"10 Minutes Closer to Freedom" In this episode of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I talk about the relationship between the states and the federal government through the eyes of Thomas Jefferson. Nov. 10 marked the 217th birthday of the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798. Thomas Jefferson secretly drafted the Kentucky resolutions in response to the Alien..
Read moreIs Insisting on Following the Constitution “Too Dogmatic?”
At the Tenth Amendment Center, we hold to the following mantra. "Follow the Constitution, every issue, every time, no exceptions, no excuses." Recently, I've had a couple of people tell me that's "too dogmatic." OK, let's consider this quote by Benjamin Franklin in an essay titled Morals of Chess. “If it is agreed to play..
Read moreThoughts from Maharrey Head: Nullification and Weed
"10 Minutes Closer to Freedom" In this episode of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I talk about weed! A lot of people are still pretty skeptical about nullification. They claim it won't work. They think the federal government is just too powerful. But nullification can work. And it does. The proof is in the weed. In..
Read moreConstitution 101: Executive Power
Article II of the Constitution defines the role and qualifications of the president. As it does for Congress, the Constitution delegates specific powers and responsibilities to the executive branch – the power of appointment, the power to make treaties with the advice and consent of Congress, veto power, etc. These specific powers are relatively clear..
Read moreThoughts from Maharrey Head: Picking on Republicans
"10 Minutes Closer to Freedom" In episode #20 of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I pick on the Republicans. And I also lob some stones at the Democrats. Recently, I wrote an article for the 10th Amendment Center about Rick Santorum. He said he wants a do-over on his education policy position. I argued that his..
Read morePodcast: Guns
Thoughts from Maharrey Head "10 Minutes Closer to Freedom" In episode #19 of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I talk about guns. We talk about the Second Amendment a lot in the United States. Some people love it. Some people hate it. But the sad truth is, very few people actually understand it. Even some of..
Read morePlanned Parenthood Funding Unconstitutional; So is Republican Defunding Plan
One of the great debates over the last few weeks has centered around Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood. The brouhaha started with the release of a series of undercover videos produced by anti-abortion activists that appeared to prove the organization sells fetal tissue. That prompted conservatives to call on Congress to defund Planned Parenthood...
Read moreMonopoly Government: The Power to Git-R-Done
Anyone wondering about my general antipathy toward the state need look no further than the circus surrounding gay marriage licenses in Kentucky. The two sides squared off against each other in the Great Kentucky County Clerk Gay Marriage License Debate seem diametrically opposed and impossibly divided by a yawning, unspannable chasm. But at their core,..
Read morePodcast: How to Limit the Federal Government
In this episode of Thoughts from Maharrey Head, I tell you how we can limit federal power based on James Madison's blueprint. The federal government exercises seemingly unlimited authority and inserts itself into virtually every area of our lives. But the feds were never meant to have this kind of power. As James Madison asserted..
Read moreConstitution 101: Constitutional Interpretation – Living and Breathing is Dead
The first and governing maxim in the interpretation of a statute is to discover the meaning of those who made it.” –James Wilson, Of the Study of Law in the United States, Circa, 1790 Many Americans today view the Constitution as a “living, breathing” document. By living and breathing, they mean the Constitution was written..
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