Monday, April 21, 2008

Because We're All So Blind

I must be missing something. What is the real reason the Texas government needs DNA samples from all the kids they kidnapped? Aside from only one other weak reason, I can think that it's only because they need more leverage against that community's First Amendment rights.

I mean, really. If a child is pregnant or has been sexually assaulted, you do like you did in the past: go after the perpetrators--the leaders, the "husbands". No need for DNA in that case...unless it's the DNA of the babies to find who sexually assaulted the child carrying or bearing the baby. But to take DNA samples of the children who have been assaulted...what does that give? Only one thing: evidence against those practicing their religion. You find out whose kid is whose, prove that a father sired more than one child with more than one woman. Prove that the man and women considered themselves married and, Bingo! Someone who broke the law--the unconstitutional law. (You know, because it's illegal to be married to more than one woman, but it's perfectly fine to screw around otherwise.)

Again the disclaimer: because I write these posts does not mean I condone what the FLDS idiots do. It means I can see where those who want only to live their religion and keep every other actually constitutional law are in dire danger of being illegally attacked based on current events' precedents.

And now a word to those whose First Amendment rights have been infringed upon: if you want to marry someone, don't marry a child, you morons! Especially if you want to be left alone to practice your religion. But now it's too late. Idiots.

Friday, April 18, 2008

I'm a Bigot, You're a Bigot (Part I)

You know...I hear that there's a Mexican family out in West Valley, UT that beats their children nightly and puts them in cages. We need to lock down that city and seize all Mexican kids for their own protection!

Hmm...no sirens.

It's a proven fact that there's a Laotian family out in Taylorsville that has a daughter that was beaten to death. Clearly we must rush in there and put all Laotian children under protective custody, no matter who they may be!

...no vans.

Well, geez. It's a proven fact that the Catholic Church has allowed many, many of the clergy to sexually abuse children. The only possible response is to seize all children from that church and from the homes of the people that so callously allowed it to happen!

...still no sirens. No arbitrary mass kidnapping. No illegal search and seizure. Strange.

...and yet it's alright to do in Texas...?

Saturday, April 05, 2008

It Is the Handoff That Binds Us

Parked in the drive-through space at a fast food restaurant, I was listening to the radio, waiting for the poor slob who worked there to take my plastic for payment. The radio spewed its NPR drivel, something about Iraq or the economy or the Democratic race, and I listened intently. Of course I occasionally shook my head or made a snide remark about the content, once again (or still) disdaining much of the human race as a whole.

I caught some motion from the left side of the car. The anonymous high school student--clearly working the fast food drive up window because hey, it pays the bills--reached out to accept my plastic money. I brought the card to his hand, and he smoothly accepted it, processed it and handed it back to me. I'm sure he didn't notice my reaction at the initial hand-off. I was stunned. Suddenly, I liked this kid! I realized how close he and I were for those two tiny moments it took to pass the card from hand to hand. We were momentarily symbiotes.

Consider if you will the abject intricacy, beauty and elegance that is the human body. Think about the fact that just to pick up a card, more than 100 muscles are at work, and to do anything more complex with that card takes at least 50 more. 150 muscles working in perfect harmony to move my hand with the credit card in it to the window. Millions and millions of synapses firing in exquisite precision and timing to energize and enervate exactly the correct muscles at precisely the right time.

As if that wasn't enough, I was also acutely aware that the nearly countless things that my body had to do, the kid behind the open windows had to do, too. Nerves firing, muscles flexing and relaxing; a perfect, beautiful harmony of motion and energy and timing. His fingers grasped the card at precisely the same moment that my fingers released it. For that one moment, the awe-inspiring number of things going on as we both moved merged into a veritable symphony of synergistic will and coordination.

I smiled at him as he handed me my food, but he was already talking to his headset, taking the next order and closing the window, preparing for the next order.

I drove off, a little less judgmental about...well about everything. I realized that that tiny moment happens every single day. Any and all kinds of interaction we have with each other is a perfect example of symbiosis, of oneness...even in our attempts to destroy each other.

It became clear to me...again...and in a different way...we are all connected. Not just we humans, but everything. We all make up one massive, symbiotic being, moving harmoniously toward a common goal (utter annihilation or peace--we'll decide as we go), hurtling through space toward who-knows-what. Perhaps a thousand years of peace?