I watched some of the Alito hearings in awe. Alito is very impressive, a great speaker, coherent and logical - but he is damaged goods since his reason and logic has boundaries.

The evidence - the refusal to acknowledge that the constitution is a ‘living document’.

This is the latest meme to attack the very foundation of American Democracy by people who cannot accept the Constitution unless it is ‘Intelligently Designed’ and not Evolutionary.

Since the constitution clearly does change - there are amendments, the argument against it as a living document is not creationist - i.e. it does not pretend that the amendments are fiction, that would be crazy.

Instead, like Intelligent Design it tries to create a mechanism whereby things do change but they change because of an original, divinely inspired and complete design - the original Constitution.

This is the exact opposite of what the founding fathers intended and unlike the biblical history - we have thousands of sources to verify it.

The reason the constitution has amendments is not because it was perfect to start with but badly interpreted, but precisely because the people that wrote it knew the dangers of a frozen religious like document being the central pivot of government.

If you seriously think the constitution is not a living document, then you either:

Stupid: think that Black people should not be treated as human and are too stupid to sit on a supreme court

A constitutional creationist: think that scientific discussion of the Constitution is not possible because it is divinely inspired and therefore your application of reason only extends to areas that are not infected by faith.

A constitutional proponent of Intelligent Design: think that every amendment was because the founding fathers really meant what the amendment says, but people didn’t really understand not because there is progress.

Alito is in the last category, he thinks that the Constitution is a religion.

Google Search: living document

I normally beat up right wing incompetence, but time to have a go at left wing paranoia.

Unlike stories of outing spies etc., many people in technology know that using tracking pixels or cookies is ubiquitous, accepted practice, i.e. neither unusual or sinister.

So the thing that can be learned from the story below, is that if something sounds sinister, people will report it as such and one can assume that this is the case for other accusations against the government.

ABC News: U.S. to Probe Contractor’s Web Tracking

Wow - Michael Ignatieff, who is a genuinely intelligent person, unlike the vast majority of politicians, is going to run for the Canadian premiership.

I’ve seen him stark bollock naked, because we used the same gym in London - I guess I may have seen the Emperor with no clothes.

TheStar.com - No more Mr. Nice Guy

American Rhetoric: McCarthy-Welch Exchange During the Army-McCarthy Hearings

In light of today’s attacks and me being increasingly annoyed with both right and left wing ‘bloggards’, I thought I would pick out a sample piece and fact check it:

Instapundit writes:

“UPDATE: Here are some interesting observations about the location of the attacks in London. “I have talked to a few people who have pointed out that Edgware, Aldgate (and Moorgate) and King’s Cross all are in or adjacent to Muslim communities. King’s Cross is the locale of The School of Oriental and African Studies, a highly respected institution teaching and researching Asia, Africa and the Middle East. It is possible that the attacks were as much directed at the Muslim population as much as the city at large.”

1. There are many other stations that are near SOAS, such that Kings Cross is certainly not the local tube station to it. Also, SOAS’s remit not Islam - hence the name.

2. Edgware is 10 miles from Edgware road, which is indeed a Muslim area. However the train was on its way to Edgware Road from somewhere else. The Edgware Road station is at the far end of the Muslim area of the Edgware Road on the boundary of what is certainly not a Muslim area.

3. Aldgate’s nearest Muslim community is Bangladeshi, however it is closest to the rather bigger target, the Financial district.

4. These tube stations are way underground, with no damage to the surface areas.

Like numerology, given the ethnic diversity of London you could pretty much link these three area to any community with similar (in)accuracy.

None of these places show any particular ‘alien’ population pattern any more than a crop circle shows where aliens will land.

I have been reading political blogs to try and find out what makes particular ones good meme spreaders. One the left I looked at Eschaton and DailyKos and on the right Instapundit and Little Green Morons.

Conclusions: The left is full of crop circle paranoids. The right is full of stupid angry people.
The sheer volume of information in both does manage to strip things to bare bones facts, but not by virtue of intelligence, just volume - like a colony of bacteria feeding on a corpse.

Analysis still seems to be better in MSM - so I’ll be sticking to my favorite publications for the moment: The Economist and Atlantic Monthly.

Great New York Metro piece on Judy Miller from a while back:

“…when there is trouble, it appears she

MSNBC Analyst Says Cooper Documents Reveal Karl Rove as Source in Plame Case

This would be the most ironic story ever - Journo leaks via unknown source - Supreme Court rules that journos have to give up sources - Supreme Court member resigns - Rove gets to be spindoctor for replacement - MSNBC analyst says that Rove was the leaker.

“Now that Time Inc. has turned over documents to federal court, presumably revealing who its reporter, Matt Cooper, identified as his source in the Valerie Plame/CIA case, speculation runs rampant on the name of that source, and what might happen to him or her. Tonight, on the syndicated McLaughlin Group political talk show, Lawrence O’Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, claimed to know that name–and it is, according to him, top White House mastermind Karl Rove.”

Somehow this doesn’t ring true. This rumor has been around blogs for a while, but this is the first time I’ve seen a major outlet cover it. It couldn’t be true, could it?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US accepts Earth is warming in bid to avert clash

In a massive u-turn over global warming a government statement says:

“We know the surface of the Earth is warmer and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem”

Perhaps David Holcberg (the guy that the Ayn Randis booted out for saying that people shouldn’t donate to tsunami victims) will be the last person on Earth to deny it.

That is until someone creates an ‘Intelligent Design’ version.

“Private bloggers or websites must register the complete identity of the person responsible for the site, and the ministry - which has set a June 30 deadline for compliance - said 74% of all sites had already registered.”

A nice reminder that despite China’s economic growth, it is not free.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | China orders bloggers to register with government