Two More Right-wing Supreme Court Rulings

On the last day of the Supreme Court for the season, they came down with two right wing rulings.  So far they haven’t come out in favor of banning blood transfusions for employees injured on the job of the company is owned by Jehovah’s Witnesses, but just give them time.  Men can get Viagra; men can even get vascetomies, even though last time I checked the Catholic Church was still against cascetomies because it was contrary to God’s words in Genisis to go and re-populate the earth.  As John Fugelsang says “Mission accomplished’ and as don’t need to rent out a battleship in San Diego harbor to make our point.  My problem with these Born Again managed companies is not their right to express their personal beliefs in private, but I don’t see why as a customer I should be subjected to them, as in the case of Chick Filet.  The thing with Hobby Lobby is that they sell this cheap stuff made in China in their store, where women have no rights- and undergo forced abortions.  And we know how Jesus hates religious hypocrites.  Of course- we know that Corporations are people, my friend.  But in the Dread Scott decision for the first time the court rules that free people in a northern state, who happened to be Black, were in fact- - - Property.  This is the first time that the Court ruled that Black people were inherently property and not human.  It is one of the few times in the 1800’s that the Court even engaged in what became known as Judicial Activitism.  The other decision involved Unions and Right to Work laws.  Their goal is to strike down all Union laws one by one till they have destroyed the Labor movement.  They said that some health care employee didn’t need to obey the Union laws in that state.  Of course Abraham Lincoln said in response to Dread Scott, “Well, that’s bad for Mr. Scott, but I’m going to free all the rest of the slaves”, as quoted by Thom Hartman.  By way of fairness I took issue with some of John Fugelsang’s statements including the use of the Greek word “Piestess” or whatever- - that meant homosexual teenage lover, of a Roman Centurian, whom Jesus healed.  Fugelsang’s point is that “Jesus would not have healed a teenager in a gay relationship with his master if he weren’t sympathetic to homosexuality”.   My take on Jesus is that he regarded women the same way that Paul regarded slavery.  It was as an inferior state that one day would be overcome with God’s grace, and in the next world, women would have attained the status of a man.  So in honoring women, Jesus was in essence calling them “men”.  That’s kinky but seems to be the case.  It’s a free country and you can believe what you want.  But last time I checked an employee employer was a “business relationship”.   It’s odd that the High Court would use the term “Company”, which is vague whereas “Corporation” is more specific.  There are indeed “private” corporations, such as the Koch Brothers, I’m told.  But then you have your non corporate Business Partnerships, such as General Partners, Silent Partners, Limited Partnerships- - you’ve had Business Law; you know the drill.   I take the word “private” to mean that we the public can not “partake” of the vast profits of the Koch Brothers, even if we had the money to invest.  Perhaps the word “elite” would be more descriptive here.

Let's talk about President Obama's "right on" Immigration speech today.  He enumerated all the damage that's being done by delays in the bill's passage.  I do not believe John Boehner when he says he'd like an immigration bill passed.  Chuck Schumer last week enumerated all of the many Excuses that John Boehner has made for failure to act on the Immigration bill, and John Boehner has run out of them.  Responsability for any ill effects on the country or the people involved for NOT passing the Senate immigration bill lies squarely on John Boehner's shoulder.  Nobody else.  He and he alone can hold a vote on the bill today.  And if a vote were held today there are enough for it in the House that the bill would pass.  And then the President would sign it into law.  The line about "Boehner can't control his caucus" if repeated one more time I think I'm going to gag!  That one is right up there with "The Devil made me do it".  People say Boehner is NOT a far right tea bagger, but I have seen virtually NO evidence of that.  If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, ect - - .   The President as he said has given Boehner ample "opportunity" to hold a vote in the same way many Born Again Christians so called, have been afforded ample opportunities to correct the things in their own lives that need correcting, and they haven't, yet still call themselves "clean as the driven snow".  The consequences to such intransigence are that the President now is going to have to flex his muscles a bit and start signing Executive Orders, which is an inherent power of the Presidency.  They say that President Obama has issued the fewest executive orders since Grover Cleveland.  Does Rush Limbaugh now suggest we posthumously impeach Grover Cleveland?  The President has NOTHING to lose by doing each and every one of the things the Republicans have been accusing him of doing these past six years anyway.  In child discipline lingo it's called "Giving him something to cry about".  Capish?

I think it was Pat Buchannon lately that was going on about what a great President Richard Nixon was.  But if a Republican ever got up today and vowed to "equal or surpass the legislative record and accomplishments of Richard Nixon" he'd probably get tomatoes thrown at him.  You had your EPA and the opening up of China and wage and price controls - - locking in wages ABOVE prices, and of course those high tax rates and economic safeguards.  It's even worse for someone saying they would like to "go back to the Fifties" with or without a Delorian.  Because Unions were never more powerful than they were in the fifties, and how about that 91 percent tax bracket Col Parker was so proud that he was able to keep Elvis Presley in.  And the 1956 Republican Platform, apparently would read like an almost socialist manifesto by today's standards with its unabashed support of Labor Unions.  But there are other cases of Republicans "going off the plantation".  It would seem that Bush's former Sec of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, is in favor not just of a cap and trade type situation, but an outright "carbon tax" directly, which would not only cover CO2 but also Methane - - or CH4.   Because President Obama's plan would allow for corporations to engage in higher pollution than they are right now just BEFORE the plan takes place because they gauge their credits on how much a company cut their pollution from the year before it went into effect.  In one other item- - it's claimed that "Right to Work" states have generally faster economic growth between 1990 and 2012 than states when Unions are protected by law.  I find this an odd state of affairs but it sure as hell plays into the right wing arguments.  They claim the odds, therefore, of your wages rising are enhanced in the Red States.  There could be a much simpler explanation, though.  We know that there is a net flow of Federal money INTO red states and a net flow of federal money OUT of Blue states.  This is because President Bush was running things for so long.  The leading growth state of course is North Dakota.  The state that is the most economically troubled is Hawaii - - and this is a Union state.  If you took the view of many teachers on grading on a curve to throw out the highest and lowest score- - - the map would not appear as tilted in favor of the red, right to work states.

I chafed at Dr Levy’s quote yesterday of “One excellent measure of a human life- - is that one should strive to give back to humanity something that will outlive it”.   I messed up the quote.  I happened to think of both my parents but especially Dad.  And I mentioned in class something that I shouldn’t have that “In fact- - Dad needed to be honored in his death- - but nobody seemed to miss him once he was gone” or something like that.   They say to honor your father and mother but doesn’t a kid have the right to feel robbed somehow if he looks back onhis parent’s lives and says “I really have a problem figuring out that they left me in terms of morals or guidance or anything else”.   They certainly haven’t left me a monetary legacy.   I think this saying is rather telling in one sense because it might be a way of “Determining what rewards we receive in the afterlife” of gauging what we have left people in this life in the here and now on planet earth”.   So I kind of said to Dr Levy “I guess it’s hard for me to figure out what legacy I’m leaving my survivors, when I’m coming to grips with what I myself was left, if anything”.  I don’t know.  I think this is one area I just might need to go into therapy over. [slight edit here] Dr Levy came out and talked to Silva and others.  Lishia said that the very idea of wanting a boyfriend was a mistake and now she doesn’t want one.  She sat on the couch next to me.  As for myself I was still in a residual negative mood about this whole topic of aging- - and Dr Levy said “It’s understandable why people would not want to talk about a time in their lives when they are approaching death”.  Woody Allan had the right idea.  He said, “Well I know I’m going to die and I can face that;  I just don’t want to be there when it happens”.   Dr Levy got the Thalmud book for Joe Drisco.  We talked about Mike Deletore’s death a little, and now they are saying that happened on Sunday.  Mike had a ceisure and fell and he also had a heart condition.  But, “We’re really not sure what he died of”.  But the good news is that Dr Levy had two dollars for me at the end of the class.  I went right out and bought a pack of John Black grape, and told Ben “This is the first time I’ve been in here actually buying a pack of cigarettes for myself”.  I paid Larry Barton three of the eight cigarettes I owe him.

It turns out that Mc Cartney latest compilation was released on June 24^th.  But there are times when – just like you get those “E mail failure” notices- - maybe a message was sent, but I did not receive it.  When I’m under stress I’m less psychic- - and I was preoccupied that day with Mike Deletore’s death and other matters.   Remember when we had our Red, White, and Blue album specials?  I'd love to give you a link to that posting.  I would also plug the new “Red” album, and the expanded “White” album, and the “Blue” album unchanged from Apple Records.   So basically I’m saying that the latest compilation was tailored so not to overlap with certain other albums.  There are of course the "Beatle codes" that determine aspects of various recent years.  For instance 2013 is 'Misery".  And for you 9 - 11 conspiracy buffs we have "There's a Place" (a few months early) and "Do You Want to Know a Secret?" is for the rigging of the ballots in Ohio in 2004.   Ground Zero was "The Place" but that's actually for 2002 when President Bush has a secret or two to keep.  In 1999 based on President Bush's secret war plans it was "All I Gotta Do".   Ronald Reagan's election of course is "Tell Me Why" and the First Gulf War is 'I Want To Be Your Man".