By Art Smith. Posted Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009 at 4:00 am Filed Under: Constitution, Featured, Liberty
Next to the Holy Bible, the US Constitution is probably the most important document you will ever come in contact with. Some may argue whether the Bible actually takes precedence, but that’s a discussion for another time.
But few would debate that that, in a world where we put aside our differences with regard to faith, the document hammered out in 1787 to replace the failing Articles of Confederation is the most important bullwork to protecting our liberties.
And yet, without the accepted social contracts that the Constitution implies we operate under, and the willingness of those who “lead” our nation to maintain the integrity of the purpose and protections the Constitution affords us, we would likely drift into chaos. But as long as we can point longingly at that document and proclaim it’s efficacy to protect our rights, we are safe.
Oh dear.
On Saturday, I spent my usual morning perusing my favorite daily periodical, the Wall Street Journal. As I began reading an interesting piece by David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey on the D.C. Voting Rights Act (an excellent treatise on the issue), my dear wife (who likes to [...]
By Art Smith. Posted Sunday, Feb 15, 2009 at 11:29 pm Filed Under: Constitution, Featured

Some like to use the Court System. Some like to use creative Congressional Legislation. Some even like to use Executive Orders.
Others seek a coalition of states to enact laws to just circumvent the Constitutional system.
Today we look at a bill before the Iowa General Assembly (House version, Senate version). This same bill has already been enacted into law in Maryland and New Jersey. It is still in the “Study Bill” state (in a committee for review), and will essentially cause Iowa to select Electors based on the National Popular Vote results instead of Iowa’s Popular Vote results. Once enough states opt into this coalition to cover 270 electoral votes (the number of votes currently needed to win the Presidency), the law would go into effect. In case it’s not obvious, the point is to make the College meaningless.
I am very concerned about this bill. I’ll start by saying I support the Electoral College structure
that we have in place today to mange the electing of the President, and although I could use this space to explain my support for it, my concern with the bill is not in the value of the College, but rather in the Compact that this bill places Iowa in.
This bill, in concert with the same language in other states’ codes, is intended [...]
By Art Smith. Posted Sunday, Sep 14, 2008 at 10:28 pm Filed Under: 2008 Presidential Election, Abortion, Constitution, Courts, Earmarks, Faith, Featured, First Amendment, John McCain, Right To Life, SCOTUS, Sarah Palin, US Congress
I watched Friday’s John and Cindy McCain interview on The View. Below is part 1; parts 2 and 3 should be accessible from the video.
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I see several posts refering to this interview as “McCain Grilled On The View”, for instance this story at Huffpo, and this one at Century Of The Common Iowan.
A stretch to [...]
I’m hoping that the fact you have come to this web site means that you care more about government than the average person. If you care about government, how we do government, and who is doing the work of government on our behalf, then this article is for you.
I’ve alluded to this before, and I [...]
By Art Smith. Posted Monday, Aug 18, 2008 at 4:31 pm Filed Under: Constitution, SCOTUS, Second Amendment
Dick Heller, of DC v. Heller fame, finally got a gun permit today.
Unfortunately, that’s only part of the story.
The District is treating semi-automatic handguns as “machine guns”. So, the registration he succeeded at acquiring only allows him to have a revolver in his home.
Heller recently sued the city again, alleging that the registration rules adopted by [...]
By Art Smith. Posted Monday, May 19, 2008 at 9:41 pm Filed Under: Constitution, Schools
The Conservative Reader is exceptionally happy to read about 13 Des Moines, Iowa students from East High School who placed first in Iowa and went to Washington, DC to participate in the national finals for “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution”. The event hosted 1,200 students from around the country.
The contest had students [...]
By Art Smith. Posted Monday, Apr 28, 2008 at 10:23 pm Filed Under: Constitution, Democratic Party, SCOTUS, voting
The Supreme Court handed down a good (in our opinion) decision this week by affirming the Indiana Voter ID law which was under attack by the ACLU. In a 6 to 3 decision, the high court blasted the “facial challenge” (the litigants claimed the Indiana law was unconstitutional on it’s face, or that it [...]
By Art Smith. Posted Saturday, Feb 16, 2008 at 4:20 pm Filed Under: Bill of Rights, Constitution, Courts, Gun Control, Liberty, Rights, Second Amendment, Shootings, US Congress, US Politics
I’m still a little overwhelmed by the events of Valentine’s Day.
People died or were injured and should not have been. It never should have happened. As with any other shooting of this type, we will have days of analysis about the drugs that this young man stopped taking, about the easy availability of [...]
By Art Smith. Posted Friday, Feb 15, 2008 at 11:25 pm Filed Under: Constitution, Contests
“Geniousproductions” got the correct answer to this week’s contest!
The question was: The US Constitution replaced the Articles of Confederation. Technically, this could have been considered an illegal act. Why?
The answer is, the Articles of Confederation required that all of the 13 states must approve any changes to the Articles. The Constitution was not [...]