Maybe…

KATU’s website tells us today that Oregon lawmakers want to ban smoking in privately owned vehicles carrying passengers under 16 years of age.

Are you kidding me? I am not a smoker, and I support fully the efforts to ban smoking in public places. However, I’m not about to get into a smoker’s car and tell them that they can’t smoke just because I don’t like it.

I can understand putting limits on cell phone usage in a vehicle for safety reasons. I can understand seat belt requirements - it saves lives. However, telling someone that they cannot smoke a cigarette in their own vehicle in the presence of anyone under 16 is outrageous. This simply goes too far.

Back in my home state of Georgia, you were able to carry a handgun in your car on the front passenger seat without need for a concealed weapon permit. A person’s vehicle was considered an extension of their home. As long as the handgun was not stuffed in some compartment then it wasn’t considered concealed. Oregon seems to have a similar definition, although a state appeals court has recently ruled that a person’s vehicle, while not public itself, utilizes a public street and acts as a container for a handgun whether visible on the seat or stuffed in a compartment.

This ruling is contrary to the common interpretation of Oregon law, according to the Oregon Firearms Federation: “It has always been our position that open carry in a vehicle was clearly protected by Oregon law. ORS 166.250 clearly states that except for CHL holders, it is concealed carry in a vehicle that is prohibited. It further states that the prohibition against concealed, loaded carry in a vehicle does not apply to ‘a recreational vessel or recreational vehicle while used, for whatever period of time, as residential quarters.’”

Is your vehicle an extension of your home? Should you be limited to when you can smoke in your vehicle?

The bigger question is, are we going too far with this drive to ban smoking? Can this be considered an invasion of some sort?

In the fall of 2008, Portland Community College initiated phase one of a two-phase plan to ban smoking on all campuses. Phase one moved previous smoking areas off the common campus grounds away from high traffic areas. Phase two set for fall 2009 will complete ban smoking anywhere on any campus. I have to assume this also includes while sitting in your parked car on their property.

I feel that the steps taken by PCC are extreme, an effort to ride the anti-smoking wave that has now hit Oregon. It seems that our state legislators also want to capitalize on the negative public sentiment of smoking.

So, what do you think?

It baffles my mind…

President Obama (I LOVE SAYING THAT) had a cocktail party last night at the White House to celebrate passage of the stimulus package in the House of Representatives. What blows my mind is that he invited a handfull of repooblicans - NONE of which voted for the stimulus bill. In fact, there was not a single repooblican who voted in favor of it. Yet President Obama decided to invite them to his house for a party. I suppose if you have a repooblican anywhere around you, booze is in order.

Do we really need the republican party any more? I mean, really…

They all love the Guantanamo, let’s send ‘em there. I hear they serve Orange Glazed Chicken and Rice Pilaf.

I was born and raised in the northeast corner of Georgia.  The county that i was born in, Forsyth County, had an unofficial rule that forbade black people from living there.  Any who ignored the signs (yes, actual signs) at the county line and crossed into county borders to drive through the state were harassed by county inhabitants.  In 1987, a black civil rights activist named Hosea Williams - a Georgia native - led a march of 75 people through Forsyth county.  He and his group were pelted by locals and numerous KKK members with bricks and stones (sounds like something out of the old testament).  A week later, undaunted, Mr. Williams returned to Forsyth County with 20,000 people and an impressive security detail.  Soon after, Oprah brought her show to Forsyth County for a revealing episode on the motivations for this extreme racism.  In the end, as a result of the exposure brought to this little county by Williams, Forsyth County began to integrate.

Hosea Williams was born in 1926.  He was once beaten so badly he had to be hospitalized - because he drank out of the “white” water fountain.  When I heard the people at Palin rallies, I was spirited back to those times.  It was an absolutely horrible feeling, exposing the darkness that still resides in a minority of people in this nation.

The idea of racism is familiar to me.  The motivations and justifications for racism are also familiar to me.  As has been proven throughout history, the most effective way to conquer racism is to bring into the light the reasons people have to justify hate.  When shown to be publicly unpopular, the hate doesn’t go away, but it becomes less and less active and vocal.  In small groups, hate has power.  On larger stages, hate has no power.

America has, on the large stage, drawn the final line and said that we will not tolerate this type of thinking any longer.  We did not allow old traditional thinking cloud our judgement.  The old white guy, the the war hero, may have looked familiar and safe in comparison to the young, unfamiliar face of a man with roots in both Kenya and Kansas.  The desire for truth, for adulthood, for a recognition of our international nature and power, and for accountability saw through the racial fog that has hung over this nation for far too long.  Our nation saw the best man for the job.  Period.  There is a lot to do, but the American People have resoundingly said, “Yes, we can, and will!”

I know that my friends, and myself, are disappointed about Prop 8 in California.  I take a look back at people like Hosea Williams, who fought literally their entire lives and only saw some victory toward the end of their journey.  It will be the same with gay rights.  We won’t win this battle in a decade.  It will take a generation, and even then there will be those who always harbor ill will toward us.  We will have to be patient, keep fighting, don’t let them tell us “you can’t”.  After over 100 years, African Americans can finally say, “oh, hell yes we can.”  And so will we as gay and lesbian Americans.

I posted this about three years ago when I had my old “What in the Blue Hell?” blog.  I was reminded of this post after hearing the ignorant shit coming from the Republican supporters of McCain and Palin at recent rallies.  Enjoy:

Over the last year or so, my morning MAX ride has provided many moments of entertainment. People become familiar, yet no one really talks to each other. We seem to have an unspoken agreement that the morning commute is not the best time to try to buddy up.

There is one woman who has been a particular source of annoyance. We’ll call her Jane.

Jane is a recovering heroin and meth addict. I know this because she shared her story with a particularly unhappy commuter one morning. She is constantly fidgeting, twitching, and jumping from seat to seat. She knows all the other folks in various recovery groups and makes a very definite effort to greet each one, very loudly, when they pop in. If she sees someone reading a book she likes, she’ll bounce right up to them and start babbling on about her interests in the subject du-jour.

Knitting seems to be a popular activity with the Gresham crowd riding in, and Jane is the first to hand out contact information to the knitters just in case they decide to start selling their crafts.

One of Jane’s more annoying habits involves her bible. Jane is in a recovery group that helps people find the love of Jesus in their hearts in order to battle their addiction. Part of Jane’s recovery involves meeting with prayer groups to ask for direction and blessings on just about every single thing that could potentially happen to her in a single day. To remind her of her faith Jane wears a little Jesus-fish ring on her left thumb, which she uses to fidget the pages of her bible while she’s attempting to read through the Psalms. She seems to be working on the 32nd Psalm right now, and probably has been for the last six months. Jane is not a “Jesus Freak”. She’s my little Jesus Tweak.

Jane’s bible reading isn’t the annoying part of this story. What is annoying is Jane’s absolute fascination with the zipper that closes her bible. She’ll unzip it, flip through some pages, and zip it back…rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. She’ll do this several times in a 25-minute span.

She’ll inevitably get distracted when someone she remembers from a meeting two years ago walks by. She’ll zip the good book shut, yell out “HEY! I’m Jane, pray for me! I’m going to be alone this weekend!” The intended prayer giver often takes pause, looks at her, nods and tries to escape but Jane zips her bible shut and bounces off after her long lost crutch.

Another part of Jane’s recovery involves attending a trade school. She’s trying to get an education so she can support herself and become a contributing member of society. Kudos to her. I think that’s just great. Guess what she’s learning at school?

Hairdressing.

Yes, she gets to handle sharp objects around others. The Jesus Tweak is learning to cut hair. This is absolutely frightening to me. Jane seems to have the attention span of a goldfish. Can someone with that level of instability really be expected to succeed with scissors?

There are many other trades she could have selected, and the church that she is involved with could have guided her along a more appropriate path it would seem.

This leads me to the conclusion that, as many of us have complained for years now, churches are not fully qualified to provide everything that a person needs to “kick the habit” and fully recover. The funds that our President has allocated for “faith-based” programs needs to be channeled back into the proper medical and counseling agencies which are trained and certified to do this type of work. Their schedules for treatment do not involve anything related to actual medical treatment and counseling. They have become centers for conversion of the weak and feeble-minded.

This is not to say that all faith-based programs are worthless. Many offer shelter and counseling to abused women and children, food to the poor and sick, and services for the elderly. These are wonderful programs and I have no problem with government money going to them. When these programs begin to offer more complicated services, they begin replacing traditional medical treatments with faith and religion…replacing one addiction for another.

Unfortunately, even some medical options for treatment are not that great. Heroin addicts become addicted to methadone in many cases. They have to go into treatment to get over their addiction to their treatment.

I suppose, in the end, if Jane wants someone to pray for her, that’s not a bad thing. Maybe we can convince her pray for guidance for a new career choice…

So, sitting here tonight, my husband makes an interesting observation. This observation is based on the following clip of John McCain - after the Biden/Palin debate last Thursday.  The hubby remarked at how similar McCain’s “huh?  HUH?” grunts are to the Penguin as portrayed by Danny DeVito.  Watch the clip:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u01uL6B4nyw[/youtube]

I can just imagine it:  John McCain positively DROOLING over photos of Palin after being told that his she was the only means to get him into office.  I can only imagine the scene taking place just as it did with Mr. Cobblepot, in approaching Catwoman - ala Batman Returns.

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=_BMfTGzcpMs

Oh, and as Bill O’Reilley from Faux News might say, “I’ve got a loofah you can borrow.”