WHEN DOCUMENTS COME TO LIFE

By Jim Beers
"It's Alive! It's Alive!"
Dr. Frankenstein, when the Monster (Boris Karloff) begins to stir in the 1931 horror film - Frankenstein.
I recently distributed an article (Crime), wherein I made the case for firing and prosecuting federal and state employees that engage in "infringing" on the Constitutional Right "to keep and bear Arms" while they are at work, being paid out of public funds. I similarly argued for the prosecution of state and federal politicians that initiate, fund, or otherwise maintain gun restrictions that "infringe" on the Constitutional Right "to keep and bear arms" while acting in their official capacity and are being paid out of public funds.
My thesis was that unless and until the US Congress calls a Constitutional Convention and the 2nd Amendment is changed or eliminated, politicians and public employees on official duty and in their official capacity must honor and uphold (they used to swear to do this) The Constitution of the United States or face prosecution as a lawbreaker (of the Supreme Law of the Land) and dismissal. The two examples I used were the National Park Service (a hotbed of anti-gun sentiments for decades) and the government of the District of Columbia (another hotbed of governmental officials that, like New York, Chicago, et al blames everything from crime to unemployment and low test scores on guns).
As a result of this proposition I have just been called a "screaming idiot" and "just a bitter ex-federal employee". This articulate argument has changed my mind! Who could help but be swayed by such eloquence?
Additionally, I am in desperate need of public approval. Years ago when I wrote about how dog owners and hunters, trappers, fishermen, ranchers, and farmers all had a stake in the public witch hunt being conducted by HSUS, PETA, et al on cockfighting I found out just how much see themselves in the unjust plight of others. I said that the people OWN those chickens and you are free to go or not go. I said local jurisdictions should have the say about where, when, how, and if cockfighting was to be conducted. I cautioned about letting it become a state or federal issue because power politics would impose the will of whoever pays the politicians the most. That said, I still believe that if and how cockfights by chickens privately owned are eliminated will be the model for everything from banning the use of doge for hunting to raising turkeys and "owning" pets.
Well to make a long story short I was verbally bitten (he was surely rabid) by a famous vet and as a result, most dog owners found me to be verboten in polite company. Could I bear up if this happened again? What if federal employees didn't like me anymore? What if politicians that "run" DC or New York or Chicago (or even The White House) didn't like me? It is too much to bear. I give up: I will even sing (to the President Barack Obama school hymn, formerly known as The Battle Hymn of the Republic) "The Constitution is Alive! It's Alive and I believe, I believe" to prove that I no longer think of the document as a cornerstone but as a golden retriever in love with whoever comes through the door and will feed it.
So The Constitution is no longer relevant as judges from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Harry A. Blackmun have been telling us for years. The law is what they say it is and that has hardly anything to do with the constitution (the lack of capital t & c fits their concept in this regard. Therefore we are free to do whatever we can.
If the 2nd Amendment doesn't "really" mean that the right to bear Arms can't be infringed so therefore it is alright and even admirable for government employees and politicians and appointees like Attorney General Holder and a host of White House (staff?, Czars?, workers?, commissars?, what?) to "infringe" gun ownership the mind boggles at the implications:
- It would obviously be admirable for some racist appointee or bureaucrat or politician to work on manuals about how to deny certain minority citizen groups government services or public facilities or grants or contracts or whatever. What, you say the 15th Amendment prohibits that? You say there are laws against that? Well all those laws are based on that Amendment and hey, just like the 2nd Amendment, those are just words. Hey man, we won this election and now our guy is in power. Suck it up soldier!
- It would also be admirable for some anti-female liberation appointee or bureaucrat or politician to develop ways and places that women could be denied the vote in order to get more anti-womans' lib politicians elected. What's that you say? The 19th Amendment prohibits that. Well big deal. A lot of us think that female voters disrupt democracy so now that we're in power and "our" Attorney General is going to work with certain powerful city and state governments to get female voting to be by permit only. You will have to see a Voting Chief for a female voting permit but really, we don't see where very many females will qualify. This is called the Sullivan Gun Control Law model and it worked fine for guns and we can get around the 19th Amendment and all those silly laws it authorized just like we got aroung the 2nd Amendment thanks to legal trailblazers in the National Park Service and model city governments like the District of Columbia.
- All you folks that got all worked up about the Acorn "ladies" giving advice about tax evasion, cool down. Taxes aren't paid by everyone, take the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Those Acorn ladies and the likes of Geithner and Rangel all understand this "living document" stuff. Sure the 16th Amendment says that the government can collect income taxes but hey man, it doesn't say "everyone" anywhere in that Amendment. The bureaucrats that turned the other way, the fellow politicians that slap those bums on the back and particularly state governments like Maryland that intend to prosecute the man and woman that videotaped the Acorn ladies all understand the nature of a "living" constitution. May they all get big bonuses, big promotions, and big retirements!
It would be admirable if some bureaucrat with time on his or her hands could manualize the Constitutional rights that have already been whittled down or eliminated and how it happened. Then some other poor federal schlub looking for work could make up a flow chart of what is left to be done and how to do it. For instance:
- The Endangered Species Act has already gutted the 5th Amendment protections for private property. What international treaties can be signed to give government control of all private property? What legislation about water or wetlands or animal "welfare" could be passed that would just make the entire 5th Amendment a laughing stock?
- The 1st Amendment wording about religion and speech and the press and assembly are already a joke. Congress and the White House openly joke about Tea Party dufuses and those Congressional Recess meetings were stacked with reactionaries so they can be dismissed and either tightly controlled or eliminated in the future. The words about religion should be sent to our new Islamic allies to see what they could suggest for a better way to "manage" religion. Freedom of speech and the press are already "shaped charges" no longer meant to protect those things: the "living document" approach is to use these as tools to destroy the political opposition of those in power so that their power is maintained.
- The 10th Amendment says all "powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." What a joke! The "United States" has the power and duty to protect the right to bear Arms - so how do New York City and Chicago get the "power" to "infringe" this right? For that matter how does New Jersey or Wisconsin or Massachusetts get the "power" to "infringe" the right of residents and visitors "to keep and bear Arms"? Hey they get it just like the Supreme Court got the power to authorize the slaughter of millions of unborn children and soon the euthanizing of millions of old and disabled adults - they do it the old-fashioned way, they just invent it out of thin air and dare anyone to disagree.
Wow! If only I was still a federal employee I could come up with a new office, (heck why not a Division, why not an agency, why not a Department?) of Constitutional Surgery. This "whatever" could document all the Orwellian wordsmithing to date. We could fill computers with flow charts about what needs to be done for any current Administration and Congress (may Columbia be praised, the source of all bonuses and promotions) to "have their way with the constitution" just like some sailor in Olangapo or St. Pauli. We could get money and personnel for gun bans or minority-free organizations or places where women were barred from voting. We could hire Immams as 1st Amendment consultants and we could have offices of animal welfare and environment to coordinate us with the UN and international radical groups to sponsor treaties (to supercede The Constitution) and to stir up urban elites to gain passage of new draconian laws that undermine The Constitution before anyone figures out what is going on.
This "living document" stuff is a bureaucrat and politician's dream and a citizen's succuba.
So there you have it! I must count myself as the latest convert from a respecter of the US Constitution to a "living document" acolyte that sees The Constitution as both an impediment to great men like our President and the like of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed but a money bonanza to smart, conniving bureaucrats. The world this creates is not fit for most of you but I hope to be one of those standing after the rest of you lose your rights. Oh, didn't I tell you? I plan to be like those two great New Yorkers Rangel and Schumer. Rangel doesn't pay taxes and neither will I. Schumer is a big gun-control pol that has had one of the few gun permits issued in New York, he is my model for keeping my gun.
Therefore I apologize to all those National Park Service gun control stalwarts working on the gun ban in National Parks. I further apologize to all those DC politicians and police that looked the other way when my old Senator Webb carried his loaded handgun through the District from the airport and plopped it on a Congressional X-Ray machine where its discovery was judged "insufficient evidence" by Congressional Police and DC was never even heard from. Had that been a peasant such as me; a felony conviction, a fine and jail time would have been followed up by denial of any future gun ownership or use like hunting and a denial of voting rights as well.
PS You can see from this last why I am a "convert", I am too old to be taking showers with all the scalawags, bureaucrats, politicians, and ne'er do wells that belong in prisons for destroying our Constitution while collecting government paychecks!

Jim Beers
26 September 2009