The University of Washington billed it as a debate among distinguished law faculty over whether the new federal health-care law is constitutional. But while the four panelists at a packed event Tuesday may have differed on some of the finer points, they all agreed on the big question: They said the new law passes constitutional muster and that various lawsuits arguing the opposite — including the one joined last week by state Attorney General Rob McKenna — have little merit or chance of success. Even John McKay, the former Republican U.S. attorney for Western Washington (who was forced out in 2006 under contentious circumstances) said that while he sympathized with some of the political issues in play, he thought the lawsuits lacked merit. In fact, he questioned the timing and thrust of the cases: “One way to say it is, that this has to be seen as a political exercise,” he said. Moderator Hugh Spitzer noted the lack of a vigorous dissenting voice. “I will say that we tried very hard to get a professor who could come and who thinks this is flat-out unconstitutional,” he said. “But there are relatively few of them, and they are in great demand.”Trying to find academics who support the anti-intellectual and grievously ignorant Republican worldview is a tough undertaking, indeed. There are no doctoral degrees in stupidity, you see. At least, not yet.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
A Search for a Professor with a Degree in Stupidity
Isn't this just a precious piece of news:
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2 comments:
Stick around. Liberty U. (Jerry Falwell), Regent's U. (Pat Robertson), and other conservative universities founded by televangelists will proffer up some candidates.
In my opinion, the health care bill missed an opportunity to de-fang the libertarian loonies. The bill could have had an opt-out policy, whereby the individual could refuse to get insurance, but would have to pay for health care with cash or collateral, could not declare bankruptcy, and could not join up in federally supported insurance for 5 years, the last meant to prevent people from joining up just after they contract an expensive disease or have expensive trauma. I have zero problem with pauperizing people who make enough to buy insurance but don't do so, figuring to get a free ride on the system.
"de-fanging the libertarian loonies" is definitely something that needs to be done. But nobody seems to dare do it for now.
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