Because I’m old and stodgy, I kinda want to smack all parties involved — but the judge first. Via NYMag‘s Dan Amira, who adds:
… When asked if they were concerned about personal religious beliefs undermining their secular laws, Tennesseans responded, “Oh, don’t worry, we’re super vigilant about Sharia around here.”
GregB
Any chance of these nitwits naming their second kid Beezlebub?
TriassicSands
I guess I’m old like you, Anne, cuz smackin’ everyone involved seems like the thing to do.
I have often felt sorry for children whose parents seemed to have chosen their children’s names while at the end of a week-long drunken bender. Would I want to be named Messiah? God, no!
Does the judge have the right to change the child’s name based on her own religious beliefs. Hell, no! Listening to her, my skin began to crawl.
Finally, think about having the name Messiah — what will they call him? Messy?
The prophet Nostradumbass
It’s not like the kid was named Miroslav.
PurpleGirl
The mother’s surname is Martin, the father’s surname is McCullough. They had been fighting about what the boy’s surname would be. The mother wanted the name to be Messiah DeShawn Martin. The judge decided to use the surname Martin has his new given name and that the father’s surname be used. All told the name would now be Martin DeShawn McCullough.
I find this to be an abuse of judicial power.
Yatsuno
“I have thought about that…but it isn’t relevant to this case.”
Nice of you to weasel your way out of that one YerHonour.
NotMax
Gonna need several hours’ notice of the meteor in order to empty the liquor cabinet, please.
Jewish Steel
That shit’s meshugah.
Alison
@TriassicSands: Maybe he’ll be a soccer player.
Joseph Nobles
Where’s your Messiah now, see?
ETA: I just remembered that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore (yes, he’s been reelected) got his start as a knuckle-headed Xian-proud judge. So did Louis Gohmert, for that matter. Keep your eye on this one. Martyrdom for political advantage is the new white pointed hood.
NotMax
Next, petitioning to have the rugrat renamed Holyghost?
Maybe Luannballewsuksass as a middle moniker?
Suzanne
How many Kaitlynnes and Kylees and Aidan/Brayden/Hayden/Jaydens are there, yet “Messiah” is the one that sends her over the edge?!
dance around in your bones
I find it completely reprehensible that a judge has any say in re-naming a kid. Let the kid change it’s own name if it finds it strange/weird on down the road.
Having lived through the 60’s/70’s I knew a few kids who changed their hippie names when they got older.
Surprised the judge didn’t change the baby’s name to Title.
Also, there are quite a few Jesus and Maria Guadalupes out in the world.
Amir Khalid
Isn’t this judge inviting some kind of professional censure by making up the authority to tell people what names they can or can’t give their kids?
NotMax
Used to be (may still be, for all I know) a drag queen living here who legally changed his first name to Precious.
Suzanne
@dance around in your bones: My former middle name is a hippie invention. I think it’s silly, but certainly not the government’s business.
Yatsuno
@Suzanne: Yesbut…Jeebus. Plus Tennessee.
BillinGlendaleCA
Guess this judge doesn’t get out much, here in the southwest lots of folk are named Jesus.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Suzanne: Unit?
Villago Delenda Est
You know, these people do not seem to understand that “secular” does not mean what they think it means.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Anyone remember joe from lowell? he hasn’t changed. Scroll through the comments.
NotMax
@Yatsuno
Going back to Reagan times on this one. Consider it a – ahem – youthful indiscretion.
Worked at an ad agency in NYC which was trying to get the Tennessee visitor’s bureau account.
They sent around a memo soliciting suggestions from anyone who cared to submit for a tourism slogan.
I sent in “Tennessee: More ignorant crackers than you can shake a stick at.”
Needless to say, that wasn’t used. But did get a memo back about how much everyone liked it in-house.
Good times, good times.
fuckwit
It’s time to sic the ACLU on her ignorant ass. I’ll donate. Where’s the link?
dance around in your bones
@Suzanne: My kid’s middle name is a lunar body. This has been carried down as a tradition to her third child.
Her first name is a Persian word that we always translated to her as “very high, like a constellation”. She was working in a restaurant when a couple of Iranian guys said “Do you know what your name means?” She was so pissed off at us when she found out it meant really stoned.
Ok, it was the 70’s and we were young and frivolous. Plus, it’s a pretty name.
NotMax
Should you happen to something like an old flannel shirt that’s going to the rag bin anyway, wear it for a day then cut small swatches and place them in the nooks of the unit.
NotMax
Wrong thread on #24. Ignore.
This has been senior moment #670,811. Collect them all.
Yatsuno
@dance around in your bones: That must have been a 70s hippie thing. I have a friend from college with a Farsi name, but hers is the world. It’s also very lovely.
SectionH
Ok, sure WTF, and all, but I srsly don’t get this. What is the background that s court is ruling on a baby’s name?
Yes, I clicked on the link. No, I won’t let it play, but I read all the commentary on the sight I could find. Apparently someone named their kid Messiah, and someone else objected. So far, right?
Where in this country is this a legal matter, except in some civil court? As in, a stupid divorce case, or what?
Messy, hey, will it be nature or nurture?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@SectionH: Neither of the parties in the litigation objected. The Judge did.
NotMax
@Yatsuno
Reminded of the origin of the name of a type of fabric, which is lilting in the original Hindustani (derived from Persian origins), but in English became seersucker.
dance around in your bones
@Yatsuno: Oh, it’s definitely a 70’s thing.
We had been hanging around in Afghanistan during that time and picked up a fair amount of Farsi/Dari then so we could drink tea and bargain in carpet shops, buy veggies at the markets and wrangle with cab drivers and etc.
The smoking of hubble-bubbles is what led to the name…….
PurpleGirl
@SectionH: From what I can gather from different sources (not the video clip) it probably started as a civil/administrative proceeding to determine child support and the child’s surname. As I wrote in my previous comment (#4) the judge (who is probably more of an administrative law judge) made the determination to use the father’s surname. She then decided that given name the mother wanted to use was inappropriate based on a misunderstanding of Hebrew and the Biblical texts. Chalk it up to ignorance. The mother wanted to use a nice-sounding, “unique” name; weird but not illegal and nothing the judge should have been concerned with. The whole thing is absurd.
SectionH
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Precisely.
Bleh, I actually clicked on the link. The legal issue was the surname of the child. The wingnut judge actually inserted her own religious ignorance into the issue of the kid’s surname.
No I’m really mad;
Villago Delenda Est
From Anne’s second link:
Very good. Deference should be shown to Deism.
SectionH
@PurpleGirl: Uh, I think I made the same point about the process. FFS, would the judge not have allowed the child to have been named Jesus? A name common enough in the Latino community…
I have been paying attention to posts, comments, about the countries where the law has only allowed some names to be registered – and that was a WTF moment to me. But those walls are crumbling afar can tell.
Mr S and I have often discussed names. of people. in the US. And how names do in fact make a difference. FSM help me: we had a woman name her daughter Uthrethra. Now there’s an intervention which should have happened. But we just Sighed.
Also too, theprophet Nostrodumbasss was right.
NotMax
@Villago Delenda Est
Douglas needs to copy out Juan Cole’s post from a few years ago 100 times.
(In deference to writer’s cramp, he can skip the first 7 paragraphs relating to Palin.)
BillinGlendaleCA
As I pointed out earlier, the esteemed jurist obviously does not get out of her immediate area much.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: The really interesting thing is that Juan Cole’s given name is John R. Cole. So when some were getting our bloghost and Juan Cole confused, they were only a middle name off.
PurpleGirl
@SectionH: The judge probably would allow Jesus because that is derived from the Hebrew name, Yuashua (Joshua).
The judge’s problem with Messiah is that she considers it a title and a title given to only one “historical” figure. In this she is wrong. Messiah means anointed one in Hebrew and has been applied to other people throughout time. She shows her ignorance. An example of someone called Messiah is the Rebbi Menachem Schneerson, late of Brooklyn and buried in Queens. As the leader of the Lubbitcher Hasidim, his followers called him Messiah.
Schlemizel
@Suzanne:
My favorite is Kayla
It was Tarzan’s Ape mother’s name
@Amir Khalid:
Judges are supposed to interpret the law and are generally given a lot of latitude to do that. Its why there is an appeals process and why the higher courts use multiple judge panels to review. Unless a ruling is really egregious (and this one is probably viewed as not quite awful enough) they get a pass. Now if the folks make a stink & appeal, then maybe.
mothra1
The judge is an idiot who will be overruled in a heartbeat. I’m sure she’ll make a fine GOP presidential candidate.
But “Messiah” reallly does put a lot of pressure on the kid. KWIM?
Patricia Kayden
@mothra1: No more than Jesus, which is a common name already among some Latinos.
Amir Khalid
@Patricia Kayden:
As it happens, plenty of Muslim boys are named Isa, the name by which Jesus is known in Islam.
donnah
Open thread, right? Well, sad news:TBogg’s calling it quits. :-(
I will miss his blog very much.
JPL
We should have a fundraiser and send the judge a few bobble head Jesus dolls. Does the judge approve the name David?
TFinSF
Yes, because only hippies should be allowed to give their kids bizarre names.
Baud
That judge is really going to have egg on her face when she finds out that the kid really is the second coming.
Mustang Bobby
@BillinGlendaleCA: Same here in Miami; lots of Jesuses running around. In fact, the guy who cuts my hair is named Jesus. So when some evangelical asks me if Jesus is my personal savior, I reply “No, but he is my personal barber.”
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
It was called the 1800s. And Walter Hines Page had a name for them. He called North Carolina’s leaders “the mummies” as in very old, well-wrapped, very dead Egyptians because of their complacent conservatism.
debbie
This was on the news last night. She was asked about naming a kid Jesus. She paused and said that she didn’t think it was relevant to the discussion.
Punchy
I smell a strong GOP SCOTUS nominee…
Linda Featheringill
@Amir Khalid:
Isa:
I didn’t know that. Interesting. Because he was a prophet or a teacher?
J.D. Rhoades
@Yatsuno:
She’s relying upon the ancient legal maxim Quia clausa wisi (Because shut up, that’s why).*
*Translation by Google translate, I have no idea if it’s accurate.
Soonergrunt
@The prophet Nostradumbass: So what?
Betsy
@Suzanne: Whitney, Britnee, Slutney, Chutney …
Steeplejack
@donnah:
So sad to hear that. Maybe Cole can ease him in over here as a front-pager emeritus with no posting quota. The snark, the basset hounds and the Shakira ass videos would be a perfect fit. Just sayin’.
OGLiberal
But what about God Shammgod?
tybee
@donnah:
damn.
first we lose dog house, now tbogg bails out.
just damn.
Xantar
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
I don’t see the problem here. Some people disagree with Joe from Lowell. So what? His argument is worth debating even if you disagree. Judging by your tone I was expecting trolling or something.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@Joseph Nobles: Don’t even get me started on that rat-bastard Roy Moore. Jesus. You’d think that being impeached and removed from office would be enough to permanently disqualify you from at least having that type of office again, but NO! I’ll have to Google it to see how many amendments there are to the very racist 1901 Alabama state constitution, but when they were writing in different ways to screw teh browns, teh gays, and teh poors, and, for that matter, how many fire districts one particular county can have or the salary of a specific officer for a specific county, they managed to leave that one out.
Edit: 856 Amendments, 340,136 words. Jesus fuck! According to Wikipedia, that makes it 12 times longer than the average state constitution, 40 times longer than the US constitution, and almost triple the length of the English language translation of the Constitution of India, which is the world’s longest national constitution. Considering there are roughly 250 Indians for every Alabaman, and it is older and far less culturally homogeneous than Alabama, India has a good reason for their monstrosity.
As an aside, if anyone needs proof that judges should never be elected officials, look at Roy Moore and Louie Gohmert. There should definitely be better oversight and an easier way to remove those who violate their oaths of office, as Mr. Scalia and Mr. Thomas prove every time they taint this nation’s highest court with their malign presence, but adding money to the equation just begs for abuse.
SFAW
The parents could have solved it easily by ‘splainin’ to the
cleric“judge” that the kid’s name is spelled “Messiah” but it’s pronounced “Throat Warbler Mangrove.”SFAW
@NotMax:
I would, except then I’d forget where I put them.
I would, except then I’d forget where I put them.
Wait – what were we talking about?
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: ‘Rainbowsmoke’?
I Heart Breitbartbees
@NotMax: We can’t forget about Pulaski, TN, near the Alabama border, and what started there not long after the end of the War of Southern Aggression. Tennessee is Mississippi with better mountains, music, barbecue, and a lottery.
Dead Ernest
@Steeplejack:
An enthusiastic ‘Second!’ to this glorious idea.
greennotGreen
I have a bit of a problem with the linked article, “Tennesseans responded, “Oh, don’t worry, we’re super vigilant about Sharia around here.” Some Tennesseans said that. We aren’t all morons. Mostly those guys are in the legislature.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@Baud: Is it wrong that I wish the judge had named the child Buddy Christ (last name TBD)?
Splitting Image
@Baud:
Technically the couple’s next child would have been the second coming, so they should have saved “Messiah” for that one.
drkrick
It’s said that the hospital refused to complete a birth certificate for Moon Unit Zappa under that name. The certificate went in with another name, but the family used the preferred name until she was old enough to get it legally changed.
Amir Khalid
@Linda Featheringill:
Jesus is regarded as a major prophet in Islam.
cmorenc
@Patricia Kayden: The judge was directly asked by the teevee reporter “what about people who name their child Jesus”? (spoken with the Spanish pronunciation to Jesus). The judge replied: “that’s not relevant to this case”.
Not…relevant? Did this “judge” really finish law school? At an accredited school? From what statutory authority did she base the right to intervene in the issue of the child’s first name?
I do agree that all the parties involved in this case, parents and judge, are a bunch of incredible nitwits who ought not be put in charge of anything even as intellectually challenging as changing a light bulb.
I Heart Breitbartbees
@cmorenc: I disagree. I think they should all be given jobs with the Ministry of Silly Walks.
Lawrence
Are Hispanic people not allowed to name their children Jesus anymore? Or Muslims allowed to use Mohammed? For extra credit, is anyone willing to wager that the judge is aware that Jews Muslims and Christians all worship the same god?
Ahh says fywp
@SectionH: Messiah is no differebt from Emanuel or Joshua and arguably, Elijah.
Will pious judges ban those too?
What will they do with the Lakshmis, Tors, Parvatis, Desis, Olympias, Athenas, Dawns, Liliths, Mordechais, and various other demigods
cmorenc
Although articles refer to her as a “judge” (her name is Lu Ann Ballew)…she is in fact only a “magistrate”, which in many states does *not* require any law degree nor passage of the bar nor membership in the state bar. Magistrate is the lowest-level office with quasi-judicial function (e.g. magistrates issue search warrants, decide small claims cases, etc), and typically have very limited jurisdiction compared to even District Courts (which do typically require a law degree and state bar membership).
There’s even more local politics involved in appointment of magistrates than there is with regular judicial offices. For one thing, magistrates are rarely elective positions. (Arguably, neither should judicial appointments be elective, except perhaps periodic “retention” elections where the only issue is whether an incumbent judge should be retained in office.
NickT
@J.D. Rhoades:
No. Latin doesn’t use the letter w. In Classical Latin, v is pronounced as if it were w, thus the joke that Caesar called his opponents weeny, weedy and weaky (veni, vidi, vici).
“Because shut up, that’s why” might be translated into tooth-jangling Latin as “quia tace illius causa”.
NickT
@Ahh says fywp:
You wait until the judge sees the name “John Q. Flying Spaghetti Monster Smith” on the docket for her next case.
NickT
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/aclu-judge-cant-change-childs-name-from-messiah?ref=fpb
Clearly our efforts to impose sharia law have been inadequate thus far.
J R in WV
Ignorance, the new American favorite!
I’m glad they’re
watchingtrying to watch out for that Sharia stuff, too bad they don’t know what they’re watching out for.Waist deep in it already, and can’t smell it at all!
gussie
@Jewish Steel: That shit’s meshiach.
Petorado
Next up for Judge Ballew, Ronald McDonald will have to change his name to Barack McDonald to protect the sacred name of another deity.
fuckwit
Consistent with the Tbogg-retiring thread, it would be better to have Shakira law instead. At least there would be talented dancing, decent music, and amazing ass.
Arclite
Messiah, nickname “Messy?”
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Are these your personal senior moments or is it just a catalog so we can all identify with them?
Because if it is a personal listing, I have my own and really there isn’t room in there for everyone else’s.
chopper
if i were the parents, i’d change the kid’s name to ‘moshiach’. judge probably wouldn’t even get it.
TerryC
@NotMax: “Used to be (may still be, for all I know) a drag queen living here who legally changed his first name to Precious.”
Met a guy in Lansing playing disc golf a few years ago at a tournament whose name was Precious Delicious—I took a careful look at his Michigan driver’s license and it looked legit.