The One Good Thing Is That We Learn About the US Constitution

There was a truly horrific ruling by the US Ninth Circuit Court in August 2010 allowing warrantless GPS tracking by law enforcement.


Hey, kids, it’s Constitution Day again! And boy, have we learned about the application of the foundation of the United States in the past year or so, or what?

Article I, Section 8. The Congress shall have Power
[8] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

The notion of “limited” gets longer every revisiting of the Copyright law, contrary, in my opinion, to the original intent of the Founders.

Article II [5] No person except a natural born Citizen…shall be eligible to the Office of President

Yes, don’t hear as much about them lately, but the birthers, who claim President Obama is not eligible to be President, are still out there.

Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof

This, of course, is at the heart of the so-called “Ground Zero mosque” debate; the usual line about this is that they have a RIGHT to build the Islamic center but that they OUGHT NOT TO.

There are some other interesting sidelights, such as some politicians suggesting that they should investigate the financing of the facility. This is right and proper as long as they likewise check out the funding of every new church, synagogue, and temple, and existing ones, while they are at it.

Amendment I Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech

Interestingly, action has been defined as “speech”; e.g. flag burning. So the Koran-burning controversy falls here. Again, people used the RIGHT TO/OUGHT NOT to conversation.

Amendment II A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The Supreme Court’s ruling a couple of years ago protecting personal gun ownership, not just the militia part, has meant that jurisdiction after jurisdiction with gun control laws are having them challenged, forcing them to more narrowly define the restrictions on gun ownership, such as insanity of the would-be owner.

Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

There was a truly horrific ruling by the US Ninth Circuit Court in August 2010 allowing warrantless GPS tracking by law enforcement. Other courts have ruled otherwise, as this TIME magazine article notes. What’s REALLY irritating about the Ninth’s decision is this:

The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the “curtilage,” a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government’s intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.

The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno’s driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited.

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month’s decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people’s. The court’s ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.

Judge Kozinski is a leading conservative, appointed by President Ronald Reagan…

The conflicting rulings at the Circuit level make this almost a certain Supreme Court case in the future.

Amendment XIV – The Fourteenth Amendment was proposed on June 13, 1866, and ratified on July 9, 1868.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

This WAS initially all about slavery. This IS, suddenly, about illegal immigrants coming to the United States and have their babies here, making the children U.S. citizens. How frequently this is happening is an open debate.

There have been other fun Constitutional issues, such as Arizona’s immigration law, in probable violation of Article I, Section 8, but this has gone on long enough. US citizens: go read your Constitution, while you still can.

Wicked Wednesday Meme: John Lennon

I’m religiously cynical. Or cynically spiritual.

I discovered a new meme: “Hi and welcome to our brand new Wednesday Wickedness. We are like other memes in that we will ask you ten questions each and every Wednesday. But our little ‘twist’ is that each week we will pick a famous person and pick ten of their quotes. Each of our questions will be based on the quotes. Got it? Great! Let’s begin this week’s meme!

“Today we picked John Lennon. Here’s Wednesday Wickedness!”

1. “Since light travels faster than sound, people appear bright until you hear them speak.” Who was the last celebrity that you thought was bright until you saw them interviewed?

Actually, this happens all of the time, not so much with celebrities as much as with politicians. I keep thinking that they got nominated or even elected, so they must have brains in their respective heads. But not necessarily: see Dr. Rand Paul, e.g.

2. “Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.” Do you get upset, and do you think you’re being lazy when you do nothing?

Last Saturday, all I did was write a few blog posts, read a week’s worth of newspapers, watch a week’s worth of news. Was that “nothing”? Define “nothing”. In any case, I don’t get upset even if others might consider it laziness.

3. “If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that’s his problem. Love and peace are eternal.” Do you think that the U.S. and our wars seem to just ignore our history?

Well, not just our history. The Afghanistan war seems to be ignoring Afghanistan’s history; see, e.g., the Soviet Union’s failed attempts to “fix” the country.

4. “I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.” Do you feel you conform just to fit in?

To a degree, don’t we all? That said, I do have my freak elements.

5. “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” Do you feel that you at times do not enjoy the moment because you are worried about what comes next?

On the contrary, I think I probably should worry more about the future, but I tend to have a que sera, sera attitude.

6. “The more real you get, the more unreal everything else is.” Does it seem that when you learn more about yourself, that others’ opinions of you are more likely to seem stupid?

All unwarranted negative opinions about me are stupid, by definition. Thing is, I care less than I used to about what other people think.

7. “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.” Do you feel that when you share beliefs with someone, there is more likelihood of accomplishing a goal?

Sure, but only because I’m undisciplined and need someone to shore up my weak spots, as I do with another.

8. “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” How religious or spiritual are you? Or how cynical are you? (Pick your question.)

I’m religiously cynical. Or cynically spiritual. I’m a person of faith, but I know that, to some degree or other, we all create our religion in our own image. I buy into the loving, compassionate, just God. Others, in my opinion, buy into a warlike and/or punitive deity.

9. “Before Elvis there was nothing.” Do you think as rock ‘n roll history is concerned, that Elvis had that big an impact?

Of course. He legitimized rhythm & blues and gospel and country to a larger audience. My father hated Elvis, but his commercial success, particularly before he went into the Army, was an important development in the roots music eventually coming more to the fore.

10. “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that.” Do you feel after what has happened on Wall Street and our financial institutions, that his quote is more relevant today?

That there are maniacs is clear. The financial meltdown is only one small part of it. You have global warming deniers making death threats against the scientists who accept global warming. You have politicians that just boldly lie, even though the public record is clear. You have politicians calling simultaneously for less government and more, depending on their issues. Add to that, birthers and other loonies…

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