Memorial Day and Voting Rights

Restrictive voting laws, because nothing says Happy Memorial Day like taking away a right that American soldiers fought and died to defend.

Authoritarian Assault

I applaud the 6 Republican senators who had the guts and the ethical standards to investigate the Trump Insurrection. The remaining forty-four are either spineless cowards or willing conspirators in the authoritarian assault on American democracy.

Going Postal

In the 1970s and 80s, there was a rash of workplace shootings in, of all places, Post Offices. It even inspired a new term to describe when someone lashes out in extreme anger. We say that the person is “going postal.”

One would think that in all of this time someone would have come up with a solution, a way of identifying and calming enraged people who seek violent retribution on their colleagues or other people in their communities. One has to wonder what sort of rage could drive a person to lash out like this. Did Bill forget to return your stapler? Is that really worth killing a bunch of people?

But, sadly, nothing was done. Firearms are more ubiquitous and more powerful than ever. They are easy to acquire. Laws that prevented people with emotional difficulties from owning a weapon were struck down.

The American system is profoundly broken. Everything is driven by profit. If mass murders caused corporations to lose tons of money, politicians would be compelled to act. But instead, violent events actually enrich corporations. Every time there is a mass shooting, people run out and buy more guns. Gun manufacturers and retailers keep making money. Police forces gain additional funding. So what if nine people die in a rail yard or twenty kids die in a first grade classroom? As long as the corporations keep making money, the politicians won’t lift a finger to change things.

Mask Mandate Controversy

When someone makes a hurtful and irresponsible statement, it’s easy to dismiss it, but there’s value in analyzing the details.

Every human being can catch and spread a virus. The virus does not discriminate.

The government does not single out certain segments of the population for mask mandates. If they did, that would be alarming, dangerous, and profoundly unfair.

Mask mandates do not apply to people of a particular race, religion, ethnicity, sex, age bracket, income bracket, or sexual orientation. In situations where it’s dangerous not to wear a mask, every citizen is asked to comply with the same set of rules.

Whether or not you comply with mask mandates, whether or not you agree with them in principle, the government is not going to come to your house at night, confiscate your property, and move you and your family into a ghetto or send you to a concentration camp to die.

A public figure recently compared mask mandates for Covid-19 to the Holocaust. By considering the details calmly and rationally as we just have, we can see that this is not an apt comparison at all. It was a hateful and abhorrent statement. The public figure should apologize and should think very hard about what she is going to say.

Conspiracy Theories

For years, I believed conspiracy theories about the assassination of President Kennedy. It seemed reasonable to believe that this shocking and momentous even was planned and executed by powerful people. If those people could be identified and punished, then justice would finally be served, and all who mourned would find a sense of closure.

Were we expected to believe the alternative, that one man acting alone had shocked the world and changed the course of history? How can one human being have that much power to do evil?

Were we expected to accept the truth would never be known because the assassin himself was silence with a bullet two days later, an event that further exacerbated suspicions of a conspiracy?

I understand the appeal of conspiracy theories. They comfort our anxieties and frustrations by offering the hope of a just and sensible resolution to a situation that leaves us feeling powerless. It’s tempting to believe that dark forces are to blame when difficulties arise, but that one day those dark forces will be vanquished when the truth of their actions is finally known.

Reality is not always thrilling. The truth is simple and straightforward. What you see is what really happened. Water doesn’t freeze because some secret society want to trick you into believing in ice. Ice is real. If we don’t accept that reality, we may put ourselves and others in danger.

Today’s conspiracy theories follow the same pattern. They suggest that dark forces are secretly in control, and they will continue to do terrible things until the truth is revealed by heroic people. By recognizing the pattern, we can avoid falling prey to an unhelpful and dangerous fantasy.

Lab Work

This morning, I went to get lab tests done for my annual physical. After I checked in, I stood in a small waiting room where all of the available chairs were occupied by other patients. One lady was speaking in Spanish to her mother the whole time that I was there.

When it was my turn, the tech gave me a plastic cup and directed me to a bathroom. The cup had a lid that I had to unscrew before making my contribution, but there were no flat surfaces in the bathroom where I could set the lid down. I considered for about three seconds trying to hold both the lid and the cup in one hand while hanging on to Mr. Johnson with the other, but that was clearly not practical.

My eventual solution - no, not that solution - was to put a couple of paper towels down on the floor and set the lid top down on those.

My instructions were to leave the cup in a small metal cabinet. When I opened the cabinet, two other samples were already in there. Another gentleman went into the bathroom right after I did. I had to hope that some drug abuser wouldn’t steal my sample.

The tech then directed me to a chair for bloodwork. She had just emerged from behind a curtain where she had attempted to a PCR Covid test to the lady who had been talking on the phone in the waiting room. The tech had to give up in frustration, because the lady kept pulling away from the swab. Hopefully, I won’t have to get lab work done again until this pandemic is over.

Wedge Issues

In politics, an organized minority often dominates the majority. They do this by taking control of the levers of power and enacting policies that benefit their minority interests.

Take for example reproductive rights policies in the United States. Two-thirds of the population believe that abortion should be legal and accessible, not because they want people to have abortions, but because they recognized that when abortion is provided by criminal enterprises, women often suffer grievous consequences.

At the time of this writing, however, two-thirds of the Supreme Court of the United States has a strong bias against reproductive rights.

This did not happen by accident. Powerful right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation identified reproductive rights as a wedge issue that they could use to increase their political power. Conservative politicians promise to curtail access to legal abortion, and abortion-hating voters support those candidates without question, regardless of their qualifications.

Conservative politicians pass abortion-restricting laws and refuse to nominate anyone to the bench who does not pass the Heritage Foundation litmus test for an aggressive anti-abortion stance. As a result, profoundly under-qualified candidates have been given powerful lifetime appointments based on this one issue.

As a result, there are multiple states where abortions are available at only one location, and in another year, those locations will be in danger of being shuttered. Women who visit these facilities are routinely harassed by protestors. In some states, they are forced to undergo unnecessary, invasive examinations before the procedure can be performed.

These restrictions impact the poorest and least powerful citizens, women who cannot travel easily because they have jobs or they are taking care of children already. The judges and the politicians and the power brokers at the heritage foundation aren’t impacted. They can easily travel out of state or even out of the country when they or the women in their lives want an abortion. The powerful play by a different set of rules.

If abortion is criminalized completely in their state, which could very well happen in 2022, poor and working class women will be left with difficult choices even if their pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Either they have to find the time and resources to travel to another part of the country, or they’ll have to consider whether it’s worth putting their lives and health in the hands of an unlicensed practitioner who works for a crime syndicate.

The well-organized, well-funded minority who put these women in these difficult situations does not care about their well-being, not will they care about the well-being of their children. They’re not going to feed those children. They’re not going to provide them with healthcare or shelter or clothing or an education. They’re not going to provide them with homes or opportunities or safe communities. They’ll be sitting back sipping 18 year old Scotch on the golf courses in their gated communities enjoying the tax breaks that they pushed through with their ill-gotten political power.

When A Plan Comes Together

One of our computer systems had a big problem this past Friday which caused a lot of extra work for us, frustration for our users, and urgent questions from upper management.

When I got up on Saturday morning, the global team was still assessing the impacts. I told them that I’d thought that of a potential solution, and my boss told me to run with it.

Ten hours later, I had developed and tested all of the necessary components. I sent a detailed email with the sequence of steps that would be needed to resolve the issue in production.

Yesterday morning, we received approval to deploy my fix. It took a few more hours, but when we were done, everything was working perfectly. I received earnest appreciation from my boss and everyone involved, even the upper management folks who typically reach out only when things go wrong.

One of the business analysts send a note to my boss today, copying me: “You’ve got a ringer on your team!”

My boss replied: “Yes, I do!”

Universal Destiny

The entire history of the Universe, every tumultuous, chaotic, and serendipitous event from the Big Bang to the present has led to this moment, a moment where you are now reading these words. Should you decide to leave a comment, please be nice. The Universe has been known to get cranky.

Darren or Darin

That awkward moment when while watching 1960s movies you realize that James Darren and Bobby Darin are two different people, a confusing parallel given that both men starred in movies with singer and actress Sandra Dee, who in real life was married to Bobby Darin.

Pro Vaccine

Are you pro life? Great! Save lives. Get the vaccine.

Pandemic Patriotism

Are you a patriot? Great! Don’t just wave a flag. Get the vaccine.

Avoid Quick Fixes

Most problems have a root cause that is simple but challenging to resolve. Real improvement requires effort.

Human nature tries to avoid strain. We look for a more efficient path to a solution, a quick fix. Entire industries are built around the promise a quick fix.

Dissatisfied with your golf score? Buy new clubs. Not thrilled with the photos that you’re taking? Upgrade your phone or buy new lenses for your camera. Unhappy with your social life? Buy new clothes or cosmetics. Download the latest dating app. Schedule a Botox injection, even if you’re in your twenties.

A new purchase might bring you some satisfaction, and that’s wonderful. Enjoy the boost. But if it doesn’t address the root cause of your challenges, eventually you’ll be disappointed, and you’ll be tempted to spend more money on more stuff.

Think about it. If buying things made people happy, wouldn’t everyone be happy?

If you are struggling to meet an objective that is important to you, resist the temptation of quick fixes. Identify what’s holding you back, realizing that it’s probably something simple, and put a plan into place to address it.

A Tawdry Limerick

A Tawdry Limerick

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Please do not read this if you are easily offended!

If you proceed despite this warning, don’t blame me!

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I was asked by a gun-toting preacher

To become the new Sunday school teacher

The interview with his wife

Was the best of my life

That woman is one horny creature!

The Enduring Lesson Of Star Wars

The enduring lesson of Star Wars is that great power resides in the darkest impulses of humanity, power that can be overcome only through tireless and courageous dedication to higher ideals.

May the Fourth be with you!

Trans Fat

Transsexual athlete and candidate for governor Bruce Jenner wants to ban trans kids from participating in sports. I haven’t seen such hypocritical self-loathing since I watched Senator Tim Scott speak on Wednesday.

East Germany

I know someone who escaped from East Germany in the 1960s. - This is someone that I know personally, not some vague anecdotal reference. - She and her family were granted permission from the government to visit relatives in West Germany for a weekend. They were not permitted to take anything of value with them, no money, jewelry, family heirlooms, not even photographs. If they had tried to carry valuables out of East Germany, they authorities would have suspected that they were planning to defect. They were only permitted to carry out clothing and essentials for a weekend stay.

Further, they could not say goodbye to friends, neighbors, or associates. They had to pretend that they would be returning in a few days. If they had given any hint that they might not return, their neighbors would have picked up on it and informed the authorities, in which case their permission to travel would have been revoked.

This is what life was like behind the Iron Curtain. People were encouraged to spy on one another. If you suspected that one of your neighbors was going to sneak off to the freedom of the West, it was your duty to inform the police. If you knew and took no action, you, too, would get into trouble.

Keep this context in mind as read the following paragraph. Think about the horror of living in a place where neighbors are encouraged to spy on one another, where any hint of noncompliance with draconian government policies would put you into legal jeopardy.

This past week, a popular host of a Fox opinion program encouraged his viewers to confront anyone they saw wearing a mask. He suggested that they walk up to the person with the mask and demand that they remove it. The host suggested that this was necessary in order to “reclaiming the life we once knew.”

The host wasn’t finished. He made an even more dangerous suggestion about children. He claimed that having children wear a mask was “child abuse” - his exact words - and suggested that if you see children wearing masks in public, it was your duty to “call the police or child services” in order to report the parents, “and keep calling until someone shows up.”

Authoritarian communist control of East Germany ended three decades ago, but I’m sure that some of the administrators of that regime are still alive. Imagine their delight at watching a prominent political opinion personality in the United States suggest that Americans spy on one another, Iron Curtain style, and “call the authorities” on their neighbors. Because that’s what authoritarians do. It’s not what people do in a free and democratic society.

Pro Life

Former VP Mike Pence criticized the Biden Administration for “abandoning the right to life.” Think about that. The administration that ignored a global pandemic, whose ineptitude and callous disregard for human life resulted in the deaths of half a million American citizens, criticized the administration who saved countless lives by making vaccine distribution their highest priority.