Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010), is a well-known (or notorious) case about money and politics. It was rightly decided. The First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech is more important than restrictions on election spending in the name of preventing the appearance of corruption, or equalizing the influence that differing groups have…
QUESTIONS and OBSERVATIONS The sudden onset of Coronavirus has created a ‘pandemic’ of new legislative acts, laws, rules and rulings, which would be challenging to grasp if done at ordinary speed. At these speeds, it’s bewildering, even as to a subset of relevant Coronavirus law in the employment arena. By way of background, on March…
In which our Vagabond Overhears a Confession One Saturday morning people are standing in front of the coffee house, speaking of various things, including the partisan nature of current politics, and why their particular causes have not been meeting with success. Sorrow features in these discussions, suggesting that I might offer to such people a…
In which our Vagabond Is Instructed from an Unlikely Source I wander into the coffee house on a Sunday afternoon, expecting to meet a friend, Andy Windsor, for a friendly game of theology chess. He is indeed situated in one of the large booths, chessboard set up. Andy is waiting for my arrival in an…
In which our Vagabond Seeks a City in Motion. It is early Saturday evening, the doors are open, the coffee house beckons. I enter into a crowd – young and old, in pairs, groups and singles, are standing in line, checking their phones, reviewing the menu board, sitting astride chairs, leaning on counters, stirring their…
Coffee House Discourse # 2 – In which our Vagabond Needs, and Finds, A Bridge I wander into the coffee house on a Saturday morning. The place is quiet – I interrupt a girl looking at her cell phone, who takes my order. I go for a toasted, buttered ‘everything bagel’ along with a large…
Coffee House Discourse # 1, in which a Vagabond Appears. Coffee houses are staging areas for a broad variety of activities, including rants, raves and discourses from the patrons. These spring forth, unbidden, for the benefit of anyone who happens to be sitting nearby drinking an espresso, threads in the tapestry of coffee house background…
Recently, I was visiting my friend and Christian brother, Darryl, in Mahanoy State Correction Institute (SCI) outside Frackville, PA. Darryl is serving a life sentence, and has been at Mahanoy about four years. Although Mahanoy is a medium security institution, it is a newer facility and a preferred place to Huntington SCI, where he spent…
Recently, in the wake of the Parkland shootings, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens published an op-ed in the New York Times calling for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment. Below is my posted response. The real purpose of the 2nd Amendment was to prevent the federal government from disarming the states. It was,…
Part IV of that Coffee House of Grace – One Spirit to Drink For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body-whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given one Spirit to drink. – The Apostle Paul Music to open the Coffee House. White Rabbit,…