Bryan Strawser

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Bryan Strawser

MacDonald v. Chicago, or “I told you so”, round two.

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Just as the court found in DC v Heller about two years ago, this morning, the United States Supreme Court upheld the meaning of the Second Amendment. This time, by incorporating this right against state and local government, and declaring that it is indeed a “fundamental right”.

The New York Times puts it this way:

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the majority, said the right to self-defense protected by the Second Amendment was fundamental to the American conception of ordered liberty. Like other provisions of the Bill of Rights setting out such fundamental protections, he said, it must be applied to limit not only federal power but also that of state and local governments.

The ruling is an enormous symbolic victory for supporters of gun rights, but its short-term practical effect is unclear. As in the Heller decision, the justices left for another day just what kinds of gun control laws can be reconciled with Second Amendment protection. The majority said little more than that there is a right to keep handguns in the home for self-defense.

Some folks like to tell me I’m naive about some things, but generally I have always read the Constitution for what it is, the highest law in the land… and in my world that means “shall not be infringed” means… well, shall not be infringed.

Now that the two landmark cases are out of the way – DC v Heller where we learn the Second Amendment really is an individual right, and MacDonald v. Chicago, where we learn it truly is a fundamental right, I’m curious how the court begins to interpret these two rulings in the context of the morass that is state, local, and federal firearms laws.

Of course, the New York Times editorial board has a few thoughts on the matter that won’t be in line with my own….

I will never be as rich as Bill Gates

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But there will be a point in my life where I choose to walk away and give something back, much as Gates has done since leaving Microsoft:

Indeed, Gates’ notion of an “active” retirement is far more ambitious than most people’s careers. After all, he’s only 54 years old, and he still has an enormous fortune estimated at $50 billion to manage, even after pouring tens of billions of dollars into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Apart from his role as co-chair of the foundation and his side-gig at Microsoft, he also joined the board of Berkshire Hathaway (BKRA) at the behest of buddy Warren Buffett.

And as he has adapted to his new, post-Microsoft routines, he has more aggressively used the bully pulpit of being both the world’s most celebrated entrepreneur and its most generous philanthropist to influence the world in new ways. He’s always had the ear of the business world, but now he frequently meets with heads of state to lobby for more humanitarian aid for the developing world, and he visits CEOs to urge them to consider ways to serve customers there.

On Memorial Day

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Mark Halperin writes in the Wall Street Journal:

The debt we owe, and in regard to which we are at present deeply in arrears, may be difficult to pay but it is easy to see. To grasp its conspicuous clarity one need only walk among the graves and pause to give proper thought to even just one life among the many. Read slowly the name, the dates, the place where everything came to an end.

I have seen lonely people of advancing age, yet as constant as angels, keeping faith to those they loved who fell in wars that current generations, not having known them, cannot even forget. The sight of them moving hesitantly among the tablets and crosses is enough to break your heart. Let that break be the father to a profound resolution to fulfill our obligation to the endless chain of the mourning and the dead. Shall we not sacrifice where required? Shall we not prove more responsible, courageous, honest, and assiduous? Shall we not illuminate our decisions with the light that comes from the stress of soul, and ever keep faith with the fallen by embracing the soldiers who fight in our name? The answer must be that we shall.

Read the whole thing, it’s worth the time.

For all of you who have served, and for those of you that have lost loved ones, my thoughts are with you and your families this Memorial Day.

The Insurrection

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Over at Red State, Erick Erickson lays it all out:

Conservatives have nothing else to do but fight back, in defense of their values. And they are doing so today – because despite what the elites in Washington believe, conservatism is not just a set of talking points. It is not what you say at rallies to take money from the pockets of conservative Americans. It is not what other people tell you to say when you’re in public, and laugh about when you’re in private.

Conservatism is a philosophy of the proper role of government rooted firmly in the values free people across the world have believed in for centuries, and Americans have fought and died to defend. And it is not for sale.

This is our new reality.

WSJ profiles NJ Governor Chris Christie

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Now here’s a Governor that I could get behind:

As you can imagine, the Christie agenda is not wildly popular among presidents of government-employee unions. To put it more precisely, Mr. Christie is now in a political street fight with the head of the New Jersey Education Association, the teachers union that spent millions last year to defeat him.

NJEA President Barbara Keshishian visited his office this week to apologize for a recent email sent to thousands of teachers by a union official that included a mock prayer for the governor’s death. According to Mr. Christie, the conversation went something like this: He accepted her apology immediately but asked if the email sender would be fired for “doing something that monumentally stupid.” When the union chief questioned why the man should be fired, Mr. Christie promptly ended the meeting.

Gaming the Healthcare System in Massachusetts

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I am shocked, *shocked* that someone would do something like this:

Thousands of consumers are gaming Massachusetts’ 2006 health insurance law by buying insurance when they need to cover pricey medical care, such as fertility treatments and knee surgery, and then swiftly dropping coverage, a practice that insurance executives say is driving up costs for other people and small businesses.

Source: Boston Globe.

AT&T takes a $1b Health Care Charge

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The WSJ reports:

AT&T Inc. said it would take a $1 billion charge against earnings tied to the federal health-care overhaul, joining a number of other companies in reporting an impact from the bill signed into law this week.

The charges relate to prescription-drug benefits for retirees. Companies that provide this benefit, as AT&T does, receive a federal subsidy, plus they can deduct the value of this subsidy from their taxes. The health overhaul cancels the deductibility of the subsidy.

But don’t worry – the government will provide for you.