Something Has Already Been Done

Something has already been done about all that stuff. I think what you want to do is undo what has already been done and do something else instead.

The idea of each state having two senators was put into the constitution because the less populous states wanted the whole congress to be like that, and the more populous states wanted the whole congress to be like the House of Representatives is now. Each side threatened to take their marbles and go home if they didn't get their way. If either side had done that, there would have been no United States of America, and we might all be speaking English today. (English English, not American English) The bicameral system that they ended up with was a compromise. I thought you liked compromises.

Rich guys don't buy political office, they buy advertising. If people would just ignore the ads and make up their own minds about how to vote, the ads would be ineffective. Therefore, this one is the people's fault. As Ann Landers used to say, "Nobody can take advantage of you without your permission."

I don't know why they even have lobbying groups. They're not in the constitution you know. I agree that something should be done about this one.

I seem to remember that they had limits on campaign spending for awhile, but the Supreme Court threw them out. Congress can over rule the Supreme Court but, for some reason, they seldom do.

I remember when some Republican congressmen were talking about suing Obama, but nothing ever came of it. It was about his deciding not to enforce certain sections of the Obamacare law. We discussed this at the institute, but we never did reach agreement. My position was that the constitution tells the president to enforce the laws, it doesn't say he gets to decide which ones to enforce and which ones not to enforce. I believe your position was that, since the constitution doesn't specifically say that he has to enforce all the laws, the president can do anything he wants. This one could have made an interesting court case, but it was not to be.

I can think of a few laws that were passed in my lifetime which I liked, but they were all on the state level. There was the time Michigan voters turned down an attempt to legalize abortion, but the U.S. Supreme Court said we had to do it anyway. More recently, we passed a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. I heard on the news tonight that one was upheld by the U.S Court of Appeals, but it still has to go the Supremes, who will likely overturn it. Probably the best thing, from my point of view, was when Michigan and some other states made it easier to get a concealed weapon permit. I don't want one myself, but it's kind of a buffer zone thing, one more hurdle that the antis will have to jump over to get at my long guns. Speaking of buffer zones, I see that four more states and numerous local jurisdictions have legalized pot, which makes my cigarettes a little safer. Okay, one good federal law, the one limiting spam on the internet and the telephone. Too bad, though, that it exempted political spam, which is the worst kind.

I don't want Dick Cheney or anybody else shooting my deer for me. I do know one guy, however, who once brought in a hit man to kill problem deer in his apple orchard. The DNR gave him a special "damage control permit", but the guy didn't hunt, so he recruited one of his friends to do it for him, which is legal. I told the guy that deer taste better than apples and that, if I had a nice orchard like his, I would let the deer harvest the apples for me. The guy eventually gave up on the orchard, which never became profitable, but I don't think he ever took up hunting.