Gay Marriage
Like several other landmark progressive Supreme Court decisions (e.g., Brown v. Board, Roe v. Wade), Obergefell v. Hodges’ moral arguments far outdid its legal arguments. Kennedy’s majority opinion was basically:
- Feelings
- Marriage is good
- Feelings
- Due Process and Equal Protection are intertwined somehow
- Feelings
- ???
- Gay Marriage is Constitutional!
Kennedy could’ve constitutionalized gay marriage without tossing legal precedent and judicial restraint out the window. All he needed to say were two words: suspect classification. But that would’ve made too much sense.
Roberts’ dissent was the most legally sound opinion of the bunch (which isn’t saying much). He noted that the pro-gay side gave up its Due Process theory during oral argument. He then cited an old O’Connor opinion suggesting that Rational Basis was the appropriate standard for gay marriage under the Equal Protection Clause. (I’m sure O’Connor would love to have that one back.) Here’s where any of the liberal justices could’ve easily said, “hey, let’s hold gay discrimination to the same standard as gender discrimination!” But they pussied out. I’m assuming none of the liberal justices wrote separately because they wanted to give the decision a sense of solidarity.
Scalia’s opinion was flamboyant, even by his lofty standards. Thomas copy and pasted every “let’s read the Constitution as it was ratified in 1788” opinion he’s ever written. I was too bored to read all of Alito’s “leave it to the states” rant.
All in all, every justice in this case (including Roberts to an extent) was either huge pussy or a whiny bitch.
The Confederate Flag
Attention South: You lost the war. Get over it.
Back when I was living in Tennessee, I was inspired to half-write a draft post after hearing a radio ad that went something like this:
There’s no better time to buy a pool! Those NORTHERN manufacturers got hit hard by the recession, making pools cheaper in the SOUTH!
Is 150 years not enough time to move on from getting your ass kicked? Nobody gives a shit about World War I anymore, yet Southerners cling to the Civil War as if the South won, ended slavery, integrated public facilities, and didn’t vote exclusively for Democrats out of spite for nearly a century. Oh wait, the North did all that. You’re welcome.
Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. States’ Rights, you say? You mean like the right to own slaves? Quick, name another States’ Right that mattered. That’s what I thought. Economics, you say? Like having slaves work for free? The list of Civil War cause conspiracy theories goes on.
The South Carolina Statehouse Flag is as easy as “divisive” issues get. The Flag didn’t go up until 1961, when it was put up to protest the Civil Rights movement. It was rightfully taken down by an overwhelming majority vote.
Then there are the idiots who want to remove the Confederate Flag from TV, video games, and other media. Sure, let’s also remove the Civil War from our history textbooks and replace it with the War of Rainbows and Lollipops. Or the War of Northern Aggression. They’re equally accurate descriptions.
“Black” Miss Japan
Ariana Miyamoto has several physical features that aren’t traditionally associated with Japanese women. Her teeth aren’t crooked. She hasn’t dyed her hair brown. She’s still pretty flat though.
Miyamoto is a 5th degree calligraphy master. Don’t lump calligraphy in with tea ceremony, flower arrangement, and all that other old-fashioned Japanese cultural stuff that only a small percentage of the population (aside from bored retirees) actually practice or care about. All Japanese students study calligraphy starting in elementary school. Everyone raised in Japan is intimately familiar with calligraphy, and anyone good enough to have a 5th degree in it is more than “Japanese enough”.
Could the pageant be rigged? Sure, it’s a beauty contest, but if they were going to rig it for someone who’s racially half-Japanese, it’s surprising that they didn’t rig it for someone who’s half-white, or at least looks half-white. That’s what they’d do in India.
Speaking as a South Carolina resident who generally doesn’t agree with you much on these political matters, from top to bottom:
Yeah, pretty much.
Aw, man! By replying to show my support, I’ve unintentionally lumped myself in with the “war of northern aggression” crowd! Cuss!
The North does have its wars of aggression. Unfortunately they’re only against things like extra-large soft drinks.
The Court did not even need to reclassify sexual orientation to reach its decision. It could have found that denying gay marriage fails even the rational basis test since the exclusion reflected animus and prejudice without any legitimate state interest, just like it did in some prior decisions (such as Lawrence and Windsor, if I remember right).
True, there are a few ways they could’ve gone about it. A “rational basis with teeth” approach may have worked, but then there’s that throwaway line in O’Connor’s concurrence in Lawrence. I’ve come across a few other alternative theories as well, any of which would’ve been better than Kennedy’s opinion. Intermediate scrutiny just seemed to me like the cleanest way to go about it.