::::: : the wood : davidrobins.net

My name is David Robins: Christian, lead developer (resume), writer, photographer, runner, libertarian (voluntaryist), and student.

This is also my son David Geoffrey Robins' site.

Homosexual marriage debate: derail the money train

Political ·Tuesday March 10, 2009 @ 01:25 EDT (link)

This is a summary, with some removal of extraneous material, of a discussion in a certain "lively political forum." It started with criticism of Obama's choice of Rick Warren to pray at the inauguration (even though he sprinkled in a few nuttier choices too). As usual, names reduced to initials to protect the privacy of the participants.

PM: If [Warren] said the same things he does but about people of another race or religion, would you still say he's not a bigot? No, you'd be appalled that he called for denying equal citizenship to someone for being black, or Christian, or a woman. So how is it suddenly not bigotry because he says it about gay people?

CH: Here's the bottom line. Rick Warren claims to be a Christian. For most Christians, that means believing that the Bible is inerrant. Part of that inerrancy is that homosexuality is a sin, and not part of God's design for humanity. If we believe in free speech, and freedom of religion, does he not have the right to believe as he chooses?

PM: He can believe what he wants. … What he cannot do is claim that actively campaigning to deny a group of people equal protection under the law is anything but bigoted, and he cannot claim that his religion has any standing to take away the legal rights of an group of people just because he and his followers don't like them.

DR: Homosexual people have the same right as anyone else to marry someone of the opposite sex. The best way to get equality for all citizens would be to vote in a libertarian government. Then the government wouldn't be concerned about marriage.

PM: So you should have the right to marry someone you love because she happens to be of a different sex, but my brother shouldn't be allowed to marry the person he loves; he should just find a girl if he wants to get married?

DR: No, if he just cares about being married in the eyes of his friends and relatives: in that case he can find a church/coven/temple/whatever that will perform the ceremony. Religious marriage does not require the assent of government, although frequently they're combined.

Yes, if he wants to be married for purposes of government benefits, laws, etc. Then he runs against a specific legal definition, which does not include homosexual pairings.

Does he want to get "married" for the relationship, or for the government benefits? The people have decided against giving him the latter, but in a free country, nobody can stop the former. Many of the benefits (e.g. hospital visitation rights) can be arranged without marriage. As for tax benefits, the people have decided to rob the rest of us in many ways too, and it's frustrating, so I understand if he wants to be angry about it.

PM: But you don't have to make those special arrangement, why should he? Why should you get those government rights when he and his partner cannot? What makes you so much better than him that you should be allowed protections denied to him and his partner? I'd really like to know.

DR: Just like the government has decided that I should pay property taxes to support schools that I don't use, it has decided that homosexual couples (and other groups, friends, roommates, siblings, etc.) have to spend more money (time is money too) to get the benefits that heterosexual couples get (you could say it has decided to rob the public treasury and distribute largess to heterosexual couples, if you'd prefer). Every human being is eligible. The government has not decided to allow my best friend or my grandfather hospital visitation, either, or for me to sponsor them for a green card; is that offensive too? The "why" is that the people have decided. Perhaps it isn't fair, but the government has SWAT teams, tanks, and attack helicopters, so nobody's going to get "fair" until dawn breaks on Libertopia, and even then some people will complain. There's no "better" in either case of subsidy; they should both go away.

The legal definition is not all that matters. The religious and spiritual dimension is very important. If the government struck down all laws, regulations, and benefits mentioning marriage, would that estrange or separate those currently married? Of course not. The heart of marriage is the decision to love and honor and spend one's life with another person: government cannot add or subtract from that, although it can subsidize some of the costs.

PM: The religious and spiritual dimension may be important to you, but it's certainly not baked into the legal definition of marriage, otherwise atheists like my husband and me would not be allowed to marry. … The legal definition is all that matters. Churches can discriminate all they want; they have that right under the constitution. But the government does not have the right to deny certain classes of people rights that the rest get.

DR: Suppose the people (or at least their government, which ought to be the same thing) decided to force banks to give loans to minorities that shouldn't normally qualify (by various regulatory shenanigans including withholding consent for mergers). Is that racist or discriminatory?

PV: They did force banks, started with CRA and ACORN! A big part to the subprime financial mess and economic collapse. Way to go government!

DR: Yes. That comment was a little bit tongue-in-cheek.

Either it's wrong for government to discriminate economically for classes of people or it isn't. I say it is wrong: government should be out of the business of marriage (i.e. providing benefits for same) and of telling banks who they can loan money to and of taking money for schools from people without children in those schools and of collecting money and returning it to people of a certain age, and whole host of other things.

Individuals and private organizations are welcome to start groups to promote whatever they want: they can call their group "The Race" (meaning people like them) or "National Association for Advancement of People of My Skin Color" or "Stormfront" or "Gay Alliance"; and give money earned or donated to them to support whatever causes they want, including, say, giving $1000 to every homosexual couple that gets married if they so choose.

It's wrong for government to hand out money to classes of people is because it's theft (why should I as a married person be in any way subsidized by people who are not married?), not because it's undemocratic (see the "vote themselves largess from the public treasury" quote). If it's legitimate for private groups to hand out money to people of a certain skin color, why is it not legitimate for government to do the same? It's because the first is funded voluntarily, but the second is not. I understand that homosexual couples want to get on the government's handing-out-money train, but they need to get in line, or, better still, agitate for derailment of said train.

Sudden blizzard

News ·Monday March 9, 2009 @ 21:45 EDT (link)

I left work a little after 1400 due to snow (it was just pouring down in Redmond… out of a metaphorically clear blue sky). Honey called and was worried, but I'd planned to leave anyway, after AH (co-worker who lives in Woodinville) mentioned it (funny thing: he had planned to work from home due to snow, then came in after it cleared up, then left again around when I did). The snow started sticking on the way home; things got unusually slow on Novelty Hill (about 30 mph in a 40 zone, when the usual speed is around 45); actually going down the hill things slowed to a crawl, for good reason. It was extremely slippery, and totally untreated.

Canadian (or North Dakotan) readers may scoff, but the line of cars included minivans and other 2WD vehicles like my Solara, the hill is extremely steep, and as I said, no sand, salt, snow tires, or chains. I got home around 1445, but got stuck at the end of the next street from ours, climbing a tiny hill off the main road (275th leaving Stephens, for those that know the area). I was in the middle of the road and stuck; going back could mean sliding into a ditch and I couldn't go forward (need more power). So I walked the rest of the way home (equivalent of just a few blocks) with a box with my work notebook, books, and camera in it; it was freezing. I called AAA to get a tow truck, and the local police to let them know, but fortunately it thawed enough to get it out at around 1615 (and thankfully nobody had hit my car, probably because they used a nearby turning circle to go around it—if I could have gotten to it to park in it, I would have).

Added created column to pH.journal table, since so frequently entries are added at times different from their date of occurrence.

We Surround Them

News, Technical ·Sunday March 8, 2009 @ 20:25 EDT (link)

"We Surround Them" (Glenn Beck's attempt to bring together people with conservative values): meetups for Washington; Edmunds meetup group (the other one about equally close is in Seattle; I'd much rather drive to Edmonds). Main and Seattle Facebook groups.

WeRead changed their site a little; what was an <a> tag became a <span> tag. Required a minor fix to pH::Scan::WeRead, my automation module. I'm looking forward to them having an API (they say one is coming); I don't like playing catchup with site changes.

Books finished: Capitalism and Freedom.

Exporting a message to a file in Mutt

Technical ·Saturday March 7, 2009 @ 20:47 EST (link)

I was trying to save a message to a file in Mutt (console mail reader); first, it turns out that s (save-file) actually is more like move (it marks the original message deleted) and what I wanted was C (copy-file). Second, when I told it to save to ~/something, it actually created a Maildir folder and put a copy of the message in it. I had set mbox_type=maildir in the configuration; turns out it was only for creating new folders, so I commented it out (setting it back to the default of mbox), which caused copy-file to write a regular file.

A marine's last wish

Political ·Friday March 6, 2009 @ 23:09 EST (link)

Katie Couric, Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams and a tough old U.S. Marine Sergeant were captured by terrorists in Iraq. The leader of the terrorists told them he'd grant each of them one last request before they were beheaded and dragged naked through the streets.

Katie Couric said, "Well, I'm a Southerner, so I'd like one last plate of fried chicken." The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chicken. Couric ate it all and said, "Now I can die content."

Charlie Gibson said, "I'm living in New York , so I'd like to hear the song 'The Moon and Me' one last time." The terrorist leader nodded to another terrorist who had studied the Western world and knew the music. He returned with some rag-tag musicians and played the song. Gibson was satisfied.

Brian Williams said, "I'm a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what's about to happen. Maybe, someday, someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end." The leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and Williams dictated his comments. He then said, "Now I can die happy."

The leader turned and said, "And now, Mr. U.S. Marine, what is your final wish?"

"Kick me in the [butt]," said the Marine.

"What?" asked the leader, "Will you mock us in your last hour?"

"No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the [butt]," insisted the Marine. So the leader shoved him into the yard and kicked him in the [butt].

The Marine went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9mm pistol from inside his cammies and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he emptied his sidearm on six terrorists, then with his knife he slashed the throat of one, and with an AK-47, which he took, sprayed the rest of the terrorists killing another 11. In a flash, all of them were either dead or fleeing for their lives.

As the Marine was untying Couric, Gibson, and Williams, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them all in the first place? Why did you ask him to kick you in the [butt]?"

"What?" replied the Marine, "and have you three [butt]holes report that I was the aggressor?"

—"Some levity" from KN, in CLAMS (via).

Facebook RSS import results

Technical ·Thursday March 5, 2009 @ 02:16 EST (link)

I'm adding a few log items as a test: my current newest entry ("Obama's Magic") was dated February 12; I've posted two entries, one older than that (February 11) and one later on the 12th, to see how the Facebook RSS importer works. Does it import anything newer than its "last seen" date? (Then it'll pick up only the second one.) Does it import anything it hasn't seen, using the RSS GUID or a checksum? (Then it'll get both.) Or does it only import entries dated later than the current date? (Then it'll add neither.) It'll be a revelatory test. (Also I'm testing how frequently it checks, although I believe it says every hour: I just updated one of the entries; will it get the old or new version, or does it notice updates to imported entries?—true, if it does notice updates it'll be impossible to tell if it first picked up the old one.) Also: set up a (user) cron to save some Facebook data; had to add myself to the cron and crontab groups to make it work (and remember that every command needs an explicit path, even /bin/date).

… And the results are in! From my (Apache access) logs, Facebook (out.nnn.01.snc1.facebook.com) fetched index.rss (which runs my script, using XML::RSS, my pH::Journal module, and a bit of glue) at 0208, and they (both) showed up perhaps a minute later (sorted correctly). It fetches the RSS feed about every two hours (minimum 1:40, maximum 2:54, so far this month… found using a one-line perl program and the excellent DateTime modules). Since I had changed the output a little (added categories), I could tell that no, they don't update existing entries. Well done, Facebook, although I wish it the behavior was better documented (but since most people don't program their own blog and RSS feed, and only post current entries, it's understandable that they don't document these implementation details). It does tend to mangle formatting a little, though.

Books finished: The Minority Report.

Stimulus roundup: Uncle Sam's plantation

Political ·Thursday March 5, 2009 @ 00:17 EST (link)

America. Where irresponsibility is rewarded with attention, money, and goods.

(Originally a comment about octo-mom, but I think it sets the tone for the recent "stimulus" bills.)

* * *

CLAMS responses to Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL)'s waxing rapturous about the porkulus bill:

KM: He's an idiot. There's nothing in the Constitution about the federal government meeting human needs. If they'd just get the hell of out of our way, we could meet our own needs!

DW: If had any real compassion for the poor he wouldn't leave them destitute and dependent on his programs for their livelihood. Temporary assistance is one thing. Uncle Sam's Plantation is another thing entirely.

* * *

Shortly after class, an economics student approaches his economics professor and says, "I don't understand this stimulus bill. Can you explain it to me?"

The professor replied, "I don't have any time to explain it at my office, but if you come over to my house on Saturday and help me with my weekend project, I'll be glad to explain it to you." The student agreed.

At the agreed-upon time, the student showed up at the professor's house. The professor stated that the weekend project involved his backyard pool.

They both went out back to the pool, and the professor handed the student a bucket. Demonstrating with his own bucket, the professor said, "First, go over to the deep end, and fill your bucket with as much water as you can." The student did as he was instructed.

The professor then continued, "Follow me over to the shallow end, and then dump all the water from your bucket into it." The student was naturally confused, but did as he was told.

The professor then explained they were going to do this many more times, and began walking back to the deep end of the pool.

The confused student asked, "Excuse me, but why are we doing this?"

The professor matter-of-factly stated that he was trying to make the shallow end much deeper.

The student didn't think the economics professor was serious, but figured that he would find out the real story soon enough.

However, after the 6th trip between the shallow end and the deep end, the student began to become worried that his economics professor had gone mad. The student finally replied, "All we're doing is wasting valuable time and effort on unproductive pursuits. Even worse, when this process is all over, everything will be at the same level it was before, so all you'll really have accomplished is the destruction of what could have been truly productive action!"

The professor put down his bucket and replied with a smile, "Congratulations. You now understand the stimulus bill! "

—From JS, CLAMS (via)

* * *

And finally a real stimulus idea, somewhat similar to Jim DeMint's American Option (from his blog). Joe's Stimulus Plan:

Cut federal payroll taxes 50%
Change tax tables to reflect that change
Give taxpayers half of their 2008 tax bill back, up to $5000
Fire middle- and senior-management government employees on a 1:1 ratio with private jobs lost

(From an article by Joe Michelotti (CLAMS) published in his local paper.)

"Wonderful" Wednesdays

News, Technical ·Wednesday March 4, 2009 @ 20:47 EST (link)

Workaholics by any other name is still workaholics ("Wonderful Wednesday"? What is this, Nineteen eighty-four?). It's officially optional this time around (not that they could actually lock us the building in in Word 12). For those that don't know about this, "Workaholics Wednesday" means that everyone stay late fixing bugs until a certain target is reached, at which time there is rejoicing and playing of Warcraft. This time, there's usually a fixed end in sight (around 2100) and we usually meet our goal well before the time. What usually happens is that people arrive late the next day, and bugs bounce back as testers and program managers (PMs) arrive in the morning.

The medical bear I bought Honey finally arrived (hah! on me; I expected it to arrive around Valentine's Day).

I installed the Firebug Firefox add-in to help debug the photo categorizing system that I've been working on.

Finished CSE P 505 homework question 4 (did 3 yesterday, 2 the day before); done, although I still want to do some more testing.

I updated my book database system to add a book as read on weRead.com (using my new module) whenever I add a book as read locally. Tested it out with Philip K. Dick's Minority Report and Other Classic Stories.

New computer from Costco arrived.

Obama's economy

Political ·Tuesday March 3, 2009 @ 22:16 EST (link)

I am for the separation of state and economics, just as we have separation of state and church.

—Ayn Rand

A few stories on Obama's economy:

A. W. Worley

News ·Tuesday March 3, 2009 @ 22:09 EST (link)

A.W Worley has passed (Memphis, TN); his daughter contacted me and let me know. He was a good man; he gave me some books while we lived in Memphis and attended Grace Gospel Chapel.