Broken Area - Episode 3, Ukulele Constitutional Hockey Burping

Hey I think we really are back to doing a podcast....

We started out by talking about comments by both Jim and Rachel from episode 2.  This lead us into a discussion of gun laws in the states and the second amendment. 

We went through a lot of stuff, we talked Christmas, we talked a bit about our son, Jon, and Isabelle kept accusing me of burping.  I ended with a rant about the NHL lockout, not a rant so much as a lament really.

We hope you enjoy episode 3.

Comments

[Rachel]

Actually, amending the US Constitution is a bit more complicated even than you were saying, Dave. First new amendments have to be proposed and then they have to be ratified, and there are two methods for each. A new amendment can be proposed by either both the House and Senate have to approve it by a 2/3 vote, OR 2/3 of the state legistlatures have to ask Congress to call a national convention to propose a new amendment. (The second one has never been used, because the last time the US had a national convention to amend a constitution, we totally scrapped the Articles of Confederation and started all over, and people in power know they have no idea where that would end.) Then for ratifying a new amendment, either 3/4 of the state legislatures have to approve it, OR ratifying conventions in 3/4 of the states have to approve it. Also, the ratification can't hang around forever, slowly gathering approvals; it has to be approved within "a reasonable time" or it gets scrapped.

But I didn't say that I thought an amendment repealing the Second Amendment would succeed--it wouldn't, now. But if we never start talking about it in a serious way, it never will be repealed, so we should start considering it instead of automatically dismissing it. Considering it also would offer a better sense of proportion, and show other proposals to be the moderate tweaks that they are.

The uke is sounding good!