Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it. ~~Mark Twain
Used when discussing judicial decisions at any level of the courts system, or articles related to judges or justices.
During the Primary Election, no one got a majority for this seat, so this contest is between Melissa Black and Eilam “Mike” Isaak. I spoke with Mrs. Black/Cordon during the primary. Mr. Isaak didn’t return the call then. He subsequently did, but I’m still recommending Melissa Black.
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In 2017, Tampa passed an ordinance that prohibited conversion therapy for children under 18. As they always do, Liberty Counsel and their perpetual “client,” Las Vegas-based Robert Vazzo (not even a resident of Florida), and a David Pickup of Dallas (not licensed in Florida) filed a lawsuit to get the ordinance overturned. However, Republican Trump-appointee William Jung had to bend himself into a Gordian Knot of legal reasoning to give them that win.
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We’re going to engrave one for retiring Republican Senator Jeff flake casting one of, if not the most important vote of his time in the Senate. Apparently, he was OK voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States while still harboring doubts.
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I’d like to thank Tom Cotton for unequivocally establishing that Brett Kavanaugh committed perjury during testimony for his nomination to the United States Supreme Court. Kavanaugh, as you recall, famously and loudly claimed the charges against him were part of Clinton Conspiracy to discredit him. Tom Cotton has cleared the air and told Hugh Hewitt it was all Chuck Schumer’s doing with a cast of characters not related to the Clintons. So our thanks to Cotton for establishing that Kavanaugh lied under oath during his confirmation hearing.
Read moreSo who the hell is Bret Whipple you are probably asking. Well Bret is Cliven Bundy’s attorney (which makes him sleazy enough to earn the prize, but wait, there’s more). Bret, in court filings tried to claim that Bundy and his band of scofflaws were no different from the civil rights marchers of Selma, Alabama. Let that sink in for a minute.
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It’s no surprise that Ted Cruz wants an ultra-conservative justice to replaced Antonin Scalia. What is surprising is how much he’s willing to lie about the consequences if that doesn’t happen. (But then again, he’s been lying for Jesus for quite a while now.) On Meet the Press Sunday, Cruz told host Chuck Todd that a liberal justice would mean the end of religious liberty — adding that religious symbols would be “sandblasted off of the tombstones of our fallen veterans”:
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So, by now everyone knows that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died over the weekend. As is usual, everyone is rushing to the airwaves to talk about what a nice and brilliant person he was. Of course I don’t know him personally, but certainly his public personae were not so nice, and I don’t think his legal reasoning, considered by many to be smart and original (pun intended), was all that brilliant. It was merely partisan and theocratic. Scalia was not really interested in the original intent of the framers. He was interested in creating a facade of intellectualism around his rulings. His genius was not in a new form of thought around the Constitution, but in a way to package his rulings so that people thought they had a grand origin.
Read moreYes, this is a bit behind, but I had to make comments about some of the discussion points put forward
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But at the end of the day, with or without these RFRA laws, you still have the same religious freedoms you have had since the Republic was founded. You can pray to whatever God you choose, or you can choose to not pray. You can go to whatever house of worship you wish on whatever day you’d like, and you can crawl into the pulpit and preach the ugliest and nastiest things your sad little heart can drum up about people you don’t like. So Mike, stop with the lying about the need for these laws. The only thing you’re trying to do is get special rights to take your particular from of hatred and bigotry into the public square, and you’re finding that Americans are finally less and less tolerant of your intolerance. I know it’s hard to take now, but in the end, America, and even you, will be better for it.
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This week’s crazy has been especially over the top, especially with Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore trying to stand in the courthouse doorway, and more Christians believing that only they can defend God (shhh, apparently he can’t take care of himself).
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Boy oh boy, did I get a surprise phone call Monday. I live in Tampa, just south of Pasco County, and Monday morning I faxed a letter to Paula O’Neil, Pasco Clerk of Court concerning their discontinuing performing marriage ceremonies in deference to the bigotry of some of her assistant clerks. You can read the letter here.
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