Tasty Tidbits 7/22/11

Don’t miss Tidbit number 9.

1. The legal logic of polygamy.
2. In the name of Christ, I adjure you, sober and truthful spirit, be gone!
3. Hey, liberals! Let’s get stupid!
4. It’s amazing what you can do without nine robed demigods standing in the way.
5. Naming things.
6. I think that I shall never see…
7. I’m going where they appreciate my kind.
8. You don’t have to dig through garbage to find food.
9. Bigger than any stinkin’ election.

1

I’ll let the lawyer for the Utah “family” that wants polygamy decriminalized speak for himself on his position’s legal logic. Here’s the link to a New York Times Opinion piece from yesterday.

I find his legal logic impeccable. He’s got his precedents right. The rationale of Lawrence v. Texas was more than sweeping enough to subsume polygamy.

So if the conclusion follows, and the conclusion is odious, might the premise be wrong? Some part of the premise?

Some readers may be yawning at this point. That’s because the law teaches, and it’s taught you the premises of the sexual revolution quite well.

Ann Althouse doesn’t address any legal weakness in the argument, but changes the focus to Turley’s pretty blatant ad hominem: “You good liberals don’t want to sound like Scalia, do you? Ewww!” The lefty ad hominem is there, indeed, but it’s makeweight.

2

The older I get, the harder I find it to understand demonizing and scapegoating people. I lacked the time and resources to do it, but Cathy Young at Reason magazine has tracked down some of the stories of “Sharia in America,” some of which are lurid stories of Muslims using the law to punish Christians, and pretty well undermined them.

Lies, or just reckless falsehoods, in the name of Christ are especially shameful. Obama Derangement Syndrome carriers take note.

3

The Right, and the Christian Right, aren’t the only people to demonize and scapegoat.

Deepak Chopra, writing from the epicenter of the left coast, says that to counteract Conservative stupidity and blind obedience to dogma, Liberals need to get stupid and give blind obedience to Obama.

Since I know that James Taranto can paint with a pretty broad brush at times, I checked the original. Taranto wasn’t exaggerating, just distilling.

4

Russia is reversing course on abortion. Fortunately, they don’t have a stupid series of Supreme Court cases preventing a democratic change of direction.

5

I awakened yesterday to an NPR Morning Edition light item at the start of a 30 minute segment.

Washington, DC experienced a huge snowfall earlier in the year and now is sweltering. Having so recently used “Snowmageddon” or “Snowpocalypse,” the newspapers are forbidding “…mageddon” and “…pocalypse” descriptors for the heat. “Beltway Meltaway” is running strong, though.

Meanwhile, Doug Masson Tweets “Dear news people: Basta on the “Gang of [number]” Congressional narratives. Just say, “Six Senators have an idea” or whatever.”

Maybe we’re not all that different than the frumpy housewives who find tabloid headlines irresistible.

6

I think that I shall never see
A true icon of “O.” Winfrey

It’s not that Ms. Winfrey isn’t sufficiently “religious”:

“The good news is you! You’re amazing.”
It’s this spiritual mantra, consumed by millions, that Lofton writes is an indication of how religion shows up now. The religious present is not extremism, and it’s not post-religious, she argues. Religion is everywhere, even in the Oprah show, and it’s tied to consumerism. Oprah’s advice always comes with a little nudge to buy more stuff: “I believe in meditating in the tub with some very nice bath products,” Winfrey said in 2001 on the “Live Your Best Life Tour.”

O Sister, What Art Thou: Kathryn Lofton on the Religion of Oprah.

But I’m not sure I can convincingly distinguish the new agey sort of twaddle from what they were dishing out from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral, or at Joel Osteen’s Astrodome.

7

I suppose I should be feeling much better about myself, now that Los Angeles has made me a member of protected class.

I guess there really is a long and ugly history of invidious discrimination against my kind. Yeah! That’s the ticket!

L.A., here I come! With my bicycle!

8

It occurred to me today that I had stopped visiting TownHall.com opinion page daily. I haven’t missed it. It was kind of a garbage pail, where you had to dig hard for food. Huffington Post is just as bad.

Google them if you must. I’m not going to facilitate dumpster diving with links.

9

I’m remiss in not having mentioned an event far more important than any political campaign.

The World’s Most Adorable 5-Month-Old Girl will be baptized tomorrow morning at 10:30 am EDT, with some wonderful godparents (I’ve lost count of how many people have apparently said “How about John and Annette? They’d be great godparents.”) and Veronica, the as her Name Saint.

Here’s the little darlin’ 9 or so months ago ….

And recently …

We’re praying that she’ll end up like her Name Saint:

St. Veronica is the name given to the woman with the issue of blood who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus’ garment. (Matt. 9:20) When the Lord was carrying the Cross to Golgotha, she stepped out of the crowd to wipe the Lord’s brow with her veil. For this act of kindness, the Lord’s likeness was transferred to the cloth. In fact, the name “Veronica” means “True Image” – “Vera Icon“. She carried this with her always. She and her husband, Zacchaios, became missionaries for Christ, carrying the Gospel of Christ as far as southern France. It is said that she showed the icon not made by hands to Emperor Tiberius in order to heal him from an incurable disease. She also had a statue made of Jesus Christ, before which she prayed. It remained until the time of Julian the Apostate, who had it reworked into a statue of Zeus. St. Veronica entered into rest in the Lord after a long and fruitful life.

(Come and See Icons)

Bon appetit!