The Supreme Court legalizes discrimination

    The Supreme Court in its ruling in the case brought by web designer Lorie Smith ruled that she would not have to design a wedding website for a gay couple because it was against her religious views.  She had never been asked to design a website for a gay couple so she had no "legal standing" to bring a lawsuit but that didn't matter to this Court.   Past Supreme Courts have a history of making new precedence to expand rights but this Court makes new precedence to take rights away. At risk are the rights of all types of groups of people who might now be discriminated against because someone may have discriminatory religious beliefs.  I wonder how Justice Thomas, in a mixed racial marriage, would feel if someone said their beliefs from the Bible spoke against race mixing in marriage and refused to serve them in a restaurant?  

      The Founding Fathers gave us a Country with a separation of church and state and the freedom to practice freely any religion.  The problems develop when your faith tells you to discriminate or treat non-believers in a discriminatory manner. To have our 21st Century's behavior governed by a 2000 or 4000-year-old belief system is where some people are today.  The Bible told slaves to obey their masters and husbands to stone their wives for adultery.   It is bad enough that conservatives want to take us back to the 1950s or the 1860s but to allow the 4000-year-old Bible to determine the level of discrimination today is where we may be finding ourselves with this Supreme Court. The Court today seems to be making rulings using the Bible more than the Constitution.

P.S.

      For all those voters who sat out the 2016 election in states with close margins and gave us a Trump presidency that gave us our present Supreme Court, I hope you show up in 2024.

P.S. 1

     Justice Sotomayor took issue with her conservative colleagues' decision, writing dissentingly: "When the civil rights and women’s rights movements sought equality in public life, some public establishments refused. Some even claimed constitutional rights to discriminate based on sincere religious beliefs. The brave past Justices who once sat on this Court decisively rejected those claims."

P.S.2

    If you think that because we live in a liberal state we are protected from the conservative beliefs of other states you are wrong.  The Supreme Court struck down a New York law on carry permits for guns and Maryland had to stop enforcing one of its gun laws because of it.

So True!

Funnies

And the score is?

 

Will the dominoes fall this way in the 2024 election?

   

        With the admission by Trump this past week that he obstructed justice in the documents case, I see some possible changes in how the election next year could play out.  As Trump faces the real possibility of having to accept a plea deal or be convicted of the charges, his likelihood of the Republican nominee decreases.  If he is not going to be the nominee who would the Republicans turn to?  Suppose they roll the dice and put up a woman like Nikki Haley to attract back suburban women.  With Trump out of the picture, what would the Democrats do?  The pressure on Biden to drop out with Trump out of the picture would increase.  With the Republicans likely to nominate a woman the Democrats might also nominate a woman so they wouldn't lose the suburban woman vote.  The most likely candidate would be Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.   A Haley/Whitmer race would guarantee that we will have our first woman President.  2024 might be a very interesting year if the dominoes fall in this way.

Armed and loaded

 

     Recently the Howard County police confiscated illegally purchased weapons from a resident. Above is a picture of the range of illegally owned guns confiscated.  This case shows where our Country is as a result of the National Rifle Association's successful campaign to have the right to bear arms mentioned in the Second Amendment to mean the right to become a heavily armed private citizen.  This misinterpretation of the Constitution is historically incorrect.  To understand the historical context in which the Constitution was written you only have to look at how guns were treated in Colonial America.

    In colonial times, America was a very different place. The Country was still young and the laws were still forming.  One aspect that many people may not know was different during this time was the gun laws.  While many people today may imagine that guns were easily available and unrestricted, the reality was that there were many gun restrictions in colonial times. One common misconception is that the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, which guarantees the right to bear arms, meant that everyone was allowed to have a gun without restriction. However, this is not the case. In the early days of the country, gun ownership was actually tightly controlled. One of the main reasons for this was that guns were expensive and hard to come by. Flints were not always available, and replacement parts were scarce. Manufactured guns were more expensive than most settlers could afford. As a result, gun ownership was mainly limited to the wealthy and to the colonists who were members of militia organizations. Another reason that guns were restricted was that they were seen as dangerous. In colonial times, there were no police forces and very limited means of protecting oneself. Because of this, lawmakers were concerned that people would use guns recklessly or for vigilante justice.

    Overall, gun ownership in colonial times was limited to certain individuals and groups, and there were many restrictions in place to control the use of guns. 

New Trump record

Trump being led out of the courthouse today after the hearing

     Trump now has been impeached and indicted twice as often as he was elected.

P.S.

Donald Trump indictment charges--- 71 and counting

Hillary Clinton indictment charges-----0

Prepare for Success: Providing school supplies of Howard County students

    For a number of years, I have been writing about the Community Action Council program called "Prepare for Success" which provides school supplies to low-income students in Howard County.   While we think of Howard County as a wealthy county, 23% of students in our County receive free or reduced meals.  These are the students that often are the ones who come from families that often struggle to meet the school needs of their children.

    You can donate to this program by checking with the Community Action Council, 9820 Patuxent Woods Drive, Columbia MD 21046, or online at prepareforsuccess.org/donate

Schadenfreude

 

P.S.

Religious and political conservatives always need a culture war to remain relevant

     If any of us liberals thought that the culture war on gay rights was over with the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality we now see that the war has shifted to fighting transgender rights and drag queen shows.  Boycotting certain beers and Target for reaching out during gay pride month is where the conservative movement sees the battle.  Gov. DeSantis has made this a major part of his appeal in his presidential campaign.

      In their effort to "turn back the clock" to a time when being gay was illegal, the conservatives have always had enemies that were trying to corrupt our society.  This effort has always had appeal with religious persons since it fits with their belief that there is an ongoing battle between Satan and God.  It should not be surprising that much of the support for conservative politics closely aligns with fundamentalist religion.  Each has the need for an authoritarian leader who has the power to combat the evil influences of what is believed to be progressive policies.  Having blind faith in the leader leads to accepting cruel behaviors as the cost of the battle against evil forces.  Separating immigrant children from their parents is accepted as necessary to stop immigrant parents from trying to enter the United States illegally.  The religious teachings of all humans being children of God to be treated with compassion are lost in this situation.  Humanity is lost when we start to separate people into groups in the battle for good and evil.  This seems to be where the Republican Party and religious fundamentalists live today.

P.S.

 I repeat myself but intelligence is knowing how much you don't know and stupid is thinking you know more than you do.  Lauren Boebert proves this every time she speaks. At least her husband doesn't have to live with her stupidity anymore.