Apocryphal, maybe. But a great quote nonetheless.

On Wednesday, March 1st, 2006, in Annapolis at a hearing on a proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit gay marriage, Jamie Raskin, professor of law at American University, was requested to testify.

At the end of his testimony, Republican Senator Nancy Jacobs said: "Mr. Raskin, my Bible says marriage is only between a man and a woman. What do you have to say about that?"

Raskin replied: "Senator, when you took your oath of office, you placed your hand on the Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution. You did not place your hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

Wal-Mart Opposes Tighter Port Security

From today's (March 24, 2006) "Washington Wire" column in the Wall Street Journal:

"Wal-Mart resists efforts in Congress to dramatically tighten port security in the wake of Dubai-ports furor. The company argues examining all containers, or even a fixed percentage of them, could impede shipping and boost costs."

There you have it. Wal-Mart opposes tighter port security measures that will cost it money.

I feel safe assuming that Wal-Mart believes that the increased security will increase the company's costs. After all, Wal-Mart would not bother lobbying against these security measures if they did not pose increased costs for Wal-Mart.

I give Wal-Mart a week or so to weather the ensuing storm of criticism before it issues a public statement of support for better port security. I also expect that Wal-Mart will even more quickly issue a press release complaining of being "misquoted" or "taken out of context" by the Wall Street Journal.

Whether that statement will represent an actual climb-down from Wal-Mart's position remains to be seen.

Cowboys Will Break Your Heart

This year Ann and I hosted our first Oscars party.

Even though I only sent out an evite on Friday morning, fifteen people turned up on Sunday night. Turnout is good when you invite nearly 400 of your very closest friends.

Some people even dressed up. That earned them between one to three points depending on the level of their elegance and bling. They won additional points for each Oscar winner they correctly predicted.

My strategy for guessing the Oscar winners was to bet heavily on gay cowboys, paraplegics, penguins, and a certain claymation dog.

I also bet against King Kong in the view that, after Lord of the Rings, the Academy would not favor Peter Jackson so heavily again.

Sadly for me, "Crash" upstaged "Brokeback Mountain" and King Kong took away a couple of technical prizes. At least Grommit came through for me.

I remain verklempt that "Crash" won, of all things, "Best Screenplay" for its awfully contrived script. There is no God.

Nevertheless John Stewart was fun and our friends were excellent company. I'm sure we'll host another party next year.

Leaving Oxfam America

I'm leaving my job at Oxfam America on Friday, March 10.

My colleagues are organizing a leaving party roast at the West Street Grille on West Street in Boston (near Downtown Crossing). It's on Thursday, March 9, starting at 5.30pm.

If you live in the Boston Hub, you may have received the evite already. If not, email me and I'll put you on the guest list. In any case, please just show up anyway. You are sure to have a good time.

Some of you may have even linked to my blog for the first time following the link in that evite. If you are reading this for the first time, welcome! Please come back from time to time.

Why am I leaving Oxfam, do I hear you ask?

I'm a little burned out after nearly four years at Oxfam. One sign of that burnout is that I have four weeks of not-taken vacation. I took only one week off last year and that was my honeymoon in May.

I'm also very interested in several opportunities both full-time and consulting. I already have some consulting work lined up and I'm applying for jobs around the country. More about my interest in San Francisco and Washington DC in a later post!

I will receive my untaken vacation time as cash. That gives me some time and a bit more of a cushion while I relax and do a proper job hunt.

The week of March 11-18, I will spend the week acting as the advance man for Ko Bo Kyi, a Burmese former political prisoner, who is doing a speaking tour of New England that week:
http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/action/student.html

The week of March 20 is when I start some consulting work.

That's all for now. I'll post later as I embark on a serious job hunt.

I'm definitely landing on my feet.

Playlist: Talking Heads "Sand in the Vaseline"

All Talked Out

I'm always happy to have an opportunity to quote Margaret Mead.

Check out the transcript from my on-line talk about Amnesty International USA's SHARE POWER campaign and Business and Human Rights program.

If you didn't submit anything for the talk, post a question to my Amnesty blog.