Supremes … aptly named!

Thursday’s SCOTUS ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller shouldn’t have been a 5-4 ruling. We came within 1 vote of having one of our rights taken away! There is no place to appeal a decision of the Supremes; certainly not the Congress!

Our founders crafted the Constitution as a document that lays out the limits on the government. They also acknowledged that the rights of the citizens come not from the government, but from God. The liberal wing of our court system has spent the last sixty plus years turning the very simple meaning of the Constitution on its head. They have assumed the role of God, and it is they who now decide what rights we have. After all, they are obviously smarter than God and besides, there is no God anyway!

Thomas Jefferson was concerned about the judiciary. He believed that judges should be technical specialists but should not set policy. He denounced the 1801 Supreme Court ruling in Marbury v. Madison as a violation of democracy, but he did not have enough support in Congress to propose a Constitutional amendment to overturn it. Jefferson’s concerns have become a reality; justices are now setting policy.

This policy setting, or “judicial activism,” was displayed in two recent Supreme Court rulings: Boumediene v. Bush and Patrick Kennedy v. Louisiana. In both cases, the majority (again, both 5-4 rulings) used their own personal feelings to make their decision rather than interrupt the words and meaning of the Constitution. Jonah Goldberg wrote a great article on this issue Friday.

These days, the court seems to find duly enacted laws unconstitutional six days a week and twice on Sunday.

Lawmakers rarely bother their pretty little heads with the Constitution. Rather, they just load as much spit, tar, Vaseline and whatever else they can think of on a legislative fastball and try to get it over Scotus’ plate. If those imperial umpires don’t call a constitutional strike, well, then, voila it must be constitutional.

Read the entire thing. It does a great job of indicting not just the Court, but also Congress and the Executive branch for failing their collective duties.

… right of the people shall not be infringed.

Great ruling this morning from SCOTUS on the District of Columbia v. Heller. The Court found DC’s gun ban unconstutional. Unfortunatly, they didn’t rule on the constutionality of gun licensing, so this will be a battle that will have to be fought another day.

Let’s just hope it isn’t fought in a court that Obama is filling with what he believes to be the “right” kind of judge.

Quote of the day

Here’s one of my favorites!

When facing a difficult task, act as if you cannot fail. When going after Moby Dick, take along the tartar sauce!

Don’t know who said it … but that’s an attitude!

Who wants to know … the rest of the story?

Steve Boler put up a great article on American Thinker today titled “Your 2007 Carbon Footprint.” I remember the analogy Michael Creighton  made in his book State of Fear about how many feet of a football field each element in our atmosphere would cover. If I recall correctly, CO2 took up about the last two inches.

Well Steve takes his analogy in a slightly different direction … much more satisfying for an engineer!

“How big is your is your footprint in relation to the atmosphere?  Grab a ruler, and let’s go for a walk.  Make each step about one meter long, so walk as though you are a football referee.  As we are walking we will both count each step and do some math.  How much CO₂ is in the atmosphere?  Current estimates put it at 350 -380 parts per million. For ease of computation, we will round it up to the nearest 100, or 400 parts per million.  Now let’s use that old fashioned math and reduce that down.  400 parts per million is the same as 40 parts per 100,000 and can be reduced further to 4 parts per 10,000.  When we have finished taking 10,000 steps, stop and turn around.  You have just walked 10,000 meters or 10K, which runners know is roughly 6 miles. At average walking speed this takes about 2 hours.  (If you do not want to take the walk, get in your car, and drive 6 miles, just to see how far it is.)   Once there, look back at where you started.  Remember that all the CO2 in the atmosphere is 4 parts per 10,000.  Take 4 steps back towards your starting point.  Those four steps out of 6 miles represent the entire amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere.”

He then puts a number to the amount that is “man-made” (or in the current vernacular, anthropogenic), and from there, how much is “from the United States” (1/4 inch!!!).

So … when you hear someone telling you humans have caused CO2 to increase by 40% or 60% over the last 50 years … know that 60% of two inches is not much when compared to six miles!

Read the entire article.

Oil, oil everywhere, and not a drop to …

I just filled my car this afternoon and paid $4.68 a gallon … the lowest cost I saw this weekend (the Mobile station was $.10 higher per gallon!). The do-nothing Congress is directly to blame for our current situation, and I mean the Dems and Repubs together. While there are several Republicans trying to lead the rest of Congress to do what should have been done 10 years ago, far too many Repubs are right in there with the Dems.

The trouble is related to those Pols that cater to the environmentalists (really I should say lawyers, as the most influential environmental organizations were founded by and now managed by legal sharks). Further, they would love to drive (no pun intended) us all to public transportation, giving themselves control over another aspect of our lives! Do I sound angry?

Let’s throw every incumbent out on November … and then let the newbies know they have two years to get thinks cleaned up or they’re out on the ear in 2010. In the meantime, go to Newt Gingrich’s site and sign his “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” petition. Put pressure on these … folks.