The Federalist Papers

i've been reading the Federalist Papers lately- a collection of letters to the people of New York before in support of the US Constitution as drafted at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. They were penned under the name Publius, but actually written by later presidents Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, with a few undertaken by John Jay, who was to become our first Supreme Court Justice.

My original goal (of typical fashion for myself) was to read through all 85 letters, but i've since reconsidered. This particular edition is nearly 500 pages long, including editor's notes, a copy of the Constitution, and a glossary to help translate the obtuse, late-18th Century jargon (i'll be honest, it's tough to follow at times). Since my real motive for reading was to catch a glimpse of what the Constitution mean to it's drafters, after reading the first several letters about limitations of the Articles of Confederation, i skipped to where the exposition on the Constitution begins in 37, and am currently only on 47.

So far, it's been both inspiring, and discouraging. Inspiring, because these of our nation's forefathers were brilliant, skilled in careful reason and debate, versed in the history of various forms of government, and grounded in principle and a love of liberty. Discouraging, because the great form of national government they were selling to their fellow citizens bears little resemblance to the government we have, in practice, today (although the legal document remains much the same). This is where i'm tempted to spend the most time writing, but for brevity's sake i'll just list a few i've noticed so far:

• The Federal government is meant to have very limited powers (in scope), such as national defense, regulation of international relations, keeping harmony among the states, taxation, and a few specific miscellaneous powers like maintaining a postal service. (41, 44, 45)
  
• While the Federal government is meant to have jurisdiction over foreign affairs, domestic affairs are the domain of the states. (45)
  
• Protection against abuses by the Federal government is guaranteed by the fact that the free people of the United States are well-armed, and able to conduct future revolutions as necessary. (46)
  

One thing i'm learning to get over is the holding of "democracy" as the finest form of government. It was, in fact, scorned by our nation's early statesmen as a classic "tyranny of the majority." While many of our elected officials are elected democratically, our government is actually a Constitutional Republic, the goal of which is to protect the life and liberty of its citizens (video explaining various forms of government). This means regardless of the wishes of the majority, the rights of the minority are preserved because of the contract. That is, perhaps, in theory only, since later generations have increasingly shown utter contempt for the Rule of Law.

Exiting Independence Hall on the final day of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked by a women outside, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?” His reply should haunt us all—“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Scandal and a Tragedy

Starting with the scandal...
As if anyone needed more evidence of the quality of Fox News (or lack thereof) or the reach of the Republican machine, MSNBC seems to have caught FN trying to make McCain look younger:


In other news, recently popular CMU professor, Randy Pausch passed on Friday from pancreatic cancer. The guy had a heck of an insight on life, which he shared in his Last Lecture (a CMU series of senior faculty). If you haven't seen it, I recommend you check it out.

Finally, we haven't seen any posts from Jason in a while. Not even some pictures ("Jello Shots"). You still out there, bro?

Wow

Well I guess this is proof that I'm not the only one who hates the Mainstream Media.

Fed / Congress may bail out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Looks like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac may be bailed out due to the mortgage woes. Lots of articles out there.

I see why we would want to make sure these two giant mortgage businesses don't come crashing down, but whats being done long term....

Should we let the market play out like it should, or have government create more oversight into the business world? What do you all think... or do you care?

Editing the statement (Oh yeah.. the cost for the bail out really isn't the issue....) which isn't accurate. The Fed actually took up some of the liabilities and now the Federal Reserves balance sheet has to take the hit. Can't find the exact amount, but I it could be as much as 5 trillion. This affects the rates our country gets when borrowing money just like any business gets rated on its risk to the investor/lender.

Rush in Cincinnati!

Steph and I got to see Rush--the most amazing band in the world. ;-) The venue, Riverbend in Cincinnati, was set up similar to DTE with a pavilion and lawn, but the view of the stage from the lawn wasn't as good. Neither was the sound.

The performance was great. Though they aren't "spring chickens" anymore, to steal a line from Getty, they put on a 4 hour show with one small break. I'm still amazed at their level of performance.... after 25 some years of playing and touring together.


They played more songs from their current album than we anticipated. About 8 I'd say. And their choice of classic songs to preform wasn't the best... at least from our point of view. Overall the flow of the show wasn't as good as that of the DTE show we all went to.

Check out Neil's drum solo for the tour. Great solo over all! One of the biggest changes to the solo was the electric portion. When he starts that part (2:22 on the video) the sound affects for the drums are very mechanical sounding. Once he started that section the whole crowd went quiet... probably thinking the same thing I was.... "Wait.. what is that?"

Awesome show, awesome time, awesome band. Nuf said.

Ode to M$

This should strike a chord with everyone...