EckerNet.Com

Craig Westover, as usual, does an excellent job of explaining his views on the eminent domain issue that has been sweeping….well, the blogosphere at least.

Now I can see his views and in a sense I agree with him. But I think I simply look at it a little different, perhaps in a more idealistic manner.

Yes it\’s true this isn\’t the end, laws can be passed at a state level to defend private property rights and restrict how far eminent domain is allowed to go. And certainly considering recent events Minnesota should pass laws defining (and hopefully heavily restricting) the use of eminent domain.

However, the question that isn\’t answer is \”should that be necessary\”?? Certainly aren\’t some rights self-evident?? And among these unalienable rights would private property not be included?

Certainly we are all familiar with the Declaration of Independence at it\’s famous phrase:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

This is as it was written by Thomas Jefferson. It is also well known that Thomas Jefferson was heavily influenced by the ideas and writing of John Locke. In fact both Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were known to be fans of Locke\’s writings, many of which concerned the right to possess property.

In addition, Thomas Jefferson used Virginia\’s Declaration of Rights as a basis for writing the Declaration of Independence. And in fact Section 1 of that Declaration of Rights states:
\”That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.\”

Considering these it can be fairly safely assumed that private property was among the many rights that are considered to be self-evident.

And as such, should it really be necessary to create laws to secure such rights?

Perhaps in this age we do and I will agree with Fishsticks on that one. But should we really have to?? I say no…and I think that\’s why everyone is getting flustered about this.

And as long as I\’m mentioning Craig\’s writing, it is worth reading another post he has today that lists more fallout from the Kelo decision.

Ah dammit! Wasn\’t even paying attention and I missed it. Somewhere this week my blog hit a milestone. 10,000 visitors!

Or at least ten thousand visitors since January 25th, 2005 when I switched over to MoveableType.

A special thanks to my 10,000th visitor, whoever you were. And thanks to all my readers.

UPDATE: I might note that is 10,000 visitors…not merely 10,000 hits. And I have made an executive EckerNet decision. I hereby grant the 10,000th visitor title to Rew. She\’s a lib, but she\’s cool frood and a frequent reader….show her love and visit her site.

Captain Ed was live-blogging the President\’s speech. Did a pretty good job of it.

Overall, this is probably one of his better speeches. More than once it occurred to me that his speaking abilities have improved remarkably since he was first elected. A few \”oops\” but much better. No \”nu-cu-lar\” moments.

The content was also, for the most part, exactly what needed to be said. Covered the major issues, and cut the legs out on most of the oppositions major complaints.

If I had a negative on the speech it would have been lack of specifics. I would have loved to see numbers cited. Number of troops trained, number of schools built, etc. However, my guess is those were excluded because it\’s so easy for critics to take them out of context and then twist them out of proportion. Instead he just used a wide brush to cover the issues he wanted to cover. Probably better the way he did it.

I think this speech was a little to long in coming however. I think it probably wouldn\’t hurt to have these type of speeches more often.

This news has just made my day:
Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter’s land.

And of course nobody can deny the delicious irony of this tidbit:
The proposed development, called “The Lost Liberty Hotel” will feature the “Just Desserts Café” and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon’s Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.”

Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans.

Is this likely just a corny publicity stunt? Yeah, probably. Does this make the point any less profound? No.

I for one hope it succeeds. In fact I wonder if it would be feasible for the RNC to hold their national convention at this hotel?

Kermit Jagger walks into a bank and up to the loan officer\’s desk. The loan officer, Patti Whack introduces herself and asks how she may be of service.

\”May I have a loan of $10,000 dollars?\” asks Kermit. \”Certainly,\” replies Ms. Whack. \”What will you use for colateral?\”

Kermit reaches into his pocket and hands her a small, crystal elephant. Ms. Whack smiles and excuses herself, saying she needs to ask her supervisor a question.

She approaches the bank VP\’s desk and explains the situation. \”There\’s this frog, Kermit Jagger, wanting a $10,000 loan and offering THIS for colateral. Is this hilarious or what?\” she scoffs.

The VP looks at the elephant, then at Ms. Whack, and says, \”It\’s a knick-knack Patti Whack, give the frog a loan. His old man is a Rolling Stone.\”

[Hat Tip : Stuart Lenz]

Oh good, they invented a new level of vanity:

Sprayonmud is a specially formulated spray-on product for anyone that wants to give friends, neighbours, colleagues or just anyone at all, the impression that they have been off-road or, at the very least, out in the country for the weekend. [Hat Tip : Perpetual Confusion]

Ok seriously…if you need to pretend you\’ve been in the mud, then I want to throw you in the mud.

Reminds me of those equally stupid fake bullet holes people stick to their vehicle. Which is either supposed to convince me that the driver is some dangerously hip gangster goomba or routinely drives through the middle of gang wars.

However, I\’m an easy going adjustable guy so here\’s my proposal. Feel free to place enough artificial mud or fake bullet holes on your vehicle to satisfy your self-important ego. And in return I will feel free to throw rocks and shoot real bullets at your vehicle until the annoyance caused by your dumb ass goes away.

Let the mud fly!

A nice quiet night at home with the dog. I\’m sitting there paying bills and don\’t even notice her leave the room. Hmmm, now where did she go?

I don\’t usually like to alert her to the fact that I\’m looking for her. If she is doing something wrong, I\’d rather catch her in the act.

So I wander around the house looking for her….not turning on lights, not making noise, just walking from room to room listening for the clattering of the tags on her collar.

Ahhh….there she is. I step into the living room.

*squish*

…

…

Oh no.

…

…

What did I just step in? It\’s more than liquid.

Oh good, just dog vomit….could have been worse.

Wow….when did I feed her THAT?

Cathy in the Wright, or her “evil” alias St. Kate of the MAWB Squad has hit upon a wonderful idea to remake Gitmo.

Join the government’s Foster Jailer program!

Host an oppressed victim of American Imperialism in your own home! No more dog leashes! No more mistreated holy books! You can make a difference today!

Read more of the details….don’t worry, I’ll wait for you.

Ok you’re back?? Good….wonderful read wasn’t it. One of her better ideas in my opinion. Mostly because it’s one of the few writings by her that doesn’t involve yelling at me, scaring the bejesus out of my with the latest tale of parenthood, or discussing yucky women stuff.

However, as good a concept as it was, I do have a few questions:

1) I’m assuming that the Foster Jailer picks up the cost for the privilege of “hosting”? If so that’ll save us money to buy more weapons to blow up more jihadists

B) Without the evil Bush administration controlling every detail of their imprisonment, how will I know the prisoners are being properly tortured and generally mistreated??

3) Who is responsible for installing toilets in the host’s home that are big enough to flush a Koran down??

D) We know the Democrats are not above having fantasy impeachment hearings for Bush. So how do we know these Foster Jailers aren’t going to have fantasy trials for the prisoners?? I mean we know they haven’t ever had a trial because people like Durbin and the NYT says so. And I won’t stand for them having a trial!!

5) I assume there will be a verification process that the Foster Jailer will have air conditioning….which allows them to turn it on or turn it off!

F) Will the Foster Jailer be able to choose which form of standards they will conform to?? I mean they should have the Nazis, Pol Pot, or Soviet Gulags to choose from right??

Otherwise the idea sounds great. Just wanted to verify how the above would work. Answer at your leisure if you could.

And so it begins:

With Thursday\’s Supreme Court decision, Freeport officials instructed attorneys to begin preparing legal documents to seize three pieces of waterfront property along the Old Brazos River from two seafood companies for construction of an $8 million private boat marina.

I don\’t think I\’m exactly going out on a limb when I say this is just the beginning.

For those of you who claim this SCOTUS ruling isn\’t going to affect things much, tell that to the owners of the property along the Old Brazos River. From now on the economic needs of the community supersede the private property rights of the property owner.

One of my readers stated:
If every city feels entitled to tear down houses because Wal-Mart strolls in and you didn\’t paint your house nicely, this country has a serious problem.

While I agree with the sentiment, I think that is hardly the point. Unfortuanately I can see power-hungry bureaucrats feeling entitled to your property simply because of their position.

But the nice part about private property rights is that just because they feel entitled to it doesn\’t mean jack shit, they can\’t have it unless you choose to sell it to them at a price of your choice. Now government has power over you because they know they can cease that property anytime they want with the littlest of hassle. And the simplest of excuses are needed….for example, balancing a budget so they can afford a pet project for their constituents. Who cares if you have to evict a family that has owned that property for generations?

As recent judicial appointment Judge Janice Rogers Brown once said in a dissenting legal opinion:
Where once government was closely constrained to increase the freedom of individuals, now property ownership is closely constrained to increase the power of government. Where once government was a necessary evil because it protected private property, now private property is a necessary evil because it funds government programs.[Hat Tip to Powerline for finding this finding]

Truly a pivotal moment in judicial history. The courts have traditionally been the last line of defense against an oppressive government, and we have been let down.

You can definitely expect this to become an issue in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Update: On the other hand, St. Paul Invokes Eminent Domain to Acquire Minneapolis

Why you’re not allowed to play around in the cockpit.

FLIGHT DATA RECORDER (FDR) TRANSCRIPTS:

Mechanic #1: “Hey Bob I really don’t think were supposed to be up here.”

Mechanic #2: “Tony, your such a worry wart. Anyhow, we’re suppose to be up here remember, were cleaning this bird.”

Mechanic #1: “Are your sure? I thought they told us to stay out of the cockpit”

Mechanic #2: “”Hey look at me I’m a pilot!!!…(Deep Voice) Ladies and Gentlemen this is your captain speaking were at an altitude of 30,000 feet and Oh my God watch out for that mountain………Ahhhhhhhh (laughter).

Mechanic #1: Hey man cut it out….Hey don’t touch that it says “engine start” on it…

Mechanic #2: Don’t worry….they always turn these things off while their at the gate. (Engine sounds in background….mechanics unaware)

Mechanic #2: Ready for takeoff……VRRRRRROOOOM VRRRRROOOOM (Throttles rapidly moved from idle to full and back to idle and full again) WEEEEEEEE!

Mechanic #1: OH no were moving!!!

Mechanic #2: WERE GOING TO HIT THE WALL RUN (Cockpit door opens and slams shut. Occupants heard running to back of the airplane screaming and yelling) 30 seconds later…… Throttles pulled back to idle. (click to enlarge images)

NOTE : I have been unable to verify the validity of the the transcript. I can’t even be sure of the exact location of the accident (probably Newark). However, from looking at photos and researching past Continental Airlines accidents, I’m fairly certain this is not how it actually happened.  (more…)