Bookworm Room

Back at the end of the 16th century, Thomas Hobson ran a livery stable (which, in pre-auto times, was the equivalent of a car rental place).  Unlike other livery stables, he refused to allow his customers free pick of horses.  Instead, they were told that they could take the horse in the stall nearest the [...]

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Pathetic is a very strong derogatory word, but I think it’s apt when looking at Kathleen Sebelius’ defense for the Obama administration’s recent mandate that all employers must purchase insurance that provides their employees with birth control, sterilization and morning-after pills.  A fisking is in order (all hyperlinks in original omitted): One of the key [...]

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I hadn’t looked closely at what Sebelius said when promulgating the new ObamaCare rules that require religious organizations to fund birth control, sterilization, and morning-after pills.  Hugh Hewitt, however, did look — and caught something interesting: The press release that accompanied the new rule didn’t mention “Catholics” or “Catholic institutions,” but was as obviously aimed [...]

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On August 10, 1993, as one of the requirements for becoming a United States Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg placed her hand on the Bible and spoke the following words: I, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, [...]

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You’re not imagining it.  I haven’t had a dang thing to say about Barack Obama’s brazen constitutional violation, which was also an indirect repudiation of the 2010 mid-term elections.  His decision unilaterally to declare the Senate on a “recess” and then to make “recess” appointments has been analyzed to death and I agree with everyone:  [...]

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That post caption is a complete lie.  I can issue as many reminders to myself as I like, but when the spirit doesn’t move me, you could look through my house with a magnifying glass and you still wouldn’t find any profundity.  Heck, today I’m not even sure if I could come up with any [...]

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I woke up this morning to find that my Leftist friends literally plastered Facebook with the above poster.  (Since I grew up and still live in the Bay Area, I have lots of Leftist friends.)  If the text on the image is unclear, this is what it says: There is nobody in this country who [...]

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I presented my daughter with the following scenario: Imagine that the president you elected has been in the White House for one term.  During that time, everything that indicates the health of the country is worse than when your man came into office.  Whether one looks at the economy, national security, relations with other countries, [...]

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Time Magazine, which is scarcely a relevant publication anymore (at least not the way it was when I was growing up), garnered itself some publicity by questioning whether the Constitution still matters.  Proving that there are good lawyers out there, Aaron Worthing explains the thirteen egregious errors Time made in order to denigrate the Constitution’s [...]

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Here’s J.E. Dyer about the administration’s threat to cut off pay to active duty military: The possibility that the military will be required to continue on duty without pay also highlights one of the important differences between the military and the rest of the federal government.  The government can’t require its civilian work force to [...]

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If you’re old enough to have lived through the 1970s, you recognize my post title:  Gilda Radner’s famous character Roseanne Roseannadanna would let loose with a foolish tirade, and then wrap it up by saying “It’s always something — if it ain’t one thing, it’s another.”  Someone needs to resurrect that character, or at least [...]

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“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” If it wasn’t for the fact that he’s a committed gun control guy, I might have mistaken Nicholas Kristof’s NYTs column today for a perfectly realized, Iowahawk-esque gun [...]

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My daughter’s 8th grade history class is studying the Constitution.  With the Republican House’s plan to inaugurate its majority by reading the Constitution aloud, I had a little talk with her about the Constitution. Me:  Can you tell me what the Constitution is? Daughter:  It’s a document that tells the government what to do. Me:  [...]

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Today, the GOP takes over the House.  The New York Times is not pleased and wrote what is quite possibly the most ungracious editorial ever.  How can you top this for snark: Those who had hoped to see a glimpse of the much-advertised Republican plan to revive the economy and put Americans back to work [...]

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I’m late to the party on this one, but I still wanted you all to read, if you haven’t already, Don Surber’s post about Ezra Klein, a Progressive who shocked the world (at least the Leftist world), by honestly stating that he believes the Constitution simply isn’t a relevant document. It’s so old, you see.  [...]

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Every summer for the past several years, we’ve gone to a local (and wonderful) Civil War reenactment.  Without exception, the people who have chosen to reenact the Southern side will tell one, quite earnestly, that the Southern side was about states’ rights, not about slavery.  Even 145 years after the war ended (or perhaps I [...]

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Two of my absolute favorite political writers, Peter Wehner and Jennifer Rubin, have chastised O’Donnell for her recently reported constitutional error.  I think that, perhaps, they’re being unfair.  It’s clear from reading the news reports that the Constitutional portion of the debate was intended to be a pile-up on O’Donnell: Also during the debate, O’Donnell [...]

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