The headline from the AP is: “Justices extend gun owner rights nationwide.” This, as distinct from their more narrow decision in the D.C. case in 2008. But just to correct the headline: The right always existed, and will continue to exist even if some later more perverse court should fail to recognize it. The fundamental rights of Americans do not and must not rest on the passing whim of any elite.

More details via the WSJ:

Monday’s ruling elevates the Second Amendment right to bear arms to the status of a fundamental right that states can’t abridge.

“It is clear that the Framers and ratifiers of the Fourteenth Amendment counted the right to keep and bear arms among those fundamental rights necessary to our system of ordered liberty,” wrote Justice Alito in his majority opinion.

The full text of this judgment is available from the Supreme Court at this link, in .pdf form.

From section: Shorts by Sean Curnyn
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You can’t make it up. From the AP:

A woman who wrote President Barack Obama, asking for help resolving her husband’s immigration problem got a response she didn’t expect: Federal agents turned up at her New York City home and took her husband to jail. [Read more →]

From section: Shorts by Sean Curnyn
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Via The Hill:

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday that President Barack Obama should find someone’s “ass to kick” regarding the budget deficit. [Read more →]

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Turkish authorities have said that the man who butchered Roman Catholic Bishop Luigi Padovese the other day is suffering from “mental disorders.” There’s a curiously consistent pattern of violent “mental illness” in Turkey, however, that just happens to result in the injury or death of Christians in that almost entirely Muslim country.

From Asia News via Jihad Watch:

But faithful and the Turkish world are still finding it hard to accept the thesis of mental illness, which only became evident a few months ago. Several attacks in recent years were committed by young people deemed “unstable” at the time but who later proved to have connections with ultra-nationalist and anti-Christian groups.

To many observers it seems that governments, politicians, Turkish civil authorities are avoiding all serious analysis of these events. The risk is that these violent episodes will be merely brushed off with the excuse that they are the isolated acts of madmen, the casual gesture of an young Islamic fanatic.

Among the “isolated acts” of unbalanced people are: the wounding of Fr Adriano Franchini, Italian Capuchin, Smyrna on December 16, 2007; Fr. Roberto Ferrari, threatened with a kebab knife in the church in Mersin on 11 March 2006, Fr. Pierre Brunissen stabbed in the side, 2 July 2006 outside his church in Samsun. These three attacks were carried out without fatal consequences.

This was not the case for Don Andrea Santoro, shot and killed Feb. 5, 2006 while praying in church in Trabzon; the same fate for the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink assassinated January 19, 2007 just outside his home in a crowded street in Istanbul. And the even more tragic death April 18, 2007 of three Protestant Christians, including one German, tortured, stabbed and killed while working in the Zirve publishing house in Malatya, which publishes Bibles and Christian books.

It’s crazy alright.

From section: Shorts by Sean Curnyn
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So the Commissioner of Baseball has announced his decision, just a little while ago:

Commissioner Bud Selig will not reverse call that cost Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

Selig says Major League Baseball will look at expanded replay and umpiring, but not the botched call Wednesday night.

Umpire Jim Joyce says he made a mistake on what would’ve been the final out in Detroit, where the Tigers beat Cleveland 3-0. The umpire personally apologized to Galarraga.

For myself, I think that Bud Selig’s call is exactly the wrong one. [Read more →]

From section: Shorts by Sean Curnyn
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And maybe that’s one reason he’s talking a lot of sense. Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard talked to him about prospects for Republicans and what he thinks their approach ought to be. [Read more →]

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A post at Jihad Watch on this is titled: “This is Sweden: Muslims shout ‘Allahu Akbar” as Lars Vilks is attacked.” He was giving a lecture on the topic of free speech.

Watch and listen to the video below. [Read more →]

From section: Shorts by Sean Curnyn
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Raquel Welch has a new autobiography out, called Raquel: Beyond the Cleavage.

She also has a piece on the CNN website, in which she looks back on the sexual revolution and weighs its fruits. (Via First Thoughts.)

Margaret Sanger opened the first American family-planning clinic in 1916, and nothing would be the same again. Since then the growing proliferation of birth control methods has had an awesome effect on both sexes and led to a sea change in moral values. [Read more →]

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Yesterday, the poet Samuel Menashe read some of his work at the 96th Street branch of the New York Public Library. Also on the bill and reading their own work were poets Ilya Bernstein, Jon Curley and Michael Heller. [Read more →]

From section: Shorts by Sean Curnyn
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The story is from the Irish new service, RTE: Limerick pubs to open on Good Friday.

Limerick publicans have been granted a special exemption to open for business on Good Friday.

They had sought the exemption to accommodate over 26,000 people who will attend the Munster and Leinster rugby match at Thomond Park. [Read more →]

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