Chamblee54

The postcard race for the 81st district of the Georgia House of Representatives is heating up. Republican Incumbent Jill Chambers has sent out three mailers, all in her brash style. Democratic Challenger Elena Parent has sent out four mailers. In the next five weeks, there will probably be more.
Elena Parent is married to Briley Brisendine, and lives in a mcmansion three blocks from PG. Her ads are stylish, and visually appealing. They speak of the need to support education, and bring jobs to the district. One shows a man posing in front of the GM plant in Doraville. It is a stretch to believe either candidate could have persuaded GM to keep that plant open.
The ads from Miss Parent show the “bug”, indicating they were printed at a union shop. The ads from Miss Parent are personally addressed to PG, and his brother GP. The ads from Mrs. Chambers are addressed to “The ***** Family”.
The ads from Mrs. Chambers are much more aggressive. In the first mailer, she discusses her divorce, and the failure of her ex husband’s business. ( Albert Chambers got a bit of attention when he left a nasty message on the answering machine of a political opponent.) In Peach Pundit, Chris Huttman , a former 81st district contender, wondered why she took this approach. None of the mailers from Miss Parent mention the personal difficulties of Mrs. Chambers.
PG has met Mrs. Chambers on a couple of occasions. Last week, PG saw her at the Chamblee post office. She talked about her second mailout, which featured Larry Flynt as the villain. Mrs. Chambers said that Miss Parent’s ads were professional looking, but that hers got more attention. “Wait till you see what I have later this week”.
The third mailer is a doozy. It shows a blond, with her eyes bugging out before a handful of hundreds. It seems that Elena Parent has received donations from lawyers at Sutherland-Asbill. The Dekalb School board seems to need a lot of legal work these days, and one firm it uses is Sutherland-Asbill. What Mrs. Chambers does not mention in this mailer is that Elena Parent is a former employee of Sutherland-Asbill. The blogfordemocracy has a post about this, with a highly entertaining comments.

PG hears the word “racist” tossed casually so much, he suspects it has lost it’s meaning. Dictionary definitions are of little use. The meaning of the word depends on who is saying it.
The modest suggestion here is for a seven point scale to measure racism. Zero would be totally colorblind, and six would be metaphysical hate. For the sake of simplicity, this scale, in the beginning, will only apply to white-black relations in the United States.
The model for this is the Kinsey scale. In his books on human sexuality, Dr. Kinsey described a seven point scale. Zero was totally heterosexual, and six was totally homosexual.
PG does not have a clue how to write a test for this scale, or how to score this test. White people see racism differently than black people. White people are affected by racism in different ways than black people. Different cultures view racism in different ways.
How would PG score on this scale? He has black friends and black enemies. Certain parts of black culture are enjoyable, and certain parts make him want to turn the radio off.
PG does not like people that do not like PG. When it is us against them, you need to remember which one you are. How does this register on this racism scale? It depends on who does the judging.
This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Brandon Joseph Rhode is scheduled to be executed at 7:00 p.m. tonight. Mr. Rhode was convicted of the murder of Bryan, Steven, and Kristin Moss during a robbery on April 23, 1998. (11 year old Bryan confronted the burglars with a baseball bat.) Daniel Anthony Lucas also participated in the crime, and has been sentenced to die.
Ocmulgee Circuit District Attorney Fred Bright prosecuted the case. Because of the brutality of the crime, a plea bargain was not offered. Mr. Bright wanted the death penalty. “I vividly remember in the guilt-innocence portion of the trial, when the jury had been out five hours, the attorneys asked me about a manslaughter plea. My response was ‘read my lips, I’m not even interested in offering life without parole’.”
The case went through the required series of appeals and reviews. Lawyers claimed that other lawyers did not do a good job, and that it was really Mr. Lucas who did the killing. There seems to be little doubt that Mr. Rhode was at the crime scene at the time of the murders. On Sept. 17, 2009 the verdict was issued. “Brandon Rhode, a Georgia death row inmate, appeals from the district court’s denial of his federal habeas corpus petition. The court granted a certificate of appealability (“COA”) as to Rhode’s claim of ineffective penalty phase investigation and presentation of mitigation evidence by his trial counsel. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the district court’s denial of Rhode’s petition.”
The mitigating circumstances deal largely with Mr. Rhode’s mental capacity. Amnesty International tells the story. Brandon Rhode was born in Mississippi to a young mother, who as a 15-year-old was not even aware she was pregnant for the first five months. During this time she consumed alcohol and drugs. Brandon Rhode has been diagnosed as suffering from organic brain damage, and in 2010, using modern methods of testing, experts concluded that he “definitely suffers from a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder” (FASD), and that his development was significantly delayed as a result of his exposure to alcohol as a foetus. Dr Richard Adler has said that “what we now know for certain in 2010… is that the brain of a healthy child continues to grow and develop and mature into the early 20s. During that time, the executive functions of the brain – impulse control, judgment, planning, appreciation of consequences, empathy, ability to course-correct – are the last areas of brain functioning to develop. This is why adolescents – even 18 year old teenagers like Brandon Rhode was in 1998 – are definitely impaired in these areas of functioning as compared to adults. Furthermore, the characteristic deficits associated with FASD only exacerbate the impairments associated with adolescent brain immaturity… In effect, Brandon was functioning… at a considerably younger level than his chronological age at the time of the subject crimes”.
Brandon Rhode began drinking alcohol at the age of 11, and by the age of 13 was abusing alcohol and drugs regularly. He was hospitalized at the age of 13 after a suicide attempt. At 15, he dropped out of school and was sent by his mother to live with his biological father who was a drug addict and alcoholic. The teenager’s own substance abuse escalated and he began to burgle houses in the pursuit of money to buy alcohol and drugs”





As this is written, Brandon Rhode is held in restraints. He attempted suicide before his scheduled execution Tuesday night. As the fishwrapper tells the story “Rhode tried to kill himself by slitting the side of his neck and both arms. By the time he was discovered, Rhode was unconscious and had lost half the blood in his body; he was revived at the hospital in nearby Griffin…Rhode had concealed the razor blade he used to cut his neck and arms while lying under a blanket, said Joe Drolet, a lawyer for the state attorney general’s office. He was being observed by guards, but they could not see what was happening under the blanket and took action when they saw blood.”
There are reports that the razor was given to Mr. Rhode by a prison guard. This is denied by the officials. “There’s not a pattern of recklessly handing out razors to suicidal death row inmates,” They do not deny that Mr. Rhode was being observed, by guards, while he cut himself under a blanket.
The state is still planning to poison Brandon Rhode tonight at 7:00 p.m. Until that time , “Two guards — and not the guards who were assigned to watch Rhode at the time he tried to kill himself — must be assigned continuously to observe Rhode.”
There have been other suicides on death row recently. On January 1, 2010, Leeland Mark Braley was found hanging in his cell. And then there is the case of Timothy Pruitt.
Timothy Woodrow Pruitt tried to hang himself on November 19. He died on December 6. ( PG is puzzled why it would take 17 days for a botched suicide to have the desired effect). When announcing his demise, the Department of Corrections referred to an “alleged suicide attempt” that is under investigation.
On January 8 , “Georgia’s top Department of Corrections official has now acknowledged that one of two recent reported suicides on Georgia’s death row may not have been a suicide.” And now, there are reports of guards giving an unstable inmate razor blades, on the eve of his execution.
Pictures are from the Georgia Department of Corrections and ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
UPDATE: The Georgia Supreme Court has granted another stay of execution. The procedure is now scheduled for Monday, September 27, at 4:00 p.m..
UPDATE2: Brandon Rhode died Monday night, September 27. He did not make a final statement.

Normally, PG deletes spam comments without a thought. Yea, the ones in Russian are different from others. And if you want to buy generic viagra, something is sure to come up.
Today was an exception. A few days ago, PG wrote a post titled Saint Carrie Prejean. The title had very little to do with the post, which was about internet tests to see if you were liberal or conservative. The question to yield the answer was ” If you could chisel any Americans, living or dead, onto Mt. Rushmore, who would you choose?” The conservative choice is “Revs. James Dobson, Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, and Saint Carrie Prejean.” In the spirit of diversity, the lib choice is “Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, Harvey Milk, and Angelina Jolie”.
Carrie Prejean was Miss California once. She answered a question about gay marriage at the Miss USA pageant, and Perez Hilton acted like a fool. It became quite the internet sensation for a few days, with revelations about x rated videos and a boob job. Miss Prejean was terminated as Miss California, and the last she was heard from was getting married. The groom is not Micheal Phelps.
The comment today was from songzhibiao.com. Somehow, it got through the spam filter ( which is usually very effective). Out of morbid curiosity, PG clicked on the link.
Songzhibiao (spell check suggestion:songbird) is a travel insurance company. Today’s post is “Important Facts on Pregnant Travel Insurance”. The spell check suggestion for Prejean is pregnant.

PG has a secret source at the office of Senator Saxby Chambliss. There is information about the unpleasantness posted in the comment section at JoemyG-d
The comment in question was “all faggots must die”. The comment was made during a cloture vote, regarding DADT repeal. The comment was garbled in transmission. The full comment was “all faggots must die for their country”. The comment was intended as support for the repeal of DADT.
Senator Chambliss wants to have this hushed up. His “base” consists of Republicans, who believe the Bible tells them to hate queers. To admit that faggots have died in wars for America is an outrage.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.

Snitching has a long, if not honorable, history in our republic. If your neighbor is a communist or a pothead, inquiring minds want to know. It should be no surprise that the war on terror is being fought with the same rules. BoingBoing and wired combine forces to inform the public of the latest opportunity to help your government.
The Department of Homeland Security has issued a pamphlet, Identifying Homegrown
Violent Extremists Before They Strike. It is labeled ” unclassified for official use only”. Continuing the official meme, the document states “L)”67$” *&2′,$”&0″&00 (*(+1″+*6(.(6($,C”+)-“6&”67$”$=6$)6” 4$’5 (6 6$-“> /”1+%C”+3 $)*($,”+’$”$) *&2’+3$-“6&” 0&’%+’-” 6&”D6+6$”+)-“M&*+1″N2,(&)”O $)6$’,C “P&()6″: +,B”N&’* $ ,C” +)-” N; L”N ($1-“Q00(*$,”()0& ‘5 +6(&) “&)”$)6(6 ($,”67+6″ +’$”41 +)) ()3″&'” *&55  (66()3″+*6,”& 0″ +”,2,4(*(&2,”) + 62’$C”* ‘(5()+ 1″& ‘”&67$’%(,$C”67+6″5+/” ()-(*+6 $”+”4&6$)6(+1″ 67’$+6″6&”R9 D9″()6$’$,6,”+)-“%+”+ )6″02’67$'”().$,6(3+6(&)9″”:7(,”()0& ;’5+6 & ) “,7&21-“)& 6″> $”*&11$*6$-” ,&1$1/ “&)”N(‘,6″85$)- 5$)6″4’&6$*6$-“+*6(.(6($,”&'”&) “67$”> +,(,”&0″+)/”‘+* (+ 1C”$ 67) (* C” $1(3(&2,C”&'”&67$'” 4’&0(1$9″
Oh my. The first edition of this report was not copy friendly. Not to worry, there is a download here. The site also has a download of Homeland Security Guidance for Response to a Nuclear Detonation.
Now, where were we? Oh yes, the document was telling us what to do with our snitching. “In the course of official activities, and to the extent permitted by law, agencies are encouraged to forward to State and Local Fusion Centers, Joint Task Forces, and FBI Field Offices information on entities that are planning or committing acts of a suspicious nature, criminal or otherwise, that may indicate a potential threat to U.S. interests and warrant further investigation. This information should not be collected solely on First Amendment protected activities or on the basis of any racial, ethnic, religious, or other profile.”
Does a “fusion center” have anything to do with alternative energy or asian food?
Ok, so your neighbor takes mysterious boxes into the basement, and never smiles. Should you report her? That is a tough call to make sometime. The helpful DHS offers a few tips. Think of Jeff Foxworthy saying, you might be a terrorist if…
Indicators of Possible Terrorist Activity
-New or increased advocacy of violence including providing material support or recruiting others to commit criminal acts.
-Adoption of new life styles and segregation from normal peer and family groups in association with advocating criminal or terrorist activity.
-The adoption of a new name.
-Behavior that could indicate participation in surveillance of potential targets.
-Acquisition of excessive quantities of weapons or materials that could be used to produce explosives such as ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers or hydrogen peroxide.
-Travel to or interest in traveling overseas to attend violent extremist institutions or paramilitary training camps.
-New or increased interest in Websites and reading materials that advocate violence and then initiating action in support of this activity.
-New or increased interest in critical infrastructure locations and landmarks, including obtaining aerial views of these locations.
Any reporting should include all of the information that factored into the decision to report the activities.
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
These agencies are rather responsible by government standards. “Note: DHS, FBI, and NCTC are not advocating interference with the rights of law-abiding citizens. There may be a legitimate reason why some of the indicators described in this document are present; it is up to you to determine when that is not the case. If you observe suspicious activities that warrant the attention of federal law enforcement entities, please contact your nearest State and Local Fusion Center and your local FBI Field Office or Joint Terrorism Task Force.”
On the last page of this document, two web addresses are given. “For a listing of information needs related to terrorism and Homegrown Violent Extremist radicalization, please see the following websites to view the Intelligence Community coordinated Terrorism Information Needs (TINs) and FBI and DHS reporting guidance.”
One of these addresses is for something called LEO, or Law Enforcement Online. When you log onto LEO , you are greeted with a warning. “You are accessing a U.S. Government information system, which includes this computer, this computer network, all computers connected to this network, and all devices and/or storage media attached to this network or to a computer on this network. This information system is provided for U.S. Government-authorized use only. Unauthorized or improper use of this system may result in disciplinary action, and civil and criminal penalties. By using this information system, you understand and consent to the following: You have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communications transmitted through or data stored on this information system. At any time, the government may monitor, intercept, search and/or seize data transiting or stored on this information system. Any communications transmitted through or data stored on this information system may be disclosed or used for any U.S. Government-authorized purpose.”
The other address is from HSIN, the homeland security information network. ( Is acronym abuse a terror activity?) When you try to connect to the address given, you get this message: “This Connection is Untrusted. You have asked Firefox to connect securely to hsin-intel.dhs.gov, but we can’t confirm that your connection is secure. Normally, when you try to connect securely, sites will present trusted identification to prove that you are going to the right place. However, this site’s identity can’t be verified.” The fusion center will have to get it’s TINs somewhere else.
Pictures for tonight’s entertainment are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.

One of the fun things you can do is chase down urban legends. Some of them are true, Some of them are not. Often, when you go looking, you will find surprising things.
There is a blogpost called 50 dumb liberal quotes. In a surprise move, the site has links to the comments. This allows you to go to the source, and see what the person really said. ( Fortunately, these quotes are in English, and you don’t have to depend on a translation.) ( The counterpoint post, Top 50 Dumbest Conservative Quotes , does not supply links.) HT to Morgan K Freeberg.
The quote that caught PG’s eye was by Al Gore. “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” Mr. Gore is someone that conservatives love to hate, and this quote has been widely disseminated. PG has always wondered, what did Mr. Gore really say?
The link goes to a transcript of an interview on CNN, dated March 3, 1999. “BLITZER:Why should Democrats, looking at the Democratic nomination process, support you instead of Bill Bradley, a friend of yours, a former colleague in the Senate? What do you have to bring to this that he doesn’t necessarily bring to this process?
GORE: Well, I will be offering — I’ll be offering my vision when my campaign begins. And it will be comprehensive and sweeping. And I hope that it will be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it will be.
But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I’ve traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.”
It sounds to this reporter that Mr. Gore made efforts in the Senate ( before 1992) to help establish the internet. This is not the same as saying “I invented the internet”. It is the sort of campaign fluffery that no one takes seriously. It would have been best if Mr. Gore had used the word help.
The statement before that… “I’ve traveled to every part of this country during the last six years”… is about as silly. Did Al Gore go to Little Diode Island? That is the island near Alaska that is three miles from Russia. This is the sort of thing politicians say, which few believe.
The rest of the interview is fun to read, from the perspective of eleven years later. At the time, the dot com boom was in full flower. This was the time of a major sex scandal in the White House, countered by a thriving economy.
The major international issue discussed was China. Not one word was said about the middle east or terrorism. In the past eleven years, China has loaned America trillions of dollars to finance wars in Babylon. 1999 was a simpler time and place.

The Chamblee54 blog started five years ago today. There were 264 posts on blogspot, and 977 on WordPress. It is a lot of fun to produce, and hopefully to read.
Last year was the year for a proper anniversary post. There was also a helpful feature regarding rules for blogging. Both were profusely illustrated, which helps when you get tired of reading.
Chamblee54, hopefully, will always be improving. This year has seen the addition of historic photos. This looks like a well that will never run dry. There is an unlimited supply of current photos, both self shot and copied from others.
One theme that keeps popping up is learning by doing. Just sit down, put your fingers on top of the keyboard, and turn the faucet on. A bit of editing is helpful. Spell check and good grammar will make you look less stupid. Stay focused on the end result, and do not spend two hours googling a minor detail.
For those who read this endeavor, a big thank you. For those who produce, and inspire PG, another big thank you. WordPress is a wonderful operation, and deserves a round of applause. The same could be said for GIMP , is an image manipulation program, and an open source of wonder. Pictures today are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. The other major source of historic photos is The Library of Congress. Thank you to all, and stay tuned for more pretty pictures and ugly opinions.

It was another uroboru buffet. The uroboru is a mythical critter, shaped like a dragon, that ate it’s tail. As the tail got bigger, the uroboru got bigger. What outside matter contributes to this growth? What happens to waste matter? How do you find pants that fit? There are questions, and hypothesis, and debates that lead to name calling and finger pointing. The mainstream media/internet is like that.
It started today at Andrew Sullivan’s facility. The first time PG heard the word blog, the writer was talking about Andrew Sullivan. At the time, a blog was considered a “vanity website”. Sullivan does have a fertile site, and you will be exposed to things if you go there on a regular basis.
Mr. Sullivan has something called the “Malkin Award”, named for an personality of ill repute. Today’s expression is about  Charles Krauthammer . Mr. Krauthammer wrote a piece denouncing President BHO. To his credit,he used a rather clever phrase: “Many of those who wanted to see Castle nominated in Delaware have from the beginning defended the Tea Party movement from the mainstream media’s scurrilous portrayal of it as a racist rabble of resentful lumpenproletarians.”
Mr. Krauthammer… known as a shameless cheerleader for Israel… manages to trip over his own rhetoric in this piece. It starts in paragraph one, where he says that Christine O’Donnell cannot be elected in November. ( It is important for the Repubs to win this Senate seat, to stall the liberal yukkiness of BHO). And, now this might not happen in Delaware, because COD (which means your credit is no good, a familiar concept to the Miss O’Donnell) beat veteran career politician Mike Castle.
Here is where Mr. Krauthammer gets goofy, In paragraph one he says that Mike Castle was defeated by COD. In paragraph five, he says “Castle wasn’t only electable. He was unbeatable.” Maybe he was unbeatable in November, but he got blasted in the primary by Miss O’Donnell.
Getting back to the Sullivan commentary . He printed a quote from a letter, which said that “What’s Malkin-ish about Krauthammer’s statement? I’m a Dem, strong supporter of the president, and I can’t disagree with what Krauthammer is saying. I believe, and have always believed, that Obama wants to shift the country back to the left in the same way that Reagan shifted it right.” Actually, that is more or less what is happening.
BHO has doubled the number of troops in Afghanistan. BHO says the government has the right to kill American citizens if they are labelled as terrorists. The only tax hikes he wants are the scheduled expiration of the Bush tax cuts. BHO came to the rescue of the Auto industry. The health care reform is watered down, and looking to be  profitable to the health care industry. Yea, that is taking America to the left, like Reagan took America to the right.
There is a fun little commentary about Reagan’s leadership, written by Christopher Buckley. Before we get into this, we might note that the Krauthammer column was titled “The Buckley Rule”.The Buckley referred to is William F., the polysyllabic pundit, and father of Christopher. (The son is more fun to read.) The Buckley rule says that you should choose the candidate who is most likely to win the general election. This is supposed to mean the “unbeatable” politician, who got whipped by COD.
Ok, so how did Ronald Reagan lead the country to the right, which is the same way BHO is leading it to the left? As Christopher Buckley recalls ” I worked at the White House in the early Reagan administration, at a time when the deficit rocket really started to take off. The problem was that Reagan had promised to a) cut taxes and b) increase defense spending. You remember: supply side? Candidate George H.W. Bush called it “voodoo economics,” his argument being that you couldn’t cut the deficit without cutting non-defense spending. Mr. Bush stopped calling it that round about January 20, 1981. Reagan then cut taxes, increased defense spending, and didn’t cut entitlement spending.
As the deficits began mount–though they were mere trifles, pittances compared with the Mt. Everest variety with us today–I meekly raised my little voice and said, “But I thought we Republicans were supposed to be the ‘Daddy Party’–the responsible ones. The designated driver-party.”
The answer, rendered most succinctly, 20 years later by Vice President Dick Cheney, himself part of a Republican administration that managed to double the national debt in eight years, was: “Deficits don’t matter.” P.S. Go f— yourself.”
Nancy’s husband not only led America to huge budget deficits. He sold guns to Iran, and invested the profits in Central America. Planes from America went to Nicaragua loaded with guns, and were not empty when they returned home. Meanwhile, the war on drugs was expanding the powers of government, while reducing the rights of citizens. Yea, he took America to the right, the same way BHO is taking America to the left.
Pictures for tonight’s entertainment are from The Library of Congress.

The original plan had been to go the arts festival in Piedmont Park. The only problem was, no one thought to call  before 3 pm. It was too late to go to town. What about the Sandy Springs festival?
PG got to Uzi’s house, and they headed to the old Target. Strangely, the parking lot was empty. Normally on festival days, the lot is packed. It seems as though the festival is next weekend.
Since we are in the area, why don’t we go walking at Arlington Cemetery? Both men knew residents. One lap around the facility, and it will be time for dinner.
PG and Uzi had been to Arlington Cemetery before . There were some new artifacts today. The most showy is a pavilion dedicated to the glory of Michael Carlos . Mr. Carlos owned a wine distribution company, and donated a lot of money to Emory University, begetting the Michael C. Carlos Museum .
Down the hill from the Carlos exhibit is a gallery of headstones. Apparently, people who have been cremated can be honored here. This area overlooks a lake.
Arlington is a diverse place. It has a large Jewish section, and headstones in several exotic languages. There is a section with stand up marble headstones recently cut, which is rather unique. Most cemeteries today only allow the ground level brass markers, which can easily be topped by lawnmowers. Several of these modern stones are noteworthy designs.
There was a comment made about the residents having lots of time to do nothing. PG countered by saying that living people have no clue what it was like to be dead, and were not supposed to. This is not the way Jesus worshipers see things.
After a visit to the food court at Perimeter Mall, it was time for another Sunday night. The residents at the cemetery were probably happy for the company. While their taxes are lower than yours, you probably have more fun.

This is a double repost. It is about things that come in groups of seven. Thanks and praises go to Wikipedia. The other sources are cited where appropriate. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Seven Samurai -Kambei Shimada , Gorōbei Katayama , Shichirōji , Heihachi Hayashida ,. Katsushirō Okamoto , Kyūzō ,
The Magnificent Seven – Chris Adams, Harry Luck, Vin, Bernardo O’Reilly, Britt, Lee, Chico
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World-Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia ,Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus ,Colossus of Rhodes, Lighthouse of Alexandria
Rome is built on Seven hills – Palatine, Capitoline, Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Caelian, and Aventine. Thank you SevenMagazine.
The Seven Sisters – Barnard College, Bryn Mawr College, Mount Holyoke College, Radcliffe College, Smith College, Vassar College, and Wellesley College
“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire.” Aristotle 384 BC-322 BC Thank you Thinkexist.
The Magnificent Seven are seven cemeteries used by the citizens of nineteenth century London.:Kensal Green Cemetery , West Norwood Cemetery ,Highgate Cemetery , Abney Park Cemetery ,Nunhead Cemetery ,Brompton Cemetery , Tower Hamlets Cemetery
seven deadly sins – lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride
seven holy virtues – chastity, abstinence, temperance, diligence, patience, kindness
seven goddesses – isis, astarte, hecate, demeter, kali, iana, diana
seven dwarfs – bashful, doc, dopey, grumpy, happy, sleepy, sneezy
seven brides – Alice, Dorcas, Liza, Martha, Millie, Sarah, Ruth
seven brothers – Adam, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank, Gideon
seven husbands of Elizabeth Taylor – Nicky Hilton, Micheal Wilding, Micheal Todd, Eddie Fisher, Richard Burton(twice), John Warner, Larry Fortensky (The American Film Institute named Taylor seventh among the Greatest Female Stars of All Time.)
Matthew 18:21-22 –  21Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

People often try to justify their opinions by saying that the “founding fathers” agree with them. They often are guilty of selective use of history. A good place to start would be to define what we mean by the phrase founding fathers.
The FF word was not used before 1916. A senator from Ohio named Warren Harding used the phrase in the keynote address of the 1916 Republican convention. Mr. Harding was elected President in 1920, and is regarded as perhaps the most corrupt man to ever hold the office.
There are two groups of men who could be considered the founding fathers. ( The fathers part is correct. Both groups are 100% male.) The Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, which cut the ties to England. Eleven years later, the Constitutional Convention wrote the Constitution that governs America today. While the Continental Congress was braver than the Constitution writers ( We must hang together, or we will hang separately), the Constitution is the document that tells our government how to function. For the purposes of this feature, the men of the Constitutional Convention are the founding fathers.
Before moving on, we should remember eight men who signed the Declaration of Independence, and later attended the Constitutional Convention. Both documents were signed by George Clymer, Benjamin Franklin, Robert Morris, George Read, Roger Sherman, and James Wilson. George Wythe left the Convention without signing the new document. Elbridge Gerry ( the namesake of gerrymandering) refused to sign the Constitution because it did not have a Bill of Rights.
The original topic of this discussion was about whether the founding fathers owned slaves. Apparently, PG is not the only person to wonder about this. If you go to google, and type in “did the founding fathers”, the first four answers are owned slaves, believed in G-d, have a death wish, and smoke weed.
The answer, to the obvious question, is an obvious answer. Yes, many of the founding fathers owned slaves. A name by name rundown of the 39 signatories of the Constitution was not done for this blogpost. There is this revealing comment at wiki answers about the prevalence of slave ownership. “John Adams, his second cousin Samuel Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Paine were the only men who are traditionally known as founding fathers who did not own slaves.
Benjamin Franklin was indeed a founder of the Abolitionist Society, but he owned two slaves, named King and George. Franklin’s newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette routinely ran ads for sale or purchase of slaves.
Patrick Henry is another founding father who owned slaves, although his speeches would make one think otherwise. Despite his “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death” speech, he had up to 70 slaves at a time, apologizing a few times along the way, saying he knew it was wrong, that he was accountable to his God, and citing the “general inconvenience of living without them.”
Patrick Henry was a star of the Revolution, but not present at the Constitutional Convention. The author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, was in Europe during the convention. Mr. Jefferson not only owned slaves, he took one to be his mistress and kidsmama.
One of the more controversial features of the Constitution is the 3/5 rule. Here are the original words “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.” In other words, a slave was only considered to be 60% of a person.
That seems rather harsh. The truth is, it was a compromise. The agricultural southern states did not want to give up their slaves. The northern states did not want to give up Congressional representation. This was the first of many compromises made about slavery, ending with the War between the States. This webpage goes into more detail about the nature of slavery at the start of the U.S.A.
The research for this feature turned up a rather cynical document called The myth of the “Founding Fathers” . It is written by Adolph Nixon. He asks : “most rational persons realize that such political mythology is sheer nonsense, but it begs the question, who were the Founding Fathers and what makes them so great that they’re wiser than you are?”
Mr. Nixon reviews the 39 white men who signed the Constitution. He does not follow the rule, if you can’t say anything nice about someone, then don’t say anything at all. Of the 39, 12 were specified as slave owners, with many tagged as “slave breeders”.
The Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, have served America well. However it was intended, it was written so that it could be amended, and to grow with the young republic. It has on occasion been ignored (when was the last time Congress declared war?). However fine a document it is, it was created by men. These were men of their time, who could not have foreseen the changes that America has gone through. It can also be assumed that those who talk the most about the founding fathers know the least about them.
A big thank you goes to wikipedia Pictures are from The Library of Congress.