Ocassional Thoughts of an Independent Progressive Atheistic Humanist
During oral arguments today over Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Justice Antonin Scalia uttered probably the most racist comment ever heard in the US Supreme Court in 50 years. He complained about how Congress keeps passing renewal of the Voting Rights Act even if it might not be needed. He claimed that the act of Congress is a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” Of course Scalia is wrong.
The other day a conservative friend of mine posted a John Adams quote that was a rant about letting people who didn’t own property the right to vote. My friend tried to use to support his argument about our current government system. While Adams did write the words that were posted, taking his words out of context to support your fantasy view of the world could be dangerous.
Here is the quote in question:
Think law nullification is a quaint old timey southern strategy that was used to defend slavery in the 1860’s and segregation in the 1960’s? An Ohio Sheriff actually wrote a letter to President Obama not only implying the President is an enemy of the people but that the Sheriff would refuse to enforce any law which he personally didn’t agree. That’s right, he thinks the oath he took to uphold the laws and constitution of Ohio and the United States allows him to nullify laws he personally objects to.
In a letter dated February 1st, Hancock County Ohio Sheriff Michael Heldman decided to tell off the President of the United States:
Loved President Obama’s 2nd Inauguration speech given today. I heard the social contract in his words. In a post on my iHumanism blog I highlighted some of my favorite parts of the speech.
On Wednesday President Obama announced some initial plans to address the uptick in mass killings due to the ease of obtaining military style guns with high capacity ammunition clips. Of course the gun lobby lost their minds about it because they falsely believe that any regulation is equal to banning guns. The truth is, reasonable regulation will lower the chance of more Newtown type mass killings. Many of the screeching arguments used by the gun lobby are weak and don’t hold up to logic and reason.