Random Bits of News

(1) NBC Nightly News, 6/26/08, 6:40 pm, view the story here.

NBC ran a story about North Korea's recent compliance with international demands that they make their nuclear program transparent. Pres. Bush has announced that he will remove North Korea from the official "State Sponsors of Terror" list in light of North Korea's recent actions. Sen. Sam Brownback responded: "We're legitimizing a genocidal regime." Ok, I'm not a North Korea apologist. People have legitimate and justifiable worries about North Korea's treatment of its own citizens. But what does nuclear transparency have to do with state sponsorship of terrorism? We haven't proven that North Korea did, or attempted to provide nuclear technology to terrorist groups. The closest anybody's has come is suspicion that a POSSIBLE nuclear site in Syria was erected using information and technology from North Korea. But the fact that North Korea found Jesus in regard to their nuclear program doesn't necessarily mean they've quit sponsoring terrorism. And further, in regard to Sen. Brownback's comments, can people please stop misusing the term "genocide"...please. "Genocide", according to the United Nations, means "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; [and] forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." Source. There is no proof that North Korea's government has engaged in such practices, despite their despicable treatment of their own people. Like I said, I'm not apologizing for North Korea, I only want my government officials to accurately characterize world events.

(2) US Supreme Court hands down a couple of interesting rulings:

(A) Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker - the Court ruled that, at least in the context of maritime cases, punitive damages are limited to a 1:1 ratio to compensatory damages. While the ruling was not a constitutional ruling and therefore not mandatory outside of the maritime context, the Court made clear that the problem of unpredictability of punitive damages (in this case, $5 billion against Exxon) extends into all civil cases and left the door open for similar challenges to other punitive damages awards. Source.

(B) District of Columbia v. Heller - the Court ruled that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own firearms unconnected with any service in the militia. Justice Scalia, writing for the majority, expressly overruled my April post on the issue (here), holding that the prefatory clause (e.g. the one about the militia) does not limit or expand the scope of the operative clause (e.g. the one that says citizens can own guns). I'm honored that the Supreme Court saw fit to rule on one of my posts, even if they did get it wrong. Source.