To me, the most amazing thing about judicial arrogance is the fact that the Executive and Legislative branches let them get away with it. Someday, somebody is going to have to tell a court that's issued a particularly outrageous decision in an area in which it has either no jurisdiction or no competence to take a flying leap.

The Executive has the inherent power to do that. As does any Legislature. What Presidents, Governors, Senators, Congressmen, and Assemblymen seem to lack is any sense of the proper limits and extent of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial powers. Arlen Specter is only one of many people in government who haven't the slightest clue who the system is supposed to work.

It is absolutely improper--under our system of government a heresy, really--for any judge to presume to make policy decisions. That's the reason Roe v. Wade is bad law. It's why Dred Scott was bad law. It's why Lochner was bad law.

Every time a court attempts to remove a political question from the arena of politics, bad things result.

You'd think they'd have learned that lesson by now.

But they haven't.

Consider what purpose an invocation of the Constitution as the basis for a judge's opinion actually serves. Whether or not what the judge asserts is contained in a Constitution is actually contained therein, a deferential Executive and Legislature will thereafter act as if it were.

This is a gross abrogation of the Executive and Legislative oaths of office. The oaths require officers of the government to preserve and protect not what judges say the Constitution is, but to preserve and protect what it actually is.

And it's long past time for the President to explain this to the American people.

Dennis Mallonee

Every verse of the Star Spangled Banner refers to America and the land of the free and the home of the brave. The concepts of bravery and freedom are linked in song in a profoundly meaningful way, in a manner that reflects this truth: A man who lacks courage can never truly be free.

There's a common misunderstanding about the nature of courage and bravery. Bravery is not the absence of fear. No man is without fear. Rather, bravery is the courage to do what's right, against all odds, even in the face of fear.

The terrorist shares this in common with the demagogue: He knows that there are those who lack the courage to do what's right. He knows that there are those who, if they can be made to fear, can be led into doing wrong.

This is why fear--fear of the unknown, fear of the other, fear of the powerful, fear of the rabble--is such a powerful weapon in the hands of evil. This is why, so often, when the call comes to do what's right, the call also comes to set fear aside.

In the current struggle, we face the newest incarnation of a 1500-year-old enemy whose power depends entirely on his ability to instill fear. We see that fear manifesting itself in ways both small and large. In large, we call it terror, but there's far more to it than that.

Islam's traditional doctrines of imposed submission and obedience run directly counter to Western traditions of liberty and personal freedom. And in order for the West to win the fight against these Islamic terrorists, there must eventually be a broad recognition that there can be no compromise with fear.

In the end, what needs to be done needs to be done.

Why the Liberty Girl? Why now?

Because the West is at war once again with an implacable foe whose ambition for conquest and subjugation stretches back more than 1500 years. 

Because there are too many people, both in this country and in Europe, who just don't get it, who don't--or won't--understand the nature of the enemy.

Because we need a symbol of freedom, of individual liberty, and of personal responsibility.

As Jefferson wrote: "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

That's the battle we're fighting.

And the Liberty Girl is my way of contributing.

Dennis Mallonee

Howdy.

I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post, but it's been suggested to me that the best way to talk to the Townhall community is simply to start talking to the Townhall community.

In the future, I'll no doubt range widely across political topics. But for the moment the subject has to be Heroic Publishing's newest comic book character, the Liberty Girl. I have no idea how many of you are into comics. But I do know that there was more than a little bit of anger about the dismissive way the Superman movie treated truth, justice, and "all that other stuff."

I'm hoping Liberty Girl will in some small measure provide proof that patriotism in the comics is far from dead.

Here's the premise: Between 1938 and 1955, Liberty Girl was America's greatest homefront heroine. In early 1956, she vanished without a trace. Now, half a century later, she's returned to us from out of the mists of time, just when we need her the most.

Please take a look, write to me at heroicpub@aol.com, and let me know what you think. You don't even have to buy the comic book. You can find online versions of the first couple of issues at http://www.heroicpub.com/libertygirl.

Best wishes,
Dennis Mallonee, President
Heroic Publishing, Inc.