First Female US Prez? & SCOTUS on Hobby Lobby

Something that brought on a mini-rant from me in 2007 is bubbling up once again, with 2016 in the far distance, but just about visible. Hillary Clinton. Yeah, yeah - she's female. Feminists with a capital "F" (which I'm not) keep on about how right and good it would be for the first woman president of the USA to follow the first African-American president of the USA. Tommyrot!!! Absolute wrong thinking, in my opinion. The USA's presidential position is not there to provide a platform for celebration of equality of the sexes (or races). It's the right person that's important, not that person's gender or ethnicity. Hillary Clinton is a "hawk" (“hawks” are those who advocate an aggressive foreign policy based on strong military power). How very feminine! She's also a corporatist, and scarcely more than a fraction of a degree left of conservative. How can this be thought desirable by anyone calling themselves Democrat or Liberal?

It's looking ominously as though Hillary Clinton will run in 2016. Most of those who seem to be in the know think that, if she runs, she'll be nominated, never mind who else dares to run against her from her own party. I use the word "dares" advisedly. It is, apparently, a done deal. Whether she could win in the General Election is another matter.

Snip from 2007 rant:

Leading off from this topic is something currently in spotlight in the USA - the possibility of a woman president.

If mainstream media and the corporations get their way, Hillary Clinton will be the next US Prez. Some people think that a woman president would be something to celebrate - just because she is a woman. Huh?? Why?

Yes, women have been held back for too many years, and still have a legendary glass ceiling to negotiate before they can get a look-in in many spheres. That does not automatically mean that a woman who manages to negotiate the glassware would make a good president or a good anything. There's as much chance of a woman being a good president as there is a man - good/bad = 50/50.

Let's not get all starry eyed about women in charge. They are no better and no worse than men - it's just that there are fewer of them in that position. My own life and work experience has led me to trust women in charge less than men - due purely to experience, not because I think they are less able or psychologically different. My own experience has taught me that the old myth that "if women were in charge this world would be a better place" is wishful thinking, at best.

A woman could make the best president ever seen in the history of the world - but equally, so could a man.

I still feel the same in 2014, only more so.

As mentioned in a post some days ago, the person I'd most like to see running in the presidential campaign 2016 would be Al Gore. I found an article from 2011 in which the author, someone who appeared fairly regularly on all the usual liberal-type websites, wrote that it'd be a good idea to begin a movement to draft Al Gore for 2016. The same author wrote a more recent article proposing that Hillary Clinton will be the likely 2016 nominee. He appears to be an avid fan of Clinton. As there was a contact e-mail address for the author (I'll not mention his name here), I dropped him a note reminding him of his earlier feelings. He kindly replied immediately, and twice, that he's pretty sure Clinton will run and be nominated (he seems to be "in the know") and that he has seen no evidence that Al Gore is interested in running...unless, perhaps Clinton decided for some reason to decline to run, but this is not expected. He said that in the absence of a run by Clinton "all bets are off". My fingers are crossed for one of those "all bets off" situations, unlikely as one such might seem to be right now.

When Al Gore was asked in a Politico interview recently about 2016 he responded only that he's "a recovering politician" ... he didn't say, "No way, no how."

AG: You say you can ask the question a million ways. I’m going to only answer it one way. With apologies, I’m sure you’ve heard this answer before. I am a recovering politician. And the longer I avoid a relapse the more confidence that I will not succumb to the temptation to run yet again. But I’m a recovering politician. I’ll just leave it at that.

I'd hate to knock a recovering alcoholic off the wagon, but this is different. If somebody doesn't do something pretty major soon there'll be no wagon, and no anything much, as climate change advances during the years to come.

Does anyone have any ideas? Writing to Al Gore, snail mail, via his Tennessee office is the only thing I can think of, but it'd be highly unlikely he'd ever even see the letter. Why aren't other people thinking along these same lines regarding a run by Gore? Am I right around the loony bend on this?

Yesterday's ruling by the Supreme Court in favour of Hobby Lobby (+ Another) probably came as no surprise to most people. My 2012 post about the issue is HERE. The ruling was limited though, and applies only to "closely held" corporations which, I think, means privately or family owned rather than publicly held corporations. That's some crumb of relief, I guess. It still opens the door for other creatively imagined religion-based claims though. Watch that space! And wonder at the blatant hypocrisy of it all.
From The Week.com

"We're Christians," Hobby Lobby's president Steve Green proclaims, "and we run our business on Christian principles."

That is music to the ears of many conservative Christians, who rallied around Hobby Lobby when the retail chain argued at the Supreme Court that ObamaCare's contraception mandate unlawfully burdened their religious beliefs. But a closer look at Hobby Lobby's actual business practices reveals this claim to be as hollow as a flute. Turn over just about any trinket in a Hobby Lobby store and you'll find a gold oval stamped with "Made in China," a country that is one of the worst offenders of human dignity, unborn infant life, and economic justice anywhere in the world.

As such, those shiny stickers littering every Hobby Lobby from sea to shining sea are more than a statement about a product's geographical origin; they are also a stinging indictment against the way the retailer has sought to label itself.

Imagine for a moment a nation with nightmarish labor conditions, inadequate workplace regulation, and rampant child labor. You've just imagined 21st century China. Seventy thousand Chinese employees die every year in workplace accidents — that's roughly 200 humans snuffed out of existence every day........................

If Hobby Lobby was concerned with religious freedoms — not just those of conservative American Christians — it would quit doing business in China.

We haven't entered Hobby Lobby since 2012, apart from once, when away from home, we were waiting for another nearby store to open and it began to rain heavily. We walked into Hobby Lobby to keep dry, wandered round the perimeter of the store's interior, and out again.