Posted on 04/28/2003 8:19:50 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
The controversy last week over Senator Rick Santorum's remarks about the slippery slope of the Supreme Court finding a right to any kind of consensual sex based on a "right to privacy" in the penumbra of the Constitution, has had one benefit: A well- known liberal commentator on political issues has conceded his naivete about which rights are in the Constitution.
On Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO, Maher admitted: "This has been a learning experience for me. I also thought that privacy was something we were granted in the Constitution. I have learned from this when in fact the word privacy does not appear in the Constitution."
Maher's admission of his naivete came after columnist/author Ann Coulter observed on the April 25 program: "I think what he said was completely defensible and I think it's an important point, which is, you know, the Constitution describes a limited form of government and then there's a Bill of Rights with very few rights. And I think that Americans should start to recognize there are a lot of good things that aren't constitutional rights." Maher then conceded: "You know what, this has been a learning experience for me. I also thought that privacy was something we were granted in the Constitution. I have learned from this when in fact the word privacy does not appear in the Constitution."
You wonder how many journalists share Maher's basic lack of knowledge about the Constitution, a lack of knowledge which may explain much of the bad reporting on the matter.
A right to "privacy" was first broached by the Supreme Court in its 1965 Griswold v Connecticut decision overturning a state ban on birth control and solidified in the majority's Roe v Wade discovery of a privacy right in the "penumbra" of the Constitution in order to find rationale for overturning state bans on abortion. But it isn't in the Constitution.
On March 28, Maher won the MRC's "Ashamed of the Red, White, and Blue Award" at our "DisHonors Awards: Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of 2002." His winner, from a November 1, 2002 appearance on CNN's Larry King Live:
Maher: "We take pride in being big charity givers. We're in fact dead last among the industrialized nations. We give an infinitesimal amount of our money to people around the world. I think what people around the world would say is it would take so little for this rich country to help and alleviate so much misery and even that is too much for them. We're oblivious to suffering."
King: "And so we are hated because of this?"
Maher: "Yes I think so. I mean, I think, Iraqis, I think, feel that if we drove smaller cars, maybe we wouldn't have to kill them for their oil."
HBO's site for Real Time with Bill Maher, which has aired Friday nights at 11:30pm EDT/PDT: http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/
Starting this Friday, Maher's show will be replaced for ten weeks by On the Record with Bob Costas. But the time slot will still feature left-wing anti-war activists: Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins will be on Costas' first show this Friday.
When posted, this CyberAlert will be readable at: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030428.asp
No Boys and Girls.. Bill has not been cancelled, Maher has just taken his act to Broadway opening May 5 @ the Virginia Theatre.
This clown is obssesed with foreign aid, it's like some sort of utopian fulfillment for him, despite all evidence of how it's misused. He's just plain weird.
But we can still slaughter about a million babies a year on the basis of a "privacy" right that does not exist. Roe v. Wade is make-believe law based on judicial fiat, not constitutionality.
What's the real scoop here. Doesn't the U.S. give out billions in foreign aid? Where can we find figures of this?
I simply cannot find the words to describe the stupidity and political blindness exhibited by his statement.
"We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights - older than our political parties, older than our school system. Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred."
While privacy is not among the rights explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the Supreme Court has nevertheless ruled that a fundamental right to privacy is clearly found in the penumbra (shadow) of the First Amendment. Or the shadow of the Third Amendment. Or the Fourth. Or the Fifth. Or the Ninth. Or maybe it's the Fourteenth. Or perhaps it emanates from all of them; it's hard to tell with shadows.Daily Cnservative
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, now up on UPI and FR, "All-American Arrogance"
Latest book(let), "to Restore Trust in America."
Also, my latest UPI article on "The Iraq Constitution" is posted on FR.
I think we don't have the same sort of foreign-aid budget that we once did; it kinda fell into disfavor due to its rather outstanding lack of success in forwarding development of "developing" nations.We take pride in being big charity givers. We're in fact dead last among the industrialized nations.
I also think that that statement is socialist-speak. I suspect that if you look at private charity donations and not not just government "foreign aid", the picture is probably the reverse of what's indicated in the quote.
No shortage of socialist-speak in that line! Perfectly true, too--leaving aside the fact that we're already taxed to the point of diminishing returns, and that even so there's still plenty of "misery" (as in, people living at a standard of living no better than that of a prosperous American farmer, circa 1820) to go around.
One time on Mahr's ABC show some Hollyweird Liberal stated that the Supreme Court was Constitutionally under the Justice Department and that Ashcroft would tell them what to do.
The Airhead was not corrected.
I simply cannot find the words to describe the stupidity and political blindness exhibited by his statement.
Well find them, quick - because you took them right out of my mouth!
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