The best package ever, and that obnoxious Fifth Amendment

So my Piano Concerto in A Minor (Opus 54) by Robert Schumann came in the mail today. Schwing! It is glorious. The pages are weathered a bit and it feels very... seasoned. So nice. I love it already. Even though I can only play about the first four measures, it's still the best thing ever.

I've been trying to keep this blog free of politics, but some things simply must not go unnoticed. This past Tuesday, for example, the President issued this executive order, which says:

...[A]ll property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense,

(i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of:

(A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or

(B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people;

(ii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or

(iii) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order.

(b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section include, but are not limited to,

(i) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order, and

(ii) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.

CliffsNotes: The Secretary of the Treasury can now seize your property if he feels you threaten the stabilization of Iraq.

With that in mind, here is the last bit from the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution:

...nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

So let's see, the NSA's President-authorized warrantless wiretapping program is illegal under the 1972 court ruling of United States v. United States District Court, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 suspends habeas corpus even though we are not experiencing rebellion or invasion (the only concessions the Constitution allows), and now this executive order utterly usurps our Fifth Amendment right. This President sidesteps any laws he wants to, always for the sake of "protecting" us from the "terrorist threat." Right.