Topic Tuesday #139 2015/03/17 "Being Orange on St. Patrick's Day"

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Unless you are from the area of Ireland commonly referred to as Belfast.
Green is the color of being Irish, or so all the stores would have you believe with the shamrock shakes, shirts, hats, beer, shots, cups, hair, entire rivers and so on. Green is also the color of Catholic Ireland.

Thanks to the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 the sovereign Kingdom of Ireland was established with with Henry VIII as the King of Ireland. Henry had broken ties with the Holy Roman Catholic Church over a little dispute in doctrine to secure an annulment from his wife in the 1530s. So with a new sovereignty came the King's religion in a consolidated and rebranded Church of England. This did not go over very well with the Irish, however they were weary from war and had acquiesced for the time being.

As time marched on, so the throne changed hands. July of 1553 saw the reign of Mary the First. You may know her by another moniker, that of Bloody Mary. The reason you know that name is because of what she was responsible for. She was a Catholic following after her mother Catherine whom Henry broke ties with the Catholic Church to divorce, as she didn't bear him a son. She eventually succeeded her half brother, Edward VI, when he died in 1553, there was a kerfuffle about succession as she was Catholic and that was bad for Church of England branding. As Royal disputes over lineage go, it was violent. Mary had her first cousin, Lady Jane Grey deposed and then beheaded for being made queen before her. This may have been the first blood on her hands, but far from the last. During her five year reign as the first queen regent of England and queen consort of Habsburg Spain, she had more that 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake. When Mary died in 1558 so did her resurrection of Roman Catholicism. Her younger half sister, Elizabeth I took the throne and returned Church of England and protestantism to the realm.

Fast forward to the 1700's and we see more formalization of the unification of Great Britain with Scotland and England burying the kaber, becoming the United Kingdom of Great Britain; then in 1714 with the death of Queen Anne and the Act of Settlement they were joined further with Ireland but it wasn't until the Act of Union 1800, the Kingdom of Ireland merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Things go dicey in 1922 and continued to fall apart until the constituent parts were renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927, five years after the establishment of the Irish Free State. In 1953 the newly formed Republic of Ireland had formed and Ireland had left the British Commonwealth. There have been troubles in Northern Ireland ever since.

Where does the orange come in? you may be wondering. Actually, it already did. The Loyal Orange Institution, or Orange Order, was founded as a Protestant fraternal order in Northern Ireland in 1795 when there was significant conflict between the majority Roman Catholic population and the decidedly smaller, but sanctioned under the crown, Anglican Protestants. The order derived it's name from William of Orange, a Protestant king who defeated a Catholic army at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. They wore orange sashes and were called "Orangemen". The order has been a symbol of an ever present rift between Catholics and Protestants; the green and the orange. "The Orange and the Green" or "The Biggest Mix-Up" is an Irish folk song about a man whose father was a Protestant (Orange) and whose mother was a Catholic (Green). These stories and the violence and animosity have permeated the area for centuries, and continue with the Order making marches and with interfaith marriages being shied away from if they can.

So, when you wear green on St. Patrick's Day, you might want to add a dash of orange, or avoid those wish sashes of orange and an angry look in their eye. Here in the states, you can pretty much count everyone as Irish today, so to your health! Have a green beer for me.

Topic Tuesday #102 2014/07/01 "Slippery Slope"

Like you, I am really tired of talking about this. But alas... I need to at least mention it here or I would be sorely remiss in my task of talking about topical things, for Topic Tuesday... Yesterday the Supreme Court ruled on the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, Inc. case. I touched on it in Topic Tuesday 94, should you want to revisit, prior art. As you likely know by now (as the ruling has become as virulent as wildfire in California) the ruling was 5 to 4 in favor of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Products. I'll sum up the case. These companies, being mandated to provide women birth control as part of the Affordable Health Care Act, decided to sue as the birth control was against the corporations religious freedom as stated in the Restoration of Religious Freedom Act of 1993. The jist of this, is best served by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She wrote a 35 page dissent (starts on page 60 of the verdict) of the verdict and was echoed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor and almost entirely by Justices Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer.

"In a decision of startling breadth, the Court holds that commercial enterprises, including corporations, along with partnerships and sole proprietorships, can opt out of any law (saving only tax laws) they judge incompatible with their sincerely held religious beliefs."
"[T]he Court holds that Congress, in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993... dictated the extraordinary religion-based exemptions today’s decision endorses. In the Court’s view, RFRA demands accommodation of a for-profit corporation’s religious beliefs no matter the impact that accommodation may have on third parties who do not share the corporation owners’ religious faith—in these cases, thousands of women employed by Hobby Lobby and Conestoga or dependents of persons those corporations employ. Persuaded that Congress enacted RFRA to serve a far less radical purpose, and mindful of the havoc the Court’s judgment can introduce, I dissent."
"The court, I fear, has ventured into a minefield."
"Approving some religious claims while deeming others unworthy of accommodation could be 'perceived as favoring one religion over another,' the very 'risk the [Constitution's] Establishment Clause was designed to preclude."
"The exemption sought by Hobby Lobby and Conestoga would…deny legions of women who do not hold their employers' beliefs access to contraceptive coverage"
"Religious organizations exist to foster the interests of persons subscribing to the same religious faith. Not so of for-profit corporations. Workers who sustain the operations of those corporations commonly are not drawn from one religious community."

...and to the detractors that say, "just pay for it yourself."

"Any decision to use contraceptives made by a woman covered under Hobby Lobby's or Conestoga's plan will not be propelled by the Government, it will be the woman's autonomous choice, informed by the physician she consults."
"It bears note in this regard that the cost of an IUD is nearly equivalent to a month's full-time pay for workers earning the minimum wage."

... And the logical conclusion that is likely to occur...

"Would the exemption…extend to employers with religiously grounded objections to blood transfusions (Jehovah's Witnesses); antidepressants (Scientologists); medications derived from pigs, including anesthesia, intravenous fluids, and pills coated with gelatin (certain Muslims, Jews, and Hindus); and vaccinations[?]…Not much help there for the lower courts bound by today's decision."

I think she said everything that needs to be said, and is obviously more qualified than I to speak to the matter. I would like to stab at the heart of the entire thing, from my perspective.

This is about 2 main points. 1. Money. The companies did not want to be forced to pay for ACA at all, and certainly not a good or service their founders saw as (and here is point 2) Abortion. I have written many time elsewhere on the matter of abortion. I will touch lightly on it here in the context of this example. The only reason they have an issue with it is because of their religion, which of course brings up the religious freedom issue. But... this tramples on the religious freedoms of their employees... the ones with actual human rights, opposed to some made up entity rights that corporations are issued to protect their shareholders from the acts of the company. This stinks. Everyone knows it stinks. Justices Samuel Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Justice Anthony Kennedy are all Roman Catholics; an organization with a long history of opposing birth control. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is also a Catholic, but also has the distinction of being a woman, which in this instance may have been a deciding factor in her decision. If you were curious, the rest of the Justices: Ginesburg, Breyer, and Kagan - are all Jewish, in addition to being more liberally minded and progressive. I'm not saying that this background is the reason for the rulings, but it is foolish to think it does not inform their opinions on such matters. Scalia is rather infamous for his belief in literal demons and all that entails, as referenced by his statement, "Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that." . Here; I'll share it with you.

Jennifer Senior -You believe in heaven and hell?
Antonin Scalia - Oh, of course I do. Don’t you believe in heaven and hell?

Jennifer Senior - No.

Antonin Scalia - Oh, my.

Jennifer Senior - Does that mean I’m not going?
Antonin Scalia - [Laughing.] Unfortunately not!

Jennifer Senior - Wait, to heaven or hell?
Antonin Scalia - It doesn't mean you’re not going to hell, just because you don’t believe in it. That’s Catholic doctrine! Everyone is going one place or the other.

Jennifer Senior - But you don’t have to be a Catholic to get into heaven? Or believe in it?
Antonin Scalia - Of course not!

Jennifer Senior - Oh. So you don’t know where I’m going. Thank God.
Antonin Scalia - I don’t know where you’re going. I don’t even know whether Judas Iscariot is in hell. I mean, that’s what the pope meant when he said, “Who am I to judge?” He may have recanted and had severe penance just before he died. Who knows?

Jennifer Senior - Can we talk about your drafting process—
Antonin Scalia - [Leans in, stage-whispers.] I even believe in the Devil.

Jennifer Senior - You do?
Antonin Scalia - Of course! Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that.

Jennifer Senior - Every Catholic believes this? There’s a wide variety of Catholics out there …
Antonin Scalia - If you are faithful to Catholic dogma, that is certainly a large part of it.

Jennifer Senior - Have you seen evidence of the Devil lately?
Antonin Scalia - You know, it is curious. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn't happen very much anymore.

Jennifer Senior - No.
Antonin Scalia - It’s because he’s smart.

Jennifer Senior - So what’s he doing now?
Antonin Scalia - What he’s doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful that way.

Jennifer Senior - That has really painful implications for atheists. Are you sure that’s the Devil’s work?
Antonin Scalia - I didn't say atheists are the Devil’s work.

Jennifer Senior - Well, you’re saying the Devil is persuading people to not believe in God. Couldn’t there be other reasons to not believe?
Antonin Scalia - Well, there certainly can be other reasons. But it certainly favors the Devil’s desires. I mean, c’mon, that’s the explanation for why there’s not demonic possession all over the place. That always puzzled me. What happened to the Devil, you know? He used to be all over the place. He used to be all over the New Testament.

Jennifer Senior - Right.
Antonin Scalia - What happened to him?

Jennifer Senior - He just got wilier.
Antonin Scalia - He got wilier.

Jennifer Senior - Isn't it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil?
Antonin Scalia - You’re looking at me as though I’m weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most of which believes in the Devil? I mean, Jesus Christ believed in the Devil! It’s in the Gospels! You travel in circles that are so, so removed from mainstream America that you are appalled that anybody would believe in the Devil! Most of mankind has believed in the Devil, for all of history. Many more intelligent people than you or me have believed in the Devil.

Jennifer Senior - I hope you weren't sensing contempt from me. It wasn't your belief that surprised me so much as how boldly you expressed it.
Antonin Scalia - I was offended by that. I really was.

Now... I don't want to bore you with legalese, but there is something noteworthy that should be brought to light in this case. In the Affordable Care Act, it indicated a very specific type of medical service, especially “with respect to infants, children, and adolescents." It's "evidence-based". "Evidence-informed." Here, read the section for yourself.

U. S. C. §300gg–13(a)(1)–(3) (group health plans must provide coverage, without cost sharing, for (1) certain “evidence-based items or services” recommended by the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force; (2) immunizations recommended by an advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and (3) “with respect to infants, children, and adolescents, evidence-informed preventive care and screenings provided for in the comprehensive guidelines supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration”).

I wish everything in this case could be evidence-informed. We haven't heard the last of this one. See you in the funny papers.