In this UK Mail editorial, the writer bemoans 2012 as a return to the 1932, pre-WWII, brink of despair and disaster.  He identifies the root of the problem as our loss of faith in politicians, and government.

I see Europe’s despair, and America’s confusion differently.  I never placed my faith in politicians, or in government, but as others’ misplaced faith in .gov dissolves, perhaps more will be open to the idea of liberty—a life not centered on a volcano of regulations, penalties, prosecutions, taxes and fines spewing from the mountaintop of man’s supposedly highest creation.  Just maybe, that deconstructed faith in Washington, D.C. (or London, or Paris, or Brussels, etc.) will leave a void, into which the individual citizen might, once again, find a foothold on freedom.  The writer fears the mob, and then the strong man will step into this void, and he hints that a somehow better government is the solution.  I suggest that liberty bestows the blessings he yearns for and cannot foresee.

This day, 1776, General Washington risked it all in his daring raid across the Deleware River. I lift a glass of Christmas cheer in honor of the great general and his  gutsy troops.

I know how to stop these zombies.

The Washington Examiner reports that the Chief of Staff to the commander at Walter Reed Hospital issued a memo banning family members from bringing the Bible to hospitalized loved ones.  The Family Research Council heard about it.  Congress members heard about it from FRC.  The commander, Colonel Norvell Coots heard about it from congress.  No officer wants to be the subject of such a career-eroding congressional inquiry.  Comments: (more…)

Newt examines the trump card Congress conceded 200 years ago (“judicial review”) and ups the ante, proposing arresting activist judges and dragging them before Congress to testify.  I’m all for governors flouting the illegal pronouncements of single federal judges who intentionally block a state’s ability to execute a murdere, by simply not acting on appeals.  Yes, I would like to see that political crisis play out: let the president decide whether or not he has to enforce the illegal action of the judge, by sending in the US Marshall’s Service, or perhaps even the National Guard.

But, I’m not so interested in empowering the imperial Congress with any more unconstitutional judicial authority.  Already, I do not see that they have the authority to set up prosecutorial inquisitions, issue subpoenas, and send you to jail for contempt, or for lying.

If Newt thinks that is what it takes to pander to the Tea Party, well, I don’t think so.

The solution to activist judges is campaigning for, and electing executive branch officials responsible for appointments and conservative legislators.  In states where the justices lack lifetime appointments—a privilege they covet—we already have the power to remove them at the polls.

The executive, judicial, and legislative branches collaborated to increase all of their power, and gave us the mischief of the boundless commerce clause  (one little line in U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8). Let’s not make it worse.