The Will of the People

I've read quite a few comments on various blogs written in response to Judge Walker's lifting the stay on gay marriage. Many of them argue that judges should not overturn the will of the people.

Ted Olso put it pretty eloquently on Fox, asking "Would you like Fox's right to a free press put up to a vote?"

I'd like to know if conservatives would think if the majority of voters decided that women shouldn't vote?

What if the majority decided that it was in their best interests to reinstate slavery?

What if the majority of votes decided that the Emancipation Proclamation was an illegal taking of private property by the Federal Government?

And conservatives reading this? Any reply?

Freedom is Not Free

A comfortable right-wing slogan mean to shut up anti-war activists.

Let's reclaim it, as in:

The price of freedom is being willing to die for your freedom--and being willing to extend your freedom to almost anyone, even if it means you might die because of your generosity.

So let the mosques go up, let the shuls go up, let the temples of Mammon go up, and let the people worship as they will. And if--big big if--one of those worshippers turns fanatical and tries to kill you and your family, defend yourself mightily.

And if you die, let your epithet read: S/he died for freedom.

Conservative Strategy #2

Polarize. Divide the world into friend and foe, good and evil, right and wrong. Say whatever you like about your foes, even if it's false or cruel. Blame everything on your enemy. Broadcast  your point of view as loudly and as frequently as possible. Interrupt anyone who questions your point of view or moderate your claims or ask for facts.

Conservative Strategy #1

Lie. Most of the time the press will print whatever you say as if it were true and without checking facts. Your enemies (anyone who disagrees with you on any point small or large) will have their energies diverted into running around gathering up the evidence that you lied. In the meantime, you can make up more lies.

Inside/Outside

   

  I just bought this painting. It’s called “Still Life with City Scape No. 2.” The artist is Aaron Morgan Brown, formerly of Wichita, Kansas. This is a fairly typical painting by him in that he likes to combine highly incongruous elements, such as placing an electric mixer next to a statue of Cupid (?) and an orange both beneath a Tiffany lamp. What I really like about this painting though is the way that he suggests the interpenetration of realms we normally keep separate. Most obvious is the way that the room has no wall and it appears that a car is about to  drive out of it while another car is about to come in. Little less obvious is painting of the bird, a wild creature captured and immobilized on a canvas framed in gilt and hung on an invisible wall. I am interested also in the fact that the objects “in” the room—the elements of the still life—have been painted in a very precise manner, with clear-cut sharp outlines, while the street scene has been rendered in a much softer somewhat more impressionistic style. This pleases me. It makes the inner seem so much more real than the outer at the same that it undercuts the distinction between them. Perhaps this painting is an allegory of consciousness itself.  

Truth or Consequences?

Four of Ireland's Roman Catholic Bishops have now resigned in the wake of evidence that they permitted decades of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse to be perpetuated against thousands of children. "A fifth bishop [ . . . ], Martin Drennan of Galway, has said that he did not endanger children and will not resign, a position initially taken by the four bishops who have now stepped down."

The two most recent former Bishops of Ireland, Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field, issued a joint statement on Christmas Eve, saying that "they hoped their resignations 'may help to bring the peace and reconciliation of Jesus Christ to the victims' of child sexual abuse.

“'We again apologize to them,' the bishops said. 'Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have so bravely spoken out and those who continue to suffer in silence.'”

Somehow, I don't believe them. Maybe if they walked the length and breadth of Ireland wearing sackcloth and ashes, proclaiming their guilt at every church and begging forgiveness of every person, I might begin to believe that they have truly repented and aren't just putting on some dog and pony show.

And I'm not encouraged by the Arch-bishop's account of their motives, that "the church for too long had placed its self-interest above the rights of its parishioners, particularly innocent children." I mean, come on. What church has any interest greater than the well-being of its members? As long as the Church identifies AS its priests and AGAINST its members, men will continue to use the priesthood as a means to power and self-gratification.

Read the article for yourself here.

Letter to Obama

Here's the letter I just President Obama:

Dear President Obama,

I am very distressed to read on the Huffington Post that you are a) refusing to step up and support your party's efforts in Congress to include in the health care reform bill a robust public option that would let the states opt out and b) throwing your support behind the alternate plan, supported by Senator Snowe and the insurance industry, of a public option with a "trigger." This is unacceptable. Let me be very clear, Sir, and repeat myself: this is unacceptable.

I voted for you because you promised change, but letting the Republican Party continue to set the terms of debate on every imaginable issue including health care., and letting corporations set the terms and conditions of Federal oversight--whether it's the banking industry or the insurance industry--simply accelerates our national demise. I have watched and waited for you to step up and start enacting real change. I have defended you against friends and acquaintances who have said that your continual capitulations to the wealthy and the powerful have undermined any effectiveness you might have had.

And now I say to you: stop it. Stop pandering, stop capitulating. I say to you, step up, now, for a robust public option. It's the only hope we have of creating a health care system that takes care of people first and profits last. And believe me, Sir, if you think that this kind of capitulation will protect the Democratic Party or your own re-election efforts, you are seriously wrong, because I and every liberal and every progressive in this country will throw our weight behind whatever third party candidate offers him or herself as the candidate of change.

Your fellow citizen, Christina Hauck.