David's Daily Diversions

Offended Imagination and PC Silliness

If I'd seen it any other place, I would have immediately assumed it was an urban legend (if something can become a legend in less than two weeks). Surely the world hasn't gone this mad. Oh, yes it has. Thanks to the good folks at the Urban Legends Reference Pages for bringing this to my attention.

The County of Los Angeles now insist that all manufacturers who supply them with computer or other eletronic or mechanical components must remove any references to "master" and/or "slave". This universal lingo for the unidirectional control of one device or process by another. That it is universal means that it doesn't apply in the Orwellian alternate universe that is LA.

The memo sent out by the Purchasing and Contract section of the Internal Sevices Department says, "Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles County, this is not an acceptable identification label." I can only understand this to mean that the County of Los Angeles doesn't want to offend either masters or slaves. Apparently these exist in LA.

They must, as this is the only reason the memo would continue:

We would request that each manufacturer, supplier and contractor review, identify and remove/change any identification or labeling of equipment or components thereof that could be interpreted as discriminatory or offensive in nature before such equipment is sold or otherwise provided to any County department.

Someone who believe themself to be either one or the other must exist, because in May 2003, an employee of the county's Probation Department filed a discrimination complaint with the Office of Affirmative Action Compliance after spotting "master" and "slave" labels on a videotape machine. The only explanation I can think of is that perhaps they immigrated here from the Sudan or some other place where slavery is openly practiced and don't actually realise that the United States doesn't recognised the legal status of either "master" or "slave".

Obviously I don't believe for a minute that this is true. I honestly think it is instead a idiot who thinks that because he may be a descendant of one or more person who were at one time in a state of involuntary servitude, somehow he can claim ownership of the terms "master" and "slave". He probably doen't even realise that there are more slaves in the world today than were ever transported from Africa across the Atlantic from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Some people need to stop looking for reasons to be offended and stop looking for victimisation by (very tenuous) association.

Polarisation in Ulster

Even though it has been suspended for over a year, elections have been held this week for the Northern Ireland Assembly. Due to the result, it is unlikely that the suspension will end any time soon.

Despite the IRA ceasefire and destruction of weapons and the attempt to ease tensions through the Good Friday agreement, Northern Ireland has become more polarized. In the proportional representation which determines the Assembly membership, the Ulster Unionists and the Assembly's First Minister David Trimble are no longer the largest party. The have been supplanted by Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party.

On the other side, the moderate Social Democratic Labour Party is no longer the largest of the Catholic groups. Sinn Fein, the political side of the IRA, has now become ascendant.

The Northern Ireland executive has been a coalition, with ministers drawn from of all the major parties. When both the DUP and Sinn Fein had two ministers things were difficul at best. The DUP refuses to even speak to members of Sinn Fein. Now that both will be entitled to greater representation in the executive, provincially-based government will be virtually impossible.

One member of the SDLP has said that it could be ten years before power is returned to Strormont. This suits the DUP, because they never wanted devolution in the first place. However, the DUP will lose in the end. Ten years is also how long it may be before Catholics outnumber the Protestants.

No Safe Place

Terrorism is get very close. Yesterday, the police evacuated 119 families from homes in Gloucester while arresting a 24-year-old man and impounding his explosives. Today they have raided four more homes. Large amounts of material have been removed from all the addresses. Gloucester is not very far at all from Hooterville.

Gloucester is convenient for blowing up GCHQ, the Government's intelligence centre, at nearby Cheltenham. It is near the homes of various members of the Royal Family, including the Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal.

A few years ago this would have been the work of the IRA. Everyone who isn't a member of the DUP is glad that the IRA is no longer blowing things up.

It's a good thing Islam is a peaceful religion. I can't imagine what it would be like if it was violent and committed to bring the world into submission to it.

Filled to Overflowing

I hate to harp on about speed cameras, but the situation is getting quite ridiculous. The average yearly cost of a speed camera is over £100,000 ($170,000). The average cost of a policeman, with overtime and allowances, is under £35,000. Wouldn't it be more cost effective to hire more cops and give them radar guns?

With a speed camera, you would think the primary running cost would be the film and processing. Not true. That only accounts for about £18,000. The biggest cost is salaries. This is because the cameras are not run by the police. They are run my a multi-tiered system. The day-to-day responsibility belongs to various consultanting firms. These are hired by quangos, called safety camera partnerships. The tickets are processed by the quangos and sent to the courts to further processed. Then they have to be sent to the DVLA for further processing. All this processing takes manpower. Manpower takes money.

There is no need to worry that there won't be enough money to pay for it. They have more money than they know what to do with -- literally. Even after they have padded everyone's pocket, wheelbarrow loads of the cash has to be carted over to HM Treasury.

West Lothian Revisited

Most people who follow politics to any degree in thie country will be familiar with the West Lothian question. It refers to a conundrum first posed in Parliament by Tam Dalyell (pronounced like "Dail" in a two-syllable Texas drawl) as to why Scottish MPs at Westminster can vote on purely English matters, but English MPs canoot vote on the same matters that have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament. (To satisfy the intensely curious, it is called the West Lothian question because Dalyell asked why a member for West Lothian [such as Mr Dalyell] can vote at Westminster on affairs relevant to West Bromwich, while the member for West Bromwich must be silent on anything happening in West Lothian.)

On Tuesday night it was very clear why the Government have done nothing to rectify this serious inequality. They needed to the Scottish Labour votes to push through one of their pieces of legislation. With a party majority of 161, the Government were only able to muster a majority vote of 17. The legislation concerned the Government's plan to establish foundation hospitals which are not managed directly by the Department of Health and have some measure of local autonomy.

The problem is that the Department of Health, though a part of the government of the United Kingdom, clearly states as the first sentence on its website, "Our aim is to improve the health and well-being of people in England." That is because it has no control over health in Scotland or Wales. What hasn't been noticed by the news media is that the Government also needed the vote of the Welsh Labour MPs. Without both the Scots and the Welsh votes, Tony B couldn't have pushed through his agenda for the English health service.

It is interesting to note that of the two members representing constituencies in West Lothian, Mr Dalyell abstained, but Robin Cook voted with the Government.

Daily Mirror Helps al Qaeda

Perceiving it to somehow be in the public interest, the Daily Mirror sent a reporter undercover into Buckingham Palace. The reporter applied for a job as a footman and gave a false reference but still got the job. This was to prove how easy it was for a terrorist to get a job working for the Royals.

Then, just after serving in the receiving party for President Bush, he broke cover and published his story. But he and Mirror editor Piers Morgan weren't satisfied with just showing how easy it was for someone to get a job at Buck House. They published all the details of the security systems, when and where the security personnel could be found or not, and even private details of the Windsors.

While it may pander to the unending curiosity of the British public that the Queen breaks fast on cornflakes and porridge oats served from Tupperware boxes for breakfast, accompanied by plain yoghurt, fruit and toast with a light helping of marmalade and the Duke of Edinburgh prefers a fry up, this is just simple invasion of privacy and violation of a signed confidentiality agreement. To compromise the safety of the Royal Family from nutters, psychos, and Islamic terrorists (pardon any redundant language) is a whole other matter.

Though it was a bit like closing the gate after the horse had bolted, Her Majesty's lawyers successfully applied to the High Court for an injunction preventing the publishing of further details. The information was indeed scandalous. The security around the Royals does appear to be terribly lax. Did I need to know exactly how lax? No. Did it sell newspapers? Yes. If the reporter and the paper were, as they claimed, motivated by a desire to show the need to improve security, then why didn't they privately bring these details to the attention of Her Majesty's household, or since the reporter spend a significant amount of time in the Royal presence, to the attention of Her Majesty personally?

Get Tongue Untied

Mrs H and I had begun to worry a bit because Aidie seemed to have plateaued in his speech. We could see where it would be a social disadvantage if he never progressed beyond nouns ending in vowel sounds.

In the last few days, he has been moving ahead by leaps and bounds. It started with ending consonants. "Lie" has now become "light" and "tray" has turned into "train". He still can't get the "k" sound, which is invariably converted to a "t". I'm sure the "k" with come along and in the meantime we understand him. It is only embarrassing when he is identifying the many felines that live around us, because obviously he can't say "kitty".

The most amazing thing to observe has been the sudden emergence of counting. I wasn't expecting this before the age of two. He doesn't have true number sense, but he knows the order of the numbers in a verbal sense. He seems to have picked this up almost instantaneously. He knows the number names all go together, because when we do counting, he may stray to various numbers out of order, but he doesn't stray to random nouns. He can go to thirteen so far, though Mrs H prefers to concentrate on the first ten.

The boy may have potential yet.

How to Make Load of Money Without Doing Anything

There is so much lunacy in the news today, it is hard think of where to begin. As usual, if we are looking for idiots, the easiest targets are the police.

As I have mentioned before, we no longer need traffic cops in this country. Until the existing road sensors are converted road crime (i.e., speeding) detection, the police are happy to let their job be done by speed cameras.

There are already 5,000 speed cameras set up. Most of them are on motorways and major trunk roads where two conditions prevail: lots of traffic and very few accidents. That's because speed cameras, despite what police PR and that idiot the chairperson of the House of Commons Transport Committee, Gwyneth Dunwoody pretend, are about revenue. They haven't dropped accident rates, but they have raised a lot of money.

Now they are going to increase the number of cameras by 50%. Yes, another 2,500 will be set up, both in permanent locations, or as they are often wont to do, in mobile units. The AA (the UK equivalent of the AAA in the US) believes that the number of convictions will hit 4.5 million per year by 2006. At £60 a pop, that's £270 million into the Treasury on an annual basis.

It is also 13.5 million points on drivers licenses. This will help fulfil the Government's other agenda of getting everyone off the road. It won't get unsafe drivers walking the pavement, because even though younger male drivers cause the most accidents, the target demographic for the speed cameras is professionals between the ages of 45 and 54 - safest group.

Criminal Biblical Views

Because the police don't have to out on the highways, they can be investigating the real criminals, like the Anglican Bishop of Chester.

The Rt Rev Dr Peter Forster, Lord Bishop of Chester, said the following in the Chester Chronicle, as quoted in the Daily Telegraph:

Some people who are primarily homosexual can reorientate themselves. I would encourage them to consider that as an option, but I would not set myself up as a medical specialist on the subject - that's in the area of psychiatric health.

I would urge you not to say such a thing whilst in the United Kingdom. It may constitute a criminal offence. These comments are being investigated by the Cheshire Police. Apparently in Cheshire there are no murders, robberies, burglaries, rapes, assaults, or anything else requiring police time. And we know they don't have to worry about speeders. It's those evangelical bishops with traditional theology that must be hit and hit hard.

And who is pushing the police? While it claims that it didn't make the complaint on an organisational level at least, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (which certainly has to top the list of oxymoronic names) welcomed the criminal investigation of the bishop for what it calls "scandalous" views. According to the Telegraph, the spokesperson for the group admitted that it could have been one of their members who filed the criminal complaint.

Let me put this in plain language for you. If you have the cheek, the audacity, to openly hold to the teaching of the Christian Church, unchanged and unbroken for two millenia, and especially if you publically express those views, you may be charged with a crime in this country. This is a country which claims that Christianity is the establish religion and where the Head of State is the Head of the Church.

The Missing Commandment

I finally understand how the Episcopal Church was able to purport to consecrate Gene Robinson as a bishop. They only have Nine Commandments.

I hate to repeat myself, but my big problem with the purported consecration is not that Gene Robinson finds himself, for whatever reason, sexually attracted to men. The undisputed facts are that Mr Robinson is openly involved in a sexual relationship outside the bonds of holy matrimony. That there would be your violation of the Seventh Commandment (unless you are Roman Catholic, in which case it would be the Sixth Commandment, as RCs number them differently to nonetheless reach a total of Ten).

That is not to suggest that most of us have not violated said Seventh Commandment from time to time, especially in light of the full meaning of it as expounded by Christ. It is to suggest that anyone who is openly violating it as a permanent public arrangement, even expressing that such behaviour is not only righteous, but holy and good and ordained by God, should not be wearing a mitre, not to mention a collar.

I have said all that before, but the thought that I want to add is that I doubt even the Episcopal Church would purport to consecrate someone who was openly a thief. Again, not someone who succumbed to temptation once and who as a child or teenager nicked something from a shop, but someone who stole regularly from Church funds. They probably wouldn't give a crozier to a serial killer. They probably wouldn't even elevate someone who went around cursing his parents or who had a habit of committing perjury. Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth Commandments -- apparently no problem. But the Seventh doesn't matter, or at best we can give it a completely different meaning. Such a meaning would have to be so completely different as to be no meaning at all.

I have used the word "purported" not because of anything to do with Robinson, but rather to say there has been a consecration implies that the Holy Spirit has actually done something. Having left the Faith behind, not to mention valid Apostolic Succession, I have no grounds for supporting the idea that the Holy Spirit is involved in the sacramental rites of the Episcopal Church.

Blog Spammers

I don't know if any other bloggers have this problem, but I get loads of spam comments added deep in my blog. They never spam in the current month, and especially not on anything visible on the home page. Perhaps they don't realise that I see every comment and can edit or delete it and block their IP.

Just about every day, I have to go in and delete all of the ads and links for penis enlargement, viagra, and who knows what else. Then I have to rebuild all of my files so the comments no longer show up. I wish there was some way that I could re-work their comment spam so that it would backfire on them, but I haven't come up with a solution.

Remembrance Sunday

It is US, it was originally called Armistice Day, but since 1954 it has been called Veterans Day. It's a rather low-key public holiday. In some places there may be Veterans Day parades, but for the most part, it is just another Monday when the mail doesn't get delivered.

In the UK it is not the Monday that is important, but the Sunday. It is called Remembrance Sunday -- the Sunday closest to the 11th of November. The focus is not on the veterans, but on the war dead.

It is so important that the Queen shows up every year at the Cenotaph - the war memorial in the middle of Whitehall (the street running from Trafalgar Square to Parliament Square) - to lay a wreath. And every member of the Royal Family lays a wreath, as do the Prime Minister, the leaders of the major opposition parties, the High Commissioners of all the Commonwealth countries, and the representatives of each branch of the Armed Forces. Then thousands of veterans march past, grouped by their various associations, and a representative of each hands over a wreath to placed next to the monument.

The ceremony is shown live every year on BBC1. I watched it this year for the first time. Though the day was originally set aside to honour the dead of the First World War, it had been ten years since veterans of that conflict had been able to attend to pay tribute to their fallen comrades.

This year, 3 of the remaining 27 British WWI veterans were able to attend. Precedent was broken to accommodate them, as motor vehicles have never been allowed as part of the parade. However, at the ages of 107, 104, and 102, they were not really up to the walk down Whitehall, so they were driven in a 1911 Austin, which itself was a sight to behold.

The oldest of the group - in fact, the oldest living WWI veteran - Henry Allingham could have represented any of the three services, as he was a part of all of them. He repesented the air service, because he was there when the RAF was born. He saw action on land, at sea, and in the air. He was involved famous battles in each capacity. He participated in the Jutland, the Somme, and Ypres.

Though I thought about the thousands of servicemen who gave their lives, I was very moved by the old and infirm veterans of the Second World War, the Korean War, and other conflicts. It was important enough for them to travel to London, stand out in the weather for a long time while the first part of the ceremony took place, and then march past the Cenotaph.

Whenever the subject of remembrance arises, there is the inevitable comparison with the Eucharist. This is not a bad thing. It is, after all, the remembrance of all remembrances. Certainly it is applicable when thinking of those who have made the "ultimate sacrifice", because the ultimate ultimate sacrifice was the One who "was given up, or rather gave Himself up for the life of the world."

This is where it demonstrates to me how little I truly appreciate the Eucharist. If I'm able to get weepy-eyed at watching old men walk past a stone memorial in praise of the noble, but earthly, deeds of men, how much more should I be moved by the remembrance of the saving act of the eternal God, who even allows me to participate through the sacrifice of praise in His Body and Blood.

In the UK, great honour is accorded those who fought the Kaiser and the Fuhrer. In defeating the latter, they were saved from subordination to one of the most evil regimes in history. Yet how easily we forget that in the Cross and Resurrection, we were saved from a far worse fate than the Third Reich. We were delivered from the Evil One himself. We were saved from the Second Death.

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, let us remember those who gave their lives for King and Country. But let us make every Sunday a Remembrance Sunday and every day a Remembrance Day for the King of Glory who gave Himself up for us.

Revising Historical Revisionism

In March, I mentioned a new book that has presented a view of the Scottish hero Rob Roy MacGregor as an English spy. It would seem that this historical revisionism is not appreciated by everyone, especially the Clan Gregor.

Today I got a comment from the Honorary Bard of Clan Gregor, which I think is certainly worth your notice, particularly if you a) took any notice of the original post, or b) have an interest in Scottish history generally.

See No Evil

It was annouced this week that the Government has delayed it's plans to implement mandatory identity cards. They are putting them back until sometime later in the decade. They don't need them anyway. They now have "the Machine".

"The Machine", a passive millimetre-wave scanning device, is joint US/UK project developed not far from here by a privatised former Ministry of Defense agency. It sees through clothes and can pick up metal, ceramic, plastic, and anything else that can be used as a weapon. These show as a different colour from the intimate details of the human body, also on view.

According to The Times, the project to develop this scanning device was ordered by Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. It is not a thing of the future. It is here and now. As quoted from The Times:

The existence of the scanner has been kept secret within Scotland Yard and only a few senior officers know of the project. Sir John and other commanders were given laboratory demonstrations this year.

Did I mention that the demonstrations have not been kept in the laboratory? Large versions have been used at the ports to detect illegal immigrants hiding in lorries. But you don't have to be a trans-Channel stowaway to have been exposed. If you've been in London lately, someone may have seen more of you than you intended:

A large version has already been tested on the London streets, from the back of a converted van and police are highly optimistic that it can work operationally.

They are working now to reduce the size of the scanner so that rather than requiring an unmarked van, it can fit in a car. That way, the bobbies can turn on the screen for a little entertainment while they munch on doughnuts or whatever it is they snack on in this country.

Even though policemen may be focusing their eyes on the intimate bits of you, your wife, or your daughter, theoretically they want it to see if you are carrying a handgun. This is because since they outlawed guns, gun crime has skyrocketed. In 2002, it was up 35% over the previous year. So whether you are walking or standing or sitting down they will know whether that is a gun in your pocket or you are just happy to see them.

McCensorship

McDonald's is upset that the latest editon of the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has included the word "McJob," defined as "low paying and dead-end work."

According to an AP news story "In an open letter to Merriam-Webster, McDonald's CEO Jim Cantalupo said the term is 'an inaccurate description of restaurant employment' and 'a slap in the face to the 12 million men and women' who work in the restaurant industry." Apparently McDonald's is under the impression that compilers of dictionaries just invent words and invent definitions to go along with them. If they want to know why such a word has come about, perhaps they need to look in a giant corporate mirror.

In other McNews, the company is set to report Y3.7 billion year-end losses in Japan. A price war, the introduction of a new menu, and lots of marketing gimmicks have not been enough. According to the company executive who had been brought in to improve the company's fortunes, “Somehow, someway, customers are not as satisfied with McDonald’s as they used to be.”

I'm afraid I have as much McSympathy for the world's largest restaurant chain as they have beef in their burgers.

Unmarried Quarters

I was at first impressed with a rare move by the Government in upholding both the law and Christian morality. The Ministry of Defense is refusing to allow to lesbians, who are shortly to be legally "married" in Toronto, to take up married quarters when they move to the UK. One of them was posted to the Great White North with the RAF and met her partner there.

The MoD clarified the situation for BBC Online, stating: "The situation is that gay marriages are not recognised within the UK, therefore those individuals are not eligible for married quarters."

However, hopes for maintaining this should not be held too high, as, "The MoD is looking at this for the future but at the moment that is the situation."

The (Not So) Good Ol' Days

I am a member of Classmates.com - not a gold or premium or whatever member. Not the one that costs any money. I just wanted to see what the people with whom I grew up were doing these days. Unfortuntely Classmates (and it's rival Reunion.com) is a rip-off. You can't actually see anything other than names without forking out about $36.00.

I don't know why this frustrates me. I left my public high school after the 10th grade and finished at a little Christian school. I don't think that anyone was particularly bothered to see me go and in 23 years I've only met up with two of what would have been my graduating class of about 250.

I was educated with some of these people from the ages of 6 to 16 and some of them play shadowy roles in my early memories. Very few of them were ever friends. Even some of the ones I remember most from school and who provided the supporting cast of various birthday parties (and my mother always put together the best themed birthday parties during my elementary school years) were never really friends.

I recently found one of my school acquaintances of 33 years while editing the Open Directory. I even remember going to one of his birthday parties. We perhaps had even more in common now than then, as we are both Republicans (his grandfather, who was a friend of Lyndon Johnson, must be rolling in his grave) and lawyers. I let his website jump the DMOZ queue over about 300 others waiting to be listed and made sure he was double listed. I e-mailed him, but never heard anything back.

A small part of me wishes I could have gone last year to the 20th reunion of what would have been my high school class. The rest of me doubts that I would have had a good time, because I had no fond memories about which to reminisce. I'm sure everyone would have been much more civilized to me than they tended to be for those 10 years together. I doubt anyone would have called me "Professor" or "High Waters" or even hit me with a dodge ball.

I did get an e-mail from one of the organisers of the 20-year reunion. It was personalised in such a way that it fooled me. I got all excited and sent back a friendly reply. On second look, it was just a form e-mail to everyone on the Classmates database for that graduation year. I never heard back.

I've been listed on Classmates for quite some time now. That's where I watch information about the reunion come and go. What brought it to mind was a couple of nights ago when I discovered that in my recent long absence, photos had been posted of the reunion, and amazingly Classmates let me look at them without paying $36.00 for the privilege. I discovered that I didn't recognise most of the people. In fact, I'm only certain of one, and have a good guess about maybe three. I only recognised the one because I Googled him and found a picture of him after I found his website in the DMOZ queue.

So frankly, even if I came across them on the street I wouldn't know them. I may have brushed past several of them in Wal-mart or HEB on my occasional trips to my home town in years past.

Except for a few relationships from church, social life began for me in college. I guess I was actually accepted for the weirdo I was. I suppose it helped that we were all Christians, and of the same theological stripe. I've changed stripes, but I still have some of those friends, more than 20 years later. Some of them receive my Meanderings and occasionally comment on this blog. They still accept me for the weirdo I am.

Dorothy Rushdoony, RIP

I was both saddened and gladdened to learn this evening of the passing of Dorothy Rushdoony, the widow of R J Rushdoony. She was 87. A good innings, as they say here. I was saddened because for some reason death has that effect on us as people. I was gladdened because I also learned that she had Alzheimer's and is now again of sound mind, and with the Lord.

I only met Dorothy once, in the autumn of 1994, at the same time that I met Rush. I remember her as a dear, sweet lady. She was legally blind and I remember how Rush led her by the arm, counting steps for her. He may have the pen of a firebrand, but in person R J was the epitome of a gentle man. The most vivid memory I have of Dorothy was at the dinner table at a friend's home. I was a bachelor at the time and she was suggesting suitable candidates as wives - all young women possessing suitably theonomic credentials. I'm sure (or at least I hope) Mrs H is glad I didn't pursue any of the possibilities put forward.

Though I am theologically in a different place than I was at the time, I still appreciate the contribution that Dorothy Rushdoony has made to the life of the Church. And I'm glad that by getting to spend a couple of days with her, she made a small contribution to my life.

For my theonomic friends or anyone else who might be interested, you can read her obituary on the Chalcedon Foundation website.

Memory eternal!