New Blogging Project: Ipse Dixie
I am in the process of launching a new blogging project Ipse Dixie. This will be a collaborative effort covering law, politics, news, and culture from a Southern perspective. There is not much there yet, but please check it out!
Racist elements harbored in the NAACP
No word yet on when the leaders will repudiate them.
Suit challenges personhood initiative in Mississippi
According the the Clarion Ledger, a suit has been filed by two Lafayette County (i.e. Oxford) residents, Deborah Hughes and Cristen Hemmins, to block the personhood initiative that is to appear on the ballot as a constitutional amendment in Mississippi in 2011. The personhood initiative seeks to define life as beginning at conception.
Here are some gems from Robert McDuff of Jackson, who is one of the attorneys who filed suit:
If a fertilized egg were entitled to due process, some doctors might fear that someone might sue them for the impact of a fertility treatment or for lifesaving measures that may be necessary when a woman suffers a miscarriage.
Who died and made you Nostradamus, Mr. McDuff? Anything in the “if . . . some . . . might” sentence structure is completely indefensible. E.g. “If [grizzly bears grow wings] some [discrete and insular minorities] might [get eaten].” Well then sir we must stop it, and now!
Certainly there is more than is betrayed by the news story but this point is of exactly zero legal significance as there is no injury in fact. See Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife. Also it is stupid. There is absolutely no reason to think that the standard of care that doctors are already held to would be altered in a meaningful way. Miscarriages happen just like patients die. Wrong legs are also amputated on occasion, and doctors who shred fetuses should be subject to the same liability as those who hack of good limbs.
McDuff said redefining the word “person” would be a substantial change and could lead to government interference in the doctor-patient relationship.
Illogical fear-mongering? Mr. McDuff is serving it up family style folks. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds but from what I have seen this suit cannot pass Lujan as nobody has been injured and it is quite a strain to say that something going on a ballot in 16 months poses an imminent threat of injury. Unless of course one of these women is expecting and boasts a pachydermal gestation period.
Happy 4th of July — Fozzie Style
Bill Clinton believes in second chances
This from Real Clear Politics:
“He once had a fleeting association with the Ku Klux Klan, what does that mean? I’ll tell you what it means. He was a country boy from the hills and hollows from West Virginia. He was trying to get elected,” former President Bill Clinton said of Sen. Robert Byrd.
“And maybe he did something he shouldn’t have done come and he spent the rest of his life making it up. And that’s what a good person does. There are no perfect people. There are certainly no perfect politicians,” he added.
I’m pretty sure good people* just don’t do these things in the first place. But it’s little wonder that Mr. Clinton thinks we should quickly brush unseemly indiscretions aside.
(*The issue of depravity has been shelved for the sake of brevity)
Stupak retiring
After folding like a lawnchair on his ostentatious stand against abortion funding during the passage of healthcare reform which elicited challenges form both the left and right, Stupak decides to pick up his toys and go home.
Minstrel, a song please!
Brave Sir [Stupak] ran away.
Bravely ran away, away!
When danger reared its ugly head,
He bravely turned his tail and fled.
Yes, brave Sir [Stupak] turned about
And gallantly he chickened out.
Bravely taking to his feet
He beat a very brave retreat,
Bravest of the brave, Sir [Stupak]!
And the count is 2-0
The first pitch:
And the 1-0 pitch…
You’re a little left there Mr. President. Could it be an omen for his next SCOTUS pick?
Easter Jukebox
Saved – Bob Dylan:
I am the Man, Thomas – Bob Dylan
Redemption - Johnny Cash:
I was there when it happened – Johnny Cash:
Good Friday Music: In the Garden
When they came for Him in the garden, did they know?
When they came for Him in the garden, did they know?
Did they know He was the Son of God, did they know that He was Lord?
Did they hear when He told Peter, “Peter, put up your sword”?
When they came for Him in the garden, did they know?
When they came for Him in the garden, did they know?
Point-Counterpoint: with Janet Napolitano and Ben Franklin
“We know that in times of war it’s been common place for the rights of Americans to be limited,” she said, noting history has harshly judged such measures. “But in a time of new and changing threats, we have to revise our traditional paradigms of how we think about rights and security.” Liberty and security are not “opposing values,” she said. “You can not live freely if you live in fear.”
Benjamin Franklin:
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
