Sunday, November 6, 2011

Judicial Activism

Justice Robert Bork has opined that if we were to observe the Tenth Amendment of our Bill of Rights as it is written, we would wreck our federal system as it now functions.

Exactly! Let's get it done!

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

At least one of them gets it:

"Day-by-day, case-by-case, the Supreme Court is busy designing a Constitution for a country I do not recognize."

Justice Antonio Scalia

Friday, November 4, 2011

First (and probably only) Autoknives


Just bought my first autoknives ("switchblades", for those whose knowledge of pocket knives is limited to having seen West Side Story). Both are "out-the-fronts", a Microtech Scarab and a Lightning. They're very similar, except that the latter is a quarter of the quality and a tenth of the price of the former.

I bought them only because the cantankerous curmudgeon who was arrested for possessing them and whose subsequent lawsuit against the state made them legal again is an acquaintance. And as a thumb-in-the-eye to the sort of people who try to regulate what I eat peaches with. Sort of like when I bought my first "assault rifle" just because Hillary said I shouldn't have one.

First impressions:

1. A fixed-blade is in every way superior. Cost, strength, durability, speed of deployment, quietness, reliability, utility, ergonomics.

2. There is an undeniable 'fun factor'.

3. I wonder how long they'll last, since everyone who sees them has to play with them.

4. It was worth it just to see the eyeballs bug out of my wife's friend from Massachusetts when she asked if I had a pocketknife to open a box.

Such knives are most often thought of as "fighting" or "tactical" knives, but they are the worst possible choice for such a thing. They're fun just-plain-everyday pocket knives, though.