"I've gotta tell you, the more I think about what happened, and how it was explained, the more shocked and bewildered I am. This has really woken up some folks who thought that there was a "difference" between the Republican Party and the Democrats. What's more shocking is how this decision has managed to offend and surprise everyone - liberals and conservatives alike, although the Big Gummint Lefties and the rocket-scientists who create our "Newstertainment" are strangely quiet about the topic.

"...Meanwhile, back to Aruba... Greta Van Susteren will be crawling into the Aruban Governor's mower shack to see if she can uncover any breaking news about the Trusting Pretty White Girl Who Went Strangely Missing."

Nothing to see here, move along. Move along.

I feel that this is one of the most momentous (momentously BAD) decisions the court has ever made - this is as stupid and judicially weak as Roe v. Wade, as crummy as Plessey v. Ferguson, and as morally reprehensible as the Dred Scot decision.

In retail, you can complain loud enough and long enough to get your money back on just about anything, even if it is half-used-up. Can we get our votes back on the Republican Senators who allowed, or in some cases, supported the appointments of Ginsberg, Kennedy or Stevens? How about Souter and Breyer?

The Republican Party nominated the majority of justices to the court, yet it consistently leans towards increasing governmental powers against the weakest members of our society - private citizens, who don't have access to unlimited taxpayer or corporate-funded attorneys. This doesn't jibe with the Republican Party's stand on individual rights or small government (only when the Democrats have Congress for 50 years are they for "small government"), but does jibe with the often-made accusation that Republicans wish to protect business interests above all else. This decision, which empowers collusion between local government and business interests, does precisely that. It is the worst example of "legislation from the bench" I have seen in my adult life."

Eric has created a far more intelligent post than I have (as is the usual case), and has also created a kind of a "round up," a first in a series of Carnivals (like the Carnival of Cordite, only a carnival of libertarianism instead called Life, Liberty, Property). It will likely be making rounds, hosted by each of it's members, and probably feared by leftists (and possibly by Bush supporters, who have an agenda that hardly anyone can understand) all around.

I will post further on this topic as I attempt to get my tiny intellect to wrap around this huge issue.