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What Happened to the Land of the Free?
Tenth Amendment Center ^ | unknown | Harry Browne

Posted on 11/18/2010 10:28:03 AM PST by ForGod'sSake

America’s Founding Fathers established something unprecedented - the first government strictly limited by a written Constitution to a short list of activities. The federal government was authorized to do only what was specified in the Constitution. Anything else was to be done by state or local governments, by the people themselves acting outside government, or not at all.

The Constitution didn’t limit what citizens could do. Its only purpose was to spell out - enumerate - what was permissible for the federal government to do. And anything not authorized was forbidden to the federal government.

This ideal of limited government was sometimes violated – but violations were the exception rather than the rule. And many of the violations that did occur were reversed later, because it was understood that the Constitution limited the role of the federal government.

(Excerpt) Read more at tenthamendmentcenter.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 10thamendment; bloggers; statesrights
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A long but excellent article from earlier in the year I couldn't find posted. Good archival history lesson on "progressives", other ne'er do wells and their fellow travelers and how they managed to trample our Constitution. While we watched...
1 posted on 11/18/2010 10:28:05 AM PST by ForGod'sSake
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To: 17th Miss Regt; 2001convSVT; 2ndDivisionVet; A_Former_Democrat; A_Tradition_Continues; ...




Please ~ping~ me to articles relating to the 10th Amendment/States Rights so I can engage the pinger.

If you want on or off the ping list just say the word.

Additional Resources:

Tenth Amendment Chronicles Thread
Tenth Amendment Center
Firearms Freedom Act
Health Care Nullification

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVES

2 posted on 11/18/2010 10:30:16 AM PST by ForGod'sSake (You have just two choices: SUBMIT or RESIST with everything you've got!)
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To: ForGod'sSake
What Happened to the Land of the Free?

Oh, they voted it out in 2008. Ya see.....only the government can help people. Haven't you heard? We're all victims.

Any way, gotta go.......I think the Mail Man just dropped off my check.

3 posted on 11/18/2010 10:30:42 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: Puppage

Try direct deposit, I don’t even have to get up off the couch.


4 posted on 11/18/2010 10:32:26 AM PST by Gadsden1st
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To: ForGod'sSake
Lets 'axe dingleBerry what happened.
5 posted on 11/18/2010 10:39:07 AM PST by ßuddaßudd (7 days - 7 ways Guero >>> with a floating, shifting, ever changing persona.....)
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To: ForGod'sSake

Interesting article. I haven’t read it all the way through, but I strongly disagree with one key point by the author. I don’t think the Civil War was not the first step in the demise of this nation as envisioned by its founders. In fact, I would make the case that this vision of freedom and liberty lasted very long at all . . . and basically ended with the events surrounding the Whiskey Rebellion in the early 1790s. That was the first major clash between the ideas of Federal and State governance, and the Feds “won” — in a sense that they had no qualms about sending Federal troops from one state to quell an apparent insurrection in another.


6 posted on 11/18/2010 10:42:27 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested.")
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To: ForGod'sSake

Our birthright of liberty has been sold for a bowl of pottage...


7 posted on 11/18/2010 10:45:36 AM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: ForGod'sSake

America is an idea. Kill the idea and the real estate isn’t all that exceptional.


8 posted on 11/18/2010 10:56:34 AM PST by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: YHAOS
America is an idea. Kill the idea and the real estate isn’t all that exceptional.

Why is that so hard for people to understand. American exceptionalism was just a manifestation of FREEDOM.

9 posted on 11/18/2010 11:17:06 AM PST by Prokopton
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To: Alberta's Child
. . . and basically ended with the events surrounding the Whiskey Rebellion in the early 1790s.

Hard to argue against that and I don't know what criteria the author used to make his determinations. As most are aware by now, Hamilton and his statist cabal began attacking around the periphery of our Constitution before the ink was dry. The first Chief Justice and fellow statist at times, John Marshall, contributed mightily to weakening the bindings also. A matter of degree I suppose...

10 posted on 11/18/2010 11:17:49 AM PST by ForGod'sSake (You have just two choices: SUBMIT or RESIST with everything you've got!)
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To: Gadsden1st
Try direct deposit, I don’t even have to get up off the couch.

LOL

But, how do you get another beer?

11 posted on 11/18/2010 11:18:04 AM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: YHAOS
Kill the idea and the real estate isn’t all that exceptional.

Indeed. Though blessed with abundant natural resources, geologically, America is not that much different than the rest of the world. But what is accomplished with and produced by those resources makes a huge difference. Was America initially an ideal as well as an idea???

12 posted on 11/18/2010 11:30:10 AM PST by ForGod'sSake (You have just two choices: SUBMIT or RESIST with everything you've got!)
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To: Puppage
But, how do you get another beer?

A refrigerated keg with a tap next to your sofa. That way, you just have to put your mug under the tap and pull the lever. Perhaps while still seated with the right arrangements.

13 posted on 11/18/2010 12:00:05 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin
A refrigerated keg with a tap next to your sofa. That way, you just have to put your mug under the tap and pull the lever. Perhaps while still seated with the right arrangements.

I just have one of my 8 kids from 6 mothers grab them for me.

I am trying to fight childhood obesity and the walks will do them good, don't cha think?

14 posted on 11/18/2010 12:03:51 PM PST by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: ForGod'sSake
Whew, long article but I read it all. And it's spot on. And there's one section I'd like to specifically point out. It's on the section near the end, under: GOVERNMENT IS EVERYWHERE, and on the Bill of Rights.
"Today the Bill of Rights is just a quaint piece of parchment that few in Washington take seriously - lest it interfere with government’s power to do what’s right for you:"

The 2nd Amendment says: “. . . the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
"But Congress routinely passes laws that prevent you from defending yourself. Needless to say, the politicians don’t disarm themselves.....

The following 'gem' is right from the White Hose Website. It's near the bottom, under:

'Our Government', The Constitution, The Bill Of Rights
And this (cough) 'Gem' reads as follows:
'The Second Amendment "gives" citizens the right to bear arms.'
Got that everyone? According to the White House, aka Obama, It "GIVES US THE RIGHT", it doesn't "protect our Right"
That's the 'mentality' of the Kenyan Interloper. That the government GIVES US our Rights. Not God, and they're certainly not unalienable. Because as we know, anything that the government "gives", it can take away.

This little word game isn't used only with the 2A. Every one of the Bill of Rights from the White House website has that tiny and seemingly innocuous alteration.

[I stumbled upon this by accident and my head almost exploded!]

15 posted on 11/18/2010 12:14:33 PM PST by Condor51 (SAT CONG!)
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To: Condor51
That's the 'mentality' of the Kenyan Interloper. That the government GIVES US our Rights. Not God, and they're certainly not unalienable.

Good catch. I daresay it would apply to most Dimtards and a lot of RINO's as well. WE just don't know what's good for us! If the parasites only realized what the host has in store for them just as soon as the gummint can silence conservatives...

16 posted on 11/18/2010 12:36:16 PM PST by ForGod'sSake (You have just two choices: SUBMIT or RESIST with everything you've got!)
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To: Prokopton
American exceptionalism was just a manifestation of FREEDOM.

And freedom belongs only to those capable of self-government.

Yesterday I heard the best, BEST radio commercial I've ever heard. It was an ad for Hillsdale College, introduced by Rush Limbaugh. The ad featured a young lady (perhaps a student) saying something like this:

"Self-government consists in finding out what your responsibilities are, and in fulfilling those responsibilities."

Seen any self-governing folks around lately? With this definition in mind, I stopped wondering what happened to The Land of the Free. Americans no longer deserve freedom. Like profligate heirs, we're living off of - and burning through - the inheritance built up by our forebears.
17 posted on 11/18/2010 12:56:42 PM PST by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
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To: Prokopton
"Why is that so hard for people to understand."

Liberty frightens the wits out of some people.

Why that is so calls for some interesting speculation.

18 posted on 11/18/2010 12:56:57 PM PST by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: ForGod'sSake
"Was America initially an ideal as well as an idea???"

An ideal is an idea. But now we're getting into semantics.

19 posted on 11/18/2010 1:01:26 PM PST by YHAOS (you betcha!)
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To: ForGod'sSake
"What Happened to the Land of the Free?"

Into the crapper circa 1906!

20 posted on 11/18/2010 1:08:23 PM PST by SuperLuminal (Where is another agitator for republicanism like Sam Adams when we need him?)
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