Tag Archives | Left-Libertarian
Delightfully Ambiguous Quotation
“Justice is the end of government.” – James Madison
I Intended to Blog About Earth Day Yesterday
… but I forgot.
Oh well, see you in a year.
Amendment Unmended
Randy Barnett proposes a new amendment to the Constitution. (Conical hat tip to Tom Ford.) But I don’t like it. In particular, although it has federalist intentions, it seems to me that sections 1 and 5 might actually expand federal power.
Section 1 seems to grant Congress the power to do whatever is not prohibited, reversing the 10th amendment’s provision that Congress is denied whatever power is not explicitly granted.
And section 5’s granting the federal judiciary the right to “nullify any prohibition or unreasonable regulation of a rightful exercise of liberty” sounds great if it’s going to be interpreted by libertarian judges, but otherwise who knows what statist judges might regard as a “rightful exercise of liberty” – perhaps the right of electoral majorities to exercise their “liberty” to guarantee that their towns be “free” of guns, drugs, cigarettes, porn, immigrants, ugly buildings, etc.?
Union Suit
So if these guys are so eager to convince us that they’re nonpartisan and equally friendly with right and left, why do they use the language of the Communist Manifesto? Is it irony or code? Anyone know what their deal is?
No Doubt the Danes Also Sought Significant Quantities of Uranium from Africa
While surfing for something else, I came across a reference to a battle I’d never heard of. Did you know that the English Navy bombarded Copenhagen just over two centuries ago for, as far as I can tell, no bloody reason whatsoever? Details here.
Thomas Erskine’s quoted line “if hell did not exist before, Providence would create it now to punish ministers for that damnable measure” pretty much sums it up. (Erskine seems to have been a good guy in other respects as well.)