"John Roberts has made his decision, now let him enforce it"
Today, the Supreme Court has rendered its decision regarding the case of 'Snyder vs. Westboro Baptist Church', entirely in favor of the Fred Phelps, et al, organization masquerading as so-called christians (the Westboro Baptists).
Given the extreme objectionable nature of the Westboro Baptist's protests launched at Veteran's funerals across the country, I really didn't think their actions should find legal coverage-- yes, I'm aware of the 1st Amendment and have generally supported it, but my issue with this is that it isn't what they're saying-- it's where and how they're choosing to 'say' it, and in such a way that they flagrantly intrude upon other private citizen's rights to privacy and to mourn and bury their family members in peace.
I've come around to the opinion that the 1st Amendment means exactly what it says: it protects the freedom of *speech* and of the *press*-- which is that it protects your freedom to speak, and your freedom to write. I believe that blogs, online and offline writings, letters and such are defended under the heading of freedom of the press (since actually, the 1st Amendment does NOT specify that "press" only applies to professional news organizations-- therefore, it ought to generally apply to extending freedom of speech to written as well as spoken words). I don't think the 1st Amendment does cover, or was ever meant to cover, any and all kinds of offensive actions, gestures, etc, under the grounds that all of these things are somehow "symbolic speech". That whole 'symbolic speech' argument is total utter bullshit (btw-- I now stand with those who hold that disrespectful and deliberately offensive flag-burning SHOULD be illegal, as it is NOT speech-- it's arson).
Phelps and Co, and their nasty little protests off any and all funerals of veterans and service members cross beyond speech into deliberate and harmful actions against other people.
I am utterly disgusted by the decision that the dishonorable John G. Roberts, Jr, and seven of his dishonorable Supreme Court colleagues made in this case, and it once again leaves me feeling like I wasted 22 years of my life serving in the U.S. Army, standing ready to defend a country that IS NOT WORTH DEFENDING. Maybe I'll rethink that statement tomorrow-- for now, I'm glad I'm retired, because I'm not feeling any willingness to go to war again for this country as I write this.
This is another in a long string of judicial decisions I've been watching lately that show overwhelming and blatant disrespect for America's Veterans by America's courts-- usually cloaked in sanctimonious lawyer language about how it's okay to figuratively spit on veterans because somehow that's more supportive of veterans than preventing people from disrespecting military service in the first place, and in all cases I've been able to follow up on so far-- these are decisions made by sanctimonious hypocritical lawyer/judges on the bench who NEVER served in the military, but claim they know how veterans feel and that veterans would and should agree with their utterly wrong decisions and support their positions supporting attacks against us from the bench.
It's worth noting that the ONLY Supreme Court (in)Justice who was against the decision supporting the Phelps group was Samuel Alito-- NOT coincidentally the ONLY member of the Supreme Court who has done any time in the military at all (he was an Army Reserve Officer, Signal Corps-- still never deployed anywhere though). Funny how that works out.
If these really are rights that the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America uphold and support-- so be it. You can have your fucking rights-- you can also have the right to defend yourself, because I will not stick my neck out and put my life on the line to defend ANYONE's right to engage in behavior such as the Westboro Baptists and fake veterans engage in. You have the right to speak as you see fit-- you have NO right to expect me to protect you from the consequences of your own speech when someone comes for you.
You want to see this country defended? Go pick up a gun and do it yourself-- I already did my time.
Some days I fucking hate my country-- this is one of them.
Given the extreme objectionable nature of the Westboro Baptist's protests launched at Veteran's funerals across the country, I really didn't think their actions should find legal coverage-- yes, I'm aware of the 1st Amendment and have generally supported it, but my issue with this is that it isn't what they're saying-- it's where and how they're choosing to 'say' it, and in such a way that they flagrantly intrude upon other private citizen's rights to privacy and to mourn and bury their family members in peace.
I've come around to the opinion that the 1st Amendment means exactly what it says: it protects the freedom of *speech* and of the *press*-- which is that it protects your freedom to speak, and your freedom to write. I believe that blogs, online and offline writings, letters and such are defended under the heading of freedom of the press (since actually, the 1st Amendment does NOT specify that "press" only applies to professional news organizations-- therefore, it ought to generally apply to extending freedom of speech to written as well as spoken words). I don't think the 1st Amendment does cover, or was ever meant to cover, any and all kinds of offensive actions, gestures, etc, under the grounds that all of these things are somehow "symbolic speech". That whole 'symbolic speech' argument is total utter bullshit (btw-- I now stand with those who hold that disrespectful and deliberately offensive flag-burning SHOULD be illegal, as it is NOT speech-- it's arson).
Phelps and Co, and their nasty little protests off any and all funerals of veterans and service members cross beyond speech into deliberate and harmful actions against other people.
I am utterly disgusted by the decision that the dishonorable John G. Roberts, Jr, and seven of his dishonorable Supreme Court colleagues made in this case, and it once again leaves me feeling like I wasted 22 years of my life serving in the U.S. Army, standing ready to defend a country that IS NOT WORTH DEFENDING. Maybe I'll rethink that statement tomorrow-- for now, I'm glad I'm retired, because I'm not feeling any willingness to go to war again for this country as I write this.
This is another in a long string of judicial decisions I've been watching lately that show overwhelming and blatant disrespect for America's Veterans by America's courts-- usually cloaked in sanctimonious lawyer language about how it's okay to figuratively spit on veterans because somehow that's more supportive of veterans than preventing people from disrespecting military service in the first place, and in all cases I've been able to follow up on so far-- these are decisions made by sanctimonious hypocritical lawyer/judges on the bench who NEVER served in the military, but claim they know how veterans feel and that veterans would and should agree with their utterly wrong decisions and support their positions supporting attacks against us from the bench.
It's worth noting that the ONLY Supreme Court (in)Justice who was against the decision supporting the Phelps group was Samuel Alito-- NOT coincidentally the ONLY member of the Supreme Court who has done any time in the military at all (he was an Army Reserve Officer, Signal Corps-- still never deployed anywhere though). Funny how that works out.
If these really are rights that the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America uphold and support-- so be it. You can have your fucking rights-- you can also have the right to defend yourself, because I will not stick my neck out and put my life on the line to defend ANYONE's right to engage in behavior such as the Westboro Baptists and fake veterans engage in. You have the right to speak as you see fit-- you have NO right to expect me to protect you from the consequences of your own speech when someone comes for you.
You want to see this country defended? Go pick up a gun and do it yourself-- I already did my time.
Some days I fucking hate my country-- this is one of them.