Visions of a Madman

“So what does it mean?”

“What do you mean, ‘What does it mean’? I think it’s pretty obvious.”

“Yeah, OK Terry. It’s ‘number three’. But what does it represent? It’s number three of what?”

“Well … the guy I bought it from said it was the third one ever made, so I guess that’s what it means.”

“Uh huh. Sure. I’ll accept that. Except what exactly is it?”

“What? I told you what it is.” read more

So North Carolina’s governor has decided to fight the order from the Justice Department and filed a lawsuit. Sheer and utter crap.

Putting the more serious aspects of the law aside (that being the restrictions placed upon members of the LGBT community when it comes to seeking recourse for discrimination based upon sexual and/or gender identity), my biggest questions on the entire bathroom restriction element of the law are:

1. Should everyone be required to carry a copy of their birth certificate in order to prove they are in line with the law when they go to pee? I am completely serious on this. How exactly will law enforcement be able to enforce the law if there is no means of determining if an infraction has occurred? And will parents need to abstain from bringing their children into the bathroom if they are of the incorrect gender? Honestly, if someone wants to be a pain in the ass with this law, there are numerous ways to do so.
2. How soon will it be until there is a serious incident when a transgender man uses the women’s bathroom or a transgendered woman uses the men’s bathroom? And what will the resulting litigation look like? HB2 has limited litigation for discrimination, but if there is an incident where discrimination occurred due to an individual following the law it takes on a new slant.
3. Can the state government cast residents of North Carolina is any worse light than they already have? Though now that the question has been asked, the answer will inevitably be yes. Sorry.

For a political party who’s rallying cry has been to have a smaller, less invasive government, this seems just a wee bit hypocritical. Not that it surprises me. read more

“They’re out to get me, Doc!”

“Who is this they, Gerald? And please come out from behind the couch.”

Gerald slowly peaked out over the top of the couch back, his face obstructed by the gas mask he was wearing. After taking a cautious look around, he stepped around and sat upon his former hiding place.

“Them, Doc, THEM. They’re everywhere, Doc, and they are trying to kill me.”

“Gerald, there is no one trying to kill you. We have been over this before. Remember two months ago when you thought the mail carrier for your building was trying to kill you by poisoning your mail? It turned out to be nothing of the sort.” read more

So the riffs may be a bit more sporadic during the month of April. I am taking part in the NaNoMo April “Writing Camp” with the goal of knocking out 50,000 words by the end of the month. As such, I will be doing additional writing all month long, so I may skip some riffs here and there.

But!

I will post up what I write with every 10,000 or so words I manage to knock out (rounded to the end of chapters). It will most likely end up with it’s own category (it’s not really a riff, ramble, or rant, after all), so keep an eye out on the navigation for something new, probably later this week. read more