The Supreme Court is not supposed to be so predictable and certainly not partisan. Some days I seriously question what we have wrought with all this hate and destructive political rhetoric.

The liberal Justices Ginsburg and Breyer are likely to retire due to age and/or infirmity.

Obama could only replace liberal Justices with new liberal Justices. That would continue the status quo.

If the GOP should regain control of the Senate in ’14, then Obama would have to nominate more moderate justices. We can only hope!

Remember that the GOP controlled the WH and Congress ’04-’06 and and we thought liberalism was dead.

From ’08 till ’10 the Dems controlled the WH and Congress and they thought conservatism was dead.

Then the tea party movement regained the House in ’10 and put the brakes on the Obama agenda to a large degree.

Now we are on the verge of another recession and the midterm elections may not be so kind to the Dems. The party in power always suffers the most. It ain’t over till it’s over!

And just one other comment; as I talked this topic over with my associate today, she reminded me of a few better examples of common firearms in use today with a direct “military past”. Take the Springfield trapdoor which evolved into a big bore big game rifle. Big bore guns similar are used today in big game hunts. The bolt action Springfields of WW1 are the model for many current bolt action hunting rifles. The 1911 was developed specifically for the military and pretty much has evolved into the standard for many law enforcement agencies and for personal defense. The 38 Special was a solution to law enforcement incl. the militray at being out gunned by the criminals and the enemy and thus the need for a more powerful round. The black plastic guns, while having numerous mechanical differences are nothing but a variation on the 1911. Names like Mauser, Glock, Beretta and CZ all were hatched as military firearms and all are common in civilian use today. BTW, I read and enjoyed the opinion expressed in the paper today by Heather Brown (Horizon section). I know she and I would have different opinions on many things but it is very much refreshing to see someone with such a logical level headed view of the “gun problem”. It gives me hope. If there are “liberals” with this much common sense then we should have the ability to make progress in offering solutions to many of our other “problems”.

A Roanoke College poll taken last month found Republican Cuccinelli (33%) leading Democrat Terry McAuliffe (26%) in the race for governor.

A Gallup poll last May found more Americans tilt “pro-life” by a 9 point margin, 50% to 41%.

The 41% of Americans who now identify themselves as “pro-choice” is down from 47% in July 2011 and is one percentage point below the previous record low in Gallup polls recorded in May 2009.

Furthermore, requiring trigger locks, requiring guns be disassembled, requiring insurance coverage, or holding the original lawful gun owner responsible for criminal acts involving a stolen gun, are all unconstitutional.

Semi-automatic rifles are in common use and this category includes lawful, so called “assault weapons” style, semi-automatic weapons currently available to the public. Such weapons are not any more dangerous and unusual than conventional semi-automatic hunting rifles.

Justice Scalia would agree that the government can prohibit the sell of the full automatic military M-16 to the public but you would be mistaken that he would support a ban on the civilian semi-automatic AR-15 just because it resembles the military M-16 cosmetically.

However the point is moot anyway because there are not enough votes in Congress to pass a ban on so called “assault weapons”.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2013/02/17/planned-parenthood-goes-after-cuccinelli/

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is the Republican front runner to be the next Virginia governor, but not if Planned Parenthood has anything to say about it. They’ve launched a new website, keepkenout.org, to document his support for stridently anti-woman policies like mandatory invasive ultrasounds.

The current Virginia governor, Bob McDonnell, is bad enough. He’s a graduate of Pat Robertson’s Regent University and has all the repulsive beliefs you would predict. But Cuccinelli would be even worse.