Because discrimination can become ... indiscriminate

We make it thus

At the end of the powerful movie, The Mission, in which Cardinal Altamirano has been investigating what was happening in the battle between slave-trading Europeans and the Jesuit missionaries in South America, one of the slave traders says to him, "We must work in the world. The world is thus."

The cardinal, who has surrendered to the pressure of the powerful and wealthy, sadly responds, "No, Signor Hontar, thus we have made the world. Thus I have made it."

I think of this as I see the daily news. Thus we have made it. Thus I have made it.

Sad, really.

Blogger

Depending on which blogs you read, you may have seen notices that new policies from Blogger may shut down those that (sometimes) feature nudity unless the powers-that-be decide that "the content offers a substantial public benefit. For example, in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts." Blogger already posts Content Warning pages on blogs "they" have deemed dubious. 

We all know that there are blogs out there that are filled with images of dubious value and inappropriate for viewing by immature and impressionable minds. I have found, however, that Blogger often posts warning about gay blogs on which I have never seen any nudity, certainly no exposed genitalia, much less sex acts.

So the question is, as is always the case with censorship, who decides what is and is not "a substantial public benefit" -- Blogger editors, people who troll the blogosphere looking for a blog to denounce when it does not fit their preconceived notions about whatever, a computer program, who exactly?

My friend Michael once created two blogs as an experiment. He copied an article from mainstream media that had to do with homosexual rights. On one blog, he left the article as it was in the original,  using the word homosexual. On the other blog, he replaced the word homosexual each time with the word gay. That was the only change. The content was exactly the same and there were no images of any kind.

He then ran both blogs through a filter that was supposed to let him know if the blogs were considered appropriate. The one that used the word homosexual passed the test. The other failed. Obviously no one had looked at the two blogs. A computer program -- which had been set to fail gay blogs -- had made the decision. 

This would never stand up in a court of law, I suspect, as careful evaluation of content in search of "substantial public benefit."

We're not there yet

"A conclusion is the part where you got tired of thinking."

I am not sure who said that first, but I have always liked the quote attributed to Gracie Allen:

Never put a period where God has put a comma. 

It seems that so many of us do that these days, whatever our opinions may be on the God issue. Some conservatives think as far as "cutting taxes is good" and believe that they are through. They do not go on to consider what to do about things that can only be financed with tax revenue, things like Homeland Security, to name one thing that is on the chopping block at the same time that terrorist threats to American shopping malls are in the headlines. 

Progressives can be bad about this, too. We think as far as "every young person deserves the opportunity for a publicly-funded higher education" without always figuring out where the money to pay for that will be found. 

And the whole issue of where discrimination begins and freedom of conscience ends  seems to consist of people on both sides thinking up to a point and stopping. No one has suggested a good solution to that problem yet, but all I hear are people repeating the same "conclusions" they have already expressed before. The conversation is going in circles, not forward. We think our current conclusion is the final destination, when it may be just an oasis along the way. Good for a moment to catch one's breath, but not the end of the journey.

All too often, oasis is another word for mirage. 

Okay, I lost that bet

I had bet Tom that Dale Jr. was going to take Daytona, but Joey Logan fooled us all and won the race. Good for Joey, congratulations to Tom and now I have to try to remember exactly what I bet on this race. I think next time we go to Wisconsin, I have to take Tom and Michael out to Ishnala for dinner.

Maybe I should bet double or nothing on Martinsville.

Don't anyone tell Damien, okay? He never reads my blog, so I should be safe.

Wasting away in Daytonaville

Sorry, but for the past few days and for the next few, all my attention is on Daytona. 

Stay safe!

Go, Joey!

Kind

Brian Brown, Tony Perkins, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Roy Moore ...

Seriously. If they were free from their own suffering, whatever may be its roots, don't you think things would be better for them and for the rest of us?

Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble ...

Okay, this may be fake. But it is easy to believe that it is real. Students seldom learn things like how to read cursive writing any more. Why would they be expected to read Roman numerals? Or that the zero is not used in such numerals? Or that Latin was a language spoken in ancient Rome (and well into the centuries after its collapse, morphing into things like French, Spanish and Italian) and NOT a language spoken in Latin America? Or Latvia.

The title of the post is taken from the spiritual, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?"

Humble

Not quite the same as the Serenity Prayer, but good advice nonetheless. And thanks to Facing Traffic blog for the image and reflections on this and many things worth reading.

What a step forward for repression

Gov. Sam Brownback announced Tuesday that he would rescind an executive order issue by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that prevented some state employees from being fired on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Brownback framed the issue as an attempt to make sure all state employees had the same protections. Kansas law prohibits discrimination based on religion, race, gender and some other categories. To Tom Witt, executive director of Equality Kansas, removing the protection not only threatens some employees’ livelihoods, but insults them and their work for the state. 

Protesters rallied at the state Capitol to denounce the move.

Perhaps the flip side of this sign should read, "Stupid does."

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!

Not really. (Smile.) I have Damien, Spot and Rover.

And that is why it can be so difficult

But what about love means not ever having to say you're sorry?

Oh! That's what that meant! I hate to tell you how long it took me to get that.

Dance

Sometimes the only response to the craziness in the world is to dance.

Well, it may not be the only response, but it is certainly more fun than lots of them and safer than the rest.

But don't dance like no one is looking. Dance like the gods are watching with delight!

Fear

Although I practiced law for many years, I was never a criminal lawyer. (I know, you think all lawyers are criminals. Ha, ha.) So I have little experience of prisons. The brick and mortar kind, that is.

I have plenty of experience of fear, however. It was only when I was able, with the help of others, to face my fears and name them that the walls disappeared and I discovered that I had been living surrounded by beauty within and without all this time.

It saddens me to see how our American society has become fear-driven: fear of foreigners, fear of immigrants, fear of science, fear of education, fear of gays, fear of Christians, fear of Democrats, fear of Republicans. The walls are in our heads, not around our bodies. We are immersed in beauty like fish in the sea, could we but see it.

It also saddens me to realize how much of our fear is the direct result of fear-mongering on the part of those who make money from frightening us.

So very sad.

Yup

Boring!

If God is watching us, the least we can do is be entertaining.

The alcohol-challenged Archbishop of San Francisco is trying to stomp on the entertainment by  adding a ridiculous and legally unenforceable morals clause to the contracts of teachers in Catholic schools in his archdiocese. He is, however, adding to the entertainment by trying to classify as "ministers" (thus adding to his claim to control their thoughts and actions) all Catholic school employees, including teachers, administrative staff, custodial and food service staff.

One seriously and sincerely hopes he gets the help he needs for dealing with his own problems. A healthy archbishop would be a great gift to San Francisco, its Catholics as well as its other citizens. 

Let it be.

E pluribus stultitia

In Vermont, an eighth-grade girl who was studying Latin wrote a letter to the Minority Leader of the Vermont Senate suggesting that Vermont should have a Latin motto, in addition to --  but not replacing -- the official English motto ("Freedom and Unity"). So, the people involved came up with this:

Stella quarta decima fulgeat. The translation: “May the Fourteenth Star Shine Bright,” is a nod to Vermont’s status as the fourteenth state to join the union. Nice. Poetic in both languages.

So then the legislature passes a resolution, which takes very little time and costs no money. Right? Wrong. Guess what happened next?

Here's a post about the story from a Vermont blog: No good deed goes unpunished. 

Apparently a local TV station did a story about it and got a huge number of incredibly ignorant comments on their Facebook page, here: WCAX: One state senator thinks Vermont should have a Latin motto. What do you think?.

The crazies came out of the woodwork: "If you live in the United States, you need to learn English!" "Vermont ain't no Latino area." "This is America, not Mexico or some other Latin-American country." And so on.

Samples:

Dorothy Lynn Lepisto: “I thought Vermont was American not Latin? Does any Latin places have American mottos?”

Norman Flanders: “What next Arab motto??”

Kevin P. Hahn: “How about ‘go back south of the boarder'”

Richard Mason: “We are AMERICANS, not latins, why not come up with a Vermont motto that is actually from us”

Judy Lamoureux: “Throw him out of the country tell him to take obama with him!”

Phil Salzano: “My question is, are we Latin, or are we Vermonters? Alright then, English it is…..”

Lori Olds: “I thought this was USA why are they trying to make Americans aliens”

Chris Ferro: “That’s a BIG NO, if you live in the United State YOU need to learn ENGLISH!!”

Julie Kellner: “No, you a USA citizen!.. Learn & understand the language!!!.”

Kurtis Jones: “No cause vt ain’t no Latino area. Leave the motto alone”

Zeb Swierczynski: “ABSOLUTLY NOT!!!! sick and tired of that crap, they have their own countries”

Ken Curtis: “Just when I felt our represenatives could not possibly get any dumber , they come up with this…get real… this is the USA, not some Moslim or Mexican country…stop given in to these people…PRESS 1 for English and forget the rest… worry about the problems you were elected to do”

Ronald Prouty Jr. “No way this is America not Mexico or Latin America. And they nee to learn our language, just like if we go there they want us to speak theirs”

Kristen Wright: “thats un called for this is the usa”

Kelley Dawley: “How do you say idiotic senator in spanish? I’d settle for deport illegals in spanish as a back up motto”

Heather Chase: “Seriously?? Last time I checked..real vermonters were speakin ENGLISH.. NOT LATIN..good god…”

I pass over the grammatical and spelling errors in these remarks by defenders of the English language.

You may remember that Vice-President Dan Quayle was alleged to have said,  "I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people." 

Though widely reported in the press, because sadly it sounded exactly like something he would say, it turned out that this was a joke at his expense, told oddly enough by a Republican, Representative Claudine Schneider of Rhode Island. In her defense, Schneider said it was a joke at the time, but that little fact got unreported.

Like so many little facts.

Billable hours

A lawyer dies and goes to Heaven. 

"There must be some mistake," the lawyer argues. "I’m too young to die. I’m only fifty five." 

"Fifty five?" says Saint Peter. "No, according to our calculations, you’re eighty two." 

"How’d you get that?" the lawyer asks. 

Answers St. Peter: "We added up your time sheets."

Two points:

1) The first joke, the mistake, of course, is that a lawyer went to heaven. Many people start to laugh after the first sentence.

2) Lawyers generally charge billable hours. In the first law firm where I worked, we charged in increments of 6 minutes, ten increments to an hour, or 1/10th of the full charge for an hour of work on a case. The full charge was $350. If my assistant brought in the mail, opened and sorted, I would glance at each piece, set some aside and tell him what to do with the others. These last transactions might each take 30 seconds of my time: "Call and see if  she can come in next week. If so, make an appointment. And bill 1/10 hour."

So that 30 seconds or less was billed on my behalf as six minutes. I could process ten such letters in five minutes, charge each person 1/10 of an hour -- the minimum we would charge -- and get a full billable hour ($350) for that five minutes of my work. The assistant, of course, would spend much more time making calls, writing letters and so on. But his time did not count in this system, although some firms did charge similar though much smaller fees for their paralegals' time.

At the end of a 60-hour week (not unusual!), a lawyer can easily submit hundreds of billable hours in this way.

I'm not saying lawyers can't forcefully argue the justification for this. I'm just saying at the Pearly Gates, we may all be in for a shock!

Communication

I once attended a communications workshop in which the presenter insisted that true communication demands that all participants be willing to change. I resisted the notion, because I know that I am always right. Like Sheldon Cooper, I never argue. I merely explain why I am right. You are the one who must change.

I realize this is foolishness on my part, but I also recognize that sometimes I avoid engaging in conversations with people with whom I disagree strongly. I say it is to avoid becoming angry.  Perhaps, though, I am reluctant to discover they may have something to teach me that I do not want to hear.

No perhaps about it, really. I need to grow up!