Thank God we still have freedom of speech.

There’s a minor -- well, maybe not so minor -- brouhaha going on in the U.S. right now involving President Barack Obama’s comments the other day about the Supreme Court’s current deliberating over the constitutionality of the 2009 healthcare law that is derisively termed “Obamacare.”

If you’re in another country you may not be aware of it, but here in what Mexicans insist on calling EE UU we are transfixed.

Rush Limbaugh (a radio talk-show host) had a lot to say about it on his program yesterday. Here is the transcript.

The breaks in the transcript are the spots at which commercial advertisements by the sponsors of the radio program were inserted.

Many people think the President overstepped the bounds when he referred to the nine justices of the Supreme Court as “an unelected group of people.”

For those who don't know, the U.S. Constitution specifies three equal branches of government: the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial.

Long may they wave.

Count your blessings, name them one by one

In this country we have the rule of law and our government is of, by, and for the people. Our Constitution sets up three branches of government, the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial. Each branch is independent of the others and acts as a check and balance on the others. In such fashion we have existed as a nation now for well over two hundred years.

So here are three questions every citizen should know the answers to. First, who is the current President (executive branch)? Okay, that's an easy one, and don't say Millard Fillmore. Second, what three people represent you in the U.S. Senate and in the U.S. House of Representatives (legislative branch)? Third, what are the names of the current nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court (judicial branch)? No fair looking their names up. Here is a picture of them to help you along.



For the record, the two senators from Georgia are Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isaacson, and the congressman representing Georgia's Sixth Congressional District is Tom Price. But I can name only seven of the nine justices, and I can match only four of the names with their faces.

I hope you do better on the test than I did. Just be glad I didn't ask you to name the members of the President's cabinet. (Let's see, there's Condoleezza Rice who is the Secretary of State, and....)