Remember last week that Michigan Republicans were refusing to put an abortion-rights initiative on the ballot because of supposed problems with "formatting and spacing"? This was as ridiculous as it sounds, little more than a fuck you to liberals.
Well, the Michigan Supreme Court has put the initiative on the ballot by a vote of 5-2.
So hooray, right? Sure. But keep in mind that this was practically a party-line vote. The four Democrats all voted to put the initiative on the ballot, and two out of three Republicans voted against. There was one (1) crossover out of seven justices: Elizabeth Clement, a Republican who voted in favor of the initiative. However, Wikipedia reports that "Clement was booed at the Michigan Republican Convention in August 2018," so I have some doubts about how much of a Republican she really is.
If you want to know how much of a Republican she is, check her voting record. Checking her approval rating has become less than useless; it's like checking the nutrition of a food product by looking for the word HEALTHY on the label.
I remember when Republicans included Dwight Eisenhower, Everett Dirkson, and more recently Bob Dole. They were people of honestly held beliefs, which I frequently disagreed with, but who believed strongly in our system and whose word was good.
The Republican propaganda machine has coined a term that is so stupid that its irony is lost on them--RINO. They vote for huge deficits when they are in power. They accrete ever more power in the central government when they are in power. Then, when the Dems gain the majority, they proclaim the need to shrink the government and the deficit.
They have no concept that they, in fact, are the RINOs. And you can be sure if you try to explain it, the irony will be lost on them.
Loyalty to the cult and to the cheeto-faced Führer are all that matter. Not ideas. Not laws. Not institutions. Not the country.
Oh good grief -- what insane legal theory did the dissenters come up with to defend this one? "Word spacing was clearly critical to the democratic vision of the founders. See the lovely, spaced-out calligraphy in the Declaration of Independence..."
The font on my last mortgage contract was really small and smooshed together, and yet I can't just go to a court and get my home loan discharged for that reason. That's essentially what these bozos were arguing.
The next step is for republican local election officials to refuse to put it on the ballot.
And for gods sake, please give the idiots who wrote that initiative a laptop with MS Word on it.
It turns out that grammar Nazis are real Nazis!
Nitpicking grammar and punctuation is an old trolling tactic. It's a way to passively snipe at something you don't like without actually addressing the arguments presented.
The GQP is forever living off the high of defenestrating Dan Rather in 2004 over TANG kerning.
I read both dissenting opinions. One, basically states that we need more time and chastises the legislature. Not the greatest argument but at least it is not facially suspect. Federalist David Viviano’s opinion is something else, thirty-five pages of larded ink explaining how the font size is the exclusive jurisdiction of this one office. I hope someone dissects this monstrosity for its irrelevant citations and poor jurisprudence. What is it that they teaching at the University of Michigan Law School? (Special Master Federalist Judge Aileen Cannon also went there). Now, the reality is that everyone who signed this document knew what they signing without reading the whole thing, it is a fact that an overwhelming number of petition signatories do not read petitions more than three sentences. The majority opinion not only mocks the two dweebs in the panel but Judge Viviano, yet he is still there. What a maroon.
Isn't the Michigan law school funded by ex-Dominos chief Tom Monaghan, antiabortion zealot?
Anyway, I think the Federalist jurist opinion is less standard issue Q droppings & more an effort to bigfoot ONION contributor Doug "Fontly Speaking" Bendek.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theonion.com/fontly-speaking-1819583314/amp
Not that I know of. (UofM alumnus here) I think you may be confusing the fact that Monaghan bankrolled his own Catholic-oriented law school originally near Ann Arbor. The place actually attracted some mild positive notice, but when it veered too far off course (taking up Catholic social teaching in areas Monaghan did not approve of) he shut it down and moved it down to Florida where he could keep a close eye on it, with the result it's trash now.
MS Word? Don't lawyers use WordPerfect anymore? ... or some publication-quality package?
WordPerfect was a terrific package. My favorite advantage it held over Word was the Reveal Codes function. You could see what was happening to your typing and *why* it was happening. WordPerfect had another feature that was especially good for attorneys—its excellent footnoting and citation functions.
Another word processing package that was highly favored (even “revered”) by scholars was Nota Bene. Sadly, they were crushed in the marketplace by Microsoft, just like Lotus and Quattro spreadsheets and countless other specialty packages.
So true...
I thought way back in the day, WordPerfect would have made a great HTML editor, but they never really tried...
I did buy WP within the past decade, but it didn't hold up well. Had to use Open (or Libre?) Office to read old WP Office files.
Why yes, I do have data on 3.5" disks and Zip disks, not that I can read them anymore. I think I get rid of all my 5 1/4" floppies and tape backups
And in other good news, Trump's Big Book of Grievances about the 2016 election masquerading as a law suit against Hillary and a cast of thousands was thrown out of court. Naturally Former Sir will appeal; it must be a great money-spinner.
She probably never had a chance anyway, but here’s a bad candidate.
https://apnews.com/968b58c3a799215444e596d92eb8cf7d
Project veri-shit strikes again.
So perhaps she's a real Republican instead of a Fascist.
+1