You may not have heard of the company -- I hadn't -- but a startup called WeWork has engaged in social engineering its employees with a new ban: they will not expense meals that include meat. Yes, the company is requiring that their employees and company events be completely vegetarian. If you visit the company as, say, a potential customer, you will not be offered any meat options. Meat is off the table ... literally. Why? "New research indicates that avoiding meat is one of the biggest things an individual can do to reduce their personal environmental impact, even more than switching to a hybrid car."
When, do you suppose, governments will follow suit? And where does it end? "Switching to an electric car is better for the environment than not. Switch ... now." Silly? Apparently not. (As an aside, I noted that a co-founder, Miguel McKelvey, said, "In just the three days we are together, we estimate that we can save more than 10,000 animals." Do you suppose Mr. McKelvey is as concerned about saving the lives of unborn children? Just wondering.)
Lots of Democrats, Not Much Democracy
Before 2008, Californians voted to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The California courts outlawed it. In November of 2008, they voted to make that definition a part of their state constitution. The California courts outlawed it. "This is California," they said. "We do not do democracy here!" (Done in the voice of Siegfried from Get Smart.) Okay, no one said it, but the message was clear. And it is again. The California Supreme Court ruled not that the state could not be split into three states, but that the people couldn't vote on it. More than 600,000 Californians signed the petition to put it to a vote, but the court declared "potential harm in permitting the measure to remain on the ballot" required that it be removed. In other words, "No, you don't get to vote on it. No, your capability of voting on it is potentially harmful. No, we don't care about what you want." Was it a "wacky California plan"? Perhaps. We'll never know what the people of California thought. There are a lot of Democrats in California, but democracy is not an issue there. (By the way, this isn't new. As it turned out California voters voted on this in 1859 and approved, but Congress never acted on it. "Sorry. We didn't care what you voted then, either.")
A Truly Sad Story
Last week in Portland, OR, Travis and Sarah Mitchell both pleaded guilty to criminal negligent homicide and criminal mistreatment. Sarah had given birth to twins. They were premature. One died and the other lived. The court and medical personnel determined that it was likely that if Sarah and Travis had taken the baby to the hospital, she would have lived. They didn't. That's because they were members of the Followers of Christ Church, a Pentecostal church that refuses medical care and prefers prayer and healing oils. Their failure to seek medical help for the child resulted in a conviction for homicide.
It's sad because the difference between the death of little Ginnifer being a murder or a brave act on the mother's part was a mere matter of hours, a simple act of exiting a birth canal. It's sad because Oregon (most people in America, I suspect -- or the civilized world) doesn't recognize the connection; a baby being pulled from the mother prior to birth is just as much murder as not getting it medical help afterward. It's sad because there are people out there calling themselves "followers of Christ" who think that it is somehow immoral to seek medical help or righteous to avoid it, even if it kills someone. It's sad all the way around.
Social Media Justice
The story is about a Facebook-owned social media app called WhatsApp that allows sharing messages without paying for SMS. The good news is that they will restrict the number of messages that can be forwarded and the number of people to whom they can be forwarded. Good news? I mean, why is that an issue? Because in India the app has been used to cause false stories to go viral and more than 20 people have died from lynching. In one case a 27-year-old man was attacked by a group of 2,000 people after a false rumor was spread by WhatsApp users accusing him of child abduction. The man died, 25 people were arrested, and 3 policemen and 2 of his friends were injured. Social media justice.
Free speech is all well and good, but most of the rights we hold dear carry with them personal responsibility and a demand for a moral grounding that, if not present, can turn them into dangerous weapons. In this case, the solution is ... slow the speed of the lies? We really don't have a clue, do we?
Hollywood Shenanigans
You heard, I would guess, about the kerfuffel over Actress Scarlett Johansson having the audacity to play a transgender massage parlor owner, Dante "Tex" Gill, when she herself was not actually transgendered. Fortunately, with all the backlash, she opted out. But she didn't learn from her mistake and now she's under fire for agreeing to play a sandworm in the upcoming Dune reboot even though she isn't one of those, either.
Must be true; I read it on the Internet.
Bonus Point
I enjoyed this quote.
The coming ice age is coming, the globe is warming, and the science is settled, no, wait. Turns out the globe got so hot it cooked the books” (Confessions of a Food Catholic, p. 143).
12 comments:
"Social Media Justice"- that app makes no sense to me. Nor does the effect it's had in India. Here in the "good ole" USA, most cell providers have unlimited texting, so why use an app that gives you free something of something you're already getting? Along with that, we're not hearing the same type of news out of the US (not through simple text messages anyway). So, what's so different about the social media in India that they only had the problem from free texting and we've had the problem since the advent of social media?
The environment is big business these days. Seattle just made plastic straws illegal and I expect that to be as much of a growing trend as the banning of plastic bags. As is par for the course, if you can't influence people to be environmentally minded, force them to with the rule of law.
And people wonder why I rarely bother to vote when I live in a Democratic state. Their voices are so much louder that laws voted on get over turned anyway.
The app allows you to send out a message to up to 250 people. (They hope that limiting that number will diminish the "viral effect".)
And, although we don't have actual lynchings here in the U.S., we certainly do have unsubstantiated accusations going viral that are followed by stupid people doing stupid (or dangerous) things. Look up the Hillary Clinton pizzagate affair, where someone accused the Hillary campaign of human trafficking through U.S. restaurants. There were threats against restaurants and finally a North Carolina man took a rifle into one of the pizza places and fired into the air to force them to "release the children" ... who, of course, weren't there. So it does happen here -- viral, unsubstantiated accusations that end people's lives, even if it isn't actual death.
The more Christians, conservatives and people of good will who vote, the harder it is to overturn their will. It is more important to vote (if you're of any of the three groups mentioned) in Democratic states than in right-leaning states because there aren't enough of them.
One would think, Marshal, but, as it turns out, twice in California the people overwhelmingly voted to reject "gay marriage", but the courts overthrew it. Sometimes "democracy" doesn't work.
I just got the app to easily communicate with a client in Germany, it’s been great so far.
And ... while you're at it, you can start a riot or something, right?
As long as it’s in Germany, why not. I think the advantage is at avoids overseas roaming charges for texts.
The app is designed to make texting free without SMS charges. What people do with it is another question entirely (the actual point of my comments on it -- do they really think "limiting the number" will fix the problem?).
Totally agree.
I still maintain that, even in or especially in place like California, the more the merrier. Always vote. Always vote for what's right. Every vote in that direction has influence, and the more there are the greater the influence. REAL influence, besides our personal lives lived well, requires more than merely voting. It requires the willingness to engage others within our sphere of influence when the opportunity presents itself, and it requires great numbers of people contacting government reps. All of this seems to me to be more essential and necessary than ever before lest we let the culture slide deeper and more quickly in the direction of moral decay it now slides.
OK. I'm done now.
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