I read the evening news reports about the judge setting Kim Davis free. I read Huckabee’s comments. I could not be more disgusted and disappointed. Like I said before, insert Mrs. Davis’ and Huckabee’s comments into the rallies of “Massive Resistance” in Virginia and elsewhere in the 1960s, where white supremacist counties shut down entire school districts to deny and avoid integrating their Black citizens into the public schools. It’s the same streak of outright meanness and suppression by government fiat.
Her support comes from people who are hoping to find a way to subvert same sex marriage, pure and simple. There were cases after the Loving decision (which struck down interracial marriage bans) where clerks and JP’s and such claimed religious belief in denying interracial couples the right to a marriage license or to be married, a couple who belonged to the church I did for a while, she was white,he was Asian, were denied a marriage license in Georgia by a local clerk, and they said it was because their religious belief was the races should be separated, and this was 1973, 6 years after loving (and from what she told me, that office didn’t start issuing certificates until 1975, when the clerk either retired or was forced out). What it boils down to is the oldest dodge in the book, using religious belief to justify discrimination and violating the rights of others.
We had a discussion about this at work, and a friend of mine, who comes from the kind of area where there are a lot of Kim Davis’s around, came up with something I think hits the nail on the head. He said that the grand hope of Kim Davis and people like her is if they establish a beach head where same sex couples can’t get a marriage license, then other 'God fearing" folk like her will rise up too, and claim religious freedom in denying the licenses, and then they will also be martyrs to the cause if they get jailed, and this will fire up ‘real americans’ (who they really think represent a majority, people who think like them, but are afraid to speak up for fear of ridicule or worse), they will get social conservatives elected, who will either amend the constitution or get more conservatives on the Supreme Court, put there by a conservative president, who will reverse same sex marriage being legal. They will point out that Plessy V Ferguson was overturned in 1954, after being law since 1890 (of course, what they don’t think about is that in general, when things are overturned, it is towards granting more rights, not taking the away). It will be interesting to see what happens, if she will stomp into the office and cower everyone into not issuing any more certificates. Personally, I find this kind of boring, now if the Obama administration sent in federal marshalls and dragger her off in chains, now that would be good theater.
@veryhappy:
What I want to know is how someone like Ted Cruz, whose mouth often doesn’t seem to be connected to anything, even got into Harvard Law. As far as why he supports Kim Davis, that is easy, his dad is a fire and brimstone evangelical preacher, and he got into Harvard Law school believing, among other things, that the earth is 6000 years old and that man didn’t evolve, so go figure.
Agreed with Huckabee and Cruz. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher as to whether or not they’re actually that ignorant of the constitution they keep citing, or if they’re just pandering for the cameras. Anyway, I’m very curious to see if Davis tries to stop her clerks from issuing marriage licenses and ends up back in jail again.
I had some classmates at Harvard Law School I didn’t think were very bright, but Cruz takes the cake – unless he doesn’t really believe the things he says. Given the consistently loathsome things that Huckabee has said about trans people (never mind gay people) I won’t stoop to his level by saying what I think of him.
Cruz is not stupid. He went to Princeton undergrad and then Harvard Law. But he’s an ignoramus.
And Huckabee – well, gosh. Just gosh.
I wish I could be political here but I’ll just have to be satisfied with “gosh” as my ultimate statement.
1: Living off-campus freshman year despite being required to live on campus due to a religious belief is acceptable to me. If for example someone is keeping kosher completely, they cannot live with someone who is mixing certain foods etc. let alone eating certain things. I'm an atheist and have no issue with it - the key is that the reasonable accommodation is to let them live off-campus instead of making their roommate go kosher or be in exactly their branch of exactly their religion.
2: Athletes have rules they have to follow. If a man or woman can't follow them, they can't play. Or, there are limitations. A friend of mine has only one arm. She can't do a legal throw-in in soccer. Of course they can't bend the rules for her, so she doesn't do throw-ins.
Kim Davis is COMPLETELY different: firstly, she’s a hypocrite, which also makes the best judges of other people’s morals (see divorces and children out of wedlock). Secondly, she is working for the GOVERNMENT and cannot use her religious beliefs to impact how she does her job. She can take off for religious holidays, but she can’t decide to do her job or not do her job based on her religion.
Accommodations for religion or disability cannot be ridiculous. There are some jobs a very religious person cannot do, and there are some jobs a person with a certain level of disability cannot do.
Not Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan, the composers of “Eye of the Tiger” which Huckabee’s people had blaring as Kim Davis exited jail. Apparently they’re pretty peeved that Huckabee used their song, without permission, for this occasion since both are adamantly opposed to Ms. Davis’s shenanigans.
In completely unrelated news, my H says “Huckleby” every time he means to say “Huckabee,” which makes me laugh since it makes me think of Huckleberry Hound.
^ Can I say something about not insulting hounds or is that political?
@fallgirl:
Only if they are running for sheriff or something:)
I lived with a roommate who kept kosher and prepared much of her own food because the kosher dining facility was not open for all meals. We had a shared refrigerator in which kosher food was kept strictly separated from non-kosher food, and she only used her own utensils and cooking equipment. It was no problem at all. But if it seemed too difficult for the students to do this, two refrigerators would take care of the problem. You can easily fit two of those little dorm refrigerators in most dorm rooms.
There was a problem, some years back, with Orthodox Jewish students living at Yale, where all the residence halls or houses or whatever they call them were co-ed, and living there was required. Some students said that living in close quarters with students of the opposite sex violated their religious principles. The solution (which I don’t think was a good one) was that the students had to pay for the on-campus housing but didn’t actually have to live there. This was a very expensive solution for the affected students because they had to pay for off-campus housing on top of paying for a dorm room they didn’t use.
http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2001/01/12/orthodox-jews-relieved-by-yale-5-loss/
Here’s an article about that, fwiw.
My comment about the Davis case is that any lawyer (whether a Harvard grad or a grad of Joe’s Law School and Lawnmower Repair) who says that there is a valid legal argument against what Judge Bunning ruled is lying. It’s really that simple.
Can I like that ^^^^^ a dozen times?
As stated earlier, if Kim Davis prevails it won’t stop there. She and her band of merry hypocrites will attack another group of persons whom they believe are a threat to distort and destroy America; they are pointing at you and I. Martin Niemoeller and the poem “Then They Came For Me…” fearfully comes to mind.
Her deputy has pledged to keep issuing licenses, no matter what Davis says or does. Good for him!
In another case, a Muslim flight attendant may be suing ExpressJet for suspending her for not serving alcohol. They tried to accommodate her by having other FAs do that work, but the other FAs complained. After all, it is not a “reasonable accommodation” if your coworkers are picking up the slack and feel overworked. What gets me is how her lawyer keeps insisting that the airline is required to accommodate the woman’s religion. Entitlement is just getting crazy.
As far as the validity of the licenses issued by her deputies, despite Davis’ statements to the contrary, the Attorney General of Kentucky and County Attorney have both indicated that the licenses ARE valid.
Ironically, if he ignores her commands, that’s her best hope of staying out of jail.
^^ It would be entertaining if Davis fired him for disobeying her orders, and he sued the county and state for wrongful termination, or maybe hostile work environment.
I don’t think that would keep her out of jail. If the judge finds out she is ordering her deputies not to issue licenses, even if the deputies don’t obey her she will still have been interfering.