Tag: public

Listen to yourselves sometimes…

Dear Close-Minded Woman that pissed me off this week,

Perception is reality. 22% of the worlds population believes in Islam. It’s the worship of a single deity, with that deity’s word outlined in the Qur’an, and the teachings of a prophet named Mohammed. I could just as easily compare it to the Bible, God, and Moses just like my buddy did, and be quite satisfied in being correct…at least until we get into a more detailed description of the religion.

SO…maybe…just maybe…the next time someone greets you with a blessing you should be gracious enough not to act like someone just put a hex on you.

There is this knee-jerk reaction people have when engaging religions not their own that is usually uninformed, uneducated, and almost purely instinctual…almost fight or flight. That is explainable. The possibility that one may be right and the other wrong triggers a fight or flight reaction, most of the time verbally where a person spouts off whatever they can come up with in a few seconds and hide behind their faith in the argument…or worse. When in reality (personally I think religion is a horrible burden on spirituality, being now a tool for business and politic), they are both mutually destructive to one another and will continue to teach at least a small portion of their congregation that the other is the evil one.

The only end to this was to remove religious rule, and we did it.

What scares me most is that some people actually think that adapting the US government into any degree of Christian theocracy would actually protect us.

Separation of Church and State protects us. It has allowed our country to flourish where many other nations have fallen or been turned over in civil war nightmares. The First Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ….” and Article VI specifies that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

I completely understand feeling threatened by belief systems other than your own. I actually understand the feeling more than most. I just don’t understand the need to attack others beliefs to justify your own. Disproving someone else’s religion doesn’t make you right, it makes you a judge where none is necessary.

-Tony

NO…I am NOT a Muslim. I just cant stand religious bullies.




Kudos for Google…

Just a homespun graphic of googleGoogle sent me this link a little while ago, and it meant a lot to see it.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/givesback/2011/

If you didn’t know about this. A couple years back I competed in Google’s Project 10 to the 100. My foundation project was to build an education system that allowed an open forum for educators and subject matter authorities to discuss and dictate curriculum (not politicians/civil leaders), utilizing up to date education methodologies(our public education system is old and non-competitive globally), and most importantly…free.

Well…obviously, I didn’t win the grant, but the Khan Academy did win, and allowed their curriculum to be translatable in a number of global languages, allowing for an education system that is FREE. It’s almost exactly what I was hoping for.

I just wanted to say that while there is a LOT of banter on what Google’s mission is…they are one of the few big players that are in it to make the world a better place, not just fill their wallet. It was cool to see that they’d granted not just the money from Project 10 to the 100, but also about 100 million more to other initiatives.

Google (and Microsoft) taught me a long time ago that employers can choose to be a part of the solution, rather than being just another part of the system. I wish everyone shared the same business model.

/end kudos-ranty-type-post

-Tony

PS – I swear I’ll post more. Really. This is just a phase I swear πŸ˜‰




I have the greatest fans/friends!

So I got up this morning and found my FB notices going nuts…why? Sad Tony Is Sad. If you’ve heard this phrase…you know what comes with it…funny pics of me πŸ˜‰

Here’s why. Tony is a dork, but he has some AWESOME friends and fans.

One of my very awesome friends posted this on her FB page. It’s a funny t-shirt idea I came up with as sort of a gag. The promotion is, if I see you wearing it in public…or more importantly posting a pic of you wearing it online (and keep it up there)…I’ll totally buy you a beer.

I cant tell you how awesome this is πŸ˜‰ …I’ve been grinning all afternoon, and the best part, she remarked that she would have done this sooner if her daughter hadn’t commandeered the shirt for so long πŸ˜‰

Heather is made of awesome sauce.

So I guess we could title this “Free Beer for My Fans” but it isn’t exactly that now is it? It’s just that for those friends and fans wearing the shirt I wanted to give back to them a bit, yaknow? The picture links to my Zazzle store where you can buy the shirt, and potentially dupe me into thinking you need a free drink πŸ˜‰

Anyhow, you guys enjoy and have a GREAT weekend.

-Tony