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| Brief · January 10, 2011 The Foundation"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." For the Record"[W]e pray for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her family, and the other victims of the heinous violence in Arizona. It should not be, but the media, under the guise of 'a full exposition' of the evil in Arizona, is back to subtly and not so subtly pinning the blame for the attempted assassination of the Congresswoman and the related shootings on the tea party movement, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, me, you, and everyone right of center. Let's be crystal clear: this is the supposedly objective news media doing this, not the openly, partisan left, though it is fueling the media witch hunt. And from what we now know, it is not just media malpractice, but a lie. Ironically, by perpetuating the lie -- by even treating it as a legitimate topic of consideration to revisit the accusations of violence and hate the media tried to run with prior to the November election -- that the right and the tea party incited this evil act, the left and media may very well incite violence against the right. ... But then there is the real culprit -- the shooter himself. A friend of the shooter's described the shooter as decidedly 'left-wing' as recently as 2007. On YouTube, he flagged as a favorite video one of a person dressed as a terrorist burning the American flag. Only a lunatic or a leftist would do that. His favorite work was not a Glenn Beck book, but a staple of every left-wing bookshelf, the Communist Manifesto. In the Communist Manifesto, there are numerous, frequent calls for violence against the bourgeoisies. ... It is also not to say in any way, shape, or form that the guy is of the left. If, however, we take the evidence as presented and not as the media and left would have it presented, the shooter very clearly is not of the right. More precisely, the shooter is neither left-wing nor right-wing. He is crazy and evil -- a word not used enough. ... By the way, as an exit thought, the tea party movement won in November. Winners don't go on shooting sprees." --Red State blogger Erick Erickson Culture"I am pretty wary of people who try to seek political gain out of terrible tragedies. And as sure as the sun comes up, the anti-gun lobby became among the first to run on autopilot and seek to politicize the senseless human killings in Tucson. The anti-gun movement resurrected itself only hours after Saturday's mayhem. At 10:34 on Saturday night, Politico filed an anti-gun story as Rep. Giffords and others battled for their lives: 'Gun control activists slammed Arizona for its gun laws Saturday, which allow almost any adult who can pass a federal background check to purchase a firearm.' Their auto-rant is consistent with their strategy of trying to exploit human heartbreak for political gain, sometimes even before the blood dries. When I heard their tired political calls for gun control, I decided to conduct a thought experiment. As it turns out, Washington, D.C., and Tucson have about equal populations. D.C. has 599,000 residents. Tucson has 544,000. ... So what are the differences in the homicide rates between Tucson and Washington, D.C.? As it turns out, they are staggeringly different. ... According to Tucson Police Department records, by December 2010, the city -- which is located 60 miles north of the Mexican border -- experienced 51 murders by the use of guns. Washington police records, meanwhile, recorded 131 homicides in 2010, nearly three times the Tucson rate. ... My wish is that the gun control lobby, which continues to exploit terrible tragedies for political gain, will concede defeat in the real world and remain silent during national sorrow." --Pajamas Media editor Richard Pollock Insight"The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic." --President John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) Government"For far too long, Republicans have been reticent to engage in emotional arguments to make their case. ... [I]t would be nice if they didn't have to, but a substantial portion of the population has grown quite comfortable with empty slogans like 'social justice,' 'speaking truth to power,' 'evil corporations,' and a host of others designed to do one thing: convince Americans that the greatest country in the world must abandon the very economic system that has made it the envy of the world. What both political parties have done with regard to irresponsible spending is criminal. One party wants to 'go straight.' The other will not be content until every American is equally miserable -- with the exception of a ruling class which must administer that misery 'fairly.' ... If there's a debt ceiling, my fellow Americans, that means there's also a spending floor. Lower the floor, Republicans, even if it means fighting emotional fire with emotional fire." --columnist Arnold Ahlert Liberty"[I] was struck [recently] by the words of the great Christian theorist and historian of the last century, Hilaire Belloc, that I read in his 1916 book 'The Elements of the Great War, the Second Phase.' He observed that when the most profound issue may face a nation, there is the danger that 'the lesser should conquer the greater, the viler the more noble, the more changeable the more steadfast. ... We know, upon the analogy of all historical things, small and great, that the less creative, the dullest and the worst elements may destroy, and [have] frequently attempted to destroy, the vital, the more creative and the best.' That is what America faces today. For too long, the decent American majority of citizens who are productive and hardworking ... have sat by while others have tried to usurp our liberty to enhance the power of government.... Now all these conflicting interests and passions are funneling into Washington. These next 24 months -- beginning now -- are the decisive period." --columnist Tony Blankley
Re: The Left"We hear all sorts of sad stories about people whose homes are 'under water' or who are facing foreclosure. But why should our attention be arbitrarily focused on these particular people, rather than on the many other people who would benefit from being able to buy those same houses, if the prices came down? The government is artificially keeping the prices up with subsidies and with pressures on lenders to accommodate the current occupants. Can we not walk and chew gum at the same time? Is our attention span so limited that we can only think about one set of people that the media and the politicians have chosen to highlight? Do other people count for less just because the media don't put their pictures in the paper or on the TV screen? Or because politicians are ignoring them? Sometimes we are more concerned about some people because they are especially deserving. But this cannot be said about those who borrowed money to buy homes that they could not afford, or who borrowed against the equity in their homes, and now find that what they owe is more than the home is worth. If anyone is especially deserving, it is those who had the common sense to avoid taking on bigger financial obligations than they could handle, but who are now expected to pay as taxpayers for other people's irresponsibility." --economist Thomas Sowell Political Futures"The White House is reportedly looking to manufacture a 'pro-business' aura with [new Chief of Staff] Bill Daley, who holds a 'corporate responsibility' executive office at J.P. Morgan and once headed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- the latter, a left-wing hate object and Obama punching bag leading up to the midterms. But the Beltway-based Chamber of Commerce is too often a fair-weather statist lobbying organization. It supported the TARP all-purpose bailout, the auto bailout and the bottomless, pork-filled stimulus package, all of which have forcibly redistributed money from taxpayers and small businesses to politically connected special interests (including Daley's J.P. Morgan, which was most recently swept up in a massive pay-to-play bond scheme in Alabama). Daley has about as much real experience creating jobs as Da Boss now sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave -- which is to say, less than a thimble full. ... Instead of distancing himself from the favor-trading Wall Street fat cats who have earned the ire of both anti-bailout tea party activists and anti-corporate liberals, Obama remains wedded, embedded and indebted to the worst kind." --columnist Michelle Malkin The Gipper"The Constitution provides the structure of our federal system and a system of checks and balances that applies equally to each branch of government, to relations between the states and the Federal Government, and, as importantly, to each of us. It protects the rights of all Americans to 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' and limits governmental authority to ensure these liberties are faithfully protected -- both by and from the state. But in the end it is each citizen who is responsible for protecting the liberties set forth in the Constitution and Bill of Rights." --Ronald Reagan Opinion in Brief"If reverence for the Constitution is not our guiding principle, then what should it be? Should the government be entirely dedicated to fulfilling the needs of its citizens, allowing no legal barrier to stand in its way? ... There is only one governing principle that properly respects the freedom of all citizens: ironclad obedience to a clear and concise document that identifies their inherent rights, and forbids the State from compromising them, under any circumstances. The Constitution does not 'give' you those rights. It recognizes them. You had them before you could read or understand a single word. Every human being throughout history had them, even those who lived before any of the Founding Fathers were born. In reading the Constitution aloud, the 112th Congress will acknowledge those rights ... and read an arrest warrant to an out-of-control government." --columnist John Hayward Reader Comments"Regarding Mark Alexander's essay, 'Mr. Boehner, et al., Honor Your Oath!', the government makes sure that our Military abide by the oath that they take to start each enlistment, and everyone else who states an oath for their position, should be made to live by the oath. I spent twenty years in the Navy, and took an oath numerous times, and had to live by it, so I think everyone should be held to their oath of office. If not, then they need to be removed from their office, with their benefits being denied. If I had been put out at anytime before reaching the 20 yr. mark, I would have lost mine. There are a lot of people in government positions today that should not be there. It's time to really clean house." --Harold (Wyatt) "Liberals are hell-bent on destroying our Constitution. They occupy the detestable political ranks within our great nation. They know they are detested, so they insist on calling themselves 'progressive' or, more recently, 'no-label' Americans. Let's get real here, shall we? Liberals are, in word, fact and deed, Enemies of the Constitution, Enemies of the United States of America. The truth hurts, yes, and it will set us free of this mutant strain within our nation." --Sine Qua Non "I understand the House does not have time to read the entire Constitution every day. I think it would be appropriate for the 9th and 10th amendments to be read every morning. They are short, simple, easy to understand and too easy to ignore." --James "I think WPost blogger Ezra Klein is correct! He states 'what people believe [the Constitution] says differs ... depending on what they want to get done.' Doesn't he realize that this is the problem with the people in charge? Sometimes the best mind-farts come from the Libs trying to sound intelligent." --Matthew
The Last Word"What originalism is to jurisprudence, constitutionalism is to governance: a call for restraint rooted in constitutional text. Constitutionalism as a political philosophy represents a reformed, self-regulating conservatism that bases its call for minimalist government -- for reining in the willfulness of presidents and legislatures -- in the words and meaning of the Constitution. Hence that highly symbolic moment on Thursday when the 112th House of Representatives opened with a reading of the Constitution. Remarkably, this had never been done before -- perhaps because it had never been so needed. The reading reflected the feeling, expressed powerfully in the last election, that we had moved far, especially the past two years, from a government constitutionally limited by its enumerated powers to a government constrained only by its perception of social need. The most galvanizing example of this expansive shift was, of course, the Democrats' health-care reform.... Some liberals are already disdaining the new constitutionalism, denigrating the document's relevance and sneering at its public recitation. They sneer at their political peril. In choosing to focus on a majestic document that bears both study and recitation, the reformed conservatism of the Obama era has found itself not just a symbol but an anchor. Constitutionalism as a guiding political tendency will require careful and thoughtful development, as did jurisprudential originalism. But its wide appeal and philosophical depth make it a promising first step to a conservative future." --columnist Charles Krauthammer Opinion
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