Virginia Senate Shows Some Sense

Once again, Virginia's Senate has overcome the simpletons in our House of Delegates. 1st, it was the bill to ban baggy pants. Now, after the House approved language to amend Article I, Section 16, which would have inserted a paragraph amid wording on religious liberty composed by founding fathers Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Mason and unchanged since 1786. Um, how arrogant do you have to be to think you know more than Jefferson, Madison and Mason? Del. Charles W. Carrico Sr. (R-Grayson), who authored the proposed amendment, said "Our country was built upon the Christian principles of the Bible". Um, maybe he should go back to school. Jefferson, if anything, was a Deist, not a Christian.

Although Jefferson believed in a Creator, his concept of it resembled that of the god of deism (the term "Nature's God" used by deists of the time). With his scientific bent, Jefferson sought to organize his thoughts on religion. He rejected the superstitions and mysticism of Christianity and even went so far as to edit the gospels, removing the miracles and mysticism of Jesus (see The Jefferson Bible) leaving only what he deemed the correct moral philosophy of Jesus. Here are a few quotes from TJ on the subject of religion:

But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787

And this, which refutes what Carrico says about Jefferson wanting this to be a Christian nation:

Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting "Jesus Christ," so that it would read "A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;" the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.
-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom

See, even while still alive, some folks wanted to change his wording and he said back off!!

On-line scams

I'm sure we've all gotten e-mail scams before. I just got one that's very, very sneaky. It was an e-mail claiming to be from Washington Mutual, saying

"Dear Washington Mutual Customer, Recently there have been a large number of identity theft attempts targeting our Customers.In order to safeguard your account, we require that you confirm your banking details.To confirm your Washington Mutual Account details please follow the link: https://login.wamu.com/logon/logon.asp?dd=secureNote: You have to report this message as "Not Junk Mail" if update link doesn't work.Thank you for using Washington Mutual."

Since I've never had an account with them, I thought it odd that I'd get the e-mail. Maybe it was from an old account I had with another bank that was taken over? Suspicious, I clinked on the link to see what it was. It was a very legit looking website asking me to log in and give my account information. Alarm bells went off in my head. I right clicked on the site to see the properties. The page in my browser looked just like Washington Mutual's (http://ups.wmu.mfrt.net/att/), but the real url was to a site in Braunau, Austria (here it is here - http://ups.wmu.mfrt.net). Sneaky, and evil!! I reported this to the real Washington Mutual site to let them know about it. I'll keep you posted to what happens.

Update - I clicked on the link in the e-mail to see what happens. It asks you to log-in, so I entered a random username and password. Guess what? It works. The next page asks for all kinds of personal information - Name, address, credit card number, expiration date, CVV code... Pretty scary. I wonder how many people have been scammed by this thing?

Can you hear it?

The crack of the bat? It's almost here - spring training starts on Tuesday, and for the 1st time since I was 2 years old, we have a team in DC!!! I haven't bought season tickets - not sure how the wife would feel about that, but I will be going to quite a few games. Blue/Orange line to Stadium-Armory baby!! I'm stoked!

Let me see if I'm getting this

So, the President cut revenue with his tax cuts, then submits a budget that slashes tons of programs because we don't have the money to pay for them, while asking for more money for the war in Iraq? Isn't that like me telling my employer that I'll take a pay cut, then have to pawn my stuff to pay the bills, yet still going out and getting a loan to buy a Rolls?

Social Security Reform

Guess what folks? It's not a nest egg, it's a loan! Under W's plan, if a worker sets aside $1,000 a year for 40 years, and earns 4 percent annually on investments, the account would grow to $99,800 in today's dollars, but the government would keep $78,700 -- or about 80 percent of the account. The remainder, $21,100, would be the worker's. Ain't that great?