainment tolerance has been built up, and more of the same is required to equal the equal level of boredom repellant.

Fighting boredom propagates our species; humans still exist because we're curious.  "I wonder if I can make fire?"  As long as we exist, we can be sure we can find something to protect us from boredom.

In Awe, Still

Just watched another rocket launch... I think I might've averaged a launch every day this week.  Probably been said many times on this blog, but it's still amazing to see a rocket land... especially on a little barge bobbing up and down in the middle of the ocean.  

You can watch it on a hand-held screen, way back in the woods.  I know.  I did it.

There's really no excuse to not have access to information about the world.  You have to either be so disconnected from reality to not care the rest of the world exists, or just care enough to find out about what directly affects your life to not see the amazing things going on in the world.  It's awe-inspiring.

A Whole Lotta Yeah, Uh-huh

And now, these messages...

That meant the show was over.  Each commercial break before began with, "We'll return after these messages..."  When you heard the, "And now" part, you knew it was almost over; nothing left but the credits.

But you stayed for that, too... that and the closing credit theme.  Usually, some sort of remix of the opening credit theme.  Sometimes, like WKPR, it was a completely different song.  Or something.