The bigotry of tolerance

One of the more amusing tropes on the right is of course that Barack Obama is a Muslim. You see it all the time on various right wing websites  (which I spend way too much time on alas but that’s a diff blog post )

The left typically responds in two ways on their website either by loudly going on and on about “no way is he  Muslim he is as Christian as they they come “ or they will just link to a  piece of video\audio where a right winger calls Obama a Muslim and then let the viewer draw their conclusions about how awful the right is ( to be fair the right is pretty awful but my bias is showing )

I have always found both responses outstandingly offensive and pointless, the only correct response to “Obama is a Muslim” is of course “And So?”

and now we have something similar in the Garland Geller draw Muhammad shooting case

 

Leaving aside all the stuff about the first amendment and freedom and ISIS etc one common theme I am seeing from the so called tolerant left is the notion that “Pam Gellar has every right to do what she did but why would any decent person do this and why PROVOKE the Muslims”

As an example see this

 

This is someone who works for the NEW YORK TIMES . I honestly don’t even know where to begin when someone starts with “Free speech aside..” How would the NYT respond to the right saying stuff like

• “Rape aside ….”
• “Burglary aside redistribution feels good”
• “Global warming aside petrol is rather awesome”

This whole meme of provocation might sound like all tolerance and hugs but  is actually IMO incredibly bigoted , like very, very  insidious bigotry.

The real question “decent people” should ask is why is it assumed that Muslims will react violently to something some of them might find offensive , while it is assumed that Jews, Christians, Mormons, Hindus,  [insert your non-Muslim group here] will react to outrage by, well, acting civilized about it?

 From what I can tell just about every Muslim group here in the USA has condemned the shooting supported Ms. Gellar’s right to hold such an even and pointed out that  the cuntent ( not a typo) of f  Ms. Gellar's works and events speak for themselves

DO NOT go on and on about how it is wrong to provoke Muslims. You are not being tolerant but being deeply bigoted when you assume that Muslims have no way to react to provocation but with violence. Rejoice instead  in the ability of people to be civilized in the face of provocation .

Einstein , and the annual review

AT MSFT , like most other corporations , they have what they call a level for all employees . It is numerical thing that basically completely defines you and establishes your worth  ( yes sad I know ). Some levels however are quite special viz levels 62 64 and 67.
These are what I call the “Nope no lubricant for you today either” levels . You see 63 is a senior level 65 Principal and 68 be partner laddie.

Clearly these levels must be insanely desirable I can think of no other reason why the ( 62,64,67) folks put up with the insane BS that they have to , to get to the blessed levels .

However what is often lost in all this, is the incredible hardships the managers of the lube free levels have to put up with .
Imagine if you will,  you have a level 64 working for you . You know that   (s)he hates you for no other reason than that fact that nominally at least you are depriving him of getting to blissvana and you have to constantly keep coming with creative reasons why you are not promoting them.( you will find this story works just as well if you have a level 62/67 working for you )
Well be of good cheer manager people I will now tell you an inspirational story , that you may use as you see fit to deal with the employees who are constantly clamouring for recognition and promotions ( sometimes at the same time )

In 1905 Albert Einstein  worked as a technical assistant, level III in the patent office in Berne.
It is not very clear what exactly Einstein achieved at work during that year however in what can be only considered a remarkable achievement by Google’s 20% self improvement principle and Steve Jobs  ( what ! he is responsible for all awesomeness don’t you know ) he did manage to do some useful work outside of his immediate scope and visibility . Amongst other things Einstein authored in that one year( bolding mine )

1. Concerning an Heuristic Point of View Toward the Emission and Transformation of Light
       Explanation of the photoelectric effect with use of the quantum hypothesis of Planck. Light is a flow of corpuscular objects with definite energies - Planck's quanta of energy.
2. On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat.
   explained Brownian motion, the unpredictable movement of tiny particles, as a result of the molecular action hypothesized by atomic theory
3. On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies.
      Invention of the theory of special relativity. Beginnings of the relativistic era in physics.
4. Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy Content?     Invention of the theory of special relativity, E = mc2. Beginnings of the relativistic era in physics

This story has a happy ending for you see in 1906 after some sort of review process, Albert Einstein was promoted to  technical assistant, level II in the  patent office . ( In later years of course he was a complete failure at the patent office never reaching level 1 and eventually quitting but why go into all that now )

So when your annoying report keeps pestering you about what they need to do , to get promoted, always remember what Einstein had to do ! ( and and remind them as well otherwise…. )

Whose Rights !!

Consider a banker oh even a florist say
A small business owner you know the kind that Indiana republicans love to worship.

Now it is possible that this business owner has not incorporated in some way ( S corp LLC what have you ) but the chances of that are oh so so rare that we can ignore it for the purposes of this argument .)

The standard right wing (and libertarian trope ) is this bullshit idea that the business owner should have rights to association blah blah blah and should be able at the end of the day to be a bigot and or a racist and refuse to serve anyone

I wholeheartedly agree, the business owner should have that right 100% absolutely

But and this is where I think a lot of arguments miss the point what about the business itself , does it have the rights to be a bigot?

Wait !!! what you say?
Come I will hide nothing from you , follow me if you will…

SCENARIO 1

A customer walks in one day slips on a piece of  a used condom ( well I guess a wet floor would be more likely though ) proceeds to go sailing through the air rather spectacularly lands on his\her ass  and discovers that real life is nothing like a cartoon and  promptly needs surgery

After consulting with a friendly attorney ( better call saul ) this customer sues!

Question : who do you think gets sued , has liability  and has to pay in the event of losing the case. That’s right kids if you guessed the business go to the front of the class

SCNEARIO 2 : The small business owner takes a business loan and then finds out there is no market whatever for naked overweight male housecleaners. Defaults on his\her loan.
This is not problem for the bank because you know they can go after the business owners personal asset\house etc

BZZZZZZ ! GO to Jail DO not pass GO DO not collect 200!!

Turns out that since the business took the loan EVEN THOUGH the small biz owner made all the decisions and boy were they some decisions , the owner has complete limited liability and can the business can ( in many cases should ) promptly declare bankruptcy and get out of the debt with nary a problem

Now to be clear Limited Liability is a very very good thing ( I say this as someone who has been sued ). But lets ask our self what this means, it means if a gay person lends ( you don’t have to be gay for this example to work BTW  ) a baker friend of his money and the baker is like “Well just make out the cheque to OverNighTunaSandwichBakery it just makes the book keeping ally nice and tidy “ , and then it turns out an overnight tuna sandwich place which does not do delivery,  typically goes broke in no time.

Why in that case the gay friend is just plain out of luck . He can keep trying to tell everyone that he lent money to a friend so he should be able to get the money back from his friend but the law will chuckle at his naivety   and refer him to the notion of limited liability

Which brings us back to “Whose rights” are we talking about exactly here

When it suits the business owner apparently its ok to say “Yeah no, I know you spoke to me , and gave me money but I mean if you think about it corporate personhood my dear fellow  so You know I am not really my business you see”

But on the other hand when it comes to not serving someone  “yeah no that’s  all me and I own my business so I damn well get to say who gets in and who gets out”

So I will make a deal with all business owners ( it should be noted that this deal is somewhat limited in scope given the legislative and executive authority I posses but still )

Your business gets to be a bigot ( sorry share in your values )with you if your assets and the business assets also get to have joint liability

As long as you keep claiming those two are separate you have given up on any right to insist your business has the right to discriminate

Its really that simple !!!

Schezwan oops Swan Lake !

The wife( blessed be her name and blessed be her works ) has been through many a subtle and some totally non subtle ways , been pointing out for a few years now that Seattle has quite the decent cultural scene and we really should go watch some ballet or something .

So finally decided, last Saturday  what they hey , you never know , broaden horizons blah blah blah and we decided to catch Swan Lake

To paraphrase Jim Hacker ( if you don’t know who that is well , I mean that is to say hmmm) it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening , great music , people desperately trying to be taller than they were on stage, delightful food , yummy bubbly , all very well dressed folks it was very cool

We did the whole box seats things only to discover that next time stick to the orchestra level . Place was really really packed had no idea this was so popular

 

 

Here are two important fact about the ballet dancers which I picked up all on my own

i) If you are a ballerina you are not allowed to have a pair of boobies. Apparently cup size is something that you don’t mention or bring up at all

ii) If you are a male ballet dancer then it is considered unacceptable to have a gluteus Maximus, instead you are obliged to posses a “GLUTEUS MAXIMUS MAXIMUS”. It is almost impossible to describe the ahem costume( s ) . Yeah no, no pics!

The other like cool thing was every once in a while you would hear something in the music you were you sure you had heard in some popular Hindi song of yesteryear , some of the musical pieces really were quite excellent

I am hesitant to say this in a public forum but yeah we probably have to do this again , had an awesome time !

Why I never! It’s tax day again

A friend of mine ( fine ex boss   ) made a claim around tax day that he thinks of corporate inversion ( a la Apple MSFT GOOG et al …) to be tax evasion

I don’t and furthermore this year really do want to try tax inversion

But leaving that aside I find this whole notion of tax evasion when legal very interesting

Unlike some on the right or the libertarian science fiction dabblers I am not anti tax just because. I am not even anti tax at all lets face it taxes get us lots of awesome things like the internet and 911 both of which have quite literally been life changing for me

However those of us on the left who accept taxes as the um tax you pay for a civil society should also be honest enough to accept that the structural way in which taxes are set up ( if there is one thing I could change it would be tax withholding ) lead to some deep misunderstandings about what we pay for and what we get and pretty much allow govt to get away with a lot of waste

In many ways tax policy is really well um more visible in the states because they cannot run a deficit or print money.Red states like Kansas and Wisconsin are doing every one a great service by providing massive tax cuts to the wealthy and slashing services to make up the deficit. There will come a point when the populace wakes up to the fact that hey what happened to all those nice things the guvmint used to do OR THEY MIGHT NOT which is great too . If a people decide they would rather not pay taxes and have bare bone services that is great too . For example I think in Topeka or Trenton some time ago the cops simply stopped taking on domestic abuse cases and responding to calls unless an eyewitness was present because you know … no money ( that’s right senator sharia law is coming though not quite how you imagined )

But and this is important if you need to raise money through increasing taxes one of the things in theory a legislature should look at is closing loopholes and or special deductions ( yes I know this rarely happens ) . However things get really out of whack if just a few people use a deduction or loophole. That way lies irrational tax policy for these loopholes are on no ones radar neither do they generate any sort of public outrage . The only way a loophole\deduction becomes untenable or worth looking at ( in terms of taking away as opposed to raising taxes on everyone ) is if lots and lots of people use that loophole

The dollar amount of your tax obligation is the end result of a myriad of policy and law. IMO it is everyone’s duty and right to use EVERY legal mean available to them to come up with the LOWEST amount possible to pay. That is one of the few few limited levers  we have as citizens to try and have some say in tax policy . if everyone does this and that means we have fewer services then good legislators will need to look at which loopholes to remove or to raise taxes or something else

Not looking at how to manage your taxes in order to pay anything more than you owe is quite silly to put it mildly!