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What you write of is pre ratification militias of the revolutionary war period. Scalia jettisoned the part of the Second that includes the justification for the Amendment in terms of militias. The Second reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the...

Let me try to explain this in another way. It is inherent in all constitutions that insurrection is illegal. So there is no possibility that the word "militia" in the U.S. Constitution can refer to a state's militia constituted for the purpose of rebelling against the federal government...

I want to make it clear that in post #24 I am giving arguments that I don't necessarily, or only partially, agree with. I am presenting them as food for thought. I don't have time to go much further now. My position is that once the U.S. Constitution was ratified, any argument that "militia"...

I like your take on this very much! After having thought about this Heller decision for several years now, I am of the opinion, that Scalia might have gotten by just leaving the introductory clause alone, arguing that it does not in any way render the Amendment obsolete. Because even though we...

Heller v DC made it clear (for now) that the right to own and bear operable firearms i not an unfettered right. There can be reasonable regulation. But a regulation such as requiring that a gun kept in the home must be kept in an inoperable state was a step too far. If all firearm ownership...

well, I actually had something entirely different in mind.

The Fed has more to go as they force a recession and unemployment. For a guide to how long it will take for the economy to recover from a forced recession, and what to expect in market behavior, I would think it might be useful to look back to the 1981-2 Volcker recession and the subsequent...

Among the things we humans currently have the power to do, the best chance of helping our planet sustain us for a longer period is via birth control, which has a large effect on man driven entropy. An effective form of birth control (the dead do not procreate) was famine. Today we have more...

The nice thing about solar and wind energy is that no nation has yet figured out how to make these particular energy sources instruments of war. Maybe that's one reason we should be moving in the direction of wind and solar where we can.

You are not giving "Tricky Dick" enough credit. Nixon did get us out of the war, but it is how he got us out, killing many thousands more in the process, that is remarkable. He first went back on a campaign promise to get us out of a bad war by getting us in to the war a lot deeper. He hugely...

there is another way to view this. One can consider the inability of mark to market to deal with a market failure as a limitation of mark to market accounting. It doesn't make sense to ignore valuable securities because of a market failure, thus causing a financial system calamity. The Fed's...

Perhaps there is a misunderstanding. The only banks rescued were those that were solvent once the securities they held were properly evaluated. Insolvent bank, and there were many, went under. The Fed does not give money away to banks or anyone else. It's our money, and we wouldn't want...

yes, sorry. I didn't make that clear.

see https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/8913/estimating-the-residence-time-of-atmospheric-co2-from-bomb-14c There seems to be a big disagreement between the peer reviewed literature and the IPCC official value. The mean half-life reported is in the neighborhood of 10 years. The...

Not to mention many banks AIG, GM, GSE's and millions of jobs.

The second sentence is true as written. What the average reader will miss is that borrowers did not appear to "... finance every project they dream up". Had they, QE would have been moderated commensurate with the demand for credit. Monetary policy may sometimes be a matter of selecting the...

We live in the here and now. Or as Abba Eban said many years ago, clocks only go one direction. If you want to discuss former actions of countries in an historical context then do so elsewhere. This thread is about current reality.

This is one of the attitudes that can lead to a breakdown in society and create a structural void that can be filled by demagogues and autocrats.

This is a serious matter. The order of magnitude of underground cash transactions that would otherwise result in local and/or federal tax revenue is 10**12! Honest citizens who pay taxes owed are being cheated by folks that do business in cash but don't report all their net income. These...

Foreign account are no problem for U.S. citizens so long as they properly report them on their returns. The IRS regularly forgives penalties for innocent mistakes, but you have to ask.