Wednesday, April 27, 2005
I've always been fascinated by the photos (usually seen in National Geographic, or someplace like that) of the strange creatures of the deep. Now they've been collected in one place, at exploretheabyss.com. Check it out!
A tip o' the hat to TigerHawk for pointing this out. And I agree with him completely about Subzero Blue...
Every year around this time, local conservative talk show host (and recovering politician and recovering lawyer) Roger Hedgecock leads a trip to Washington, DC with a group of "citizen lobbyists". He calls these trips the "Hold their feet to the fire" trips; the goal is to get in the face of our elected representatives on a focused issue. This year the issue is "Secure the border first!"
I've been following this year's trip, as in past years, by listening to Rogers show (on KOGO AM 600 here in San Diego). I just discovered that there is coverage on the web, complete with pictures like the one at right.
This year, Roger is doing something different: he's built from the successful experience of the Gray Davis recall/Schwarzenegger election to network with 18 other conservative radio talk show hosts. They are all their together, along with over 400 citizen lobbyists. Today is the last broadcast of this year's trip, at 3pm Pacific time (you can listen on the Internet from Roger's site, linked above).
A tip o' the hat to Michelle Malkin's Immigration Blog for the pointer to news in my own backyard!
Yesterday I received this email from one of my friends in Estonia:
Tom - I did not get it! Two official reports (incl just released from CIA) already filled from the states officials, (from the same organizations that previously said vice versa) - there were NO nuclear weapons, chemicals etc in Iraq... There were no connections with Laden either...
As I recall "you" (as republican) almost pushed Bill away just for spot on a blue dress... BTW, how many people was killed due to this spot?
Here - whole country is ruined, zounds of civilians are killed, about 2K American solders are in graves (not counting our two Estonian troops)... For what? just saying - we are sorry, but we lied - there were no weapons there...
Oh sorry, yes - now it is a democratic country... Just curious - when new victims count - due to new democracy - will over count the previous one - the victims from Saddam Regime, what will you say?
The first thing that struck me, as I read this, is just how similar the perspective (and arguments) expressed are to those of the Michael Moore liberals here in the U.S. I'll take this as an instance proof that our world is a very small place, indeed!
My friend and I could hardly be further apart on these issues; as I have said to him on several occasions, it's as if we get our "facts" from two entirely different sources that somehow look at the same events and arrive at opposite conclusions. He sees a lie on WMD; I see an honest (if stupid!) mistake made by virtually every intelligence agency on the planet, including countries such as Russia, Germany, France, Iran, and China that were on the opposite side of the Iraq issue from the U.S. He sees the war in Iraq as having been justified solely on the basis of Saddam's WMD; I see the WMD issue as just one of several justifications each of which were enough in and of themselves. He sees the casualties of the war as approaching or exceeding the human cost of Saddam; I see Saddam's reign as orders of magnitude more evil and more costly of human life than the Iraq war. He sees little value in the fact that Iraq is now a democracy and not a dictatorship; I rejoice in that change, rejoice in the new freedom of the Iraqi people, and I see America's part in enabling that new freedom as evidence of America's greatness. He finds a way to compare Bush's leadership on Iraq with Clinton's weasely behavior; I can't hold them in my brain at the same time.
Just as I cannot imagine that the Michael Moore liberals and I will find common ground in our politics, I suspect my Estonian friend and I will forever disagree on these issues. He and I have not discussed the continuing impacts of the "Bush doctrine" in the Middle East, but I suspect his perceptions will be in line with those of the left-wing liberals here in the U.S.: that the wonderful events in Lebanon are (a) not really so wonderful, and (b) not related in any way to the Iraq war and other pressures being placed by the Bush administration on Syria. Also that the recently announced Egyptian elections, or the recently held Saudi elections would have happened anyway, maybe even sooner if Bush wasn't President. And in any event they're not actually helping anything there; the old dictatorships were actually pretty good. Fortunately (from my perspective, at least) there is an interesting segment of the liberal community in the U.S. that is waking up and saying "Whoa, here, wait a second...these policies of G.W. Bush might actually be working!" And not only in the U.S., as witness the recent round of laudatory editorials in the European press.
Now contrast this perspective with that of an actual Iraqi — President Jalal Talabani. You'll recall that after the January elections the elected representatives worked for weeks to put together a coalition. In the process, they selected Mr. Talabani (a Kurd) as President. The group of Iraqis who were seen by the world as being supported by the U.S. (Mr. Alawi's crowd) were distinct losers in the election. Mr. Chalabi — actively and overtly opposed by the U.S. State Department and the CIA — captured a very respectable portion of the vote. And the openly declared enemy of the U.S., the coalition, and the entire idea of a secular Iraq (al Sadr) was resoundingly defeated. From any rational perspective one must consider Mr. Talabani as genuinely representative of Iraq, and in no way an American toady. Here's what he had to say yesterday in an open letter to Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair:
Dear Mr Blair:
I CANNOT begin to explain my emotions, after over five decades of personally fighting for and promoting democracy and human rights, to witness a nation take its first steps towards a dream.
Now the democratically-elected parliament has honoured me, a Kurd, with the post of Presidency. This is a symbol of the promise, integration and unity of the new Iraq.
Let nobody mislead you, the Iraq that we inherited in April 2003, following the British and American-led liberation, was a tragedy.
The Ba’athist criminals had starved the country of an infrastructure and the people of their freedom.
Apart from the Kurdish safe haven, Iraq was a playground for thugs and a prison for the innocent.
Saddam’s war against the Iraqi people was on-going; we have evidence which demonstrates that the regime was executing its challengers until the last days of its rule.
It was that war, lasting almost forty years, which was the true war of Iraq.
We have all heard of the genocide, gassing, ethnic cleansing, mass murder and the environmental vandalism of the territory of Iraq’s historic Marsh Arabs.
We understand that there is no turning the clock back. Instead, we press ahead with democratisation and justice.
Unfortunately, Saddam’s former henchmen and religious extremist associates have chosen to fight their losing battle, which in turn has made post-liberation Iraq less stable than we would have wished.
Yet true Iraqis have largely shunned the terrorists, and their cowardly acts are increasingly becoming limited and confined to certain areas.
Millions of brave Iraqis defy terrorism and reject dictatorship every day, without fuss, and certainly without attention from the television cameras.
We undertake to rebuild a shattered country scarred by decades of tyranny. With unwavering resolve we support plurality, egalitarianism, and the political process.
Building a democratic federal Iraq is a difficult, and slow, but rewarding process.
Those who doubt the swiftness of transition must keep in mind that a state such as Iraq is a cultural, ethnic and linguistic mosaic that was only ever held together by brute force, thus, political speed can kill.
Nevertheless, January saw Iraq’s first free and open general election, leading to the first democratically-elected government of our desolate history.
Yet our struggle for a better, emancipated Iraq is only due to the consistent and unwavering support of Prime Minister Blair, the British people, and the coalition of the willing.
For many Iraqis, the positive role that Britain has played is a welcome change.
From our colonial master, Britain has become our democratic guardian.
In 1991 I saw at first hand how Prime Minister John Major, fresh from the liberation of Kuwait, bravely led the way in implementing a safe-haven for Iraqi Kurdistan.
For 12 years, heroic RAF pilots, with the support of neighbouring Turkey, flew in Kurdish skies to prevent Saddam from completing the anti-Kurdish genocide that he had started in 1987.
We were finally able to start rebuilding the 4,500 villages destroyed by Saddam’s regime and to begin the process of nurturing civil society and democracy.
And now thanks to Prime Minister Blair’s courageous and principled decisions, we can recreate this throughout Iraq.
Of course the liberation of Iraq has been controversial, as all wars should be.
Sadly in this case, war was not the “best” option, it was the only option.
Under Saddam, war was never controversial, never discussed, simply ordered and executed by him and his thugs.
Iraqis sometimes wonder in amazement what the debate abroad is about. Why do people continue to ask why no WMD was found?
The truth is that Saddam had, in the past, used chemical and biological weapons against his own people, and we believed he would do so again.
Of course Saddam himself was, in the view of those who opposed him, Iraq’s most dangerous WMD.
Instead of continually focusing on the negative, the British, who will soon commemorate the 60th anniversary of VE day, should know that in the eyes of the majority of Iraqis, it was you who brought us our own victory day.
Britain should be proud that the liberation of Iraq has in our eyes been one of your finest hours.
History will judge Prime Minister Blair as a champion against tyranny. Of that I have no doubt.
We are not reticent about expressing our great thanks to the British people and paying homage to tragic British losses.
Every Iraqi family, in fact, has lost a loved one because of Saddam. Every Iraqi understands the pain of conflict, the grief that accompanies war.
We honour those who sacrificed their lives for our liberation. We are determined out of respect to create a tolerant and democratic Iraq, an Iraq for all the Iraqi people.
It will take time and much patience, but I can assure you it will be worth while, not only for Iraq, but for the whole of the Middle East.
yours sincerely
President Talabani
Here's a genuine Iraqi perspective on the same issues that my Estonian friend and I debate. But his perspective is vastly different than either of ours: he speaks as one who has actually lived through all these events, not just witnessed them from afar. He, his family and friends, and his people all suffered tremendously under Saddam, paid a terrible price to help wrest their freedom from him, and now are the beneficiaries of Saddam's absence. So of course his perspective is different.
But from my perspective, it is this kind of story, repeated (quite literally) millions of times that is the real justification for the war in Iraq. And that is the real difference between my perspective and that of my Estonian friend...for he clearly does not see that justification at all.
Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Monday, April 25, 2005
We bought a bright green laser a few months ago after reading that dogs (and some cats!) will chase them even more readily than the older red laser we already had. The new laser proved to be a great toy for the pets, exactly as advertised — just shine that green dot anywhere on the floor and watch your furry friends have a ball chasing it.
However, when reading an article about air safety, I discovered that there was an entirely different use for these things — you can use it to point out features in the sky. Instead of pointing with your finger vaguely in the direction of Orion's belt, you can point it out directly with the laser. I tried this on a recent evening, and it works stunningly well. I also tried our older red laser, and it worked, but not nearly so well. I'm not sure if that's due to the power difference (the green one is four times more powerful) or something abou the wavelength, or both differences combined. But whatever the underlying physics, the fact is that with the green 500mw laser, you can point out features in the heavens as easily and as precisely as you can point to items on a printed page...
But read the article I linked to above to find out some reasons to be careful with them!
Iraq the Model is one of my favorite Iraqi blogs, not the least of which is because Omar (the blogger) has a talent for expressing his feelings effectively in English. In a rant today, Omar lays into the nay-sayers who deny that Iraqis are better off without Saddam and after the war. An excerpt:
There are actually a million stories I can tell to make a comparison between pre and post-Saddam Iraq and to show how dramatically life has improved since April 2003 and the list doesn't necessarily start from the security which is much better off now than under Saddam who murdered 3 million Iraqis during his reign; a figure that dwarfs any post-liberation body count or my salary as a dentist which increased by a hundred folds and doesn't end by the huge change in the Iraqi army that changed from a tool of repression for both, the conscripted soldiers and the civilian population to a security preserving tool that young Iraqis volunteer to join.
Technology and communications had their share too; we moved from a country where your e mail needs two weeks to pass through the filters of the Mukhabarat to a country where people like me can publish their thought to the entire world by a click!
And as our author of honor here is British I'd like to add that before April 2003, being caught while listening to the anti-war BBC radio could throw the listener in jail for indefinite time.
Anyway, if I wanted to talk about every single positive change, I should probably write a book about it as a blog post can't hold all that information.
By European and American standards, Iraq could be considered hell on earth and I agree; life is difficult here, really difficult for many Iraqis and it would be almost impossible for a European or an American but the question here is this: is it more difficult now than under Saddam?The answer is NO.
But please read the whole thing!
Sunday, April 24, 2005
From DefenseLink.mil, this very nice story (By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA,American Forces Press Service):
WASHINGTON, April 24, 2005 – Servicemembers all over the world, especially those in Iraq and Afghanistan, got a big show of support from the country music capital of the world April 23 when Grand Ole Opry faithful stood with posters and shouted on the count of three before television cameras: “America Supports You!”
The special broadcast was part of the Defense Department’s “America Supports You,” campaign, which aims to showcase and communicate American support to the men and women of the armed forces.
The Grand Ole Opry Live program, which this week was hosted by country music legend Dolly Parton, was aired live on the Defense Department’s American Forces Television.
The program is fed to 177 stations throughout the world, including a live feed to Baghdad that aired about 4 a.m. local time.
Welcoming the overseas audience, Parton yelled out in her familiar country voice, “Goooood morning Baghdad!”
“I don’t know what they are doing up that time of morning,” Parton chided the audience. “I guess working.”
Performers at the live show, which included Parton, The Grascals, Hanna-McEuen and Jo Dee Messina, dedicated songs to servicemembers. And in the audience, Parton welcomed a surprise special guest on stage, the newest member of the Grand Ole Opry family, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
After thanking Parton, the other artists and country music lovers from around the world for supporting the military, the secretary presented a special message to troops watching the program overseas and those listening here at home.
“I’d like to say to each of them, volunteers all, ‘Thank you so much for your service to the country. And thank you to your families and your loved ones as well because they too sacrifice, and we appreciate them,’” he said.
“And each of the men and women in uniform needs to know that the great sweep of history is from freedom, and they are on freedom’s side. They are on that side, and it’s the right side,” he said. “So God bless them, and God bless their families, and God bless this wonderful country of ours.”
On stage, Parton also reminded the secretary that May is Military Appreciation Month at the Opry. During May, she said, servicemembers and their families will be given free admission to the Opry Live show.
“Come see us in the month of May and you can get in free. We love free don’t we,” she said.
Parton told the audience that she was happy to host the show in partnership with the Defense Department’s America Supports You campaign “to show our wonderful soldiers all over the world how much we appreciate and support them.”
At Rantings of a Sandmonkey, there is a wonderfully funny post about how Arabs view the world. The thesis is that the Arabs are operating not in the "real" universe, but in a parallel universe (the Arab Parallel Universe, or APU), where all the same events happen but the reality, causes and reasons are different. The APU has 7 rules:
1) Arabs never make mistakes, and they rarely lose wars.
2) The Zionists and the Americans are always to blame for everything that is wrong in the APU.
3) If there is any credit at all that can be contributed to Arabs in any way, they will take it.
4) Good leadership is inversely related to how US-friendly a leader is!
5) Any media that is not the official state-owned media is filled with Zionist, Jewish, American, Christian, imperialist, anti-arab influences and they LIE ALL THE TIME!
6) There is really no need for elections in the APU, because Presidents and rulers are presidents and rulers for life.
7) The only viable alternative candidate to the current leader or president is this current leader or president’s son.
But read the whole post — Sandmonkey is a budding Arab Steyn...
...from the Astronomy Picture of the Day:
Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula. This image, taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of molecular hydrogen gas and dust. The giant pillars are light years in length and are so dense that interior gas contracts gravitationally to form stars. At each pillars' end, the intense radiation of bright young stars causes low density material to boil away, leaving stellar nurseries of dense EGGs exposed. The Eagle Nebula, associated with the open star cluster M16, lies about 7000 light years away.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
The Astronomy Picture of the Day brings us this view of our moon:
In September of 1996, the Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX) satellite had a spectacular view of a total lunar eclipse from Earth orbit. SPIRIT III, an on board infrared telescope, was used to repeatedly image the moon during the eclipse. Above is one of the images taken during the 70 minute totality, the Moon completely immersed in the Earth's shadow. Infrared light has wavelengths longer than visible light - humans can not see it but feel it as heat. So, the bright spots correspond to the warm areas on the lunar surface, and dark areas are cooler. The brightest spot below and left of center is the crater Tycho, while the dark region at the upper right is the Mare Crisium. Of course, this Sunday's lunar eclipse will not be a total, or even a partial one. Instead, the Moon will glide through the subtle outer portion of the Earth's shadow in a penumbral eclipse of the Moon.
What they don't explain is why features like Tycho are warm, nor (in a brief Google search) could I find any reference that did. During an eclipse, it can't be solar reflectivity. My best guess is that the bright infrared areas are places where higher-than-average amounts of solar radiation is absorbed, thus warming the rocks. During an eclipse, these places would appear "hot" (or bright) in infrared...
A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on it's shoes.
Mark Twain
Friday, April 22, 2005
Ali of Free Iraqi — always an interesting read — has a fascinating new post. In it he develops a theory about how Iraqi (and Arab in general) perceptions are formed. He notes that Arabs tend not to ask questions, but to defer instead to authority, whereas Americans ask lots of questions. He then uses this obeservation to infer how Iraqi perceptions have developed. An excerpt:
After Saddam was toppled most Iraqis took a sigh of relief, "Now finally someone sane is going to run things here". They did think of America as a sane power totally replacing a mad one, at least for a while. I say they were relieved not just because they got rid of Saddam, as that meant incridible joy not relief. But It's been also a relief because it was scary to think that your fate is in the hands of an insane man while you can't do anything and you're not even used to such a huge responsibility.
But the Americans did not want to replace Saddam. They did not want to run things the way they wanted without sharing the responsibility with the people, even if they thought their management could fix things and even if this was for a transitional phace.An iron evil fist was gone but it was not replaced by an "iron good fist" as many Iraqis wished, and things collapsed in a place that has been ruled with extreme force for decades when people were given freedom.
This is one of the main reasons why many Iraqis were and still are disappointed with America. No, these Iraqis do not hate America as most like to think, they're just disappointed with her for not fitting the image they had in their minds; the just tyrant that should've taken full responsibility for some time until they could find their own just tyrant who would make their life much better without forcing them to share a burden and a responsibility they never thought it was among their duties as citizens.
Read the whole thing, not only for the perspective on Iraqis, but also for the window into how Americans look to some other cultures...
A remarkable story — a tribute, really — from Villainous Company, about an attack on a Marine base in Iraq. An excerpt:
From atop his lookout post on the Iraqi-Syria border that day, Corporal Joshua Butler must have wondered briefly if he'd been transported to Hell.
A white dump truck came careening towards him, bursting through a raft of wired-together abandoned vehicles. But that was only the beginning of what most people would call a bad day:
Butler, 21 and an Altoona, Pa., native, fired through the windshield of the first suicide bomber as he rammed a white dump truck through a barrier of abandoned vehicles the Marines had improvised. Barreling toward the camp's wall, the truck veered off at the last moment under volleys of Butler's gunfire."I shot 20 or 30 rounds before he detonated," he says. Knocked down by that blast, with bricks and sandbags collapsing on top of him, Butler struggled to his feet only to hear a large diesel engine roar amid the clatter of gunfire. It was a red fire engine, carrying a second suicide bomber and passenger. Butler says both were wearing black turbans and robes, often worn by religious martyrs.
Amid the chaos of that first bomb blast, supported by gunfire from an estimated 30 dismounted insurgents, the fire engine passed largely undetected on a small road that leads from town directly past the camp wall, according a Marine report.
"I couldn't see him at first because of the smoke. It was extremely thick from the first explosion," Butler says. When the fire engine cleared the smoke, it was much closer than the dump truck had been.
As the driver accelerated past the "Welcome to Iraq" sign inside the camp's perimeter, Butler says he fired 100 rounds into the vehicle. The Marines later discovered the vehicle was equipped with 3-inch, blast-proof glass and the passengers were wearing Kevlar vests under their robes.
...and a tip 'o the hat for Michelle Malkin, for the pointer...
A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is one who hopes they are.
Senator Chauncey Depew}
Thursday, April 21, 2005
Remember, no one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Eleanor Roosevelt
These were too good to pass up:
Alabama: Hell Yes, We Have Electricity.
Alaska: 11,623 Eskimos Can't Be Wrong!
Arizona: But It's A Dry Heat.
Arkansas: Literacy Ain't Everything.
California: By 30, Our Women Have More Plastic Than Your Honda.
Colorado: If You Don't Ski, Don't Bother.
Connecticut: Like Massachusetts, Only The Kennedy's Don't Own It Yet.
Delaware: We Really Do Like The Chemicals In Our Water.
Florida: Ask Us About Our Grandkids And Our Voting Skills.
Georgia: We Put The Fun In Fundamentalist Extremism.
Hawaii: Haka Tiki Mou Sha'ami Leeki Toru (Death To Mainland Scum, Leave Your Money)
Idaho: More Than Just Potatoes...Well, Okay, We're Not, But The Potatoes Sure Are Real Good
Illinois: Please, Don't Pronounce the "S"
Indiana: 2 Billion Years Tidal Wave Free
Iowa: We Do Amazing Things With Corn
Kansas: First Of The Rectangle States
Kentucky: Five Million People; Fifteen Last Names
Louisiana: We're Not ALL Drunk Cajun Wackos, But That's Our Tourism Campaign.
Maine: We're Really Cold, But We Have Cheap Lobster
Maryland: If You Can Dream It, We Can Tax It
Massachusetts: Our Taxes Are Lower Than Sweden's And Our Senators Are More Corrupt!
Michigan: First Line Of Defense From The Canadians
Minnesota: 10,000 Lakes...And 10,000,000,000,000 Mosquitoes
Mississippi: Come And Feel Better About Your Own State
Missouri: Your Federal Flood Relief Tax Dollars At Work
Montana: Land Of The Big Sky, The Unabomber, Right-wing Crazies, and Honest Elections!
Nebraska: Ask About Our State Motto Contest
Nevada: Hookers and Poker!
New Hampshire: Go Away And Leave Us Alone
New Jersey: You Want A ##$%##! Motto? I Got Yer ##$%##! Motto -- Right here!
New Mexico: Lizards Make Excellent Pets
New York: You Have The Right To Remain Silent, You Have The Right To An Attorney...And No Right To Self Defense!
North Carolina: Tobacco Is A Vegetable
North Dakota: We Really Are One Of The 50 States!
Ohio: At Least We're Not Michigan
Oklahoma: Like The Play, But No Singing
Oregon: Spotted Owl...It's What's For Dinner
Pennsylvania: Cook With Coal
Rhode Island: We're Not REALLY An Island
South Carolina: Remember The Civil War? Well, We Didn't Actually Surrender Yet
South Dakota: Closer Than North Dakota
Tennessee: Home of the Al Gore Invention Museum.
Texas: Se Hablo Ingles
Utah: Our Jesus Is Better Than Your Jesus
Vermont: Ay, Yep
Virginia: Who Says Government Stiffs And Slackjaw Yokels Don't Mix?
Washington: Our Governor can out-fraud your Governor!
West Virginia: One Big Happy Family...Really!
Wisconsin: Come Cut Cheese!
Wyoming: Where Men Are Men... And The Sheep Are Scared
Washington, DC: The Work-Free Drug Place!
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
New Scientist magazine is reporting that the Opportunity rover (on Mars) has lost the ability to steer its right-front wheel, one of six. This is more of a nuisance than a real problem, though it will make fine maneuvering more challenging. The rover has new software designed explicitly to deal with this situation, uploaded a few weeks ago in anticipation of some of the moving parts wearing out.
Both rovers are continuing to do good science, 16 months after landing (and 13 months beyond the "warranty" date!).
It's only been a day since the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to become the next pope — Pope Benedict XVI. I'm about as non-Catholic as one can possibly get, but the reaction of (mostly) the Catholic world to Ratzinger's election has proved unexpectedly interesting to me. And the reasons have nothing whatsoever to do with religion.
The reaction tends to be highly polarized — people are either thrilled or they see Ratzinger as something approaching the harbinger of the apocalypse. The latter reaction is the one that I find interesting, because of its basis. For the most part, the people who are objecting to Ratzinger's elevation do so because they object to his orthodoxy. In other words, they are unhappy because the newly elected pope is committed to retaining the church's long-standing moral standards and resulting policies.
These people who are so appalled at the selection of Ratzinger remind me very much of political liberals in the sense that they do not seem to believe there are any moral absolutes. For example, many of the appalled Catholics would like to see the church change its stance on contraception — even though, quite clearly, doing so would violate one of the church's most clear-cut moral standards: the sanctity of human life. For the church to change its stance, it would first have to acknowledge that its definition of what is moral could change over time. And the appalled Catholics are ok with that. Similarly, the political liberals in the U.S. are perfectly ok with the courts "re-interpreting" the Constitution to fit whatever the belief-of-the-day is.
If I were Catholic, I would be firmly amongst those who were thrilled by Ratzinger's elevation. My reasoning would be that the church represents, more than anything else, a moral framework that I subscribe to — and Ratzinger is a defender of that framework. And I suspect that my political conservatism is grounded in similar patterns of thinking — identification of a political framework that I subscribe to, and a desire to defend that against erosion.
ScrappleFace nails this issue perfectly. And John Hinderaker, in a current Weekly Standard column, makes the point somewhat more seriously:
The left makes no secret of its intentions where the Constitution is concerned. It wants to change it, in ways that have nothing to do with what the document actually says. It wants the Constitution to enshrine its own policy preferences--thus freeing it from the tiresome necessity of winning elections. And how will the Constitution be changed? Through a constitutional convention, or a vote of two-thirds of the state legislatures? Of course not. The whole problem, from the liberal perspective, is that they can't get democratically elected bodies to enact their agenda. As one of the Yale conference participants said: "We don't have much choice other than to believe deeply in the courts--where else do we turn?" The new, improved Constitution will come about through judicial re-interpretation. It only awaits, perhaps, the election of the next Democratic president.
