Ok, this one starts making me mad. The Constitution? It's the law of the land, judges shall adhere to this, govern us with this, and shall not go against the grain. If it's not working out for you? See Article 5. That's what I see here. We can change it as we go. The Constitution has been Amended to suit our needs 27 times now. I think I see a pattern here.
On to Article 7, before I get upset.
Now here's one I can get on board with. Ratification. At least in this definition, and what it entails. We wanted to ratify the Constitution before we let it rule us. Send it out to the people, and let the people decide. We probably pretty much skipped the "Let them fully understand what they're reading and what they're getting into by doing so" part, but hey, this way, we have NO one to blame but ourselves if we didn't really put the effort into getting it first, right? This is the way things concerning our government were meant to be...and should ALWAYS be people!! At no time should we let so many people who represent our state change our Constitution or elect our presidents for us. This essentially breeds possible corruption. Get rid of the Electoral college...it's not needed. Funny how that's the only thing we have a "college" for as far as elections go. We are allowed to personally elect everyone else...but our head? We have people for that. Uh uh. Give it back to America and it's people. We don't need no steenkeen' college to tell us what's happening.
All I have to say about ratification is, if they sent it out to us to ratify on the original? Should have been done for every...single....Amendment as well.
Now, before I move on to our last 17 Amendments...let's visit the Bill of Rights, shall we? (For those of you who don't know it, the Bill of Rights consists of the first very quick Amendments, 10 in all, needed to pacify the people and fast, so they'd accept the Constitution.)
Right #1 - Freedom of: Religion, Speech, Blogs (the Press), and the right to complain about the Government without worrying about the Government getting pissed off and spanking us.
Freedom of this stuff? Right on. Encore. Wunnerful. No problemmo Muchacho. Let's talk about that last one though, huh? What about the situation when we let our government keep too many secrets, let it get crazy with power, or just roll over too much? Think about that one. We'll get back to that one too.
Right #2 - The right to bear arms
Ok people. Here we go. This Amendment served only one purpose in its day. Make sure the Government doesn't get too big for it's britches. Doesn't have a damn thing to do with your personal arsenal, or your right to have a gun in your possession. Don't get me started on this, I will go on all day. It served its purpose in 1791, it needs to be shucked in favor of new law. Gun-happy conservatives will have you sure that this means you can keep enough guns to make your own army at home, we gotta nip this gun-happiness in the bud before it gets any worse for us. Another one we need to get back to.
Right #3 - No Letting the Government stash soldiers in your home in order to make sure we don't rebel.
See Right #2. Like Right #3, #2 should have never been seen as controversial, and should never have been ruled by a supreme court. It's outdated, as is right #2.
Right #4 - No waltzing into someone's home just because they believe they should have that right.
This is one gonna be huge someday, and sooner than you might imagine. I really and truly need to get back to this one. By the way...right to privacy, or expectation of privacy, here's one I bet you didn't know. Let's say you're super paranoid...and you cover all your windows with thick black garbage bags...but you don't get one...little...2 inch in diameter hole covered...and the police come along, and they happen to look in this hole, and it shows something they believe to be illegal...drugs, guns, anything...they can come into your home without a warrant, did you know that? We'll come back to this...
Right #5 - Thou shalt not be required to tattle on yourself, and you shall not be tried 2x for the same thing. What's more, you shall be informed of your rights before you're interrogated by an enforcer of the law.
This one bothers me in oh so many ways. Another one I could go on all day about. By the way, that last part was decided in Arizona v. Miranda (Arizona 1996), and wasn't part of the original Amendment. But we can change things as we go, remember? And I don't know about you, but law enforcement officials start interrogating me the minute they come into view. Those rights should be shouted out before I even get within earshot.
Right #6 - The Right of the Accused to enjoy (I love the use of this word here...and the fact that I've yet to enjoy this, whether I enjoyed it or not) a speedy trial by an impartial jury (decided impartial, not by me, but by the lawyers, who are the next best thing to Judges).
Not only is this the most Bullshitty right, it's also just plain old wrong. First, no one in this day and age has "enjoyed" a speedy trial, nor has there ever been an impartial jury, nor has the jury ever understood one bit of what's going on in a courtroom. See, here's the problem. You're called to jury duty. You show up, and 5 minutes later you're being told to go home, because you don't fit the bill, as far as one or the other lawyers is concerned. Or worse yet, you're kept because you DO fit the bill. I would be very afraid of this. As far as we know people, the lawyers are keeping me because my IQ barely broke 50, and I'll roll over when the lead juror says "GUILTY"...how do I know?? I don't. Impartial jury of my peers? I don't THINK so. This to me means we send out 12 random letters. 12 people show and are the jury. THAT'S an impartial jury. Not that it matters what we say anyway. The judge can overrule, it's called "Judgement notwithstanding the Verdict"...look it up. We will oh so get back to this one.Right #7 - In civil matters concerning more than 20 bucks, the judge can't overrule the jury's decision.
Another bullshit right. Why is this even here? It's not ratified anyway. If this doesn't scream "Constitutional Revamp", no right does.
Right #8 - There shall be no unusual bails or fines, and no capital punishment.
Except when we think there should be. Bullshit right number 3, this one is one of my favorites. Doesn't this mean no 1,000,000 dollar bails? 100,000 dollar fines? No Gas Chamber? I think it does. We will, of course, get back to this one...
Right #9 - The rights we haven't talked about ever here in our constitution shall be protected.
Huh??? Ok, Bullshit right #4. What the hell people? So if I just come up with the right to pick my nose in public, this right is defended by the Constitution? OK, so maybe picking your nose is reaching a little. This Amendment was fundamental in deciding the right to abortion, that sort of thing. Yup, you got it, we'll be back.
Right #10 - The rights not delegated to the Government are then passed on to the states, then to its people.
Okaaaaaay. This is the one I'd love to address and soon. Basically, this is where I think someone was really brainstorming about the role of the government. See, here's the thing. The Government was ALWAYS supposed to be there to service us, not the other way around. This Amendment didn't come from "We the People", I bet. What's more, someone stuck this one in as a safeguard for the government. What this says is, the Government is king, and the people get the last say-so, if we're lucky. What "We the People" don't understand is, the government wouldn't be the government if it wasn't for the people. Please see Article 3 immediately, and see also Article 7 where I slam the Electoral college. We'll be back!!
All right. Part III will, of course, cover the other 17 "CHANGES" to our Constitution...See ya!
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