Friday, October 29, 2010

Missing the point...

Via Michael Silence comes this gem from noted Constitutional law expert Roger Ebert:
How about a $1,000 reward for anyone who can find the words "the right to pack heat in a tavern" in the Constitution?
Boy, Roger, I thought you only sucked as a movie critic; I didn't realize that you'd flunked civics, too.

Look, I'll tell you where that right is to be found: The Tenth Amendment. You see, as the Tenth makes plain, the Constitution is not a comprehensive list of our rights; it is, rather, a short list of powers that we, the people, have delegated to our employees in Washington.

Roger, think of the Constitution like you do the little list of scutwork you leave for your underpaid Costa Rican housekeeper. Now imagine Congress as Rosita. We've left a little list saying "Rosita, you can coin money, make treaties, deliver the mail, and dust the china cabinet." Nowhere in the Constitution have we written "Rosita, please tell us where we can pack heat." As a matter of fact, we put a little PS on the document saying "Rosita, stay away from the damned gun cabinet!!!"

If you're one of those people who just gets their jollies off on being told "verboten", the Constitution really isn't your kind of document, so stop trying to read it that way. (Rosita has a friend, though, who will be happy to tell you "verboten" all you want for $200/hr., all major credit cards accepted.)

25 comments:

  1. I know this makes some mad but mucking with the RKBA is not a power the 10th reserves to the states or the people.

    Staying away from the gun cabinet applies to the feds and the states (and counties, cities, towns and hamlets and Cooter's Tavern). See items #2 and #14 on the P.S.

    Shootin' Buddy

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  2. So, where in our "to do" list for Rosita (or, as lawyer types like to call it, "Article I") do we delegate Rosita the power to tell us where we can carry guns, or lunchboxes, or elephants or anything else, for that matter? Except maybe if we carry those lunchboxes or guns or elephants across state lines for the purpose of commerce? (And one could argue that the specificity of the 2nd would trump the commerce clause...)

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  3. Tam,
    That looks like 1000.00 of gun show money going begging.It would also be a good career move if you could sham him into paying it.

    Glenn

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  4. shame not sham.I need some new fingers.

    Glenn

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  5. Roger Ebert has always been pointless.
    He reviews movies. Which provides him with the expertise of others whom live in a fantasy world populated by Unicorns and their turds.

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  6. Again, I revel in the elegance, economy and ferocity of your snark.

    I remain as always your sycophant,

    Reno Sepulveda

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  7. "If you're one of those people who just gets their jollies off on being told "verboten", the Constitution really isn't your kind of document, so stop trying to read it that way."

    Oh, come on!

    You, of all people, know that most people want to be told what to do, and disregarding that, the Constitution has been read, "that way," as you put it, for longer than you and I have been around to throw the bullshit flag about its outright abuse of power. :)

    (bows toward the mistress of snark)

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  8. Shooting Buddy,

    Not sure if I understand what you are referring to but as I understand it --Roger Ol Buddy was wanting to make it illegal to carry in a Tavern.

    Definitely a case for the 10th Amendment.

    Now Taverns have a right to post their property, no argument there but that is a matter between two individuals.

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  9. Roger has a permission slip that lets him tell the rest of class about the Constitution Movie he saw, it's an after-school special.

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  10. We lose the argument when we allow the conversation to be about "where is this right in the Constitution?"

    The relevant question is, "Where in the Constitution is government granted the power to restrict the right to have a gun in a tavern?"

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  11. Sir Limerick nailes it.

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  12. Sir Limerick,

    "The relevant question is, "Where in the Constitution is government granted the power to restrict the right to have a gun in a tavern?""

    Uh, that's what I said.

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  13. Show me where in the constitution it says you can do 90% 0f what the government is doing. If I were A left wing progressive mouthpiece I would shut my mouth about the Constitution of which you obviously know so little.We were already aware that you stupid, no seems no need to prove it

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  14. Ebert doesn't need my opinion on movies, and I don't need his opinion on anything else.

    He has a privilege in that he has been granted an audience for his thoughts on Hollywood. That does not mean those thoughts are worth anything. On guns, movies, or anything else, for that matter.

    He should just turn down the lights, turn up the movie volume, and leave us alone.

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  15. Glenn: Sham, shame... You're talking about Roger Ebert here, same diff...

    WV: holybu. To whom Navy Chaplains are administratively assigned.

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  16. It's right beside the part that says I go to prison if I don't give money to Robert Mapplethorpe.

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  17. I love your analogy, Tam.

    The Ninth Amendment would also have been a good answer.

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  18. It's my tavern and I do as I damn well please.

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  19. The 2nd Amendment already covers it; google Buckman Tavern.

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  20. Even if the Second Amendment did not exist (and this is the very reason that some of the Federalists opposed the BoR) nowhere in the Constitution is Congress delegated the power to regulate the bearing of arms, either in bars or anywhere else.

    That's the problem with the BoR; people read it and think that Congress can pass any law it wants, so long as it doesn't violate the first ten Amendments. Much.

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  21. Founding militias were bearing arms in taverns. They mustered in taverns. The Lexington Militia headquartered in a tavern. The Founders definitely considered that a right, and whatever else SNBI might mean, the right to bear arms definitely applied to taverns.

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  22. Doesn't "shall not be infringed" pretty much cover it, Roger?

    Roger, like nearly all leftists, has a complete misunderstanding of what the Constitution does. It does not "grant" us rights, and it primarily tells the government what it cannot do.

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  23. "Roger, like nearly all leftists, has a complete misunderstanding of what the Constitution does. It does not "grant" us rights, and it primarily tells the government what it cannot do."

    Steve,

    I gotta disagree with ya on that, sir.

    The BOR is (supposedly) the great limiter on the power of the Gummint.

    The Constitution is a document that authorizes and outlines how the gummint works, excuse me, functions and it's duly delagated powers, abused and too liberally applied they may be.

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  24. Excuse me, I can't spell, either.

    Delegated.

    To the chalkboard, boy, one hundred times!

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