News of the day

You aren't kidding about that, in a rational sane world it should have never come before the Supreme Court and even been such a close 5-4 decision. When you have 4 justices that said there was no constitutional right regarding marriage.. ie states should decide who can and can't marry..

thank God for the 5 who understood that ^ logic is exactly what the court struck down in Virginia many years ago when our 'enlightened' nation and the great state of Virginia had laws, democracy in action! , that allowed states to say that blacks and whites couldn't marry.  

I have little doubt in ten years or so most Americans will wonder why it took so long to allow some of the finest citizens we have to be married.   Discrimination against same sex couples will seem as archaic as white-only restaurants and no vote for women.
 

dr wu23 wrote: So then...the 4 who voted against gay marriage....are they just right wing religious nutters or what? I find it hard to  believe that this was a 'Constitutional' decision and not one of their religious bigotry again gay people.

Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean... as far as France goes, it has to be only a matter of time before some of the ultranationalist militant groups there execute a terror attack against a mosque in retaliation. If Italian neofascists don't get there first, that is...

dr wu23 wrote: So then...the 4 who voted against gay marriage....are they just right wing religious zealots or what? I find it hard to  believe that this was a 'Constitutional' decision and not one of their religious bigotry against gay people.

of course it was...

I can't remember if I wrote it last night.. probably not since I was already starting to foam at the mouth ... that those 4 justices either got their law degrees from cereal boxes. (this issue has already been ruled on in principal.. States DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to restrict marriage based on WHO YOU WANT TO MARRY. Be it race or whatever. They ruled against legislative bigrotry.

they ignored it. Why?

Either they are complete idiots.. OR.. the most likely case. Bigots?  Perhaps..  but I think that pinacle of power. It is more about simple political ideology.. blind ideology. Both sides are guilty of it. One side errors on the side of good..  to be FOR something.. one side errors on the complete WRONG sidfe of it... to be AGAINST something.

My poly sci professor once said it best...that in short is the clearest and simple distinction between liberal and conservative in AMerican politcs.

Liberal seeks to make changes...  to be FOR something. For the greater good.  Conservative works to keep things the same.. to be AGAINST something to keep the status quo for the like minded.

I can't believe that "states' rights" is still a thing.  Has this phrase every been anything but a code word for states denying rights to a group of people?

Toaster Mantis wrote: They are some of the most well-organized in Western Europe, though, and some of the most active regarding ambitious large-scale terrorism, compared to say the English Defence League. Didn't a lot of Italian neofascist terror groups during the Cold War get their hands on surprisingly much top-shelf NATO weaponry on account of CIA's European operations employing quite a few people who used to run the Italian military intelligence during WW2 hence having not-quite-reconstructed Axis loyalties? I remember reading something about that when researching Operation Gladio (link for those who haven't heard of that) and other stay-behind armies.

What you say was definitely true in the Seventies and Eighties - during the Cold War, when Italy (a key member of NATO) had a very strong Communist party. I was a teenager in the Seventies, and remember very well what we call the "years of lead" (anni di piombo). Those neofascist groups were domestic terrorists in the true sense of the word - Italians killing other Italians, often by placing explosives in crowded placs (like Bologna railway station in 1980).

However, things have changed quite dramatically after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and nowadays far-right groups are mostly concerned with immigrants and Roma (what most people call gypsies) rather than people holding opposite political views. Of course, they are not people whose views I espouse in any way, but so far they haven't proved to be as dangerous as Golden Dawn or other similar groups in other European countries.

In sillier news, CNN, in typical knee-jerk reactionary fashion, fell victim to the very fear and paranoia they've been selling for years.

http://gawker.com/cnn-mistakes-isis-style-dildo-flag-at-pride-parade-for-1714409153

They mistook butt plugs and dildos for an ISIS flag.

As the quoted tweet says at the story, This is the second best flag news this month.

Although the Greek Communist Party have a divergent opinion, it is good to see finally some voice (from the left) against the crisis.

@GKR:  I am not a leftie;  I just think austerity is insane.  And this could spark the disintegration of the Eurozone if countries do not appear to be deriving any great benefit from being part of it.  That in itself is not a problem but what is is the possibility that some of these countries could then align with Russia/China.  Obama's foreign policy continues to be a disaster.