Contact: thurmanhubbardATyahooDOTcom
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By Thurman, on November 28th, 20092009-11-28T05:42:53ZF jS, Y%
“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” ~ New Testament, Matthew, 22: 37-40.
Right there it is. In those four lines lie the keys to the entire Christian religion. Love God with everything you’ve got, and love your neighbor, your fellow man, as you love your family and yourself. It doesn’t get any clearer than that, even for a faithless heretic such as me, yet the most vocal opponents to government social programs like universal health care, assistance for the poor and disabled, and just about any other safety net funded by taxpayer dollars seem to conveniently forget this, the first rule of Christendom.
Their argument usually goes something like this: “America was founded as a Christian nation (it wasn’t) and the traditional role of the church has always been to provide the social safety net (which it obviously didn’t do a very good job of), and that nowhere in the biblical scriptures is there any reference to Christ asking the Roman or Jewish governments to step up to the plate and assist the poor and downtrodden.” Continue reading The Higher Ground
By Thurman, on November 27th, 20092009-11-27T14:42:36ZF jS, Y%
“How long the night to the watchman? How long the road to the weary traveller? How long the wandering of many lives to the fool who misses the way? If the traveller cannot find Master or friend to go with him, let him travel alone rather than with a fool for company.” ~ The Dhammapada
The other day an acquaintance called me a “pseudo-redneck.” I’m still trying to figure out what that was supposed to mean.
I live in a little house most well-to-do urbanites would consider a cottage or a shack, but it’s tight and well built, and no mortgage broker is getting rich off my labor. I drive a rusted out truck that’s older than both my children put together – they’re nine years apart and the youngest is eight. I guess it’s my fault Detroit is crumbling under its own weight because I’m smart enough to live within my means. I consider myself working class, but I suppose some might call me a blue-collar man. I haven’t worn shirts with any collar at all in years, so no-collar man might be a more accurate description. Continue reading Pseudo Redneck?
By Thurman, on November 22nd, 20092009-11-22T19:03:07ZF jS, Y%
For most of my adult life I didn’t dream, but a few years ago I made some drastic changes in my life and for whatever reason, I began to dream again. Most of the time, my dreams are fleeting, ephemeral things, gone within minutes after waking. But there’s one dream that I’ve had several times in the past few years, and sometimes I think I could spend the rest of my life contemplating it and still not fully understand.
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It’s Sunday morning in spring or early summer, and the sunlight has that ethereal quality one might see after a heavy overnight rain. The air is thick with wisps of rising vapor capturing the early morning light. I’m walking alone in Liberty, the small town a few miles from where I live. The streets are empty, though I’m aware of the townspeople stirring inside their homes.
Continue reading Visions, Dreams, & Deities
By Thurman, on November 21st, 20092009-11-21T22:39:53ZF jS, Y%
Hydroelectric power generation is nothing new to North Carolina. In 1897 the Board of Commissioners in the city of Winston granted a franchise to Henry E. Fries to transmit and distribute electricity to the growing manufacturing industries of the city. On April 20, 1898 the Fries Manufacturing & Power Company began operating the first commercial hydroelectric generating station in the state, sending 10,000 volts of energy just over 13 miles from its facility on the Yadkin River to a growing industrial center which would soon become the twin city of Winston-Salem.
Perhaps the best known sources of hydroelectricity in our state are the four dams, originally built by the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) to power the company’s smelting plant, now closed, in the town of Badin. Those dams, and their associated facilities are now the center of controversy surrounding Alcoa’s efforts to renew its license to operate them. Many residents, including our governor, believe that the interests of the people of North Carolina would be better served if ownership of the dams reverted to the state.
Continue reading Alcoa, Give Us Back Our River!
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Time To Put Tiger In The Tank
Is it just me, or does this whole Tiger Woods accident scenario stink like last weeks gym shorts?
Based on what I’ve heard and read, (click here for a sample), it sounds like old Tiger was running from his pissed off wife and forgot how to drive in the process, but she didn’t forget how.
Let me get this straight: Man leaves house at 2am, gets in his SUV, pulls out of his driveway and clips a tree in his neighbor’s yard before striking a fire hydrant, all at less that 35mph. His wife runs out, just happens to have a golf club in her hands, bashes in the rear window and drags poor, knocked out Tiger from the rear window of the SUV. Yeah, right. Continue reading Time To Put Tiger In The Tank