Aging Infrastructure Does What Secretary Murphy Couldn’t Do

It shuts down Bayard School… 

Sprinkler pipes burst flooding the school forcing its closure until Monday Feb. 22nd…

Governor Markell and Secretary Murphy issued an ultimatum.  Because something happened beyond the school district’s control. the Christina District must either a) close down the school, or b) turned over to a management company, or c) make it into a charter school… (Christina opted to punt the problem to Red Clay school district…. )
Massive poverty.  Low outside temperatures… What’s the difference?

Fact is… there really isn’t any… Those kids will not get an education on par with others in Shue Middle School for example, because they will miss 4 days of school.. That is beyond their control.  Yet allegedly that makes no difference when they take the Smarter Balanced Assessment. … None.  Just like not having dinner every night for the past few years, allegedly makes no difference when one takes the Smarter Balanced Assessment… Just like dodging bullies who will put lead into your body for no reason, allegedly makes no difference when one takes the Smarter Balanced Assessment… just like having a mom strung on heroin, and a different man every night, makes no difference… when taking the Smarter Balanced Assessment.

Our children are people… Our children are human beings… They need help.  Help comes in the form of people… not standardized tests ….

All children need to opt out of the the test… That is the only thing that can save our educational system now.  Our educational system has lost all touch with reality. It is for parents to stand up as adults and say… I don’t care how much you are getting paid!… My child will not take this test!…. They are career stepping stones to you!… They are the only children we have!…

Middle School children going to Bayard will be penalized for life (lower scores) because water pipes broke. Shouldn’t that be telling you something?

Hottest Year on Record: 2014

2014 establishes a new record… Never in the course of scientific measurement, has the globe been as hot as it was this past year…

Not in 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, or ever… Furthermore all the top ten hottest years have occurred over the past two decades… To give you any indication of that significance, there have been 602 decades since the world was created by alleged creationists. The last two include the 10 hottest years ever.  Some say it’s because we are moving closer to hell, and if Republican policies continue unabated, there is some truth to that.

But there is no mistaking the evidence.  Based on coincidence alone, the evidence is overwhelming.  Some may not agree. But that disagreement is solely based on fancy, and not fact… Such disagreement’s factual consistency falls in level near the bottom of credibility  alongside that of saying that allowing blacks to play sports will bring down the level of the game (yes, once said and believed); or that the Negro was sub-par to the white man, and slavery was a blessing for it, over the freedom of living naked in squalid jungle… or that all sickness was caused by bad blood, or the earth was flat, or the sun went around the earth, and not vice versa.  On the latter, people were burnt at the stake for telling the truth.

But those days are gone. Thanks to science.  Explanations for the unexplained based on fancy, only work until that unexplained gets explained in fashions we can understand.

And we know from scientific experiments that  increasing the amount of Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere, as well as decreasing the forest process which breaks down CO2 into Carbon and Oxygen, will result in warmer temperatures… no matter what anyone else says.  And we do know that since 1990, the world has never, ever, ever put as much CO2 into the air, simply because there never has been as many people driving cars as now, and we know how much carbon is mined or pumped, how much is held in reserves and can use simple math to determine how much is being burned.

• 90,354,000 barrels each single day,
• 231,070,609,17  tons per day,

For eons this amount of carbon has been stored underground where it was protected from the atmosphere.  Never before in recorded history have we seen carbon reunited with our atmosphere on such a scale.  Without question, Global Warming is man-made and is caused by mankind’s burning of carbon.   Even the most skeptical must now accept it.

So what to do about those who continue to deny it?   First, recognize they are not serious.  They know and are just creating noise for personal reasons.  There is nobody on this planet who can look at the graphic above showing warming trends, and truly believe it doesn’t exist…  They may say so, but what they are saying is this:  I was so wrong that the only way I can have any self respect is to fool myself and others that I still believe as I did when I was wrong… If I ever admit I was wrong, I’ll be teased unmercifully.  So.. here goes again… That’s bull; there is no proof o global warming and there is tons of proof against it…
Such defiance of the obvious would be funny and cute if it were evidenced in say a dog experiencing winter for the first time, running and jumping off the dock and slamming onto an ice cover lake.  But when such denial affects our ability to counter the problem, we can’t let it continue…
If we lived in a village of 200 years ago, and wolves came into town every night to feed on young’uns, we would band together to do something.. Like build a stockade around town, or man a gate, or something to protect our children. What if we had townspeople getting up in the middle of the night, opening the gate, or cutting holes in the fence to let the wolves come in, so they can continue devouring our children… (Damn children scream in restaurants and give me indigestion).

What if we caught… one of those people…  200 years ago?   I’d kill them, and think I’d be seated near the right hand of God for doing so.  No question. No doubt. never any guilt.   Alas, today, killing people is frowned upon as it should be.

But what if we did something else?

“This is bullshit. There is no proof of Global warming.. It’s a liberal hoax.”  I put my fist through his fvcking head. Would the next person be so inclined to speak up so?  I think the entire gig would be up…

If one person does it, people may say… Oh, tsk,tsk. That is terrible, brutish behavior.  But if 99 people do it for every person holding up progress, the myth that man-made global warming is a hoax will rapidly die.  The sides of wrong have been employing such tactics for years…  “Oh, you’re gay?  We’re going to beat you up and leave your body on a barb wire fence”.  Or Selma. “Oh, think you can challenge whitey’s rule, huh?  Well how about you try challenging this?” WHACK, THUD.  The same people letting in the wolves, are the same people who think Timothy McVey is a hero for what he did.

These are sick people and the only way to make them see their ill ways is to punch them in the jaw.  No warning  (Ok, ladies, you can slap them then, doesn’t have to be  punch)…  Just something to punish their stupidity.  Would you let your child say something like that in public? Of course not. You’d back hand him so fast he wouldn’t know what hit him.. “Stop Lying.”  “Don’t tell lies.”

Remember just a decade ago where the boys gather on the outside of a Midwestern town to settle by a fistfight, who was better, Ford or Chevrolet?  If it is ok to do such in a Super Bowl Commercial for a stinkin’ truck, isn’t it even more acceptable to do so for the saving of the planet?

There is no more argument. The last decade of ten years of argument,has come to one conclusive conclusion.. What that conclusion is, is evident  to you in the video shown above.

Here is your piece of the puzzle. All you have to do is next time someone says man made global warming is not true, instantly hit them in the face. When they say, “what the hell did you do that for”, reply with… “stop lying”.

End of problem. Sometimes you have to treat little kids like little kids.

Why Do Police Only Cover Up White-On-Black Shootings In Only Republican States?

Florida and Missouri…

When was the last national murder outrage in a Democratic state? I think it was in the Republican enclave of LA, with Rodney King, in the otherwise Democratic state of California….

But I don’t know of any in New York. Vermont… Massachusetts…. Rhode Island…. Minnesota…. It always seems to take place in states that have lots and lots of Republicans…. like Missouri… and Florida…..

I don’t mean to cast disparagement upon all Republicans, but this is a puzzling conundrum… Why is it only Republican states that exist in such a state of dysfunction, that when someone murders a black, they get away with no criminal charges?

I think several generalities apply.

One, Republicans are just plain scared of black people. “Don’t get out of your car till he passes”..

Two, Republican philosophy stresses individuality as well as that a government’s rules and regulations should not apply to people and that everyone already in power should be allowed to do whatever it is they wish, because they are the “true” Americans and have a little flag patch on their upper sleeve to prove it….

Three, Republicans believe that having a gun, means killing something… What’s the point of being a policemen (or self-appointed vigilante) if you can’t kill your fellow human beings the Republican mentality goes. We saw it in Florida’s legislature. They throughly enjoyed and almost could not contain their rapture that their law, allowed for the public elimination of a black person. Almost it seemed that any means available to legally kill black people, especially if it gets around that inconvenient(to them) law that says, black people are equal to whites and deserve the same protections,… is something good….

Four, Republicans honestly feel blacks are not people… “Those darky things, over there..” they say. Republicans unlike Democrats, do not see blacks as their fellow brothers or sisters from a different mother…

Five, Republicans have an inflated sense of their own importance. If they tell you to stop, and you do, it gives them the right to shoot you dead… Sort of as in, “I’m SOOOOOOOOO IMPORTANT… I AM THE OMNIPOTENT AND CAN KILL PEOPLE WITH IMPUNITY. BUT IF I KILL WHITE PEOPLE, SOMEONE WILL BE MAD. HEY! BLACK PEOPLE DON’T MATTER. CAUSE ROMNEY, SAID SO…

I’ll stop there. Now keep in mind, not all Republicans feel that way. Chris Christie, for example, would agree exactly with everything I said, if he was talking about a fringe of his party… Because they are a fringe. Just like those clowns at Bundy’s ranch, those people who were too insane for mental internment so we gave them guns and banished them to a desert…. So I think all (even Republicans) can agree. It is this fringe that keeps biting all good Republicans in the ass… And we have to wonder why?

I think we can see the answer right here in Charlie Copeland, who is in charge of trying to mend a party that was shattered into single atoms, back into a viable political entity… In order to have any numbers promoting his self-respect, he has to cater to the fringe: those outlandish impostors who think they alone are a gift to all under-aged women… In Delaware, the far right fringe eliminated all viable Republicans from power. I believe that in other states, which due to their geography may be less Democratic, one encounters far more fringe elements and therefore, the party must due to their numbers, cater to their episodes of psychological dysfunction….

This allows the fringe to think they can act with impunity, and if they want to shoot a black person… what the heck. no one cares… stupid fool happened to show up while I was here… Oh look, he’s stopped running away and is putting his hands up? Good, let me get closer. Ok, he’s only 5 feet away, I can hit that. Let me empty this clip into his freaking big head… Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow. Pow… Ewww wow, neat “O”.. did you see how his head exploded with each hit and all that blood and meat shot everywhere… Cool… Wonder if there is another one I can still shoot?…

And that is my theory on why, white cops shooting underage black children, can only occur in states run by Republicans… Because there is no consequence. If you only said… the next black child who gets killed by a white police man, will cause all handguns, assault rifles, and miniature cannons to become illegal in the state of Missouri or Florida, then such incidents simply would never happen. For there would be real consequences then…. If in your capacity as a police officer you accidentally shot and killed a black child, the NRA would have you dead before the sun rose the next day.

THC (Marijuana) Stops Cancer Tumors Cold

Medical Marijuana I thought originally was just a trick to make smoking it legal again… It thought that perhaps it eased the pain, dulled the mind, or something good like that enabling people in chronic pain to handle it better.

I could not have been more wrong… Why is this knowledge not mainstreamed? (Oh, yeah, that damned corporate American media… “Don’t want to upset our advertisers… we get a lot of cash from pharmaceuticals”..)

But THC was proven unequivocally to be the trigger shutting down cancerous tumors from growing further…

Earlier, two researchers found that cannabidiol, a chemical in hemp and marijuana, caused the cancer gene to turn itself off, and return to dividing into normal cells…

Cancer is apparently a gene. that switches on to make cancer, and off, to make normal cells. Most likely it is a vestige from our earliest moments in life, when massive amounts of cells needed to be made in order to survive. Something external retriggers that gene, and we get cancer….

Not only do we know this marijuana derivative does stop cancer. but in great news this week, just published from England, a research team has determined exactly how….

It uses the Cannabinoid receptor.

Though complicated for the lay person, it goes something like this…

Cannabinoid receptor CB2 and GPR55 are overexpressed in cancer cells and control cell fate… The CB2 and GPR55 are both a G- protein. G- proteins constitute a large protein family of receptors that sense molecules outside the cell and activate inside “signal transduction pathways” and, ultimately, cellular responses. Basically these are the fiber optic lines feeding data into our individual cells… This special receptor sits in our cell walls looking for Cannabinoids… (The sister of this one, CB1 is embedded in the cell wall looking for THC and is the one responsible for the high we feel upon achieving a certain level). This CB2 receptor is specialized more towards turning growth on or off in either immature or mature cells… Basically if you pretend you are the president with your hand on the red button to send missiles into enemy airspace, this receptor would be you. As soon as you sense danger you would begin the process of firing the missiles….

Instead of missiles, the weapon in cancer is unlimited growth… This CB2 is the eyes and ears of the cell… In early embryonic growth, a certain chemical could be released, touching that sensor and massive growth suddenly takes off. Unfortunately perhaps near age 45, some alien chemical or another protein close enough to mimic that earlier protein, randomly touches one cell’s receptor and boom, the signal is reignited….. “Initiate massive growth” orders go out to all necessary proteins ready and awaiting orders since last shutting down…

The breaking news of this story is that metaphorically, where as we knew that occasionally missiles would fly over our heads taking out cities over practically nothing, we didn’t know how that was occurring… What researchers discovered in England relating to these two receptors, is the equivalent of us finding that our commander in chief gets information sent to him along these particular wires, and then he downloads a code to start the missile launching sequence, even if no threat is apparent….

Someone is giving false information to that president along these wires….

So, how can we get access to those same lines to say: “Stop, Mr. President, It’s a mistake, Don’t fire those missiles”? … Research is the equivalent of our noticing that there is always a marijuana smell in the outer office, every time the missiles fly… So by controlling the marijuana or THC to this person, we might make him so high, he never gives the order and we shut down all the missile launches before they transpire…. Or something like that.

Rodents and petri dishes show astonishing results at stopping cancer with THC or other chemicals found in both Marijuana and hemp. We are now awaiting approval of tests on humans (good idea to test things before trying them out as Common Core advocates are currently discovering should always be done first)… Hopefully the approval will be expedited with this good news.

But we are very close it appears, to having a cure for cancer and it will most likely come from a plant for which many Americans were and still are imprisoned for once having in their possession….

Only in an ignorant, closed-minded Conservative America.could a human being be jailed for life, over something that is not only harmless but may yet save the entire of mankind, pets and livestock, from the ravages of cancer….

What a messed up society Conservatives have given us… Please, you owe it to you, God, and our nation. No matter what state you live in, vote all of them out of office… We need to get rid of cancer…

Debate Follow Up

The treasurers debated today. Here is one account.… Here another and better account…

Debates at the small end of the political spectrum are fun to watch. Like two fat ladies wrestling in mud, their blows are thrown with such earnest, but hit wildly off their mark… Still it’s enough spectacle making it hard for one to turn away….

Overall, it was a draw… One’s arguments will resonate if you are already in agreement with those arguments. One’s arguments will slide like Gordan Ramsey’s food off of Teflon, if you aren’t…. What you believed when you came in, is what you believed when you came out….

One thing was clear, however. if you support the upper class or 1%… Barney like Carper and Markell and Carney, is your man. If you would rather give an edge to the 99%, stick with Flowers…..

We Told You So; Student Data Is Not Protected

In a very horrifying case involving student data, parents of children who were forced to give private information to an outside private entity in order to  comply with Common Core, now find, their data is up for sale,… to the highest bidder whomever that might be….

It appears that calm assurances of total privacy made by governors and Secretaries of Education, don’t stand up in bankruptcy court.  There,… assets are assets, and must be sold.  Student information, it appears is very valuable……

ConnectEDU filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April, listing between $10 million and $50 million in liabilities against less than $10 million in assets, according to its petition. Last July, the company was awarded a grant worth nearly $500,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to build an innovative technology platform that would empower students to master Common Core standards

Over 20 million student records are at stake.  Although the bankrupt company ConnectEDU made assurances that its data would be destroyed in the event of a corporate takeover, it’s new owner does not agree… North Atlantic Capital, a Portland, Me.-based venture capital fund, is arguing that as in all bankruptcy sales, previous agreements are null and void….  The data is an asset and should now belong to the new owners… 

The FTC is weighing in on the side of protecting the children… It is arguing that every parent receive a letter and that if the parent checks deleting the data, the new owners will delete the data….   The new owners don’t want to do this…. Just think of 20 million stamps being licked in Boston.

Here is where it stands…

The current law, which has been in effect since Alexander Hamilton, says the data now goes to the new owner who can do with it, whatever he wishes….

The FTC is trying to use moral tactics bullying the investors into doing the right thing…

It could go either way.

All I’m saying here…. is we told you so… Once the genie gets out of the box…. there is no putting her back…..  Once your child’s data goes on to the internet, there is no getting it back.

(Red Clay and Wilmington Charter Schools paid $10,550 this year to ConnectEDU…. and $10,060 the previous year)   Those children’s data is now up for sale.

We told you so….

Confesson of a Green Shirt

Courtesy of  Delaware Way

Dear Kavips:

In response to your asking, here is why I went to the meeting in Newark High School for the Power Plant.  My boss made me.  I was pissed off about it because I was suppose to go to my first grader” concert that night, and had to miss it.   I got the call at 4:00 from my boss and was told I had to go there ASAP.  I said WTF for and he said it was important.  I said my daughter is more important, and he said, he could let me go that very day if I didn’t show up for this meeting….

I had to call out of a service call and postpone it till the next day to make the trek up there. and get inside.  I saw a lot of other HVAC vans and many that I trained with so it wasn’t all bad I guess.

Sad thing is, I don’t even want the power plant cause I live downwind from it right off Rt. 4, behind the ShopRite…. I think a lot of others were forced like me to go, because we all weren’t too happy to have to be there… But, gotta do what the boss man says….

Signed…

(your buddy)

Sex, Sin, and The Supreme Court

Today, March 25th, the Supreme Court hears the Hobby Lobby case.

The question before the court is this:

If a law violates one’s religion, does one have to follow it?  We have by fortuity and circumstance, brought ourselves so low to  now ask of our court, to decide which of the two shall have predominance… Law or Religion.

If law wins, than religions must conform to the law; if religion wins, then to circumvent any law, one simply has to state it is against one’s religion.

There are good reasons for both sides, depending upon which predominates in your mind.  If you think religion is above the government, then obviously you will think that as an individual, your government shall not make you do something your religion tells you is wrong…. Basically the law is compelling you to sin.

We’ve seen it before.  Burkas:  your religions dictates you wear them, and the law says you can’t for safety reasons… Withholding medical care for a child,   your religion tells you to put faith into divine intervention, and when that turns out badly, the state sends you away for murder. Vaccinations.  your religion tells you no, but the government says yes…..

In all those cases religion lost;  here is why.

There were other people affected.  Religion is a deep personal internal experience.  and the law generally upholds that one has the right to adhere to doctrines if one wishes…. AS LONG AS THEY DO NOT HARM SOMEONE ELSE.   The canon of law is very clear, that hurting other people, cannot be excused on the account of ones religions… The Burka ban is to protect from human bombs.  The courts have said that if safety in a crowd  is an issue for many other people, then the law can be changed to violate the harm-giver’s religion.  The potential for harm controls the dynamics of the case.

Likewise the dead child not receiving medical care can be a very moving religious experience, but the child died.  He obviously was harmed ant therefore the law trumps religion. The potential for harm controls the dynamics of the case.

Again the same is true over withholding vaccinations.  Not being vaccinated creates a possible host-carrier for the disease sometime in the future…  It is not just the subject at risk for failing to become vaccinated.  Everyone else is susceptible to that carried organism.  The potential for harm to many controls the dynamics of the case.

So we turn to birth control. One of which is abortion.  Who could possibly be harmed over not insuring contraception?  Is it really as cut and dried as Rush Limbaugh speaks, when he says it is all about him paying  for Sandra Fluke to have sex?  He’s paying and it isn’t even with him?   Tant pis.

Prophylactics.  Who gets harmed?  That one is easy.  Every person who picks up HIV for one. For two, gonorrhea and syphilis. For three, someone getting the herpes virus.  Harm is endemic.  And like vaccinations, harm can be unsuspectingly spread to others. Lack of free contraception could cause multiple spouses irreparable harm through no fault or wrongdoing of their own.  Everyone has the right to intercourse, just as everyone has a right to their own Roth-IRA.  But not everyone has an Roth-IRA now, do they?  Many can’t afford it and so do without.  Same with contraception.  Therefore not funding free prophylactics causes irreparable harm to innocent people….

Chemicals, birth control pills and RU-486.   Who gets harmed if these are unavailable?  That one is easy.  The future baby (def: humanness does not  or will ever start until birth), the mother, the father, the grandparents, the great grandparents, the physician,  society in general, future taxpayers…  Quite a few harmed souls actually…. Withholding these birth control items is exactly on par with withholding antibiotics to a child dying from blood poisoning.  Just as the child is suffering needlessly through no fault on its own, so is the pregnant woman suffering as is her child, though no fault of their own.  Normally she would have gotten free contraception. But no, religion stepped in and now that is impossible.

Third is performed abortion.  This is an emotional topic, that some equate with murder.  The courts have flatly said it is not.  Life begins at birth, always has, always will.  Therefore performed abortions are perfectly legal, even though some people may not agree.  And here the law is clear.  They have the right to decide for themselves and not agree if they so choose, but they do not have any right to decide for others.  No one does. That is embedded in the foundation of our founding documents…. That is the definition of freedom.  One cannot say they for freedom and yet rail against choice.  That is a scientific impossibility.  Obviously what those well meaning people are trying to express is that they are all for freedom when it applies to them, but certainly not when it applies to others who have a different value system from them.  Enforcing the right to free abortions, is like allowing burkas to be worn without restriction, fully knowing that suicide bombers are rampant in the crowds around you…  Banning abortions for certain women, is the equivalent to telling the Israeli population, ” oh, sorry; no protection for you; you have to die if someone sets off a bomb, because you see, burkas are so sacred, we aren’t going to violate one of our tiny minority’s religious beliefs.  If someone smuggles a bomb in under one, sigh, oh well.

If you are sharp about your wits, you picked up the clue I left you in the paragraph above.  Right up there where I said..”they do not have any right to decide for others”…..  Probably Conservatives will pick it up faster than contraception supporters.  “Wait a minute” they will say, “see, that is exactly what you are doing to us by making us pay for contraception when we don’t want to cough up the money for it.  You are deciding for us, what we have to do…”

And that is exactly right….   We are.

If you remember up at the top of this piece of writing where I stated this case was to decide the supremacy of law versus religion? Well that is the caveat.  In religious circles we are deciding what one needs to do. We are saying that contraception will be available to everyone through their insurance free of charge….  In the legal realm that is the law.  You can choose to follow it or not.  If not, then beware of consequences.  Why just today, I saw a Toyota that by my guess, chose not to follow the posted speed limit.  He didn’t look too happy either….  We make decisions every day on whether to follow a law or not, and we choose to what degree we wish to comply… Some of us, unluckily, will pay a price….  But though angry, we really have no right to bring in religion….  Because it is a non-religious law….

In the religious world, we are however making a person (although admittedly in an extremely indirect and via a convoluted pathway, be associated with something he doesn’t wish…  However, that is not a problem of our governmental courts.  Religious issues are not in the bailiwick of the Supreme Court.  It decides issues of law and order, and is forbidden on deciding on religion. Instead, religious issues need to be decided by a denominational or religious court if their denomination should happen to have them… If not, they should then be decided by that religion’s Inquisition or equivalent…. Then through whatever authority those courts have, they need to exercise their options of enforcing those religious edicts in ways that do not run up against the laws of the land…

A second issue is whether information or facts on file inside a Delaware Courthouse is also a real person.  Are Corporations people too,  as Romney once said?  That is preposterous to even consider, but alas, so it will be one of the hinges on which this outcome depends.    The sole point of this case is that a corporation (Hobby Lobby) is so sad, it’s heartbroken that it will have to pay for contraception for its employees, it cries every night and has insomnia. It can’t urinate correctly and has irregular bowel movements.  As a result, this corporation is now suffering from malnutrition, and dehydration. Quite possibly, through all the duress and stress, this corporation has also suffered brain damage, causing its malignant depression.  It might even have cancer….

If a corporation is not a person, then this case is simply dismissed.  Corporations are subservient to human beings and therefore must confirm to the laws of the land in which they may find themselves.  But if a corporation IS a person, then we have a battle over which person suffers the most, if free birth control is abandoned…. or…. no longer free…

If a corporation IS deemed to be a person… the next question for discussion, is when does that person-hood begin…. Did it start when it is born,upon the signing of its documents?  Or, has it existed as a corporation ever since its idea was first conceived?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It Could Be Worse….

Today it is depicted as sml.  Or fml.  Loosely translated, it means “I’m screwed”….

When I was young, grandparents were very sympathetic.  So we milked them for it.  However to all my problems they had one answer. “Well, it could be worse.”  i always felt that was a cop-out, like “hey, really man?  I come to you for aged wisdom and guidance and all you can tell me is that… hey dude, you know man, it could be worse?”

Funny.

Only now I am fully comprehending what it must have been like living through the Great Depression.  Only now can I fully realize what it was like to lose your house, your farm, and actually have nothing.  Only now can I fully realize the true horror of having evil tear apart your world, and land a sucker punch out of the blue with an unprovoked Pearl Harbor or an invasion through the Ardennes.  Only now, can I appreciate what it truly meant, that zero ships made it up the coast from Florida to New York in quite a few months. Only now can I fully realize what it meant to watch evil take out civilization like shutting off light switches and there was nothing we could do about it except read of the defeats in the newspaper….  Only now, can I fully realize what it meant to put your life and job and family’s future welfare on the gambling table and agree to strike your employer, until he agreed to pay you a little more than the starvation wages you were stuck in…

What my grandparents were telling me was this:  “That’s not really that bad;  try hard and you can dig yourself out of it… “

What was unsaid, probably because they hated bragging, was this……. “We did, and it was much, much worse than what you face today.”

Quit complaining, and do.

Religion Versus What? The Workplace?….

As you all know, there are several Supreme Court decisions due this term regarding the ability of corporations or personal businesses to express their religiosity in defiance of the law of the land. One is Hobby Lobby which thinks it should not be required to practice something that is against their religion.  The second is today’s “stay” on whether Catholic Organizations have to dispense something their religion completely disavows;  birth control.

On one hand we will hear the drums of how religion is being imposed upon by the government.   On the other hand we will hear how those employed by these employers, have the right to choice just as do their bosses….

Let us look at the first plank:  how religion is being imposed upon by the government.   As is been oft repeated, the Constitution as originally written said rather little about the right to religion.  However, it IS in the Bill of Rights, which because they were a necessary addition added to get the Constitution garnering enough votes, one can loosely say, the original Constitution deals with religion…

And as is oft repeated with every controversy, the First Amendment states as follows:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.   This means that Congress cannot say:  “This year’s official religion will be Pentecostal.  All other religions are hereby abolished”.  This may sound far fetched to us, but was a real factor in the daily lives of the colonists before the nation was forged.   Quakers were ostracized by Episcopalians. Catholics were beset with punitive laws except in Maryland.  If you needed to go before the state or county courthouse, you had to be of that area’s official religion, before you could get heard…  True, dat.

The second part, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; is where the argument will be directed.  Hobby Lobby and the Little Sisters of the Poor, both have similar arguments which are as follows.

“WE  don’t believe sex should be had for enjoyment.  Our religion is anti-sex.  If we have to dispense or are required to pay for people to commit sex without the consequence of pregnancy or a viral AIDS infection, we are having our free exercise of religion being prohibited….”

More clearly put:  our religion demands that we prohibit sex for enjoyment wherever it “pops” up. If you stop us from prohibiting enjoyable sex, you are interfering with our religion.

In the matter of text, they have a point.  If their religion does indeed demand that they stop everyone from having enjoyable sex, then the government in stepping in to stop them from stopping some amazing sex, is depriving them of their religious rights.  So we should conceive that they have a textual point…..  Before the Obamacare, religion was not impinged.  Now it is.

The next step is to see if that point is relevant with the norms of today’s society.  As an extreme case, allowing a quirky religious sect to burn their babies alive because “it is called for by their religion”  would be a case where the harm done to a citizen of the United States of America against their will, would outweigh in society’s eyes the harm being done to the religiosity of those practicing such a barbarity.  Burning witches at a stake would suffice as an example as well.

There is obvious a gray area then where government must trample on religion and religion finds it must interfere with government.

We can use the extreme case above of burning witches.  One could say that happened in Delaware in 2010. (lol.  Our witch got burned bad.)   Here we have a case where one religion (the witch burning one) interferes with the other religion (the witch one).  When you have two opposite religions, the government has to look at other laws other than religion to determine policy.  In this case, murder.  Correct?

So the correct assessment is that since both religious issues cancel each other out, then the factor of murder by default becomes the deciding one.  The witch-burning religion is in the wrong by existing laws on the books (murder) and therefore it must stop its practice.  Was it’s bizarre form of religion impinged upon by government?  Absolutely.  And for good reason; it was murder.

So we now have precedence of  government making necessary impositions upon any religious practices that harm society. Yet there is still no imposition upon ones beliefs.  You can still “believe” that burning witches is your goal in life, but you just can’t carry it out.  It hurts other people.

So the defense of the law by the government must not focus on the rights of these religious petitioners.  but should solely focus on that harm which if allowed to go forward, that religion will impinge upon all those millions of people who are not in either sect, and who will suffer at the hands of any court decision favoring either sect’s quixotic religious preferences.

They have First Amendment rights too….   such as in having our Government abridging the freedom of speech…  

The courts have long upheld that “expression”  was the founding father’s meaning of “speech”.  Porn doesn’t move it’s lips but is a form of expression protected by the Supreme Court.  Just like that Pat Robertson of the 700 Club doesn’t move his lips, but is also considered a form of expression protected by the Supreme Court.  Art is expression.  Music is expression. Love is expression…

Likewise there are reasonable limits to the right to expression, again, determined by society’s norms.  Going nude in a public school is not good.  There are reasons that is against the law.  Playing music too loud on Newark’s Main Street is not good.  There are reasons that is against the law.  Graffiti in the Bank of America building, not good.  There are reasons that would be against the law.

So the argument made before the court will be two fold;  what is harmful or non harmful to each side, and what society’s norms will dictate, whether one or another is extreme when compared to the norm of society….

Therefore this becomes a moral question, not one of logic.  After all, both sides think logic is on their side.  And I think all will boil down to something said by the last Pope, Pope Benedict….

He stated something along the lines, “that people have to eat; and to eat, they have to work.”  If work is  abundant, perhaps one can leave one employer and go to another which they prefer.  But if work is scarce, they are bound to hang on to that job no matter what external factors line up to batter them.   If there is one job in town, and the boss halves the wages, one has to accept it.  If there is one job in town, and the boss demands sexual favors for one to keep it, one has to acquiesce because there is no other alternative.

So for every religious nun or Hobby Lobby business owner who wishes to buck the current law, there are those countless employees working for them who will get hurt if their employer gets any exception to the current law simply because their religion states “it” is against all enjoyable sex.

Those employees working for these bosses, can’t have enjoyable sex because of the religiosity of their employers…. ” I’m sorry Hon, but because I work for Hobby Lobby, we can’t do it for another 15 days… Just hold it inside, will you?”

Their expression, in the privacy of their home,  is impinged…  While yet…the religious owners expression in the privacy of THEIR homes, is not affected by one bit…

Since one side is negatively affected in private by the consequences of not having contraception reimbursed, and the other side is not, it seems imperative that a thoughtful, logical, non-judgmental court, would decide to protect those who are hurt, at the expense of those who are doing the hurting….

Remember:  it is still the insurance companies who are paying for all these sexual items; not the employers themselves;  there is no harm to the employers if this policy goes forward.  They are not in anyway contributing any harm to themselves. Just like if they burned witches….

Those they are affecting, do get harmed….  Not being allowed to enjoy sex because of your luck at being hired by one employer over another, surely trumps whether that employer feels slightly “miffed” that he is required to insure his employees and that insurance will allow them to enjoy the wonders of sex without getting pregnant or getting viral AIDS.

AIDS kills, like being burned at the stake.  Being allowed to stand around the fire going “tsk, tsk” should not become our nation’s definition of what “religion” is all about……