[CubaLibre]

Exactly. So what could be better than turning himself in and making a media circus out of the fact that this is an obvious and thuggish attempt to trap him in some stupid archaic law because he rocked the boat of the Powers That Be?
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[CubaLibre]

I don't think that's the point at all. Remember that the Constitution is a response to the highly ineffectual Articles of Confederation, which were designed precisely to prevent the federal government from doing anything. It worked so well that it was a disaster that everyone knew they needed to fix ten years in. The whole point is to grant some pretty hefty powers to the feds. Of course the Constitution can fairly be read extremely broadly and extremely strictly, but there's absolutely nothing in the document itself or even in the political philosophy that spawned it to suggest that the strict reading is the correct one.
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

It is really the case. Every single instance of institutional racism, oppression, and segregation that the federal government attempted to cure was defended on precisely these grounds: it's the state's right to legislate these matters without federal interference, because the feds lack constitutional authority to dictate otherwise. It's facile to say "the federal government has the responsibility to uphold the Constitution": so - what does the Constitution say? What if the states and the feds disagree about what it says? Who gets to decide? Paul's answer is, the states always get to decide. But I don't see anything in the Constitution that says that.

Of course, for "strict constructionists" (a silly term) to insist on divining the "Founder's intent" to figure out what exactly the Constitution says is ridiculous for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the debate raged even while the Constitution was being written and signed, and has been raging ever since. There is no consolidated intent, there never was, and that alone is proof positive that the Constitution admits of more than one interpretation - including one that allows for vast federal powers.
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

Again: never has it not been this way. I guess they used to be slightly less monolithic, but the powerlessness of common people is not a new story.
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

Best top post or worst top post?
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[CubaLibre]

We could just wall off Manhattan.
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

The little details are the best. West of the divide there's kind of a heavy black/white mix "bubble" where it looks like blacks are pushing into the white neighborhoods around U St. and Howard (although in reality those are historic black neighborhoods and it's really the whites that are pushing in). Meanwhile the entire east of the city is solid black except for this lily white enclave right on Capitol Hill. And it extends outward too: from Georgetown and upper northwest it goes out into northern Virginia and Bethesda (caucasia); from northeast and southeast it stretches east out into PG County and directly north into Silver Spring and parts of Montgomery County. The completeness of the segregation is pretty astounding considering it's done by 100% private decisions.
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[CubaLibre]

They'll handle it the exact same way, except now gay soldiers don't have to pretend they aren't.
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[CubaLibre]

Looks like Mssrs. Nevils and Kitarogers shoulda had better lawyers.
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

The only thing about it that's funny to me is that Missourians consider it a "big drug bust." That's an average week in PG County.
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[CubaLibre]

Yeah. An element of drug crimes is that the thing possessed/distributed/whatever is in fact the drug in question. Fake substances that you pass off for illegal ones are a lesser crime, but still a crime. I guess because it contributes to the drug trade and its surrounding crime and misery and... stuff. Don't ask me, the legislature makes crimes, not the court.
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

I think I should change your title to canon guardian.
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[CubaLibre]

You guys don't get it. In Britain, there's politics, and then there's government. Totally different.
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[CubaLibre]

I guess that's really more like an Overseer blimp.
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[CubaLibre]

Why is that Jesus white?
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

Yes defense of another is a legal defense. Since it's basically impossible to imagine a situation where the fetus' life could be threatened apart from the mother's, except abortion, it's clearly an incitement to murder abortion providers.
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[CubaLibre]

Yeah. He has no ideology, he's a clown, a court jester who will fly anything that gets a cheer or jeer.
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[CubaLibre]

The 40 hour workweek is law(l) now guys. No unions needed.
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[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

[CubaLibre]

I mean, "changing your consciousness" is a really vague term that could mean almost anything. I just thought you were echoing Marx specifically because he almost verbatim says that a "fundamental shift in human consciousness" is required for the coming of communism, at least in the translation I'm familiar with. Coincidence it seems.
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[CubaLibre]

Actually, more than him too.
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[CubaLibre]

Commerce clause easily covers universal healthcare. Conservatives complain, what doesn't the commerce clause cover? The answer is, basically nothing. But that's not the fault of the New Deal and scheming liberal judges; it's the fault of technology. "Intrastate commerce" and "interstate commerce" mean the same things they did in 1800; it's just that in the past 200 years almost all commerce has moved into the latter category. If that means that physical reality has made the federal government, as described by the Constitution, less a government of limited powers and more a government of plenary powers, well, that's not the fault of the government or judges or the Constitution or the long-dead white guys who wrote it. Shit changes.

It's pretty funny, conservatives will often argue that this kind of universal federal regulation isn't covered by the Constitution, so if we liberals want it, by god we should amend the damn Constitution. But it's they who have to amend the Constitution, by limiting the now-overbroad commerce clause and picking out which particular areas of commerce that, despite being interstate, the federal government should not have regulatory power over. Good luck with that.
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[CubaLibre]

a masterful series
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[CubaLibre]

I am an atheist and there are plenty of things I'd kill for.
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[CubaLibre]

They're amerindians ok.
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[CubaLibre]

You literally said that if religion were ended most wars would disappear. I said that I have no religion and would willingly participate in all kinds of wars. It's a direct counterargument.
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[CubaLibre]

For how long?
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