The Constitution on trial!

Check your life insurance policies, folks, the battle is on!

This week, just before the Thanksgiving holiday, the US Supreme Court agreed to review a Second Amendment case. At issue are the District of Columbia’s anti-gun ownership laws, the strictest in the nation. Yet it puts the highest court in the land at the center of judging the constitutionality of the U.S. Constitution itself, if gun opponents have their way.

Now, thanks to Bush appointees, most suspect that at worst, the Second Amendment will be protected by a 5-4 vote, but don’t be so sure just yet. Keep in mind that the Roberts court is the same one that decided to damage personal property rights and trivialize the real meaning of eminent domain a couple years ago, in essence ruling that private homes could be condemned to make way for shopping malls and parking lots, even in times of peace. In other words, the Roberts court has gotten in wrong before.

As I’ve often said, I don’t own a gun; but I value the freedom of knowing that I have the option. Gun ownership is an individual right because the key phrase is, “the right of the people.” It’s only used a handful of times and in every other instance, whatever rights are enumerated thereafter have been deemed individual, not collective, rights.

Watch out if the high court decided otherwise because if the Supremes can, by fiat, make the Second Amendment null and void, anyone who values freedoms like speech, religion and assembly, to name a few, better beware, because those could be overtuned next!

Checking account hassles

There’s not a lot political about opening a checking account. Or is there?

While banking is not necessarily a partisan endeavor, I had a pretty bad experience with a bank I won’t name here. The problem popped up last spring; I’d had a couple overdrafts due to unexpected delays in my direct deposits, and suddenly the bank I was with de-activated my ATM/Debit card.

Suddenly, I had to write checks for everything and stop by bank branches for each and every deposit or withdrawal. It was extremely frustrating and they refused to budge and told me no bank would ever take me on as a customer, I was lucky to even have an account with them, and I’d just have to learn to live without an ATM/Debit card.

What bull. I looked into several banks, including online banking options like WaMu, and found out there are plenty of banks who are big corporate jerks out to rob your account of your hard-earned money for every minor goof. Bottom line is, if a bank treats you like they don’t want you as a customer anymore, don’t put up with it: there are plenty of banks that do.

Hills can’t even manage a proper exit

A set of four flags became a set of negative exit poles for Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham (D-NY) as she capped a “nightmare week from hell” by botching an “exit stage left” move on Veteran’s Day. With the help of a careless aid sweeping aside a curtain for her, a set of four flags tumbled in front of the former First Lady, creating a ruckus that lent itself to political interpretation.

“I think the bases are not weighted enough,” Clinton said as she propped flags back up, according to an ABCNews.com report that includes a nifty video of the event. Be sure you have your HDMI switches working when you watch this one! You won’t want to miss a pixel.

Lots of fellow conservative bloggers are having fun with the whole “even the flag attacks her” political spin. I think the straightforward interpretation is preferable: Sen. Rodham’s campaign is a bit careless and mistake prone, lately, and it’s showing her vulnerability. Hillary is not beyond her own sort of Howard Dean moment. In fact, in the last week, she’s had hardly anything but.

Will Supremes review constitutionality of Constitution?

The federal Supremes may review the constitutionality of the U.S. Constitution in their next session … or at least part of it.

In perhaps one of the most paradoxical questions before the Supreme Court in a long time, by Tuesday the highest judicial body in the nation will decide whether to review a case that is basically being referred to as “Levy vs. the District of Columbia.” Produced and brought forward by libertarian Cato Institute senior fellow Robert Levy, the case seeks to test the constitutionality of the anti-firearm regulations in force in the District of Columbia, the nation’s strictest anti-handgun laws.

Last March, the US Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Second Amendment, which states, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” While gun ownership groups argue that the important modifier there is the right of the “people” – which would classify gun ownership as an individual right, is the cornerstone phrase, gun ownership opponents argue that the key phrases are “A well regulated Militia” and “the security of a free State,” which could be argued toward in interpretation that diminishes the individual gun ownership right, but merely allows for gun ownership in connection with some form of military or state service.

WonderfulPessimist.com is of the intellectual opinion that only oligarchies, dictatorships and other forms of tyrannical government seek to deny the common folk gun ownership, because they fear uprisings and rebellions against their rule. Just and moral governments never need to fear that and therefore allow private ownership of guns, whether it be for hunting, home protection or defending oneself against tyranny. WonderfulPessimist.com also recommends the 1980s movie Red Dawn as required viewing before entering into any discussion on this issue.

That being said, I’ve never really owned a gun. And other than the antique World War II German Luger my father acquired while serving in Germany, which I would like to keep as a remembrance of him and pass down to my kids when the time comes (once I have kids), I have no personal interest in owning a gun.

But I tell you what: I feel a lot safer living in a country where I know I could own one if I chose to, than I’d feel living in a country where I couldn’t, no matter how much it might be needed. After all, what the jet-set liberals who want to pretend the Second Amendment doesn’t exist don’t realize is that life is not always condo hotels and caviar: some folks do live in dangerous areas, and cops are a reactive, not a proactive, force. If I lived in an area where I knew a rapist was at large, for example, I wouldn’t want to be without any way to protect my wife if the fellow tried breaking in to our apartment.

Then again, I’m not exactly planning on going out and buying one any time in the foreseeable future, either. But at least I have the choice. The best thing the Supreme Court could do is to pass on this case and, by so doing, uphold the lower court decision that the DC anti-gun laws are too broad and therefore unconstitutional. While anti-gun advocates would see this as a defeat, it doesn’t give pro-gun forces all they want, either. Sounds like a decent balance.

Bloomington, MN, socked with double levy!

With the local media incredulous that anyone at all might think of voting against a property tax levy that benefited schools, voters nevertheless have beaten back at least some of the record 90 local property tax initiative.

Voters in Bloomington, however, weren’t so fortunate. The district here had the gall to foist not one, but two huge increases on Bloomington voters, both of which passed by a mere couple-hundred votes each. Perhaps some voters were under drug treatment and thought they were selecting which new chemical abuses they want to sign up for; voting in favor of both referendum will rob them of as much income as a bad drug habit, at any rate.

The first initiative raises the per-pupil funding rate from $991.40 per pupil to $1,503.11 per pupil. That’s a $511.70 increase per pupil, or an over 53% increase. That little number will kick Bloomington taxpayers in the gonads beginning in 2009, even though the wording makes it sound like it won’t hit all at once. Don’t count on it, folks.

The second referendum isn’t even about kids or union contracts; it’s a chance for the district to hold taxpayers up to the tune of an additional $30 million over he next 10 years to pay for… computers and software. And probably wireless Internet and whatever other technological toys they can get away with.

Oh, and this isn’t about class size, folks; statewide enrollment is declining. Paying more for less, as well as diminishing results; it’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

Eww, Grosswiler! Another liberal professor dazzles us all…

Folks in Maine better invest in cell phone boosters for all the calls they’ll soon be getting from conservative talk radio, especially students at the University of Main in Orono, ME.

That’s because the university finds itself home to the latest liberal nutbar to fall off the Jimmy Carter peanut tree. Sophomore Rebekah McDade is alleging that Maine associate professor Paul Grosswiler offered extra credit to class members if they burned the American flag or the U.S. Constitution or were arrested defending free speech. See the full story here.

Proving once again that in Liberal Lakes, words have no meaning, Grosswiler defended himself with this random string of meaningless-unless-we-assign-value-to-them objects of attempted communication:

“I don’t intend for students to burn either the Constitution or the flag, and over the years hundreds of students have understood that,” Grosswiler wrote.

Let’s see… extra credit if you do it. I don’t intend for you to do it.

Yeah. Ummm……

Yeah.

I stand in awe of such obvious intellect. Next class, Professor Orwell?

Twins born pro-life!

If anyone is opposed to abortion, it’s the unborn, and for very personal reasons.

Thoughts like this seem like simple witticisms designed to spread the pro-life message until one happens across the odd news story that would seem to prove it. In this case, the culprit is the London Daily Mail.

For their Sunday edition, they share the story of Gabriel and Ieuan Jones, conjoined twins who doctors wanted to separate, a procedure they admitted would cost twin Gabriel his life, but would ultimately “be for the best.”

But if anyone believes in supernatural intervention into human will, this is the tale they should be reading. Gabriel and Ieuan refused to accept the “Gabrial must die” diagnosis.

The Daily Mail reports:

Firstly they tried to sever his umbilical cord to cut off his blood supply, but the cord was too strong.

They then cut Mrs Jones’s placenta in half so that when Gabriel died, it would not affect his twin brother.

But after the operation which was meant to end his life, tiny Gabriel had other ideas.

Although he weighed less than a pound, he put up such a fight for survival that doctors called him Rocky.

Astonishingly, he managed to carry on living in his mother’s womb for another five weeks – until the babies were delivered by Caesarean section.

Now he and Ieuan are back at home in Stoke – and are so close they are always holding each other’s hand.

Take that, NOW. Even Wynn Las Vegas wouldn’t bet on odds like that.

Pulling a Clinton

I have decided that offering an evasive, contradictory answer should no longer be associated with John Kerry. That honor, in this election cycle, should fall to Hillary Rodham.

The New York Senator and former first lady put her “that depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is” training to full use in this week’s Democratic candidate debate, evading a direct answer to several good questions by moderator Tim Russert – who, by the way, does NOT work for Fox News but, in Camp Hillary, is not considered to be chief communications director of that “vast right-wing conspiracy” thing she keeps bringing up.

Example? Sure. On the issue of New York governor Elliot Spitzer suggesting that illegals ought to be issued driver’s licenses.

“What Governor Spitzer is trying to do is fill the vacuum left by the failure of this administration to bring about comprehensive immigration reform.” -Sen. Hillary Rodham-Clinton

Only minutes later:

“I did not say that it should be done, but I certainly recognize why Governor Spitzer is trying to do it.” -Sen. Hillary Rodham-Clinton

Don’t see the problem?

Diagnosis: you’re a liberal. Stop kidding yourself.