UPDATE: s/broken link/Wizard Zygiell’d/ in the fifth stanza to keep the form correct. Writing fantasy makes this easy; just throw in some whacky name where a rhyme is hard to come by.
That ad comes to mind reading Noah Rothman over at Hot Air as he surveys a few recent URLs concerning the Convention of States notion. Rothman makes a fair point: there is no risk-free way to revisit our founding document:
For conservatives who ostensibly venerate the Constitution, it is odd to see so many of them fail to acknowledge that proposing it’s[sic] complete revision undermines their political position dramatically. Displaying respect for the Founders’ ideals and creating the conditions whereby their work might be entirely demolished are mutually exclusive.
Do you mean the way Wilson planted the IED in the form of Amendments 16 & 17, plus the Federal Reserve Act back in 1913? Or do you mean the way the size of the House froze in 1910, making our government substantially less representative?
Many on the right have contended that a Convention of States is distinct from a constitutional convention. What’s more, they might say, that process could be the only way to rein in the unelected elements of the federal government, like the judiciary or the nation’s unwieldy and proliferating regulatory agencies. Some on the right contend that the Constitution has been so perverted that it is already essentially defunct. But these same conservatives, who often lament the fact that Republican lawmakers are so regularly rolled by left-wing organizations and liberal politicians, would be foolish to vest in these GOP officeholders the authority to remake the system entirely. They would quickly find that conservative politicians who regularly fail to outmaneuver liberals in Congress don’t find their luck has improved on the convention floor.
From a conservative perspective, the ideals and priorities of those who came of age in the Enlightenment are vastly superior to the self-obsession that masquerades as political principle today. The document that emerges from a modern convention would not look anything like the 18th Century accord that harnessed human imperfection and utilized one man’s basest impulses to check another’s. That divinely inspired document, while perhaps flawed and frequently misinterpreted, remains preferable to the technocratic, anti-federalist charter that would emerge from a 2015 convention (presuming that anything at all could possibly pass such a body).
Perhaps I’m putting too fine a point on it, but I wouldn’t go further than “divinely informed”, and even that’s a stretch. The Constitution is a secular product. Full stop. “preferable to the technocratic, anti-federalist charter that would emerge”
Again, that’s precisely where Wilson’s Folly has taken us. The guy at the table is choking. Technology is seeing progressively oppressive use. Technology should liberate, instead.
When liberals like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gush over national charters like South Africa’s 19-year-old constitution, they are often only fetishizing the new and the foreign. That’s a nagging and unattractive trait that conservatives laudably fail to entertain. The right’s frustration with the current state of affairs cannot be satisfied by attempting to change the rules of the game. To convene a Convention of States is to open a Pandora’s Box.
And you, young apprentice, are caught between the Scylla and Charybdis.
It’s time for some bold, Tea Party-driven Heimlich action to dislodge the Progressive projectile currently choking our politics. Lead, follow, or get the focaccia out of the way, Noah.
I’ve enjoyed banter with His Dougness for years. He’s certainly a prolific blogger, makes a lot of good points, and has the annoying tendency to gauge the realpolitik of a situation with a cynically accurate eye. That is, I don’t agree with him much, but credit where due: he’s got a professional’s eye for the cesspool that is our government.
So, going after John Bolton is just how Doug rolls:
Props to Dennis McIver down the thread for sending me off to find this gem from this February:
If you’re a ‘Stache fan, like I am, it’s a great listen.
Up to 150 people have been murdered by masked al-Shabaab terrorists who stormed a Kenyan university and shot and beheaded Christians in the worst attack in the country in 17 years.
The group raided the Garissa University College campus shortly after 5am local time yesterday, overwhelming guards and murdering people they suspected of being a Christian.
The death toll rose to 147 last night and the 13-hour siege ended. A total of 79 were injured and 587 were led to safety.
Most of those killed were students but two police officers, one soldier and two watchmen are among the dead. . . .
The attack is believed to be the worst terrorist attack on Kenyan soil since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998 which killed more than 200 people. The terrorists stuck mid-way through Holy Week, the most solemn period in the Christian calendar. Last night, the Christian students were planning to celebrate the Last Supper in preparation for Good Friday.
(Via Memeorandum.) Islamic violence continues daily around the world. Most of this violent savagery goes unnoticed by the major U.S. media. Pamela Geller is one of the few sources who monitors the global jihad regularly. A few of her recent headlines:
A Belgian insurance company has refused to insure a Jewish kindergarten in Brussels.
The company claimed the risk of a terror attack on the European Jewish Association-run institution was too high.
EJA General Director Rabbi Menachem Margolin called on all European governments and heads of European Union institutions to provide security to all Jewish institutions that would satisfy insurance companies, and establish an alternative insurance mechanism that would secure any institution that might fall victim to anti-Semitic attacks.
Sixty years after the Allies defeated Hitler, why should European Jews have to live with this kind of fear every day? Why should Christian students in Kenya have to fear being shot or beheaded by a gang of bloodthirsty Muslim fanatics? And why should Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative have to fight court battles — and media smear tactics — to run its advertisements in Philadelphia?
On Wednesday SEPTA buses first began rolling with ads the transit agency was forced to run after losing a legal battle on First Amendment grounds.
“Islamic Jew-hatred: It’s in the Qu’ran,” state the ads, which feature a picture of Hitler.
Eighty-four articulated buses operating out of three depots will carry the ads, SEPTA said. That message doesn’t sit well with local Muslims. “That’s wrong,” said Amira Muhammed, 30, of Northeast Philly, of the ad, after she got off a Route 33 bus carrying the new advertisement. “That’s not in the Koran. It says we have to respect other religions.”
Muhammed was shocked to learn that SEPTA lost a legal battle with the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which paid $30,000 for ad space, and that SEPTA is required to run the advertisements.
“What we need to do is go in front of City Hall and say that this needs to stop,” she said.
You can’t stop the truth, Ms. Muhammed. The Koran does advocate violence against Jews, against Christians, against everyone who refuses to bow down to the hateful doctrines of the ignorant murderous “Prophet” for whom you are named.
“Truth is great and will prevail if left to herself . . . she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.”
— Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, 1786
Since I have the day off today, I thought the least I could do before sloping off to Minnesota to visit friends and family was get caught up on all the stuff people have been sending me, to say nothing of hitting the highlights from Feedly. First, though, a couple of books, since I’m not going to be around tomorrow for the usual Thursday book post. First, Megan McArdle’s The Up Side of Down, subtitled “Why Failing Well Is The Key To Success”. This is an affecting little book, since it draws on McArdle’s own experiences of failure and recovery, but it has a few things to say about how America is built to encourage people to bounce back from failure and how “helicopter parents” are screwing their kids over by insulating them from the experience of failing at precisely the time when they’re best able to adapt, react, and overcome it. This is well worth reading, and I suggest you pick it up at the library if you can’t afford to buy a copy. The second book I want to mention is Herman Wouk’s The Hope, an epic novel tracing the history of Israel from its birth in battle back in 1948 to its shattering success in the Six Day War. I haven’t read any Wouk since War and Remembrance back in my active duty days, but I remember him as a great writer and am looking forward to this; it is currently free through the Amazon Prime lending library and just $1.99 otherwise. Heck of a deal. Finally, as a follow-up to my previous book post, I cashed in some Amazon gift certificates to get the Kindle edition of Jack Vance’s Demon Princes.
One night in December 2013, a male Cornell University student hooked up with a female student at the woman’s apartment. Both students had been drinking. More than two months later, the woman “filed a complaint against Plaintiff, alleging that Plaintiff raped Jane Doe on December 14, 2013, while she was incapacitated.” Note the word “Plaintiff” in that sentence and also note the word “complaint.” The female student did not file criminal charges; rather, she complained to university officials who conducted their own “investigation” and expelled the male student, who is now suing the university, saying that officials violated his rights:
In a 53-page complaint, the student’s attorneys launch a wide-ranging critique of both Cornell’s handling of the specific case and the overall framework of the university’s judicial system.
The lawsuit also assails the university’s decision in 2013 to lower the burden of proof for sexual assault cases from a “clear and convincing” standard of evidence to the much-lower “preponderance” standard of evidence.
But Cornell failed to administer even this lower standard of evidence fairly, the lawsuit contends.
You can read more at Legal Insurrection, where Professor William Jacobson notes that this is at least the third pending lawsuit by male students who have been subjected to unjust disciplinary proceedings for sexual assault claims. (Hat-tip: Instapundit.)
Rape is a felony. If someone rapes you, call the cops. Don’t wait two months and then demand that university officials to “investigate” your hookup and punish a guy because your casual hookup was unpleasant or embarrassing. While it is always impossible to know the truth of what happened in a “he-said/she-said” incident like this, let me point out what should be obvious: This was a one-night stand that occurred after four witnesses had been at the apartment with John Doe and his accuser, and evidently knew he spent the night with her. It would be a common-sense inference that, because this hookup was not followed by further sexual intimacy or a romantic relationship, that there was a lack of any deep attraction between John Doe and his accuser.
Ergo, to continue our common-sense inference, the accuser felt remorse about her behavior. Yet post-hookup remorse is (a) not uncommon and (b) not proof that the hookup was rape.
Also: RAAAAACISM!
Can we be honest about our common-sense inferences here? Read the complaint closely. Both of these students were majoring in chemical engineering. The female is of German ancestry, while the male student is from California, studied piano for 10 years, was part of his high school “Science Bowl” club, and “John Doe’s immigrant parents strive for the ‘American Dream’ of educating John Doe at a prestigious University.”
I got $20 that says this guy is Asian-American, probably of Chinese ancestry. Anybody want to bet against me? No, you don’t.
OK, so the Teutonic Goddess spends the night with this geeky Asian guy. She perceives a subsequent diminution of her social status, and it is that which inspires her vengeful claim of rape.
A blog is not an appropriate venue to pass judgment on college students’ sexual activities, and neither is a college disciplinary process the appropriate venue to try a rape case. The sooner we all agree that rape is a felony, which should always and only be prosecuted in criminal courts, the better. Until such time, however, I’ll be here imposing judgment in these cases, employing the vast resources of slut-shaming misogyny available to me as an agent of male supremacy — including that most notorious weapon of the heteronormative patriarchy, common sense.
, subtitled “Why Failing Well Is The Key To Success”. This is an affecting little book, since it draws on McArdle’s own experiences of failure and recovery, but it has a few things to say about how America is built to encourage people to bounce back from failure and how “helicopter parents” are screwing their kids over by insulating them from the experience of failing at precisely the time when they’re best able to adapt, react, and overcome it. This is well worth reading, and I suggest you pick it up at the library if you can’t afford to buy a copy. The second book I want to mention is Herman Wouk’s 
, an epic novel tracing the history of Israel from its birth in battle back in 1948 to its shattering success in the Six Day War. I haven’t read any Wouk since 
back in my active duty days, but I remember him as a great writer and am looking forward to this; it is currently free through the Amazon Prime lending library and just $1.99 otherwise. Heck of a deal. Finally, as a follow-up to 
.