WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! * Veritas Vos Liberabit * THE FEDERALIST(r) DIGEST The Internet's Conservative Journal of Record http://www.Federalist.com Date: 19 May 2000 Federalist #00-20.dgst To retrieve today's Digest as printer-friendly text or PDF, link to: http://www.Federalist.com/current00-2.asp To support or sponsor The Federalist, link to: http://www.Federalist.com/support.asp ______--------********O********--------______ THE FOUNDATION "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." --John Adams ______--------********O********--------______ FEDERALIST PERSPECTIVE In the news this week, as we anticipated, now that the Million (plus or minus 900,000 or so) Mom March is over, the queen mother (Ms. Donna Dees Thomases, sister-in-law of HILLARY! confidante Susan Thomases and former publicist for CBS anchorman Dan Rather) announced that she was converting what was, ostensibly, a gun safety movement, into a political action committee to advance the Sociocrats' "gun control" agenda. Supporting his political operative's "gun safety" appeal, Bill Clinton proclaimed, "Forget about the crimes, just look at the accidental gun rate." Memo to Bill: We did, and in 1999, fewer people died in gun-related accidents than in any year since 1913, even though the population -- and number of guns -- are now many times that of 1913. The Sociocrats' agenda is not, of course, about crime or gun safety. It is about gun registration and confiscation. "Our police are hampered by the lack of full gun registration," claims Clinton. In addition to the "gun safety" smokescreen, the Clintonistas and their media sycophants would also have the public believe that the Second Amendment is about "hunting and sporting" interests. "Hadn't anybody missed a day of deer season on what I've done -- nobody. And nobody's been knocked out of one sporting contest for what I've advocated," said Clinton after Congress passed his last round of legislation authorizing incremental federal encroachment to control the legal acquisition of guns by law-abiding citizens. Contrary to the soundbites about hunting and target shooting, the Second Amendment does not concern itself with such mundane matters. It is expressly a prohibition against government encroachment on our natural rights to protect ourselves, as made clear by our Founders, against tyranny. Henry St. George Tucker, in Blackstone's authoritative 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England," makes this natural right clear: "The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction." To wit: "One man with a gun can control 100 without one. ... Make mass searches and hold executions for found arms," ordered V.I. Lenin. Millions died. "If the opposition disarms, well and good. If it refuses to disarm, we shall disarm it ourselves," proclaimed Joseph Stalin. Millions more died. Only the most nescient historical observer would claim that the "New Democrat" breed of Sociocrats is somehow devoid of the capacity to produce, in a near future generation, the likes of another Lenin or Stalin. Such ignorance would most certainly condemn one's children and grandchildren to the same fate. As for well-intentioned mothers and members of Congress, Alexander Hamilton, in the Federalist Papers #78, the definitive exposition on the limits of the U.S. Constitution, stated, "No legislative act contrary to the Constitution can be valid. To deny this would be to affirm that the deputy (agent) is greater than his principal; that the servant is above the master; that the representatives of the people are superior to the people; that men, acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid. .. A Constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by judges as fundamental law. If there should happen to be a irreconcilable variance between the two, the Constitution is to be preferred to the statute." Accordingly, Chief Justice William Rehnquist decreed in a court decision just this week that under our Constitution, the Founders authorized Congress to act only within limited, enumerated powers. As for The Federalist's allocation of editorial space to this issue, we must agree with another Justice, Joseph Story (appointed by James Madison), that the Second Amendment is "the palladium of the liberties of the republic" without which, the Constitution is irrelevant. Open Query... "What does a Clinton really believe in? You might as well ask a chameleon to tell you its favorite color." --Joseph Sobran The BIG lie... "Again, for the sake of our children, I ask Congress to stop the delay." --Mr. Clinton insisting Congress second his gun-control agenda -- "for the children." "The most ethical administration"? "...[Bill and Hillary Clinton] play by no rules. They have vanquished outrage." --Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, a card-carrying leftist. News from the Swamp... Congress continued its debate on whether to award Red China permanent Normal Trade Relations status. The Senate Finance Committee approved the legislation by a 19-1 margin and the House Ways and Means Committee followed with a 34-4 vote. "When he's doing something I think is important, I'm going to support him because he doesn't do it very often," said House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. The House of Lords, in its infinite wisdom, also approved a nonbinding resolution commending the Million Mom March. The vote was 50-49, with 7 Republicrats joining 43 Democrats. In better news, the House of Commons Ways and Means Committee unanimously voted to phase out the 102-year-old federal excise tax on telecommunications -- one of many infamous "hidden taxes" costing Americans hundreds of billions of dollars each year. Next up is a measure to gradually repeal the estate tax. In the Supreme halls of justice... Federalism in the balance, Chief Justice William Rehnquist noted in the court's refusal to uphold several statutes in the Violence Against Women Act, that to set the commerce clause as justification for treating violence against women as a national crime "would allow Congress to regulate any crime as long as the nationwide, aggregated impact of that crime has substantial effects on employment, production, transit or consumption. [But such general power was something] which the Founders denied the national government and reposed in the states. ... If we were to accept the government's arguments, we are hard pressed to posit any activity by an individual that Congress is without power to regulate. The Constitution requires a distinction between what is truly national and what is truly local." In his dissenting opinion, Justice David H. Souter decried the court majority's "new judicially derived federalism." NEW? And this from one of President George Bush's appointees.... Senate Sociocrat Chuck "Schmuck" Schumer complained, "Just at a time when the economic and social conditions of the world demand that we be treated as one country and not as 50 states, the Supreme Court seems poised to undo decades and decades of a consensus that the federal government has an active role to play." This month's "Court Jester" Award goes to U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman, who agreed with the American Civil Liberties Union that a Kentucky school's display of The Ten Commandments, the Mayflower Compact, the preamble to Kentucky's Constitution, the national motto, "In God We Trust," and the Declaration of Independence, violates the erroneous notion of a First Amendment separation of church and state. The documents were on display as historic documents attesting to the importance of religion in America. Memo to Ms. Coffman: These words appear on the wall of the Jefferson Memorial -- "God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?" Does the memorial need to come down? And have you looked at anything from the U.S. Mint lately? Regarding your IRS overpayment... The abduction of little Elian Gonzalez by the Justice Department has cost taxpayers $762,000 -- thus far. And speaking of innocence interrupted, photos of the six-year-old "refuge," while on United States soil and in the care of the United States government, were released by his captors showing the child in the uniform of Castro's atheist and communist youth group, the Pioneers. Justice Department spokeswoman Carole Florman said, "We do not think it is up to us to comment on what Eli�n wears. He is continuing his education by the arrangement of his government." That education includes being paraded around Georgetown by Demo fundraisers as some sort of Clinton/Gore trophy. >From the department of military history... "The heritage of freedom must be guarded as carefully in peace as it was in war. Faith, not suspicion, must be the key to our relationships. Sacrifice, not selfishness, must be the eternal price of liberty. Vigilance, not appeasement, is the byword of living freedoms." -- General Omar N. Bradley, Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on the occasion of the first Armed Forces Day, May 20, 1950, a joint recognition of all those in the various branches of military service. In celebration of 50th anniversary of AFD tomorrow, we solute our colleagues in uniform with a few words from days past. "It is fitting and proper that we devote one day each year to paying special tribute to those whose constancy and courage constitute one of the bulwarks guarding the freedom of this nation and the peace of the free world." --President Dwight D. Eisenhower {} "Today let us, as Americans, honor the American fighting man. For it is he--the solider, the sailor, the Airman, the Marine--who has fought to preserve freedom." --Admiral Forrest P. Sherman {} "Only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed." --President John F. Kennedy >From the department of military correctness... "The military isn't essentially a testing ground." --Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig, responding to a question about gays in the military after a speech at the U.S. Naval Academy. **Not "essentially." The intruders... The Justice Department says it was only coincidence that a "glitch" in the FBI's system for instant background checks on gun buyers, forcing a two-day interruption in gun sales across the nation, coincided with preparations for the Million Mom March. Now what does that old Second Amendment say about computer glitches. In economic news... Five times in the last 12 months, Mr. Alan Greenspan ordered the raising of interest rates by 1/4%. This week he ordered a 1/2% increase and indicated the Federal Reserve may raise rates again next month to "cool" the "hot" economy. Article I, Section 8, of our Constitution says, "The Congress shall have Power to...coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign coin." It does not say a word about the Federal Reserve Act giving a handful of appointees the ability to regulate the U.S. economy. On the culture war front... Bending over to accommodate homosexual advocates, Procter & Gamble Co. withdrew its planned sponsorship of Dr. Laura Schlessinger's upcoming talk show because she is "too controversial." The company will, however, continue to sponsor "legitimate" programming like "Jerry Springer." Dr. Schlessinger responded, "The well-funded and well-connected homosexual activist movement has become the McCarthyism of the 21st century." Who is making a profit on your purchases of laundry detergent, toothpaste, shampoo, toilet paper, disposable diapers, paper towels and dishwashing liquid -- and who are they supporting with it? On the frontiers of science... >From the "Debunking the Myth" Files, "There's a tremendous amount of misunderstanding surrounding homosexuality. I call it the mythology about homosexuality," says Richard Cohen, a psychotherapist. "There is no scientific data that substantiates a genetic or biologic basis for same-sex attraction. Anybody can change. ... [Politicians] have been enrolled into the mythology that 'people are born this way' and 'people cannot change.' This is not a political or a civil rights or a human rights issue. It's a moral issue and an issue of psychology. I don't call it the gay lifestyle, but the SAD lifestyle, the Same-sex Attachment Disorder lifestyle. Men are looking for attachment and bonding with their dads through other men, and women are looking for attachment and bonding with their mothers through other women. The problem is, sex doesn't heal wounds or fulfill unmet primal needs." In related news, the American Psychiatric Association has canceled a panel discussion on reparative therapy to reverse homosexuality at the APA's upcoming convention. Dr. Robert Spitzer, the Columbia University professor who organized the panel discussion, is protesting the decision, arguing that the only way to see if homosexuality can be reversed is to discuss documentary evidence and scientific studies. Ironically, in 1973, Dr. Spitzer led the APA in its decision to change homosexuality from classification as a pathological disorder to a lifestyle choice. Around the world... One day before his inauguration, Taiwan's president-elect Chen Shui-bian has been warned by the Reds across the Strait that if he fails to commit to "one China" in his inaugural speech, there will be dire consequences. But first, China will have to build up its arsenal sufficiently so when it crosses the Strait to force reunification, no one [read the U.S.] would dare interfere. It will take a lot of hard currency to complete that buildup. NTR is just the ticket! National security analyst Frank J. Gaffney says, "Helping the communist regime in Beijing become richer will only intensify the comprehensiveness and severity of the threat it represents. And agreeing to do so in the immediate aftermath of explicit Chinese threats to both the United States and Taiwan can only encourage Beijing to wield such threats, to the potentially serious detriment of this country and its allies." And last, columnist John Leo advises us that Village Idiots are alive and well on the campus of SUNY/Albany. It seems they objected to the word "picnic" in reference to an event honoring Baseball Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, claiming that the word "picnic" might have originally referred to lynching blacks. Actually, as Leo notes, "Picnic comes from a 17th-century French word for a social gathering in which each person brings a different food." But affirmative action director Zaheer Mustafa issued a memo ordering student leaders not to use the word "picnic," saying, "Whether the claims are true or not, the point is the word offended." The university changed its wording in announcements for the event, calling it an "outing" instead of a "picnic." Then homosexual students objected to that word, and Leo says the event was then "publicized without a noun describing what was going on." ______--------********O********--------______ INSIGHT "It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder." --Frederic Bastiat {} "We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all." --Jean de La Bruy�re {} "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter." --John Keats {} "Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts." --Henry Brooks Adams {} "All womanhood is hampered today because the world on which it is emerging is a world that tries to worship both virgins and mothers and in the end despises motherhood and despoils virgins." --W. E. B. Du Bois {} "Charity begins at home." --Terence {} "Appearances often are deceiving." --Aesop {} "There is no benefit in the gifts of a bad man." --Euripides {} "There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual walk with God." --Brother Lawrence {} "Humor is merely tragedy standing on its head with its pants torn." --Irvin S. Cobb {} "No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character." --John, Viscount Morley of Blackburn {} "We demand of our political life greater certainty and greater perfection than we demand of our personal life." --Max Lerner **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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