- Doctor Who “The Girl Who Waited” – okay, that was creepy, disturbing, awesome. You’ve earned your pay for the week, if not whole season.. #
- Amazingly bright full moon this a.m. Pretty. #
- ST:TOS Rewatch “Shore Leave”: Crew on stupid pills. Shoot that just-found gun! Samurai, rly? McCoy fails his Disbelieve roll! Finnegan FTW! #
- Kay’s intramural athletics requires not one but two different cards with contact numbers, insurance info, etc.? Arrgh! #stupid #irksome #
- I keep missing when the next insane #GOP debate is going on. Perhaps the Universe is looking after my blood pressure. #
Category: Elections 2012
Unblogged Bits (Thu. 8-Sep-11 2330)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Colorado doctors still accepting money from drug companies – The Denver Post – Caesar’s doctor must be beyond reproach.
- 5 Things That Are Way Easier Than They Look in Movies | Cracked.com – It’s amusing that, for all the things that movies make seem so easy, that there are things that movies make look overly hard (or, at least, “professional”).
- Rick Perry Says It’s ‘Misinformation’ To Suggest He Wants To Abolish Social Security | ThinkProgress – Methinks the candidate demurreth too much.
- 4th Circuit Upholds Rule of Law in Healthcare Case | People For the American Way Blog – Good news for ACA proponents (e.g., self), but … I’m always a bit hinky about “standing” rulings (as they cut in all directions in often nonsensical ways). I am glad to see that the individual mandate is recognized by a court as the equivalent of a federal tax; I think, on that basis, it will be far more difficult to challenge as something outre.
- APOD: 2011 September 4 – In the Shadow of Saturn – Glorious. You want justification for NASA’s budget? Here you go.
- Relive 45 years of Star Trek in one handy timeline – Nice.
- Get the dayum gubmint out of our lives! – Wait …. was Bachmann (and her cohorts) advocating price controls? No, of course not. That would offend her (et al.) corporate sponsors.
- So is Boehner suggesting the US government regulate all drug prices?: John Aravosis (DC)
- John Boehner: Most Americans Would Choose Football Over The President – If the GOP were really interested in reducing the role of the President to that of Prime Minister, it might be a defensible position. But I have no doubt that the disrespect that the GOP presently shows to Obama will be denounced as near-treason at such time as the GOP retakes the White House. I hate hypocrisy.
- Amazon cuts deal with California on Sales Tax collection – Interesting. Well, perhaps the Affiliate programs will then return to Colorado …
- Press reaction: Rick Perry, shallow thinker – My initial impression of Perry was that he was a slick Texan politician mouthing conservative thinking to earn votes. I’ve become more and more convinced I was giving him far too much credit.
- Junk Code – SMBC September 08, 2011 – Django!
- What Good Is a Legal Right to Record Police Activity – If the Cops Target You When You Do It? – Until the police who abuse their powers actually face penalties for their actions, they will continue to abuse their power … and discredit the law throughout society.
- Publishers Are Squandering Their Cachet On Imprints – Unknown but class-sounding imprints are of value only when there’s a base assumption of quality. I have to wonder — if publishers insist on maintaining these “elite” imprints, will they eventually subtitle them (“Gnosticon – a Random House imprint”)?
- Unclear on the concept – “Science is not determined by public opinion, and you don’t settle it by running a poll. Shall we vote on math, chemistry, physics, psychology, history, literature, and Spanish, too?”
- Quote of the Day – Yup.
- Judge Rules That South Bend City Council Cannot Give $1,200,000 to Private Catholic School – No, they can’t. And they shouldn’t. If a church school really a new football field and athletic track, I’m sure the faithful will support them in the effort without involving all the taxpayers of the city.
GOP Lying Talking Points for the 2012 Election (Collect the Whole Set!)
This was originally titled “Mitch McConnell is a Dolt (You Lie! Edition),” but I thought this title would be more search-worthy.
That Sen. Mitch McConnell — GOP leader in the Senate — is a partisan hack almost goes without saying. But he’s now chimed in on the Senate Floor with the new Big Lie from the Republicans — that not only did the Stimulus plan in 2009 not help (“Not one single job!” was the previous falsehood), but that it actually made unemployment worse. How that happened, he doesn’t explain, but he includes it in a few paragraphs of prevarication that are almost breathtaking in their faux talking points:
And we also know this: the economic policies this President has tried have not alleviated the problem.
In many ways, in fact, they’ve made things worse. Gas prices are up. The national debt is up. Health insurance premiums are up. Homes values in most places continue to fall. And two and a half years after the President’s signature jobs bill was signed into law, 1.7 million fewer Americans have jobs.
So, I’d say that Americans have 1.7 million reasons to oppose another Stimulus. And that’s why many of us have been calling on the President to propose something different tonight. Not because of politics. But because the kind of policies he’s proposed have failed. The problem here isn’t politics. The problem is policy.
Let’s look at these points one at a time, because not only is the new GOP talking paper, each blurb is basic enough that I guarantee you will hear the above statements so many times over the next 15 months you’ll be muttering them in your troubled sleep.
“Gas prices are up.”
This, of course, is largely out of hands of any US economic policy. Look first at the cost of crude oil:
So, over the past five years, world oil prices have gone up and down, but have trended up. World oil prices have been going up, in general, since the Obama Administration began, but not through any policy decisions one way or another. The US (short of, ahem, invading oil producing countries) has very little effect on crude oil pricing.
Compare that to gasoline prices:
You can see that US gas prices mirror World Petroleum Prices.
How could we immunize ourselves to that effect? I guess the “economic policy” that Mitch wants is to “Drill, Baby, Drill,” but any reasonable amount of increased oil extraction would be a literal drop in the bucket. The US produces 8.5 million barrels of oil a day, currently, 1.5 million of them offshore. That’s 10% of the world’s production, or a third of what the Middle East produces.
But we consume 23% of the world’s supply, or 230% of what we produce, about 19.7 million barrels per day. Does anyone think it likely we can more than double our oil production domestically (or increase it by 13x if we look just offshore)? Or that doing so wouldn’t end up with further major environmental degradation and related problems? We’d be better off by far (and more likely to succeed) trying to reduce our consumption (through conservation and through shifting our power demands to things other than petroleum).
The worst I can say here is that the Obama administration has not done a lot to solve the problem, but that’s largely in the face of GOP opposition and not a lot that it can do on its own. Obama’s hardly responsible for making things worse.
“The national debt is up.”
Um … so what?
And if that’s a sign of economic policy failure, I have to wonder where Mitch has been the past three decades or so …
That’s not to say that willy-nilly spending is a good thing — but spending to jumpstart an economy that’s shedding jobs is, in fact, pretty standard economic fare. Tax cuts don’t reduce debt; jobs reduce debt, and tax cuts don’t necessarily equate to job growth. As we’ve seen the past decade or so.
“Health insurance premiums are up.”
Also in the news, Dog Bites Man!
As you can see, health insurance premiums have been going up for decades in this country. I don’t recall Mitch haranguing Dubya about it on his watch.
But what, one might ask, about Obamacare? While there are some early steps going on with the Affordable Care Act already, many of its provisions don’t kick in for another few years, by design (and through negotiation), so any effects it will have on health insurance premiums aren’t likely to be seen until then. Yes, I’m not thrilled by that, but I don’t blame Obama (too much) on it.
As to the most obnoxious item on the graph above, that Workers’ Contributions to Premiums are way up … well, I suspect Mitch would be the first one to be screaming if Obama proposed a law to keep that from happening. I also suspect he’s not all that concerned about the underinsured that the ACA would address (in a way that the free market has failed to).
“Home values in most places continue to fall.”
Yes, remarkably enough, with a stagnant economy, stagnant jobless rates, and banks continuing to foreclose on people as fast as their robosigners can scribble a false date at the bottom of the paperwork, housing prices are still down.
That trend started in 2006, I believe. Was Mitch declaring Dubya and the GOP a failure for declining housing prices?
I agree that the Obama Administration could have done more — much, much more — to tackle this problem. The problem is, it’s all stuff that Mitch (and the rest of the GOP) would have had a stroke over: debt forgiveness, debt assumption by Federal agencies, rate negotiations in court, actually punishing banks and lenders and rating agencies for cooking the books on loan quality and loan “investment” package soundness, etc. Indeed, for all the relatively weak beer of financial reform that the Obama Administration did manage to push through, it was over the struggles of the GOP (Mitch included), who have done their darnedest since then to gut those reforms or keep them from taking place.
Don’t blame housing price declines on the Obama Administration, Mitch.
(One might also consider the number of economists who think part of the fall is not bad times, but a housing market that remains overinflated, esp. when American wages are stagnant or in decline. Neither of those are stats I think Mitch would want to actually discuss, let alone lend credence to.)
Regardless — there are millions of empty homes out there, with nobody with jobs who can afford to buy them. That’s why housing prices are still tumbling. I seriously doubt Mitch has any counter-proposals to magic that away.
“Two and a half years after the President’s signature jobs bill was signed into law, 1.7 million fewer Americans have jobs.”
This was an echo of Bill O’Reilly the previous night (an amazing coincidence, I’m sure): “Massive government spending has only increased unemployment – from 7.8% when Mr. Obama took office to 9.1% now.”
As Twain commented, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. In this case, Mitch and Bill fall into the latter two categories. To wit:
Note that lovely upward slope running through 2008. You know, the year the Great Recession started, while the GOP held the White House and House. That 2008.
Not surprisingly, that curve continues into 2009. Because, remarkably enough, the President can’t wave a magic wand upon taking the Oath of Office and turn a crumbling economy around by Day 2.
And, in fact, note that the rate does level off, and then even drops a bit, through 2009 and into 2011. Because that whole Stimulus package? It actually did a nice job of putting the brakes on the free-fall, even if it wasn’t enough — and wasn’t followed up enough — to actually significantly reduce unemployment. For which I blame both the Obama Administration and the GOP.
Which brings me to the next graph.
So, again, we have the nadir of job loss, month-by-month, occurring at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 … at which point, the Obama administration starts to get policies in place and stimulus packages passed. And, hey-presto, things start to turn around …
… through the early part of 2010, at which point, matters begin to stall. What happened?
What we see is that, until the most recent months, there’s been a strong growth in private sector jobs (you know, the “good” jobs that Ayn Rand would approve of). But there’s been a big cut in public sector jobs (federal and state workers, first responders, teachers, that parasitic sort of thing). The Stimulus ran out, and state governments in particular, reliant on Federal stimulus funds (like Rick Perry’s Texas) — and after the Tea Party victories in the 2010 election — cut back on payrolls.
So there’s been decent private sector growth, offset by reductions in government employment spending.
And so, the past few months, job growth has been largely flat.
Of course, Mitch, and his TP cronies, will argue that public sector jobs aren’t “real” jobs. That they are often unionized. That they are parasites on the taxpayers. That we’d be better off without them. Sure, that means people losing jobs, but, somehow, they aren’t “real” or “important” jobs.
Which begs the issue of why, if jobless rates are flat because public sector layoffs are matching private sector hiring, Mitch is so frenetic in his criticism of Obama.
But, then, Mitch is a political hack, whose official political goal is to make Obama a one-term president.
Which is why we should give his doltish proclamations just the weight they deserve.
(via AmericaBlog)
Unblogged Bits (Wed. 24-Aug-11 2330)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- There’s a time and a place for this sort of thing, and it’s called “College” – HA!
- Wendy Wright’s New Job: Stopping The Girl Scouts’ “Radical, Feminist, Pro-Abortion” Agenda – Yes, you should just hear my daughter lecturing us on the need for taxpayer-supported abortion, lesbianism classes in public schools, and buying more boxes of Thin Mints.
- ‘Joe the Plumber for Congress’ Could Actually Happen [Candidates] – Oh, for crying in a bucket … FIFTEEN MINUTES, PEOPLE! IT’S UP NOW!
- The concept car that survived a civil war [Monterey Auto Week] – Weird … and cool.
- A Man Found a Mysterious, Possibly Mafia-Connected Safe Inside a Casino Wall and Plans to Open It Live on the Internet [Security] – I vote for the “disappointing” option (sadly). You don’t bury a safe behind an wall (without a door) to hide it; you do that when it’s too inconvenient to move during a renovation.
- Combat Cavities By Re-Growing Your Decaying Teeth [Science] – Ooooooh …
- Ineffable Aether – Light in the Dark – Greg Rucka on the issues of grittiness, sophistication, and the Hollywood machine. Good stuff.
- David Foster Preparing to Pitch New ‘Star Trek’ Series – I’d certainly welcome and watch a new ST series — if it were any good. And I’d give it a try regardless.
- Leaked Cable: McCain Promised Qaddafi To Help Secure Military Equipment From U.S. – Maybe McCain can be asked about this during one of the next of his several dozen appearances on a Sunday press show. HA! Of course he won’t be.
- Feingold’s Progressives United To Push Dems To Walk Away From Bad Super Committee Deal – It’s nice to think that the Dems could actually stick together that well. I’ve yet to see it happen.
- Senate holds first non-ceremonial session off Capitol grounds in nearly 200 years – 2chambers – The Washington Post – “We were able to conduct our business …” of playing politics in obstructing recess appointments. Yes, great job, guys, in continuing the (political) business of the Senate, even in the face of natural disaster.
Sorry, Mitt — they still aren’t people
Mitt Romney tries the warmer, personal approach, trying to come across as a Nice Guy who (still) just thinks the Corporations (not unlike Soylent Green) are People.
At Wednesday’s town hall, Romney said: “Corporations — they’re made up of people. They’re just groups of people that come together for work. When you say tax corporations — the steel and the vinyl and the concrete, they don’t pay taxes. Only people do.”
Yes. The premium shareholders. The CEOs and top officials. They’re “just” people. Making very, very big bucks from the very, very big megabucks that the corporations make.
But, of course, the point of corporations was to limit personal responsibility (by people) in the liabilities of the company they formed. The people who are receiving the largesse of the corporations aren’t actually the corporation themselves. If Exxon-Mobil goes bankrupt, the creditors don’t get to go after the bank accounts of the CEO and the stockholders (though the company pension funds of the janitors and clerks are fair game).
So, no, Mitt — a corporation isn’t just the people that work for it.
Further, corporations are taxed on their profits, not their revenues. So the “expenses” of, say, the company payroll aren’t what a corporate tax is taking away from. The folks most directly hurt are those who are in profit-sharing plans, and (I believe — and I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong) those who are getting dividends.
Now, those profits may be saved to some later time for investment in other business-expanding capabilities, or acquisitions, etc. But while taxes can, in fact, affect a corporation in a negative way, and through it the society it operates in, to somehow make that the direct equivalent of affecting the poor, beknighted “groups of people that come together for work” is more than a bit disingenuous.
“I know there are people that don’t like business,” he said. “I like business. . . .
Business is useful. It serves a societal role. It serves society and the people of society.
It is not, itself, one of those people. It is not drafted. It is not endowed by its founders with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Businesses do not cry, nor laugh. If you prick them, they do not bleed. They cannot be imprisoned, nor do they possess a soul (or qualia).
I like what business can do as a mechanism. Not as a peer.
If we go into attacking one another as Americans and criticizing and scapegoating businesses or enterprise or even the financial-services sector or banks, if we find people to go after, we will fall divided.”
Really? Do we have examples of societies or nations that fell because businesses and banks were criticized? Really?
Businesses are not people (though they are governed by people). Businesses have no citizenship — they are not eligible to vote (yet), nor to run for office. They are governed by the laws of the nation, but hold no particular allegiance or nationality, except as might leach through from their founders or operators.
One cannot attack a business and be rightfully accused of attacking “an American.” Business give no pledge to the flag; they simply operate by the laws of the land (in theory) and are subject to civil (not criminal) penalties should they break those laws.
On the other hand, I wouldn’t suggest “going after” Bank of America, or Goldman-Sachs, or BP, or Exxon-Mobile, or Wal-Mart, for anything in particular — because they aren’t moral agents. They act at the behest of their boards, their executives. Those are the folks who bear the moral weight of the actions of the companies and the companies’ workers — and if there is a point to “going after” a given company, it’s to punish those who profit by it.
As for taxes on corporations, I wouldn’t impose them willy-nilly — to the extent that corporations are useful to society and the people as a whole (and only to that extent), I’m happy to see them prosper.
On the other hand, I think people should pay taxes, according to their ability. And, in just that case, I would say that corporations should indeed be treated like people. If not moreso.
Unblogged Bits (Wed. 24-Aug-11 1130)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Ron Paul’s Strange Freedom | ThinkProgress – Better to for the media to publicize (and mock) Paul’s zany and dangerous ideas than to simply decide that, despite support in polls and other early campaign activities, Paul should simply be ignored. That’s making the news, not reporting the news.
- Since 9/11, Koch Industries has fought against tougher government rules on chemical plants
- National Zoo Animals React to the Earthquake – National Zoo| FONZ – “According to keepers, the giant pandas did not appear to respond to the earthquake.” Ha!
- Disney Parks Mobile Magic App Now Free for Verizon Customers | The Disney Blog – Spiffy. Now, if only I were going to a Disney park some time soon.
- Case closed: “Climategate” was manufactured | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine – “Those are simply the facts. It’s not hard to connect them, as long as you stick to reality and don’t let ideology sway you.” Yeah, well, there’s the problem.
- Joe. My. God.: FLORIDA: Suspended Anti-Gay Teacher Defends Facebook “Cesspool” Rant – The issue here is not a matter of whether the teacher has the right to free speech, but how his speech affects his work environment. It’s an uncomfortable tension between free speech and the consequences thereof. For all his language about “respecting” and “loving” all his students, his language about same-sex unions making him nauseous and gay relationships being a “cesspool” also speak loudly. If he had said this about Christians, I suspect the Liberty Counsel would have been calling for his head.
- The 2012 despair of the right’s intelligentsia – I would give them a Nelson Laugh, except that those are the GOP candidates — and possible President — that all of us are stuck with, too.
- The politics of an earthquake – “Indeed, if we’re going to have a substantive discussion about politics, policy, and natural disasters, perhaps the better place to start would be with Republican efforts to cut funding for the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes, and mocking investments in studying seismic activities.”
- Time spent using Tupperware – The Oatmeal – Yup. Esp. these days, when so many things come in Tupperware-like, reusable, sealable, not-quite-compatible containers. Because you can’t throw them away, because that would be wasteful!
- What’s Obama Reading? – Tevi Troy – National Review Online – Oh, for crying out loud. I didn’t care for armchair-over-psychoanalyzing when it was Dubya, and I care for it even less when it’s Obama. I think it’s a Good Thing if Obama is reading some non-fiction, some mysteries, some things he can enjoy, some things not directly involved in being President. Heaven knows he’s still dealing with that role, 24×7, on “vacation” or not.
- History’s End In Tripoli – Interesting. And not something particularly visible (almost by definition).
- Political Animal – Rick Perry and ‘The 5,000 Year Leap’ – The man who would be President …
- 527 – The St. Michael Line: a Straight Story? – I’ve actually been to several of the sites listed (hill forts, stone circles, barrows and the like are a dime a dozen in the West Country, though still cool for all that).
- Star Trek Cat Tree – Hmmmmm …
Rick Perry loves the Constitution, except where it’s EVIL!
The US Constitution is a great thing. It’s not perfect, by any means — it has been amended over a couple dozen times, but then, that’s not bad for over two centuries track record. So I don’t object to revisions to the Constitution per se, but I object to ones that I think are goofy.
Which brings me to Rick Perry, who laid out in his book Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington (aside from, y’know, all those constitutional provisions like, y’know, voting) an array of suggested constitutional changes to Make Things All Better.
Let’s take a look at the Amendments That Would Be the Constitution, from The Man Who Would be President.
1. Abolish lifetime tenure for federal judges by amending Article III, Section I of the Constitution.
“‘[W]e should take steps to restrict the unlimited power of the courts to rule over us with no accountability. There are a number of ideas about how to do this. … One such reform would be to institute term limits on what are now lifetime appointments for federal judges, particularly those on the Supreme Court or the circuit courts, which have so much power. One proposal, for example, would have judges roll off every two years based on seniority.”
The Founders explicitly decided on lifetime federal judgeships. That’s for two very good reasons.
First, federal judges (including those on the Supreme Court) are appointed by the President, and then approved with the Advise and Consent of the US Senate. Thus, there’s already a political vetting element of the appointments, further demonstrated by the increasing stonewalling of such consent from Senators of the opposite party of the President (whether or not in the majority).
Second, the Founders recognized that the importance of their roles demanded political independence. While federal judges can be removed from office for serious offenses, they are not subject to reelection or reconfirmation. To be so means that too many judges would rule in law based, not on what they believe the law and the Constitution says, but based on what would get them reelected — just as politicians do.
Perry thinks that means they would be “accountable.” I say that would make judges more political. I don’t think that’s a good thing.
The idea of term-limiting federal judges is equally problematic. While, arguably, it would make them more reflective more more recent political choices (Presidents and Senators alike), it would both reduce the experience of our federal judiciary and only worsen the already critical shortages of federal judges due to Senatorial interference.
While the idea of Antonin Scalia being term limited has its attraction, I don’t see it overall as a critical problem to want to see things changed.
2. Congress should have the power to override Supreme Court decisions with a two-thirds vote.
“[A]llow Congress to override the Supreme Court with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, which risks increased politicization of judicial decisions, but also has the benefit of letting the people stop the Court from unilaterally deciding policy.”
This is silliness, on two levels: First, a goodly number of SCOTUS decisions are not invalidations of congressional laws vs. the Constitution, but interpretation of laws. When laws are overturned, SCOTUS usually gives the direction by which the laws could address their objections. In the vast majority of cases, Congress can already act to address SCOTUS’ objections.
Second, consider what this would really mean. Congress could, with a two-thirds majority, do whatever they wanted, Constitution be damned. Outlaw a particular religion (even, gasp, Christianity?). Now possible. Shut down a newspaper? Outlaw gun ownership? Just a two-thirds vote.
In short, it allows Congress to pass its own Constitutional Micro-Amendments by a two-thirds majority, without requiring any input from the states. That seems highly dangerous, no matter what party is in power.
3. Scrap the federal income tax by repealing the Sixteenth Amendment.
Perry calls the Sixteenth Amendment “”the great milestone on the road to serfdom.”
I call Perry’s statement a great milestone on the road to hyperbole.
Prior to the Federal Income Tax, the federal government was mostly funded by various excise taxes (which, one would think, would be anathema for the GOP’s business allies). Indeed, the excise tax on alcohol made up a huge proportion of the federal income, and the federal income tax was pushed forward by the temperance movement as a way to make Prohibition even possible.
(Ironically, the wealthy businessfolk of the nation were a key constituency in the eventual overthrow of Prohibition, with the idea that this would then allow the income tax to dwindle away. Unfortunately for them, it happened during the New Deal …)
Perry’s writes that it provides a virtually blank check to the federal government to use for projects with little or no consultation from the states.
Yes, because the states have nothing to do with the membership of Congress. Um … what?
4. End the direct election of senators by repealing the Seventeenth Amendment.
“The American people mistakenly empowered the federal government during a fit of populist rage in the early twentieth century by giving it an unlimited source of income (the Sixteenth Amendment) and by changing the way senators are elected (the Seventeenth Amendment).”
The Seventeenth Amendment didn’t reduce the powers of the states — each Senator is, of course, elected by their state residents — but of the state legislatures, who previously got to do it (making it a highly political matter). I don’t have a problem with that, though I can understand why a state governor like Perry might. After all, what state government leader wouldn’t want to be able to power broker a US Senator’s election?
5. Require the federal government to balance its budget every year.
“The most important thing we could do is amend the Constitution–now–to restrict federal spending. There are generally thought to be two options: the traditional ‘balanced budget amendment’ or a straightforward ‘spending limit amendment,’ either of which would be a significant improvement. I prefer the latter. … Let’s use the people’s document — the Constitution — to put an actual spending limit in place to control the beast in Washington.”
Balanced Budget amendments try to put forth by law something congresscritters have a hard time doing themselves: control spending. Of course, there are times when spending should be higher than income (and other times when it’s good to, in theory, put some away for a rainy day). It’s ironic that the GOP is so hep on this particular Constitutional tweak, given that the last federal budget surplus was frittered away by their own party.
6. The federal Constitution should define marriage as between one man and one woman in all 50 states.
“I do respect a state’s right to have a different opinion and take a different tack if you will, California did that,” Perry told the Christian Broadcasting Network in August. “I respect that right, but our founding fathers also said, ‘Listen, if you all in the future think things are so important that you need to change the Constitution here’s the way you do it’.”
Because we need another Constitutional Amendment actually restricting personal rights. Because that worked so well last time. And it’s so in keeping with the foundational tone of the Constitution.
Perry’s suggestion that this is really about state’s rights because Constitutional Amendments require 3/4 of the states to pass them is … laughable, at best, given that it would overturn existing state laws.
7. Abortion should be made illegal throughout the country.
In the same Christian Broadcasting Network interview, Perry said that he would support a federal amendment outlawing abortion because it was “so important…to the soul of this country and to the traditional values [of] our founding fathers.”
See #6. This is another case where Perry has backtracked on his “states rights” record in the face of conservative pressure. And rather than impacting a small percentage of the population (not that that would justify it), this would personally, directly affect half of all Americans. Sounds like a great example of conservative principles.
(via Pharyngula, who has his own set of objections)
Unblogged Bits (Wed. 17-Aug-11 1731)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- First Glimpses inside J.K. Rowling’s Magical Online World of Pottermore – Hmmmm. Not sure it’s my cuppa, but it could be fun.
- Palin tour comes to abrupt halt – POLITICO.com – Again? Ho-hum.
- POTUS Addresses ObamaCare: ‘If the Other Side Wants to be the Folks Who Don’t Care – Fine With Me’ – That’s moderately clever of him. If he sticks to it.
- Dogmatic Arrogance: The Picture of the 2012 Presidential Elections – “The vice of refusing to compromise is the vice of arrogance.”
- Eric Boehlert: Did News Corp. Cover Up U.S. Computer Hacking? – I certainly wouldn’t be surprised.
- What does Android, iOS say about you? [Infographic] – One of the attendees at our meeting pulled this infographic out, which raises a fair amount of discussion between Android owners like me and Those Other People.
- Big Tobacco Sues FDA Over Ghastly Warning Photos – While I have a small amount of appreciation for the cigarette companies’ argument here — the fact is, they are cigarette companies and deserve anything that comes to them. That’s not a reasoned response, but it’s mine nonetheless.
- Disney Exec Says Tentpole Movies are About Spectacle, Not Story. Is He Right? – The list indicates to me that spectacle might get the first weekend or two into the theaters, but story on top of spectacle are what drive subsequent weekends, repeat viewings, video purchases, etc.
- ‘Lone Ranger’ May Not Be Dead Yet – Still shaking my head over Depp as Tonto.
- Missouri School Sued For Allegedly Making Special Ed Student Write Apology Letter To Her Rapist – (Grinds teeth …)
- TOM THE DANCING BUG: Hey, Kids! The World You’re On… has CORPORATIONS! – HA!
- Improved dating process upsets timeline of Moon formation – See? This is the cool thing about SCIENCE: it keeps looking for answers, even if it knocks down previously accepted answers in the process.
- Obama NM campaign manager publicly blasts Krugman, liberal blogs, insinuates comparison with Teabaggers: John Aravosis (DC)
- When Rick Perry Badmouths The Stimlulus Package Remember That He Benfited From It – Actions speak louder than ugly words.
- Airman Goes AWOL In Germany Because Internet Says Obama’s Birth Certificate Is Fake (VIDEO) – Regardless of whether he’s AWOL or not, I’m glad he’s no longer authorized to bear firearms in defense of the country.
- The Daily Mail knowingly and commercially used my photos despite my denying them permission. – Stay classy, Daily Mail!
- Geller: Republicans Allied With Norquist Are Tied To The Muslim Brotherhood – Aw, c’mon, Pam, do NOT make me actually say something in defense of Rick Perry …
- Homeopathy multinational sues blogger over statements that its mythological curative had “no active ingredient” – Homeopathy strikes me as one of the biggest scams of all time.
Ron Paul just can’t get no respect
While it’s difficult to conceive of a circumstance when I would actually vote for Ron Paul, and while some ideas he holds that can only kindly be characterized as “lunatic,” I have to give the man his due: he is an iconoclast, consistent in his lunacy, speaking truth (or at least his opinion) to power, and unwilling to mouth the general array of GOP dog-whistle talking points.
Which is perhaps why the media seems so determined to ignore him.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Indecision 2012 – Corn Polled Edition – Ron Paul & the Top Tier | ||||
| ||||
Hang in there, Ron! Even though you’re not as sexy as Sarah, as coiffed as Rick, as well-moneyed as Mitt, or as utterly nuts as Michelle … you outclass all of them.
Unblogged Bits (Fri. 12-Aug-11 2330)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Al Mohler on Adam and Eve vs. The Facts – A nice examination of skepticism vs denialism.
- Democratic Dolchstoßlegende by David Atkins – I got a call today from the Obama 2012 campaign, which started with thanking me for my support and invoking Karl Rove to trigger my fear response. And I cut off the nice lady and said, “I’m not giving anything right now, thank you,” and hung up. I have little doubt that, as things presently stand, I’ll be voting for Obama next year, and I’ll probably make contributions — perhaps even to the presidential campaign. But I also don’t mind letting the Obama campaign know that I’m not just automatically forking over the moolah and support just yet, and they can’t just assume my devotion to the cause.
- KOA 2011“TIME LAPSE” | Don’t Panik! – If you always were wondering about that big campout we go on each June … well, here’s a better rendition than all of my posts combined. Thanks, Mark!
- United Nations Affirms the Human Right to Blaspheme | Politics | Religion Dispatches – If God is angered by blasphemy, God has the prerogative to punish it, not the state.
- Joe. My. God.: TX Gov. Rick Perry: Social Security And Medicare Are Totally Unconstitutional – And here’s the man who wants to be President so he can follow up on just that belief.
- Fischer: God Only Allows A Woman To Be President As A Last Resort – Hmmm. Will anyone ask Bachman or Palin what they think about that?
- Can’t Emphasize This Enough – “The movement conservatives have all come out of the closet – even the ones on the federal bench. They smell a final victory: a return to Gilded Age America.” Which is great, if you’re one the lucky fractional percent who have the gilt.
- Microsoft Awarded With Patent For Sliding Mobile Device. Wait, What? – What the –?
- Book Ban: Virginia Bans Sherlock Holmes From School Libraries – Stupid, stupid rat creatures …
Bryan Fischer is a Dolt (States Rights for Me, But Not for Thee Edition)
Oh, Bryan. You’re so zany when you try to justify your conflicting impulses. Some people, for example, believe that the separate states have the right to do largely what they please, except for some very narrowly defined powers reserved to the federal government. Other people believe that the federal government has the right to dictate to state governments on a wide variety of fundamental issues.
But you, Bryan, you sly dog — you think you’ve figured out a way to have it both ways. Dependent, of course, on whether it’s something you favor or disfavor. And you’ve done so just in time (by sheer coincidence) to continue to support your new Best Friend Forever, Rick Perry, the next Governor-wanting-to-be-President to come out of Texas.
Gov. Rick Perry has been castigated by some conservatives and 10th Amendment aficionados for his public support of federal amendments to protect the sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage.
They accuse him of abandoning his commitment to federalism, states’ rights, and the 10th Amendment and committing unpardonable Tea Party heresy in the process.
A little backstory here. The legislature of the state of New York recently joined the bandwagon in recognizing the rights of same-sex couples to marry. Something, of course, that makes your very skin crawl, Bryan, I understand that.
Your BFF Rick got himself in a little hot water, because when asked how he felt about New York doing so, this staunch supporter of states rights, occasional suggester of secession on the matter, and proud scion of the Lone Star Republic of Texas, said:
“That’s New York, and that’s their business, and that’s fine with me. That is their call. If you believe in the 10th Amendment, stay out of their business.”
It was a bold, gusty move for someone angling for evangelical support for his planned Presidential run. But it is, at least, consistent with a states rights activist. Marriage has long been considered something states are responsible for defining (thus, for example, consanguinity laws varying from state to state). That doesn’t mean that a case cannot be made for federal intervention as a civil right, but conservative states righters have long argued that, under the 10th Amendment, the Feds shouldn’t be able to impose gay marriage on them if they don’t want it.
One of the arguments made for the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), in fact, was both that it prevented the federal government from recognizing gay marriage, but it declared that states weren’t obliged to recognize gay marriages from other states. That latter is a shocking breach of the “full faith and credit” clause of the Constitution, but so far it has held up.
Bottom line, though, it’s clear that states are free to recognize, or not recognize, same-sex marriages. And a states rights advocate should applaud that principle.
But Perry immediately came under fire from folks like Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily who, despite always pushing for states being protected from the Evil Federal Government and its Communist Gang of Liberal Secular Commies, felt that this was taking things a wee bit too far. All things are allowed to the states, to paraphrase Orwell, but some things are more allowed than others. Heck, Farah would probably argue that making the suggestion isn’t even protected speech under the 1st Amendment, if pressed.
Within a day or two, Perry desperately tried to explain himself, noting desperately that he’d only been talking about the 10th Amendment, not gay marriage, as being “fine” with him.
“I probably needed to add a few words after that ‘it’s fine with me,’ and that it’s fine with me that a state is using their sovereign rights to decide an issue. Obviously gay marriage is not fine with me. My stance hasn’t changed.”
And, as a sign of consistency, he found himself in similar hot water over the topic of abortion and state rights, even going so far as to say:
“You either have to believe in the 10th Amendment or you don’t. You can’t believe in the 10th Amendment for a few issues and then [for] something that doesn’t suit you say, ‘We’d rather not have states decide that.’”
Exactly. Rightly or wrongly, you can’t be a part-time states rights advocate, just when it suits.
Which is why, of course, he then backpedaled on both issues, coming forth in favor of Federal Constitutional Amendments on both abortion and gay marriage. Yes, the Evil Federal Government would have a law — a constitutional diktat, enforced by Evil Federal Courts and the Evil Federal Justice Department — that would stop Sovereign States from allowing either gay marriage or abortion, whether they wanted to or not.
But, Bryan, isn’t that abandoning states rights?
But to consider amending the federal Constitution as an abandonment of the 10th Amendment and states’ rights absurd.
Oh. Well, you’re the expert on the absurd, Bryan. Explain it to me.
You can’t get any more “states’ rights” than amending the Constitution, for one simple reason: only the states can amend the Constitution in the first place.
Unless proponents can get voters in 38 states to agree with them, our supreme legal document remains unchanged.
When the Constitution is amended, this is the exact opposite of the federal government imposing something on the states, but is rather a manifestation of the states expressing their political will. If anything, it’s the states imposing something on the federal government. Everybody ought to get pumped up about doing something like that.
Aha! So if three-quarters of the states decide to impose something on the remaining quarter, that’s the ultimate example of supreme states rights! Of course! It’s so clear!
Of course, the constitutional amendment process it a bit tricker than that. The only way it’s ever been done is along one path the Constitution lays out, starting with a bill passed by a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress. Now, some might call that an act of the Evil Federal Government (you know, the same Congress that voted for Obamacare and the Civil Rights Act and other unholy evils that oppress the states), but I guess when Congress is doing that, it’s acting as representatives of the states, rather than as Evil Federal Government Stooges.
After that, of course, the proposed amendment needs ratification by three-quarters of the states. So that’s some great State Power there, Bryan, except for the folks in the other quarter of the states who get to be imposed upon by the Tyranny of the Majority.
(The other way to amend the constitution is through a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the state legislatures, passing proposed amendments to then be passed by three-quarters of the legislatures. That’s never actually been done.)
We must never forget that the Constitution, indeed the federal government itself, is the creation of the states,not the other way round. The creator – the states – have the right to amend the document they created as they see fit.
Yes, that’s true. Though, as noted, the process has only ever been initiated at the federal level.
It’s a challenging process, and there is a very high threshhold to reach, as it should be, which is why the Constitution has only been amended 27 times in 224 years. It can’t happen without the direct authorization of three-fourth of the states.
Yup. And (in every case to date) the federal legislature.
So not to fret, constitutionalists. The 10th Amendment and the Constitution would be safe in the hands of a President Perry. He hasn’t changed his commitment to federalism in the slightest.
Except that a sovereign state would have its sovereign rights taken away by the federal government, authorized by three-quarters of the other states.
But you’re also changing the terms of the discussion, Bryan. Federalism is all about the balance of power between the state governments and the national (federal) government. Federalists were those who wanted a strong central government that had power over the states; anti-federalists were those who wanted states to have supreme power over their own affairs — not just against the central government, but against each other.
In other words, yeah, South Carolina wasn’t eager to have the Federal Government tell it what to do. It also wasn’t eager to have Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire tell it what to do, either.
The 10th Amendment is about the protection of the states ‘rights, not about how states can band together to take those rights away. It’s certainly possible to argue for the national government to decide upon a new imposition on those rights, with the concurrence of the three-quarter supermajority of the states — but while that is federalism and constitutional, it’s still also an imposition on “states rights” — a term that you conveniently drop from your final paragraph, Bryan, because it’s hard to baldly make the case that states rights mean a big gang of states have the right to impose their will upon the rights of a few of the states.
Don’t get me wrong, Bryan — I’m a federalist, and an expansive one at that. I believe the states have local governmental uses, but I strongly suspect I think there are far more things that the Feds are allowed to do, even under the 10th Amendment, than most “states rights” types would agree with, yourself included.
But that does make me wonder, Bryan. What would you (and your BFF Rick) think if a constitutional amendment were proposed to require recognition of gay marriage, rather than forbid it? Would you still consider that, if passed, an expression of and paean to states rights?
Of course not. You’d be denouncing it as a commie plot hatched by anti-Christians to impose national values on the states. Because, Bryan, I strongly suspect you have a very selective love of “states rights.” When we’re talking about a state doing something you agree with, then you’re all for it. But if a state does something you disagree with — well, “there oughta be a law [or a constitutional amendment]” to stop them.
Which is fine, I guess, but then trying to justify it, not as being guided by some inner sense of Right and Wrong, but arguing that a ganging up of some states on others is an expression of “states rights” is so incoherent as to be silly. Or to make you seem a dolt.
Unblogged Bits (Sun. 24-Jul-11 1731)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Who Commits Terrorist Attacks In Europe?: Matthew Yglesias
- Palin documentary bombs during second week in theaters. – Maybe real patriots were off seeing Captain America. At least when he wraps himself in the flag, he stays with the job until it’s done.
- First trailer for Avatar: The Legend of Korra shows off the new steampunk metropolis – Sweeeeeeet! (And, glad to hear they are still using the music.)
- How the Deficit Got This Big – NYTimes.com – “A few lessons can be drawn from the numbers. First, the Bush tax cuts have had a huge damaging effect. If all of them expired as scheduled at the end of 2012, future deficits would be cut by about half, to sustainable levels. Second, a healthy budget requires a healthy economy; recessions wreak havoc by reducing tax revenue. Government has to spur demand and create jobs in a deep downturn, even though doing so worsens the deficit in the short run. Third, spending cuts alone will not close the gap. The chronic revenue shortfalls from serial tax cuts are simply too deep to fill with spending cuts alone. Taxes have to go up.” It’s not that difficult, except that politics are trumping reality. And, ultimately, reality will bite back.
- Ikea’s opening has metro-area furniture retailers on edge of their seats – The Denver Post – They really expect people to be driving to Ikdea from Wyoming, Nebraska, and Kansas? Really? I mean, it’s IKEA, people! It’s cool and fun, but it’s really not all that!
- Captain America Rules at the Box Office | The Disney Blog – Glad to hear of Cap’s success. I still am very apprehensive about folding the Marvel properties into the Disney resorts.
- The true story behind Noah’s Ark : Pharyngula – That’s … awesome. (Crap animation, but it’s the dialog that’s worth listening to.)
- WI Governor Scott Walker to cut DMV centers in Democratic districts « progressivetoo – Stay classy, Scott!
- Wikimedia blog » “Rate this Page” is Coming to the English Wikipedia – Just noticed this today. I think it’s probably of value for quick feedback — though I suspect there will still be folks trying to game the stats for pages they really like/dislike.
- Harry Potter vs. Twilight – I will confess that I have never read nor seen anything Twilight. Nor have I seen anything that’s made me want to.
- Never underestimate the power of spite – George Will has completely gone over the deep end.
- With nine days to go – Aren’t it the Republicans who have been lambasting the Dems for creating “uncertainty” in the markets, up until, oh, about a month ago?
Unblogged Bits (Wed. 20-Jul-11 2330)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- States negotiating immunity for banks over foreclosures – Yahoo! News – “If you let us pay a little fine, we promise never to do it again, even though, really, we kind of are still.” Why are states “negotiating” with banks over their malfeasance? (Besides the obvious answers, of course.)
- Vermont Lesbian Couple Sues Reception Venue For Discriminating Due To ‘Personal Feelings’ – “Personal feelings” (even if religiously based) can be used to try and justify discrimination based on race, national origin, gender, politics, weight, age, and, yes, religion. The actions of the inn in question were clearly illegal under Vermont law — a law that already allows a number of exemptions, none of which the inn qualifies for. The idea that the law is somehow discrimination against religion, as dolts like Bryan Fischer claim, is true only to the degree that it means that my personal religious views don’t grant me exemptions from whatever laws I don’t care for.
- Stephen Colbert – It Gets Better – YouTube
– Go, Stephen, go!
- Al Sharpton Will Be Your Next MSNBC Host – Oh, Lord. The chances I’ll turn on MSNBC just dropped from low to near-non-existent.
- Behave on Google Plus or Your Gmail Gets It – Something worth considering if you think your behavior might violate Google’s ToS.
- 10 Fantasy Book Series That Could Replace Harry Potter at the Movies – While I’d love any of these (in theory), I don’t think any of them could do the Potter bit again, especially if you consider the role that kids had in making HP a success. Now, if you want the next “Lord of the Rings,” there are some definite contenders here, though some of the others are a bit on the weird side to appeal to the mass audience.
- Ghana News :: Minister orders arrest of all homosexuals ::: Breaking News | News in Ghana | news – Why do I suspect there are smiling American evangelists toasting each other over this news?
- New York Bishop Orders Gay Clergy to Marry – Christian News – Makes perfect sense, if you realize it’s an Episcopal bishop. The Episcopal Church, by and large, has given gay, partnered clergy something of a pass in formalizing a “committed, monogamous, faithful relationship” because the opportunity to marry their partner wasn’t available. As that changes, it’s reasonable for the Church to hold gays to the same rules as they hold straights.
- Pawlenty suggests Bachmann’s migraines could disqualify her from presidency | ThinkProgress – Of all the things to criticize Bachmann for, that Pawlenty focused on this says more about him than about Bachmann.
- The TSA Blog: TSA Takes Further Steps to Enhance Passenger Privacy on Millimeter Wave Machines Nationwide – Well, better late than never, esp. since this technology has been available for some time. Of course, this doesn’t address concerns over the safety of these boxes, nor their accuracy, nor the “enhanced” pat-downs.
- Rewriting the history of the supermarriage by rewriting the history of the supermarriage – “But as much as I dislike the marriage being dumped, I really don’t like when DC rewrites the history of the comic book marriage as a ‘stunt.'”
- Florida GOP Rejects Money To Fight Child Abuse And Neglect – Well, we all know that compassion is a dirty word in some circles.
- Reproductive freedom: Opting out on religious grounds | The Economist – “Being part of America means having some level of tolerance for people’s different preferences without constantly demanding to secede. Once you start down the road of demanding monetary exceptions for your private moral convictions, there’s nowhere to stop.”
- Marine to receive Medal of Honor for Afghan valor – The Denver Post – Waiting for Bryan Fischer to lament once again about the feminization of the Medal of Honor.
- Love, disdain, indifference await grand opening of Centennial IKEA – The Denver Post – So I’m looking forward to it … in about 2-3 weeks, after things die down a bit.
Unblogged Bits (Tue. 19-Jul-11 2330)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Carmageddon: Forget planking, trio holds ‘dinner party’ on empty 405 [Updated] – latimes.com – Bravo.
- Texas Schools Just Suspending Everyone on Principle – Well, not just everyone, but certain … shades of everyone.
- Rep. Allen West Calls DNC Chair ‘Vile… Despicable… Not a Lady’ – Whoa, Allen … lay off the bourbon before you send emails!
- Through The Overton Looking Glass – “I can’t wait till next November, when the party that wants to cut Social Security and Medicare squares off against the party that wants to cut Social Security and Medicare while raising taxes slightly.”
- The Decline of the Aspirational Baby Name – Brainiac – Though Katherine’s name is shared by various prominent types (from actresses to czarinas), we chose it as a name of protean flexibility, as well as something intentionally non-trendy.
- HijiNKS ENSUE » Live By The Sword – Joel Watson on the final Harry Potter film (incl. spoilers).
- Harry Potter – J.K. Rowling goes Beyond the Epilogue – Beyond Hogwarts – Massively multiple spoilers for those who haven’t seen the final movie. For those who have, here’s Rawling’s interviews re the final disposition of the various characters.
- Sign Fixer – YES!
- Wednesday’s hail storm in Denver metro area resulted in $164.8 million in damage to cars and homes – The Denver Post – Dagnabbit … we need a major hailstorm down HERE. It’s getting to be time to replace the roof …
- Heat buckles Colorado 83 south of Parker – The Denver Post
- One More Crisis on Infinite Reboots Trifecta: Good, Bad, Weird – I may be the only person out there who actually doesn’t mind the jeans-and-t-shirt outfit. On the other hand, the 52 Hardcover Archive sounds like pretentious twaddle.
- Newsarama.com : LEE, DIDIO: Rebuilding DC To Counteract ‘Shrinking Market’ | DC reboot | DCnU – Still not feeling any joy from this reboot. And I’m really getting tired of the idea that you can’t have as dramatic a story if someone has a spouse.
- Loss of Genetic Diversity in U.S. Food Crops – There are obvious dangers in putting all of one’s eggs (or strawberries) in one genetic basket.
- Obama Admin To Whitebark Pines: Drop Dead – Sigh.
- Time Magazine Builds Web Pay Wall – Peter Kafka – Media – AllThingsD – So Time is positioning itself as an historical archive, rather than a news source. Got it.
- Safe Playgrounds Are Destroying Society – And my brother has a scar on his chin from where he fell off a slide onto an asphalt surface. Now, there’s a still a lot of cool playground equipment these days, but what you see is still kids pushing the boundaries, climbing up where they aren’t supposed to be, etc. Which is (when I take my Dad Hat off) a good thing.
Herman Cain (along with his BFF Bryan Fischer) is a dolt
Herman Cain, one the GOP contenders for President, has decided to distinguish himself by being the most anti-Muslim candidate on the ticket. That he’s doing so is simply despicable — that he’s doing so claiming that it’s not a matter of religious discrimination is what makes him a dolt.
Here he is on Fox News, talking with Chris Wallace, arguing that communities can decide not to allow mosques to be built, and that the First Amendment has nothing to do with it:
WALLACE: But couldn’t any community then say they don’t want a mosque in our community?
CAIN: They could say that. Chris, lets go back to the fundamental issue that the people are basically saying they’re objecting to. They’re objecting to the fact Islam is both a religion and a set of laws, Sharia law. That’s the difference between any one of our other traditional religions where it’s just about religious purposes. The people in the community know best, and I happen to side with the people in Murfreesboro.
WALLACE: You’re saying any community, if they want to ban a mosque?
CAIN: Yes. They have a right to do that. That’s not discriminating based upon religion.
No, Mr Cain, that is precisely what “discriminating based upon religion” means. And if your argument is that people aren’t discriminating based on religion (even though it’s saying that you can stop the building of a house of worship) because they’re objecting to a political belief system — then that’s discrimination against political speech, which is also forbidden by the First Amendment.
Plus, of course, there’s the hypocritical myopia that considers Christianity as the assumed baseline here. Christianity is, arguably, both a religion and a set of laws — see, for example, any number of folks passing (or seeking to pass) laws based on Christian teachings, e.g.., against abortion, against homosexuality, against pornography, against birth control, against divorce, against … well, against other religions. We can see in history how Christianity can easily mingle with the state to produce theocracy.
But, Cain might say, Islam’s Sharia law is a much more codified code of behavior and social law than what is preached in the New Testament, and, yes, there’s some truth there. But it’s no more codified than, say, more conservative branches of Judaism (actually, it’s very similar to that). And there are certainly Christian communities that seek to socially enforce a code of behavior just as binding as Sharia.
Of course, Cain won’t see that. Because he — like his fierce supporter from the AFA, Bryan Fischer — sees Christianity as axiomatic truth, and the First Amendment’s protections as being essentially about protecting Christians, possibly Jews (at least the “good” ones), but certainly none of those “other” religions. Thus, communities can block mosques, or Buddhist or Hindu temples, or anything else that they choose. Heck, depending on how “Christian” is parsed, they could block Catholic churches or Mormon temples or Quaker meeting halls.
This is all, of course, Fischer’s party line, and he’s tickled pink to have Herman Cain toeing it. Though, he’s a bit disappointed that Cain hasn’t been quite as staunch an anti-Muslim as he is.
So good for Herman Cain. He started off strong when it came to the Muslim deal – will not have a Muslim in my cabinet, he tried to finesse that, walk it back; shouldn’t have done it, should have held firm.
I mean, there’s no way a Muslim should be in anybody’s cabinet in the United States of America because their ultimate devotion is not to the Constitution, it is to sharia law. That’s what their God, their holy book and their prophet tell them is the highest law in the land. That’s where their ultimate allegiance is going to be. It’s impossible for them to take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States and to be able to do that with any sort of a clear conscience.
I seem to recall folks arguing that Catholics shouldn’t hold office — certainly not be elected President — because their ultimate allegiance was not to the nation and the Constitution, but to the Church and the Pope. I might also argue that a Christian could very easily have conflicting loyalties between what he believes Jesus teaches or God ordains, and what the Constitution requires him to do, or what his boss as a cabinet member might lawfully ask of him.
But I doubt Fischer would listen, since to him, if it’s Truly American, it’s part and parcel Real Christian™, so no such conflict could ever possibly exist.
Dolts of a feather …
(via Right Wing Watch)
Unblogged Bits (Wed. 18-May-11 1130)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Anonymizing data is hard-verging-on-impossible — what do we do about it? – Something to remember when someone promises your data will only be used anonymously. That’s fine for that one data set, but combine it with another and …
- Like a Virgin – I actually liked the old V Australia decor, though I’m glad they are retaining “Mustang Sally.”
- Debunking the Mythical “Sharia Threat” to Our Judicial System – But! But! They’re Scary Others! We have to be afraid of SOMEONE, don’t we?!
- AMERICAblog Elections: Santorum: torture victim John McCain doesn’t understand torture – “Ron Paul may be the wackiest candidate in the GOP field. But for pure, blind stupidity nobody beats Santorum.”
- The post-PC era is happening, but not yet at the expense of PCs – I’m sure I could find use for a tablet, but a huge amount of my computer activity requires a keyboard — and not a virtual one on a tablet. What I think the “Post-PC Era” means that that a PC is not the only choice you have for computing and communication — and, yes, as suggested, people are likely to have multiple devices they use for different circumstances.
- Senate bill would require warrant for e-mail, cloud searches – A fine idea, that is very unlikely to get anywhere.
- Gingrich: If Democrats Make An Ad Quoting What I Said, It’s False – Newt’s self-destructing before our eyes.
- Camel Thorn Trees – Very, very cool.
- Veteran U.S. Diplomat: We Are Becoming the USSR – Battleland – TIME.com – Complete with a war in Afghanistan, too.
- Your Body is Obscene if You’re a Woman, or Look Like One – “Pejic isn’t being censored because he’s skinny. He’s being censored because he is styled like a woman, and women’s torsos are sexualized to the point that we consider them obscene while men’s are not.” Which is what makes this so sad and so hysterical. Is the fear that someone will be offended by a bare woman’s torso without anyone having the chance to explain it’s actually a man? Or that some guy will get all lustful over it, thinking it’s a woman, then fly into a rage when they realize it’s not? It’s just plain crazy. Granted, I have a vested interest in wanting to see pictures of women’s torsos, but frankly our sexually schizophrenic American society is just plain crazy-making.
- ginandtacos.com » Blog Archive » PROHIBITION – “The purpose of the War on Drugs is not to keep people safe or healthy. The purpose of the War on Drugs is to put people in prison, and from that perspective it has been a smashing success.”
- Inspirational pro-book poster – Man, I’d buy that poster, too.
- Palestine – “Or will it turn out that our paeans to non-violence were just cynical tactics in an amoral international power contest staged by militaristic Israeli and American right-wing groups whose elective affinities lead them to shape a common narrative of the alien Arab/Muslim threat?”
Unblogged Bits (Tue. 17-May-11 2330)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- A celebration of the sci-fi ray gun – Pew-pew-pew!
- ThinkProgress » Ben Stein Responds To IMF Chief’s Arrest By Blaming The Alleged Victim – Stay classy, Ben!
- So This Happened – Topless Robot – HA!
- Apparently Star Trek Killed Osama Bin Laden – Heh.
- Baby We Were Born To Run For The Border – While I have, in fact, read about less-than-polite Canadian border guards (esp. if they think someone’s actually trying to sneak in to get a job), in general when someone contrasts border guards going one direction or the other, it’s nearly always the US side that gets the frowny-face.
- Rick Santorum doesn’t think John McCain understands how enhanced interrogation works – Actually, he says about eleventy-dozen pretty stupid things, but this is one fr the more stupid.
- Real Housewives
- Wonder Woman taking a break circa 1920. – Lovely.
Unblogged Bits (Wed. 11-May-11 2330)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Forward This Graph to Anyone You Know Blaming Obama for High Gas Prices | Firedoglake
- Bin Laden’s (Fictional) Mountain Fortress – Brainiac – Plus it had a bridge over a pool of piranha that he could dump people into!
- Rand Paul: If You Believe In A Right To Health Care, ‘You Believe In Slavery’ – Spoken like a true disciple of Ayn Rand.
- Presbyterian Church Lifts Ban On Gay And Lesbian Clergy – Well done, Presbyterians.
Unblogged Bits (Wed. 11-May-11 1730)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- After approving NBC buyout, FCC Commish becomes Comcast lobbyist – Best government money can buy!
- Buffalo Man Living Next To Mosque Puts Sign On Lawn: “Bomb Making Next Driveway” – Dolt.
- Ohio State Rep Wants To Ban Abortion Because China Has Too Many Smart Kids – Um, I don’t think there’s any chance we can (assuming we even should) seek to rival China’s birth rate and population. Leaving aside, of course, the plain fact that Rep. Martin is simply casting about for a justification for his position.
- Historians Agree: David Barton Is No Historian – “His game is to inundate public policy makers (including local and state education boards as well as Congress) with ideas packaged as products that will move policy.”
- Colson Warns Of The Creeping Influence Of Ayn Rand In The Conservative Movement – Wow. I never thought I’d stand whole-heartedly behind anything Chuck Colson would say, but I do here.
- Newt Gingrich Is Just Like King David – “So it is pretty obvious that ‘family values’ leaders will do what is necessary to come up with ways to justify supporting Gingrich despite his history …” When you believe in absolutes, you learn to contort yourself around them mightily.
- $30K Raised For Man Charged With Assisting Lisa Miller – Feel the hate …
- Play Angry Birds Online, Right Now, for Free [Google]: Mike Fahey
- Four things you should know about LastPass – Computerworld Blogs – A much better article than the Bloomberg alarums that were going around earlier today.
- Why Skype? Microsoft confirms $8.5 billion purchase, clarifies nothing – It does seem a bit odd, at that price, with those plans.
- Newt in His Own Words: 33 Years of Bomb-Throwing – Well, it should certainly be a colorful campaign.
Unblogged Bits (Thu. 28-Apr-11 2330)
Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Video Chat on Your Android Phone – Which would be cool, if the camera and the screen on my Android phone pointed in the same direction.
- Are Trump and the birthers hypocrites? Racists? – Nice …
- Letter from George Washington to an annual meeting of Quakers – Particularly given the persecution of Quakers in most of the colonies, I see nothing here that doesn’t sound like Washington would apply it to any religious faith.
- David Barton on Thomas Jefferson – Did Jefferson approve church in the Capitol? – Sounds like an exercise in fellowship more than ministry to my eyes.
- John Yoo Discusses Limits to Executive Power – The guilty man flees where no one pursueth.
- Too cute Disney Duck Picture (Not Donald) – TEH CUTE! (And I know exactly where that is.)
- Wingnut Mob Now Boycotting Superman, Because He Hates America – Yeah, there’s no surprise. No actual examination of the storyline, nor even consideration of what the statement might be about. Yeah, cause that’s “nuance.”
- Oh look. The Birthers are already playing with the new toy President Obama gave them. – I think it was probably a reasonable timing to convince Hawaii to make an exception to provide the long form birth certificate. But the point was not so much to shut up the birthers (who are so deranged that they’ll come up with new conspiracy theories) as to finally put paid to the “why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” crap. Which, one would hope, would further discredit (to the rest of the nation) the whole right-wing zaniness that is birtherism.
- Facebook shoots first, ignores questions later; account lock-out attack works (Update X) – Ah, the joys of active management of an Internet monoculture.
- Rick Santorum: U.S. Shirking Its Responsibility To Fight “Militant Socialism” – The Red Menace is back!
- Ayn Rand and the Conservative Contradiction – “Any politician or media figure who claims to be an admirer of both Rand and Jesus is either hopelessly confused or an out-and-out liar.”
- Oklahoma GOPer: It’s A Fact That ‘Blacks’ Don’t Work As Hard | TPMDC – Stay classy, Oklahoma GOP!
- Letter from Mark Twain to a snake oil peddler – Lovely.
- The Only Thing You Can Do Legally If You’re on the Terror Watch List Is Buy a Gun [Gun Control] – The only rights the Right wouldn’t be willing to take from even terrorists.
- The Ancient Japanese Tsunami Stones Kept Villagers Alive [Japan] – It’s fashionable to poke fun at tradition and ancient community wisdom. And there’s sometimes reason for that. But it’s worth at least considering they might know what the heck they were talking about …
- Facebook Games Could Be Responsible For Demise Of Soap Operas – Innnteresting. Not quite sure whether that’s a good thing (interaction!) or a bad thing (Facebook Games!).
- Watching Shows On DVR Might Save Them From Being Canceled – This is good news. Especially since I rarely watch TV shows any other way.
- E.T. call waiting – SETI just costs $2.5MM? Damn, I’ll bet I could find that money in about 15 minutes in the federal budget.
- Sarah Palin Mocks Katie Couric For Leaving CBS – Stay classy, Ms. Sarah!