Loose Ends... Vol. XLV

Let's take a look at a few of the big stories going on out there this week...

North Korea is doing its best imitation of a malaria-infected mosquito. They are potentially deadly, but a mosquito nonetheless. North Korea is one of nine countries in the world believed to have nuclear weapons. They are the most recent to "join the club"; however, they are not a member of the five nations having signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The nuclear test conducted by North Korea this past week was the first in the world since their last test in 2006. Prior to that, India and Pakistan each conducted tests in 1998. The United States conducted its last test in 1992.

The warhawks are now out in full force. There is talk of increasing our military presence in the region, increasing economic sanctions, and desiring China to exert diplomatic pressure on North Korea. On a related note, Mitt Romney appeared on Fox News Sunday and criticized the Obama administration on its spending cuts on missile defense. I'm not a defense expert, but I do know that we have an absolutely huge defense budget. Further analysis will have to wait for a future essay.

For more, read this article where Secretary Gates defends the cuts and view this video on North Korea by Ron Paul (R-TX).

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Henry Waxman (D-CA) has delivered the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 to the floor of the House. The bill, H.R. 2454, currently checks in at 932 pages. Waxman noted that he does not know everything that is in the bill. Check out the clip here. If you want to see more to get the full context, you can view this video from C-SPAN (set the player at time 1:11:15). Waxman also hired a speed reader in response to GOP threats over forcing a read of the entire bill.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in opposition to the bill. He is receiving some of the spotlight on the national level.

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The biggest story in the national news this week was arguably Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter on the Supreme Court. This will be in the news for a couple of months, so I will speak more about this in other articles. In the meantime, two quick points.

I find the case of Ricci v. DeStefano an interesting one. My initial reaction is to side with Ricci (and against Sotomayor), but I will reserve judgment until I read more about the case.

In general, I am an originalist when it comes to constitutional interpretation. I look forward to learning more about the origins and intents of our constitutional design. Both the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers are in my reading queue.

So much more could be said on this subject!

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Finally, and quickly since I'm tired, the auto industry is about to have its second bankruptcy. GM will likely file for bankruptcy tomorrow morning. I plan to write an article this week which will attempt to break down the Chrysler bankruptcy and focus on some of Indiana's pension funds who have opposed the bankruptcy proceedings.