Wednesday, September 21

Here's one for all you Unclear-on-the-Concept whiners who kept whingeing on and on about Kelo v. New London:

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050920154609990003

Get it, now?

All the Supreme Court did was state that the Constitution does not bar state and local governments from using eminent domain in whimsical ways. This is what the Supreme Court does: interpret the constitutionality of law or legal action. That's all. Sadly, they don't actually rule on whether something is fair, or right (O'Connor's dissent notwistanding -- though I haven't read it in detail, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was based in the first paragraph of the Fourteenth Amendment); though disagreement is possible, this is the current Law of the Land.

The decision, as is noted in the article above, specifically noted that the state, local and federal governments were free to re-write their eminent domain laws to prevent such seizure.

Thus: If you don't like the eminent domain laws where you live, you'd better fucking get busy to elect a local and state government that will write eminent domain laws you're more comfortable with.

Tangential issue:

I got an email this morning from my regular correspondent who goes (on this blog, and on some other forums 'round the 'net) by the handle Shevchyk, concerning some stuff in the Village Voice about the Republicans using the Katrina furor to quietly snuff any Congressional investigation of the Valerie Plame affair without drawing attention from the national press. He closed the email by mumbling in passing something about looking into the idea of becoming a constitutional lawyer.

More power to him.

Canadian or not.

My beloved wife, the Fabulous Robyn, happened to glimpse that over my shoulder this morning. She said, "Shit. You should be a constitutional lawyer."

I said, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

She said, "This country's in a lot of trouble. This is what you care about. It's half of what you write about in your books, and most of what you write about on your blog. Maybe you could do this country a lot more good with a degree in constitutional law."

I said, "I'd be FIFTY YEARS OLD, for Christ's sake."

She said, "So what? At least then the next time you're in DC, you might be able to stand in the Lincoln Memorial without tears in your eyes."

Which is a salient point.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

But finish the next Cain book first.

Anonymous said...

Hey, there was a guy in my Firefighter I class just getting started in that discipline at fifty-two.

Anonymous said...

There's no reason why you couldn't do both. At all.

:)

You'd have a lot of support behind you :)

--jenn

Basket Of Puppies said...

"I'd be FIFTY YEARS OLD, for Christ's sake."

You're going to be fifty anyhow, so do what will make you... I don't know if happy is the word. Is there a word for "whatever priority I have in my life, to be proud of what I do, or to be in love, or to fight for something, or to be comfortable, that's the mental state I want"? Like, perficnormygofrenous?

That word probably makes you want to throw a shoe at me, and cunningly I use my skill of "being far away" to avoid damage.

Anyway, if there's something better you can do between now and 50, do that. If this idea pans out, well, why not?

If you're going to do all that work, you probably need something that keeps you grounded, like... maybe... writing... :)

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
MWS said...

Once more, with feeling:

Anonymous posts are deleted without reply.

Anonymous said...

50 years old? So what - what else are you going to be doing? Hell, if I hadn't switched to theatre instead of staying in physics I wouldn't be back in school and god knows *I* will be past 50 when I reach my doctorate. Hi Matt. Good to see you are so successful. And Robyn is definitely right - you would have made a good lawyer out of the gate from Drake. Now, if you are reading this I bet you are wondering who the hell I am... We had a good time, all of us in Minnesota one summer after driving up there in the Bobfish... I still have some excellent pictures - one with you in a tree.

Peace old friend.