[KaiserJeep]

Tanada, believe it or not, we enlisted folks did not get legal training, nor did we spend any time debating the finer points of whether or not the things they had us doing were Constitutional.

That's why they call it "Service". The government has things they need done at a given time and place, and you get the job. We pretty much did what we were told, when we were told to do it, wherever we were, in the company of those others that had been ordered to be there with us, whether or not they were people we would otherwise have associated with.

That is how I ended up standing in a puddle of salt water on Hawaii's Big Island, working on a 2 megawatt transmitter that ran off 18,000 volts DC, after a typhoon clobbered the LORAN-C transmitting station. It was a navigation system, since obsoleted by GPS, but being used at the time by the USAF B-52's to bomb a place hundreds of miles away called Vietnam. The prospect of dying the instant you touched the wrong thing brought about a marvelous concentration of one's attention.

It was warm, was all I could say for it. My regular duty station was a place called Port Clarence. AK. - thirty guys huddled in insulated buildings, surrounded by eskimos, polar bears, and seals, near the Arctic Circle. When the typhoon hit Hawaii, they asked for volunteers to get the station back on the air.

[vtsnowedin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ')The prospect of dying the instant you touched the wrong thing brought about a marvelous concentration of one's attention.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '
')
You folks need to actually READ the oath of office. I'm not just picking on Plant here, but most of the rest of you as well.

1. Here is the Presidential Oath of office: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Notice nothing about protecting congressional Laws or other silly notions like respecting previous presidential declarations etc. As a side note, notice "So help me God" is not actually part of this Oath, but most presidents add it. It seems pretty obvious what he is supposed to preserve, protect, and defend. The Constitution.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ')The prospect of dying the instant you touched the wrong thing brought about a marvelous concentration of one's attention.

[vtsnowedin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ')The prospect of dying the instant you touched the wrong thing brought about a marvelous concentration of one's attention.

[vtsnowedin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '
')You are right the constitution is not the piece of Hemp it is written on. The Constitution is the WORDS written on that piece of hemp. If I typed the words on a computer screen, in a pamphlet, or on the side of a wall it is still the constitution. It works sort of like a bible does, except the constitution allows you to change it if needed.
............
.

[Cog]

The Founders understood that oppression and tyranny would come from within and not without. But they knew we needed some amount of federalism and not just thirteen allied and independent states. Thus the separation of powers and the limits which they placed on federalism.

When you read the Bill of Rights you should do so in the context of why they are there. Not as government granting rights, but as a limitation on government infringing the rights that free men already possessed.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', ' ')The prospect of dying the instant you touched the wrong thing brought about a marvelous concentration of one's attention.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '
')............
The constitution was not written on hemp paper.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are currently housed in the National Archives. All three are written on parchment, not hemp paper. Parchment is treated animal skin, typically sheepskin. The Declaration was inked with iron gall ink.

[vtsnowedin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '
')............
The constitution was not written on hemp paper.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are currently housed in the National Archives. All three are written on parchment, not hemp paper. Parchment is treated animal skin, typically sheepskin. The Declaration was inked with iron gall ink.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vtsnowedin', '
')............
The constitution was not written on hemp paper.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are currently housed in the National Archives. All three are written on parchment, not hemp paper. Parchment is treated animal skin, typically sheepskin. The Declaration was inked with iron gall ink.