50 Years and counting

A number of the family got together to celebrate my aunt and uncle's
50th anniversary. This is a shot of the group. My brother and I had a
great round on the golf course earlier in the day. The weather was a
cool 92.

New Apple Store

I still remember hearing about the first Apple store opening in New
York I think. People said they were crazy. Yup, like a fox.

The Mall of Georgia is the latest sighting of the seemingly unstopable
incursion of Steve Job's band of artistic nerds.

They are giving away T-shirts to the first 1000 people; I'm seriously
wondering if there might be that many in the line in front of me. The
Northpoint community church drummer in the line with me thinks its
close...

Updates on my other blog...

Music scholar barred from U.S.

This N.Y. Times story profiling Ms. Ghuman, a musician who's been barred from re-entering the U.S - and not told why - is frustrating.

I find it disturbing how many of these types of "security" nightmare stories I've seen during the past 5-6 years. As I read this story I could feel just a little of the helplessness that Mr. Ghuman must feel every day about this situation.

When freedom is something that a government gives the people they are really not free. When the people have given power to their government they can not expect their government to freely give back to them. Freedom must be a right demanded by the people that comes from their will and ability to constrain their government's ability to restrict their freedom.

We've allowed our government to become so powerful that they can restrict freedoms to "protect" our security - and they are not held accountable. When they can do this even to non-citizens and not be required to disclose their motives and reasons, at some point they will have the ability to freely treat you and I in the same way; in fact they already can, if you are accused of "terrorism".

I hope it's not too late for us.

See also: MTV Singer visa revoked, this blog posting,