Emerging market: Christine Mehring on the birth of the contemporary art fair

• The first contemporary art fair was held in Colonge, Germany in 1967
• KUNSTMARKT 67 opened its door on September, 13th.
• Today's art fairs model the way KUNSTMARKT 67 operated.
• Art Fairs help the art market economy.
• During the 60's London lacked collectors.
• Zwirner opened the first YEARLY contemporary art fair in London on July 4th, 1966.
• "Here is a very broad desire not just to see art but to own it, a desire that had not been evident in the galleries at all." Thus, building a new and broad collecting base became the driving force behind the founding of KUNSTMARKT, effectively co-opting for a capitalist cause the pervasive calls on the part of leftist student groups to make art more accessible to everyone."
• *** I really enjoy this statement because I liked the fact that Zwirner & Stunke wanted to make art more accessible to everyone-students, dealers, collectors, parents' and children-- I believe that art should be shown to everyone and not a select group-art is univeral.***
  
• Printing limited-edition artist-design covers helped bring in more than 130,000 & + people for this art fair every year. These collecting novelties helped bring in the masses.
• Vision of art fairs to have a transperant transaction with art.
• Zwirner & Stunke purposely made art fairs "Commercial."
• "Their focus on contemporary art functioned as both a means of publicity and a matter of economic necessity when appealing to young and adventurous but less affluent audiences."
• Art work showing in the fairs had to be progressive.
• "During its most vibrant years, between 1967 and 1972, the KUNSTMARKT was largely responsible for generating the most public and open discussion about the contemporary art market in history."

Without the birth of KUNSTMARKT, the art market would not be generating a stedy flow of money."
Art is life and the art market is money is obvious in this article.

1. What would happen if we didn't have an art market?
2. Why is the lighting so cheesy on poor at the convention center at the Miami Art Basel?
3. I do not think that showing certain pieces of work in a convention center is not a good thing because of the poor lighting and cheesy curating.
   

Nov. 19th Homework

Who Needs a White Cube These Days?

• Reading this article made me realize that it is OK to run a space that does not necessarly look or run like a main-stream gallery.
• Gallery's are always constantly changing--they act like fluid forms. If gallery's are always changing, than why should an artist be stuck showing in a white cube? If artists were only allowed to show in a white cube - it would limit they're creativity.
• "Galleries are now trying to brake their ascent to establishment status by interrupting the flow of monthly shows and finished objects, substituting a month long presentation of short exhibitions and even shorter performances."
• There are traditional spaces and alternative spaces, and the fluidity of the white cube falls under the word: transparency.
• "Modes of Attention" and rhetoric displays" are slowly being tossed out out the average white cube space.

A New Boss, and a Jolt of Real-World Expertise

• Many people in the art world where shocked when they found out the news that Jeffery Deitch, a New York art dealer became the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, California.
• Deitch is a prominent business man who received his MBA in business at Harvard.
• He has a fascination with esoteric art. Some people in the art world think is taste in art is ridiculous and some people praise his taste of art.
  
• The reason why some people are shocked that Deitch is the new director of the Museum of Contemporary art because it is unusual that a art dealer becomes director of a Museum.
• I am in favor of Deitch accepting the role of art director, because he is a business man and the museum was in a financial crisis and they needed someone who is was more of a business man then an art director.
  

Anti-Mainstream Museum’s Mainstream Show

• Skin Fruit was not a show good for the the New Museums exhibition.
• Seeing the show up close did not make mends with the art world.
  
• The show featured significant talets such as Mike Kelley and Cindy Sherman.
• The show experienced negative criticism from the beginning.
• The New Musuem's motto was about being Anti-Mainstream but it the New Museums exhibtion was very mainstream.
• The exhibtion was poorly curated .
• 
  

Among the Inept, Researchers Discover, Ignorance is Bliss

This article was interesting to me. It helped me understand why sometimes I can be over-confident about certain issues. I am a confident individual. I do rate myself "above average" on charts, but when it comes to having great math skills, I am not afraid to rate myself as average/poor. But I am OK with that. One thing that drives me nuts when I go out at night sometimes is that when people ask me: Are you a good artist?" How am i suppose to answer that? : No? Sometimes? I guess? Many people that I talk to and I tell them that I am in the Fine Art department at Ringling, they automatically think that I am a spectacular drawer or a master sculptor. Well, my drawing skills are not up to par with the illustrators. I am an "ok" drawer" but I do tell people that: "Yes, I am a good artist." I tell people that I am a good artist because why put yourself down. Be proud in what your passion/profession is! If you feel confident in a certain role such as believing that you have great humor, or doing a task well...role with it and own it! Yes, i believe that sometimes ignorance is bliss.

• "Most incompetent people do not know that they are incompetent."
• "students who are usually supremely confident of their abilities--more confident, in fact, than people who do things well."
• "Not only do they reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it."
• "self-monitoring skills, helps explain the tendency of the humor-impaired to persist in telling jokes that are not funny."
• "English grammar and humor were also the most likely to "grossly overestimate" how well they had performed."
• "People who are NOT incompetent tend to "underestimate their own competence."
• "In contrast, the self-assessments of those who scored badly themselves were unaffected by the experience of grading others; some subjects even further inflated their estimates of their own abilities."
• "In competent individuals were less able to recognize competence in others."
• "Overconfidence is common; studies have found. For example, that the vast majority of people rate themselves as "above average" on a wide array of abilities."
• "In a golf game, when your ball is heading into the woods, you know you're incompetent."
• "Faced with incompetence, social norms prevent most people from blurting out " You stink!"
  

Sound of Music Video

I thought this dance piece was spectacular. It reminded me of relational aesthetics because not just the performers where dancing, but the spectators in the station started to "feel" the beat and the motion of the music. Everyone was experiencing/watching/listening to this performance. This piece created a lot of energy in the room.

Zizek on Crossdressing to the Sound of Music

• It was hard to me to understand what he was trying to say in the video due to his accent.
• Zizek is talking about the Musical the Sound of Music the metaphor that the musical portrays is more like a "cheap shot."
• Zizek believes that the Nazi's were impersonating the Jews all along.
  
• The Jews where taking over the world in the arts, politics, and banking.
• The Nazi's wanted to be like the Jews.
• I liked how Zizek used the term "Cross-dress" in describing how the Nazi's wanted to look and have control like the Jews.

I do not understand how this video clip relates to what we are discussing in class. Maybe I am missing something. To me, the Sound of Music is a historic play about WWII. I never considered that the Nazi's wanted to impersonate the Jews in that manor.

1. How does this video clip relate to our senior thesis?
2. How is this metaphor of the Nazi's "cross-dressing" like Jews relevant to our class discussions?
3. Why are we interpreting the Sound of Music?
   

How Marina Abramovic's Red-Velvet Rope at MoMA Works

• The line to sit opposite of Abramovic in the atrium of the MoMA is much indeed apart of her work.
• The door policy is anything BUT democratic.
• Not even employees at the MoMA rarely get to sit opposite from Abramovic!
• Talk about the politics of things!
• The space where Abramovic sits creates a feeling of hierarchy.
  

It seems to me that the MoMA is dealing with a Princess on their hands. How can an artist have so much control and power over people! This article is NOT about democracy. This article relates to antagonism: Toying with the viewer. Playing with status and emotions. This does NOT relate to my work because I don't have a mega name in the art world. I guess artists can have and control over encounters because of how famous they are. Obviously Abramovic's intentions were to create a hizzy at the MoMA by only allowing certain people sit in front of her. But, Let's just say that I wouldn't stand in line for 5 hours just to sit accross from the artist. I believe that when people are infatuated with certain icons if you will, they will do ANY thing to meet or be a part of to feel important.

Questions to consider:

• What drives people to stand in line for 5 hours to sit behind a velvet rope?
• Why do we want things that we can not necessarly have?
• I am still trying to figure this last question out for myself. I'll get back to this at a later time-still baffeled by the red-velvet rope.
  

Antagonism & Relational Aesthetics- By Claire Bishop

• Arts relationship to its surroundings, mainly among European art venues.
• Analyzing the "white cube" gallery space as a laboratory displaying contemporary & experimental art.
• Bishop states that: 1990's work opened up a new direction making art work interactive with people.
• No longer are art galleries displaying work-but creating a social environment
  
• Having artwork shown in a so called "laboratory" differentiates themselves from a bureaucracy collection-based museums.
• Spaces creates a buzz among people. A broader sense of creativity and the aura being present in a space where contemporary art plays a role of production.
• Artists showing/working in a "laboratory" gallery space want their viewer to "experience" creativity and studio activity.
• Some "laboratory" art spaces have bars or reading lounges!
• Hal Foster forcasted that in the mid-1900's the institution (museums) may overshadow the artwork. The bureaucratic museum becomes a spectacle-showing light on the Director/Curator.
• Bourriad believes that: " Todays artists seek only to find provisional solutions in the here and now... artists are learning to inhabit the world in a better way." (by showcasing work in a "laboratory".
• Artist Tiravanija cooks for his audience- He has observed that this involvement of the audience is the main focus point of his work: Creating a relationship with the artist and the viewer.
• Artist Gillick creates an open-endedness in which his art is the backdrop to activity. But isn't a lot of art backdrops of creativity?
• Relational art as Bourriaud argues is that : A viewer is physically present in a particular situation at a particular time-eating food, flirting, and having conversation.
  
• The presense of the audience is essential-without people, it's not art-it then becomes something that is in a room".
• Relations between the artist and the audience creates new communicative situations.
• Bourriaud's argument is that the structure of an art work produces a social relationship.
• "A democratic society is one in which relation of conflict are sustained, not erased."
• Lacan agruees that: "We have a failed structual identity and are therefore dependent on identifcation in order to proceed."
• We need to rethink our relationship to the world and to one other!

This article relates to my work because when I am showing my work I want to create an atmosphere with people, food, and drink. It is important to me that people are engaged with my work and with eachother. I want people to discuss my work and to drift in-and-out of conversation in a social setting. Personally, I do not believe that I have to cook for my audience, I don't believe that I have to prove to my audience that they support me so I should feed them. Which is not what Tiravanija's work is about, but that's how i think of it. Which it's not a bad thing at all, but it is just not "my taste." I do know that my paintings are talking with my viewer and creating conversations. That is all I need in for a show: Great conversations, wonderful art, suppior food, and lushes drinks.


Questions:

1. Where does a culture come from?
   
2. Why do we compare relationships with art & social settings?
3. Are encounters more important than the individuals who compose them?
   

A VERY Rough & Dry First Draft of my Artist Statement

I create my paintings based off of American landscapes. I am intriged how the colors & warmth of air & land lie in our subconcious. In my work I am exploring how light & color spark emotion & feelings with my audience. I am interested in the effects of how time & space can connect with the viewer. My paintings are oil & canvas. The process of my paintings is cohesive throughout my body of work. I am inspired by empiricism-All knowledge that is given to us visually, is derived from a sense of experience. Painting, to me, is like a seductive dance. I want my paintings to provoke my viewers emotions & senses.

The expamples that i chose were: Molly Gordons Recipe Approch. I chose this example because it give me a great, basic outline of how to write an artist statement. Also, i looked at: Art Business "It's Stupid". I liked this example because it helped me realize that not everyone is an artist and that how it is important to connect with EVERYONE in an artist statement.

*This is a very, very, rough draft of my artist statement.

Walter Benjamin-The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction

• Reproduction detaches from the domain of tradition.
• Art has always been reproductable.
• Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art.
• Technology & machanism helped destroy the aura.
• Reproduction of art would make it political.
• Reproduction of art changes the direct, intimate fusion of visual & emotional enjoyment of the viewer.
• Time & space lacking in reproduction of artwork.
• The quality or atmosphere seen in original artwork is not visible when it is reproduced.
• Quanity vs. quality
• Reproduction creates a demand for the masses.
• Photography is slowly distroying aura.

1. Why, in some sense, does politics control art?
2. How are we, as a society going to revive aura?
3. Are we so visually stimulated everyday by colors/pictures/film/shapes that we are loosing touch with time & space?

This essay does relate to my work because in my paintings i saturate the viewers emotions with the images that i create to remind them of a certain time & space in the viewers life.

The Death of The Author

Ronald Barthes explores the relationship between the author, reader & text. Barthes projects that: in order to read lititature we have to remove ourselfs from the author. Reading this essay I found that empiricism is important in a piece of work ( lititature & art) because all the knowledge that is given to us visually, is derived from a sense of experience. It is important not to criticize the work, but to disentagle the knowledge that we are interpreting. Nothing should be deciphered. Something that is visceral, such as language & art, should be combed over, not pierced. More importantly, it is vital not to distroy the work entirely, but to appreciate the language that is given to us as a whole. When something is produced by an author (or, as I read it an artist) the creator is confiding in us. The language that we see performs. It is important to recognize that language knows a "subject"-not a person. Language creates a beauty that is ment for a throng of people. Not just a particular person. " The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author."

• Does the reader distroy the work of the author?
• Why do we, as the reader/viewer tend to pierce the work instead of disentangling it?
• As readers/viewers...why do we tend to create an ultamite meaning for a piece of work?

This article did relate to my work because the language that is being produced on the canvas is something that is not concrete. My paintings are not to be viewed as something that is going on in a certain place or time. My paintings give an illusion of landscape environments. These environments are based on color relations, but my paintings are of ephemeral worlds that lie in our subconcious. My paintings are about the subject as a whole, that everyone can relate to.

Why do I do This

The Big View

I am an artist because it is what I wanted to be when I was in first grade. In my class everyone sat in a circle and we had to state what type of career we wanted to pursue as an adult. Most of my peers said: doctors, lawyers, astronauts, and bankers. I was the only one in class to state that I wanted to be an artist. Every summer since I was five years old I always took art classes at the Kalamazoo Institute of Art. I found that naturally I was great at making things.
I wanted to pursue art as my professional choice when I entered high school. My former high school teacher Edie McaFee strongly suggested that I should enroll in the International Baccalaureate program for Fine Art. She was a huge inspiration for me and she really pushed me in my senior year. She believed in me. During my senior year of high school I received my I.B. certificate for Fine Arts and also was granted the Department of Fine Arts medal. One of my goals my senior year was to be in the local gazette for Young Artist of the Year. I reached my goal and had a photo of me, and a statement about my work in the spring of 2006 paper.
Sadly, my art career took a turn when I entered college at Western Michigan University. I did not see myself doing this anymore. I gave up on myself. My first year of college I was "Undecided." That was my major! My second year of college I could not take it anymore. I had to create art. It is in my blood and my body & mind were telling me that I have to do this! I applied to the Art Department at my college and I was accepted. I decided that I wanted to pursue art education.
At the end of my second year of college it was time for me to get serious about art. My great aunt who, at the time was President of the Board of Trustees at Ringling suggested that I should have a tour of Ringling College of Art & Design to see if I liked it. Well, I did not just like it, I fell in love with it! I knew that this was the place where I needed to be.

The Immediate View

I started to think about my thesis project last summer. In the summer I wanted to focus on patriotism but, it was hard for me to express my thoughts about it on canvas. I didn't know what to paint except for guns, stars, and stripes! My concrete idea for my thesis started the first week of school. I knew that I wanted the United States to be a part of my work, but not the main focal point. I started to think about how fast the terrain is in the United States. How we travel to find happiness, and how colors act differently in different parts of land. (hot, cold, aggressive...ect). I settled on this idea because I love color & and i enjoy the act of painting. I knew that with this idea for thesis i can stay focused. To help me stay focused I constantly paint simultaneously. I feel that if i work this way, my mind is constantly cranking out ideas instead of focusing all my energy one painting.

Chaos, Territory, Art. Deleuze & the Framing of the Earth- Elizabeth Grosz& Challenging the Literal

Chaos, Territory, Art Deleuze & the Framing of the Earth is about the study of Ontology. Grosz expresses her thoughts along with the theories of Deleuze. Ontology is the study of nature, existence, & reality & how these existences relate to all arts. Deleuze believes that art does "not produce concepts, though it does address problems & provocations. [Art] produces sensations, affects, intensities as its mode of addressing problems." Grozs expresses that art & philosophy go hand in hand. Philosophy is the sibling of art and its various practices. Philosophy is the force & power behind art. Grozs states that all the materials in art generate & intensify sensations. Viewing these materials in art affects the nervous system triggering emotion making the viewer joyful or sad. My favorite quote from this eassay is: "Painting ever more deeply materializes the body while music spiritualizes it, this is because, through the various arts, the body is, or a moment at least, directly touch by the forces of chaos from which it so carefully shields itself in habit..." Philosophy & art share chaos, & their "capacity to ride the waves of a vibratory universe without direction or purpose."

• Do we produce art for a purpose?
• As artists, do we "create" to find chaos?
• Do we produce art in search of the unknown of our subconcious?

Challenging the Literal

In this chaper, Dave Hickey breaks down the veriations of semiotics: The sign process, sign signification, and sign communication through language & art. Hickey expresses that: "While metaphors may require an imaginative leap in their initial use (such as in aesthetic uses in poetry or the visual arts) many metaphors become so habitually employed that they are no longer perceived as being metaphors at all." Their are three concepts of metaphor: Orientational: metaphors primarily relating to spatial organization, Ontological: Metaphors which associate activities, emotions, and ideas with entities and substances, and Structural: metaphors overarching, which allow us to structure one concept in terms of another. I believe that the paintings that I produce fit in the catagory of ontological metaphors.

• Is it important to use metaphor in artwork?
• How does irony affect artwork?
• How do I recognize something that is literal vs. metaphorical

My Semester Plan

The subject of my works are of American landscapes. My landscapes that I create are of the Rocky Mountains, forest, the big sky of Montana, the Badlands, the Great Lakes, & the desert. The Form of my work is expressed by breaking down color, form, & space of a particular landscape. My paintings are categorized as abstract expressionism. The materials I use are oil & canvas. The reason why I am inspired by American landscapes, is because traveling to these places makes me appreciate the country that which I live. Our land is vast & beautiful offering us every type of terrain. In these American Landscapes we can: play, explore, dream, & discover. We can to be happy or sad. We can share moments with the one(s) we love or to find God. Going to a particular place can bring a sense of emotion.

My Research will consist of: Looking at American landscape photography & re-working landscapes they way I view & emotionally react to them. This will be done in my sketchbook. I will be reading more about the abstract-expressionist & the subject(s) of the their work. Looking back at my photographs that i have taken of American landscapes & remember what that particular terrain made me feel at that moment in time.

My materials are oil & canvas. the process for each one of my paintings starts off with a wash of a particular color that will be the most consistent in a painting. Generally after a wash of paint I use OMS solvent to let it drip down from the top to let it run to the base of my canvas. I do this to create my first layer of bleeding. Sometimes I only use OMS solvent in certain areas of my painting. I keep repeating the washing & bleeding process till i have enough layers to work with. I then go in with oil paint and start with basic shapes. I use a makeup blush brush and re-work the paint to create areas of intense blending. I then create more layers with OMS solvent; which more bleeding occurs.

I will be making about 3-4 paintings a week. Large in size. 4ft x 6ft ( average) but some will be bigger.

I want to have over twenty paintings before the fall semester is over. I want to have large paintings & a large & consistent body of work.

I would like to have an individual critique every other week and my first group critique in the middle of September and my second critique late October or the first week of November.

Reading assignment for Aug. 31st

Agaisnt Interpretation-By Susan Songtag

In this summery, Songtag explores the purpose of interpreation in lititature, music, and art. One of Songtag's main points is why do we create art, and why do we interprate art Why is art useful? Is it useful? Does art have a purpose? Plato believed that art didn't hold a purpose and in his mind a piece of art was an "imitation of an imitation." If an artist paints a picture of a bed on canvas, the viewer cannot sleep on the painted bed it so the painting has no function. On the other hand, Aristotle believed that it was a form of therapy and art is "medicinally useful in that it arouses and purges dangerous emotions."
Sontag writes about in order to create "art" we have to have to start with an idea or content. I believe that sometimes art doesn't need interpretation. As Songtag states: "Today is such a time, when the project of interpreation is largely reactionary, stifling." Why as humans do we NEED to interprate? Why can't something be as it is? Why do we have to mentally masturbate over an idea? For example: Songtag writes about Tennesee William's play Street Car Named Desire. Some critics believe that when the streetcar roaring down a dark empty street past Blance De Bouis house is a phallic metaphor. And Kafka's short book " Metamorphisis" is really just about a catapiller turning into a butterfly. Why can't it be just a car driving down a dark street? Why can't Metamorphisis just really be about a catapiller?
When viewers aproach art they automatically try to find something to talk about. Or, a piece or artwork provokes emotion. "The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means."

• Why do we focus on the content of work?
• What are the "rules" of interpretation?
• Why in today's society is interpretation so complex?

Agnes Martin- (20 min video)

Agnes Martin believes that in order to make a great piece of artwork, the artist has to know what he/she wants and to always have a clear picture of the outcome. Agnus Martin focuses on the importance of having an inspiration. Not neccessarly having a concrete plan or idea, but more of a general sense as a whole. In todays' society, it seems that creating art is more about the idea, and less about the inspiration.

• Why are we loosing inspiration?
• Is producing art an experiment?
• Is art science in a way?

My Mind Map

*Volunteering in the community-Political events-Education-Republican Party-Young Republican's.

*Family values-tradition-rules-up-bringing-social awareness-voting-reading-listening-radio.

*Citizenship-immigration-voting-working-freedom-exceptionalism.

*The Wild West-The Gold Rush-The new Frontier-Pioneering-traveling-exploring-growing.

*F. Scott Fitzgerald-The Great Gatsby-Harper Lee-To Kill a Mockingbird.

*-boots-big jewelry-big hair-gold-gems-glitz-glam-make-up-polish-fashion-dark jeans.

*Interiors of old homes-Mt. Vernon-Monticello...ect. ect. architecture.

All 50 States Have The Right to Bear Arms.

In its second major ruling on gun rights in three years, the Supreme Court Monday extended the federally protected right to keep and bear arms to all 50 states. The decision will be hailed by gun rights advocates and comes over the opposition of gun control groups, the city of Chicago and four justices.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the five justice majority saying "the right to keep and bear arms must be regarded as a substantive guarantee, not a prohibition that could be ignored so long as the States legislated in an evenhanded manner."

The ruling builds upon the Court's 2008 decision in D.C. v. Heller that invalidated the handgun ban in the nation's capital. More importantly, that decision held that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was a right the Founders specifically delegated to individuals. The justices affirmed that decision and extended its reach to the 50 states. Today's ruling also invalidates Chicago's handgun ban.

Backgrounder:

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court appears poised to issue a ruling that will expand to the states the high court's historic 2008 ruling that individuals have a federally protected right to keep and bear arms, following an hour-long argument Tuesday. If so, the decision would mark another hallmark victory for gun rights advocates and likely strike down Chicago's handgun ban that is similar to the Washington D.C. law already invalidated by the justices.

Tuesday's lively arguments featured lawyer Alan Gura, the same man who argued and won D.C. v. Heller in 2008. He now represents Otis McDonald who believes Chicago's handgun ban doesn't allow him to adequately protect himself. Gura argued the Heller decision which only applied to Washington D.C. and other areas of federal control should equally apply to Chicago and the rest of the country.

"In 1868, our nation made a promise to the McDonald family that they and their descendants would henceforth be American citizens, and with American citizenship came the guarantee enshrined in our Constitution that no State could make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of American citizenship," Gura told the Court.

He argued the language of the Constitution's 14th Amendment forces the states to protect the rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. The Bill of Rights, which was adopted in the late 18th Century, was then commonly viewed as only offering protections from the federal government.

It wasn't until after the Civil War that the Supreme Court in a piecemeal fashion began to apply--or incorporate--parts of the Bill of Rights to the states. It has used the 14th Amendment's Due Process Clause to incorporate most of the Constitution's first amendments but has not yet done so for the Second Amendment. Gura argued that another part of the 14th Amendment would be a better vehicle for the justices to make their ruling but there didn't appear to be enough support from the bench on that front.

Chief Justice John Roberts was the most vocal advocate of using the Due Process Clause to extend the Second Amendment rights to the states. "I don't see how you can read -- I don't see how you can read Heller and not take away from it the notion that the Second Amendment...was extremely important to the framers in their view of what liberty meant."

The discussion over "liberty" was a major philosophical theme of the arguments. Gura and National Rifle Association lawyer Paul Clement argued that the rights articulated in the Second Amendment are fundamental freedoms and would exist to all Americans even if there was no law specifically saying so.

James Feldman, lawyer for the City of Chicago, defended his city's handgun ban and argued why the Heller decision's Second Amendment guarantee doesn't comport with the view that it represents a vital protection of liberty that needs to be expanded to the states.

"[T]he right it protects is not implicit in the concept of ordered liberty," Feldman said. "States and local governments have been the primary locus of firearms regulation in this country for the last 220 years. Firearms unlike anything else that is the subject of a provision of the Bill of Rights are designed to injure and kill."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented in Heller and wondered why the right to bear arms was necessary to extend to the states. "[I]f the notion is that these are principles that any free society would adopt, well, a lot of free societies have rejected the right to keep and bear arms."

Later in the arguments Roberts disputed that notion. "I do think the focus is our system of ordered liberty, not any abstract system of ordered liberty. You can say Japan is a free country, but it doesn't have the right to trial by -- by jury."

Roberts was part of the five member majority in Heller and there's a good chance Tuesday's case will result in a similar 5-4 outcome. All of the members of the Heller majority are still on the Court and at least one of them would have to rule against extending the Second Amendment protection in order for the opposing side to prevail.

Hypothesis

In order to re-install American values we need to focus on issues such as: Less government, immigration, pioneering, education, tradition, & family.