Mickelson's Podcast

Dana Mecum and Larry Kline highlight the weekend live auction on HDTV.   Jim Marrs with The Trillion Dollar Conspiracy makes us flunk the kook test.   A lady loses her job over tinted windows.  And Suzy.

Dr. Gal Luft  "Turning Oil Into Salt"...time to get serious about energy independence and fuel choice.    Joshua Lyon was a Pill Head...tells how to avoid becoming one.   Then,  former Governor Branstad makes a major campaign position shift on immigration.  Ready for Arizona law?

Crystal O'Connor says our kids need business coaching... she's running summer courses for teenagers.  Kidpreneur.   Then an Iowa Tea Party billboard makes national news...Iowan's respond to the attention.

Paul Collier says it's time to un-plunder "The Plundered Planet"...says we don't have title to the Earth so don't abuse the place.   Cameras to replace cops in Des Moines?  Yuck.   Dr. Betsy McCaughey is a constitutional expert...worries about Obama care...reviews the health care bill and finds it not Constitutional.

The conversation started with a news story from Iowa which made national news.  A drunk driver was busted.  Nothing unusual about that, but in this case he was driving his riding lawn mower down the street weaving about the center lane.  That's not the part of the story which landed it on Drudge.  It was the kicker line in which the local arresting sheriff claimed, "In Iowa, it's illegal to drive any motor vehicle anywhere while intoxicated, the driver could have been charged while mowing his own lawn."

When I read that one on the air,  I wondered how law enforcement could get jurisdiction to bust an intoxicated mower rider on his own property.  

The first caller said the sheriff is "Stuck on stupid...no such jurisdiction exists in Iowa code."

A cop called in to say,  "Yes there is.  It's Iowa code 321.J.  

So I pushed him.   "What does it say?"

I could hear the pages of his cop code book being rifled in the background,  "I can't find it."

Then a public official called to say that although it wasn't actually in the code,  "...it's been interpreted that way by the courts."

At that point all the little Constitutional hairs stood up on the back of my neck.  "Judges have said its ok?"

"Yes"

"Even though the law doesn't authorize it?"

"Yes,  the legislature doesn't have a problem with it." he said.

I said,  "That's not a very high standard."

Said the official,  "Where in the Constitution or Iowa code does it say on CAN drive your lawnmower while drunk, on your own property?"

"That turns our relationship with the state upside down.  We don't get our rights from the state or it's code.  We don't need permission from the law or a government employee to drink a beer while mowing one's own yard.  It's our property."

Said the official, "If you kill somebody on your property or counterfeit money in your basement, police can arrest you on your own property can't they?"

"Yes, but in either of those cases, there are victims.  It IS the proper function of government to protect the lives, liberty and property of its citizens.  It is not the proper role of government to protect me against myself.  Plus,  judges can't re-write Iowa code from the bench.  Judge-made "law" is null and void.  If the legislature won't defend their turf from activist judges, the rest of us must."

So,  am I really going to argue that a citizen of the United States can legally mow his own yard while two-sheets to the wind?   With deepest apologies to my long-gone,  tea-totaling mom,  the answer is,  "Yes".    It may be sinful,  but it shouldn't be illegal.  

(Unless you mow diagonally...an un-American and evil practice.  We have to have some standards. )

Tara Ross says Democrats are trying to change our form of government by trashing our electoral college.   Newt Gingrich says he wants to toss a wrench into the Obama machine.   The Iowa's establishment are still pushing open borders in Iowa.

Stephen Meyer thinks he can read the Signature in the Cell....darn it...means we will never rebuild dinosaurs.  Maggie Gallagher says the Boston judicial ruling on DOMA has Elena Kagan's finger prints on it.  Dr. D.C. Gray says Obama's death panels and rationing are back with a vengeance.   Then an Iowa drunk makes national news...driving a lawnmower...does one have the right to drive drunk on one's own property?   Great Question.

Judy Hintz from Educational Resources brings in a passel of interesting folks... Naneen, Joel, Kathy and Craig...inspirational.   Carrie Severino blasts Elena Kagan as an unqualified SCOTUS nominee.    Penny Nance says TSA wants to filter nasty stuff from their computers...and it ain't porn.    Are the people who feigned outrage over Congressman King now a little embarrassed?   Should be. 

Congressman Steve King takes on the Obama Arizona lawsuit.  Fierce.    Drowning doesn't look like drowning...some of the best summer survival info available.  

William Voegeli says there is "Never Enough"  OPM for the welfare state.   So let's fix it.   Then Iowa odds and ends open-line.   Fun