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Location: LaGrange, Kentucky, United States

The opinions and interests of a husband, analyst and Iraq war veteran.



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Thursday, June 23, 2005

The continuing war on personal choice

Frederick Ochsenhirt highlights a modest proposal by DC Council member and anti smoking ban advocate, Carol Schwartz, Ban Smoking in Bars? Let's Just Ban Bars!

Read it all, for it is good. Especially his ending. "And remember, it wasn't long ago that those fighting for individual liberty were called "over the top" for predicting that fast food restaurants would be sued for making people fat."

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High court OKs personal property seizures

"At issue was the scope of the Fifth Amendment, which allows governments to take private property through eminent domain if the land is for 'public use.'"

Apparently "public use" means shopping malls and office buildings now. Sheesh.

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The flag. I'm on record as saying that, as a matter of constitutional principle, anyone may do anything they choose to a flag. When I die, my coffin will be draped in that flaq that I fought under, but I don't remember raising my right hand and swearing to protect and defend the flag, but rather the Constitution.

Captain Ed thinks we're Addressing The Symptom And Not The Disease. "[The] push for this amendment comes from Congress' (correct) impulse to push back against an activist court that creates new rights and laws out of thin air." Yup. In a country of over 300 million we are garunteed to find a few who want to shock and offend the majority by burning a flag. What is that in comparison to a runaway judiciary?

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To paraphrase Penn Jillete, "Life is not made of nerf. And the sharp edges are going to cut you from time to time."

Personal choice, not government regulation, has made us the richest, most powerful country in the world, proving that a free republic works. Now that we're comfortable, no longer the underdog, no longer the upstart troublemaking thorn in some monarchy's side, and finally in a position to spread the gospel of freedom to those peoples less fortunate, are we going to chip away at that success from within?

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