Tag Archives: nature

Discrimination, Diversity, Voices and Images From Beyond, Living Above Venus, and the Impeccable Bad Piper

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This entry is part 57 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

This came through the feed late today:

“Without a robust religious exemption,” they wrote, “this expansion of hiring rights will come at an unreasonable cost to the common good, national unity and religious freedom.”

That’s the justification, in part, for a group of businesses (who claim to be religious) for asking that they be exempt from non-discrimination rules when it comes to those totally wrong, creepy, and detrimental GLBT “people.”

To me, that says “In order to be united, we must exclude this entire group of people. In order to be free, we must oppress these others who don’t fit our beliefs.”

This is a result, direct or in, of the Hobby Lobby decision from the Supreme Court yesterday. The one that people (who are happy with it) have been swearing up and down that it won’t lead to anything worse than some (skeevy whores) not getting their pass to free sex (“birth control”).

Well, there ya go. Not more than 48 hours later and this request has been made.

It makes me sick. It makes me disappointed in any genuine faith-based organization that would condone, let alone support, this kind of exclusion in this day and age. (And, yes, I am regularly disappointed in a number of faith-based organizations.)

The biggest problem with the Supreme Court decision is that it was based on other exemptions already on the books. I take issue with those, too.

There’s a difference between secular society and spiritual life. One is shared among people who don’t always agree on things. In order to be part of that secular world–especially as an incorporated business–you have to play by the same rules as everyone else. Exceptions to the rule of law should be few and far between and supported by a distinct need.

Thinking gay people are icky does not make eliminating them from your presence a need.

Opposing birth control is just fine. Don’t make use of it in your life. But how other people feel about that is out of your hands. Especially if you’re “just” in a titled position in a free-standing entity like a national chain of businesses. A secular entity. You want to be a faith-based organization? Fine, change your structure and all your other behavior to be one. Then you get to play by those rules and be as picky as you want.

This whole thing is an nasty mess waiting to explode.

And I don’t have a good, coherent solution to make it any better. Mainly because the existing laws are a mess. Partially because the way we’ve done business for more than a century is a bit of a mess.

Anyway… here’s the rest of the feed…

Political Progress, Severe SWAT, Riotous Raccoons, Diminutive Dwellings, and Interest Intelligence

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This entry is part 52 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

In the feed today is a totally adorable video of people feeding a whole passel of raccoons in a parking lot.

It’s one of the stupidest things I’ve seen people do on the Internet today. (That’s saying a lot.)

I grew up in the woods. I’ve had numerous “close encounters” with raccoons. They’ve all been amusing. But that doesn’t mean I go out of my way to interact with these critters. It’s typical to see three, maybe four raccoons trundling along in the dusk… especially if there’s a trash bin nearby. But, more often, you’ll see solitary ones or pairs doing their thing. If you’re in an area where you see this often, they probably won’t dash off when they see you–they’ll just continue on their way.

That, in and of itself, is kind of a problem. It means they’ve gotten used to humans being around them. It also gives the false impression that they’re really okay with humans being around them and can easily lead to people thinking, “Hey, let’s play with the cute animals!”

Which is a very bad idea.

In the video there are more than two dozen raccoons gathered around this nimrod who’s handing out Doritos. In a parking lot. During daylight.

That is not typical in any way, shape, or form.

This is a whole colony of raccoons who have been trained out of most of their natural habits–being nocturnal, not grouping up, showing at least some minor trepidation when humans are around, actually foraging for food. No doubt this has occurred after years of people feeding them in that parking lot (which I’m guessing is for a park of some sort).

Here’s what this sort of thing leads to…

  • A bunch of raccoons that can easily catch and spread disease–not just among themselves, but over to humans, too
  • A situation where someone is more apt to get bit or scratched or otherwise wounded by a raccoon (which never ends well for the raccoons in the area)
  • A hazard for pets and other animals (not to mention children)
  • A game of Russian roulette as to when that cute and passive gaggle of fuzzies is going to decide you most certain are not done feeding them as they swarm you

These are wild animals, people. They should be treated with some amount of respect and, whenever possible, left to their own devices.

Unless you like the idea of going though treatment for potential rabies infection. If that’s the case, then by all means go snuggle with those little banditos.

Shocking Lightning, Soggy Bears, Militarized Police, Turing Test Fudge, Really Questionable Politics, and an End to Board Cheese

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I’m pretty open about the fact that I have a number of issues with the politicians who run the country, supposedly in our name. This has been the case through at least two decades at this point.

Today there’s a story about a state senator from Virginia who’s resigning from his position. Ostensibly in order to take a more prestigious political appointment and to clear the way for his daughter to get an appointment that his current position precludes her from holding. That in and of itself is pretty shady if you ask me. I mean, the guy was elected by his constituents to represent them and now he’s all, “Oh, yeah, sorry about that… you won’t mind if I just step down and get a better job over here, right?”

Not. Cool.

What makes it even less cool is that he’s a Democrat and his resignation tips the balance in the state legislature in favor of the Republicans.

So, not only is he stepping away from the position that those who voted for him entrusted to him in order to pursue personal gain and glory, in doing so he’s effectively handing over his hunk of the legislature to the other side. That’s totally: “Oh, yeah, and by the way, all that stuff I promised I’d represent you about… I’m just going to go and let it get outvoted by the people you disagree with the most. That’s not a problem, right?”

Doubly. Not. Cool.

The final tidbit is just icing on the cake at this point. Seems that shiny new appointment he’s leaving for (and the one that his daughter will get now that she’s free to do so)… those are positions that the Republican party has the power to grant. The scuttlebutt, of course, is that they’ve offered him these perks in order to get him out of the way so they can have a clear path to blocking anything the governor wants to do. So we can just tack on to the above two sentences, “Oh, and I’m doing it at the behest of those people that you sent me here to fight against.”

That’s just beyond “not cool.” That’s downright traitorous. That’s a full and complete middle finger to anyone who voted for him and trusted that he’d continue to do the job he’s been doing for years.

This is politics at its worst.

It makes me a bit ill to read about it.

Because it’s happening right in the open and, so far, no one’s doing anything about it.

Because it’s nothing new. This is how things have “worked” on and off since the first time one person was put in charge of the well being of others.

But just because it’s nothing new doesn’t mean it has to be business as usual. We know about it. We can do something about it (even if it is just shun the hell out of this guy). We can speak up and say “This sort of thing is more than unacceptable, it’s reprehensible.”

And, really, I hope a lot of people in Virginia do that.

Giger Passes, Giant Critters, Batman, Daredevil, Furry Walls, Cool History, Science, and a few really funny things

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This entry is part 27 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

Sometime, my mind does really awesome things at night. Like craft amazing worlds and situations that put any movie to shame with their expanse and visual wonders.

Last night was not one of those night.

Last night the dream that my mind generated was, at best, a B-grade rode trip rock ‘n’ roll farce. Likely brought on by going to bed really wanting to watch Get Him to the Greek.

Mine involved some wild huge group trip to a big deal concert by some big name band. A total experience thing that involved staying up all night before in an airport before getting on board the secret plane to the concert location.

Well, hilarity ensued and there were baggage problems, missed connections, and a lot of running from point A to point B only to find out we actually needed to be at point C. Two of my friends made an appearance in the dream, on definitely as themselves, the other cast by whatever third rate casting director my brain employed for nothing more than their enthusiasm (because the character they played most certainly didn’t have the brains my actual friend does).

And just when all seemed lost, the hero arrived to save the day.

Billy Joel!

As played my Michael Keaton.

Seriously.

WTF mind? You couldn’t use the actual celebrity? It’s not like dream him is busy somewhere else. Right?

So, yeah, I woke up right before the (inevitable) big turn around in the brain film, so I was even cheated out of what would surely have been an epic (or epicly bad) grand finale… likely on the level of Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park.

~sigh~ Here’s hoping there’s more of a budget for tonight’s slumbering entertainment.

Science, Madness, Ice Cream Truck Music History, Slowly Impending Doom, and More

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This entry is part 26 of 100 in the series Today's Tidbits

I’m really not much of a programmer.

Yes, my job title technically does have “developer” in it, but I’m really not happy when I have to build things from scratch. I much prefer to mix already working things together in ways that get the job done in a quick and effective manner. Hopefully something that’s at least “close enough” at worst.

That’s not always possible.

And that’s what I’ve been dealing with at work on this one project.

Because I’m not much of a programmer, there’s no single language that I’m awesome with. At best, I’m mediocre with a few. And when it comes to some things, I’m really not that good at all. So I run into a lot of problems as I’m trying to get things to do things they don’t normally do.

But! I do have my own way of working through things. A lot of it relies on letting my subconscious bang it’s head against the issue while I occupy my conscious mind with something else (like, say Facebook, or another project).

Nine times out of ten, the solution pops into my head in less than an hour (sometimes much sooner). Sometimes it’s not the whole solution, but it’s enough of a perspective changer to shake loose the right fix from the aether (you know, where all computer programs already exist, right?).

On the surface it doesn’t look particularly “worky” or efficient. But it is terribly effective most of the time. Mainly because I’ve been using a similar method to work through all sorts of other problems–both life and work related–for a couple of decades now.

Compared to the times when I try to “buckle down” and solve problems like we’re told we always should–in some iterative, methodical way that other people can understand–things get done in about the same amount of time (if not more quickly) and I don’t get particularly stressed out about it. (When I’m actively banging my conscious head against a problem, the stress level just skyrockets and, eventually, totally gets in the way of coherent thought… which isn’t all that productive.)

The process basically goes like this:

  • Identify the problem
  • Do a bit of research (so I’m sure I know that there’s no simple solution out there)
  • Set the subconscious on the task
  • Fiddle around with other things for a while
  • Immediately switch gears when the solution pops in
  • Implement to solution
  • If it works, awesome… if not, see how it’s changed the problem
  • Repeat if necessary

So, yeah, that’s what I’ve spent most of my work life doing… especially when it comes to programming.