Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Valedictory

I am writing this last blog post from a motel room located nine minutes from my brand spanking new home in California, land of my birth. This site will from this point onward be dark but still accessible by Google and all the other search engines that keep readers coming to this site in a steady trickle.
 
To my 40 followers, I apologize for abandoning you but I have very good reasons for discontinuing this blog, which has been a labor of love of mine for now onto 7 plus years.
 
I started this blog in June 2006 in protest to the illegal and immoral War in Iraq. A war based on lies and deceit. A war to enrich the cronies of the Bush Regime.
 
Which it did.
 
I enlarged the scope of the blog to include the antics of my soon-to-be indicted congressman, Tom Delay. And further, I included many issues in education. Texas is a hotbed of controversy in education. To be an educator and a blogger, but not to opine on education issues would be a non-starter with me.
 
I put up with a lot of guff and a lot of hate speech from commenters over the years, some of which I moderated through to publication to meet my own goals and self interest.
 
And I had fun doing all of it.
 
But it is time to move on. I have come to the realization that I needn't work any more, and that what I really want to do in life now is enjoy a retirement with my soul mate, plant a garden, help her enjoy her grand children - and maybe, just maybe, stir up some things in my new State Assembly District, my new State Senate District, and my new Congressional District - all seats occupied by Republicans. The difference is, here in California redistricting is done by an impartial panel, not a Klavern of Kontentious Konservatives as it is done in Texas.
 
So with malice toward none, and charity to all, I close with an acknowledgment that one should not ask what the country can do for you, but what you can do with your country, because I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.
 
With apologies to Abraham, Martin, and John.
 
And shame on you, Rand Paul. You son of a motherless plagiarizing goat.
 
 

Monday, November 04, 2013

"I'm Really Good At Killing People"

Have you heard about the latest political book by journalists/talking heads Mark Halperin and John Heilemann? The one called "Double Down?" It is really causing a lot of feathers to ruffle. Apparently these two journalists have found a source in the Obama Administration who has told them some really juicy stuff about internal - supposedly private - conversations in the White House.
 
One of the remarks, alleged to have come from President Obama, himself, has him saying "I'm really good at killing people."
 
And you know, I can hear him say that. That is the kind of flip remark that President Obama is known for. Every bit as flip - and every bit as true - as Dubya's remark that the richest 1% in the country consisted of "my base." President Obama is correct. He turned Osama bin Laden into fish food and continues to decapitate al-Qaeda.
 
And the Teabaggers can't stand it.
 
They are shocked, shocked I tell you, that the President could be so casual in his remarks about rendering the sworn enemies of the United States into greasy spots.
 
They call him "dangerous." They call him "bloodthirsty."
 
My. I did not know, had no idea, that the TEA Party was composed of such a bunch of bleeding heart pacifists. They make participants in the Peace Movement of the 60's and 70's pale in comparison.
 
They make the American sob sisters who so bemoaned the extermination of Native Americans in the 19th century look like Indian Haters.
 
"Lo, the poor Terrorist" should be their motto.
 
It is just amazing, isn't it, how such a vile hatred for a single individual who is guilty of being President while black will alter your political and social positions, turning hawks into doves at the drop of a hat.
 
Can't wait to hear what they will say when Obama comes out for capitalism.
 
Oh, wait. He already did that when he saved the American Auto Industry.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Couldn't Resist

Perusing websites looking for nerdy science jokes. My classes eat them up. Couldn't resist borrowing one for the website as it is 100 percent appropriate.


 
And then there is this one. Totally INappropriate.
 

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

So I Was Wondering...

whether you noticed that I wasn't posting blogs every day as has been my habit. So I looked at my views and have seen that yes, indeed, you have noticed it. My views have hit the floor. There is a reason that I have not posted blogs on the events of the day but I really don't  want to go into it right now because I have varied readers who don't need that information right now.
 
But I just wanted to make a plea to Texans about Proposition 6 on the Texas ballot this off-off-year election while no one goes to the polls. No one except for the truly wonky politicos among us. These constitution elections are so unsexy, no one votes in them.
 
Texas Proposition 6 is a constitutional amendment that gives the state legislature permission to release 2 billion dollars of the state's "rainy day fund" so that we can find new water supplies for the state.
 
Now don't get me wrong. We need water. We will need more water as the global climate shifts and Texas becomes more water poor. But here is the thing. A couple of years ago Texas had a little budget crisis and a few hundreds of thousands of Texas teachers were tossed out of their jobs so that school districts could balance their budgets and increase their class sizes.
 
And at the same time decrease education quality statewide.
 
What is more important, after all. Crops and crop supports for Texas farmers? Or education of the next generation? Because I am here to tell you that the next generation is behind. They have been put behind by past education policies that include NOT releasing the rainy day fund for education at a moment when it was most direly needed.
 
Farmers. Get your water from turnips, just as we educators had to squeeze every dollar allotted to us over the past two years.
 
Texas should vote NO on Proposition 6. Laissez faire. Let them survive in the marketplace. Education has done so. Why not farmers? Not one dollar for farmers that has been denied to Texas' children.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Say NO to Outsourcing

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Thursday, October 17, 2013

Vindictus

No one on our side thought that the Republican plan to defund Obamacare was going to work. Not us, not House Democrats, not Senate Democrats. The only ones who thought that they could win were the TEA Party Republicans. They thought that they had this deal in the bag. One of their leaders, Rand Paul, has recorded it on a live microphone. Give a listen.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/10/03/rand_paul_mitch_mcconnell_caught_on_hot_mic_talking_shutdown_strategy_were_gonna_win_this.html

What a hoot. These people are in the process of thrashing apart their own party, just as it is happening here in Fort Bend County. I was there at Pete Olson's Town Hall recently. I saw how Pete Olson whipped up his faithful to support Ted "The Dead" Cruz. They had him loved lock, stock and barrel.

Really, if there is anything left of the Republican Party after this fiasco,  God bless them. They have obliterated themselves from relevancy.

Hey, anyone out there who feels alienated by the Republican Party. Join winners. We have a great big tent and are willing to listen to all comers. It dilutes us, but we are the stronger for it. Come one, come all. The Democratic Party is a party of understanding. A party of love.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

The ACA Is a Conservative Healthcare Plan

Now I've known for a while now that the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was the conservative response to Hillarycare way back when a bill to provide us with a national healthcare plan was attempted in congress, and failed. What I did not know is that it was not only a conservative brainchild, it was the brainchild of a researcher working within the Heritage Foundation.
 
The Heritage Foundation. You know, the one currently being run by Jim DeMint? The one spending a half million bucks on an ad campaign to pressure a 100 congressmen who did not sign the Mark Meadows letter demanding that Obamacare be defunded by refusing to pass a budget bill until it is. Pressuring them to sign on, even as negotiations have drifted away from the Obamacare debate.
 
The Heritage Foundation.
 
They are now working against their own plan. You can read all about it at this website. It's a PDF file and has the Heritage Foundation's name all over it. And you'd think that they would have fired its author, Stuart M. Butler, for having authored this law that has been passed by congress and found to be constitutional by the Supreme Court, but no. He is still working there as a Distinguished Fellow and Director of their Center for Policy Innovation.
 
Here is an excerpt from the file:
"Many states now require passengers in automobiles to wear seatbelts for their own protection. Many others require anybody driving a car to have liability insurance. But neither the federal government nor any state requires all households to protect themselves from the potentially catastrophic costs of a serious accident or illness. Under the Heritage plan, there would be such a requirement."
Sound like a familiar argument? He actually was the guy who came up with the idea of the individual mandate. That was his idea.
 
He also came up with the idea of expanding Medicaid from not only covering welfare recipients but also the working poor.
 
One part of the ACA that he did not think of is the one where people with pre-existing conditions cannot be refused insurance, and pay as much as anyone else for their policy. But that is one thing that is so universally popular, no one, not even the Heritage Foundation, is talking against that provision.
 
So if you are of a conservative nature and oppose the ACA because it is a liberal notion, and no conservative would ever sign on to such a job-killing, people-killing law, think again.
 
The law came from your side. Not mine.

Friday, October 11, 2013

RFTC A Massive Failure

Well, you know the 10,000 trucks that were supposed to convoy to DC and stage a protest by snarling traffic on DC's Beltway starting today? All the truckers who were going to bring the Capitol to its knees? The one that has its own facebook page and website (with a "Donate" page attached)?
 
Thirty trucks showed up.
 
The rainy weather in DC today apparently had more of an impact on traffic than the 30 trucks.
 
"Ride For The Constitution" the protest is called. Apparently the Constitution is in some sort of trouble and it is up to truck drivers to set things aright again. One thing they want to do is impeach that Black President.
 
And Texas Republican bat-guano crazy congressman, Louie Gohmert is somehow involved in this. They plan on meeting Louie at the WWII Memorial to present him with a list of their demands. Demands like better wages, lower fuel prices, fewer trucking regulations...oh, and impeaching that Muslim President who is the Anti-Christ and "a threat to our national security."
 
Because passing Obamacare is a threat to our national security, but stopping traffic and commerce in our nation's is not.

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Defund Major League Baseball !!

OK, there is nothing that I can write tonight that will top this brilliant letter to TEA Party Republican Jack Kingston of Georgia. It seems that a disgruntled Braves fan wants him to outlaw Major League Baseball until the LA Dodgers (who won the NLDS pennant last night) relinquish their title. A title they won because the Braves "couldn't score enough runs."
 
Go and read it and then go to the update at the bottom and read Kingston's response. I am constantly in awe at what passes for humor with these guys. 

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Michele Bachmann: Congresstwit and Prophet

Michele Bachmann just said that because President Obama gave the Syrian opponents to the Assad Regime equipment to protect themselves from weapons of mass destruction - anti-chemical weapons gear - we are now verged on the End Times.
 
Armageddon is just around the corner because the President sent this gear to "al-Qaeda."
 
This is very odd. Why would the President authorize Seal Team 6 to run two simultaneous extractions of al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists in Somalia and Libya, and then move to support al-Qaeda in Syria?
 
But that's OK, Michele Bachmann interprets this move as a clear signal of the beginning of events leading to the 2nd Coming of Jesus.
 
Which is a good thing
"Rather than seeing this as a negative, we need to rejoice, Maranatha Come Lord Jesus, His day is at hand,” Bachmann added later. “And so when we see up is down and right is called wrong, when this is happening, we were told this; that these days would be as the days of Noah. We are seeing that in our time. Yes it gives us fear in some respects because we want the retirement that our parents enjoyed. Well they will, if they know Jesus Christ.” 
All of this seems so obvious to her but I can't help but wonder why Bachmann thinks she and she alone can see the writing on the wall. How does she know this when Jesus said this:
"No one knows when that day or hour will come —not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
Matthew 24:36
One thing she has gotten right, though, these days up is truly down and wrong is truly right.
 
 

Monday, October 07, 2013

Cruz Blues

Ted Cruz is starting to make himself unwelcome in DC and elsewhere. This is one ego maniac who people are shunning everywhere. Well, except for Sarah Palin, but then, yeah, that makes sense.
 
Today TEA Party Virginia governor-wannabe Ken Cuccinelli actually fled the room rather than share the stage with Ted Cruz. He is like a Typhoid Mary of TEA Party politics these days. Cuccinelli, by contrast, is sane.
 
And today I traced it all the way back to when Ted Cruz derailed himself. Yes it does go back to where he said Obamacare could be defunded - but it couldn't - but people didn't actually start laughing with derision at Cruz until his now-famous reading of Dr. Seuss.
 
It all proceeds from there. So in celebration, here is a Half Empty collection of the best cartoons from the internet, a collection that I am calling Cruz Blues.






Friday, October 04, 2013

Well That’s Just Discreditable

I learned a new word today. The word is “discreditable.” I read it, looked it up at dictionary.com and then used it in a sentence. That word is made mine, now.
 
I found it when I read that the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics against Texas Congressman Randy Neugebauer for “conduct that reflects discreditably upon the House.”
I saw the incident that CREW took offense to on MSNBC yesterday. It really was crass and arrogant, but those are Randy’s two middle names. Here is the clip that I got from HuffingtonPost.




















It has more content than what I saw which was cut down. The guy in the bike helmet laid into him pretty well, don’t you think? I don’t know why he was so calm, and maintained decorum because Neugebauer clearly did not.
Anyway, CREW makes a valid point in their complaint, one I’d like to quote:
“Rep. Neugebauer’s conduct violates House Rule 23 which requires all members of the House  to conduct themselves ‘at all times in a manner that reflects creditably on the House.’ This ethics standard is considered to be ‘the most comprehensive provision’ of the code. When this section was first adopted the Select Committee on Standards of Official Conduct of the 90th Congress noted it was included in the Code to deal with ‘flagrant’ violations of the law that reflect on Congress as a ‘whole’ and that might otherwise go unpunished.”

Neugebauer is unapologetic for this behavior. Yesterday on a Lubbock AM talk radio show Neugebauer twisted the whole thing around, blaming the park service for keeping “honor flights” from visiting the WWII veterans memorial, something that, quite to the contrary, they were doing. He also falsely claimed that he told her that she should be ashamed of the Park Service, when clearly he was bullying her about being ashamed.

CREW is making a federal case out of this exchange, literally, and my hope is that he gets his butt kicked over this one.

Thursday, October 03, 2013

In For the Win

Wendy Davis is going to run for Governor of Texas.
 
That's what she said in a mass email message that I got from her today. I imagine I got on her list because I remember sending her an email message with a personal anecdote on abortion rights because they needed on-topic material for her to read in her filibuster last June.
 
Don't know if she used it. It wasn't terribly inspiring but it was a true story.
 
Which I'm not going to share here, thank you very much.
 
I've been dubious about her chances recently because the GOP is so strong in this state and the people we need to come to the polls and vote just won't do that. But I just read this article and I think I am now less "Half Empty" about her chances.
 
Her polling shows that she trails her probable Republican opponent, Greg Abbott by 8 percent, but most of those polled have no opinion.
 
No opinion? Texans have no opinion about whether to vote for a Democratic state senator, and a woman to boot, and an old white man who is only marginally successful in his job as state attorney general?
 
No opinion? None?
 
Then there is hope.
 
When Ann Richards pulled out on top back in the 90's and beat Claytie Williams by 3 points it should be remembered that she started out 27 points below Williams. Wendy Davis has the same kind of tenacity that Ann Richards had. Wendy Davis is anything but a pushover.
 
And because of this Wendy Davis has nationwide name-recognition. 
 
But Greg Abbott? Who's Greg Abbott? Oh, yeah he's the straight man teamed with Lou Costello sometime back.
 

Monday, September 30, 2013

Letters, We Get Letters

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Saturday, September 28, 2013

A Congressman named Legion

Lots of people are making a lot about how Ted Cruz is single-handedly bringing the government to its knees as a government shutdown looms large on the horizon. But I just found out that Carnival Cruz is not the originator of this foul idea.
 
The original thought came from a congressman from North Carolina.
 
A Tea Party congressman who has served all of 8 months in that august body.
 
His name is Mark Meadows and he comes from western North Carolina. But we all know what his real name is, don't we? His name is Legion for they are many.
 
I discovered Mark Meadows at this CNN page.
In August, while lawmakers spent time in their districts, Meadows wrote a letter to his Republican leaders suggesting they tie the dismantling of Obamacare to the bill that funds the government for the next year.
 The letter read: "James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 58 that 'the power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon... for obtaining a redress of every grievance...'"
Meadows successfully convinced 79 of his colleagues to sign on to his letter. And he went further, leading a group of 40 lawmakers to demand that the continuing resolution, or the short-term government funding bill at issue, zeroes out funding for President Barack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement so far.
 
The TEA Party is ruining our country. They represent the worst of us. They are mean, nasty, and vile lower life-forms. They represent other mean, nasty, vile, lower life-forms that don't seem to be going away anytime soon. They are amateurs. They are playing at politics and are poor players.
 
But being mean, nasty and vile is the order of the day and we are all going to have to suffer the presence of these imbeciles up to and until they do something really damaging.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Skinner is Better, Anyway

There’s this Italian pasta maker who has found himself in some hot water.  And that seems appropriate. Guido Barilla, CEO of Gruppo Barilla, the world-wide group of food manufacturers, went on an Italian TV show the other day and confessed to having an acute case of homophobia when he told his interviewer this:
“I would never do an advert with a homosexual family.”
Now why he said that I do not know. I have never actually ever seen an advertisement that featured a homosexual family. So he must have been trying to make some sort of socio-political point where none is needed.
In other words, he was being an a**hat.
Then he went on to say this about potential homosexual customers:
“If they like our pasta and our message they will eat it; if they don’t like it then they will not eat it, and they will eat another brand.”

He sounds confrontational.

How macho.
 
And guess what? Homosexual people around the world are organizing a boycott against not only Barilla pasta, as I know his product here in America, but all products of the Barilla Group. And guess what is better? There are those of us among the straight community that also object to his homophobia and who will join our gay brothers and sisters in this boycott.
So if you want to join in the boycott of not only Barilla products but all of their products and brand names you are welcome to. I went ahead at some difficulty to find out all of their brand names. Difficulty because that particular part of their website seems to be very, very busy just now.
  • Barilla (where I live)
  • Filiz (in Turkey)
  • Misko  (in Greece)
  • Vesta  and Yemina (in Mexico)
  • Mulino Blanco  (???)
  • Pavesi (???)
  • Wasa (in Sweden)
  • Harry’s (in France)
And I just checked out my pantry. No Barilla.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

That Sam I Am...

So I hope all Texans who voted for him watched Ted "Carnival" Cruz orate from the well of the United States Senate yesterday.
 
Orate.
 
Lots and lots of people are talking today about how he, during prime time, opened a little skinny children's book written by Theodore Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) and read the entirety of his famous and delightful story, "Green Eggs and Ham."
 
I used to read it to my children at bedtime. I did it better than Cruz. I used voices.
 
Ted Cruz read "Green Eggs and Ham" to an empty chamber, and in the video I watched today, he feigned a full room as he talked, looking left, right and into the camera.
 
But in all the commentary, I have failed to see the most obvious truth about this story. The truth is, all you have to do is substitute the word "Obamacare" for "Green Eggs and Ham" and you have the story of the past, present and future of Obamacare vis-à-vis the American public.
 
Republicans just cannot stand Obamacare. Cannot. They would not have Obamacare in a house, and they would not have Obamacare with a mouse. They would not have Obamacare here nor there.
 
They would not have Obamacare anywhere.
 
And then, in the future, and maybe just to get all of us "Libtards" to shut up, they may just try some Obamacare.
 
Try it, try it, you will see.
 
Because when they try it, they are going to like it.
 
Ted Cruz couldn't have picked a better children's bedtime story than "Green Eggs and Ham" to illustrate the point that we have been making.
 
Try it. If you like Medicare, and you do, you're gonna love yourself some Obamacare.
 
 UPDATE: OK, all I have come across this evening is how Cruz is doing a Teddy Geisel. Fine. Think like me. It's the sincerest form of flattery, don't ya know.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Nope. No Shut Down This Time Either

Standup comic and political commentator Bill Maher came up with a great new verb the other night on his HBO show "Real Time." The new word is "blacktrack."
 
Blacktrack: v. The act of changing one's mind because President Obama has agreed with you.
 
Now the thesis to this post is that the much-anticipated government shut down on October 1st is not going to occur. A continuing resolution is going to pass and the mail will go on. And the reason for this isn't because President Obama agrees that a government shut down is a grand idea, so the reason the GOPers will change their tune isn't exactly blacktracking, but it's related.
 
See, Michael O'Brien over at NBC news has a good point. Should a government shut down occur, President Obama has an advantage. It is helpful to him for Republicans to shut down the government. Here is what he writes:
"But if Obama has at least one thing going for him heading into his battle against Republicans, it’s that poll after poll has shown that Americans don’t think that eliminating “Obamacare” is worth the cost of a government shutdown." 
"Republicans complain that it’s been Obama – not them – who is being inflexible in fiscal talks. But if the numbers are to be believed, a shutdown could reinvigorate Obama politically, and thereby likely decrease his willingness to cut a deal that is more favorable to Republicans. It could also strengthen his hand heading into next month’s fight over raising the nation’s debt ceiling."
All very good points. President Obama has everything to gain, and nothing to lose if the GOPers go through with their blackmail.
 
But this isn't blacktracking. It's related though. Maher calls it "pulling a one hatey."
 

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Obamacare Defundopalooza

It's the last day of summer 2013 and the Republicans are threatening to drive my country over a fiscal cliff...again.
 
So to celebrate, we have assembled the official Half Empty Obamacare Cartoon Defundopalooza. Enjoy.







Friday, September 20, 2013

A Great Day for Republicans

Oh what a great day to be a Republican in America. Today every single solitary Republican in the US House of Representatives voted to take the food out of the mouths of 4 million children and seniors by voting to drastically cut the federal food stamp program, SNAP. It will now be harder for some of the poor among us to get a meal.
 
But they weren't done. This do-nothing congress has reformed itself and moved on to more pressing issues.
 
Like getting rid of the health insurance of 30 million Americans.
 
Well, to be honest, this is the 42nd time they voted to repeal Obamacare, but this time they did it with the authority that should fill each and every American with awe...and pride.
 
They linked defunding of Obamacare to a shutdown of the federal government.
 
You want Obamacare? Gimme your social security check.
 
You want Obamacare? Good luck seeing a doctor with your Medicare account.
 
And the best thing? They are asking for your contributions to continue this work. It's true. Reince Priebus sent me an email announcing these good works with a big green "CONTRIBUTE" link at the bottom of it so I can throw them my hard-earned money so they can continue these works that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World would most certainly approve.
 

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Jesus Saves Tom DeLay

Well, good ol' Tom "Hot Tub Tom" DeLay got his felony conviction overturned by a Texas 3-judge appeals court today, and from a video you can see here, he is giving Jesus full credit.
 
"I just thank the Lord for carrying me through all of this."
 
But not one word of praise for Dick DeGuerin, his high-priced lawyer, or the two Republican justices on the 3-justice panel who overruled the Texas jury that found him guilty as sin. Jesus did all that.
 
...and later, reflecting on his future...
 
"...there's too much other things that the Lord wants me to do."
 
I just bet that not only Jesus has something for Tom to do, but Dick DeGuerin Probably has something that he wants DeLay to do.
 
Pay him.
 
So-called justice sometimes comes with a big price tag.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

It's Constitution Day

Smile. Two hundred and twenty-six years ago today the United States Constitution was formally signed by members of the First (and hopefully last) Constitutional Convention. It was ratified by the requisite number of states the next year.
 
So today we celebrate Constitution Day.
 
You know, with all the beer, piñatas and unbridled revelry.
 
Oh, wait, that's  El Cinco de Mayo.
 
On Constitution Day we don't do a darn thing, do we?
 
Well, I am about to change that. You need to go and take this quiz.
 
And no, I didn't get a perfect score. I missed one. Had no idea which state eschewed the Constitutional Convention and guessed wrong.

Monday, September 16, 2013

There She Is...

While we sort through the events at the Navy Yard in DC, I want to make sure that some of America's finest racist bigots get their tweets repeated on this blog.
 
Nina Davuluri is the newly crowned Miss America. She is the 2nd straight Miss New York to be crowned the title.
 
And she is brown-skinned.

 
She was made in America, so to speak, but of Indian-American descent. Not native American, mind you, but Indian-American.
 
And America showed its true colors once again via the twitter. Ignorance is bliss, some say, but in this case all I can say is ignorance is the true shame on America.
 
Here are some tweets from some twits:
"Are you serious? The Arab wins? This is miss AMERICA, not miss Arabia. Miss Kansas is in the Army and is a country girl. C'mon."
 
"This is miss America, not miss Terrorist."
 
"A Muslim Arab won miss America. They blow your shot (sic) up and you crown them. You bitches backwards."
 
"nice slap in the face to the people of 9-11 how pathetic."
 
"This is Miss America, not Miss Muslim."
I hate it when the trailer-dwelling crackers speak to the world for the rest of us.  
 
 
 
 

Sunday, September 15, 2013

My 14th Amendment Rights Trump Your 1st Amendment Rights

Social conservatives are taking a new tack in their never-ending quest to deny people of same-sex orientation their rights under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. You know, the one that says that we can't deny someone of their rights to equal protection of the law? The one that says that homosexual marriage cannot be denied to people because of all the legal benefits that marriage brings to people?
 
They have decided to use their right to the right of free speech as a wedge.
 
It devolves from a case that was decided in the New Mexico Supreme Court, where a gay couple was denied photographic services at their wedding because the photographer they asked opposed the very idea of same-sex marriage. They eventually found a photographer with a more tolerant point of view, but they took it to court anyway, charging that Elane Photography had violated a New Mexico state law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Supreme Court agreed that they had been discriminated against and found for the plaintiffs.
 
Elane Photography are trying to take it to the US Supreme Court on appeal.
 
Their argument?
"...forcing them to take pictures of same-sex ceremonies violates their First Amendment rights by compelling them to engage in speech they don’t believe in."
That's a bit of a reach. Free speech violation? How is that a violation of free speech. How indeed, since they are being paid for their services?
 
Besides that, it really opens up a can of worms. What if I did not believe in stopping at signaled intersections? Does requiring me to do so violate my right to free speech? Or even better, what if I did not believe in evolution by means of natural selection? Does requiring me to teach it to eager young minds violate my right to free speech?
 
I think we all know where this is going. It's all about religious intolerance, isn't it? This aversion to all things gay is not about personal free speech, it's about retaining one's persecution rights on religious grounds.
 
And that won't work either.
 
What if, for instance, I was an evangelical Christian who believed that the Mark of Cain was clearly indicated on the skin color of African-Americans? That being the case, the descendants of Cain, that fratricidal sociopath, deserve to be persecuted. This reasoning on the part of the photographers would allow me to legally discriminate on account of race.
 
Indeed, this very reasoning pervades among some few religious bigots to this day.
 
Nope. That's a dog that won't hunt. But it is amazing to what lengths that these homophobes will go to in order to persist in their intolerant beliefs and actions. Even to the extent that it perverts the rule of law.
 
So who, in the end is the pervert?