Supreme court decides pledge case on custody issue

A description of the decision is basically a swat at the Michael Newdow for trying to make the ultimate decision about his daughter's religious upbringing even though he's not the custodial parent.

While I'm also bemused at a society so wealthy that so much can be spent on the relatively minor decision of whether "under God" can be in the Pledge of Allegiance, I'm mostly pleased. I've heard him talk on NPR about how he's entitled to not have his religious views overriden in front of his daughter, and I'm distinctly not impressed. He also says that it's not his place to talk about his daughter's religious views in public--this is reasonable, but not good enough, imho, to make up for his arrogance in trying to make a no-official-religion bubble around her for the sake of his religious views.

As for why I think "under God" is a rather minor matter, I'm extrapolating my childhood reaction to the pledge, a purely emotional thing which roughly translates as "they're trying to bind me into a group I feel no connection to by making me say pointless words. I'm surrounded by idiots and there's no point in talking to them about it." I'm still not sure how much of that was depression and how much was good sense.

Supreme court decides pledge case on custody issue

A description of the decision is basically a swat at the Michael Newdow for trying to make the ultimate decision about his daughter's religious upbringing even though he's not the custodial parent.

While I'm also bemused at a society so wealthy that so much can be spent on the relatively minor decision of whether "under God" can be in the Pledge of Allegiance, I'm mostly pleased. I've heard him talk on NPR about how he's entitled to not have his religious views overriden in front of his daughter, and I'm distinctly not impressed. He also says that it's not his place to talk about his daughter's religious views in public--this is reasonable, but not good enough, imho, to make up for his arrogance in trying to make a no-official-religion bubble around her for the sake of his religious views.

As for why I think "under God" is a rather minor matter, I'm extrapolating my childhood reaction to the pledge, a purely emotional thing which roughly translates as "they're trying to bind me into a group I feel no connection to by making me say pointless words. I'm surrounded by idiots and there's no point in talking to them about it." I'm still not sure how much of that was depression and how much was good sense.

Cats, annoyingness, and individual style

I was complaining to one of my friends about Perse getting in the way when I work, and he said, "What do you expect? She's a cat."

However, it's not nearly that simple. Perse specializes in getting between me and my work, including pacing back and forth in front of the button press and shedding hairs on the button plastics so that they get into the buttons and I have to take the button apart and remake it. That last is not always entirely her fault--sometimes I'm tempted to pet her, and she sheds a lot.

Sometimes, she just sits back and watches--she's inspired the button slogan "Supervised by a cat".

Ra is in charge of nagging me about dry food, water, and litter boxes. Dry food and water are always available, but he worries if they're running low. The litter boxes are shoveled every couple of days, but he doesn't use them reliably--if I'm lucky, I'll be notified when he wants his plastic bag by the front door changed. He's also pretty good at getting underfoot after he's insisted that I have to go somewhere to deal with something.

Gillian is in charge of nagging about canned cat food (sometimes aided by Perse--in that case, it's the Tortie Conspiracy), and she takes over the middle of sleeping surfaces. Fortunately, she's smallish and somewhat cooperative, and rarely needs to be moved more than twice. I think I've convinced her not to whisker me when I'm falling asleep. ("Gillian, the whiskers stay on the cat face, not the people face.")

So, I suppose that "she's a cat" explains that a cat will do something irritating, but it doesn't explain any particular thing. And I swear that Perse is the only one that loves getting in the way for its own sweet sake.

Cats, annoyingness, and individual style

I was complaining to one of my friends about Perse getting in the way when I work, and he said, "What do you expect? She's a cat."

However, it's not nearly that simple. Perse specializes in getting between me and my work, including pacing back and forth in front of the button press and shedding hairs on the button plastics so that they get into the buttons and I have to take the button apart and remake it. That last is not always entirely her fault--sometimes I'm tempted to pet her, and she sheds a lot.

Sometimes, she just sits back and watches--she's inspired the button slogan "Supervised by a cat".

Ra is in charge of nagging me about dry food, water, and litter boxes. Dry food and water are always available, but he worries if they're running low. The litter boxes are shoveled every couple of days, but he doesn't use them reliably--if I'm lucky, I'll be notified when he wants his plastic bag by the front door changed. He's also pretty good at getting underfoot after he's insisted that I have to go somewhere to deal with something.

Gillian is in charge of nagging about canned cat food (sometimes aided by Perse--in that case, it's the Tortie Conspiracy), and she takes over the middle of sleeping surfaces. Fortunately, she's smallish and somewhat cooperative, and rarely needs to be moved more than twice. I think I've convinced her not to whisker me when I'm falling asleep. ("Gillian, the whiskers stay on the cat face, not the people face.")

So, I suppose that "she's a cat" explains that a cat will do something irritating, but it doesn't explain any particular thing. And I swear that Perse is the only one that loves getting in the way for its own sweet sake.