Friday, February 25, 2022

Miss Cellania's Links

Russian officials, soldiers, and everyday people are pushing back against Putin's war on Ukraine, at great risk to their own safety. The rest of the world weighs in. 

Bizarre Excuses for Being Late for School that Turned Out to be True.

Fascinating Facts About American Cakes. (via Everlasting Blort

I don't know why I started watching these man on the street interviews from Coney Island, but once I started, I couldn't stop. Completely full of NSFW language.

Republican Men Are Openly Questioning Our Right to Use Birth Control.

Who Cares About Plot Holes? They don't matter if the film is too enjoyable to let massive gaps in logic affect it.

The True History Behind Netflix’s Vikings: Valhalla.

In Bhutan, a Rare Tiger’s Mysterious Illness Had a Surprising Source.

How Ukraine's Wacky Sitcom President Became Its Real One. Zelenskyy is taking his duty deadly seriously

A blast from the past (2013): 10 Delicious Examples of Sushi Art.



12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Republican Men Are Openly Questioning Our Right to Use Birth Control."

This is not a comment on the issues in the article itself, but rather on many of the comments. Many of the comments seem to deride the idea of states rights regarding birth control and such. Fine. But I imagine many of those same people were/are all in favor of states rights during the previous administration when many states were passing laws regarding the environment, marijuana, health care, and gun control. States either have rights to pass their own laws within the limits of the Constitution, or they don't have that right. It's kind of like free speech. Free speech does not apply only to issues that you agree with.

Tilly said...

I know that that is. It is a vaccum tube solar water heater.

Anonymous said...

Re Anonymous: I have never taken a constitutional law class, and have often wondered what law, rule, or general principle governs which powers are allocated to the Federal and State governments respectively. Perhaps you would give us a sentence or two of commentary as to how this works.

Anonymous said...

It's the content mother lode today, Miss C! Thanks, and happy Friday!

Anonymous said...

Go Byron ought to be adopted as the opposite of Brandon.

gwdMaine said...

Once, a Viking called Rudolph the Red was
looking out of his window when he suddenly
said, “It’s going to rain.”

His wife asked, “How do you know?”

“Because Rudolph the Red knows rain, dear.”

Bing Bong!

I like big bundts and I cannot lie.

Bing Bong!

What do you get when you cross 10 sodium
particles with the Dark Knight?

Nananananananananana BATMAN!

Bing Bong!

Happy Friday Miss C!

(that was my last re-torte).

Miss Cellania said...

Happy Friday, y'all!

Anonymous said...

X: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

The 10th amendment ensures that powers of the states and the people can not be taken away, except for the ones explicitly granted to the federal government elsewhere in the Constitution. Keep in mind the word powers; powers refers to things the government, or the people, can do. States rights were so important that they were the last statement in the Constitution when it was first ratified.

This does not mean the states can do whatever they want. They cannot pass laws that violate any constitutional right (of course, some rights are open to interpretation, it seems). They cannot pass laws regarding those things that are explicitly within the authority of the federal government. On the other hand, the federal government cannot command states to enforce a federal regulation, such as the Brady Act (Printz v. United States, 1997), nor prevent states from enacting legal sports gambling (Murphy v. NCAA, 2017). States rights has allowed states to regulate marijuana laws, declare sanctuary cities, regulate waste management, regulate access to guns, set voting procedures, etc.



Anonymous said...

Thank you.

I think this is the part that causes some confusion for me:

> They cannot pass laws regarding those things that are explicitly within the authority of the federal government.

It would seem to imply ruling out states' rights with regard to both guns and birth control, since the BATF and FDA exist and regulate those thing respectively. However, as you point out, that's not what's going on in either case.

Anonymous said...

Congress has the power to enact laws that give the federal government powers to regulate. The National Firearms Act (NFA) 0f 1934 placed federal restrictions on who could own some weapons and how they could get them. Firearms subject to the 1934 Act included shotguns and rifles having barrels less than 18 inches in length, certain firearms described as “any other weapons,” machine guns, and firearm mufflers and silencers. (1) Haynes v. USA (1968) made that law virtually unenforceable, so a second version (GCA) was passed by Congress in 1968. Anyway, what gives the feds the power to put regulations on firearms is the commerce clause. Since the manufacture and sale of weapons involves interstate commerce, the feds (via Congress) can regulate them. However, states still have wide latitude in passing their own regulations.

Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (2), which bans a method of abortion but not abortion itself. The law has withstood court challenges (notably Gonzales v. Carhart, 2007), but abortion providers have a method to work around the letter of the law. The Hyde Amendment (1976) blocks federal Medicaid funding for abortion services (3). None of this prevents the states from passing their own laws restricting abortion. Keep in mind that Roe V. Wade is a court decision and as with any court decision it can be overturned. Roe does not have the power of law behind it. Congress has the power to make it law, but thus far has not and probably will not in the foreseeable future. (4)

(1) https://www.atf.gov/rules-and-regulations/national-firearms-act

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial-Birth_Abortion_Ban_Act#:~:text=On%20April%2018%2C%202007%2C%20the,and%20Chief%20Justice%20John%20Roberts.

(3)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyde_Amendment#:~:text=The%20original%20Hyde%20Amendment%20was,Congressman%20Henry%20Hyde%20of%20Illinois.

(4) https://19thnews.org/2022/01/congress-codify-abortion-roe/

Anonymous said...

I'll also add that the Feds control the purse strings. In the 70s the federal government passed an edict that lowered speed limits on interstate highways to 55. States were not required to enforce this law, but if they did not the federal government withheld highway funds. The same idea applied to No Child Left Behind; states did not have to abide by the law, but no educations funds for them if they don't. Same with Title IX and colleges and universities. The power of the purse is a strong incentive to keep states in line.

xoxoxoBruce said...

My problem with states rights is they so often trample on individual rights. Generally Federal Laws subject everyone to the same guidelines although we sometimes have a problem not with the law or it's intent, but the bureaucracy implementing it
But state laws can often be daggers pointed at small groups, religious sects, and even families.

Plot Holes - People coming up with objections to what they call plot holes are really asking for more detail. Batman was drinking coffee when he heard the explosion. Oh, what was in the coffee, cream? half&half? skim milk? Sugar? Splenda?
I don't care! I don't want to see Batman in real time.
Here's a movie about The Big One WWII, it's six years long plus two screens.
Just say no to plot hole critics.