Sleepless in Midland

Black Oscars matter, all Oscars matter, or do either matter?

This morning the TV news shows were all about Chris Rock's attack on show biz people over race. Presumably the issue is that this year there was a sparsity of black nominees for Academy awards.

It brought to mind Denzel Washington's similar complaints of a few years ago. Denzel won an Oscar the next year, but surely that was just a coincidence.

The show business people are probably asking, "Who the hell do we have to give an Oscar to to get these people to shut up." The answer is probably, "More people than you ever thought deserved one."

If there ever was an audience more receptive of the charge of racism it's probably the Hollywood set. They bend over backwards to avoid appearing racist -- just like practically every other white American -- but to them the charge will stick simply because they allow it to.

It will be amusing to us out here in fly-over country to watch them squirm. And inevitably there will be plenty of black nominees next year and more than a few winners. A life in show business is the dream of a lot of folks angling for a way to succeed in a field with a lot of competition. Apparently, that life of luxury of a successful actor isn't quite enough. There has to be an award to validate the celebrity worship they all seek.

Tim Dunn's recommendations for March 1, 2016, Midland primary elections

Highly respected conservative Tim Dunn sent a letter to residents of Midland, Texas, recently in which he made some voting recommendations for the upcoming primary. The closest facsimile on the net can be found at Empowertexans.com.

In any event, the actual letter can be downloaded here.

It's too late to vote early in the primary. But hopefully fiscal conservatives who haven't voted already will make a good showing on election day, March 1, 2016.

Another language quirk progressives use -- gun lovers instead of gun owners

There are a few articles out on the net that purport to distinguish political ideologues by the usage of certain words and phrases. Here's one they may have missed. See how this headline describes gun owners: House passes bill to open federal lands for gun lovers.

It's an insult both to lovers and gun owners. But it's a sure fire political tell.

We'd like to believe you would leave, Al Sharpton, but you left too much wiggle room

Here's the quote from Al Sharpton might 'get out of here' if Trump wins:

"If Donald Trump is the nominee, I'm open to support anyone [else], while I'm also reserving my ticket to get out of here if he wins, only because he'd probably have me deported anyway," Sharpton told attendees, who responded in laughter.

First off, there's no evidence Trump would or could deport Sharpton. So there's his first way out of this empty promise. With no threat, there would be no reason to act. Secondly, all he said was that he would buy a ticket. That's not the same thing as actually getting on the bus.

So as much as we would like to believe the reverend Al Sharpton would leave if Trump is the nominee, his statement isn't much evidence of real intent. Never mind that Sharpton's record for honesty is not that high anyway.

Editor's note: Sharpton is probably no more reliable than all those celebrities who promised to leave if George W. Bush got elected. Robo-ed.

Ben Carson describes how to take down the U.S. -- do what Obama did

Many have said this before. If Obama really wanted to destroy the United States would he do anything differently? Ben Carson says it too.  See Dr. Ben Carson: How to Destroy America, You Do It ‘From Inside’. Excerpt:

Dr. Carson said the first thing you would do to destroy the country would be to drive wedges between people. He said you would do so, not only on racial lines, but also with women, age, religion, and Republicans and Democrats.

Carson said you would bring the country to financial ruin by spending money at “unsustainable levels.” You would also bring people in from other countries and put them on public benefits.

He said you would weaken the military, “gut personnel” and reduce military strength to “historic lows.”

The neurosurgeon called the failure to maintain the electrical grid a vulnerability for cyber attacks, the “next weapon of mass destruction.”

President Obama was fond of complaining of "inheriting" problems caused by the previous president. No. Obama got that wrong. However, the next president will be able to say it with 100% accuracy.

Maybe you can indict a ham sandwich but you can't always prosecute a ham sandwich -- Rick Perry charges tossed out by appeals court

Just like the charges brought by the politically charged Austin prosecutor's office against Tom Delay were tossed out on appeal, the more recent charges against Rick Perry were tossed out on appeal.

If history repeats, the msm will try to minimize the reporting of this aspect of the case.

Here's why New York city mayor wants to keep citizens unarmed -- innocent victims of the spray and pray police shooters might shoot back

A friend sent this link (thanks PH) to Zerohedge.com's article about NYPD cops shooting multiple times at a suspect but hitting innocent citizens who got in the way of a police bullet. NYPD Cops Fire 84 Shots At Murder Suspect, Miss 83 Times.

It's tragic when an innocent person is injured or killed by a stray police bullet. But it seems almost like criminal neglect when the police are such bad shots that they can't hit a target but go ahead and unleash a barrage of bullets in heavily populated areas.

Then there are the strict gun control laws favored by the mayor. One almost suspects the mayor has given up on police overshooting and simply wants to prevent the citizens from shooting back.

Mike Conaway is up for reelection? Who knew?

There's a primary election coming up in Texas on March 1. While all eyes are on the presidential races, there's a national office on the ballot in West Texas. It's for U.S. Representative for Texas District 11, an office currently held by Mike Conaway.

You wouldn't know it, but he's up for reelection. There's no Republican running against him in the primary. And there's no Democrat running for the office in their primary.

Nevertheless, he's raised over a million dollars for his campaign. More precisely, as of February 10, 2016, it's $1,157,219 for his campaign committee and PAC combined.

Wow, those donors really must dumb -- there's no opponent! Aw, who am I kidding? They know exactly what they're doing. They aren't donors, they're investors.

goodbye fast food staff, hello robot at Eatsa

Since the rise of the very vocal movement to hike the minimum wage, bloggers have been predicting increased mechanization of the fast food business accompanied by a decrease in the number of employees.

It's happening.

Meet Eatsa. It's a highly mechanized fast food joint currently with stations in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The customer uses tablet technology to place his order, and when his name pops up on a window, he opens the door and grabs his food.

The menu consists of quinoa (hipster rice) bowls with a variety of toppings chosen by the buyer. The price seems reasonable at $6.95 per bowl.

But it's not all robots. There are job openings for humans.

Actually, except for the tablet technology, the idea isn't exactly new. TCM fans may recall movies made in the '50s with scenes in cafes with similar food dispensing vending machines.

P.S. I haven't visited a Starbucks in a while, but that business seems like one that could easily transition to a vending machine dispensing system.  That probably helps keep down the cost of a barista.

Amazon jacked up the min order for free shipping, again

Oh, for the good old days when the minimum order at Amazon.com to get free shipping was $25. Then they jacked it up to $35.

Get ready for sticker shock. Now it's a hefty $49.

Ouch!

They want us to buy Amazon Prime, currently still $99/year. Eventually the price of free shipping will be so high Prime may seem like a bargain. But how long before that price goes up, too?

I believe Hillary will try to be honest -- until it becomes too hard

Just saw a rerun of Hillary Clinton answering Scott Pelley's question about whether she will lie to the public. She responded that she would try to be honest. And she sounded very sincere.

I believe her. At that particular moment she was convinced that she would try to be honest. Things change, of course. Should there be another Benghazi type occurrence, she would consider telling the truth. That would be the "try." But if the past is any guide, then if lying is less consequential in the short term, lying it is.

It's as if she has an animated angel on one shoulder admonishing her to tell the truth. But on the other shoulder is a animated devil telling her to lie. Based on what we know of her, the devil will win the day.

PELLEY:You talk about leveling with the American people. Have you always told the truth?

CLINTON:I've always tried to. Always. Always. ... I'm gonna do the best I can to level with the American people.

By golly she tried. Heaven knows she tried.

How long before hackers get into the vote counting software

The other day we were treated with news of a hospital in Los Angeles that paid ransom to hackers who hijacked the hospital's computer system. Seems that hardly a week goes by that we don't hear about some newsworthy hack. It's only a matter of time when we don't consider it newsworthy any more, just routine. See The hacked Hollywood hospital is not alone — schools and clinics across the country are increasingly being hacked for ransom and Hospital Hack Spotlights How Medical Devices and Systems Are at Risk.

As the big league bloggers say, it's a feature not a bug.

Anyway, most local election commissioners went to electronic voting very loudly and proudly several years ago. It was fool proof, they said. But honestly, is it really? If some of the most secure government systems are capable of being hacked, then if it hasn't already happened, votes can disappear, appear, or change, and we may not learn about it until long after the wrong person has been sworn into office. That's progress.

Coffee more than a hangover helper -- may reduce chance of cirrhosis

This seems like a combination made in heaven -- coffee and booze. According to nypost.com, Drinking more coffee may reverse liver damage from booze. Excerpt:

Cirrhosis involves a hardening and destruction of liver tissue and kills more than 1 million people every year worldwide. It can be caused by hepatitis infections, excessive alcohol consumption, immune disorders and fatty liver disease, which is tied to obesity and diabetes.

Kennedy and colleagues did a pooled analysis of average coffee consumption across earlier studies to see how much adding two additional cups each day might influence the odds of liver disease.

Combined, the studies included 1,990 patients with cirrhosis.

In eight of the nine studies analyzed, increasing coffee consumption by two cups a day was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of cirrhosis.

In all but one study, the risk of cirrhosis continued to decline as daily cups of coffee climbed.

Compared to no coffee consumption, researchers estimated one cup a day was tied to a 22 percent lower risk of cirrhosis. With two cups, the risk dropped by 43 percent, while it declined 57 percent for three cups and 65 percent with four cups.

A mixture of alcohol and coffee might seem like the perfect drink, and there are plenty of recipes available. They all seem a little bit too heavy on cream, sugar, or both, but your tastes may vary.

Cheers.

Hiding the bodies -- the one thing socialists are good at

Given how popular the "Socialist" brand has become in the U.S. lately, it's refreshing to see someone bring to the forefront the horrors that have accompanied it through time. Mark J. Perry does the review justice with The ‘Everest of bodies’ who are the ‘victims of socialism’ in which he quotes from Alan Charles Kors' article “Can There Be an ‘After Socialism’?” Here is Kors as quoted by Perry:

No cause, ever, in the history of all mankind, has produced more cold-blooded tyrants, more slaughtered innocents, and more orphans than socialism with power. It surpassed, exponentially, all other systems of production in turning out the dead. The bodies are all around us. And here is the problem: No one talks about them. No one honors them. No one does penance for them. No one has committed suicide for having been an apologist for those who did this to them. No one pays for them. No one is hunted down to account for them. It is exactly what Solzhenitsyn foresaw in The Gulag Archipelago: “No, no one would have to answer. No one would be looked into.” Until that happens, there is no “after socialism.”

The West accepts an epochal, monstrous, unforgivable double standard. We rehearse the crimes of Nazism almost daily, we teach them to our children as ultimate historical and moral lessons, and we bear witness to every victim. We are, with so few exceptions, almost silent on the crimes of Communism.

This time is different, they'll say. Sure, we yearn for an autocratic leader who'll take charge and redistribute the wealth accumulated by all those filthy rich people. But there it will stop. Our autocratic leader is a nice one. We love our autocratic leader.

Cruz supporters must be hoping he gets above the 20% threshold in the Texas primary

The Texas Republican primary is coming up on March 1, 2016, and many voters are already taking advantage of the early voting option. With so many candidates on the ticket it's worthwhile to know how the Republican delegate votes would be divvied up given how divided voters are. Thehill.com tells us that a Monmouth University poll reveals this split in South Carolina:

Trump 35%
Cruz 19%
Rubio 17%
Kasich 9%
Bush 8%
Carson 7%

Poll results in Texas may vary.

In any event, the assignment of delegates would be complicated if that's the way the Texas vote shakes out.

In Texas, each to the 36 congressional districts are assigned three delegates for a total of 108. Add 47 at-large delegates for a total of 155.

In each of the congressional districts a candidate getting a majority of votes earns all that district's three delegates. If no one gets a majority then it gets into the counting. If Trump gets over 20% but no one else does, then he gets two of that district's three delegates, and the third delegate goes to the second place winner.

If no one gets 20% then the district's delegates are allocated one each to the top three vote getters.

As for the 47 at-large delegates, a candidate getting a majority of the votes would take them all. Less than a majority then the 20% comes in again. If no candidate receives 20% of the vote, then the delegates are allocated proportionally among all the candidates.

If only one candidate receives 20% or more, the 47 at-large delegates are allocated proportionally between that candidate and the second place winner.

If two or more candidates receive 20% or more, then the at-large delegates are proportioned among those getting 20% or more.

Obviously, a majority is the goal, but short of that then the bean counters get their day.

Disclaimer: All of this comes to us from a website called TheGreenpapers.com which purports to contain accurate descriptions of both party's rules in the various states. It sounds convincing, but all their links go to internal sites, which to this blogger is a serious shortcoming.

Hillary Clinton appears to be laying groundwork for a diminished capacity defense

Listening to Hillary Clinton's remarks about technology -- wiping a hard drive with a cloth, not knowing what a viral video is -- one wonders whether she really is that obtuse or if it's just an act.

The media went nuts when GHW Bush remarked about a retail bar code scanner, because it gave them the opportunity to make the false claim that he didn't already know what it was. But that isn't happening with Hillary.

Maybe she's just acting dumb to bolster a future defense claim that she didn't know what she was doing. Innocent by way of diminished capacity. It's enough to get a condemned person off death row. Maybe it's enough to keep Hillary from facing justice over the home email server and the careless distribution of national secrets.

On the other hand, we really do need to sympathize with the learning impaired and not be judgmental. But we certainly don't need to put them in the White House.

Update: More evidence: Here she is barking like a dog seemingly unaware of how the Howard Dean scream sank his campaign. Poor lady. She's oblivious to reality.

Happy Valentines Day

I hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day!

Your sleepless blogger took a much needed nap.

Meanwhile, here's a nod to those guys who managed to get a golf game in while their wives/girl friends watched a Lifetime movie while snuggling up with that big teddy bear you gave her.

Yes!

Scalia on use of foreign courts as precedent for U.S. law

There will be no shortage of observations about Antonin Scalia out there on the net today. But that shouldn't stop us from adding to the pile.

His death was a great loss to those of us who value the Constitution. I've called the approach "strict constructionist," but "originalist" seemed to be the favorite descriptive yesterday. In any event, Scalia appreciated the Constitution as the first and last word on a question of whether something is or isn't unconstitutional.

My favorite exchange involving Justice Scalia was about the use of foreign courts as precedent for U.S. law. Of note was his observation that those judges and justices who favored international law as precedent were picking and choosing only the foreign laws which supported positions they supported and ignoring the ones that didn't. See Full written transcript of Scalia-Breyer debate on foreign law.

We've talked about the next justice appointments previously on this blog, and I remain a one issue voter for primary purposes -- the candidate who I believe will make the best appoint(s) to the Supreme Court. Ted Cruz is still at the top of the list.

Cat cafes are OK, but what we need are dog cafes

Having only recently discovered how entertaining "Shark Tank" reruns are, it's nice to be able to see them so many times during the normal week.

One recent show featured a lady with the idea of opening a "Cat Cafe." That would be a cafe stocked with live cats where a patron could go for a cup of coffee, a snack, and an opportunity to watch and interact with playful kittens and friendly cats. Nice concept. But it was a concept only at that stage, and the sharks gave her the boot because she didn't already have an establishment in place.

So anyway, I was watching a recent episode of "Elementary," and there was Sherlock going to a cat cafe to quiz someone about a suspect. Wow, they stole her idea! Turns out cat cafes were already operating in Asia, so it wasn't exactly a new idea, just new to the U.S.

But what we really need are dog cafes. Cats are OK, but you have to earn their love. Dogs give it away freely. They're so much fun, too.

Furthermore, there are probably a lot of people out there like me who love dogs but who don't want to own another one. Burying them is an emotionally draining experience one doesn't want to repeat too often. On the other hand, visiting dogs at something like a petting zoo sounds very appealing, especially if the entry fee covered the cup of coffee.

Madeleine Albright's special place in hell -- what that must be like

Dailycaller.com has Madeleine Albright's full quote regarding female voters' supposed obligation to Hillary Clinton. Here's the kicker:

“Just remember: there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” Albright said, much to the joy of Clinton, who is seen laughing at the remark, which she has used numerous times in the past.

There are conservative atheists and progressive atheists, but progressives seem proud to have a lock on the concept. But since hell is a religious artifact, one wonders why progressives even make reference to it. Are they clinging to their bibles in hope of a resurrected Hillary Clinton.

Anyway, let's get to the point which is to explore just what that hell is. Here are some wild guesses, think of Albright as you go over the list. To wit:

hotel rooms with slow room service
the maids are angry feminists serving time in their own hell
food not cooked to order
no pet cats, only dogs
nail polish that never dries
all the women are thin except you
bad hair days every day
old wrinkly looking face
too much weight that can't be shed
nails that won't grow
manicurists that cut too close to the quick
clothes that make you look fat

Hillary has backtracked on the statement, by the way. Maybe she's already living in her own special hell on earth.

Tom Trinko has categorized self professed socialists into four types

This is pretty good. Mr. Trinko has described four categories of thought for individuals who claim to be socialists in The Four Types of Socialists.

The easiest category consists of those who expect to be on the receiving end of the government largess. I confess to having thought until now that this category dominates the Democrat party. But Mr. Trinko goes farther.

There are those who think the government can spend money better than they could do it themselves. This seems a little crazy to most of us, but they are out there. Mr. Trinko assumes these people are also expecting a benefit, but their benefit comes in the form of crony capitalism.

I would expand on this group and speculate it is a lot larger because it consists of all those kind hearted individuals who see a problem, or are convinced of a problem by politicians or the media, and they think to themselves, "That's terrible. Someone should do something." What they mean is, "Someone else should do something." Because they themselves will do nothing but press a button in the voting booth. I suspect this is a very large group.

Then there are the politicians like Bernie Sanders who believe that they really can spend tax payers' money better than they can.

Bernie is the latest in a long line of liberals who believe that the people lack the ability to decide for themselves how they are to live. People like Bernie believe that the enlightened few, such as him, have a responsibility to save the people from themselves.

Mr. Trinko's last category consists of people who have such a poor understanding of money, economics, and industry that they think money is produced magically and in unlimited supply. These people have the right to vote just like you and me. If only they would recognize their limitations and abstain.

Meanwhile, if you want to see conservatives put into categories, you shouldn't have to look too hard, because their detractors have been doing that for a long time.

If you prefer supreme court justices who put more stake in the New York Times than the Constitution then Trump is your man

This is probably sounding like a broken record at this blog, but here it is again. If you see the constitution as a rubber band to be stretched to fit whatever the popular view happens to be, then you'll want a president who will appoint like minded judges and justices. You might be a Democrat or a Donald Trump Republican.

If you believe the founding fathers knew what they were doing and that their words still have a definite meaning, then someone like Ted Cruz will probably appoint judges and justices more to your liking. It's that simple.

Update: After Donald Trump's impressive victory in New Hampshire yesterday, maybe our best hope should be that President Trump will appoint Cruz to vet and recommend judicial nominees.

Related: John R. Lott Jr. excoriates Donald Trump for his fondness for eminent domain and the Kelo decision in Memo to The Donald: There are ways to acquire property without using government force.

With hackers gaining access to 20,000 FBI employee details, how safe can local police information be?

One would think that information technology at the FBI would be about as secure as such a thing could be these days. So it's disturbing to see headlines like this: Hacker dumps thousands of files of FBI, DHS employees online.

There must be thousands of local law enforcement agencies that are similarly vulnerable. And maybe it's just a matter of time before their employee files are corrupted or purloined by a thief biding his/her time for just the right moment to expose the information.

It's a small consolation, but at least the FBI hack only pertained to employee information and not pending case files.

In any event, with the ease displayed there, hacking into Hillary Clinton's email server was probably child's play by comparison.

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a North Korean satellite.

This certainly is discouraging. North Korea's new satellite flew over Super Bowl site:

TOKYO (AP) -- Here's a bit of Super Bowl trivia: North Korea's newest satellite passed almost right over the stadium just an hour after it ended.

Whatever motives Pyongyang may have about using its rocket launches to develop nuclear-tipped long-range missiles, it now has two satellites circling the Earth, according to NORAD, the North American Aerospace Command, which monitors all satellites in orbit.

If we take them at their word, the satellites are up there to track the weather. Maybe that's so they can time their EMP explosion at the worst possible moment in the weather cycle.

One wonders how long it will be before Iran is cruising overhead, too.

BTW, why aren't those people who point lasers at plane pilots trying to disrupt those satellites?

Midland City Council members want to spend like its 2011

Back when the price of oil was bouncing either side of $100 per barrel the sales tax revenue was pouring in, and the city council was licking its lips over the prospect of playing Santa Claus with all that money for them to spend.

Fast forward. Now the price of a barrel of oil is bouncing around $30, and the tax collectors are looking at steep declines in revenue. For the tax spenders, it's complicated by the upcoming expiration of a portion of the local sales tax. Read all about it in this morning paper article which describes the council's confusing and desperate effort to get voters to approve the extension of the tax.

Unfortunately, all they seem concerned about is keeping the tax in place for another 10 to 25 years. They never considered the possibility that the voters could benefit from keeping the money themselves. Are the voters in Midland, Texas, fiscally liberal even in hard times? We shall see.

BTW, isn't it interesting that they didn't plan the vote to occur at the same time as the presidential primary? What a loss for taxpayers. Wouldn't it be grand if all those Donald Trump supporters showed up at the polls and put a big kibosh on the tax? Yes. Yes it would.

Fight Song -- the song for cancer kid and Hillary Clinton

On the TV news the other day was a poignant story and video about a bald boy in a hospital bed getting his dream come true -- a visit by Rachel Platten and the opportunity to sing her "Fight Song" along with her. The song was a personal favorite of his. In fact it was Jeremiah Succar's theme song in his fight against cancer. Get out your handkerchief before watching the video.

[OK. Take a moment before going forward.]

Then on the TV the last night Hillary Clinton came along with a passel of women bopping and rocking to the same song. Watch that one here. What a disaster.

It almost seemed like an episode of "Some people can ruin anything."

On the other hand, maybe there's a common theme. When all indicators say you're about to lose an important battle, this song might provide a little bit of solace and encourage others to support you even if they think you're a goner.

But to Jeremiah Succar, all the best to you kid. All the best.

Uber vs regulatory state

One of the most entertaining contests going on now in Midland, TX, and apparently some other cities, is the battle between the ride sharing company Uber versus regulators. The taxi industry in cities around the country has been trying to block Uber from the beginning. And it looks like Uber is winning in most jurisdictions.

Here at home the taxi industry is taking the back seat and letting the city code makers do the lifting. The fray is between some members of the city council and the ride sharing companies. And the main bone of contention, at least according to the morning paper, is the city's requirement that drivers submit to a background check performed by the police department. Sounds reasonable enough, except the companies say that's redundant since they perform their own background checks.

Driving for a ride sharing company looks like an entry level job that just about anyone could do. That's a good thing. But is the fear of criminals in this line of work realistic? We don't know. The news sources went quiet on that.

Open records queries directed at police departments at the big cities in Texas could get information sufficient to compare crimes accused of licensed taxi drivers and ride sharing drivers so prospective customers could make informed decisions. But that doesn't seem to be forthcoming.

Until there's some evidence to support the contention that the police background check is a more reliable indicator of future criminal behavior, then let's give Uber the benefit of the doubt and relax the regulation.

As Larry Kudlow likes to say, "Free market capitalism is the best path to prosperity."

IRS phone scam -- if you're not content to just hang up, here's where to report them

We've all gotten those calls. It's a robot telling you the IRS is about to sue for non payment of a past due tax debt. Most us simply think, "F U," and hang up.

IRS publication IR-16-014 addresses those calls and alerts us to websites available for online reporting if hanging up doesn't quite satisfy the urge to get at them.

We don't know whether the IRS will actually do anything. Nonetheless, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has the IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting website which takes information about the attempted fraud. And it get a little bit of your own personal information, too.

Don't you just love giving personal information to the IRS? It's probably safe. But things like the following headline don't inspire confidence: IRS computer problems shut down tax return e-file system. Oh, brother. Maybe it's just a glitch. Then again, maybe it's a hack. Aside from the actual people involved with the system security or the hack itself, who really knows these days?

The Donald and eminent domain

We talked about this the other day in New Trump reality show -- Supreme Court Justice Apprentice.

The next president might be able to appoint as many as three Supreme Court Justices. And those of us who favor a strict construction of the Constitution naturally would like to see justices appointed to the bench who favor a strict construction and not view the Constitution as an elastic framework that can stretch to fit the mood of a whimsical public.

The only opinions we've seen from Donald Trump on the subject were his remarks about how much he favored the decision in Kelo v. City of New London, the eminent domain case, in which home owners were tossed off their land for use by a private developer who had convinced the local government of the benefit that would bring. As it turned out, the land became a vacant lot, and no one benefited. All pain, no gain.

What brings this back today is Star Parker's article titled Trump's Disregard for Private Property in which she made some important remarks about that specific topic with some history to boot:

The Fifth Amendment to our Constitution tells us: "No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation."

The key question is, what is "public use"?

George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin sums it up as follows: "Until the early 20th century, most courts interpreted those words to cover things such as roads or power lines -- projects owned either directly by the government or by private owners who have a legal obligation to serve the entire public, such as utility companies."

"By the 1950s, however," Somin continues, "The original meaning of 'public use' had been largely abandoned. Legal elites came to believe that government planners should have nearly limitless authority to take property to promote growth and combat blight afflicting the urban poor."

Call strict constructionists old fashioned, if you want. But the words meant something to the founding fathers. Private property rights are the basis for a successful economic system, and they knew that. The Constitution should be treated as law not as a suggestion.

Iowa caucuses -- where enthusiasm gap was made obvious

Watching Fox News this morning following the Iowa caucuses last night, the stunner was the totals for the winners. Ted Cruz had to get over 50,000 votes to win on the Republican side. Democrat Hillary Clinton only had to get 700 votes to just barely squeak past Bernie Sanders.

Now that's an enthusiasm gap. It's probably safe to predict that Iowa will not be a swing state in the November election.

Update: These turnout numbers are reported by CBSNews.com:

By the end of Monday night, the state's Republican party had counted over 180,000 people that participated in the Iowa caucus. The numbers blew past 2012's record, when about 121,500 people caucused. ...

According to a statement from Iowa Democratic Party chair Andy McGuire, just over 171,000 Iowa Democrats showed up to caucus for their chosen candidate, ...