If pharmacists don't have to fill scrips they don't like, why should JPs have to let just anybody marry? Plus: Rush isn't a racist either

Rush denies he's a racist (and he would know), but he's out of the Rams deal -- see below


"I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves. In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer."

-- Tangipahoa Parish (LA) justice of the peace Keith Bardwell

"It is really astonishing and disappointing to see this come up in 2009."

-- Louisiana ACLU attorney Katie Schwartzmann

by Ken

Thanks to that quick calendar check from ACLU attorney Schwartzmann, you don't have to risk whiplash turning to check your calendar to verify the year. Yes, it's 2009. Now, if you're ready, let's just plunge into this AP report:

Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.

(AP)

HAMMOND, La. — A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.

"I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house," Bardwell said. "My main concern is for the children."

Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.

"I don't do interracial marriages because I don't want to put children in a situation they didn't bring on themselves," Bardwell said. "In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer."

If he does an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

"I try to treat everyone equally," he said.

Okay now, deep breath.

More things you should know:

* The, er, happy couple, Beth Humphrey (30) and Terence McKay (32), both of Hammond, apparently satisfied all of the state of Louisiana's requirements for a marriage license: a three-day waiting period, $35 fee, birth certificates, and Social Security numbers. (Previously married applicants must also provide proof of termination of the marriage.)

* Ms. Humphrey and Mr. McKay "say they will consult the U.S. Justice Department about filing a discrimination complaint." The ACLU, according to Ms. Schwartzmann, is "preparing a letter for the Louisiana Supreme Court, which oversees the state justices of the peace, asking them to investigate Bardwell and see if they can remove him from office." Ms. Schwartzmann commented, "He knew he was breaking the law, but continued to do it."

* And, contrary to what you may be thinking, JP Bardwell is not a racist, by his own testimony. Oh wait, you already know that. Remember, it's only about the children, and his conclusion, based on conversations with both black and white folks, "that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society."

Including, apparently, white justices of the peace.


AND SPEAKING OF PEOPLE WHO AREN'T RACISTS,
BY THEIR OWN TESTIMONY, HERE'S . . . RUSH!


It's not easy being Rush Limbaugh. People -- libersls, of course, or maybe extreme libersls (but frankly, is there really such a thing as an un-extreme liberal?) -- keep saying these terrible things about you, and calling you these terrible names, just because of the terrible things you say. They're all liars, and it doesn't matter how many tapes they play of him saying those things, because that's what liberals do. They lie.

The latest thing about which the liberals are lying is calling him a racist because of all those terrible things they have him on tape saying about black people which he didn't say except for having said them. Just last week, when news broke that a pretty smart fellow named Dave Checketts, who used to run New York's Madison Square Garden (which includes both the NBA Knicks and the NHL Rangers), and whose company SCP (Sports Capital Partners) is now principal owner of the NHL St. Louis Blues, was including Rush among a a prospective ownership group making a bid to buy the NFL St. Louis Rams, I wondered, "Does the NFL want to be the kind of club that would have Rush Limbaugh as a member?"

We looked at a clip of ESPN jibber-jabberers Tony Kornhiser and Michael Wilbon agreeing for once that the NFL would have no problem taking Rush's money. Our Howie, on the other hand, who maybe pays less attention to professional sports than anyone I know, took it for granted that the NFL owners, however conservative they may be, couldn't possibly allow that lethal mouth into the fraternity.

It turns out that the jibber-jabberers were wrong, and Howie was right.

The real trouble began when NFL players began voicing strong objections, and their Players' Association chief, DeMaurice Smith, while stopping short of expressing agreement, forcefully backed his members' right to speak out.

Then Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell pretty well doomed the scheme.

Irsay said he wouldn't vote to accept Rush as an owner. "Sometimes when there are comments made that are inappropriate, incendiary, insensitive . . . it's bigger than football. As a nation, we have to watch the words that we say." Commissioner Goodell said, "I have said many times before that we are all held to a higher standard here. I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about. I would not want to see those kind of comments from people who are in a responsible position within the NFL. No. Absolutely not."

And then Checketts, the man who inexplicably set the mess in motion by roping Rush into the venture, dropped him like a hot potato, explaining:

Rush was to be a limited partner -- as such, he would have had no say in the direction of the club or in any decisions regarding personnel or operations. This was a role he enthusiastically embraced. However, it has become clear that his involvement in our group has become a complication and a distraction to our intentions; endangering our bid to keep the team in St. Louis. As such, we have decided to move forward without him and hope it will eventually lead us to a successful conclusion.

Rush, of course, is having a high time, claiming simultaneously, on the one hand, to have been deceived (he says Checketts assured him his participation had been precleared by the NFL) and victimized (by Al Sharpton, the NFL, and probably everyone on up to the UN -- oh, and I'll bet George Soros, who's always in on these extreme liberal conspiracies), and used by management as a tool in its current round of labor negotiations; and, on the other hand, to have been manipulating the whole show for his own enjoyment.

So in the end, as usual, Rush has it pretty much his own way. He's got us all talking about him, he gets to hold onto his money, and to his devoted listeners, the people who drive the ratings that make him rich, he's a martyr.

But he's not a racist. As he'll be the first (and perhaps last) to tell you.

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