Sunday, April 02, 2006

Down The Hatch

Yup Censure of the Emperor isn't just wrong, it is unconstitutional--- Hey Whaaat!

Orrin (nut) Hatch is often off the wall, even when on message and the message is getting wider off reality every day. As reported in Hatch friendly home town paper in a hometown School Ole Orrie really let his hair down on his legal expertise.

At times his language was humorous -- he talked of "Sith judges on the Dark Side wielding their gavels like sabers" -- but he was also stern, warning that an unchecked judiciary could usurp the powers of other branches of government and spell doom for liberty.


That some of those powers are actually spelled out in the constitution as being Judicial, is not a fact that he would let get in the way of the official spin.

"The Constitution governs the Supreme Court, not the other way around," Hatch said. "The Supreme Court does not have the last word. The people do.

"I would like to restore the Constitution to what it was."


Uhhh, The constitution says the Supremes have the last word, no matter how crazy (unfortunately) short a constitutional amendment to the contrary. If that were not true, we might still have both a Democracy and (likely) a Democrat as President.

"Judicial activism represents a radical departure from the way we govern ourselves in this country," Hatch said. "If it continues, it means the Constitution won't be worth the paper it's written on."


While Bush said "its just a piece of Paper" and in Bush vs Gore The Supremes wouldn't even stand behind their reasoning in "newspeak" activist judges mean those who actually respect, the constitution and law much less honor.

Of course for Hatch, as all Republicans, talking is mostly just making noises. Coherence, much less reason, much less actual principals, are not part of the agenda, but a means to an end that has nothing to do with what the founders of the country had in mind.

I wrote this and cross posted it at the links noted:


I recall when the meme was "us versus the Communists" there were many speeches about why the Communists were different than a usual party, and why even if we supported a lot of thugs in the world "our thugs were better than their thugs"

Top of their list was that the Communists were Totalitarian. It was not enough to do as you were told, but they expected you think as you were told as well.

High on the list was that "their" principals were for the current situation only and could rotate 180 degrees if the situation was different.

Another point was that there was a spin of the day and everyone was supposed to stay "on message", only one voice allowed no matter who was talking.

A fourth was an obsession with party loyalty, people who disagreed, or worse, changed their minds were dealt with harsher than even critics.

Those are all now typical Republican descriptions. I guess it is that part about making principals fit the situation. It is not hypocrisy- it is the totalitarian way of thinking.

Posted by Freedem at 4/02/2006 03:58:00 PM

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Quotables

Intolerance

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, "My son, the battle is between 2 "wolves" inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility,
kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:

"Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."



from an old tale.

The Golden Rule
“That which is hateful to you do not do to another ... the rest (of the Torah) is all commentary, now go study.”

- Rabbi Hillel


Libertarians



1.

The self made man just isn't admitting how or where he came by all those parts

---FreeDem---- Aug 2005


2.

If a man tells you that the Government cannot accomplish anything of value, then voting for him would be like hiring an Amish Auto Mechanic.
If they don't believe in the concept, they are more than likely to do a very poor job of it.


---Bob Danforth Sept. 2009



3.

Republicans never meant to cut government waste, fraud and graft, from the get-go their plan was to organize, monopolize and privatize waste, fraud and graft.



They see the civil service as meddling “middleman,” who interfered with the free flow of cash from taxpayers into corporate coffers. Their intent was to eliminate the “middleman” as an obstruction to corruption.


---Unknown rabblerowser Feb 2007




Patriotism:


No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.

Edward R. Murrow




In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot

Mark Twain





Leadership:





You see, we often get noncreative leaders, people most interested in preserving their own positions. They flock around centers of power. Such centers attract people who can be corrupted. That is a more descriptive observation than to say simply that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.



If you are corruptible and your imagination is confined to worries about loss of power, you exist in a self-destructive system. Eventually, as all life does, you must encounter something you did not anticipate, and if you have not strengthened your creative resources, you will have no new ways for adapting to change. Adapt or die, that's the first rule of survival.



The limited vision of noncreative people is not difficult to understand. Creativity frightens the unimaginative. They don't know what's happening. Things new and unexpected arise from creativity. This threatens "things as they are." And (terrible thought) it undermines illusions of omnipotence.

Frank

Herbert 1984 (the year not the book)





News:




"News is what powerful people want to keep hidden; everything else is just publicity."

....Bill Moyer





Religion:



1.
Just as having only a hammer makes every problem either look like a nail, or as something irrelevant, our very technological skills have had us look there for explanations and ignore reality it cannot deal with. With our powerful hammer, we seek only nails, and dump the rest as dross. Not all questions involve hammers, not all answers are nails.
-- Freedem---Nov., 2006



2.
My issue with Atheists is not that they have no God, there are many religions that have no God, but that they have no religion.
-- Freedem---Nov., 2006



__Note: by this I mean that there are many things religions do besides the discredited "science" and self serving promises (give me your money and God will hold and pay the note), many like charity or fellowship, even social accountability can be very good things not requiring a God.




3.

Many have been very disappointed that their "God-critter" was not to be found as a technology swimming about in the shallower pools of knowledge. So in the obsession basic to our culture, we search ever deeper and more difficult pools, and always the "God-critter" seems to wink at us from the pool just beyond.



In the process we have found technologies beyond the wildest dreams of our most sophisticated ancestors. The great joke is that the "critter" never existed except as the pools themselves.



----Freedem --- Oct 2006



4.
Indeed I do think that many folk, believe all kinds of stuff from the actually true, to the utterly illogical, with no personal discernment one from the others. But that would hardly make any of them a scholar to rely on, any more that one should get their theology studies from a door to door salesman, offering "get out of hell free" cards, on special because the creator of galaxies in greater numbers than beach sand, nonetheless has an ego so weak He cannot exist without shamelessly excessive psychophancy from a major portion of the inhabitants of this particular dust speck.



----Freedem ---June-2007



More to come