General Stuff
As infuriating as politics can often get, sometimes it can be just plain funny. The 1950s Democrats, led by Strom Thurmond and former klansman Robert Byrd, back in the 1950s, argued for the protection of the rights of states to decide their own laws and justice. The anti-civil rights crowd used states' rights to justify segregation and Jim Crow laws. The civil rights movement relied on federal legislative action to end those unfair, unjust laws. It took national, across the board action and a couple of Constitutional amendments to foment civil and societal equality. That's why it's so funny to see the liberal Democratic crowd reverting to the states' rights argument in their quest to make same-sex marriages legal.
The New York Times, a bastion of liberal propaganda, in a November 20 editorial, said "The ban [on gay marriage] is simply about prejudice... much like state laws barring interracial marriage."
The Wall Street Journal Opinion Editors asked, "If a refusal to sanction marriages between two men or two women is really as invidious as a ban on interracial unions, how can the Times advocate states' rights vis-a-vis the former?
There's something odd, too, about the notion that any constitutional amendment is an affront to states' rights. Approval of an amendment requires the assent of three-fourths of the state legislatures; it's hard to think of any federal procedure in which the states have more power. And in fact, the reason states' rights failed as a legal argument against civil rights is that Congress and the states had already amended the Constitution to provide black citizens with equal protection under the law (the 14th Amendment) and voting rights (the 15th)."
Personally I'm disinclined to change the Constitution on a whim. It's served us well these past two centuries, although some clarification and tweaking has been necessary. I would have trouble supporting an amendment defining marriage. But if you are interested, here's the text of Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's proposed amendment: "Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman. Neither this Constitution [n]or the constitution of any State, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."
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SENATOR KERRY FLIP-FLOPS (What? Kerry? No way!?!)
This also from the WSJ Opinion page...
Here's John Kerry, in an October speech to the Arab American Institute in Michigan:
I know how disheartened Palestinians are by the Israeli government's decision to build the barrier off of the Green Line--cutting deep into Palestinian areas. We don't need another barrier to peace. Provocative and counterproductive measures only harm Israelis' security over the long term, increase the hardships to the Palestinian people, and make the process of negotiating an eventual settlement that much harder.
And here he is, quoted in the Jerusalem Post, a week before the primary in New York, where the Democratic electorate is heavily Jewish:
"Israel's security fence is a legitimate act of self defense. No nation can stand by while its children are blown up at pizza parlors and on buses. While President Bush is rightly discussing with Israel the exact route of the fence to minimize the hardship it causes innocent Palestinians, Israel has a right and a duty to defend its citizens. The fence only exists in response to the wave of terror attacks against Israel.
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TODAY'S LINKS
MIRACLE DOG: More than a month after his owner's boat sank in rough seas at the southeastern tip of Alaska, one of the owner's dogs has been rescued from a nearby thickly-forested, uninhabited island. An eight-year-old Labrador retriever, it survived alone on the island until being found by friends of its late owner.
A couple left live ammo and three handguns in their oven before leaving on vacation. Upon returning the wife decided to cook and naturally turned the oven on. You can guess what happened next.
Prison inmates in Georgia find a way to take advantage of their situation - low income tax credits from the IRS.
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Here's why I love The Best Of The Web from the Wall Street Journal Opinion Page online. More great business names...
Today brings two more business names that don't exactly inspire confidence:
Rip's Cleaners of Palatka, Fla., and Flatt Tire Centers (slogan: "You too should ride on a Flatt") of Des Moines, Iowa. Bonita, Fla., has a Master Bait & Tackle shop; rumor has it Joycelyn Elders buys her fishing supplies there.
Denton, Texas, has a divorce law firm called Loveless & Loveless. The Lovelesses were more successful eponymists than Dr. Dennis Wiwi, who unaccountably chose obstetrics and gynecology as his specialty. But Benjamin Leak is, as you'd expect, a urologist, and Gary Peed is a plumber.
More funeral homes: Australia has a Life Style Funeral Co., while the House of Diggs, "once called Michigan's largest funeral home" according to the Washington Post, was run by Charles Diggs, who served in the House. Graves Funeral Home & Crematory is an excellent eponym, but the company that owns it, Newcomer Funeral Services Group, isn't. Pinellas County, Fla., has a Moss-Feaster Funeral Home.
Several readers pointed us to the Eikenberry-Eddy Funeral Home in Peru, Ind., but we didn't get the joke until someone raised the question of what happens if someone other than Eddy dies.
A press release from the California Wine Club notes that "Bruce and Pam Boring founded the Ventura, CA-based Club in 1990 and travel the wine country to sample and select wines for their members." Well, they may be Boring winers, but at least they're not haughty or French-looking.
