SETH BARRETT TILLMAN: What Oath (if Any) Did Jacob Henry Take in 1809?: The Problem of Conceptual Confusion Between State Religious Tests and Religious Test Oaths. “The focus of this Article is not on what happened on December 5 and 6, 1809 and why the members of the North Carolina House of Commons voted as they did. Instead, the focus of this Article is on what happened on November 20, 1809—in other words, what legislative oath (if any) did Jacob Henry actually take? Second, how have later historians and legal commentators described and distorted our understanding of the events of November 20, 1809? And, third, why did the December 6, 1809 debate on the motion veer so far from any substantial discussion of the actual underlying events of November 20, 1809?”
Archive for 2021
June 14, 2021
ANALYSIS: TRUE. There Is No Way Joe Biden Should Have A Summit With Vladimir Putin.
The Administration says the summit is intended to restore “stability to the US-Russia relationship.” But the meeting comes after a slew of Russian cyber intrusions and conspicuously little U.S. response. Not only is the meeting unlikely to produce results, but it also risks bolstering Putin’s image within Russia and on the world stage.
The list of recent Russian misdeeds is lengthy. It includes the Kremlin’s attempts to influence U.S. elections and Russian hackers’ disruptions of U.S. energy infrastructure. Elsewhere, Russia has engaged in poisoning activist Alexei Navalny, Black Sea bullying, and challenging the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
To say that US-Russian relations are not congenial is an understatement. Russian officials have publicly stated that relations are worse than during the Cold War. As if to prove its hostility, the Kremlin hacked USAID just days after Secretary of State Tony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, met to discuss cooperation on issues of global stability.
Despite these provocations, Biden offered Putin a gift: the upcoming summit.
Both men’s summit appearances are mostly for domestic consumption, but only one will get what he want out of it.
“ANTI-RACISM” IS JUST RACISM: How Anti-Racist Activism Affects Interracial Couples Like Us.
In a country with an ugly history of slavery and racial segregation, interracial families have been the ground zero of fighting against prejudice and building bridges. We have spent time educating people about racism, including within our own families. Many white parents deeply feel the racism their mixed-race children face and take a more active role in fighting against interpersonal and structural racism.
And yet, if you believe the most extreme anti-racist activists, children born to interracial couples are not created by the love of two free and equal human beings, but the results of a relationship between an oppressor and a victim. How do you think this would impact how they see themselves?
I believed I had the right to be angry hearing this language take over, but I stayed quiet. There is so much fear going around when it comes to criticizing any aspect of the current anti-racist movement for fear being called a racist.
It was the movie Loving, based on the story of that loving couple that made my marriage possible, that woke me up. Watching Mrs. Mildred Loving say, “I will raise my family here, I do not care what they do to us,” I teared up. I felt like this courageous woman was speaking directly to me.
We should defend our intrinsic right to be free humans and the desire to be united as humans at all costs. We should all remember what the Supreme Court concluded, that “distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry” are “odious to a free people.”
I traveled half a world to settle in America. I will raise my family here. I will not allow misguided teachings to tarnish the sanctity of my marriage, invalidate my experience, and create divisions and chaos in my family.
Yes. Stand up to bigotry.
HOW BIDEN’S BUDDIES LOBBY FOR RUSSIA’S PIPELINE: The Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross and Adam Kredo pull the curtains back on how His Fraudulency’s lobbyist buddies do their thing for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline without having to register as foreign lobbyists. It’s a profitable gig, too.
FILIBUSTER SAFE, HILL STAFFERS SURVEY SAYS: Roll Call’s reporting is reliably shaped by liberal assumptions, but there is often valuable and/or insightful news in its regular Capitol Insiders Survey of Hill staffers. Consider this, for example:
“Not a single Democratic aide thought senators would eliminate the legislative filibuster, and just 28 percent of them said they thought the Senate would weaken it, while 59 percent said the Senate would preserve it. Meanwhile, Republicans are confident Manchin will stand his ground, with 84 percent expecting the filibuster rule will remain.”
Lots of other interesting tidbits of insight here, too.
ANALYSIS: TRUE.
THIS SURPRISES ME: Applications From International Students Are Up 43%. But the increase is over last year. I wonder how it compares to 2019