Lady Lake & Religious Freedom

It has come to my attention that the Constitution is being threatened in Lady Lake, Florida.  For you who have never heard of Lady Lake, it is part of a retirement development known as The Villages.  The average inhabitant is about 70+ years old.  It's a great place if you love golf and living an active lifestyle.  However, it should be no surprise that it's prime tea-bag party area.  The local newspaper's favorite columnist is Ollie North, a convicted felon. It also should come as no surprise that the local city council starts every meeting  with a secular prayer.  The city council says its' prayer is not meant to favor any one religion, in spite of the fact that they usually end with, "in Jesus' name we pray".  They also claim they are doing nothing illegal,  since the meeting doesn't officially start until the prayer is completed.

Although I am not surprised by this development, since most of the residences are gun nuts, religious zealots, and war mongers, but I have found that there are also some sane people.  I play tennis with a group of guys who are surprisingly liberal.  Recently, they asked my opinion on Huckabee for President, and I issued a disclaimer that I was an atheist and I considered all right wing religious politicians as the vanguard for the American Taliban.  Instead of stoning me, they wanted to know more about my opinions.  I told them, When I am King, people will be able to express their religious beliefs freely in church and their home, but will have to keep their mouth zipped in public.  There will be no tax deductions for churches and  you will no longer be able to run for office claiming God told you to do it.  Everyone knows there is only one god -- The Golf God -- and he has plenty of bad golf swings in The Villages to keep him/her busy without taking on politics.

Locks

I live in a manufactured home in central Florida.  A big part of a manufactured home is the shed, sort of like a garage with most homes.  Every time I go to the shed I have to unlock it -- even though it is only a few feet from the main door.  It reminds why I hate locks.  Locks are sign of the society we live in -- if you don't lock it, some one will steal it.  I remember as a kid, we never locked our doors.  When I came home from college, I just walked through the front door.  I never owned a key.  Man, do I miss those days.  I remember a teacher I had tell me his philosophy on life.  He could understand how someone could kill someone in a fit of emotional rage, but he couldn't understand how someone could take something that didn't belong to him.  Basically it comes down to right and wrong.

When I am King, I'll try to make small anti-lock areas and see if I can make them expand.  Lock doors say a lot about our society -- nothing good I might add.  I hope I can get rid of locks in one small area at a time.

Budget War

Here we go again.  How do we keep the government going.  Well, Congress has to pass a resolution extending the debt limit.  We just don't have enough money to pay all the bills.  The Republicans in Congress are willing to sign off as long as they can cut everything in the budget that doesn't go to rich white people.  They even want to lower the highest tax rate to 25% - translated -- big tax break to the rich.  Meanwhile they plan to fix the problem by cutting benefits from our poorest citizens.  Of course there will be no cuts in military spending.

Time to think outside of the box.  When I am King, I am going to eliminate the Marines over a 10 year period and have their job picked up by the Army.