The View from Right Field

Yet Another Break

In an example of incredibly poor planning, I am taking a break.  I’ll be going on vacation the end of this week.  I will be back in mid-October.  Hopefully by then, the Cubs will have won the “coin-flip” game (i.e., the Wild Card game) and will be doing well in the NLDS.  Until then:  “Hey Hey, Holy Mackerel, No Doubt About It.” 

A Presidency Built on Executive Orders, Instead of Law

As it becomes clear that the nuclear agreement with Iran will come into effect without a formal vote on it in Congress (as opposed to votes on various procedural matters)*, it may be appropriate to look at President Obama’s legacy (so far) and consider how much of it is based on executive orders and administrative action and how little of it comes from legislation actually passed by Congress.  Look at the breadth of actions President Obama, and his administration, has taken on their own:

• imposing climate change/anti-carbon rules;
• changing labor law rules;
• waiving requirements under the No Child Left Behind law for states that would follow rules the Obama administration couldn’t get Congress to pass;
• not enforcing the immigration laws;
• changing work requirements in the 1996 welfare reform law;
• limiting oil and gas exploration and drilling;**

and, of course, the nuclear agreement with Iran.

It may be the only two major policies/programs President Obama has been able to get approved by Congress were Obamacare and Dodd-Frank.  And even with those, President Obama and his administration have made significant changes in the timing and scope of those laws through administrative action or inaction.

The Cubs Are Going to the Postseason*. Why Aren’t More People Coming to Wrigley Field?

The Cubs are doing great.  They are tied for the third best record in the National League and have a six and one-half game lead over the San Francisco Giants for the second Wild Card spot.  In other words, they are a very good chance to go to postseason, even if it has to be through the Wild Card game.  But it doesn’t matter how you get to the postseason.  Just get there and then get hot.  (See, for example, both teams in last year’s World Series).

Which brings up my question.  Look at this picture, which I took on my iPhone at 2:00 pm yesterday (the game started at 1:20 pm):

Here’s my question: Where is everybody?  Look at the upper deck.  For that matter, look at all the empty seats in the lower deck.  Those seats aren’t empty because people are out buying concessions.  (The food still isn’t that good – except for Hot Doug’s, but that’s only in the bleachers.)

That Kentucky County Clerk Who Won’t Issue Marriage Licenses to Gay Couples Needs to Quit

Three comments on that Kentucky county clerk who won’t issue marriage licenses to gay couples because it would violate her religious beliefs to do so.  First, the solution is simple: Quit.  If your personal beliefs won’t let you do the job, don’t take the job.  If the job changes after you take it, then you need to quit.  This is not a matter of respecting her beliefs.  I do respect them.  It’s just that this job requires her to do “X”.  If she doesn’t want to do “X,” then she needs to resign.

Second, and more importantly, by trying to claim that this is a religious liberty issue, which it is not, she weakening that argument for cases where it is appropriate.  Religious liberty is under attack in the United States.  Ask the Little Sisters of the Poor.  Ask Chick-fil-A.  Ask wedding cake bakers in Oregon.  These are cases where religious liberty needs to be respected – and isn’t being respected.  But when somebody runs for public office and then won’t do some of the duties of the job because she claims it would violate her religious beliefs to do so, she weakens the argument for religious liberty for people who are legitimately raising it.  That is important.

Finally, Republican candidates for president who can’t see the difference (or claim they can’t), are losing some of my respect.

V-J Day, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki – Part II

This is a follow-up on my post of August 8 regarding V-J Day and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  I am posting this now because September 2 is the 70th anniversary of the signing of the surrender by the Japanese government, another day that could be considered V-J Day.

As I mentioned in August, there is a debate as to whether we needed to drop the atomic bombs on Japan or the Japanese were defeated and were going to surrender anyway.  I stated my view in August.  A review of a book on the last American to die in the war against the Japan, Last to Die, in The Wall Street Journal of August 28, has something useful to say on this question:

“Like many others in the government, [Japanese War Minister Korechika] Anami believed that to stop fighting would be to betray the 12th-century samurai honor code known as Bushido.  On the day before the emperor officially surrendered, some within the government attempted a coup d’état, but without Anami on their side, they failed.  Although Anami was personally against surrender, he felt he had to be loyal to the emperor.  ‘The emperor has made his decision,’ Anami said.  ‘As a Japanese soldier I must obey my emperor.’