The Simulacrum of Self-Government [Mark Steyn]

National Review ^ | 6/28/2013 | Mark Steyn

[Servant of the Cross]

We might as well put the Constitution out of its misery.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013 — just another day in a constitutional republic of limited government by citizen representatives:

First thing in the morning, Gregory Roseman, Deputy Director of Acquisitions (whatever that means), became the second IRS official to take the Fifth Amendment, after he was questioned about awarding the largest contract in IRS history, totaling some half a billion dollars, to his close friend Braulio Castillo, who qualified under a federal “set aside” program favoring disadvantaged groups — in this case, disabled veterans. For the purposes of federal contracting, Mr. Castillo is a “disabled veteran” because he twisted his ankle during a football game at the U.S. Military Academy prep school 27 years ago. How he overcame this crippling disability to win a half-billion-dollar IRS contract is the heartwarming stuff of an inspiring Lifetime TV movie.

Later in the day, Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota and alleged author of the Corker-Hoeven amendment to the immigration bill, went on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show and, in a remarkable interview, revealed to the world that he had absolutely no idea what was in the legislation he “wrote.” Rachel Jeantel, the endearingly disastrous star witness at the George Zimmerman trial, excused her inability to comprehend the letter she’d supposedly written to Trayvon Martin’s parents on the grounds that “I don’t read cursive.” Senator Hoeven doesn’t read legislative. For example, Section 5(b)(1):

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a strategy, to be known as the ‘Southern Border Fencing Strategy’ . . . (snip)

Just when you thought the day couldn’t get any more momentous, the Supreme Court weighed in on same-sex marriage.

[Servant of the Cross]

June 26, 2013 ... a day which will live in infamy ...

[ClearCase_guy]

It just seems so obvious that the voters and the citizens do not matter. While still (for now) mostly a country of people like me, it is not run by people like me, or for people like me.

There are Looters, Parasites and Suckers.
My government's opinion of me? Clearly: I suck.

[PieterCasparzen]

In a just government, Mr. Castillo would be on trial now and soon find himself in prison for life, stripped of all his ill-gotten gains.

He would have been arrested during his testimony.

Actually, in a just government, this would have turned up long before now.

Oh, and the guy who awarded the contract would have the same fate.

But we can just go on with our corrupt fantasy-land police state run by bankers pulling strings behind the scenes.

[Rummyfan]

Say what you like about George III, but the Tea Act was about tea. The so-called comprehensive immigration reform is so comprehensive it includes special deals for Nevada casinos and the recategorization of the Alaskan fish-processing industry as a “cultural exchange” program, because the more leaping salmon we have the harder it is for Mexicans to get across the Bering Strait. While we’re bringing millions of Undocumented-Americans “out of the shadows,” why don’t we try bringing Washington’s decadent and diseased law-making out of the shadows?

INDEED!

In his dissent, Justice Scalia wrote that “to defend traditional marriage is not to condemn, demean, or humiliate those who would prefer other arrangements, any more than to defend the Constitution of the United States is to condemn, demean, or humiliate other constitutions.” Indeed. With this judgment, America’s constitutional court demeans and humiliates only its own.

As usual Scalia provides a voice of reason.

As I say, just another day in the life of the republic: a corrupt bureaucracy dispensing federal gravy to favored clients; a pseudo-legislature passing bills unread by the people’s representatives and uncomprehended by the men who claim to have written them; and a co-regency of jurists torturing an 18th-century document in order to justify what other countries are at least honest enough to recognize as an unprecedented novelty. Whether or not, per Scalia, we should “condemn” the United States Constitution, it might be time to put the poor wee thing out of its misery.

Just another day in the last days of the life of the republic.

[Carriage Hill]

We've had a lot of those days in the past 4½-yrs, and will probably have a lot more in the remaining 3½-yrs of this seemingly-unending national nightmare of 0traitor&Co.

[no-to-illegals]

It is good National Review can be read on the web. Many or most libraries refuse to carry a single edition of National Review. Since tax dollars support libraries, why are libraries allowed to censor National Review? Simple fact ... Conservative publication. Ran across this policy by libraries nearly thirty years ago. Doubt the status of censorship of National Review has been modified by many or most libraries nationwide.

[Slings and Arrows]

Steyn ping!

[Travis McGee]

Alas, brave new Babylon.

[Tax-chick]

... do you seriously think any of that hooey will survive its first encounter with a federal judge?

Why pass laws at all? Just let judges make stuff up. At least we could send the Congress and Senate home to look for real jobs ...

[OneWingedShark]

Why pass laws at all? Just let judges make stuff up. At least we could send the Congress and Senate home to look for real jobs ...

Those jobs were replaced with illegal immigrants...

[Tax-chick]

They could be Walmart cashiers.

[JLS]

Mark Steyn ping.

Freepmail me, if you want on or off the Mark Steyn ping list.

Thanks for the ping Slings and Arows.

[P.O.E.]

Washington’s decadent and diseased law-making

Yep.

Thanks, btw, for the ping.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Here's that wicked DOMA-signing homophobe Bill "Hater" Clinton and his loyal lesbian grrrrlz Ellen and Anne.

[Tax-chick]

According to Wikipedia, Anne is back being married to men. So much for “born this way” ...

[Mrs. Don-o]

A *Man*??? Maybe he's a Trans. Then she won't have to turn in her lesbian card and vacate her poetry-reading seat in the Sappho Circle.

Or maybe she will. I'm so confused.

[Gritty]

I wonder when Mark finally will get so disgusted with what is going on in the USA he will move back to Canada?

Frankly, that course of action is becoming more and more attractive as the months of this never-ending tyranny grind on and on. If America is no longer America then what is the sense of pretending it still is?

[EDINVA]

As much a I wasn’t in favor of her election, Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) took after Castillo for his abuse of this alleged disability.

[Lady Jag]

[Tax-chick]

One man, and then another, and had a baby, apparently by the natural process.