Smiles, Taxes and Heavy Hands

Once again life has kept me from blogging much lately.

- I have begun work on my new site. I am learning a new technology (XPages) and this always slows things down. I'm working on a cleaner GUI that will be easier to read and navigate. Here is what I have so far: http://www.muchgooder.com/home/newadam.nsf/home.xsp

Any hack can make a website. The trick is to make it so that you can easily create new pages and navigation without writing a lick of html.

- Jim Rome's take on the sport of curling: sports you can play while you're drinking or in a bar do not belong in the olympics. If you're pregnant (as one of the "curlers" is) you shouldn't be able to participate in the Olympics.

- I did get a kick out of this recent story in the Buffalo News.

As you may know, Buffalo is heavily catholic. We all eat fish fries every friday even though the infallible one long ago decided you wouldn't burn if you did eat meat on Fridays (thank God!). However, a new (and very cultish) church is is growing like gangbusters in this area and it is moving in on the well-established Catholic Church. The priest at one of the downsizing churches is up and arms because the new church is being "heavy handed". Heavy handed? This is a church that for years has inflicted its will for centuries all over the globe. Pope Creepy regularly warns of not being Catholic (or worse, being an atheist). They show up in poor areas all over the globe looking for new converts. So this church opens up shop and they're threated? Awwwwwwweeeeeee.

- One of these days I'm going to lay out my position on taxes. For now, you can chew on this for a while.

The IRS released their 2007 tax figures. Believe it or not, the top 400 American earners footed 2% of the total income tax money taken in. They paid 29 billion in taxes. And many are upset about that - because they wanted this group to pay more.

It seems to me that our government was established to provide services and protection. It needs to tax us to get this done. I get all of that. But at no point was it charged with wealth redistribution. This is not defined anywhere in its mission statement. So instead of making government run more efficiently and better serving us, some people are obsessed with those that have more than them. Surely it is their fault. Of course, the ironic thing about that statement is that while these people may think that someone else is the a-hole for not paying more, that same person is the a-hole to someone that makes less than him.

David Patterson (Governor of New York, and a Democrat) recently spoke honestly about taxes. He said that we've taxed the hell out of people until there wasn't much else to take. There was nothing left to take yet the problems got even worse. The government is broken and focusing on the rich completely misses the point. I quite agree.

Besides, it is dishonest. We don't want the government helping themselves to our personal information - what gives them the right to keep taking more and more out of our wallets when their own house is a mess?

- And finally, a story that made me smile today.

I ran into a friend of a friend as I was leaving the gym. The friend said that she remembered me from facebok.

"You're part of an American Atheist group, right?"

Yup, that's me.

"I wish I could join that but with my job it isn't worth the risk".

Now don't get me wrong - I was sad that someone can't be open about their beliefs (and it says a lot about how the majority practices their own beliefs). But it did make me a little... proud?

I can't tell you how many times someone that I casually know stops me to ask about that. I've noticed that they tend to fall into four groups:

1) Completely open, like me.

2) Feel the same way but don't want to come "out" for whatever reason.

3) Don't have the interest in doing the "work" needed to get there, but for all intents and purposes are there.

4) Will bring it up and then get a little uncomfortable. Why, I'm not sure.

The last group is probably the most interesting. I rarely bring up my religious beliefs but for some reason they seem to fascinate people. I think if nothing else it makes them think about their own beliefs and that in itself can be uncomforting. I think a lot of people are afraid to really sit down and acknowledge what is on the other side of the curtain. I get that. I've never been in the business of converting anyone. I recently read an interesting quote about a former evangelical preacher that "saw the light". He said that nobody was ever converted to disbelie and that you find it on your own and in your own time. I agree and I think that says a ton.

Anyway, you can always ask me anything about my beliefs - I don't bite! :-) And it is nice to know that there are other free-thinkers and humanists out there.