“Excuse my but does this survey make me look fat?”
See also Chris Lawrence and Jeff Q.
Bulletfest
Kelo edition:
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And as Ayn Rand has pointed out, the “public” as such does not exist. Only individuals exist. Whenever governments act to promote the “public” good, or to advance a “public” purpose, or to satisfy a “public” need–beware. For what invariably happens in such cases is that some individuals are forced by the state to sacrifice for other individuals.
It is no coincidence that appeals to the “public” good have been used by dictatorships throughout history to justify tyranny over the individual. Thanks to the deplorable decision by five justices of the Supreme Court, America is a big step closer to tyranny and away from the freedom America’s founders intended to establish.
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Matt Welch on Hit and Run: Yesterday, Julian Sanchez asked, in the wake of Raich and Kelo, “will some court-watchers on the left begin to question the wisdom of having let economic freedom become the red-headed stepchild of modern jurisprudence?” A preliminary answer — some may have, but several of the more influential ones have concluded that the unchecked government power to bulldoze your home and sell your property to Wal-Mart is the price we all must pay to avoid the scourge of “property rights extremism.” Rarely are public policy issues so stark, in terms of revealing whose side you’re on.
As I said earlier: this is unprincipled pragmatism allowed to run wild behind the guise of “public good” and, nonsensically to some, common sense.
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I haven’t read the Assenting Opinons yet (sorta kinda makes me sick to my stomach right now, but if Scalia and Rehnquist signed on to O’Connor’s dissent instead of writing their own, I shudder to imagine how sick those two felt) but right now I can’t buy any Conservative/Federalist argument that favors local officials having the decision to do what is right for their constuencies. Property Rights take precedence over local autonomy.
UPDATED: Irony of ironies observed by Professor Ann: It’s interesting — isn’t it — that the Court’s liberals stressed “federalism,” which the conservatives often praise, and the Court’s conservatives stress the oppression of the poor by the rich, usually the plaint of the liberal.
- Jay Solo does a better job of opining on the nature of the SCOTUS more than I could dream of doing. I’m not a big SCOTUS buff anymore since these folks are quite predictable, but I will say this: despite O’Connor being demonized as an unprincipled maverick wench for her occasional leftist opinions, I’m glad to see that the “card-carrying Conservative appointees” all said “no” in this case.
- Finally, Bryan S. of Arguing With Signs has a comprehensive roundup of opinions all over the place.
Bulletfest
- Professor Ann on the $3-a-day latte experience:
You might easily blow $4,154 on a single vacation after college or getting a few extra options on your car. By contrast, it seems extremely sensible to buy years of a daily pleasure, which gives you some nutrition and focuses your mind and which gets you out of your little room or the library and puts you in a bustling, social environment, where you have your own little table and can get some good studying done.
Put that way, it does make sense. It’s just that too often, some people don’t even get the fun out of the coffee experience anymore. They just do it as a habit, which then takes away from the pleasant experience. I think that’s when the daily latte loses its worth…
- This may seem extremely dense on my part, or I may just be missing the point, but there is a big furor over Microsoft and now Cisco Systems and how they assist a particular government in censoring its citizens. Now, from my understanding, though, I don’t see what else we could do other than to boycott their products the way Dean has decided to do.
I mean, if we take as a matter of fact that a corporation’s responsibility is to increase profit, pursue growth, through the sale of goods and services, then wouldn’t they lose so much if that gov’t decided to simply ban their products altogether?
This may be apples and oranges but if we were to blame MS and Cisco for complicity and assistance of tyranny, wouldn’t some other people in some other nations blame a company like Mattel for the deaths caused by their guns?
It really sucks to see that a corporation could not be held to the same standards as we would free nations and their citizens, but if were to avoid sinking into the same tyranny then the best way to punish a corporation one dislikes or disagrees with is to withdraw patronage.
- On a more alarming note, the concept of private property has been abolished by the Supreme Court. I guess this is what happens when unprincipled pragmatism becomes the guiding philosophy in government. Blech.
On turning 25
I was thinking of writing something introspective but I’m too busy getting busy on my birthday. Thanks to Jay for breaking the news, and Geoffrey and Jaws for greeting me.
Doogie Howser-style thoughts will have to wait. I’m gonna be out having fun.
Bulletfest
- Raging RINOs? Count me in! Not sure about the “rage” part, but yes. I am a RINO to the right of McCain and to the left of Bill Frist. That’s a wide breadth but that’s the best way I can describe it.
- Radley Balko knows how to give good speeches, and the ones featured here are both about the fascism in a white coat. Artichokes is about the war waged by Healthists against food businesses, and By Any Other Name… is about The Seat Of The Empire’s attempts to legislate against smoke-friendly bars. You know me, I’m deeply suspicious of “public good” motivation in prohibitive legislature. While most debates over these things are quite shrill, his speeches are remarkably calm. It would have beeni nice to sit in and watch that.
- I rarely order stuff onlinebut when I do, I find that constantly looking at the tracking info of my package to be a fun activity. So I am feeling like a left-at-home dog after finding out that the info hasn’t been updated since 2pm yesterday, when it was in Martinsburg, WV. Oh the horror! Must be a difficult passing through those darned country roads.
- In yet another stepdad story, he told me that the dude who wrote John Denver’s Country Roads, Take Me Home wrote it while he and John were on their way from western MD through to WV. We learn new things each day.
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