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29607. Trillium - 7/4/2015 12:56:50 PM

Scalia's dissent includes some unusual viewpoints not often voiced.

Then again, that's what dissent is about, though it's shocking for people not used to being contradicted.

Scalia: The Supreme Court is a Threat to Democracy

"Scalia claimed that legalizing gay marriage was a policy decision — not one that the court should decide.

"Until the courts put a stop to it, public debate over same-sex marriage displayed American democracy at its best," he wrote.

29608. Trillium - 7/4/2015 12:58:11 PM

This made me laugh. I'm fairly open in my marital communications, but stepped back to wonder what I DON'T say. iiibbb had some posts about that very topic a while back.

"Expression, sure enough, is a freedom, but anyone in a long-lasting marriage will attest that that happy state constricts, rather than expands, what one can prudently say."

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf

29609. Trillium - 7/4/2015 1:17:10 PM

Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible" decades ago to address McCarthyism and excessively emotional political campaigns. While Scalia might want to dial it back a notch, he's certainly not the only one... I'd suggest that some posters here might look in the mirror (Arky and Judith?)

Hysteria about not appearing immorally "racist" has reached unacceptable limits. When Salem teens put on hysterical displays of demonic possession, Puritan judges had their brains similarly scrambled by conflicted religious teachings.

29610. Trillium - 7/4/2015 1:18:12 PM

There's a woman from McKinney, TX (Tracey Allbritton, originally of Los Angeles...) She is now someplace in hiding because of death threats and job loss resulting from accusations of racism related to the McKinney TX pool crashers.

I'm more likely to believe Tracey Allbritton than her accusers. Her primary accuser is an enterprising scamster who advertised and sold tickets to a "pool party" next to a private pool belonging to a gated community that strictly limited guests of homeowners (who had to pay over a hundred dollars a year for access, maintenance and security if they wanted to use the pool).

Tracey Albritton hired Gloria Allred for defense

When people have to hire lawyers to defend against death threats and firing because of false accusations, THAT is "around the bend". And THAT ought to concern you although clearly it doesn't.

29611. Trillium - 7/4/2015 1:27:20 PM

Cocoafab reporting with different details than Texas Monthly:

"According to Tracey, one of the black teens began screaming racial slurs at Allbritton’s friend saying the pool was public and the friend replied that the pool was private and residents pay dues to use it. Then, one of the black attendees charged towards Allbritton’s friend and began pulling her hair.

“My kids were screaming and traumatized” she said. “I walked out to defuse the fight and did just that. I didn’t beat anyone nor use racial slurs of any kind.”

29612. arkymalarky - 7/4/2015 3:27:55 PM

Again, I encourage anyone following to see Trillium's fount of racial hostility in the link I posted above.

Wrt Scalia and gay marriage, it wasn't the content of his dissent, though I think his and Thomas's lacked reason; it was his expressions against the ruling and their personal, frenetic, and unhinged tone.

29613. arkymalarky - 7/4/2015 3:30:17 PM

And to stay on the topic of the thread, you'll know hell is frozen over when Trillium actually defends a black person over a white person in one of these news items.

29614. arkymalarky - 7/4/2015 3:33:18 PM

A quote from Milton is also apt:

He made the worse appear the better cause.

29615. RickNelson - 7/4/2015 7:20:09 PM

Hmmmm...

They systemic disparity created by the quid pro quo for whites, and their long held institutional majority, created an absurd set of ad hominem drivel. Such as shocked people are not used to being contradicted, or lying shouldn't be someone's norm. How odd.

One does not necessarily follow the other. We know that causing confusion is distracting. So it's good to see notes to stay on topic.

I take it the topic is broadly looking at the privilege of whites vs the so called supports available to the poor, but focused upon the black community?

29616. arkymalarky - 7/4/2015 7:36:06 PM

an interesting assessment of trillium's link source that I posted above.

29617. judithathome - 7/4/2015 8:24:31 PM

"Expression, sure enough, is a freedom, but anyone in a long-lasting marriage will attest that that happy state constricts, rather than expands, what one can prudently say."

Are you married, Trill? I have found marriage to be just the opposite...what we share has expanded remarkably the longer we are married...not so w/my first marriage of 18 years but with this one...of over 30...it certainly has.

I don't think I could stay in a marriage where things weren't generously shared...thoughts, feelings, emotions, anger, remorse, the entire gamut of emotion. This is a joy, not a chore. This is choice, not a duty.

If one finds themselves biting their tongue in order to spare their mate, they're in the wrong relationship.

29618. judithathome - 7/4/2015 8:27:37 PM

Sorry to have drifted off the topic in my last post...but then again, I think Trillium might consider that Keoni and I are in a mixed-race marriage. ;-)

29619. judithathome - 7/4/2015 8:36:17 PM

#29616

You dig deeply enough, this is the sort of thing you usually find on-line. Agendas out the wahzoo and unsuspecting readers taking most of it at face value rather than as the agenda-driven pap it usually turns out to be.

29620. vonKreedon - 7/6/2015 8:09:30 PM

SCOTUS Marriage Opinions in Haiku

29621. arkymalarky - 7/6/2015 8:30:46 PM

Ha-ha! Those are great!

29622. RickNelson - 7/10/2015 1:37:05 PM

Kennedy's majority decision: 'Love' = RightON!

29623. Ms. No - 3/22/2016 9:24:29 PM

Wasn't sure exactly what thread to put this in, but philosophy seemed a bit more appropriate than politics.

So, I've got several ideas mixing around in my brain that will eventually be a unit tying dystopian fiction to WWII and the Holocaust and maybe looking at what kinds of global events bring about a rise in Dystopian literature --- hello The Giver, Hunger Games, Divergent etc.

And I was struck by how white all of it is. And then I was thinking about the elements of a dystopian society:

All-powerful and capricious government/rulers
Repression of individuality and humanity
Oppression of the workers
Eugenics
Daily existence ruled by fear, want, and hopelessness

And I realized why we don't have or really need black dystopian fiction. 300 years of slavery pretty much cured us of that.

I can't be the first person ever to notice this or point it out, but I'd never heard anyone make this connection, so I want credit for originality.

29624. arkymalarky - 3/22/2016 10:30:02 PM

I haven't read much of that type of fiction, but I just got finished teaching The Giver. It's interesting how popular that type of fiction has been with mostly junior high and high school in the last decade, when before it was mostly fantasies like Harry Potter the Percy Jackson series. I wonder why the shift, and whether it's simply attributable to the post 911 era, then I listen to panicky adults every time something happens like what happened today in Brussels, and makes a bit more sense. Sorta like the Devo song Freedom of Choice.

29625. Ms. No - 3/23/2016 3:46:20 AM

I read a lot of it my sophomore year of high school ---- A Clockwork Orange, The Trial...others were on the list but I can't remember all of them. I know 1984 and Brave New World were possibilities. I read Slaughterhouse Five and Stranger in a Strange Land.

I think Fahrenheit 451 was 7th grade. That may have been the year for Harrison Bergeron, too.

I'm a glutton for punishment and love my dystopian literature. I've got an anthology called Brave New Worlds that I'm getting ready to start working my way through. It's kind of a downer if you read them all at once.

Especially since I just picked up a copy of Susan Mayer's Dark Money.

I'm going to have to watch nothing but cartoons for a week once I get done with all of this. ;-)

29626. arkymalarky - 3/23/2016 4:28:10 AM

Dad just read that. I'm going to borrow it from him. Right now I'm on spring break I'm sick with a stupid sinus infection so I'm not reading Squat, and not doing squat. I'm just so pissed.

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