 | | | 6/6/2025 10:00 AM | IT | I am working on a Trial Subscription to Azure. I plan to migrate all my SharePoint sites to Azure App Services. This will force me to get familiar with all the different features of Azure, from Blob Storage to Data Table Storage to Containers to Azure SQL to Data Lakes or what have you. I am really excited about this.
For the moment, I am building Wiki Pages to track what I am doing, one of my first projects is a new Blog website using a Data Table. I plan to migrate my Blog posts over there. Or I might store them as is. Not sure yet. This Wiki is about using Data Tables: Azure Data Tables
| | | | | 5/17/2022 7:00 PM | Politics | Let's clear things up.
Socialism is NOT:
Public schools
Public roads
Police departments
Fire departments
Taxes
Gas Taxes
Tolls
Hospitals
Armies and Navies
National borders
A court system
Public libraries
The National highway system
A 40 hour work week
Income taxes
These are examples of GOVERNMENT. The concept of government, of a centralized agency that collects money from the people who live in a certain area in order to provide services to ALL the citizens of that area, is as old as civilization and is for the most part, quite fair: It taxes everyone more or less equally to provide services to everyone more or less equally. These are things you could probably take care of yourself, but it's easier to centralize them a little. You may not use these services every day, but you pay for them so they are there when you need them. It predates the concept of socialism by several millennia. Also, most services are provided at the lowest level possible, like the city or county.
Socialism IS, by varying degrees:
Minimum wage
The Alternative Minimum Tax
Social Security
Welfare
WIC
Food Stamps
Rent Control
Free College
The Earned Income Tax Credit
The New Deal
The Green New Deal
Ethanol subsidies
Farm subsidies
Anything subsidized by the Federal Government
Solyndra
The Paris Accords
Global Warming schemes
All the horrors of the Soviet Union, China, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, Kampuchea, and other socialist countries
"You have earned enough money"
"Paying it back to the community"
Any government plan that specifically targets certain people or industries to take money from them, and specifically GIVE money to certain groups of people.
That's socialism. It is justified by a hundred different reasons, and it is called many things: Collectivism, Communism, Socialism, Democratic Socialism, Progressivism, Marxism, Fascism, and even Liberalism. It has the same arguments it always had, that they are "making things fair" or "leveling the playing field" or just simply "punishing the rich". It is always coming from the left, and it always spreads the misery equally, whereever it is attempted. They also lie to you about it, and try to equate government with socialism, and they are very much not the same thing.
It is responsible for the death of 100 million people in the last century.
Time to let socialism die. For the sake of all it's future victims.
| | | | | 4/30/2022 5:00 AM | Masonry | Going to the movies can be a fun and even magical experience. You buy a ticket, and for around two hours you are entertained, maybe even uplifted. Add in the overpriced food or drink from the concession stand, and that's the extent of your commitment. You paid a little bit of money, and were rewarded with a little bit of entertainment for your afternoon.
But I think too many Brothers treat Masonry like a movie theatre. They think the cost of admission is their annual dues. They paid some money up front for the degrees, some time invested in learning a catechism, if at all, and then write a check once a year for dues. They have met their obligation. Quite a bargain, they think. For the cost of a dinner out a month, they get regular entertainment and enlightenment, or just the privilege of wearing a ring and telling people they are a Freemason, without even the need to go back to Lodge. After all, wearing that suit is such a bother. Why can't we be more casual?
But they would be wrong. The dues are just enough to pay to keep the lights on, to give us a place to meet. That paltry sum in no way pays for the experience you just received, not even close. In order to provide for you a single night's experience, whether it's a degree, a stated meeting, or a dinner, took work and dedication from a dozen or more Brothers. And the only way to pay that back is to put in the work yourself.
Freemasonry is paid for by those who donate their time and talents to make a memorable experience. The Brothers who spend hours learning a ritual part, and even more hours rehearsing together to make that degree come alive. The Brothers who pay the bills, who run the meetings, who sweep and mop and vacuum and wax the floors, who change the lightbulbs, who prepare the meals, who serve the meals, who wash the dishes, who set up and tear down the Lodge after each meeting, who write the speeches, who repair the building when it needs a little TLC. Every evening you experience at your Lodge was only possible because a lot of men worked hard to provide that experience for you.
Ours is a working organization. It is incumbent on you, my Brother, to donate YOUR time and talents to the Lodge, whatever they may be, to ensure the experience for the next new member, and all of the current ones, is just as memorable as your experience was, and maybe even better.
If every single Mason would donate just a little bit of his time, who took his natural born abilities and donated them to his Lodge in sweat equity, if every single one of us would put in the work equally... just think how much we would accomplish!
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