Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Part II from David Horowitz's The Politics of Bad Faith.

First, for those of you who will not read the entire piece, an introduction:

A philosopher of exceptional brilliance and moral courage, (Lezsek) Kolakowski had been the intellectual leader of our political generation. Even the titles of his writings --“Responsibility and History,” “Towards a Marxist Humanism”-- read like stages of our radical rebirth. By 1968 those stages had come to an abrupt conclusion. When the Czechs’ attempt to provide Communism with a human face was crushed by Soviet tanks, Kolakowski abandoned the ranks of the Left. He did more. He fled -- unapologetically -- to the freedoms of the West, implicitly affirming by his actions that the Cold War did indeed mark a great divide in human affairs, and that the Left had chosen the wrong side.

Here's the QotD:

Kolakowski published Main Currents of Marxism, a comprehensive history of Marxist thought, the world view we all had spent a lifetime inhabiting. For three volumes and fifteen hundred pages Kolakowski analyzed the entire corpus of this intellectual tradition. Then, having paid critical homage to an argument which had dominated so much of humanity's fate over the last hundred years (and his own as well), he added a final epilogue which began with these words: "Marxism has been the greatest fantasy of our century." This struck me as the most personally courageous judgment a man with Kolakowski's history could make.

Critical Mastiff Returns to Blogging

Critical Mastiff Returns to Blogging

After leaving many an insightful and inspiring comment here (and an eight-month hiatus there), Critical Mastiff has taken up the mantle and begun posting again, beginning a series of philosophical posts entitled The Self-Sustaining Society. Part I: Positional Equality is now available for your study and comment.

THIS Outrage Hits Newsweek

THIS Outrage Hits Newsweek

Patti Davis, Ronald Reagan's daughter, has penned a piece for Newsweek on last week's botched heroically-executed raid on nefarious drug kingpin innocent Berwyn Heights, Md. mayor Cheye Calvo, his mother-in-law, and his two slavering pit bulls Black Labs.

Entitled America's Troubled House, I strongly urge you to give it a read. Here are some of of the highlights:

Mayor Cheye Calvo came home late in the afternoon of July 29 and discovered a package addressed to his wife that had been left at the front door. He brought it inside, didn't open it and set it aside for his wife. Calvo said hello to his mother-in-law, Georgia, who lives with them, and took the family's two black Labrador retrievers, Chase and Payton, out for a walk. He waved to several people who were sitting in cars near his home, never suspecting that a nightmare was about to unfold.

When he came back, Calvo went upstairs to change clothes for an evening event. His mother-in-law was in the kitchen when she saw masked men with guns running toward the house. Not surprisingly, she screamed as they kicked in the door. They shot Payton who was standing beside her. They then turned their weapons on the other black lab, Chase, who was running away from them. They killed him, too.

If you read the gun boards where incidents like this are reported regularly (which means, of course, they occur regularly), shooting the dogs seems to be standard operating procedure.

Mayor Calvo came downstairs into a new time in America, in which no one is presumed innocent and guilt is only an assumption away.

--

Several days after the raid, authorities arrested several men, including a FedEx delivery man. And County Police Chief Melvin C. High finally admitted that "Ms. Tomsic and the Calvo family were innocent victims of drug traffickers."

He's probably tired of reporters coming up to him with microphone in hand and saying, "You must be High."

While Chief High later expressed regret for the incident, he stopped short of offering an apology. And Sheriff Michael A. Jackson, whose department executed the raid, defended his department's actions.

It's not the first time something like this has happened in Prince George's County. In November, another family was targeted for what was later deemed a mistake. Their dog was shot to death in their front yard. When Calvo called for a U.S. Justice Department investigation last week, he noted "reports of similar misconduct, including service of warrants at the wrong address, excessive use of no-knock entries and other unjustified killings of family pets. This has happened before, and without oversight, it will happen again." Calvo acknowledged that because of his position as mayor, his case has been getting the kind of exposure that the average citizen could never hope for. "What saddens us most is that all too often, these injustices go unnoticed by law-enforcement officials and those who are victimized are forced to suffer in silence," he said.

Gee, Ya THINK??

Imagine being Georgia Porter, one minute cooking dinner, the next handcuffed on the kitchen floor, inches from the bloodied body of a dog who was part of her family. Imagine Cheye Calvo hearing the shots from upstairs, not knowing what was happening, and then finding himself handcuffed, helpless, forced to kneel in his underwear. Imagine Trinity Tomsic dealing with her defiled home--not only did the police slaughter their dogs, they tracked blood all over the house in a search that yielded nothing.

You need to imagine all these things because, in a way, we all live in that house. It's called our country, and this is what's starting to happen here.

It's not starting, Patti, it's been going on (and worse, much worse) for quite a while. The legacy media is just now starting to take notice, but that's because media serves as the ecclesiastical arm of government, not as the fourth check and balance on government.

But here's the key excerpt:

Prince George's official country Web site defines itself as "a county of livable communities." That's what we all wish for--a livable community, a home where we feel safe. We want to feel that if the bad guys come, we can call the police and they will be the good guys. We want to believe that if we're innocent, armed men with government badges won't handcuff us and shoot our pets and wave their weapons in our faces.

But more and more of us don't believe that.

A spot-on observation in a national news outlet.

By all means, read the comments, from the bottom up.

I've got another Überpost forming in my brain that isn't going to crawl its way out of my skull until sometime after I get back from the Para Blogger's shoot. I'm hoping nice long conversations with the other attendees will help inspire me in saying what I want to say the way I want to say it.

Has Frank Sanns "crossed a line somewhere"?

Has Frank Sanns "crossed a line somewhere"?

A couple of days ago I wrote a post about retired chemist Victor Deeb, whose private property was seized because he was doing chemistry experiments in his home.

Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for Marlboro (MA), stated, "I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation."

I wonder what Ms. Wilderman would think of Frank Sanns, and whether there's a similar .gov position in Pittsburg with an "enforcement officer" who would object - with similar results - to Mr. Sanns' non-"customary home occupation."

Mr. Sanns has an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back^*, er, a nuclear fusion reactor in his garage.

And he's not alone.

I LOVE America! The Pursuit of Happiness!

Via Classical Values.

(* - For those too young to get the reference.)

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

The victorious radicals had proclaimed a theology of Reason in which equality of condition was the natural and true order of creation. In their Genesis, the loss of equality was the ultimate source of mankind’s suffering and evil, just as the arrogant pride of the primal couple had provoked their Fall in the religious myths now discarded. The ownership of private property became a secular version of original sin. Through property, society re-imposed on every generation of human innocence the travails of inequality and injustice. Redemption from worldly suffering was possible only through the Revolution that would abolish property and open the gates to the socialist Eden -- to Paradise regained.

The ideas embodied in this theology of liberation became the inspiration for the new political Left, and have remained so ever since. It was half a century later that Marx first articulated the idea of a historical redemption, in the way that became resonant for us:

Communism is the positive abolition of private property, of human self-alienation, and thus the real appropriation of human nature through and for man. It is therefore the return of man himself as a social, i.e., really human, being... - Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts

This was our revolutionary vision. By a historical coup we would create the conditions for a return to the state of true humanity whose realization had been blocked by the alienating hierarchies of private property. All the unjust institutions of class history that had distorted, divided, and oppressed mankind would be abolished and human innocence reborn. In the service of this cause, no burden seemed too onerous, no sacrifice too great. We were the Christopher Columbuses of the human future, the avatars of a new world struggling to emerge from the womb of the old. - David Horowitz, The Politics Of Bad Faith: The Radical Assault on America's Future

(h/t to PhilB)

That's the first time I've ever seen a Leftist (former or otherwise) put in print why there is such an assault on private property rights today. The Endangered Species Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the multiple various and sundry EPA regulations about "wetlands" and pollution, Eminent Domain abuse, etc., etc. I mean, I'd come to that conclusion myself, given the evidence, but to have it admitted in print. . .

In fact, the entire piece is full of quotable excerpts. Expect the remainder of the Quotes of the Day this week to be from this one link.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Ideas that have been tried and found wanting; tried and found to be disastrous: the totalitarian temptation in all its many guises; the multifarious utopian schemes for universal beatitude; efforts to curtail freedom in the name of an abstract republic of virtue--all these ideas were thoroughly discredited only yesterday but, like some strange villain out of a science fiction movie, they have suddenly changed shape and are poised to attack again. We have yet to learn--even now, even at this late date--that promises of liberation often turn out to conceal new enchantments and novel forms of bondage. - Roger Kimball, Ideas in Battle, The Weekly Standard, 7/21/08

RTWT. (h/t: Empire of Dirt)

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

Buddha said that desire is the root of all suffering and oh, I know the truth of that now. I have such a deep longing in my heart for a 1911, such a need for that .45, that it pains me. I want. - Breda, Range Report - .45 Colt M1911

Heh. John Moses Browning gets another one!

Got the 'Stang Running

Got the 'Stang Running

Fuel tank dropped, flushed, cleaned & reinstalled with a new sending unit, fuel line blown out, and carb rebuilt, she's back on the road after sitting in my garage for five years:



Anybody want to bid on her? I have a few more things to do before I put her up on eBay, but she's looking pretty good at the moment.

Edited to add: Reflecting on the Quote of the Day above, I was reminded of this quote, WRT this car:

After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true. - Lt. Cmdr Spock, Amok Time

Little Girls with Guns!

Little Girls with Guns!

SayUncle points to a local ABC affiliate story on the Steel Challenge that begins by covering two 11-year old female competitors. It's a good piece. I'm quite surprised, actually.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

For Deyan:

"Common values" and "universal values" are not all that common and universal, and the willingness to defend those values is even rarer. They've been sustained over the long haul by a very small group of countries. In the years ahead, America has to take the American moment seriously -- in part, to ensure that the allies of tomorrow don't make the mistakes Western Europe did. That means at the very minimum something beyond cheeseburger imperialism. In the end, the world can do without American rap and American cheeseburgers. American ideas on individual liberty, federalism, capitalism, and freedom of speech would be far more helpful.

In 2004, Goh Chok Tong, the prime minister of Singapore and a man who talks a lot more sense than most Continental prime ministers, visited Washington at the height of the Democrats' headless-chicken quagmire frenzy. He put it in a nutshell: "The key issue is no longer WMD or even the role of the UN. The central issue is America's credibility and will to prevail."

The prime minister of Singapore apparently understands that more clearly than many Americans. - Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It

And one Bulgarian.

"I Have Power! I Have Power!"

Those are the words reported to have been shouted by a Stasi TSA agent in Chicago when a passenger, forced to drop his trousers in full view of other passengers, asked to see her supervisor.

More and more, this seems to be the attitude of those who draw .gov paychecks.

A couple of days ago a reader (thanks, Russ) emailed me a link to this story along those same lines:

Home science under attack

The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports that Victor Deeb, a retired chemist who lives in Marlboro, has finally been allowed to return to his Fremont Street home, after Massachusetts authorities spent three days ransacking his basement lab and making off with its contents.

Deeb is not accused of making methamphetamine or other illegal drugs. He's not accused of aiding terrorists, synthesizing explosives, nor even of making illegal fireworks. Deeb fell afoul of the Massachusetts authorities for ... doing experiments.

Authorities concede that the chemicals found in Deeb's basement lab were no more hazardous than typical household cleaning products. Despite that, authorities confiscated "all potentially hazardous chemicals" (which is to say the chemicals in Deeb's lab) from his home, and called in a hazardous waste cleanup company to test the chemicals and clean up the lab.

Pamela Wilderman, the code enforcement officer for Marlboro, stated, "I think Mr. Deeb has crossed a line somewhere. This is not what we would consider to be a customary home occupation."

Allow me to translate Ms. Wilderman's words into plain English: "Mr. Deeb hasn't actually violated any law or regulation that I can find, but I don't like what he's doing because I'm ignorant and irrationally afraid of chemicals, so I'll abuse my power to steal his property and shut him down."

In effect, the Massachusetts authorities have invaded Deeb's lab, apparently without a warrant, and stolen his property. Deeb, presumably under at least the implied threat of further action, has not objected to the warrantless search and the confiscation of his property. Or perhaps he's just biding his time. It appears that Deeb has grounds for a nice juicy lawsuit here.

There's a lesson here for all of us who do science at home, whether we're home schoolers or DIY science enthusiasts. The government is not our friend. Massachusetts is the prototypical nanny state, of course, but the other 49 aren't far behind. Any of us could one day find the police at the door, demanding to search our home labs. If that day comes, I will demand a warrant and waste no time getting my attorney on the phone.

There's a word for what just happened in Massachusetts. Tyranny. And it's something none of us should tolerate.

Ms. Pamela Wilderman, "code enforcement officer" for Marlboro, has power, and she's not afraid to abuse it! At the end of the news piece she added:

"He's been very cooperative," Ms. Wilderman said. "I won't be citing him for anything right at this moment."

Remember the Ayn Rand quote. He broke some law or laws. All he has to do is provide any resistance at all, and they'll find some to cite him with.

There's far more tyranny in government than just the BATFE.

And by all means, read the comment thread.

UPDATE: From the newspaper comment thread:

I am the daughter of Victor Deeb and what they did and took from my father is not only unfair but devastating to an old man whose life for the last 40 years has been chemistry. They not only took all of his chemicals (which he used in his research for non-toxic sealants for baby food jars) but 20 years of notes that were valuable only to him. Now his research notes have magically disappeared into thin air. Can someone tell me where the justice is in that?

-m deeb

Where indeed?

I'm Shocked, SHOCKED I Say!

I'm Shocked, SHOCKED I Say!

Well, now that the dust has settled over yesterday's shooting of Arkansas Democratic State chairman Bill Gwatney, I thought I'd comment. The AP reports (no link, on purpose):

The man who fatally shot the chairman of the state Democratic Party had a Post-It note at home with the victim's last name and phone number along with 14 guns, antidepressants and a last will and testament, according to court documents.

I'm shocked to discover that the killer was taking antidepressants. The 14 guns? Not so much. We're talking about Arkansas here.

The one thing that lefty blogger Markadelphia and I agreed on (aside from the individual right to arms issue) was that it appeared that mind-altering chemicals seemed to be the one thing that the overwhelming majority of "rampage shootings" had in common. The shooters were on Selective Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, etc. As I've said before, if these medications affect 1/100 of 1% (.001%, literally one in 100,000) in such a way as to reduce or remove the inhibition to suicidal violence, it would be too small a population to statistically determine. But there are literally millions of people on these drugs.

So every time I hear about a "rampage shooter," the first question I want an answer to is "Were they on antidepressants?"

And this one was.

OK, What's This?

OK, What's This?

A screencap from a Reuter's video story of a Georgian TV reporter getting shot on camera (she took what appears to be a minor wound to an arm, so I don't think she was actually shot, but might very well have been shot at:


That looks like a scoped, suppressed AK-47? Note that he's carrying something else across his back. Nice ninja-disguise, too. I suppose Russian Army troops really need to conceal their identities because this is an undercover invasion, right?

Answer in the comments: It's a VSS Vintorez. Chambered for 9x39 subsonic. I'd never heard of it.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

We're winning ground in the realm of gun rights, but losing every other right during the interim. Eventually, it will be easy to ask for permission to have a gun, but we'll have to provide our GPS coordinates to the authorities at all times if we go outside the view of the security cameras inside our houses. - Robb Allen, "Some infringement on constitutional rights is OK" Sharp as a Marble

From the Dept. of "Make 'Em Mad"

From the Dept. of "Make 'Em Mad"

David Codrea points to the latest in .gov thuggery from that bastion of freedom, Maryland, where former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran published his 1999 manifesto A Farewell to Arms: The Solution to Gun Violence in America (PDF) Here's just a part of what Curran recommended:

In the short run, we must change our gun culture. People must come to realize that we endanger our lives and those of our children by owning and carrying handguns, and by tolerating it in our neighbors. There is no reason why, in going to a movie theater or grocery store, we should worry that someone's gun might discharge accidentally and kill our child. As attitudes have slowly but surely undergone radical transformation regarding such critical public health issues as smoking and using seatbelts, bicycle helmets, and child car restraints, so too must owning and carrying handguns come to be seen as dangerous and aberrant behavior. We must change people's minds about how far they are willing to endanger themselves in tolerating the choice of others to carry a gun.

Thus, I call upon everyone - private employers, government agencies, schools, physicians, and especially parents - to help. First, to put teeth into this initiative, I ask the General Assembly to take the lead and make guns in public accommodations illegal. It is one thing to continue to tolerate people choosing to endanger themselves and their loved ones by keeping a gun at home. We should no longer, however, allow them to force others to endanger themselves by going to a movie theater or baseball game where guns are permitted. In addition, private employers outside the context of public accommodations should prohibit guns on their premises, with prominent signs to remind the public that guns must be left at the door.

In other words, this:


One thing I noted through Curran's entire manifesto: he never said how he intended to disarm, you know, criminals.

Anyway, it looks like the departure of Curran in 2007 didn't have any salutary effect on Maryland's official hoplophobia. It would appear that the State monitors ammunition purchases and checks them against their list of registered firearms. And if there's a discrepancy? Do they send an officer of the law to politely ask about whatever might be concerning them during, say, normal working hours?

Oh no! Instead they ninja-up and go tacticool. From the Maryland Shooter's forum:

In case anyone isn't on the MSI mailing list, this is from the latest. Reading this made me feel physically sick. This is straight up police state stuff, and someone could have been murdered by the police had it gone down a little differently. This has got to stop. Something HAS to be done.

Hello Henry.

I just wanted your organization to know what Our State Police are up too. The incident below happened to me, a legal gun owner in La Plata, Maryland two nights ago (August 4, 2008 at 12:30 PM). Next time, they won't get in without a warrant. You live and you learn. Below, is the e-mail I sent to Mr. Chris Contee NRA, Chief Counsel at his request. I know I'm not an isolated incident so I hope your members keep their doors locked.

Dear Chris,

It was great to speak with you today by phone. Sorry but also glad you are so busy with our legislative matters. What would we do without you and the NRA?

As I told you by phone, my Wife and I were unfairly besieged late last night by the Maryland State Police. I have also relayed this occurrence to "Citizens Group for the right to keep and bear arms". I believe they are in Seattle Washington. Enclosed is my summation for your review. Good luck on your trip and safe travel.

Last night at 12:30 pm a MD State Police "Armed Response Team" showed up at our door. I was dead asleep, my Wife was laying some ceramic tile on our basement floor when our driveway alert went off several times. She looked at the camera monitor and screamed that Police in Assault gear were running up to our front door. That made me sit straight up from a dead sleep.

We thought they were there for my Brother in Law who had just been mailed Bench Warrants to our home, but he doesn't live here and he is already incarcerated, so my Wife opened the door for them. Then I heard one of them say he had some papers for me or needed to speak with me,so I got up to speak with them 6 or 7 officers in full assault vests, etc. and NO ONE in uniform. Four heavily armed police came into the house while at least two others walked around outside of our home.

One, began to talk to me asking me about the types of weapons I own. Remember now, I was just startled from a dead sleep and I kept asking why are you here, why do you want to know about my guns? Every gun I bought in Maryland I bought from a MD Dealer. Well this Trooper said that I had purchased a "large amount" of ammunition recently and wanted to know why. When I questioned why he was asking, then he changed his tune to what type of Handguns I had. I told him I just purchased my first handgun in Maryland last week, but had not even picked it up from the Store . He questioned me about other handguns I might own and I realized that he was "fishing" to match his list of my ammunition purchases with handguns that I owned. Then I told him about my C&R license that I had purchased 2 with that but was not required to register them with ST. Police. Moreover, I told him it was the MD. ST. Police who approved me as a "designated collector" so why are they here in storm trooper fashion at 12:30 pm maybe to kill me because I legally bought some handgun ammo? He told me that most of the ammo I purchased was for weapons that they had no record of me having registered so the "SYSTEM" Flagged me. Flagged me for what? Death, Harassment at midnight by 7 Storm Troopers?

I asked, "... does your system know that it is stupid to buy ammo with your own ID if your are going to do something illegal, Does your system know that I have a C&R and can buy weapons of various calibers without your knowledge, Does your system know that you yourselves registered me as a designated collector, who "collects" so it is not unusual for me to buy any type or manner of ammunition and finally, Does your system know that it is NOT illegal to purchase handgun ammunition in the State of Maryland whether or not you own that caliber handgun?"

The Trooper (plain clothes), had a list of ammo calibers that he referred to and I agreed, there's no secret that I bought the ammo, but so what? And I'm still not sure of the States definition of a "large amount". Look, I'm not outfitting a Militia, hate group, or giving it to someone who can't buy it, or even buy ammo for a stolen weapon I don't want to register. Any weapon I have every owned has either been purchased at a Gun Store or I personally knew the individual I bought it from and its origin. And, last time I looked it is not illegal to buy handgun ammo, even if you don't own the caliber weapon OR you don't own a weapon at all !! So unless the law is changed, Police cannot harass people who do so.

That being said, the young Trooper told me I "should" voluntarily register all my weapons or this would happen again... because the "system" flagged me. And another thing, he kept asking where I kept my weapons, in a safe? I never answered him and he asked me three separate times as to the locations of any weapons I might have. I got the distinct impression he wanted me to voluntarily let him see/inspect the handguns for the calibers I bought ammo for, but I was ready for that. No warrant, no see. I mean, I would hope you could trust the Police, but why should I let six or seven or so strangers know where I keep guns? If indeed I had the calibers he was inquiring about?

The point here though, is that Police came to my home without a warrant, dressed to kill, trying to intimidate me about something that is NOT illegal !! This was not an Interview it was an interrogation under duress.

Funny the last thing he said to me before leaving was "... Mr. Curtis, sorry to have HARASSED you, you have a good night."

Read the whole thread.

Sounds like Maryland's effort to "change the gun culture" are proceeding apace, doesn't it? Are you mad yet?

Now That's Service!

I received my M1 Carbine from the CMP a couple of weeks ago, and I noted then that the serial number on the Certificate of Authenticity didn't seem right to me. According to the information I could find, the serial number the CMP thought the rifle carried would have made the receiver a Saginaw, but it (and the barrel) were clearly marked "IBM CORP." So I fired off an email noting that I thought they'd misread the second digit of the S/N as a "6" rather than an "8", where the "8" would have made it a 1943 production IBM unit.

I just received a new receipt and a new Certificate of Authenticity in the mail with the correct serial number. That's pretty good service!

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

In the months after the Afghan campaign, France's foreign minister, Hubert Védrine, was deploring American "simplisme" on a daily basis, and Saddam understood from the get-go that the French veto was his best shot at torpedoing any meaningful UN action on Iraq. Yet the jihadists still blew up a French oil tanker. If you were to pick only one Western nation not to blow up the oil tankers of, the French would surely be it.

But they got blown up anyway. And afterwards a spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden said, "We would have preferred to hit a U.S. frigate, but no problem because they are all infidels."

No problem. They are all infidels.

When people make certain statements and their acts conform to those statements I tend to take them at their word. As Hussein Massawi, former leader of Hezbollah, neatly put it, "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you." - Mark Steyn, America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It

Something I think far too many people deliberately refuse to acknowledge, much less accept.

Justice Kennedy on Education

C-SPAN covered the July 31 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference where Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy spoke. The video is available here (RealPlayer). Orin Kerr linked to it because Kennedy discusses, briefly, the Heller decision, but this part is what caught my attention, starting at about 28 minutes in:

We went at the request of the State Department to Poland, and I asked as I always do if I could please meet with the faculty at the law school. So we met the faculty of the law school in Warsaw, and, um, they told me ahead of time that I couldn't address the students because it was the second or third week in September and the students were not to come until the following week, which disappointed me. But they had the faculty meeting, so that I could talk about curriculum and meet the faculty.

Well, halfway through the meeting, somebody comes in and says "Oh, Justice Kennedy, we forgot. Our entering law students are here today for an orientation and they want to hear you." Now, these are basically High School seniors, just entering the University, and um, there's maybe ninety of them in the room, they speak excellent English - Polish is a secret language anyway. (Laughter) So went out, "I'm Justice Kennedy of the Supreme Court here to tell you about the Constitution. . ." and, uh, they know that I solicited questions at the outset, and asked to be interrupted, and uh, as I was talking about the Federal structure, and the structure of the national government. And a student raised her hand and said "Now, the President checks the Congress, and the Congress checks the President, what is it that checks the courts?" Very good question, so we talk about that.

There's a discussion I'd have liked to listen in on.

And then another student says "Now federalism, you think federalism is very important, but, you know a lot of money goes to Washington and then goes back to the states with conditions on it. Doesn't that undermine the sovereignty of the states?" (Kennedy shows a stunned look to the audience, drawing laughter.)

So, I, I, g-go on with this, and I, the discussion is very good. A third student raises. . . I think it was a lady, raises her hand and says "Were Chief Justice John Marshall's opinions all popular when he wrote them?"

And I said, "Wait a minute." (Laughter) I said, "You've, you've planned this, Das ist ein schwindel, this is a trick!" (More laughter) Um, and they said "No, no, you don't understand! We've been trying to design our Constitution for fourteen years, and we've studied American legal and American Constitutional history since the fourth grade."

(My emphasis.) Get your attention? It got mine.

It gets better.

I told Mary afterwards, I said "If I'd had that class at Princeton or Duke or Stanford," I said, "I would've come home and told you 'It's a great class!'" I said, "These are High School students!" So we told the same story that night at the dinner where the Provost was. He said, "Well, it's, it's. . . That's true. But the other thing they didn't mention; we can't say anything good about the Communists - they wrecked us for probably a hundred years - but there was one fallout of what they did. If you wanted to be a doctor, an architect, an engineer, a physician, you didn't have the opportunity to go into that profession, so you went into teaching. And for fifty years we had the best teachers in the world, and you've seen the product."

Here we get the George Orwell Daycare Center and High School seniors who wouldn't recognize the Constitution if someone burned a copy in front of them.

The Big "O"

The Big "O"

You can't make this stuff up.

At first, Rick Husong was stunned by the overwhelming wave of negative and sometimes crude reactions to his bid revealed in Whispers last week to build a pro-Sen. Barack Obama movement around a hand salute dubbed the Big-O. Among the hundreds of comments posted on the Whispers site were those comparing it to a gang gesture, a Nazi salute, or worse. "This is how Sieg Heil got started. And, no I'm not saying Obama is Hitler. I just think people should be careful about slipping into a personality cult for a charismatic leader," wrote Jake of Tennessee. Husong tells me that he was pretty depressed by the reaction to his idea and free design offered on the website of Loyalty Inc., his California creative company. That is until he heard of a fan walking on Venice Beach wearing a T-shirt displaying the artwork. In fact, despite the tsunami of criticism, the artwork has been downloaded 7,700 times and his site has been hit 214,000 times since the first Whisper went live. "I would call that a raving success," he says, adding that he plans to make his Big-O the "peace sign of our generation."

He also E-mailed me last night to say that the hits on the artwork have inspired him to push even harder to build a movement around the hand signal.

Well, we know what it inspired on my part.


But the actual image in question is this one:


Here's the take of the one outspoken Obama supporter in my office:

I have to say I am a little frightened by this. My first thoughts as I saw this were, "Great, all we need is an elephant to stroke and we are set!" Then I remembered that the GOP is represented by the elephant... talk about the irony.

You don't say.

As Glenn Reynolds noted, Mr. Husong has forgotten the First Rule of Holes.

UPDATE: Robb weighs in with a "hand salute" suggestion of his own.

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day

For over 80 years, teacher education in America has been in the grip of an immutable dogma, responsible for endless educational nonsense. That dogma may be summed up in the phrase: Anything But Knowledge. Schools are about many things, teacher educators say (depending on the decade)—self-actualization, following one’s joy, social adjustment, or multicultural sensitivity—but the one thing they are not about is knowledge. Oh sure, educators will occasionally allow the word to pass their lips, but it is always in a compromised position, as in "constructing one’s own knowledge," or "contextualized knowledge." Plain old knowledge, the kind passed down in books, the kind for which Faust sold his soul, that is out. - Heather Mac Donald, Why Johnny's Teacher Can't Teach, The Burden of Bad Ideas