Posted on 10/17/2004 2:24:15 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
October 17, 2004 -- Add Mary Cheney's sister's name to a growing list of Cheney family members angry with Sen. John Kerry for bringing up Mary and her sexuality at last week's debate in Tempe, Ariz. Appearing on "Good Morning America" alongside first-daughter hopeful Vanessa Kerry, Liz Cheney — a married mother of four — said an apology from the Democratic nominee "would be appropriate."
But Kerry's daughter defended her dad's comments and noted that Mary Cheney's sexual preference is a matter of record.
"My father's point was the concept was celebrating a strong family," the younger Kerry said, adding that his comments echoed what Sen. John Edwards said to Cheney himself at the vice-presidential debate. "But when you choose to be part of a campaign, you choose to make yourself public."
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Yeah, did she ever inject that into Republican campaigning? Is she, like, a member of Log Cabin
Translation: My father would play the (insert ___ card here) to get a vote.
I'm wondering, at this point, how STUPID the Kerry/Edwards families think we are to buy into their BS.
"One of my most vivid memories is of coming back West from prep school and later from college at Christmas time. Those who went farther than Chicago would gather in the old dim Union Station at six o'clock of a December evening, with a few Chicago friends, already caught up into their own holiday gayeties, to bid them a hasty good-by...And last the murky yellow cars of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul railroad looking cheerful as Christmas itself on the tracks beside the gate.
When we pulled out into the winter night and the real snow, our snow, began to stretch out beside us and twinkle against the windows, and the dim lights of small Wisconsin stations moved by, a sharp wild brace came suddenly into the air. We drew in deep breaths of it as we walked back from dinner through the cold vestibules, unutterably aware of our identity with this country for one strange hour, before we melted indistinguishably into it again.
That's my Middle West — not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. I am part of that, a little solemn with the feel of those long winters, a little complacent from growing up in the Carraway house in a city where dwellings are still called through decades by a family's name. I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all — Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.
Even when the East excited me most, even when I was most keenly aware of its superiority to the bored, sprawling, swollen towns beyond the Ohio, with their interminable inquisitions which spared only the children and the very old — even then it had always for me a quality of distortion. West Egg, especially, still figures in my more fantastic dreams. I see it as a night scene by El Greco: a hundred houses, at once conventional and grotesque, crouching under a sullen, overhanging sky and a lustreless moon. In the foreground four solemn men in dress suits are walking along the sidewalk with a stretcher on which lies a drunken woman in a white evening dress. Her hand, which dangles over the side, sparkles cold with jewels. Gravely the men turn in at a house — the wrong house. But no one knows the woman's name, and no one cares.
After Gatsby's death the East was haunted for me like that, distorted beyond my eyes' power of correction. So when the blue smoke of brittle leaves was in the air and the wind blew the wet laundry stiff on the line I decided to come back home." -- Chapter Nine
At her age? I'm in my 50's, and that stunt was news to me, of using strong photoflash or strobe to "burn through" lightweight fabrics used in couture.
Ah, okay. There was also a film that came out in 1964, with the title Paparazzi, probably inspired by LDV, which I've never seen. Never saw Fellini Satyricon or Amarcord, either.
There were a bunch of them that I missed, back in the day.
RAID is a kind of multi-drive computing. Do you perhaps mean something like napalm? Or, you could summon a man with an aardvark.
Kerry's such an ass that his daughter has to go out and try to clean up after him.
I don't disagree with anything you said, except for that part. There is no right to privacy in the Bill of Rights. It was that misinterpretation which made abortion a "constitutional right."
Just a thought.
I think the Bush girls know their dad loves them
I think the Kerry girls are still tring to win their father's love.
A great early morning treat. Thanks.
I'm gonna reconsider my long held position. I had always assumed the "coming east" was necessary to Nick/Gatsby's outsider status. Needless to say, FSF always felt himself the outsider, maybe even in his own marriage.
Really, you should check out O'Hara. I have a feeling you'll like him. Of course, he was too crazy to become part of the college courses.
hehe! That's what I thought.My pleasure.
maryz: ????
neanderthal: I must have missed that one. Which one was it?
Now here comes tpaine: Try understanding the 9th Amendment.
Tell me again, tpaine, how the ninth amendment applies to Mary Cheney in the above circumstance. Hint: If I were you, I would not be so condescending, especially on matters involving the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
This is true. But, one was found in the penumbra (shadow) of the emanation (light) of other rights protected by the Bill of Rights.
In 1965, in Griswold v. Connecticut, (a contraceptive case) a "right to privacy" was found in the penumbra of the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth amendment emanations.
Roe v Wade, on the other hand, was decided on due process. The court ruled that the right to an abortion "is embraced within the personal liberty protected by the (Substantive) Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment".
(Due Process, not the "right to privacy", was also used in Lawrence v Texas, the sodomy case.)
bumpkin
robertpaulsen wrote:
There is no right to privacy in the Bill of Rights. -- This is true. But, one was found in the penumbra (shadow) of the emanation (light) of other rights protected by the Bill of Rights.
No 'shadows' are needed to establish that our rights to privacy are as old as common law. Only zealots with an agenda deny that persons have individual rights to a private life, liberty and private property.
In 1965, in Griswold v. Connecticut, (a contraceptive case) a "right to privacy" was found in the penumbra of the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth amendment emanations.
Common law & common sense also tell us we have a right to privacy. - Case closed.
Roe v Wade, on the other hand, was decided on due process. The court ruled that the right to an abortion "is embraced within the personal liberty protected by the (Substantive) Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment".
(Due Process, not the "right to privacy", was also used in Lawrence v Texas, the sodomy case.)
Good to see you using common sense for a change robbie. -- Would you agree "personal liberty" includes our right to privacy?
Related Supreme Court Decision
113 F.2d 806
138 A.L.R. 15, 1 Media L. Rep. 1775
(Cite as: 113 F.2d 806)
Circuit Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.
SIDIS
v.
F-R PUB. CORPORATION.
No. 400.
July 22, 1940.
CLARK, Circuit Judge, dissenting in part.
Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Southern
District of New York.
Action by William James Sidis against the F-R Publishing Corporation to
recover damages for violation of rights of privacy and for malicious libel.
>From an order dismissing the claims for violation of rights of privacy, 34
F.Supp. 19, plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
West Headnotes
[1] Torts k8.5(3)
379k8.5(3)
(Formerly 379k8)
The intimate details of private life are not entitled to an absolute immunity
from the prying of the press, and a limited scrutiny may be had of the
private life of any person who has achieved, or has had thrust upon him, the
questionable and indefinable status of a "public figure".
[2] Torts k26(1)
379k26(1)
A complaint alleging the publication in a magazine without plaintiff's
consent of a biographical article which described plaintiff as one who had
been an infant prodigy and who in later life sought to conceal his identity
through his chosen career as an insignificant clerk, did not state a cause of
action for violation of plaintiff's alleged "right of privacy" under the law
of California, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky or Missouri, notwithstanding
allegation of actual malice in the publication.
[3] Torts k8.5(7)
379k8.5(7)
(Formerly 379k8)
For "purposes of trade" within New York statute prohibiting the unauthorized
use for advertising purposes or for "purposes of trade" of the name, portrait
or picture of any living person does not contemplate the publication of a
newspaper, magazine or book which imparts truthful news or other factual
information to the public. Civil Rights Law N.Y. §§ 50, 51.
[4] Torts k26(1)
379k26(1)
A complaint alleging the publication in a magazine without plaintiff's
consent of two biographical articles which limited themselves to the
unvarnished, unfictionalized truth did not state a cause of action under New
York statutes prohibiting the unauthorized use for advertising or trade
purposes of the name, portrait or picture of any living person. Civil Rights
Law N.Y. §§ 50, 51.
[5] Torts k8.5(4)
379k8.5(4)
(Formerly 379k8)
Where magazine article regarding plaintiff did not violate New York statute
prohibiting the unauthorized use for advertising or trade purposes of the
name, portrait or picture of any living person, a newspaper advertisement
announcing the article shared the privilege enjoyed by the article,
particularly where the advertisement did not use the name, portrait or
picture of the plaintiff. Civil Rights Law N.Y. §§ 50, 51.
[6] Federal Courts k589
170Bk589
(Formerly 106k405(12.9), 106k405(12))
An order granting motion to dismiss first and second causes of action based
on violation of rights of privacy was an "appealable order," notwithstanding
that third cause of action alleging malicious libel remained standing.
Fed.Rules Civ.Proc. rule 54(b), 28 U.S.C.A.
*807 Edwin J. Lukas, of New York City (Sapinsley, Lukas & Santangelo and
Louis Okin, all of New York City, on the brief), for plaintiff-appellant.
Alexander Lindey, of New York City (Greenbaum, Wolff & Ernst and Harriet F.
Pilpel, all of New York City, on the brief), for defendant-appellee.
Before SWAN, CLARK, and PATTERSON, Circuit Judges.
CLARK, Circuit Judge.
William James Sidis was the unwilling subject of a brief biographical sketch
and cartoon printed in The New Yorker weekly magazine for August 14, 1937.
Further references were made to him in the issue of December 25, 1937, and in
a newspaper advertisement announcing the August 14 issue. He brought an
action in the district court against the publisher, F-R. Publishing
Corporation. His complaint stated three 'causes of action': The first
alleged violation of his right of privacy as that right is recognized in
California, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, and Missouri; the second charged
infringement of the rights afforded him under Secs. 50 and 51 of the N.Y.
Civil Rights Law (Consol. Laws, c. 6); the third claimed malicious libel
under the laws of Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Defendant's motion
to dismiss the first two 'causes of action' was granted, and plaintiff has
filed an appeal from the order of dismissal. Since a majority of this court
believe that order appealable, for reasons referred to below, we may consider
the merits of the case.
William James Sidis was a famous child prodigy in 1910. His name and
prowess were well known to newspaper readers of the period. At the age of
eleven, he lectured to distinguished mathematicians on the subject of
Four-Dimensional Bodies. When he was sixteen, he was graduated from Harvard
College, amid considerable public attention. Since then, his name has
appeared in the press only sporadically, and he has sought to live as
unobtrusively as possible. Until the articles objected to appeared in The New
Yorker, he had apparently succeeded in his endeavor to avoid the public gaze.
Among The New Yorker's features are brief biographical sketches of current
and past personalities. In the latter department, which appears haphazardly
under the title of 'Where Are They Now.' the article on Sidis was printed
with a subtitle 'April Fool.' The author describes his subject's early
accomplishments in mathematics and the wide-spread attention he received,
then recounts his general breakdown and the revulsion which Sidis thereafter
felt for his former life of fame and study. The unfortunate prodigy is
traced over the years that followed, through his attempts to conceal his
identity, through his chosen career as an insignificant clerk who would not
need to employ unusual mathematical talents, and through the bizarre ways in
which his genius flowered, as in his enthusiasm for collecting streetcar
transfers and in his proficiency with an adding machine. The article closes
with an account of an interview with Sidis at his present lodgings, 'a hall
bedroom of Boston's shabby south end.' The untidiness of his room, his
curious laugh, his manner of speech, and other personal habits are commented
upon at length, as is his present interest in the lore of the Okamakammessett
Indians. The subtitle is explained by the closing sentence, quoting Sidis
as saying 'with a grin' that it was strange, 'but, you know, I was born on
April Fool's Day.' Accompanying the biography is a small cartoon showing the
genius of eleven years lecturing to a group of astounded professors.
It is not contended that any of the matter printed is untrue. Nor is the
manner described as having 'a certain childlike charm.' But the article is
merciless in its dissection of intimate details of its subject's personal
life, and this in company with elaborate accounts of Sidis' passion for
privacy and the pitiable lengths to which he has gone in order to avoid
public scrutiny. The work poses great reader interest, for it is both amusing
and instructive; but it may be fairly described as a ruthless exposure of a
once public character, who has since sought and has *808 now been deprived of
the seclusion of private life.
The article of December 25, 1937, was a biographical sketch of another
former child prodigy, in the course of which William James Sidis and the
recent account of him were mentioned. The advertisement published in the
New York World-Telegram of August 13, 1937, read: 'Out Today. Harvard
Prodigy. Biography of the man who astonished Harvard at age 11. Where are
they now? by J. L. Manley. Page 22. The New Yorker.'
The complaint contains a general allegation, repeated for all the claims, of
publication by the defendant of The New Yorker, 'a weekly magazine of wide
circulation throughout the United States.' Then each separate 'cause'
contains an allegation that the defendant publicly circulated the articles or
caused them to be circulated in the particular states upon whose law that
cause is assumed to be founded. Circulation of the New York World-Telegram
advertisement is, however, alleged only with respect to the second 'cause,'
for asserted violation of New York law.
1. Under the first 'cause of action:' we are asked to declare that this
exposure transgresses upon plaintiff's right of privacy, as recognized in
California, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, and Missouri. [FN1] Each of these
states except California grants to the individual a common law right, and
California a constitutional right, [FN2] to be let alone to a certain extent.
The decisions have been carefully analyzed by the court below, [FN3] and we
need not examine them further. None of the cited rulings goes so far as to
prevent a newspaper or magazine from publishing the truth about a person,
however intimate, revealing, or harmful the truth may be. Nor are there any
decided cases that confer such a privilege upon the press. Under the mandate
of Erie R. Co. v. Tompkins, 304 U.S. 64, 58 S.Ct. 817, 82 L.Ed. 1188, 114
A.L.R. 1487, we face the unenviable duty of determining the law of five
states on a broad and vital public issue which the courts of those states
have not even discussed. [FN4]
FN1. Green, The Right of Privacy, 27 Ill.L.Rev. 237, 248; Ragland, The Right
of Privacy, 17 Ky.L.J. 85, 110-113; Moreland, The Right of Privacy Today, 19
Ky.L.J. 101; Lisle, The Right of Privacy (A Contra View), 19 Ky.L.J. 137;
Larremore. The Law of Privacy, 12 Col.L.Rev. 693; Harper and McNeely,
(1938) Wis. L. Rev. 426, 458; 5 Mo.L.Rev. 343.
FN2. Melvin v. Reid, 112 Cal.App. 285, 297 P. 91. But cf. Matter v. Los
Angeles Examiner, 35 Cal.App.2d 304, 95 P.2d 491.
FN3. Judge Goddard's decision is reported in 34 F.Supp. 19. The cases he
reviewed are Melvin v. Reid, supra note 2; Pavesich v. New England L.I. Co.,
122 Ga. 190, 50 S.E. 68, 69 L.R.A. 101, 106 Am.St.Rep. 104, 2 Ann.Cas. 561;
Bazemore v. Savannah Hospital, 171 Ga. 257, 155 S.E. 194; Goodyear Tire &
Rubber Co. v. Vandergriff, 52 Ga.App. 662, 184 S.E. 452, Kunz v. Allen, 102
Kan. 883, 172 P. 532, L.R.A. 1918D, 1151; Brents v. Morgan, 221 Ky. 765, 299
S.W. 967, 55 A.L.R. 964; Douglas v. Stokes, 149 Ky. 506, 149 S.W. 849, 42
L.R.A.,N.S. 386, Ann.Cas. 1914B, 374; Foster-Milburn Co. v. Chinn, 134 Ky.
424, 120 S.W. 364, 34 L.R.A., N.S., 1137, 135 Am.St.Rep. 417; Jones v. Herald
Post Co., 230 Ky. 227, 18 S.W.2D 46; Munden v. Harris, 153 Mo.App. 652, 134
S.W. 1076. See also Matter v. Los Angeles Examiner, supra note 2.
FN4. The cases most nearly in point are Jones v. Herald Post Co., supra note
3, and Matter v. Los Angeles Examiner, supra note 2. But both these
decisions involved news events of great current interest to the community.
All comment upon the right of privacy must stem from the famous article by
Warren and Brandeis on The Right of Privacy in 4 Harv.L.Rev. 193. The
learned authors of that paper were convinced that some limits ought to be
imposed upon the privilege of newspapers to publish truthful items of a
personal nature. 'The press is overstepping in every direction the obvious
bounds of propriety and of decency. Gossip is no longer the resource of the
idle and of the vicious, but has become a trade, which is pursued with
industry as well as effrontery. * * * The intensity and complexity of life,
attendant upon advancing civilization, have rendered necessary some retreat
from the world, and man, under the refining influence of culture, has become
more sensitive to publicity, so that solitude and privacy have become more
essential to the individual; but modern enterprise and invention have,
through invasions upon his privacy, subjected him to mental pain and
distress, far greater than could be inflicted by mere *809 bodily injury.'
Warren and Brandeis, supra at page 196.
Warren and Brandeis realized that the interest of the individual in privacy
must inevitably conflict with the interest of the public in news. Certain
public figures, they conceded, such as holders of public office, must
sacrifice their privacy and expose at least part of their lives to public
scrutiny as the price of the powers they attain. But even public figures
were not to be stripped bare. 'In general, then, the matters of which the
publication should be repressed may be described as those which concern the
private life, habits, acts, and legitimate connection with his fitness for a
public office. * * * Some things all men alike are entitled to keep from
popular curiosity, whether in public life or not, while others are only
private because the persons concerned have not assumed a position which makes
their doings legitimate matters of public investigation.' Warren and
Brandeis, supra at page 216.
It must be conceded that under the strict standards suggested by these
authors plaintiff's right of privacy has been invaded. Sidis today is
neither politician, public administrator, nor statesman. Even if he were,
some of the personal details revealed were of the sort that Warren and
Brandeis believed 'all men alike are entitled to keep from popular curiosity.'
[1] But despite eminent opinion to the contrary, [FN5] we are not yet
disposed to afford to all of the intimate details of private life an absolute
immunity from the prying of the press. Everyone will agree that at some
point the public interest in obtaining information becomes dominant over the
individual's desire for privacy. Warren and Brandeis were willing to lift
the veil somewhat in the case of public officers. We would go further,
though we are not yet prepared to say how far. At least we would permit
limited scrutiny of the 'private' life of any person who has achieved, or has
had thrust upon him, the questionable and indefinable status of a 'public
figure.' See Restatement, Torts, Sec. 867, comments c and d; Corliss v. E.
W. Walker Co., C.C. Mass., 57 F. 434, 31 L.R.A. 283; Id., C.C., 64 F. 280, 31
L.R.A. 283, Jeffries v. New York Evening Journal Pub. Co., 67 Misc. 570, 124
N.Y.S. 780; Jones v. Herald Post Co., supra; Meter v. Los Angeles Examiner,
supra; cf. Hillman v. Star Pub. Co., 64 Wash. 691, 117 P. 594, 35 L.R.A.,
N.S. 595, criticized in 10 Mich.L.Rev. 335.
FN5. Warren and Brandeis, supra at page 216; Pound, Interests of Personality,
28 Harv.L.Rev. 343, 363; Green, supra note 1, at page 248; Ragland, supra
note 1, at pages 110-113; Larremore, supra note 1, at page 698.
[2] William James Sidis was once a public figure. As a child prodigy, he
excited both admiration and curiosity. Of him great deeds were expected.
In 1910, he was a person about whom the newspapers might display a legitimate
intellectual interest, in the sense meant by Warren and Brandeis, as
distinguished from a trivial and unseemly curiosity. But the precise
motives of the press we regard as unimportant. And even if Sidis had
loathed public attention at that time, we think his uncommon achievements and
personality would have made the attention permissible. Since then Sidis has
cloaked himself in obscurity, but his subsequent history, containing as it
did the answer to the question of whether or not he had fulfilled his early
promise, was still a matter of public concern. The article in The New
Yorker sketched the life of an unusual personality, and it possessed
considerable popular news interest.
We express no comment on whether or not the news worthiness of the matter
printed will always constitute a complete defense. Revelations may be so
intimate and so unwarranted in view of the victim's position as to outrage
the community's notions of decency. But when focused upon public
characters, truthful comments upon dress, speech, habits, and the ordinary
aspects of personality will usually not transgress this line
Don't hold back man. Tell us how you really feel.
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