Sol Bloom on the Constitution

Q. What is meant by the term “constitution”? 
A. A constitution embodies the fundamental principles of a government. Our constitution, adopted by the sovereign power, is amendable by that power only. To the constitution all laws, executive actions, and judicial decisions must conform, as it is the creator of the powers exercised by the departments of government. 
Q. Why has our Constitution been classed as “rigid”? 
A. The term “rigid” is used in opposition to “flexible” because the provisions are in a written document which cannot be legally changed with the same ease and in the same manner as ordinary laws. The British constitution, which is unwritten, can, on the other hand be changed overnight by an act of Parliament.
Q. Where, in the Constitution, is there mention of education? 
A. There is none; education is a matter reserved for the States. ... 
Q. Does the Constitution give us our rights and liberties? 
A. No, it does not, it only guarantees them. The people had all their rights and liberties before they made the Constitution. The Constitution was formed, among other purposes, to make the people’s liberties secure -- secure not only as against foreign attack but against oppression by their own government. They set specific limits upon their national government and upon the States, and reserved to themselves all powers that they did not grant. The Ninth Amendment declares: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
-- Sol Bloom
Director General of the United States Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission
Source: The Story Of The Constitution 1787 - We The People - 1937, copyrighted to The United States Constitutional Sesquicentennial Commission, July 28, 1937, Pg. 168, 169, 177.

Herman Cain, Captain Mumblebug and the Stand-up Chameleon

Ok, now, before I start, I am well aware that by this time next month it's more than likely that things will be completely different. But for right now, I am thoroughly enjoying seeing Herman Cain take the FL CPAC straw poll and the latest Zogby poll. Mostly for no other reason that it seems to be confounding the pundits who want us to accept their choice of candidates. Well sorry, but Romney is our John Kerry; everything he's "for" now he was against when it was necessary to be so to get elected governor of Massachusetts. In case you've never been there, no governor of Massachusetts could ever truly be a conservative, so forget it. No matter what you say, or what he says, Romney is a conservative like the Dalai Lama is a break dancer.   You'll convince me Obama loves America before you convince me Romney is a conservative.  And Rick Perry, who I really wanted to like... what was THAT?!?  He has no one on his staff who thought to tell him that a GOP debate isn't something you "wing"?  For crying out loud, Merriam-Webster is thinking of putting his picture next to "Deer-In-The-Headlights" and "Oops" in their next edition. 

I love Gingrich's snappy retorts.  I think I speak for a lot of conservatives when I say it's about bloody time someone on our side sprouted a spine and started calling BS when they hear it.  The problem for Gingrich is his little eco-issue.  It troubles me that such a brilliant guy was sucked in so badly on that, and it makes me wonder where else his discernment needs a little shoring up.  If Newt Gingrich would really work hard to convince me that he's truly and fully conservative, no more Mr. Nice Guy and it's time to get down to real solutions vs. the compromises that make up every single Republican final position ever, maybe we can talk.  But this is the last chance, Newt; burn me here and I don't care if you channel Ronald Reagan and Charleton Heston at the same time, we're done.

I really wanted to like Michelle Bachmann.  But she blew it so badly with the Gardisil thing.  I technically agreed with her position, but to learn that the program was opt out and that other parts of the story were kind of squishy, well, making points only works when you get to keep the points.  Those didn't last long.  Either your message and your positions get you to the top or they don't.  Stretching the truth to nail someone, even if what they did wrong, will always backfire.  Well, at least unless you're a Democrat.  Ah, but I digress...

Gary Johnson makes me scratch my head.  For the life of me I can't figure out what he's doing there.  At least with Ron Paul you can understand that he knows he's not going to be president, but that he has a real opportunity to shape the discussion.  Unfortunately, when it comes to foreign policy, the shape he makes of the discussion is something of a pink fluffy bunny in a soundproof Lucite box ignoring everything going on around it.  But on money he's making the right noises.

Why is Herman Cain leading right now?  Because he calls it like he sees it.  When you've been where he's been and you have nothing to lose, you can talk like it, and I think people really appreciate it.  I for one would much rather have the truth even if it's a hard truth than the mosaic of lies, demagoguery and agenda that we've dealt with the past three years.  I want someone with a real plan to fix real problems even if maybe it is a little simplistic sounding than someone who beats the country into the ground jamming false solutions to secondary problems down our throats while Rome burns.  I want someone who actually cares about America more than about what he can turn it into.  And I don't think I'm alone.  Herman Cain resonates with conservatives if only because he has the nerve to look at the camera and tell you the president is lying.  It's about time. 

So you there at Fox News, quit trying to sell me Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.  Captain Mumblebug ain't doin' it for me, and neither is the standup chameleon, I mean comedian, from the second left coast.  Them buses already left the station...

Don Burgett

I saw part two of the interview with WWII paratrooper Don Burgett on American Rifleman tonight.  According to Wikipedia:

Donald R. Burgett (born April 5, 1925) is a writer and former paratrooper. He was among the Airborne troopers who landed in Normandy early in the morning of D-Day. He was a member of the 101st Airborne Division, ("The Screaming Eagles"), and the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Burgett served in 'A' Company, 1st Battalion, 506th PIR as both a rifleman and a machine-gunner.

Burgett parachuted into Holland as part of Operation Market-Garden^[1] with the 1st Allied Airborne Army, fighting for 72 days behind enemy lines. With just a few weeks rest, he was sent into combat at the Battle of the Bulge, where the 101st, along with Combat Command B of the U.S. 10th Armored Division and the all African American 969th Field Artillery Battalion successfully held out against nine German armored divisions during the siege of Bastogne. He went on to fight through Operation Nordwind, on into Germany to the Ruhr Valley, the Rhineland, and Bavaria, where he helped capture Hitler's mountain retreat in southern Germany. While in action with the 101st, Burgett survived numerous battle wounds and had his M1 rifle shot out of his hands at least twice. He was one of only eleven men out of two hundred in his company to survive from D-Day Normandy all the way to the war's end.

I'm going to try to repeat from memory some of the last things he said in the interview because they were so powerful.

He was talking about the end of the war.  He and his group were moving through Germany and came to a place with a concentration camp.  I didn't hear the name but he said it was near the Lecht river.  He said that when he arrived there, he entered the building with the ovens and saw several Jews carrying other Jews into the ovens on metal stretchers.  (I hope those were already dead, he didn't say.)  He told them to stop.  They said they could not.  He asked why.  They said, "They told us that if we don't do it, they will put us in there alive."  Burgett said to them, "I am an American, and America says stop!"  They talked amongst themselves for a moment and then said they would stop.

The next day he said that he saw four of them barely able to walk carrying one of those stretchers covered with a purple cloth toward the river.  He asked them what they were doing.  He pulled back the cloth and the stretcher was carrying yellow bars of soap that he compared to something called "Fels-Naptha".  He asked them what they were doing with the soap.  They said, "We're burying them.  They're people."  He said they told him the Nazis rendered people to make soap.  He said they did much worse things as well but then he stopped talking as if it would be wrong to go on.  I was grateful.

At this point he lost his composure a little and mumbled something about the second amendment.  Then he said, "The people who want to take our guns away need to remember that it's only Americans like me with guns who stand between them and the ovens.  I've seen the ovens."

Could it happen again?  Who knows?  It's hard to guess, although I sincerely doubt that the basics of human nature have changed much since 1940.  You want to say no, but then similar things happen in Africa with regularity and the rest of the world looks the other way and whistles.  I just hope that if it does get close to happening again, there are still Americans with guns ready to say, "I am an American and America says stop!"