Here and There

Ignoring the economy and my personal stake in it, I’m becoming quite a fan of the United States of America these days.

Okay, that’s the capsulized version. I just really trust that we’re reprioritizing, and doing it right this time. This really does feel like a once-in-a-generation election. Obama has already made some very important decisions, and despite disagreeing with a few, they’ve almost all been good ones.

Yes, I put an exclamation in the title here. It’s worth it.

Justice John Paul Stevens can now peacefully retire. As can Ginsburg, and possibly Souter (so a lawyer friend tells me).

Obama will almost certainly get two appointments to the court, and possibly three. His election more or less ensures that the basic civil rights we enjoy today will be protected for another generation.

Of course, the court will prove instrumental in reinstating many rights that were stripped away under the worst presidency in modern times. That process will be more harrowing than defending against any further erosion.

But it’s a happy realization. The republic has been saved.

Now close Guantánamo, end tortue and tribunals, end rendition, wiretapping … &c., &c., &c.

Matthew Yglesias » Worst President Ever

I don’t know. Yglesias is really only thinking domestically. Bush has let a major U.S. city disintegrate, overall infrastructure deteriorate, drastically increased the disparity between rich and poor, and plunged the country into massive amounts of debt after years of surplus.

He’s helped the international community slide into chaos, invaded a sovereign nation for virtually no reason at all, snubbed international legal and environmental treaties, and presided over perhaps the most drastic fall of the U.S. dollar in history. He’s allowed (possibly knowingly) the U.S. to torture prisoners, when he wasn’t farming it out. I know I’m forgetting plenty here.

This is no statistical analysis, mind you. Nor am I anywhere near as versed in history as Yglesias. And I agree: Buchanan was abysmal. I just think he’s giving Bush too much credit here, or not holding him as accountable as he should.

Needless to say, count me in that 42 percent that thinks he’s the worst. I think he’s a great candidate for it, anyway.

John Cole draws analogies to Roe v. Wade. I’m no scholar of the court, but that seems fitting.

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around what it will mean since I first saw the headline this morning. Okay, it is now absolutely legal to keep firearms in your home as a means to self-defense. I’m fine with that. Should someone intrude or invade your privacy, I guess you should have the right to blow holes in their kneecaps. I’m not too terribly concerned with that.

And, considering thugs who already carry guns around in public, no law will abate such behavior, criminal or not. Thugz will be thugz, yo.

What I am concerned with (again, on a kneejerk basis) is the wanton recklessness this could lead to.

Could it really get worse than it already is?, you ask.

Yes, I fear.

I am afraid of the slippery slope leading from “self-defense,” in the “home,” to the use of firearms anywhere one so chooses. Someone cuts you off in traffic? Bam! They’re dead, or at least hurt bad. Someone picks up your newspaper by accident (antiquated example?), sorry, suckah! Boss fires you for what you consider to be no real reason at all? “Fire” his ass, just like that!

I know, i know, these things already happen. I guess I just worry about a more-permissive atmosphere for them to happen in. I worry about the spread of guns. I worry about increased usage.

Tell me, should I quit worrying?