Article 1, Section 8
On the second day of our visit to Washington, DC, we were honored to visit the United States Archives. To me, this is the second most holy site in the world (Independence Hall in Philadelphia being first).
I pointed out to my nephew Article 1, Section 8 of the original Constitution. In its hand written format, it occupied 4 or 5 inches on the page. I pointed out to him that this is all that our Federal government is authorized to do, yet, somehow, there are literally tens of thousands of pages of Federal laws, rules and regulations. What profound sorrow Benjamin Franklin would feel knowing that his wise admonition “A Republic, if you can keep it” has been lost.
Heart of the Police State
I took my brother and his son to Washington, DC – sort of the Belly of the Beast for those of us who look at our government as a bloated, tyrannical, festering pit of injustice. In late 1983/early 1984, I lived relatively close to DC and visited often. A lot has changed in 25 years.
One used to be able to tour The White House simply by lining up early enough in the morning. A quick pass through a metal detector and in you went. The Capitol was completely open – all you had to do was walk in. Now, things have changed. There were more police departments than one can count:
- The Park Service Police
- The US Capitol Police
- The Washington DC Metro Police Department
- The Bureau of Engraving & Printing Police
- The Secret Service
- The Metro Transit Police
- The Supreme Court Police
- The Treasure Police (one of these had a Coke truck pulled over)
And these are just the ones I saw. Doesn’t this seem a bit excessive and redundant for a city that the US Constitution refers to as “not exceeding ten Miles square?”
Dead animals littering the streets
I just opened another vaccination clinic. This time in Meridian, Mississippi. Unlike clinics in Tennessee, Mississippi does not have a license requirement for veterinary facilities. This means we do not have to acquire unused equipment and letters from hospitals willing to take sick animal cases that we cannot treat. You would think that with a lack of regulation to protect the public that there should be dead animals littering the streets in Mississippi. However, other than the occasional unfortunate opossum, there is nothing of the sort.
While the rest of the US makes fun of Mississippi, they have gotten this much right. Now if only their tax department could pull their collective heads out of their asses!