Obama: Companies go to where taxes are low, so I’m going to raise taxes on companies here.

Jackson

Now that Maggie has all of her shots, I thinking that a trip to Centennial Park on Sunday is in order.  (Next month she’ll be getting fixed.)

Are either one, or both, of these statements racist?

I would hope that a wise white male with the richness of his experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman who hasn’t lived that life.

or

I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

Both are.

The problem with basing a Supreme Court pick on “empathy” is that it necessarily means empathy for someone and and not for someone else.  Basically, Obama has declared that her personal biases, not her ability to interpret the constitution or generate rules of law that can be applied fairly in most cases  in which they are needed, is paramount.

When I was in law school, we often heard the phrase, “Hard cases make bad law.”  In other words, judges trying to do the “right” thing in the case before them so as to eliminate perceived hardship end up making rules that must be applied in other cases with unitended results.

Yesterday afternoon, Maggie and I went to Bicentennial Mall, right down the street from my house.

Last week I spent Wednesday through Saturday in Phoenix, my first time in that city.  One of the best conferences in my field was held there last week and I’m fortunate to have been able to go.  (Thank you taxpayers of the State of Tennessee.)

Short version: hot (100 degrees or more every day), dry (but it’s a dry heat!), spread out (no real downtown to speak of) and really friendly people.  Also, I was served the hottest Mexican food I have ever had.  Good stuff.

High point:  A friend and I were on a patio out front of the hotel when a man walked up obviously looking for a lighter for his cigarette.  My friend was smoking a cigar, so I grabbed the lighter and helped him out.  It was Erik Estrada!  Erik hung out with us for the next half-hour and just chatted.  He was pretty cool.

Friday is my birthday.  Being gay is for younger men.  But, you either get old or you get dead.

Getting a dog was one of the best decisions I have made.

I love Mexican food.  Asian food would be better if they included bread and cheese.

Wondering what is going to happen at work now that my immediate boss has “resigned” is wearing me out.

Sometimes the oddness of my dreams puzzles me.  The other night, I spent what seemed like an hour trying to correctly pronounce “anthropomorphise” in my sleep.

One of the sexiest men I have had the opportunity to meet was about 8 years older than me, a complete gentleman, handsome and a leading politician in another country.  He was recently in the news.  He’s openly gay.

If I won the lottery, the first thing I would do would be to make sure my mother was completely taken care of.

I really don’t care who wins American Idol and kind of wish the show would end.

If you think this means that I hope America fails;   if you think I don’t care about people losing their homes or jobs or our soldiers in Iraq;  if you think I just wants the country to fail, then you have failed the test.

Pres. Obama sent such a polite note to Sandy Tsao, a military officer who told her superiors that she is gay:

He is, of course, lying.  On the occasion of The One’s dismissal of his first gay Arabic linguist, the folks over at HuffPo note that he has two options. First, he could exercise his authority to order the military not to investigate any serviceman’s sexuality.  Or,

A new study, about to be published by a group of experts in military law, shows that President Obama does, in fact, have statutory, stroke-of-the-pen authority to suspend gay discharges. Obama could simply invoke his authority under federal law (10 U.S.C. §12305) to retain any member of the military he believes is essential to national security.

Pres. Obama should announce that he is taking one of these steps in order to institute a one year moratorium on removing gays from the military.  During that time, his administration should work on obtaining congressional approval for formal repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.

He won’t.  It’s better to write pretty notes and pretend you care.  For most gays that’ll be enough.  They’d rather go back to hating on Miss California anyway.

Wednesday was Maggie’s 3rd vet appointment and first time to be groomed.  I was going to have them just do face, feet and tail.  But her fur had gotten pretty long and was needing lots of brushing.  It’s continuously growing.  She pretty much doesn’t shed.  So I decided to have them shave it all off.  Over the last several days, she’d seemed to be really hot.  Often, she would go over and sit on the air conditioning vent.

Bad idea.  She looks anorexic.  I’m so embarrassed.  I think she is too.  To make things worse, that same day I changed her food a little bit (from one type of Royal Canin to another).  She hated it.  She just sniffs it and then stares at me.

My dog is going to end up at a doggie counselor on a doggie couch barking about what a bad parent I am.