Constitutional Speculations by ArJay

Welcome to R. J. Thayer's Speculative Website

This is the personal website of R. J. Thayer, who indulges in technical and speculative writing, as well as website administration. This website is generally intended to visualize the system dynamics of the American Constitution as a social covenant that a citizen agrees to if born and bred within it. Much of the speculation involves the gradual establishment of world covenants as well and why some societies regress into Mesolithic totalitarianism as a perceived survival mechanism.

This site contains material that is freely developed in a speculative mind set and R.J. reserves all of the rights attendant to speculative , note even really speculative, literary activity. Please keep in mind the site is also a 'work in progress' with the usual intellectual property rights and is used to test various website publishing modes.

Revisions are as of: November, 2011 CE.

2nd Amendment, bearing of arms

Could the DC Armory be an example of a national weapons transfer and training site that satisfies all parts of the Second Amendment? Read more

Is Human Wellness a form of freedom or an economic process?

Pharaohs and Emperors rewarded their supporters with health care as an economic process, but at what point does wellness become a human or civil right?
Work in Progress 11/11

A New Job for the office of Vice President?

Does a Vice President sit around the Senate podium all day waiting for something to do?. More…

What Now, American Militia?

Originally in the 1600s and 1700s, North American militias were created by a common bond within the community in order to aid each other against attack from somewhere, as a form of 'Common Defense and General Welfare'. This was also very true of Native Americans. How would that concept be used in the modern day against terroristic attack? More…

Article I, powers of the Congress, 'necessary and proper clause' implementation?

As a Federal District, could the Congress make eminent domain status of lands in east Anacostia that would be used as Botanical Gardens for repairing the National Mall, the grandest right of assembly for Americans?. More…

A modern interpretation of the 'Death Penalty'

There is a fair amount of evidence that the process of death in itself may not be a penalty at all. It could just as easily be a liberation from pain and suffering, as increasing numbers of people who have chosen euthanasia for terminal illnesses understand. Suicide might be morally wrong if there is no reason for it, but to suggest that Creation designed life to be an endless torture is to suggest there is something fundamentally wrong with Creation, no matter how Creation is perceived.

What is a Wellness time Line?

Timelines are event sequences that have a precedent, a current existence, and a future progression. How would one see a healthcare time line in America when the conditions for wellbeing change every few minutes through science and technology? How would you get a congress of the United States to make laws concerning healthcare, such as the 2009 Affordable Care Act, when the conditions they define with their Article I, Section 8 authorities are obsolete within the same month? Do nothing perhaps?

Work in Progress, 11/11

Health Care Costs?

Total health care costs in the US are about $7000 per person per year. This is expected to go to $16,000 in 2019, eliminating possible health care for some 35 million people who now have it. Some other system of insurance, both government and private is needed. Could this be corrected by a 'Wellbeing Right' in which some healthcare is covered by a "Governance Impost Credit" that can't be used for anything except the Wellness of Americans? Work in Progress, 11/11

Allegiance to What?

The Pledge of Allegiance is endlessly repeated as a pledge to a 'flag' . OK, but perhaps it would be better to have a pledge of citizenship that all citizens must take to establish them as citizens? The 14th Amendment makes birth on American soil the criteria for automatic citizenship but why isn't that citizenship established by a legally binding oath of allegiance to the Constitution itself? See 'Constitutional Speculations' Amendment XXVII, Section1. For many, the idea of adhering to a set of Constitutional rules is not why they came here. As a 'what if', suppose the pledge of allegiance was a binding condition of citizenship?

POSSIBLY?: "As a conscious being of Creation, I do swear and affirm to uphold the responsibilities of citizenship and to protect the Constitution of the United States of America. I do swear and affirm that I will contribute as I am able to the common defense and general welfare of all citizens of the United States and to no other sovereignty. I swear and affirm my belief in the blessings of Constitutional liberty and democracy; that they establish domestic tranquility through justice. I swear to embrace those Constitutional rights and duties in my daily life with due respect for the rights of others not identified as enemies of the Constitution or the human race."

Citizenship oath taken on Faith or is it a binding social contract between peoples trying to live together in 'domestic Tranquility' as the Preamble states?

The Preamble of the American Constitution.
Six wisdoms of Humanity or Six Covenants between peoples?

The Preamble to the Constitution was written during early September 1787 by the Committee of Style appointed at the Constitution Convention in Philadelphia. The Committee's members, which included James Madison as principle editor, William Johnson, Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris and Rufus King, were so concerned with the formulation of the Articles of the Constitution that they discovered that they had not defined the 'spirit' of the Constitution as an intended purpose. Their thought was that a self-evident 'spirit' came from the Declaration of Independence but they didn't actually say that in the new Constitution, so some discussion and observation, sometimes over a tavern's ale, took place. Some of these observations about that purpose appear to have been the work of the mysterious 'Brutus' who had the apparent ability to have philosophical discourses simultaneously in the Queen's Head Tavern of New York's Battery, t he City Tavern on Second Street, Philadelphia and at the deliberations in the Pine Street Church in Philadelphia with its many spirits. After literally 'sleeping on' the idea of the 'spirit' consideration, they devised a Preamble which had six basic concepts that had been considered parts of what later on would be called a 'social contract' or Covenant between peoples. The six principles embodied nearly all of the accumulated wisdom of humanity at the time, leaving them to be defined as a systemic dynamic later on, but what happens if they are defined in terms of modern operational research concepts?

More Preamble Balance

A Second Amendment Speculation but not an Amicus Curie Brief

If the supreme court is empowered to determine the constitutionality of a law 'in terms of the current society', handguns would be a natural extension of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. But note that the Amendment implies the 'open' bearing of arms for defense (militias imply community defense in which each member openly carried a weapon), not concealed offensive devices, let alone current limited mass destruction weapons. In the modern sense, as many states have legalized, the open bearing of arms is not restricted, while brandishing it could easily be considered simple assault. A concealed handgun can be used for self defense in the absence of constituted authority (police) but that has not been the case with bans. With total or severe bans, only those with an offensive intent have concealed offensive devices and this defeats the defensive intent of the 2nd Amendment. Modern laws governing weapons bans should have provisions that defensive training in the use of concealed devices satisfies the intent of the 2nd Amendment as an addition to 'open' bearing of arms.