Samain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Moon of the Winter Solstice<\/p>\n
Kate and I went to the grocery store together. \u00a0OF alert! \u00a0As I do most of the grocery shopping, I often notice older couples on what appears to be their big outing of the week. \u00a0Buying food. \u00a0And here we were, wandering the aisles of Festival Foods, a Kowalski burb grocery name.<\/p>\n
It was nice to have her along and she prefers to drive the cart. \u00a0Read: \u00a0she always drives the cart. \u00a0Just like I do the car. \u00a0Gender insensitive on both our parts, I know. \u00a0Still.<\/p>\n
We loaded up for the week, going over budget some, probably because there were two sets of eyes to be sucked in by the clever marketers behind grocery stores. \u00a0Low margin business along the walls: \u00a0veggies, fruit, meat, dairy, bread. \u00a0Higher margin grocery items in the center aisles: \u00a0soda, cereal, coffee, baking goods, oils and mustards and mayo and pickles. \u00a0Highest margin items on the endcaps of aisles and the impulse purchases parked conveniently by the checkout lanes.<\/p>\n
Message here. \u00a0Just shop the outside walls.<\/p>\n
Still reading Scorpions, about the Roosevelt star Supremes: \u00a0Felix Frankfurter, Hugo Black, Robert Jackson and William O. Douglas. \u00a0The big news to me so far is the astonishing reversal of roles evident from this court to the current one. \u00a0Let me give you two examples, but first one thought to undermine them all<\/p>\n
As the book reminded me, there is no place in the constitution that empowers the Supreme Court to decide cases in the way that it does. \u00a0Go back to Marbury vs. Madison, a hoary lesson from US History at one level of education or another. \u00a0Marshall created judicial review.<\/p>\n
Example #1: \u00a0Judicial restraint. \u00a0Felix Frankfurter was an early, liberal, advocate of judicial restraint. \u00a0He specifically wanted the reigning conservative notion of liberty of contract, a legal idea that kept unions down and decided all cases in the interest of individual property rights, struck down and its source, a judicial interpretation of the 14th amendment stoppered. \u00a0In order to advance progressive ideas, Frankfurter said, justices should restrain themselves from intervening in matters decided by Congress and state legislatures. \u00a0Guess who’s in favor of judicial restraint now?<\/p>\n
Example #2: \u00a0Originalism. \u00a0Hugo Black, a former radical member of the senate, known for his populist agenda, contended that justices should not make up ideas that were not in a plain reading of the Constitution. \u00a0This was aimed at the conservative invention of liberty of contract, also Frankfurter’s target.<\/p>\n
Both Frankfurter and Black continued to expand their Constitutional philosophies as their terms extended. \u00a0Now, it is the Scalia’s and the John Roberts of the current court who advocate judicial restraint and originalism. \u00a0Beware of an abstract idea, it may not produce the result you expect.<\/p>\n
Said he, an abstract thinker. \u00a0Me. \u00a0Beware.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Samain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Moon of the Winter Solstice Kate and I went to the grocery store together. \u00a0OF alert! \u00a0As I do most of the grocery shopping, I often notice older couples on what appears to be their big outing of the … Continue reading Grocers and Beware of Abstract Ideas<\/span>