Passing of an Era: So long Teddy

Teddy Kennedy passed away today after a struggle with brain cancer.

He had a long a storied career. Whether you loved him or hated him, it's undeniable that he left a mark on our country.

He lived his life in the public eye. Sometimes that made his foibles seem larger than life. His mistakes were tried in the pubic realm. Similarly though, I think his strengths must also be viewed as larger than life too.

Ted Kennedy stood for the positive impact that government could have on our lives.

Too many today live in a binary world where government is either all bad or it should be a nanny state. Either extreme is irrational.

Ted Kennedy attempted to straddle the middle. Sometimes he failed, but still he tried to bring about good government that works for the benefit of the people it's designed to represent. Ted Kennedy saw government as a tool for the betterment of people--he believed until the end in the edifying power of good government.

I met Ted Kennedy once. He treated me as if we were lifelong friends and with a graciousness far beyond what his position and history would suggest.

I'm moved for the loss that we all suffer by his passing.

So long Teddy.

Faith eludes the faithful when death comes knocking

This study tells me one thing: The religious aren't less afraid of death and neither are hey more certain about an afterlife. It's just a show.

For awhile, I suspected that religion fills a need for certainty in an uncertain world.

Certainty is a pipe dream. Nothing is fixed and no one knows what happens after death, despite what religion tells us.

Too many willingly believe in an afterlife, but studies such as this give credence to the fact that those beliefs provide little guidance when death calls.

It takes great courage to face death with the knowledge that the end is near. Holding onto beliefs in spite of supporting evidence may be fine while death seems distant, yet when those beliefs get tested the truth hits like a slap in the face.

True courage requires no fantasy of an afterlife to soften the possible truth of existence, viz., that this is all there is.

Police in Maryland need some schooling on the law

Here's a story on a big old 1st Amendment violation by the police.

Regardless of their opinion on the death penalty, the police are in serious violation of the 1st Amendment when they infiltrate an activist group that either supports the death penalty, or in this case, opposes it.

It doesn't pass the smell test for the police to claim their actions were designed to thwart violence by the group...a group that has shown little propensity for violence in its protests.

The police were really targeting a group that advocates views adverse to law enforcement. All I have to say is: "WELCOME TO AMERICA FOLKS!"

Unfortunately for the poor police, the 1st Amendment entitles U.S. citizens to freely hate the police, just so long as they don't resort to violence to vindicate their feelings.

The police in Maryland need an education in the oath they took as police officers, that oath being: To Uphold The Constitution of the United States.

I'm available to teach them the finer points of American government and Constitutional law.