Off the Cuff – 8/14/10

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Baseball

Baseballs are as live as ever, bats & gloves are more sophisticatedly designed, and athletes are bigger, stronger and faster. Yet the dimensions of the field and scores have remained constant producing the same game as in the earliest days of professional baseball. Why? Chalk it up to the design of the playing field and the game itself. Baseball has remained virtually unchanged – fitting today’s athletes as well as it did players at the turn of the 20th century.

Snail Mail

Why anyone would use snail mail to send a letter these days is beyond me. I figure it’s either to show a more personal touch or for impact, like “see the effort I made by snail mailing”. Snail mail is also a retronym as there had never been a reason to distinguish among types of mail with the USPS cornering the market. The US Post Office is experiencing a huge drop off (no pun intended) on mail volume. Ya’ think?

Amending the 14th Amendment

If this isn’t an overreaction to the immigration issue, I don’t know what is.

Amendment XIV

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Yes the original purpose of drafting that language was to guarantee the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 granting the same rights of citizenship to Black people. Nowhere in the Amendment’s language, though, is this constitutional provision limited to Black citizens. It has always applied to any person born in the United States no matter the mother’s nationality. How should the Amendment be amended? “Oh, and no drop babies, terrorist babies, Mexicans, Muslims …” Well see there’s the rest of section 1 of the 14th Amendment which guarantees equal protection under the law.

This exercise in rhetoric by members of Congress is just that.

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