NY Times Pursues Happiness, Loses It

Quite a bit of chortling today in the conservative blogosphere concerning another bit of meticulous fact-checking by our intellectual superiors at the New York Times, first data-mined by the always alert Instapundit:

THE NEW YORK TIMES' EDITORS think that the phrase "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is in the Constitution. But then, they believe many things that are demonstrably untrue.

The Times editorial, offensively titled "Locked, Loaded, and Looney," breezily weaves an alleged epidemic of depression and suicide amongst Iraq War vets together with the paper's neverending socialist anti-gun, anti-Virginia meme, transforming this weird tapestry into a stupid, nanny-state argument for... legislation against suicide?

It is an eminently good thing that the anti-suicide measure would require medical specialists to keep track of veterans found to be high risks for suicide. But that’s to care for them as human beings, under that other constitutional right — to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Which gets us back to Instapundit and seemingly dozens of others. The Times' editorial staff, no doubt Rhodes Scholars all, along with their brilliant fact checkers, seem blissfully unaware that "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" dwell now and always have dwelt in the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. Not the U.S. Constitution. They must've had one martini too many with the paper's ur-ideologue, Paul Krugman.

Apparently, the cynical idiotarians and socialists who run the Times have gotten so accustomed to the antics of activist leftist judges—who create dozens of new "constitutional rights" every year without clear precedent, mainly because it makes them feel good—that they've decided the fun should no longer be limited only to the judiciary. Unfortunately, their own "fact checked" ignorance is now irretrievably on display. (But don't be surprised if they edit the link before you get to it.)

Blogger Charlie Foxtrot thinks the Times' editorial clowns should go back and take History 101. We'd advise Charlie that this won't work, since your average History professor today is a Marxist with a vested interest in keeping students ignorant of the facts while filling their crania with anti-US propaganda. Which is a pointless task in this case, since the Times editorialists are already, ah, full of it.

Another online commentator also thinks the Times' editorial staff had ought to get some mandatory training in constitutional scholarship, including a look at the Federalist Papers. He feels this might help clear the editorial miasma a bit, but does see a distinct downside for conservative bloggers:

Of course, while it would be a good thing for our nation if such an influential organ did this kind of thing, it would deprive many of us of a certain smug satisfaction.

The American Pundit, too, is loaded with good comments on the NYT's zombie editorial staffers' knowledge base. Here's a few:

Oy vey. Attention Editors: “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” is in the Declaration of Independence, among the inalienable rights of man - not the Constitution. Being a “constitutional right” would imply that it is in, you guessed it, the Constitution.

And more:

Remember, though, we need to leave the real reporting up to the real media outlets, like the New York Times. We simply don’t have their fact-checking capabilities.

Thank you, sir, may I have another:

I’m not surprised that the NYT’s editors confused the two documents. They have been looking for amendments to the Declaration of Independence for many years.

Let's let commentator Tom Maguire get the last word as he addresses the pithy observation of our first American Pundit commentator:

Being a “constitutional right” would imply that it is in, you guessed it, the Constitution.

Spoken like a true conservative. Proper libs, on the other hand, can find constitutional rights just about everywhere they look.