Happy Independence Day

I hope you all celebrate and enjoy your Indepence Day this 4th of July. Thanks to our troops who are serving in harms way and thanks to all who fight every day to keep this country the greatest on earth.

As we like to say here at steakmatters, drink responsibly and grill excessively.

--G

RIP Senator

Jesse Helms died today, July 4, 2008, at the age of 86. The former Senator served five terms in the U.S. Senate--from 1972 until his retirement in 2003. RIP, Jesse.

--G

Go To Hell, LeBron

LeBron continues to make friends here at steakmatters. His latest quote (and from Dan Wetzel at Yahoo Sports):

LeBron James showed up in New York on Monday, part of a USA Basketball media function, and continued to bat his eyes at the city in the run up to his potential free agency in 2010.

When asked to name his favorite city he said: “New York.”

Favorite borough?

“Brooklyn,” James said. “Brooklyn is definitely a great place here in New York City, and some of my best friends are from Brooklyn, so I stick up for them.”
Brooklyn is where the New Jersey Nets are expected to move to in 2010 (at least if community groups don’t blow it). The franchise is owned, in part, by James’ friend Jay-Z, and should be stock full of young, complementary talent and a King’s ransom in salary cap room.
James knows all of this. His answers weren’t by accident or without meaning, no more than was wearing a New York baseball cap from an Indians-Yankees playoff game last fall just an expression of pinstriped-fandom.

BTW--all-points bulletin for POTUS and Lefty--i know you guys are busy, but you can't even keep up the good fight while a brotha takes a vacation? Geez.

I smell impeachment.

--G

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ET AL. v. HELLER

Second Amendment: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Yesterday was a fantastic day if you are a gun owner in America. The U.S. Supreme Court, by another 5-4 decision, affirmed what most American's already knew. Each citizen (assuming you're not a felon or deemed mentally deficient) has an individual right to keep and bear arms. Specifically, the Court held (from the Syllabus) that "the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home". Heller is a landmark decision and should be celebrated by all who appreciate the ability to protect themselves and their family.

To have held otherwise would have been an insult to our Founding Fathers and a victory for criminals who seek to do us harm in our homes.

Delivering the opinion of the Court was Justice Scalia. Without going into too much detail of the 157-page decision, Scalia masterfully broke down, first, the meaning of the Second amendment, word for word. He did so by reviewing the historical meaning of each word. Without reviewing his discussion of prefatory and operative clauses, Scalia determined that logic, historic content and context could result in no other conclusion other than that the Second Amendment provides an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Scalia did not stop there--he made the point to suggest that a Second Amendment right is not absolute--just as our First Amendment right to free speech has its limitations as well (i.e. you can't yell fire in a crowded theatre).

Justice Stevens, delivering the minority opinion, relied heavily on the argument that the Second amendment "was adopted to protect the right of the people of each of the several States to maintain a well-regulated militia. It was a response to concerns raised during the ratification of the Constitution that the power of Congress to disarm the state militias and create a national standing army posed an intolerable threat to the sovereignty of the several States. Neither the text of the Amendment nor the arguments advanced by its proponents evidenced the slightest interest in limiting any legislature’s authority to regulate private civilian uses of firearms. Specifically, there is no indication that the Framers of the Amendment intended to enshrine the common-law right of self-defense in the Constitution".

So, simply put, Scalia and the majority interpret the Second amendment to be an individual right, whereas Stevens and the minority submit that it is a "collective" right (in order to maintain a militia).

My guess is a majority of American people agree with Scalia and the majority on this one.

There is much more to this issue, so if you'd like to read the decision yourself, it's a good (albeit long) read.

--G

What's On G's iPod

Breaking Benjamin is probably the band I listen to most frequently on any given day. Their music is dark at times, but the lead singer, Ben Burley, has an amazing voice for a Rocker.

This week's song is Breath by Breaking Benjamin--one of my favorites. Have a listen...let me know what you think.

--G

From My iPod

A recent article in Rolling Stone Magazine revealed the contents of Senator Obama's (aka B-HO) iPod. I hate to be a skeptic (as I know I'm being constantly accused of being partisan), but this is as scripted as scripted gets. I think we should subpeona iTunes for his downloads.

Let me offer the evidence, albeit circumstantial, on which I base my conclusion. In the RS article, Obama says Stevie Wonder is probably his favorite musician. Ok, fair enough, I'm a Stevie fan myself. What's odd is that when he gives examples of his favorite songs, he gives them in the exact order that Eddie Murphy gave them during his raunchy stand-up HBO special as he was doing his Stevie Wonder impression).

Specifically, Obama says "Stevie had that run with Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Innervisions, and then Songs in the Key of Life".

What might be most annoying about the article is how he shamelessly name-drops. "Everytime I talk to Jay-Z...".

Ok, so let's make something positive out of this. There are always articles about "What's on this star's iPod". iTunes even has downloads--so you can have the same songs on your iPod, as say, Tom Cruise has on his (check that--i think Scientologists think iPod's evil incarnate).

Anyway, I'm starting a new feature on Steakmatters---What's on G's iPod. I LOVE music--it can do so much for your spirit. I love it all. So once every week or so, I'll share a song or a Band that I think is kicking ass. I may even go old-school and reminisce.

--G

When Bill Lied, No one Died

This is quote from my anonymous friend. Again, when Bill lied, no one died. That's an intersting statement. Unfortunately, history and facts do not bare that out. Now, I know my liberal friend is used to saying things without no one challenging what he/she is saying, but I can not let this statement go unchallenged.

We know the media is notorious for letting the Clinton's non-truth's slide. Only recently, when the drive-by media jumped on the Obama bandwagon, they begin calling Billary out on their blatant lies (see Hillary's sniper remarks).

Bill Lied, No one Died:

The War in Iraq: From the NYTimes--During a campaign swing for his wife, former President Bill Clinton said flatly yesterday that he opposed the war in Iraq “from the beginning” — a statement that is more absolute than his comments before the invasion in March 2003.

Before the invasion, Mr. Clinton did not precisely declare that he opposed the war. A week before military action began, however, he did say that he preferred to give weapons inspections more time and that an invasion was not necessary to topple Saddam Hussein.

At the same time, he also spoke supportively about the 2002 Senate resolution that authorized military action against Iraq. I'll concede that W. did nothing about the bin Laden issue during his first 8 months in office. Clinton did nothing for 8 years.

On Attempting To Capture or Kill Osama Bin Laden: The former president says, “I worked hard to try to kill him.” Why, then, did he notify Pakistan of our cruise-missile strike in time for them to warn Osama and allow him to escape? Why did he refuse to allow us to fire cruise missiles to kill bin Laden when we had the chance in 1999? This little lie cost us 3,000 lives on September 11, 2001.

Black Hawk Down: In addition to being a fiasco in and of itself, BHD was a contributing factor to 9/11. The point of citing Somalia in the run up to 9/11 is that bin Laden told Fortune Magazine in a 1999 interview that the precipitous American pullout after BHD convinced him that Americans would not stand up to armed resistance. Let's not forget that 18 brave U.S. soldiers died, too--and Bill Clinton refused military requests to avenge their deaths.

Lying About How His Administration "thwarted" Terrorist Attacks: From Jim Kouri of the National Association of Chiefs of Police: "Former President William Jefferson Clinton appearing on NBC's The Today Show bragged about how his administration thwarted terrorist attacks. During his interview with Matt Lauer — without the least bit of shame for his obvious lie — Clinton continued to revise history without any questioning of his comments by the mainstream news media. He's built himself up to become an anti-terrorism warrior."

See: 1993 World Trade Center, See Somalia, See Kobar Towers, See USS Cole, See various attacks on U.S. embassies.

Bombing of Pill Factory in Sudan (3 Days after his grand jury testimony): In 1998, Clinton (while being investigated for the Lewinsky/Flowers/Jones/Broaddrick/Willey issues) launched a missile attack on a factory in Sudan, in Africa. Clinton claimed that the factory was linked to bin Laden and that it made nerve gas. According to a well-researched article written by Richard Becker, Sara Flounders and John Parker in CAQ, the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant was responsible for over 50% of Sudan's medicine. This included 90% of the most critically needed drugs. In their words, "the bombing will inexorably cause the suffering and death of tens of thousands of innocent people all over Africa, many of them children, by depriving them of basic medicines against malaria, tuberculosis, and other easily curable diseases." Lives lost.

I think I've made my point. Having laid out all the facts, Is Clinton the Anti-Christ? Probably not. Does he lie to children? Yes. Did his lies cause loss of life? Absolutely. Lie exposed.

--G