'He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

No post last night. Dinner at Jason's place (Steve & Michelle live there, too), and home pooped and ready for bed. Up stupid early this morning and used the time to make the slides for tomorrow's adult class.
One of the things I like about Pathway is that we can discuss complex hot-button issues without anyone going on a rant. Tomorrow we begin a unit in our Critical Issues series on civil govt. and what the Bible has to say about our relationship to it. I'm looking forward to the unit!

I can only do brain work for so long before I lose the ability to think. It usually comes back, but it helps if I go do something physical for an hour or two. In the late afternoon that means going to the gym. Late morning it means spending time with a wrench in my hand, and the truck makes the perfect vehicle for that change of pace. (see how I did that?)

It has taken me a week, but I finally have all of the bed floor removed. About 20% of the ~100 bolts holding it down were stuck, and about half of those required some serious power tools, not always used in ways the manufacturer would approve. A Dremel, saber saw, reciprocating saw, and angle grinder all played a role. And a big hammer.

Now I move around to the front and start taking pieces off - grill, fenders, hood, radiator.... Then the doors and the cab (once it's stripped of all pieces and parts). That will leave a frame, engine, and drive train. The body parts will go off to be media blasted and the engine will be pulled, disassembled, and taken to a machine shop. While they're gone I'll work on the chassis, including installing a new brake system. Don't worry; I'll post pics.

AZ politics is once again in the national spotlight. A few years ago it was SB 1070, the illegal immigration bill that had several provisions to curb the number of undocumented aliens in the state. The courts struck most of those provisions down, but there was a whole lot of national ruckus before that.

Now it's the bill passed by the legislature and awaiting the Governor's action that would grant businesses the right to refuse service to customers based on "strongly held religious convictions." This bill comes, in part, as a response to events in other states where businesses have been successfully sued for not serving homosexuals. For example, a wedding photographer who says no to a gay couple, or the baker who won't make their wedding cake, or the B&B that won't rent them a room. Which is why it's being called the "anti-gay" bill, or the "religious discrimination bill."

It seems to me the question is whether business have the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. And that may be a trickier question than it first appears.

• Is it OK to refuse to serve a Black person?
• Someone in a wheelchair?
• Is it OK to refuse to serve someone not wearing shoes, or a shirt? 
• What about turning away men not wearing a tie, or golfers wearing blue jeans? 
• Men's (or women's) only clubs? 

Does the refusal "on religious grounds" put it in a different category? That strikes me as a pretty soft argument, because a person can claim religion as a basis for almost anything. Why not decide the issue on level turf: can a business decide, for any reason or no reason at all, who they will do business with? 

If we say yes we may be giving tacit approval to really repugnant behavior.

If we say no it amounts to some pretty serious govt. intrusion into private business. And how does any business maintain a dress code or serve a specific segment (e.g. Curves, the gym for women only).

Just wonderin'.