Archive for January, 2009

Upon my oath!

Posted: January 21, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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The Chief’s Justices flub of the oath was an embarrassment that he will be teased for, but it seems some constitutional scholars don’t want to take any chances.

Several constitutional lawyers said President Obama should, just to be safe, retake the oath of office that was flubbed by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The scholars suggest that it can be done privately and believe it might have already done so, meanwhile Jed Babbin has some fun with it:

If this were ancient Rome, Barack Obama would be huddled in a temple wondering what went wrong and the Roman Senate would be trying to choose a new Caesar. The crowning of the liberal Sun King ran behind schedule, and that was the best omen for Obama on the day of his inauguration.

It can’t help hurt to re-do it but we are going to have to put up with a lot of nonsense over it till then.

Update: should have said can’t hurt, and apparently it didn’t.

Apparently Barack Obama must read the blogs, or listen to constitutional lawyers on television. The new President took some free advice and re-took the oath of office today, just to be on the safe side:

Well at least with the extra practice Roberts will be ready for 2012.

The real thing

Posted: January 21, 2009 by datechguy in internet/free speech, opinion/news
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You want real censorship, here you go:

A Dutch court has ordered prosecutors to put a right-wing politician on trial for making anti-Islamic statements.

Of course this pales before the vast censorship during the Bush years of left wing voices right?

Reaction: Gates of Vienna

Notice that the court claims the right to grant “normal leeway” to politicians. That is, they are the law. The political leaders, who are elected by the people and are charged with passing laws, do so only on the sufferance of judges, who make the ultimate decisions about what is and isn’t permitted.

Gateway pundit:

The end of free speech in Europe

Jihad Watch:

If they succeed in doing this, we will be rendered mute, and thus defenseless, in the face of the advancing jihad and attempt to impose Sharia on the West — in fact, one of the key elements of the laws for dhimmis is that they are never critical of Islam, Muhammad, or the Qur’an, so this initiative not only aids the advance of Sharia in the West, but is itself an element of that advance.

Did you notice that picture? Either Wilders is REALLY tall or Spencer is really short.

You know as time goes by the wisdom of the Bill of Rights and the people who insisted on it before ratifying the Constitution did a service to us for all time.

Update: Little Green Footballs doesn’t care for either the prosecution or Wilders:

Wilders, however, has called for the Koran to be outlawed. In other words, Wilders wants to ban books with which he doesn’t agree. If there’s one thing we should have learned from history, it’s that book-banning never turns out well—and it’s anathema to the American ideals of free speech and free choice of religion.

This prosecution is disgusting and wrong, but it’s difficult to cast Wilders as an icon of free speech when he explicitly advocates taking away the rights of others.

The word is plurality

Posted: January 21, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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I like Hot air, it is a stop I make every day on the net, so let me them some advice:

When you have a headline that says “A near majority” that a sure way to advertise that you don’t have a majority. That type of word game seems a tad weaselly to me.

Just say “a plurality” next time. I can’t stand word games. It is what people do when you want to hide a reality.

Here is the poll.

The do’s and don’ts

Posted: January 21, 2009 by datechguy in opinion/news
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At Big Hollywood (which will have a link by the end of the week as its been great reading) Andy Levy has an important list of don’t for us on the right now that we are out of power totally:

DON’T question the motives – question the policy. When you disagree with Obama’s policies, say so, and make it clear why. But remember that President Obama is doing what he thinks is best for the country, as President Bush did. Both men love America and want what’s best for her. End of story.

DON’T make it personal. We don’t need another Derangement Syndrome. We don’t need people doing things like emphasizing Obama’s middle name in a derogatory fashion. How anyone would think that’s beneficial to their cause, or to the country as a whole, is beyond me. Also, it’s not even clever. Neither are smushwords like BusHitler, or sillywords like Rethuglicans and Dhimmicrats.

DON’T pretend you’re being brave when you criticize your government. Not while people in other countries actually, y’know, DIE, when they do that.

I would add one thing. If people on our side decide to mimic the derangement that we’ve seen on the left we need to call them on it.