Silver Lining. Well, pink, actually

[howeird]

Between the new teeth and the new mouthpiece, it was easier hitting the high notes at band tonight. Not sure if I really needed the fixodent, but it didn't hurt. My eye was not a problem.

Work was lame. No new build, lots of network foo. ESPN kept cutting out.

South Carolina did the PC thing and passed a law to take down the confederate flag. It won't make any difference. The same way nobody makes nazi flags anymore, but the south is all about anti-semitism. If anything, the bigots will use this to teach their kids how their rights are being stripped away.

Lunch in the break room again. Brought pickled herring in sour cream & onions. Nearly choked - that stuff is strong.

Home after work, logged onto Costco Photo to have 4 prints made on mount board, which I'll enter in a sunnyvale photo meetup contest next Monday. I'll pick them up tomorrow & make labels. While I'm at Costco I may do some shopping. Maybe not. because after band I went to Walgreen's and bought a box of generic beathe-right strips because they didn't have the brand name ones. So I also went to Safeway and got the brand name ones. But these are only 26-packs, Coscto has 45-packs for less.

Plans for tomorrow:
TGIF
Work
Costco
Make labels
Hard boil some eggs
Maybe whip up another small batch of caramel walnuts

Comments

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Gotta disagree on the flag thing. It's not so much the flag - that won't disappear, because we have free speech. It's the government property part. I'm very firmly in favor of separation of church and state, and that flag has become a religious symbol for people who worship hate. I'm also opposed to crosses, nativity scenes, bibles in courtrooms, etc. Taking those things out of government buildings isn't about trying to put an end to religion, or (in the case of the flag) bigotry. It's about taking the states out of the business of official endorsement.

[howeird]

We'll have to just disagree then. :-)

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Howard, I would love to be able to agree to disagree, but you know I'm too cantankerous for that.

So.

A question.

Would your opinion change if those flags said "Arbeit Mach Frei"?

[howeird]

I'll answer your question with a question: Has the fact that there are no Nazi flags flying over any government entities in the USA stopped anti-semitism?

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

That's like attributing the absence of tigers to the cardboard box in your attic you use for a tiger trap, but in reverse. Does our court system and prison stop crime? No? Well, then, by your logic we should set all our prisoners free. Some improvement is better than just giving up altogether.

[howeird]

If Socrates heard this argument he would puke on his shoes. Or yours.

What I said is taking the flag down won't decrease the hate. The same way banning the Nazi flags has not decreased the hate.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

To clarify, I acknowledge that point, and find it limited and irrelevant to the question of whether taking the flag down is a positive step.

[howeird]

Ah, but I was not talking about whether it was good or bad, only if it will make a difference in the H8.

[lemmozine.livejournal.com]

Again, to clarify, your statement clearly implies that doing something that doesn't solve the problem means it is an act of futility and not worth doing. My counter is that the longest journey begins with a single step, and sometimes we don't know what that step is when we take it.

[howeird]

Thank you, Mr. cliché-a-second.