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Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 257

This past Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard a case regarding gay marriage. The case not only involves a Cincinnatian, but I also got to know him while working on a project about 8 years ago. Here’s a short series from the SCOTUS Blog about the case. (Part 1 and Part 2) … plus an article from the Cincinnati Enquirer about Jim in Washington for the Court.

Welcome to another edition of It’s Time for Truth with Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Here’s the explanation from PolitiFact.

CruzSenPresidents

A very large, diverse local high school was going to have a Covergirl Challenge, a day when female students would voluntarily wear a hijab for a day as a diversity event. Some parents complained, and the principal reconsidered, thus cancelling the event. A student wrote this in her editorial published in the Cincinnati Enquirer. (The full text)

Some complaints from parents were that the event would make them or their kids uncomfortable. Getting rid of prejudice isn’t going to be comfortable. It’s going to be very uncomfortable and awkward and unfamiliar for people who are innately biased.

Cheers to Jeb Bush (R-FL) for going against the Republican flow regarding citizenship. Jeers to Rep. Steve King (R-IA) for wanting to change the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution to accommodate his view.

Strength to the rescue workers in Nepal and comfort to those who lost friends and family.

The Blogging Blues post was well received. Like a fool, I thought it may be Freshly Pressed. Oh well. To me, the comments made by the regulars here were even better, which could turn into another post. Many thanks … and in blues post, I mentioned not worrying about stats … and during that post this blog surpassed a quarter of a million views. 😀 Thanks to all!

Attention Costco customers: Check the ice cream section to see if they have Cincinnati’s finest – Graeter’s (past post explains). I know it selling in my state for half the price as in grocery stores, so if you find it, tell me where (because I’m curious).

Act 3 of Meals: The Musical delivered a bountiful collection of sides including broccoli, butterbeans, cornbread, collard greens, eggplant, potatoes, vegetables,  quiche,  tomatoes, onion,  spaghetti, bread, butter, nuts, pork & beans, yams, and all topped with frim fram sauce … plus, (and to my surprise, a song with side dish in the title. The producer was pleased with only buzzer.

Because we’re beginning a new month, no Saturday Morning Cartoons or Explore this weekend, – so the next post features May. Meanwhile, Happy May Day.

To lead you into it’s headlines, The Onion offers important tips for going green.

Embed from Getty Images

On This Week’s Headlines from The Onion
Baby has sinking feeling he left home without oversized multicolor plastic keys
Delusional man turning off laptop as if he’s done with it for the night
Ex-con hanging out with hallucinating voices that got him in trouble in the first place
Pharmaceutical rep assures doctor he personally tries every drug he promotes
Man proud of food he ordered

Interesting Reads
The Sultana: The anniversary of a shipping tragedy greater than the Titanic
Congressional effectiveness from the Bipartisan Policy Center
Responding to the Doolittle Raiders
A slideshow of the best British political insults
World Happiest Report (an article) (the report)
Shakespeare, women, and love
(Photo gallery) Animals for the Washington Post

Your Weekend Celebrations
(Weekend) Dandelion Days, Toad Suck Daze
(Fri) Tuba Day, No Pants Day, Mother Goose Day, Bubba Day, Batman Day, Loyalty Day, Chocolate Parfait Day, Law Day, Space Day, Lei Day, Save the Rhino Day, May Day, Amtrak Day, Global Love Day, Purebred Dog Day, New Homeowners Day, School Principals Day, Silver Star Day, Stepmothers Day, Mariachi Day

(Sat) Homebrew Day, Beer Pong Day, Play Your Ukulele Day, Naked Gardening Day, Baby Day, Brothers & Sisters Day, Bombshells Day, Truffles Day, Life Insurance Day, Scrapbook Day, Rule of Order Day, Free Comic Book Day, Join Hands Day, Bladder Cancer Awareness Day, Mayday for Mutts Day

(Sun) World Laughter Day, Two Different Colored Shoes Day, Lumpy Rug Day, Garden Meditation Day Hug Your Cat Day, Baby-Lost Mothers Day, Lemonade Day, Blessing of the Bikes Day (Motorcycles), Special-abled Pets Day, Raspberry Popover & Tart Day, Infertility Survival Day, Paranormal Day, Public Radio Day, Press Freedom Day, Chocolate Custard Day, Kite Day

The Association opened Act 3 with Broccoli, so two of their hits should also send you into the weekend. There are two hits, so take your pick, including both. Have a safe weekend and in the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

36 thoughts on “Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 257”

  1. Congrats on the stats milestone! I think it’s hard to get Freshly Pressed nowadays. They seem to choose from those they get tweeted about. I’m not so sure they scour like they used too; instead they seem to pick from the ones they get a heads-up on on Twitter. I might be wrong about that, but I haven’t noticed any of the blogs I follow getting Freshly Pressed over the last year. I used to see one almost every month it seemed.

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  2. Well I’m back . . . speaking of taking a posting break. Been selling a house, buying a house, and launching a book–all culminating in May! (You didn’t tell me how hard this house selling was going to be 🙂 Anyway, I just got caught up on your posts. Love the one you did on “chilling out” regarding the pressure of blogging. I wish I had read it two weeks ago when all the balls in the air of my life came crashing down on my head.

    As to being Freshly Pressed, I never try for that because I would have to change the voice of my blog and that isn’t worth it for me. Hope all is well.

    P.S. My favorite Onion headline is about the baby leaving home without his big plastic keys. Cracked me up!

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    • E-Tom,
      Selling a house is well crazy … and being constantly in ready-to-show mode takes a lot of energy. From your tone I take it that the house is still for sale …. good luck.

      Oh yes … you would have to change your voice for FP … but heck, I was getting greedy.

      Good luck on May’s book launch. That also means you’ll start drafting book 3 on July 5th. Mark that date down! Meanwhile, blogging breaks are good!

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  3. I found most posts on ‘Freshly Pressed’ were angst filled – I stopped looking a long while back though. Although there does seem to be a momentum – once pressed freshly, likely to be pressed again…….. Congrats on that really big number – I guess that’s what longevity will do for you 🙂

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  4. Thanks for including the information about the project worker you knew eight years ago. It seems that the Supreme Court is divided between those justices in favor of RULING that marriage equality should be legal, and those justices who favor the people VOTING on whether marriage equality should be legal (either state by state, or through a constitutional amendment). And then, according to my hearing of a couple of the justices’ comments/questions last week, there are those who hint at the possibility of the government getting out of the marriage business entirely (a view long held by libertarians), and ruling that ALL marriages between two adults are legal, with ALL the legal rights and privileges now granted heterosexual couples, but that religious groups can legally decide who they will and will not marry. I lean towards joining former President Jimmy Carter in favoring the latter.

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    • Tim,
      I can see the court upholding states rights on granting/denying gay marriage … but forcing them to acknowledge marriages from other states. In terms of religious groups, here’s the question: Is marriage a religious ceremony implemented by the civic community or is marriage a civic occasion that can be implemented by religion?

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  5. As a Naval person and an engineer I very much appreciated your “interesting read” on the steamboat Sultana, Frank. Before now I could not have correctly identified “the greatest maritime disaster in United States history.” However, I did know that the historical path of engineering and mechanization is chock full of trial and error, something all too easy to forget in the present age of quality control. For example, as a young man I would never have imagined that a major automaker like GM would accept responsibility for the inability of an ignition switch to support the weight of too many keys dangling from it. Stuff happens and nothing mechanical is perfect.

    The design and functioning of naval boilers in the mid 1950’s was a large part of my education and I was amazed at the complexity of them and their associated equipment. Steam is a wonderfully powerful mechanism, but very dangerous. The standard operating pressure at the time was 600 psi, but new systems at 1,200 psi were starting to be built. Nobody figured it all out from scratch of course. Error was a principal component of its evolution. Significantly, the U.S. Navy has now graduated largely to nuclear power and gas turbines.

    Great read, not only for its engineering aspect but for the propensity of human judgement to accept risk.

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    • Jim,
      Extra happy at this end that you got so much out of the Saltana article.

      Yep – nothing mechanical is perfect. I look at what NASA did … so many launches, so many mission … not a perfect record, but highly successful in terms of lives .. I see air travel in similar light.

      Meanwhile, thank you for sharing!!!!

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    • Padre,
      Interesting when one someone involved … and I hope the same.I’m not sure of which way it will go, but I have a feeling they will uphold a states right to deny the right in their state, but will have to accept those married in other states.

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