Updates for Tuesday, January 31st [2006]
Iranian Nukes & Alito's Dukes
Dear Friends,
I stand at dismay at current affairs, & yet I still persist in keeping watch. I sometimes wonder, indeed, if I am meant to watch as I do, or if doing so is simply a punishment I instill upon myself. My affairs are kept in proper order, mostly with the help of Natalie, although I note that there has been no word from Ludwig since his arrival in Chicago, which constitutes an arrear in our mutual epistolary account. Daniel has kept to himself mostly, and Julius clamored, fearing that the adversary - Agent "N" - may have already taken steps to insure all our misfortunes. I thus consume what little time I have, devoted to understanding why I am here, and trying to raise the best of hopes within us all, and spending the time in casual discourse with my close friends...
Me: Well, I must be prepared if I am to write a proper letter to Congress, am I not? Besides, this news service, is certainly amazing. However, I fear the televised shows have become far worse than the magazines and tabloids of my day. Fortunately, any story I seek more information on, I can find confirmation of the details on the internet. It is certainly an amazing method to distribute the latest happenings amongst the general populace.
Daniel: Yeah well, I can't bring myself to watch any of the news. Especially not with my new XBox 360. Hey, do you have my cash?
Me: I apologize, not yet. Since leaving my last job, I have been doing work for a friend of Natalie's. I will be getting more pay tomorrow. I prefer this kind of work, they call it "under the table", but I call it "tax free".
Daniel: Well dude, just remember that we need to pay the rent around here. My uncle's inheritance won't last us that long, and my unemployment ended months ago.
Me: Didn't you get well over twenty thousand dollars from your uncle's inheritance? Is there a problem by it, does the bank, or your creditors, object to your spending that as you see fit?
Daniel: Actually, you know, I spent half of it already, I needed a new computer, a plasma screen tv, a new pimpin' ride... funny how money comes and it goes!
Me: It would not come, nor go, nearly as fast if you saved it. Perhaps you do not understand that your life is already filled with creature amenities. Saving has always been the better option than thrift.
Daniel: Nag nag nag. Anyways dude, what's going on with the news today? A chemical plant explodes, crap dude, look at that mess.
Me: Yes, 6 people were injured in the explosion, from that mess, it is amazing anyone wasn't killed. I remember Benjamin Franklin's Union Fire Company, when the men carried leather buckets to the fire, now they have giant water wells, with hoses that spray the water hundreds of feet.
Daniel: The Iranian government appears to be stubborn about letting the U.N. look at its nukes.
Me: I despise this wretched U.N., why does it have to play the mother ward of every nation? It has no role as such, as we have no role in telling any other government, not matter how despotic, it must disarm.
Daniel: But dude, these are nukes. You don't know what nukes are like, because of where you come from, but man, they're some nasty shit.
Me: According to the history books I read, the nuclear weapons were not fired in your lifetime, either. Correct?
Daniel: Well, yeah.
Me: I sincerely believe that while we certainly do not want our enemies to be well armed, we have no business trying to demand they remain weak. This surely stifles our diplomacy. Any nation that hates Iran enough to see this as a call to arms, will probably respond accordingly, and the U.N. need not direct their efforts. Saber-rattling does not help the peace, nor does saber-snatching.
Daniel: Yeah. Plus, I'm sure Israel will probably kick their ass by bombing some of their new nuclear plants, anyways. Oh hey, it's Alan Greenspan's last day? Now who is Apple going to hire as their spokesman?
Me: I do not like the central bank, however I hear Alan Greenspan was a benevolent dictator, that he too shared many concerns about the banking system. The future is uncertain, however, the man to replace him, certainly his actions may be a danger to our well-being. To control the money and the banks so thoroughly is a power government should not have, and misused, it can hurt many Americans.
Daniel: Blah blah blah. Oh man, that prick Alito got confirmed to the Supreme Court. James is going to be pissed.
Me: I am amazed at how partisan this issue has become. This abortion practice, it disturbs me and leaves me with many questions, but I hardly see it fit for a federal court to decide the answers, no-where is such an enumeration in the Constitution that it is in the power of the federal legislature to do so, so I hardly see how the federal judiciary may find the cause at the issue. Where and why the many people in the Senate have grown to believe that abortion is the sole cause of the judicial debate, I do not know, but I know that Alito is not fit for his judicial position, for his feelings towards the executive authorities are too broad, and his feelings towards what limits his own power are too vague. I feel if Bush had passed an Aliens and Seditions act last night, Judge Alito would only be too eager to enforce it this morning.
It is on this note that I leave you, to attend to your affairs, but I promise I will write again soon. I am to watch the State of the Union address tonight, with Daniel and his friend James, although I presume they are more interested in the night of "poker" they have planned, than the broadcast. God bless you and preserve you multos anos.
- TH. Jefferson
Editor's Notes:
Another TeeJ update today, a bit late, this was meant to be in before the State of the Union. The next update will probably be on tonight's State of the Union, in the next few days.
I know people are annoyed by my Libertarian ideals I often interject into here, but I reserve most of the rambling for these editor's notes, where I offer my opinion uncut. Feel free to skip these if you aren't interested. My feelings on Iran are that they are definitely growing more aggressive by the day, although I am ultimately unconcerned that they are questing for nuclear weapons. Even with nuclear weapons, they don't pose a major threat to American allies in the region, like Israel, nor America in general. They are simply being watched by too many sides to act insanely, despite the mouthy leader they currently have.
Since Marbury vs. Madison, we've had a problem with the judiciary interpreting its own authority. The idea of a federal court is that it should rule on federal matters that cannot be settled in lesser courts, major cases. It has become the chief arbiter of what is Constitutional and what is not, without check. So authoritarian judges - like Judge Samuel Alito - who adhere to unitary executive philosophies (that the executive authority is total control, and not specifically enumerated and limited by the Constitution) are a central problem on the bench due to their ease of ruling in favor of an absolute and unhinged law. He will construe the Constitution to mean whatever favors his personal opinion of what the law should do, and not really concern himself with the actual rights of citizens in his cases... already this attitude is obvious in his rulings (you can plot his decisions by his conservative feelings in a situation, as opposed to some specific line of reasoning regarding letter of the law). Jefferson was particularly disturbed by this type of attitude, especially with his partisan war he had with the Federalist party, who attempted to sabotage his administration by electing new judges and stacking the judiciary with Federalists. I suspect he'd be extremely critical of the Bush appointees, especially since everyone is obviously thinking with tunnel vision on the abortion issue.
I threw in few random bits of trivia, about Benjamin Franklin starting his own fire brigade, which later became the basis of the American fire department. Also, you can see Alan Greenspan's original commercial for the Apple IIc at http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/981/. To iterate Greenspan's witty outro, "And if you have any money left over, congratulations - you're doing better than the government is." We'll miss you, Alan.
