Five For Five

The Supreme Court is going to hear the case of of a man who was forced to listen to, read obnoxious phrases on homemade signs, and in general was harassed while he buried his son on what is usually the worst day in any parents life by a group of so-called religious fanatics.  What makes it even worse is that his son was a Marine who died in service to his country.

I am a strong defender of our First Amendment's rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. but I have to wonder why this is even an issue, much less, has become a case that for the Supreme Court.  It brings to mind the famous phrase "You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?  Have you left no sense of decency?"  As a side note, the McCarthy-Welch exchange was quite insightful and reading it showed me just how far our behavior (and that of a certain South Carolina representative) has fallen from civility.

As the Supreme Court has been exceedingly liberal in its interpretation of the Second Amendment and now considers a corporation an individuals, it shouldn't be that much of a stretch for them to decide that the behavior exhibited by members of the Westboro Baptist "Church" and others like them goes against all decent human behavior and should be called what it is, the equivalent of falsely screaming fire in a crowded theater.

I've never had children, but I have known people who have lost one.  My father's mother had a daughter who died at sixteen and my dad also died before she did.  Her words at his funeral still ring in my mind.  "I never thought I'd outlive him."  She didn't speak much in her remaining seven years and she stared out into space as if she was lost.  She still had her faculties but she wasn't the same woman.

I remember how I felt listening to the proceedings, carrying his casket to his final resting place and watching as the dirt covered him up.  It still affects me the same way nineteen years later and I don't know how gracefully I would have handled the Westboro nuts if they had been picketing my dad's funeral.  Probably not very well.

Since Liz Cheney can't keep her stupid mouth shut over things she knows nothing about, does this mean that John Adams was unpatriotic because he defended the British after the Boston Massacre?  And successfully at that?

Now Cheney's daughter, Liz, has taken up the cudgel by heading what some are describing as a McCarthyite campaign to purge the government of lawyers who dared to defend men, and even a child, accused of terrorism. The lawyers drew particular ire by sometimes defeating in court the Bush administration's attempts to declare itself beyond the law.

Liz Cheney and her organisation, Keep America Safe, have dubbed lawyers who acted on behalf of accused terrorists, and who now work for the department of justice, the "al-Qaida seven". The group has rebranded the justice department the "department of jihad".

President Adams believed that we were a nation of laws, I'm pretty sure he would be appalled at the disrespect the Constitution has been receiving for the last ten years.  You don't pick and choose who gets what rights, they should be apportioned equally and defendants must be treated equally under the law.  It's what separates us from the savages.  Why are she and her father so determined to sink lower than Al-Qaeda and and still act like they're taking the high road as they shred what's left of the Constitution?

Just because it snowed it doesn't mean that global warming isn't occurring.  All it takes is a little common sense.  Is the weather in your area the same as it was ten years ago?  I doubt it.  Places that were hot have not been as warm lately and places that were cold are warmer than they should be.    Change is happening and just because it isn't happening overnight, doesn't mean it isn't occurring.  Considering all the cuts to education that have eliminated critical thinking classes, it is no wonder that nearly half of Americans don't believe in global warming.

The stupid person of the day has to be the woman who crasher her car while she was shaving her pubic area.  Isn't that one of the things you do in the shower at home?

Well of course Pink Floyd music should be sold in album form.  Duh!  All their albums tell a story and other than Money or Another Brick in The Wall, most people can barely name the albums and don't realize what the inspiration for music was.  Most people can't tell you that Dark Side of the Moon is about a plane crash, mainly because they've never listened to the whole album in one sitting and when the songs are sold as singles, the interludes between songs are eliminated and the story is lost.  And yes, playing Dark Side of the Moon while watching the Wizard of Oz Really does work.  Amazingly so, at least until you past Dorothy meeting the Scarecrow. 

BBB