US History

cheney Yes, cheney No and Both are Wrong

This entry was posted in cheney Constitution Domestic Terrorism Federal Government Libertarianism US History US Politics on by

Well, there is just no agreement in the cheney family these days:

Lynne Cheney, the vice president’s wife and mother of a lesbian, said Sunday that states should have the final say over the legal status of personal relationships.
That stand puts her at odds with the vice president on the need for the constitutional amendment now under debate in the Senate that effectively would ban gay marriage.
While her position is certainly preferrable to that of her husband I can not, as does Alex Knapp, agree with it.
We would all be better off, i.e., it would promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity1, if neither state legislatures nor congress involved themselves in the legal status of personal relationships beyond regularizing the contract law that applies to the freely chosen relationships of informed, consenting adults.
1Preamble to the Constitution

Morning Again in America

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R.I.P. Ronald Reagan
Our condolences go out to the Reagan family.
The Commissar has an extensive link roundup.
Government is not the solution, it’s the problem

Update: I had thought about writing something about how Reagan died and now I don’t need to.
S-Train has already written it:

That’s a fucked up way for a person to check out of this life…
You progress to a damn statue. No ability to do anything. No response. No emotion. Just a lump of flesh. Damn!
So I got to thinking about Ronald Reagan. Here’s a man that was an actor, governor, U.S. president, husband, friend, and father. All those experiences. All those memories. Reduced so far at the end by this disease. Terrible.
So my condolences to the family of Ronald Reagan. I know you stuck it out to the very end with him. Something family is supposed to do. Even if he was unable to express it and tell it, he left this life a happy man since you were there with him in the end.

Update (6/7): Brian Leiter has some more links. Via PZ Myers.

bush’s nader

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Election 2004 kerry Libertarianism US History on by

On Friday Michael Medved spent part of his radio program bashing libertarians or, in his words, loosertarians. I say part because I listened to only 15-20 minutes. He may well have spent the entire show on this subject. Does anyone know if other talk jocks have taken up libertarian bashing now that there has been so much discussion about bush possibly loosing the libertarian vote?
Medved’s attack, at least while I was listening, was primarily ad hominem and without substance.
I found it particularly interesting that Medved, a lawyer, found it important to put down one of the Libertarian candidates because this candidate was teaching an 8 hour class on the U.S. constitution in conjunction with the Libertarian convention. This suggested to me that Medved perhaps does not consider the consitution important or important for the president to understand.
g w bush has sworn to uphold the constitution but can you imagine him teaching a class on the constitution? Even one as short as 8 hours?
Just to be fair and balanced: while kerry’s presentation may be smoother then w’s it is not at all clear that either Yale grad could teach this short course.