New at Reason

David Weigel | August 9, 2006

Jacob Sullum peers underneath the hairline of the Kansas senator who wants you to live forever - in a way.

Comments

|8.9.06 @ 3:12AM|#

So much for federalism.

|8.9.06 @ 7:51AM|#

Are all the 'big problems' really solved so that the apparatus of government can once again meddle in something that affects an unnoticeably small fraction of the population? Oh I forgot, this must be a moral issue.

|8.9.06 @ 9:33AM|#

Phileleutherus Lipsiensis,

Everyone is a federalist. . .except when they aren't. One of my great frustrations is how the whole nation seems to look for "problems" needing "solutions" via federal legislation without ever considering the structure of government and why we can't just wave the wand in D.C. every time some issue comes up. Guys like this seem perfectly happy to promote federalism when they want to, say, ban abortion, but we rarely see anything like a principled, general support of federalism. Or of the Constitution, for that matter.

Is there no one who can see the big picture? Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?

|8.9.06 @ 9:38AM|#

"I doubt Americans want the government to decide when life is worth preserving and when life can be destroyed," says Sen. Sam Brownback. "

I agree with Sam here and I will call on my Senator to vote against his bill.

|8.9.06 @ 9:39AM|#

"I doubt Americans want the government to decide when life is worth preserving and when life can be destroyed," says Sen. Sam Brownback. That's why the Kansas Republican wants to insert the federal government into deeply personal end-of-life decisions, prohibiting doctors from helping terminally ill patients choose the time and manner of their deaths.

I bet you could try all day and never get him to see the contradiction.

|8.9.06 @ 12:28PM|#

Brownback was deeply attached to federalism when defending Kansas' unlimited personal residence exemption in bankruptcy proceedings, which has been substantially preserved in the recent bankruptcy reform law.

Of course, if voters really cared about federalism, Sam's hypocrisy might carry a political price.

By the way, where are all those "black helicopter" people in Montana or wherever who had the "I love my country, but I fear my government" bumper stickers? Did they take them off their trucks and are now saving them to display the next time the Republicans lose an election?

|8.9.06 @ 2:58PM|#

By the way, where are all those "black helicopter" people in Montana or wherever who had the "I love my country, but I fear my government" bumper stickers?

They're kinda like certain old-time Cold Warriors who never seemed to have a problem with the notion of an opressive police state - just as long as it wasn't a Commie one...

|8.9.06 @ 6:04PM|#

Hey now, wait a second. I didn't mean for them to go and kill Becket. It was a rhetorical question. I loved Becket. Great guy.

|8.9.06 @ 9:02PM|#

It's a little late for spin, Harry.

Robert|8.9.06 @ 10:02PM|#

There are lots of non-controlled substances that can be used to produce death quickly & reliably.

|8.10.06 @ 11:56AM|#

Hey, Tom, I got scourged for you! Where's your Christian charity?

You were right about the bitch and her get, though, I'll give you that. Should've stuck with that Saxon whore you set me up with.

|8.10.06 @ 1:05PM|#

Hey, Tom, I got scourged for you! Where's your Christian charity?

You were right about the bitch and her get, though, I'll give you that. Should've stuck with that Saxon whore you set me up with.