The Nature of Rights in U.S. Political Discourse

The rights that we have as human beings, which we consider, in America, to be given by G-d, and unalienable, are a part of our core belief as Americans. This is it, that a RIGHT is not given by humans, nor by their institutions, and consequently SHOULD not be taken, and can, in fact, ONLY be taken by force or given voluntarily by the individual. This idea is what we pledge to hold fast to, and this is WHY WE FIGHT.

This concept is being greatly diminished and even rejected by far too many Americans. To many GOOD Americans. To many good Americans with to many good INTENTIONS. Intentions that lead to a path of tyranny and defeat. TYRANNY over the individual and DEFEAT of the DREAM that has been America.

If you choose to give up on this idea of a right and the value of the individual, that is your RIGHT. But realize this, it is you giving up part of the American DREAM. When you decide to give up your right to yourself as an individual, and capitulate to a “higher” moral collectivist belief, do not then believe that I have to give up my rights. They will have to be forcibly taken.

Do not MISDEFINE a right to mean that something or some service should be available to everyone, because it is so great or so good. Do not say to an INDIVIDUAL that they MUST willingly serve someone else, without realizing that you are forcibly removing someone’s ACTUAL RIGHT to refuse their service. And please, do not feel superior because you are using a human institution and calling it altruism.

If you CHOOSE to believe it is morally superior to subvert an individuals right for a perceived greater good, then do not HIDE behind words, by trying to REDEFINE what is a right. Do not try to placate those which are susceptible to emotional manipulation by saying that because an idea might be “GOOD” for many, that the idea is a right. Do not try to tell us that putting aside the individual, is GOOD.

If you want to know how wide our divide in political discourse really is, much of it can be summed up this way. American Conservatism wishes to conserve THIS founding principle of America, of unalienable rights. The LEFT wants to carve it out, ultimately denying the individual their rights. In other words, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs [rights] of the few.”

2nd Amendment

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

It’s sad that all these people marching today in #marchforourlives, don’t realize—or they don’t care—that they are marching against one of the main fundamentals upon which our great nation was founded—the recognized natural right to self defense and self determination. It’s not actually about guns. Guns are merely necessary tools to secure those fundamentals against evil individuals, groups, and overreaching/tyrannical governments.

Wireless(?) Charging or Not…

I hate it when marketing or technology gurus call inductive charging, “wireless” charging. It’s like calling a dock station, which has a wired Ethernet, wireless networking. Or for that matter, wireless charging (get it, no actual wires plug into the computer). I understand that a dock station is not inductive, but it still has the EXACT LIMITATIONS. I also understand that inductive charging is technically a “wireless” standard (no wires from the device touch the base station), but using that term is misleading to the public. What happens when we actually get truly wireless charging technology? Are we going to call it “Real Wireless Charging”?

CBS All Access FAIL

C’mon CBS!! All Access does offer a tremendous service. But seriously…take a hint from Netflix and now the new “commercial free” Hulu! We don’t want to pay for a service AND watch commercials through the middle of the show!! REALLY?!? WTF?? Glad you at least gave me a one-month free trial. Fortunately, I only had to go through about five minutes of one episode before four commercials ceased my interest in using your service. 

Samsung Galaxy S4 vs iPhone 5s

After only several days of using my new phone from work, a Samsung Galaxy S4,  I am gravely annoyed, and find it more difficult and distracting to use the android device. Of course, I have been an iPhone user since November 2007, so I don’t expect instantaneous acceptance. My two biggest complaints thus far are that I feel forced to use the device with both hands the majority of the time, because of it’s size. And I really hate the “back” button. Especially as a soft key. I always seem to press it accidentally, especially with one-handed use of the device. Maybe I’ll have more positive to say over the long haul,  but I simply don’t think so.

iMessage Responsibly

*UPDATE*
It seems as though there really is a bug even when properly disentangling iMessage from your devices.
http://bit.ly/iMsgGltch

Public Service Message.

iMessage is a great SERVICE. It saves you from needing more SMS services from the phone company and can assist in saving money if you text many iPhone users. It also let’s you seamlessly communicate on a variety of devices including iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers. All with your phone number and/or any email address with which you set it up! That is amazing!

But it also takes user responsibility. If you set up a SERVICE with your phone number, please realize that if you change phones that no longer can utilize the SERVICE, that new phone will not automatically disable the SERVICE from your phone number! This will result in “loss” of messages coming to your new phone with your old phone number. Those messages will only arrive to your other devices using iMessage (iPad, Mac computer).

Maybe Apple can somehow engineer disabling your phone number from a SERVICE with which you agreed to use that phone number. Maybe it can’t. Maybe it should! But in the current environment, please iMessage responsibly. When turning in your old iPhone for a non-Apple device (who would do that?!?), turn off all iMessage SERVICES from the device before getting rid of it! Please! And also remember to turn off that phone number from other devices that utilize that SERVICE.

Thank you.

My Online Identity Remains Obscure

I Googled my name and besides the hundreds of images that weren’t me, there is now a musician with a small YouTube following, JacobJohnsonTunes, and of course the now well-known Mr Jake Johnson, of New Girl fame. I’ve since created a Twitter.com list of People With My Name. Haha. I don’t know where I’m going with this post.

U.S. Constitution

There is a common misconception that is often hard for people to detect or understand, and how it fundamentally affects ones political worldview.

The constitution (specifically the Bill of Rights) doesn’t GIVE it’s citizens rights. It was setup to PROTECT our individual God-given rights as human beings against a tyrannical, hungry, and oft-overreaching federal government.

Project DIY – Grandma Betty’s Dresser

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My FIRST EVER DIY Project! I’m pretty stoked! I’ve finished my first day of working on this project—stripping the paint. I’ve never really followed through with a DIY project, and I think I’ll succeed with this one. I’m really looking forward to the end result! I’m posting the whole story after it’s complete, so stay tuned!

Murray’s





Murray’s – Waverly, OH, a set on Flickr.

I really enjoy coming to see Bree & Ethan when they’re at their Mama & Papa’s (my bro-in-law’s parents)! They live in the country, and have a real nice place. 🙂