liberty
The real extremists
David Limbaugh reveals the Democrats' plan to paint constitutional originalists as "extremists":
They are hoping to convince the people that any nominee who is reputed to be an originalist is an extremist -- "outside the broad mainstream." Because they view the Court as a co-equal policy-making branch of government, they are treating the confirmation process as another national election.
Their bogus praise for O'Connor is simply the first step in their ruse. By lauding her as a "mainstream conservative," they lay the groundwork for labeling anyone less activist than her an extremist.
A majority is a majority is a majority
There is an idiom in the sports world that "a win is a win is a win." In other words, it doesn't matter if you've beaten your opponent by 50 points or one. It doesn't matter if you win the race by .0001 of a second, or if you blow away the field, with the rest a full lap behind you. A win is a win is a win. So, in the case of politics, is a majority a majority a majority. It doesn't matter if the majority is 80-20, 70-30, or 50.1-49.9. A majority is a majority is a majority. I only bring this up because there is no apparent end to the pitiful whining eminating from the political left. I suppose when you have nothing constructive to offer the nation, the best you can do is complain about what the party in power is doing, without offering any alternatives whatsoever. Jeff has delivered, in few words and using simple math so the left can keep up, a majority primer on why the Republicans have a large enough majority to legitimately run the country.
Supreme consequences
There is no greater threat to American liberty and the future of the Republic than a central government not bound by the limits and constraints placed upon it by our Constitution. Thus, it was providential that on the eve of Independence Day this past week, there were two significant Supreme Court assaults on liberty, capped by the retirement announcement of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (with that of Chief Justice William Rehnquist likely to follow). It was providential because, as we contemplated the birth of American liberty and the sacrifice it has taken to sustain it, we were confronted with what has become the greatest threat to our liberty -- judicial tyranny from within, or what Thomas Jefferson called the "despotic branch."
The "We created al-Qaeda" myth
The idea that al-Qaeda was no threat until we created it does not stand the slightest scrutiny of events in the 1990s — from the first attack on the World Trade Centre in 1993, to the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 and, of course, the September 11 atrocity a year later. And no one seriously thinks that only America was in their sights. The ideology of Islamism doesn’t stop at the superpower’s borders; its ambitions sweep through Europe; indeed that is where it is breeding so many of its jihadists.
The fight in Iraq is not, as the opponents claim, a self-inflicted wound, suddenly giving rise to new threats on our homeland from people we should have left well alone. We are, steadily, beating the terrorists in Iraq. Not only in the military operations, but also by demonstrating who and what the enemy really is. And thereby creating the only real long-term conditions for safety from Islamo-fascism —- free states that do not deny the most basic human rights to their peoples. The people who murdered innocent Londoners yesterday are the same people who are murdering innocent Iraqis.
Standing stronger
On a day like today, when al-Qaida has struck a hammer blow against the West and hurt us badly, of course it seems tempting for us to circle our wagons, call in our dogs and hunker down.
But it would be a mistake.
[...]
Whatever terrorists want us to do, we have to do precisely the opposite, and with renewed vigor in the wake of every agonizing but futile attack. Terrorists want us to stop supporting Israel; we respond by increasing our ties with Israel. Terrorists want us out of Iraq; we renew our commitment to the Iraqi people. Terrorists want to turn Afghanistan back into a failed state that they can dominate with their particular brand of twisted, medieval authoritarianism; we dedicate ourselves to making Afghanistan a free and prosperous member of the community of nations no matter what the cost.
If we continue to defy terrorists — if terrorism continues its unbroken string of utter failures — sooner or later young Muslim men are going to reach the realization that murder is not noble. If we bring liberty and prosperity to those dark, shadowy corners of the world where the light of freedom does not shine, sooner or later the people who live there are going to believe that there are better opportunities for them. If we prove to the world that we will not bend to the will of suicide bombers, of hijackers, of the murderers of the innocent, sooner or later those things will simply disappear.
It's just a matter of time. Unfortunately, time is what too many Americans are unwilling to give to the cause of extending liberty, to eradicating terrorism. Our fast-food, instant-on, access-always culture has put us in a collective mindset that any problem can be handled in an unrealistically short amount of time, when the hard truth is that most problems can not be wrapped up within months, or even years, much less overnight or within the confines of a thirty-minute sitcom. Here is a news flash, people: we are still in Germany. (Though not in the numbers we used to be.) We are still in Japan. World War II has been over, as of August of this year, for sixty years, and we still have a presence within the borders of our former enemies. This will not change with Afghanistan. This will not change in Iraq. If it does, especially in the near term, you can bet hostile regimes will rise again in those nations, and the sacrifices made by 1,700+ American service personnel will have been for naught. This talk, especially from our elected representatives, to cut and run from Iraq, hide behind our own borders, and hope the evil Islamic boogeymen don't get us, is utter nonsense. Such actions will not stop terrorists. Only when they are captured or dead, only when it has been shown that acts of terrorist violence will not bring about the desired behavior, when it has been shown that terrorism is not effective, will the terrorists be stopped. Stop your sniveling, Durbin. Put a sock in it, Sanders. Rein in the rhetoric, Rangel. You are not helping the situation. You are clouding the issue because of some blind hatred for the sitting President, for some misguided sense of patriotism that dissent in a time of war is acceptable. Dissent was fine two and a half years ago, when this country was discussing what course of action to take. Now, the course of action has been determined and taken, and it's time for you to sit down, shut up, and stand behind the administration that is taking the fight to the terrorists. Take an example from the Republican Party after December 7, 1941. They may not have liked FDR, or his domestic agenda, but by God they were behind him one hundred percent in prosecuting the war against Japan and Germany, the latter of which never attacked the United States. I only bring up this last point, since the left/Democrats seem intent on keeping in focus the fact that Iraq never attacked the U.S. In nearly four years since September 11th, there have been only two terrorist attacks directed against America or its European allies: Spain, 3/11/04, and today, 7/7/05, in Britain. Two. That's all. You want to say that Iraq, has nothing to do with the war on terror? How many attacks might have we faced if Saddam was still in power, aiding and abetting any terror group that wanted to strike against Hussein's perceived enemies? Would Paris have been targeted? Rome? You ostriches, as Jeff is fond of calling you, had better get your heads out of the sand. Go read The Last Jihad, if you want to see what a future President may have had to deal with if the U.S. hadn't taken action against Saddam. War, indeed a horrible, horrible thing, is, as times, necessary. And now they've gone and pissed off the Brits. Along with the Israelis, the British invented modern counter-terrorism. The SAS cut its teeth in the Middle East, and honed them to a razor's edge against the IRA. These Islamofascists have no idea what bottle they just uncorked in Londontown.
Standing strong
Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London:
This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful. It was not aimed at Presidents or Prime Ministers. It was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindu and Jew, young and old. It was an indiscriminate attempt to slaughter, irrespective of any considerations for age, for class, for religion, or whatever.
That isn’t an ideology, it isn’t even a perverted faith - it is just an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder and we know what the objective is. They seek to divide Londoners. They seek to turn Londoners against each other. I said yesterday to the International Olympic Committee, that the city of London is the greatest in the world, because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. They will stand together in solidarity alongside those who have been injured and those who have been bereaved and that is why I’m proud to be the mayor of that city. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those killed and wounded in London.
Muslim tolerance
If you want to track how tolerant the "Religion of Peace" is, I would suggest one way is to subscribe to the free e-mail updates from the Voice of the Martyrs. While VOM is committed to showing the persecution of Christians around the world, increasingly a lot of this persecution is coming at the hands of the supposedly-tolerant followers of Allah. This week's update includes: + In Nigeria, "Andrew Akume, a Christian lecturer and dean of the faculty of law at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) in Kaduna State, has disappeared after receiving a death sentence from a militant Muslim group. ...[W]hile the Nigerian constitution professes a secular status for the nation, the 12 states in Northern Nigeria that have implemented Islamic law promote and propagate Islam using public funds." + In Pakistan, "on Tuesday, June 28th, the homes of Christians in three areas near Peshawar, Pakistan were attacked by a radical Muslim mob. The attacks came after a Christian man was accused earlier that day of burning pages that contained Koranic verses. The man, Yousaf Masih (about 60 years old), has worked as a sweeper for almost two decades for the Pakistani military. While cleaning the home of a military officer, he came across a bag of "rough papers," and the major told Yousaf to burn them. Yousaf is illiterate and had no way of knowing what was written on the papers he was told to burn. Other workers saw the papers and said Yousaf was burning pages from the Koran. The next day police arrested Yousaf. (Insulting Islam, the Prophet Mohammed or the Koran can be punishable by death under Pakistan's harsh anti-blasphemy laws.) Radical Muslims returned to the area that night and burned an estimated 200 houses. Many were looted by members of the mob, who stole televisions, refrigerators and other items. The mob beat Yousaf's three sons and his brother, Yaqoob. Police have reportedly arrested 16 people involved in the attacks. A Hindu temple was also attacked, as apparently the mob at first believed Yousaf was a Hindu." + In Saudi Arabia, Christians are regularly persecuted by the Muslim majority, with the full approval of the ruling family. "Within the past two months, at least three groups of expatriate Christians meeting privately for worship in Riyadh have been raided and their leaders put under arrest for several days or weeks. Under the rule of strict Islamic law, Saudi Arabia prohibits the public practice of any religion other than Islam within its borders." + In Turkey, Christian Yakup Cindilli was beaten so badly by Muslim nationalists, he was in a coma for 40 days. Cindilli's family, conservative Muslims, continue to pressure him to renounce his faith, but he continues his recovery from the October 2003 attack committed to Christ. It was semi-widely reported that in Afghanistan, the Taliban set to destroy numerous Buddhist statues, some of which had been around for more than a thousand years. These are the kinds of things Muslims around the world are responsible for on a daily basis. I'm not saying all Muslims are this intolerant of non-Islamic faiths. I'm just saying that this is happening far too often for this to simply be a "few extremists" we are continually told are responsible for such atrocities. Those "few extremists" sure have a way of getting around.
Herein lies the problem
Nancy Pelosi, on the Kelo decision:
It is a decision of the Supreme Court. If Congress wants to change it, it will require legislation of a level of a constitutional amendment. So this is almost as if God has spoken. It's an elementary discussion now. They have made the decision. The Supreme Court is not the end-all, be-all of what is legal or not in this country. Does no one remember anything from their basic civics class? If the Supreme Court can willy-nilly declare whatever they like unconstitutional or constitutional, where is the system of "checks and balances" we all learned about? Yes, the Court is to act as a check and balance on the other two branches, but likewise, the executive and legislative branches act as checks and balances on the Supreme Court. There shouldn't have to be a constitutional amendment on the part of the legislature to overturn Kelo, Ms. Pelosi, because the Court's decision is unconstitutional and wrong. It's right there in Amendment number five of the Bill of Rights. New corporate structures to provide increased tax revenue fails to qualify in every way, shape, or form of the "public good" in the eyes of the Founding Fathers.
Apparently, I'm a dangerous citizen
"You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence." --Charles Beard
We, the Democratic Party, want it both ways
"It is offensive to suggest that a potential justice of the Supreme Court must pass some presumed test of judicial philosophy. It is even more offensive to suggest that a potential justice must pass the litmus test of any single-issue interest group. The disturbing tactics of division and distortion and discrimination practiced by the extremists of the new right have no place in these hearings and no place in the nation's democracy." Senator Ted Kennedy, 2005: "Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement gives President Bush, elected by a divided nation that has become even more divided, a unique opportunity to unite us by choosing for the Supreme Court someone who can win support from a broad bipartisan majority in the Senate and whom the vast majority of Americans will be proud of." The enormous difference in the dates shown above--which should be enough to secure support for Congressional term limits--aside, where, dear Senator Kennedy, Democrats, and other members of the radical left, in the Constitution does it say the President of the United States must consult with the Senate on his choices for federal bench appointments? Rather than choosing someone "who can win support from a broad bipartisan majority," the President should be choosing as a nominee a justice who will abide by the Constitution (aka, an "originalist"), versus one who will make up rights and law based on nothing found within the Constitution (aka, an "activist"). Something tells me that if enough justices on the Supreme Court fit the former model, rather than the latter, the American people would be quite proud of them, Senator, because the Court wouldn't be meddling in our lives and we would rarely hear from them. Here's hoping the President nominates another Scalia or Thomas. I want to see Kennedy's face turn all red. Oh wait, too late. [Thanks to today's Best of the Web.]
Grab a drop cloth and try not to get spattered
Like Jeff, I would like to see the Democratic Party come back to the roots it showed during the days of Truman and Kennedy, with regard to national security. If we can agree, for the most part, on this one area of policy, then all the domestic stuff we quibble over, such as Social Security, Medicare, et al, might get more attention.
Because I love our two-party system and I respect the members and leaders of the Democratic Party, I offer them this piece of advice at absolutely no charge: When you guys stand so close together, it’s easy to paint you all with the same brush. If you don’t like being accused of being weak on terrorism or of not being serious about the war — and based on your reactions to Karl Rove’s speech last week, it’s clear that you don’t — then take a cue from Senator Hagel of Nebraska. When somebody from the furthest extents of the far left says something ridiculous, don’t just sit there and let it happen. Stand up behind a podium tell America that that’s not what you stand for, that that’s not what you believe in, that those are not your ideas.
You’ll be better off as a party, and we’ll be better off as a country, if you stop letting groups like Move On speak for you.
What July Fourth Means to Me
For one who was born and grew up in the small towns of the Midwest, there is a special kind of nostalgia about the Fourth of July. Somewhere in our [youth], we began to be aware of the meaning of [important national] days and with that awareness came the birth of patriotism. July Fourth is the birthday of our nation. I believed as a boy, and believe even more today, that it is the birthday of the greatest nation on earth. The day of our nation's birth in that little hall in Philadelphia, [was] a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words "treason, the gallows, the headsman's axe," and the issue remained in doubt. [On that day] 56 men, a little band so unique we have never seen their like since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some gave their lives in the war that followed, most gave their fortunes, and all preserved their sacred honor. What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, eleven were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough. John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart. Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton. Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt. But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, three million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world. In recent years, however, I've come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation. It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history. Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government. Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should. --Ronald Reagan, 1981
Happy Independence Day
Today is the fourth of July, not the Fourth of July. That is not the holiday we celebrate in the United States today. Today we celebrate our Independence Day (Crikey, did I just quote a mediocre alien invasion movie?), when our Founding Fathers declared finished the document that would become our Declaration of Independence from England. So wish your fellow Americans a Happy Independence Day when you see them, and thank God for the blessing of having been born in--or having the privilege of becoming a naturalized citizen of--the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.
"Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." --Inscription on the Liberty Bell "I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not." --John Adams (1776) "[T]he flames kindled on the 4 of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them. ... The Declaration of Independence...[is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man." --Thomas Jefferson (1821) Happy 229th Birthday, America!
A Founding Father on property
"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence." --John Adams I've said it once, and I'll say it again: the prescience exhibited by the Founding Fathers never ceases to amaze me.
Blinded with the Bush-hatred
The conclusion is as heart-breaking as it is unavoidable: There are people out there —- reporters, pundits, Senators and Congressmen —- who hate the President and the Republican Party so deeply and with such passion that they would rather see the United States defeated and Iraq collapsed into a failed state than support what they see as George W. Bush’s war. I don't quite share Jeff's pessimism regarding tonight's speech, unless that pessimism means the expectation that the President will simply remind the American people that he has said all along that this war wouldn't be finished overnight, that it was a long-haul project, that we should remember there are still people out there who want to hurt and kill us, but right now we are winning. The President has been consistent with regard to the prosecution of the war against terror in general, and in Iraq specifically. There is no timetable for withdrawal, because we have not yet achieved total victory. Which is something the left, and increasingly the Democratic Party specifically, cannot allow.
Are they reading the same Constitution as the rest of us?
Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm too simple-minded to get it. Perhaps because I didn't go to law school, spend years on a judicial bench, and have half a dozen clerks doing all of my research for me, I just don't understand the intricacies and nuances of the Constitution of the United States of America. Or maybe there simply aren't the intricacies and nuances the Supreme Court would have us believe there are. Amendment I of the Bill of Rights says, in part: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." Now, I challenge any legal scholar on the planet to explain how a monument to the Ten Commandments, or the posting of the Ten Commandments on the wall of a courtroom, is Congress establishing a state religion. Or even a state government establishing a state religion. Religious aspects aside, the Ten Commandments are an important legal document, important to the legal history of Western civilization. Again, with religious aspects aside, the Ten Commandments contain some pretty healthy codes of conduct for everyone, believers and non-believers. What's wrong with suggesting that people do not steal from one another? Amendment V of the Bill of Rights states, in part: "...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Kelo vs. New London is not about "public use." Public use is a road, a school. Public use is not a new shopping mall, new condos, new office space. I have to disagree with Jeff on this decision; both sides of the Court are not right in their opinions. Simply because there is precedent leading up to the decision in Kelo doesn't make the decision proper. It simply means that all of the precedent is itself unconstitutional. If the Court has, in the past, rejected the "narrow interpretation of the public use requirement," then the Court was wrong. The Court was negligent in its duty to uphold the Constitution, and it was negligent in Kelo. If the town of New London can't come up with enough tax revenue without confiscating people's legally-purchased private property, then perhaps the town should dissolve its charter and let the county take over basic services.
Making health care more competitive, and cheaper
Prices are advertised everywhere. From newspapers to billboards to websites, we are forever being told how much things cost. Want to buy contact lenses? A cruise to Alaska? A pedicure? The price of almost any product or service is readily available, and vendors vie for business by keeping their prices competitive.
But not when it comes to health care. In this second part of his look at health care, the first part of which I noted on Thursday, Jacoby argues that by de-linking health care from employment, through tax reform, prices will be driven down. The tax reform in question is to make health care coverage one purchases oneself tax deductible; it currently is not. Here's the kicker: Based on RAND Corporation research, they estimate that making medical expenses deductible would reduce health care spending by $40 billion -- all without forcing a single benefit cut on anyone. [Emphasis added. --R]
What laws should be
Politicians of all stripes, take note:
"Laws are made for men of ordinary understanding and should, therefore, be construed by the ordinary rules of common sense. Their meaning is not to be sought for in metaphysical subtleties which may make anything mean everything or nothing at pleasure." --Thomas Jefferson
Rethinking the killing of public broadcasting
Since my post on the subject, I've been thinking of Tom's comments, and watching as TiVo snags Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, and Clifford for my nearly-two-year-old's viewing pleasure. Then Peggy Noonan comes along with brilliant commentary on the continued need for PBS, just without the politics. Her suggestions are certainly some I'm sure everyone could live with. Get PBS out of the news and opinion business, and back to what made it so vital in the first place: science and the arts. I am man enough to admit it when I'm wrong. So let's keep PBS and NPR around; so long as they dump the political angles, and stick to the classics.