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| And now, the Airing of Grievances |
This would make perfect sense if Time ran backwards.
Today, a narrow 5-4 majority of the Supreme Court aroused great controversy by overturning part of the Voting Rights Act that treats various Southern states as hotbeds of Jim Crow on the grounds that, contrary to popular opinion, 1965 is not actually approaching, it's receding into the past. According to the Republican Justices' divisive opinion, strange as it may seem from reading newspaper coverage of, say, the Ku Klux Klan besieging Oberlin College or Marco McMillian's murder in Mississippi, 1965 was actually 48 years ago. Next year, it will even be 49 years ago.
The majority opinion argued that the conventional wisdom was misinterpreting the 1976 insight of constitutional scholar and theoretical physicist Steve Miller that:
Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'
Into the future
What Dr. Miller actually meant by this is that the present moment, also known as "now," is progressing ever more into what was seen as the future from a moment in the past. Justice Alito suggested in a concurring opinion that this widespread misunderstanding was due to the fact that in 1976 both Dr. Miller and his fans were completely baked.
You can make a decent living in this country if you know how to make analogies. It helps if you don't actually know anything about what you're comparing: "The Italians and the Poles assimilated so the Mexicans will too."
ReplyDeleteSend me my check.
This will be a disaster for the GOP in the House.
ReplyDeleteThose stuck in amber all-Black CD's and legislature districts in the south (which necessarily also lead to all-White districts) will come to an end over time.
District-wise the votes of White Democrats in the South will no longer automatically be useless. And Black Democrat votes which give excess pluralities to Blacks may now be used to unseat some Republicans.
Naturally the 'realists' over at Amconmag will applaud this decision because of the insult that Southern states have had to live with-even as the result realist-ically leads to left Dems becoming more powerful. Oh joy!
And with the House no longer being any sort of block-Amnesty.
Yeah, it's actually quite an eye-opener to read say the Guardian's take on this (for pure swivel-eyed lunacy see, Ana Marie Cox).
ReplyDeleteThese imbeciles really believe the present-day South is the same as it was in 1965. (Disclosure, I'm a Brit living in California, but I've lived in the North East and travelled extensively through the South).
They actually believe blacks will now be prevented from voting in elections as a result of this decision. Insane.
Thus we see Fitzgerald's flawed dictum, "So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past," refuted by McGuinn et al. with their revolutionary projection of time into space: "Eight miles high / and when you touch down / you'll find that it's / stranger than known."
ReplyDeleteThese imbeciles really believe the present-day South is the same as it was in 1965.
ReplyDeleteApparently you can see Alabama from Manhattan.
Voting right act. Cry me a rive.r The illusory suppression of voting rights did';t stop obama from getting elected twice by huge margins. Or paula deen from getting fired. Etc. If Useless, antiquated civil rights leaders use tax payer dollars to complain about the system being rigged when they themselves are sucking it dry.
ReplyDeleteCareful... I know there are a few formidable (and fierce) theoretical physicists who read this blog; but as a layman, I see these sons of Aquinas dealing purely in the currency of metaphor.
ReplyDeleteI imagine, however, that a peer-to-peer conversation goes something like this:
TT1: "The universe is not a bowl of jello because (... three whiteboards of Good Will Hunting formulae); therefore the universe is a soufflé.
TT2: "Well, I stand corrected, but a soufflé is impossible because, etc..."
Now, by the time these fellows appear on NPR, there's nothing but burnt, crispy edges and green gelatin.
Gilbert P.
"Those stuck in amber all-Black CD's and legislature districts in the south (which necessarily also lead to all-White districts) will come to an end over time." - Why? The democrats have accused the republicans of overly stacking said districts with blacks.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand how a law can be constitutional one day and unconstitutional the next. Are any of the justices claiming it was unconstitutional in 1965?
ReplyDeleteYou are a funny guy. Smart, too, of course, and incisive, and bold, but you can be a lot funnier than I ever would have expected.
ReplyDeleteThe reason that leftists think that the modern South is identical to 1965 South is because gay marriage is the new civil rights movement and most Southern states have passed amendments against it. And since there are Southern trash eager to get on TV and denounce gays it feeds liberals' paranoia. As well as filling Morris Dees' coffers.
ReplyDeleteGloria
Until The Gap is closed, it's always 1965.
ReplyDeleteSo, open your wallets and let's get back to work on closing The Gap.
I'm not as thrilled with this decision as the MSNBCtards are fuming over it. I won't type it all again, so I'll just link to it:
ReplyDeletehttp://countenance.wordpress.com/2013/06/25/scotus-chickens-out-again/
Anony-Mouse:
I don't think we'll have to worry about that. The benefit to both blacks and Republicans that fell out of the design of gerrymandered districts is now well known by both sides. Such gerrymandering will continue as long as Republicans + Black Democrats > White liberals in state legislatures, because doing it isn't a violation of even the now-weakened VRA.
With this decision and the Paula Deen debacle, it seems that were on the verge of another Hate Week directed toward the South. I see that Harold Meyerson's latest column in the Washington Post doesn't even try to make sense; it's just pure, anti-Southern animus.
ReplyDeleteVoting is not directly addressed in the US Constitution, it's traditionally been controlled by the states. So, this element of the Voting Rights Act involving federal oversight and approval of voting mechanics in the southern states was really one of the last legacies of the occupation of the South. It's ancient history and good riddance.
ReplyDeleteA more interesting civil rights issue of the future is the lack of voting rights for American citizens born abroad. If you are a US citizen born abroad, you have no historical ties to a state, therefore no voting rights. Most states will not allow you to register to vote if you have never lived there.
I'm not sure what the long term effects of this will be, but the amount of leftist insanity its provoked on twitter is both amusing and aggravating.
ReplyDeleteI've got a lot of problems with you people.
ReplyDeleteSteve Miller and Boz Scaggs went to prep school together in Dallas in the 1950s. They must have had one hell of a school band.
ReplyDeleteHunsdon is right, by the way: that was a really funny post.
ReplyDeleteIf time is going backwards I want to see Marilyn Monroe up close and personal.
ReplyDelete"For the sake of the red man, please stop immigration. It's bad enough they got invaded by whites. Why must they suffer further conquest at hands of everyone else?"
ReplyDeleteHmmm, this might be a 21st century job for the legendary "Crying Indian."
TGGP asked: I don't understand how a law can be constitutional one day and unconstitutional the next. Are any of the justices claiming it was unconstitutional in 1965?
ReplyDeleteHunsdon said: "Evolving circumstances," kind of like Plessy v. Ferguson. (Also, remember, Brown v. Board was decided not on the basis of the constitution, but on sociology.)
Plus we have always been at war with Eastasia.
TGGP,
ReplyDelete"I don't understand how a law can be constitutional one day and unconstitutional the next. Are any of the justices claiming it was unconstitutional in 1965?"
This particular law has to be periodically renewed, and the last time that happened was 2006. So it was rational to pass a law in the 1960s based on the world as it existed then, but not to pass the exact same law in 2006 as if nothing had changed.
"I don't understand how a law can be constitutional one day and unconstitutional the next. Are any of the justices claiming it was unconstitutional in 1965?'
ReplyDeleteDidn't the Supreme Court decide that separate but equal was constitutional and then years later decide that it wasn't?
It depends whose on the court.
It'a all interpretation.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, Mr. Sailer, of your posts that I've read, this one is the funniest. You had me in stitches.
Everything in this country is about black people now.
ReplyDeleteI was watching C-Span and a guy who played in the Southern Baseball League during the 60's has written a book about his observations on how blacks were treated. Of course, he will show how moral he is by telling how outraged he was.
Then, Thomas Sowell was being interviewed about race.
Skip to C-span history and they always have something about the Civil War and blacks.
WWII is now all about how blacks served or were segregated.
Current events are also all about blacks. There aren't enough black golfers according to a story in Golf Magazine or not having enough black coaches.
These imbeciles really believe the present-day South is the same as it was in 1965.
ReplyDeleteNot only that - those imbeciles don't even understand that the South in 1965 was not what they think it was.
They actually believe blacks will now be prevented from voting in elections as a result of this decision. Insane.
ReplyDeleteThe pitiful handful of left/libs operational on the Daily telegraph threads also believe this to be the case, bless 'em.
"...what will be best for American citizens in the future (where, I believe, we are going to spend the rest of our lives)..."
ReplyDeleteSteve, wasn't Plan 9 going to solve this problem by turning us all into zombies?
"We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future."
I thought Plan 9 failed. Maybe the Gang of 8 has come up with a new Plan. Perhaps there were not enough zombies. Maybe there are enough immigrants... somewhere out there.
I'm not sure what the long term effects of this will be, but the amount of leftist insanity its provoked on twitter is both amusing and aggravating.
ReplyDeleteIts also illuminating. They really do seem to believe that powerful white, racist interests are always about to assume formal control of, well, everything. Only a few lone warriors in politics, academia, law and media holding them at bay.
I'm as big a cynic as the next guy, but it's no fun being a full-time crank. This is good news. That's all there is to it - good news. For decades beyond any necessity, the specter of KKK intimidation and suppression of the black vote has been trotted out to keep this thing alive. Now, it's (at least partially) on the way out. Let's raise a glass to Kennedy, who - by the shameful and cowardly standards of Washington - did something a little brave.
ReplyDeleteSome guy upthread is now worried that this will cost the GOP seats by throwing off the gerrymandered districts? And this is going to bring us amnesty? Don't you remember when Haley Barbour and the rest of the GOP brain trust explicitly said they needed to import immigrants because white people don't breed enough? Did you seriously forget that already? It was, like, 4 days ago.
F__ the Voting Rights Act, and F__ the ridiculous fantasy of KKK intimidation in 2013, and F__ the pigs lining up at their gerrymandered trough. This might scare some entrenched sitting congressmen? Good. Let them convince a new audience they really deserve their jobs.
Anything that gets the government's hand off the scales and lets white people compete freely is a good thing.
The most vile and unself-aware hate speech I've ever heard in my life, and I've heard plenty, has been from middle to upper middle class urban liberals in Washington DC talking about Southern and Appalachian whites.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how socially acceptable this is in their circles and how little sense of irony they have about this.
And not even any decent jokes come out of all this hate, which says something, although I'm not sure what.
Woman said: Stop the fighting.
ReplyDeleteFighting man was tired. He listened to woman and stopped fighting.
Mendacious man took this opportunity to charm Woman, gaining access to her heart and financial resources.
Honest man cried alarm in clear, hard words.
Woman, afraid and confused, repelled by the violence and naivete of Fighting man and Honest man, again found comfort in the promises of Mendacious man.
Fighting man and Honest man shared whiskey and despair while cursing of the Godless treachery of Mendacious man.
Mendacious man eagerly filled their vacancy. Woman raised his children, and listened without interest to his lies.
Neil Templeton
Sure, if you accept the Newtonian concept of linear time. See, the Supreme Court, stuck in the nineteenth centurry, makes no accounting for relativity.
ReplyDeleteThe more sophisticated backers of VRA do, and they know that, from a given perspective and relative speed, 1965 hasn't even happened yet!
"I'm not sure what the long term effects of this will be, but the amount of leftist insanity its provoked on twitter is both amusing and aggravating." - Congress will probably wind up imposing these measures on every state rather than just singling out a few states to have their sovereignty stripped away.
ReplyDeleteAnd since there are Southern trash eager to get on TV and denounce gays it feeds liberals' paranoia. As well as filling Morris Dees' coffers.
ReplyDeleteI wish my coffers are as full as his. I'd be peddling the same snake oil if I didn't have to look at myself in the mirror.
"The Italians and the Poles assimilated so the Mexicans will too."
ReplyDeleteWe can answer this question scientifically. I don't know whether it has been done, but one could compare the experiences of British- Eastern-Eruropean immigrants with the Muslim immigrants from Africa and the Middle East.
I remember reading that polish immigrants commit crime at exactly the same rate as the native English in London, so there's a start.
Amazing how this artifact of Occupation took this long to be killed. The liberal outrage is still ongoing today all over the place, even though the banner of transgender illegal aliens continues to march on.
ReplyDeleteSomeone is worried that gerrymandered white districts aren't safe? Good. If there's no primary challenger to Flake and McCain I'm voting for the Democrat just to get those motherfuckers out of there. This sham of RINOs going to DC on the off chance they might vote conservative maybe needs to end.
I was refused admittance to a country club in 1912. Well, my great-grandfather was.
ReplyDeleteI will never, ever forget this.
Never.
My every waking moment is spent plotting (and carrying out!) my revenge. Some people tell me this is no way to live. They have no concern for justice.
>there are Southern trash eager to get on TV and denounce gays<
ReplyDeleteHuh? There are the Phelps people ("God Hates ---"), but who else? Fictional teleplays don't count. Besides, the Phelps people are a Kansas phenom and seem to include a number of northeastern types.
I've lived most of the time in the southeast since the mid-1960s. Never saw an instance of white-against-black prejudice. Never heard anyone use "the N-word" except a woman born in 1920, who once sang it in a naughty song (politically she was what's now called an "anti-racist," i.e., extreme liberal on race). I'm beginning to think the whole thing is a lie, like Bigfoot, or more to the point, like a religious dogma: you never saw X [X standing for any religious dogma - virgin birth, etc.], but you must, must, must believe it's real! Your soul and standing in society depend on it! That you never saw it isn't important.
I can more easily believe a tale told about the interior of China than most civil rights legends. After all, I've never been to China, but I lived smack middle in the south for a long time. We have questionable film of protesters having water hoses turned on them, photos of lynching victims (but we know many lynching victims were white), and lots of testimonies, but we have testimonies from Oberlin College, too. The involvement of such people as the Freedom Riders makes me suspect politicization - i.e., lying - on an Orwellian scale. Regarding the link about the Freedom Riders that I just posted: how much of that do you believe is true? I'm sure some Riders got bad stares and some got cop-conked raising hell while drunk, but the rest of it feels as mendacious as CP reporting about the Spanish Civil War.
Stare Decisis = The Supreme Court shall respect precedent, except when it doesn't want to.
ReplyDeleteSteve, I hung with Steve Miller and the guys, '69-72, and they were all straight-arrows. Mostly they liked to play golf, on the Mill Valley muni-9. I never saw any of them ingest anything stronger than beer. No Paul Kantners in that group.
ReplyDeleteDavid said: I've lived most of the time in the southeast since the mid-1960s. Never saw an instance of white-against-black prejudice. Never heard anyone use "the N-word" except a woman born in 1920, who once sang it in a naughty song (politically she was what's now called an "anti-racist," i.e., extreme liberal on race). I'm beginning to think the whole thing is a lie, like Bigfoot, or more to the point, like a religious dogma: you never saw X [X standing for any religious dogma - virgin birth, etc.], but you must, must, must believe it's real! Your soul and standing in society depend on it! That you never saw it isn't important.
ReplyDelete.................................................................................
I've never lived in the southeast but in my experience southerners are generally decent to their fellow man, regardless of ideology or group affiliation. The south has many flaws, but bad manners isn't one of them. I've known southern "racists" that would never dream of mistreating anyone who hasn't wronged them. By "racists" I refer to people with intact pattern recognition, as I've never actually met a real, flesh and blood hater. Sometimes, I also wonder if they really exist.
-The Judean People's Front
If the law as passed in 1965 didn't have an expiration date, would it be constitutional?
ReplyDeleteFor decades beyond any necessity, the specter of KKK intimidation and suppression of the black vote has been trotted out to keep this thing alive.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how anybody can do this with a straight face. The KKK is down to about 2000 members, fully 10% of whom are believed to be FBI agents.
I think it a little fishy that all these Steves quote one another…
ReplyDeleteBlack voters lost much of their luster after Prop. 8.
ReplyDelete"What Dr. Miller actually meant by this is that the present moment, also known as "now," is progressing ever more into what was seen as the future from a moment in the past. Justice Alito suggested in a concurring opinion that this widespread misunderstanding was due to the fact that in 1976 both Dr. Miller and his fans were completely baked."
ReplyDeleteHilarious, insightful and tinged with likable nostalgia. Steve should be a lot more well-known and well-repected.
"These imbeciles really believe the present-day South is the same as it was in 1965."
ReplyDeleteNo, they want to maintain the illusion to milk 'white guilt' and to play divide and conquer between 'repentant' northern whites and incorrigible southern whites.
It's like Zionists want to maintain the myth that the 'far right' is haunting today's Europe(DRAGON TATTOO), Iran is about nuke Israel(with nukes it doesn't have), and Palestinian neo-Nazis are about to drive Jews into the sea.
Ironically, Jews treat white cons like they treat Iranians and Palestinians, but white cons take the lead in playing attack dog against 'muzzies' at the behest of Jewish power.
Dummies can't be helped.
"Eric said...
ReplyDeleteI don't know how anybody can do this with a straight face. The KKK is down to about 2000 members, fully 10% of whom are believed to be FBI agents."
Only 10%? I wouldn't be surprised if it was a far higher percentage, and with the remainder being mostly BATF agents. The Klan is probably less politically relevant than the National Curling Association.