Letters to the Editor
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Oh, and
I stand to heartily endorse one's right to stylishly split infinitives.
Splitting infinity? Not so sure.
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Hankster on the Kucinich Decision
Mr. Greenwald is right on the mark concerning 'Judicial Activision' as perceived by current Republicans.
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Chris Dowd
Raimondo of Antiwar.com describes himself as a homosexual--Chris Dowd
What does that mean, that he "describes himself"? That seems like an odd way to explain that someone says they are gay or straight. What could or would the 'description' consist of, besides,"I'm Gay, or I'm straight"?
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Gordon
Roe v. Wade, to which you alluded earlier, would be a perfect rare example of the legislature at State and then Federal levels failing to achieve needed consensus.
I don't know what to say to this. No "Consensus" was needed. Abortion is not a federal issue, or at least wasn't. The 50 states had various laws on the subject that were all over the map- from strictly prohibitive to rather more liberal. Roe dictated one policy for a nation of 250 million people (at that time) based upon nothing more than personal political opinions of the judges involved with the thinest of legal veneers.
In other words- it isn't law.
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Maybe he's faking it...
There's the populist wing of the libertarian movement, and then there's the Washington crowd that's still trying to sell libertarianism, or their version of it, to elites. These people want to go along and get along. As long as they can abort their babies and sodomize each other and take as many drugs as they want to, they are happy.
Justin Raimondo
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071224/hayes
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@Chris
Your objecting in principle to something that was decided in a particular. The NJ court ruled as it did becuase the state's constitution had a rather broad equal-protection clause. It wasn't the court imposing their preference on a situation and it was unrelated to the nature of gayness, they simply read the law and the Constitution and insisted that they be taken at face value. This is quite unrelated to whether anyone thinks that's a good idea or not. The political process (Ratifying the NJ Constitution) had already spoken on the matter.
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The more things change...
I haven't read all the the posts, so I apologize if I repeat what's already been said.
I think the right-wing is pretty consistent over time. They'll do and say whatever it takes. Consistency -- as in standards that are consistently applied to all, or arguments that are consistent over time -- is irrelvant.
This is the operative statement. The others are inoperative. Ron Ziegler
The don't want Kucinich in -- it's harder to paint the other candidates as left-wing loons when they're standing next to him -- but they can't keep him out. So what arguments are they left with?
The Judicial Activism canard gives them an appearence of a rationale, while allowing them to squawk that Judicial Activist tree-hugging Iranian coddling freaks will set programming standards if a Dem is elected.
Just my 2 cents.
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Some warnings, problems and caveats
But the wiki entry is worth a look, if for nothing more than the origin of the term. I did not know that.
Judicial activism is a term used in the United States that is open to some controversy concerning its true meaning. Its meaning before the 1990's was taken to be a pejorative term for misuse of judicial power for the purpose of obtaining a predetermined judgement based on the political convictions of the judges without regard to the U.S. constitution, written law or legal precedent. After the year 2000 it was adopted by members of the opposition party to mean the appointment of judges for the purpose of political expediency....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_activism
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Breaking With Caesarism
In Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar," Brutus reluctantly leads the Roman senators who assassinate Caesar.
Brutus is an idealist who wants to restore the republic. However, court intrigues being what they are, he is betrayed by some of the conspirators, and let down by others, particularly Cassius.
Cassius persuades Brutus to act, but Cassius is a feckless, ineffective battlefield commander.
Brutus and his forces are defeated by Marc Antony, Caesar's right hand man, and the Roman tyranny continues.
Regardless, Brutus is recognized by all as "the noblest Roman of them all."
It's interesting to take one more step on the high literary plain and consider Harold Bloom, the Yale professor and critic, who compares George Bush, a Yalie, to Macbeth.
Bloom just reaffirmed that angle of attack this week in an interview with a Swedish journalist.
Hot stuff.
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Scientific, Kitt
Critical Mass?
Look, I realize you know you are right. Other's who disagree with you know they are right. I am sure there are all manner of studies and papers and so forth that show how right you are. They are meaningless as to the question of wether or not there is a "right" to same sex marriage. There are others with all manner of studies and papers that show they are right that you disagree with and I am sure you would call kooks and liars. They think the same about you.
The role of a judge in this matter is not to wade through those papers and judge whose views are the more "true"- it is to decide if the law = based upon precedent and its actual wording would allow such a thing. And if not- he decides against, for example- same sex marriage. He isn't saying that he thinks same sex marriage is immoral, is not a good thing- he is making no moral judgement on it whatsover. He is telling us that there is no right to it under the law and if "Society" wishes to make it a right- they can- by passing a law. He is saying it isn't his job to tell us who is right on the issue. And it isn't. That doesn't mean in other matters- specifically tort cases- it is not the judges purview to determine truth- obviously in those matters it often is.
As to how Riamondo describes himself- it is my understanding that he prefers the term homosexual, dislikes the use of "gay" and all the more thinks the terms "Straight" and "gay" to be modern inventions and classifications when they don't in fact really exist. He refuses to be primarily identified by how he sexually gratifies himself.