Re: OT: Politics [Was:Social Contract]
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On Sunday 30 April 2006 16:39, Kent West <westk@acu.edu> was heard to
say:
> Correction: The Bill of Rights enumerates _some_ of these rights.
> Other rights not enumerated still belong to the People (see
> Amendment 9, for example).
"Example"? The 9th is explicit:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
It's 10 that really puts the nail in the coffin:
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.
Combined, they mean, "the rights of the people are to be interpreted
in the most expansive sense, while the powers of government,
especially this powerful central government, are to be interpreted in
their most restrictive sense. That may be the greatest violation of
constitutional authority of all, the fact that the Fed.gov doesn't
know any limit to the things it may regulate.
> Further more, the Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments) were
> not part of the original Constitution. They were added on by people
> who were afraid the newly formed government would do what all
> governments are wont to do, run roughshod over the People, without
> specific enumeration of basic and important foundational rights.
Without the pledge to adopt a Bill of Rights, the number of states
voting in favor would not have been enough for the new Constitution
to be ratified.
It's also important to be careful to distinguish between preambles and
the actual powers explicitly being deligated to the new government.
In _order_ to provide for the common defense of the states, for
example, the power to raise an army (for a limited time) and
provision a navy are granted. In _order_ to secure domestic
tranquility, the power to raise an army for the purpose of supressing
insurrection is granted.
Looked at in context, even the 2nd Amendment becomes obvious that
_because_ a functional Militia is necessary to the security of a free
State (that is, an independent one), the right of the people to keep
and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Looking at the Bill of Rights as a list of things still fresh in
peoples minds, it's easy to see what had rankled the colonies about
British rule: Trial by jury had been suspended, searches performed
without warrant, arms confiscated, assembly regulated, etc.
Curt-
- --
September 11th, 2001
The proudest day for gun control and central
planning advocates in American history
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