IN TODAY’S NEW YORK TIMES, Adam Freedman looks at the role of commas in the Second Amendment. He’s right that people shouldn’t make too much of this — in fact, if I recall correctly the punctuation wasn’t the same in front of all the ratifying states — but this part, while not exactly wrong, stops short of the conclusion:

Likewise, when the justices finish diagramming the Second Amendment, they should end up with something that expresses a causal link, like: “Because a well regulated militia is necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” In other words, the amendment is really about protecting militias, notwithstanding the originalist arguments to the contrary.

It’s short of the conclusion because he misses a key point: the Framers considered an armed populace important, but didn’t trust the government — at either the state or federal levels — to arm the people. Since the armed populace (the “militia” was said to consist of “the body of the people”) was essential as a check on government power, the government couldn’t be allowed to disarm it by neglect. Thus, the Second Amendment may be “about protecting militias,” but it does so by keeping the populace armed. In fact, Brannon Denning and I expanded on this point at more length in this article from the William and Mary Bill of Rights Law Journal a few years ago. Click “read more” for an excerpt.

UPDATE: Comments from Eugene Volokh. (Bumped).

TAYLOR OWEN thinks Huckabee may be okay. Meanwhile, Bill Quick writes: “I’ve been suspicious of the almost overnight groundswell for Huckabee, and I think there may be some huge surprises coming in Iowa.”

CHRISTMAS GIFT BOOKS for kids.

THEY TOLD ME THAT IF GEORGE W. BUSH WERE RE-ELECTED, unaccountable death squads would terrorize American cities, protected by official silence. And they were right!

GREG MANKIW looks at current vs. historical tax rates: “Notice that all groups are paying lower tax rates than the historical average. But in contrast to some popular perceptions, the change is not concentrated among the upper income groups. In fact, the opposite is true.”

IT’S THE 234TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BOSTON TEA PARTY, and Rand Simberg has some thoughts.

ADVICE ON HOOKING UP HOME THEATERS. “How much do you need to spend on cables? Ah, the age-old question–and one that you should never let a chain store’s salesman answer for you.” And links back to the whole home-theater how-to series.

Plus, space opera from Elizabeth Bear.

UPDATE: Reader M. Simon emails: “‘Hooking Up In Home theaters’ Is what I first read. Then I asked, ‘how the heck do you do that’? I want to get in on that. Then I read more carefully. You can not underestimate my disappointment. :-)” Just put on a movie that your wife likes. It seems to have worked for this guy. . . .

JUSTICE William Jefferson Clinton.

HEH: Cindy Sheehan: Impeach Pelosi for collaboration with Bush administration on torture. You can’t actually impeach a member of Congress, though. The correct remedy is expulsion by the member’s house. (Via Weasel Zippers).

BIRD FLU IN PAKISTAN, the World Health Organization is investigating.

A QUESTION: “Why Did Bob Kerrey Mention Obama’s Middle Name — ‘Hussein’?”

VIOLENCE IN IRAQ is at the lowest level since 2004.

YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP: Sadly, you don’t have to:

A video of a Gucci- and Louis Vuitton-clad politician attacking capitalism then struggling to explain how his luxurious clothes square with his socialist beliefs has become an instant YouTube hit in Venezuela.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Pedro Carreno was momentarily at a loss for words when a journalist interrupted his speech and asked if it was not contradictory to criticize capitalism while wearing Gucci shoes and a tie made by Parisian luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton.

He should be sent to a special part of Guantanamo Bay supervised by The Manolo.

BRIAN PICKRELL: “With the Iowa Caucuses just a few weeks away, and with the final debates of both parties in the bag, it’s once again time to look at the situation on the ground here in Iowa.”

INDEED: “What had seemed gospel in some quarters–Iraq’s ‘civil war’ is unstoppable and American armed forces cannot do anything to diminish the fratricidal conflict–looks less certain today. “

PERRY DE HAVILLAND POINTS TO a “splendiferous expression of the manifest superiority of western civilisation.” Plus comic relief.

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AND DENIAL, in Canada. “This dysfunctional venom does not come from Christian, Jew, Hindu or Buddhist and fatuous relativism will only blind the foolish. It is time for free discussion in this free country, whether it offends or not.”

JOHN TIERNEY: Contrarians at Bali: “We always need contrarians to challenge orthrodoxy, so it’s good to see a few scientists raising questions about the established wisdom at the Bali conference on climate. But I’m such a contrarian myself that I have to quibble with them.”

IMPORTANT THOUGHTS on cheap, macho watches, from Tom Smith.

SOME RECOMMENDED GIFTS for under fifty bucks. I love it that you can get DVD players for $36.99.

UPDATE: Reader Josh Eno emails: “I’d rather pay $15 for a National Geographic subscription directly from
nationalgeograpic.com than pay $34 through Amazon. Give your readers a tip and save them $19.”

Um okay, but that link looks a bit iffy. This one, on the other hand, offers the good price. Funny, in my (limited) experience the magazine subscriptions through Amazon have been cheaper.

ADVICE TO NEW BLOGGERS from Jorn Barger, who coined the term “weblog.” I like this one: “If you have more original posts than links, you probably need to learn some humility.” But then, I would, wouldn’t I? Plus this: “Being truly yourself is always hipper than suppressing a link just because it’s not trendy enough. Your readers need to get to know you.”

GAIA IS YOUR FUEHRER: “‘When the chips are down I think democracy is a less important goal than is the protection of the planet from the death of life, the end of life on it,’ he says. ‘This has got to be imposed on people whether they like it or not.'”

They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected, fearmongering would be the end of democracy. And they were right!

JOE LIEBERMAN endorses John McCain. Hmm. A McCain-Lieberman unity ticket?

UPDATE: On McCain-Lieberman, Stephen Green writes: “Dude, I called that one almost two weeks ago.” Nice, but InstaPundit reader Richard Whitten called it in July of 2004.

A LEGAL ANALYSIS of the Sony BMG rootkit incident.

PUSH-POLLING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.