Iowa is a great place to damage arteries and other vitals this weekend. On the other hand, if you seek tall and tan and young and lovely, you might want to consider Rio.
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Oct 8, 2010
Oct 5, 2010
Get lost, Washington
A guy really hates to say anything nice about California, but since I'm about to praise Montana and Arizona again, it would be gauche to decline a nod of approval to the Golden Bear.
Proposition 19 could pass, sending California before the federal long robes, just like Montana with its Firearms Freedom Act and Arizona, where citizens decided to take it on themselves to repair the massive federal immigration cockup.
The strictly legal points in all three cases seem to center on the Constitution's supremacy clause. Morally they test our cherished cultural myth that laws require the consent of the governed, not to mention the abuse to which malum prohibitum statutes are prone.
Malum prohibitum? Wrong because there's a law against it, period. In 1961, for instance, Sammy Davis Junior married May Britt. If he had done so in Virginia both he and Britt would have been felons, guilty of miscegenation.
Malum in se laws are what we're after. They prohibit acts which are evil in and of themselves, like stealing a Twinkie from your buddy's lunch box or auctioning off a senate seat in Illinois.
In one way or another, the Arizona, California, and Montana laws, reflect a popular revolt against the mala prohibita which is too often a simple lust for federal political control of the citizenry or of local jurisdictions.
I don't know how any of the three issues will be resolved, of course. I suspect the firearms freedom acts will fail and that the courts will gut Arizona's immigration control drive. The California initiative to legalize personal marijuana use for adults is said to be a dead heat this week. If it happens to pass, I'd give it at least a slim chance of judicial approval.
But the results are less interesting that the grass-roots pressure. Libertarian thought -- even among those who couldn't define "libertarian" -- seems to have come a long way.
EDIT: An Ipso poll just reported has Proposition 19 down, 53-43.
Proposition 19 could pass, sending California before the federal long robes, just like Montana with its Firearms Freedom Act and Arizona, where citizens decided to take it on themselves to repair the massive federal immigration cockup.
The strictly legal points in all three cases seem to center on the Constitution's supremacy clause. Morally they test our cherished cultural myth that laws require the consent of the governed, not to mention the abuse to which malum prohibitum statutes are prone.
Malum prohibitum? Wrong because there's a law against it, period. In 1961, for instance, Sammy Davis Junior married May Britt. If he had done so in Virginia both he and Britt would have been felons, guilty of miscegenation.
Malum in se laws are what we're after. They prohibit acts which are evil in and of themselves, like stealing a Twinkie from your buddy's lunch box or auctioning off a senate seat in Illinois.
In one way or another, the Arizona, California, and Montana laws, reflect a popular revolt against the mala prohibita which is too often a simple lust for federal political control of the citizenry or of local jurisdictions.
I don't know how any of the three issues will be resolved, of course. I suspect the firearms freedom acts will fail and that the courts will gut Arizona's immigration control drive. The California initiative to legalize personal marijuana use for adults is said to be a dead heat this week. If it happens to pass, I'd give it at least a slim chance of judicial approval.
But the results are less interesting that the grass-roots pressure. Libertarian thought -- even among those who couldn't define "libertarian" -- seems to have come a long way.
EDIT: An Ipso poll just reported has Proposition 19 down, 53-43.
Worse than reefer madness
I find myself in another government database.
In response lingering sinus-clogging crud I just stood at the counter for close to 15 minutes while the pharmacy tech registered me with the state and confirmed I could be trusted with a pack of generic pseudophedrine.
Let me assure you I accept this sort of thing cheerfully, secure in the knowledge that the two-year-old law has cleansed us of the meth scourge.
In response lingering sinus-clogging crud I just stood at the counter for close to 15 minutes while the pharmacy tech registered me with the state and confirmed I could be trusted with a pack of generic pseudophedrine.
Let me assure you I accept this sort of thing cheerfully, secure in the knowledge that the two-year-old law has cleansed us of the meth scourge.
Notes from a shut-in
I must have seriously offended the Cosmic Deciders. Lord knows I try to be good. The list of repairs, improvement, mowing, preparations for winter, and general titivation of Camp J would do credit to a man half my age. So what thanks do I get? A case of flu-like crud whose demand for Kleenex requires a re-thinking of the month's budget.
Yesterday, at 2 p.m., I was exercising the chain saw and splitting maul on a pile of ash and elm, smugly congratulating myself for a good start on the 2011-2012 home heating needs. At 2:30 p.m.I was crapped out on the couch, the teevee on, moaning about a sandpaper throat, sinuses overloaded with weapons grade mucus, the bodily strength of a bunny, and a four-aspirin headache.
It's mildly better this morning, but I have a legal case against The Council of the Fates. Surely a proscription is written somewhere against imposing this sort of dysfunction during the most glorious week any October could could be expected to produce.
Yesterday, at 2 p.m., I was exercising the chain saw and splitting maul on a pile of ash and elm, smugly congratulating myself for a good start on the 2011-2012 home heating needs. At 2:30 p.m.I was crapped out on the couch, the teevee on, moaning about a sandpaper throat, sinuses overloaded with weapons grade mucus, the bodily strength of a bunny, and a four-aspirin headache.
It's mildly better this morning, but I have a legal case against The Council of the Fates. Surely a proscription is written somewhere against imposing this sort of dysfunction during the most glorious week any October could could be expected to produce.
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