Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

Even after the killing of George Floyd set the whole country on fire, the police, instead of doing damage control, continued beating the hell out of peaceful protesters, pushing old men to the ground, blasting people with rubber bullets, raining tear gas down from the sky on large crowds of people peacefully gathered to express their opinions, and worse.
The murder of Rayshard Brooks, by shooting him in the back, was inexcusable. So, he got drunk and fell asleep in his car at Wendy’s. So, he fought with the cops. So, he stole their taser. So, he was running away. That doesn’t matter. They shot him in the back and they killed him. O.K., the police officer who shot him got fired and I guess we’re supposed to think that’s great, but fired is not the same as charged with murder, as he should be, and it still allows for him to be rehired by another police department, as is likely.
Then there is the case of Robert Fuller, 24, who was found hanging from a tree in Palmdale, California. The police ruled it a suicide faster so fast they couldn’t have possibly put any thought into the matter.
Now, in fairness to the police, it is physically possible for a person to commit suicide by hanging. It is, in fact, one of the two possibilities. But, most people who commit suicide by hanging do it in the privacy of their own home. And his sister says he wasn’t suicidal. While that isn’t proof, either, I’m more inclined to believe his sister, or any random stranger on the street, than the police. The police lie all the damn time.
Bottom line, the police have not learned their lesson, and aren’t likely to any time soon. It’s a hell of a situation, for sure.

We took a little trip today, to the lovely village of Horní Malá Úpa, which means there is also a Dolní Malá Úpa, and even a Velká Úpa.
For the non-Czech speakers among my readers, Úpa is the name of the river, which is a creek, really. It may get bigger, but at this point you can practically step across it. Velká means big and Malá means little. Horní means upper and Dolní, as you have probably guessed by this point in the sentence, means lower.
The ‘village’ consists of a tourist information center, a couple of hotels, a ski shop, a spa, a couple of hotels and a brewery/restaurant. I imagine it gets pretty crowded in ski season. It was not crowded today. There is a hiking trail which begins in the town and winds through the forest and meadows, sometimes along the creek, sometimes not. Along the route, there are fairy tale scenes, usually a couple of small, wooden sculptures, and an information pole, on which the fairy tale is printed out in Czech, Polish (it is right next to the Polish border), German and English. Mostly about Krakonosh, who is the local mountain sub-deity, kind of like a Paul Bunyan (the valleys are caused by his heavy footprints). We saw 6 or 7 fairy tale scenes, and probably covered less than half the trail.
It was a cool day, alternating between foggy and drizzly, and we encountered so few other people on the path it felt like we had the world to ourselves.
I am exhausted, and a bit sore, but it was lovely. A day well spent.

Whether we’re out at a restaurant with friends or family, or whether we’re on Facebook or some other social media platform, arguments break out. People state and restate their positions, spout slogans, make accusations, get progressively louder (or the print equivalent thereof) and seldom introduce new facts, alternate solutions, or anything at all that could lead to a compromise, or get the other party to actually change their mind.
That, itself, becomes part of the problem. We argue badly.

There’s one particular type of logical fallacy I’ve been noticing recently. It was prevalent in the Colin Kaepernick controversy, it’s popped up in the Confederate Flag argument, and in the current brouhaha between J.K. Rowling and the transgender community. It’s also been bandied about in the current argument about Starbucks v. BLM.
Maybe some people aren’t up to date on all of these. Starbucks recently told their employees not to wear any pins, emblems or anything like that supporting Black Lives Matter. Actually, I’m supporting Starbucks on this one. It’s a place of business, and it’s reasonable to expect their employees to serve everybody neutrally. Of course, if it’s JUST BLM stuff that’s barred, that’s pretty bad, but I suspect they’re not supposed to be wearing any political slogans at all. I can understand if somebody disagrees. But, saying “Their shitty coffee is overpriced anyway, I hate that place” is a completely irrelevant argument. We aren’t talking about their prices, or whether or not we dislike their product. That’s a different argument.
With J.K. Rowling, the trans community is up in arms because she made comments to the effect that trans women are not biologically identical to natural born women, and she doesn’t want them in women’s restrooms. I agree with the first half of that, disagree with the second, but saying “I hate the Harry Potter books, anyway, they are stupid and she’s not that great a writer” is a dumb argument. It has nothing to do with the issue.
When NASCAR banned the Confederate flag (which shocked the hell out of me, and was a very gutsy move on the part of NASCAR) one of their drivers, Ray Ciccarelli, resigned in protest. A lot of people have pointed out that he’s not exactly the highest ranked driver on the circuit. Completely irrelevant.
When Colin Kaepernick was frozen out of the NFL in 2017, clearly because of his protests against racism, a whole lot of people were saying “Well, he wasn’t that great a quarterback anyway.” Not true, but more importantly, not relevant. Are you for or against the cause he’s supporting. Or, do you think the National Anthem is a sacred thing. That’s the argument. Let the sports experts argue about who’s a great quarterback, as they do, but don’t pretend one thing has anything to do with the other.
If we all could just stick to the point, I think the quality of our arguments would improve. They might even rise to the level of intelligent discussion.

The trashing of statues when certain political or military figures come to be viewed as villains is nothing new. The ancient Egyptians used to do it all the time, just change the plaque on the pedestal to the name of the current pharaoh, forget the name of the old one, and done.
So, history is a little bit blurred. But, is teaching history the purpose of statues? We have books for that, we have films, we have museums, and now, we have Wikipedia, which isn’t perfect but it’s probably coming closer to the truth than previous methods.
Why have statues at all? Well, they are a nice thing to have in the middle of a park, or a traffic circle. Sort of a central design element, to tie things together. Also, they are a convenient place to arrange a rendezvous. They’re big, they’re easy to find. When you say ‘you can’t miss it,’ if you’re talking about a statue, you really can’t.
Also, I suppose it’s nice to honor those people we appreciate. But, it should be somebody everybody appreciates, because everybody is going to have to look at the thing once it’s put up. So, statues should only be of people that everybody likes. Actors, sports heroes, astronauts maybe, stuff like that. Statues of animals are cool, too. Politicians and military people are almost automatically bad choices, because they’ve alienated some people along the way, maybe even killed some people, and that’s a slap in the face to anybody who was adversely affected. Same goes with the naming of streets, and schools, and airports. I hate flying in and out of Reagan airport, and there are undoubtedly some people who feel the same about JFK.
They will all still have their place in books and museums. That should be enough for them.

Terf is one of those new words that keep springing up to describe points of view which only came into being recently, as our society divides and subdivides and subdivides. It is an acronym, standing for Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist and trans women, or most of them anyway, (and I’ve no idea what trans men think about this) think J.K. Rowling is one.
Personally, I think J.K. Rowling is the most important author alive today, and I’m not too concerned that she doesn’t think trans women should be in women’s restrooms. I don’t agree with her. It just makes more sense to me that people should use whichever restroom is labeled with their current gender, instead of (in Rowling’s words) their natal gender.
But I don’t think her opinion on that makes her evil (and I’ve seen a lot of people on Facebook using that exact word), or even transphobic.
It’s very reminiscent of the firestorm that Joe Rogan faced when he said trans women shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s martial arts, because they still had male size and body strength. Which I totally agree with.
My point is, though, that trans people are taking this a step too far, they are fighting with people who could be on their side. There are literally billions of people in the world who are more transphobic than Joe Rogan and J.K. Rowling. And I’m sure trans people are aware of that.
Pick your battles, people. That’s all I’m saying.