(I opened up the door on the left side of the media cabinet to stow more junk before the maids arrived and found this. WTF? Photo Socotra).
I wasn’t worried that much about whatever it is they are going to do at the White House later this morning. I was prepared for this contingency long ago. Perhaps not as prepared as I would wish to be, but that is true with everything, I suspect.
Like with the arrival of The Maid Brigade. Well, it used to be a brigade. I think Vickie is back to doing the work herself, and times being what they are, she had to lay off some of the ladies she brought along with her.
I was going to yammer about the surprises I found while attempting to get ready for the arrival of the maids for the monthly purification of the unit yesterday, and the piles of books that have been growing since the operation on my leg last year and the subsequent lack of mobility.
It is funny that the impending visit from the Maids is what gets the laundry done, the dishes washed, and the flat surfaces in the unit cleared off. If that basic stuff does not get done, the cleaning effort is rendered sub-optimal.
So, when I got back from Willow and a meeting with The Argonaut, I got down to some frantic I was frankly startled by the number of books I need to look at, and opened up some drawers and cabinets that had been untouched due to their proximity to the floor and the likelihood that I would join them down there if I bent over too far.
Oh well. The ability to bend over and pick things up is still a bit of a novelty, and indicates that things are slowly, painfully, getting better.
That is good. It may ease some of the dyspepsia that some alert readers have noticed. Accordingly, I am going to resist he temptation to launch into a soaring peroration of support for the Constitution. You wouldn’t think that the venerable old document would need my support, since all of us in the government, past and present, have sworn a solemn oath to support it.
My adherence to the Constitution is unflagging, so to speak. President Obama is alleged to have read the document- even, by some accounts, to be an expert in interpreting it. I have seen little evidence of that, since there is a perfectly legal way to address the current Second Amendment controversy: amend it with the “common sense” language, or repeal it.
(Insert standard disclaimer here. You recall that is the one where we agree that murder is evil, the murder of children worse. What to do about it is a matter for discussion.)
We talked about that in a look at the first ten amendments the other day, in “By the Numbers.” The Bill of Rights was required to seal the deal on the basic document of Union.
I am in complete agreement that it is a living document that should adapt to the times, just like it did with the lamented 18th Amendment (less alcohol) and the 21st (more alcohol).
In all, the Constitution has been amended seventeen times to accommodate social circumstance, and provide a bulwark to the original ten.
It is not an unusual process, it is perfectly legal, and would ensure the “national discussion” about gun control would be held in the several states.
An amendment to change the Second amendment might not pass. But that is the process that is supposed to be followed. President Press Secretary Jay Carney and Vice President Biden have declared that there is a means by which the President can act unilaterally through issuance of Executive Order.
The EO process is intended only to clarify and codify behavior of those bureaus and agencies within the Executive branch, not the several states or to the citizens who reside within them.
The thing the President should remember is that the Constitutional amendment process is long, and it is inevitable that some other horror will occur along the way, possibly awful enough (like Sandy Hook) to mobilize public sentiment to secure a victory for common sense.
Of course, despite the number of weapons floating around in Iraq and Afghanistan, the most popular means of inflicting mass casualty is the IED.
That was the weapon of choice used in the 1927 Bath, Michigan, school massacre, which still stands as the most deadly act of school violence, though that monster Tim McVey took out a while day-care center with his bomb at the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City.
But hey, we will see what the President announces, while surrounded by a human shield of kids later this morning. In the meantime, I have to get ready for the maids.
Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com