Are We Free to Discriminate?

I recently read an article and had some thoughts I'd like to share. The article is here:

Is it religious freedom or discrimination? - JCOnline

I've been avoiding this topic for a while now because I see both sides, but I feel the urge to step in. This will be a lengthy post.Would love to start a conversation, so feel free to comment.

A person (we'll call them Seller) opens a store, and offers a service. Should Seller be allowed to decide who they want to serve? Should they be allowed to serve only certain people?

This is the question before us, and despite some initial first thoughts, it's not simple or easy. It's complex. I can demonstrate this by giving you two examples which don't lead to the same easy conclusion:

------

Example A: Jill is a baker who bakes wedding cakes. Bob and Bill, two men, are getting married and want Jan to bake their cake. Jan is a Christian who is morally opposed to gay marriage, and refuses. Should she be allowed to refuse, or should the government force her to bake their cake?

Example B: The Millers are a black family in the deep south where racial prejudice is still frequent. They move to a small town where almost everyone is white, and try to get an apartment. They can't find an apartment because of their skin color; no one wants to rent to people who aren't white. Should the Government force the apartment managers to rent our an apartment to the the Millers?

------

A lot of people look at the Example A and are drawn to the side of the baker. Why should the government force someone to do work? Aren't we allowed freedom of commerce? Up until now the gay marriage debate has been pretty one sided in terms of who is trying to control others. (Christians wanted to control others by not allowing them to get married). But now it's flipping, right? Now it's the gay couple who wants to control the baker's actions. They seem to be losing the moral high ground.

But then we look at Example B and suddenly we feel a lot more sympathy with the party that is being denied the services. Partly it's the nature of the service (housing vs a cake) but mostly it's because of the nature of the discrimination. At this point in our society, the vast majority of us don't approve of discrimination against people because of their skin color because the vast majority of us don't think badly of people just because of said skin color. (Btw, The Millers couldn't have been denied an apartment in this Example, because it is illegal and has been for decades to discriminate on the basis of skin color when doing business due to the Civil Rights Act of 1964). We just haven't reached that level of societal acceptance with gay people yet, so it's a lot harder to identify with them.

Just for fun, let's consider something else. "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service". That is discrimination that is allowed currently, and no one has a problem with it.

So here is where we stand. Should we allow individuals to choose exactly who and why they want to do any sort of business with? Or should we act as a society to prevent individuals from being assholes?

------

Despite all the seeming contradictions though, there is consistency. We just have to dig deep enough to find it. The most baseline rule is this:

> When a group of people reaches a level of full societal acceptance, then discrimination against them becomes morally wrong.

The word "full" is key. Despite what many people say, our society has a distinct libertarian bent, and we have an inherent distaste for adding yet another layer of control on people (On the baker). Even a minority, if large enough, and prevent this. This is what we are seeing now. The large minority of people who are still opposed to homosexuality are trying to prevent society from adding discrimination protections for sexual preference.

------

My one personal thoughts: As long as we have any discrimination protections at all, then I think we need to prevent discrimination on the basis of sexual preference. However, I'm not sure if we should we preventing discrimination at all. I see a benefit from it, but I also dislike the fact that government is dictating who someone can and can't do business with. At least I'm consistent though. I'd bet you that most people who are pushing for these "religious protection laws" wouldn't go on the record saying that a person should be allowed to discriminate on the basis of race.

Shift In Focus

Over the years, this blog has been somewhat of a scattershot of topics. Initially, it had a very political/civil liberties focus, but that branched into more theoretical topics, such as ethics and philosophy. As I moved into web development, and WordPress, those became topics of greater frequency. And scattered throughout have been posts on music, humor, and even poetry I've written.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted much about politics for some time, and the reason is that politics has become increasingly depressing to me. We live in a society which increasingly embraces constant surveillance, in which we daren't videotape a police officer out of fear of retribution. A society in which we can be sent to prison for shooting a home intruder who invades without a warrant or even warning, just because they happen to have a badge and made a mistake on the address. There are some bright spots. Marriage equality has won. The falling tree may not have hit the ground, but gravity took over years ago and the conclusion is foregone. But in almost all areas, the world has become a scarier and more depressing place.

I also don't write about civil liberties as much, because I have grown increasingly disillusioned and fed up with all sides. It is absolutely wrong to judge someone for the color of their skin, or for the person they love. But that cuts both ways, and as someone who has been judged for being a white male by my supposed allies, my willingness to get involved has decreased over time. Yes, I understand that I have white privilege, and any automatic judgement I get for my skin is nothing compared to the judgement that a transgender person of color gets. But time and time again I see a level of automatic hate coming from the non-cisgendered community that almost approaches the level of hate (that I've fought against) from the fundamentalist religious faction.

Which brings me to my final point. What I HAVE been writing more about recently is code. The beauty of PHP, of HTML, of CSS ... is that they are languages of utter and complete honesty, and logic. If you write something, it's either correct or incorrect. There's no debate, there's no hatred. Certainly people might have differences of opinion on best practices, or what browser to use, but in general it's a much more pleasant area to spend my time in. Additionally, the communities are some of the least judgmental communities that exist. No one cares about who you are or what you look like. If you can write good code, or design great UX, or even just come up with good ideas ... that is all that matters. WordPress contributors are from all around the world, and almost no one brings their societal/cultural baggage with them. Code is king, and I like code.

Joss Whedon's Political Views

I ran across this little gem yesterday and thought I'd share it with you all. Enjoy!


 

The Sound of Thunder

I woke this morning to the sound of thunder outside. We haven't had rain in 3 weeks, so the water will help. And the fact that it's arriving in the form of a thunderstorm instead of gentle rain is just a bonus.

The sole problem is that it's just barely after 6 am, and I'm totally awake. I do have some music to listen to though. I stumbled upon this last night before I went to bed.



On an entirely different note, I saw an article in the local paper talking about how gay marriage, politically, is a paradox. The idea being that national polls show the issue now commands over 50% support nation wide, yet each time it goes on the ballot it loses.

This isn't a paradox. It only broke 50% in the past few years, and we've only had a few state contests over the past few years. The most recent being South Carolina. What the paper doesn't seem to understand is that geography plays a roll in politics. South Carolina isn't going to see things the same way that the rest of the US does.

Plus the issue is up for a vote in Maryland this November, and the local polls show over 60% support gay marriage, so it's expected to win there. Ergo, this isn't paradox. It's just politics taking time to catch up with beliefs.
 

First Private Spaceship Docks with ISS

I had an argument with my parents several years back when Obama for all practical purposes privatized NASA. Cancelling nearly all projects and throwing money instead at private companies, it was a very controversial policy move at the time.

My parents who'd grown up through the cold war were of course angered by the idea. I however, took the approach that if something can be done privately, then lets do it privately. I'd rather see space go the way that airflight has gone, and I believed that it could be done.

And so today, I feel rather vindicated. The first private spaceship, operated by SpaceX, has docked at the ISS (International Space Station). The launch was delayed several times, but ended up successfully occurring last Tuesday. Now it has docked and delivered supplies.

The trip was unmanned, but SpaceX is hoping to launch manned flights before the end of the year. Video of docking below!


 

Imposing Values

"Lefty liberals only seek to IMPOSE their own moral views on other people, by fiat or social engineering."

I read this as a comment in an article about DOMA today.

Liberals only seek to impose. The problem is that it's opposite of the truth, because in terms of marriage, there are three positions. On one end of the spectrum, there is the position that, we allow heterosexuals to get married, and don't allow homosexuals. In the middle is, we allow both. On the other end is, we allow homosexuals to get married, and don't allow heterosexuals. Those are the three positions.

Personally, I don't like either one, or three, because they are both rather extreme. They involve forcing your own view (that either homo or hetero is bad) on other people, and controlling their actions (not allowing them to get married). The middle position, is that of live and let live. Yet somehow, it's that middle position, of not seeking to control ANYONE, not seeking to impose EITHER moral, that the commenter seemed to think was imposing. Not sure how that works.

It amazes me that the GOP, which prides itself on limited government and staying out of people's lives, tries to impose a specific religious morality on everyone. Or, I wish it amazed me.
 

Will The Real Mitt Romney Please Stand Up

Saw this video today, and was amused, so I thought I'd share it with you all. Enjoy!


 

Michigan Primary

With 65% of the vote in, Romney is leading Santorum 40% to 36%, which makes me breath a sigh of relief. As the results started coming in, Santorum seemed to be winning for the first hour, but things turned around as the urban counties started reporting in more heavily.

It's bad news for Obama, who'd love to face off against Santorum. Santorum who has said that the separation of church and state makes him want to throw up, that the idea of everyone going to college is elitist snobbery, and that Satan is attacking the US.

Romney though, is not really all that different from Obama, so he'll have a better change with independents. I still am predicting an Obama win though, even against Romney. That's for next fall however. For now, onward to Super Tuesday!
 

Rick Santorum

A friend sent this to me on Facebook today. Soooooo true.



Also, another one, but this is most certainly NSFW Link
 

Romney Just Can't Seal The Deal

 

GOP Primary Status

I called my dad on Wednesday, and told him that he needed to watch the Thursday GOP debate, because it was the last one before the Florida primary. I told him he needed to watch it, because of how significant it would be for the race.

Throughout most of the race, Romney has been the assumed front runner. He's had a default advantage in money and support because of it.

Gingrich on the other hand made his mark with incredible debate performances. Their impact first manifested itself in November as he started rising in the polls. However, it was such a long time before the first Caucus that Romney had plenty of time to use his huge war chest. He spent millions in Iowa and for all practical purposes destroyed Gingrich.

Granted, it was still Iowa, hotbed of religious conservatism, so Santorum tied Romney. But Romney then went on to win New Hampshire, and suddenly things looked inevitable. Then two things happened.

Gingrich got a large donation and had money to fight back in South Carolina. The ads started flying both ways instead of all one, which removed Romney's huge advantage. Second, there were two debates within a week before the SC primary. In both of them, Gingrich dominated, drawing the first and second standing ovation of the campaign debates. Not only did he make himself look great, he made Romney look like a fumbling idiot.

The debates were so close to the primary that Romney didn't have a chance to recover, and suddenly Gingrich won SC in a landslide, and the race isn't over.

Fast forward to Florida. It's a large state, and it's the first Winner Take All, so there's no second place. If Gingrich wins is, then he's truely broken the back of the Romney inevitability, and we're in for the long haul. If Romney wins though, especially if he wins be a large margin, he reestablishes himself. SC was a blip, an anomaly, he'll be able to say.

That's why the debate yesterday was so significant. There were two debates scheduled between South Carolina and Florida. At the first, Gingrich didn't really do poorly, pe say. He just didn't do incredibly well. And Romney did better. Boiled down, it meant Romney won, because he didn't Have to win, he had to tie.

So, Thursday's debate was the last chance Gingrich had to come out swinging. To pound Romney, or hell anyone. And ... it didn't happen. Wolf Blitzer smartly avoided becoming a target, and Romney actually came out swinging harder then anyone. Gingrich responded in kind, they went back and forth, and then Santorum had a great moment where he told them both to shut the fuck up and talk about real issues. (He actually had a pretty great performance in general, as did Ron Paul, but neither of them matter anymore).

And so, Romney has a cleared path to win Florida. And the latest polls are certainly supporting him. He's got a 9 point lead over Gingrich as of yesterday.

I'm going to call the Florida primary for Romney, with Gingrich second, Santorum 3rd, and Ron Paul 4th. Depending on how well Gingrich and Santorum do, one or both will probably drop out at that point. Paul will remain in it for quite a while though.
 

Gingrich's Mad Debating Skills

I've long been impressed with Newt Gingrich's debating skills. He might have baggage and problems politically, but on a debate stage he's the king. This was demonstrated yet again in Thursday's debate, the last before the South Carolina primary.

In the day or two leading up to the debate, a story had broken regarding Gingrich. According to it, he'd offered his wife the choice of an open marriage or a divorce when she'd discovered he'd been cheating. The moderator for the debate decided that that would be a good topic to open the the debate with.

Not only did Gingrich wipe the floor with the question, he used it to wipe the floor with the moderator as well as the media in general, and really put down the whole topic, rather than letting it fester. Embedded below, it should start at the right time. (8:30 approx).



My question though, is what it set up. As much as he slams the moderator, the question certainly ended up helping him, so in all actuality, he should be thanking them.

I enjoy skill; watching people do things skillfully, no matter what the topic. I posted a video a while back about a guy dancing to dubstep, because he was possibly the best dancer I've ever seen, and just watching someone operating at that level .... I'd never be able to reach it myself, but I can certainly appreciate it.
 

SOPA [CENSORED] The [CENSORED] Today

 

Lackluster Posting And Life In General

So I haven't been posting much in the past few weeks. As I mentioned before, I burned my main typing hand, but in all honestu that hasn't big much of an impediment for at least the last week or so. I've also just been very busy, combined with not having much to say.

The semester is starting, I've got new classes. There's been some personal unpleasantness that isn't really blog worthy. I put up more Christmas lights, I bought textbooks, sold textbooks. Reorganized my room and took the big side. ... Not much really. I almost have a full 1000 points in Halo Anniversary, which has involved some really crappy grinding. Makes me realize how much better games have gotten, moving from Halo 1 to Halo Reach.

My new roommate seems pretty cool. Laid back, but really into the stock market, reading, and making his own music. Not terribly social, we haven't talked much yet, but I'll try more before giving up.

Romney won New Hampshire, as expected. Ron Paul was second, as also expected. Huntsman though, was third. Which means, he failed. He tried to do what Santorum did in Iowa, but couldn't get past Ron Paul. Now everyone is turning to South Carolina, which is a more mainstream GOP state. It's almost pretty much over, but if Romney does take SC, then I'll call the race as a Romney victory.
 

Welcome to The New Year

We're a week in to 2012, and this is my first post. There is a reason for that though. My parents were gifted with a coffee/tea mug that for some reason had metallic glaze on the handle. Not microwavable. However, they forgot about that fact and had it sitting with all their other mugs in a cabinet, and I used it to make tea. I put it in for 40 seconds. 40 seconds, hardly a long time. When it finished, I grabbed the handle to be safe, instead of the main hot glass part. In the time it took me to let go, I burned my hand badly enough that blisters were rising all over it within seconds.

Let me tell you, ice cannot be over rated. I kept the blisters on the inside of my hand on ice for a good 6 hours straight after it happened. Somehow one happened to be on the side of my finger, possibly from when I pulled my hand away. That one didn't get as much ice, and over the past days since it's happened it is distinctly worse. More painful, and just more nasty looking.

But the reason I haven't been blogging is that one of the bigger blisters was on the inside tip of my index finger, making typing difficult. At this point it's still interfering, but not enough to stop me. And there's been so much I missed! The Iowa Caucus! Bachmann dropped out, Perry would have if he didn't have so much money. If he and Gingrich don't have a showing on super Tuesday, it's over for them. And Santorum has to keep up the momentum or he's out.

Damn, I never thought Santorum would be a front runner. One of the candidates who would cause me to vote for Obama...
 

2011 Recap

With just over 6 hours left of 2011, I thought I'd go back and look at the year we have just finished. A year comprised of many ups and downs, both globally and locally, but one in which we've hopefully ended up better than we started.

Internationally, 2011 was a year of great change, possibly the greatest since the early 90s and the fall of the USSR. The "Arab Spring" as people called it, started in Tunisia and spread across north Africa and the middle east, rocking entrenched dictatorships. Along with Tunisia, Egypt and Libya were successful in overthrowing their dictators. With mostly peaceful protests in Egypt, and 6 months of full on civil war in Libya. And the fighting is still going on in other places, like Syria and Yemen. Will the new order be more friendly to the US? Only time will tell. I can only hope that the pro-democracy movements don't get hijacked by the Islamism sharia law supporters.

On the other side of the world, the pacific and eastern Asia saw extreme natural disasters. Flooding in Thailand, earthquakes in Japan. The death toll was large, and the secondary effects (such as rising prices for tech produced in Asia) still hasn't fully fallen out.

Closer to home, politics began heating up. In response to the tea party movement (the far right), a new movement has arisen. The Occupy movement. Occupy Wallstreet is where is started, but the protests spread across the country, targeting wealthy corporations. Granted, the movement doesn't seem to have much in the way of demands other than, we're unhappy that you have so much money and we don't.

Additionally, Washington politics grew more strained as the year went on. In the 2010 midterm elections, the GOP took control of the House and nearly the Senate. Since then we seem to have jumped from crisis to crisis, including several near government shut downs, and each party tries to blame it on the other in preparation for the larger 2012 presidential election. Overall the Democrats have won though, with Obama's ratings going up significantly, at least in the second half of the year.

The GOP primary race also got kicked off, with a string of widely followed televised debates. Mitt Romney, the assumed forerunner, maintained a steady support in the mid 20s, while others rose and fell. Pawlenty and Bachmann in early summer, Rick Perry in August, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and now there are even a few stirrings for Rick Santorum. Throughout, Gary Johnson was left out of nearly all debates and polls, and finally gave up and switched over to the Libertarian Party. Ron Paul of course was around the entire time, support steadily growing, but still too small to matter.

In a much less depressing area, tech progressed hugely in 2011. The iPad 2 was released early in the year, and the first Android tablets as well. Near summer Android finally had a decent on in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but with no marketing and a string of legal attacks by Apple, it never took off. Amazon went a different route, with a more inexpensive tablet, the Kindle Fire. It didn't seek to compete with the iPad, and has done quite well. Finally more recently, things like the Asus Transformer Prime bring the best of tablets and laptops together. Terribly expensive though, I doubt the price will let it be a huge hit.

Smart phones saw little significant change over the year. Lots of refinement, of course. Faster processors, more memory, better screens. Android 4.0 and iOS 5 can out, bringing improvements to the software side as well. No major breakthroughs though. Even the new iPhone was just an incremental upgrade. Windows Phone 7 did get some nifty improvements, and while nearly everyone who uses it enjoys it, it's got so little market share that expanding in the face of iOS and Android will be almost impossible. Nokia near the end of 2011 finally began releasing WP7 phones though, so 2012 will be the last chance Microsoft's platform has.

Down then to the personal level. Both Spring and Fall semesters were good for me academically. No grades under a B, in fact. I also replaced the F and D+ I'd gotten during the terrible fall of '10 with and A and A, pushing the overall GPA up quite a bit. Non-academically I had a good pretty decent year, though it certainly was better during summer and fall. I stayed at Purdue over the summer, working for ITaP, and teaching myself several web design languages on the side. I'm also dating someone at the moment, which is quite unusual for me, so wish me luck.

This post has gotten quite a bit longer than I originally was anticipating, so I think I'll wrap it up. I hope you all had a good year, and I'm looking forward to 2012. Happy new years!
 

Gingrich-Huntsman Lincoln-Style Debate

Last night Newt Gingrich and Jon Huntsman had a Lincoln style debate, meaning a two person debate in which much more time is given for each answer. Gingrich is an outspoken fan of this style of debating and this is his second of the campaign (first being with Herman Cain). The talk was mostly about economics and foreign policy, and was actually quite interesting. Both candidates are very knowledgeable about foreign policy, so just for an update on the world situation it's worth watching. But since Gingrich is a front runner in the GOP primaries, it's worth watching also just to gain insight on a man who may be our next president.


 

Thailand Government Kidnaps US Citizen

I read an article last night about an American citizen who visited Thailand, and got arrested because he had earlier posted on this blog a book that had been banned in Thailand. He posted it when he was in the US, and he was a US citizen. Yet he was arrested an convicted under anti-defamation laws. And the US doesn't seem to be doing anything about it.

This is clearly a violation of free speech. Other counties might not protect that freedom, but the US does. The person in question is a US citizen, and the action in question happened while in the US. Where are the threats from our Government to Thailand? Where are the seal teams? By the very definition of the word, a US citizen has been kidnapped and is being held hostage by another nation, and we aren't doing a thing about it.

I say kidnap rather than arrested because to be arrested, you must be a legitimate police force stopping violations of laws. There is no US law protecting Thailand's king from US citizens saying bad things about him. And Thailand's laws don't apply when they violate the US constitution, at least when it comes to a US citizen. So says me anyway. Obviously Obama doesn't feel the same. He'd rather no offend Thailand than protect the Constitutional rights of US citizens.

I guess kidnapping US citizens isn't in the same category as bombing a building.
 

What A Week

Well it's been an interesting week so far. I spent the first few days getting used to the idea of having my evenings free again, a state of affairs which I haven't seen for over 2 years. It's quite enjoyable, though my bank account is going to start protesting it soon.

The world around us had an interesting week as well. Youtube finally got it's updated theme rolled out to everyone. I had written an article about it last month when I logged in and saw it. Seems I accidentally accessed it early though, or Google decided to revert everyone. 2 and a half weeks later though, it's back and permanent.

In politics, Newt Gingrich has replaced Hermain Cain as the alternative to Romney. I predicted this after watching him in the first few debates this fall, and actually was a bit confused that he wasn't a front runner to begin with. (I hadn't been following last Spring and Summer, when he decided to go on a cruise to Greece and destroy his campaign.) Every time he opened his mouth he seemed like an elder statesman, never attacking people, never getting tripped up. And finally it's paying off, because he's now up in contention with Romney. He's still got quite a mountain to climb though. His organization is still in tatters, he's got very little money, and he hadn't really experienced the full glare of being a front runner. We'll see how he holds up.

In shear intelligence, I personally think that Gingrich is the best on the field. (He writes science fiction books part time). But do I think he should be president, I don't know. He had an affair with his second wife, but he did admit it. And personally I can separate personal and political aspects of a person's character. A person can be an asshole, yet be extremely competent. Granted, that's just looking at him from a conservative perspective.

I'd never vote for him because of his stance on marriage. Earlier this fall he said "I believe that marriage is between a man and woman. It has been for all of recorded history and I think this [gay marriage] is a temporary aberration that will dissipate". Source Granted, Mitt Romney has come out against gay marriage as well, as have nearly all other GOP candidates ... it's just what they do.

Only Huntsman and Johnson are what I consider rational on the subject. And look where they are. Last place, and below last place.
 

We Just Lost The Game

Back last Spring during Cinco De Meyo, students in a public school in America (Not Mexico) were sent home for wearing a shirt with an American flag. This raised all sorts of public outcry. Whadya mean I can't wear have a picture of an American flag on my shirt in an American public school? It went to court.

Today, a judge ruled that the school did in fact have the right to sent the students home, based on the idea that the students were in danger because of said shirt. [Washington Post].

The school is basically saying, that if you show patriotism to America in this school, we can't protect you. First, you shouldn't have to be protected. Second, if you do, the school should be doing it's job and protecting you. THIS ISN'T FUCKING MEXICO, IT'S AMERICA.

Sorry, but this just pisses me off utterly, beyond which is just boggles my mind. We've gotten to the point where we have to be so politically correct that we can't wear an American flag because it might offend Mexicans? IN OUR OWN COUNTRY? WTF ...