Why the Supremes voted to reject the same-sex marriage cases

The more inscrutable an important organization is, the more effort that goes into trying to discern why they behave the way they do. The US Supreme Court is a prime example. It almost never gives reasons as to why it accepts or rejects cases for review and has been quite successful in having the justices and their clerks not reveal their internal discussions and workings, at least until their papers are released long after they have retired or died.
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What you should do if you are stopped by the police

I have been writing a lot about the abuses by police during traffic stops and in response to one such post, reader culuriel asked a good question as to what one should do in such a situation and what the ACLU recommends. I looked into it and came across this video produced by the ACLU that features comedian Elon James White addressing this very question that is both informative and amusing. It is part of their Know You Rights program that gives more explicit details what to do in a variety of situations.
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Street etiquette

Jessica Williams of The Daily Show had an amusing segment about all the forms of harassment that women face even when they are simply walking along a street. She interviewed a large group of women who said they routinely had to fend off unwanted advances and comments and that as a defense mechanism they put on stern faces and strictly avoided eye contact with anyone because that could be construed as an invitation that they did not intend to make.
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The First Amendment does not mean what these people think it means

Ok folks, let’s get one thing clear. The First Amendment guarantee of free speech does not mean that you can say anything to anyone at any time in any place in any capacity. That this need to be clarified at all is astounding but clearly some people just do not get it, as when a state trooper Brian Hamilton started questioning Ellen Bogan after he pulled her over.
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Great moments in parenting

The coach of a youth football team canceled the rest of the season because of the “ongoing poor sportsmanship and bad attitudes” of the players. A 46-year old parent of one of the players was so outraged by this that he ran across the field and tackled the coach and the fight continued until other spectators separated them.

I wonder from where these youths get their bad attitudes and poor sportsmanship?

A common journey to unbelief

I was interested in this story about Bart Campolo, the son of Tony Campolo. The father is described as an “influential evangelical leader and author who is famous for having been a spiritual adviser to former President Bill Clinton” but the son now says that he is an agnostic humanist. I suspect that Bart’s deconversion story is mirrored in many people who were once believers, even devout ones, but then lost the faith.
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Surprising Supreme Court decision on same sex marriage

The US Supreme Court said today that it will not hear any of the seven same-sex marriage cases that were appealed to them. Appeals Courts in all those cases had ruled in favor of overturning bans on such marriages but injunctions had been in place preventing them from actually taking place until the Supreme Court ruled. By saying they will not hear those cases, the injunctions become void and now marriages can go ahead in five new states Indiana, Wisconsin, Utah, Oklahoma, and Virginia.
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CFI conference on the science of the future

Last Saturday’s Northeast Ohio Center for Inquiry conference was excellent. It is impressive how the volunteers who organize these events manage to put it together. The key people were Mark Tiborsky and Brian Harrington who are in charge of programming for the Cleveland and Akron areas and Monette Richards who is the president of the Cleveland chapter, and they and the other volunteers deserve congratulations.
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