Gay Marriage Follies

So.  Many.  Gay.  Marriage.  Memes.

SCOTUS Part II - The Justices (End of Year Re-Run)

I know, it's Friday, and you want your Follies.  But we've done a few extra follies lately, and I want to get one more re-run in before we go back to our normal schedule.  This is the second of my SCOTUS background pieces.  This one (from June 6th) is about the current justices, and how this Roberts Court stacks up versus prior Courts...

The Happiest Court Ever

My kids ate my homework.  Okay, no, but boy did they get in the way of me doing any kind of efficient writing in the past two days.  Until the fall I am first a mom at just about all times, and only secondly, well, a person who can do things like write cogent sentences without being interrupted constantly, particularly when my kids are low on sleep and wearing their cranky pants.  But bear with me for one more bit of background, because it really does help in any discussion about the Court to know something about the personalities and histories of the current justices.

First a note about terminology:  There are no liberals on the Court right now,

Double Rainbow: DOMA and the Supreme Court

Still one of my favorite viral videos...

But to get slightly more on topic, last week, to the impatience of many, the Supreme Court finally accepted two cases which took up the issue of gay marriage.

A Cornucopia of Post-Turkey News

So I only have the time left in a playground outing of the hubby and kids to write, but there are a few stories that bear discussion this week...

1. R.I.P. Warren Rudman - Warren Rudman was a Republican Senator from New Hampshire, one who earnestly sought progress and bipartisan governance.  He resigned from the Senate after two terms because he said it was too partisan and fractious.


He was well-known for his work in Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, which established some bipartisan (Hollings was a Democrat from South Carolina, Gramm a Republican from Texas) budget processes to try to tame budget deficits in the mid-1980s.  Those processes were about... raising the debt limit.  They would have created mandatory sequestrations by the Comptroller General, but they were found unconstitutional (as was the Line Item Veto - which was not in GRH but was also supposedly a method for achieving budget sanity, though at the same time a large grant of presidential power).    Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL) also penned budget control measures in the same era.


Rudman later served in a Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under President Clinton.  And he helped steer the Iran/Contra Hearings with Senator Inouye (D-HI), producing a bipartisan document that said Reagan officials knowingly violated the law (hence the Bush Pardons).  Rudman supported aid to the Contras, but famously said (and here you will hear echoes of C.J. Roberts from the Affordable Care Act decision - "It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."):

The War on Women, A Primer: Part One

Cops in riot gear prepare to meet anti-forced-ultrasound protestors in Virginia.

There has been a back and forth all campaign season about whether there is a War on Women.  Now setting aside the fact that the "War on" title is egregiously overused and somewhat inflammatory, the talk comes from somewhere.  There is a pretty well-acknowledged and consistent gender gap between our two parties.  Men lean right, women lean left.  But on top of that, are there reasons why, this year in particular, we hear about a War on Women?  Has something changed materially about the way Republicans are conducting themselves, or is it just a continuation of conservatives tending to favor policies that favor men over women?

A Protestant, A Mormon and Two Catholics Walk into an Election...

One of the most interesting things about this presidential campaign is how little we've heard - thus far - about the candidates' religion.

Electricity

So my house went without power for a week.

This happened partially because there was a very bad storm in my area, and partially because the reigning utility (PEPCO) is way more invested in its shareholders' happiness than its customers' happiness. That's not really opinion.

Now, it may be that private utilities are more responsive, more efficient, or better for society in some way than public utilities are.

The Decision...

So it’s day one after The Decision.  And the political fallout has yet to be seen.  When I first heard about the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act (aka the health care act, or Obamacare), I’ll admit that my first reaction was one of giddiness and glee.  I totally thrust my fist into the air, and with the kind of satisfaction that can only come from a mixture of relief and schadenfraude, I thought to myself, 'na na na nah boo boo, stick your head in doo doo', which, I’ll freely acknowledge, was not the most mature reaction I could have had.

SCOTUS Part II - The Justices

The Happiest Court Ever

My kids ate my homework.  Okay, no, but boy did they get in the way of me doing any kind of efficient writing in the past two days.  Until the fall I am first a mom at just about all times, and only secondly, well, a person who can do things like write cogent sentences without being interrupted constantly, particularly when my kids are low on sleep and wearing their cranky pants.  But bear with me for one more bit of background, because it really does help in any discussion about the Court to know something about the personalities and histories of the current justices.

First a note about terminology:  There are no liberals on the Court right now,