Definitions

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/us/sausalito-school-segregation.html

Good afternoon all,

A couple of time already I've mentioned that key words do not have universal definitions and/or the definitions of certain words has changed.

Glance at the above link from the New York Slimes.

It contains a paragraph that clearly illustrates my point - and the significance of my point.

Here's the para:

"Sixty-five years after Brown v. Board of Education, California and several other liberal states - New York, Maryland and Illinois - have the most deeply segregated schools in the nation."

Just about any other word could work ... but these states are far from "liberal". They're closer to exercising fascist concepts than liberal ones.

All Americans must be properly educated

"From the many: one."

 

I get in huge pissing competitions on forums when people call themselves "Homesteaders".

 

Why? I would love to be a homesteader providing I could find the land.

 

A person is a "Homesteader" from the moment he/she sign the contract to prove-up on the free federal land. Once he/she has proved-up and is issued title, he/she is no longer homesteading. They are now people living on land they homesteaded.

Purchasing some land and farming it is NOT homesteading. And they are not homesteaders. When you have gone alone into raw remote wilderness, and lived that life of incredible hardship and danger to prove up on land to get it from the Government, it pisses you off that someone buy land and calls themselves a homesteader.

Kind'a like a stateside Air Force library clerk, calling themselves a "Warrior". Going to piss-off the infantry warriors.

 

I am a homesteader. In Texas, you are allowed to "homestead" your home and that reduces your taxes. Homestead is just a word. In Texas, it is used to identify property that you personally solely live on and inhabit versus property that you have for a recreational home, rental property or commercial property that are all taxed at different rates. This is just one of several uses of the word. Like all legal definitions, lawyers and politicians constantly argue and try to change its exact meaning. Over time they get their way and so words have a lot of different meanings. Who would have thought when the word "MEN" was used in the constitution that it would require endless adjustments in its meanings and the same is true of "MILITIA". Even "keep and bear" is legally open for reinterpretation. It all gives me a headache and I try to avoid arguing about these things with people. Getting someone to change their mind is like trying to give a cat an enema. NOBODY comes out of it happy or better of!

 

I tend to think of Homesteaders in the strictest sense. Those who have taken advantage of the Homestead Act of 1862. They have acquired land through a Federal program, and are allowed to take title when they have completed the requirements. I never really thought that they stopped being homesteaders once the requirements were completed, but I guess you could make an argument for that.

TexDanm: The law is Texas says you are a Homesteader, so I don't think there is much argument there. We can call Sourdough's argument #1 in the dictionary; and TexDanm's #2. Lots of words have more than one definition.

We can really have a lot of fun with this thread if we put our minds to it. Remember this one:

Stress: The confusion created when one's mind overrides the body's basic desire to choke the living s**t out of some a**hole who desperately deserves it.