It's not supposed to be like this.
Today is the one day of my life where I am expected to simply relax. The yard can wait, the kids feed me an inedible breakfast in bed and the wife indulges me with a little smile that says "Enjoy, but don't get used to it buddy!".
Just a normal Father's Day. It's a token, a symbol, a Hallmark Cards marketing strategy but has a cuteness that I am willing to overlook in the case of Corporate America.
My boys will call me from England (one already has), and I might get to ride my motorcycle.
So .... fantasy over what is really happening at Chez Twigg.
Well .... Mrs Twigg is still in bed, and I am not. She is probably lying on the heating pad tending her neck issues, but she might just be sleeping as we stayed up late last night.
The kids are at their Dad's. I'm okay with this, it's peaceful and they will be back soon enough to resume their mental torture of me the way that only small kids who you love, can do.
So I open up Daily Kos to check the progress of the Community Spotlight .... Good, not many Diaries last night but no Pie in the ones we did Rescue, and the Queue is healthy. My colleagues have things well in hand.
Front Page and Recommended List next ... after a diversion to check for responses that may have been left to my comments last night. I'm like that .... if you reply I will see it.
I read about a Silent March. Good, people are getting motivated to resist the apparatus of the State that are being used to discriminate against them ... I can approve of that easily ... it's a good Diary too. I think like that. Is the story important, interesting. Is it well written with due thought given to the discussion that might follow, or is it a steaming pile of conspiracy theory with a healthy dose of "Concern Trolling". It's just how I read and I am very happy to say that, in my humble view, deoliver47 (because I still love that screen name), knocks another Diary out of the park.
Then my day heads rapidly south. That is an expression meaning that things take a turn for the worse, but, in this instance can also be applied geographically. "South" is a bit of a problem for America in these trying times, and I'm wondering just how much longer "North" and "West" are going to tolerate the antics of the stupid, the vacuous, the uninformed, the bigots and the racists.
I read two Diaries and between them they made my Father's Day (so far), both less than ideal, and provoked an anger that I rarely feel. Rarely feel and reluctant to write is how I generally respond but, as I said, Mrs Twigg is asleep, I am not and I have a great keyboard right here in front of me. Note to self: Keep "Evil Twigg" under control. You know he gets you in trouble!
Are we still, forty eight years after the Civil Rights Act, talking about the Ku Klux Klan?
I don't criticize the Diary, I applaud it. The fact that it needs to be written shocks and disgusts me. No, really, it is disgusting that these people are not in jail, pretty much forever, and fuck free speech!
There, I said it. Free Speech and the very concept is so bastardised, so perverted, so BOUGHT, and paid for that any vestiges of its meaning have been lost in the mists of time. Free Speech stops right at the point when your speech impinges on my Rights. Period .... You may comment on this, but I am right.
If free speech means that the KKK is allowed to publish hate, and the Westboro Baptists (sic) can disrupt funerals, then the law is an complete ass.
And if Schools in this country ever print or use ANYTHING that does not condemn, out of hand, the KKK, then that school should be closed, on the grounds of protecting the mental health of the students.
If Free Speech means that Democracy is sold to the highest bidder, then Free Speech is a vehicle of oppression. If money is speech, and corporations are people, then this country is in a great deal of trouble, and its most senior Justices have completely and utterly abandoned their principle, and their reading comprehension.
Oh they may cite this case and that. They are free to use legalese in a way I can't comprehend. Indeed, scholarly Kossacks could descend and point out the error of my ways. You don't understand Twigg, it's complicated. There is settled law and previous cases ... blah, blah, blah.
Here is what I do understand.
It's simple. Government has one purpose, and government include the Supreme Court. Its sole purpose is to serve and protect the people. Period.
So fuck the SCOTUS, they are either stupid or corrupt if they actually support the idea of money equaling speech. Even a third-grader knows the difference, and most third-graders do not have a towering legal intellect. Maybe that is where we are going wrong. Maybe it is time to stop putting career lawyers on the Supreme Court because they apparently cannot see the wood for thr trees.
Okay, read the Diary on the use of "questionable" textbooks (link above),let's move on to Obamacare. Yes, I like the name and I am perfectly happy, with all of its warts, to sing it long and loud if for no other reason than it gets right under the scaly skin of the GOP; and there are some good reasons to praise it too.
Here is the statement that the Supreme Court should be issuing regarding the Affordable Care Act:
"This Court is deeply reserved about this Legislation. That it passes the Constitutional Test is beyond doubt. That is fails to serve the needs of the citizens of these United States is equally clear. Government has a duty to protect its citizens, and it is clear to this Court that successive Legislatures, and some Executives, are failing in this duty. It is in the National Interest that the country has a healthy population, an it is undeniable that good health is in the interests of individual citizens.
A government that abdicates its responsibility to protect the health of the people, is a government that is failing in the Oaths of Office.
This Court defers its judgement on the Affordable Care Act for a period of two years. Two years to allow the government sufficient time to propose and pass any system that provide healthcare, on a level basis, for all resident in the United States, free at the point of delivery.
If this is not forthcoming, this Court will rule the Individual Mandate unconstitutional, and we WILL sever that provision, allowing the balance of the Legislation to stand.
Let the chips fall where they will"
Now there is a unanimous opinion that I would be proud to author (Oh, I just did ... heh).
So there we have it. My Father's Day so far. I'm sure I will stop reading Diaries that spell out just how unjust this country has become; and my day will improve.
How is yours going?