Obamacare Upheld by Supreme Court

Dear readers,
I haven't had time to download read the entire Supreme Court Opinion because I was in my car when the news came across Swiss radio. At first, I thought they had got it wrong, and misunderstood the decision vote. Then, the voice said, one of the conservative Justices sided with the liberal Justices to form the 5-4 majority. I knew then the Swiss had got it right. I then thought that perhaps Justice Kennedy had voted with the majority, but there was no detail in either the Swiss or French radio report, which I then turned to.
I have to say I was stunned. It was one of those moments when you know you will remember for the rest of your life where you were and what you were doing when you heard the news.
After reading the Opinion, I will comment in detail, but I would like to give you my first reactions to the US Supreme Court's decision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, i.e., Obamacare.
Why is this decision so important?
Because it drives a stake through the individual liberty enshrined in the American Constitution. When I found out that it was Chief Justice Roberts who held the stake so that the four liberal members of the Court could pound it into the heart of the American vision of liberty, I felt faint.
What the Court ruled is that while the Commerce Clause does not allow Congress to enact legislation that requires individuals to purchase anything, the taxing power of the Constitution allows Congress to tax those who choose not to do the "thing" if they have sufficient wealth or income to pay the tax.
The silly "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck" aphorism comes to mind. Or as Abe Lincoln liked to explain such events, "How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
A construction of the penalty levied on those who choose not to act to have health insurance that makes the penalty a tax does not make the penalty less unconstitutional under the Commerce Clause, as even the majority apparently wrote in their Opinion. We will follow this after I have read the full decision.
I fear we have entered a new age in constitutional interpretation. It runs along the lines of "if you cannot use the Commerce Clause, try taxing." Or some other trick, because we now know that the federal government is not to be constrained, not even by the Constitution.
So, we will now face taxation for what? Not choosing to vote? Not choosing to join a union? Not choosing to keep your children at home until they are 26? Not choosing to play basketball? The possibilities are endless.
And, they all add up to one thing - Americans have had their individual and personal liberty to act or not to act cut off at the knees.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" was never more true. It is time to take back the Constitution from those who would simply post it as a relic in the Supreme Court Rotunda and make it live again. Because America is special and it is the Constitution that makes it so.