Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Once Upon a Time

Read and savor this short paragraph:

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.


That seems pretty simple doesn't it? A power that can't be found in the Constitution as "enumerated" (that's spelled out clearly for the folks in Washington DC) is reserved to the states for their handling unless it is prohibited by that very same Constitution for the states to do that. Short, sweet and to the point.

It captures what the Founding Fathers had in mind...a limited government that would not be able to intrude very heavily on the prerogatives of the states. Where has the concept gone?

A tax on carbon dioxide emissions? "I breathe therefore I emit..."

Universal national health care? A mandate of how many miles per gallon a car must deliver if they will allow it to be produced? A requirement to hire someone preferentially because of their ethnicity? Government choosing to fund or not support competing businesses? It would be damned tough to find those authorities enumerated in the Constitution.

Why then do we allow...no, why then do we demand that our government do them? We lose our freedom in the process, but no one seems to care.

So, this comes to us from the governor of my state:

Texas Reaffirms State Sovereignty

How appropriate that it comes on the eve of "Redistribution of Wealth" day, that annual festivity when 10% of Americans provide 70% of the money to run their government for the coming year as 40% of the population awaits their handouts for fairness.

Will anyone take heed?

4 comments:

LauraB said...

I'd missed this, buried in work this week - thx for the linkage. Will it make a difference? Hard to say but...I still enjoy the look of it...

jjet said...

The bad news: It will probably get this twit Perry) re-elected.

The good news: The dying ember of liberty is fanned.

Anonymous said...

Ed,

A Clockwork Orange presents a pretty good picture of how socailists use hooligans to victimize and control civilian populations. In history, Hitler and Stalin used hooligans in this way. The idea is to prevent law abiding people from defending themselves, the end game being a transfer of power form the middle class to the state. It is worth keeping in mind just how much time these socialists put into the consideration of "power" as both a theoretical abstract and as a measurable phenomenon. "Power" to them is a tangiible and measurable entity, and they regard it with as much consideration and care as a pilot monitoring his fuel guage and performing routine (but of course crucial) fuel calculations before and durng a flight.

C

Anonymous said...

Sorry, I meant to post my comment to the proceeding entry.