Supreme Court Wrap-Up
Looks like the Supreme Court has said that when a state allows same-sex marriage, the Federal Government must accept that as law for residents of that state in their Federal dealings as well. They also, in effect, put an end to laws against same-sex marriage in California. What remains to be clarified is whether, for example, a legally married Massachusetts same-sex couple can continue to file joint Federal tax returns (as this decision allows them to do) when they relocate in Florida, which does not allow same-sex marriages.
Looks like the Supreme Court has said that when a state allows same-sex marriage, the Federal Government must accept that as law for residents of that state in their Federal dealings as well. They also, in effect, put an end to laws against same-sex marriage in California. What remains to be clarified is whether, for example, a legally married Massachusetts same-sex couple can continue to file joint Federal tax returns (as this decision allows them to do) when they relocate in Florida, which does not allow same-sex marriages.
In
another decision, they also said that the Voting Rights Act’s provisions for
Federal monitoring of election practices in states with a history of
discrimination is obsolete. Though the
need for such monitoring may still exist, it is not the same in 2013 as it was
in 1965. Congress will certainly have to
look into this again, because some injustices still persist. The tremendous increase in minority voting
over the past half century, indicating the effectiveness of that monitoring, may
suggests that such monitoring is no longer needed. But voters, including those whom that law “enabled,”
will have to see to it that new legislation to protect against current attacks
on voting rights is passed.
As for affirmative action in public college admissions, the court has
correctly in my opinion restricted its use to situations where other effective
methods of assuring diversity are not available.
The
lifetime tenure of Supreme Court justices serves as an effective check on the
actions of the executive and legislative branches of our government. They are the guardians of the Constitution
and make certain that our nation’s history is not ignored by elected government
officials, whose actions may be swayed by a current electorate. The Congress and the President cannot “run
wild” so long as there is an independent Supreme Court with tenured guaranteed
for the life of the Justices.
Jack Lippman
Celebrating Independence Day
This week we celebrate Independence Day. It has been 237 years since this country was born. Since then, many other countries in the world have chosen, some peacefully, some violently, to choose to be their own masters and throw off their domination by another state or empire. Our quest for independence had an economic basis. Englishmen living here were not treated the same economically as Englishmen in England, so we declared our independence.
The quest for independence today in many parts of the world more often is based on social, ethnic or political reasons rather than economic ones. Perhaps that is why their transitions to independence have not been as enduring as ours. Looking at rioters in Egypt and Turkey today, I get the feeling that while they are not demonstrating for independence, which their nations already have, they are in the streets because they want some of the same material and social things that we have in the United States, and are beginning to recognize that to attain them, they also have to have the freedoms we have here! We are lucky to have them. They do not always come automatically with independence. Read On!
hen
in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and
to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
My Take on Paula Deen
Deen 
Shumer
Celebrating Independence Day
This week we celebrate Independence Day. It has been 237 years since this country was born. Since then, many other countries in the world have chosen, some peacefully, some violently, to choose to be their own masters and throw off their domination by another state or empire. Our quest for independence had an economic basis. Englishmen living here were not treated the same economically as Englishmen in England, so we declared our independence.
The quest for independence today in many parts of the world more often is based on social, ethnic or political reasons rather than economic ones. Perhaps that is why their transitions to independence have not been as enduring as ours. Looking at rioters in Egypt and Turkey today, I get the feeling that while they are not demonstrating for independence, which their nations already have, they are in the streets because they want some of the same material and social things that we have in the United States, and are beginning to recognize that to attain them, they also have to have the freedoms we have here! We are lucky to have them. They do not always come automatically with independence. Read On!
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
hen
in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and
to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station
to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent
respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation.We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
My Take on Paula Deen
The
least important news item of late is the Paula Deen story. Apparently, like many Southerners in their
mid-sixties, she was raised in an environment where the “N” word was commonly
used, sometimes with malice and sometimes innocuously. People of her age, and older, sometimes
cannot fully absorb the fact that things have changed and for the majority of
people alive today in the United States, that is no longer acceptable. I doubt if Joseph Conrad’s novel, “The Nigger
on the Narcissus,” written almost 115 years ago would be published with that
same title today. Things have changed.
Deen Shumer
When
I was growing up, the cleaning woman whom we occasionally brought in to help
out was referred to, although not to her face, as the “schvatzeh,” the Yiddish translation
of the “N” word. But in retrospect, I am
sure she understood. Older people still
do this today. In fact, there is a present day
comedian (Amy Shumer) who does a bit on this foible of the elderly, but in
regard to Latinos, but it is the same thing.
In her routine, the grandmother looks up at the Latino helping her sit
down at the table in a restaurant and asks him to bring more rolls. Amy interjects, “Grandma, that’s not a
busboy. Jimmy is my fiancé.” You get the idea. Paula has been similarly conditioned toward
Afro-Americans.
It probably will turn out that because of the revelations about her alleged racism, Deen's totally unhealthy menu of
fat-filled, deep fried and sugar-laden foods glamorized in her restaurants, TV
shows and cookbooks will eventually be adhered to by fewer and fewer
Americans. Thus, these people (many of
whom are rushing to buy her books out of fear that they may soon be unavailable
… just like the election of Barack Obama increased gun sales) will possibly
benefit and have a significantly greater life expectancy! That's wonderful, but while it is a good thing for them, it does not bode well for the Democratic Party in the South, where
Deen’s acolytes probably are on the opposite side on many issues.
JL
BUNNY DEN
Written by Harvey Sage
for his granddaughters, Brooke and Madison
The small hole in the ground was perfect for
Bugsy and Bonnie’s love nest. Until the heavy rains came. A week of soaking and flooding forced them to
scurry to higher ground. Their warren was a washout. Bugsy hugged his distraught wife of three weeks, vigorously rubbing her
long soft ears. “The Creator gives and the Creator takes away. As we have been
provided for in the past, so shall we receive again. Let’s be confident my
sweetheart. We must be patient.” So off they wandered. Searching and faithfully
expecting the best.
A while later, as the skies cleared and the
rains stopped, they heard the heavy beat of footprints approaching from their
rear. Bonnie turned and gave a cry of
fear. Bugsy, who emitted an aura of bravery turned and also cried out. He
almost shouted to Bonnie to flee, but his mind told him not to fear. They were
safe. This was Jungle Central. No harm could befall them here. So they stood
their ground as a big wolf came up to them.
“Peace be with you. I am Wally the wolf.
Princess Mother sent me out to look for you.
She heard from Hawkeye that your nest was washed out. Flying high in the
sky, Hawkeye has spotted other displaced animals from Jungle Central.” Wally
loomed over them. In the past wolves hunted bunny rabbits and killed them for
food. That changed when Princess Mother came to rule, giving a new Spirit to
every animal. Now they lived in peace, eating berries, grasses, and vegetables. Wally said “follow me.” Like babies following
their mother, the bunny rabbits did as told.
“Princess Mother is a kind and loving Queen,
ruling us through the writings we call The Code of Life. That is why we have
order and harmony here.” Wally talked as
they walked.
“I don’t remember seeing this Code,” remarked
Bonnie.
Wally laughed
“No. It’s not widely circulated in writings on paper. Rather, it is
written on our inner beings, chiseled in our hearts. That is what changed us
and allows us to live together in peace.”
They walked on a bit further till they came to a hill. On top was a
polygon structure. Wally pointed out “This is your new home.”
The bunnies were stunned. What a beautiful place
to live in! It had a wrap around porch,
wood siding, and a gently sloping roof. Tall trees surrounded it. “Oh Wally,
it’s gorgeous. This is for Bugsy and me? Who built it?”
As they walked into the home to explore it Wally
said, “ You’re probably wondering about the history of this house. It is very
unusual to see this type in Jungle Central.
It wasn’t constructed by any of our animals.”
“We figured as much,” said Bugsy. “It needed
special tools and craftsmanship. Much too advanced for us.” He was looking at
the kitchen and its cabinets, all of superior workmanship. “Please tell us. Who built this and why is it abandoned?”
“Many years ago this region was inhabited by a
superior type of animal. It was
intelligent beyond belief, capable of flying through the air, going to outer
space, and constructing massive buildings. The species, whom we called humes,
lacked a most important thing however. They lacked the Spirit. They knew about the Code of Life but didn’t
allow it into their hearts. They could spout it and shout it. But they failed
to allow it to guide and direct them. Intelligence without the Spirit is
uncontrolled terror. It led to
disaster.”
Bugsy was stunned. “What happened, Wally?”
Wally shook his head sadly. “They specialized in killing each other in a
thing called war. Eventually they figured out a way to kill each other via
chemical and biological weapons. These were species specific, only killing
members of their kind. This is why we don’t see any of them around today. Too
bad. If only they had followed the Code and gotten the Spirit.”
Bonnie nodded.
“Well thankfully we have Princess Mother as our leader. We love and help each other in Jungle
Central. This sure is a heavenly place to be in.”
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1 comment:
I am just as Southern as Paula Deen is, and older. I wasn't allowed to use that sort of language. Nobody I knew was impressed by it. Everything about that woman screams "Upstart Nobody."
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