wrote a few weeks ago about what a radical out-of-the-mainstream leftist Ruth Bader Ginsburg was when President Clinton nominated her for the Supreme Court, and how the Republican-controlled Senate nevertheless confirmed her, 96-3, within 6 weeks of being nominated. Ken Starr (who should also be on the Supreme Court) recently also used her as an example of how a judicial nominee's political beliefs shouldn't be used to block her, and how the recent policy of doing so, especially by the Democrats, is a "radical, radical change".
As an example of Ginsburg's extremism, Whelan mentioned that she "had proposed abolishing Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and replacing them with a single androgynous Parent’s Day"
(I thought it was "Mothers' Day" and "Fathers' Day", and would therefore have to be replaced by "Parents' Day", but whatever). Al Franken, on his radio show, challenged this assertion, and claimed "on the highest and closest authority" that she had never proposed any such thing. Whelan
gives the precise citation, which the "highest and closest authority" had apparently forgotten all about. Yes, Ginsburg did propose exactly that, in 1974.
(Incidentally, the quote from Franken is a bit amiguous; the first time I read it I thought he was citing Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institute as his "highest and closest authority", which seemed a bit puzzling; on rereading, it's possible that he's quoting Mann, who in turn had this from the "highest and closest authority", which one would have to think would be the judge herself. UPDATE: Whelan has clarified this.)
But, come to think of it, what exactly is so radical about this proposal? Why shouldn't the two Hallmark holidays be combined? My parents don't believe in either one, and always told us that every day should be Mothers' Day and Fathers' Day; but if people insist on a special day to honour their parents, why have separate ones for male parents and female ones? To save Hallmark's profits, we could have two Parents' Days a year (we could keep them in May and September, or we could move one of them to March); that way, those who only have one parent (not to mention the growing number of people whose parents are both of the same sex), don't get a day off. Or we could have Parents' Day and In-Laws' Day, when the single people get to gloat at the married ones. Some of Ginsburg's positions, cited by Whelan, do seem radical and extreme, but this one sounds to me pretty reasonable.
Anyone?
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