Today's Politicos vs The Words and Deeds of The Founders

Aside from the obvious historical purpose, support for ratification of the Constitution, Hamilton's perspective is interesting to consider in terms of its ramifications for the present day. Federalist No. 25 contains several interesting assumptions and premises. It is for history to decide if Hamilton was right.

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In this Federalist Hamilton makes several arguments for the consolidation of the nation's defense under the control of the federal government, rather than under those of the States. The crux of this essay is an effort to show that the argument against a standing army is not only a straw man, but that being ill-prepared is irrational and dangerous.

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Friday's Wall Street Journal contained an article aptly entitled Contempt For The Constitution, in which they point out the inconsistent, if convenient, (to them) interpretations given to the nation's founding document by the Obama administration's Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel on Thursday.

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The only bright spot in the War of 1812 for the Americans was the American navy. The American heavy frigates and privateers enjoyed several stunning successes early in the war. This was especially humiliating to the British, who took such pride in their navy. Readers of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series get a flavor of how desperate British captains were to "wipe the eye" of the Americans. This brief challenge, issued by an English captain was reprinted in the Niles Register, in the fall of 1812.

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Adam Winkler, author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, tries to position himself as the guy with the answers, frequently irritating those on the right and the left. However, his arguments are flawed and inconsistent.

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The National Review is covering a story we covered here, some time ago.  We’re just glad someone is paying attention to the travesty being visited upon one of the best presidents of the 20th century.

Gehry’s Ghastly Eisenhower Memorial …

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Many think the Founding Fathers were a bunch of old-fogies who lived way before iProducts, and have little to contribute in handling modern economic issues. Those people would be wrong. Today’s biggest problem is a stumbling economy that is not generating jobs. This is only the second time that the American economy has not come roaring out a downturn that was measured in months, not years. The other time, of course, was the Great Depression, when we followed the same economic policies as today. What would the Founders think about our current economic problems? Here is what they said in their own words.

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According to Reuters and other news sources, the Obama administration has been involved in secret talks with the Taliban for months. Apparently, when Vice President Biden denied that the Taliban were our enemies, it wasn’t just old Joe popping off again, but the beginning of a campaign to rehabilitate the fundamentalist terror organization even as it is killing U.S., NATO and Afghan soldiers on the battlefield.

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For a short course on what President George Bush called “the war on terror” you won’t find a better book. Twenty essays, by well-known experts at various points on the political spectrum, discuss enhanced interrogation, the Patriot Act, security policies, personal liberty, and other legal and policy issues under the Bush and Obama administrations.

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This puzzle came about in the course of researching the concept of natural rights, e.g. those inherent to human beings. A lot of what Madison put into the original version of the preamble echoed what was in the Declaration of independence, but those in Congress at the time, didn't like such an explicit statement about how people were entitled to overthrow an abusive government. After all, they were now the government. Still, the preamble they came up with says a lot about their views on government and its role.

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