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Nobody pledge "[their] lives, [their] fortunes, and [their] sacred honor" in the Constitution. Do you think you can find the document where that pledge is found?
I always love it when disgruntled people try to criticize me for saying something I never said, while carefully excluding most of what I did say. It's a hoot to watch them twist and spin.
Quote:
The bishops were complaining that none of their money should be going to support birth control, and now it isn't.
As the author pointed out (and you have failed to refute beyond a vague denial), it is.
These arguments are typical of those who haven't read the Constitution and/or don't understand it. It is not, and was never intended to be, a "principle of how we operate". It is a directive of how our government operates - a very different thing - and what govt can and cannot do.
It simply says that the Federal govt will take care of this, that, and the other, and nothing else; and that lower governments etc. ("The States or the People") will take care of all the rest as they see fit as long as they don't conflict with this Constitution. And by the way the Congress and States can modify this Constitution any time, in any way they want, again as LARGE majorities of them see fit.
How is that "out of date"?
It basically fits the government to human nature... and human nature hasn't changed between 1789 and today, nor is it likely to in the future. The fact that we now have television, Internet, machine guns, tanks, supersonic aircraft, satellites, and atomic bombs, as well as a population exceeding 300 million (whose natures are no different from the natures of the people of 1789) do not require any changes to the Constitution... and if they did, we can simply go ahead and change it.
The complaints that some people have about the Constitution, boil down to then fact that it prohibits a big-govt Nanny State that takes care of our routine problems in life; and that its requirements for changing that prohibition (getting many diverse states to ratify, far from the seat of central government) makes it too tough to accomplish.
Well, what makes it too tough to accomplish, is that most of the American people don't want that big-govt Nanny State. That's why the big-govt advocates can't get 2/3 majorities in Congress, or 3/4 of the states, to agree. Not because of any defect in the Constitution. The Constitution was expressly designed to ensure that those large majorities, who are controlled by the general populace, would rule - and NOT a small group of people who believe they know better than the general populace how it should live, and who are controlled by no one.
BTW, comparing it to the Bible is silly, if for no other reason than the Bible (a) micromanages a lot, and (b) doesn't have an amendment process. The Constitution differs on both counts, plus others. And there's a reason why the Founding Fathers, and the people of the country at the time, chose the Constitutiton and NOT the Bible as the Supreme Law of the Land.
This actually points out the most fundamental characteristic of the "American Way".
The Framers believed that the country would run better - that is, achieve greater prosperity and safety, on average, for its people - if the rules were made by those people themselves (thru representatives the people would hire and fire), than if the rules were made by a governing elite (king, politburo, group of people who thought they knew better, etc.) that were not accountable to the people.
They have turned out to be brilliantly right, so far. Though the system is far from perfect (as any system made up of imperfect humans must be), it has, on average, achieved far more prosperity and safety than any other system ever tried in the history of mankind.
I think there is some explanation is needed here. As an example, the well known (inc.,) towns in NJ, for example, Holmdel, Marlboro, Englishtown are not in the list!
Appreciate if you can explain.
A great attempt to put together the cities; appreciate it
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