In America, the rights of the individual prevail today over the sometimes questionable prerogative of state and government.
The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutional right of an American to have a gun and, especially, for the purpose of self-defense in one’s home. This individual right has been clearly acknowledged independent of the necessities of military or militia service, duty and training. The ruling comes out of the Court’s review of District of Columbia v. Heller. Additionally: Washington, D.C.’s many year ban on handguns and a mandatory requirement for gun locks was deemed unconstitutional.
District of Columbia v. Heller is the most important Second Amendment case in American history. Today’s decision is a historical decision that will guide the way courts and States consider questions about the American right of responsible citizens to own a gun for a long time to come. The American right of an individual for self defense is more clearly defined as a Constitutional right.
This historical decision represents the deeply considered and powerful reasoning of Justice Antonin Scalia who led the majority opinion. According to Georgetown University Law Professor Randy Barnett, Justice Scalia’s opinion “is the clearest, most careful interpretation of the meaning of the Constitution ever to be adopted by a majority of the Supreme Court.”
This opinion, writes Barnett in The Wall Street Journal, “is the finest example of what is now called original public meaning jurisprudence ever adopted by the Supreme Court.”
As the minutes tick closer to the start of today’s NATO Summit in Bucharest, some Romanian bloggers question the zeal of their leaders in ensuring there is neither public protest nor questions to the value of NATO for Romania or other European states- neither in Bucharest nor Romania in general. Although an outspoken and public critic of the flagging commitment of other NATO members, Romanian President Traian Basescu believes that NATO remains a national priority for Romania.
Yesterday’s press conference on the arrival of President Bush and the upcoming NATO Summit in the clip below:
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Recently, Basescu challenged Russia’s opposition to NATO, telling Russia that its time now to work with NATO- and not against it. Among the public items on Basescu’s agenda: an anti-ballistic missile shield for Romania provided by the US or NATO, renewal and enlargement of Romanian troop commitment in Afghanistan, security policy regarding energy, and NATO acceptance of requests to be considered in the enlargement of NATO. Included in these requests are those from Albania, Georgia, Macedonia, and Ukraine. Read the rest of this entry »
As I have written elsewhere, the NATO Summit in Bucharest will determine the future of NATO for many years to come. Some (mostly harmless) questions in my mind:
Will European members rediscover a common will regarding redefined global goals and strategy of the alliance?
Will NATO come to represent something more than an American heavy hand in the European pie or merely as a gate keeper for nations seeking membership in the European Union?
Since the Cold War is over, how will NATO assure Russia that NATO plays a new role in international politics - a role that supports common economic interests including reasonable Russian interests?
Related to the NATO Summit in Bucharest, but more immediately interesting than the NATO specific questions on my mind is… recent authoritarian moves of the Romanian government to prevent dissenting opinion and protest about NATO in the Romanian public square.
Background music for your reading: Marilyn Manson, Nobodies
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Why Romania is important
Why is Romania so important to the US and NATO?
I’m not talking about the Romanian hotties- though there is much to be said about that subject. Some local hot shots are even grumbling that all the working girls are booked solid for the Summit. Rumors have it that the Italian and French diplomats may have arrived a bit in advance of the Summit to log some quality fly time. Read the rest of this entry »
A friend shared a story with me that made me deeply feel the significance and importance of the oral arguments that I reviewed regarding District of Columbia v. Heller. I had to share it with you. Fortunate for us… the kind author, Victoria Lloyd, gave me permission. I’ll admit this: I was so excited about this personal story that I waited eight hours to find out who the author was and how to get in touch.
Below, a little patriotic clip, in case, you can’t continue without video.
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Or, background music from Janis Joplin and Woodstock (Try)… for your reading:
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Number Sixty Four
by Victoria F. Lloyd
It was six o’clock in the evening on the Seventeenth of March when I drove by the United States Supreme Court to scout the line of people that had gathered on the sidewalk. They were strewn about in an unkempt line starting at the base of the marble steps of the court. I could see several people dining on Armand’s pizza and a delivery man with bags of Chinese food being paid by a young man bundled in a sweatshirt, jeans, and a North Face jacket. It was clear that these people were in for the long haul. Read the rest of this entry »
Reaffirming the Second Amendment does not mean we should not discuss the problems of violence in our culture or the tragedies and horrors that we have observed in our schools, streets and low income neighborhoods. As Americans, we are smart enough, creative enough and passionate enough to find compelling solutions that do not infringe upon our obligations and rights as Americans… and as prominent an important members of an international community.
Below, a trailer for a documentary on the Second Amendment:
Five cents will not even buy you a spoken paragraph of no particular value in Bablion. So consider yourself lucky that you found me…
The Romanian Parliament makes a totalitarian move by signing the controversial Lisbon Treaty without engaging a national conversation about the advantages and disadvantages to be expected if the Treaty is realized. Such a move is not the first example of the authoritarian disregard for Law, Order and Constitution by Romanian leaders- but it seems to be the most shameless prostitution of the Romanian state by a democratically-elected Parliament.
“Romania is for sale” below is a parody of the Romanian state (non-english and no subtitles)
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Totalitarian Move
Last month, Romania’s Parliament agreed to sign the controversial Lisbon Treaty. Romanian officials were very pleased to exercise their authority as members of the European Union on February 4th. French President Nicolas Sarkozy even came to show his support, have a drink, and meet some nice girls. Interestingly, the Romanian government did not feel any duty or obligaion to communicate to the Romanian people the purpose and specifics of the Lisbon treaty, its impact on the Romanian constitution (if accepted by the European Union) or what this means for Romania’s independence in the future. Read the rest of this entry »
The failure of a U.S. federal judge to stop wikileaks.org reminds us that the democratization of communication and information channels are powerful tools in the struggle for human freedom.
Information Democracy
The democratization of communication and information channels provides as much promise as threat to the way politics and business is done.
Romanian politicans beware! Shady managers and company owners too. There’s terrabytes and terrabytes of disk space waiting for leaking files and documents about you on wikileaks.org. And there’s no way to stop this juggernaut that exposes all the corruption and lies that come into its great path. Whatcha gonna do?
Online legislation and self-regulation are critical factors to unchaining the Romanian online and interactive industry from various factors in current performance disappointments. The complacency of industry members must be overcome– however unlikely such a thing would be for Romanians. In Bablion, re-education can be challenging.
Weening Romanian web publishers from the deep muck of intellectual property theft is not likely. Wild aspirations for online advertising revenues and future sell outs drive the need to draw and keep online traffic. Desperate for content, Romanian publishers depend heavily on the editorial content they lift from foreign websites and portals. Is it for lack of writers and thinkers in Bablion? Or, more likely, lack of business sense and too much World of Warcraft?
The future of advertising is here (see below), but it’s not as easy as 1-2-3 as some naive entrepreneurs would like to believe.
Romanians would like a magnificent, majestic and heroic King who embodies the will of the nation, but without giving up their sense of freedom- a freedom that was handed to them on a blood-splashed silver platter by former intelligence bosses who wanted a bigger slice of pie than they could get under communism. While Romanians do not want another dictator that sets himself up as the new boss, they secretly yearn for a new kind of fascist leader who will bring a doctrine of action, make things happen, and renew national pride - a pride that communism took from them long ago.
The future is shocking; the future is the new facism
As an emerging market, Romania is an exciting place to be. I remain inspired by the prolific change that I have seen realized in the last seven years. In fact, Bucharest is an exciting place to be - London and Paris are tired cliches in comparison. Investment opportunities abound in agriculture, commercial and residential real estate, education, finance, hotel and resort development, online advertising, publishing, services, and more.
It is a shame that they can’t get their politics right- the inexorable corruption and capricious politics of discreditation provides an opening for a new fascism.
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The rise of a new kind fascism does not threaten business, investment and private property because the tools of capitalism provide contenders with the immense wealth and power needed for a fascist leader to emerge to the center stage as an authentic national hero. Already, the new fascism subverts the democratic dynamic of a nation (good of the people) into a corporative state where national policies are decided by captains of industry and business. This has become particularly clear regarding conflicts on legislation between the European Union and the Romanian state. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by stanfaryna
