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How To Earn Two Bucks The Easy Way     #290

By Hank Silverberg


Commentary 

Don't worry. I am not going to write about the debate, or even politics this week. I am going to start by telling you a somewhat funny story. 

On Thursday of this past week, there was an interesting piece of mail that I thought was just the usual junk. But a closer look showed the official logo of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the upper right hand corner. So I opened it. It was the usual type of form letter asking me to fill out the inserted survey and to please return it to them. The Gallup polling organization was doing the survey, and that encouraged further review by me.  

I almost threw it away, but then at the end of the pitch to fill out the form they said they were enclosing "a small gift" as a thank you for my participation. 

There were two crisp $1.00 bills in the envelope.  

(The $2 I earned) 

Well, darn. Now I felt obligated to do  the survey. The money came from Gallup and not the government, I think, but my country did want my opinion and was willing to pay me two bucks to get it. 

What was the survey about? 

Salt water fishing. They wanted to know if anyone in my family goes salt water fishing, and how often. 

I live about 43 miles from the nearest salt water, the Chesapeake Bay, but apparently that didn't matter. Why they sent it to my address, I have no clue. 

I have only been salt water fishing once in my entire life. Back when I was dating my future wife, her grandfather asked me to go with him and his buddies on a fishing trip off the Jersey shore.

 I wanted to marry his granddaughter, so I went mainly to impress him.  I didn't catch anything, cut my thumb from baiting the hook and came home very nauseous from the swashing waves and smelly chum. I also swore to myself that I would never go salt water fishing again.  

So I answered "no" to all  the questions on the  NOAA survey and kept the two dollars. I have done my patriotic duty for this week. I will be darned if I know what NOAA plans to do with my answers.    

The 11th Commandment!

Thou shall not mix religion and the state! It's not really written that way, but in America's sacred democratic scroll, the U.S. Constitution, it clearly states in the Bill of Rights in the 1st Amendment that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion..."

The so-called "establishment" clause extends to state and local governments as well, thanks to the Federalists who insisted Federal law trumps local laws. So Louisiana's decision to require "The Ten Commandments", clearly a religious document, to be posted in all school classrooms from kindergarten to state funded colleges, is a clear violation of that provision. That is going to play out in the courts very soon, but there's more to this issue than that. The First Amendment was clearly written to prevent any one religion from dominating government action, which makes the clearly Christian nationalism behind the Louisiana decision more distasteful.  

Yes, it is true that Jews also follow the Ten Commandments, and there is an interpretation of them in them Quran as well. But that's the problem. 

Each religion has a slightly different take on God's commandments, and using the King James version as the Louisiana law does, clearly promotes a Christian point of view. Here's a clear example: 

In the King James version, commandment number six reads "Thou shalt not kill. "

But in the original Hebrew version, that commandment reads: 

"Thou shalt not murder."

There is a distinct difference between killing someone in war or in self defense, than in murdering them. 

Islam takes a different track. The commandment reads: 

"You shall not take life, which God has made sacred, except by way of justice and law."  

These types of differences in interpretation are EXACTLY why our Founding Fathers wanted a separation of church and state. 

And so I quote James Madison:   

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries."

--James Madison. 

Mr. Madison was right. Today he would be talking about the Middle East, where disputes over religious doctrine or religion has killed thousands and oppressed millions. 

Louisiana needs to get the message. 


News You May Have Missed!   

It's been 44 years since Mount St. Helens, in Washington State, blew its top, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damages. 

(My view of Mt St.Helens
from a plane last month)
The volcano is still active, and this month the U.S. Geological Survey reports there have been more than 350 earthquakes  recorded at  the volcano since February. Over 95% of those quakes have been a magnitude of 1.0 or less, and too small to be felt on the surface. The increased number of them though, has been significant, about 38 a week. And on May 31, there was a quake of 2.0. Most of them were deep in the mountain below sea level. 

Here's how the USGS described the activity:

"High rates of seismicity, interpreted as recharge, have been observed in the past at Mount St. Helens and at other volcanoes and can continue for many years without an eruption. There have been no significant changes in other monitoring parameters (ground deformation, volcanic gas or thermal emissions) and no change in hazards at Mount St. Helens as a result of this activity." 

But the latest round does constitute the largest short-term increase in earthquakes since the last eruption of Mount St. Helens ended in 2008. 

No one is predicting a major eruption, but USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory does monitor Mount St. Helens and nearby Mount Rainier constantly.  

Note to my readers: I had a chance to see Mount St. Helens from a plane last month, but too much cloud cover prevented us from seeing the mountain up close.  Even so, it was an awesome sight.   


https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/cvo/news/mount-st-helens-seismicity-elevated-within-range-background-levels-february



The Dumbest Quote of The Week! 

Okay....I said I was not going to write about the debate, but I can't ignore this one. Through all the talk about Joe Biden's poor performance and Donald Trump's continuous lying, many people missed the most revealing comment of them all, and of course it comes from Donald Trump. 

After lying about the inflation rate during his administration (the pandemic made it very low, his policies didn't), he jumped over to the subject of illegal immigrants:

"They're taking Black jobs now, and it could be 18, it could be 19 and even 20 million people, they're taking Black jobs and they're  taking Hispanic jobs, and you haven't seen it yet."  

That had many people wondering just what is a Black job or what is an Hispanic job. Sounds a bit racist to me. But much of the media focused on Biden's stumbles instead.    


 (Your suggestions and comments are welcome)   

My recent book "The Campaign" can be purchased at the links below. Or you can buy a copy by emailing me at:

HankSilverberg@gmail.com  for instructions on how to get a copy at a reduced price and with my signature)                       

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B084Q7K6M5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-campaign-hank-silverberg/1126429796


My NEWEST book is now available. It is designed for use in Public Speaking and entry level communications classes. 


                                                 
You can purchase Communications and Public Speaking Trends in the 21st Century at these two links: 


or straight from the Publisher at:  

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