tfl: The Flatiron Life

Is SCOTUS the problem or the solution to Congress and the President acting badly?

Jonah Goldberg does not present any solutions but makes the claim that the other two branches of government have been trained to make any old crap into law because they know the Supreme Court will make sure it is constitutional eventually. This was not always so:

Have you ever had a boss who treated you like a child, second-guessed you, reworked whatever you did so that you felt no ownership of the final product? As a result, did you take your job less and less seriously precisely because you knew that whatever you produced wouldn’t really be yours anyway?

Well, the Supreme Court is the boss, and Congress is the Dilbert. There was a time when the U.S. Congress took the Constitution very seriously. Even after Marbury v. Madison, the 1803 case that established the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review, Congress and the president were still the chief guardians of the Constitution. Indeed, before the Civil War, only two acts of Congress were found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

15 min after the Supreme Court interpreted the 2nd Amendment to protect our individual right to own guns for our self defense, the Illinois State Rifle Association filed a lawsuit challenging the PRChi’s 26-year old ban on handguns. This will likely lead to Chicagoans once again being able to secure their homes.

Da Mayor finds this ruling “a very frightening decision.” And he also said, “I just don’t understand how they came to this thinking.” I would suggest Hishonor (and you) read Justice Scalia’s majority opinion. I have not read the whole thing, but what I have is very readable for the common man and you understand exactly how the majority interpreted the law.

In teh beginz is teh cat macro, and teh cat macro sez “Oh hai Ceiling Cat” and teh cat macro iz teh Ceiling Cat.

So begins The Gospel of John in the LOLCat Bible.

Jacob and I have joked that Jonah might be an incarnation of Buddah. He has a strange way of drawing a crowd even in places where there are babies galore, like at our neighborhood playground. Yesterday at the supermarket I turned away to order at the fish counter and when I looked back there were four ladies standing around Jonah’s stroller and Jonah was sitting up very straight at the front, smiling as if to welcome his admirers. Several people have described Jonah as “engaging,” not a term that springs to mind when I think of babies.

Well I’ve changed my mind. Today I think Jonah is channeling Sun Tzu. When Jonah is playing on the floor in our living room, I usually splay out in front of the cables (Jonah’s favorite chew toys) that run along one of our walls. Unstoppable, Jonah did a quick diversion technique; he went for the slippers I was wearing. I pulled my feet in so that Jonah would not get a mouthful of dingy slipper and BAM!, with a lightning speed roll, cables were in the mouth.

He’s good. I may not be smart enough for this one.

I know this is more of a Friday afternoon kind of thing. Don’t blame me, blame the internets.

Our latest nephew was born this morning to my sister, Dana, and her husband, Kristoffer. Karter is our 8th nibling, but only my mom’s 2nd grandchild. Joscelynn had 7 when we married! This also makes Jonah’s second cousin named Karter and so we are open to suggestion on ways of distinguishing them.

Congratulations Dana and Kris! You can wish them well, follow their life, and see pictures of the little guy over at TGGF.

285 years ago today in Kirkcaldy, Scotland Adam Smith was baptized; his birth date is unknown. He was a masterful philosopher and political thinker of his time.

His works The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations continue to be read today. They are seen as masterworks continuing to yield insights into the modern world. With the Wealth of Nations Smith did nothing short of created the modern discipline of economics.

P.J. O’Roarke quips that he read the 500 page, 3 volume tome so you don’t have to and I commend his book On the Wealth of Nations to you. It is a fun read and makes you understand Smiths writing and why it is so long. (Spoiler: graphs could not be included in a book.)

In celebration of Smith, I recommend you go out and buy something, anything at all and marvel at how the shopkeep knew you would be there to buy it. Think about why he wanted you to buy it and the profound effect this free transaction had on your life, his life, and society as a whole.

Then remember Smith’s words:

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.

As every individual, therefore, endeavors as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, he intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it.”

The Times of London reports, “Get Osama Bin Laden before I leave office, orders George W Bush.” They report Pakistan is going along with it.

The Iraq War debacle receives a lot of attention from the press. The lack of Osama bin Laden being captured or killed does not receive anything close to the proper coverage in my opinion. This was a basic objective nearly all Americans supported and it has been an objective for nearly 7 years.

I also think bin Laden should be larger issue on the campaign trail. I want to know what McCain and Obama (and Barr for that matter) will do to refocus the “War on Terror” towards al-Quieda. My ideal candidate would give a speech like this:

Refocusing our foreign policy is the most important task I see before me as president. So important that I do not want to waste time and money on the typical pomp and circumstances of the inauguration. I intent to have Chief Justice Roberts swear me in at the Pentagon. I will be there with my military advisers in order to quickly execute the changes we need to make in Iraq and Afghanistan. I do not want to endanger our troops in the field, so I cannot announce all of these changes ahead of time. However, al-Qieda member in general and Osama bin Laden specifically should consider this as notice.

Then my ideal candidate would extract all of our troops from Iraq immediately and redeploy as many as needed to Afghanistan and Pakistan to capture al-Qieda senior leadership.

Reflected Flags against BCBS, originally uploaded by flatiron32.

This photo of mine is featured in this Chicago Traveler post about the Blue Cross-Blue Shield building.

My cousin-in-law, Ray-Ray, works at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis. Part of her job is blogging. The posts are about the behind-the-scenes work that goes on in the day-to-day operations of a museum as well as information about the installations. The current installation is by Dan Flavin.

When I was reading a post this week I had a realization, Flavin is Dead! This really struck me because his work (at least what is at the Pulitzer now) is about light reacting with other light and the space it is in. How could a dead man plan this installation?

I fired off a few questions to Ray-Ray and she blogged some really insightful answers. It is really educational about how modern art works.

Also, if you are in St. Louis before the exhibit ends in October, drop in to see it.