Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Creation? An ongoing thing, but not evolution?
It occurs to me that if God created everything in 6 days and then rested there are some unanswered questions.
If there is no evolution, and God created only 1 man and 1 woman should't every man and woman be a carbon copy of Adam and Eve? Or did God make several models and forget to tell us? Should we all have brown eyes and brown hair and maybe olive skin, or brown?
If God stopped creating after 6 days, and then rested, how did we get multiethnic people? Where did red hair come from? Shouldn't the world be one race with one ethnic make up?
Recently scientists have determined that all people with blue eyes got their genetic make up from a female who was the first "mutation" she was the first blue eyed humanoid. Does that mean that God didn't stop creating after 6 days but later decided he liked blue eyes and specifically created someone with them? Or are blue eyes just a figment of our imagination?
If God created everything in one day why does man think he has to improve it? Genetically modified grain, is that God continuing to create the world? Does that mean we have been in "day 6 mode" for hundreds of thousands of years?
So creation is it, and nothing evolves? Then every viral infection is specifically created by God? So antibiotic resistance bacteria are created by God? If there is no evolution then shouldn't there be only one virus? One bacteria?
See if you think about it the only thing that makes sense IS evolution.
If there is no evolution, and God created only 1 man and 1 woman should't every man and woman be a carbon copy of Adam and Eve? Or did God make several models and forget to tell us? Should we all have brown eyes and brown hair and maybe olive skin, or brown?
If God stopped creating after 6 days, and then rested, how did we get multiethnic people? Where did red hair come from? Shouldn't the world be one race with one ethnic make up?
Recently scientists have determined that all people with blue eyes got their genetic make up from a female who was the first "mutation" she was the first blue eyed humanoid. Does that mean that God didn't stop creating after 6 days but later decided he liked blue eyes and specifically created someone with them? Or are blue eyes just a figment of our imagination?
If God created everything in one day why does man think he has to improve it? Genetically modified grain, is that God continuing to create the world? Does that mean we have been in "day 6 mode" for hundreds of thousands of years?
So creation is it, and nothing evolves? Then every viral infection is specifically created by God? So antibiotic resistance bacteria are created by God? If there is no evolution then shouldn't there be only one virus? One bacteria?
See if you think about it the only thing that makes sense IS evolution.
From the Archdiocese of MIami "Let's Talk"
Don't blame the poor for financial crisis
The government, along with businessmen and ordinary people, are all trying to find the causes of the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Should we blame the government for what went wrong? And if so, in what way?
In December, the Republican minority within the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) determined that the misguidede policies of government, designed to increase the number of homeowners among relatively poor people, pushed too many people to get subprime mortgages they could not afford.
This information pleased representatives in the House, especially those with an eye on the 2012 elections, but do these members of the FCIC have any evidence to back their claim? Are poor people in the United States responsible for causing the most serious global crisis in more than a generation?
No, definitely not, and we in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, who work directly with the poor, know that perfectly well. It is true that some poor families have lost their homes and many have been unable to pay the rent; but during our visits to those in need we have noticed that they are more likely to have belonged to the middle class, with good jobs which they lost due to the crisis, and that they could not only pay their mortgages but also send their children to private schools.
Agreeing with our "no" are highly knowledgeable people such as Daron Acemoglu of MIT, who spoke in January at the annual meeting of the American Finance Association, as well as writers such as Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. They do not agree that the poor of the United States were the cause of this crisis that is still affecting us and causing more people approach us for help - families who never thought they would be in such a dismal situation.
If someone is to blame we need to look to large private companies, monstrous mortgage lenders like Countrywide, Ameriquest, and many, many more who were backed by large investment banks within and outside the United States. Many of them received government bailouts after the crisis, money that was not given to those who had taken those mortgages and were indebted, and who in the end lost their homes.
It is true that those who accuse the government of responsibility for what went wrong are correct, because there were many years when financial regulation was lacking, and politicians took advantage of this to give boosts to these large private companies and banks. Wall Street especially benefitted from the housing boom. Without their complicity, no poor or low income families could think of owning a home, even with the invented jobs and fraudulent paperwork created by mortgage brokers. I personally worked as a realtor for many years, and I could not qualify any person for a mortgage if that person did not have enough income to ensure repayment of the mortgage - something that later was done without shame.
Those who are now suffering the most are people with a low educational level who are earning lower wages, who have lost their homes, their jobs, the ability to send their children to private schools, their cars - in short, everything. I assure you these people have not created this crisis. Nevertheless they are paying for it, and the saddest thing is that we have no resources with which to help these families in their grief.
For information about the St. Vincent de Paul Society, go to www.svdpusa.org or call 305-474-9010 or 305-762-1125.
Donations may be sent to:
St. Vincent de Paul Society
P.O. Box 431232
Miami, Florida 33243
Victor Martell
St. Vincent de Paul Society
Monday, May 30, 2011
Click here
The government, along with businessmen and ordinary people, are all trying to find the causes of the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Should we blame the government for what went wrong? And if so, in what way?
In December, the Republican minority within the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) determined that the misguidede policies of government, designed to increase the number of homeowners among relatively poor people, pushed too many people to get subprime mortgages they could not afford.
This information pleased representatives in the House, especially those with an eye on the 2012 elections, but do these members of the FCIC have any evidence to back their claim? Are poor people in the United States responsible for causing the most serious global crisis in more than a generation?
No, definitely not, and we in the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, who work directly with the poor, know that perfectly well. It is true that some poor families have lost their homes and many have been unable to pay the rent; but during our visits to those in need we have noticed that they are more likely to have belonged to the middle class, with good jobs which they lost due to the crisis, and that they could not only pay their mortgages but also send their children to private schools.
Agreeing with our "no" are highly knowledgeable people such as Daron Acemoglu of MIT, who spoke in January at the annual meeting of the American Finance Association, as well as writers such as Simon Johnson, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. They do not agree that the poor of the United States were the cause of this crisis that is still affecting us and causing more people approach us for help - families who never thought they would be in such a dismal situation.
If someone is to blame we need to look to large private companies, monstrous mortgage lenders like Countrywide, Ameriquest, and many, many more who were backed by large investment banks within and outside the United States. Many of them received government bailouts after the crisis, money that was not given to those who had taken those mortgages and were indebted, and who in the end lost their homes.
It is true that those who accuse the government of responsibility for what went wrong are correct, because there were many years when financial regulation was lacking, and politicians took advantage of this to give boosts to these large private companies and banks. Wall Street especially benefitted from the housing boom. Without their complicity, no poor or low income families could think of owning a home, even with the invented jobs and fraudulent paperwork created by mortgage brokers. I personally worked as a realtor for many years, and I could not qualify any person for a mortgage if that person did not have enough income to ensure repayment of the mortgage - something that later was done without shame.
Those who are now suffering the most are people with a low educational level who are earning lower wages, who have lost their homes, their jobs, the ability to send their children to private schools, their cars - in short, everything. I assure you these people have not created this crisis. Nevertheless they are paying for it, and the saddest thing is that we have no resources with which to help these families in their grief.
For information about the St. Vincent de Paul Society, go to www.svdpusa.org or call 305-474-9010 or 305-762-1125.
Donations may be sent to:
St. Vincent de Paul Society
P.O. Box 431232
Miami, Florida 33243
Victor Martell
St. Vincent de Paul Society
Monday, May 30, 2011
Click here
"Corporate Citizens"
This is a letter to the editor printed in today's (5/31/2011) Miami Herald. I agree with it.
"The Government Accountability Office said that 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of all U. S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.
Maybe it is time for a corporate Alternative Minimum Tax. If it's OK for citizens - and corporations are now citizens - why not?"
E.T. Shafer, Islamorada
"The Government Accountability Office said that 72 percent of all foreign corporations and about 57 percent of all U. S. companies doing business in the United States paid no federal income taxes for at least one year between 1998 and 2005.
Maybe it is time for a corporate Alternative Minimum Tax. If it's OK for citizens - and corporations are now citizens - why not?"
E.T. Shafer, Islamorada
Monday, May 30, 2011
all good things must come to an end
First I was sick, and then my vacation began and I was still sick.
But for the past 2 days I have finally felt like myself and was jsut begining to enjoy being home.
But tomorrow it all ends.
Tomorrow I return to work.
And I don't want to.
Darn.
Why can't I jsut win the Powerball so I can be a stay at home lazy person again?
But for the past 2 days I have finally felt like myself and was jsut begining to enjoy being home.
But tomorrow it all ends.
Tomorrow I return to work.
And I don't want to.
Darn.
Why can't I jsut win the Powerball so I can be a stay at home lazy person again?
I love 'em don't you?
You know .. those people who pay too much in taxes...the ones who "don't get anything back from the government for the money they are forced to pay."
Well, I guess they live like hermits, growing their own food. They must not use the interstate highway system, or eat meat certified by the USDA, and they don'thave bank accounts insured by the FDIC.
They can't drive to work in cars that have to meet Federal Safety regulations. They would be getting something for their money if they did, right?
I am sure they have never gone to a national park on vacation, you know, places like Independence Hall in Philadelphia,PA to see the Liberty Bell or Liberty Island to see the Statue of LIberty in NY, or the Alamo in San Antonio TX or the Everglades National Park, in Florida or the Grand Canyon in AZ or any of the monuments and museums in Washington DC which are all government supported and maintained.
They just sit at home in their Federally insured FHA mortgaged houses, watching a TV that was built according to the blueprints filed in the US Patent Office and specifications in the Code of Federal Regulations. They watch all kinds of programing because the FCC regulates such things so that no one group can monopolize the airways, that inclues TV and radio and also the phone service.
They probably never travel by air and rail because the Federal Transportation Agency makes sure the conveyances they travel on meet national standards.
They can't be sending their kids to college by borrowing money funded by Federal Pell Grants,or go to college themselves from "entitlements" like the GI bill for those who served in the military.
Nope, those people pay too damn much in taxes and get nothing for it.
I feel so sorry for them.
Well, I guess they live like hermits, growing their own food. They must not use the interstate highway system, or eat meat certified by the USDA, and they don'thave bank accounts insured by the FDIC.
They can't drive to work in cars that have to meet Federal Safety regulations. They would be getting something for their money if they did, right?
I am sure they have never gone to a national park on vacation, you know, places like Independence Hall in Philadelphia,PA to see the Liberty Bell or Liberty Island to see the Statue of LIberty in NY, or the Alamo in San Antonio TX or the Everglades National Park, in Florida or the Grand Canyon in AZ or any of the monuments and museums in Washington DC which are all government supported and maintained.
They just sit at home in their Federally insured FHA mortgaged houses, watching a TV that was built according to the blueprints filed in the US Patent Office and specifications in the Code of Federal Regulations. They watch all kinds of programing because the FCC regulates such things so that no one group can monopolize the airways, that inclues TV and radio and also the phone service.
They probably never travel by air and rail because the Federal Transportation Agency makes sure the conveyances they travel on meet national standards.
They can't be sending their kids to college by borrowing money funded by Federal Pell Grants,or go to college themselves from "entitlements" like the GI bill for those who served in the military.
Nope, those people pay too damn much in taxes and get nothing for it.
I feel so sorry for them.
Decoration Day
That's what they used to call Memorial Day.
It was a day set aside for the windows and survivors of soldiers to honor their departed by going to cemetaries and "decorating" the graves of the fallen with flags.
Too bad people don't do such things any more.
It was a day set aside for the windows and survivors of soldiers to honor their departed by going to cemetaries and "decorating" the graves of the fallen with flags.
Too bad people don't do such things any more.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
volunteers
Being responsible.
Should it be expected or rewarded?
How can we teach our children about responsibility? Do we reward them? Bribe them to be responsible? Do we give them treats for doing the right thing, or do we teach them to do the right thing BECAUSE it is the right thing?
Somehow I think it's the latter. If it weren't then those who ae giving of themselves to load sandbags in floods or clean up the debris field in Joplin would be asking for money, woudln't they?
So maybe this does prove it. Prove what you may ask?
Virtue is its own reward.
Should it be expected or rewarded?
How can we teach our children about responsibility? Do we reward them? Bribe them to be responsible? Do we give them treats for doing the right thing, or do we teach them to do the right thing BECAUSE it is the right thing?
Somehow I think it's the latter. If it weren't then those who ae giving of themselves to load sandbags in floods or clean up the debris field in Joplin would be asking for money, woudln't they?
So maybe this does prove it. Prove what you may ask?
Virtue is its own reward.
Memorial Day history
People will be very patriotic tomorrow. Waving flags and remembering the dead from the current war. But the "holiday" was actually started to commemorate the memory of the dead from the Civil War. Those who died on both sides of the conflict are honored.
So when some right wing yahoo turns it into a "we support our troops in the Middle East" event, remember they are just borrowing the day from those who fought to keep America together, as one nation.
So when some right wing yahoo turns it into a "we support our troops in the Middle East" event, remember they are just borrowing the day from those who fought to keep America together, as one nation.
more disasters
Well there were floods, and then tornadoes and all the talk about the cities that were flooded went away. Now there's nothing spectacular to report arout in the weather - but wait. June 1 is the begining of Hurricane Season. So expect updates and frequent references to tropical disturbances,waves, depressions, storms and hurricanes.
Statistically it's been a very DRY May in Florida, and that usually means a very active and wet hurricane season (think wooly caterpillar measurements up north). So, now we wait.
But at least a hurricane gives you warning. If it's coming your way you have days to get yourself together and hunker down, or get out of the way. Tornadoes? You've got minutes to run for you life.
If I have to pick a natural disaster to befall me, I'll take the hurricane every time.
We survived Andrew, that was a category 5. After that not much scares us anymore. Heck I still drive to the grocery store in a category 1 with winds of 75 mph. But no matter what strength a storm the first of the season will be you can bet it will be plastered all over the media just like the blizzards, floods, forest fires, earthquakes and tornadoes.
For some of us it's called nature. For others it's entertainment.
Statistically it's been a very DRY May in Florida, and that usually means a very active and wet hurricane season (think wooly caterpillar measurements up north). So, now we wait.
But at least a hurricane gives you warning. If it's coming your way you have days to get yourself together and hunker down, or get out of the way. Tornadoes? You've got minutes to run for you life.
If I have to pick a natural disaster to befall me, I'll take the hurricane every time.
We survived Andrew, that was a category 5. After that not much scares us anymore. Heck I still drive to the grocery store in a category 1 with winds of 75 mph. But no matter what strength a storm the first of the season will be you can bet it will be plastered all over the media just like the blizzards, floods, forest fires, earthquakes and tornadoes.
For some of us it's called nature. For others it's entertainment.
