Corporate personhood
I have two reasons for responding to the Dec. 24 John Hood column "Liberals chew their CUDS."
First, like almost every pundit these days, whether right or left, Hood immediately abandons any notion of respect and civility. The author feels compelled to denigrate those of opposing viewpoints with satiric name-calling and sweeping insults. In this case, all liberals are likened to "Cattle, sheep and other herd animals," and ultimately described as "dimwitted, daffy" and "dangerous." He thus contributes to today's unproductive public discourse that hampers enlightened discussion on virtually every social policy matter.
The second reason I have written is that I am one who does not share his view that "courts have properly viewed corporations as fictitious persons." I realize that longstanding and firmly entrenched legislation and resulting jurisprudence have granted the legal status of "personhood" on corporations. Fundamentally, I take issue with his assumption that this was ever necessarily a "proper" action. Instead, I believe that granting corporations the rights of persons is one of several flaws in our clearly less-than-perfect system of economic structures and institutions. That flaw is compounded by the Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case.
In lieu of a detailed description of my own philosophy, I will simply recommend — to anyone interested in understanding why many thoughtful people oppose corporate "personhood" — that readers secure and review a copy of the 2004 documentary "The Corporation."
DAVID McNAUGHT
Winston-Salem
Chewing cud
I must admit that I've never heard the argument presented by John Hood in his Dec. 24 column, "Liberals chew their CUDS." He essentially states that individuals don't give up their rights when they unite in corporations and that corporations certainly have the right to express their corporate opinions on political matters. That's something that we on the left (I do have to object to that whole "ruminants" bit, but let's put that aside for now) don't hear.
But I still don't think that can be the last word in the matter. Right now corporations pour millions of dollars into political campaigns, and it's hard to deny that the result is detrimental to our society. Politicians today are beholden to corporate interests rather than to the citizens they are supposed to represent. Just look at their battle to keep the EPA from regulating mercury out of our air supply. It's ridiculous to think that Americans should suffer and die while corporations are given the right to pollute our air and water. But that's just what they're buying with their campaign donations.
This is a complex issue and calls for more than a superficial solution. We also have to ask whether money really equals speech and why. Perhaps there's more to it than Hood realizes, too, and he's chewing some "cud" of his own.
PAUL W. EVERHARDT
Winston-Salem
Hope and Change lives:
ReplyDeleteBy losing 9% of their audience in 2011, Fox News' prime time lineup now averages fewer viewers than Jon Stewart's The Daily Show...
hmm, if corporations are people too, can I marry GE or Apple?
ReplyDeleteThis guy makes Bill Maher a Saint.
ReplyDeletePaul’s Iowa chair, Drew Ivers, recently touted the endorsement of Rev. Phillip G. Kayser, a pastor at the Dominion Covenant Church in Nebraska who also draws members from Iowa, putting out a press release praising “the enlightening statements he makes on how Ron Paul’s approach to government is consistent with Christian beliefs.” But Kayser’s views on homosexuality go way beyond the bounds of typical anti-gay evangelical politics and into the violent fringe: he recently authored a paper arguing for criminalizing homosexuality and even advocated imposing the death penalty against offenders based on his reading of Biblical law.
“Difficulty in implementing Biblical law does not make non-Biblical penology just,” he argued. “But as we have seen, while many homosexuals would be executed, the threat of capital punishment can be restorative. Biblical law would recognize as a matter of justice that even if this law could be enforced today, homosexuals could not be prosecuted for something that was done before.”
Reached by phone, Kayser confirmed to TPM that he believed in reinstating Biblical punishments for homosexuals — including the death penalty — even if he didn’t see much hope for it happening anytime soon.
I don't think even Maher would call for the death penalty for Tebowing.
ReplyDeleteGood AM, Bob!
ReplyDeleteFirst cousins are people, but you can't marry your first cousin, at least not in NC.
To your comment yesterday re Arpaio confusing buckeyes with hawkeyes, he should have known that rather than being in IA, Buckeyes are found in another of the 57 states.
Ivers is identical to Maher in one respect: both are idiots.
ReplyDeleteand a very good morning to you, Staballoy
ReplyDeleteGood morning, Stab and Bob.
ReplyDeleteStab: taking a few days off from work?
In the past, there were many rules about marriage in NC. In colonial times, no marriage was valid unless performed by a minister of the Church of England. Since these ministers tended to stick to the large coastal towns, folks in the backwoods ignored the law and performed their own marriages.
ReplyDeleteGenerally, slaves were not allowed to marry, but they too ignored the laws and performed their own marriages. Until recent times, whites could not marry blacks or American Indians. Blacks could marry other blacks or Indians. A significant number of people were jailed or expelled from the state for violating these laws.
In mid 20th century there were all kinds of restrictions on all marriages, including a requirement that both parties have a blood test, even though that test had no validity as a predictor of anything.
First cousins share a single set of grandparents. Double first cousins share both sets of grandparents. The only remaining prohibition in NC law is that DOUBLE first cousins may not marry. FIRST cousins are OK.
RJ Reynolds married his first cousin Katharine Smith of Mount Airy. Charles Darwin married his first cousin,Emma Wedgwood. They had 10 children. Of those who survived to adulthood, all had successful lives, either as wives of prominent men or as prominent men themselves, in a variety of fields including science, the military and politics. And most played important roles in their father's ongoing research.
Some of the Reynolds were a bit "off" though.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a senior in HS, we had a student teacher from England who was also nanny to one of the Reynolds' heirs (he'd be about 48 now. She and her husband stayed at a property owned by the Reynolds on Salt St in Old Salem, one of the old historical houses. I went over for Thanksgiving and will never forget. I've been in a lot of nice houses before, but never one with more warmth and character.
ReplyDeleteand a very good morning, La Sombra, O.T., and Arthur.
ReplyDelete@Bob: Thanks for the follow to my blog. It's a work in progress; I invited a very interested Mr. Wooten from El Cambio use of the blog for what the organization saw fit but I've not heard from him when I mentioned that it was still under construction. I envision it as a virtual town hall for discussion on (any) current concerns regarding (mostly) hispanic immigration, legal or not, so feel free to comment and invite others. I've got just one page titled "Who is Hispanic" and others are in the planning stages. Any input is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteA warning: only RATIONAL, INTELLIGENT, ADULT, and of course HONEST comments and discussions, please.
Good AM, LaSombra, OT, Arthur!
ReplyDeleteLaSombra, I will be off tomorrow thru Monday, was using an Xmas gift iPad earlier this AM, before greeting the day. Now at work, using iPhone before going on duty. The iPad should allow me to participate a bit more often.
Me gusta mucho a unirse a tu blog.
ReplyDeleteThat depends on your perspective. All four of RJ & Katharine Smith Reynolds' children were very bright.
ReplyDeleteMary married Charles Babcock (as in the Babcock School of Management at WFU) and was a social leader and the founder of the Old Town Country Club.
Nancy was a prominent philanthropist, the founder of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, one of the most important in NC, and other charitable trusts. Her son Smith Bagley was a pioneer in civil rights and the cellular phone business and also a prominent philanthropist. When he died last year, Bill Clinton delivered the eulogy at his funeral.
Dick (RJ, Jr.) was a part-time playboy, married four times, and was once jailed in London for killing a pedestrian while driving drunk. On the other hand, in the 1920s he operated Roosevelt Field on Long Island, the most important airfield in the US, where folks like Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart kept their planes and also the birthplace of the US Air Force. He also started a company that manufactured the best amphibious aircraft in the world.
He later founded his own airline, which played a major role in the founding of Piedmont Airlines and also played a role in the founding of Delta Airlines. He was the treasurer of the national Democratic Party in the 1940s and a good friend of President Truman.
Smith, who died at age 21 of a gunshot wound after a wild party at Reynolda, probably had the most promise of them all. He became the youngest licensed pilot in the US, and at age 20 flew an amphibious aircraft solo 6,000 miles from London to Hong Kong, navigating by following roads, rivers and telegraph lines. His plane broke down near Hong Kong and he returned to the US to find parts to repair it.
While waiting for the parts, he found out that the National Geographic Society was about to attempt a first, the aerial mapping of the Indian Ocean. Knowing that he would need to know celestial navigation to be a pilot in the expedition, he enrolled for the fall term at NYU. The plan was that as soon as his parts arrived, he would return to Hong Kong, repair his plane and continue his circumnavigation of the globe, then attend NYU to learn navigation, then join the National Geographic expedition. Unfortunately, the Reynolda party came before the parts...we will never know what Smith might have achieved.
That was a reply to arthur's comment on the Reynolds children...got delayed by business matters
ReplyDeleteWhen I graduated college, I spent two months in Spain and the Canary Islands. One afternoon at a tapas bar I was chatting with an older gentleman from Italy. When I mentioned I was from Winston-Salem, he lit up and began telling me about his friendship with Libby Holman and Smith. He gave me "the inside scoop" said Libby didn't do it.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall the calamari en su tinta was delicious but the sopa de congrio was not so tantalizing.
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting post on tolerance from the Forsyth County Tea Party:
ReplyDeleteDavid Singletary Wendy Wood ... You are absolutely right, the way us "conservatives" are treating each other is beyond belief. Our lack of tolerance for each other, and our varying opinions will be obvious to others.
I was thinking of some collateral descendants, and Smith. Maybe it was something in the family, or maybe Fitzgerald was right.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans Require No Photo ID to Vote in Republican Iowa Caucus
ReplyDeleteImagine that!
Yes, that's really a surprise...ha, ha!
ReplyDeleteOf course, there is no reason that the Republicans should have to show IDs...it's a well known fact that only Democrats have ever perpetrated election fraud...I know this because I heard Rush Limbaugh say so.
Arthur...the problems of the Reynolds children probably had more to do with upbringing than anything else. i don't think DNA gave them anything but intelligence.
ReplyDeleteRJ was over 50 when he married. When he died in 1918, Dick was 12, Mary 10, Nancy 8 and Smith 7.
Shortly afterward, their mother took up with their tutor, a younger man, and even lived away from them in a cottage on the Reynolda grounds, so they were reared mostly by nannies. After a still-birth in 1922, Katharine died of postbirth complications in 1924 at age 43, so they were orphaned just as the oldest, Dick, turned 18.
Dick's four children (Will, John, Josh and Zach, all of whom I knew) suffered from a similar problem because their father abandoned them and their mother in 1942, when the oldest, Josh, was 9 and the youngest, Will, was 2, and eventually disinherited them all, leaving his entire estate to his fourth wife. And their mother soon took up drinking full time, so a second generation became, for all practical purposes, orphans as well. They were all extremely bright, but directionless.
Good evening, folks!
ReplyDeleteOT, I was acquainted with Will and Zach in my automotive days, years ago. Will was the most disheveled sort, and the last time I saw Zach, he was heavily under the influence and smelled like a polecat. He had a 1962 Pontiac Catalina with a 389 engine with 3 2-barrel carburetors, 4-speed, laden with radio gear.
A relative of mine was on scene the night Smith died, was suspected of being linked to Helman. It was suggested that he might have been the source of Smith's bullet, but there was no evidence. Nonetheless, the sheriff indicated there were other places more suited for my relative. He moved to TX, later returned to the area with a wife, but not Forsyth. His widow was a part of our family for quite a while, but never said anything about Smith's death.