The ship is anchor

The TN Report is the last to blink and gets up the exit interview with the (as-of-right-this-second-still) Governor Bredesen. He hits all the classics: Waffle Houses and Wal-Marts, health care, a "no comment" on Silicon Ranch, and he talks states' rights: Now what we're going to do is compel behavior by taxing the absence of it. That seems to be a whole new notion of what the powers of the federal government involved are and it certainly makes me uncomfortable. The problem is that this argument has been colored in my lifetime. "States' rights" for most of that time meant segregation -- that's what it was about. And now it's brought up by the tea party along with lots of other crazy issues. The point I was trying to make is to say, look, this issue of where does the federal government's power begin and end -- I don't think you have to go back to what the founders of the Constitution thought. The world has evolved a lot since then. It deserves real discussion and examination and not being a fringe issue for either segregationists or tea party members. I don't care for it.