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Back and blue [Mass.: should stores be open on Christmas day?]
Boston.com ^ | December 4, 2005 | By Mac Daniel

Posted on 12/04/2005 6:46:56 AM PST by cloud8

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Mac Daniel is not one of the Globe's brightest bulbs, and here as usual he is several watts short of the big picture. The Puritans' Common Day of Rest Law applied to the Sabbath. Massachusetts didn't make Christmas into a legal holiday until the late 19th century. AG Reilly, the presumptive Dem gubernatorial candidate enforces this "blue" law selectively: *some* stores are allowed to remain open on Thanksgiving and Christmas. It prolly won't be long till the malls are allowed to open too, as they are on New Year's.

Laws against fornication, blasphemy, and adultery are still on the books, but they aren't enforced either.

1 posted on 12/04/2005 6:46:57 AM PST by cloud8
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To: cloud8

How could they enforce the laws. Kennedys would be in jail no running the state.


2 posted on 12/04/2005 7:10:01 AM PST by grin (When Bush called the Minutemen vigilantes he was acknowledging that he was not doing his job)
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To: cloud8

You can say that again.


3 posted on 12/04/2005 7:14:46 AM PST by AliVeritas (''I'd rather have Jihadis in front of me than Democrats behind me.'' Go GOP!)
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To: AliVeritas

> You can say that again.

I will. Anyone who has worked retail knows there is a need for a Common Day of Rest.


4 posted on 12/04/2005 7:22:13 AM PST by cloud8
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To: cloud8
Having grown up under the Gay State's "blue laws",I look back at those times with much fondness.Sundays were truly a day of rest.

Of course,having been overrun with out of state "progressives" over the last 30+ years,it would be oppressive to expect that anyone here should not have access to a new TV set or a new pair of sneakers for a single second of a single day.

But then,atheists like Kennedy,Kerry and Frank wouldn't have it any other way.

5 posted on 12/04/2005 7:31:29 AM PST by Gay State Conservative
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To: cloud8
The early ptotestants of Massachusettes made it illegal NOT to work on Christmas. Celebrating Christmas was illegal.

AS I recall, it was late in the 17th century beofre celebrating the Incarnation was permissible

6 posted on 12/04/2005 7:33:45 AM PST by bornacatholic
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To: KC Burke
"One thing is certain: The earliest settlers in Massachusetts created the laws to control human behavior for the common good...They were less concerned about individual rights than they were about community rights," said Drummey. 'They were trying to build an ideal community here. And like all Utopian visions, they went too far."

I've always been struck by the eery parallel between political correctness and Puritanism. The fact that it is Massachusetts where people are being told what they can do on which days, and which refuses to rid itself of laws which intrude into the most personal aspects of our lives, is probably not a coincidence.

7 posted on 12/04/2005 7:41:20 AM PST by Sam Cree (absolute reality) - "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." Albert Einstein)
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To: cloud8
Intellectually, I know that people should be free to conduct commerce whenever they want to.

But I remember Sundays in the Texas of my youth more fondly with every passing year. When the Blue Laws were repealed here in the mid-80's, commerce may have improved, but something special was lost.
8 posted on 12/04/2005 8:05:57 AM PST by horse_doc
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To: horse_doc

Yeah, the mad scramble to buy everything on Saturday so the Sunday chores could be accomplished. The effect was to increase the amount of Sunday cuss words when it was realized that the critical item was overlooked and could not be purchased without making the border run to New Hampshire.


9 posted on 12/04/2005 8:12:08 AM PST by NonValueAdded (What ever happened to "Politics stops at the water's edge?")
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To: Sam Cree
Bergen County, New Jersey still has a Sunday blue law. A repeal was put to a vote in 1993. It overwhelmingly failed.

Same thing in Nova Scotia last year - citizens voted to keep the Blue Laws 55-45% last October.

Sounds like the majority in those places doesn't agree that they are being told what to do on Sundays.
10 posted on 12/04/2005 9:29:43 AM PST by conservative in nyc
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To: Sam Cree

> I've always been struck by the eery parallel between political correctness and Puritanism.

They both require a high degree of conformity, but at least the Puritans carried out their lives in the conviction that they were serving God. And maybe they did, except for the unpleasentness up in Salem. My own relatively puritanical upbringing taught me a sense of right and wrong, and the Massachusetts I live in now could use a healthy dose of it.


11 posted on 12/04/2005 10:00:56 AM PST by cloud8
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To: horse_doc

> When the Blue Laws were repealed here in the mid-80's, commerce may have improved, but something special was lost.

Here in Massachusetts, we couldn't buy beer on Sunday until last year. You still can't buy it in a supermarket on any day of the week. Gotta go to the Packy :) (Package Store)

Someone once told me the Change is Good. I didn't believe it for a minute. Tradition is best, and even if it's the quirky Blue Laws, it's a reminder of our heritage.


12 posted on 12/04/2005 10:27:10 AM PST by cloud8
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To: conservative in nyc

So your point is that since a majority of citizens voted for blue laws, we should keep 'em? Sounds like the tyranny of democracy to me. In a free country, the day one takes off, or gives off, should be up to the individual, not the state, not the next door neighbor, not the community, not the vestry.


13 posted on 12/04/2005 10:27:49 AM PST by Sam Cree (absolute reality) - "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." Albert Einstein)
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To: cloud8
" -- When Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly warned retailers that they would face prosecution if their doors opened on Thanksgiving, he was citing a nearly 400-year-old-law, ---
--- whenever the blue laws come up, so does the key question: why can't the Legislature shed or refine them?

Because the legislature is still controled by members who disregard their oath of office; -- to support the US Constitution as the supreme law.

Our law of the land does not allow States to deprive the people of life, liberty or property without due process of constitutional law.
'Blue laws' deprive us of the liberty to do as we please on holidays. .

14 posted on 12/04/2005 10:47:00 AM PST by don asmussen
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To: don asmussen
> Because the legislature is still controled by members who disregard their oath of office; -- to support the US Constitution as the supreme law.

I believe our esteemed legislators swear to uphold the laws and constitution of the Commonwealth:

"I, A. B., do solemnly swear and affirm, that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me as : according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably, to the rules and regulations of the constitution, and the laws of this commonwealth -- So help me, God." http://www.mass.gov/legis/const.htm

> 'Blue laws' deprive us of the liberty to do as we please on holidays. .

They do indeed. But be that as it may, do you support the invalidation by the SCOTUS of the Texas sodomy (i.e., Blue) laws? All such laws regarding the sale and consumption of alcohol, work on Sunday, sexual relations, etc., were enacted to preserve and maintain public morality.

15 posted on 12/04/2005 11:26:41 AM PST by cloud8
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To: cloud8
" -- When Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly warned retailers that they would face prosecution if their doors opened on Thanksgiving, he was citing a nearly 400-year-old-law, ---
--- whenever the blue laws come up, so does the key question: why can't the Legislature shed or refine them?

Because the legislature is still controlled by members who disregard their [primary] oath of office; -- to support the US Constitution as the supreme law.

I believe our esteemed legislators swear to uphold the laws and constitution of the Commonwealth --

Check out Article VI. All state legislators "-- shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution, --".

Our law of the land does not allow States to deprive the people of life, liberty or property without due process of constitutional law.
'Blue laws' deprive us of the liberty to do as we please on holidays. .

They do indeed. But be that as it may, do you support the invalidation by the SCOTUS of the Texas sodomy (i.e., Blue) laws?

Same principle applies. We can do as we please in the privacy of our homes, as long as no one is harmed.

All such laws regarding the sale and consumption of alcohol, work on Sunday, sexual relations, etc., were enacted to preserve and maintain public morality.

"Public morality" can be regulated with reasonable state laws, laws that do not infringe or deprive people of life, liberty or property without due process of constitutional law. [see the 14th]
The key principle is 'reasonable'.

We have a Constitutional system that protects individual liberty, not one that allows States to infringe upon them.

16 posted on 12/04/2005 11:57:12 AM PST by don asmussen
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To: cloud8

We have a Constitutional system that protects individual liberty, not one that allows States to infringe upon them.

Barnett explains:


The Presumption of Liberty
Sample Chapter for Barnett, R.E.: Restoring the Lost Constitution
Address:http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/chapters/i7648.html


17 posted on 12/04/2005 12:05:21 PM PST by don asmussen
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To: don asmussen
Our law of the land does not allow States to deprive the people of life, liberty or property without due process of constitutional law.

'Blue laws' deprive us of the liberty to do as we please on holidays. .


The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly disagreed with that view, starting with McGowan v. Maryland (1961). Blue laws are constitutional.
18 posted on 12/04/2005 12:35:08 PM PST by conservative in nyc
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To: cloud8

Why don't we let business owners decide


19 posted on 12/04/2005 12:36:42 PM PST by stocksthatgoup (Polls = Proof that when the MSM want your opinion it will give it to you.)
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To: Sam Cree

My point is that blue laws are both constitutional and still supported by a majority in some places, regardless of what the Boston Globe would have you believe.


20 posted on 12/04/2005 12:41:08 PM PST by conservative in nyc
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