Word: militia
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...faith in the aging prophet rebounded when he fielded Russert's question on the Second Amendment. Russert produced the text of the statute: "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." Given that the Amendment explicitly justifies the right to bear arms on the grounds that a citizen militia is essential to national security, Russert asked, doesn't that mean that the right is void now that we no longer require a militia? Heston simply said "no"--and he is right...
...exist (John Adams, class of 1755, and Thomas Jefferson, for example, were explicit about their beliefs; Adams insisted that Congress not "prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms"). Even if Second Amendment revisionists were right in arguing that the militia was the sole justification for the right to bear arms, they would still have to accept the fundamental Constitutional basis of that right. The rationale concerning the militia is just that--a rationale. It does not alter or influence the legal right it justifies. Giving citizens the right to bear arms...
Crunch time: I'm into the fifth day of the second week, which means that either tomorrow or Thursday, I've got to go cold turkey on ferry sinkings, militia uprisings and men biting dogs. But what about those jolly bits that the media throw in so you won't despair entirely? For instance, last week Reuters reported that a fellow in Toronto walked into a bank lobby carrying a live goose. Sounds like a joke ("Gimme a 20-year, fixed-rate mortgage, and one for my friend here"). But no; guy actually says, "Give me some money...
McLaren's militia-style outfit believes the Lone Star State was illegally absorbed into the Union in 1845 and is a sovereign nation. It has its own courts, army and even license plates. On April 27, McLaren's followers took up arms (and a couple of hostages) in retaliation for the arrest of two members, one for weapons possession and the other on contempt charges. The hostages--neighbors who had quarreled with the litigious McLaren--were freed after Texas Rangers allowed a jailed "republican" to join the commandos, who then decamped to McLaren's "embassy." That exchangee, Robert Scheidt, apparently...
...turned to Hylton for the inside story. "He's a Pied Piper figure whose rhetoric is so confounding that you're tempted to dismiss him," says Hylton. "But it's evident that McLaren has been able to tap into that nagging insecurity in America that has helped fuel the militia movement...