Friday, September 05, 2003
Bias, Prejudice and Acceptability
It's bad to be racist -- right? Why? Because it leads one to make judgments based not on the merits of an individual or a situation but on the basis of the race of those involved. So why is it not considered equally unworkable for someone to be religionist? I don't want someone looking down on me because I am not Xian anymore than I want someone looking down at me because I am not Chicano. Or not male, for that matter. Yet, because one's religion is considered to be a choice, it is socially accepted to be prejudiced against someone on that basis. I propose that a more workable basis for judgment is an individual's behavior - not what is believed to be his ideology. It is impossible to accurately and completely perceive the whole of someone's belief system. Even if one were to point to the Bible or the Koran as his belief system, the interpretive differences of those documents are legendary. But, if someone is able to comport themselves in a manner that is respectful of people and property, I don't care if his private opinion is that banana slugs are god. It is simply that; his private opinion. Religion is a private matter between an individual and his perceptions of his god. If he finds himself able to relate to a group of others who share his perceptions of his god, that is their choice. That is not relevant to the issue of how he behaves in society. But if someone wants to judge others based on their perceived belief system and not their behavior, that is bias, bigotry, and prejudice. It is as wrong as making assumptions based on race.Thursday, September 04, 2003
Watchers Council
The Watchers Council has made its best post choices for the week. California's Air by Alpha Patriot, and That Vision Thing by One Hand Clapping Well done, y'all. For the rest of the entries, Go See The Watchers CouncilOccurrence at Walnut Creek
I had several responses to the debates last eve and it's just your luck that I am about to share them with you. I was struck by the lack of "star quality" possessed by Mr Ueberroth. Yet he seems the most focused of the candidates -- and the least political. I believe him when he says that this is a three year commitment on his part and that he has a damn good fix on what the problem is, and possesses the background understanding, the demonstrated leadership skills and the experience to begin the correction process. I particularly liked that he looked the poet and teacher directly in the eye while delivering the bad news that she cannot have her art funding until the state has a balanced budget. That demonstrated guts and a clear take on reality. Mr McClintok demonstrated a similar clarity of vision, commitment and much more "star quality." [aka "presence"] But he went completely sideways when asked if he would have signed a particular bill protecting the privacy of a woman's relationship with her doctor, and began an inappropriately graphic, frothing rant about partial birth abortions. Completely off-topic and striking in the way it stood out from the rational tone of the rest of his statements. He came across like a lifetime politician with partial sense. Mr Bustamante's moment came during his description of his youth as a child of immigrant [illegal?] parents working in the fields of agriculture. His words said, "I have picked cotton." Yet his expression and voice said, "and I'm still pissed about it. Really pissed." Ms Huffington became, well, quite huffy with him about his acceptance of Indian Gaming money [$2 mil] which he parried with an attempt at humor. Yet, as he related his history with that community, "I was with them when they had nothing. Nothing!" he became defensive in a way which seemed strangely out of proportion to Miss Huffy's accusations. McClintok also spoke directly to this campaign donation, calling it "barely legal" and outside the spirit of campaign contribution reform laws. Personally, taken in light of his continued support of MEChA, I began to wonder if his support of "The Tribes" is because they are also a "bronze people." If I were to say that "Miss" Huffington, as she seems to prefer to be called, is as unaware when spewing bullshit as she is when marrying a gay man, I would be approximating the level of go-for-the-nuts maliciousness she displayed toward Bustamante, [and only Bustamante Is there a history there?] The rest of her opinions seemed to be recycled socialism with some commie overtones. She even spoke of a "revolution, like the one against England that began in the East" beginning here and now in the West. [besides -- who could stand to listen to Eva Gabor for three years?!? Kee-ripes! get a voice coach -- you're ...er, rich enough to afford one.] Likewise, Mr Camejo's rants were class-ist in the extreme. Both he and Missy Huffington are determined to go after "the rich" to fix the budget deficit. They seem to be unfamiliar with the fact that upper income bracket taxpayers currently pay a larger percentage of the whole tax bill than the middle and lower income taxpayers. Miss Huffington, in particular, wishes to go after long-time residents who are "rich" and take away their Prop. 13 property tax status. Her idea is to tie the property tax to the income level of the individual and take accordingly. [shades of "from each according to his ability to each according to his need," eh?] Neither mentioned a flat tax. Both Camejo and Huffington were extremely class-ist in their approach. Mr Camejo's take on American history is "200 years of being governed by money," or some such crap. [what a commie maroon!] One of the most striking failures of comprehension was the repeated suggestion that "corporations should be taxed instead of the people©. Even after Mr Ueberroth explained fairly clearly that corporate taxes aren't paid by some mythical entity, some "other," but by the customers of that corporation as a part of the purchase price, the idea was suggested at least 4 or 5 more times. It's like the small child's fantasy of parental omnipotence. The two candidates seated in the middle have no concept of basic economics and are reacting on a purely emotional basis to their own fantasy of the all-powerful, "big, bad corporations" which are "secretly running the show." Yes, Virginia, there are people in corporations who steal, cheat and lie -- just like there are in government. Again, they are people, flesh and blood mortals just like the rest of us. The point is that individuals who break the law must be dealt with via the law, and corporations are only entities in the legal sense. In reality corporations are simply groups of individual people. They have no secret pockets for hiding wealth nor any magic powers out of which to create wealth without benefit of workers or products/services produced. Magical thinking gets us nowhere. One point that all candidates present failed utterly to address is the issue of drivers licenses for illegal aliens. There are two issues to this question: 1) will getting licensed make illegal aliens better, safer drivers? and 2) will giving drivers licenses, which also function as state and federal ID, to illegal aliens have an adverse effect on a) the legal immigration process and b) the current Homeland Security, terrorists-sneaking-in-over-the-Mexican-border problems? IMHO: 1) [hahahah] No. and, 2) Yes. [duh!] Davis' performance was marked by two moments, for me. His sarcasm-inspiring attempt to garner sympathy [!?!] for his current plight of "turning on the news and hearing everyone saying bad things about me." ["oh poor me" is actually the last resort of scoundrels.] The second little Davis gem is his persistence in citing the tired old, disproved meme about the Republicans depriving the people of Florida of their right to vote during the Bush/Gore election thereby "stealing" that election. When added to his allegation that the impeachment of Clinton was a ruse by Republicans to "do-over" that election instead a response to the illegal act of lying to Congress, and the idea that his own recall is due to Republicans' attempt to "have do-overs on" the last election instead of a response by California voters to his incompetence and the repugnance of Bill Simons , he looked like a fool. [He actually said "do-overs" and made a football analogy.] All in all; I think Ueberroth made the best showing despite his lack of "star quality." He was clear, focused, informed, and has a plan. For today, he is my pick. McClintok would not make me move to Washington, either. Missy Huffington would make me move to Nova Scotia.Well *that* was interesting . . .
Couldn't get into MT yesterday due to some ...er, function of a security ...uh, thingie at the server. Duly reassured and with the problem fiixed, my time for the day had run out. Here I am today. Also quite fun was the massive and bizarre lightening storm we had yesterday am. None but the barest sneeze of rain and over 2,000 lightening strikes in the North Bay Area. Many, many fire sirens, borate bombers and spotter planes throughout the day. Nerve wracking, indeed. But oh, so beautiful.Tuesday, September 02, 2003
It is *so* sad . . .
People have been so hard on spammers they now have to turn to their own support group, poor babies. But, since they aren't even very good at that, somehow thieir membership roster was left exposed. Is there no refuge? Why not drop 'em a line and let them knowTaking Notes
Peter Uberroth on Pete Wilson, KGO [SF], 9.2.03 2pm ran a committee to discover and relieve the socio-economic origins of the LA riots in South-Central. thinks Lady Di is a "good leader" Neither a R nor a D -- an Independant "For me, it is only a 3 year job." I won't have to fund-raise for the next campaign. "Any business would be locked up for running its budget the way CA does." "I have the experience - have done it before and I can bring Ds and Rs together" You don't need 51% to win this election. I am a crisis manager. It is what I do. We have to tighten our budget. It won't be pretty. These are the two critical issues; the budget and jobs. Jobs are where the money to run the state comes from. Paychecks fund the CA government. We've "gotta stop being a job-killing state." Nationally, CA is 50th worst in credit rating and the 49th worst job ratings. What about special interest demands? Not every special interest group will get what they want. "My special interest group is jobs" The first thing I woll do when I get to Sacramento is call a session of the legislature, lock 'em in a room and hammer out a Spending Cap. We'll get a spending cap that can then go in the March election for the required constitutional amendment. There was a 36% increase in spending in the first three years of Davis' administration. We have got to stop spending. Prop 13: "Sacred" It protects homeowner. "It would be a disaster if we let the CA tax termites eat away at it." With time, the tax base is self-adjusting. It is not unfair. Question of illegal aliens and drivers licenses? We have 2 million illegal aliens who are imposed upon us by the federal government. It is the federal government that decides who goes in and out of the nation's borders. CA is spending a lot of money educating them and on health care for them because we are a humane people. We must turn to the people imposing on us and hold them accountable. How? Don't quit - don't worry about parties or who is president at the time. This bill must be paid by the federal govt. CA pays more into DC than anyone and we don't get it back. Drivers Licenses for Illegals: "Give every illegal the same qualifying test we all take." So that everyone who drives knows how. Will it give them some kind of status? "They already have huge financial status in this state." Law enforcement is in favor of it. So am I. Got any skeletons? Not particularly. "I decided that I will not say a bad word about another candidate nor office holder during this campaign, so I'll create some history." Small employer. Hard to do business with workman's comp and overtaxation: Any recovery throughout history has been built on the backs of small businesses. We have the entrepeneurial spirit and the work force to do it. CA have the highest possible cost in the nation for workers comp, and the workers get the lowest possible compensation in the country. At the same time the legislature creates the spending cap, it must make solid decisions to show CA businesses that we will stop being job killers. Social issues like abortion, guns, gay marriage. Important?: [he is pro-choice] These are not my issues. I will put my head down to get this thing [financial] fixed so that we keep jobs. We want CA not to slip off into the ocean mired in debt and that is what is happening. Corp background. + public Olympics/riots: Felt hollow after the consulting job in '92 in that many of our recommendations were not taken. We indicated many of the problems we face now were coming. Now I want to do something about it.Monday, September 01, 2003
Holy Cannolies!
The Divine Mr Strain has done it again! Ya Got Me Straight Trippin', Boo is his Sunday Seven with Erica of SwirlSpice. Hot stuff! Go See . . .Holy Cannoli!
The Devine Miss K did it again! And it's massively kewl, too. Go see . . .Statistics
This page has been viewed 18188585 times
Total Entries: 5718
Total Comments: 4193
Total Trackbacks: 714
Most Recent Entry: 06/14/2011 06:44 am
Most Recent Comment on: 11/27/2011 05:18 pm
{/if}
