Whatever Happened to the 10th Amendment

From the left we hear about their first amendment rights. From the right we hear about their second amendment rights. My question. What about all of our tenth amendment rights. For those who haven't visited the Constitution lately, the tenth amendment states that all rights not specifically prempted or prohibited by the Constitution are reserved to the states.

It might be amazing what term limits for congressmen plus a literal interpretation of the tenth amendment might do for this country. The left is fearful of Federalism. The idea that the State of Georgia, or heaven forbid, Arkansas might have the right to determine the education of their children or whether they wanted to allow abortions, blows their minds. An interesting question to me is why this hasn't been hammered out more in the judicial system than it has. What is interesting to me is why as other clauses have stretched beyond the imagination to grow government power, the restraining effect of the tenth has never been injected seriously in the argument. The commerce cluase has been stretched beyond all comprehension to give the Fed's authority over an ever expanding part of our livlihood. Where was the tenth? When the federal government took over education, where was the tenth? When the divine Supremes granted the God given right to abortion, where was the tenth? Why is it that this key amendment to the constitution can't be invoked in the debate about such issues.

Maybe one of these days the tenth will be rediscovered. Who knows, maybe then sanity will return to the land.

There Are Wars and Then There Are Wars

There are wars and then there are wars. What in the world could I mean by that? Let me explain. But first a caveat. I do not claim to be a historian. I do not claim any academic credentials for my thoughts. Like most of my blogs, I'm just putting in text my humble observations and opinions. Therefore, caveat emptor.

I postulate that there are two basic types of wars. First, there are wars with intended goals. There is some objective, political, geopolitical, territorial, etc. for which the conflict is intended. Examples include the Napoleonic Wars, the Austro-Prussian War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Crimean War, the Spanish American War, World War I and the Iraq War (circa 1990).

Secondly there are idealogical wars. Examples are the 30 years war, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II and the present Iraq/War on Terriorism conflict. This is by no means all inclusive. There are many others of both types.

With either type there enters in the "law of unintended consequences". Probably a prime example of this infecting a war was World War I. This was intended to be a short lived war which through unintended consequences, turned into a prolonged and bloody struggle.

I think though, without accounting for the untended consequences, it is obvious that of the two types, the idealogical war is by far the worst. This is the type of war that we now find ourselves engaged in. Whether the main stream will admit it or not, this is the type of war we're in. We are in a struggle of cultures. The world of Islam is in a struggle with the world of Christianity and secularism. This is a war for the souls of men not just territory or material things. We must accept this and prepare for it or the consequences may be horrific. The hisory of Islam is one of violence. If you will look at history in the era of Islamic conquest you will see the most violent and uncompromising war ever fought. The countries which succumed to the cresent either became vassels of the reliion or died - no compromise.

Until this soaks through to the American people we have no way of meeting successfully this challenge.