Posted on 08/08/2008 6:37:57 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Here’s a few thoughts on the matter from G. K. Chesterton:
“The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog.”
“When you break the big laws, you do not get freedom; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.”
“There are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world. One way is to put nonsense in the right place; as when people put nonsense into nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense in the wrong place; as when they put it into educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes.”
“The truth is, of course, that the curtness and brevity of the Ten Commandments is evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted: precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden.”
“Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice.”
“Anyone who is not an anarchist agrees with having a policeman at the corner of the street; but the danger at present is that of finding the policeman half-way down the chimney or even under the bed.”
“There is nothing stranger today than the importance of unimportant things. Except, of course, the unimportance of important things…modern man is now committed to the exaltation of very small and secondary matters at the expense of very great and primary ones”
“Of all the marks of modernity that seem to mean a kind of decadence, there is none more menacing and dangerous than the emphasis of very small and secondary matters of conduct at the expense of very great and primary ones, at the expense of eternal ties and …human morality. If there is one thing worse than the modern weakening of major morals, it is the modern strengthening of minor morals. Thus it is considered more withering to accuse a man of bad taste than of bad ethics”.
ping
The Constitution was not intended to tell states what they can and can't do. States were considered to be their own individual republics. The Constitution was intended to define the purpose, scope, and design of the common national/federal gubmint.
The framers would have considered the issue of how to dispose of garbage as a state issue, for the people of each state to decide through their own local or state gubmints. The national gubmint is only supposed to deal with issues impacting the Union of states, where mutual governance was thought to be necessary for the peaceful and successful preservation of the Union.
If you like, you could say the 10th amendment provides that garbage disposal is a state or local issue, outside the jurisdiction of the national gubmint.
“Read the comments on the site. These people are nuts!”
I think they are way beyond nuts in most of the cases. Talk about “rambling on”.
hahaha, that you are not a Tree Murderer? oh hahaha, that is sweet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.