U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist could be strident in expressing himself. Remember that his last public statement was a July warning to stop speculating on if or when his thyroid cancer would force him to retire. He died Saturday with as close as a judge comes to having his boots on, having done some court business as late as Friday. There’s a lesson for all of us in such tenacity.
For his successor, presumably John Roberts, there’s a lesson his Rehnquist’s effective, collegial management of the court for 19 years. He had strong ideas about where the court should go, yet he seemed to value above all the court’s impartiality and respect for his fellow justices. His will be a hard act to follow, as well as a long one.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
A reader from Haysville called with an idea for dealing with the roving bands of armed thugs that terrorized New Orleans: “Put them on a chain gang and make them clean up some of the mess. Maybe it would teach them something.”
Great idea, although this sounds too good for them. Maybe feed them to alligators?
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Daniel C. Dennett argues in this New York Times op-ed piece that intelligent design seems reasonable to a lot of Americans because they don’t understand the concepts behind evolution. It is easy to discredit something that few average Americans really understand. He writes:
“Brilliant as the design of the eye is, it betrays its origin with a tell-tale flaw: the retina is inside out. . . . No intelligent designer would put such a clumsy arrangement in a camcorder, and this is just one of hundreds of accidents frozen in evolutionary history that confirm the mindlessness of the historical process.
“. . . Yes, eyes are for seeing, but these and all the other purposes in the natural world can be generated by processes that are themselves without purposes and without intelligence. This is hard to understand, but so is the idea that colored objects in the world are composed of atoms that are not themselves colored, and that heat is not made of tiny hot things.”
It would be nice if all Americans had to take a college-level physical anthropology course before deciding their views on evolution. It is difficult to argue with the theory of evolution when you understand how it works — and see evidence supporting it.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
It’s good to see that the American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the Justice Department’s national medical protocol, which was distributed to state health departments in November. The protocol fails to advise hospitals to consider emergency contraception when treating rape victims, and the ACLU is asking for the release of records that might explain why.
In an e-mailed statement, the Justice Department said the protocol is intended to give victims as much control over the process as possible, “based upon the victim’s own preferences and beliefs.”
Of course, rape victims should base their decisions on their own beliefs. But the only way that victims can make decisions for themselves is if they are given all of their legal options. And until emergency contraception is outlawed, medical professionals have an obligation to tell victims that it exists and that it is an option.
The department went on to say that the protocol “recognizes that sexual assault victims of different ages, social, cultural and religious/spiritual backgrounds have varying options regarding treatment options.”
But the truth is that all rape victims — regardless of their age, social, cultural or religious background — have the legal option of emergency contraception. It’s about time that we figure out why the government doesn’t think they deserve to know about it.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
The Eagle editorial board has raised this question before: Just what was Westar Energy’s board of directors doing while executives David Wittig and Douglas Lake were committing all of their appalling abuses?
Well, it’s clear what they weren’t doing — their jobs. And they’re finally paying for it. Wittig, Lake and company board members and executives were forced to pay Westar $12.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of the company. The suit said the executives “breached their fiduciary duties to Westar and its stockholders.” Considering the abuses that occurred on their watch, that language seems mild.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
If most Americans dislike their jobs, they aren’t saying so to pollsters. The latest American Enterprise Institute Public Opinion Study on work and leisure attitudes found that most of us like our jobs and are satisfied with our job security, opportunities to advance, co-workers, vacation time and commutes. A quarter of us would like our boss’ job, but only 20 percent of us would like to fire said boss. Hardest to believe: If we won a $10 million lottery pot, most of us would keep working.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
