I can remember when Rudy Guiliani was important enough that people took what he had to say seriously.
Wait. No, I can’t.
To borrow, maybe 3/5’s of what he had to say was important.
If you are not a right wing consumer of religious propaganda or Fox News viewer, but I repeat myself, allow me to introduce Cal Thomas, op-ed columnist for the Tribune Content Agency, Where Rights Come From.
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo had an exchange with Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore about Moore’s refusal to adhere to a federal appellate judge’s order to ignore the state constitution and begin granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples, during which Moore said “…our rights contained in the Bill of Rights do not come from the Constitution, they come from God.”
Justice Moore is a well known God-bothering Christopath, who most recently sought to protect Alabama from Sharia law and is now attempting to deny equal rights to same sex couples based on his personal religious principles. Raise your hands and give me a heartfelt HYPOCRITE! HALLELUJAH! For fuck’s sake, this ass is the Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. The requirements for which must be a pulse, room temperature I.Q., and blind faith, lots of blind faith. Anyway, let’s see what Cuomo’s response was,
Cuomo disagreed: “Our laws do not come from God, your honor, and you know that. They come from man.”
Fair enough, for me, but where does Thomas stand on that response?
Obviously, Cuomo flunked civics.
You know Cal, I’m not sure that’s so obvious, let’s explore.
If I was a betting man Cal, I’d be taking the passing civics grade and giving a fuckton of points.
What I believe his point was, is that God didn’t have anything to do with the bill of rights.
Thomas’ response?
It is not a new debate, but a debate worth renewing.
You sure you want to do this?
The framers of the Constitution clearly understood that in order to put certain rights out of the reach of government, whose power they wished to limit, those rights had to come from a place government could not reach.
Ok, Mr. Madison you have the floor.
I believe that is why those same framers choose the government to secure our freedoms rather than leave them to the whims of organized religion.
You catch that Justice Moore?
Thomas Jefferson understood this well enough to write in the Declaration of Independence that our rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” are “endowed by our Creator.”
In today’s political arena that is an example of “playing to the base”. Just like your work, but presented in beautiful prose. What else do you have there?
The only way to preserve them for ourselves and our posterity is to acknowledge they come from a higher place.
Just like Sharia law? Justice Moore! Please close your Bible and pay attention.
Compare and contrast then get back to me.
Ok, next Thomas introduces William Blackstone, an English jurist of the time, to give us his views on Natural Law and all is well and good. The problem arises when Thomas informs that —
Blackstone was a contemporary of America’s Founders, who referred to him more than any other English or American authority.
While factually correct it would have been journalistically more honest had he referenced James Wilson, John Witherspoon, and Thomas Reid, all Scotsmen and of much greater influence on both Madison, and Jefferson, as well as John Adams, with respect to their philosophy of Natural Law and “… inalienable rights.”
The link is there, but my point is, for Thomas, Natural Law, which he never explicitly names as such, isn’t recognized until St. Francis decides to absorb it into Christian doctrine, as they did the pagan holidays.
You look a little unsteady there Justice Moore, are you OK?
Anyway, his point can only be made if one ignores Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and Cicero. Damn, that’s a set of balls of hubris that would make a pedophile priest blush.
(Wow, that was long and kind of serious, Slappy’s really not going to be happy with me.)
Let’s get back to Cal, seems Justice Moore is feeling better.
Man enacted laws sanctioning same-sex marriage. Judge Roy Moore argues that a Higher law, including for human relationships, should prevail, a Higher law that man cannot impeach. I believe he’s right.
Now that’s really impressive, I’ve been to a buzzard fucking, paid a dime to watch a ant crawl up a horses ass, with rape on its mind, and two gas station openings, but I’ve never seen a man stick his head up another man’s ass while the recipient’s head was already in place!
Finally, Thomas takes the required jab at secular progressives (Democrats, atheists, non-conservative asshats, etc).
Secular progressives believe in a “living Constitution” that constantly “evolves” to serve the people. The Founders (and Blackstone) believed the people are best served when they conform to laws established by God.
Actually that’s the first sentence he’s written that I agree with. As to the rest — BULL. FUCKING. SHIT. Madison virtually never spoke of his own religious beliefs, and the only reason Jefferson did was to defend himself against charges of atheism.
Thomas uses his closing paragraph to throw in a little standardized conservative fear mongering, got to keep the bases ass clinched.
One doesn’t have to believe in God for this to work, but the alternative potentially puts the rights of everyone in peril should one group, or class, fall out of favor.
Finally, Thomas, in print, declares Justice Moore … Hey, you awake over there? … right on the issue.
This is why Chris Cuomo is wrong about the source of our laws and Judge Moore is right.
In closing, I can only say, ‘When you’re done using your pen to fluff the conservative cause, I hope you enjoy whatever eternity consists of, with them, on the wrong side of history, hack.
Hey there Slickster boys and girls, yeah I’m talking to both of you. I’ve got something funny to share from the kiddie pool that is the Wisconsin governor’s office.
The governor of the once progressive state of Wisconsin is Koch brother hand puppet/college dropout Scott Walker. Now Scotty fancies himself to be a presidential caliber crook leader. He is also well aware that being in pursuit of the White House he needs to gin up some religious cred with the base from the lab of shitty ideas, the GOP. Which is why in January, while speaking to a group of bankers, he let his god bothering flag fly. From the Raw Story,
“[a]ny major decision I’ve made in my life, politics or otherwise, I’ve tried to discern God’s calling on.”
Ok, nothing unusual there. It’s standard fare for presidential candidates of every stripe. This is apparently quite routine for Gov. Walker, as we see here,
Governor Walker has never been shy about flashing his religious credentials, regularly telling audiences about the nondenominational evangelical church he attends, the Baptist preacher who raised him, and his belief that he only runs for office when “called” upon by God to do so.
Still fairly vanilla, but it did catch the attention of Mr. Edward Susterich, a member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and some sweet-assed trolling ensued. Seems Mr. Susterich filed a open records request with the governor’s office asking them to,
“… provide a copy/transcript of all communications with God, the Lord, Christ, Jesus or any other form of deity.”
Now kids, if you are going to troll someone that is how it’s done, oh, yes, the governors office responded,
“… [pursuant to the Public Records Law, we are responding to let you know that this office does not have records responsive to your request.”
Well played sir, very well played indeed.
Just when one begins to feel that nothing, coming from the fetid cesspool that is the right wing blogosphere, can elicit shock any longer, someone comes along and displays a case of screaming mental illness so highly developed that ones only response can be open mouthed incredulity.
Yesterday out of that cesspool shambled a perfect excuse for retroactive abortion, one Debbie Schlussel, a heretofore unknown to me shrieking rage harpy. As is their nature she didn’t show up alone. At her side was the gift to journalistic ignorance James Hoft, aka, the stupidest man on the Internet and from Breitbart.coms collection of otherwise unemployable journalistic failures, Joel Pollack.
The occasion for their collective display of soullessness was the death of American aid worker Kayla Mueller, who was being held by ISIS, the latest entrant in the Iron Age Death Cult sweepstakes and a subsection of one of the three main players in the Middle East menage a trois of death worship to god. If this is becoming confusing I understand, typically the right and left share the same outrage when events of this nature occur. Well, not this time. It seems Ms. Mueller wasn’t helping the right kind of humans and therefore is unworthy of mourning. Let’s go to Ms Schlussel for a sample of what flew out of the bullshit spigot that is the hole in her face.
“Kayla Mueller: Dead ISIS Hostage Was a Jew-Hating, Anti-Israel Bitch.”
“Mueller was a Jew-hating, anti-Israel piece of crap who worked with HAMAS and helped Palestinians harass Israeli soldiers and block them from doing their job of keeping Islamic terrorists out of Israel,” she wrote.
Schlussel condemned Mueller’s humanitarian work in the “so-called ‘West Bank” to prevent the demolition of “terrorists’ ‘houses.”
“I have no sympathy for any of these ‘American’ (in name only!) hostages of ISIS,” she continued. “And my attitude when I hear they’ve been snuffed out is, so sad, too bad.”
Schlussel called the killing of Mueller “poetic justice.”
Wow, someone’s gene pool needs bleach ASAP! Doesn’t it make you proud to know she’s a member of our species? I’ll link the full article here, so you can enjoy the prose stylings of her like-minded colleagues.
In closing, here is Charles P. Pierce’s take on these people.
“These really are the fking Mole People.”
What I want to know is what Mr Pierce has against moles and people, because; these fking creatures deserve their own species, there is no room for them in ours.
Who would have thought Ozzy Osbourne, the mumbling, incoherent, freak of Rock and Roll nature would also be a prescient forecaster of current GOP presidential candidates? From the fall of 1980, here is his frieghtenly accurate roll call of the GOP crazy train.
I’ve listened to the preachers
Huckabee (R-Christopath)
I’ve listened to the fools
Perry (R-Indicted) Jindal (R-Stupid)
I’ve watched all the dropouts
Walker (R-Koch Industries)
Who make their own rules
Christie (R-A Bridge Too Far)
One person conditioned to rule and control
Bush (R-420)
The media sells it and you live the role
Ryan (R-Mathamagician)
Rubio (R-Hapless)
Mental wounds still screaming
Palin (R-Moron) Paul (R-Randite)
Driving me insane
Cruz (R-Texanada)
I’m going off the rails on a crazy train
Graham (R- Closeted)
I’m telling you, the campaign to the super Tuesday southern GOP primaries is going to look like a re-enactment of Sherman’s march to the sea, put on by the cast of Monty Python. Bring popcorn and alcohol, lots of alcohol.