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Analyst: Yes, the Constitution references both the term "militia" and the phrase "well regulated".
militia |məˈli sh ə|
noun
a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergency.
• a military force that engages in rebel or terrorist activities, typically in opposition to a regular army.
• all able-bodied civilians eligible by law for military service.
You choose which part of this the founders had in mind. My personal opinion is that it included all of the above. In any case it relates to civilians bearing arms.
As to "well regulated", I'd say that the civilian population is already "well regulated" with regard to guns. Last time I noticed, there was no federal law against murder, armed robbery, or any of the various crimes it likes to associate with guns, but every state has that law on its books, regardless of the weapon. For that matter, the federal government has no authority to regulate anything having to do with guns unless it relates to interstate or international issues beyond the purview of state governments or (recently) terrorist activities regardless of the weapons used. So it's unclear where the federal government derives its authority to dictate the conditions under which the average citizen may procure a fire arm. Perhaps from the same place GWB and Obama derived their authority to suspend the letter of the Fourth Amendment?
I wouldnt count on that pussy holder doing anything. Afterall, obama and his rat pack are all about "Look forward, not backward".
Thats code for letting the bush crime family get away with murder which means obama is just another bush of a different color.
Outback: Yeah, I guess...one thing for sure...I'm gonna die!
Proud Kafir: Salaam Alaikum, ya Proud Kafir! Al Hamdu li'allah I too am a Proud Kafir (unbeliever). I have studied the Arabic language for years and can read and write and speak and understand some Arabic..although I am still not very conversant in the language. I even lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years. I am also a Proud Atheist and consider all religions to be sheer non-sense! But, I had to keep my trap shut about atheism..no sense in losing one's head over ones beliefs....or lack of beliefs!
You might enjoy Pat Condell, a British comedian, who has a podcast. I used to listen to his podcasts...but my time has been taken up with other things.
While I think all religions are ridiculous, I still like many Arabs..the people...not their religion....they are not all religious crazies..just as not all Christians are religious crazies...but one thing that will make anyone "crazy" is what our military has done to them by slaughtering all those innocent people.
But,I think they are worthy of pity because they have all put their minds in a prison of dogma (which is really propaganda to imprison your minds and to get you to do stuff you would otherwise find abhorrent).
Well, maybe not all...some stay away from organized religion and understand the fallacious nature of believing in some ancient book (and especially those who claim to be able to interpret those ancient books in the right way ;-}). A Book that has been modified so many times, over the ages, by church fathers with their own warped predilections...so that there is not just one book but many books all claiming to be the one true voice of God. Into the land of Babble...send lots babble. There's an awful lot of babbling gone on right now, I can tell you! ;-}
At least if you strike out on your own and adopt certain beliefs, you are not as apt to "drink the cool-aid" as those who find themselves mixed up with some Jim Jones style organized religion have done.
You might even have taken a side exit in the slaughter of innocents, in the land of Canaan, when God ostensibly ordered Moses to send his warriors down to rape and pillage the inhabitants. They didn't have nano-thermite back then and had to do it the hard way.
Moses was ordered not to have any fun or maybe he was looking for plausible deniability? Well, he was pretty old...so he might not have fared so well with raping women and children...or maybe men. And he surely wouldn't have been able to fight very well. Maybe he was really just a coward? An old man sending the young into battle to fight old men's wars...now where have I heard that one before?!!
Thom, your blog states "And the Supremacy Clause is one of the Constitution's most important tenants."
However, I think that you meant to refer to "tenets".
Outback, the second amendment refers to a well regulated militia, so regulation is part of the amendment itself;
Republicans never met a fact they liked. These guys are living in a dream world that does not resemble the truth. They are not students of the Constitution they say they love. They pretend that the founding fathers got everything right in the Constitution. When the founders made compromise choices to make a strong union, they made several errors. One error is the designation of folks brought over from Africa (and their descendents) as counting as only 3/5 of a person and they were not considered Americans. It took the Civil War to correct that error. More Americans died in that war than any war in our history. I wonder if Republicans want to return to the original language and make residents of African descent slaves. These guys are not thinking at all. They are merely repeating the stories they hear on the radio. They say they want freedom and liberty . . . real freedom is based on truth. They would have to educate themselves first. When you listen to them speak they call those with an education elitist. Where would we be as a species if people did not educate themselves. History will record the ideas and words of these Republicans as functional idiots. They do not make any sense. Perhaps they spout this crap because they do not want to say what they really believe. I think the problem the Republicans are really stuck on is having a black man in the White House. They want to "take their country back." He is not a citizen. He is a Muslim. All that crap is a smokescreen for their deepseated racism.
Tough love, PD? :-)
A woman takes her ailing husband to the doctors for treatment and the doctor later has a private talk with her on what is needed to keep him from dying.
The doctor tells the woman that she needs to show him lots of love and affection and make him feel like life is worth living. That she should fix him a very healthy breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day and have sex with him at least twice a week or more if he wants it.
As the wife drives her husband home, the husband says "Well, what did the doctor say?"
The wife hesitated a moment, then said..."Well, honey, you are going to die!"
The top 1% don't matter they are the movie stars, sports celibs, and old family money. It is the 9% below them the left needs. They are the ones taking the chances and starting companies that create all the new wealth and employment. Those are the ones you are going to miss. They are also the ones not afraid to leave there country to go where the money is if you try and take it from them. You guys should know your country is full of them. They are from all over the world, India, China, Mexico, Canada All over Europe, just to name a few.
And apparently, some people (Democrats) think that parts of our Constitution aren't worth spit, like the 2nd Amendment, and should be abolished. Do I hear hypocrisy here?
It is not just the Republicans who tout the Constitution when it serves them; and, wants to abolish other parts of it when it doesn't. Democrats are doing this as well when they want to strike out the 2nd Amendment dealing with our right to own guns.
And neither the Republicans nor the Democrats are really representing the best interests of the majority of people in this country anyway. They are both owned by those wealthy ruling elite that wants to deflate any power the people might have in defending themselves. Take away the guns and you take away our freedoms.
Well, Thom, while you're right that the states can't pick and choose from the provisions of the Constitution, so, too, is the federal government limited in its power to interpret the Constitution (including the Second Amendment). That's the Supreme Court's job. So the Fed is no position to throw stones at the states. Obama and company are using every trick in the book to come down on law abiding gun owners and dealers, knowing full well that this won't make one bit of a difference in the illegal procurement and use of fire arms. To make things worse, they use this gun issue as camouflage to cover their own illegal and immoral activities (I refer to illegal wars, the killing and maiming of civillians in foreign lands, their refusal to enforce existing laws in regard to the egregious behavior of the big banks and corporations, and on and on and on....). When are you going to stop aiding and abetting the usual suspects by publishing this kind of tripe? Get off your gun kick and start addressing the issues that really impact the average citizen. The gun thing is just noise.
More convoluted thinking from thr far, far LEFT!
The states are saying if the Fed. Govt. tries to make a portion of the Constitution void the states will not go along.
The last blog was way too stupid for me to comment on.
That is not so far fetched! It may not be a Lizard ET but I'd bet a lot of hackers (both hobbyists and law enforcement) are very likely scouting out the contents of our hard drives as we type! And look out for those pin-hole cameras stuck in the ceiling! There's just no privacy anymore!
I happened upon a web cam once...there are ways to search and watch what some people are doing if they have insecure web cams set up and connected to the internet...where I saw this guy typing on his computer and there was this plant between the man and the camera. The camera was obviously supposed to be stealth. I suspect that the man did not know that he was being watched. Was it a wife trying to see what the man was up to? Was it a pin hole camera set up by law enforcement to investigate this guy? The Lizards are watching! Who knows?
Of course....just like Puerto Rico should also become a state. The Republicans wouldn't of course like this because it would give Democrats a majority in the Senate..and could help Dems in the house.
DAnnemarc: I agree with you, actually, about that Frantic Caller on the Art Bell show. It could have been an elaborate hoax (but then, if it was true that the network satellite link was disconnected..or failed..then that adds to the mystery)..the FCC has very strict rules about messing with communication links. And I don't think Art Bell would have risked losing his license just to pull a prank on the listeners. Although, there are a lot of really freaky things about the whole Art Bell history...his son...his wife Ramona...his new bride...??? I actually drove around Pahrump, Nevada once, many years ago, wondering where Art Bells studio was. I saw a number of towers but didn't have a whole lot of time to waste on that endeavor.
I was actually listening to that "feaked out caller" show when it happened. I kept my radio on to that station wondering what the heck just happened...and patience paid off because finally Art Bell comes back on and tries to explain what happened.
I too used to listen to Art Bell and got a kick out of people like Major Ed Dames and his freaky Remote Viewing stories. Man, talk about hysteria and paranoia! But, at least it inspired a very funny movie...Men Who Stared at Goats. And remember, our government (it was either the Army or the CIA) actually did have a program of using Remote Viewing. I don't think it really proved to be very successful and when the public found out about it the program was ridiculed out of existence. Maj Ed Dames was part of that program but he managed to eek out a living afterwards by selling people courses on how to Remote View.
Still laughing at that Goat Staring movie. ;-} LOLROFLMFAO
On one Art Bell show, Ed Dames was freaking out, in his very high pitched voice, screeching about the world was about to be fried to a crisp by an unprecedented solar flare. He said it was imminent! It wasn't the first time he had "prophesied" or "remote viewed" the end of the earth or alien invasions. And he said he was going to move to Tahiti where his predictions of when the solar flare would happen on the opposite side of the earth from where Tahiti is and would get the full force of the flare. I think he actually did move to Tahiti. But of course that was many years ago.
I remember staying up very late at night...like till about 2am or 3am to listen to some shows...and I had to be at work at 8:00am the next day. I tried to record the shows on cassettes so that I could listen to the shows during the normal daylight hours but that never worked out very well. Now, of course, there are all kinds of ways to record very long shows..even listen to them on podcasts...but some..like Art Bell and others want you to pay money for that privilege....but I have since lost interest in listening to those shows...for many years now.
I don't totally dismiss or accept many of the UFO stories...I have a whole library of books on UFOs and read them all...but never got into the paranormal. I always thought there might be something to some UFO stories but many, of course, were just not very believable. I believe that the Roswell crash has a fairly high believability level. After all, the government changed it's story a number of times.
I have camped out, over night, just down the road from what is known as mail-box road along the, what is now officially called, Extra Terrestrial Highway in Nevada. Mail box road (marked by a mail box, of course, which is a mail box for some ranch some distance off the main road.. is located about 20 miles southeast of Rachel and the other road, where I camped out, is the actual road that goes to Groom Lake is 5 miles further southeast).I saw something about 4 or 5 in the morning before it started to get light...hovering in the sky above Groom Lake. The atmosphere was very clear and I could see very clearly all of the stars.
My first thought was that maybe it was Venus or Jupiter but I knew that this was much bigger and brighter. No strange atmospheric condition or swamp gas here! ;-}
I have been interested in astronomy for many years and have even built my own reflector telescopes..actually ground down the 6" Pyrex blank into a parabolic mirror...then polished it to have the correct surface to correct for spherical aberration. I did several of different sizes for larger telescopes as well... 10" mirror and a 12" mirror.
The object hovering over Groom Lake looked like a bright gold/orange colored oval not any bigger than half the size of a pencil eraser held at arms length. It didn't move, at first, and I got my binoculars and focused in on it which, of course made it bigger. But I couldn't recognize any details. By that time it starts to move across the sky from left to right in a straight line and alternatively disappeared and reappeared as it flew behind the peaks of the Groom mountain range. Then finally disappeared.
I saw other photos posted in the Little A'Le'Inn cafe in Rachel, NV that looked just like what I saw but the flying characteristics as described on those photos indicated a different flight path...very weird...disappearing in mid air then instantaneously reappearing maybe 10 degrees or so straight up above where it had been. Then disappearing again and reappearing somewhere else. I realize that Groom Lake experimented with all kinds of strange craft, flares, etc. and I cannot say, nor to I necessarily believe, that what I saw was extraterrestrial.
The Bob Lazar and Edward Teller stories were interesting. I actually went to a seminar held at the Lil Alien cafe and camped out over night there with a lot of others. Bob Lazar gave his speech in a big tent the set up for that occasion. Someone was playing games with us because during Lazar's speech we got word that there was something funny going on up in the sky...we all went out and saw that is was just a flare...very funny!
And the Gulf Breeze sightings as told by Ed Walters was interesting as well. I actually went to Gulf Breeze after reading his stories. Funny, there is a house in the shape of a UFO there (not the same one as the one Ed Walters was living in when he saw what he wrote about in his book)...and the UFO house was no where near Ed Walter's house at the time. In fact, I doubt that the UFO house was even built at the time of Walter's sightings. Yes, I heard stories about someone finding model UFOs up in Walter's house when he sold it...don't know if that was true...maybe!
I also went to the 50th anniversary of the Roswell crash and went out to the alleged site of the crash. Do I really believe any of it? Only maybe...some of it. And yes, there is a lot of disinformation in the form of really crazy conspiracy theories...some of it put out by the government to make most people believe that all of the theories...sightings...abductions...etc are crazy. The government kept changing it's story about Roswell. I certainly don't believe the government...especially after they repeatedly got caught in their lies.
Barney and Betty Hill story was one of the first stories like this..that seem to have a certain amount of credibility. Of course, there have been other stories going way back to ancient times...some even mentioned in the Bible. And still very old but not as ancient was the Aurora, Texas story of 1897..very strange!
I have never been a true believer in UFOs or aliens...and certainly never ghosts, or other paranormal stories....although they are very entertaining. But I have always reserved a space for a possibility that at least some of the UFO/alien may at least have elements of truth to them. But even very prominent scientists believe that there must be other forms of life, even intelligent life, in abundance in our Universe.
We are constantly finding other worlds that could sustain life. But many people cannot accept that the earth has been actually visited by extraterrestrials because, they argue, that it would take forever (many lifetimes) for them to travel those great distances. And that may very well be true if we are all really limited by the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). And that may be true if we are all limited by physics as we currently know it. But, I have a strong feeling that other worlds may be advantaged by not only being way more intelligent and technologically superior...but also because they may have other elements that exhibit properties that are very useful in intra- and extra galactic travels. Our science is only on the tip of some very strange concepts..dark matter..worm holes..parallel universes...that may be old hat for ET.
Shy away from potentially very dangerous groups like Raelians, Mormons, and Baptists! The lizard people take on many different disguises and will eat you alive if they could. At least they will try to get you to drink the cool-aid like Jim Jones did! ;-}
Kend - Do you like charter mongering? If the 99% standup to the 1% they move to a place where the local government will let them rule.
Palindromedary ~ Thanks for the kind words. I haven't heard "I am the Walrus" backwards, LOL, but I've heard it forwards, including, "Get Back," "Here Comes the Sun", "Come Together," "Here Comes The Sun King," "The Ballad of John and Yoko," "Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "The Fool On the Hill," "NoWhere Man," and, "Imagine." Thanks for the question. The answer is yes I read a lot of meaning into these songs. My personal musical phylosophy concerning song lyrics is, if you didn't get the message from listening to the song forward the way it was intended to be heard... Let it go! I think this backwards message thing was intended to distract peoples attention from the real meaning of lyrics. It's success is obvious. I did, however, google "I am the Walrus" backwards and there it was--a Youtube video that translated it. "Ho Ho Ho Ha Ha Ha He He He!" I can't believe someone took the time to do that video! The song made about as much sense backwards as it did forwards.LOL (So did the speech by George Bush when they played it backwards on Youtube. I think he should only talk backwards from now on. I think he would make more sense backwards. He sure could catapult a lot more of the propaganda that way.)
As far as Area 51 is concerned... Not enough evidence to say one way or the other. Can you provide some juicy, rock solid evidence like you did for the WTC on 9/11? If so, I'm listening. As far as that mysterious phone call to Art Bell is concerned... Yeah, I've heard it before. I used to listen to his show, "Over the Edge," and "Puzzling Evidence and the Church of the Subgenius." Well done entertainment. ROFLMAO. I listened to it again twice at your request. Anonymous voices of people in trouble who choose to call a radio station instead of a police station do not impress me. I wouldn't take it too seriously. It sounds like either the ravings of a poor paranoid schizophrenic or a very elaborate Government sponsored hoax. He might have even been somewhat on the level... If I was his boss and he started talking like that I'd put him on medical leave too. As far as his "warning" is concerned, The pole shift/Nibiru/Doomsday hoax has been around longer than you or I. It will surely still be around after we are gone. Anyone suffering from a mental illness--or drug dependancy-- hearing one of those conspiracy theorys would probably have had just such a bad reaction. BTW If you really enjoy elaborate paranoid hoaxes check out Alex Collier, and then this site:
www.andromedacouncil.com
They've come here to free us from the Lizard people! That's right, increadibly powerful, child eating, mean, invisible, 4th dimension, giant Lizard People who have mislead humanity since the dawn of time. Look out! One might be standing behind you watching you read this right now! Boo! Unfortunately, they are rarely right about anything they predict or say and people still believe the BS. Not unlike the way we still have faith in our Government. Give me a break! What are they putting in the water?
Don't get me wrong. I don't want to sound like I completely discount that UFOs may exist; but, there is so much disinformation on the issue out there and so little evidence it's hard to take anything too seriously. Yet, personally,I truly doubt that we are completely alone in the Universe(s). Like I said before, there is a little bit of truth in every con.
I hope you get a kick out of the video I've provided. It speaks for itself! Look forward to your opinion. Talk to you tomorrow.Good Night! DAM
Well you created enough interest for me to watch the Rolling Stones...(I have never been a fan for some reason) This was one of the best songs-videos they have done!
Ah, finally a place where nobody's paying attention...... I can be myself. Democratic Socialism , may it grow and grow and govern forever!
Thank you Ken.....THANK YOU! The addition I can think of are the "POLLS" thom uses.... Really, Fairleigh Dickinson University? ?? With a scalding 33% graduation, take a look at the makeup of the students..... God Bless those students for hanging in and graduating!!! But thom, find real pollsters, real polls to use, but they won't come close to supporting his crazy ideals! I also used to watch, but there's something about people being embarrassed in public that makes me turn away, and thom is constantly being made a fool on screen, and shrugs his shoulders and changes the subject! Hes not even entertaining, his stupidity, I'm not saying he is stupid, is constantly in the forefront! Maybe its his staff? Maybe because he choose to change the spelling of Tom? I don't know, but anyone stating that Republicans are wanting overthrow our gvmt, and armed war needs help! You know the strange thing, that with all of the people like you and me that throw facts back in his face, he, thom has NEVER replied to anyone, that I've read, and for sure he has never addressed any of my scathing comments!
Oh, yeah, I can't wait to hear his report on the mother being turned down by her Colorado Senators when she tries to speak tip then about voting against the last attack on the Constitution.... Thank you again Ken!!
I find this very interesting. What I always admired about the United States is that the States had more control locally than the Fed's but that seems to be fading away. The Fed's seem to get involved more and more in local politics every year. For example education, what is the Fed doing getting involved with lunch programs in grade school children in Alabama. Can't Alabama look after that themselves? Besides isn't it the parents job to do that. Some how this went from the parents job, to the Cities job, to the States job and now the Feds job. I get it though there has never been a Socialist region it has to be the whole country or nothing. Proof of that is the mass exit from the socialist States like New York and California. The top 10% earners are leaving those States at a record pace and those States are scrambling to find away to make the payments. At the same time States like Texas who are fiscally responsible are growing. You can't have Socialism when people can move away from it to a Capitalist region because all the money will move as mentioned above. I admire the founding fathers for knowing enough to protect both sides enough for keeping it all togehter for all this time. Where are leaders like that now.
The liberal persuasion promotes tolerance and inclusion in accordance to the Constitution, the other persuasion is other wise.
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markincorsecana ~ Thanks for that insight. I read a synopsis of "The Family." Finally a better look at the Secret Society Kennedy was talking about. Fundamentalism, huh? How that word when placed in front of the name of any religion seems to attract crowds of violent nitwits. Any insight on whether or not these teabrains are comprised of some of the mental patients Reagan set free? I always suspected such myself. Of course there is a fine line between super stupid and mental illness. However, I think one crosses that line when they believe they can take down the US Government with anything they can buy at a gun show. Give me a break! ROFLMAO!!