They Didn't Print the Last Letter, So ...

So that means I can send another one in already.  So I did:

I would like to ask anyone who defends the idea of 'originalism' regarding the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution if they also feel that way about a fundamental American idea, expressed in America's other founding document, The Declaration of Independence.  Second paragraph, first line.  'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all MEN are created equal ... '

Are we SURE we don't want to allow interpretation of our founding documents to evolve over time?

About Time For ...

... a new letter to the editor, isn't it?

Two letters in Sunday's WSJ attempt to 'solve' the 'labor shortage' issue in the U.S.  One proposes to create 'private labor offices' south of the border to funnel documented workers northward.  The other calls for a 'civilian draft,' to legally require the draftees to do the less desirable jobs. 

Is there a compelling reason why we can't just allow the price to 'float' to the intersection of supply and demand?  Is that 'un-American,' or something?  If it's 'wrong' to artificially boost wages in the fast food industry, why is it OK to artificially suppress them in other fields?  Roofing work is mentioned in the second letter.  Physical labor, out in the elements, with an element of danger.  'The market' says higher wages are called for.  Who is it that's looking to game the market?  And why?

Possible Next Read

This caught my eye on 'my' Amazon page so I clicked on it to see what it was all about.

Despicable Meme: The Absurdity and Immorality of Modern Religion

Turns out it's only available on Kindle so I guess I won't be getting it. Sounds interesting though.

"Despicable Meme is D. Cameron Webb’s brief but biting assault on the wide spectrum of religiosity that dominates 21st century America, from the hateful and anti-intellectual dogma of the Christian Right to the whitewashed progressivism of religious moderates. It is also a fascinating and humbling journey into the heart of the universe's most mind-numbing wonders.

"Drawing on recent insights from cosmology and evolution, Despicable Meme paints a vivid portrait of a cosmos unlike anything ever imagined by the provincial, human-centered faiths of the past – a universe of countless worlds spread across unfathomable distances and times, and where, on at least one of those worlds, the slow march of time would combine with the purposeless mechanisms of chemistry and physics to create a being capable of believing that he alone is the reason for it all.

"With piercing intelligence and candor, Despicable Meme exposes the folly of that conceit and dispenses with the widespread but utterly improbable notion of a personal creator. But it saves its harshest criticism for the vapid accommodationism of religious liberals, those who unknowingly or uncaringly give cover to the misogynistic, racist, homophobic paranoia of the fanatics by refusing to condemn, or quietly tolerating, the outlandish and immoral doctrines that lie festering at the center of their own “moderate” faiths.

"Despicable Meme is not only a blistering condemnation of radical fundamentalism, it is an impassioned appeal to the rest of us to once and for all abandon the superstitions of the religion we were raised in and embrace the beauty of an endlessly wondrous, but godless, universe."

The Year In Books

Apparently I finished nine books this year.  I started more like fifteen.  It was a funny year ...

The Kennedy Half Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy
of John F. Kennedy, Larry Sabato

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,
Doris Kearns Goodwin

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Robert A. Caro

One Nation Under Gods: A New American History, Peter Manseau

1453: The Holy War For Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West, Roger Crowley

A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, Neil Sheehan

Dissent: The History of an American Idea, Ralph Young

The Wright Brothers, David McCullough

Letter to Editor

Here's my most recent letter to the editor of the Wisconsin State Journal.  After years of getting every letter I send in published (even though they hack them up sometimes) I've had my last two not see print.  And haven't sent one in two or three months.  But anyway, here it is:

I'm afraid I have to disagree with the main point of a Thursday letter (Pitts didn't address the whole problem).  He starts by missing the point of Pitts' analogy (fix what's obviously broken, then work on other issues).  The letter's point is that unless something is done about 'black on black' crime it will do no good to address the issue of biased law enforcement.  I suppose you could argue that black perpetrators aren't treated any differently by the police than white perpetrators but you can't really argue that even if they are, nothing should be done until 'black on black' crime ceases completely, can you?  There will always be black on black crime, as there will always be white on black, black on white, white on white, male on female, female on male, dog on cat (can I stop now?).  

The statement that Pitts finds fault with, 'All Lives Matter,' isn't wrong, of course, they do.  Were it to say All Lives Matter EQUALLY I think 'both sides' could agree.  Yes?  Or how about, Black lives matter TOO?

Well Here's a New Letter to the Editor (Imagine that) ...

Among the many 'discussion points' provided by the writer of the Sunday letter, Secular Left Has No Moral Authority On Abortion, it is his final question that I will address.

"How can a secular atheist logically question my morality when their worldview does not believe objective morality even exists?"

I can't even answer the question for him, as it rests on a flawed assumption, that 'objective morality' exists.  It doesn't; it can't.  If it did it would follow that somewhere there is an object that can be consulted when we have a question on whether or not something is 'moral.'  And further that we accept that the object can't be wrong.  No, if we wish to know whether something is or is not 'moral' we can only consult our fellow subjects.  Since no one of us is recognized as an ultimate authority we do the only thing that we can do.  We discuss, we argue.  Ultimately we decide.  Collectively.  'Morality' is subjective, as is all knowledge.

Here's My Latest

A letter Friday purports to address the failure of 'liberalism' toward 'Black America.'  It's short on specifics but it does have two bold statements which I take to be its main points.  First, "Black people in America have dug a hole they may never get out of by allowing liberalism to rule their lives."  If a hole was dug out of which 'Black people in America' may never get out, it was dug by slavery.  Yes, slavery in America ended 150 years ago, but its legacies live on.  Current wealth disparities between the 'races' can be directly traced to the fact that at the time America was expanding to its current geographic configuration and the real estate was being distributed, African-Americans weren't allowed to participate.  Add on 100 years of Jim Crow laws and de facto discriminatory policies in the northern states, when African-Americans were kept out of the 'good' neighborhoods and many of the best paying jobs and we come about to where the letter's second bold statement begins.

"The liberal Democratic Party has had its foot on the chest of black people for 60 years with promises that aren't kept."  What began sixty years ago?  Is this a reference to Brown v. Board of Education, which ruled that racial discrimination in public education was unconstitutional?  Or the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was also resolved in federal court, with a ruling that racial discrimination in public facilities was also unconstitutional?  There were some promises made there, starting with equal access.  Those promises have been kept.  Or did the letter writer do the math wrong and he really meant 50 years, with the passage of The Civil Rights Act and The Voting Rights Act?  Two more kept promises. 

Inquiring minds want to know.