Once in college, I was driving back to school from Atlanta to Oxford, Miss. It was a rainy sunday night after Christmas break had ended. My car broke down in the middle of nowhere, Alabama. This old guy stopped and inquired as to my trouble, brought me to his brother-in-law's house and these people spent the whole night fixing my car in their home garage. They didn't even know me! I have sent them a Christmas card every single year since then, and we have kept in touch that way, so that was a happy ending to a bad situation.
I have always relied on the kindness of strangers
That's a lovely tale DR Rod....it was good of you to keep in touch with them as well
We'll also have to talk about psychotic and incompetent school administrators, as your tale remineded me of the kind of people my schools in Indiana were plagued with.
Don't tell me that. I will just stay here. I will just not come back.
This may not be the most snow in inches we've had, but it seems like the most days of snow we have had in my 8 years in NYC.
Alright, I ought to be sleeping. I shouldn't be awake at this hour in ANY time zone. Thanks for the company!Thank you fpor the company!! Happy sleepoing
Turns out that the serpentine belt had split and the thing that it goes around ( I forget the word) had seized.
An hour later and $222.50 poorer...
I agree with all those farces that people mentioned. Now I have to remember what else I have seen.
...so I shall be quite consumed again very soon'...
March 14, 2005
Gays in the military: It’s a question of liberty
By Allen B. Bishop
The genius of democracy is in its insistence that each citizen counts. Each counts for one; none counts for more than one. Government, and by extension the military, exists to defend that liberty.
But despite our government’s claims of liberty for all, we leave homosexuals out. When we deny their right to military service, we improperly restrict the franchise of citizenship and give in to homophobic prejudice very like the unreasoned racial and gender prejudices of the past.
The government has a constitutional duty to protect liberty, which it does through the military. If the American military sees and is allowed to see itself as the protector of some but not all Americans, democracy fails.
We can easily see why some people are physically disqualified for military service, but it is much harder to see why the fact of private consensual sex between adult citizens disqualifies them from military service. What democratic principle justifies this discrimination?
The law barring gay military service imposes private religious and moral commitment through the instrument of public law. Gays and lesbians are American citizens, and many are silently serving in our military now as they have in all of our wars. The war in Iraq highlights the shortsightedness of discharging Arabic linguists who happen to be gay. But far worse than this failure in reasoning is the more general democratic failure of refusing full citizenship to able and willing citizens making personal choices the majority does not like.
…
Others will say homosexuality is sinful. But that is not the proper debate. The question in a democracy is not whether a given act is sinful but whether it violates the principle of liberty and is, therefore, illegal. Many see gambling, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and any kind of sex outside marriage as sinful. But those do not preclude military service.
Doesn’t the logic that homosexuality is a sin justifying prejudice obligate us to discriminate against all sinners — adulterers, gamblers, drinkers, smokers, sex workers, sex customers and married people who perform the same acts homosexuals practice? It is not a question of sin. It is a question of liberty, a question going to the heart of our democracy.
As citizens we should talk less about the sanctity of marriage and more about the meaning of liberty. We should not use raw political power to impose private religious conviction.
The Christian message of the gospel is a message of love and forgiveness. It is hard to reconcile the beauty of that message with crusades, inquisitions, burnings at the stake, lynchings and the continued unloving, unforgiving prejudices shown by some Christians to gay and lesbian Americans.
Our politicians are smart people. They know better. Many are privately ashamed of their public stance but find it necessary to maintain the public stance to win election.
…
We can and should become a more just society by living up to our own best democratic principle. We are now finally ashamed about our legal prejudices against women and minorities. Legally at least, each citizen of color and each woman counts for one.
But lesbians and gays count for less than one. We can do better.
The writer is an active-duty lieutenant colonel at West Point, N.Y. This is his opinion. It is not the opinion of the U.S. Military Academy, the Army or the Department of Defense.
Vixmom I don’t blame you for ranting, especially about the school situation.
DRJANE - RODZINSKI is on CBS at 3 pm CST.....he said he would be sitting at the end of the table in a red shirt! The Washington/Arizona game from Staples Center.
She continued on and I switched to ice skating.
Hillary Swank has won two Oscars, for playing a woman boxer and a woman disguising herself as a man. She's going to combine the two in her next movie, "The Tonya Harding Story".
Martha Stewart is out of prison. She received a gift of lemons from Rosie O'Donnell. Rosie sure didn't waste any time seeing if Martha was playing for the other team after being in prison...
Martha Stewart's version of "The Apprentice" will air on NBC this fall. She won't be using Donald Trump's catch phrase "You're Fired!". Instead, she will be using her own, "Get in the bunk, bitch!"
She may occasionally substitute it with "Book 'em, Dano!"
Martha Stewart's popularity has gone up several points following her prison sentence. How bad is your image when people only like you after you've served time?
After hearing that news, Star Jones confessed to a number of crimes. So did Kato Kaelin, but he still can't even get arrested in Hollywood.
Obviously Cyd Charisse was a woman of class. I also remember her as being very nice, but reserved.
Today I got my baseball signed by the cast of Li'l Abner. It doesn't say anything about Dodger Stadium (which, as someone pointed out, hadn't been built yet), so it may have come from a Hollywood Stars game at Gilmore Field or from an Angels game somewhere else.I doubt that the ball came from an Angels game; the Angels franchise didn't exist until 1961.
Your escapade could have much more entertaining for the readers if you had to leave your car over night ;D
der Brucer
When I rewrite it for the movie I'll make sure I'm miles from help, push the car to a garage singlehandedly and sleep with the mechanic for parts and labor, or better yet pull a McGyver and fix it with a pair of pantyhose and a hairpin!!You could always fix the mechanic with a pair of pantyhose and a hairpin!!
You could always fix the mechanic with a pair of pantyhose and a hairpin!!
:o ;D
I thought that guy was on a floor seat.
I thought he had to be at the table with his laptop.
Thanks, Jed, for your timely comments.
You must have been E&T when this came about, dear old dad! I've got a four-week job lined up, scoring public school standardized tests (specifically the Ohio 4th grade writing assessment) up in Auburn. So, from March 23 through April 20 or so, DR Ann and I will be roommates. With any luck, we won't drive each other nuts to the point of ending up on the 11 o'clock news or anything...
Moi??? E&T?
*Side note to my cyber-father*
When I made the quick trip over last week for this interview, I stopped by the Walgreen's at Pearl and 37th(?). They had no birthday cake ice cream. Most unseemly, I tell ya!
DR Jane,
If I go to L.A. I will fly. My friend Mark and his boyfriend James may go with me...Mark wants to see all of the ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW people.
Wish I'd been around earlier to help all y'all with your Rodzinski spotting. He was facing the cameras, a couple seats in from the far left end from our view. (And if that wasn't you, Rodzinski, then I'm thoroughly confused :D)
The butter pecan sufficed, of course.
How far into the game will I see him? I'm going to go look for Rodzinski soon.
...but as the cameras always seemed to focus on those tall people with the orange balls, I never could tell for sure.
I don't remember saying anything about butter pecan?
Oh, BK, I had a Big and Tasty at McDonald's today.
Anytime the action of the game is at the left end of the court, look for the red shirt 3rd from the end at the press table. That blur is our Rodzinski. Sadly, they didn't give him much in the way of close-ups. :D
Jed I was typing my last post and at first glance thought MBarnum made that comment. I was shocked :o. But then I saw it was just you. ;D
JMK where would you move to? ;D
JMK that sounds very nice. Would stairs be a problem if it is above a garage?
DR Jed, I think you are correct about where Rodzinski was sitting...that is the one I thought was him also, but as the cameras always seemed to focus on those tall people with the orange balls, I never could tell for sure.
Hmmm, medical condition?
One of the local PBS stations just finished a pledge drive showing of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'd forgotten how wonderfully goofy that show was.
CORPULENT!