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I am a retired attorney with a background in commercial and marital litigation. I also am retired from the Florida Department of Revenue. I consider myself to the Left of Center, but try to judge individual issues and policies without regard to the positions of political parties. I love rational debate, jousting with those who disagree with me – without being disagreeable.
Last December, I posted an article suggesting that the fight against same-sex unions, call them “marriage” or something else, was a fight that already had been fought. The majority of people simply do not care; they realize that what two consenting adults do in private does not truly impact the rest of us. The issue is only relevant in that a minority of people, some cynical political operatives energizing the GOP “base”, others sincere and devout people of several faiths who perceive homosexual relationships to be sin and, therefore, should be forbidden. There are also those who, again, sincerely, feel that allowing such relationships undermine the nature of marriage.
I will not bother with those who employ facile cutesy phrases as God wanted marriage to be between “Adam and Eve” and not “Adam and Steve
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Some time ago, I wrote an article on another site criticizing physicians for accepting gifts from pharmaceutical manufactures. I prefaced my writing with an explanatory note which needs to be repeated:
Speaking of ethical responsibility, full disclosure demands that I state that my daughter and son-in-law are physicians, each of whom demonstrates the finest aspects and practices of his and her profession. I, personally, have an internist/family doctor who is competent, eager to answer every question that I have, after reading WebMD, and a cardiologist who has seen me through by-pass surgery and six years of making sure I do not have to be "opened up" again. I freely acknowledge that, as a patient, I must try their respective patience.
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Both Senator and Mrs. McCain have stressed within the past several days that his campaign will not be a negative, name-calling affair. Not for them would be the Swift-Boat accusations or the Willie Horton shameless ads of previous GOP campaigns.
So who was it that said that Hamas supported Senator Obama? Who was it that proclaimed that terrorists wanted Senator Obama to be President? Who suggested that Senator Obama was like “The Manchurian Candidate
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I believe in God, attend services too rarely but with appropriate sincerity, and, like many, have difficulty in expressing a reason for my belief other than a practical version of that suggested by the 17th Century French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal. M. Pascal argued that there either is or isn’t a God, that he could choose to believe or to refuse to believe. If there were no God, then neither belief nor non-belief would have consequence. If, on the other hand, there is a God and he, Pascal, chose to deny His existence, there might be unfavorable consequences.
That may not be the rationale sought by others, but the bottom line is that belief is a matter of faith. I have the greatest respect for those with or without such faith, as long as the person follows what I hold to be the moral imperative: Do not intentionally hurt someone and if hurt is inflicted unintentionally, make it right
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In the motion picture, The American President, Andrew Shepherd, the President of the United States, speaks about the real meaning of liberty and freedom,
“America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've got to want it bad, because it's going to put up a fight. It's going to say 'You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man who's words make your blood boil, and who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.' You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, and celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.”
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The state of Florida is located in the south-eastern part of the United States, sticking out into the Gulf of Mexico displaying an arrogance that is hardly justified. Except for enclaves along the east coast, from Miami through Vero Beach, to the north, there is hardly one decent bagel to be found. Florida is also known for its cockroaches (known locally as “Palmetto Bugs” the size of a football), hurricanes and the most venal group of local and state public officials in the entire world.
We also seem to enjoy a substantial number of school teachers, mostly of the female persuasion, who are attracted to middle-school lads and act on that attraction
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For the past four months, I have been working many hours a week, preparing income tax returns for Jackson-Hewitt Tax Service. While I have been reading the postings of many Orble contributors, I have not been able to agree or challenge any of the ideas presented.
That is to be corrected from now on! Meanwhile, a number of random thoughts have been floating in my head. Some will be the nexus of more complete posts, but in no special order, this is I’ve been thinking in the middle of the night.
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Although I have been working my tax-season job and unable to devote the time to write, recent postings on these pages have adopted and repeated a slew of viscous and untrue e-mail messages and statements on Fox News. The failure by Senator Clinton to unequivocally condemn and repudiate the smears from Left and Right regarding Senator Obama may just cause a Republican victory in November. That would be a disaster.
In a recent article in The Nation, Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future and president of Progressive Majority, writes of the importance of the upcoming presidential election, “The increasing vitriol of the Democratic presidential WrestleMania shouldn't distract from the opportunity before progressives. The election this year has the potential to be not simply a change election but a sea-change election, one that marks the end of the conservative era that has dominated our politics for nearly three decades. It could be the progressive equivalent of the conservative triumph of 1980
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I have begun, again, working for Jackson Hewitt Tax Services for the current tax season. I am managing an office in a Tampa Wal-Mart and have no real time to scribble cogent thoughts of great importance!
I am, however, reading the posts of my "friends" and others -- even those poorly conceived utterings of WWW
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On August 19th of last year, I wrote
In about 14 months and a week or so, on November 4, 2008, I will go to the First United Methodist Church of Lutz, just west of the Public Library, enter the polling place designated for Precinct 591, and participate in the choosing of those men and women who assert they will perform with honesty, honor and courage.
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54 Posts dating from July 2007
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Jim Stillman
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