This is something near and dear to my heart.  I’ve always been a second class citizen in this country.  Rarely have I enjoyed the protection of the law, instead I’ve been subject to the rule of man.  I’ve never been able to remain employed after the “real men” figured out I like other men a little too much for “their” comfort.  Some people complain that I don’t play by the rules or that I don’t think the rules apply to me.  There is a reason:  My very existence has been defacto illegal for most of my life.  Until now.

Judge Richard Posner

Eight Times a Federal Judge Eviscerated Wisconsin, Indiana’s Marriage Bans

In a scathing decision issued just days after oral argument, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals roundly denounced bans on same-sex marriage in Indiana and Wisconsin.

By Matt Baume
September 05 2014 12:30 PM ET
Following a contentious oral argument on August 26th, it took the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals less than 10 days to unanimously rule that the bans on same-sex marriage Wisconsin and Indiana are unconstitutional.
In a strongly-worded ruling written by Judge Richard Posner, appointed to the federal court by Ronald Reagan, the appeals court eviscerates the justifications offered by state attorneys for the bans. 
Posner was the most vocal skeptic of the bans during oral arguments, at times calling the states’ claims “absurd.” In the ruling, Posner leaves no room for ambiguity, writing, “Indiana and Wisconsin have given us no reason to think they have a ‘reasonable basis’ for forbidding same-sex marriage.”
Just as he did during oral argument, Posner highlights the harm that marriage bans pose to the children of gay and lesbian parents:
“Formally these cases are about discrimination against the small homosexual minority in the United States. But at a deeper level, as we shall see, they are about the welfare of American children. … [Many] abandoned children are adopted by homosexual couples, and those children would be better off both emotionally and economically if their adoptive parents were married. … The harm to homosexuals (and, as we’ll emphasize, to their adopted children) of being denied the right to marry is considerable.”
The decision continues:
“If marriage is better for children who are being brought up by their biological parents, it must be better for children who are being brought up by their adoptive parents. The state should want homosexual couples who adopt children — as, to repeat, they are permitted to do — to be married, if it is serious in arguing that the only governmental interest in marriage derives from the problem of accidental births. (We doubt that it is serious.)”
Wisconsin and Indiana both cited tradition as justification for their bans. During oral argument, Posner was clearly unpersuaded by this, pointing out that the same justification was used in 1967’s landmark Loving v. Virginia case. Posner’s decision expresses doubt that marriage bans truly are traditional. And the court expresses bafflement as to how the tradition could possibly be beneficial, since the bans cannot possibly cause gay and lesbian couples to spontaneously form heterosexual relationships.
“The state elaborates its argument from the wonders of tradition by asserting, again in its opening brief, that ‘thousands of years of collective experience has [sic] established traditional marriage, between one man and one woman, as optimal for the family, society, and civilization.’ No evidence in support of the claim of optimality is offered, and there is no acknowledgment that a number of countries permit polygamy. … But suppose the assertion is correct. How does that bear on same-sex marriage? Does Wisconsin want to push homosexuals to marry persons of the opposite sex because opposite-sex marriage is ‘optimal?’ Does it think that allowing same-sex marriage will cause heterosexuals to convert to homosexuality? Efforts to convert homosexuals to heterosexuality have been a bust; is the opposite conversion more feasible?”
The court also mentions Baker v. Nelson, a problematic 1972 Supreme Court ruling that found marriage equality posed no “substantial federal question.” For years, courts have cited Baker as justification for avoiding marriage cases, or for ruling against gay and lesbian couples.
But the Fifth Circuit sets aside Baker as having been made invalid by more recent decisions, as have most other courts to consider the issue since the Windsor case overturned DOMA. Writing for the court, Posner goes even further, pointing out that a decade ago, Justice Antonin Scalia saw that the court was on a trajectory towards overturning marriage bans. Although Scalia wrote disapprovingly of that trajectory, the Fifth Circuit gladly cites his observation as evidence that their decision is consistent with the last two decades of rulings from the Supreme Court. 
“Baker was decided in 1972 — 42 years ago and the dark ages so far as litigation over discrimination against homosexuals is concerned. Subsequent decisions such as Romer v. Evans (1996); Lawrence v. Texas (2003), and United States v. Windsor are distinguishable from the present two cases but make clear that Baker is no longer authoritative. At least we think they’re distinguishable. But Justice Scalia, in a dissenting opinion in Lawrence, joined by Chief Justice Rehnquist and Justice Thomas, thought not. He wrote that ‘principle and logic’ would require the Court, given its decision in Lawrence, to hold that there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.”
Ultimately, the Fifth Circuit shows no sympathy whatsoever for the states’ arguments:
“The challenged laws discriminate against a minority defined by an immutable characteristic, and the only rationale that the states put forth with any conviction — that same-sex couples and their children don’t need marriage because same-sex couples can’t produce children, intended or unintended — is so full of holes that it cannot be taken seriously.”
Among those holes are the inconsistent standards that the states apply to couples who wish to marry but cannot reproduce with each other. The court writes:
“The state treats married homosexuals as would-be ‘free riders’ on heterosexual marriage, unreasonably reaping benefits intended by the state for fertile couples. But infertile couples are free riders too. Why are they allowed to reap the benefits accorded marriages of fertile couples, and homosexuals are not? … The state tells us that ‘non-procreating opposite-sex couples who marry model the optimal, socially expected behavior for other opposite-sex couples whose sexual intercourse may well produce children.’ That’s a strange argument; fertile couples don’t learn about child-rearing from infertile couples. And why wouldn’t same-sex marriage send the same message that the state thinks marriage of infertile heterosexuals sends — that marriage is a desirable state?”
During oral argument, Posner was audibly exasperated with the state attorneys, groaning out loud at one point and openly laughing at another. That spirit comes across most clearly in the decision when the court observes the baffling lack of legitimate benefit behind the marriage bans:
“Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children; their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children; their reward is to be denied the right to marry. Go figure.”
At the conclusion of the ruling, the court observes that the state attorneys have claimed that they don’t know how to apply a decision overturning their marriage bans. In its last few sentences, the court shoots back that the states need to figure it out:
“Draw up a plan of compliance,” the court advises, “and submit it to the judge for approval.”

I lifted this from a Linux Voice tutorial written by Juliet Kemp.  I left behind all of the gory details of early mainframe programming to refocus Miss Kemps words on Grace Hopper.  Grace was an amazing lady in a male dominated world.

Grace Hopper remains a source of quotable quotes, our favourite being: “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission”.

Grace Hopper, born in New York in 1906, was an associate professor of mathematics at Vassar when WWII broke out. Volunteering for the US Navy Reserve, she was assigned to the Bureau of Ships Computation Project, where she worked on the Harvard Mark I project (a calculating machine used in the war effort), from 1944–9, co-authoring several papers.

“Punch-card calculating machines
already existed, but crucially,
UNIVAC was programmable.”

In 1949, she moved to the Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation (later acquired by Remington Rand, and later still by Unisys), and joined the UNIVAC team. UNIVAC, which first ran in 1951, was the second commercially available computer in the US, and the first designed for business and admin rather than for scientific use. That meant that it was intended to execute many simple calculations rapidly, rather than performing fewer complex calculations. Punch-card calculating machines already existed, but crucially, UNIVAC was programmable. The first customers included the US Census Bureau and the US Air Force (who had the first on-site installation, in 1952). In 1952, as a promotional stunt, they worked with CBS to have UNIVAC predict the result of the 1952 US presidential election. It correctly (and quickly!) predicted an Eisenhower win, beating out the pollsters who had gone for Stevenson.

Grace Hopper, who studied mathematics and physics at Harvard and Vassar universities, at a later UNIVAC in 1960. By Unknown (Smithsonian Institution) (Flickr: Grace Hopper and UNIVAC)

Grace Hopper created the first operational compiler, in 1952, while working on the UNIVAC project. Initially, no one believed her. “I had a running compiler and nobody would touch it,” she said later. “They told me computers could only do arithmetic.” In fact, the A-0 system was more like what we would today call a loader or a linker than a modern ‘compiler’. For A-0, Hopper transferred all her subroutines to tape, each identified with a call number, so that UNIVAC could find it. She then wrote down the call numbers, and any arguments, and this was converted into machine code to be run directly. Effectively, A-0 allowed the programmer to reuse code and to write in a more human-readable way, and get the machine to do more of the work.

Famously, Grace Hopper popularized the term “debugging” about computer programs, after an error while working on the Mark II in 1947 was tracked down to an actual bug (a moth) stuck in a relay. The term “bug” had been used before in engineering, but Hopper brought it into popularity.

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This is going to be a little story about teamwork. The stars are Marjorie Drake and Victor Stoykovich. Vic is important to Marj because he owns Town and Country Reprographics, in Concord, NH. And I’m sure Marjorie needed a printer! Vic is also president of the Concord Aero Guidance Society, and also here on Facebook.

Victor Stoykovich earned mention in this little story when he surreptitiously took my photo as he entered the park. George Smiley he ain’t. At the time I left my mouth hanging open and maybe pushed my tongue against my lower lip, not my most flattering pose but at the time I thought the photo was for a CAGS club newsletter. Little did I know what was to come.

I really don’t know the details other than we were told that our volunteer status was terminated immediately and we were to leave Elm Brook Park in Hopkinton, NH in 24 hours. No real reason given just vague statements about complaints made against me and Lynn.

I’d like to see the hard copy part of Vic and Marg’s work so if you still have one can you mail it to me, Art Joly at: 373 South Willow Street, PMB 248, Manchester, NH 03103?

The last time this was done to me it didn’t work partly because I owned my condo unit and because the people gave me a copy of their leaflet. The claim back in 1990 was that was a pedophile. It’s an easy charge to make, has a great emotional reaction and doesn’t need any proof. All of the damage is done with the claim.

If I hadn’t watch it happen I never would have believed it. American worker’s doing what they think is right, damned the cost to themselves. Radio Shack and the breakup artist ordered the workers back to work again or else. And nobody flinched. First time didn’t work. Second try was a job fair and in spite of my low opinion of my fellow Americans, no one showed up to apply to work at Market Basket. Good for you guys. Third was the show up or else ultimatum. Now what?

Artie T. has been trying to screw his cousin over all of their lives. I wonder if Arthur S., son of George finally gave the ultimatum to Artie T., son of Telemachus “One more time and I burn down the house!” Being the successful business man that he is I imagine that Artie T just let that roll off his back. I mean why would Artie S give up his cushy lifestyle? Artie T does all the work. Right? Easy. Principal. Artie S may be living off his company dividends and enjoying life while Artie T sweats and plans and executes to grow the family business, but that’s the way it would be for any publicly owned corporation.

This was our third summer as volunteers at Elm Brook Park on the US Army Corps of Engineers Hopkinton-Everett flood control project. It is our third year and we enjoyed the work. Last year Lynn and I gave up trying to support ourselves and applied for Social Security Supplemental Income and breezed through the process being found that we are indeed 100% disabled and entitled to the maximum benefit. We choose to live in a motorhome. We’re 59 years old and gay and married. We sort of owned our own home for over 20 years but finally lost our home due to medical bills and other help you can find elsewhere in my blog. So life was coming back together. We were learning to live within our diminished physical capacities, we had food on our table and a roof over our heads. Lynn had found us this job working as volunteer park hosts because the position included a place to park our motor home with water and electricity. So for four months out of the year we could live without worry. We really appreciated so we worked as hard as we could, which amounted to being as cheerful as possible while manning the entrance gate, and collecting the user fee from park guests. Homeless people are like this. We appreciate home, wherever it is.

All of this came to a sudden unexpected halt on Monday the 4th of August 2014. The weather wasn’t exactly ideal for a day at the park, plus it was Monday so I had little to do in the guard booth. I was prepared to fill the time however because our trusty Onan generator, our sole source of electricity when we are “on the road” was no longer so trustworthy and I was preparing to check all of its adjustments and hopefully find the fault that was preventing our 4KW Onan Emerald Plus to start and run. I had spent the morning studying the service manual and then digging a wish list of part numbers for stuff that was needed and stuff that was just-in-case from the parts manual so I had a page full of notes and part numbers and my mind, or what’s left of it was securely wrapped around the theory of operation of the Onan’s control circuitry.

At 2:30 PM my day came crashing down around my head and shoulders. Karen Hoey, accompanied by Jennifer Samela and Brad Clark representing the US Army Corp of Engineers stopped at the booth in an park ranger truck and asked if they could have a meeting with me and Lynn in 10 minutes or so. Yes it was o-kay to put the sign up in the booth and lock the door, so I did and walked back to our home and told Lynn what was up. We were concerned but we’d been doing the job the same way we had last year and the year before that so we didn’t feel any real worry. What came next was completely unexpected.

We were told that our volunteer service was hereby terminated and we had 24 hours to be off the property. Not even a hi how are you today? Why? We really don’t know. What we do know is what we were told.

Jennifer and Brad sat as silent witnesses to our termination. Karen Spoke. Karen told us that on Friday, Saturday and Sunday our days off an alarming number of complaints had been collected. We asked to see the complaints and Karen told us that wasn’t possible. We asked who had collected the complaints. We asked who had complained since we pretty much deal with the same people over and over again. We were told that we had made inappropriate comments about staff members. But couldn’t be told what the comments were. We were told that we had made an alarming number of inappropriate comments to visitors. Again we asked what was the nature of the comments and Karen told us that she couldn’t tell us but that because we had harmed the image of the Corps of Engineers our volunteer status was terminated immediately and we must be off the property within 24 hours.

Now this was our third summer at Elm Brook and we weren’t doing anything different from previous years. Marjorie and Dave Drake were new hosts this summer. Last summer it was Cynthia and Tom Innskeep and when we first started it was the Darby’s. We never had problems with the other park hosts until this summer.

So one thing that’s different is Marjorie and Dave Drake.

It’s now 8AUG2014 and we’re still too rattled to think straight. We thought that in this post-Don’t Ask, don’t Tell era we had a safe place to work, free from mindless bigotry. We were wrong.

Karen Hoey told us that our behavior had hurt the image of the Corps. I think Karen fired the wrong people.

It’s the same old story, a tradition in New England.

The Witch Hunt.

Facts are really necessary. Only fear and uncertainty. Greed and lust help and you can’t forget the eternal quest for social status among your peers. All you need is a whisper, a suggestion tendered as gently as a gallant suggestion to a noble lady would be done. And with care and patience it grows. Facts aren’t necessary. In 1692, in Massachusetts, political reality was based in a belief system.

The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem’s Gallows Hill, while some 150 more men, women and children were accused over the next several months. By September 1692, the hysteria had begun to abate and public opinion turned against the trials. Though the Massachusetts General Court later annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to their families, bitterness lingered in the community, and the painful legacy of the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries. (Plagiarized from History.com)

In our case, we’re still alive and well but we lost a really great place to live. And we really don’t know why. The best we can guess based on our observations is that Marjorie Drakestarted a witch hunt to gather complaints about us because she doesn’t care for people like us. And she wants her friends the Inskeeps as neighbors. We thought that with the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell we were living in a safe haven. But I guess protection against persecution is only for members of the military. Not elderly disabled civilians who just happen to be gay.

I feel sorry for the employees of the Demoulas families Market Basket chain of grocery stores. These are all great people caught in the middle of a family feud that has no end. No rational end because the sons of George and Telemachus Demoulas have never made decisions based on cold hard reality. Arthur S., son of George and Arthur T., son of Telemachus are at each others throats over emotional issues. And the fact as shown in court proceedings that the son of Telemachus can’t be trusted to deal evenly with all members of the families of Geoprge and Telemachus. The business is, maybe was, popular and profitable. That went without question but the internal family politics which have been given short coverage in the popular press go back to 1971 when George Demoulas, Telemachus’ brother passed away while on vacation and Telemachus and his son Arthur T Demoulas began their quest to become sole owner’s of the family business. Starting with George’s widow. The best source of the facts that are publicly available can be found here, in a year 2000 Lawyers Weekly story. I can’t decide if I like the part where Arthur T. punched Arthur S. while they were still in the courthouse or the part where one of the jurors asked to be excused because of exhaustion. Why are you exhausted dear? may have asked the judge. Because I just wish he (Telemachus) would answer the questions. Telemachus is on record for 17 days of testimony.

The problem with the people who really make this business work, the employees is the amount of time the employees have invested in the company. No one wants to throw away the investment made of their time to a job they enjoy, but the rules have changed regarding the Market Basket Corporation and people need to remember the golden rule of business: He who owns the gold, makes the rules. Even if Artie T. manages to buy out the sons of George, the terms of employment may not go back to what they were in the warm and fuzzy olden days. If the employees don’t end their labor action on Monday the 4th of August, not only will they learn that no one is indispensable but everyone will be shown once again the gap in power between the wealthy few and the majority who aren’t all that wealthy. No one is indispensable and after the job fairs the out of work Market Basket employees are going to be amazed at how quickly business will return to normal.

Today is the 24th of July 2014 and the Market Basket chain of supermarkets is in turmoil because the Demoulas’ family infighting has broken out in some sort of struggle for control of the corporation.
1917: Arthur and Ephosin Demoulas found Demoulas Market.

Today on the 24th of July 2014 I tried to call into New Hampshire Public Radio’s morning shoe The Exchange. This is the first time I’ve tried to inject my opinion into an on the air discussion. The host and guests on The Exchange were discussing the current state of affairs with Demoulas Market Basket stores, employees and family members. I remember growing up in a small town in western Massachusetts listening to an aunt refer to shopping at “Demoulas.” It was a few more years before tiny Athol, MA gained its own Demoulas Market Basket supermarket. Then the Demoulas name was dropped and the stores became know as Market Basket and I always wondered why. Now I know.

The guests and host on NHPR The Exchange including people writing in with e-mail and telephoning in with their own opinions were fully behind the management of Arthur T. Demoulas and feel that Artie T and he was referred to had been wronged by his cousin Arthur S. Demolas. I want to spoil this feel good fest by bringing up some facts about the past behavior of Artie T towards his uncles wife and children. These are facts in the public record, facts that have been adjudicated and proven on a court of law at a cost of 150 million dollars over a period of 10 years.

Facts starting with a little genealogy added for good measure. Arthur and his wife Ephrosin started their own business on Dummer Street in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1917 and made a go of their Market Basket grocery. Forty years later Arthur and Ephrosin sold their business to their sons George and Telemachus. George and Telemachus grew the Demoulas Supermarket into a chain of grocery stores and eventually executed mutual wills promising to take care of each other’s families should one of them pass away. Ownership of the Demoulas Supermarket chain was evenly divided 50-50. In 1971 George Demoulas died while on vacation in Greece leaving behind his wife Evanthea and son Arthur S. Demoulas. These people trusted their brother-in-law Telemachus and his son Arthur T. Demoulas to do the right thing by them and had no question about business decisions that Telemachus and Arthur T. made for them until Arthur S. was investigated for tax fraud in 1987. Arthur S. Demoulas’ response? Stock sale? What stock sale? I didn’t transfer any stock ownership. The ensuing investigation revealed that Artie T. as the press is now referring to Arthur T. Demoulas, Telemachus son had been quietly transferring George’s kid’s inheritance over to the domes of Telemachus and at this point in time Artie T. had acquired control or ownership of 92% of Demoulas Supermarkets. Sort of ironic then that the offer from Artie T. on the 23rd of July was to purchase his cousin’s controlling interest in the company. Huh?

Here’s the timeline I obtained from an August 21st 2000 article in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly:

1957 Brothers George and Telemachus Demoulas buy the family business from their parents.

1964 George and Telemachus execute wills with their wives promising to take care of each others family.

1971 George dies while on vacation in Greece. George’s wife Evanthea signs legal documents presented to her by Telemachus.

1987 Evan Demoulas, George’s son, Arthur S. Demoulas’ brother is given a supoena and investigated for tax fraud.

1990 Arthur S. Demoulas files suit charging his uncle Telemachus Demoulas with fraud.

1994 The trial begins. On the 26th of May 1994 jurors find that Telemachus defrauded his late brother’s family of its share of stock and real estate in the grocery business.

On the 2nd of August 1995 after a trial that included the CFO’s inability to keep his story straight and a gap in the general ledger books that covered the time when the 17 store Demoulas Super Markets to the Market Basket chain of stores The family of George Demoulas was awarded 51% of the company.

You can read all about it here:

But Arthur T. Demoulas as the good guy? Not on your life. Arthur T. Demoulas is an excellent business man yes. As a human being? No.

Demoulas v. Demoulas SuperMarkets, Inc.: A Case Study in Business Ventures Going Bad | Boston Business Divorce