 | | 270 | | 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.
| | | | 269 | | 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!
| | | | 268 | | 3/15/2021 10:00 AM | Politics | Comrade Cortez has no understanding of basic economics. No surprise, since she has a DEGREE in the subject from a major university. It shows how ideology, not thought, is what drives our colleges today. She is critical of capitalism, claiming that to pursue profit is somehow evil. What she fails, utterly, to understand is that without capital, without profit, YOU HAVE NOTHING ELSE. A government does not generate money. The money has to come from somewhere, either taxes paid by the people, or taxes levied on good from somewhere else. A prosperous economy raises all boats. Each sale, each transaction, makes money for the owners of the company. But that’s not all. It makes money for each employee in the company. It makes the life better of the person paying for the sale. Each employee can then spend their money on something. Each purchase by another company allows that company to make and sell goods and services, and the cycle continues. When an economy is growing, it only brings MORE money into the government, which allows the government to provide for the needs that the people decide the government has to provide. Without money, government can do nothing. If the simple desire to have a socialist government and provide for the needs of the people was the ONLY thing government required, then the people of Venezuela wouldn’t be starving in the streets. So why doesn’t the government of Venezuela provide for the people? Because socialist policies, the very same ones that Bernie and Comrade Cortez want to force on you and me, have destroyed Venezuela’s economy. No economy, no profit, no government. So no one produces, and everyone starves. Well, everyone expect the people who are running the government. Please, please, please, my liberal friends, prove to me where I am wrong. Explain to me why you would want your country to look like Venezuela. Or Cuba. Or North Korea. Or the Soviet Union. Explain it to me why living there is better, and why you haven’t moved there to experience it.
| | | | 276 | | 3/9/2021 1:00 PM | IT | I just passed my AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals Certification with a 910!
| | | | | | 3/9/2021 10:00 AM | Politics | 
| | | | | | 8/5/2020 9:00 AM | Politics | Discover your passion.
Find someone stupid enough to pay you to do that.
You will never work another day in your life.
| | | | 264 | | 1/27/2020 6:00 PM | SharePoint | I had the privilege of speaking again at SharePoint Saturday. My presentation was titled "AngularJS and SharePoint" and was split into two one-hour sessions. I appreciate my company, AKIMA, for sponsoring the event and manning a booth. The information from my presentation is on the main menu of this site as "SharePoint" or just click this link: http://www.douglasweb.com/SitePages/SharePoint.aspx
| | | | 263 | | 12/11/2019 5:00 AM | IT; SharePoint | If you're struggling to find help or keep up to date with Microsoft Office 365 then I will provide two hours of online training to make you a SharePoint Power User.
I am now a registered Freelancer on Collab365 MicroJobs - the brand new marketplace dedicated to Microsoft professionals.
Here are 4 reasons that the Collab365 Team have spent months building the site: 1. You often need expert Microsoft help just for a couple of hours. 2. You can't keep up with everything Microsoft is releasing. 3. You find it hard to find Microsoft experts on other non-dedicated sites. There are just too many other subjects covered. 4. You don't have time to go through a lengthy interview process. I personally love the concept and have actually just posted a MicroJob. Here are the details…
How I can help you ...
So your organization has just provided you with a SharePoint site. Now what?
Confused about what to do first? Don't know the difference between a List and a View?
I have over ten years experience installing, configuring, administering, managing, and developing with SharePoint; from 2003 through 2016 and Office 365. But all those fancy terms don't help if you don't know where to begin. That's where I can help you. I will walk you through the fundamentals of SharePoint:
· Creating Lists and Libraries · Adding Views to sort and filter your data · Creating Pages to show multiple kinds of data · Creating Groups to limit who can see what · Using advanced features of SharePoint
I will provide a detailed overview of SharePoint to get your team up and running. If you already have some SharePoint experience and want help on specific SharePoint features. I can provide that as well.
Before purchasing, you must answer "Yes" to the following questions.
· I will have no more than five students attend the training. · I will be able to host a video teleconference, or will be available for a Zoom or Skype call hosted by the trainer. · I will agree to attend the session at a mutually agreed to time. · I won't record the session. · If I want specific training, I will prepare the questions I want covered in advance.
The training provided will be over a two hour period. You can break it up into hour or half hour sessions if it is more convenient. I will allow time for questions during the training.
How does it work and what about payment?
Paying for online services with people that you don't know can be worrying for both parties. The buyer often doesn't want to pay until they're happy that the Freelancer has completed the work. Likewise the Freelancer wants to be sure they will be recompensed for their time and commitment. Collab365 MicroJobs helps both the buyer and the Freelancer in these ways:
1. The buyer pays up front and the money is securely held in the MicroJobs Stripe Connect platform account. 2. The Freelancer can then begin the work in the knowledge that the payment has been made. 3. Once the buyer is happy that the work is complete and to their satisfaction, the funds become available to the Freelancer. 4. There's even a dispute management function in case of a disagreement. But it won't on my MicroJob! As long as we agree what's needed up front and keep talking the entire way through, you won't be disappointed. Note: Once I've completed the work, I'd love it if you could write a review for me. This will allow others to see what a fantastic job I did for you.
What if we need to add extra's to the job after I've started?
It's really easy for us to discuss your extra requirement (using the chat feature on the site) and for us to agree a price and add it to the order.
If you'd like me to help you, here are the steps to hire me … 1. View my MicroJob. 2. On that page click the "Buy" button. 3. You'll need to register as a buyer on the MicroJobs site, but this only takes a minute and will also allow you to purchase MicroJobs from other awesome Freelancers. If you need to contact me then please use the "contact" button and ask me any questions before purchasing.
| | | | 262 | | 1/9/2019 9:00 AM | IT; SharePoint | I will be speaking at SharePoint Saturday 2019 on January 12th. I wanted to update my videos to match my new presentation, "AngularJS and SharePoint", which is now two hours. You can watch all the videos on my YouTube playlist here: AngularJS and SharePoint
The zip file, "SPSApplication.zip" with all necessary files is on my home page under "Public".
Update: zip file contains PowerPoint slides as well.
| | | | 261 | | 1/8/2019 12:00 PM | IT; SharePoint | | | | | 260 | | 11/28/2018 12:00 PM | IT; Masonry; SharePoint | | | | | 259 | | 10/5/2018 1:00 AM | Masonry | I just published my first YouTube video in the Your Jurisdiction May Vary series (YJMV). It's called "Jurisdiction, Amity, and Visitation" and explains the process of one Grand Lodge recognizing another.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BY9DMLBuLs
If you like the video, please click the "Subscribe" button to subscribe to my channel. | | | | 258 | | 9/19/2018 11:00 AM | Recipes | Here is my recipe for Mexican White Sauce, the kind you get in some restaurants. It's NOT queso, or cheese dip. That's a different recipe. It's easy to make, and you have to use Miracle Whip, mayonnaise does not taste right. I have modified the recipe to use a 32 oz. jar of Miracle Whip, because I only buy it to make this sauce (we use mayo for sandwiches).
- 32 oz jar of Miracle Whip
- 1 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
In a medium bowl, add entire jar of Miracle Whip. Gradually stir in the milk. Add red pepper flakes, cumin, salt, garlic powder, and oregano, and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours to allow the flavors to blend. If you taste it right away, all you will taste is salad dressing.
Serve with tortilla chips.
| | | | 257 | | 9/19/2018 7:00 AM | IT; Masonry; SharePoint | I have listed all Grand Lodges, Virginia Blue Lodges, and Scottish Rite Supreme Councils on one of my web sites: http://www.researchlodge.org/groups. I also used AngularJS to display the data. I am still working on listing the Amity (recognition) between all of them, but it's a good start.
| | | | 256 | | 9/2/2018 10:00 PM | Recipes | This is based on my Flan recipe, where I omit the caramelized topping and cook it in a pie shell instead. Ingredients - 2 cups milk
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 egg yolks, beaten
- 3/8 cup white sugar
- Pie crust
- Fresh blueberries and strawberries
- Cool Whip
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a large bowl, beat 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks. In a medium pot, bring milk just to boiling over medium heat. Stir hot milk, a little at a time, into beaten eggs and egg yolks, until well combined. Stir in sugar. Place pie crust on cooking sheet. Carefully pour milk mixture into pie crust. Bake in preheated oven 45 minutes or until set. Let cool on countertop, then chill covered in refrigerator for at least an hour. Serve with Cool Whip and fresh blueberries and strawberries.
| | | | 255 | | 7/24/2018 11:00 PM | Cigars; IT; SharePoint | I just uploaded Part VII, the final part of my presentation, to YouTube. In this section, I show the final three components, Display.html, Edit.html, and Cigars.Item.js, to display, add, and edit a single SharePoint list item.
https://youtu.be/_JNsk9mrYLs The sample code is available on my home page under "Public" as "Cigars Application.zip". | | | | 254 | | 7/24/2018 9:00 PM | Cigars; IT; SharePoint | I just uploaded Part VI of my presentation to YouTube. In this section, I show two more components, List.html and Cigars.List.js, and describe how to populate and then display a collection of list items, as well as perform a search to filter which items are displayed.
https://youtu.be/L4uQhWz1f3k
| | | | 253 | | 7/24/2018 1:00 AM | Cigars; IT; SharePoint | I just uploaded Part V of my presentation to YouTube. In this section, I show the first two components, Cigars.html and Cigars.js, and provide an overview of reference libraries, routing, factories, and global/session variables that persist across the application. https://youtu.be/kx619Q-6vp0
| | | | 252 | | 7/18/2018 10:00 PM | Cigars; IT; SharePoint | I just uploaded Part IV of my presentation to YouTube. In this section, I explain what a Single Page Application is, and give an overview of all of the AngularJS components in our application.
https://youtu.be/ILR3T5SlBU0
| | | | 251 | | 7/18/2018 9:00 PM | Cigars; IT; SharePoint | I just uploaded Part III of my SharePoint Saturday 2018 presentation, "AngularJS and SharePoint". In this section, I give an overview of the files that make the application, create a Site Page, and imbed the application within that Site Page. #SPSVB https://youtu.be/syzk5xiQTK4
| | | | 250 | | 7/17/2018 11:00 PM | Cigars; IT; SharePoint | I just uploaded Part II. The rest of the series will need a lot of editing as the underlying code has changed since I gave my SharePoint Saturday presentation. I also need to zoom in for certain portions as it wasn't very legible. Each video is going to be less than ten minutes long, I don't know the limits YouTube puts on uploading. Hopefully I won't repeat myself too much.
https://youtu.be/kKrOnw4jOko
| | | | 249 | | 7/17/2018 9:00 PM | Cigars; IT; SharePoint | Here is the first of my videos based on my SharePoint Saturday 2018 presentation, "AngularJS and SharePoint". I made the videos to practice for my demonstration, and I had promised to upload them to YouTube. I have actually updated my code since the presentation, so I am reshooting parts of the videos as the new code is much better. I also have more than an hour's worth of content, I felt rushed through some of the demonstration. I also plan to add more videos explaining AngularJS concepts in greater detail. But this first series will walk you through creating a Single Page Application from start to finish. https://youtu.be/S8erOQzCHqE
| | | | 248 | | 3/23/2018 3:00 PM | Cigars; IT; SharePoint | I will be presenting at SharePoint Saturday in Virginia Beach this weekend, my presentation, "AngularJS and SharePoint", is available under the "Public" folder on my home page, as well as the application files, "Cigar Application.zip".
| | | | 247 | | 2/2/2018 1:00 PM | Politics | | | | | 246 | | 1/31/2018 7:00 PM | Politics | So, we have two alleged scandals to investigate, one on the left, and one on the right.
On the right, we have the presumption that Trump colluded with Russia to win the election. How exactly did Russia interfere? With $50,000 worth of Facebook ads? With hacking DNC emails that prove that Hillary stole the DNC primary? Even if we can determine that Russia was behind the hacking, I consider that a public service. It revealed the truth, which the mainstream media is trying awful hard to keep secret.
So, Donald Trump, a man with no political power before he won the election, managed to arrange high level meetings with Russian officials, and keep all of this secret, right?
Well, certainly a novice like Trump would not be able to cover his tracks, right? And a full year of an independent counsel and the entire mainstream media would have uncovered something, right?
So, let’s see what we know:
Flynn talked to some foreigners, and lied about it to Mike Pence, and was fired.
Jeff Sessions met a Russian general as part of his job, and misunderstood a question asked by the Senate, and corrected the record. He was so worried about a conflict of interest that he recused himself from the investigation.
Paul Manafort had some questionable business dealings several YEARS before working on the campaign.
Don Jr. met with ONE Russian lawyer, who had worked for the DNC in the past, who misrepresented herself to get a meeting. His testimony before the Independent Counsel lasted longer than the meeting itself, by a factor of ten, I think.
So, where is the collusion? Where is the smoking gun?
OK, on the Democrat side:
Hillary and the DNC paid Fusion GPS, through third parties, to get opposition research on Trump, as did some GOP candidates, at least until he won the primary. THEN, Hillary paid Fusion GPS to create a FAKE dossier on Trump.
Fusion GPS hired a British former spy to write this dossier, who hired Russian spies to help write it.
The DNC shopped this dossier around DC for months, but none of the media was willing to write about it, until Buzzfeed released it, and then they had cover. Sleazy, but still not so bad.
THEN, the FBI used this fake dossier, that everyone knew was fake, to lie to a FISA judge to get a wiretap order against Trump and his campaign.
THEN, the Obama Administration used these wiretapped conversations, unmasking the American citizens taped talking to foreigners, and released the transcripts to the media, which is how we know about Michael Flynn in the first place!
On top of which, senior leadership in the FBI who were strong Hillary supporters and anti-Trumpers, were not only involved in the Clinton email investigation (and derailed it) but are also involved in the Russian probe!
NOW, five months of texts between two or more of these FBI officials magically disappeared, only to magically reappear again. Just like Lois Lerner and Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats, the hard drives and the files and the emails that could incriminate them magically disappear, in violation of every law regarding safeguarding government communications.
That’s all just off the top of my head, of course there is plenty more.
Can any of you, with a straight face, tell me we shouldn’t be getting to the bottom of this?
| | | | 245 | | 1/25/2018 7:00 AM | IT | I have been approached to build some mobile apps, it's something I have been telling myself to get involved with for years. So, time to do some research. I have been tweeting the better articles I have read, what I have learned so far is you can use Javascript (and even Angular!) to build mobile apps, which is really exciting, since I wasn't looking forward to learning Java and/or Objective-C.
I also learned that a lot of apps that had a lot of buzz one or two years ago are really hard to get a free copy of today. But I found a few articles this morning (check my Twitter feed) that highlight other options that use Javascript. Right now, I am thinking of trying all the ones I can find, and contrast and compare.
It's also convenient that I already have several web sites for churches and Masonic groups, so I have ready-made guinea pigs that are getting mobile apps for free, while I figure out how to move to this new area of technology. Stay tuned.
| | | | 244 | | 10/13/2017 11:00 AM | IT; SharePoint; Twitter | My second tutorial on AngularJS, retrieving data from the User Information List. I am branching into REST in addition to CSOM to talk to SharePoint.
Angular and the User Information List | | | | 243 | | 10/13/2017 9:00 AM | IT; SharePoint; Twitter | I was working on my next tutorial, and I wanted to stop and highlight this particular video. I often mention my Twitter feed, where I reference several videos and articles that have been helpful in my growth as a developer, especially in my latest foray into AngularJS. Twitter is my scratch pad for the Internet. When I find something useful, I used to make a bookmark, whether at home or at work. Then, I wouldn't have that bookmark when I wasn't at home or at work, or I was on my laptop and not my iPad. Syncing up all my bookmarks seemed a lot of trouble. So instead, I just tweeted every useful link, so I could find it again anywhere. The really cool thing is, other people see my links and find them useful as well. I am glad to help other people discover useful things. Well, Tony Alicea has a great, great video on how to use the fragment identifier to render single page applications here: https://youtu.be/qvHecQOiu8g. I highly recommend watching it, and the rest of the series. He explains in very simple terms how to use hash tags (remember anchors? Does anyone use anchors in web pages anymore?) to essential mimic the functionality of Ajax, without all the overhead of Ajax. In simple terms, a single page application is loaded once, and a portion of the page is reloaded on demand. This means you don't see a flickering of the web page, which happens when you have to reload the entire page. All of this is possible through the use of fragment identifiers (hash tags) and the AngularJS location service. This is a huge improvement over earlier web-based applications.
| | | | 242 | | 10/13/2017 7:00 AM | IT; SharePoint; Twitter | My current assignment is to build an application using AngularJS to manage a SharePoint 2013 site. There is a lot of information out there about the different versions of Angular, I have a list of good videos in my Twitter feed. But I had to cobble together a lot of different information to get my working version. I wanted to document it here, early in the process, in hopes someone else will benefit from it.
Continued here: Angular. | | | | 241 | | 9/30/2017 8:00 AM | Politics | Liberals not only want taxes to be higher, they want them to be complicated. They want you to have to use accountants and lawyers to navigate the arcane tax code, because you are more likely to make a mistake, and then you can be punished. Conservatives want the tax code to be simple. Some have suggested you should be able to submit your taxes on a post card. I have concerns about privacy issues with an actual post card, but I like the idea of simplicity.
The reason the tax code is so convoluted, is becauses business are not run by idiots. They want to keep as much of their money as possible, so they spend money to lobby Congress to create loopholes for their particular business, a small investment for a bigger payoff. More often than not, it is the very large corporations that get tax breaks that hurt their competition: the much smaller businesses run by families or individuals, who can't afford lobbyists. Both parties are guilty of taking favors from lobbyists and crafting loopholes. But you notice the only politicians who ever talk about a simpler tax code, are conservatives?
If the tax code is complicated, we need a larger IRS to manage it. Is there any government agency that is feared by the average American, more than the IRS? What is especially troubling, is that some Presidents have actually used the IRS to punish their political opponents. Think about that. We are citizens, not subjects. We own this government. It serves us, not the other way around.
We need to simplify the tax code. It needs to be more transparent. It needs to be understandable by anyone with a high-school education. If we can simplify it enough, we may even be able to eliminate the IRS altogether. We spend somewhere between 6 billion and 9 billion hours a YEAR doing our taxes: https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/10/americans-spend-6-billion-hours-doing-taxes-better-get-moving.html How could that time be better spent?
| |
|
|
