Women’s March

Here’s what I would’ve said at the local Women’s March (or “Sister March”—pick your terminology) earlier today, if I’d thought of it at the time:

Lego One-Seater Sketches

Just a quickie here: I want a couple of little single-seat vehicles to go with my big Classic Space crawler. I’m thinking a ground vehicle and an air vehicle—maybe even a water vehicle—that are basically built around the same plan. The space exploration equivalent of a motorbike or jetski. I’m not entirely sure about size yet, but I know what I want to use for the windscreens, so here are a few preliminary sketches of ideas.

As you can see, I’m trying out ways to attach the rest of the vehicle to that Bionicle piece that is the windscreen. So far, I’m liking some of the connections and some of the bits of the vehicles, but they’re all much larger than I think I want. I think I’m going for something much closer to motorcycle- or jetski-sized—that is, not much larger than the rider/driver. Maybe that windscreen is just a bit too big for that to work. We’ll see.

Transitive moral responsibility?

This was topical when I wrote the draft, and then I got distracted with schoolwork and forgot about it. So the specific examples are a bit dated, but the basic points are still worth discussing—and unfortunately examples of this continue to turn up on a regular basis.

“… issuing a marriage license to a same-sex couple would “irreparably and irreversibly violate her conscience.”

That’s the reason Kim Davis’ attorneys gave for why an immediate stay of enforcement was required while they continue to ask anyone they can think of who might side with them, since both mom and dad have told them “no”. Later in that same article, there was this line:

Despite her refusal, her office will begin issuing licenses Friday morning. Couples, however, will be marrying “at their own risk.” It is unclear if the licenses will be legally valid.

Question: why would the legality of marriage certificates issued in compliance with applicable laws be in question just because the county clerk isn’t on the job? So if she were on vacation or hospitalized, no licenses can be issued? If she died (or even just moved away), they would have to call a special session of the state legislature or special election, and no licenses until that happens? Surely her authority implicitly flows through her deputies, (absent evidence of malfeasance)? I mean, she sure thinks so—that’s why she won’t let her deputies do it while she’s there.  If we’re going to start assuming that people do not have authority to perform government actions without affirmative proof that they do, every single time, the whole system will fall apart. Which is what some conservatives want, but I don’t think that’s Kim Davis’ goal.