Ugh. There are some days when the universe says to itself, “I’m bored. I know, let’s fuck with Mark.” Minor annoyances have been piling up in my life, both work-related and personal. Nothing serious, but enough to give me a headache. But I’m looking forward to tomorrow. I’m speaking to a class of freshmen in a social justice class at Hamline University about my personal experiences with disability. A colleague of mine teaches the class and issued the invitation to me and a few other fellow gimps. She said that if we really want to grab their attention, just talk about sex. So I have to figure out a way to weave sex into the discussion. That shouldn’t be too difficult. Heh.
Here’s yet another story about advances in brain-computer interfaces. This technology can’t come soon enough for me. My neck is killing me from all the typing I do.

Yesterday’s NY Times had a great editorial about the Tennessee v. Lane case, which is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court tomorrow. Per the Respondent’s (Lane’s) brief, the facts are as follows:
Respondents George Lane and Beverly Jones have paraplegia and use wheelchairs to ambulate. Pet. App. 13. In 1996, petitioner charged Lane with two misdemeanor offenses and summoned him to appear in the Polk County Courthouse to answer the charges. Id. at 15-16. All court proceedings in that courthouse take place on the second floor of a building that, at that time, had no elevator. At his first appearance, Lane crawled up two flights of stairs to get to the courtroom. On his second visit, he was arrested after he “sent word to the court that he would not crawl to the courtroom again” and further declined to be carried by officers. Id. at 15. The court conducted subsequent proceedings with Lane waiting on the ground floor while his attorney shuttled back and forth between Lane and the second-floor courtroom.

Beverly Jones, another party to the case, is a court reporter who uses a wheelchair. She has been forced to decline several job assignments because many of Tennessee’s courthouses are inaccessible. Lane and Jones sued the State of Tennessee for failing to comply with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Title II requires public services and programs to be accessible to people with disabilities.
Tennessee is arguing that it cannot be sued under the ADA because the 11th Amendment of the Constitution grants it immunity from such suits. Once an obscure and often-ignored Constitutional provision, the 11th Amendment has become the weapon of choice for states’ rights advocates and so-called federalists determined to strike down what they deem as intrusive and burdensome federal laws. This tactic has met with much success in the Supreme Court. In a previous Supreme Court decision, Alabama v. Garrett, the Court ruled that state employees cannot sue the state under another provision of the ADA, Title I. States are also protected from suits under other federal anti-discrimination and environmental laws.
When I was a year or so out of law school, i interviewed for a judicial clerkship position in this little town called Mora, Minnesota. When I got to the interview, I discovered that the courtroom was inaccessible. The judge still interviewed me, but he and I both knew I wasn’t getting the job. I did get another clerkship a couple months later, but what if I lived in Mora and wanted apply for a marriage certificate? What if I was being sued? What if I was called for jury duty?
What if I wanted to vote?
In 2004, people with disabilities shouldn’t have to be litigating issues of access anymore. We shouldn’t have to keep explaining to courts how decades of discrimination and bias made a federal law like the ADA necessary. We shouldn’t have to plead for the right to be allowed into a courtroom without crawling up the steps. We shouldn’t have to ask for the opportunity to enjoy the liberties, both trivial and profound, that everyone else takes for granted.
But we do have to ask. And sometimes it makes me want to weep.

This is so funny. An imaginative blogger has written an entry comparing the Democratic presidential candidates to Dungeons & Dragons characters. He says this about Kucinich:
If there’s one Democratic candidate who knows how many hit dice a Gelatinous Cube has, it’s Dennis Kucinich. You’ve gotta know that somewhere in the back of his one of his closets is a first-print copy of the Fiend Folio, pages stuck together with decade-old bong resin.
Obviously, he’s a Druid. You know, the whole Commune with Nature thing; he’s like a Vegan, sickly-pale Beastmaster. He doesn’t actually fight monsters; instead, he casts one of his many Summon Squirrels spells, shouting out, “O, my Friends of the Silver Forest! Come to me, O Woodland Creatures! Protect me from this fell beast!” You know, that kind of pansy shit.

The author fails to mention that Kucinich’s ears give a -2 hit to his Charisma stat..

I drove my sister to the airport today for her flight to Europe. I think it finally hit her this morning that she would be spending six months in a foreign land and she started to freak out a little. She was also worried about the flight and the heightened security on the airlines. I almost said, “Whatever you do, don’t talk back to the hijackers,” but then I decided that probably wasn’t too appropriate. Here’s hoping she drinks lots of wine, eats lots of cheese, and that she brings me back some good swag.

If you feel like wasting five minutes, you can nominate The 19th Floor for a 2004 Bloggie. I think the most appropriate category is Best-Kept-Secret Blog. I’d nominate myself, but that just seems so…so un-Midwestern. I’m sure that of the three of you out there that read this site regularly, one of you has the time to fill out the nomination form. And tell your friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, parents, siblings, colleagues, students, fellow inmates, therapists, clients, and general acquaintances to also consider nominating this site.
If I can’t go to Europe, then I at least want to take a trip within the U.S., probably this summer. I’m thinking East Coast this time, like New York or Washington DC. Maybe Boston if I can get a hold of a friend who lives there. I know DC is supposed to be pretty accessible; not so sure about NY. If you were me, where would you go?