More Graveyard Oddities

It's not unusual for a tombstone to have a hollow space inside it.  You put mementos of the dead in the hollow space, which is then sealed up.  However, tombstones are far from permanent.  They quickly become weathered.  The earth beneath them shifts and they tip over (which is why you sometimes see tombstones on the ground facing up--and getting slowly covered over by grass).  Sometimes they're vandalized.  And if the family isn't around to ensure they're repaired, the graves fall into disrepair.  It happens a lot, really.  A city-run graveyard doesn't have the money to maintain the markers--they just mow and trim.

Anyway, when Darwin and I were at the graveyard, we found another oddity.  I noticed it when I took this photo:



You can see it peeking out at the bottom of the spire.



What the heck?

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Genius?

This is how Maksim keeps the cat out of his bedroom.

The Reality of Kim Davis

That Kim Davis needs to be removed from her office as a county clerk in Kentucky is obvious. She's breaking the law. She claims that issuing same-sex marriage licenses goes against her religious beliefs.  That may be true, and she has the right to believe anything she wishes.  However, she doesn't have the right to force everyone else to conform to her beliefs.  She doesn't have the right to stop all people (or even some people) in an entire county from getting married over her own beliefs.  She doesn't have the right to collect her taxpayer-funded salary and benefits while refusing to do her entire job.  Can you imagine how the school would respond if I declared that my religious belifes forbade me to grade my students' essays because, say, the Goddess declared all children are equal and no person can assign a grade another?  Grading papers is an integral part of my job.  If my beliefs stopped me from doing it, I would have to resign.

Despite the fact that Kim Davis has been steadily and publicly breaking the law since late June, nothing substantial has happened to her.  She has deliberatly, intentionally, and ILLEGALLY caused emotional pain and suffering to many couples who want to marry, but no one has moved to do a thing.

She refuses to issue licenses, and a judge ordered her to do so on threat of contempt charges.  She refused with folded arms, and appealed.  Nothing happened to her.  No contempt charges, no jail time, no fines.  The case went to the circuit judge, who also ordered her to issue licenses or face contempt charges.  Davis refused with folded arms and appealed.  The circuit judge actually ISSUED A STAY on his own ruling, ensuring nothing would happen to her while she appealed to the Supreme Court.

The stay expired on Monday.  Monday was Doomsday--issue licenses or face contempt charges.  But everyone was still waiting to hear from the Supreme Court.  Davis refused with folded arms, and nothing happened to her.

Very late Monday, the Supreme Court refused her appeal without comment.  Tuesday became the new Doomsday: issue licenses or face contempt charges.  Tuesday morning, several couples met Davis at the county office.  At first she hid in her private office with the blinds drawn, but eventually she came out and refused with arms folded.

And nothing happened to her.

The ACLU at last filed a motion to have her face contempt charges (and why did it take the ACLU's intervention to set anything in motion?), and a federal judge ordered her and her staff to appear in his court to discuss contempt charges.  On Thursday.  Meanwhile, nothing happens to her.

Every day she walks free is a day couples in Rowan County can't get marriage licenses.  Wedding plans are put into jeopardy. Couple suffer emotional trauma.  People wonder what their future is going to be.  All because Davis won't leave the job.

She doesn't care about her principles.  If she did, she would quit.  She cares about being the center of attention.  Her faith is Apostolic, and Apostolic women have no power in the church. They're expected to be quiet, obedient, and soft-spoken.  They must wear skirts and show as little skin as possible.  (In the news videos, you'll notice she never raises her voice, and she always wears dresses or skirts with high-necked, long-sleeved blouses.) Divorce is not allowed, so I'm guessing she came to her current faith later in life.  Apostolics wouldn't allow her to have four husbands.

At any rate, as a woman of no power, she's found a way to have some power.  All these people rally against her--and around her--which puts in her in the center of national attention.  A legal aide society gives her their full attention as well, and have almost certainly promised to pay her fines.  She can't be removed from her job unless the KY legislature impeaches her--unlikely in the extreme in a hillbilly state--so she can continue to collect her attention like a little queen, without consequences.

If she DOES go to jail (and even the ACLU isn't calling for that), she'll sit in a cell supervised by a sympathetic sheriff's office who will give her great latitude during her sentence.  "Oh, it's just Kim.  Let her have ____ in there."  And meanwhile, she'll be a martyr for the right wing cause.  They'll shower her with sympathy, comfort, and even money.  No doubt she'll be asked to write a book, though Son of Sam laws may prevent her from profiting from it.

One of the country's greatest queen bee bullies gets to her have her spotlight, her money, and her job, and so far, no one seems interested in putting a real stop to her.