From Pine View Farm

Originalist Sin, Deadly Air Dept. 0

Or you can read the transcript.

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The Realization 0

Joe Patrice explains at Above the Law.

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The Common Denominator 0

The Arizona Republic’s E. J. Montini notes what it’s not.

It was not “government-endorsed weed” that killed seven people and injured more than 35 in Highland Park, Ill., on the Fourth of July.

It wasn’t a covert CIA operation.

It wasn’t pornography.

It wasn’t video games.

It wasn’t anti-depressants pushed by “Big Pharma” or the “lecturing” of dominant women or the influence social media.

Follow the link to see what it is.

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QOTD 0

Kurt Vonnegut:

We could have saved the Earth but we were too damned cheap.

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American Taliban 0

The editorial board of the Las Vegas Sun sounds a warning.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society,” Originalist Sin Dept. 0

Michael Paul Williams has some qualms about “original intent” as interpreted by the current majority of Supreme Court:

We have Supreme Court members who speak with certitude about what the Founders intended. But our routine carnage can’t be what James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution,” had in mind when he penned the phrase “well-regulated militia.”

Follow the link for context.

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“A Republic, If You Can Keep It” 0

William Rivers Pitt fears that we cannot.

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Courting Disaster 0

At the Des Moines Register, John and Terri Hale explain why they disagree with four recent, major Supreme Supremacist Court decisions. Their article is notable for its clarity and simplicity and I commend it to your attention.

Here’s their take on one of them (emphasis in the original):

In a case involving the state of Maine, the court decided that public tax dollars can flow to private faith-based schools.

Our view: Public dollars are for public schools that take on the challenge and the opportunity of educating everyone, regardless of skin color, abilities, beliefs, primary language, gender identity, or sexual orientation. They should not be used to support the teachings of any particular faith nor any institution that discriminates in admissions or hiring.

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The Publicist 0

Florida Woman.

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Dis Coarse Discourse 0

Title:  If Watergate Happened with Today's Media.  Frame One:  Woman of Fox News says,

Click for the original image.

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Twits on Twitter 0

Yet more racist twits, these ones reacting to Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas’s condemnation of the Supreme Supremacist Court’s overturning Roe v. Wade:

Lucas, who has amassed a strong following on Twitter, is no stranger to social media feuds — but this was different. These messages carried powerful images and words of racism and violence against Blacks, so Lucas, who is Black, reported them to the authorities. And now she has additional security officers when she attends public events.

“This is stuff I haven’t seen since” the civil rights movement, she said.

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QOTD 0

Zachary Taylor:

If elected, I would not be the mere president of a party–I would endeavor to act independent of party domination and should feel bound to administer the government untrammeled by party schemes.

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A Tune for the Times 0

Mangy comments at the Youtube page:

America leads the world in one category in which no one else would desire that leadership, mass shootings. By making weapons of war available to damn near everyone, we provide significant numbers of unstable folks with the ability to kill large numbers of people with stunning efficiency, all to prop up gun manufacturers’ profits, which is shared through lobbyists with politicians for their complicity in the sales scheme.

Elsewhere, Michael in Norfolk observes that we are becoming a nation of hostages.

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Tell Them What They Want To Hear 0

Jeff Shapiro writes of Virginia Governor Trumpkin’s–er–loose relationship with consistency, particularly as regards his position on abortion. A snippet (emphasis added); follow the link for the evidence.

Youngkin’s rhetorical gymnastics — on an issue that might put out of reach for his party Luria’s and two other Democrat-held suburban congressional seats — do not conceal a reality: He refuses to deal straight with Virginians, the majority of whom favored Roe v. Wade. We know Youngkin stands to the right on abortion, but how far right depends on his audience.

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“A Republic, If You Can Keep It” 0

PoliticalProf.

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“Ban Ladders” 0

David discusses the ridiculous pretzel logic that gun nuts use to pretend that the proliferation of firearms is in no way related to the proliferation of persons using firearms to randomly rub out large numbers of persons (warning: short commercial at the end).

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Courting Disaster, Conflict of Amendments Dept. 0

At the Hartford Courant, Samuel Teixeira suggests that there is a logical flaw in Samuel Alito’s reasoning in his decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (Of course, the moral flaw is obvious, but the law and morality are only occasionally related.)

Here’s a bit from hit article:

Sadly, beyond rewriting the history of 1866 and reviving the position originally adopted by the 14th Amendment’s opponents, Justice Alito ignores — and explicitly violates — the original constitutional limits on the Court set forth in the Ninth Amendment. Just 21 words, it reads: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

The Ninth Amendment effectively makes unconstitutional just one method of construing — interpreting –– the Constitution: an interpretation that denies or disparages a right because other rights are explicitly enumerated –– listed.

Teixeira’s reasoning is interesting, perhaps even correct, but irrelevant.

Alito’s opinion was not based on logic or reasoning and certainly not on precedent. It was based on dogma, and the arguments he made in it are nothing more than Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes for “because we can.”

(Broken link fixed.)

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A Question of Identity 0

You can’t make this stuff up.

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“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0

Celebrate your favorite team’s victory with politeness.

We are a society of stupid.

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QOTD 0

Chris Hedges:

The relationship between those who are constantly watched and tracked and those who watch and track them is the relationship between masters and slaves.

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