The American Spectator

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Unbearable

3.19.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 4 of 4)

The words of the issue usually foreshadow the result, or at the very least, the language of the result. The issue as stated can easily limit the decision around "state regulated" militia. Not a good result.

The very meaning of "militia" refers to persons who are not "affiliated" at all. By its definition, a militia comes into being only when it is called to service, with no-one "affiliated" with it until then. They used to call the militia "Minute Men" because in a minute they turned from farmer/laborer/merchant to soldier. They were not in the National Guard or Army Reserve or any other such already-formed unit, as there were no such things -- just ordinary citizens, ready to defend and armed to do so.

I can see the result being that Second Amendment rights belong only to persons who are affiliated with a state-regulated militia [even though such a notion was not contemplated by the Framers] and a militia does not exist until a state forms one. No state-regulated militia, no right to keep and bear arms.

If that's the result, we can toll the bell the Liberty Bell [for this purpose appropriately cracked] for a precious right dead and buried.
-- A. C. Santore

WRIGHT TO WONDER
Re: George Neumayr's Wrighting Dirty:

George Neumayr is correct to be concerned about Barack Obama's attendance for 20 years in Jeremiah Wright's church. But conservatives should all be equally concerned about Hillary Clinton too. Neumayr asks, "And why would Americans want to turn their country over to a candidate who attends a straightforwardly separatist church that views America with suspicion if not contempt?"

It is a valid question but it is also somewhat rhetorical. Conservatives are reacting as if the revelation of Wright's preachings are new. We've all known for some time that many in the Democrat Party leadership and mainstream media and Hollywood believe in and espouse pretty much the same thing as Wright. The only difference is that they layer on more polish than Wright does. Wright seems actually more straightforward and honest in his thoughts and preachings, troubling though they may be.

And, in her own way, Hillary Clinton is just as far out as Wright or Obama or many of the other leaders on the left. So, why get tied up in knots over Obama and Wright? We will get the same whether he wins or she wins.
-- Steve Cade
Astoria, Oregon

Letter to the Editor

topics:
Taxes, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, Hillary Clinton, Mainstream Media, Economics, Business, Social Security, Hollywood, Constitution, Law, Russia, Conservatism, Oil, Medicare