I'm thankful for a lot of things, but not for the hi-jacking of the Supreme Court by conservatives. I suppose they are smug now with their latest victory over reason and humanitarianism with the ruling that overrules New York Covid-19 restrictions for "some houses of worship." This bit about freedom is sort of like the motorcycle helmet thing, where I think if people make bad decisions to conduct self-limiting behavior, I don't really care. But it's never like that--not even with the motorcycle helmet question, and here I'll add that to say "it's debatable" only recognizes that anything at all is debatable given that there are enough people willing to take a ridiculous stand (although, yeah, no shortage there.) Allowing some groups to ignore common-sense rules regarding their health and safety amid the spread of a pandemic is just a wonky decision in that it so obviously affects other people outside that group.
I have no problem with "freedom of religion." Here, the problem is that the broad sweep goes way outside the group in question, and hence is too broad. I don't understand how a reasonable interpretation of the law could fail to account for that, and for the special circumstances, in this case, requiring extreme, if temporary, measures due to the danger to all in a community, even, and especially, those outside the group seeking special consideration.
End of rant. And though I tried hard to make this a Thanksgiving post, (see leading sentence) I recognize that it's a stretch. None the less, happy Turkey Day, all!
In my uneven reading of the "news" I missed that one. I'm just glad the SCotUS didn't bother to weigh in on their patron's ridiculous lawsuits. All the other harm they're bound to do, well, I just think of Judge Taney and Dred Scott and know that some day -- some loooong and distant day -- all this will be in the proper perspective. I guess that's not very useful.
ReplyDeleteI've often said, I can't wait to read the book. What we're going through demonstrates nicely how just "being there" is no qualification and doesn't mean you know what's going on--like the Viet Nam vets. In a related story, I read yesterday that Trump has always had this weird habit of tearing up documents in the Oval Office when he deems he is through with them. Sometimes just in half, sometimes in many strips, sometimes like confetti, and a staff member has to sneak in and empty the waste baskets and try to scotch tape everything back together, since that is, like, a law or something that all documents coming out of the office be archived. So, then, Trump fired the two guys who do that, of course.
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