Supreme Court rules against property owners

In a closely watched case, petitioners from New London, Conn. challenged the government’s use of eminent domain to take and pay for private property and use it for private economic development.

Home and business owners’ contention that economic development doesn’t qualify as public use “is supported by neither precedent nor logic,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote.

The decision was 5-4, with Chief Justice William Rehnquist and others dissenting.

Government Power to Take Property Backed by Top Court - a more complete article from Bloomberg.

Argh! I don’t get it. People don’t seem to understand that local governments are just people. Ideally, governments shouldn’t have “special” rights that people don’t have, because they’re just other people…

Maybe it’s just because I’m a dork about things like this, but reading this news article makes me physically angry. The highest court in the land has decided that we can only really own property if it’s being used in a sense that pleases the local government’s idea of “economic development”. Haven’t we yet learned that letting the government elite decide who can own what leads to crippling corruption? OH WAIT, IT ALREADY HAS IN AMERICA.

Anybody remember the Walmart in Alabaster, Alabama? They wanted to tear down some homes and put up a Walmart, but several property owners held out and said no to Walmart’s payoffs. The development company building the ‘mart had friends in the local government who decided to condemn the homes and kick out the rightful landowners, because the sales tax revenues from the Walmart would be higher than the measly property taxes the landowners paid. People had their homes STOLEN from them to benefit a CORPORATION, and by extension, the local government. That’s the same thing that’s going on in this case. Pfizer wants to build a plant, but not everybody will sell. The local government is worried that this might mean they wouldn’t get the plant built in their district, or whatever, so they boot the residents out.

Is this America? Isn’t the government supposed to be in place to protect our rights, not subjugate our rights to whoever could benefit from it economically the most? The local government in a Kansas town did the same thing, stealing, under the guise of legitimacy, a car dealership from its owner to replace it with a BMW dealership, because that means more tax revenues. If the government gets to decide what economic activity is the “most appropriate” for privately-owned property, what’s to stop them from taking yours and mine? I’m going to become a property-owner in about 22 days, and it infuriates me even more because of that. If the city government up and decides that my home, the one that my wife and I go to work every day to be able to own, isn’t the most efficient use of the space, isn’t going to provide them adequate tax revenue, they can take a fucking bulldozer, rip it to pieces, and write me a check for whatever they decide, now with the blessing of the Supreme Court.

If that happens, I’d worry about me. I’d be that crazy guy who has to be dragged out of the home at the point of a gun, because I would not consent to this crap… I wouldn’t be a part of this game, because if you allow it to happen, you legitimize these looters with whatever laws they want to wave in your face saying that A is not A, that your home is not your home, and that your life is not your own.

If your life is not your own, they may as well kill you, because if you consent to the looting, you’re giving your life away anyway.

I think I’ll make a donation to the Castle Coalition the next time I have some extra cash.

This sentence in the Bloomberg article caught my eye. (my emphasis)

The ruling is a setback for property-rights advocates angered by what they said is an increasingly common practice, now used thousands of times a year.

The phrase “property-rights advocates” makes me flabbergasted. I thought… I thought there was some organization I heard of once that was made up of property-rights advocates… What was that called, again? Hmm… Oh yeah, it was THE GOVERNMENT. The fact that people who respect property rights are now apparently a fringe activist group blows my mind, it really does.

Robotic Legs

Robotic Legs
Originally uploaded by Garrett Vonk.

[The prosthetics] rely on sensors to monitor how the leg is being placed on terrain and microprocessors in the knees to control how the limbs’ hydraulic system creates a natural step.

These limbs are amazing. I can’t wait to see more people out and about with robotic appendages. I wonder if the stigma will last, with the solutions being so technologically advanced. In the past, prosthetics were often ugly and clunky (I mean, who wasn’t scared by a guy with a hook as a kid?) and the wearers had little grace to their gait. But now, if these legs really are as smooth as they sound, the only staring I’d do would be out of awe.

I can’t wait to check out some video of these limbs in action.

Also from the article:

In a book he wrote, “Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human,” Mr. Chorost recounts how he went to an electronics store to buy a cable to plug his compact disc player into his implant’s sound processor. When he explained to the salesclerk that he had a “bionic ear” and showed how he planned to jack the music directly into his head, the clerk nodded and turned back to the cables on the wall.

One day, we will all have stereo minijack inputs: movie theaters will be dead silent, Ipods will no longer be bundled with headphones, and airlines will still charge us $4 to watch a movie.

Gratuitous Steve Jobs Quote

Steve Jobs is quite often a little wacky in is external persona, but I was really struck by this quote:

My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important thing I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

A few sentences through, I kind of sighed and thought he was just being nihilistic, but as you progress, he really exhibits a reverence for the value of man’s life, and for living it. It’s a very upbeat quote on a very deep level, despite the surface discussion of death. It’s obviously more of a macro-level observation than a micro-level one, because some days are much better than others. But I’d be tremendously proud and wholly satisfied to have been who I am, to have done what I’ve done and to have loved who and what I’ve loved.

And I’ve been, done, and loved exactly who and what I wanted to today.