What's really going on in Gitmo?

This will tell you all you need to know. Please spread this far and wide.

Think you own your house?

Think again. The SCOTUS decision on Kelo basically gives the power to the government to take your property for any reason and give it to someone else.

Here in San Diego, Gran Havana Cigars (a shop that rolled their own cigars) spent $3M on a building & rehab for the building, after much support from the city, only to have the city take (through eminent domain) his new building/property for a Marriott hotel. This isn't a road or a school, but a seizing of property by the government to give to someone else (isn't Mugabe doing this in Zimbabwe, too?).

Anyway, a lawyer on a board I read wrote this opinion of the Kelo decision. Thus end property rights in the United States:

I have read and reread the Court's decision in Kelo, then I went and read and re-read two cases it relies on, Berman and Midkiff.

In her dissent, O'Connor offers a bone-chilling warning of the impact of this decision, and it's worth quoting in full because it is true. But before I get there, a bit of background:

In limiting the power of government, the Fifth Amendment admonishes: "nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." This is called the "Takings Clause" by most. The concept of taking land for public use is called "eminent domain."

Until yesterday, there were three types of eminent domain cases.

First, the Court had long held that the state could transfer private property (for just compensation) to public ownership--such as for a road, a hospital, or a military base.

Second, the Court had also long held that the state could transfer private property to private parties (typically, common carriers) who make the property available for the public's use--such as with a railroad, a public utility, or a stadium.

There was also a third category, very narrow, and it is on this third category that the majority based its opinion. In two cases--Berman and Midkiff--the Court declared that, in certain circumstances and to meet certain exigencies, the Constitution permits takings that serve a public purpose, even if the property is destined for subsequent private use.

(In Berman, a neighborhood was severely blighted and had to be condemned if it were ever to be habitable again. There was one shokeeper whose store was not blighted, and he sued to stop condemnation, which would have transferred the land to a private developer. The state argued that without condemnation and transfer, there would be no possible use of the land for any public good whatsoever.

In Midkiff, through historical niceties, 75% of the island of Oahu wound up in the hands of a very few owners. The state sought to condemn the property, noting that without such condemnation and development by a private developer, there would be no possible use of the land for any public good whatsoever.

In both those cases, the extraordinary, precondemnation use of the targeted property inflicted affirmative harm on society--in Berman through blight resulting from extreme poverty and in Midkiff through oligopoly resulting from extreme wealth.

And in both cases, the legislatures had found that eliminating the existing property use was necessary to remedy the ongoing, affirmative harm. Because each taking directly achieved a public benefit of removing this harm, it did not matter that the property was turned over to private use.)

The Court yesterday created a fourth category, one that swallowed up all others and all but eliminated the Public Use requirement.

The Court held that a legislature (state or, more typically, a municipality) could condemn private property and transfer it to a private person so long as the legislative body had a "rational basis" for doing so (e.g., it provides some "improvement" over the original property use), and that it was "not purely for private benefit."

As the dissent pointed out, this all but eliminated the Public Use clause, because a "rational basis" means only that if the legislature thinks there's a good idea for the condemnation, transfer and development, then the property may be subject to eminent domain.

O'Connor wrote: "[Today the Court holds that a sovereign] may take private property currently put to ordinary private use, and give it over for new, ordinary private use, so long as the new use is predicted to generate some secondary benefit for the public--such as increased tax revenue, more jobs, maybe even aesthetic pleasure." In short, if the legislature has the "police power" to do something, that police power translates to public use.

But, as O'Connor pointed out, "nearly any lawful use of real private property can be said to generate some incidental benefit to the public. Thus, if predicted (or even guaranteed) positive side-effects are enough to render transfer from one private party to another constitutional, then the words 'for public use' do not realistically exclude any takings, and thus do not exert any constraint on the eminent domain power."

As the dissent noted, the trouble with economic development takings is that "private benefit and incidental public benefit are, by definition, merged and mutually reinforcing. In this case, for example, any boon for Pfizer or the plan's developer is difficult to disaggregate from the promised public gains in taxes and jobs."

In other words, Wal*Mart could persuade a city council hungry for money that a particular poor neighborhood should be condemned and transferred because Wal*Mart could bring in more in sales tax and property tax than any poor neighborhood ever could. And oh, by the way, the fact that Wal*Mart would substantially profit from such a development is incidental and irrelevant. Or, in this case, Pfizer could have a city condemn part of a neighborhood--all on the basis that its business will bring in more taxes than the existing residences.

In short, as long as the city or state determines there's any improvement--through taxes, jobs, beauty, whatever--then that land may be seized by the Crown.

The only protection against this? As the majority made clear, a Court could always invalidate it if the court didn't think it was an improvement, or if the court thinks that it's really a private use. By what standards? Anybody's guess. The Court declined to provide any such guidance.

Therefore, what comfort do you--yes, you, Mr. TotalFarker homeowner, or you Ms. TotalFarker condo dweller--have that the government will not take your land, your home, your building willy nilly?

None. And hence O'Connor's warning, which I promised to quote in full:

"For who among us can say she already makes the most productive or attractive possible use of her property? The specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

Nothing at all.

What did I do to deserve this?

One of the coolest sci-fi movies ever, Westworld is on at the same time as game 6.

"Enjoy your stay at Westworld. Nothing can go wrong"

Don't forget that Michael Crichton wrote and directed this - and he has another "amusement park gone bad" flick, Jurassic Park...

It's a bad day to be a protestor in Philly

A cop was kicked to death in Philly on Friday by "protestors" during a bio-tech convention. If was thinking about protesting in Philly, I think that it'd be a good time to get the hell out of Dodge. Philly cops are hardasses and this has the potential to make Chicago 1968 look like scrap outside a neighborhood bar.

Amnesty International needs to STFU, Part 2

Why aren't the sheep of Amnesty International bleating about this?

Anything that's happened in Gitmo pales in comparison to what happened there and the use of the word "gulag" by AI and "Nazis" by Sen. Durbin (D-IL) just makes these people look hysterical/insane (and they are, too).

And this is a Washington Post article by a guy who survied a REAL gulag in the USSR.

Hummer H3 Next to other stuff

Next to a BMW X5

Next to lots of other stuff

Women in combat?

There definitely are. One even was awarded a Silver Star, the first woman since WW2 to get one.

Korean hostility to Japan

Wow. Just friggin wow. See some kid's artwork about a dispute between S. Korea and Japan over some islands.

Hysterical lefties?

Nah...it isn't possible. Especially in Seattle where they're oh-so tolerant.

Ties and Japan

Pretty much all males in Japan wear ties at work. Heck, they even sell ties at convenience stores in case you lose/forget yours. That's what makes the following stories so funny.

Story 1

story 2

How good are diesel cars now?

How about 100,000mi NON-STOP except for oil/tire changes and refeuling. At an average speed of almost 140mph. Did I mention that they also got 18mpg doing that insane speed?

This is the Benz that did this.

I didn't feel it (Take 2)

No, I didn't feel this either. But a 7.0 so close to CA is highly unusual. THis one is about 550mi from me.

What the hell?

They showed the listing of languages that tonite's NBA game is being broadcast in. Of course, there are the usual suspects, French, Russian, Arabic, Gaelic and Flemish.

Gaelic and Flemish?

Gaijin Smash!

Among people (especially American men) who've visited Japan, there is this technique called gaijin smash. It basically amounts to using your large American size, lack of Japanese skills and lack of courtesy to your advantage.

This guy has more funny stuff, go ahead and read it

No, I didn't feel it

There was a 5.6 quake at 8:40 this morning. No, I didn't feel it. Here's the map, it's the big square.

The TV channel that's about a mile from here says that they felt it in their newsroom, but I was asleep. I don't remember the cats freaking out any more than normal last nite, either.

I need a nap

What a busy day. While I was drying myself after my shower, my boss called and I spent 1.5 hrs working with him and looking at a server that had a trojan horse on it. The server was broken bad. I went to Walmart to pick up prints of me in my kilt (printed using their thing I blogged about earlier). Very easy and the prints were awesome. There's no real point to getting a printer for digital pictures since you can get such high-quality prints for 19c. Then, off to Coronado for a late breakfast (ok, 1:30 is late, and I spent the morning just futzing around) and to pick up a couple of things to go with my kilt. I don't want to wear my full Prince Charlie at the Highland Games - it'll be bloody hot and I'd melt in all of that wool. So, I got a Jacobite Shirt (mine is green, though) and a Balmoral hat. (I even gave the store a copy of my kilt picture since I bought everything from them and they like to have pics of their customers up so they can show them to other kilt customers). I also snapped a few pics of a sailing ship that was plying the harbor (the best of the batch is below).

Then, I went to the Navy base exchange to get some Dockers and shoes to go with them. I'm headed to Alpharetta, GA to do some training there at the end of the month and they wear business casual there. After my years of working at Intuit & AT&T here in San Diego, I have nothing that even comes close to that.

Then, to Petsmart for cat litter & cat food.

Sheesh. I need a nap.

A tallship sailing around San Diego harbor 

Where have you been?

create your own visited country map



create your own personalized map of the USA

Please make it stop

Hubie Brown, the color commentator for the NBA Finals needs to have his voice box removed. By chainsaw. Or wood chipper. Or outboard motor.
"Both teams are having problems at the line. Pistons are 4-8, Spurs are 4-6". Ok, the Spurs are doin 67% on 6 shots. How is that a problem?

Al Micheals could call a cricket match and make it worth watching, though.

added at the end of the 3rd quarter:
Ok, I love the Pistons and all, but if Hubie is going to be the color man for the rest of the series, I'm going to turn on SAP and listen to the friggin games en Espanol.

Go Pistons!

Up by 7, halfway through the 1st quarter. Nice start!

Janice Rogers Brown

She's the most recent appointee by Bush to the Federal bench (in DC, if I remember right). The People for the American Way and a bunch of other lefties are apoplectic at her appointment. Read her own words and judge for yourself.

My take? If she's considered to be an extremist, we're all in trouble. These attitudes should be mainstream.

New Yorker celebrates Communist spy

Jeez, I don't even know where to begin to go off on this story. Read it and weep.

Tropical Storm Arlene is Cuba bound

A tropical storm is forming and is heading north. It doesn't look like it'll get anywhere near Gitmo. If you look at the Weather Underground tracking map for the storm, Gitmo is at the intersection of the -75 and 20 degree lines.

Check out this sat. pic. She doesn't need the hurricane....they're getting their own good storm

Amnesty International needs to STFU

Ok, which is worse, the prison at Gitmo or Mugabe's ongoing insanity in Zimbabwe?

Which is getting more coverage? This story is a minor one in the long list of horrors being perpetrated by Mugabe.
Samizdata covers Zimbabwe on a regular basis, mostly because it gets ignored by the usual suspects (AI, the UN, and other lefties) .

Cold War hilarity

I was watching One, Two, Three starring James Cagney. James is just brilliant in this flick. I've only watched about 10min of the movie and I'm in love with it. I've already added it to my Amazon wishlist. (if the Pistons game wasn't coming on I'd watch it all) A great side note on it. Cagney is talking to some Soviets and one of them gives him a cigar:
(Macmanara is Cagney's character)
Peripetchikoff: We have trade agreement with Cuba. They send us cigars, we send them rockets.
C.R. Macnamara: Good thinking.
he smokes a few puffs..

Macnamara: They send you guys crummy cigars!
Peripetchikoff: Don't worry, we send them crummy rockets.

Oh yeah...Peripetchikoff is played by a guy who goes on to do a Highland Appliance ad in the late 70s as a Soviet sub commander. I'd recognize that accent anywhere.

Dangerous books!

The conservative website/newsletter, Human Events, has a list of the most harmful books of the 19th & 20th century. Some of the books are obvious suspects, like Das Kapital and Mein Kampf. The interesting part is some of the books that get an Honorable Mention:
On Liberty (John Stuart Mill)
2 Books by Charles Darwin (damn those scientists).

Oh, and don't forget to note that you can purchase each of the top 10 by clicking on the link in the writeup for each one, and that Human Events is listed as Amazon's partner, meaning that when you buy a copy of the Communist Manifesto, Human Events gets a cut.

Joke of the day

From the Adam Smith Inst:

"My son wanted a Mickey Mouse outfit for his birthday, so I bought him the French government."