desh | stream

Garfield's right. Mondays suck. It's the beginning of my 6th week of work. Back when I was in school, the 6th week of a semester was usually right before I hit the wall and just didn't want to be there anymore. So we'll see how this week goes, and the rest of the month. If I still like this job on February 1st, it bodes really well for the future of my employment here.

Fun party last night at Alanna and Molly's. I'm really glad they threw that, as amusing as the idea was in the first place. Too bad they all have off from school today, and therefore decided that a Sunday night party was a good idea. I hope I don't fall asleep at my desk today...

Go Eagles! This Sunday will kick ass. Falcons suck!

I'm really behind in stuff I have to do for the NHC. Shira and I were supposed to make 11 phone calls between us; I think she made 6 and is planning on making 1 more, and I've made 1 and am planning on making 3 more. Plus, I haven't yet typed up the minutes from the meeting over a week ago, and I'm sure everyone is silently stewing at that.

It's my birthday in two days. I should do something. Perhaps. It's not that I'm one of those people who just doesn't care about birthdays, or doesn't want a big deal made out of my own. I just haven't felt motivated to do anything about this one. Oh well. If anyone has anything in mind that could serve as a celebration, feel free to suggest it.

[T]here are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of Harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an "I-it" relationship for an "I-thou" relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man's tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness?

--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", April 16, 1963

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I generally don't tell anyone when it's my birthday. I figure that I don't care that much and so if anyone else does, they should remember my birthday. I'm never offended when people don't remember.

I figure that a birthday is a consolation prize for having managed not to die.

Well, that's depressing. I like birthdays! They're not a consolation prize for anything!

I didn't say I didn't like birthdays. I like other peoples. I just don't care much about my own.

birthdays! important! they are the way for everyone to get to be celebrated one day of the year. desh, i think you ought to do something for your birthday.

* get a friend to take you out to a meal or a night on the town
* have some friends over and watch movies or play games or play video games or eat food, or some combination
* have someone else throw a party for you [much easier]

maybe me and dan can take you out to lunch on wednesday, what do you think? we're meant to be having lunch together anyway.

[but only if you think it would be fun. if you think it would be too stressful for you just say so.]

hey i miss you lots. wow, has it been 6 weeks already? where have i been. oh yeah, israel. so we have lots and lots to talk about. are you still doing the penn thing on tuesday nights? i'm dinnering there tomorrow. also, will you come to shabbos dinner? probably the last time to catch 3 kamm sibs in the same place for a while. also, i want to see you besides that.

good quote. i feel stinky for not doing much about today...was going to go out and essentialize the day [thereby feeling good about myself while not doing much] with the akiba crowd, but realized that i was really tired after 29 hours of travelling and wanted to rest more.

so MLK sides with the Legal Moralists that an immoral law isn't really a law. The other major school of legal philosophy, Legal Positivism, argues that an immoral law is still a law, but that there's still an obligation to disobey it. The difference is that the positivist distinguishes between morality and law. This is necessary so that groups and people can agree on what the law is, since they assume people won't necessarily agree on the morality. If immoral law isn't really law, each person is defining law for him or herself, and that makes running a large organization/country difficult. A positivist (such as Hart) would suggest that a person says "the law is X but since it is immoral i will disobey while working to change the law so that law is again congruent with morality." so i guess the practical upshot is the same regardless of the system. hooray for studying in a liberal kollel where we realize that halakhah as a legal model can only be understood in the context of other legal philosophy.

Thank you for providing language for exactly what I wanted to say about the MLK quote. I love this MLK quote for being so openly subversive, but I am clearly a Positivist. I suppose technically that makes MLK more of a governmental nihilist than I am, but if we define 'law' to exclude the kind made by governments (and halakhah is in the same category), we are just going to need another word for the concept.

I'm very strongly resisting my urge to turn this into a discussion about ontology and language.

I'm not so sure I agree with you that this exerpt shows that MLK was a legal moralist. Sure, the Augustine part definitely says that, and I'm sure (again, based just on this exerpt) that Augustine was a legal moralist. But then he keeps referring to "unjust laws". Wouldn't he not call them laws if he didn't think they were laws? Or is this the only non-awkward way to refer to them? We have to remember that he's one of the great orators of our time, so he'll certainly put things the best way possible. That's why I wonder if the Augustine quote wasn't just to make a rhetorical point; perhaps one a bit beyond what he actually believes.

A positivist (such as Hart) would suggest

I don't know if you got the memo but post-positivism is the trendy flavor du jour in political theory right now, get with the times Benj.

Also the Birmingham letter, one of the best pieces of writing for lefties to quote possibly ever written. "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and the like. And, today in my politics of ethno-nationalism class the professor was expounding on Anthony Marx's theory of comparative race-making in the US and South Africa, talked about the civil rights movement, race-making from below and the feedback loop on white communities and I got all excited about it being MLK Day, but no one else in the class noticed. Ahh, Canada.

Heya! Happy Birthday! Erm... I dunno what you have planned for tonight, but if you want to come out and play poker with us, we'd be glad to have you. It'll be at my place probably around 6 or 7.

Either way, have an awesome birthday! And gimme a call sometime.

And never forget, mrs schaffzin sucks.

Ha! What's wrong with Mrs. Schaffzin? If it weren't for her, I doubt we'd be friends. We'd never have bonded over not doing homework...

Busy tonight. Birthday dinner with Mommy. But definitely let me know for next time, please! (With a few days notice, if possible.) Sounds like fun. And I even have a friend I might be able to bring, if he knows soon enough.

And thanks. I'll give you a call sometime. Or we can do lunch sometime next week. Or both.

Hi,

Happy Birthday!!

I am a friend of

outcastspice and she suggested I message you because of your extensive knowledge of LJ.

I only very recently started writing in my LJ. I spent a *very* long time customizing my journal and then 2 nights ago when I refreshed the page it changed my colours, font, theme etc into something I didn't choose. Then I spent ages changing it back and last night the exact same thing happened. It is obviously really annoying...do you have any idea what the problem might be and how I can fix it permanently? I have read through the faq to no avail and emailed support but had no response.

I hope you don't mind me asking you.

Thank you!!!!

I can't help you, but support definitely can. And it looks like your request is still open at http://www.livejournal.com/support/see_request.bml?id=402653. They'll get back to you; just be patient.

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