Religious Freedom?

If you've read my bio, you've seen that I'm a member of the Washington State Bar as well as Utah. I was reading the latest Bar News from Washington, now called NWLawyer, and saw the predictable religious push-back to last month's editorial about respecting transgender citizens (And hey Google, why in Hell in this day and age is "transgender" marked as misspelled?). There are two letters. The first is from psychiatric "expert" David D. Cullen of Olympia, who asks where WSBA president Anthony Gipe gets off writing that being transgender is not a pathology, given that Gipe is not a psychiatrist. Cullen should try reading the current DSM-IV and the drafts of DSM-V, which happen to agree with Gipe. And here's a shock for Cullen: Neither book is based on the Bible.

Cullen also plays the "You're violating my religious rights!" card, but that's all the second letter, from Brian L. McCoy of right here in Riverton, manages. He claims they are pushing back as an exercise of religious liberty, and any interference is forcing them to accept practices that are offensive to their standards of right and wrong. First, I find it offensive to my sense of right and wrong to teach children pseudoscience based on Bronze Age campfire stories, and I consider it a problem not just in the public schools where it is already banned, but everywhere, because it is raising another generation of scientific illiterates, and that could be the last nail in the coffin of our economy and, consequently, our country. Do I think I then have the authority to enlist the government in banning church schools? As much as I believe the Constitution is not a suicide pact, no I don't think I have that authority. And that's the thing, McCoy. You and your cohorts have been using the state to enforce your religious beliefs to the detriment of the constitutional rights of other citizens. Now you're being blocked from that unconstitutional establishment of religion (Except apparently in Kentucky. Someone really needs to send a memo to those county clerks and remind them that they swore to uphold the Constitution, not the King James Bible. Somebody may need to read them the memo, though. And for those of you who think the Supreme Court overstepped its authority, Marbury vs. Madison is not exactly new law.). Stopping you from imposing your religious beliefs on others is not interfering with your religious rights. Further, being in business and yet not wanting to provide service to certain people who are not doing anything but offending your morals is no different than the white's-only lunch counters and hotels. Heart of Atlanta Hotel vs. United States was decided over half a century ago, although it wouldn't surprise me if you haven't heard of it, McCoy, given where you went to law school.

Cut the crap, people. Your whining about interference with your "rights" sounds like every secessionist in 1860 and every segregationist in 1964.

The Next Big Screw-Up

Having determined to pursue history and not STEM, off to college I went.  Utah State University, ironically enough a STEM-focused school.  And my overarching screw-up was that I thought I could play college like high school.  I was in everything in high school, and I thought I could do it at USU.  The problem is, it takes a lot more steam at that level.  I had to drop theater right away, which should have been a red flag that I needed to cut back in general, but I plowed on.  I should have been focusing on figuring out where I was going and what I needed to do to get there, but instead I was all over the place.  Ten hours a week in marching band, not to mention all the lost Saturdays.  Student government, frankly a contradiction in terms.  Too many languages instead of focusing on German, which actually got me somewhere and could have gotten me much farther.  And obscene amounts of time spent on the newspaper.  People were amazed at all the things I was involved in.  They gave me a trophy for it.  Big woop, I think it's in storage.  Neither that trophy nor all the activities that won it for me advanced me one jot.  It was the people who focused their punches who have since broken through.

Avoid Budget Rentals

Back in the days when I was an actual road warrior, say 8-10 years ago, my car rental company of choice was Budget.  Liveable prices, decent cars, good service.  Apparently all just a memory.  After waiting over an hour past my reservation time, I ended up having to produce more personal paperwork than I would to close escrow on a house.  Without being informed ahead of time what I would need.  And the car is dirty.  And the manager was rude.  Yes, I'm talking to you, Mr. Naylor.  When I get this car dumped off, Budget need never worry about my shadow darkening their door again.