Slaughter by Constitution

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Slaughter by Constitution

Late last night, three members of the Well Regulated Militia gunned down eleven people, wounding ten and killing one in Chicago. Any rational being is likely to assume that these almost-daily incidents are not what the founders had in mind when they created the Well Regulated Militia with the Second Amendment, but that frequent slaughter must be what the Supreme Court has in mind when it supports the arming of the irresponsible, immature, and emotionally stunted to live out their soldier fantasies while strutting with their firepower to intimidate the public.

It must be a wonderful feeling of power to have a room or a street cleared when the Well Regulated Militia appears.

Do members of the Supreme Court assume that was what the founders meant by "The pursuit of happiness?

Why, yes. It seems that is exactly what they think.

 

The Clown Show

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The Clown Show

Soul seller Attorney General Bill Barr now says the 2020 election "fraud" was bullshit. Chickenhawk Mitch McConnell urged Barr to go public with his concerns about Trump but refused to do so himself.

McConnell a Chickenhawk? Make that coward.

"Barr also said that he told Trump the lawyers pursuing legal election fights were a "clown show."             --Excerpt, See the full story at the link below:

• https://www.axios.com/bill-barr-trump-election-8f6e5b4a-906f-4fb2-a20e-60d8f1e54b7b.html

Denying Natural Selection

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Natural Selection 

A long blog of hundreds of words is unnecessary when the topic is the abysmal stupidity of a segment of American society. It is enough to say simply, You Can't Fix Stupid.

"How many unvaccinated Americans are willing to die easily preventable deaths from COVID-19 each day?" --excerpt

https://news.yahoo.com/6-warning-signs-that-the-delta-variant-is-coming-for-unvaccinated-americans-090025468.html

Texas as Third World Province

 

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Texas as Third World Province

According to a USA Today report dated today, June 25, 2021, a train of vehicles referred to as a "Trump Train" attempted to harass and intimidate a Biden-Harris Bus and accompanying vehicle. That, in itself, is not a serious crime but more a tale of intellectually stunted Texas rednecks. However, the Trump cultists are said to have attempted to run the bus off the road. To what end? To haul the survivors out for physical punishment? To express their support for democracy and fair elections?

To many political moderates, actions such as this sometimes look like the decline of democracy and of American influence in the world.

My first reaction to the story was embarrassment--in my state and too many of my fellow Texans. These Trump cultists appear to have no shame. Let the embarrassment their action aroused in mature Texans be their shame.

The Failure of Magical Reality

 

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The Failure of Magical Reality

If I were a religious person, I would be praying that our post-modern experiment with relative truths and "alternative facts" is done. Finis. Kaput. 

The January 6 insurrection was, we can only hope, the death knell of that ignoble episode in our history. The trials and imprisonment of some of the leaders of that event, and the recent banning of its cheerleader, Rudy Giuliani, from practicing law in New York are encouraging signs that the legal system agrees that, yes, there is a reality separate from our fantasies. Magical reality is an entertaining concept in movies and literature but has no place in Ideology.

Facts are facts and ideological fantasies and propaganda don't change that, regardless of the number of people who believe it. Reality doesn't care about our denial of it. But it appears to me that Rudy, like the pillow guy, will deny reality even while the world points and laughs at their folly.

Not me. I feel the same sympathy for them that I feel for any person who has made bad choices. 

Abbott Hates Dogs

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#AbbottHatesDogs

A wise person once advised me to "Never trust anyone who is not kind to animals."

In the years since I have learned that my advisor's insight into human behavior was spot-on. I have, to date, not once met a trustworthy person who was not kind to animals. By kind, I mean those who treat pets with respect and those who support protections for animals in the wild.

Greg Abbott is one of the Untrustworthy. The Texas Governor recently vetoed bipartisan "Senate Bill 474, known as the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act, which would have prohibited the use of heavy chains to restrain dogs, mandated that animal-control and rescue groups scan pets for microchips, and given tax breaks to pet-rescue organizations."*

The bill called for the regulation of collar size, heavy chains, and the availability of food and water. Abbott called referred to the bill as "micromanaging" and "over-criminalizing." 

It is not micromanaging when existing animal protections are "vague and unenforceable,"* and isn't it no more over-criminalizing than those misdemeanor punishments that regulate pedestrian traffic and safe driving.

I grew up in an environment in which the old agrarian way of life was being fazed out in favor of industrial jobs in a nearby city. Old ways die hard, and the former farmers, seeing their woodlands scraped to make way for a booming population and suburban development, continued to keep hunting dogs in cages even when their weekday jobs left them too exhausted for hunting trips to hunting destinations that receded with each new birth and suburban development. Those dogs were often ignored for days. Their masters filled their food and water containers hurridly and absent-mindedly. They were sheltered by plywood doghouses and tethered to them to keep them from climbing over or digging under their prisons. Only neighborhood children gave the animals attention. A law like Texas Senate Bill 474 in those days would have been a blessing to those dogs, who suffered not from cruelty, but from the unkind lack of respect that pets crave.

* "Texas Gov. Abbott vetoed a state animal-cruelty bill, saying the Safe Outdoor Dogs Act was 'micro-managing"  https://www.businessinsider.com/texas-gov-abbott-vetoed-bill-expanding-animal-cruelty-law-2021-6

For the People

For the People

USA Today is reporting that moderate Joe Manchin will join Democrats in supporting the For the People Act, a piece of voting legislation that strengthens voting rights. A no-brainer, right? Who would oppose a voting rights bill? 

Republicans have lined up to oppose the bill. Trump's big lie that the 2020 election was stolen has the support of Republicans, even those Trump has insulted in the past. And why not? Thirty percent of the American population lives in right-wing nutter land, and the party of Trump has those votes sewn up. Any politician would love to know he or she has a full one-third of the American public in his or her pocket. So, insult my wife? No problem.

The USA Today editorial supports the conservative proposal for the requirement of a voter ID, and the idea that Democrats have vowed to fight. Why? Because, they say, some people do not have state or federally issued IDs. I, for one, agree with conservatives. State-issued IDs are not all that difficult to attain. Here in Texas, one can receive a state ID on line or through the mail. What is the ID-less individual's excuse for not having one?