Category: Guns.Bullets

Reb Jeff has put up a great comment on US gun ownership.

2/17/2017

I always enjoy reading what Reb Jeff has to say. It makes my day to find something from him in my inbox.

To think 30,000 deaths a year are from gun ownership in the US is overwhelming. The comments Reb Jef made about God's Alter not being made of hewn stone make a lot of sense.

It it is also a skill to build with stone that are unhewn. It doesn't mean God's Alter looked like a pile of rubble either. Far from it a natural stone structure has a softer more pleasing, organic sense about it.

I think God's Altar also represents his people, all completely individual, yet can be built into an Altar before the Lord. With skilled hands we all 'fit in' to a grand design.

I think we need places to worship the Lord God. I tend to think of my home as a holy place. I do light a fragrant oil ceramic burner, and a candle at mealtimes. I have my Icons of Jesus, St George and the dragon, and Mary mother of mercy and tenderness on a special shelf in my lounge. With the oil burner.

I find when I am doing projects like my new sofa, there is something very holy about it. I re-inforce that sense by playing worship music, and lighting my burner for incense. I let myself drift, and feel very much in God's presence then. I suppose it's meditative creation.

We are fogbound today. The planes are not flying. I took some stunning photos of fog and sunset over our Corbiere Lighthouse last evening, I will try to put up a little slideshow of them later.

Another thing I find fascinating is that I remember reading that there was only one layer of cloth in the Tabernacle. It was woven so that there was a different pattern on each side of the cloth. I checked again online. Well it seems there are now two layers of the cloth, and they are embroidered with Cherubim, instead of woven with pomegranates. Just very weird, I will probably be mulling this over for days.

God does choose people like Bezalel to make holy representations of things.

I have made my choice on covering the sofa cushions though. It is definitely the dark reverse side of my fabric for the sofa, and the light side for the chairs. Both the same fabric and colours, but a lovely contrast, and modern look to the old pink striped one I bought.

Have a very creative and blessed day today.

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Money,Tax, Guns,Bullets,and Civil Servants...

8/4/2011

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I do apologise if anyone got a 404 to get into this Blog, but I moved some pages around, and it won't sort itself out until the site gets crawled again.

Actually I will start with the Money. I don't like repeating myself but as the saying goes 'Bad money drives out Good Money'. See my post about Cow hindquarters.

When money has no intrinsic value, that which has value is 'held on to'. That means money made with precious metals. I notice over the last 50 years the whole world has taken 'Good Money' out of circulation. It has been replaced with an electronic system that everyone has to use in order for any transactions to take place. It also means that Governments can levy far higher taxes. It means that countries like Switzerland can instantly 'devalue' their currency in order to remain competitive. However for the poor guy in the street with 'Good Money' as far as it is a bit of paper or a few coins, has just lost the buying power his 'Good Money' had.

That is the value of someone's (The Public) honest to goodness labour, hard work, prudence, and retirement that just went up in smoke.

I suspect the reason for driving out 'Good Money' is that it allows transactions to be done without always being taxed. There is a solution to this of course. The French are very pragmatic about these things.

For instance if I wanted to employ a self employed cleaner in France, I would go to the bank and get a 'Pre Social Security Tax Paid' Chequebook. When the cheque is submitted the tax that is due from my employing the cleaner is deducted from the cheque, and the remainder processed to the cleaner. I like this idea, it saves a lot of hassle. I would be happy to pay all my small tradespeople like this. This cuts down the need for huge effort in calculating and paying social security.

Had this been available during my business years it would have saved me huge amounts of time as a small business person calculating and paying tax to Social security, and personal tax to a different tax office.

It would also mean that the tax would obviously go down, because there would only be one office and one lot of civil servants dealing with the tax.

The same process can be used for wages paid by BACS, as we now have the technology to do so. This would free up businesses to get on with doing business instead of spending huge amounts of time and money calculating the tax and making deductions and handling the governments work for emplyees. Woe betide us if the tax people decided we had made a mistake over rounding up a penny! The work involved, and the human resources paid for at the Government end were ridiculous, not to mention our end... This is one of the reasons I gave up my business, I was so overwhelmed by administration, I couldn't do my job.

Frankly I think it is the responsibility of the individual to pay their own tax, we used to have a very good system here in Jesey where we paid our tax in one lump at the end of the year. I suspect one of the main reasons our cost of living has rocketed is because of all the extra administration pay as you go has created, let alone the burden to businesses to manage it.

I am having real problems getting this loaded this morning! I suppose I must be 'loading a gun' here! Yup, no point in having a gun without bullets! Why not just take all the ammunition off the shelves! Stop supplying ammunition into war zones, and they will run out of bullets, and trade in the guns for cash to be melted down into coinage!

Back to the administration and civil servants. It isn't politicians who run a country, it's the civil servants. You only have to watch a few episodes of 'Yes Minister' to see what I mean. Such good TV us Brits can make!

The Banking industry have scuppered everybody, lets see them put it right. In Jersey our Utilities are part private, and part government owned. I think Banks should be like this. For goodness sake the Tax payers had to bale them out, why don't we now 'own' part of the structure?

I had no problem with the old system of Banking Cashiers, it was a well respected job. Put all those civil servants that need making redundant into the Banks to do the tax admin at source, and just keep one lot of civil servants, who don't deserve any more money or pension perks than the rest of us into the banking structures to handle cheques and cash.

Besides, once cheques have gone past their 6 month date, the paper can be recycled into new chequebooks.

I deeply resent that as a small business (where my client prefers to pay cash for their hairdressing) that it cost me more to bank or withdraw cash and cheques than use a credit card machine. While I had enough cash, I paid in cash. With the obvious calculations for tax and social security deducted. Once it got to the point I didn't have enough cash, I went to cheques, which obviously put up my banking charges, who pays for that when the client throws a complete fit over a small price increase?

My staff used to love having their wages in cash, because they could budget their incomes and save more. All the youngsters said once it became cheques and went into the bank it just got spent on debit cards and they had very little way of controlling their 'see it want it' spending.

Then the Government had the great idea of taxing 'tips'. So no matter what a young person got as a 'thankyou, you have done a great job and given me good service, here's some pocket money for a treat', the Government wanted to get it's 'Dibs' into their hard won pocket money.

Remember these youngsters are already on low income training wages. Don't get me into the fiasco that the NVQ system has caused to society. It is absolutely useless, over administrated, and the standards required to pass practical exams so low, it's not worth the paper it's written on. And the students know it, and are completely dissilusioned by it.

I spent a fortune on training my last trainee, after 4 years, she said no-one in her year at college was still doing Hairdressing, so She gave up as well. She is now retraining for social care. (At the Taxpayers expense). It makes me sick. Not only that but it should not be possible to enter a training program and decide to stop when only a basic level of competence is reached. I was not considered fully competent untill I had done 5 years of training (on the job) My employer, who was a Master Craftsman Herself, would have never let me do client's hair without considering me proficient to do so...

Yes I used to teach my trainees how to budget with their wages too! Allong with the basic maths they didn't understand at school! No young person these days seems to be able to instantly convert metric to Imperial. Thats fractions to % to fractions and they certainly don't grasp basic geometry.

I suspect this is so that no one realises the true costs of inflation, or interest rates. I am appaled that I spoke to a lovely young man of 11 years old a couple of weeks ago, and asked him what his favorite subject at school was. He said Maths, I said good subject!... what are you learning now? 'Long division' he said...

I was doing Long Division by the time I was about 6 years old! And I knew my tables. Once you know up to 12 times table, you can work most things out with a bit of effort! No wonder kids aren't 'hard wired' with it any longer... parents just teach this to your kids yourself!

I digress.. perhaps!

Regarding Counterfit Baknotes... actually I haven't got a problem with any banknote provided it has a silver or gold strip through it, and it's far easier to put an electric current through the strip to read the resistance of the metal, and the value of it before it goes into the till using a simple bit of electric current. If it isn't right I can reject it. The customer can take it to the Bank and get a good one in exchange so that the police can track down whoever produced the dud one. Gear that up to a calculator and the shopkeeper can tell the customer what their money is actually worth at point of sale. I wouldn't mind a pocket one of those to check my money before I get it back either, I am sure it would work off a mobile phone battery...

Which reminds me, why aren't phones automatically made with photoelectric cells like calculators are? I resent having to buy a seperate gadget to charge my phone, or anything for that matter. Anyone who uses their phone a lot, just needs to leave it connected to an extra 'power monkey' gadget, If I wanted that kind of power on the go, I would stick the power unit on the sleeve of my Jacket or something with a bit of velcro.

I wonder if it might be a good idea to go back to teaching the old method of reading and writing too... at least it made sense, and taught the structures and phoenetic roots of words. It also helped people to learn 'joined up thinking', as well as 'joined up writing'!

I am just going to learn the Hebrew Alphabet, and to read theological Hebrew. I bought a few books, and when I get into the groove, I expect to be able to do this within a few months. How? Because my brain has been taught how to 'join the dots'....

I watched a lovely program last night on divine geometry. It was called 'The Code'.

Forever blowing Bubbles! What a great way to teach kids Geometry. By the way, that's how I learned it, with a bit of 'Matey' in the bath at my Grandmothers, I just never realised it until last night!

And Himself is a West Ham supporter and has been all His Life!

Right, I'm done with this now, and I need to do some housework today as I have guests at the weekend. Hope somebody actually does read this stuff someday!

Another thought that just struck me, is that all these out of work people, and especially single mothers need to be assessed for basic numeracy and literacy. As far as I am concerned they have already been failed by the education system. I would make it compulsary that these disaffected people must attend re-schooling in order to continue getting any social security benefits.

Also in this day and age, I think it might be a very good idea to have parents attending school to help teachers as classroom assistants. A very good way for parents to monitor what is actually being taught in schools and ensuring their kids do learn. A teacher should not have to be responsible for classroom discipline, and if a child's parent is there, and decides to give their kid a smack as a last resort... (That's out of the classroom in the Head teacher's office with another person present) I see no reason that this is not an acceptable 'last resort'. By the way that's with the hand only, because it hurts as much to smack your own child as it does to be smacked.

I smacked my very bad Patterdale Dog once, it was pointless with the Dog because She had no concept of what a smack meant. I just hurt my hand. However she got the idea when my French next door neighbour beat her out of her Henhouse with a broom! I only have to pick up the Broom to get instant compliance now! However she still thinks attacking the vacuum cleaner is a worthwhile game. At least she now responds to a very sharp No! And keeping her out of the room while I use the vacuum cleaner is much safer, I don't want her sucked down the vacuum cleaner...

Just Making A Comment Here on The Uk Government Debating
Re-introducing the Death Penalty

I see no reason to re-instate the death penalty in the UK. Just because the 'Government' has destabilised society to the extent that murder has now become an offence that attracts fewer years of imprisionment than Tax Evasion or Fraud, and allows violence in TV programs, Films and Video Games that de-sensitise people to the nature and effects of their actions they can't shut the door on de-stabilising society as though the Horse hasn't already bolted.

I do not agree with the death penalty in any form. That does not mean that I think someone who is a danger to society shouldn't be detained at her Magesty's Pleasure. However the Prison system that we have at the moment is just a people farm along the lines of the Shawshank Redemption. I would rather see prisoners gainfully employed, living in appropriate security for the nature of their psychological disturbances, being given real psychiatric treatment, and having to do gainful work to pay for their own incarceration.

If they then do not wish to co-operate with the re-habilitation and process of 'paying back' society through a real personal redemption and hard work, then find out what crimes they realy are good at, and make sure they help the police to catch all the rest of the criminal element out there. Criminals are only realy terrified of what their own will do to them if they betray each other.

There is such a double standard here though... That the Uk Government is prepared to discuss the death penalty, when good people went to great lengths to have it abolished, would want to turn back the clock to barbaric and innefectual means of cutting down the prison population is a disgusting traversty of our democracy. We decided against it, and thats that, they can't put it back on the adjenda now.

However, I am not against the idea of a public and immediate sentance of putting someone in the stocks! Throwing rotton eggs at someone can't hurt them any more than being hit with a paintball gun, and some people do that for fun... At least it would use up some rotten produce.
If celebrities are prepared to do some pretty awful 'Jungle Games' like being in a coffin with Rats, and spiders, and have to eat disgusting things to stay in the game, I can't see why that wouldn't make effective punishment...

I was medicated to within an inch of living (just for being a bit different, and certainly not a threat to society) on Seraquel. I was awake for approximately 2-4 hours a day over a period of about a year. I had enough time to get up wash eat and collapse again. If someone is genuinely deemed so unmanageable that they are a danger to the people looking after them in the prison system, I have no problem with someone's liberty being chemically managed. But I do wish to see the proper care and management of people in the 'Prison System' monitored and given a lot more consideration. Prison Guards should actually have to come from the psychiatric services, and be very well regulated and monitored.

But never the death penalty.

That is simply a sign that a society does not have a moral code to uphold, nor the means to teach it's young the moors and structural integrity that affect and support it. It is no better than killing a dog that has been trained to be agressive. If it's not possible to come up with a better system of dealing with criminals once convicted, perhaps we should ask ourselves how we will effect a remedy to the problem we have allowed to become so vast, that no-one knows how to deal with it any more rather than to allow our politicians to waste time discussing re-introducing the death penalty that I would hope no member of the public in the UK will ever agree to.

Back to the education system...

There is no point in trying to employ someone who is not numerate or sufficiently literate to be taught further skills. No legitimate employer would invest in someone once they have found this basic requirement lacking. And yes I do sit here with a dictionary/thesaurus to check my spelling, as there is no spellcheck on this website that speaks the Queen's English! Excuse the typing mistakes, and words that simply do not load correctly.

As far as the UK is concerned, I would re-invest in manufacturing our own products, clothing textiles and high quality goods designing and engineering. We were always the best at it! And we have a brilliant history of companies like Cadbury's, who created villages for their workers that were a huge success.

Also this makes 'village' life sustainable, with the home grown produce we all like so much. For instance I swapped one of my 1 litre Le Parfait (Kilner) Jars of pickled fruits and veg that i lovingly made, and said I want the Jar back with pickled onions in it this morning! I also picked my first home grown cucumber this morning, and it went straight into the pickle jar with cider vinegar, a hand full of home grown Tarragon and some Dill. It was ripe for picking, and I don't want to eat it right now. I don't want to pay £1.50 for a cucumber that has been half way round the world and back to where it was grown simply so someone could weigh it, put a price tag on it, and put it in a gas chamber so it has a longer shelf life.

I would re-invest in the canal systems for transport of goods, and create the jobs around the countryside, and de-centralise populations, and give everyone back a bit of garden space. We can all work from home in admin jobs on the internet, logging on and off as required.

Definitely a rainy day today! S'pose i 'ought' to find that duster...

3 Comments

Reb Jeff has put up a great comment on US gun ownership.

Money,Tax, Guns,Bullets,and Civil Servants...

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LAuthor
Random Susan

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Peace, Hope, Love, and most of all Forgivness to repair our Lives in Crisis.

Reb Jeff has put up a great comment on US gun ownership.

Money,Tax, Guns,Bullets,and Civil Servants...

Categories

LAuthorRandom Susan

Archives

Categories

Peace, Hope, Love, and most of all Forgivness to repair our Lives in Crisis.

LAuthor
Random Susan