A Nation of Laws

It was confirmed again this morning – as all too often seems to be needed – that we are still a nation of laws; governed by such and not by some preacher's notion of how he thinks your life should be lived.

As usual in America, the Religious Right continues to push its agenda on the rest of us, so you can be sure that they are goddam mad at the Supreme Court's decision this morning to declare marriage equality for all. Jesus. These people have such a long tradition of infringing on the rights of others and now they're upset because they feel that their "religious liberty" is threatened? What a joke. Maybe their bullying ways have morphed into paranoia. "Don't infringe on my freedoms," they say? Hey, no problem!

You can sure bet that churches across this country will be hotbeds of hatred come Sunday. And that's okay, proving once again that the idea of having an opinion – the foundation of our democracy – is alive and well in our nation. Unfortunately, there's also another line of thinking that continues to be alive and well – the idea, oozing from the Right, that one American can tell another how to live their life; that I can tell you, if I so please, who you can love, who you can marry, who you can fuck.

The ones usually issuing such dictates are the Christian Right – the very bunch who typically align themselves with the political party whose mantra is "leave me alone and let me live my life my way." Such hypocrisy is something we've become used to from these assholes.

After the same-sex marriage ruling today, Justice Antonin Scalia expressed concern with "this court's threat to American democracy." This from the guy who gave us Citizens United, which essentially declared that elections in our fair democracy can be bought and sold by the highest bidder who, in truth, has zero care or concern whatsoever for the average American.

Of course, the Republican candidates for president weighed in and for the most part agreed that regulation is a no-no in the boardroom but fine in the bedroom. "I'm gonna tell you who you can marry and how to manage your own bodies, but leave my old smoky factory alone!" Funny that Jeb Bush, of all people, "guided by … faith," believes in "traditional marriage."

Funny because Bush married out of his faith and out of his race.

One of the lead nut jobs, Mike Huckabee, had an interesting take, invoking British imperialism of the 18^th Century; the precise era of government rule to which he would have us revert; a time in which we were dictated to by a monarch who ruled by religion and not by law. And Huckabee has decided that since Obama opposed gay marriage until 2012, "he was either lying in 2008 or he's lying now." Heaven forbid that Obama – or anyone – might change his or her mind, or even evolve.

Thankfully, we have, indeed, evolved as a nation with the high court's confirmation that marriage is a legal act and not a religious one – by law.

South Carolina: Here We Go Again

This is why.

For those gun people who are all worried that we non-gun people want to take away your damn guns, South Carolina is why.

Sure, most gun owners wouldn't do what the kid in South Carolina did. But then most people wouldn't speed (would they?), and yet, we need speed limit laws. Most people aren't litterers, yet we have to have laws to tell people not to litter. So sorry, gun people; as with anything, it's the bad few who spoil things for the good many. The true, harsh reality is that we're a nation of morons, and therefore, should not be a nation that makes it so easy to put a gun in the hands of just anyone. And don't give me that garbage about the 2^nd Amendment declaring it all okay. The 2^nd Amendment was originally intended to be strictly a Federal declaration for the purpose of inclusion of a line item in the federal budget throughout perpetuity for weaponry for the purpose of defending our nation, not to mention shutting down internal usurpers. It was NOT a hall pass for every Tom, Dick and Dylann to conduct vigilante law. And for decades now, the NRA has bastardized its intent for their own money-grubbing means. As for all of the Republicans suddenly coming out against the Confederate Flag, don't let them fool you. The removal of the flag is their trade-off for getting to keep their guns.

Until we have someone – ANYONE – with the guts to enforce the 2^nd Amendment as it was conceived, every standing member of Congress is hereby considered an Accessory to Murder.

Kathleen Parker & the Bush Family Affair

A recent column by the Washington Post's Kathleen Parker is even more touching than her usual pieces, revealing her to be the kind of voter that the GOP has gone – and still goes – after when they pull little tricks like naming the likes of Dan Quayle to a ticket. ("His young, handsome looks should nail the women vote for us!") Yes, she was downright fawning in her appraisal of the Bush clan; to hear her talk, you'd think that Parker was the only journalist covering the family back to the days of H W. In her recollection, she gives us a history lesson on herself – including a Gump-like encounter when with the sleaze ball Reagans. It seems the history lesson needed here is one for Parker on the Bushes.

When she describes George H. W. Bush's "quality, character and class," it's clear she's forgotten about Iran-Contra. Or that he's raised one son who is a crook, one who is a moron and one who is … well, we're not yet sure about "JEB!" Though we're getting a better idea that he may not turn out to be the smart one so many have claimed him to be.

Hey, at one point in time, George the Senior did try to do the right thing and it hurt him bad. When he lost in '88, it wasn't because of Perot, but because he actually did what was needed – he raised taxes, which his believers sure didn't like, and made him pay for it. No if only he could have been a little bit more forthright about that Iraqi invasion.

Then there's W, who has expressed that he was concerned more about his dad's political defeat than the American lives lost on 9/11 – under his watch. And that today, he finds it more of a burden to explain the Clinton cigar caper than the human loss caused by his wars.

Now we have JEB!, with whom Parker tells us she was oh-so-impressed many years ago – and she's been sure through the years that the rest of us would be impressed, too. JEB!, who has said that the "the presidency shouldn't be passed on from one liberal to the next." But he said nothing about it being passed from Conservative to Conservative – especially within the same family.

The Bushes are a dumb, classless gaggle of skunks who would sacrifice one another in front of God and man if they thought it might benefit them politically. Parker must be proud.