Today he shall be lifted up and tomorrow he shall not be found, because he is returned into his dust, and his thought is come to nothing.
-1 Macabees 2:63 -
It's no surprise that the nattering nabobs of nullification and true haters of the secular Constitution are resisting the Supreme Court's latest ruling forbidding the Confederacy to ban some marriages on Christian grounds. I'm talking about Texas, but the Lone Star State is hardly alone. It's a "lawless ruling" says Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and if clerks are fined for refusing to issue marriage licences, he will defend them in court. Like many a snake of fable, he doesn't have a leg to stand on.
"God don't want me to obey yer heathen laws!" I can't wait for that defense to show up in Federal Court, and just try to wrap your mind around that convoluted logic, Not that it would be the first time we've heard it and who could be surprised if we don't start to hear that toothless old Rebel Yell again.
Mississippi, Attorney General Jim Hood says gay marriage won't be legal in the state until the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals gives the go-ahead. A court of Appeals? And here we thought the Supreme Court had the final say.
Bobby Jindal tells his constituents:
"I think it is wrong for the federal government to force Christian individuals, businesses, pastors, churches to participate in wedding ceremonies that violate our sincerely held religious beliefs, We have to stand up and fight for religious liberty. That's where this fight is going,"
That "fight" is going precisely nowhere of course since the government isn't forcing any church or Pastor or Priest or anyone else to do anything, and a county clerk is free to resign if he doesn't like his job, just as any Muslim, Jew or Hindu can decide not to work for McDonalds if he won't serve pork or beef. Anyway I suspect "Fightin' Bobby" would look real good in his Rebel grey uniform fightin' for the Ol' South. I think the irony could be measured on the Richter Scale.
Those of us of a certain vintage will remember when these God forsaken blowhards made the same arguments about interracial marriage and racial integration as well, and George Wallace based a presidential candidacy on undoing integration, " 'cause God don't want the races to mix." Then as now, their miserable religious rage and sexual obsession has come to nothing, leaving them to thrash around like a catfish on a sandbank . That pleases me no end and when they complain that it's a violation of our "Freedom" for the state not to be controlled by some state-sanctioned religious doctrine, I'm more than amused to watch these stinking turds of history slowly swirling down the porcelain bowl of justice.
"I'm more than amused to watch these stinking turds of history slowly swirling down the porcelain bowl of justice."
ReplyDeleteA sampling of conservative blowhards on their blogs trying to make sense of what happened last week: (I swear I have not changed a word in any of these samples.) I read these rants to try to understand how they think. I am nowhere near any sort of enlightenment.
"Those who want to censor the Confederate flag, who want to denigrate the struggle of our Southern ancestors, who want to demonize others for holding opinions contrary to theirs are no better than jihhadis and communists, who want to ban anything contrary to their religion. They are the hater dupes of the public world..."
“With its decisions of Obamacare and Gay Marriage last week the Supreme Court has made itself irrelevant going forward. On gay marriage they have ruled against scripture which won’t stand well with the folks. I guess that’s what happens when you appoint homosexuals and Marxists to the highest count in the land.”
there are Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons in the black community that make money keeping this pot stirred and tended, and until black America realizes this and stops it themselves, it will never stop. I’ve never been racist that I know of…”
The Hater Dupes of the Public World!
"Scrutamini scripturas (let us search the scriptures). These two words have undone the world." -- John Selden
DeleteI can't call it anything but a type of acquired dementia to consistently and steadfastly confuse a ragtag collection of religious doubletalk with the laws of the United States of America, which as Washington said "is not by any means founded on the Christian Religion" nor are there any number of Christians who do not firmly disagree about what those words say or mean and there have been so many such disagreements and wars based thereon that the attempt to define just what the words "scripture" or "Christian" actually mean.
That there are so many people who are totally unclear about how our government works and what it's official position regarding religion is makes me despair about this fcountry ever living up to its promise of Liberty and Justice for all.
The only thing close to right (IMO) with the quotes are the references to Not so Sharp Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. Sharpton and Jackson certainly are not stellar leaders. again, IMO.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the post is spot on Captain.
ReplyDeleteThank you sir. Yes it's difficult to criticize people like Sharpton and Jackson without being accused of something other than being right. I'm afraid I've lost friends over this but if we're supposed to have that "dialog" we keep hearing about, we need to make it clear that a movement may be legitimate and it may be right, but not everyone who appears to be against bad is good.
DeleteA shape with lion body and the head of a man,
ReplyDeleteA gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
(William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming)
The GOP has put itself in a bind. They tethered their partisan ambitions to the “indignant desert birds” of social change. They appeal to an angry and reactionary fringe. They trade on demagoguery and divisiveness. They incite misfits and losers.
The GOP is not the voice of “religious freedom” as they claim. In fact, the GOP represents “religious intolerance” that privileges one denomination over another and disrespects a diversity of belief within the general population.
The words “freedom” and “liberty” only apply to their base of bigots and cowards. They disrespect the rule of law and our constitutional traditions. Their presidential candidates want to forever alter our system of government; compromise our courts; impose a religious standard on the general population; and reopen old sectarian wounds that should have been settled history.
Here is my biggest concern: Their belligerence and defiance will incite hate crimes, more violence, and civil unrest. Frankly, today’s GOP is so far out of step with the times -- and so incredibly irresponsible -- they have become downright dangerous.
I am watching Senator Ted (Crud) Cruz on SCOTUS decisions. He is as dangerously wrong as he is articulate.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct (O)CT(O)PUS, when it
comes to fundamentally changing America and
its values it is individuals like Cruz that we need
fear. Their agenda is about freedom and liberty
but only as THEY define it.
In actuality Cruz and his ilk most assuredly would restrict liberties and advance tyranny if ever in full controls of all three branches of the federal government.
That more than 2 Americans could for a moment consider someone like that as rational, honest or intelligent or in any way qualified to lead anything is overwhelmingly depressing. It can only happen in an ignorant and stupid population and I'm afraid that describes too much of America. When this country was founded, the separation of powers and other things were designed to prevent mob rule which was the common objection to Democracy. Mob rule seems to be the objective of the Right Wing and they seem to think that the mob, being so gullible and emotional is easily controlled.
ReplyDeleteI've been reading Tom Paine recently and he had this to say about people " who hereafter may arise, who laying hold of popular disquietudes may collect together the desperate and disquieted and by assuming to themselves the power of government may sweep away the liberties of the continent like a deluge.
Pretty much sums it up in my opinion.
"
Subject: Religious Freedom versus Religious Intolerance
ReplyDeleteHere is a revision of an earlier comment due of its special relevance to this post:
To borrow a page from George Orwell, some animals are more equal than others, and some religious denominations deserve more privileges than other religious denominations … according to rabid rightwing zealots. To underscore the fundamental hypocrisy, consider these recent news accounts:
Pastor shot three times in possible hate crime:
“Rev. Augustus Sealy, 54, was placing flags in front of the Hartford First Church of the Nazarene to honor veterans for Memorial Day … According to a police incident report, a car slowed down as it approached Pastor Sealy, at which point a witness reported hearing five gunshots. “Some language used in the incident — and given where it was, in front of a church known to be accepting of our LGBT community — led us to have concern that this is a hate crime,” Deputy Police Chief Brian Foley said in an interview.”
Minister arrested for trying to marry gay couple:
In Alabama, a Minister was arrested for attempting to perform a same-sex marriage – just minutes after the gay couple received a marriage license. Originally ordered to post bond of $1,000 and serve 30 days in prison, the minister received a reduced sentence of six months unsupervised probation plus a $250 fine.
So whose “religious freedom” is under attack here? The pastor and minister who support gay rights on religious grounds? Or the rightwing zealots who reject gay rights on religious grounds? When you have two religious denominations on opposite sides of a controversy, which one has the right to impose its teachings and taboos on the general population or reduce another set of beliefs to inferior status?
Neither, according to the 1st Amendment of the Constitution, whose purpose is to impose a wall of separation between church and state. Yet, GOP politicians have little regard for constitutional law and the legal traditions of our country:
Mike Huckabee: “Unconstitutional judicial tyranny.”
Bobby Jingo: “Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that.”
Ted Cruz: “The very definition of lawlessness."
Jeb Bush: “I believe the Supreme Court should have allowed the states to make this decision.”
If equality were subject to a popularity contest, or left up to states, we’d still have slavery. Government has a legal and moral obligation to ensure equality under law for all citizens, not merely its angry, hypocritical and rabid base. Kennedy’s decision was absolutely right and the only one possible.
As far as I am concerned, let the brats hold their breath until they pass out.
Yes, Mike Huckabee who recently told us he wanted to shower with the girls in high school and so we need to show our birth certificates at the shithouse door. These people are all perverts, terrified of their sexuality and needing to appear "normal" by demanding you buy into their fantasies. The only reason these drooling dipshits have a career is the greed of the media and the deep pockets of the Koch Brothers.
ReplyDeleteEstablished by what god? Surely not the one or the three who along with every other gods and pantheons ARE NOT FUCKING MENTIONED in the Constitution. HOW GODDAM STUPID ARE WE ANYWAY? Seems to me Jesus was supposed to have forbidden divorce. I repeat the above question although the things speaks for itself. Hell, I'll be happy to help them hold their breath. I'm a boater, I have lots of rope. These people are traitors, no more no less and the enemies of liberty.
But really, change is always like this. There were prosecutions for slaveholding in Florida as late as the early 40's and I don't have to tell anyone about lynchings and Jim Crow or Misogyny laws and racial deed restrictions.and more. Are reformations ever spontaneous? To overcome the ancient superstitions and convictions and perversions takes great effort and a great deal of time,
Improvements in civil law require the weakening of religious law. Religion admits of no compromise or question and that's antithetical to Democracy and always has been. Our founding fathers identified religion and Christianity specifically as Tyranny and not as a source of law. So one thing you won't fear from these Godbastards is that the Law is what the People consent to by voting for it.
God doesn't get a vote. There is no Constitutional mention of Bibles, Scriptures, Gods or sons thereof as being sources of the law and most egregious to me is that of all the 613 Biblical commandments none are acknowledged by Christian "scriptures" Jesus having arrived to rid us of the need for them. There is no argument here and not even enough meat on the bones to constitute a fallacy. It's lies, all of it., Just lies.