AT&T Is A TRAIN WRECK

This letter to AT&T may give others a push to write any corporate imbecile that treats you unfairly. Be sure to send all correspondence with Delivery Confirmation to any company grievance address. This insures the correspondence got to them if litigation becomes necessary.

To Whom It May Concern:

You couldn’t have done a worse job if you tried with my account. First of all, I have NO CELL PHONE! It was returned and scanned into your system on May 10th. You pulled a “bait and switch” on me. To add further injury to my order I’ve lost my number I tried, without success to port over to you.

I have spent HOURS on the phone with the most obtuse, inept, and verbally  incompetent employees I’ve encountered in quite a while. Where do you get these people?  The one specialist I spoke with had a perfect plan set up that was totally eviscerated by  your other workers. I’m very thankful I didn’t try to port my business phone over to you at the same time I was trying to port my personal one.

You lost out to a Wal-mart smart phone that I’m very happy to report works great with no hassles. I still have an AT&T  land line, hard to mess that one up, and I do like U-Verse, which I finally was able to lock a price in at $116.00, but of course you are trying to renege on that too! If you do I’ll have no choice but to abandon that too. The problem with U-Verse is a bill that  fluctuates wildly in price and therefore doesn’t lend itself to budgeting. I don’t do anything and it jumps to one-seventy something one month, then down to eighty, and back up ad nausium. Not the way to run a company!

I tried to correct the cellular bill when I received it, but was told after some time on the phone again, that I must speak with sales because they were the ones that generated the bill. RIDICULOUS! I will not be stuck on the phone talking to morons again. I’m putting this in writing for a very good reason. Fix this problem by cancelling this bill, since there is no phone, and no account because AT&T has  not performed, and could not perform as promised.

Additionally, I want you to lock that bill for U-Verse in for one year as the Specialist sold to me, at $116.00. I will go elsewhere if I receive a bill again for more than that amount.

One more thing that really scares me. What is up with those “Jesus” work trucks of yours all over town? I find them offensive, mercenary, and spiritless. Whenever I see “Christian Company”, or the like, I run the opposite way. A little advise from an entrepreneur, leave G_d out of your business plan. Corporations as yours give G_d a terrible name.

Renee Soforenko
June 11, 2012

Jacksonville's Courthouse Boondoggle

Jacksonville has become a national laughing stock with this courthouse boondoggle. The issue began with complaints of mold and mildew that rendered the old courthouse unusable.Anything in Florida is subject to mold and mildew problems. You clean it up and provide maintenance to keep it that way. Our leadership decided to embark on a plan that has literally thrown the baby out with the bathwater.The easy-destruction mentality kicked in and instead of elbow grease to remedy the matter the city council voted to just build and move. "Move" has always been a four-letter word to most of us. To add insult to injury, instead of replacing furniture at the facility as the need arose due to use and ordinary depreciation, somebody decided not to replace it. Again our city council spent the tax-payers money as if there was no tomorrow. None of us out here living in the "Kingdom of Jacksonvilleland" understands this thinking.The council seems to keep doing the same dumb things over and over again looking for a different outcome. As Congress has tied the country up, the City Council has tied Jacksonville up.Let me recommend a book for all elected,appointed, and city-workers for the Consolidated City of Jacksonville (another bad idea): Tom Man, a noted congressional scholar, writes and speaks widely on American politics and policy-making, including campaigns, elections, campaign finance reform and the effectiveness of Congress. His most recent book, co-authored with Norman Ornstein, "It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With The New Politics Of Extremism", is a must read. Mayor Brown, and President Obama suffer from the same diseases in government caused by their own advisers, ...political polarization, lack of the ability to compromise,and personal agendas.

How Religion Works

Once upon a time in a faraway land a group of people assembled and decided that they would follow a code of social behavior so they could live close to one another. They wanted to understand what happened around them that they could not control. The earliest Neanderthals have been found buried with formed animistic trinkets and are thought to have believed in spirits...later evolving into the Holy Spirit. Testaments written by people in all faiths are typically described as being directed by a spirit that talks through them and is believed to be either G_d, or a messenger sent by G_d.Religion seems to have first evolved in an agrarian pattern with a matriarchal influence.The neolithic period brings us evidence of the beginnings of the first organized agriculture - the so called 'Agricultural Revolution'. Typically, farming cultures venerate female deities as symbols of fertility, and motherhood. Formerly male or neutral deities were usurped by female deities in popular cosmology, with female deities becoming the dominant forces in any polytheistic organizational schema.
Around about the same time, or shortly thereafter, pastoral societies also began to evolve their own primitive forms of organized religion. Pastoral societies ( shepherds, and hunter-gatherers) tend to worship male deities - the image of the provider and protector being most important to societies, as opposed to the image of an earth mother. These societies evolved either as a result of the surviving influence of the oldest forms of religion, or as a distinct part of the same process which created the matriarchal faiths.Patriarchal faith was ushered in by the Hebrews.Every major religion has its roots where the first humans are said to have first appeared. I think it's time for a Global Belief System that reflects the ideology of all religions and helps us live together as a whole earth society that is interdependent.Right now in the simplest terms we believe our imaginary friend can beat up your imaginary friend.This isn't an original thought. Like most of my thoughts, and your thoughts, there is no new ideology on the planet.We have become a fearful,war-like,greedy,possessive global society.There is no room for mistakes because everybody believes they are the ones chosen for G_d to speak through.Our testaments must be re-written to reflect thousands of years of progress in thought,changes that have occurred due to technology, sociology,etc. Religion is again primitive because it really hasn't changed a whole lot since the dawn of man.The Ten Commandments are the cornerstone of all religions. The belief in one G_d is universal, with few exceptions, if you believe in G_d at all. It is not essential to believe in a G_d, but is essential we get along. We will all die if we do not figure out a way to write and follow a new global belief system.I can envision a system of simple threads that run through all religions that form the Great Global Belief System.The first must be stop killing each other! Our planet will self-destruct in time anyway.It will not matter in the end whether you believe purple is the prettiest color, or G_d is a cuttlefish.Governments and corporate America believe money is G_d.People are enslaved when they are in debt.We have enough resources globally for all of us to survive, go to bed without hunger,have a car, a home, and provide for our future until our planet dies.

On The Crazy Baptist Preacher of Gainesville, Florida

Burning the Koran is a seditious act designed to incite Christians to resort to religious terrorism.It's obtuse and is putting many of us in danger all over the globe. As Americans we're supposed to be above these petty,stubborn, insistences that we are the only ones with valid attitudes,beliefs and that G_d is on our side,... nobody elses.Christianity has been as violent a religion as Islam.I have a blog called "Religion Horrifies Me" on jax.com...read it.Christian terrorists draw upon Christian scripture and theology to justify violent political activities.Violence by individuals or by small groups has been carried out in the name of Christianity many times through-out history, but there has been disagreement about whether such acts are really justified by Christian teachings. Theologian Miroslav Volf has examined the question of whether Christianity fosters violence, and has identified four main arguments that it does: that religion by its nature is violent, which occurs when people try to act as "soldiers of God"; that monotheism entails violence, because a claim of universal truth divides people into "us versus them"; that creation, as in the Book of Genesis, is an act of violence; and that the intervention of a "new creation", as in the Second Coming, generates violence. Volf says: "Beginning at least with Constantine's conversion, the followers of the Crucified have perpetrated gruesome acts of violence under the sign of the cross. Over the centuries, the seasons of Lent and Holy Week were, for the Jews, times of fear and trepidation; Christians have perpetrated some of the worst pogroms as they remembered the crucifixion of Christ, for which they blamed the Jews. Muslims also associate the cross with violence; crusaders' rampages were undertaken under the sign of the cross." In each case, Volf concluded that the Christian faith was misused in justifying violence.It's ironic that a religion which proclaims Absolute Love as its basis should spawn so much hatred.

Post That Got Me Censored From My Local Paper

RELIGION HORRIFIES ME!Submitted by gypsie2009 on May 9, 2010 - 11:21am

I wish this was an original idea, but Lisa Simpson, a cartoon character from the Simpson's colorful family life raised this issue in the "adult cartoon" series.Don't get me wrong...I have no idea if there is a G-d or not, and I do pray for friends by special request,but let's face it folks, once you're a grown-up your conscience and how you see the world dramatically changes from what you thought as a child.Lisa Simpson is the exception.She's a child that thinks like a logical adult most of the time.Religion developed as a way to control society and live by a code of conduct.It gave support to each group member and tried to help the sick and give a structure to what should be done with members that died.It tried to explain "miracles", and divine interventions like defeating an enemy,eclipses, crop abundance or failure, and dietary guidelines to prevent illness and poisoning. Religious leaders held the wealth and power.

Normally,from what I can tell,many families are very religious while their kids are growing up,but after that they loose interest because they are, for the most part,older,wiser, and the line between issues have a huge gray area.

I am not for the tax exemption for any religious order. People hide behind this in order to get out of paying property taxes. Religious leaders own huge amounts of property. An example is the holdings of the First Baptist Church downtown.Until we recover from this depression,yes I call it that,it's not a recession in my mind,I believe tax exemption must be suspended for the sake of the community.

I am horrified that G-dnicts actually have murdered doctors because they disagreed with their professional orientation,kidnapped Haitian children by bribbing their families, returned adopted children because they were too difficult, and church leaders have fondled children.Religion is violent,selfish,and scary. How terrible it is to look at the crucifixion!You have to be an idiot not to be intimidated by the whole idea of what might happen to you if you go against the Christian G-d.

I read stories daily in newspapers about murders,robberies,rapes,drunk drivers,DUI arrests,perverts etc. Where are the G-nicts with their signs that demand swift justice, and their donations to help the tax payers with the bills of housing these sociopaths? That might actually do some good.Jack Kevorkian was chosen by the religious-right governor of Michigan to stop euthanasia. It's truly insane to me why we jump to put our pets out of misery,but don't give the same dignity to the sick if they so desire.

The Uptight and the Angry

Growing older is good. It's great to care about mundane things about as much as a "nit on a gnats nut" as D. Rather said. I wish I'd said that. I hope I think it especially fun to go to my ceramics class and make a dreamy knob that's no small cheese in twenty years. I'm just not hard-wired to behave like a sheep...except if he's really cute!

Age is a very high price to pay for maturity, so I say do both with style and enthusiasm. I think most people do what they please then become contrite. I prefer to just do as I please and skip the remorse part. If something that pleases you makes you unhappy then you're probably insane.

In my youth, I got asked a lot by concerned relatives, "Where's your sense of morality, child?"
My head  was thinking, " The only thing worse than parents you can't control are ones you can."
That was where I got my grounding. I found out later "Sky-god" was thought to be responsible for peculiar events in almost every human life. How convenient!It didn't matter if you had diarrhea, lost all your money in a poker game, spent all your money on crack, elected the wrong President, helped murder the neighbor's tarantula, or diddled your grandson...it was Sky-god's pleasure, will, AND you could repent and be forgiven which would allow you to rest in the bosom of the "Sky-god Palace". Directions seemed to be vague, but money was accepted.

My security lies within, along with faith in myself. I'm curious about the beliefs of others, and respect them. Most beliefs leave me wondering and don't solve problems. Simply put beliefs either solve a problem or are part of it. I find most people's reality check is like a kite on a long string. It flies for awhile then will dip, tangle and crash because the string is finite and dependent. Wind comes from the four corners of the earth and is infinite, and does what it wants to do with the kite.



  NEVER SUBMIT TO THE AGENDA OF ANOTHER!