The Gifts and Flaws of Antonin Scalia

The Gifts and Flaws of Antonin Scalia

RE: Justice Antonin Gregory Scalia (Born, 11 March 1936)

How a gift can become a curse.

There was a man who was given many gifts. I will mention only three. He could turn his thoughts into words which were as sharp as swords, his wit could make even fools and enemies laugh, and he could -sometimes - see the hypocrisy and contradictions of his opponents. But he had one terrible flaw. He believed that his gifts belonged only to himself and his ilk — himself, his family, his party, his church, and his nation. And, as a judge, he articulated the principle that the spirit which animated his nation's birth could be definitively codified in a few thousand words written down by some brilliant and ambitious wealthy men who hammered out a compromise over two centuries ago.

To be continued…

Nature's God, American Exceptionalism, and the Failures of Florida's Junior Senator

Senator Rubio,

When I was a boy people laughed at me because I knew someday humans would walk on the moon.  :

During the 17 years I taught Solar System Astronomy at (then) Broward  Community College, I talked about the Greenhouse Gases that caused Venus to lose its Oceans and the the human-generated Greenhouse Gases that could cause the Earth to lose its icecaps. [The 2nd event is not quite as catastrophic, but is -humanly speaking - still a catastrophe]. I did not know that I would see the accelerated loss of Arctic ice, Greenland ice, and Antarctic ice that now is in progress.

On TV just a couple of weeks ago I saw you speak glowingly about your beliefs about liberty, patriotism and capitalism to a sympathetic NH audience.  However, I really don't see how you can talk so positively about liberty when you don't have the courage to challenge the climate change deniers and the half-truths and lies subsidized by Oil & Coal companies and their ideological sycophants.

When Kipling's soldiers rode into the jaws of death, they knew they might die. When Marines charged into the islands of Guadacanal and Iowa Jima they knew they might die. Some of your cohorts have raised the mantra of American 'Exceptionalism.' Do you really think Americans are so exceptional that we can ignore the laws that Nature's God has created — and suffer no consequences??

Sincerely yours,

Lon Clay Hill

[May 21, 2014 -- on the eve of my 74th birthday]

[virtual copy, 2 spelling errors were corrected]