Constitution?
Erik D. Freeman
anymore.
*.*
Psychic's crystal ball burns down his flat in unforeseen blaze
If Herve Vandrot, French amateur psychic, took out a warranty on his
crystal ball, he may soon be claiming on it. Instead of predicting that
his flat would catch fire, the fortune-telling device was the cause of
the blaze.
*.*
A man was complaining about the cost of a baby. The nurse said,
"Sure, but look how long they last!"
Obesity will not solve the Medicare and Medicaid problems
but it may be the solution to the Social Security crisis.
Make drugs and immigrants legal and tax both.
We would then have the money
to set up rehab centers and build a fence.
*.*
Oneliners
There is nothing more permanent than a temporary tax
Scars: Tattoos with better stories.
Loved are the ones who are told of their faults in private
A:\ B:\ C:\ - Alphabet of a new generation
Look after your wife; never mind yourself--she'll look after you
Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.
Say nothing . . . often
Mothers of teenagers know why animals eat their young.
All the women moaning about finding a husband obviously never had one.
Everything is always okay in the end. If it's not, it's not the end.
You non-conformists are all alike
Sign on a synagogue: Under same management for 5,765 years.
*.*
An elderly gentleman was reading his recovery-room record
at the hospital where I work.
He looked quite concerned at one notation.
"I know I was in a bit of a muddle, but I didn't realize I was that
bad,"
he said to me apologetically. "I hope I didn't offend anyone."
He was greatly relieved when I explained the acronym in question
meant "Short Of Breath" and not what he thought.
Issue of the Times;
Does the Constitution Contain a Right to Privacy? by Harry Browne
Senator Rick Santorum recently caused a brouhaha when, during an
Associated
Press interview, he defended laws against sodomy - saying that permitting
sodomy is as good as saying polygamy, incest, and adultery should be
permitted.
This provoked a firestorm - and that caused a far more troubling Santorum
statement to be overlooked. He said:
It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist
in my opinion in the United States Constitution . . .
Is there a right to privacy in the Constitution?
Well, I searched my copy of the Constitution of the United States and I
couldn't find the word privacy anywhere in the document. Does this mean
the
Senator is right?
I also searched the Constitution and I couldn't find the word marriage
either. Does that mean I don't have a right to be married - that a
so-called
"right to marriage" was invented by some bleeding-heart liberal judge
somewhere?
The Constitution also doesn't include the right to buy products from
foreigners, or to have children, or to read a book, or even to eat food to
survive.
How could the Constitution have overlooked such basic human rights?
Because the Constitution isn't about what people can do; it's about what
government can do.
The Constitution was created to spell out the limited rights or powers
given
to the federal government. And it was clearly understood that the
government
had no powers that weren't authorized in the Constitution.
The Bill of Rights
The original Constitution contained no Bill of Rights, because the authors
believed it wasn't necessary - since the Constitution clearly enumerated
the
few powers the federal government was given.
However, some of the Founding Fathers thought there could be
misunderstandings. So a Bill of Rights was composed - and some states
ratified the Constitution only on condition that those amendments would be
added to the Constitution.
Whereas the main part of the Constitution spells out the few things that
government may do or must do, the ten amendments of the Bill of Rights
spell
out what government may not do. For example:
The government can't search or seize your property without due process of
law,
It can't keep you in jail indefinitely without a trial,
It can't enact laws abridging the freedom of speech or religion, or
infringing on the right to keep and bear arms.
And various other prohibitions on government activity are spelled out.
The ninth and tenth amendments were included to make absolutely sure there
was no misunderstanding about the limited powers the Constitution grants
to
the federal government.
Amendment IX:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or
to the people.
Now, where's the right to privacy?
It is clearly in those two amendments.
The government has no power to tell people what to do except in areas
specifically authorized in the Constitution.
That means it has no right to tell people whether or not they can engage
in
homosexual acts; no right to invade our privacy; no right to manage our
health-care system; no right to tell us what a marriage is; no right to
run
our lives; no right to do anything that wasn't specifically authorized in
the Constitution.
(Notice also that nowhere in the Constitution does it say that government
may violate the Bill of Rights if the target of its wrath is a
non-citizen.
Government isn't authorized to jail non-citizens indefinitely or deny them
due process of law. There's a good reason for that, but that's another
subject.)
Constitutional Ignorance
The irony in the Santorum diatribe is that if you were to ask him whether
he
believes the Constitution is a literal document - as opposed to one that
can
be reinvented by judges and politicians - I'm sure he'd say he's squarely
on
the side of the Constitution as a literal document.
And yet he doesn't even know what's in it. And he wants to reinvent it as
a
document that gives the government the power to regulate your personal
life
and invade your privacy.
This is pitiful. Politicians swear an oath to uphold and defend the
Constitution, and they don't even understand what it is.
But then, most of them were educated in government schools, just like the
rest of us. So why should we expect them to understand the importance of
limiting governmental power?
When the Constitution is discussed in schools, the focus is generally on
the
constitutional procedures for appointing judges, electing politicians,
terms
of office, and other mundane matters.
There really are only two areas of the Constitution that every American
should understand and understand well:
Article 1, Section 8 - which enumerates the areas in which Congress has
the
power to legislate. You'll notice that no power is given there for
Congress
to pass laws regulating health care or education or charities or
agriculture
or any of thousands of other areas in which politicians now tell us how we
must act.
The Bill of Rights - which makes it plain that the government has no
authority to do anything that isn't specified in Article 1, Section 8.
Perhaps the greatest mistake made in American history was in allowing
government to educate our children. We can't expect government employees
to
teach our children that the one unique aspect of our heritage - the one
element that set America apart from the rest of the world - was freedom
from
government.
Once government moved in on education in the 1800s, it was all downhill
from
there. In 1913, the income tax amendment was passed - giving the federal
government virtually unlimited resources to trespass in any area of our
lives that politicians took a fancy to.
Our two greatest needs, if we are to regain the liberty the Founding
Fathers
bequeathed to us, are to:
Get government completely out of education.
Repeal the income tax, which will automatically deny the politicians the
resources with which to violate the Constitution.
Only when those goals are achieved will America once again be the land of
liberty - providing light and hope and inspiration to the entire world.
Quote of the Times;
"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts
and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and
general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and
Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States,
and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the
subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix
the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and
current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for
limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their
respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas,
and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules
concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use
shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval
Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the
Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and
for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the
United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of
the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the
discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such
District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of
particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of
the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over
all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in
which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals,
dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into
Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this
Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any
Department or Officer thereof."
Link of the Times;
http://www.digitalfog.com/gallery/classic_auto.htm
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