People like to poke fun at Feds, saying they’re lazy or overpaid, but that’s a lie. I’ve worked with Feds for over a decade now and I can tell you from my own experience that the people doing the actual work of the federal government – i.e. not people who are voted into power like Congressmen and Senators – do an amazing amount of work. The people at the agencies I’ve worked with spend more than eight hours a day trying to help people of our great country. They give more time and effort than you would imagine.

So, when you think, “Bah, a government shutdown is great – we’ll save money! Whatever!” don’t forget that the government is run by human beings who have their own bills to pay, mouth’s to feed, and lives to live. When they can’t work, we’re all diminished.

I’ll leave you with a quote from my own Senator, Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) on the floor of the Senate today making an impassioned plea to keep the government open:

“I know you’re working on that cure for cancer. I know you’re working on that cure for Alzheimer’s. Or Autism. Or Arthritis… but you know what? Washington says, ‘You’re non-essential.’”

Technorati Tags: government, non-essential, shutdown, Tea Party

The app itself is called “Exodus International”, named after the group that created it, and its purpose is to, essentially, make homosexuals into heterosexuals through the bible and their interpretations of their teachings – hence the “Gay Cure” moniker that it has been given, though they claim on their website that they aren’t seeking to “cure” anyone so much as they’re seeking to aggregate the resources on their website through the iPhone app – which essentially seek to cure people of homosexual tendencies. Heh.

I’m not going to rant or rave about the app itself, as I never got to see it before it was pulled from the app store, but from screen captures of the app and from the description of it in the app store and on the Exodus website, it was essentially a data aggregator. That is, it took the data from the Exodus International website and fed it through their iPhone app, likely using a web service of some sort to convert their RSS/XML feeds through to the iPhone. Pretty simple stuff, and very similar to what I’ve been working on. It’s the content of the app and the website that’s disturbing.

The body of their work can be summed up in a single sentence: their own Mission Statement from their website:

“Mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality.”

As a person who has many dear friends and even an Aunt in the LGBT community, I’ve heard one prevailing thing from them over the years when we talk about their sexuality: it was never a choice for them to be gay. To come out of the closet, yes, that was a choice – and a big one at that. Never, not once, however, have any of them ever said that they decided to be gay; they always felt that it was right for them.

That’s why, at the very core of my being, I’m offended by groups – religious, political, or otherwise – who feel that they can simply “change” a person’s sexuality through any means. People who are “changed” by these methods have come out later to say that they weren’t really changed, they were simply forced or guilted – be it by themselves or by other influences such as the church – to repress their feelings and “act” straight (some even going so far as to marry a person of the opposite sex and try to live out a “normal, straight” life).

That’s what makes this Exodus International “ministry” so despicable to me: they think they’re doing something good and holy and righteous, but in reality they’re simply trying to force their system of beliefs onto others – and that’s never the right thing to do.

For more information about the Exodus International App, and the controversy surrounding it, I’m going to link to both extremes of the spectrum – The Exodus International website’s “Debunking the Myths…” page about the app, and the TruthWinsOut.org press release about the petition to remove the app from the App Store (which, by the by, had over 150,000 signatures on it).

• Exodus International: Debunking the Myths about Exodus and their iPhone Application
• Truth Wins Out: Apple Dumps ‘Gay Cure’ iPhone App After 150,000 People Sign Petition Calling For Its Removal

What are your thoughts about this? Leave some feedback and try to keep the discussions clean and ad hominem free.

Technorati Tags: app store, exodus international, gay cure

This reminds me of the two “arguments” (lies) of the Republicans/Tea Baggers that I truly enjoy hearing:

The rich save their money.  They save and invest it.  They buy things, yes, but not at the same percentage as the middle and lower class do.  The middle and lower class, by far, put a higher percentage of their incomes into the economy just trying to keep their heads above water.  The economic impact of the middle class having more money to spend far outweighs the economic impact of the rich saving their money and investing it overseas.

My friend Brian quoted a very relevant response from Heather McGhee (of Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization founded in 2000) to the question of “can tax cuts hurt job creation?” during her appearance on Countdown the other day which perfectly makes this point:

“In this instance they absolutely can.  It particularly because we’re talking about the Bush tax cuts, which, as we know, the vast majority went to the wealthiest 3% of the Americans.  Now if I’m a working and middle class person who is living paycheck to paycheck, I spend every dollar that I can hold on to.  I spend it on groceries.  I spend it on my kids’ books.  I spend it on gas for the car.  I immediately through-put that out into the conomy.  If I’m a millionaire or billionaire I, as you said, Keith, sock it away.  And so the problem using tax cuts as stimulus is that it’s far too expensive and it ties the government’s hands to do the more effective form of stimulus, such as infrastructure spending.”

Nice job, conservatives.  You’re ruining the United States, one failed bill at a time.

Technorati Tags: "The Party of No", Keith Olbermann, Lies, Tax Cuts, Tea Party

Every year on this day, we’re reminded of what happened in New York and DC that beautiful clear morning.  We’re reminded by our government that today we should be in a “heightened state of alert.”  Never, before today, have I ever actually felt even a hint of concern about it.  But this crazy man in Florida, who represents no God but simply his own ego and vanity, he’s succeeded in two things: First, to make himself famous, and second, to actually making some of us honestly concerned that our lives aren’t as safe as we’d normally think they are.

Let’s remember the people we lost that day.  Let’s remember the heroes.  The people who ran into burning buildings trying to save lives, and those who paid for that heroism with their lives.  Let’s remember the people on United 93 who fought back and saved God knows how many lives by taking their destinies into their own hands and did what most of us think would be difficult if not impossible.

Finally, let’s not hate the man for what he wants to do.  Giving in to hatred isn’t going to make things better.  It would just make us like him.  Instead, let’s all take a little time out of our lives on September 11th and help someone.  Do something good for someone in need.  Donate money to a charity.  Do whatever you can, no matter how small.  That’s the best way to protest what he’s doing: show that we as Americans are tolerant, giving, and above the hate.

Technorati Tags: 9/11, Good Deeds, Hate, Remember, Terrorism, Twin Towers, WTC

A Glock 17 9x19mm pistol

In April I purchased my first pistol, a Glock 17 (pictured right) – a .9mm pistol.  It’s one of the most reliable, highly-rated guns out there.  Several major police departments use it, or a similar Glock model (the 19 and the 23 specifically) as their standard issue sidearm.  It’s consists of a polymer frame and metal slide.  It’ll shoot underwater.  It’s not prone to jams.  This is your ideal handgun for those new to handguns and for personal and home defense.  I love my Glock.  I enjoy going to the range every other Saturday and shooting at paper targets.  It’s a great hobby and it’s really made me interested in other aspects of shooting like hunting for game and “plinking”, which is shooting at small metal targets (which make a “plink” sound when struck), typically with smaller caliber guns (like .22LR pistols and rifles).

A Walther P22 .22LR pistol

As I’ve enjoyed my Glock 17, I’ve had the opportunity to shoot other pistols at the range I go to.  They rent out guns that you can use on their range for a very minimal fee.  You basically are just paying for the ammo to shoot it and your time on the range itself.  I’ve really enjoyed shooting .22LR pistols – specifically the Ruger Mark II 22/45 model and the Walther P22 (pictured left).  The Ruger is a larger handgun with a 4.5” barrel and is considered to be one of the top plinking guns out there.  The Walther is one of the most popular .22LR semi-auto models out there.  It’s the next gun I want to purchase.

Maryland, like many states, has a seven day waiting period from when you apply to purchase a gun to when you’re approved to take said weapon home with you.  Maryland has some of the most stringent gun laws of any state.  For instance, in Pennsylvania and Virginia you can walk around with a pistol on your hip – “openly carry” – without a permit.  In Maryland, you can’t carry a handgun at all on your person unless you’ve got a Concealed Carry permit, which you can only get in one of three instances: You’re a current/former police officer, a current/former military serviceman, or you can prove that there’s a true, valid threat against your life in which carrying a handgun could be all that stands between you and certain death.  Maryland is also one of the few states that does NOT recognize out-of-state carry permits.  While I have no reason to carry a handgun on my person and don’t feel threatened in the least, I feel a bit put off about not even having the option.

It’s frustrating enough for me to not be able to get “instant gratification” and take home a firearm the day I want to, but it’s even more frustrating to know that the only place it could be useful to save my life is at home.  Don’t get me wrong – I get the reasoning for the seven day waiting period and the background checks.  It makes sense.  It keeps people from buying weapons in anger and using them immediately.  It prevents those with violent criminal records or major neurological issues from purchasing a firearm.  And I’m all about keeping the bans on assault & automatic weapons – no one has a good reason to need to personally own an automatic assault rifle.  It’s overkill for hunting AND personal protection.  I just find it frustrating that, if you’ve already purchased a handgun within, say, six months you still have to wait a week for a background check to come through.

Maybe one day Maryland will relax its gun laws a bit, but I doubt it.  I suppose I could write my congressman but we all know our political representatives don’t speak for us anymore – they speak for whichever organizations and PAC’s fill their coffers the most for the next election.  Oh well.  Here’s hoping.

Technorati Tags: Frustration, Glock, Gun Laws, Handgun, Maryland, Walther

I’m usually fine to sit there and let people be wrong, but both sides of the media, along with the Republicans, have done a really good job at obfuscating one very important fact: The Obama Administration isn’t talking about changing actual healthcare – they’re talking about changing health insurance and coverage so that all Americans can have access to healthcare. A lot – a whole lot in my experience – of people don’t understand this. They think that the President is trying to take us into a clinical healthcare system and that’s just not the case. This is about insurance and coverage, not directly the actual care itself.

Yes, there are parts of what the Administration is trying to push that would change some of the actual healthcare system itself, but that’s on the administrative end. At the very core of what they’re doing is to help enable those without any health insurance at all be able to have some limited coverage so that when they need basic services they don’t have to go to a local hospital and waste taxpayer money on services that are far cheaper at a regular doctors office.

I’m not going to discuss whether what the administration is doing is right or wrong or even where I stand on the whole deal. I just wish that the media would do a better job of educating people about what’s really going on instead of really polarizing the story and leaving out important details. It just makes me cringe.

Technorati Tags: Agenda, Education, Healthcare, Idiots, Insurance, Media, Obama, Obfuscation, Republicans