The Nonsense Continues

Today the Supreme Court will entertain a second day of oral arguments on whether gay and lesbian citizens are merely substrata of the human genome or entitled to the same rights s their heterosexual counterparts. 

The media is obsessing over whether the individual comments made by the justices offer any indication as to how they might rule.  If the Court’s recent ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act taught us anything it is that the statements made during oral arguments mean nothing.  We’ll wait for the Court’s ruling to comment.

Meanwhile the Republican Party continues to prove worthy of its title: “America’s Stupid party.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says that he will allow a vote on gun control legislation sometime next month.  The general consensus is that there will be separate bills; one to include universal background checks on all gun purchases, one to afford strict punishment for gun trafficking, another bill to restrict high capacity gun magazines and a final bill outlawing assault weapons.  Recent polls show that 88% of all Americans favor more restrictive gun laws with over 90% favoring comprehensive background checks. 

Never one to allow the will of the people to stand in the way of their ideology, Republican Senator’s Rand Paul and Ted Cruz have vowed to filibuster any attempt to bring a gun control bill to the floor for a vote.  Why allow an up or down vote that you are certain to lose when you can take the cowards way out and tie up the process. 

Not only have Republicans vowed to stop any vote on gun control legislation, they have joined the NRA in taking their case to the people.  Residents of Newtown, Connecticut are receiving robocalls from the NRA urging them to tell their legislators to oppose gun control legislation.  Newtown is the site of Sandy Hook Elementary School where a lone gunman shot and killed 20 first-graders and 6 educators barely three months ago.  Naturally, Newtown residents are outraged by the NRA’s insensitivity and blatant lack of human decency.

In North Dakota, Republicans are once again taking the whip to their favorite stalking horse…abortion.

North Dakota Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple has signed into law legislation that would make North Dakota the nation’s most restrictive state on abortion rights.  The law bans abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected.  Fetal heartbeats can sometimes be detected as early as six weeks into the pregnancy.  Dalrymple also signed into law legislation that would ban abortions based on genetic defects such as Down syndrome.  Dalrymple admitted that the heartbeat bill is a direct attempt to overturn Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion up until the fetus is 22 weeks old. 

Apparently Roe v Wade is considered simply a “suggestion” in the state of North Dakota.