District Judge David Bunning has jailed a Kentucky county clerk who refused to violate her Christian faith and issue licenses to same-sex couples. (Via WND.) Fine (yes, how about a fine as a first option). Fire Kim Davis if she refuses to do the government’s business. It’s the dirty business she signed up for. But jail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WTF!
Ann Coulter, Constitution, IMMIGRATION, libertarianism, Liberty, Neoconservatism, Paleolibertarianism
I’ve been following Judge Andrew Napolitano long enough to know he is a Reason-type, left-libertarian, who supports Civil Wrongs legislation, even coming down occasionally against the most basic of liberties: absolute freedom of association and the rights of private property.
Therefore, I like not only that Ann Coulter is finally naming names, but that she has offered a serious corrective to the Judge’s ideologically skewed facts, in “Fox News anchored in stupidity on 14th Amendment”
… Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox’s senior judicial analyst … at least got the century right. He mentioned the Civil War – and then went on to inform Bream that the purpose of the 14th Amendment was to – I quote – “make certain that the former slaves and the native Americans would be recognized as American citizens no matter what kind of prejudice there might be against them.”
Huh. In 1884, 16 years after the 14th Amendment was ratified, John Elk, who – as you may have surmised by his name – was an Indian, had to go to the Supreme Court to argue that he was an American citizen because he was born in the United States.
He lost. In Elk v. Wilkins, 112 U.S. 94, the Supreme Court ruled that the 14th Amendment did not grant Indians citizenship.
The “main object of the opening sentence of the 14th Amendment,” the court explained – and not for the first or last time – “was to settle the question, upon which there had been a difference of opinion throughout the country and in this court, as to the citizenship of free negroes and to put it beyond doubt that all persons, white or black … should be citizens of the United States and of the state in which they reside.”
American Indians were not made citizens until 1924. Lo those 56 years after the ratification of the 14th Amendment, Indians were not American citizens, despite the considered opinion of Judge Napolitano.
Of course it’s easy for legal experts to miss the welter of rulings on Indian citizenship inasmuch as they obtained citizenship in a law perplexingly titled: “THE INDIAN CITIZENSHIP ACT OF 1924.”
Yeah, Trump’s the idiot. Or as Bream said to Napolitano after his completely insane analysis, “I feel smarter just having been in your presence.”
Incidentally, it is true that since “Adios!” Ann Coulter can do no wrong. That she has recovered recently and magnificently does not mean that you should forget the years of neoconism, lauding the lovely Bush wars (calling them magnificent), ignoring immigration, and being wrong on too many things. I didn’t read her column for years (except on court cases and feminism) until now. I bought only “Treason,” which is a great book. The rest of her books were witty riffs on the theme, “Liberals this; liberals that,” seldom considering that Repubs are liberals too. To forget what neoconism’s most bright and beautiful representatives had wrought is unforgivable.
However, the always-adorable Ann is fast making up for past sins.
Barack Obama, Communism, Liberty, Private Property, Race, Racism, Regulation
A critical media ought to be withering about Barack Obama’s plans to sovietize any American suburb deemed too white (barring his abodes, his vacation spots and the schools his daughters attend). Instead, pages upon pages of a Google search yield zero criticism of this racist, racialist and tyrannical infringement upon freedom of association, property rights and federalism.
What can one expect from a female “writer” at The Atlantic, reporting on the regulation called “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing”? A surfeit of affection and approval:
… Obama administration issues a new rule—and a mapping tool—that are designed to help communities address segregation. …
… On Wednesday, HUD took a big step toward fixing its own ineffectiveness, releasing a new rule that requires that cities and regions evaluate the presence of fair housing in their communities, submit reports detailing the presence of segregation and blight, and detail what they plan to do about it. Communities will be required to hold meetings or otherwise solicit public opinion about housing planning and integration every five years, and will have a new trove of resources to assess their progress.
“This important step will give local leaders the tools they need to provide all Americans with access to safe, affordable housing in communities that are rich with opportunity,” said HUD Secretary Julian Castro.
Parts of the new rule will take effect in 30 days.
By law, communities are expected to affirmatively further fair housing through the way they use federal funds, including Community Development Block Grants (used for a variety of development initiatives), public-housing-authority programs such as Housing Choice Vouchers and housing complexes, and HOME grants, which fund the development of affordable housing.
Since our local shysters vie for federal funds; they will be diligent about shattering established communities by busing in problem residents. Once again, middle-class Americans will bear the brunt of Obama’s bureaucracy.
The Atlantic‘s idiot “writer” seems to think that the neighborhood creates the individual, rather than the opposite: Individuals acting together create their neighborhoods. She solicits official vapor about “neighborhoods and communities marked by conditions of slum and blight,” [that] exclude people from well-resourced neighborhoods and communities” …
By Myron Pauli, Ph.D.
My father and his parents were lucky to get to America from Nazi-run Austria and my daughter was a refugee from China. So I certainly appreciate this country as there are few countries that are even remotely free. But as another 4th of July approaches, I often feel compelled to criticize the lack of appreciation of liberty in this nation.
The Pledge of Allegiance was introduced by a Christian socialist named Francis Bellamy in 1892. It even came with a “Bellamy salute,” which also later became commonplace in Central Europe 45 years later. Although the Constitution does not authorize an “official” Pledge and the 10th Amendment reserves those powers not granted to the Federal Government to the states and people—it was adopted by the Congress in 1942. Small children are indoctrinated to pledge even if they have no idea what the words mean. But aside from the salute, what does the pledge say?
“… to THE Republic for which it stands…” Hold on! The pledge has 50 stars – which stand for each state. And what does Article 4 Section 4 of the Constitution say? “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”. Thus, the flag actually stands for a Republic of republics not “THE Republic,” and the Pledge is in contradiction to the Constitution itself. And if the “United States” is just singular, how does one explain Article 3 Section 3 where, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against THEM, or in adhering to THEIR Enemies … .” Are you pledging to violate the Constitution? Do the stars refer to some Greek Constellation?
Then, of course, we have the Constitution’s Article 6 Section 3: “… shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required … .” But what is “under God” in the pledge if it is NOT a religious Oath? Or do we lapse into some Clintonism that it depends what “Oath” and “Pledge” mean?
As to “justice for all”: We commonly hear that since “black lives matter”, neither George Zimmerman nor Darren Wilson are entitled to a self-defense excuse because that would not be “justice” which requires a conviction regardless of a grand jury or petit jury. In Baltimore, indictments were filed by Marilyn Mosby so “you can stop rioting”. Did keeping Jose Padilla imprisoned for 43 months without an indictment constitute justice FOR ALL? Did trying defendants in Federal Court for crimes they were exonerated of in State Court constitute “justice” in light of the fifth Amendment’s prohibition on double jeopardy?
What about “libertyfor all”? In Minersville School District vs. Gobitis, the Supreme Court, by 8-1, endorsed government punishment of children who refused to pledge (and this was when the Bellamy salute – “Seig Heil!” – was still standard). How about adults? Yes sir, I pledge, under compulsion from the government, to support “liberty”! OK, the Supreme Court reversed itself a few years later when the US was now at war against a nation which mandated the same Bellamy Salute. Of course, we know how flighty the Supreme Court is. As for liberty in the nation with as many people in jail as in China and Russia combined, one MIGHT question whether we have “liberty for all”.
Let us instead proclaim: “I support the Constitution of the United States and the concept of limited government whose purpose is to secure our rights” as my personal Pauli substitute. Besides, one might even ask, “WHOM are you pledging to”? Obama, Boehner, TSA, CIA, NSA, DEA, BATF, Federal Reserve, Freddie Mae, HUD, SWAT teams, HHS, Departments of Labor or Energy or Education or Agriculture, Homeland Security, AMTRAK, NASA, INS, FDA, Bureau of Indian Affairs, NATO, Trans-Pacific Partnership?
The United States that I love guarantees individual liberties. In fact, I believe that the 4th of July did not come about from worship of Empire but from devotion to individual freedom. However, for those who prefer mindless displays of national patriotism, other nations truly put us to shame.
Behold The Bellamy Salute:
******
Barely a Blog (BAB) contributor Myron Pauli grew up in Sunnyside Queens, went off to college in Cleveland and then spent time in a mental institution in Cambridge MA (MIT) with Benjamin Netanyahu (did not know him), and others until he was released with the “hostages” and Jimmy Carter on January 20, 1981, having defended his dissertation in nuclear physics. Most of the time since, he has worked on infrared sensors, mainly at Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. He was NOT named after Ron Paul but is distantly related to physicist Wolftgang Pauli; unfortunately, only the “good looks” were handed down and not the brains. He writes assorted song lyrics and essays reflecting his cynicism and classical liberalism. Click on the “BAB’s A List” category to access the Pauli archive.