Indignant Desert Birds

Tom Chick tells us about the upcoming Dragon Age comics. In case selling us on-disk content wasn’t a clear enough signal that EA will monetize anything they can get their hands on, this should be. But just to drive the point home, they’re getting Orson Scott Card to write the cash cows.

Mr. Chick points out the irony that Dragon Age features a very strongly LGBT friendly story, while Mr. Card is an amateur anti-gay bigot. This brings up the specter of yet another boycott of yet another Card-associated game product.

I make a habit of judging art on the worth of the art itself, rather than the worthiness of the creator. Scott Card has written a couple of Excellent books, some mediocre ones, and at least one that was truly awful. Since that seems to be his career arc, it makes this buying decision an easy one: I’ll be skipping his comic book…

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The problem with illegal immigration, in my mind, is not that people are heading across the US border looking for a better life. Schoolhouse rock taught me that America is a greatmelting pot, and I try to believe everything childhood cartoons told me.

The problem with illegal immigration is that it opens up a whole lot of holes in our border. This is important, because there are people who want to bring things across the US border that aren’t huddled masses yearning to breath free. Rather, it’s terrorists with bad plots, and people carrying cocaine. Future Americans (or their parents) are desirable. The rest, not so much.

To back up a bit: There are people in the world for whom being a slave in America is preferable to whatever hell they’re leaving behind. There are, in fact, a whole lot of people like that. Given this, they will do whatever it takes to improve life for themselves and their children.

They will live the American dream if we want them to or not.

That’s not really the problem. The problem is that in figuring out how to get across our “sealed” border, they’re creating holes through which other people can slip. We need to separate the people we want from the people with nefarious purpose.

The solution seems rather simple, to me. Let’s throw the American borders open. Let’s not just crack them a little bit to students and those with work visas, but everyone. All someone would have to do, in my system, is A) have someone to support them when they get here and B) be able to pass a background check.

It seems to me that this keep the people most motivated to get here from using their skills and ingenuity to break our security. When that happens, it leaves the real bad guys having to do their own thinking. Makes our job a lot easier.

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Apropos of the post earlier, this bit from yesterday’s confirmation hearing is breathtaking in it’s utter embrasure of reality:

Here we have a man (Eric Holder Jr) who wants to be Attorney General. He says forthrightly that “Waterboarding is torture”, and that torture is wrong. His Republican questioner (John Cornyn) tries hard to get him to admit that Holder would, under a special set of circumstances, torture information out of someone.

A few things leap out at me from this exchange: Cornyn very much doesn’t want to admit that the US is torturing people. Holder won’t accept circumlocution– torture is torture and the US– we– are using it.

Perhaps most importantly: Holder rejects the entire premise that torture can ever be the most effective tool in our information gathering arsenal. I’m very much looking forward to Tuesday…

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Some members of the Bush administration are finally willing to admit what the world has long known They employ people to commit torture in the name of the citizens of the United States. Words cannot express how sickened I am that our government has done this. I have always been proud to carry the title of “United States Citizen”. It is one that my recent ancestors decided on, fought for, and sent their children off to die for. Now I, like the other 300 million of us, must carry the shame of our nation. The worst part? George W. Bush sold our national honor and purchased nothing.

In 2006, one of our interrogators was “astonished” to discover that “The Army was still conducting interrogations according to the Guantanamo Bay model”. In response he

refused to participate in such practices, and a month later, I extended that prohibition to the team of interrogators I was assigned to lead. I taught the members of my unit a new methodology — one based on building rapport with suspects, showing cultural understanding and using good old-fashioned brainpower to tease out information. I personally conducted more than 300 interrogations, and I supervised more than 1,000. The methods my team used are not classified (they’re listed in the unclassified Field Manual), but the way we used them was, I like to think, unique. We got to know our enemies, we learned to negotiate with them, and we adapted criminal investigative techniques to our work (something that the Field Manual permits, under the concept of “ruses and trickery”). It worked. Our efforts started a chain of successes that ultimately led to Zarqawi.

The US was able to capture a major criminal mastermind, bring some measure of peace and stability to a nation we had torn apart, and do so without breaking international law, or further tarnishing the good name of the United States. One small quibble I would take with this soldier. He may have had to invent the techniques from scratch, but they’re not new:

“We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture,” said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess.

And

“During the many interrogations, I never laid hands on anyone,” said George Frenkel, 87, of Kensington. “We extracted information in a battle of the wits. I’m proud to say I never compromised my humanity.”

Effective and human interrogation takes time, and doesn’t give anyone cheep thrills of manliness. But it keeps Americans safe. I pray that with the Obama administration incoming, we won’t have to ever make this distinction again.

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So to recap:
52% of Californians voted to destroy thousands of California marriages. Many of the friends and family members of those married couples are angry enough to stop doing business with the people they know voted to destroy marriage.

The San Francisco Chronicle doesn’t understand why this boycott exists, calling it “intimidation”. Naturally.

Let me explain it in words small enough that even a newspaper columnist can understand:
If someone came into my home attacked my ability to be a good parent, and then burned my house down, I’d probably boycott them also.

Perhaps Proposition 8 supporters feel that the simultaneous destruction of thousands of marriages is less devastating than a wildfire would have been. Maybe if they lose enough business to feel some small percent of the pain they’ve caused, they’ll begin to understand.

But probably not.

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When the economy gets bad, low-cost health care providers start seeing more patients. It seems natural that people still want to prevent cancer, pregnancy, or STDs, but perhaps can’t afford regular doctor visits. Planned Parenthood is under constant attack for it’s efforts at providing women with high-quality/low cost health care, and this year is seeing its contributions from state budget endangered. So, they’re selling gift certficates. because nothing says “I love you” like a free pap smear.

When access to contraception declines abortion rates go up, and decreased ability to test for and treat STDs will certainly cause untold human misery. Naturally, the groups most outraged at the continued existence of an organization which helps people take care of themselves are called “pro life”…

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Ron,

Currently Opposite-sexed couples may apply for– and be granted by the state– a bundle of legal rights. These rights include inheritance and hospital visitation to name just two of the more than 1000.

Do you believe that same-sex couples should be denied the ability to apply for those rights? Do you believe that finding someone’s love “viscerally offensive” should be grounds to deny them rights you enjoy?

I really do think you’re a nice guy, Ron.

Yet you’re turning the basic ability of an entire group of people to be with the ones they love into a “political question”. It is nice of you to grant gays the right to be “[left]alone regarding [their] private lives. Just show up for work like the rest of us, dress as flamboyantly as you like or as straight as you like, and really, we won’t think you’re “bad” or anything.”

Of course, the alternative to being “left alone” doesn’t bear thinking on. But here’s the thing: grant gays full rights without distinction as to sexual orientation, and I guarantee their political agenda will disappear.

Its’ a lot simpler than you think.

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Lenin would know exactly what it’s all about. I’m shocked that John “if it’s less than 500 years old, it has no value” Weidner would be making a Beatles reference. Also: why would he be making this Beatles reference?

It seems to undercut his point just a bit…

Since John doesn’t seem to understand the difference between Marriage with 2 adults, and:
1) Marriage with 1 adult and 1 infant
2) Marriage with 1 adult and 2 other adults.
3) Marriage with 1 adult human and 1 dog (of undetermined age)
and
4) Marriage with 1 adult human and 1 Robot (with great attractiveness)

Let me spell it out for him: Infants, dogs, and Robots can’t consent to marriage. Nor, indeed, anything else. As for polygamous relationships: most of the time, they’re relationships based on coercion and quite frankly involve children and adults. Show me 3 adults who all wish to marry one another and we’ll have a whole separate conversation..

So in my world, marriage must be based on two things: 1) love 2) the wiliness of people capable of giving consent to give consent. Against this, John Weidner presents a fear of “communism”, fear of “change”, and fear of “ickiness” (the last is inferred).

My principles tell me that lines should be drawn as broadly and as widely as possible, to let all people within the sweet embrace of society. What possible defense does John have for limiting the rights of individuals to participate in society?

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Let’s imagine a world in which the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church and 52% of Californians decided that Lawyers were icky, and therefore ought to be stripped of their rights to get married. Existing marriges, with the the cuts of a million pens across ballots would be erased. Families would be ripped apart, thousands would find themselves in legal limbo.

We should hardly be surprised when, after the vote came down, Lawyers were outraged. Boycotts and legal challenges might be the tamest possible response. Indeed, if there were riots, we should understand exactly what caused them. The fact that Michelle Malkin fails to understand the outraged demonstrations in the wake of the Prop 8 vote is a failure of both empathy and imagination.

I don’t read hateful bigot Michelle Malkin, but hateful bigot John Weidner decided to post one of her columns verbatim. What is, morally/legally, the difference between Lawyers and Gays? If we can deny rights for Gays, why can’t we deny rights for Lawyers?

And if, California decided to dissolve John Weidner’s marriage because he and his spouse “chose” the lawyer “lifestyle”, I would think of less of John were he not to demand justice. If John didn’t feel the smallest quiver of rage, he wouldn’t be a respectable human being..

Quite frankly, the fact that we’re seeing mostly peaceful demonstrations, rather than insane riots, is mystifying. We’re going to see some pretty epic legal battles going forward. And the Anti-8 coalition has the full throated support of this blog. And screw anyone who would dissolve a marriage because they found it distasteful.

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What we say:
We need to create new regulatory environments wherein the market is nudged to invest in critical infrastructure. We may need to raise taxes to create some of this rich infrastructure, but it will give to everyone– rich and the poor alike– a better country. This is in no way Socialism*

What they hear:
We need to raise taxes on the rich to give to the poor. This is Socialism.

This is why conversations between parties are so frustrating; we’re speaking entirely different languages. Democrats want a functional State that takes care of the needs of the people. Republicans want a minimal State that doesn’t have the power to hurt the people.

The irony**, from where I sit is that a weak Federal Government tends not to be able to protect its citizens against depredation. The Conservative, laissez faire, ideology really has allowed for workers to be paid virtually nothing. State protected collective bargaining organizations are the only thing which allows for power between bargainers to be balanced. And so forth.

They see Socialism, we see citizens acting in their best interests for the common good. And so, on it goes…

*While I was in Ohio, many of the Brits were deeply amused by how much “socialism” was a dirty word in this country…

**I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that this irony is unintentional.

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