An open letter to Florentino V. Floro, with introduction for those who have tuned in late

Apparently all it takes to get a visit from judge_floro—or one of his elves—is to mention his name. If I recall correctly a tidbit of the streaming wealth of material I've sifted already, Angel (the sister to either Luis or Armand, I forget which) has promised him worldwide fame. Being somewhat of a skeptic, I'd have to say spending twenty hours a day cutting and pasting a couple hundred links into comments on blogs and maintaining a presence on the top twenty social networking sites is a lot of work even for an elemental spirit like Angel, and it is likely that Floro or one or more of his human supporters is doing the bulk of the work. But the effort is, truly, inspired and likely to be effective at least in the short term.

I mentioned his name, made fun of his elves, and have received my own visitation. It's nothing special—nothing you can't get off the bio section of user profile page on LiveJournal—so I won't bother linking. I didn't perpetrate any serious satire against his elves other than mentioning some uses I might have for elves of my own, so I didn't receive any serious special attention.

Some people are touchy about their elves. In fact, if Kellogg and Keebler were as touchy as they ought to be, there'd be a couple million cease-and-desist notices flying around right about now for the more insipid imagery I've had to put up with during my reading.... But my tortured sensibilities hardly enter into this.

First I would like to apologize to the elves.

I have some respect for the spirits that live in rocks and trees and winds and the wild waters of the earth. I don't make a career of trafficking with them, but I've studied. Some I have summoned and experienced directly, some I have no knowledge of except by secondary effects, but I place some small amount of faith in them. However, these spirits are metals and semi-metals and non-metals and acids and salts and alkaloids and the bizarre suite of -anes, -enes, -ynes, -ones, -ols, -etc that make the chemistry of carbon so arcane, splendoriffic, and harrowing. I eat them, I breathe them, I drink them, and I use them to blow shit up. Twinkies® are made out of these spirits (and not just the organic ones). All hail the spirits. They are to be loved, respected, and occasionally feared.

But I don't worship them. That gives them ideas above their station.

There are spirits of the mind, too. Subtle patterns of light and sound and electrical potential and thought, delicate and volatile and untouchable and occasionally strong enough to bend horseshoes around and powerful enough to populate or depopulate continents. I study these too. I particularly study encoding these for ease of packaging and effectiveness of transmission. I don't necessarily eat them, drink them, or breathe them, but I'm not above using them to blow shit up. They are also to be loved, respected, and occasionally feared.

I don't worship them either. Ideas certainly do not need to get ideas above their station.

For those of you who missed the first episode, judge_floro is Florentino V. Floro and was for a number of years an active trial judge in the northern section of Manilla, in the Philippines. Floro is a religious man—a spiritual man—and claims to have received the gifts of healing and prophecy from God.

Fine. Lots of people are religious and/or spiritual and consider themselves to be healers and/or prophets. Our own President and many of our legislators make similar claims. Ask me for my opinion about that later, when we're back to discussing my tortured sensibilities.

Floro also had a career in a judicial system that accusers (including the semi-respectable James "The Amazing" Randi) claim is rife with corruption, where charges may be raised and lowered via the judicious application of the weight of currency to the scales of justice, and cushy government jobs are frequently just another form of currency. Floro is also one of those accusers. He claims his post was effectively sold out from under him, that he was never actually fired for reason of actual incompetence or bias (merely suspended from duty indefinitely), and that the more-or-less medical diagnosis of psychosis was used as a crowbar to remove him from the bench. He purports that the spirits who serve and advise him are, for the purposes of his judicial competency, a mere artifact of his religion and should not have any bearing on his ability to serve.

Mr. Floro, if you have been persecuted, ridiculed, or ostracized because of your religious beliefs, which are no weirder, when objectively viewed, than many others we find familiar and comforting, then I apologize for any disrespect. If you have lost your position of stability and respect and responsibility due to the political maneuverings a corrupt bunch of hypocrites who uphold the law when it suits them and feel free to abuse it when they think they can work around it to their own profit, then I apologize.

Mr. Floro, if you espouse ideas that interfere with your physical health and your relationships at work, at home, or with your friends, I do not apologize; but you have my sympathies. The aforementioned interference is the literal definition of illness. Ideas can make you ill as well as healthy, and sometimes cause damage in one area while curing something else. They're tricky bastards like that. Don't forget that religious beliefs are, at bare minimum, ideas to be loved, respected, and occasionally feared. If you realize you might have an illness, however, it's your responsibility to look for a cure. If you have an illness and don't realize it, then it's the responsibility of your friends, family, church, and/or government to shield you from further harm and help you get help.

Mr. Floro, if you espouse ideas that you transmit to others that causes them harm, then I hope you understand that's an act of violence. And I'm sure I don't have to explain to a judge that violence is never innately just or unjust; but if it's not justified it is unarguably unethical or immoral or criminal. In any case it's pretty much the opposite of healing unless it's actually part of a medical procedure—and even then it's a risk. If you use rare gifts, talents, and special abilities to commit violence against others who don't have similar rare gifts, talents and special abilities to defend themselves, then this makes you, at best, a bully, especially if those uses are petty or self-serving—whether or not the violence is justified.

Retribution is petty and self-serving. Even if you disclaim any responsibility for the actions of your spirit associates, you're responsible for your associations. If you can encourage them to heal others, then you can discourage them from harming others. If you are a holy man and a healer, you won't take credit for their benevolences and hide behind them snickering for their malignancies on your behalf. That sort of behavior is unethical, irresponsible, and pathetic. I hope that's not what you're doing. Although you have said yourself that you are much in favor of curses falling on your enemies and innocent members of their families. I believe you have made your position clear.

I'm curious to know why you'd even want your job back. There's a hundred pages of legal opinion and documentation showing that it would be hell on earth for you if you went back. You can make more money and have more power as a lawyer or legal consultant. Or a healer/prophet/evangelist.

I invite discussion and dialog here, Mr. Floro. If you want to come here and leave responses and discuss things with myself and my other readers, feel free. But this is my blog, my journal, and my forum. If you're pasting a hundred links in comments here just so Angel can increase your fame and world-wide impact, then that is abusive, and you're inviting "ungodly retribution" from my own elf-buddy Cracker (mentioned in my previous post).

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