"Change Your Thinking on the Role of Government"will make you think - it made me think again.
The media is completely missing the most important point of the Eric Garner story. A precious life was ended and the entire City of NY is in disarray because of overreach of government. The problem here is that there was a law against selling a single cigarette. Why? The law was passed because taxes would not be collected on that cigarette transaction. The police are therefore overburdened and over-empowered. They can’t possibly be operating on a “right v. wrong” mindset. There was nothing immoral about what Mr. Garner was doing; he was simply not complying with man’s law to control – or enslave – its citizens.
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Seriously.
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“Black lives matter.” “All lives matter.” These slogans may forever summarize the deeptensions in American life in 2014. Catalyzed by the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and two New York Police officers who were murdered while sitting in a police car, Americans are in the midst of a crisis of human dignity. Are we still able to articulate why anyone’s life matters? We can loudly protest that “Black lives matter” but it will mean nothing in the long run if we cannot explain why black lives matter.
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Black lives matter not simply because they are black but because blacks are persons—persons who are a necessary variable to the flourishing of others so that we all may attain the end for which we were created.
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Gay Weddings and the Shopkeeper's Dillema -
One option for pro-marriage business owners: obey the law and serve gay weddings, but make it known publicly that you believe that the law forcing you to do this is unjust, needs to be changed, and is obeyed only out of your respect for law and the democratic process.
But the small, mom-and-pop shops have always been something more than a means for their proprietors to escape poverty and participate in the American Dream. They have also been family businesses, employing aunts, uncles, in-laws, and older children. Thus, they have generally reflected the attitudes, values, faith, and hopes of a small, tightly knit family group within an intimate work setting.
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and in the "I need to go shopping" category...
Ten Best Houseplants for Cleaning the Air...
And the larger, NASA version...