I've been out of the proverbial loop for the last month. Of course, this had the unintended consequence of my many friends and family members not being privy to my opinions on all the exciting events of June 2015. The good news is, I've spend most of the day catching up and am ready to share them. Here they are:
1. The Battle Flag of The Army of Northern Virginia (aka the "Confederate Flag")
First, the flag you see on this Dodge Charger isn't the Confederate Flag. It is as stated above the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia. Second, my personal opinion is the flag shouldn't be flown over any government building. However, I don't live in South Carolina or anywhere in the South, so my opinion doesn't matter in that regard. If the people in those states want to fly over the state capitol building or place it on their state flag, more power to them. (See the Six Flags over Texas display in Austin which uses a lesser known, but historically correct version of the Confederate Flag)
Third, and most importantly, it concerns me that the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia has morphed into some sort of symbol that is so offensive that it must be scrubbed from existence. Assuming for the sake of argument that the Battle Flag has no value beyond being a racist symbol (I do not agree with this, but I concede it is very offensive to many people and is often used as a symbol of racism), the people who choose to display it have every right to do so for whatever reason. And, if the Battle Flag is so offensive, what symbol is next? I imagine every symbol can be offensive to some people, some of the time.
2. Same Sex Marriage
The dissents (especially the Scalia one) make some good points about the dangers of the Supreme Court acting as "super-legislature" which can by a bare majority vote overturn the democratic will of the people. I agree with those sentiments. However, the justices penning the dissents are essentially hypocrites as they have routinely found other laws unconstitutional as seen in the Citizens United and Hobby Lobby cases.
Without getting into arcane legal and bar exam-esque concepts like "rational basis" and "strict scrutiny" (and the very vague "intermediate scrutiny"), the rationales for banning same-sex are tenuous at best. The rationale of "responsible procreation" sounds great, but not all married opposite sex couples have or want kids. The religious arguments are even weaker as the legality of same-sex has nothing to do with ones religious views on marriage.
At the end of the day, it'd be optimal for same-sex marriage to enacted by legislative action and it probably would have been shortly in most states, but the holding is just making official now, what would have happened in a few years anyway.
3. The Demise of Alexander Hamilton on the $10 Bill
Apparently, the US Treasury is giving the currency version of the pink slip to Alexander Hamilton. I disagree. Hamilton was a very influential person in the founding of our country and to add icing on the cake, he served in the artillery during the Revolutionary War.
I think having a woman on a piece of currency that people actually use is a fine idea. I don't have any strong opinions as to what woman should be, I'll leave that to the feminist crowd to figure out. I do think that if anyone on paper currency should be given the pink slip, it should be Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. If you think otherwise, you are basically saying F You to every person of Native American (or American Indian or whatever the PC term is these days) descent. Read about the "trail of tears" if you any questions about that.
4. Other
I'm glad to NY prison escapees have been apprehended. I don't know what the punishment is in New York for the prisoner workers who helped them but it should be severe. I didn't read much about Obama's eulogy in South Carolina, but I guess it was controversial to some. I really couldn't care less what Obama says or doesn't say at funeral. Terms like "divisive" are meaningless political buzz words best left to the talking heads on MSNBC or Fox.
And while this is sort of related to point #1 -- I do think the Army should re-name installations named after Confederate officers. It isn't because I think they were bad people or bad officers, it is just a recognition of the simple fact, they chose to fight against the country they swore to protect. There are many, many other deserving soldiers who didn't make that choice.
5. Conclusion
It feels good to be back. Here's to a good second half of 2015.
