THANK YOU, DR. KING

Dr. King believed that it was not enough to be allowed to vote. He wanted Black people to be able to participate in every aspect of society.

It was not long before women began to object to being excluded from some aspects of society.

I believe that Blacks are doing better at being accepted into blue collar jobs, and women are doing better at being accepted into white collar jobs. (Blue collar jobs are jobs where people work with their hands in fixing, building, or making something. White collar jobs are where people work with a telephone, computer and paper.)

Both minorities and women face a "glass ceiling", which means that minorities and women do not get the jobs at the top of an organization.

I was counting the women and minorities on the stage at the Golden Globes awards. There seems to have been an increase in women doing movie production. There were almost no minorities in any category.

We all now say that we believe in equal rights for all. We do not seem to realize that we can help give equal rights to all by insisting that the cast of a TV or movie production reflects real life. Real life has a variety of people. I am fairly certain that we will not change the fact that actors must be good looking. But we can cast good looking people who are men, women, Black, White, Brown, Asian, gay, disabled.

Media can set an example.

FAMOUS WRITERS CAN HELP THE DISABLED

I LOVE to read novels. At one time I could read 3 - 5 books a week.

But I am getting older. My vision is not as good as it was, and I have arthritis in my hands. Books are becoming harder to read because it hurts my hands to hold the book. Holding large books is almost impossible.

So I lusted after an ebook reader. My dream is to read the last three Harry Potter books. I had to give up on my rereading of all the books as my hands were too sore. Also, I could not sleep because my hands hurt.

I was thrilled to get a iPad for Christmas. I was right. It does make reading much easier. The weight is not a problem as I had long ago learned how to prop up books so I could read them. The problem with books is holding the pages open, and that they shift weight as you read them. So I propped up the iPad and read through a book. It was lovely. The text was nice and large, and I could turn pages just by touching the screen. The iPad stayed propped up. My hands did not hurt. I was done with the book before I noticed.

The iPad came with a book gift card, so I went on line to get Harry Potter. But Harry Potter is not available in ebook format. In fact, most popular writers are not available on ebook.

Apple makes certain that the music it sells is protected from theft. I am certain that Apple has a plan to protect books from theft.

Writers, please help us aging readers to be able to read again with pleasure and no pain.

STRETCH YOUR SUPPLIES

Here are some tips on how to make the items you buy last longer.

Dishwasher detergent. Put about an inch of detergent in the bottle you are about to throw out. Add water. (You will not be able to fill up the bottle due to bubbles.) Use this mixture to wash the things you wash one or two at a time. This make the dish detergent last longer and you do not have to spend so much time rinsing the detergent off the dish you are cleaning.

Roll on deodorant. When you think it is running out, store it upside down. You will get another week at least.

Shampoo and conditioner. When the shampoo or conditioner will no longer easily come out of the bottle, add a little water. With conditioner, sometimes I add water a couple of times. You will need to shake the bottle to mix the water with the shampoo or conditioner. If the shampoo no longer makes bubbles, then you need to replace it. It is better to add less water to the conditioner, and maybe do it several times, as the conditioner works better when it is gloppy.

Expensive coffee drinks. You can buy the extra large, drink half of it today, and the other half tomorrow. The coffee will be cold, which is OK. If you microwave the second half, the milk will taste different. The coffee taste will be the same. You do not even have to refrigerate the drink as the milk will be OK overnight, especially if there is sugar in your drink.

Sour cream. The light sour cream in the store is usually just regular sour cream with some milk added. The price is usually exactly the same for the regular and light sour cream. If you buy the regular sour cream, you can add your own milk, and end up with a greater amount of light sour cream. I just use sour cream and milk together when I am cooking.

HATE SPEECH AND THE MENTALLY ILL

Because of the attempted assassination of a congressperson, there is discussion about the level of hate speech in our political discourse.

Those who use gun sights on congressional districts say that they did not mean to incite people to violence.

The mentally ill are almost always isolated. Everyone, even a mentally ill person, wants to have their actions be approved by others.

Unfortunately, the mentally ill may think that they will get approval by actually carrying out an action that the speaker meant as call to political action, not a call to violent action.

We all decry suicide bombers, most of whom are probably also mentally ill. The difference between a suicide bomber and an attack by a person who is mentally ill is that the suicide bomber is usually given the bomb and gets personal encouragement to act as a suicide bomber.

Here in the US, we have mentally ill people who have access to guns and who may be inspired by the hate speech on radio and TV. Each of us who discuss politics need to examine whether we are encouraging violence by the way we present our ideas.

And PLEASE REMEMBER, it was not so very long ago that it was the left who was using the hate speech. BOTH SIDES need to remember that we VOTE so that we do not have to use violence.

I do not like hate speech. Occasionally, I will lose my temper, or speak from irritation. I always regret being rude to another person. (Using a swear word does not usually count as irritation. I sometimes use swear words as I joke with friends.)

We all need to remember that it is not necessary to wish the other person to be dead. It is only necessary to wish the other person to be out of office.

WHAT IS "STANDING" IN CALIFORNIA GAY MARRIAGE APPEAL?

In general, a person or organization bringing a lawsuit (called a plaintiff) needs to be ACTUALLY INJURED by the acts (or failure to act) of the person or organization being sued (called a defendant).

Put simply, Jane cannot sue John unless Jane can convince the court that, if what Jane says about what John did is true, then Jane would have been injured by what John did.

The gay marriage case is interesting legally, because it is clear that the plaintiffs had standing, in that the law prevented them, as homosexual people, from getting married, which caused them injury, because they were being prevented from doing something that heterosexuals could do. The defendants may not have had standing to defend the lawsuit, as none of the defendants are being actually injured by the fact that gay people can or cannot get married. The courts do not consider religious or philosophical indignation to be actual injury.

So the plaintiffs could bring the lawsuit, but the State of California refused to defend the lawsuit. The District Court allowed the defense to be brought by the same organizations who funded the proposition that made gay marriage illegal. If the case had not been defended, the plaintiffs would have WON BY DEFAULT.

Now, however, the case is on appeal. The appellants are the defendants in the District Court Case, because the defendants lost the case in the district court.

But it is almost certain that the appellants do not have the legal standing to either defend or appeal the lawsuit brought by the gay people who could not get married.

It is amazing that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is asking the CALIFORNIA Supreme Court to advise it on this issue.

My guess is that the California Supreme Court will NOT advise the 9th Circuit. I further guess that the 9th Circuit will find that the appellants do not have standing and the US Supreme Court will agree with the 9th Circuit.

NO COURT wants to make a decision on a controversial issue if there is an easy way out of the problem. This is why lawyers really worry about having messed up some small detail which the court can use to throw the case out.

MOVIE MADNESS

Sometimes there is a movie which becomes an iconic image of a profession.

Top Gun was that movie for fighter pilots. Unfortunately, fighter pilots and their commanders took it to another level and were disciplined for insulting women officers at a convention.

Now we have a former ship's XO, who seems to have been inspired by the XO in Under Siege. (I, myself, would not have found the XO in Under Siege to be inspiring.) He has lost his command because his fantasy of being a comedian resulted in videos that many people find offensive.

But movie madness is not the only problem here. People who are in tight knit groups often only listen to other people in that group. By listening to only the people in their group, they miss the fact that the beliefs of their larger society have changed.

This problem is not just a military problem. Many leaders in other professions become convinced that they have the only acceptable world view because everyone around them agrees with them.

ALL of us, MUST spend some time listening to people who disagree with us. Otherwise we run the risk of failing to learn that the world has become a different place while we were not paying attention.

BTW, the lawyer movies I love are Inherit the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird. (It should be noted that the lawyers I admire in these movies lost their cases.) I also love the Adventures of Robin Hood.

DEMOCRACY -- THE HARD PART

The hardest part of democracy is losing an election.

It takes great courage, self control, ethics, and patience to lose an election, especially if losing means that one will no longer have a job that one really loved.

New democracies often have a first president who believes that he is the ONLY possible leader of his people. When this leader loses his first election, he may refuse to give up power. He can not believe that "his people" actually voted him out of office.

Losing an election, and accepting the loss, is the ONLY way for a true democracy to function.

If only one party ALWAYS wins the election, there is no longer a true democracy, as there is not a real choice for the voters.

It is also not possible to have a true democracy unless there is an independent court system, which decides court cases bases on law and facts, and not on the political beliefs of the participants.

Democracy is hard work. Losing an election and leaving office is the hardest part.

It is sad that so many new democracies lack leaders with the courage to accept defeat in an election.