Thursday Clutter
06/27/2013
Hi everyone,
Welcome back! How are you? Today is a little crazy, so we might have to cut our visit short. I hate when "real life" gets in the way of our time together, and I know it drives BDH and Little Buddha nuts. However, someone's got to pay the mortgage on Clutter Headquarters, and the massive stock portfolio is being saved for retirement, so it's off to work I go. However, there were a couple of items that we just have to talk about today, so let's get right to it. Help yourself to a nice medium DD, because it's time to clear out some Thursday Clutter.
The main issue that I wanted to cover was what an incredible day yesterday was for love and equality. It was a truly historic moment when the U.S. Supreme Court finally struck down the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act" (DOMA) which prevented same-sex married couples from being able to receive the same federal benefits as opposite-sex couples. DOMA has been a stain of inequality for this country since its passage in 1996, and its downfall couldn't have happened fast enough.
The court paired that decision with a ruling upholding a lower-court rejection of the anti-marriage "Prop 8" ballot measure which banned marriage equality in California. The long story short is that they ruled that the plaintiffs didn't have legal standing to bring the case forward. So, what they did was restore the legality of marriage equality in California while not making a broader ruling on the constitutionality of the issue as a whole. It's a punt, but it's as much as anyone could reasonable expect from this crew.
I can't say it's a surprise, but it's still deeply disappointing that the DOMA verdict was a 5-4 case. (Trying to analyze the Prop 8 reasoning is beyond my pay grade.) What Justices Roberts, Thomas, Alito, and Scalia were saying is that discrimination against gays and lesbians by the federal government is cool with them, and it's hard to think of many ideas which could be more inherently unconstitutional or un-American.
However, I don't want to be Debbie Downer for too long. Like I said before, Wednesday was a powerful day for love and equality, and it's a magnificent step for us to take forward. There are many battles on many fronts still to be waged, but let there be no doubt, we are a better country for having secured this important foothold, and there can be no stronger testimony to the importance of marriage than to have so many fighting so hard for it in all forms.
Score one for love. (pic via brooklynvegan.com)
Moving on, Clutter has to give a shout out to Texas State Senator Wendy Davis for her incredible filibuster for almost 11 hours which helped to shoot down yet another attack on a woman's right to control her own medical decisions:
The legislation would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, which is about four weeks before a fetus is viable; mandate abortion clinics to meet the same standards as hospital-style surgical centers; and require doctors who perform the procedure to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
If Republicans actually cared at all about reducing the abortion rate in this country, they would be advocating for access to medically accurate comprehensive sex education and contraception from the highest mountaintops. Instead, they are obsessed with denying access to any kinds of information or services and limiting a woman's ability to make healthy and informed decisions to achieve the life that she wants.
Let me say it again, the anti-choice movement at its core is based on a fundamental assumption that women should be at home. It's that simple. The premise is to deny women the right to control their own fertility, and so everything will be just fine if they "know their role" and stay at home. I know there are some out there who will tune out at yet another invocation of the phrase, "war on women," but that's exactly what the GOP is engaged in. Any claim that this party is trying to "reinvent" itself before the next election is an utter fraud. They are doubling down on angry conservative white men, and they're going to ride that train as long as they can, and it's going to cost them. You simply can not continue to treat women like second class citizens time after time and not expect to pay a heavy price. The bill is due.
Now we move from love, equality and freedom to Aaron Hernandez. Here's my view in a nutshell: Jesus Christ. Hernandez was arrested for murder yesterday, and after hearing the prosecution's summary, it sounds like it's really most accurate to refer to this as an alleged execution. Hernandez is accused of picking up victim Odin Lloyd in his car (with two friends), driving him out to that deserted area where the body was eventually found, and immediately proceeding to shoot Lloyd three times in the chest as soon as he got out of the car, and then shooting him twice more as he lay on the ground. Lloyd's apparent "offense?" Talking to the wrong guys. Now, all of the usual disclaimers about "innocent until proven guilty" absolutely apply here, and I still want to know what the story is a month from now, but does this sound like an episode of The Sopranos or what?
I'm sure that the New England Patriots got a heads-up about what the charges and story were going to be for Hernandez, and they could not cut their former tight end fast enough. So, who's excited about the Pats starting the season with Jake Ballard and maybe that Tebow guy as their starting TE's? Seriously, what a messed-up case.
Okay kids, I really have to run now. We can't end the day on murder and mayhem. Let's go back to the start of this post and close things out with The Beatles and some love for today's, "Song of the Day."
Thanks for stopping by, everyone. It was great to see you, as always. I'm sorry we couldn't hang out longer, but let's do this again soon, okay? BDH and Little Buddha will get real mad at me if we don't have you back for longer next time, and no one wants that. So enjoy the rest of your day, and we'll be back with more randomness in the near future. For now, that's today's Clutter, and we are outta here.
If you enjoy Clearing out the Clutter, please consider a $5 monthly donation! You can click here or on the "Donations" category on the right-hand side of the page.
Check out our new Patreon page!