Welcome to the Third Degree: Tough, Brief, Weekly  Interrogations on matters public and private that force thinking and response. This Sunday we target:   The Supremes 

  • Does the interjection, Yippee Ki-Yay, epitomize the Supremes?
  • Should we “Stop in the Name of Love” because Yippee Ki-Yay applies to more Supremes than Diana Ross and that wonderful Mo-town group?
  • Immortalized by Woody Guthrie how about “Chisholm Trail” with lyrics, music  and moments supreme?
  • Did  the Bruce Willis impromptu Die Hard moment make tough John McClane forever supremo by adding a now common colloquial epithet?
  • Do genuine, western roots, make Yippee Ki-Yay an expression of joy (mostly) or by tacking on a number of salacious, Oedipal additions create an alarm or warning?   Are both now, for good or ill,  quintessential America?
  • What about our present Supreme Court ?
  • As the third independent branch of our government, inshrined in the Constitution, should the Supremes be Yippee Ki-Yay recipients?
  • Can an historical and contemporary case be made that, absent the court, and its mediating and determinative rule of law efforts, the nation would have done itself in long ago?
  • Is it an alarming Yippee Ki-Yay moment to see Congressmen and Senators, mainly Democrats, attacking the Supremes for failing to do their bidding?
  • Is threatened court packing  good or alarming?
  • Do we need an ideological or inferior court or an eminently talented group of umpires who call the legal  balls and strikes to the best of their ability?
  • Are we Yippee Ki-Yay pleased, even surprised,  when the court votes unanimously (9-0) on matters and more reserved  when it comes down to a 5-4 decision.
  • While a decision by decision analysis is not intended, it there one that deserves shout out?
  • Does the just issued, unanimous, mifepristone/misoprostol  decision take abortion off the political, hot button agenda because the yea or nay choice is now individual?
  • Is this a brilliant or alarming Yippee Ki-Yay moment?
  • While some argue that a few states may seek to restrain use, is it a practical impossibility?
  • On a note of alarm, should the Supremes  be protected, as they are by law,  from harassment and harm? Why aren’t they?  Who is at fault there?
  • Does Yippee Ki-Yay (in all its forms)  ring a bell that tolls the anxious but annealing tidings of a nation that trusts and believes in personal liberties and freedom?
  • Will we stay on the trail, herding one another in prosperous direction?  Are thanks due the trail bosses…..the Supremes….Big Yippee Ki-Yay?

Socrates reminds:  “The unexamined life is not worth living.  The answers and actions are yours.