Greece was once made up of independent states. Greek society was divided between free people and slaves who had no legal rights. The difference between Sparta and Athens, at this time, was that Sparta was an "Oligarchy" run by leaders or "rule by the few" while Athens was a democracy, which meant "rule by the people." From 499 BC to 449 BC Sparta and Athens were allies in the Greco-Persian Wars. Afterwards Athens became the more powerful and tensions between…
One news source http://www.newser.com/story/238213/major-raids-across-us-have-immigrants-panicking.html described the raids on immigrants going on now this way: "People are panicking." That's the message from one immigration lawyer after hundreds of undocumented immigrants were rounded up this week by ICE agents in raids in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and the Carolinas, the Washington Post reports. According to NPR, the raids were the first since President Trump signed a Jan. 26 executive order on undocumented immigrants. That order redefined "criminal alien," expanding the definition…
That's a quote from Will Rogers who said : "All I know is what I read in the papers…" Rogers was born in 1879 and was a vaudeville performer, comedian and motion picture actor. He died the year I was born in 1935. That year Wiley Post, a nationally known pilot, and Rogers left Lake Washington in Renton on a float plane for a tour of Alaska. In August they had left Fairbanks in bad weather. About 20 miles SW…
We have the Statue of Liberty with one message and then we have Donald Trump with another about immigration. Some of Donald Trumps statements about immigrants include these: “I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.” “When Mexico sends its people, they’re…
As the political candidates for president continue their propaganda trying to identify with the ideas of voters we hear more conservative agenda's. They try to win over the voting conservatives by supporting their viewpoints. Around the world, extremists continue to kill innocent children, women and people all in order to please God. Wars, motivated by religious beliefs, are raging in many parts of the world as well. Crimes against humanity are so common place we read them with the same reaction we have to the reports of traffic accidents or…
If you're like me, it's really hard to understand the extreme evil that religious terrorists inflict on innocent people, convinced it's what God wants. Here's my attempt to give a simplistic explanation. THE SHORT EXPLANATION The "short" explanation for their actions is that groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS believe in a "holy war" to establish a Islamic state encompassing not only the Middle East but in fact the entire world. The situation is made more dangerous by the fact that there is a…
A news article prompts this post. In my last post I set out my views about why I think it is important to maintain a separation of religion and public government in America. I believe that because our country has developed a very large mix of spiritual and religious beliefs in the last couple of decades so that any government imposed religious views are discriminatory towards conflicting religious views. We are all citizens. We have religious freedom. We have the right not…
There are many wonderful things about living in the United States. However, if I were given absolute power to be king for one day there are some things I'd change. I'm not including the huge issues like poverty homelessness and violence, just some of the smaller issues by comparison. By the way, this is a rant which won't be beneficial to you to read, but which is only intended to make me feel better. 1. Separation of church & State if I were given the power I…
We arrived in Scottsdale two days ago. It has been hot here, the temperatures are in the triple digits and yesterday it was 106° hot. We are here to open the house for the season and every time we do so it is inevitable that things don't work. We spend the first week finding and correcting problems as well as dealing with repair people. As to the heat, fortunately the report is that things will cool down starting this weekend…
