Category: Politics

Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The “Other” Amendments The United States Constitution clearly defined the amendment process because the Founding Fathers understood that any sustainable governing document would have to be a living document that could get changed and updated as needed to meet the changing times. As such, Article 5 of the Constitution establishes that the Constitution can be amended following certain procedures including obtaining a super-majority (⅔) of Congress and 75% ratification…

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Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The Bill of Rights The Bill of Rights is the name given to the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution. These amendments were the direct result of the anti-federalist sentiments held deeply by many of the new citizens of the union that were still stinging from the overbearing control on them by what they considered the oppressive rule of the British Crown. They spring from the battle for…

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Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land and represents a refinement in the Founding Fathers’ thinking over a dozen or so years. It was published in 1789 and replaces the Articles of Confederation published in 1777. Those articles represented the first, loosely defined combination of what had been thirteen disparate colonies, and it was a stepping stone for this…

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Ought v. Naught The Founding Documents The Declaration of Independence On July 4th, 1776, we all know that the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to sign this declaration from the thirteen founding colonies of what would become known as the United States. They had actually signed the Resolution of Independence two days prior as their assertion of independence and then went on to publish the formal declaration to announce and explain their basis for…

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The Big Disconnect The world is spinning off in two different directions at the same time. What I can’t really figure out is whether or not this is what always happens, if it is a short-lived quirk, or if this is a new phenomenon that sets the tone for what we have to live with going forward. We have all heard about and experienced the divisiveness in our society these days. In the extreme, the…

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The Dance Card Gets Filled The notion of a dance card started in the Eighteenth Century, but it really came into vogue in Nineteenth Century Vienna. I always thought of it in regard to Gone With The Wind with the young Scarlett O’Hara with a small booklet looped to her wrist where the evening ballroom dances were listed and next to which she could write the names of the many beaus and potential suitors that…

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The Dark Triad The psychology of leadership is an important issue generally, but it seems especially so today. Leadership in good times is challenging, but leadership in difficult times is imperative. We are in some of the most difficult times the world may ever have seen. I know we are all prone to a degree of hyperbole in thinking that our problems are greater than all others, but the truth is that as cyclical as…

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