Gaius Julius Caesar Sum. "You owe everything to your name," Cicero told Augustus, and he was right. Upon his posthumous adoption, the boy once known as Octavian began his rise to become Caesar Augustus, and taking the name of Julius Caesar was the first step. The name was more than a collection of letters.
Now RWC has published a page on the attempt by the NY Legislature to force us to attach our names to whatever we post online.
There are pros: Less trolling, a general clean-up of the youtube pages, and possibly more responsibility. Then there are the cons: No woman with a stalker would ever be able to have an online opinion again.
What is your name, this thing that the NY legislature wants us to put behinds our words? My name here is closer to my real name than I would have chosen if I had thought about it. Emmie is, to be honest, what my beloved grandmother called me. She's the only one who did, and she hadn't been gone very long when I chose it.
When my sister named her oldest son, her mother-in-law's comment was "Well, he'll be able to run for office with that name," and my sister responded that yes, that was the point. He could do anything with the name they gave him. What, exactly, is Adolf Hitler Campbell supposed to do with that name?
But back to the Romans. Do you know what Caesar's daughter was named? Julia. If she had had a sister, her sister would have been named: Julia. Another sister? Julia. Women weren't given their own names, you see, just the family name. Yes, I get that Button Gwinnett and Gouverneur Morris were both carrying their mother's maiden names as first names, but this wasn't the same as simply not having a unique individual name. Things got better later on, but this floored me. I'm used to a name being an individual identifier. I am grateful to be living in modern era in which women are individuals, not biological tools to propagate a race.
And that would be the point. Your name is yours, your individual identifier, and your past and associations go with it. Your financial identity, your right to borrow on the strength of that past, your right to be trusted on the strength of your previous actions are yours. Your education is yours--whose name is on those diplomas? We don't get group GPA's or group SAT scores.
This is what we are being asked to put behind our comments and our words online.
Unfortunately, our names are also linked to our jobs and our associations. An online comment, even if sincere, thought out, and frankly, even right, could risk those things, and this threat could silence many voices.
Arguments should be able to stand on their own merits. The Federalist Papers were brilliant because of what they said, not who wrote them. (Actually, the people who wrote them were famous because they were brilliant, but that's a circular argument.)
I am willing to put up with asinine youtube comments if it means more intelligent people feel that they can speak their minds. Bullies can be tracked and traced by other methods. Youth need to be educated and watched, bullying needs to be punished and curtailed, but not at the cost of a robust national debate.
HP is now going to lay off 25,000 people, according to "sources."
Well, my "sources," (my husband has been employed in high tech for twenty years and was offered a job there at one time and knows people there) say that HP has been bloated and ridiculous for some time.
It was the ink. The ink and cartridge department had so much money coming in that they could afford to tolerate behavior that would have been quickly quashed at other companies, like having lots of people who did nothing all day, and lots of other people who did things that made no money and no sense.
The word in the cubicle farms is that this is overdue.
[Link: money.cnn.com...]
I've been following the Susan Powell case. She is undoubtedly dead, as are her sons and husband.
One of the figures at the center of the case is her father-in-law, Steven Powell. He had a sick fascination with her, had made sexual advances towards her, and had voyeuristic photos on his laptop.
He has just been convicted of 14 counts of voyeurism for other photographs on his laptop. The sentence has yet to be handed down.
[Link: www.deseretnews.com...]
His two daughters have both come into the spotlight during this trial. Jennifer Powell Greaves believes her brother was guilty and her father is not a well man. She has spoken out about the path that he has taken to get to the place, from having once been a good and loving man.
[Link: www.deseretnews.com...]
His daughter Alina Powell believes he is innocent and that Josh Powell did not kill his wife. She will oddly speak of losing her sister-in-law, brother, and nephews in the same breath, as if some outside force were responsible. She made a website with home videos hoping to show that Susan Powell was not afraid of Steven Powell, despite testimony from others that she was.
[Link: www.deseretnews.com...]
What do we owe our parents? How far does filial loyalty extend? Obviously, Jennifer Powell Greaves feels that her allegiance to God and to right and wrong trump any command to obey her father. Alina Powell may be deeply in denial, or just unable, emotionally, to deal with the depth of the wrongs that have been done here.
Still, all of this is so very heartbreaking.
Seriously, I almost didn't vote. What's the point?
The presidential nominee has been chosen, there's no other national contest to vote on, and there's no serious challenger to the new member of the House of Representatives.
That left a couple of judge's races. We knew so little about those judges that we went online to research, and finally ended up going by who endorsed them.
Once again, I place my vote in favor of a national primary system that might make my primary vote matter at some point in my life.
Well, I guess my vote for the Safety & Parks & Rec bond issue mattered.
Now, let's start logically. By "White Men," I'm pretty sure they mean men living in Northern Europe, meaning Scandinavia, England, Germany, France, and possibly Italy and Greece. Not sure about Spain.
So. Let's start with the beginning. Ancient Sumeria. (I'm talking about history that is written down.) They actually began civilization, and great things like agriculture (I like eating, I really do) but they don't actually meet the qualification of "White men." I don't even know who was living in Sweden at the time. This area started things like writing, and the potter's wheel, two things I am fond of.
[Link: history-world.org...]
Not sure how to score this, because it's the Sumerians against I don't know what. On the other hand, nobody was writing anything down in Sweden at the time, so Score 1 Sumerians.
Next we travel to Ancient Egypt, which was a nice place to be pharaoh. Not so nice to be a peasant or a slave. However, they did build some great stuff, had math and medicine, and wrote stuff down. Still nobody writing anything down in what is now Germany. Also, the Egyptians were so incredibly cool that Ancient Egypt still gets to star in a lot of films and video games. (Look, if I had a choice between a stone age shaman and an ancient Egyptian doctor, I'd choose the doctor. But only if I were too sick to take care it myself.)
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
Score Non-white men 2, White men: 0*
*Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Nefertari pushes the score to a half-point for women.
Leaving Egypt, let's examine the Greeks ca. 800-300 BC. While the first Germanic tribes are wearing fur pelts and bashing each other with clubs, the Greeks were contemplating the nature of life, the universe, geometry, and medicine. They wrote epic pieces of literature like the Iliad and the Odyssey and invented drama. They had actual historians who analyzed things. And, for that matter, I would still rather be governed by Cincinnatus than any current presidential candidate.
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
Problem, though: Are they white? Most White Supremacists consider them Not Actually White*, but they do live on the European continent.
*Being as White Supremacists are silly
Draw.
Next, the Romans: Good at governing large areas efficiently. Good at having enough sense to not wipe out the Greeks, just co-opt their stuff. And, they invaded the Germans and Celts, who had started writing with Runes. Runes, while being used as a plot point in lots of stories and video games, do not actually have any mystical powers.
Europeans invading and bringing better government to Europeans. Draw.
In the meantime, the Chinese had a highly sophisticated governmental system, inventing such fun stuff as fireworks, paper, noodles, and earthquake detectors. Oh, and silk. And compasses.
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
Score 1 more for the non-Europeans. It was still a very aristocratic system, but everywhere was aristocratic back then.
Oh, yeah, and about this time the Mayans were making up a calendar. Heh. Oh, yeah, and zero. You watched Stand and Deliver; you know this.
From about 0 BC to the Renaissance, Europeans managed to organize their "bashing each other on the head" system to make it more efficient. They got a hold of that paper and that gunpowder, and used both. They acquired a pope to tell them what to do, and Christianity, which at least did not require ritual human sacrifice. They had the bright idea of the Crusades, because they needed to find new ways for peasants to die. William the Conqueror invades England. They founded the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The Knights Templar exists briefly in reality, and forever in the mind of Conspiracy Theorists. The Magna Carta is signed, in which a king has to acknowledge that he is not all powerful.
The Muslims, during this time, are building libraries and developing science and medicine and trading with China. Trust me: Between an Islamic medieval doctor and a European medieval doctor, go with the Muslim.
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
Of course, you would search in vain for real democratic government, but that was everywhere.
The Renaissance: Score one for Europe. Sorry, but Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci rock.
The era of Exploration: Good time to be a European. Not so good to be a Native American. Smallpox, for one. On the other hand, you were better off being a European in America than a European in Europe, at least after the first couple hundred years.
Yes, the Founding Fathers were geniuses. If they did not extend rights to those who did not have them, they set up the system that eventually would. Also William Willberforce was brilliant.
Europeans had some great scientists and thinkers during this time. Isaac Newton, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Locke, Adam Smith, Voltaire, etc. etc. etc.
Colonialism, on the other hand, was not so good. I'm not keen on the idea of viewing human beings as something expendable to be used to enrich yourself. Also, they messed up on drawing the borders.
Modern era: Whew. No, I'm not going to write it all out. The advent of the technological world and the industrial revolution. Modern medicine (yeah!). The wars, .
My summary: Most civilizations blossomed for a time. The European was later than others. However, to be a European under the Europeans was okay, but to be a non-European under the Europeans generally wasn't great. In other words, White Supremacy worked for the Whites.
Should stable representative government exist in the whole world? Well, yeah, but having Europeans take over is not representative government.
I don't necessarily agree with everything in here. Uggs may be ugly, but I understand that they are ridiculously comfortable, too.
HOWEVER, some of this falls into the ?????? category, particularly the string bikini for the baby. First of all, I see the top as a strangulation hazard around the child's neck. There's nothing to hold the "brassiere" part in place, reducing it to a bunch of strings you have put there for no discernible reason. And the bottom? Babies should have their diapers removed for bath time, doctor visits, changes, and airings in case of a rash. Not in a swimming pool.
Well, that was my partial rant for the day. Have fun reading and ranting about the state of the world today.
(Hint: You can start with the padded bras for seven year olds.)
[Link: blogs.babble.com...]
[Link: www.deseretnews.com...]
A story straight from Horatio Alger himself.
I hope this man's time as student body president is successful. The story of an immigrant coming to America, being lonely at first, learning to succeed, and then learning to get along with many different types of people is the classic American story.
Just for the record: There are three BYU campuses. BYU-Idaho, BYU-Provo, and BYU-Hawaii. Non-LDS students can attend BYU, but they will face a slightly higher tuition because CES schools are heavily subsidized by church tithing.
[Link: www.deseretnews.com...]
I have followed the disappearance of Susan Cox Powell for some time. Obviously, her husband had something to do with it. If he could bash his sons in the head with an ax and then blow them up, he could kill her, too.
The weirdest, sickest part of this entire story is the obsession of Josh Powell's father with Susan Powell. Things he said to the press and evidence found on his computer display an unhealthy sexual obsession with her. (Apparently, the move to Utah was to get away from him.)
Her disappearance caused the police to search Steven Powell's computer. He is now on trial for the possession of child pornography, and for the fact that he took pictures of two minor neighbor girls through their bedroom window without their knowledge.
There was a longer article about him on Sunday: He is a sick, sick man.
[Link: www.deseretnews.com...]
UPDATE: They're having trouble getting a jury because so many people have seen media reports or just have strong feelings about sex crimes.
I would definitely not be able to sit on this jury. I followed it in the media, I have strong feelings about sex crimes, and I am LDS. Also, I don't live in Tacoma.
It's Africa. They just had a military junta. You expected the Roman Senate overnight?
The military junta people are still fighting, as in with bullets, their opponents in the military. No talk yet of an election date.
ECOWAS is threatening action to restore some kind of order. The Taureg rebels in the north are upset that the Islamist rebels in the north are imposing sharia law, and starting to dispense punishments. [Link: allafrica.com...]
The Muslims in the north aren't all very happy about this, because they want to practice Islam their own way.
[Link: www.thenational.ae...]
Yeah Samake, my candidate in all this, is calling for a transitional committee to try to see things back to a constitutional rule along with other previous military leaders. [Link: www.voanews.com...]
Personal opinion: Get rid of the military guys and hold an election. Yes, I know, easier said than done.
Boring, Oregon, which is actually named after a person, William Boring, has long reveled in its name. Residents like to talk about how they have boring streets, boring parks, boring grocery stores, and boring schools.
It is not technically an incorporated city, however.
It has an unofficial sister-city, now, though.
Dull, Scotland.
Yes, now Dull and Boring are pairing together.
What could possibly go wrong? For that matter, probably nothing will happen that isn't boring or dull.
[Link: www.oregonlive.com...]
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]
