Safety, Sheehan, Storms, Blame and SCOTUS

Note: I've had to change my settings for the comments section. It didn't take long for the internet goblins to start using my site for their scams and "phising". If you know me, then you know my e-mail address. You can send your comments directly to me. Also,,

I came across a good idea I wanted to share with you. When first responders(fireman,EMT,police etc.) come across a person who is unconscious and no one around knows them, they often look to the persons cell phone to find someone to contact and get information about the injured person. this can take precious, crucial minutes. First responders around the country are being trained to search first for the name "ICE" (IN Case of Emergency) on a persons cell phone. So the idea is that in your cell phone address book, make an entry for ICE(IN Case of Emergency). Then enter the phone number of the person you would want them to contact in the case of emergency. Everybody should have the "ICE" entry in their cell phone address book.

Just thought you might like to know,,,

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms... disarm only those who are
neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make
things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they
serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed
man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

-- Cesare Beccaria (On Crimes and Punishment, quoted by Thomas
Jefferson in Commonplace Book)






"One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation." --Thomas Reed

"How often do Americans use guns for defensive purposes? We know that in 2003, 12,548 people died through non-suicide gun violence, including homicides, accidents and cases of undetermined intent... Criminologist and researcher Gary Kleck, using his own commissioned phone surveys and number extrapolation, estimates that 2.5 million Americans use guns for defensive purposes each year. He further found that of those who had used guns defensively, one in six believed someone would have been dead if they had not resorted to their defensive use of firearms. That corresponds to approximately 400,000 of Kleck's estimated 2.5 million defensive gun uses. Kleck points out that if only one-tenth of the people were right about saving a life, the number of people saved annually by guns would still be at least 40,000... A gunned-down bleeding guy creates news. A man who spared his family by brandishing a handgun, well, that's just water-cooler chat."—Larry Elder

Note: I'm looking forward to the stories of citizens in areas stricken by Katrina whose use of personal firearms sent the goblins looking for easier fare, thereby saving their families fates far worse than hunger and dehydration. JF

"In The New York Times, Maureen Dowd underlined the template of the [Cindy] Sheehan media blitz with her column's declaration: 'The moral authority of parents who bury children in Iraq is absolute.' Let us say this firmly: not so. Let us say this with equal vigor: Ms. Dowd and her legions of like-minded reporter peers are hypocrites. There are hundreds of other grieving family members loaded with moral authority who think Sheehan is wrong. Even Sheehan's own family has denounced her street theater. Where are Dowd and Co. bestowing on them the mantle of moral authority?... The moral authority of presidential critics is directly related to how politically useful they are to the liberal agenda." —Brent Bozell

The Culture of Blame—on assigning blame for Hurricane Katrina: "Let me make this clear: Everything which has happened as the result of Hurricane Katrina is my fault. Mine. Alone. No one else's. Stop wasting energy pointing fingers and put your hands to work helping out. It was me. Got it? I was a United States Senator from Louisiana in 2001 when the levee at Lake Pontchartrain was declared unsafe and I didn't have enough clout with my Senatorial brethren to get sufficient money appropriated to fix it. It was my fault. Oh. I almost forgot. I was the Commander-in-Chief of all United States Armed Forces in the 1960s which includes the Corps of Engineers. The cost-benefit analysis? My fault. It is my fault that, as the Governor of Louisiana, I didn't foresee the need to have enough Louisiana National Guard troops—the vast majority of whom are NOT currently in Iraq, or Afghanistan or, for that matter, Indiana—pre-positioned and ready to preserve order. I, frankly, forgot that there is a portion of the population which will steal anything from anyone given any opportunity and then will blame it on me because I didn't—in spite of ample warnings by sociologists from large Eastern Universities—foresee the need to have 27" flat-screen television sets available to every family in the New Orleans city limits as soon as the electricity went out. That one WAS my bad. It is my fault that, as Mayor of New Orleans, I was boogying down Bourbon Street the night before the hurricane hit rather than being where I should have been—on the roof of the Superdome pounding in extra nails to hold the roof on. As the architect of the Superdome, it was my fault for claiming that the Dome could survive 200 mile-per-hour winds. It couldn't even handle a relatively gentle 160 mile-per-hour zephyr. Strap me to my drafting table and set me adrift. Global warming? My fault. Despite the fact that nearly every serious climatologist in America has stated over and over again that there is no clear evidence tying human-generated greenhouse gasses to global warming, and even if there were, there is no evidence tying global warming to hurricanes in the Atlantic basin, I was opposed to the Kyoto treaty and so it is my fault. It is also my fault that during the administration of Bill Clinton the U.S. Senate rejected the terms of the Kyoto protocols by a vote of 95-0. That would be zero, zilch, nada, nil, bupkis. As the Grand Poohbah in Charge of all TV Coverage, it is my fault that there is constant video of looters and almost none of humanitarian activities. I am the person who issued the statement: 'No more rescue footage UNLESS the person rescued complains about how long they had to wait or, if he shoots at the rescuers.' And, finally, as Chairman of the National Association of Gasoline Producers it is my fault that I had the bad judgment to put so much of my drilling, refining and transportation assets in a hurricane-prone area like the Caribbean basin. What...was...I...thinking? If I could re-do that whole thing, I would have put all that equipment in Lake Erie and Lake Michigan. There may not be any oil there, but hurricanes are very rare. So. There you have it. Everything that has happened is my fault. Now. Shut up and help."—Rich Galen



Find a mirror for that finger of blame!
"This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can't bail out the city of New Orleans." --Terry Ebbert, Director of NOLA's emergency management agency, complaining about FEMA's evacuation plan for refugees in the Superdome. Unfortunately for Mr. Ebbert, one of our astute readers noticed this AP photograph the same day (Thursday, 01SEP05).




Mr. Ebbert suggests that FEMA's crystal ball on levee failures needs some polishing. But, hindsight being what it is, perhaps Mr. Ebbert's crystal ball was not so clear. In the photo above, you can see more than 200 flooded school buses at the NO depot not far from the Superdome. In other words, once the evacuation order had been issued, why did Mr. Ebbert not position these buses in a location where they could be used for transportation.

200 buses with a capacity of about 60 people per bus means some 12,000 people could have been ferried away from the Superdome to Houston in about every 15 hours. By Thursday, Mr. Ebbert could have gotten all NO's refugees out on his own! Way to go Chief!

Memo to Mr. Ebbert: Wasn't the use of these buses for evacuation part of your "preparedness planning" for your city in the event of, say, breached levees? School buses are part every competently-run municipality's evac plan.

As our reader notes, "One emergency manager with half a clue and a couple hundred drivers could have more or less saved New Orleans from turning into Mad Max territory. Terry Ebbert can blame everyone else all he wants, but this crisis is almost entirely his fault."

This is from "The Federalist Patriot". JF

"Few people realize that the U.S. is also a major oil-producing country. After Saudi Arabia, producing 10.4 million barrels a day, then Russia with 9.4 million barrels, the U.S. with 8.7 million barrels a day is the third-largest producer of oil. But we could produce more. Why aren't we? Producers have a variety of techniques to win monopoly power and higher profits that come with that power. What's a way for OPEC to gain more power? I have a hypothesis, for which I have no evidence, but it ought to be tested. If I were an OPEC big cheese, I'd easily conclude that I could restrict output and charge higher oil prices if somehow U.S. oil drilling were restricted. I'd see U.S. environmental groups as allies, and I would make 'charitable' contributions to assist their efforts to reduce U.S. output. Again, I have no evidence, but it's a hypothesis worth examination."—Walter Williams


Note: As we've seen also from Katrina, our refinery capacity is woefully short of where it should be. Another gift from our homegrown leftist environmentalists. JF

"Regarding the issue of judging anyone evil, the best response is a question: Can we judge anyone to be good (not perfect, just good)? Of course we can. But if we can't call anyone evil, we can't call anyone good, and we certainly know that there are good people. If there are good people, there have to be not good, evil people. Anyone who remains unable to morally judge people who slit the throats of innocent people, who place bombs in the middle of markets, and who murder anyone attempting to help women achieve basic human rights is a moral imbecile. As for the Bush administration being equally evil, this, too, reveals the responder's values. It is one thing to believe the war was a mistake; it is quite another to regard it as a function of the administration's desire to enrich Halliburton or expand the 'American empire,' or because Jewish neo-conservatives pushed docile Gentiles—Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld—into waging it 'for Israel.' Such views are held by people who are so angry and so brainwashed about conservatives that they have lost the elementary ability to identify real evil, which is what Islamic and Baathist terrorists and 'insurgents' are... It is one thing to oppose the war in Iraq; it is quite another to deny the evil of those we fight there. That is what the Left in America routinely does. And that is why the culture war in America is as important as the military war in Iraq."—Dennis Prager

Note: I call the current "culture war" the "The Cold Civil War". I'm not too worried about it. I know how it all comes out. It's offered in detail in a fabulous book known as "The Holy Bible". Find a Bible teaching church and dig in,,,,JF

"Sen. Teddy Kennedy has demanded that the Bush administration waive attorney-client privilege and release internal memos John Roberts worked on while in the solicitor general's office 15 years ago, all of which were supposed to be held in the deepest confidence. Apparently, Kennedy thinks public officials have no right to keep even their attorney-client communications secret. This surprised me because the senator is such a strong advocate of the (nonexistent) 'right to privacy.' And not just in the way most drunken, Spanish quiz-cheating, no-pants-wearing public reprobates generally cherish their own personal right to privacy. I mean privacy in the abstract. I know as much about the 'right to privacy' as I know about any other made-up, nonexistent right, but I would have thought that any 'right to privacy' would protect confidential attorney-client conversations at least as much as, say, abortions in public buildings. But I'll have to defer to the expert."—Ann Coulter

Note: You gotta love this lady,,,

One quote from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: "A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints, for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process," she said during her 1993 confirmation hearings.

Justice Ginsburg, a pioneering feminist lawyer who had founded Women's Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, was confirmed by a 96-3 Senate vote less than two months after President Clinton nominated her.

Note: Interesting testimony here during Justice Ginsburg's confirmation hearings.JF

Senator Leahy. Does that mean that the Free Exercise Clause and the Establishment Clause are equal, or is one subordinate to the other?

Judge Ginsburg. I prefer not to address a question like that; again, to talk in grand terms about principles that have to be applied in concrete cases. I like to reason from the specific case and not----

Senator Leahy. Let me ask you this: In your view of the Supreme Court today--or do you have a view whether the Supreme Court has put one in a subordinate position to the other?

Judge Ginsburg . The two clauses are on the same line in the Constitution. I don't see that it is a question of subordinating one to the other. They both have to be given effect. They are both----

Senator Leahy. But there are instances where both cannot be upheld.

Judge Ginsburg . Senator, I would prefer to await a particular case and----

Senator Leahy. I understand. Just trying, Judge. Just trying.

Note: Let's see how "understanding" he will be with Judge Roberts.JF

Senator Thurmond. … [B]ased upon your understanding of the U.S. Constitution, do communities, cities, counties and States have sufficient flexibility to experiment with and provide for diverse educational environments aided by public funding and geared to the particular needs of individual students of their particular area of jurisdiction?


Judge Ginsburg. Senator Thurmond, that is the kind of question that a judge cannot answer at-large. The judge will consider a specific program in a specific school situation, together with the legal arguments for or against that program, but it cannot be answered in the abstract. As you well know, judges work from the particular case, not from the general proposition. Nominees cannot be expected to give detailed, expert answers to questions involving every legal subject, as no person is an expert in everything

Note: Only conservative nominees need be held to the "expert" standard.JF

Senator Feinstein. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Just to try to pursue that a little bit further, Judge Ginsburg , could you talk at all about the methodology you might apply, what factors you might look at in discussing Second Amendment cases should Congress, say, pass a ban on assault weapons?

Judge Ginsburg. I wish I could, Senator, but all I can tell you is that this is an amendment that has not been looked at by the Supreme Court since 1939. And apart from the specific context, I really can't expound on it. It is on area in which my court has had no business, and one I had no acquaintance as a law teacher. So I really feel that I am not equipped beyond what I already told you, that it isn't an incorporated amendment. The Supreme Court has not dealt with it since 1939, and I would proceed with the care that I give to any serious constitutional question.

Note: As a teacher of law she had no "acquaintance" with the Second Amendment? and she was given a pass on this?JF

Senator Thurmond. What are your views on the constitutionality of some form of voucher system, so that working and middle-class parents can receive more choice in selecting the best education available for their children?

Judge Ginsburg. Senator Thurmond, aid to schools is a question that comes up again and again before the Supreme Court. This is the very kind of question that I ruled out.

Senator Thurmond. Would you prefer not to answer?

Judge Ginsburg. Yes.

Senator Specter. Let me ask you a question articulated the way we ask jurors, whether you have any conscientious scruple against the imposition of the death penalty?

Judge Ginsburg. My own view on the death penalty I think is not relevant to any question I would be asked to decide as a judge. I will be scrupulous in applying the law on the basis of the Constitution, legislation, and precedent. As I said in my opening remarks, my own views and what I would do if I were sitting in the legislature are not relevant to the job for which you are considering me, ( now here she is correct)which is the job of a judge. So I would not like to answer that question, and more that I would like to answer the question of what choice I would make for myself, what reproductive choice I would make for myself. It is not relevant to what I would decide as a judge.


Note: My whole point in this boring post is to make you ask yourself, will today's senate committee give the same amount of leeway (to NOT answer specific questions) to the Roberts confirmation? I know the answer to that one. Chucky and Teddy will be on the march,,,Chucky better watch out if they have to cross a bridge,,JF

In watching the placing of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renquist's body in the supreme court building, I was pleased to listen to one of the priests present read one of my favorite Psalms, Psalm 139:
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to [b] me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.