Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/12/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Well Marc, I can certainly agree with you on some of your believes, namely that bureaucrats, through incompetence, negligence, and greed , do squander our hard earned money by supporting pork barrel projects and other ill-conceived undertakings. I have to laugh however when people - appropriately cloaked in a gigantic flag - seek to discredit modern laws and institutions by citing a constitution drafted 200 years ago. Lets face it, the constitution is obsolete and should be scrapped in favor of a new one reflecting life in the 21st century. I know, I know, "them is fightin words". But every day courts struggle to interpret "what the founding fathers meant". The greatest example being: "A well regulated militia.............." But no one has the courage to face the facts: we are entering a new century applying principles drafted to deal with pioneer survival instead of seeking to modernize the fundamental thinking of a nation. As for state versus federal government, this is a federation of states, yes, but also a nation divided by the idea that each state is or should be completely autonomous. States are so frustratingly different in applying their own laws that the only thing we need to make it complete is to require a border pass to cross state lines. You are right Marc, our 200-year-old constitution does not authorize the federal government to regulate interstate trucking practices. Perhaps our government should follow Mexico's example. There a truck can be loaded until the front wheels are off the ground, tires can be worn until they explode, and brakes are changed only after the truck fails to stop thus killing a person or two. Joseph Codispoti - ----- Original Message ----- From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us> Sent: Monday, December 20, 1999 3:35 PM Subject: [Leica] Totally OT: Buzz's Know-Nothing Tax Rant > Read the US Constitution and tell me where this authorizes, for instance, > "air traffic controllers" or where it requires the US government to > consider the adoption of firearms laws. Tell me where, and under what > provision, welfare is justified. Tell me where the Constitution authorizes > the Federal Government to worry itself with whether trucks are overweight > or whether the environment is healthy or not. > > Many of these ARE governmental concerns but, under our system of limited > Federal government, they are STATE matters and not Federal matters at all.