Pax Hammericana

Long Live Judicial Activism

This has already been disseminated elsewhere, but this excellent article from George Will should give conservatives and libertarians reason to cheer judicial activism.

It also reminds me of Madison's belief in the large republic -- the ugly truth, that flies in the face of both liberal and conservative communitarians, that the power closest to the people is the only just power.  Madison (and Will, for that matter) gave ample reason for classical liberals to reconsider local power as the basis of their political philosophy.  In other words, the federal government is not the only, and sometimes not the worst, oppressor. 

Will's arguments remind me of another guy who advocates judicial activism on the basis of natural rights.

The natural rights critique of government power -- that scourge of left-liberals and conservative theocrats -- has many eloquent spokesmen, past and present. 

It Never Stops

I suppose I need to hire staff or start blogging full-time, because if I wait even more than half a day to blog there is some new outrage to try to make people aware of.  Then there are just some things that blow all the other things away.  THIS is what I'm talking about in that respect.

Just in my own little corner of the world, I am actively engaged in the following issues:

Debating FOR free market health care;
working to provide a fair policy at my employer to help provide insurance to families without screwing those without families;
Working AGAINST using public resources to defeat Oklahoma House Bill 2513, which would allow concealed carry of handguns on campus;
Arguing to counteract the lies and hysteria about secondhand smoke that has led to the proliferation of smoking bans...

and on and on on.  It just never stops.  My mind is tempted to say that there must be some root cause.  And I suppose morally there is.  Certainly, as human beings, we will perpetually struggle against one another to establish our own moral vision.  But I am also reminded of the Founders' prophecy: "The price of liberty is eternal vigilence."

Still, I hope over time to discover how it is that the powerful places of policymaking were overtaken by do-gooders, authoritarians, and other seedy types -- and why it is that the struggle for liberty seems to take place largely beyond the walls of power.