Days late - 19-20 February 2011
Feb. 22nd, 2011 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGreetings, everyone. What kind of world do we live in when people have to have their children listen to others claim there are good blacks and bad blacks in Detroit, while all the white folk don't lift a finger to help all blacks?
It's also a world where a track from a computer game gets a Grammy award...six years after the game's release, but still...
The matter in Wisconsin goes on. Long enough that the humorists are also finding ways to express themselves. Amnesty International is getting on board, as they remind us that The Universal Declaration of Human rights lists the right for laborers to organize among its declarations. We should all have long since abandoned the premise that this was about state shortfalls, considering bigger gaps have been closed in the past without having to bust unions, and to focus on who funded the Governor's campaign, why they hate all unions, and what sort of business practices they engage in by laying off people to increase their own profits. It's the Billionare Bros, the Kochs, who are once again orchestrating politics through their money and some puppets.
But instead, we'll get noise about how evul unions are, how they should go away because they're not popular, how they should go away because their members have exorbitant salaries and benefits, and how they should go away because unions have political clout. And that they're so intransigent and unwilling to negotiate that these drastic steps just have to be taken against them, and they're thwarting the Will Of The People that elected the new government in November. (This would be after those intransigent unions offered to sit down and have a negotiation on the money issue and were refused, and any time someone talks about The Will Of The People, it's an automatic "It's Okay If You're A Republican.") And because there's a budget defecit there, without explaining the context of the tax cuts that created it. Or we'll see smear artists like the thoroughly discredited propagandist Breitbart running hit jobs saying teachers will be faking their own doctors notes for their protest sicknesses.
It is to the point where people begin to construct prayers.
Wisconsin is not the only place where the protests go on, even though at least one person in Egypt was caught on camera expressing solidarity for the Wisconsin workers - In Libya, demonstraters were shot by snipers and then those who turned out for the funerals were also shot at. Yemen cracked down on their protestors, while Iran telegraphed their intent to get violent against their protests. Bahrain eased up on theirs, bucking the trend, although they don't seem all that close to any sort of deal.
Out in the world today, Digging at a site known for nuclear tests by the North Korean government sets their neighbors and enemies a little more on edge. Of course, if the missile-shooting laser technology currently being researched by the United States Navy performs as advertised, I think they'll feel confident about any missile content coming from the area. For now, though, they'll settle for increased concentration of forces in the Asian Pacific Ocean area.
Domestically, the House budget bill passed also nixed out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Such a thing is perhaps best summed up thusly, in a picture of nine letters. Expect conservative media to trumpet such things as "historic" or a good trend against the assumed big-spender Obama. And, of course, it doesn't actually talk about the big players in the room at all.
Elsewhere in the sequence of cutting funding to necessary things, porposed cuts for Michigan's libraries that will likely impact their interlibrary loan system. Which, again, is kind of like shooting oneself in the face to engage in rhinoplasty. But despite the naysayers in our political spheres, libraries are more important to everyone - especially when chain bookstores fold up or people start taking their book-buying decisions to the web.
The Marine Corps Commandant, having been given his marching orders on the repeal of openly gay servicemeners, says he doesn't expect to have a mass exodus from the forces once the repeal tekes full effect. At least, he says this publically. It seems a bit too quick of a turnaround to go from "they will all leave" to "nobody's planning on going" - unless, of course, he was Making [BLEEP] Up when he claimed the mass exodus in the first place.
In the sciences, the possibilities that dogs can empathize with people.
Technology from the military shows a very small unmanned aerial vehicle with a camera, which will likely soon be coming home for domestic surveillance duties against private citizens, maybe with a warrant, maybe not.
Into opinions, where we have a comparison between Scientology and Christianity on several points, viewpoint Slacktivist, deconstruction and extension, comment squadron (who are some of the best at both being outsiders looking in and insiders having a discussion among themselves at the points where theologies or interpretations differ).
A flattering interview with Paul Ryan, with the interviewer already sympathetic to Mr. Ryan's views, including an attempt to get him to run in 2012 as the True Republican Fiscal Conservative candidate.
Mr. Williams boggles the mind by boldly claiming that the reason people are poor and abused in the world is because their government interferes too much in their lives instead of giving them FREEDOM and private property rights. It's the international expansion of the accusation that the current President has been aggregating more power to the executive, instead of reversing the trend as he promised. (There's an It's Okay If You're A Republican facet to these columns, as we didn't hear them complaining at all about things like USAPATRIOT or Guantanamo Bay...) For Mr. Williams, it couldn't possibly be that the emergency rule of a despot long beyond when they should have left has anything at all to do with it? Perhaps the spread of uprisings in the Middle East has more to do with the fact that most of these autocrats are lining their own pockets while they also deny rights to their citizens? (I suppose you could categorize all of that as "government interference", but that would also be saying that many of those situations can be called "government".) This is square-peg thinking.
Similarly, Mr. Flynn believes that Europe dug itself into a giant hole and made itself vulnerable to takeover by The Bloodthirsty Religion by not insisting that all dark-skinned foreigners leave their cultures and religions behind (after making sure to take all the People Like Us that they can as a priority), by providing a social safety net and by not getting their women pregnant enough to have a replacement rate.
Mr. Tooley sees a conspiracy from the American Religious Left to transform Egypt into an anti-American, anti-Israel country to...prove how much the Religious Left Hates Freedom and America? The conspiracy is one apparently to impose their own ideas of what Egyptians should think on them instead of letting them come to the Obviously Superior conclusion that America is the Greatest Nation In The World and Worthy of Emulation At All Points. And they do so, these nefarious leftists, by pointing out just how much the United States has been supporting tinpots, dictators, and autocrats in the region, because it makes it easier for the United States, instead of Spreading The Freedom Agenda that conservatives claim the U.S. is doing all the time without failure or compromise. (Unless it's a liberal doing it.)
Finally, Mr. Knight starts on shaky ground, misrepresenting the position of the ACLU in a case where a counselor candidate in graduate school was dismissed from the program because she asked to send an openly gay student to another counselor because her Chrisitan beliefs prevented her from being able to accept his orientation and counsel him about his issues, and then diving downward into "The Gay can be cured" and "Religious Persecution! They Want All the Christians To Be Silenced!" grounds. Let's separate a bit, first. The ACLU says that it's reasonable to expect a counselor to perform their duties without letting their personal beliefs get in the way. After all, private employers dismiss workers all the time for having conscientious objections to the work they are doing, and the workers don't win discrimination cases when they sue. Now, recently, there have been inroads made by persons of this nature claiming their religious belief exempts them from having to touch or serve anyone they deem unclean, and the courts have been accomodating to a certain degree - if there's an easily accessible alternative so that quality and professional service are rendered, then those objecting can pass their charges on to someone else. At least they don't make them shout "Unclean! Unclean!" before they can be helped by a Samaritan because the priests, Levites, Pharisees, and Sadducees won't. At this point, the obligatory question of "Why are you getting into this public-serving profession if you're not willing to serve all the public you will see?" is asked and answered.
Anyway, Mr. Knight, rather than leaving it at this point and exploring the tension between those two demands, with the added complication of a non-discrimination policy/ethics code that includes sexual orientation, which is where I suspect the Appeals Court will spend their time, he goes straight to the persecution angle, after a short stop at self-justification via "Well, they're just making a lifestyle choice, and counselors are supposed to be able to tell people to stop making unhealthy lifestyle choices." (Really, though, if that's the angle that you're taking, then why didn't she just go in and say "You have to stop being gay and you'll feel better"? It would open up a different can of worms, but she at least can satisfy her conscience and, theoretically, her duty as a counselor.) That, and an Appeal to Authority that the Constitution didn't say anything about it, so it must not be a valid criterion. Anyway, the point becomes "Christians are being told they have to deny or behave contrary to their beliefs if they want to be employed in this country! That's wrong!" That argument is also extendable to places that most of the people who agree with Mr. Knight do not want to go. Think of the Childrens, after all, and tell me whether you want to extend that protection to child molestors and abusers, Mr. Knight, because that is where it goes. Or to places like honor killings and female genital mutilation...or parents who don't believe in vaccinations. If Mr. Knight believes in the rule of law and the relatively absolute authority of places of work to set their own rules in addition to the ones the government sets forth, both staples of most conservative lines of thinking, then he shouldn't be crying "Persecution!" at this case. "Discrimination!", maybe, based on the fact that the student was dismissed from the program for that belief, rather than an alternative workaround being found.
That's all for us tonight.
It's also a world where a track from a computer game gets a Grammy award...six years after the game's release, but still...
The matter in Wisconsin goes on. Long enough that the humorists are also finding ways to express themselves. Amnesty International is getting on board, as they remind us that The Universal Declaration of Human rights lists the right for laborers to organize among its declarations. We should all have long since abandoned the premise that this was about state shortfalls, considering bigger gaps have been closed in the past without having to bust unions, and to focus on who funded the Governor's campaign, why they hate all unions, and what sort of business practices they engage in by laying off people to increase their own profits. It's the Billionare Bros, the Kochs, who are once again orchestrating politics through their money and some puppets.
But instead, we'll get noise about how evul unions are, how they should go away because they're not popular, how they should go away because their members have exorbitant salaries and benefits, and how they should go away because unions have political clout. And that they're so intransigent and unwilling to negotiate that these drastic steps just have to be taken against them, and they're thwarting the Will Of The People that elected the new government in November. (This would be after those intransigent unions offered to sit down and have a negotiation on the money issue and were refused, and any time someone talks about The Will Of The People, it's an automatic "It's Okay If You're A Republican.") And because there's a budget defecit there, without explaining the context of the tax cuts that created it. Or we'll see smear artists like the thoroughly discredited propagandist Breitbart running hit jobs saying teachers will be faking their own doctors notes for their protest sicknesses.
It is to the point where people begin to construct prayers.
Wisconsin is not the only place where the protests go on, even though at least one person in Egypt was caught on camera expressing solidarity for the Wisconsin workers - In Libya, demonstraters were shot by snipers and then those who turned out for the funerals were also shot at. Yemen cracked down on their protestors, while Iran telegraphed their intent to get violent against their protests. Bahrain eased up on theirs, bucking the trend, although they don't seem all that close to any sort of deal.
Out in the world today, Digging at a site known for nuclear tests by the North Korean government sets their neighbors and enemies a little more on edge. Of course, if the missile-shooting laser technology currently being researched by the United States Navy performs as advertised, I think they'll feel confident about any missile content coming from the area. For now, though, they'll settle for increased concentration of forces in the Asian Pacific Ocean area.
Domestically, the House budget bill passed also nixed out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Such a thing is perhaps best summed up thusly, in a picture of nine letters. Expect conservative media to trumpet such things as "historic" or a good trend against the assumed big-spender Obama. And, of course, it doesn't actually talk about the big players in the room at all.
Elsewhere in the sequence of cutting funding to necessary things, porposed cuts for Michigan's libraries that will likely impact their interlibrary loan system. Which, again, is kind of like shooting oneself in the face to engage in rhinoplasty. But despite the naysayers in our political spheres, libraries are more important to everyone - especially when chain bookstores fold up or people start taking their book-buying decisions to the web.
The Marine Corps Commandant, having been given his marching orders on the repeal of openly gay servicemeners, says he doesn't expect to have a mass exodus from the forces once the repeal tekes full effect. At least, he says this publically. It seems a bit too quick of a turnaround to go from "they will all leave" to "nobody's planning on going" - unless, of course, he was Making [BLEEP] Up when he claimed the mass exodus in the first place.
In the sciences, the possibilities that dogs can empathize with people.
Technology from the military shows a very small unmanned aerial vehicle with a camera, which will likely soon be coming home for domestic surveillance duties against private citizens, maybe with a warrant, maybe not.
Into opinions, where we have a comparison between Scientology and Christianity on several points, viewpoint Slacktivist, deconstruction and extension, comment squadron (who are some of the best at both being outsiders looking in and insiders having a discussion among themselves at the points where theologies or interpretations differ).
A flattering interview with Paul Ryan, with the interviewer already sympathetic to Mr. Ryan's views, including an attempt to get him to run in 2012 as the True Republican Fiscal Conservative candidate.
Mr. Williams boggles the mind by boldly claiming that the reason people are poor and abused in the world is because their government interferes too much in their lives instead of giving them FREEDOM and private property rights. It's the international expansion of the accusation that the current President has been aggregating more power to the executive, instead of reversing the trend as he promised. (There's an It's Okay If You're A Republican facet to these columns, as we didn't hear them complaining at all about things like USAPATRIOT or Guantanamo Bay...) For Mr. Williams, it couldn't possibly be that the emergency rule of a despot long beyond when they should have left has anything at all to do with it? Perhaps the spread of uprisings in the Middle East has more to do with the fact that most of these autocrats are lining their own pockets while they also deny rights to their citizens? (I suppose you could categorize all of that as "government interference", but that would also be saying that many of those situations can be called "government".) This is square-peg thinking.
Similarly, Mr. Flynn believes that Europe dug itself into a giant hole and made itself vulnerable to takeover by The Bloodthirsty Religion by not insisting that all dark-skinned foreigners leave their cultures and religions behind (after making sure to take all the People Like Us that they can as a priority), by providing a social safety net and by not getting their women pregnant enough to have a replacement rate.
Mr. Tooley sees a conspiracy from the American Religious Left to transform Egypt into an anti-American, anti-Israel country to...prove how much the Religious Left Hates Freedom and America? The conspiracy is one apparently to impose their own ideas of what Egyptians should think on them instead of letting them come to the Obviously Superior conclusion that America is the Greatest Nation In The World and Worthy of Emulation At All Points. And they do so, these nefarious leftists, by pointing out just how much the United States has been supporting tinpots, dictators, and autocrats in the region, because it makes it easier for the United States, instead of Spreading The Freedom Agenda that conservatives claim the U.S. is doing all the time without failure or compromise. (Unless it's a liberal doing it.)
Finally, Mr. Knight starts on shaky ground, misrepresenting the position of the ACLU in a case where a counselor candidate in graduate school was dismissed from the program because she asked to send an openly gay student to another counselor because her Chrisitan beliefs prevented her from being able to accept his orientation and counsel him about his issues, and then diving downward into "The Gay can be cured" and "Religious Persecution! They Want All the Christians To Be Silenced!" grounds. Let's separate a bit, first. The ACLU says that it's reasonable to expect a counselor to perform their duties without letting their personal beliefs get in the way. After all, private employers dismiss workers all the time for having conscientious objections to the work they are doing, and the workers don't win discrimination cases when they sue. Now, recently, there have been inroads made by persons of this nature claiming their religious belief exempts them from having to touch or serve anyone they deem unclean, and the courts have been accomodating to a certain degree - if there's an easily accessible alternative so that quality and professional service are rendered, then those objecting can pass their charges on to someone else. At least they don't make them shout "Unclean! Unclean!" before they can be helped by a Samaritan because the priests, Levites, Pharisees, and Sadducees won't. At this point, the obligatory question of "Why are you getting into this public-serving profession if you're not willing to serve all the public you will see?" is asked and answered.
Anyway, Mr. Knight, rather than leaving it at this point and exploring the tension between those two demands, with the added complication of a non-discrimination policy/ethics code that includes sexual orientation, which is where I suspect the Appeals Court will spend their time, he goes straight to the persecution angle, after a short stop at self-justification via "Well, they're just making a lifestyle choice, and counselors are supposed to be able to tell people to stop making unhealthy lifestyle choices." (Really, though, if that's the angle that you're taking, then why didn't she just go in and say "You have to stop being gay and you'll feel better"? It would open up a different can of worms, but she at least can satisfy her conscience and, theoretically, her duty as a counselor.) That, and an Appeal to Authority that the Constitution didn't say anything about it, so it must not be a valid criterion. Anyway, the point becomes "Christians are being told they have to deny or behave contrary to their beliefs if they want to be employed in this country! That's wrong!" That argument is also extendable to places that most of the people who agree with Mr. Knight do not want to go. Think of the Childrens, after all, and tell me whether you want to extend that protection to child molestors and abusers, Mr. Knight, because that is where it goes. Or to places like honor killings and female genital mutilation...or parents who don't believe in vaccinations. If Mr. Knight believes in the rule of law and the relatively absolute authority of places of work to set their own rules in addition to the ones the government sets forth, both staples of most conservative lines of thinking, then he shouldn't be crying "Persecution!" at this case. "Discrimination!", maybe, based on the fact that the student was dismissed from the program for that belief, rather than an alternative workaround being found.
That's all for us tonight.
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Date: 2011-02-23 03:31 am (UTC)