Is It The End – Or New Beginning Saturday, Nov 14 2009

12^th of November 2009

IS IT THE END – OR A NEW BEGINNING

My post “Why So Many Oppose Health Care Reform” and the bantering shared between a reader and I rendered me deep in thought as I meditated.  I tend to forget that not everyone in this world understands the changes underway now.  In my responses with this reader, I alluded to these modifications, so what are they and what do they mean for you and for me?

Most people have heard of December 21^st, 2012.  For many, it is just another day.  Understandably, they feel we have heard enough propaganda in reference to it.  Just as many felt Y2K turned out to be no real threat.  I however know that the end of the millennia was more than just ushering in another New Years.  Regardless if there was human hype made about the failure of computers, the treats that we would be plunged into darkness with no electricity and even greater arguments that the world would come to an end.  We stepped into the Age of Aquarius, which has been predicted by every major ideology thousands of years before this time as a time where the world would END AS WE KNOW IT.  The question on the minds of many is…what will end or more pointedly, what types of changes are we destined to endure.

As with every major celestial, theosophical or ideological change, there will always be those who immediately claim Armageddon.  They may even pull out religious text quoting chapter and verse to exemplify what they deem as proof that the Apocalypse is here.  To disarm “The End of Days” means to truly understand what these predictions discern.

First we must grant that most divine books (The Bible, The Koran, The Torah, etc.) are written in parables on purpose.  The parable is to deliver duality in its meaning and in doing so we must accept that there are multiple meanings for each passage.  The duality is not to confuse, but rather to make clear for those minds worthy enough to actually understand.  To understand dictates that one must read with an open mind and with an open heart.  We are warned both inside the bible and outside of it from taking any theological text too literally.  Unfortunately, there are too many who use the literal interpretation of these passages to enshrine would be followers into believing God’s intention without really knowing what he truly proposed.  To know God means to know you (“The kingdom of God is within you” – Jesus Chris”).  To have faith in God means that we must first have faith in whom we are as beings.  We are told this directly and indirection many times from many sources: “as above, so below,” “Know ye not that ye are Gods” and “Ye are Gods.”

It is the divine will to know ourselves and by doing so, we also identify God, if in fact we are believers.  This is a pivotal foundation for us to accept regardless of our theology or even the negation of any; as beings made in his image, we must first learn ourselves before we go extolling his virtues to others.  I know far too many souls that even in their struggle referred to as life; they reached out for faith in an omnipotent being without getting to know themselves.  The problem in placing the cart before the horse is that we then must pull the cart and the horse by ourselves.  What I mean by this; to know God is to know the divine spark within us all, so if we learn only what we are led to know by others, we have yet to know the greatest part of spirituality.  We are conferred in many texts and in numerous passages in each of those texts, that WE ARE MADE IN HIS IMAGE; do you not recognize the light within us that is of him?  Can you not witness that which is within your heart that beats of him?  If you cannot; I challenge that you are not as connected in your faith or your praise of him and therefore your knowledge is shallow and without dept.

As I make such a claim, I do not judge.  We all walk this earth on different journeys.  Our path will differ from that of our neighbor, as it should.  Our lessons during this lifetime will differ and it is incumbent upon our soul to learn those lessons we agreed to heed prior to our birth.  There is no soul greater nor is there any soul that is diminished, we are just on different journeys learning that which we must, digest and teach that which we already know.  To see a soul that does not recognize the light of God within is a simple statement that accounts for where they are on their path.  No one other than they can know if they are where they’re supposed to be, learning what is presented for them to know or for them to teach.

We are a world of people lost from their own reflections.  Society has taught many lessons that were not necessary to learn as we walk our path.  To that end, the majority of us have lost that sense of knowing ourselves, and with it, we reach as a blind man does not knowing what direction is true.  The heart that beats within our chest is seen as a mere organ that pumps and pulls the elixir of life through our physical forms, but when we address the soul, that ball of energy that truly defines us beyond the limits of this lifetime, it is as if looking into a mirror with no reflection staring back upon us.

We are a lost and disconnected world where individualism has become the true religion that we all regale, and yet we still do not have faith within ourselves.  Our actions show this in many ways: we don’t care if we cut the person off next to us as we speed passed in our automobiles, because had we cared we would have set the cell phone down long enough to actually look, ensuring no one was there.  We rush based on the need to run our children from one class to another team event, but we are not present to watch and support our kids in their efforts.  We continue to live our life through the children that kindle an extension of who we are, as opposed to seeing them for the soul they truly were born to be.  Everything is about us in our own minds with little thought of our fellow man.  This was exemplified many times over by the reader who kept challenging my beliefs that as a society we must care for our neighbor as much as we care for us.  The only retort given was, “I will give of my money and time when I chose too and I will not be forced into paying for anything else.”  It did not matter that as a society we must learn to take care of those who are unable too; to love them and cherish who they are while we assist them in striving to become productive again.  Our debate was over Health Care for All, which one might think would have been automatic a long time ago, but yet the shallowness of this person refuted any means of caring unless they decided it behooved them to care.

The changes that are being made within this world are based on those discussions from yesterday.  The world has been beseeched with darkness as is the reason that most souls are lost, knowing only themselves in a superficial manner.  The changes that are referenced in every major theosophical, philosophical, celestial and prophesized means will have already been set long before the 21^st of December 2012.  Those changes can spark a worldwide revolution or the Armageddon that many fear.  Or the changes could be innocuous if the majority of the souls within this world believe that goodness and light will prevail.  What the extent of the change will be is based on you and upon me.  We are being forced to become part of the collective of this world; that means we are one of many.  In adapting to these changes, we will learn to be both of ourselves as well as for the betterment of all.  Our first instincts will change from being “ME FIRST” to “US.”  We will learn that it is natural to covet our neighbor as we only coveted us before.

These are vast and to some, very arduous transformations.  Many do not adapt to change easily, while others will not wish to think outside of THEM.  They like the isolation and loneliness of being closed, because darkness and shadows pervade where the light cannot shine.  However, these adaptations in our world are for all to share in as we move towards a unified populace.  The Rosicrucian Manifestos stated it best in the early 1600’s, “The whole world shall become as one book and al the contradictions of science and theology shall be reconciled.” While I am energized at our world changing from a place dominated more by darkness (today) and that we will be migrating towards a time where light shines upon all as we connect with every soul among us.  There are things that I have yet to understand in a collective consciousness that even concern me, however, I have faith in any direction that offers solace within the light as opposed to walking in the unknown darkness alone.

To bring these alterations full circle with where we are today; those transformations are underway currently.  If they had already been completed, there might not be a need for my blogs chastising those who are against Medical Coverage for all citizens within this country.  As a collective, we would need all of our population to be healthy, which is why we would take care of our neighbor as we would take care of ourselves.  There would be no segregation based on race, color, nationality, religious affiliations or no affiliations, sex, sexual orientation or any other means that people use today to disassociate with others that they do not see as they perceive themselves.  To cast aside hate, fear, oppression and any means that we use to segregate others away from us or in a means to make ourselves feel in some way better or above others; I am ready to sign up.  Society is not meant to live in fear, judgment or raising one above any others…no, we are meant to be equals and to live enshrouded with LOVE, HOPE and PEACE!

This post will take some time and understanding, but it is delivered from my heart to all who will read it.  May we face the challenges that are underway with ACCEPTANCE and TRANQUILITY!

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Why So Many Oppose Health Care Reform Wednesday, Nov 11 2009

10^th of November 2009

 

WHY SO MANY ARE AGAINST US HEALTH CARE REFORM

 

I have received a number of comments, complaints and outright harsh responses to the multiple posts I’ve made encouraging Health Care Reform within the United States.  It is amazing what rhetoric is being disseminated via political party lines.  The Republican Party vehemently opposes providing medical coverage to all US citizens and vicariously sits back while millions of us suffer without the ability to see a doctor for our ailments.

 

The Republican Party does not want a government run health care option.  So my question is who the hell do they think will provide medical coverage for those without benefits?  They seem to believe that the Insurance companies will suddenly develop a conscience as they provide insurance for those who go without?  I doubt even they believe that Insurance providers would suddenly offer to cover those who can’t afford normal coverage.  Not when those same insurance companies have policies in place that automatically deny a certain percentage of claims in an effort to retain more revenues.  I know what I’m talking about because I worked for several insurance companies in the medical and automotive areas.  They have teams of staffers who figure how much they can save by denying claims when they know only twenty-two percent of those claims will be appealed or challenged.  They know exactly how much money they save, so how could we ever think that the companies who hire people just to find new ways to screw over their paying customers would actually find it within their hearts to provide coverage for the unemployed, the homeless or the under-employed.

 

My roommate is a Republican and is diametrically opposed to the socialist medical coverage (as he calls it).  Even though he knows that I was very sick just a couple months ago with the H1N1 Flu and after almost a week of running a fever, I had to find a doctor that would see me given that I am not currently working.  I completed all of the proper paper work as an unemployed person and was told how my office visit would be $25 dollars.  I thought, wow, this may actually be okay.  I was to come back eight days later for some test and due to my limited funds, I called to find out how much the test would cost.  The tests were going to cost between $250 and 350 dollars and I would be responsible for 70% of that costs.  So my unemployment medical coverage cost me $25 dollars for the office visit, $286.18 dollars for prescriptions and then four weeks later I found out just how little my doctor’s visit was going to be when I received a bill for $280.00 dollars in the mail.  The bill was everything I didn’t pay when I paid the $25.00 dollar.  It didn’t matter that during that visit no test were run and nothing but a doctor consultation happened, but this is what a program that is supposed to be funded by the State of Georgia, the US Government and other donations by organizations like United Way are supposed to cost people with no funds like me.

 

I was only suffering from the H1N1 virus, but what about an elderly couple who is rushed to the hospital because one of them has a heart attack.  The bills wiped out their retirement savings.  Or a mother who has two children and she works two or three jobs just to provide a roof over their heads and food on the table, but cannot afford insurance or regular doctor visits.  However, the Republican Party doesn’t want the government to run health care for all.  I ask again, who do they think will provide medical coverage for those of us who cannot afford such needs!

 

So would someone in the Republican Party please tell me who they think should run a program that provides insurance and/or medical coverage to those who cannot afford it?  If the government cannot provide such coverage for those citizens, who will…and when will they begin?  I only ask, because while I work out at the gym five times a week and am healthy most of the time, I need to know where I can go the next time I get sick.  Not to mention I would like to spread the word to others that are in need.  My roommate was telling me how lots of people are against a government run medical program and he couldn’t answer when I asked why not.  But you see, neither he nor any other Republicans have the balls to tell me directly or tell that mother and her two children or that elderly couple who we can we turn to for help.

 

Not one of these Republicans who opposes Health Care Reform has the courage to face these people directly and tell them their lives are not worth the money this country would spend on medical coverage for them.  I’m not talking about Rush Limbaugh; he would tell anyone the worst news they could possibly hear just to see their face as he remains perched from his ivory tower.  I mean it…stand in front of that woman with her two children and tell her how the sixty or seventy hours she works in the two or three jobs just isn’t enough and you won’t help her by providing medical coverage for her or her family.

 

When I hear an honest and sincere response that can show exactly why this bill is not worthy, then I will change my support of it.  Until then, I will continue to see those who oppose basic human decency – like medical coverage for all, to be those who have never suffered without.  And while I will be happy for you that you have not had to go without, maybe…just maybe your perfect world won’t remain that way for ever.  Think about how some day you may be the elderly couple, or that woman with her children or worst, maybe even unemployed or homeless…and maybe if you have the need you might just see how basic human dignity should be provided to all souls, not just those with means!

 

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Health Care for All Tuesday, Nov 10 2009

10^th of November 2009

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL

POLITICS AND RELIGION SHOULD NEVER MIX

It should be very telling when the Insurance Companies in the United States have spent over $10 BILLION dollars lobbying against HEALTH CARE REFORM this year alone.  They are not the only ones with Physician lobbyists also spending more than $4 BILLION dollars lobbying against this nations quest to provide HEALTH CARE for everybody.  Their ardent opposition to providing medical coverage to all citizens of this nation is GREED, when both should care about providing the best care for every soul in this nation.

Fourteen BILLION dollars would provide a huge amount of medical care for those who are unemployed and cannot provide such.  It would also save lives for those who are homeless or even those families where both parents are working multiple jobs and still do not earn enough to provide proper medical coverage for their families.  Yet those who have sworn an oath to provide medical coverage to all fear the loss of their million dollar incomes, so they fight what has shamefully not already been provided in this nation – MEDICAL COVERAGE FOR ALL!  The Insurance Industry needs to be over-hauled in totality because it has not served us the people in many years.  When insurance industry executives do whatever it takes to make their million dollar salaries and billion dollar profit margins it is disgusting.  They do so at the expense of the lives of people who trusted they would be covered for whatever medical needs they have, and yet the Insurance industry plays games with denying their customers claims.

To complicate an already arduous battle, the Roman Catholic Church (as if they have not done enough damage this year alone) decides to enter this political battle.  It doesn’t matter that even Jesus Christ stated that religion is corrupt, politics is corrupt and the intermingling of the two is ABSOLUTE CORRUPTION.  Catholicism only regales those sections of the Bible that serve its needs.  The Catholic Church is after a very old fight, Abortion Rights and this is a tiresome fight with no winning side, but who cares; because the Catholic Church will do whatever they want in order to obtain what they want and how they want it.

I’ve written before about the fight over abortion.  I do understand both sides and they are both RIGHT.  A woman should always have the ability to choose and I do agree with saving every soul that comes into this world.  I just disagree with legislating choice.  I feel education; REAL SEX EDUCATION that works (not the Abstinence ONLY education that the Christian Right demands because they cannot have difficult discussions with their children) is the best means to combat abortion.  Education before someone gets pregnant and after the pregnancy and before the abortion.  If you want to truly impact the number of abortions, you cannot legislate change, you can however change them and that becomes change in a positive way, not a forced change or negative one like what the Roman Catholic Church is trying to do.  No religion should insert itself into this battle over medical coverage for all US citizens.

The Roman Catholic Church needs to withdrawal from this battle for the betterment of all people living within this country.  I know it doesn’t care about ensuring that all living souls have health care, but as with all other issues facing the Catholic Church, remove your ego from the equation and show the goodness within your organization by showing compassion for the millions of people living in this country who need medical coverage.

As for the politicians who have been bought and paid for by the Insurance and Medical communities; SHAME ON YOU!!! Do what is right for the people of this nation by dropping the political games and deliver medical coverage for all.  Find the means to be honorable as opposed to hiding the ill-gotten money paid by those who fear the revenues they may lose.

EVERY PERSON IN THIS NATION DESERVES MEDICAL COVERAGE

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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FEAR and HATE PREVAIL IN MAINE Wednesday, Nov 4 2009

4^th of November 2009

FEAR and HATE PREVAIL IN MAINE

Another shameful night in North America where Christianity planted fear and hatred in the souls of so many…driving a stake into the hearts of LOVE, but unlike what that stake will do to a vampire, it will not vaporize our fight for equality!

The hypocrisy that continues being displayed by religious organizations over their beliefs is astounding.  Religion chooses which verses from their good books they wish to cleave while deciding what they deem as evil.  Right now LOVE and the civil rights of all people to share in that love equally is what Christianity has chosen as the evil shaking the foundations of North America.  It is funny and equally not so funny in that Jesus Christ said in a number of his teachings that what you do to others you also do unto yourself.  By squashing the LOVE that two people share, any two consenting adults share, you are the only ones who disintegrate the love that two heterosexual couples also share.  Not to mention that Corinthians reminds us that the greatest of these is CHARITY.

Unfortunately, religion has not chosen charity as a means to share in LOVE, they have been led by leaders into fear and loathing for reasons that the people themselves are not paying attention too.  The church (all churches, synagogues and temples) make huge sums of money fighting the greatest attackers against the church.  Homosexuality was once as common place across the lands as was marriages that were performed not by religious leaders, but in civil ceremonies led by village, town and city leaders.  This fight for the sanctity of MARRIAGE is ludicrous when unions were performed for thousands of years before religious leaders oversaw them.  Once religion had a large enough world-wide congregations did the people start asking those hallowed men to bless the LOVE of the couple that was just married by a village elder.  The religious leaders that continue to stir congregations against their perceived foe – HOMOSEXUALITY will do anything to perpetuate a fight where none existed before.  Every Sunday sermon where those same fallible men extol the horrors faced by the hideous ranks of homosexuality and how we villainous FAGS can destroy all that God set in motion; their coffers grow exponentially.  It is a common known fact that fear drives more butts into the pews and greater funds out of the wallets of the ones with apprehensions.

In none of this do I find the Charity spoken about in the Bible.  Nor do I understand where such fear derives, given that in the Gay Community, our numbers match closely to those in the remainder of the world.  If ninety-five percent of the world is religiously focused, they must know that our community follows in like numbers.  If that is the case, the majority of us believe in God just as you do.  We are no different than any person within this world.  We are made of flesh and blood with a heart and a soul just like every human sharing this earth.  Using any religious book against another soul does not disseminate the values taught by Jesus Christ, so why are so many religious leaders using homosexuality as the great divide?

The fights in California and in Maine should be teaching the Religious Right that your numbers are diminishing.  The more you try to divide homosexuals from heterosexuals, the more you divide your own congregations.  It speaks far greater of the person (or organization) that preaches LOVE, HONOR and RESPECT as apposed to FEAR and HATRED.  The time is coming when the eyes of all will be open to truth and that legitimacy is that all people upon this planet deserve exactly the same as all other souls.  Attempts to oppress any other group of souls will reflect the darkness within your own hearts for all the world to see.  Regardless of how blessed you feel the world must perceive you, HATE is HATE and LOVE is LOVE; and the world is starting to see truth for what it is and not what you claim it to be!

LOVE IS ALWAYS RIGHT ~ HATE IS ALWAYS WRONG

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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AT&T – SCREWING OVER THE CUSTOMER Friday, Oct 30 2009

29^th October 2009

 

 

AT&T IS OUT FOR THEMSELVES – AGAIN

WHO CARES ABOUT THE CUSTOMER

 

 

I live in Lawrenceville, Georgia and it seems this city is a hot bed for the AT&T Corporation.  Fifteen to twenty years ago this city was a burgeoning one that was growing by leaps and bound and Bell South decided this was going to be one of their examples of the new age.  They laid fiber optic from every corner of this city and for the time, it was one of the greatest examples of technology advancements in North America.  The problem became known that as the rest of the world leaped frog Lawrenceville, neither Bell South nor AT&T has updated the equipment to match the expansive data needs of the average household with the residence of this very well established city dragging, just like the AT&T DSL speeds lug.

 

I have many problems with AT&T, but I will focus on this single issue.  I force my roommate to call for AT&T support, because the customer service is so lousy that I will end up yelling at the poor people on the other end of the phone.  I promised myself that I won’t get angry like that any longer, so I force him to call for lousy support and given his normally calm nature, I laugh when he gets frustrated and starts to get angry.  He always use to tell me that no one can be that bad to invoke someone to start yelling at them; however he has a better understanding of why and how their insipid responses may annoy a person.

 

Everyone in Lawrenceville, Georgia is experiencing slowness with their DSL service, especially in the evening and night times when the largest number of people are surfing the internet.  That makes since, but when we pay for a T-1 or 1.5mbps rate for our DSL service and AT&T delivers 138kbps starting around 6:00 PM every evening, there becomes a problem.  For more than six months we’ve been calling AT&T Support requesting our issues to be addressed, only to hear that the problem is on our side.  Well my twenty-three years of technology background knew that it wasn’t, but you still have to jump through their hoops before they will escalate the call to a level two support person or even a supervisor.

 

We’ve had countless people come out to the house and none of them would tell us what we heard today.  Finally we received an answer that makes since…AT&T has been receiving for the past year, hordes of complaints and loosing customers due to this very DSL issue, but they won’t resolve the problem until first or second quarter of 2010.  The way AT&T is correcting the issues felt by so many over this year, is to push all of these customers that are experiencing such horrible slowness in their DSL lines, by forcing them to migrate onto their new U-VERSE platform.  The problem is that if they won’t resolve problems that they’ve known about for years, why would any of us want to remain with them and pay more for a new platform?  On top of migrating everyone over to this new more costly platform, they expect us to pay for more services by them by offering bundled services like Cable Television, DSL and Phone services all through a single connection.  Are we supposed to believe that if we receive the same type of issues with U-Verse that we have with DSL that we then loose all of our modern functionality as apposed to right now just loosing a single function?  Not to mention, to bundle more services with the same company that has been screwing us for the past year and expecting to get away with it because they are so large?  Why would any company think that this type of service would result in customers that want to remain with them?

 

The reason AT&T continues to think that this type of behavior is okay, is because they’ve been doing this to customers for years.  They not only expect that they can continue to charge us for top rated speeds with our DSL Service and not provide what we’re paying for; or that they can screw thousands of households in an entire city and tell them they have to deal with subordinate services until next year because they keep doing it time and time again.  But I have instructions for every household in Lawrenceville, Georgia and around North America; if AT&T is pulling the same type of disrespect on you, go to http://www.fcc.gov and file a complaint against the Telecom Giant and stand before Goliath with your sling with confidence that you do have a chance against a MONSTER who cares little about you (a simple number).

 

The problem is when companies like AT&T get to be as large as they are, they loose sight of the reasons they are in business…and it’s not because of shareholders and profits margins…its about the people we call CUSTOMERS!  All of the large corporations in North America need us, the customers, but they have staffs filled with number crunchers who tell them they can loose X number of customers every day and every month because they will receive X number in exchange.  That may very well be true, but I would rather work at a company that isn’t the largest, but makes a decent profit every year and CARES ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS while they provide their services or products.  Greed isn’t about wanting to make money, it’s when a board of directors and shareholder expectations go beyond what is in the best interest of the ones you serve.

 

If you think you are experiencing issues with your DSL speed or want to find out what your internet speeds is, you may use any of the following links:

http://speakeasy.net

http://speedtest.net

http://helpme.att.net

http://www.digitallanding.com/high-speed-internet/

When you run any of these test sites, you will have two speeds listed: a download speed (this is everything that you do on the internet, surfing any site like facebook.com or myspace.com, downloading files, video, streaming music or playing internet games) and then there is an upload speed (this is the speed for when you up load any file or data to the internet, computer or network).  The download speed will be the faster of the two numbers, or should be.  We’ve had cases where we measured a download speed and it shows to be lower than the upload speed and that is just atrocious, but par for the course for the service with AT&T.  The upload speed will vary based on what you’re paying for, but in our case we pay for a direct fiber optic line from the CO (green box with all of the phone and DSL connections in your neighborhood) and we are guaranteed at least 1.5kbps or 1500kbps.  Your service may be less than that, so it is prudent that you call and ask your provider for what speed ratings you should be receiving.

 

The upload speed will only be in the 300kbps range and we normally see our average around 250kbps.  There are times when we measure spike upwards of the high 3XXkbps.  Again it would be prudent for you to question your service provider to ascertain what speed you should see on a regular basis.  It is common to see some fluxation in these speed test based on times of higher usage.  Think about it with common sense and when everybody in your neighborhood, town or city is home and surfing the Internet; then lines may be slower during those times as apposed to when everyone is away and few people are surfing the web.

 

Companies like AT&T will continue to abuse us, the customers until we stand up as a collective and tell them, “We won’t take it any longer.”  You do that by filing a grievance against AT&T with the FCC or by taking your business elsewhere.

 

 

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Passage of the Matthew Shepard Act Friday, Oct 23 2009

22^nd of October 2009

MATTHEW SHEPARD ACT

THE PASSAGE OF NEW HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION

Today is a truly monumental day for all Homosexuals within the United States.  The United States Senate ratified the Matthew Shepard Act (Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2007) and is sending it to President Obama for his consideration.

This has been a long battle and with the passage of this legislation, we are able to take one step closer to being free individuals graced with the exact same rights, privileges and protections as every other US citizen.  I am ecstatic to report that within the past two weeks, President Obama has said that he will sign this important legislation when it is passed by the Senate.  For those of you who see this as unnecessary, frivolous or wish to perceive this as a special law by a group seeking special inclusion; I would challenge that discernment.

I was a victim of a hate crime, and while I was not physically beaten, the scars are very close to the surface.  What happened to me placed me in a truly unique position in that I was asked to address the Committee on Small Business House of Representatives (104^th Congress Second Session on the 17^th of July 1996) for the ENDA Bill (Employment Non-Discrimination Act).  In doing so I met others who had been beaten, some were presumed to be gay and harassed due to those opinions and others like me who had been harassed and then fired simply because we were gay.

All of the witnesses that shared the podium with me in addressing both Congressional and Representative Leaders share a troubling commonality; other citizens of this country loathed us to the degree of taking action against us.  There is nothing more troubling than to know you are hated by others for something you have no control over.  If you think this law is asking for special rights, then read what Mr. Ernest Dillon, a US Postal Employee from Detroit, Michigan endured!

Mr. Dillon had no overt signs of being gay.  In fact, he stands approximately 6’ 2” with broad shoulders and a strong demeanor.  He carries himself like every other masculine man with no outwardly visible effeminate traits.  He was a notably good employee who received commendations and awards for exceptional service.  Unfortunately, four of his team members did not know, but assumed that Mr. Dillon was a gay man.  They taunted and harassed him for over a year.  Mr. Dillon reported their behavior to supervisors who did nothing to disarm the situation.  By not taking action against the men, they inevitably gave their consent for it to persist.  One evening after work, the four men cornered Mr. Dillon inside a fenced in area protecting the postal vehicles and they beat him.  As they beat him, they continuously yell racial slurs like faggot, queer, girl and many others taunts to ensure Mr. Dillon knew why he was being beaten.  They pounded him so severely that he almost died.

The four men were so smug with their audacious actions that they actually bragged to police and Federal Authorities about kicking the ass of a faggot.  The problem wasn’t that the authorities didn’t want to prosecute the four men; they were arrested and brought up on as many charges that could legally be hoisted upon them.  The problem is that there was no Federal Law that these men broke in thrashing one of their own on Federal property.  Had they taken action off of Postal property, the local police could have prosecuted them, however the brutality of their actions was done on Federal land and therefore it was a Federal matter, to be prosecuted by Federal Laws.  The quandary was, that there are no Federal Laws that protected Mr. Dillon, or the countless people like him or me from the actions of those who must HATE instead let live.

The Federal Judge sequestered himself for the better part of a day searching for anything that he could use against these four men who so shamelessly beat another life due to their own perceptions.  In his degust and on the record, the Judge stated that in an effort to find any law in which to imprison the four men before him, but to his surprise he was unable to find anything with which he could use against those men.  They walked out of the Federal Courthouse free of any charges and were able to even keep their jobs as postal workers.

Mr. Dillon received no justice for the crimes committed against him and neither did I.  My situation was no where close to that suffered by Mr. Dillon, and if you consider there to be solace in that The Thomson Corporation was forced to spend over one million dollars fighting my law suit against them for illegally firing me because I was gay; then you might be happy.  I can tell you that there is no amount of money that can remove the pain and harm caused by those individuals who harassed me for months trying to get me to leave that job.  When I would no leave, they eventually trumped up ridiculous charges and fired me.  I only found out after I lost the law suit that the law firm hired to fight me cost Thomson over seven hundred thousand dollars.  The second chair counsel person was vicious against me during depositions, because as a lesbian she thought I was frivolously suing a good company.  However, when she found proof that I was right and Thompson was covering up their sad ineptness, she became extremely sick and vigorously tried to get off my case.  She didn’t want to pursue the second chair against me, but was forced to continue as originally selected to do.  I later was told by a woman who would know the following facts, that she received weekly reports for a team of private investigators who followed me 24 x 7 for over five years to dig up any dirt on me that could be used to smear me during my law suit against them.

This law will make the acts from those four men who beat and nearly killed another man because they perceived him to be gay, against the law.  Their actions were brought about because he was a soft spoken man who didn’t act like a thug from the streets.  This law may not protect me against companies like the Thomson Corporation (Thomson Financial, Thomson Publishing, Information Access Company, Lord Thomson’s Publishing Empire and Thomson Media…) from their outright rape of an employee due to that person’s sexual orientation, but it is a great step forward in protecting the innocent against those who hate us simply because we are gay.

Stand with me in applauding the tireless efforts of Mr. and Mrs. Shepard, who have fought for this bill after the loss of their son, Matthew who was brutally beat and left for dead with the lights of Laramie, Wyoming off in the distance.  The two men who planned to rob the defenseless fag might have stopped their actions at theft if this law had been enacted before Matthew lost his life in such a heinous way.

Stand with me in applauding the work of all the men and women who have suffered at the hands of such insufferable people.  Stand with me in applauding the men and women who have been fighting for the passage of this bill since before the Stonewall Riots.

LOVE IS NEVER WRONG ~ HATE IS NEVER RIGHT

You humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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The Respect for Marriage Act Monday, Oct 19 2009

19^th of October 2009

THE RESPECT FOR MARRIAGE ACT

The Respect for Marriage Act is a great step forward, but it is not the answer that it is being tallied by Gay Right’s Activist.  This bill would only repeal the Federal DOMA and would give the ability for people living in states that voted for changes to their State Constitutions a right to file for unconstitutionality of any state DOMA that was enacted.

Please be aware this is the step that we need to get behind and support.  If Respect for Marriage is passed, it would be the wedge that could be used to turn every state that approved by a majority, the changes in that state’s constitution by defining Marriage as “the union between one man and one woman” as unlawful.  This is a great step in the right direction, but it will not be the instant gratification that gays and lesbians around the United States are hoping it will be.

Once The Respect for Marriage bill is passed, then residence within each state that defined marriage in some way excluding the rights of all gay citizens from wedding would then be able to challenge the constitutionality of those changes.  It will not be an the all important answer and there will remain a battle at which many gay men and women will continue to be denied our civil rights to unite with the soul of our choosing.

David Mixner has a very good blog: “Democrats: If You are NOT on This List Then Not One Penny!” that everyone should read.  This is a good organizational effort and not a bad start, but our managerial push must go beyond what Mr. Mixner is requesting.  We do need to garner the support of our friends, family and colleges by writing letters, sending emails and placing phone calls to all of our Representatives and Senators.  We need to make them aware that this bill and their voting on it will be scrutinized and used against them in all upcoming campaigns.  Regardless of party affiliations, we must spread the word, in an organized manner telling all politicians we mean business.  But the numbers are the only thing that will make a difference.

All independent polls show that the majority of US citizen supports the rights of all other citizens and individually do not wish to oppress any other people.  So talk with your neighbors, friends, colleges and branch out in normal conversations to those surrounding you including the continued oppression of the homosexual base as a group overtly being oppressed.  There is a direct stigma associated when another person who is made aware that they are in fact oppressing another soul from experiencing the very rights they think little of.

But our efforts can only begin there.  The power base for the Republican Party is the Religious Right, so we must engage religious leaders speaking directly with them.  Our goal with religious leaders is either to sway them into supporting our cause and not preaching against it, or at the very least to abstain from igniting their followers against us.  Our approach is that the Bible or their religious texts was written to unite their parishioners under the focus of LOVE and not HATE.  By abstaining, they will let their individual followers decide for themselves without in sighting their parishioners against any group of souls.  It is one thing to believe in the words within their religious text, and yet another to propel other souls to do harm against another living soul.  The Bible was never meant to be the bat of God wielded by non-judging souls; but rather a guide by which those who believe should live their individual lives…not used to judge others.

To remain exactly where Mr. Mixner says too, by telling any Democrat that you will not donate to them if they do not support this bill is a baseless treat that carries no weight.  It has been used for years without effect and the reason for that is when you call your Congressperson or Senator, they have databases that tell them your party affiliations and your donation history.  It will mean nothing to them if they see that you don’t regularly donate or that your donations are of small amounts.  They will call your bluff if you are not a political party broker, meaning that you get involved in elections, throw fund raisers or wield some base of power within their party.  So while I applaud Mr. Mixner for spreading the word, his call to arms will not move the people we need to be moving.

As for why Mrs Nancy Pelosi is not listed in Mr. Mixner’s list is because she was taught how to play hard ball politics.  Mrs. Pelosi has tied herself very tightly with the Democratic Party line and to our President.  The President and thereby Mrs. Pelosi are using all Gay Rights Bills as their bat to garner support for the bills that they decide matter to them. We watched President Bill Clinton use the gay community as his bat to in order to garner the support he needed for other bills.  He used us and we paid with Don’t Ask Don’t Tell instead of getting any of what we truly needed from him.  Now President Obama has found that there is no better scare tactic for the other bills that he deems more essential than the threat that he will pass the Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell or bills such as the Respect for Marriage Act.  You will not receive either President Obama direct support on this issue and neither will we receive Mrs. Pelosi’s.  We need to change how the homosexual vote is tallied, pushing our issues beyond the status of ball bat and up to the status of deliver or we use our organization efforts against you and your political friends.  Until we cause the loss of an elected position, will we never change our perceived threat!

As for Mr. Franks; what a loathsome hypocrite of a man he is.  I know Mr. Franks and was once a constituent of his.  He uses the Gay Agenda for his betterment and in doing so against our interest.  It should be far easier to nail his butt down on the issues, even as scummy as his tongue may be.  The best way to do that is to have something, like pictures of the closest place he frequents.  He used to love the steam room in the Metropolitan Gym in Boston.  During its hay day Mr. Franks would frequent it as the closest thing to a legal Bathhouse that he could find.  He is motivated by dirty sex and you can find him at any of the Washington seedy dive places where sex trade is on the menu.  It shouldn’t be that difficult to corner Mr. Franks in a way that forces him to bring about a sincere reflection of this bill…..and why he has neither supported it nor come out against it.  I would garner a guess that he too is being used as a Washington Power Broker by the White House in gaining support for other initiatives the White House needs to push through.

There is much work that needs to be done and thanks to people in the forefront like Mr. Mixner for spreading the word.  Every gay and lesbian American needs to get involved like we did in the 70’s and 80’s.  If we want to be including at the table of equality, we must stand up against those who wish to oppress us and be counted.  No closet doors and no hiding behind a veil.  We must galvanize our own group and branch out very systematically to all people surrounding us in order to expand their support.  We must be smart about what we do, but we must start by getting involved.  We need to get beyond a fight for our own rights so that we can help to defend the rights for those around the world who are being killed, hanged, castrated and hunted like dogs because those who wish to oppress others, chose the gay and lesbian group as the weaker one as an outlet for their crimes.  We have been at the end of their sword for far too long and the only way out is through organization and follow through.

GAY RIGHTS = CIVIL RIGHTS

LOVE CAN NEVER BE WRONG – HATE IS NEVER RIGHT

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Would you like to read this book? Monday, Oct 19 2009

Short Synopsis:

The protagonist in our story is your average every day man who grew up under extraordinary circumstances.  He was raised in an abusive household where verbal, physical and later sexual molestation was a daily means of living.  In the face of great oppression by the very souls who were supposed to love and support him, our protagonist made a life for himself away from those he called family.  Our story starts with an earth shattering realization by him during a drive home after a long day at work.  This realization shakes him to his core as it brings with it an awakening of his soul when the one thing he had always longed for, was surrounding him – Love.  He had found the one thing he searched his entire life for and had been enjoying the previous two years upon his realization of the love that was flowing through him.

Love was an illusion that just two years before he had given up on ever finding.  That is why, when he met a soul mate, the earth stood still, the stars did align and the heavens opened him up with an experience that proved to be immensely moving.  Our story tells how he falls in love and how beyond all recognition, it wasn’t just another love, but a true unconditional love shared by a soul mate.  The readers follow the story of our two lovers as they fight against odds to share as a couple and it tells of what they shared.  The story also dives into the boyhood of our protagonist, identifying the atrocious acts perpetrated by those loved ones and why they were the people they were.  The readers walk through horrifying moment after hideous moment seeing what living in hell is all about, only to recognize how special it was to find him loving so freely given the restraints of his childhood.  The readers feel the love that is shared as it grows as well as the mistakes made by both lovers.  And then when that love was withering away, our readers find themselves drawn to our protagonist as he attempts to put his life back together after such tragic loss.  This is a roller coaster ride and you will feel each turn, each free fall and every loop as it was lived.  You ride through the darkness, feeling only the cold, damp chill; but then you are able to feel the warmth, the love and the hope that light brings with it.  Jump on board and ride this wild ride as we must all do when we fall in love.

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November March on Washington Friday, Oct 2 2009

Words of wisdom don’t come from your head…they derive from your heart

LOVE, HONOR & RESPECT

http://www.tmdobson.com

2^nd of October 2009

NOVEMBER MARCH ON WASHINGTON

HOMOSEXUALS SHOWING THEIR SOLIDARITY FOR EQUAL RIGHTS

I think as a nation we need to solidify the constantly segregating gay population.  Homosexuals around this nation are as diverse as the population itself.  That poses real problems when we try to unify our voice on issues that face our community.  We find that some of our numbers are jaded in that they never seeing themselves falling in love with a single person, considering marriage or the benefits that are granted by it.  Some are on such polar opposites in that they can’t see their lives going on without uniting with that one special love.

We have gay republicans, gay democrats, gay independents and gay neutrals.  We have liberal party members and we have conservative party members.  We have some who never get off of their knees and we have those who would never dare to get on their knees.  We have lesbians that wear cut off flannel shirts and we have skinny model, perfect body, hair and makeup girly girls.  Our ranks rise to the extremely wealthy and down to the poverty stricken, back woods Georgia Mountains.  The only thing that we can agree on is that if we are out of the closet, we are gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered.

We have some of the very issues that started to separate the black freedom fighters before us as they fought for equality.  As any cause garners more support and attention; so does the obvious divides that the group must face.  In an effort to bring about a synergy to our fight for equal rights, we must unite all gay citizens; we must define and focus on those issues that are the most important to our community.

We must acknowledge with that being said, that some might not agree with the agendas being set by rally organizers, while other may silently champion our cause from just outside their closet doors.  We need to push our agenda forward in an organized manner that solidifies our numbers not just with the gay people of all ages, but with our heterosexual counterparts.  Because a March on Washington is that flexing of gay muscle to the rest of the nation and to the world, we must ensure that we present the best possible outcome with the largest numbers in support.  Therefore I stand against Mr. David Mixner and those who are spending countless hours rushing to organize a November March on Washington.

Yes, I said that correctly!  I think a Spring March would give those warriors who are giving so boldly of themselves the time and ability to truly put together a showing that not only stuns the nation, but forces the world to stand and take notice.  We need to be strong on those issues and weight them in the order that represent our collective needs based on political clout.  We need a victory for the side of homosexuality that propels our remaining issues forward without allowing those who oppose our efforts to organize around us.  In boxing terms, it is absolutely necessary to not just win the fight on points; we must knock out our opponent with a momentum that propels our other causes on to victory.

We need to stabilize corporate sponsors, however, we must garner sponsorship that says something to the rest of the world.  We should want companies that will support our events while they stand behind our fight for equality.  We need to give the masses the time to plan their schedules and to get out in numbers that has all of Washington busting at the seams.  Our presence should be in such enormity that we cannot be push aside as a half-hearted or pitiful attempt.  To do all of this, we must first decide on our agendas and what are the compromises we can live with.

There is such diversity in all of our issues that we must find the common ground before a march misses in gaining the support we will need.  If we cannot galvanize our ranks we will not gain the support of our political representatives that will be necessary to fight at our side.  We do not have a clear agenda that leaves few questioning what we are marching for, leaving the following questions:  What is our number one priority?  Some might say the Repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, while others might say the Freedom to Marry and yet others might just say Equality.  Which one stands the greater chance of winning and which one will carry the others through behind it?

In the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell there will need to be a sizable effort to educate and train not just the men and women among our ranks; but to also train those higher ranking officers.  Many times it is not the enlisted men and women who have the problem with their gay comrades, but rather those who manage them.  How much time will be a suitable amount to change the mentality: one year, five years, ten years, twenty years or never?  If we successfully repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, there will be a back lash and that indicates we must be prepared for it.  With any action there will always be an adverse reaction to it, so those men and women that are quietly known by their fellow personnel to be gay might be in danger as the narrow minded people wanting to show their disproval take their vengeance.  Are we prepared to loose some of our fellow citizens due to gay bashing by fellow armed forces personnel?  Is this the issue that we can WIN and should it be our number one rallying point?

GAY MARRIAGE, some are so defensively oppose to the concept of granting two men or two women the ability to wed.  We all know that my stance is and will always remain in favor of LOVE, because it is what this world needs to set as its foundation for everything.  However, my very words may ignite the loathing and darkness within the souls cleaving their religious ideologies that so stanchly appose the granting of these rights.  Can we galvanize all gay men and women on this one concept that we all deserve the same rights and privileges that all other Americans seem to be taking for granted?  I question if we can solidify our own ranks on this issue when large percentages of our own feel ambivalent at best.  Others want us to make concessions and feel we will never garner enough support to over-turn all domestic DOMA Bills and launch a large enough offensive to over come the bigotry of the Christian Right.  One such concession is that as a nation we pass a law that says only those unions officiated over by an ordained religious personnel will be considered marriage while all other unions that are presided over by Judges, Magistrates and anyone other than a religious leader to be considered a domestic partnership.  Both will have exactly the same rights.  They see this as a means to absolve any politician from negatively answering to either side of their constituency.  While this does not sound egregiously horrible; there is a part of me that stills says anything that is separate can never be truly equal.

Others want the homosexual people to accept Domestic Partnerships only in those states that wish to grant them or acknowledge them.  I vehemently appose such a stance.  Just because you throw the dog a bone, does not mean you’ve granted that dog the same rights and privileges that all deserve to share equally.  We should not be stupid enough to accept unjust laws that grant any state the ability to then vote in similar DOMA fashion by accepting any marriage, but not acknowledging those Domestic Partnerships.  Separate is not equal and civil rights can never be denied to any segregated portion of the population for ever.

Regardless of the final decision for what is or is not acceptable with GAY MARRIAGE, we need to unify our issues and step towards Washington with a solidified message.  This is our number one stance.  We therefore must collectively agree what will be our secondary issue(s) and our order of importance with the conclusions that we desire.  If we push to March on Washington without this level of organization, we will show those who oppose us just what they need to defeat us on each and every issue we raise.  That would be the worst possible results and one we cannot accept.  For this reason I feel it would be prudent to hold our March on Washington until next spring when we have more organization, a more collective voice and when we have identified those issues that speak to our masses with one voice.  I do not believe the three to four months is enough time to organize a true March on Washington in the manner that we need to present ourselves.

I humbly request that Mr. Mixner and those brave men and women who have been working so diligently pause for a moment to consider my words.  I feel prudence must be taken when showing Washington what the Gay and Lesbian Community can and will do.  We must have a unified voice showing our solidarity to our issues and impervious to the challenges that will surely come after a March on Washington has ended.

Your humbled servant – Todd M Dobson

http://www.tmdobson.com

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The United Nations Deserves Better Than Mr. Treki Thursday, Sep 24 2009

23^rd of September 2009

THE UNITED NATIONS DESERVES BETTER THAN

H.E. Dr. ALI ABDUSSALAM TREKI

Today at the opening of the 64^th session of the General Assembly at the United Nations, Mr. Treki responded to questions from reporters.  I agreed with the placement of Mr. Treki as the President of the United Nations based on past records on Human Rights issues and for his ability to find common ground with International Affairs.

There were many around the world who questioned his sincerity or his ability to focus and persuade the General Assembly.  I felt that sometimes a job as large as the President of the United Nations can be done by someone with passion as apposed to the perfect politician.  Due to Mr. Treki’s human rights background, I was hoping he would be the right man for the job.

The purpose of the United Nations is listed on their website (http://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter1.shtml), and I was reminded to read this Charter again after such a disappointment with the responses made in today’s interview.  If you see the first four purposes under Article 1:

1. To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;
2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace;
3. To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; and
4. To be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.

I was greatly saddened and angered based on the hateful, insensitive responses Mr. Treki made when asked about the passage of a resolution for universal decriminalization of homosexuality.  Mr. Treki replied to the questions with, “As a Muslim, I am not in favor of it…it is not accepted by the majority of countries.  My opinion is not in favor of this matter at all.  I think it’s not really acceptable by our religion, our traditions.”  He went on to explain “It is not acceptable in the majority of the world.  And there are some countries that allow that, thinking it is kind of democracy…I think it is not.”

The first purpose listed in the Charter for the United Nations was violated by its own President when he deliberately broke the peace that was voted in with the passage of this resolution.  The resolution was passed and the President of the organization should set his own personal ideology aside in favor of setting and maintaining peace among rivaling nations, but he disrupted the peace, which violates this first purpose.

The second purpose is to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self determination of peoples; however, Mr. Treki did not respect the more than one billion homosexuals in this world or those countries that have passed laws disabling those hate mongers such as Mr. Treki from violating our civil rights.

The third purpose in the Charter for the United Nations is to achieve the international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms.  Mr.Treki completely obliterated this purpose and pushed his own agenda of HATE and DISCRIMINATION because this segment of the world’s population does not meet with his approval.  This is not who the world needs running the organization that is supposed to be looking out for those being oppressed.  We don’t need to put HITLER in charge of the organization responsible for HUMAN RIGHTS for billions of souls.

I am one that intends to push for the resignation or removal of Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki from the position as President of the United Nations.  The world deserves someone who will fight for all of our souls and not a segregated portion that meets his needs.

LOVE IS NEVER WRONG ~ HATE IS NEVER RIGHT

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Daily Thoughts Monday, Sep 21 2009

20^th of September 2009

~ DAILY THOUGHTS ~

I love it when a normal day is underway and I’m surprised by learning unexpected lessons.  I spidered my way to a Facebook friends (Pierre Le Roux) blog to read what promised to be an interesting post (Warfare: The Delightful and Dreary Sides to Gay Life).  The article Mr. Le Roux delicately wrote, details the tribulations of world known athletic runner Mokgadi Caster Semenya, who finds herself in the midst of an embroiled controversy questioning her sex.

I stated that correctly, those who stand opposite Ms. Semenya are challenging whether she is a woman or a man.  Mr. Le Roux expresses very poignantly his opinion that in this case he believes Ms. Semenya is placed in the between category of Intersexed, formally known by many as Hermaphrodite.  To be an intersex person, one must either have some of both sexual genitalia or in even fewer cases neither (androgynous).  However, it is so much more complicated than having a hoohoo and/or a winkie, because there is much that makes either function.  This doesn’t even mention all that goes behind the physical parts into the psychological aspects of a person’s sex.

This is a more commonly known issue than people think, but it is one that very few wish to discuss, therefore as a society we don’t even think about it.  It is only thought about when parents find that they are faced with having a baby being born this way.  Those parents have no clue what to do other than what their immediate doctor recommends.  Most physicians try to separate themselves from their work; but human beings can no longer leave their personal ideologies at the door than you can the physical aspects of this issue.  However, it is far more than just the presence of extra parts.  Some doctors will try to force the new parents into making a decisions right then upon the birth of their child as to its sex.  They feel that corrective surgery must be performed immediately to make the child the chosen sex of the parents.  This is truly demonstrative, because you have a fifty-fifty chance at making the right decision.  But what does a parent do when they make the wrong decision?

Most psychiatric doctors would tell the family to treat the child only as the sex that was chosen for the child, but what of natural selection.  This brings the conversation square with one that I have been arguing with Christians over for years, I was born male, and yet I was also born gay.  Most Christians are taught by the organized religion that sexuality is a choice, but this might prove them wrong.  When a soul is born into this world with both genitalia, why then do parents, doctors (mental or physical) believe anyone but that soul can define what or who they truly are?

With that being said, times have changed many things and for now, half of the physical doctors coach parents to hold off on corrective surgery until such time as the child starts to show masculine or feminine tendencies.  The surgery should be done before they enter their hormonal years, so that means before teen years.  The truly horrible aspects are; most children are developing both masculine and feminine propensities during these formative years.  Some even continue nurturing them through puberty and some even beyond into their twenties.

All of this to point out my primary ideology from the very onset: why can’t we just accept someone like Ms. Semenya for who she is…as she is?  If she chooses to be defined as one sex over the other, then it might be the right time for surgical action.  If she accepts herself physically as she was born, who are any of us to tell her she’s wrong.  Our position should be to LOVE, HONOR & RESPECT the living soul that she is.  Nothing less than that will do.  She is no greater than we are, nor is she less than we are!  She is a living, breathing human who deserves everything that we expect for ourselves.

As for the next time parents are faced with such a decision at the birth of their child…LOVE that being you were graced with as they enter this world.  HONOR that they are a part of each of you and perfect exactly as they come to you.  Above all, RESPECT that this soul will endure enough from such cruel, hateful people that cannot see them as anything other than the unique and beautiful soul they are.

I wish Mokgadi Caster Semenya love as she traverses this treacherous world of ours.  I also hope that the governing body that has brought such attention to a graceful woman, that you see the soul before you as she is, treating her with LOVE, HONOR & RESPECT as you would have all others regard you.  Allow her to continue her athletic pursuits without fail.

COURAGE IS A SIGN OF A TRULY GREAT ATHLETE!!

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Response To: The Unjustifiable Resentment of Black Americans Wednesday, Sep 9 2009

9^th of September 2009

RESPONSE TO:
THE UNJUSTIFIABLE RESENTMENT OF BLACK AMERICANS

By: Michael Dean Shelton

I found your blog and was looking forward to some exceptional subject matter based on the post titles.  I so fervently disagreed with this post, that instead of letting it go, I wanted to give you a different perspective that you might not have reflected upon.

While I read the statistics and some of the comments that angered you, we cannot segregate those we wish to challenge into supporting us.  We as Gay Americans must follow the teachings from such iconic black freedom fighters in attracting our opposition to the table for discussions; not to insult, belittle and push them into a corner of defensiveness.  We will never gain a place at the table of equality if among our ranks we ridicule those we wish to garner support from.

Looking at the numbers of voters and delineating those numbers, it shows that we carried white voters with more than fifty percent voting against Proposition 8.  We must identify in the campaign strategy how we reached out to the White California voter ascertaining why our efforts were successful.  Upon identifying that information, did we reach out to the Black California voter in the same manner?  If we did, that will classify why our campaign efforts were unsuccessful and more market research must be done to ensure that our message can be delivered to our black brothers and sisters effectively.

One of the things you neglected to look at in your article was to identify that in the Western United States, the black populace only accounts for 9.1 % of the total population.  Across the United States it is approximately 12.5% of the makeup of this country.  It is therefore easy to understand why Black Americans may still identify themselves as a minority.  Other statistics indicate that 94% of the world’s population is an active participant in religious ideologies.  In the black community that number is higher to approximately 97%.  While many of the black parishioners of the same faiths that our white practitioners are, more than 50% of them attend a house of worship that cater to predominately black patrons.  That intensifies the fact that our struggle for freedom from oppression has more to do against religions than it has to do with individual citizens.

That tells me that in our fight against Proposition 8, we did not do a reasonable job reaching out to black churches, synagogues, temples and ashrams.  Therefore between now and the next election, it would behoove us to engage (not denigrate) our fellow black citizens in their houses of worship and not on the streets.  We will not reach the black masses in the same manner we touched white voters.  We must engage with black religious leaders and politicians that will sway the Black California voters in places where they congregate and not expect them to come to us.  We must bring our message of equality to them where they congregate and worship, which means we must win over black religious and political leaders.  That is how we spread our message.  That is how we show the similarities within their struggle for freedom as within ours.  That is where we educate the average black person on religious dogma such as the belief that a gay person chooses to be that way and we show them that just like they are, we had no choice with being gay.  It is more difficult for the average black person to identify with Gay America when more of our ranks live above poverty and the greater percentage of their numbers remains below poverty.  As I’ve been saying for years, we must remove our differences and identify our similarities as we offer a helping hand to keep their continued struggle in the forefront so that as we receive their blessings we might also help them.  We will never win the battle of equality while we struggle amongst ourselves…we must strive to be better, accepting and yes, walk in the path paved by so many slain black leaders who taught America to step aside from hatred and fear.

I feel your anger got the better of you within the text of your post.  While I can identify with that anger, because I too feel our black brothers and sisters should be easier to persuade than their white, religious counter parts; however, I implore you to set aside your anger and remember that a few comments (ok many comments) does not speak for the entire Black California population.  We must not stereotype the masses by the voice of the few…isn’t that what we are trying to get them to agree too also?

If you wish to have a greater understanding of how difficult reaching out to the black community will be; talk with black men who have sex on the “Down Low.”  An entire population cannot stand proud or tall against its own, which forces them deeper into a closet.  They feel rejection by the black community with a harshness that speaks of betrayal.  It is deeply disturbing how as apposed to love and support, they feel even greater discrimination, which pushes them in larger numbers to live dual lives.  Any time humanity is forced to live with duality, there will be greater suffering.  Those who are black and gay, but closeted have a greater propensity to discriminate against all homosexuality.  We see that exemplified by all of the religious leaders who are caught in sexual acts outside of their marriages.  Some are found with gay sexual exploitations while others are found with parishioners or even prostitutes; yet most were the ones shouting the loudest against homosexuality, adultery or prostitution.  Our struggle for freedom must also include liberating the black gay men and women who feel they are not accepted by their own.

Please consider my words and look at how you may voice your opinion with the might of your words, not in opposition to the black community, but rather including the black community.

LOVE CAN NEVER BE WRONG

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Daily Thoughts Tuesday, Sep 8 2009

7^th of September 2009

~ DAILY THOUGHTS ~

Today was such an amazing day with temperatures in the low eighties (Fahrenheit about twenty-two degrees Celsius), just a touch of a breeze with sunny, blue skies.  I took off and spent a couple hours riding my mountain bike and enjoying the splendor that Mother Nature provides.

After a weekend of volunteer work, answering questions from one person after the next.  My job is to help them find solutions to all sorts of issues: marital, financial, employment, relationships, physical problems and/or emotional ones.  Cavorting with nature is such a great way to release all of the energy from those who need assistance.  Spending a couple of hours surrounded by the beauty and serenity that nature provides always centers me.  It is as if I spent a full day meditating in an ashram, but completely recharged in a fraction of the time.  I enjoy helping people and I love what I do for those who sit before me.  It is rewarding in so many ways with some people walking away relieved while others may take some time before they realize the gift they’ve received.

There are so many changes in our planet that are already occurring and many have no clue that they are a foot.  It behooves each of us to find time to enjoy the outdoors with any tasks that you can.  Get in touch with the person you are by reaching out side your doors and windows and allowing nature to lead the way.

We have the ability to make the coming changes great ones while we set fear aside.  Most people are seeing and hearing about December 21^st, 2012.  What most won’t tell you is that the changes we are experiencing will be completed before that date.  The secret that most won’t tell you….each of us can make these changes great ones or horrific ones.

What I mean, is that our intent makes the difference for the entire world.  If we fear the coming of 2012, thinking that it will bring the infamous Armageddon, then that is what we will experience.  If we, as the world, believe and think that 2012 brings the world Peace, Love and Hope; then that is what we will receive.  It is up to our collective conscience to determine if we will bring about heaven on earth or deliver us into hell (that is a metaphor that is extremely descriptive of what we can do).

I cannot think of a world where I can’t spend time on my bike, kayak, swimming or hiking my way through the wonders we have on this planet.  Join me in knowing every day between now and December 21^st, 2012 that I breathe in the air of this world that is filled with Love, Honor & Respect, because that is what I send to every soul breathing with me!

LOVE WHO YOU ARE & LOVE EVERYONE

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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The President to Address Our Children Saturday, Sep 5 2009

04^th of September 2009

THE PRESIDENT TO ADDRESS OUR CHILDREN

This country has witnessed a media storm apposing the planned speech by President Obama to our educational system and the children of the United States.  I liken the response we’ve witnessed to that of a child flaunting a temper tantrum because Mom or Dad won’t let them harvest a basket full of sweets at the checkout counter of the local store.

I find the hypocrisy from those conservative families to be laughable.  Educating our children should be one of this nation’s highest priorities.  Education has been an agenda item for the past fifty years, but not one president has given it more than lip service.  We have a man residing in the White House who is actually trying to deliver on his campaign promises.  It should not matter, if you voted for him, if you are a Democrat or a Republican; this nation should be anxious to hear the message he has for our children.

I am disgusted by the politics as usual that is being played out by citizens instead of politicians.  Partisan politics is raging throughout conservative states like Texas and Florida.  It doesn’t matter what this president does or does not do, these people are angry because their president was not elected.  There is no true measure to the man who holds office or what he does for this nation, because they can’t get beyond the loss of the presidency.  They exemplify poor losers and fight this presidency at every decision.

What I noticed very predominately is the ubiquity of the message each person that has been interviewed extolled.  The same messages declaring their rage over President Obama addressing our children.  “He is trying to convert our children to Socialism!”  Some explained how they wouldn’t let anyone speak with their child without them present, but that is the most ridiculous statement I’ve heard, because they can’t tell you who their child chats with online, on their phones, at school or away from school.  Children are raising themselves and most Conservative Families are no different.  I live in the Bible Belt South that is ultra conservative tempered with religious ideologies; yet the children of the South are no better off then their more liberal counterparts from the Northeast or West Coast.

Not one of the parents or religious leaders protesting against President Obama addressing our children said what is the most obvious to me.  Instead of showing their children how adults throw temper tantrums; stand first and voice your opinion against the speech without a preview in advance.  Offer to sit with your children and listen to the president’s address simultaneously teaching them how to properly listen with an open mind to opinions you may not agree with.  It is good to voice an opinion that differs from that of the President of the United States.  Teach your child how that is a cherished right that not all citizens in other countries share.  Explain that in some nations, if a citizen stands against the ruling individual or party how they may lose their freedom and even their life.  Sit in the same classroom with your children and after the speech, discuss it as you listen to them and other parents.

The parents that are angry were obviously well trained with what to say and how to say it.  That is more infuriating than anything, because this good step by a president was used as a blatant stab at the Healthcare Reform Bill.  I have more disgust for those who appose granting medical benefits to all citizens than I do for any who might not agree with me.  Those who appose insuring all American citizens don’t care about any one other than themselves.  This is simply an issue of decency and not one of socialism.  If it means that we take a single step away from democracy, then maybe we as a nation need to make in order to better care for our own.  I don’t see it as cut and dry democracy verses socialism debate, but if that is how you need to view finding a way to provide medical coverage for all citizens, then do so.  As long as you do what is right for all citizens of this great nation.  There is more than enough to take care of us all and the only people who don’t think so are the Doctors and Insurance Companies who place a higher value on revenues as apposed to human life.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Changes in the World will Change Us Sunday, Aug 23 2009

23 of August 2009

CHANGES IN THE WORLD WILL CHANGE US

I sat down today to write Part II of: HOW DOES A FAMILY HATE IT’S OWN, but my fingers paused on the keyboard and for close to an hour, I read between the lines and interpret the facts of the events over the past year.  I kept trying to figure out why after a year do the people who I’ve done everything to separate myself from, keep trying to suck you back in to their lives.  I’ve worked so hard at surrounding myself with Love and such positive energy that the emptiness and negativity emanating from the ones I called family is so opposite of what I’ve tried to perpetuate for myself.

In my meditative state, I realized that this is their way of saying I LOVE YOU.  They truly don’t know any other way to communicate the raw emotion within them, so they request my participation in their drama filled lives.  It took me far less time to find the facts that were counter to those assumptions that I was led too.  Someone other than my Aunt Anna created that Facebook account on her behalf.  While they told her about the account and I’m sure gave her the login ID and password, she has no knowledge of how to get to it and has never logged onto it.  So the emails I sent and the friendship request that were denied were being done by someone other than my Aunt Anna (I can only imagine it was my mother, Waunita Jacobs).  I finally received an email message back from my Aunt, I guess the person in my immediate family who created the account for my Aunt Anna did not count on me emailing Aunt Anna the same message I emailed to her Facebook account.  As for the phone calls that went unanswered; my Uncle is not doing as well as he has been.  He is having difficulties with his memory and is falling down a good bit.  He requires constant attention and supervision, but a woman in her mid eighties who could use help herself, is having to be his primary care giver.  They both need the LOVE and SUPPORT of family and friends.  Between the increased doctor appointments and other people that have been coming and going, she could only imagine that the messages were erased by mistake, but she was never great at the answer machine either.

The missed emails, phone calls, voice mail messages and friend request all culminated in the desperate calls for the receipt of love from my original family, but with all the lies, mistrust and hate; I completely understand how miscommunication has happen.  Instead of saying to me, we miss you and love you; they only know how to deliver that message by causing drama, heart ache, pain and separation.  It is sad, but I looked beyond the message as it was delivered to the people and why they cannot go without the drama.  They have never been honest with anyone much less themselves.  They only know manipulation, lies and distrust as a means to communicate, so how can I expect them to say what is truly on their mind or in their hearts.  It is wrong of me to think they could or would communicate in any other way but how they know.

The realization finally sunk in for me.  The world is changing (which I’ve been espousing for some time now), but so many souls in this world were born to similar manners like my parents, siblings and family.  They have never learned any other way of life or to communicate, so like me having to learn that I can’t just look at the message for what it is, I must learn to see behind the message to truly understand what they really mean to say.  This sounds like a lot of work, and for a while it will be; however, the energy that is changing in the world, making it a better place for all, may seem like the Devil’s work for some.  So what I am experiencing with my family is exactly what the entire world may experience from all others.  Those who dwell in darkness and negativity may see these changes for what they are and fear will cause them to fight against them.  It means the ending to the life they know and cherish, so would you expect them to just give up the control they have over so many souls without a fight?  Even those people, who are not totally engulfed in negativity, but bounce between the darkness and light, may have a difficulty garnering these changes for the possessiveness and love they truly are.  It is difficult when their lives are still filled with drama, lies, half truths and misrepresentations; do you think they could trust that what they see and feel as good?  No, they won’t and they can’t.  Those who fill their lives with light and love, even when they know what is happening, may or may not have issue with the changing world around them.  It is incumbent upon you and me to be the ones who help all others see the changes for what they truly are and help everyone through them.

That is what I had to learn from this situation and it is what we all need to learn.  Everyone, not just my family, is feeling the effects of the changes that are happening with this world.  These are wonderful and blessed changes that will bring about a greater consciousness of love for all.  We must help to guide those around us who feel the changes, but don’t trust in them or trust themselves in the midst of these changes.  They need our love and our support so that they may trust the love of others as well as us.

As for my family and the acts of the last twelve months; they will either learn and grow or parish with the inabilities to change with the world.  I hope they find it within their hearts to grow with love instead of parish in the negativity and hate that it takes to treat their child or their sibling with such negative acts designed to harm.  As for my actions, I choose to forgive them and to continue sending them love and forgiveness as I’ve done every day for the past several years.

PEACE AND LOVE WILL ALWAYS WIN

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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How Does A Famaily HATE It’s Own Friday, Aug 21 2009

21^st of August 2009

HOW DOES A FAMILY HATE IT’S OWN

I have written many times about my childhood and those souls that are defined by the technical name called “FAMILY.” I haven’t scribed about them since the post, “If You Think Your Family is BAD – Let’s Compare” published in September of 2008.  Being dragged down into their drama induced lives truly goes against what I believe is right for all people.  If you’ve read any of my posts these many years, you will see a common theme that encourages you to believe in yourself and tips on how to make yourself a better person.

It has been almost one year since I posted that article with rare thoughts about it or the people disturbingly portrayed within it.  However, I seem to be a common thought for them.  After that post, they told some horrible lies to people that I cared greatly about and I thought who cared for me.  My only living grandmother (Della M Dobson) was berated on numerous occasions about how I continue to write about them and how I frequently use their names.  To the point where she finally said she never wanted to see me again unless I stopped blogging and removed all of my posts.  Della has never once read any of my blogs, but when a woman in her nineties is repeatedly told by multiple people (Kimmy Covington, Melanie Covington-Arceneaux, Michael Covington and Tonya Dobson) what a horrid person her grandson is, it only takes a matter of time for the weight to be too heavy for this woman to bear.  While their incessant campaign of lies, half-truths, drama and misrepresentation of the facts would cause anyone to question; it was probably more her daughter (Dr. Jeanne D. Melson (Wyatt) and her Preacher husband Lawrence “Skip” Melson) that finalized my inability to visit my own elderly and dying grandmother any longer.

To add to this wave of indiscretions, my mother (Waunita Jacobs) had the audacity to call my roommates mother in attempts to illicit information about me.  My roommate’s mother was wise to the situation and understanding the kind of woman my mother is, said very little.  My roommates mother received multiple phone calls all attempting to drive a wedge of distrust between me and my roommate in what I can only image was to have me removed from my home.  My mother’s last effort was to tell my roommate’s mother, “I just hope that Todd is not taking advantage of your son!”  What love and compassion a mother must have of her son to attempt to get him kicked out of his home…or rather, should I ask how much love does for yourself does it take that a woman tries to get her own son tossed out of his home (not her home).

It is ashamed to be as vindictive and uncaring as to deny any person the comforts of someone, but to drive an elderly woman to the place where she feels she must not see her own grandson.  How much hate must you have flowing through you to perpetuate a crusade over twelve months long that is designed to isolate a single person from all whom they love?  How much do you think each person involved in such a fight must loath themselves and truly dislike who they are as a person?

I was not invited to the funeral of my Uncle (Terry Lee Dobson) who died on the 31^st of December 2008.  It hurt that I was purposely not told of his passing nor was I invited to his funeral.  It concerned me with Della’s progressively declining health that someone made her feel so strongly about my visits that a lonely woman, who is scared of dying would send away someone who visits her regularly.  I looked at the situation and knew this was the work of those souls I grew up knowing.  This was exactly the type of pain they would cause someone else; just to inflict suffering on me.  They do not care who else must endure, as long as the target (that would be me) is punished too.

I have been on MySpace for seven, eight or nine years and I’ve been on Facebook almost three years.  I found that an Aunt with whom I’ve been very close with over the years had a Facebook account.  I was shocked and amused when I found her account, so I immediately sent a friend request followed up with a phone call.  This is my mother’s mother’s sister or my great aunt, but we’ve always been close.  Anna Leake and I spoke about every couple of months and our last phone call was several months ago, so it was time for me to find out how she and Uncle Herb were doing (seeing how they are both in the eighties).  My call was not picked up, which was odd, but not so that I realized there was a problem.  When I recognized that the Facebook friend request had been denied, I laughed thinking Ann clicked on the wrong button.  I sent another friend request and followed it up with another phone call attempt.  This call went unanswered so I left a funny, laughing message even referencing the Facebook friend request on it machine.  The second request was also denied and neither call was responded too.  That was highly unusual because Ann normally picked up the phone each time I called, but never went without returning my calls.

It is funny the second time I sent a friendship request to Ann, I looked at her friends and there were all of the people who have been propagating such contempt towards me.  I laughed because they never made the leap to MySpace and they would laugh and joke about those who used such sites, but here the entire family resided with their pictures looking back at me.  I smiled because now it made since why a woman I had just spoken too several months earlier and who compassionately told me how Waunita, Kimmy and Tonya were so lost that they could only see and negative things towards others.  She professed that they could not recognize true love, compassion or anything else when it sits before them nor could they let it within their hearts.  This statement was brought about by Ann without my prompting the subject and I did what I’ve been doing for the past several years, avoided them as a subject.  Now I knew why Ann was not responding to me and denied my friendship requests.  While I may not know what lies were told to her or in what intervals, I can attribute the demise of another familiar relationship to the hands of the ones that are suppose to love me the most – FAMILY.

I can attest that I have been learning much from my reading and much of my own teachings (in my blogs and in person with the classes I teach and the people who seek my wisdom).  I learned that while their actions are designed to provoke anger, I let that emotion pass through me and move quickly to an understanding and then pity for the ones who know no better.  I know that their actions speak more about the coldness that is within their own hearts, and yet, I am just the object they project that rage towards.  I know that every lie and every person they focus their efforts in secluding me far from them is an act of aggression in taking something away from me; it only proves that the love of the one they turned away from me must not have been as great as I originally thought it to be.  Therefore, I have lost little when they have taken nothing that I never had in the first place.  The bottom line is with every attack and every attempt to weaken me; they prove my beliefs that much more.  My faith in LOVE, HONOR and RESPECT stands firmer with their provocations and I know without a doubt that I won’t be the one who suffers in isolation at the end.  With every step they make, my heart is filled with LOVE, because it proves to me why I am so different from the ones I was born with.

THE STRENGTH AND COURAGE WITHIN, ALLOWS FOR FORGIVENESS!

When you are faced with acts of betrayal like these from friends, family or loved ones; remember what makes you the special person you are!  Don’t allow another person to tear you apart.  Use the energy they dispel to empower and strengthen who you are.  Don’t give in to terror from others and be responsible for how you feel and who you’ve become.  If you need to talk about such acts (on the blog or off of it) let me know.  Maybe I can help you see the rays of light between the grey skies and dark clouds surrounding you.  As always find a way to LOVE, HONOR & RESPECT even those who wish you harm and ill will; fore they are the ones who need it the most!

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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The Debate over Healthcare Reform Monday, Aug 17 2009

16^th of August 2009

THE DEBATE OVER HEALTHCARE REFORM

I am sick and tired over politics as usual in Washington DC.  The only ones winning in the gridlock that has become the Washington beltway are the politicians who have received huge sums of money as bribes by the Medical Community and Insurance Industry.  Healthcare lobbyists have spent more than a billion dollars this year alone fighting the proposed Healthcare Reforms.

Let’s break down what we’re fighting for: insuring millions of Americans who cannot afford the huge cost of health coverage.  We have one of the highest unemployment rates we’ve seen in over fifty years.  That leaves the majority of those people without means for medical needs.  When their children or even when they find the need to see a doctor, money is in such short supply that it may mean taking from money for food or paying the mortgage.  It is a travesty when someone must chose what they must do without in order to afford the doctor’s visit, the prescriptions or anything else a medical visit may require.  It only gets worst if they need an Emergency Room visit.  Some families have to go into debt for ten, fifteen or more years because of a hospital stay or even worst; they are denied medical services?

Doctor’s offices and insurance companies play this game where the insurance company forces the doctor to perform their services at a discounted price.  The doctors then raise their prices on all services just to maintain the profit margins they wish to make.  In turn, when a person does not have insurance to receive the discounted price of services; the doctor doesn’t discount their cost to the individual.  The person who needs the discounted cost of medical services the most ends up screwed multiple times over.  To expound on the problem my doctor convinced me that I needed to get a Hepatitis vaccination.  I started the Hepatitis vaccination process while I was insured by Aetna Insurance Company.  I was more than half way through the vaccination process when I accepted a better job.  I took the extra steps to find out which of my new insurance options would cover the completion of the vaccinations.  The doctor’s office called to ensure which company out of my choices and told me that upon questioning Blue Cross Blue Shield PPO validated that they would pay the remaining balance.  Blue Cross Blue Shield then denied that claim stating it was considered a Pre-Existing Problem.

In the process of this, I talked my roommate into having the same vaccinations.  He received the same series of shots from the Gwinnett Clinic for a charge of one hundred and fifty dollars for the full batteries of vaccination shots.  The half of the vaccinations that was not paid by Blue Cross Blue Shield due to what they called a preexisting claim cost me over four hundred dollars.  I had to wonder how the exact same shots cost over six times more.  This exemplified the game between the Doctors and the Insurance Companies with all of us getting screwed by both.

Medicine is changing at such a veracious pace and some doctors are better than others at keeping up with those transformations.  Some don’t want to keep up and some can’t.  Just as with any group, there are good doctors and bad doctors.  The bad doctors are running up the cost of Malpractice Insurance for the good ones.  There are also good and bad people in this country.  Some people want to get rich quick off of the backs of others regardless of entitlement.  They will sue any doctor thinking all doctors are rich and can afford it.  I do agree that malpractice claims and insurance needs to be evaluated in great details, but this is a separate issue from Healthcare Reform.  My personal feelings are that the entire Insurance industry is so far out of control that the entire industry needs to be transformed.

That leads us into the Insurance Companies who are fighting with all they have against Healthcare Reform.  They don’t want anyone watching over their shoulders.  I worked for several insurance companies and they have teams of people crunching numbers all day every day just to tell management what claims to deny and which ones they need to pay in order not to upset the greater populace.  They know that less than fifty percent of all denied claims are fought.  Out of the less than fifty percent of those claims that are refuted, they may only be required to pay for a fraction of those.  It is all about the numbers and profit margins.  The less they pay, the more they make as profit.

The average person just want medical coverage without hearing the word “NO.”  The Insurance Industry uses words like Preexisting Conditions, Denial of Claims, Co-Pay and a host of others in order to boost their profits.  I believe we call that Corporate Greed!  They go way beyond greed by playing games with every thing.  If you get this new drug that is known to do a better job, faster and with fewer side effects; you have to pay large sums of money out of pocket because the insurance company won’t pay the higher cost for it.  These examples are just a few of the games the Insurance Companies play with each and every one of us, because they cannot cut into their billion or even trillion dollar profit margins.  The only things more corrupt than politics; is the Insurance Industry. It would go a long way in making this country a better place to live if we just obliterated the entire industry and started over.

The jest of this fight has to do with common decency and respect for all of our fellow citizens.  When hospitals in Los Angeles are paying cab drivers to take patients who don’t have insurance out to the area closest to another hospital simply because the patient doesn’t have insurance, how sick is the system?  They do this regularly regardless if those patience are sick, injured or dying, they just don’t want to care for the person who cannot pay for their medical services.  What does this say about the Healthcare Industry or where is the dignity for our fellow humans.  The main debate has centered on the cost of the over-haul and that outrages me more than anything.  It shows that those Congressional leaders have no compassion or regard for any of us, the citizens they should be fighting for.  I don’t agree with giving President Obama a blank check, but cost should be the last thing debated over.  It shouldn’t matter what the cost, when every single life is worth more than the cost of reform.

My suggestion is to eliminate all emergency, medical and prescription services for all Congressmen, all Representatives and all of their families until they find a way to provide medical coverage for every living citizen of the United States.  If you cannot afford medical coverage and must go without, then we should not provide it to our elected officials.  When those people we elect to take care of us in Washington are made to suffer as millions of Americans must every day, maybe they might look upon this debate in a different manner.

As for the Lobbyist; I think all lobbyists should have to apply for a license with strict laws in place and full disclosure of their activities.  Campaign reform laws should stop the passing of funds to any politician with no Lobbyist able to be behind closed doors with any politician…ever.  Lobbyists are lower than Lawyers, lower than Politicians and even lower than pond scum.  They are the medium that allows the corruption to play out with our elected officials.  I think new laws should be passed that severely punishes the politician, the lobbyist and the person or company that is caught unduly influencing any elected official.

Healthcare Reform needs to pass thereby eliminating uninsured citizens.  When politicians want to play with the lives of their constituents, it is time for them to be removed from office.  The cost of healthcare coverage should be the last issue on the table.  When it becomes the first issue, those politicians making it so also need to be removed from office, because they are the ones who have been bought and paid for by the Medical Profession and the Insurance Industry.  The lives of US citizens are more valuable than your pampas and arrogance; so set ego aside and do your jobs by finding a way to insure every American.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Gay Rights – A World Issue Friday, Aug 14 2009

13^th of August 2009

GAY RIGHTS – A WORLD ISSUE

Thomas Jefferson once stated, “No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.”

I have written many times about the atrocious fight for gay rights within the United States of America.  We love to state that we are the freest country in the world, and yet I am still unable to love or marry the person with whom I chose to love.

I remember all too well how when I walked into my first gay bar, I had to look around the parking lot across the street from the bar.  You didn’t dare park directly at the bar because many people would drive by as they shouted and yelled racial epithets.  News crews frequently drove by with cameras running just to catch one or many people entering the bar in hopes to ruin another life.  If a group of guys could catch you alone leaving the club or walking towards the bar; they would beat you, bash you and they could care less if you lived or died.

The problem was that most people didn’t care if a FAG was killed.  Their loathing for the person who was beaten or killed gave very little reasons for the authorities to look too deeply into the offense.  Religion has been alienating homosexuals for centuries.  In fact, religion looked down upon the Greeks and the Romans who regarded homosexuality as a normal part of life with disdain, rejection and killing since before Jesus Christ walked this earth.

Weeks ago I was deeply saddened when I made a friend who lives in Tehran, Iran.  My friend happens to be gay, even though President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of The Republic of Iran said when asked about homosexuals in Iran, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals, like in your country.“ When pushed on the issue, he said “In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon.  I don’t know who’s told you that we have it.” It saddened me as I talked via email messages and chat sessions with my friend that he lives in fear every day in Iran.  He fears that someone will find out that he is gay.  If someone knows that he is gay and does not say, the arm of Islam will severely punish them.  He says that being gay is against Islam and for that offense; he would be killed by hanging after being stoned.  Religion has been crucifying gay people for centuries, but in today’s date and time, why would any country knowingly and willingly sanction the killing of people simply because they love a person of the same sex?

Much to the chagrin of both President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, homosexuality is alive and thriving within the boarders of Iran.  Regardless of the efforts of all Islamic countries, gay men and women will continue to come from straight people.  Both leaders can deny the existence of homosexuality within their boarders as with all other Islamic countries, but to contradict it does not extinguish it.  You can slaughter all known FAGS, but that will never impede the propagation nor slow any returns.

President Ahmadinejad said when he visited the United States, that “We are a peaceful, loving nation,” so can the world expect that this isolation and killing of homosexuals will diminish.  If either the President of Iran or it’s Islamic leader, Ayatollah Khamenei truly wish to show how Iran is a peaceful and loving nation, then stop killing your own people and show compassion to those who can no more change a part of their life than change the country of their birth.  If you will not change the civilized treatment of citizens of your country, then let them leave and find another life in another place.  Allow them to live a life with dignity while openly loving a person of the same sex.  What would be even better and go beyond embracing all of humanity; legalize the lives and the love of all people…homosexual or otherwise and do what the United States can’t seem to do for its own citizens.  Go beyond where you are and treat all people with LOVE, HONOR and RESPECT!

To those who live in Islamic countries, remember that the Koran states, “If Allah brings you to it, He will bring you through it.” This tells me that if you are born gay, it is because you are supposed to live a life loving people of the same sex and no one can ever denounce that part of you, but you.  I would remind all Islam, “Stingyness has nothing to do with how much money you have.  Neither does generosity.  Its about how much heart you’ve got.” Show how Islam is truly about Love and Peace by loving all persons and if you cannot, allow those you wish removed from you sight to leave your country.  Hassan al Basri once stated, “The World is three days: As for yesterday, it has vanished, along with all that was in it.  As for tomorrow, you may never see it.  As for today, it is yours, so work in it.” Give all people today so that they may Live Life Fully with LOVE, HONOR and RESPECT.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Lessons for Life ~ Love Saturday, Aug 1 2009

18^th of July 2009

Series called:

LESSONS FOR LIFE ~ LOVE

I hope that some of the lessons (Lessons for Life) written about in this blog resonate with a part of you.  This message is one that should be the most obvious; however, I for one know from experience just how difficult it can be to see through the clouds that enshroud our daily lives.

The greatest gift we have to give anyone, including ourselves, is LOVE!  To some that may sound trite, and yet there is nothing more important than understanding how LOVE moves within our lives.  I’ve written many times how we enter this world knowing only one thing…how to LOVE, and yet, we are taught everything else.

The reason we know how to love when we are born has as much to do with the place we come from as it does that we spend up to nine months inside a cradle constructed for LOVE…the womb of our mother.  In most cases that person radiates love when she’s pregnant.  We cannot come into this world with the cumulative knowledge of our previous lifetimes, because it would impede those lessons we agreed to learn.  For the majority of us, the process of growing within our mother’s womb is also a central focus of the love that is cherished by both mother and child.

It must also be said that regardless of the circumstances surrounding our lifetime, we must discover how to love ourselves.  Many of us have experienced some truly atrocious things within this lifetime.  If you have suffered from abuse, neglect and dysfunction, I do understand how difficult it is to do something as simple as loving yourself.  Many of us think that it is far easier to find love from another, but that will never give you the depth or the breath of the LOVE that you require.  We must do that for ourselves in order to know that what we receive from others may be wondrous, but it is cursory to that which we know within ourselves.

I am speaking of a LOVE that you share with another.  A deep and abiding LOVE that you share with that special person as you build your own family.  This Love is truly a gift and must be cherished as you give unconditionally to that person and receive simultaneously from them.  There is nothing that can emulate the feeling as you find that one person and infatuation blossoms into a deep, fulfilling LOVE that you desire as your heart aches in their absence.

I am also referencing a love that you give freely to all others who surround you and enter our lives through all sources.  Yes, the person you read about in the news or see on the television should invoke a sense of LOVE and COMPASSION.  Yes, this love is different from that you share with someone special, but your neighbors, your co-workers, colleges and even the people you meet on the street deserve your LOVE.  We must refrain from judging others because unless we are able to walk in their foot steps, we are truly incapable of knowing how or why they got where they are now.  That is where the LOVE in our hearts needs to be sent even to the person we pass on the road during our travels.  The nameless person that we catch a glimpse of in passing, deserve the same LOVE that we send to our family, our friends and those we cherish dearly.  Even then, it is our responsibility to find it within our heart to choose LOVE over all other emotions during the course of our daily lives.  That may be a more challenging concept to digest; as you think, “I must love the stranger who bumps into me at the coffee shop spilling my double foam chi late all over my new suit.  The answer is “Yes!”  As difficult as you think that may be, it is our duty to find it within our heart to feel LOVE as apposed to anger, frustration or any other emotion.

LOVE comes and goes in many different forms.  As the world continues to change, we must connect with LOVE as our primary emotion, but let it be that which we fall too first, last and always.  For the average person that is not how we focus our daily living, but it should be.  As we make the change in connecting to LOVE, we will find that it is easier to give and to receive.  Let LOVE be your focus always and forever, it will never lead you astray.

LOVE CAN NEVER BE WRONG

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Lessons for Life ~ Life and Death Tuesday, Jul 14 2009

14^th of July 2009

Series called:

LESSONS FOR LIFE ~ LIFE AND DEATH

The subject of death seems to be extremely emotional for people.  The obvious reasons are the loss of a loved one.  How would it change your views on death and the living, if you accepted that those who passed away were not gone; that they remain a passive element of our lives?

In the West, we’ve been taught that there are only three things that are certain in life; we are born, we pay taxes and that we die.  We directly and indirectly learn that once we die, there is nothing more.  We are buried, the ones we leave behind must grieve our passing and unless you “repent and accept God,” there is nothing more.

Jesus spoke multiple times about the soul lasting beyond the death of the physical body.  Christianity taught for over three hundred years that the soul within each human being, came from God and once physical death occurred, it traversed back to God.  Three hundred and twenty five years after the death of Christ, Emperor Constantine created the Council of Nicaea.  Constantine was a life long Pagan, but understood humanity enough to know, that if family member would kill another family member due to a difference in ideology, then he must unite their beliefs.  He set out to create a unified religion that took from all other ideologies and set forth as the only religion in the world upon which he mandated its practice.  Constantine did not feel reincarnation benefitted this unified religion and had all references to reincarnation expunged from the Old Testament.  He then established that no one should teach reincarnation directing the Council of Nicaea members (three hundred religious and political leaders of the time) to establish an ideology that would guide members to the church for salvation, thereby changing the world’s view of life after death.

This background information is to establish that most Western people do not have an in-depth belief in reincarnation.  They identify this ideology as one from the East.  However, this was not always an ideology specific to the East.  It was believed, practiced and taught by almost all organized religions.  They unilaterally believed, that the soul return to a dimension other than our own until such time that it chooses to return in a new physical body.  If this is truly an old belief, why then does it enrage so many and invokes with great passion, retributions such as that forced upon the ruling cardinals of 545 A.D. to draft a papal decree stating that anyone who believes that souls come from God and return to God will be punished by death;

“If anyone asserts the fabulous preexistence of souls, and shall assert the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema.  (the Anathemas against Origen), attached to the decrees of the Fifth Ecumenical Council, A.D. 545, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2d ser., 14:318).”

For those who don’t believe, I ask why not?  Why do you suppose we are born to live a singular lifetime and only learn what we are exposed too within it?  Would it not make more sense, that our soul has been here before and with each lifetime comes a series of lessons?  Our soul gathers the cumulative knowledge from each life as we return from our physical adventures to a place of peace, meant for resting between lifetimes.  If you believe in an omnipotent being that created us and this universe, why would such a being only construct us for a single life?  What do you do if the singular life you have, happens to be a difficult one or maybe a down right crappie one?  Do you get angry if you don’t come into this world as Bill Gates, but rather the child born to no father and a mother infected with HIV, no food, no home and no family?  Wouldn’t it make more sense that we have hard lifetimes mixed with good lifetimes to solidify the lessons we are meant to learn from?

I believe that we are an accumulation of all of our lifetimes.  That we add to our base of knowledge by our experiences.  We can learn when we are resting between lifetimes, but we learn more when we interact with other souls, here in this earthly realm.  That being said, I’ve come to understand that we agree to the lessons we are set to learn in each lifetime.  Understanding the lessons we must learn and the path of the life we are set to endure, we choose the family that will best establish our experiences.  For the most part, we choose souls that we’ve experienced in other lifetimes.  We come into each lifetime as an established being that will best serve our learning the lessons we agreed to learn: male, female, straight, gay, color, nationality, ideology, etc. will all be established to meet the needs for those lessons we must discover.

When you view life in this manner, I have found that it is easier to understand the arduous experiences that some of us endure.  When you question why you are with a family, it is easier to accept that you chose them in service to your needs in teaching you the lessons that you agreed to learn.  When we understand life in this manner, it changes how we view the harshness of some of our lessons.  None of this will ever remove the greatest gift we’ve been given, “FREE WILL.” We can choose to remain on the journey that was established or we may decide on a different path.  However, I have found that life is so much easier when you don’t fight the path you need to be on, and yet, I know that it is always our rights to change our fait.

Life is meant to be a wonderful and amazing experience for us.  Our souls excel when you learn the lessons you are meant to learn and teach those lessons that you can teach.  This knowledge is written from the perspective of a belief in God (an Omnipotent being), but if you are not of the faithful, please accept that in the life you now live, it may best serve your needs in not believing.  That will always bring us back to a common place that says LOVE, HONOR and RESPECT all who surround you.  They may be in a different position, learning lessons that you’ve already learned.  It may be you who is learning the lessons that those around you have already digested.  We can learn every lesson with love, or we may need to learn them through harm, hate, anger or misery.

These articles are building a base of knowledge (A Series: LESSONS FOR LIFE), we all start from the same place as exactly the same thing…..a SOUL.  Our goal is to end at exactly the same place and that is an enlighten soul with grace.  The only way to obtain our destination is to learn all of the lessons we must learn.  If we do not learn our lessons in this lifetime, we will learn them in another.  Some lessons can only be taught with distress, while some may only be taught with love, but we are the accumulation of all that we learn.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Lessons for Life ~ The Golden Rule Sunday, Jul 5 2009

4^th of July 2009

Series called:

LESSONS FOR LIFE ~ THE GOLDEN RULE

It is no mistake that almost every religion and most organized ideologies, such as Buddhism, have a similar saying; “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

This phrase is known by many as the “Golden Rule,” and it says something that Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, Ancient Greek philosophy, Wiccan and even Paganism all have similar phrases.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is the verse used by Jesus Christ as depicted in the Bible, Chapter Luke.  It is one of the more common ways to quote this passage.  The reason this phrase is so important, when we start thinking of all people as much as we think about ourselves; we grow exponentially.

Taoism:

“The sage has no interest of his own, but takes the interests of the people as his own.  He is kind to the kind; he is also kind to the unkind: for Virtue is kind.  He is faithful to the faithful; he is also faithful to the unfaithful: for Virtue is faithful.”

A great lesson we must learn in life is that we are not alone.  We must care as much about those who walk with us, as we do for ourselves.  We become so focused on our needs, what to do for our children and what is in our own best interests, that we forget there are others souls inhabiting this planet with us.  We are so busy with work, family and what we consider living life, that we don’t know our neighbors.  We don’t know their names or anything about them, much less if they need our help.  We must get to know our neighbors and learn to care as much about them as we do for ourselves.

Judaism:

“That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.”

Before you do anything to your fellow being, would you take the same action against yourself?  If you would not consider the same act against yourself, you should not take that action against your neighbor.  Much of what we do against others is done out of fear.  Fear and not hatred is the leading instigator that perpetuates harm and the killing of fellow souls.  If the act is not that which you would do to yourself without fear, then it should not be done against others, especially in the presence of fear.  The only thing we fear is fear itself.

Islam:

“Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you.”

To be a good steward of humanity, we must make choices that show our own individuality and yet we must also ensure all persons are able to do the same.  That will not always be easy, but we must find a way and the means.  Humanity will never survive if we think solely about ourselves.  We must think, act and learn to love all others as much as we do ourselves.

Confucianism:

“Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself”

If we are to live in accordance to the Golden Rule, we must learn to Love all others as much as we Love ourselves.  Love is the greatest lesson that we can possibly learn or teach.  The next time you make a choice that places you adverse to another, take a moment to answer this simple question: would I do this to myself or would I like if they did the same to me?  If you cannot answer that question easily, you should rethink the action you are about to take.

Baha’I Faith:

“Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not.”

Your humbled servant – Todd M Dobson

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Celebrating Our Independence Saturday, Jul 4 2009

4^th of July 2009

CELEBRATING OUR INDEPENDENCE

Today is a truly remarkable day if you are a citizen of the United States.  This should however, be a day to remember for every souls who inhabit this world.  While US citizens are celebrating our independence from a tyrannical King who denied our rights, we are all a little freer today than we were yesterday!

There are people in countries all over this amazing planet who do not share in the freedoms that we have within the United States.  I question living within the boarders of a country where laws are passed by fear based hatred, denying the rights of so many.  How can millions who have given everything they have just to step within the boarders of this country who dream of a brighter future for their family; however, many of those human souls are hunted for the transgression and the illusion of a life of sovereignty.

There are many issues we endure that might make a person question the liberties we celebrate today, but I am the optimist who also envisions a brighter tomorrow.  It is demanded of anyone who petitions the United States for the status to remain within her boarders and to become a citizen of this nation that they know our Constitution and Bill of Rights.  I find it interesting that the large majority of citizens born within her bosom cannot tell you what is present in either document.  For it is the construct of each document that grants my faith that our country will eventually make decisions based on the principles by which we were founded regardless of personal ideology.

The brave men, who conceived, championed, architected and signed these two documents, had the foresight to know what they could not yet discern.  They believed in a nation of people who were equal in every conceivable way.  Before those who wish to point out the frailties of our founding fathers and wish to interpret the word of these two documents to their own accord, please read the blogs I’ve written previously:

Our Founding Fathers – A Response to Mr. Wilson

http://tmdobson.wordpress.com/2008/01/10/response-to-mr-wilson-our-founding-fathers-homosexuality/

Happy Independence Day

http://tmdobson.wordpress.com/2008/07/04/happy-independence-day/

As a student of history, I take great strides to understand the historical context that is documented.  Read these two amazing documents: The United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights, so that you may refresh what makes this country a truly great one.  Read the Amendments that grant each citizen the rights we should hold so dear.  Then think about the billions who don’t share in our rights.  They cannot speak freely or appose those who govern them.  They may not bare arms of any kind that may be used against the very government that oppresses them.  If a person has anything the government wants or deems against its own, that person does not have the protection of said documents.

My dreams for tomorrow are as they always have been: that every soul within the confines of this planet, be free to live their lives in harmony, with peace and above all else…LOVE!  Today is a truly great day to celebrate, but do so with the knowledge that somewhere in the world others do not have the freedoms we take for granted.  That even in a country that refuses to let me love whom I wish to love, that I am free to voice my opposition to those who live in fear and with hate in their hearts.  Celebrate so that one day, another person who struggles to cross a boarder on a quest to find freedom for his family may indeed rejoice in that independence.  Know that on a day soon to come, even I may find, love and marry the person I choose to without regard to race, nationality or even sexuality.

CELEBRATE OUR LIBERTY TODAY

FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW

LOVE CAN NEVER BE WRONG

Your humbled servant – Todd M Dobson

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World Blood Donor Day Sunday, Jun 14 2009

13^th of June 2009

WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY

Sunday the 14^th of June, 2009 is World Blood Donor Day and it is designed to help restore the depleting the world’s blood supply.  I would normally chant for the cause pushing for every soul to do their part and donate blood, but here in the United States, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) with all of its stogy, decrepit board members, who refuse to release antiquated phobias and biased causing the blood supply to be depleted.

Every drop of blood received by any agency must go through three tests that will identify 99.995 percent of any HIV antibodies that may be inside the donated supply.  The test will also identify if the blood has any STD’s or any other contaminate posing risks to any receiving body.  This is a great focus, but the FDA Board of Directors is still homophobic in their refusal to acknowledge the statistics that tell infections of HIV/AIDS outside of the United States is a heterosexually lead disease.  The leading transmitters of HIV/AIDS infections outside of the United States are primarily within the heterosexual populace.  Outside of the United States, homosexuals are not the leading population infected with this horrible disease and therefore all blood donor sites should conform to questions that isolate risk behaviors and not stereotypes such as homosexual men.

The largest collecting organization within the United States disagrees with the FDA and has requested rigorously for a change in its bigoted seclusion polices.  Unfortunately, the old boys club that manages the FDA Board refuses to listen to reason or any arguments that proves their denial is based on hatred as apposed to factual statistics.  The average gay man tells me to lie when I want to donate blood, but I refuse to lie or to adapt to a corrupt, racist system that needed to change fifteen years ago.

I would love for every person within the United States that is planning to donate blood, regardless of sexuality, to complete the form and then refuse their normal donation of blood until the FDA reverses its years of active bigotry and homophobia.  Until the FDA faces its hatred and changes policies, the blood levels should continue to drop to dangerously low levels finally forcing the FDA to reverse its reign of terror, bigotry and hate!

I am not advocating that we do nothing to protect our blood supply.  On the contrary, we must do everything possible to ensure our blood supply remains safe.  I am advocating that HATE should not be propagated by political policy when that course of action is dependant on the generosity of the citizens of this country.  Everything should always be done to ensure our blood supply is safe, but the questions should be used to diminish those who are at risk for STD’s, HIV/AIDS based on behaviors and not stereotypes.  Not one soul should donate one drop of blood sending a loud message to the FDA that when it changes is policies of hate, we will gladly fill the necessary supply.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Lessons for Life ~ Judging Others Monday, Jun 8 2009

6^th of June 2009

Series called:

LESSONS for LIFE ~ JUDGING OTHERS

I think every one has watched Will & Grace on television.  Many people love the bitchy, alcoholic woman named Karen that had a harsh word for everyone and everything that happened around her.  While her sardonic demeanor was funny to watch, in real life, there’s not much joy being at the end of such wrath.

No body likes to be demeaned and talked down too like they’re a child or somehow inferior.  If you read my last post, you understand that we are all the same.  We start at the same place and ultimately when we’ve learned all of the lessons we must heed, our final destination is the same for everyone.  I’ve also written many blogs that explain how when we enter this world, we come in knowing one thing as a person…how to LOVE.  We learn everything else.

We are taught how to bully.  We allow our confidence to be stripped away by others.  We learn how to manipulate people and situations in order to make others feel inferior while we make ourselves feel superior.  It is through our own ego’s need to feel in someway better than others, that we justify our own self loathing that leads to treating people as Karen does on Will & Grace.  If we all start from the same place and we all end equally, the only difference for each of us is within the paths we take towards our final destination.  Some turn to focused ideologies such as organized religions to navigate the treacherous waters of this world.  Religion is a wonderful source to focus us, but most religions teach their parishioners to feel superior over those who are not members.  That within itself is a judgment over the billions who chose another path.

We are all on our own path with our own journey that is as individual as our finger prints.  Because we start at the same place with a singular goal of completing all of our lessons, the only differences between you and me is how we learn.  There is no wrong means to learn life’s lessons or to educate those we must disseminate knowledge too.  For some, organized religion is not the ideology that educates our way through life.  My point is that we need to focus more on the lessons to be learned and taught and less on how we are different or better than those who surround us.  Accept that what you choose to be may be right for you, and likewise may not for me as I step through my journey.  That does not make either you or me wrong, just different.  In no way am I superior to you or does that make you superior to me, so we should leave the judgments till after we pass from this world.  Let the only one judging, be something or someone that is worthy of true superiority without ego causing the inflation.

TO JUDGE IS TO INDIGNANTLY CLAIM

SUPERIORITY OVER OTHERS

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Lessons for Life – Common Ground Tuesday, Jun 2 2009

1st of June 2009

Series called:

LESSONS for LIFE ~ COMMON GROUND

In the introduction to this series, I alluded to the fact that we all start from the exact same place.  When you read that point, you may very well say NO, I  was born into this life with a family of status, or just the opposite to a family with no status and no means.  While that is not what I refer too, it gives you a place for beginning these lessons.

I’ve come to understand that we are born into this world (dimension) to learn lessons and to teach them.  It would be wonderful if all of the lessons we learn were taught in a class room setting or done through positive reinforcements.  However, life does not always educate us in that manner.  Many of the lessons we learn are taught in life as we experience it.  Some are even taught through negative reinforcement.  The people who enter our lives do so not by mistake, but rather with some design and they do so, to learn from us or to teach us.  In some cases both actions are transpiring.  Some will leave us wanting more while we are happy and blissful, while others will educate use during which time they break our hearts and rip away at the very fabric that makes our lives flow.  Any of these means are purposeful and we should all embrace both the lessons we learn and those we disseminate.

If I am right and we are all the same, why then do we allow ourselves to fall victim to such vile like HATE, VIOLENCE or BIGGOTRY?  These are the vices we cling too when we fear and do not understand.  They are also that which teaches us some of our most profound lessons.  The greatest of these lessons is not to give in to the power of FEAR! If we allow ourselves to fear, it will always cloud our vision and keep us from seeing those who might otherwise teach us so profoundly.  If we are beholden to FEAR, we may not allow ourselves to associate with white people if we are black, black people if we are white, people of different nationalities, different cultures, different religions or even different ideologies.  Because we hold ourselves back from those who are dissimilar, we loose the beautiful view of life through their eyes.  We cannot experience life through their perspective and the lessons we might otherwise be exposed to through the wonders, joy and beauty that is Life itself.

When I state that we start from the same place and end at the same place, I mean that we are all here to learn the same lessons.  Our ascension brings us to the same destination once we have learned all that we are intended to.  We must garner the same knowledge and we will only ascend once we have achieved it.  We start with nothing and we must learn everything.  The knowledge that we must gain is specific and will step us through to the next lessons we still have yet to learn.  Only once we posses all of it can we ascend to the next level.  Because we all begin with no knowledge, that is how we all start and are exactly the same.  Not one of us is given anything more than the others.  You might argue my point and say that you are more intelligent than others; you have more resources (money) than others and so on.  Some may acquire during a lifetime different means, but we must all learn exactly the same lessons regardless of our means during a given life.  Some of us may learn faster than others and to some, the lessons may come easier.  Money, power, intelligence are all wonderful components, but none of them will help and in many cases may even hurt learning that which you must learn during a lifetime.

Regardless of anything I say, we were all given something that transcends all religion and non religious ideologies.  Something that can never be paused or taken from us….FREE WILL.  You have the ability of free will to do, believe and say anything that you wish.  No one can take it away from you….not a tyrant, not a government, not a religion.  Free will is always your gift.  I mention it because many of us turn away from the most power force within our lives or within the world…..LOVE.  With love in your heart, you can over come any obstacle that is placed before you.  With love in your heart, you can learn all of the lessons that we must and ascend as we are all meant to do…..and yes, eventually we will all learn the same lessons.  The question remains, when will you learn them?

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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A Series: Lessons for Life Monday, Jun 1 2009

30^th of May 2009

Series called:

LESSONS FOR LIFE

The last fifteen years have brought about enormous changes in my life.  I had an amazing life fifteen years ago, but I could never have imagined that the path I would turn too might be the one I am on now.  This is the setup for a series of articles I will be writing over the next few months.  I hope that as you read this knowledge, that something will resonate with you.

This series is meant for everybody; however, only a few will garner knowledge from these teachings.  They are designed to fill in the gaps you may have in learning life’s lessons.  My greatest hope is that you will pass this information on while you teach others.  I hope to not only provoke your learning, but also the transference to others that you encounter.  Some will read my words and ignore or even get offended.  I am truly sorry if any one refutes this information.  We are all the same; starting at exactly the same place, we all learn and understand our lessons differently; therefore we begin at the same place, knowing the same thing and we will all end exactly at the same location.  I can only explain that this knowledge is delivered with the LOVE in my heart and with the hopes for a brighter tomorrow for us all.

These articles are meant for everyone.  From time to time they may resonate with your religion, and for that I am grateful.  However, they are designed for all religions as well as all non-religious people.  You don’t have to be spiritual to walk away from these lessons with the knowledge, love and faith.  The FAITH that I speak of is the faith you must have within yourself and for yourself.  You may think, well I don’t love myself or have faith within myself!  If that is the case, please read more and let me know when you find that love and faith within you, because regardless of anything else, we are all exactly the same!  Yes, one of the very first lessons you will learn is that we are all start from the exact place.  Yes, some of us during our lifetimes may have something that seems to set you aside from all others, hell, Bill Gates, may seem to be slightly different than the rest of us, but he is just like the rest of us and must learn the same lessons and teach that which is intended for him to teach, just like you and just like me.  If at any point you doubt the messages within these posts, search your heart and your soul for the answers that are truth for you.  I know that when you connect with your pure heart and your higher self that this information will be shown to be absolute truth, of that I am not worried.

My first post will follow this and you will find another post from me on this subject at least one per week, if not more.  I hope with all my heart that these blogs may say something to each one of you reading.

May you all be filled with Love, Light, Peace and Blessings

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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California’s Bigotry was Echoed Today Wednesday, May 27 2009

26^th of May 2009

CALIFORNIA’S BIGOTRY WAS ECHOED TODAY

I am deeply saddened by the California Supreme Court’s ruling today.  I don’t blame the court for its ruling; I blame the citizens of California that voted for a constitutional amendment to define marriage between one man and one woman.

It is funny that religious groups are the ones who are fighting so vociferously against allowing gays to wed.  Religion claims that it is the sanctity of marriage that is a religious right, and it will defile all men and all women who are married in a church, if I am aloud to share in that privilege.  Marriages were arranged for centuries before religions adopted the practice.  Religions implementation of marriage was more to solidify that the one and only Church – Christianity remained a singular entity as designed by the Council of Nicaea.  The joke on our modern day religious zealots, who claim ownership by telling how marriage is a religious foundation that without which, all of society will be destabilize.

These narrow minded, tunnel vision hypocrites, refuse to acknowledge any history that points out the facts where marriages were organized as far back as the eight century B.C. in both Greek and Persian cultures.  In all cultures marriage was more an arrangement that benefited one of the two sides and was found to be a business or social obligation rather than religious.

The remarkably hilarious component to the Christian Right’s arguments, claiming that marriage is a religiously protected covenant, when religions very sporadically and selectively performed the unions until around 866.  That is when Pope Nicholas I decided that they needed to be sanctioned by a religious celebration, forcing all marriages to be performed by the Church.  The focus was to organize various rituals that still had non-religious traditions at their foundation, giving them a religious structure and thereby removing anything that might lead parishioners away from the Church.  Pope Nicholas I feared with the widespread growth of other religions as well as the recurrence of Paganism and then later what the Church referred too as Witch craft.  Fear surrounded religion leading Pope Nicholas I to claim that marriages were to be performed by the Church as a religious sacrament.

The commonalities between 866 and now, is that FEAR was used to force the average person into believing that if a man can share in the legal rights of LOVE with another man, that all of society will cease to exist within that moment.  The most laughable part to this insane stance pushed Californians out of their homes in order to vote for a constitutional amendment that limited California’s marriage to being shared between one man and one woman only.

Religion have used FEAR throughout the centuries to maintain a strangle hold over society.  I am not apposed to religion, but I am apposed to religious organizations (like the Church of Latter Day Saints), who get involved in politics.  Jesus Christ himself said that Church and Politics needed to be separated due to the corruptibility of both.  If the son of God said religion needs to stay out of politics, why is the Religious Right spending millions on passing legislation within states their not even located in?

Californians should be ashamed of themselves if they voted for this amendment.  The hypocrisy of most organized religions and especially of the Church of Latter Day Saints, who have thousands of member’s still practicing polygamy with a very destructive view of women.  Yet they wish to fund the California fight for an amendment that limits the rights to marry.  One message everyone need to heed: you cannot stop a people from their fight against injustice for ever.  You may have won a small victory, but we will continue fighting until we share in the same rights as all citizens within this country.  That is a promise you can count on.  Those who degrade the life of another will loose when faced by those who fight for their civil rights.

LOVE CAN NEVER BE WRONG

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Our Perspective is Everything Monday, May 11 2009

10^th of May 2009

OUR PERSPECTIVE IS EVERYTHING

There are important lessons that you learn, and as you learn them, you just instinctively know they need to be disseminated to all who wish to know it also.  This is one of those lessons.  It is funny how I was told and then told again that I needed to write this blog, so I am taking the time to document what seems to be important for me to convey.  We are all enduring times that require sacrifice and a clear head.  But regardless of the circumstance, this blog should have a meaning for all who read it.  If you’re not one that has suffered the loss of a job, a retirement accounts that forces you to continue working another five or ten years; or a loved one you are at odds with; you know someone that is.

If you find yourself among those suffering, regardless of how or why, read and understand these words.  It is easy to allow yourself to become inundated with sadness, sorrow and bitterness.  It matters little how or why you find yourself without, only that you do.  I must emphasize that our perspective will either enable us to get through this ordeal smoothly and efficiently or arduously as we become mired in despair.

When you find any situation that is not to your liking, try viewing it from a slightly different perspective.  What I mean, look at the circumstances differently until you find a viewpoint that is more positive, and enables you to maintain yourself.  An example is that I was unemployed for ten months when I found a contracted position to manage a software project for an insurance company.  I was so happy to be working again and what I thought was a productive part of society.  I changed how the project was structured and brought it to a point where it was starting to take on its own life.  That’s when I was told the contract was being closed due to financial instability.  I find myself unemployed again and seeking another professional job.

I could allow myself to go right back, to the miserable state I endured prior to the three months I spent working.  Or, I could revel in the fact that I made money for those three months, which enabled me to catch up on bills.  I can fall deep into the depression and despair that I was in when I received the contract, or I can be grateful for the opportunity it afforded me.  I may dwell in the despair of being unemployed again while continuing to ask the questions of “why me,” or I can bask in the joy I felt for those three months, this is my choice which perspective to select.

I choose to see the positive as apposed to dwell in the darkness of negativity.  The circumstances don’t change, but my perspective does.  By changing my perspective, I am able to remain positive and focused while knowing that a new job is around me sooner rather than later.  I know that I won’t wait ten months for another job as I maintain my view of these circumstances with ease.

The other focal point that can be maintained is that you must remain in the NOW.  Some of us have a difficult time not planning for the future.  We spend so much time planning for tomorrow that we forget about focusing on the decision for today.  If our future is not where we dwell, then it may be our past.  Languishing in the misery or the glory that once was, can consumes us.  We are unable to change our past.  It happened as it did and we should either remember it fondly or know that the darkness, were the lessons we had to learn.  Let go of the past for it can no longer serve our needs.  Do not spend too much time in the future; we don’t know if we will ever have one.  Remain focused on today. Make decisions that are right for today, and that will serve us well for tomorrow.

Your humbled servant – Todd M Dobson

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The Debate over Hate Crimes Legislation Thursday, Apr 30 2009

30^th April 2009

Hate Crimes Legislation

The Matthew Shepard Bill

Yesterday, the Representative from North Carolina was neither Honorable nor conducted herself in a Respectful manner when she opposed the Matthew Shepard Bill. Mrs. Virginia Foxx said, while knowing that Judy Shepard sat in attendance (the mother of slain Matthew Shepard who was brutally beaten, tied to a fence and left to die as he over looked Laramie, Wyoming) said, “I also would like to point out that there was a bill – the hates crimes bill that’s called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery.  It wasn’t because he was gay.” You may see Mrs. Foxx as she addresses the House of Representatives by following this links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWm2zGTZBM0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLxbQmlOT1I

Mrs. Foxx went on to say that what happened to Matthew Shepard and naming this Hates Crimes Legislation after him is a “HOAKS”.  It is one thing to dislike a group of people based on an aspect of who they are as people (which is by definition HATE), it is another to be an elected official, with the resources to obtain police documentation, prosecution documents and have the ability to even question those who can authoritatively say why the two men accused of killing Matthew Shepard were tried with crimes motivated by HATE.

It took very little effort on my part to find copies of the arrest documents and transcripts of the trial which define that even though Mr. Russell Henderson turned States Evidence against Mr. Aaron McKinney, both men perpetrated a crime based on abhorrence because they thought Matthew was gay and thereby an easy target.  Mr. Henderson testified that the motivating factors of their crimes against Mr. Shepard were in fact based on their thoughts that him being a homosexual.

What makes Mrs. Foxx’s actions even more repugnant was that she knew Mrs. Judy Shepard was in the gallery listening to her personal attack on a son she’s lost.  This legislation has two different sides arguing, but little of the arguments are based on fact and are substantiated more on personal ideology.  Because the issue of homosexuality has been so dynamically charged, people are basing their arguments more on the manner they choose to live (such as their Christian ideologies, religious affinities or dislikes for people who love other people of the same sexual orientation).  This has motivated those who cleave to their religious text, saying that they will denounce anything having to do with homosexuality and thereby it is a sin.  While the other side is loosing patience with the personal attacks on whom they are as people.

I must say that coolers head need to prevail and we must find a way to debate such issues without name calling and find the ability to discuss calmly and rationally our side of such personal issues.   We must find a way to focus on the needs to better serve society as a whole.  With that being said, if someone opposes such legislation, it does not mean that this person is against all homosexuals.  That also means, that supporting such legislation does not mean that you agree with all homosexuals.  Please read below for my comment to a forum where most people were Christians against homosexuals and thereby against this legislation or they were for this legislation and thereby they are homosexuals.

________________________________________________________________________

It deeply saddens me to read that Mrs. Foxx would be so insensitive with Shepard in the audience, while trivializing the death of her son.  It also dismays me that two different sides can neither see a way to come together for the greater good of all citizens in this country.  We must find a way to see our opposition and meet their needs for a better tomorrow for us all.

History has shown that in this great nation of ours, some have leaned towards biased and some find it easier to carry HATE within their hearts rather than to show respect for a person who may be different.  We have protected black people from hate crimes because in this country many have succumbed to the whims of white people who find the only crime committed was the color of their skin.  We protected woman because for centuries, their male counterparts saw them not as equals, but as chattel and some even found that they could harm or kill women simply because they were not men.  We’ve protected Jewish people who found some Christians and others would hate them simply because they were Jewish.

None of these protected groups sought special protection, but they expected to be cosseted from the ones who would target them based on Odium.   Each of these previous groups only wanted to be viewed as equals, which does not mean being denied those same rights that all citizens within this country were granted.  When some wish to segregate others simply based on their differences, using those disparities as a means to harm, denigrate or take a life; it is wrong.  That is the pure definition of HATE, when another cannot see what you have in common and would rather only identify that which makes you different.  In none of these protected classifications did we say it was alright for anyone to kill, and just happened to be a man that killed a woman, was there anything less wrong with his crime.  Nor have we said that if a man kills a woman he must automatically be put to death or greater punishment heaped upon him.  We said that if a man so filled with rage, and kills a woman simply because she is not male, perpetrating this crime based on his bias as apposed to any other reason; then he may be prosecuted for his crime as a HATE CRIME, with greater punishments due to the motivation.

YES, I can see why gay, lesbian and transgendered people deserve to be protected. There are large numbers of people who cannot see them as citizens simply because they love a person of the same sex.  That being said, if one person seeks out gay people to harm or kill them specifically because they are gay; then yes, that crime is motivated by HATE and therefore should have more severe consequences.  In passing such a law, we only says that a crime perpetrated by a racial propensity should have greater consequences.  Such a law does not devalue any other human life and as should be with all crimes against any person, the maximum penalties should always be sought.

Both sides of this debate need to find a better way to bridge this gap.  If Pagans disliked and targets Christians, killing and harming them simply because they are Christians, then a law to protect Christians would be passed in order to erase hate as a motivator of these crimes.  It would be a lesson to teach society at large that crime perpetrated simply out of rage and hatred for that particular class of people is wrong.  The simple ideology behind such protection is to tell society at large that abhorrence is intolerable and those who hate must do away with the odium in their hearts.  The only people, who should appose such a bill, would be those who allow HATE to fill their hearts and might be the very people who would carry out a crime against the ones being protected.

HATE CAN NEVER BE RIGHT
&
LOVE CAN NEVER BE WRONG!!!

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Response to Derek: Rush is Wrong Saturday, Apr 25 2009

25^th April 2009

Response to Derek: Rush is Wrong

Hello Derek and thank you for reading my words.  I am sorry that “people like me” anger you so.  It is not I who angers you; it is that your ideologies and beliefs are under attack from so many people with you feeling the loneliness that surrounds you.  That hopelessness comes from believing so fanatically in a way of living that show hate within your heart.  The resentment you feel isn’t from my words, but rather from the world that is standing against your inclusive only means of living.

You prove my point about Rush with your very words.  I don’t believe that President Obama is perfect nor do I believe he is not a politician like all others in Washington DC.  But out of our choices for President, I do believe he was the better choice to change from the President that pushed this once great nation into the problems that we now find ourselves – President Bush.

The difference between you and I is less about our individual choices for President or even the ideologies that we live by; it is more that I feel even though we stand at opposite ends of the spectrum, I can find a way to RESPECT you for who you are!  You sir, you feel that because I don’t believe as you do and support your politics or ideology that I am evil.  That makes you as wrong as Rush and makes both of you poor examples of a soul within human form.  Search your soul and learn the lessons of LOVE, HONOR and RESPECT for all of your fellow humans, and stop wasting time attacking someone who stands at an opposite perspective than you do.

And by the way: BREATHE is the proper spelling for the word as is BREATH. You may see with the paste from www.dictionary.com.  Please forgive that my spell check is set to a broader dictionary than your own.  Many of my correspondence are from all around the world and therefore I use a European dictionary as apposed to a North American.  I hope I don’t offend your delicate sensibilities by pointing out your narrow mindedness or your ignorance.

breathe

Show Spelled Pronunciation [breethd] Show IPA , breath⋅ing.

–verb (used without object)

1.	to take air, oxygen, etc., into the lungs and expel it; inhale and exhale; respire.

Thank you again for your comments.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

————————————————————————————————————

Submitted on 2009/04/24 at 10:22pm

You call people hateful bigots because they don’t agree with Socializing our system? Here are some examples, since you seem too lazy to , you know, READ.

The nationalization of our banks. The nationalization of our auto industry. The looming nationalization of our free press system.

Obama was a trainer and lawyer for ACORN, who stands accused of voter fraud in many states and was the recipient of billions of dollars from Obama the second he got a chance. You might have noticed that it was ACORN members protesting in front of AIG execs homes when Dear Leader instructed them to do so.

I stumbled upon this ridiculous article while searching out something else on Google, and feel stupid even commenting so late, but people like you are infuriating. I listened to Rush when all these news reports started coming out about how hateful he is and blah blah blah, and when you actually take the time to listen to what he’s saying, it’s in defense of the country. Maybe you should actually listen instead of spreading your ignorance around. And PS, you can’t even spell breathe.

Peace

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HATE has Taken Another Life Friday, Apr 17 2009

16^th April 2009

Hate has Taken another Life

Video New Link: Carl Walker-Hoover, 11 hanged himself when bullies wouldn’t relent

This, like so many other similar stories is gut wrenching and totally unnecessary.  Every person in this world comes into it knowing only one thing instinctively; how to LOVE! We learn everything else….HATE, LOATHING and DISGUST from those surrounding us.

We are taught how to hate things and people that are different and don’t conform to what we identify as similar to ourselves.  This is our own egoic mentality that provokes fear through learned behaviors.  It is our deficiencies that tell us when someone is different that we must fear them.  Fear, Ego and HATE are all fallacies that lead us to do dark, horrible things; like pushing an 11 year old boy into thinking his own life.  To make another person feel that the only way to be at peace is by killing themselves, you are as guilty as if you strung the rope up in the closet and tightened it around this innocent boy’s neck.

I hope the young kids that taunted Carl with daily criticisms feel within their hearts the pain they caused so many others.  An innocent boy was driven from humanity for no other reason but to make others feel stronger, fearless and in control.  The parents of these children, the principle of the school and the school board all failed Carl and are all responsible for HATE and FEAR Mongering.

Some of you who cleave to your Bibles and religious text will try to justify the HATE within your hearts by saying how homosexuality is wrong, but Carl was never given the chance to discover if he was a gay man or not.  There is no justification, regardless of the book you wish to use, that can rationalize when I life is taken.  It doesn’t matter if you directly took that life or indirectly caused it….MURDER is MURDER.  There can never be a justification for taking the life of an innocent person because he/she is not what you wish them to be….and there can never be words from any source that justifies the taking of innocence as was done to Carl Walker-Hoover.

Carl, I am sorry that your light was never given the chance to shine and that it was extinguished by vile, obtuse people that saw within you what they could only hope to achieve.  For the eleven years you graced this world, I hope that you loved more and experienced joy and peace within your heart during your life.  I am sorry to tell you that you will never escape the sad and growing ranks of those innocent people taken from the world by HATE.  The purity of your heart will live on long after today as you are added to the ranks of such amazing people like Matthew Shepard, Chanelle Pickett, Deborah Forte and so many other men and women who have been murdered or harmed for no other reason than the hate and fear within the hearts of a few.

Parents and Religious Leaders; you can teach your children and young adults your ideologies and also teach LOVE, HONOR and RESPECT.  You can educate your young that while you might not agree with something or someone, that does not give anyone the rights to take action against them.  That to truly be a person who is at peace with themselves and all others, you must find a way to respect even those you might appose.  You can tech them that greatness is not standing against an opponent with masses, beating them or killing them; but yet strength comes when you can stand before that which you appose and find a way to Love and Respect them for who and what they are.  Teach them that violence is a measure of last resource and should only be taken in defense, never aggression against others.  Explain and show them how HATE never belongs within the hearts and souls of truly great people, and is a sign of weakness.

While I write these words and know that within my heart they are amazing words to live by, I also know that many won’t ever believe in them.  If only one person changes their being, then they are worth the time and effort that pours from me onto this screen.  The students, parents and school officials that aloud this insidious behavior to continue; they are the weak ones.  To tolerate hate in order to feel better about ones self doesn’t show anything but cowardice….never strength.  To bully another kid because you can, doesn’t show anything but the lowest form of humanity and that truly deserves our pity, not our understanding.  There is no HONOR in what was done to Carl….and the school and school board for covering it up and not taking appropriate action until after a beautiful life ceased to exist, only shows that you have no right in positions to mold the minds of our youth.

LOVE, HONOR & RESPECT ALL – LOVE CAN NEVER BE WRONG

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Technical Support that Fails All Customers Thursday, Apr 16 2009

15^th of April 2009

Technical Support that Fails All Customers

I did not expect to follow-up on my previous post: “The Continued Failure of Corporate America with Customer Service,” but after the phone conversation I just had with Sai at the Dell Corporation (third level support), I need to tell the world of such atrocious service by the Dell Corporation. Sai blatantly refused to let me speak with anyone in Senior Management or to discuss the inabilities of Dell or Trend Micro to give decent technical support in the previous seven weeks. Sai’s exact words were, “I can not and will not escalate this call to anyone else, regardless of the reasons why!”

Sai isn’t the first to tell me “No” to getting a manager when I’ve requested one. Dell and Trend Micro have set policies that dictate that no support technician is to escalate any call to supervisors for any reason at all. I’ve heard over the past seven weeks and four days the word “No” far too many times when I’ve requested an escalation to a supervisor for intervention. This has been a trend that Customer Service departments for all major corporations have been setting as policy because their supervisors receive far too many calls. This was a growing trend in the early 2000’s because of the rising cost of customer service that cuts into profit margins. It is also the failure of those organizations that teach their support personnel this tactic or worst, don’t teach them at all, but chastise their customer service representatives when they escalate a call to anyone in management.

Companies like Dell and Trend Micro spend money for Web Site support and Knowledge Base data bases to stave off the number of people who call into their support environments. There is a calculated cost to every call that is placed to these support environments and that cost is not seen as a necessity to sell their products and services. That cost is viewed improperly as a degradation of their profit margins. I’ve been telling support environments like Dell and Trend Micro to publish on their web sites real time statistics that show how many support issues they work per day, per week and per month broken down by the different methods that support is given. Tell the number of issues coming in, how many could have been resolved by a search in the web site’s knowledge base and how many were truly issues that a support call was necessary. As people see factual numbers that show the average wait times before their issue is addressed, the average time for resolution to basic support issues; they will decide in advance if they wish to try and solve their issues with a search of the knowledge base or a web chat session as apposed to calling support. The fact is that most companies don’t want to release real-time numbers on their support issues and the statistics that would need to be published because they cannot hide their inabilities to support customers such as me. It should tell every business and every customer that is deciding to spend hundreds to thousands of dollars on products from a company like Dell and Trend Micro, when they make policies such as No to escalated calls to a supervisor when one is requested and No, we won’t publish real-time support statistics because we have too much to hide. If a company won’t let a customer speak with someone in management and if that Corporation hides their Executives Names, email addresses, and means to contact them from their customers; then that is not a company deserving of your business.

I got so angry and upset that it was taking me seven weeks to get to a third level support person like Sai. During that time I heard the work “No” so many times I was hearing it in my sleep. Before reaching Sai, I had to deal with so many people at Dell like Brandy, a supervisor at Dells phone directory where she blatantly and very gruffly refused to place me on hold (given my circumstances and the facts that for ten days I kept being bounced between Dell Hardware Support and Dell Software Support because they saw the problem as one or the other and not both, like it truly is) and ask her boss if she could call direct for a supervisor in Software Support to take my call and assist in getting the appropriate person to support my needs. She told me over and over that she didn’t care about my problems, my only two options were to allow her to place me in the queue for Software Support (which I’d spend the previous ten days in that hell with no answers just blind transfers over to Hardware Support because they didn’t or couldn’t support my issue that was both hardware and software related (Trend Micro’s TMProxy.exe file is conflicting with the Dell Wireless drivers and causing a Vista system crash)). Wonderful Brandy doesn’t deserve to be considered a Manager because she has no concept of Customer Service, but I found more people like Brandy at Dell then I found that ever tried to understand or sincerely help. Management at Dell and Trend Micro have forgotten why they are in business. Yes they sell hardware and software, but CUSTOMERS purchase those products and Customer Service is a mandatory part of selling any product and services.

Seven weeks and four days my problems have persisted and even gotten worst after Sai made changes last Friday to my wireless network settings. Sanja at Trend Micro not knowing Microsoft Vista stepped me through formatting my hard drive and didn’t know what he was doing when he did it. That was the only time Trend Micro got me a supervisor after Sanja formatted my hard drive and I lost two weeks worth of work and two weeks worth of edits to my manuscript. Sanja was shocked and dumb struck when he found that Vista does not have the same abilities he was expecting in Microsoft XP, and he was stunned at the outcome, but had he worked with Vista before me, he would have known what he was telling me to do was not right.

I will never do business with either the Dell Corporation or Trend Micro ever again. My refusal is more based on deplorable customer service. When I had continued problems and my numerous requests for supervisor intervention continued to be denied, and then I was denied access to anyone in their senior management teams; why should I ever trust that company that obviously doesn’t care about my needs with support by purchasing their products? These policies at customer service companies should tell every consumer that if I cannot receive management assistance when I deem it necessary, that the company doesn’t deserve my patronage.

I wrote this second post because I am tired, just like many of you are, in the insidious means that companies try to deliver customer service. They want to insulate themselves as far away from their customers as they can, but yet they need us customers to keep them in business. Something in the mentality of how they do business must change in order for them to remain. If they refuse to change their customer service focus back to their customers, they don’t deserve to remain in business. I would rather the Dell Corporation fail and another manufacturer produce computer products, software and services rather than continue to deal with companies like Dell and Trend Micro who refuse to work with their customers. You cannot treat the ones you need to feed you, with distain and expect to continue being fed. You must respect who you’re there to help and those are the people that paid for the privilege by buying your products and services.

Good customer service doesn’t mean give me exactly what I want when I want it, but it does mean meeting my needs within reason. If I feel I am not receiving what I require, I should always have the opportunity to request help from higher management, up to and including the President’s Office if necessary. The Dell Corporation and Trend Micro both refused to allow me any access to anyone within their Senior Management Teams. I was even told by Sai at Dell that if I write to the corporate office, he will get my letter. Since I don’t feel Sai has given me appropriate support, I should be aloud to speak with someone above him who can determine how the Dell Corporation should respond. The Trend Micro Company also denied me escalations and won’t even return my calls.

BEWARE IN BUYING FROM DELL or TREND MICRO!!!

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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What Does Tomorrow Hold Sunday, Apr 12 2009

12^th of April 2009

What Does Tomorrow Hold for You

Much has been made lately of the end of the world or if you are religious, “End of Days”. While I sense changes in the lives of many within this country and in the world; I sincerely cannot attest to what that transformation truly is.

For most this manner of thinking is unfathomable. Some would even consider me crazed or delusional for entertaining such rubbish. It has me thinking about my life and that led me to wonder; how many would die in peace if today were your last day? Regardless of when our demise comes or how our passing arrives; what matters more is if it happened at this moment, would you have regrets? Would you leave people behind who knew that you loved them?

I care little if you are religious, atheist or what your personal ideologies may be; I only care that you honestly find peace within your own heart and a love for yourself. That sounds like a simple focus that some will say, “but of course, doesn’t everybody?” The answer to that would be “No, not everybody is at peace and even less love themselves purely. If you sincerely find that either is your fate, your waking tomorrow gives you another day in which to change that outcome and establish what is true.

If tomorrow comes and it is not your last day, look yourself in a mirror and see all that there is to witness. Take a good look of the physical presence that you grace others with and behold how you present yourself to the world. Are you ashamed of your looks? Do you think yourself unworthy, ugly, fat or simply consider your facade to be plain. My first question of you that should make one think deeply: if you do not see what is special about you, why should anyone else? If you cannot see the beauty, the strength and the heart and soul that is buried within your physique, how do you expect anyone else too?

We most often expect of others what we do not accept from ourselves. Why is that? How can we believe that someone else will see the physical beauty within me if I cannot see it? Regardless of how you were raised and what was taken from you as you grew up, if you wish anyone else to see you for the person that you truly are; you must first see yourself the same way. If you cannot see that you are so much more than just physical form, then how can anyone else see beyond that which you present to them?

People are far more perceptive then we give them credit for. We see wafer thin people in magazines, on televisions and advertising this product or that, but we were each made differently and that is what makes each of us great. We cannot all be Michael Angelo’s David or the Greek Venus de Milo. But we can all be exactly who we are…and be both proud and happy with the reflection that stairs back of us from that mirror is exactly what it should be. Start tomorrow by finding LOVE for ONES SELF first, and then you may just find the love you always wanted to have for others.

To find PEACE within yourself means taking each day as it comes and doing the best that you can. It will be difficult for so many who live with Ego as the main trust in their lives. Ego can be an amazing tool when someone is trying to survive. Most people do not understand that ego can be both awe inspiring and deflating. There is positive ego that inflates your presence to be larger than it actually is. There is negative ego that can drain the very life force from within you. Ego can be simultaneously both as a person presents themselves to the world being larger than they really are; while within their mind they see themselves as far more minuscule. To truly find PEACE, you must set ego aside and accept you for the person you truly are. That sounds difficult, but it may be easier than you know.

Peace comes from treating everybody else just as you wish to be treated (with Love, Honor and Respect). It is important that you realize truly how others must be treated. Some of us do not see that we deserve to be anything other than what we are within our own minds… and yet, we have no self image, no pride and no LOVE for who we truly can be. If we take each day with every encounter and sincerely treat each person as we wish to be treated; with respect regardless of our differences; then we will be ready to die a full and cherished life.

Let me know how I may help you find the Peace and Love within your own heart so that when ever your last day comes; you too may know that you are loved, that you have loved and that the true essence of your being may rest in peace.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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The Failure of Corportate America Friday, Apr 10 2009

09 April 2009

The Continued Failure of Corporate America
with Customer Service

I am writing this blog while I wait on the phone with the Dell Corporation on the other side. I’ve spent six weeks trying to garner support with problems on my new Dell Notebook computer with Dell Technical Support and while I am in the midst of this nightmare, it strikes me that this is one of the exact reasons so many companies within the United States are failing.

Corporate America has abused it customers for far too long. They care more about the bottom line and stock prices, that they cut every corner in order to increase profits and in turn deliver the worst customer service to its consumers. The American Auto Industry is feeling the affects of building sub-standard vehicles and then treating their clientele like crap when they bring their cars in for service. When a person spends fifteen, twenty, thirty, forty and even fifty thousand dollars on a car and two years later it sounds like it’s falling apart, they deserve better for their money.

Too many of our American Companies have been shipping jobs over seas in hopes of improving their profit margins without a care to what they were doing to the American people they sell their products too. We are the largest group of purchasers produced by any company in the world, yet one hundred percent of the companies that produce those American products manufacture them outside of the United States. Then when you need help because something is not right with the product or the support, your call on is taken care of outside of this country by a person in another country. The Dell Corporation has support mostly in Indonesia and while it is excellent support; these American Companies market their products to us, but they are made and supported by people outside of this country. That would not be a bad thing because investing in developing countries is wonderful for them and for the United States; but not when here in the United States we have the worst unemployment since the Great Depression. When a company invest in the people they market their products too, those people turn around and support the company they work for and get paid by.

Again we see how the American Corporation driven by greed and disgust where they care solely for their bottom lines as apposed to the people who built their companies so strong. Six weeks ago I bought a new Dell Notebook computer from Bestbuy stores. The new system had everything I wanted and while there was a very comparable HP notebook with all the same features for fifty dollars less than mine, the Dell offered a six hour batter life, which for the presentations that a software project manager must do, I paid the extra money for the vast battery life.

I immediately spent the next two my old computer onto the new one. I spent days importing everything onto the new system and ensuring that everything was perfect while I persisted with my new contract assignment. It wasn’t three days into my new system that I ran into problems. The next day the same issues, so I called Bestbuy and explained I didn’t have time to waist with their technical support, I just wanted to replace this notebook with another one from the store. They really didn’t want too, but the store manager understood my predicament and agreed to do so. I exchanged the systems and stayed up all night installing applications and transferring data again.

Two days later I continue to experience the same problem the other notebook had. I called Bestbuy support and all they would do is to take the notebook away from me for days to weeks with no real ability to determine what was causing the problems. Because I needed this system to be operational, I tried calling Dell Technical Support only to be told by the Indonesian support personnel that I didn’t have support on this system and that I could obtain support by paying for it. It didn’t matter that I had just purchased the computer and they refused to get me a manager. After days of working all day only to come home and spending hours wasting away trying to get support from online at (www.support.dell.com) and by calling Dell Support only to be told how I had no support on this computer and that support doesn’t transfer with second hand purchases. It took me over a week to understand that the Indonesian support personnel don’t know major retailers inside the United States, so here they are thinking I bought this computer from a friend, or worst stole it from the company I use to work at. I start calling the third party software manufacturer (Trend Micro) because they developed the software Trend Micro Internet Security 2009 that was preinstalled by Dell and is why the computer cost me fifty dollars more than the comparable HP notebook that I convinced my roommate to buy for himself.

The crutched of the problem is that Trend Micro Internet Security forces all internet traffic on the computer to go through their proxy software (TMProxy.exe). The proxy software is conflicting with the wireless drivers that are necessary to run the Dell notebooks wireless services. Because of the conflict, the system will crash if I am using any wireless network at all, but everything will work fine if I run on a wired network like in my office.

Trend Micro kept saying this was a Dell issue and at first refused to even talk with me saying, “you are the first to bring this situation to our attention (even though I have the crash dump files and the Vista logs showing the crashes).” It took me two weeks and finally yelling at them before they would even support the issue, but after a week, they walked me into formatting my hard drive without my prior consent or knowledge and because they did, it cost me weeks work and edits on my manuscript that were not backed up. Now, they won’t take my calls nor will Trend Micro give me to a manager in their organization so that I may complain about their hideous support.

At this point and time I’ve had my problem for four weeks and I’m angry, upset and tired. I can’t get support from Bestbuy, Dell or Trend Micro and these are three examples of American companies selling their products to Americans, yet their support is all over-seas. They won’t escalate a call to management and all hide their corporate offices information because they don’t want any customer calling their President’s Offices with complaints like, “I can’t get support!” All the while they want to yell themselves and go to the American Government like General Motors and Chrysler has done demanding billions in hand outs when they themselves have caused their own problems.

Every American Corporation should post to the own web sites phone numbers, addresses and email addresses for all of their top executives. This way when a person like me has an issue and cannot get appropriate customer service or technical support; the customer has a phone number and email address to escalate the situation. If they truly wish to improve their customer support, they will publish this information for disgruntled customers to escalate any issue when the normal means are not sufficient, but I can guarantee you not one of these three companies or any other corporation in the United States will take such drastic position, because they know they will be inundated with calls and emails due to such horrific services that are rendered by their own company.

I finally called back to Dell and when I was told I had to pay for support again, I yelled and threw one hell of a fit and finally they gave me to a manager. The first manager hung up on me, because how dare I be angry and excited after four weeks of hell trying to get support on a growing issue. I called back and called back and called back until finally one manager realized that I actually should be given support and what a huge mistake the Dell Corporation was making by denying me again and again. He transferred the support from the Bestbuy stores to me personally and apologized for their error and then placed me into a true Hell.

I thought for a brief moment that once I got to technical support I would get somewhere and my problems would be resolved; boy was I kidding myself. Two weeks now I have been transferred from one department to another to another and even another. Ninety-five percent of those transfers were blind transfer and I would have to tell my story all over again and again and again. Please while you are in this process of deceptive attempts at support, you the customer should never get upset, because that will only get you hung up on time and time again by those who don’t care to hear your rants or raves. When I did get to hardware support they pointed the finger at software support and blind transferred me over to them. Software support would point the finger at hardware support and at times both of them would say I had to go to Trend Micro because it is their product and therefore their problem, not that of the Dell Corporation. Trend Micro was pointing their finger at Dell saying it was obviously their problem and all the while I am not aloud to get angry, ask for escalation to a manager or dare don’t even think of getting to someone in the Corporate Offices for any of the three companies, because that just gets you hung up on.

After two weeks of this exact process, I blow up and yell and rant and rave over such deplorable support, but it still doesn’t get me to anyone at Dell Corporate, Trend Micro Corporate or even Bestbuy’s Corporate Offices. These companies wonder why the American people have a problem supporting them in troubled times like these, and yet six weeks I’ve been trying to get help with their products and software and I can’t get anyone at any of the companies to help.

When Corporate American pulls their head out of their asses long enough to see by not hiring American employees, there are no incentives for the American people to buy their products. When the bottom line and corporate profits are more important than the customer or the employee; companies like Dell, Trend Micro and Bestbuy will continue to see their revenues shrink and rightfully so. We the American Public are angry at being told consumerism is a bad thing, but buy our products. We are tired of supporting a company that treats us, the customer, like crap and as if we don’t matter. We are tired of the companies we are bailing out by the billions, bringing job after job over-seas while receiving tax benefits, discounts and all the while we can’t feed our families because there are no jobs here within our boarders. Corporate America, you want our support and our money to keep you going; then you need to start caring as much about us as you want us to care about you. That means create a support environment that actually supports its customers. When a customer asks for an escalation, then get the manager or even the corporate officer that is necessary to deal with the problem. It means accepting accountability for the customer and the fact that they just bought your products and services and therefore deserves to be treated with respect (even if they may not give it to you). With many of our largest companies filing for bankruptcy every day, each and every company needs to thank each of their customers and employees for making them survive. The Dell Corporation, Trend Micro and Bestbuy needs to be aware that they are only one customer away from bankruptcy or salvation and it is their customers and their employees that make each day they remain in business possible.

I still don’t have a resolution to my notebook issue and at this point in time, I personally won’t ever buy from Dell, Bestbuy or Tren Micro ever again. I’ve been treated horribly and every time at Dell I ask to speak with their Corporate Office, I’m told “No” and “I don’t have a number, but you can send them a letter”. It exemplifies the horrendous support and customer service that has gotten so many American Companies in the bad shape that they now find themselves….and they sit in their board rooms wondering why?

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Is The Economic Stimulus Bill Good for the United States Thursday, Feb 5 2009

3^rd of February 2009

Is the Economic Stimulus Plan Good for the United States

The United States Congress is weighting a bill that the US House of Representative’s passed. The Stimulus Plan that President Obama has been pushing since before his inauguration, has me greatly perplexed and wondering when the Change in Washington is going to take place!

I agree that the stimulus package won’t cure the waning US economy; however, it is a good first step towards stimulating growth. That does not mean that I place my support behind this stimulus plan. Our glorious House of Representatives have conducted Washington business as usual when they shackled this stimulus bill with a ton of PORK (junk that has nothing to do with the original bill, but that Representatives and Senators wish to hide in a bill that has greater opportunities to pass).

I have always respected and enjoyed Representative Pelosi for her straight talk and ability to withstand the Good ole Boy’s Network in Washington, but when I watched her on C-Span try to justify additions to this bloated stimulus bill, she lost credibility. We need Washington to put forth only those bills without any PORK. Vote on a separate bill for Smithsonian funding, for sex education and for abortion funding. Let those bills withstand their merits by themselves and focus our attentions on each subject matter per bill. It is a sad day when the House of Representatives and the Senate can drown any good bill with trash used to burden that bill down or pass unnecessary legislation. This is what I believe President Obama spoke about when he said, “I will change how Washington does business.”

President Obama, I feel this stimulus bill is important for the average American. We as tax payers have bailed out so many corporations that don’t even appreciate the billions of dollars we have given. Now it is our turn to help save our houses, pay for increases or longer terms for unemployment allowances, as well as funds that will help small to medium size businesses grow. This bill needs to put America back to work as soon as possible, not be swamped with unnecessary junk that needs a free pass. This bill has enormous implications in how long America will be out of work and how many lives are ruined by a disastrous economy. All of the PORK that has been added by the House of Representatives needs to be removed. If it has no ability to help grow the economy or pay for those that are unemployed or underemployed, it needs to be deleted. If the House or the Senate refuses to remove wasted and unwanted PORK from the bill, Mr. President, you need to deny signing this bill and ask for one that just focuses on stimulating our economy.

As for Mrs. Pelosi and every member of the House of Representatives that added crap to this bill in hopes of a smooth passage; shame on you. Each of you needs to be concerned with your next term in office. Citizens of the United States are watching and we are angry with frivolous spending, poor management, unnecessary spending and we are demanding you change your ways or get out!

WASHINGTON NEEDS TO CHANGE – now

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Rush Limbaugh is Wrong Thursday, Jan 29 2009

27^th of January 2009

Rush Limbaugh is Wrong

I am the first person to say even when I don’t agree with the sentiments; radio personalities have the right to say what they believe to be true. However, when the message is a bought and paid for message that is over flowing with hate, it should be stopped. Rush Limbaugh hasn’t given our newly elected President a chance to breath, much less to factually find a reason to hate the man; but that hasn’t stopped him from calling for a boycott against the Presidency of the United States and any policy presented from it.

Rush, you’ve gone too far. I didn’t care of our last President, but after he won his first election, I gave the man a chance to prove himself positively or negatively. In my opinion, George Bush was a puppet idiot that decimated this countries economy to pay back his daddy’s corporate crony friends who paid to elect George W Bush. Rush wants us to believe that President Obama is going to destroy this country, but I what want to know Rush….what is left for him to destroy.

The problem is when men in positions of authority or positions that grant them an audience use that ability to do harm as apposed to doing some good. This country is at a pivotal point and we need to stop the partisan politics and once in for all unite. I don’t care if that is to unite behind the man who currently occupies the Presidency or behind Mr. Obama the man. We need people in positions such as you, Mr. Limbaugh, who will openly speak to unite America and bring these two opposing sides together, not to undermined, stir up dissention, scare people into believing that hell is about to open up in the country that is known as the United States of America.

We have some very serious problems that will continue to worsen if we don’t find a way to set aside our differences and move in a common direction. That won’t happen when big mouth, hate filled bigots like you – Rush Limbaugh pushes his own private agenda that is authored by the very self serving corporate interest that destroyed this country over the past eight years.

The problem adds to this scenario when the press is questioning whether Rush is the new face of the Republican Party. We must have a two party system for balance, but Mr. Limbaugh, if you are the new face of the Republican Party, it is the same face they’ve used the past eight years and I would have thought that the message of hate and segregation with the sole intention of never allowing the populace to organize positively unless it is behind you; that this message would get it’s speaker in trouble. But I guess Rush, you think all of your listeners are just dumb idiots like the last President was. That your listeners will just follow any voice that guilts or goads the listeners with fear and loathing with the intention designed to scare them into action is fine by you.

I have more faith in the American people than you do Mr. Limbaugh or that the Republican Party does. I have faith that the next four years will be spent repairing not only our failing economic hardships, waist and corruption, but finding a way for people to accept each other regardless of our differences. Now I know that won’t be what you like, because it means they won’t be listening as intently to your narrow minded focus as they have over the past four years. I have faith that eventually even someone as harsh and narrow minded as you are, that even you will turn your hate on himself eventually and start looking within to change instead of trying to change the world to look, act and be just like you. The greatest thing about this country is that we are all different human beings, free to express ourselves as we like…and that is fine by me. I can have trust in another man even though he doesn’t trust in me. I can love another human being, even though he hates me…and I can support the man who occupies the Presidency of the United States even when I don’t agree with everything he does. I’m a big enough man to do so, even though you are not!

America Needs Uniting – Not Dividing

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Holiday Wish of Peace & Love to All Monday, Dec 22 2008

22^nd of December 2008

Holiday Wish of Peace & Love to All

It is a mute point if you are religious, atheist, Buddhist, Pagan or if you have yet to decide on an ideology by which to live ones life. On the 25^th of December, may the world revolve with PEACE at its core, Love for all and Joy unto each who inhabit this planet!

Politics, philosophy and ideologies are irrelevant to the peace we wish upon every living soul. Forgive all those who have ill-treated you on this day and ask that they find unconditional love in their hearts. Find it within you to give LOVE, so that it dispenses to you in abundance.

Peace is the season; Love is our future…start 2009 wrapped in the warmth of those, the greatest gifts we may grant to all others….

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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A Barium Enema for the American Auto Industry Thursday, Dec 11 2008

11^th of December 2008

A Barium Enema for the American Auto Industry

I am the first person to say that we must not allow the American Auto Industry to fail! It would have devastating consequences to an already shattered economy with ramifications throughout the world.

Because of that statement, you might think that I am all for the bill passed by the House of Representatives, but has stalled in the Senate. This bill provides low-interest loans to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler; however, that would be an incorrect assumption. It is right for the Senate to stall this bill and it was wrong for the House of Representatives to pass it so irrespective of agreed upon plans with how the auto makers will prevent major job losses, unemployment rates from climbing substantially and the US Tax Payer from loosing billions that would be squandered by management only in to increase their already prevalent elitist status.

Not one of the big three auto makers delivered any substantial plan during the committee hearings, giving the American people assurances or security for the future of these companies. Executives from each company flew on private jets, rode in luxury limousines, and ate at the finest establishments without regard to thousands of people who are counting on their jobs for tomorrow. It deeply saddens me because history has taught us and the world, that when the United States is the under-dog, when we have everything to loose and the struggle for gain seems to be beyond our grasp; that is when we excel the most. I know it sounds harsh, but when the United States is riding on the wind, we do foolish things as we have the past eight years. However, when we are in a struggle for our very lives; that is when we flourish for not just ourselves, but for everyone around us.

The millionaires who manage the auto industry have no clue what it is to struggle. They have been with such luxurious means for a long time that effort isn’t about loosing a single home; because they have five others. So, before the auto industry wishes for the Senate and the American people to supply billions of dollars to bail them out, come to us with a plan that includes some of the follow:

1. Sell all corporate jets. If you own your own private jet, you may use it, but the reimbursement for that flight would be only what a first class ticket would have cost and nothing more.
2. Give up your hundred-thousand dollar car allowance that places you inside luxury automobiles that aren’t even built by the car companies you manage. I agree that all senior executives deserve a car allowance for your time and efforts, but that means driving one of the very vehicles that is produced within your plants and sold to your customers. I’m not talking about a Cadillac or Corvette Mr. GM; instead I mean you should be driving a Chevy Impala or similar. I don’t mean a new Chevy or GM automobile every week or month, but to spend six months to a year in each automobile. Better yet, drive one that is two years old, so that by the time that vehicle hits its twenty-four to thirty-six month anniversary date and starts to rattle, sounding like its falling apart that you know exactly what the customers who invested in one of your cars feels like. If you wish to improve the quality of your cars, drive them to see why people are flocking to Honda, Toyota, BMW and other better built and better maintained automobiles.
3. The entire executive officers should be spending a minimum of twenty percent of their time on the factory floor. Yes, Chrysler President, get your butt, out of your thousand dollars tailored suit, put on the gloves that are needed for welding, and spend an eight to twelve hour day on the floor doing the job. Work shoulder-to-shoulder with the person doing the job and talk with them. Get to know their stories, just as you post your biography on the company web site. You want to hear about innovation; try listening to the person doing the job for twenty years. You want to find out what makes a difference in building the next car, listen to the woman who has three children and an elder parent that she must earn enough money to support says about doing her job. Get your butts out of the office and work with the ones you count on to do the daily job!
4. Reduce your salaries by at least twenty percent or more. The President, CEO, CFO’s and all senior management teams should give up fifty percent or more of their salaries. When I say that, I am the first to acknowledge there must be an incentive, so increase the stock options each executive will receive. Establish bonuses that will be paid out not as golden parachutes, but paid in the two to three year period based on achieving the objectives that you manage too. No other bonuses are paid until those objectives in the established time should be paid or received.
5. Develop and publish a solid plan and show your progress openly on your web sites to the American people. A plan that every America citizen can follow. You want my tax dollars and my support; then I’m one of your shareholders and I expect a plan and progress reports weekly on your web sites. Reports that may be verified by a governing committee that we the people choose, not just the United States Government chooses. If you default on your plan, you loose all stock options that we the people hold as collateral for the loan you must repay.
6. Place a chuck of preferred stock in the name of the American people…not the US Government. The American people are the ones providing your bail-out money and are the new shareholders that you must report too. You get our money and receive a two to three year deferment on repayments. That time is giving you an effective amount of time in order to re-organize and produce cars the way you should have been doing the past twenty years. If you don’t make one of the payments when they are due, that stock is forfeited and can only be repurchased at a much later date. The US Government will also hold the titles and deeds on land, factory and equipment as collateral securing the debt you will owe the American people. Default on the loan and we have the right to take the plants, equipment and maintain them with building the same cars you currently build at them.
7. Open the sale process of automobiles. I mean the twenty thousand dollar car that should have been selling at fifteen thousand is over priced. The invoice should show exactly what the cost of building that car and what it cost you the manufacturer for every option on the vehicle. An honest profit margin shown on the invoice for every car should be listed on each invoice. Me, the consumer should be aloud to pick and choose only those options I wish on my car. A just-in-time sales and inventory as apposed to placing millions of dollars in incentives to the dealers for holding inventory and then selling that inventory. Streamline the sales and pricing process for each automobile. Also give me, the consumer, a way to buy your car direct from you without the necessity of a dealer if I so choose. Many will still want a dealer, while others will choose to buy direct and save thousands of dollars added by dealer fees and services.
8. Break all contracts with suppliers, dealers and vendors. All of you have locked suppliers, dealers and vendors into only dealing with you. This is a free market economy and if you want our money, open up the process for a part manufacturer to be bid on by others. Also allow that vendor to make parts for other companies and not just beholden to you. Allow dealers to sell your cars, as well as others manufacturer vehicles, because if you build the best car, that is what the people will buy.
9. In two years from the day you receive our money, you promise to deliver ten percent of your vehicles with a MPG of forty or greater. Three years that number should increase too fifteen percent or more of the automobile offerings, but with an additional five percent of your cars making better than fifty MPG. Within four years of that loan being received, you must provide the American public with automobile alternatives making greater than sixty MPG or with alternative fuels. Each year the numbers must increase until the bulk of your fleet of vehicles are making better than fifty MPG with some upwards of one hundred MPG.
10. There should be many other requirements, but this is a good start to what you must do to receive my money and my continued support.

To the Unions:

You are not without fault in this situation. I am the first to say that Unions were a necessity in the tens, twenties and thirties of this country; however, you are part of the growing problem and like the executives must trim your position. There isn’t a company in the United States where the employees do not pay for part of their health care. In most companies, employees pay upwards of thirty percent or greater towards their health care. That fact that the Insurance industry is one of the most corrupt in the world and is out of control is a complete side issue; because they are, health insurance is the greatest expense by every company in the United States. You must share in that cost just as every other employee must do. I submit that all unions be placed on hold for a time period of three years. That the pay rate for those three years be equal too the average pay received by the workers for those auto manufacturers that are not unionized. If the Line Forman at Toyota, Nissan, Kia and Mitsubishi is fifteen dollars; then that is what the Line Forman for Ford, GM and Chrysler should be as a pay rate. Before you yell, think about it this way; fifteen dollars per hour is far greater than zero, because if Ford, GM or Chrysler fold, that is what you will be making.

I know there will be many sacrifices that workers must make, but if we keep Ford, GM and Chrysler in business; then you keep your jobs and benefits. It will take you helping management decide how to build a better, more efficient car. It will take improving on what you do and how you do it, so that “Made in America” becomes a symbol of pride once more. Help the American people by helping your company to survive, flourish and grow.

House of Representative – Mr. Barney Frank:

Sit your fat, flatulent ass down from pontificating and espousing your point of view over saving the Auto Industry. You are the worst kind of politician, BOUGHT and PAID FOR! I was once your constituent in Massachusetts, and I remember the day you came into the Metropolitan Gym on Columbus Avenue in the Southend of Boston. A very gay gym, but in all of your visits, you never seemed to make it out of the steam room or sauna (which were very cruisie at the time and where many guys went for blow jobs and hand jobs). You were changing in the locker room with a towel wrapped around your fat ass, when I had a problem with my student loans. I excused myself and asked you a question. You never allowed me to complete my question, you flew into a tirade about, “you voted in the Republican Party, so don’t ask me for help with your problems until you vote in the Democratic Party again.” You said some other things and stormed off before I could close my mouth, much less correct the fact that I voted for you and a Democratic Senator, in that year’s election, I did not vote for one Republican. You are only behind this because the auto industry has lobbied you and I am sure, paid for your services in some manner. I don’t care what it is you think you’re doing, SHUT YOUR MOUTH until you can actually lead the American people with facts that are not tainted by money and greed!

Congress needs to re-evaluate the current bailout, establishing some guidelines that prevent the executives at Ford, GM and Chrysler from using our money for privileges like corporate jets, trips to islands or even functions that cost thousands to millions. Establish some parameters that if Ford wants to take all of the executives somewhere, that they ask permission and that the American people aren’t paying for things like we have for AIG. The US Senate should only pass this bill when those added line items I’ve listed above are considered.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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The Meaning of Christmas Tuesday, Dec 9 2008

14^th of December 2007

The Meaning of Christmas

The true meaning of Christmas should always bring a smile to your face and peace in your heart. During the holidays, a grin is used by people who normally scowl. A gift is left by those who normally expect to receive. The feel of snow as it coats the ground, the sound of a roaring fire that warms your cold extremities, the sweet taste of roasting nuts and the smell of winter green wafting through the air from the trees filling the air like a blanket draping over a cold body on a frosty night. Your ears hear the sounds of music from carolers as you shop for Christmas goodies at every turn and your senses feel the harmony floating in the air each day closer to this one time of year.

Anything that brings peace to three quarters of the world, even if only for one day, is worthy of everyone living among the souls present today.

Christmas = WORLD PEACE

Christmas may be a Christian holiday, but when peace is abounding the world around, the holiday should be celebrated weather you call it Christian or call it a day of PEACE.

I celebrate Christmas in a very special way; by paying homage to my Great Grandpa Lalka. I do so by repeating the acts of kindness he performed later in his years. Helping those who needed a guiding hand while simultaneously keeping my great grandpa’s legacy alive is giving new meaning to Christmas every year that I am able to place a smile on the face of a child who might otherwise go without a blessing on this day.

Great Grandpa Lalka (Paul Lalka), his family (sons, daughters, brothers and sisters) lived in the Washington (Tacoma) Valley area after moving from Czechoslovakia. My great grandpa had a coal business and his brothers owned various stores like a shoe cobbler, a furniture maker and each had his own farm. Because of their businesses, they knew the families in the region who needed a little extra help. In the old country, the family trade was carving and all of the Lalka men whittled. They would fashion toys year round and put together a basket of food to accompany the toys for each needy family. These baskets were left on the doorsteps of homes on Christmas Eve awaiting the children the on Christmas day. Continuing the legend of Santa Clause was but a secondary thought, but isn’t it an amazing legacy to carry forward.

The Lalka family persisted to give year after year eventually garnering attention to their generosity happening throughout the Washington Valley. As word spread of their good deeds, my great grandpa took on a new persona for himself and in his duplicitous nature; he felt he needed a suite that exemplified his role. He and his brothers created an authentic Santa Suite.

They used crush red velvet for the jacket, pants and the hat. My great grandpa trapped rabbits and used the white fur to line the lapel of the jacket, the cuffs of the sleeves and the brim of the hat. One brother created a very wide belt and another made a huge brass buckle and hand carved buttons for the jacket. My great grandpa didn’t need any padding; he had just enough of his own. He had thinning snow white hair with a long naturally flowing beard.

The family lineage dates back to the fourteenth century and was not our original surname. The last name Lalka was given to the family by a princess as an ancestor walked in to a small village during her visit. As he waited to meet the Princess, she was taken by his alabaster skin, rosy red cheeks, beautiful eyes and striking good looks. She called him lalka meaning doll because she thought he was as beautiful as a doll. The name was taken by the family to honor the princess. This being said, great grandpa Lalka had alabaster skin with rosy red cheeks and a crimson nose. He was the epitome of Santa Clause with the suite that portrayed the jolly man within.

My great grandpa was offered money by every major department store on the North West coast, but he reserved his gifts for those who truly needed them and pandering money to perform acts of kindness was not his motivation. I was honored to have found his legacy and more so to feel the desire to continue keeping it alive. When Great Grandpa passed away, he was given tribute by every major news paper on the North West coast with many reserving front page headlines such as the one in the Seattle Tribune, “Santa Clause has Died”!

No one could know that this simple man born in to the meager means of a Czechoslovakian family would have such a positive impact on so many lives. He was a real man who made many mistakes, but giving true love to those who needed it was not one of his misgivings. Striving to be just a little more like my Great Grandpa on a daily basis is what Christmas means to me.

While I know it is a Christian holiday, it has pagan roots, but more importantly, when any one day can bring peace and serenity to three-quarters of the world, it deserves to be shared and enjoyed by all. I don’t care if it is referred too via any other name, but enjoy the day – share in the enlightenment of the moment and give freely to those who don’t share your gifts.

More importantly, for those parents who wish to teach their children of the true meaning of Christmas…ask your child to give just one toy of their choosing to a child in need. Show them by example with donations to charities who help the less fortunate or something as simple as donating your time to feed the homeless. Children learn when we aren’t teaching. They learn more by our examples then any lesson we choose to teach. Lessons on compassion and what it truly means to give will do so much in the way of extending the legacy of Santa Clause or someone more down to earth like Paul Lalka.

Christmas is meant to be shared and enjoyed by all and to me that is giving to someone who might otherwise go without. Spread the Christmas Joy and extend this message to all you know and love.

May each and every one reading this be over-come with Love and Peace for the holidays, and each and every day you believe in my message. Thank you for sharing in my meaning of Christmas and may it give you meaning within your life too.

~~ Warmest wishes for everyone on this day and every day to come~~

Your humble servant – Todd M. Dobson

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Are All Christian’s Haters: Response to Neil Friday, Nov 21 2008

20^th of November 2008

Are All Christian’s Haters: Response to Neil

Hello Neil and thank you for reading my post. I’ve had a number of people send me emails and comments that have made the exact challenges that you do, but after spending a little time on your site, you are the perfect example of a Christian, that needs to come down off the pedestal you’ve placed yourself on. You believe because you deem yourself a CHRISTIAN, you know all there is to know about salvation!

Being a Christian is a wonderful thing and something that each Christian should celebrate, but under no circumstances does it mean that you (the Christian) are superior to anyone else in society. Regardless of our beliefs, everyone is exactly the same as everyone else. People are tired of the general, stereotypical stance that if you’re not a Christian, then you are somehow less of a person.

Jesus Christ never denounced anyone. Jesus Christ never picked up a stone in order to cast it at a sinner. Jesus Christ had the ability to raise the dead or kill anyone he felt was unworthy of his grace. He never addressed a crowd of people asking that only those who believed his message, believed in him remain while he snapped his fingers and the rest died on the spot. And for those who have said that my belief that Jesus never denounced anyone is wrong; I ask again, show me when he stood before a person and told them they were wrong, but with this subject of how homosexuality is the antichrist, show me how Jesus denounces homosexuality.

I’m no idiot and I know the bulk of Christianity is simply the flock, following Sheppard’s, but just like everything in this world, some of those Sheppard’s choose to mislead and to guide their flock in horrible directions. One of the worst such redirections was the formation of the Council of Nicaea. It was the easy way out of a difficult situation. Instead of bringing together all faiths, religions and beliefs in one setting to create a way for everyone to respect other ways of life, they chose to create one religion out of many. They forcefully sold Christianity to the world as the church Jesus Christ built. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing, if they adhered to his teachings: Love, Honor & Respect.

So Neil, I had to laugh at your response, because it is such the Christian Cliché! Almost verbatim, exactly how any Right Wing, Christian Coalition personnel would think and believe. Several people who feel as you do, but are not as heartless and demeaning as you’ve stated. It is funny how most Christian does not hate fags; they just believe we are wrong. As much as I would like to say I detest someone like you, with your superior air and smug, polished smile, but I feel for you as I do for all people; I wish you UNCONDITIONAL LOVE and FORGIVENESS, which are the two things you and much of the Christian world won’t give to me or any other homosexual.

Unlike you, we don’t want to be superior, just accepted for who we are and able to live our lives in peace, with love and grace just as you wish for yourself. We don’t wish for anything special, but we do expect what is right and true. You believe you have these words defined by Christian beliefs and because you call yourself a good Christian that you are right and everyone else is wrong. That is your arrogance and is your Achilles heel and that is why you Mr. Neil, will be the last to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Most gays are good, honest, loving people who try to do the right thing and live their lives accordingly. We don’t put Christianity down, we don’t attack your way of life, and we don’t pre-suppose that a book gives us anything other than the right to live our lives. You and many other Christians drew the line in the sand. You misinterpret the Word of God to meet your needs. You pervert the name of Jesus Christ and wish to blame others for the failures that you cannot accept.

So, let’s answer your list:

Prop 8 absolutely denies our rights to share in the same privileges that our founding fathers granted every breathing citizen.

To deny the Right to marry with the over 1900 privileges that come with the ability to wed is a civil issue. You can claim religious exclusion, but because of that simple piece of paper signed in 1776 declaring our independence from an oppressive tyrant, that document granted each of us the vary rights that you wish to with hold.

If the government does not need to regulate marriage as you indicate, why then does the Christian Right have to push through in state after state legal measures like Prop 8, DOMA Bills and other such discriminatory acts with the sole purpose to deny the very rights you claim the government does not need to regulate.

Neil – if I was you, and I am truly sorry that you are you, I would stick with other people who won’t make since of your negative dibble. Please remember that what you send out will come back to you one hundred fold. To all other people, Christian or non-Christians, Love is Love and it is a wonderful thing to share. It is so much better than HATE! Let us love whom we wish, so that all of us may find peace and happiness.

Everyone deserves Love

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

“Homosexuals seeking the freedom to share their love with another person of like sexual preference.”

Prop 8 doesn’t impact that at all, so why use it as an argument?

“I have yet to successfully have any religious zealot explain to me how the marriage of two gay men or two lesbian women threatens the sanctity of the matrimony between a man and a woman.”

I know that the “rights” talk makes for a good sound bite, but what rights are we talking about? The right to relationships? You’ve got them. The right to be married? Uh, sorry, but you already have the right to marry a living being of the opposite sex of the same species under certain conditions (i.e., no incest, bestiality, polygamy or necrophilia). And who are you to pull up the drawbridge after gays get these “rights” and leave the other groups hanging? Do you hate them? Why else would you oppose their rights?

The gov’t has no need to regulate “gay marriage.” By nature and design heterosexual couples produce the next generation, and gay couples can never provide a mother and a father to a child. Why would the gov’t encourage something that can never be the ideal?

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Response to Dancethespears: Freedom from Oppression Starts with Each One of Us Tuesday, Nov 18 2008

17^th of November 2008

Response to Dancethespears:
Freedom from Oppression Starts with Each One of Us

Thank you for reading my words and taking the time to exchange these thoughts with me. I enjoy your reply and hope we may continue a conversation. Please correct any of my historical knowledge with facts that I may research and validate. I will continue learning and if what I believe to be factual is incorrect, I am grateful to any soul who takes the time to offer such training to me.

You point out the dichotomy within my post. It is okay that I find religion a wonderful and powerful focus for the human soul; even though there are aspects of some religious organizations that I disagree with. More specifically, I disagree with certain people’s interpretations that are put forth as factual when they are not. I dislike when passages within books, like the Bible, are taken out of context and the true meanings are misconstrued with the sole purpose of misrepresenting for personal gain.

I believe there is an Almighty God, and thank him daily for his role within my life. I am a gay man and know with ever fiber of my being that I am made in his image, perfect in every way that he crafted me. That being said, I know my sexuality was never a choice. Here is a major point that much of the Christian world will disagree with me about, and it is their frailty, their arrogance and their impunity that slaps them in the face every time. They believe they are made in Gods image, but yet I, the homosexual man, was made as they were and while I choose to live my abhorrent life, they’ve never had to make any choice, they are just perfect. Not one heterosexual person has ever told me the date and time they chose to be straight. I have asked thousands and many will entertain the conversation, however, not one person has been able to point to a time in their life where they chose to be straight. I am that I am, simply stated as their manifesto. So, why do you believe it is different for me? On this subject alone, God never asked me to make a decision, he created me in this life to learn certain lessons, and it may be the best way for me to learn the lessons of this lifetime is brought about by me being gay. The only choices I consciously made were when to accept me for who and what I am; exactly the way God made me and proud to be his son?

It is not God or Jesus Christ who taught Christianity to segregate homosexuals apart from the remainder of society – - man made those choices all on his own. If you wish to be factual about the life of Jesus Christ, not one time that he was faced with what others perceived to be God’s laws and thereby the punitive damages of those who break his laws. Jesus not once allowed his followers to punish as they felt obliged in doing. He countered every harsh word that was cast in judgments, using it as an opportunity to teach Respect of others. When those among him lifted stones to chastise “the SINNER”, Jesus used his words to teach them how to Honor themselves and those indomitable SINNERS. When his followers did not understand why he opposed the religious laws that governed much of the land, he used their examples to teach them how to love the SINNER. Jesus told them to judge not, but that is what some Christians do when they say that Homosexuality is a Sin and we must cast out the SINNER! I must repeat that Jesus told his parishioners whenever they took a stances against those who broke God’s Commandments or the religious based laws of the time; Love, Honor and Respect the man who has failed himself in hopes that he will find his way towards the light. When did Jesus Christ himself ever denounce Homosexuality – - NEVER!!! In fact, during his trip to Rome, he was approached by a high ranking Roman Solider who requested that while he was not worthy, would Jesus save the life of his male slave. Jesus knew that this young man was not just the servant of the soldier, but his sexual companion. Did Jesus tell the valiant man NO! You are a sinner, a faggot and are thereby unworthy? Jesus simply asked to follow him to his house where he performed a miracle saving the life of a HOMOSEXUAL MAN who LOVED and Served another man.

My point with this story is that while religion is an amazing part of every person’s life, it is those followers who interpret the word of God for their own making, that need to fear judgment. Jesus said that Christianity and Governments were not good partners, that they were both corrupt and united would be absolute corruption. That has not stopped many Christian organizations from trying to influence and even purchasing their own President or to influence world leaders. Jesus also said, those who call themselves saved will be the last to enter into the kingdom of heaven! The vary people who say that they serve God’s work while they oppress homosexuals, denounce others for their sins and pass judgments against you and me; they will be the last ones to enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is not God who denounces me or my kind; it is the men and women who claim they do so in his name. It is not Jesus who shuns the love two men or two women share; that is done by the men and women who claim to be doing God’s work. I should be welcomed at any church, synagogue or temple; but I must first find the ones who feel I am abhorrent. I should welcome people wishing to share their ministries at my door, but I must first find out if they are actually following his example. If they cannot show me Love, Honor and Respect, then I politely request that they leave.

I personally believe that we are all in this world in the service to God. Even those who claim that they do not believe in him, serve his name in the life that they live. We may call him by a different name, we may dedicate our devotion to deities that were created by him and thereby serve him too. We may even claim to not believe in him at all, but regardless of our faith, we are here in this life to learn those lessons our soul is required to learn. The best way to learn the lessons of this life time may mean it is at my behest to be a non-believer. I have other posts that describe my faith in greater details, but suffice it to say, religion can be an amazing and wonderful focal point for each of us, it is, as everything is, left to the perversions of men to taint, to turn and to lead others down deplorable roads by examples of religions abuses when they oppressed women, oppressed blacks and now in the oppression of homosexuals. Eventually, we will overcome even those who wish us harm and call it the will of God.

As for your ending points, if you jump from a 40 story building, why should God stop you from splattering across the surface of the globe? These are all man made issues that has little to do with God, but he did give us the most amazing gift of all – - FREE WILL. You may choose to leap from the building, you may be the person who creates the tastiest treats for all to eat, that are healthy and good for you. You may choose to eat that which tastes good, but is not good for you. There are freaky jetpacks and if you have the money for the pack and the fuel, I am sure NASA or other such agencies will sell one to you. As for the ability to disagree with religion or God – he gave each one of us the ability to do just that. I disagree less with God then I do the men who brought about the wrong concepts to believe in. God was not one of the 300 in the Council of Nicaea, picking and choosing what chapters to place within the Bible, what holiday we celebrate and why to rejoice in the birth of Jesus Christ at a completely different time from his actual birth. It is what they put together and what came afterwards that perverted Christianity, not God!

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

“Before you send me emails telling how the words in these religious books are righteous words given by God to worthy men and are absolute; let me disarm these arguments immediately. These books are truly great books, however they are written by men. Men are fallible and thereby may have made mistakes during their interpretations and or how they experienced or perceived the word of God.”

Actually, I would wager that most people that are opposed to your position in the way that you write about would disregard your arguments. There are plenty of varied denominations out there that include infallible inspiration in their doctrines.

Also, your history of the canonization of the Bible isn’t exactly accurate.

Furthermore, your entire post rails against the evil of oppressing others. Yet you also claim that religion is a wonderful beautiful thing, and that inherently oppresses people. How is it wonderful and beautiful, but it’s inherent evil inspires an entire post?

Lastly, if religion is correct, and your line of reasoning is correct, then people have quite a bit more to complain about.

Why did God force us to die when we jump of off 40 story buildings? Why do I have to exercise to remain healthy? How come everything tasty seems to be bad for me? And most grievously, it’s 2008 already, where are the freaking jetpacks?!

I don’t mean to poke fun, but if you are upset about one rule that the God of religion imposes on you that you disagree with, then you should be able to disagree with all of them.

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Freedom to Marry – CA Prop 8 is Wrong – Hate is Always Wrong Sunday, Nov 16 2008

27^th of April 2008

Freedom to Marry

The magnitude of this issue has grown so far out of proportion and driven by two sides fearful beyond recognition that the other side will win. Lies and disinformation are the tactics used to cause fear in this battle over rights and privileges that were granted by our founding fathers. Fear tactics have been used to control societies for centuries and with far more precision.

You see, the side of RIGHT will always prevail victoriously when faced with evil and vengeful people. Currently both sides are claiming that they are right and will reign triumphantly, however, only one side may claim success and that side will have truth and courage as its companions.

Rectitude can never be claimed while people are being oppressed. So how can both sides allege virtue as they declare with conviction, that their way of life is being attacked? It doesn’t matter what is cleaved when you force others into subjugation. That which you cling may be a book, but each and every book may be replaced with another claiming to be of more authority than the one before. It behooves the question, how can one grouping of words make such a difference in a war stripping away the very rights and privileges that you hold dear to you and yet would gladly deny others?

Our two opposing sides are the Religious Right, the side of indifference and those Homosexuals seeking the freedom to share their love with another person of like sexual preference. The religious right feels that gay and lesbian people will diminish the love they share with their married spouses. They cleave to their Holy Books (the Bible, the Quran, the Tora and others) quoting verses that they say denounce homosexuality and even more dubiously asserting how marriage is between one man and one woman. I have yet to successfully have any religious zealot explain to me how the marriage of two gay men or two lesbian women threatens the sanctity of the matrimony between a man and a woman.

If anyone can shed light on how the wedding between one man and one woman is shaken to its core if two men or two women are able to also share vows of love, please tell me now! For centuries homosexuals were persecuted as being perverse and sexual predators. It doesn’t matter that according to the psychiatric association 85% of all child molesters are self identified heterosexuals. The gay community is said to recruit others into its midst or that we choose to live this way. The religious right cannot accept that a gay man is born instinctively loving another man. If they acknowledged this to be factual, that would mean God created gay men and lesbian women in his image and therefore perfect just as they are. That would vilify them for stating how homosexuality is wrong.

Before you send me emails telling how the words in these religious books are righteous words given by God to worthy men and are absolute; let me disarm these arguments immediately. These books are truly great books, however they are written by men. Men are fallible and thereby may have made mistakes during their interpretations and or how they experienced or perceived the word of God. While I’m not able to argue against the Tora and Quron; I can assert that the Bible was argued over and constructed by 300 religious leaders and politicians around 325 AD. They chose what chapters make up the New Testament. The Council of Nicaea edited and reorganized what we know as the Old Testament. So how do we validate the authority of the Bible when so many men argued for years over what was to go inside? Even if this argument is not substantial enough to make the most devout Christians wonder, I can then take words that were written in a book twisting them, emphasizing them differently and espousing a completely different set of meanings for the very same phrases. We are not even talking about the interpretations of those words.

Logic tells us that while religion is an amazing and wonderful thing in our lives, it uses and exploits people by oppressing and denying even the most basic rights. Such as the right to love whom you choose to love. I would think since Love is the foundation to the Church Jesus Christ wanted us to be a party too; how can any religion denounce the rights of two people who simply wish to share that love together? What can justify the refusal and the fight against the joyous celebration that two people wish to share?

In two documentaries focusing on each side to this fight, the religious right claims the Bible says marriage is between one man and one woman. I’ve read the Bible from cover to cover and can’t find those words written inside its pages. How can Christianity fear the love two men or two women wish to share?

I can respect an opposing point of view, even though it is against my own. I can admire a person who sees things differently than I do. Good people will find a way to respect an opposing perspective even if they disagree. We are able to live our lives with our own values in deference and honor of each other. I would never try to oppress their thinking (yes I might try to rationalize differing thoughts to my way of thinking); however, I would never denounce their principles because they differ from my own. I can value our differences without oppressing their beliefs based on our dissimilarities because I can live the principles that the Bible stand for – LOVE, HONOR & RESPECT.

No matter what side you reside on, think about the following: how does the love two other people share detract from your own? How can you justify the bigotry held within your heart that perpetuates the denial of two other people and the love they share? How is denying their love going to strengthen your own?

The religious right wants the rest of society to believe that the love two men or two women share degrades the matrimony a man has with his wife. They want everyone to believe that two men or two women cannot make good parents and that marriage is set forth for procreation only. Actually, more than 45% of all people, gay or straight, are unable to reproduce. If you are straight and cannot have children, does that mean you are aberrant, wrong and bad just like gay and lesbian people are? Why then does religion absolve two kids of opposite sex who crawl inside the back seat of a car even before they hold a license to drive, only to share in a single sexual act that produces a child? As long as they don’t have an abortion, they’re forgiven because they’ve proved their heterosexuality. My question is how many gay men are married to women and have children, but slide outside the home several times a month to have sex with other men? Many do – -the numbers are staggering, but two men can’t wed because it will disintegrate the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman. The only thing that can destroy the vows two people take is themselves. There is nothing that can limit what two other people share and there is nothing – I repeat nothing - that can minimize what you share with another human being – - except one of those two people. Two men or two women exchanging vows and living in a loving relationship can in no way diminish the love you share with your wife or husband.

To exasperate the subject further, some see that the denial of these rights is incorrect, but they cannot agree by allowing two men to marry; however they comfort themselves by granting separate rights like domestic partnerships. How can any group be happy with separate but equal rights when there is no equality in what is granted? You cannot marry, but we will let you share in domestic partnerships. There are over 1900 rights that a man and a woman immediately received when they say “I Do”, yet Domestic Partnership only grants some 400 to 600 of those privileges. What are we to do with the number of rights that are denied to the gay community? How is it fair and justified to say we hear your plea for justice and equality only to be granted separate rights that are not and will never be equal? Equal Rights means that each person has exactly the same abilities as every other person!

I must ask again, how can the religious right deny and oppress other human beings if the only thing they fear is fear itself?

Everyone Deserves the Same Rights & Privileges

Let Love Flow Freely

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Be Cautious of the Energy Your Dispel Friday, Nov 14 2008

9^th of November 2008

Be Cautious of the Energy you Dispel

I’ve been espousing for much time now, that something as simple as a thought within your head, pushes forth as energy outward to those surrounding you. This energy will eventually come back to you one hundred fold. This is not an ideology that many people think about daily, however, once you accept the belief that thoughts are energy, it takes little for you to change the way you think.

I am aware of just how easy it is to think that the person who cut you off in traffic after a long day working is a bad person, however, just the thought pushes that energy outbound regardless of it being spoken. Yes, giving words to thoughts will increase the intensity of the energy that was pressed outward, but it starts with a simple thought. Actions give movement, but thinking is action unto itself, so how do we become mindful of our thoughts, so that we create the world we want and not live a life filled with regret?

The principles that I espouse are the same as in “The Secret” or the Laws of Attraction. This is not new, but I want you to grasp that you are responsible for your life. If it is not exactly what you want, review your thinking, and start by changing the thoughts within your very mind first.

~ The more I love, the more that Love is returned to me ~

Some of you are thinking this guy is NUTS, while others of you are intently reading to see what comes next. Do me and you a favor; right now take a sheet of paper and at the top of it, write “WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME”. Stop and don’t ready any further, take as long as you need and write everything that is wrong with you!

Wow! That is a long list, and it may surprise you at what came through you mind as you documented every little fault. Turn that paper over and write at the top of it, “WHAT IS RIGHT WITH ME”. Don’t read any further until you’ve written everything that is right about who you as a person.

Remarkably this list is not as long as the list of your faults! Because you could not find as many things that are correct about you than you found that are wrong about you, proves one point – - the way you think is not positive towards yourself! Flip the paper over once more and review the many things that you scribed as being imperfect. Read the items and take note at all of the negativity on this piece of paper. This exemplifies how you think, not just about yourself, but about your life, the people in your life, your job, your family and all the things that make us who we are. Because your negative list is longer than your positive one, it should make you realize one thing; “I NEED TO CHANGE HOW I THINK!”

~ I forgive myself and love all who affect my life ~

The first step in changing anything is acknowledging there is something to change. Watch the words you use in daily conversations, creating a list of those words and phrases that are vocalize with negative connotations: SHOULD, CAN’T, MAYBE, WHY, NEED, DESIRE (I need more money, I can’t find a good job, I always attract the same type of person – the wrong person, I can’t break this cycle, I desire a true love) and the list grows. By documenting these words, reviewing it often and adding as you become mindful; your vocabulary begins to become more positive by the day.

~ My Healing is already in progress ~

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what do I do to prevent my fall? While my pun is laughable, it is also the second step in how to change the energy you emit. Stand in front of a mirror seeing the person staring back at you, and verbalize aloud positive affirmations that speak to some of those negative aspects from your list. Start with affirmations such as the following:

~ I love you very much [Your Name], you are perfect just the way you are ~

~ I am motivated by love ~

~ I trust my inner wisdom ~

~ I am willing to forgive myself and love those who surround me ~

Deliver these affirmations from your heart. Believe what you hear as you reflect with the comfort of a familiar voice reassuring you with positive words. It is important that you not only say positive affirmations, but that you believe what you hear. Saying the words does not make it so – you must believe those words as well.

Affirmations work when there is belief behind them. You must also say more positive affirmations than you think or hear negatively. If you have no self confidence and think you are ugly, saying a positive affirmation once, twice or three days daily does not match the number of times you think, say or believe that you look bad. To cancel out the bad thoughts, to cancel out the comments that you say, hear and/or agree with; you must say and believe more positive affirmations. Change never happens over night, but it can happen for you.

~ The more grateful I am, the more reasons I find to be grateful ~

Every day in every way, be the person you want to be. Life is meant for living, so stop letting what other people think about you affect what you think about yourself or others. Start today by believing you are worthy of everything that is out in the world. Tell yourself, until you believe “I allow myself to be loved – I allow myself to be successful – I allow myself to be the best person I can be!” Find or create the affirmations that speak to your heart. Take that first step by changing the way you think, and allow the positive thoughts to bring back the many aspects in life you truly deserve.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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US Bishops Challenging Obama on Abortion Rights Tuesday, Nov 11 2008

11^th of November 2008

US Bishops Challenging Obama on Abortion Rights

The New York Times’ Laurie Goodstein wrote an exceptional article yesterday explaining how US Bishops after eight years with a President who not only catered to the Religious Right’s message, but joined the chorus and sang deafeningly off key.

The Bishops are already scheming over how to challenge President Elect Obama over what they find as his lacking Christian determination for supporting a woman’s right to choose. They were so close, with President Bush in the White House, to reversing the US Supreme Court’s ruling, “Roe v. Wade”, that they could taste victory. Now that their President is vacating his post without another Christian Right crony in the wings, the Catholic Church wishes to assert its influence over a new President Elect Obama.

I love organized religion and hate it all at the same time. Religious convictions were never supposed to be so fixed with ideologies and rituals that stopped serving their parishioners. I believe in a woman’s right to choose what she does with her own body. That doesn’t mean I don’t dislike abortions. I would much prefer that every soul wishing to grace this world has the opportunity to teach us those lessons it is destined to edify, while learning those lessons it should discover.

The Catholic Bishops must learn one of the lessons in that good book they cleave; “the greatest of these gifts is charity.” I never understood why Christianity would put forth such a massive effort in fighting a judgment that was right for the people it protects. They disagree with the ruling, which I understand goes against those principles. There is away to deal with something that is in opposition to your beliefs, and that is to respect your antagonist while you hold tight to your values. If Christianity spent as much money, time and effort towards educating young women about their options and on placing those new born babies with loving parent(s), then the numbers of abortions would have decreased years ago. Christianity is so single minded that they cannot see how accepting and respecting those points of view that differ from their own, does not confer defeat. It simply means their role in changing the face of America and the world should be vastly different.

The Catholic Bishops would rather toughen their resolve around an incoming President because his campaign voiced reason and respect for those women who have earned this right. These privileges were paid for by the deaths of many women forced to back alley abortions that were delivered improperly because society shunned the women who found themselves as non conformist. Open your hearts and your minds giving your organization a new voice. A voice that respects a woman’s right to choose while it ask that she consider the alternatives. If Christian groups that apposed abortions respectfully worked with the doctors and clinics to counsel woman on their options while they also worked in conjunction with state and federal agencies ensuring that every child born as apposed to aborted were placed in a loving home. Their role would be favored as apposed to scorned. Open your hearts to today’s definition of a good parent, accepting and respecting that LOVE is the most important aspect for any child. Open your hearts and your minds to the facts that this LOVE may be delivered from the hands of a single woman, a single man, two loving parents of each sex, as well as two loving parents of the same sex.

Catholicism and Christianity have wielded some amazingly wondrous influence over the centuries, but have become stagnate with its own views. That is evident in their zeal to approach a newly incoming President in hopes of changing his mind or intimidating him with the treat of voter lead disapproval. My advice to those Catholic Bishops who will meet with President Elect Obama, view the challenge from the perspective of the fifteen year old girl who finds herself pregnant. Open your hearts and your minds on how to effect positive change while respectfully disagreeing with the current laws. You may find that your voice resonates louder when you don’t alienate those you wish to help the most; the unborn child.

Hope and Love are what President Elect Obama offers this nation, so to the US led Bishops who wish to confer with him, join his message or get out of his way!

~ Love, Honor & Respect All People ~

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Response to Len Kloth: Our Founding Father’s & Homosexuality Monday, Nov 10 2008

9^th of November 2008

Response to Len Kloth:
Our Founding Father’s & Homosexuality

Hello Len and thank you for taking the time to read one of my posts. This is an old one, but one that I rather enjoyed writing and remain closely tied too even today. As this nation sits poised on the precipice of reclaiming a positive leadership role, yet we continue to fight amongst ourselves with idiocratic dogma that divides our nation. I often wonder, how can we be leaders against injustices throughout the world, when we are unable to grant all United States citizens with the same rights and privileges that our founding father’s bestowed to each and every one?

As I’ve read through your comments, I find it extremely well thought out, extremely articulated with absolute agreement. I will let you know that I differ with our own sedition against other religions and those we feel do not believe. We have a long and harsh history of persecution. Please keep in mind that some of the original colonies were very old (some approaching two hundred years old) by the time of out independence. In that time and long after our successful separation from a tyrannical King, this country continued persecuting other religions. An example that I laugh at every time I read about it, tell others of it; is the quiet take over of an Anglican church in the southern portions of Boston. The Boston government denounced Catholicism with such distain that if a priest was caught outside the church, they could legally be subdued up too and including death. The Catholic Diocese owned approximately twelve mansions all around and outside of the city and within each of these mansions were hidden passages and cubbies. The Boston government leaders detested the Catholic Church so much that they diverted an above ground subway (all but one section of the Boston’s subway was below ground) and ran the tracks to run directly in front of the one Catholic Church inside the city of Boston. They ran trains every Sunday during church services ringing them bells with the intent of making as much noise as possible. This city organized harassment was in the early to mid 1800s, which was long after the death persecutions of the sixteen and seventh centuries. I was in one of these Catholic owned mansions with friends who were house sitting as the Diocese was attempting to sell them when I leaned against what appeared to be a simple wall, but when I moved away, so did the wall itself. Much to everyone’s surprise, this was a hidden cubby. The opening was small, only large enough to crawl into. Inside was slightly larger and had a small mirror on the wall (each of these mansions was loaded with mirrors and I’ve yet to understand the significance as to why Catholic priest required so many mirrors and why they were on ceilings, walls, floors and in other conspicuous places), but there was also a small stool to sit on with a bible dating back to the sixteen hundreds. There was a handle on the inside with a latch, but that was it. In the fifteenth, sixteenth and early years of the seventeen century; a catholic priest could be arrested or at first they could be killed.

This wordiness is to disagree with you that the United States has persecuted many in the name of religion. While you may still feel that we have not done so to the extent that much of Europe has, we’ve been on an accelerated path in our young years. Regardless, any persecution in the one name of God is unjust and absolutely does not befit the lessons of such a deity. It is a mute point to what religion you believe in or if you believe in any religion. We are each in this world on our own journey and that differs for the individual, but is in service to him none the less. Even if you are an atheist, you are here in this lifetime to learn the lessons that you agreed to learn before your birth.

That is why I feel it is important that we learn to accept each person for who they are and for how they may contribute to society regardless of their individual beliefs.

Thank you again for such a wonderful add to this post. I hope I hear from you again.

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

There is so much confusion about America, if it was founded as a “Christian nation” or not. One can ask the first several generations of black people brought to this country. One could ask any generation of Native American. They all dealt with Bible toting clergy who used the Bible to defend their oppression, and subjugation. This is what is so traditional in Christian history, as what the founders knew. Religion and government don’t mix; they corrupt each other, as Christian history dictates again and again. As to slavery the Protestants were on both sides. Northern Baptist, using scripture, and ‘led’ by the spirit fought against slavery. Southern Baptist, using scripture and ‘led’ by the spirit, fought for slavery. Today the Baptist still divided between north and south. Someone is confused.

Through far, far less religious strife happened in this country than ‘Christian Europe,’ there were exceptions. Some violence by Protestants against Catholics and Jews, the vicious persecution of the Mormons. The sectarian ‘Christian,’ be he Catholic or protestant has offered what can be called a ‘mixed bag’ in the last two centuries. Civil rights, the temperance movement, and other movements were all church led. In the nihilism of this secular age the void has been filled with leftist (socialist). Big government fills the void where religion once did. The left has an ‘agenda,’ the right has a “godly mandate.’ The right bans a book for being, ‘Godless’ and the left bans a book for being ‘politically incorrect.’ At the end of the day, it’s the same thing. As a libertarian I despise both the anti-freedom agendas of the Theo-fascist fundamentalist and the rabidly-secular-socialist left.

The Founders, I suspect would spurn both as well. Let them speak for themselves; getting beyond the rhetorical haze.

As I see it the Founders were no more secularist than they were Fundamentalist. Both secular people and fundys claim the founders represent them, both are wrong. I go straight to their own words to cut through the rhetorical haze. Secular people claim the founders wanted separation of church, and all religion from public life, that is nonsense. Fundys claim they wanted a Christian nation, if not a theocracy, more nonsense.

First Amendment
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”
John Adams, Treaty of Tripoli, Article 11
“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson
“I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved–the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!”
James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance
“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?”

Thomas Jefferson, “The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom”
“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than on our opinions in physics and geometry. . . .”
Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia”
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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, “Statute for Religious Freedom”
“…no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise.. affect their civil capacities.”
Thomas Jefferson, autobiography
“(When) the (Virginia) bill for establishing religious freedom, the principles of which had, to a certain degree, been enacted before, I had drawn in all the latitude of reason & right. It still met with opposition; but, with some mutilations in the preamble, it was finally passed; and a singular proposition proved that it’s protections of opinion was meant to be universal. 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 mantel of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hondo and Infidel of every denomination.”
Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short
“I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology.”
James Madison, “Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments”
“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.”
Benjamin Franklin (from his autobiography)
Some books against Deism fell into my hands….It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quote to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations, in short, I soon became a thorough Deist.”
Benjamin Franklin, “2000 Years of Disbelief” by James Haught
“When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, ’tis a sign, I apprehend, of its beginnings.
As this will be the last annual message which I shall have the honor of transmitting to Congress before my successor is chosen, I will repeat or recapitulate the questions which I deem of vital importance which may be legislated upon and settled at this session:

First. That the States shall be required to afford the opportunity of a good common-school education to every child within their limits.

Second. No sectarian tenets shall ever be taught in any school supported in whole or in part by the State, nation, or by the proceeds of any tax levied upon any community. Make education compulsory so far as to deprive all persons who can not read and write from becoming voters after the year 1890, disfranchising none, however, on grounds of illiteracy who may be voters at the time this amendment takes effect.

Third. Declare church and state forever separate and distinct, but each free within their proper spheres; and that all church property shall bear its own proportion of taxation (emphasis added). (A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Vol. X. New York: Bureau of National Literature, Inc., 1897, p. 4310)
“God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.” (emphasis added). Thomas Jefferson

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. (emphasis added) United States Constitution.

I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. (Richard Emery Roberts, ed. “Excerpts from The Age of Reason”. Selected Writings of Thomas Paine. New York: Everybody’s Vacation Publishing Co., 1945, p. 362)

20 GREATEST NAMES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
• John Adams – Spoke favorably of Freemasonry — never joined
• Samuel Adams – (Close and principle associate of Hancock, Revere & other Masons
• Ethan Allen – Mason
• Edmund Burke – Mason
• John Claypoole – Mason
• William Daws – Mason
• Benjamin Franklin – Mason
• Nathan Hale – No evidence of Masonic connections
• John Hancock – Mason
• Benjamin Harrison – No evidence of Masonic connections
• Patrick Henry – No evidence of Masonic connections
• Thomas Jefferson – Deist with some evidence of Masonic connections
• John Paul Jones – Mason
• Francis Scott Key – No evidence of Masonic connections
• Robert Livingston – Mason
• James Madison – Some evidence of Masonic membership
• Thomas Paine – Humanist
• Paul Revere – Mason
• Colonel Benjamin Tupper – Mason
• George Washington – Mason
• Daniel Webster – Some evidence of Masonic connections
Summary: 10 Masons, 3 probable Masons, 1 Humanist, 2 Advocates of Freemasonry, 4 no record of connections.
SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Known Masons (8): Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Joseph Hewes, William Hooper, Robert Treat Payne, Richard Stockton, George Walton, William Whipple
Evidence of Membership And/or Affiliations (7): Elbridge Berry, Lyman Hall, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Nelson Jr., John Penn, George Read, Roger Sherman
Summary: 15 of 56 Signers were Freemasons or probable Freemasons.
It’s true that this represents only 27% of the total signers. But this 27% included the principle movers of the Revolution, most notably Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, the primary authors of the Declaration. The former was a Freemason, the latter a deist and possible Freemason. If one were to analyze the Declaration, he would see the humanistic influences.
In any event, there is no evidence that even 27% of the signers were true Christians.

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Sarah Palin Hanging in Effigy Thursday, Oct 30 2008

27^th of October 2008

Sarah Palin Hanging in Effigy

I find this the perfect subject and time for a little enlightenment! Mr. Morrisette indeed has the First Amendment Right to voice his opinion about any individual. Should we chastise him for his thoughts about Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin? Before answering that question, give me the ability to make several points.

All political pundits are fair game for disgruntled citizens to voice their opinions. If Mrs. Palin is offended, then she should stop by and discuss the matter with Mr. Morrisette. It would actually make for a comical play on the terse situation if she showed up in the same dress that the mannequin displays with press in tow! All of those who are blasting the Los Angeles City government and Mr. Morrisette for allowing this display to remain; remember that if you do not answer to the name Sarah Palin, ask yourself why do you allow what one man thinks to distress you? If Mrs. Palin is hurt by Mr. Morrisette’s effigy, have the courage to speak with him so that you might either change his mind, or at the very least allow him to see you for the person you are.

I’m not chastising Mr. Morrisette for his political message. In fact, I understand why he might feel Mrs. Palin deserves hanging in effigy such that he displayed. She has been outspoken during all of her campaigns (Mayoral, Governor and Vice Presidential) against gay and lesbian people. Her view of us is as short sighted as many feel Mr. Morrisette’s is of her. She doesn’t know him or me, but she openly speaks in derogatory terms about all homosexuals. Mrs. Palin equates us to second class citizens and is very openly homophobic. Hate by any name is still revulsion, and someone running for the second most powerful position in the United States should have more grace and honor as to openly show disgust for any group of citizens of the country she wishes to represent. Does that mean that I agree with Mr. Morrisette – - not exactly? I wish he might have used his creative talents in a far better manner than to hang a symbol of the lady running for Vice President of this great nation. I believe he could have found a healthier way to show his distain for the lady that was not so vulgar, but the sentiments are the same regardless.

I wish to use this situation to garner a lesson to us all. All of the greatest civil rights leaders have taken the high road when faced with opposition such as that from leaders who only perceive what they wish too and refuse to observe the people behind the labels. We can label Mrs. Palin as Uptight, Christian Right or just simply Hate Monger, but I digress and wish to remain positively focused. I believe that we are all in this world on individual journeys. It behooves each one of us to take the misgivings of those who refuse to see that what they do is to oppress part of society because we don’t look the same, sound the same or act the same. There is nothing we can do that will make every person in this world look, speak or act similarly. The greatest gift that everyone receives the moments we took our first breaths was FREE WILL. Due to this gift, we will never be a homogenous society. Therefore, we must learn to accept everyone for who they are and not what we wish them to be. I would prefer that Mrs. Palin be open and accepting of all people. I wish that she would be an honorable person who fights for ubiquitous rights for all citizens. It would be nice if all people could love and marry whom ever they wished; sharing in all of the same privileges that every United States citizen was bestowed by our Constitution. We must allow Mrs. Palin and Mr. Morrisette to be the people they were meant to be regardless of our own sentiments.

That does not mean that as a gay man I won’t stop fighting for my rights to be seen as an equal by all people around the world. However, I can see others for whom they prove themselves to be. That is the lesson I am learning and it is incumbent upon all of us to discover that it is OK for people to be different. It is OK for someone to be that which you cannot understand or even like. It is OK to see the difference within each of us. I have said many times before, it is not our similarities that connect us, and it is our differences that will unite us.

~ Accept the differences within us all ~

Your humble servant – Todd M. Dobson

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Google – Cavia Emptor – Bad Customer Service Sunday, Oct 5 2008

03 October 2008

Google Services – Cavia Emptor

It never seizes to amaze me how true customer service is Non-Existent in today’s society. You see it in every department store, food service establishment and forgive me, but I haven’t found a government office that knows or cares what servicing their customer’s means.

It is partially all of our faults in that North Americans are so involved in themselves and their lives that we demand everything now. We have no patience and if the answer isn’t YES or OK to exactly what we expect all the time, we don’t discuss it rationally; we get angry and throw fits. We yell, rant and rave and the person receiving our tantrum is only doing what they were told to do by someone in management that has been so far removed from servicing their customers that they’ve forgotten what it is. So, yes, we have more to do with why customer service has become dirty words.

I understand this and while I’ve never proscribed to the theory that “The Customer is Always Right”, I have a strict since of right and wrong and when customer service is bad, it infuriates me. Phone support and customer service becomes even harsher because people can’t read body language and most behave better when faced with the person as apposed to a faceless persona non-grotta.

What I just experienced with Google is the antithesis of good customer service. You would think that such a prominent company would strive for exceptional client service, but what I experienced is so bad that I had to write about it and warm the blogging community not to fall into the same trap I ran into. My blogs have been growing and I have a friend working on a new web site, but because of the increasing numbers, I decided to use Google Adwords to place advertisements on my current sites. The focus was to generate some funds that might mitigate the cost for the new site. I’ve always had a Gmail account, so I logged in and quickly discovered that my years in the IT industry meant nothing because I didn’t know you needed a degree in advertising to setup Google Adwords. I went through the configuration or so I thought and immediately received numerous error messages. I worked on it for several hours, but the error messages meant nothing to me, but in typical geek fashion, they were specific to advertising. The average person like me had no clue what they messages meant or how to correct them. The technical issues also made little sense either given that I gave all of the appropriate information, but Google didn’t like my information. The messages couldn’t explain why they didn’t like my information and because they refused to give a support phone number, I couldn’t explain why my answers were what they were and why I didn’t want to do what they demanded in their menu screens.

I was frustrated and tired so I started looking for a phone number to call for support, but (and I should have known from this point that things would never work out for the positive and I should have given up right then and there), but Google doesn’t publish any support phone numbers. Much later I was told by numerous people at Google that they cannot support people via phone because of the number of people calling in would be too high. Now I know my answer is common since, but make your product and services good enough to warrant not needing support and therefore it cuts down on the number of people who require it. The other aspect is to treat your customers with respect to meet their needs the way they need them met – - but that would be called CUSTOMER SUPPORT! I know that flies above the heads of the Google Executives who are making decisions to not have phone support, to not allow their support people to call clients (as I was denied calls too many times to count). The only way for you to gain support is to email them. Google also doesn’t want you to have a copy of your email, which is why companies place the fill in the blank form as email. If you fill in the blanks, you can’t keep a copy of the message that shows their incompetence in responding to their customers. My first email for support didn’t get a response for over two weeks and even though I requested a phone call and that they email my home email account instead of the Gmail account that I never check, but after waiting two weeks for a reply, they refused to call and sent the reply to the Gmail account I never look at.

It was like they were purposely doing everything to screw up the support issue and in the mean time; they charged my credit card $5.95 as an initiation charge when all of this was being done in June/July. Now, I never corrected the errors, but three months after the support nightmare, I see another charge on my credit card from Google Adwords for $5.10. I’ve been told by two different support people that the charges are for clicks on Ads and the initial non-refundable charges. When I was first told it was for clicks through Ads, I question vehemently how I could receive charges from a site that had errors and did not work. I never saw ads on my blog sites and I’m on the sites every day as both Administrator and Reader so that I know what the site looks like from the perspective of the reader. I never received answers to my questions (via email because Google Support refuses phone support), but the next message I received then said the $5.10 was for a setup fee. I thought that was what the $5.95 was for back in July, but they tell me they have no record that my credit card was ever charged $5.95 back in July. They keep asking for dates, times and reference numbers for all charges, even after I’ve been told that the charges will remain and are non refundable. In other words, charge me, charge me again three months later and claim no record of the initial charges. I found out in researching this problem with the credit card company that there were two different account numbers. I never went back into Adwords after I found out what the error messages actually meant because of the difficulty in receiving support. The account number was changed at some point over the three months, so that explained to me how they can justify charging me for two different initiation fees.

Nothing about this support issue is good. Google claims they can’t provide phone support because the numbers are too high. That speaks volumes in how Google management views their customer base. We want you using our products and services, but we don’t care about supporting your needs. Even when I found a support phone number for Google (866-246-6453 or 650-253-0000), but the young lady who answered the call only wanted off the phone as quickly as possible. The longer I was on the phone, the angrier I became because it was obvious that while she kept saying I want to help you, she refused twelve requests for a Supervisor, she refused to say anything about my claims, she refused to get me anyone else saying she would have someone call me back. But at that point and time, how could I expect anyone to call me back when Google Support takes two weeks to respond to emails. I will say that I received one return call and the briefest message I’ve ever heard telling me she was sending an email and to read it. The email originally went to my Gmail account also even though everything I’ve sent them requested that all emails go to my personal email account, but that I prefer speaking with a live person and my phone number. The lady who called me back (Marti) refused to give me a Supervisor or anyone in management and after multiple emails telling them I expect a refund, all she kept saying was that the charges are non refundable and that it says so in the Agreement that I accepted.

Everything Google is doing is borderline FRAUD. By not delivering anything while they charged me for services that were never received. They hide all of the charges as non refundable and because you give them your credit card (the only way you can receive services from Google is to give the credit card up front), you’ve authorize them to charge you for services you never receive. While the Attorney General’s office says their actions are highly questionable and they’ve received many complaints from others about Google and their charges for services, when you click on the Agreement of Service, they hide their ability to screw you over within those statements you must answer YES too. They hide behind it Agreements and bad Customer Service and for every person like me, they bank millions and never deliver a service. There is nothing legally that can be done even though I never received the services or support I purchased.

Wow, what a great way to rape and steal from people. Promise to deliver services, but never deliver them. Don’t allow support and hide it all within the Agreement you must click YES to move forward. We are use to these agreements and I don’t know anyone that ever reads them, but now you have a reason too! Google once held a place of great respect with me, but after this horrendous ordeal, I will use anything but Google for everything on the web. A company that thinks so little of its customers like Google does, they don’t deserve my support. In fact, they have earned this SLAM and I hope others will learn from my mistakes before they find themselves in the BLACKHOLE called GOOGLE!

Your humble servant – Todd M Dobson

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Honor without the Love of Family Thursday, Sep 18 2008

18^th of September 2008

honor without the love of family

My last post, “If Your Family is Bad – Read This and Compare” is a horrible post and not representative of the man that I am. I was angry and hurt by a continued campaign of dishonor and lies meant to discredit me with the other people that I love; such as my grandmother. Am I justified for my feelings, yes! Am I warranted in my post, well that may be up for debate and even I am unsettled with my hasty reactions.

Before you judge me too harshly or likewise those I once called family. The generations that reside on this planet are at great odds with one another. We have the elderly that derive from two generations and they saw family divided at the end of the twenties and thirties. A second world war devastated the American family even further and when this country was on its road to recovery, the age of love and peace was shattered by another war. The Vietnam War was our first overtly audacious and politically charged war that was wrong from the beginning. There was no reason for the United States to be a primary player in this conflict other than the CIA was loosing a great deal of invested capital, time and effort that was dishonestly making hundreds of millions of dollars. It was a dirty war that fed unworthy ventures for all the wrong reasons steeling from us our fathers and brothers as it destabilized our economy and plunged the United States into hard times. We invested millions into a war that was unscrupulous, immoral and only helped to keep the CIA and NSA working in illegal businesses funding their illicit operations. There are a number or correlations with what happened in Vietnam and what is happening now in Iraq that should have everyone demanding to have our brave men and women home.

The effects were destructive to the American family entrenching a greater split between philosophies and the connectedness brought about in the late fifties and sixties. Because of the economic hardships, the family plummeted to new lows with some grabbing tight to values they thought held them together while others threw away all values based on the lack of structure, support and love that the family normally provided.

My family was just one like many who cherished it’s faith as a means to disguise all of the failings within the core of its foundations. Our family at its core was broken and wrong. They were fundamentalist Latter Day Saints with men at its powerbase. The boys were taught to hate their women and display their loathing by abuse. When I mean hate, I mean a repugnant torment, to mistreat (even physically) and control them at all cost. To control a person takes lies, distrust to strip away their self worth. My grandfather taught his sons what to do with results being nothing but problems with their wives. My father was taught by his father to treat your wife with contempt, disdain and never allow her to build confidence or a self worth. These same tactics were used on him by his father and each of my siblings suffering greatly due to the same abuse.

My mother came from her own hell that was similar and even more demonstrative if you can imagine. She endured misery from her family and in turn gave the only thing she could to her children – the same anguish she received and more. One parent can generally save children from the torment of another, but when you have two unstable parents, hell bent on the only thing they know, controlling their kids via manipulated, lies and mistrust. My parents were not bad people; they were just doing the job of raising their children the only way they knew how. Repeating in the exact manner what they experienced as children themselves.

Unfortunately, my parents never garnered enough desire, self worth or knowledge to break the cycle of abuse handed to them by their parents as they continue believing they did a good job. Their refusal to mature beyond the singular thoughts they had as young adults only provides a shield protecting them from the change. As we grow up, it becomes incumbent upon each of us to learn from the mistakes of our parents. Unfortunately for my siblings, my parents embraced the ways they knew with no courage to change. My siblings were faced with the same questions; clinch to the life as it was taught to you, or choose to become a better person by facing our frailties and putting in the efforts to change their manipulative ways. In my family, with the way we were taught, if you don’t like someone, you spread lies to discredit them. You don’t relent and it doesn’t matter if you have to manufacture evidence to prove your lies, everything is justified by your success over your victim. They refuse to see how their lives are driven out of dangerous needs to control every aspect and all of those surrounding them.

I am a major treat to their way of life. I refuse to go back to either being manipulated or finding the needs to manipulate those in my life. To truly love someone does not need control or manipulation. To truly love someone, means you do everything but manipulate or control them. It has taken me many years and I am still fighting these instincts. It is not easy, but I want something that is different than the hallow existence that I see in the eyes of those I once called family. I am feared and seen as the nut and the brother, son and uncle with the problems because I see life differently than they do. I will continue to work towards peace with true love in my life and that will always threaten what my family feels is their way. So I understand their trepidation as I empathize with the errors they repeatedly make.

If you find yourself at odds with those who should love you regardless of your differences, take the time to trust your own judgment. Trust for your life, you instinctively know what is best. With that confidence, love yourself and learn how to live a good, just life. I must specify that changing the tides of abuse comes in so many forms. Most of my family cling to a book (The Bible) and claim their Christianity defines them as being superior to me for a number of reasons, but trust that no one is greater and no one is lesser; we are all just people striving to live and love one another.

Love yourself and no matter who stands against you, know that you are right for you.

Love, honor & Respect begins with Yourself

A person willing to improve themself must be prepared to scratch beneath the surface. People like my family, are too scared to scratch at the surface, terrified that the house of cards that is their life, will come tumbling down around them. I challenge you to not only scratch at the surface, but to turn the soil until you find a better way of living!

Your humble servant – Todd M. Dobson

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If You Think Your Family is Bad – Let’s Compare Tuesday, Sep 16 2008

15^th of September 2008

If your family is BAD – Read This and Let’s Compare

I saw my Grandmother today, and while that is a wonderful experience for most people, it seems to always bring out the worst in my family. The average, rational person would think that a woman in her nineties would be difficult to spend an hour with every two weeks, but she is in charge of her mental faculties. We enjoy ourselves with each visit, but with every hour I spend in her company, I find more treachery brought about by my family towards me.

I went to see her ten days ago and noticed that there were several cars in my aunt’s driveway, but since I was there, I went around the back yard of the house, to the basement apartment for grandma. In walking up the driveway, around the front of the house and around the side of the house, and as I strolled, I passed two adults that were in rooms with one watching me as I passed, but no one answered the downstairs door. It did not astonish me when there was no answer at the door, because my immediate family, more specifically, my older sister, younger sister and eldest niece seize every opportunity to bash me for my crimes. I’ve yet to fully understand my crimes against the family, but the rage and hatred that flows from these women sends out enough negative energy to cause all of the one hundred and seventy-three earthquakes that have taken place over the past seven days.

Yesterday, grandma answered the door with a noticeable gash above her left eye. As she welcomed me inside, I asked what happened and she explained how last week she fell in the bathroom. She described in details as we walked into the living room, how she has a very persistent and enormous bump remaining on her left back hip with bruises up and down her entire left side. I asked her if the Life-Alert she wears helped, only to hear the perfect commercial explaining how if she didn’t have the Life-Alert, she would have bled to death before anyone got home. I felt for her as you could tell how the pain she endures days earlier was fresh on her mind.

We no longer sat, when she asked very directly, “are you still writing?” I answered her respectfully, “yes, I’m editing a manuscript and I publish blogs all the time.” She asked harshly, “do you put those on the Internet?” I answer respectfully again, “yes, I have multiple blogs that I publish them too with a vast readership from around the world.” Her words were sharply harsh as she asked, “do you use names when you write?” I answered as I always have, truthfully, “I have not used names within blogs since the end of last year, and I promised an aunt in Seattle that I would not use names within the text of a blog.” Grandma blasted a statement at me that both surprised and angered me, “if you are using names, then I won’t ever talk with you again!” I paused for a second, because the path I’ve been on is teaching me better ways of dealing with negativity such as my family feeding lies to an elderly woman. I took a deep breath as I realized that this had to be something that was said to her recently (over the weekend), because she has trouble remembering the conversations we had over our last visit three weeks ago. I responded in a respectful manner, “grandma, it is ashamed that you would allow the lies told by family who hate and loath me for no other reason than I write about my experiences. It says something about your character if you let others determine who you wish to see and speak with given your age and everything you’ve endured over your lifetime, but if you wish me to leave because the people who should love me want to lie and spread half truths, when to the best of my knowledge I’ve never lied to you and don’t intend on starting now, but if you wish me to depart, I will graciously go.” Grandma thought about what I said for a moment and said, “that would be ashamed, because I love your visit and enjoy our conversations, they have been as equally surprising as they are thought provoking.” “Thank you, but if you seriously wish me to leave, just say so, because not one person in this family will stop me from publishing my blogs. I receive emails from people all the time that read my blogs and obtain something that they need in their lives. These are not just kids that are coming to terms with their homosexuality; they are people of all ages who have read about the physical and mental cruelty I suffered growing up. Some people are incest survivors and some have sexual problems. I have received emails from parents with kids who know or believe their child is gay and they don’t know what to do or how to handle their child. I’ve received emails from many people who read about my experiences and are inspired for another day. That is why I write my blogs and that is why no matter what anyone in my family says, it’s all worth it.”

Grandma was nodding her head during all of that and she responded, “there is so much that this family has been through, and it would be good if others can learn from.” “Yes.” She added, “you know I’ve been through a great deal on my own.” “Yes grandma, I know you went from an abusive father to another horrible existence with Grandpa. I think the best day for you, please forgive how this sounds, was the day he passed away. You finally became a free person, able to determine for yourself how your life was to be. I was just thankful that you were in such good shape physically that you’ve enjoyed a long time to be free and able to spread your own wings.” She replied, “I don’t know what keeps me here for so long.” “Perhaps grandma, there are lessons yet for you to learn during your journey.”

She and I moved on to other, more joyous topics for the remainder of my stay. It struck me as I navigated out of the neighborhood that my family really SUCKS! I haven’t called them, written them or written about them since my other grandmother passed away in May. It is interesting that I’ve been fine not thinking about the family that can’t just let me go, but chased me away with one problem after another. They can’t seem to leave me alone. Without reason, they continue spreading lies, mistruths, half truths and disinformation about me for reasons I have yet to understand. I don’t speak ill of them to others, I don’t speak of them at all. I can’t for the life of me understand why they keep pulling me back into their lives only to rip me to shreds as if I am provoking their retribution.

It finally becomes clear to me that the only way these sad, pathetic half humans can feel better about themselves is to have someone they can continue to put down. Their lives are so filled with negativity and darkness, that the only rays of hope they can feel is while they torment someone else. This pattern was obvious; I just didn’t connect all of the dots in time before moving back here to be close with them. But they can’t just be happy with themselves. My older sister takes the reins as the matriarch of the family and tries to control every thing and every one. When I was in favor with her, she had to have a problem with someone in the family and I watched it bounce between my younger sister, my mother, my father (the sperm donor) and my brother; yet it was a constant rolling feud. I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t one of us who was at odds with her for some reason. The bottom line was that from her ivory tower, she couldn’t just see that we were trying to live our lives the best way we could. If what we were doing didn’t match what she wanted, she has a problem.

My mother, well she can’t live in the present and remains entrenched in the past as the victim, the martyr; unfortunately she can’t see that the martyr is a willing participant in the suffering she continues through. My younger sister, wow, how can I sum her up? She continues to hide her alcoholic addiction and will do absolutely anything my older sister says or does in order to remain in her good graces. My little sister is the mouth piece for the group. She is easy to manipulate and set out on her course of action. She has a very short temper, a loud mouth and never thinks through her actions. She is merely a pawn used by the controllers of the family games and as always expendable. My aunt in this escapade, I can’t tell you if she refuses to see or speak with me because I am gay and that doesn’t adjust with her good Christian beliefs. I only know that when I moved back here seven years ago, I was in desperate need of help to morn the loss of my relationship. I was clinically depressed and while I didn’t expect her to see me (as it being her profession and practice), but she never would take my calls or return the messages I left for the better part of two years. It is ashamed that someone will judge you by the words of others as apposed to allowing you to define yourself with them directly.

All of these people wish to talk trash about my blogs and their greatest weapon is that I use names in the blogs. Not one of them has ever fully read any of my posts. They don’t want to see how I’ve portrayed them before now with empathy and understanding. How I’ve wished for nothing more than for them each to find in their journey’s a way out of the pit of despair they know they are in, but refuse to work out of. How I would have given my life for each and every one of them and never thought twice about it.

Since I cannot speak with any of my family and they will relish this blog because I aloud myself to sink to their level – LEAVE ME ALONE! Don’t talk about me, don’t think of talking to me – emancipate me from your lives and leave me alone. Do what I’ve done over the past years when asked about you, I answer “I don’t know, I haven’t spoken with nor do I see you.” I don’t tear you apart and I don’t want to start. Stop thinking about me, stop talking about me and stop even considering me in this FUCKED UP FAMILY! Forget that I exist and outside of when grandma passes away, you won’t ever have to see me again! You see, I know when you speak despairingly about me. I feel when you rant and rave and feel the need to rip me apart to another. Just leave me alone and I will do the same.

THIS IS FOR GRANDMA:

I promised an aunt in Seattle that I would not use names within a post and I am walking a fine line, because I have not used any names within the body of this post. But since after a year, the same rants that I keep writing about the family – libeling their good names with lies in each and every post I write. If their names are so worthy, then I need to go ahead and list them all. What should scare the family more is how because of their efforts to ridicule, taunt and lie about me, I just changed every name in my manuscript back to their original names. Yes, I changed the names in my book out of consideration for the family, but if I’m going to be dammed by doing something I’m not doing; I might as well do what I’m being convicted of!

Here are the Dobson, Jacobs, Covington and family members that can’t seem to set me free and who feel it is appropriate to slander a name regardless of honest actions.

Dobson:

Kenneth A Dobson Sr. (Ken Dobson): Sperm Donor – definitely not a father – Horrible wife Cheryl (Two Faced) Dobson
225-262-1654 dkdobysr@aol.com
7730 Prairie Dr. Greenwell Springs, LA 70739

Waunita Jacobs (Waunita Dobson): Mother & Martyr – husband John Jacobs
770-806-1830 404-272-0982 wmjoc@bellsouth.net
3731 Willow Mill Dr, Lawrenceville, GA 30044

Tonya Dobson: Younger Sister & Alcoholic – hot headed mouth piece
770-823-3593 tonyaacrow@msn.com
Willow Mill Dr, Lawrenceville, GA 30044

Covington:

Kimmy Covington (Kimmy Dobson): Older Sister & Control Freak – Husband Michael Covington
770-497-1767 770-843-2150 kcovington@charter.net
3451 Drawbridge Ter, Duluth, GA 30096

Melanie Covington (Melanie Arceneaux): Eldest Niece & Vengeful Spoiled Brat – Soon to be husband Jared Arceneaux (May GOD be with you)
770-825-0192

P.S. What should really scare the family is if I’m accused of lying about what I’ve endured, I might as well start lying. Each and every post after this, you won’t be able to tell when I’m lying or when I’m not – but I will be using names until you leave me alone. Stop accusing me and I will stop using names as I agreed to do. Until then, my writings are about what I’ve experienced and from my perspective, take me to court and prove I’m lying or else shut up and leave me alone.

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Response to Doug: McCain/Palin cannot Deliver Tuesday, Sep 9 2008

08^th of September 2008

Response to Doug: McCain/Palin cannot Deliver

Hello Doug,

Thank you for responding to my blog. It took time and thought, which I appreciate. As I’ve indicated before, I don’t believe Mr. Obama to be the perfect candidate, but we haven’t had a perfect Presidential hopeful in such a long time that I don’t know if we could trust one. I have also acknowledged that there are issues that I disagree with Mr. Obama on, but in the scope of things, there is less disagreement with him than I have with Mr. McCain.

Every President has waffled on issues they campaigned against and could not later deliver. It is part of the disillusionment that the people have with Washington today. When we cannot trust our elected representatives with our common good, we loose hope and respect.

In your list separating Mr. Obama from Mr. McCain, we can volley back and forth and never find a common ground. I find less offense from the stances by Mr. Obama than I do Mr. McCain. I find that Mr. McCain has jumped more fences then usual. That tells me that his vote is for sell to the highest bidder and he has no courage to stand up against anyone unless there is money involved. That signifies the heart of the problems in Washington where our elected servants sell their vote instead of doing what is right for the people. Mr. McCain has changed his position on so many issues that it scares me the most about him. He now sells his votes to the Christian Right and where he was not perfectly aligned with them before, now in his bid for President, he is perfectly aligned in order to win their votes as the Republican Party tells him he must do.

Is Mr. Obama perfect and does he sell his vote. I have seen far fewer instances where he has reversed his original stand on issues and has sold his vote in the Senate. Do I also see partisanship that scares me, yes, there is example of partisan voting that concerns me, but I am less fearful of partisanship as I am outright selling a vote. When you are willing to sell your vote, you have no integrity and I question the veracity of Mr. McCain.

In all final analysis of each candidate I must see at the very least an attempt to speak with and for all of the people that make up this nation. We are vast and diverse and all have different needs, so I understand the great dichotomy it demands to speak with, to speak to and to speak for such diversity. Mr. Obama has made efforts to speak with, for and about all of society in an effort to represent us all. He has spoken about bridging the gaps between us and even though it will be hard for some, how we must care about our neighbors and their needs. What scares me the most about Mr. McCain is that he has not even made attempts to speak with some communities? He has rejected others simply because they tend to offend his greatest backers, the Christian Right. When a politician cannot find the voice for every group they represent, their denial to do so speaks to their ability to serve up freedom for that voice. When you reject a voice because it does not repeat your message, you do not represent all the people. If you cannot represent all of the people of this nation, you do not deserve the top position in this land. The President must stand firm in its representation of all of the great people who call this nation home.

No Doug, Obama is not perfect, but his voice stands tall against those of oppression. He may not have the perfect plan for energy right now, but that is why we have three branches of government to pass laws in this country, so that where policy may be light, he has two groups to educate him on what is right for this country. I would rather send a man who is willing to learn, but listens to the people rather than a man who is neither willing to learn or listen to her citizens.

Mr. McCain will continued failed economic polices that Bush ushered in with tax breaks for the wealthy and corporations. The wealthy and most large corporations are spending far more money abroad then they spend at home, so why continue to cater to their needs. Mr. Obama will change the tax benefits to the middle class who spend it here as apposed to abroad and he will eliminate tax incentives that pay corporate America to bring jobs outside this country. Incentives for creating jobs here will put more of those unemployed back to work in this country. Tax incentives to small businesses and grants that help start more small businesses will jump start this economy and have it moving in the right direction as apposed to how Bush and McCain structure economic reform. Mr. McCain will continue funneling trillions of dollars away from stabilizing a US economy and spend it over-seas in a war that we cannot win in Iraq. It is an unjust war that we the people were manipulated into supporting by Bush. McCain has always stood firm with Bush on being there, which tells me his is as corrupt as Bush in the real reasons we invaded a country that stood against terrorist as much as we do. Iraq under Saddom Hussein was a bully, but stood firmly against the very insurgents we went to the region to fight. The American people will never be truly served when our government cannot be trusted. When Iraq has a trillion dollar surplus in revenues for the country while we barrow money to meet our current debts as we fight a war for them and on their behalf, we will never win anything that we pay so severely for! That is not even mentioning the cost we pay with lives of friends and family and for what – the cost of oil.

No Doug – Mr. McCain is not a just man. He doesn’t even attempt to serve all of the people who make up this country. This is just about the two men themselves, but now that he chose a bigoted, racist running mate who I believe will turn out to be the greatest albatross he could have ever imagined. When the people start to find the skeletons in her closet, their white knight that has elevated the McCain/Palin ticket in the polls, will be the dead weight that anchors them to the bottom. The only true race is can those skeletons be brought to the surface before the November elections actually happen. I hope they do.

A President Represents ALL The People ALL The Time

When the man running for President cannot represent all of the people, he needs to step aside and let the man who can take the job. Mr. McCain has denounced the voices crying from positions of injustice far too long and refuses to hear their cries for liberty. Even if Mr. McCain had perfect policies, without liberty and freedom for all, he can never deliver this nation out of the harm Bush has placed us in. Bush refused the cries from those suffering injustice, and look at the devastation he has placed this great nation in – - McCain proves to do more of the same. You cannot UNITE when you refuse to hear.

VOTE FOR CHANGE ~ VOTE FOR OBAMA

Your humble servant – Todd M. Dobson

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What kind of change does Obama offer?
During the Rick Warren forum an example was asked of the candidates of when they went against their party. Senator Obama cited an ethics bill that he worked with Senator McCain on that was not popular with his party. There was one fact that he neglected to include in that statement. He ended up voting against it. John McCain voted against Reagan’s idea of sending American troops as peace keepers in Beirut. He has voted against George Bush and the Republican establishment on taxes, immigration reform, troop levels after the invasion of Iraq, campaign finance reform, subsidized bio-fuels, and environmental issues. To be frank I disagree with McCain on some of these issues but he clearly has a record of putting the country first even if it means going against his party. Senator Obama will implement more of the same democrat party big government programs. They are dusting off the great society playbook from the 1960s. If that is the change you want then Senator Obama is your man. If you want proven reform then I would go with John McCain.
What economic program has Obama offered?
On taxes he wants to roll back tax increases that were implemented during the Bush administration. That will increase taxes on any family making over $31,850 by 3%. His income tax plan will adversely impact small businesses. He wants to increase taxes on capital gains. Well the last time I checked a majority of Americans own stock specifically in their retirement accounts.
It is easy for a politician to be generous with someone else’s money. Hold on to your wallet when they talk about fairness. As for the definition of the rich look at the mess congress has made with the AMT.

On energy Obama was initially against drilling, fuzzy on Nuclear power, and has a supreme confidence in the federal government to architect a new economy powered by “clean” energy sources. This centralized planning will most likely quell any chances for economic recovery.

From McCain/Palin cannot Deliver, 2008/09/08 at 2:18 AM

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