It is a relief to be done with Turkey Day, not that it wasn’t fun. The next major holiday is nearly a month away, and we are sure will will see the same sort of unbridled hostility to it. The Chief directed a certain amount of Hallmark Channel programming would be added to the daily schedule to keep us settled.

It was a challenge during the recent holiday, with people stirred up about “genocide” and “violence” that happened before their great-great-grandparents were born. The upset folks have some issues about it, though, which we were thankful to ignore. Thankfully, we managed to duck most of the controversy at The Farm. The Russians next door raised a flock of Turkeys, so that part was done without incident (except for one). Splash asked where the potatoes came from- we have good soil in this neck of the woods, so we could have produced out own and may have. We did note our neighbors have been energetic, but can’t source place-of-origin for every ingredient. The Washington Post, which used to be our local source of print information, when it came that way, suggested adding crickets to the crust for the green bean casserole, which thankfully came after the Boss let the subscription lapse.

Instead, there was some controversy about the Constitution. We have that frequently, which is sort of surprising. It is normally a pretty approachable document, and it is written in language that people could both read and understand. I personally swore an oath to it in a brief ceremony in a recruiter’s office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a little before lunchtime on 24 March 1977.

I took it seriously at the time and have tried to fulfill that declaration over the next half century or so. There is a bunch of stuff in a variety of clauses in a succinct system, but the ones we like the best were the ones in something called the Bill of Rights. It was simpler than the mundane establishment of “when” elections might be held, and who might vote in them. Or the specific requirements qualifying who might run for what office. Whether you swore a direct oath to them or not, most of us know several of them. Here they are, before we get to the Latest Crisis. The links are not ours, nor is the request for funds. They were penned by the Framers, so you can start with the shorthand and then start taking your chances from there:
Bill of Rights

First Amendment [Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, Petition (1791)] (see explanation)
Second Amendment [Right to Bear Arms (1791)] (see explanation)
Third Amendment [Quartering of Troops (1791)] (see explanation)
Fourth Amendment [Search and Seizure (1791)] (see explanation)
Fifth Amendment [Grand Jury, Double Jeopardy, Self-Incrimination, Due Process (1791)] (see explanation)
Sixth Amendment [Criminal Prosecutions – Jury Trial, Right to Confront and to Counsel (1791)] (see explanation)
Seventh Amendment [Common Law Suits – Jury Trial (1791)] (see explanation)
Eighth Amendment [Excess Bail or Fines, Cruel and Unusual Punishment (1791)] (see explanation)
Ninth Amendment [Non-Enumerated Rights (1791)] (see explanation)
Tenth Amendment [Rights Reserved to States or People (1791)] (see explanation)

You can see where the crisis of the moment is located. A man named Darrell Brooks is accused of wildly and intentionally driving his automobile through a Christmas parade in a modest town in Wisconsin. Just saying that is apparently controversial. Some say “an SUV caused the accident.” Splash said we failed to use the word “allegedly” instead of “accused,” which would comport with the 5th amendment provisions provided by due process.

Which further got us into the controversy over what constitutes “natural rights,” not provided by the nation-state but by a inalienable Creator. Which of course gets into some of the other issues, since the nation state has been fooling around with them since the 13 states signed up for them. We held a small group session about that around lunchtime on Saturday. Topic was selected by DeMille, who does a little more reasoned approach to a gathering which could easily be distracted at this day in the year with the controversy over the Michigan-Ohio State football rivalry.

Loma is from California and he snorts over the matter. His opinion is that neither of the participants were states or territories at the time of the ratification, and thus the matter would have to be considered under the “penumbra” clauses of the 9th Amendment, which stipulates the non-enumerated rights bequeathed by that invisible entity which rules the heavens above as well as the affairs of those of us in Virginia, one of the limited number of places that actually thought about these matters in 1791. We have been thinking ever since.

The Constitutional crisis this morning appears to be about the bail afforded to Mr. Brooks. The 8th Amendment talks about that- you can click on the ink above and suffer the plea for donations to see what the controversy was about. As usual, the words are fairly simple: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

So, the act that Mr. Brooks appears to be a career criminal with an extended history of violent conduct seems to challenge the Constitutional basis of his current confinement and the enormous bail set at $50 million bucks. The controversy- the crisis, if you will- seems to be that Mr. Brooks was released with a modest bail of a thousand dollars after running over the woman who bore his child.

A thousand dollars used to seem like a fair amount of cash. It certainly was in 1791, but times have changed. That includes the rest of the Amendments. The 1st appears to be under concerted attack. You can ask the people who are still locked up after the mostly peaceful demonstration at the Capitol back in January. Better said, you could ask them if they were not in solitary confinement. And the 2nd, goodness. The legislation banning machine guns goes back to 1934, and has been upheld by the courts ever since.

You would think the process outlined in the Constitution itself for necessary changes would be applicable. But apparently we either considered it too hard at the time, or the pace of work-arounds to the original amendments has far outpaced the desire to do things the way many of us swore to support. It clearly is not these days, for a variety of perfectly reasonable issues. In fact, that is one of the issues in the current crisis. In fact, the idea that our representative Republic is in the process of considering the most expensive piece of legislation in human history without a clear idea of what is contained within it seems sort of…well, you know.

Like “unconstitutional.” But that is about a law. For Mr. Brooks, it would seem reasonable and compliant to have a speedy trial and have the matter of whether or not Mr. Brooks is actually guilty of anything would be first. If he is, some of us would prefer to see the matter concluded with due course and punishment administered that would keep him from ever speeding over grandmothers and children again.

We had a “unanimous” verdict from our panel of peers on that one, but our solution was considered to be in possible violation of the 8th amendment. Instead, keeping a man judged guilty of a monstrous crime alive for the indefinite duration of his existence is, at the moment, considered to be just and constitutional.

We are not sure the people who agreed to it in 1791 would concur, but we swore an oath to the Constitution, so there it is. The Belmont Farms Distillery is open today, after all. Not by Amendment but the free market. And don’t get riled up. We decided to discuss the Interstate Commerce Clause some other time. We agreed it doesn’t have a number.

Copyright 2021 Vic Scooter
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