The 2008 U.S. Supreme Court decision that categorized gun ownership as an individual right actually hurts our liberties. The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution at the behest of states that feared, as many of us do today, the increasing power of a federal government over the power of state governments. Despite what some gun owners and gun groups say, the Second Amendment pertains to power, not rights. It is not about the right to keep/own guns. Individual rights that the states' rights supporters of the late 18th century feared were endangered by a strong federal system were addressed in the First Amendment: speech, assembly, press and religion. If the Constitution were to address the issue of gun ownership as an individual right on this level, it would have placed that protection there, in the First Amendment. In the power struggle over ratification of the Constitution, the Second Amendment is about the states' right to regulate -- allow, with safeguards -- gun ownership. The states feared that the new federal government could come in with force and compel them to follow federal laws that could harm individual freedoms. One way to ensure this does not occur is to ensure that, "A well regulated Militia" be maintained -- not by the federal government but by the states, a militia that is obviously "necessary to the security of a free State." That last word, "State," does not mean the nation. The primary allegiance of many Americans of the day was to their state governments. In this context, therefore, "a free State" meant Georgia, or South Carolina, or New York. It did not mean the United States. The fear, therefore, was that the power to control that entity -- the militia -- that was "necessary to the security" of the state would be taken from the states and given to this new, more powerful federal government. They saw the Second Amendment as being key to keeping this right on the state level -- where government had the greatest impact on their lives and needs. In its recent ruling declaring the Second Amendment to be under the aegis of individual rights, the Supreme Court struck a blow against states' rights. The court took the regulation of militias -- and, thereby, guns -- away from the states and placed it with the federal government. In essence, the Supreme Court did exactly what the states' rights proponents over 200 years ago feared in the new Constitution; they subjugated the power of the state government.

Final Frontier Fears

For many of the 1960s children, space fascinated, attracted, and, at times, consumed us. Not this little Ameronaut. The beautiful pictures of our solar system sisters in the books, filmstrips, and on TV held no sway over my innocent heart. No, they filled me with another emotion: Fear. The images I saw showed not exciting and alluring worlds to explore; they showed empty, airless space surrounding these planets. All that stark emptiness left and still leaves me practically gasping for air. There is no attraction seen, only suffocation. Ironic, isn't it? In the vastness of all of space, I find the universe getting too small to even fill my lungs.

Mixed Messages and the Troops

The astonishing numbers of American soldiers returning from the Bush/Obama Wars with severe emotional issues say to me that there is a harsh disconnect going on. At home, we gung-hoingly (if Sarah P. can do it...) supported the rush to war. Now, a decade on, we don't care as the national attention span rivals that of a crack addict. We don't know or care that death happens there; it has nothing to do with us going to Wally World and buying more shite. Yet, we send our sons and daughters there to witness death, cause it, participate in it, and expect them to return to the apathy of a nation that willfully ignores the wars and resents its (rare) intrusion on our consumption. One can see that such a dissonance--the chaos there and the blasé here--would cause the stripping of emotional gears even in the stoutest among us. We must bring them home, now.

Voter ID Solution

The answer we came up with in our town to get around the asinine law requiring photo ID to vote was a simple one. The poll workers simply ignored the law and let our friends and neighbors vote as they always have. Now, this may not work in the cities, but it sure did in our small town. And we all felt a gret deeal of patriotic pride that we helped keep the right to vote for our town. So, to all those who try to disenfranchise some Americans, we say, "Nyaaaah!"

rcp?

Yes.

Renaissance because my fecund and furry little mind has its hand in and around a jillion ideas and projects that range far and wee.

Couch potato because an object at rest tends to stay at rest.

This will be the forum from which I shall launch my mental barque upon the world.*

*My barque being worse than my byte.