Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:
 
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OK let’s just re-cap Hell Week shall we?
 
First, we had not one but three calamitous Supreme Court decisons:
 
1) The Supreme Court’s Disparate-Impact Decision Is a Disaster ~

Essentially, as John Fund writes at National Review, in the case of Texas Department of Housing v. The Inclusive Communities Project ~

The question before the court was: Can you be found guilty of racial discrimination if you never engaged in policies that had any intent to discriminate?

The irrational answer from 5 of 4 justices was “yes.”
The 1968 Fair Housing Act made it clear that claims can be made only if intentionally discriminatory conduct – or disparate treatment – is involved. Since then, progressives have invented the dubious concept of “disparate impact.” With this latest decision SCOTUS is saying intent is not required so long as there seems to have been discrimination.

So in the name of eliminating perceived discrimination, the court has now mandated unfair discrimination.
 
2) Next, in King v. Burwell, SCOTUS usurped congressional power and re-wrote the Affordable Care Act. This should have been a no-brainer – and it was! Because clearly Justice Roberts left his at home. Led by the Chief Justice,

The Supreme Court of the United States effectively rewrote the text of Obamacare to save the legislation.

Dissenting Judge Scalia was so exasperated at the decision that he coined a new term for Obamacare: SCOTUScare ~

If a law was badly formulated, that was not the Court’s problem, (Scalia) argued. It was up to Congress to rescue the subsidies for Obamacare, not the Justices. And if people did not like it, tough: that was why the Justices were meant to serve life terms. They were meant to be above politics.

 
3) Worse of all of course was the ludicrous ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges in which the Supreme Court usurped God’s authority. Ben Shapiro at Breitbart said it best; SCOTUS Declares Itself God, Redefines Marriage and Rights ~

The day after declaring Obamacare magically rewritten and that the lawsuits against discrimination in housing require no proof of actual discrimination, the Supreme Court found a unicorn in the 14th Amendment.
 
By a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to privacy under that aforementioned 14th Amendment (adopted in 1868, when every state in America criminalized sodomy) requires that every state in America grant marriage licenses to men who want to marry men and women who want to marry women, and that every state recognize such licenses from every other state.

 
So what have we learned from this week’s trifecta of tyranny?
 
• Our government has decided it’s God, “a dignity-conferring institution capable of making moral that which religion teaches is sinful, logic teaches is worthless, and societal experience teaches is societally counterproductive.” ~ Ben Shapiro
• “Words have no meaning” and “the Supreme Court is now a threat to American democracy.” ~ Justice Antonin Scalia
• We are officially a post-constitutional nation. We’ve lost the right to govern ourselves without even putting up much of a fight.

Shapiro again ~

Democracy in America did not die with jackboots; it died with the boredom and stupidity of an American people complicit in its demise, celebrating the circuses and the games provided by its new rulers, fat and happy in their submission. Let the parades be held; let the call go forth. By the power vested in them by, well, them, the Supreme Court and the left declare Americans husbands and husbands, wives and wives — and all of them slaves.

 
In other equally distressing news ~
 
Here’s how much corporations paid US senators to fast-track the TPP bill ~ More betrayal from the RINOS. This can’t be a good deal. Not only because it’s being rushed through congress with almost total lack of transparency, but because Obama really wants it passed. And Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) doesn’t. Who do you trust?
Bottom line: “Free-trade” agreements benefit one constituency – the fat cats; at the expense of we-the-rubes.

 
Beyond the Confederate flag ban ~ Louis Farrakhan calls for the American flag to come down and Black Panther leader Malik Shabazz shouts at blacks to rise up and kill all the white slave-masters and their “g*dd*mn” families. Angry, irrational, counter-productive hatred. Way to heal a nation Barack.

 
EPA Chief: ‘Climate Deniers’ Aren’t Normal Human Beings ~ Shades of Stalin. This isn’t some far-left greeniac spouting off. This is own our despotic government ~

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told an audience Tuesday gathered at a White House conference “normal people,” not “climate deniers” will win the debate on global warming.

 
And, in case you doubt the Apostle Paul ~
 

 
Satan Worshipers Sue to Stop Pro-Life Law Informing Women About Their Unborn Baby ~

In Missouri, a group of Satan worshipers are suing Governor Jay Nixon and his Attorney General, Chris Koster for the state’s law that requires a 72-hour waiting period prior to an abortion.

The Satanic Temple to unveil ‘Baphomet’ monument in Detroit ~ Just what Detroit needs… pure Evil.

 
BUT – let’s not end this edition of “Shorts” on such a depressing note.
This morning I ran across a wonderfully inspiring post at the Little Catholic Bubble that brought everything back into perspective ~

Rejoice! The Church’s beacon just got brighter
America is and was always an experiment. If we put our hopes and faith in a fallible nation, even one so promising as America, we miss the boat. The only home for us is Christ’s Church, which has outlasted every empire and nation and will outlast even the world itself. If you have built your house on the Rock instead of shifting sand, and if you are safe in the Barque of Peter, and not flailing in the stormy waters, then relax and rejoice. Life is good. And Christ’s promises stand. (And if you are still in the stormy waters, get in the boat!! There is room for all!)

Read the whole thing – it’s truly encouraging

Be of good cheer – God wins in the end!