Chris fought the law and he won. He was charged with a Class 1 felony because he recorded his arrest by the Chicago Police for violating a city ordinance by selling art patches in the public way without having a peddler's license. He was facing up to 15 years in the joint - more serious than aggravated criminal sexual assault, which is a Class 2 felony punishable by up to seven years in jail.
I lost track of Chris after meeting him a year ago, and assumed that he was proceeding with his art career after Judge Stanley Sacks declared the Illinois Eavesdropping Act unconstitutional.
Chris had a party in April, 2012 to celebrate the decision. I wrote to him asking if the party was premature because Chicago District Attorney Anita Alvarez and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan vowed to take the case to the Illinois Supreme Court; they cannot admit defeat and would spend as many tax dollars as they could to reverse the decision.
Chris died one month after the party. He had been dealing with lung cancer while fighting the law. The law lost, but the cancer won.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Published in the DeKalb Daily Chronicle 20 SEP 12:
Zygote is just a blueprint
To the Editor:
A
zygote is a person in the same sense a blueprint of a ship is a
functioning ocean-going vessel. There are differences thinking people
will immediately understand.
I’ll try to administer some more medicine to the dead in hopes Lazarus is a feasible option, but won’t become too much more depressed over the likely failure of my effort.
A ship cannot go to sea if it’s only a concept in a blueprint, like a set of rules established by the joining of male and female DNA. Once the construction crew finishes the masterful tasks involved in building the ship, it cannot function until its crew has been trained and has had modification in procedure that enable that ship to perform its duties as designed, and even learn to exceed those performance requirements.
This is the reason humans typically are not granted the full rights of citizenship until a certain age.
But, training aside, the essence is that a blueprint is not a finished and viable product. The instructions in the DNA contained in a zygote are not equivalent to a human being.
Those who believe in birth at all costs, without responsibility and support from society, are lunatics. The dangerous thing is they have been working to destroy education, and have been successful in simultaneously barking for “less government” while legislating second-class citizenship and outright oppression for the majority of the citizens of the United States.
My bachelor of science degree is in education. Right-wingers refuse to use the skills I have, preferring to use the propaganda of those who believe society is only for the powerful in their efforts to acquire more than any person can possibly need.
I’ll try to administer some more medicine to the dead in hopes Lazarus is a feasible option, but won’t become too much more depressed over the likely failure of my effort.
A ship cannot go to sea if it’s only a concept in a blueprint, like a set of rules established by the joining of male and female DNA. Once the construction crew finishes the masterful tasks involved in building the ship, it cannot function until its crew has been trained and has had modification in procedure that enable that ship to perform its duties as designed, and even learn to exceed those performance requirements.
This is the reason humans typically are not granted the full rights of citizenship until a certain age.
But, training aside, the essence is that a blueprint is not a finished and viable product. The instructions in the DNA contained in a zygote are not equivalent to a human being.
Those who believe in birth at all costs, without responsibility and support from society, are lunatics. The dangerous thing is they have been working to destroy education, and have been successful in simultaneously barking for “less government” while legislating second-class citizenship and outright oppression for the majority of the citizens of the United States.
My bachelor of science degree is in education. Right-wingers refuse to use the skills I have, preferring to use the propaganda of those who believe society is only for the powerful in their efforts to acquire more than any person can possibly need.
Friday, September 14, 2012
More teachology
My Master of Science is in Computer Science. When I taught in a local
college, I found that some people in my classes thought I was practicing
"occupational birth control", and I remembered the doctoral head of the
department where I studied for my degree. (I was in way over my head,
and my daughter's friends thought that Mom was a single parent, but I
somehow made it though the courses.)
The department head in my university had cured me of the "occupational birth control" approach - he demanded that we memorize portions of reference books and spit them back on high stakes tests. My classmate, Marsha, looked at the second question on a final exam that read, "Name all 32 Interrupt Priority Levels for a VAX 11-785" and did a bit of math - she would not fail the course if she did not pass the test. She wrote, "I did not buy reference books to memorize them" and walked out of the classroom.
I didn't announce to my students that they had to memorize crap. I wanted my students to focus on success; If my students showed up, paid attention, and tried their best, I would support them. Nobody who did that was less than average.
The department head in my university had cured me of the "occupational birth control" approach - he demanded that we memorize portions of reference books and spit them back on high stakes tests. My classmate, Marsha, looked at the second question on a final exam that read, "Name all 32 Interrupt Priority Levels for a VAX 11-785" and did a bit of math - she would not fail the course if she did not pass the test. She wrote, "I did not buy reference books to memorize them" and walked out of the classroom.
I didn't announce to my students that they had to memorize crap. I wanted my students to focus on success; If my students showed up, paid attention, and tried their best, I would support them. Nobody who did that was less than average.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
We Can Kill
A pilot in Arizona can murder a suspect along with others in Libya or any other country, and we're supposed to be proud?
The technology is amazing, but the use of it is abhorrent.
The technology is amazing, but the use of it is abhorrent.
How is it?
Mitt RobbedMe offers a secret plan to fix the economy, just like Nixon offered a secret plan to end the war in Vietnam, and people believe it? How dumb are we?
Nixon should have been tried for treason for making deals with the Vietnamese.
Reagan should have been tried for treason for making deals with the Iranians.
What the fuck is wrong with us?
Nixon should have been tried for treason for making deals with the Vietnamese.
Reagan should have been tried for treason for making deals with the Iranians.
What the fuck is wrong with us?
Custodial Time Killing
My
Bachelor of Science degree is in Occupational Education. When I studied
Abraham Mazlow's "Hierarchy of Needs" I thought it was so obvious that
everybody with an I.Q. above room temperature would intuitively know it.
Unfortunately, I was wrong.
When I was teaching in high schools in California and Illinois, it seemed that my job was more about crowd control than education. I had great students, but many of them suffered badly at the hands of our society and behaved accordingly. I can't blame people for reacting to their environment.
custodial time killing is sadly the mission of many schols, Gene...until the "kids" go off to prison.
norm
When I was teaching in high schools in California and Illinois, it seemed that my job was more about crowd control than education. I had great students, but many of them suffered badly at the hands of our society and behaved accordingly. I can't blame people for reacting to their environment.
Norman Goldman replies:
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Sep 11 (2 days ago)
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norm
Saturday, September 1, 2012
All health care is important to society. We are important to each other; we need to take care of each other; that's important to all of us as responsible citizens. By societal definition, we are not "on our own" and responsible to nobody.
I cannot repeat this enough: During the Reagan administration, East Moline State Hospital, a mental heath facility in western Illinois, was emptied of its obviously undeserving patients. My mother had been a freeloader in previous years.
The hospital then became reopened as East Moline Correctional Facility, and the previous patients then became inmates. Prison guards are so much less expensive than hospital staff.
Society feels no impact, of course. Untreated mental patients are harmless to themselves and others, of course. Society saves so much money, and we benefit so well from this idiocy.
What could possibly go wrong?
I cannot repeat this enough: During the Reagan administration, East Moline State Hospital, a mental heath facility in western Illinois, was emptied of its obviously undeserving patients. My mother had been a freeloader in previous years.
The hospital then became reopened as East Moline Correctional Facility, and the previous patients then became inmates. Prison guards are so much less expensive than hospital staff.
Society feels no impact, of course. Untreated mental patients are harmless to themselves and others, of course. Society saves so much money, and we benefit so well from this idiocy.
What could possibly go wrong?
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