Mood:
spaceyTopic: "Bishop to King's Castle"
The Supreme Court of the United States of America today ruled that a man's home may be his castle, but he is only a leaseholder. There is an anomaly to the fervor of those who are, well, fervent, in their disfavor with the 5-4 decision. The voting majority, it seems, were the progressive (i.e, generally sane) and the minority was Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, and O'Connor. The people most upset are those with the most extreme postures of both the right and the left in the general population. Those in the middle seem to think the Court ruled correctly.
Frodo is in a pickle. It is beyond his cognitive scale to recall the last time he agreed with Sandra Day O'Connor on almost anything. Frodo doesn't even like the way she does her hair. If any woman has ever met the definition of "frump," it is with the bobbed-do of an Arizona broad-rumped golfer in the mind's eye. Regardless, Frodo thought that she actually went beyond the greed of one protecting their own assets to actually make a valid point about the definition of freedom.
The home used to be protected from "unreasonable search and seizure," that is until the Patriot Act came along, and all of a sudden there were exceptions.
Today the home could fall to the concept of "eminent domain," because of the efforts of individuals which would yield "higher and better" use of the land, thereby benefiting the community as a whole.
Frodo is not a speculator when it comes to the direction of the law. In the Shire it is said that "the law follows the will of Hobbits by 25 years." Frodo notes that today one can "purchase" a home with no money down, and pay only interest for several years. The "ownership" of that home does not stand in the hands of the occupant. It belongs to the bank.
Wasn't there a problem in the 1930's with people owing a lot of money to banks, and the loss of farms in Oklahoma and places like that? Frodo remembers a book that told of the movement of the homeless to California. It was called "The Grapes of Wrath."
Frodo always admired Tom Joad. He just never thought he'd run into him on the road to America's future.
Posted by loveysdaddyga
at 9:08 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, June 23, 2005 9:15 PM EDT
