Adoption Site Banned in California

I am glad that we left our home state of California. Freedom of association and freedom to serve those who you choose to market to are DEAD.

Based on the theory that a company cannot refuse to do business based on discriminatory attitudes has hit an internet based firm. They have matched married couples with unwed moms for the purpose of adopting babies.

However, they have refused to list homosexual partners as adoption parents, and California has decided that this is unacceptable. Either the website must serve homosexual partners or it must cease doing business in California.

I wonder if the Chinese Laundries in California will have to hire white people and serve black people! I remember being pushed out of a Chinese laundry many years ago, with the proprietor yelling "White! White! You go!" to me.

Ah, yes. The freedom to practice one's religion is strictly a private right, to be practiced behind closed doors and without a public audience. So, if one is a religious person who believes that children should not be raised by homosexual partners, then one must keep one's views deeply hidden.

Crosses still being fought

I know that the ACLU gains payment from the federal taxpayers every time it wins a case. That, alone, should be enough to encourage outrage from taxpayers. Oh, yeah, the only reason that a taxpayer can legally sue to government is when government money sent to religious institutions.

Clearly, ACLU is not a religious institution. And, they needed money to sue government entities over racial discrimination, etc. Good, so far. So, they began to receive reimbursement, as I understand it, for their legal fees when they won a case against the government. I know, the loser pays all. I get that. But here, the loser is ALWAYS the taxpayer (you and me) because the government only gets $$ through taxes (and some investment, I suppose). So, WE are paying the ACLU to sue the government (us) for any entanglement of government and religion.

However, there are those who think that ACLU lawsuits with the goal to rip down/cover up/dismantle crosses that have been on display in public parks and public cemeteries and courts and court-house lawns, etc for DECADES is going a tad bit too far.

How do you like paying the ACLU to try to remove the
Soledad Cross in San Diego? Do you like how your taxpayer dollars are going?

Just remember: do not give/sell any of your land to any government entity as a park/library/whatever if that land has any religious symbol on it. You are putting the taxpayers at risk of (1) having to pay for the defense of the religious symbol in a suit by the ACLU, (2) having to sell the property to a private individual or corporation to protect the religious symbol from a suit by the ACLU, and (3) losing a (potentially cherished) symbol from public view and enjoyment. All that is needed is one activist atheist and the ACLU.

Ohio's OGT for Seniors

As a parent, I do not have to worry about this exam. As an attorney, though, I may need to - as I have had several home educated students contact me about the OGT. That is the Ohio Graduation Test, required to gain a high school diploma.

It appears that there is at least alternative pathway to achieve graduation. Note: Homeshoolers need not apply.

Drive Like a Police Officer

Most of these driving and parking habits I already do. But the remaining tasks will become habit ASAP in my car!

Enough said.

Population Outflow

Those who know me best know that my family fled Southern California nearly 20 years ago. The reason? It was no longer tenable to raise a family and to live in a home similar to the ones we grew up in. The costs of buying a home that a carpenter could afford in the 1950's had risen to the level where it took two professional incomes (teacher and computer programmer) to purchase the same house.

Of course, now, that very same house (1300 square feet on 1/6 acre lot) recently sold for over $400,000. Three families live in the house. I think they use "hot beds" - where a given bed is essentially used in shifts, with three people taking turns.

I have always thought that it was wrong that a house that a carpenter could afford on one income should EVER be so expensive that a future carpenter could not afford to purchase the same home, say, 50 years later. I understand market economics and I understand about taxation and its effect on affordability.

Anyway, there is an interesting article about population outflow from major metropolitan areas in recent years. I am glad we left when we did.

A Future Deleted

For those who are pro-life, the article that I read today will be a heart-breaker. For those who are pro-choice, the article may still be a heart-breaker.

Imagine choosing to delete the lives of two fetuses out of five that a woman is carrying because, even though all of them are healthy, this will reduce the possibility of a miscarriage or a premature birth of all four fetuses.

But how to choose which ones will live and which ones will die? Their position in the uterus. That is it. Oh, unless one has a more preferable sex, then that will rank over physical position.

And, the mom gets to see those babies alive and then dead in the sonogram.

No matter which side one is on, this seems to be particularly inhuman and anti-human.

I am in an article

I never expected to be noticed in a positive manner because of being 53. However, I was. See this: Second-Career Lawyers Opt to Go Solo.

Nothing to report, again!

There is something about doing legal work that leaves me a wee bit exhausted from time to time. And feeling stupid.

Today is one of those days. I filed paperwork in the local court, only to be reminded (!) that I cannot put two cases together in one motion. I thought I had LEARNED that weeks ago.

But, NO!

Onward and upward.

The Army We Have

Given that my husband is a recently retired U.S. Army Reservist, I am interested in things pertaining to the military. My father, my uncle, and a number of other important people in my life served in various wars. To their credit.

So, I found it interesting today when I read that upwards of 70% of American young people are not eligible to join the Army. Gadzooks! I ventured further into the article and discovered why that is the case: Parental neglect.

No, not the sort of neglect that would lead to Social Services employees to take the kids away. Nope. Just plain, old, non-attention and sloppy parenting of the usual variety.

I sure hope we do not have to defend ourselves from our enemies any time soon. My husband will be too old to do anything except help our neighbors defend ourselves. Oh, yeah, loaded guns are mostly illegal now. Hmmmm. Shall we use our handy, dandy walking sticks? Or the baseball bat?

Perhaps I am becoming pessimistic. Yeah, that must be it.

Thomas Jefferson Hated Hate Crime Legislation

President Jefferson, an icon of early American architecture, education, and, of course, statesmanship, would not like modern day censorship of opinions.

William J. Federer, national speaker for Christian causes,
noted this last week.

When I was a child, I remember being told that "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." My parents and teachers used that as a way of helping us to stop hitting each other when someone called us names. Of course, we were also expected to "turn the other cheek." I wonder if anyone is teaching these things today?

I guess that is an old-fashioned notion. Therefore, not worth teaching or considering in the modern age.

Certification of Mailing on Attorney Communication

It seems that some attorneys will deny receiving materials sent by other attorneys, notwithstanding certification of mailing by the post office. Huh?

I mean, there are some low-down tricks played by opposing counsel in nearly every case, or so I hear, but really? Why deny receiving something? Oh, yeah, so the case can be dismissed with prejudice. Hmmm.

Anyway, at least one
motion for summary judgment has been denied because opposing counsel denied receiving materials.

This blog reports a possible solution to the problem.

Nothing to Say

Actually, I have had nothing much to say in the last few days. I have been at trial. All that has been necessary to say has been said there.

However, while driving south from Newark to Lancaster on Thursday, I saw some artful wording on the back of a small SUV in front of me. I had time to read and examine the writing because we were in stop-and-go traffic due to a school zone.

Anyway, the writing on the SUV said "If it is too loud, then your too old." Yes, there was an incorrect use of a word. I was thrilled! I suppose the owner of the SUV intended to slam those who complain about the driver's loud music (i.e. the artful use of an automobile as a boom box).

The driver of the SUV was playing his music a wee bit too loud, but I did not find that offensive or irritating. However, I REALLY wanted to quickly create a beautiful font, print it out on sticky plastic, and get out of my car and paste my message on his car.

The message? I had no clue! I wanted to slam the improper use of "your" instead of "you're" or "you are." Something witty, to the point, and not too offending.

What did I come up with? Nothing!

Any suggestions out there in blog land?

Education Classes and Indoctrination

Many years ago, while I was taking classes to become a school teacher (post-graduate classes), I thought most of the classes were stupid and not terribly helpful. (Note, this castigation does NOT apply to my graduate classes at ETSU or EMSU.)

The only kind of indoctrination that I felt we received was essentially thus: smart kids will always be able to take care of themselves (so do not worry about them), and slow or uninterested students are the most important people in the world. Oh, and we can feed those students uninteresting and intellectually insulting material in order to teach them basic skills at the secondary school level.

Apparently today, that kind of indoctrination is unnecessary, and now the new indoctrination of educators is much more important socially and economically: the current message is that Marxism is good and perpetual revolution against the capitalist system is necessary to achieve social justice. Never mind that the taxpayer dollars that go to support public education come from the capitalist system. Never mind that a number of these academic training sessions come from consummately successful capitalists. Pigs. I forgot.

As a former teacher in a ghetto in a western state, I am offended by the notion that the topic of social justice warfare is more important that the study of higher mathematics and

I suppose that one reason I left K-12 public education was associate with social justice: the "man" wanted me to feed pablum to my kids, and I had to be a wee bit discreet and had to "buck orders" in order to give my kids the best possible education I could give them: to become readers at the ripe old age of 14 years old.

I personally think that teaching students how to read, to compute, and how to think though problems addresses more social injustice than any of the "social injustice" training that modern day educators must undergo.