Difficult Question Time II

Are racial prejudices bad?

I know that they are part of human nature but it is also indisputable that some parts of human nature are bad. I think the initial response of most would be, "Yes. They are bad." But what if for someone who does not know the difference between discrimination, discernment, and prejudice, it is used for survival?

At the moment, I am thinking of an anecdote from James Brady's book Flyboys. A Japanese officer tells of their ground invasion of China during WWII. He relates the story of a rural Chinese woman who stayed at her family's house when the Japanese forces were approaching.

Since the direction given to him was to use "local provisioning," he went out on his own looking for food for his platoon. When he met the Chinese woman, she relayed the story of how her family had run off because they were afraid the Japanese were hideous monsters that would kill them all. She told him that her family had been prejudiced but she knew the Japanese were not really like that.

He then raped her, killed her, and cut her up for food.

I cannot speak to the veracity of the story, however such stories were not uncommon for then.

The woman lacked her family's discernment or even the general prejudice of Chinese people against the Japanese and she paid with her life.

What if the question were posed with the following circumstances? (mix and match the colors - or religeon or whatever - to suit)

A white couple decide not to go into a roadside diner because it looks all black. There only reason for doing it is because they do not like blacks. The next white couple that go into the diner get raped and murdered because they are white.

Was it bad the first couple was racially prejudiced?

A Thousand Promises

I am reminded of Marv's line in the movie Sin City, "My muscles make me a thousand promises of pain to come." While this title may be appropriate to a Hillary or Obama presidential administration, I am actually referring to the literal physical pain here.

I went skiing for the first time in my life the night before last. I did not have an instructor. A guy from the rental shop gave me a few pointers: "Do this to turn left and do this to stop." After a few runs on the training slope I hit the beginner slope.

The training slope is about 200 feet, is gentle, and has a "magic carpet," i.e. a moving walk similar to those found at airports to bring folks back to the start.

The beginner slope has a lift is hundreds of yards long with some steep descents and some gradual ones. My first fall could not even wait for the slope. I did a full face plant getting off of the lift at the top.

I picked myself up and made my way slowly - I was still learning how to inch along - to the edge. I slid forward a few feet then took off like a shot. I careened into the side near the edge of the run, both skis off, and rolled sideways and lengthwise. For some reason, I was laughing. I was not hurt much. The guy from the rental shop helped me back into my skis, and I went all the way down to the site of my next crash.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

I did this for three more hours. On one of my more successful runs, one of the other skiers told me I had rooster tails behind me. I guess that means I was going pretty fast, although I am not sure. I think gravity was helping me a bit too. I was a bit larger than most everyone else on that particular hill (the fact that they were also about 20 years younger than me had a bit to do with that too).

I was not wearing goggles since they were not included in the rental and I had brought my shooting glasses. I was not wearing my shooting glasses since they are tinted and it was night. On one of my last falls, I was reminded that I had my glasses in a zipper pouch on my jacket. These glasses are designed to take a shotgun blast so they did not think much about it when I landed on top of them. Today I have a huge, big, black and blue bruise on my belly.

The worst falls were ones where my shoulders were wrenched. My left is prone to popping out of socket and then back but I think both popped out of socket at least a few times. Last night on the plane back home I tried taking off one of my boots. Everything turned yellow and I saw stars. I decided that I'd just wear them for the flight.

Yesterday I only thought I was sore. Today I feel the pain that has come.

I can't wait to do it again though.

Get Sam Johnson Out of Congress!

...and into the White House.

This is a pretty powerful message:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCXt6MD0qyA

Sam Johnson is not my representative. I would not mind and in fact may like it very much if he were my Commander in Chief though.

When It Is Time

The article was published in 2005 but the salient points are still spouted as gospel.

The idea of public gun ownership simply does not make sense anymore.

It is no longer safe for the public to carry guns.

So long as guns remain available to the general public, there will always be the threat of terrorists walking into a crowded restaurant, a busy coffee shop or a packed movie theater and opening fire upon unsuspecting civilians.

The Second Amendment is not worth such risks.

Our liberties are worth such risks.

Doing the math, even using his statistics, does not justify banning gun ownership. He states that 9,000 people per year in the U.S. are murdered. I am not going to refute that although it can very easily be done. But even if that is the case, that still amounts to 0.0032 percent of the population, just over three one-thousandths of one percent.

He states that 41 percent of houses in the U.S. own guns, then calls gun ownership a "special interest." 41 percent is not a special interest but is a "general interest." If 41 percent of houses in the U.S. where athiests and The Powers That Be decided everyone should be a Christian, would that 41 percent still be a "special interest" to him?

He says now is the time to ban civilian gun ownership.

I say that when there are no more robberies, rapes, car-jackings, hi-jackings, and mall shoot-em-ups; when there are no more people killing each other for any reason at all; when all governments let people live and only have to arbit civil disputes; and when going to the gun range is no longer fun for anyone, is the time to ban civilian gun ownership.

Gathering and Sharing

...or was it Borrowing and Sharing? One lament from the Hobbits in the Shire was that when the communists, I mean Saruman, took over, his henchment - called Gatherers and Sharers - did more gathering than sharing.

Here is another one from Hillary talking about taking the property of others:

"The same -- the same is true with energy independence. The Democrats know what needs to be done. Again, we're working to try to push this agenda forward. The other day the oil companies reported the highest profits in the history of the world. I want to take those profits and I want to put them into a strategic energy fund that will begin to find alternative smart energy, alternatives and technologies that will begin to actually move us toward the direction of independence!"

The Democrats do not know what needs to be done - or rather if they do know, are not going to do it. We have oil, coal, and several other energy alternatives that are so highly regulated that to implement them would be illegal and/or unprofitable. The only way the Democrats would lift these regulations is if they could benefit politically from it. If they are lifted with a Republican president, then he might look good and they believe that will make them look bad. Lifting them and attaining energy independance would also mean that government would have to come up with another reason for "gathering."

Cultured

Just a quick jab at Pelosi and her "culture of corruption" hypocrisy. So far she has

1. Changed rules on eliminating taxes. This is corrupt in that it does not require existing laws to be respected or removed by a traditional procedure. That may not be a problem in some countries but not here. This is corrupt in the same way that changing the rules in the middle of a game so that one can win is corrupt.
2. Violated Congressional ethics standards with her family charity involvement.
3. Pressured the DoD to give her an Air Force plane at the tax payers expense with full amenities. This is the most corrupt, in my opinion, so far. I see the need for the Speaker to have a secure military jet in times of national emergency. However, this smacks of fraud, waste, and abuse.

And I Voted This < radio edit > Back into Office?

Gov. Rick Perry signed an executive order requiring girls entering into sixth grade to get the HPV vaccination. This is wrong on so many levels and the fact that he was the "conservative" candidate just makes it all the worse.

My response: "Hey Governor Perry! Go Pound Sand!"

Apparently, the same crowd that caws "keep your laws off my body" about abortion were in favor for this.

My Senator, Jane - I couldn't ask for better - Nelson, was quick to respond with diplomatic common sense.

My daughter, in sixth grade this year, will not be getting this vaccine. There are so many reasons not to do so. If that means I am breaking the law, sobeit. I may get in to the reasons for Why This Is Bad later. In the mean time, if I happen to see Gov. Perry, I'll congratulate him on winning the election and his many impressive accomplishments. Then I'll kick him in the nuts.

UPDATE: Apparently I'm not breaking the law. He is still a nincompoop for it though. I will definitely have to get in to the reasons for it but for now, Gov. Perry, your nuts are safe.