Okay, another late night. Worked until about 1:00 am. I don’t have a class tonight, so I’m a little excited about MAYBE being able to catch up some.
Until Houseguest appeared this morning, with a broken key. Which means that I may have to take out a big chunk of my afternoon going to the key shop.
/moans softly
Speak amongst yourselves. I’m looking for a razor….
Okay, wait, I found some motivational sentences. One of these may apply:
Never compare your weaknesses to other people’s strengths.
Own your life, or someone will own it for you.
We cannot change the cards we are dealt,just how we play the hand.
Climb mountains not so the world can see you but so you can see the world.
If you accept your limitation, you go beyond them.
Comfort is the enemy of achievement.
No matter anyone says to you,you don’t have to eat dinner with them, live with them or go to bed with them.
If you risk nothing, you risk everything.
Don’t give others the power to control your emotion. Those are only yours and it is only for you to manipulate.
Victory introduces you to the world, but defeat introduces the world to you.
If you don’t do stupid things while you are young,you will have nothing to smile about when you are old.
Don’t waste your time with explanation,people only hear what they want to hear.
Don’t rest after your first victory,because if you fail the second time,more lips will be waiting to say that your first victory was just luck.
Everyone thinks of changing the world,but no one thinks of changing themselves.
The person that you will spend most time with in your life is yourself, so better try to make yourself as interesting as possible.
Wednesday Open Comments
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I’m looking for a razor….
Armpits getting a little hairy?
FIRSTICUS! -
This could have gotten out of hand really quickly, particularly when the power-drunk, jack booted thugs don’t have a bunch of witnesses.
HEADLINE: ‘Gun’ Tattoo Mistakenly Brings Heavily Armed Police To Maine Man’s Home
NORRIDGEWOCK, Maine (AP) — Police armed with assault rifles descended on a Maine man’s home after members of a tree removal crew he’d told to clear off { in a stunning example of crappy editorial prowess, the word should be leave not clear off} his property reported that he had a gun.
Turns out the “gun” the tree crew had seen on Michael Smith of Norridgewock was just a life-sized tattoo of a handgun on his stomach.
/snip
Police didn’t charge him.I wonder if the cops caused any damages to the man’s house? Who has to pay for those damages, and what recourse does the man have against the tree crew for the false report?
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Own your life, or someone will own it for you.
Which means that I may have to take out a big chunk of my afternoon going to the key shop.
Houseguest can’t get a key cut by himself?
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Now this is about the time I’d normally shamble in with my cuppa. Do not know why I woke up so early this a.m. but it is wearing off now. Rats.
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#4: Jimmy Dick just stepped in a fresh laid one.
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How to check your rifle is safe
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/18/see-awesome-behind-the-scenes-video-of-a-marine-corps-fly-by-photo-shoot/ -
Okay, I don’t know what bothers me more – Maher equating God to a mass murderer, or him hitting on my wish-he-was-my-boyfriend.
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#6: Your link does ask a very pertinent question: why is the transponder in such a place that the pilot/hijacker can easily disable it? One could reasonably wonder why an emergency back-up transponder would not engage when the primary fails or is shut off. . .
When the transponder is disabled or turned off, there is nothing good that happens next, so why not have a back up that the hijacker/pilots can’t access/control? -
#3 Tex
Houseguest can’t get a key cut by himself?
1) Houseguest won’t have his own car until after tomorrow, when he drives it back from Dallas. (Upon which there will be great rejoicing on my part.) I’d rather keep his borrowing of my vehicle to a minimum.
2) Hubby is very particular about his locks, keys, and who gets to touch them. We have a very good locksmith here in town (Reed’s Keys) that does almost of our key work. -
1) Houseguest won’t have his own car until after tomorrow, when he drives it back from Dallas.
Drives back from or to Dallas? I can really see how the latter would be even better than the former. . .
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why is the transponder in such a place that the pilot/hijacker can easily disable it?
While I don’t know, I would assume they turn off the transponder when they land. Having 400 aircraft sitting at a terminal with their transponders pinging the tower would be a bit distracting I would think. Just a thought.
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I thought the article did a pretty good job of explaining the presence of an easily accessible transponder switch.
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I thought the article did a pretty good job of explaining the presence of an easily accessible transponder switch.
It did:
The transponder’s off switch is a vestige of an earlier era, before reliable chip-based electronics. Older model transponders sometimes sent out spurious altitude readings. “Air traffic control would call and tell you to ‘cycle’ the transponder,” meaning switch it off and then back on in a reset sequence, noted Patrick Smith, a veteran pilot and the author of the 2012 book about air travel, “Cockpit Confidential.”
In nearly any bit of engineering / design you are going to have a certain amount of legacy stuff that carries through. New designs are rarely all-encompassing.
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#4 & #7 – HUH?
Keelhaul ole slippery Ricky – GEEZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -
The clods now running the former stalwart gov’t agency called NASA really need some history lessons. The article’s premise is that income inequality and overpopulation will cause the west to crumble. Of course that means the solution is wealth redistribution and strict population controls. Wealth redistribution has failed each and every time it is tried yet these dipstick wanna do it again?!? This may be the best reason of all to close NASA and farm it out to private industry.
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#11 –
2) Hubby is very particular about his locks, keys, and who gets to touch them.
Me TOO!!!
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Man oh MAN I sure hope THIS grows some legs!!
We are a grassroots organization; that should say it all, we bear the cost because, we don’t have the deep pocket organization behind us, that’s on a different mission than what you see on their pages. Were simply normal people trying to do something for All Americans.
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Isn’t it likely that several countries have satellite info on 370MH that they don’t want to share, as it reveals too much about their capabilities?
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#20 – I’ve read and heard extensively in the last several days about multiple “blind spots” vis-a-vis sat tracking on earth (mostly in huge / empty ocean areas) – just not enough satellites up yonder to be able to track EVERY square mile down here effectively…………..
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#20: I would say highly probable. If we had some strength and dignity in the whitehouse instead of the jug-eared jackass currently defiling the place, the odds that we would be getting reasonable cooperation go up considerably.
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#12 Bone
Drives back from or to Dallas? I can really see how the latter would be even better than the former. . .
Houseguest has several serious issues that he’s dealing with right now. One is his troubled marriage. He is Hubby’s best friend evvv-errr, and Hubby is trying to help him. Houseguest is also a friend of mine, though I don’t have the deep bromancey type of attachment. I’m trying to be patient as he works through his problems. It’s hard, because in college, this guy was bigger’n life, master of his destiny, very charismatic, and extremely intelligent. He did have anger issues, though, which made him difficult to deal with at times.
He went through some kind of transformation about 20 years ago. A doc told him that if he didn’t tone down his Type A personality, he would die within ten years. He became such a milksop at that point that I came darn close to despising him. He hasn’t gotten much stronger since then.
Now, a coupla marriages later, and several conversations with him, we’ve had discussions about codependency and marriage counseling, instead of divorce. Hubby has offered to let him stay with us indefinitely while they go through the counseling thing (he can get passes through his wife’s employment with an airline). He’ll fly up to Dallas to see his wife about some things he’s going to help her with (electronic in nature, hearing aid or some such), and then drive his car back. I’m hoping that when the marriage counseling actually starts, the counselor will look at them and ask “How are you going to work through your issues when you’re hundreds of miles away?”
Then it won’t be me kicking his butt out.
His constant need for affirmation is driving me crazy. But I’m being as gentle as possible and trying to keep my emotional distance so I don’t get dragged down into his misery. I think it frustrates him sometimes. He’ll ask me “Did you see what I did….” and I respond “Houseguest, I really didn’t notice. I have too much on my plate to really notice. I assume you can handle it just fine.” The first few times I did that, I’m not sure he knew how to take it. -
Tedtam goes the extra mile, but that is 100% what we know of her.
<3 -
Mr. Fish
Re: Term limits
Myself I cannot support it for a whole group of reasons. Besides, we have a method to term limit bad eggs…….. It is called voting their sorry a** out of office. -
ATF has been way out of hand for quite some time now and I would like to see some decision makers in that agency do hard time in the max security prisons. The serial abuse of the 2nd amendment and of innocent citizens is a violent crime no different than a common street thug and should be treated as such.
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Mr. Fish
Now if we really want to do some good lets over turn the constitutional amendment whereby Senators are elected rather than appointed by the states gubnors. The immediate affect would return the power closer to the people as the founders had intended. -
Isn’t it likely that several countries have satellite info on 370MH that they don’t want to share, as it reveals too much about their capabilities?
More likely that they have a lack of radar coverage in sizable areas of their territory. Satellites are virtually useless for real-time tracking of aircraft with their transponders turned off. They would be trying to locate a moving airplane from 25,000 miles away and ground-based radar can barely do that from 250 miles.
I’ve read and heard extensively in the last several days about multiple “blind spots” vis-a-vis sat tracking on earth (mostly in huge / empty ocean areas)
The blind areas are for ground-based radar, mostly due to geographic obstructions (mountains, cities, etc.) and the Earth’s curvature. The satellite weakness is trying to find a relatively tiny object from far, far away that is mixed in with lots of ground clutter right behind it.
For an example, get into Google Earth and try to find a few airfields in Israel. It’s a pretty small country, so you won’t be looking at half the globe and there are quite a few military fields out in the Negev. Airfields are lots bigger than airplanes, so you can see the problem after a short while. -
Now if we really want to do some good lets over turn the constitutional amendment whereby Senators are elected rather than appointed by the states gubnors.
Actually, they were elected by the legislatures. The senators were supposed to be looking out for the interests of the states and the representatives for the people therein.
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#17 Bonecrusher:
NASA: National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Their mission statement (from their website):. . . thousands of people have been working around the world — and off of it — for more than 50 years, trying to answer some basic questions. What’s out there in space? How do we get there? What will we find? What can we learn there, or learn just by trying to get there, that will make life better here on Earth?
Unfortunately, it appears that in the last few years NASA has branched out far afield – with misbegotten forays into climate change politics, twisted history revisionism, and other areas that have nothing to do with their mission or legislative foundation. All the while they’ve been spending less and less time actually doing the job for which they were originally purposed.
I grew up idolizing astronauts, I was a space, sci-fi, technology addict. I wanted to work for NASA, be an astronaut, build rocketships, ANYTHING so I could be part of the coolest thing man had ever done. But, reluctantly, I think the time has come to shoot that horse and let the private sector take over. It might be different if they were actually accomplishing something, but at this point, we can’t even put a man into space without going hat-in-hand to V. Putin and asking for help.
Just one more area where we’ve gone from being the leaders of the world to a second class nation. . . . . -
Actually, they were elected by the legislatures.
I thought they were appointed by the Governors, or perhaps subject to recall by the governors.
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27 SQK
Please ‘splain why having a state guber like Ma Richards or scumbag Rick Perry choose my Senators is preferable than me and other Texans deciding by vote. -
#31: Your brilliantly written post actually echo’s the Bonecrusher axiom: whenever a governmental entity goes beyond their original charter, that which they were supposed to be doing suffers and that into which they intrude also suffers. Look at the Dept of Education, the IRS and the ATF for glaring examples of this reality.
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I’m not so excited about letting a legislature run by Strauss pick my US Senator either.
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#35: Do you think that Strauss will be able to keep his speakership? Three of his thugs got taken out in the primaries.
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Stanford physicist Andre Linde receives some very welcome news from a colleague that validates his life’s work.
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UP TO five practice runways around the Indian Ocean were reportedly discovered programmed into Captain Zaharie Shah’s flight simulator, Malaysian media claims.
The Berita Harian Malay language paper quoted unnamed sources close to the investigation as saying that the airport runways were Male International Airport in the Maldives, Diego Garcia and three runways in India and Sri Lanka.
“We are not discounting the possibility that the plane landed on a runway that might not be heavily monitored, in addition to the theories that the plane landed on sea, in the hills, or in an open space,” the Malay Mail Online quoted the source as saying. -
Guess we have to wait and see if it is considered anti-Semitic again this year to oppose Strauss.
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The ATF confirmed they were investigating the stores for federal firearm violations stemming from the sale of a new plastic version of the 80 percent lowers, which gun enthusiast use to build their own AR-15 rifles.
Building a rifle with specific versions of the 80 percent receivers is legal. The polymer lower receiver appears to be manufactured differently with two parts, making them a firearm and illegal sell, according to the ATF.
Read more: http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/03/17/feds-raid-gun-parts-stores-despite-court-order/#ixzz2wQYKDMDiI heard Guns over Texas on 700 AM talking about this on the weekend. An 80% reciever normally must be machined to completion. The recievers in question – according to them basically have some kind of fill in them that can be removed easily. According to them the fact that the recievers are two different materials is in all probability a violation of the law. They didn’t like the law but it is the law.
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Shannon
The Founders did all they could to keep the “elected” representatives beholding to the electorate. In short, the electorate controls 3 legislators in felt swoop. The idea was that knowing that their fate hung in the balance they would be a natural check to the will of the people and the governors. The Founders NEVER intended for Washington to have this much power. The States were to be governed by our governors. The states were to decide if they wanted to legalize pot. The states were to decide if we wanted to legalize teh gay marriage. NOT WASHINGTON. The idea was when the Senators got out of hand we the people let out Gubnor know that was not acceptable and if he did not reign in the minions that we would reign his arse out and them too.
The idea was to have 3 like minds looking out for the interest of the states. And it worked well till we the people were duped into believing the Senators should be elected. -
#38: It would seem normal that a pilot flying the routes in that area would want to practice the whole fligtht. It would be like a racing game without a finish line not to have it. I saw on some news report that quite a number of pilots have simulators.
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I love it.
I am afraid of, etc etc etc
that is exactly the problem we the people have today is that we are more afraid of our legislators than they are of us. And one of the weapons in our arsenal of control has been removed.
Look at us now. We would chance term limiting a GOOD man/woman just to keep the bad eggs at bay. That is not what our founders intended at all. Through the course of hisotry we are going to get good and bad……. more so today the proof is in the pudding that you cannot monkey proof the world and especially in politics. We have a lazy electorate but creating yet another law really does nothing to fix the problem.
We will always get the government we deserve and until there is a heart and mind change in this country we can look forward to even more of what we got now. -
I’m still trying to figure out how taking away the power of the citizens to choose their Senators and giving it to the governor or the legislature somehow increases the power of the citizens.
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42 texanadian says:
March 19, 2014 at 11:42 am
#38: It would seem normal that a pilot flying the routes in that area would want to practice the whole fligtht. It would be like a racing game without a finish line not to have it. I saw on some news report that quite a number of pilots have simulators.None of the practice runways were anywhere near the normal route of the flight—which was from Malaysia to Peking.
The interesting thing is the practice run on Diego Garcia. The only things there are a US airbase that sends B52’s into Talibanland and a British naval base. Its not on the way to anywhere.
But we won’t know all the landing fields he practiced until the FBI extracts the deleted files from his simulator. -
I think it was assumed that politicians already elected knew more than the regular folks, and would thus do a better job of selecting a good senator for their state? That was probably true for a few election cycles after the constitution was ratified, but maybe not for much longer than that.
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When was poll tax or requiring land ownership for voting phased out? Izzat when we started our downfall?
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Shannon
Returning to Senatorial appointment does not take away the power of the electorate. It strengthens our control. the idea was that the Senators were directly answerable to the state visa vi the governor. Who are Senators responsible to now? the electorate? Now there is a pipe dream. -
The 24th Amendment (1964) to the US Constitution outlawed the poll tax in federal elections. Two years later the Texas Constitution was amended to outlaw the poll tax.
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Update to my #49
However, it was not until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966) that poll taxes for state elections were unconstitutional because they violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. -Wiki
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Shannon
Madison put it this way in Federalist Paper #62It favors a selection of competent senators and gives the states an agency in the formation of the federal government and secures the authority of the state governments. –
and
a senate, as a second branch of the legislative assembly, distinct from, and dividing the power with, a first, must be in all cases a salutary check on the government. It doubles the security to the people, by requiring the concurrence of two distinct bodies in schemes of usurpation or perfidy, where the ambition or corruption of one would otherwise be sufficient. –
one must also remember that the states legislatures ratified the nomination of the Senators.
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Squawk:
Senators were to be chose by the state Legislatures – not Governors.“The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof for six Years”
In the minds of the framers the Senate was to be the more deliberative of the two legislative houses. They were selected by elected state legislators to be “elder statesmen” and to provide balance against the more volatile House of Representative.
As to whether it would be a good idea to return to that system – I can’t speak to other states, but in Texas, given the power of the Lt. Governor and House Speaker, I suspect that it would become a major revolving door, political payoff system. I doubt the State Legislature would have ever put Ted Cruz in a Senator’s seat. -
In Fed Paper #63
Madison argued and we have since proven him right’“that a senate appointed not immediately by the people and for the term of six years must gradually acquire a dangerous preeminence in the government and finally transform it into a tyrannical aristocracy”. –
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Fats
Senators were to be chose by the state Legislatures – not Governors.
True that………
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Fats
Been awhile since I reentered this course of discussion. Thus I crossed my eyes and dotted my “T”. 🙂 -
#35: Do you think that Strauss will be able to keep his speakership? Three of his thugs got taken out in the primaries.
We’ve been slowly picking off Strauss’ bath house buddies, but I haven’t seen anybody saying his speakership is in jeopardy. The good guys were unsuccessful in trying to force a secret ballot last time; it doesn’t help that the State Republican Executive Committee has, to date, opposed a secret ballot.
As long as a majority of House Dems and a few “Republicans” support him he’s staying. -
Over my dead body will they turn my franchise over to those wretched degenerates in Austin.
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Fats
but in Texas, given the power of the Lt. Governor and House Speaker, I suspect that it would become a major revolving door, political payoff system. I doubt the State Legislature would have ever put Ted Cruz in a Senator’s seat.
That is a strawman’s argument of maybe and maybe not. My argument is a simple one based on the same arguments that Madison presented in the Federalist papers. The appointments of Senator keeps the power close to home pure and simple. I fall back to my default arguments that
1. You cannot monkey proof the world
2. We will always get the government we deserve.
Our founders did all they thought was reasonable to keep the fed small and for a time it worked till we the people allowed the system to get tweaked. I would rather fight a corrupt state government than some all encompassing Fed. I have already pointed out the genius of Madison in #53. -
Man oh MAN I sure hope THIS grows some legs!!
Just remember the Citizen Legislator Act that was a part of Newt’s “Contract with America”. Voted on at a time when Republicans were in control of both houses of congress. Slick Willie probably would have vetoed it but he never got the chance. It never got out of the Republican-controlled House.
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I doubt the State Legislature would have ever put Ted Cruz in a Senator’s seat.
That is a strawman’s argument of maybe and maybe not.
No, it’s not. He said he doubt’s if they would put Cruz in a Senator’s seat. That’s an opinion, and a reasonable one at that, based on the demonstrable actions of our state legislature.
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No, it’s not etc etc etc.
Based on conjecture. Who is to say what would or would not have happened if we had left the Senatorial appointment in place. It is equally possible that we may never have needed Ted Cruz. Who is to say we would not have a state legislature already full of Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz may have had another life that did not require him to step into the ring. Maybe not but then again
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Hamous
My argument that the system Madison etal instituted was/is the best for our country stands on its own merit. to worry about if Ted Cruz would be appointed as an argument against is unreasonable and unreal. Maybe we would still be a Democratic controlled state? Who can say what twists of history may have occurred or not? My desire is a return to smaller fed government and greater state control as it was meant to be. As it is now we have a federal tyranny and you and I sitting it out waiting for the dam to burst -
And now for something completely different. It’s prolly just a wig.
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#27;
Now if we really want to do some good lets over turn the constitutional amendment whereby Senators are elected rather than appointed by the states gubnors. The immediate affect would return the power closer to the people as the founders had intended.
Yes, yes, yes!!!
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Thus I crossed my eyes and dotted my “T”. 🙂
Ohhhh, I thought you meant this: http://shame-full.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/cross-eyed.jpg
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Republican Texas State Rep. Dan Branch is running as a pro-life candidate to become Attorney General in the Lone Star State, but his history of authoring an amendment that would have expanded medical authority for abortion doctors is getting in the way.
Back in 2005, healthcare legislation was being debated in the Texas legislature. An amendment to that legislation was attached to ban third-trimester abortions. Rep. Branch then added another amendment expanding the authority for abortion doctors to perform late-term abortions if a baby had “vital organ impairment.” “Vital organ impairment” was not specifically defined and would be determined solely by the abortion doctor. The legislation did not require a second opinion from a non-abortion doctor before the late-term procedure was performed. More on Branch’s language: -
The people, through their state legislatures, changed the Constitution to allow for direct election of US Senators. Amen .
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The people, through their state legislatures, changed the Constitution to allow for direct election of US Senators. Amen .
Bad move.
A lot of people amen-ed prohibition too. -
And then there was the 16th amendment. That was a real smart move too.
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the 17th upset the balance of power. BTW May I suggest everyone real Mark Levin’s
The Liberty Amendments -
Who can say what twists of history may have occurred or not?
That’s a Doris Day dodge. You can give that response to literally any thought anyone in the world has ever had or ever will have. Que Sera, Sera.
The fact remains that it is very doubtful that our state legislature, which has elected Joe Straus as speaker multiple times and has had Dewhurst as Lt. Governor and head of the senate for 10 years, would ever send Ted Cruz to Washington as Senator. -
Frankly i could care less whether Texas would have sent Cruz to the Senate or not under the original system. We do not know. Different methodology….. different results. The 17th upset the balance of power as envisioned by the founders. Under the founders system it is quite possible we would not have saddled with LBJ. But then again maybe.
Part of the reason the 17th was thought up was because of gridlock….. OMG some states went without representation. Our fore fathers set a system that the senate would in effect would have to represent the state. Well now they do not. In fact we send legislatorss now to Washington to set up controls in Washington usurping states rights. That is a direct cause and effect of what the 17th has wrought. -
With the State legislature controlling who goes to Washington the Senators has to answer to the STATE and by default the people. Now days they just feign concern, can we say John Cornyn? Under the old system the state keeps a tight leash on the Cornyns out there.
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Mark Levin
“The day after the Seventeenth Amendment became part of the Constitution, the balance of power that had existed between the states and the federal government since the Constitution’s ratification was dealt a critical blow,” Levin writes, in an advance copy of the book provided to The Daily Caller. “The states no longer had a legislative venue, or any venue, to influence directly the course of the federal government. This contributed significantly to the dismantlement of the state’s traditional and exclusive areas of governing responsibility.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/08/11/mark-levins-radical-proposal-10-amendments-to-the-constitution-to-restore-the-american-republic/#ixzz2wRc1hHQ7 -
Let’s take Virginia, for example. You have the state Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, bringing the first lawsuit challenging Obamacare; yet the state’s two Senators voted for it. And this happens not only because of the different influences, but because–and this is related–the Senate is not constituted as the Framers’ had established. Before the 17th Amendment, most Senators were elected by state legislatures. That way the states have direct input in the federal legislative process. Today, senators treat their own states as they do any lobbying group–no better, no worse–and the states have no effective voice in the federal system. The Constitution would not have been ratified by the states had the Senate been constructed as it is today. And we should keep in mind, the 17th Amendment was a project of the Progressives, along with the federal income tax, both being enacted in 1913. I think it’s time to take a sober look at that.
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Squawk,
You misunderstand me. (So does my wife!) Overall I think that selecting US Senators via state legislatures is overall a very good thing. There are two power balances to consider, one is an internal state matter – the fact is that legislative selection of Senators would radically alter the power structure in Austin. As it is currently set up, I submit that there is no way the Texas Legislature would have sent Ted Cruz to Washington – It would have been Dewhurst or possibly even Strauss (bad or worse, you pick ’em). But changing the mechanism changes the way it works.
The other power balance is the one between Federal and State. On that issue I agree with you and Mark Levin – Legislative selection of Senators moves the power balance back to one that is more inline with what the framers envisioned – with the states having much more control of what the Federal Government does. -
Fats
You misunderstand me. (So does my wife!)
Well actually I did not. You see I do not consider current events like Cruz when making my choices what to support. But that is a moot point. BECAUSE
The other power balance is the one between Federal and State. On that issue I agree with you and Mark Levin – Legislative selection of Senators moves the power balance back to one that is more inline with what the framers envisioned – with the states having much more control of what the Federal Government does.
I know the history of the 17th amendment btw and it was created by progressives as was the 16th amendment. Both were created for expediency with no foresight of what the intended consequences would be. Our forefathers were laser focused on keeping government small. As has been so eloquently said by men so much greater than me……
Our forefathers suffered directly the effects of tyranny, they knew the pitfalls
I will trust their wisdom over any of the Johnny Come Latelys -
BTW I am not some “Me Too Mark Levin” type of guy. I have argued this position for more than a few years.
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Shannon #68;
The people, through their state legislatures, changed the Constitution to allow for direct election of US Senators. Amen .
That created a more direct democracy. Therefore I cannot share that amen. Alongside what Squawk’s already posted in that by electing our US Senators via our state legislators, I think another result of electing US senators directly, We the People actually think *less* about what the federal government does. Instead the electoral process has become more mechanized and less representative. It’s more bureaucratic and less becoming to care for the wants and needs of the people. I think this is the natural end results of a direct democracy.
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BTW I am not some “Me Too Mark Levin” type of guy. I have argued this position for more than a few years.
Mark Levin frequently offers excellent insights on the Constitution and how the federal government ought to work.
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Hamous;
The fact remains that it is very doubtful that our state legislature, which has elected Joe Straus as speaker multiple times and has had Dewhurst as Lt. Governor and head of the senate for 10 years, would ever send Ted Cruz to Washington as Senator.
On the flip side, the Tea Party movement, Ted Cruz’s most potent base, could have focused its energies on electing solid local officials and therefore ensuring solid national officials.
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I don’t think Cornyn would change a single vote were he subject to the whims of the Texas Lege.
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Are we idolatrizing Ted Cruz? 🙂
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Shannon;
I don’t think Cornyn would change a single vote were he subject to the whims of the Texas Lege.
Could be but what if his votes threatened local official’s office. Would that increase pressure from them? And my own personal experience in communicating with Cornyn is that if he receives lots of “persuasive” comments from those who elect him, he listens.
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Another consideration vis a vis Legislatures electing Senators: if I am not mistaken, before the 17th Amendment, State Legislatures could recall their Senators if they deemed that the Senator was not representing the State’s interests.
The recent censure of Senator McCain by his State’s Republican Party suggests how that might work to rein in a few of them. -
State Legislatures could recall their Senators if they deemed that the Senator was not representing the State’s interests.
YUP
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The federal judiciary and SCOTUS have done more to destroy the founder’s vision than the 17th Amendment ever did.
Then there’s always the possibility that I’m just too dense to grasp how the the 17th was the turning point in our history, even having read Marc Levin. -
The federal judiciary and SCOTUS have done more to destroy the founder’s vision than the 17th Amendment ever did.
DING DING DING!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
Give that man a glass of 50 year old whisky and a fine cigar. Ifn we had a judiciary with the brains to stick to the original intent, 3/4 of our federal govt would not even exist as it would be in opposition to the clear writing of the Founders. -
Shannon:
Then there’s always the possibility that I’m just too dense to grasp how the the 17th was the turning point in our history, even having read Marc Levin.
Nope. One of the problems that we moderns often have is to try to find one event/thing/person/whatever to blame for whatever we’re griping about. Sometimes that works. But when we begin to talk about something like “where did our country get off track?” there is just not a single event we can point to.
Maybe it’s Marbury vs Madison
or the Dred Scott decision
The Communist Manifesto
or the 16th and 17th Amendments
The Public School Movement
WW-1
The Great Depression
The New Deal
WW-2
The Vietnam War
The Great Society Program by LBJ
They have all had deleterious effects along with a host of other things. -
89 Bonecrusher:
Possibly, but the Federal Judiciary and SCOTUS only have that much power becuase it has been ceded to them by an emasculated legislature.
Same thing is true of the enormous power now vested exclusively in the executive branch. It’s only there because Congress was too stupid and lazy to stop them. -
But when we begin to talk about something like “where did our country get off track?” there is just not a single event we can point to.
Entropy. Regression. Devolution. Decay. Degeneration. OTBOTATATS. It’s the natural order of things.
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Maybe it’s Marbury vs Madison –The first example of the judiciary over-reaching its bounds
or the Dred Scott decision –given the times and circumstances this was probably still not the correct decision, however, it was eventually corrected. That being said, the forced integration, bussing, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, quotas, minority set asides, were and still are an outrageous violation of the rights of whites.
The Communist Manifesto- should not really be an issue at all as it is not in our founding documents. The fact that some jurists tend to rule in its direction instead of in a strict constructionist vein is, IMHO, grounds for thier impeachment and removal from office.
or the 16th and 17th Amendments –discussed above by others
The Public School Movement – The dept of Education is unconstitutional on its face and should be immediately abolished as there is no authorization for the feds to be involved in any way in education. That they are involved in education is a clear violation of the 10th.
WW-1 –No comment, mostly a comedy of Cluster-Flocks
The Great Depression A result of zero regulations on unscrupulous financiers, compounded by left wing stupidity thinking that throwing money at a problem will fix it. FDR used it to try to buy the dominance of the D party and to a large part he succeeded.
The New Deal Flat out corruption, and it exacerbated the Great Depression
WW-2 –Could have possibly been avoided, if and only if, the boot was never put on the throat of Germany after WWI and if Hitler were smacked in his first violation of the accords
The Vietnam War We attempted to do “war light” like in Korea and failed in exactly the same spectacular way, except that both Viet Nams were lost instead of just one.
The Great Society Program by LBJ See New Deal Above
They have all had deleterious effects along with a host of other things.Bottom line is that they all have the same root of deviating from what The Constitution actually says.
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50 at night. 75 during the day. No humidity.
Here’s a big ol’ high five, Ms. Adee. ^5 -
I’m sorry, Squawk. I tried to learn the boy, but Shannon never would take to real learnin’.
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Via snail mail I received from Planned Parenthood Federation an invitation to join and donate money. Clearly they meant to send it to Hammie. So I will forward it to him.
“I agree these attacks on Planned Parenthood and women’s health care and rights must stop…” -
Someone in the peanut gallery say something?
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The federal judiciary and SCOTUS have done more to destroy the founder’s vision than the 17th Amendment ever did.
Then there’s always the possibility that I’m just too dense to grasp how the the 17th was the turning point in our history, even having read Marc Levin.I’ve actually read a book once. It was Men in Black by Levin and he argued exactly what you just did regarding the Supreme Court.
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Texpat #95;
Don’t loose faith in the bamboo stick. He’ll learn. 🙂 -
#96 I’m sure my neighbor, that cow Jessica, has me on PP’s hit list.
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#86;
Another consideration vis a vis Legislatures electing Senators: if I am not mistaken, before the 17th Amendment, State Legislatures could recall their Senators if they deemed that the Senator was not representing the State’s interests.
The recent censure of Senator McCain by his State’s Republican Party suggests how that might work to rein in a few of them.Excellent point, Sarge.
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97 SDJ
If you were not looking through the present day perspective and considering the enormous weight of history and the founders, you might realize the United States of America was seized by an acute collective moment of insanity in 1913 and ratified both the Sixteenth Amendment providing for an individual income tax and, in that same year, confirming the Seventeenth Amendment repealing the responsibility of the states to elect senators by their respective legislative majorities.
1913 was a remarkably bad year in American history. -
I like cartoon #2 the best.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/danpeterson/2014/03/eight-vicious-right-wing-political-cartoons.html -
Flashbacks of Wino. About eight years ago he was arguing five or six incidents that led us to where we are today. The ones I remember were Marbury v. Madison, 16th amendment, and 17th amendment. Woodrow Wilson may have been in there too.
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Texpat says:
I’m sorry, Squawk. I tried to learn the boy, but Shannon never would take to real learnin’.
Oh it’s okay. I do understand the reluctance to change back. We have all been taught that our control comes from our vote. The nuances are not taught and when we read about the changes of 1913 it is easy to see the fear mongering and move to expediency. No one really considered the long term effects of those amendments.
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Marbury v. Madison established the concept that the judge gets to decide what the law means, if I am not mistaken. This is lunacy as it removes the certainty of what the law means for the common man and transfers that “decider of meaning” to the whim of a single judge. The law is what it is and a properly written law (the opposite of the ACA) is clear, concise and readily understandable by the common man. Laws that are vague and/or self contradictory (like the ACA) should be invalidated on that basis alone. When a single judge is allowed to interpret what the law means as opposed to taking each individual case that comes before him (all different) and interpreting how that case fits with the law that does not change. For a federal judge to take the position that the Constitution is a living and breathing document that
automaticallymagically changes with the times is insanity and grounds for impeachment and removal. When we allow the judges to say that they alone can say what a law means and that changes over time, we no longer have the rule of law but the rule of the whim of a judge. -
#105 –
No one really considered the long term effects of those amendments.
Squawkster I gotta disagree – those crafty Fatcat SOBs that pushed em through definitely sensed or KNEW the ramifications (hell they WANTED these results!)……………that they kept ‘mum’ of what they knew speaketh volumes IMHO………….
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Good night all.
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Mr Fish
Yup “they” knew. The electorate on the other hand………. -
I heard about this store owner’s refusal to hand over his customer lists, and heard that a judge issued a temporary restraining order barring the ATF from getting it, but I didn’t know our criminal attorney general pressured the judge into rescinding the order:
Federal agents raided a California gun parts store over the weekend after the owner refused to hand over his list of customers.
…
Mr. Karras filed a temporary restraining order against the ATF, but under pressure by the Department of Justice, federal Judge Janis L. Sammartino reversed the order and heavily armed ATF agents went ahead with the raid, confiscating the gun parts and computers containing customer information.They are now above the law and their lawlessness will only be emboldened. We are in for some dark days.
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Man, these guys are beginning to look like cornered, rabid, wild animals:
While former Democratic Congressman Barney Frank feels House of Cards is “cartoonish” and doesn’t represent what truly happens in Washington DC, he did advocate a few ideas for Democrats, the best being very Underwoodian in principle: scare people.
…
Frank also recommends that Democrats run ads highlighting the Senators who will be in control of the chamber if the GOP wins control, like global warming denier Sen. James Inhofe.
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A Democratic strategist, who wanted to remain anonymous, says a real Underwood move would be for a Democratic incumbent to run 100 percent against Obamacare.
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More Dems suggested that their party use every federal agency to investigate the Koch brothers, a la Raymond Tusk—a two-faced billionaire with ties to the president in the Netflix series—while other lefties recommended enacting laws that would make it more difficult for older white people to vote like the Republicans have done with voter ID laws to disenfranchise minority voters. (They were, of course, joking.) [I doubt they were joking] -
I’m gonna surprise everybody here and say that in this instance, the ATF is right, according to the law.
The manufacturer of those lower receivers made them out of a polymer material, with all the proper machining done to install the parts to make it operational. They then poured another polymer inside the cavity and said it was now an 80% finished lower, rather than the 100% finished lower it started out as. All of those lowers that were sold were illegal without proper paperwork. They have the legal right to get them and take them away.
We need to change the law, not break it—except in the case of egregious and obvious violation of the Second Amendment as is being don in Connetticutt. -
and you and I sitting it out waiting for the dam to burst
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et al, #93 through #114
Steady as you go, boys.
We knew the enemy was gonna get real nervous before the Fall.
Let them wound and devour their own. -
I ain’t worried…… though I do consider the sizable amount of collateral damage that is going to come with the fall.
At one time I believed this was still avoidable. no more. Call me a fatalist but the trends are not very promising. History of other civilizations do not leave me with much hope either. -
“If you wear a German uniform or a Nazi uniform, it’s not like you’re saying, ‘I think Hitler was super cool’ or ‘I hate Jews’ or ‘I hate gays’ or ‘I hate democrats,’” Boorom explains. “You’re not there because you believe in what Hitler stood for — you’re there to educate people about history, and a lot of that is so people don’t forget. It’s the same as wanting to be the bad guy when you’re playing cowboys and Indians. There’s an attraction to the bad side.”
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Let them wound and devour their own.
Here’s the problem as I see it. Republicans will take control of the Senate in 2015. They might even get lucky and win enough seats to get them up to 60. Once they have control of both houses of congress they should immediately start impeachment proceedings against Bonnie Prince Barry, Eric Holder, Kathleen Sebilius, Gina McCarthy, Jack Lew (he’s ultimately the head boss of the IRS), Chuck Hagel, and maybe a few others (Smokin’ Joe Biden’s too stupid to be impeached). They’re impeachable, you know:
Article II, Section 4
The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.But there is no way in hell that will ever happen. They’ll hold show hearings. They’ll visit Greta van Cistern’s show every night and twice on Sunday pontificating about what they’re gonna do.
And then they’ll do nothing and our march towards full-blown socialism will continue until the house of cards collapses. -
And then they’ll do nothing and our march towards full-blown socialism will continue until the house of cards collapses.
While socialism is definitely bad, it’s only the end result of our problems, not the cause of it. Even if ultra conservatives take control of both houses of Congress, the White house and replace Ginseburg with a true blue Constitutional originalist, that would be very good for the country but in and of itself do very little to change the decay of our foundation. With family destruction, immorality perfectly acceptable, apathy towards God and His gospel, it doesn’t matter who gets elected, the end result will be We the People getting governors even worse than Obama. We the People need to turn to Christ in a serious and massive way.
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