All hat and no cattle: Former President Donald J. Trump wants you for his Jan. 29 “Save America” rally in Texas.
Recently, a colleague of mine was invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to former President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 29 “Save America” rally in Texas, complete with VIP backstage access and a photo op with El Presidente.
Being a fellow connoisseur of human folly, as Mr. Bennet says of Lizzie in Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” my colleague gleefully passed along the email….
Read MoreChurches like St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, seen here, would argue that they should not be discriminated against when it comes to Covid restrictions. And they shouldn’t but for the fact that indoor services lend themselves more naturally to contagion than does a liquor-store run. Photograph by Peter K. Burian.
As a practicing Roman Catholic, i can’t tell you how upset I was with the dreadful United States Supreme Court decision to allow services in New York houses of worship to go on unrestricted.
The court ruled it was a violation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion when, after all, bike shops weren’t restricted. Here’s Justice Jimmy Stewart, uh, Neil M. Gorsuch in the concurring opinion:
“It is time — past time — to make plain that, while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues and mosques.”
Uh, Neil, I don’t think people who go into liquor stores are sitting in pews for an hour taking part in a service. I think the liquor store or bike shop is a 10-minute visit, tops.
Read MoreMichelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” (1511), fresco. Sistine Chapel. Touch can reaffirm our beloved humanity — or dehumanize us.
John Steell’s “Alexander & Bucephalus” (1882-84) in front of Edinburgh’s City Chambers. We could use some of Alexander’s leadership about now. Photograph by Stefan Schäfer, Lich.
Last week was another minefield in which we found ourselves treading carefully.
We begin with the state of Virginia, which seems to be collapsing like a house of cards with revelations of blackface and allegations of sexual assault against the governor and the lieutenant governor respectively. (The state attorney general and some Republicans have also admitted to having done blackface.) I have great respect for Mark Shields and David Brooks on “PBS NewsHour,” but I think they missed the point in saying that Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface experience is mitigated by his good work. The Buddhist principle of karma holds that what you put out in the universe returns to you. This is different from the vengeful, biblical “What you sow you reap.” It’s merely cause and effect. You do it, you own it, because it will come full circle, regardless of what else you have done.
Read MoreAs the Supremes were busy upholding gay marriage barely (5-4, still a win is a win) the dissenters among them went into overdrive with talk of the Aztecs, hippies and California not being part of the American West.
But leave it to Justice Clarence “Uncle” Thomas – a man who once dismissed a racial discrimination suit by noting that most of the players in the NBA are black – to come up with a point that really misses the point. ...
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We live in interesting times. Yesterday the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act, 6-3. Chief John Roberts, you’re my new hero. This is actually the second time you’ve saved Obamacare, so I’m playing Britney Spears “Oops!...I Did It Again” just for you.
But then… you lose points for voting against gay marriage (5-4 in favor though, yeah!) and then there was that whole Aztec reference – a slippery slope, don’t you think? The Aztecs believed in ripping out the beating hearts of the conquered and the sacrificed and donning their eviscerated skins. I wouldn’t go there. ...
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