Because White Millionaires Didn’t Have Enough Civil Rights Already
at George Mason, David E. Bernstein
Not all nutball conservative law professors are at the University of Tennessee School of Law. George Mason University Law School, a lower-tier law school in the DC area, has its fair share, including David E. Bernstein, who draws one of the more preposterous conclusions from the Supreme Court’s recent decision in the gun control case:
The Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, upholding the Second Amendment right of individuals to own firearms, should finally lay to rest the widespread myth that the defining difference between liberal and conservative justices is that the former support “individual rights” and “civil liberties,” while the latter routinely defer to government assertions of authority.
It seems to me that one instance doth not a “myth” retire. Professor Bernstein, obviously worried about the same thing, puts on his Mickey Mouse thinking cap, strains his brain muscle as hard as he has ever done before, and plops out some other examples of how Justice Scalia is such a great advocate of your civil liberties that he deserves to be given the Nobel Peace Prize. Twice.
For starters:
In Davis v. Federal Election Commission, decided the same day as Heller, Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the Court’s conservatives, reaffirmed the “fundamental nature of the right to spend personal funds for campaign speech.” The dissenters argued that “in the context of elections . . . limiting the quantity of speech” is perfectly acceptable.
This is the sort of self-parody that makes our job — as juvenile parodists and purveyors of adolescent humor — so easy here at Sadly, No! In Davis, the court struck down the, get this, “Millionaire’s Amendment” to McCain-Feingold, thereby striking a blow for the rights of rich guys running for office. Woohoo! Give me more of those civil liberties. This is rather like calling the decision striking down the punitive damages imposed on Exxon for the Valdez oil spill a victory for the civil rights of large corporations to desecrate our coastlines.
And what the Supreme Court specifically did in Davis was strike down the right of people running against millionaires to receive individual campaign contributions in excess of the normal individual limits. The conservative justices were thereby, you see, safeguarding the rights of the poor candidates to have less money than their millionaire opponents, while the liberals were attacking the rights of millionaires to buy a seat in Congress. Bad liberals!
Ready for some more fun, SadlyNots? Here’s another example of Republican justices protecting your civil rights:
Liberals have also been more willing than conservatives to limit the First Amendment’s protection of “expressive association.” The Court’s conservatives held that forcing the Boy Scouts of America to employ a gay scoutmaster violated the Scouts’ right to promote its belief in traditional sexual morality.
In other words, the conservative justices are busy protecting the right to discriminate. But the right to equal access by gay scouts and scoutmasters to programs using public funds and public facilities? Not so much. And before the liberals messed up everything with Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down the Texas sodomy law, the conservatives were busy protecting the right of evangelical Christians who didn’t want to live next door to people having something other than Jesus-approved man-on-top-of-woman sex.
And the fun just doesn’t stop with this clown:
Liberal justices have been willing to uphold virtually any use of race by the government–including quotas in higher education, set-asides for government contracts, and raced-based assignments of students to public schools–so long as the government claims benign motives. The conservatives, by contrast, argue that the government must treat people as individuals, not as members of a racial caste.
More rights for whites! Less for blacks!! More for me; less for you! Now those are the sorts of civil rights a white guy like me (and Bernstein) can sign on to.
The conservatives, for example, have been … more inclined to forbid government regulation of “hate speech.”
So, to sum up, if you’re a rich straight white guy who wants to run for office and demonstrate at funerals holding up “God Hates Fags” signs, this Supreme Court is looking out for your rights. Who would have thought it?
If this guy had been around during FDR’s era, he probably would have celebrated the Supreme Court upholding the right of Schechter Bros. to sell diseased chickens.
And if he’s been around in the antebellum days, he would have cheered the right of Dred Scott to be returned to his owner.
Really?
This guy is on the faculty of a law school?
And he writes stuff like this?
I’d expect stuff like this from somebody at Regent University, but George Mason?
Isn’t that a legitimate university?
I’d like to assert my right to shove turds through David Bernstein’s letterbox, but he’d probably deny me that right.
The big liberal fascist.
As far as George Mason goes, remember that Walter E. Williams used to be head of the economics department.
Is he being disingenious about his arguments or is he just cherry-picking his facts? Well, like the correct response to question “Beer or Wine?”, the answer is both!
Way to busts those myths there. Conservative justices weigh in more strongly in favour of property rights – quelle grand surprise!
Emphasis mine.
Hey Davy-boy, you don’t mind if I call you Davy-boy? If you define First amendment rights as “what corporations can get away with in advertising”, you’re not really talking about the same thing as you said you were talking about, are you? But thanks for labelling Kennedy as a “conservative” – you just bought your own savaging at the hands of the anti-activist-judges lunatic right.
Ya know what Davy-boy? When your example of standing up for individual rights is siding with a national organization over firing an individual gay guy, that should raise a flag. Just saying.
And in closing, I’d like to say
PENIS
Wow. That might have been pretty good, if I had remembered to close the second blockquote.
Hey, wait. I did close that blockquote! I can’t believe I’m saying this, but thanks WordPress for closing my blockquote, unless I really did do it myself and am just remembering my tpynytfing wrong. In that case, Fuck You WordPress!
@Dragon-King:
Nice post. But really, it’s no use asking what they’re thinking because they’re not fucking thinking anything. I also expected better than this from George Mason, Heraclitus, because I lurk over at their history blog. Pretty good stuff.
This is all central to my point. PENIS!!!
The Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, upholding the Second Amendment right of individuals to own firearms, should finally lay to rest the widespread myth that the defining difference between liberal and conservative justices is that the former support “individual rights” and “civil liberties,” while the latter routinely defer to government assertions of authority.
Hey, maybe it’ll also lay to rest the widespread myth that “conservatives” favor state or local power over federal. Maybe he could find a case or hundred to support that thesis without the mental yoga this piece of shysterism required. Great hat, though.
What a coincidence! I studied economics under Wendy O. Williams.
and soweltrain, that is central to my point. my point being that i studied eschatology under william carlos williams.
Actually, and this has nothing to do with anything, George Mason is a higher tier law school than Tennessee.
As an American, I possess the inalienable right to be dumped on by the rich and powerful. And dedicated guys like Bernstein will always be there to protect that right, no matter what.
Hey, maybe it’ll also lay to rest the widespread myth that “conservatives” favor state or local power over federal.
Bingo.
Sadly, if Bush v. Gore didn’t do that, nothing will.
I too studied economics under Williams but sadly ran out of quarters before I could get my mba.
George Mason is a commuter school all grown up…which isn’t necessarily a horrible thing. It’s the sort of place that you can get a pretty decent education without throwing down an assload of money or having to live the full college experience for four years. Good for people with families, people working jobs, people who are going back to grad school after a 10-year period, etc.
With that being said, these sorts of places seem to employ loons like this one and Walt Williams because they’ll nab the school some press. Too bad whenever Walt or this guy write like C-list wingnut bloggers, they make the school look terrible.
Also, Glenn Reynolds taking peeping tom shots of UT students doesn’t do much for the cause of Volunteer Law.
Hey, I just came across a book with the following tagline:
Guess who wrote it?
Perhaps the professor is trying out for a spot in Gonzalez’s Justice Department?
“safeguarding the rights of the poor candidates to have less money than their millionaire opponents, ”
brings to mind Anatole France’s
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.”
What I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally don’t understand is what they get out of it.
I mean, most of these clowns aren’t raking in the bucks. They don’t have prestigious positions, or even influential ones. They have to know their books are vanity press endeavors. And there doesn’t seem to be too many people who actually like them, or are willing to sleep with them, unpaid.
I can understand selling out when you get something out of it.
But this is like selling your soul for a half melted popsicle.
Werebear,
They’re all planning for when they hit the lottery, or for when they perfect the hamburger earmuffs.
Seriously, 80% of wingnuttia is predicated on the idea that, someday, they too will be rich and they don’t want to give up a single cent to taxes.
But this is like selling your soul for a half melted popsicle.
If a half melted popsicle is worth more than the soul in question, that wingnut is maximizing utility!
And speeeeaking of The Ole Stalker, here’s a line he just heh-indeeded over at Instapundit:
That’s right, Tennessee taxpayers…your hard-earned cash is going to fund this guy’s um…scholarship. Congrats.
But they go right into the gutter when attacking John McCain.
Funny, he left out “Saint”.
But you can smell the poutrage all the way to Ohio.
This space reserved for comment if a non-retarded conservative is ever discovered, perhaps hiding in shame in a cave in the Andes.
Refresh my memory:
Is Walter Williams the one who writes like Thomas Sowell, but with ten more IQ points?
Shorter This Guy: Conservative judges are TOTALLY in favor of freedom–provided you change your definition of “freedom.”
This confused me for a minute until I realized you were talking about Anatole Freedomland.
Carry on.
Seriously, 80% of wingnuttia is predicated on the idea that, someday, they too will be rich and they don’t want to give up a single cent to taxes.
I’m sure you are right… prepare for the fantasy today!
I don’t see why hedonism can’t go along with not-paying-taxes… to me they are far more aligned than not.
But if it made sense, it wouldn’t be a wingnut alliance!
Defending the prerogatives of the mighty makes them like they’re on the winning side. The greater the wealth and power of the master, the higher the status of the servant.
What a coincidence! I studied economics under Wendy O. Williams.
I would have rather had Wendy O. Williams under me.
Say what you will, this is not a bad deal.
This all proceeds from the legal axiom that I myself enunciated (after I made it up) a few years ago:
My right to swing my arm ends at your nose. Then commences my right to hit you in the nose, and your right to be hit in the nose by me.
What’s the problem?
Then commences my right to hit you in the nose, and your right to be hit in the nose by me.
Nokay then.
The fact is, Google and Blogspot are biased and eliminating any negative blogs about Obama. This is the liberal meida hate machine in action censoring free speach.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2008/06/29/google-shuts-down-anti-obama-sites-its-blogger-platform
Invoking the Keynesian Forumla of Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + Exports – Imports = Gross Domestic Product, we find that:
Consumption of one electric guitar + investment in one chain saw + spending by concert attendees in amphetamine + Wendy’s large breasts – strips of electrical tape over Wendy’s nipples = Gross Assault on the Senses!
http://gallery.photo.net/photo/4942803-lg.jpg
Economic laws demand that this we have freedom to own guns and to use them in self defense. Liberals think economic laws have no force.
Seriously, 80% of wingnuttia is predicated on the idea that, someday, they too will be rich and they don’t want to give up a single cent to taxes.
And they have to be nice to the rich folks now, because they’ll all be friends later, and they don’t want to let any mean ol’ laws be made now that’ll take their money away in the future.
Turns out, too, that despite what one might read in the Bible, Jesus actually wants all these folks to be rich, and really, who are they to argue.
OT but this is so funny. Did you know that some wingnut sites like the AFA’s auto-replace the word gay with the homosexual when they run stories from sources like the AP? Neither did I but they do so look what they published when Tyson Gay won the 100 meter event at the Olympic trials:
Yay for Tyson Homosexual!!!
This brings up a very important point. Which is better?
— A bag of dicks.
— A sack of dicks.
— A poke of dicks.
— Un bolso de los penes.
Yeah. Walt’s not as mind-boggingly banal as Sowell, but what he loses in that he makes up for in being a complete righteous jackass. Which is, of course, more interesting than being a hacky one-note strawman artist like DR.!!!!!!!!! Sowell. Though his far, far, far oversimplified version of economics is laughable coming from a “distinguished” scholar, and anyone who references President Franklin Pierce with admiration is just asking for a smackdown.
Walt wins points for bitching about airline security. So there’s that.
This sounds a lot like something conservatives think is true because they hear other conservatives say it over and over again. I could jump to conclusions and just assume that you are just repeating something you heard from one of the great conservative thinkers like Thomas Sowell or Mallard Fillmore, but I’ve decided to give you the benefit of the doubt:
Tell me why you think liberals believe economic laws have no force. You use it as a mantra, but I’d like to see some real discussion, including some examples. (You do know what an example is, don’t you? Repeating a talking point is not an example.)
The more specific you are, the more credible you will be.
I’m not expecting much. I remember the babble you infected us with the last time you were asked to do anything more than repeat the latest drivel from the Big Golden Book of Republican Talking Points. (If you aren’t saying that Barack HUSSEIN Obama is running for Jimmy Carter’s second term, then you don’t have the latest edition.)
Liberals hate America. Now that is a fact.
Good God!
Not SowellFan again!
So then the way we excercise our civil rights is by bringing your gun to a free speech zone and having your phone tapped while a sneak and peek NSL is executed in your house. Then getting waterboarded so you are forced to testify against yourself.
Liberals hate Don Cornelius. Now that is a fact.
This brings up a very important point. Which is better?
Why does it have to be just one? There’s dicks enough to go around.
Liberals want to see fewer Americans dying in Iraq for no reason.
Conservatives want to see more Americans dying in Iraq for no reason AND they are very unhappy that no Americans are dying in Iran for no reason.
Why are conservatives so eager to see America turn into a Nation of Bed-Wetters?
To go around what?
Hoosier-
You’re debating with Fake SowellFan. Just so you know.
Oh no you didn’t,
To go around what?
I guess you did.
Say!
I like two balls and shaft!
I do! I like them, in a raft!
And I would like them in a boat.
And Mickey Kaus likes blowing goats.
And I will keep them in their sack.
And in a bag. And off the rack.
And in a purse. And in a poke.
In a poke, cause that’s what you do with ’em, no joke!
So I will keep them in a box.
And I will keep them under locks.
A bag of dicks is in my house.
A sack of dicks is best I espouse.
A multitude of cocks are here and there.
Say! There be dicks EVERYWHERE!
Economic laws demand that this we have freedom to own guns and to use them in self defense. Liberals think economic laws have no force.
Huh?!?
Um, try: guns are much better at subtracting freedom, often permanently, than they are at enhancing it, as they are a poor substitute for brainpower when it comes to self-defense. Liberals know economic laws are not commandments set in stone – they’re the current operating menu for the specific economy of the commnunity that opts to use them – & that the absolute WORST predicate for a worthwhile & functional economy is brute force. Which seems to’ve helped the US put its maimed economy back together every time another GOP freakjob-posse has put the boots to it, for about half a century now. They also know (the sharper ones) that there’s no guarantee the repair job will hold up next time around – the neocons’ Sacred Stupid has indeed burned a jumbo-scale hole in it this time. That curve you’re coasting down along can turn very steep, very quickly.
You not only have the right to be ruthlessly robbed by sociopathic rich-bastard elites with a teaspoon-sized gene-pool, you now ALSO have the right to buy even more of their weapons so you can maim & kill one another! Wow, what a total win-win!
I laid a myth once. Freya. You know. Norse Goddess of love, fertility, war, and wealth. She was in my Econ class in college. Unfortunately, it turned out it was just all in my imagination.
Liberals actually hate the Red Sox and Patriots. Real liberals I mean.
Tee hee.
Eye canz run fast?
The fact is, Google and Blogspot are biased and eliminating any negative blogs about Obama. This is the liberal meida hate machine in action censoring free speach.
Shorter Warner Todd Huston: I heard a rumor that seven PUMA sites have had their Blogger accounts frozen for spamming. As a responsible journalist, I must assume that the evil liberal corporate masters have launched a massive conspiracy to keep anyone from criticizing Obama on the internet. Is the end of free speech at hand?
Update: I also heard that it was just some punks hitting the “spam alert”, but I didn’t want to repeat that until I had solid proof.
Pedestrian…wow, so this means Glenn Reynolds is now pushing something Interrupting Walrus said (Instadoofus brought up the whole “Obama’s shutting down websites!” thing earlier today).
Yep, again…your tax dollars at work, Volunteers.
Please take a moment to contact Glenn Reynolds’ dean’s office and ask about Glenn’s creepy photos:
http://www.law.utk.edu/departments/Deanofc/deanofficecontact.htm
More creepy Reynolds pics:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/003872.php
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/003874.php
Apparently he found that blond so irresistible that he shot her from two angles. I like the low angle of the second one, indicating that he was either shooting clandestine from the hip, or literally lurking behind the patio railing.
At least he asked them to pose:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/019887.php
Notice the composition. The brunette may as well not be present as far as Glenn is concerned.
The last one in this set makes me picture Glenn fumbling with the zoom as he furiously surveys the bare feet:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/018574.php
Gee, I love the caption on that last pic:
The University of Tennessee: now with more gender than ever!
Of course, here’s Glenn’s most recent inappropriate candid student shots:
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/021047.php
http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/020907.php
I’d imagine that these could make some UT students and parents very upset.
Why didn’t they have this many co-eds when I was in college? Right? Am I right? Yowza!
Hello, young lady, I’m a freshman looking to pledge a frat. Would you mind helping me practice with the paddle? Joking! Joking! Seriously, how about a hug for an old alum?
BB, I want to vote for “poke of peckers”. The fact that it’s not stated as an option constrains my right to vote and your own right to free speech. Fascist!
peck of pickled peckers?
I wonder when Shakesville, which is essentially LadyInstapundit(TM), will chime in on this controversy. You know, when they get done with beating up on Barack Obama for not being, um, pro-choice (a million times sic).
peck of pickled peckers?
Now why does this remind me of the old Life cereal commercials? “I’m not going to try it. You try it…”
Now why does this remind me of the old Life cereal commercials? “I’m not going to try it. You try it…”
are we going to make mikey try it?
Not “make”… being liberals we’ll just trick him into it with our Islamo-atheist scientific pacifism.
“He likes it!”
Peter Piper had his pick of pickled peckers. How many pickled peckers pelted Peter Piper’s pecs?
The liberal dissenters thought the government should be allowed to force the Scouts to present a message inconsistent with the Scouts’ values.
Since I don’t remember how to do strikethru, I’ll just have to rewrite this thusly:
“The liberal dissenters thought the government should be allowed to tell the Scouts to use the government’s money in ways that didn’t contradict the government’s values. If they wanted to contradict the government’s values, they should have used their own damn money.”
I’m just saying said,
June 30, 2008 at 22:07 (kill)
I wonder when Shakesville, which is essentially LadyInstapundit(TM), will chime in on this controversy. You know, when they get done with beating up on Barack Obama for not being, um, pro-choice (a million times sic).
Am I alone in feeling that this schtick is getting old?
Especially since it is demonstrably not true.
Perhaps you should trot out the Nader = Satan one, D.N.
Because that shit never gets old. Nor has it failed to gain new friends and admirers on each and every one of the approximately 3.4 gazillion times it has appeared since 2001.
PS, please note that I am female, and therefore a HITLERY KLINTOON dead-ender PUMA McCain supporter OMFG!!1! A feminazi just like Melissa McEwen!!! Except just like Melissa McEwen, actually originally an Edwards supporter who did not really care all that much for Clinton and who loathes McCain .
Teh Google. It workz.
Um, Clif, the University of Tennessee School of Law and George Mason University Law School, fine institutions though they may be, got nothin’ on UC Berkeley.
Am I alone in feeling that this schtick is getting old?
Yes because but only because it was stale when he first trotted it out so how could it get old? Dude sucks with his collection of sock puppets and his trollish ways and now check him out up thread lecturing Hoosier X for arguing with a fake troll. I guess he doesn’t want anyone encroaching on his turf.
Fuck off.
This is just to say
I have spent
the surplus
that was in
the lockbox
and which
people were probably
saving
for retirement
Forgive me
it was delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Fuck off.
That was fast but not quick at all. You’re a sad, sad person aren’t you? Reloading the page constantly in hopes that Melissa or Zuzu is going to show up to argue with you here is pathetic and that ain’t the half of it. Get a fucking hobby you loser. Cultivate some chia pets or something, anything.
Teh Google. It workz.
Doesn’t it though?
I’m sorry there’s been a misunderstanding between us. Let me clear something up.
When I say fuck off, that’s that. Fuck off. As in, fuck off. So, you know, goodbye. It was nice talking to you. Also, don’t forget: Fuck off. Didn’t know you before, and I won’t now. Fuck off.
I’m sorry
there’s been a misunderstanding between us. Let me clear something up.When I say fuck off, that’s that. Fuck off. As in, fuck off. So, you know, goodbye. It was nice talking to you. Also, don’t forget: Fuck off. Didn’t know you before, and I won’t now. Fuck off.
Fixed but mend your ways and stop being such a dick and then I will happily and graciously accept your apology.
Why do you refuse to fuck off? Baffling, this.
It’s not hard, really. Just stroll on back to LadyInstapundit, and I’ll keep being a dick here. Win-win. So…you know. Fuck off.
LadyInstapundit
That really is stupid you know.
Both similar symptoms of the same sickness.
Am I alone in feeling that this schtick is getting old?
No. No, you are not.
I’d imagine that these could make some UT students and parents very upset.
Why? Please explain.
I am in a position to know what might make the parents and students at UT very upset. Trust me, this would be the least of it. And my InstaPudding™ loathing takes back seat to no one’s.
Do any of you nincompoops realize that the Boy Scouts case had nothing to do with government funds? If the case had come out the other way, gay rights groups could be forced to accept Christian fundies as members.
I think D.N. Nation never got over the loss of Bear Bryant. Or something.
nincompoops
Pincomnoops.
Oh. And D.N. Nation, please let me add: Fuck off.
Why do you refuse to fuck off? Baffling, this.
Why don’t you ban me if you don’t like what I’m up to here?
Oh, that’s right, this isn’t your fucking blog is it? Maybe you can be the one to take a fucking hint here and stop shitting all over the comment section. Asshole. If you don’t like being trolled stop being a fucking troll.
MzNicky-
Not an Alabama fan.
Cathal-
Fuck off.
DN: Oh, that’s right. You’re a HotLantan. Well hell, whatever. Everyone hates teh winner.
I doubly despise you for making me drag out teh athletics.
Held you at gunpoint and all.
You’d like that, wouldn’t you?
I’m bored. See you a thread up, Nicky.
its the same mental deficiency that afflicts frontrunning losers that become dallass, yankees (or red sox nowadays), and lakers fans while living nowhere near those teams’ cities.
we all know the type. theres probably a few in your family.
This is just to say
I have spent
the surplus
that was in
the lockbox
and which
people were probably
saving
for retirement
Forgive me
it was delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Delectable.
Jews aren’t white, they are more than white in regards to American power, while at the same time “oy so poisecuted”. The jew pushes your “whites are entitled” nonsense. Everysingle congressman (except Jim Moran / Ron Paul), and the president is in the pockets of the jewish lobby.
Whenever you post some pic, claim it white, and make fun of it for being a “white millionaire” I know I’ll have a jew.
Wow, what the fuck?
Additionally, Cathal Brouhaha, thanks for fucking off. Continue doing so.
Thanks for no longer being a sad troll. Oh, wait.
Wait.
Waaaaaaaaaait….
Okay, brain downloaded, Glenn Reynolds-style, into a TrollBot. We’ll see you all on the current threads!
As for me, I’ll take D.N.’s advice and fuck off, as I’m a dead-ending asshat who adds nothing but misplaced scorn. Toodles!
Aww, Cathal, we don’t see you much these days. You’re missed, really.
Still don’t see you! Ah well.
STILL don’t see you, though it’s nice to see that the Shakesville you so happily defended in ye olden times has turned into such a festering grift-factory. Much to be proud of.