Bless His Heart
There is a long-standing social rule that permits speaking ill of another so long as you, at some point during the conversation, bless that person's heart.
Ted Kennedy, bless his heart, is nothing more than the fortunate son of a wealthy businessman who knew how to buy his way into politics. While my heart goes out to him as a person for having to deal with such tragic news, there will be no love lost at his departure from the political arena. The stations all played his eulogy while he is still breathing. But there are many things they 'forgot' to include in all Ted's accomplishments, not the least of which was his beating the wrap for driving drunk and leaving a woman to die in a river. There was also his overcoming the problems most people face when caught cheating on their bar exams. More subtle among his accomplishments was his keen ability to avoid the controversy most senators would be subjected to were they to publicly call judicial nominees 'neanderthals' at a press conference. From what I could gather from the many eulogies was that he is most notable for outliving his brothers.
John McCain, bless his heart, is now coming under fire for being supported by a Christian minister who doesn't believe in Islam. Maybe this minister, bless his heart, could have been less controversial if, instead of using his pulpit to call for Christians to be Christians and not Islams, he had called for blacks to rise up against the white man. You know, though, if these ministers would just stick to teaching Christians how to be Christian, and not how not to be something else, or what political stand they should take, it seems they could do more good and avoid all this controversy. Like one wise leader once said, when asked why his church doesn't take political sides, "We teach the people good principles, and they govern themselves."
The California Supreme Court, bless their hearts, overturned the overwhelming will of the people to give the making of a lifestyle choice special constitutional protection. I think the Washington supreme court got it right when they held that a gay man has as much of a right to marry a gay woman as does a straight man or a straight woman. The law doesn't allow a straight man to marry another man, so there is no equal protection problem. The courts have to be very careful when they start subjecting marriage and family laws to strict constitutional scrutiny, as most courts have admitted that most such laws would fail. Those laws have traditionally been reserved to the states, and have been largely exempt from strict constitutional scrutiny for very good reasons. They serve society well by establishing a foundation for its perpetuity and moral guidance.
Our editorial page editor in Fayetteville, bless his heart, thinks that those Conservatives who want to make the California supreme court's (bless their hearts) decision a central issue in the campaign are interfering with the political process because Hussein Obama, bless his heart, thinks, we should instead be focusing on the major... social... ills... of our time. (?!) Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking, too. If gay marriage is not a major social ill...?
Let me know who else's heart needs a blessing.
