Oh boy. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has stepped in it big time. In his recent letter to state colleges and universities, Cuccinelli has basically said that since the Virginia General Assembly has not recognized “sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or like classifications” as protected class. Therefore he states that state college and universities cannot have anti-discrimination policies based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or like classifications.”
The Code of Virginia, § 62.1-129.1 states “A. Employees of the Authority shall be employed on such terms and conditions as established by the Authority. The Board of Commissioners of the Authority shall develop and adopt personnel rules, policies, and procedures to give its employees grievance rights, ensure that employment decisions shall be based upon the merit and fitness of applicants, and prohibit discrimination because of race, religion, color, sex, or national origin.”
The Commonwealth of Virginia is an “Equal Opportunity Employer.” I looked that up. That means, among other things, that Virginia cannot discriminate based on age, disability, genetic information, national origin, pregnancy, race/color, religion or sex.
So Cuccinelli is right.
However, I cannot help but wonder why this suddenly became an issue. In his letter he writes that “several inquiries have been made regarding the authority of Virginia’s public colleges and universities to approve inclusion of ’sexual orientation,’ ‘gender identity,’ ‘gender expression,’ or like classifications in the non-discrimination policy of the respective institution.” Just suddenly after being in office for a couple of months?
But the problem is not with Cuccinelli or Governor McDonnell, the issue is with the General Assembly. They are the ones that make the law. They are the ones that need to make the changes. SB66: State employment; discrimination prohibited has passed the Senate (Virginia General Assembly) but the Subcommittee recommended laying the bill on the table, basically postponing decisions on the bill.
So who are your Virginia Representatives? Find out here.
BTW… note something else missing from the discrimination policy? How about political affiliation? Don’t see many people getting up in arms about that one. But in state institutions, it is OK to be anti-Republican.
Hmmm… maybe I will contact my representatives in the General Assembly and ask that both sexual orientation and political affiliation be added.
Uncle Dunk’s funeral was this past weekend. Here are a few observations from the trip.
Only at funerals/family reunions do stories about your parents come out of the woodwork. Apparently Uncle Dunk’s brother dropped my mom in a mud puddle while trying to help her get out of the rain after a square dance.
There are no filters when it comes to telling jokes and stories. Since we were all staying in a hotel one of the kids said that they were going swimming at the hotel. My uncle (my dad’s older brother) said, “Well all I have to swim in is my birthday suit.” My dad said, “Well you’d better get an iron then.”
A Southern funeral is not the place to stick to the diet.
Blind aunts can hear REALLY well.
A desperate parent will gladly bring the kids down to a funeral if the drive is only 3 1/2 hours. DH brought the kids after the funeral stuff was over.
We made more trips to Wal-Mart in one day than I do in a month.
To funeral home directors – make sure the doors to the family room are closed before wheeling the coffin by for the service.
I apologize to all the Freemasons for my desire to laugh at the funeral rites performed. It was the guy presenting. Don’t know why, I really wanted to laugh. At least we knew it wasn’t the kitchen staff coming to the funeral with their little aprons on.
Cary, NC is a really neat town. Fairview Baptist in Apex is really an awesome place to worship. Who knew churches had numbering systems for kids so that if they need to contact the parent, a number flashes on the screen so the parent knows there is a problem!
North Carolina drivers suck on I-40. Give me Northern Virginia/DC any day. Note: please move over when emergency vehicles are coming, but not in the lane where they are. One inch is not a safe following distance. When someone leaves space for you to get in because you were nice enough to signal that you needed to get over, then GET OVER – there is a time limit to courtesy. When I signal and begin to pull into your lane, let me in – people in real metropolitan areas even know this – especially if your car is a rather nice one – yeah that means you stupid Mercedes SUV driver chick.
Just because the GPS says it is faster to go the back roads, remember that is IF you don’t get behind Mr. Ford Van going 25 in a 45, IF Route 8 in Virginia is not involved and IF you don’t stop at the world’s worst Rockola Cafe in the world with the world’s worst server in Danville, VA.
Most of all, I learned what I already know, that I have the best family ever! Except for you… you know who you are.
I have decided to change the title to an alliteration. Also, not all cases are cold that are featured so I chose a title that is more generic.
Some scum bag(s) have been attacking older women in the Churchland area of Portsmouth, VA.
Sunday night, a 65-year-old woman heard noises, stepped out on her porch to investigate, and was pushed back inside her home by a man who was kneeling in nearby bushes, police said. The woman was assaulted after struggling for several minutes.
Previous similar attacks occurred May 19 in the River Pointe area, June 12 in Hunters Point and January 19 in West Norfolk, police said.
If you have any information please contact the Portsmouth Police Department at 1-888-Lock-U-Up.
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation….” – Mark 16:15 (New International Version)
I love social media. I love Facebook, Twitter and blogging. But some Christians look at this as bad. You know, the internet is all full of porn and stuff.
I look at social media differently. Yes, I use it as it was meant to be, but I also use it, as do others, to spread the Gospel. Look at this blog every Wednesday! And each post on this blog automatically gets posted to my Facebook page.
Then there is the story of Simon which I shared in a previous WFW post. This was shared in my blog, on Twitter and on Facebook some folks started a Prayers for Simon group. I shared Simon updates on my Facebook page. I “met” Simon’s mom on an internet parenting forum well before Simon came into this world at only 24 weeks gestation. Think about this. Twenty years ago, Simon’s fate would have been known by so few people. Now there are hundreds praying for this little boy they never met. Guess what folks? Simon is HOME with his family. He is not completely out of the woods, but he is HOME! He was on death’s door, he had setbacks – like a blood clot – but he is HOME now! The most recent update, “We have a really long road ahead of us in many areas of Simon’s development. The clot is painful and makes mobility difficult and we are essentially back to square one with his feedings, but it is all worth it to have our little guy home – again.” The power of prayer is amazing!
Yes, people will take technology and new inventions and use them for evil, but we as Christians can take what God has given us through the talents of many and turn it into a tool for His glory!
Amen!
For more of The Word For Wednesday posts and participants, see yeah, right…!
There are two TV shows that are still in production that I LOVE: The Big Bang Theory and The IT Crowd. Both shows are brilliantly written and acted.
For those of you who care or don’t, here is a synopsis.
The Big Bang Theory, premiering in 2007, is a CBS comedy about four geeks, two who live across the hall from a cute, aspiring actress. The main characters are: Leonard Hofstadter, PhD – An experimental physicist with a crush on Penny. Sheldon Cooper, PhD – a theoretical physicist, he possesses a master’s degree, two PhD’s, and an IQ of 187. He has OCD to the point of having to follow a strict routine all the time. “We don’t have Thai food on Thursday, we have pizza on Thursday.” He is Leonard’s roommate. Penny – The cute blond neighbor across the hall who works at The Cheesecake Factory while trying to break into acting. Howard Wolowitz – Lives with his mother. Has a master’s degree in Engineering from MIT and pictures himself as quite the ladies’ man. Rajesh Koothrappali, PhD – Works as a particle astrophysicist at Caltech. From India, it is found that he cannot speak to women and will remain silent unless he is drunk.
The IT Crowd, premiering in 2006, is a BBC show on Channel 4 about a woman who knows little about computers, takes over as the “relationship manager” of the IT Department and her two employees, both somewhat anti-social computer geeks. The main characters are: Roy – The laid-back Irish IT guy. He often wears geek t-shirts and answers the IT Phone with “Hello. IT. Have you tried turning it on and off again.” Maurice Moss – The typical anti-social nerd. Brilliant, but lacking common sense. Jen Barber – Head of IT, she does not even know what “IT” stands for. She fails at relationships with men and strives to move up in the career world.
The description of the shows do little justice to these amazingly written programs. I will admit, neither show is really family-friendly. I would give Big Bang a PG-13 rating, maybe PG for the sexual references. The IT Crowd gets an R rating due to language more than anything else.
What I would like to see is these two shows do a crossover episode. I can see Moss and Sheldon getting along beautifully. Penny and Jen would love to shop together while Wolowitz would try all his moves on Jen. Are you with me fans? Leonard and Roy? Koothrappali could get drunk and end up with some of the women on the 7th floor, much to Roy’s chagrin!
They could put this on Pay-Per-View and make tons of money!
I am so giddy just thinking about it!
I will give you a sample of some of the shows from YouTube.
In this scene from The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon tries to become a friends with a coworker he despises in order to get access to a lab.
In this scene from The IT Crowd, Roy and Moss are unhappy with Jen because she becomes arrogant after receiving the Employee of the Month Award. Knowing that she knows NOTHING about technology, they show her “the internet.” Embedding has been disabled for The IT Crowd, so here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDbyYGrswtg.
Our family lost one of its wonderful characters – Uncle Dunk.
Uncle Dunk married my father’s younger sister in the early 50s. They use to square dance as a group before marriage and kids. Uncle Dunk was a hoot. He always made us laugh with his stories and humor. I need to find the picture we took of me with my hair draped over his bald head. It was funny.
My aunt was diagnosed with diabetes and is now legally blind. Uncle Dunk took care of her and loved her with no complaints, at least to us. They traveled and was always there for family. I remember when he and his brother would get together and we would just laugh at them.
A few days ago, Uncle Dunk went to the hospital and was told he has leukemia. Yesterday, he passed away.
Here’s to you Uncle Dunk. I bet you and your brother are cracking everyone up in Heaven.
BTW: Here is the last email he sent to the family: Give this hug to everyone you don’t want to lose in 2010 including me if you care
Try to collect 12; it’s not easy!
YOU HAVE 20 MINUTES TO TELL 6 FRIENDS THAT YOU LOVE THEM
TOMORROW IS NOT PROMISED. SO, I LOVE YOU! GO!
Roberta "Robin" Elam, Murdered June 13, 1977 near Wheeling, WV
Roberta “Robin” Elam was a 26 year old adult religious education teacher who planned to join Wheeling, West Virginia’s Sisters of St. Joseph. On June 13, 1977, she grabbed her Bible and an apple from the kitchen and headed to the hill behind the convent to pray. At 2 p.m. a caretaker found Robin’s body behind an overturned bench. She had been raped and strangled.
The convent bordered Oglebay Park and the hill where Robin was killed is within view of the park’s Spiedel Golf Course.
Police released a drawing of a white man in his 30s, with dirty, dark hair, bushy eyebrows, a mustache and a beard who had been seen near the Mount St. Joseph grounds. They sought but never found a rusty, gray or faded-blue Chevrolet or Buick, festooned with religious and coal-mining bumper stickers, that had been parked on nearby Pogue’s Run Road.
When Tom Burgoyne took office as Ohio County’s sheriff in 2001, he had DNA samples taken from evidence taken at the scene. One of the suspects in the case, David R. Kennedy, already on trial for a strangulation murder in 1977, was ruled out thanks to DNA. They also ruled out Robin’s case being related to the murders of two other women in the area at the time.
Anyone with information about Robin’s killing can contact Lt. Cuchta at 304-234-3741 or Sgt. Swiger at 304-329-1101.
I never really looked at getting an auto insurance quote – I stuck with my dad’s group and they have treated me well. When DH and I got married, he transferred to my company because he got a multi-policy discount and it was cheaper than one of the more “progressive” companies.
But I can’t help but wonder, why do these companies charge more for teen drivers, but not elderly drivers? Teen drivers do a lot of stupid stuff behind the wheel and have so many laws against them, but seniors seem to forget what is the accelerator and the brake and also seem to love driving into buildings. We had one recently drive IN to a Hardee’s.
I blame the lobbyists for AARP. I bet if just one tiny piece of legislation was passed to require elderly drivers to be retested you would see the AARP lobbyists throwing their canes in the air and screaming discrimination. Sorry folks, there is not right to drive. Give up the keys before you take a life.
7You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? 8That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9“A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” 10I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion will pay the penalty, whoever he may be. – Galatians 5:7-10 (New International Version)
Now, y’all may disagree with me on this one, but I find that those of us who grew up “in the church” are the ones that once led astray are harder to get back. Notice I said, “raised in the church” not raised in the Holy Spirit.
I remember when I went away to college and away from home for the first time I had the worst time finding a church where I felt comfortable. Churches were mostly separated in denominations then. I never felt comfortable at the BSU because those students seemed more “into Jesus” than I was. I was more conservative. So I went to a more conservative church but then felt like an outcast for just being female. It took a friend driving me to another town to get me back in church. I never lost my faith, I lost my desire to congregate with other Christians. Of course, undiagnosed depression may have entered into it too.
I was NOT a drinker or a partier. But I dated guys who were NOT Christians. Not because I wanted too, but because they, for the most part, were great guys. As a result, I became a slacker Christian. I remember one Easter I could not go to church, and was upset, because at the old age of 19 I threw my back out. A friend of mine commented that he was surprised I was a Christian. Man that hurt. It may have been a compliment of sorts, that I didn’t give off the Christian vibe, but it was a wake up call.
In a way, it was my relationships with non-Christians and their anti-Christianity in some cases that made me run back to my faith and beliefs. I was tired of it. That was not the crowd I need to hang with. Sure, they were nice, but have you ever noticed those that scream for tolerance from Christians are the least tolerant of Christians?
So what is my point?
I know of a few friends who were strong in faith. Who were great Christians, who now seem to be giving up because of external influences. I had posted before about how women especially feel the need to give up themselves for a man. Why do we as Christians feel the need to please the world. We are not of the world. We are God’s children.
AND NO OUTSIDE INFLUENCE SHOULD CHANGE THAT!
No lover, friend, addiction, sin – NOTHING!
DO YOU HEAR ME? YES! YOU! How have you changed since you left the Holy Spirit? Oh sure, you still go to church, take the kids, maybe even teach Sunday School or serve as a deacon – but what is that old saying again – “Going to church no more makes you a Christian than sleeping in your garage makes you a car.”
Sometimes we are so focused in our running on what is going on around us, the scenery, how our team is handling things that we do not see that our shoes are untied, our muscles are weak, and we are getting bumped on all sides. I am not saying don’t hang around non-Christians, but if you are easily influenced, then perhaps it is time to step back, tie your shoes, stretch and get back into the race.
You may think I am stepping on your toes, but honey, I am just bending down to make sure your shoes fit right. I need to do the same thing to myself.
For more of The Word For Wednesday posts and participants, see yeah, right…!
So DD was given an MP3 player for Christmas. DH and I added some music, the Monkees, the Cure’s “Friday I’m In Love” and other clean rock songs. She loves it!
Then one day she started singing:
“Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la
I’m wearing long pants.” (Her version)
Um what? That is a Lady Gaga song called “Bad Romance.” DH may like Lady Gaga, but I do not. But even he denied her request to put that song on her player. Here are the words:
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance
Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance
I want your ugly
I want your disease
I want your everything
As long as it’s free
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
I want your drama
The touch of your hand
I want you leathe-studded kiss in the sand
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
You know that I want you
And you know that I need you
I want it bad
Your bad romance
I want your loving
And I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)
I want your loving
All your love is revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance
I want your horror
I want your design
‘Cause you’re a criminal
As long as your mine
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love, uhh
I want your psycho
Your vertigo stick
Want you in my room
When your baby is sick
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
Love-love-love
I want your love
You know that I want you
And you know that I need you
(‘Cause I’m a freak bitch, baby!)
I want it bad
Your bad romance
I want your loving
And I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)
I want your loving
All your love is revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance
Work-work fashion baby
Work it
move that bitch crazy
Work-work fashion baby
Work it
move that bitch crazy
Work-work fashion baby
Work it
move that bitch crazy
Work-work fashion baby
Work it
I’m a freak bitch baby
I want your love
And I want your revenge
I want your love
I don’t wanna be friends
J’veux ton amour
Et je veux ton revenge
J’veux ton amour
I don’t wanna be friends
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
(I don’t wanna be friends)
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
(I don’t wanna be friends)
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
(Want your bad romance)
Caught in a bad romance
(Want your bad romance)
I want your loving
I want your revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
(Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!)
I want your loving
All your love is revenge
You and me could write a bad romance
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
(Want your bad romance)
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
(Want your bad romance)
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oooh!
(Want your bad romance)
Oh-oh-oooh-oh-oh!
Caught in a bad romance
Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga Ooh-la-la!
Want your bad romance
Do what? I don’t think so homey. Apparently a seven-year old friend had this on her MP3 player. Now, I know it is a catchy song, it gets stuck in my head. But not quite appropriate for a young child.
Yeah, yeah, I had pretty much free reign with my music, but one of my siblings affected my taste dramatically. I was more into 60s stuff and the Huey Lewis/Springsteen/Hall & Oates music of the 80s. What is really funny, was I had this one friend who was a bit of a rebel putting it nicely. She was really into Quiet Riot. Hall & Oates was coming in concert and I wanted to invite her. She and I were in our early teens. Her mom would not let her go. Her reason? The song “Maneater” by Hall & Oates was dirty. A reasoning I did not understand at the time, and still don’t, although I do understand what she was insinuating now. Yet, Quiet Riot was OK? “Cum on Feel the Noize?” Riiiight.
All I got to say is thank GOD DH is “with it” when it comes to modern music so I don’t have to listen to that crap.
