Saturday, August 13, 2005

Michael J. Totten on Islamism

Michael J. Totten has some thoughts on Islamism

Almost half way to Honolulu

Well, I have gotten pretty nearly to the half-way point between Milwaukee and Hawaii, heroically following in the tracks of the Oregon Trailers(?), across the Great Plains and the high plains, and the trackless wastes between Burns and Bend Oregon ("Next gas station: 68 miles" except it was closed), which is pretty nearly as trackless as I have seen since the Desert of Salt and the Desert of Death in eastern Iran and that was I am pleased to say quite some time ago. And this stretch I had air conditioning and a paved road, both of which were a lot better than a busted up old bus minus several windows and floorboards and a driver well into his pipe.

In any case, I got to my sister's place in Eugene yesterday afternoon, and this morning we went off to wash the truck and buy some fish for dinner, but were waylaid by the antique mongers along the way, so all in all we took a bit longer than planned, tho we escaped the antiques types unscathed.

Tomorrow I am off for Seattle to spend the nite with my nephew before hauling the truck down to the Matson docks Monday for the seafaring types to deal with, and then with a small bit of luck make to the airport and fly off into the sunset.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Reaction to Kelo and Eminent Domain

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has more on the reaction to the Kelo decision:
"This is very simple," said (Steven) Anderson (of the Institute for Justice). "Does the government have the right to take your property because someone else claims they're going to do something better with it? That resonates with everybody." ...

"I think a lot of public officials like the ruling," said (University of Wisconsin political scientist and law professor Donald) Downs, an expert on the Supreme Court, but "it's sort of hard for a public official to come out and say, 'I support the power of the state against these homeowners.' It's a hard position to take."
Some of the Justices seem to agree:
In her dissent, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor protested that "under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded."
Yep. Sounds like quite a few state legislatures may act against this.