An interesting quote from millimeter-deep thinker Ezra Klein:

The gun vote failed because of the way the Senate is designed. It failed because the Senate wildly overrepresents [sic] small, rural states and, on top of that, requires a 60-vote supermajority to pass most pieces of legislation.

Among the many basic concepts that media types are incapable of understanding is how simple the design all is.

First, wildly over-represents? Since Klein lacks a basic 6th-grade education, the Senate equally represents all 50 states, and with two Senators each—just in case the state in question prefers to be Democratic, Republican, or a simple mix of the two.

Second, the whole point of the Senate, per the Connecticut Compromise, is to ensure that smaller populated states have an equal say in the establishment of laws. Klein obviously feels that larger, urban states ought to have more of a say in how laws are established. Evidently, it somehow escaped his black hole-like attention that the Compromise indeed offers such a structure—it is called the House of Representatives, and happens to be led by Republicans. Sorry that didn’t go his way.

And obviously he expects the Senate should go with a simple majority: 51-49%, rather than a 60-40% supermajority. Because he would be so much happier if the gun measure was defeated by only one vote; so many great events in history clearly happened for him by single-vote differentials. Since he is incapable of reading a broad selection of history books, Mr. Klein should be forewarned that few beneficial things ever resulted from a basic majority vote. Hell, as he must know by now, we don’t even elect our presidents that way.

But what many Americans do not appreciate—including those who support and did not support the gun law proposals—is that the Senate exactly did its job: bills were brought before it, debate ensued or not, and the bills were voted down based on how the Senators thought it would affect their ability to represent their electorate. Many Democrats voted against the bills because they thought they might lose their jobs; indeed, four Republicans will likely hear from their constituents as well.

The entire point of the Senate, with its Byzantine rules of order, filibusters, up-or-down votes, and sub-sub-sub-committees, is to slow down legislation. Good legislation—and we have had precious little of that lately—is reviewed and considered to make sure that nothing stupid sneaks through. Bad legislation is drawn out until the public gets tired of it and clamors for something else.

The gun bills were a great example: Harry Reid sighed and assured the President that these bills would return again one day, but that is the entire point: they were bad legislation and they didn’t get passed.

Of course, this is why Obamacare was such a massive affront—it bypassed the entire legislative quagmire of the US Senate, just as it rejected the role of the House of Representatives. While Americans can salute the bipartisan defeat of bad legislation yesterday, it should forever remember the travesty of American law that Obamacare’s passage was and is. The rapidly fading support for Obamacare reveals exactly what happens when the Senate does what twits like Ezra Klein want.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.