MLKJ Day Snow Day

Lucky me (and you), this is the start of an annual tradition - The Annual Freakout Over a Perceived Slight to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

As you may recall, last year's broughaha was over the lunch menu that a school had for the day (MLK Jr. lunch menu). This year, it's about using the day as a snow makeup day, the first example I can give is for Charlotte (Charlotte/Mecklinburg MLKJ Day makeup day controversy).

As you may know, for the school year to count as having educated children, a minimum number of days are required. Hence the need for snow makeup days. They don't have to be full days, the kids don't have to learn anything, they just have to be in school. Southern areas have already been hit pretty hard with snow days, and are going to be scrambling to fit in the makeup days they need, MLKJ day is unfortunately positioned to be easily used.

Now, is going to school on a day intended to honor the man an insult to him? We can ask him, he's dead. If he weren't dead, we could ask him, but there probably wouldn't be a day for him, so it wouldn't matter. Anyway, let's look at the man's life, causes, and words to see if we can get a hint.

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.”

"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."

"We must use time creatively."

So, I think I'm safe in saying that this man, who earned a Ph.D., believed in educating everyone to produce sensible people who can behave intelligently. What would be the most offensive way to honor his memory? Going to school and learning something, or spending the day in idleness?

A Trend

I've let big gaps go between posts, and today the floodgates open. And I see there's a common theme. Apparently I'm obsessing on jerks today. Don't know whether they're out more than usual, or I'm just more irritable than usual.

Still a jerk

Ever been to www.abevigoda.com? It tells you whether Abe Vigoda is still alive. There should be something similar for Fred Phelps, just a simple page that tells you whether he's still a jerk. No point in listening to what he says, just know whether he's still a jerk.

Conversation as a combat sport

Ever known anyone who asks a question looking for a counter-example, not because they want an answer, but because they either want to crow that nobody has an answer, or to use the answer as a means of attacking someone or something?

On any subject...

No matter the subject, you can find an online discussion group where somebody says something that you perceive as truly stupid. I'm not the idiot, you are.

Westboro Baptist comes to Raleigh

Westboro Baptist Church is going to come to Raleigh to picket Elizabeth Edwards' funeral. I don't know why, I don't know what it's supposed to accomplish besides getting them publicity (I think I just answered that question).

I don't know a lot about Elizabeth Edwards, she seemed nice enough, but I've heard stories about how she behaved to staffers during her husband's campaign. John Edwards is a conscienceless weasel, who only ever looked out for #1, and is probably one of the worst senators any state ever had.

Regardless of all that, WBC are a bunch of assholes, and nobody deserves to have their funeral disrupted by them.

Good judgement

Today, juxtaposition of the Koran burning nutjob and politicians who protested the Ground Zero Mosque for political means.

1) The GZM protesters were not (for the most part) lighting their torches, they were exercising free speech (perhaps poorly, true).

2) The GZM builders and the Koran burner have more in common than the burner and the BZM protesters. Builders and burners are both operating completely within the law, however, they are, in least in part, if not in the whole, knowingly doing what they're doing to annoy people.