Name:Patrick Country:United States State:Virginia Metro:Loudoun County Birthday:10/30/1986 Gender:Male
Interests:Skiing, debate, politics, constitutional law, government in general, theology, friends, computers, browsing the net, photography, video editing, anime music videos (AMVs), movie trailers/trailer music, hiking, biking, and skiing. Expertise:Debating anything and everything, making music videos, and procrasintating on homework =) Occupation:Student Industry:Government
Even though I'm not really using this blog anymore, I thought this was worth posting here too:
Like any conservative legal enthusiast, I can’t pass up the
chance to comment on the recent Supreme Court decision in DC v. Heller. This landmark case in one sweep vindicated the
conservative position on the 2nd Amendment and forever destroyed the
hopes of those who wished to render a critical part of the bill of rights
meaningless and disarm the American populace. It’s not often one gets to see such
a historic precedent set modern times in a totally unexplored area of
constitutional law, and the importance of this decision to American case law
can surely not be overestimated. I only wish I had actually been able to see
the oral arguments for it in March like I tried to.
Anyway, the actual decision is what I think what Dr. Farris
would call a perfect example of the way an original intent decision is supposed
to look. Scalia does an incredible job analyzing the historical basis for the 2nd
Amendment and the conditions surrounding its passage, even going all the way
back to English common law and the Glorious Revolution. His common sense
analysis of the plain meaning of the amendment is particularly brilliant, and I
loved the way he mercilessly rips apart the ridiculous views of the dissent,
almost downright mockingly in some parts.
The decision starts by pointing out, “In interpreting this text, we are guided by the principle that “[t]he
Constitution was written to be understood by the voters; its words and phrases
were used in their normal and ordinary as distinguished from technical meaning.”
It then goes on to point out what we knew all along, that yes “the people”
means “the people” and not some nebulous collective entity or militia. And “keep
and bear arms” means that individuals can keep weapons and bear them for purposes
of self defense. I especially loved Scalia’s witty refutation of the linguistic
contortions the dissent is forced to resort to in order to construe “bear arms”
as referring only to militia service, in which he states:
“Giving “bear Arms”
its idiomatic meaning would cause the protected right to consist of the right to
be a soldier or to wage war—an absurdity that no commentator has ever endorsed.
The word “Arms” would have two different meanings at once: “weapons” (as the
object of “keep”) and (as the object of “bear”) one-half of an idiom. It would
be rather like saying “He filled and kicked the bucket” to mean “He filled the
bucket and died.” Grotesque.”
Almost as good as the snide comment in the 9th Cicuit
case Silveira v. Lockyer that, “The military meaning is certainly among the
meanings of "bear," as is "large, heavily built, furry,
four-legged mammal," and "investor pessimistic about the stock
market." Really, you would think all this should be self-evident, and
it’s kind of a pity we need the Supreme Court to tell us this.
The rest of Scalia’s analysis of the meaning and scope of
the amendment was equally gratifying. I was glad the Court put to rest the
illogical idea that taking an originalist interpretation of the 2nd amendment
requires limiting the exercise of the right to 18th century weapons,
commenting: “Just as the First Amendment
protects modern forms of communications, and the Fourth Amendment applies to
modern forms of search, the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all
instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in
existence at the time of the founding.”
As expected, the Court took a relatively moderate position
on what kinds of restrictions are permissible under the 2nd amendment,
only outright invalidating laws banning people from keeping legitimate
self-defense weapons in their house or rendering such weapons useless for
defense. The Court left wide open the possibility for legitimate restrictions
on excessively dangerous or unusual weapons, and it was quite careful to point
out nothing in the decision should be construed to invalidate “longstanding prohibitions on the possession
of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of
firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws
imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”
This does however raise one significant concern, since while
the Court acknowledge the 2nd amendment is not an unlimited right
and is subject to reasonable exceptions, it refused to define the appropriate
level of scrutiny to decide whether such exceptions are legitimate. One would
assume that as part of the Bill of Rights it would merit strict scrutiny and
the compelling interest test, and indeed the Court seems to imply this with its
repeated analogies to the first amendment and other rights, but we can’t be
certain. The only place the Court addressed the level of scrutiny was in a
footnote where it rejects applying the rational basis test to the 2nd
amendment (that is a comfort at least), saying, “If all that was required to overcome the right to keep and bear arms
was a rational basis, the Second Amendment would be redundant with the separate
constitutional prohibitions on irrational laws, and would have no effect.”
It also quickly smacked down Justice Breyer’s attempt to
invent a whole new level of scrutiny with a nebulous “interest balancing inquiry”
that would have been even worse than the rational basis test and would have
also rendered the second amendment effectively meaningless. Scalia is particularly
biting here, stating, “The very
enumeration of the right takes out of the hands of government—even the Third
Branch of government—the power to decide on a case-by-case basis whether the
right is really worth insisting upon. A constitutional guarantee subject to
future judges’ assessments of its usefulness is no constitutional guarantee at
all.” So I guess that means we’re left with either strict scrutiny or
intermediate scrutiny. While I believe the Court favors the former, which one
it is be will ultimately have to be decided later.
Another thing I was disappointed about was that because DC
is not a state; the Court was unable to settle the issue of whether the 2nd
amendment applies to the states under the incorporation doctrine through the 14th
amendment. If the other individual rights in the bill of rights are considered “privileges
and immunities” under the 14th amendment which the states may not
infringe, it makes sense that the 2nd amendment will be too, but
that ultimately must wait to be decided in a later case, perhaps the newly
filed companion case to Heller in
Chicago.
Finally, I can’t help but close with the final words of
Scalia’s opinion, which I think is probably the best statement I’ve seen in a
modern Supreme Court opinion: “Undoubtedly
some think that the Second Amendment is outmoded in a society where our
standing army is the pride of our Nation, where well-trained police forces provide
personal security, and where gun violence is a serious problem. That is perhaps
debatable, but what is not debatable is that it is not the role of this Court
to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.” Well said.
So I've decided to start blogging again, but since Xanga has kind of gone out of style lately and other blogging platforms give you a way more professional look, I will be abandoning Xanga for WordPress. You can view my new blog called "The Prelator" at http://prelator.wordpress.com. If you want to sign up for email subscription digests just like on Xanga, you can do so here: http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=404704. So if anyone is actually still subscribed to this blog, I hope you will check it out, as I hope it will be much better and have more of a point than this old Xanga blog.
Wow I haven't posted on Xanga in ages, and now when I do it seems it's only when I have a new music video to post. Maybe I'll start posting about other things again sometime (though I'm usually too lazy for that), but this post is no exception.
Anyway, check out my latest music video of the film, "Equilibrium" set to "Dance With the Devil" by Breaking Benjamin:
It's hard to believe that it is now six years after the September 11th terrorist attacks, and even harder to believe the humongous changes that single event has wrought in our world in a mere six years. Just the impact it has had on my own life in that time is astonishing. On that fateful day, I was a 14-year old enjoying a pleasant vacation with my family in Florida before diving into my freshman year of high school upon my return. Before that day, my chief concern was memorizing a short practice speech for the first meeting of the NCFCA debate club I had just joined; and I was looking forward with nervous anticipation to the new world of competitive forensics. Yet it was that day that would awaken the nascent interest in politics and world events which would ultimately lead me to where I am today at PHC and beyond. I am a member of the 9/11 generation; and it is that event which for good or ill will forever shape the world I will live in.
This year, I would like to commemorate the passing of another 11th of September with my own unique means of expression, in the form of two 9/11 tribute videos which I have made over the last year in separate attempts to convey the tragedy of that fateful day.
"Liberatio 9/11" This is my most recent video which I only completed yesterday and made primarily for the 9/11 memorial service at PHC, where it will be shown on the projection screen as part of the ceremony. This video is set to a choral Latin requiem by the symphonic metal band Krypteria called Liberatio (Liberation), and is meant to portray the human side of the disaster and the pain, sorrow, and grief of the victims.
"9/11: A City So Cold" The second video is one I actually made last December over Christmas break but have waited until now to post it because I wanted to post it on 9/11. Radically different than my other video, this is set to the song "So Cold" by Breaking Benjamin and is more of an action video portraying the broader events of 9/11, the media response to the attacks, and the American military response in the War on Terror.
I tried to make both videos capture something of the power and momentousness of the day; and I believe my latest video especially succeeds at portraying the raw emotional power and sadness of the day--more appropriate for a tribute video. Which one you like better I'll leave for you to judge, but here is my contribution toward keeping the memory of that day alive and honoring all those who died in those terrible attacks.
Well since I haven't posted since the beginning of my trip eight weeks ago I figure it's probably time to post again. I am currently sitting in the San Jose airport waiting for my flight back to the states, after what has indeed been an awesome and adventure filled trip. As I predicted, a lot has happened, and I've had many incredible experiences. Costa Rica is an amazing place, and after having spent two months exploring both its natural and man-made beauty and learning its language and culture, I can only praise God all the more for the incredible diversity and beauty he has created in both nature and mankind.
Aside from my unexpected detour to Panama, most of my trip has gone more or less as planned--though the first thing you learn about international travel is to be very flexible. Except for a couple sour experiences like getting cheated by taxi drivers in my first couple weeks before I could understand Spanish numbers or knew the proper amount for going place to place (one guy charged me $100 for a 20 minute drive from downtown to the church I was visiting), all my experiences here have been overwhelmingly positive. The people are very friendly and helpful--even if you can't understand a word they're saying. My first week was rather overwhelming in that respect, since I came in knowing hardly any Spanish except for a few common phrases and some basic stuff I remembered from my worthless Spanish curriculum in high school. Once I got settled into my host home and got used to my Spanish classes, things started to go a lot better though. The first couple weeks I went out exploring nearly every afternoon after classes, and quickly learned my way around the city and how to use the amazing Costa Rican public transit system (bus rides here never cost more than around 30 cents). I saw a bunch of museums, and stumbled across this awesome national forest near San Jose with a bunch of cool hiking trails through the rain forest to the top of some hills.
On the weekends I generally went on tours to cool tourist attractions around the country. My first week I went to the Arenal Volcano and its adjacent hotsprings, which were as close as you could get to the volcano since it was active and they had to close the only hiking trail on it several years ago when a couple people were killed by toxic fumes. The second week I took a canopy tour in the San Lorenzo valley, which was totally awesome since you get to ride these cool ziplines through the trees and across the valley--with one even going up to 60mph. From what I've seen, Costa Rica seems to have a national obsession with ziplines. My third week I took kind of an all-in-one tour visiting a coffee farm for breakfast (with absolutely delicious coffee), the Poas Volcano, the La Paz waterfall, and a boat tour on the Sarapaqui River. My fourth week I attempted to take a boat tour out to Tortuga Island in the Gulf of Nicoya on the Pacific coast, but the steering system of the boat broke and sent us spinning in circles just off the dock, and they had to cancel the tour. I later repeated it my sixth week and everything went fine--spending the day swimming and snorkeling on a beautiful virgin pacific island.
My 5th weekend I struck off on my own and took a bus down to Puerto Viejo on the southern Caribbean coast, where I staid in a tent in a cheap hostel for $6 a night (that was an adventure), swam on the beach, and took a scuba diving lesson--something I'd always wanted to do and it was just as fun as I had hoped. Finally my 7th weekend I took the public bus to the Irazu Volcano, where I actually ran into Nick Butterfield and got to hang out with him and a girl from his language school while visiting the volcano. All of these tours were tons of fun and it was amazing to see how much variety of terrain and gorgeous scenery is crammed into such a small country.
The rest of my time was mainly spent in my Spanish classes, which went very well and I learned the language a lot faster than I thought I would. I was fairly comfortable carrying on basic conversations in Spanish by probably my third or fourth week, and hopefully I'll have chances to practice my Spanish back home with Hispanics in America so I don't forget it all. I got to visit the other students from PHC once at their school in San Juaqin (no thanks to Storm's directions which sent me to the wrong city), and even got introduced to some of the local wines and beers, which was an interesting experience since my only previous exposure to alcohol was some wine at family dinners with relatives during holidays. I never got drunk or anything, but it was definitely interesting.
Sometimes I kind of wished I had gone with the other group of PHC'ers instead of coming here totally on my own, but being by myself also gave me tons of cool opportunities and the freedom to do things I could not have done in a group. It also challenged me more, physically, mentally, and spiritually--forcing me to constantly trust in God for even my most basic needs as well as making me learn how to get myself out of any sticky situations I found myself in without being able to rely on others. I've always been fairly independent, but this trip certainly forced me to be even more so--with every new situation presenting new possibilities for adventure. Not that I still didn't do a few crazy things--like climbing a water tower inside the grounds of the modern art museum and getting escorted out by security. I got some awesome pictures from the top though.
By far the coolest experience I had though came one night during my second week in Costa Rica. There was this trio of three German girls who came and went several times while I was staying at my first host house, and one night I ended up having a three hour conversation with one of them (they spoke English) that was probably the most incredible conversation I've ever had with anyone. We started out discussing German politics and culture, and moved to her opinion of America and our politics. It was really fascinating to hear how people from other countries regard Americans, and kind of saddening as well. For instance, I knew people in other countries often consider us imperialists, but not only in a political sense.
She described (and I also saw this directly in Costa Rica) a kind of cultural imperialism as well--the American tendency to dominate the cultures of other countries and transform them into small copies of the US. In Costa Rica (and she said in Germany as well), you have all the major American stores, fast food chains, cars, etc., and local entertainment is completely dominated by American movies and music. I had never really thought about the effect that American commerce might have on other countries, and while I'm sure its effect is still overall positive, it is kind of sad to see it subsuming so much of the local culture. Anyway, we also started talking about political controversies like gay marriage. She of course saw nothing wrong with it, and in explaining why I believed it was wrong I naturally had to bring up my faith.
What followed was totally unexpected, and I was to spend the next hour talking with her about Christianity and sharing the gospel with her. She was initially rather hostile to Christianity and because of her experiences with the unfortunate hypocrisy of many Christians (particularly the Catholic church, which she nominally belonged to), and I had to explain to her that Christians are not perfect and that there are many false Christians, even in leadership positions in the church, that don't follow Christ's teachings; and I encouraged her to seek out Jesus directly. She was actually fairly open to this, and she told me she did believe God existed and that there must be something more than just this life. It was an absolutely incredible experience, for though I had prayed that God would give me opportunities to witness to people while in Costa Rica, the opportunity actually came totally unexpectedly. I just hope I was able to plant a seed with her and that God will help her find him in the future.
EDIT: So apparently the Lord likes symmetry, since my trip is ending the same way it began--only this time I'm stranded in Atlanta rather than Panama. My flight out of San Jose was delayed by numerous things and got into Atlanta two hours late, causing me to miss my connection to Denver, so now I have to stay in a hotel here and finish my trip in the morning. Ironically, this is my third flight in a row to turn into a multi-day ordeal following a delay or cancellation. I guess I'm just doomed to bad luck with air travel. Oh well, just one more adventure....
), and even got introduced to some of the local wines and beers, which was an interesting experience since my only previous exposure to alcohol was some wine at family dinners with relatives during holidays. I never got drunk or anything, but it was definitely interesting. 
