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“Listen, you better not have a church down there.”

Another quote from the same article:

As for Pastor Olive – his church will no longer meet in its church-owned coffee house. Instead, it is taking its congregation “underground” until the issue is resolved.

Remember, this is happening in Florida, in the United States.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

13 comments

  • Cotour

    Why does this not make sense to me?

    What is missing from this story that would make it make sense?

  • PeterF

    It would appear to me that what is missing is rational thought.

    They want to license and register all things that they feel could threaten their authority because that is how you control those things. (I.E. firearms license and registration).
    I’m a little surprised that they skipped a step here. The license is supposed to be free at first so that people who object can be ridiculed and everyone else can get used to the idea. (See: Salt Water Fishing Licenses).
    then come ever increasing and onerous restrictions on the activity until finally they have a record of “transgressions” that provides a rationale for an outright ban. Then comes criminalization and imprisonment.

    and now they feel that all they need to be able to control everyone else is a “pen and a phone”…

  • Stosh

    If the White House doesn’t need to follow the Constitution, why would anyone expect any other government bodies to not follow their example. “If you don’t like it sue me”….and wait 5 or 6 years for the case to be heard.

  • Edward

    > Why does this not make sense to me?

    It does not make sense to you, because you are failing to see tyranny for what it is. You are failing to see that we are already living within a tyranny, and that the tyrants are getting more and more bold with every tyrannical move that is not immediately quashed.

    Not so long ago, one town thought that they could get away with demanding to pre-screen religious sermons, apparently to make sure that the sermons didn’t say anything that the city didn’t agree with. Fortunately, that was quashed, and that practice has not yet been tried in other cities.

    When the government gets away with telling shopkeepers, such as bakers and florists, how to operate their businesses, then the tyrants decide that they can control religious organizations by declaring them to be businesses, too, so they must likewise be told how to operate.

    The sense of it is that the totalitarians have a solid foothold and, step by step, are willfully and with purpose usurping more and more authority that the Constitution does not grant them.

    This is the danger of allowing the slippery slope to form.

    To modify something which, a couple of weeks ago, I posted on this site (with apologies to Niemöller):

    First the totalitarians took ownership of the auto industry, but I didn’t speak out, because I didn’t run an auto company.

    Then they took control of the financial industry, but I didn’t speak out, because I didn’t run a financial company.

    Then they took control of the medical industry, but I didn’t speak out, because I didn’t run a medical company, and besides, it was a good idea for government to determine how we are to spend our own money, after all it *is* “for the children” (and the government is so knowledgeable about how an economy and a healthcare system works).

    Then they declared “free speech zones” as the only locations that students on campus could speak their minds, but I didn’t speak out for fear of losing even more of my ability for free speech.

    Then they monitored every electronic form of communication, but I didn’t speak out, because I was willing to trade my freedom for a little security (which I didn’t get).

    Then they took control of the food industry, but I didn’t speak out, because I didn’t run a food company and didn’t mind if my children went hungry after lunchtime at school (after all it *is* for the children’s health and well being).

    Then they took control of the wedding industry, but I didn’t speak out, because I didn’t run a wedding company.

    Then they took control of the internet industry, but I didn’t speak out, because I thought that it would finally provide free access and high speed to the internet (both of which I had before, so … why did I think that it was such a good idea?).

    Then they declared my religion to be a business and took control of my religion, but there wasn’t anyone left to speak out, because there wasn’t enough left of the First Amendment for anyone to be free enough to speak.

  • Cotour

    ” Why does this not make sense to me?”

    More of rhetorical question.

  • Pzatchok

    The city was I think Houston and the Mayor was a lesbian who the churches spoke out against.
    Just last year.

    http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/10/14/city-houston-demands-pastors-turn-over-sermons/

    I know there are always going to be people who dislike if not outright hate religion of any type.
    This is normal and expected. Its even welcome when polite.

    But as those individuals get organized they start to make an impact and start to make plans.
    As they(an amorphous group) get more vocal they start to try to stifle the Churches by changing rules or starting new ones to keep religion out of anyplace they don’t like it.( no religion in schools)
    As they gain traction by doing that, they try for political office.
    And once there they start to use the power and wealth of the government to implement their plans.
    Its not really organized to that extent but one persons success gives the next the courage to take the next step.
    Eventually they gain the power of the government and that power is a dangerous thing. Few can resist the temptation to exert their own personal will on the masses even if that is not what they were elected for.

    Always remember that the American revolution involved less than 15% of the American people directly.
    For the vast majority they just didn’t care or didn’t know about the issues.

    A vocal 1% can effect some change. An organized 5% can gain some power. A vocal, organized and empowered 15% can rule the other 85%.
    Are you willing to become a member of the 15%?

  • Cotour

    Nothing worse than a vindictive lesbian with governmental power and is will to use it and abuse it.

  • Pzatchok

    Any vindictive person.

    What about that one cop who doesn’t like civilians having hand guns. He works his way into the ATF just to eventually change a simple rule that outlaws most handguns.
    Or if he can’t gain enough power alone works it so that several of his like minded friends get into position in the ATF to help him.
    How many people in the ATF actually write the rules? 100, 50, 25 or just a small hand full? And that handful now have the power to essentially rule the rest of us from behind closed doors.
    The rule changes have to be posted for 30 days of open discussion and they have to go through the Office of Management and Budget for final approval. But how many in the office of M&B are really approving the changes? 5, 10, 20 or one lawyer who reads them over to make sure they are not against the law?
    By the way the ATF has already published the new rules changes and submitted them for final approval so anyone with green tip ammo(ss109 and m855) is now a felon.

    We are already being ruled by less than 5% of the population and this time they don’t care what the rest of us think. They think they know better than us rubes and they will effect the changes they think we need. At least years ago they did care.

  • Edward

    Rats! I really need to work on recognizing that — and internet sarcasm. I’m starting to think I’m like Sheldon Cooper.

  • Adolf

    Ve haff our eyez zon you.

  • Max

    Went to the park today to do a little “SUN” worship with the grand children. Everyone was being blessed with a little sunburn. My there’s a lot of cameras watching us. I sure hope I did not need a permit to be in a public park. So many rules now days, I never know when I’m breaking the law.

  • Max

    A couple of weeks ago Eric Holder was being asked about the kill list this president signs every week of those whom he wants executed. The reporter asked him about the right of trial, and due diligence to which he responded they get there due diligence, just not judicial diligence.
    I think our language just changed again.

  • pzatchok

    Make sure you take a child of your own with you when you go and make sure you have ID.

    Oh and don’t talk to or look at any other people. They might think your scoping out the area for a quick kiddy grab.

    Don’t have a CCW with you or the cop who asks to see your ID might just get real nervous and not draw his tazer on you.

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