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From: david@fisher.UUCP (David Rubin)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Defense of Freedom
Message-ID: <565@fisher.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 27-Feb-85 09:24:49 EST
Article-I.D.: fisher.565
Posted: Wed Feb 27 09:24:49 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Mar-85 06:22:15 EST
References: <722@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: Princeton University Department of Statistics
Lines: 71

> = Don Black, " " = David Rubin
  
>     A perfect example of this is our good friends at the United Nations.  
>It exists allegedly to assure peace in our time.  But since its inception,
>the world has seen more wars and bloodshed than in any other period in history.

Don has forgotten that World War I and World War II occurred BEFORE
the UN came into existance.  Also, Don implies that the wars which
have occurred have done so BECAUSE of the UN; he will need stronger
evidence to refute the notion that they have occurred in SPITE of the
UN.

> Why, then, does the government of the United States tolerate its functioning
> on our turf?  
> 
>      The answer is obvious.  There are certain groups whose only goal is to
> destroy the United States as a Nation, seize our property, and subject our
> people to slavery.  One only has to pick up newspaper to find out who they
> are.  

I pick up the newspaper lots, and I haven't noticed ANY group whose
ONLY purpose is to destroy the US.  Some nations (e.g. the USSR) might
view this as an incidental goal, but I think Don's list of the
"enemies of the people" would be fascinating.  

>      But are we supposed to sit back and let this happen?  No!  The ninth 
> and tenth amendments to the Constitution of 1787 specifically name the 
> People of the United States as the fourth and highest branch of govern-
> ment.  If the other three branches ceased to function, the people have
> the full Constitutional authority to assume the powers of government.  But
> we as a Nation have lost sight of this.  The very first Federal Law, the
> Declaration of Independence (which is still in full force and effect), 
> specifies that the American People have the right and duty to dissolve 
> a government which becomes abusive of the rights of the people.

Read the Constitution again, Don.  The people are NOT named as an
agency of government (in fact, the founders of our country had a
healthy distrust of popular passions), and it is the states to whom
the Constitution reserves powers not belonging to the federal
government.  Moreover, there is no provision in the Constitution which
lays out contingency plans should the government fail to function.

The Declaration of Independence is not a law, though you at least are
unmistaken regarding its content.  However, we must be careful in
deciding when the government has indeed become abusive, as

	(1) Many people have rather strange ideas of what is a
	    "right", and
	(2) Constitutional government of any kind could not survive if
	    anytime an individual felt that the government was
	    "abusive", he took up arms against it.  Someone's always
	    got a grievence.

>      The Constitution also states that it and only it is the Supreme Law
> of the Land.  There is absolutely no provision in this document for the
> submission of the sovereignty of the United States to the authority of
> any World Government or any agency thereof.  

There is provision in the Constitution for the voluntary restriction
by the US of its own sovereign rights; it's called "treaty
ratification", and the provisions regarding it are quite clear.  This
is dangerously close to being a tautology, but the fact is that no
treaty is unconstitutional unless it violates the Constitution.  Thus,
a treaty which provided for the transfer of weapons or money, or
required or proscribed certain actions by our government abroad would
be a constitutional cession of some degree of sovereignty, while a
treaty which permitted a foreign power to enter an American's home
without proper warrant would not be.

					David Rubin
			{allegra|astrovax|princeton}!fisher!david