Motto: The surest way to get a reputation for being a trouble maker these days is to go about repeating the very phrases that the Founders used in the struggle for independence.
-- C.A. Beard
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On last month's Fix;
the answer to last month's Fix,
"If school prayer cannot be allowed because of separation of church
and state, then why can states have dry
counties and refuse (as in MN) to sell alcoholic beverages
on the Sabbath? Mind you, only the Christian
Sabbath is affected, alcohol can
be sold on Saturday - the holy day of Muslims and Jews."
is
Matt is concerned in his letter below that this "Fix" was flame bait, but in fact it was just an attempt to state the very obvious fundemental hypocrisy present in every aspect of our judicial system. The "Supreme Court" is held in awe by many, and imbued with an almost hysterical faith that it will render unbiased opinions on the divisive questions of the day. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Since at least the 60's, the court has been a liberal activist legislative force, accomplishing via judicial fiat what could not get through the legislatures, but Reagen and Bush appointments have narrowed the gap. Witness the recent spate of 5/4 decisions.
However, this trend to the right is not without danger either. Both extremes on the courts are activist, and have created exactly the scenario warned of by Judge Robert Bork during his confirmation hearings when Reagen tried to appoint him. That is, the Court has become so tainted by political winds and bereft of a Constitutional foundation that the last word - isn't.
Nothing makes this inconsistency more clear then banning school prayer (yet upholding so called Blue Laws) based on what is in the Constitution, and creating law (ie Roe v Wade) based on what is not in the constition (defining fetal rights subordinate to those of the mother).
It is a sad day when Congress forgets the Constitution and passes so
called Campaign Finance Reforms which essentially bans free speech. But
it is alarming that the Supreme Court upholds such things, and creates
more items of the same stripe.
July 31, 2003
As WMD hysteria reaches a frenzied pitch, comments by the head
of the U.S. team searching Iraq for
WMD evidence should give pause to the "Bush lied" crowd.
Dr. David Kay—the 63-year-old former U.N. weapons inspector now
heading up the American WMD
team—recently remarked that the United States will be “starting to
reveal” WMD evidence in six months.
Though he was circumspect at best, Dr. Kay’s comments could indicate
that U.S. investigators know quite
a bit more than they have revealed thus far.
Buzz inside the beltway has been intensifying in recent days
that the administration may have significantly
more evidence than it has publicly released, and Dr. Kay’s comments
have triggered even more chatter.
Some of it may be wishful thinking, but considering that some of the
people doing the talking are
administration officials, declarations that there are no WMDs may be
premature.
Why would the Bush folks keep such politically high-value information secret?
Possibly because, given the sheer number of guerrilla forces
present inside Iraq, U.S. investigators believe it
would be foolish to leak evidence piecemeal. Sources and methods of
intelligence-gathering could be
“compromised”—a polite way of saying those helping us or their families
could get killed—and the U.S.
team's efforts could be hampered if other would-be informants hold
back out of fear.
And with many of Saddam’s former henchmen still around, U.S.
investigators tipping their hand could make
it easier for Baathist thugs to destroy evidence or sabotage discovery
efforts.
Not that critics of President Bush—the people who wanted to wait
endlessly while U.N. inspectors played
footsy with Saddam—are waiting for the canvassing to be completed before
slamming the
commander-in-chief.
Liberal legend Teddy Kennedy (D-MA) has charged that President
Bush led the country to war "under false
pretenses." His colleague and presidential wannabe John Kerry (D-MA)--who
voted for the war--now is
retreating to the warm embrace of his liberal base, claiming that,
in essence, Bush duped him into supporting
the liberation of Iraq. Mincing no words, New York Times Paul
Krugman stated flatly, "There is no longer
any serious doubt that Bush administration officials deceived Americans
into war."
That there is WMD evidence inside Iraq - or possibly Iran or
Syria - makes logical sense, as there are really
only three WMD scenarios: 1) Saddam didn't have any WMDs, 2) Saddam
destroyed everything just before
the war began (or snuck it into Iran or Syria) or 3) the evidence stuck
around longer than Saddam did.
As Rumsfeld said before the war, “Any country on the face of
the earth with an active intelligence program
knows that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.” No one argues, in
fact, that Saddam didn't have active
WMD programs when the U.N. inspectors left the country more than four
years ago. So for the first
possibility to be correct, Saddam would have had to have voluntarily
ceased an operation that had been his
primary obsession for some two decades and kept no records of having
done so.
Which leaves us with two other possibilities, either of which
confirms Bush's pre-war arguments. It is
possible that Saddam destroyed stockpiles and his mobile labs on the
eve of war, but it is at least as plausible
that he would not part with his treasures so easily. With a high street
value and relative portability, though, it is
also possible that Saddam sold off at least part of his stash. Or he
could have used the time-honored tradition
of simply hiding his arsenal.
But until we have examined every last square inch of Iraq—and
Syria and Iran—the entire WMD debate is
premised on a hypothetical.
In the end, the investigators may only find indirect evidence
of WMD programs - human sources and
documents - as opposed to the kind of weapons “stockpiles” for which
our image-driven media salivates. A
lack of camera-ready evidence could be a problem, but a mountain of
documents and numerous human
testimonials from Saddam's former scientists could be enough to reaffirm
the obvious: Saddam had WMDs.
1. Matt pens ...
Subject:
lastcall
Date:
Mon, 28 Jul 2003 09:42:22 -0700
From:
Matt Birkholz <matt@birkholz.chandler.az.us>
To:
serge@ppsa.com
> From: serge <serge@ppsa.com>
> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 06:49:00 -0700
>
> Please complete your response to this month's fix;
>
> "If school prayer cannot be allowed because of separation of church
and
> state, then why can states have dry counties and
refuse (as in MN) to
> sell alcoholic beverages on the Sabbath? Mind you, only the Christian
> Sabbath is affected, alcohol can be sold on Saturday - the
holy day of
> Muslims and Jews."
I feel like I am falling for flame bait. What are you asking for?
A fix?
The question asks how unconstitutional laws get written, but we all
know
you know how that happens. Maybe you simply wish to make a point.
In
Boston they were called The Blue Laws. I forget why -- for the
high-handed
BLUE-blooded Puritan/Brahmans that made the laws? When I left
Watertown MA
in '95, The Blue Laws were still being followed, with exceptions.
I bet
there was NO enforcement by that time. Grendel's Den in Harvard
Square may
still have a framed collection of articles on their '70s legal battle
with
Cambridge to sell liquor within several hundred feet of a church.
They
eventually won, I believe, after appealing to the state supreme court.
-Matt
2. And Doug expresses his concerns ...
Subject:
Re: lastcall
Date:
Mon, 28 Jul 2003 09:22:40 -0500
From:
"Douglas E. Wilken" <wilken@cloudnet.com>
To:
<serge@ppsa.com>
Quit giving the ACLU free ideas!
> "If school prayer cannot be allowed because of separation of church
and
> state, then why can states have dry counties and
refuse (as in MN) to
> sell alcoholic beverages on the Sabbath? Mind you, only the Christian
> Sabbath is affected, alcohol can be sold on Saturday - the
holy day of
> Muslims and Jews."
-- Compassionate actor Tim Robbins, defending the honor of his wife Susan Sarandon, when Washington Post writer Lloyd Grove wrote that Sarandon's mother is an active GW Bush supporter.
2. El Paso, June: Twelve year old Sal Santana was suspended from the
last week of school - for sexual harassment. Seems the lusty young man
asked a classmate to be his girlfriend. When she declined he - prepare
yourselves ... stuck out his tongue at her.
1. July 29: The Pentagon has a clever new idea ofr catching terrorists:
hold a betting pool for predicting furture terrorist actions, and then
arrest the winners. The logic goes like this. Say there would be a a category
for predicting when the next major attack will come on US soil, the winner
"gets" $1 million. If an event happens on or near a date that the winner
selected, the "winner" gets a free trip downtown. This brilliant plan may
go down for lack of funding though. Congress seems to have found a flaw
in it.
Subject: Minnesota Citizenship
Test
Date:
Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:22:31 -0700 (PDT)
From:
Sheryl Langer <sqlanger@yahoo.com>
Application for Minnesotazenship
Personal Information:
Name ___________________son
Sex: ___ Ole ___ Lena
Home Address ________________ Cabin Address ________________
Religion: _____ Lutheran ______ Catholic
Income: ____We do OK ____We're Blessed ____ None of your beeswax ____
Qualifications: (check all that apply)
___ I own a gas powered ice auger.
___ Fargo floods hit a little close to home.
___ I can name a dozen celebrities who've stayed at the Mayo
___ I've been trick or treating in two feet of snow.
___ My grandmother made me eat lutefisk.
___ I liked it!
___ I've been to a block party.
___ My first beer was an Old Milwaukee.
___ My snowmobile has more miles on it than my car.
___ I have a back up set of jumper cables in my trunk.
___ Despite what everyone else says I DON'T SAYS I DON'T HAVE AN
ACCENT! (For sure, you bet I don't.)
True/ False:
___ I actually listen
to telemarketers.
___ "Have a Nice Day" is an ORDER!
___ TV news anchors are celebrities.
___ Part of my tongue is on a flagpole somewhere.
___ It's not a rubber binder! It's a rubber band.
___ They mistake pop for "soda" or "coke" in most other states.
___ Hot Dish is neither a beautiful woman nor an overheated plate.
___ Paw is both a hand and the male parent.
Multiple Choice:
It's time to wear a hat when.
A) The temperature is below 10 degrees.
B) Your mother tells you to!
C) The temperature is -10 and the wind chill is in double digits.
Essay Questions:
What "uff-da" means to me ____________________________________
What "oopsy daisy" means to me _____________________________
You know you're from Minnesota when.....
1. Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a tractor.
2. "Vacation" means going to Brainerd for the weekend.
3. You measure distance in hours.
4. You know several people who have hit deer more than once.
5. You often switch from "heat" to "a/c" in the same day.
6. You use a down comforter in the summer.
7. Your grandparents drive 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during
a
blizzard, without flinching.
8. You see people wearing hunting clothes to social events.
9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave
both doors unlocked.
10. You think of the major food groups as venison, walleye, and
Leinenkugels.
11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows
how to use them.
12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the grocery
store at any given time.
13. You design your kids Halloween costume to fit over a snow suit.
14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled
with snow.
15. You think sexy
lingerie is tube socks and flannel p.j.'s.
16. You know all four seasons; almost winter, winter, still winter
and road construction.
17. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item even when
you're in a rush because you have to stop to talk to everyone in town.
18. You actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your
friends from Minnesota.