An Open Letter to President Hoffa

 

September 7, 2011

James P. Hoffa

International Brotherhood of Teamsters
25 Louisiana Avenue NW,
Washington, DC 20001

Dear Mr. Hoffa:

You, sir, seem to have no idea who the members of the Tea Party are.  We are not corporate shills. I’ve never received a dime to attend any rally or event, nor been offered any incentive to cast my vote in a certain way – something the Teamster’s Union can’t say with any honesty.  If your recent call for the Teamster’s “to take the son of a bitches out” was designed to intimidate me and other Tea Party members, you badly miscalculated. You have only succeeded in mobilizing us to further action.  All you accomplished was to encourage us to keep our ammunition a little closer and a little more accessible.

Nobody in the Tea Party I belong to declared any war on the unions or on your puppet president. We did however show up to vote last time and we’re going to do it again.  We’re sick and tired of the damage you and our cronies in the Democrat Party are doing to our country.

You can label us, you can threaten us and you can try to intimidate us, but wouldn’t it be better to listen and find out what our concerns are?  Your father thought he could use the Mob to help the union. Maybe you believe you can use the Democrats and the Liberal/Progressives in the same way.  You’re mistaken.

Once they are through with you and have the Worker’s Paradise in place, they’ll have no further need for the Union Brownshirts. Remember the night of the long knives. It’s happened before and it can happen again. Capitalism pays the workers that pay the union dues that keep you in that nice big office of yours in Washington. Don’t kid yourself like your old man did or you could wind up like he did. And it won’t be little old ladies from the Tea Party who did it.  Remember Leon Trotsky. Tyrants have no use for troublemakers.

I’ve sent you a nice unused bag of Lipton Tea.  Make yourself a nice hot cup or better yet, some iced tea and try and remember that the Tea Party folk are regular Americans just like your membership.  We will fight for your right to exist and to speak and to vote the way you wish, even when you call us “sons of bitches”.  The threat, however, was a bit much. We would appreciate it if you’d remember why we fought the Revolution in the first place.  Believe it or not, we’re on the same side.

Tom King

Puyallup, Washington (late of East Texas)

New Round in the Browser Wars?

Okay, what's going on. My Firefox Web Browser keeps crashing. They've sent me two updates in the past 24 hours and so far every time they do it gets better for a bit and then I get an XP update from Microsoft and right afterward, Firefox starts crashing again.


It's starting to look fishy.  I can't work because the website I sell stories to won't stay on-line, I keep losing my pages I pull up for research. The only thing I've successfully posted are some comments on Facebook and a weblog about how to get rid of doggie pee pee circles on your lawn.

I always suspected Microsoft changed some features of XP and Windows 2000 to deliberately disable WordPerfect, the primary competitor with Word. I had to give up WordPerfect finally and they were the best as far as word processors went back then.

I've always defended Microsoft, but they need to make sure when they do updates that they let software makers know well enough in advance to get updates out in a timely manner. The reason I chose Windows over Mac was the vast amount of software that was available because Windows made it easy for developers to write programs for Windows.  Please don't tell me Microsoft is trying to go proprietary with it's operating system.

I really don't want to have to learn how to use Linux.

I'm just sayin'

Tom King

P.S.  In the words of Gilda Radner's SNL character, Emily Litella, "Never mind."  Finally I took down removed Comcast's ID Guardian software and the problem went away.  The folks at Mozilla finally got back with me about a week after I finally figure it out and uninstalled this bloated and unnecessary piece of software. Live and learn. I really need a new computer - something with about 10 megs of RAM...

Sauce for the Gander

Should Groups That Proselytize Receive Charitable Funds

by Tom King

ADRA Disaster Worker

Google has decided to cut charitable funding through grants to churches that "proselytize". Erwin DeLeon, the article's author says churches and religious organizations shouldn't be surprised because after all, "Aren’t churches the first ones to exclude those who disagree or challenge their beliefs and those with lifestyles they judge sinful?"

Well, no, Erwin. They aren't.

Erwin goes on to excuse Google, saying the company simply desires to "employ its technology for the greater good. And that includes disadvantaged populations and those that are discriminated against by exclusionary groups such as some faith-based organizations."  

DeLeon, seems to be saying that faith-based organizations routinely discriminate against and exclude disadvantaged populations.  Like most reporters these days, Mr. DeLeon demonstrates a staggering ignorance of the vast scope of Christian charity work. Whenever there is a disaster, it's religious-based groups like Salvation Army, Adventist Disaster and Relief Agency, Mercy Ships and the Red Cross (where do you think the cross came from) that typically show up on the scene ahead of FEMA. Christian Americans give more to worldwide relief work than the federal government and such help more often goes to the actual people who need it rather than to warlords and corrupt third world politicians as so much of US government largesse.

Christians may view some behaviors as sin, but that does not prevent us from offering aid and comfort to all people regardless of their age, race, religion, sexual preference, cultural or ethnic background. Sure we still call a sin a sin, but that doesn't mean we don't offer help to folk who need it. Our exclusion of those who differ from us is primarily self-exclusion. Why would anyone want to belong to a group that doesn't believe the way they do and which views their behavior as "sinful" unless, of course, they want to change that behavior. It's like my relationship with Greenpeace. While I may share some values with them, I don't support their organization and would not belong even though I get mail from them all the time asking me to join up and donate money.

Isn't that proselytizing of the worst sort?

And if proselytizing is a bad thing, then what about Sierra Club, The World Wildlife Federation and Greenpeace? Are you going to exclude them from receiving funds too. They do, after all, openly proselytize people to join their cause. They display bumper stickers, hold revival meetings and chant slogans in support of ideas taken largely on faith (given the recent troubles the global warming folk have had with their data lately).

Seems to me that what's sauce for the goose ought to be sauce for the gander.

(c) 2011 by Tom King