Troubletown: This Week's Troubletown

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Uh...some comments to come later.

Jed Alexander said...: I think I'm very much in the turn into a puddle camp. It can't be good. I'm totally seduced by this man's charisma and what seems like the biggest change in government in many many years. I haven't been enthusiastic about a president in my lifetime until now. This said, I'm not thrilled about him sending more troops to afghanistan, his cosmetic handing of the whole "enemy combatant" issue, and his openness to nuclear power.

I think the president has too much power in general, and we can't always count on lucking into a relatively benevolent leader.

I also don't support the canonization of the constitution as some perfect perennially relevant document. Amendments are good, but maintaining the fundamental integrity of a 200+ year old document has required a lot of crazy legal gymnastics to find increasingly arcane ways to interpret the document to fit our present values and circumstances.

And the jury system is totally broken. The courtroom isn't a classroom, and the subtleties and complexities of the law and forensic science are not within the grasp of most jurors.

Anyway, sorry for the random editorial. Obama sometimes makes me forget to maintain my usual level of skepticism and cynicism about the government.; 9:38 AM