Tag: James Madison
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Democracy Is “Use It Or Lose It”
Winston Churchill famously said “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried”. He said that after being voted out of office at the end of World War Two. Despite his cynicism (born of losing an election), he was right. Democracy is damned hard to pull off.…
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The Second Amendment Emperor Is Naked: He Doesn’t “OWN” Anything!
It’s not a hard ask. All I want is for someone to point to the word “own” anywhere in the Second Amendment. I’ve been putting this idea out there now for a couple of weeks and the only argument that comes back – other than I’m an idiot (for pointing out a true thing) –…
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The Big Lie Is An Act Of War
Even if it wasn’t an actual “on the books” crime, what Donald Trump and the Republican Party are doing to America feels criminal and that the fact that there aren’t already laws making what’s happening illegal is because it’s so monstrous, no one imagined Americans of any stripe would be capable of doing such a…
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Antonin Scalia Ended Our Gun Debate: There Is No Right To Individual Gun Ownership
Antonin Scalia doesn’t often get credit for being the “Daddy Of Gun Control”, but, in spite of himself, he is. In writing for the 5-4 majority in Heller, Scalia argued that one didn’t have to be part of any militia in order to keep and bear arms. Individuals could “keep and bear arms” in accordance…
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America’s Gun Crisis Is Foundational But Fixable – Just Like Chicago’s John Hancock Tower
We tell ourselves this every day now: no other country has the gun problem America has. Gun violence happens here the way peace and quiet happen everywhere else. It’s the missing guns that make the difference. Part of why our gun problem feels intractable is because we make it that way. It doesn’t have to…
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Who Are Gun Rights People Soooo Afraid Of? Answer: The Rest Of Us
What must run through the mind of a grown man who feels compelled to strap a rifle to his body before he feels safe enough to exit his house. And, if he has to run into Walmart to pick up some milk and lard? Or his Viagra prescription? That’s going to require wearing the biggest,…
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We’ve Been Framing The Gun Debate All Wrong: There IS NO RIGHT TO GUN “OWNERSHIP” In The 2nd Amendment
I’m not sure if anyone’s ever made this argument before. If they did, I’m not sure how we got past it. If James Madison – the author of the Second Amendment – saw us arguing today about the sacred right of gun ownership in America, he’d want to shoot himself in the head. Hopefully, he’d…
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“You Can’t Get There From Here” Is Such A “White” Way To Think…
Every summer, from the time I was six until I was twelve, I went to a sleepaway camp in Naples, Maine called “Camp Skylemar“. I don’t think there’s a Skylemar memory that isn’t happy. I was independent from the womb onward, so, the distance from camp to home (I grew up in Baltimore) didn’t concern…
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America Doesn’t Have A Health CARE System, It Has A Health INSURANCE System; It Ain’t The Same Thing!
Fact: when anyone walks in the door of America’s “health care system”, the first question we ask isn’t “How can we fix you?”, it’s “How’re you gonna pay for this?”. From the point of view of a for-profit health care system (an oxymoron’s oxymoron which we’ll get to shortly), that’s great. It’s the perfect question.…
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The Bill Of Rights Says Originalism Is BS
The US Constitution — as originally written and ratified — did NOT include freedom of speech or the press or religion or assembly or any of the other specific rights enumerated in the Bill Of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Did you catch that word — “amendments”? The Constitution’s framers built the…