Good news yesterday!

[easwaran]

Don't ask don't tell was declared unconstitutional (1st amendment!)

The stem cell ban got an injunction

The Koran-burning pastor decided to cancel the burning

Sarah Palin endorsed the teabagger in Delaware

Comments

[krasnoludek]

1) I agree with you that DADT being unconstitutional under the 1st amendment is more surprising than under the 5th. The NYT article listed two examples given by the prosecution to argue that the law was unjust. They were both examples where someone's private, hidden conversations were discovered against their will. It seems the only way they could have complied with the law was to never talk about these subjects with anyone, which then is a pretty heavy restriction of speech. And as the judge determined, the government didn't have a strong enough interest for security to restrict such speech.

3) I'm reasonably glad this pastor got his publicity, because it's mostly been negative. His fringe status became apparent by the collective shaming he got from round the spectrum and that hopefully made people with somewhat similar personal opinions reconsider the consequence of such intolerance.

4) I find it funny that the teabagger's twitter refers to her as "Gov. Palin" as if she still had a leadership position in government and wasn't just a celebrity now.

[secret_panda]

Re (4): former governors (and presidents, senators, congresspeople, and doubtless many other positions) get the title "governor" even after they leave office. So, like, President Carter is still "President Carter" even though he's no longer president, and technically you probably could call our current Secretary of State "Senator Clinton," though that would be rather silly.

[krasnoludek]

I had only really heard this in the context of presidents, and not lesser positions.

[secret_panda]

I don't know where the line is, but she's definitely still Governor Palin. (And hopefully she won't augment that title anytime soon!)

[easwaran]

I definitely hear about Governor Dean all the time. It's a bit weirder when I hear about "Senator so-and-so" if they're no longer senator. I'm not sure why that title seems weirder to me.