DOMA And A More In Depth Look At The Meaning Of A 5/4 Decision
The High Priests/Priestesses of the Supreme Court have taken the auspices and determined that the Gods need no longer be assuaged. Perhaps the Priests (et.al) have “not been informed that when the Gods change it is generally understood that the services of their representatives become superfluous as well? It has long been understood and asserted by scholars of diverse natures that the linkage between a culture/society and its Gods or religion is so deep and total as to make it impossible to cleanly sever the one from the other.
It is a very dangerous thing these new rulers of ours are doing and the fact that the seeds were sown decades ago makes the situation now no less dangerous. The history of the thing is that when “the people” and “the society” are no longer the same thing a catastrophic implosion can be expected to occur virtually at any time in the near future.
Much ink has been spilt of late in an attempt to draw parallels between today’s United States and Ancient Rome. Who could have predicted how closely a Supreme Court metaphor picked on a whim ended up reflecting reality?
Until 300 BC only patricians could become augures. Plebeian assemblies were forbidden to take augury and hence had no input as to whether a certain law, war or festival should occur. Cicero, an augur himself, accounts how the monopoly of the patricians created a useful barrier to the encroachment of the populares.[10] However in 300 BC a new law Lex Ogulnia, increased the number of augures from four to nine and required that five of the nine be plebeians, granting, for the first time, the ability to interpret the will of the Gods to lower classes. With this new power, it was not only possible for plebeians to determine the gods will in their favor but it was also now possible for plebeians to critique unfair interpretations by patricians.
Interesting……… even to the 5/4 majority.
As happened in Ancient Rome, the United States has now officially moved away from a constitutional republican form of government. If nothing else, the fact that many of our most important political decisions are now technically Supreme Court Rulings should set off an alarm bell or two. The fact that the path which these “rulings” take is so heavily dependent on who sits on the Court at the time these cases are decided should also serve to highlight how arbitrary and capricious our whole system of government (and justice) has become.
The fact that I need to even comment on how obscene it is to accept and discuss a “5/4” decision without first discussing the problem of it being a decision which was decided 5/4 (ie. a margin of one, not to mention a whole host of other problems).
What a travesty, but in any event, we move on, and on, and on, until one day we don’t.
Thank you.
AaronInvestigates 
Just stopped by to say that I, too, responded with very similar thoughts as yours, but you said it much more eloquently and well-articulated. And what’s even more interesting to me is that you used some of the words that both I and my respondent used elsewhere!
I particularly like and agree with your thought here:
” It is a very dangerous thing these new rulers of ours are doing and the fact that the seeds were sown decades ago makes the situation now no less dangerous. The history of the thing is that when “the people” and “the society” are no longer the same thing a catastrophic implosion can be expected to occur virtually at any time in the near future. ” …
Boy, isn’t that the truth. The society point is exactly what I was focused on earlier, and the “people” as a majority are who make up the society is who should have the control…especially in marriage which is not a Federal Law, but rather a societal construct.
And the US/Rome connection…. not surprising, but still enlightening with the close similarities pointed out in your highlight.
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I’m not here as anything more than just a commenter, an admirer of your writing, a person that I often agree with, a person that I thought used to be a friend :), and someone that was always comfortable conversing with you. Plus, there were so many similarities to what I was thinking in earlier comments, that I slightly freaked out and, well…commented on it.
Thanks for your interest…your comment….and your input. If you would care to be more specific in regards to other parts of your comment I would certainly be interested.
I’m not exactly sure what motivated you to say what you did in your final paragraph, but perhaps I can clarify, or at least address in a more direct way a comment I made to you some months ago in which I alluded to the fact that the news in January had been a little bit worse than I would have liked. Without getting too deep into the thing…I have had to limit my time on the net both due to a certain fatigue setting in, but also because certain recent medical treatments affect me in ways I cannot necessarily predict ahead of time, but most assuredly one area they do affect is the ability to translate and transfer the ideas in my head to somewhat coherent thoughts “on paper”.
Essentially, it’s all about chemotherapy and attempting to put my foot outside the door whenever possible.
Thanks…
Thank you so much for telling me what has been going on for you! And yes, I remember you mentioning to the effect, “repercussions being greater than you had anticipated from January’s events,” and I didn’t know what had happened in January to understand your comment.
I sure wish I could ask a lot of questions, but I will take “without getting too deep into the thing” to mean that you would prefer not to go into more detail, which is understandable. I don’t want to say the wrong thing, so I would like to at least say that I hope for the best that you get through the fatigue and whatever else is happening without anymore discomfort than you are currently experiencing. I don’t know how many more treatments you have before you are done with them, but I hope the answer is that you will be done soon. I also hope chemo is the only treatment necessary. May I ask if you will be on immune system therapy–temporarily or long term, after the chemo? That is something I have wondered if all patients require, or exactly how that works for most.
And as far as writing—oh, that’s understandable that you would not be 100% right now—in fact, now knowing this—isn’t it amazing that you just wrote an article that the majority of us could never write on our ‘best’ day!!! LOL.. Really!
As for “other parts” of my original comment, I’m not exactly sure what parts, but if you mean where I said I had just been replying and making comments elsewhere, and that there were exact words and thoughts here, of yours. Just a few words are the same, but it was an article on the same topic, and then to get the email notification right after I had commented—and seeing so much similarity—was a ‘wow’. But of course, as I mentioned, our thoughts and comments ran along the same line of thinking, but you expressed your thoughts with so much more articulation and vocabulary.
To be serious for just a second, if you have the energy and focus right now, a dissenter said “Marriage is a right.” I don’t think so, do you ? They try to implicate marriage in with civil rights and liberties, and I tend to think of those as 13 and 14 Amendment rights. Also they say due process and the equal protection clause guarantees marriage for anyone of either type…I argued those points as well.
As for my final paragraph, I thought I needed a disclaimer since it was pretty obvious that you wanted me to go away for a very long time, well over a year, and I never understood why we couldn’t exchange as bloggers. So I had been trying to show you I could do that, occasionally, if you wanted my input, but you seemed to still want me to leave. So, I thought if I kept my presence pretty minimal, then that might be Ok.
If you consider how long it’s been from the time I first started following articles by your other name—since Dec. ’08— although, the voice sounded foreign back then (was that a different person?), it’s been long enough to get accustomed to your intelligence and writing style to develop a following. And of course, it helps to understand the likelihood of that outcome, considering that it’s more interesting to read someone with similar thoughts than opposing views–for me, anyway.
I hope this finds you feeling at least a little better, and that you are comfortable at home.
(P.S…. I don’t always get a tracking and I followed their directions using the “Follow” directions. Oh well..lol)