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Anyone who is silly enough to read this blog regularly or who knows me personally knows that I hold some pretty liberal positions. But, I also hold some positions that would traditionally be considered to the right. Gun rights are one area where I am found on the far right side of the spectrum. I believe that it is the Constitutional right of an American citizen to own handguns, rifles and shotguns. While I believe that many people should not own guns, we have to respect their right to do so. It turns out that although anti-gun politics have enjoyed strong judicial and political support throughout the last few decades, the Constitution is very specific in protecting the rights of the American people to own firearms. Let’s review the exact language in the 2nd Amendment:

“Amendment Two

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

For decades, the anti-gun contingent has zeroed in on the “well regulated Militia” part of this amendment, as if that means that only Militiamen’s right to keep and bear arms is protected. They do this because it’s all they’ve got to work with; “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” is a very explicit piece of language. To attempt to spin this amendment’s language in any other way is downright laughable. It does not say “the rights of the people who are in a Milita”, it says “the right of the people“. I’m sorry, but that’s what it says and that’s what it plainly means.

We always get into trouble when we think that we’re smarter than the framers of the Constitution, because we are not. Those guys knew what the hell they were doing. Whenever folks want to change around the Constitution or twist it’s language to suit their fancy, they always do it for self-serving reasons. They never do it for the betterment of the common good. That’s why the Founders made it so difficult to change the Constitution; they knew that some yahoos would always try to change the Constitution to push their views on everyone. A good example would be the recent right-wing attempts to pass a new Constitutional Amendment outlawing gay marriage. Do you think they were doing this to protect the rights of all American citizens? Of course not, they were doing this to try to legitimize and codify their narrow-minded political views. It failed, as it should have - that kind of stuff has no place in the Constitution.

Recently the Supreme Court has ruled on gun rights for the first time since the 1970’s and to no surprise, they found that the second amendment protects the rights of the people to keep and bear arms. This is not a surprise because that’s exactly what the Constitution says the amendment does. I know that anti-gun fervor runs strong, bordering on the hysterical (”…but guns <gasp!> kill people” they cry), but the legality of gun ownership should not really be in question. What we need to remember is that the United States is a nation of widely varied backgrounds and viewpoints. The Constitution protects all of us, even those whose viewpoints we disagree with. Forget this, and woe to you when you find yourself in the minority sometime, and those who disagree with you pass laws against you. Overall the Constitution is an extremely fair document, and by and large is what makes this country so great. Don’t screw with it. It says what it says, and I guarantee that we are probably not smart enough to re-write it to any improvement.

I just want to say that using Diebold (or anyone’s) electronic voting machines is wrong.

This is a system that is BEGGING to be abused and manipulated. As a professional software engineer, I have to say the chance that these machines are secure enough to use in an election is miniscule to non-existent. They are not secure.
Some folks like to point out that the machines print you a nice little reciept, showing you that your vote was what you cast. Please don’t be fooled. It’s not as if the machine can’t print out whatever someone wants it to, regardless of how it chose to cast your vote beforehand. I do not think it’s unlikely that there is an intentional back-door into these election machines, but at the very least that have been proven repeatedly in lab tests to be easy to break into. Like less than one minute easy to hack. We need reliable paper ballots that can physically be re-counted in a public and transparent way. Diebold likes to say the machines are secure. They have been proven to not be secure. Already there are allegations of misconduct. Apparently, in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, the paper ballots and the electronic ballots, when counted separately, revealed a far different result. In paper balloting, Barack Obama actually won the primary by a couple of points. In the electronic balloting, Hillary killed him. This is statistically impossible.

So, since we can actually look at and re-count the paper ones, one might reasonably reach the conclusion that the e-vote was either manipulated, or the machines simply can’t count.

In my voting district, you actually have a choice whether to use paper or e-vote. Always insist on a paper ballot.

DON’T E_VOTE!

This bill recently passed in the United States House of Representatives: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-847

Since many of you are very much like the Representatives in the House, and won’t bother to read the bill, I’ll include some quotes about what one of our Nation’s newest laws is for:

“House Resolution 847: Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.”

” Resolved, That the House of Representatives–

(1) recognizes the Christian faith as one of the great religions of the world;

(2) expresses continued support for Christians in the United States and worldwide;

(3) acknowledges the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith;

(4) acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States and in the formation of the western civilization;

(5) rejects bigotry and persecution directed against Christians, both in the United States and worldwide; and

(6) expresses its deepest respect to American Christians and Christians throughout the world.”

Sick. Just sick. In a rational world, every one of the SIXTY co-sponsors (58 Rep, 2 Dem) should be relieved of their duties immediately. But, the twisted reality is that this blatant pandering to the Christian weirdos in our Halls of Congress passed by a margin of 372 to 9. Disgusting.

This is what I’m talking about when I say before the century is out, it will be completely illegal to be an atheist in this country. I expect severe persecution at some point. Think WWII-style internment camps, because they’re coming. I love the thought of having some jack-booted thug waterboard me until I swear that Jesus is my savior. Some of you will think that’s sensationalist, but believe me it is not far from where we are today to that point.

These zealots will not rest until they force everyone to bow to their completely fabricated invisible omnipotent being. It’s sickening that almost no one in Congress has the onions to stand up to this bullshit.

Fire them all.

Here are the nine reps who had the good common sense to vote Nay on this:
Ackerman
Clarke
DeGette
Hastings (FL)
Lee
McDermott
Scott (VA)
Stark
Woolsey

To the 9: Thank you for having some conviction and for understanding our Constitution.

Well, the spam-bots got to be too much, so I installed a captcha plugin. Let me know if you have trouble leaving a comment –> admin::at::donaldmarino::dot::com

D

And just like that it’s over. No more court dates. No more tickets. Ahhhhh.

Oddly, I had to go to court at 7:30pm on Friday night. I remembered the TV show, but I never thought Night Court was a real thing. Turns out, it sure is. This was all business and efficiency. We saw a magistrate just long enough to hear our plea-bargain offer and get directions to the cashier. It was almost comical. The entire docket was lined up at the cashier in 20 minutes flat. I was fortunately one of the first called this time, so the line mostly formed behind me.

3 points, $200 dollars. Done and done. Note that speeding in Denver is four times as expensive as Weld County. Honestly, I’d rather just pay a few extra bucks in taxes a year, rather than have the government shake it out via speeding tickets. That’s just me I guess.

So, the total damage now: 8 points now on the license, ~$350 in fines. I could theoretically get one more ticket and still be driving, but we won’t explore those limits, hopefully. Now all I have to do is keep from getting a ticket for 12 months and it’s a clean slate. Let’s see how it goes….

First, the good news: It is extremely unlikely that I’ll have my driving privileges suspended at any point in the near future. That’s what really counts.

Somehow, due to the leniency of the Colorado Traffic Courts, I left court today with 4 points and $145 dollars in fines and fees.
This was for the charge of going 110 mph on I-25 South at Highway 52 ( a 6 point charge… for starters ). So, you can understand how I might’ve been a bit nervous going in there. The D.A. was quite friendly and even joked around with me. She wanted to know what an FZ1 was. She was nice and offered me the 4 point plea on the spot. She knew I was freakin stoked to get it, too. We were done in 20 seconds, including the obligatory Dan Marino jokes.

It didn’t help that I lived out the ultimate nightmare of being the first guy to sign in at 12:30pm and the 2nd to last case called at 4:20pm. That is a lot of quietly sitting still in an uncomfortable chair, let me tell you. Oh, iPod, why had I forsaken you at home?

It didn’t make me less nervous when a few cases before I was called, a fellow takes the stand on a charge of going 125mph on I-25. The judge was mildly furious with the guy and called him “STUPID” several times. At this point it’s not looking good, plea bargain or no plea bargain. On top of the 8 points for reckless driving, the jugde puts him on two years probation and says any moving violation in two years time and he’s in the slammer. ouch. Then his honor announces that he’ll be charging the guy the max fine and fees that he can.

Ok, I’m sweating now, because there’s only a couple folks left and the judge is lathered up at the big time speeders.

I’m finally called. The judge looks things over and tells me he’ll begrudgingly honor the 4 point plea from the D.A. He pauses to look me over (in my best suit, surely looking nervous and contrite). He tells me he’s rather concerned with the magnitude of the original charge. Then he asks if I can pay the fines today (almost no one said yes to this). Yes, your honor. He says, OK you get the max fines too, seeya later.

Done and done. The “max fine” turns out to be $100. Plus court costs, out the door at $145. Amazing. So, even if the D.A. in Denver gives me all 6 points for my ticket there, I’ll still be driving. And that’s not likely, I’ll definitely see 4 or less points from that and be in good shape. That ticket’s from a speed trap and I was only going 75 on the Interstate (where the limit is 55 in Denver for some reason)

Glad that’s over with. One down, one to go