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Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. Memorial Day: ‘Mort de la Guerre’

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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2 COMMENTS
 

Over 40 years ago while bicycling through eastern France, I took a break and walked into a small grove of trees that grew in the middle of a wheat field. There, sitting in a small clearing was a simple stone, inscribed with the phrase “mort de la guerre.”

There was no name, no date, and no means of identification, just a simple stone marking the final resting place of someone who had fallen in defense of Liberty.

Since then, the men and women of the United States armed forces have been sent to the far corners of the world to defend the Liberty that we so often take for granted. It’s only appropriate that we dedicate at least one day a year in remembrance of those who didn’t come back.

This weekend there will be remembrances, parades, and family gatherings. To those of you for whom that family gathering will be to honor one of their own who, in words attributed to Lincoln: “laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom,” we should all offer a silent moment of thanks.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said in 2003:

Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.

Cemeteries around the world stand as testimony to the price our country has been willing to pay for our freedom. But whether it’s the beautifully manicured grounds at Arlington or Normandy or an anonymous grave in eastern France, our obligation is the same: to remember the cost of freedom and to honor all who were “mort de la guerre.”

Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Illinois Faces a ‘Red Menace’ Made of Ink

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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14 COMMENTS
 

The Chicago Tribune has published the story of a family trying to obtain services for their autistic son. He “aged out” of Illinois’ special education system when he turned 22 and was put on the State’s “Prioritization for Urgency of Need for Services” (PUNS) list, a waitlist for disabilities services administered by the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). From the story:

“Nick is among nearly 20,000 people with developmental disabilities in Illinois who are on a waiting list to get into adult programs. Many of them come from families who don’t have a way to pay for home care, job coaches or other services.

Most wait an average of seven years before they are selected, despite a court order in 2011 that Illinois shrink the list and do other things to improve how it serves developmentally disabled adults.

One family told the Tribune they signed up their child when he was just 5 and he still did not get a spot when he turned 22 this year…”

The story goes on to describe a lawsuit filed in 2004 to require the State to provide community-based living arrangements and services to the developmentally disabled. Again, from the story:

“While paying lip service to the value of community-based programs, defendants have made paltry efforts to reduce the state’s reliance on large institutions or to expand Illinois’ community-based programs,” the lawsuit added.

We’re all familiar with the tragic story of A.J. Freund, the five-year-old who had been in and out of the attention of DCFS since birth. The extent to which the agency’s systemic troubles failed him and others is a story yet to be fully told.

I’ve recently been appointed to the “Task Force for Strengthening Child Welfare Workforce for Children and Families,” established by Public Act 100-879, the purpose of which is to:

[C]reate a task force to study the compensation and workload of child welfare workers to determine the role that compensation and workload play in the recruitment and retention of child welfare workers, and to determine the role that staff turnover plays in achieving safety and timely permanency for children.

It would be an easy fix if all we were doing was paying “lip-service” to these and any number of other underfunded programs. But the real and bigger reason for this chronic underfunding is staring us directly in the face.

A story getting far less attention but which has everything to do with the 20,000 people on the PUNS list and excessive workloads at DCFS is the recent report issued by the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (COGFA) about the state of Illinois’ pensions.

The report discloses that the unfunded liability for its five pension funds as of June 30 stands at $137.2 billion, up from $133.5 billion the previous year. It notes that in Fiscal Year 2020, the State is scheduled to contribute $9.223 billion out of General Revenue to fund those pensions.

That $9.2 billion represents 22 percent of the total amount of state spending in the current FY 2020 budget, which is scheduled to grow to $10.6 billion in 2024 and ultimately rise to over $19 billion in 2045.

When over 20% (and climbing) of your total budget is going towards paying debt, it leaves much less for the ongoing functions of government. The size of our debt is a rough measure of how much money was diverted in the past to dispense the type of goodies that politicians are only too happy to give; goodies which blur and ultimately erase the lines between an encroaching State and those entities and institutions in which a free people in a healthy society really live: its civic and charitable organizations, community clubs, Little League, churches and a free economy, to name just a few.

This is money that could be used for the types of programs that would help Nick cope with life in our broader society, allow the State to more adequately fulfill its Constitutional imperative of paying for education and create a more robust and effective program of child protection. But so long as we continue to deal with this albatross around our neck, none of this will be done.

I grew up at a time when the former Soviet Union was referred to as the “Red Menace.” We now live under the threat of a new Red Menace, one made of ink. We can argue all day about where the responsibility lies and whose fault it is that we’re in this mess. But when the excesses of the past continue to increasingly crowd out our responsibilities of the present and to the future, we’re going to see more stories about people like Nick and A.J. If we don’t do something about our debt and soon, we’d better get used to seeing them.

Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. In Flanders Fields

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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2 COMMENTS
 

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

— Lt. Col. John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In memory of Cpl. Bert Whitehurst (1895-1918)

Cpl. Bert Whitehurst
(1895-1918)

Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Paradise Lost

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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12 COMMENTS
 

Back in the early ‘90s, a client of mine bought an old lodge up on Crane Lake in Minnesota and spent a small fortune fixing it up. It became a go-to destination for my dad, my brothers, and me to spend a week together doing things we never did when we were growing up. Dad lived for those trips, and I’m convinced that they kept him alive for years.

When dad passed in 1997, I told my brothers that we should still go up North, but so long as I could portage a canoe, I wanted to go into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which is a national wilderness area of several million acres of lakes, islands, and forests where motorized craft are prohibited, and all you get in the way of campsite amenities is a fire grate and a box latrine. Whatever you pack in, you have to pack out.

For over 20 years (with periodic interruptions) we would take a shuttle boat across Lac LaCroix and be dropped off on a rock just over the Canadian border and paddle our way into some of the most spectacular scenery in the country and which is listed on National Geographic’s 50 Places of a Lifetime “Paradise Found” list.

The trips always lived up to the promise (mosquitoes notwithstanding). A week of incredible quiet, where right at dusk the lake would turn to glass and you could hear loons calling to one another across miles of water. Nighttime shot full of stars, the Milky Way so bright it would cast your shadow, meteors streaking across the sky and the occasional thrill of the Northern Lights. One year we caught sight of the International Space Station hurtling across the heavens.

We were never great fishermen, but we always caught enough for supper (even if it was the occasional Northern Pike with its troublesome “Y” bones). I had a black lab that I’d take with me, and Jake would swim from island to island to keep track of us as we paddled around the lake. He was a great dog.

I just returned from the BWCA, and I learned that though the wilderness is constant and unchanging, I’m not. It’d been some time since I’d been up there, and that constant and unchanging wilderness showed me how much I’d changed since I was last there. The years are taking their toll, and I found myself struggling to do the simple things like climbing out of my tent. What was once easy had become an ordeal.

There were also a few cracks in the plaster of Paradise, as well. On three consecutive days, a guided fishing boat came through and parked itself in front of our campsite in complete violation of the prohibition against such vessels in the Wilderness area. I filed a complaint with the Forest Service with the hope that they’ll come down hard on these people. The ticket for each violation can run as high as $5,000, and we know who the culprit was.

One of the beauties of the BWCA is the total lack of cell service. You’re completely cut off from modern communications, or so I thought. I didn’t go up with my brothers this year, that’s a story for another day, but went with an acquaintance from Springfield. On the day we were to break camp, my traveling companion turned on his cell phone to take a few final pictures and 62 text messages showed up on the screen. It seems that even out there, we can’t escape the reach of technology if we choose to let it in.

I guess it’s time to move on.

Paradise Lost.

Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Genius v. Stupidity? Genius Has Its Limits

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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17 COMMENTS
 

Today’s lesson is about what the newly-elected members of Congress from the 6th and 14th Districts of Illinois don’t know about their jobs.

It begins with a headline in the Northwest Herald that says: “Underwood, Casten Call for IRS to Help With Local Tax Burden.” The article goes on to say:

“Rep. Lauren Underwood, D-Naperville, and Rep. Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, are urging the IRS to address what they call the disproportionate tax burden on Illinois taxpayers because of the changes in the law, which limit the state and local tax deduction.”

The pair wrote a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig expressing their concerns about IRS efforts to alleviate the burden of the new rules as being “insufficient”:

“We are concerned that the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) current efforts may be insufficient to alleviate these burdens…Illinoisans are already facing higher federal taxes due to the Republican tax law, which places a uniquely large burden on middle-class families in the Illinois 6th and 14th Congressional Districts. Working families are being unfairly double-taxed, This law limited the state and local tax (SALT) deduction to just $10,000 for individuals and families—a devastating financial blow to many of the nearly two million Illinois households that claim the deduction. SALT taxes allow our communities to pay law enforcement and first responders, offer high-quality public education, and provide a multitude of other services that contribute to the well-being of our communities. We urge your attention to this important matter and request an update in writing on the IRS’s actions to address these burdens on Illinois taxpayers no later than February 12, 2019,”

The fundamental ignorance on display in the letter these two sent beggars the imagination. If they don’t understand that the IRS is simply an administrative body empowered to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and has no authority whatsoever to “address the disproportionate tax burden on Illinois taxpayers because of the changes in the law” then what else don’t they know about the responsibilities of the office to which they’ve been elected?

It says right there in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, that document they swore an oath to uphold, but probably haven’t taken the time to read:

“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States…”

Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that members of Congress can run to the IRS, of all places, to “alleviate the burden placed on the citizens of Illinois by limiting the deduction for state and local taxes.” If they don’t like the tax bill that was passed in the last Congress, the proper remedy for what they’re trying to do is (wait for it!): pass a law! It’s in all the civics books, or at least it used to be.

Of course, they aren’t the only Democrats trying to alleviate the tax burden of the very people they’re generally busy trying to gouge. Last year we had a group in the Illinois legislature that tried to change taxes into charitable contributions so as to get around the SALT limitation. That idiotic scheme met the same fate as the appeal to the IRS will have.

So, class, this is what you should take away from today’s lesson:

If you live in the 6th or 14th Congressional Districts of Illinois and you voted for Sean Casten or Lauren Underwood as a way to send a message to Donald Trump, you brought this vacuous nonsense upon yourselves, but unfortunately you brought it upon the rest of us, as well.

Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. Illinois Needs Adult Supervision

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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17 COMMENTS
 

The latest post on my blog, Steve463.com:

In his weekly column published last Sunday, Rich Miller, publisher of CapitolFax.com wrote:

“I had written on my blog a few days earlier that if voters are looking for a check on J.B. Pritzker and Speaker Madigan and they can’t bring themselves to vote for Gov. Rauner, she [Erika Harold] might be a realistic option.”

With all due respect to Rich and to Ms. Harold, whom I wholeheartedly support, the real check on the excesses of Illinois’ government isn’t the office of Attorney General.

The real check on a Governor Pritzker (or a Governor Rauner, for that matter) and Speaker Madigan will come only if the Republicans can maintain or grow their numbers in the House.

As we enter the last week before the November election, it would be well to remember exactly what’s at stake for Illinois and who stands the best chance of assuring that there is at least one body in state government that stands against the worst of whatever happens, regardless of who’s elected Governor.

The Democrat in the race has shown himself to be nothing more than someone who says he’ll raise taxes on “the rich” (defined as anyone other than the group he happens to be pandering to at that particular time). Have you heard him talk about using that new money to pay down our mountain of unpaid bills and pension debt? Hell, no. All we hear is promises to spend all that new money on programs and agencies that need housecleaning and responsible oversight before they get a dime of new money.

Then consider the raft of bills that Republicans were able to kill in the last session by denying them veto-proof majorities. I mean, do you want a state-mandated $15 per hour minimum wage? A government-run workers’ compensation company that will be funded by borrowing 10 million of your tax dollars? Making a resolution by a local government objecting to the state’s prevailing wage law a criminal offense?

All that stood between legislative sanity and those bills becoming law were House Republicans who drove down the vote for the minimum wage (61-53), upheld the veto of the workers’ comp bill (65-50) and the prevailing wage bill (70-42). Do you think a Governor Pritzker would veto any of those bills? Not likely.

Republicans in the House held the line on those and many other bills which would make Illinois an even bigger economic clown car than it is now. Without a majority, we won’t even be able to do that.

Republicans need to pick up nine seats in the House to claim the Speaker’s gavel. Otherwise, we won’t be able to stop the three bills referenced above, and you can be certain that they’ll be re-introduced in the next session, along with any number of other measures that will spring from the fevered minds of people who think that money grows on trees.

With the 2020 census coming up, nothing determines the composition of the House and Senate more than the electoral map, the boundaries of which are drawn by the General Assembly. If you don’t want Mike Madigan’s map being rubber-stamped by a Democratic Governor, this is reason enough to vote for a Republican-controlled House. The map is everything, because Illinois can’t survive another decade of undisputed Democratic control in Springfield.

No matter who’s elected Governor in 2018, this state is in trouble. We’ve endured nearly 4 years of dysfunction (actually, closer to 40), and there’s a strong likelihood that the next 4 won’t be any better, regardless of whether the next Governor is named Rauner or Pritzker.

Abraham Lincoln once said that “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” This campaign has been an object lesson in evasion. Regardless of who you vote for as Governor, please make sure that we end up with an adult in the room. Put Republicans in charge of the Illinois House.

Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. Illinois House Passes Firearms Restraining Order

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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14 COMMENTS
 

We passed a “Firearms Restraining Order” bill in the Illinois House Wednesday. I spent a lot of time on this bill, and have written about it on my blog. I believe it strikes a balance between preserving civil liberties and Second Amendment rights with the responsibility we have to protect public safety. Here are my initial floor comments on the bill:

While we were debating the bill, the NRA, which for weeks had maintained a neutral stance on the bill, came out in opposition to it, primarily because of its provision for an ex-parte order. I was given the opportunity to expand my comments to address the change of stance:

The bill now goes to the Senate, and if passed, on to the Governor for signature.

Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. In Flanders Fields

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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21 COMMENTS
 

Cpl. Bert Whitehurst (1895-1918)
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

— Lt. Col. John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In memory of Cpl. Bert Whitehurst (1895-1918)

Recommended by Ricochet Members Created with Sketch. Welcome to the Monkey House

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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20 COMMENTS
 

I’ve been told by any number of people that it’s not a good idea for freshman legislators to speak on the House floor for at least the first three months that they’re there. Given that that’s more than 10 percent of my first (and possibly last) term, I don’t think I’m doing my constituents a favor by waiting. Here’s my initial floor speech:

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Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. Gerrymandering for Political Advantage Struck Down in Wisconsin

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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28 COMMENTS
 

district-mapsFor all but 2 of the past 33 years, Michael Madigan has been Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives. From that perch, he’s built a political machine that has been able to control (or impede) the flow of legislation in the House and thus throughout Illinois government. Until the recent election, his caucus contained 71 members, a perfect 3/5ths super-majority capable of overriding any gubernatorial veto and sufficient to pass bills after normal session, when that number is needed to pass legislation out of the House.

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass wrote back in 2010 that Madigan’s power base depended upon a group of legislators known as the “Madigan 12”. Those 12 legislators who resided outside of Chicago were the linchpin of Madigan’s power.

The 2016 election saw an erosion of that super-majority, with the Republicans picking up a net of 4 seats in the House (including your humble correspondent, who picked up the seat in the 63rd District). So it will be interesting to see how things shake out in January, when the 100th General Assembly convenes.

However, there was another matter that was at issue in 2016, and that was a proposed Constitutional amendment to provide for non-partisan redistricting of legislative boundaries. The proponents of the measure collected over 600,000 signatures to put the measure on the ballot, more than twice the number needed. But the Illinois Supreme Court, voting on partisan lines, struck down the measure and it was kept off the 2016 ballot. So unless something is done to rectify the situation before the 2020 census, Madigan will still control the process of drawing legislative maps.

But relief may be in sight with the decision of a 3-judge Federal panel in Wisconsin, which has ruled that the Wisconsin Legislature’s 2011 redrawing of State Assembly districts to favor Republicans was an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. The court said in its ruling:

“When the state places an artificial burden on the ability of voters of a certain political persuasion to form a legislative majority, it necessarily diminishes the weight of the vote of each of those voters when compared to the votes of individuals favoring another view… The burdened voter simply has a diminished or even no opportunity to effect a legislative majority. That voter is, in essence, an unequal participant in the decisions of the body politic.”

The court came up with a formula for determining if a district is drawn to protect one party or another and ruled that if such is the case (which it did here), the district’s boundaries are invalid. The entire decision, all 159 pages of it, can be found here.

While redistricting maps have been invalidated for years on racial grounds, this is the first time a map has been struck down on the grounds that it gives an unfair advantage to a political party. While the decision awaits a hearing in the U.S. Supreme Court (this case falls into a category that can bypass the Court of Appeals), the implications for Illinois are obvious.

If the decision is upheld, then the power that has kept Speaker Madigan in the catbird seat for so long may be wrenched out of his hand by Federal action. Given his ability to keep non-partisan redistricting off the ballot in the past 2 cycles, one can only hope that this decision might give us a more level playing field in 2020.

Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. In Flanders Fields

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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26 COMMENTS
 

gangstersout.blogspot.comIn Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders Fields.

Lt. Col. John McCrae, MD (1872-1918)

In memory of Cpl. Bert Whitehurst (1895-1918)

Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. Silver Lining to the Rainbow Victory?

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
Illiniguy Member
I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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13 COMMENTS
 

Illinoisreview.typepad.comPointing out that the Supreme Court found the right to gay marriage in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, Bob Owens of Baring Arms seems to have found a silver lining in last Friday’s Obergefell decision. The Court wrote:

“The fundamental liberties protected by the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause extend to certain personal choices central to individual dignity and autonomy, including intimate choices defining personal identity and beliefs…Courts must exercise reasoned judgment in identifying interests of the person so fundamental that the State must accord them its respect. History and tradition guide and discipline the inquiry but do not set its outer boundaries. When new insight reveals discord between the Constitution’s central protections and a received legal stricture, a claim to liberty must be addressed.”

There are currently 36 states with “shall issue” firearm license schemes; i.e., one where anyone who meets certain objective criteria must be issued a license. By using the same rationale as the Court used on Friday, those holding valid concealed carry permits must be granted the same protection in places like D.C., Maryland, New Jersey and New York. After all, while the Court had to strain to find its rationale to overthrow 6,000 years of human history, the Second Amendment is right out there for all to see.

In his blog, Allen West says:

“So here is the call to action: since we are coming up on our 239th Independence Day celebration, let’s all call the White House and inform them that we CCL owners are going to be traveling for the Independence Day holiday and we plan on carrying our weapons wherever the heck we please. And if anyone decides to stop an American citizen and challenge his or her Second Amendment right, then let’s discuss the violation of federalism by the SCOTUS mandating same-sex marriage. As a matter of fact, we expect the ATF to start issuing NATIONAL CCL cards to all of us who are current holders of valid CCLs — heck, we know the DHS is planning on printing ID cards for illegal immigrants.

Therefore, celebrate your 4th of July knowing that the SCOTUS just solidified our right to keep and bear arms — and that no state has the “right” to infringe upon our Second Amendment right. If the violation of federalism works ok for LGBTs — then it works well for gun owners!”

Let’s see if anyone participating in today’s Pride Parade in Chicago straps on a weapon. After all, why not celebrate all of your rights?

h/t: Illinois Review

Promoted from the Ricochet Member Feed by Editors Created with Sketch. Selma Envy

IlliniguyJoined in the first year of Ricochet Ricochet Charter Member
By Illiniguy
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I've lived my life backwards, having spent a lot of my earlier years doing those things I knew I'd never do as an old guy, including riding a bicycle from Snowdonia to Zermatt to Matala and points between. I spent 35 years as a tax attorney and who, like most attorneys, would rather be doing something else. So at age 63 I jumped from the frying pan into the fire and got myself elected to the Illinois General Assembly. I'm also the author of a blog that concentrates on issues facing the State of… [more]
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SelmaHeschelMarchI was never in the military; I was in the last draft class that sent people to Vietnam, but my draft number was 275, so I wasn’t called. Rush Limbaugh likes to recount the story of how Bill Clinton regretted that 9/11 happened on his successor’s watch, thus depriving him of the opportunity to show true leadership.

I say this to make the point that as we look back, we sometimes wish that we could put ourselves into today’s events in such a way as to allow us to be cloaked in the more forgiving glow that the passage of time has given to events that were so raw at the time. Unfortunately, there are also those who will use the glow of past events to shine a light upon things that they can’t justify with reason:

“Why do so many young adults paint absurd caricatures of Christians who request government protection of their religious freedoms, arguing their true goal is to ban gay men from sitting at the local lunch counter?… Why do so many people, Gen Xers and younger, invent a monster of anti-gay bigotry and keep screaming the monster is real despite a mountain of contrary facts standing before them?”

This quote is from a column by Lutheran pastor Hans Fiene published today in The Federalist. Fiene answers his own question thusly:

My generation engages in straw men, misinformation, and lies because, in every year of social studies class, we studied the civil-rights movement not as history, but as hagiography. We didn’t just learn what events happened on American soil, we were encouraged to mimic the segregation-defeating holy ones and merit for ourselves a place alongside them in glory. Combining that admonition with our general aversion to hard work, we concluded that the only thing necessary to be as righteous as the saints who fought racial injustice was to decry an injustice that no one else was. And we became so desperate to find that injustice, we lost our minds in the process.

He calls it “Selma envy,” and ends his column by saying:

From the days of our youth, my generation hungered for a cause that would make us as righteous as the saints who marched on Selma. We have found that cause. We have sunk our teeth into that righteousness and, at this point, we couldn’t care less if it’s real. The Lord of Social Justice has finally answered our prayers. And Lord help the bigot who comes between us and our cause.

There’s something else at work here, as well. George Orwell said that “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” As history is re-written so as to reflect the prejudices of the present, where will the next generation take us as it goes out in search of its own Selma?

Image Credit: “SelmaHeschelMarch” by http://www.dartmouth.edu/~religion/faculty/heschel-photos.html[dead link] This URL is [as of Sept. 17, 2014] a dead link; Therefore, for a web.archive.org (Wayback machine) “snapshot” of this URL, please (feel free to) refer to this “archived” copy: “Heschel Selected Photos”. the Trustees of Dartmouth College [faculty] [Department of Religion]. Archived from the original on Sep 17, 2014. Retrieved Sep 17, 2014.. Via Wikipedia.

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