14th of May Open Thread
By Popular Demand
By Dan McLaughlin Posted in Miscellanea | Open Thread — Comments (49) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
401 years ago today, on May 14, 1607, Jamestown, Virginia became the first permanent English settlement in America.
60 years ago today, today, on May 14, 1948, the state of Israel declared itself an independent sovereign nation, triggering an invasion by its Arab neighbors.
Today, on May 14, 2008, John Edwards endorsed Barack Obama.
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Joe and Val are invading TV sets all across Oregon with this drivel (warning vomiting may occur):
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Just like PayPal, except it's free and a $25 bonus to sign up!
Formally known as Deagle... "Golf is a way of life..."
fabulous hair? He actually looks like a serious guy now instead of a foppish weasel. Which is unfortunate.
"No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong." - Winston Churchill
My daughter Rebecca (Pocahontas's English name) was born on May 14 - she turned 16 in 07 and we went to the 400th celebration at Jamestown.
"Where I stand does not depend on where I'm standing." Fred D. Thompson
Still (redacted) awesome.
Also, those of you who have children, know children, or have heard of children should never, ever, get this game because they might play it and that would be like taking them to Watership Down or something.
It's completely inappropriate for children. It's inappropriate for twenty-somethings.
It's awesome, though.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. --Voltaire
Still [deleted] boring.
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
The things my kids already do with their toy cars leave me scratching my head sometimes.
BTW, my screen name was stolen from a toy metallic blue '66 Chevelle which my twins named blooch in 2004, when they were three. He has since sired several Hot Wheels and a couple of Matchboxes out of wedlock, although he has apparently settled down for awhile with a '78 lime green Porsche Carrera. They got that idea from the Lightning/Sally hookup in "Cars". I'm afraid to ask when I find two cars stacked on top of each other now.
The sexiest woman alive!
_________________
Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words...-Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes
I think I just came up with a sequel...
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
Am I the only who thinks this GI Bill brouhaha is a PR nightmare for McCain? For heaven's sake, for THIS POTUS to talk about something "costing too much" is pretty funny at this point, let alone any Republican member of Congress who's gone along with the spending binge of the last seven years. And now Larry Freakin' Craig's getting involved too.
I don't know all the particulars, but I sure know how Obama's people are going to spin it if Webb's bill doesn't go through, or if W vetoes it. Time to be a maverick again, John, and support the troops. And get Cindy to release her tax returns; this stuff's just embarrasing. Bad as Specter wanting to keep Spygate alive, instead of getting more judges confirmed.
Hopefully this endorsement from Edwards is only the beginning of him playing a high-profile role in the fall campaign (VP??!!); that'd be some good news at least. Talk about an opponent you WANT to have.
STEVENS, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which SCALIA, J., joined.
Someone PLEASE ...
... tell BILLARY Clinton to STOP agonizing us with her NONSENSICAL campaign!
With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see right.
Oh, and your username is really... very close to NSFW. I see KYJ and start thinking about my wife, you know what I mean?
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
I would have voted for him.
"I will look for people in the cast of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and my friend the late William Rehnquist – jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference." - John McCain
Self-parodying human weathervanes like Edwards only diminish those they endorse. I guess he held out until a 40-point blow out gave him cover from the coward charge.
I've asked it before, and no offense to the Tarheel State, but how stupid is the North Carolina defense bar if this moron beat the insurance companies out of millions?
"Gee, well, you see, I really wanted to wait till the last second just to make sure I could endorse the winner so they'll make me AG. I didn't want to risk backing the wrong person because I really wanna be AG so I can sue lots a companies."
"I will look for people in the cast of John Roberts, Samuel Alito, and my friend the late William Rehnquist – jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference." - John McCain
I was unaware of the Bisphenol A "scare" a few weeks back. When asked if my wife and I were changing bottles, etc, I had never heard of BPA. I have a 13-month old daughter.
Being the skeptic that I am, of course my initial reaction is to avoid kneejerk reactions and banning stuff. What's my friend's "smell's like tobacco companies" conspiracy is another person's DDT, AGW, or silicone breast implants. I tend to think that most negative "neighborhood effects" have little impact on overall life expectancy, but I also don't want to harm my kid.
Obviously, I'm going to talk to our pediatrician, but I wanted to know other's thoughts... all you see on the internet is the scare-hype.
www.fairtax.org
Sick of Government Expansion? libertarian-Minded Republican? Check This Out... Republican Liberty Caucus!!!
www.rlc.org http://www.republicanliberty.org/
It's also not a likely risk of anything in the way whoever is pushing the scare thinks it is.
It's used to Make the plastics that they make plastic bottles from. Whether water bottles, soda bottles or baby bottles. Supposedly, if these bottles are heated, they realease BPA into their contents.
So far, no one has published an experiment where they tested this theory and got this result.
I'd ignore it. But if you're worried, just go to a glass bottle like your mother used on you.
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
I think.
Someone was commenting that they'd heard that some GOP House members were getting comfortable in the minority, because the Democrats let them earmark.
The GOP Reps get to send a few million bucks home to keep the voters happy, and the Dems get to keep the majority.
That's not the scary part. What's scary is---I could easily imagine a bunch of the GOP Congresscritters doing something like this.
Has anyone heard anything along these lines?
"Who will stand/On either hand/And guard this bridge with me?" (Macaulay)
"Big girls don't cry!" I hope Hillary takes this all the way to the convention.
You know Barack, if you want to complain about job losses maybe you should look at the building that you are going to be speaking at. (H/T Missouri Political News Service)
Now also found at The Minority Report
Since this is an Open Thread, I am gonna ask two random questions. The second is addressed specifically to gamecock, though I suppose anyone can answer it. Since I first came here to hear the other side's point of view, I figured I would ask...
The first concerns the Ninth Amendment. As far as I can tell, it basically says just because something isn't listed here as a right, doesn't mean it isn't. Since (I assume) a lot of y'all would consider yourselves to ascribe to the "strict constructionist" point of view, what do you take this amendment to mean/imply?
It would seem to me that, for example, the right to privacy might be included in this class of rights, which are not explicitly mentioned but still exist. It seems to me that a right to privacy is in line with the principles of the Constitution and freedom and all that, so would be the type of thing that the ninth amendment was aimed at.
If you are a strict constructionist, does that mean that there is a theoretical list of rights protected by this amendment, unchanging as long as there are no more amendments? If so, how do you decide what makes the list? If not, what does the amendment do then? Could the government (fed or state) pass a law making it illegal to teach a certain class of people to read (like slaves, I'm told, back when slavery was legal)? Does that violate a right-to-have-a-chance-to-be-literate that exists due to the 9th amendment, and if not, is that law then Constitutional?
The second question concerns American Exceptionalism. I have seen people here, especially gamecock, make reference to it as an important concept. Not being sure exactly what it meant, I looked it up on Wikipedia, and found (not too shockingly) that it means different things to different people. So my question is, what does American Exceptionalism mean, and why is it important? Or can you link me to somewhere on Redstate where someone explained this, or to some other writer at some other site who did so? Like I said, this is addressed specifically to gamecock, though I suppose anyone can answer. Thanks in advance.
I need to reread the amendment in question, but I think your interpretation is taking it a bit far...
As for the 2nd, "American Exceptionalism" amounts to a form of nationalism. Except that America really is exceptional in a lot of ways.
We were the first, and still are the Only nation that accepts people from all nations, races and cultures and welcomes them as fellow Americans just because they want to be. New Americans don't have to earn their fellow citizens' acceptance. They just have to want to be Americans and follow the law to be treated the same as any other American.
We are the most successful free nation in human history. We had the Weakest case for a rebellion in human history and yet have had the most successful one in same.
America has done more to improve the standard of living of more people in the world than any other nation in human history. We have shed more blood for the freedom of others than has anyone else. We have advanced medicine, transportation, agriculture, industry, and many other disciplines farther and faster than anyone else in history.
Bottom line: The USA is THE greatest earthly force for good in human history. Bar none.
That is us. That is the USA. The recognition and pride in that is "American exceptionalism". America is exceptional. No other nation is or ever has been like America. WE are America.
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
I need to reread the amendment in question, but I think your interpretation is taking it a bit far...
If that is so, then what would you say is not taking it too far?
Most people would read that little sentence you quoted as saying that I am in really no place to discuss the 9th Amend. I have a vague opinion of your interpretation, but it's nothing to base a discussion on.
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
"The USA is THE greatest earthly force for good in human history. Bar none"
The greatest earthly force for good in human history is not the good old USA. America's greatness comes not from her people, but from the God of her people. We have nothing to boast of, it is God that enabled us to accomplish the good we have been able to do.
American exceptionalism is not look at what America has done, it is look at what our God has done through America!
God, by definition, is not an earthly force.
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
through both individuals and their nations. What ever Earthly good America has accomplished, it could not have been done without the help of God. We have nothing to boast in ourselves, but in the God who enabled us!
I was always uncomfortable with saying that God's will has a lot to do with the US's successes. I agree that the USA's existence has been a huge plus to the world in the past 230ish years. And part of this may be that I take a different view of how God intervenes in worldly affairs.
But I don't like the idea of going around saying that our success was due to God's will, because the next step could be if we do this-or-that, then it is God's will (and therefore not open to criticism by others). Or that the US has never made a mistake, ever. Or that, say, if an American missile missed its target and hit someone's house, then that is God's will. And I in general don't try to say that something is God's will, because I figure there is a lot I don't know about when it comes to what God does and why.
When you say that something is God's will, there is a sort of finality to it that doesn't leave anything open to doubt, and does not lend itself to the level of ignorance that I think we all have when it comes to what God is doing.
There are two aspects of God's will: one, is His sovereign will which encompasses everything that happens (which includes the missle hitting someone's house) and two, His moral will (this is what God wants, but does not always get). I can't get into all of this here, but suffice it to say we can not know God's sovereign will because it is not revealed to us, but we can know God's moral will because He has given it to us both internally and externally in His written word. We as an individual or nation can know we are in the sovereign will of God if we are doing things that line up with His moral will or written word.
I am not advocating that America is a divine instrument of God. What I am advocating is that when I see an American work that lines up with God's moral will then I can say with assurance that it was done in the will of God. Whether something is in God's moral will that America is wanting to do should always be open to criticism/debate for there is safety in the multitude of counselors.
I'm not sure all of this is readible, but I am out of time for now. Maybe I will add more latter.
The interpretation of the Ninth that I, personally, hold is that the government should always take the presumption of liberty on the part of the citizenry. Sort of like the presumption of innocence, it needs to make a very, very strong case that a law is required if it will diminish the liberty of the citizens.
I've stopped arguing for that, though.
I now merely argue that the Ninth just means that you shouldn't say "Where in the Constitution is your right to *THAT*???" as your main argument for why people don't have the right to something.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. --Voltaire
I suppose I could agree with that, but that leads to the following question: how do you reconcile a "strict constructionist" view with this? Like for example, do anti-marijuana laws diminish liberty, and if so does the government have a strong enough case to intervene? Once you take the Ninth Amendment to mean what you say above, is there a way, based solely on the text of the Constitution, to decide this question? What about banning trans fats? What about requiring that everyone eat their vegetables? etc.?
If you don't/can't, then do you just ignore the Ninth Amendment?
A better way to interpret the Ninth Amendment is to say, "if there are no laws against it, you can do it."
It does not bestow any new liberties or rights (such as smoking marijuana whether it affects other people or not) nor does it prohibit the states from restricting rights and liberties by duly-enacted legislation (such as prohibiting the states from prohibiting the sale and use of marijuana for whatever reason); but it does state that if there are no laws against it, "toke up."
That is the best objective, historical and textualist meaning of the Ninth Amendment. Unfortunately, many erstwhile conservatives do not like that understanding because they think it does not protect us from stupid or silly laws that infringe upon our rights. My response is that the Ninth Amendment was never meant to protect us from stupid or silly laws that infringe upon our rights and we should try to stretch and deform it to try and make it so.
If and when we do, we are no better than the Liberals and their "living constitution."
*****
Unrepentant Black nationalist, Unapologetic Black conservative!
and rights of the people refers to their right to self government as citizens of their states.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
The Constitution didn't create 'rights' it listed those 'rights' that existed that by consent of the governed were 'curtailed' so that the government could work for the common good. A 2nd amendment argument should point out that the right to own a gun pre-existed the Constitution. The 2nd amendment prohibited the Congress from denying that right to the general populace.
Off Topic!
I just wanted to thank everybody here for the island of sanity that RedState is!! I had just gone to the website of one of the 1st Dist. House candidates in Maine and my blood pressure was way up! My stomach wasn't in such great shape either!
Here's the website if you're curious!
courts striking down state laws absent a specific provision of federal law that comports with the constitution or the constitution itself.
I often justify my new love for corporate law )just as I once loved trial practice and criminal law), as defending businessmen since if liberty means anything, it means that all is legal unless a law makes it illegal!
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
I'm beginning to gain respect for some lawyers!(LOL)
from a conservative perspective, perhaps someone else will chime in. I'll just say this: the US Constitution does not confer rights. At the founding, it was purely and simply the "articles of incorporation" of a union of sovereign states and it sets out the contours and limits of the powers and duties of the agent of those states, the US federal government. All rights inhere in the People and the States, either and both of which may confer or limit rights so long as they maintain a republican form of government. A discussion of what modern interpretations of the 14th Am. and the "incorporation" doctrine has done to the original premise of the Constitution is too lengthy and complicated to deal with here and now.
In Vino Veritas
delay Zombie. I must have missed it.
Objectively, the facts prove our exceptional achievements by all liberal criteria of the greatest good for the greatest number in history. Most of history is a story of tyranny and sorrow. Even Rome and Greece were nations in which high percentages of the people were very poor and slaves.
When America is compared to other actual nations now and in history, we are without peer. Libs always compare us to an imaginary utopia, one that would not have the wealth to achieve its utopianism since no would have an incentive to work with no right to keep the fruits of their labor.
The right of self government, right to private property, English common law, limited government by Constitution, all producing enough wealth to make the poor obese and have enough money to build a military that no megalomaniac that enslaves their people to build a war machine can equal.
Sweden enjoys the fruits of our labor in this regard, for example.
ALL free people on earth are free because the US exists.
more later
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
It has nothing to do with us, ethnically, racially or otherwise. It has to do with the wisdom of the Founding Fathers and the system they set up that took into account man's god given yearning to be free, as well as his original sin. Hence, the federalism and the checks and balances. I do think that it is no accident that the founders based much of their thinking on and that most americans shared allegiance to, judeo-christian values.
more later
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
http://thehinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
www.race42008.com
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
I just wanted to point ut that Cheesecake is the best dessert EVER!
The presidential candidate who promises "...a cheesecake in every house every week..." gets my vote. Regardless of the rest of his platform.
(also, if he's not willing to spend that much money, he can just promise a cheesecake in My house every week and still get my vote)
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
What's going on with that out there? I'm hearing some crazy stuff.
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
There seem to be plenty of fish. You just have the perennial struggle between Alaska fisherment, Seattle and Canadian fishermen, Commercial v. Sport/Charter fishermen, Greenies claiming that global warming has killed all the fish, and DF&G doing the wrong thing for all the right reasons - or vice versa.
The lack of a personal use crab opening is really pi**ing me off. People are catching king crabs in the dungee gear all over the area and having to "throw them back" since the season is closed. I think that DF&G either hasn't surveyed adequately or there's been some shift in where the crab are, but after only a ten day opening last year, the word is there'll be no opening at all for personal use this year. I'm starting to think I singlehandedly destroyed personal use crabbing when I finally broke down and put that ugly crab gear on my pretty boat, but I'd run out of friends who'd let me beat up their boat with crab pots.
'Course, they haven't slowed the commercial guys down at all. Shows who's got swack in this administration. It ain't for nothing Sarah and Todd have a Bristol Bay permit.
In Vino Veritas
that my eldest son graduates from high school tomorrow.
[sniff]
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I was looking but couldn't find the thread about the women involved in the presidential campaigns right now. You know, the one about Female lawyer, female lawyer, big-breasted beer woman...
Could someone post a link to it for me?
"Always be honest with yourself. Even if you are honest with no one else."
--me
"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777