Amending the Fifth

Get your erasers out, everyone.  The court last week decided to erase “public” from the fifth amendment’s so-called “takings clause.”  If you get a chance, you should read the entire dissenting opinion, written by Justice Sandra Day OÂ’Connor.  It’s a masterpiece.  Here’s just a short quote, however that more or less summarizes the effect of the ruling:
Under the banner of economic development, all private property is now vulnerable to being taken and transferred to another private owner, so long as it might be upgraded—i.e., given to an owner whowill use it in a way that the legislature deems more beneficial to the public—in the process. To reason, as the Court does, that the incidental public benefits resulting from the subsequent ordinary use of private property render economic development takings “for public use” is to wash out any distinction between private and public use of property—and thereby effectively to delete the words “for public use” from the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Accordingly I respectfully dissent.
I can’t say it any better than that.

Catching Up

So, I haven’t been blogging for a few days.  No excuses.
 
Let’s see, Durbin apologized again after Mayor Daley took him to task for his comments.  He’s really sorry now, apparently.  The tears were a nice touch.
 
Congress restored the $100 million in funding that Republicans tried to cut from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  That was a relief.
 
My wife (Amy) and I went to see “Batman Begins” the other night.  It was a good show, but I still like the two Batman movies with Michael Keaton the best.  The idea that Batman could best all the guys who trained him at once really stretched my willing suspension of disbelief, but it was still entertaining.
 
On the other end of the spectrum, I took Jackie to see “Herbie: Fully Loaded” on Saturday.  It was cute, but it’s not the Herbie that I liked when I was a kid.  This Herbie is a little too, well, human.  The bumper can curl up (smile) or down (frown), the headlights inexplicably have eyelids, and in one scene Herbie is completely CGI.  Herbie also falls in love with one of the new bugs.  In the old Herbie movies, Herbie was a car.  A car with a mind of its own, but still a car.  Other than that, it was a pretty entertaining movie.  Jackie liked it.  However, the movie for the two of us was $11 — and concessions were $14.  There’s something wrong with that!
 
My dad and I took a walk yesterday along the new Charter Oak extension road they’re building.  It’s just about finished.  Looks like they just have to finish up the sidewalks and put down some sod and some trees in the boulevard.  The old Big Hollow Road bridge has been completely removed, and it looks like they’re building cul de sacs on either side of where the bridge used to be.
 
I’ve been reading Bill Dennis’s blog lately — man, that guy is right on top of things.  Where does he find the time to do all that blogging?  I know about his job situation and all, but still — it’s not like not having a job means you can sit around all day and blog.  Looking for a new job is full-time work itself.  Best of luck to you in your search, Mr. Pundit.
 
I heard that WMBD switched from ABC News to Fox News.  Ah, finally some balance to all that liberal news programming!  Oh, wait…..
 
Well, there’s only one other thing I need to comment on, but I’ll post a separate blog for that.  And I think I’m all caught up!