In a discussion on another blog (“Whatever,” maintained by John Scalzi, formerly a film critic for the Fresno Bee), “Todd” argues that Scalzi’s argument for preserving rights he has no plans ever to exercise is “a bit of a humor piece which won’t be taken seriously.”

Among other things, Todd argues that in order to preserve our rights, we should “prove that [exercising these rights] hasn’t destroyed the world.”

This is exactly backwards. The Constitution of the United States places limits upon the government — not upon the citizens. If the government wishes to take away our rights, they must show that 1) they have a genuine governmental interest to do so and 2) that their attempt to take away the right is not unconstitutional.

This article explains that, and also discusses how the Bush Administration’s approach to the controversy over homosexual marriages, its methods for getting conservative judges on the bench, the willingness to use extralegal means to enforce Christian ideals where the law will not allow it and the President’s frequent misguided comments about “activist” judges, are all harmful to the vitality of the Constitution of the United States and, thus, to the continued health of the United States of America as a democratically-driven republic.

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ABC News today reports that Attorney General John Ashcroft, who previously subpoenaed medical records for women who had abortions at five university hospitals, is now requesting that six Planned Parenthood affiliates turn over medical records belonging to United States citizens.

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I confess to being more than a little baffled about the passion over Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion. I suppose I shouldn’t be. After all, there’s nothing really logical about organized religions anyway. And so you don’t think of me as (too) unfair and biased, that goes for my own choice of religion, as well. […]

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Well, I’ve been looking around at the Internet again for those funny little things “about me.” Turns out that I although, according to Tickle, I have an IQ of 136, the iVillage Chinese Astrology area says I’m my Chinese element is “Earth” and I was born in the Year of the Dog — so, it’s […]

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This past week, my laptop hard drive failed — or, rather, started to fail — after a “small” drop. Thank goodness for the S.M.A.R.T. system that warned me. I contacted the insurance company (USAA is the greatest!) and they authorized repairs in my own shop, which saved money and allowed me greater control over the […]

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It seems to me that all this talk about “activist” judges by activist Republican presidents is nothing short of dangerous. The President of the United States should read the Constitution — and he should do so before he decides it needs to be amended, rewritten, or abolished. He did, after all, swear to uphold and […]

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Dave Brown, a Christian retailer, says on Deborah Norville Tonight: The Cross is absolutely the central element of Christianity. Funny, I always thought the central element of Christianity concerned the Christian deity’s relationship to humanity. Maybe that’s what makes the marketing of Jesus acceptable. I’ve been wrong: it’s really about the things, not the man.

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Okay… …so ‘e fergot to write the blog entry ‘e promised. E’s still workin’ on it. So sue ‘im!

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I said I was going to write a follow up tonight about the blog entry I made this morning which offended even me. The idea was to try to explain a few things, to try to understand why I myself was ambivalent about it and see if I couldn’t make some sensible explanation of the […]

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Yesterday, in a sidebar to a post, I noted that the Bush Administration was being criticized by a growing number of scientists. CalPundit lists specific claims made by the scientists and notes, [t]he report also talks about the litmus tests that are widely in place for appointment to scientific panels. Rather than picking the best […]

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