Eighteenth Century Democrat Confronts Twenty-First Century Democrat

Eighteenth CenturyDemocrat (ECD)
Twenty- First Century Democrat (TCD)

TCD- We were fooled into war! We were told that this was all about democracy, when it's really all about the rich avoiding taxes!

ECD- Then it doesn't bother you that they haven't been trying British subjects in civilian couts, but instead in naval courts?

TCD- You're one of these goody-goodies who talks about "rights," aren't you? A court isn't that important. After all, one can lie to it easily.

ECD- Then you are a loyalist.

TCD- Patriot, loyalist, whatever. All that is just words. It's really all about power and sex. Especially sex!

ECD- You don't care about whether we win the Revolution?

TCD- If we're winning, I'll back it. But the idea that we're winning the Revolution is just plain wrong. So I'm against the war.

A Revolutionary Thought

"It was to become the password for a revolution. Liberty and property were synonymous. The great John Locke had said it a century before; now a new world must prove it. What a man owned was his, as his soul was his. No prince, no king, no parliament could take it from him without his consent."- Catherine Drinker Bowen's John Adams and the American Revolution

A Revolutionary Thought

"It was to become the password for a revolution. Liberty and property were synonymous. The great John Locke had said it a century before; now a new world must prove it. What a man owned was his, as his soul was his. No prince, no king, no parliament could take it away from him without his consent."-Catherine Drinker Bowen, in John Adams and the American Revolution

Impending Liberal Abuse

I hope the Conservative establishment is happy. Heaven forbid that someone who isn't day and night"political" be a Justice. The nominee that the Conservatives want will be villified and gored by the Liberals. Remember the way that Robert Bork was defamed and demonized by people who weren't worthy to hold his shoes. He was supposedly racist, unqualified (though he was a law Professor) and would in short be the end of civilization as we know it. Liberals are lying scum, and the media helps them mount attacks on candidates. This means that the truly conservative nominee must be impeccably authoritative or they will not make it through. This can be seen through Chief Justice Roberts, who was so academically invulnerable he was able to survive the gauntlet. It would have been funny, though, if Meirs made it through and then turned out to be ultra-conservative- - just as irony.

Egomaniacs Against Meirs

Why are so many Republicans against Harriet Meirs? "She's not qualified!" Ruth Bader Ginsburg said weeks ago that she would be willing to advise the President of which women were qualified to serve alongside her. (How modest of her!) Professional smart-ass Ann Coulter declared she was more qualified than Meirs. (Of course, she thinks she knows everything about everything.) Others declare her a crony. (see my blog entitled "Sherman Minton") None of these arguments hold water. I say that the main problem with the Supreme Court is a mind boggling egotism, where mere lawyers become gods who create law out of their prejudices and nothing more. Creating laws without details like democratic support has progressed so far that many Americans don't even realize when the Supreme Court has overstepped judicial review and entered the land of autocratic fiat. If someone really stupid was appointed to the Supreme Court, it might make people realize that these posers are only human beings, and don't deserve an unchecked power to describe as unconstitutional everything they don't like. A disaster for judicial activism would be a blessing for democracy.

Sherman Minton

Anyone remember Sherman Minton? He was a golf buddy of President Truman who was appointed Supreme Court justice. Did Sherman Minton destroy the judiciary? No. Did the works of Sherman Minton lead to legalized abortion? Ha- -it took geniuses like Bill Brennan and Harry Blackmun to do that. Harriet Meirs is the end of the world? Give me a break.

Cut the Crime Rate, Kill Yourself

When it serves the left, they freely admit that blacks are not often rich. Poor people are more likely to commit crimes, for the obvious reason that they cannot own the things they want through their legal income. So a recently published book recommended legal abortion for the reason that abortion killed many future criminals. Which is a lot like the environmental spoof bumper sticker, "Save the Planet, Kill yourself". When a caller to William Bennett's radio show mentioned the aborted criminal theory, Bennett rightly said that abortion for reducing the number of criminals was "morally reprehensible." He was rewarded for his pro-life defense of black children by a number of prominent Democrats crying "Racism!" Democrats have no honor when it comes to abortion, but it also recieved criticism from the president's lackey Scott McClellan as "not appropriate." This is another sign that Bush doesn't really care about abortion- - he just likes Catholic votes. This comes at the same time as Bush's Supreme Court appointee says he believes in "the right to privacy," which is the basis for Roe v. Wade. For Bush to condemn Bennett's anti-abortion remark indicates he has only a facile, superficial commitment to restricting the institution of legalized abortion.

She Should Be Grateful He Isn't Henry VIII!

When asked why she wants an annulment for her marriage to Kenny Chesney, Renee Zellweger said "I don't think his tractor's sexy."

When Did I Vote for This?

Since we are in the middle of confirming two justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, I felt I should talk about the scariest issue for our country. That is that of Justices Ginsburg and O' Connor using foreign laws to decide cases in this country. No, it isn't enough merely to make up American laws, but now we need to let legislatures in other countries vote on American laws. In an address to the American Society of International Law, Ginsburg said we, "should not. . .abandon the effort to learn what we can from the experience and good thinking foreign sources may convey." This isn't a philosophical debating society we're talking about. This is the law of the United States, and looking for clever sophisms to justify creating law is a threat to the very nature of what our republican democracy is. Are we going to import laws from Red China? Maybe women should live under Iranian law. This is insane! Why have a U.S. Congress if the Supreme Court is going to force us to live under other nations' laws? The main reason against this is the reason we fought England to form our country- -the founding fathers didn't want us to live under laws we had no voice in creating. So unless we get to vote for politicians in Sweden, Swedish laws should have no bearing on our laws.

Real Clear Obfuscation

I just read some really vile sarcasm from some inbred Protestant who apparently spends all his time "proving" my church is wrong, and that if you read enough of the Church Fathers (and really, who hasn't?) you'll find out that you're justified by faith alone. This Protestant derisively kept referring to my church as "the holy, apostolic, created by Christ," as though this title really belongs to whatever snake-charming assembly he belongs to. Here's a little hint to people who think like you: Get a grip, and start fighting the people in this country who want religion gone from American life. We really (false erudition and "real simple" theology aside) agree on most issues aside from the paltry, hair-splitting ones. Or would you be happier with a country of athiests, created by your petty combats?

The Check Isn't In the Mail

I will preface what I am about to write by saying that I thank God Almighty John Kerry is far away from the levers of power. I will also say that I absolutely support him on stem cell research. This being said, I would like to know what separates Judge John Roberts from a person John Kerry would have nominated for the Supreme Court. Today I smelled an Anthony Kennedy in the works. "Roberts says he believes in right to privacy," the Chicago Tribune said on the front page. Everyone over age 15 knows that in courtspeak, "right to privacy" means abortion, in all three trimesters, no limits. It isn't even a euphemism- - it's a synonym. All this doesn't square with the president's Christian image.

This month I recieved a piece of mail from the Republican National Commitee. "But Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House are already talking tough. Desperate for a partisan edge, they're vowing to torpedo the President's agenda with stonewalling and obstructionist tactics." Obstructing what- - a judicial nominee that thinks just like the Democrats? If Bush wants money to campaign for Roberts, he'll have to wait a long time.

A Religion Condemning Religion

It's always interesting to read the thoughts of liberal activists. When they pretend to speak as a religious group it's actually funny. So it goes with a group calling themselves the "National Council of Jewish Women." They oppose the nomination of Judge John Roberts for two supposed reasons. First, like any liberal advocacy group, they think abortion is great, and oppose any who don't believe in a "right to privacy." Second, they oppose Roberts for the "inclusion of religious activities and prayer in public schools. " So it's ok to do everything else in school (teach environmental propaganda, pick up free condoms, humiliate others in gym class), but students can't have religious after-school activities? Their docent, Carole Levine, goes on to say, "As Jews, we know what it means to have fundamental rights and freedoms stripped away." So the Holocaust happened because of "Meet You At the Flagpole" events? I'll just say that, as an Irishman, I know what it means to be unable to worship without systematic interference by the government. And it's a lot like what liberals do today.

Moronic Right Wing Smear Campaign

The flap over the comparison of Nazis with American troops at Guantanamo was described by the title of this blog.
Aside from the Nazi angle, real smear campaigns are based on lies. When Democrats said Robert Bork was going to bring back segregation, that was a smear campaign. When Democrats denied President Bush was in the Air National Guard, that was a smear campaign.
What Durbin said, Durbin believes. The Nazi comparison was implicitly made by Democrat Michael Moore when he said America "is known for bringing sadness and misery to places around the globe." Moore enunciated a theme going back as far as when Durbin's generation spat on veterans and called them baby killers.
Durbin's remark isn't really new. Democrats have felt this way for years.

Right for the Wrong Reason

This blogsite's good friend Richard "Maybe he has mad-cow disease?" Durbin has made many people, well, uh, upset over his comparison of American soldiers in Guantanamo to Nazis. I guess that when you hate the guy in the black Darth Vader helmet (for him, President Bush), that makes the soldiers in the piece souless white suited stormtroopers. It is often said that it is anti-semitic to compare the Shoah to abortion, but if anything about America seems like Nazi Germany, it sure as hell doesn't seem to be our troops at Guantanamo.

Thanks Jesse!

Today Michael Jackson avoided any legal responsibility for the ganamede- like behavior at his compound in California. In his cheering section was the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Why this concerned Jackson is anyone's guess. Maybe the Reverend thinks this behavior is a way of getting back at the race who screwed blacks. Or maybe we should have stopped looking for rational comments from the Reverend in 1992 when he said the Virgin Mary should have had an abortion. Anyway, thanks Jesse!

Cruelty to terrorists?

Recently, Amnesty International released a report calling the Guantanamo POW camp a "gulag." Real gulags were camps for Soviet citizens who violated section eight of the Soviet penal code. Section eight was applied to anyone suspected of opposing the Soviet state. Most gulag camps killed inmates through a combination of undernutrition and overwork.
This is not the case at Guantanamo. First, the prisoners aren't being killed. Second, the inmates were out of the protection of the Geneva Connvention because they wore no uniform in their combat against coalition and Iraqi forces. Even Northeast Regional Director of Amnesty International Josh Rubenstein called the gulag metaphor "overheated rhetoric."
This sort of report not only overstates the discomfort of the prisoners, it makes gulags seem less evil than they really were.

Why Durbin Is a Dick

Many good things come out of Illinois. Illinois produces grain, electronics, earth movers, and cars. We have, to our dishonor and shame, also produced Senator Richard Durbin. Durbin is a great defender of the little guy, unless that little guy is in the womb. This disregard for the sanctity of human life is made even worse by the fact that Senator Durbin purports to be a Catholic.
The support that Durbin offers the abortion "rights" lobby is unwavering, constant, and total. It means that he must stonewall the confirmation of any "extremist" judicial nominees. What makes a judicial nominee an extremist? Ironically, Catholicism seems to rate high on this ranking- - just look at the way he went after Miguel Estrada. Why, he might actually believe the religion he adheres to, unlike Senator Durbin.
Whether the Senate calls cloture or changes rules, or shuts down the government for a few days- - it indicates the importance of a fair judicial nomination process. Unless one of these people does something like advocating the end of search and seizure rules, or the abrogation of free speech, they deserve consideration. And Senator Durbin should be made Citizen Durbin in 2007.

Couldn't Say It Better Myself

This was a letter to the editor of the Peoria (IL) Journal Star by Norman Ashwood.

Please tell me again why Miguel Estrada was not qualified to be a federal judge. Was it his lack of education? His radical views? Or was it just because Democrats were afraid to have a conservative Hispanic succeed? None of these? Please tell me the answer.
It sure appears that Democrats don't like minorities that are Republicans. It's almost like they need to be made an example of. That way, we can keep them down on the plantation.
I would appreciate a response from Illinois Senator Dick Durbin as to why Miguel Estrada was not qualified. He really helped get this guy's scalp, and I think he should share his joy with all his constituents.

Law as an Excuse II

Here's another quote, this one being by a Dr. Freeman in the Fortnightly Review of September of 1871.

We have reached the state which our fathers called unlaw, not the state where law is silent, but the state when law is turned about and become its own opposite, the state when the institutions which were meant to declare right, and truth, and freedom, had been turned into engines of wrong, and falsehood,and bondage.

The Dream of Scipio

Cicero, in his De Res Publica, justifies the work of so many to create the Roman Empire through a story. The story is of how the General Scipio (I want to say Africanus) had a dream where he was above the world, and could hear the music of the planets and stars. He saw how, in the grand scheme of things, the Romans had achieved very little. All the same, he was aware that Rome, for all her children had sacrificed to build her, was dear to the gods.
So it is important to remember that even if we feel discouraged, we must continue to try to , as Aristotle urges, strain every nerve to live according to what's best in us.

Just Give Me a Reason, Baby

Why do we do the things we do? Obviously, we have reasons of the heart, reasons of the pocketbook, and reason of the mind. The big Reason. Former Clinton slimeball Robert Reich wrote a book about how reason was on the side of the Demogogues, I mean Democrats. He calls his enemies Radcons, apparently short for radical conservatives. I don't know how he gets dressed in the morning if he doesn't know that the words "radical" and "conservative" are antonyms. Saying someone is a radical conservative is like calling someone a brilliant idiot. Radcons believe all kinds of horrible things. Oppose abortion? If you do you're not using reason. What kind of reason leads one to the conclusion that a twenty week fetus, having all the brain and nerve cells it will ever, in its whole lifetime possess, deserves no legal protection? It must be George Carlin reason: "Which do you want to F__k, a woman or a fetus?" It is, to be sure, reason generated by the testes. Why is empathy unreasonable?

Law as an Excuse

Reading today about William the Conquerer, I came upon a quote from a contemporary who remarked,

As men spake more of right law, so men did more unlaw.

Indeed, this is how law functions today. People look for creative excuses for the "right" to things which properly speaking, aren't rights at all. Real rights come from our relationships with others. I defend the people with whom I live. My children have a right to be housed and fed, not because of some abstraction, but because they are my children. My parents have the right to live comfortably in old age because I owe it to them.

This is worlds away from the "rights" language of today. I have a right to abort my baby. I have a right to live as a libertine. What relationship gives one such a right? These aren't rights at all- - they are statements of legal permission.

Terri Schiavo

This is my first experience in blogging, so (as they say), pardon the dust. Most of the figurative dust comes from the media. They deny they have an agenda, but they offer only one side of the Schiavo tragedy. They act as though the future of the euthanasia movement is more important than the right of Terri Schiavo to live her sad life with whatever love her real family (and I'm not talking about her inbred, selfish husband) can give her. When they made the movie Soylent Green in the early 70's, euthanasia was a room with pretty movies and a soothing death featuring calming music. Euthanasia today is apparently starvation and a morphine drip. God forbid this happen again.