Finally, a sensible ruling

The U.S. Supreme Court hasn't had the best track record recently, but they took a turn in the right direction today when they overturned the D.C. gun ban.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s opinion for the majority stressed that the Court was not casting doubt on long-standing bans on gun possession by felons or the mentally retarded, or laws barring guns from schools or government buildings, or laws putting conditions on gun sales.

In District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290), the Court nullified two provisions of the city of Washington’s strict 1976 gun control law: a flat ban on possessing a gun in one’s home, and a requirement that any gun — except one kept at a business — must be unloaded and disassembled or have a trigger lock in place. The Court said it was not passing on a part of the law requiring that guns be licensed.

There are still aspects of D.C.'s gun laws that I disagree with, particularly their requirement that all guns be licensed. But this ruling is a huge step in the right direction, because it further establishes and clarifies the individual right of citizens to own firearms. (Note that all the other amendments in the Bill of Rights grant individuals freedom from goverment control; the Second Amendment is the only one that has been construed--by some--as taking away an individual right. This is inconsistent at best.) Now that interpretation has been put to rest.

More here and here.

A fake border crossing park?!

This is outrageous. Three hours north of Mexico City (and 700 miles from the actual border), you can pay $10 to participate in a "live simulation-adventure that attempts to give participants a taste of what it's like for the thousands of Mexican and other Latin American undocumented migrants trying to enter the promised land of 'el norte.'"

"It's part of our culture, and it's important to know it," said Sergio Mendieta, a secondary school teacher from the state of Mexico.

Well, I guess the idea of a capitalistic venture like this is easier to swallow than the news a couple of years ago about the Mexican government handing out maps to aid illegal border-crossers.

From the daughter of a radical feminist...

She's revered as a trail-blazing feminist and author Alice Walker touched the lives of a generation of women. A champion of women's rights, she has always argued that motherhood is a form of servitude. But one woman didn't buy in to Alice's beliefs - her daughter, Rebecca, 38.

Here the writer describes what it was like to grow up as the daughter of a cultural icon, and why she feels so blessed to be the sort of woman 64-year-old Alice despises - a mother.

How my mother's fanatical views tore us apart

Wow.

(Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.)

Resumption

I apologize to all three of you who read this blog regularly for the lack of content over the last three months. Since my last post, I have procured a new job at a state institution of higher learning, and I thought it prudent to limit my blogging activity during this initial phase of employment. As I will soon be past the 90-day mark, I expect to resume regular posting in the near future. It should be fun, what with the election gearing up over the summer and the culture war in full swing, as usual...

Sammenhold

Has it really been two years since the Mohammed cartoon riots in Denmark? I guess so. Following Michelle Malkin's lead, I am reprinting the Kurt Westergaard cartoon that sparked that frightening conflagration.



Come on and issue a fatwa on me, you lunatics.