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Saturday, December 10, 2022

News Weakly - 12/10/22

Head Scratcher
Okay, I'll admit. I don't get this one. A judge in Indiana has blocked their abortion ban on the grounds ... get this ... of religious freedom. Apparently there are religions out there that mandate killing babies.

Irony
The irony is deep with this one. When a president takes the oath of office (or a citizen joins the military), the oath includes the promise to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." So it is ironic that a current presidential candidate (actually, the only declared candidate to date) would call for the termination of the Constitution. The irony gets worse when you realize that there were those in the January 6 debacle who, in the name of Trump, were quoting the military version to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Will they now consider the guy that called for the end of the Constitution an enemy? And how is he going to take that oath?

No Bias Here
You know the story. The Supreme Court is going to hear a web designer's case who is asking for First Amendment rights to the free exercise of her religion when it comes to producing something for same-sex weddings. All well and good ... except you can hardly find a news outlet that will say that. No, it's "anti-gay marriage" or "anti-equal treatment" or ... well, you've seen them. The coverage I've seen warned about the impact this would have on black people who will be discriminated against or "mall Santas who might refuse to take photographs with minority children" ... which, of course, is not the aim or the question. But, of course, we can always expect our news outlets to report the story without bias, right? And, as we all know, we affirm the freedom of religion ... except, of course, for the areas in which we require people to change their religious beliefs. It's only fair. (Note: The law forbids discrimination on the basis of "disability, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, or ancestry." No one is discriminating on any of those. They are just asking not to be forced to support two people of the same sex having a wedding. It's not the people; it's the forced participation in the act.)

Values Clarification
President Biden agreed to trade a high-profile Russian prisoner, an arms dealer known as "the Merchant of Death" -- one of the world's largest illicit arms dealers -- for an American basketball player who hates America, leaving an American corporate security executive in Russia. We are all quite clear on our nation's priorities now. Brittney Griner is free, Paul Whelan can rot, and Russia has their major arms dealer, but at least we'll have a good, drug-using women's basketball player back. It's what we call "values clarification."

Who Says You Can't Buy Happiness ...
... with other people's money? Since when was the government in the business of taking our tax dollars to shore up Teamsters' pension funds? Oh, yeah, since COVID, I guess, but only labor union pension funds. The rest of you can all hang. (How is this not a president buying off labor unions after running roughshod over the rail unions last week?)

A Previous Catastrophe
A group of scientists have discovered that Greenland was a lush green place 2 million years ago. You know, like what will happen if global climate change happens. Which, as we all know, is bad ... cataclysmic. Or is it? And ... I wonder who caused it 2 million years ago.

Bait and Switch
Senator Kyrsten Sinema announced she was exiting the Democratic Party and registering as an independent. Isn't that a bit ... disingenuous? I mean, all her Dem buddies voted her in here in Arizona and then she exits. They will no longer expect to be represented. The Republicans never expected her to represent them. Now it's just the independents who didn't actually vote her in. Seems wrong somehow.

Another Redefinition -- "Child Abuse"
Eric Trump has admitted to "child abuse" (according to social media) by making his kids ... do things. Evil things. Like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance like we had to every school day growing up. Like praying. Mandatory prayers for his children?! Next thing you'll tell me he's making them go to sleep at a certain hour and eat healthy food!! Abuser!

The A, Bee, Sees
The Bee is reporting on Kamala Harris on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day urging Americans not to forget January 6. Well, how can we? It has taken them 2 years to investigate with their crack "anti-Trump" squad. In COVID news, a recent study found that masks are 75% effective at keeping kids safe from oxygen. That's good, right? Finally, is this really news? The DNC and the media have apparently colluded to suppress a story about the DNC and the media colluding to suppress stories. Like that wasn't obvious.

Must be true; I read it on the Internet.

9 comments:

Marshal Art said...

No time to do my usual response, but I had to respond to this:

Irony

I can acknowledge that Trump doesn't speak with eloquence and often fails to clearly articulate his meaning...even on social media sites where he can take the time to weigh his words. But he wasn't calling for the the termination of the Constitution. I would've expected better.

https://thenewamerican.com/did-trump-really-call-for-the-termination-of-the-constitution/

Stan said...

According to the link you provided, Trump said, "A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution." I would say that "the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution" seems very much like he's willing to throw out the Constitution, at least where his election loss is concerned.

Marshal Art said...

You're assuming he's talking about himself. This is what the link is correcting. Again, he's not the most articulate fellow and never has been. More worrisome to me is how quickly so many want to believe he'd be keen to "throw out" the Constitution. Real nice.

Stan said...

Is there something in what he said that suggests he is not referring to "throwing out the Constitution," at least in the context of election laws?

Craig said...

Stan,

I hate to do this, but when I saw the entire quote, I concluded that he didn't seem to be calling for the constitution to be over turned. It's interesting that Art is advocating for someone who he agrees is absolutely horrible at communicating his ideas, and needs others to explain what he really meant. It sounds like Biden.

Stan said...

What I've said (and repeated) was that it appeared that he was calling for the "termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution" at least in the case of this election (2020). I would argue that it is an overreach to say he was asking for the Constitution to be tossed out on its ear, but it DOES look like he's saying, "In this instance these rules do not apply." (And I find it interesting that he keeps saying the fraud is "proven" while the other side keeps saying the fraud is "proven false".)

Craig said...

I agree that his comment was unclear, and has been represented as having said that he wants to get rid of the constitution, but reading the entirety doesn't IMO support that conclusion.

I don't think it's wrong to say that there has been some proven fraud, but certainly not enough to explain his loss.

I think that some folx have a different view of what "proven" means.

Stan said...

And I can't put together "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution" with "except in this case."

David said...

I was informed recently, was in context of this comment by Trump, that Lincoln was willing to bend the Constitution, the difference being his goal was ultimately to protect the Constitution by circumventing it. Undoing some Constitutional elements of a past election would not undo the damage that has been done and would not end up reinforcing the Constitution.