I'm interested in the fact that the less secure a man is,
the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.
Clint Eastwood
Sarcastic Political Ad of the Day
HT Libertarian Republican
Dumb Poll of the Day: Is This an Episode of Jaywalking?
From CNN:
The poll shows that two-thirds of Americans describe President Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, as a dove, while 29% consider him a hawk.Image of the Day
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| Via LFC |
Devon Still (Cincinnati Bengals Father of 4-Year-Old Daughter With Cancer) Gets Tribute From New England Patriots
The Half-Million a Year Public Pensioner Retired College Professor
From the NY Post (my edits, HT Carpe Diem):
Retired Queens College history professor Edgar J. McManus, 90, who has written groundbreaking books on slavery, retired in February 2012 after teaching history and constitutional law for more than 50 years gets a city pension of $561,286 a year; his final salary was $116,364. “They don’t pay you much when you’re working, but the pension is certainly good,” McManus told The Post. “Darn right I deserve it.” The city’s second-biggest pension, $308,358, goes to Alvin Marty, a Baruch College economics professor who retired after 55 years in 2008. Fifteen other retirees collect more than $200,000 a year, and 1,796 retired educators get more than $100,000 a year.SCOTUS' Intellectual Cowardice on State Regulation of Marriage
I'm not going to write a long rant about this. I've been a forceful critic of Justice Anthony Kennedy's logically incoherent "gay marriage" decision: he did not rule a constitutional right for gays to "marry". (Keep in mind SCOTUS had upheld the 1862 Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act in Reynolds vs. US. "The principle that a person could only be married singly, not plurally, existed since the times of King James I of England in English law, upon which United States law was based." I further submit that that marriage was between a man and a woman.) What I found completely objectionable is that he effectively ruled that California Proposition 8, reinstating the original definition of marriage to the State of California Constitution, was overturned because then Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown (in acts I consider both a violation of their oaths of office and professional ethics) refused to defend the passed measure which made it impossible for surrogates defending the proposition to claim legal standing. Look, either states have the right to regulate marriage or they don't. Were state propositions/referendums on the traditional definition of marriage valid or not? Were over two centuries of state marriage laws invalid, never mind English legal history through the colonies? At what point did the majority of people in a state lose the right to define marriage?
It is clear that Kennedy refused to hear the appeals of 5 states (including conservative Utah, Indiana, and Oklahoma), thereby sustaining judicial activist lower court rulings striking the states' definition of marriage. Thus, at least 6 states have had their duly established marriage laws overturned, a violation of the people's right to decide the issue. This is an abomination.
Facebook Corner
(Being Classically Liberal). I'm a libertarian (classical liberal) because I think gay people should not only be able to get married, but also defend their marijuana fields with "assault weapons" while drinking raw milk. I also hate roads. What about you?
There's a difference between the right of gays to associate in their own relationships, which is a legitimate concern of libertarians, and quite another thing for Statist courts to intervene in the social heterogeneous construct of marriage. If I choose to live in a state whose laws reflect traditional social norms, that is my right of association. Let the states compete to attract the 4% of the population which is gay and has been predominantly promiscuous. I'm not a hypocritical libertarian praising unprincipled judicial whores imposing politically correct values.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Vocalists
Barry Manilow, "When October Goes". Tomorrow's post will include the final song in the Manilow series, his last top 10 adult contemporary hit (from 1989). My next two performers in the series have been forced to retire because of serious health issues, Linda Ronstadt and Glen Campbell.
