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Why is it that even here on Free Republic, I CONSTANTLY have to repeat that "None of your rights are spelled out in the Constitution!!"

We retained our rights unto ourselves and granted limited powers to the federal (and state) governments so that they could conduct business in our behalf.

The so-called Bill of Rights is NOT a list of "rights"! It contains express limitations in how far the government is permitted to infringe upon certain rights - rights that were deemed to be so important. that express limitations needed to be made!

The irony is, at least at the federal level at the time of adoption, the government was not given ANY power to legislate in in the areas "protected" by the BoR!

Hamilton, in the Federalist Papers (one of the last ones, I don't recall the number and don't have my link here...) actually argued AGAINST the adoption of a BoR, contending that their inclusion would imply that the government would have had the power to infringe upon the rights contained therein had they not been expressly limited! He used the Freedom of the Press as an example and asked the rhetorical question - in a government of expressed limited powers, why prohibit the Congress from abridging the Freedom of the Press when the congress was never granted the power to do so in the first place?

Then the judge was wrong to say it violated his constitutional rights. He should have said that it violated his inalienable rights.

Do you believe a person has an inalienable right to operate dangerous machinery on public highways. Or do you think that somewhere there is a govenmental right or obligation to ensure that the citizens of this country are safe from having to be subjected to unqualified people operating dangerous machinery near school zones and crosswalks?

Because the site is being overrun by people who seem unaware of the definition of "Free". The desire to use the power of the state to coercively remold human nature is strong on the right and the left, and our current DUI laws are taking us on a progression to a de facto state of prohibition because a lot of folks just don't like that ol' Demon Rum.