MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Comments
Thread on religious court rules
(Play on Cider House rules intentional: a bit on how we got here, what it means)
There is now a superceding class called religion - adherents and practitioners now gain priority over all individuals and non-teligious groups (excluding those kooky religions like Hindus and Pastafarians)
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 2:26am
I think you stress the fundie thing too much and suspect even a more liberal Supreme Court may have ruled the same way.
There is no doubt about it that there's a major conflict between the dictatorial nature of public health practice during a pandemic and a democracy with strong civil rights.It's long been a favored sci-fi meme (i.e., locked up in quarantine against your wishes). Because public health is the opposite of our whole 1776 set up (I ain't paying these parliament-ordered taxes for the benefit of other people in the mother country) it's experts deciding for the masses what needs to be done to save the greatest number of people, including who can be sacrificed to save others.
I can't see any better solution for our society then doing it the way Biden is trying to do, selling it like you sell a war, as patriotic and with peer pressure disapproval of all who don't go with the program.
And even with WWII, there were still plenty of people who wouldn't go along with the peer-pressure program, i.e., "Uncle Sam wants You" marketing (propaganda if you like ), war bond purchasing encouraged by employers and celebs, conscientious objectors to the draft, etc.
by artappraiser on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 3:46pm
Did you read the thread?
think I'm just emphasizing what she does, e.g.
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 4:02pm
We saw this same argument used with churches and liquor stores. It's so patently ridiculous that it should be rejected out of hand. Liquor stores don't set up chairs where people can sit and listen to a speaker talk about the value of different brands of whiskey. And they don't engage in group singing of 100 bottles of beer on the wall or for the elitist Beva Con Me.
(and yes, I only replied so I could link this song from my favorite opera, Othello by Verdi)
by ocean-kat on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 4:35pm
Well, there is a small liquor store/grocer I pass that has a kind of kaffie klatsch on Friday nights with the locals playing cards & shooting the shit, and I can really see them singing Othello or something similar - though not with coffee, mind you.
But I'm still confused...
[oh, OceanKat spoke 2nd, AA 1st - so *AA* thinks the Supreme Court is right in overriding the state of California and giving megachurches the right to stay open even as business and social gatherings are closed, even though church services are being show to be a major source of infection? And AA thinks that a more liberal court would still support this, even though the 3 liberals on the court voted against (6-3 decision)? Or did I miss an implicit irony emoji?]
ETA - or is this somehow arguing about *how* the need for near-dictatorial powers are sold - e.g. Biden's doing a good job of justifying, but otherwise there's overreach? but again, the Supreme Court just overrode California, which is largely Biden's approach - yes, Jacobsen is too dogmatic in many cases - it's the kind of thinking that got Japanese-Americans thrown into camps during WWII - but with substantive justification it seems perfectly valid. But Gorsuch says no, it's no longer valid case law, while Kavanaugh's coalition doesn't seem to even require real evidence or justification for religious exemptions, just "this is what they want, they shouldn't be denied" sweep of a hand.. Bonkers or a good move?
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 4:37pm
I thought it was clear I thought that the Supreme Court's conservative majority was wrong because liquor stores and grocery stores don't generally set up chairs for people to listen to sermons/lectures or engage in sing alongs. Super spreader events that are common in churches. But you also missed my main and very important point. That opera is great and more people should listen to it and that Otello is one of the best and most easily accessible because it's so melodic with almost no recitative
by ocean-kat on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 4:49pm
If you weren't so stubborn, you'd see I was supporting importing Othello to Europe where they're not used to such high faluting art, so they'd get some American culture instead of all this musty Greeks-baring-gifs stuff or poppy Eurovision trash. But I still contend, as I gave an example of, that liquor stores can be just as good as churches in both singing opera and spreading Covid, though may need to help them expand both to get the numbers up as well as fit all the attendees on stage and room for an audience. (Though I'm not sure if singalongs are allowed in Opera, it could be a fine addition - "please turn to page 37 of the libretto, and those in the back sing the bass part, those in front tenor or soprano depending on ability")
by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 4:53pm
Struck me reading this tearjerker passage, I just know that for some people religion is just like this guy's wife was to him, like they air they breathe
I don't have personal sympathy for that attitude about religion, as to me, it's similar to alcohol is the air the alcoholic breathes.
But I know our Constitution meant to afford for loving religion like that, because many people who fought for it risked death coming across the big pond on ships to a wilderness just for freedom to practice an oddball religion, nothing else mattered more to them.
And keeping in mind that it's Congress that's supposed to change the Constitution if they find it outdated, not the Supreme Court.
by artappraiser on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 6:53pm
I have no issue with the constitution protecting a person's right to believe what ever nonsense tickles their fancy. I have a problem when they expect special privileges in addition to that protection.
by ocean-kat on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 7:16pm
If God sends a flood, you build a goddamn ark & set sail - you don't go to church. If he sends locusts, you go bring in the crops as quick as you can, not gather and pray. Moses went up to the mountain and came down and found people gathering and doing all kinds of stupid shit and got pissed and broke the tablets. Nowhere in the New Testament do i see Paul exclaiming "build me a huge motherfucking church so we can exalt together". I see lots of small private meetings of believers. Fuck all these revisionist morons. They don't even follow their own book. "God sends something dreadful" = "drop what you're doing & pay attention", not "oh, God will preserve the status quo for believers". For Passover, did the Jews say, "Oh, I"m not going to mess up the paint on my front door"? That "no one has the right to tell me to kill me a lamb"? Never mind the hardly subtle "Give unto Caesar what is Caesar's..." - one of the earliest "separation of Church and State" proclamations we have, directly in the book Christians supposedly follow - even the New Testament, the one they hate cuz it's too nice and hopeful, but written documenting words supposedly Messiah - "hey, pay your taxes to these earthly folk, just keep up your separate obligations for me as well" - how hard is that? apparently for the Supreme Court pretty blindingly difficult. Meanwhile the effect of these idiot church-going folks on non-church-goers is legion.
by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 02/08/2021 - 5:16am
looks to me like none of passionate multiracial flock of the Football religion are into wearing masks:
by artappraiser on Sun, 02/07/2021 - 7:04pm
yeah it does appear that they think the football god will smote B117?
Thanks a lot, hope you all stay in Florida....
by artappraiser on Mon, 02/08/2021 - 1:17am