Why Progressive Jurists like RBG are Dangerous

"Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented in Heller and wondered why the right to bear arms was necessary to extend to the states. "[I]f the notion is that these are principles that any free society would adopt, well, a lot of free societies have rejected the right to keep and bear arms." [Italics mine]

There are so many things worng with this statement it boggles the mind.

1. The United States of America is not "any free society" it is a particular free society based upon specific principles only some of which are written down in the Constitution. My country has a special, unusual, and quite specific history. "We believe these truths are self evident. " No other country in the world is founded on the belief that the truths articulated in the Declaration of Independence are obvious and based upon divine principles.

To cast the United States of America into the pot of "a lot of free societies" whose foundations are the idea that "rights" are "allowed" by government is to sully, belittle, and degrade our Principles, our Founders, and all those who have died to uphold the Constitution.

Shame on you Justice Ginsburg. You stain the proud duties of the Court.

2. Under Article IV the Supreme Court is restricted to base rulings on the Constitution, the Laws of the United States and Treaties. To wit:


"This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding."

Any appeal to "a lot of free societies" is thus explicitly prohibited as the basis for making decisions.

Justice Ginsburg should follow her oath of office and uphold ALL the Constitution not just those parts she finds fit her ideological preferences.

3. While it may be true that "a lot of free societies have rejected the right to keep and bear arms." our country has not.  The Second Amendment specifically provides for the protection of that right.  Even a Constitutional Amendment removing the Second Amendment would still not remove the underlying right.

Our Constitution, unlike "other free societies", doesn't extend rights to citizens, it protects rights which are inalienable. The Constitution grants specific, limited, enumerated powers to the three branches of Government.  It does not grant rights. The first ten amendments articulate some rights to avoid ambiguity and further restrict government.

I appeal to Justice Ginsburg to put aside her ideology and adopt the ideology of our Founders and ordinary United States Citizens.

I could go on, but my point has hopefully been made. The United States is founded on certain principles that assume freedom, grant limited power to government, and requires those who serve us to uphold the Constitution according to their Oath of Office. Our elected representatives should be held to the later in order to ensure the former.

Protein Consumption Truth or Scare

Conventional scientific wisdom hold two tenants to be proven true:

1. Increasing protein intake does not build muscle
2. You can not build muscle after 60.

An example of the first "truth" is contained in the article "Find out how consuming too much protein can harm your body" by Miriam Nelson published by WebMD and
Reviewed By Gary D. Vogin, MD

Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D. certainly appears to have the appropriate credentials. She is director of the John Hancock Research Center on Physical Activity, Nutrition, and Obesity Prevention and associate professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. She's written several books. (See bio: http://jhrc.nutrition.tufts.edu/faculty/nelson.html)

She's also wrong.

One of life's little lessons is that "it isn't what you don't know that kills you, it's what you know that isn't true."

What follows are quotations from her WebMD article with my observations:
 
"Seems like everyone at the gym is doing it: filling up on protein to bulk up those biceps. But it's a misconception. Eating extra protein actually doesn't do much toward boosting your muscle mass and strength."

While it is possible that virtually every person engaged in strength training has been hornswoggled by the protein shake industry,  I find it rather unlikely. There are simply too many users and too much information exchange for such a gigantic fraud.

Furthermore, my personal experience demonstrates that additional, high quality protein supplementation with appropriate exercise and other supplementation does, in fact, build muscle. I've tried exercise with and without. No comparison with is way more effective. And, I've see considerable fat loss too.


"In fact, medical research shows that consuming too much protein -- more than 30% of your total daily caloric intake -- could actually harm your body, says protein expert Gail Butterfield, PhD, RD, director of Nutrition Studies at the Palo Alto Veterans' Administration Medical Center and nutrition lecturer at Stanford University."

Note that there are no scientific references given. Rather, an "appeal to the expert" neatly sidesteps substantive information.

Also note, that "your body" is a mythical body. Individual metabolism varies widely. And, individuals who are performing heavy exercise or are over 60 have metabolisms that are certainly different from the average body what ever that is.

By-the-way, according to the UN  Americans are currently consuming about 53% of their total calories in the form of protein!  So we're already "harming" our bodies.

[Not that I actually believe the UN document any more than I believe the WebMD article. I actually think there is a whole lot of BS floating around! I include the reference here to demonstrate the wide divergence of "expert" information]


"She says that a diet containing excess protein can have the following adverse effects:

• Adding more protein but not more calories or exercise to your diet won't help you build more muscle mass, but it may put your other bodily systems under stress.
• Eating more protein and increasing total caloric intake while maintaining the same exercise level will build an equal amount of additional fat and muscle mass, according to a study published in 1992 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society."

Bullet point one certainly sounds frightening. Not only does extra protein not work it is harmful. Again no references.

Bullet point one and two result in the following equations:

Protein+(food-protein equiv calories) => no change in muscle
Protein+food => ^ in muscle + ^ in fat

Thus, the increase in muscle and the increase in fat are only based on an increase in calories.

Really!

So here we have three "experts" telling us that muscle is built only from calories. Does anyone believe this? Of course if you confronted these experts with the above implication of their beliefs you will be bombarded with piles of vague, jargony, BS resplendent with quotes of other "believers."

These folks are "experts" because other "experts" were convinced they had accepted the "scientific truth." You get a PhD when you convince other PhDs that you are knowledgeable of (That means agree with) what they "know" (believe).

While this keeps the religion pure, it may or it may not be "true".

So keep on chugin' those protein shakes.