Politics – Page 91 – Shall Not Be Questioned

On Washington’s Republicanism

From the Library of Law, W.B. Allen writing, well worth reading in full:

To try to create within oneself that same resonance, one might recall that self government does not mean majority rule â€“ for any of the American Founders. While it certainly does include the processes of majority rule ultimately, that is only a mechanism, a means â€“ not what was being aimed at. What he meant by self government was rather more a moral conception, such as he expressed in his Farewell, when he eulogized the people as â€œnowâ€ loving to be â€œone people,â€ and now governing themselves. At that moment, at least, they became in Washingtonâ€™s eyes a republic, and had also to accept the responsibility for its perpetuation. Washingtonâ€™s Farewell is truly a masterpiece in literary craftsmanship.

In modern times we have nearly completely lost the idea of republican virtue. It’s not something even really thought about anymore, but the Founders thought it was essential if the United States was going to succeed. You will hardly ever hear politicians use the term “private morality.” Both the left and right believe in public morality, but merely differ in what they believe public morality is. But before libertarians get too pleased, I believe there are many things about libertarian philosophy that the Founders would likewise find to be unvirtuous. Like I said, republican virtue seems to be a bit of a lost concept.

Tab Clearing

We seem to have a few dated stories in the tabs from before I started worrying about Frankenstorm, so I’ll dump them all in one post, so we can move on:

Ilya Somin echoes a lot of my sentiments about the candidacy of Gary Johnson.

Voting for Romney, with enthusiasm. I may do it, for some of the reasons mentioned, but it won’t be with enthusiasm.

Pumpkins for Peterson. Also here.

Anti-gun folks are going crazy with love over this piece, by I’m guessing one of their supporters.Â Because, you know, the vast majority of us believe gun safety is best taught to children by handing them a machine pistol and a beer. Do they even realize this is how a great many gun owners teach safe and responsible gun handling to children? This isn’t exceptional. It’s the responsible thing most responsible parents who own guns do.

A Little Economic Liberty in Louisiana

IJ put out a release on their case representing monks who make caskets to support their monastery that has been targeted by funeral directors who are irritated by the competition.

The monks of Saint Joseph Abbey declared victory once again after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a blistering opinion stating that the five-year campaign of the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors to prevent the monks from selling their handmade caskets was either unconstitutional or totally unauthorized by Louisiana law. The federal appellate court took the unusual step of asking the Louisiana Supreme Court to weigh in on whether Louisianaâ€™s funeral law actually grants the state board the power to stop casket retailing. If the answer is yes, then the law is unconstitutional. If the answer is no, then the state board has been acting lawlessly against the monks and other entrepreneurs for years.

According to the release, the state Supreme Court has to get back to them by January 22, so this should move reasonably quickly. But, as I was reading this release to Sebastian today, this is where the shocking quotes come in:

The 5th Circuit left no doubt about the invalidity of the state boardâ€™s primary constitutional argument that industry insiders and government may team up to pass laws that suppress competition and clobber consumers: â€œneither precedent nor broader principles suggest that mere economic protection of a pet industry is a legitimate governmental purpose.â€ The Court was equally harsh in rejecting the state boardâ€™s argument that judges in economic liberty cases are supposed to rubber stamp whatever the government does: â€œThe great deference due state economic regulation does not demand judicial blindness to the history of a challenged rule or the context of its adoption nor does it require courts to accept nonsensical explanations for naked transfers of wealth.â€ (emphasis added)

As Sebastian said, it’s almost like the court is doing its job. I’ve posted a video that’s really just background in the case below.

Bloomberg Backing King in Maine Senate Race

He’s, of course, expecting Angus King to vote his way, which means against National Reciprocity.Â But of course, I’m sure he’ll be talking to the hilt about how he supports the Second Amendment and your hunting heritage. These people can’t win without lying.

Could the â€œSnorâ€™eastercaneâ€ Impact Pennsylvania Elections?

So the â€œsnorâ€™eastercaneâ€ maps are tilting a little too close to Pennsylvania for my liking, especially when some forecasters are concerned that if/when it does turn inland, it could be worse than Irene.

I got to thinking, what does this mean for the election? I realize that this is likely to hit a solid week before the election. However, we had parts of our suburban Philadelphia county that were out of power and still had trees blocking roads a week after Irene which was just rain, not snow. The more rural areas of any state that is hit could be out for quite a while since this is supposed to be a slow-moving storm.

If Pennsylvania takes the hit, then the areas that would be hit later and possibly longer are strong areas for Republicans. While this likely won’t impact the presidential race much since Mitt isn’t likely to win, it will likely make a big impact on the closer Senate race and, more importantly for gun owners, the largely ignored and unknown to many voters Attorney General’s race. This doesn’t even get into the many state representative and senate races across the state.

If it follows the bottom part of the cone and heads toward Virginia, well, that could impact the presidential race. During one snow storm that wasn’t totally crazy, but definitely heavier than average, none of the streets in my mom’s Roanoke subdivision were plowed for four days. During the 2008 primary, VDOT left motorists stranded on the overpasses that they failed to clear and treat during an ice storm for about a day – that was right near the DC line, not a rural corner. If there’s one thing I learned living in Virginia, that state does not handle snow clearing very well at all.

Last year, I saw tweets and Facebook updates from people in Connecticut who were out of power for the better part of a week because of storms. Even if they could get out of their neighborhoods, they few places around them had power. That’s not impossible to imagine, either. While Sebastian and I regularly walk up to our polling place, and we’d be willing to freakin’ shovel a path for ourselves and our neighbors up there this year if we had to, what if they don’t have power over a widespread area? How would counties handle that? More importantly, if they had only a few polling places open, how would voters be notified of the changes if few had power?

The good news for any weather issues is that the enthusiasm gap favors the candidates who happen to be pro-gun in this immediate area. However, the bad news is that the areas likely to have any damaged fixed or power restored last is more friendly territory for our candidates. It’s an interesting, and not impossible to imagine, scenario with a very large weather system like Sandy.

Drawing a Blank on the Bill of Rights

I doubt most Americans could name you which of the Amendments in the Bill of Rights protect which rights, but most Americans aren’t members of Congress:

“I’m drawing a blank on the Second Amendment, but I think it’s the weapons, isn’t it? The NRA?” he said, according toÂ The Monitor.

If I ever get to establish Sebastianland, the first rule for holding office in Sebastianland will be to name each of the Amendments in the Bill of Rights and tell me what right they protect. I think that should be basic, required knowledge for being a member of Congress. How can I expect a person to uphold their oath of office if they don’t even know the document?

I sometimes think the biggest flaw in the Constitution is that we didn’t have more provisions to try to keep morons from holding public office. If you had to devise a constitutional system that filtered for morons, how would you do it?

h/t to Cam Edwards of Cam & Company

Jihadist Gunwalking?

Clayton points to an article in the Washington Times that suggests the Obama Administration was walking guns to the jihadists. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. Of course, I thought the same thing about walking guns to Mexico, and that turned out to be actually happening.

The Problems with Making Up Your Own Facts

Our local Congressional race is between an incumbent freshman Republican and a challenger from the Democrats who is trying to make women’s issues a key part of her campaign. Except rather than being knowledgable on the actual issue, Kathy Boockvar has decided to just make up her own facts in the midst of debates. This can backfire, something she should learn today.

For example, she was talking about birth control and said that she believed 99% of Americans use birth control. 99% of Americans. Think about that for a second. She didn’t misspeak, she made her comment very clear – she argues that 99% of Americans use birth control. Now, I assume she factored into that “fact” that any man in a sexual relationship with a woman on birth control pills is also “using” birth control. I’ll accept that. I agree with that. What I don’t accept is her assertion that children are actively using birth control.

No, I’m not talking about 16-year-olds using birth control methods. I have no issue with that at all. I’m talking about her version of statistics. 99% of Americans. The Census says that nearly 7% of Americans are under the age of 5. That means that in Kathy Boockvar’s world of made up statistics, toddlers and pre-schoolers are in need of birth control. This is why you don’t make up statistics on the fly when you’re running for office.

Of course, I don’t expect that Boockvar has any desire to actually correct her statement, even though she has tried to make such issues the highlight of her campaign. When asked in the last debate about her specific ideas for tax reforms, she refused to answer by saying that she doesn’t believe in making promises or giving those kind of answers. Today, she was asked for specifics on what votes she claimed Fitzpatrick has made to deprive veterans of support, and she just answered that he took many, many votes without being able to give any examples. In her campaign, facts are optional and accountability is non-existent. Not to mention, her made up facts are really freakin’ creepy.

Muckraking in the 21st Century

Anyone who’s gotten politically involved to any degree will eventually run into a kook. Normally this will happen very quickly. Working gun shows in 2008, I ran into several. To some degree, since you’re not there to pick fights with people, you humor them for a bit and hope they move on. Usually it’s run of the mill conspiracy nonsense, or something that’s mostly harmless. Often time the kook wants to be heard. They’ll have their say, you can be polite, nod a lot, and they’ll move on.

When this James O’Keefe video first started, I was somewhat sympathetic to Patrick Moran, because he legitimately tried to steer the videographer’s energy back to legitimate tasks. And then he went completely off the rail. Full context is provided at the end, and I watched that too. I thought full context was worse than the editing:

I might have tried to steer this person back to legitimate tasks too, but once it became clear this character would not be dissuaded, I would have said “Well, what you’re talking about is voter fraud, and it’s illegal, and we don’t do things that way, sorry.” What I definitely would not do is offer some advise on how to pull it off.

It’s a Far Cry from Hunting to Gun Rights

Apparently Justice Kagan is going to try to bag herself an antelope in Wyoming. I’d like to see Justice Kagan come around to the Second Amendment, but there are plenty of people who hunt who have a poor conception of the right. I’m not sure I’d read too much into this, but it is certainly encouraging.

Also, it would seem Dave Hardy has been a busy bee. Both articles sound quite interesting, and the former would certainly be a welcome addition to the cause.