New Downloadable files added

The Following is a list of downloadable documents available on the Links & Downloads page.

Tolerance is accepting people are different than you.

If Tolerance is not the Social-Political “Catch Phrase” of the 21st Century, I do not know what is! Tolerate this, tolerate that, you have to tolerate this thing or situation. What is tolerance? The American Heritage Dictionary (4th Edition) defines tolerance as:

• “The capacity for respecting the beliefs or practices of others”
  
  

The Repeal Amendment

Virginia may be the first of many states to propose an Amendment to the Constitution that empowers the States to repeal any Federal Statute or Law, commonly called "The Repeal Amendment". A rough draft of the possible Amendment reads as follows.

• “Any provision of law or regulation of the United States may be repealed by the several states, and such repeal shall be effective when the legislatures of two-thirds of the several states approve resolutions for this purpose that particularly describe the same provision or provisions of law or regulation to be repealed.”

Simply put, Two-Thirds of the States [Presumably through Legislative Acts] can vote to repeal ANY Federal Law or Regulation. This would be an important step back toward a Federal System, by limiting Federal Power directly through State Actions.

 

General Welfare (Part 5) Final thoughts on the Constitution Convention

I think it is something of note that very little was debated in the Convention on the term General Welfare throughout the entire Convention of 1787 (that was discussed in Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4). This point I believe is amplified when one looks at how much other aspects of power debated feverishly. When one looks at how it may be contended to how much power General Welfare carries to how little debate revolved around it, when related to other comparatively smaller powers dealing with power at the Federal Level this must speak to what the true intention of what it was felt it meant.

But maybe the most telling non-debate of “General Welfare” was the total lack of it in the Slavery issue. As contended by some, general welfare was meant to give the Congress the power to make laws for the overall general welfare of the people or the Union. By using this clause by this meaning, would this not then give the power to Congress to outlaw Slavery or Indentured Service outright for the general welfare of those bound by it? But this possibility was never addressed once in the Convention by the accounts of the notes we have available to us today.

Capital Punishment

When you hear Capital Punishment, you a probably thinking about the death penalty. Well I am going to talk about the other certainty of life, taxes. The tax burden in the US is not the heftiest in the world, but that does not mean it is small. It is most of it you just don’t see, but you pay it none the less. A good chunk of your taxes are paid before you have the chance to feel the money, in payroll deductions. So how much are you really paying? The average tax burden in 2008 was 28.2%¹³. What does this mean? In short nearly 1/3 of what you earn goes to taxes, lets see how.

Say you want to buy a new TV. You find a nice flat screen at a local retailer, just what you where looking for. It cost $999.99 dollars for the TV, but you know you have to account for sales tax, thinking it will only minimize the overall increase of your purchase you get it. But how much did it really cost you? How much Tax did you just pay to get this new TV? Well it was not just sales tax, it was not just taxes at all. Lets look at what it REALLY cost, and how much tax you really just paid to get this treat!