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Posted on 12/14/2003 9:44:36 PM PST by Congressman Billybob
Excellent piece Congressman, I wish you well in your efforts. And expect the Internet to become VERY wild this election season. I think the American people will give the bigots on the court/congress an upbraiding they richly deserve.
There are still a few of us left on FR who remain focused on more important things than the capture of a petty dictator hiding in a hole.
It really bothers me that Bush has assumed god-like status around here lately, his trampling of the Constitution notwithstanding.
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I think the congressman is a man of his word.
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Neither would I to be honest. I don't wish him to resign from the bar - who would have thunk it?
But it's a normal thing in life. Remember the Tom Hanks line in "You've Got Mail," that "The Godfather is the I Ching. The Godfather provides the answer to any question." We all have something for which we will go to the mattresses.
This was mine. But don't make a bigger deal of it than I do, my friends.
John / Billybob
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I once upon a time had some confidence in this Court, at least for a 6-3 or 5-4 on Constitutional principles when the chips were down. No more. They have completely gone off their reservation and are wandering around in the wilderness, carelessly flinging burning brands.
One can only hope the Court takes it easy the coming year with a light caseload. We can also hope George Bush comes up with a way to get Justices approved - past the succcessful, wretched antics of the Schumers, Leahys and clintons of our Most Dishonorable Senate. So far, signing budget-busting Education Bills and naming buildings for Bobby Kennedy hasn't done the trick.
A pox on all their miserable, elitist heads!
Which is why I have even more respect for you sir.
I echo those sentiments. The glass is half full part of me thinks that Scalia wouldn't recuse himself from the Pledge of Allegiance case unless he knew a reversal was in store, but the wiser part tells me he did it because of his integrity, and that too may contribute to the next big disappointment from what can fairly be considered the biggest Kangaroo court north of Tallahassee.
But there are precipices on that path that can make the descent that is long in distance, very short in time. Very short indeed.
The first and second are mutually reinforcing. They support each other. The fourth amendment has a role to play in the protection of the others as well.
Or a fair and proper beheading, whichever is the practice in Iraq. If it's beheading, put the resultant on pike outside 4ID HQ in Tikrit, with a sign, that reads "Sic Sempre Tyrannis", just to remind any wanna be little Saddamites what would lie in store for them should they transition from "wanna be".
This part was especially illustrative... That barrier has now been breached. What will Congress seek to silence next, now that the Court has opened the door? ... in that I was suddenly envisioned with the scene from Starship Troopers where the bugs began swarming over the walls of the firebase atop their dead and poared across the breach. Now that it has started, what will stop it? Even the proponents of CFR here on the right, must acknowledge that this breach is both septic and lethal.
The thing we must remember in all our discussions and especially our defense of Constitutional freedom, is the requisite of Capitalism. It is clear that the ability of O'Connor and her four compatriates to render such a flawed conclusion against the First Amendment is born of a lack of understanding of money and in fact, an absolute distrust of same. The phrase, 'Money is the root of evil' rings throughout this decision and its advocacy. This begs a response from American literature that can never be stated enough (IMHO)...
"So you think that money is the root of all evil?... Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
"When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor – your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?
To fear money is, in fact, to fear freedom. Even before we as a people get to the establishment of rights as a principle, we must consider the interactions of individuals in their daily quest for sustenance and existance. The Delaration of Independence established the moral foundations of human existance prior to the Constitution. We own ourselves, therefore we own the product of our effort.
We exist, therefore we trade. "To trade by means of money is the code of the men of good will. Money rests on the axiom that every man is the owner of his mind and his effort. Money allows no power to prescribe the value of your effort except by the voluntary choice of the man who is willing to trade you his effort in return. Money permits you to obtain for your goods and your labor that which they are worth to the men who buy them, but no more. Money permits no deals except those to mutual benefit by the unforced judgment of the traders. Money demands of you the recognition that men must work for their own benefit, not for their own injury, for their gain, not their loss – the recognition that they are not beasts of burden, born to carry the weight of your misery – that you must offer them values, not wounds – that the common bond among men is not the exchange of suffering, but the exchange of goods. Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason; it demands that you buy, not the shoddiest they offer, but the best your money can find. And when men live by trade – with reason, not force, as their final arbiter – it is the best product that wins, the best performance, then man of best judgment and highest ability – and the degree of a man's productiveness is the degree of his reward. This is the code of existence whose tool and symbol is money. Is this what you consider evil? "...Mrs. O'Connor?
(quote reference, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1954)
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