Rants & Reasons

Brief items of interest:

• It is an article of faith among conservatives that court rulings they’re opposed to are the product of activist judges. Here is an inconvenient fact regarding gay marriage: Via Political Animal 

In Massachusetts, the ruling was written by Justice Margaret Marshall.

In California, the ruling was written by Justice Ronald George.

In Connecticut, the ruling was written by Justice Richard Palmer.

And in Iowa, the ruling was written by Justice Mark Cady.

And what do all four have in common? Each was appointed to their respective state Supreme Court by a Republican governor.

•  Prayer ain’t what it used to be.

Information Age Prayer is a site that charges you a monthly fee to say prayers for you. A typical charge is $4.95 per month to say three prayers specified by you each day.

“We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying,” the company states. “Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of the subscriber displayed on screen.”

Prices, however, are dictated by the length of the prayer. As noted in the Information Age Prayer FAQ, “A discounted prayer will cost less than other prayers of similar length.”

• Right-wing rhetoric these days is a bit over the top. But as Charles Blow argues:

But, it’s not all just harmless talk. For some, their disaffection has hardened into something more dark and dangerous. They’re talking about a revolution.

Some examples:

Chuck Norris, the preeminent black belt and prospective Red Shirt, wrote earlier this month on the conservative blog WorldNetDaily: “How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution?”

Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, imagining herself as some sort of Delacroixian Liberty from the Land of the Lakes, urged her fellow Minnesotans to be “armed and dangerous,” ready to bust caps over cap-and-trade, I presume.

And between his tears, Glenn Beck, the self-professed “rodeo clown,” keeps warning of an impending insurrection by saying that he believes that we are heading for “depression” and “revolution” and then gaming out that revolution on his show last month. “Think the unthinkable” he said. Indeed.

These are not people on the fringe of society; they are people with influence and a platform.

Homegrown terrorism indeed. I hope the FBI is taking notes.

• Obama has been rightly praised for his efforts in getting G-20 nations to contribute over a trillion dollars to the International Monetary Fund to restore growth to world economies. But what has gotten less notice and what may in the long run be more important is movement on an arms reduction treaty with Russia. The devil will be in the details, but it is promising that we are restarting efforts to reduce this persistent threat to human flourishing.