Thursday, March 25, 2010

A House Divided, Again

Another thought:



Why is it that the 'will of the people' only matters when it is *conservatives* who feel like their will is being ignored? Something over half of the American people want a single-payer healthcare plan and we didn't get it. But, for some strange reason, THAT isn't seen as ignoring the will of the people. Can any conservative--Mr. Blankley included--explain that to me? If I were opposed to the health care bill because it was 'socialism' (which it isn't) then the vote Sunday would be in direct violation of what I and others who constitute the People wanted but if I am opposed to the health care bill because it didn't go far enough then that doesn't matter?



Put another way why is it that letting corporations run roughshod over our democratic republic is an expression of the 'will of the people' but wanting to rein in corporations is isn't?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Come out, come out, whoever you are!

James “The Amazing” Randi has now come out of the closet! He did so in a short but poignant post on his blog Swift, from which I quote below.

Swift
Written by James Randi   
Sunday, 21 March 2010 12:37
Well, here goes. I really resent the term, but I use it because it’s recognized and accepted.
I’m gay.
From some seventy years of personal experience, I can tell you that there’s not much “gay” about being homosexual. For the first twenty years of my life, I had to live in the shadows, in a culture that was — at least outwardly — totally hostile to any hint of that variation of life-style. At no time did I choose to adopt any protective coloration, though; my cultivation of an abundant beard was not at all a deception, but part of my costume as a conjuror.
I have always been an admirer of Randi’s. I became even more impressed when I found out about a stand he took for the cause of racial justice some 50 years ago. Now there’s this.
Thank you Randi, you truly are amazing!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Conservatives Re-Write Declaration of Independence

Your post is almost a perfect example of WHY these issues are so important. IF it were true that two people are treated equally regardless of race, color, gender, sexual orientation in all circumstances you would have a point. However, that is not the case. I have spent my entire adult working life in environments where I was THE woman (or one of a few) or THE black person (or one of maybe 2) and I have been discriminated against in hiring. I have had people express surprise that I was raised by a black family because my speech and diction are very precise.



What's more to the degree that people ARE treated equally before the law that has been because of the efforts of *liberals* and that work was opposed by *conservatives*. From Bill Buckley defending segregation on down, it has been conservatives who were opposed to equal rights. Conservatives would like us to forget that inconvenient fact. Please note, if you bother to respond, that I said conservatives not Republicans.



Voting Rights Act? Championed by liberals, opposed by conservatives.

Equal Housing? See Above

Equal Employment Opportunity? See above

Equal Rights Amendment? ditto

Elimination of miscegenation laws? (laws against interracial marriage) Ditto

Desegregation? Ditto.



Conservatives like to pretend that they were *always* in favor of the above, but they weren't and they also like to pretend that the fight for those manifestations of equality were and are a fight for 'equal outcomes'. They aren't.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Comparing Office Suites

So, I have both iWork ’09 and Office 2008 installed on my MBP. I go back and forth between the two suites and so, just for giggles, I’m going to do a comparison between the two. For the next two weeks anything I need to do in the way of creating documents I’m going to use Microsoft’s product. After that I’ll use Apple’s and see which ends up comes out on top.