Keeping the Faith?

I don't talk about religion much. Despite what my mother and my church attendance record might say however, I have deeply held beliefs that affect my life in many ways. It is an important facet of the lives of a large part of the world and I'm sure that includes many people in the highest positions of our government.

So why is the Federal Bureau of Prisons taking religion away from inmates?

I understand not allowing prisoners to get their own personal copies of the Anarchist's Cookbook, but to cut religious texts to a paltry 150 titles per religion? Does Robert H. Schuller's "Hours of Power" really represent a great threat to the federal prisons? Are they afraid the prisoners will rise as one and start belting out gospel music? Frankly, if I were a prisoner, I would rather do that than read one of the 9 C.S. Lewis titles that are permitted. Narnia is lyrically fabulous; "The Pilgrim's Regress" should be used instead of anesthesia.

But correct me if I'm wrong - religion tends to promote peace and tolerance as a rule. Any religious text that promotes ideas of violence and extremism, I would argue, it not religious text at all but propaganda. And we all know exactly what kind of text the Bureau REALLY thinks is dangerous. So be honest, Bureau of Prisons, and ban texts that incite violence and extremism. At least then you aren't impinging unnecessarily on the rights of those who want to read true Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other religious books. You're making the same mistake so many make these days - associating an entire religion(s) with the few psychos who want to use the said religion as a mask for their said psychosis.

Mostly Babble

So I've been agonizing about what my first post of the new school year should be. I thought about writing about everything from the fact that the lack of Prof CivPro has made this year's 1Ls entirely too comfortable to the 'finally!' moment of Britney Spears getting investigated by CPS (again). In the end, I decided that I wasn't actually that picky, just uninspired to write anything. Now that it's the 2nd week of school, I just look lazy. So be it. Now your expectations are lowered to an acceptable level.

I really only have one bit of news anyway - that my husband has got a new job at Best Buy with the Geek Squad. (So fitting, that name.) This might not be entirely impressive to you, except for the fact that he's been delivering pizzas for the last 10 months, while his Computer Science degree hangs above my desk in all of its useless glory. In Waco, you see, computer people like Jon have 2 options - complete mediocrity, usually in a job that has nothing to do with their expertise (see: delivering pizzas) or they can pull out their PhD in astrophysics and go work at the aerospace engineering firm just outside of Waco. And Jon doesn't have a secret PhD in astrophysics. Unless he's hiding something, in which case I think a secret degree is probably the least of my worries. So in all, Jon is pleased with his job, which doesn't quite fit either of these usual 2 options.

But that's not my point. The point is that while applying to Best Buy online, Jon came across this question in the personality test, which I can only assume was created by a psychology major, because those are my people and I know their work:

"You get angry when the court system lets guilty people go free. Do you: Strongly Agree? Agree? Disagree? Strongly Disagree?"

There are so many problems with this question that my brain literally screeched to a halt for several minutes. The fact that it chafes against my growing bias towards the defense is the least of them. But I had to wonder - is this how people see the court system? My own childhood was full of detective and cop shows - I knew "innocent until proven guilty" before my ABCs and I'm not kidding. (My parents never thought I really comprehended what was going on in those mystery shows they watched every Tuesday night, but truthfully, this is probably where I formed my complete non-surprise at the perversions of human nature. Also, I was allowed to watch Purple Rain at age 4.)

But it was surprising, especially knowing that this questionnaire was probably edited a thousand times by a dozen people, who are presumably people with college degrees and 2 brain cells to rub together. I would have expected better. Or perhaps BLS has already warped me and I should have expected nothing.

Warning - Indelicate Words

This morning the NY Times had an article about the possible banning of the word "bitch". If you hadn't heard, the NY city council has already banned the n-word earlier this year. I really wasn't paying attention that first time because I do find the n-word to be horrible. I wouldn't have banned it though. I know that some people claim that the stigma has been stripped from the n-word. Personally however, I'm not a fan and I think we all know that if I - a little Southern middle-class white girl - used that word, no one would be brushing off anything except for my blood from their clothes. And I like my nose unbroken, thank you. But "bitch"? Come on. The city council member who proposed this ban said that it is a "paradigm of shame and indignity for all women".

Let's pause for a minute and consider that.

Okay. Now all you women out there, raise your hands if you think "bitch" is "a paradigm blah blah blah". Hmm, I'm not seeing a lot of response. Now, raise your hands if you don't want this city council woman speaking for you just because you happen to both have a uterus.

Ah. I'm seeing a lot more response there.

I understand that people are sensitive to words. But whereas the n-word has historical degradation woven through it, "bitch" started out as a term for female dogs. Does anybody with a modicum of education not realize that? That when you call someone a "bitch", you're calling them a female dog? No, it's not the nicest thing to say. The column has quotes from people saying that the ban would prevent them from calling half their friends. And that is just weird. I think they need to turn up the class a bit with their friends. But what is the council going to do? Ban the words "female dog" next? It's a slippery slope is all I'm saying.


I'm all for feminism. Yay for equality and all that. But there's a division of feminists these days: The group that wants to protect women from all discrimination, whether or not that discrimination is real or even a reasonable expenditure of time, and the group that thinks the first group is nutters. I guess I'm part of that second group, which spends its time on true subjugation of women. I'm a bit more concerned when a 10 year old girl is being ritually circumcised or when a woman is getting beaten for the sake of not covering her ankles or when a pregnant woman is fired for taking up too much of the company's medical resources. "Bitch" is hardly on my radar.

What? Not the World's Biggest Ball of Twine?

The New Seven Wonders of the World have officially been chosen:

Chichen Itza - Mexico
Christ Redeemer - Brazil
The Great Wall - China
Machu Picchu - Peru
Petra - Jordan
The Colloseum* - Italy
Taj Mahal - India
The Great Pyramids - Egypt (I know this makes 8, but apparently Egyptian officials threw a big hissy that they had to compete, being the only surviving wonder of the original 7.)

I've only been to Chichen Itza. (I've been to Peru twice - both times to the Amazon Basin, the complete other end of the country from Macchu Picchu.) I'm not a big fan of the Christ Redeemer statue though. It just doesn't hold the beauty of the other nominees for me. I would have chosen Easter Island or Stonehenge or Angkor, which were all runner-ups, in its place. There are other places in the world that I would add too - Thailand's Reclining Buddha, which is a sight to behold, for example (Thailand in general is chock full of great stuff actually). Or the Sistine Chapel. Or Westminster Abbey.

What would you add?

* Proof of why I shouldn't post while sleepy. It's spelled Colosseum. And even though the actual website spelled it incorrectly, I'm kind of surprised at myself for not catching it immediately. I'm losing it, ya'll. Losing. It.

Challenge

Charlie's visit to the vet was this morning. He was such a good boy as they took out his stitches, tested him for worms of all kinds (and was all negative, yay!) and gave him his rabies shot. Unfortunately, they also determined that Charlie is indeed deaf. Jon and I had been pretty sure of it before now, but the vet confirmed it. It's crushing to find that your baby has some serious genetic defect.

But I loved him from the moment I saw him and I'm not giving up on him. I've already researched deafness in dogs and was pleased to learn that they can be trained just as easily as hearing dogs using hand signals instead of your voice. He's going to start training classes in the next week or so.

Even so, I'd like to ask, has anyone out there had experience with a deaf dog? Tips? Advice? Maybe a solution to stop Charlie from thinking I'm a chew toy?

Name Contest!

Okay, not so much a contest because there are no awards but I will give kudos to anyone that comes up with a good name for my new puppy! Jon and I had a list of names already, but none of them seem to fit this little guy and since he was a stray, the Waco Humane Society didn't have one for him either. Suggest away!

Manners Again

I went to a summer clerk seminar/lunch thing yesterday at the federal courthouse. Most of the people there were from law firms and another handful worked there every day as judicial interns. I think I was the only one from another government agency (the Federal public defender). I was also the only one from Baylor so far as I could tell. It was a little weird because everyone else seemed to be interning all at the same firm and/or from SMU.*

After a morning of overviews of the federal courts and the magistrate courts and a little mock trial, which was rather amusing, we had lunch with a panel. All the panelists were present or former clerks and I was pleased to hear from them until the organizer read their credentials - Yale or Harvard came up in all of them. Cue the slumping into my seat in recognizance of my futility. They reminded me of those people from the beginning of Legally Blonde, when everyone's talking about their master's and PhD's while Reese Witherspoon talks about her successful mixers.


After lunch, we were given tours of the courthouse departments, including probation, bankruptcy court, the clerk's office and the US Marshal. The Marshal's office was by far the most fun. And this is where my little rant on manners begins.

The US Marshal, whose name I never caught, was a really nice guy in his 40s who happily led our group around the training facility. You know those movies where they show army or police trainees running around a mock-up or a crack house or terrorist cell safe-house with night vision and plastic guns and they shoot each other? Yeah, they have one of those in the federal courthouse. It was pretty cool. He walked us all the way through, including the stress room, which isn't very big but they turn out the lights and the AC and make you feel like you're really fighting for your life. And the Deputy Marshal was just so excited about all of this, talking about how he brings in police and army reservists (he being a reservist himself) on weekends so that they can learn things that will potentially save their lives.

He obviously loved his job and loved teaching us about how the Marshal's trained for close combat. I thought it was really sweet. Meanwhile, some of the students began snickering at his enthusiasm as he led us from room to room, admittedly taking up way more time than we had been allotted.

But still, what snobs! If I one day loved my job as much as that deputy clearly did, I would thank my lucky stars. And if I ever have the luck to become a federal judge, I want someone exactly like him to be protecting me in court.

Don't be like those jerks. Be happy for someone who enjoys their job, especially a job that entails protecting you. In short, don't act like you were born in a barn and instead act like you have some civility and good manners.

*I'm really not trying to pick on people from SMU. I was considering going there myself. One of my close friends does go there. But in Dallas, SMU is the prevalent source for law students so this is just the result of statistics.