Malarky

I know, I should be writing my paper but I keep feeling the temptation to watch this Senate debate. Senator Schumer (D-NY) just finished a speech criticizing Justice Brown of CA, one of the justices the Dems are filibustering, for suggesting that "when government advances relentlessly freedom is imperiled." Senator Corzine (D-NJ) is currently giving a speech continuing with this theme. He mentioned another judge is not in the mainstream for suggesting that the Congress has no role in public education or in dealing with crime on our streets.

Come on folks. To suggest that government encroachment is detrimental to freedom is not, as Corzine said, to imply that we should not have a military defending us. It is to suggest that the political sphere is separate from the ethical and personal spheres that make up our normal lives. Yes, families are hurt when the government moves in. Families are hurt when the government creates welfare programs that kill the incentive for people to look out for each other. Families are hurt when government decrees abortion a fundamental human right and promotes the abdication of a father's responsibility. Civilization may occasionally be defended by the troops a government employs to fight a vicious enemy, but it is nourished by the actions that people take as members of individual families and communities.

Plus, if you want to talk about the Constitution, the whole reason we have a separation of powers is to stop the government from advancing as far as it otherwise might. It's also why the Founding Fathers specifically enumerated the powers that the Congress has, leaving all other powers to localities and the states (funny how the ACLU, so obsessed with defending the Constitution, always forgets about the Ninth and Tenth Amendments).

And where in the Constitution does it say that Congress has the power or authority to meddle with public education and street crime, pray tell?

The Democrats are upset that the judges President Bush has proposed are not in the mainstream. Senator Schumer said that the Founding Fathers will look down on us and smile for rejecting them. Perhaps he and the rest of the Dems need a little Civics 101 and should actually take a look at the Constitution and the philosophy that informed the founding of this nation (from the writings of Locke to the Federalist Papers to the works of de Tocqueville, who was the best commentator America has ever had).

This is either stupidity of willful dishonesty. Maybe it's a little of column A and a little of column B.