Supremely Powerful, Wearing Black Robes

There are nine Supreme Court judges elected by no one, and appointed by a President with the hope that their appointee would match the President’s ideological leanings.

The current justices, bedecked in their black robes, are noted in the next paragraph along with their date of appointment, and the President who may have thought that they were qualified. At times, of course, the President himself may not have been qualified for his position.

Anthony Kennedy (Reagan, Feb.1988) Antonin Scalia (Reagan, Sept. 1988), Clarence Thomas (G.H.W. Bush, Oct. 1991), Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Clinton, Aug. 1993), Stephen Breyer (Clinton, Aug. 1994), John Roberts (G. W. Bush, 2005), Samuel Alito (G.W.Bush, Jan. 2006), Sonia Sotomayor (Obama, Aug. 2009), and Elena Kagan (Obama, Aug. 2010).

While those supreme beings are supposed to leave their prejudices and biases behind when they review a case, you have to wonder if this is so in many decisions.

For example, in April 2010, in a 5-to-4 decision, the Supremes struck down the limit on the total amount of money wealthy donors can contribute to candidates and political committees. A true victory for all Americans named David and Charles Koch, or Sheldon Adelson. It probably shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out which five Republican President’s appointees were the deciding votes.

In June 2013, they effectively struck down the core of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by another 5-to-4 vote, freeing nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval. Can you name the four who opposed this ruling?

However, now in 2015, there was finally a unanimous 9-to--0 vote on an important case that will help determine the fate of our nation.  It will help the populace, or politicians, decide who will run in 2016 and who will win the Presidential election. It will also help to determine a minority’s rights when stopped by Caucasian police officers for littering, and how the average American will be able to get interest rates above 0.85% on their savings, in a promised robust economy.

Oh yes, that 2015 case. The Supreme Court ruled that a Muslim prison inmate in Arkansas could grow a short beard for religious reasons.

Under Those Black Robes

When the nine justices, or at least the five appointed by Republican presidents, sit in a dark room trying to determine if a book or a movie is pornographic or not, have you ever wondered what’s happening while they are wearing black robes?

Obama, A No Show in Paris, He Did Show for the Spurs

President Obama, a most indecisive and ineffective leader, placed his priorities where they matter most to him. Although he was one of the few world leaders who did not show for the unity rally after the murders in Paris, he did find time to greet last years’ NBA champions, the San Antonio Spurs.

Obama always seems to find a decision that he could avoid, if at all possible. Ah well, we get what we pay for.

It takes an uneducated Texas GOP representative, to put Obama’s poor decision making into the right perspective. Randy Weber, a true American and world historian, tweeted “Even Adolph Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris. (For all of the wrong reasons.) Obama couldn’t do it for right reasons.”

Randy Weber, who represents Texas’s 14^th District, has amazed everyone when he correctly spelled the mass murderer Hitler’s last name, yet his historical acuity was lacking in misspelling his first name, which was Adolf.

Perhaps Randy’s impeccable knowledge will be most useful if Texas GOP Senator Ted Cruz runs for president in 2016, and makes Weber a member of his think tank.

After Thoughts

Why are deranged individuals, who for religious causes, set off a self-attached bomb designed to destroy innocent people, called “suicide bombers?” Aren’t they really murderers, and shouldn’t they be called “homicide bombers?”

There’s also a far more accurate designation for the radical settlers in Israel who have confiscated Arab land, destroyed Arab property, and harassed and harmed innocent Arabs. They are truly “unsettlers,” trying to make the land comfortable for themselves, at the expense of others.

It Doesn’t Pay to Be First

We go to Las Vegas every December, not to gamble or to celebrate any holiday, but to play in the US Nationals Table Tennis Tournament held in their huge convention center.

We stay at the Westgate Hotel, which is a short walk away, since they offer rooms to the players for only $49 a night, and don’t charge any exorbitant resort feels.

To get to the table tennis venue, you have to wend your way through the glitzy, smoke-filled, noisy casino.

For years we would eat at the Paradise Café near our elevators, and far away from the casino gambling raucous hullabaloo.

We ate there the first day, and were pleased to find familiar, friendly servers who were thoroughly acquainted with the menu offerings, and knew what they were doing. As we were leaving, the maître de told us that Paradise would be lost, for it would be closed down and replaced by Sid’s Café the following day.

Sid’s Café was totally unprepared to open, with the majority of the waitpersons still learning what was on the menu, how to serve, and how to use the computers.

Although the menu was similar, the meals were not quite the same. The cost of each meal was higher, the service was slower, and the orders delivered didn’t always match the orders requested. However, the silverware was wrapped in linen napkins, and all restaurant employees were garbed in drab black, funereal-looking uniforms.

You have to understand that when you try something new and untested, there may be a chance for some problems. You should never be the first to try either a new restaurant, or to purchase the “new and improved” model of any electronic device when it’s first introduced.

Some Things Last Forever

Sid’s Café sits in the middle of the casino’s cacophonous deluge of irritable sounds, accompanied by annoying flashing lights attempting to entice guests to come to try their luck at any of the many gambling choices.

While Paradise Café was devoid of these unpleasant sights and sounds, they surround you in stereo at Sid’s. The week before Christmas, there was the added joy to the world with the continuous playing of requisite music for the season.

The selections, which were loudly played again and again and again, seemed to be designed as waterboarding to the ears. Among the more stirring renditions played were “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” “Oh By Gosh, By Golly, It’s Time for Mistletoe and Holly,” “Deck the Halls,” “Here Comes Santa Claus,” “Jingle Bells” and “Jingle Bell Rock.” The holiday’s name is found in other musical numbers, including “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas,” “”Oh Christmas Tree,” ”I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” and “Mele Kalikimaka.”

An exuberant and boisterously loud soul sister provided the grand finale to the musical loop, by bellowing out a song I had never heard before — “Merry Christmas, Happy New Years to All of My Friends.” I hope to never hear it again.

Happy Birthday, La La

When I was a lad of eight or so, the choir at our primarily Jewish elementary school was invited to put on a December concert at a Catholic convent on the other side of town. When my Mother discovered that the lyrics to one of the songs praised Jesus Christ, she convinced me to substitute the words “La La,” instead of using his name. Being a naïve boy then and not understanding why I was so instructed, I did as I was told. I still use the revised lyrics some seventy years later whenever I hear that music, and still sing to myself, “La La, Our Savior Was Born.”