HATE! HATE! HATE ! The word and the actions of HATE !!!!

Every morning I wake up thanking my Savior for another opportunity to walk this earth.  A chance to try to make some small difference in the world I live in.  Some days I am successful and other days I am not, but I don't give up trying.

HATE is one of my stumbling blocks !!! I hate the cold, I hate being fat, I hate when things don't go my way, I hate this or that, I hate being that person that hates so many stupid things in life but what I HATE most are haters.

When is it okay to look at someone and say "just because you don't believe like I do I hate you !".  The world does not evolve around you are me, it is made up of so many factions and differences, that at some point to not be a hater of others, we have to recognize that our differences are the things that make us stronger.

There is so much bullying on Facebook, the media, TV etc. with negative comics, ugly words, hidden meanings, nasty pictures, anything to incite HATE in someone.  Sometimes I am one of those people and I hate that.

I saw a couple of posts yesterday and was reminded that "We are created in HIS image."  What if, just what if those who are different than us - race, sexuality, mental disease, physical limitations, even politics etc, what if they are our test to see if we can become lovers like Jesus was and is.  We are failing miserably if it is and we won't know for sure until we get to HEAVEN and then we will probably be shocked.

Jesus spent time with the lepers, the prostitutes, those who were shunned by so many others.  I do not profess to be a minister of the word, just a person of conviction that we don't have to embrace or accept others life styles, but we do have to show love and tolerance no matter how far we are pushed.

We have to become the non-haters of this world.  By showing the light of JESUS in our treatment of others, by embracing their differences, by extending the arm of Christian love, we can become non-Haters and doers like HE is.

So today, I am going to try to be a non-hater, the person who does not post or forward that nasty comic, the person who accepts the ones that are different than me, today I want to be the one who wants to be more like JESUS.  I am going to try really hard. One day at a time !!!

You can make a difference today simply by not doing those things that are easy, but by taking the road less traveled until we have a traffic jam of Jesus like people.  I will be looking for you on the road.


Jeremiah 9:24- But let him who boast boast about this: that he understand and know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,: declares the LORD.


Hate means to "dislike intensely or passionately; feel extreme aversion for or extreme hostility toward; detest" and I am surrounded by haters everywhere.

To Beard or Not To Beard Inmates in Arkansas Prisons !

Jail House Conversions lead to expensive policies and accommodations for the guiltiest among us.

So you break the law, you go through all the legal processes and now you sit in jail.  You are a white male raised as Gregory Houston Holt and somewhere along the line you decided to convert to a religion that caused you to change your name to "Abdul Maalik Muhammad".  Was it a jail house conversion or did you practice your religion prior to going to jail?  

For me it is not so much about the beard as it is how convenient when you don't get your way to throw your "rights" around now that life is unpleasant.  What about your victims and your repeated escape attempts?  I question whether you are a true follower of Islam or just looking for more ways to create chaos. 

Beards do not make or break a man, the character, the strength of your faith, the person you are inside makes the man.  As Benny Magness, board chairman of the Arkansas Board of Corrections stated " I didn't know we had that many religious people in our prisons."

Businesses today must make "reasonable accommodations for religious purposes" but, the person requesting those accommodations must prove a pattern, a history of that practice.  It can not be an overnight conversion or a questionable action.

Did you ever wonder why and what religions require beards?  If so read the article below from Kimberly Winston.  It is very informative and on point.

Religious Beards: From Sikhs To Jews These Are Some Facial Hair Styles Of The Faithful

Religion News Service  |  By Kimberly Winston

Posted: 10/08/2014 10:21 am EDT Updated: 10/08/2014 10:59 am EDT

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that will decide whether a Muslim inmate can grow a beard in keeping with his religious beliefs. Does facial hair equal faithful holiness? Let us ‘Splain . . . .

The Jewish beard

“Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard” — Leviticus 19:27. But the various branches of Judaism interpret this very differently. The ultra-Orthodox ban shaving altogether, while some modern Orthodox believe the law bans only razors — but not electric razors, which are like scissors because they have two blades. Reform Jews place no restrictions on shaving.

According to Hasidic Rabbi Aron Moss: “The beard is hair that grows down from the head to the rest of the body. It is the bridge between mind and heart, thoughts and actions, theory and practice, good intentions and good deeds. So we don’t cut the beard, but rather let it flow freely, to open a direct flow from the ideals and philosophies of our minds into our everyday lifestyle.”

The Christian beard

Christianity has an on-again, off-again relationship with the beard. St. Augustine wrote: “The beard signifies the courageous; the beard distinguishes the grown men, the earnest, the active, the vigorous.”

But around 1000 A.D., the Canons of Edgar forbade clerical beards, declaring “Let no man in holy orders conceal his tonsure, nor let himself be misshaven nor keep his beard for any time, if he will have God’s blessing and St. Peter’s and ours.” And as for cleanliness (of face) being next to godliness, the Franciscans equate the beard with manliness. “The Friars shall wear the beard, after the example of Christ most holy,” their constitution reads, “since it is something manly, natural, severe, despised and austere.”

Ditto for the Eastern Orthodox, where a clergyman’s beard is seen as a sign of his devotion to God. Orthodox Christians frequently cite Numbers 6:5 for their beards: “a razor shall not come upon his head, until the days be fulfilled which he vowed to the Lord: he shall be holy, cherishing the long hair of the head all the days of his vow to the Lord.”

Today, beards are super popular among Christian hipsters. Exhibit A: Bearded Gospel Men, a blog for Christian men with big beards. Last year, Christianity Today published a handy-dandy guide to parsing a Christian man’s theology, denomination and profession by the cut of his beard. Bonus Weird-O Beard-O Fact: In 1830, a pastor in Fitchburg, Mass., preached against the luscious beard of parishioner Joseph Palmer and denied him Communion until he shaved. Palmer grabbed the goblet of Communion wine and drank it down, declaring, “I love my Jesus as well, and better than any of you.”

The Muslim beard

The Quran does not prescribe beards for Muslims, but the hadith (the collected sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) describes Muhammad as ordering his followers to wear beards. “Differ from the polytheists: let your beards (grow), and trim your mustache,” the hadith reads. Shehzad Saleem, a Muslim scholar from Pakistan, has said, “The Prophets of Allah kept beards and expressed their liking for it since this is from among the norms of human nature. It is an expression of manliness and as such a sign, which distinguishes men from women.” But Saif Inam of the Muslim Public Affairs Council told Religion News Service, “While there are differing interpretations, for some Muslims it is a sincerely held religious belief based on the word and the example of the Prophet Muhammad. Some people believe it is absolutely required.”

The Sikh beard

Hair is part of God’s creation to Sikhs, and is therefore sacred. “Kesh” — maintaining uncut hair all over their bodies is one of the five articles of faith for Sikhs, both men and women. In 1699, Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th Sikh spiritual leader, is supposed to have said “My Sikh shall not use the razor. For him the use of razor or shaving the chin shall be as sinful as incest.” In 2008, a New York City man was convicted of a hate crime for forcibly cutting the hair of a Sikh classmate.

The Anabaptist beard

The Amish consider the beard a sign of manhood. Only adult, married men wear beards (while shunning wedding rings). “They indicate respect for tradition, refusal to recognize changing fashions, and in general nonconformity to the world, all of which do have spiritual significance in the Amish world view,” scholar Steven D. Reschly told The New York Times. So when a breakaway sect of Amish in Ohio cut the beards of other Amish they disagreed with, they were charged with hate crimes.

The Baseball beard

Baseball is a religion to many Americans, especially at this time of the year. It is to players for the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants, the Baltimore Orioles, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals, who are all running for the World Series 2014 title. Many players grow their beards in some weird, hairy superstition that a razor touching their faces will somehow affect the outcome. “It’s basically the epitome of man,” the Dodgers’ Brian Wilson told the Los Angeles Times. “God gave man the ability to grow facial hair, and that’s what he did.”

ALSO ON HUFFPOST:

Muslim Peasant Woman - The Idea Behind the Statue of Liberty

Did you know that the original plan for the Statue of Liberty was to be a muslim peasant woman located at the Suez Canal in Eqypt?  Did you know that the Statue was not a gift from France, but the combined efforts of the artist Frederic Batholdi and American Joseph Pulitizer?  How about the fact it took 15 years to complete.  It was suppose to be a light house and at one point Thomas Edison wanted to make her talk.  

Do you believe that this symbol of refugees coming to America seeking asylum and religious freedoms would have impacted the world as much if it had been designed as a muslim woman and placed in Eqypt?

I do not !!! - It is because we are America, the home of free and the land of the brave that this symbol has taken on so much meaning.  The words on her book are simple and yet very profound  'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"

However, the world we live in today is not the same as it was in 1886.  There were 76 million people in the US at that time versus 322,193,622 today.  We saw 5.2 million refugees then verses 42.1 million a year now.  

As a nation one of the biggest changes to the world we live in is our own "Political Correctness" it is destroying the very foundation of our country.

This country was founded, built, fought for and died for on a GODLY foundation.  

Principle 1 - The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law. Natural law is God's law. There are certain laws which govern the entire universe, and just as Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, there are laws which govern in the affairs of men which are "the laws of nature and of nature's God." 

Principle 4 - Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained. "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion." - George Washington 

Principle 5 - All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent, and to him they are equally responsible. The American Founding Fathers considered the existence of the Creator as the most fundamental premise underlying all self-evident truth. They felt a person who boasted he or she was an atheist had just simply failed to apply his or her divine capacity for reason and observation. 

Principle 6 - All mankind were created equal. The Founders knew that in these three ways, all mankind are theoretically treated as: 1. Equal before God. 2. Equal before the law. 3. Equal in their rights. 

Principle 7 - The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things. The Founders recognized that the people cannot delegate to their government any power except that which they have the lawful right to exercise themselves. 

Principle 8 - Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights. "Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal [or state] laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislation has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner [of the right] shall himself commit some act that amounts to a forfeiture." - William Blackstone 

Principle 9 - To protect human rights, God has revealed a code of divine law. "The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found by comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity." - William Blackstone 

Principle 10 - The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people. "The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legislative authority." - Alexander Hamilton 

Once we became so worried about removing the foundation of our country, we began to crumble, fight among ourselves and lose our focus.  America was and always has been centered around, GOD, country and family.  Today more people are worried about offending than standing up for those principles.

You might be surprised that with true muslim people many of these same principles are in the Quran. The difference as I see it is true muslim's just as true Christians embrace these principles, follow God and seek to make the world a better place.  It is the extremist in both religions as well as follows of the evil one that are creating the negative place we call America.

So ask yourself this "What if the Statue of Liberty were a muslim woman?"  How would you feel about that being the symbol of immigration and safety for the borders of the United States?

How and when do we say "Stop !  We have to evaluate where we are and where we are going?  The United States has not grown in land mass so where are we suppose to continue to put all these people who want to live here?  Who bears the burdens for them? At what cost to our own children, families, veterans and aged do we put the needs of strangers above our own?"

The United States today can not and does not care for, provide for or support the majority of our elderly and our veterans.  We have homeless and hungry, uneducated children that we are not taking care of today.  Until we have leaders who will address these issues rather than their own political agendas, it is really not a matter of not wanting Syrians into our country as much as for me it is "What in the world are we going to do now and how?"

Art, Fantasy or Just Plain Weird

$7.6 Million for Candy 

When I opened the paper this morning, there on the front page among today's top headlines was a picture of a piece of art that consisted of nothing but a line of candy, an endless supply.  

Shocked and amazed that someone would spend that kind of money on candy art I thought, there has to be more than I know........and there is.  It is an interesting, perplexing story of an artist born and raised in Puerto Rico and Cuba later moving to New York to study and create.

Knowledge is power and the more I read about this artist, the more I became captivated more by his story than by piles of candy.  The meaning behind this piece of art is beautiful, inspiring, haunting and thought provoking, more so than the actual so called art piece.

One of Gonzalez-Torres’s “candy spills,” “Untitled” (Placebo), 1991, consists of 1,200 pounds of silver-wrapped hard candy arranged as a stunning carpet on the floor of the museum’s largest gallery. Visitors are invited to take a candy and in so doing, contribute to the slow disappearance of the sculpture over the course of the exhibition.  Though Gonzalez-Torres created “Untitled” (Placebo) in response to the AIDS epidemic and, in particular, the loss of his partner, Ross, his use of an everyday commodity like candy allows viewers to draw their own meanings from each of his works.

Torres said that he "wanted the candy to disappear  as his life partner had from AIDS, he wanted nothing left to hurt him anymore."  It was an expression of his love, loss and grief changing his life and him one piece at a time.  

Having experienced great loss and grief, I understand the feelings behind this piece.  Even though the artist later died of AIDS-related complications, his art work continues to live on and receive national attention.

I am left with haunting questions, is there a diagram of how the candy is suppose to be laid out? Does it get old and yucky tasting?  Who is responsible for being the keeper of all the candy that is not on exhibit?  Where does the money $7.6 million go when the artist is dead?  Did he leave a legacy and the money goes to AIDS research ?  On and On they go.....

While my greatest art pieces are those made by the hands of Bo as a child, or later by Ian and Carter Dean, no one would ever pay that kind of money for something I believe is priceless.

So many questions, so few answers but I am learning that where I think $7.6 million could be better spent, I for one will never have that problem.  That money doesn't buy class, education is power and art is at best subjective.

Think, read, study and learn.  A day when you learn at least one thing new is not a day wasted.

Terrorist and the Changing of the Guard -

Times have changed, America no longer has the strongest defense and military power in the world and with that the very safety of our country and our borders are in jeopardy.  Why?

We have raised generations that now believe they are entitled to freedoms without sacrifice !!! Joining the military, serving and protecting our freedoms is no longer considered the right thing to do, but rather the last resort.  How many times I have heard people say "I would rather die that see my child join the military!"  Well, guess what there is no more honorable place to be than the military.  My son would have given his life for anyone of you and one of my dearest friends son did exactly that.

People whine about equality, Black Lives Matter, Immigrants deserve all the entitlements of being in America illegally, I am not responsible, abortion is okay, prisons need to be kinder and they justice system delays and delays punishment because someone might not be "politically correct" .  A country where people complain about a stupid red coffee cup when the person next door doesn't have food to eat, or money for gas.

Wake up America !  The current administration has done one thing that is destroying our values, they have weakened our military, cut jobs, increased entitlements and apologized for our country being who we are.  Not one person, but the entire administration is to blame and we as citizens are responsible.  WE elected these officials, we stood by during infidelity, lies and increased racism.  WE encourage them to run again and again for office.  We have become WEAK !!!  We wake up and want to be told what to do, when to do it and how good we should feel about it.  WRONG !!!

We are a country that is going broke not just financially but morally as well.  When a person can receive more tax dollars back on a refund than they have paid in something is broken !!!!  Why do we tolerate these issues.  WE are WEAK and afraid.

Time to get up and get off your butts.  If you think it is mixed up now, wait until they open the borders for Syrian refugees that there is no way to know if they are Islamic militants or not.  The current administration and their party want to increase the number of "refugees" to an additional 10,000.

The democratic candidates (all 3) say they will only admit Syrians after thorough background checks. Mario Rubio recently said "You can't pick up the phone and call Syria."  There is no way to find out anything about the refugees." It is time to close our borders to Syrians and most foreign countries NOW !!!

We are not the country that Ellis Island was founded on and the world is not the same as it was then.  We must protect our own, build our military back to the strongest and stop hand feeding our generations everything they want.

Stand up and be counted, write letters, call you government officials, talk to people, run for office, get involved, pray, but most of all don't just sit down and wait for someone to take care of you.  Take care of yourselves and others.

I for one love my country and will continue to fight for my faith, veteran's rights, equality and the freedoms that others have died for.

We can do so much more when we work together, all lives matter, the color or design on a coffee cup - NOT SO MUCH !!!