Atheists and Christmas and Hannukah

So some atheists in Washington State wanted equal space for their own message and they got it. Instead of giving some positive message of their own to counter other positive messages during this season, they posted a message claiming that religous people (apparently, Christians, Jews and Muslims) have hardened hearts and enslaved minds.

Way to go to convince religious people to agree and give up our "superstitious" ways.

Injustice Department

Not that it's Beth Chapman day, but I was also wondering why the Secretary of State would call the U.S. Department of Justice the "Injustice Department" just because they want to enforce the law regarding military voters. I thought she was all about ensuring military personnel could vote.

Scriptural Pigs?

Can you believe that the Alabama Federation of Republican Women would post to their a blog an entry calling Democrats "egotistical, hate mongering pigs" while also citing scripture from the Holy Bible?

Beth Chapman, Ethics Maven

I'm wondering why Beth Chapman felt compelled to hire her husband to do over $10,000 in design work for her campaign for Alabama Secretary of State when she was paying over $200,000 to a consulting firm for campaign work. She claims her husband could do the work cheaper than an ad agency, which makes me wonder what the consulting firm did for the big dollars they received.

I'm also wondering why she called her campaign a "grassroots" effort when paid so much to the consulting firm.

Science schmience?

I'm wondering, why people on the left contend we should rely on science to show that homosexuality and transsexuality are "normal", but refuse to accept the evidence from science that a fetus is an unborn human life?

To Please or Not to Plead

A state judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by the ACLU. The suit questioned how the state is removing convicted felons from the voter rolls. I'm not sure which is the worse part about this: the convicted felons who sued before even trying to register (they didn't know if their crime disqualified them from voting) or the judge for throwing the case out when clearly there is a need for a better idea about which crimes are disqualifying.

To be, or Are They Already?

The Birmingham News ran an op-ed Sunday about Alabama's hate crimes law. The article was critical of Alabama for not having yet adding homosexuals and transgender people to the list of groups to be protected against hate violence.

I can see adding protections for homosexuals, since I can see how homosexuality is biologically based. I'm not so sure about transgender people.

"Transgender" usually refers to individuals who are born "male" or "female" but who do not believe that classification really fits them. As Wikipedia puts it, transgender people are those "who were assigned a sex, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves."

As we have learned through experiences with homosexuals and bisexuals, gender and sexual orientation are two separate issues. I find it difficult to afford enhanced protections for a group based upon their perceived sense of their own gender.

Put a Check in the Mail (again)!

Since the federal government feels it can afford to give big banks the $700 billion bailout package, it seems that it could spend another $100 billion and give us common taxpayers another modest economic stimulus check.

Vice is Ugly Work (but somebody's gotta do it)

Does the Montgomery Police Department have enough ugly officers (see here and here) to effectively work the vice squad?

McCain/Biden 2008!

I think that would be a solid ticket.

Before you mention their differences of opinion, just remember that Biden has already let his positions be reshaped so that he could run with Obama.

Lap dancers, Coke, potato chips, fleas!

So we know ...

... Coke can kill sperm and even the AIDS virus.

... dog fleas jump higher than cat fleas.

... anything that can be tangled will get tangled.

... we'll eat stale chips if we think they are crunchy.

... lap dancers make more money when they are most fertile.

I'll leave it to someone else to ask whether or not U.S. taxpayer money went to any of this research!

Talking Points Palin

I watched the debate between Biden and Palin last night as I bet you did too. My take? Palin came across to me as that girl from high school or college in debate class who was too ernest in making the points in her speech. Worse - she was so head up to make her talking points that she chose to avoid many of the questions put to her by the moderator. I guess her and McCain's strategy for last night was to get her parroting the campaign's buzz words with hopes of pushing the right buttons of the viewers.

Trickling Along

I was listening to a report on the radio program "Marketplace". They were discussing the effect that U.S. economic situation is having on "remittances" to Mexico. "Remittances" refers to the money that Mexicans working in the U.S. send back to Mexico.

The report first stated that remittances had dropped 12.5%. Then, the reporter stated that remittances had dried up to a "trickle".

Somehow, I don't get the image of a "trickle" when I picture a river or stream flowing at 81.5% of capacity.

"They're there," their voice called out!

I was on Facebook today and was challenged to take the "They're/There/Their" test. Imagine my surprise when I saw this as one of the questions:


Would one be unreasonble to think that a grammar test might make proper use of grammar?

I won't explain the grammatical mistake right now. However, feel free to leave your guess in the comments.

Voter List, Voter Risk

Much is being said (see here and here, for example) about the Alabama Democratic Party's lawsuit against Secretary of State Beth Chapman. The party wants more free copies of the state voter list. Chapman claims that the party is eligible for only one free voter list a year, which the party was given earlier this year. The Democratic Party has also questioned whether $28,000.00 for a statewide list is a fair price to pay.

Have you noticed what is missing from the discussion? I'll tell you what I think is missing: why should anyone have access to my voter information to begin with? (Yes, I'm an Alabamian who is registered to vote.)

I did some digging around. Under Alabama law, the Alabama Secretary of State can sell a lot of information about you to anyone - anyone! - willing to shell out the bucks. Name? Check. Address? Check (home or mailing address!). Date of birth? Check. Phone number? Check (even if your number is unlisted with the phone company!).

And the political parties get the information free at least one time a year. And the Democrats want it free more often than that.

When you registered to vote, did you realize how much information you were putting into the open market? Not just to the political parties. Anyone can get the information, even businesses that are looking to compile a mailing list or who want to target a particular age group.

You might say, "Well, not many people will want to pay $28,000 to get the list." You are right. But I also discovered that price is for the statewide list. You don't have to buy the whole statewide list. Want one county's list? You got it. Want people in a particular zip code? You got that. Want people on a particular street in a particular city? Be happy to give you that, sir!

I regularly get notices from my bank and other businesses telling me that I have privacy rights and that I can restrict how they share my personal information. But if I register to vote, forget it. I asked if I can block my voter record from being sold. The answer: Nope. Our legislators in Montgomery will have to change state law before I can keep my information private.

It doesn't even matter if I have a good reason to protect my privacy.

Are you an abused woman trying to get away from a violent ex-husband or ex-boyfriend? Your state Senators and state Representatives say too bad. If you don't want him knowing where you are, you better not register to vote. What does that say about our democracy?

And the Democratic Party's biggest concern is whether they have to pay one cent to know where you live. I didn't know that we could put such a cheap price on democracy and the right to privacy and on some people's personal safety.

I can't fault the Secretary of State. Chapman is just doing her job. She can't ignore state law.

But I can fault:

• our state legislators - they obviously have a deaf ear about personal information in this age of increased identity theft.
• the Democratic Party - for thinking that it's a fair trade when they do me the honor of sending me political advertising in exchange for letting my personal information go out to people that might do me harm.