I've Got Your Eminent Domain Riiiiight Here!
I wasn't going to weigh in on the whole eminent domain in the supreme court thing, but events have transpired that made me just have to get this one out of my system.
Briefly, one sentence for those of you who live under a rock yet still manage to read me. The supreme court ruled that if the town wants to take away your house and put in a strip mall they can.
Drew Curtis over at Fark.com, had an idea about this that was so pointed that I had to share it. He states, "World Fark Party 2006 or 2007 at Justice Souter's place. Help make the Lost Liberty Hotel an improvement over his existing crappy house". If Justice Souter thinks its ok for the government to take your house so someone else can make money off of it, lets turn the judges house into a luxury hotel. The statement is poth a public service message as well as an obvious action. What makes this better is he links to an online pledge site where he asks for support. He gets his support to the tune of 218 over target in a matter of a few hours, and the deadline isn't until july 15th. Head on over and add your name to the list to strike a blow against the new manifest destiny.
Yeah, I said it. Now I am going to say it again in bold. New Manifest Destiny. If you don't like that, how about we call it "Tyranny of the Rich". The whole point being that the government has decited that the needs of the rich outweigh the needs of the poor. Some developer decides that my land would be worth more if it was a $250,000 kit home instead of MY home and *poof* I'm out of a place to live just like that, don't let the construction worker hit me on the butt on the way out. Its not like I can buy it back. I would have to move on.
You know who probably thinks this is funny as hell? I'm thinking the Native Americans do. They are probably sitting back on their reservations belly laughing. "How does it feel NOW pale face!"
I can't help but imagine Gov. William J. LePetomaine as played by Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles.
"We've gone around discrimating against all the races and the women, lets pick on the poor people! Just give 'em a Wal-Mart, they'll be fine."
And still we take it, like we've taken it for years. One piece of the American Dream at the time...
