D.C. v. Heller

Currently 31 states have filed amicus curiae briefs with the Supreme Court in support of the respondent in D.C. v. Heller, supporting the point of view that the Second Amendment does indeed refer to an individual right to keep and bear arms, and that the D.C. gun ban is indeed unconstitutional.

Rejecting the U.S. Solicitor General's call for a remand, the 31 States say that the D.C. Circuit's judgment should be affirmed in full. Id. at 36.  In another passage of great interest, these States also expressly support the incorporation of the Second Amendment against the States. Id. at 23 n.6 ("the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental and so is properly subject to incorporation").

Five states have filed amicus briefs in support of D.C.  It will come as a surprise to few of my readers that these five states are Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, and Hawaii.  It will probably be as much a surprise to you as it was to me, though, that California is not among them.  (California is, in fact, among the fourteen states which have not yet filed briefs, so may yet come down on the side of the gun-grabbers.)

See the maps of the three sets of states here.

(Originally from Heartless Libertarian)

Snow clearing

First round today, at 0630:  eight inches, powder.

Second round, at 1000:  two to three inches, heavy wet snow with sleet on top.  Snowblower barely coped.  Came in soaked to the skin except for my hands and feet (yay Gore-Tex).

The driveway is clear of snow, for now.  It is not clear of ice, nor of rain on top of the ice, making it slicker'n' ... well, you get the idea.  I didn't walk back down the driveway with the snowblower, I hung onto the handles for dear life and slid.  Sort of like water-skiing behind a runaway snowblower.  Stopping?  Fuhgeddaboudit!