God Is Everywhere

No no, relax. No spontaneous religious conversion here. Not very likely to happen anytime soon...
I just noticed that I think and post about a lot of personal/mood/rant-stuff. Maybe I have too much time to be self-centered and narcissistic lately...

So I decided to put up more pictures and more 'observation'-type writing. At least every once in a while to offset the me-me-me posts...Haha.


I took this picture in the gardens around the State Capitol in Austin, TX, last month. There were a bunch of statues and stones commemorating a number of things. The statue of a cowboy, a frontier woman and other things related to Texas history ("The surrounding 22 acres (89,000 m²) contained 17 monuments and 21 historical markers commemorating the "people, ideals, and events that compose Texan identity."). Pretty neat setup and I enjoyed my stroll around the area.

This thing just got me thinking and quite frankly baffled me a bit. Why put up the 'Ten Commandments' in the grounds surrounding the seat of the state government? Is it meant to be a sign that Christianity and government are or should be linked? Well, just seemed weird to me. First Amendment, anyone? Oh, apparently not just to me:

A granite monument of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol was at the center of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case, Van Orden v. Perry, in which the display was challenged as unconstitutional. In late June 2005, the Court ruled that the display was not unconstitutional.

Holding: A Ten Commandments monument erected on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol did not violate the Establishment Clause, because the monument, when considered in context, conveyed a historic and social meaning rather than an intrusive religious endorsement.

Huh. Go figure. Well, I guess I see the point. Still slightly weird, in my opinion. You could also display some kind of slave-owner-manual and claim it's a historical document, no?

Well, then I also found this:

A tablet in front of a very sad looking patch of land with no roses. Well, it was February after all. But look at the last sentence: "The beauty of the Tyler rose is an example of what happens when God and man work together." Oh really?

Oh well, I don't know...Here are a few more pictures of less controversial memorials and statues:

I really liked this memorial. Looked pretty awesome in the sun, with the shadows creating odd patterns. Neat. It reminded me a little of the Vietnam Memorial in D.C.
The aforementioned Texas pioneer lady and the cowboy:

The boy scouts sponsored a small replica of the Statue of Liberty:
Oh, all quotes in this post from Wikipedia (Don't want to be accused of plagiarism after all. But I am too lazy to post exact links. Hehe). Pictures by Me.