HR1388 Senate Vote: Mandatory slavery pushes on

HR1388 – the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act or the GIVE Act – still is pushing on.

More goodness in this bill…

SEC. 125. PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES AND INELIGIBLE ORGANIZATIONS. (link)
(a) Prohibited Activities- A participant in an approved national service position under this subtitle may not engage in the following activities;
(1) Attempting to influcence legislation
(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes.
(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing
(4) Impairing existing contracts or services or collective bargaining agreements.
(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office
(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials.
(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization.
(8) Providing a direct benefit to –
(A) a business organized for profit;
(B) a labor organization;
(C) a partisan political organization;
(D) a nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 except that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and
(E) an organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph (7) unless Corporation assistance is not used to support those religious activities.
(9) Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive.
(10) Such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit.

Does everyone see this crap? I mean, really. So if you get swept under this umbrella and get tossed in the Corps or “volunteer group” or whatever, you no longer have the right to

(1) Attempting to influcence legislation – No more writing your Representative… because that is influcencing legislation.
(2) Organizing or engaging in protests, petitions, boycotts, or strikes – Can’t sign any petitions. Can’t join any sort of rally or anything! In general, you cannot show any sort of grievance you have with the government because you can’t write them (above) and you can’t do anything with your signature or your body.
(3) Assisting, promoting, or deterring union organizing – So does this mean that you can’t cross the pickett line to go to work? Or does this mean that if the union comes to your work, you have to join it. Because if you don’t join it, then you are against them.
(4) Impairing existing contracts or services or collective bargaining agreements – Not even sure what this means exactly. It sounds like if any contract is given out then you can never challenge it in any form.
(5) Engaging in partisan political activities, or other activities designed to influence the outcome of an election to any public office – So… you can’t volunteer in any campaign. No VOLUNTARY work for a candidate that you believe in. Hell, are they going to nail your ass for having a sticker on your car?
(6) Participating in, or endorsing, events or activities that are likely to include advocacy for or against political parties, political platforms, political candidates, proposed legislation, or elected officials – Again, you can vote, and that’s it. I bet you could even get in trouble for encouraging your friends to vote for a candidate.
(7) Engaging in religious instruction, conducting worship services, providing instruction as part of a program that includes mandatory religious instruction or worship, constructing or operating facilities devoted to religious instruction or worship, maintaining facilities primarily or inherently devoted to religious instruction or worship, or engaging in any form of religious proselytization – So you can’t be any sort of religious leader? Or you can’t ask a group of people to say the Pledge of Allegiance? Can’t work for any sort of volunteer place where they help less fortunate by handing out goods but happen to start their work by a prayer?
(8) Providing a direct benefit to — (A) a business organized for profit; (B) a labor organization; (C) a partisan political organization; (D) a nonprofit organization that fails to comply with the restrictions contained in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 except that nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent participants from engaging in advocacy activities undertaken at their own initiative; and (E) an organization engaged in the religious activities described in paragraph (7) unless Corporation assistance is not used to support those religious activities. – What? So you can voluntarily donate money or something to non-profit groups? Is that what this is saying? This crap is getting weirder and weirder…
(9) Conducting a voter registration drive or using Corporation funds to conduct a voter registration drive - Does this include ACORN?  And can I no longer go our and canvas my neighbors to try to get them to vote or what?
(10) Such other activities as the Corporation may prohibit - Like WHAT? Whatever such action that whoever doesn’t like me or my positions or my beliefs deems to be… whatever, I can be deemed to be in violation of the law?!

Am I the only one out there that realizes that this is horrible stuff? In general, this piece seems to be made so that a very wide array of people fall under this mandatory slavery plan… for various reasons, and then when you are in, you can’t be political anymore. You can just vote, and that’s it. Just listen to the mainstream media and their spin and rhetoric and vote for whoever they like best.

Can someone please remove the [R] from Senator Olympia Snowe’s name? I’m getting really tired of her caucusing with the Democrats on everything.

I could be totally wrong about this section applying to individuals, and if so, please let me know.

Britian is most promiscious

It is far from an achievement to be proud of – research suggests that British men and women are the most promiscuous in the Western world.

It appears the days when we took a strict moralistic approach towards sex are long gone.

Researchers blamed the situation on a decline of religious scruples, the growth of equal rights for women and a highly sexualised popular culture.

They found that when it comes to one-night stands, numbers of partners and attitudes to casual sex, Britain leads the field, ahead of even liberal nations such as the Netherlands and the passionate Italians.

The researchers believe that our place at the top of the table could be linked to the way society has become more tolerant of sexual promiscuity among women as well as men. Women are now as accepting of one-night stands as men, they claimed. The research was led by David Schmitt, a professor of psychology at Bradley University, Illinois.

He said: ‘Historically we have repressed women’s short-term mating and there are all sorts of double standards out there where men’s short-term mating was sort of acceptable but women’s wasn’t.’

Hello May

It’s May already. I can’t believe it is May already. And guess what? Today is the National Prayer Day – a day to pray for our leaders.

I feel weird even mentioning something religious in nature. Long gone are my Bible Thumping days. For that matter, long gone are the days that I had “prayer time.” A lot seems to have happened to me in the last few years religiously. I’ve had [Christian] friends boogy on out to become Atheists. I’ve had multiple religious debates that went  “beyond debates” (unfortunately). I’ve doubted my faith. I’ve doubted God. I’ve doubted Jesus. I’ve questioned my sanity. I think I’ve even questioned my existence. But that is all personal stuff.

Prayer Day. I won’t be praying today for any political leader. Actually, I think it is kind of… wrong. Jesus never wanted us to pray for leaders to “make the right decisions.” In fact, he seemed to want nothing to do with politics. His mission was with people. So, why are we so interested in politics as Christians? (Don’t get this confused with being Christian and being interested in politics).

I don’t really care if this nation was founded by “Christians” or not. Personally, I think that this country was founded on religious tolerance – a place where the State couldn’t and didn’t mandate religion into people’s lives. Today though, we can’t even talk to a political candidate without raking their religious beliefs over hot coals. Why do we need to know their beliefs anyways? I know many conservatives may disagree with me on this whole issue, but really, I don’t even want to know what religion you are if you are running for political office. Your religion, to me, has nothing to do with how good of a political leader you will be and how well you will listen to the people that elected you.

Anyways, just a few random thoughts as we enter into May.

Five Things the [US] Government Should Not Be Involved In

After a recent discussion with someone, I decided that I am most decidedly against bigger government. As I have said before, “Less government is good government” (notice that I did not say no government as I am not an anarchist). Following is a list of five things that I think that government should not be involved in or have anything to say about it.

1. Marriage. Marriage is between you and whoever or whatever you want. If you want to marry a donkey, then go for it.
2. Foreign Entanglements. Countries are going to fight amongst themselves so long as there are countries. Then when we do away with countries (and borders and sovereignty) we will be fighting amongst our factions and clicks. So, why bother fighting other people’s battles? In other words I am a non-interventionalist.
3. Education. If you want to go to school, then go. If you don’t want to go, then don’t (such as just learning some sort of trade. I’m fine with that). Quit making these retarded “standardized” tests that, well, IMHO, hinder some of the accelerated students and frustrate the others because their talents are elsewhere.
4. Religion. There should be no tax-exempt religious organizations. I think that government support of religious institutions is problematic especially when someone claims a “non-standard” religion, or a non-religion (atheism). Should they too be tax-exempt? Furthermore, if you are a politician, I could care less about what you practice. If you make good laws, then you are the one for the job…
5. Child rearing. If my child does something retarded like go to the grocery store and smash a can of Pepsi on the floor. He needs to be spanked (and then hugged). He will remember the spanking and remember that you are the boss when it comes to the rules. (However, the hug will reinforce the love and acceptance of oneself even when they know they’ve disappointed you). I don’t need the government telling me how to raise my kids or that I can’t discipline them.

I’m sure that there are more, but this is what is on my head right now…