Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss Party is where they first articulate OSDE’s belief that the formula has corrected any harm done. Some of the introductory section is descriptive of the formula mechanics, though distorted, but the real argument with “proof” begins on page 13 through the end.
Here is pleading in the first litigation where OTC introduced the Stroud decision, at page 5, about current year property tax assessment error, and claimed it was relevant to MVC.
These are resources my granddaughter Sofia and I used for teaching Sunday school at College Hill Presbyterian Church. Here is the You Tube link for the class on August 13, 2023:
I have not thought much about Barbie dolls during my life, except that they were not consistent with the feminist movement that Linda and I generally embraced during our married life together from 1968 to 2021. As a result, our daughter, born in 1975, did not have a Barbie doll while growing up in our house. We never bought one for our granddaughter either. Therefore, I had absolutely no interest in seeing the new Barbie movie in the weeks leading up to its release on July 21 (my birthday), until the day before when it was determined that I would accompany my friend and daughter-in-law to the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego so they could shop the morning of July 21. I had less interest in shopping than in Barbie, but was motivated by a promised lunch and spending time with them. So, on a whim and desire to be a bit silly, I decided to see Barbie at its first 10 am showtime at the AMC Fashion Valley 18 theater.
I bought a ticket at the kiosk, ten minutes late, and made my way past women dressed in pink waiting for the 10:30 show time, to the theater. My worst fear—that it would be filled with girls and moms in pink wondering what an old geezer like me was doing there—was not realized so I sat alone in a mostly empty theater and watched as Barbies and Kens happily interacted with each other mindlessly in Barbieland. I was neither impressed nor entertained. So I decided to see how many other movies I could see part of before exiting for the world of shopping. Then the plot shifted to Barbie having some very human thoughts and I remained for the duration being surprisingly entertained. Here’s our synopsis of the story:
All Barbies and Kens live in Barbieland (later described as being like a town in Sweden) where every day is the best day ever and Barbies are its President, Supreme Court and do every thing else, except Kens who do “beach” only. The main character, stereotypical Barbie, is the original doll that was the ire of feminists and source of Mattel’s original success. It seems that Mattel adapted by turning out a variety of Barbies and Kens to capture woke consumer dollars.
So when stereotypical Barbie has her human thoughts she is told to go see Weird Barbie, where we see the infamous dashed lines off China’s coast. Weird Barbie tells her the human thoughts are coming from the human in the real world who has been playing with her and she must travel there and confront her human to get back her Barbie balance. She does so, with Ken joining along the way, by traveling to Venice Beach in Los Angeles.
There she finds her human handlers, a woke teenager who despises Barbies and what they stand for and her mother, who is her actual handler, and who works at Mattel. Out of nowhere the FBI informs Mattel that Barbie is in the real world and directs that she cannot be allowed to roam. Mattel tries to put her back in her box to avoid disruption of the real world.
Meanwhile Ken discovers his masculinity and the patriarchy in the real world and returns to Barbieland to empower the other Kens.
When Barbie’s handlers, mother and daughter, help her escape Mattel, they go with her back to Barbieland and find that the Kens have taken over and all the Barbies have assumed their subservient roles in the patriarchy. The mother handler gives a rallying speech, that you will hear in the sermon, and one by one the Barbies are rescued and work to divide the Kens. With the Kens thus distracted, the Barbies retake Barbieland through an election and all is well again. Except, stereo typical Barbie decides to return to the real world with her handlers and become human.
When I first googled “The Gospel according to Barbie” there was only one sermon posted, which we will listen to shortly. Now there is a second from a UCC church in North Hollywood, CA.
Beginning at the 49th minute Dr. Langlois uses the imagery of Barbieland being Eden with Barbie and Ken leaving for the real world and how they encounter the God’s love through their experiences. I highly recommend it as a thoughtful commentary and her experience watching Barbie was so similar to mine, BUT at 30 minutes it is too long to play this morning.
Instead let’s listen to the sermon from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco by Rev. Dr. Malcom Clemens Young, which includes a nice segue from the lesson we heard from Dr. Lisa Davison on Rowdy Broads of the Hebrew Bible: Women Who Get Things Done.
I suggest College Hill take up his challenge by inviting Jane Via, ordained as a Catholic priest and ministering at Mary Magdaline Apostolic Catholic Church in San Diego, to share her story here as a Harold Hill lecturer.
