Follow-up … Clean-up … Something-up

Rachel Maddow’s nearly giddy segment on msnbc last night noted that when the full effect of yesterday’s Supreme Court rejection of appeals against marriage equality reaches the states, the roster will equal thirty states. And she looked forward to decisions expected from the Sixth and Ninth.

Today, the hammer dropped in the Ninth; Dale Carpenter quips:

I haven’t read the Ninth Circuit opinion yet. I have to teach now, so it would be nice if the courts would stop issuing gay-marriage decisions for an hour or so.

The estimable Lyle Denniston of SCOTUSblog explains what happened in the Ninth:

The Ninth Circuit’s ruling was made up of three parts.

First, all three judges on the panel joined in an opinion by Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt finding that the Idaho and Nevada bans violate the constitutional guarantee of same-sex couples to be treated the same legally as opposite-sex couples. Second, Judge Reinhardt issued a separate opinion, for himself only, saying he would also strike down those bans under the Constitution’s Due Process Clause, arguing that the right to marry is a fundamental guarantee and that gays and lesbians have a right to share in that right. Third, Circuit Judge Marsha S. Berzon, in a separate opinion only for herself, said she would have also struck down the bans on the premise that they discriminate on the basis of gender.

The third member, Circuit Judge Ronald M. Gould, joined only the main opinion on the equal protection principle.

This ruling was perhaps the least surprising among four federal courts of appeals decisions striking down state prohibitions on same-sex couples marrying, and already-married couples gaining official state recognition of those unions, performed elsewhere.

A Cultural Problem in These United States

Two questions:

• Is it time for women to strap on, stand their ground, and shoot any man who tries to chat them up?

• Is that really what we want for our society?

No, really, this one is pretty straightforward. And if you think there is some complication about it, then we might ask one more question:

• If you were a police chief, what prevention tips would you be offering women in order to protect themselves?

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Van Vallin, Anna. “Mary Spears died for not giving a man her phone number”. Twitter. 7 October 2014.

Winchester, Hank. “Police: Woman shot, killed by man she rejected at Detroit hall”. Click On Detroit. 6 October 2014.

Minard, Anna. “To Avoid Rape, ‘Try not to show fear'”. Slog. 13 February 2013.

The Republican Jobs Agenda

“That’s the cruel irony in Boehner’s tweet. It would be funny, but it represents the massive economic damage that the Republican Party has unnecessarily inflicted on the country the past six years. And that’s not funny at all.”

―Danny Vinik

It is easy enough to enjoy something that sounds like refreshing honesty from Speaker Boehner (R-OH8), an admission that the GOP does not have a jobs plan nearly four years after employment and economic concerns won Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives.

Certainly, there have been signs along the way, and many Democratic sympathizers have become familiar with the Maddowism, “Jobs, jobs, jobs, j’abortion”. But beyond the record number of reproductive health prohibition bills sponsored in the states since 2010, Republicans have managed to highlight their own dearth of ideas and actions on the employment front. Northeastern carpetbagger Senate candidate Scott Brown, formerly of Massachusetts and now seeking office in New Hampshire, recently explained his outlook: “Here’s the thing. People say, ‘What are you going to do to create jobs?’ I am not going to create one job, it is not my job to create jobs.” Supporters will certainly point to the rest of the quote, which is about keeping government out of the way because it’s an individual person’s job to create his or her own job. And while that is a tremendously unrealistic outlook in and of itself, a twist of rhetoric conservatives have used for years, Brown’s amateurish phrasing reminds of two things at least; first, the former Senator still isn’t ready for the office, and more importantly to our consideration at the moment, that unreadiness opened him to a Kinsley gaffe. Remember that to Republicans, child labor prohibitions, workplace safety regulations, anti-harassment rules, and the need to pay wages in general are all examples of government getting in the way. If only we would kick the kids out of school and send them to work in unsafe factories and mines where they are vulnerable to bullying, harassment, and exploitation by others, everything in the world would be great. Really, isn’t this the sort of argument we should have settled about our labor politics a generation ago? Except, of course, that some aren’t ready to let go of their hopes for such regal privilege in American society, so here we are amid a slow economic recovery from damage inflicted by related conservative economic policies, Republicans are doing everything they can to stall the recovery and inflict more damage against their society, and all so they can complain about the unemployment rate.

Can we at least stop pretending Republicans are decent people? Sure, say what you will on behalf of the rank and file voters, but this has been going on so long that if they wish to claim some sort of ignorant detachment from the actions of their chosen political representatives they are either lying or in need of psychiatric intervention.

Puti-Toots, Greek Style

Vladimir Putin has gone Greek.

The prior statement is really funny if you’re an American who remembers what the phrase “Greek style” meant in the 1970s. After all, Puti-Toots is the world’s most prominent (and, as of this year, eligible) closet homosexuals ever recorded in history. Whether frothing up pogroms against his fellow gays under the excuse that homosexuality will make good heterosexual Russian husbands go gay, or posing for shirtless photos showing him being gentle with a horse, the Russian boss really seems to enjoy making people wonder what’s really going on behind those sensitive, manly, thoughtful eyes. Whatever.

Come out, come out, Puti-Toots. You’re not really fooling anyone. That is to say, we get it. You’re manly. You’re powerful. You’re vulnerable to homoerotic temptation. And look at the homoeroticism you’re inspiring in your fanboys.

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Zavadski, Katie. “Putin’s Birthday Present Is a Hercules-Themed Art Show About How Manly and Amazing He Is”. New York Magazine. 6 October 2014.