Sunday, March 12, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #108 “The 10th Amendment — For Liberty”

judgejimgray_ocregister            Harsh reality: most politicians (and voters) are outcome oriented, which means that they often first make up their minds about what their goals are and then try thereafter to justify those outcomes with doctrinal support.  Accordingly, when politicians are out of power nationally, they tend to support the 10th Amendment, and when they are in power, they tend to ignore it.  As I hope (probably in vain) that everyone knows, the 10th Amendment expressly provides that all powers not delegated by the Constitution to the federal government are reserved to the States and to the People.  So, for example, conservatives argued during the Clinton Administration that the federal government could not command the states to enforce a federal regulatory gun control program.  The feds could try to enforce it themselves, if they so chose, but the states could not be commanded to cooperate.  (See the 1997 United States Supreme case of Printz v. United States.)  But now that conservatives are in power, liberals are now “seeing the light” and arguing that the 10th Amendment supports their establishment of so-called “sanctuary cities,” where the feds cannot command state and local governments to cooperate with the federal government’s immigration programs.  Liberty is consistent and agrees with both arguments.  In fact, Liberty would expand them to cover the federal government’s inability to command state and local governments to help enforce federal marijuana laws.  (The Supreme Court has made it clear that federal law can prohibit marijuana under the commerce clause [See Angel Raich v. Ashcroft.], but it still cannot command the states to help enforce those federal laws.)

As Justice Scalia said in Printz, the federal commandeering of state governments goes against the text, structure and history of the Constitution.  So if we are to be true to our Constitution – and to our principles – we will enforce the provisions of the 10th Amendment regardless of the outcome.  Without question our Founding Fathers disagreed upon many things, and often were forced to compromise on many of them.  But virtually without exception, each delegate at the 1787 Constitutional Convention agreed that the most important duty of government was to protect individual liberties from their encroachment by government!  (The second-most important was to keep us safe.)  As a result, most of them felt that the Constitution was so clear on this point that the 10th Amendment was unnecessary because it was redundant.  Once again, that doesn’t mean that the federal government cannot attempt to enforce its laws on its own. But it does mean that the states cannot be commanded to enforce laws with which they do not agree.  That is a fundamental freedom set forth in our Constitution, and the Founding Fathers are depending upon us, for our own Liberty, to honor it!

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration.  And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.




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Saturday, March 11, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #107 “Liberty Is A Beautiful Thing”

maxresdefault          Recently my wonderful sister sent me a message entitled “When God Shows Off,” which follows below.  I think you will agree that it contains pictures of some truly beautiful creatures.  But in many ways Liberty is just as beautiful and, as the prior 106 editions of this “2 Paragraphs” have tried to demonstrate, achieves far better results than government can in so many things like education, healthcare and the economy in general.  In that regard, Milton Friedman was right: If you think that government can best raise the standard of people’s lives, where have these so-called “Angels of Government” been so far?  And why do we think they will materialize in the future?  Generally, individuals are much better positioned to promote their own interests and welfare than is the government, which is simply made up of other people with their own biases and political goals.

So all of this reminds me of the story in which a farmer put up a fence in an attempt to keep birds from eating the apricots on his trees.  There was nothing wrong with the fence, it simply was the wrong remedy.  Most often the Conservative remedy in that situation would be to put up a sign saying “No Trespassing, and All Violators will be Punished!”  Liberals would respond instead by saying that birds have to eat too, so let them have their fair share.  But Liberty would encourage the farmer to pick his crop earlier, and then let the apricots ripen on their way to market.  Which remedy do you believe is more effective for society?  I vote for Liberty!

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration.  And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.


Probably the most impressive “Pictorial” I have ever seen and perfectly named Too!

WHEN GOD SHOWS OFF  !!!!!!!!!!! 

I simply cannot pick out a favorite !




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Monday, March 6, 2017

2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: #106 “Liberty In Education”

05.david.judgegray.0141711.av                Two easy questions.  First, who is in a better position best to choose where and how a child should be educated, the child’s parents or the government?  Never have I heard any answer except the parents.  Second question, what is the goal of our educational system, to educate our children (What a concept!), or to protect below-average teachers?  (Guess what we are doing today!)  So how should we go forward?

The answer is to empower parents to choose where the government’s money will be spent for the education of their children.  The answer could be public, private, religious, military, vocational, charter, or online schools, or even homeschooling.  Of course this will require monitoring to ensure that  basic requirements are met, and allowances should be made for special needs.  But implementing this system will bring competition into the educational field.  Competition has brought us such things as quality cell phones, computers and automobiles at lower prices, and it will do the same thing for education!  I am a product of public schools, and do not want at all to undermine them.  But they are positioned to thrive, because they already have their institutions in place.  However, if they do not produce, one of two things will happen: either they will get better – to which I say Great – or they will go out of business, which will allow another institution that will produce to come forward – to which I also say Great!

If parents in lower economic areas were to understand the possibilities, they would demand this change to take place.  People in the higher economic areas have had “school choice” for decades.  How is that?  Either they move to a neighborhood that has good public schools, or they pay their child’s tuition at a private school.  But lower economic areas have been caught.  How is that?  Because if teachers are not producing they are inevitably moved to lower economic areas, where the parents neither have the resources to go elsewhere nor the political power effectively to object.  That is why there are so many schools are failing our children in poorer economic areas – and this is as outrageous as it is unnecessary!  But with school choice, or “backpack funding,” parents in all areas will be empowered to effect positive change.  That is what has happened in Milwaukee and New Orleans, and also many places in Indiana and Florida.

In this system the right things happen.  Parents will demand – and receive – excellence; good teachers will be in demand (so they are paid better); many teachers either who have been handcuffed by all of the bureaucracy or have gotten lazy because they were protected from not having to perform will get better; and schools that were top-heavy in administration will start spending  a larger share of their resources on classroom instruction.  So the only ones who lose out are the below-average teachers who are either unable or unwilling to get better.  Thus children everywhere will have better schools – to which all caring people should say Great!  Yet another example of how Liberty Works!

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President,
along with Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please forward this on to your circle of friends for their consideration.  And by the way, these columns are now on Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejimgrayOAI, and wordpress at judgejimgray@wordpress.com.  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.




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