MSNBC: "10th Amendment is a Bunch of Baloney!"

"I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people' (10th Amendment). To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specifically drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible to any definition."
~Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson on Standing Armies

The following quotes are all from Thomas Jefferson at various times and occasions:

"There are instruments so dangerous to the rights of the nation and which place them so totally at the mercy of their governors that those governors, whether legislative or executive, should be restrained from keeping such instruments on foot but in well-defined cases. Such an instrument is a standing army." -1789

"I do not like the omission of a Bill of Rights providing clearly and without the aid of sophisms for... protection against standing armies." -1787

"Nor is it conceived needful or safe that a standing army should be kept up in time of peace for [defense against invasion]." -1801

"A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." -1801

"There shall be no standing army but in time of actual war." -1776
(Found in a draft of the Virginia Constitution.)

I would like to note that the idea of the U.S. not having a standing army, at least today, is as foreign to us as gun control would be to Jefferson. What was Jefferson's idea of the structure of our national defense? The following quotes should explain:

"None but an armed nation can dispense with a standing army. To keep ours armed and disciplined is therefore at all times important, but especially so at a moment when rights the most essential to our welfare have been violated." -1803

"A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the first moments of war till regulars may relieve them, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our Government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration." -1801

"A militia so organized that its effective portions can be called to any point in the Union, or volunteers instead of them to serve a sufficient time, are means which may always be ready yet never preying on our resources until actually called into use. They will maintain the public interests while a more permanent force shall be in course of preparation. But much will depend on the promptitude with which these means can be brought into activity. If war be forced upon us in spite of our long and vain appeals to the justice of nations, rapid and vigorous movements in its outset will go far toward securing us in its course and issue, and toward throwing its burdens on those who render necessary the resort from reason to force." -1806

"Militia do well for hasty enterprises but cannot be relied on for lengthy service and out of their own country." -1787

"[The] governor [is] constitutionally the commander of the militia of the State, that is to say, of every man in it able to bear arms." -1811

"Uncertain as we must ever be of the particular point in our circumference where an enemy may choose to invade us, the only force which can be ready at every point and competent to oppose them, is the body of neighboring citizens as formed into a militia. On these, collected from the parts most convenient, in numbers proportioned to the invading foe, it is best to rely, not only to meet the first attack, but if it threatens to be permanent, to maintain the defence until regulars may be engaged to relieve them." -1801

"Every rational citizen must wish to see an effective instrument of coercion, and should fear to see it on any other element than the water. A naval force can never endanger our liberties, nor occasion bloodshed; a land force would do both." -1786

"I am for relying for internal defense on our militia solely till actual invasion, and for such a naval force only as may protect our coasts and harbors from such depredations as we have experienced; and not for a standing army in time of peace which may overawe the public sentiment; nor for a navy which, by its own expenses and the eternal wars in which it will implicate us, will grind us with public burthens and sink us under them." -1799

I would say, in my interpretation of his words, that he almost overstated his view that there should be no standing army, but there should always be a trained militia - an armed citizenry, comprising the whole of the people; and that, in time of war, the U.S. would then begin actively raising "regulars" - Federally trained troops. But, a Federal navy would have a constant presence on our coasts, and this would be increased in time of war.

This fits well with the conservative interpretation of the Second Amendment, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

It is my opinion that we have strayed quite far from our country's founders' intent when it comes to our military and defense policies.

Thomas Jefferson on the Draft

"In this country, [a draught from the militia] ever was the most unpopular and impracticable thing that could be attempted. Our people, even under the monarchical government, had learnt to consider it as the last of all oppressions."

~Thomas Jefferson

O, We Privileged Few

According to this news report about public housing in Missouri, "...the House Financial Services Committee adopted an amendment to allow guns in public housing projects."

"Allow"? What do you mean by "allow"? How can a right be "allowed"?

A right cannot be "allowed", but a privilege can; that is exactly what Americans are indoctrinated to believe. Take for example the oft used phrase,"Driving is a privilege, not a right." What makes it a privilege? Why are we required to purchase licenses and permits for so many things? Concealed Carry Permits are supposed to be a hard-won victory by the American gun owner, despite some areas of the country revoking them, yet is it now necessary to buy one's rights from the government?

This fits right along side Sotomayor's confirmation hearing, in which, during the opening remarks by Senators, one Democrat mentioned "the right to bear arms" in a list of laws that are less than clear in their possible interpretations.

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." ~Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Such ambiguity! There is, for some strange reason, so much debate over this sentence that the same offices that once instated this law, under new management, now reject it.

"On every question of construction [of the Constitution] let us carry
ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect
the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning
may be squeezed out of the text, or intended against it, conform to the
probable one in which it was passed." ~Thomas Jefferson

I have carried myself back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, I have recollected the spirit manifested in the debates, and I have conformed to the probable meaning in which it was passed.

And, in so doing, I hold to be a truth that the Second Amendment does not grant the right for individual, private citizens to keep and bear firearms without government interference on any level; rather, the Second Amendment guarantees it! No legislation can, by definition, grant any right, only declare it; rights lay dormant in every human being; nation, creed, or gender notwithstanding. One merely needs to exercise their rights for them to be made manifest.

Today, the intense corruption in our government has eroded beyond recognition our right to keep and bear arms, and we now subscribe to privileges, that may be regulated at a whim by a majority of non-representatives.

I now refer you to a spewing forth of opinion, left on a newspaper's website by an author unknown, the topic being a local ban on smoking in public. The full quote as written follows:

"It's a privelige.  Most of everything you have and do is not a right... Did anyone in Emporia actually finish school?"

This is the product of over one hundred years of compromising our standards and rights to appease tyrants and their misled progeny. The National Rifle Association, for instance, prides itself on compromise, and its members never question the fact that compromise includes "giving-in" from both sides of an argument.

I would suggest that our supposed privileges are few and far between, yet our rights are so many, that they border on being innumerable. We must stop compromising our freedom away, or we will face the consequences of tyrannies that are already upon us. Privileges are for subjects, but rights are for a free people.

Thomas Jefferson on the Effects of the Declaration of Independence

"May it be to the world, what I believe
it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all),
the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish
ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves,
and to assume the blessings and security of self-government. That form
which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded
exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened,
or opening, to the rights of man."

~Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson's America

Government Run Medcine?

What would Jefferson say about such a thing?

"If the people let government decide
what foods they eat and what medicines they take,
their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state
as are the souls of those who live under tyranny."

~Thomas Jefferson

We Shall Soon Want Bread

"I am for a government rigorously frugal and simple. Were we directed from Washington when to sow, when to reap, we should soon want bread."
~Thomas Jefferson

These are prophesied times.

HR 2749 will give power to Washington to micromanage our food producers, something the Constitution doesn't give them power to do. And we all know how well our Congress does at managing things.

A brief lesson in American civics: the U.S. Constitution all inclusively lists the things Congress may regulate and legislate. Food production is not one of them.

Jefferson Posthumously Weighs In On Economy

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." ~Thomas Jefferson

FACT: The Federal Reserve is a privately run and privately owned bank, and is just as federal as Federal Express.

FACT: The Constitution states: "The Congress shall have power to... coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;"

FACT: Nowhere does it state that Congress may pass off this power to a separate entity; I guess now we know why.

Recollect The Spirit Manifested

Considering that he’s at the top of my list of America’s greatest politicians, I’m surprised I’d never found this quote from Thomas Jefferson before:

"On every question of construction (of the Constitution) let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed." ~Thomas Jefferson

It is this quote that may quash the debate over the Second Amendment.

If only a vox populi could publicly ask any member of congress, ask any chief of staff, ask any candidate for any office, “If the Second Amendment doesn’t mean that the general population may keep and bear arms to their own satisfaction, what does it mean?”

To this they might say anything, but show them Jefferson's quote and the arguments from the Founding Fathers, and the debate would be won.

The time for debate is over!

Thomas Jefferson: In Heaven or A Heathen?

A very confusing thing: one minute I could swear that good ol’ Thomas Jefferson was a bona fide Christian, the next minute he looks like a Deist, and then again he looks like an all out Heathen! I find such a trend with several of the Founding Fathers.

Heaven knows I have no lack of respect and admiration for the men that instituted such an unrivaled system of governance (despite the state of peril it is in today), but it is a discomforting feeling to think that the very men whom (nearly) every citizen of the United States admires could have possibly been in direct personal rebellion against God. Here’s how I’m looking at it.

It seems to me that Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian for the most aggravating of reasons: he saw little to no difference between the Catholic Priesthood (read: Monopoly, or Monarchy, or Despotism), and the truly Bible-Believing Christians. I see this non-distinction a lot today. These are a collection of quotes that lead me to this conclusion about him:

“But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State." --- Thomas Jefferson to S. Kercheval, 1810

In this quote, I thought, when he says “those who professed to be his special servants,” he was speaking of the apostles, but I now wonder if he was directly referring to the Catholics, especially when he uses the term “special servants,” and, certainly, the apostles never referred to themselves as anything other than “glorified dust,“ if you will.

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"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are not one. But this constitutes the craft, the power and the profit of the priests." --- Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 1803

Here, I am still quite puzzled, as the Trinity is quite biblical, and not a specifically Catholic held belief. This shows, clearly, that Jefferson was not a reader of the bible, therefore, not a true Christian. Again, he was so blinded by a dislike of Catholicism that he removed himself from that area of his life to the point of disbelief in God, so I assume. I think he could have understood the Trinity by this simple analogy: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial; three branches, one Government.

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"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose." --- Thomas Jefferson to Baron von Humboldt, 1813

Obviously speaking of the Catholic monopoly over men’s very lives. I share his opinion.

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"But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by its luster from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the diamond from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man. The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent morality, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects (The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of the Hierarchy, etc.) is a most desirable object." --- Thomas Jefferson to W. Short, Oct. 31, 1819

Well, this sums it up in a nutshell; Jefferson was apparently morally upright, apparently well intentioned, and apparently misled by his own worldly mind. This, to me, shows that without the Bible, no one knows God’s truth from Man’s untruth. As far as I can see, he never believed in Jesus as the Son of God, he only admired him as a man.

While Jefferson was not a Christian, at least he was good enough to help make it a law to allow others to be Christians.

Good man morally, Great man politically, pitiful man Spiritually.