Supreme Court says no to racism

The Supreme Court has struck down plans to use race as a factor in assigning students to public schools. It was a 5 to 4 decision, and Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion. I agree with the Court's decision. Forced integration is wrong, and so is anti-white dicscrimination, which is becoming all too common in today's society. If anything, I think the Court should have made a less wishy-washy ruling - schools are still allowed to consider race to a limited extent in certain situations.

For the full story, see CNN.

Justice for the Duke lacrosse players

Justice seems to have returned to North Carolina. Prosecutor Mike Nifong of the Duke "rape" case was recently disbarred, and just today Duke University announced that it would pay a cash settlement to the three falsely accused young men who were unfairly kicked off their lacrosse team. Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann explained their opinions quite nicely in a joint statement:

"The events of the last year tore the Duke community apart, and forcibly separated us from the university we love. We were the victims of a rogue prosecutor concerned only with winning an election, and others determined to railroad three Duke lacrosse players and to diminish the reputation of Duke University."

Although it was a nice gesture of Nifong to apologize to the three young men and their families, the lacrosse players have every right to sue him, and it seems they may be preparing to do just that. In addition to Nifong, they most definitely have the right to sue Crystal Mangum, the stripper and accuser. Can anyone say slander? These boys paid millions of dollars in legal fees because of Nifong's and Mangum's lies, not to mention the emotional distress and damage to their reputations that they endured. Because they did nothing wrong, the lacrosse players deserve to be recompensated for their suffering and financial losses, and the people who caused this whole fiasco should be the ones to pay.

Ed and Elaine's press conference

Ed and Elaine Brown held a press conference in front of their house today and were joined by a high-profile supporter: Randy Weaver, whose wife and son were killed by federal troops at Ruby Ridge in 1992. I admit that these people are a lot braver than I am, and I admire their devotion to what they believe in. His gun by his side, Ed Brown told the media,

"We will defend it to the death. This is 1776 all over again. You cannot tax someone's labor because that is slavery."

Elaine said that if the feds try to capture them by force,

"We're dead. That's it....We will not volunteer to go into their prison for a non-crime. We have committed no crimes."

Randy Weaver said:

"I'd rather die on my feet right now with good American people than live on my knees under this de facto government. This is serious stuff. Bring it on."

Here are some good links on this standoff:

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/13519156/detail.html
http://mensnewsdaily.com/2007/06/16/free-ed-and-elaine-brown/
http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3290003&page=1
http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070618/NEWS0201/70618074

In conclusion, here are some quick tax facts:

• Until the early 1800s the government relied only on internal sales taxes.
• Starting in 1817 the government functioned only on tariffs.
• Prior to the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913, the Constitution did not give the federal government the right to tax income.
• The 9th and 10th Amendments state that the federal government does not have any rights unless they are specifically given to it in the Constitution.
• The immigration reform bill that Congress has been debating would not only allow illegal aliens to remain in the US, but would exempt them from paying any taxes they owe.

MA legislature quashes right to vote

This is a sad day for the people's right to vote in Massachusetts. The state legislature has just defeated a measure that would place a question on the ballot in the 2008 elections allowing people to vote on the definition of marriage. All the legislators who voted for the amendment: I congratulate you for your courage to defy peer pressure. Governor Patrick, Speaker DiMasi, and Senate President Murray, shame on you for browbeating your fellow legislators into changing their votes. The marriage amendment was victorious in the first round of voting earlier this year, but this time it fell short of the 50 votes it required to get on the ballot. Clearly, quite a few legislators changed their minds, and VoteOnMarriage.org vows to investigate these changes of opinion for corruption. I hope they find some!

Go Ed and Elaine Brown!

For a while now the federal government has been besieging the New Hampshire compound of a couple named Ed and Elaine Brown. What was their crime? Merely not wanting the government to steal their money. The Browns believe that tax laws are unconstitutional, and therefore have refused to pay their taxes. Recently the government has shut off the Browns' phone service, Internet, and electricity, but the Browns say they can still last for quite a while without these things. I completely agree with Ed and Elaine on taxes. The government has no right to people's money, and the feds' actions in this case seem awfully mean-spirited. I mean, there are over 300 million people in this country. Would it kill the government to go without one couple's tax money?

My Belmont picks

I like Curlin again in the Belmont. I'm picking Rags to Riches for 2nd place because it would be really cool if a filly did well. I'll blog back in a little while with the results.

Edit:

Win: Rags to Riches
Place: Curlin
Show: Tiago

Congrats Rags to Riches! Although Curlin didn't win, I'm pretty happy with the results. It's good that a girl won; maybe more fillies will race against colts in big races now.

Republican debate #2

I just watched the Republican debate, and here's my run-down of the candidates:

Tom Tancredo - The winner, in my opinion. I completely agree with him on immigration. I liked that he said he would never create a campaign ad in Spanish like Mitt Romney did. Great quote: "We are becoming a bilingual nation, and that is not good." Tancredo also mentioned his opposition to government control over healthcare and prescription drugs and expressed his support of conservation.

Duncan Hunter - Had one awesome line that Romney had taken a major step toward socialism with Massachusetts's mandatory health insurance law.

Ron Paul - I liked his opinion on gays in the military - that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy is fine and that any immoral sexual acts should be banned, not just gay ones. But I disliked his response to the question "what is the most pressing moral issue facing America, and what would you do about it?" He said preemptive war was the worst moral problem for America.

Mike Huckabee - I liked his belief in intelligent design: "He (God) did it, and that's what's important." However, I really disliked his answer to the moral issue question. He answered "life" - meaning abortion.

Sam Brownback - I liked his opinion on gays in the military - the same as Paul's. I also liked his idea to divide Iraq into 3 states - Kurd, Sunni, and Shiite. However, he had the same answer to the moral issue question as Hukabee.

Jim Gilmore - He had one good quote: "Conservatism means empowering people."

Tommy Thompson - At first I thought he made up a word: conservativism. But I looked it up, and it turns out it is a word. I actually prefer it to conservatism.

Mitt Romney - Didn't say anything particularly interesting. He often seemed to dodge questions and seems kind of phony.

John McCain - Way too liberal on immigration.

Rudy Giuliani - Too liberal as always, but I was surprised when he said that he opposed too much government control of healthcare.