me and julio

free exercise clause

Our antiquarian and historian JF Ptak’s latest post really piqued our interest on the matter of the religious neutrality of the framers of the country’s constitution and of the custom of pledging one’s allegiance. The oath of fealty was originally composed by a Union Army officer to instil a sense of patriotism during the American civil war. CPT George Thatcher Balch’s version was as follows:

We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag!

For the occasion of the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the New World, the National Education Association commissioned socialist preacher, author and educator Francis Julius Bellamy to compose something which was less juvenile and dignified that could be included not just as opening ablutions in the classroom but also for sessions of congress, sporting events, etc.
Noting the how incorporating documents of America had been carefully crafted to avoid religious terminology, Bellamy wanted to make sure that he was not creating an invocation either. We especially appreciated the succinct and lucid legal citation of the US Supreme Court’s landmark 1878 case Reynolds v. United States as a means to illustrate the government’s legal and proper stance towards religious convictions. Civic law should not be subverted or made to align with religious ones or be allowable as defence for not dutifully discharging one’s legal obligations (the case involved polygamy), for to do otherwise and elevate belief above the law of the land would in effect make every individual “a law unto himself” and remove government regulation and ability to enforce the law altogether. Bellamy’s first version, timed to be recited in fifteen seconds, went as follows:

I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Following the French cri du coeur, Bellamy had considered using the words equality and fraternity instead but thought it would be highly hypocritical, considering the way African Americans and women were treated in 1892. After much lobbying by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Knights of Columbus, the pledge assumed its present form in 1954 to include the phrase “under God,” the swearing of the pledge no longer punctuated by a salute rendered as that custom was removed by an act of congress in December of 1942, having decided that the gesture was too similar to the Nazi salute.

5:4

In a decision split along liberal and conservative lines, the US high court signalled to its people and executive the legal leeway to uphold America’s sovereign right to be a twerp and bully in general by vindicating Trump’s racially-charged travel ban.
For those of you playing along, this decision—in a series of markedly regressive though possibly not as broad in their applications ones—reaffirms that the coup had its origins long before this crime syndicate lodged itself in the White House. Normally when a seat at the Supreme Court becomes vacant, it is the prerogative of the sitting president (with the ascent of the legislature) to fill that position with a nominee of his or her choice—as was the case when conservative Justice Antonin Scalia passed away in February 2016 and President Obama nominated District of Columbia chief circuit judge Merrick Garland. Breaking with a long-standing custom, however, the Republican controlled Senate refused to hold hearings, arguing that the appointment should rest in the hands of the next president—ostensibly hoping that another conservative-minded justice would be awarded a place at the court and would be able to forward their socio-political agenda. With lifetime appointments, the selection of magistrates and the composition of high courts are shielded from the fickleness of the party in power and cannot be easily unseated through democratic means.

narthex

Listed as a historic and protected building since 2000, the Brutalist-style Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul of the Bristol ward of Clifton has just undergone a major refurbishment to restore it to its original 1970 vision by architect RJ Weeks in collaboration with the Vatican. See a whole gallery of images of this geometric marvel and learn more at the link above.

8x8

radiant babies and deified dogs: hidden behind protective cladding for thirty years, a large Keith Haring, mural to be revealed in Amsterdam, via Nag on the Lake

socios hostes facimus: Latin mottoes for Trump era government agencies and entities

leading by example: municipalities across the US picking up the slack on innovative, responsible energy production where the federal government is failing

illuminated manuscripts: James Joyce’s crayon-coloured drafts of Finnegans Wake

by jove: lightning storms on Jupiter

magnificent modifiers: the history and legacy of the Speak & Spell

star-struck: a vintage scrapbook of the Golden Age of Hollywood, compiled by an anonymous fan

side-scrolling: a short video game vignette that seamlessly combines the best elements of the Mario universe into one

skynet

While perhaps the ominous subtext of this robotics manual from the mind of Isaac Asimov might prefigure the Terminator’s dilemma and not vilify the Cassandras and Sarah Connors of the world could be read as dismissive of ethics in robotics, I think it might have more universal applications in decision-making, large and small, in politics, the sciences (artificial intelligence and genetic modifications) and business dealings. Cinematic time travel usually results in irrevocable paradox and suggests maybe one ought to be discouraged from mucking about with the past, even if we are in the dumbest time-line, and with or without the benefit of hindsight we might do well to pause and pose this question to ourselves before acting.

ich bin ein berliner

On the fifteenth anniversary of the start of the Berlin Airlift (previously) in response to the Soviet blockade of the West German exclave, on this day in 1963 US president John Fitzgerald Kennedy addressed an assembled crowd and the wider world from the portico of Rathaus Schöneberg, nearly two years after the Wall was built to stem mass-immigration from the East to the West.
Inviting Soviet officials to work with NATO allies rather than continue this tense stand-off and posturing, Kennedy intoned, “Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’ …All free men, wherever they live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore as a free man, I take pride in the words ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’” Outside of the German Sprachraum, it seems quite baffling that there’s a misconception that it would have been understood that Kennedy was proclaiming himself a jelly doughnut—though the article is superfluous and the regionalism exists, Pfannkuchen is the term employed in the Berlin area. Kennedy’s speech is considered to be among the most powerful appeals of the Cold War and would go on the influence and inform many politicians to follow.