Ideas in Progress

Instapundit and other bloggers have been giving the New York Times a hard time over the fact that their editors claimed in an article that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" are constitutional rights. The phrase comes, of course, from the Declaration of Independence and not the U.S. Constitution. Everyone else seems to assume that the Times editors mislabeled the phrase as constitutional rights because they are either ignorant of what the U.S. Constitution actually says or because they are ignorant of what the phrase "constitutional right" means. I'm not so sure that they chose the incorrect label of "constitutional right" out of ignorance. I wonder if perhaps the New York Times editors did it so that they would not be forced to write the phrase "God given rights" (or the more technically correct "Creator endowed rights"). After all, if it is not written in the constitution then where else can a New York Times editor claim that our rights come from? Jefferson given rights? Declarational rights?

Maybe they think it is better for them to write a small deliberate mis-statement than to open the door to something they think is worse. I'm just grateful they didn't write something like "UN mandated rights" or "Fundamental rights, duties and guarantees of the working class."


NY Times

Improvements in technology provide both opportunities and challenges to traditional sports and games. How those sports incorporate new technology into their rules has a huge impact on their future. Tennis embraced advanced materials and, for good or ill, it is no longer the same game as when it was played on natural surfaces with wooden raquets. Major league baseball rejected metal bats, but embraced the electric light. Now there is a new technological advance in golf that has the potential to change the very nature of the game. I am writing, of course, about the pink golf ball.

In order to take best advantage of the pink golf ball I propose the following two rule changes be made by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews and the United States Golf Association:

The player who makes the shortest drive off the first teeing ground must substitute a pink ball for his normal ball and resume play.

A player with a pink ball must continue playing with the pink ball until another player hits a shorter drive off a subsequent teeing ground. At that time, the player with the pink ball may substitute his normal ball for the pink ball. The player who hit the shortest drive must substitute a pink ball for his normal colored ball and resume play.

I think these changes would improve the play and spirit of the game considerably.


golf technology

The Instapundit asked if a machinegun shaped like a purse wouldn't be more useful than a purse shaped like a machinegun.

I don't know if it is really more useful, but the machinegun shaped like a purse sure looks a lot more fun.